Love Deep Down

Transcript

Alright, thank you very much. And hello again, radio friends. How in the world are you? You doing alright today? I trust everything’s alright at your house. Well, I wanna go on with you, if I may, in discussing 1st Timothy 5:22, the last few words, and then going on into 23. He said, “Don’t be partaker of other men’s sins, keep thyself pure.” How do you go about this? Do you have to constantly be afraid, lest you step out of line?

No, I don’t think so. You see, the Christian life is not so much an effort, as it is a continuing miracle. And there are two things that you and I must keep in mind, if we want to be kept pure. One is, and this is review, of course, one is, the Word of God working in your life. “Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly, in all wisdom, teaching, and admonishing one another, in Psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.” Let the Word of Christ dwell in you. Our Lord Jesus said, “If ye abide in me and my Word abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, it shall be done unto you.”

So the first thing to think about, in this matter of, “How do I go about being kept pure?” If I wanna obey this three word admonition in 1st Timothy 5:22, “Keep thyself pure,” how do I go about it? You go about it by exposing every area of your life to the authority of the Word of God. Now, obviously, the Bible doesn’t tell you whether to go downtown by using the bus or drive your car. It doesn’t tell you whether to buy a grey suit or a blue suit. It doesn’t tell you whether to go to the college or some other school. You can’t find specifics in the Word of God like that. But in the matter of keeping pure, you’ll find that everything you need to keep your heart right, right with God, and right with people, everything you need to keep your heart right, is found in the blessed Word of God. And so you read it, and meditate upon it day by day.

“God’s blessed man,” as described in the 1st Psalm, is said to, “Delight in the law of the Lord, and in His law, doth he meditate day and night. As a result, his life is stable. It is fruitful. It is protected from injury, and decay, and it prospers.” How does all that happen? By being in the Word of God and letting the Word of God be in him. Joshua 1:8 says the same thing, doesn’t it? “This Book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do all that is, according to all that is written therein, for then shalt thou make thy way prosperous, and then shalt thou have good success.”

You wanna succeed? Get full of the Word of God. It’s that simple. You see, because the Word of God will keep you from being a dreamer, on one hand, and a wild-eyed fanatic on the other. The Word of God is full of good commonsense admonitions, that will keep you stable, balanced, and going in the right direction. The Word of God motivates you, it’s like a two-edged sword, cutting right through the motives, that would otherwise deceive ourselves.

How do I go about this matter of, “Keep thyself pure?” I start in the Word of God. Now, how do you read it? Most people haven’t the foggiest idea how to read and study the Bible. I’ve given you this different times through the past many years. I’ve been on the radio steadily, now, for about 25 years, haven’t I? And during these years, I’ve, every now and then, have shared with you the idea, that I got from Dr Stephen Alford back in the 1940’s. He said, “Stay with any given passage of scripture, until it says something to you.”

“Now, don’t just sermonize, if you’re a preacher and get an outline. No, no, let it say something to your own heart. You stay with it, you read it, and pray over it, and meditate over it, until it says something to you, then write that down. Write it down, because if you can’t write it, you haven’t got it. Every school teacher knows that. Write it down. Third, pray it back to God, until your heart gets warm and tender with the truth. Pray it back to God, until your heart gets warm and tender with the truth God has given you. And fourth, share it with somebody else that very day, as soon as you can.” This has been a great blessing to me, especially when I’ve been horribly busy, in times when I’ve been on the road.

I can recall one occasion, when over a period of two weeks, I had, at the very least, four or five meetings a day, and sometimes, seven or more, giving out all the time, and one has the danger then, of becoming very shallow, and completely exhausted spiritually. The only thing that helped me was that early morning meeting with the Lord, where I got something fresh from Him, and all day long, I would just share that with people. And, oh, how they appreciated it. So how do you start getting into the Word? You stay with the passage, ’til it says something to you, and then you write it down, then you pray it back, then you share it with others. And the effect of that, is to fasten it in your own heart, and memory as well.

But how else do you go about this matter of being purified by the Word? Peter said, “Seeing you have purified your souls, in obeying the truth.” Ah, there’s the rub, huh? What do I have to do? Read it? Yes. Meditate on it? Yes. Pray over it? Yes. Share it? Yes. But what else? Obey it. Never leave a passage of Scripture without asking this question, “Lord, what do you want me to do about this?” I always insist on the what I call the “so what” factor. So what do I do? So what of it? This is all true, so what? What does it mean to me? What do I do about it? Where do I go from here?

Make a habit of praying the prayer that Paul the Apostle did. Before he became Paul, he was Saul of Tarsus, there on the road to Damascus, when the Lord Jesus Christ intercepted him, said “Saul, why persecutest thou Me? Hard for you to kick against the ox-goad like a dumb ox.” When he said, “Who art Thou, Lord?” The answer came, “I am Jesus, whom thou persecuted.” Then came Paul’s second prayer, “Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?” And he got his orders. Sent him on into Damascus and his career as God’s specially anointed apostle was begun.

“Lord, what wilt though have me to do?” When you’re reading the Bible, and meditating on it, and praying over it, always ask God, “What do you want me to do about this passage and the truth that you have spoken to my heart?” “Purified your souls, in obeying the truth.” Well, you say, “I’m so weak and I just can’t do some of the things I think I need to do.” Well, look at the next phrase in 1sr Peter 1:22, he said, “In obeying the Truth through the Spirit.” Through the Spirit. You can trust the Holy Spirit of God to enable you to do anything God wants you to do. Did you know that? When you become a Christian, the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in your heart, and you can trust that indwelling Holy Spirit, to enable you to do anything God wants you to do.

And Paul said in Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me.” You wanna get hold of that truth today? Don’t back off and say, “Oh, I’m so weak, I can’t do it.” Yes, of course, you’re weak. No, you can’t do it by yourself, but God can. God can. He can do it.

Now, how does this issue, how does this kind of obedience show up? He said, “You have purified your souls, in obeying the Truth through the Spirit.” He’s the one that helps you do it, “Unto unfeigned love of the brethren.” How does the working of God in your heart, through the Word, how does it show up? It shows up in genuinely expressing love to other people who belong to Jesus. It’s a strange thing, isn’t it? Inevitably, when anybody has a meeting with the Holy Spirit of God, he or she is filled with the Spirit of Love toward others. This is one of the trademarks of having met the Lord and having been filled with the Spirit. “Through the Spirit, unto unfeigned love of the brethren.”

Now, how does that relate to a pure heart? Well, just this. As long as you refuse to let God work through you, in an outpouring of love, just so long will you be conscious of a heart that isn’t pure. Huh?

He said, “The Spirit of God issues, this matter of obeying the Truth, results in unfeigned love.” It doesn’t result in so called good works, first of all. They’re a byproduct. “We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus, unto good works, which God hath before ordained, that we should walk in them,” says Ephesians 2:10. No, this matter says, “Purifying your souls comes through obeying the Truth. Obeying the Truth is done by means of the Holy Spirit’s working in your life. And the result of that obedience, and that working of the Holy Spirit, is unfeigned love.” You don’t put it on, you just pour it out.

Now, you see, the reason God’s Holy Spirit says this to us, is that you don’t hurt somebody you really love. You don’t take advantage of somebody you really love. You don’t lie to somebody you really love. You don’t cheat on somebody you really love. All of these human derelictions issue out of a heart that isn’t pure, and out of a heart that doesn’t have the outpouring of God’s Spirit of Love. You follow me? You see, it’s so simple, isn’t it? So simple we stumble over it. He says, “Keep thyself pure.”

How do you do it? Get in the Word. What else? Obey the Word. How do you do it? Yield to the Holy Spirit. What will result? An outpouring of divine Calvary love, where you haven’t got an angle that your working, you’re just loving people for Jesus’ sake. Hallelujah. Isn’t that great? [chuckle] He says, “Love one another with a pure heart, fervently. Just pour it out.”

Oh, the only safe way to express real love is in the Spirit. Any other way, you’re headed for trouble, either misunderstanding or worse. The only safe way to express real love is in the Holy Spirit. Wanna remember that? Let the Word of God begin to work in your life, let the Holy Spirit begin to implement it, and let God’s wonderful Calvary love pour out of your life, as a result. And I wanna guarantee you, beloved, you’ll be kept pure. God sees to it. Amen? [chuckle] Praise God.

Dear Father today, keep us pure, keep us filled with Your love, and keep us pouring that love out to others. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Till I meet you once again, by way of radio, walk with the King today and be a blessing!