All physical systems, over time, accumulate debris. It’s an unfortunate fact of life. They get cluttered, and clogged, and congested, and that hinders the operation of the system. Let me give you some random examples. As we age, plaque tends to build up in our veins and arteries, which gradually restricts the flow of blood. Sea-going vessels, everything from fishing trawlers to aircraft carriers, become encrusted with barnacles, which slow the ship’s progress through the water. In just one year, an oil tanker can accumulate five tons of barnacles. Many rivers have to be dredged periodically, so that the mud and silt won’t build up and make them impossible to navigate. And finally, closets in churches, over a period of several decades, will tend to fill up with all kinds of interesting items. Such as: financial records from 1933. Vacation Bible School materials dating back to the Carter administration. Keys to locks that no longer exist. A gallon jug filled with sand. A bucket of rocks. Fake vampire blood. Old hymnals. Antique vases. Cane bottom chairs. An adding machine. And enough plates, cups, and saucers to serve several hundred hungry Baptists. I was half expecting someone to open up a closet and find the engine to a ’57 Chevy.
But what I’m talking about is a universal problem. Any physical system, whether you’re talking about arteries, or ships, or rivers, or church closets, will eventually get filled with rubbish and sludge and bric-a-brac, and will need to be cleaned out. That may not be a pleasant process, especially if the debris has been accumulating for some length of time. It may be dirty, and smelly, and time-consuming, and just plain hard work, but it has to be done. Otherwise, the whole system breaks down. And if you’ve tried to find a place to store something in this building recently, you know what I mean. I’m just thankful that someone finally had the courage to stand up and say, "Brothers and sisters, we need a rummage sale!"
The same principle applies to other, non-physical, types of systems. Marriage relationships, for example, can become clogged with unresolved conflicts and unforgiven offenses. But this morning, what I’d like to focus on is how this principle applies to the spiritual life. Because over time, if we’re not careful, our lives can get cluttered up with the debris of sin. Our minds and hearts can become encrusted with the barnacles of ungodly beliefs and attitudes. And that hinders our relationship with God. It hinders our fellowship with one another. It hinders our ability to experience joy, and peace, and power in the Christian life. What I’m going to talk about today is how we can prevent that from happening, and how when it does happen, we can clean out the muck and the mire, so that our fellowship with God and one another will be free and unobstructed; so that we can enjoy the kind of abundant life that Christ intends.
The first point I’d like to make is that this process, of sin gradually infiltrating our lives and gumming up the works, is common to all of us. None of us is immune; none of us can afford to go merrily about our business, unconcerned with matters of sin and holiness. If that were the case, then the Scriptures wouldn’t be so full of appeals to be watchful and careful, and to guard our hearts.
"Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life." – Proverbs 4:23
"Set a guard over my mouth, O Lord; keep watch over the door of my lips. Let not my heart be drawn to what is evil . . . " – Psalm 141:3-4
"So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!" – 1 Corinthians 10:12
"Be very careful, then, how you live — not as unwise but as wise" – Ephesians 5:15
What passages such as these are telling us is that we need to give attention to the quality of our spiritual lives; we need to consider carefully the consistency of our obedience and devotion to Christ. Otherwise, over time the world will conform us to its way of thinking; and to its way of speaking and acting. If we’re not careful, ungodly habits and attitudes will gradually creep in. And what’s really tragic – even a bit frightening – is that we probably won’t even realize that it’s happening.
What am I saying? That when someone falls away from walking with Christ; it’s usually a gradual process. Little by little, their taste for spiritual things diminishes. They lose their savor for holiness, their zest for knowing God; so that the kind of spiritual activities which used to give them pleasure now seem dull and uninteresting. What used to be a blessing now seems like a burden. One way of describing it is that, although they still know the words of Christianity, they lose their ability to hear the music. So the practice of private prayer and Bible reading, for example, becomes less frequent. Church attendance slips. They no longer care to spend time with their Christian friends. And as the world seduces them, their tolerance for impurity in their own heart, and mind, and conduct, gradually increases. To be concerned about avoiding sin no longer seems important or worthwhile.
But here’s the key – it doesn’t happen overnight. A person doesn’t change from being absolutely committed to Christ on Tuesday, to being lukewarm or indifferent on Wednesday. And even when it appears that way – for instance, when there is some dramatic, public moral failure in the life of someone who was thought to be an exemplary Christian – there has usually been a long period of time during which they have been making small compromises with sin in the privacy of their own heart, a period of time during which their spiritual life has been slowly withering away. In other words, this process of decline is subtle, and insidious, and often barely noticeable, even to oneself. And what makes it all the more deceptive is that many people are able to keep up the outward appearance of religion, even while the hold that God has on their heart is weakening, day by day.
Solomon observed this phenomenon when he wrote, in Proverbs 24:
"I went past the field of the sluggard, past the vineyard of the man who lacks judgment; thorns had come up everywhere, the ground was covered with weeds, and the stone wall was in ruins. I applied my heart to what I observed and learned a lesson from what I saw: A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest – and poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man." – Proverbs 24:30-34
Solomon was reflecting on how a lack of care and attention will result in decay. And what is true in the physical realm is also true in the spiritual realm. A field doesn’t fill up with weeds overnight, nor does a stone wall suddenly fall into disrepair. Decay is a gradual process. All it takes is time, combined with a bit of neglect, a dose of complacency, and a general lack of watchfulness. Then, before we realize it, our spiritual life is full of thorns, and our fellowship with God is in ruins. And the real danger is that, by the time we wake up to what has happened, we may not even care anymore.
Perhaps you sense this beginning to happen in your own life. Perhaps it’s been going on for a while. If so, then I have good news. The process of spiritual decay is reversible. By God’s grace and power, you can change. And if you don’t see this happening in your life, that’s great. What you need is to know how to prevent it; how you can keep that slide into spiritual poverty from ever starting. But in either case, what we all need is essentially the same – some spiritual "spring cleaning". Stopping to reflect on the quality of our walk with Christ, listening for what God is saying to us through his word, and responding in obedience to what we discover. Let me give you some suggestions on how to go about it:
First, realize that help is available. God has given us the Holy Spirit for this very purpose – to teach us, to enlighten us, and when necessary, to convict us of sin. To open our eyes, so that we can see all the debris in our lives that needs to be discarded; so that we can see all the weeds that need to be pulled.
"But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment" – John 16:7-8
You and I need to pray for the Spirit to carry out this ministry in our lives, as David did in Psalm 139:
"Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." – Psalm 139:23-24
That’s not something you’ll find on a lot of prayer lists! Asking God to reveal your sin; asking him to shine a light on all the gunk and garbage in your life. It’s a little intimidating. A little frightening, even. That’s why facing our sin is something we usually try to avoid, rather than intentionally seek out. And that’s part of the problem. Often, when God sends messengers to speak to us about our sin – messengers in the form of a husband, or a wife, or a friend, or even an enemy – we clap our hands over our ears.
We refuse to listen to the word of correction. We change the subject, we attack the messenger, we leave the room. If that doesn’t work, then we deny the sin; we redefine it, we rationalize it. And finally, if all else fails, we rename the sin to make it seem less sinful, or if possible, even virtuous. We come up with a pleasant-sounding euphemism. So gossip becomes "just sharing my concerns". Greed becomes "thriftiness". A glutton is someone with "a healthy appetite". Pride is reframed as "high self-esteem". Lying is "stretching the truth". A harsh, critical attitude merely indicates that you have high standards.
You get the idea. My point is that you have to be willing for God to show you your sin. You have to be sincere. Because if you’re not, I guarantee that you’ll find some way to avoid hearing what God is saying. And so, in order to help you pray that prayer with sincerity, I’d like to share some encouragement from the Scriptures; passages that can help us muster the courage to face our own sin.
One thing that helps me is the knowledge that God is a gentle, and kind, and compassionate father. And because of that, he won’t give me more than I can bear. He won’t load me down with such conviction of sin that it crushes me; he won’t reveal so much ugliness in my heart that I’m just emotionally and spiritually overwhelmed. Instead, he will lovingly, and carefully, reveal enough to produce repentance, but not so much that I despair. How do I know that? Because that’s how Christ dealt with the disciples. When he was preparing to leave them, he said,
"’I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth.’" – John 16:12-13
Jesus didn’t just dump everything on them at once. He gave them as much as they could comprehend and accept. Later, he sent the Holy Spirit to reveal more. And he does the same thing with us. Little by little, he reveals to us our sin, and our need of repentance, but only as much as we can take.
Another thing that helps me is the knowledge that God is fully aware of my flaws, and faults, and failings. They come as no surprise to him, because he understands human weakness and frailty. And yet, in spite of everything, he still loves me, and accepts me, and cherishes me.
"As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust." – Psalm 103:13-14
The third thing that encourages me is that no matter what I find in my heart, I know it’s forgiven. I’m covered. There is no possibility of discovering something that will cause God to withdraw his affection from me, or revoke my salvation, or renege on his promises. "There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." (Romans 8:1) Nothing I may learn about myself can in any way alter my relationship with God, because all my sins – past, present, and future – have been paid for in the death of Christ. That means I don’t have to deny them or try to hide them, either from God or from myself. What an exhilarating sense of freedom that brings! As David expressed it in Psalm 32: "Blessed is the man whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord does not count against him . . . " (Psalm 32:2)
Now, do we really need the Holy Spirit to reveal our sin to us? Yes. He can speak to us through various means – through a sermon, or a book, or a friend’s counsel; and certainly through the Scriptures – but in order for us to hear his voice, it’s essential that we pray and ask for the Spirit to open our eyes. Why? Because we have a great capacity for self-deception. We can’t trust our hearts to tell us the truth when we ourselves are the subject of the investigation. In our own minds, we always put ourselves in the best possible light. We are not impartial judges of our own motives and conduct. Just as we can be surrounded by clutter in our own home and not even notice it, so we need God’s help to see the clutter and debris in our own lives. The good news, or the bad news, depending on your perspective, is that by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit we can see ourselves from God’s point of view; we can see what God sees. And we can change.
So – what do you do when God answers your prayer, and begins to open your eyes to some area of your life that needs to change? It’s something like when you’re getting ready for a visit from your in-laws, and you suddenly realize just how dirty and untidy your house has become. "Look at those windows! I can barely see out of them! And this rug! It’s covered with cat hairs! And how many times have I asked you to clean out that garage! It’s supposed to be a two car garage, and we can’t even get one car in there, much less two!" The first reaction is to close our eyes, because we don’t like what we see. It was more pleasant and comfortable before, when we didn’t have to deal with the reality of grimy windows, and a filthy rug, and a garage piled floor to ceiling with junk. We liked being able to tell ourselves that everything was fine, so that we could go golfing or shopping, instead of spending the weekend scrubbing windows and vacuuming the rug. And so there’s a strong urge to just forget what we’ve seen.
"Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it--he will be blessed in what he does." – James 1:22-25
If you’ve been up on the third floor, you know I have a full-length mirror outside my office. Why someone thought it would be a good idea for the pastor to gaze at his reflection every time he left his office, I don’t know. It was there before I arrived, so at least I know it’s nothing personal. For a while I told myself it must be one of those fun-house mirrors that makes you look twenty pounds heavier than you really are. However, if I’m willing to accept what I see in that mirror as an accurate representation of my physical appearance, it can actually be quite useful. It can tell me when my hair needs combed, or when my slacks need to be pressed, or when I’ve got a stain on my collar.
Now, it would be rather silly of me to decide that since I don’t entirely approve of what I’m seeing in the mirror, I’m just going to ignore it. I’m going to pretend I never saw my reflection. If I did that, then I’d never know when my socks didn’t match, or when my tie was on crooked. And yet, that’s what many people do when the Holy Spirit holds the mirror of God’s Word up to their life. It’s what many people do when they hear a sermon that touches on an area of their life that needs to change. They close their Bible, or they leave the church at the end of the service, and they completely forget what God was saying to them. How foolish! What does James tell us? That the one who not only hears the word, and sees what needs to change, but who continues to receive it, and who does what it says – that person will be blessed. Why not decide today that you will be that kind of person, so that you will receive the blessing that’s promised here? As Hebrews 12:1 urges us to do,
". . . let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us." - – Hebrews 12:1
Let’s decide this morning, each one of us in our own heart, that we will seek to rid our lives of anything which hinders us from following Christ. Let’s determine, by God’s grace, to make that our continuing quest. And let’s remember that, just as it is God who reveals to us the need for change, so also it is God who provides us with the ability and power to change. I’ll close with a final verse, also from Hebrews:
"May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen." – Hebrews 13:20-21
