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[0:00] I would like you to please turn to the book of 1 Peter. And this morning we'll be taking a look at 1 Peter 1, verses 3-9.

[0:30] Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to His great mercy, has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

[1:32] In this you greatly rejoice, even though now, for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold, which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

[2:15] And, though you have not seen Him, you love Him. And, though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy, inexpressible, and full of glory, obtaining, as the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

[2:53] Thank you, Gary. If that passage sounds familiar to you, it's because it was read recently. We have been using this as a kind of base or platform passage for the series that we have been addressing called The Salvation of Your Souls.

[3:12] And before I launch into the new material for today, I'd like to take a few minutes and just give you some propositions that we have been considering where this entire series is going and what it is that we hope to accomplish through it.

[3:29] Our great goal is clarification regarding the salvation of our souls. And to that end, we are continuing an exploration of the wonders of our individual, personal salvation.

[3:46] The salvation of our soul refers to the provision God has made for each of lost humanity to be brought into a right connection to him and enjoy his acceptance, his presence, and blessing.

[4:02] We are talking about individuals being brought out from under God's justice that we all deserve into God's grace and favor that we do not deserve.

[4:17] The basis upon that ever occurring for anyone is found solely in the fact that Jesus Christ died to pay the penalty for man's sinful waywardness from God.

[4:33] Christ then has become, by virtue of his voluntary substitution, mankind's only hope for reconnecting with God.

[4:44] Christ is not the chief instrument of our salvation. He is the only instrument or mediator through whom we must be saved, rescued, or delivered.

[5:00] Christ is the only essential Savior, not merely of Christians, but of the entire world. For the past several sessions, we have been examining the particulars of the process of our salvation.

[5:19] What takes place to actually affect this transaction between God and man? The steps, the details, the nuts and bolts of the entire affair are what we continue to deal with.

[5:34] We have dealt with the three levels of belief somewhat extensively. Notitia, receiving the notice.

[5:46] Essentia, securing agreement. And fiducia, the commitment of trust or the placing of faith. And we have considered the term repentance and found it to be very essential.

[6:01] So essential that without repentance or a change of the mind, no one can be saved. It is an act of one's will by which he reverses himself after seeing the error of what he earlier believed.

[6:20] That which causes him to see his error is information, biblical information and truth that he receives and processes in his mind and then concludes he has been wrong and needs to change his position.

[6:38] This is repentance and it is critical before anyone can realize salvation. And today, we want to consider another link in our chain of salvation and this is the concept of confessing our sin.

[6:57] How essential is this? It is very essential. And what it does and does not mean will be treated in this session.

[7:09] The first thing I want to treat is what confession of our sin does not mean. And here, you have to overcome a great deal of idea that is installed in the minds of many people, even Protestants, by our culture and in particular the religious aspect of our culture that is traditionally known as Roman Catholicism because even those who are not Roman Catholics are very familiar with the concept and the term of confession or of confessional, the confessional.

[7:50] Because many of you have friends who are Roman Catholics, some of you are former Roman Catholics and you know well what it means to go to the priest at the church and to go into the confessional booth.

[8:04] And there is a screen, a partition set up between the confessor and the priest and you are supposed to go in there and in an anonymous way the priest does not know your identity and you confess your sins to the priest and then the priest will often assign to you as a result of your confession the penance that you need to perform.

[8:37] and depending on the gravity of what it is that you confess to the priest that determines your penance. And many times repentance is confused with penance.

[8:53] Repent has nothing to do with penance. It has nothing to do with punishment. It has nothing to do with paying for your crime. For instance, the priest, now I realize I'm out of my bailiwick here but I have enough Roman Catholic friends and I even know some priests from the past who tell me that this is the way it works.

[9:14] There are certain prescribed penances that are assigned to the offense that you have committed. If you've taken the name of the Lord your God in vain the priest may say alright, as a result of that you need to do thirty Hail Marys.

[9:33] And this is where the Roman Catholic Rosary comes in. It is a bead with a cross on it with a crucifix on the end and each bead represents a prayer.

[9:46] So you are counting the rosary when you say your prayers and you move your fingers along another bead and when you get clear around the rosary then you know that you've covered the whole thing all of the beads and you've done however many beads there are on there.

[10:00] You need to say so many Our Fathers which is Our Father which art in heaven hallowed be thy name. Repeat that prayer twenty times thirty times it's kind of like it's kind of like a kid being out of line in school and the teacher says okay you go up to the blackboard and say I will not be disrespectful to my teacher and you write it a hundred times.

[10:18] That's your penalty. Well in Roman Catholic theology you have to do penance and that is when you confess the priest then determines what your punishment or your penance is and you may have to light certain candles or make certain contributions or whatever it depends on however the system is set up whatever the priest says and that's very often what people think about in connection with confession of sin.

[10:49] Do we have to confess our sin in order to be saved? Absolutely. Are we then saved by confessing our sin?

[11:00] No. But confession of sin is an essential ingredient to salvation just like repentance. Do we have to repent in order to be saved?

[11:13] Absolutely. Well are we saved then by repentance? No. But it is an ingredient that cannot be omitted because you cannot be saved without changing your mind.

[11:25] Because if you don't need to change your mind you don't need to be saved. You're fine where you're at. Repentance means one thing and one thing only. Always. Whether it is moral or whether it is secular or whatever it means you change your mind.

[11:41] The basis for you changing your mind is that you have discovered that you've been wrong about something. And that which tells you that you have been wrong about something is information.

[11:56] Maybe it's the gospel. Maybe it's something else. And it doesn't necessarily have anything to do with a moral issue or salvation. You change your mind about anything and that's repentance.

[12:08] I was going to buy a Ford but instead I repented and bought a Chevy. you change your mind. We don't use it in that context because we reserve repentance for religious talk.

[12:21] But in the derivation of the word it means change your mind about anything. It just so happens in our context we're talking about changing our mind about salvation about the gospel or about our sin.

[12:33] You have to change your mind. The basis for repentance is always the discovery of having been wrong about anything. You repent.

[12:45] You move. You reverse yourself. You do a 180 from what you used to believe to something new you believe on the basis of additional information that you got that you didn't have before.

[12:57] So information colors our thinking. It affects our conclusions and our actions. That's why the proclamation of the gospel is so important.

[13:11] It provides people with information that allows them to change their mind. Now back to back to the confession.

[13:25] We used to get a real chuckle out of my my mother-in-law. Bless her heart. She is she is 95 years old lives in an assisted living facility in central Washington state.

[13:40] She was one of 12 children born into a very traditional Italian Roman Catholic family.

[13:52] And growing up as a teenager in the Catholic Church with all of her family siblings aunts and uncles and all the rest she had a real sensitivity towards spiritual things toward God and toward the Catholic Church and all with that involved and she said that she would go to she would go to confession every Saturday night very faithfully because if you do not go to confession this is Roman Catholic theology now if you do not go to confession and confess your sins then you are not eligible to take communion the next morning which would be Sunday morning.

[14:32] and that means that you could not receive Christ and in Roman Catholic theology you receive Christ through the mouth through partaking of the wafer or the bread that is receiving Christ because when the priest consecrates or blesses the cup and blesses the bread he turns the bread according to Roman Catholic theology he turns the bread into the actual physical literal body of Christ and he changes the wine in the communion cup into the actual literal blood of Christ now I know you taste the wine and you look at the wine and you say that's amazing because it doesn't taste like blood and it doesn't look like blood it tastes like wine and looks like wine well it is wine and the priest says no no no it isn't it's the blood of

[15:35] Christ the wafer you take it doesn't look like a piece of human flesh it looks like a little piece of bread no no no that's the body of Christ well how do you know that well you take it by faith and the faithful take it by faith so that's how they receive Christ we talk about receiving Christ they receive Christ too so when you're talking with Roman Catholics about the gospel you have to make sure that you're talking about the same thing because when you talk about receiving Christ you mean something different from what they mean when they talk about receiving Christ anyway as a very obedient and conscientious teenage girl about 13 or 14 years of age Barbara's mother would go to confession every Saturday night and she would go into the confessional and sit down and the priest would say alright what sins have you committed this week and she would say well I'm not sure and she would name off a couple and he said is there anything else and she would say well I'm not sure and then he would start through this list and he would come to adultery have you committed adultery adultery she would always answer yes forgive me father for I've committed adultery and the priest would pronounce her forgiven and she said it wasn't until she was 18 years old that she learned what adultery meant but she wanted to make sure she covered all the bases because the worst thing you can do is to have committed a sin and not confessed it so she thought well even if

[17:11] I haven't committed it if I confess it anyway I've got to be in the clear so she would confess it just to be on the safe side can you imagine that poor priest every week he's probably rolling his eyes and saying what is it with this girl you know she's committed everything anyway we get a big chuckle out of that well let me tell you something that is not what the Bible means by confessing your to anyone unless you are one of the faithful of the Roman Catholic Church and you're operating according to their hierarchical principles and their tradition then of course you go to the priest and you confess your sins but I want you to look at a purely biblical definition of this and what is involved and I've got three passages for you the first is in Matthew chapter 3 very familiar passage and it relates to the early ministry of our Lord in this case it's John the Baptist it's right before his ministry was kicked off

[18:13] Matthew chapter 3 and let's begin with verse 4 now John himself had a garment of camel's hair and a leather belt about his waist and his food was locusts and wild honey then Jerusalem was going out to him that is to John and all Judea and all the district around the Jordan this guy was really causing quite a fuss quite a stir word spread like wildfire that there's this strange man out in the desert and he is preaching that the Messiah and his kingdom is about to come and the whole area was absolutely electrified this this this is what they have been waiting for for four thousand years now this man comes on the scene and says this is it he is soon to be here why it was just pandemonium everybody and in verse six they were being baptized by him in the

[19:31] Jordan river as they confessed their sins very very significant and by the way these were all completely totally exclusively Jews what John was saying had no significance for non-Jews these were the people who were steeped in the law and the promises they knew what the prophets had said regarding a messiah redeemer who was to come every generation of Jews that came along thought theirs might be that favorite generation and generations came and died and came and died and came and died and that went on for four thousand years until one day John came on the scene and nothing was the same from that time on so these people are being baptized by John in the Jordan

[20:31] River as they confess their sins now what do you think that consisted of if we cannot be saved without confessing our sins my next question is this all of them dare you omit any of them my problem is this I can't name them all I can't think of them all I can't remember them all well Marge you must really be a great sinner guilty you're right I am I do not try to tone that down do you realize that all sin is great all sin is great because of the one with whom we have to do now my sins may not be all that great compared to yours you might make me look good

[21:57] I might make you look good because we've got teeny weeny sins little white lies sins and we've got medium sized sins and we've got really big ones to go to jail or even be executed for and we classify sins like that but we all need to understand that when we talk about sin we are not dealing with the human understanding or appreciation for sin we have to look at the subject of sin from the viewpoint of the one who has established the principles that govern it and that is God there isn't a one of us here including myself who has any idea at all what it is like to be absolutely holy and be sinned against we don't know anything about that we know that damage and pain can be caused by our sinning against each other sinning to sin to a purely human level and when

[23:33] I sin against you it is merely one sinner sinning against another sinner and vice versa but when we sin against God that's an entirely different matter totally different and listen that's why it took the death of Jesus Christ to take care of it that's why such an enormous price was paid because the debt was staggering human sin committed against an infinite God constitutes an infinite kind of offense and it takes an infinite being to make an atonement and that's what Jesus

[24:33] Christ did God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself incredible he who knew no sin was made to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him that is just too wonderful for words this term confess or confession it's a wonderful word I just love words and the reason I love words is because words mean things and this word is the word in the Greek is homo legeo homo legeo if you recognize this part of the word homo it means the same if you're talking about homosexual it means the same sex as it were

[25:51] Romans 1 men with men or men loving men homosexual if you're talking about homogenized the word homogenized milk is there anybody here as old as I admit I'm older than dirt but is there anybody here that remembers the old pasteurized milk with the cream on top a few of you do yeah we'll admit to that and then I don't think you can even buy that anymore unless you go to a place that deals with raw milk but now everything is homogenized they take the cream with the milk and it's all homogenized so that it's all the same there isn't any cream separated from it anymore that's homogenization it means the same and this word legato is the word for word the word from which we get the word the logos John 1 1 Christ is the logos it's also the word from which we get the word logic and confess to confess means to say the same words and there is another word that means the same thing and this is the word that for me has breakthrough qualities and if you get a handle on it it will help you to really understand the word homogenized and confess and here's what it means agree that's what confess means to agree actually it relates to remember essentia we've got fiducia down here and noticia up here and essentia means that you hear the message and you agree with it and when you agree with it you confess that this is so you agree now in

[28:07] Romans chapter 10 this is the second passage we'll look at let's go there please Romans chapter 10 and verse 9 very familiar passage the apostle says and I'm reading from the new American standard that if you confess with your mouth now we could substitute the word there agree mean the same thing if you agree or confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord now I want to address that because that is important I don't want to be confused with the area of Lordship salvation you all know where

[29:09] I stand regarding that and I repudiate it and Lordship salvation simply says if Jesus Christ is not the Lord of your life in every area then you're probably not even saved well I think that is just patent nonsense because there isn't a one of us here who has Christ as absolute Lord of every phase of our life because in the first place you don't even know what all of them are and in the second place none of us have arrived at that place where we have eradicated the old sin nature and we have no illusions of doing that won't be realized until our bodies fashioned like under the body of Christ so to say that if Christ is not Lord of all he's not Lord at all that's nonsense that's nonsense but at the same time when you confess Jesus as Lord what that means is this you are agreeing or recognizing that

[30:17] Jesus Christ is the one beyond whom and above whom there is no other he is the ultimate authority he is your authority if he is not your authority you are not saved if you are your authority you are not saved if science is your authority you are not saved only if Jesus Christ is your authority that's what the word Lord means supreme potentate and when you confess Christ as Lord that means that you are objectively as an act of your will you are placing yourself under submission to Jesus Christ if you have not done that you are not saved you cannot be saved you cannot take the position well

[31:27] I believe Jesus Christ died on the cross for my sins and I want to believe in that and trust in him so that I can go to heaven when I die but in so far as him being the lord of my life and the master of my life I don't want to do that I want to call the shots I want to run the show myself well you can do that but you can't be saved you cannot be saved it is confessing Jesus Christ as your lord he is above you he is the creator you are the creature now listen what this involves and this is why this is the biggest hurdle for any unsaved person they are in a position where they must relinquish the autonomy over their life and most of us don't want to do that we want to stay in the driver's seat well you can stay in the driver's seat but you cannot have salvation because when you place your faith and trust in

[32:36] Jesus Christ it involves not only his work on the cross it involves his person his person cannot be separated from his work when you believe on Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior you are placing yourself under his rightful authority and you are recognizing that he has full jurisdiction over you and everything that concerns you and you are not fighting him about that now as you go on through the Christian life of course there will be periods of rebellion and lapse and uncooperative and going your own way and walking in the flesh that's part of the growth process we all go through that and we all live in that and we deal with that but I'm talking about the nuts and bolts and mechanics of salvation it is not possible for someone to say I believe Jesus Christ died on the cross for my sins I want him to save me from my sins but I don't want anything else to do with him I want to leave me alone so I can run my own life forget it he's not interested he is not interested when you confess that

[33:47] Jesus Christ is Lord it means you agree that he is Lord and you are not it is as simple as that and it is as complex as that you are relinquishing the right to yourself and the reason you are is because you've been bought with a price when he died on that cross he paid for you he bought you he purchased you and if you continue withholding from him what rightfully belongs to him you are misappropriating property you are not your own you're bought with a price when you confess you agree it is almost like a contractual arrangement whereby you agree now we often don't think of that in terms of confessing when we talk about confessing our sins we tend to think about naming them numbering them and boy

[34:55] I've given up on that a long time ago because as I said I can't even remember all my sins and you know what sometimes I can be so proficient at sinning I don't even realize what I'm doing it now that is efficiency sins of omission and sins of commission sins of oversight and sins of neglect and sins of stupidity and sins of if you have to name them enumerate them boy I don't know about you but I'm sunk I just give up right from the get go there's no way I could do that so what we do is we agree with God about our sin and about our sin nature and as I pointed out this is the big hurdle for most people because very often they come back to something like this well I'm not that bad there's a lot of people worse than

[35:58] I am and I haven't committed any of the real biggies none of that stuff will fly and you know it this is a humbling thing and I'll tell you why it's so humbling because we have to agree and admit to a deficiency I don't measure up I am not acceptable I am not good enough and there is nothing I can do to be good enough you think that makes you feel good of course not and people come back well I have a higher opinion of myself than that and that's your problem it's called ego when we agree we simply admit our true position before

[37:01] God woe is me I am undone and I dwell in the midst of the people who are undone this passage here in Romans 9 confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord that's interesting it doesn't say confess with your mouth Jesus as Savior does it Jesus as Lord that's a title the word kurios kurios means the one above whom and beyond whom there is no other Christ is the ultimate he is the end and when you confess Christ as that you confess him not only as that over all of creation but over you and you take your rightful position under him and even that is an incredible privilege with the heart and believe in your heart and we've talked about the word heart and mind and how these work together that

[38:16] God raised him from the dead you shall be saved for with the heart man believes resulting in righteousness that means resulting in a righteousness that God will accept because it's an imputed righteousness and with the mouth he confesses or he agrees he acknowledges he admits resulting in salvation for the scripture says whoever believes in him will not be disappointed boy is that ever a wonderful understatement whoever believes in him will not be disappointed no one I've never I've been a Christian for over 50 years and I've never heard anyone say you know this business of being a Christian and Jesus Christ I just don't think he's what he's cracked up to be I've really been disappointed in him I just don't think that this thing Christianity is such a big deal after I've never heard anybody say that because as you go on and grow and mature in the

[39:16] Christian faith Jesus Christ becomes greater and bigger and larger and more and more significant and you become less and less and less so you can say with John he must increase and I must decrease what an amazing thing I tell you there's no distinction between Jew and Greek the same Lord is Lord of all abounding and riches for all who call upon him why would anyone call upon him and he goes on to say for whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved why would anybody call why does anybody call it is out of a sense of admitted acknowledged need I call upon when Peter was when the Lord bid Peter come and walk on the water to him he got out of the boat he was doing great until he looked down to see how great he was doing and then he sunk and what did he do he called unto the

[40:23] Lord Lord help help and all Peter was saying in those two words Lord help was I am in a situation that I am not sufficient for and I'm about to drown and I'm sunk if you don't save me all all all of that was translated into Lord help it was a very firm frank admission of need and of inability and that too is not good for the ego we like to be self sufficient we are Americans we've got a can do mentality just give us a job we'll get it done and that's just human pride speaking when you call upon the Lord you do so for just one reason you realize that only he can do for you what you really need and you can't do it and neither can anybody else so you call upon him you come to the end of yourself and you cry out

[41:37] Lord I can't do it I need you I want you you have to save me there's no way I can save myself I agree I admit that that's why I say this is the greatest single hurdle that a human being has to overcome and this is what keeps many from coming to Christ and do you know what this is this is this is essential when you agree when you come to the end of yourself this involves confession assent means to agree you give assent to something you agree to it like in the terms of a contract I assent to that if you do not agree you dissent from that and you become a dissenter a dissenter is one who disagrees and all

[42:40] Christians should be assenters and disassenters we should assent to everything that we discover as being true and we should dissent from everything we discover that we believe to be untrue you should be a dissenter that means you should disagree with what you know is not true and we know the only basis for believing anything about anything is because you are convinced that it is true that it corresponds to reality that's the basis for believing anything about anything one more passage a very controversial one among grace people and that's in first John chapter one and verse nine and this is our last first John chapter one and verse nine actually we could probably all quote it probably not necessary to go there if we confess our sins now the big the big issue among grace people is whether or not this passage is speaking to believers or to unbelievers because there are things in first John that seem to address both and I suspect they probably do and verse nine says if and there it presents a condition if we confess if we admit if we acknowledge if we agree as regarding our sins

[44:05] God is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness do you know what God wants you to do this passage whether as a believer or an unbeliever whichever it is do you know what God wants us to do about our sin just one thing admit it take ownership acknowledge it confess it when you confess it you agree that's what God wants us to do why does God want us to do that so badly let me tell you it is only because when you do that you bring yourself in line with the position of truth and reality and that's the area that's the only area God can deal with God does not deal in error he only deals in truth not error he only deals in truth and when you acknowledge admit own up to fess up agree as regards your sin you have come into a position of truth and reality nothing pleases

[45:26] God more than to be lined up with the truth he is the truth the way the truth and the life and if you deny if you dissent if you refuse if you will not acknowledge your sin you're dealing in a sphere of error and God doesn't get to you there he doesn't traffic in error he only deals with truth you bring yourself into his sphere when you acknowledge your sin you know when someone is arrested for a crime law enforcement officer picks them up and they bring them in and they have what they call an interrogation room and it's usually kind of stark a table and a couple of chairs and a couple of police detectives and they gather around this person who is the suspect and they say you are our number one suspect in this case and so-and-so was killed on the night of such-and-such and such-and-such and this is the weapon that was used and we think you did it we are accusing you oh no

[46:50] I didn't do that I've got an alibi so you give them the alibis and the cops go out and they check out your alibi and they say the alibis don't hold up so-and-so says he wasn't with you on that particular night and this one wasn't with you and they come back and they have another time of interrogation and the guy is just sweating and sweating and they're throwing these questions at him and they said he said I already answered that question well answer again maybe we missed something and tell us again where you were and what you did and all the rest and finally the guy cracks he said okay all right you got me I I I admit what has he done he's confessed he has agreed they say this is what we think you did and we're holding you accountable and he says yeah you're right

[47:52] I'm guilty I did that and they call for a stenographer and the stenographer comes in and he says would you like to make a statement and what does he do he recounts what he did he takes ownership for what he did he admits it he acknowledges it that's confession and when this is all typed out it's given to him and they say now will you sign this and he nervously put six signatures to it he has made a confession he has simply agreed with the charges he has assented that's what it means to confess own up acknowledge and it brings you into a sphere of reality because you see

[48:55] God cannot and will not forgive you for something you will not acknowledge having done as long as we are in a state of denial I'm not that bad a lot of people worse than me and I don't think what I did was that bad and I'm not as bad as a lot of people and on and on and on and I go to church and I give money and blah blah blah and all the rest of that that's all nonsense that's all stuff and nonsense that is nothing but a smoke screen that you're throwing up to try to preserve your ego so that you don't have to say you know what I've been nailed and everything the Bible says about me as a sinner is true I take full responsibility I acknowledge it I admit it that's a big big step but that's what's required that is what it means to confess your sin and you know something that's all it means there is no penalty there is no punishment there is no penance there is nothing else involved with it if we confess our sin

[50:15] God is faithful if we will take ownership and admit it God is faithful what does that mean it means God is reliable he's dependable you can count on God to forgive you the sin that you acknowledge he just wants you to admit it amazing and when you do he cleanses us from all unrighteousness you know that has to be a positional cleansing because if it's a practical cleansing it doesn't last long it's only until I sin again it is a positional cleansing whereby he makes us accepted in the beloved and you have a new relationship with God hey folks this is salvation this is receiving the end result of your faith which is the saving of your soul these are

[51:30] I call them nuts and bolts of our salvation these are these are the mechanics that are involved and each one of these things is terribly important and God has provided them for us spelled them out for us and it is just it is just wonderful I trust that you have experienced this and if you have not there is no reason why you cannot and you need only come into the reality and admission of your own sin take responsibility for it don't try to justify it excuse it explain it away or deny it just own up to it and then when you do you call upon the name of the Lord and he will save you he's in the business and he's the only one who is have you a question or comment

[52:38] Betty I have something that a former pastor said that I wanted to comment on he said that God doesn't forgive our sins that Jesus Christ paid for those on the cross God forgives us when we confess as his verse says he's just to forgive us our sins well I'm going to have to think that through that might be shaving it a little thinner than what I'm accustomed to but I'm not sure that I can argue with it it's got a ring of truth to it I'd have to give it some more thought though but that that could be a very important distinction in the back Mike what happens when you continue to sin and do the same sin over and over and over and just can't seem to stop doing okay well when when we have developed a habit pattern for a particular sin

[53:45] I would suggest that that would be a good thing to go to the Lord about and say now Lord you know better than I that I have this recurring sin and by the way you don't have to worry about this going to the Lord with this particular weakness whatever it might be only to have him say you again same old thing would you give me a break look I've forgiven you for this buku's of times and my patience is running out I'm not going to forgive you anymore well you don't have to worry about that or God have to resign from the universe but I'll tell you what I do think that and the writer of Hebrews talks about our besetting sin which means our sin of real vulnerability or weakness and we all tend to have one or more and it is the kind of thing that I think we ought to go to the

[54:56] Lord and confess that in that area and I think we ought to also tell the Lord you know I am really concerned about this area of weakness about this repetitive sin that I keep committing and yet I know that I'm not as concerned as I am about it I'm not as concerned about it as you are so here's what I'm going to ask you to do Lord I'm going to ask you to bring into my life whatever you deem necessary for me to get the victory over this thing and I am giving you a blank check and I am signing it and you can fill it in with whatever you want and mean business then look out look out for he whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth for what son is he whom the Lord chasteneth not and if you endure not chastening whereof we are all partakers if you endure not chastening then are you bastards and not sons so

[56:08] God chastens that means he child trains he child trains those who belong to him and for anybody in this area we have a men's class that meets on Thursday mornings been beating since 1965 and it is an incredible bunch of guys we just have a super time in the scriptures together and one of the handouts I've given them is a chapter from Theodore Epp's book on Romans chapter 6 and I would be happy to provide copies of that for anyone it is the helpful thing I have ever seen in print in dealing with issues of the Christian life overcoming the flesh and the sins that doth so easily beset us and if anybody would like that of course you wouldn't want it for yourself but you have a friend you have a friend who could use it I'll give it to you for your friend okay Mike can you lose your salvation can you lose your if you could lose your salvation because you no longer deserve it are you implying that you deserve it in the first place okay okay well you didn't lose your salvation because you didn't earn it you cannot obtain salvation through your behavior you cannot lose salvation through your behavior the only way you could lose salvation is to lose it by grace because that's the way it was acquired was by grace but

[58:07] God is the one who is in charge of grace and God is not going to throw you out because you deserve to be thrown out God didn't let you in because you deserve to be let in he let you in on the basis of grace and there is a passage in Galatians that talks about falling from grace and it's one that is frequently used by people who believe that you can forfeit your salvation you can truly be saved truly have received Christ as your Lord and Savior been born again have eternal life the whole nine yards but you really mess up big time then what happens to you because you are a child of God God will take you to the woodshed he will discipline you he will spank your butt spiritually or maybe physically and he will show you the benefits of obedience and if you do not comply he may just say okay that's enough come on home and you're killed in the next accident at fifth and main this is severe chastisement but the idea of losing yourself you see when

[59:28] God saved you he didn't put you on probation he didn't say now look I'm saving you I'm giving you eternal life but this eternal life doesn't last forever you know which is a contradiction in terms isn't it he doesn't give us temporary life he gives us eternal life and it is predicated upon the finished work of Christ so I do not know of any including myself who came to faith in Christ and was saved and who goes on in the Christian life and yet deserves to remain saved I never deserve to get saved I don't deserve to remain saved but it's not based on what I deserve it's based on God's grace and people who look at that say well then then what you are saying is if you are saved and have eternal life doesn't make any difference how you live and you can do whatever you want to do and just kick over the traces and live a life of a liberty and it doesn't matter because you're saved so you can't lose your salvation so go out and live like the devil and live it up

[60:40] I suppose somebody could say that theoretically but I have never in all my 50 plus years of being a Christian I've never heard any Christian say that you know I'm not concerned about my salvation so I want to go out and see how much I can sin because I can't be lost when we come to faith in Jesus Christ we are put under a new law but we're under law it is the law of the liberty of faith that has set us free in Christ Jesus Romans chapter 8 so that's the law of love that we are under now and why do we obey God because we have to because we're afraid to he'll damn us and send us to hell if we don't obey no no no no why are you faithful to your wife is it only because there is a commandment that says thou shalt not commit adultery is that the only reason it keeps you from shacking up with another woman or is it because you love her and you have a much higher motivation than a prohibition al yep yep that's a good starting place sure is anyone else

[61:56] Ron Romans 3 said we're all sinners and fall short Romans 10 we confess and what we're confessing is that we are sinners we are agreeing to the fact that well I think I don't know that there has to be or needs to be the naming of a specific sin I think there is sin and there are sins we can all confess our sin singular but I don't think any of us can confess all of our sins plural God forgives all sin and sins through the finished work of Jesus Christ and we can be so thankful that he does make excuses for

[63:15] I am just admitting that is what God delights in there is an old song I saw the light I saw the light that is what it means when you confess your sin you saw the light and Christ is the light of the world and father how thankful we are for this incredible salvation that we know is even so much more involved than what we have explored thank you for allowing us to just peel back the cover and peek in to a very small amount of all that you provided in Christ thank you for the great importance of it thank you for the clarity with which it has come we pray if there's anything that has been uttered of the flesh or untrue that it may pass away and come to naught and what has been from your spirit would you seal it to our hearts for now and eternity we pray in

[64:19]  Christ's name amen have have a wonderful afternoon