Faith Bible Church February 12, 2023 Church Service

foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] play yeah I'm trying to try to keep the lower face I have a face print [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] good morning please stand with us each day that I awake your greatness [Music] [Music] my children Generations see a wonders you have done oh God most of your name will be How great is the Lord need to be praised me to be praised [Music] no gracious your mercy runs to find the helpless and the wings You Hear My Cries your gracious so great is the Lord Forever Without and creation Will Rejoice [Music] your power will Proclaim till Christ he says land How great is the Lord and greatly to be praised thank you and great to be brave thank you [Applause] [Music] good morning everybody it's good to see you the Lord is so great I mean I was just thinking of the things in our lives that we can just praise the Lord for and it just hit me that you know we welcomed our third daughter you know this week and it's just it's just and and the Lord is so good just to provide for our needs and just to help all of us in what we need so in that note just we want to give you some time to just go before the Lord and just just bring our immediate needs to him because he is great and greatly to be praised for meeting our needs so let's do that and then we'll come back for our scripture reading foreign [Music] foreign [Music] take it and open to the Gospel of Luke chapter 18. the text that the Lord has for us today is in Luke 18 verses 9 through 17 and this text Jesus is describing the topic of Prayer and in this text he is talking about ways to pray so Luke 18 verses 9 through 17. the word of God says and he also told this Parable to some people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and viewed others with contempt two men went up into the temple to pray one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector the Pharisees stood and was praying these things to himself God I thank you that I am not like other people swindlers unjust adulterers or even like this tax collector I fast twice a week I pay tithes of all that I get but the tax collector standing some distance away was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven but was beating his chest saying God be merciful to me The Sinner I tell you this man went down to his house Justified rather than the other for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled but he who humbles himself will be exalted and they were bringing even their babies to him so that he would touch them but when the disciples saw they were rebuking them but Jesus called for them saying permit the children to come to me and do not hinder them for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these truly I say to you whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will never enter it let's pray Heavenly Father Lord you tell us that the way in which we approach you is so important and we don't always approach you in a way that you deserve and in a way that's beautiful in your eyes Lord it is easy and we all feel it to justify ourselves and to look side to side and see ourselves in relationship to other people and not look up and see ourselves in relationship to you Lord I pray that this morning we would not be singing or thinking about people next to us but Lord that we would treat this as a time that it is to be in your presence and that we would be humbled in your presence under a sight of your great Majesty Lord that you are great and greatly to be praised with all of our lives and Lord everything in our lives is yours and you deserve every affection you deserve every thought every action every word to be honoring to you Lord you've given us more than we can possibly imagine and yet Lord we pray that you would help us to to deal with you honestly Lord that we would be able to confess our true nature and that we would not rely on ourselves Lord that we would not justify ourselves in your eyes but that we would lean holy upon Christ in his righteousness Lord that that would be our access to you and that everything everything about us would be defined by the gift that Christ is to us Lord we are needy people we are empty people and you fill us and yet we don't give you the honor for that and we pray that you would help us as we think about coming before you and living in this world that you would help us to see your kingdom as one to be received like a child Lord that we would be open-handed that we would plead for Mercy like this tax collector Lord we pray that you would help us as we go into first John that we would see the need to confess our sins to say the same thing about them that you say and Lord to live in the truth so that we might embrace the truth of forgiveness and that we might embrace the truth of who Christ is for Sinners when we know ourselves to be those Sinners and Lord that that would enliven our joy and our worship and our giving to one another and to you Lord we pray that in Christ's name amen foreign [Music] one name alone we pray [Music] Every Nation tribe and time all creation lifting up your name alone we reign s praise the Lord now now anyways [Music] Jesus you have rescued us Jesus you have rescued us you are good and you are just one name alone we praise his name only one name now and always forever foreign the Lord the Lord all the Earth only one day foreign [Music] what is Our Hope what is Our Hope in life and death Christ Alone Christ Alone what is our only confidence that our souls belong to him who holds our days with what comes apart from his command and what will keep us to the end the love of Christ which we stand we'll see [Music] what's true what's true what you can call the Troublesome God is good bye [Music] sends away until the children [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] Joy will see Hallelujah [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] can't forget my tea not at all now must say that night [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] I die [Music] thank you foreign foreign [Music] let's pray Father in Heaven Lord we come to you so thankful Lord that we can sing even that song Lord we need a place to hide or do you know our sins our weaknesses our failings Lord you hear our innermost thoughts lord they're screamed in heaven or do you know the motivations of our hearts that you see all of the weakness and Brokenness in US there's nothing that is hidden from your sight but we don't even know the depth of our failings so that we come to you this morning as sinners but as we've just sung helpless we look to you for Grace and let me thank you that Christ is a rock for us Lord one who was broken on our behalf but that we can hide ourselves in him and in his righteousness so Lord we bless you this morning for him when we love your son let me thank you for your mercy to us Lord we are great sinners Lord you've been so kind and gracious to us through your son or that you would look on us and not see our record of wrongs but his perfect life or that you would Embrace us as your sons and daughters Lord and receive us they're not only now but for eternity because of him Lord we confess it's easy for each of us to become self-righteous Lord to begin to look at our own works or to compare ourselves to others what does Kevin said Lord to look to the right or to the left and think that we're doing well yet Lord we are reminded or thankfully that our hope is only in Christ it is not in what we do is not in who we are but it is it is in him when we stake our whole eternity on his finished work so this morning we thank you or that we find him so faithful whether all of our sins past present and future are forgiven once and for all because of his death but because of his perfect life Lord we are yours and Lord that nothing will ever separate us from the love that you have for us in him but I pray for us this morning as we open your word Lord or that that would be where our hearts land this morning Lord not in ourselves but in him know that we would be reminded again that we have received Mercy that is infinite because of who he is Lord that because of that Lord we would offer to others that same heart of mercy and Grace and kindness but we thank you this morning for the gathered body of the church and Lord the joy that it is to be with your people or those who have been redeemed by the blood of your son and I pray that you would bless our time together Lord that we would love one another well and that in all these things that your son's name would be exalted would we want to love him and worship him this morning Lord I trust that that is your will for us this morning as well as we pray this in faith for the glory of your son in his name we pray amen take a moment and greet those around you and we'll get started well good morning thank you for joining us this morning uh it's a pleasure to have you with us uh if this is your first time with us at Faith Bible Church you should have received something that looks like this in the courtyard and inside of that is an information card if you would do us the honor of filling that out and putting that and only that in the offering box it'd be a great blessing for us we won't bother you but it's just a good way for us to get to know you and find ways that we can be praying for you well uh we are going to get back into the book of First John and so take your Bibles and turn to First John chapter one with me we've been working our way through this book verse by verse and we are in chapter one this morning and we're going to come to uh now a series of sermons on verses 8 through 10 of chapter one the end of First John chapter one last week we looked at verses six and seven and what we saw was the Deep importance as Christians of walking in the light of walking in the light and that is the experiential reality of communing with God through the finished work of Christ uh that the joy and fellowship that comes to us because of Jesus and who he is and what he's done for us we also saw that walking in darkness but claiming to have fellowship with God is just us lying to ourselves we're not actually fellowshipping with God and John actually continues this train of thought in verses 8 through 10. if you have kids that are in a youth group or have had kids that were in youth group sometimes kids play a game called two truths and a lie any of you know that game two truths and a lie yes you can nod some of you are like I don't lie two truths and a lie uh it's an interesting game it's fun the goal of the game is to come up with three sort of obscure things about yourself and then uh try to see if you can guess the other person's lie which of the three things is a lie and uh in some ways John's gonna do the same thing for us here except backwards this is two lies and a Truth uh two lies and a truth and that's the sermon title for this morning and we're going to be here probably for three weeks on these three verses one of the most important verses I think for us as Christians is First John chapter 1 verse 9. look at first John chapter one verse 9 with me and John says this he says if we confess our sins he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness and that verse is glorious and so we'll enjoy that verse uh next week uh this week we're going to look at the two lies on either side of that verse and that verse is the truth that's sort of in the middle here and John in a very Hebrew way puts two lies on either side of that truth and those are in verses 8 and verse 10. so look there with me and let's read those together John says if we say that we have no sin we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in US if we say that we have not sinned we make him a liar and his word is not in US this morning my goal is that we would see how dangerous self-righteousness really is in the Christian Life and John I think here helps us to unmask this danger in us and to walk in repentant Faith as believers so this morning let's start with point one how does it fit the danger oh I I don't know if you've heard but almost every sermon I mentioned that it's kind of hard to unwind John's logic and so every single sermon I seem to start with this well why does this why is this here sort of statement and that's what we're going to do but we're just going to make that formal from now on every time we start a sermon we're going to start with why is this here okay how does this fit and this morning uh this fits here because of verse seven okay look at verse seven and let's just see John's logic here okay in verse seven he says if we walk in the light that is we fellowship with God just as he himself is in the night in the light that God fellowships with himself and we participate in that fellowship with the Trinity he says we have Fellowship of one another so the byproduct of that is that we have fellowship with others who are walking in the lathe and he says and the blood of Jesus his son cleanses us from all sin and what's interesting here is that John ends here with this idea of cleansing of sin if you look there what's going on there well John now turns that idea and he says well what's now what's could be a risk for a Christian and that's what he's answering in verses 8 and 10 the danger if we're going to experience that reality of communion with God through Christ and through his shed blood on our behalf we have to say that we're Sinners right we have to say that we sin and in verses 8 and 10 John tells us two ways that we can be in danger here verse 8 he says if we say we have no sin in verse 10 if we say that we have not sinned and that's where John now is going here for a moment I just want you to think back to the moment that you came to Christ the moment that you came to Christ think back to the moment of your conversion for some of you maybe it was a long time ago for others of you it was more recent maybe you're here and you can't remember that moment you came to Christ as a young person as a child Maybe but think back to a time when you were just deeply aware of your desperate need for a savior think back to that moment in your life and whether regardless whether you remember the specific moment of your salvation or not think of that moment when you had that awareness that deep awareness of your need for a savior and what you found in that moment was the righteousness of Christ think back to that moment in that moment I think as Christians we are profoundly aware of the righteousness of Christ aren't we and we're profoundly aware of our own sin just how helpless we really are we know that we've sinned that we've fallen short of God's glory that what we rightfully deserve for that sin is hell and in that moment we receive the loving forgiveness of God with this immense Joy the righteousness of Christ comes to us we say yes that's what I need I need righteousness that's not my own and we receive that with Joy by Faith I think sometimes as Christians we can start to grow in our Christian walk and we begin to distance ourselves from sin which is a good thing we fight against sin we turn from certain forms of evil we really are changing and growing to be more like Christ and we're learning to walk in the spirit we're choosing to turn away from different sin patterns but as we grow I think we can start to look around at others and think that we're doing pretty well right I mean we're giving ourselves spiritual grades all the time right we look around we say those guys all get like C minuses I'm like a b-plus we start to think that we're really killing the whole Christian Life thing we're doing well and maybe with our lips we acknowledge that we need a savior but we begin to think that Jesus is relatively lucky to have us on his side our sins become more and more subtle and our ability to look the part becomes increasingly skilled what's happening to us we're growing to be self-righteous that's what's happening we grow increasingly self-righteous and what John wants to do here in these verses is to rip the mask off of self-righteousness and to do that by exposing these lies that we can tell ourselves in verses 8 and 10. so look with me at point two the lies of self-righteousness and these two lies one is a lie that we tell ourselves and the other is that we force on God in verse 8 the lie that we tell ourselves he says if we say notice in verse 8 if we say that we have no sin if we say that we have no sin now of course both these statements are statements that unbelievers can say but here I think John is also dealing with the heart of a Believer as well if we say that we have no sin and this is point a I have no sin what does John mean when he says this a couple ways that we can understand this right what does it mean to claim that you have no sin the first way to understand this is just to look at what comes before right he's at the end of verse 7 he says the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin and then John says if we say we have no sin in other words if we say that we don't actually need the cleansing blood of Christ for everything all of our failings in our life if we say that we have no sin this is a person who thinks that they don't need the cleansing blood of Jesus on a daily basis they're convinced that they're doing well that they're handling the Christian Life on their own self-reliant self-righteous Christianity what does that look like well we have an example of this in Luke Chapter 19. turn there with me Kevin read this for me I'm sorry Luke Chapter 18. turn there Kevin read it for us this morning Luke chapter 18 starting in verse 9 and I want to just look at this example of self-righteousness probably the clearest one in the whole new testament Luke chapter 18 starting in verse 9. now Luke intros this story with this sentence in verse 9. look at verse 9. it says he also told this Parable to some people who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and viewed others with contempt What's Happening Here this is a guy whose heart has begun to trust his righteousness he's a Pharisee he looks on the inside and he says I'm a good person and you see that look at what he says in verse 10 two men went up to the temple to pray one of Pharisee and the other a tax collector the Pharisees stood and was praying this to himself God I thank you that I am not like other people swindlers unjust adulterers or even like this tax collector I fast twice a week I pay tithes of all that I get but the tax collector standing some distance away was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to Heaven what was beating his chest saying God be merciful to me The Sinner now there are three things in this text that I want us to see three pictures of self-righteousness here the first is what's going on in his heart he comes to God he's coming to the temple right he's coming to worship God and when he comes to worship God what does he offer to God as his form of worship it's his actions he comes to God and he says look God I'm here here's what I've done for you he places his actions before God and he says this is what I've done for you so he is relying on his own works for his access to God that's just self-righteousness right the second thing it's a little more subtle look at verse 11 again it says the Pharisees stood and was praying this to himself he doesn't announce this to anybody if you stood on the outside and you looked at him you would think that is a righteous man he's coming to worship God he's silent he's not saying anything and you think he's so humble but what's happening inside of his heart inside of his heart he is exalting himself before God he's saying God look at who I am I mean compare me to all these people around I'm getting an A plus he keeps a humble demeanor but he's just a self-righteous guy in his heart and the third thing that I think is most piercing is verse 11 again look what he says God I thank you that I'm not like other people what's he saying he's not taking credit for his own works this is a this is an amazing thing he's not taking credit for his righteousness he's giving the credit for his righteousness to God but he's saying what I can come to you because of what I've done these are the things that I've done you help me to do them but I've done them and that's why I'm here he doesn't acknowledge his need for cleansing at all he comes to God and he says look Lord I thank you I'm not like other people I do good things and he was relying on his own acts rather than the righteousness of God in that moment and this can be so easy for us to drift into this to drift into the exact same herd we see this in our own Hearts I'm sure at times right we can be viciously Discerning with the slightest faults in other people can't we just like viciously Discerning with the slightest faults we're quick to point out the sin of others but we rarely speak of our own failings right it's easy for us to turn that way or we can be willing to point out our own failings maybe but just the minor ones right just confess the small things with an air of self-deprecation that helps people know just how humble we are and that's the exact same heart attitude we can have the heart of this Pharisee right this is the only place we see this look back in Luke chapter 15 with me real quickly you remember the parable of the Prodigal Son the younger son leaves and takes his portion of the inheritance and runs off and sins in very serious ways then he comes back again starting in verse 25 look what he says Luke 15 25 says now his older son was in the field and when he came and approached the house he heard music and dancing and he summoned one of the servants and began inquiring what these things could be and he said to him your brother has come and your father has killed the fatted calf because he has received him back safe and sound verse 28 but he became angry and was not willing to go in his father came out and began pleading with him and he answered and said to his father look look for so many years I have been serving you I have never neglected a command of yours and yet you have never given me a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends but when this son of yours came who has devoured your wealth as prostitutes you killed the fatted calf for him what is that it's pure self-righteousness the older son looked at the younger son and he said you know what he's a sinner I'm not for all these years I've served my father I've done the right stuff what is he doing he's basing his relationship with the father on the transaction that he's now completed I've done these things for you you will give me now so a person who is self-righteous who lies to themself in this way thinks that they don't need the cleansing blood of Jesus on a daily basis they convince themselves that they're righteous and that's a lie that's a lie go back to first John John says if we say that we have no sin we are deceiving ourselves each of us no matter how long you've been a Christian each of us fails every day don't we all of us sin every day in fact that failure is so profound that we need a savior every moment of every day Jesus said in John 15 5 apart from me you can do what nothing apart from me you can do some good stuff work hard no apart from you you can do nothing so Believers when we are truly walking in the light what's happening what's happening we're fellowshipping with God and we are profoundly aware of our own need for cleansing we know we need cleansing why because we're fellowshipping with a perfectly holy God and we see that there's still darkness that lingers in us and we constantly are aware that we need cleansing we're going to look a little bit more at that in the next section but let's look at the second lie in verse 10. this is point B I have not sinned verse 10. if we say that we have not sinned now first glance that looks like the same statement but this second one has a verb that's in the perfect tense you remember the perfect tense right it expresses a past action with continuing results so this is a person who says that there's nothing in their past that carries any kind of continual impact in their life there's no need to repent for past actions just think through what that would look like for a second John is saying that it's possible to have a situation we could have a person who could admit to having sinned in the past but who would then deny any need to confess that past sin in the present yeah I've got all sorts of baggage here but I don't need to confess those sins it's okay now John is not telling us to confess a sin more than once he's not saying just keep confessing until it sticks that's not what he's talking about because verse 9 would contradict that exactly right if we confess our sins not multiple times but once we are forgiven what John is talking about here is a person who doesn't care that they sinned in the past who doesn't care about past events past sins past unrighteousness things that come up in their heart and mind this is a person who feels that they have no need to confess sins because they just are generally under the blood of Jesus in other words it's this lie right I'm under grace so everything is fine what is that that's just a Cavalier attitude towards sin just Cavalier they're like it's okay we're under grace it's not a problem yeah I sin that's there but it's not a big deal we got Grace for that it covers it I'm fine there's no need to confess things are good that can come from one of two sources one that person is not a believer they haven't dealt with their sin or that person is a believer but somehow has become convinced that God's grace excuses them from confession and repentance either way that carries serious consequences so those are the two lies so what what are the consequences the results of self-righteousness this is point three there's two impacts that John gives us here of this type of self-righteousness the things that happened in our hearts when this takes place the first is in verse 8 and the second is in verse 10. look at verse 8 he says if we say that we have no sin we are he says deceiving ourselves and this is point a self-deception self-deception when we lie to ourselves about where our righteousness really lies we can live in a constant state of self-deception and John says the truth isn't even in US in those moments again that could be an unbelievery speaking about but I think he's also talking about Believers someone who's not being influenced by the truths of the Gospel in those moments this is a person who thinks they are righteous and has forgotten their need for the cleansing blood of Christ he says there we're in great danger when that happens there's a number of ways that we can stumble in self-deception the first one number one is that we would be not Spirit-filled not Spirit-filled a self-deceived person can't see their own sin right they don't see their own failings and weaknesses what does that mean it means they're not walking in the spirit There's no practical awareness of their communion with God their fellowship with him there's not Moment by moment experience of the person of Christ through the spirit it's just the flesh and the flesh sets its desire against the spirit and the spirit against the Flesh and so a person who is unaware of their own need for gospel cleansing through the blood of Christ is Walking In the Flesh Galatians 5 17. what happens means they cannot make spiritual decisions they're blinded to their own pride and sin they're characterized by fleshliness they're fleshly people self-righteous person is fleshly they become fleshly in how they act how they behave but that's just the beginning look at number two there's no fruit right there's no fruit a person who's not walking in the spirit they're not bearing the fruit of the spirit in any way right they won't genuinely love others they will not love other people why because they're not bearing the fruit of the spirit love is not coming out of their hearts because they're not receiving the love of Christ through his cleansing blood they don't think they need it so they won't love this type of person lacks joy in almost every circumstance there's no joy why because they're constantly grumbling because they're not experiencing the cleansing Love Of Christ and so there's no joy they're never at peace they're always Restless frustrated angry they're totally impatient with others and what comes out of their mouth is harshness and unkindness why they're not walking in the spirit they're full of their own flesh they think they're good and that list just keeps going go right through the fruit of the spirit they're not functioning according to the spirit because they won't walk in the spirit they're not experiencing the power of the spirit for their needs and that leads to a third reality number three they're unforgiving because a self-righteous person has forgotten that they've sinned or at least they think they don't sin very much they find themselves totally unable to forgive other people totally unable to forgive other people remember the parable of the unrighteous man in Matthew 18 he owed 10 talents to the King right 10 billion dollars he owes to the king and it says the king forgives his dead and he goes out on the street and do you remember what he does he meets a man who owes him the equivalent of ten thousand dollars not 10 billion dollars ten thousand dollars and it says he choked him and forced him to repay it what happened he forgot his forgiven dead and so what do you do he went out and he found somebody else who had a debt that was almost nothing in comparison to his and yet he goes out and he chokes him when we're not walking in the spirit when we're walking in self-righteousness we're not bearing the fruit of the spirit we begin to act this way we don't forget we don't forgive other people we hold grudges we rehearse conversations in our mind and we think about how we can win an argument right we're holding on to this stuff we're convinced our sin is less than the sins that have been committed against us and so we what do we do we begin to live in that self-righteousness and that runs terribly deep in US we're so self-deceived and self-righteous and gospel empty that we despise other people in our hearts rather than forgive them love them and pray for them so that's the kind of danger that we're in when we begin to slip into self-righteousness as Christians we begin to tell ourselves that we haven't sinned but it gets even deeper than that actually and this is point B a denial of scripture if you look at verse 10 at the beginning he says if we say that we have not sinned we make him a liar and his word is not in US God tells us that we are in constant need of the righteousness of Christ but when we reject that we do what we say that he's lying right we're actually calling him a liar in that moment and what happens is that the word stops functioning in us the way that it ought to remember Paul said what Colossians 3 16 he said let the word of Christ dwell richly in you what does that mean it means to functionally believe their gospel realities not only that Jesus died for your sins but then you needed a savior those two things together that we constantly need a savior but when we stop thinking that our sins are serious or when we refuse to deal with past sins and we allow them to linger and we just say well there's that's all fine it's not a big deal the word stops dwelling in US we reject the scripture and what it says about our sin our need to repent and we turn away from the Bible generally the Bible stops influencing how we think stops influencing the way that we think about life we don't just turn away from scripture in the ways that we think about our own sin but we turn away from scripture in all sorts of ways the Bible isn't guiding us anymore where do we see this first we see it in our speech patterns right and how we talk we stop speaking with humility we start speaking with pride we start we stop speaking biblical truth when we begin to just express our own opinions this is my opinion we also grow increasingly dogmatic and judgmental of other people and generally far more lenient with ourselves our own sin patterns it's not always spoken either it's also a heart attitude right our hearts can move this way second our actions change we stop thinking about the Bible we stop living in the truth of the Bible and we start being led by other sources human wisdom our own opinions political blogs podcasts all these things are coming into us and we're like yeah yeah that's good we're not thinking biblically anymore why because we failed to acknowledge that we constantly need a savior Our Lives become self-focused we turn inward in everything we're all about our our ideas ourselves our opinions our thoughts we are completely unteachable and all of that is the fruit of self-righteousness it's an unwillingness to admit the guilt of sin and confess sin and come to Christ for cleansing so we've seen the danger and the result of these two lies right to say that we have no sin or that we have no need to deal with the guilt in our lives and again this is both the potential heart of an unbeliever of course an unbeliever would say those things but it's also Believers we can think this way when we do we stop acting like Christians and we begin to act like our old unregenerate selves we walk in our flesh that's sad but it doesn't change our Salvation status God still cares for us but we've begun to live in ways that are unrighteous so what I want to do this morning is just to think of some potential forms of self-righteousness and this is point for some questions I want to ask you a few questions that are designed to see if you're a self-righteous person okay are you a self-righteous person it's easy to look at the Pharisee and think I don't do that but I just want to ask you a few questions to see are you a self-righteous person and before I ask these just know these all come out of my own heart okay I'm not thinking of anyone when I say this sometimes I preach I say oh here's a question to ask and people come up afterwards like you were thinking of me weren't you I'm like never I promise I was thinking of me I have the most problems right but just listen to these question one are you looking at others with contempt right now right now is there anyone in your life who you would look down on because of their sin that includes unbelievers is there anyone in your life that you would look down on because of their sin do you have contempt for them question two is there someone you're angry at is there anyone in your life who you're angry at what is anger anger is just an expression of self-righteousness isn't it it's just an expression of our superiority over others right because I'm better than you and you failed I now get to get angry at you we can justify our anger and say well of course I mean they did do this thing but anger is just me expressing my self-righteousness so is there anyone you're angry at this morning so question one anyone here holding in contempt you're looking down on because of their sin question two anyone you're angry at question three would you say that you're more offended by sins done against you in your life or by the sins you have done against God in your life now think about that question when you think about your offense offense is in your heart are you more offended because of the sins that you have committed against a perfectly holy God or are you offended because someone sinned against you which carries the greater weight in your heart question number four is there someone that you've compared yourself with and decided you're better than this one should sting for everyone who's married even in subtle ways right even in subtle ways compare ourselves is there anyone who you've compared yourself with and decided that you're better than question number five are you easily offended when someone else points out your weaknesses or failings particularly if it's someone close to you like your spouse are you easily offended when someone comes to you and says hey I noticed this thing it's a weakness like who gave you the right to say that you get offended there's a fence in your heart because someone's come and brought that to you are you easily offended and on a more personal spiritual note when you come to God In Prayer do you sometimes list your duties before you pray God you know I've done this I've given a church I'm here praying I've just read my Bible I'm a pastor Lord hear me right do you do that do you come to God and list your duties that you've fulfilled now if you said yes to any of these you're probably a self-righteous person and if you said no to all of those you're a really self-righteous person so what is the way out of that how do we get out of self-righteousness because let's be honest this is in all of our hearts isn't it it's so easy for us to begin to be like that Pharisee and depend on our own acts and say I have no sin at least not compared to that person I have no sin not compared to that political party I have no sin not compared to my children it's so easy so how do we get out of this this is 0.5 it's the solution the solution you might think that the solution is confession okay don't be self-righteous I'm going to confess and in a sense actually that's right because look what John says he frames verse 9 with verse 8 and 10. he says if we confess our sins so then the logical thought would be if self-righteousness is saying I have no sin then the answer is to confess my sin but the opposite of self-righteousness is not confession why because confession is a what it's an act a person who says well I'm a self-righteous person and so I'm going to confess that what will they do with that confession of self-righteousness they'll add it to their list of righteous works and they'll say I'm not only am I a self-righteous person but I've confessed that I'm profoundly good the opposite of self-righteousness is faith faith now why do we say that why do we say that we're going to look at verse 9 in a lot of detail next week but notice the way that John phrases this look at verse 9 again he says if we confess our sins John doesn't say now confess your sins he doesn't command it isn't that fascinating he doesn't issue a command to fight that self-deception and say now confess he just says if we confess our sins and then he tells us what happens when we confess look what he says if we confess our sins he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins to cleanse us from all unrighteousness he appeals to his readers not on the basis of our action of confession he appeals to his readers on the basis of the character of God and the righteousness of Christ that's a fascinating thing it's a fascinating thing he says if you do this if you confess your sins he's faithful and just to forgive you to cleanse you from all unrighteousness there are only two reasons for self-righteousness as at the core either we believe that Jesus won't give us his righteousness or we believe that we don't need his righteousness because we're already righteous and both of those are answered by the gospel aren't they the gospel digs underneath that and deals with both of those the gospel tells us that we are in desperate need of a savior Ever every sin we've ever done every sin you've ever committed or ever will come in even after your salvation is worthy of an eternity in hell now think about that for a minute that false motive of pride in your heart that causes you to say something in a slightly nuanced way to draw attention to yourself deserves eternity in hell even our refusal to love the Lord Our God with all of our hearts soul mind and strength this morning has earned us an eternity in hell even as believers we have to let that sink in listen nothing you will ever do will ever earn you a single second in heaven nothing you will ever do or ever have done will ever earn you a single second in heaven your very best works as a Believer the very best things you've ever done in your entire Christian Life the highest experiences of Joy with Christ in communion with him that the deepest moments of tearful repentance over your sin none of those none of those earn you a single Moment In Heaven John Bunyan said there is enough sin in my best prayer to send the whole world to hell that's an amazing statement I don't think that way but that's right the only thing that earns us Heaven not just for a second not just a moment in heaven but for eternity the only thing that earns us that and keeps us there is the righteousness of Jesus Christ that's it how does that help a self-righteous person well if self-righteousness is rooted in a fear that God would reject us then faith in the righteousness of God tells you that that will never happen right you're not earning Heaven by the things that you're doing Jesus already did all of that for you it's finished and if self-righteousness is rooted in a belief that we don't need Christ's righteousness Faith proves that that's the height of foolishness isn't it so foolish to think that we don't need Christ's righteousness faith in the gospel clears away that smoke of self-deception it moves it all out of the way and it causes us to affirm what the Bible tells us about our need and about Christ's work for us we become the tax collector in Luke 18 right not the Pharisee God I thank you that I'm not like these other people what does the tax collector say you remember he beats his chest and he says what God be merciful to me The Sinner he looks into his own heart and he says God my only hope is that you'd be merciful to me it's not my actions at all when we believe our infinite need of righteousness and God's infinite provision of righteousness through Christ confession becomes easy doesn't it why because suddenly we're walking in the light again we're fellowshipping with him we remind ourselves that my only hope is Christ but Christ is a perfect hope and we find ourselves in the righteousness of Christ and confession flows freely out of us and we don't need to fear anymore and we don't have a leg to stand on personally it's all Christ we lean into the grace of God for us in Jesus and we confess our sins to him and we receive the cleansing of his blood so let me just ask you this morning are you believing the good news and are you believing the beginning of the good news that there is not one act that you could ever do that could earn you heaven the beginning of the good news that tells you that you are a wicked sinner in need of a savior and the end of the good news that the righteousness of Christ is yours by faith alone do you believe that this morning maybe you're here and you've spent your entire Christian Life going to church and wrestling because it's hard it's hard to live up to the standards and you've never truly rested in the finished work of Christ let me just appeal to you this morning his righteousness is enough you can trust him believe the truth of the gospel and confess your sins let's pray Lord we thank you for Jesus let me thank you for his finished work on the cross on our behalf but it's easy for us Lord we confess to hold on to self-righteousness but it's easy for us to believe that we have earned Heaven because of our good works Lord we would never tell anybody that but it's easy for that to creep into our hearts Lord then our righteousness is what brings us to you Lord we confess that it is only the righteousness of your son from beginning to end that draws us into your presence that causes us to be your children that ensures heaven for us forever it's the perfect righteous righteousness of Jesus that we lean on that we depend on and not our own Lord we do confess our sins to you Lord we know Lord then it's easy for this to creep into our hearts Lord we thank you that Christ died even for our self-righteousness that all of our sins are forgiven even when we don't willingly see them so that we thank you for what Christ has done for us we thank you for his perfect life and I pray this morning that you would help us or to help us to walk by the spirit to see the depth of our own sin our own failing or to be reminded of what we desperately needed and continue to need and will continue to need forever and that that need has been provided fully through your son but as we do that I pray that we would worship him with our whole heart or that we would trust him that we would lean on him and then we would find him faithful Lord we love you we thank you for your son in his name we pray amen [Music] desire to die but no less than those I am not life can earn myself a place with you oh God be merciful to me I am a sinner in my own oh of a righteousness [Music] no harm and no left here full song of the true true can justify my righteousness is Jesus life my dad was paid by Jesus my weary though was born [Music] separate [Music] heart stands my hair but Jesus died my God by Jesus here you know was born by and he alone [Music] you may be seated thank you John I'm so thankful that the word of God does surgery to our hearts and we get convicted of these sins that the word of God exposes and that's by God's kindness because he wants us to be more and more like his son Jesus Christ so just in response to the message that we've heard this morning just want to give you just a few moments of pray silently I would just ask that you just thank the Lord for the righteousness of Christ we don't deserve it but by his grace that he's given that to us and maybe as you're praying the spirit May convict you of these sins of self-righteousness and as his Lord and the spirit convicts your heart confess those sins of self-righteousness because we're all guilty every single one of us is guilty of self-righteousness and we need to take that before the Lord so just take a few moments to pray and I'll close us [Music] foreign [Music] foreign father we thank you so much for this morning we thank you so much for your word and the truth that it contains Lord it just points to A Savior Jesus Christ who came to this earth and lived a perfect life he obeyed every law perfectly which made him perfectly righteous and he transfers that perfect righteousness to us when we believe in him Lord forgive us for our self-righteousness Lord we know that that is a heinous sin a sin that sent Jesus to the cross and Lord when we have this self-righteous heart all it does is it exalts ourselves over the perfect righteousness of Christ and so Lord forgive us Lord I pray that the spirit will just continually convict us of this sin because Lord it keeps us from looking like your son and for trusting in Christ's perfect righteousness and so Lord I just pray that you would help us to be like the Publican who prayed God be merciful to me and Lord help us to confess our sins especially those sins of unrighteousness un uh self-righteousness so Lord we just thank you for your precious word and most of all we thank you for the precious work of Jesus Christ who died on the cross for all of our sins and may we be mindful of what he's done for us each and every day because our heart needs that our heart needs to be reminded of your incredible love for us so thank you so much for this morning in Jesus name we pray amen well thank you so much for joining us this morning I just have a few announcements for you for the ladies we have women's ministry coming up on the 19th of this month at 12 15 and there is a evide that got sent out so please RSVP to that Evite if you did not get that Evite talk to Tammy Harrison and she'll get that to you also want to remind the parents that we have parenting class starting on the 26th of this month at 5 pm and so you could drop off your your children at Awana and attend those parenting classes also mark your calendars we have an annual Good Friday service that'll be on Friday April the 7th and we'll have a communion service here on Good Friday at 7 00 pm and also there is an announcement that's not in your bulletins the youth group is having a fundraiser and they want to provide babysitting on Valentine's Day all right so this will free you up to go out um as a couple and so um you'll be getting an email from Tammy there's a form that you'll have to fill out uh to get that babysitting and that email will also have all the details for it all right so look out for that email also just want to welcome all the new visitors who are here this morning thank you for being here I just want to uh mention these new visitors and I apologize if I don't say your name correctly but we have Addie and her two children and we have Jose and heiji and we have Spencer and Lorraine and and Anastasia and so if I called your name do you mind just quickly just raising your hand so we can see where you're at yes welcome it's great to have you [Applause] we have Refreshments on the courtyard so we asked all the new visitors to stick around we love an opportunity to say hello to you all right with that have a wonderful day you are dismissed

Channel: Faith Bible Church OC

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Id: uZGnZcvFEm8

Length: 81min 56sec (4916 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 12 2023