The Hall Closet
Dr. Larry Thorson
Psalm 32:1-7
1 Blessed are
those
whose transgressions are forgiven,
whose sins are covered.
2 Blessed are those
whose sin the LORD does not count against
them
and in whose spirit is no deceit.
3 When I kept silent,
my bones wasted away
through my groaning all day long.
4 For day and night
your hand was heavy on me;
my strength was sapped
as in the heat of summer.
5 Then I acknowledged my sin
to you
and did not cover up my iniquity.
I said, "I will confess
my transgressions to the LORD."
And you forgave
the guilt of my sin.
6 Therefore let all the
faithful pray to you
while you may be found;
surely the rising of the mighty waters
will not reach them.
7 You are my hiding place;
you will protect me from trouble
and surround me with songs of deliverance.
Today’s New International
Version Copyright © 2001, 2005 by International Bible Society
This spring we’ve been using Robert Munger’s book, My Heart,
Christ’s Home as the theme for
our sermons. It pictures the human heart
as a home with many rooms. One’s Christian walk starts by inviting Jesus to
make his home in our heart – and then Jesus goes from room to room – with each
room representing a different part of our lives – doing His renovating work
there.
Today the room we’re going to look into is “the hall closet” –
representing how we deal with our sin. But
before we begin, let’s hear God’s Word. Read
Psalm 32:1-7
In this chapter, Munger pictures Jesus talking with him, and
saying “There’s a peculiar odor in the house. Something must be dead around
here…. I think it is in the hall closet.” Indeed there is something in the
closet – something Munger describes as “dead
and rotting
things leftover from the old life.”
When Jesus says he wants to get rid of them, Munger gets mad. He
thinks to himself that he has already given him access to all these other rooms
in the house – and decides: “This is too much! I am not going to give him the
key.” But Jesus, reading his thoughts, says, “if you think I’m going to stay
here with this smell, you are mistaken” – and prepares to move onto the back
porch.
Of course, what the hall closet pictures are the sins we know we
need to rid of and we know we will…someday but for now we really don’t want to
get rid of them. Since we think we’re now
good Christians it’s convenient for us to hide them in the closet. And the
truth is this – all of us have things in our hall closets – things that need
cleaning up. It might be a bad temper, it might be a judgmental attitude. Maybe
it is a sexual thing. I don’t know what it is for you … but we all have them. We stuff the closet and then try to close the
door the best we can. Sometimes it
works, but sometimes it doesn’t.
Now sin has never been a very popular topic – I’m pretty sure you’re
not sitting there thinking, “Great, of all the Sundays I come to church he’s
got to preach about what a sinner I am!”
But the beginning of the good news is that we are sinners. “For all
have sinned” the Bible says – every one of us. We are all in the same boat.
That’s why Jesus came – to die for our sin – to provide for our forgiveness.
To admit that we need God is the beginning of experiencing God’s blessing
– as our psalm reminds us. “Blessed is [the one] whose transgressions are
forgiven, whose sins are covered.” Of
course, we can try and pretend this isn’t true – try and pretend we aren’t
sinners. But all we are doing is denying the truth – John says it like this: “If
we say we are without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.”
Bill Hybels, pastor of the 20,000 member
While our sins are probably different than Harry’s, we’re just as
capable of deceiving ourselves and missing the blessing of forgiveness. One way
we do this is by trying to “legitimize” our sin. That is, we take
it upon ourselves to decide that certain actions are not sinful. In this scheme what is right or wrong is not
what God says is right or wrong in the Bible, but what is right or wrong for me
– we redefine them to fit our desires. Like the man I heard about who left his
wife for another woman because he said God was leading him to do it. We
convince ourselves that sin is not sin.
A second way we deceive ourselves is when we try and minimize
our sin. We pretend like it isn’t a big deal. “It’s not really hurting anyone
– it’s not that big a deal,” we say. Or we compare ourselves to others: “Its
not like I’m a murderer or something - there are lot of people with worse
things in their hall closets!”
A third way we deceive ourselves and miss the blessing of
forgiveness is
when we try and rationalize our sin – make excuses. “I can’t help from getting angry – I’m an
emotional person.” Or “The government has enough money – this little fudge on
my taxes won’t really hurt anyone.” Or we
rationalize our sin by blaming others – like Adam did when God asked Adam why
he had eaten of the forbidden fruit. Do you remember who he blamed? “The woman!”
– and we men have been blaming women ever since! And not just any woman – but “the woman
you put here with me, she gave me some of the fruit!” It’s not my fault –
it is your fault, God, or someone or something else’s fault – my family
history, my genes, my financial situation, the pressure I’m under – we rationalize
our sin.
A final way we deceive ourselves and miss the blessing of
forgiveness is
when we try and hide our sin. That is, we try and
pretend it is
not there – hide it away so that no one can see it. We fool ourselves into
thinking that if we can keep people from seeing our sin – if we look good to
others – have the right image – then we are OK.
All of this is nothing less than self-deception – it doesn’t deal with
the reality of what we have in our hall closet!
That’s why
whenever the Scripture gives a summary of the good
news of Jesus’
forgiveness and new life – the gospel – that there is always one word used to
describe the response desired – do you
know the word?
John the Baptist used it in Mt. 3, as did Peter did
at Pentecost,
and of course Jesus over and over. Here it is:
“Repent,
for the kingdom of heaven is near.” (Mt. 4:17).
We receive forgiveness through repentance – in the
Scripture it is the fundamental response to the good news. This doesn’t mean we
earn our forgiveness by repenting – for forgiveness can’t be earned – there is
nothing we can do to deserve it.
God doesn’t force us to repent either. That’s why the call is to
“repent.” You see, “repent” means simply “to turn around.” To stop heading in one
direction and to start going in the other – to stop heading away from God, and
to start heading toward Him – to stop moving away from His forgiveness, and to
turn and embrace it.
When we do this … when we repent – turn around – what we find is
that God has been pursuing us all along, that He’s already
provided for
our forgiveness, and ready to embrace us and begin
His healing
work in us.
In My Heart, Christ’s Home, Munger finally does come to the
point where he realizes that trying to keep Jesus out of the hall closet doesn’t
make any sense, and so he comes to Jesus and says, “I’ll give you the key, but
you’ll have to open the closet and clean it out. I haven’t the strength to do
it.” And Jesus says, “I know you haven’t. Just give me the key. Just authorize
me to handle that closet and I will.” And that’s just what Jesus does – and
what Munger discovers is that joy that comes when we allow Jesus to do that
work:
What release and victory to have that dead thing out of my life. No matter what sin or what pain there might
be in my past,
Jesus is ready
to forgive, to heal and to make whole.
Friends, God is ready to forgive us for whatever is in our lives. Let’s
recognize our need, quit hiding, and come to Jesus –
honestly, just
as the sinners that we all are. And let us as God’s
family be
those who are instruments of His grace to other as we
represent Him
to each other. Let’s talk to Him about it right now.
Let’s pray.