People Who Are Moth-Eaten
January 6, 2002
Intro: How many have ever seen a moth and went ballistic? Hurry... kill it! It’s going to eat up all our cloths. “Get the broom, get the newspaper.” And begin to chase it around the house until you finally kill it. Probably none of us. To us, a moth is harmless. It doesn’t bit, doesn’t sting and so it looks so innocent as it flies into your closet. But you see, there is where the real trouble begins…let’s look at Isaiah and find out what moth’s really can do.
Isa 51:7-8(TLB)
7 "Listen to me, you who know the right from wrong and cherish my laws in your hearts: don’t be afraid of people’s scorn or their slanderous talk.
8 For the moth shall destroy them like garments; the worm shall eat them like wool; but my justice and mercy shall last forever, and my salvation from generation to generation."
1. The Unconcerned Heart
A. Things At Work
a. This is a picture of how people, in those days came to their destruction
b. It is describing the insignificance of the character of their enemies and their opposition
c. They were not to be taken into account as enemies who needed to be fought with sword and battle-axe or with spear and javelin
d. Isaiah says…the moth would take care of them
i. This was another way of saying that there were certain insidious causes at work among themselves
ii. In their own hearts and lives – certain habits and conditions as quiet and still and noiseless as a moth
iii. That would yet eat their hearts out, and they would fall to pieces like garments which had been silently cut and scissored by the moths
B. Some Sins Are Obvious
a. Some sins work largely in the open…they are like the paw of a lion; they leave their marks
b. Everyone who is slain by them knows who the enemy was…if a herd of elephants passed through a rice field, everyone would know what passed through there
c. But the dwarfs in the thick jungles of South America go unnoticed until the tiny stabbing spears among the leaves
d. And the wounded man may not know of the deadly poison that has entered his blood until it is too late for help
i. So there are some sins that are blatant; they are recognized at once
ii. The man who is tempted by them immediately knows that the devil is behind it (expound)
iii. But other sins are like the hidden stab with its poisoned covering that we step on unseen
C. The Secret Sins
a. There are sins like the malaria that floats off from stagnant water
b. Sins like the moth millers…white, soft, noiseless, and delicate, that lay their eggs in the secret places of the imagination
c. They are quiet, until one day they hatch out moral moths, silent and noiseless like their mother, but with teeth as sharp and vicious as Satan’s
d. Which will cut the holy fabric of character and leave it useless as a moth-eaten garment
2. The Moths That Destroy
A. The Moth of Indolence (Laziness, Idleness, Sloth)
a. Everything that God has made in this world is for use and service
b. When a thing will not serve it begins to decay and becomes a nuisance to itself and a danger to everything around it
c. There are no exceptions to this great truth…it is true of anything around us
Ill: Take an old house…that no one lives in anymore. How quick the bats find it out and make their nests in the cellar. The wasps begin to build it’s nests in the crevices and all sorts of other bugs begin to find their home and shelter in this old house. It now becomes a breeding place for all these little beasts and the house becomes a place of loathsomeness and danger.
d. An indolent garden, given over to weeds and neglect goes to waste in the same manner
i. As the weeds grow, more bugs and snakes begin to find their homes in the thickness of the brush
ii. And what was once supposed to produce and yield fruit, is now the home to snakes and pestilences
iii. These are illustrations of what comes to pass in an idle, indolent life
A2. What Man Was Made For
a. Man was made for work, for exercise, for service and when he ceases to serve and is given over to indolence the moths begin to work
Old Proverb: “An idle mind is the devil’s workshop” “Satan finds mischief for idle hands to do.”…are both true
b. And yet many get into the habits of indolence without feeling that they are sinners
c. This is also true for an indolent mind…once reading was a serious thing, but now our time is taken by work, pleasure or other habits
d. It has stripped us of our daily faithful reading and expounding our minds…and even thinking
i. Little by little one ceases to read and ceases to meditate and think with any decisive, earnest purpose
ii. The mind becomes moth-eaten and sluggish and useless
iii. And yet such a sinner, who has so grievously sinned against God and his own soul, scarcely recognizes that he has sinned
iv. We need to think, expand our minds, learn and use our minds to bring glory to God
B. There Is The Moth of Self-Indulgence
a. I am not talking about alcohol, drinking or unholy lusts…those are obvious
b. But I am talking about that little thing that takes up your time and calling
Napoleon Bonaparte, one of the most successful men of his days, died a little past middle age. The doctors who knew him best said his disease was brought about by excessive snuffing. The hero of Austerlitz, the man who could make all Europe tremble was killed at the prime of his life by a little snuffbox.
c. The worst thing about self-indulgence is not, however, that it destroys the garment of the body
d. It also feeds on the garment of the soul…it comes to be the soul’s master
i. Little habits, soft and silken as the moth miller, grow up in us, until they master us and control us
ii. And it makes it impossible for us to do the self-sacrificing, courageous work for God and fulfill His will in our lives
iii. Jesus is our model…he pleased not Himself, He came not to be ministered to, but to be a minister to others
iv. And we must be on the alert lest we be destroyed by the moth of self-indulgence
Contents: That self-centredness is a world-wide phenomenon of human experience is evident from the rich variety of words in our language which are compounded with ’self’. There are more than fifty which have a pejorative meaning- words like self-applause, self-absorption, self-assertion, self-advertisement, self-indulgence, self-gratification, self-glorification, self-pity, self-importance, self-interest and self-will. Moreover, our self-centredness is a terrible tyranny. Malcolm Muggeridge used often to speak and write of ’the dark little dungeon of my own ego’. And what a dark dungeon it is! To be engrossed in our own selfish concerns and ambitions, without regard either for the glory of God or for the good of others, is to be confined in the most cramped and unhealthy of prisons. --John Stott, The Contemporary Christian, p.50
B2. Ministering Takes Time
a. Let me add this…ministering and follow-up is not at your convenience
b. Ministry often comes at an inconvenience…it comes at times when you have to decide…self or ministry
c. Ministry is when you think of others…self-indulgence is when you think about yourself – no cares for others, feelings, or situations
d. A step further; LOVE=you put others way before you put yourself; Worldly and self-indulgence=yourself, you
i. No fruit = maybe it’s the moth of self-indulgence over your ministry
C. The Moth of Self-Pity
a. Now this leads us to the third moth that destroys the soul and that is the moth of self-pity
Ill: Robert Louis Stevenson, of all men, had the right to speak on this subject. Smitten down with a deadly disease just at the beginning of his career, he resolutely refused to pity himself or to give up, and fought his fight, traveling from land to land, maintaining always his cheerful and his faith, and during those of illness producing work of great service and helpfulness to the world. And yet the greatest thing he produced was his own personality. He showed the whole world a young man slowly wasting away in body and yet always cheerful, happy, courageous, doing splendid work, never pitying himself, going toward the future with a ‘morning face.’
‘Morning face’ expression used in China in the olden days. The woman had a beautiful mirror in their room. The most elaborate…beautiful mirror. They would get up in the morning and look at themselves. After they were done, they would turn the mirror around and concentrate on the day ahead. That is why it was called the ‘morning face’ or ‘morning mirror.’
b. Beware of the morning face…that is what is going to carry you through the day
c. Beware of this little moth that comes to you in sickness or misfortune in the time of adversity
d. It is like a mosquito that comes off the swamps…it is born in adverse circumstances…it carries with it viruses and infections…just one little bit is all it takes
i. Listen to that tempter and it will cut your throat
ii. Wake up in the morning and stay focused on you and your problems and you’re a gonner
Contents: It was their first date, and she’d shown the patience of a saint as he babbled on and on about his hobbies, his pet peeves, his driving techniques, and even the standards he used to choose his barber. Finally, he came up for air and said, "But enough about me. Lets talk about you." She breathed a sigh of relief. He went on, "What do you think about me?" jul98
iii. That is the way self-pity is…what about ‘ME’
iv. “What do you think about me?” “What do you think about my problems?” “Why is this happening to me?”
There is a cape at the southern point of Africa which the old sailors used to call the Cape of Storms. It had a bad name. They had to fight their way around it through high waves and fierce tempests for many days before they entered the peaceful seas which lay beyond. But after a while there came a jolly tar, a brave and hopeful man, who looked at it on the other side, and who, when he had mastered the storms and adverse winds, and rounded the cape, called it the Cape of Good Hope. All through the stormy days he did not take most account of the water through which he was passing, but thought most of the sea toward which he was sailing, and the world joined him. So the Cape of Storms was forgotten and the Cape of Good Hope it is for all time.
3. Passing Through The Storms
A. We Will All Pass Through Them
a. WE are not to be pitied…we are Christian…we are Christ’s
b. You are a child of God and we need to cast out all these moths that have control of our lives
1 Cor 3:21-23
21 …For all things are yours;
22 Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours;
23 And ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s.
c. And after the work is done…after we deal with these issues…all things will work for the good of those who love Christ
B. Neglect
a. I want to close with one final moth that will put an end to all
b. And that is the moth of neglect or carelessness
c. Neglecting your salvation, neglecting your relationship with Christ, neglecting your prayer time, neglecting the things of God…Neglect or Carelessness
Carelessness = lack of care, lack of attention, recklessness, neglect
d. This is probably the most dangerous of them all…neglect and carelessness
i. We justify and we feel we are ‘OK’ in our hearts
ii. And yet all around us, weeds are growing, thoughts are planted
iii. Worldliness grows, carnality grows…all because of neglect
iv. And the word of God says,
Heb 2:3
3 how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation,
