Foundations of Faith - Part 3

How do you plead?

By Lee Simmons

I John 1: Here is the message we have heard from Him and declare to you. God is light. In Him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with Him yet walk in the darkness, we lie. And the truth does not live in us. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make Him out to be a liar and His Word has no place in our lives. My dear children, 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 but also for the sins of the whole world.

This last Friday, I did what I do just about every day. I dropped my kids off at school about 8:15 in the morning; but I had a place to be at 9:00. I had a little bit of extra time. At 9:00 I was meeting with a group of pastors for a bi-weekly prayer meeting and I was going into the city. God's been doing some awesome things in those pastors' prayer meetings. I was really looking forward to it; but I had about a half hour of time. So I thought, well I'll drive up to our new church property. There's a team of workers up there taking down the metal building that we sold and it's almost down. I just wanted to go up there to say hello to the guys and see how it was going. So I drove up there and they weren't there yet. I kind of walked around and looked at things and thought, well it won't be long before this is down and then the barn and then the silo. But I looked over the rest of our property and saw how beautifully green it was becoming.

I thought about those good times we had in the picnic area in the back and I thought, I know what I'll do. I'll just drive down there and see how things are. So I got my car and I started to drive down the road. I turned into the property onto that grassy field and was driving toward the back. Just as I turned the corner by that tree, I saw some standing water and just as I saw it, it was too late. I sunk right in the mud, right in the middle of that field. I thought, oh no. How am I going to get out of this mess?

So I got out of the car and into the mud and looked up at the property to see if those folks were there yet that were taking down the building and they weren't there yet. So I thought, well I've got to get out of this mess. The first thing I thought was, how dumb can I be? I should have thought about this. It's rained forever! And, you know, I drove into this mud. So I thought oh, how dumb I am. The second thing I thought was, how am I going to get out? And the third thing I thought was, I hope no one ever finds out about this.

So I thought, what am I going to do? I remembered that the sign that was out front for our tent meeting had been dragged into the middle of the field where the tent was and I thought, maybe I can get that big piece of plywood and shove it under the front wheels of the car and try to back out of this mess cause there was a little more solid ground back there. So I did that. I got back into the car and nothing happened. I thought, oh no, what am I going to do now?

So I got out of the car and I looked up at the property and there was a vehicle there. I thought, oh, maybe they have a four-wheel drive. But then I thought, if I go up there I have to say I did a stupid thing. My car is stuck. Can you help me? And I didn't want to do that. So I thought, maybe I can get out of this myself. No one will ever know.

So I opened my trunk, found an old pair of tennis shoes and an old pair of gloves, found the jack. I felt that if I could jack up each side and put something under the front wheels, the back wheels, and get on drier ground, I can get out of this. So the next half hour I'm in the mud jacking up my car, looking for rocks, piling them under one tire, letting it down, doing the other side, and doing the same thing. The mud is oozing all around me and I'm starting to get covered with mud. I'm getting very tired, but finally I did it. I thought, now I can get out of this. I can just quickly wash the car off and get my clothes cleaned off and no one will ever know.

Every once in a while I kind of glanced up at the building, you know, thinking well maybe I should go up there. But I didn't want to admit that I'd done something really stupid. And so I backed off those rocks, backed over the plywood, thought I was home free, just crossed it and...in the mud again. I thought, that's it. I guess I'll go for help.

But then I looked at the car and thought, it's not as bad as it was before. If I can do this just one more time, I can get out of here and no one will ever know. So I went though the whole procedure again.

Now an hour has gone by. Now there's mud on the steering wheel, mud on the dash, mud all over me, mud all over the car from spinning the wheels and I thought, this is going to be it. And so, very spiritually, I said oh God, get me out of this mess. I put the car in reverse and it didn't go anywhere. So finally now I thought, I've got to get help. I've got to admit I did something stupid. And I was really upset because I'd missed the prayer meeting.

So I walked down the field and up the road, up to the guys who were doing the construction work and I said, "Do any of you guys have a four-wheel drive?" They looked at me, mud head to toe and they said, "Yeah. We can help you." By the way, this is a Christian crew that's taking this building down. The one fellow there is kind of semi-retired and kind of oversees it. He's a wonderful fellow. He put his arm around me and said, "Preacher, your face is all red. We don't want you out there dying of a heart attack! Why didn't you come to us first?" (A little rebuke there.)

They just went and got the neighbor's tractor, tied it to the back of my car and popped it out just like that. And I thought to myself, how dumb could I be getting in this mud hole? How dumber could I be that I didn't want to go admit I did something stupid and ask for help? And then I thought, that's just what the Scripture is saying in this passage.

Then the Lord told me, by the way, while I was standing there in the mud and they were pulling my car out. "You know, you didn't want anybody to know about this. Now, I want you to tell it to the church this weekend." I said, "Okay God. I'll do that." Lord, this is the third service. I finally did it. Thank you.

There's something about us wanting to cover up things--not wanting anybody to know what we were doing or what we were thinking and we think, if we could just get away with it. No one will ever know. And we wind up in matters far, far worse as I did in the mud hole on Friday.

As I read this Scripture, there are two ways we can approach sin in our lives. We can cover it, we can hide it, we can deny it. Or we can do what God says to do and admit it, confess it. Now the first thing I want you to see in this passage in I John is that we can go into denial about our sin. You say, well what is sin?

The Bible calls sin "missing the mark". It means that God has a standard and that we fall short under it. You say, well that happens a lot, and it does. But it's not even what happens to us but our right reaction to it. Now I want you to look at I John, chapter 1:8. It says this: "if we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us". We could say, there's no sin in my life. I'm a good person. I live a good life. And we could live in a dream world thinking that we don't do anything wrong. We could be self deceived and a lot of people are that way. They're sure that everything's okay in their life. Hey, they're living their life okay. They compare themselves to others. Yet they're living the life of a lie. Verse 10 says this: "If we claim we have not sinned, we make Him out to be a liar and His Word has no place in us." We can say there's no sin in our lives or we can say, "I haven't sinned. That thing that I did, it wasn't so bad. It wasn't wrong. My life is okay. I know what the Bible says, but you know. God understands me." Many of us live our lives in denial to what we've done.

We figure that if we haven't committed the "biggies" that everything's okay. "Well I have not committed adultery." Yes, but the Lord says that if you have it in your heart, you've committed it. The Bible says, "thou shall not murder" but it also says that the attitude that brings that about is anger. Do I have anger in my heart? You see, many times we don't do the outward things, but inside our thoughts, feelings, and attitudes are wrong and are sin. Many people live in a state of denial, denying that.

Now, psychologists tell us that one of the most effective defense mechanisms that we use is that of denial. It's often found in the person who's an alcoholic. We've all watched this classic case happen. Someone has a terrible problem with drinking. It affects their family, their marriage, their children, their job, their relationships. They are an alcoholic. And yet you say to them, "Uh, you have a problem..." They say, "Oh everything's okay in my life. It's not a big problem." The biggest difficulty in dealing with an alcoholic is that they're living in a world of denial and sometimes their family even enables them by saying the same things. That alcoholic will never get help until he realizes, "I have a problem".

So it is true for persons with any other addiction until we are confronted by enough people that we wake up and say, "Wait a minute. I have a problem. I'll never get help." And it's not only people with addictions who live in a state of denial. It's in many other areas of our lives.

Now, we can be in denial in several ways. One way we can do it is by what's called blocking. Now oftentimes this will happen when someone speaks to us about something in our life. We'll just shut everything down emotionally cause we don't want to receive that. We don't want to hear it. We may just get a glazed look in our eyes and we'll just shut up and not say a word. Do you ever have that happen? Maybe it's happened to you or maybe it's happened to someone you've spoken to.

Or immediately, we erupt in anger cause we don't like to hear those things about us. Or oftentimes, we start judging and criticizing the other person because we can't take what's happening to us. We're living in denial. We're not admitting that we have a problem and many of us can live our lives that way. We just block it out. We just push it out, or we minimalize it. We say, "Well it's not really that big of a thing. You're making this out to be a big problem, but I've got it in control. I'm handling it all." Yet, we're living in a state of denial.

Another thing we can do is blame shift. This is so common in the Bible--all the way back in the book of Genesis. We see in Genesis 3 when sin entered into the world and Adam and Eve disobeyed God. God came to Adam and he asked that question, "Adam? Did you partake of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?" Now Adam was asked a question that should have been answered "yes" or "no". Instead, Adam right away out of that sinful nature said, "God, the woman that you gave me--she beguiled me and I did eat." He said, God, it was the woman's fault and in a way it was your fault because you gave her to me. And I wouldn't have done it if it wasn't for her.

Nothing has changed under the sun. The same thing is said all the time: "God, if that wife that you gave me...God, if that husband that you gave me...God, it weren't for them I'd have my act together! That's the problem!" And we blame shift. It's not our fault. It's somebody else. We're in a state of denial. We won't admit our problems.

The same thing happened with Aaron. There was Moses--he goes up to Mount Sinai to receive the law of the Lord. He's in the Lord's glory and now Aaron has his first opportunity to be a spiritual leader, to be strong with the people of God. But he succumbs so quickly to their wishes. He receives their gold and he builds that golden calf. The people worship and they have a wild orgy. Then Moses comes down and confronts his brother saying, "What happened?!" Aaron said, "Well I just threw the gold into the fire and out came this calf!" and he said besides that, "It was the people! It was their pressure that did it!" Aaron wasn't able to say, "Look it. I was wrong. I was wrong. I sinned." He blame shifted, he rationalized, he minimized; and you and I do the same things today.

Now, when we sin we can deny it. We can rationalize it. We can justify it. We can minimize it. We can just block it out like it isn't there. But when we do, there are terrible consequences for that. Look what the Scripture says again in verse 8 (I John, chapter 1) It says if we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. We live a life of deception. We've convinced ourselves that we are so right, and we've deceived ourselves that we're right, we live the life of a lie. Hey, we think we're okay and everybody else is all wrong.

Then in verse 8 it says again: "if we claim we have not sinned, we make Him (that's God) out to be a liar and His Word has no place in us". We're saying, "God, You're a liar! God, it isn't sin! I didn't transgress against You. It wasn't a violation, God. Leave me alone." We're saying that God's a liar and in God's Word it says there is no truth in us. We can't allow His Word to work any further because we just block it out and we live a life of being deceived.

Many of us, when we're confronted with our sin will just do that. When we do that, we pay a heavy consequence for it. We live a life of deception, make God out to be a liar, we can't go any further in our Christian faith, and we are living that life of deception.

Now David struggled with the very same thing. We know the story in the Scripture of David, of his sin of adultery and consequently having Bathsheba's husband Uriah put out in the battle field. Consequently he was killed in battle. David hid the sin. He covered up. He made it look okay. Bathsheba mourned her husband Uriah. Then after her mourning, David brought her in. They had an official marriage. Then they had the baby and it looked like everything was okay--that the baby wasn't conceived out of an adulterous relationship. It was okay and David hid it for a year; but the Bible says the thing that David did displeased the Lord.

The prophet Nathan had the courage to come and confront David with the truth that he had sinned. Now David later recounted what happened in several psalms--in psalm 32 and psalm 51. In psalm 32 he tells about how wonderful it is to seek and receive forgiveness, but also what it was like when he covered his sin and when he denied that he had a problem. Look at psalm 32: blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord does not count against him and in whose spirit there is no deceit.

David said that's the wonder of forgiveness, but he said, there was a time when I denied it all, when I covered it, when I rationalized it, when I justified it. He said, here's what I went through. In verse 3 he says, "when I kept silent my bones wasted away through my groaning all the day long." He said, I had physical aches. My bones ached. I was in physical agony. Verse 4: "day and night Your hand was heavy upon me." There was a spiritual struggle between him and the Lord. "My strength was sapped as in the heat of summer." He said, I was weak. I was in pain. I suffered physically. I suffered spirtually. I suffered emotionally. And what was the problem? He was in denial about it. He was covering up. He was rationalizing. He was justifying it. But then he says this: "then I acknowledged my sin to You and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord. And you forgave the guilt of my sin."

What happened to David? The cover up was over. He got honest and open with God and he confessed his sin before the Lord. Look what Proverbs 23:13 says about this. "He who conceals his sins does not prosper. But whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy." We say, well I'm just going to hide it. I'm going to cover it up. No one will know. I'm going to just put it out of my mind. I'm going to block it out. I'm going to go on with my life. The Bible says, you can do that. But when you cover your sin, the Bible says, you will not prosper. Physical, emotional, spiritual misery.

You say, pastor, this is heavy. You're talking about sin, sin, sin. Well that's the bad news. The good news is that we can bring it before God and He'll wash it away. See the text continues in verse 9: "if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness". We think that if we go before God, and we confess our sins, we finally say, "God, You're right.", that He's going to throw the book at us.

What happens today if someone commits a heinous crime? Maybe they've murdered a bunch of people. There may have been a video tape. There may have been all kinds of witnesses. There may be a signed statement of guilt. And yet when that guilty person walks into the court of law and stands before a judge, almost ivariably when they're asked to enter a plea, what's the plea? Not guilty. Now why doesn't that person just go up to the judge and say, "Judge I'm guilty."? Because they know the moment that they admit guilt there will be a consequence. There will be jail time or there will be a fine or there will be something. Once they admit to the judge, "I committed the crime I am charged with" there is a price to pay.

There was a time I stood before a judge in a courtroom of law. He looked at me and he said, "Did you go on the grounds of Planned Parenthood in violation of my court order? How do you plead--guilty or not guilty?" And I said, "Your Honor, I plead guilty; but I throw myself at the mercy of the court." (That didn't work.) He looked at me and he said, "Since you have pleaded guilty, I sentence you to forty-five days in the Onondaga County Correctional Facility." It's hard to stand before a judge and plead guilty because you're going to be facing the music and facing the punishment.

I think sometimes we see God that way. I don't want to admit my thought was wrong. I don't want to admit my action was wrong because if I admit it to Him, as if He doesn't know it--cause He does know all--then I'm really in a mess now. But you see, God is not like a human judge. In fact, as you read the Scritures, it's just the opposite. God is willing and wanting and waiting for us to come clean and admit it. This verse says in I John 1:9 that when we confess our sins He is faithful and just not to throw the book at us, but to forgive us from all, from every unrighteousness.

Now the Bible says we need to confess sin. This word confession means to agree with. All we're doing when we confess is agreeing with God. We're saying, "Yes, God that attitude was sin. Yes, God the things I said out of my mouth were sin. Yes, God those thoughts I had were sin." Confession means to agree with God--saying, "Yes, God what happened to me was sin."

So we must confess our sin before God--not covering, not hiding, not minimizing, not rationalizing. But God, in His love, doesn't throw the book at us. The Bible says when we confess, we are cleaned of that sin. Look at the text: "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify (or cleanse) us from all unrighteousness." God wants to clean us up. God wants to give us a spiritual bath. But first we must come clean and open and honest.

By the way, there are two things of confession: the honest ones and the false ones. You know, we can go before our spouse and say, "Oh honey, I was so wrong! I did this and I did this and I was wrong. Would you forgive me?" We're just play acting and we know that if we act that way, then our spouse will respond, "Oh that's okay." You see, (well, maybe that's not your spouse!) we can have a false repentence. Do you know that Pharaoh said in the Scriptures, " Oh, I have sinned."? Do you know that in the Scriptures Judas said, "I have sinned."? Yet neither one of them was honest. Even King Saul said, "Oh I have sinned" but then he went back and just did the very same thing. You see, there can be a false confession and a true one--where in my heart I am honest with God. I am transparent. I say, "Oh God, against You and You only have I sinned and I have done this wickedness in Your sight." When we come open and honest and clean before the Lord, the Lord then cleans us up.

Now I have to tell you that when I was sitting in the middle of our property covered with mud, other than wanting to keep the event covered from people, I wanted to get cleaned. I wanted to get that mud off me as quick as possible. I didn't like to be covered in mud. I didn't like to be dirty and I wanted to be clean. It was great to get a shower after all that. We need spiritual showers from the Lord where we confess that sin and then we receive His wonderful cleansing. God wants to clean us.

In fact, when David prayed in Psalm 51 also about his sin, the basic part of his prayer was that of cleansing. He knew that he was filthy. He knew that his sin was just clinging to him and he asked for God to clean him. So he said this in Psalm 51:1, "Have mercy on me, oh God, according to Your unfailing love. According to Your great compassion, blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity. Cleanse me from my sin." And then we drop down to verse 7 where he says again, "Cleanse me with hyssop and I will be clean. Wash me and I will be whiter than snow." Verse 10: "Create in me a pure heart oh God. A clean heart oh God. Renew a steadfast spirit within me." David is saying, God I'm dirty. God, I need You to clean me up. And God promises us that when we come open and honest in confession, we'll receive a spiritual cleaning.

Not only does God clean us, but he covers our sin. Look at Chapter 2:1. Now some might be saying, hey this is okay! I've got a license to sin! I can go out and sin, then I can confess it and I'm cleansed, then I can go on. No, no, no! You misunderstand God. Look at Chapter 2:1. "My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin." He says earlier, "Walk in the light as He is in the light and then the blood of Jesus Christ will cleanse you from every sin." (I John 1:7). "But, (2:1) if anyone does sin,"--what happens when I sin?--"we have One who speaks to the Father in our defense: Jesus Christ the Righteous One". Some translations say, "we have an advocate". In the classic Greek language, the word "advocate" meant a defense attorney--a good one who could argue our case much better than we could and receive an innocent decree from the judge.

Now Jesus Christ is our defense attorney. You see, God the Father looks at us and He says, "You are guilty of this, this, and this". We say, "I admit it. I am guilty." And then Jesus Christ comes and says, "And I have paid it all. I have paid the price for every sin that person has ever committed." Then the Father declares us not guilty. You see, "Jesus paid it all. All to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain, but He washed it white as snow." So although we are guilty, when we confess it we are declared not guilty when we are clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

Then the text goes on to say in verse 2, "He is the atoning sacrifice, the propitiation for our sins. And not only for our sins, but also for the whole world." That word "propitiation" goes back to the Old Testament picture of the tabernacle and temple of the mercy seat. There was that beautiful Ark of the Covenant covered. The mercy seat was covered with pure gold. There were two cherubims over the top of that mercy seat and only once a year, on the day of Atonement, which is called today Yom Kippur, the priest would come with the blood of a perfect innocent lamb. He'd go into the Holy Place and sprinkle the blood on the mercy seat which would mean an atonement or a covering for the sins of the people as they confessed their sins.

We're told in Sripture that we have an atoning sacrifice in the blood of Jesus Christ. The blood of Jesus Christ is the covering for our sins. The Bible says in Proverbs 28:13 "He who covers his sins will not prosper. But he who confesses and forsakes them, happy is he." Now here's a very important spiritual truth. If we cover our sins, God's going to uncover them. Some day, sooner or later, they'll be revealed. We can say, well I'm going to put it off in the corner. Well, I'm not going to admit it. Well, I'm just going to hide over it and no one will ever know. If we cover those, sooner or later, they're going to be uncovered. The Bible says that God will expose those works of darkness.

But if we uncover them, if we go to God and say, "God that was sin. That was wrong. I admit it. I confess it.", the promise here is that God will then cover. What we cover, He will uncover. But what we uncover, the blood of Jesus Christ will cover over and cleanse us from every sin.

A beautiful picture of this is the prodigal son in Luke 15. There was the son who wasted the father's income and inheritance on wicked living. He got so low, the Bible says he came to himself and said, "wait a minute. I'm in the pigpen. I can go to my father's house where at least I could be a hired servant and I could have enough food to eat--a lot more than this pig slop I'm eating." So he took that long road back to the father's house. Now the father represents God in this story and the Bible tells us that when he saw his son afar off, the father ran to him. The son could hardly get out his confession because the father already knew he was repentent. He took that dirty, stinky, smelly son and wrapped him in his arms and lavished kisses upon him and loved him and immediately said, "Get a ring for his finger, a robe for his back. Put sandals on his feet."--all the signs of royalty and acceptance. He said to kill the fatted calf. Invite the friends and neighbors. We're going to celebrate and have party!

You know there's a party in the Father's house when we come to the Father? That's the picture of God waiting for us--not in stern judgment and reproof, but waiting for us to be open and honest and to confess to Him.

Father, you have not called us to be successful, but faithful. Lord, many of us would look at the past and say we haven't made it, but You are more interested that we finish the race with faithfulness. Lord, we know we will stand before you some day and Lord to receive the crowns to cast at your feet. Oh what a joy. Lord we ask that you teach us to faithful and help us to surrender our stubbornness, our will and our all to you. Let your word be at work in us. Do your mighty work in us Father...we ask it in Jesus name.

It is the believer that will stand before Christ to receive the rewards, but if you have not yet invited Jesus into your life to be your Lord and Savior, then you will appear before a different throne to be judged. And everyone who's name was not found written in the Lamb's book of life was thrown into the Lake of Fire. If you have not received Jesus as your Lord and Savior, your name is not in the Lamb's Book of Life; but it can be by trusting Jesus as Lord and Savior. If have never been saved and born again with a new Spirit, then you can be today. The Bible says that to as many who received Him, to those He gave them the power to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name. If you are not sure of your salvation, then pray this simple prayer with me.

So I am going to pray a prayer of invitation to receive Jesus into your life. It is not like saying an "our Father" or like reading a prayer card, it is not the words that are significant but what it means. You are going to ask Jesus to save you from your sins, to come into your heart, to be the master of your life and to take you to heaven when you die. So if you are not sure of your salvation today, and the desire of your heart is for Jesus Christ to come into your life to be your Lord and Savior, make this your prayer. Dear Lord, I am a sinner. I confess my sins to you and right now ask you to forgive my every sin. I invite you right now into my life, to be my Lord and my Savior. Thank you for coming into my life. May never be the same again. Make me a new person in Jesus Christ for I thank you in Jesus name. Amen. Father we thank you. We thank you for the body and blood of Jesus and as we come around your table, help us to come with a heart cleansed by the blood of Christ, with an attitude of gratefulness and a desire to walk in the holiness you have called us to. We thank you and praise you in Jesus name. Some people give their all to their sports or their hobbies, yet those around them get nothing. Some of you know things are not right in your family because things like sports or hobbies are more important than your family. You need to give your all to God and your family. ==========================================================================

If you have prayed this prayer, please let us know by EMAIL or by correspondence. It would be a real blessing to us. And if you would like a cassette tape of this message, please send $3.00 to cover costs to: Faith Chapel 4113 W. Seneca Turnpike Syracuse, N.Y. 13215 (315) 469-5555

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"Watch and pray, therefore, that you would be counted worthy to escape the judgment that is coming upon the earth and be able to stand before the Son of Man" (Luke 21:36).

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