DEAD FLIES IN THE OINTMENT
By Rev. James May
Ecclesiates 10:1 Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savour: so doth a little folly him that is in reputation for wisdom and honor.
THE DEATH OF A TREE
IT STARTED AS A SEEDLING ON THE SLOPES OF THE MOUNTAINS AND FOR OVER 100 YEARS THE GIANT TREE STOOD TALL AGAINST THE ELEMENTS. IT HAD OVERCOME THE GREAT AND VIOLENT STORMS OF LIFE, LIGHTNING STRIKES DID NOT DESTROY IT EVEN THOUGH IT BORE THE SCARS OF THE CONTEST. WINTER WEATHER WITH 60 FT SNOW FALLS AND BLIZZARD CONDITIONS DID NOT BRING IT DOWN. AVALANCHES AND ROCK SLIDES COULD NOT DESTROY IT, THOUGH AGAIN, IT BORE THE SCARS OF THE BATTLES FOR ITS EXISTENCE.
WHAT FINALLY DESTROYED THE GIANT TREE?
A HORDE OF BEETLES ATTACKED IT. AND LITTLE BY LITTLE, FROM THE INSIDE OUT, THE LIFE OF THAT TREE WAS SLOWLY EATEN AWAY AS THE HEART OF WAS CONSUMED AND DECAYED. FINALLY, AFTER ALL IT HAD ENDURED, THAT GIANT OF A TREE CAME CRASHING DOWN AND BECAME NOTHING BUT A HEAP OF ROTTEN, USELESS, DEAD WOOD. IN THE END, IT DIDN’T MATTER WHAT IT COULD HAVE BEEN, OR HOW GRAND IT WAS AT ITS HEIGHT OF EXISTIENCE. WHAT MATTERED MOST WAS THAT IN THE END, THE WOOD OF THAT TREE WAS FIT FOR NOTHING AND SERVED NO PURPOSE AT ALL
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What do the dead flies in the ointment and the dead wood of the tree have in common? They both began as something very useful, but because of the little things that were allowed to become a part of their lives, they became useless for anything.
I have a simple message for us all tonight. It’s nothing profound or something that will make you shout the house down, but it’s something that we all need to hear.
There are a lot of people who begin living for Jesus and for a time they run the race very well.
But like Paul said in Galatians 5:7, "Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?" And then in Galatians 5:8-9 Paul answers his own question by saying, "This persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you. A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump."
This isn’t just talking about the backslider; but about the ones who are drawing back from the call of God upon their lives, and to those who have lost their great zeal for the things of God.
When most people are first Born Again, you can just see and feel the excitement from within their hearts. They are so full of the joy of the Lord and sensing their newfound freedom, that they can’t help but tell others about Jesus and what the Lord has done for them.
But after a while that zeal begins to dim for many; and for some it even goes away and they go right back to their old way of life, forsaking the things of God and embracing again the things of the world.
What brings this process about? How can we go from being so full of the joy of the Lord one minute to down in the dumps and overcome with temptation and sin the next?
It’s all about the dead flies, or like the tree, the little beetles that we allow into our hearts!
The road to becoming a precious ointment are laid before us as we climb that hill to success and it always begins at the foot of the Cross. There Jesus saves us and cleanses us from the smell of death and sin, making us into a pure ointment to be used in winning souls to the Lord.
The heart and attitude of someone who is excited and on fire for God is a wonder to behold. Like the apothecary, the expensive perfume that you can find at the best shops, their spirit spreads to everyone around them. It’s a joy to be around someone who truly loves God. That’s all they want to talk about. You’ll find the fragrance of their life spreads the Word of God like a sweet smelling perfume. It just brings pleasure to everyone around.
Repentance for sin has filtered out the things of this world that would destroy the fragrance of their heart. Forgiveness comes forth to bring peace to everyone around. It’s just a wonderful feeling to be around the man or woman of God whose heart has been made pure and clean by the blood of the Lamb. There’s no worry of pretention, no concern for deception, they are as transparent and beautiful as any can be.
But as time goes on and the storms of life come, the battle scars begin to accumulate. First there are the attacks of the devil that come to make him doubt his salvation, and fears that what he has is not real. There are storms of sickness, troubles and trials; and in one of those storms, if he doesn’t keep his heart right with God, the dead flies can begin to gather.
Like the beetles in the giant tree these things begin to eat away at our heart, from the inside out that heart of purity before God begins to crumble; or like the perfume with the dead flies in it, the odor isn’t so pleasant anymore.
Little things like the pride we talked about this morning, or that little bit of a critical spirit, or allowing ourselves to become judgmental of others, all of these are like little deadly flies that make our life stink before God and our fellowman.
It is said that in the heat of the summer in the Arabian desert country, especially in the days of Solomon, that there were flies that would get into everything. It was hard to keep them out of any open jar, or even out of the tents. I guess it was kind of like having a swarm of mosquitos inside your tent driving you crazy and nearly impossible to get rid of without bug spray or repellent of some kind. Even behind a mosquito net, the sound of their humming will drive you crazy.
Have you ever laid in bed in the dark and heard that mosquito humming about your head? It’s not the “Hhhmmm…” that is so disturbing as is that sudden sound of quietness. Where did he land? That rascal’s going to bite me, I know it! Where is he? And suddenly all of your sleep leaves you and you begin to cover or move every part of your body, hoping to hear that little “Hhmmm…” once again. Then you finally get up and hunt him down with the vengeance of a murderous tiger and, if you find him, you smash him with a #12 shoe. Then, finally, you can lay back in peace.
Then all of a sudden you hear, “Hhmmmm…”, as another of his friends takes flight shattering the silence in the darkness. Then it’s time to pull out the big guns! Go get the bug spray and fill the room with that smelly, sticky, choking stuff. Then you lay back down, coughing and choking from the fumes, knowing that finally you’ve put an end to those pesky insects once and for all. Then the fumes die down, you begin to doze off to a peaceful sleep and then “Hhmmmm…”. One of them survived! Now what?
Around my mom’s house we battled carpenter ants for a long time. I think we’ve finally gotten the upper hand against them, but there’s still one or two around, just enough to let you know that they aren’t giving up in their battle to eat down the oak trees and maybe even the floor sills of the house. I tried spraying them, pouring scalding water on them, even dumping pure, undiluted bug killer on them; all to no avail. Then we finally gave up and called a professional exterminator.
That’s kind of the way it is with those “dead flies” that get into the spirit and ruin your peace. You try everything, but they’re still there. And the apothecary of your life, that sweet aroma of the Holy Ghost in you, suddenly has the odor of sin upon it.
You can’t cure the odor or get rid of the dead flies by yourself. The power of sin is too strong from us to overcome. Will power isn’t enough. Personal sacrifice and doing all forms of penance you can think off won’t rid you of those little dead flies of sin.
The only way to find complete deliverance is to get before God once again and be washed anew in the blood of Jesus Christ. There’s power in the blood; wonder working power; power to cleanse; power to overcome sin; power to destroy the grip that it has on your soul. No power of darkness can stand against the blood of Jesus and greater is the Spirit of God that is in you than all of the dead flies of sin that hell can throw against you. You can overcome by the blood of the Lamb and your testimony of God’s saving grace.
Even so, the scars, the memories of the failure, the knowledge that you have failed God so miserably tend to hang on for a long time because it’s easier to accept the forgiveness of God than to forgive yourself.
A tremendous amount of damage can be done to the heart of a man by just a moment of foolishness; one instant of allowing sin to enter; just allowing one little fox to get in and spoil the vine. Suddenly that link that you have with the vine, that link to the anointing power of God and the presence of the Lord in your life can become weak and then severed completely.
Let us be on guard against those dead flies. Let the sweet aroma of the perfume of the presence of the Holy Ghost in our lives, and Jesus in our hearts, be the only thing that both God and man will ever sense from us.
Let’s not let our lives become a stench from the odors of dead flies, those little sins, those little things that begin to accumulate and destroy our love of God and steal our victory.
We don’t have to let those flies come in! Nothing can separate us from the love of God; at least nothing that we won’t allow us to be separated from Him. No man, nothing of this world, and no power of darkness can separate us from the Love of God. But we can allow those dead flies to come in ourselves.
So be on guard. Keep your hearts and minds free from anything that will come between you and God. Let us ever be in an attitude of repentance for sin; and in an attitude of thankfulness, prayer and praise to the God that makes our life something that adds sweetness and goodness to those around us.
One thing we must not forget! When the heart of a Christian becomes overtaken with the things of this world, which are represented in those dead flies in the ointment, that’s when our attitude will begin to stink and we will spread spiritual poison everywhere we go.
Let us be among those who spread the life of God to a lost and dying world; and never allow ourselves to become one who spreads the death of rebellion among those who are alive in Jesus.
Don’t let the dead flies make your apothecary stink! Keep a sweet-smelling odor of the love and peace of God around you all of the time.
