Alright, Proverbs chapter 29, or 28 this morning, excuse me, verse number 13 is where we get
the title of the sermon this morning, where the Bible reads,
He that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but whosoever confesseth and forsaketh them
shall have mercy.
And the title of the sermon this morning is forsake sin.
I want to talk about the topic of forsaking sin in our lives.
Now right off the bat, it's important that we understand that sin cannot be covered.
That's why it's important that we forsake sin.
Because sin is something that we can see outwardly in our own lives and in the lives
of others, but it's something that a lot of people, I think, have in their minds that
if it's something that other people aren't seeing them doing, then it's something that
they can cover.
As it says there, he that covereth his sins.
So we see that it is possible for a person to have sin in their life that they cover,
and it's important that we understand, first of all, that sin is something that cannot
be covered up in our lives.
The Bible says in Hebrews chapter 4, for the word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper
than any two-edged sword, piercing into the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of
the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight, but all things are
naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
So that him whom we have to do there is obviously speaking of God.
And the Bible is saying here in Hebrews chapter 4 that all things are naked and opened unto
his eyes.
There is nothing that God cannot see.
The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 12, let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter, fear
God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man, for God shall bring
every work unto judgment with every secret thing, whether it be good or equal.
So God knows every secret thing.
Every sin that we think we can hide or cover up, God knows about it.
Bible says in Job 34, for his eyes are upon the ways of man, and he seeeth all his goings.
So we see again, verse after verse, the Bible is showing us that there is nothing that God
cannot see.
There is nothing, nowhere we go that God cannot see us.
In Job 28, the Bible says, for he looketh to the ends of the earth, and seeth under
the whole heaven.
Proverbs 15, 3, the eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.
The Bible says that the eyes of the Lord are in every place, so it would be a very foolish
thing for us to think this morning, that there is some sin that we can cover up in our lives,
and though man might not see it, though others might not know about it, that God would not
see it.
So with that in mind, it's important that we understand that sin is something that we
must forsake in our lives.
You see, forsaking sin is something that a practiced discipline in our life.
Forsaking sin is a continual process, and it's important that we understand first of
all that forsaking sin is not something we have to do for salvation.
It's not some kind of work that we have to perform, and it's important to understand
that because a lot of people today will tell you that.
They'll say that you have to repent of your sin to be saved.
They'll say you have to turn from your sins to the iniquity in your life in order to go
to heaven.
The Bible is very clear that it doesn't teach that.
I mean, you can go to the book of John and look at verse after verse after verse that
says, you know, whosoever believeth in him shall be saved and shall not perish.
There's a multitude of verses like that, and I really don't want to go down that rabbit
trail right now, but it's important that we do understand what I'm not talking about this
morning.
I'm not saying that we need to forsake sin in order to go to heaven.
What I'm saying is that the child of God, one who has already put their faith and trust
in Jesus Christ for salvation, has to practice the discipline of forsaking sin in our lives.
Because salvation doesn't mean that we're automatically never going to sin again.
God knows that we're going to sin every single day of our lives.
And there's things in our lives that we need to, certain sins that we must learn to forsake.
It must be exercised if we're going to receive mercy and prosper.
As it says in Proverbs 28, he that covers his sins shall not prosper.
But whosoever confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.
So if we want to prosper, if we want the mercy and blessing of God in our life, then we need
to practice the discipline of forsaking sin.
Now what does that mean to forsake something?
It means simply just to abandon it.
It means to renounce it.
It means to reject it.
We could think of several verses, perhaps in the Bible, where Paul said, you know, Demas
hath forsaken me.
What was he saying?
Is that Demas had rejected Paul and gone back having loved his present world and gone back
to the world.
We could think again, you know, of other verses that use that word forsake, but I think it's
a pretty simple concept that we can all grasp, that to forsake something is to abandon it,
is to renounce it, is to reject it.
And the Bible is saying here that we need to forsake our sin, and that's what we're
going to preach about this morning is the process of forsaking sin.
You see, the Bible even gives us very specific examples of sins that should be forsaken.
In 1 Corinthians 6, 18, it says, Flee fornication.
Flee is just another word for abandoning or rejecting or forsaking something, is to flee
from something.
It's saying, Flee fornication.
Every sin that a man doeth is without the body, but he that comitteth fornication sinneth
against his own body.
1 Timothy 6, 9, But they that will be rich fall into a temptation and a snare, and into
many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.
For the love of money is the root of all evil, which, while some covet it after, they have
erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
But thou, O man of God, flee these things.
So Paul here is exhorting Timothy to flee the love of money.
He's telling him to flee these hurtful and lusts that drown men with sorrow.
So there's certain sins that the Bible is teaching us that we need to learn to forsake.
1 Corinthians 10, Wherefore, let him that thinketh he stand to take heed, lest he fall.
There hath no temptation taken you, but such is common to man.
But God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able,
but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may able to bear it.
Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry.
So again, another very specific sin that the Bible is telling us that we need to flee from,
that we need to forsake in our lives, the sin of idolatry.
Proverbs 9, 6, Forsake the foolish and live.
The Bible uses this idea, this concept of fleeing and forsaking, of abandoning and rejecting
certain sins in our lives, and therefore we need to learn what it is to forsake sin in
our lives.
This sermon this morning is going to give us a kind of formula for forsaking sin.
It's very easy just to get up and say, hey, you need to get the sin out of your life.
But I believe that there are certain things that we need to put in practice in our lives
that there's a formula, if you will, to forsaking sin.
Now there are many biblical examples that we could turn to where people are forsaking
sin in their lives, where people are getting right with God.
And Israel, the nation of Israel, in the book of Nehemiah, is a great example.
And if you would, please turn to Nehemiah chapter 1.
Nehemiah chapter 1.
And we'll look at a biblical example of a man and a group of people who are forsaking
sin in their life.
And I want to talk this morning about basically three points, three parts to the process,
to the formula of forsaking sin in our lives.
First point I want to make this morning is that if we're going to forsake sin in our
lives, we have to confess.
We have to confess the sin in our life.
We need to be able to confess.
You see, what good does it do to forsake sin if you don't think you have any sin?
We have to admit to the fact, just like for salvation, the first thing a person has to
do is understand that they are a sinner that needs a savior.
We need to understand as believers, as those who have already trusted on Christ, that if
we're going to forsake sin, that there is indeed sin in our lives.
We must confess our sin in order to forsake our sin.
You see, we all have sin in our lives, anyone among us, nobody's perfect, nobody's reached
some kind of perfection here in this life where they're without sin.
The Bible says in 1 John 8, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the
truth is not in us.
It would be a very foolish thing to think that you have no sin, in fact the only person
the Bible says that you're going to deceive is yourself.
I could get up here and say this morning that I am without sin and I could even have myself
convinced of that fact but everybody here would know that that's a lie and that the
truth is not in me.
So we need to confess first of all that we are all sinners, that we all have sin in our
lives.
We need to confess and understand also that our sins can always be forgiven.
We should never get to this point in our life where we think that the sin that is in our
life is something that God cannot forgive us, that it's something that we cannot forsake,
that it's not something that we can't get out of our lives and get the mercy and grace
and forgiveness from God.
The Bible says in 1 John 1-9, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins.
We have a faithful God, we have a just God who will forgive us our sins if we confess
our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
We say this morning, maybe I don't know, I know there's sin in my life and I'm a sinner
but what is it in my life that I need to forsake?
A lot of people grow in knowledge and grace and they get right with God and they get a
lot of these sins out of their lives and they get these major ones that we would look
at.
We looked at fornication, the sin of drunkenness, all these big issue sins, these big letter
sins that people would say, hey you shouldn't have anything to do with that.
People get those sins out of their lives and they kind of think that they've arrived, that
there's really no other sin in their life that they need to make a practice of forsaking.
But I would say that if that's the case with you this morning, you need to ask God to show
you those things which offend Him.
Those things in your life that you need to continue to forsake in your life.
Or maybe there's an old sin that's popped back up in your life and it's come back to
be a part of your life and you haven't really even noticed it.
The Bible says in Psalm 139, David prayed and said, search me, O God, and know my heart.
Try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the
way of everlasting.
So we see here that David's praying to know his heart and to know his thoughts.
So it's not just actions that we need to forsake in our life, I mean we talk about getting
the sin out of your life where most people will automatically think of very specific
outward actions that a person can get involved with.
Certain sins like the sin of fornication, the sin of drunkenness and on and on and so
on and so forth.
But David here is saying, know my heart, he's saying know my thoughts.
So it's not just our actions, but it could also be our attitudes.
It could be the attitudes of things we think, it could be the attitude that we have in our
heart that we need to forsake, there could be certain sins that are inward that nobody
else can see, but their feelings, their thoughts, their attitudes.
Maybe it's an ungrateful attitude, maybe it's one that's not counting the blessings in your
life or thinking that somehow God is robbing you of something that you believe you deserve.
It could be an ungrateful attitude.
It could be a bitter or complaining spirit, that's another one that we see in the scriptures
over and over again, especially with the children of Israel where they become bitter and ungrateful
and they complain.
So it could be a bitter or complaining spirit.
It could be siding with the world over scripture.
Maybe it's not a, maybe the sin that we need to forsake this morning isn't necessarily
an action or an attitude, but maybe it's a certain philosophy that we've adopted or never
thought to get rid of in our lives.
A lot of people are getting saved later on in their life and they bring a lot of preconceived
ideas into the Christian life, and as we read the word of God and we start to see that the
things in the word of God conflict with the things that we've been taught by the world,
the philosophies that we've adopted, we need to be ready to confess and forsake those philosophies.
Philosophy is about marriage, philosophy is about child rearing, philosophy is about just
living your life in this world as a Christian.
So it's not just actions, it's attitudes, it's philosophies, we need to ask God to know
our hearts and to know our thoughts and to try us and see if there's any kind of action
or attitude that we need to confess and forsake.
Of course it would also be those habitual sins, sins that we continually struggle with,
sins that we need to get the victory over in our lives.
Those will require a preemptive prayer.
We need to confess those things, we need to see and understand that those sins in our
lives that we struggle with, those are things that we need to make a special issue of prayer,
a special part of our lives that requires a due diligence, another level of vigilance
in protecting ourselves from.
The Bible says in Psalm 19, who can understand his errors, cleanse thou me from secret faults,
keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins, let them not have dominion over me.
So here again in the Psalms, he's praying and asking God to help him to forsake those
sins and he's saying, and he's confessing in the process, he's saying, keep thy servant
also from presumptuous sins.
Those sins that we would just presume that, you know, I'm going to just do this and God's
going to be okay with it.
No, we need to understand God's not going to be okay with it, that we are going to suffer
the repercussions if we allow sin into our life.
You see, those sins that we are tempted with the most, those are the ones that we have
to deal with the most proactively, we need to make sure that we don't allow the presumptuous
sins in our lives, not just the attitudes and the philosophies, but also those specific
sins that we all deal with, that we are more prone to than others, that we need to make
sure that we do not let those have the dominion over us.
Here in Nehemiah chapter 1, we'll see here that Nehemiah was a man who confessed his
sin.
In the process of forsaking sin, the first thing we need to understand is that we need
to confess our sin, which is what Nehemiah did in Nehemiah chapter 1, beginning in verse
1, the words of Nehemiah, the son of Hacaliah, and it came to pass in the month of Chislu,
in the twentieth year, as I was in Shushan, the palace, that Hennani, one of my brethren,
came, he and certain men of Judah, and I asked him concerning the Jews that had escaped,
which were left of the captivity and concerning Jerusalem, and they said unto me, The remnant
that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach.
The wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire.
And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept and mourned certain
days and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven, and I said, I beseech thee, O Lord
of God of heaven, the great and terrible God, that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that
love him and observe his commandments, let thine ear now be attentive and thine eyes
open, that thou mayest hear the prayer of thy servant, which I pray before thee now,
day and night, for the children of Israel thy servants, and confess the sins of the
children of Israel, which we have sinned against thee, both I and my father's house have sinned.
We have dealt very corruptly against thee, and have not kept the commandments, nor the
statutes, nor the judgments, which thou commandest thy servant Moses.
So we see here that when Nehemiah is looking to get right with God, when he's looking to
know the welfare of the people of God, and he's given that report, that sad report that
the walls are broken down, the first thing that he does is he confesses, as you see there
in verse 6, the latter half of verse 6, and he said, and confess the sins of the children
of Israel, which we have sinned against thee, and I and my father's house have sinned, and
then he goes on and says how they dealt corruptly, how they have not kept the commandments, nor
the statutes, nor the judgments, which thou commandest thy servant.
You see, Nehemiah not only did he confess, but he knew what to confess.
He knew exactly what it was that had brought the judgment of God upon his people, and he
knew what it was to confess.
And that's the attitude that we need to have.
Not just this general, you know, I know I've got to get the sin of my life, yeah I'm a
sinner, I know that, God please help me with my sin.
No, you need to get specific.
If there's a sin, if there's an attitude, if there's an action, if there's a philosophy
in our life that we are allowed to stay in our lives, and we know what it is, we need
to get it out, we need to confess that sin, and we need to be very specific about it.
We need to say, this is the sin in my life that I need to forsake, and we need to make
it a goal to get that sin out of our life.
Turn over to Nehemiah chapter 9.
So when we confess our sins, the formula to forsaking your sin is number one, to confess.
And you need to be specific when we confess.
Nehemiah chapter 9 verse 16, I'll begin reading, the Bible says,
But they and our fathers dealt proudly, he's getting very specific here,
and hardened their necks and hearkened out to thy commandments, and refused to obey.
Neither were they mindful of thy wonders that thou didst among them, but hardened their
necks and in their rebellion appointed a captain to return to their bondage.
So we see again that Nehemiah just gets very specific, he knows exactly what the problem
is, and that's what he confesses, and that's what we need to do.
So we see that first of all that we need to confess our sins, and we need to be very specific
about what it is that we're confessing.
The next step in forsaking our sin, this next part of the formula in the forsaking of sin
would be to claim.
We need to claim the promises that God has given us.
God has promised mercy to those who confess.
As it says there in Proverbs 20-28, He that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but whosoever
confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.
We read in 1 John 1-9 as well, where the Bible said, you know,
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse
us from all unrighteousness.
So we need to claim that.
We understand that yeah, that we're sinners, that there's sins in our lives, and when we
get real specific about some sin, whether it's a presumptuous sin, whether it's a habitual
sin, or whether it was a sin that was brought to our attention by the reading or the preaching
of the word of God, then we need to be ready to confess that, and we should not allow that
to get us down in the dumps and rob us of our joy and service for God.
We need to claim the promise that God has given us that He would have mercy to those
who confess.
The Bible says there in Nehemiah chapter 1, you don't have to turn back there, he said,
And I beseech thee, O Lord God of heaven, and great and terrible, that keepeth covenant
and mercy for them that love Him, and observe His commandments.
I'm sorry, that's in Nehemiah chapter 9, he said, I beseech thee, O Lord God of heaven,
great and terrible, that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love Him, and observe
His commandments.
You see here, that's another thing that Nehemiah did, he understood that God was a God of mercy,
that He was a God that would give, keep the covenant, the promises that He made to His
people.
And we see also that there has to be some kind of sorrow for our sin.
It can't just be this attitude when we confess and claim the promises of God, it just can't
be this dry, without any kind of feeling, unemotional, there needs to be a genuine heartfelt
sorrow for that sin.
Otherwise we confess it, we can go through the motions, but if we're not honestly bothered
by the sin in our life, we're going to end up right back in it.
And we can start to treat this process of forsaking sin, of confessing our sin and claiming
the mercy of God and forsaking it, we can start to turn it into this transaction, something
that's just like a bank transaction, when that's not how it works.
The Bible says that God loveth them that are of a contrite heart, that's who God will not
refuse.
The Bible says in James 4, he indulters and indulters, says, knowing not that the friendship
of the world is enmity with God, whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is
the enemy of God.
Do you think that the scripture saith the main, the spirit that dwelleth in us lust
it to envy?
But he giveth more grace, wherefore he saith God resisteth the prowl, but giveth grace
unto the humble.
So when we confess there needs to be that humility, that humbleness in our spirit.
Submit yourselves therefore to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you.
Draw an eye to God and he will draw an eye to you, cleanse your hands you sinners and
purify your hearts you devil minded, be afflicted and mourn and weep, let your laughter be turned
to mourning and your joy to heaviness.
So what he's saying here, he's like look you guys need to get right, you need to submit,
you need to resist the devil, you need to draw an eye to God, you need to get right
with God.
He's telling them to be afflicted, he's telling them to mourn and to weep and to let their
laughter be turned to mourning and their joy to heaviness.
I think that's a big reason why people never want to do this, well they just let certain
sins just carry on in their lives and they don't know the fullness of God's blessing
and have the prosperity that God wants to give them spiritually, it's because they don't
want to go through that process of being afflicted.
They don't want to mourn, they don't want to let their joy be turned to heaviness, they
just want to keep enjoying the pleasures of sin.
He says there in verse 10, humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he shall lift
you up.
So we see again that's the promise of God that if we will humble ourselves, if we will
submit ourselves there for God, if we will afflict ourselves and mourn and sorrow over
the sin that we have allowed to carry on in our lives and confess it and forsake it, that
God in time will lift us up, that he will give us that mercy and that he will cause
us to prosper.
You see genuine sorrow in our hearts for our sin, if we're genuinely sorry then we're going
to receive genuine mercy from God.
We need to be genuine in our sorrow if we want to receive a genuine mercy from God.
And when we do that we can confidently claim the mercy of God as his children.
We need to confess and we need to forsake and we need to be ready to claim the promises
of God and understand that when we claim those things we're claiming them as God's children.
We're asking something for God not as one would ask a stranger, but we're asking as
one who as a child would ask his father that we would ask for mercy from somebody who wants
to give us that mercy.
The Bible says in 1 John 2, my little children, he starts out, so he's calling them children,
these things I write unto you that you sin not and if any man sin we have an advocate
with the father.
So it's that we have a heavenly father who that's who we're going to.
We're not going to somebody who just wants to, you know, some warden, you know, we're
not going to somebody who's just going to beat us up over our sin, somebody who's just
going to wants to, you know, just put us down and make us feel terrible.
We're going to a heavenly father who wants to show mercy and grace toward us.
And that's what we need to claim when we confess our sin and then we go on to claim the promises
that God has given to us as one who is a child of a heavenly father.
He says if any man sin we have an advocate with the father Jesus Christ the righteous
and he is the propitiation for our sins and not for our sins only but for the sins of
the whole world.
You see in our confession we claim the promise that God has made to us.
You see that in Nehemiah chapter 1, if we turn back to Nehemiah chapter 1, we'll be
in Nehemiah throughout the sermon so just keep your finger there in Nehemiah chapter
1.
In verse 8, that's what we see Nehemiah do.
He confesses and then he, the sins of his people and then he begins to claim the promises,
the covenant of God towards his people.
He says remember, so he's reminding God of something, remember I beseech thee the word
that thou commandest.
So he's reminding God of what God himself had said.
The word that thou commandest thy servant Moses saying if he transgress I will scatter
you abroad among the nations but if he turn unto me and you keep my commandments and do
them though there were of you cast out unto the uttermost part of the heaven yet will
I gather them from thence and will bring them unto the place that I have chosen to set my
name there.
You see, Nehemiah here in his confession is claiming his position.
That's what we need to do.
We need to confess and then we need to claim the position that we have as children.
Now Nehemiah here, he's claiming as one that is a servant.
If you go on in verse 10, look how many times he starts to remind him of their position
to God.
Now these are thy servants and thy people whom thou hast redeemed by thy great power
and by thy strong hand.
O Lord I beseech thee let now thy ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servant and the prayer
of thy servants who desire to fear thy name and prosper I pray thee thy servant this day
and grant him mercy in the sight of this man for I was the king's cupbearer.
So he's asking for mercy as his servant.
He's claiming his position.
That's what we need to do.
We need to claim our position and yet we are a servant even as Nehemiah was but we are
also his children and that's what we need to remind God of as he said there in verse
8, remember the word that thou hast managed.
We need to remind God that we are his child.
When we confess and then we go on to claim that promise we need to remind God who we
are that we are his and that his promises are toward us.
We have 1 John 1.9 that's a great verse and that should be my life verse you know if we
sin we have an advocate with the Father and if we confess our sins God is faithful and
just to forgive us our sins.
What a great promise in the word of God.
If we're going to forsake our sin we need to know that verse because we need to be able
to confess our sins and then we need to be able to claim the promises that God has made
towards us as his children.
The Bible says in Psalm 41, the Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing
that will make all his bed and his sickness.
I said, Lord be merciful unto me, heal my soul for I have sinned against thee.
So someone again claiming the mercy of God, Psalm 103, the Lord is merciful and gracious.
This is the nature of God, a God who is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and plenteous
in mercy.
He will not always chide, neither will he keep his anger forever.
He has not dealt with us after our sins nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
For as the heaven is high above the earth so great is his mercy toward them that fear
him.
As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.
Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him.
For he knoweth our frame, he remembereth that we are dust.
God is very well aware that we just have this body that is sinful and that we have feet
of clay and that we are prone to sin and that we will slip up, that we will make mistakes,
that God has not made perfection the standard of getting into heaven.
If we could be perfect we could, we could go.
But he said, you know what, you guys will never make it.
And he made it very simple for us to go to heaven by sending his son to die for us.
And when we believe on him we become his children and we need to claim that mercy that
God has as it says there, as a father that pitieth his children.
Because God knows we're going to mess up.
Because he knows that our frame, he remembers that we are but dust, that we are going to
make mistakes.
I love this verse.
Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him.
And it just reminds me, even as a father, as someone who has children, that sometimes
mercy, just showing mercy, sometimes that alone is enough to inspire obedience.
When we realize how merciful and gracious God has been to us, we can be obedient out
of that, of just understanding that, not necessarily out of a fear of what God will do to us.
I had one of my kids, we were struggling with them this week, they were getting them to
eat their vegetables, the classic battle that all parents must endure with their children.
Eat your vegetables, the cliche of child-brewing, right?
And we're working the one over every night, she's getting the spankings, you need to eat
your vegetables, you need to eat your vegetables.
And she'd eat them.
But I remember this last, the last night that she was kind of having trouble with this,
she needed a spankin'.
And she'd come to me, and I could see it in her eyes, she was already busted up about
it, and I just said, look, do you want a spankin' or do you want to eat your vegetables?
What do you want to eat your vegetables?
I said, I'm going to show you some mercy right now.
I'm not getting a spankin', go eat your vegetables right now.
But if you don't do it, you're going to get a spankin'.
And she got up there and she ate all of them, right then and there, no spankin' needed.
Whereas at other times, every bite was a spankin', every bite was a spankin'.
Get another one in there, eat those vegetables, they're getting cold.
But it was when we showed mercy, and that's the point I'm trying to make, is that sometimes
when we show that mercy, when we know that we deserve the chastisement and the punishment
from God for our sins, and God grants and we understand and we begin to see the mercifulness
and the graciousness and the longsuffering of God, sometimes that alone should be enough
to inspire us to obey and to forsake our sins.
So we've seen that, you know, we need to confess our sin.
That's the formula to forsaking sin, we need to confess it, we need to admit that we have
sin in our lives, whether it's not some outward sin but it might be an attitude or an action
or philosophy, we need to be ready to confess it, that yeah, you know what, what I think
or what I do is not lining up with the word of God, it's a sin.
Then we need to claim the promise of God that He will forgive us of those sins and cleanse
us from all unrighteousness.
We need to claim the promises that God has made towards us as His children and as His
servants.
That's the process, to claim.
And then we see finally, last of all, that we need to construct, we need to do something.
And that's what VMI was doing here, you know, the whole book is about him rebuilding the
walls and building something.
He wasn't asking for mercy and grace so that he could just sit around and feel good about
himself.
There was something that he needed God to help him do in his life.
You see, we need to do something, we need to construct, we need to claim, we need to
confess and claim and then construct.
We need to do something with the mercy and grace that God gives us.
You see, forsaking sins involves, you know, filling the void of sin.
When we forsake something, when we get rid of something, when we toss out something in
our lives, often times we leave this void, this vacuum where sin was.
And we need to be careful that we don't just leave this vacuum where the sin was.
If we get something of victory over it, we need to make sure that we fill that time with
something or that thought with something.
If there's something that we're struggling with, you know, if there's a certain thought
or process that we have or an attitude that we have, we need to get rid of it and fill
the void with the Word of God.
You know, if there's some outward sin of the flesh that we get involved in, we need to
get rid of that out of our life and then we need to get involved in something else.
We need to fill that time.
We can't just be idle.
That's what Nehemiah did.
If you turn over to Nehemiah chapter 2, Nehemiah chapter 2, we'll see that Nehemiah not only
did he confess, not only did he claim, but he also constructed.
Nehemiah chapter 2 and verse 1, the Bible reads, And it came to pass in the month of
Nisan in the twentieth year at Artaxerxes, the king, that wine was before him, and I
took up the wine and gave it unto the king.
Now I had not been before time sad in his presence, wherefore the king said unto me,
Why is thy countenance sad, seeing thou art not sick?
This is nothing else but sorrow of heart, that I was very sore afraid.
And said unto the king, Let the king live for ever.
Why should not my countenance be sad in the city, the place of my father's sepulchres,
lieth waste, and the gates thereof are consumed with fire?
Then the king said unto me, For what dost thou make request?
So I prayed to the God of heaven, and I said unto the king, If it please the king, and
if thy servant have found favour in thine sight, that thou wouldest send me unto Judah
unto the city of my father's sepulchres, that I may build it.
So we see that Nehemiah, there was something that he wanted to accomplish with his life.
That's why he confessed.
That's why he claimed so that he could go and construct.
You see, God wants us to use our lives to serve Him, to bring Him honor and glory.
That's the purpose of us being here.
God wants us to do something with our lives for Him.
The Bible says in Jeremiah 24, Thus saith the Lord, the Lord God of Israel,
Like these good figs, so that I acknowledge them, that are carried away captive of Judah,
whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans, for their good.
So it was for their own good that God caused them to be carried away by the Chaldeans.
For I will set my eyes upon them for good, and I will bring them again to this land.
Why?
And I will build them and not pull them down, and I will plant them and not pluck them up,
and I will give them an heart to know me, that I am the Lord, and they shall be my people,
and I will be their God, for they shall return unto me with their whole heart.
So God wants us, you know, God wants to build in our own lives, God wants to build up and
not pull them down, God wants to plant and not pluck up, God wants us to be fruitful,
God wants us to build something with our lives.
Matthew 7, verse 24, the Bible said that,
Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken unto
a wise man, which built his house upon a rock, and the rains descended, and the floods came,
and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded upon a
rock.
You see, our obedience to God's word, that is the building of the structure of our lives.
That's how we construct in our lives, by obeying the word of God, as He said,
those, the man that built his house upon the rock.
And who is that rock?
It's Jesus Christ.
And Jesus Christ is called the word of God.
So we know, we see that our obedience to God's word, that's how we construct the building
and the structure of our lives.
You see the Bible, that is the blueprint.
That's how we build our lives, that's how we construct.
Now there's two ways to build when we look at the Bible.
We can build inwardly by our attitude.
First of all, the Bible says in 2 Peter chapter 1 verse 3,
According as it is divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain in the life
of godliness to the knowledge of him that called us to glory and virtue, whereby are
given unto us great and exceeding great and precious promises.
So we have, again, these promises that God has made us.
That by these he might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption
that is in the world through lust.
Escape, that's kind of like, you know, forsaking something.
Right?
And beside this, you know, claim those promises, forsake it, you know, escape the corruption.
And beside this, this is the construction, giving all diligence, add to your faith.
And it goes on, add to your faith virtue and virtue knowledge and to knowledge temperance
and temperance patience, to patience godliness and to godliness brotherly kindness and to
brotherly kindness charity for in these things be in you and abound they make you they shall
neither be unbarren nor unfruitful in your knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.
So we see that this is the construction that we can do inwardly.
These are inward attributes that we would construct in our lives, virtue, knowledge,
temperance, patience, godliness, kindness, charity.
These are inward things.
These are things that we can add inwardly.
This is somehow how we construct and do something with our God, for our God inwardly.
First Corinthians 3, there's another way that we construct in our lives, a way that
we build in our lives, a way that we found our lives upon the word of God, is that we
do it outwardly by our actions.
Bible says in First Corinthians 3, verse 9, for we are laborers together with God, ye
are God's husbandry, ye are God's building, according to the grace of God which is given
unto me as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation, another buildeth thereon.
But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon, for other foundation can no man
lay that is laid which is Jesus Christ.
Now any man build upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble,
every man's work shall be made manifest for the day shall declare.
So we see that there, you know, we have that foundation in our life, that salvation, that
word of God that we have believed unto salvation, that Jesus Christ, you know, that's our foundation,
that's our rock that we build upon.
And this outward building is what we're going to receive a, we're going to receive reward
for when the day declares it, you know, in the judgment seat of God.
It says if we build upon it gold, silver, and precious stone, now is that literally
what it's meaning there, that we need to go build gold, silver, and precious stone?
No, this is a spiritual application, but I believe that gold, silver, and precious stone,
those are things that we would see outwardly, you know, as opposed to inwardly.
God is our knowledge, you know, the gold, excuse me, is the knowledge of our word of
God.
Well, that's the building of gold in our lives, that's what we're going to be rewarded for,
is our knowledge and understanding of the word of God, our study in the word of God.
That's something that we can construct and build in our lives is studying and knowing
the word of God and letting it dwell with, richly in us with all wisdom.
That would be the gold.
The silver would be our submission to the word of God.
It's not just that we know the word of God, it's not just that we understand the word
of God, but it's also that we submit to the word of God, that we have that, that's the
silver in our lives.
And if you do, you know, someone pointed out this to me many years ago, but if you look
at silver in the Bible, it's always the price of submission.
It's the price of someone being sold as a servant or as a slave in the Bible, so that,
you know, that's how I kind of make that connection with the silver, that that's something that
we would see, the silver in our lives is our submitting to the word of God, right?
The precious stones, I believe those are the souls that are one by the word of God.
So it's not just that we understand and know the word of God, the gold in our lives, it's
not just that we, you know, obey the word of God and submit ourselves to the word of
God, that would be the silver, but it's also that we take the word, that understanding
and that obedience and we go out and we win souls with the word of God.
When we know and obey the word of God, we're going to go out and preach the word of God
and that's going to bring us those precious souls.
When we go out and preach the gospel, the good news of salvation by grace through faith
in Jesus Christ, that we're going to win those precious souls, those precious stones
and the word of God, that are unto God.
So we've seen here this formula for forsaking sin in our life and that's something that
we all need to endeavor to do.
There's not one of us in the room this morning that doesn't have, you know, some kind of
sin in our life.
Until we reach glory, you know, we're going to have sin in our lives.
Whether it be a sin of the flesh or a sin of the heart and the mind, the things that
we see, you know, there's some kind of sin in our life that we need to forsake and we've
seen that, you know, it's this process and that there's a formula to it and that we all
have sin that we must forsake.
We must confess and we must acknowledge to God our sins.
The sins of our flesh, the things that we do.
We must confess, you know, the sins of our mind, the things that we think.
We must confess to God the sins of our heart, the things that we feel, you know, and we
need to be ready to claim, that would be the next process, right, we need to claim.
Confess it and then claim.
Remind yourself and God that you are His child.
Remind God, hey, this is what you said and remind yourself that that's the promise that
God has made to you as His child, that God has promised us mercy, that He will have pity
upon us as a Father, pity of His children.
God has promised us mercy but we must be the ones to claim it, you know, nobody else can
do that for you and it requires a sincere heart, it requires somebody who is genuinely
sorrowing over the sin of their life, that they've humbled themselves, you know, that
they've turned their joy into mourning and they've, you know, they've done all that,
that they feel that genuine need to confess that sin, to forsake that sin and God will
grant mercy.
The Bible says the face of the Lord is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance
of them from the earth.
The righteous cry the Lord heareth and delivereth them out of all the troubles.
The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart and saveth such as be of a contrite
spirit.
So we see that we need to confess, that we need to claim, and then lastly that we need
to construct, that we need to do something with the grace that God has given us.
You know, being forgiven is not an excuse to be idle, it's not an excuse to, there is
no neutral in the Christian life.
There's no standing still, we're either moving forward for God or we're backsliding and we're
moving backward.
And the only thing that changes is the pace.
And sometimes people are falling backward at a faster or slower rate and sometimes they're
moving forward at a faster or slower rate.
But there's never just this idle standing still, we're either moving in one direction
or the other.
So let's make sure that we're constructive, that we're being, you know, that we're moving
forward for God.
So the conclusion is this, you know, there is no sin in our life that God cannot or will
not forgive.
We should never think that we've ever done anything, you know, as God's children, that
God's just unable to forgive that sin.
That there's, you know, that we've just crossed this line that God, you know, is just not
going to, He's unable to forgive.
I don't care how far down the, into the depths of sin that we go, you know, as God's children.
As God's children, there's only, I believe there's only, we can only go so far into certain
sins that there's certain abominable things that we'll just never, never take part in
because it would just, it would go against, it's not even in our heart to do those things.
But I'm saying that if, as God's children, we find ourselves, you know, in some sin,
whether it be the flesh, the heart, the mind, we need to understand that God can forgive
that sin and we should never allow it to just have dominion over us in our lives and oppress
us.
We must confess it and we must forsake it.
And here's, you know, we have to do our part.
We have to do our part confessing, forsaking, and God has promised that He will do His part.
That He will have mercy and that He will forgive and that we can go on and construct and do
great things for God.
Let's pray.