"When a Christian Sins" 1 John 1:9

guys here we are uh we're live for the bible study thrilled you're here and we've got as i say this every time an incredible passage to look at so you're here on a great uh thursday morning i want to welcome everyone watching on live stream wherever you are thank you for joining us uh it's a blessing for us to be able to partner with you and studying the scripture and so i want to begin in a word of prayer father i pray as we come now to look in your word that you would teach us and instruct us we are always in need of having our minds renewed and our hearts replenished and so use this study today to sharpen our christian life and for anyone who's outside of christ use this study to bring them into your kingdom father we pray this in jesus name amen okay guys first john 1st john chapter 1 and today my plan is we're just going to look at one verse because it's one of the most important verses that we'll be looking at it's in verse 9. i want to begin by reading in verse 5 just to get a running start at the passage and the unit the what we call a literary unit the paragraph starts in verse 5 and it extends to chapter 2 verse 2. so this verse really finds itself in the middle of this paragraph and it's so important that i i've just got to as kent would say tap the breaks and slow down here so beginning in verse 5 this is the message we have heard from him and announced to you that god is light and in him there is no darkness at all if we say we have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness we lie and do not practice the truth but if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light we have fellowship with one another in the blood of jesus his son cleanses us from all sin if we say that we have no sin we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us now here's our verse for this morning if we confess our sins he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness what verse nine is teaching us is that one of the distinguishing marks of a true christian and when i say a true christian i mean not just one who goes to church but has never been born again i mean one who actually knows the lord a true christian one of the distinguishing marks is he regularly confesses his sin to god uh an authentic believer has an acute awareness of sin in his own life because he has an acute awareness of the holiness of god rather than being blind to his sin he is convicted by a sin and he confesses his sin with humble contrition he is aware of sin in the world but more than that he is aware of sin in his own life pharisees are aware of everyone else's sin but oblivious to their own sin but a true christian has a heightened sense of awareness of sin in his own life and that's what this passage is teaching us and the opposite is what we saw last time in verse 8 if we say we have no sin we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us verse 10 if we say that we have not sinned we make him a liar that is the counterfeit christian he is oblivious to personal sin he is in denial of his own sin he's blind to his own sin he makes excuses for his own sin he re labels his own sin and and downplays it he shifts the blame to someone else for his own sin that's what verse 8 and verse 10 tell us but the true born-again christian is convicted of his own sin and he is broken over his own sin and he confesses it and he turns away from it that is the mark of true salvation now just because someone is a christian does not mean that they do not sin anymore the fact of the matter is that even as a christian we still sin right romans 7 still in the bible however we do sin less we're not sinless but we sin less and we have a heightened awareness a greater awareness of the lesser sin in our life and at times it feels like we are sinning more because we are so convicted of our sin the second thing just by way of introduction we will sin but the mark of the true christian is you will confess that sin to god now just to overview this this section that we've been looking at in verse 5 we saw the declaration that god is light that's a declaration of the holiness of god and once we understand the holiness of god it should become painfully aware of our own unholiness verse 6 verse 8 and verse 10 all three talk about the one who claims to be a believer but is not a true follower of christ and the the distinguishing mark is that person is just in denial of sin in verse 7 and verse 9 we see the true christian he is one who confesses his sin so as we come to verse nine now um just to give you the outline from last time verse six was the duped verse seven the dedicated verse 8 the deceived now verse 9 the disclosing a true christian discloses his sin to god so let's look at this he says if we confess our sins that's the prerequisite right there if we confess our sins the we refers to all true believers the word confess in the original language is a compound word it's two words brought together it's in the greek it's homologato homo means the same legend means to speak or to say when you pull that together the word confess simply means to say the same and what that means is you say the same about your sin that god says about your sin it's not just that you say about your sin what your wife tells you about your sin or what a work associate tells you about your sin and you confess it just to get past this disruption in the relationship no you actually confess it to god and you agree with god about your sin you own up to your sin with god because all sin is ultimately against god even if i offend you and i go to you and ask for your forgiveness that's only a baby step in the right direction you've got to come all the way and confess your sin to god because all sin is against god now the word sins if we confess our sins it's a word that just simply means to miss the mark and it's the picture let's say of an archer with an arrow and there is a an animal that a hunter would be shooting the arrow at and for that arrow to come short or to go to the right or the left there is a target that god has for our lives and it is his own holiness it's not comparing ourselves with someone else like i'm a little bit better than some drunk in the gutter no we are being compared with the absolute holiness of god that's the target that's the mark and our lives every one of us has missed the mark and continues to miss the mark throughout our christian lives and so also please note sins is in the plural and it's speaking of more than just one or two sins that there continues to be in our lives sin now this verb if we confess our sins um we are to do this initially when we enter the kingdom no one is ever no one ever passes through the narrow gate to enter into the kingdom without confessing their sin god only saves one kind of person and that's a sinner jesus only died for one kind of person that's a sinner and to come into the kingdom of god it's not enough like my my life is all messed up i need i need for god to fix it no we have to confess our sin to god otherwise there's no entrance into the kingdom of heaven and so while we're on this turn back to luke chapter 18. it'll be worth your turning back to it in luke chapter 18 really beginning in verse 9 jesus tells a parable to some people who thought that they were good enough to enter the end of the kingdom in fact they thought they were in the kingdom though they had never confessed their sin so jesus tells this parable in verse 9 a parable is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning and the point is very clear so in verse 10 two men went up into the temple to pray one a pharisee and the other a tax collector now just stop right there if you had to say who is in the kingdom and who is out of the kingdom you would say if you had lived back then you would have thought well the pharisees the one who's in the kingdom the the tax collector is the most despised man in town that is a jew who is sold out to the roman empire and and has been has bought a franchise to build his fellow jews out of as much money as he possibly can he gives a certain amount to the roman empire anything he can collect over and above that amount goes into his pocket and so he he is a benedict arnold he is a traitor of the jewish people he's working with the roman empire to get as much money out of the jews as possibly could so as jesus begins telling this story they're mad hearing about the tax collector and the pharisee that's someone they look up to and respect as being very religious and and very circumspect so verse 11 the pharisees stood and was praying thus to himself that's what pharisees do they don't pray to god they pray to themselves because their prayers never get through to god and the reason is they're not in the kingdom this is what he prayed god i thank you so it starts out well that i'm not like other people swindlers unjust adulterers and even like this tax collector over here so this man is self-righteous this man is arrogant he's prideful he's elevated himself above other people verse 12. i fast twice a week i pay tithes of all that i get i mean this man is a religious peacock i mean he's just strutting in church how good he is now by contrast but the tax collector standing some distance away the reason he is standing some distance away is that's how he perceives he is in his relationship with god he he understands that he is a long way away from god and he understands he's a long way away from where he needs to be and where his life needs to be was even verse 13 unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven he knew he was unworthy and undeserving to even lift up his eyes and look upward into heaven he has no merit of his own whatsoever but was beating his breasts that's an expression of humility self-humiliation contrition saying now listen to this this is the prayer of entrance into the kingdom of heaven god be merciful to me the sinner not even a center the sinner because he's not comparing himself to anyone else as though okay i'm a sinner but there's still other people worse than me no all he can see is the holiness of god all he can see is the perfect moral perfection of god and as far as he is concerned he is the chief of sinners he's the worst of sinners so be merciful to me the sinner so how does jesus respond to that does jesus say oh you've got too bad of a self-image i mean you're being too hard on yourself you need to go to a christian counselor it's not as bad as you think it is it just goes back to your parents the way you were brought up it was their fault it's not your fault no look at verse 14. i tell you that's a very emphatic statement i tell you this man went to his house referring to the tax collector justified rather than the other for everyone who exalts himself that's the pharisee will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted the pharisee would not he he would choke before he would say he was a sinner that's why he'll never be in the kingdom but the tax collector who was sinful he was filled with greed and worldliness and egotism and and all the rest he compared himself to the holiness of god and he saw that he fell woefully short and he dropped to his knees and he said he pled for mercy god be merciful to me the sinner this stands right here as exhibit a of what it is to confess your sin in order to enter into the kingdom of heaven so what if someone doesn't confess their sin well we see it right here look at verse 18 as long as you are in luke 18 verse 18 a ruler questioned him we know this guy this is the rich young ruler good teacher what shall i do to inherit eternal life jesus said to him why do you call me good no one is good except god alone so this man has not come to see number one who jesus is number two that that god alone is good and holy and perfect and so therefore this man has never come to see his own sin because he's never come to see the holiness of god so jesus uses the law in evangelism in his proper use the law is the measuring stick by which we all measure ourselves to see that we have fallen short of the glory of god we're not measuring ourselves against what our mother thinks of us or what someone else is it's the divine standard of the law of god so jesus really in concession to this man starts with the second half of the law which is the easier half he passes over the first four commandments and goes to really the the sixth commandment and then at the end of verse 20 the fifth commandment but he says do not commit adultery now remember that begins in the heart that you've never lusted after uh another person within your heart uh do not steal now it begins in the heart you've never coveted you've never wanted something that someone else has do not bear false witness you've never shaded the truth once honor your father and mother you give them the respect and the honor and the love they so rightly deserve so jesus lays that out for this guy and notice what he says in verse 21 this is shocking all these things i have kept from my youth i don't have sin i've kept the law perfectly this this man does not know that he does not know he has zero self-awareness verse 22 when jesus heard this he said to him so he knows that there's greed and worldliness and lust in his heart one thing you still lack sell all that you possess and distribute it to the poor and the reason he said that is this man had idols in his heart you you need to liquidate all your idols go sell them and and then come follow me this is not saying i'm not saying you have to buy your way into the heav into heaven this is not saying excuse me that you have to sell everything and be abject abjectly poor in order of the kingdom but for this man this man jesus is dealing with him where this man is this man again would rather swallow his tongue than to confess his sin to god so and jesus said you shall have treasure in heaven and come and follow me verse 23 but when he had heard these things he became very sad for he was extremely rich and jesus goes on to say the disciples say well then who can be saved and jesus says well it's easier for a rich man to get into heaven than for a camel to pass through the eye of an uh of a needle because he has no sense of of uh of need of anything outside of himself and he's living for this world he has no thought for living for treasure in the world to come and he's always been able to buy his way into whatever he needs and so until he comes to be confessing his sin then there's no entrance into the kingdom of heaven so come back to first john chapter one i i wanted us to see that clearly no one enters the kingdom without confessing their sin and repenting of their sin jesus did not die for lonely people jesus did not die for people with a poor self-image jesus did not die for people who have a bad job jesus came into this world exclusively to save sinners and to die for sinners and that is the prerequisite for entrance into the kingdom of heaven that i have sinned and fallen short of the glory of god now as we're in 1st john verse 9 he says if we confess our sins now here's what's important i want you to understand this the verb confess is in the present tense which means there is to be the continual ongoing confession of sin in a true believer's life it's not just that you confess one time when you enter into the kingdom and you never have to confess your sin again that would indicate you're not a true christian that you never have been born again because the one who is a true believer not only confesses his or her sin with the first step of entrance into the kingdom of god but as they now proceed down the narrow path that leads to life they live in a fallen world they still have a sin nature the devil is still tempting them they still commit sin and a true christian will continue to confess sin as he or she is made aware of their sin by the convicting work of the holy spirit so it's not just a one-time confessed sin and i never have to confess sin again no it is an ongoing uh throughout the christian life and so it it is in the um present tense now he says if we confess our sins that that is actually to name sin for what it is it is a violation of the holiness of god it is a transgression of the law of god and we have to own up to that um we cannot send retail and confess it wholesale i mean we can't i said that for kent he would understand that so uh we we can't sin at a certain level but i i'm only going to confess it at a much lesser level man calls it an accident god calls it an abomination man calls it a blunder god calls it blasphemy man calls it an error god calls it enmity man calls it a fascination god calls it a fatality man calls it an infirmity god calls it iniquity man calls it a trifle god calls it a transgression man calls it a mistake god calls it madness man calls it weakness god calls it wickedness we need to call sin for what it is and not marginalize it not water it down not scale it back that's not confessing sin confessing sin is owning up to the sin i've committed for what it is and a true confession of sin involves repentance without repentance confession of sin is just empty words without repentance confession of sin is just trying to put a band-aid on cancer and is not really dealing with the sin so as we think of repentance accompanying a true confession think of it in three headings mind emotions and will all three are involved in the repentance that must accompany confession of sin and i think sometimes we discount confession of sin one reason is because the catholic church makes such a big deal out of it and and you have to go confess your sin to a priest and so we're we're protestants we're we we're we're not catholic and so we just kind of throw the baby out with the bath water and just throw the whole thing overboard like well we just never confess sin because we don't believe a false gospel likes being taught in the in the in the catholic church so that that is an overreaction no we as christians confess our sin to god and another reason i think that we don't confess our sin is because we've actually bought into this lie that well i only have to confess my sin at the point of entrance into the kingdom of heaven and now all i do is just look back at my justification at the moment i was saved and don't ever doubt your justification so therefore to confess sin on down the road as a christian is really to cast down on what god's already declared about your life that that is such a shallow view of christianity i wonder if you're even in the kingdom true confession of sin it marks our path as we continue down the narrow path but it is accompanied by repentance we are lifelong repenters we are lifelong confessors of sin now it involves mind emotions will with the mind we now see sin in a new light the sin that we had had tried to cover up now the holy spirit has convicted us and we see it and we see that we have offended god so there is this mental aspect to repentance i see sin now it's it's blatantly obvious what i did second is the emotions there is now a grief and a sadness in my heart for the moral failure in my life i'm not cavalier about this sin i i am not happy-go-lucky about this sin let's just call it for what it is this sin has grieved the heart of god and if you know god it's going to grieve your heart as well i mean you know what it's like in a marriage if your wife is not happy you're not happy okay and if god is not happy about your sin let me just tell you you and i cannot be happy about it there is a godly sorrow in the heart and then with the will there is an intentional deliberate turning away from that sin you cannot confess your sin and and and and still live in it three seconds later that there is a break with sin and you turn away from your sin in true repentance now let me just let me just give you a couple of verses isaiah chapter 1 and verse 16. um wash your wash yourselves make yourself clean remove the evil of your deeds from my sight cease to do evil verse 18 come now and let us reason together says the lord for though your sins be a scarlet they shall be white as snow though they be red like crimson they shall be white as wool if you refuse and rebel and he goes on to talk about that true confession is you remove the evil of your deeds in isaiah 55 it's just one more passage i'll read for you uh in isaiah 55 verse 6 and 7 seek the lord while he may be found call upon him while he is near now listen to verse 7 let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts let him return to the lord and the lord will have compassion on him but you must forsake your evil ways that is involved in true repentance now i want to talk just for a moment this is very important i want to talk about why we still need to confess our sin as a christian and i i want us to be crystal clear on this because there's too much fog out there we confess our sin at the moment of our entrance into the kingdom of heaven and that is what we call judicial forgiveness that is an eternal forgiveness for the penalty of our sin that is a one-time confession to god at the point of entrance you don't have to continue to ask god to forgive you in order to have eternal forgiveness of your sin the moment you were converted you were you were you were washed of every sin in the past every sin in the present every sin in the future romans 8 1 there is now therefore no condemnation for those who are in christ jesus psalm 103 verse 12 as far as the east is from the west so far has he removed our transgressions from us you can measure the north pole from the south pole but you cannot measure the east from the west that's how far god has removed your sins from you and in micah 7 verse 18 and 19 it says that god has taken our sins and buried them in the sea of his forgetfulness and he says your your lawless deeds i will remember no more okay it's a finished transaction that is a one-time confession of sin at the point of entrance into the kingdom of heaven that gives you judicial forgiveness because you are standing before god as your judge now throughout your christian life you need parental forgiveness because you have entered into a new relationship with god and god is no longer the condemning judge that's in your past that's over but now you have a seat at the table when the family comes to eat and god's at the head of the table and he's not your condemning judge anymore he is your loving father who cares for you who's feeding you who provides for you and yet you still have dirty feet yet you still walk through this dirty world and you fall into sin right you and i must continue to confess our sin to this god not in order to get into heaven that's already been settled but in order for my relationship with god to be repaired that there's nothing between god and me in a relational sense and i want to take us to a passage that makes this very clear i want you to turn to matthew chapter 6. and this is an important point that we're talking about and that's why i'm saying we're just going to look at this one verse today because this is so fundamental to christian living and so in matthew chapter 6 beginning in verse 9 jesus is teaching us how to pray and he says pray in this way and he gives us now a skeleton outline for how to pray our father who is in heaven hallowed be your name your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread verse 12. now this is for people who are already in the kingdom forgive us our debts as we have forgiven our debtors because you'll note in verse 9 god is our father and when we offend our father we're not put out of the family we're in the family forever but we must confess our sin to our father so that his smile the smile of his countenance will be restored to us and he says we are to ask for forgiveness of our debts even as we have forgiven our debtors now what does that mean well he tells us in verse 14 and 15. now this verse 14 and 15 if we don't understand this distinction verse 14 and 15 is not going to make any sense so verse 14 for if you forgive others for their transgressions your heavenly father will also forgive you so he's saying there's a condition for god to forgive you and it is do you forgive others and if you forgive others god will forgive you now you may say okay so what if i don't forgive others glad you asked the question this is for kent okay so verse 15. the rest of it this is role play but for this is real to life for kent [Laughter] so verse 15. so you say what if i don't forgive someone else what if i keep a grudge verse 15 but if you do not forgive others then your father will not forgive your transgressions now we can't make that verse go away it's there now what does this mean well it's not referring to judicial forgiveness you don't have to become perfect in order for god to forgive you once and for all now and forever throughout all eternity whereby your status has gone from perishing to now you are justified by faith before god that's not what's on the table that's not the issue being addressed now that you are in the kingdom this is what's being addressed that you must be quick to forgive others and you must be asking god to forgive you on an ongoing basis as often as you are being made aware of your sin and if you do not ask for god's forgiveness there will not be parental forgiveness and there is going to be distance in your walk with the lord there's going to be a disturbance there's going to be awkwardness there there's going to be in fact your prayers will be hindered the bible says if i regard iniquity in my heart the lord will not hear i think it's psalm 68 or 66 if i regard iniquity in my heart if i just refuse to deal with it in my life as a christian if i refuse to confess it if i'm not brokenhearted over it and if i do not repent of it god will not forgive it and the issue is not judicial eternal forgiveness the issue is parental temporal relational forgiveness so what john is saying here in 1st john 1 verse 9 is critically important to those of us men who are in the kingdom of heaven we need to keep short accounts with god we can't just let things stockpile in our life and and build up and and we don't come clean with god it will dull our senses it will steal joy from our life we will be ineffective in serving the lord we will sacrifice spiritual power to live the christian life spiritual fruit will be stagnated and stunted in its growth it will be the elephant on the air hose if we do not confess our sin to god now come back to psalm psalm 32. now i'm just going to go straight to this psalm 32 you recall how david as king of israel david committed adultery and then he tried to cover it up by having her husband killed because he had impregnated her and if her husband would be killed then no one can figure out what's going on here it was done by her husband he's no longer alive so he adds a sin on top of the previous sin and here's a lesson before i read this if you try to cover up your sin god's going to expose it but if you will uncover your sin god will cover it up yeah that's real good i'm getting some that's good here at this table [Laughter] not not so responsive from the other tables but let me just say that again you try to cover up your sin god's going to uncover it it's going to be painful but if you will uncover it by confessing it god will cover it up and it's over so look at psalm 32 verse 5. no excuse me verse 3 when i kept silent about my sin what that means is when i did not confess my sin when i just internalized it and suppressed it and and pretended like it never happened when i kept silent about my sin my body wasted away god sucked the energy out of me i lost my drive i lost my vitality i was going through life as if i had leg weights on through my groaning all day long joy when sin moves in joy moves out sin and joy can never occupy the same heart at the same time it's either or never both end when sin moves in joy moves out and joy will not move back in until sin moves out by confessing it and repenting of it and so he says his groaning all day long it wasn't just some uh momentary groaning he wakes up in the morning he's thinking about his sin he goes to sleep at night he's thinking about his sin he wakes up in the middle of the night he's thinking about a sin but he is so stubborn he will not confess his sin he just would rather continue to groan than to have gladness so look at verse four for day and night and the idea there is this is constant and continual your hand was heavy upon me it was as if god is pushing down on me and i'm just shrinking my vitality meaning my passion my energy my my zest my zeal for life was drained away as with the fever heat of summer that is always the result of failing to confess our sin to god verse 5 i acknowledge my sin to you yeah and it took a prophet to come to david to say thou art the man i acknowledge my sin to you that's what confession of sin is and my iniquity i did not hide he had been hiding it it came out of the closet it got in the living room in the sunlight i did not hide it and i said look at this i will confess my transgressions to the lord so how did god respond and you forgave the guilt of my sin this is why we must confess our sin as a believer david was in the kingdom and what was true in the old testament is true in the new testament all right come to psalm 51 and we'll wrap this up psalm 51. this deals with the very same issue of bathsheba and her husband and david's stubbornness to not confess his sin so he says in verse verse one he's beg this is confession of sin be gracious to me oh god according to your loving kindness verse two wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin that is a believer confessing his sin to god for i know my transgression in my sin is ever before me it's staring me right in the eyes now verse against you you only i have sinned we go no no david no you sinned against bathsheba you sinned against uriah the hittite they would say yes i did but not ultimately every sin is ultimately against god and a true confession of sin is not just going to your brother or to your sister and saying would you forgive me it's going before the throne of grace and asking god to wash me and cleanse me and to forgive me of my iniquity you do business with god verse 4 against you you only i have sinned and done what is evil in your sight it wasn't an uh-oh it wasn't a boo-boo it was evil in your sight and david's not saying well you know i'm already justified justified by faith i'm just living my christian life by looking in the rearview mirror and looking back at my justification i don't ever have to confess my sin and there's no ramifications of unconfessed unrepentant of sin in my life i'm just gonna in fact i'll just commit some more adultery i'll just have some more people killed because once saved always saved and it won't have any effect in my life that's devil talk that's fool's talk that's not a true christian talking that's the hiss of the serpent a true christian says what david says here against you and you only i have sinned and done what is evil in your sight so that you are justified when you speak what does god say you sinned and blameless when you judge verse five he traces back the problem not just to what he's done but what he is not just his deeds it's his very nature it's the very fabric of his soul is the problem verse five behold i was brought forth in iniquity and in sin my mother conceived me he's referring to the sin nature that he inherited at the moment of conception when he was in his mother's womb when his mother conceived him he came out of the womb already a sinner that's the problem verse six behold you desire truth in the innermost being in other words you desire me to be truthful about my sin before you god and in the hidden part you will make me no wisdom and so in verse seven he's begging god purify me with hyssop and and i shall be clean this is a believer praying this wash me and i will be whiter than snow verse 8 make me to hear joy and gladness why would he pray that because joy and gladness has moved out of his life he's miserable he's depressed because he has unconfessed sin in his life let the bones which you have broken rejoice god it feels like i've been in a car wreck i feel like you have shattered my bones at the deepest level of my being i've been carrying around this this sin in me verse 9 hide your face from my sins because god i i see that you see my sins and the only way for god to hide my sins is for me to bring it out in the open then god will hide it with forgiveness and blot out my iniquities verse 10 created me a clean heart oh god why would he pray that because he doesn't have a clean heart as a christian he has a filthy heart he has lust in his heart he has adultery in his heart he has murder and hatred in his heart created me a clean heart oh god and renew a steadfast spirit in me why would he pray that because he doesn't have a renewed a steadfast spirit anymore his christian life has become weak there's no endurance there's no steadfastness in him anymore he's just blow hot blow cold up down all around verse 11 do not cast me away from your presence god you just seem like a million miles away i used to read the bible and my heart leaped out of my chest i used to pray and it was like you were in the room with me and now when i pray it seems like you're another continent away i read the bible and it just goes in one ear and out the other and do not take your holy spirit from me he's referring to the power of the holy spirit the fruit of the holy spirit verse 12 restore to me the joy of your salvation obviously why would he pray that because he's miserable you cannot have unconfessed sin in your life and not be miserable and sustain me with a willing spirit now verse 13 is important then i will teach transgressors your way i i i can't witness to other people when i'm a hypocrite i i i don't i can't speak with conviction i can't speak with with depth of of of certainty until i confess my sin and make this right with god then i will teach transgressors your way and sinners will be converted to you why is no one saved anymore as a result of my life why isn't anyone being converted because you don't have the power of the holy spirit on your life anymore it's gone on a long journey and won't come back until it's get right with god time in your life so so what does god want well verse 15 oh lord open my lips that my mouth may declare your praise i can't even go to church and sing praises it's like i've got locked jaw in fact when i do sing i'm just faking it verse 16. for you do not delight in sacrifice otherwise i would give it in other words in the old testament bringing a sacrifice into the temple david realizes i'm just going through the empty motions of so-called worship i i could stack up sacrifices from here to the ceiling and it it's not going to mean anything to god or to me and he says you are not pleased with burnt offering well god is the one who required the burnt offering so why would god not be pleased with a burnt offering it's because you have unconfessed sin in your life and you're just going through this facade the charade of church god says i don't want your sacrifices i don't want your burnt offerings i want you i want your heart i want your life and i want it right with me so that's why it says in verse 17 the sacrifices of god here's the sacrifice god wants on the altar not some animal a broken spirit a broken and a contrite heart o god you will not despise that's what god wants he he he wants a broken heart broken over your sin that you have stubbornly refused to confess and you have sealed it in your heart with concrete and you have thought you you have thought you could have hidden it and covered it up and god keeps pressing his finger upon the live nerve of it saying you must confess this to me are you going to be miserable the rest of the journey until you come home to heaven so men here's the question do we confess our sin to god do you confess your sin to god what does it take to get you to the point to confess your sin to god there's not a man in this room beginning with me who does not sin we have been forgiven eternally judicially through the act of justification by faith alone but that's only one spoke of the wheel there are many other truths taught in the bible we can't be playing a violin with only one string and the rest of the story is you and i must be confessors of our sin we must be repenters of our sin or our christian life will suffer greatly we will be spinning our wheels in quicksand and going nowhere until we confess our sin and that is when the power of the holy spirit moves back in that is when the joy and the gladness that only god can give comes back into a cleansed heart so this is something that i need this is something that you need and it's something that's not talked about very much but it is very clear and very obvious if we confess our sins he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all un righteousness the word forgive means to send away he will send that sin away the moment you confess it there is no delayed forgiveness on god's part only delayed confession on our part but the moment we confess it god forgives it god washes it away and we don't have to go back and go through that again we men can be pretty stubborn we can be slow in relationships this is the relationship that really matters it's in our walk with the lord so as i look at the the clock i see that i've run every stop sign that there is and i i would love to field questions so ken what do i do ken it's my conscience so what if anybody has any questions yeah are there any questions quick that anyone wants to to to ask and yeah first of all i just want to say thank you uh but uh this in james chapter five i was thinking of james chapter five where he calls us to confess our sins to one another could you maybe speak a little bit as to um do we also need to confess our sins to one another how does that relate to what we learned today confessing sin to god and yeah in practice i think we confess our sins to one another to the extent that that sin affects them i i don't think for example on sunday morning we need to pass the microphone around and and everyone just confess every sin that ever happened going back to junior high school and and and get it out all on the table that that's not what that verse is talking about um it's it's saying we are to confess our sins to one another to the extent that my sin has injured that person or done violation to them and there there's no this does not need to be advertised to to to everyone um it's it's in the arena that that sin took place is the arena that that confession is to take place and there have been times in the past as a pastor i have sinned in the pulpit by using inappropriate humor at the expense of people sitting in the pew and i was so convicted that i knew the next week i needed to get back in the pulpit and confess this to the whole church because the whole church heard it the week before but i was not confessing sin that i did in private or with just one other person in the church the arena in which the sin takes place is to be the arena in which the confession is to be made and there in that james 5 when it's talking about the elders of the church that that is of a sin that either he's gone to the elders for counsel and and has and has put his sin out in front of those elders uh he now needs to confess that to those elders or if he's under church discipline um or is in the process of being disciplined he wouldn't he would need to confess that to the elders so as to to bring a halt to the church discipline process but that's a great question yeah someone else yeah good catch is there an added biblical benefit to the confession process to the elders in the sense of um i've so often seen men i'm confessing my pornography my lying my pride before god and i just can't remove i can't find that power to turn is there an aspect of when we humble ourselves before god but also before our brothers hey i am struggling here x y and z where then that healing takes place that james 5 talks about where i'm there's a humility aspect of i'm like verbally confessing my sins to my brother so then there can be the laying on of hands that might provide another depth of healing and turning from those sins i would put it another way um you confess sin to the one you have offended and so if you have committed pornography in private you haven't sinned against these other men you ascend against god and you you said i just can't find the power to overcome it yes you can find the power to overcome it because god has given that power you have chosen intentionally not to avail yourself of that power in first corinthians 10 it says no man is overcome with the temptation but that god provides the way of escape you have chosen not to seek the way of escape you have chosen to remain in your sin and jesus said if your right eye causes you to stumble he doesn't say go confess that to a small accountability group he says he says pluck out your right eye otherwise you're going to hell he says if your right hand causes you to stumble he doesn't say well go confess that to other people he says chop off your right hand deal with it with radical repentance he doesn't say go throw up on someone else and let them throw up on you and we're all equally miserable in our sin like it's a male chest bumping club no jesus says you deal with it with repentance and god has provided the power to overcome that sin you have simply chosen not to and if you were to get a group of men together and and confess it to them without plucking out your right eye without chopping off your right hand and without really dealing it dealing with it with god you're just going to lie to those men and you're going to week by week month by month however often you you meet it's like a weed that's growing you just chop off the top well you're strengthening the root it's going to come back stronger you've got to dig out the root of the weed to get rid of the weed and the only way to get the root out is to confess it to god to be broken-hearted over it and to repent of it and and turn away from it so that would be my answer to that and i know that there are other opinions in christian counseling on that and i think that's why it requires 13 visits to the counselor at hundred dollars a visit and you know i'm of the al mohler school of counseling three things number one what is your problem number two what does the bible say number three why are we still talking we have men around us we have men that are entrusting their spiritual discipleship to us and they literally exhibit no power or maybe even want to other than just what's chirping out of their mouth do you tell them lovingly hey you have no fruits of a regenerated heart i mean yeah yeah i would say i would call into question their salvation if this prolongs right and i mean sure can there be momentary weakness certainly i mean could david commit adultery could he have that murder sure there could be a momentary weakness but if if this prolongs and you just keep running stop signs the kindest thing you can do as a spiritual leader is to say brother can you share with me again when you came to know the lord and can you tell me the change that has happened in your life from that moment to the present because jesus said you will know them by their fruit and if you have bad fruit it comes from a bad root he says a a bad root cannot produce good fruit and a good fruit a good root cannot produce bad fruit you will know them by their fruit so there's a consistency there another thing is when you go through the narrow gate you can only go down the narrow path you can't go through the narrow gate and then walk the broad path you don't get to mix and match and so it's a narrow gate narrow path broad gate broad path and so i would say to that person that i would also hold before them matthew 13 and the four soils and just so which one of these is represents your life yeah certainly thank you for the question i appreciate it anybody else yeah okay over here in the back john i think when you confess your sins to your buddies that's just like going to a catholic priest isn't it yeah and you're just entrusting your deepest darkest aspects to your life to some other sinner yeah that's what facebook and twitter are for right i wanted to make a comment on matthew 18 25 yeah yeah yeah about the rich man and the needle and the camel yeah yeah first of all that's a very popular biblical verse yeah everybody seems to have heard it or said it you can hear opportunistic politicians godless yeah saying that to make the people think they know something um so it's a popular verse but there's a fallacy that goes with it and the fallacy is it's easier to get into heaven if you're poor than if you're rich yeah that's a total fallacy yeah the verse could just as easily have said it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a poor man to enter the kingdom of heaven yeah you're exactly right john so don't make the logical fallacy yeah i've heard it many yeah no you're exactly right and if we understand the reformed view the romans calvin luther their interpretation the energy of monarchism of the salvation of a soul you said it today god saves one kind of person a sinner yeah it's not easier to get in if you're poor yeah i'm just trying to make that no thank you and i and i don't want to give any other uh thought on that and just to affirm what you're saying john after jesus said that like it's easier for you know a camel to go through an eye of a needle which is impossible the disciples then said well then who can be saved because they they understood the impossibility of it and jesus said well with man it's impossible but with god all things are possible and referring to god can save anybody rich man poor man whoever and so you've really put your finger on on the truth in that that with man it's impossible but with god all things are possible because his grace is greater than than our sins and it is a monarchistic regeneration it's impossible for a poor man to get in heaven and a poor man may have more idols in his heart than a rich man because a poor man may not have anything and be daydreaming all day long about what he doesn't have and what he wants to have so yeah yeah anyone else okay kent says we've got to close and i'll go buy coffee so uh no he didn't say that he just said we've all got to all got to close so or i've got to close so let me just close but i will say who has ears to hear let him hear father thank you for this verse that just leaps off the page and says a thousand things to us lord if we are to have revival if we are to have a spiritual awakening judgment must begin with the house of god then i pray that you'd begin even in this room that we would be confessors and repenters of our sin and that you would create in us a clean heart and then sinners will be converted and transgressors will be one to you so may we be a pure bride here in this room in jesus name amen amen thank you thanks for staying a little late that's what we call sudden death okay we we went six extra holes [Music] you

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Published: Thu Sep 02 2021