Do I Need to Confess my Sins to Stay Saved?

one and verse nine we're gonna look at first John chapter 1 and verse 9 now as we turn there let me just tee up the context says we're looking at first John we're obviously looking at something that is written as part of the kingdom program it's applicable after the body of Christ has departed at the catching up so first John chapter 1 verse 9 and let me sort of tee it up this way the basic question that I want to consider this morning is this does the believer need to confess their sins to stay saved or to maintain a proper relationship with God and what's commonly taught today is this that what happens is you get saved in other words you believe the gospel that Christ died for your sins as bread rose again the third day you get saved and God forgives your sins but then what happens is as you go through life as a saved person you need to confess your sins on an ongoing basis in order to maintain your relationship with God that's what's commonly taught and the reason why people tend to teach that is first John 1:9 so look at it with me if you would first 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 so people look at that verse they say well God cleanses us but in order to do that we have to confess our sins so that's the issue that we're going to look at this morning let's open in a word of Prayer we'll jump in father we thank you for your word we thank you that it's perfect we thank you that you've preserved it without air we thank you that you've made it available to us in our language so we can read it and believe it and know what you would have us to understand help us each day to be in your word help us to have hearts that receive it and that that we believe it Lord as you have written that we don't change it but we believe it just as you have written and apply it to our lives it's in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ that we pray amen so let me start just by making sure we have the same foundation the way that someone is saved today is they're saved by the gospel first Corinthians 15 defines the gospel as for I delivered unto you first of all that which I received how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures and that he was buried and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures so in its simplest form if you just had to reduce it to its essence Christ died for our sins was buried and rose again Christ death burial and resurrection for our sin as the gospel it's that simple Ephesians 2 says for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God not of works lest any man should boast so if salvation has nothing to do with works and works include tithing and church membership and water baptism and turning over a new leaf and leaving a good life and giving to charity anything that that you do as an activity as an effort is a work and salvation is not based upon works it's based upon faith so so salvation occurs in a moment in an instant when you believe the gospel when you trust that Christ died for your sins on the cross god saves you in that moment forgives all your sins you're eternally saved you can never lose it that's the way the gospel operates so now with that as context I'm going to explain to you why first John 1:9 does not apply to your life today and the first reason it doesn't is it simply not written to you first John 1:9 is written for folks that are going through Daniels 70th week it's not written for you today so let me give you an example and this is just the craziness we live in the church is obsessed with prophecy and you've no doubt noticed this and what happens is one of the most common pastimes is figuring out who the Antichrist is and here's the simple rule the Antichrist is whatever political figure you don't like at any particular point in time right so at one point it was Anwar Sadat but then he died and then at one point it was Saddam Hussein but then he died and there'll be more right where people will identify so and so is the Antichrist but just think with me for a minute do you live during the time of prophecy in other words if you open for example the Book of Daniel Daniel tells you a whole bunch of things about the prints of the Covenant also called the man of sin also called the Assyrian also called the Beast he has he has many different nicknames ok well you can read about him in prophecy but you don't live during prophecy so let me let me make this clear see the the time period in which we live it was a mystery that was revealed to Paul by its nature as a mystery what that means is if you stood right here right before acts 9 and someone said draw me the timeline of history you would draw it like this because there is not one clue that the mystery even exists before God gives it to Paul there's not a soul on earth there's not a being in the universe safe for God the father that knows about the mystery it would look exactly like the now process that in your mind so when you're reading Daniel and Daniel talks about the man of sin when you read Matthew 24 and Matthew 24 talks about the man of sin that's part of the prophecy program now you can decide for yourself this is just my opinion but it is madness to think prophecy will be fulfilled during this time period if prophecy is fulfilled during the mystery then the mystery is hardly a mystery right let me put it this way although Ephesians 3:9 says the mystery was hid in God did God just give some hints because he's not good at keeping secrets I mean do you realize how mad that is here's what happens all the time you've had this someone has something they really want to tell you but they sort of don't so they sort of hem and haw and get you to ask him about it right so they give the little hints there here and there so you pry and then they have a reason to tell you because you asked right does God work that way did God have this mystery but he just got impatient and though he started giving out hints here and there in Daniel and Jeremiah because he couldn't keep it in you realize how insane that is so you decide for yourself my personal opinion there can't be things going on during the mystery that were prophesied because that would be a giveaway as to its existence and God didn't give it away so here's what happens today people look for the Antichrist to be revealed over here it's not going to happen because he's a creature of prophecy okay the same thing first John is not written to you trying to apply it today is just as silly as worrying about the mark of the beast today you don't have to worry about the mark of the beast because it can't possibly happen during the dispensation of grace now get with me Leviticus 16 I want to show you some things just about confession of sin so that you understand it now while you're turning there I want to tell you how first John 1:9 is it's frequently taught when first John 1:9 says if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness what people do with that is they say the following you got saved here and God forgave all your sins but what happens is as you go through life you sin and so those sins although they don't cause you to lose your salvation those sins interfere with your fellowship with God and so what you need to do is you have to confess them to get them forgiven otherwise your relationship with God is estranged and so what happens is the confession is of ongoing sin is the way that it works now what I want you to notice is the following confession of sin in the scriptures does not require the itemization of every sin committed so look at Leviticus 16 Leviticus 16 21 an Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat and confess over him notice this all the iniquities of the children of Israel and all their transgressions in all their sins do you think when he did that he listed them by name you see the point when Aaron is laying his hands on the goat does he go through every individual sin committed by every individual Israelite he wouldn't even know them right if someone asked me to confess the sins of Columbus Bible Church in a list it'd be impossible right because you don't tell me and I'm thankful you don't write look with me at Nehemiah 1 Nehemiah chapter 1 Nehemiah chapter 1 verse 6 let thine ear now be attentive and thine eyes open that thou mayest hear the prayer of thy servant which I pray before thee now day and night notice for the children of Israel thy servants and confess the sins of the children of Israel which we have sinned against thee again you see the point did Nehemiah know line by line the sins of the children of Israel there's just no possible way that he could have get Daniel 9 verse 20 Daniel chapter 9 verse 20 Daniel 9 verse 20 now in Daniel 9 Daniel is in captivity because what's happened is because of the rebellion of Judah Judah has been conquered by Babylon and so what happens Daniel 9 verse 20 and whilst I was speaking and praying and confessing my sin but it's not just his sin and the sin of my people Israel so could Daniel have known all those and of course the answer to that is he couldn't have get Luke 18 now just as Daniel and Nehemiah and Aaron could not have known all the sins of Israel can you list all of yours I mean let's just be honest and let me let me use a nice illustration can you tell me everything you've ever eaten can you tell me everything you've eaten in the last month right you can't because you forget don't you and so if someone gave you an assignment I want you to make a list of everything you've ever eaten you-you-you couldn't do it right how many Big Macs have you had right well by the same token which do you do more do you eat more or you sin more and you don't need to answer but I know what the answer is right so what are the odds that you could come up with a list of all of your sins it's madness you see the point if salvation or your spiritual health was dependent upon you specifically confessing every individual sin you would be totally hopeless because you can't you've forgotten most of them look with me at Luke 18 Luke 18 I think is very helpful look at Luke 18 verse 9 and he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others two men went up into the temple to pray the one a Pharisee and the other a publican the Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself god I thank thee that I am not as other men are extortioners unjust adulterers or even as this publican I fast twice in the week I give tithes of all that I and so what the pharisee does there in his arrogance I mean who does this I thank God that I'm not like other men thank you Lord that I'm so great right that's what he says well obviously is he in a good state with God no he's in the prideful delusion that he somehow is righteous now notice verse 13 and the publican standing afar off would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven but smote upon his breast saying God be merciful to me a sinner does he list all his sins there no he doesn't and he can't verse 14 I tell you this man went down to his house justified rather than the other for everyone that exalteth himself shall be abased and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted what the publican did in Luke 18 I realized Luke 18 is under the kingdom program but it's nonetheless relevant because first John is under the kingdom program the publican didn't spend the time there confessing his sins one by one what did he do he was acknowledging that he was a sinner that he deserved God's wrath that he was hopeless and he was asking God for mercy that's what the confession of sin was it wasn't listing them by name it's not it's simply not possible to list them by name okay so I will tell you that that's the way confession of sins works in the scriptures it's not the listing of everyone because it's simply not possible to do that the way that confession of sins works is God is looking for those with a contrite heart it's the person that says God I'm a sinner I I deserve your wrath and I accept the mercy that you offer that's what God is looking for now you this this next part you can decide for yourself or not the practice of verbally confessing all of your sins to another human being is not wise and not godly if you were to come to me and to tell me all your sins would that help me what what good would that accomplish can I then pronounce you forgiven I mean what can I do about that I can do nothing about that and all that that does is in fact what is first Corinthians 15 say evil communications do what corrupt good manners right there's no benefit there's no profit in going line by line through the through the problems of this flesh get with me Ephesians if you would get Ephesians get Ephesians and the verse I'm looking for look at Ephesians just one sec look at Ephesians 5:12 start in verse 11 and have no fellowship with the fruit the unfruitful works of darkness but rather reprove them then notice verse 12 for it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret so what does that tell you about verbal confession of sins to another human being it's a shameful thing to do it's not profitable what we need to do is we need to confess our sinfulness to God the Father and be saved that's what God expects of us now get with me Ephesians chapter 2 and so for for what I hope you've seen so far is this that when people think about confessing sins and they think of it as confessing them one by one that's not what it is in the scriptures that's not the way that it works well let me give you four other reasons that confession of sins is not required for you to maintain a right relationship with God the Father so look with me first at Ephesians chapter 2 verse 8 for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God then notice not of works lest any man should boast confession of sin is a work and if you don't think it's a work how long would it take you to list all of them that's work right do you need to perform some work to be in a right relationship with God you don't because of the cross right so let's just make sure we're clear on this a powerful thing happens when you believe the gospel when you believe the gospel what God does is he takes the righteousness of Jesus Christ and puts that on your account so that when God sees you he sees you in Christ okay you are made the righteousness of Christ in him do you realize how powerful that is look with me at Romans five look look at me in Romans chapter five verse one Romans 5:1 Romans chapter 5 verse 1 therefore being justified see what it's saying there is justified as declared righteous therefore being declared righteous after you believe the gospel when you believe the gospel you are declared righteous and that justification is an ongoing truth see how it says being justified therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ some people have the idea that God saved them but he's up there with a big mallet and he's just waiting for you to step out of line and he's gonna smack you with it and that's not the way that it works you're justified by faith in a moment and because of that justification you therefore have peace is there any time in your life as a saved person where you need to be fearful of your relationship with God where you need to fret about going to hell you don't because you have peace it has been given you because you have been declared righteous you see that so you don't need to worry about that look with me at Ephesians chapter one seasons chapter 1 this is the second reason Ephesians chapter 1 verse 13 in whom ye also trusted notice this after that ye heard the word of truth the gospel of your salvation here's the way salvation works you hear the word of truth you hear the gospel and then you trust in it so you hear it it's presented to you and then you trust it you believe it now notice what it then says in whom also after that ye believed you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise so very simple order of what goes on there and this isn't long period of time but you hear the gospel you believe it and then what happens you're sealed according to Ephesians 1:13 one of the great comforts of life is this if my salvation was dependent upon me not just believing the gospel but doing the right thing for the rest of my life just to be honest that would be depressing right because I mean think how many times you lose your keys right think how many just think how think how fallible and flawed and inconsistent we are right and then if you think about that like well if my salvation is dependent upon me living it wow that's sad because I will probably last about 12 minutes right I mean it wouldn't be long but what Ephesians 1 says is something miraculous occurs you hear the gospel and you believe it and you're sealed by the Holy Spirit well what's strong enough to break the seal of the holy spirit not the devil and not you right in other words our salvation is maintained by the spirit himself so no matter how bad I want to mess it up I can't hallelujah look at me at Colossians chapter 2 here's the third reason you don't need to worry about confessing your sins today Colossians chapter 2 verse 13 and you being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh hath he quickened together with him now notice carefully this next phrase having forgiven in other words already been done having forgiven you what does it say all trespasses so let me ask you how many times do you need to be forgiven of all trespasses once right when Jesus Christ died on the cross how many of your sins were future all of them right is there ever a time where you're going through life and you sin and God the Father looks down and says wow never thought Brian would do that I had such high hopes but what a disappointment you can't surprise God there's never a time where you sin and God says well I never saw that coming according to Colossians 2 having forgiven you all trespasses what happened when you believe the gospel is God forgave all of them in that awesome so how so do I need to then ask him to forgive me let me ask you this if God says to you my son I've forgiven you all trespasses is it even proper to go and ask for forgiveness again if you're asking for forgiveness again what you're saying is you didn't believe him when he said he forgave them right now he's not gonna take it away because you asked him again I'm not saying you need to be worried about that but shouldn't you take God at His Word if God says I have forgiven you all of them do then do you need to go back and double-check yeah God I know you said that in Colossians 2 but did you really mean it are you sure well he's sure right when he said that he forgave us all trespasses he meant that he forgave us all trespasses and it said having forgiven it's already been done let me put it this way your heavenly father is a loving father he doesn't want you to needlessly worry about things that you don't need to worry about right if your son comes to you and says hey I got this problem and you say I'll take care of it when you say I'll take care of it what you're doing is you're saying I don't want you to be bothered with this I'm gonna take care of it I don't want you to worry about it when God says in Colossians 2:13 you're forgiven all trespasses does he want you to worry about something he has said he will take care of no he does get Leviticus 5 love it a kiss chapter 5 Leviticus 5 and this is going to be the fourth reason that you don't need to be worried about confessing individual sins look at Leviticus chapter 5 verse 2 let's just start in verse 1 and if a soul sin and hear the voice of swearing and as a witness whether he have seen it or known of it he if he do not utter it then he shall bear his iniquity verse 2 or if a soul touch any unclean thing whether it be a carcass of an unclean beast or a carcass of unclean cattle or the carcass of unclean creeping things notice this next phrase and if it be hidden from him notice he also shall be unclean and guilty what does verse 2 tell you apparently it's possible to sin be unclean and be guilty and not know it isn't that what it says so think about that even if it were possible for you to list all of your sins which it's not but let's say it was doesn't that verse tell you that there are ones you don't even know about that are hidden from you so can salvation or can your relationship with God be based upon confessing individual sins you would have no hope of doing that you and I have both committed to many that we just number one we've forgotten the ones we knew about and there's other ones we did that we don't even know about so you can see the point get with me get with me [Music] get Genesis chapter 3 let's go there forget Deuteronomy 6 I'm gonna do an audible here the here's what I want to say as we transition here the notion that you need to confess all of your sins to maintain a right relationship with God is essentially Galatian ism so let's look at Deuteronomy 6 and then we're going to go to the book of Galatians look at Deuteronomy 6 verse 25 and it shall be our righteousness and then notice the next word if we observe to do all these Commandments before the Lord our God as he had commanded us now if you notice carefully what's going on in Deuteronomy 6 25 what's going on there for the nation of Israel as they say it'll be our righteousness and then the next as scary it's if and then what does it say if we observe to do all these Commandments now anyone paying attention in Deuteronomy 625 should be incredibly depressed because what happens in Deuteronomy 625 is by that point there's hundreds of commandments of the law and so then Deuteronomy 625 says hey this is great it's our righteousness if we observe to do all of these things well the first reaction should be well that's just incredibly depressing because realistically I know I have zero chance of doing all those things and God knew that that's why he gave Israel the sacrificial system he didn't expect them to keep it when he expected them to do is when they realized they weren't keeping it to offer a sacrifice you see the point now get Galatians chapter three think about the time in your life when you were in the best physical condition you were whatever that was when you were at the at that condition where are you going to remain in that condition for the rest of your life and the answer is no because you know what you have to do at that point you have to work to maintain it right and my point is this the same thing is true with your spiritual clarity what I mean by that is this when you got saved if you got saved you got saved on the basis of being clear about the fact that you couldn't please God in your works right think with me carefully about Ephesians 2:8 9 for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God not of works lest any man should boast at the core of the way salvation works is God will not justify man in his self-righteousness God doesn't require you to change your life to get saved but he won't save you in your self-righteousness do you see what I'm saying there a lot of people have the idea that the way salvation works is Christ died on the cross and did most of it but we got to live it we got to do something to add to it or we have to live in a way to maintain it and all of that is wrong because all of that is saying that the crumb that the cross work of Christ was incomplete and that is just flat-out wrong so my point is this at the moment you got saved if you did which I'm obviously hoping everyone did in that moment what you did is you trusted 100% in Christ's righteousness and not at all in your own but here's what often happens to people and this is what happened to the Galatians look with me at Galatians chapter 3 verse 1 o foolish Galatians who hath bewitched you that ye should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth crucified among you now just as context you remember that in Galatians 1 what Paul does is he writes to the Galatians and it's after he's visited there so Paul goes around him to makes his travels around Asia and Europe and he then writes to the to the churches either before or after his travels well Galatians is a book that he writes he's been in Galatia and he's left and he's now writing to Galatia and what we know from Galatians 1 verse 6 is he wrote quickly and I reason I say that because Paul says I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel in other words what Paul's doing is he's just been in Galatia he's taught him grace clearly he goes on his travels and he learns they forgot what I told him that's what he's saying now look at verse 2 this only would I learn of you received ye the spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith well what's the answer to verse 2 they received it by the hearing of faith right it wasn't by the works of the law they didn't please God by fulfilling all the works of the law they pleased him by the hearing of faith by by hearing the gospel and believing it now notice verse 3 and this is the issue are ye so foolish having begun in the spirit are ye now made perfect by the flesh you see the point what he's saying there is look guys you began in the spirit you began in justification by grace through faith apart from works he had nothing to do with your works your effort anything like that it was simply faith in the shed blood of Christ and what he's saying is you guys have left that let's read it again having begun in the spirit are ye now made perfect by the flesh and here's what happens with the vast majority of churchianity it teaches a system of performance for how you please God either pre or post salvation I'll give you an example well if you're really saved to be spiritual this is how you dress and this is how you act and this is what you do and what happens is if you fulfill these lists of requirements we give you then we pronounce you spiritual now I'm not saying I'm not denying that there shouldn't be changes in our life what should happen is the longer we live the more we should be conformed to the image of Christ that should be the case by the Spirit working in us but is it that it's what I'm saying it's not is this God didn't save you by grace and then give you a whole bunch of lists of ways to please him by the works of the law you follow me you began in Grace and you are to continue in grace the Galatians what happened is as soon as Paul left people came and put them back under the law that's why he writes the book of Galatians that same danger exists for every believer an example of that the reason for this whole message is first John 1:9 what people will do with confession of sin is they'll say in order for you to maintain your relationship with God what do you have to do you have to go through this confession of sin process and there's just absolutely no point to that so hopefully you see that just as God just as our Christian life started with grace our Christian life is to continue to operate with grace so let me give you one illustration of that that I think is relevant and now let's go to Genesis 3 the way that most human relationships operate is on the basis of the law system do you remember when we are in Deuteronomy 6 it shall be our righteousness if we perform these things and the way the law system is designed is this the law system is an if/then system if you perform then you get the blessing is how it works that is the way that the vast majority of the world works today if you do a good job at your job you get to keep it if you don't do a good job at your job you may not I'm sure you've heard this phrase what have you done for me lately and what what is that that's the law system right in other words ok yeah I don't hear about you did before what have you done for me lately and the way most human relationships work is they operate on that performance system basis what I would tell you is this your relationships with your loved ones and your friends need did not operate on that basis if you operate on a law performance basis what's going to happen well what happens if you say to your wife I love you as long as then X whatever it is right as long as you cook the meals I like right as long as you do this this this what you do is you create a performance system that no one can ultimately perform if you decide that you like me as long as everything I teach is something you agree with it won't last very long will it right because what happens is the nature of all performance systems is that at some point someone doesn't perform up to our expectations and what happens is the secret the way to smooth over those things is grace see what grace does is this grace allows you to accept people for who they are it by the way is it fair for me to set a standard of performance for it for someone else let's call the standard of perfection let's could do it that way that I myself couldn't mean it's not and so what happens I may be the better way for me to put this is this we could go back to Ephesians 4 if you would Ephesians 4 I rose we didn't actually look at anything in Genesis 3 so I have to do that on your own but look at Ephesians 4 verse 32 and maybe this is a better way for me to say it Ephesians 4:32 and be kind one to another tender-hearted and then notice what says here forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you see the key to human relationships is practicing forgiveness I'll give you this example you've probably had things like this I know of situations where you have intra-family grievances and someone's mad at someone for something to happen literally 50 years ago and they can't get over it now what happens with most crimes is there's a statute of limitations you know in other words a crime is committed and then when a period of time runs for most felonies in Ohio believe it six years after that six year elapses they can't be prosecuted for whether they did it or not whether there's proof or not and the idea is at some point the past is the past right well what happens in our personally a lot of times as we get mad at people right and we have that grudge and we hold on to it and what that does is that grudge is just like a cancer inside of us right it's just harmful and unhealthy and so on and it's destructive of human relationships well what we need to do is in relating to one another because God has forgiven us what do we need to practice with one another we need to practice forgiveness we need to have grace with one another so I'll stop there hopefully you see that you don't need to confess your sins to God today he's forgiven all of them he forgave them all the moment you believe the gospel what we need to do is we need to live with grace toward one another we need to forgive one another because we're not under the law system anymore and just if you would reflect on Galatians I mean that the poor Galatians Paul established him in grace he leaves and they were soon removed from it and they went back under the law system which wasn't how God intends for our spiritual life to operate so let's close in a word of Prayer father thank you for your word thank you that you have preserved it for us we thank you Lord for salvation by grace through faith we thank you it's a free gift we thank you that it's eternal we thank you that you've made an idiot-proof and there's nothing we can do to lose it we pray Lord that each day we would walk in the joy and the peace and the fruits of the spirit that you would us walk in we pray all these things that name the Lord Jesus Christ amen Dave do we want to close

Channel: Columbus Bible Church

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Length: 46min 51sec (2811 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 27 2019