[Music] imagine you're at a wedding ceremony has begun the guests are seated in the church dressed in their finest attire the groom is standing ready at the front and he's wearing a formal black tux and then the doors at the back swing open and the processional begins to play and then after a few awkward minutes the bride rushes in she's holding a garden trowel she's covered in dirt and mud what would you think it would shock you wouldn't it because a bride doesn't spoil her dress that way well the fifth element of true womanhood is
virtue the Titus curriculum calls on women to be pure to be just as concerned about our spiritual appearance as a bride is about the cleanliness of her gown [Music] well Mary as we come to the halfway point of this study the fifth element out of ten that we're looking at in this series we come to another word that is again kind of antiquated you don't hear it very often today it's the word virtue and it builds on these others that we've been looking at discernment and honor or reverence mmm affection discipline or self-control now this
word virtue and before we unpack what that is and about a true woman who is pure is the word in Titus chapter 2 I just want to remind us that everything that a woman is called to be here a follower of Christ is countercultural to the way the world is going and it was so countercultural also to the world at that time exactly because in Crete at that time there was so much immorality and in against that backdrop Titus Paul in the book of Titus calls us to a lifestyle as believers that is polar opposite
it is polar opposite and in our culture as you said virtue that's almost a dirty word that's almost a word that's Oh who would want to be virtuous or virtue is bad or I I I saw I believe it was last Christmas where there was a t-shirt that a little bit of naughty is nice that naughty is actually the new nice and that unless you are naughty or unless there's a little bit of impurity or there's a little bit of sexual kind of looseness about you then there's something wrong with you yeah terribly wrong with
you so in the context of this culture back then and now the things that way Paul says to a in a world that celebrates promiscuity and lack of restraint when it comes to sexuality Paul says we ourselves came out of that background we were once foolish disobedient led astray slaves to various passions and pleasures but when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared he saved us he washed us yes and that's that whole picture of purity washing its impurity we know what pure and impure mean we talked about it all the time
there's a soap commercials that you know the soap is oh so pure and even in our eating we talk about clean eating where we're eating healthy good food and not food that contains contaminants or right or carcinogens or food that's bad for us so we haven't substantial that's popular so popular when you talk about the heart no no not so popular when it comes to that but that whole picture that Paul uses of cleansing that that Christ washes us washes us sparkling clean and gets rid of all the dirt gets rid of all the impurity
and actually presents us as his spotless bride it's it's an amazing because we have been made pure in Christ positionally pure in Him washed by him paul says then you should have practical purity your lives should look different you should be different you should care about not living in a way that it's impure but living in a way that is consistent with a holy god who has saved us to be his Saints I love that word that you use positionally pure because I think that's an important point even as we're talking about purity today and
and we we need to go back to remember that we are 100% clean and pure because of the blood of Jesus Christ been declared we have laird righteous and it's through nothing that we have done it's not not based on my behavior it's based on the finished work of Christ on the cross so I need to to understand that even if I have issues in my life and even if I'm wrestling with impurity and impure thoughts that I have been made clean and and my whole Christian life is going to be a process of living
up to that position that I have in Jesus Christ and that that matters it does you can't just say okay I've gotten saved but I can continue living the way I have been the way the world does that's unthinkable in the New Testament context in fact you see some of these very stirring verses in the book of Titus about how the unbelieving world is characterized by impure lives but followers of Christ are supposed to be pure why Titus 2:14 Christ gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a
people for his own possession who were zealous for good works he saved us to be like him to be his pure possession to be free from the slavery of lawlessness and he says we're to be above reproach and were to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and we are to live self-controlled we talked about that in the last session upright and godly lives so in this raunch culture girls gone wild on wild and it is a brunch culture in fact I think that particularly for women there's been such a shift in the last few decades where
women the virtue was was cherished and virtue was prized even if it wasn't practiced even it was attractive it was still considered important fifty years ago and now we have this entire shift that has happened in terms of the messages that our young women are getting that virtue is something that is something you're embarrassed you're embarrassed if you're a virgin or embarrassed if if if you haven't had this long string of sexual encounters that that that virtue really has become the dirty word when it comes to our sexual conduct so one way that Christians Christian
women make a difference in our world and make the gospel believable is by standing out by being different not in a self-righteous way because it's not our righteousness at all but in the way of his righteousness and and yet I think it's important we talk about the goal in all of this it's not to make us look good why be holy in an unholy world it's because we want to glorify Christ wanna glorify Christ and Christ gives us the power to be like him and that he wants us to demonstrate to the world that his
power in us has that power to transform and to change and to bring about the character of Jesus I think as we're talking about purity we have to think that purity is bigger than sexual purity it certainly will get there talking about sexual purity because that's a big part of it and I think there are overtones of sexual purity in this path but but pure purity impacts every area of our lives that same list that we could go through with self-control we could go through with purity it impacts our thoughts it impacts the way our
actions the way we deal with people the way we speak it impacts all aspects of our life and we reflect the story about our being the Bride of Christ we want to be a pure bride for Christ Paul talks about that quite a bit in the New Testament Ephesians chapter 5 is some real familiar passage but it says Christ loved the church he gave himself up for her why so that he might sanctify her having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word that he might present the church to himself in splendor without
spot or wrinkle or any such thing that she might be holy and without blemish so there's a connection between our purity and our being the Bride of Christ we want to be a pure bride for him we shine the light on that part of the Gospel story on the on how the church feels and behaves towards her Savior Christ Jesus her her promised groom and that purity that practical purity it's our positional purity being lived out in everyday life we often think of it as relating to sexual purity and we want to talk about that
but it's it's much more than that isn't it is broader than that it purity touches on so many aspects of our lives pure in speech pure in thought pure in action pure in attitude purity is just an absence of contamination purity essentially is meeting up to that standard in every area of our lives and in our thought life's so important in our thought life as a man thinks in his heart so is he yeah and I think a lot of women are getting tripped up nowadays we're thinking it's not a big deal or being curious
about it even curious about things that they hear or see or books that they hear about and get attracted to that and begin to explore it and get impure thoughts in their minds and then that Fester's there and comes up at the most inopportune times and a huge area for that is in romance not it is so many women reading things that are really lurid that are not just suggestive but explicitly sexually immoral and thinking I just enjoy the good storyline it's and maybe as an excuse defying it saying that this is really going to
help me in my marriage and yet having those impure images images that are really not God honoring in their minds and also in internet sites I think that pornography for women now is a massive problem used to think of it as moral men's issue yes used to think of it as a men's issue but more and more in ministry I see women coming up and confessing that they are they're entrenched and enmeshed really slaves to pornography now I want us to focus for the time we have remaining here on this whole issue of sexual purity
more sexual impurity the new normal is sexual impurity in it of course has always been there but wasn't so widely accepted and endorsed and promoted and so blatant and so in-your-face as it is today but within our lifetime there's been real escalation of the acceptance of immorality and now the promoting and flaunting and in your face you were saying to me the other day how many times you've had to just turn off a TV program recently because all of a sudden they're in your face is something that five years ago you would have never seen
seen on television and the new normal is and we hear this even within the church is couples living together not married and it's like you come from another planet well they have an issue with that exactly and they're even justifying it and saying I've had girls come up to me and saying well I don't have an issue with purity I don't cheat on my boyfriend and in speaking with the young girl that I have in mind she said well she's being monogamous she had the one boyfriend now she has another boyfriend but she doesn't cheat
on him although they have been sleeping together and in some cases living together so that's the new normal in the church and a lot of women in the church a lot of couples in the church just see this as well what's the issue what's the with it we're our standards are even higher than the worlds because we're just you know we're being can i sleeping around exactly we're being committed to one another so so what's the issue with that or or christian couples that are engaged to be married and just see living together as another
stage on their way to marriage that's just so common so let's talk about that because i think it's not really understood why this matters this is just like a leftover morality of another era but we see god's principles on this matter as being timeless we believe they are timeless so how does sexual chastity and marital sex because sex is beautiful in the context of marriage how do those things both express the truth of the gospel why does it matter that is the key because it expresses the truth of the gospel the marriage between Christ and
the church is reflected the picture of it the image of it is the relationship between a husband and a wife and the covenant relationship and I believe God actually created marriage for the purpose of telling that story exactly he created marriage for that purpose and so we either are faithful in telling that story or we don't tell that story properly and in that story if there was no covenant there would be no Union there would be no coming together of Christ in the church and so that's the story we tell in marriage and that's the
story we tell in our sexual relationships if a woman has sex outside of that covenant of marriage then she's is really telling a lie about the gospel she's not telling the story accurately she is not glorifying God which leads to the question I think so many today would hear that but they don't really care mm-hmm and we were talking about this the other day and you said it was just like an aha moment you said I said well that's why reverence was the very first item in this whole list is is that it does matter
and God does matter and what God says does matter and it matters more than what I think or what I feel and then we see that sex outside of marriage is not just a bio Laysan of god's standard it is that but really it's an assault on the picture of redemption on the great salvation story and I think we need to say that if over a period of time we have somebody who calls himself a believer but does not care about purity whether it's sexually or in other areas does not have reverence for God and
someone who has no reverence for God has no basis for assurance of salvation mm-hmm a person who is a child of God has been changed they're a new creation they have new desires new appetites new bents new inclinations and they nor we have arrived at where were ultimately want to be and will be enacted because Christ breaks the power of sin yes and gives us the ability to live a life already and the desire the desire from that purity yeah I and I've seen this in my own life I have seen that my desire for
purity has grown and my desire even or my my aversion for impurity has even grown I once told my daughter-in-law the Holy Spirit has just absolutely wrecked movies for me things that I used to be able to watch and enjoy when I was 20 years old now are have an aversion to them when I see when I see a story about a man and a woman or infidelity adultery or when when I see it being celebrated or that's such a beautiful love story that just makes my stomach turn now because part of that is that
over the years we both live long enough you see those kinds of things wreck lives and be such heartbreaking situations and you go that's not funny that is that's not beautiful no time and time again is as Satan upholds it in the world upholds it as just this beautiful beautiful thing that is so fulfilling and and so joyful and it's all about us and that's just a lie so we see it in Scripture here that that that purity is is desirable purity is beautiful purity is really what will bring us joy and that's a message
that is so yes so countercultural okay I think that's part of why the Apostle Paul then in Ephesians 5 says among you that is among you believers there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality or of any kind of impurity because these are improper for God's holy people nor should there be obscenity foolish talk or coarse joking which are out of place for of this you can be sure no immoral impure or greedy person has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God not even get even a hints not even a
hit does that mean what does that look like in our world well I know what it doesn't look like I've seen it when when we have we we've gotten together I've gotten together with some Christian girlfriends or in a group a mixed group and there's there's some off-color jokes or some suggestive language and I'm thinking that's a hint that's that's a hint or somebody tells something and it's just a bit off and yet everyone's laughing about it that's a hint of sexual immorality and impurity that's that's laughing at and enjoying and being amused by something
that God is not amused by as we're talking about this and you've talked about growing in sensitivity to what's pure I fear for many today because there hasn't been care and intentionality in this area that there's less sensitivity and yet as women are doing this study with us I think God is doing in many their hearts what he's been doing in ours and that is giving a greater desire for greater purity to please the Lord to reverence him to honor him to be lights in a dark world and not we're not talking about being prudish
we're not talking about being killjoy killjoys or looking like you know to having dressed like they did a hundred years ago or we're talking about a wholesome robust vital vibrant sort of holiness that we that starts in the heart and reflects the holiness of Christ and yet I know that as we're having this conversation there women listening to us who their hearts are just awash with regret so many I've blown it I'm blowing it right now I'm in a relationship that I know is not holy I'm involved in activities that I know are not holy
is there hope for me women who are so ashamed of their paths or their present or their present just seemed to be in meshed in it can't get away from it I think we want to leave the message that there is hope through repentance God can't bless the sin of my past but he can and he will bless a broken and a contrite and a repentant heart and God he can't restore virginity when it's been given away but he can restore purity and that is such a great message of hope and I want to ask
as we close today Mary if you would pray for our sisters who are joining us in this study and just ask God to give a heart and a hunger a longing for purity and that he will restore purity in many many hearts let's pray Heavenly Father thank you so much for your word how it challenges us how it quickens our spirit how it convicts us how it gives us direction in terms of how you want us to live and the the way you want us to behave decisions you want us to make father I pray
for those women who have been listening who are saying I have just blown it and I get a big F in terms of a mark in this area of my life I have just really messed up I'm struggling with pornography I'm struggling with sexual temptation I have given in to sexual temptation or maybe women who are currently living with boyfriends and have never really understood why it is not something that is condoned by the Lord so father I just pray that your grace may wash over yes that we may understand that that that the death
of the Savior on the cross is cross is big enough to cover every sense and that when we come to you with open hands and in humility you forgive us you cleanse us you wash us and you restore us and make us pure may we have a greater heart for purity all of us that we may love it and see it as beautiful as you do yes in the mighty name of Jesus [Music] you [Music] you
