03/27/2020
Do we hold back our commitment to faith, and belief in the Lord because we are yet sinners? Do we back away from faith because we have stumbled? Well there is something amazing about how God deals with our failures, and that is that His grace grows all the more to cover them. We are never too stained that the blood of Jesus can’t wash us clean. What God values most is our love for Him, our obedience, and our contrite heart that mourns every sin, bringing us to tears as we confess them and ask for His forgiveness.
“Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,”
Romans 5:20 ESV
My wife is the “Queen of Stains”! She is known in my family for her ability to remove any blemish from any garment! Even though my children are now grown, married, have children, and live on their own, they still bring their badly stained garments home so that their mother can remove those difficult stains from them. she might need to work on them for several days, but when she is through with them you can’t tell they were ever soiled... each one looks perfect once again. When the desperate phone calls come she always says “Don’t wash or dry it, just bring it to me!” My wife is to stains in garments what Jesus is to sins in man, and the more difficult the job, the harder she works at it, and the more satisfaction she gets from salvaging that garment.
“"Come now, 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 become like wool.”
Isaiah 1:18 ESV
Why is it then that we don’t want God to see us unless we view ourselves as perfect? Truly some of the great men and women of the Bible were flawed, and had deep stains, but our Father assures us that if we love him, confess those stains, and present ourselves in contrition, He will remove every one, and make us clean once more. He even went so far as to send His Son Jesus Christ to be the “King of Stains”, in our heavenly family.
“"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
John 3:16 ESV
In the Old Testament, King David was far from perfect. The stains he bore were deep red, and many would say that they would be impossible to remove. He had an affair with Bathsheba, made her pregnant, and then had her husband killed so that he could marry her. These are sins that if you or I committed them we would expect to bear their mark forever, but David wept, and humbled himself before God in tears and remorse. God saw his heart, and that he was broken over the separation his sin had brought to their relationship, and so He forgave him... God not only forgave him and separated him from his sins, but he made this statement about David as a successor to Saul...
“But now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought out a man after his own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be prince over his people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you."”
1 Samuel 13:14 ESV
And this was repeated again in the New Testament...
“And when he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king, of whom he testified and said, 'I have found in David the son of Jesse a man after my heart, who will do all my will.'”
Acts 13:22 ESV
God forgives sin when our love for Him, and obedience to His will, warrants it. He did this under the law with David, and He does it for us now through Jesus Christ...
“But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.”
1 John 1:7 ESV
We need look no further than the apostle Paul. He persecuted Christians, and had many put to death... his sins were deep in the fiber of his soul.
“But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.”
Acts 9:1-2 ESV
But Jesus saw value in this man Saul, and his misguided faith, so he called him, and transformed him... in the end he was renamed to Paul, and became a mighty man in the Christian Faith. Jesus cleanses us, and changes our hearts just like he did for Saul.
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.”
1 John 1:9-10 ESV
Neither of these men were without blemish, but both were washed white as snow... and you will be too if you confess your sins, seek forgiveness, and love God; obeying His commandments, and having faith in Jesus Christ His Son.
If you recall, in the story regarding my wife, she would instruct our children not to wash or dry the fabric that was stained. Well she said this so that they would not set the stain in the process. This would make her job all the more difficult. Coming to Jesus is much the same... the more we attempt to heal ourselves, or the longer we allow our sin to go on unchecked in us, the harder it is to remove all the ramifications of it. If we harbor hatred for someone, the longer we live with that hatred the deeper it becomes until perhaps we lash out at them and end up in prison... that is like damaged cloth which is ruined beyond the discoloration of the stain alone. So I can’t be more emphatic in my plea; come to Jesus, and humble yourself before God now! Don’t wait for your sin to set itself, or the fabric of your life to be damaged. Although there is no sin that Jesus can’t remove, there are consequences that might progress from minor, to lifelong in their nature. Come now, even though you feel the weight and guilt of your sin!
“but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.”
Romans 5:8-9 ESV
Prayer:
Father, thank you for your forgiveness, and for separating us from our sins as far as the East is from the west. Thank you Lord for your mercy, and choosing to forget our repented sin... making us pure in your sight. Help us Holy Father to endure the judgement of men even after you have washed our sins away. Teach us Lord to be like the thief who hung on his cross next to Jesus on Calvary. He knew your forgiveness, and yet paid the price of man’s judgement. Call us to you Father, and open our eyes to Jesus! Circumcise our heart so that our love for you will find fertile soil in our souls, and make us men and women after your own heart. Call us with Ann urgent voice so that we will answer before our lives have been damaged in the judgement of men by our actions in the world. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you our God who forgives, and forgets. Great are you who gives peace, and rest to our souls; washing away our sins and allowing our consciences to rest in you. Praised be your name Father because your mercy abounds, and your grace is made perfect in Christ. Hear our prayers, as we fall to our knees before you, and ask for your forgiveness. Feel the remorse within us as our love for you weeps at the thought of those sins we are yet to confess. We worship you Gracious Father, and long to be with you now, and forevermore... we long to hear you say “This is my child in whom I am well pleased!”
“David said to Nathan, "I have sinned against the Lord." And Nathan said to David, "The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die.”
2 Samuel 12:13 ESV
“"This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds," then he adds, "I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more."”
Hebrews 10:16-17 ESV
Rich Forbes