A Different Perspective Official Podcast

Jesus once said – I am the light of the world. None of us much have a problem with that. Of course He is. But He also said something else – to His disciples. He said – You are the light of the world. Now, when you think about it, that's mildly problematic. That'd require some serious miracle, eh?
For many years, I walked in complete and utter darkness. It didn't feel dark. Back then, I'd have said everything was fine. I didn't need religion. I didn't need God. I was successful. I had plenty of money. A comfortable home – big too, nice suburb – a successful IT company that was growing.
No, I'd never have described it as darkness. Deep down though, I knew that something wasn't quite right. I rarely thought about that, I tried to ignore that nagging feeling – something's not quite right – I would never have admitted it to myself, let alone anybody else. But that was it.
I certainly wouldn't have described it as darkness. But the longer I ignored it, the darker it became. You may have heard me once before tell the story of how I almost took my own life. That's how dark it got. And all the time, on the surface, to other people – I looked as though I had it all together and I looked as though I was at least moderately successful.
I think the thing that made it even worse – is that I called that darkness light. And it wasn't until I was on the brink that I came to the realisation of how terribly dark that darkness really was.
Jesus nailed that reality when He said this – Matt 6:20:
The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light; but if your eye is unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness.
How does He know all this stuff, I wondered when I first read that. That isn't some piece of trite theology to me. It so perfectly described my predicament; that I marvelled at it. My problem was my unhealthy vision. I was looking at things, life – everything, the wrong way. I was looking at the world through the prism of self – selfish didn't begin to describe me.
And that's how many people are. We've been sold the line that it's all about me for so long, that we've actually swallowed this stuff hook line and sinker. It's why many families are dysfunctional. It's why marriages are falling apart. It's why so many people are so dissatisfied with their lot in life. Whether they realise it or not they're walking in darkness.
And then Jesus walks into your life – He is the light of the world, He said so Himself – and I don't know if you relate to this, when we see ourselves and our circumstances and our relationships and our jobs – when we see all of those things in His light, they look completely different.
We see things for what they are. We see our bad motives and intentions for what they are.
Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, 'I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.' – John 8:12.
And that's how I've felt ever since I gave my life over to Him. Now of course, there are many times when we want to hide in our darkness. When our sin is so bad, we just want to hide it. And there are times when we still delude ourselves – even though we think we're walking in the light:
Whoever says, 'I am in the light,' while hating a brother or sister, is still in the darkness. 1 John 2:9
But fundamentally Jesus shines a fresh, clear, warm, bright light into our lives and we see things the way they really are. I for one am sick of deluding myself. I'm sick of playing games. If I'm getting something wrong, I want to know, so I can set it right.
All our staff here at the ministry of Christianityworks know that I don't want them to just sit there and whisper if I'm making an idiot of myself. For goodness sakes, tell me so I can fix it. Right? And the more we open ourselves up in that way to the light, the more exposed we are to the light to Jesus – the more He transforms us and the freer we become.
Do you really want to walk in darkness? Or do you want to be filled with light? The light that makes your heart glow with love for someone who's doing it tough. The light that makes you want to honour God with all your being. The light that just transforms your life and brings you a freedom and a joy that you just can't begin to describe?
And when we're in the business of letting Jesus transform our lives that way, everything changes, because all of a sudden, that light that Jesus shines into our life, shines out through our lives into the lives of others.
That's why He said to all those people listening to Him:
You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hidden. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven. (Matt 5:14–16)
The goodness that people see in how we speak and what we do and how we react to difficult circumstances, starts to influence them. Of course, one of the things that often happens to start with is that people who are living in the darkness, will shy away from the light.
Have you ever had someone make fun of you because you stood up against the pack and did something that was good and decent and honourable and right, even when no one else was doing it? That's what that's about. People accustomed to darkness, selfishness, evil intentions, manipulation … all that stuff, will often shun the light.
You know how it feels when you're just waking up in the morning and someone opens the blinds and the bright sunlight streams in – we recoil, we put our hands over our eyes, because we're not used to the light.
But my friend, the more that the Light of the World transforms you – by the wondrous miracle of His Holy Spirit dwelling in you, the more you yield every part of your life to the Spirit of God. The more His light will shine through your life into the lives of the other people around you.
And so one of the greatest miracles of Jesus in our lives, one of the Great God Miracle Makeovers that you and I experience, is that all of a sudden, one day, we find ourselves being the light of the world in other people's lives. We may not feel as though we are; we may not even notice that we are; but we are. And then their lives start to change; because they're influenced by our goodness and at some point, they want what we have. They want … Jesus. My friend you are the light of the world.
So don't just sit there, get out there and be that light. Don't hide the light under a basket – but get it out there, so it will shine into the lives of others.
Whenever something I've said or done, touches someone deeply, I truly feel like a bystander. That's not some sense of false modesty. That's actually how I feel. It's a sense of privilege at having been there to shine the light of the world, into their lives.
In this series – God's Miracle Makeover for You – we've chatted about the amazing transformation that God is in the business of bringing into our lives – scrubbing the muck of, cleaning the windows, so that we become totally different people. Even though we still have the same body, and the same character and the same gifts and abilities.
As I think back to those of God's people who have been the light of my world, I know that none of them feel as though they've done anything special. And yet, each of them rejoice in the amazing part that God's given them to play in my life, as they were there to shine the light of Jesus into my darkness.
The greatest transformation of all, is the sort that makes us vessels in the hands of God, to bring newness of life and transformation into other people's lives around us. And my prayer for you today is that as you hear God's Word, you will truly become the light of the world, in your little part of the patch where you live. May you be blessed as you live out your amazing relationship with Jesus – and shine His light into a lost and hurting world.

Imagine for a moment, you're an apple tree. Yeah, I know, I know – just humour me. You're an apple tree. You grow tall and strong – you look very impressive.   But in all your years in the orchard, you've never yielded a single apple. How do you feel? How does the owner of the orchard feel?
The whole point of an apple tree is that it bears … Well, you know – apples, right? The whole point of a fig tree is that it bears figs. You don't need me to tell you that.
And the whole point of my life and your life, is that – with our rots planted deep in the good soil of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, with the Spirit of God flowing through us, is that our lives too should bear fruit. Good fruit.
But what if we don't bear fruit? Jesus once told this story to His disciples – Luke 13:6–9:
 'A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the gardener, 'See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the good soil? ' He replied, 'Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.'
So, the owner of the vineyard wanted to cut it down. But the worker, the worker said … let's give it one more chance. Let's aerate the soil, fertilise it, water it, and see what happens.
Now the first question I have is this – what was a fig tree doing in a vineyard? Have you ever wondered that? All the other plants in the vineyard were grapevines, right – that's why it's called a vineyard. And yet the owner of the vineyard figured, well – I've given this tree more space than all the rest of the plants. It's taking up valuable real estate and yet, it's not yielding any fruit. What a waste – get rid of it and stick another one there in its place – one that will give me some figs.
After all, that's what fig trees are supposed to do, just like the grapevines are meant to yield grapes, for winemaking.
Have you ever felt like a fig tree in a vineyard? The odd one out? You look different, you feel different to everybody else. Perhaps people consider you a bit odd or eccentric, and so all too often, the others seem to poke fun at you, they shun you because you're different. Have you ever been in that situation?
I have, many a time, and I can tell you that your natural reaction is to want to crawl down your rabbit hole and shrivel up and die. Your natural reaction is to want to give up bearing fruit, because quite obviously, any fruit that you can bear is worthless, compared to all these other people from whom you are different.
But that's not the owner's expectations. If you're a fig tree, he expects you to grow figs. If you're a grapevine … grapes. If you're an apple tree … apples. Plum tree … plums. Just because we're different to everybody else, doesn't mean that we shouldn't be bearing the unique fruit that God made us to bear. The evidence that a fig tree is healthy and functioning as it was always intended, is that each year, in due season, it bears a bountiful harvest of figs.
But who is the worker in this story, this parable? Who encourages the owner of the vineyard to give the fig tree another chance? Well, that's Jesus. He is – the Bible tells us – our intercessor – He pleads our case with the Father. Hebrews 7:25:
Consequently he is able for all time to save those who approach God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.
Jesus came and sacrificed for you, and for me, so He has a heart to perform miracles in our lives, miracles that transform us and get us back to where we should be, bearing fruit for Him. In other words when it comes to the wrath and the punishment of God – Jesus stands in our stead, in our place, He shields us from the coming judgement, because He's already died to pay for our sins.
He wants to see our lives transformed so that we end up bearing fruit. The fig tree, figs, the apple tree apples. The grapevine, grapes. The olive tree, olives. Our own, unique brand of fruit.
And not just any fruit, but good fruit. Jesus again – Matt 7:15–20:
Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorns, or figs from thistles? In the same way, every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will know them by their fruits.
The plan of Jesus for your life is that as you come to the end of it, both you and He will be able to look back together at the bountiful harvest of fruits that your life has born in due season, season after season after season. Because the fruit, the good fruit, is the evidence of a healthy relationship with Jesus.
That's why in that first parable, Jesus the gardener, said to God the Father, the owner of the vineyard – hang on a minute. Leave it alone for another year so I dig around it, and feed it. And in a very real sense, that's what we're doing right now. We're having our hardened ground, our hardened heart's turned over, the barriers broken down, so that the Word of God can penetrate and feed us.
Are you being fed right now? Do you hear the call of Jesus – the gardener who's on your side when it comes to your ultimate judgement and destruction because we've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Can you hear this Jesus speaking to you and saying – this tree is you? This gardener is me. And my plan is to feed you and water you so that you will bear much fruit. He wants to give you a helping hand.
So – how does He do that exactly? How? Well, we're told later by Paul in His letter to the Galatians as he speaks about the fruit of the Spirit – Galatians 5:16–26:
Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. For what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh; for these are opposed to one other, to prevent you from doing what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the law. Now the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you, as I warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, competing against one another, envying one another.
So the long and the short of it is, that instead of putting our roots down in bad soil – the things of this world, all that rubbish that Paul lists there that's so obviously bad, instead of that … put your roots down in Good soil and drink in the Holy Spirit. Drink in the Word of God to feed you. And when you do that you are going to produce the fruit of the Spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control – not because you worked hard at it.
Not because you had to struggle to deliver goodness, but because you have the very goodness of God flowing through your trunk, your limbs, your leaves … and yes, your fruit.
Do you expect a good tree planted in bad soil to produce good fruit? Or do you expect a bad tree, planted in good or bad soil, to produce fruit? Of course not.
My friend when you take the Word of God seriously, when you let it into your heart, the Holy Spirit takes it and performs a miraculous transformation on the inside, and then – let me tell you, you simply won't be able to help it. You'll be bearing good fruit not through your hard work, but because it comes naturally.
All the time, the Spirit and the Word of God working in you and through you. Is that a miracle, or what? Is that something you want, or not?

Have you ever blown it? I mean completely blown your relationship with God. It was all going along just fine and then you went out there and sinned like … like you wouldn't believe. And the whole God thing, the whole Jesus thing – seems to be completely blown out of the water.
I've certainly been there. At that point where God seemed a million miles away, not because He'd up and left, but because I'd blown it. That sick feeling in your stomach when you wake up in the morning and you remember how through your thoughts or your actions or your deeds, you've turned your back on God again. Again!  Why did I do that??!!
You remember Jesus hanging there on the Cross, and you feel so ashamed that you treated HIM, in this way. Perhaps you stole something. Perhaps you … you had a terrible argument with your wife or husband and told them it was all over in a fit of rage.
Perhaps it was sexual immorality. And you feel so dirty.
I had a message on Facebook recently from a woman in the UK, who lives on the street, who found herself in such a place.  This is what she wrote to me:
Hi Berni. Can I ask a real serious question? The Word says all sorts about NOT being sexually active if you're professing to be a CHRISTIAN, right? Well to put a long story short all my Government Support cheques have been stopped. And so in desperation two nights ago I went out on 'THE Game' to earn some money because I'm in so much debt. I've now got a real huge dose of the guilt's for degrading myself in this way. I feel repulsed at my own reflection and no matter how many times I shower I just CANNOT get to feel clean. All that and the fact that each time I think of what I am I physically get sick and vomit. Thing is each time since all I've been drawn to reading in Scripture are those that condemn me for my actions. I recall on one of your radio shows that you say there's no sin that's unforgivable but this MUST come close, right? Is there ANYTHING I can do to make things right with GOD or have I blown it totally, now?
This isn't a made-up story. This is a real life situation this woman suffered. I said to her:
What makes you think that the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is not sufficient for you .  He died so that every sin of yours and mine could be forgiven. Including this one. Then I shared with her John 8:1–11:
Then each of them went home, while Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him and he sat down and began to teach them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery; and making her stand before all of them, they said to him, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?" They said this to test him, so that they might have some charge to bring against him.
Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her." And once again he bent down and wrote on the ground. When they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the elders; and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus straightened up and said to her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" She said, "No one, sir." And Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again".
So I said to this women … be blessed as you are washed clean by the blood of the lamb.  Go and sin no more.
And what I wrote there to this woman applies equally to you and me. We are forgiven when we turn back to Jesus – so my suggestion? Keep short accounts with the Lord. Don't tarry about outside, come into the holy of holies, into His Presence and cast yourself completely on His mercy. That's the whole point of the cross. But … we need something more than forgiveness.
We need the power to turn way from repeating this sin, over and over again. One of the things that seems to happen, is we get stuck in one sin – it may be sexual immorality, it may be anger or fear or whatever our particular favourite brand of sin is – and we get stuck in it. So we go to God and ask Him to forgive us through Christ, and then we turn around and we end up going out and doing exactly the same thing again.
And so King David who, after committing adultery and murder and being held to account by one of God's prophets, casts Himself on the mercy of God, but He asks for something more than just forgiveness.  Have a listen, Psalm 51:1–12:
Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.  Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.  For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.  Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are justified in your sentence and blameless when you pass judgment.  Indeed, I was born guilty, a sinner when my mother conceived me.
You desire truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.  Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.  Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have crushed rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit
So He goes to God, and He admits His sin fully. He'd taken another man's wife and then, effectively had that man murdered, so he could keep her as his. Come on, it doesn't get much worse than that, eh? He admits his transgressions, and like that woman who wrote to me on Facebook, his sin is ever before him. The gap between who God is and who David is, now that He's done this massive thing, is so big. So David asks two things of God.
Firstly – Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity. In other words God please forgive me.  You and I have been there plenty of times, and – as I said – no matter how large the sin, no matter how bad or ugly or brutal the sin, we should never shy away from going to God and asking Him to forgive us through the sacrifice of Jesus on that Cross.
But secondly, David realises that He needs help cleaning up his act, cleaning himself on the inside, so that he doesn't end up going there again. So he asks this of God:
Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean, wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. Create in me a clean heart O God and put a new and right spirit within me.
In other words, David here is asking for an amazing miracle on the inside. He's asking God to change His heart, to clean up the mess. He's asking the Holy Spirit – the new and right Spirit that he talks about – to perform a powerful miracle and give him a new heart.
This is so important. I've heard people say – we can choose not to sin. Sure, in theory, that might be correct. But if it was true in practice, we wouldn't need Jesus, the Cross, the empty tomb, or the Holy Spirit. There are some sins that you and I fall into time and time again, because, try as we do to clean up our act in our own strength – we can't.
Well, let me tell you straight to your face, YOU CAN'T. You and I don't have the power to do that. Only God has that power through the Presence of His Spirit in us. And this creation of a new heart is a miracle. Really. It is, in my view, one of the most powerful miracles that God ever performs – and He performs this one miracle in the hearts of people around the globe who ask Him for it, over and over again.
This is a Miracle Makeover from the inside out, and let's face it, when we have a change of heart, by the power and the mercy of God, doing what our heart desires – honouring God – is the most natural thing in the world.
Why do so many of us try to clean up our act in our own strength? What's the matter with us that we don't get it?
Create in me a new heart oh God, and put a new and right spirit in me.
Now that's what I call … a miracle.

Purity - now there's a great concept. Everybody loves purity. From the junkie buying heroin on the street, to the savvy investor buying gold on the open market. Turns out, we all want … purity.
This week on the program, we're chatting about the Miracle Makeover that God has planned for you … and for me. Because God is a miracle-working God. He has the power and the desire to make an amazing difference in your life.
Mostly we go to God and pray – God, can you change this, can you deal with this obstacle, can you help me in this circumstance, can you please provide this money, make this happen …. We're always asking God to do something, to fix something, to provide something out there.
The problem, in our mind, is always out there with other people or with the situation or with the circumstances. Come on, let's be honest here. Rarely if ever do we take responsibility before God and ask Him to change us, to work on us, to help us overcome our blind spots and our failings and our wrong attitudes and our selfishness and ….
We know the score. At least half of our problems in life – at least half, probably more – are all to do with our attitudes, our mistakes, and our perspective. How often do we take responsibility for those before God?
That's why we're in the middle of this series of ten messages called God's Miracle Makeover for You. Because He is that miracle-working God who wants to help us become all He's made us to be. And that to me is such an awesome message.
Theologians will talk about repentance, and sanctification. Good oh. Me, I prefer to think of myself as someone who needs help – like a physio in rehabilitation – to restore the full function of all I've been given. And, try as I might, there are plenty of times when I can't help myself.
And often, it's because I don't even see the mistakes I'm making. Often I'm completely clueless that I'm blundering in somewhere, and it's not until I'm reading God's Word and the Holy Spirit touches me deep inside somewhere that I realise. This is the miracle of transformation in Christ – it's the radical change that God wants to bring into our lives.
And today we're chatting about purity, because it's one of those areas where we have a great propensity to be blind to our failings. Now, purity is a great concept and whether we realise it or not, it's something that we value extremely highly. Hmm. Well … sort of. It turns out that you and I can be very selective about purity.
Let's just have a think about when it is that we really value purity. I used the example earlier of the addict buying heroin. They're spending money; they want to make sure they get what they're paying for – as terrible as that purchase is.
Buying gold is the same thing. If I'm paying a huge amount of money for just a single ounce of gold, I want to make sure that it's 99.99% pure, otherwise I'm being ripped off.
Buying a drink at a bar – do you want the drink to be watered down, or do you want it to be … pure? When you're dealing with someone in business, do you want them to have hidden, ulterior motives, or … pure motives? When you're choosing your life–long soul mate do you want them to be promiscuous, or … pure?
In each one of those instances the answer is blindingly, glimpsingly obvious. We want purity. In fact, when we're on the receiving end of the transaction or the relationship, we always want purity in the other party. Makes sense.
But what about when we're on the giving end? How highly do we value purity then? You're in a business transaction, and you want to close the deal on your terms. Do you bend the truth a little bit? Do you exaggerate slightly the advantages, play down the disadvantages? Sure, why not? It's business.
When you're filling out your tax return. Do you drop in a few low value deductions for which you don't have receipts because you never incurred the expenditure in the first place? Do you conveniently forget to declare some income that the tax department, really, is unlikely ever to find? Sure – why not, reduce your tax payment as much as you can?
It seems that when we're on the receiving end, we demand purity, but when the shoe's on the other foot, well – then we're prone to let ourselves off the hook rather easily. In fact most people will compromise on purity, if they think they can get away with it. That's the reality.
To God, purity is really, really important. Because He's pure. Everything about Him is pure. His love for us is pure. His intentions are pure. His passion for us to become more and more like Him … is pure. And should we ever doubt that, we need only gaze upon the Cross of Christ and what He suffered so that we might live. Never, ever will we see love purer than the love that we have from God through Jesus His son.
Have a listen to what God has to say about purity to you and me today – 1 John 3:1–10:
See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God's children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.
Everyone who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he was revealed to take away our sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Everyone who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. Everyone who commits sin is a child of the devil; for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The Son of God was revealed for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. Those who have been born of God do not sin, because God's seed abides in them; they cannot sin, because they have been born of God. The children of God and the children of the devil are revealed in this way: all who do not do what is right are not from God, nor are those who do not love their brothers and sisters.
He starts off by telling us about His amazing love – just in case we should forget that His love means that we are His children. And just as children grow up and mature, you and I are on a journey toward maturity – and it's a journey from impurity to purity. Have another listen: And all who have this hope in him, purify themselves, just as he is pure.
And through John, God does on here and gives us a sobering slap in the face about sin. Just in case you were planning on compromising, just a little bit on your purity, He makes it really clear. You can't have a foot in both camps people. You can't be a child of the devil and a child of God. It's either one or the other. You're either on a path towards purity, or you're not. So which one is it?
And just when you and I are starting to feel totally down because we know, don't we, that there's sin in our lives, just when we're about to throw our hands up in despair as we read this passage that says: if you're sinning you're in effect living out your life as a child of the devil – holy moly that's strong, that's not mincing words, that's cutting right to the quick – just at that moment, He gives us the answer, the only answer that there is to our dilemma of impurity:
The Son of God was revealed for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.
My friend Jesus is the answer. The only way to travel from impurity to purity, from sin to righteousness, from being a child of the devil to a child of the living God … is Jesus. He has the power. The power of the cross to forgive you. The power of His Spirit in every man, woman and child who believes in Him, the power for a new life through the empty tomb, the power to destroy the works of the devil.
If purity is something that you want to value as highly as God values it in you – the answer, the only answer – is to walk the walk, with …. Jesus.

The big thing that the makeup and beauty companies sell is deep cleansing. Hmm.  We all know that beauty is more than skin deep. There are times when you and I need truly deep cleansing.  The sort that you can only get from one Source.
Don't you love those makeup advertisements: Anti–ageing. Wrinkle reducing. Look ten years younger in just ten days. Achieve deep cleansing of your skin.
They promise the world. And all you women out there – well, a good many of you – you want to fall for this stuff, because you do want to look younger and you do want to look your best. And it's not just the lotions and potions they flog on television, right?
Many women spend huge sums of money on facials, exfoliation, masks, mud-masks even – all in the pursuit of what? Looking younger.
These cleansers and moisturisers they sell for a king's ransom, most of them cost a few pennies to make, then there's the massive cost of advertising and marketing, and let's not forget huge profit margin on top.
Deep … cleansing. Right. I know I'm only a bloke, and I apologise for that, but on that basis, I know I really don't get the whole beauty thing. For over half a century, a cake of soap and some hot water has pretty much given my skin all the deep cleansing that I've ever needed.
But, even I know that there's something incredibly special about feeling clean. Back in my military days we would go out on training exercises where we fought simulated battles for 4, 5 even 6 weeks at a time. And in that month, month and a half, you were lucky to get a shower and a change of clothes once, maybe twice.
So by the time we'd come back to barracks at the end of the exercise you were seriously on the nose – I mean, absolutely filthy dirty. I remember we'd been rolling in the dirt, fighting a war, rubbing black and brown and green camouflage cream into our faces, necks and hands so we'd blend into the bush. We were filthy.
And to this day – what, 35 years on now – I remember that feeling of getting those reeking clothes off and getting into a hot shower and scrubbing all that muck, and camouflage cream off. Of course it didn't all come off in the first shower, it was still embedded in the pores of your skin and under your fingernails for a week or two afterwards.
But that feeling of being really clean for the first time in weeks was utterly sensational. Whenever I hear that term "deep cleansing" that's what comes to mind. That sensational feeling of being clean.
Okay – it's one thing to be clean on the outside. Sure. Great feeling. But what about the inside. A lot of us – most of us – don't feel clean on the inside. Why? Well – because there's a lot of accumulated muck and grunge caking our emotions, our thoughts, our soul … our very being.
Maybe you think I'm overstating that a bit. The old-fashioned word for it is sin – but a lot of people don't like that word too much these days. What about baggage. Emotional hang–ups. Hurts. Inadequacies. Doubts. Fears. Scars. Blind spots. Recognise any of those in your life??
And what about the consequences of the stupid things that you've done in your life, that you're still doing in your life – ignoring your family, being selfish or touchy or being over bearing or controlling …
It's a pretty long list. And the quickest, easiest way to sum it up, is to use that small, four-letter word (that's what it is these days) – SIN.
Now depending on where each one of us is on the scale of maturity, we may either deny that we have any of that stuff going on in our lives, or we may be nodding – perhaps reluctantly – but nodding and recognising that this SIN thing is eating away at us on the inside. This muck is caked on thick and dirty like that camouflage cream – black and brown and green – used to be caked onto my skin.
And scrub as we will, somehow we can't wash it off. It just won't come off. Shakespeare had it right in Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 1 when Lady Macbeth, sleepwalking, remembering the blood on her hands in conspiring to murder someone, looks down at her hands and exclaims:
Out damned spot, out I say! One, two, why then, 'tis time to do it. Hell us murky … Here's the smell of the blood still; all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh, oh, oh …
In her mind, in her heart, in her dreams, she couldn't get the blood off her hands; the guilt ate away at her … on the inside. And many, many people – whether they want to admit it or not – have that sense of guilt or perhaps shame or inadequacy eating away inside them.
It's not something we like to talk about. We hide it deep within, behind the façade of respectability and confidence. Behind the faces we put on. Behind the bravado and the apparent happiness, and the nice home and nice children and nice everything and yet … it eats away, it gnaws at our soul, as the guilt, the blood on our hands debilitates us just as it did Lady Macbeth.
We're on sensitive ground here aren't we? When we start to talk about it in this way, we come face to face with the deep reality … may I use the word now … our sin. You can't live an abundantly joyful life with that stuff going on, any more than I could have gone on to live a full, healthy life in my reeking clothes and with my cam cream still on and in my skin.
Imagine if, without a shower, I'd hopped in my car and driven down to the local shopping centre, sat down for a pizza at the pizza joint, wandered through the department store. It's not on. And nor is trying to live our lives with that muck caking our souls. So what's the answer?
Let me read you what the Apostle John wrote to some friends, in a letter – his first letter – around 60AD, so a good many years after he'd wandered the dusty roads of Israel with Jesus:
This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him while we are walking in darkness, we lie and do not do what is true; but if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. (1 John 1:5–10)
So, if we think that we can walk in the darkness, live with that darkness inside us, and live in the light, live in a deep, intimate, fulfilling fellowship with Him at the same time, John's saying here – come on, you're kidding yourself. If we say that we have no sin, we're deluding ourselves.
But if we fess up, if we're honest with ourselves, if we're honest with God, if we bring our filth and darkness, our hang–ups and our inadequacies, our failures and their consequences to Him, if we take them out of the deep darkness within and bring them out into the light and give them to Him, then something amazing happens.
Deep cleansing, the sort that only, only comes from Jesus. The blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. The one thing that Lady Macbeth couldn't do. The one thing that you and I cannot do. Wash away the sins. Wash away the guilt. The blood of Jesus, His sacrifice on that cross to pay for our guilt, to take our punishment on our behalf – He pays the full price, and the Spirit of God brings the peace of forgiveness and wholeness into our hearts. There's nothing on earth like that.
If we bring our sins into the light, if we confess then to God, then He who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and … listen to this bit very, very carefully … and cleanse us – deep cleansing – cleanse us from ALL unrighteousness.
That my friend is why Jesus came. And if you know in the depths of your heart that you need that cleansing, then it's time to pray this prayer with me.
Father God, today I have heard your Word. I realise in the depths of my heart that sin is tearing me apart. I realise that I've been hanging on to this muck inside me – as though somehow I can hide it from you. But I can't, not anymore. I confess it to you – you know what I'm talking about here. You see it all. You know it all But I just want to come to you know and fess up, and admit it to you. Openly and honestly.
And you know Lord that I am so much like Shakespeare's Lady Macbeth. Doesn't matter how hard I scrub, I can't get clean. But I believe that in Jesus – in Jesus alone – I can be cleansed. So I cast myself on your grace and your mercy through Jesus – and I ask you to forgive me and to cleanse me. In His mighty name I pray. Amen.