Category: Guest Contributor

“If we say that we have no sin, we deceive 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 cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.”

These verses describe the problem that mankind has, and God’s solution for it. The problem is sin, and our attitude toward it. John reveals two things about how we view sin, and the result of those views.

First, if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves. This is a mistake that we make. Generally, people would say that they are not sinners. And this verse states that when they say that, they are deceiving themselves. Quoting from Psalm 14, Paul said in Romans 3:10-12, “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.” John goes further. If we say we have no sin, the truth is not in us. Not only do we deceive ourselves but there is no truth in us. This is our attitude toward our sin in the present.

Second, John says that if we say that we have not sinned we make God a liar, and His word is not in us. Nobody is free of the sin nature that plagues the human race. It was inherited from Adam and Eve; a result of their disobedience of God. God told them that in the day that they ate from the tree they would surely die. They did not die physically that day, they died spiritually. In Romans 3:23 Paul wrote, “…For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God…” If we say that we have not sinned, we make God a liar! Hebrews 6:18 tells us, “…it was impossible for God to lie…” This second attitude is about our view of our past sin.

So, present or past, we are sinners against God. He told us so in Romans 3:23. Because our sin is against Him, He is the only one that can forgive us.

The middle sentence is God’s solution for the problem. First, we must confess our sins. That is, we acknowledge that we are sinners. Scripture makes it clear that sin put a divide between mankind and God. As noted before, Romans 3:23 says, “…all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God…” There is nobody that is left out of “all”. So, God first requires that we admit it. And scripture does state that God knows our hearts. Jeremiah 17:10 tells us, “I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.” Not only does He know our hearts, but He searches them, and judges according to what He finds. He wants us to admit to Him that which He already knows. There is no escaping His gaze. The only and proper response to this is to admit that we are sinners: to agree with Him. A heart that has come to that conclusion will enjoy the next portion of this verse.

In 1 John 1:9 we are told, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Faithfulness requires an object. There is no other way to understand God’s reaction to our confession. To those who admit their sin God is faithful. That is, He is trustworthy. And, He is just to do so. Since He is the One we offend with our sin, He can justly forgive us our sin because of Jesus Christ.

Finally, this verse tells us that when we confess, He forgives us, and cleanses us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:7 says, “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” He will not only forgive us, but He will make us right before Him! Ephesians 5:25-27 says, “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.” Though addressed to husbands, this portion reveals Jesus’ intentions toward the church: cleansing, and without spot. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” Not only has He cleansed us, but He has declared His people to be the righteousness of God.

Our sin puts us at odds with God. His intent is that we be forgiven and, more than that, cleansed. Praise the LORD for His great salvation!

A debtor to mercy alone,
Of covenant mercy I sing;
Nor fear, with Thy righteousness on,
My person and offering to bring.
The terrors of law and of God
With me can have nothing to do;
My Savior’s obedience and blood
Hide all my transgressions from view.

The work which His goodness began,
The arm of His strength will complete;
His promise is Yea and Amen,
And never was forfeited yet.
Things future, nor things that are now,
Nor all things below or above,
Can make Him His purpose forgo,
Or sever my soul from His love.

My name from the palms of His hands
Eternity will not erase;
Impressed on His heart it remains,
In marks of indelible grace.
Yes, I to the end shall endure,
As sure as the earnest is giv’n;
More happy, but not more secure,
The glorified spirits in Heav’n. (Augustus M. Toplady)

[Herman]

Thought for the morning

Romans 5:8 ⁸  But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

There are two words that begin this verse, “But God”. There are about 40 verses in the scripture  where we see these two words that are followed by what He does or has done.  These two words are used many times in the New Testament. In the Gospel of Luke, the scribes and the Pharisees reasoned within themselves after the Lord had healed a young man and said his sins were forgiven.  They questioned “Who can forgive sins but God alone”” (Luke 5.21) They really had the answer, He was standing right before them!

Later in the same Gospel we see the words, And He said to them,“”You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God”. (Luke 16:15)

When the Lord Jesus walked this earth, He was rejected, ending with Him being crucified, but we have the wordsfrom the Acts of the Apostles “ But God raised Him from the dead. (Acts 13:30)  

And years later  Paul writes, “ But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. (Rom. 6:17 ) And again he writes, “ But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, ⁵  even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved) (Eph. 2:4-5).

Even today many  reject the Risen Lord in non-belief,  as it is written “ Therefore he who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has also given us His Holy Spirit” (1Thess.4.8)

We each have a time when  God personally dealt with us. We all have the common problem of sin which is what separated us from God who loves us. But hopefully there was a time in our lives when we realized how lost we were and we said “ “but God” saved me!

But God sent His Son who went to the Cross and there died, But God raised Him from the dead. Just a thought for the morning.

Carl

“And he said, Certainly I will be with thee; and this shall be a token unto thee, that I have sent thee: When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain.”

Exodus 3:12

Moses had been away from Egypt for forty years. He had settled into a quiet life in the wilderness. He had perhaps figured that he would die as a shepherd in his father-in-law’s employ. He surely had memories of the land where he was raised, the woman who raised him, Pharaoh, to whom he was a step-grandson, and the comforts of the courts of Egypt. But he had murdered an Egyptian because that man was mistreating an Israelite, one of Moses’ people. So, Pharaoh sought to bring him to justice, and Moses ran for his life.

One day Moses was caring for the sheep on the backside of the desert. He saw a burning bush, which was not consumed by the fire. So, he went to look at that strange sight. God spoke to him out of that bush, and told Moses that He was sending him back to Egypt to take Israel out, and lead them to the Promised Land. In the verse above God assured Moses that He would be with him. He also gave Moses a sign that it was He that was sending him.

Gideon was another man that the LORD had sent out. His story is told in the book of Judges. He asked the LORD for a sign, and the LORD graciously provided. Judges 6:36-38 tells us, “And Gideon said unto God, If thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said, behold, I will put a fleece of wool in the floor; and if the dew be on the fleece only, and it be dry upon all the earth beside, then shall I know that thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said. And it was so: for he rose up early on the morrow, and thrust the fleece together, and wringed the dew out of the fleece, a bowl full of water.” God also gave Gideon a second sign.

If we sense that God is leading us into service for Him, we may ask Him for a sign that we are being sent; that it is really Him that is sending. The sign that we would want would be one that would give us incentive to go: assurance that He was sending us. God told Moses that the sign that He would give would be that Moses would come back to Mount Horeb, after Moses brought Israel out of Egypt.

The next time Moses was in Mount Horeb was about 3 months after they had left Egypt. The story is told in Exodus 17:1-6, “And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, after their journeys, according to the commandment of the LORD, and pitched in Rephidim: and there was no water for the people to drink. Wherefore the people did chide with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said unto them, Why chide ye with me? wherefore do ye tempt the LORD? And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Moses, and said, Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst? And Moses cried unto the LORD, saying, What shall I do unto this people? they be almost ready to stone me. And the LORD said unto Moses, Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel; and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine hand, and go. Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.”

The sign that God promised Moses came after he did what the LORD required of him. The story in Exodus 17 showed the heart of the people. Because of what happened Moses feared for his life. This was when he needed a sign that the LORD was with him, not before. It was then that the LORD provided for Moses just as He had promised. God’s grace to Gideon was not what Moses needed.

God’s provision is always exactly what we need, and it is always exactly when we need it. Gideon needed and received a sign from the Lord before he went to the task. Moses needed it afterward. It is not according to our timing that these things come, but God’s. In Matthew 6:7-8 Jesus said, “But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him” And in Matthew 6:31-33 Jesus said, “Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek): for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”

God knows what we need, and He knows when we need it. We must learn to trust Him more.

Great God of wonders! all Thy ways

Display Thine attributes divine;

But the bright glories of thy grace

Above Thine other wonders shine:

CHORUS

Who is a pardoning God like Thee?

Or who has grace so rich and free?

Who is a pardoning God like Thee?

Or who has grace so rich and free?

Such deep transgressions to forgive!

Such guilty sinners thus to spare!

This is Thy grand prerogative,

And in this honor none shall share:

CHORUS

Pardon, from an offended God!

Pardon, for sins of deepest dye!

Pardon, bestowed through Jesus’ blood!

Pardon, that brings the rebel nigh!

CHORUS (Samuel Davies)

Thought for the Morning

 

 Psalm 32:7 You are my hiding place; You shall preserve me from trouble; You shall surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah 

We all need a place to hide.  A place where you can get away from all the activities of the day.  Many times, the burdens of the day seem almost too heavy to bear. Burdens can take on many forms, trouble in personal relationships, someone has deeply hurt you or you have hurt someone close to you and the feeling of quilt is within us.  The loss of a loved one can be deeply troubling to our soul.  There seems to be no limit to the sources of trouble that can plague us. We all need a hiding place!

But where can we hide?  The Psalmist says the Lord is our hiding place. How does He hide us? He draws us away from the place of trouble, He quiets our troubled heart. He reminds us that He willpreserve us from all troubles that we might encounter, whatever it might be.

The writer of Hebrew says” that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge (a hiding place) to lay hold of the hope set before us.(Hebrews 6:18).  That hope set before us is that the Lord Jesus is always with us.  The hope is knowing no matter what, He loves us beyond what we can totally understand. 

 

We may try to refuse His promise of a hiding place, and try to deal with our problems on our own. But the prophet Jerimiah writes:  “Can anyone hide himself in secret places, So I shall not see him”” says the LORD;“”Do I not fill heaven and earth”” says the LORD”. (Jeremiah 23:24) There is no limit to The Lords capability to see when we need that special hiding place in Him not ourselves.

           What about being surrounded  with “songs of deliverance”, what does that mean? The songs in our mind are part of the way the Lord comforts us.  Biblical songs are the Psalms He has given us.  Is there not comfort in the words “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.² He makes me to lie down in green pastures;… He restores my soul;…”( Psalm 23:1–3)

 

Hebrews 13:5 “…I will never leave you nor forsake you.”.  What a hiding place we have in the Lord! Just a thought for the morning

Carl                                                           

Thought for the morning

Romans 7:24   O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

Unfortunately, we have an enemy within us called the “old self” and regrettably, the “old self” is not immune to sinning. As believers in the Risen Lord we also have a new nature within us  and there is a struggle that goes on between the old and the new “self”.

Paul speaks  of this in his letter to the Romans Chapter 7.  He is aware of the old nature that dwells within each of us. He is aware of the constant battle between what we were as sinners and what we are in Christ. Earlier he wrote in:  Romans 7:19-20 “  For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. ²⁰  Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. We live in a body of death infected by sin!

There will be some who will say that after becoming a believer in Christ they do not sin. They may rest in what John writes in 1 John 3:6   Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him. But if we look deep within ourselves, we know we can easily yield to sin, even as a believer.

The word of God makes it clear that we will, and we do sin. Paul knew it and the Lord led him to share it in this portion of scripture.

The Apostle John knew it when, led of the Lord, he wrote early in his first epistle “1 John 1:8“ If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

Christ died for our sin , all our sin “past, present, future”.  But what are we to do?  We do not come before a righteous God with unconfessed sin.   The Apostle John wrote, ⁹  If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Confession is not a onetime occurrence; it must be part of our prayer life. I/we  sin every day and this is to be laid  before the Lord. With our confession comes His forgiveness!

To carry around unconfessed sin is a burden  we don’t have to bear.  We have a Savior who loves us as a Father and forgives us.  We only have to acknowledge our sin to Him, and He will forgive us.

Daniel 9:9   To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against Him.. Sin is a rebellion, but  with confession comes forgiveness! Just a thought for the morning

Carl