Necessary Purge

A few weeks ago, when I was done teaching my Sunday school class I packed up my stuff and put my thermos in my church bag as always. During worship I went to take a drink and noticed the cup seemed a lot lighter than I remembered. I then realized that I had placed it in my bag without closing the lid and most of the contents had by that time spilled out. Thankfully, none of the important books in there were damaged at all. In fact, the only items that were wet were a bunch of really old material from years before that I had just not taken the time to look at or remove. I finally had the reason and motivation to get rid of the 2 inch pile of unnecessary material filling up my bag. It had become a necessity in order to prevent my important materials from being damaged.

 

Psalm 51:1-3 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness;
According to the greatness of Your compassion blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity
And cleanse me from my sin.
For I know my transgressions,
And my sin is ever before me.

 

Our sin separates us from God. He is holy, completely pure and perfect, and cannot be in the presence of sin. It is completely abhorrent to Him. When we sin, we are committing spiritual treason, rejecting Him and His ways and choosing instead to follow His enemy satan. God hates it and so should we. It is a part of our natural human condition, but something that in Christ we have the power to resist. It is something we need to resist, to reject and flee from.

 

Hebrews 9:13-14 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

Jeremiah 33:8 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

I will cleanse them from all their iniquity by which they have sinned against Me, and I will pardon all their iniquities by which they have sinned against Me and by which they have transgressed against Me.

 

In Old Testament times, when a person sinned, they had to sacrifice an animal to atone for what they had done wrong for it is only through the shedding of blood that we can be forgiven. God made the first animal sacrifice after Adam and Eve sinned in the garden. He killed an animal (the first death) to make clothes to cover their nakedness and sin. Yet animal sacrifices were never enough. They may have taken away the guilt of one sin, but they were not enough to purify a person or make them righteous. Only God can make us righteous for He is the only one who is righteous. It was through the blood of Jesus that we are not only forgiven but made right with God, that we gain a righteous status. God must purge that sin from us.

 

1 John 1:9 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

2 Timothy 2:21-22 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from these things, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work. Now flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.

James 4:7-8 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

 

As horrible as sin is, if we repent (admit we are wrong, ask forgiveness, and turn away from that sin) God will forgive and restore us. Nothing is so bad that He will reject us if we come to Him in repentance. We need to flee, literally run away from, the things that tempt us. We need to be aware so that we do not fall into the trap of sin, because it crouches at the door, waiting for us to be caught off guard. See, temptation starts with our own desires, which are not sinful in themselves usually. But they become sin when we either desire them more than God, or when we try to fulfill them outside of God’s plan and timing.

 

Those things sit inside us, waiting. Just because they are not causing a problem currently, does not mean they won’t later on. Like the extra paperwork in my bag, they take up space and weigh us down unnecessarily. They need to be purged, removed, rejected. We need to be proactive, intentional and diligent to remove anything from our hearts that is not pleasing to God. We need to deal with our desires and make sure that they are godly and that we seek to fill them in a godly way so that they do not lead us down the wrong road. Just because the desire is something good, like desiring to be loved, does not mean it can’t or won’t lead to something bad. Often a girl’s desire to be loved by her father leads her to give in to sexual sin with a man she’s not married to because she has sought to fulfill that desire outside of God’s plan and timing. We need to seek God to fulfill our desires, and ask Him to help us purge the sin and wrong desires from us. In the same way that He purged the world of corruption in the days of Noah, we need to purge sin from our lives, completely. Like a wildfire that helps clean the forest of decay and debris, we need to purge the dead and rotting parts of our hearts.

 

What needs to be purged from your life? What unfulfilled desires do you have that you may be tempted to fill in an ungodly way? Ask God to help you purge what is bad and fulfill what is good in a godly way. Don’t wait for a flood, or an open cup of tea, to make it a necessity. Do it now so God doesn’t have to do it Himself, before it corrupts what is good. You can do it of your own volition privately, or wait for God to do it publicly. Don’t wait.