Cleansed by the Blood, Refined by the Fire

Most of us have had the experience of the man who had his friend arrive on a journey at midnight with no food to set before him. We've had to go to our father and bang on his door and beg and plead for bread to give to these hungry people who come to us in their needs, whatever those needs are. And every time, after we've expressed how desperate we are for this bread, the bread has come.

But what if we go to the father's door at midnight, pound on that door as we've done a thousand times before, but this time the father comes to the door without any bread and says to us, before we talk about giving bread to the hungry who are coming to you, there are some things in your life that need to be made right. From 1 John chapter 1, this is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not live according to the truth.

If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, what does it mean, walk in darkness? We're walking in darkness when we're going about our ministries, serving people, helping people, but all the while something is happening inside. We're beginning to compromise our motives and we're becoming Pharisees. In fact, deep within we know this ourselves, are turning into those whitewashed sepulchers, which outwardly look so beautiful, but are inwardly unclean, full of dead men's bones.

An example of saying that we have fellowship with God while we walk in darkness would be to be going around trying to minister with an unforgiving heart. And Jesus answered, Have faith in God. Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, be taken up and cast into the sea, and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him.

Therefore I tell you whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you receive it, and you will. Believing that when we ask, we're going to receive. But when you stand praying, forgive if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also, who is in heaven, may forgive you your trespasses.

Haskell pointed out this morning in Sunday school class, you know that every time, just about every time Jesus talks about faith, he also talks about forgiveness. These two are interlinked. How can we possibly have a clear channel to the Father and have an unclear channel to our fellow man, our brother? The two go together.

Yet how often we go about our ministries and we collect to our hearts all kinds of grudges and anger and bitterness and resentment and proceed with our ministries as if that's really an innocent matter, it's not that serious, until the Lord himself has to come and put his finger on it and tell us, warn us, that we're walking in darkness and our lives are in danger. Another example of saying that we have fellowship with God while we walk in darkness is to be trying to minister to people with a covetous heart. And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up to him and knelt before him and asked him, Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said to him, Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone.

You know the commandments. Do not kill. Do not commit adultery.

Do not steal. Do not bear false witness. Do not defraud.

Honor your father and mother. And he said to him, Teacher, all these I have observed from my youth. And Jesus, looking upon him, loved him and said to him, You lack one thing.

Go, sell what you have, give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. And come, follow me. At this, his saying, at this saying, his countenance fell and he went away sorrowful for he had great possessions.

The fact that the man ran up to Jesus and knelt before him indicates how eager he was. This man deeply hungered for the kingdom of God and he believed that he was prepared to do anything, serve in any way in order to get it. In utter love, Jesus puts his finger on the thing in this man's heart which keeps it unclean.

His covetousness. His covetousness is going to have to be rooted out if this man is ever going to be able in any kind of consistent, genuine way to serve God. Go, sell what you have, give to the poor, you will have treasure in heaven, and come, follow me.

Now, the same drastic dealing with covetousness carries right over into the life of the apostolic church. Why should the Holy Spirit be so severe with Ananias and Sapphira as to take them right out of this life just because they lied over a little bit of money? Because the ministry of the apostolic church would have been planted at its outset if this covetousness which made its appearance in Ananias and Sapphira had been tolerated. And we can talk all we like about the power of God as long as the bottom line of our corporate or individual life is money.

We're walking in darkness. Another example of saying we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness is to be trying to minister with a heart obsessed with lust. You have heard that it was said you shall not commit adultery.

But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it away. It is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.

And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell. Now our culture is so full of lust.

And the nitpicking Pharisees from the beginning of time have been such self-righteous prudes. We don't want to be like they are. We are inclined to allow lust to grow like a kind of innocent weed in our garden.

Jesus was no prude. He drew near to people whose sexual life was a mess and showed them God's mercy. But he also made clear that if we're serious about having the kingdom of God, these innocent-looking weeds of lust have to be rooted out of our lives even if we are maimed in the process.

Okay, what happens when we find that these dead men's bones of these whitewashed sepulchres of our hearts are stuck there? I mean, we really want to get rid of them. We go in there and start trying to pull up these filthy dead men's bones inside us and they won't budge. I try and I try to get rid of this resentment or this covetousness or these thoughts of lust or all three and nothing happens.

Lord, I know that you desire truth in the inward parts and I'm crying out to you to create a clean heart in me and renew a right spirit within me. This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness we lie and do not live according to the truth.

But, if we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus, his son, cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins he is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Here is a twofold promise that if we walk in the light if we open the door of this whitewashed sepulcher which is our heart to God he'll come in and cleanse this thing. The blood of Jesus, his son will cleanse us from all sin and the fire of the Lord will cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Verse, the blood of Jesus will cleanse us from all sin if we walk in the light.

So we open the door of the whitewashed sepulcher and ask God, cry out to him to come in and clean it up. We confess our sins. We cry for forgiveness.

And as we do this God begins to cause us to see the real meaning of Calvary. We begin to see that it is God himself who comes down and suffers and dies. We begin to see what anguish God himself goes through as his treasure of treasures his only begotten hangs, bloody and bruised and forsaken on that tree.

God's in this. Then he takes the blood of this death and covers us with it. Covers our sins.

And to encourage us to know that we've been forgiven Jesus invites us to his table week after week. Takes this cup raises it in thanksgiving to the Father passes it to us drink this. This is my blood of the new covenant.

Shed for your sins. Your sins are forgiven. They've been atoned for in my death.

You're alright now. Be at peace. Ah, but what about this what about this bent inside us toward unrighteousness this twist in our nature this warp inside our hearts which constantly goes toward resentment and bitterness and covetousness and lust and all these other things.

If we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins God is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So how does he cleanse us from all unrighteousness? But by means of fire.

The same Jesus who washes away our sins in his blood and baptizes us in his spirit now begins to baptize us also in fire. Don't look for purgatory on the other side of death. Purgatory is this side of death.

Now I know the rich man who ignored Lazarus' need died and was in flames but there is no hint that those flames were purging him. The purging flames come in this life. So those areas of our lives where we refuse to repent we're not going to give this thing up we're going to go the way we want to no matter what begin to feel the flames of cleansing.

Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh arm yourselves with the same thought for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer by human passions but by the will of God. Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal which has come upon you to prove you as though something strange were happening to you but rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are reproached for the name of Christ you are blessed because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you but let none of you suffer as a murderer or as a thief or a wrongdoer or a mischief maker yet if one suffers as a Christian let him not be ashamed but under that name let him glorify God for the time has come for judgment to begin with the household of God.

Now there are the flames which come to us as a holy privilege suffering as a Christian suffering which participates in the sufferings of Christ but there are also flames which come to us to purge and to correct and to burn out this evil twist in us. Now Jesus was sinless he became sin for us and he didn't have to suffer those flames to get purified and yet he went through this baptism of fire and he learned obedience through the things which he suffered. We follow him on through this baptism of fire but not only do we learn obedience through the things which we suffer we also experience purging cleansing correcting chastisement.

Somehow in the flames this evil twist begins to straighten and this predisposition for evil in our hearts which is just part of us starts to separate and float to the surface of this mess in us and runs off. The cowardice is burned out and the covetousness and the lust and the resentment and all these things begin to burn out. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.

In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood and have you forgotten the exhortation which addresses you as sons? My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord nor lose courage when you are punished by him. For the Lord disciplines him whom he loves and chastises every son whom he receives. It is for discipline that you have to endure.

God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline in which all have participated then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this we have had earthly fathers to discipline us and we respected them.

Shall we not much more be subject to the father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time at their pleasure but he disciplines us for our good that we may share his holiness. Who of us hasn't known these flames? And who of us isn't going to experience more of these flames and more and more in the days to come? May God help us to quit gritting our teeth and saying, OK, if it has to be, it has to be. And to begin to move toward the flames that cleansed us the way our Lord moved toward his cross.

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me just as surely as we have to go to the Father's door and knock on that door repeatedly for bread to give the hungry people who come to us. We also have to go continuously to the Son for inward cleansing. Our ministries will never survive nor will they bear much fruit if we go through our lives tolerating uncleanness within.

May God help us to bring our sins to the cross today. Confess them. Not somebody else's sins.

Ours. And ask for forgiveness. May God also help us to bring our sin-warped nature to the cross and yield to the baptism of fire in whatever way he chooses to send it.

This is the message we have received from him and proclaim to you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not live according to the truth. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive our sins with the blood and cleanse us from all unrighteousness with the fire. Let's take a little time in prayer.

Lord, you know how often we complain in our hearts that the things that hinder our ministries are other people, their lack of appreciation or cooperation and everything else. And yet, oh God, we know, we know that the things that hinder our ministries are inside us. And today again we ask that you help us to open the door of the tomb which is our heart filled with all this junk and let the light and the breath of your spirit come in and search out the needs.

Help us, Lord God, to expose everything that's in there to the blood of the Lamb and where it's necessary, oh God, send the flames that we may be the people you're calling us to be at this late hour and that the mediocrity and the slovenliness and the self-pity and the continuous blaming of everybody else may be replaced now with a pure heart which only you can give us. Create this in us and refresh it to us and renew it to us this day.