sin and grace

Let's go to first John, the first letter of John, Chapter 2 and we're going to read that first verse. Second Chapter of the First Epistle of the Apostle John, verse 1. My brothers, if there is a key truth in the Gospel of Jesus Christ it is the truth, the theology so to speak, of grace. And my request tonight is that tonight we go out knowing what grace truly is in the eyes of the Lord. In order to reach it, explore it, dream about it, that we abide in his grace in our prayers. Frankly my purpose in the name of Jesus is to clear the target, our target must be to achieve the grace of the Lord. On that depends the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is a Gospel of grace. But what is that?

Interesting, you know, throughout the epistle of John in First John, throughout this epistle, the word grace does not even appear, how interesting. But for me this verse defines it. All the elements of grace are here and scattered throughout this epistle and we are going to explore it in Jesus name. First John, Chapter 2, verse 1:

"...My little children, these things I write to you so that you do not sin..."

Say with me, do not sin.

"... My children, these things I write to you so that you do not sin and if anyone has sinned we have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ, the righteous..."

Amen. Glory to God. There, brothers, we have all the elements of grace and at the same time we see one of the most ardent struggles in the evangelical church. There are churches, and I don't know how many of you, many of us, and I've heard this over and over again, Pastor Samuel, and it's not that it's this church, but an effective church, you'll know this balance and grace has to do with it. with a balance And it is so.

Many of us come here, I'm not even going to ask you to raise your hands, but basically we are here as refugees. Some of us have come here because we have only heard the first part of that verse, my children, do not sin. Leave that. stop sinning We are sinners. And it never occurred to him, or in a very fleeting or minimal way, to talk about the other party, we have a lawyer, we have a lawyer.

Now, some of us also come as refugees from other types of churches where that's all you hear about. Funny. We have a lawyer. We can live, there are no consequences, we can live as we want, do what we invent and even sitting there, even though all the words are positive, in our hearts something instinctively tells us, even if no one preaches it to you, the spirit of God bears witness that something is wrong, that something is missing, that there is something incomplete.

Well, yes, the Lord is a good God, a God of grace, but why does he have to be a good God? Well in the context of what? Why does it matter that God is good? And why do I need a lawyer? I need a lawyer and where do I go then, what court am I going to appear in that I need a lawyer? For me, if I need a lawyer it's because I'm in trouble. The only reason I would call a lawyer is because something is wrong and I need a professional who knows what they are doing.

The Lord tells us, look at grace is this balance between sin and the corrosive nature of sin, and the sacrificial love of the Lord. The sacrificial love of Jesus. In the letter of First John you do not hear the word grace, but it does speak of sin. And a lot. And maybe you won't hear the word grace, but there is a lot of talk about God's love.

And, brothers, in order to take advantage of the Lord's grace, we first have to confront this reality. Firstly, confront this fact: hopefully this is not news... you know that we all arrive as sinners, right? Okay. If this is news to you, brace yourself, fasten your seatbelts, it's going to get better, but for now, know this and be clear: we are sinners. We're sinners.

do not sin What is the Lord saying to me there? First of all, the Gospel in its beauty is an invitation to walk in the light of Jesus Christ. Look, the first Chapter, for example, Chapter 1, verse 5. This is the message that we have heard from him and we announce to you, God is light, God is light and there is no darkness in him.

Now, the beauty of this is this, that God who is light longs to have you close. And he longs to have you walking in his light, but declare the word, if we say that we have fellowship with him, with this God who is light, and we walk in darkness, lie and do not practice the truth, why? Brothers, why do we care about sin? Good, very easy. There are good reasons why to avoid it. If the word did not tell you and if that is not enough, know this, what does it matter to us if we sin or if sin is found in us?

Firstly, and this should be enough, sin separates us from the light of God. Sin separates us from the light of God. And what does that matter? If it separates us from the light of God, it separates us from his fellowship, separates us from his ability to bless us, interrupts his work in us, freezes the work of grace that he has begun since you were born, the project of God that he began in The moment he produced your DNA takes us away from his face, silences his prophetic voice and impoverishes the integrity that the Lord has programmed within you.

In other words, imagine sin as a rain of acid, slowly corrupting us and our walk with the Lord. And, my brothers, grace begins with this recognition, grace begins with this fact, knowing that sin is bad and I do not want it in my life.

Now I have good news for you. If you can still imagine that thought, the Holy Spirit is already working in you. Only someone who has had an encounter with the Holy Spirit is capable of walking in the light of Jesus Christ, welcome. But what the Lord wants at this moment is the same thing, to say, you know, Lord, I am in good company as it says in verse 8. If we say that we have no sin, what do we do? We deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

And, brothers, the first thing that God wants is this. The Lord wants first of all to see this in us, to see this in our hearts. When we come before the Lord as we did right now, declaring those words to him, I give you my being, I give you my heart, what are we saying to him? We are saying, Lord, I know that I am not perfect, and I know that I am a sinner because we have all sinned and found ourselves falling short of God's grace, all of us.

Lord, despite that, at your invitation I come before you. And Father, I determine that sin is not found within me. And, brothers, if you say that, if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses us from what? Of all sin.

Now, my brethren, I am not going to overwhelm you with a catalog of sins. We'd be here all night and walk out of here depressed. The first depressed would be me. It's a long list. But it has its genre, for example, this is fun, sins that we commit knowing the law. There is that kind of sin, I do it, I know that I am doing it and I am going to do it because God is a God of grace. No. Don't do that, bad news, bad judgment, very, very bad, don't do that. intentional sins.

But there are others. Sins of omission, that is, what we should do and don't. Within this lovely genre is honoring our parents, is forgiving someone who has offended us. We know the word requires it and we don't. That is a sin of omission.

Sins linked to our character. We cheat because we are cheaters. We speak proudly because we are proud. And they are areas of our character that the Lord still has to deal with.

And sins that we commit by inertia. Bad habits. You don't even have to try very hard, you just have to get up in the morning, wait 5 or 10 and don't worry, soon you will sin because it is linked to our character and our habits.

I have good news for you. All those sins, every one of those sins, and now it's going to get interesting, all those sins, the blood of Christ cleanses us. Each one of those sins, as Chapter 1 verse 9 states, if we confess our sins and brothers, that's the key. That is the key. It is a victory but it is a conditional victory.

The Lord is on his throne waiting. All the apparatus of grace is ready, the table is set, the surgeon has his instruments ready, the medicine, the magical syrup necessary for us to live a life of full victory in the light, do you know who lives in the light? The angels of the Lord, the archangels, the seraphim, walking in the light. To have access to his throne, it's easy. But there is a condition, there is the solution, the detergent that cleanses us of those sins.

But there is a yes, if we confess our sins he is faithful every time, do not be afraid, do not think twice. Do not think that he will not listen to you, do not think that he will turn his back on you, do not think that he is already tired of you, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all evil. And that's having a lawyer.

You know, the lawyer part comes after that. If you have gone through that process, Lord, of course I am a sinner. Lord, I want to live a blameless life in front of you. It is impossible I do not have, I want access to your throne, I want access to your grace, I want to be heir to your promises. Cleanse me with your blood.

If you have said that, you have retained the best lawyer in the universe. The moment you have done that, Jesus Christ, the just, becomes not your judge, but your lawyer. And if you have done that, my brothers, by the way, the enemy no longer has authority over you. If you have done that, the enemy no longer has authority over your children. If you have already done that, the chain of generational sins begins to rot.

Is incredible. Whoever discovers this reality of grace has discovered a powerful weapon. Because sin, the first thing that sin does is hold back a wave of power that floods our lives and our homes. But the moment the Lord begins to say, no, this is mine, he belongs to me, he remains in me. The Lord begins to apply to us, we are not just but we belong to him. He is our master, we are his servants, automatically you are from the house.

And his justice applies to you. Do you know what that is called? Funny. Funny. Now, if there is a commitment, there is something that he asks of us. He says and in this we know that we recognize, he says in verse 3 of Chapter 2, if we keep his commandments, the one who says I know him and does not keep his commandments, he is a liar and the truth is not in him, but the who keeps his word in this truly the love of God has been perfected by this we know we are in him.

I mean, right now, wow, I'm going, I make a decision, I'm going to follow the Lord. But pastor, didn't you just say that we are sinners and that I am going to fall? I try to walk in his light, I have done it, I get up in the morning, I tell him, Lord, I will follow you and in half an hour, an hour, two hours, whatever it is, in our following Jesus we slipped This is the beauty of it.

Glory to God for the grace of Jesus Christ. Because they know what this process does? It is not merely that our sins cover us, but we discover something after a while. Treat it, live like this and you know what you're going to discover? You will discover two things. First of all we are going to discover how useless we are, truly, how incapable we are.

How much do we depend on Jesus? And two, I guarantee you will discover how much Jesus loves you, how much he has committed to you. Look, you remain in him, there is no... says the word that the gates of hell will not prevail against his church. And that includes you. That is grace. That is grace.

It is not that we are perfect, but we have a Jesus who perfects us and who loves us and who is not going to let us go, who is not going to let us slip, who is not going to abandon us, who is going to make us his children. . He is going to train us to be hosts that we will govern with him. But that is through this process of grace that is powerful.

Let's stand up. Amen. Lord, we come before your presence. Wow, that phrase, Lord, we come before your presence. We come before the presence of a holy God, a powerful God, a healing God, a God who has the key, the key to everything your children need. And Lord, if the only thing that can obstruct any of your children from approaching the throne of mercy is sin, Father, we declare that through your grace and your power, you have overcome sin through the blood of your Son Jesus Christ.

And now there is nothing, Lord, I declare in the name of Jesus, the one who clings, this was a hard message, this was difficult, this is hard medicine, but do you know what it is? The purpose of this message is this, my brothers, I do not want anything, nothing, nothing, nothing to be between you and that presence, between you and that anointing, between you and that wisdom, between you and that strength of healing, between you and that light, between you and the victory that you have been asking for, between you and the answer to your prayer, between you and that God who is like the king, the husband of Esther, extending his scepter to you. He wants you. He wants you and longs for you by his side.

And if sin is the problem, glory to God, there is a solution. Not a problem. There's a solution. Lawyer we have. Lawyer we have. We come before you, Lord, Father, I come with your people. I come before you with your people.

And we declare, Lord, that here before your presence you are here at the same time as high priest, with the vessel of blood prepared, dripping it on your people, dripping it, Father, on their lives, dripping Father on their hearts, dripping it Father, on the lintels of their houses, dripping with it, Father, on their hammock and the beds of their children, dripping with it, Holy Father, on their dreams.

You are sprinkling every part of our existence, everything that we confess to you, everything that we bring before you, God the devil cannot stop this.

The enemy can't stop this. The enemy has no authority. If we confess our sins, the blood of the lamb covers it, covers it, covers it and there is no more authority, and there is no more guilt, there is now a life of freedom, freedom and victory because our lawyer is our older brother and he is the Christ of glory and the guarantee of our victory. It is our resurrection.

Thank you, Jesus. Now we rightly say, thank you Jesus. Thank you Jesus. Oh, that's what you did for us. That was. Thank you Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Father, may each one here, each one of your children rest their head on their pillow tonight, surely there is power in you, there is power in you to guarantee a new life in you, to cover, flood our homes with the light of Jesus Christ. Flood our homes with the light of Jesus Christ because you guarantee it in the mighty name of your Son, our hope, in the name of Jesus we declare. Amen.