Malachi 2:17-3:6, Are You in Denial?, Dr. John Carpenter

Malachi chapter 2 verses 17 to chapter 3 verse 6 hear the word of the Lord You have wearied the

Lord with your words, but you say How have we wearied him? By saying everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the

Lord and he delights in them or by asking Where is the God of justice?

Behold I send my messenger and he will prepare the way before me and the Lord whom you seek

Will suddenly come to his temple and the messenger of the Covenant in whom you delight

Behold, he is coming says the Lord of hosts But who can endure the day of his coming and who can stand when he appears?

For he is like a refiners fire and like fuller's soap he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver and he will purify the sons of Levi and Refined them like gold and silver and they will bring offerings and righteousness to the

Lord Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old as in and as in the former years

Then I will draw near to you for judgment I will be a swift witness against the saucers against the adulterers against those who swear falsely against those who oppress the hired worker in his wages the widow and the fatherless against those who thrust aside the

Sojourner and do not fear me says the Lord of hosts May the Lord add his blessings to the reading of his

Holy Word Denial they say is not a river in Egypt a man hears that his wife has been killed and Yet refuses to believe it still setting the table for her and keeping her clothes and many other things day after day year after year

Person having an affair does not think about pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases or what will happen when finally everyone knows

The South fights a war by their own admission at the start of it To keep slavery and then when they lose that war claim it was well all about states rights and they were gonna end slavery

Anyway, so it was the war was totally unnecessary. They say Alcoholics vigorously deny that they have a problem

Denial is refusing to acknowledge that something has happened or some situation is as it obviously is to everyone else

The person in denial refuses to accept reality It's a deep -seated turning of a blind eye to something that we desperately don't want to believe is true

But it is a willful determination that things are as we wish them to be

Not as they really are Denial is not a river in Egypt of psychologists call it a denial a defense mechanism

To deal with unpleasant realities that to deal with them by not dealing with them The battered wife may simply refuse to acknowledge that she is a battered wife

That that's why please find domestic Disturbances some of the most violent situations a wife might call 9 -1 -1 when her life is in danger

But by the time the police arrive and start to handcuff the abuser the wife now refuses to remember

What the abuser was doing and often turns on the police for daring to drag her darling away

People get deep in debt because of denial. They see something they crave maybe advertised on TV or in the mall

The credit card will pay for it for now They think they hope or they or they happen to have the cash in their pocket at the time

And so they just deny the reality that that means that they spend it now They won't be able to pay their electric bill tomorrow or get food tomorrow

If they're Christians, they may even sanctify that denial. They trust they're saying, you know,

I'm trusting God for tomorrow Well, they spend away all their money today when the reality is that God gave you the money today to take care of your tomorrow

Now some say that religion is all about denial That's what we're here for We're here to deny reality that we can't deal with a reality that we're just evolved animals the product of chance

And we have no more meaning to our lives than a clot of dirt We're on a small planet around a medium -sized star on the outskirts of one of a billion galaxies

And that's all there is to it It's just totally meaningless and empty and so we invent this warm father in the sky to deny the reality of a cold universe

Of course, really it's atheism That's a denial of the reality of God The universe is created and it could not have created itself that they want to deny though Therefore it had to have a creator.

They just deny it Atheism is a way of avoiding the hard truth that we will have to answer to God That is people have such an urge to do what they want to do

They'll deny anything that gets in the way and so they simply deny God thinking in the words of an old adage if God does not exist

Everything is permitted But we can't deny that a lot of religious people in fact do practice

Denial and they desperately want to use their religion to stay in denial they want to feel that they are really good and decent people and if they have have to come to get that feeling to get

Kind of affirmation that they're good people and they're right with God if they have to come to a service that otherwise

They find is dull or they have to give a little time or a little money to help them get that feeling

Well, they think that's worth it They will not really repent of their sins. They'll still be just as hateful or racist or greedy or lustful

They'll still buy pornography or cheat on their customers or just tell outrageous lies and yet the church will tell them that their sins are gone

They're even excused For the right fee, of course a right ritual the church for such people exists not to refine them of their sins

But to help them deny their sins as Tim Keller says

The human heart runs on denial The way my car runs on gas denial exists

Right here and this passes for the fourth time in Malachi the fourth

Disputation the fourth denial every time God says something and they deny it and here the fourth time

He's telling them just open your eyes. What you're wearing me How?

Well, you're living in a denial if you can't see how here they deny that they are wearing God We see that here in three parts first the wearing then the warning and finally the washing

Are you in denial? Well, if so, you need to face reality That's why

Malachi is here to tell us face reality These people need to face the hard truth that they are wearing the Lord with their words not just they talk too much

But specifically what they are saying about the Lord They look at their present situation.

Look what's going on in Israel and they say well evil people are prospering Sabbath breakers are making a killing by doing business on the

Sabbath Sorcerers are succeeding by doing what the law prohibited men are trading in their old wives for newer wives

And nobody is opposing it Vows are broken Vulnerable people are oppressed by the powerful.

That's what made the sojourners Those are foreigners who live in their country and they have no they have no kin to help defend them, right?

they are the vulnerable people and They're being oppressed. They're being people will steal from them Get them to work and then we'll pay them and There's no justice for them.

The judges won't do what don't protect them because they have no advantage nothing to get from them They're all getting away with it

And today maybe we see liars get scholarships by misrepresenting their true situation or they cheat on their taxes

Are they just openly lie and then they refuse to admit what they did and yet they still get ahead

Today people get wealthy off of pornography or they get elected by making promises they have no intention of keeping and so the people see this and think

You know God, why aren't you? You know, if I were you I would be cracking down on these people.

Why aren't you God? I'm better than you are. They think if they were God, they would be doing a better job And so they complain about the job

God is doing They would they would enforce justice on those people that they would punish those lawbreakers those

Saucers and other people and those people are pressing them the sojourners the foreigners But the Lord, you know, they think but I would

I would bring justice but the Lord Look what he's doing.

He's doing nothing In fact, he's letting them he's letting them get away with it He must even like what they are doing and so they say stuff like Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the

Lord must be look they're prospering The Lord's letting them get wealthy by doing evil.

He must like them even they would even say stuff Where is the God of justice? Where is he? Maybe today

Where is God when it hurts it hurts God should be attending to you. He should be stopping the hurt

Why do bad things happen to good people? No, God doesn't know what he's doing does he and on and on and implying that something is wrong with the

Lord himself But he's not on the ball He's not stamping out evil. Like I would if I were in his place

I had his power and God hears all of that and is wearied by it. He's tired of it He doesn't want to hear it anymore

We do something like this we weary God when we complain when we grumble We take our blessings for granted because we think we deserve them right we it's why they're not really blessing

They're just what we deserve our trials and sufferings Those we don't think we deserve.

Why is God letting this happen to me? Let's be something God must be doing something wrong. And we're told today that we should be we should be open with God You know talk to him like he's your friend

Even when you're disappointed in him God, why are you letting me down here? But here we see we should change why we think we can be disappointed with God Another thing to dislike about the

I Think everything to dislike about the footprints poem another thing to dislike about it

Is that the narrator complains to God about why there's only one set of footprints in the sand during the hard times basically accusing

God of abandoning him or her and the God of that Quote poem is it wearied by by it at all by the complaining the

God in the poem Doesn't mind being falsely accused and doubted according to the poem God responds.

Oh my precious precious child I love you, and I would never never Leave you during your times of trial and suffering

So the thing says Not weird at all. Is he the God of the point not wearied at all now the real

God here in Malachi Gets wearied when we accuse him

When we are so lacking in faith That we deny the reality of his rule and we forget to fear him

One of the themes of Malachi is the fear of the Lord over and over again. He's called the

Lord of hosts The head of armies of angels. That's his host. He's the commander -in -chief of them and someone therefore you should tremble at in Chapter one the

Lord is revolted by their worship that that lacks fear of him And so they think that they can bring in their roadkill that they can yawn through worship

They can look at their watches and hoping that they'll be able to get to the cafeteria before the bail worshipers do

Here they here they have the gall to accuse the Lord of Not caring about justice

Everyone who does evil is it's go to the side of the Lord. Where's the God of justice? Where is he? Even apparently preferring the unjust he must be right.

That's what they're saying All because some of the unjust for a while Appear to be doing well

Now modern churches think that they are doing people and God a favor By making the Lord out to become warm and fuzzy and someone like a footprints poem that we can complain about We don't have to be at all worried that he might take it the wrong way

That he might dislike being doubted and accused So they drain all the the fear of God out of the church and out of Christians lives not knowing that a root of sin is

To not fear the Lord Think about the original sin You know Adam and Eve are in the garden and before the tree of the knowledge of good and evil

The Lord has told them in the day they eat of it. They will surely die Now so they have God's threat

If they believe that threat if they take it seriously if they fear God And they won't dare touch it, right?

Maybe just so be so deathly afraid that they would not dare Take that fruit But they didn't take

God seriously. They didn't fear the Lord and so it was in that moment They decided that God's threat of death was not to be feared

Not to be taken seriously and at that moment They started to sin

And it's the same with us with every sinful choice We've made we knew on some level at least in our consciences that this thing is wrong

That we are threatened By God with punishment for it that we will be judged for this, but we decide

That that judgment is not so fearsome. It's not gonna be so bad We decided not to take

God seriously not to fear the Lord every sin begins when we say somewhere in our heart that the

Lord's judgment is not as fearsome as The rewards we think we will get from this sin

Are you in denial? Just something you're doing Maybe it's just seeking first something else other than the kingdom of God's seeking money

You're not giving or not seeking to raise godly offspring as we saw last week something you're doing that you know is wrong

You've heard God's judgment against it that he will punish you for it But you think I can't be helped and the judgments not gonna be that bad anyway

No, you judge it in the balance The rewards are better than the Compensate for the judgment you accept the excuses.

Well here they weary God because they didn't fear him They're questioning his justice lack of fear of fearing the

Lord. They're complaining arrogant words were sinful the wearying of God leads to the warning from God They were like so many today living in denial

You know who us weary God. What are you talking about God? We love God and we're seeking his messenger

We really want it we really want to hear from him We really do we want him to come and crack down on these simple people

We're delighted. Someone is coming to bring us a new covenant They're in denial

Notice chap at the end of chapter 2 chapter 2 verse 17 They're saying things like everyone who fears evil does good of the sight of the

Lord Where's the God of justice and God responds back behold? I'm sending my messenger and he will prepare the way before me

The Lord whom you seek will you say you're seeking him? You you say where's the

God of justice? Like you want him to come Well, he's gonna come suddenly to his temple right, so they're warned about a harsh reality that they were trying to avoid in chapter 3 verse 1

God promises to bring to them a My messenger also happens to be what the name

Malachi means my messenger the one whose job it is My messengers his job is to prepare the way before the

Lord now Jesus said in Mark chapter 9 after the transfiguration remember we looked at just that passage just before we came to Malachi He said there that the messenger was

John the Baptist now something to the messenger who prepares the way is still in our future

Like we're waiting for something to happen for a messenger to come before Jesus is second coming But Jesus said that John the

Baptist fulfills that this promise as we come up to Christmas time We should see that much of the promises about Christ are fulfilled in his first coming the sending of John Predicted here the

Son's incarnation Jesus's ministry Literally coming to the temple exactly what's promised in chapter 3 verse 1 here first my

Messenger John came to Israel to prepare the way for the Lord by warning them that they needed to repent

By applying what psychologists call Reality therapy That is reality therapy telling besides I understand it anyway telling someone who was in denial

Straight out. Here's reality This is the way it is This is reality not that fantasy that you've concocted in your head

You have a drinking problem Sometimes people need to be told that Okay, you have it you're out of control you you drink too much alcohol you suffered because you made a mistake

Was the society's fault was your parents fall was it whatever you made the mistake your affair is immoral

There's no excuse for it Your wife is dead Your words and your actions don't match you say one thing and do another

Your giving shows your heart's priorities say I love the Lord I love the church and then look at your checkbook

You can't sing John. So don't try don't try leading singing. You need to be told the reality

John the Baptist came and applied the reality to their denial. Yes. Here they are at the end of chapter 2 saying

Where's the God of justice we want justice, but where is he God must not want justice and God is saying back to them

You don't really want justice because when I sit in the messenger to bring it Look how you're gonna respond

John the Baptist came and applied the reality to their denial so that they would be better able to accept the ministry of the

Lord Jesus, you know usually before people can come to the Lord. They need to be jolted out of their denial

And what Keller said people live the human heart lives on denial like a car runs on gas Usually they're denying

That They that they need to repent or that God is angry with him got it that that they will face

God's judgment They'll deny that because they think well, I'm an average person. I'm or maybe even better. I'm a moral person.

I'm decent I've never murdered anybody at least not too many people That just because they're considered by their neighbors as fine people that they must be okay with God, too

That's denial now it's the role of The law in our lives like John the

Baptist here to Israel But the role of the law in our lives is to prepare Us to accept prepare people to accept the

Lord It's his messenger The laws God's requirements his standard like John the

Baptist came He basically told them what the law said told Herod. It's not lawful for you to have your brother's wife and It shows us that we have violated those standards as the

Martin Luther 10 commandment song so well puts it You know, we have this law to see their end that we have not been free from sin

We think we've been free from sin. At least our sins are not that bad. No losses. No, no, it's like a mirror

You know, you're in bad shape the Lord's law brings us to the reality of the holiness of God and how far short we have fallen and It shows us that we

That we are still full of the dross of sin and Corruption so any biblical preaching of the gospel is usually when best

Accompanied by the preaching of the law that is to jolt us and law means

God's requirements That's necessarily just mean the first five books of the Bible anything that God requires That's when

Jesus gets to the point in the Sermon on the Mount Bosses don't murder. I say you get angry you insult

It's like murder it all says don't commit adultery But if you look at a woman adult lustfully, it's like it's like as if the poor

God you've committed adultery I want like that and then at the end be perfect and we get to that.

That's to wear us down Say oh, I've fallen short. I can't I have no righteousness with which to come before the

Lord. I've I'm I'm sinful. That's God's law doing the work of jolting us out of denial

Of our sins to see God's justice what we deserve notice here how much in denial they were

Right there complaining that the Lord is not just where's the God of justice now? We're just we want these evil people punished

God does it that now he's taken the side of the evil doers by rewarding them They imagine as they are complaining about all this

They think they really want a messenger from the Lord to correct their problems They they're saying to God we really want whoever you send us.

We want your messenger. We want your prophets We want your Messiah send him we're waiting for it.

We love it We want that but when that messenger comes to them then or to us now

He's not welcome they killed John the Baptist and Today when the gospel is preached and it is accompanied by that messenger the message of our sins and our sinfulness people naturally

Hate it They want to remain in denial Like Paul says it's like the message of those who are in death those who are dead.

It's like the fragrance of death It's a stench to them. They hate it Now those whose hearts have been changed then it's then it smells differently now remember the gospel the good news is only received as good news by those who refuse to bury their heads in the sand and Deny reality if that is the way all people are until God changes their hearts until God softens their hearts gives them a new art

Makes us finally willing to accept reality Without the work of the

Holy Spirit to make us able to accept the truth We hate it We hate the gospel

It's like a stench of death to us We'll treat it as bad news and we will remain in our sins and that gets right to the heart of what sets off a true

Christian from a hypocrite now hypocrites are in denial They're hoping you'll help them stay in denial.

They like religion for the denial that it gives them We what sets the true believer apart is that he is no longer in denial.

He doesn't deny his sin He doesn't deny it either by saying he doesn't have any to say I have no sin or by just minimizing it

Pooh poohing it, you know by making light of sin People sometimes say sure I'm a sinner

Like everyone else everyone's a sinner. So why it's no big deal That's that's one way really to deny sin but the true

Christian should have gone through a time of sensing his or her central is the time of conviction of Sensing the immense weight of our sins on our souls what

John Bunyan described in my what we would say now in modern language as a swamp of Conviction called the slaw of despond

We said the swamp of conviction a process of trudging through our own corruption dredging to the to the muck and the mire of our depravity and then

The joy of coming out of that to cleansing the joy of salvation That leaves the

Christian different from the non -christian Psychiatrist in Scott Peck and an interesting book the people of the lie describes what he regards is he says truly evil people he said that psychologists and psychiatrists hardly ever see really evil people because because Evil people don't go see psychologists and psychiatrists

Unless they're forced to by the courts evil people live in live their lives in denial

They don't want to hear the true message about themselves They don't want to know who they really are So they stay away from anyone who will tell them who they really are

So they will avoid anyone who exposes the truth to them He writes quote the evil hate the light the light of goodness that shows them up The light of scrutiny that exposes them the light of truth that penetrates their deception

Peck believes that the truly evil avoid counseling, but they tend to gravitate toward you know, what?

Institution he says the evil like where they like to go. They don't want to go here where their sin will be exposed

He says they like to go to religion in our culture to church

Because of the disguise and the concealment it can offer them At least to some churches anyway you see only in religion can people so easily get away with saying one thing, you know be warm be filled and Then while doing the opposite get lost is

Corrupt religion where you kiss the Son of God as a way to betray him so Peck writes

The central defect of evil is not the sin But the refusal to acknowledge it

It's the denial It's the refusal to accept the messenger from the Lord because the messenger

Tells us about our own sinfulness Well, the warning comes

The messenger is on his way. They're saying where's the God of justice? We want him to come but where is he and God warns them back?

the messenger is on his way and He will prepare the way for me They're actually two messengers in verse 1

The first messenger prepares the way for the Lord and he was John the Baptist the second the messenger of the covenant

Is the Lord himself? He is the one who they say in their denial That they are seeking we want him to come they're saying but they don't really

This is the one they say They've been waiting on to bring justice the one they think

They delight in of course when he actually did come They nailed him to a cross

That's how much they delighted in him There are many people like that today people who claim to love

Jesus who claim to be seeking God But when they hear the truth about Jesus when they are given the message They hate it

They prefer the stories about a God who is all about them but how they can evolve to become a God to with their own planet or a

God who is who is Just as impressed with their religion immorality as they are a

God who will give them their best life Now it will make them wealthy who affirms them who tells them how great they are

The real Jesus who pays for our sins and tells them to leave those sins Him they can't stand

The warning from God here in verse 2 is that he is coming the warning we offer in the gospel is

The same only the verb tenses are changed He has come to pay for sins

Once for all he has come with the kingdom that the rule of God on earth and Not one of us can oppose him

We will have no ground to stand on before him. We try to stand on our

Religion or our morality we're denying the sinfulness that we really need a Savior Maybe just we need a good example.

We just need someone to inspire us to do better or whatever we think We have no place to stand with a religion like that Only by accepting his new covenant.

Can we stand that's why he is the messenger of the covenant That is the one who who brings in the new covenant

God's commitment of himself to his people through his body and blood and so when we take the

Lord's Supper, we remember this messenger who brought from the father a new covenant a binding of God with his people a way for us to stand

When there was no other way That we could stand before God Who could stand when he appears in verse 2?

No one He has appeared bringing us a new covenant that we accept

By acknowledging our sin by repentance by fearing him Not by denial

That's the warning Are you in denial? Well, if so, there is the washing at the end of verse 2 for he this messenger of the covenant is like a refiner's fire and like a fuller's

Soap. I was like a launderer who watches the cleans cleanses he has appeared and he cleanses his people with fire and Detergent in verse 3 he that is

Christ will purify his people He will use fire to burn out the dross without the corruption The fire here is not the fire of the eternal punishment not the fire of hell, but for refining

It's not hell in the afterlife, but trials Afflictions in this life that he is in control of out of his control in this life that he uses to take out our sin

Which we now Don't deny Do we it's also the fire of his spirit?

Who is in the new hearts of his people There's a dramatic moment They say in the refining process of silver when the refiner knows that the dross is gone peering into the into the smelter that the silver is being burned and melted in this silver suddenly becomes liquid and malleable

Shapable you can pour it into any kind of cast and make a form out of it the refiner can look into it and see his own reflection back from it and Here the the warning is that Christ will come to refine

Not just not just the refiner, but he is the refining now to us Christ has come and he is refining

Malachi's predicting it now is already happening He is right now in 1st Corinthians chapter 15 verse 25.

He said Paul says there he is now reigning until He's now in other words in the process of raining and ongoing at this moment

Until he has put all his enemies his enemies in our life But our greed our lust our pride that makes us deny our sins

Anything he is raining now. He is raining now until he puts those enemies under his feet

Until he's refined us Problem with Christmas and Christmastime in this culture, maybe it's the reason why our culture likes

Christmas so much is That it focuses on a baby Jesus who's laying it down his sweet head

You know, no threat to us babies aren't threatening no reality therapy. He's not gonna tell us about our sin

He's not gonna expose who we really are No refining us But that's not who's promised here here

He comes to refine in verse 2 who can endure the day of his coming

Well, if we're just focused on a sweet baby, we think what's there to endure? But if he's the messenger of the covenant who comes to refine then who can stand when he appears?

Well, he's refining That's why we sometimes have to to patiently endure Affliction and sometimes we have to sacrifice sometimes suffer the loss of things we would ordinarily

Could have had Like a drink some spare time some money a relationship our egos sometimes voluntarily

We suffer we deny ourselves. We choose we practice self -denial. That's the best kind. That's the good kind of denial

Sometimes involuntarily as the Lord lets things come into our lives that are hard they hurt That sting like a fuller's soap against the open sore

As much as I don't want any of you have to suffer The reality is there's no more possible to become pure without pain than it is to be burned without pain

Sometimes it may just be the sting of soap what our sinful sores Sometimes it may be the searing of fire to purge us so that the

Lord himself can eventually look at us and See a perfect Reflection.

Well, he does this he says in verse 3 to purify for himself Levites There's a holy priesthood what

Peter calls in first Peter chapter 2 verse 5 as all Christians all his people believers in Christ Now are being built up into a holy

Priesthood Peter says that's going on right now making us a priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to God Peter says he is doing that right now.

That means that what is here being described what's being Predicted seen in the future by Malachi is being fulfilled now right now

Christ has come and Is refining he is cleansing through the washing of water with his word

Through the fires of affliction Sometimes through our own deliberate self -denial

He's refining to make a new holy priesthood That's us so we could bring right offerings pleasing to the

Lord and that is our whole lives is living sacrifices pleasing to the Lord He's coming to his temple.

Remember 1st Corinthians tells us that the church is his temple and he's washing a new true

Priesthood that is what he is washing us for right now now the idea that salvation

Is it just a gigantic denial? Kind of an excuse slip for our sins.

It just lets us stay in our sins Just because we said some words that that is a lie from Satan salvation begins by us facing up to our sins and it results in Refining us

So we forsake our sins In verse 5 I will draw near to you for judgment

God says Remember before they were saying where's the God of justice? We want him to come and God to say

I'm coming to you and I'm gonna judge you The Lord now comes close to us. He does that now for us through the

Spirit through his word He comes near To judge us

The Lord Jesus said in John chapter 16 verse 8. He's sending the Holy Spirit to convict it's to judge judges of sin our sin of righteousness

God's righteousness and how we fall short of it and Judgment the Holy Spirit comes and applies

Reality therapy He shows that there are things we've we've excused

But they're wrong and we must forsake them and he lists them there for these people.

They're sorcery I believe that it's any attempt to control events or control people

By supernatural power that is outside of God mediums witchcraft power words

Things like that adulterers The sexually immoral are those as we saw last week who divorce or abandoned their spouse just because they feel like it

Who break their commitments liars? Those who swear falsely?

They make vows they commit to do one thing, but then when it gets hard when it's not fun anymore, they quit and walk off Those who say those whose yes whose agreement is

Not as good as an official signed contract The only way you can get them to keep their word is he threatened to sue them those who take advantage of the vulnerable

Like here the sojourners be in our case. That would be like illegal immigrants illegal aliens

You could get away with paying them less than the minimum wage simply because they you know They can't go to the authorities and get justice

Also in our culture those who kill the baby in the womb because he or she has no legal protection all these sins

Arise from that root sin that lack of fear of the Lord They just don't take the

Lord seriously that he will judge them And so they think they think all things are possible

They can do anything and they will be no judge, but they are in denial not self -denial But denial that the Lord will make good on his word in the end

They will know a different kind of fire not the fire of God's all

God's true children experienced today the fire of Cleansing which is temporary but the eternal fire of judgment their lack of fear

Will bring on them a most fearsome end Are you in denial?

Better not be He's the messenger He sent John and now he sent the

Holy Spirit to us. He sent us his word Now the Lord will either judge things in you

Or he will judge you if he judges you You'll have no place to stand

You'll have no way to stop his fire from eternally destroying not refining you but if you would first judge yourself

You listen to his messenger making us face the reality of what we're like confess our sins

You'll do that You'll be cleansed If you will stop your natural tendency to denial, but instead confess sins

He is faithful and just and will forgive our sins If we'll literally deny ourselves, you know denounce ourselves before God is as sinners woe is me

I am undone a man of unclean lips Denounce ourselves deny ourselves without any ground to stand before God Needing a new covenant that we can't establish ourselves needing forgiveness and cleansing

He'll do it He'll declare you Not guilty before God because Christ came to his temple and Bore our sins he cleansed for himself a people

If we'll seek the ongoing work of his spirit refining us That too he'll do

Yes, it's sometimes painful But it is what the Lord Jesus is doing right now