"If we confess our sins He is faithful and just
to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from
all unrighteousness." 1 John 1:9
John the beloved disciple warns us against an attitude of innocence
before a holy God. To pretend that we have nothing to confess to God
is to call Him a liar, and to practice lies before our maker. David
says: "Behold I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother
conceive me." Psalm 51:5 And Isaiah adds to his own unworthiness
before a holy God when he says: "All of our righteousnesses (that is,
our best efforts) are as filthy rags." Isaiah 64:6
Isaiah is a good example of the result of the proper method of
intercessory prayer. In Isaiah 6 he first sees the Lord in all his
beauty, high and lifted up, and glorified. The sight was so awesome
that just and righteous Isaiah fell on His face before God with an
acute awareness of his own sinful nature. He was seeing his own
sinful nature in contrast to the holiness of God. He cried out in his
own unholy state: "WOE IS ME I AM UNDONE..." Isaiah 6:1-5
We are not just to come into God's presence presumptuously, but humbly
(2 Chron 7:14) contritely, with a sincere perspective on our own
nature. We need a vision of ourselves, our true fallen nature, our
minds which are unclean, and of which God knows every passing thought.
(Psalm 139:1-5)
Until we recognize our own state of bankruptcy before a holy God we
cannot truly lean upon His Righteousness, without which no man will
see the Lord. (Hebrews 12:14) We would instead come into his presence
as the Pharisee, proud, bragging of his kept laws, righteous deeds,
his right to gain the Father's favor. We need to see ourselves as
destitute, and totally depraved without the righteousness of Christ.
We have nothing of which to boast. We, as the rich church of
Laodicea in Revelation 3:14-22 nee d to see ourselves as God sees us.
"Lukewarm...wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked."
A.W. Tozer says:
"We need to admit...the shallowness of our inner experience,
the hollowness of our worship, the worldliness of our lives,
our fleshly fallen nature that lives on, yet unjudged within us,
uncrucified and unrepudiated, and the hyphenated sins of the
human spirit, self-righteousness, self-pity self-confidence,
self-sufficiency, self-admiration, self-love, self-indulgence,
and a host of other self-sins. THEY ARE NOT SOMETHING WE DO,
THEY ARE SOMETHING WE ARE..."
The Pursuit of God
A. REGARDING INIQUITY
"If I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me."
Psalm 66:18
TO REGARD INIQUITY means to leave it alone, to tolerate it, to know it
is there and do nothing about it. It is to hide it, to cover it by
excuses, to consider it unimportant, to ignore its dangers.
God considers any iniquity to be an ABOMINATION. An abomination is a
horrible disgusting thing. There are no "good guy" iniquities, no
little white lies, no insignificant rebellions of the heart! God
calls rebellion in any form "as the sin of witchcraft, and
stubbornness as idolatry." (1 Samuel 15:23) God considers SIN as SIN
and all equally appalling to His holiness. Sin in our heart is to the
Lord as maggots in the holy offerings --- slimy, crawling, slithering,
disgusting, putrefying sores, defil ing the whole! (Isaiah 1:6)
Daniel was conscious of the subtile ways in which sin surrounds us and
creeps into our thoughts, actions, and inactions. In his exemplary
prayer in Daniel 9 he IDENTIFIES nine faces of SIN.
WE HAVE ...
1. Sinned v 5 Missed the mark, fall short
2. Committed iniquity v 5 Deliberate conscious sin
3. Done wickedly v 5 Life style habitual sin
4. Rebelled v 5 Said no to God!
5. Not hearkened v 6 Closed our ears, ignored
6. Not obeyed voice v 10 Grieved the Holy Spirit)
7. Transgressed law v 11 Legal term know law & disobey
8. Departed from God v 11 Backslidden, wandered away
9. Made not prayer v 13 Sin of prayerlessness
B. DEAL WITH SIN !
Jesus emphasized the need to deal with sin each time he spoke of
prayer. In the Lord's prayer he deals heavily with the need to deal
severely with sin. That is, in fact, the primary lesson of the Lord's
Prayer. Immediately after citing it he pointed out the need to
forgive as well as ask for forgiveness.
In Matthew 5:23-26 Jesus further deals with sin in prayer by saying
that when we come to God's altar with an offering WE MUST FIRST DO
SOMETHING ABOUT BROKEN RELATIONSHIPS BEFORE WE PRAY AND OFFER P
RAISE!!! An attempt at reconciliation MUST be made BEFORE our prayers
will be heard. I Peter 3:7 includes the marital relationship as being
a hindering factor in prayer.
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HAVE YOU DEALT SERIOUSLY...SPECIFICALLY...WITH YOUR SIN?
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I WILL CONFESS MY SIN
A man that truely enters into the presence of God cannot but help to
see himself as unclean. Even the Scripture admits that "all of
righteousnesses as a filthy rags." So was the feeling of Isaiah
before the throne in Isaiah 6, and of Daniel in chapter 9. The
holiness of God cannot tolerate the presence of sin! We are exhorted
to confess or sin to the Lord (I John 1:8-9), and even admit our
faults one to another (James 5:16) so as to pray effectively and
fervently as rightous men.
CONFESSION CHECKLIST
(Check up on your own secret sins)
1. Selfish desires ____ James 4:3
2. Secret sins ____ Psalm 66:18
3. Ingratitude ____ Phil. 4:4-8
4. Marital conflict ____ I Peter 3:7b
5. Unforgiving Attitude ____ Mark 11:25-26
6. Anger ____ Ephesians
7. Doubt ____ Heb. 11:6a
8. Prayerlessness ____ Heb. 11:6b
9. Indecision & doubt ____ James 1:6
10. Bitterness ____ Heb. 12:15
11. Rebelion of heart ____ I Sam 15:23
12. Known disobedience ____ James 4:17
13. Lust ____ Matt 5:28
14. Impatience with others ____ Eph. 4:32
15. Temper ____ Eph. 4:26-27
CONVICTION is seeing sin as exceedingly sinful.
REPENTANCE is "AGREEING WITH GOD ABOUT MY SIN," and turning from it.
CONFESSION is exposing it to God & asking Him to forgive and cleanse.
There are sins that "EASILY BESET US" that serve only to weigh us down
and cause us shame and hinder our fellowship with God. (Hebrews 12:1)
Each of us has our own set of reoccuring sins. Confession is laying
it out before the Lord... for "ALL THINGS ARE NAKED AND OPENED UNTO
THE EYES OF HIM WITH WHOM WE HAVE TO DO." (Heb. 4:13)
C. MY BESETTING SINS
(Lord, these are areas I need cleansing and forgiveness!)
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