Introduction:
Psalm 32:5 – 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.
Proverbs 28:13 – Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.
Conceal or Confess? If You Want to Confess: (1 John 1:5 - 2:6)
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You Have to Be Done LYING About Your Sin. (1 John 1:5-10)
3 Lies You Have to Stop Claiming:
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I BELIEVE in God. (When You Don't LIVE Like It.) (1 John 1:6-7)
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I'm a GOOD Person. (1 John 1:8-9)
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I Don't SIN. (1 John 1:10)
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You Have to Come to JESUS. (1 John 2:1-2)
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Your LIFESTYLE Proves Your Sincerity. (1 John 2:3-6)
Hebrews 4:14 - Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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Open up those Bibles to the passage that Levi just read, 1 John 1.
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While you're turning there, let's just quiet our hearts for a moment.
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And I'm going to ask that you would please pray for me to faithfully communicate God's Word.
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And I'll pray for you to have a heart open to receive what it is the Lord wants to teach us from His Word tonight.
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All right, let's pray.
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Father in heaven, I pray that this time would allow us to feel the weight of what it is we're remembering here tonight.
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We're so distracted with so many things.
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I just pray, Father, by the power of Your Spirit, everything is off our minds and hearts except your word.
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And that we would be honest enough with ourselves to see things as you see them.
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Thank you, Father, for the sacrifice that was made.
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You spared not your own son.
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We pray in the glorious name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, amen.
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Amen.
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We're in this series, this short series called Respect the Office.
01:49-01:54
That if Jesus presented a resume, it would have a lot on it.
01:56-02:00
But there are three roles in particular.
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We're just sort of slowing down and looking at, and last Sunday Pastor Rich talked about Jesus as prophet.
02:08-02:10
He is the word of God.
02:10-02:14
Who God is, is represented in Jesus.
02:16-02:22
Tonight, we're going to see that Jesus Christ is our priest.
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What is a priest, anyways?
02:28-02:36
Well, in the simplest terms, the prophet represented God to man.
02:37-02:42
And the priest represents man to God.
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And in the Old Testament, the priests offered sacrifices from sinners to God at the temple.
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So tonight, as our minds naturally think of Jesus Christ on the cross, what you need to see in your mind in that moment when Jesus was on the cross, was He was not only the the sacrifice that was being offered for sin.
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At the same time, He was the priest who was offering the sacrifice.
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Jesus Christ, as our priest, came to deal with our sin.
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There is one thing you must do Before you can receive forgiveness, before you can have a relationship with God at all, there's one thing you have to do.
03:52-03:53
You have to confess.
03:55-04:09
And if you're a Christian, if you are truly born again, and you're sitting here tonight, and you're wondering why your walk is so weak, why you aren't the strong Christian that you thought you would be by now.
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Maybe you stopped confessing.
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Look at verse 9 again.
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If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
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We're going to talk about confess tonight.
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What does it mean to confess?
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Well, in the Greek, it's a compound word.
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It literally means, "say the same." In other words, to confess means that you're agreeing with God.
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Agreeing with God that you are a sinner.
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Agreeing with God that your sin is wrong.
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I agree with God.
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It's saying I'm guilty.
05:09-05:11
I'm not a good person.
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I look at my actions and I do things that are just shameful.
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I hear the words that come out of my mouth sometimes.
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What is wrong with me?
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Shameful.
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So I look into my heart and I realize, there's something broken in me.
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There's something evil in me.
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How is it that I can be so full of selfishness?
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How is it that I can be so full of hatred sometimes?
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How is it that I can be so full of lust?
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Why is that?
06:00-06:01
Confessing is agreeing with God.
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And the three hardest words that you will ever say, it's not, "I love you." Those ones are hard.
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But there are three harder words to say.
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And those words are these, "I have sinned." To get to the point where you are saying this from your heart, "I've sinned.
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I have sinned.
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You know, I was thinking about that a lot this week and preparing for this message.
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Why is that so hard?
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I mean, it's clear in the Bible, it's clear from observation that we have a problem, but why is it so hard for me to get to that place where I say, "I have sinned"?
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Why is it so hard for you to admit that, to confess that?
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I think it's a lot of things.
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I think the big reason is pride, right?
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To admit that you're a sinner is also an admission of weakness.
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I'm not the morally strong person that I want to think that I am.
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Maybe it's hard to confess that I am a sinner because deep down the reality is we actually kind of like our sin.
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We would miss it if it wasn't in our lives.
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is that. If you're sitting here tonight and you're like, "Well, I don't feel like I love my sin. I want out of it, but I feel trapped in it. I'm in bondage to it." That's hard to confess. That something is so ruling over you. "I don't want to do this, but I keep doing it. What is my problem?" You know, I think really for a lot of us, it's hard to say I have sinned because it's just so hard to not see yourself as the hero in your own story. Sometimes you're the bad guy. So am I. Acknowledging sin is uncomfortable. It's offensive. And it just it goes against our natural inclinations.
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Here's the reality from God's Word.
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Unsaved people.
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People who don't sincerely know the Lord, are always going to try to downplay sin.
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It's not that big of a deal.
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And one of the ways they do that is by trying to redefine sin.
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We won't call it sin, we'll call it something else and kind of soften the blow.
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But the big one is, unsaved people conceal their sin.
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Let's keep it hidden.
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Let's make sure nobody finds out about it.
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They conceal their sin.
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Saved people, on the other hand, according to that passage Levi just read, saved people confess their sin.
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So tonight I just want to ask you one question.
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What are you doing?
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Conceal or confess?
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Which one are you?
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Bible's so clear about this and what's at stake in this.
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Psalm 32.5 says, "I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity.
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I said, 'I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,' and you forgave the iniquity of my sin." Do you see that?
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Conceal or confess.
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Same thing, Proverbs 28.13 says, "Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper. But he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy." So what are you doing with your sin? Are you concealing it? Or are you confessing it?
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So on your outline, if you're taking notes, it says at the top, "Conceal or confess?" And there might be some people in here that are honest enough to say, you know what, I'd rather just conceal it.
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And I would say respectfully, I don't know why you're here tonight.
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You should have stayed home.
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But I do know that there are some people here tonight that are like, you know what?
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It's gone on beyond too long.
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I need to confess.
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I need to confess.
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Well, I'm so glad you're here, if that's you, because I want to help you with that, from the Word of God.
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So on your outline, if you want to confess, number one, this is where you have to start.
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You have to be done lying about your sin.
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You have to be done with that.
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You have to be done lying about your sin.
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Again, look at verse five.
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He says, "This is the message we have heard from Him "and proclaimed to you, God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.
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God is light.
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We could spend a whole sermon series talking about that, but the bottom line is this, that represents life.
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That represents holiness.
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There is no death in God.
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There's no unholiness in God.
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There's no sin.
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There's no darkness of any kind in God.
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A man, on the other hand, I probably don't have to sell you on that, do I?
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And you see, when we talk about confessing, yes, you absolutely must confess with your mouth.
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But, it has to ultimately start in your heart.
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Because you can say something with your mouth that isn't actually true in your heart.
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And when you say something that's not true, that's called telling a lie.
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And that's where John starts here.
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Like, you want to confess?
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You've got to be done lying.
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You see, three times in this passage, he says, "if we claim" or "if we say" "if we say" "if we say" He's pointing out the lies We tell ourselves.
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He goes, you've got to stop that.
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Let's look at them quickly.
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Three lies you've got to stop claiming.
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You've got to stop these.
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Number, or letter A, sorry, letter A.
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Here's a lie that a lot of people are saying.
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I believe in God.
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When you don't live like it.
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People are saying, yeah, I believe in God, but they don't live like they know Him at all.
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It's a lie, right?
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Not my opinion, look at verse six.
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He says, "If we say we have fellowship with Him, with God, while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.
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If we claim we have fellowship with Him," do you know what that is?
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That's the guy or the girl that says, "Oh, I believe in God.
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"Oh yeah, yeah, I believe in God.
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I know God.
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I mean, yeah, I'm a Christian." But he says they walk in darkness.
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They're living in some secret, sinful lifestyle.
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And John points out here, look, you're living a lie.
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You're just, you're living a lie.
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I don't know who you think you're fooling, but it's not God.
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And this is a hard truth.
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that I think tonight we need to confront ourselves with.
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Not everyone who claims to know God actually does know God.
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Not everyone who claims they know God is actually heading to heaven.
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Not everyone who's sitting in a church, not just tonight, any church, week after week, not everyone sitting in a church is saved.
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I got to tell you, I talk to a lot of people who will be talking about a family member of theirs, their brother, or their adult children, or their parents, and we'll be talking about these family members, and I'm like, "Well, do they know the Lord?" And they'll say, "Well, yeah, they're Christians." And then they say, "But they haven't gone to church "in years, they're not interested in praying.
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They really don't want to have any spiritual conversations.
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You know, I invited them to Good Friday service and they absolutely didn't want to come.
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But yeah, he's a Christian.
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I mean, yeah, he's living in adultery right now.
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Oh, he's foul-mouthed.
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And he is such a heavy drinker.
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But he's a Christian.
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Based on what?
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What are you basing that on?
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And you know what the response usually is?
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Well, one time we were in a church and they said they believed in God.
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They like raised their hand in a service one time.
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But what does the Bible say?
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Do you see that in verse six?
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If we say we have fellowship, but we're walking in darkness, what does your Bible say?
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It says you're lying.
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It's just not true.
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But on the other hand, look at verse seven.
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He says, "But if we walk in the light, "as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, "and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin." Walking in the light.
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No hidden sin.
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No secret sin that you hope to heaven nobody finds out about.
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You sin, you confess.
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You are walking in the light.
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You're like, yeah, I did sin.
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That was wrong what I did.
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It was wrong in God's eyes.
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I've sinned against my family.
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I'm confessing that.
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I'm getting with God on this.
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I'm getting accountability on this to help me drag this to the light.
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So what's your plan tonight?
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Are you going to conceal?
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Or are you going to confess?
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You're walking in the light or you're walking in darkness?
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There's no middle ground, by the way.
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The Bible doesn't talk about walking in half light or half dark.
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What typifies your life right now?
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Which one describes you?
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Are you walking in the light?
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Or is there a whole lot of stuff that you're trying to keep concealed?
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Well, John says, "Stop lying.
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"Stop lying.
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"Your claim of believing in God means nothing if your life is characterized by sin.
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All right, so that's a lie you have to stop claiming.
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Here's another lie you have to stop.
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Letter B, I'm a good person.
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I'm a good person.
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Well, let's see what the Bible says about that, verse eight.
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If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
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We claim we're without sin.
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I'm not that bad.
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I mean, I'm actually a good person.
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Like deep down, you know, deep down, I have a good heart.
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I'm a good person deep down.
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God knows that.
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Here's what God knows.
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God knows that you were born with a sin nature that you inherited from Adam.
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that's been passed down from generation to generation, and you got it.
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Don't believe me?
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Sometimes I have people challenge me on this, like I don't think that we're born with a sin nature.
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I don't think that that's true.
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I don't think that we are born with a sin nature.
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I'm like, have you ever been around a kid?
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Ever?
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(congregation laughing)
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That's exactly what I'm talking about.
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That's exactly what I'm talking about, that little sinner tried to hijack the sermon.
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You just proved my point, little lamb.
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And look, if you don't have kids, there's plenty of people around here that do have them.
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I'm sure they'll let you hang out.
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I'm sure they might ask you to watch them for a few days.
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Who has ever taught a kid?
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I mean, think of a little toddler.
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Think of little Joey back there.
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Does dad ever sit down with him and say, "Listen, listen, Joey, I'm gonna teach you "something important here.
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"If you learn how to lie convincingly, "you're gonna go far in life, all right?
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"I guess, son, what I'm saying is "always cover your tracks, okay?
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"Because if you got away with it, then you've mastered the art of deception.
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Has any dad sat down with their kid and taught them that?
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I sure hope not.
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You're a monster.
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You're a monster if you're teaching your kid how to sin.
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But you don't have to.
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How is it that these kids automatically know how to sneak, how to lie, how to steal, how to be selfish?
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How do they know that?
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Like, were they reading some manual in the womb?
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Like, what is going on here?
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We're born with a sin nature.
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So if you're like, "Well, you know what?
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I'm really not that bad.
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I'm not really a bad person." The Bible says you're deceiving to yourself.
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You're telling a lie, and then you're turning around and believing the own lie that you just told yourself.
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You say you have a good heart?
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Actually if that's your stance, if that's your stance here tonight, to think that you're You're really a good person, I've got to tell you, you're in a hopeless situation when it comes to the gospel, because you're not going to confess.
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What can God do for someone who doesn't think that they need Him?
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It's a hopeless situation.
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Look at verse nine again.
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If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins, excuse me, forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
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I did a lot of reading this past week in preparing for this.
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And you get to this verse, and these scholars and commentators are like, is this verse for believers, or is this verse for unbelievers?
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The answer is yes. The answer is yes. Confession is like repentance. Think about repentance.
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Is repentance something you do when you first come to Christ? Yeah. But if you're a true born again believer in Christ, when do you stop repenting? Never. In Matthew 3.8, Luke 3.8, both say the exact same thing.
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Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.
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Repentance is to be the lifestyle of the follower of Jesus.
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And confession is exactly the same.
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In coming to Christ, you have to confess.
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And if you're a Christian, your life is typified by constant acknowledgment of your sin before a holy God.
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regular occurrence in our walk with Christ, Christians are characterized as confessors.
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A true Christian is always going to God.
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"God, I hate my sin.
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God, this is what I did.
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I messed up.
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I sinned.
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God, specifically, here is what I did.
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God, I need to change.
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God, I'm confessing that.
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Thank You for the forgiveness that You've purchased through Your Son, Jesus Christ, God.
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I need the power of Your Spirit to help me repent." That is how a Christian confesses their sin.
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And John says that God's response is to forgive and purify.
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Why does He do that?
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Because you're worthy?
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Not hardly.
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John says he does that because he, he is faithful and just.
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See, God's forgiveness is based on his promise, not your performance.
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God's forgiveness comes to you on his terms, not your terms.
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And God's forgiveness, the assurance that we have that we are forgiven is because of God's integrity.
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that I can say, "I know that I have the promise of heaven," not because of me, I know I have the promise of heaven because I believe in a God who always keeps His word.
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And this is what He's promised.
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So if you're sitting here tonight, you're like, "Yeah, I'm a good person." You're really not.
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As long as you think you are, you're not going to understand what the cross of Jesus Christ was all about.
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Three lies you need to stop claiming.
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Letter C, same vein here, right?
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Letter C, I don't sin.
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I don't sin.
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Believe it or not, I've met people that have made that claim.
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Look at verse 10.
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He says, "If we say we have not sinned, "we make him a liar and his word is not in us." If we claim we have not sinned, that's the person, And again, I've met these people, they're like, "Sin?
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I don't sin." Well, you did just call God a liar then because He says differently.
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It's one of the interesting things about sin, wouldn't you say?
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interesting, that we tend to minimize our sin and we maximize other people's sin.
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Ours is so small and insignificant, but somebody else's, oh boy, they really blew it.
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God wants to deal with you about your sin.
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And you can't confess Jesus as a Savior if you say you don't have what He saves from.
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And if you refuse to acknowledge your sin, you refuse to admit, you refuse to confess your sin, then the cross means nothing.
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And we come to a service like this, we think of Jesus Christ on the cross, and we're really left wondering why did he die in the first place?
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Concealer confess.
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What are you doing?
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Concealer confess.
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Are you going to leave tonight lying to yourself?
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Or are you going to finally agree with God?
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So if you want to confess, if that's you, and I want to help you, first of all, you gotta stop lying to yourself, you gotta stop lying to God, you gotta stop lying to everybody, you gotta stop the lies.
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Number two, you have to come to Jesus.
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Confession is about the person of Jesus Christ.
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Look at verse one, he says, in chapter two, "My little children, I'm writing these things to you "so that you may not sin." But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous.
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John says, "Look, I'm writing this so you don't sin." God's Word doesn't allow us to have a dismissive attitude about sin, which a lot of Christians have.
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It's like, "Well, yeah, I sin, but it doesn't really matter.
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I'm forgiven in Christ." we just sort of dismiss it.
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John goes, "No, no, no, no.
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I'm writing these things to you so that you are turning from sin." He goes, "But if anybody does sin, and you will," spoiler alert, "you will," John says, "when you sin, you have an advocate, if you're in Christ." And this is one of the most beautiful pictures in all the Bible.
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You know, it's a courtroom scene actually.
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Revelation chapter 12 says that Satan is the accuser of the brethren.
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Do you know what Satan does?
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He goes before God, and if you're a follower of Christ, Satan accuses you before God.
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Satan's like, he's no good.
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Did you hear what he said?
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That's one of your guys?
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Did you hear what he said?
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That's what Satan does.
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Satan, he's a slanderer, he's an accuser.
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But you see, when Jesus Christ is your advocate, he is your defense attorney.
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That when Satan says, "Do you see what a miserable person this is?" Jesus steps up and says, "He did sin, "but I took his sin on myself when I died on the cross." He's forgiven.
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He is not guilty because I paid that penalty.
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And Satan goes to the next person.
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You see what a miserable person she is?
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Do you hear how she talked?
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Do you see what she did?
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Jesus says, "I died for her." All of the sin that was committed by her, Jesus said, "When I was on the cross, I paid the penalty." She is not guilty.
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That's what it means that Jesus as our advocate, and that is way better than Edgar Snyder.
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Owen might not think so.
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If you know, you know.
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Look at verse two.
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He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
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Propitiation.
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Oh, that's like one of the best words in the Bible.
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John's just hitting like all of the most awesome concepts in a row right here.
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Propitiation, your Bible might translate it, atoning, sacrifice, but this is a concept that you really need to understand.
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Propitiation just simply means this.
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God is satisfied with what Jesus did on the cross.
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That's what it means.
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When Jesus was on the cross, God was pouring out his wrath on Jesus for my sin and for your sin.
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God put all of the wrath that I deserve on Jesus.
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And that is awesome news because you know what that means?
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God has no more wrath left for me.
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And if you're in Christ, he has no wrath left for you.
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And Christian, you've gotta get this in your head I've talked to so many Christians that are like, "I just really feel like God's mad at me, "and I feel like God's so disappointed in me." He's not!
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It's not like God poured out His wrath on Jesus, and then God turns around and sees you sinning, and is like, "Oh, I'm still mad!
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"I gotta punish her now, too!" That's not how it works.
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Propitiation, God is satisfied.
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He has no wrath for you if you've truly received Jesus Christ.
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And not just for you, not just for you, look at verse two, he goes on to say, "Not for ours only, "not for our sins only, "but also for the sins of the whole world." Again, this is where a lot of scholars get caught up.
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I just, you're like, "Oh, you think you're smarter than those scholars." No, I don't.
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I think they're too smart sometimes.
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I think they make this way too complicated.
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You know what I mean by that?
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You know, I was reading, and I heard some pastoral panel thing, they were talking about this very verse, and they were like, what is being talked about here for the sins of the whole world?
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Is he talking about the elect?
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Like it's just for the elect?
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Is this speaking to limited atonement?
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You're making this way more complicated than it needs to be.
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Do you know what this means?
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Do you know what this verse means?
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I'll tell you what this verse means.
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Right here.
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What this verse is saying is I can confidently say to anyone, when you believe in Jesus, you will be forgiven of your sins.
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You will be adopted as a child of God.
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I can say that to anybody, because it's for the whole world.
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I can say that here, I can say that in Thailand, I can say that in Blonox, it doesn't matter where I am, this truth holds, Jesus forgives sin.
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Let God figure out all that other stuff.
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My job is to tell the world, and your job too.
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Concealer confess.
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Conceal or confess.
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At this point, if you're still wanting to conceal, you're committed to walking out of here like, "Yeah, I just can't, I can't come clean about my sin.
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"Not to God, not to anybody." Well, it's not gonna go well for you.
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Remember what the Proverbs writers say, that if you conceal your sin, you're not gonna prosper.
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It's not gonna go well for you.
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But if you want to confess, that's business that you have to do with Jesus.
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Not only confessing who you are as a sinner, but confession includes saying who He is, agreeing with God who Jesus is, agreeing with God that Jesus is your advocate, agreeing with God that Jesus is your propitiation, agreeing with God about that.
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If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
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So this night more than any other probably reminds us why Jesus is the only one who can take your sin away.
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Nobody else can do that.
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Nobody else can make you be pronounced not guilty in the courtroom of God.
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Conceal or confess?
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Well, if you want to confess, number three, your lifestyle proves your sincerity.
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Your lifestyle proves your sincerity.
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Look at verses 3 through 6 again.
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He says, "And by this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments.
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Whoever says, "I know Him," but does not keep His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
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But whoever keeps His word in him, truly the love of God is perfected.
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By this we may know that we are in Him.
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Whoever says he abides in Him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.
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I'm sure if the hospitality team grabbed every person on the way out, do you wanna confess?
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I'm sure they would get 100%.
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Yeah, I confess.
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I can, yeah, I confess.
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We'll find out if it's sincere by how you live, right?
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That's why he says it in verse three.
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He says it at the end of verse five.
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We know that we have come to know him.
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We know that we are saved.
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Like what's the evidence?
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How do I really know if I'm saved or not?
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How would I know that?
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He tells you right here.
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Here's how you know that you're saved.
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You keep his commands.
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The proof that you know God is just simply you do what he says.
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It's not just what you claim.
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Are you saved?
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You know the Lord.
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And people say, well, you know what?
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I was baptized 17 years ago at First Baptist Church of so-and-so.
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Goody.
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That's not evidence that you're saved, though.
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Or somebody says, "Well, I go to church almost every week." I mean, not when Declan has lacrosse, but every other week I'm in church.
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Great.
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I strongly encourage church attendance.
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I think that's a good thing, but that's not evidence of salvation.
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Evidence of salvation is I do what God tells me to do.
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It's just that simple, according to John.
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I believe, I believe not verified by what you say, I believe is verified by how you live.
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Are you gonna conceal or are you gonna confess tonight?
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Which is it?
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Because obviously, if you really agree with God that sin is evil, you're going to be constantly confessing and forsaking sin.
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So do you live a life of confession?
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Do you agree with God about your sin?
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And do you agree with God concerning what He said the crucifixion of His Son accomplished for the person who will turn to Him?
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Our worship team would make their way back up.
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And our communion servers, we're gonna close our time around the Lord's table And you do not have to be a member of Harvard's Bible Chapel to take communion, but you do have to be a born-again believer in Christ. This is for believers.
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And fellow Christians, it is gathering around the Lord's table.
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Well, this is a time to confess everything.
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Everything that John said in this passage, we get to confess that right now.
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When we take these elements, what we're saying, what we're confessing, I confess that my sin is evil and wrong in the eyes of God.
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I confess that.
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I confess that Jesus Christ died for my sin.
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I confess that God is satisfied with the work that Jesus accomplished on my behalf.
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I confess Jesus Christ is my advocate.
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I confess that I need His Spirit to make me who God wants me to be.
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I confess that I will prove that I believe when I obey God in every area of my life.
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Hebrews 4.14 says, "Since then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God.
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Let us hold fast our confession.
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We're going to ask, when you're ready, if you would come down to the center aisles and receive the elements from one of our pastors, and you can return to your seat by the outside aisle.
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I'm going to ask that you hold on to it, and let's confess together tonight, church, that We are agreeing with God in all these things.
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So please come, take the elements.
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This is our confession.
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This is our agreeing with God that Jesus is who God said He is.
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And that Jesus accomplished what God said He accomplished.
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The Bible tells us on the night that Jesus was betrayed, He took bread and he broke it and he gave thanks.
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And he said, "This is my body, which is broken for you.
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Eat this in remembrance of me." After the meal, Bible tells us that Jesus took the cup and he said, "This cup is my blood, the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for the forgiveness of sin.
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Drink this in remembrance of me.
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What are you doing tonight?
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Conceal or confess?
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Jesus has quite a resume.
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As the prophet, he is the word of God.
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As the priest, he takes away our sin.
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I want to invite you to come back in two days on Sunday.
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Pastor Taylor is going to talk about the other role that Jesus has, the King of Kings.
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You don't want to miss that.
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You are loved.
Small Group Discussion
Read 1 John 1:5-2:6
What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
Breakout
Pray for one another.