Good morning and welcome in everybody. Today, we are going to take a look at a passage of scripture, but before we do that, I wanted to tell you a little story.
Have you ever noticed how many different types of foods that you must peel before you eat? You might reach for a fresh banana in the fruit basket and begin to peel away its bright yellow skin. You might grab an orange out of your pocket, and begin tearing away its outer flesh. But one of my favorites is the yellow onion, out of which I like to make plenty of homemade salsa. But the more that you peel back an onion, the more of the effects of your actions will appear. Suddenly you will find yourself weeping, as the tears begin flowing down your cheeks.
This reminds me of the Christian life.
Before we can receive God’s grace, we must humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God. Like an onion, when you begin to peel back the outer layers of your heart, the tears of contrition can finally begin to flow.
James 4 ⁸ Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. ⁹ Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. ¹⁰ Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.
Sometimes the heart can be covered with many layers of sin. I’ve watched as children play outside in the snow, but they are wearing so many layers of clothing, that they wobble around on the playground like a penguin on the ice. When they finally come into the house, you have to remove every article of clothing piece by piece. Their frosty hats and gloves come off, and the scarf is untied. Three pairs of socks are hung up to dry alongside of their wet snowmobile suit. Next, you remove their inner jacket and hoodie, and take off their extra t-shirts. When you finally finish, you will realize that underneath all of those layers was a young child. Likewise, to become a child of God, we must shed every article of sin in our lives. For some, that’s not always going to be an easy task to undertake, simply because a lot of people don’t want to face the facts of their own sinful condition. Pride is a very dangerous thing because it can deceive somebody so much, that they will begin to believe a false narrative of who they really are. Rather than humbly peeling back the layers of their own heart in order to look inside, they will exalt themselves instead. To obtain eternal life will require looking deeply inside of your heart and making a thorough examination of your own lifestyle.
“Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?” 2 Corinthians 13:5
Before the heart can be repaired, things will need to be moved out of the way. For example, when a mechanic repairs an engine, he will need to start removing things so he can get to the root of the problem. The deeper the problem is, the more things will have to be removed in order to fix it. A veterinarian might have an animal who got caught in a snare, but in order to get to the wound underneath, they will have to pull out some clippers and cut away many layers of fur. Some people clean the hooves of cattle or horses, which in some cases are greatly overgrown and uncared for, so they will take a sharp tool and cut away all of the overgrowth. The horse might be suffering from some type of infection but when they dig deep enough, the puss will eventually start to flow. After that’s all cleaned up, they can go through the process of healing. Sin is an infection of the heart, and the only way it can be repaired is when the worldly layers of our hearts are peeled away, and we become broken before God.
“The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.” Psalms 34:18
“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.” Psalms 51:1
The more layers of unconfessed sin in your life, the harder the heart will become. Without peeling them all away, God’s saving grace cannot get inside to repair the problem. God will revive those who are filled with contrition.
“For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.” Isaiah 57:15
Sometimes an old house has many layers of paint, and if you want to get to what’s underneath, you will have to strip it all away. Some people restore old and expensive antique rugs. They will scrub them, wash them, and then remove many thin layers of fabric like shearing a sheep. Once they are done, the original rug looks brand new, but to get to that point they had to cut away a bunch of stuff first. Only through humility will you ever begin that process of looking inside of your own hearts. Only through humility will you humbly recognize the error of your way. In order to receive forgiveness of sins, one must first admit them, which won’t happen if you don’t peel back the onion of your heart.
Luke 18 ¹⁰ Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. ¹¹ The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. ¹² I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. ¹³ And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. ¹⁴ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.
Just like peeling an onion, genuine contrition is going to produce sadness and weeping, because you have finally reconciled with the truth about your own sinfulness. Only when your heart reaches this place, will you ever be able to enter into a state of grace with God. I have said it many times before, that the one thing that is lacking more than anything else in this world is the need of humble contrition before God. John the Baptist listened to many confessions in the Jordan river, but some very religious people were incapable of admitting fault. Like tentacles on an octopus, pride had completely grabbed ahold of their hearts. Only by going through the narrow passage way of contrition, will you ever be able to obtain eternal life. Only when you confess and admit sin can the heart truly be laid bare before God. Only through contrition towards Christ, can the servants of sin be freed from their iniquity.
So today I ask you, are you humble enough to begin looking inside of your own heart? Are you ready to begin peeling back your own,….
……Yellow Onion
Let’s think about these things for right now. We can be found on your web browser by searching, tlkjbc where you can find our diaries distributed through various platforms. We are not associated, nor affiliated with any other religious groups. You can get our entire podcast feeds directly, along with transcripts at tlkjbc.com or I suppose that you could find us somewhere up here, in the Great Northern Minnesota woods. Peace to you all, and Lord willing, we will talk with you some more tomorrow. Till then, bye bye everybody.
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