To confess your sin, now watch this, is not to beg for forgiveness. It is simply to say the same thing about your sin that God is saying. And what's He saying? It's sin and it's your fault.
It is a matter of agreeing with God that you are a sinner and willing to deal with that sin in your life. Welcome to Grace To You with John MacArthur. I'm your host, Phil Johnson.
If you had stage 4 cancer, you wouldn't say you're just a bit under the weather, and you certainly wouldn't treat that disease like the common cold. You'd want to do everything possible to understand what you're up against and how to get rid of it. But sadly, many people treat something that is far more dangerous as if it were no big deal. Well, today on Grace To You, John MacArthur will show you why it's crucial to understand just how dangerous sin is and the proper way to deal with it. His current series on the fundamentals of Christian living is called Back to Basics.
And with that, here's John. There are some very practical principles involved in living to the glory of God. We said that if we are to live to His glory, we not only confess Him as Lord, but secondly, we aim our life at His glory. We glorify God thirdly by confessing sin.
By confessing sin. 1 Samuel chapter 5. Now this is a most fascinating part of biblical history. The children of Israel had paid little attention to God for a long time. They had been pretty well pursuing their own ends. They were still religious in a formal sense. They still cranked up the ritual, but there was nothing in their heart toward God. And so now they get into a battle with the Philistines and they have a problem.
The Philistines basically can overpower them militarily. And so they are fearful. And in their fearfulness, they decide that if they're going to defend themselves against the Philistines, they had better get God back into their army. But having ignored Him for so long, in fact, they had even taken the Ark of the Covenant, which was the place where God's presence abode, and they had removed it off somewhere other than where it should have been. And so they were told to go get it. So somebody says in chapter 4, go to Shiloh and get God.
We're not going to get into this battle with any sense of victory unless God is here. So they ran off to get God. And so off they went. They came back with the Ark. The Ark arrives.
Tremendous things begin to happen in verse 7 of chapter 4. The Philistines were afraid. And they said, God is coming to the camp. You see, to them it was just an idol. They had their own idols.
They saw this little box with the angel's rings on the top and the poles running through the rings. And they said, that's their God. And boy, their God is a powerful God.
Woe unto us. This is the God, you know, who delivered them from Egypt. And this is the God that drowned all the Egyptian army. And this is the God that brought the plagues.
And boy, we don't want to mess with the God in that little box. And so they were afraid. But you know what happened? They didn't have much choice. They had to fight. So verse 10 says, And the Philistines fought, and Israel was smitten.
Now wait a minute. What do you mean Israel was smitten? They had God on their team. Well, they fled every man to his tent. There was a very great slaughter. And 30,000 foot soldiers of Israel fell.
And you know what else happened? The Ark of God was taken. And two sons of Eli the high priest, Hophni and Phinehas were slain. The priests' sons were killed. 30,000 footmen died. And the Philistines walked off with the Ark. Now that isn't exactly what Israel expected. They thought God was a utilitarian genie.
You rub your little bottle, he pops out and says, Yes, Master, what can I do for you? But he wasn't. God is not jello.
You don't plop him in your mold and then spring him out to do your thing in the way you want it done. They had ignored God and God was going to show them a lesson. They can't do that. So they lost the battle. Well, if you think it was tough on Israel, it was tougher on the Philistines because now they've got God on their hands.
And that's a tough one. Chapter 5, it says this, And the Philistines took the Ark of God and brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. Now they were going to go through a series of cities in Philistia, which by the way is the primitive name of Palestine.
That's where that name comes from. And when the Philistines took the Ark of God, they brought it into the house of Dagon and set it by Dagon. Now the obvious thing to do with a god is to put him in a god's house, right? Dagon was their god. Dagon was a god that was half fish, half man, sort of a male maid rather than a mermaid, a weird thing.
Half fish, half man. But this is what the Philistines worshiped and he had a temple. So they figured we've got the God of Israel. We'll stick him in the house that we've made for our own god. Well, verse 3, When they in Ashdod, where the house of Dagon was, arose early the next day, behold, Dagon was fallen on his face.
In which direction? He was bowing before the Ark of the Lord. They came and here was the whole deal dumped over, bowing down to this little box. And so they set him in his place again. They probably figured there was a localized earthquake or something went on real bad and he fell over and we had to fix him. So they put him back. In verse 4, they arose early the next morning and Dagon was fallen on his face to the ground again before the Ark of the Lord. Only this time his head was cut off and both the palms of his hands were cut off and only the stump remained. And God was saying, don't pick him up again.
He's right where he belongs. God will not tolerate any other gods. God will not tolerate any idols being compared to him. Well, that wasn't all that happened. Verse 6, The hand of the Lord was heavy on them of Ashtod and he destroyed them and smote them with... Now some versions say hemorrhoids, but that's a very bad translation. That is not what they were smitten with.
That would be a bad problem, but that isn't what the problem was right here. One of the old versions says emerods. That sounds like a flower. But the best translation is tumors. The whole society of Ashtod were smitten with tumors. By the way, many of them died in a plague that was brought by some mice, something like the Black Death of the Bubonic Plague.
And the ones that didn't die by the mice were smitten with these tumors. Well, the men of Ashtod were fairly smart and it didn't take them long to figure out that they got into a lot of trouble when they got the Ark of God. So they said, get that Ark out of here. And so they said, well, what are we going to do with it in verse 8? And they said, send it to Gath. Now Gath is a familiar town to some of you because there was a big man from Gath by the name of Goliath.
Another town in Philistia. So they took the Ark of the God of Israel to Gath, which wasn't any big favor for the people who lived there. Same thing happened. Great destruction, a plague of mice, death everywhere. He smote the men of the city small and great and they had tumors again in their secret parts.
Now what that means is internal tumors, some cancers on the inside. And so they said, get rid of the thing. They sent it to Ekron. The Ekronites yelled and said, wait a minute.
And so this thing is being passed all the way through their country and everywhere it goes there's trouble. In fact, in verse 12 it says, the men that died not, that is from the plague, were smitten with the tumors and the cry of the city went up to heaven. Now what were they saying to heaven?
God, you boy, what kind of a God? Were they cursing God? What were they doing when they cried to heaven? Were they saying, God, why are you doing this?
Let's find out. Verse 1 of chapter 6. And the ark of the Lord was in the country of the Philistines seven months. And the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners, soothsayers, you know. Said, what are we going to do? Well, how do we get ourselves out of this mess? And they said, if you send away the ark of the God of Israel, don't send it empty. Don't send it back the way you got it.
Well, what do you mean? But by all means, now watch this, return Him a trespass offering. Then you will be healed. Now listen, what does a trespass offering admit to? To sin. You admit that it's your fault, not God's.
If you want to have peace, and these guys were smarter than a lot of people I know, you admit that the God you have desecrated, the God you have dishonored, the God you have defamed, had every right to react in the way that He did, and the reason you've got problems is because you have defiled this God. In other words, you take the blame and you give a trespass offering. Well, I said, what shall the trespass offering be in chapter 6 verse 4? And he said, the wise men said, five golden tumors and five golden mice.
Now that sounds weird. That is not a Levitical trespass offering. These are pagans. Whenever they would give an offering, they would give what was called a votive, V-O-T-I-V-E offering. Votive offerings were symbolic replicas of the problem brought on by the desecration of the God.
For example, let's say that you lived in that society and you had a withered hand. In your pagan thinking, you would assume that the gods had given you a withered hand because you dishonored them. So when you went to the temple to worship the gods, you would have fashioned out of clay a hand. And when you put that hand down, that would be the way you were acknowledging to the gods that you knew your problem with your hand was because you dishonored them. That's what votive offerings were. When I was in the city of Corinth, I went into a little room in the museum there where they have collected the votive offerings.
And a man there had the key and they don't let people in there very often, but we were able to get in. And we noticed in there that all over the place were these clay replicas of every possible organ and limb of the body, external and internal. They had come to worship the god Aesculapius who is the god of healing. And when they came, they would bring these parts of the body, these symbols, knowing that they were thereby saying to the gods, whatever disease I have is a result of my failure to fulfill your will. And so these pagans are doing what is very normal. They were saying the tumors and the mice are reckoned to be a result of your judgment on us and we want you to know that we know that. All right, verse 5, Wherefore you shall make images of your tumors and images of your mice that mar the land and you shall give glory to the God of Israel. In other words, you glorify God when you recognize that He had every right to do that because you defiled Him.
Now let me tell you something, people. As long as you are making excuses for your sinfulness, you will never grow spiritually. You will grow spiritually when you are humbly acknowledging your sin and doing something about it.
And how do you deal with it? You acknowledge that you are responsible for it. That's first.
That's first. You don't blame your circumstance. You don't blame your husband, your wife, your boyfriend, your girlfriend, your boss. You don't blame your employees. You don't blame the pastor. You blame yourself. You don't even blame the devil and that went around for a long time. The devil made you do it. We still have things today that people believe demons make them do everything.
I read a book by a man who even said that the problem with his runny nose was the demon of post-nasal drip. It isn't demons and it isn't the devil and it isn't the circumstances and it isn't your friends and so forth. Oh, all of that system contributes to the problem but ultimately sin every time it occurs is an act of the will and you are responsible.
And so first of all, you have to acknowledge that. When the prodigal came home to his loving father, in Luke 15 he said, I have sinned against heaven and against you. He said, just treat me like a day laborer.
That even would be gracious. He didn't expect anything because he knew he didn't deserve anything. It is that mentality, people, that you know you're a sinner. You deserve nothing that is the source of a dealing with sin that's part and parcel of spiritual growth. In Psalm 51, David says, against thee, the only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight.
He didn't blame anybody but himself. And he said, in effect, God, you're just in all that you've brought to bear on my life. Now that's where confession begins. It begins by acknowledging the sin is my fault.
Now let me just take that a little further. If you're really going to grow spiritually, you must be confessing your sins to the glory of God. That means, first of all, you see it as your sin. Secondly, you acknowledge it as sin.
You acknowledge it as such. This is my problem and I know that it is sinful and it is an affront against your divine nature. Genesis 41, 9, then spoke the chief butler to Pharaoh, I do remember my sins this day. Genesis 44, 16, so Judah said, what can we say to my Lord? What can we speak and how can we justify ourselves? God has found out our sins.
It's the end of the conversation. 1 Samuel 15, 24, then Saul said to Samuel, I have sinned. I have transgressed truly the command of the Lord. 2 Samuel 12, 13, and David said to Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. Daniel 9, 20, Daniel, good, godly Daniel says, I was speaking and praying and confessing my sin. Luke 5, 8, but when Simon Peter saw that, he fell down at Jesus' feet saying, Depart from me for I am a sinful man, O Lord. Luke 18, the publican in the corner wouldn't so much as lift his eyes toward heaven, but smote upon his breast and cried, Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner. So you see, confession of sin is recognizing it's your problem and it's sin. It's sin. And I really believe people that that's so very basic to spiritual growth because that's where you're dealing with the thing that holds you back from growing.
Now let me go a little further on this. The word confess in the Greek in the New Testament is the word hamalageo. Lageo, from which we get lagas, means to speak. We talk about logic. That means discussion of principle. Logic, to speak, is part of the word. The other part is hamma or homo.
When we say something is homogeneous or homogenized, we mean it is the same. It is the same. And that is exactly what the word means, to speak the same. To confess your sin, now watch this, is not to beg for forgiveness. It is simply to say the same thing about your sin that God is saying.
And what's He saying? It's sin and it's your fault. See, confession is not a pleading and a pleading and a begging for forgiveness. It is an agreement with God that your sin is your sin. That's all.
And that's very basic. When I confess my sin, I'm not saying, oh God, please forgive me. I beg you, please forgive me. I want you to forgive me like they used to say in revivalist type meetings. Pray it through, brother, pray it through. Keep plowing in there. Keep banging on the door and God will forgive.
No, no, no. When you became a Christian, how much of your sin did He forgive? Well, the Bible says He's forgiven all your trespasses for His name's sake, 1 John 2. All your sin is forgiven. Confession is not a matter of forgiveness.
It is a matter of agreeing with God that you are a sinner and willing to deal with that sin in your life. It's already been forgiven. You know, Jesus already paid the penalty for all my sin.
It doesn't have to be paid again. In Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 32, that wonderful verse, it says this, Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath, past, tense, forgiven you. You're already forgiven. We're not begging for forgiveness. Forgiveness is already there.
We just accept it. What we are doing is agreeing with God that we are at fault. Now in 1 John 1.9 it says, and I'll paraphrase it, If we are the ones confessing our sins, then He is the one faithful and just to forgive us our sin. And what He's doing there is characterizing a Christian. You have to understand the whole argument of 1 John is the difference between a Christian and a non-Christian.
And a non-Christian does this. He denies his sin, 1 John 1.8 and 10. John says, If any man say he has not sinned, he makes God a liar.
That's typical of an unregenerate man. He denies his sin. But we are the ones confessing. It is characteristic of a true believer to be agreeing with God about his sin. That it is sin against God and that it is his fault.
People say, Well, are you sure? Don't you think you just have to kind of deal with sin when you get saved and never again? Listen, were you saved by faith?
Yes. Well, is that where faith ended? Did you say, Well, now I'm saved by faith. From here on I'll live by sight.
No, no. You were saved by faith and you continue by faith. You were saved in a confession of sin and you continue to confess the sin in your life. The mark of a Christian is a constant life of faith. The mark of a Christian is a constant life of love.
That's what 1 John says. The mark of a Christian is a constant life of obedience. The mark of a Christian is the constant life of separation from the world. The mark of the Christian is the constant life of instruction at the hands of the Holy Spirit rather than worldly wisdom. And another mark of a Christian, a constant willingness and openness to confess sin. So that a Christian is characterized as one who confesses sin.
Now there are degrees of it that vary. Sometimes we don't make as full a confession as we ought to. But any true believer is sooner or later going to acknowledge his sin. That's 1 John 1-9.
Now let me tell you something, people. When you are doing that faithfully and honestly and objectively before God, you will find yourself in the process of growth. When you won't face your sin and you won't admit it and deal with it and bring it before God, you won't because you're not ready to let go of it.
That's the key. That's why I say there's no such thing as true confession without repentance. You know, I can remember my life saying, Lord, I'm so sorry for those sins and I thank you for already forgiving me.
And that was all I said. And it came to a milestone in my life when I began to say this, Lord, thank you for forgiving those sins. I know they did not please you and I never want to do them again. Now sometimes we don't say that because we want to do them again. We just want to take care of the past. We don't want to eliminate the future.
We kind of like them. What I'm saying then is that's a betrayal of a lack of spiritual maturity. When you face your sin, you acknowledge that it's yours, that it's against God, you square off with it, you admit it, and you repent of it, that's the heart, that's the core of really genuine confession of sin. Now people, I've spent some time on this because I think this is so very basic. Here we are trying to grow. The thing that retards us is sin. Here we are endeavoring to glorify God. There's one thing in the universe that doesn't glorify God.
What is it? Sin. And for example, if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord won't even what?
Hear me. I can't grow spiritually. I can't even commune with God if I'm harboring sin. So there must be in my life confession of sin.
And I believe this is so very basic. As you and I are involved in facing the reality of our sin and confessing it, we free God from any impunity. If He wants to chasten us, we accept it. And we don't say, well, God, you know, you sure do make it tough on me. Why do I get the dirty end of the stick? You know, sometimes you ought to examine your life.
You may be getting exactly what you deserve and you ought to be willing to accept it. So that as a believer, if we're to grow, we must be dealing with that which retards our growth. And what retards our growth is sin.
Now let me make it as practical as I can. Somewhere in your prayer life, as a matter of routine, as a matter of constancy, there ought to be confession of sin. And that is an overt and open and honest dealing with sin and a willingness to accept whatever chastening God brings. Because that's how He keeps you from doing it again. I tell parents all the time that if there are no consequences to your child's misbehavior, your child will continue to misbehave. In my own life I've said even to the Lord, Lord, if I need chastening to be conformed to you, then chasten me.
See? Because I don't want to go down the same path all the time. God has put in us a system of guilt and it's good. If you didn't feel guilty, you'd be living your spiritual life like a physical life where you didn't feel pain.
Can you imagine trying to live physically where you felt no pain? Now in your spiritual life, God has placed guilt. Guilt is a little bell or a buzzer that goes off when you sin. It should then bring you immediately to the point of confession. When there is a sin and you feel the guilt and you sense the reality, that is God's way of saying that's pain to your soul. And there at that point, you confront it. You say, God, I know it is sin. I know it is against you. I realize it is my fault.
I do not want to do it again. I turn. Give me the strength to walk in another path. Now as you live like that, you're going to find yourself in a tremendous pattern of spiritual growth. And frankly, you'll never grow spiritually until you begin to deal with the things that hold back your growth, that retard your maturity.
What have we learned so far? Spiritual growth is a process of giving God glory. As we live in the framework of giving Him glory, we grow. That means confessing Jesus as Lord. That means aiming my life at His glory no matter what it costs me.
Suffering when He suffers and being content to be outdone by others to do the same thing I do, only better. And then finally, for the first part of our study, it means that I am willing to acknowledge my sin so that whatever God may bring into my life, He is just to do it, for I have sinned. And He is holy and righteous in His reaction. And in these conditions, people, with this framework, we'll begin to grow spiritually. You've been listening to John MacArthur here on Grace to You. John is a pastor, author, and chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary.
Today's lesson is part of his current series titled Back to Basics. Well, thinking about the Christmas celebration this month and whatever plans you might be making, if you're looking for a special gift for a loved one, something that will benefit him or her long after the holiday, we have some helpful suggestions, and maybe the most important suggestion, John, is to hurry in placing that order. Yeah, this is the last day we recommend placing Christmas orders, and this is December 4th, so yeah, this is the last day. If you want free, standard shipping, okay? Deadline for phone orders, 4 p.m. Pacific time, and for Internet orders, 2 p.m.
So you need to get moving today, but let me just remind you of the following Christmas gift suggestions that we think will help the decision go a little quicker, maybe. First of all, the MacArthur Study Bible. I can't say enough about this. This has been the prominent, the flagship resource in this ministry for decades now. It is a Bible, the text of the Bible, the New American Standard, English Standard Version, ESV, the New King James.
It's also in Spanish, Russian, German, French, Italian, Arabic, Chinese, and Portuguese, to be exact. There's just an incredible, incredible amount of information, explanation of the meaning of Scripture, tucked into the MacArthur Study Bible. Now, with every MacArthur Bible that you purchase, whether it's the Study Bible or even the Daily Bible, or even a Topical Bible, which is also available, we'll give you a free copy, while supplies last, of a book called One Foundation. It's a beautiful hardcover book. It's a collection of essays written by fellow Bible teachers to commemorate Grace Tiu's 50 years of ministry. And the focus of each chapter in this book, One Foundation, is the sufficiency of Scripture. It's a great book, and it's yours free when you order a Study Bible. And then One Perfect Life.
I always want to mention that. That weaves together Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John into one narrative. It harmonizes the four Gospels, never leaves a single word or verse out.
It shows you how beautifully it fits together as one story of Christ. And then finally, just to remind you, the MacArthur New Testament Commentary Series, 34 volumes on the entire New Testament, is available discounted pricing if you purchase the entire set, or you can pick whatever volumes you would like to have. And again, this is the last day that we recommend placing Christmas orders using our free standard shipping. So order by 4 o'clock on the phone, or 2 o'clock by website Pacific time. Right, and friend, I want to mention one more time that with every Bible you purchase, we'll include a free copy of One Foundation.
It's a hardcover book, an ideal resource for understanding how God's Word is sufficient for everything pertaining to life and godliness. Place your Christmas order today. Call us at 800-55-GRACE, and that number translates to 800-5547223. Or you can place your order at our website, gty.org.
Remember, as John said, this is the last day we recommend using our free standard shipping option for your Christmas order. So to get the MacArthur Study Bible, the Daily Bible, the Topical Bible, or a volume of the MacArthur New Testament Commentary Series, or the book One Perfect Life, or any book, call 800-55-GRACE or go to gty.org. And when you visit gty.org, I encourage you to take advantage of the thousands of hours of sermons available for free download, the MP3s, and the written transcripts. There are 3,500 messages for you to choose from, and if you're not sure where to start, log on to Grace Stream. That's a continuous broadcast of John's teaching. We started in Matthew and go all the way through Revelation, then we start it over again. To download the sermons, or to listen to Grace Stream, or to order a Christmas gift, go to gty.org. Now for John MacArthur, I'm Phil Johnson, reminding you to watch Grace To You television on Sunday, check your local listings for Channel and Times, then be back here next week for another 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth, one verse at a time, on Grace To You.
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