A Searching Test
(No. 3521)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JULY 20, 1916.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING, JANUARY
18, 1872.
"Unto the pure all things are pure, but unto them who are defiled and
unbelieving, nothing is pure, but even their mind and conscience are
defiled." Titus 1:15.
I SHALL not profess, this evening, to enter into a full exposition of
this text, for there are many deep things in it, and many intricate
questions are suggested by it. I shall only make some observations upon
it intended to be of practical service.
This text has often been misused–made to mean what was never in the
Apostle's mind. He does not mean that a wrong thing becomes right to a
pure-minded man–that is the very opposite of what he does mean! He
means that when men's minds are pure, other matters become pure to
them, but when their minds are impure, then they use these things for
impurity. We shall endeavor to pick out the meaning as we go along, but
by no means does it mean that I may pretend that I am of a pure mind
and that, therefore, will make impurity, itself, pure! That would be to
prove, if I found any pleasure in impurity, that my mind was impure.
The true solution of the conduct of a man who professes to be pure in
mind and yet commits himself to an unholy course of life, is not that
the man makes that unholy life, pure, but that his unholy living proves
that his mind is not pure at all!
Our text has in it, tonight, two kinds of men–the pure and the defiled
and unbelieving. And secondly, it has two kinds of effects produced
upon these men by outward things–to the one, all things are pure–to
the other, there is nothing pure. First, let us talk about these–
I. TWO KINDS OF MEN.
First, the pure–where shall we find them? Where are they born? We
answer, no men are born so! Who shall bring a clean thing out of an
unclean? No one! Not one! As our parents have sinned, we, their
children, are born with tendencies to sin–we are impure even from
birth! There are none pure but those who are made so by a second
creation! The first time they are marred upon the wheel. They must go
under the Creator's hand a second time–they must feel the power of the
purifying Spirit of God creating them anew before they can be called
pure at all! And these are not absolutely pure. Even in those who are
entitled to be called, "pure in heart," there remains impurity. If any
man shall question that, let him remember the First Epistle of John,
the first Chapter, at the 8th verse–"If any man says he has no sin, he
is a liar, and the truth is not in him." There is sin in the best of
men–and if they do not perceive it, it must be because they are
blinded with a foolish self-conceit–for in the purest heart there
still remains connected with it the old nature and the impurity
inherited from the first Adam. This makes life a perpetual conflict
until life's close. Still, we name men by their predominant
characteristics. The partial impurity of a good man does not entitle
him to be called impure. If the master principle within him, the
reigning principle, is purity, he is a pure man. A man may once in his
life have spoken an untruth–he may have been surprised into saying a
thing which is not–but if the general tenor of his life is stern
integrity, we do not, therefore, condemn him and brand him as a liar!
Otherwise where were the men living upon earth who would be worthy of a
name implying praise? The godly are pure–have been made pure by
regeneration, and they are pure, though not absolutely so.
They are pure in their affections. They love not that which is
unchaste, unhallowed, untruthful, unlawful before God. Their soul loves
that which God approves. They seek after that which God, Himself,
commands. If they do not always keep God's statutes, yet they love
them. And if they do not always walk in His ways without slipping, yet
they love
His ways and desire to walk in them without a single turning aside to
the right hand or to the left! The set of the current of their soul is
towards purity. They mourn over those currents and eddies into which
they are turned by temptation. They are the last men to excuse
them–the rush and current of their soul, their deepest and truest
life–is that they may be cleansed from all false ways and from sin.
And as they are pure in their affections, they become pure in their
actions. They, if they are, indeed, the people of God, cannot run with
the multitude to do evil. The swine may find its pleasure in the mire,
but God's sheep love clean pastures. The raven may feed upon its
garbage and be at home, there, but not so the dove–it likes the clean
garner and the clean roosting place. The child of God shuns not only
the darker sins which defile so many, but even those which others think
but a trifle. And what some would permit and rejoice in, the Christian
mourns, abhors, laments and avoids. The actions of the Christian–I do
not claim perfection for them, but I do claim that the true Christian
strives after perfection in his actions, that he seeks after it, yes,
and that, as a rule, he comes nearer to it than his enemies would
allow, or than even his own reflections, when he is examining himself,
would permit him to believe! God has a people who still walk uprightly
in the world. There are still some that are as pillars in the House of
God upon whom he has written the name of our God–some who have not
defiled their garments–who shall walk with Him in white, for, by His
Grace, they are made worthy.
And these men being thus pure in their affections and in their actions
are most of all pure in their desires. Their greatest desire is towards
purity. I am sure I speak the language of every renewed heart when I
say that if the Lord were to appear by night to you, and say to you, as
He did to Solomon, "What shall I give you?" there is no renewed heart
here that would say, "Lord, give me riches!" There is no one that would
say, "Give me health!" We may desire both of these things in a
secondary degree, but our main desire would be this, "Lord, give me
that holy character which would please You and bring honor to the
religion I profess." Holiness, holiness, holiness–it is a thing which
every renewed heart longs after beyond everything else! I would have
perfect orthodoxy in my head if I could, but I know even if I had that,
an unhallowed life would render it of little service to me. But could I
have a clean heart, other things would come with it and from it, for
the pure in heart shall see God! And if they see God, what else is
there that they shall notsee, for the eyes which have glanced on God,
Himself, will be able to perceive the difference between truth and
error, and will not be liable to be deceived! The Christian is pure in
his desires. Now if it is so, that in his affections within, and his
actions without, and in the desires of his entire nature, he would be
pure, he is entitled to this name and God has given it to him!
But there are some, on the other hand, who are defied and unbelieving.
These two things appear to go together. Now it was denied some time
since, that every unbeliever is unclean in his life, and I think there
is some ground in the denial. I should not like to stand here and say
that I believe every infidel, every rejecter of the religion of Christ
is a man unfit for the social circle and a sinner against the laws of
decency! I do not believe it. Honestly, I must say that there are some
men who have rejected the Gospel–I grieve that they have–have denied
God and yet somehow they have been a vast deal better than their creed,
and they have managed to walk in a consistency of moral conduct towards
man which has almost been worthy to be set up as an example to
Christians! I believe such cases are not the rule, and that candor,
when it has made the admission which I have made, is compelled to add
that this is an extraordinary thing and cannot have been produced by
the creed, for the creed, itself, of the godless is necessarily
logically and properly the creed of the unbelieving, producing sin! Why
should they obey a Law of God if they do not believe in a Law-Giver, or
if they only believe in a law-giver who will not punish and who cannot
reward? When men have denied God, they have surely given up the
sanction which should lead them to anything like purity–and if they
live as most of them do live–it cannot be said that they are
inconsistent with their creed.
Yet, indeed, as a rule, and as a rule without exception–having said
what I have said (and I do not contradict myself)–as a rule without an
exception, the unbelieving heart is a defiled heart for all that. For
what did we admit? That the man who rejects his God is not, therefore,
a thief? Has he not robbed God? What did we say? That the man who
rejects Christ is not, therefore, licentious? Is that purity which
rejects perfection? Is that heart pure that cannot see loveliness in
the Character and the Person of the Redeemer? What did we admit? That
the unbeliever is not seditious? Yet is he a loyal subject of God who
denies the Godhead, who rails against God, and who lives from day to
day as if there were no God at all? Men, if they were called sinners,
would not shudder at the word–they admit it! But call them criminals
and at once they are angry and defend themselves–the reason being, I
suppose, that with the mass of mankind it seems a trifle to offend God,
but a very serious thing to have offended man! And here is the whole
stress of the matter–the de-
filement of the unbeliever lies always God-ward, even when it is not
apparent man-ward. And when the unbeliever, somehow or other, keeps his
garments clean as before his fellow men, yet as before his God what is
he? He is one who has cast off all obligations to his Maker, who denies
all responsibilities to his King, who receives bounties from Jehovah's
hands but is not grateful and will not even acknowledge that the
mercies come from those hands at all! He lives in habitual contempt of
the Adorable–destitute of all admiration for the infinitely
Glorious–who does what angels must shudder to think of–lives without
love to Christ, without trust in the promises of God! There is a
defilement, there, which, I venture to say, is even greater if looked
at in a right light, than any form of defilement which becomes
perceptible by men as between themselves!
But notice in this text that it seems to correct a good deal of the
mental philosophy we have heard of. For instance, I have heard it
asserted that conscience is God's vice regent among men. I have often
heard expressions from the pulpit and read them in books which led me
to infer that every fallen man has got not only something good in him,
but some strong principle almost akin to the Divine! I believe in the
fall of man and I believe that to be total–and that conscience is a
power which has fallen with all the rest, and that there does not exist
in the world a pure conscience–except so far as God has purified it by
the work of His Spirit. Conscience, itself, is a defiled thing! And so
far from being a representative of God, I could not think for a moment
of comparing it with that Ever-Blessed and Pure Being! The fact is that
conscience, although it must be to man practically his guide, is not
ever a safe one, for the true guide of every man is the Bible, the
revealed will of God. That is true, pure and right, but my conscience
may often be a dark conscience, an ignorant conscience, a perverted
conscience–and so my business is not to follow my conscience as I find
it, but to go to God and ask Him to enlighten my conscience and guide
it! Neither is it an excuse for a man for doing wrong when he says he
was conscientious in doing it. It is an excuse as far as men are
concerned, but not before God! God's Law is not of variable quantity or
quality depending upon the quantity or quality of the conscience–it is
fixed and definite! Just as if a man were to take prussic acid,
believing that it would benefit him–he would die, despite his
conscience–or as if a person were to walk northward, expecting to
reach his home in the south! He would not do anything of the kind! Or
as if a man were to go to sea in a leaky vessel and a storm came
on–his conscience would not save him–so it is with you! If you are
astray, you are astray. Your business was to have waited upon God to
have had that conscience corrected! Your business was to have laid that
conscience at the foot of the Cross and ask the Master to purify it–to
have waited upon the Holy Spirit for His teaching and consulted the
Infallible Oracles of God's Book to know what was the will of the Most
High! It is not, therefore, for every man to be crying up his
conscience. I believe in the conscience, by all means, among men, but
there is none perfect before God! Their conscience should be bowed to
God's Law, to God's Gospel, to believe His teachings and to obey His
precepts. Conscience, no more than any other power, is irresponsible!
It is under law in Him. He created man and put the conscience within
him, which conscience has been spoiled and injured by the Fall.
Now there are men in the world with defiled understandings and defiled
consciences. They cannot judge rightly. Their understanding is defiled.
They put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter. "A man cannot do
that," says one. He does do it. There are thousands in this world who
deliberately judge amiss, and who, when they sit down, even to think of
a question (which, alas, we cannot often bring them to do), naturally
come to a wrong conclusion because the scales which they weigh are out
of gear. The measure which they use is not the measure of the
sanctuary! Their understanding is defiled. And even when they bring
their moral sense to bear upon some question, they are inevitably
mistaken because their conscience, itself has become defiled also. A
sad state for men to be in, but into this state each man, according to
his degree, is brought until his will turns to God and is rectified by
the great Spirit. We are all impure–impure in every part. "The whole
head is sick, and the whole heart is faint." We are all fallen. In
manhood's vast temple there stands not a solitary pillar that is quite
erect. Here and there, there are masses that seem as though they stood
as once they were, to let us know how grand a thing human nature might
have been–but there is enough upon the whole to let us see that it is
all in ruin, and in such ruin that unless He who built it at the first
shall put forth His Omnipotent Power and use again the old fiat which
created the world, it will still be a ruin and desolation–a den of all
manner of unclean things!
Thus have I spoken upon the two sorts of men, the pure and the defiled.
But now, secondly, here is the main point that we have to speak of–
II. THE TWO AFFECTS PRODUCED ON THESE TWO KINDS OF MEN.
To those who are pure, all things are pure. To those who are impure and
unbelieving, everything becomes impure. Only a few things by way of
specimen.
First, let us think of the attributes of God. To the Believer in
Christ, whose heart is pure, how glorious is God! And every time we
think of Him, adore Him and have fellowship with Him, we grow purer for
it. The true Believer cannot think of God and draw nearer to Him
without becoming more like his God. But look at the unbeliever.
Oft-times his very thoughts of God have been, themselves, defiled by
the defilement of his understanding, irritating him, filling him with
wrath and abhorrence. He does not delight in the holiness of God–he
says it is severity. "How can a man be happy with such laws to bind
him?" He does not delight in the wisdom of God in Providence–he thinks
things are ordered very much amiss, seeing they do not all conduce to
his pleasure in the ways of sin! And, especially, if you set before him
God's mercy, that most blessed of all attributes which, to the
Believer, is purifying to the highest degree, you will find the
unbeliever saying, "God is Merciful," and making that an excuse for his
continuing in sin! How sad it is that when we preach the Gospel and
give the invitations of Infinite Mercy, there are many who will say,
"Ah, then, I can turn to God just when I like, and He is very gracious,
and He will forgive me! Therefore I will continue in my rebellion
against Him." And when we have been pathetic, and our soul has poured
over from our eyes as we have spoken of those saved at the eleventh
hour, while there have been some minds that have been led to Christ,
thereby, there are some who have drawn the horrible inference that
they, too, might wait until the eleventh hour and venture their eternal
interests upon the mercy of God at the last! Brothers, I believe you
cannot preach of God without some men making mischief of it, even of
just so simple a Truth as His Mercy. But when you come to His
Sovereignty–a deep that can never be fathomed–how many have been
drowned in it! I believe we ought to speak about it. I am not of those
who say we should be silent upon it, but how many have been drowned in
those deeps, willfully, because they have said, "Who has resisted His
will? Why does He find fault? If it is to be, it is to be. If it will
be, it will be." They have even dared to make God the Author of their
sin and drawn an apology for their unrighteousness from the thrice holy
King of Kings! To the pure in heart, all things are so pure that we,
ourselves, sink into nothing in humility and penitence before Him! But
to the ungodly, even God, Himself, becomes an argument for continuance
in sin!
Now take another. It is so with God, but it is equally is so with the
Gospel The Doctrines of the Gospel are, to the Believer, very pure.
There is not one of them but what has a practical effect upon his life.
I take the Doctrine of Election. Then if He has chosen us, He has
chosen us to be a peculiar people zealous of good works, and special
love we feel binds us to special service. We often sing–
"Loved of my God, for Him again With love intense I burn! Chosen of Him
before time began, We choose Him in return!"
So with the Doctrine of Redemption that He has redeemed us by His
precious blood. The inference from it is, "You are not your own, you
are bought with a price–therefore, glorify God in your bodies and in
your spirits, which are His." Take the sweet Doctrine of Final
Perseverance, "The righteous shall hold on his way." Now the godly man
feels that he must so live as to prove that he is a godly man by
persevering, and he looks for daily Grace to hold him on and to keep
him to the end. He blesses that Infinite Affection that does not turn
aside from him and he feels drawn to it by constant watchfulness. I
might mention all the Doctrines, but every Christian will admit at once
that he that has this hope in him purifies himself. But take the effect
of these Truths of God upon the unbelieving and the impure. Why, you
know how they will pervert Divine Election! How often men have made
that a coverlet for the grossest licentiousness! As for the redeeming
blood, alas, how many have made the Cross, which is the Tree of Life,
to be the tree of death to them! It has become a savor of death unto
death to them. We have known some whose damnation is just–who have
said, "We are the children of God, and we will live as we like," and
they have, therefore, given themselves over to uncleanness. Surely of
all blasphemers, they must bear the palm–they stand among the worst.
But when men thus turn the Gospel into licentiousness, are we to say it
is the Gospel's fault? Are we to keep back some of these Doctrines? By
no means, for, "unto the pure all things are pure." Unto the unclean
and unbelieving, these holy things will always be impure. You might as
well forbid the sun to shine because when its beams fall upon a
dunghill, it brings forth unwholesome odors! Yes, but that same sun,
when it falls upon the flowers, makes them shed their aromatic perfume
on every hand! It is doing incalculable good.
It is not the sun, but the dunghill that must be blamed. And when the
Truth of God is perverted, you must not blame the Truth, but blame the
unclean, unbelieving heart that turns it into sin!
Now the same thing is true of the ordinances of the Gospel, and
dreadfully true, here, too! When you come to the ordinances of the
Gospel, such, for instance, as the preaching of the Word–the true
Believer, every time he hears the Word is purged by the Word. "Now you
are clean, you are purged through the Word which I have spoken to you."
The Truth of God shows him his own sinfulness. He sees his face in a
mirror and endeavors to remove the spots which the Word of God reveals
to him. But an ungodly man hearing the Word of God, grows the worse,
perhaps, not only openly, but in his heart! Oh, there are some that sit
in this very place–have done so for years! I thank God they are
getting to be very, very few, now. I hope there will be none such,
soon. May Grace grant there may not be one! But you will notice that
the very Truth of God which once made them tremble, does not now–and
whereas some years ago the preaching of the Gospel often brought tears
to their eyes and sent them on their knees, it does not now–and sins
which they were gladly to give up at one time, and which pricked their
conscience, are now indulged in without compunction, for the same
Gospel which softens, hardens, as the sun, which shines on wax and
melts it, shines on clay and hardens it! Even the blessed ordinance of
preaching–the hearing of the Word–may make some men to become yet
more and more unclean. Alas, that it should be so. But see how Baptism
and the Lord's Supper, both of them (for I cannot now stay long to
discriminate), have been misused. Whereas these are, both of them,
ordinances to lead men to remember precious Truths of God–the death
and burial of the Lord in the one case, and the soul's feeding in the
other case, on the precious body and blood of Jesus, and rejoicing in
Him as blessed spiritual meat, how is it that we have been told (and it
is preached from thousands of pulpits in England) that Baptism washes
away sin and absolutely regenerates the soul? And though I have been
chided for putting too strong a sense upon the word, "regenerate," I
have lived to see a stronger sense put upon it by some than I put upon
it until it has become with some, simply a superstitious ordinance, and
nothing more, full of mischief. And as to the Lord's Supper, they tell
us that there is in it a power to forgive all sin, even the most
heinous. And this is not spoken now and then, accidentally–a slip of
tongue–but is printed and scattered all over England as a true
Doctrine of God!
Well, these men's minds are impure and, therefore, even those two
precious ordinances are turned into superstition and into impurity–and
I suppose it always will be so. But if the mind becomes pure, and
becomes believing in Christ, it will never exalt mere bread and wine
into the place of Deity, and water into the place of the Divine Spirit,
Himself. God save us from having our minds rendered so impure as to
fall into superstition by simple ordinances which are full of
instruction! I do not doubt that there are many who are now depending
for eternal life upon having gone to the "Sacrament of the Mass," and
are expecting to enter Heaven because they have reposed their
confidence in a man who was arrogant enough to call himself the
exclusive priest of God! God save us from having our understanding
defiled, for it must be before it can submit to the belief of such
superstition as this!
But I must pass on. I have often noticed how the Church of God, itself
becomes to pure minds one thing, and to impure minds another. You shall
find a man a member of a Christian Church who will tell you that
wherever he has gone in that Church he has met with Brothers and
Sisters full of love, full of earnestness–and he has been delighted to
associate with them. I have been at the bedside of a venerable Brother
recently, whom nearly all of you know, and if you were to hear his
opinion of the Church of which he is a member, he would speak of it in
the most glowing terms. The reason is that he sees in his fellow
Christians very much what there is in himself. The man who is loving
comes to love the Brethren! The man who is chaste, pure and zealous,
attributes to others a like spirit and believes they are pure, and they
are to him so assuredly. But you shall meet with another, a carnal,
worldly-minded professor, and he says, "Oh, there's no love!" He has
not any. "There's no zeal" he says. There certainly would not be if all
were like he! "Ah," he says, "I don't see any of the Apostolic living
that I read of in the Scriptures." There is no Apostolic living in his
own case! He didn't see it because he hasn't got it! To use an old
illustration–if you send a buzzard flying over a tract of country,
what will it see? Why, it will be looking out for all the dead
carcasses and it will be sure to be able to tell you how much carrion
there is about! But if you send a dove over that same space, it won't
have an eye for it, for it has no taste for it–but it will tell you of
everything that is fair and beautiful, like itself! So is it with the
pure mind in the midst of God's people–it sees purity! It cannot shut
its eyes to impurity, but it rejoices in the Truth and speaks of it,
and speaks it as well as it can at all times with a charity that thinks
no evil. But with the impure and the unbelieving, every place is
defiled–and the man tars everything with the filth that is in his own
bucket!
Now the events of Providence–I will not detain you much longer, but
let me observe that all the events of Providence are, to some men, one
thing, and to some men another! Is a man with a pure mind suddenly
lifted up in the world in wealth? He uses that for the poor of the
Church of Christ. If he is impure, then that wealth allows him to
gratify his impure taste and he sinks deeper in impurity! Does a pure
man come to poverty? Then his poverty drives him nearer to God and he
seeks to make himself useful among the poorer Brethren where he dwells.
But if he is impure, he assumes the most groveling tastes and becomes
the more wicked! Is a man a Christian? Then health is a delight to
him–to consecrate it all to his Lord. Has a sinner health–then that
health shall enable him to go farther into sin, or, at any rate, to
indulge himself the more, for he will not consecrate it to his God.
Anything that happens may be used two ways–and the pure shall see in
every event something which he can turn to God's Glory! And the impure
can see in everything a means by which he may indulge himself.
Now it is so if you mingle with the sons of men and see their sins. We
are grieved at them. But when the Christian sees sin, he thinks, "This
is what I would be but for the Grace of God." So he praises God for His
Grace. "This is what I shall be," he says, "if I am not watchful." So
he becomes the more watchful and out of the very sin of his fellow men,
he extracts some reasons for greater holiness and grows more pure
because he observes the loathsomeness of impurity and turns from it the
more earnestly. But the ungodly man is carried away by the evil
example–his conscience is more deadened by it–and he becomes bolder
in sin in consequence of what he sees in others! I am sure you will
have observed it so, that where the good man gathers grapes, another
finds nothing but poisoned apples–and where the Christian turns over
this man's depravity and finds in it a reason for greater holiness in
his own person, the ungodly man only sees more excuses for himself for
the past–and the greater license for himself in the future! Take
another list of things, namely, the treatment of men to us. Suppose men
praise us? The Christian says, "I must be watchful, for the praise of
man is often inconsistent with the favor or God." The ungodly man says,
"Everybody praises me! What a silly fellow I must be!" There is a
foulness of pride which comes upon him. The man who lives near to God,
if he is sneered at by the sons of men, says, "It comes upon me for
God's sake. By His Grace, I will bear it."But the other says he will
not have any more of that and turns aside from a path which becomes
rough, even though he knows that path to be right! How often has unjust
treatment driven the ungodly man to anger, and in some cases to malice
and to resolutions of revenge! To the impure an injustice makes him
more impure. But see the Christian who is like his Master. Every
injustice makes him cry for Grace to forgive–and when yet more
injustice is heaped upon him, he forgives the more and tries to heap
yet more coals of fire upon the head of his enemy by doing him the
greater kindness, if by any means he may win his soul! So out of the
worst of things the Christian extracts the best, while from the very
best of things an unhallowed mind may extract the worst!
Let us close–though there are many, many illustrations that might be
given of this. Here you have, tonight, means afforded for judging
yourselves. Do you find in God's Book that which makes you angry with
God? Do you find in the Gospel that which makes you complaisant with
yourself while you are unregenerate? Do you find in Providence that
which irritates you, or which seems to excuse you in sin? Then your
mind is impure, for these things are with you according to what you
are. "It is dark," you say. It is your eyes that are dark–the Light of
God is light and bright. "It is bitter," you say, when we bring you the
honey of the Gospel. It is not the honey that is bitter–it is your
mouth–it is your mouth that is out of order. How often ought people to
recollect this when they hear a true Gospel sermon! George Herbert
says, "Judge not the preacher–he is your judge." And very often when a
man has condemned the sermon, he had far better condemn himself! He has
not agreed with it? No, if he had, it would not have been true! When
sometimes we have heard some man of low life railing at us, we have
said, "Thank God! Supposing that wretch had praised us, we would have
known there was something amiss about us! There are public papers
which, if they praised a man, you would know at once that the man
deserved hanging, or something near approaching to it! Their censure is
the only homage they can give to that which is right. So when any soul
kicks against Christ–the precious blood of Christ, the Gospel of God,
the purity of God–do we condemn God because this man condemns Him? No,
but God is glorified by the unrighteous nature of this man rebelling
against Him! If God were other than He is, an unrighteous man might
love Him, but being hated and despised, and forgotten of ungodly men,
it does but prove that God is not such as they are, but infinitely
superior to them! Let us judge ourselves, then, by this.
But provided we are obliged to come to the conclusion that our minds
are not pure, we need not end there, for there are means by which they
may be made so! Glory be to God, if my mind and conscience are defiled,
they need not always be so. There is cleansing. I cannot effect it for
myself, nor can any outward forms do it–
"No outward form can make me clean, The leprosy lies deep within"
But God has set forth Christ to be a Savior–and He shall save His
people from their sins–from their sinfulness, too, and whoever
believes in Christ Jesus, that is, trusts in Him, there is already in
him the beginning of purity! God the Holy Spirit will give him more and
more of the likeness of Christ, for he that believes shall be saved
from sin, from indwelling sin, from all sin, from the power as well as
from the guilt of it! Faith will cleanse him, applying to him the
precious blood and the water which flows from the side of Christ! Faith
will, by the Holy Spirit's power, become a cleansing as well as a
saving Grace! God grant it to us, and may we all be among the pure,
unto whom all things shall be pure. We ask it for Christ's sake! Amen.