Bunbury
Sun am
11/04/10
“Clean in a dirty life”
Intro: Have you ever felt as though you’re not clean?
I’m not speaking about old fashioned honest / grime on your hands but feeling spiritually unclean.
One of our great need is to be clean ..... since man’s brush w/ the defilement of sin in the garden the overriding quest in man has been to feel clean.
*** Some of you will probably remember the character named Rosa in the Cross & the Switchblade. She’s a heroin addict who gets delivered from her habit. After the ordeal of her deliverance from the drug we see her now free from the bondage of heroin & dressed in clean clothes. She makes the statement “I feel so clean!”
Cleanness is the great inner need of men.
It was this same need that David felt after his sin was discovered & made public & he cried out to God for this cleanness w/i saying .....
Psalms 51:10-11 (NKJV) Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me away from Your presence, And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.
*** I was talking to a young man the other night who is currently backslidden. He knows the truth but has decided against it for the time being. In the course of conversation I wanted to get past the peripherals to the heart of the matter. As I eyeballed this young man I said to him “One thing I know & that is that even though you may be enjoying your sin you aren’t enjoying the feeling of not being clean.” Although he said he didn’t feel too bad I pressed in & reaffirmed that I know that the one thing every backslider struggles w/ is the feeling of being unclean.
You can’t play w/ sin & not b/co stained w/ it!
We were created to be clean & one of the great struggles of life is trying to stay clean.
Fortunately when we come to Jesus He makes us clean / pure / right w/ Him & when we b/co soiled by sin we can run back to Him & receive a fresh cleansing.
** I read an interesting quote that said “Be ye fishers of men, ...... you catch them, He’ll clean them!”
Thank God for the promise / hope of being able to be clean in a life filled w/ all kinds of dirt.
T/m I want to preach a message I’ve called ‘Clean in a dirty life’.
Text: Mark 1:40-44 (NKJV) Now a leper came to Him, imploring Him, kneeling down to Him and saying to Him, “If You are willing, You can make me clean.” Then Jesus, moved with compassion, stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, “I am willing; be cleansed.” As soon as He had spoken, immediately the leprosy left him, and he was cleansed. And He strictly warned him and sent him away at once, and said to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone; but go your way, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing those things which Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”
# 1. The weariness of uncleanness.
A. When we are unclean we are forced to carry a load through life.
a. Uncleanness in itself is burdensome & a heavy weight to bear.
i. We first learn this from man’s fall in the garden of Eden, man now defiled can no longer bear coming into the presence of God.
Genesis 3:9-10 (NKJV) Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?” So he said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.”
ii. The primary reference here is being made to a feeling that the man & his wife felt an uncleanness they had never known b/4.
iii. We were never created to be unclean & when we are we don’t cope w/ it well.
b. In our text this man knows what it is the have to carry the weariness / burden of being unclean through life.
i. The law required that every leper broadcast to everyone around him he was unclean.
*** Ben W****d standing up in service & shouting – UNCLEAN! UNCLEAN! UNCLEAN!
Leviticus 13:45-46 (NKJV) “Now the leper on whom the sore is, his clothes shall be torn and his head bare; and he shall cover his mustache, and cry, ‘Unclean! Unclean!’ He shall be unclean. All the days he has the sore he shall be unclean. He is unclean, and he shall dwell alone; his dwelling shall be outside the camp.
ii. When we’re spiritually unclean we don’t have to broadcast it, there’s something w/i us that does it anyway!
*** Women are particularly sensitive here. They often remark about someone being unclean & what they are picking up is the spiritual condition of that person.
B. We’re passing through a life filled w/ all kinds of filth.
a. We need to u/s what uncleanness comes from & what perpetuates it in our lives.
i. The O/T law gave strict instructions about what people came into contact w/ & what they touched.
ii. God gave specific instructions to his people there were certain things he didn’t want them touching.
iii. Of course many of these things made God’s people ceremonially unclean ...... this meant that they couldn’t be in right r/s w/ God.
b. In the O/T leprosy was symbolic of sin.
i. No one really knew where it came from & what caused it ..... somehow people just seemed to pick it up as they were going through life.
ii. And this is what happens to the believer as you are living life .... we find our/s being soiled w/ all kinds of uncleanness.
iii. Much of this is connected to the environment we’re passing through.
*** My wife & I went to visit a family in a squatter’s settlement in Suva, Fiji Islands one night. This couple were poor, had three disabled girls & they lived in squalor. As we were making our way through the settlement in early evening we followed a track so far & then asked someone where these people lived. To get to their house we had to cut through a crop of dalo plants & walk over muddy ground where raw sewage was being drained onto the ground. We finally found their tin shack which had no electricity, went inside & ministered to the man, his wife & retarded daughters. Inside the house one of the girls wet herself while my wife was nursing her on her lap which meant that her dress was wet w/ the little girl’s urine. Not good! After we finished we then had to walk back to our vehicle through the same sewage stinking ground & drive home. It’s not hard to guess as soon as we got home we showered!
iv. Life is much like that ordeal ..... as we travel through life we seem to pick up all kinds of filth.
v. The filth of moral perversion – fornication / homosexuality / lesbianism / pornography / lies / deception ... what about the movies you watch / people we rub shoulders w/?
c. You may not be directly involved w/ these things but they can / do still soil your life.
i. Lot wasn’t a homosexual but his life was affected by all the uncleanness around him.
2 Peter 2:7 (NKJV) and [He] delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked
ii. But then again sometimes it is b/c of what we’re exposed to ..... the things we are ‘touching’ in life.
iii. What kind of unclean things do we touch w/ our eyes / ears / thoughts / words / actions?
2 Corinthians 6:16-17 (NKJV) For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will dwell in them ..... Therefore “Come out from among them And be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, And I will receive you.”
iv. God didn’t create you to be unclean & you won’t cope easily w/ the burden that uncleanness brings to your life.
d. There’s one more thought here & that is the fact that in O/T times uncleanness forced people to live outside the camp.
i. When God’s people were defiled by any kind of uncleanness it immediately required them to go outside the camp.
ii. In other words they found th/s suddenly ostracised & separated from community.
iii. It’s no different today – we may not be physically moved outside the gathering of God’s people but we find our/s outside the camp.
iv. Out of fellowship w/ God / His people / not enjoying the blessings of God & life b/co wearisome just through being unclean. ..... not to mention the burden of our conscience!
# 2. The Master’s cleansing touch.
A. There may be shame in being unclean but the greater shame is in continuing in uncleanness.
*** I’m sure that some people can’t get their head around the concept of the spotless home. We’ve all seen them, some of us have them & some of us would like to have one. It’s the kind of home that you walk into & it could very easily be straight out of a Home Beautiful magazine!!! Everything is neat / clean / tidy / nothing messy or out of place – a showcase dwelling! It leaves you wondering ... doesn’t their home ever look messy .... do these people live in this or do they live somewhere else? Do these people not know what dirt is, don’t they u/s dirty dishes in the sink?
The reality is that I’m sure that these homes get dirty too ..... socks / underwear on the floor, dishes in the sink / dirt trampled through the house. But the key is that although they get dirty they don’t let them stay dirty!
i. John gives us a pict of this spiritually speaking when he writes .....
1 John 1:8 (NKJV) If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
ii. John is saying ..... we all get dirty from time to time ...... if you think that sin doesn’t touch you’re life – John says you’re deceived!
iii. The key here is the cleansing touch that goes through & makes us clean... real Christians can’t stand being unclean.
b. Not only this but the real challenge is to see you need help to get clean.
*** There was a man named Dave who was blind. For a period of time we were working w/ him, bringing him to church & helping him out. Dave began to come along regularly b/c more than anything I think he liked the fact that people in our church cared about him. One day some of the ladies in our church went over to help clean his apartment for him. When they set to work they encountered filthiness they never would have imagined. His kitchen cupboards were covered in the evidence of cockroach visitors & cockroaches that had decided that Dave’s place was a good place to die. His bathroom defied description, his entire home was filthy. But the amazing thing is that Dave had no idea he was living in such uncleanness!
It was the masterful touch of the women who volunteered their time & efforts that ushered Dave into a world of cleanliness he’d not known.
i. And it’s the Master’s touch that can take us in a moment from the squalor we may have settled into to a life of purity / cleanness / wholeness.
ii. We can only get cleansing & purity from one source – that’s Jesus!
Isaiah 1:18 (NKJV) “Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the Lord, “Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool.
1 John 1:7 (NKJV) But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.
B. If you know where to go getting clean isn’t a problem.
Vs 40. Now a leper came to Him, imploring Him, kneeling down to Him and saying to Him, “If You are willing, You can make me clean.”
a. The question that needs to be asked is not “If Jesus is willing” .......but are YOU willing?
i. The only thing that really separates the clean from the unclean is our desire to be clean.
ii. We all get soiled w/ sin / carnality / flesh in life the only question to be answered is whether or not we’re willing to be clean.
*** Ever watched small kids after eating an ice cream? They often get more on the outside of their face than they do in their mouth! After they’ve finished they often don’t know they’ve got it on the outside of their face & they often don’t care!!! In fact if you try to wipe it off you are possibly going to encounter a strong protest.
But when an adult gets some ice cream on their face they’ll reach immediately for a paper towel to clean it off. The question here is how willing are you to stay unclean?
iii. The truth echoed through this story is that Jesus is willing to make you clean!
2 Corinthians 7:1 (NKJV) Therefore, ...... let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
iv. How? By simply coming to Jesus as this desperate leper did, humbling our/s & asking Him to cleanse us.
Vs 41. Then Jesus, moved with compassion, stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, “I am willing; be cleansed.”
# 3. Staying clean in a dirty life.
A. It’s a filthy world filled w/ filthy people who have filthy habits who want to ensnare us in filthy things.
a. So how do we stay clean in the midst of all this?
i. Our text mapped out some things for this desperate leper to complete & keep his cleansing.
ii. And this is not just good advice for a man who lived 2,000 years ago, it’s good counsel for you & I today.
b. Firstly Jesus says to the leper – do things God’s way!
Vs 44. .......go your way, show yourself to the priest,......
i. If you want to stay clean live under the watchful eye of godly counsel....... God gives us leaders who can often identify things we can’t.
ii. The role of the priest was to examine the leper & to make sure that all signs of leprosy had left his body b/4 he would be announced clean.
Hebrews 13:17 (NKJV) Obey those who rule over you, and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls, as those who must give account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you.
iii. We don’t have to like the idea of bringing our/s under the watchful eye of leadership – we just have to obey it!
c. Next Jesus said to him – make the sacrifices for cleansing.
Vs 44. .....and offer for your cleansing those things which Moses commanded,......
i. If you’re going to stay clean there will have to be some sacrifices that will be made.
ii. This is particularly true in the realm of your thought life.
Philippians 4:8 (NKJV) Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.
iii. If you have trouble w/ your thought life then you need to put your mind on a diet of good wholesome thinking.
iv. You are not going to be able to stay clean in a dirty life unless sacrifice the things that are soiling you.
d. Finally Jesus says to the man freed from leprosy – make your cleansing public.
Vs 44. and offer for your cleansing those things which Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”
i. There needs to be a testimony of the fact that you are clean...... & you can’t have that testimony by living on edge of uncleanness.
*** I’m going to be doing some shifts out at the Fonterra factory in Brunswick. My wife does shifts out there too. The only problem is that she has told everyone that she’s married to the best husband in all the world! They don’t know me yet but I already have a testimony (thanks to my wife) that I have to live up to! Yikes!
Testimony is great thing b/c it reminds you of the fact that you have to live right & clean!
ii. When others come into contact w/ you they ought to be left w/ no doubt about the fact that you are clean to the core!
B. God’s purpose is not just to get you clean but to keep you clean.
a. Jesus wants you to not only be clean but feel clean & live in the power of that cleansing & purity.
i. There is coming a parade that will take place one day that He wants you to be in .... He wants to present you in the parade of the pure.
Revelation 19:7-8 (NKJV) Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.” And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.
ii. This is the wedding where you will be the special guest ..... pure & clean in the presence of The Lamb.
iii. This is where Jesus presents to H/s the church ....... a pure / clean / holy bride – only those who have been cleansed & have stayed pure are going to be there.
