PURIFICATION
FROM SIN—A Pure One Revealed—A “Puritan”
Jeremiah
17
1THE SIN of Judah
2While
their children [earnestly] remember their [heathen] altars and their Asherim
[wooden symbols of the goddess Asherah] beside the green trees upon the high
hills.
3O
[Jerusalem ] My mountain in the field,
I will give your wealth and all your treasures to the spoil and your high
places for sin [as the price of your sin] throughout all your territory.
4And
you, through your own fault, will loosen your hand and discontinue from your
heritage which I gave you; and I will cause you to serve your enemies in a land
which you do not know, for you have kindled a fire in My anger which will burn
throughout the ages.
5Thus says the Lord: Cursed [with great
evil] is the strong man who trusts in and relies on frail man, making weak
[human] flesh his arm, and whose mind and heart turn aside from the Lord.
6For he shall be like a
shrub or a person naked and destitute in the desert; and he shall not see any
good come, but shall dwell in the parched places in the wilderness, in an
uninhabited salt land.
7[Most] blessed is the
man who believes in, trusts in, and relies on the Lord, and whose hope and
confidence the Lord is.
8For he shall be like a
tree planted by the waters that spreads out its roots by the river; and it
shall not see and fear when heat comes; but its leaf shall be green. It shall
not be anxious and full of care in the year of drought, nor shall it cease
yielding fruit.
9The heart is deceitful
above all things, and it is exceedingly perverse and corrupt and severely,
mortally sick! Who can know it [perceive, understand, be acquainted with his
own heart and mind]?(A)
10I the Lord search the
mind, I try the heart, even to give to every man according to his ways,
according to the fruit of his doings.
11Like
the partridge that gathers a brood which she did not hatch and sits on eggs
which she has not laid, so is he who gets riches by unjust means and not by
right. He will leave them, or they will leave him, in the midst of his days,
and at his end he will be a fool.
12A
glorious throne, set on high from the beginning, is the place of our sanctuary
(the temple).
13O
Lord, the Hope of Israel, all who forsake You shall be put to shame. They who
depart from You and me [Your prophet] shall [disappear like] writing upon the
ground, because they have forsaken the Lord, the Fountain of living waters.
14Heal
me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved, for You are
my praise.
15Behold,
they say to me, Where is the word of the Lord [predicting the disaster that you
said would befall us]? Let it come now!
16But
as for me, I have not sought to escape from being a shepherd after You, nor
have I desired the woeful day [of judgment]; You know that. Whatever I said was
spoken in Your presence and was from You.
17Be
not a terror to me; You are my refuge and my hope in the day of evil.
18Let
those be put to shame who persecute me, but let me not be put to shame; let
them be dismayed, but let me not be dismayed. Bring on them the day of evil,
and destroy them with double destruction.
19Thus
said the Lord to me: Go and stand in the gate of the sons of the people, through
which the kings of Judah enter and
through which they go out, and also [stand] in all the gates of Jerusalem .
20Say
to them, Hear the word of the Lord, you kings of Judah ,
and all Judah , and all the inhabitants
of Jerusalem who enter through these gates.
21Thus
says the Lord: Take heed to yourselves and for the sake of your lives bear no
burden on the Sabbath day or bring it in through the gates of Jerusalem .
22And
do not carry a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath day or do any work, but
keep the Sabbath day holy (set apart to the worship of God), as I commanded
your fathers.
23Yet
they would not listen and obey or incline their ears; but they stiffened their
necks, that they might not hear and might not receive instruction.
24But
if you diligently listen to and obey Me, says the Lord, and bring in no burden
through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but keep the Sabbath day
holy (set apart to the worship of God), to do no work on it,
25Then
there will enter through the gates of this city kings and princes who will sit
upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses--the kings and their
princes, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and this city will
be inhabited and last throughout the ages.
26And
people shall come from the cities of Judah
and the places round about Jerusalem ,
from the land
of Benjamin
27But
if you will not listen to Me to keep the Sabbath day holy (set apart to the
worship of God), and not to bear a burden and enter in at the gates of
Jerusalem [with one] on the Sabbath day, then I will kindle a fire in her
gates, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be
quenched.
Cross references:
Matthew 13: 15-17
15For this nation's heart has grown gross (fat and dull), and their
ears heavy and difficult of hearing, and their eyes they have tightly closed,
lest they see and perceive with their eyes, and hear and comprehend the sense
with their ears, and grasp and understand with their heart, and turn and I should
heal them.(A)
16But blessed (happy,
fortunate, and [a]to be
envied) are your eyes because they do see, and your ears because they do hear.
17Truly I tell you, many
prophets and righteous men [men who were upright and in right standing with
God] yearned to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you
hear, and did not hear it.
Mark 7:21-23
21For from within, [that is] out of the hearts of men, come base and
wicked thoughts, sexual immorality, stealing, murder, adultery,
22Coveting (a greedy desire
to have more wealth), dangerous and destructive wickedness, deceit; [a]unrestrained
(indecent) conduct; an evil eye (envy), slander (evil speaking, malicious
misrepresentation, abusiveness), pride ([b]the sin of
an uplifted heart against God and man), foolishness (folly, lack of sense,
recklessness, thoughtlessness).
23All these evil [purposes
and desires] come from within, and they make the man unclean and render him
unhallowed.
Ephesians 4:20-24
20But you did not so learn Christ!
21Assuming that you have
really heard Him and been taught by Him, as [all] Truth is in Jesus [embodied
and personified in Him],
22Strip yourselves of your
former nature [put off and discard your old un-renewed self] which
characterized your previous manner of life and becomes corrupt through lusts
and desires that spring from delusion;
23And be constantly renewed
in the spirit of your mind [having a fresh mental and spiritual attitude],
24And put on the new nature
(the regenerate self) created in God's image, [Godlike] in true righteousness
and holiness.
What defiles man?
Our wicked thoughts and affections, words and actions, defile us,
and these only. As a corrupt fountain sends forth corrupt streams, so does a
corrupt heart send forth corrupt reasoning’s, corrupt appetites and passions,
and all the wicked words and actions that come from them. A spiritual
understanding of the law of God, and a sense of the evil of sin, will cause a
man to seek for the grace of the Holy Spirit, to keep down the evil thoughts
and affections that work within.
(Mk 7:24-30)
Onto
purity and holiness...
The apostle charged the Ephesians in the name
and by the authority of the Lord Jesus, that having professed the gospel, they
should not be as the unconverted Gentiles, who walked in vain fancies and
carnal affections. Do not men, on every side, walk in the vanity of their
minds? Must not we then urge the distinction between real and nominal
Christians? They were void of all saving knowledge; they sat in darkness, and
loved it rather than light. They had a dislike and hatred to a life
of holiness, which is not only the way of
life God requires and approves, and by which we live to him, but which has some
likeness to God himself in his purity, righteousness, truth, and goodness. The
truth of Christ appears in its beauty and power, when it appears as in Jesus.
The corrupt nature is called a man; like the human body, it is of divers parts,
supporting and strengthening one another. Sinful desires are deceitful lusts;
they promise men happiness, but render them more miserable;
and bring them to destruction, if not subdued
and mortified. These therefore must be put off, as an old garment, a filthy
garment; they must be subdued and mortified. But it is not enough to shake off
corrupt principles; we must have gracious ones. By the new man, is meant the
new nature, the new creature, directed by a new principle, even regenerating
grace, enabling a man to lead a new life of righteousness and holiness. This is
created, or brought forth by God's almighty power. (Eph 4:25-28)
To a daily use of spiritual gifts and graces.
Unto every believer is given some gift of grace, for their mutual
help. All is given as seems best to Christ to bestow upon every one. He
received for them, that he might give to them, a large measure of gifts and
graces; particularly the gift of the Holy Ghost. Not a mere head knowledge, or
bare acknowledging Christ to be the Son of God, but such as brings trust and
obedience. There is a fullness in Christ, and a measure of that fullness given
in the counsel of God to every believer;
but we never come to the perfect measure till we come to heaven.
God's children are growing, as long as they are in this world; and the
Christian's growth tends to the glory of Christ. The more a man finds himself
drawn out to improve in his station, and according to his measure, all that he
has received, to the spiritual good of others, he may the more certainly
believe that he has the grace of sincere love and charity rooted in his heart.
(Eph
4:17-24)
God Is Judging The World Even NOW And We Are Found In The
Separation Of The Wheat From The Chaff!
And to take heed of the sins practiced among the heathen…
Notice the particulars wherewith we should adorn our Christian
profession. Take heed of every thing contrary to truth. No longer flatter or
deceive others. God's people are children who will not lie, who dare not lie,
who hate and abhor lying. Take heed of anger and ungoverned passions. If there
is just occasion to express displeasure at what is wrong, and to reprove, see
that it be without sin. We give place to the devil, when the first motions of
sin are not grievous to our souls; when we consent to them; and when we repeat
an evil deed. This teaches that as sin, if yielded unto, lets in the devil upon
us, we are to resist it, keeping from all appearance of evil. Idleness makes
thieves. Those who will not work, expose themselves to temptations to steal.
Men ought to be industrious, that they may do some good, and that they may be
kept from temptation. They must labor, not only that they may live honestly,
but that they may have to give to the wants of others. What then must we think
of those called Christians, who grow rich by fraud, oppression, and deceitful
practices! Alms, to be accepted of God, must not be gained by unrighteousness
and robbery, but by honesty and industry. God hates robbery for
burnt-offerings. (Eph 4:29-32)
The parable of the sower…sows the Word in ground…guard the
condition of your heart…good…bad…ugly…stoney…
Jesus entered into a boat that he might be the less pressed, and
be the better heard by the people. By this he teaches us in the outward
circumstances of worship not to covet that which is stately, but to make the
best of the conveniences God in his providence allots to us. Christ taught in
parables. Thereby the things of God were made more plain and easy to those
willing to be taught, and at the same time more difficult and obscure to those
who were willingly ignorant. The parable
of the sower is plain. The seed sown is the word of God. The sower
is our Lord Jesus Christ, by himself, or by his ministers. Preaching to a
multitude is sowing the corn; we know not where it will light. Some sort of
ground, though we take ever so much pains with it, brings forth no fruit to
purpose, while the good soil brings forth plentifully. So it is with the hearts
of men, whose different characters are here described by four sorts of ground.
Careless, trifling hearers, are an easy prey to Satan; who, as he is the great
murderer of souls, so he is the great thief of sermons, and will be sure to rob
us of the word, if we take not care to keep it. Hypocrites, like the stony
ground, often get the start of true Christians in the shows of profession. Many
are glad to hear a good sermon, who do not profit by it. They are told of free
salvation, of the believer's privileges, and the happiness of heaven; and,
without any change of heart, without any abiding conviction of their own
depravity, their need of a Saviour, or the excellence of holiness, they soon
profess an unwarranted assurance. But when some heavy trial threatens them, or
some sinful advantage may be had, they give up or disguise their profession, or
turn to some easier system. Worldly cares are fitly compared to thorns, for
they came in with sin, and are a fruit of the curse; they are good in their
place to stop a gap, but a man must be well armed that has much to do with
them; they are entangling, vexing, scratching, and their end is to be burned,
Heb 6:8. Worldly cares are great hindrances to our profiting by the word of
God. The deceitfulness of riches does the mischief; they cannot be said to
deceive us unless we put our trust in them, then they choke the good seed. What
distinguished the good ground was fruitfulness. By this true Christians are
distinguished from hypocrites. Christ does not say that this good ground has no
stones in it, or no thorns; but none that could hinder its fruitfulness. All
are not alike; we should aim at the highest, to bring forth most fruit. The
sense of hearing cannot be better employed than in hearing God's word; and let
us look to ourselves that we may know what sort of hearers we are. (Mt
13:24-30)
The parable of the tares…
Matt.
13: 36 to 43 This parable represents the present and future state of the gospel
church; Christ's care of it, the devil's enmity against it, the mixture there
is in it of good and bad in this world, and the separation between them in the
other world. So prone is fallen man to sin, that if the enemy sow the tares, he
may go his way, they will spring up, and do hurt; whereas, when good seed is
sown, it must be tended, watered, and fenced. The servants complained to their
master; Sir, didst thou not sow good seed in thy field? No doubt he did;
whatever is amiss in the church, we are sure it is not from Christ. Though
gross transgressors, and such as openly oppose the gospel, ought to be
separated from the society of the faithful, yet no human skill can make an
exact separation. Those who oppose must not be cut off, but instructed, and
that with meekness. And though good and bad are together in this world, yet at
the great day they shall be parted; then the righteous and the wicked shall be plainly
known; here sometimes it is hard to distinguish between them. Let us, knowing
the terrors of the Lord, not do iniquity. At death, believers shall shine forth
to themselves; at the great day they shall shine forth before all the world.
They shall shine by reflection, with light borrowed from the Fountain of light.
Their sanctification will be made perfect, and their justification published.
May we be found of that happy number. (Mt 13:31-35)
Finally: Isaiah 55:
8-11
The King’s Church
www.TheKingsChurchInternational.com
