Sin & Forgiveness
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Opening Illustration
Opening Illustration
“The story is told of two men who were trying to escape from an erupting volcano.
As the fiery molten rock gushed out of its gaping crater, they fled in the only direction open to them.
All went well until they came to a stream of hot, smoking lava about thirty feet across.
Sizing up their situation, they realized that their only hope was to get over that wide barrier.
One of the men was old; the other was healthy and young.
With a running start, they each tried to leap to safety.
The first man went only a few feet through the air before falling into the bubbling mass.
The younger, with his greater strength and skill, catapulted himself much farther.
Though he almost made it, he still missed the mark.
It did not matter that he out-distanced his companion, for he, too, perished in the burning lava.
Sin is falling short of a standard, the glory of God.
Though some may fall short of the standard by far more than others, all fall short nevertheless.”
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An this takes us to our study for today.
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So, please turn your Bibles to the 1 John.
We will be conducting our study in Chapter 1 and focus on verses 8 through 10.
Our message this morning called “Sin & Forgiveness”
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Opening Prayer
Opening Prayer
Before we consider our text, please join me in prayer...
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Let’s turn to our text for today:
Reading of the Text
Reading of the Text
8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
So, let’s look at our first point...
1) All Have Sinned
1) All Have Sinned
Verse 8: If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
If you recall from our previous study...
The false teachers John is warning about made claims to have a relationship with God yet walked in darkness.
John made it clear that light and darkness do not have any fellowship.
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Now these false teachers didn’t stop at that.
They also claimed to reach a level of sinlessness.
This is a sure sign of heresy and false teaching as it goes against the truth found in Ecclesiastes 7:20:
20 Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.
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So, other than with our Lord.
Other than with our Savior.
Other than with Jesus Christ...
No one.
That is, absolutely no one is sinless...
Just like it says in Psalms 130:3:
3 If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?
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The reality is that even Christians are not perfect.
That is, all Christians are not perfect.
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So, John the Baptist and King David and Moses and Paul and Peter and even Jesus’ mother Mary were not perfect.
That means Clement of Rome and Augustine of Hippo and Martin Luther and John Calvin and Johnathan Edwards were not perfect.
The means that Martin Loyd Jones and Billy Graham and R.C. Sproul were not perfect.
That means current pastors like John Piper and Charles Stanley and John MacArthur are not perfect.
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That even means...
As shocking as it may sound...
And as hard to believe as it is...
Your current pastor is not perfect.
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The Scriptures are clear on this topic.
All have sinned.
Just look at what it says in Romans 3:23:
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
To claim other wise is to deceive ourselves.
To claim otherwise is to lack the understanding that we are sinners saved from God’s wrath.
To claim otherwise s to not see the need for a Savior.
To claim otherwise is to lack the understanding of the Gospel message.
And as this passage says...
To claim otherwise is to reveal that you do not have the truth in you.
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The truth found in Scripture says that no one is righteous by their own merits.
We are all in need of a Savior to wash us and renew us.
Remember what Jesus said in Luke 5:32:
32 I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”
This means that Jesus came to call those who know they are sinners and need repentance...
And not those who too are sinners but do not acknowledge their sin.
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Paul in Romans makes the point clear that all are sinners whether one be of Jewish or gentile background.
Church, take a look with me at Romans 3:9-26:
9 What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin,
10 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one;
11 no one understands; no one seeks for God.
12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”
13 “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.”
14 “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16 in their paths are ruin and misery,
17 and the way of peace they have not known.”
18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
19 Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.
20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—
22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction:
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.
26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
So, although we are sinners...
By grace, which is a free gift...
We are forgiven.
We are saved from what we deserve.
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That is really incredible, Church.
To be forgiven by a Holy God.
Recall with me the beautiful words found in Psalm 86:5:
5 For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon you.
Along with this passage please meditate on Ephesians 1:7-8:
7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,
8 which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight
In addition to God forgiving us...
We must remember to forgive others what they did to us for He forgave us of a greater debt that we could never pay.
Meditate on Ephesians 4:32:
32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
This is to be on our minds at all times as it is so imperative to the life of a believer.
Remember what Christ said in Matthew 6:14-15:
14 For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you,
15 but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
We cannot hold a grudge against others and refuse to forgive others if we claim that God has listen to our cries and forgiven us our sins.
For how many of us take joy in what God says in Hebrews 8:12:
12 For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.”
And also how joyful are we to hear what our Lord says in Psalm 103:12:
12 as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
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I am just a sinner like you...
Sharing with you the wonderful truth found in God’s Word.
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We as those forgiven now live a totally different life than we previously did.
We are made brand new.
We no longer live wicked lives.
We no longer live as slaves to our sins.
But we are not sinless or perfect.
And the goodness found in us now is only credited to the grace God gave us.
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So, understanding this truth, we must make a practice to confess our sins.
And this takes us to our next point.
2) We Must Confess Our Sins
2) We Must Confess Our Sins
Verse 9: If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
If we are truly born-again...
Then we understand that we are sinners that deserve God’s wrath.
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We also understand that by God’s mercy and grace we do not get what we deserve...
So, when we do sin we are compelled out of love to God to confess our shortcoming.
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You see Beloved, the term “confess” means to say the same thing or have the same attitude toward sin as God does...
It means to acknowledge God’s perspective about sin and not our own perspective or the world’s view of sin.
We are to be mortified of our sin because it is an act of treason commited against the one true God...
The words of Daniel seem very appropriate here.
Daniel 9:5 says:
5 we have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and rules.
But, the God who saved us and had mercy on us when we deserved Hell fire.
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So, we must join with the psalmist and live the words of Psalm 32:5:
5 I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah
Remember my brothers and sisters...
We cannot hide our sins from the God who can see all things and knows all things.
For our God is light.
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You see church, God being light means He uncovers and exposes that things in the darkness.
The saying in Proverbs 28:13 is true:
13 Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.
So, as a follower of His who are to also walk in the light we must confess our sins and remember that He is faithful and forgives us and will have mercy on us.
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This is not a suggestion, Beloved.
This is the command of God.
Just take a look at James 5:16:
16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.
So make a practice of this.
Surround yourselves with faithful brothers and sisters in Christ...
And confess your sins...
Hold yourself accountable by being transparent of your struggles and shortcomings.
It is God’s design that we fellowship with on another and confess our sins to one another.
And ultimately, we confess our sins to God for it is Him that we have committed the worst sin against.
Remember what David said when he confessed his sins of murder and adultery in Psalm 51:4:
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.
Please understand that this seems like David is saying that he didn’t sin against anyone but God.
Some people think he is saying he didn’t sin against others but this isn’t the case.
David is saying that the sin he committed against God is in a whole other league compared to the sin he did to everyone else.
This excerpt from Ligonier Ministry’s “Table Talk” magazine does a great job of explaining this:
“ The word ‘only’ or ‘alone’ is translated from the Hebrew word ‘bad’.
It denotes an item that is in a class all by itself—no other is beside it or in addition to it.
It does not necessarily, however, describe an item to the exclusion of other items.
For example, we might say that Michael Jordan is all alone, in a category all by himself, but that doesn’t exclude the possibility that other basketball players can be classified as great.
We’re merely saying that Jordan exists in a domain of greatness all by himself.
Elsewhere in the Old Testament, the word ‘bad’ is used to designate God as being in a class by Himself.
For instance, Deuteronomy 4:35 states, “To you it was shown, that you might know that the Lord is God; there is no other besides him.”
Moses is not claiming that God alone exists to the exclusion of others’ existing, only that God alone is in a way that no other being is.
He is in a class all by Himself.
Further, the Bible elsewhere uses language of sinning against others.
We can even sin against our own bodies.
We also see that Jesus commends Zacchaeus for restoring the resources fourfold to those whom he defrauded.
We could provide many more examples of Scripture’s referring to sins against fellow human beings.
With this in mind, David clearly is not making a theological case that transgressions are committed against God to the exclusion of all others.
What does he mean, then?
Far from downplaying his sin, David actually highlights the heinousness of his sin.
David knew that he appeared as a sinner in the holy courtroom of God.
So even though David’s vertical sin consisted of deep horizontal offenses, his sin was ultimately against the Lawgiver.”
So, it is important that we do not forget that our sins are not just offenses to others but a major offense to our God.
And therefore we must confess these sins and never take it lightly.
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Those who do not feel the need to confess because they do not think they did anything wrong do not understand the Scriptures at all...
And this takes us to our next and final point.
3) Based on The Word of God
3) Based on The Word of God
Verse 10: If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
Church, let me be frank with you...
It is not a good idea to try and make God out to be a liar.
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You see, when someone claims to have not sinned they are countering the truth found in God’s Word.
They are making God out to be a liar so they can make themselves out to be something they are not.
This is a clear indication that the Word of God is not in them.
Additionally, you can know that they do not have the Holy Spirit in them either for they are not born again.
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The people who claim this don’t think they need a Savior...
Well, they are dead wrong.
Because as we said before...
All have sinned and fall short of God’s glory.
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And this truth is founded on God’s Word.
Closing Illustration
Closing Illustration
As this message comes to a close I want to share this.
“A college freshman went to the dorm laundry room with his dirty clothes bundled into an old sweatshirt.
But he was so embarrassed by how dirty his clothes were that he never opened the bundle.
He merely pushed it into a washing machine and when the machine stopped pushed the bundle into a dryer and finally took the still-unopened bundle back to his room.
He discovered, of course, that the clothes had gotten wet and then dry, but not clean.
God in a sense says, ‘Don’t keep your sins in a safe little bundle.
I want to do a thorough cleansing in your life—all the dirty laundry of your life.’”
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So church, do not try to hide your sins...
Confess them to one another...
Confess them to God.
And fear not...
For we have a God who is faithful to His promises...
And He will never reject someone who turns to Him.
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To God be all the glory.
Amen.
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Please join us for one more song from the Praise Band.