1. Not long before she died in 1988, Marghanita Laski, one of our best-known secular humanists and novelists, said, "What I envy most about you Christians is your forgiveness; I have nobody to forgive me."

2. Let me say a couple of things about what Mrs. Laski said.
 First, I would have said to Mrs. Laski that she did have "Someone" to forgive her and she could have enjoyed the same forgiveness that every Christian has experienced and I trust she did before she died.
 Secondly, one of the blessings of being a Christian is that we can say our sins are forgiven and furthermore, when we sin, we can be forgiven of our sin.

3. We've considered those who questioned the profit of service. In Malachi 3:14 there were those who said, "It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept His ordinance?"

4. We considered those who questioned the profit of prayer. We saw in Job 21:15 those that said, "What profit should we have, if we pray unto Him?"

5. And we've considered Esau and his statement, "What profit shall this birthright do to me" (Gen.25:32)? We saw how Esau questioned the profit of spiritual blessings.

6. In our final message in this series I want us to consider how the matter of cleansing was questioned.
In our text, Elihu accuses Job of saying, "What profit shall I have if I be cleansed from sin?"
That's not exactly what Job said.
Job had referred to those he called wicked.
 In essence, Job was declaring that there were those who question
 the value and profit of being cleansed from their sin.
Is there profit in being cleansed?
Let's consider the statement and see if there is profit in being cleansed.

1.  What is the purpose of cleansing?
It's found in the last word of our text—the word "sin."
The purpose of cleansing has to do with sin in our life.
If there were no sin there wouldn't be a need for cleansing.
Sin creates the need for cleansing.
There's the matter of dealing with sin.
The purpose of cleansing is the way we deal with sin.
Let's think a moment about the matter of sin.

2.  What is it? What is sin? The Bible defines and describes sin in many different ways.
There are many words used in the Bible to define sin.
Let's take the word "sin" that is used in our text.

A. THE COMMITTING OF SIN.

1. The particular word that's used speaks of an offence.
It's descriptive of an offender.
It comes from a word that means, "to miss."
The word is sometimes used to speak of habitual sinfulness.
The word is used to speak of the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah in
Genesis 18:20, "And the Lord said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous."
     The sin of the citizens of Sodom and Gomorrah was a habitual lifestyle that was both offensive and grievous to God.

2. What is sin? As defined by our text, sin is offending God.

A good description is given in Genesis 50:17.
Jacob dies and Joseph's brothers are fearful that Joseph will take revenge for all they did to him, so they sent a messenger to Joseph with this message:    "So shall ye say unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee now, the trespass of thy brethren, and their sin; for they did unto thee evil…"

3. They spoke of their "sin" (our word) as actions whereby they did evil things to Joseph.
 They had done Joseph wrong.
 They had committed an offence against Joseph.

4. David prayed in Psalm 51:2, "Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin (our word)."

How did he view his sin?
We hear him saying in Psalm 51:4, "Against thee, thee only, have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight."
 David saw his sin as offending God and as an offence against God.

5.   Sin is breaking God's laws.
      Sin is missing God's mark.
      Sin is offending the God whose laws you've broken.

SO, just as the word suggests, sometimes this is a regular thing.

B. THE CONSEQUENCES OF SIN.

1.  The word also includes the penalty for the offence that we're  guilty of.
 There isn't only the committing of sin, an offence against God, but also the consequences for doing it.

2. Sin always has an expensive price tag.
 David would be a good example to testify that sin isn't without a price or consequences.
I mentioned of how in Psalm 51 he described his sin as an offence to God, but he also testifies in Psalm 51 of the penalty of his sin.

Turn to Psalm 51 if you will.

3. As I look at Psalm 51 I see that there were seven affects sin had in David's life.
First we see that sin will SOIL THE SOUL.

David says in verse 2, "wash me…cleanse me."
David felt dirty.  He couldn't take a bath in his marble tub and wash away the dirty feeling he had deep in his soul.
Sin soils the soul.

4. Secondly, we see that sin will SATURATE THE MIND.

 David said in verse 3, "my sin in ever before me."
Day and night, night and day, what David had done always on his mind.
He couldn't forget his sin.
Sin will saturate the mind.

4. Thirdly, we see that sin will STING THE CONSCIENCE.

David said in verse 4, "Against thee, thee only, have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight."
David was a conscious-smitten man.
He knew he had broken God's law and broken God's heart.
Sin will sting the conscience.

5. Fourthly, we see that sin will SADDENED THE HEART.

David said in verse 8, "Make me to hear joy and gladness" and in verse 12, "Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation."
 He had lost his joy, happiness, and peace.
 Sin had left him miserable.
 Sin will saddened the heart.

6. Fifthly, we see that sin will SICKEN THE BODY.

David speaks of the "bones which thou hast broken" in verse 8.
David is speaking poetically and not literally.
His bones hadn't been literally broken, but he had suffered physically as a result of his sin.
Not all sickness is due to sin, but sin affects us in many ways, even physically.    Sin will sicken the body.

7. Sixthly, we see that sin will SOUR THE SPIRIT.

David prays in verse 10, "Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me."
Sin had affected David's attitude and spirit.
David became critical and judgmental.
His sin affected how he saw things and looked at others.
Sin will sour the spirit.

8. Last, we see that will SEAL THE LIPS.

David said in verse 13, "Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee."
His praise had dried up.
His witness had been silenced.
Sin always brings to a halt all spiritual activities.
Sin will seal the lips.

9. Ask David if sin has consequences?

 He would tell you in a second that sin always has a price and sin always has a penalty.
This is the purpose of cleansing.
 It's to deal with the committing of sin and the consequences of sin.

David was saying,
 "God you can make me clean again. You can wash me and make me whiter than snow."

In Psalm 32, the companion to Psalm 51, David said in verse 1, "Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered."

2. David, as guilty a sinner and offender as he was, found forgiveness and cleansing.
The promise of God is that He'll cleanse our sins.
Let me show you such a promise. Notice 1 John 1:9, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

3. Let's notice this promise of cleansing.

A. WHO CAN BE CLEANSED?

1. Now there may be some that are saying, "But you don't know what I've done. God could never forgive me.  I've been a wicked sinner.
I've done some really bad things.
God could never forgive me."

Look at His promise.
2. Notice 1 John 1:7, "…the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin."
Who is the "us" in this verse?
He says in verse 9, "If we confess our sins."
Who is the "we" in this verse?
Are there some that aren't included in this "us" or "we?"
Is this "us" or "we" restricted to certain people?

3. The answer in given in 1 John 2:1, "My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous."

John says, "any man."
"Any man" means, "any man."
It doesn't matter who you are,  you can be cleansed.

4. God puts no restrictions or limits on who can be forgiven and cleansed from sin. It is anybody and everybody offer. It is "any man."

B. WHAT CAN BE CLEANSED?

1.  Again, someone might be thinking, "But I've done this and I've done that. God won't  and can't forgive me for what I've done."
Think with me once again of David.

In Psalm 51 David was guilty of some serious sins.
     He was guilty of adultery.    -----        That's serious, wouldn't you agree?
     He was also guilty of murder.  ------- He had arranged the death of Uriah. I think you'd all agree with me that murder is a
                                                               very serious offence. But yet, David testified that God forgave him and washed him
                                                               as white as snow.

2.  I think of Karla Faye Tucker who was executed by lethal injection February 3, 1998 in Texas.
 She was the first woman executed in the Texas since the Civil War and perhaps no execution has drawn so much public sympathy and pleas for mercy and clemency as hers.

She was executed for murder. She and a companion, Daniel Garret, in June of 1983 brutally murdered Jerry Lynn Dean and Deborah Thornton.

What they did was horrible. Their crime was without mercy. There are almost no words to describe the scene.

3.  That night they slipped into Dean's apartment where he was in bed with Deborah Thornton.
Garrett grabbed a hammer and struck Dean was he was starting to get out of bed.

When he fell back he struck him several more times in the head with the hammer. Then Karla Faye Tucker picked up a pickaxe and buried it in the torso of Deborah Thornton.

With that pickaxe she kept on striking Thornton in the chest, legs, stomach, shoulders turning her body into mush.

Garrett then threw a blanket over Tucker's head and blindfolded she treated Thornton's body as a piñata, striking with the pickaxe.

She then turned to Dean and finished him off with 20 blows.
She left the pickaxe stuck in the heart of Deborah Thornton.

4. What words do you use to describe such cruelty, brutality, and merciless killing?
    What adjectives do you use to depict Karla Faye Tucker and her crime, her sin, her deed?

What she did, if we put sin into categories, would put her in a class of the  worst of the worst, the vilest of the vile, and the darkest of the dark.

I think you would all agree that her crime is among the worst one could commit and her sin as dark as sin can be.

5. Yet, in October 1983, a ministry team had just concluded its program at the Harris County Jail. Karen Gill, a Christian and reformed drug addict had just finished giving her testimony about a childhood on heroin.

A pale, frizzy-haired young woman approached Gill and wanted to know if it was true that she had been 12 when she first plunged a needle into her arm? Gill said yes and the woman said, "Well, I was ten."

That woman was Karla Faye Tucker and she carried a Bible back to her cell and there she trusted Jesus Christ as her personal Saviour.

She said in an interview, "I asked Him to forgive me and I knew I needed forgiveness, and I knew that I had done something really horrible."

6. If God can forgive Karla Faye Tucker for what she did, God can forgive you for what you've done.
There's no sin that you can commit that God won't forgive you for.
     Perhaps your sin is adultery.
     Perhaps it has been an abortion.
     Perhaps it has been perversion.

Whatever sin you can think of God can forgive it and wash you as white as snow.
There's nothing God won't and can't forgive.

7. The devil has often told people they couldn't be saved because of some sin they committed in the past.
The devil has often convinced people they couldn't be forgiven of some particular sin.
But listen to God's promise in 1 John 1:7, "the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from ALL sin."
Listen to God's promise in 1 John 1:9, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from ALL unrighteousness."

8. All God asks of you is that you confess the sins you've committed and He'll cleanse you of that sin.

9. One night many years ago at the Old Lighthouse, the Pacific Garden Mission in Chicago, Illinois, a man rather slight of build slipped into the services.

He like so many that came to the mission was under the influence of alcohol. He didn't respond to the invitation, but he kept coming back to the services.

Still he didn't respond to the invitation.

10. The workers of the mission had gotten to know who he was.
He was a professional entertainer. "Mac," as he was called, was in town between bookings.
He was as he later testified, "a slave of Satan, sin, and suds."

11. Mr. and Mrs. Walter Taylor, better known as Ma and Pa Taylor, were running the mission at the time. Ma, had been in the entertainment field before she was saved and knew of its many pitfalls and temptations. Her heart went out to Mac and she began to pray that God would save Mac.

12. One night, the service was in progress, and Ma Taylor was playing one of the big, nine-foot Steinway Grand's that Billy Sunday had given the mission. Ma looked toward Mac and saw that he was trying his best to sing with them. When the singing was over, she noticed that he listened to every word of the speaker. When the speaker was over, the invitation was given. The first one to respond was Mac.

13. As the invitation continued, Ma Taylor could see that Mac was having some sort of trouble. She motioned for someone to take her place on the piano. She went and knelt down beside Mac.
    As she did, she heard him say, "But you don't understand, you don't know how bad I am, Lord. Really I'm the worst man in the world. You can't save me, I'm too bad."

14. Ma Taylor began to speak to Mac.   She said, "Mac, Calvary covers it all--all the sin of your past life!" Mac looked at her and said, "Please say that again, Mrs. Taylor."
    Ma Taylor repeated, "Mac, Calvary covers it all!" There was a moment of silence and then Mac replied, "Calvary does cover it all! My whole past of sin and shame! Oh! Mrs. Taylor, I'm so glad its true and you told me."

That night, Walter MacDonald became a new creature in Christ.
As he used to say, "Jesus found me and made me all over at the Pacific Garden Mission."
Happy Mac, as he became known after his conversion, left the entertainment world and went on to become an Evangelist and outstanding soulwinner.

15. A few days later, Ma Taylor went into the chapel when no one was there, and in the quietness of the hour, sat down at the piano and wrote "Calvary Covers It All."

16. Friend, Calvary does cover it all!

   That's the promise of cleansing.

1.  The question was asked, "What advantage will it be unto thee? And what profit shall I have if I be cleansed from my sin?"
What is the profit of cleansing?

Once again, let me draw your attention to 1 John 1:9 and briefly share with you two things about the profit of cleansing.

A. CLEANSED SIN IS FORGIVEN SIN.

1. 1 John 1:9 tell us that two things happen to our sins when they're confessed.

For one thing, they are "cleansed."
Look at the verse again, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness"    (1 John 1:9).

2. The word "cleanse" simply means to "make clean."
It's like taking a dirty garment and washing it, leaving it without spot or blemish.
When we're cleansed we're washed as white as snow.
The blood of Jesus washes away all the dirt and defilement of the sin we commit.

3. In other words, God forgives us of our sins, cleansing us of that sin.
Our souls are left pure before God, cleansed and as white as snow.

B. CLEANSED SIN IS FORGOTTEN SIN.

1. Notice the word "forgiven" in 1 John 1:9.

This word takes forgiveness a step further and helps us to appreciate even more the profit of cleansing. The word literally means, "to send away or send forth."
    When God cleanses us of our sin He not forgives our sin but He also forgets our sin.  Our sins are "sent away."

2. The picture is of the Old Testament scapegoat.

We read in Leviticus 16:9-10, "And Aaron shall bring the goat upon which the Lord's lot fell, and offer him for a sin offering. [10] But the goat, on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat, shall be presented alive before the Lord, to make an atonement with him, and to let him go for a scapegoat into the wilderness."

3.  There were two goats and one was chosen as a scapegoat.
One goat would be offered as sin offering. The priest would lay his hand on the goat chosen to be the scapegoat, symbolizing that the sins of the people were being placed on the goat, and then carried out into the wilderness and turned loose.
 This symbolized that are sins were being carried away never to be faced again.

They were being "sent away."

4. Thank God, when we confess our sins and God cleanses our sin they're removed as far as the east is from the west and buried in God's sea of forgetfulness.

As far as God is concerned,  they're gone.   It never took place!

5. Do you want to be cleansed of your sin?
            Do you want your sins removed and sent away?
                        Then my friend, that's the profit of cleansing.
                                    And it can be done today.  Right Now!