Cleansed From Sin | 1 John 1:7

Review: This week our lessons have been about wisdom. You have lots of decisions to make in your life, and you need God’s wisdom to help you make those decisions.

Can anyone tell me where true wisdom is found? In God’s Word.

The only source of wisdom is God. And the place that He has given us His wisdom is in His Word.

One of the books of wisdom in the Bible where you can find all kinds of wise sayings and help is the book of Proverbs. That’s where we’ve spent most of our time this week.

Monday night’s lesson was about having ears that hear and do the Word of God.

In here we looked in Proverbs 1 at how wisdom cries out to us to try to get us to turn and hear God’s wisdom.

Can anyone remember the three types of people that wisdom is crying out to?

Simple, the Scorner, and the Fool

All three lack wisdom. The simple just doesn’t know, but without God’s wisdom he’s headed toward the cliff of destruction. The Scorner knows but mocks wisdom, makes fun of it, and refuses to hear wisdom. He too heads right over the cliff of destruction. The Fool knows about wisdom, but ignores it. He thinks he’s too smart for it. Thinks he doesn’t need it. Hears wisdom and then turns and does his own thing. He also heads toward the cliff of destruction and falls right over the side.

But a wise young person hears wisdom crying and turns back toward it rather than falling over the edge. I hope you’re like that, kids.

Last night, Bro. Jeremy talked about Proverbs 3:5-6 (quote) and how we need to trust God’s wisdom.

His point was to ask “Who are you trusting in?” If you trust in yourself, you’re headed toward the cliff. But if you’re trusting in God, you’re going to turn and let Him dictate how you live your life.

God’s wisdom keeps us on the path of safety. When we don’t listen, that’s when we put ourselves at risk of destruction.

You remember the trust fall, right?

That’s scary. It was so scary that Wyatt wouldn’t even do it and we had to get a different volunteer. So Ethan took his place and fell into Bro. Wasson’s arms.

When it comes to living our lives, that’s how we all need to be with God.

In matters of hearing God’s Word, or using our speech, or working, or choosing our friends, we must trust God’s wisdom and follow it if we’re going to be blessed.

Tonight, I’m going to expound on one of the applications Bro. Jeremy mentioned last night in his trust message: Salvation.

When I say salvation, I’m talking about where you spend eternity after you die.

1. Every one of us will die one day and spend eternity somewhere

According to Luke 16, those that have trusted Christ as their Savior will spend eternity in Heaven.

Those that have not trusted Christ will spend eternity separated from God forever in a literal place called Hell.

John 5:29 “And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.”

So here’s the question, don’t answer this, but where will you spend eternity?

It all depends on what you are planning to do with your sin.

2. We Are All Sinners

Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;”

You don’t hear this very often, but God is Holy and we are sinners.

Our sin started in the garden with Adam and Eve. Once they disobeyed God, that sin nature was passed down to every one of us.

How do I know we’re all sinners? Let’s take a test.

If you’ve ever disobeyed your parents, the Bible calls that sin.

If you’ve ever taken something that doesn’t belong to you, the Bible calls that sin.

If you’ve ever been selfish or mean and fought with your brother or sister, the Bible calls that sin.

If you’ve ever told a lie, even if it’s just a small one, the Bible calls that a sin.

If you’ve ever taken something that doesn’t belong to you, the Bible calls that a sin as well.

So what’s the problem with sin? Well, when we have sin, we can’t stay in God’s presence. God is Holy. He’s perfect. He’s sinless. That means He can’t be around sin. So when Adam and Eve sinned, they had to leave the garden of Eden. They had to get away from God’s presence.

And if we have sin, we can’t be in His presence. We can’t fellowship with God. And we can’t go to heaven. Because that’s where God lives, and sin isn’t allowed in His presence.

Rom. 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death”

If it’s up to us, the only option we have with our sin is to be separated from God forever in a place called Hell.

Illustration: This isn’t like a Video Game where, if you die, you can hit restart or respawn.

Sin separates us from God. And we can’t do anything about it on our own.

Children, God is holy. He’s never sinned. And we all have.

God Is Holy. I’m Not. And if that’s all the news we had today, that would be terrible.

3. Even though we’re sinners, God wants to take care of our sin problem.

God wants a relationship with you.

God wants to know you.

God wants you to spend eternity in Heaven with Him.

And here’s the greatest part: God has made it possible for for your sins to be forgiven and for you to have a relationship with God and spend eternity in Heaven with Him.

How? Jesus, the sinless Son of God came to earth and never sinned.

And God requires a sacrifice for sins, so Jesus willingly died on the cross and shed His blood for our sins.

And 1 John 1:7 says this, “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.”

Jesus can cleanse us from all our sin. Forgive us of every sin. Jesus’ blood can make us clean.

Even though we’re dirty. Even though we deserve to be separated from God.

And all we have to do is say “Yes,” to Jesus Christ.

You must admit that you’re a sinner. Know that Jesus died for your sins. And like Bro. Jeremy said, place your trust in Jesus alone to forgive you from your sins and save you.

Illustration: I’d like to illustrate this truth using three jars labeled JESUS, YOU & SIN

JESUS: If you’ll notice, the jar labeled Jesus is clear. The reason it looks clear is because He is holy. He is sinless. He is perfect. He’s never done anything wrong.

YOU: Your jar looks pretty clean right now. This is the way we all want to look. Nice and clean. Sinless and holy. It even looks drinkable. But unfortunately, as we’ve heard even today, sin has affected us all. We’ve all done things we shouldn’t do.

SIN: This is the jar that causes the issues. You see, all have sinned. We’re all sinners. So because you have done things that break God’s commandments, sin has come into your life

(Pour Sin into YOU - “YOU” becomes discolored)

Applications:

Maybe you disobeyed your parents, which the Lord says is a sin. (pour a little)

Maybe you mistreated a sibling, which violates God’s commandment to love. (pour a little)

Maybe you lied about something to cover up what you’ve done, which means you’ve broken God’s law not to bear false witness. (pour a little)

Maybe you cheated on a test, which is also dishonesty, which is sin. (pour a little)

Maybe you took something that doesn’t belong to you, and stealing is a sin. (pour a little)

So now, your jar looks like sin, which is not the way God created us to be. But after sin, this is how we look.

God doesn’t want us to look this way either. Why? Because He’s holy. These two jars are not compatible. If we have sin, we can’t be in fellowship with God. We can’t be in His presence. We can’t get to Heaven like this.

Illustration: Someone standing at gates of heaven, you try to get in with your dirty jar, they turn you away

But here’s the thing, God wants you to be holy. He wants your jar to be clean. He wants you to be without sin. The problem is, we can’t change this by ourselves.

If I add a bunch of good works to this jar, it doesn’t get rid of the sin. If sin is present, I’m in trouble.

But God had a solution to our sin problem. Romans 5:8 “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

Jesus came with a rescue plan. And you might think, “What could He do about my sin?” Well, He came and lived a perfect life. He never sinned. He is without sin. And Jesus died for all of our sins. He took our sins upon Himself when He died on the cross.

(Pour SIN into JESUS - “Jesus” remains clear)

And then He took our sins to the grave, and when He died, He buried our sins. Then He rose again from the dead sinless. Jesus has power over sin. He’s the only that can claim that.

(Move SIN away)

So Jesus has taken care of the sin problem. But just because He has proven to have power over sin, that doesn’t mean it has been applied to you yet. You still have sin. So you have a responsibility now.

You don’t have to work. Remember, adding works to this won’t clean up the sin.

The work’s already been done. All you have to do is admit that you’re a sinner and acknowledge you have no power over your sin by yourself. Then by faith, believe that Jesus Christ’s payment for your sins is all you need to be cleansed. And when you place your faith in Jesus Christ, He applies His power to your sin.

(Pour JESUS into you - “You” becomes clean)

He can apply His holiness to you today. All you have to do is say “Yes” to Jesus.

If you don’t, you will be carrying your sin around with you, and you can’t have fellowship with God, and you can’t be in His presence, and you can’t get to Heaven.

Illustration: But with a clean jar, a jar made HOLY, your experience at Heaven’s gate will be completely different. (Walk up to gate, God looks at YOU jar and says, “Come on in, your sins have been forgiven.”)

You can’t do anything about your sin on your own. But you can trust Jesus to take care of your sin problem.

God wants you to be in Heaven.

God wants you to have your sins forgiven.

God wants you to live a holy life like Him.

But you must stop trying to do the work yourself and trust in Jesus Christ to forgive and cleanse you.

Two Questions:

Do you want to go to Heaven when you die?

Would you be willing to place your faith in Jesus Christ and have your sins forgiven so you can go to Heaven?

The choice is yours. Every head bowed, eyes closed.

Do you know that you’re saved?

If you died today, would God let you into heaven?

If you don’t know, would you raise your hand? We would like to show you from God’s Word how you can be saved, have your sins cleansed, and spend eternity in Heaven with God forever.

If you’d like to talk to a grown up about that, would you look at me? I’m going to ask you in just a moment to stand and come forward, then we will find a grown up to take you to the side and show you some verses from the Bible, letting you know how you can be saved. God’s already been working on your heart, all you need is trust Christ.

PRAYER

Stand, come forward, Ladies take girls to the Conference Room.

Men, take boys to the College Classroom. Just spread out in those rooms and talk things over.