Seeing the Need for Purification to Separate the Holy Seed from Anything Babylonian

In the church life today we need to be absolutely pure, single, and holy, without any mixture; we need people like Ezra and Nehemiah to carry out a purifying work, for in every step of the Lord’s recovery, there’s the need for purification.

This week in our crystallization study of 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther we come to another precious crystal, The Intrinsic Significance of the Purification of the Returned Captives.

As 1 Cor. 10:11 says, all these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our admonition, unto whom the ends of the ages have come.

There is a link between the twelve books of history in the Old Testament and God’s economy; as we read the history, we will see ourselves and how much we need to receive and experience for the building up of the church.

The main point we want to see this week is something that is set on a negative background – the intrinsic significance of the purification of the returned captives, especially as it relates to the function of Ezra and Nehemiah.

Among the returned captives there was a negative situation that had to be cleared up; there are at least two long chapters that describe the situation among the people of God.

The people have returned to the good land, they were on the ground of oneness, they paid the price to be there, and they built the altar of burnt offering.

They came out of Babylon, but Babylon was still in them; it had not been extracted from them. So there was a mixture; the holy seed was mixed with heathen and pagan things.

Ezra and Nehemiah were ministers in those days, and they helped the people of Israel not only to be reconstituted and to build the house and city of God but even more, to be purified.

The intrinsic significance of Ezra’s ministry is embodied in three words: purification, education, and reconstitution.

The intrinsic significance of Nehemiah’s leadership is embodied in three words: separation, protection, and expression.

May we come to the Lord as we come to His word and allow Him to shine on us.

And may we be those whom the Lord seeks, those who tremble at His word.

The Lord is looking for a house on the earth, and in particular, He wants to gain those who are of a contrite spirit and who tremble at His word.

Yes, we need to eat the Lord in His word and yes, we need to allow the Lord to shine on us through His word, but we also need to tremble at His word.

We need to have an attitude of receiving the Word of God in a serious, sober, and reverent way, humbling ourselves before the Word and having a kind of response that matches the Word of God.

Our attitude in receiving the word of God should be serious, sober, and even reverent; we need to humble ourselves and allow the Lord to speak to us.

We need to revere the word of God and respect it.

We lift our hands to welcome the word. And we also need to realize that, in ourselves, we are not faithful to God, but He is faithful, and He wants to make us faithful even as He is faithful.

Just as in a marriage the husband and the wife need to be faithful to one another, so we need to be faithful to the Lord.

The people of Israel, as a type of us, the church, were not faithful to God but went after idols, leaving the Lord as their husband.

Therefore, the Lord allowed the Babylonians to come and take them into captivity. The leading ones in the people of God took the lead to be unfaithful.

And this happened not only initially before the people were taken into captivity, but even after they returned; they were still unfaithful.

So Nehemiah was appalled and fasted and prayed, and both he and Ezra bore the burden of purifying the people of God.

May we allow the Lord to purify us and may we cooperate with His work of purification so that we may be His pure, holy, and single bride on the earth today.

There is the Need for Purification to Separate the Holy Seed from Anything Heathen

What the Lord wants to gain today is unique – it is something absolutely pure, single, and holy, without any mixture.

Therefore, we need Ezras and Nehemiahs to carry out a purifying work among us in the church life today.

In all the steps of the Lord’s recovery, there is the need for purification.

There was the need for purification at Ezra’s time, and then the time passed, and there was a need again for purification.

Ezra purified the recovery by causing “the holy seed” to be separated from anything heathen (Ezra 9:1-10:44).

Before he arrived, there was mixture because some of the Israelites had married heathen wives and had children born of this mixture.

This was a type, which we should apply spiritually, not literally.

In the Lord’s recovery, there is the need for purification to separate “the holy seed” from anything that is heathen (9:1-2).

The Lord’s recovery is the holy seed, and we must be so pure today, not being mingled with anything heathen.

We are not like the rest of the people around us; we have the holy seed in us, and we ourselves are the holy seed.

We must be so pure that the holy seed will never be mingled with anything heathen.

We were chosen to be holy and without blemish before Him (Eph. 1:4).

And the Lord will present the church to Himself glorious, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she would be holy and without blemish.

We were chosen to be holy and without blemish, and we are in the process of becoming holy and without blemish; therefore, there’s the need for purification.

When the recovery is holy, we will see the Lord’s blessing (Ezek. 34:26).

When we have holiness, when we have sanctification, we have purity, and the blessing is there.

Purity opens the door to God’s blessing. We often emphasize oneness according to Psalm 133 as the key to God’s blessing, the commanded blessing of life.

We need to realize also that, when we are pure and single for the Lord, there is the blessing.

The Lord sends showers of blessing when we are purified.

After the building up of the house of God, we need purification (as seen under Ezra’s leadership), and after the building up of the city, we need to be purified again (as seen with Nehemiah’s absoluteness) – see Ezra 9:1-2; 10:1-44; Neh. 13:1-30a.

If we read the book of Nehemiah we see these two names, Sanballat and Tobias the Ammonite; these were enemies and opposers of the people of Israel, who did their best to hinder the building work.

However, Eliashib the priest, who had been appointed over the chambers of the house of God, prepared for Tobias a large chamber in the house of God, for he was related to him.

They actually cleared out the things that were used for the offerings and for the Lord’s serving ones to make some space for Tobias. Oh, Lord!

Today we need anything of Tobias exposed in us, for we may not realize that we have prepared space within us for an opposing one, and mixture is within us.

We need anything of the mixture exposed in us, and we need to be purified so that we deal with anything heathen.

In the local churches, we must be thoroughly purified of all mixture; anything common and anything contradictory to the heavenly nature of the Lord’s recovery must be purged out (2 Tim. 2:19-22).

In a great house, there are not only gold or silver vessels but also wooden and earthen, and some are unto honour while others are unto dishonour.

If we cleanse ourselves from these, we will be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, useful to the master, prepared unto every good work.

We need to cleanse ourselves; this is the same word as “purge” in 1 Cor. 5:7, where Paul tells us to purge out the old leaven.

It is not the Lord who does the purging here but us, the believers in Christ; it is not the Lord who does the cleansing but ourselves, the believers.

We need to spend more time with the Lord, allow Him to shine on us and show us the need for purification, and we need to cooperate with His shining so that we may cleanse ourselves and be purified.

As He searches us and shines on us, we cooperate by purging out any mixture, impurity, uncleanness, and pagan thing, so that we may be the holy seed, pure and without any mixture.

Lord Jesus, we want to be Your unique, absolutely pure and holy people, without any mixture. Show us our need for purification. Shine on us, dear Lord, and expose anything in our being that is a ground for the enemy. Expose any mixture, impurity, and uncleanness. Do a purifying work in us. May the holy seed be separated from anything heathen. Show us our need for purification and cause us to be open to Your shining, searching, and exposing of anything that doesn’t match You in Your holy nature. May the holy seed not be mingled with anything heathen. May we be holy and pure, unmixed and cleansed, so that we may have the Lord’s blessing. Oh Lord, how much we need Your purifying work again and again so that we may be Your pure, holy, and unmixed people! May anything common and anything contradictory to the heavenly nature of God be purged out in us and among us in the church life!

Being One with God to Judge and Purge anything of Babylon, anything of Mixture and Hypocrisy in the Church Life and in us

What do we mean when we speak of “Babylon” and our need to be cleansed of any “Babylonian” element?

In 2 Chron. 36 we see that Nebuchadnezzar took the people of Israel into captivity and he also took the golden vessels and utensils in the temple and brought them into his temple in Babylon.

The holy vessels of God’s temple were now in Babylon. This shows a mixture of the things of God with the things of idols (2 Chron. 36:6-7; Ezra 1:11).

Furthermore, Rev. 17:3-5 speaks about the harlot, the woman gilded with gold and precious stones and pearls, with all kinds of evils and fornications underneath.

This woman is a type of Babylon, and she is gilded with the precious materials that we see in the New Jerusalem, the bride; but they are mixed with many evil things.

The principle of Babylon is the principle of mixing the things of man with the word of God and the things of the flesh with the things of the Spirit.

Anything that is part of Babylon is abominable in the sight of God, and anything Babylonian gives Satan the ground to defeat the people of God (Josh. 7:1-21).

In Joshua 7 we see that, after going into the good land and having a wonderful victory at Jericho, one person, Achan, saw a Babylonian garment and hid it.

This is something we all may have done; we all may have a “hidden Babylonian garment” that we like and we keep it to wear.

This means that we want to present ourselves in a certain way to be like the Babylonians, to improve our appearance.

Achan was the first who sinned when the people entered into the good land.

And the first sin in the New Testament after the church was produced was in Acts 5, Ananias and Saphira.

There was an atmosphere of absoluteness over the material possessions in the church, and everyone had all things in common.

But this couple did not have that grace; however, they wanted to do something that appears as if they did have that grace – this was their sin.

Their sin was hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is a great damage and a great temptation to God’s children.

Hypocrisy means that there’s no reality within but there’s the appearance as if there is reality in order to draw the glory of man.

We need to examine ourselves if we wear or hide a particular Babylonian garment.

We need to allow the Lord to shine on us and expose anything of mixture and of hypocrisy in us.

We may think we don’t have such a “Babylonian garment”; however, when we meet others, instead of being genuine concerning our condition, we may put on a “church face” and bear a pleasant appearance, without any reality underneath. Oh, Lord Jesus.

We may be in the flesh and, without turning to our spirit, we may just put on a mask, a “Babylonian garment” just to seem to be ok and spiritual.

We need to allow the Lord to shine on us and expose anything of Babylon in our being. We must be saved from pretending.

God hates the principle of Babylon more than anything else, and only when we judge everything Babylonian in us can we confess that we too hate the principle of Babylon.

Especially when we serve the young ones or the children, we need to be careful not to lead them into pretending to be something they are not so that others may praise them.

And when we preach the gospel and seek an increase, again, we need to beware of any mixture or hypocrisy.

These areas of the gospel outreach and the next generation are the places there is the biggest temptation to bring in a mixture among Christians in Christian work.

We need to study the problems of the young people and learn to meet their needs, but at the same time, we need to be careful not to lead them into pretending or being hypocrites.

In our preaching of the gospel we need to trust in prayer, the spirit, and the word; we need to have much fellowship and never use entertainment, sports, and worldly ways to gain others.

Lord Jesus, we open to Your shining. Expose anything of Babylon in our being. Expose anything in us that is a mixture of the things of God with the things of idols. Save us, Lord, from mixing the things of man with the word of God! Save us from mixing the things of the flesh with the things of the Spirit! Keep us pure and single for You. Keep us in Your pure, unadulterated, holy word. Save us from pretending to be something we are not. Save us from being hypocrites to put on a mask or a garment for others to praise them, yet having no reality underneath. Amen, Lord Jesus, grant us to have Your shining on anything of mixture and hypocrisy in us so that we may hate it as You hate it! May we see our need for purification and cooperate with You to be purified of anything of mixture and hypocrisy!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by Ricky Acosta in the message for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1969, vol. 2, “The Recovery of God’s House and God’s City,” chs. 3, 7-8, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-study of 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther (2022 winter training), week 6, entitled, The Intrinsic Significance of the Purification of the Returned Captives.
• Further reading on this topic:
  – Purification and the protection of the city, a portion from, The Recovery of God’s House and God’s City, Chapter 7, by Witness Lee.
  – The Intrinsic Significance of the Purification of the Returned Captives – via Church in New York City.
  – The separating wall and the subtle wiles of the adversaries, a portion from, The Recovery of God’s House and God’s City, Chapter 8, by Witness Lee.
  – The All inclusive Christ as The Life Element – Witness Lee, a video via, Senir & Hermon on Facebook.
  – What is holiness in the Bible? Have you ever asked, “What is holiness in the Bible?” Read more via, Holding to Truth.
  – Many Who Will Be Purified, Cleansed, and Refined Participating in the Kingdom, a portion via, Living to Him.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – I hardly know myself; / Deceived so much by pride, / I often think I’m right / And am self-satisfied. / I know Thee even less; / In doctrine, shallowly; / True revelation lack / Of Thy reality. / Oh, may Thy living light, Lord, / Scatter all my night, Lord, / And everything make bright, Lord, / For this I pray to Thee. (Hymns #426 stanzas 2 and 3 with chorus)
  – Will you be an overcomer, / Simple, real, and pure? / Overcome all evil mixture, / Ruling pow’r secure. / Will you be an overcomer? / Will you make this choice? / Christ is calling, Christ is calling, / Listen to His voice! (Hymns #894 stanza 5 and chorus)
  – To Jerusalem we’ve come, / We are through with Babylon, / We have gathered to be one, / O glory be to God! / Of the teachings we’re bereft, / All opinions we have left, / Spirit from the soul is cleft, / In the local churches now. / Hallelujah! Hallelujah! / We are all in one accord / For the building of the Lord. / Hallelujah! Hallelujah! / We are living in the local churches now! (Hymns #1251 stanza 1 and chorus)