Phil Beach Jr. emphasizes the necessity of confession and humility before God, warning against the hypocrisy of worshiping with empty words while harboring pride and sin in our hearts. He illustrates the importance of being transparent and honest about our faults, both to God and to one another, as a means to receive mercy and grace. Through personal anecdotes, he highlights how acknowledging our guilt leads to true healing and a deeper relationship with Christ, who bore our sins. The sermon calls for believers to confront their pride and come boldly to the throne of grace, recognizing their need for God's forgiveness and transformation.

And tell me now what thou hast done. Hide it not from me. That's found in Joshua chapter 7, verse number 19. We don't give glory to God when we talk about Him with our lips, and our hearts are hard and far from Him. We don't give glory to God when we come and sing, but we have gossiped, have engaged in evil talk about people, and we hide it from the Lord. That's not giving glory to God. That's engaging in hypocrisy, something God hates, something the Lord hates, brothers and sisters. Give God glory. Do you want to give the Lord glory? Then He says, confess to Him. Confess to Him. Hide it not. Tell Him. Not just Him, but if I have sinned against my wife, then I must go to her. Confess your faults one to another, one to another, and pray that you what? Might be healed. See, we want to give glory to God by singing, but we don't want to give glory to God by confessing. It's because our pride, our pride. Have you seen your pride? Has God shown you your pride yet? How horrible it is. How it's an enemy to God, an enemy to everything that God wants to do. It's a horrible thing, isn't it? I'm troubled about my pride. I realize that if I give in to my pride, I become an enemy to God and to everything that He wants to do in my life. My horrible, rotten pride. I beg God every day, Lord, help me not to yield to my pride. There's times when I'm so close to the Lord, and it seems as though the pride is gone. But oh my, the next day I wake up, and something happens, and the old pride starts talking to me. And I have to go back as a sinner to my Lord, and I have to confess to Him, Lord, my pride is bothering me. Help me. I confess it. Help me, Jesus. That's what it means, beloved, to walk in the light and to keep walking in the light. The light keeps shining into our hearts and shows us our need. Confess, my son, and give God glory. What thou hast done, and hide it not from me. Now listen, in this story, Achan confessed his sin. And do you know what happened to him? He was stoned to death. He was stoned to death. But now, when God asks us to come to Him and asks us to confess our sin, do you know what He does? Do you know what He does? He shows us Jesus who was stoned to death for you. Achan was put to death because of his sin, even though he confessed it. But when we confess our sin, the Lord gives us a vision of Jesus who bled and died and who was punished for what we deserve. I'd like to give God glory today and talk about Jesus and His wonders in my life. Earlier this week, Colette had rearranged my clothes in my bedroom, along with my duty belt for work and some items that I usually have in a certain place. And when I was about to get ready for work, I went to my normal routine. And I like routines because they help me not forget. If I don't have a routine and I leave my flashlight here and my duty belt here and my radio here and my clothes here, then when I leave, I'll probably forget something. But if I have a routine, it helps me. Well, that morning my routine was shot. I couldn't find my clothes. I couldn't find my duty belt. I couldn't find my flashlight. I couldn't find my hat. And so I got angry at my wife and I scolded her. I scolded her. And I said, Wife, don't move my clothes into places where I can't find them. Don't move my duty belt from the place that it is every day. I spent 15 minutes. I'm running late. Please don't do this. And I felt justified in doing that. Brian, I felt justified in doing that. Well, going to work, I was in my car and I like to turn on the radio and I was listening to WAWZ and during this time, they had the Christmas Marathon, all wonderful songs about Jesus. So I started singing. All of a sudden, my Lord, who loves unfaithful sinners like me, starts to talk to me. And I turned the radio up louder. I'm a very spiritual man, aren't I? Huh? I turned the radio up louder. But He's persistent and I turned it off. I said, Yes, Lord. And here's what He said to me. He said, Son, I was not the least bit troubled this morning when you discovered that Colette had moved your clothes and moved your duty belt and moved your hat. What troubled me, son, was that you were troubled and that you became angry and that you sinned against me and against your wife. Well, I confessed my sin to the Lord and I wept in the car going to work because the Lord is answering my prayer that I have prayed for 25 years. Lord, I want to know Your heart. I want to know Your heart, Lord. Lord, I want to be like You. And so now He continuously shows me how I am unlike Him. Now I know that no one here has that problem, and so therefore I'm begging you to pray for me. Okay? I'm begging you to pray for me because I have that problem. I'm not like my Lord, but I want to be. And so the Lord gave me a wonderful gift at the end of the week just to show me how happy He was that I came to Him as a sinner. Friday night, got out of work, had to work a little late. I wanted to get home. I wanted to take a shower. And I wanted to just spend time with the Lord. I was so blessed. He has been so near to me. And you know, He's really close to unfaithful people. And so I was driving down 206 going north probably about 15 miles or so north of Bridgewater, which is where I work. And all of a sudden, it was dark, and all of a sudden, out of nowhere, this car comes out of a side road and comes in front of me. I screech on my brakes, just barely smash into him. And to top it off, he's driving about 30, 35 miles an hour on a 50 mile an hour road. And shortly after that incident, the road divided where you could pass. So I said to myself, well, it's bad enough that this guy cuts me off and I almost smash into his rear end, but now he's playing with me and he's just crawling. So I said, I'm going to wait until we get to the divided lane here and I'm going to pass him, overtake him. And so we get in there, and he pulls over a little bit into the right lane and a little bit into the left lane. And I said, well, he's playing with me. He won't let me pass him. So he moves a little bit more over, so I say, alright, that's my chance. I go over into the left lane, and I floor it. And as I'm moving, he starts picking up his speed. And I said to myself, my God, what is this guy doing? Doesn't he have anything better to do than to make my life miserable when I'm trying to get home? And so here he is accelerating next to me, not letting me pass him. And so I'm looking at him, I'm going, I'm looking at him, and all of a sudden, in my rear view mirror, red flashing lights, and I look down and I'm pushing 70 miles an hour, and I start trembling, literally trembling. First thing I said was, what about the guy next to me? Why me, Lord? And he was hot on my tail, sirens blowing. Then the next thing I said was, I bet that guy next to me is going, ha, ha, ha, ha. And so it's all just building up. And I said, oh, Jesus, help me. And so I go, pull over, and as I'm pulling over, my precious Lord, who loves unfaithful sinners, He speaks to me, and this is what He says. He says, Son, tell him you're guilty. Tell him you caught me, officer, and I have no excuse. And so I'm sitting, and he's there, and I was a police officer, so I know what he's doing. He's running my plate. He's seeing if there's any warrants for my arrest. He's wondering if he should come nicely up to the car, or take his gun and say, roll your window down. Let me see your hands. So I'm waiting and waiting and waiting, and all of a sudden, he and another female officer come out of the... And they come walking up, and I have my hands on the steering wheel, knowing that if your hands are not visible, that makes police officers very nervous. So here's a tip. If you're ever pulled over, put your hands up on top of your steering wheel. Let them see your hands. They'll be a lot nicer to you. And so he comes up to the window, and I look at him with my window up, and then I slowly take my hand and put it on the button and roll it down. And before he could speak a word, I obeyed the Lord. And I said, Officer, I'm guilty. You caught me. I have nothing to say. I'm sorry. He and the female officer are speechless. And the first thing he says to me was, Wow. You're a very honest man. I said, Officer, how can I lie? You were following me. You know I was pushing 70 miles an hour. I'm guilty. I made a mistake. I was speeding. I know the speed limit was 50. You're right. Can I see your driver's license, registration, and insurance card? I got it. He goes back to his seat. Five minutes. Six minutes. Seven minutes. Eight minutes. Ten minutes. I'm saying, Oh my God. I know it doesn't take this long to write a ticket. What's he doing? And then my mind, Oh, I bet he... There's probably information in the computer that's not correct. He's probably going to come and ask me to get out of my car. He's going to tell me my registration's expired. He's going to tell me my... All these thoughts going through my mind. And all of a sudden, after almost ten minutes, he and the female officer come up, and he says, Hi, Phil. I said, He obviously read my license. I said, Hello. He said, Well, He said, I'm going to cut you a break. I said, Well, thank you very much. He said, Oh, don't worry about it. He said, You have no points or anything like that? I said, That's correct, sir. He said, No problem. The female officer said, Where do you work? I see your hat there. I said, I'm a security officer at Bridgewater Mall. She said, Oh, that's my favorite mall. I'm there, Oh, well, I'm glad to hear that. You know? And he says, Just try and keep it down, Phil. He said, Have a good evening. And they walked away. Well, again, I just had tears in my eyes. And all of a sudden, the Lord again starts to talk to me. And he said, Son, if you want to find mercy at the throne of grace, tell me you're guilty. And I saw the whole thing was of him. He arranged the whole thing. He wanted me to be guilty of speeding. At that moment, he wanted that guy to antagonize me so I would go and try and pass him. He wanted me to get caught, Jim. And then he wanted me to come as a guilty man at the officer's mercy. That's what had happened earlier in the week. I was guilty. And I said, Lord, I'm guilty. I was angry at my wife. That night I came home and I asked her to forgive me. I said, I was wrong. I was wrong. I sinned. And this is what the Lord is saying right now. Do you want to know mercy? Listen, listen, brothers and sisters, please. Mercy is not available when we deny our guilt. It's not available when we justify ourselves and say, Oh, no, Lord, I'm not a sinner. Oh, no, Lord, I don't want to hear I'm a sinner. Oh, no, Lord, I'm not a proud man. No, Lord, I'm not a thief. I'm not a robber. I'm not an adulterer. I'm not a cheat. I'm not a gossip. I'm not a backbiter. No, Lord, not me. Others are like that, but not me. Not me. Mercy is not available when we don't confess our sin. But when we come to the throne of grace as sinners and we come to one another transparent and open and honest, confessing our faults one to another, the moment, the moment the Holy Spirit and the Word of God and the light from the face of Jesus shines into our hearts and shows us an area of darkness or hypocrisy, the moment we confess to Him and the moment He tells us that we need to talk to our brothers and sisters about something, the moment that happens and we say, yes, Lord, You're right. Remember a few weeks ago? The Canaanite woman? Jesus called her a dog. And what did she do? She got angry and said, How dare you call me a dog? No. She said, True, Lord. You're right. Remember what we learned last time we spoke on this? That the term dog represented a filthy, rotten, horrible, proud, stiff-necked sinner? True. When someone comes to you and says, You know, you've got pride in your life. What do you do? You justify your pride? When someone comes and says, You're a selfish human being. What do you do? When someone tries to correct you, what do you do? Are you a master, skilled artist in pointing your finger back in order to take the attention off yourself? Do you try and see the faults in the messenger in order to invalidate the message they're giving you? Oh, yeah. Well, who are you to tell me that? Who are you to tell me that? No, but this woman said, True, Lord. But even dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's plate. Jesus attacked her pride. Jesus attacked her self-life. Jesus attacked her sin to see whether or not she would come as a sinner or she would resist and become indignant and not come anymore. And when He saw she was broken, broken, broken, brokenness, True, Lord, everything You say is true about Me. When He saw she was broken, He said, Woman, great is Thy faith. Your request is granted. And Joshua said unto Achan, by the way, the word Achan means trouble, a place of anguish and trouble, a place of pain. And Joshua said to Achan, My son, give God glory, not with empty songs and lip service, not with hypocrisy and a self-righteous, holier-than-thou attitude, but give God glory and confess the truth. What is the truth? What is the truth? I am unlike my Lord. And I see it every day of my life as I walk in the light, as He is in the light. And as I see how unlike my Lord I am, I come to Him, not pretending, not denying, not justifying myself, not doing some religion in order to make myself feel better, but just as I am, a failure, a sinner, caught by God, caught by His light, just like that I come and confess my sin. And at that moment, it's not just some happy, oh, I'm forgiven. At that moment, we realize that God is just. He has to punish that sin, Danielle. He has to punish it. He's a just God. At that moment, when we come as sinners, instead of God striking us dead, which is what we deserve, we see Jesus, who was stricken by God and forsaken and crucified, and had a sword plunged into His side. And we realize then, for the first time, it was because of my sin that my Christ was crucified. I should have been the one, Lorenzo, that was forsaken of God. I should have been the one that was smitten. I should have been the one that endured the wrath of God for my sins. I should have. I'm guilty. Why did He do it? Why did He do it? I'm the one that murdered my wife. He said, don't be so extreme, Phil. You wouldn't murder her. I would too. Anger is murder. I'm the murderer. I'm the adulterer. Lorenzo, I am! Phil! You say, oh my God. Phil's committed adultery. If a man looks at a woman and lusts after her, he has committed adultery in his heart. Shall I deny it and be just in my own eyes? Or shall I come as a brokenhearted sinner and confess my sin to my Lord who loves sinners? Where's mercy? Where's grace, Lorenzo? Where's forgiveness at Calvary? For whom? For whom? Guilty sinners. Confessing sinners. Oh, it's one thing to be generic, you know. Oh, I'm a sinner. We know that. I know I'm a sinner. Come on. Enough of that. Do you really know you're a sinner? Then tell the world. Tell the world. And start with the ones closest to you that you have deceived all your life. And make them to think that you were better than them. Start with them. Come on, wives. You're a sinner? You have no problem with that, huh? Be specific. Hebrews 4, beginning in verse number 14. Lord, help this stiff-necked, proud eye bend its knee and die to the one who bent his knee and died for me. Hebrews 4, beginning verse 14. Seeing then... I'm sorry. Let's begin in verse number 12 of chapter 4. For the Word of God, the Word of God, the Word of God, Jesus was the Word of God that was made flesh. Jesus is light. Jesus is love. Jesus is pure. In Him is no darkness. Listen. If we say that we have not sinned, we lie. If we say we walk with Him, but walk in darkness, we lie. He is light. He is brilliant light. For the Word of God is quick. That means living and powerful. What does it mean for the Word of God to be powerful? It means that it is dynamite. It means that it bursts and explodes and exposes every, every bit of darkness in our life. The Word of God is powerful. The Word of God is powerful. It goes and rips the veneer away. It rips all the layers of hypocrisy. All the layers of religion. All the masks that we put on. All the pretending that we do. It's powerful. It's like an earthquake. It shakes everything to the very foundation. Energetic. Full of energy. The Word of God takes a man or a woman and shakes them to their core. Shakes them to the very core of their being and shows them exactly what they are. A guilty sinner deserving of hell and separation. That's what the Word of God does when you meet the Word of God. Not religion. The Word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. Piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit. The Word of God separates light from dark. What was it that God did at the very beginning? He separated the light from the dark. When we meet this man, Jesus Christ, and we truly meet Him, He will separate the light from darkness. He will show us the darkness in our heart. He will offer us mercy. He will offer us grace. He will give us visions of Calvary and show us that that's why He died. But He will not offer mercy and He won't offer grace and He won't offer forgiveness to us if we hide from the light and deny it and stand just in our own eyes and say, well, it's not really as bad as God says it is. I'm not really as bad as the other brother. I'm sure glad Phil has come to see his sin because I've been praying for him for a long time. I saw it all along. I wonder why it took him so long. Even to the dividing of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow. Listen, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight. But all things are naked and open unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do." Brothers and sisters, have you seen that? There is nothing hidden from His sight. Everything is naked before Him. Nothing is hidden. You might say, oh my God, that's a terrifying thought. You don't know how evil. You don't know how corrupt. You don't know how sinful. You don't know what I have done. Brothers and sisters, that's why Jesus came for the sick. He didn't call the righteous. He came to call sinners to repentance. They that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. It's your sickness that attracts Jesus to you. He's a physician. He loves sick people. Listen, Jesus loves sick people. Jesus loves sick people. If there's no one sick here, there's the door. You don't have to stay here. Go ahead. It's okay. When you're leaving, please pray for me because I'm sick. I'm a sick man. I need help. But if you don't, you can go. But Jesus loves sick people. Sick. Sorry. Sighing. Failing people. Not who use that as an excuse to keep sinning and saying, well, God knows. No. He loves sick people who come to Him and say, Lord, change me. Change me. Jesus said repent to sinners. The word repent means change. So Jesus loves sick people who come to Him and confess their sickness, confess their need, and then cry out, Lord, change me. Change me. And if you fall a hundred times in one day, you come a hundred times to Him and keep confessing. It's when we stop confessing that we become hard and backslidden and no longer change. Now watch. Seeing then that we have a great High Priest. Do you see the High Priest in heaven? Do you see Him? Brothers and sisters, if you see the High Priest in heaven, you will weep. You'll weep before you sing. You'll mourn before you have a song. Because when I see this High Priest in heaven, I see the man who suffered for my sins. Sing. We have a great High Priest that is passed into the heavens. Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. That word profession means confession. You know what it literally means? To agree with what God has said. Let us hold fast. Let us continue to agree with what God has said. What has God said? What has He said? True, Lord. True, Lord. I'm a proud, stiff-necked person. True, Lord. We don't like to hear that, do we? For we do not have a High Priest which cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities. Now we start to see the tenderness of Jesus. Brothers and sisters, He will slay you with His light. He will expose your hypocrisy, your sin, and your pride. He will not spare you because He loves you. And if you are spared, then I wonder if He loves you. My Lord keeps showing me over and over and over again how I am so unlike He is. That's proof that He loves me. Is He showing you how unlike you are? Him? If He does, it's a love gift. And He says I can be touched with the feelings of your weakness. I understand your pain because I bore your sin. Do you feel the pain of your sin? Well, I took that pain. And not only yours, but the sins of the world. Do you feel the shame of your sin? He said that's the cup I drank. I drank the cup of your sins. Do you feel the hurt? How deeply you hurt God? He says I know. I know. He says I drank that cup. I drank that cup. Everything you feel, I feel. A billion zillion times more because I drank the cup of your sins and the sins of the whole world. But Lord, you don't know, my heart is broken. I know my heart was broken. Not because of my sins, but your sins. But I love you. That's why I did it. I love you. He can be touched with the feelings of our infirmities. Was in all points tempted and tested and tried like we are, but yet He was without sin. If He was without sin, then tell me why was He crucified? Why? Why? Someone tell me. You don't believe it though. You don't believe it. I pray someday you will, but you don't believe it. No, I take it back. I take it back. You do believe it. You just don't know how horrible they are. Let us therefore come boldly, come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain what? Mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Boldly. How do we come to the throne of grace? As what? Sinners. In time of need. What's our time of need? Every day. Every day. God, Lord, I'm coming boldly. Boldly, but not as a righteous man. Not as a good man. I'm not coming boldly to pray for my backslidden sister. I'm coming boldly to pray for her twice as backslidden brother. Lord, I come boldly for need. Lord, my pride. Lord, help me. I need You, Lord. Help me. Help me, Lord. And then I find what? Mercy and grace. Mercy and grace. That's right. Moment by moment. And so, brothers and sisters, this is the message that we have heard from Him. And declare we it unto you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness. If we walk in the light, if we are walking continuously in the light as He is in the light, then we have fellowship one with another. True fellowship. And the blood of Jesus is cleansing us continuously from all the filthy unrighteousness that is being exposed because of walking in the light. If we confess our sin and cleanse. May the Lord work this deeply in our homes and in our hearts and help us to see. Help us to see. Let's bow our hearts for a moment. Brothers and sisters, let me say this, please, as we are bowing our hearts before God. Your greatest enemy. Listen, please. Your greatest enemy is your pride. If God turned me over to my pride, I would destroy myself and end up in hell. Don't think for a moment that you're strong enough to overcome your pride. Don't think for a moment that you can work this thing out yourself. I'm going to ask the Lord now under the direction of the Holy Spirit. And I'm going to challenge you, if you want this prayer answered in your life, I'm going to ask you to stand up and come to the front and stand with me. I'm going to pray and I'm going to ask the Holy Spirit to reveal the horrible ugliness of our pride to our eyes. Not only to our eyes, but to the eyes of the One that we are closest to so that all masks are removed and all illusions are gone and we don't hold anyone more highly than we ought to and that we all become reduced as sinners at the cross of Jesus Christ. Not afraid of rejection. Not afraid of judgment. But weeping because we know Christ bore our sins and that we don't have to be afraid. Anybody who wants to come. I just want to wait another minute or two. Anybody who wants to come. I'm going to pray that God will reveal everyone who's standing. The Holy Spirit will show you your pride and how you justify your sin before God and before others and how you despise to be called a sinner. You despise and resist and how God will have mercy if we come as sinners. Father, here we stand in Your presence. I pray that by the power of the Holy Spirit and by Your loving hand, starting with me and with all my brothers and sisters who are standing in faith, show us our pride and how we've resisted You and help us to come as needy sinners to You, confessing our pride that we might receive grace, mercy, and help at the throne of Your majesty. I pray, Lord, that You would not only show us our pride, but that You would tear down all of the wrong ideas that we have about one another and the human love which protects one another from the sword of Your mouth that goes deep. Lord, help us to be free from human love and to be filled with divine love that loves truth alone. Now, Lord, here we stand in faith, helpless but asking You. Do it, Lord, in all of our hearts. Let's just hold steady for a few moments in the presence of God. Lord, please. A few weeks ago I was praying and I was saying, Lord, by faith I want to exchange my patience for Yours and my love for Your love and my mercy for Your mercy. And suddenly the Lord stopped me and He said, No, my son, you're praying wrong. I said, Well, then, Lord, teach me how to pray. He said, Pray like this. Father, I exchange my hate for Your love so I don't have love. It turns to hate when it's attacked. It turns to hate when it doesn't get what it wants. I can love my brother. I can love my wife. And the next day, if she rubs me the wrong way, I have hatred in my heart toward her. That's not God's love. That's the true nature of my love, Mike. It's hate. I don't have patience. All has to happen is some old poor lady come in front of me and drive 10 miles an hour under the speed limit and I'm mumbling under my breath, I wish she'd get a flat tire. Oh, I'm a real patient human being, aren't I? But I know none of you are like this. So I'm asking you to pray for me. It's a bitter cup, brothers and sisters. But if we don't drink it, there's no mercy. There's no grace but a continual decline into sin and hardness of heart. And so Jesus taught me how to pray now. And I said, true, Lord, true. Do you want the Lord to show you these things? Are you willing to share this with the ones God has brought into your life? Not uncontrollable confessing where we go and blabber out our hearts. No, but you know the ones God has brought into your life. I'll tell you what pride will tell you. Pride will say, I'll take care of this in my prayer closet before God. And I'll get it all worked out. No, you won't. No, you won't. You're going to have to realize that you're part of a body and part of a family. And you're going to have to let your wife in. You're going to have to let your husband in on your heart's ache. And together, go find mercy at the cross. You say, oh, I'm afraid to do that. Then find some brothers and sisters that you know are close to the Lord and ask them to help you. But don't put it off. There's healing here. There's healing. Okay, let's just sing this song now and together we'll look to the Lord for His healing. I thank You, Lord, that You're going to do this in our lives and that the fruit will be glorious in Your eyes. Do it, Lord, we pray.