06/19/18 BUCKET OF DEAD FISH
(NOTES to a DASH-CAM VIDEO)
God wants to remove the stench of the Old Man from the Christian's life.
This is a video that addresses the problem of the sin nature remaining after conversion, and God's solution to that problem.
Brother Bryan, I thought you would like this, because it is a wonderful truth, and because I use some familiar imagery that you will enjoy.
I went fishing 3 days ago. I caught bait fish and put them in the bait bucket. I thought I had used up all my bait, so when I unloaded my car at the end of the day, I did not remove the bait bucket. hehehe But there were several fish still in the bucket.
Now, three vary hot days later, I got into the car, and did it smell fishy? WOW.
I removed the bucket with the fish and cleaned it out. When I returned to the car, the smell was almost gone and after a short period of time, with the windows and hatch opened, the smell was mostly gone. It did not take long before the care was back to normal.
This is not a perfect example for my message. It is not a Biblical example of my message. But it is a good example.
Sometimes we do something, thinking that we have done everything we are supposed to do, when in fact, we have left something undone. That is what I did. I thought I had taken everything out of the car that needed to be removed. BUT I WAS WRONG. I had left dead fish in my car sitting through two very hot days.
Sometimes we don't realize we have left something undone, until later when the evidence speaks up for itself.
In salvation, when a person comes to Jesus, a believer is not purified completely from all forms of sin. But remember, the Bible does not promise complete cleansing from all sin for the new believer. The Bible does teach that Christ cleanses from all sin, completely.
That sounds like a contradiction, but it is not. Both statements are true, but they are not concurrent. We are not purified at conversion, but we purified from all sin at some point in our obedient Christian walk.
"Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord and who shall stand in His holy place."
"He that hath clean hands and a pure heart." (Psalm 24:3)
Two different things, two separate answers for the two questions.
CLEANSE YOUR HANDS YOU SINNERS, and
PURIFY YOUR HEARTS, YOU DOUBLE MINDED.
The Bible teaches that at our conversion, we get the mind of Christ, but we still have the mind of the flesh, the carnal mind, which makes us DOUBLE MINDED. We then have the Carnal Mind and the Spiritual Mind, and they are at odds with one another, they are at war with one another.
Paul addresses this problem by telling us in Romans chapter 7 that I do the things I don't want to do and the things I don't want to do I end up doing.
Then Paul asks, "Who shall deliver me from this body of death?"
That is double mindedness. Christians are plagued with double mindedness after conversion. They have a desire for the things of heaven and of God, but they also have a desire for the things of this world.
In other words, they have cleansed their hands, cleansed their behavior, cleansed their conscience, cleansed from an old way of life, but they are not pure, even as Christ is pure. There is plenty of Scripture that verifies all that I just said. However, the illustration I am about to give you is not a Bible illustration, but it does work.
Sometimes we think we have taken care of all that we need to do. This is true for Christians. When they get saved, they know they have been cleansed, and restored and regenerated and forgiven. They do not realize that they have not been purified. It is not until they come face to face with their carnal self that they realize they need a deeper cleansing than from sins committed, cleansing a defiled conscience, cleansing from sinful living. But the cleansing they have received is not entire cleansing, complete cleansing, purification.
The Bible never promised that kind of cleansing for the new convert. It is not until later in our walk with God that we come to realize our need for purification of the heart.
Cleanse your hands you sinners and purify your hearts you double minded.
Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord and who shall stand in His holy place?
He that has...
CLEAN HANDS.
Clean hands is related to what you do... your behavior, your actions.
The Bible says that the born again believer CANNOT SIN (1 Jn. 3:9).
This does not mean that a believer is unable to ever disobey God. What it does mean is that a person who is a born again believer cannot sin and still be a born again believer, because being born again saves us from sinning.
He that commits sin is of the devil (1 Jn. 3:8).
He that is born of God does not commit sin (1 Jn. 3:9).
YOUR HANDS HAVE TO DO WITH WHAT YOU DO.
Cleanse your hands, YOU SINNERS.
Unsaved people are sinners.
They are sinning.
They are committing sin.
They are living in sin.
Cleanse your hands you sinners, and PURIFY YOUR HEARTS YOU DOUBLE MINDED.
After two days in the blistering heat, the dead fish were stinking up the car.
I took the bucket to the faucet, dumped the dead fish, washed the bait bucket. There was hardly any smell. I have ridden around with the windows open and I don't know that I have any stench in here at all.
Sometimes we have a problem in life but do not realize it.
Remember, I had the dead fish in the car when I came home from kayak fishing, but did not realize the fish were still in the car.
The fish were starting to smell on Saturday night, and really smelling by Sunday and totally stunk (past and past participle of stink).
But I did not realize it Saturday, Sunday or Monday, because I did not use the car.
However, on Tuesday I found out as soon as I opened the door to my car.
When Jesus was out of town, His friend Lazarus got sick and his sisters wanted Jesus to come back to their home to heal him. But Jesus did not get back until after Lazarus was dead for a few days. (God was in control, in spite of the apparent schedule mix up.) They thought His "late arrival" meant doom and gloom for the family because Lazarus had been dead several days and someone said, "Surely he stinketh." (hehehe, that is KJV).
I am sure he did stink. He was dead and starting to decompose. STILL, Jesus raised him from the dead.
Jesus stood outside of the tomb and said,
ROLL THE STONE AWAY.
Then He said,
LOOSE HIM AND LET HIM GO.
WOOOOO. Loose him and let him go.
This is a picture of salvation.
First there is the removing of the stone.
Then the call of Jesus to those who are dead in sins and trespasses.
Then the dead answer the call of God.
Then the resurrected are loosed and let go.
In salvation there is an initial work of regeneration, symbolized in resurrection of Lazarus.
To be alive in Christ we must be born again. If we are not born of the Spirit, we are not God's children.
YOU MUST BE BORN AGAIN.
First Lazarus was raised from the dead.
But that was not all.
Lazarus needed to be loosed from his grave clothes.
Lazarus was bound; hands, arms, legs, feet, head in grave clothes.
He was all dressed up and nowhere to go.
As a dead man, he smelled bad.
But Jesus said, "roll the stone away."
When we preach the gospel, we are rolling the stone away. We are opening the words of life. When we tell other people about Jesus, we are rolling the stone away.
Then the dead hear the voice of God calling them by name, calling them to life.
LAZARUS, COME FORTH, Jesus said.
When he was called, Lazarus came forth, came out of the tomb. He was still bound in those grave clothes, and Jesus said, Loose him and let him go.
When they loosed Lazarus, I am sure he took off, walking and leaping and praising God. I know that is a different passage, but I have no problem seeing Lazarus celebrating his new life, his new freedom. I imagine he ran over to loved ones, hugging them, kissing them, laughing, crying. I'M ALIVE AND I AM SET FREE.
First, in our salvation, we are made alive, regenerated, born again.
But that does not make us pure.
We are still bound by the grave clothes of the Old Man, the Law of Sin and Death. We still have a stench of death clinging to us. This old life continues until God delivers us from the Old Man.
We are delivered from the Old Man when he (it) is crucified with Christ.
Conversion includes life through regeneration.
Purification comes about through death.
Being dead to the Satan's system, the world and the world dead to us.
Being dead to sin.
Being dead to self.
I got in the car and I could smell the dead and rotting dead fish. Up to that moment I though everything was fine.
As you are going along in your Christian life, things go along fine until you run into a snag, then something begins to stink. Something makes it evident that there is a problem.
Yes, you are born again, you have a new direction in life, you have power to live victoriously, YOU DO NOT HAVE TO COMMIT SIN, YOU WALK IN NEWNESS OF LIFE, but there is an internal rebellious streak of nastiness.
You can get the boy out of the country.
In salvation you can get the boy out of sin.
Listen, if you don't get out of sin, then you ain't saved, 'cause that is what salvation does.
The old saying goes on to say, "But you can't get the country out of the boy."
In keeping with that analogy, some people would then say, BUT YOU CAN'T get the sin our of the boy.
WELL, I agree. YOU CAN'T, BUT I KNOW SOMEBODY WHO CAN. (SMILE).
Because Jesus sanctifies ENTIRELY, He cleanses ENTIRELY.
Paul said,
"And may the God of peace SANCTIFY YOU ENTIRELY. And I pray God that your whole body, soul, and spirit be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."
THEN HE SAID,
"Faithful is He Who calls you Who will also do it." (1 Th. 5:23-24).
He has called us to purity of heart and life, having called us He will sanctify us completely.
After you are saved and begin to realize that there is something wrong down inside, then God is calling you to be pure, even as He is pure.
"Well, why didn't God cleanse me of my sinful nature at conversion," you may ask.
Because justification and regeneration had to do with your lost condition due to your rebellion, due to your sins.
Your sinful nature, your Old Man had to do with your inheritance from Adam. You were not guilty of having received a sinful nature, therefore you could not be forgiven. We can only be forgiven for our own guilt. Our inherited evil disposition was not of our own doing.
STILL, God has a deliverance for the Christian soul that seeks purity.
At salvation our sins are forgiven and our guilt is removed.
Forgiveness for repented sins. Any future sins still need the blood of Christ.
When you begin to notice something in your life that should not be there, it is not because you are not saved or you are not regenerated or our are not forgiven, or your have not been cleansed, but because you still carry about in you the old nature of sin.
We all need to be entirely sanctified
We all need the power and purity that comes from the fullness of the Holy Spirit in us.
Who shall deliver me from this body of death. Who is going to set me free from this internal bucket of death and corruption. This is what Paul cried out at the end of Romans chapter 7. But he answered that question with,
I THANK GOD, THROUGH JESUS CHRIST.
Defeated, even sinning people who call themselves Christians take comfort in erroneously believing that we are stuck on a road to failure and sin, but staying in the middle of Romans 7. But God showed us at the end of 7 and into Romans 8 that the Spirit filled life is the life of victory and purity.
People sin and repent, sin and repent, and eventually get tired and quit. The devil wants people to not worry about it by lying to them by telling them that their sins will not separate between them and God and the wages of sin is not death.
Salvation enables us to quit sinning and to keep on, "quit sinning" (hehehe).
God's plan of salvation includes cleansing from sins committed, polluted conscience, corrupt living, AND CLEANSING FROM ALL SIN, INCLUDING THE Old Man, aka the Carnal Mind, the Double Mind, the Law of Sin and Death, the Flesh, the Evil Heart of Unbelief, the Root of Bitterness.
God's provision makes us pure, even as He is pure; righteous, even as He is righteous; Holy, even as He is holy.
We get this purification through faith, just like we got forgiveness. It is not a self made purity, but a gift of God, as part of our salvation.
We realize when that old corruption rises up. It may be the stench of anger, lust, greed, envy, jealousy, deceit, hatred, pride. All sin stinks to God and we need His cleansing from all sin.
We must die to sin and be alive to God.
