Shedding Our Filthy Clothing

Isaiah 64:4-7

Jim Davis

The decade of the nineties has revealed that our world is facing a moral dilemma. I believe that the moral dilemma began before the decade of nineties, however the last decade revealed how far we have slipped morally. In 1991 a Harvard psychiatry professor who surveyed 5,000 children was shocked to find that the moral standards of nearly 60% of them were motivated by self-gratification. Many of these kids, the professor says, have been reared without any sense of guilt or shame. ("Does anybody care about 'moral literacy'?" Discipleship Journal, Jan/Feb 1991 [#61]. Page 12.) This survey was taken in 1991, which makes it is obvious that the moral dilemma began before the nineties.

The heroes and leaders we have exalted in the decade of the nineties have made this moral decay evident. Many times we want to blame our dilemma on the leaders and the heroes, but in a real sense those we choose as leaders and exalt as our heroes merely reflect the values we accept as valid.

There was a book written in 1976 by Dr. Wayne Dyer, Your Erroneous Zone. Dr. Dyer says, "Guilt is the most useless of all behaviors. It is by far the greatest waste of emotional energy. Guilt zones must be exterminated, spray-cleaned, and sterilized forever. Perhaps you've learned that you shouldn't indulge yourself, or you mustn't enjoy a dirty joke, or participate in a certain kind of sexual behavior. You can learn to savor pleasure without a sense of guilt. You can learn to see yourself as someone who is capable of doing anything that fits into your own value system." Dr. Dyer encourages his readers to do something which you know is bound to result in feelings of guilt."

This book has sold over six million copies. This book was a gift that a member of the church gave me back in 1977. That Christian, who remains a good friend even today, believed that this book was a masterpiece to help overcome guilt. The real difficult challenge in spreading true Christianity today is that many in the church are living no different than their non-Christian friends. Both have the same moral values and neither feels guilty for how they live.

We are committing moral suicide one degree at a time. You have probably heard about the frog in a pan of water on the stove. The temperature was raised so gradually that he was insensitive to the change. He was finally cooked without ever trying to escape. Our acceptance of immoral behavior has been so minutely incremental over the past thirty years that our tolerance for immorality has become numbing.

Churches today are largely a reflection of the values society holds sacred. We have allowed ourselves to be intimidated by evolution and sophistication. Many Christians are living like bums walking the streets in rags who prefer to live far below their potential rather than rise to the level of their God given potential.

Isaiah 64:4-7
Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him. You come to the help of those who gladly do right, who remember your ways. But when we continued to sin against them, you were angry. How then can we be saved? All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away. No one calls on your name or strives to lay hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us and made us waste away because of our sins. (NIV)

We prefer to clothe ourselves with our own filthy self-righteous rags than to clothe ourselves with God's righteousness. Murder, rape, theft, corrupt politicians or dishonest businessmen no longer shock us. Television brings pornography and the foulest language into our homes. Statistics point to the break down of law, moral responsibility and even the conscience of our world. We are beginning to live like animals. We have become hostages of our own self-styled enlightened values.

I see this all the time in the workplace and in the church. If someone makes a mistake they pass the buck to someone else to relieve themselves of responsibility and guilt associated with their wrongdoing. God help them if they ever take an honest look at themselves.

Romans 1:29-32
They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them. (NIV)

When you take a close look at these verses in the context of the first three chapters of Romans, you discover that this descriptive language was also describing the self-righteous religious Jews of the first century.

Romans 2:1-3
You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. Now we know that God's judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. So when you, a mere man, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God's judgment? (NIV)

Romans 2:17-23
Now you, if you call yourself a Jew [I would like to take the liberty to insert the name "Christian" at this point]; if you rely on the law and brag about your relationship to God; if you know his will and approve of what is superior because you are instructed by the law; if you are convinced that you are a guide for the blind, a light for those who are in the dark, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of infants, because you have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth--you, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who brag about the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? (NIV)

There are many in the church walking around in their filthy self-righteous rags that could be wearing robes washed white in the blood of the Lamb. Of course, they must first admit that they are wearing rags. If you are afraid to recognize and confess that you are wearing these filthy rags to others, you must realize everybody else already knows about your filthy rags. They can smell them.

I grew up poor by this country's standards, but my mother always taught her children that even if someone was poor, they didn't have to walk around stinking with dirty clothes, because soap and water was cheap enough for the poorest person to afford. It is sad that in our sophisticated age many choose to walk around in their own filthy self-righteous rags, when they could be clothed with the righteousness of Christ. The righteousness of Christ isn't cheap, but it's free.

Most of us have had dreams where we were running around naked. You seek to hide or find some clothes so that your nakedness will not be exposed to others. When you find some clothes to put on they are always inadequate. Even when you find a place to hide in those dreams, someone always discovers you. The only relief during those dreams is to wake up and realize that you are dreaming. Maybe there is something in our subconscious mind that seeks to reveal our nakedness as we try to clothe ourselves with inadequate filthy self-righteous rags.

Facing Responsibility Is the Biggest Issue of Our Times

There is absolutely no help for those who deny their responsibility for their own behavior. Karl Menninger, in his book, "Whatever Became of Sin?" said, modern psychology's approach -- making guilt an aberration and treating self-blame as a fallacy -- in effect absolves people from any moral responsibility for their behavior.

When guilt feelings are derided as useless and unproductive, when shame is thought to be unwholesome, and when professional counselors encourage people to forgive themselves without repenting, what do we expect to become of the conscience?

It is our sense of responsibility that produces guilt. When we choose to avoid guilt, we choose to avoid responsibility for where we are. The saddest part about this is that we will not only remain where we are, but we will get even worse until we accept our personal responsibility.

All of us have had an experience similar to that of Willie in the comic strip, MOON MULLINS.

In the first picture he is slumped in a chair in front of the TV set, his coffee cup resting on his put belly, as he says, "You're awful quiet this morning, Mamie." She replies, "I've decided to let your conscience be your guide on your day off, Willie."

The next picture shows Willie outside washing a window, the lawnmower and rake in the background. He mutters, "Every time I listen to that blame thing, I end up ruinin' my relaxin'!"

When I was in college in the early 70's abortion was a big issue because of the new abortion law that had just been passed in 1972, Roe vs. Wade. I remember a preacher saying that abortion would eventually lead to euthanasia, because the underlying principle in abortion was disrespect for human life. What he said would come to pass, has come to pass. I don't think that preacher was a prophet, but I do believe that he understood something about human nature.

Now we have partial birth abortion. This is where a doctor pulls a baby from the womb feet first until only the head remains in the birth canal. At this point the baby is killed. This can take place in the last trimester of pregnancy. In just the last couple of weeks, I heard a talk radio program on WFLA 970 FM discussing the option of taking a baby's life one month after the baby is born. Some professor had written a book advocating the right to take a baby's life during the first month after birth. The professor was advocating the idea that a month old baby has not become aware that it is human. The talk show host was taking issue with the concept. Rightly so!

I was reading a piece in the paper about the fellow killing seven people just the other day. The reporter in his story hastened to say, "but they haven't discovered where he got the guns." It is as though we are assigning responsibility to inanimate objects. Take their guns and they will use knives; take their knives and the same people will use ball bats to bash someone's brains in. I remember when Jeffrey Dalmer's story broke. The news media was trying to figure out what made him commit such atrocities. When Jeffrey Dalmer became a Christian in prison he had to admit his personal responsibility. He accepted the responsibility and the guilt his crime bore. Even the judicial system said that he was remorseful over what he did.

Accepting personal responsibility is the biggest issue of our times. These issues have to do with avoiding our responsibility as we seek to legislate laws that seek to remove our guilt for otherwise irresponsible behavior. Today if something makes us feel guilty we simply change our value system to relieve the guilt rather than face the responsibility guilt places upon us.

It is hard to imagine how a person so spiritually poor could be clothed with the righteousness of Christ. However, you can't clothe yourself with the righteousness of Christ until you recognize that you are a beggar and accept the guilt your responsibility imposes.

We must Accept Moral Responsibility

When our sophisticated age denies God, it denies its responsibility for itself. After Abraham's descendants spent 430 years in Egyptian slavery, God led them through the Red Sea and gave them a law from Mt. Sinai describing their responsibilities. That law we call Ten Commandments. Those laws were given to teach their responsibility to man and God. In reality you can't refuse your responsibility to man or God without denying your responsibility to both. When God's grace led the slaves out of Egypt, he sought to teach them responsibility for themselves and their world. Their responsibility began with recognizing their responsibility to God and to one another.

This is where responsibility begins for every generation. Jesus said, "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." (Matthew 22:36-40 NIV) In these verses Jesus sums up the purpose of the law and the prophets.

To love your neighbor as yourself demands that you take responsibility for your life; else how can you know how to be responsible to your neighbor. In our world, we desire to make our neighbor feel guilty and responsible for what we do. If you offend your neighbor, maybe you need to take a good look at yourself, even if you believe you have done nothing wrong. Maybe you need to stop demanding your rights at the expense of your neighbor's peace of mind. If we spent half as much time confessing our wrongs as we spend trying to justify our wrongs, the church would become as meaningful as Christ meant for it to be.

The true teaching of the Bible hangs upon how we seek to love God and our fellowman. Biblical love demands responsibility.

1 John 3:16-18
This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. (NIV)

Sometimes it is essential that we be defrauded of our rights to keep from offending others.

1 Corinthians 6:5-9
I say this to shame you. Is it possible that there is nobody among you wise enough to judge a dispute between believers? The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means you have been completely defeated already. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated? Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you do this to your brothers. Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters. (NIV)

In these verses we understand what we do within the church is seen by unbelievers. Paul says, "But instead, one brother goes to law against another--and this in front of unbelievers!" What kind of impression does this church leave with the outside world? Regardless of how pure we may think our motives are; do our lives appear any different to those who live by the standards of our world.

Jesus was concerned about what others thought and took the greatest care to teach the truth without becoming offensive.

Matthew 17:24-27
After Jesus and his disciples arrived in Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma tax came to Peter and asked, "Doesn't your teacher pay the temple tax?" "Yes, he does," he replied. When Peter came into the house, Jesus was the first to speak. "What do you think, Simon?" he asked. "From whom do the kings of the earth collect duty and taxes-- from their own sons or from others?" "From others," Peter answered. "Then the sons are exempt," Jesus said to him. "But so that we may not offend them, go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours." (NIV)

We must be concerned about the weak conscious of another.

1 Corinthians 8:12-13
When you sin against your brothers in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to fall. (NIV)

We must do all things to bring honor and glory to God.

1 Corinthians10:31-33
So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God--even as I try to please everybody in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved. (NIV)

When we offend others, we discredit our own ministry.

2 Corinthians 6:3
We put no stumbling block in anyone's path, so that our ministry will not be discredited. (NIV)

To keep from becoming offensive and guilty of sin we must accept our responsibility to others.

2 Corinthians 8:20-21
We want to avoid any criticism of the way we administer this liberal gift. For we are taking pains to do what is right, not only in the eyes of the Lord but also in the eyes of men. (NIV)

Conclusion:

Over the next few weeks, Lord willing, I want us to take a fresh look at the Ten Commandments. I want us to look at the responsibility they impose upon each of us. I believe the Ten Commandments were written to help us live responsible lives before God and others.

In some countries people don't take a bath regular. They stink but they don't realize they stink. There is a great danger in walking around in our filthy rags of self-righteousness; we may become so accustom to the stench that we cease to smell the stink.