December 5, 2011- Leftover Season

'Tis the season for leftovers. I don't doubt that there are families in our nation that don't have enough, and I hear on the news of hungry children in our own nation (which is indeed a sad situation and one which we should do what we should to keep that from happening in our own communities), but I do believe that on average Americans tend to have more than enough food and for various reasons the food on our tables grows exponentially (as does our waist lines) this time of year.

For now, let's think a bit on the leftovers of our own lives. Our God, out of His mere good pleasure… elected some to everlasting life… and by grace delivered us out of the estate of sin and misery wherein we once dwelt (see Westminster Shorter Catechism Q&A 20). But, the remnants of our old nature remain with us and so we have our own leftovers that we need to do something about.

I'm sure we all know that when we have too much food, or when the food that we have isn't very tasty (or when it's downright awful), subsequently we will have leftovers. Granted, if no one likes the food the first time it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to keep it around. But, not wanting to be wasteful (I guess that's the reason), we often keep it anyway and gradually it makes its way to the back of the fridge until we get around to cleaning it out sometime in March or April. By then, of course, it's usually stinky and moldy and we're not even sure what it used to be.

God's Word tells us, and our own experience in life confirms it, that we have sin remaining in our lives which is downright awful. It's stinky, it's moldy, it's not something that we should even want to touch or see or smell or spend time with at all, but there it is, hanging around – sometimes hidden in the back of our minds, but at other times it's right there in front, stinking up everything and affecting our testimony as believers in the Gospel of God.

Could you imagine pulling something out of the back of the fridge in March – something that might have been mashed potatoes, or maybe it was pumpkin pie, or then again maybe it was that green bean salad that Grandma made   but whatever it was then, it's not that now and yet what if we served it anyway? The entire thought is disturbing. And yet we have those old sins and those former sinful ways that have so long been a habit for us that we continue, day after day, to serve them up for others to witness.

The Holy Spirit effectually applied to us the redemption purchased by Christ, by working faith in us, and thereby uniting us to Christ… (WSC 30). And in doing so we're not only justified, but we're also sanctified – and we're being sanctified: set apart from sin and unto holiness. What that means is that we need to be cleaning out those old stinky leftovers of our hearts and minds.

It's not pleasant work, in fact it can be very painful and it can be something that we want to keep putting off, knowing that it needs to be done and thinking that we will someday, but just not right now. But why wait? Why take the incredible blessing that's ours, namely the ability to put away sin, and neglect to do so? Christ loves us so much that He not only paid the debt for our sin, but He also made it possible for us to be dying to sin every day of our lives here on earth – anticipating that day when all sin will be put off and we will know it no more forever.

In Christ we're partakers of a new feast, one in which every bit of nourishment our soul needs is perfectly provided for. By God's grace let's be living our lives on a daily basis being filled with the delicious food of His Word, and let's do so in such a way that there won't be any more room for those carnal, fleshly, stinky thoughts words, and deeds that have needed to be thrown out for a long time now.

That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Ephesians 4:22-24.