1 Timothy Chapter 1 Verses 5 - 7

•The idea here of a pure heart is a heart that has been refined by fire. A vine that has been strengthened through pruning, the cutting away of that which is not profitable so that the branch may bear fruit. And the output of a pure heart, a clean heart, is pure cleaner, man!

•I love this because Paul just gave Timothy a direct order. That he deal rightfully with folks there in Ephesus that have their doctrine all messed up and as a result love to argue their perspective. And now he says, that commandment, the purpose of it is love. Your Bible might say, “Charity.” Agape…to set folks free man…to bring them to Jesus. To snap their chains of foolishness and blindness and weakness from around their hearts, minds and lives…and yet, in order to do that with any level of effectivity…Paul says #1 You got to have a purified heart…

•Folks set out to make their hearts pure by being religious…but Colossians 2:20-23 says, “Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations? “Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,” which all concern things which perish with the using according to the commandments and doctrines of men? These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.

•Purification of the heart is not something you “do.” It is something that is done in you as you draw near to Jesus! Someone once said to me, “I could never be a Calvary Pastor. Because I don’t have a drug background, or a drinking background, I wasn’t a hippie and I never really got in trouble. You see before I got saved, I was already pretty righteous…” I like to spit my drink out when I heard that!!! Pretty righteous! You have no clue! Why?

•Distance from Jesus. What do I mean? Here’s the thing. The practical truth. Anyone can understand this…the closer you get to Jesus, the more you realize how opposite of righteous you are. How unlike Him we are in our own everything and how amazing and wonderful and majestic He is…and as you walk with Him, closely, He purifies your heart. Isn’t that cool…because you’ve given it to Him…what’s He gonna do? Leave it the way it is? If your heart is the way it is today and you’re talking like you’re walking with God…but it’s essentially the same as it was 10 years ago, 10 months ago, 10 days ago…then you’re heart isn’t in His hands…because He continually works!

•A purified heart Timothy…qualification #1 to standing for righteousness in such a way that honors God and is effective! And the mark of a clean heart…pure cleaner! Makes things around it clean. I mean that’s what Jesus does, right? You ever get a degreaser and spray some on some rims or a caliper or something that’s all greasy and then you scrub and the grease doesn’t come off…? I HATE THAT! That’s all that self help and self imposed religion offers! But Jesus has that good GOOD! Clean you right on up! Clean your marriage right on up…clean your conscience right on up…clean your strength of faith right on up…and here’s how to spray it on your greasy life…get into the Word and let the Word get into you…that’s placing your heart in His hands!

•And yet if you stray from this…as so many do because it is HARD…humbling yourself to Jesus and ACTUALLY allowing the fire of purification, the cutting of the pruning…its hard and it hurts and if you can’t take it…you stray…like a stray cat…chilling in the dumpsters and howling when folks trying to have some peace…sitting on the fence…remember that cartoon cat? No home…loner…and you even take pride in that? Crazy!

•You’re a stray, a whole bunch of idle talk and in that you desire not to be taught but to teach…thinking you’re helping folks because you’re street wise or know something and yet your message is completely off…not even comprehending what you’re saying and the message you’re sending (what you’re affirming)! That folks are chains of foolishness and blindness and weakness…

•Paul affirms Timothy…and I love this…He says the purpose of the commandment is love…you know, the purpose of the Ten Commandments is the same? What do you mean? A bunch of rules, that’s love? Yes…because those rules were never meant to make you acceptable, they were meant to be a beacon, to shine the light on the truth…that you and I need Jesus…you and I ourselves…need only love…watch this…

1 Timothy Chapter 1 Verses 8 – 11

•The law is good if you hold to it…but can you? No!!!! None of us can! There are folks out here today that say they are the only ones right with God because they hold to the Sabbath. But the Sabbath is only 10% of the law! Let me ask you, I heard Pastor Eric from Rocky Mountain say this on the radio this week…if you were pulled over for speeding, do you think the explanation of, “Well I haven’t murdered anyone,” will get you off? No, you’ve broken the law! You see if you can’t keep the whole law then you break the whole law…its black, its white (just like that terrible MJ song!), its 0/100…and so for someone who can keep every detail of the law…its good…but can you? NO WAY!

•But here’s hope, the law is not made for a righteous person. And you can take this two ways. First, if you are righteous through the blood of Jesus, the hand writing of requirements against you in order for you to become acceptable to God are wiped out…taken away…nailed to the cross and now by grace through faith you have the righteousness of Jesus imputed to you…credited to your account…if you’ve given your heart, your core, your life, your soul, your mind, your strength to Jesus. If that’s you, the law is not for you. You live to a MUCH higher law…the law of love…we’ll end on that tonight…

•Before we end though, second way to look at this…The law is not made for a righteous person. The law is a school master to bring us to Christ…but if you already consider yourself righteous…a good person…then man where is hope for you? You are your own savior and humans make bad saviors…Ever see a super hero movie where the hero is “Ordinary Man!!!” HA! His super power is that he’s not as bad as this other guy! HAHA!

•The thing is…a righteous man, a righteous woman…one who knows the Lord and is filled with the Holy Spirit, filled with truth and grace, you need no law because your law is love. Love is so much stronger, so much stricter than any written or whatever law could ever be. God does not need to say to me, “Thou shalt not murder Lincoln. Thou shalt not steal his toys…” That’s ridiculous! Why? Because I love my son! Love is so very much stronger and leads to a much more principled and purposeful life than any law that is written! Instead of teaching the law…Paul says teach them the gospel. The glorious gospel of the blessed God! That’s what changes everything…