I had waited a long time to spend the weekend with my friend. Finally, the time had arrived. After being dropped off, with suitcase and sleeping
bag in hand, I was ready for the games to begin!
Up the steps I was guided to where I was to sleep. As the door creaked open, I was aghast at the sleeping quarters where I was to spend the next couple of nights. Clutter, mess, and filth would also be my bedfellows, if I were to spend the night in that bedroom.
Dirty, tattered curtains blocked most of the light filtering through the windows. I wondered if they had ever been washed, since they were installed. Strips of wallpaper curled off the wall, exposing its paste that clusters of roaches were feasting upon.
Spider webs laced across most of the corners and crevices. Clothes lay where they fell, when they were removed. I can’t swear to it, but I am positive I saw a dirty sock move slightly across the dusty, stained rug under its own power. A smell of armpits, sweat, and filth permeated from unwashed clothes and bedding. It was not a place that I would relish spending the night.
As politely as I could manage, I complained, “I really want to spend the night here with you. We could have such a good time together, but to be honest with you, um, this room is too filthy for me to even sleep in. I would not be comfortable here.”
My host surveyed his room and agreed with a nod that it was a mess.
“If I am to stay here, we’ve got to clean it up,” I suggested.
He was agreeable, and soon we were both working together to clean his room. Curtains, clothing, and bedding were washed more than once. Pests were sprayed and removed. Windows were scrubbed. Walls were wiped. Floors were vacuumed and scrubbed.
After much hard work, the room was cleaned. It even smelled clean and fresh. It was now a room I could comfortably sleep in.
As I and others would not be comfortable in such a filthy environment; so the Holy Spirit is not comfortable with His dwelling place in many lives. When a person gets saved, that person becomes the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. He becomes the living temple, where the Spirit of God indwells.
“Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?”
I Corinthians 3:16
“What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?” I Corinthians 6:19
As a person would not be comfortable in an unclean situation, neither is the Holy Spirit. The uncleanliness that displeases Him and stifles His working in our lives is our sin.
When a person is first saved, it is the voice of the Holy Spirit that whispers in his heart to work on eliminating sin. For each person, the Holy Spirit’s directions to clean up his “temple” are different. It may be a lying or drinking problem that the Holy Spirit urges the child of God to eliminate in order for the Spirit to be comfortable enough to work in his life. For others, it may be the sin of adultery, deceitfulness, cheating, or gossiping that He demands be stricken from the temple of the Living Spirit.
“And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” II Corinthians 6:16
“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” Romans 12:1
Too many disregard, disobey or ignore the whispering voice of the Holy Spirit to remove sin from their lives. In doing so, they grieve the Holy Spirit of God. Not doing as He commands is the same as telling him, “No!”. He does not leave, but He becomes silent. That is why so many people, gloriously saved, never do much or are used by God. The Holy Spirit insisted they clean up their “temple,” and they refused to do so. A dirty “temple” is one that will never bring honor to God, nor will it be used by God.
“Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.” Romans 6:13
All of us that are saved have many sins in our lives that need to be cleaned out. The Holy Spirit is so gracious in that He does not demand they all be cleaned up at once. One by one, He will point them out and help us clean up where only He knows the “filth” is hiding. Is there an area in your life that God’s Spirit is urging you to clean up? You will never be perfect and sin-free, but you can be a cleaner “temple” that can bring honor and glory to God.
“I believe the holier a man becomes, the more he mourns over the unholiness that remains in him.” — Spurgeon
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I had an aunt (she’s passed now) that smoked like a volcano! She use to tell me that she never (or would never) smoke in church or on church property in respect to God. Yet she didn’t respect the temple of the Holy Spirit (her body) when she’d smoke! Hmmmm!
A worldly, carnal Christian is almost a contradiction in terms. Sin in the life of a Christian robs him of victory and power. Jesus died to provide us a place in heaven, but he also died to save us from sin. Sin is to your life what rust is to steel.
Our salvation is free to us for the asking, all God needs is a commitment from you. After that, the Holy Ghost will begin to work with you to sanctify you. This is when you go to work for him. I think that we have fallen out with sanctification because none of us want to further any thought that we earn our salvation…we don’t, but we must work to clean ourselves up, not because our righteousness is anything to God, but because we owe him holiness because he commands it of us. Although it is a nuance in thinking, we have come to think that we are helpless, hopeless creatures that must sin, we just cannot help it. While that may be true on some level…a better truth is that when you clean out all the low grade stuff from your life….filthy language, alcohol, smoking, lust, etc… God can begin to work with you on the harder stuff, the deeper stuff…covetousness and the like. You cannot live your whole Christian life in one day, but you must get started some time.
When I was questioning this some years ago, a brother asked me how far I could go without sinning…one step? two? I didn’t know, but allowed that I could almost certainly go one step… He told me to keep repeating that step and soon I would complete a long journey without sin in my life. I am not 100% sanctified, only Jesus was, but I am not what I used to be and I am a whole lot closer to Him!
Thanks for this Bro Brinkworth…you tackle some great topics.
I believe this is one of the most important decisions a believer must make in his life. Many make the wrong choice in not heeding the wooing of the Holy Spirit and grieve Him with their dirty “temple”.
David, I really enjoyed your post.
I liked it when you said “because we owe him holiness” – you’re right! That’s the least we can do since He’s done so much for us.