Remove the Filth

Remember the character from the Peanuts comic strip named PigPen? He walked around everywhere surrounded by a cloud of dust because he stayed filthy. If we were to try to come in the house when we were younger our mothers might be heard saying "take those filthy clothes off before you come in this house!" They did not want filthy garments in their clean house; they didn't belong. We would have to remove those filthy clothes before it was acceptable to them.

Isn't sin like that? Ever since the first sin in the garden of Eden we became dirty in the eyes of God. Before we could be acceptable in His sight we had to do something about our sin. There is an example of someone standing before God who is filthy and in need of changing their garments. Read Zechariah 3:1-5. Satan as the accuser tries to point out our sins that separate us from God, thus symbolized in this story as the filthy garments. Thanks be to God that the power of the accuser is not as great as Heaven's Oxy Clean. The Lord knew just how to make us clean in His sight.

For those of us since the death of Christ the way to be considered clean in the sight of God is through the blood of His Son. Have you been washed in the blood of the Lamb by being immersed into Christ? (Acts 2:38; Rom. 6:3-4; 1 Pet. 3:21) If you haven't obeyed the gospel and you're at the age where you know your sins have hurt God (2 Cor. 7:9) you're still standing before God in filthy garments with Satan accusing you night and day. Are you like those in the church at Sardis who had soiled their garments or are you like the others in Sardis who are walking with the Lord in white? (Rev. 3) The choice is yours as to whether or not you wash your robes and make them white in the blood of the lamb (Rev. 7:14). If your garments are filthy, change your clothes to remove the filth!