What is pure now anyway?

Do you ever go through the grocery store and see labels that say their product is “pure.”

Pure spring water

Pure Maple syrup

Pure honey.

Pure Fruit juice

Over the last decade or so Food Laws and regulations have been cracking down on food distributors on using the word “Pure” on their labels. Unlike natural, pure can only be used to describe single ingredient food, or to highlight the specific purity of an ingredient within a compound, such as “pure butter shortbread” to indicate the butter hasn’t been blended with other fats.

The single product must have nothing added to it and be free from contamination.

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For instance, some of you may be consumers of the fruit juice drink “Naked” which was orginally marketed as a fruit and veggie smoothie drink that had all natural unprocessed ingredients. However in 2013, they had to change their label to “includes natural flavors” because at closer look not everything was indeed natural or pure fruit juice.

In 2018, again they had to change many of their labels for misleading marketing on specific flavors such as the kale blazer, as the main ingredient wasn’t kale as the label would lead you to believe but a processed orange juice concentrate.

When we see a label that says pure, or natural, or fresh, or organic people are wanting something undefiled with chemicals or preservatives.

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The word purity means: “Freedom from contamination.”

There are a whole lot of directions I could take us when discussing the subject of purity. There is purity of health and the way you treat your body. Purity of mind, meaning putting only good things such as what your reading materials, media consumption is. Sexual purity is where I believe most of our minds go when we mention the word purity. As the devil has distorted, and twisted, God’s creation...how could he not have worked to distort another of his creations. Sex.

This morning were going to talk about purity as described at creation in the Bible. We will hopefully define healthy and also toxic views on purity, as evidenced in scripture. I hope we can agree that the devil Satan has worked hard to twist and distort the label of purity, the same way he has attempted to create counterfeits to God’s creations. We talked much about this in my last message in June. He created a counterfeit Sabbath, a counterfeit origin story, of course he would create alternative truth in pretty much every other area.

However I would also suggest he has manipulated much of the saints to respond in anger and fear and even with hatred. These responses are all founded outside the nature of God’s original design based in love.

The answers to help us understand the differences between healthy teachings and views on purity as well as toxic ones are found in the Bible. The response of Jesus and words found in the Bible will be our guide as we make our conclusions

Prayer

If you would turn in your Bible’s to John chapter 8, we will begin in verse 1.

But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2 Now early in the morning He came again into the temple, and all the people came to Him; and He sat down and taught them. 3 Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst, 4 they said to Him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act. 5 Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned.But what do You say?” 6 This they said, testing Him, that they might have something of which to accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger, as though He did not hear.

7 So when they continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.” 8 And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. 9 Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. 10 When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her,“Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?” 11 She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and[k] sin no more.” 12 Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”

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Let’s break this story down just a little bit, your characters are Jesus, the woman caught in adultery (possibly Mary, but we don’t know for sure), her accusers who were really Jesus accusers, and the spectators.

The spectators, remind of most people today, they are just ready to throw rocks at someone.

Who ever wins the battle, they will jump on the winning side.

Experience tells me many of these people ready to throw stones whether literal stones in those days, or heavy hitting words that hurt as much as stones are often hoping the focus remains on the current person(s) being accused rather the spotlight shine on their own mishaps.

The woman is filled with shame, she’s scared, who knows how she was caught? Who knows her present circumstance. Crowds then, crowds today, don’t seem to much evaluate circumstance before we start throwing stones, (then literal, now figurative stones).

The accusers, are the scribes and Pharisees. They are the poster boys, the models, of righteousness. They look the part of pure, but underneath there religious garbs were vipers, toxic to the crowd. They attacked from a moral seat, but truth be told, they didn’t care one bit about the justice or purity of the woman. They saw her as a means to disgracing Jesus.

Then they have Jesus....the only one among them who was indeed pure. Pure in heart. There, being only one in the group worthy of condemning anyone. It was Jesus.

Their accusation is not much unlike accusations of today. They are accusing from a seemingly moral ground. It’s what we are seeing today, with pro-life/pro-choice debate: This message is not on this subject…but anyone following fight knows that both sides of the argument are attempting to claim the moral high ground.

Everyone wants to at-least appear to be on the side of pure morality.

Jesus response is an interesting one. Rather than rise stand above the sinful, dirty, deceitful, men who had flung this terrified woman before him, which he had every right to do. He stoops down and begins writing on the ground. Oh I don’t know about you, but nothing riles me up more than someone who won’t react the way I want them to. If I am angry, I want someone to respond to me. If I am sad, I want someone to pity me, or atleast be sad with me. If I am arguing...I want a response back! How infuriating! They have come to trap Jesus and he won’t engage them! Jesus did you not hear what we said?? According to the law of Moses she should be stoned! Jesus keeps writing... suddenly they freeze from fear, their secrets sins were now laid out in front of them...the stones that were ready to be cast drop, and they depart, leaving the woman they had brought with them with Jesus. Woman, where are your accusers? They are gone, she exclaims! Neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more.

As I alluded earlier, it is easy to cast stones on the person in question as long as it isn’t your own dirty laundry out in the open. As pastors we at times are told things in confidence from those who need us to listen. How would you feel if during the announcements, I put up a slide for each an every private infraction I am aware of. I think I would be a pretty lousy pastor if I did that, and would likely be voted out of my position.

When I say the devil has attempted and at times succeeded in twisting our sense response to things deemed impure, listen to this story of a teenage pregnancy I came across which took place in an Adventist churched community.

“When I got pregnant it was so frustrating. I thought, ‘But I’m doing all of these great things! I’m going to college.’ He and I were still going to church, still going to college, and trying so hard - and we thought, ‘How are we going to figure all of this out?’

Our biggest fear wasn’t even becoming parents. Both of us were around kids a lot. We knew how to take care of them. What we were so scared about was stability and the feeling like everybody had abandoned us. We felt like people saw us as a lost cause like, ‘These kids are hopeless.’ Nobody wanted us in their youth group or exposing their kids to our ‘sin.’ That was really hard.

As adults we’ve gone back and talked to some of the people from back then, and they’ve said, ‘We can’t believe you guys made it. We’re so proud of you.’ But it would have been nice if more people had been there for us in that moment. It would have been great to hear, ‘Hey, we’ve got you. We’ll step in.’ It had felt like everyone on every side just wanted us gone.

Is it possible that is the, as Gen Z would say, “vibe” we are giving off to those who might have been in a similar predicament? I realize this isn’t the church’s universal response in this scenario, but this young lady’s experience is far from the only one. This couple did not give up though in their journey with the church.

“When the service of a church we were trying out was over I was frantically packing up our stuff to leave when I saw this lady power walking toward me. She said, ‘Hey! Your baby is adorable! You need to bring him to my Sabbath School class!’

We were thinking, ‘Ok, this is just another person faking being nice.’ But she was putting in a lot more effort than anybody else had with us, so the next Sabbath I said, ‘Ok. Let’s get up an hour earlier and take him to Sabbath School.’

It is usually so awkward being the youngest parent in a room. Nobody can relate to you. Everybody is asking, ‘So, what do you do?’ and they’ve all got these careers and we were nervous to share we work hourly jobs at the gas station and daycare.

In other situations people would always start asking, ‘Oh, so are you going back to school? What are you going to try to pursue?’ But not a single person at this church asked us those questions. I don’t know if God impressed them to respond how they did or what, but they just said, ‘That’s awesome!’ They found out my husband played music and plugged him in to the music team. Eventually people started saying, ‘Hey, you work with kids! If you can do that outside the church, would you want to do that here at church, too?’

I started teaching Sabbath School maybe two years after we came to that church and just never stopped. It’s been a really amazing experience. I’ve taught in all the different age groups and I’ve been able to see the ways God works in all these different lives. When you work with kids you get to know their families. You get to see different areas and ways God works in their lives, and it gives you so much hope. You get to see that, if God can do all that for them, He can do it for you, too.”

You see what can happen when we are willing to do engage with people purely rather than just simply lecture or judge on purity. When I read this story it reminded me of a few of our children’s sabbath school teachers in this church I am confident have and will continue to engage young adults in the same fashion as the one just mentioned.

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Here is a problem I see when we are discussing purity. We have certain qualities we think of when discussing purity. Virginity being the most common. While virginity and abstinence are wonderful attributes they do not in themselves equate us as “pure.” The fact of the matter is, none of us have had that truly 100% pure label without any chemical contamination since Eden. We have natural purities within us. But because we were born into a world of sin with a natural inclination for sin. We still need the saving grace of Jesus to make us clean. I am not suggesting to parents to not have these important discussions. In fact I am pleading with you to have these discussions. What I am saying is, let the center of these discussions be that you love your kids no matter what, and that no matter what future mistake they may make your love will always be there.

Here me out for just a second. because I don’t want anyone walking out of here confused. I believed sex was designed created under the confines for a man and a woman at consummation in marriage. The Bible outlines this. But its not just a means for pro-creation. It was created to be enjoyed and to bring man and wife together. Obviously Satan has greatly distorted sex to the point of great disfunction. But maybe just maybe if we were teaching about God’s design for sex and not treating it as a bad word or left unaddressed, maybe just maybe less of our youth would be learning about it or shaping their opinions on it from primarily the secular world.

When I pastored in Boone we went through the conquerer series which is a men’s series designed battling pornograghy and sexual addictions. We used it as an opportunity for father’s and sons to go through together and hopefully have discussions that weren’t being had. One Dad came up to me talking about his 13 year old son. He says “Pastor I think i need to have a chat with my son, I’m not sure he knows all these terms being used in the videos. He’s been a pretty sheltered kid.” I told him I thought that would be great, but don’t be surprised if hes heard more of these terms than you think he has. The next week he came up to me again with this absolutely shocked look on his face. Pastor, I had no idea he already knew so much, I don’t even know where he had even heard about any of this. I said, does he have friends? does he have access to the internet? Yes on both accounts. I told him hes going to learn about these things regardless if they come from you or not, but you have an opportunity as his hero and role model to affect how he engages with these new found terms.

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We are born and living in a sinful world. We face temptation at every corner. The innate struggles today have become even more enhanced than before. I would suggest to you here, there isn’t a single person in this room, who has not fallen into the temptation of sin. I’d have a very difficult time believing anyone of you, if you told me you had never been tempted in sexual sin. Sexual sin, like any other sin reveals our need for a savior. It’s interesting when the woman caught in adultery is brought to the feet of Jesus, Jesus looked at her in a way that was different than those who had brought her. Those who brought her, saw her as an object, a slave, a prostitute. She may have played that part plenty in her life. Jesus, however, saw a daughter of God, and one of his creations.

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Isn’t that how it is, those here who may have fallen into lust, over images or video pornograghy. Do you view those women or even men as daughters and sons of God, as his creation? Have they become tools for self-pleasure. I don’t intend for that reality to sound harsh. As Jesus views the sinners, I believe he has sympathy for those who are lusted after such things, and he has pity over those who chained and shackled by the addiction of lust.

Let me ask you, who is less pure, those participating as adult entertainment actors and actresses, or the ones who watch it. I don’t think anyone here would argue with me when I say neither is pure. However Jesus loves both sinners, he pities both sinners, and he wants to help each sinner.

In the book “Clean” by Douglas Weiss, the author talks about the appearance of angels to Abraham and lot before the destruction of Sodom and Gommorrah. The author refers us to Gen. 19, lets pick up in verse 1.

Now the two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them, and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground. 2 And he said, “Here now, my lords, please turn in to your servant’s house and spend the night, and wash your feet; then you may rise early and go on your way.”

And they said, “No, but we will spend the night in the open square.”

3 But he insisted strongly; so they turned in to him and entered his house. Then he made them a feast, and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.

4 Now before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both old and young, all the people from every quarter, surrounded the house. 5 And they called to Lot and said to him, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may know them carnally.”

Dr. Weiss comments on this passage: “Lot’s reaction to holiness was to protect. The men in the town, however, were defiled by ongoing sexual perversions and saw the angels as something sexual to be consumed. The angels, being holy, brought out what was inside the hearts of the town’s people. In their hearts, Abraham (earlier) and Lot were moved to bow down, feed, and protect these holy angels. Abraham and Lot respected and had a desire to protect the angel’s holiness. The hearts of sodom’s people were full of sexual sickness and perversion, and the angels exposed it. (end quote)

Exposure to holiness brings out who we are. Exposure to nakedness, in the inappropriate setting (which is much of the time) should be to protect it. I just became a parent, but I imagine parents understand this better than those who aren’t the desire to protect children from seeing nakedness or exposing nakedness. That innate sense of protecting exposure is what we must tap into, men especially. If you were to come across naked image of a woman, we are called to act against desire to lust after it. We must work hard to be men of integrity. Men and women who demonstrate integrity in sexual activity, also demonstrate an element of God’s original design for purity.

Hosea chapter 4 talks about just that, how sins of the father, and I would suggest parents, adversely affect the their offspring. To Noah’s other sons he blesses their children. It is parents who have the most affect on their kids. If we surround ourselves with sin, what do you think our kids will surround themselves with. But helping them understand the principles behind abstaining from sinful or sexual environments helps them more in the long run than just simply hiding them from it.

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Let’s go back to Jesus example again with the woman who was thrown before him. I believe Jesus looked at the woman the same way Abraham and lot viewed the angels. He looked at her as one whose purity and holiness was to be protected. He does not ignore her sins, He simply chooses to cleanse her sins rather than expose her sins as how the crooked religious leaders had seeked.

Church to often I have heard stories, sometimes witnessed those who are living in sexual sinAll of those living outside of God’s created design, and they enter the house of Christian believers. Rather than be viewed as ones we are seeking to protect, help, encourage, and love. They are often branded, whispered about, and at times condemned. I don’t always have the perfect answer for, well what do you do to help them out of said lifestyle. I’m not a complete expert in that field, but I know that its not our duty to expose there sin to the world and condemn them. I sure wouldn’t want someone to write in the sand all of my sins and expose them to the world. I sometimes here the quote, “Hate the sin, but love the sinner” There is truth to that quote, but it is often misrepresented...what if we showed compassion on the sinner, and loved them no matter what, and sought the guidance of our God in Heaven to help them. I believe that takes time with anyone who is stuck in any sin, why would sexual sin be any different? Rather than expose them a sinner, why not not love them unconditionally even while still living and observing and modeling the principles of Godly sexual behaviors.

To the younger generations who are currently shaping their views, there is one thing i would like you to consider. I have heard some say, well my church doesn’t support or accept those in the LGBT communities. First off as a church we can always do better at being more loving. That said, just because we don’t affirm a lifestyle does not mean we do not love and adore the persons in question and it does not mean we cannot be loving in our friendships and supportive in our help offered.

Years back the the CEO of chic-fil-a was responding to a question and was quoted as affirming his belief that marriage was designed and created for a man and a woman. Well the next day several of their restaurants’s parking lots were filled with protesters. I’ve never forgotten the response of those chic-fil-a’s. They sent sent their staff out with cold beverages and free sandwiches and served to the picketers.

The quote in question was not intended as a hateful one but one that simply expressed his faith and confidence in the Bible’s prescription for marriage.

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I’m excited about Messiah’s Mansion coming to spartanburg in a couple months. The last time I was able to tour it was at a pathfinder camporee. A little boy was a tour guide walking us through the sacrifice of the innocent lamb. Although I understood and had seen this before, it hit me. Jesus wants us to be seen as pure as the innocent lamb. He so badly desired to protect and recover the purity of his children, He was willing to come and die and pay the penalty for our sins, so that we might once again be seen with a holy lense. Its as if his blood, serves as cloak to our nakedness. He wants to give us back our purity. Its interesting, out of Pharisees, the spectators, and the woman. The ones who were dressed the most pure, were the most impure on the inside. The one whose brokenness was on full display, the woman was cleansed by the one who would not condemn her. I hope the spectators learned the lesson to. While Christ did not condemn her, his challenge to her and everyone was to go and sin no more!

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You ask, can you really be pure in todays generation? Not without accepting the purity found in Jesus. Satan says it can’t be done. Jesus says I am with you always, I love you always. Some of us focus on modesty, to protect ones purity. That is noble, however, purity starts on the inside and should be reflected on the outside. Those who are pure, should also be kind. Don’t shame those who dress different than you. It’s not your duty to make comments to others shaming their dress. When we do that, all that is happening is you are reflecting what is truly on the inside and what you yourself need to repent over. Shaming comments are not the same of protecting comments. Ask Jesus to help you cleanse what is on the inside, and just wait to see what that does to your outside!

If anyone here is struggling with the addiction of pornograghy. I am happy to help, but I also know that many would like anonymous help. The book Clean, by douglas Weiss would be my first recommendation, and if you go to dr.douglasweiss.com you can also access more materials. Also having an accountability partner who is sent all of your internet history is a big help as well. However, if your looking for an easy fix, like any sin, it takes time and special prayer, however I am confident in our God, he is able to help us overcome any sin out there! I will commit to praying for you! Praise God he isn’t into shaming us. He is into refining us, cleansing, restoring us to holiness, restoring us to purity.

If your a young person who maybe has already experimented or maybe your scared because you feel their are consequences that cant be undone and your not sure your church will accept you. I want you to know there is no deed that can be done that will make Jesus love you any less. We love you! And we want to help! We want you safe and we want you here!

So many in this world, and unfortunately especially Christians, honestly have more faith in their sin, than in Jesus’ blood to forgive sin...

if you are trapped into believing your sin is that special, its not! Its not any more special than my own. His blood paid the full price for any and all sins whether they are sexual sins or not. I strongly would encourage you men and women to believe in the blood, not in your sin! Believe in the pure saving blood of Jesus.