We need to understand that if a person is a Christian, their heart has been regenerated, they have been made alive, they have been given a new heart, and also the Holy Spirit dwells within them.
So, a Christian is going to experience changes, transformations. They are going to grow in conformity to Christ. Yet at the same time, we will never be free from sin on this side of heaven. I want us to look at 1st John and Chapter one and John says in verse eight, If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. One of the things that is so evident about someone who is a Christian, it is not that they are sinless, but that they recognize sin in their life.
And when they see that sin, they confess it. A lot of times we do not see how extraordinary that actually is. We live in a world that is sinning constantly against God. And yet so few people recognize their sin, take responsibility for their sin, confess their sin, mourn over their sin. So, when you see a person who has professed faith in Christ doing these types of things, it is evident that they truly have come to know Him.
You see, a Christian will sin less, but they will not be without sin. But when they do sin, it will cause sorrow in their heart, it will lead them to repentance and the confession of that sin. He says, if we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. There are so many times when I will preach in a church and this very same thing will happen every time. Maybe I shall preach in a Church about sin or about the necessity of being holy.
And sometimes the spirit of God will be working and many people will be broken over their sin. And what seems to be so unusual is this: the people who are usually the most godly, sincere and devoted in the Church are the ones most broken over their sin. While those who show little signs or evidences of having been born again sit there as though they had no sense at all.
And what we are seeing is the working of the spirit of God in God's people and the lack of that working in people who profess faith in Christ but really do not know Him. Now, he says this in verse 9. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness who says this a 90 years John the Apostle of Jesus Christ.
When the believer sins, the believer should confess that sin turn away from it and ask for forgiveness. Now, what is confession? Confession literally in the Greek is is a word omologeo and literally it means to speak the same thing. So, if I am a Christian and I study the word of God and reading the Bible, one day the Lord convicts me of sin. Or let's say that a brother in Christ who dearly loves me sees that I am not walking as I ought to be and he speaks to me about my sin.
And I know it is from God. He is using the scripture. It really is true. I have sinned. When God tells me through the word of God or through the instruction of another believer or some other way, when God tells me that I have sinned, when he speaks to me. You have sinned; you were impatient. Confession is not just to say, "I' am sorry." Confession is to speak the same thing. When God says, you have been impatient. Confession is when I say Lord, I agree with you with regard to my sin. You say I have been impatient. You are right. I have been impatient. That is confession and then asking for forgiveness. Forgive me for my impatience now. So, we see here that even though a believer is going to be transformed and continue transforming, even a believer will experience change and conformity to Christ.
We will still have to deal with sin in our lives. Hopefully it will be a lot less as we grow, but it will be there and we have to deal with it and we deal with it through brokenness and confession, recognizing that what God says about us is true and confessing it.
Now, let me take you to another text that is very, very important. Very important. In Psalms 119:11, David says: Your word, I have treasured in my heart that I may not sin against You. How can we grow in conformity to Christ, how can we sin less? Well, one of the essential, essential things we need is here in verse 11, the word of God. Look what he says. Your word I have treasured in my heart that I may not sin against You. Now, if you are listening to this, let me ask you a question. How much time do you spend in the word of God? How much time do you spend reading the word of God, studying the word of God, memorizing the word of God, meditating on the word of God? Most people, when they hear this question, they kind of bow their head and acknowledge not enough. Some even almost not at all.
This is one of the reasons why that we have so little power over sin, is because we spend so little time in the word of God. You know, you cannot miss breakfast without starting to get hungry. You miss lunch, you are starting to feel weak. You miss lunch and supper and breakfast. You mean you miss meals all day and by the next day you are probably even going to feel sick. Well, that is a physical illustration of a spiritual reality.
You need the word of God. Sometimes people ask me and they act like, you know, growing is this great mystery that no one can solve. How can we grow? And then I ask them this question, well, how much time do you spend in the word of God? And their answer is usually: It cannot be that simple. Show me some trick or some key to spiritual growth. And I say, I am trying to. You need to spend time in the word of God.
Now, look what he says again. Your word I have treasured in my heart that I may not sin against you. Now let us change it a little. Your word I have not treasured in my heart so that I might sin against you. Do you see? It works both ways. If you are going to neglect your study of scripture, the memorization and meditation of scripture, then you are opening your life to less and less conformity and to more and more sin. Now, when I talk about the Bible and studying the Bible, how should you do it?
Well, I do not have the only way to do it. But let me tell you something that is very important. Most people jump back and forth. They read one portion in one book and then maybe another chapter in another book, and they go from here to there. And they never really understand the council of God. They never really see the big picture. I would recommend that if you have never read the New Testament, start in the book of Matthew and read all the way through to the Book of Revelation and do that several times and then go to the Old Testament. Start in Genesis and read all the way through to Revelation and spend the rest of your life in that life discipline, whether it is three, four or five or fifteen chapters a day.
The important thing is that you are reading through the Bible systematically and you are beginning to see how all the pieces fit together. You are beginning to see the big picture of God and the big picture with regard to God's salvation and God's will. Very, very important. Now, I want us to go to the Book of James for a moment, and I want to show you something that is often overlooked.
But it is been very helpful for me in my life in chapter one. You know, James is talking about trials. And then after he is talking about trials, James comes down and he says this. Verse 13. Let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted by evil and He himself does not tempt anyone. When I am being tempted to do something, I need to realize, first of all, this is not from God and this is not according to God's will, and this is not conformed to God's character.
I need to see sin for what it really is, something that stands in opposition to everything that God is and everything that he desires. This is not just some little mistake. This is hostility. It is enmity. It as fighting against God and God's purpose in my life and so I need to recognize sin for what it is. It is not coming from God. And when I am living in this world and maybe a person asked me to do something or there is a possibility to do something over here and I consider it in the light of scripture and I realize it is not something God would want me to do. I need to recognize this is not from God. I am a child of God, and I should have nothing to do with it. There is nothing. We have no fellowship no truce, no unity with darkness, with sin, with the devil.
And so, recognize when temptation comes I i's not from God and it needs to be rejected. Now, verse 14, it says, but each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Now, when a temptation comes and it enters into your mind, do this or look here, that is not sin. That is a temptation. That is not sin. It becomes sin when you give into it, when you give yourself over to it, when you devote yourself to it, when you deliver yourself to do that very thing, that is when it becomes sin. But when it first enters into your mind, look at that no, that's not temptation.
But here is what you need to understand. You cannot play around with temptation. You cannot play around with sin. It will grab you and it will grab you quickly. If you are out working in the fields in India or Pakistan and there is a big cobra and you have got a machete in your hand and all of a sudden that cobra rises up, you don't have... You cannot sit there and talk to it. You cannot reason with it. It is going to strike in a matter of a second or two. You have got to take off its head or you have got to flee. You have got to get out of there. You cannot play around with it. How many children do we know, at least in and around that have been around me in my lifetime, that have sat there and played around with poisonous snakes, having a good time, and then all of a sudden, they get too close, they get too careless and what happens?
The snake strikes when you see the temptation, when it appears, don not play with it, do not meditate on it. Do not think about it. Kill it, get away from it, flee from it. We are told to flee from certain sins (1 Corinthians 6:18). You see, do you remember when Cane was angry, he was very, very angry and God said to him, sin is waiting at the door and its desire is to have you (Genesis 4:6-7). You need to realize something. Sin is like a wild animal and when it approaches, it wants you. It wants to devour you.
It wants to destroy you. The Bible says the devil is like a roaring lion (1 Peter 5:8), seeking whom he may devour. So do not play with this, cut it off immediately. And here is another thing that's very important about sin. Do not go to the places where sin is easy. I said, do not go back to the places where you used to frequent, do not run with the same guys and do not go near those taverns and places where you used to drink physically. Stay away from them. This is very important on the Internet and other things, never put yourself in a position where you can be alone with temptation, build guards around you to protect yourself. You have got to realize how weak you are and how strong the devil is and how strong sin and its lust can be.
Now it says in verse James1:15, then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. Another thing that you need to realize about sin, it is deadly and you say, well, I am a Christian, OK, you are a Christian, I is still deadly. How many Christian homes have I seen destroyed by sin? How many Christian ministries are no more because of sin?
How many men who have been used mightily of God to do great things, and then they fall into sin and it and it does everything that was good before? Sin is deadly. It is monstrous. You need to fear it. You need to run from it. Now, verse James 1:16, this is the important part in dealing with temptation. Do not be deceived, my beloved brother, and every good thing, given every perfect gift is from above coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no sin.
