Christ Redeems the Filthy

SPROUL: Have you ever been out camping in the  woods, and you roast marshmallows? You get a   stick, and you stick the stick into the fire. You  build a little fire from the twigs, and at the   end, you want to make sure that you scatter the  things so that you don’t start the forest fire and   have that bear with the hat come around and—what’s  his name? Smoky—Smoky the Bear come around and   give you a hard time, give you a ticket. Or  you get that stick with the marshmallows, and   afterwards you want to clean it up. And have you  ever tried to move some of those sticks that have   been charred by the fire? And virtually, those  sticks—if you pull a stick out of the fire before   it is consumed by the fire—you want to save that  stick, keep it from perishing—you pull it out,   chances are, you’re going to get charcoal and  grime all over your hand. If you don’t wear   gloves, and you go with your bare hand to pull a  stick or a brand and keep it out of the fire, your   hands are going to get dirty. And that’s how God  describes not only Joshua, ladies and gentlemen,   but He’s describing you. He’s describing me:  a brand that has been snatched out of the   fire. So that when God redeems you, when God  rescues you and pulls you out of the flames,   He gets His hands dirty. And when He rescues you,  you are a brand snatched from the fire. That means  

you’re covered with creosote. You’re covered with  charcoal. You are a filthy mess. God doesn’t wait   for a person to be pure and unblemished before  He redeems him. That’s the gospel, isn’t it—that   while we are still filthy we are given the cloak  of the righteousness of Christ, to be received   in the fellowship with God, so that every  Christian is a brand snatched from the fire.