Even though I sit behind a desk at work all day, I have physically worked hard at various jobs when I was younger. I’ve mowed lawns, hauled hay, cut wood and even did a little surveying work. I know water tastes great when you are working hard and after a long day of manual labor, it feels really good to be clean.
When you are really dirty, plumb filthy and grimy, it is a wonderful feeling to be cleaned up. You plop down in your chair after you shower and you feel good. You are physically worn out, but you feel good after you work hard and you’ve cleaned up and you are just relaxing.
It makse us feel good when we are clean on the outside, but what about when we’re dirty on the inside? How do you feel when you’ve done somebody wrong? How do you feel when you’ve done something that you know you aren’t supposed to do? How do you feel when you lie to your boyfriend or girlfriend? How do you feel after you’ve cheated somebody when they bought something from you and you know that it was a fake? How do you feel when you take something that doesn’t belong to you? How do you feel the next day after you do drugs or get drunk? How do you feel when you sin against God?
We didn’t evolve from apes! We were created by the great God of Heaven and earth and guess what? He gave all of us a conscience. That’s right, even if you deny God and deny that He created you; the truth is you can’t get away from your God-given conscience. You know right from wrong because God has written His law upon your heart. People that get the most defensive are typically the ones who know that they are wrong. You know it’s wrong to lie. You know it’s wrong to steal. You know it’s wrong to have sexual relations outside of biblical marriage between a man and a woman. You know it’s wrong every time you sin, because you have a conscience. You feel guilty when you do something wrong because God made us this way. You may fight it. You may deny it (in other words lie about – thereby adding sin upon sin). You may try to hide it or stay busy to keep from thinking about it, but you are made in the very image of God and you know when you offend the LORD.
So what do you do with your guilt? You can’t just take a shower and wash the dirt of your sin away? What do you do with your guilt? How do you ease your guilty conscience? How do you clean yourself up – on the inside? It feels really good to be clean, but you can’t completely cleanse your mind and you can’t cleanse your heart.
Have you ever noticed when you look out a window that’s dirty and it’s been that way for a long time that you just get used to it? You really don’t notice the dirt until you clean it. Then after you clean a window, especially after it’s been dirty for months or even years, you are amazed at how clean it is.
When Jesus Christ is not your Lord and Savior, your conscience gets to be just like that dirty window. Over time and after time after time of sinning and adding sin upon sin, your conscience grows a little weaker. It becomes easier to sin after you’ve continued sinning for so long. The dirt, filth and grime of sin in your heart and mind continues building and building until your conscience doesn’t hardly bother you anymore. But it’s still there.
You still know right from wrong and you still know that sinning is wrong. No matter what you do to try to clean yourself up on the inside, you just can’t do it. That grime and dirt of sin is too thick. It’s built up too long over time and you have no way to cleanse yourself.
But thank God, He provided a way for us to be cleansed. He provided the only way for your filthy sin to be washed away. That way is Jesus Christ. He is the way, the truth and the life: no man comes to the Father, except through Him. Jesus can cleanse you of your sins. He can wash you white as snow. He can take away all of your guilty stains. He can make you whole.
Be cleansed tonight. It feels really good to be clean. Not just clean on the outside, but clean on the inside. Be washed. Be cleansed. Be sanctified. Be justified. Be saved tonight through the shed blood of Jesus. He suffered and died on the cross for guilty sinners who repent and trust Him.
Your sins can be forgiven. Your slate can be wiped clean. You can be cleansed tonight. Oh, don’t cling to your dirty, rotten sins. Let go of them. Turn away from your sins and turn to Jesus. You can become a new person tonight. You can become a new creature in Christ Jesus. Your guilt can be removed; your sins can be forgiven because Jesus came to save His people from their sins. Be one of His people. Repent and put your faith in Him.
It feels really good to be clean. When Isaiah stood before the LORD who was high and lifted up, where the seraphims cried Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. Isaiah realized that he was a sinful man and that he was in the presence of our Holy LORD and Isaiah cried out Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for my eyes have see the King, the LORD of hosts. Isaiah continues: Then flew one of the seraphims to me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin purged (Isaiah 6:1-6). Isaiah had been cleansed. His sins had been forgiven. He was spiritually cleansed. He realized how good it felt to be clean.
When King David had sinned by committing adultery with Bathsheba and after having her husband killed in battle, God convicted David of his sin and listen to what David cried out: Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.
Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me (Psalm 51:1-10).
Did you catch how bad David felt over his sins? He felt so bad that he describes it as having broken bones. This is a guy who felt true remorse over his dirty sin. He understood that he had sinned against our Holy God. He’s begging for forgiveness. He’s begging to be cleansed from his sins and God did cleanse him. David understood that it felt good to be clean.
If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:6-9). The shed blood of Jesus can wash you clean. You can be cleansed tonight. Your sins can be forgiven; if you confess and forsake your sins. If you recognize that you are a sinner and that God is Holy. If the Holy Spirit is convicting you over your unrighteousness, you can cry out for God to save you and He is faithful and just to forgive you.
Be cleansed tonight from your dirty, filthy sins. Be forgiven for your sins. Turn away from your sins and turn to Jesus. Cry out to Jesus tonight. Isaiah 43:25 says: I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins. Your sins can be forgiven. You can be cleansed. Acts 3:19 states: Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. Repent, repent, repent!
Repentance starts with a change of heart, that leads to a change of mind and it is granted to you by God through the Holy Spirit. If God is convicting you over your sins tonight, you can be cleansed. You can be saved. Repent and trust Jesus. Be converted. Be forgiven for your sins and receive everlasting life. You can be cleansed. Your sins can be forgiven. Your sins can be blotted out and God will no longer hold them against you.
Isaiah 4:4 says: When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning. Do not be deceived, there is judgment to come. Your sins will be judged – one way or the other. Either yours sins have been put upon Jesus Christ as He bled and died on the cross and you are no longer judged guilty because you have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus. Or, your guilt is still upon you. Your sins have not been forgiven and you are still guilty, guilty, guilty!
Oh, what a terrible place to be; guilty before our Holy and righteous God and you are still stubbornly holding on to your sins. You are telling God to leave you alone. Your sins are your sins and nobody can pry them from your filthy hands. Well, if that’s what you want, God will let you keep your sins and if you foolishly die in your sins, you will suffer the burning torment for those sins forever and ever in the lake of fire and brimstone.
If you die in your sins, you can never be cleansed. You will burn forever. You will suffer the torments of Hell, forever. Why go through the burning cleansing of eternal torment when you can be cleansed tonight? Your sins can be forgiven. Your conscience can be cleared. You can be cleansed. Jesus will take your dirty rotten sins and give you His righteousness. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21). Repent and put your faith in Jesus. It feels really good to be clean. Come to Jesus and be cleansed on the inside and be forgiven. Be saved tonight.
(This message was lifted up in downtown Springfield, MO on July 10, 2015)