Hello. Welcome to “Unto the End of the World,” a devotional that takes a look at Bible passages in light of the information that we are close to the day of judgment.
Today we will be taking a slight detour in order to discuss the Gulf oil spill and how it can be compared to the heart of man. Yes, I know that this sounds like an unusual comparison; but let us consider, as you are probably aware, that millions upon millions of gallons of oil have been gushing into the Gulf of Mexico for some time now, for many weeks.
This accident ranks as America’s worst environmental tragedy in history. It is one of the worst environmental disasters that the world has ever seen. Crews have been working for weeks to clean up this mess in the Gulf region, but this battle to clean up the oil and to protect the coastline seems to be almost an impossible task while the leak in the ocean floor continues to spew great amounts of oil into the water.
This disaster clean-up paints a very vivid and accurate picture of man’s battle against sin. In the Bible, God commands man to repent. We are to repent of our sin, which the Bible has nothing good to say about. It is typified as dirty and filthy, and this is why stinky and sludgy oil is a good representation, really, of what spiritually goes on within the heart of man. It is all manner of wickedness and filthiness. When we see the images of the oil washing up on the pure, white beaches of Florida or Alabama or Louisiana, we really are getting a good representation of man’s own sinful nature and his spiritual filthiness before God.
Sin, like this leaking oil, fouls everything it touches. We find that these crews are working hard as they clean up a beach or as they clean up a marshland or as they set booms to prevent the oil from reaching land, and yet it seems to be never-ending because the oil keeps coming.
While this oil is gushing forth out of the ocean bottom, how can the clean-up crews really make any headway at all? Regardless of how hard they try, it seems that the clean-up effort just cannot get to this mess.
Again, God tells us; actually, He commands us—He is not asking—He commands, “Repent! Repent!” for He has established a day in which He will judge the world. “God…now commandeth all men every where to repent.”
Many people, a good number of people, very well may hear this information about Judgment Day and realize, “I have to turn. I have to repent from my sin,” and so they quit drinking or perhaps they stop smoking. They realize that they are going to have to avoid cursing and to stop using foul language.
You see, they are cleaning up their act. They realize that these things are contrary to living a good life and to obeying the Law of God. So in a very similar way, they are trying to clean up their words and the things that they do, very much like these crews are trying to clean up the effects of the oil; and yet there is a greater problem.
All of us see this when it comes to the Gulf oil catastrophe. We realize that the oil is still gushing. Even if they make excellent headway in cleaning up the results of this on the beaches, in the marshes, or in any of the other areas, we understand that the real problem is deep-seated and at the very bottom of the ocean. It is not only in that hole 5,000-feet down, but it goes much deeper into the heart of the earth. They have drilled further down and tremendous amounts of oil are gushing, they are gushing out of this broken pipe and leaking into the ocean. This is the problem.
As we watch this disaster continue to unfold, we realize that they have to stop the leak. This is the number one thing. All of the other efforts are noble. They are, of course, necessary and have to be done; so, too, as God commands us to repent. Yes, indeed, stop drinking, stop smoking, stop doing drugs, stop cursing, stop lusting after others in your mind, stop coveting. Do all that you can to stop; and yet, however, there is a deeper problem than the outward clean-up.
Jesus puts His finger on the heart of this problem in Matthew 15. Please allow me to turn there and I will read a few verses. We read in Matthew 15:18-20:
But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man.
You see, this is the problem that we have. Throw away the cigarettes. Stop going to the bar. Yes, yes! This is part of repentance. But when God commands of man to repent, this means that man is to turn from the evil that is within him, to turn from a gushing sewer, a gushing cesspool of iniquity that is flowing forth from his heart.
A great problem that people have is they think, “If I can clean up outwardly—if I can clean up the beach, as we continue to use this analogy of the oil spill—if I can clean this up, then all is well between me and God.” But no, not while there is a broken oil rig and oil is gushing forth, because the filthiness is still there and there is pollution.
This is, likewise, the same problem while man still has “an evil heart of unbelief,” because the Bible has nothing good to say about a person’s heart prior to salvation. It says of man that we have a “desperately wicked” and “deceitful” heart. It says that we have a heart of stone, a heart of unbelief, a heart where all manner of evil proceeds forth. It is flowing out into our lives and this is why we do wrong things and think wrong things and say wrong things; this is the problem.
The answer for the oil well is that, hopefully, someday soon, by God’s grace, they will figure out how to stop the oil. But the answer for man’s heart is that no man can repent of his own heart. No man can turn off this flow of iniquity. This is why the Bible says that we need “a new heart and a new spirit,” and yet we cannot do this ourselves.
I will read a few more verses. In Ezekiel 36, we read of what God does with those whom He saves. It says in Ezekiel 36:25-27:
Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.
Then we read in Ezekiel 36:29:
I will also save you from all your uncleannesses: and I will call for the corn, and will increase it, and lay no famine upon you.
We find here the solution of how to stop the spewing forth of sin, how to plug the hole in our own hearts, in a sense. We go to God and we beseech Him, “O Lord, this is something that I cannot do. You command me to repent, and I will turn from the things that I can turn from, but there is no way that I can turn from my own heart. This is why I need a Saviour. I need You to have mercy on me and to cleanse me and to give me a new heart in order that filthy sins can no longer come forth.”
This is the prayer that we need to make as we go to God and ask Him to have mercy upon us before this appointed day of judgment arrives.