This morning's service with a
hymn from the large hardbacked hymnal number 186, The Church
Is One Foundation. 186. Let's all stand together. The church's one foundation is
Jesus Christ, her Lord. She is his new creation by water
and the Word. From heaven he came and sought
her. to be his holy bride. With his own blood he bought
her, and for her life he died. ? Elect from every nation ? Yet
one o'er all the earth ? Her charter of salvation ? One Lord,
one faith, one birth ? One holy name she blesses ? Partakes one
holy food and to one hope she presses with every grace endued. Mid toil and tribulation and
tumult of her war, she waits the consummation of peace forevermore. Till with the vision glorious
her longing eyes are blessed, And the great church victorious
shall be the church at rest. Yet she on earth hath union with
God the three-in-one, And mystic sweet communion with those whose
rest is one. O happy ones and holy, Lord,
give us grace that we, like them, the meek and lowly, on high may
dwell with Thee. Please be seated, Tom. What a joy to be with you. Could you turn with me to 1 John
chapter 2? 1 John chapter 2. Verse 1. I'm going to read the first sentence.
My little children, these things write I unto you, that you sin
not. Now what things did he write
to them? What did he say? These things
write I unto you, that you sin not. Look back in chapter one,
verse five. This then is the message which
we've heard of him and declare unto you that God is light and
in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship
with him and walk in darkness, we lie. and do not the truth. But if we walk in the light,
as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another,
fellowship with God and fellowship with believers. And the blood
of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanseth us from all sin. If we say that
we have no sin, We deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If
we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we've not sinned, we
make him a liar. And His word is not in us. My
little children, these things write I unto you, that you sin
not. I'd never really noticed that
connection. I just started, you know, the chapter divisions are
man-made, but these things write I unto you, what I just read,
that you sin not. I want to try to talk about the
believer and sin. the believer and sin. Let's pray
together. Our merciful heavenly father,
we come into your presence in Christ's name, that name that's
above every name. And we ask in his name that you
would be pleased to meet with us. Grant us your
spirit to hear your gospel and teach us May Christ Jesus be
exalted. May we be found in Him. Lord,
we confess our sins and pray for forgiveness and cleansing
for the Lord's sake. And Lord, how we thank you that
we can ask in Christ's name. For Lord, there's no other way
we would come but in His name. And be with all your people wherever
they meet together. Lord, we ask for your blessing
upon Greg as he's preaching away that your spirit would be upon
him and that you'd bless those people in the hearing of the
gospel in Christ's blessed name. We pray. Amen. The believer and sin. David said in Psalm 32 verses
one and two, blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose
sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin and in whose spirit there is no guile,
no deceit, no phoniness, No hypocrisy. Now somebody might think, huh,
sounds like you just described me. Well, notice he said, in
whose spirit there is no guile. Did you know that the natural
man does not have a spirit? He's got a soul. He's got a body,
but he doesn't have a spirit. That is what died in the fall,
the spirit. And when someone is born again,
they're given a spiritual nature, a holy nature, a nature where
there is no guile. And it's that nature that sees
the sinfulness of the other nature. Blessed is he in whose spirit
there is no guile. I love when the Lord saw Nathaniel,
he said, behold, and is your light indeed. in whom is no guile. This is that honest and good
heart that the Lord speaks of that receives the word. It's
the heart he gives. It's the new man. Now, why is
it that religious people present themselves the way they do? And the best way I think I can
describe that is quote some lines out of the hymn book you use
and that we use in our church. I think this will help to explain
what I'm trying to say, what the claimed religious people
make. Listen to this, but we never can prove the delights
of his love until our all on the altar we lay. What do you lay on the altar?
For the favor he shows and the love he bestows are for those
who will trust and obey. Trust and obey, for there's no
other way. To be happy in Jesus is to trust
and obey. To trust is to obey. It's not a mixture of faith and
works. I rise to walk in heaven's own
light above the world in sin with heart made pure and garments
white and Christ enthroned within." Really? Really? Do you rise to walk in
heaven's own light above the world in sin? Perfect submission. Perfect delight. Visions of rapture now burst
in my sight. What about that person who speaks
of his religion in terms of a higher walk? More holy. Less sinful. Things are becoming
Better. And when you hear that, if you're
anything like me, you feel as bad as you ever were. You really believe that about
yourself and you think, what's wrong with me? Why can I not
enter into that? Why am I not like them? Well,
let me answer that question. Verse eight of first John chapter
one. If we say that we have no sin,
we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. The reason
someone speaks that way is they've deceived themselves. They've
lied to themselves and the truth is not in them. They don't have
anything in them that can even perceive what sin is in the first
place. The truth is not in them. Look
in verse 10, if we say we've not sinned, we make him a liar
and his word is not in us. When we make that claim, we're
calling God a liar because God says all have sinned. Present
tense. Whatever you're doing. All have
sinned and come short of the glory of God. And he says the
word of God does not abide in that man. These claims of a higher life comes
from not having a holy nature and not understanding what sin
is in the first place. You know, a lost man cannot understand
sin. He can't understand it. And that
is where these claims come from. That's where these false statements
come from regarding how I feel about myself. Now, in verses
8 through 10, we read of sin, sins, and sin. The believer and sin. But let's go back up to verse
5 for just a moment. This then is the message which
we've heard of him and declare unto you that God is light And
in him is no darkness at all. This is a reference to God's
holiness. God is light. And in him is no
darkness at all. You see, holiness is the attribute
of all of his attributes. His sovereignty is a holy sovereignty. His love is a holy love. His
wrath is a holy wrath. Whatever you say regarding God,
he's holy. God is light. In him is no darkness
at all. Verse six, if we say that we
have fellowship with him, and everybody, about everybody makes
that claim, don't they? I speak with God. I pray. He hears me. I hear him. I walk with him.
I have fellowship with him. I have fellowship with the living
God. I walk with him. Many people make that claim.
If we say we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness,
we lie and do not the truth. Now understand, when he's saying,
if we say we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness,
we lie and do not the truth. If that means, if we say we have
fellowship with Him and yet practice sin when nobody knows about it. If that's what that means, and
listen, you ought not, and I ought not practice sin when nobody
knows about it. I'm not excusing anything like that, but if that's
what that means, nobody in here walks with him. Isn't that so? Nobody in here walks with him.
That's not a reference to walking in this way that's really good. What that's talking about is
walking in the darkness of salvation by works. walking in the darkness
of human religion. If we say we have fellowship
with Him and walk in darkness, now when we talk about God being
light, Christ is the light of the world and He's the light
as to how God can accept me. He's the light. That's the only
light I have is that He is, this is how God can look at me and
accept me and embrace me and receive me because Christ is
the light, as to how that could be. So when he's saying, if we
say we have fellowship in him walking in darkness, he's not
talking about the way most people talk about you have sinful behavior
on the side that nobody knows about. Well, you ought not have
that. I ought not have that. But like I said, let's be honest. If that's what it means, you're
not saved. If that's what it means, I'm not saved. He's talking
about walking in the darkness of religious superstition and
salvation by works. But verse seven, if we walk in
the light, the light of how God saves for Christ's sake, the light of salvation by grace,
the light of complete acceptance in Christ, he has made us accepted
in the beloved. If we walk in the light as he
is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, with God and
with one another. And the blood of Jesus Christ,
God's son cleanseth us from all sin. And I think this is very
interesting. That word cleanseth is in the
present active tense. What's that mean? It means I
always need to be cleansed. There's never a time when I don't
need to be cleansed and thank God, the blood of Jesus Christ,
God's son cleanseth us always from all sin. See it. What are you talking about? The
believer in sin. What do you mean by sin? Well,
what does the Bible mean by sin? There are so many good definitions
of sin in the Bible. One of my favorites is Proverbs
21, 4. The plowing of the wicked is sin. It says a lot about sin,
doesn't it? Plowing? He's plowing and it's
sin. If he does it, it is. That's
the point. Now we think of plowing. I don't
think, I can't think of anything that seems more wholesome than
going out and plowing the land and maybe getting a crop for
food to feed the poor and good works and so on. You saying that's
sin? If you did it, it is. That's the point. The plowing
of the wicked is sin. Proverbs 24, 9, the thought of
foolishness is sin. Romans chapter 14 verse 23, whatsoever
is not of faith, whatsoever is not generated from faith in Christ,
whatever it is, it's sin. Whatever doesn't come from faith
in Christ, it's sin. James said to him that knoweth
to do good and doeth it not, to him, it's sin. Paul said in
Romans 23, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. To come short of the glory of
God is sin. You know what my favorite definition
of sin is? First John 3, 4, sin is the transgression
of the law. Ten commandments. To put anything
before God. You do that. Every time you sin,
you put something before God. The second commandment regarding
idolatry, to make some kind of false view or explanation of
God or to make some kind of idol. You got any idols that you put
before God? The third commandment regarding
taking his name in vain, his name is so holy to even say it
wrong, to fail to have the proper reverence for him. Remember the
Sabbath day to keep it holy. Honor your father and mother
in all authority. Thou shalt not kill. That doesn't
only mean physical killing. That means you can kill somebody's
character by slander and innuendo. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
All sexual sin is sin before God. Thou shalt not lie. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not covet. Every time I hear the Ten Commandments,
the only conclusion I have is I broke every one of them every
time, and I haven't kept one of them once. Now, I think of when that man
asked the Lord what the greatest commandment was. And he said
to love God with all your heart and all your soul and all your
strength and to love your neighbors yourself. And that lets me know
I'm continually breaking the greatest commandment. All the
time, as far as my experience. So remember, the believer in
sin. What about the believer and Sin now, I don't want to
trivialize my sin. I don't want to look for an excuse
for my sin But these scriptures ring so true to me verses 8 through
10 if we say That we have no sin We deceive ourselves And
the truth is not in us If we confess our sins he is faithful
and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness
If we say we've not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word
is not in us. These are the things he writes
that we sin not. If we say we have no sin, that's
another if we say. Kind of like if we say we have
fellowship with him, if we say we have no sin. And there the
word sin is a noun. That means it's a reference to
a sinful nature. Not an act, but a sinful nature. And at all times, I know this
from such believing this, at all times I am keenly aware of
a sinful, evil nature. I'm very aware of this. Keenly
aware. Turn with me for a moment to
Romans chapter seven. Paul says in verse 14, for we
know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. Now, Paul is speaking as a believer,
and he's talking about his experience, and he's saying, I am sold under
sin. I am a slave. to sin. Somebody says, well, how could
you be saved then? Well, if you can't see that, you're not saved.
That's the point. But let's go on reading. For
that which I do, I allow not. For what I would, that do I not. But what I hate, that do I. And this is an honest man speaking.
This is an honest man. That's very important. A religious
hypocrite would never make statements like this. They'd think, well,
so it'll expose me. It'll make me look bad. But this
is the closest you're going to come to an honest statement from
any human being here in Romans chapter 7. This is his experience.
He said, if then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the
law that it's good. Now then it's no more I that
do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me,
that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. For to will is
present with me, but how to perform that which is good, sometimes
I mess it up. He doesn't say it that way, does he? He says,
I find not. For the good that I would, I
do not, but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that, I would not,
it's no more. I that do it, but sin that dwelleth
in me, it wasn't me, it was him. It was the evil nature, the old
man. I find then a law, that when
I would do good, evil is present with me, for I delight in the
law of God after the inward man. But I see another law in my members,
warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity
to the law of sin, which is in my members, O wretched man that
I was. Oh, wretched man, that I am right
now, present tense, who should deliver me from the body of this
death? I thank God through Jesus Christ,
our Lord, so that with my mind, I myself serve the law of God,
but with the flesh, the law of sin. And that's what he's talking
about when he says, if we say we have no sin, We deceive ourselves. We've told a lie to ourselves
and made ourselves believe the lie. And we have lost all credibility. The truth is not in us. Ecclesiastes chapter seven, verse
20. There's not a just man on the
earth that doeth good and sinneth not. Psalm 130, if thou Lord
should mark iniquities, O Lord, who should stand? Look at this
in Isaiah 64. Would you turn with me here?
I'd like you to read this with me. Before I read the main verses,
I want you to point out that Isaiah is speaking to his father.
He says in verse eight, but now, oh Lord, thou art our father.
Isaiah 64, eight, but now, oh Lord, thou art our father. We
are the clay and thou art the potter and we are all the work
of thy hand. He's speaking to his father, isn't he? He's speaking
as a believer. He's speaking as a child of God.
He's speaking as one who loves the Lord Jesus Christ. But look
what he says back up in the last part of verse five, for we have
sinned and in those is continuance, and we shall be saved." How do
you say something like that? We sin. In those sins there is
continuance, and we shall be saved. Well, that doesn't make
sense. Yeah, it does. It's the only
thing that does make sense. I think of what David said, inequities
prevail against me. As for our transgressions, thou
shalt purge them away. It says the same thing at the
time. But let's go on reading verse
6 of Isaiah 64. But we are all as an unclean
thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. and we do
fate as a leaf and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away
and there's none that calls upon my name that stirreth up himself
to take hold of thee for thou's hid thy face from us and has
consumed us because of our iniquities but now lord thou art our father
you see that he's speaking as a believer now that is the believer's
experience of sin i always have this evil nature and if someone
refuses to make that claim, there's a reason. They have deceived
themselves. They've told themselves a lie
and made themselves believe that lie. Have you ever done that?
You ever lied to yourself and made yourself believe it? Well,
Lynn tells me I do it all the time. But it's, that's the truth. He says the truth is not in us,
there's no holy nature there. The truth of the gospel is not
there if we make that claim. Look in verse 10 of 1 John chapter
1. If we say we've not sinned. Now there the word is a verb. If we say we've not sinned. When's the last time you sinned?
Just now? Just now. If we say we've not sinned, now
that means that everything I do is a sin. Everything. If we say we've not sinned, we make him a liar. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. Am I going to say that that action
measures up to the glory of God? Whatever it is, whether it's
a good thing, whether it's a bad thing, whatever I'm talking about,
anything I've done, if I say I didn't sin there, at least
I didn't have any guilt there. At least I did that one, right?
I mean, I, I might've been wrong in a lot of other places, but
I was right there. No, you weren't. No, I wasn't. If we say we have
not sinned, we make Him a liar. And once again, His Word does
not dwell in us. If a man makes that claim, the
Word of Christ does not dwell in him. He has no holy nature
and is blind to the inherent sin in every single action. With regard to this, the believer
in sin, I'm not looking for an excuse to sin and I would not
sin, but here's my experience. Here's the experience of every
believer. I have at all times a sinful nature that I'm aware
of and everything I do is sin. And look what he says in verse
nine though. Now here's the believer in sin, verse nine. If we confess our sins, our sinful nature, and our sinful
actions. Now understand that doesn't mean
you gotta confess every one of them. You don't know what most of them
are, and there's not enough time in the day. So that doesn't mean
an individual confession of each sin. You can't do that. What does it mean if we confess
our sins? Well, it means more than admitting
you've sinned. Pharaoh said, I've sinned. I
and my people are wicked, and the Lord is righteous. He admitted
to sin, didn't he? Balaam said, I've sinned. But he went right back after
the money. Achan said, I've sinned. And Moses had him stoned. Judas said, I've sinned, in that
I've shed the innocent blood. Saul said, I've sinned. And he was so insincere. And
here's the point. Admitting to sin is not confessing
sin. You can admit to sin all day
long, and it's not confessing it. Well, I admit I sinned. I confess I sinned. That's not
the confession of sin. Now, understand, the word confession
means to speak the same thing. Now, when I confess my sin, I
speak the same thing God says regarding my sin. I am in complete
agreement with what God says. Now that's what it means to confess
your sin. You take sides with God against
yourself. And you give complete agreement
with what He says. That's what it is to confess
your sins before God. It's to take His side against
yourself. It's to agree with Him. I think
of what happened when David had committed that grievous sin with
Bathsheba and then killing Uriah the Hittite and implicating Joab
in his wicked deed and keeping it covered up and it went on
and on and on and God sent Nathan to David and Nathan told him
a story. There's a man who had a little
lamb that he loved. It sat at his table. He loved
it just like one of his own children. He delighted in this. Oh, this
little lamb was so precious to him. And this fellow had a neighbor
who was very rich, who had a whole flock, tons. And somebody came
to visit him, and he didn't want to give up his one of his sheep
for this guy. So he went and takes this man,
his own sheep he had, little lamb. He takes it, kills it,
butchers it, feeds it to his guest. David said, as the Lord
liveth, that man will surely die. I'm so, and we're going
to kill him. And Nathan said, thou art the
man. You know what David did? He said,
I've sinned against the Lord. And he went and penned these
words right after that. Have mercy upon me, O God, according
to thy loving kindness, according to the multitude of thy tender
mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me throughly from my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin, for I acknowledge my transgressions.
My sin is ever before thee against thee, and thee only have I sinned
and done this evil in thy sight, that thou mightest be clear when
you judge, justified when you speak, whatever. See, he's taken
God's side against himself. Whatever judgment you claim against
me is clear, right, holy, just, and true. He's taken sides with
God against himself. Now that's what it is to confess
your sins. It's not to just admit it. It's not when we're going,
well, we confess our sins. That's not confession. It's not
confession. It's to take sides with God against
yourself. That's exactly what David did. Now look at the promise, though,
with regard to this thing of the confession of sin. If we
confess our sins, He is faithful and just. to forgive us our sins
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Now here's a promise. You confess
your sins. He's faithful to forgive you of your sins.
You take sides with him against yourself and he's always going
to forgive you. He's faithful to always do that. And the reason
he's faithful to forgive you of your sins, because they've
already been forgiven. They've already been forgiven.
You were in the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
And the reason he's faithful to forgive you of your sins is
he's faithful to himself to do whatever he's purposed to do.
He purposed to forgive you of your sins. And it's his will
for your sins to be forgiven. And he purposed for you to confess
them. It's all a part of his glorious purpose. That's why
he's faithful. He's faithful to himself. And
that's why he's faithful to you. He's faithful. Not only is he
faithful and we would say he's merciful and gracious to forgive
us of our sins and he is merciful and gracious to forgive. But
that's not what John says. He's faithful and he's just to
forgive us of our sins. Justice demands the forgiveness
of my sins because Christ put them away and he justified me
and he made me perfectly just in his sight. Don't you love
justification? Publican in the temple, beating
on his breast saying, God be merciful to me, the sinner. Now there was confession of sin. He was taking sides with God
against himself. God be merciful to me, the sinner, the worst
man to ever live. And you went to Lord said about
that fella. He said, I say in you, that man went down to his
house. What's the next word justified. The justice of God demands the
forgiveness of everybody for whom Christ died. And everybody
for whom Christ died, you know what they're going to do? They're
going to confess their sins and they're going to know that Christ
Jesus is all they got. And that's all they plead. He's
faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse
us. from all unrighteousness. And
I've already pointed out in verse 7, the blood of Jesus Christ,
his son cleanseth, cleanseth. Now, right now, while I'm talking
to you, I'm in keen awareness of a need to be cleansed right
now. And you know what? I'm cleansed
right now. Yesterday, I needed cleansed
right now. And I was cleansed right now. And tomorrow, I'll need cleansed
right now. And I'm cleansed right now. Now these things write on to
you. To give you an excuse for sin,
To make you okay with sin? No, that you sin not. Everybody in this room ought
to make it their resolve to never sin again. And that word if, if any man
sin, It's translated there in the third chapter, when he shall
appear, when you do, when you do, we have an advocate, a lawyer
with the father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. And he does what
no other lawyer does. He makes you plead guilty. And then He justifies you. No
lawyer like this. Jesus Christ the righteous. Not
only is He your lawyer, He's the judge's son. Over the pool
He has with His Father. And all He has to do is stand
there. You didn't have to say, forgive
him again. I know they messed up again. Forgive. No. His own
presence demands the complete salvation of all for whom he
died. Amen. I guess we just take a
break for a while and then, okay. Is that the way? Okay. Thank you.