In the Word

Pastor Mike Warren: To be obedient. And so, Lord, we thank you that we're born of the spirit. We thank you we have the Holy Spirit living in us. We thank you we have the Holy Spirit empowering us. We thank you. Father, we here at Calvary Chapel—Calvary Chapel—was birthed in the spirit. We are fundamentalists when it comes to your word, but Lord, we need the power of your Holy Spirit. We need it, Father. We need the baptism of your spirit.

We need your spirit to lead us and guide us into all truth. We need your spirit to convict us and to strengthen us. So Lord, tonight as we look at these things, help us to understand that it's not something we can do without you. It's something that you do in us and through us. We just pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.

Let me just back up for a moment. When we came into chapter 18, there was a proverb going on in the land that at this point the Lord wants to address. You know that from chapter 12 of Ezekiel through chapter 24, as it were, God is giving us reasons, as though he needed to do that, but he's giving reasons to the nation of Israel as to why he needs to correct them.

One of the points I want to make is that God never punishes his people. It may feel like that sometimes when you're going through that time of correction, but God doesn't punish. In fact, in the New Testament, we find in Romans chapter five that it says, "having been"—it's in the past tense in the Greek—"having been justified," made just as though you never sinned, by faith, you now have peace with God.

That's different than the peace of God. Jesus said he gives us his peace, but that's different. We have peace with God, and what that means is God is never going to be angry with us again. He's never going to tell you to pack your bags, change your name, and get out of here. He's not going to do that. What he will do is he will tell you, "Go to your room, wait there, I'll be there in a minute." You know what I'm talking about.

He corrects, and the Bible says that he only corrects those that he loves. So those are love taps. When the rod of correction is applied to the seat of understanding, that's God's love taps. I would be very concerned if I were you and I wasn't being corrected. He only corrects those that he loves, and he only corrects those that are his.

He will punish the world because they rejected the Messiah, they rejected him. In fact, the wrath is only going to be, as far as God's concerned, poured out onto the unbelieving, the unrepentant, those who have not come to Christ. But we've passed from death to life as Christians, have we not? We've passed from the judgment of God to the blessings of the Lord.

But what we need to know is what does God want from us? What is he after? We're his creation. You can read a lot of different strange and weird books that I don't recommend like *Purpose Driven Church*. Let me tell you, you drive cattle, you lead sheep. We're the sheep of this pasture. The Bible says that we hear his voice and we follow no other.

Rick Warren is probably not my brother either way, and I don't say that lightly. I like the guy, I think he's a nice guy, I pray for him, but I don't think he knows the same Jesus I do. Because Jesus never came to drive or control or manipulate anyone. He came to lead his sheep into still waters and lush pasture. I'm going to tell you, we're led of the spirit. We who have been around Calvary Chapel for a long time were taught well by our pastor, Chuck, that we're led of the spirit.

We love God's word. We hear his voice. We follow no other. So what does he want from us? Let me tell you this, and I posted it this morning on Facebook. Jesus Christ did not come and allow himself to be crucified to start another religious movement. Jesus Christ came and was crucified to bring us back into relationship, to restore what was broken back into relationship with the Father.

That's why Jesus told his disciples when they asked him, "Teach us how to pray. How do we pray? John taught his disciples how to pray, we want you to teach us how to pray. How do we pray?" Jesus said, "This is how you pray," and it's not a formula, it's a precept. It's got principles in it. He said, "This is how you start your prayer: Our Father." It's relational.

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, not mine, on earth as it is in heaven. Give me this day my daily bread because I have things I need you to take care of physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, economically. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us, forgive us of our debts as we forgive others. It's an evidence that we've forgiven others because we've been forgiven. Lead us not into temptation, keep the devil away from us, for yours is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever and ever. Amen.

So what does he want from us? All he wants from you is relationship. And the only thing that hinders your relationship with him is lack of repentance, lack of brokenness. Now, as Ezekiel, as we've said, Ezekiel is one of the priests that was removed in the second raid that Nebuchadnezzar brought against Jerusalem because God is using, as we read in Jeremiah, Nebuchadnezzar to discipline his people.

In fact, God calls King Nebuchadnezzar his servant. When he came back from the Battle of Carchemish in 605 BC where he destroyed and defeated Pharaoh Necho, he came and besieged Jerusalem. As he set up a vassal king there, he goes back to Babylon and then there's an uprising. Jehoiakim is creating an uprising, so he goes back, and before he gets there, Jehoiakim somehow, we're not really sure, either committed suicide or was killed by the people.

Somehow he was removed and his son Jehoiachin took over for him. So Nebuchadnezzar leads Jehoiachin, his son, his lineage, back into captivity, and this time he takes all the instruments of worship and the priests. So Ezekiel goes. Daniel's already there with his three companions. Jeremiah is still in Jerusalem prophesying, warning the people of their sin, but Isaiah had been prophesying for a number of years before this.

And when Isaiah signs off—a very important verse and I hope you memorize it in chapter 66, it's in the first few verses there—because God is telling his people through the prophet Isaiah and then he's going to send Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Amos, some of the minor prophets at the same time, Daniel, Daniel's companions, he's going to warn his people.

It's a constant message that you're going to see through the book of Ezekiel and through all the prophets that God has a call. He's calling his people into relationship. You remember back in chapter 16 of Ezekiel, he said, "Listen, you were an outcast, you were rejected, you were shunned. You were in a field when I found you, and you were dying in your own blood, and I said to you, 'Live, live.' I picked you up, I washed you off, I cleansed you, I rubbed you down with salt, I clothed you."

I provided all of your needs, and then when you got healthy and matured to the place to become my wife—God is saying to Israel, now we're the bride of Christ, but Israel is the wife of God—he said, "When you came to that place, listen, as it were, you played the role of a whorish wife. You went after everything else."

What God is saying is that when he's not first and he's not foremost, when our relationship with him is not the most important thing in our life, as we've been seeing as we're going through this section of Ezekiel, it breaks the heart of the Father. Sin breaks his heart. And if you understood what sin really does—because we only see sin as a consequence to us. We don't realize the effect that our sin has on our Father because it's relational.

God the Father, God the Son. I think the Holy Spirit's the mom. I had one of those kinds of moms, she was on me. My dad worked out of town, my mom was on me. I don't mean to in any way denigrate the Holy Spirit, but that's the one that leads and guides us in all truth, that disciplines and corrects and convicts. It's relational. We're called the sons and the daughters of the most high God. We are the people of his pasture.

It's relational. And just like men, your wife could break your heart if she was unfaithful, we as the bride of Christ can break the heart of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ when we sin. So we have to understand what God is after is very singular. When he created man, it was for fellowship. He would come down in the cool of the evening, he would walk with Adam through the garden, and he would just say, "Adam, what are you up to?"

One of my favorite times when I'm up in the mountains and in my times of prayer is the evening. I think God put that in me. It's that time where the day is gone, the heat has faded, the cool is coming, I'm out there most of the time with my Bible and a cup of coffee and I can just sit there and pray and just interact with the Father. I feel his presence and I'm watching the sun going down. I think God put that in us to spend those times with him.

It's relational. So what I want to tell you is God's after relationship, but there was a proverb in the land and we saw it there in verse one that said because the father has eaten sour grapes, the teeth of his children are set on edge. God said, "I want that to end." Although there is generational sin, the Bible talks about that we can walk in sin and we can transfer that sin to our children and then to our grandchildren, but what breaks generational sin is repentance.

I didn't grow up in a Christian home. I had the wonderful privilege of leading my father then my mother to Christ, and then my wife and I with some others worked on my older sister and she died of brain cancer, but she died a believer. My younger sister, I hope she's listening, Lori, because she's starting to listen to our messages.

Because all God's after is not the dos and the don'ts. Listen, he's not after the work of your hands, he's not after your head. He doesn't want you just to know about him, he's after your heart. Because if he has your heart, he will make a convert, the heart always does, of the hands—what you do—and the head—what you think.

That's why in the Shema Old Testament, he says to Israel, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one," because he's speaking of unity there, not one God like some would say, well there's only Jehovah. No, he's speaking of unity between the Godhead. The Lord your God is in unity, that's the idea of that verse, in relationship. The Lord your God is one, and you shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, mind, soul, and strength.

When Jesus was asked in the New Testament which is the greatest of the commandments, they're seeking to ensnare him, and without even hesitating, Jesus said, "Listen, you should love the Lord your God with all of your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and the second is like unto the first, it can't be separated, that you would love your neighbor as yourself because if you've ever experienced the love of God, you will love others."

That's why Jesus said they that have received mercy show it. How many have received mercy here? Then be merciful. It's the overflowing of it, is it not? So what he's going to say to us tonight is that every person should have an intimate relationship with me. There are no grandchildren in the kingdom of heaven. Your kids don't get in because you're in.

They get in because they have a personal relationship with the living God through that work of the spirit that draws them into that place of repentance. Then when they repent and ask Christ to come into their heart, they are born of the spirit, God takes up residence in their heart. This is what he's saying. This is not a distant thing. This is not because you're born into a godly family you automatically are a Christian.

He's saying I'm going to put an end to this proverb because every one of you will stand before me as an individual. My wife won't stand before the Lord because of me, and I won't stand before the Lord because of her. My children, they got to get in the same way I did, through brokenness and repentance. So he goes on to say as we walked through this last week that if you have a father that's godly and he has an offspring that isn't, and that offspring continues in his sin and he dies in his sin, then he will die spiritually and he will be judged as thus.

But if that wicked son gets married and has a son, and the son sees the wickedness of his father and says, "I don't want to live like that, that's just dumb," and he repents and gets saved—and that was my situation—and he repents and gets saved, then I will deal with him as a saved person no matter how his father lived.

Then we come to verse 21, and this is an important verse that I want to look at for a while this evening. We come to verse 21 and it says, "But if the wicked"—now let me tell you, we're going to put some New Testament principles on this Old Testament precept—but I want you to know this evening that every one of you entered this life—don't get offended—wicked. Even you, Mike. I like your name, but you were wicked when you came into this world.

In fact, I met you when you were still wicked, got the wonderful privilege of seeing you come to faith. Wicked means to be twisted. It's another word for iniquity. Iniquity, when you read that word, is what sin does to the human heart and mind, it twists it. It makes us self-centered and self-seeking. It fills us with pride. It causes us to desire the physical things and not the spiritual things. That's why Jesus said you must be born again.

But we come into this world broken, we come into this world full of transgression, we come into this world so broken and so dead that we can't fix ourselves. Something from outside of us has to come to us, and that's why Jesus said no man can come to the Father unless the Father draws him, and the agency that we know that the Father uses to draw is the Holy Spirit.

We were drawn. We were—this is probably a term that some of you younger people will know, but some of you older people will—how many know what the term "pitching woo" is? Pitching—you don't know what pitching woo is? Okay, flirting. Flirting, you know flirting. Because the Holy Spirit came to draw us as it were into relationship with the Father.

So he says this, listen carefully in verse 21, "But if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed and keep my statutes and do them which is lawful and right, he shall surely live and he shall not die." You can start out messed up, but you don't have to end messed up. You can start out away from God as an outcast, but you don't have to remain that way if you hear the words "live, live," you can be brought back in.

You don't have to end the way you start, and some start well and don't end well. We're going to see that in a few moments. But he says this in verse 22, and then there's some verses I want to tie together for this thought here. He said, "All his transgressions that he hath committed"—now this guy's would have lived wickedly up to the point where he's repentant.

And God says at the moment he repents, the correction stops because that's all correction is for, is to bring you to brokenness and repentance. The moment you repent, it stops. Now there could be some consequences to your behavior that are still going to come. As you've cast that bread on the water, they're still going to wash on the shore, but God's correction toward you stops, his blessings begin.

Then he tells us, "all of his transgressions that he hath committed, they shall not be mentioned unto him; in his righteousness that I have done, he shall live." Not even going to be mentioned. God won't bring it up. I had a wonderful father who wasn't saved, like I said a few moments ago, I got to lead my dad to the Lord. But my dad was a wise man. My dad was an engineer, and he was the kind of guy that would take a month to be spontaneous, but my dad was the kind of guy that would give you the rules in writing.

This is what you need to do, and then if you do the rules, if you're obedient, then he had a second list: this will be your reward. But if you don't keep the rules, this will be your punishment. And we knew them. And when we would break the rules, my dad would say, "Go to your room." He didn't say, "Pack your bags and leave. I don't want to be your dad anymore."

He would say, "Go to your room and I'll be in there in a little bit." Then he would come in and sit down beside us on the bed and he would say, "What did I tell you?" and we would have to repeat it. "Well, you told me not to throw rocks." But Doug Sweazy came over and you ordered a big pile of new rocks because you're going to do some concrete work, and what did you expect?

They were there, and I couldn't help it because Doug Sweazy ran past the sliding glass door when I hurled that rock at him and it took out the door. I tried to hide it. My dad—kitchen table at night, every meal was there and the whole family gathered around and we owned five acres, we had a barn, my dad had horses—and that evening he said, "Son, open the curtains." "I don't want the curtains open tonight, man, sun'll be in our eyes."

"No, son, open—" he'd already seen the hole. He said, "Go over there and open the curtains." So I opened them up a little ways. He said, "No, open them up all the way." You know, like your heavenly Father? He's already got you pegged. You open the curtain all the way and there's the hole. He goes, "What's that?" "It's a hole." "Of course, how did it get there?"

You know, we still do the same thing with our heavenly Father. "I'm not really sure, it was an accident." He said, "You accidentally threw a rock that I told you not to throw? No, that's an act of the will. Go to your room, I'll be there in a minute." Then he'd come in and sit down. "What'd I tell you about the rocks? Told me not to throw them. What'd I tell you I'm going to do if you threw them? You're going to have mercy?"

No, that comes much later. He said, "You know I'm going to have to discipline you." But when my dad was done, he would look at me and say, "Son, I want you to grow up to be obedient. I'm not mad at you. I love you." And then he would hug me and he says, "I want you to know—" and how many heard this from their dads? "I want you to know this hurts me more than it hurts you."

Then why don't you bend over next time, man, and let me do the flailing if that's true? Because my dad wanted relationship with me. Our Father is not here to punish us, he's here to correct us, and once the correction has taken place—listen, my dad did this wonderful thing. If I ever did the same thing again, the past never got brought up, ever. Because once my dad dealt with it in his mind, it was over.

What a wonderful example from a man who wasn't even a believer. But our heavenly Father says once you have dealt with that thing properly, it will never be brought—well, let me read a few verses in the New Testament that apply to us. Hebrews chapter 10, let's do that one first. Hebrews chapter 10 verses 14 through 17 say this, "For by one offering"—do you know that your sin has already been paid for?

Do you know that? Past—even today, Gary, present. The things you did to Gail today, God forgave you. Maybe Gail hasn't yet, but you've been forgiven by the Lord. Amen. And whatever we'll do in the future. My one—listen, by one offering, he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified, those that are made holy.

Wherefore the Holy Spirit also is a witness to us, for after that he said before, "This is the covenant"—it's a covenant relationship that we have. Do you know when you walk down an aisle and you stand before the pastor and he says, "Do you take this woman, do you take this man?" What we're entering into is a covenant relationship.

I sign a document at the end of that ceremony that I am a witness to the fact that you guys entered into a verbal and written and binding covenant before God and this company of witnesses that until death do you part. And some of you men better sleep with one eye open because your wife took it seriously, till death do you part. This is a covenant relationship.

And it's the same with us and our Father. He says, "This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts and in their minds will I write them, and their sins and their iniquities I will remember no more." That's the covenant relationship we're in. It's a relationship, it's a covenant.

And he says our sins and our iniquities he will remember no more. Isn't that amazing? Isn't that amazing? Isn't that amazing? I've often thought of the prodigal who finally is done with the world and he goes home. He doesn't have a problem with the Father, does he? Who's he have the problem with? His brother.

Be careful, because I think that story shouldn't be about the prodigal son so much as it is about the unforgiving brother. Amen. So he's saying, "Listen, their sins and iniquities I will remember no more." Now watch verse 23, listen carefully, because I think sometimes we can get this concept that God is just waiting for us to make a mistake.

Religion will teach you that. In fact, we're going to learn a new song here that Jan used to sing when she was a kid. We're going to learn it. We were in prayer on Thursday and Jan said that there was a little song that her and her sister used to sing when they'd ride their tricycles around the church because they went to a very legalistic church. She's covering herself. We're going to learn this song, it's a cool song.

"You can't do this and you can't do that. You can't go here and you can't go there." It was all about the rules. We're going to learn that song because that's religion and it gives us the concept if we're not careful that God is constantly angry with us and he's only waiting for the right moment, for the right time, for the right failure that he might take his giant flyswatter and swat us out of existence.

Nothing could be further from the truth. He loves you with an everlasting love. He loved you so much that he gave his only begotten Son to suffer and die on Calvary's cross to bring you back into relationship, not a religion, a relationship with him. And this is what he says in verse 23, "Have I"—God is saying—"have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die, saith the Lord God, and not that he should return"—that word is the same word we would use in the New Testament, *metanoia*, for repentance—"wouldn't turn again, repent from his ways and live?"

Do you think that I want you to die? Do you think I want the end of this correction to end in you just going your way and living in sin and dying? No, God says no, I don't have any—I'm doing my best to turn you back, to correct you, to redirect you.

So listen, tonight, very important: the only thing God wants from us is relationship, and the main thing that is needed for relationship is repentance, to turn back to him when we have strayed from him and we are breaking his heart. In fact, the word in the Old Testament for the first time to repent is used in fractions compared to the term "to turn back," to come back, to return, to come home.

Because we have a propensity as it were to wander. Listen, this won't be the only time that he reminds us. Three times in this book, he tells us that he doesn't want to see the wicked destroyed. In fact, in Ezekiel 33:11, we'll get there in about 10 years, we'll get there, but it says, "Say unto them"—God is saying say unto them, say to those that are in wickedness and in sin, say to them—"As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked."

You tell the wicked that I'm not against them, I'm for them. I have no pleasure in their death. I want them to come and experience life. They should just turn from their wicked ways and come. I'll be an accepting and receiving Father like the prodigal's Father. I'll wrap my arms around them, I'll put a ring on their finger and a coat on their back and shoes on their feet. I just want you to come home. That's all he's saying.

You go tell the wicked that, Ezekiel. And you also tell them that "the wicked should turn from his way and live." God can't accept us on our terms, he has to accept us on his terms, and we have to say, in repentance and confession simply means that we're acknowledging that God was right and we're wrong, and I just want to come home. That's what the prodigal said, the servants in my father's house live better than this. I'm just going to go home.

You could be sitting here or listening on our live stream or radio or whatever, and you could be sitting in a church, you could be calling yourself a Christian, but you could be a prodigal. You could be far, far from home. And I pray that you hear the Father's voice that would say to you, "I don't hate you. I'm not mad at you. I don't want to see you die in your sin. What I want from you is to turn and come home. I'll clean up the mess. I'll throw a party. But you have to come home. I can't accept you any other way."

Then it says, "Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?" And then again he repeats it in Ezekiel 36 verse nine, "For behold, I am for you," the Lord says. This is what he said to Ezekiel, "You go tell the wicked." And see, that should be our message.

Listen, church, the message isn't, "You're going to hell, repent." That's not the message. Before I got saved 46 years ago, I knew I was going to hell. We used to joke about it at the keguers and pop parties, popping pills. We used to joke, "It's going to be a big party." I knew I was going to hell. It didn't affect me at all.

You know what affected me? Wye-go gas station, I'm getting gas in my car and a guy that I knew from high school, Dwayne Bird, turned around and looked at me and says, "Mike, God has something better for you than this. Jesus loves you." I couldn't argue with that. That started the tailspin in my life. I'd like to tell you I got saved that night. I didn't. It was months later. But how do you wrestle with that?

The message is God loves this world and he's provided a means by which we can come back into relationship with the one who made us. And it's not by your efforts. You can't work hard enough. You can't do enough to get back. There's no way back in human efforts. It has to come from the Father, and it did through his Son. We just have to come and say, "I'm sorry. I'm broken. I broke your laws. I violated your commandments. I'm in the mess I'm in, and I ask you to forgive me."

So tell them, "Behold, I am for you." You go tell the wicked. Next time you see a sinner, say, "Do you know God is for you? Do you know that he loves you even though you're dead in your trespasses and sins? Do you know what he wants from you? Not 'don't do this and don't do that, don't go here and don't go there.' No, he wants you. He wants you. He wants your heart."

He can deal with the rest of it. He said, "You go tell them, 'Behold, I am for you, and I will turn you.'" See, that's what the correction's for. "I will turn you, and you shall be tilled and sown." I'm going to break up the hard ground in your heart and I'm going to sow my word in there. I'm going to do it.

You know, that's why the Lord said to Paul, "Is it not hard to kick against the goads?" Paul, after he gets saved, when he becomes Paul the Apostle, he said, "From my mother's womb I was separated the gospel. I look back and I see all along God working." And the final moment was the Damascus Road.

So he's saying here, listen, I have no pleasure. But verse 24, "But when the righteous turneth away from their righteousness..." Now this is interesting, and we're going to look at a New Testament twist on this in a few moments, but in the Old Testament, their relationship with God was based on works.

In fact, if you violated God's law, you had to take a lamb or a bull or some kind of an animal down to the Tabernacle, later to the Temple. You put your hands on that animal while the priest slit its throat and the blood was drained out so you understand the consequence of sin, and then the priest would prepare the sacrifice for your sin or trespass, he would offer it to the Lord, and then you would be declared atoned.

That word for atonement means covered. It comes from the Hebrew word *kaphar*. Your sins were just covered, never removed. But John said to Jesus, or pointed to Jesus and said of Jesus, "Behold the Lamb, the Lamb of God who takes away, not *kaphar*, doesn't cover, removes the sin of the world." You haven't just been forgiven, your sins have been removed from you past, present, and future.

They'll never be mentioned against you, do you know that? He doesn't even remember them. But he says, "But if a righteous person by an act of their will turns away from his righteousness and commits iniquity, gets so involved in sin that it twists him and doth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doeth, shall he live?" God said, "Shall he live? All his righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned; in his trespass that he hath trespassed, in his sin that he hath sinned, in them shall he die."

And then verse 25 says, "Yet you say that the way of the Lord is not equal, it's not fair, it's not right. Hear now, O house of Israel, is not my way equal? Are not my ways fair? Are they not righteous? Are they not right?" Now we know this because we studied through Revelation not so long ago, and we know that when we get to the end of the story, that the angels in heaven after the Great White Throne judgment, after every judgment, when everything is settled and everything is cleansed and cleared, the angels are going to say, "Righteous and true altogether are thy judgments, O God. You have judged righteously."

What does that mean in the New Testament? Does that mean we can lose our salvation? No, I don't believe that for a moment. You see, I'm not a Calvinist. I could never be a Calvinist. I will never be a Calvinist. And I debate a lot of Calvinists. And I think Calvinism is an insult, it's an offense to the character nature of our God. Calvinism is offensive to me.

And so is Arminianism. I'll get there in a moment. They're equally offenders of me. I've written doctrine class, I've taught in Bible college, and I have people call me all the time, well, what are you? If you're not a Calvinist, you must be an Arminianist. No, I'm not an Arminianist either. I don't believe that God chooses some to be damned and some to be saved.

That's not the God of the Bible. That's not his nature. In fact, Jesus said that his desire is that none perish. Nor do I believe once you are truly born again, you can sin away your salvation. You can go to your room and wait till the Father gets there, but you can't sin it away. You will be corrected.

So I'm not in either camp, I'm not an Arminianist or a Calvinist, I'm a Biblicist. Now listen carefully because I want you to know in the New Testament we're under a different covenant. In the Old Testament, it was a covenant God gave to them, the commandments, then he created the priesthood, in Leviticus he gave the sacrifices and the offerings, and all of it was based on works, their works.

In the New Testament, when Jesus was at the Last Supper, he took the third cup. There are four cups involved in the Seder meal, the Passover meal, but he took the third cup, which is the cup of blessing, and he said, "This cup is a new covenant that I make with you in my blood." And it is the covenant of grace.

And this covenant of grace tells us that no matter what we do, God will always be our God once we are truly born again. In fact, let me tell you what that looks like. I want to read a few verses because it can become confusing and that's why I said I want to spend some time on this section as we go through it tonight so that you have a clear understanding when we leave here.

This is what it says in 1 John chapter 1 verse 8 and we're going to read through verse two of chapter 2. It says, "If we say"—because there's a number of false confessions that John is bringing to the fore that people are saying but aren't true. He said, "But if we say," the Gnostics were saying that, "If we say that we have no sin..."

I had a guy tell me when I was a youth pastor a hundred years ago that after he got saved he never sinned. Well, I didn't have a lot of tact, I'm brand new, I'm right out of Bible college, I think it was the second church I was on staff at. I looked at this guy, he was a mountain of a man, he was about big as Mark. And I looked him right in the eye and said, "Well, I can think of one." He goes, "What's that?" I said, "You're a liar." That guy chased me around my office. I thought he was going to get me.

Because the Bible says if you say you have no sin, you're a what? I'm just quoting scripture. If you say you have no sin, we deceive ourselves. John is putting himself in this, "we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us." Because what we have to know before we can repent and come back into relationship, before we can be born again, we have to understand that we're broken.

That we come into this world broken. We come into this world undone and wicked and alienated from the Father. We have to come to him and say, just like the prodigal, "I'm not worthy to be your son. I've violated your laws. I broke your heart. I took your money and I spent it on riotous living. I just come home because I just want to be a servant." And the Father wraps his arms around him.

But if we confess our sins—the word there is *homologeo* for confession, it means that we acknowledge that God was right and we've been wrong—if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just. He will forgive and he's justified in doing it because of Jesus Christ to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Not only does he forgive, he cleanses. *Katharizo* is the Greek word there, we get almost as an English translation, catheterize. How many of you have ever been catheterized? Enough said. It's how you bleed the poisons out of your body. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us.

But listen as he moves in because there were no chapter divisions when John wrote this. Chapter 2 verse 1, "My little"—and the word for children there is interesting, it's *teknon*, it means my little born-again ones—"My little children, Christians, these things I write unto you that you sin not, and if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, who is the propitiation for our sins."

Not the expiation. Expiation means he just paid the debt. But propitiation means he not only paid the debt, but he satisfied any emotion that the Father had against you because you broke his heart. It was all fixed. So we read that in chapter one and then we come to chapter three of 1 John verse eight and it says, "He that committeth sin is of the devil."

What? We just read back in chapter one that if we confess our sins, he forgives us. But then if we sin, in chapter three we're of the devil. Well, there's one little word there that changes everything. Please circle it if you don't mind in your Bible or write it in your notepad, it's the word "to commit." That word "to commit" means one who habitually practices sin as a way of life with no concern at all and no conviction at all.

See, if you can habitually practice sin as a way of life where there's no conviction or brokenness or confession, then I would examine yourself to see whether you be in the faith. It's not that Christians don't sin, because we do. How many sinned this week? How many sinned twice? See, Carl only sinned once, you're doing good, Carl.

Because we all do, but it's an oops to us. It breaks our hearts. Listen to what he says as he moves on. He says because he who practices sin as a way of life is of the devil, and the devil sinneth from the beginning. Of the devil means rebellious, not broken or contrite but full of pride. For this purpose the Son of man was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil, that he'd bring brokenness and repentance and healing and hope and health.

Whosoever is born of God—now get this, this is a very important point—because whosoever is born of God, notice it doesn't say "the elect, the chosen by the sovereign will of God," that's why we can't be a Calvinist. Whosoever—are you a whosoever? I think you are. Whosoever is born of God doth not habitually practice as a way of life with no conviction or no concern whatsoever sin.

He can't do it. You can't do it, I can't do it. Oh, we can fall into sin, but we're broken, we're contrite, the spirit deals with that and drives us to repentance. Amen. How many have fallen in sin and you're like David? On your bed he says, "before I confessed my sin I was like on my bed it was like a hinge and my eyes, no more tears, and I was broken, I was dried up like a fruit in the summer sun." He goes on all of these wonderful idioms that he uses for how he felt until he said, "I repented," and God restored.

But David was still God's man. In fact, he was a man after God's own heart. Amen. Now watch this, very important concept for you as a born-again believer: you cannot habitually practice sin as a way of life with no conviction and no concern because his seed, the seed of life, the seed of the gospel, it remaineth in you.

God said to us who are born again, he will never leave us nor forsake us. Once we have received the Holy Spirit, it will never leave us. His seed is there. That work of the spirit is there. You might try to walk away from it in the flesh, but man, you are going to get wisdom applied to the seat of understanding. He knows how to, not mad, not punishing, but correcting, bringing you back into the straight and narrows as it were.

For his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin. He cannot habitually practice sin as a way of life when the Holy Spirit's in him. Won't let him. One thing you need to know as a Christian, if you're truly born again, you are ruined for this world. You can't go back and enjoy the things you once thought you were enjoying. I'm so glad I'll never have to wake up in my own vomit again, not wondering where I'm at. Amen.

You know, I told one of my friends I first got saved. I said, "Man, I got a new drug. It's not illegal either." He goes, "What kind of drug is not illegal?" I said, "Well, it's wine." He goes, "We're not 21 yet, and you got wine that's legal?" And I said, "Yeah, man, and this stuff, man, it gives you joy, gives you peace, and I said no hangover. You don't want to throw up. In fact, it's the opposite. You don't need to throw up when you take this drug."

And he goes, "What is it?" I said, "It's the Holy Spirit, but you can only get it if you're born again. You want to accept Jesus?" I used to go to the keguers, the parties, the bop—I used to go there and witness and I'd say things like that. I know it's not professional and polished, but I just tell them, man, you can get drunk on this wine, it's not illegal, it doesn't cost you anything, it's free, and there'll be no hangover. Amen. How many tasted of that wine? Been drinking it all day, sipping on it.

Listen, because he is born of God, in this the children of God are manifest and the children of the devil. This is the difference. The difference, the Bible says, is not that we don't sin. The difference is how sin affects us. To the born-again believer who has the spirit of God in him, it breaks him. It drives him to his knees, makes him cry out to God in repentance, "Father forgive me, Father help me."

Because Philippians 1:6—we just are going through the book of Philippians—says, "being confident of this very thing, that he which began," when you were born again, "that good work in you will perform it." Who will perform it? Until the day of Christ. Jude 1:24, and there's only one chapter by the way, "Now unto him," get this, "now unto him that is able to keep you from falling."

Let's say that out loud together. Now unto him—let's do it together—now unto him, let's point there, now unto—so we just know about what we're learning this—now unto him who is able to keep me from falling. Now unto him that is able to present me faultless before the Father of glory with exceeding joy.

Whoa. I love the Greek, it's a pictorial language. One day God is going to put his arm around me. Well, Jesus is going to put his arm around me, and he's going to walk me right up to the very throne of God the Father, and he's going to say, "God the Father, I want to present to you Mike Warren. Mike Warren, God the Father." And at that moment, I'm going to look down and I'm going to be perfect, complete, holy, and perfect joy.

That's what it's saying. And I didn't do it, he did it. I responded to that work of the spirit and I was born again. This is what he's saying in the Old Testament: respond, because if you don't, you're going to die in your sin. Is God unrighteous in this? Well, let's just finish out this chapter real quickly.

When a righteous man turneth away from his righteousness and commits iniquity, lives in it, and dies in it, for his iniquity hath done, he shall die. And again, if a wicked man turneth away from his wickedness that he hath committed and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive because he considereth and turneth away, because he listened—in the New Testament, because we listened to that work of the spirit and we turned away from all of our transgressions that we have committed, he shall surely live, he shall not die.

Yet saith the house of Israel, "The way of the Lord is not equal." Do you think it's right just to continue in sin and God be okay with it? Because that's what they were saying to him. "I'm not okay with it," the Lord is saying. Yet the house of Israel, "The way of the Lord is not fair. O house of Israel, are not my ways fair? Are they not right? Are they not equal? Are they not the ways of righteousness?"

Therefore, I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one of you according to your ways, saith the Lord, saith the Lord God. Now here it is, again as we're tying a knot in our lesson tonight: what does God want from us? Relationship. What is necessary on our part because God's done everything by sending his Son in the New Testament to die for our sins and pay and become the propitiation, what is required on our part to come back into that? Repentance.

So what does God want from you and me to maintain that relationship? Repentance. How many married here? Now I know other churches do this and I know this is a bad example here because I know that the marriages in this church are so solid and so right that you never fight with each other, but I will tell you, there are Christians in other churches who have marital problems. Take my word for it, I know that you have never experienced it, but it does happen.

And when they get in arguments, they go to bed sometimes mad. I know, that's astounding, isn't it? That two Christians could go to bed mad. I know you guys know nothing about it, but I'm telling you it happens. And they go to bed mad and there's no touchy the toesies. Listen, they will get cramps in their neck because they sleep so far on one side of the bed and the other sleeps so far on the other side, don't even touch each other. I know that sounds weird, doesn't it? But they do this.

And then finally the husband says he's sorry and it gets fixed. But let me ask you a question: when there's a strain in the relationship, are they not still married? And why are they still married? Because it's a covenant. And God made a covenant with us the day we got saved. I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. When you're unfaithful, I will remain faithful. I will never punish you, but I will correct you.

Now watch what he says here as we end. He's saying, "All I want is this," and listen to it in the last part of verse 30, "Repent. Repent and turn yourselves from all your transgressions so iniquity shall not be your ruin." Just turn. I'll fix it. Stop doing it, it'll be your ruin if you don't.

Now verse 31 and verse 32, all scholars believe now this is jumping from here to when the Messiah comes. We didn't get to chapter 19, but let me tell you, chapter 19 is a very simple chapter. We'll get to it next week and then we'll move past on into chapter 20. But chapter 19 is a history lesson running through how the kings of Israel or the kings served in Jerusalem, the princes there, had failed the Lord.

In fact, they broke the line of David. In fact, the lineage of David stopped at this time in Babylon and it's not continued to this day. But there's a promise one day that there will be a seed of David that will come. He is the root and offspring of David because there's a throne in Jerusalem, the throne of David, that the Messiah one day during the millennial reign will be seated on and he'll rule this earth with a rod of iron from that throne.

The beauty of this is what God is saying: although you can mess it up for a while, the end of it will be righteousness. How many have taken left turns in your life and walked away from the Lord? How many have ever done that? Be honest. How many of you have taken a left turn or a right turn and walked away? Where are you seated right now? In church.

How'd you get back here? Because you got smart one day? No, you got disciplined. God brought you back. Here's the promise because verse 31 and 32 look forward to when the lineage of David will be restored and the Messiah will come and he'll set all things right.

Cast away from you all your transgressions whereby you have transgressed and make you a new heart and a new spirit. Is that not the promise God tells to Israel one day? We're going to see it when we get to Ezekiel chapter 36 on into 37 and then we're going to see 38 and 39. But he's saying, "I'm going to put a new heart in you and take the heart of stone out, for why will you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God, wherefore turn yourselves and live."

But there's a promise in those two verses that one day God will put a new heart. Man, we got a new heart, didn't we? We got a heart transplant. You know, we didn't get heart surgery. I've had some people say, "Man, when I got saved, I got heart surgery." No, you didn't. You got heart transplant. It wasn't no fixing the old one. You got a new one, and that new one has a throne in it, built right in. No rival thrones, just one.

And it's the throne that God the Father through the presence of his spirit because of what his son has done sits on that throne. Amen. That's how we know we're born again. Because his seed is in us. Oh, we can stray, and sometimes we do. And we get stupid, and sometimes we are because sin will make you stupid. Sin will take you further than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and always cost you more than you want to pay.

And Christians can get dumb. Amen? Amen, Gary? We can get dumb. Amen, Charles? We can get dumb. But home is a prayer away. You turn. Pig slop running down your face, you say, "The servants in my father's house, they live better than this. I'm going home." That's all God wants. Come home. I'll bathe you, I'll put a coat on you, a ring on your finger, shoes on your feet, because all I want from you is your heart, relationship.

Amen. It's not, "I can't do this and I can't do that. I can't go there and I can't go here." No, it's the Father saying, "Come home. I love you with an everlasting love. I provided the cure for your sin. Take it. Come home." Amen. That's God's heart through the whole Old Testament all the way into the New Testament. I don't care how far you are away, home is one prayer away.

Father forgive me, man, I got dumb. What's a good Jewish boy doing in a pig pen? Most unclean animal. And not only in the pen, I'm eating with them. Because you know what, when you get stupid you eat with the pigs. You got no business eating with the pigs. Just wake up. Now through that whole process, one question: did that boy ever become less the son of his father? Did he? No.

He was estranged from his father, but whose fault was that? His. When he sees the father the next time, what does he see the father doing? Waiting at the end of the driveway, looking for his son to come home. When he came home, did his father browbeat him and discipline him and say, "Didn't I tell you, you can't do this and you can't..." What did he do?

He wrapped his arms around him. He said, "That which was lost is found. Let's celebrate. Let's throw a party." All heaven parties when one person comes home. Amen? Amen, Charles? Amen. So if you're at a distance, it's your fault. God wants your heart, he wants relationship with you. How do you fix it? Repent. Amen? That simple.

Humble yourself and repent. Acknowledge that God was right, you were wrong, and you just need to fix it. Now I have to acknowledge something that I just sinned because I used up the worship team's time so they don't get to close in the song. So I'm going to close in a prayer and a song, so that will be sin to you when you hear me sing, so I'm asking forgiveness ahead of time.

So let's stand and let's pray. Aren't you glad that we serve a God that loves us with an everlasting love? Aren't you glad that we are not part of a religion? Listen, I've never been religious, never will be religious. Religious people crucified Jesus. I have a relationship with the one who made me, and you know what, he loves me. You know, I've written doctrine courses, I've taught in Bible college, you guys know all of this.

But the greatest doctrine I ever learned, you can find it sometimes in Sunday school. Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so. Little ones to him belong, we are weak but he is strong. You know the second part of that is: Jesus loves me when I'm good, when I do the things I should. Jesus loves me when I'm bad, although it makes him very sad.

Jesus loves you guys. Don't be stubborn. When you mess up, go to your Father. There's a door that's always open. Get it right. Maintain the relationship because that's all he wants from you and me. That's it. That's why Paul said "that I might know him." That's all I want. That's all I've ever wanted.

I found my purpose in life and I'm not driven toward it, I'm led of the spirit. And he owns my heart. No rival throne. And I find such peace in that. Father, thank you that you are a God of relationship. You're far more concerned about the servant than what the servant does. You're more concerned about our heart than our hands and our head.

All you want from us is us. And so Lord, help us. Lord Jesus. Help us, Father, through the work of your spirit to draw close to you because there's a promise in that, you tell us through James that if we draw close to you, you will draw close to us. And Lord, we want relationship. We don't want religion. We don't want to go to a church where they're just trying to minister to our heads and we become heady.

The Bible says that knowledge puffs up which is a source of pride, but relationship builds up. We love you, Father. You love us. It's just that simple. So help us, we pray, just to stay right there in that spot. And we pray it in Jesus' name. And all God's kids would say: Amen.