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~ But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen. (2 Peter 3:18)

Tag Archives: meekness

A Question of Purity

22 Sunday Sep 2013

Posted by GBC in From the Pastor

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Tags

arrogance, Baptism, hubris, humility, John 3:25, John 3:26, John 3:27, meekness, Phil 2:3, Philippians 2:3, Pride, purity, submission

Purity can be a reference to many different things. It is only an adjective. It simply describes a position or credential. It can be used to describe water, life or even a process.

Humility, submission and meekness all become brilliant lights when we are at the alter in prayer. This is how we must seek purity before a holy God.

Humility, submission and meekness all become brilliant lights when we are at the alter in prayer. This is how we must seek purity before a holy God.

When we talk about purity, it is almost always in reference to something or someone else, not us. We do not want anything to corrupt us. We want good drinking water so we ask how pure it is. We want the best value, so we ask about the purity of gold. We want our children kept safe, so we discuss the challenges to purity in a relationship or other influences. Purity is a concern we have but it is most frequently about other things that might affect us. We naturally act as though we are already pure and that other things can defile us. We want others to meet our standards.

What we should recognize is that purity is not something we already have either. We are not inherently pure in our thoughts, in our ways, in our abilities or in our motives. The challenge is not simply staying pure, it is getting that way.

In John 3:25-27 we find a question of baptismal purity. In their pride, John the Baptist’s disciples thought his baptism was pure. That pride made them impure. They thought that their ministry was the greatest and when another man’s ministry was growing and his baptism was different, that there was a problem with it. Something had to be done because it did not seem exactly the same.

John the Baptist was simply an announcer, not a pastor, not the Messiah. The one who followed him was the more important and more pure form of truth and godliness. He knew that. John knew he was impure, troubled, just a man to whom God gave a most honorable task.

Don’t assess others, look at self for purity. Yes, things can potentially defile your testimony, but only because your heart is already damaged and pulled in that direction. Look at self first for impurity, then assess how you can improve your testimony. We are commanded to esteem others higher than ourselves (Phil 2:3). Too often we esteem others lower and assume we are the righteous.  Only Jesus is righteous and pure. He is the standard that we must meet. He is also the standard we must encourage others to meet.

“Blessed Are the Meek”–Matthew 5:5

31 Tuesday Mar 2009

Posted by GBC in From the Pulpit, Sermon on the Mount: The Beatitudes

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Beatitudes, Charles Dickens, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, David Copperfield, Grace Bible Church, Lander, Leon Morris, meekness, Sermon on the Mount, Tim Senter, weakness

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"The world says that we are not to let others step on us; we are not to be trounced upon. We are to stand up and be noticed - make people notice us."

[This sermon is one of a series entitled “Sermon on the Mount, Concentrating on the Beatitudes,” which is being preached on Sunday mornings by Pastor Tim Senter.]

To mourn–I pray you have remembered this, which is our lesson from last week.  I pray as well that you have also retained what you learned from the poor in Spirit, and that you have become just that. As we study the Beatitudes, it must grow more visible in your mind that we are far from the mark that God has set for His kingdom, and that we first must be poor in spirit. This sense follows a natural recognition that creates a mourning spirit within us for all those who do not know our great God. In this we mourn also at our ineptitudes, and our inability to reach His greatness. We reach out for Christ. This is our personal mourning. We mourn too in fellowship because our fellowship is marred here on earth with the imperfection of the world itself. We find opportunities to encourage one another, and to seek strength with and in one another as we seek to encourage others with the great gift of God. This is mourning in fellowship. We mourn then as a group in the church as well. As arms, legs, fingers, eyes and ears of the church, we mourn in the overall happenstances of the world and the evil intrusion into the purity of the church. The business that church has become is now on display and this business is of Satan, not of God. We mourn because people go to what they call “church” to be entertained in some sort of pseudo-holy parade of talent, musically, theatrically, or both. The church, therefore, mourns because God is not the focus; but the talent of people who are not serving God but themselves instead seems to be the substance. “How can we make more people come?” is one question. “What is it that people do not like about church?” is another question. The question should be, “Is that what God’s Word says?–Is that how God asks us to worship Him in His word?” One of my favorites is, “Is that what was done in the first century with the Word of God that was available to them?” What did Paul, Timothy, Titus, Peter, and John do? What did they use to minister? They used the Word of God (Acts 6:2; 2 Tim 2:15) – not a skit or play (which were quite prevalent in those days too). Finally, we found the Lord mourning. Our Savior grieves because He stands right before you every day in His creation, in the vast complexity of the world, in the testimony of believers, in the testimony of Bible preaching and teaching churches–yet you still reject Him. In this, though, we found comfort, the comfort of salvation. However, in salvation we found comfort. We found comfort in scripture that tells us to rejoice in our heavenly destiny (Lk 17:20).

Today we study another pinnacle passage in scripture. We find in this verse great instruction, again presenting a paradox when compared to life on earth, as we know it. Look at Matthew 5:5 please, and we will read briefly. Here is our “Tim’s Translation”: 

“Contented are the meek because they will inherit (receive or gain possession of something of considerable value that has not been earned) the earth.”

In this short verse, we find the most succinct description of the Lord’s humiliation. As we view the meek, we must consider that we are also viewing the Lord in the Beatitudes. We must see Him as He is, describing Himself for us to emulate. We found Him first humbling His spirit, and then mourning for the lost.  Now we see our great, gracious, loving Savior in His true humanity – meek. We find this meekness in Psalm 37 especially in verse 11. Continue reading →

Knowing You Are Saved

Pastor Tim's new book describes great assurances of salvation in 1 John. Every Christian wonders at some point if they are saved. John writes in vibrant, personal and intimate terms exactly how we can know we are saved.

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