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Cleansing Ourselves 2 Cor. 6:17 “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean [thing]; and I will receive you,” 2 Cor. 7:1 “Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” “Touch no unclean thing,” don’t touch it. And the reward is – I will receive you. “Now I thought I got all this salvation by grace.” How willing are we to ignore the righteousness of Christ for a good time NOW? Do you want the Lord to receive you? Sooner or later you will be tested in this! If you want to be received of the Lord what do you have to do? Come out from among them and touch no unclean thing. It is not a free gift of grace. Do we understand grace? You don’t work to earn your salvation; you just work to keep it. “And you will be my sons and daughters.” You are not a son or daughter until you can take over the Father’s business. You may have been born-again, but you are not an inheritor of the Father’s promises. “Having therefore these promises.” What promises? God receiving us; walking among us; being a Father to us. Our expected reaction to this is “Let us cleanse ourselves – purify ourselves.” God will not do this for us. How do we do this? Come out from among them, get rid of the garbage. God is revealing your carnal nature that He hates today. Why? So you can cleanse yourself! God is looking for the perfecting of holiness. Your carnal nature is an unclean thing. Lust and perversion are unclean. If you can’t get free then seek help – you can’t continue in this unclean thing. Perfecting holiness = He wants your thoughts, your speech, and your actions to be clean. The world is not like this. That is why you are called to be a Saint – a holy one. The Methodists and the Nazarenes, along with Pentecostals used to be holiness groups. Yes, they can be extreme – but the extremes are external because they won’t deal with the inward nature. Is holiness inward or outward? It is both. If you are inwardly clean you will automatically be outwardly clean so others will recognize Christ in and through you. There are always standards in all walks of life and professions. Saints ought to be the most excellent of them all. Doesn’t the scripture tell us to be modest in dress? We don’t want anyone to tell us this today. What is modesty? Ask a man. He will tell you what turns an eye. There is such a thing as decency. A person who says he can do anything he wants because he is a Christian is deluded. To me this is so basic. But Christians today have lost the basics. We are not to live in extremes; we live modestly, not drawing attention to ourselves. We represent the King of Kings. All the attention goes to Him. Young people and children don’t understand why there are standards today. As spiritual leaders and parents we have to tell them over and over again. We must not give up on our children just because they don’t understand the standard of being cleansed and holy. Young people, adults are not much better when it comes to the standard. It takes years and years of teaching and training before people change. This generation more than any other has so much hurt and garbage – it takes continual training to come to a place of continual forgiveness and acceptance until holiness is produced. Holiness doesn’t mean we don’t have enjoyment and godly pleasures and times of play. The holier one becomes, the freer one is. I am talking experience and love for the one who has made it happen. Have you ever noticed that God does not deal with all your shortcomings at once? But as you look back over your life you find just how much you have changed. Look back since you were born-again. Are you like you were 10 yrs., 20 yrs., 30 yrs. ago? We must be longsuffering toward others as they too are in a state of change. Pray to God for a hunger for holiness. Do we want more of God than we currently have? It will take holiness. For anyone today who feels empty and says there must be more, it is because God is calling us up higher. He is placing within us a desire like no generation has ever had. We need a passion for holiness today. There is a way to pray for holiness. “I want to be with you where you are.” Now Jesus is in the very center of God’s fire. He is in the center of God who is fire. He doesn’t get burned up because whereas holiness is fireproof, sin is flammable. And when you approach God when there is sin in your life, He will not bring you into His presence because it would destroy you. This is why some will only be saved as by fire. It is up to you to follow on with the ways of the Lord. Holiness has left a bad taste in the lives of many of God’s children because the church has not understood the ways of God. But when we understand, it becomes the greatest blessing of life. And when we understand, then will come a hunger and thirst for righteousness and a passion for holiness that can’t be stopped. God will give it – but we have to ask. Holiness enables us to see God, sin makes us blind. The holier we get the more we can see God. The scriptures tell us that when one becomes holy he can see the face of God. Moses couldn’t see it because He did not have what we have. But He saw it on the day of transfiguration! (Think about that.) It is a joy to be holy. It is a joy to want to be holy. There is nothing like it. Let’s pray for this. “Dear Lord, I want to be with You, where You are. But I now know it takes holiness. Help me to want to be holy for Your name’s sake. Amen!” -Pr. Steve October Newsletter 2003 | Cleansing Ourselves | Things | 20/20 Faith Pastor's Journal October 2002 | Thankfulness part 2 of 2 | A People Plundered part 1 of 3 |
Biblical Counseling for Leaders
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