God Uses Imperfect People

Hello friends welcome to another episode of thinking on scripture my name is Stephen cook and uh today I'm going to give a lesson it's actually taken from an article that I published a few days ago on my blog which is also called thinking on scripture and I titled the article that God uses imperfect people God uses imperfect people and this to accomplish his perfect will in the world and I will post a link in the description below for any of you that would like to have access to this article now

I think it was Martin Luther who popularized the phrase that God uses crooked sticks to draw straight lines that God uses crooked sticks to draw straight lines and it's really a clever phrase that communicates the notion that God works through imperfect people to accomplish his perfect will that God works through imperfect people to accomplish his perfect will and in this lesson I'm really talking about Believers not unbelievers is who I'm talking about now as a student of the word I do believe

that God calls us to be transformed uh in thoughts words and and actions that is that after the moment of faith in Christ in which we are forever justified in God's sight uh God then calls us to be Sanctified he calls us to be set apart he calls us to a life of Holiness to a walk of righteousness is what he calls us to and this means that we must begin this process of expunging a lifetime of human Viewpoint and replacing it with God's word with Divine Viewpoint which allows us to be able to fra

me life itself history and and the creation and ourselves and and everything from the Divine perspective but this takes time this is intentional this is willful on the part of Christians an example of this is found in Romans 12 1 and 2. where Paul says therefore I urge you Brethren by the mercies of God to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God which is your spiritual service of worship he goes on he says and do not be conformed to this world that is do not be pressed

into its mold but be transformed by the renewing of your mind and this is a transformation that occurs from the inside out as we begin the life of sanctification for us as Christians it's a two-step process it means learning God's word that is taking it in reading it studying it learning from good Godly and gifted Bible teachers who can help us to work through the text and to help us to understand it properly from its historical cultural setting looking at who the author was the audience and wha

t was going on historically and culturally and then bridging that over into the present for us today but as we begin to learn the word of God we must then live the word of God and this is the Walk of Faith uh and this is why James 1 22 says be ye doers of the word and not merely hears only and after I get through making this video I'm going to make another video on the subject of Faith or walk with the Lord living the life of Faith but in this lesson talking about Believers God does call for us

to be straightened out now we're never going to reach absolute perfection we will never be perfect in this lifetime I don't believe that that is possible I don't believe the scripture teaches that that we will attain perfection in this lifetime I think that sinless Perfection will happen when we leave this world by death or by rapture uh when we enter into the Eternal State when we enter into heaven at that time we will be glorified as believers who have trusted in Jesus Christ we are Justified

for believers who are learning and living God's word and walking by faith we are being Sanctified and when we leave this world and enter into the Eternal State at that time we will be glorified to frame it differently at the moment of faith in Christ we were saved from the penalty of sin as those who are walking with the Lord we are being saved from the power of sin and when we leave this world and enter into the Eternal State we will be saved from the presence of sin so I do believe that God ca

lls us to be transformed in our thoughts words and actions and to strive for spiritual and moral purity First Peter 1 15 and 16 says but like the holy one who called you be holy yourselves also in all your behavior because it is written you shall be holy for I am Holy so again though I believe that God calls us to be transformed in our thoughts words and actions and to strive for spiritual and moral purity the reality is is that he does not wait for us to be perfect before he uses us he does not

wait for us to be perfect before he uses us in fact if God were to say to his children let those who are without sin serve me there would be none again if God were to say to any of his children let those who are without sin serve me there would be none though Christians are not perfect we can be humble and obedient and when willing to do God's will he can and will work through us as conduits of Truth Grace and love now below are a few examples of God working through imperfect believers whom he

used to advance his truth and plans in the world and I'm Gonna Leave it to you to read through these scripture references that I'm going to list in these examples that I'm providing here so that you can see for yourself uh that these are imperfect people these are not sinless people and yet God worked through them to accomplish his uh his purposes in the world now Abraham was called into a special relationship with God and we see this in Genesis 12 1-3 uh where it says and this is the abrahamic

Covenant this is the basis for the abrahamic Covenant which is a unilateral Covenant uh in which God simply promised to bless Abraham uh and his descendants and he says in Genesis 12 1-3 now the Lord said to uh Abram or avram go forth from your country and from your relatives and from your father's house to the land which I will show you and I will make you a great nation um and I will bless you and make your name great and so you shall be a blessing and I will bless those who bless you uh I wil

l and I will bless those who bless you and the one who curses you I will curse and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed so even though Abram Abraham was called into a special relationship with God uh and you can read other examples of his of his failures uh I think of also in Genesis chapter 16 with operation haggar and there's other examples that we might look at but the two that I focused on here is that we have two instances in which uh Abraham lied and jeopardized the safety

of his wife Sarah excuse me and you can read about that in Genesis 12 and Genesis 20 from the scripture references that I've listed here and yet uh God God worked through Abraham this imperfect person to produce the nation of Israel who in turn gave us the scriptures and Jesus the Messiah and so even though Abraham was an imperfect man even though he had his failings God continued to work through him uh to produce the nation of Israel through his descendants through Isaac through Jacob through t

he 12 tribes that came through Jacob's sons and so we have the nation of Israel and they still exist today in fact they're in the land although in unbelief they are nonetheless still in existence um and it's through it's through the Jews through the nation of Israel that we have the scriptures themselves which is a tremendous blessing to us and most of all we have Jesus the Christ or the Messiah and I think of in Matthew 1 1 which says this is the record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the

Son of David the son of Abraham and so God worked through this imperfect person to give us the savior another example of God working through imperfect people would be Judah and Tamar and this is found in Genesis chapter 38. and and again I would encourage you to read through these sections to see for yourselves uh just how imperfect these people are now Tamar played a prostitute in order to sleep with Judah her father-in-law and Judah had sex with her thinking that she was a harlot now in spite

of their conniving God worked through their offspring to bring forth Messiah the Savior into the world and again I go back to Matthew 1 and the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah and in Matthew 1 3 it says Judah was the father of Perez and Zara by Tamar Perez was the father of hezron and hezron the father of RAM and so on but here we have this reference to Judah and Tamar being in the line of Christ from Abraham onward and we have other people that are listed as well we have Ruth the moabitus a gen

tile that was brought in a very Godly woman by the way we have Rahab who was known as Rahab the Harlot uh we also have Bathsheba uh whom we know was in an adulterous affair with David and God worked through these imperfect people uh to bring us the perfect person the Messiah that is Jesus who is the god man the theanthropic person who is 100 God and simultaneously 100 percent man he is undiminished deity combined together forever with perfect Humanity in theology we call this the doctrine of the

hypostatic Union another example of God working through um an imperfect person would be Moses and when we look through the scripture when we look through Exodus and numbers we see where Moses killed a man uh early on when he was 40 years of age and then afterwards he fled Into the Wilderness for 40 years and at the age of 80 God then called Abraham excuse me God then called Moses uh to go and to be the deliverer uh to deliver his people that God was going to work through Moses but Moses was not

a perfect man in fact if you read Exodus chapter 4 you see where Moses argued with the Lord uh when called into Ministry uh and Moses uh arguing with the Lord ultimately resulted resulted resulted if I can get my words about me resulted in the Lord being angry with Moses and in Exodus 4 14 it says the anger of the Lord burned against Moses not only that but we also have in the Book of Numbers uh where Moses disobeyed the Lord's directive and he actually came under Divine discipline in Numbers C

hapter 20 it says then Moses and Aaron came in from the presence of the assembly to the doorway of the tent of meeting and fell on their faces then the glory of the Lord appeared to them and the Lord spoke to Moses saying take the rod uh and you and your brother Aaron and Aaron was his older brother by three years if I remember correctly he says take the rod you and your brother Aaron uh assemble the congregation and speak to the Rock before their eyes so they were to Moses was to speak to the r

ock that was the directive from the Lord that it may yield its water you shall thus bring forth water for them out of the Rock and let the congregation and their beasts drink so Moses took the rod from before the Lord just as he had commanded him and Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly before the Rock and he said to them and here's Moses speaking listen now you rebels shall we bring forth water for you out of this rock then Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock so rather than speaking t

o the Rock he struck the rock twice with his rod and God being gracious brought forth water for the people in spite of Moses failure God graciously brought forth water it says in water came forth abundantly and the congregation and their beasts drank and then we have the discipline of the Lord but the Lord said to Moses and Aaron because you have not believed me now these were believers they were saved but they had failed to trust the Lord with regard to this particular directive and he says bec

ause you have not believed me so we might say that Moses at this point is an unbelieving believer he is one who is saved who trusted God at a moment in time and came to be saved but with regard to phase two of his walk with regard to obedience at this point he failed he disobeyed and so the Lord says because you have not believed me and to treat me as holy in the sight of the sons of Israel therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I uh which I have given them and so Moses

uh basically lost his right of inheritance he did not lose his salvation but he lost his he lost his Blessing he lost his reward is what he lost uh his right of inheritance of going into the land we also see where Moses this imperfect person on one occasion became so overwhelmed became so overwhelmed with the pressures of leadership that he even asked God to kill him and yet God worked through this imperfect man to lead his people out of Egyptian captivity and also to write Holy Scripture the pe

ntateuch the pentateuch which is the first five books of the Bible Genesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers and Deuteronomy another example of God working through an imperfect person would be Samson and Samson was a man with problems um scripturally we know that he had slept with several women he really seemed to like the ladies uh and so Samson was a man with problems as he'd slept with several women and even lied to his parents again an imperfect man yet three times we are told that the spirit of the

Lord came upon him and that God worked through Samson that God worked through Samson as judges 16 31 tells us that he judged Israel 20 years and Samson is a very again a very intriguing character and you can read about him in judges chapters 14 15 and 16. King David is another example of an imperfect person whom God used to accomplish his will in the world King David we know had an adulterous affair with Bathsheba and then murdered her husband Uriah and you can read about that in second Samuel c

hapter 11. David also followed Satan's Temptation uh and quote send a great link end quote by taking an unauthorized census in Israel and you can read about that in first Chronicles 21. and David even practiced the sin of polygamy contrary to the law of Moses in fact Deuteronomy 17 17 specifically forbids the Kings of Israel from practicing polygamy and polygamy was practiced in the ancient world and it was never promoted by God in fact God's ideal is one man with one woman for life that is God'

s ideal that is the Divine standard God created marriage he defines marriage and any departure from one man and one woman is ultimately not according to God's standards according to God's ideal expectations it is a departure and for the Kings of Israel they were to represent God's standards uh to the nation and and so the very specific command in Deuteronomy 17 17 is that the king shall not multiply wives for himself shall not multiply wives for himself or else his heart will turn away yet and I

've got a footnote here and you can chase this down in the article if you want we know that David had eight wives by name and we he that he had other wives that were not named and he had concubines and so even though uh David practiced polygamy a contrary to the law of Moses yet God used David to lead the nation of Israel as its King David also wrote scripture he wrote 73 of the 150 Psalms that we have in the Book of Psalms and so God used David to lead the nation of Israel to write scripture an

d to receive the honor of being called a man after God's Own Heart a man after God's Own Heart and we see that in first Samuel excuse me 13 14. in Acts 13 22 as well so again I'm just simply hitting the high points here of demonstrating that God has historically and still does work through imperfect people to accomplish his will in the world Solomon another example also practiced polygamy the scripture tells us that he had 700 wives princesses and 300 concubines and again this in spite of God's

clear directive for the king of Israel that he shall not multiply wives for himself yet in spite of Solomon's failures God worked through him God worked through him to build the Jewish temple and to write scripture he was used also to lead the nation to lead the nation but God worked through this imperfect man to build the Jewish temple and to write scripture he wrote Proverbs at least most of it he wrote the Book of Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon another exam another example Jonah Jonah fasci

nates me I I like Joan I taught through the 12 Minor Prophets a few years ago and taught verse by verse through each one of the uh of the 12 Minor Prophets and Jonah was one that has always intrigued me Jonah was a man who had some problems with God's grace and mercy uh being extended to others whom he felt deserved the Lord's wrath in fact he actually got angry at God's anger at God's grace being extended uh to the ninevites uh we know that Jonah disobeyed the Lord and fled his calling yet the

Lord humbled his prophet who eventually obeyed and preached his word to the ninevites and and the result was that many of the ninevites according to Jonah 3 5 believed in God and so there you have a whole generation and the numbers could be as high as 600 000 people uh you know came to faith in God believed in God and are now in heaven today because of the preaching of one man Jonah a man a man with some flaws let me tell you read read through John it's very fascinating so the result was that ma

ny thousands believed in God and turned from their sinful ways and they were spared from the Lord's wrath you see they repented of their sin and turned from their sin and the Lord relented concerning the Judgment that he was going to send upon that great City upon the city of Nineveh which was the capital of Assyria Elijah another man uh with some flaws after a great spiritual victory over the false prophets of Baal became mentally overwhelmed and threatened by Jezebel who was the queen uh to Qu

een Ahab [Music] um and so here this man after this tremendous tremendous spiritual victory over the false prophets of Baal or Baal and you can read about that in First Kings chapter 18. uh it became uh mentally overwhelmed when threatened by Jezebel and in First Kings 19 3 we learned that he became afraid and arose and ran for his life and Elijah ran into the wilderness uh according to First Kings 19 4 and requested of himself that he might die he actually asked he's like Lord just take me now

you know let's let's you know I just I don't want to be here anymore but God extended Grace to him fed him and gave him time to rest and that has always been fascinating to me because there are times when a person is spiritually mentally emotionally overwhelmed by life what they need is a nap what they need is a good meal they need some rest for their soul they need some rest for their soul and I love this and you can read about this in First Kings 19 5-7 where God doesn't reprimand him he doesn

't he doesn't chastise his Prophet Elijah's overwhelmed and he needs he needs rest and he needs a meal so God extended Grace fed him and gave him time to rest and then waited for Elijah to complete a 40-day journey to Mount Horeb and one could argue that during this time of emotional distress that Elijah was not open that he would not have been receptive to receiving the Lord's instruction and so Elijah had to finish his journey he had to run his 40 days into the Wilderness and he had to come to

Mount Horeb and then hide in this cave and he had to come to the end of himself and at the end of his 40-day journey when he's hiding in this cave finally he's open uh to being corrected in his thinking and God does correct him and he's really again quite gracious about the whole thing I love this because this is the way that God is and then afterward God recommissioned his Prophet to return to Israel and to appoint his successor whom we know was Elisha moving on we also look at Jeremiah again

another imperfect man another imperfect man that he was a prophet of the Lord who during his time of ministry felt overwhelmed by the pressures that he had been facing and you can read about this in Jeremiah chapter 20. that he felt overwhelmed by the pressures that he had been facing and even became severely depressed and entertained suicidal ideations in fact in Jeremiah 20. Jeremiah uses some very strong language he says cursed be the man who brought the news to my father saying a baby has be

en born to you and made him very happy and Jeremiah goes on he says but let that man be like the cities which the Lord overthrew without relenting let him hear an outcry in the morning and a shout of alarm at noon because he did not uh kill me before birth so that my mother would have been my grave and her womb ever pregnant and then he says why did I ever come forth from the womb to look on trouble and sorrow so that my days have been spent in shame and here was a man who was at a moment in tim

e feeling overwhelmed uh by the pressures of life and Jeremiah had a Ministry that ran for decades and he was by and large met with negative volition the vast majority of those who heard him who heard his messages rejected him I rejected his message and rejected him and even mistreated him and he was abused physically on a number on a few occasions and so here was a man who became severely depressed and even entertained Suicidal Thoughts yet God worked through Jeremiah to communicate his word to

his people uh he was called by the Lord you see this in Jeremiah chapter 1 verses 4 through 10 it says now the word of the Lord came to me saying before I formed you in the womb I knew you and before I consecrated you and before you were born I consecrated you I have appointed you a prophet to the Nations then I said alas Lord God behold I do not know how to speak because I am a youth and so he throws up a a bit of a rebuttal here but the Lord said to me do not say I am a youth because everywhe

re I send you you shall go and all that I command you you shall speak he says do not be afraid of them for I am with you to deliver you declares the Lord then the Lord stretched out his hand and touched my mouth and the Lord said to me behold I have put my words in your mouth and so God worked through Jeremiah to communicate his word to his people which he Faithfully executed for decades in spite of a tremendous negative volition I think of the passage in Jeremiah 25 3. where Jeremiah says from

the here he's talking to the leadership of Israel he says from the 13th year of Josiah the son of Ammon king of Judah and I love passages like this because it's so fascinating to me because it it demonstrates that these people lived in time and space that they were real people and so we're talking about the 13th year of Josiah we're talking about time space and people king of Judah even to this day and he goes on he says these 23 years the word of the Lord Has Come to Me and I have spoken to you

again and again but you have not listened and this is interesting to me on a number of levels uh because it tells me that Jeremiah was a success as a Godly person and he was a success because he was faithful to the thing to which the Lord called him as Believers we are responsible for output not outcomes we are responsible for output not outcomes and so we are responsible to know the Lord to walk with the Lord to learn his word to live his word by faith and to advance in our walk with the Lord

to spiritual maturity but even though we may live a good and godly life and we may model the truths of scripture and the virtues that God expects us to to live by it's no guarantee that those who here and those who see will respond positively and this was certainly true for Jeremiah who was faithful for 23 years to preach the word of the Lord and yet the majority of those who heard and saw him rejected him he says but you have not listened and this demonstrates negative volition on the part of h

is hearers and of course we have no greater example of living the perfect life than the Lord Jesus Christ who was perfect it was sinless in everything he said and everything he did in fact it could not have been more perfectly said or more perfectly done than when he said it to whom he said it in the context in which he said it or acted and yet the majority of those who heard him uh and who witnessed his miracles and his great displays of compassion ultimately rejected him John 3 19 tells us thi

s it says that the light came into the world but men loved the darkness rather than the light for their deeds were evil and John chapter 12 verse 37 says of Jesus that even though he performed so many miracles among them yet they were not believing and it's interesting it's just interesting to me so again going back to Jeremiah that God worked through Jeremiah this imperfect person to communicate his word to his people which Jeremiah Faithfully executed for decades in spite of a negative volitio

n that is of his hearers uh we also have in the New Testament by the way this is not an exhaustive list I've just cherry-picked a few I've just lifted a few examples out of the scriptures just to just to demonstrate my point that God works through imperfect people to accomplish his will uh the apostles James and John also known as bow Energies or as it's translated sons of thunder and one can imagine what kind of men these were that they would be called sons of thunder I imagine that if they wer

e alive today they would probably be perhaps coming from a background of maybe bikers or something I don't know I just visualize that but we have these two Apostles James and John also known as the sons of thunder who suggested to Jesus that a Samaritan City be destroyed by fire and over in Luke 9 it says when the days were approaching for his Ascension for Jesus that he was determined to go to Jerusalem and he sent Messengers on ahead of him and they went and entered a city of the Samaritans to

make arrangements for him but they did not receive him that is the uh the people of the city did not receive him because he was traveling toward Jerusalem when his disciples James and John saw this they said Lord do you want us to command fire to to come down from heaven and consume them in other words God Jesus how about if we nuke him you know let's just let's just bring down some fire from heaven to consume them but the text tells us in Luke 9 55 and 56 it says but he turned and rebuked them

and then we have a statement here it says and he said to them you do not know what kind of spirit you are of for the son of man did not come to destroy men's lives but to save them and they went on to another Village and so even though they had suggested this uh to the Lord Jesus turned and rebuked them for their wrong attitude yet these same men these imperfect persons uh were granted permission to preach Jesus message to others and even to see the glorified Lord on the Mount of transfiguratio

n quite a special event because out of the uh 12 Apostles only three of them were allowed to witness the Lord's Transfiguration uh the Lord's glorification on the Mount of transfiguration Matthew 17 102 says six days later Jesus Took with him Peter James and John there's the three James and John his brother and led them up on a high mountain by themselves and he was transfigured before them and his face Shone like the sun and his garments became as white as light and so God worked through these

imperfect men uh not only to preach his message to others but again also to see the glorified Lord on the Mount of transfiguration Peter Gotta Love Peter Peter was a man who seemed who seemed impulsive at times and uh said some really dumb things to be honest on one occasion Peter even rebuked the Lord think of that Peter even rebuked the Lord and tried to stop Jesus from going to the cross in Matthew 16 21 it says from that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and

suffer many things from the elders and the chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised up on the third day now Peter didn't like to hear that that upset him and we read in verse 22 it says Peter took him aside so Jesus gets Peter away from the group and takes him off to the side and began to rebuke him think of that here's Peter rebuking Jesus and what does he say to him he says God forbid it Lord this shall never happen to you uh now for this brief moment Peter becomes an enemy of th

e Cross he is trying to stop the cross now I love Peter uh and Peter was shown a lot of Grace and I guess maybe I like that because I need a lot of grace too uh but here it says that Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him saying God forbid it Lord this shall never happen to you but but he gets rebuked but he Jesus turned and said to Peter get behind me Satan you are a stumbling block to me for you are not setting your mind on God's interests but man's so Peter rebuked the Lord and tried to

stop Jesus from going to the cross and even later publicly denied him three times and you can read about that in Matthew 26 and even one on one of the occasions began to curse and swear telling others I do not know the man yet God showed him Grace showed him Grace and used this imperfect person over and over excuse me over and over to lead others to faith in Christ and you can read about you can read about Peter's Ministry in Acts chapters 2 through 12 and Peter even helped other Christians adv

ance to spiritual maturity and you can see that in uh the Epistles the letters that Peter wrote to uh which we have in our new testament as first and second Peter another example here of God using an imperfect person would be the Apostle John who while receiving divine revelation on the island called Patmos a small island a Rocky island in the Aegean Sea uh the Apostle John while receiving divine revelation was twice rebuked for worshiping an angel now if you worship anything or anyone other tha

n God there's a word for that it's called idolatry and John while is while he's receiving this revelation twice bowed down to worship the angel and twice was rebuked for this uh in Revelation 19 10 it says and then I fell at his feet to worship him that is the Angel but he the angel said to me do not do that in other words stop it John I am a fellow servant of yours and your brethren who hold the testimony of Jesus and then he gives him correct information here or correct advice and he says wors

hip God worship God which is what he is to do for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of Prophecy we see the same thing again over in revelation 22 8-9 where John says I John am the one who heard and saw these things and when I heard and saw I fell down to worship at the feet of the Angel who showed me these things but he said to me another time here do not do that uh in other words stop it John he says I am a fellow servant of yours and of your brethren the prophets and of those who heed the w

ords of this book and a second time has to tell John worship God and sometimes we need that don't we sometimes we need that repetition we need to hear something over and over again and so even though John is an imperfect person yet he was used by the Lord to write scripture we have the Gospel of John we have uh the his Epistles his letters first second and third John and we also have the Book of Revelation and God used this man to share the gospel of grace to others uh that others might be saved

and of course we think of his gospel itself the very purpose of the Gospel of John is to communicate the truth that Jesus is the Messiah the Son of God and in John chapter 20 verse 30 it says therefore many other things Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples which are not written in this book but these that is these Seven Signs these seven miracles these seven key events that John records as historical events he says but these have been written so that uh to what end so that you

may believe that Jesus is the Christ the son of God and that believing you may have life in his name and there have been uh Untold I suspect millions millions of people who have come to faith in Christ having read the Gospel of John and so God works through this imperfect man um to communicate his truth to others that they might be saved now these are just 12 examples again that I lifted out of scripture and as you read through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation you will find many many more ex

amples these are just a few that I have cherry-picked and why is this encouraging to me and why am I even presenting this because when I think about my own sinfulness and shortcomings which are constantly before me constantly before me there is not a day that goes by that I am not aware and sometimes even acutely aware of my own shortcomings my own imperfections I am daily reminded of God's grace toward me his Christ towards me oh do I love the grace of God oh do I do I love the grace of God I'm

daily reminded of God's grace towards me and that he continues to use crooked sticks uh to draw straight lines I I'm so encouraged by this and I think there's Merit to the Latin phrase and I've spoken on this before a phrase which Martin Luther coined by the way when I reference somebody like Martin Luther or or any other Christian it's not a blanket endorsement of all that they said or all that they did or all that they wrote about that that's just simply not the case Martin Luther um was a ma

n who said some tremendously evil anti-semitic things against the Jews and just absolutely horrendous and uh and I just I sh I I cringe I shiver when I read some of his statements it's just like wow okay that's completely out of line uh and yet uh just to be clear when I reference somebody like Martin Luther or any other believer it's again it's not an endorsement of all that they said or did and um I hate to almost even have to say that and yet sometimes uh the age in which we live I think it i

s important to qualify things but I think there's Merit to the Latin phrase symbol Eustis at piccator Sim will use this at piccator which translated into the English from the Latin means that we are simultaneously just and sinners we are simultaneously just and sinners you see both are true and both are true always that is we are justified in the sight of God because Christ has borne our sin upon the cross I am justified in the eyes of God not because I am sinless not because I am perfect not be

cause of anything that I do uh no amount of Works nothing I do zero there's nothing that I can do that will earn any approval in God's sight I am a sinner in Adam I am a sinner by nature and a sinner by choice and completely helpless to save myself but God because of his great grace and mercy did for me what I cannot do for myself he sent his son into the world to die for me and for you and for all Humanity Christ died for everyone and I think of Mark 10 45 which says for even the son of man did

not come to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many to give his life a ransom for many and at the moment of faith in Christ we are forgiven all of our sins Ephesians 1 7 says that in him not in ourselves in him we have Redemption through his blood the Forgiveness of our trespasses the Forgiveness of our trespasses and this according to the riches of his grace not because we earn it or deserve it we don't we never have and never will it's not by works and as a Christian I a

m all for good works I think good works should follow salvation but they are never the condition of it not only that but God has gifted us with his own righteousness uh what Paul in Romans 5 17 calls the gift of righteousness and this is the very gift of righteousness that God himself gives to us that he imparts to us that he imputes to us that he credits to our account uh and this again by Grace we don't earn it or deserve it Paul says in Philippians 3 9 that I may be found in him that is in Ch

rist not having a righteousness of my own derived from the law but that which is through faith the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith not on the basis of works but the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith not only that but I have the gift of eternal life Jesus says in John 10 28 and I give eternal life to them and they will never perish and the word here the verb where he says I give is the Greek verb didomi diddle me which in the Greek is a present tens

e it is a right now truth eternal life is not what you can have it is what you do have at the moment of faith in Christ now it finds its fullest expression when we leave this world and we enter into the Eternal state um but it is nonetheless a right now truth so um again we are justified in the sight of God because Christ has borne our sin upon the cross for given us all of our sins in a Judicial sense that he has gifted us with his own righteousness and eternal life and then God calls us afterw

ards once we are Justified he then calls us to a life of sanctification to be sanctified God calls us to leave behind the values and practices of this world and he wants us to advance to spiritual maturity he wants us to grow up Hebrews 6 1 says therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ let us press on to maturity to maturity in First Peter 2 2 says like newborn babes long for the pure milk of the word that by it that by it you may grow in respect to your salvation and you're ne

ver going to grow apart from the word of God you must feed upon the word of God you must take it in day by day and not just learn it but live it you must apply it to your life and this is the Walk of faith and it starts with learning God's word in order to live God's will because we cannot live what we do not know and learning scripture necessarily precedes living God's Will and so it's always that two-step process of learning it and then living it um and this in order that we might live holy li

ves yet as Christians as Christians we still possess a sinful nature Paul describing his own uh sinfulness says in Romans 7 18-23 he says I find he says for I know that nothing good dwells in me that is in my flesh for the Willing is present in me but the doing of the good is not now this is Paul's struggle within between two Natures his lower Fallen sinful nature and his new nature in Christ and these are at war with one another constantly this is part of the Christian experience Paul says for

the good that I want to do I do not do but I practice the very evil that I do not want I that is I the Apostle Paul I the Christian Paul I the born-again believer Paul practice was the very evil that I do not want but if I am doing the very thing I do not want I am no longer the one doing it but sin which dwells in me sin which dwells in me and here he's talking about uh the sin nature the word sin here is the Greek noun hamartia hamartia and when we think of a noun we think of a person place or

thing and so when he talks about the sin uh thing here he's talking about the sin nature which dwells in me and then he says in verse 21 he says I find then the principle that evil is present in me the one who wants to do good he says for I joyfully concur with the law of God in the Inner Man but I see a different law in the members of my body Waging War that's the Civil War that goes on Within Waging War against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my membe

rs and so the sin nature is never eradicated and there are some if I can say there's some goofy Christians out there some goofy people who teach that that at the moment of Salvation the sin nature is eradicated and therefore you no longer have a temptation to sin and you no longer sin there are some Believers some teachers who actually teach this sort of thing and it really messes up a lot of Christians so the sin nature is never eradicated now we are delivered from the power of the sin nature i

n other words we have a new nature we have the word of God and we can advance to maturity and we can live spiritually uh and so we can sin less as we advance in our walk with the Lord but we will never become sinless that is completely without sin first John 1 8 John writing two Believers says if we say that we have no sin again the Greek noun hamartia if we say that we have no sin nature that is then we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us so we as Believers still possess a sinful

nature and we should understand that and that's never eradicated it's never removed from us or taken out from us in this lifetime and we continue to commit acts of sin this is true for all believers Ecclesiastes 7 20 says there is not a righteous man I'm talking about believersound there is not a righteous man on Earth who continually does good and who never sins first John 1 10 John writing again to Believers he says if we say that we have not sinned now here he uses the Greek verb hamartano w

hich is a verb and it speaks of something we do if we say that we have not sinned then we make him a liar that is we call God a liar and his word is not in US so as Believers we still possess a sinful nature we commit acts of sin and we need to confess our sin daily to the Lord as a Christian I know it's never God's will that we sin let me be absolutely clear on this it is never never never never God's will that we sin uh but when we sin and we do as Christians when we sin it is always his will

that we handle it in a Biblical Manner and this by Honest confession so that we might be forgiven in a familial sense not in a Judicial sense because that has already occurred at the moment of faith in Christ but that we might be forgiven in a familial sense and restored to fellowship with him and this is why confession is so important to the growing Christian first John 1 9 says if and in the Greek the word if here is what is called the third class conditional clause and I won't go into the det

ails of that I've covered that in other lessons but it basically means that maybe we will maybe we won't he says if we and here the we includes John because John's including himself in this uh in this statement if we that is John and his audience which is Believers if we confess our sins he that is God the father is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness so when we confess our sins that is when we name them because the Greek word for confess is t

he Greek word homologue which is a compound word Hamas means the same uh we see it in words like homogenized or like in the words like homosexual we see it where it's the same Hamas and Legato which means to say to speak to pronounce and so if we confess our sins if we say the same if we say the same thing about our sin that God says about it and the word really uh was used in a court of law it was a legal term of one who named their transgression in other words you own it you specifically name

it um this is very very particular and it means that you name that sin you say father I lied father I lusted father I cursed father I was unforgiving father I was fearful father I was hateful father I was I gossiped um whatever it is name that specific sin name it name it to the Lord confess it Own It admit it he says if we confess our sins that when we do this he is faithful he always does the same thing over and over and over and if I confess my sin uh 80 946.2 times in my lifetime every singl

e time I confess God is faithful he's faithful to do what well it says that he's faithful and righteous in other words he is Justified to forgive me my sins not because I earn it or deserve it but because Christ has borne that sin upon the cross he bore the penalty for that and so when I confess that sin God is faithful and he is righteous to forgive me to forgive me uh to to let go of that sin not to charge that to my account not to hold that against me he is faithful and righteous to forgive u

s our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness now I take that last Clause there in first John 5 John later on in first John 5 16 and 17 says all unrighteousness is sin and so the way that I understand this is that if we confess the sins that we know because sometimes we lose track of our sins we commit so many in a day or a week that we lose track of them but if we confess the sins that we know about God is faithful and just to forgive us of those sins and to cleanse us of all the sins w

e have forgotten about because God is perfect and when he cleanses us he does so in a perfect manner and once we are restored to Fellowship uh through confession it is then God's will that we walk in a manner worthy of the Lord and the word walk translates the Greek word parapeto and to walk really if if we were to give it a meaning it means to think and act uh in a in a way that is consistent with the Lord and his word it has to do with how we think it has to do with how we speak and how we how

we act how we live out our life it has to do with with our thoughts our words our actions and so it is God's will that we think speak and act as it were in a manner worthy of the Lord and to walk as children of light now the Lord is able to use believers who are humble you say okay well we're imperfect people okay I get your point Steve you've made your case you have demonstrated this through uh 12 examples uh and there are others uh throughout scripture so God uses imperfect people uh so how i

s he able to use them he's able to use believers who are humble he's able to use believers who are humble and uh first Peter 5 5 is a great verse for this it says you younger men hear the Apostle Peter is writing to Believers younger men he says be subject to your elders that is to the elders in the church to the authority that God has established in the church and all of you clothe yourselves this is a clothe yourselves with humility toward one another so here he's talking about humility clothe

yourselves there's two kinds of humility that one can think of one is an enforced humility or a forced humility the other is a self-imposed humility that is one one can be humbled by something or someone external or one can be one can humble themselves I think of a great example of this is in John 13 verses 1 through 17 where we have Jesus in the upper room on the night before his crucifixion and he takes off his clothes and he puts on a towel which in the ancient world would have signified som

ebody who was of a servant uh who was of the servant class and Jesus then gets down on his knees and washes the disciples feet now that Jesus wasn't forced to do that nobody grabbed him by the neck and forced him down and forced him to do this thing Jesus humbled himself and uh in that he got down on his hands and knees and he washed the disciples feet think of it this is the Son of God this is the perfect person this is Jesus the Christ the anthropic person the God man uh who humbles himself an

d of course we know in the account of John 13 where Peter had a problem with this and uh he again tries to correct the Lord Peter uh Peter um but Jesus humbled himself this was a a self-imposed humility and by the way in First Peter 5 5 here I think that this is kind of what Jesus what Peter may be alluding to when he says clothe yourselves in other words do it to yourself clothe yourselves with what with an attitude of humility toward one another and Jesus humbled himself and was even willing t

o serve these imperfect persons this is the perfect Son of God willing to serve in the most humbling way these imperfect persons these Apostles these uh these disciples now Judas had already left the room but here he said I know he hadn't left the room but anyway he's here a washing the feet of the disciples and so the Lord is able to use believers who are humble and then he closes out here for God is opposed to the proud God is opposed to the proud but he gives Grace to the humble God is oppose

d to the proud but he gives grace to the humble and so God is able to use believers who are humble and who study his word of course I think of Psalm 1 1 and 2 which speaks of the righteous man but his Delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law he meditates day and night and second Timothy 2 15 it says but be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a Workman who does not need to be ashamed accurately handling the word of Truth and of course first Peter 2 2 like newborn babes long fo

r the pure milk of the word that by it you may grow in respect to your salvation and Hebrews 10 38 when we live by faith when we as Christians live by faith and Hebrews 10 38 God says but my righteous one shall live by faith my righteous one shall live by faith and James 1 22 but be ye but be doers of the word and not merely hearers who delude themselves so the Lord is able to use believers who are humble who study his word and who live by faith Christians who Advance spiritually will become mor

e and more righteous Christians who advanced spiritually will become more and more righteous and this is just true over time which means that we will sin less and less however it never means that we will attain sinless perfection in this lifetime it doesn't mean that so we will advance spiritually and become more and more righteous which means we will sin less and less however it never means that we will attain sinless perfection in this lifetime I don't attain sinless Perfection it's just it's

not going to happen and I the more that you um study my lessons or listen to my lessons or watch my videos or read my articles on my blog [Music] you'll see where I'm not perfect I'm not perfect and none of us are but Jesus in his Humanity was the only person to ever live a spiritually and morally perfect life in this world first Peter 2 2 tells us that he committed no sin second Corinthians 5 21 tells us that he knew no sin Hebrews 4 15 says that he that that that that he was without sin and Fi

rst John 3 5 tells us that uh in him there is no sin so Jesus is the only perfect person to have ever come into this world as a as fully human and he is fully human and we should realize that he's fully God but he's fully human too and so in his Humanity he committed no sin now apart from the Lord Jesus there are no perfect people in this world all Humanity even the saved are not perfectly righteous in character and conduct nor ever will be in this life First Kings 8 46 says for there is no one

who does not sin there is no one who does not sin and again Ecclesiastes 7 20 that there is not a righteous person on the Earth who continually does good and who never sins I think of also in Proverbs 20 verse 9 who can say I have cleansed my heart I am pure from my sin the answer no one no one who is honest anyway so in closing we don't have to be perfect to be used by the Lord we don't have to be perfect however when called in the moment whatever that moment is whether we're driving on the hig

hway and we need to extend Grace to people who are zipping by us and cutting us off and or whether somebody lies about us or lies to us or somebody hurts us in some way or we're tempted to be fearful I had a situation the other day where my thoughts were moving away from me and I was imagining a scenario in which I was going to be unjustly treated and all of a sudden I found myself being over almost overwhelmed with fear anxiety I had to shut that down I had to get hold of that aberrant thought

and I had to isolate it I had to throw it upon the ash heap of folly and I had to set my mind upon the Lord and I had to bring my thoughts into captivity second Corinthians 10 10 verse 5 I had to bring my thoughts into captivity to The Obedience of Christ and I I forced my thoughts in the direction of starting to quote scripture Isaiah 26 3 Colossians 3 1 and 2 uh James chapter 1 verses two through four and I I had to get a hold of that uh fearful thought which kept cropping up this went on for

days I mean I was under some pretty serious attack and uh and there were times where I would I would slip a little bit and follow the thought and then it would result in all sorts of anxiety and and I would catch myself and grab that thought and wrestle it to the ground and then put my mind back upon the Lord and so we're not perfect in this life and we are going to have our failings however when we are called in the moment whatever the moment happens to be we need to be humble and obedient to d

o his will we need to be humble and obedient to do his will and um and this can mean uh thinking truth his truth the word of God in our thoughts it can mean it can it can refer to things that we say to other people how we communicate to them it can be uh something we do it can be some action that we're called to do uh so when we are called in the moment we need to be humble and obedient to do his will and when we are in those moments obedient when we humble ourselves and do his will in that mome

nt we serve as conduits of God's truth God's grace and God's love to other people and so in those moments God can work through us these imperfect vessels to accomplish his will in the world in ourselves and in the lives of other people now I actually actually intended this to be a shorter lesson but not sure that's within me to do that but anyway so hopefully this lesson has been helpful to you and hopefully you have benefited from this uh and if you did enjoy this lesson uh please be sure to hi

t the like button below and if you would like to receive other lessons like this then please be sure to subscribe to my channel I thank you very much and I wish you a good day