Charmed into Righteousness

“Charmed into Righteousness: The Purest Life”

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Reinhold Niebuhr: "On the whole, people do not achieve great moral heights out of a sense of duty. You may be able to compel them to maintain certain minimum standards by stressing duty, but the highest moral and spiritual achievements depend not upon a push but upon a pull. People must be charmed into righteousness.” (Leaves from the Notebook of a Tamed Cynic 75)

Ellen White: "You cannot but be charmed with the matchless attractions of the Son of God." (Christian Education 76)

• The Uninvited Dinner Guest
  • Luke 7:36-50
• The Unvarnished Gospel Truth
  • The Bible’s testimony:
    • 1 Peter 2:22—“He committed no , and no was found in His mouth.”
    • 1 John 3:5—“In Him there is no .”
    • Hebrews 7:26—He was “holy, blameless, , separated from sinners.”
  • Jesus’ own testimony:
    • John 8:46—“Which of you convicts Me of ?”
    • John 14:30—“The prince of this world is coming. He has no on me.”
  • Desire of Ages’  testimony:
    • “He was the embodiment of . . . . an example of integrity.” (243)
    • “[People] could not appreciate the of that spirit upon which was no stain of .” (196)
    • “As one with us, He must bear the burden of our guilt and woe. The Sinless One must feel the shame of sin. The peace lover must dwell with strife, the truth must abide with falsehood, purity with vileness. Every sin, every discord, every defiling lust that transgression had brought, was to His spirit.” (111)
    • “His spirit of stainless purity from the spectacle.” (461)
    • “Christ suffered keenly under abuse and insult. . . . And He suffered in proportion to the perfection of His holiness and His hatred of sin. . . . To be surrounded by human beings under the control of Satan was to Him.” (700)
  • 1 John 3:1-3
  • Steps to Christ’s Steps to Purity:
    • #1—If you long to be set free from impurity, “recognize this longing as the of God to your soul.” (28)
    • #2—“Ask [God] to give you repentance, to reveal to you in His infinite love, in His perfect purity.” (28)
    • #3—“Seek for the purity of heart that is in harmony with the of God and the of Christ.” (29)
    • #4—“Do not the work of forsaking your sins, and seeking purity of heart through Jesus.” (32)
      • Margaret Thatcher: “Sir, I have done battle every single day of my life.”
      • Peter Hubbard: “We are not fighting a physical war, but a spiritual one. Sinclair Ferguson explains, ‘What then is this killing of sin? It is the constant battle against sin which we fight daily—the refusal to allow the eye to wander, the mind to contemplate, the affections to run after anything which will draw us from Christ.” (Love into Light: The Gospel, the Homosexual, and the Church Loc 724)
    • #5—“He desires to restore you to Himself, to see His own purity and holiness in you.” (64)
    • #6—“The less we see to esteem in ourselves, the more we shall see to esteem in the infinite purity and loveliness of our Saviour.” (65)
    • #7—“. . . Christ in His purity and holiness, Christ in His matchless love—this is the for the soul’s contemplation. It is by loving Him, copying Him, depending wholly upon Him, that you are to be transformed into His likeness.” (70-71)
  • 1 John 1:7—“The blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin.”

Pure Michigan . . . Pure Jesus . . . Pure Me

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