Foundation for Living Lesson 1
Before we get started in our study
of God’s word, let’s go to the Lord in prayer.
Father, we thank you for this
opportunity to study Your word. We
thank you for its clarity, we thank You for its perspicacity, we thank You for
the way it illuminates our thinking in every area. Scripture says that it is in Your light that we see
light. Father, it is only as we
submit our thinking to the teaching, the illumination, the revelation of Your
word that we are able to properly grow as believers, to properly understand the
creation around us as You have revealed the basis of all thought to us in Your
word. Thank You for the clarity
that You give us regarding salvation that it is by no one else other than Jesus
Christ. Now Father, as we study
these things this evening we pray that You would challenge us with what we
study. Make these things clear to
us. We pray this in Christ’s
name. Amen
As young men grow up they often look
role models, leaders, mentors.
They find them in various places.
Sometimes they are fortunate enough to find them in their own father. Other times they find them in pastors,
teachers, and professors. Several
years ago I sat down and wrote a list of five men who were significant mentors
in my life when I was in high school and college. What is interesting is that in that list of five men, four
are pastors. One of the five
was an internationally known professor of theology. But on that list one man stood out as being different. He was not pastor, not a
theologian. He was not even a believer. He was a military man. His name was Jim Calahan. I first met him when I was about to
matriculate my first semester at Stephen F. Austin State University at
Nacogdoches. I was going to go
into the ROTC program. I went up
there for summer orientation and went by the military science building. There,
there was this somewhat nondescript individual who I talked to. I did not know much about military
protocol and there was this individual dressed in civilian clothes. We talked about the ROTC program, the
military science program and some of the different things they had. He did not impress me a great
deal. He was rather quiet, mild
mannered. He did not have the kind
of physical presence you would normally associate with a military man or
warrior, but he was someone you probably would not notice in a crowd. Over the
next few months I came to realize that that’s not who this man was. He was a
genuine hero. He fought in Korea and several tours in Viet Nam. He became a mentor, a leader and a hero
to dozens of us who went through that military science program. He stamped us with his influence. He was a leader, he was a mentor and he
was a man who was crazy as a loon.
All of that came together to provide
a somewhat remarkable makeup for a military leader. He taught us about leadership, what it was to be a
man, what it was to assume responsibility. He was our professor, our teacher and for some of us, as the
years went by, he became our friend.
When I graduated from college and didn’t go into the military, that was
somewhat of a disappointment to him.
He had recommended me highly for a scholarship which I did gain, and
went through college on an ROTC scholarship, and it was a great disappointment
to him when I did not go into the military. Some years later he found out I went to seminary. He called a friend of mine and
said, okay, we both know Dean,
he’s a pastor?! There has to be
some money in it somewhere, what’s the scam? Figure it out.
Over the years we kept in touch.
I would go thru Nacogdoches every three or four years and visit. We would sit outside and tell stories
and tell lies. We would go out
shooting. He had a great love for
weapons, and probably knew everything
there was to know about any kind of pistol or rifle or shotgun. As the years went by we developed a
good friendship. This last April I
found out that he entered into the greatest battle of his life. He had been diagnosed with
lymphoma. He was coming down from
Nacogdoches every couple of weeks for treatment at MD Anderson Hospital. I
found out he was in town and went down to the hospital to meet him. We sat around in the waiting room. They reviewed some tests and decided to
check him in for a couple of days.
I had taken my book on Spiritual Warfare down there just to show him
something that I had done. Since they
decided to keep him in for a few days, I came back the next day. I brought him a copy of Victor Davis
Hansen’s book, Carnage and Culture.
He was a great military historian.
We loved to sit and talk about battles. We talked about everything from the battle of Cannae to the
battle of Gettysburg, to Viet Nam.
He would tell war stories and I would ask him about his experiences in
Viet Nam and other things. And
after about 30 minutes, he said, ok Robbie, tell me why you are a pastor and
what it is that is unique about what you believe. And for the first time in 30 years, I had given him the
gospel when I was a freshman, I went thru the gospel with him. We talked about this and we talked
about that. We talked about
evolution and creation. We covered
philosophy as well as well as theology. We talked for three hours. And when it was done, he seemed to say, I understand that, I
understand the gospel. But what do
I do if I believe all that? I
said, well, I’ll come back later and we’ll talk about that. I could not get down there for a couple
of days and I decided to send my bulldog in there, so I call my bulldog, Gene
Brown. Just a week or 2
prior to this, another fellow that was in the ROTC with me had been killed in
Iraq, serving in a civilian capacity.
Gene had at one time served on and A Team with this man who had just
been killed, so they had that point of contact in common. So Gene went down to the hospital and
spent three hours explaining the gospel to Jim Calahan again, going over it in
detail. Gene called me afterward
and said, I don’t know if he is a believer, but he really understands grace and
he understands the gospel. Jim
went home a couple of days later and had to come back for treatment about two
weeks later. I went to visit, and
in the course of our conversation I was going back over my own Christian life
testimony. We talked about the
fact that I’d always wondered if Christianity was really intellectually
respectable. When I was in college
I heard so many attacks in the classroom, in psychology and sociology classes,
that my local church background had not prepared me to specifically
handle. So there were a lot of
doubts in my mind, as there are with many folks, if you can really
intellectually trust Christianity, or do you have to park your mind and just
believe something, take sort of an existential leap of faith. Randy Price gave me a copy of Josh
McDowell’s book, Evidence that Demands a Verdict, when I was a junior in
college. I read that and never looked back. I just mentioned that to Calahan as
I was talking about my testimony and he said, wait a minute, what is the name
of that book? He said, can you get
me a copy of that? That afternoon
I left the hospital and went down to a Christian book store and bought an
updated copy and took it back to him the next morning. He went home for another couple of
weeks until the next treatment and when he came back two weeks later I asked
him if he had had a chance to read any of the things I had given him. I had bought him a bible and I gave him
two or three other books and tracts that explained the gospel. He read everything and had read 250
pages of Evidence that Demands a Verdict. We sat there and talked and he said, you know, I
believe in God, I believe God exists, I believe Christ died for my sins, what
do I do now? I thought, hm,
I don’t have a basic series to give this man. I need to teach a basic series this summer.
So that was the inspiration for the
series we just finished, and the one we are beginning this evening, which is
Foundation for Living. According
to God’s timetable, not my timetable, Jim Callahan went to be with the Lord
yesterday morning. During
the last six or eight weeks, when I got him some tapes, I don’t think he ever
had a chance to listen to any of the basic tapes we provided. His mind was not clear the last
few weeks. He was tired, the
cancer was getting the best of him.
But I did get an opportunity during the summer to spend time with him,
and I went up and spent the day with him a little over a month ago. So that is the foundation for the
series. Even though I had other
ideas, the Lord has his own timetable.
This Saturday I will be going go to Nacogdoches to conduct the memorial
service. That will be a challenge
because a lot of the men I was in college with will be there. The old rowdy gang from college will show
up and I get to give them the gospel.
That will be a tremendous time.
Yesterday when I was talking on the phone to Calahan’s oldest son Phil,
who was just a 12 year old kid when I was in college and used to tag along on
our ftx weekends, training in the woods, I said to him , now Phil, you have to
understand your dad trusted Christ as his savior. Phil almost broke down in tears, he said, you know dad was
always a skeptic, a cynic. I’ve
just been scared to death that he did not know Christ as savior
That’s a real challenge for all of
us. We need to make sure that our
children hear the gospel, and that you tell your parents the gospel. Make sure it is clear. Don’t let a day go by that you don’t
tell folks the gospel. It has been
a great opportunity of ministry to that family. That gives you a little insight as to why we are going
through this series.
The question that Jim Calahan asked
is an important one that is often not addressed. Now that I am a believer, now that I have eternal life, what
do I do? The scripture is very
clear. In fact, much of the
scripture is addressed, not to people to get them saved, but to believers to
teach them how to think like God.
How to understand Gods plan and purposes for their lives so that they can
go through Gods training program in preparation for our future ministry
during the millennial kingdom as
we reign as kings and priests with the Lord Jesus Christ, and from there on
into eternity. So the first
question we have to address is, OK, if I get saved, what happens if I sin? What
do I do? What happens next? This has been a perennial problem for
pastors, theologians and Christians to deal with over the years. What happens when I sin? Do I lose my salvation? Do I have to go through some kind of
penance in order to get right with God?
Do I have to say some special kind of prayer, or go to the priest, or
just what do I do to deal with any kind of sin in my life? The scripture is very clear, Jesus
Christ paid the penalty for all of our sin on the cross. Therefore, you cannot commit any sin
after salvation that has not already been taken care of on the cross. However, when we do sin after
salvation, it does have an impact on our ongoing relationship with God. We’ve studied in the past few weeks
about the nature of salvation. At
salvation we are regenerate, we are born again. We receive new life in Christ. We are adopted into Gods family, we His children. We become sons of God, the scripture
says.
As members of the family, we cannot
be kicked out of the family. But
just as you as a child at times disobeyed your parents, and that created a
barrier in your relationship with your parents, the same thing happens in our
relationship with God. When we sin
there is a breech of our fellowship with God. Because we are indwelt with the Holy Spirit, and from the
instant of salvation God the Holy
Spirit is working to mature us, to
sanctify us, the scripture says, to bring us to spiritual maturity, there is
also an impact on that ministry of God the Holy Spirit.
The apostle Paul uses two images to
communicate that. He says that we
grieve the Spirit and we quench the Spirit. In other words, at the instant of salvation we are indwelt
with the Spirit. We are also
filled with the Spirit, and the Spirit begins His work in our life. But as soon as we sin, that
filling ministry of the Spirit, His sanctifying ministry, is squelched, shut
down. He is still working in other
areas, but in terms of producing growth, that is cut off. And the scripture says that there is a
recovery process. There are two
passages that indicate that something needs to be done and these are given in
James 1 and in 1 Peter 2.
James 1 is always one of my favorite
passages to poke fun at in the King James version, because the verbiage sounds
so bombastic and meaningless in terms of our modern idiom.
The passage reads, “Therefore lay
aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness.” (Remember in the Old King
James, that was the superfluity of naughtiness. Naughty, to us, just doesn’t quite convey what the Greek
conveys. In American idiom it is
just a little off, not quite right.
In English idiom, naughty can be quite serious. It just has to do with
idiom on this side of the pond.)
“and receive with
meekness the implanted word which is able to save your souls.”
What we find in this verse, without
going into excessive detail on the grammar, is basic dynamics of Christian
growth. The command is to receive
with meekness or humility the implanted word. The command there ‘to receive” is an aorist imperative, and
that indicates that it is a priority. Every time you find an aorist tense imperative mood
verb in the New Testament, it is indicating a priority. It is something of vital
significance. It needs to be implemented
immediately if not sooner. We have
something interesting going on in this verse in terms of the grammatical
construction that doesn’t come across in the English . It begins with a phrase that is
translated ‘lay aside’, and it looks like that is an imperative as well. Actually, in the Greek it is an aorist
middle participle. It has an
imperatival sense to it because of the main command to receive the word. In the Greek it is called the
participle of antecedent circumstances.
Antecedent means that which goes before. So this participle always precedes the main verb.
The meaning of the grammar is that
the participle indicates the circumstances or the conditions that must be
fulfilled before the main command can be fulfilled. The main command is to receive the word which is the basis
for our spiritual growth. But
before we can take in the word, something has to happen first. And that is, there has to be this
laying aside of what the translation says is filthiness and the overflow of wickedness. What does that mean? The word translated filthiness is the
Greek word rhuparia, which indicates
moral corruption. It is just a
synonym for sin. The overflow of wickedness is actually the excess which sin is
in terms of translation. We are
basically told we need to do something, we need to lay aside this sin which is
in our life. The verb there for
lay aside, apotithemi, is the idea of
removing something. It is the word
you would use if a guest came into your house and you said, Take your coat
off. It is just the removal of a
garment, taking something off, removing it, laying it aside. Or putting it aside and putting it
somewhere else. I am reminded of
the Old Testament passage, when we confess our sin, when God forgives us, He
removes our sin as far from us as the east is from the west. That is the idea here, it is a removal
and a separation of sin that is the precondition for being able to take in the
word of God. The command is to lay
aside all filthiness, and the excess which sin is, and receive with humility
the implanted word. What does it
mean by the ‘implanted word’?
That is the word which we are
learning that God the Holy Spirit is going to implant and drive into our
soul. It is the word that is able
to, as the translation says, save
ours souls. This is not talking
about entering into eternal life.
The word translated saved is the Greek word sozo. In the New
Testament it frequently does not mean entering in to eternal life or, as we
often say, getting saved. It has
to do with the end product, or the
process of our spiritual life. We
are familiar with scripture we have gone through in the past talking about the
three tenses of salvation.
At the cross we are saved from the penalty of sin, this is spiritual
death. We are born spiritually
dead. At the instant of faith
alone in Christ alone, you are spiritually alive, you are regenerate. From that point on we go through the
process of experiential or progressive sanctification. And we are being saved or delivered
from the power of sin. We still have a sin nature, we still sin, and we are learning to put to death the
deeds of the flesh, as Paul says in Romans 6 We are in the process of spiritual maturity. Then, when we die, we are absent from
the body and face to face with the Lord.
We are saved from the presence of sin. These represent the three tenses of salvation, past, present and future. In several of the New Testament
books, for example, Romans, Hebrews and James, the word saved, sozo, and its derivative, soterion, for salvation and other forms
of the verb, the noun doesn’t refer to salvation here. In American Christian idiom, when we
say, Are you saved?, we mean , are
you going go to heaven, have you trusted in Christ as your Savior? But in many of the New Testament books,
the focus is on the present outworking of the reality of justification, which
is phase one. It is this process
of being saved from the power of sin on a day to day basis. That is the way James uses the word in
the Epistle of James. In fact we
see this very clearly because in chapter 1, verse 18 we read, “of His own will He brought us forth by
the word of truth, so that we may be a kind of first fruits among His
creatures.” That bringing forth by
the word of truth is a reference to salvation justification that we have talked
about, when a person puts his faith alone in Jesus Christ. When an individual recognizes that
Jesus Christ died on the cross for his sin, at that instant he receives the imputation of Christ’s righteousness and God the
Father declares you just. That is
the doctrine of justification by
faith alone in Christ alone. You
are simultaneously regenerated so that you become a new creature in Christ, and
you have eternal life. But it is
several verses later, verse 21 when James begins to talk about the spiritual
life itself - how do you grow? He uses the term saving the life, or delivering the life, that is from
sin. So the focus of James 1:21is
how the believer grows. To begin
with there has to be this removal of sin.
What exactly does that mean?
How do we do that? Before I
answer that question, let’s look at one other passage.
1Peter 2, verses 1 and 2 have the
same grammatical structure in the Greek.
They use that participle of antecedent circumstances in order to stress
what must be done before the command can be fulfilled. We have the same word used, laying
aside is the verb apotithemi, it
means to remove something, to take something off, to set it completely
aside. In 1 Peter 2:1, 2, we have
a list of different sins that are representative, it is certainly not an
inclusive list. “Therefore, laying
aside all malice (mental attitude sins related to hatred, envy, vengeance,
vindictiveness) all deceit,(that
is anything related to lying, deception) hypocrisy and envy, ( all of these are
mental attitude sins; mental attitude sins are among the most destructive of
sins. And then sins of the tongue)
all evil speaking (whether it is lying, slander, all these things shut down the
ministry of God the Holy Spirit, they grieve and quench the Spirit.
Then we have the positive command in
verse 2, “ as newborn babes, long for the pure milk of the word, that by it you
may grow in respect to salvation”.
The command is the word ‘desire’.
We are to desire the milk of the word like a newborn babe. The verb there is epipotheo and it means to yearn for something, to long for
something, to hunger for something.
Most of us have heard an infant that gets hungry, it makes its will
known. He screams for food. He cries out for food. And you hear that awful noise as the
baby starts wailing until someone sticks something into his mouth. He is hungry and does not know any
other way to express himself. This
is the image that the apostle Peter uses in this verse. We, as new born believers, are to
scream out, cry out, demand to be fed.
It is interesting what happens when you don’t get fed. I don’t know how many of you have gone
through a fast. I went through an
imposed fast. Years ago I went
through an outward bound type program that Wheaton College had. It was the last elective I had to
fulfill for my ThM, and I had to take a Christian education elective. I wasn’t thrilled about the Christian
education courses at Dallas, and I didn’t like the gimmicky things the
Christian ed guys normally got into.
But I found out that Wheaton College had a two week wilderness learning
seminar that was a backpacking and camping trip that was part of their
Christian ed program. And I could
get those hours transferred back to Dallas to fulfill my Christian ed
elective. I thought what a
great way to finish a course. I
was really into that sort of thing when I was younger, a lot of rock climbing,
white water canoeing and rafting.
So I went on this 2-week trip.
It was a great trip, except I came down with a staph infection, had a
103 degree fever, half way through.
They took me to a hospital where I got a shot of antibiotics, then they
stuck me out in tent in the middle of nowhere, left me a little food and said
get over it. Then they
disappeared. They showed up three
days later, picked me up and we continued with the trip. I got up to the upper Michigan peninsula We ended the trip on the shore of Lake Superior. The
mean temperature of the water in Lake Superior is 33 degrees, 32 degrees is
freezing, so the water temperature is so cold it kills any bacteria. You can drink the water right out of
the lake without worrying about getting any bacterial infection. As we got to the shore they isolated
everybody. They strung us out along the shore about a hundred yards or so apart
from one another, and we were to have a three day solo during which we were to
fast. I was about 27 years old and
really didn’t like to go more than
2-3 hours without food. I
certainly wasn’t looking forward to fasting. I had been anticipating, trying to figure out a way to
squirrel away some food, so I could make it without really having to fast for
three days. Then we were
told there were a lot of bears in
the area, and they could really sniff out the food, so it was really against
our better interest to have anything in our possession that had even touched
food, because the bears would smell that and they would come after us. And indeed, during the three days were
on the shore they attacked the home base where the leaders were and completely
demolished four or five $150.00
backpacks trying to get the food that was there. We had plenty of water, but no food. I discovered that when you have gone
without food for about 36-48 hours, your appetite just disappears, you are not
hungry anymore.
People wonder how the Lord could fast 40 days and 40
nights. Moses fasted for forty
days and forty nights. People think, Jesus was God, of course He could go forty
days and forty nights without food. No, in your humanity you can do that
because your appetite will go away after about a day and a half. But the way God has made us, as you get
close to that 40 day mark, your appetite comes back with a bang. If you go much beyond forty days, it
can get serious, life threatening.
I experienced some of that during that time at Lake Superior. After a day and a half, I did not have
any appetite. I think this is what
happens with a lot of people who get saved. Nobody feeds them.
They don’t get any teaching from the word, they just get this pablum
that’s typical. So after a short amount of time, their appetite goes away, the
same thing that happens in the physical realm, I think, happens in the spiritual realm. They go
from church to church to church, no one is teaching anything and you think, that’s all there is. It’s just this
nonsense that goes on. So people
think, I’m supposed to go to church, so they go, and they get this pablum, this
dog and pony show, and the emotion.
So you think that’s what there is and you don’t realize how much depth
and meat there is to the word.
That is what this passage is talking about. We are supposed to be like babies, demanding of pastors to
feed us. A pastor is like a
chef. He needs to prepare a meal
for every body, from the infants to the mature, because this is how we grow,
that is the thrust of the passage. “New born babes desire the pure milk of the
word that you may grow thereby.”
You don’t grow from singing hymns, you don’t grow from praise and
worship, you don’t grow from counseling, you don’t grow from going to Sunday
school, you don’t grow from sitting around saying what does this what did this passage mean to you. You grow because somebody has dedicated
their life to studying the word so they can teach and communicate the
principals of gods word so you as a believer can grow and mature in the
Christian life. But there is
a precondition, and that is what we saw in 1Peter 2:1 as well as James 1: 23, - the principle of taking off and
removing sin. The Bible uses
another image for communicating the image of cleansing. There are 2 types of cleansing in
the Christian life. There is
cleansing that occurs at salvation, related to all pre-salvation sin. There is another cleansing that takes
place after salvation on a regular ongoing basis as the result of confessing
sin. Let’s understand the
importance of cleansing
John 13 ties in with the Lord’s Table, because this took
place the night before Jesus Christ went to the cross when the disciples
gathered together in the upper room for the Lord’s table. As the disciples came into the upper
room, the Lord Jesus Christ had taken His outer garment off and He had wrapped it around His waist so
it would not get in the way, and He had brought a basin out. As the disciples came into the room, He
knelt down and washed their feet.
This was the standard practice of the host as guests came into the home
to celebrate the Passover meal.
But this was the Lord who was doing this and it really bothered the
disciples that He was getting down and washing their feet. When He came to
Peter, it was just too much for Peter.
In verse 6, we read, “Lord, are You washing my feet?” Let me wash your feet. Peter just could not accept the fact
that here was the One who he recognized as the Messiah back in Matthew 18, that
this was the Lord of the universe, the Son of God washing his feet. And Jesus said to him in verse 7, “What I am doing you do not
understand now, but you will know after this.” In other words, I am doing something that has a benefit, I
am teaching a doctrine with symbolism here. You may not understand all of its ramifications right now,
but you will eventually. Peter
said to Him, Lord “You never shall wash my feet.” An interesting Greek word is used, nipto. Jesus said to him in response “If I do not wash you, you
have no part with Me.” Peter said
to him. “Lord, not my feet only, but my also my hands and my head.” Don’t just wash my feet, wash my whole
body, give me a bath. And Jesus then said to him, “He who is
bathed needs only to wash his feet.” When He uses the word bathed, he uses a different
Greek verb - luoo. Nipto means to wash something
partially, like your hands or feet.
Luoo has the idea of taking a
complete bath, . washing from head
to toe. Jesus is pointing out to
Peter, when you got saved you were washed from head to toe, that is cleansing from your
pre-salvation sins. But now you need to have an ongoing partial washing, and
that is just of your feet.
This is indicated by the word nipto. And He says to him in verse 10, he who
has been bathed (luoo), washed from
head to toe, that is, the person who is completely cleansed at salvation,
needs only to wash his feet (nipto) but is completely clean. This is the Greek word katharizo, which means to be cleansed or
purified. These words are
important and they have a heritage in the Old Testament. In the Old Testament when the high
priest was inaugurated into his role, he was bathed from head to toe. In the Septuagint, the Greek
translation of the Old Testament, the Jews understood what the nuances
were. There was only one word for
bathing or washing in Hebrew, the verb xxxxx but when the Jews translated the
Old Testament into Greek, they
made a distinction between the different kinds of washings related to the high
priest. When the high priest was
inaugurated he took a bath from head to toe, and this was translated in the Old
Testament by the verb luoo,
indicating a complete bath. But
from that point on the high priest never took a complete ritual bath. As he entered into the tabernacle or
the temple he came to the laver and he would wash his hands and wash his feet.
This was symbolic of the fact that he needed to be partially cleansed before he
could go into the presence of God.
He was completely cleansed at his inauguration. A picture of the fact that every
believer is completely cleansed at the moment of salvation. But we do things and go places we
shouldn’t. We think things and act
ways in which we shouldn’t. We
commit sin, so there needs to be partial cleansing on an ongoing basis if we
are going to maintain our relationship with God. This is why Jesus said to
Peter, “If you do not let Me wash
you (nipto-continually cleanse you) you
will have no part with Me.” The
word ‘part’ does not mean role or place or ministry
in your life. It is the Greek word
xxxxxxxxxx. It is a technical word
as in a legal document, such as a will, to indicate a portion or share of
the inheritance the heir would receive.
The same word is used in the story of the prodigal son. When the younger son wanted his
inheritance he asked for his portion, his xxxxxxxxxxx .
What Jesus is saying to Peter is,
there won’t be any cleansing in your life and therefore you won’t have any
production that has eternal value.
There won’t be any inheritance for you if you don’t let Me cleanse you
on a regular basis. The key word
here is cleansing. That is the
important word. That is the idea
behind James 1: 21 and behind 1 Peter 2:1
The believer has to be cleansed of sin. That word is picked up in 1 John 1:9, the key promise, the
most clear statement of this truth. But as I have pointed out it is not the
only statement of this truth. The
key word in 1John 1:9 is not the word confession, which a lot of people hone in on. The key word is
cleansing. This is the word you
find from Genesis all the way through Revelation. There needs to be a cleansing
of sin at salvation, which happens when we are justified and saved from the
penalty of sin. But there needs to be an ongoing post salvation cleansing that
takes place throughout our Christian life as we grow and mature. We are given the promise in 1John 1: 9
that “If we confess our sins, God
is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness.” We
have to be cleansed from that sin and that superfluity of naughtiness, or
excess of wickedness in James 1:21
We have to be cleansed of the gossip, malice and the mental attitude and
overt sins mentioned in 1 Peter 2:1.
We do that by simply admitting the sins that we commit, according to 1
John 1:9.
The word there is homologeo, which simply means to admit
or acknowledge. The etymology of
the word, sometimes you find
people who say it means to say the same thing as. But that’s not what it means in terms of usage. It is a legal courtroom word. It means to simply admit or
acknowledge that you have
done something wrong. You have breached the law. You have broken an ordinance. You are no longer innocent, you are now legally guilty. The solution is to admit guilt which is
done in silent prayer. You just
tell God, I have done this, I have had mental attitude sins of envy, lust, I
have gossiped, maligned, slandered, whatever it may be. We just say, Father, I have done this,
and we are instantly forgiven. It is not a matter of remorse, feeling sorry for
your sins. Remember, you may
commit a sin you feel sorry for, but it is only because you have shocked yourself
and you are afraid of Divine discipline.
So you beg and plead to God, we’ve all done this, ‘just don’t lower the
boom this time, I won’t do it anymore.’
And God has a great sense of humor and grace, and He kind of chuckles
and says, I know, but your going
to do it 15, 742 more times, so
don’t try to convince Me you are not.
Just admit the sin. The
promise of 1 John 1:9 is if you admit the sin I will forgive you and forgive
you from all unrighteousness, even the sins you have not already committed. And at that instant we are restored to
fellowship with God. The
sanctifying ministry of God the Holy Spirit resumes in our life. He begins again to use the implanted
word of God to save our souls, that is,
to save us from the ongoing power of sin in our life, to produce
spiritual growth through the word of God.
That is the starting point.
We have to understand that once you are saved, it doesn’t mean you are
perfect. It just means you have an
eternal destiny in heaven. Now you
have to deal with ongoing sin in your life.
So we have a grace based
solution. To simply admit or
acknowledge our sins, we are forgiven and restored to fellowship so we can move
forward. Now we all know that when
you are a young believer you go in and out of fellowship. We sin and sin again. Everybody goes thru that. But as you grow and mature, that
bouncing back and forth thing slows down and is not as significant. You spend more and more time in
fellowship, walking with the Lord, walking by means of the Spirit. That’s the next thing we need to
address as we go forward in our understanding of what we do after
salvation. We have to first of all
admit our sin so we can be in fellowship and be in right relationship with the
Holy Spirit. Then we have to learn
to walk by means of the Spirit and we’ll get into that next time
With our heads bowed, and our eyes
closed. Father, we do thank You
for this opportunity to study Your word.
Thank you for Your grace, that our salvation, indeed everything in our
life is based on Your grace, it is not based on who we are and what we do, it
is based on who You are and Jesus Christ did on the cross. On the cross Jesus Christ paid the
penalty for our sins. He died in
our place so that we can have salvation.
Scripture says there is no other name under heaven, given among men,
whereby we must be saved. Salvation is simple, it is simply believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and you will be saved. It is believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and
you will be saved. Father,
we pray You will challenge us with the things we have studied this evening,
make them clear to us. We pray
this in Christ’s name. Amen.