825. God’s Gracious Response to Christians Who Sin

Welcome to The Daily Platform from Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina.

Today's speaker is Dr. Steve Pettit, who served as an evangelist for over 29 years before becoming president of Bob Jones University. Would you please take your Bibles this morning and turn with me to the epistle of John, 1st chapter 1 this morning, and we'll read scripture here momentarily. Given the just natural weaknesses of our own human heart, what I'd like to do is spend some time speaking this morning about God's gracious response towards us as Christians who sin. I'd like to avoid two extremes. Number one, the first extreme is that nobody is right with God and nobody's walking with the Lord. And the second extreme is everybody's right with God and everybody's walking with the Lord. And I think we all can say this morning that neither one of those things are accurate.

They're not really true. But what I know is true that if we do sin as a Christian, that God's grace is available for all who are willing to confess their sins. So let's begin reading this morning in 1st John where John unfolds God's gracious nature as the grounds for our confession of sin.

1st John chapter 1, verse 5, this then is the message which we have heard of him and declare unto you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. 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. 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.

My little children, these things I write unto you that you sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And he is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. John is telling us this morning that when we sin, that there is actually grace that is available for our sin. And the truth is that we are in constant need of availing ourselves to that grace, why?

Because of our own sin. So there are two simple thoughts I want to share with you this morning as we look at this passage of scripture and first of all, I want you to notice God's gracious provision for our sins. He says in chapter two and verse one, my little children, I'm writing these things to you that you don't sin. Now can you imagine John writing something like this? I'm writing unto you that you just sin a little bit.

Not too much. God's goal for all of us is that we don't sin, that we walk in the light. And John does not make room and he does not give place for our ever accepting the sins that are in our lives. God doesn't accept sin. God deals with sin. But he's clear. He says if you do sin, then God is gracious and he has provided for our sin and what is that provision?

Well what does he say? If anybody sins, we have something. We have an advocate with the father. So what does that mean, advocate? Well the dictionary says that an advocate is somebody who publicly supports or recommends a particular cause or a particular policy. So we talk about an advocate for clean air or political advocates or advocates for better education. But that's not what this word means. The biblical meaning is very different because it refers to somebody who comes alongside of you to help you or to assist you.

For example, a lawyer is often called an advocate who comes to help us in a legal matter. Now we make fun of lawyers, in some cases rightfully so. We tell jokes about them like the story of the little girl who visited the grave of a grandmother on their way out of the cemetery going back to the car. The little girl asked, Mommy, do they ever bury two people in the same grave? Of course not, dear, the mother replies.

Why would you think that? Well the tombstone back there said, here lies a lawyer and an honest man. Well we make fun of lawyers. But you know what I've learned? I've learned that you're really glad you have a lawyer when you need one. And John says don't sin, but if you do sin, you have a lawyer. You have somebody who will come alongside of you to help you when you break God's laws. Now let me ask you a question. Do you know anybody that can come alongside of you to help you when you sin?

Let me ask you this. Can you be your own helper? Do you have the power to wash away your own sin and guilt? Do you have the power to overcome your own sin?

One of the greatest Christians that ever lived, the apostle Paul, made it very clear that he did not have the power to help himself with regards to his sin. He says, I do not understand my own actions. He says, for I do not do what I want to do, but I do the very things that I hate.

I want to ask you, did you do anything over this past Christmas that you feel really bad about and you hated it? He goes on to say, for I know that nothing good dwells in me. That is in my flesh, for I have the desire to do what is right, but the ability to carry it out is the problem. Can you be your own helper?

Well let me ask this. Can another sinner come alongside of you and be your helper over your sin? Can they wash away your sin?

Can they give you power? One of the consistent teachings throughout the entire Bible is that anything that is unclean makes anything that is clean unclean when it touches it. So can a sinner make another sinner clean?

The answer is no. Then who can help us? And what is John's answer?

There is only one help. And that is Jesus Christ the righteous. He is expressing why Jesus is the one who can help us. Why does John call him the righteous? Because he is perfectly qualified to help us with our sin.

Why? Because he has qualified himself by his life. If you hire a lawyer, you want one that is not only qualified, but you would prefer the best in the business. Well with regarding our sin, we have the best in the business. For Jesus is perfectly qualified to help us with our sin because he lived perfectly without sin. And not only that, but when Jesus was accused and charged with sin and was publicly executed on a cross as a criminal, what did God do? What did God do to show that Jesus was righteous? He vindicated Jesus by raising him from the dead. Man judged Jesus as a sinner and killed him, but God judged Jesus as righteous and raised him. So Jesus Christ is our helper. To whom are you going to go to, to overcome sin and guilt?

There is only one helper. And that is our advocate, Jesus Christ. So how does he help us?

Well, what does John say, he explains it. He says he is the propitiation for our sins. What does propitiation mean? It's not a word that we normally use in conversation, but it's a biblical term.

Well I think the best way to explain propitiation is to go back and look at an Old Testament illustration, maybe one that you're very familiar with. And that illustration actually has to do with the way God dealt with sin with the Jewish people. In order for the Jewish people to have a right relationship with God, God prescribed a way in which he was to be worshiped in the way sins are forgiven. Now this included a variety of different elements that had to come together before a relationship with God could take place.

For example, these elements included a prescribed high priest who would act as a mediator between God and the people. Then there was a prescribed location where God was to be worshiped, and specifically it was a room called the Holy of Holies where the high priest would enter into once a year. And then there was a prescribed innocent sacrifice who was killed. His blood was put into a bowl. And then that blood had to be taken into that room, the Holy of Holies, and that blood had to be sprinkled on top of a prescribed slab of gold called the mercy seat. And when that blood was sprinkled, two things happened. One, the sins of the people at that moment were forgiven and all of their guilt was removed. That action of sprinkling the blood and the removal of the sin is what propitiation means. It means that we have in Jesus Christ the forgiveness of sin because of his sprinkled blood. But then the second action that took place is that God at that moment would meet with the Jewish people.

Because we read in Exodus 25, and you shall put the mercy seat on the top of the ark and there I, God says, will meet with you from above the mercy seat. So God manifested his presence and gave the Jewish people a relationship because of that propitiation, because of that sprinkled blood. So in the Old Testament all these elements had to come together in one place in order for the people to have a relationship with God. But what about the New Testament?

Well here's the awesome thing. That in the New Testament all of these prescribed elements all came together not in one place but in one person. And who is that person? Jesus Christ the righteous. Jesus is our high priest. He intercedes for us. Jesus is our sacrifice whose blood was shed for us. And Jesus is our mercy seat because that's where God meets with us.

We read in Hebrews 2 17, therefore he had to be made like his brother, speaking of Jesus, in every respect so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God to make propitiation for the sins of the people. John said it this way in 1 John 1 7, the blood of Jesus' son cleanses us from all sin. So what is John saying? John is saying that we have a propitiation. So when you as a Christian sin, what do you do? You need to believe that God has graciously provided for you a propitiation for your sins.

And here's the most wonderful thing. He wants to help you. He wants to cleanse you. He wants to restore you. And not just you but anyone and everyone for he is the propitiation for the whole world.

Isn't that a wonderful thing? Here we are with hundreds of people sitting here and all of us have our own set of issues, all of us have our own sins, all of us have our own ups and downs and our failures and there is one who in him all of us can come to and through him and by him God will forgive us of our sins and restore us. God's gracious provision for our sin is found in Jesus Christ. Now that's what he's done for us in the past. But let's go forward and ask what will he do in the present? How will he do it for me right now?

Right now. And that leads me to the second point and that is that we have not only God's gracious provision but we have God's gracious promise. God is going to tell us what he's going to do. And look at 1 John chapter 1 and verse 9.

He says if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. This is a promise. But notice two things.

Number one, this promise is conditional. What's the first word in verse 9? What is it? Say it. Say it again. If. Now is that the only place he says if? No, go back and look at verse 6. Notice the first word in verse 6. He says what?

Come on talk to me. He says what? If. Look at verse 7. He says but what? If. Look at verse 8. He says if.

Verse 9 he says, verse 10 he says if. What's he saying? He's saying it's iffy.

Okay. What does that mean? It means it's conditional. In other words, you have to do something.

And what is that? That is we have to confess our sins. So what does it mean to confess your sin? Well let me first of all be very clear that you have to confess your sins.

Now the reason I say that is sometimes it's actually questioned by people. A number of years ago a professor in a Bible college that I was affiliated with began to teach that a Christian did not need to confess his sins because he was already forgiven. His logic was that if you stand as righteous as Jesus justified then why do you need to confess sin? Because God doesn't see our sin. He only sees Christ's righteousness.

And by the way that's true. However there was a problem and that is he didn't really give the full picture of salvation because not only are we justified but we have to be sanctified. Not only are we declared righteous in Christ but we have to grow in that righteousness. So whenever somebody would come and preach directly on sin you could imagine his response and even his reaction. But the problem was that his teaching permeated the student body and that was especially true that summer in the camp where I was serving that some of the counselors were working and of course you can imagine you're having evangelists preach and they were struggling with the messages because the messages were dealing with sin and they had come to believe that you don't need to confess your sins and they told the campers also.

That created a real problem. So let me be very clear. I didn't write it. God did. He said Christians need to confess their sins. So what is important to understand is that confession is not to regain your salvation as if you've lost it because of your sin but rather it is to restore your fellowship with God because it was broken when you sinned.

We have a perfect illustration of this. Peter in the upper room with the disciples, what did Jesus do? He began to wash their feet. He came to Peter and Peter said you're never going to wash my feet and Jesus said well if I don't wash your feet you don't have any part with me. And then Peter said well Lord, not at my feet only then wash my hands and my head, wash my whole body and here's what Jesus said. The one who is bathed does not need to wash except his feet.

Why? Because in those days people would walk along dusty roads and they would get dirty feet and they had to keep their feet clean and I believe it is a wonderful illustration of you and I who've been saved, we've been washed, but we have to keep our feet clean. Confession is vital for your Christian walk. So what then do I confess? Well notice John says, John does not say that you need to confess what you're going to do.

For example he doesn't say if we confess what we are going to do. Now the reason I'm bringing that up is because that's sort of a natural way for us to think. If I do wrong, what's the first thing I'm going to think?

I'm going to start doing right. And the reason we do that is because we are incurably works oriented people. It's our nature. We have a fundamental flaw in our thinking that believes that God's favor must be earned.

I have to do something. The whole concept of grace is not what I do, it's what God does for me. So we either think I have to stop doing what I am doing or I have to start doing what I'm not doing and in either case it is a form of self-improvement which is actually a form of self-righteousness because in the end you get the glory for what you do.

But the blood of Jesus Christ does not bring you glory, it brings God glory. How many of you have ever made a promise to God that you're not going to do something after you did it and you did it again? Oftentimes our confession is a workspace confession. If we confess what we're going to do, that's not what he is saying. He is saying you have to confess what you've done. If we confess our sins, we have already sinned. So to confess means to say what you've done. And specifically it means to say what God says you've done.

You didn't fib, you lied. That's what God calls it. You didn't sleep around, you committed adultery. Because the confession of sin is clearly stating what God says and the Bible tells us what is sinful. And by the way, when you are confessing what God says about sin, that's really called Godly sorrow. Godly sorrow does not primarily focus on the consequences of what I've done. For example, I feel bad because I hurt people or I mess things up or people are disappointed with me.

Or maybe I got caught. That's worldly sorrow, which is based on the consequences. Godly sorrow is actually based on the cause.

Why did you do what you did? It sees what you've done from God's perspective and essentially what does God see about sin? Every time we sin, we basically choose our will over God's will.

And we all know that. Even in a weakness. It's either I love me or I love God. When you sin, you love me or you love you. And when you obey God, you choose to love him.

He says if you love me, keep my commandments. And this is important because what we're doing in confession is not just confessing our actions, but it's actually going to our heart. And I think that's what he means in verse eight when he says if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves.

That word no sin is not referring to our actions, it's referring to our nature, it's referring to our heart. When I confess with my mouth, I'm saying something about my heart. When I'm saying God, I'm not just a sinner because of my actions, but God I'm confessing my need of you because of the nature of my own heart and the blood of Jesus cleanses your heart. So the first thing he says about this promise is that it is conditional, but the second thing he says about this promise is that it is certain.

What does he say? If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. The certainty of forgiveness is rooted in the nature of God. He is faithful.

God will never lie. He is totally trustworthy. He is fully dependable. You can count on him. If God says he's going to do it, he's going to do it. But he is also just.

That means he deals with sin in the right way. He's not going to overlook it. He's not going to hide it. He's not going to act as if it didn't happen. He's going to deal with it.

And how did he deal with it? He paid for it with the life of his son and he watched it away with the blood of his son. God has justly dealt and paid for your sin. And the certainty that God will forgive you is not rooted in you being faithful or you doing what is right. It is rooted in the fact that God is faithful and God does what is right.

And what will he do for us? He will forgive us our sin. He will free us from our guilt because he will remove it. You know, sometimes it's good to reflect on your past failures because it keeps you humble and thankful. But I think it's a dangerous thing to become introspective. Because when you become introspective, it's actually pretty self-oriented and it really throws you into a workspace acceptance with God.

And it kills your joy and it paralyzes your service. You know what the Lord wants you to do? He wants you to look to the blood.

He wants you to look to him who is faithful. He will free you from guilt. Do you need to be guilt freed this semester?

You can be. You have to confess your sin. And then he says he will cleanse you from all unrighteousness. The idea of cleansing is actually to restore you back in the place of fellowship with God. He will cleanse you. The whole concept of cleansing was so that you could come into the presence of God. And in 1 John chapter 1, 5, 6, and 7, he's talking about walking in the light, walking with God.

And here's the point. The blood cleanses and it restores my fellowship with him. And then the restoration of that fellowship is also the restoration of power. You and I don't have the power to live the Christian life. He has the power. And the one way of access to the power is through the blood of Jesus Christ who cleanses us. If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us. A man went up to the temple to pray.

Luke chapter 18. He was so ashamed he wouldn't lift up his head to God. He bowed his head in shame over the sins that he had done and he beat his own chest. You know sometimes personally I feel like I need to beat my chest.

I'm ashamed of my thoughts, my responses. But he prayed a prayer that we all need to pray. It's very simple, very short, but very profound. He said, God be merciful to me, a sinner. And when he said God be merciful, it literally means God be a propitiation for me. Or we could say it this way, God be my mercy seat.

You know what? There is a mercy seat. And if you go to that mercy seat, there is blood. And that blood will cleanse you and restore you back into fellowship with him. There is grace for our sin as we confess him to God.

Would you bow your head with me please? Can I urge you this morning that sometime, oh sometime soon quickly, would you run, would you flee, would you hustle to the mercy seat? Name your sin. Name your sin.

God forgive me. God I'm trusting in the propitiation of Jesus to wash me from my sins. As we pray this morning, how many of you would say with an uplifted hand, Dr. Pettit, there are sins that I need to bring to the mercy seat this morning. How many of you will be humble enough to acknowledge that? Would you lift your hand? Slip it up all over the room today, all over the room.

Let me put your hands down. Father, we are humbled by our sin, but we are profoundly thankful for the blood of Jesus. And thank you that if we confess our sins that you are faithful and you are just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Help us to walk in the light as you're in the light, in Jesus' name, amen. To learn more about the impactful programs and ministries happening at Bob Jones University, visit the news website, bjutoday, at today.bju.edu. Thank you for listening to The Daily Platform. Please come visit our beautiful campus in Greenville, South Carolina, and see how God is working in the lives of our students. For more information about Bob Jones University, visit www.bju.edu or call 800-252-6363. We hope you'll join us again next week as we study God's Word together on The Daily Platform.