Systematic Theology (part 43)

Confession of the Overcomer in Revelation

Father, thank you for your Word. We thank you for the time together this morning. We pray that you would reveal to us the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that you would reveal to us how we can align our lives with you and with what you have done for us, with what we are in Christ, with what you say we are, even though the things that you say we are are incredible to us and cannot be known by us or kept in mind by us, except as they are revealed in your Word.

And so we pray to the end that the Lord Jesus be glorified by our lives, by our conduct, by our attitudes, actions. We pray that you would inform us this morning and encourage us in him. It's in his name we pray.

Amen. Now, a few weeks ago, Judy reminded me, way back in the days when we were first beginning to ruminate about this business of the whole of the Christian life, the whole of the Christian life, in John Gill's words, is a confession that I had made a little outline about where that might go.

And lo and behold, it survived through all of the computer crashes. And so I have reproduced that. Pauline has given it to you. I've done it. I've done it in two columns, so that if you find it useful for how you point yourself in the direction of Confessions of the Overcomer.

That's what we called it back in 1984. There was a 1984, for some of you that may not even believe that that exists. It's just like there's a three o 'clock in the morning, actually. Okay? Same kind of deal.

In any case, back in those days, we were calling it the Confessions of the Overcomer. And that comes from the book of Revelation. So I'm going to start there this morning. And as you know, beginning at chapter 2, the Lord Jesus delivers to the seven churches of Asia Minor, which had sort of become the epicenter of Christian activity.

By the end of the first century, He delivers to them seven messages. And at the end of every message, for example, chapter 2, verse 7, He says, He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches, to the one who conquers, to the one who overcomes.

I'm not sure what the King James says. I think the New International says, To the one who overcomes, I will grant to you the tree of life which is in the paradise of God. And then down at verse 11, He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches, the one who overcomes, who conquers, will not be hurt by the second death.

That would be us, by the way, because we are in Christ. We will not be hurt by the second death. And then at 2 .17, to the church at Pergamum, hear what the Spirit says to the churches, to the one who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone with a new name written on that stone, on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.

I really like that verse. Did you ever think about what it would be like if we get over to chapters 4 and 5 of Revelation, and we see all that's going on in heaven, and there are myriads and myriads of angels worshiping the Lord, and there are myriads and myriads of saved people worshiping the Lord.

Okay, now here we are 2 ,000 years from the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. You know, we're the shirttail of the whole family that has gone on for 2 ,000 years. So when we get to heaven, you know, have you ever thought, well, where am I going to be in heaven?

I'll be back in about the 4 ,765 ,583rd row, you know, because all of those people that have died and gotten there before me. And so what's my relationship to Jesus going to be when I get to heaven? This verse is great.

To Him who overcomes, to Him who is in Christ, to Him who possesses the indwelling Spirit, Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of Him who raised Christ from the dead, that's us. That's those of us who believe.

Can you give a white stone with a new name written on the stone? Oh, that's all good, okay. But no one knows except the one who receives it. When you and I get to heaven, I don't know how this works, by the way.

It's a little physics problem that is quite beyond me. But when we get to heaven, there's going to be a little sacred secret between us and the Lord. We're going to have a name that He calls us that only we know.

And when He calls by that name, we're going to know His voice and His presence and all of that. So I like that. That comes to those who overcome. Now, the overcoming, however, begins now. And that's what we've been talking about all of these weeks.

For the weeks that we've been talking about the confession principle, the Romans 10 .10 principle. With your mouth, you confess and are sanctified. With your mouth, you confess and are justified. With your mouth, you will confess when you are glorified, when every knee bows and every tongue confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord.

In fact, that's how we began, isn't it? That if you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God is raising you from the dead, you will be saved. I .e., you will be justified.

That's how we began in Christ, and that's how we're going to end up in Christ. When we see Him, we shall be as He is, and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord, and we will be pleased, ecstatic to do that.

All right. So, to those who overcome. And I'm not going to read all of those. I'm not going to read the ends of all of those messages to the churches this morning, because that's not where we're going.

Priority: Slavery to Obedience and the Confession of Daily Plans

So, let's have a look at this, and I'll make a few thousand comments as we go through it. I have done it in columns. I started to say that, didn't I? I've done it in columns, so that if you find it useful, it's now in a size that will stick in your Bible.

Okay? Now, I know, some of you guys that have Bibles with micro print, it fits in a large print Bible. Okay? There we go. So, anyway, you can take it along with you and use it if you find that it's useful.

The question is, what does this confession unto sanctification, what does that look like? We've talked about that from several angles, including from the angle of the student that I had named Anthony, and from several other angles, but here's a little outline that might help.

Okay? You know that this was done when this was Bethlehem Baptist Church. Do you know how you know that? You know that because in a burst of alliteration, this is the confession of priority, perversity, possession, position, and power.

Okay? Now, since it's become a Bible church, I know that we're... I'll let that go. It's all right. I'm not good at that either. It just kind of worked out that way for this deal. So it could have been Bethlehem Bible Church in those days.

You know why? Because the Bible has always been top priority here, and may it ever be so. All right. The confession of priority. Heavenly Father, the chief goal of this day for me is to be a slave to obedience to you.

Now, you notice I put in Scripture references there, and I don't have time this morning to refer to all of them, but we have referred to them in this discussion as we have arrived at this point, at Romans 6 .16.

It says you're no longer slaves to sin. You are slaves to obedience. So the chief goal of this day for me as a believer in Christ, the chief goal of every day is to be a slave to obedience to God. All right?

Now, if you say, oh, that doesn't sound good. Slavery is no good. That's not even politically correct. All right? The idea is that slaves to obedience to God are empowered by the indwelling Holy Spirit so that it's not slavery at all.

It's bondservantry. That's really the word that's used most of the time in the New Testament. And you know what a bondservant is, right? A bondservant typically was a slave that was in a household, and slavery has been practiced forever and is still practiced in this world.

So don't get all uppity and offended and have to run to your safe space and all of that because we have to say slavery. But in order to pay off a debt, for example, in the Old Testament, you could sell yourself into slavery in order to pay the debt.

And so there you are, the slave. But you find out that this master into which you have sold yourself, this master is really a great guy. He's looking out for you. He protects you. He feeds you. He houses you.

It's almost dog and cat theology. You know about dog and cat theology, right? The cat says, you feed me, you take care of me, and all that. I must be God. The dog says, you feed me, take care of me, and all of that.

You must be God. Well, the bondservant that sold himself to a good guy was into dog theology. And this guy is great. And so at the appointed time for the end of his slavery, the slave might be saying, you know what, I really kind of like it here.

And so I think I'll stay, and I'll continue to serve you and to work for you and all of that. And so what would happen is you would take the slave. After the agreement had been made, you would go to the doorpost.

You would take an awl, scratch awl, you know what that is, all right, and you give him a little ear piercing right there against the doorpost with the scratch awl. And that signified that he was a bond slave.

But a bond slave was a willing slave. And so when Jesus talks about his burden being light, when the New Testament talks about freedom in Christ, it is freedom to be a slave to obedience. I want to be holy in all I do, Father, because you are holy, 1 Peter.

And the reason I've included those Scripture references is so that you know we're not just in Joel Osteen mode here, okay? We're not just in name it and claim it mode. We're not just in blab it and grab it, that kind of thing.

That's not what this is about. This is rehearsing the truths of the Scripture that are true about God, true about me because I am in Christ. And we do not go beyond the Scriptures. That's why the references are here.

If you want to use them in your own time with the Lord, you can do that, of course. I know that you want me to share in your holiness, and that without holiness no one may see you, Hebrews chapter 12.

Father, cause my greatest attention to be focused on obedience. And here I put in brackets, name acts of obedience. What does it mean to be obedient to Christ? Now, let me go into teacher mode here, all right?

I keep ending up in preacher mode a lot of the time. Let me go into teacher mode. Can anybody just name an act of obedience to Christ that ought to be true of me tomorrow? See, here's the deal, folks.

We're having trouble thinking of specific acts of obedience to God. We all say, yeah, we all ought to be obedient to God. But I say, okay, so what's that? Then we all go, hmm. So what I'm encouraging you to do here is to think of the things that would be specific acts of obedience.

Finally, Charlie, considering others better than myself. So I might confess this. I know some of you are saying, oh, Charlie, show off. You know, I know all of that. Okay, teacher's pet. I got it right over here.

Right over here. You know, you can tell who it is. All right. Okay. But that is true, to esteem others better than myself. We do that for the sake of Christ. We do that out of obedience to Father. So Father, cause my greatest attention to be focused on esteeming others better than myself.

On esteeming the guy at my work who is always messing up but always gets the promotion. Okay. Esteeming him better than myself. All right. In the present moments of this day, to esteem others in the present moments of this day, rather than in the anticipated plans of tomorrow.

Matthew chapter 6. Don't worry about tomorrow. Today has enough on its plate. That's a paraphrase, not a translation. All right. Each of my plans, name them. Got any plans for tomorrow? Yeah. Well, name one.

I can think of one. What? Work. What about it? Come on. What about it? What about work? I got to get there on time. Oh, there we go. That's a great plan. Even the people at work think that's a great plan.

You're right. Got to get there on time. I got to do it with diligence. I have to, you know, all of the things about work. We need to be telling that stuff to the Lord. As we start out, so my goals, my plans, my goals.

What are the goals? You got some long-term goals for your life? Maybe. Those ought to be discussed with the Lord. My goals, my expectations. Ah, yes. There's the old expectations deal. You have some expectations about how things ought to go tomorrow.

The chances are pretty reasonable in a fallen world that whatever you have for expectations for tomorrow is going to end up in the dumper by about 10 .30 tomorrow morning. Okay? So here's my expectations, Lord.

All right? For this day, they are subject to change or cancellation, that I may give my greatest attention to obedience. In other words, yes, I have plans. Yes, I have goals. Yes, I have expectations about what ought to go on tomorrow, but it's all subject to cancellation if I can be obedient to you.

Let me ask you this about expectations. Do you have expectations of other people? You know, I did a nice thing for this guy, gal that works next to me, and they didn't say anything. They just say, yeah, give it to me.

You should. What? That's not the right expectation. You're supposed to say, thank you, I love you, and all that. But no, no, they don't. Okay? Forget that expectation. In order to esteem myself less than others, even the one that doesn't meet my expectations, that all needs to be rehearsed to the Lord.

All of those things are subject to cancellation, that I may give my greatest attention to obedience. Name the acts of obedience again, and not sin against you. And there I've given the James reference.

I think that's the one that talks about guys that say, hey, we're going to go down to so-and-so in the city and make a lot of bucks. Well, maybe it's if the Lord wills we're going to do that. All right?

Confession of Perversity, Sin, and Forgiveness

Now, the confession of perversity. Here I want to give a little caveat to this. All right? I was talking with Pastor Steve, and he said he has become aware of a church that in the interest of being very literal about the Word, and you've got to commend that desire, all right, they have looked at James where it says, confess your sins to one another, and the whole evening service has become a sin confession session.

There's a little imbalance there. All right? And not only that, what's worse is what has gone on in the evening service sin confession session to each other, okay, what has gone on has made it onto Facebook.

And so some of the things that have showed up on Facebook have become a great problem. In fact, let me refer you to Ephesians chapter 5 for a moment. We need to be careful about the confession of sin, because sometimes the confession of sin can encourage sin rather than discourage it.

Now, there's a place for accountability. There's a place for people to confess sin, particularly when others have been wrong. I was ra-ra-ra-ra-ra, you know, I was wrong, okay? All right? And I attacked you.

That's okay for you and I to get together and work those kinds of things out. But do you want to know what I was thinking this morning early? No, you don't want to know. And I don't want you to know. And it's none of your business, and it's nobody's business but mine and the Lord's.

At Ephesians chapter 5, we have time, we'll come back to this this morning, Paul begins by talking to the Ephesians and telling them that they are children of light and to let all sexual immorality, impurity, covetousness, and a few dozen other things not even be named among you as is proper among saints.

And then when he gets down to the end of that, at verse 11, he says, Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. That does not mean write it on Facebook. All right? You expose them because we are children of light and the way that the light shows through us, even though it's imperfect and it's a light shown through a glass darkly, to use Paul's words, the light shows through us, it exposes the sin of other people.

There is no way that putting it on Facebook or making a list or confessing it in church on Sunday night, there is no way that that will convince a sinner that he is in sin. There is only one way that that can be done.

And that only one way is what? When he, the spirit of truth comes, he will convince the world. He will convince the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. And why would the world even begin to think about being convinced of sin, righteousness, and judgment?

Because they have a look at us when we're doing okay. All right? They have a look at what goes on in the family of God. And I want to tell you one of the things that is a great testimony to the presence of Christ in the family of God is when the church supports each other and supports those who are in need, those who are in trouble, those who are infirm, and all of that.

The world looks in on that stuff. And they see. And the Holy Spirit can move in on people and convince them of sin, righteousness, and judgment. But you and I, we are not good convincers of sin, righteousness, and judgment.

About the best we can do for sin is, you might say to somebody, are you perfect? And they would say, well, of course not. Nobody's perfect, you know. Okay. I get that. But that doesn't bring them to Christ.

But it could be the pebble in their shoe. That could be the pebble in their shoe. And the Holy Spirit is moving in on them. And the Father is drawing them. That could be the pebble in their shoe that begins to cause them to think about how perfect is perfect enough.

Okay. Then, when the Holy Spirit takes that and begins to convince of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment, then they might come to Christ. All right? So, in this whole thing, that was at Ephesians.

Sorry, it's hard for old guys. All right. It is shameful to even speak of the things that they do in secret. And my guess is, wherever this church is, it is shameful to speak of a lot of things that are being spoken of in Sunday night service.

And it ought not to be done. We need to be very careful about that. All right? Then, the confession of perversity. I know that I have a sinful nature. Paul calls it flesh, and that's good. But you have to keep in mind what he has in mind by flesh in Romans.

Not by flesh every time he says the word in the New Testament. In Romans chapter 7. Which will enslave me if I permit it to do so. Romans chapter 7. We've discussed that at length. I have allowed myself to behave as if enslaved to sin.

If you have. If you have. Okay? It's possible. It's possible that you have not allowed yourself to be enslaved to sin yet today. Okay? That's okay, too. That's all right. Then it says, name the sins. And there's where we can get into trouble.

And may I say, let me go back to this Facebook thing for a minute. You young people. You need to be careful about Facebook. The Internet gives an impression and an image of anonymity. I mean, look at Twitter.

Twitter is just a sewer. Okay? People say things on Twitter that they would never say to anybody's face. Or to a group of people. All right? I say look at Twitter. I haven't looked at Twitter. I don't have an account.

All right? But I read some of the things that are put on there in the news and that kind of thing. Facebook. It's not unusual now for admissions officers at colleges to say to prospective students, we want to see your Facebook page.

Okay? So I don't know what you've been saying on Facebook or what kind of pictures you've been sending on Facebook. But believe me, it's not anonymous. It's hanging out there in cyberspace. And there are going to be people down the road that want to see it.

And then if you get into college, after they see your Facebook page, and you get out of college because you've been able to do the work, and then you're going to go get a job and they say, we want to see your Facebook page.

Okay? You need to keep that in mind before you pop up on Facebook when you're 16 years old. So that's just a word of advice from an old guy. All right. So if there are sins to name, name the sins, whatever they are.

Now you can talk to the Lord about, Lord, you know what I was thinking about early this morning or late last night or what I may think about tonight? And he goes, yeah, I know. I know. Okay, but 1 John 1 .9 tells us we need to admit that kind of thing to the Lord.

We need to be confessing that to the Lord because he is being faithful and just to cleanse us from all unrighteousness as we do that, and we need to do that. I acknowledge and confess, this is 1 John 1 .9 continuing, that you are the faithful God at all times forgiving my sin, at all times justly and righteously forgiving my sins.

You know what? We need to rehearse that. We need to rehearse that. You know why? Because some of us have had or have sins, particularly habitual sins, that it becomes finally, I can't believe God can forgive me for the 4 ,385th time that I have done this.

Okay? And then we are in trouble. We need to be rehearsing what has been revealed to us in the Scriptures, and what's been revealed to us is this. If we are confessing our sin, he is being faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Now, I know the context of 1 John 1. It is that there were, don't have time for this, but it is that there were people that had come along by the end of the first century claiming to have no sin because they were all spiritual.

It's the whole getting into Gnosticism thing. Okay? And so John is saying things like, if we say we have no sin, we make God out to be a liar, and his truth is not in us, and the Lord is not in us, and so on.

But in there is sandwiched, if we are confessing our sins, he is being faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, a fact which needs to be rehearsed by us continually, continually.

Not only that, if we go on to 1 John 2, it's even better. I don't write this so that people will sin, but if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and I'll put in brackets one, Jesus Christ the righteous one, who is the propitiation for my sin, who has taken away all of God's anger at the 4 ,358th time that I've done whatever it is you have in mind.

He's taken away all of that anger. All right? That needs to be rehearsed by me about every 30 seconds. I could go a minute maybe. All right? But it needs to be rehearsed regularly by us that Jesus Christ the righteous one is at the right hand of the Father.

I'm waiting for Pastor Mike to get to this in Hebrews, big time, as it does. Okay? Jesus Christ the righteous one is at the right hand of the Father, interceding for me, and He has taken away all of the anger about the sin which so, in the words of Scripture, so easily besets us.

Possession: Belonging to God, Adoption, and the Spirit's Seal

Okay? And I need to confess you are just in forgiving me for you have given your son to pay my death penalty, Romans chapter 3. Possession, the confession of possession by God. I belong to you, Father.

I am not my own, for I am bought at a price. The precious blood of Jesus, 1 Corinthians 6. I am your child, for I have cast my life on Jesus and have received Him to be Lord and Savior. That should be John 1 .12.

Great honk. I am adopted into your family through Jesus Christ, Ephesians 1 .5. And also, Romans, you haven't received the spirit of fear. Again, to fear you've received the spirit of adoption, the Holy Spirit of adoption.

Okay? And there are tons of other references here besides what I've written here. In fact, let us let our Bible study be transformed as we go through it, as we go through all of the Scriptures, asking ourselves, what is this, what is right here that I need to rehearse aloud to the Lord for His glory and my well-being, and my well-being?

Position in Christ and Union with His Death and Resurrection

All right? You have marked me as your own, taking up residence in me by the Holy Spirit, guaranteeing my inheritance as your child, 1 Corinthians 6, Ephesians 1. Now my position before God, the confession of my position.

I am in Christ. That's one short little sentence. It's a whole sermon series. Okay? I am in Christ. His experience has become my experience. I am looked at by Father through Him. Having been placed into His body, 1 Corinthians 12 .13, do you not know?

Let's see. We have all been baptized by one Spirit into one body. I have been included in His death and resurrection that I may live a new life. Romans chapter 6, Galatians 2 .20. You know Galatians 2 .20, right?

I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not I, but Christ lives in me, and the life I live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. Last Sunday, Pastor Mike talked about the fact that our faith is not faith in faith.

Our faith has an object. The life I live in the flesh I live by faith in the object, the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. Right? I have been included in His death and resurrection that I may live a new life.

Romans 6. Again, not enslaved to sin. Name the sins. Particularly, if we have habitual sins, and we do, name them. I may live a new life, not enslaved to whatever it is that's besetting you. And don't do it on Sunday night in church.

All right? Just keep it between you and the Lord. All right? I have died in Him in the kingdom of darkness, and have been raised to life in Him in the kingdom of light, that these sins, whatever they are, may not be my master.

Romans 6. Again. See, that's why I say if you're ever going to be in a shipwreck, and you can't take a lot of stuff with you, you need to rip Romans 5, 6, 7, and 8 out of your Bible. Okay? Wrap it up real tight.

Put it someplace waterproof, and you'll be okay. Or if the bad guys come, and they're taking all the Bibles, get those pages right out, and hide them. You see how much of this goes back to that excellent exposition of what it's all about in Romans.

That sin may not be my master. I count myself dead to sin. Name the sins. And offer every part of my being to you, Father, as a weapon of righteous warfare. 6 .13. I confess that when I sin, name it, it is because I choose to do so.

You know, there are some Christians running around the countryside saying they don't sin. But we know that their Bible has been upside down for some time. Okay? All right. There are other Christians, though, that run around the countryside saying this.

Well, I don't choose to sin. See, I just get... I was walking along minding my own business, and phew! I got nailed by sin somehow or other. Otherwise, I would never... No, no, no, no. Let's get real here.

There are times when we sin, and get involved in sin, when we really think about it, plan it, intend to do it, and all of that. I choose to do it. It's terrible. It's awful. It needs to be confessed. Okay?

I'm not bound to do so, since I have died in Christ to the kingdom of slavery to sin. Name the sins. Romans 6, again. I will confess, Father, when I choose the evil instead of the good. Name the things.

I purpose that my sorrow for sin... And this is what Paul said to the squirreliest church in the New Testament, the Corinthians. I purpose that my sorrow for sin will be godly sorrow that leads to repentance.

I change my mind about the sin. I don't want to do this sin, Father. But sometimes I do what I don't want to do. I don't do what I need to do. Are you hearing Romans 7? Yeah, that happens to all of us.

All right? But the reaction to sin, which demonstrates that we are believers, that we belong to the Lord, is that when we sin, we experience what the Bible calls godly sorrow. We don't sin with impunity.

We don't sin and go on our way saying, Oh, now I'm saved, on my way to heaven, fire insurance intact, and I can do whatever I want. That person is likely not a believer because believers experience godly sorrow when they get involved in sin.

I can say no to sin and yes to obedience, for I am free. If the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. And we are experiencing that, and we pray that we are experiencing that in a growing way every day.

Power in the Spirit, Romans 8, and Life in the Family of God

Now power, the confession of available power. Incomparably great power is available to me because the Holy Spirit is in me. And after our discussion of last week, and I've been working on this myself this week, you know, trying to get it in my head, get it memorized and all of that, back at Romans chapter 8, verse 9.

You believers, you Roman believers, you West Boylston believers, even Berry believers, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. Since, in fact, the Spirit of God dwells in you. This is beginning at Romans 8, 9.

The Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him. I have the Spirit of Christ dwelling in me. All right? But since Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness, the imputed righteousness of Christ.

There are a ton of things in those few sentences that need to be rehearsed by me so that I keep my head straight this week as I walk through a fallen world, a child of God. Since the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He, get that?

The Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead. Who raised Jesus from the dead? The Father. Dwells in you. He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

All right? Last week we talked about that inseparable bond. It's almost organic, as Lewis Johnson calls it, elemental. It's organic between us. And by the way, in John chapter 14, when Jesus is speaking to His disciples there at the Last Supper, He says, If anyone loves Me, he'll keep My commands.

Then He goes on to say at 22 through 24, We, My Father and I, we will come to Him and make our home with Him. And Romans amplifies, in Him, in Him. Okay? Because the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is in me.

I can choose to be controlled by the Spirit, putting to death by Him the misdeeds of the body. And you see all the Scripture references there. I am not obligated to live according to my sinful nature, that is, to my flesh.

And I choose not to do so. Romans 8. I choose not to do so. And I can choose not to do so. Because I am no longer a slave to sin. I am a bondslave to Christ. I am those things. You say, I'm working on it.