“As Pure as the Driven Snow”
(Phil. 4:8)
Dr. Richard S. Koole
Chapel Pointe
February 15, 2009
I. Introduction
A. Some things really make you wonder
1. Las Vegas deacon with the porn films
a. Couldn’t be a member if you worked in a casino
b. Yet he built the buildings
c. His stash of porn movies
B. Today….meditating on what is pure
1. And avoiding the devastating effects of what is impure
2. The stakes are high
a. My discussions with wives of husbands into porn
3. Today….Cultivating a mind that’s as pure as the driven snow
II. Review
A. Meditating on what is proper…Phil. 4:8
1. “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he”
2. Must meditate on the proper stuff
B. What should you be thinking about?
(8) Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Philippians 4:8
1. “Meditate on these…”
III. Text
A. Think about whatever is “TRUE”
1. Last week….. “top ten truths”
2. Booklet or website
B. Think about whatever is “NOBLE”
1. Defined…
a. “Worthy of respect”
b. As opposed to trivial and frivolous
2. Some things are obviously bad
a. But others aren’t bad…just a waste of time
b. They just take up space….or in this case your time
3. Here’s the problem—
a. No time or space left for the good stuff
b. We only have 24 hours in each day
3. What are some great wasters of time?
a. Internet use at the workplace
1. Lost time and productivity
b. Television
1. Kids = 4 hours per day
2. Senior citizens = 7 hours per day
c. Books
1. Some are an absolute waste of time
2. Trying to catch up on the classics
a. Reading an “Incomplete Education”
4. Do an “audit” of your time this next week
a. Are you wasting time?
b. Could you be getting a higher return on your investment?
5. If you fill your thoughts with trivia—you’ll become a trivial person
6. Much better to fill your mind with noble thoughts
7. Be a lifelong learner
a. Intellectually
8. Think about whatever is NOBLE
C. Think about whatever is Just
1. Greek word is “dikaios”
a. “righteous”
b. Consistent with God’s will
2. Don’t dwell on unjust acts committed against you
a Will lead to “self-pity”
b. Will grow into bitterness and cynicism
D. Think about whatever is PURE
1. The challenge of keeping impure thoughts out of my mind
2. The scope of pornography doesn’t help
a. The third largest money-maker of organized crime
1. Behind narcotics and gambling
b. Pornography revenues
1. Rival combined revenues of the three major TV networks
2. Larger than the combined incomes of legitimate film and record industry
3. Was bad enough….and then the internet invaded our homes and offices
E. Thoughts regarding purity
1. Lust is no minor problem in God’s eyes
a. The words of Jesus in Matthew 5:27-28
(27) You have heard that it was said, “Do not commit adultery.” (28) But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
b. Origen (185-254 AD)
1. Outstanding early church father
2. Struggled with these verses because of his guilt
a. Feared looking and lusting
3. Castrated himself
a. Not my recommendation
c. Jesus was responding to Pharisees condemning adulterers
1. They acted so pious, yet he knew they were not without guilt
2. He knew that they were lusting …but hadn’t been caught
d. Words of Jesus Mt.5:28
1. That’s what they say “but I say…”
a. His authority vs. their authority
2. “anyone who looks at a woman lustfully”
a. “blepo”
b. Not talking of unintentionally noticing a woman
1. Nor the incidental or involuntary glance
2. Trying not to look…
3. Then what is lust?
a. It is the man who looks at a woman so he may satisfy his evil desire.
b. It is the continuous process of looking.
c. It is an intentional and repeated gaze
d. It is surfing the channels or internet looking for porn or seductive materials
e. It’s walking by the magazine rack looking for porn
4. When David first saw Bathsheba
a. How could he miss her?
b. Hot tub on her roof
5. When did it turn into sin?
2. Lusting is as sinful as committing adultery
a. Jesus was raising the bar (Matthew 5:28)
But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
b. Article about Ted Haggard in Sunday paper
1. Opening statement; “Everybody hates hypocrites…especially Christian hypocrites”
2. Ted Haggard’s background
3. Loudly denounced homosexuality
a. …until he was discovered
c. Beware of condemning those who have fallen
1. Those who condemn adultery, yet have lust in their hearts
2. There is a seed of evil waiting to grow in every heart
a. Taking delight in the fall of a brother is like watering the seed of temptation
b. The heart is the soil where the seeds of sin are imbedded and begin to grow
d. Lust is the evidence of sin already in your heart
1. It isn’t lustful looking that causes the sin in the heart, but the sin in the heart that causes lustful looking.
2. Lustful looking is but the expression of a heart that is already immoral and adulterous
e. The Sunday I had to explain what happened to Scott
1. I shared the details
2. Then I confessed my guilt and taught on this verse
3. Scott confessed his sin and went on to grow in the Lord
4. Others continued to harbor the sin in their hearts and never came clean
3. Knowingly tempting someone else is a sin
a. Arthur Pink
If lustful looking is so grievous a sin, then those who dress and expose themselves with the desire to be looked at and lusted after…are not less but perhaps more guilty.
b. Bathsheba’s sin
1. She knew what she was doing
4. Pornography is not a harmless diversion
a. Old view—
1. “Girlie magazines”
2. “Boys will be boys”
b. Real dangers…..child molesters
1. Michigan State Police
a. 35,000 sex crimes
b. Over 22 year period
c. 43% were pornography related
c. What it does to a marriage…
5. Our eyes grow used to the darkness
a. When your first step into the darkness
1. Can’t see a thing
2. Takes 30 minutes to fully adapt
3. Amazing what you can see
b. Christians getting used to the darkness
1. As the unacceptable slowly became acceptable
a. PG-13 movies
b. Graphic violence
c. Language
2. Cable
3. Comparing TV from 20 years ago
c. The shock has worn off
1. Our eyes have grown used to the darkness
6. Your greatest battles are fought inside your mind
a. “As a man thinks in his heart (mind), so is he”
b. Mark 7:21-23 “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, (22) thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. (23) All these evil things come from within and defile a man.”
7. Impure actions are preceded by impure thoughts
a. The allegations against Bob
1. My kids were devastated
2. Hoping it’s not true
3. Police searching his computers
4. Because it starts with pornography
b. It starts in the mind
8. Every male faces a lifelong battle
a. It only takes a glance
b. How to stop it…
1. “Don’t go there!”
2. Have another thought ready to go
3. Fill your mind with pure thoughts
9. Parents need to protect the minds of their children
a. A 14 year-old boy can’t handle the sight of a 20 foot nude on a screen
b. Keep your home as pure as possible
c. Protect them as much as possible
10. Set boundaries for your behavior
a. When lust turns into action
b. Beware of those famous last words—
1. “But we’re just friends”
a. Almost always with a friend
2. “We won’t let anything happen”
3. “Nobody will get hurt”
4. “My wife doesn’t satisfy me”
5. “My husband doesn’t love me anyway”
6. “This must be in God’s will”
a. Baloney!
b. Beware of rationalizing sins
d. Commit the will, NOW!
e. Determine that…
1. “It will never happen”
2. “Under no circumstances”
3. “I will ‘til death do us part”
e. Remind yourself of those who would be hurt by your sin
1. Spouse
2. Kids
3. Church
4. Cause of Christ
12. God can wash away all of your impurities and make you clean again
a. The poem on pp. 305-6
The story is told that during the Civil War a beautiful, highly educated, and popular young woman fell into prostitution. By the time she was 21 years old, she was friendless, broken, and lay dying in a hospital in Cincinnati. Just before she died on a cold and snowy winter day she wrote a poem lamenting her life. The poem was published in a newspaper the next day and soon drew the sympathetic attention of thousands across the country. The poem ended with the lines:
Fainting, freezing, dying alone,
Too wicked for prayer,
Too weak for a moan to be heard
in the streets of the crazy town
Gone mad in the joy
Of the snow coming down.
To lie, and to die,
In my terrible woe,
With a bed and a shroud
Of the beautiful snow.
Sometime later a verse was added by another pen.
Helpless and frail as the trampled snow,
Sinner despair not, Christ stoopeth low
To rescue the soul that is lost in its sin,
And raise it to life and enjoyment again.
Groaning, bleeding, dying for thee,
The Crucified hung, made a curse on the tree.
His accents of mercy fall soft on thine ear.
Is there mercy for me? Will He heed my prayer?
O God! In the stream that for sinners doth flow,
Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.
Whiter than snow, yes whiter than snow
Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.
IV. Summary
A. What sin is hidden in your heart?
1. God stands ready to forgive you
a. And make you clean again
2. The joy of coming clean