Called To Be Clean Series

Called to Be Clean

Invitation of God for us to be Clean

Invitation should be extended to all

Invitations Contents

In 1818, Ignaz Phillip Semmelweis was born into a world of dying women. The finest hospitals lost one out of six young mothers to the scourge of "childbed fever." A doctor’s daily routine began in the dissecting room where he performed autopsies. From there he made his way to the hospital to examine expectant mothers without ever pausing to wash his hands. Dr. Semmelweis was the first man in history to associate such examinations with the resultant infection and death. His own practice was to wash with a chlorine solution, and after eleven years and the delivery of 8,537 babies, he lost only 184 mothers--about one in fifty.

He spent the vigor of his life lecturing and debating with his colleagues. Once he argued, "Puerperal fever is caused by decomposed material, conveyed to a wound. . .I have shown how it can be prevented. I have proved all that I have said. But while we talk ,talk, talk, gentlemen, women are dying. I am not asking anything world shaking. I am asking you only to wash...For God’s sake, wash your hands." But virtually no one believed him. Doctors and midwives had been delivering babies for thousands of years without washing, and no outspoken Hungarian was going to change them now!

Semmelweis died insane at the age of 47, his wash basins discarded, his colleagues laughing in his face, and the death rattle of a thousand women ringing in his ears. "Wash me!" was the anguished prayer of King David. "Wash!" was the message of John the Baptist. "Unless I wash you, you have no part with me," said the towel-draped Jesus to Peter. Without our being washed clean, we all die from the contamination of sin. For God’s sake, wash. Boyce Mouton.

Lets look into Isaiah’s call to people to be clean and Jesus’ call also.

Invitation of God for us to be Clean

Isaiah 1:16-18 (NIV)

...wash and make yourselves clean.

Take your evil deeds out of my sight!

Stop doing wrong,

[17] learn to do right! Seek justice,

encourage the oppressed.

Defend the cause of the fatherless,

plead the case of the widow.

[18] "Come now, let us reason together,"

says the Lord.

"Though your sins are like scarlet,

they shall be as white as snow;

though they are red as crimson,

they shall be like wool.

The nation of Judah was in deep trouble, they had chosen to walk a path apart from God and God was tired of their sinfulness and would be allowing punishment and pain to come within their lives shortly.

The beginning of the Book of Isaiah tells of the abuses of the nation with specific acts noted by God’s prophet?

For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God…

Even still God offered them cleansing.

God hungers for the salvation of man…what of you.

Let’s look at the condition of the nation...

Isaiah 1:2-6 (NIV)

Hear, O heavens! Listen, O earth! For the Lord has spoken:

"I reared children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against me.

[3] The ox knows his master, the donkey his owner’s manger,

but Israel does not know, my people do not understand."

[4] Ah, sinful nation, a people loaded with guilt,

a brood of evildoers, children given to corruption!

They have forsaken the Lord; they have spurned the Holy One of Israel and turned their backs on him.

[5] Why should you be beaten anymore?

Why do you persist in rebellion?

Your whole head is injured, your whole heart afflicted.

[6] From the sole of your foot to the top of your head there is no soundness--

only wounds and welts and open sores,

not cleansed or bandaged or soothed with oil.

Still God invited them to get right and be His people. Does this remind you of anyone?

Invitation should be extended to all

It should remind you of our sad estate apart from Christ, yet God desires that all would come to salvation and be cleansed.

For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost." Luke 19:10

Since none of us truly deserve salvation, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, it amazes me that God calls us and that Christ came to save us and then extends an invitation that we be part of his “good and perfect” will.

…let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Hebrews 10:22 (NIV)

We carry Jesus’ promise to all so that they too may be white as snow.