Why do people wash their clothes? To clean off all of the dirt, grime and smells. We want to smell and look clean. Parents know this. Any parent knows that when children are little how quick they can dirty clean clothes. Lunch time with hotdogs and ketchup turns into more ketchup ending on the shirt than on the hot dog! When a kid goes outside, dirt seems to be attracted to their clothes like a magnet. Shirts and pants pile up in a hurry, so they need to be washed regularly. But when you become an adult, you usually are a bit more careful to keep yourself clean. When you are a child and see a mud puddle, you might run straight through it, but as adults in fresh clean clothes we find away around it to keep clean.
And that is what we are studying about today. Keeping yourself clean and not returning back to sin after you’ve been forgiven. When we are forgiven by God for our sins, we are “wiped clean”, we are spotless, and free from sin.
It is as if all of our sins are written on a chalkboard, and God comes by with a wet rag and washes off all of the chalk and the board is completely blank and clean.
God’s forgiveness is an incredible gift that He offers to everyone who asks for it. It is free. Now, we don’t deserve His forgiveness, and it cannot be earned, but He gives it freely. Like any gift, we should not treat His gift unworthily. We don’t want to sin, get forgiven, and go out and commit that same sin again. That is called using God’s gift in vain. There is no point of getting forgiven if you are going to just go and do the same thing over and over again. Which is what Paul wrote in Romans 6.
“What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
Know ye not, that so many of us aswere baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” Romans 6:1-4
When someone takes an old classic car to be completely restored, they have all of the interior redone, they have the chrome all redipped, repaint the car until it shines like new. Once filled with scratches, rust, and tears, that car is back into new condition. It is spotless and perfect. Should the owner of that car go and start driving through back roads and sand pits with it? Should they take sand and mud and smear it all over that brand new coat of paint? That would be absolutely crazy and rediculous!
But sadly that is what some people do to after they receive forgiveness. They go through the process of getting forgiven for their sins, but they take that grace and misuse it. They use the grace of God in vain. Like a kid jumping back into the mud after a bath, it is pointless to receive forgiveness if a person is just going to go back out and commit the same sins again.
“For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, Hebrews 10:26
But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.” Hebrews 10:27
The misuse of forgiveness will eventually end up with punishment from the Lord. We are warned several times in the Bible to keep ourselves clean from sin. When Jesus healed and forgave people, what did He tell them? Go and sin no more. NO MORE. Forgiveness and grace is not a license to sin. It is meant for those who accidentally make a mistake and need forgiveness to be right with God.
Don’t misuse God’s free gift of forgiveness. It is His will that we keep free from the stain of sin. Pray to Him that He would help you to keep yourself clean.
“Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.” Psalm 51:10
In Christ,
Andrew
Teufer Lake King James Bible Church 