Thursday, February 17, 2011

A Formula For Fellowship - Part 2

How do you get right with God and stay right with God?

2.  So, first of all, sin must be exposed to the light.  Second, not only must your sin be exposed to the light, it must be expressed to the Lord.  Look at verse 9.  He said, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”  Do you see that?  You see once the Holy Spirit of God shows you what is wrong, what do you do?  You confess it.  Now the Holy Spirit of God legitimately, specifically, redemptively says, “That Adrian is wrong in your life.”  Then I say what He says about it.  I confess my sin.  I agree with God.  I don’t stonewall God.  I don’t say I don’t have no sin.  I don’t lie to others.  I don’t lie to myself.  I don’t lie to God.  I agree with God.  I express it to the Lord.  I confess it.  I agree with God.  God will not settle for an excuse or an alibi.  Don’t to rename the sin and say it’s a mistake and I need to be fixed.  Tell Him it’s a sin and I need to be forgiven.  Now if you do that, the bible says you will be cleansed.

How do you confess that sin?  First, confess it immediately.  This is in the present tense.  “If we confess”  That means do it now.  Don’t just wait until the end of the day to confess your sin.  Do it immediately, as soon as you are aware of sin.  You need to come into the place in your life where you are really sensitive to sin.  You know probably the most sensitive part of your body is your eyeballs.  If you got a piece of sand that flew into your eye, would you say I would get that out later tonight?  No, you would say, “Hey, I’ve got something in my eye, I need to get that out, its bothering me, its irritating me.  You need to be that sensitive to sin, to get that out of your life, immediately.  Now what most of us do is ride a spiritual roller coaster.  We are down here….out of fellowship with God…and then we hear someone preach and then we go to a revival meeting, we confess our sins and get right with God and back into fellowship with Him…then we get away and start coming back down again…then someone speaks to us or we read the bible and then we start going back up again.   The only problem is that our valleys take a lot longer than our peaks.  Have you ridden that roller coaster?  In fellowship and then out of fellowship and then in fellowship.  That’s what they think the Christian life is.  Let me tell you what the Christian life is…its not so much riding that roller coaster.  The victorious life is… you’re not right with God…you get right with God.  You are up here and then you are going along and a lustful thought comes in, or a dishonest thing comes in, or then anger comes in, or then pride comes in…and you are aware that sin is there.  At that point, before you go down there, at that moment confess your sin.  Do it immediately.  That’s the way you live victorious.  Its not that you don’t have sin, its not that you don’t have temptations, its not that you don’t fail….You do not have to go through those long valley’s of despair.  Confess your sin immediately.

Secondly, confess specifically.  Don’t just pray…. “Oh Lord, if I have sinned…forgive me.”  How does the Holy Spirit of God convict you?  Specifically.  How do you confess?  Confess specifically.  Call it by name, nail, and name it and it will be cleansed.  Say, “Lord, I told a lie, or I should not have read that, or I failed to do this and call it by name.  He says, if we confess our sins, not our sin.  Sing that song “Count your many blessings name them one by one.  And it will surprise you what the Lord has done.  Count your many sins, name them one by one.  It’ll surprise you what you’ve done.“  If you knew it.  Only the sin that the Holy Spirit convicts you of, that has not yet been cleansed, anything that is in the grave of Gods forgefulness you do not have to bring up again.  God will never bring you into double jeopardy.  Do it immediately, do it specifically. 

Thirdly, do it confidently.  “If we confess our sins, (He is what?) He is faithful (and what?) just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”  Think about the words “faithful” and “just”.  Do you know that if He did not do it, He would be therefore unfaithful and unjust.  Why?  Why must God forgive?  Can we speak God must doing something?  YES, Because Jesus died for those sins.  And the Bible says in the next chapter…He is the propitiation the satisfaction for our sins.  The blood of Jesus Christ would make God unfaithful and unjust if He did not forgive you because it is that blood that has the cleansing power …vs 7…The blood of Jesus Christ, Gods son,  does what?  It cleanses us from all son.  If He were to fail to forgive you, if He fails to cleanse you, He would be going back on the contract of Calvary.  He would be dishonest.  He would be unfaithful.  He would be unjust.  He would be a liar, a crook.  I can know that I know that if I agree with God the Holy Spirit about my sin, if I agree with Him, He is faithful and just to forgive me.  Well, you say, “Some things.”  No, no, no.  What does it say? “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from ALL UNRIGHTEOUSNESS.”  Don’t you let that devil accuse you.  Don’t let that devil condemn you. “HE IS FAITHFUL AND JUST TO CLEANSE US FROM ALL UNRIGHTEOUSNESS!”  You can confess that sin confidently, do it immediately, do it specifically.  You do not have to go around carrying that load of guilt.  That’s a wonderful thing about being a child of God.

Adrian Rogers  3/9/09 “A Formula For Fellowship”

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