So at the beginning here of First John, chapter three, we see one of the most amazing statements in all of the Bible, and we know it. Behold, what manner of love the father has bestowed on us that we should be called children of God. John has known God's love at this point for many decades. And yet we can still hear the sense of wonder in his words. God bestows, he gives his gracious love to the foul wrecks of fallen men. Lovingly, he transforms rotten rebels to the point that they are called the children of God. John goes further in verse two. And this is even more amazing. He says that we are God's children right now. If we could just catch a fleeting glimpse of the wonder of these realities, we too would ask for a thousand tongues to sing his praises. We are God's children right now. God's word is amazing in wonder. for giving us such reassuring and comforting words. God's Word is amazing in its inspiration delivered by the Holy Spirit through holy men. God's Word is amazing in its power to convict, instruct, and give hope. God's Word is also amazing in its balance. In the letter of 1 John, we see God's majestic mercy displayed as the great hope for every saved sinner. But we also see that God's children are still works in progress. Now, let's go on to read the rest of verse two. It says it has not yet been revealed what we shall be. But we know that when he is revealed, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. John is saying here that we Christians are still works in progress. We have not yet been perfected. That will only take place when we stand with Lord Jesus at the end of time. God will take his imperfect children and make them like his own dear son. This is an amazing hope. Certainly would love to hear these things. But now reverse three. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself just as he is pure. We want to say, wait, what? We were on board when this good news with this good news, when it was about God making us his children through justification. We're glad to hear about God's work of transforming the Christian into the likeness of his dear son when this mortal life is over. And but are we just as excited about the work that we have to do right now? Shouldn't we be just as glad to hear about the ongoing work of sanctification that God is working in us right now? Right now, we are God's children. Right now, we have this future hope of seeing Jesus face to face. And right now, that hope and love from the father should cause us to purify ourselves from the sin that remains within us and the sin that that resides outside of us. Right now, we are God's children. Right now, we are not who we ought to be. Right now, in this situation, we are in this situation until we are made perfect. Are we left by God in a hopeless situation? Are we just to drift downstream, waiting for the end to come? Not only do we find this tension in chapter three, we also find it back in chapter one, and that's where we're going to spend the rest of our time. In chapter one, John talks about having joy and being in fellowship with the Father, the Son and other Christians. How can we have joy in this life while we are in this tense crisis? How can we have unity with God and men while this tension continues? We can know an ongoing joyful fellowship with God and his children. But we cannot have it apart from a daily confession of sins. So when first John one nine, we will see that we as Christians need to be daily and actively confessing our sins in order to find pardon for and purification from our sins. Let us now read. First, John chapter one will start at verse five. And we'll be reading to chapter two, verse two. Please follow along as I read this. This is the message which we have heard from him and declare to you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another. And the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us. My little children, these things I write to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the father, Jesus Christ, the righteous, and he himself is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but also for the whole world. Let's pray and ask the Lord's blessing upon his message tonight. Father God, we thank you for this most glorious text. We thank you for your Holy Spirit. We beg you now that you would help us to uncover what you would have us to see here tonight. We ask that you would soften our hearts to accept this most glorious message. We ask that you would shine the light of your son upon us. that we would see pure holiness, that you would uncover any deceitful, dark, hidden places in us, that you would restore us to full fellowship with you, and that you would transform us into the image of your dear Son. We cannot do this without your Spirit's help. Give us strength And may you get all the honor and glory. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen. After displaying his credentials as an eyewitness. Of God in the flesh, Christ Jesus. John states that his great desire is that those who hear the good news of Jesus Christ will come into a full knowledge and relationship with God the Father and God the Son. The word John uses here to describe this relationship is fellowship. This word fellowship has the idea of partnership or having the same interests in common. Believers have fellowship with God, a relationship where we have the same likes and dislikes, the same words and behaviors, Fellowship has the idea of seeing things the same way that God sees them. To be in fellowship with the Heavenly Father means that our actions, ideas, words must be judged according to the standard of God's character and word. To put it another way, God's children should be like God in thought, word, and action. And goal and aim. Christians should be godly. In verse five, John makes yet another solemn declaration, he says, this is the message which we have heard from him and declare to you that God is light. We are brought into fellowship with the God who is light. Now, the fact that God is light, is a sermon series in itself. No doubt many large volumes have and can be written on God's perfections. Yet the idea that God is light is also easy for us to grasp on a surface level. Light brings two immediate ideas to our attention. First, light speaks of God's holiness and purity. And secondly, light speaks of God revealing himself, enlightening an ignorant mankind. We must see according to God's light. When we see with his light, then we can walk in the light. The true light enables the true walk. The God of light sets the ethical standards. In verse seven, John says that if we walk in the light, that we are to be walking in the light as he is in the light. John here states that Christians, those in fellowship with God the Father, walk in the light. This is a statement of fact. Christians walk in the light. It is a response or the reflection of God's holiness and truthfulness in his children. Now, this is an expansive subject. what it means to walk in the light. But one commentator provides a template to understanding this walk in the light. Robert Yarborough spends much time in his commentary on First John, saying that John the Apostle is exhorting his readers throughout the letter to improve in three spheres or areas of life. The first is their faith. in God, what they believe about God, we would call it their orthodoxy, their sound doctrine. Secondly, he is focusing their minds on their ethical obedience of the moral law. And we call it here the orthopraxy or a sound practice. And thirdly, their love toward God and others there, they're being instructed to improve in their love. their relationship with God and others. This is sound affections. And if you can allow me to coin a term, I call this ortho got a sound love. The more we come to know the one true God, the father of lights, the more we we become more like God, the more we know the one true God, the father of lights, the more we are to become like God in all three areas of life. From the beginning of this letter, John stresses the importance of having a correct belief in God. God's children must believe in God in a biblical manner. What we believe about God must be found in God's word. Holding to bad doctrine not only misleads, but it misses the mark. It is sin. It is sinful. Was not false doctrine about God's goodness very near the root of the sin of Adam? The heretics here that John was dealing with, they were denying that Jesus Christ came in human flesh as the man-god. They were denying that. Not only were they way off in doctrine, but they were guilty for believing in and spreading a lie about God. John also stresses the necessity of walking in the light and avoiding an empty, worldly, and hypocritical way of life. God's children are to live according to the gracious instructions found in the Bible. When we speak, think, or act according to the wishes of the world, the flesh, or the devil, then we have entered the path of darkness. Paul in 2 Corinthians 6, 14 poses this question, one of the many hypotheticals there. What communion has light with darkness? That word communion in the Greek is the same word we find translated as fellowship in 1 John 1, koinonia. What fellowship, what unity, what common cause does light have with darkness? And we know the answer is none at all. We cannot have communion with the Father while we are walking in darkness. And yet, correct profession and correct procession do not complete the picture of the one who walks in the light. Walking in the light also requires correct passions, a pure and fervent agape love. We might see how someone is able to think that they are spotless in doctrinal standards. It becomes a lot harder to see how someone is able to think that they are never straying from the path of perfect obedience. It's then ridiculous to think that one could ever think that they love God with all their heart, soul, and strength, and that they love their neighbors as they ought. Just simply loving our neighbors as ourselves requires a surrendering of time, energy, and material that few take seriously. We are called to love others in a way that overcomes tribal divisions, natural hatreds, and social awkwardness. We are called to pray for, preach to, and care for all men, no exceptions. Are we doing even 1% what we should in these areas? John integrates these three aspects of the Christian life throughout the letter. We find these instructions all over the place. We cannot claim to be walking in the light while going light or ignoring one of these three categories. We may recognize that some of us may be strong in one or two of these categories. but finding ourselves weak in others. Some Christians have a sound profession, knowing and proclaiming doctrine with great precision, yet having reputations for short tempers, loose talk, and worldly behavior. And other Christians walk humbly and righteously as model Christians, and yet can't give a clear presentation of the gospel to their family member or coworker or neighbor. Others have a sound profession and a good procession, a good way of life, but lack a sound compassion for weaker Christians and for the unsaved. Walking in the light of God's glorious perfections requires that we believe aright, behave aright, and be love aright. As children of Father God, We are called to a very high calling. We are to reflect His communicable attributes at all times, in every part of our lives. Many of us here would say to all this, I am so blessed to be God's child, but I am falling far short of reflecting His holiness, His mercy, and His faithfulness. It is clear that we cannot walk perfectly in this light as he is in the light. Are we then left without hope? Are we left without hope of ever having true fellowship with God and with man? Thankfully, John points us to the provision of Christ's blood that cleanses, that purifies us from the stains of our failings. We look here at the rest of verse seven, but if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanses us from all sin. See, the light of his glory reveals our shortcomings. If we are looking at other men for our standard of holiness, we say we may suppose looking at other men. for moral standard, we may suppose that some are only a foot tall in stature, some maybe two, maybe three, and perhaps the mature Christian is a seven foot tall person in moral stature. But when our gaze is corrected to God's moral stature, it is not seven feet or seven thousand feet or even seven million feet. But it is infinitely higher than we can imagine. Let us lay aside the deception that we are OK because we measure up to other believers. Our standard is God. His light reveals how often and how far we fall short. He doesn't do this just to make us feel inferior. He does us. He does these things. He shows us these things to show us our dependence. See, we did not come into fellowship with God on the basis of our own works, and therefore we do not maintain our fellowship through our own works. Our fellowship, our communion, our peace with God, and our peace with God and our brethren is on the basis of the blood of Jesus Christ, the righteous. The more we remain exposed to the light of his character and truth, The more we will see that our own rebellions, the more we will see our own rebellions, weaknesses and follies. But we are not left there just to feel bad. We are shown our deficiencies so that we will be forced to find refuge in the finished work of Jesus Christ, our Lord. So then walking the light demands our continual dependence on Christ's blood and righteousness. John calls his beloved children to this walk in the light, to walk in the light in contrast to the false claims and the loose living of the heretics. So we have a contrast in this first chapter. He starts describing this contrast in verse five with the statement that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. John here uses a double negative in our dialect. This double negative could be translated as, in him is no darkness. Never, ever, no way, no how. On the other hand, the false teachers were lurking in the shadows of their own deceptions and their own delusions. Verse 6 contains the first of these three deceptions that John sees in the heretics. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. Each of these statements begin with if we say the first illusion is a lie that that a Christian may live in an ungodly manner and still have fellowship with God. We have already seen that this cannot be so. Our attitude toward our own sins cannot be one of indifference. Our sins are covered by the blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus. But God still hates the sins that we commit. Our sins are harmful acts of rebellion. We cannot sin willfully and remain innocent. We must loathe and grieve over our own sins. Do not be deceived. God is not mocked. Verse 8 contains a second deception. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. The grammar of this verse carries the idea that the heretics are claiming to not be guilty of sin since they have come to know God. This is the lie that there is no struggle against remaining sin. Again, we see another false attitude that sin is nothing to be concerned about. There's no problem between us and God. Christians are justified, legally cleared through the finished work of Christ. But we must agree with John Gill who says that within each Christian, within each Christian are the seeds of all possible sin. We as Christians may be God's children, But we still have a propensity, a strong tendency and urge to sin that must be fought against moment by moment and day by day. Robert Candliss, the 19th century Scottish theologian who wrote the classical, the classic devotional commentary on 1 John, says that the real danger for the modern Christian isn't that we are deceived into thinking that we have stopped sinning. He said the real danger is that our flesh gradually tires of being humbled by walking in the light. Living in an open way with our God, allowing his light to uncover every deficiency, becomes burdensome to our remaining sinfulness. It becomes burdensome to our flesh. We allow ourselves to become weary in doing good. weary of the wrestling against the sin and the war that remains inside of us. This drift into complacency is like someone who strays on a fate path in a deep wood. The pathway is not well worn and it takes constant attention to stay on it. The hiker tires of the constant focus on the pathway and allows himself to daydream for a few minutes. When he finally comes to himself, he looks around and he realizes he is in big trouble. Distractions, laziness, and false attitudes take us out of this pathway of light. A true Christian will be found and returned by the Good Shepherd, but sometimes only after suffering great loss and loss of years. Sadly and regrettably, This strain, crisis and rescue pattern describes many Christian lives. It doesn't have to be this way. Rather than denying that our sins break fellowship with God, our father, rather than denying that we that we don't rather than denying our remaining propensity to sin, we must admit to our sins. And we must admit that we fight against our own sinful flesh. And that brings us to verse nine. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So, again, we see that we need to be daily and actively confessing our sins in order to find pardon, pardon for and purification from our sins. The first thing that John says here is that Christians confess their sins. Christians are confessing their sins. The grammar here is descriptive. It's not in the form of a command. John is saying that Christians confess their sins. And this is I'll start with the weakest argument. This is the historical pattern. of the Christian church throughout all ages. And I think particularly of the times of revival of the last few centuries. Every single awakening, the famous ones like the Great Awakening and coming through the 1859 revival, the Welsh revival at the beginning of the 20th century, all the way up to the Isle of Lewis. These great outpourings of the Holy Spirit upon his people were always accompanied by a great outpouring and confessing of sins, every single one of them. But we don't have to just merely look at the historical pattern. This is the biblical pattern we see believers doing this throughout the Bible. And the first place we're going to look at this is Acts chapter 19. We see this is a biblical pattern that Christians confess their sins. We see this in the new believers in Ephesus. Paul's ministry in Ephesus included months of preaching, accompanied by many signs and wonders. In verses 17 and 18, we see this, the signs and wonders became known both to all Jews and Greeks dwelling in Ephesus and fear fell on them all. And the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. And many who had believed came confessing and telling their deeds. We know that they weren't just simply confessing that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God. We know that because Luke records that they were telling their deeds. They were acknowledging their sin before God and man. a fruit of spiritual transformation that had been wrought in them by the new birth by the Holy Spirit. But we expect to see this in a new believer. Well, let's look at some mature believers. An open and complete confession of sin is not only found in new believers in the Bible. Let us start with David in the Old Testament. David, a man after God's own heart, sin by taking another man's wife and then killing the man in an attempt to cover up the sin. And as a side note, please notice that cover-ups are often worse than the originating sin. After a year of concealing his foul actions, God loved David in sending Nathan, the prophet, to confront David. God loved David in causing him to fully confess his sins. We see David described this gift of confession in Psalm 32. And I'll just read verse five. I acknowledge my sin to you and my iniquity. I have not hidden. I said I will confess my transgressions to the Lord and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. David opens up and owns his sin. He acknowledges his offense and guilt, his iniquity, his perversity, his transgressions, his rebellious acts. He does not hold back. Hear what confession sounds like from David in the beginning of Psalm 51. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to your loving kindness, according to the multitude of your tender mercies. Blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin, for I acknowledge my transgressions, my rebellions and my sin is always before me against you. You only have I sinned and done this evil in your sight that you may be found just when you speak and blameless when you judge. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin my mother conceived me. A full confession of sin. We don't stop with David. Let's look at Daniel, Daniel, chapter nine. Here we find Daniel, an aged and mature believer engaged in one of the best examples of a confession that is a confession of sin that we have recorded anywhere. We might get the impression in this this prayer, this confession that he is merely confessing the sins of the nation. But verse 20 clears up any confusion that we may have on that point, because he said, now, while I was speaking, praying and confessing my sin and the sins of my people, Israel, and presenting my supplication before the Lord, my God, for the holy mountain of my God. Of course, the angel Gabriel appears to him. But the point is, he was confessing his own sin. Let's go on to Isaiah, another very godly man. He has shown a vision of the thrice holy God. And what does it cause him to do? It causes him to declare his own sin. Woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Those are Old Testament examples. You have New Testament examples. One I found the other day, which caught my eye, was James chapter three, verse two, James, the brother of Jesus, in his letter saying. For we all stumble in many things. It's a simple statement, but it's a it's an omission of sin, we all stumble in many things, it is safe to say that we includes the writer. James is admitting that he stumbles. Of course, we have Romans 3.23, for we all have sinned and still fall short of the glory of God. We will always fail to win God's acceptance through the works of our flesh. Solomon writes similarly in Ecclesiastes 7.20, for it is not a just man on earth who does good and does not sin. Of course, that brings us to Paul. Paul confesses his own sins quite explicitly throughout the Bible, but especially in Romans chapter seven, with the climax being in verse 24, he says, Oh, wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? That doesn't sound hypothetical. He also calls himself the chief of sinners, the chief of sinners in First Timothy 115, basically saying, I am the worst sinner. And he goes on to say that God is showing his ability to save people by saving me. That's how bad that's how he viewed himself in the light of God's glory and grace. But it doesn't stop there. He calls himself the least of apostles in First Corinthians 15 and Ephesians 3. He's the least of all the saints. He's not just putting this on. I don't believe that at all. In Second Corinthians, chapter five, he gives a we can only We have to be careful not to miss these short statements in the Bible, and this is one I've glossed over for years. Second Corinthians, chapter five, verse 20, he commands the Corinthians to be reconciled to God. Aren't they already justified? Aren't they already at peace? But he said, be reconciled to God. Paul implores them, he begs them, the believers. To be reconciled to God, to be at peace, true peace between God and the elect in Corinth has already been accomplished by God through the finished work of Jesus Christ. But Paul here goes on to plead with them to be reconciled with God. Paul is asking these saints to subject themselves to God in all areas of life, to trust in God's ways and to renew their repentance. We've seen the biblical pattern, the examples of confession. What is really the definition and description? What is this confession? Well, first off, it is not just a ritual. It's not simply a saying of magic words. It's just not something flippant like that. It is also not a free pass to sin. And it's not to be regarded as a light matter. Sin is a serious offense before our holy God. The confession of it must be equally serious. I've heard this with my own ears. Two people talking with each other, they were like older teenagers and one of them was trying to convince somebody else to do something. Oh, you know what? Don't worry about it. Remember, there's always first John one nine like they can just Use that as a get out of jail free card later. That's not what true confession is. The Greek word that we translate confession is homologato, which really translates directly as saying the same thing. We're using the same words about our sin that God has about our sin. So in reality, confession is saying the same thing about our sin that God says about our sin. It's admitting it's admitting how bad our sins are and that we do actually sin. Our sins aren't merely a symptom of brokenness. They are signs of rebellion, which we cannot be nonchalant, indifferent, calm or relaxed concerning our own sins, we must admit that we have a lack of conformity to the law of God. And it's not just occasional, but it is constant. We must put away the notion that we that though we came to Christ through his work, we continue in our own merits. We need to put that to rest. We constantly fall short of winning God's approval apart from Jesus's atonement. and his imputed righteousness. Again, further in the description of what this confession is, the sins we confess are our own sins. They are our sins. That's where we should be focused first, is on our own sins. That's what we're confessing. It brings right to mind when I thought about this, Luke 18. We have Jesus telling the parable And he's telling this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and yet they despised others. This is what Jesus says. Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself. God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all I possess. And the tax collector, in contrast, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. Confession must be also sincere. It must be followed by a forsaking of sin. We see this. Bring your minds back to Acts chapter 19. What did they do after they believed and after they confessed and after they told of their deeds? They brought all of their books of magic and all of their idols to the center of town and they burned them in a bonfire to a great loss of material and wealth. They burned it. Our sin, the confession of our sin must be followed by a forsaking of sin, or it's not a confession at all. Confession. is also habitual, ongoing, and it's daily. The confession of sins is not merely a one-time act that so many people say. It's not just a one-time act of the new Christians. Let's go back to Matthew chapter 5, the Sermon on the Mount. Right here at the beginning of the Beatitudes, Christ said in verse three, blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And then he says, blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted. And the tense there is really of those who are mourning. Blessed are the mourning ones. They are continually mourning over their sins in the state of their own souls. God blesses the one who is actively mourning over their sins. Matthew, Chapter six, we look at what's commonly called the Lord's Prayer in verse twelve. Let's back up to verse eleven. Jesus here is teaching his disciples how to pray in verse eleven, he instructs them to ask for daily bread, then in verse twelve, to ask for their forgiveness, to ask for the forgiveness of their sins and forgive us our debts. So. He's saying, give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts, it would be. Very hard to argue that, well, yes, for daily bread, but the confession is only once. Asking for forgiveness only happens once. It's very clear, we are asking for daily bread. We are to be asking for daily forgiveness because we need it. We've seen the biblical pattern of confession. We've seen the definition and description of confession. We now look at the necessity of our confession. Why do Christians need to confess their sins? We've already touched on this quite a bit. We already see that it is commanded in Holy Scripture. And we could add to this what what Pastor Ventura preached on last year from Proverbs 28, verse 13, he who covers his sin will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will have mercy. We have already seen that it is exemplified in the Old Testament and the New Testament and in church history. We have seen that it is the normal pattern of believers throughout all the ages to be confessing their sins. If we begin, and then next, if we begin the Christian life in the confession of sins, it follows that we should continue in the confession of sins. If we begin our relationship, our fellowship with God in confessing our sins, why should it be strange that we would continue in the confession of our sins? The convert believes and repents. Does the mature Christian stop believing? No, he continues to believe and he continues to repent. We fully accept. That the Christians. Should go on believing in God and trusting in their savior. Like. But God also gives us this repentance, and he works repentance in us from the day we are turned until the day we see him face to face. If we are still trusting in Christ as Lord and Savior, then we should still be acknowledging our faults and begging him to restore us to fellowship. Fourthly, when it comes to the necessity of Christians confessing their sins, The next one is how we need to confess our sins, because if we fail to confess our sins, we fall under our Heavenly Father's displeasure and discipline. In Psalm 89, verse 31 to 33, we see this. If his sons forsake my law and do not walk in my judgments, If they break my statutes and do not keep my commandments, then I will punish their transgression with the rod and their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless, my loving, my loving kindness, I will not utterly take from him nor allow my faithfulness to fail. God will wound us and discipline us. For Our continued rebellion. But he keeps his promise. And he does not take his loving kindness away from us. For we are sealed forever. His children. The second London Baptist Confession, what we call the 1689 affectionately has this right in Right at the end, again, a balancing statement at the at the end of the section on justification, which is chapter 11, paragraph five. They wrote back then, God does continue to forgive the sins of those that are justified, and although they can never fall from the state of justification, yet they may, by their sins, fall under God's fatherly displeasure. And in that condition, They have not usually the light of his countenance restored upon unto them until they humble themselves, confess their sins, beg a pardon and renew their faith and repentance. Our justification is forensic, it is legal righteousness, it is a righteousness that speaks about our standing, which is settled forever in the heavens. Though our justification before God never changes, our fellowship with God the Father can and does change. Who do Christians confess their sins to? And that's our next section. Who do we confess our sins to? To those we sin against. The rule should be that we should confess a sin to as many who who are aware of it. And of course, we start with we know that we are to be confessing our sins to God. We must hear. We must recall David's words from Psalm 51 against you. You only have I stand and done this evil in your sight. But interestingly enough, we have more trouble with this next audience that we have. We must be confessing our sins to others. And here, I do not mean a priest in a confessional booth. In Rome's false system, one must go before a human priest to have sins forgiven. When Tony Blair left office as prime minister, he followed his wife into Roman Catholicism. His brand of Anglicanism was so in step with Roman sacramentalism that the Roman Catholic bishop, the local one, allowed him into his wife's parish merely on the basis of him confessing his sins to a human priest. That being said, we must be confessing our sins to others. Our sins must be confessed as far as they are known. As the commentator Hebert said, the confession of any act of sin should be as far as the knowledge of the sin. And we could look at James, chapter five, very clear instruction on this. If is any of the is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing songs. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Confess your trespasses to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed. The effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. The word trespasses here is the word sins. The Geneva Bible, interestingly enough, translates confessor trespasses as acknowledge your faults. Well, why would we ever want to admit, acknowledge our faults before our fellow believers? Well, it is commandment. And especially those who are aware of our sin, but you know, it makes us better Christians. If we view the church as a field hospital, as a barrack of Christian soldiers, We are here to share intelligence. We're not here to share salacious details of sin. We are here to warn each other. And as some of us here have been Christians for decades and have a lot of good advice and have fought many different types of sins and can name them and describe them and warn with tears the younger Christians. among us. It also not only make us stronger Christians, but it'll make us more humble in our walks, more liable to forgive others and ask for forgiveness. We will know what we are going through. We are to call to bear each other's burdens and fulfill the law of Christ. But we need to be wise about how we acknowledge our faults before others. We need to be wise about how we confess our sins to each other. Again, we need to be careful not to engage in these brokenness authenticity contests. We should not crave for the details of a saved sinner's past in the world of sin. We should rather have a hunger for the righteous exploits that God is working in them right now. It's not a contest. And we should be careful of oversharing and wise about choosing the audience about a particular sin we need to confess. That being said, we don't need to confess all of our sins to our pastors. And yes, there are certain situations and certain hard issues that need to be brought to our pastors. And we need to be wise about that. We also need to be good stewards of their time as well. They will answer the phone. They will respond to you. But we have other brethren in the church that we can confess to. And again, a general rule is we should, as men, be confessing our sins to men. And as the women, we confess to women. And there are some sins that need to be publicly confessed and some more of a private nature. Again, we need to be wise about this so that we do not harm the brethren. But after describing this confession, Let's look at God's response. And secondly, we see that God is forgiving those who are confessing their sins. Notice how God meets an open confession. He meets this open confession with free blessing. He's not standing by with lightning bolts or a big hammer. We confess. He forgives. What is this forgiveness, this pardon? It is a letting go. It is a giving up. It is a releasing from a debt, a setting free. This is an unburdening. God removes the barrier and now and he also removes this point of controversy. The source of division is gone. His smile returns and a normal fellowship with our father is restored. What is forgiven? Specific sins. And the grammar really is driving home the point that this confession should be a full accounting. It shouldn't be like where we say, you know, Lord, I sinned today, forgive me. It should be much more detailed than that, based upon the grammar. What is the basis of this forgiveness? We should be very thankful. that God forgives our sin on the basis of His character and not the quality of our confessions. His merciful faithfulness and magnanimous justice results in our forgiveness. Psalm 65, verse 3, we saw this at the beginning of the month at prayer meeting, men's prayer meeting, where Pastor Buckley read, iniquities prevail against me as for our transgressions You will provide atonement for them. God forgives our confessed sin on the basis of his faithfulness. Word there in the Greek is pistis. God is faithful to his covenant. He keeps his promise to accept the atoning sacrifice of Christ for his people. The Old Testament word for this idea is hesed, his loving loyalty. his lovingkindness. And again, recall Psalm 51, verse one, have mercy upon me, O God, according to your lovingkindness, according to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Not only does he forgive us on the basis of his faithfulness, but he forgives us on the basis of his justice, his righteousness, Dikaios, It's a word we don't expect to see justice listed here. We would expect to see mercy or grace. But God is just when he forgives the confessor, because justice has been served. Our father doesn't simply overlook our sins. He forgives us our sins because the penalty of all of our sins has already been heaped upon Christ in his sufferings and death. He passes over our sins because our sins have been covered by Christ's blood. The Father goes beyond restoring the bonds of fellowship and forgiving sins. Thirdly, our God is also purifying those He is forgiving. He also purifies the confessor as well as forgiving them. So what is this cleansing, this purifying? What are the forgiven being purified from? This word wickedness here is, I believe, just simply a synonym based upon the similar phrase in verse 7. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. Here it is slightly rephrased to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Thus, God is cleansing us, purifying us, purifying the confessor, the confessors of sin from his rebellion and failures to comply to God's will. It's very much like the removing of a stain. While the forgiveness of sins is about restoring fellowship with God the Father, the cleansing who works in us removes the source of the estrangement. He is taking out the pollution of our sinful deeds. His light reveal reveals our deficiencies, our feelings, our rebellions. We confess these and they are forgiven on the basis of Christ's finished work. But in the process of doing this, he shows us how our sins grieve him. And we learn to hate our rebellion as much as he does. He uses the confession of our sins to cause us to hate sin and to avoid sin. In this act of discipline, He modifies, bit by bit, our attitudes about sins. And it's through His Holy Spirit. His Holy Spirit opens our eyes, our hearts, our minds to the light of His glory as revealed in the Holy Bible. Through this discipline, this repetitive training, We learn in much the same way that we learn how to play a musical instrument or a sport or a martial art. Our father is transforming us by means of his light, his way, his word, and the confession of our sins. So this crisis, this war that we have within us, this situation, this tense fight between our sinful flesh and the will of God is actually a gracious, opportunity by it. Our father, our wise father purifies us, sanctifies us, changes us into the obedient children that he has called us to be. And therefore, this cleansing that God grants us when we confess our sins is vital to the transformation, our transformation into the likeness of Christ. So we see that the confessing of our sins is about much more than healing our guilty consciences. He took our feet from the miry clay. He put us on dry ground and gave us strength to walk. He is then the light of the pathway. The way is glorious and dangerous and arduous and narrow, but it is so much better than the broad road which leads to destruction. This lighted way will reveal our every weakness, our every idol, our every flaw, our every rebellion. It is a painful process. But when we see these deficiencies, and when we see these deficiencies, we will be tempted to run into the bushes and to lurk in shame and concealment. But we cannot hide from God. We must remain in the light, knowing that we can only stand before him in fellowship because of the work of his son. We cannot make progress unless we are walking in his light, confessing all our sins naked and open to the eyes of him to whom we have to give an account. If we are endeavoring to walk in the light, we must cooperate. with the Holy Spirit. The roadblocks of our rebellions must be dealt with properly and promptly if we are going to continue to make progress down this pathway of light. And therefore, we need to be daily and actively confessing our sins in order to find pardon for and purification from our sins. I will say three things in closing. The first two directed at professing Christians. If you find that you are loving a sin and refusing to depart from it, do not think that you are all right with God the father. Either you love either your love has grown very cold or you don't truly know God. To know God is to love him, to love him is to keep his commandments. Maybe God is showing you right now. that you don't truly know him. Perhaps you have been living under a false profession of your last person disguised as a believer. That is. That is painful to hear, but. Don't stay in that shame. God has given you a gift. Perhaps God is showing you that you are beyond hope, beyond hope in yourself. Jesus said, I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. You must abandon all hope in your own works, in your own life, in order to truly trust in Jesus. We must trust in his blood and righteousness in order to be rescued from the wrath of the father, which has been rebelled against. Secondly, perhaps some of you here have refused to acknowledge a sin or many sins for a long time. Concealed and unconfessed sin will fester and rot in the soul. Prayer is impossible because the noise of the conscience is loud with accusation. One who is so far off the pathway of light needs a guide to help him back. Christ Will do that. He has done it before. In the middle of Christ's sacrificial work on what is commonly called Passion Week. Was the secondary drama of Peter's denial. Peter didn't all of a sudden fall and fail. We could see throughout the gospel that proud Peter had his own agenda concerning Jesus to the point that Jesus rebuked him on several occasions. Peter's flesh confidence wasn't even broken by Christ's dire prediction. I mean, Peter had seen Christ command the waves. And yet the prediction didn't break his heart. So finally, we see Peter's disgusting denial, his denial of Christ when Christ was at his lowest and in suffering, and then the rooster crowed. And Peter wept bitterly. But that wasn't the end of the story. Jesus took time and gentleness to restore Peter back to the path of blessing. In first John, chapter two, verse one, we have this promise. If anyone sins, we have an advocate with the father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. That word advocate means one who stands beside. The confessing saint doesn't approach the throne of the Holy Father by himself. Christ stands next to the contrite soul and his presentation always satisfies God the Father. I don't know exactly what is said in heaven between the father and the son. But I know that Christ is the best lawyer that one can have. He always succeeds because he argues for our forgiveness on the basis of his own blood, which is shed for many for the forgiveness of sins. Christ is the propitiation, the acceptable sacrifice for our sins, the one who absorbs the wrath that we deserve. His finished work in dying on the cross turns away the wrath of the Father. Long lost Christian, arise and go to your father and say to him, Father, I have sinned against you and I am no longer worthy to be called your child. If you do that, Christ will run out to greet you. He will throw a robe around your shoulders. He'll put a ring on your finger and he'll bring you back to a celebration of joy, unspeakable and full of glory. And I can only help to think of great is thy faith. Pardon for sin and a peace which endures, thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide, strength for today, bright hope for tomorrow, blessings all mine with 10,000 beside. Finally, a word to the person here who doesn't see any need to worry about their sins. I leave you with the warning of 1 John 2, 17, the world is passing away and the last of it someday in the not too distant future. Your life, your dreams, your desires will come to an end. It may end in old age, ill health, violence or disaster, but one day you will face the God of justice. You will stand before the judge and you will not have an advocate standing by your side. Your walk in darkness will be nothing compared to that dark day when you are judged for your sins and thrown into outer darkness. May God open your eyes to see the wonder and power and holiness of the God who is light. May he open your eyes to how you have rebelled against him and deserve punishment. May he show you that your only hope is to trust in Jesus. May he cause you to cry out, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Let's pray. Father God, we need your spirit's help to apply these words to our hearts. We ask that you would move us. That you would teach us. That you would restore us. And that we would go out from here, praising your name. You are good to us, we thank you for being our father. Help us not to forget these things. We pray this in Christ's name, Amen.