Cleanliness is Next to Godliness

Introduction:

All of us are probably well acquainted with mom rules. These are rules that mom’s tend to follow like when she wets her finger and wipes the dirt off of your face, or she fixes your ruffled shirt, or she tells you to tuck in your shirt tail. Mom’s seem to often be consumed with cleanliness.

So naturally the expression, “Cleanliness is next to godliness,” is often used by mom’s as the gospel truth, but it is also often a phrase that people believe is in the Bible itself.

1. Only God Can Cleanse Our Heart (vv. 1-2)

Psalm 24:2–5 ESV

for he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers. Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully. He will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation.

Psalm 24:2-5

2. An Unclean Heart is an Offense to God (vv.3-4)

David had sinned against a whole host of people. He had committed adultery. Some might even say that he used his power and forced Bathsheba into a relationship with him. Was she to refuse the king? Did she feel powerless? But then He tried to lie about it and have Uriah come home to cover up his sin. Next, he intentionally got Uriah drunk. He then had him murdered.

In all these offenses against people, David’s greatest offense was against God. He had broken nearly every commandment in this one treacherous affair. David recognized this, which is why he claimed that his sin was an offense to God. He calls his sin what it is: pure evil.

David also understood the power of a guilty conscience. That word conscience comes from two words: con, meaning with, and knowledge. David sinned with full knowledge of what he had done. God has designed our conscience, or our heart, to work with the Holy Spirit. It aches in our chest until we get resolution.

Worse than elbows on the table or smacking or talking with your mouth full, an unclean heart is an offense to One so much greater than your momma! It is a sin and offense to a holy God!

Illustration: Rev. Dimmesdale in the Scarlett Letter

3. We Are Born Unclean (v.5)

Babies aren’t born clean either. They have to be cleaned off and have diapers changed. They spit up and do other unmentionable things. But even worse, they intentionally wait until you are just about to fall asleep and then they cry out. They are angelic on the outside, but depraved on the inside. They are like gremlins!

The reason the Virgin Birth matters is because man is born tainted with original sin. We have a hard wiring towards evil because of the Fall. Evolutionists and humanists argue that we can be good for goodness sake. We can just get along. But the human heart is infected with such a viral disorder that it can’t help but exalt itself above any other that would challenge it.

James 4:1–10 ESV

What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

James 4:1-

4. A Clean Heart Comes from Genuine Confession of Sin (v.6)

1 John 1:9 ESV

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

5. A Clean Heart Comes Through the Work of the Holy Spirit (vv. 7-10)

John 15:7-

John 15:7–11 ESV

If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

6. A Clean Heart is Required for Fellowship with God (vv. 10-12)

1 John 1:5–7 ESV

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 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.

:5-

7. A Clean Heart Helps Clean Other Hearts (vv. 13-19)

Galatians 6:1–5 ESV

Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. For each will have to bear his own load.

Conclusion:

Mamma was right to worry about your cleanliness. She knew that dirtiness eventually led to sickness and sickness if it gets bad enough can even lead to death. But what is even worse is a sick heart. I dirty heart. There isn’t a soap on the planet that can cleanse it. There isn’t enough power in mamma’s spit to clean you up. You need the cleansing of Christ. The cross was what made it possible for us to be clean.

The invitation today was given long ago by the prophet Isaiah.

Isaiah 1:18 ESV

“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.