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Three approaches to sin by Warren Wiersbe

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salvation is costly to god because sin

and because sin is so

costly it can rob us of that which is beautiful

beautiful

and blessed

and the word of god reminds us

repeatedly that

god's children must deal

deeply and decisively

it isn't my purpose tonight to put

anyone under a guilt trip

it's my purpose tonight to magnify the

mercy and grace of god in the

but if i'm going to deal decisively and

deeply with sin the way jesus told me to surgery

and if my spiritual surgery is to be real

real

sincere successful

it must be according to the

word of god

when it comes to

dealing with sin in my life

there are only three possible approaches

i can take

and these three approaches are

summarized in a verse you know

but i invite you to turn to it proverbs

the word of god says he who conceals his sins

sins

does not prosper

but whoever confesses and renounces them finds

finds mercy

he who conceals his sins

but whoever confesses and renounces them finds

finds mercy

mercy

here then are three possible approaches

to dealing with sin in our lives

and it's something that we want to do

nobody here gets up in the morning and

says i'm going to sin

i'm going to make this a good day

i'm going to sin

quite the contrary we begin our day saying

saying

our father thy will be done

lead me not into temptation

the first possible approach is

we can conceal our sin

he who conceals his sins

does not prosper now this is my natural response

response

i learned this

from adam

and when i was born with adam's nature

i found myself leaning

toward adam's methods of dealing with things

things

you'll recall that when our first

parents sinned they ran and hid

fear came in

and then when god confronted them with

what they had done

deception came in

and adam blamed eve and eve blamed the serpent

serpent

the american evangelist billy sunday

used to say that

an excuse is the skin of a reason

stuffed with a lie

that's a good definition

the skin of a reason stuffed with a lie

i suppose ultimately they were blaming

god the woman you gave me well the

serpent that you made

and so my first inclination is

to conceal my sin

even though as i read in the word of god

those who did it did not prosper

aiken did it

god found him out

david did it

that tragic blot

in david's memory

when i kept silence he wrote

when i kept silence my bones waxed old

within me

and david who was so young and youthful

and virile and athletic and

so full of life and song put down his

sword pick up his harp

was walking around

the springs of life within him had dried up

because he covered his sin

i know this it's in the word

ananias and sapphira did it

you know the story how they sold a piece

of property kept part of the price they

could have kept all the price as far as

campbell morgan said that the sin of

ananias and sapphira was not

in stealing money from god it was trying

to make people think they were more

spiritual than they really were

some of us have perhaps tried that

our natural response is to conceal our sin

sin

well first john chapter 1 tells us how

we do it i want to read that passage i'd

like to invite you to turn there first

beginning at verse 5.

this is the message we have heard from

him and declare to you that god is light

in him there is no darkness at all

now you know this but i'll remind you of

it three times he's now going to say if

we claim or if we say

if we claim to have fellowship with him

yet walk in the darkness we lie

and do not live by the truth

but if we walk in the light as he is in

the light we have fellowship with one another

another

and the blood of jesus his son purifies

us from all sin

if we claim to be without sin we deceive ourselves

ourselves

and the truth is not in us

if we confess our sins he is faithful

and just to forgive us our sins and to

purify us from all unrighteousness if we claim

claim

we have not

sinned we make him out to be a liar

and his word has no place in our lives

i write this to you so that you will not

sin but

if anybody does sin

we have one who speaks to the father in

our defense jesus christ

the righteous one he is the atoning

sacrifice for our sins and not only for ours

ours

but also for the sins of the whole world

now you'll notice the sequence here

verse 6 if we claim

here is concealing sin

by the things that we claim

we're lying we're deceiving

in verse six we're lying to others if we

claim to have fellowship with him yet

walk in the darkness we lie

and do not live by the truth we're lying

to one another the word for this in the

people sometimes come to us and say

i feel like such an awful hypocrite

and i say well why

well i'm just not living up to to what i

know who does

hypocrisy is not missing the mark when

you're striving hypocrisy is trying to

make people think you've hit the target

the word hypocrite means a play actor

so how do we conceal our sin

by deceiving one another but it gets worse

worse

remember the scripture we read says

he who conceals his sins

does not prosper doesn't say he will not

prosper when he starts concealing sin

one of god's purposes in salvation is

we talk about getting god's work done

the first thing god does is build the worker

worker

and god's more concerned about the

worker than he is the work that's why he

jonah preached the greatest evangelistic

meeting in bible history and hated the

and we would have ended the book at

chapter 3.

the city got saved what else matters

jonah matters

and so god continues in chapter four

dealing with his servant why he wants to

build character he had an angry preacher

on his hands

and so what begins with lying to others

in verse six gets worse in verse eight

if we claim to be without sin we deceive ourselves

ourselves

and the truth is not in us now we're

lying to ourselves that's not hypocrisy

that's duplicity

duplicity is the opposite of integrity

and it's possible for a child of god

to try to deceive himself

well i've had my devotions ah but they

didn't touch my heart

i'm going back to the same old life oh

but i've been to a service ah but it

didn't change me

and so what begins with hypocrisy lying

to others becomes duplicity lying to

myself and it gets worse

verse 10

now i'm lying to god and making god a liar

liar

if we claim we have not sinned we make

him out to be a liar

and his word has no place in our lives

when we start living by lies there's no

room for truth

and you notice the sequence here

in verse 6

we're not living by the truth

in verse 8 the truth is not in us in

verse 10 the word has no place in us

and yet it's possible for me to go

through the external activities

activities

of a christian walk

and be concealing sin

sin

in the first two chapters of first john

the apostle deals with fellowship

and the illustration is light versus darkness

darkness

in chapters three four and five he deals

with sunshine

and it's a matter not of light and

darkness but life and death

and the key phrase in chapters three

four and five is born of god born of god

born of god but in one and two we're

walking with god he's talking about fellowship

and he's saying we're either walking in

the light

which means living by truth

did you ever

walk through the bible

when you hit upon a spiritual truth and

look for illustrations i recommend that

to you

when god gives you a spiritual truth

from his word some fundamental principle

that just thrills your heart something

you can live by

start walking through the bible and say

where is this illustrated he's talking

about light and darkness and i was

pondering this

and i said now where do we find in the

bible people who started in the light

well there's several of them

early in the morning as the sun was

coming up says first samuel chapter nine

as the sun was coming up early in the morning

morning

samuel took saul off by himself anointed

him kissed him and made him king over israel

israel

his life began

how did it end

at night disguised

disguised

going to a witch's lair

seeking for help

and then ultimately dying on the battlefield

battlefield

saul started in the light ended in the darkness

samson the very name samson means sunny s-u-n-n-y

s-u-n-n-y

he brightened up the home when he came

god indued this young man with power

and then he began to go down

and where does he end up blinded

in the darkness

i know at the end of his life he brought

down the house and he killed more in his

death than he did during his life i know

all of that but i'm also reminding

myself of the fact

that he started in the light

and he ended in the darkness why saul

saul

lied to other people i have done the

will of the lord he said to samuel about

samuel says what's this i hear well the

people yo we kept the best of the spoils

to sacrifice to the lord doesn't that

saul

lied to others samson lied to himself

he'd sin and say well i got away with

that and he'd sin and say well i got

away with that

and when that ultimate

night came

he woke up and said i'm going to

shake myself like i always do oh no

saul started in the light and ended in

the dark the samson started in the light

ended in the darkness judas

was an intimate of the lord jesus as the

treasurer of the disciples group

and i think one of the most ominous

statements in the gospel of john which

of the most ominous statements is and

judas went out and

and it

it was

was night

night

and for judas it still is night

and it always will be night saul

lied to others

samson lied to himself

judas tried to lie to god

he who

conceals his sins

does not prosper

psalm 51 makes that very clear oh you

say we've read that so often would you

now let me

david committed two great sins in his life

life

a sin of the flesh bathsheba and a sin

of the spirit numbering the people

from the sin of bathsheba four people

died from the sin of numbering the

david married bathsheba god gave them a

son whom he loved dearly solomon

when david numbered the people

he bought a piece of property and he put

an altar on that property and he offered

a sacrifice to god and said oh lord

touch me don't touch these sheep

and god heard his prayer and god stopped

the plague now here's an interesting thing

thing

one day

solomon who was born of bathsheba took

that piece of property that was

purchased because of david's sin

and he built a temple on it only god can

take a man's two greatest sins

and build a temple out of it

where sin abound we're sit where sin

abounds grace

much more about that's not an excuse for sin

sin

david paid dearly

but i'll tell you what it is it's an

psalm 51 what did it cost david

verse 3 something happened to his eyes

my sin

is always before me

something happened to his mind verse 6

teach me wisdom in the inmost place

something happened to his ears

let me hear joy and gladness says verse

8 something happened to his bones let

the bones you have crushed rejoice

something happened to his heart verse 10

created me a pure heart o god

renew a steadfast spirit within me

something happened to his power

do not cast me from your presence or

take your holy spirit from me the way

god did with saul

something happened to his joy restore to

me the joy of your salvation something

happened to his mouth david was always

ready with a song ready with a witness

ready with a prayer but his mouth had

been closed

then i will teach transgressors your ways

ways

verse 14 my tongue will sing of your

righteousness o lord open my lips and my

mouth will declare your praise we can

conceal our sins

but if we do

we won't prosper

there's that deterioration on the inside

and that discipline on the outside

well thank god our verse doesn't end there

he who

he who conceals

his sins does not prosper but whoever

whoever confesses

confesses

and renounces them finds mercy we can

conceal our sin or the second approach

is we can

confess our sins now it takes us back

once again to first john chapter one a

verse that some people use as an

evangelical rabbit's foot

i will go out and sin because i know i

can come back and confess it

but that's not what he's saying

if we confess our sins

he says in verse 9

he is faithful and just and will forgive

us our sins and purify us from all

unrighteousness now

what is he saying here

if we confess the word confess as we all

know means to say the same thing

if i say the same thing

about what i have done that god's word

says about it

then i can claim god's forgiveness

that was the difference between david

and saul saul was good at excuses i've

noticed that people who are good at

whenever saul did something wrong he had

an excuse he could find somebody to blame

and that tragic request that he made to

sammy will honor me please before the people

saul's problem was pride

judas's problem was covetousness by the

way those are the three

and put you in the dark

if we confess if we say the same thing

that god says that means i must go by

god's definitions

doesn't say if we come with explanations

now lord let me tell you why i did that

he knows better why you did it than

you know

than i know

no we don't come with explanations we

we come with confession

confession

we come saying

lord according to your word

my anger

was murder

and i confess

my sin

lord according to your word what i did

was deception

and i come and confess my sin i want to

say the same thing about it you're saying

saying

so david meant when he said that you

and true when you judge

the difference between saul and david

kept himself before him

now the thing that john is pleading for

here is honesty

honest with god

honest with ourselves

i have to live with myself and so i want

to be good for myself to know

edgar guest wrote that many years ago

and it's true

you don't have to live with me

and there are probably some silent amens

but you do have to live with yourself i

have to live with myself

i don't want to live with two selves duplicity

duplicity

honest with god honest with myself and

where necessary in the sphere of

confession honest with one another

doesn't mean we hang all of our dirty

wash out in public

unfortunately there are some evangelical

exhibitionists who feel everybody wants

to know what they've done

that's not always necessary in fact it

can do damage

but in the sphere of influence

honest with one another

david said a broken and a contrite heart

god would not despise that encourages me

doing what ezekiel said the jews would do

he said they will loathe themselves

because of their sin

not weeping because i got caught not

weeping because i hurt not weeping

because i'm being spanked no no

anybody can do that

but coming and saying i have sinned

how could i a child of god sin against

such love

how could i a student of god's word sin

against such light

how could i one indwelt by the holy

spirit sin against the holy spirit

loathing ourselves

sin not only confessed

confessed

but judged despised

now the promise is if we confess our

sins he's faithful to his word

and just toward his son

because jesus died for our sins

and he was buried and he arose again and

today he is at the right hand of the

majesty on high

and he is our advocate when i have

problems with the law i don't want a law

when i'm sick i don't want a medical

i need an advocate in heaven as my high priest

priest

he wants to give me grace to keep me

from sinning

but if i sin as my advocate he waits for

and then he forgives

the picture of this is beautifully given

in zechariah chapter 3. i'm sure you've

read it but i'd like us to look at it

zechariah chapter 3.

then he showed me joshua the high priest

standing before the angel of the lord

and satan

standing at his right hand to accuse him

it's a law court scene

and joshua representing the nation is

dressed in filthy garments

and satan is standing there as the

prosecuting attorney accusing

when satan talks to me about god

he lies but often when he talks to god

the lord said to satan the lord rebuke

you satan the lord who has chosen

jerusalem rebuke you is not this man a

burning stick snatched from the fire now

joshua was dressed in filthy clothes as

he stood before the angel

the angel said to those who were

standing before him take off his filthy clothes

clothes

and then he said to joshua see

i've taken away your sin

and i will put rich garments on you

sound like the parable the prodigal son

and the prophet got so enthusiastic then

i said put a clean turban on his head so

they put a clean turban on his head and

clothed him while the angel of the lord

stood by when i have sinned satan accuses

accuses

when i come to my heavenly advocate who

intercedes for me and represents me it's

not as though the father is waiting

waiting to beat me and the son has to

say no don't do that oh no no way

the father and the son and the holy

spirit work in perfect harmony and love

no satan accuses and says

look what wiersby has done

and then my savior steps up

bearing the wounds of calvary he took

back to heaven

and he says i died for him

the lord rebukes satan

the lord removes the dirty clothing the

lord restores joshua with clean clothing

and that turban that had on the front of

it a golden plate that read

holy to

we can

conceal our sin but if we do we won't prosper

prosper

we can confess our sin and if we do he's

faithful to his word and just toward his son

son

to forgive us

and cleanse us but let's not stop there

there is a third approach we can take

in dealing with our sins

he who conceals

his sins

and renounce forsake

forsake

our sins

we shall find mercy that's what i need mercy

mercy mercy

mercy

depth of mercy

can there be mercy still reserved for me yes

yes yes

yes

because first john chapter 1

has another if

if we claim that's

that's

concealing our sin

if we confess that's confessing our sin

but verse 7 says if we walk

not enough just to be forgiven restored reinstated

reinstated

and then tumble again

conquering our sin how by walking in the

light if we walk in the light as he is

in the light as he is

so are we

in this world

as he is in the light we have fellowship

with one another and the blood of jesus

his son the work of calvary

purifies us from all sin walking in the light

light

your word is a lamp to my feet a light

to my path your word have i hid in my

heart that i might not sin against you

now you are clean through the word

how can a christian keep clean in a

dirty world and conquer sin if he

walking in the light of the word walking

greatest definition of worship in the

english language i think and i've not

read them all is the one by archbishop

william temple

for to worship god

is to quicken the conscience with the

holiness of god

feed the mind with the truth of god

purge the conscience with the beauty of

god open the heart to the love of god

devote the will to the service of god

god's church is a light where lamp

stands in a dark world

i don't think it's possible for a

believer to conquer sin in isolation i

think we need each other

we need the fellowship of god's people

and as we walk in the light

we can see the dirt coming

as we walk in the light we have a better

view of the path

as we walk in the light

particularly in the fellowship of god's

people there are those praying for us

and standing with us

and the path becomes easier

it's not enough

just to confess sin he said let's go on

the most expensive things in the world are

are

again i don't want anyone to be on a

guilt trip under a dark cloud i'm not

here to preach judgment i'm here to

preach mercy therefore i want to end

with those marvelous words

words that meant so much to alexander white

white

that great scottish preacher

from micah don't turn to it let me read

them to you

it's the last chapter of micah

he who conceals his sins

does not prosper

but whoever

confesses and renounces them

shall find mercy and the prophet says

who is a god

who pardons sin

and forgives the transgression of the

you do not stay angry forever

but delight to show mercy

you will again have compassion on us you

will tread our sins under foot

and hurl

all our iniquities

into the depths of the sea god's

hand is waiting for me to turn it over

to him

and he will hurl it in the depths of the sea

sea

and it will be remembered

as far as the east is

from the west

what shall we do with our sins cover them

we come our father

knowing that all things are open before

is the prayer of the psalm psalmist search

me o god

know my heart

try me know my thoughts

and see if there be some wicked way in

me and lead me

we long to be clean vessels

meet for the master's use

through christ our lord amen

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YouTube Transcript:
Three approaches to sin by Warren Wiersbe