Seven Habits of Highly Infectious Sinners
Intro: We are well into flu and cold season, with some schools even having to close for a day or two recently. Health providers are asking if we’ve had flu shots, and been vaccinated for pneumonia and Covid. Some are stocking up on hand sanitizer and Lysol, and doing their best not get infected with some bug. Health professionals are also urging us to wash our hands well and often, cover our mouths when we cough or sneeze, not to go on to work or school if we’re contagious, and generally do whatever we can to keep infectious diseases from spreading. Some do not care to follow this advice. How do you feel about the person who could not care less whether or not you catch his cold?
Spiritually, we are living in a sin sick world filled with folks who do not care whether you catch it or not. The Scriptures often liken sin to sickness. Jesus did in Mark 2:17 "When Jesus heard it, He said to them, 'Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.'"
Sin is the virus of spiritual beings, the moral malaria of God's universe.
Sin makes wounds and bruises and putrefying sores.
"Could we but see, as God sees, all the fierce hatreds, the consuming lusts, the corrupting desires, the unappeased longings, the wasting griefs, the stingings of conscience, the stifling fears, the cruel disappointments, the raging jealousies, the burning revenges, the tortures of remorse, the anguish of angst, the unutterable woes of despair that gnaw and torment and rack and souls that still live to suffer on…; could we thus see and know, as God does, what moral beings are suffering for one moment of time, the knowledge might utterly overwhelm and forever paralyze the onlooking. Nothing else could be thought of. The whole universe would appear to be one vast, rayless, shoreless ocean of woe, whose waves of suffering and agony roared `louder than the thunder, and heaved and tossed without intermission forever. Sin is a disease of the soul! a paralysis that weakens! a leprosy that pollutes! a plague that tortures! a pestilence that destroys!" a crime that damns every being within whose bosom it is permitted to dwell. Its only mission is destruction; its only possible wages is death; not physical death merely, but all that that dread word means, -- the loss of Holiness, Happiness, and Heaven" (Aaron Hills, adapted, edited)
I. They are not concerned about the seriousness of their disease
A. Proverbs 14:9 Fools mock at sin, But among the upright there is favor.
B. They especially mock at sin who knowingly and willingly set a bad and contagious example for others and encourage them to continue in wrong-doing.
1. Proverbs 1:10-11 My son, if sinners entice you, Do not consent. 11 -- If they say, "Come with us, Let us lie in wait to shed blood; Let us lurk secretly for the innocent without cause;
2. Proverbs 1:18 But they lie in wait for their own blood, They lurk secretly for their own lives.
3. ILLUS: Mary Mallon (September 23, 1869 – November 11, 1938), commonly known as Typhoid Mary, was an Irish-born cook who lived in the United States from a young age and is believed to have infected up to fifty-seven people with the bacteria that causes typhoid fever. The infections resulted in three confirmed deaths. She was the first person in the U.S. to be identified as an asymptomatic carrier of the Salmonella typhi bacteria.
• Between 1897 and 1907, Mallon worked at the houses of several New York-based families; members of four of the households contracted typhoid. An investigation by George Soper, an epidemiologist at the New York Department of Health, identified Mallon as the potential disease vector. In 1907, she was forcibly quarantined at the Riverside Hospital, an institution for those with quarantinable diseases, on North Brother Island in New York City's East River. She was released in 1910 after she swore to report to the health department every quarter and not return to cooking as a career.
• A further typhoid outbreak at the Sloane Maternity Hospital in early 1915 resulted in twenty-five cases and two deaths. Mallon was identified as the responsible party and was returned to North Brother Island. She remained there until her death in 1938. Her nickname, coined by officials at the health department, became a colloquial term for anyone who spreads disease. (Wikipedia).
II. They are not health conscious
A. Have you ever met someone that seems to have no concept of what promotes health – hygiene, nutrition, exercise, etc.
B. Even so, the sin sick often have no clue as to what promotes spiritual health.
1. Titus 1:15-16 To the pure all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure; but even their mind and conscience are defiled. 16 -- They profess to know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work.
2. Ephesians 4:17-18 This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, (18) having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart;
III. Their hands are unclean
A. The scriptures us the concept of clean hands to symbolize righteousness.
1. Psalms 18:23-24 I was also blameless before Him, And I kept myself from my iniquity. 24 -- Therefore the LORD has recompensed me according to my righteousness, According to the cleanness of my hands in His sight.
2. Psalms 24:3-4 Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD? Or who may stand in His holy place? 4 -- He who has clean hands and a pure heart, Who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, Nor sworn deceitfully.
B. Unclean (sinful) hands result in the spreading of sin! James 4:1-8
IV. They don’t cover their mouths
A. When speaking words of self exaltation or evil plans. “If you have been foolish in exalting yourself, or if you have devised evil, put your hand on your mouth” (Pro. 30:32)
B. When teaching error. -- “whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole households, teaching things which they ought not, for the sake of dishonest gain.” (Titus 1:11)
C. The well should avoid the germs of error!
1. Now this I say lest anyone should deceive you with persuasive words. (Col. 2:4)
2. Romans 16:17-18 Now I urge you, brethren, note those who cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and avoid them. For those who are such do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by smooth words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple.
3. 2 Timothy 2:16-18 But shun profane and idle babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness. 17 -- And their message will spread like cancer. Hymenaeus and Philetus are of this sort, 18 -- who have strayed concerning the truth, saying that the resurrection is already past; and they overthrow the faith of some
V. They use inadequate remedies.
A. I’m OK, You’re OK.
B. They have also healed the hurt of My people slightly, Saying, 'Peace, peace!' When there is no peace. (Jeremiah 6:14)
VI. They refuse to go to the doctor. -- Matthew 13:15 for the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I should heal them.'
VII. They use the wrong medicine
A. Like Ephraim long ago, they go to the wrong source for healing medicine
1. "When Ephraim saw his sickness, And Judah saw his wound, Then Ephraim went to Assyria And sent to King Jareb; Yet he cannot cure you, Nor heal you of your wound. (Hosea 5:13)
2. Sinners today will try everything from alcohol and drugs, to Eastern religions and cults, to food and football to alleviate the sickness of the soul that is sin.
3. Jelly Roll sings, “All of this drinkin' and smokin' is hopeless. But feel like it's all that I need. Somethin' inside of me's broken I hold on to anything that sets me free”
B. It is in God’s word that we find the remedy for sin
1. Psalm 119:25 My soul clings to the dust; Revive me according to Your word.
2. Psalm 119:107 I am afflicted very much; Revive me, O LORD, according to Your word.
3. The Hebrew word translated “revive” or “quicken” (KJV) in these two passages [Heb. cha^ya^h] is defined in Brown, Driver & Briggs Hebrew Lexicon “1) to live, have life, remain alive, sustain life, live prosperously, live for ever, be quickened, be alive, be restored to life or health”
Conclusion: The scriptures point us to Jesus, whose blood is the remedy for every sin:
Malachi 4:2 But to you who fear My name The Sun of Righteousness shall arise With healing in His wings.
Jeremiah longed for the healing of sinful Israel. Jeremiah 8:22 Is there no balm in Gilead, Is there no physician there? Why then is there no recovery For the health of the daughter of my people?
The old Hymn “Balm in Gilead” responds: "There is a balm in Gilead to make the wounded whole, there is a balm in Gilead to heal the sin-sick soul."
Jeremiah recognized that truth! Who will come now and say with Jeremiah, “Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; Save me, and I shall be saved, For You are my praise.” (Jeremiah 17:14).
