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Bible Study What to do about sin once you are saved.

JohnD

Member
The Apostle Paul in Romans 7 goes into the theological mechanics of the believer and sin. And while grateful for that, we don't find the practical application of what to do about sin in our lives after we've been born again... until the Apostle John wrote what many refer to as the Believer's Bar of Soap 1 John 1:9.

1 John 1:9 (NKJV)
9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.


Okay...

"Lord I confess..."

"Lord I'm sorry..."

You go to the Church or your spouse or your friends and burden them with how rotten you are (which explains that stand-offishness they now display towards you.

What do you do?

Here's what you do...

Stay tuned next week same channel same time...
:biglol
 
No, seriously... (sorry)...

Let me begin this series with an old quip from an old Bible teacher the late Dr. J. Vernon McGee.

"Friends, let me tell you... if you knew all that God knows about me, you wouldn't want to listen to me.

But now hold on!

If I knew everything about you that God knows, I wouldn't speak to ya!"

LOL

There is a certain amount of truth in coming clean to others. To try to right a wrong you did or a wrong you did by neglect to another. But by and large "confessing your sins one to another" (James 5:16) is to confess in general (with the exception of what I just mentioned)... because most folks can't deal with their own sins let alone your sins ore my sins. Because he was such a universal biblical example, the prophet David's sins are a matter of biblical record. And yet in the most complete confession one could utter (Psalm 51) David does not go into details. He does not confess his sin to others (except the prophet Nathan who charged him to face his sin), and though his sins involved many people he spoke these words: "Against you, you only have I sinned and done this evil in your sight."

The Bible tells us our spouses are our soul mates / help mates, but it also cautions us to be mindful what we say even to them (Micah 7:5). How much more are we to spare our words with other people!

Years and years ago in Baptist Seminary Extension courses I took (before I knew the difference between the Church organization and the Church organism)... one of the students spoke of a young lady who had a lapse in moral judgment confessed her sins before the local congregation she attended all her life and was excommunicated by that congregation. The professor of the course said "Terrible tragedy!" And it was.

It most definitely was. When she needed God's people her brothers and sisters the most, she was thrown to the wolves.

Because people can't handle these sorts of things they tend (even with the best of intentions or not) to MIShandle them. And at times like this very badly and tragically.

I never heard what ever came of that poor young lady. But I've known many former Church goers who had similar stories to tell.
 
Point being... go to God, confess to God, the God who despite the fact he already knows everything about you and I loves us with a love that is greater than even the love we have for one another down here or even for our own selves. He even made it so that when we keep these commands (confessing sin and regaining fellowship with him and our brethren) it actually perfects his love.

1 John 2:5 (NKJV)
5 But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him.
 
So, is there a formula to this confession?

I do not buy into the People to People (Bob George) interpretation of this passage which he claims is written to unbelievers and is about the first and one time only confession of sin for salvation. But the text is clearly written to believers (1 John 2:1), and George's interpretation of fellowship does not fit the text either "you are in fellowship saved or out of fellowship lost." Matthew 18:15-18 and 1 Corinthians 5:5 refute this interpretation.

So, what IS confession?

It is in the Greek to come along side... to agree. To agree with God this is a sin or this is sin what I did or didn't do that I should have done.

Simple right?

If it were so simple, we would not be in the prayer closet confession booth so often (by confession booth I mean in prayer confessing directly to God our sin). The things the institutional Church has devised to deal with these things AND keep themselves in the loop or inserted themselves between you and God such as in the confessional / confession booth actually hinder this process and opens the doors of gossip and placing you in a humanist category.

It's less complicated than all that but it is not simple because we have to remember that in order to afford us this ability the Lord Jesus Christ the Ultimate Innocence paid dearly with his own blood... in more than just the three hours on the cross... in more than the beatings and scourging... in more than the ridicule from the very people he came to save... in more than the abandonment of his disciples... in more than the betrayal... in having to become a man and live life as a man and to die as a man... and in the resurrection from the dead, to spend the rest of eternity as a resurrected man. God incarnate. But forevermore a man. And never never never underestimate how much the Father loves the Son and how great was his restraint in not wiping out everyone responsible for his Son's abuse and death (everyone meaning all who ever sinned meaning us all)...

Let's begin now that the setting is a bit more clear.
 
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1 John 2:1 (NKJV)

1 My little children,

these things I write to you, so that you may not sin.

And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

Pause on the highlighted a moment.

Most folks all they hear is Jesus died for your sins.

Pause on the highlighted again.

This is in no way about a free ride / license to sin... and most act as though it was even if they never mean to... it kind of creeps up on ya if you're not careful.

Ever have that feeling when tempted "oh well, I'm forgiven anyway..." and then off we go.

Very dangerous place to be. Not because you can lose your salvation! Because a tree that bears bad fruit is bad. Apparently as Christians we good trees can bear bad fruit. But how dangerous it is to bear bad fruit because it may mean you were never saved in the first place. And Matthew 7:21-23 is the hell you will face believing all along you were saved and to find when it's too late to do anything about it you were not.

Matthew 7:21-23 (NKJV)
21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.
22 “Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’
23 “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’

Scariest passage in the Bible if you ask me.

You balance it with:

1 John 4:17 (NKJV)
17 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world.

But you cannot have that boldness without love being perfected. Some translations say our love is perfected but I believe it refers rather to what 1 John 2:5 says that GOD'S LOVE is perfected AMONG us.

HOW?

By keeping these commands.

By keeping his word.

1 John 1:5-10 (NKJV)
5 This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.
6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.
7 But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.
8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.

1 John 2:1-6 (NKJV)
1 My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
2 And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.
3 Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments.
4 He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
5 But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him.
6 He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.
 
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1 John 2:6 (NKJV)
6 He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.

Did Jesus go around seeking to serve himself?

Did he feel sorry for himself?

Did he gossip about others?

Did he seek his own benefit / comfort / interest?

Did he toy with sin to see how close he could get to it?

THEN WHY DO WE ?
 
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Notice the 1 John passage warns not to lie to God and one's self that we did not sin. Trust me... we sin. Even when we are not aware we sin. Paul (again) gives the nuts and bolts of it sin is in our flesh not in our spirit {provided of course that we are saved}. But what do we do? Living in the flesh and not the spirit. We feed the flesh and starve the spirit and if spirits could die our emaciated spirits would have died long ago.

Back to basics...

Proverbs 28:13 (NKJV)
13 He who covers his sins will not prosper, But whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.

Confesses AND forsakes!

Hmmm.... kind of sets the thing a bit deeper...

If you have not discovered by now the way to fully understand the meaning in the Bible is not to refer exclusively to one portion of scripture... one can get the gist of God's intent form the smallest of Bible passages (John 3:16) for example... but the passage goes on to verses 17 and 18, or like Ephesians 2:8 and 9 goes on to verse 10... and the New Testament alone will give you a black and white version of the Gospel but the New and Old Testament will give you the High def color version setting and outcome.

Forsaking a confessed sin is harder to repeat at least as quickly as one confessed over and over and over for the same sin each time (meaning there is no forsaking no sense of hey this cost Jesus his blood what I did) and is reducing the saving grace of God Almighty to a charm bracelet or magic mantra... a kind of superstitious eternal fire insurance policy for those who only want to avoid hell...

Matthew 7:21-23 (NKJV)
21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.
22 “Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’
23 “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’
 
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Proverbs 28:13 (NKJV)
13 He who covers his sins will not prosper, But whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.

Psalm 51 (NKJV)
1 To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba. Have mercy upon me, O God, According to Your lovingkindness; According to the multitude of Your tender mercies, Blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, And cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I acknowledge my transgressions, And my sin is always before me.
4 Against You, You only, have I sinned, And done this evil in Your sight— That You may be found just when You speak, And blameless when You judge.
5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me.
6 Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, And in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom.
7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 Make me hear joy and gladness, That the bones You have broken may rejoice.
9 Hide Your face from my sins, And blot out all my iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me away from Your presence, And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, And uphold me by Your generous Spirit.
13 Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, And sinners shall be converted to You.
14 Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, The God of my salvation, And my tongue shall sing aloud of Your righteousness.
15 O Lord, open my lips, And my mouth shall show forth Your praise.
16 For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart— These, O God, You will not despise.
18 Do good in Your good pleasure to Zion; Build the walls of Jerusalem.
19 Then You shall be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, With burnt offering and whole burnt offering; Then they shall offer bulls on Your altar.

Psalm 51:11-b is Old Covenant. New Covenant "I will never leave you or forsake you."
Verse 19 is Old Covenant as well.
 
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Romans 5 (NKJV)
1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
2 through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
3 And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance;
4 and perseverance, character; and character, hope.
5 Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
6 For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die.
8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.
10 For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
11 And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.
12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned—
13 (For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law.
14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.
15 But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man’s offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many.
16 And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned. For the judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation, but the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification.
17 For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.)
18 Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life.
19 For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.
20 Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more,
21 so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Romans 6 (NKJV)
1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?
2 Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?
3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?
4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection,
6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.
7 For he who has died has been freed from sin.
8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,
9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him.
10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.
11 Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.
13 And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
14 For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not!
16 Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?
17 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.
18 And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.
19 I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness.
20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.
21 What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.
22 But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life.
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
 
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Romans 7 (NKJV)
1 Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives?
2 For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband.
3 So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man.
4 Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another— to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God.
5 For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death.
6 But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.
7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.”
8 But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead.
9 I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.
10 And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death.
11 For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me.
12 Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.
13 Has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not! But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful.
14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin.
15 For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do.
16 If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good.
17 But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.
18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find.
19 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.
21 I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good.
22 For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man.
23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
24 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
25 I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.

Romans 8 (NKJV)
1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
3 For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh,
4 that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.
6 For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.
8 So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
9 But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.
10 And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
12 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors—not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.
13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.
15 For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.”
16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,
17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.
18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
19 For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God.
20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope;
21 because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
22 For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.
23 Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.
24 For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees?
25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.
26 Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
27 Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.
29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
30 Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?
33 Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.
34 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
36 As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”
37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come,
39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
 
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