The Principle of Purity

Welcome to Worship in the Word with Pastor Robert Morris. Today, Pastor Robert is continuing his new series titled, Relationship, where he shares how the Ten Commandments are really a series of principles for us to develop a deeper relationship with God.

I'm your host, Jenae, and I'm here with my co-host, Patrick. Hey, hey, everybody. Well, we're so glad you're listening. Today's message is about the second of the Ten Commandments. And it's really interesting that Pastor Robert titled this message, The Principle of Purity. You know, the first time I heard this message, I wasn't exactly sure how the commandment, you shall not make a carved image or idol correlated with purity, but it does. And I'm excited to hear it again.

Me too. You know, this series is so insightful. In fact, if you missed the start of this relationship series last time, be sure to check it out at pastorrobert.com or call 833-933-WORD to get a copy. Well, Pastor Robert explained how the Ten Commandments aren't just a list of do's and don'ts, but they're actually a way for us to enhance our relationship with God and with other people too. It definitely opens up your eyes to the complexity and the purpose of the Ten Commandments and how they're still so important for us today. So let's jump right in as Pastor Robert talks about spiritual purity.

So we're in a series called Relationship through God's Top Ten. And we're talking about the Ten Commandments. We did the first commandment, which was, I believe that there's a principle behind each commandment that is a principle of relationship. And so we talked about the principle of priority. This weekend, we're going to talk about the principle of purity. Let me go through the three points that I have.

Here's point number one, the danger of impurity. Now in Exodus 20, if you're over there, Exodus 20, the second commandment is three verses. So I'm going to take each verse for one of the points that I have today, all right?

So we'll first look at the first verse of the second commandment, which is Exodus 20, verse 4. You shall not, you shall not, for your good, make for yourself a carved image. I want you to notice the word image because most will reduce this and say idol.

And that's okay. It is referring to an idol, but we got to come back to the word image in a moment. Any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

Okay. The Canaanites worshiped idols more than any other people on the face of the earth. They had idols for everything, for fertility, for rain, for blessings, all that. And they made carved images. Now you have to understand Israel was the only nation that did not worship images of their God.

Only one. So he's saying, don't do this. By the way, Colossians 1 15, talking about Jesus, he is the image of the invisible God. Israel's the only one that had the invisible God. So when they go in there, the Canaanites begin to talk to them about gods. And the Canaanites, you have to understand, they had a personal God, a family God, and a national God. And here's the way that they tricked Israel. They said to them, oh, we understand that you have a national God, Jehovah.

We have a national God too, but you need a personal God and you need a family God. And they told them you needed Asherah as your personal God, and you need Baal as your family God. And this is why all through the Old Testament, you will see that Israel built Asherah poles and Baal idols. Because God said to them, now listen, when you go in that land, they're going to try to deceive you, and they did.

Listen to some of these scriptures. Judges 3 7, so the children of Israel did evil in sight of the Lord. They forgot the Lord their God and served the Baals and the Asherahs. And then when Elijah called everyone up on Mount Carmel and he called fire down, 1 Kings 18 19, now therefore send and gather all Israel to me on Mount Carmel, the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah who eat at Jezebel's table. Remember, by the way, when God was telling Moses, own the mountain, do not make an idol, do not have a carved image. While he's telling Moses this, own the mountain, the children of Israel are at the bottom of the mountain making two golden calves. And they say these calves brought us out of Egypt. Now, sometimes I find humor in the Bible.

Just want you to, here's what they said. These calves that we just made brought us out of Egypt. How crazy. While God's telling them don't have any images, they're already making an image. Now, think about this. The Canaanites believed that the gods lived in heaven and that when you carved an image, the god in heaven of that image would put his spirit in that image. And then they would take that image around to be in their fields to bless their crops. They would make an image of fertility and put it in their bedroom so they would conceive, okay, who gave the Canaanites that idea? Listen to me, Satan did.

And you know where he got it? Because God fashioned an image of himself on the earth and put his spirit in it. Genesis 1 26, he said, let us make man in our image. That's why there doesn't need to be another image of God on the earth. You are the image of God on the earth. And God puts his spirit in you. Now, again, these are idols, but think about the word image.

The word image is the root word of the word imagination. I almost named this message the principle of reality. Because when you live in a fantasy world, when you live with imaginations that are ungodly, if you imagine yourself with another person sexually than your spouse, if you imagine yourself in another job or another house, and I'm talking about where you you can't be content, you can't be happy until you get this raise or this promotion or this title or this position, or this much money in the bank, when you begin to imagine yourself doing something other than what God has provided for you, you have an idol. If you're just tuning in, you're listening to Worship in the Word with Pastor Robert Morris. Today's message is about the second commandment, which is a warning against impurity. So when Pastor Robert was talking about not allowing a mixture into your life, I was thinking how it's so easy to do just that, to blend the good and the bad in your life and think it's only a little bit, so it'll be okay.

To watch a certain movie because it stars your favorite actor or to listen to that music because it's catchy. All those things, when we allow them into our hearts and minds, they start to make us impure. You know, that reminds me of the water dye test, like how one small drop of food dye in water changes the color of the entire cup. In fact, the Bible says that one small bit of yeast can actually infiltrate an entire batch of dough. We don't want to be legalistic about this kind of stuff, but the enemy is looking around for people to devour, and we must be on guard all the time.

Absolutely. And being on guard, it doesn't just mean those physical things, but it can also mean our imaginations, too. I love how Pastor Robert broke down the idea of an image just a few minutes ago. I feel like I can't relate much to the idea of a golden calf necessarily, but I can relate to the idea of our imaginations taking over and not allowing us to be content until we have that one thing. It doesn't even have to be a bad thing. It can be really good things, such as a job or a child or a house, but when we can't be content with all that God's provided, that's when it becomes a problem.

Yeah. Well, this message is really one to make you think. So let's tune back in to hear more about God's second relationship-building commandment.

Secondly, here are the consequences of impurity. This is the second verse of the second commandment. Verse five, you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. Now, here's what He's telling them. We're going to go into more detail. They tell them, they're going to take you into bondage. They're going to take you into bondage. You're going to serve them.

Now, here's the reason why. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting. I want you to notice this word, visiting, because I think people have totally misunderstood this as well. Visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me.

Okay. First of all, I want you to notice that this happens to people who hate God, not people who love God. You can imagine how this has been misapplied in the body of Christ. This happens, He said, I visit the iniquities to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me. He's going to tell us a moment what He does for those who love Him.

To the third and fourth generation. Okay. Just think, it's not as...

I just want people to understand the grace of God, even in the Old Testament. He didn't say, the word visiting, it's a great word. Think about visit, when you visit. Listen, He didn't say, I'm going to cause these iniquities to inhabit the next generations. He said, but I am going to let them visit them. Not inhabit, but visit.

Visits a big word. So let me just say in the natural how this could have happened. In Israel, most houses had four generations living in one house. In my own life, my parents are still alive and Debbie's mother is still alive. So when we gather for Christmas, Thanksgiving, family functions, we have my parents and Debbie's mom, then Debbie and me, then our children, and then our grandchildren. How many generations? Four. Every holiday, we have four generations. So in Israel, four generations living in a house.

This is amazing. God said to the third and fourth generation. Think about, now my father is a very godly man. He's a very godly man. So this is not applicable to him today at all. But think about if my father was an alcoholic and he showed up at all these family functions drunk, it would influence, it would affect my children and grandchildren, the third and fourth generation.

Are you following me? Okay, so God says it's going to do this. But why would God even allow this? Why would God say, I am going to visit them?

Well, he gives us the reason. I'm a jealous God. I'm a jealous God. I am jealous for your affection. So I'm going to do something to get your affection.

Now I'll explain to you in a moment how it does get your affection. But let me explain jealousy for a moment. Jealousy is listed as a work of the flesh. But there's a good jealousy and a bad jealousy. The bad jealousy is you're jealous for another person because of selfish reasons. The good jealousy is you're jealous of another person because of godly reasons because you love that person and don't want anything to happen.

In the same way, listen, God says all through the Old Testament, I am so jealous for Israel. He's not angry at them. He's angry at the ones that are taking them captive. He's upset.

He's going to come in. So why would he visit the iniquity? Well, it's amazing. It's because that iniquity actually frustrates the next generation so that they search for God. They see the consequences of the iniquity like an alcoholic in the family.

And they decide, I'm never going to have anything to do with that. As a matter of fact, they had a saying in Israel where they misinterpreted this commandment and their saying was, a son shall die for the sins of his father. It's like our saying, like father, like son. A son shall die for the sins of his father. And Ezekiel 18, I don't have time to read the whole chapter, but God comes in and says, you will no longer say that because I'm a just God. And he says to him, this is what he says, let me just show you a couple scriptures if I have any idea where I'm, okay on the page, here it is. Exodus 18 verse 14, he says, if however, this is the bad guy, he begets a son who sees all the sins which his father has done and considers it, thinks about it, but does not do likewise. And then in verse 17, he the son shall not die for the iniquity of his father, he shall surely live. He comes in and says, listen, I want to visit these iniquities on you, but you have a choice whether you're going to continue in that way or not.

And if you'll turn from that, if you'll consider it and turn, remember I used that illustration about my father. My father grew up in an alcoholic home. He saw alcoholism.

We never had a drop of anything in the house. You want to know why? Because he saw it, he considered it and listen to me, and he broke that generational curse over our family because he turned away from it. After listening to Worship in the Word with Pastor Robert Morris, this part of the message was a little heavy, but so good. There are consequences of impurity, but I like how Pastor Robert assured us that God still offers grace in the midst of those consequences.

I love the story he shared at the end about his dad. I think there are so many people who learned what they do or don't want to do in their lives out of deficit. You know, like their upbringing was lacking in some sort of way or there was some sort of abuse and they said, no, nope, I don't want to live this way or let my children experience this in their home.

And so many people have stories like this. In some ways, black can be a great teacher, but it's amazing how God can use terrible situations to turn people not just away from certain lifestyles or sins, but toward himself. We aren't destined to repeat the sins of our family. We are given such a beautiful grace to be able to consider the sins of our forefathers and then turn from them. Not only can we turn from them ourselves, but we can declare that freedom and break that curse over our future families and create legacies of belief in God.

I'm so grateful for that. Now let's return to the message as Pastor Robert goes into the blessings of purity. Here's point three, the blessings of purity in verse six, which is the third verse of the second commandment. But, but in other words, he just said, I'm going to visit the iniquities to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me.

But, but showing mercy to thousands. And the implication here is generation. And you say, well, how do you know that? Well, I'll back it up with another scripture to those who love me and keep my commandments. And let me show you those scripts because a lot of people say, well, that's just thousands of people, not thousands of generations. Problem is there are three other scriptures that state thousands of generations. Deuteronomy seven, Deuteronomy, by the way, is the second law. You got Exodus as the law. Deuteronomy is the second law. In other words, the law repeated. Deuteronomy seven, verse nine, therefore know that the Lord, your God, he is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love him and keep his commandments.

Isn't that cool? I mean, it's so many times again, we read the Old Testament and we see judgment law, all this stuff. And yet all of it is for relationship. It's all for good. God doesn't want you to walk in impurity because it affects your relationship with him. He wants to have a pure relationship with you.

And it not only will affect you, but it will affect your children and your grandchildren and your great grandchildren. Now we talked about the word visiting. Let me just tell you just a moment about the word showing, okay? This word showing is a Hebrew word and it's translated other ways.

Some of the ways it's translated are fashion, accomplish, prepare, appoint, ordain, institute, bring about, produce, press and squeeze. Okay, I want you to think about this. God is going to fashion mercy for you. He's going to accomplish it. He's going to prepare mercy for you. He's going to appoint mercy for you. He's going to ordain mercy for you. He's going to institute, bring about, produce, press and squeeze mercy and blessings all over you and all over your descendants for a thousand generations. If you'll simply love him and keep his commandments.

So please hear me. The Ten Commandments aren't bad. Paul says that even in New Testament. He says they're not bad. The commandments aren't bad. They're good. And what they're doing is they're not this list of thou shalt not, thou shalt not, thou shalt not because God doesn't want us playing in the street because the street's more fun.

They're lists of principles that if we understand this principle, it's going to bless us and it's going to bless everyone that lives after us. Everyone. Some of you know that we have three children, Josh, James and Elaine, two boys and a girl, and then their spouses and grandchildren. Elaine lived a double life for about two years when she was a teenager, a late teenager. And we knew that her attitude was wrong. And some of you who've had older children, you've gone through something like this, you can see it in their attitude, but we didn't know how wrong her actions were during that time until she confessed to us.

But for about two years we did what any parent would do, and that's pray and seek God and try to get through and try to talk and do what we could do. And the only reason I'm sharing this, by the way, is she shares this publicly. She's actually preaching at Pastor Tim Ross's church today. So she teaches and preaches and conferences and all now and love the Lord, serves the Lord, godly husband, Ethan. But she walked away from the Lord for about two years and she did it privately. She had a secret life. And so she repented, came back to the Lord and probably truly got saved at 19 years old. And she said to, after she repented, she came to Debbie and me and she said, I need to confess some things to you guys.

So we went outside to on the patio to talk. And in our house, we have a grandchildren candy jar. Just so you know, it's for grandchildren and fatball.

But anyway, excuse me. So I got those little tootsie rolls, you know, the little ones, you know, okay, so I got two of those tootsie rolls. We go outside, I don't know what all she's going to confess. Well, I start eating one of the tootsie rolls, she starts confessing and it's pretty bad. And my heart begins to break for my daughter. And so I didn't eat the second tootsie roll. So we talked, we loved her, we prayed for her, prayed over her, things like that. And we're reunited. And when I went in that night, I saw this tootsie roll in my pocket and I started to throw it away. And I felt like the Lord said, keep that.

And so I put it away somewhere and I kept it. Six months later now, she's met Ethan, who's her husband now, godly man. She's been serving the Lord, she's doing great. And we started talking during that time, we even went to a counselor together, because some of the reasons she rebelled was her response to me. And I felt her in some ways.

Church was large. And that's not, it's not your fault, it's my fault. The television, the books, the things like that, I didn't know how to handle some of that stuff. And again, that's not an excuse. She understands it's a reason, but it's not an excuse. But I wasn't there then for her during some formidable teenage years, as much as I should have been. So I began to ask her things like that of how did I fail you?

How can I ask your forgiveness and make that up to you during that six month time? One of the things she said, she said, Dad, this is so small, but it's just been in my heart, but it's a small thing. So I said, Well, what is it? Well, when she was three years old, we were driving to Dallas one day, and it was at night and Reunion Tower was lighted. You've seen Reunion Tower when it lights and the lights flash and all that. That's the first time she'd ever seen it. And so she's three. And so she said this, she said, Dad, look at that. I said, Yeah, in the previous, she said, Yeah, she said, Dad, please buy that for me. Well, obviously, I can't buy Reunion Tower for her. So I said, Well, sugar, I can't buy that.

I said, but it's a restaurant. And I said, I'll tell you what, when you get older, I'll take you on a date to Reunion Tower. And I forgot all about that. But she didn't forget about it.

And she said, Dad, it's just a small thing, but you never did that. And so we set up a date. And when I was getting ready to take her to Reunion Tower, the Lord spoke something to my heart.

And I put that tootsie roll in my pocket. And so we had our dinner. Two days later, I knew that Ethan was going to propose to her.

He'd already talked to us about it. And I said to her after dinner, I said, You want some dessert? She said, Yeah. And I pulled that tootsie roll out. And she said, that's our dessert. I said, Well, we can order something else in a moment.

But I said, Do you have any idea what this is? She said, No. And so I told her about the two tootsie rolls. And I said, The Lord told me that you and I are going to eat this tootsie roll tonight. Because we're closing the chapter on the time you walked away from God. And we're breaking those curses to our future generations.

Are you hearing me? When God said you shall not, it's not because He doesn't want you to have fun. It's because He wants you to walk in a pure relationship with Him. Wow, what a testimony. I love hearing stories like this. And I'm thankful for a pastor who is open and honest about things he and his family have struggled with. I love what he said earlier about how if we remain pure, God is going to squeeze blessings on us.

What a cool picture. Well, for everyone listening, we encourage you to take a moment to think about what Pastor Robert shared today and really listen to what the Holy Spirit is saying to you. If you would like to get a copy of this message or any of the upcoming messages in this relationship series, visit pastorrobert.com or call 833-933-WORD.

You can get the complete 10-part series for yourself or to share. So be sure to visit pastorrobert.com or call 833-933-WORD. You can also follow Pastor Robert on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. Well, we really hope that you enjoyed today's message. Next time, we're continuing this relationship series, and Pastor Robert will be sharing about how the third commandment is God's principle of humility. Have a blessed week!