Open your Bibles with me to the book of Psalms. Psalm 32 this morning. Psalm 32. And there are several of these repentant psalms in the Psalter. Some estimate there are nine of them. Psalm 51 is probably the most famous. And these are wonderful prayers that teach us how to repent. what to do when we're convicted of sin. And Psalm 32 is no different. It helps us receive the Lord's forgiveness and to move forward in a loving relationship, saving relationship with Him. And so we want to give our attention to this, Psalm 32, as we consider this important aspect of the Christian life, repentance through confession. So if you would, bow your heads with me as we ask the Lord to bless His word. Father, thank you so much for Jesus Christ. For his victory over the grave. So that we can sing a song like that. that indeed we will praise you for all eternity because death will not conquer your saints. And so we come with great gratitude and thanksgiving for the wonderful future we have together as a church as we live in resurrected bodies in glory And you tell us that the time is near, that Christ, you're returning. And so we also gather so that we might be ready. We might be about the Father's business. And so in this time, we ask that you would use this word to make us more faithful servants. We ask this in Christ's name, amen. Do you remember the relief of unloading your heavy backpack filled with textbooks after a long day lugging it around school? U.S. history, algebra, Shakespeare, biology, Spanish, all of it placed in a small bag and strapped around your little body. So at the end of the day, you get off the bus, you walk up to the front door, you open the door, and you immediately unload that 60-pound burden that is weighing you down. Do you remember that happy feeling? Oh, happy day. It's the relief of unloading. And yet, my dear friends, how do you unload the heavy burden of your sin? A guilty conscience that weighs you down after you have slandered another brother or sister in the congregation. Or have vented your anger at home. Or have committed sexual immorality. Or you got drunk with friends. You cheated at work, you told. A lie. How do you unload your sin when it is undeniable that you have offended God, your righteous judge? And when your conscience screams at you, guilty. And the burden of your sin weighs you down. How can you find relief from this guilt? Well, the answer can be found in this testimony of King David, who found happy relief even after he sinned. It's a relief that led to joy that came by way of confession. Confession, it is perhaps the most tangible expression of your repentance. And it is the vital means by which your relationship with God can be restored after sin. Psalm 32, it's a testimony of David's repentance. And there's a really basic narrative behind this psalm. And it basically goes like this. David sins. God disciplines. David confesses. God forgives. David rejoices. And it's how you, beloved, can unload your guilt and be restored in your relationship with Jesus Christ after you have sinned against him. You sin. God disciplines. You confess. God forgives. You rejoice. Your episode of sin can end with joy in God. Do you need this today? Do you want this today? The relief of unloading your guilt which culminates in newfound joy. Then you should, if so, you should pay attention to Psalm 32, which begins and ends with this fresh joy after repentance. Look at verse one, a Maskeel of David, blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity. It is David's expression of rejoicing in God after God forgave his sin. See the word forgiveness? Forgiven, it literally means to have his sin taken away. So God removes the sinful impediment to David's happy relationship with God. And then there's a parallel idea here. His sin is covered. It's as if God paints over David's sin so that God can no longer see it and be roused in wrath against David. And the result of this removal of sin and this painting over of sin, that next line, blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no sin. In this context, it's a judgment word. The divine judge has thought about David's sin and he declares David not guilty. God sins against David. David confesses his sin to God, and in response, God removed David's sin. God covered David's sin. God absolved David's sin. And the release of this guilt, it causes David to rejoice. Notice the very last line of this psalm. Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart. It is the joy of someone who has received fresh forgiveness from God. This psalm, it teaches you how to be happy again, how to enjoy God again, after your grievous sin has weighed you down with guilt. And beloved, this is a newfound joy in God that can be yours by way of this most tangible expression of your repentance, namely, your confession. So what is this confession? This confession that results in joy. Well, let's examine this text line by line and watch for four instructive features of this confession unfold. Verse two. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit, for when I kept silent. When I kept silent, it signifies the beginning of David's testimony of receiving forgiveness. Only this journal entry right here, it does not begin with David's sin. Rather, it begins with David's cover up after his sin. David keeps silent. And it's a silent that verse two tells us is born out of having deceit in his heart. It's a heart that willingly chooses to believe a lie. Which, beloved, is your very impulse when you realize your guilt before God? You want to believe lies. Lies, they are like defense lawyers in your soul who work overtime to convince you that you're really not guilty. My parents didn't care enough. My friend pressured me to do it. I'm a victim of an oppressive system. I'm just addicted, not sinful. They are lies that compel you to excuse your sin and thus keep silent. But to whom is David refusing to talk? Who is the audience of David's silence? Well, listen carefully to that language, verse three. Notice, for when I kept silent, the idea is he's causing his voice to shut, his mouth to close. Someone is asking David to talk, and in response, David shuts his mouth. And given the fact that God is the only other person mentioned in this account, and David's eventual reply is an admission of guilt, it is God the judge who is interrogating David here. The divine judge is prodding David. The divine judge is convicting David. God in righteousness comes to David demanding a confession of guilt. But David listened to the lies in his soul, those lawyers, and in response to God's conviction, David pleads the fifth. What an American thing to do. And I wonder how this silent treatment toward God works out for David, what do you think? For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away. What a graphic image. In the poetic literature, the bones can represent the very depths of the emotional life. David is saying, my motivation for living, it has overheated like a computer that is out of order. And his conscience, it's in pain. Through my groaning all day long, groaning. It's the sound you make when you're in pain and try to release that pain for some sort of comfort. Only here, this groaning is coming out of a tormented, painful conscience. It's a conscience that is crushed. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me. David is pressed down. The weight of his sin is crushing him. Which means his happy relationship with God, it has wilted like a daisy in the Texas heat. For be my strength, my vitality, My energetic relationship with God was dried up as by the heat of summer. And what you need to see is that this here is not an incident of guilt. This is not acute pain. It is chronic pain, crushing guilt that does not stop. 3B, my groaning lasts all day long. 4A, it lasts for day and night. It's a poetic way of saying it lasts, this life-depleting guilt lasts and goes on without interruption. Continually, without any break whatsoever. And so listen, life can be very good for you. A comfortable home, financial stability, wonderful spouse, wonderful kids. You can even be on vacation. But when guilt like this weighs you down, you will enjoy none of it. In fact, I heard a man's testimony one time. He had sinned and recovered, and he was bearing witness to the grace of God in his life. And he had entered marriage with a great big lie. He was in an active sexual relationship with another woman and never told his fiance about it. But he goes on with the marriage and continues that adulterous relationship. And he says, he's a professing Christian, he says, my guilt was so crushing that every time I drove over a bridge I longed to drive it right over, fall down into the ravine below, and finally just end it all. It's what the bleeding guilt can do to you. It spoils all happiness in life, doesn't it? Well, you might say, David needs to relax. David, he just grew up in a home with too many scruples. a fundamentalist home that talked too much about hell. He needs to liberate himself from fire and brimstone religion, and he needs to embrace a religion of love and acceptance. God loves you, he affirms you. When you're just acting like yourself, just be yourself, God will accept you. But did you notice the very cause of David's tormenting guilt? Notice it. 3b there, through my groaning all day long, he says, verse four, for day and night, your hand, God, your hand was heavy upon me. God is the cause of this depleting, crushing guilt. This is God's own work. David sins, and in response, God convicts. God presses that burden down. It's God. spoiling David's happiness through an experience of his guilt. And this here leads to the first element of a confession that leads to joy. It is a confession initiated by divine discipline. It's initiated by divine discipline. Listen, you need to understand that you will never confess your sin to God unless you actually believe you're wrong. And you have a fallen flesh, and so you have every motivation within you to make excuses, to blame shift, to point the finger, to embrace a lie, until God's chastisement comes heavy upon you and convinces you that you're wrong. So listen, the only way you will ever get to the joy of forgiveness is if God himself initiates this process. God must convict, God must chastise, God must discipline. In fact, the Bible calls repentance a gift, that God grants repentance to those he loves. So if you're feeling guilty of your sin, guess what? It is an expression of God's love for you. Proverbs 3. My son, do not despise the Lord's discipline, or be weary of his reproof. For the Lord reproved, who does the Lord reprove? Those he hates. The Lord reproves him whom he loves. As a father, the son in whom he delights. Your conviction of sin is a gift of grace because God loves you like a loving father. Which means when you're convicted of sin, you should open your mouth. You should confess your sin, which is what David does right here. Only notice, in this passage, David does not record his confession verbatim. And you know that, dear friend, because David never tells you what sin he committed. Is he talking about his adultery with Bathsheba? Is he talking about murdering her husband, Uriah? Or maybe this is the very end of his life when David makes this unlawful census. God sends his wrath on Israel, kills 30,000 men. He has the blood of 30,000 men on his hand. Is that sin? Is that the sin that he's repenting of? Well, David never tells you, which is instructive because it highlights the solitary audience of his confession. Notice in verse five, I acknowledged my sin to you. I did not cover my iniquity. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord. David does not make confession to a priest. David does not even go to those who his sin has Rather, David makes confession to God in the secret place of private prayer. Why? Well, notice these words, sin, iniquity, transgression, guilt, they all summarize an act that breaks God's law. An act that attacks God's glory. and act that offends one person, namely God. Sin is an attack on God, which means there is only one person who can remove, cover, and absolve your sin, namely God. And notice the substance of his confession, his honesty. Did you hear all the personal pronouns that David uses in this confession? It's a summary, look. I acknowledged my sin to you. Do you see it there in the text? Look at it. I did not cover my iniquity. I said, I will confess, and it literally in the Hebrew reads like this, the thing pertaining to me. What an expression. That sin is a thing pertaining to me. Do you hear any finger pointing in that? Any blame shifting? No, right here, David bears full responsibility for his sin. I produced them, I made them, I am guilty for them. It is the ownership of sin without the slightest hint of self-defense. You notice 5b there, he puts it like this. I did not cover my iniquity. There is not one sin that he hides under the rug. Rather, David exposes himself. You might say he undresses himself fully before God, his judge, entirely. So what is this confession of sin that results in joy? Second, it is a confession expressed by honest prayer. Is God convicting you? Is God pressing down upon you and saying you are wrong? There really is only one path to your joy in God. You must go to God directly in private prayer and say to Him, you're right. God, you say I'm wrong, and I say back to you, you're right. And so go to him in prayer, make honest confession, make no excuse, cover up nothing. Expose yourself fully and completely before this holy God in prayer, and then wait for God to respond. And he will respond by saying, I forgive you. That's what he said to David. Look at it, 5c there. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord and you forgave the iniquity of my sin, the guilt of my sin. We tend to read this and think, I confess my sin to the Lord and God responded by demanding I do penance. requiring me to go and confess to a priest. He prescribed for me a regiment of works to repay him. Notice the gap. There's a line and then a line. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord. Very next line, nothing in between, you forgave. It's glorious. One confession, one response, forgiveness. I confessed, you forgave. I confessed, you forgave. I confessed, you forgave. You removed, you covered, you absolved. It means the reply of God's forgiveness is granted with no conditions. I will forgive if you make me some vows. No, I confessed, you forgave. It is forgiveness full and free. It's what God says to David. And so hearing the good news of a complete and free forgiveness, that David will not pay for his sins, he will not receive the judgment of his sins, he rejoices. He's relieved. That's what verse one to two is all about. Praise God, he forgave me. And so, David now wants to teach you. "'He exhorts you, Christian, "'obtain this same joy of forgiveness "'by way of confession.'" Verse six, notice, "'Therefore let everyone who is godly "'offer prayer,' that is prayers of repentance "'and confession, "'to you at a time when you may be found "'surely in the rush of great waters "'they shall not reach him.'" So have you ever had a near-drowning experience? You thought you were going to die. You almost drowned. I have terrifying experience, isn't it? And when I was about 10 years old, I was swimming in a hotel swimming pool with my cousins and my brother. And we were just horse playing, and we had this boogie board. You guys know what a boogie board is? It's like a surfboard for people who can't surf. It floats, and it has a string attached to it that you tie to your ankle. So it has this rope. And somehow, we were horse playing. I got pushed under the water. and that rope wrapped around my neck and I was choking, and my cousins were laughing, they thought it was just having a good time, but I'm like breathing in water, I can't breathe, I'm thinking I'm about to die. I'm pushing, I can't get out. Too weak to get out. And sometimes that's how God's discipline feels. It feels that God has sent this discipline to drown you, to kill you, to wipe you out in his flood judgment. But if you are in a relationship with God through his son Jesus Christ, this threat of divine judgment is always restorative, remedial, therapeutic. Hosea 6 says it this way, come, let us return, let us repent toward the Lord. Why? He has torn us that he might heal us. It's the language here that discipline is a time when God can be found. More literally, a discipline is a time to find. And so when God ushers you into a season of discipline, there's a purpose. He's bringing you the feelings of a flood for a purpose, namely that you will find His forgiveness. And David's point right here is that when you make this sincere, faith-filled, repentant confession to God, God will always make you find His forgiveness. You confess, you repent, surely, he said, surely, the waters of God's judgment will not reach you. Rather, this is fascinating, rather, you're gonna find God protecting you, like a fortress. Notice he goes on, you are a hiding place for me. He becomes like a guardian. You preserve me from trouble. It's the experience here of God being on your side to save you, listen, from the very judgment that you deserve from him. And so the experience of forgiveness is joy. He comes to defend you and you feel fresh joy like a triumphant choir in the great assembly of God. You surround me with shouts of deliverance. It is David's metaphor of receiving forgiveness after a season of chastisement. It's like God took my side. He became my defender, my protector, the one who sings delight over my soul. So, what is this confession of sin that results in joy? Thirdly, it is a confession met with certain pardon. This is a verse of assurance. Christian, when God convicts you of sin, you can be certain it is never for the goal of punishing you under the flood of his wrath. Surely, in the rush of great waters, they will not reach you. Which means, beloved, you must never misunderstand God's chastisement. God accuses you so that you don't run from him, but that you might run to him. And find that he is the very one who will defend you from the judgment you deserve. Think about it, this verse is saying that the God who judges you becomes the God who defends you. You sin, God convicts, you confess, God forgives, He will forgive, and you rejoice. It is the only way to unload your guilt, your repentant confession. And this process is a means, and really God's own design and method, to get you to stop sinning. Notice verse eight, I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go. I will counsel you with my eye upon you. Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding, which must be curbed with a bit and bridle, or it will not stay near you. So there are some dogs with no brains at all. And I've walked one of these dogs before. He's a little Yorkie. That thing had no brains at all. I'm sorry if you have a Yorkie. It's just true. And so I'm walking this dog, and I'm in a downtown center, so there's streets everywhere. And he immediately looks up and just sprints right toward the road where these cars are going. And so I do the loving, gentle thing. I just jerk back on the leash. And he didn't appreciate that very much. And I know that because five seconds later, he just did it again. He just sprint right back into the road. And so I yanked the leash again. I'm supposed to walk him. I'm helping a friend out. I have to walk him for like, I don't know, 30 minutes. So that's our relationship, back and forth. And so I'm like, this is exhausting my shoulder. So literally, I just let the dog try to run. And I'm just walking. And he's trying to drag me. He can't get very far. He's choking himself. He didn't have a brain. He couldn't interpret the pain. Like, don't run into the road. And it's the image right here of a brainless horse that doesn't learn where to go unless you give it pain. With this bit and the tender parts of its mouth, it hurts. So you steer it with pain. And it's an image really for the fool who keeps on sinning. Receives a punishment, some chastisement from God, and then confesses, and then is forgiven, experiences joy, and then immediately goes right back to the same sin. God says don't be like that. Learn from the pain of my discipline. It teaches you to stop sinning. You sin like that, I'm gonna make you feel some pain. And the language here is really wisdom language. You catch those verbs, I will instruct, I will teach, I will counsel. So the pain of discipline teaches you how grave your sin really is. And you need to remember the sting, the pain of discipline, the next time you're tempted to do that same sin, so that you might do righteousness and not invite God's chastisement again. Right, so I touch that stove, it hurts, it burns my hand. I don't wanna get burned, so I'm not gonna touch the stove. That's what discipline trains you in. Stop touching the stove. So the writer of Hebrews says it like this. For the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant. It does. But later, it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those. So who reaps the benefit of God's chastisement? those who have been trained by it. So what is this confession of sin that results in your joy? It is a confession initiated by divine discipline, expressed through honest prayer, met with certain pardon, and prevented by wise training. You sin, God convicts, you confess, God forgives, you rejoice, and then you don't sin like that again, it is the experience of a saving relationship with God, isn't it? It is your sanctification. And so, a confession of sin like this, an ongoing repentance before the Lord, it divides the human race into two classes. I don't believe that the human race is divided into classes, except like this, except this one division of classes of people. Confessing sinners who have joy, obstinate sinners who have sorrow. Only two classes of people, confessors who have joy, obstinate sinners who have sorrow. Notice, this is what he says, verse 10, many are the sorrows of the wicked. And you need to hear this. If you're under discipline, if you feel the chastisement of God, you need to circle this very verse. Many are the sorrows of the wicked, and here's why. When you're struggling with sin and you have God's discipline on your shoulders, when you're groaning, you can look out in the world and see people who seem to be happy in their sin. They seem carefree in all of their sinning, and you can begin to think, They have a better off than I do. A life of sin without God would be so much easier, so much happier. It's a deceit. It's a lie. Many are the sorrows of the wicked. Beloved, get this. Sinfulness, the sinful life is always a sad life. Drunkenness, sexual immorality, greed, pride, anger, rivalry, bitterness. You think that's a happy life? It is not a happy life. You take sin, the enjoyment of sin, and then it vanishes immediately. And what you're left with is the aftertaste of sorrow. Sinfulness is always sadness. There is no peace, says the Lord, for the wicked. But praise God, there is another way to live, isn't there? "'Many are the sorrows of the wicked, "'but steadfast love surrounds the one "'who trusts in the Lord.'" Why did he move it to trust? This is a song about repentance. But now the one who receives this bountiful joy through forgiveness is someone who trusts. And the answer is, think about this in your own life. If you commit a sin you know you're guilty of, Are you gonna tell that to a person that you have no trust in? If I tell them this, they're just gonna beat me up. They're just gonna respond in anger and hatred, kick me out. You wanna confess to that person? Of course not. You repent and confess to the person you trust will do good to you, will forgive you. And so repentance and faith are different sides of the same coin. You confess to God because you're convinced that God won't punish you, but will certainly forgive you, cover you, absolve you. You're convinced this is a God who forgives sin and trespasses. This is a God that if I run to him with my repentance, he will cancel my sin debt. And so you do, you trust. And you confess. It is the human race divided. The sinner is sad. The believer is glad. What's the dividing line? Confession. The wicked person believes that confession will be met with judgment, so he keeps his mouth closed. The righteous person believes his confession will be met with pardon, and so he repents. Does this dichotomy, this division, seem fair to you? God distinguishes who goes to heaven and who goes to hell by who repents, not by who works. That God takes none of their works into account, but rather, he takes into account their faith, their repentant faith. God forgives the believer even if he's a sinner. And so you can have an adulterer or murderer like David who gets to go into heaven, while neighborly Gandhi, who wasn't a Christian, will go to hell? How is that fair? You ever think about that? Think, this is a wisdom song. Think about it. How can God do this and still be righteous? Well, you might say, well, it's God's job to forgive. If I say sorry to God, he has to forgive me. That's his job. The problem, friend, is that God is not a cosmic grandfather who can be easily appeased through your apology. You're dealing with the righteous judge of all the world. I mean, on a human level, how do you feel if you hear of a judge, the murderer there in the courtroom? I did it. And the judge is thinking about, okay, should I punish this guy? And the guy who's guilty looks at the judge and says, I'm sorry. And the judge says, I forgive you. You may go free. You would be outraged, rightly so, wouldn't you? That's unjust. God must punish. Well, you might say, I haven't committed murder like David. I'm not as bad as David, but I'm sure your sin is worse than Adam's sin. Remember Adam's sin? All he did was take a bite of fruit from a tree God said, don't eat from. Have you ever done something worse than eat fruit that you shouldn't eat from? But how serious was God about that sin? God cursed the entire world with death. God plunged the entire human race into death just for eating one forbidden fruit, one act of sin, just eating fruit. It shows you how wicked and offensive our sin is to a God of all righteousness. And you, if you're a human being, have a record of millions of sins. Your problem is that you are dealing with a holy and just God. Your divine judge knows all your sins. He cannot just forgive you. He must punish all of your sins and he will punish all of your sins. Do you see the problem? How can a just God hold back the punishment you deserve and still be just? In the Old Testament, we get a little clue. In the Old Testament, God provides a way of receiving his forgiveness. And it's a very similar process to this, what we see here in Psalm 32, but there is one significant difference that David leaves out. And here's the process. A Jew would break God's law, he would sin. God would then chastise him, the Jew would realize his guilt, he would bear his guilt. And so the Israelite was commanded to confess that sin to God. And so he would confess the sin to God. Okay, so far so good. That's what David did. However, God also made a command that the Jew must pay for his sin. And how did he pay for his sin? He was commanded to take an animal as a guilt sacrifice to the altar. And the priest would put his hand on that animal, symbolically transferring his guilt from the man to the animal, and he would slay it, and it would bleed, and it would die. And here's God's verdict, Leviticus 5, the priest shall make atonement for him for the sin that he has committed, and he shall be forgiven. Sin, conviction, confession, sacrifice, forgiveness, joy. Right here in Psalm 32, there is no sacrifice. Why is that? Because, dear friends, Psalm 32 points us forward to the final sin-bearing sacrifice who can actually take away all of your sins. You know how the Apostle Paul read this? a man who had stained his hands by murdering Christians. Here's how he read this verse, Romans chapter four. And to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness. Just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works, Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man against the Lord, will not count his sins. Guilty Paul understood that if he would ever be forgiven by a righteous God, then his righteousness must be a gift of grace located in another. and his penalty for sin must be borne by another. So when Jesus arrives, John the Baptist points to Jesus and says, behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. How does a God, a righteous judge, forgive you when you sin against Him and still be righteous? God punished your sin in Jesus. God took away your sin in the slain body of Jesus. God covered your sin with the blood of Jesus. God counted all of your sin in the cross of Jesus. So when you feel the guilt of your sin and you run to God with your confession, you put confidence that Jesus bore all your sins and he has provided for all of your righteousness and he declares you forever righteous in his holy sight. so that God the just becomes God the justifier of the one who believes in Jesus. The God who judges you, friend, becomes the God who defends you by judging Jesus instead of you. That's the gospel. And so I wanna ask, have you ever been convicted of your sin? Or do you excuse your sin? Do you shrug your shoulder at your sin? Do you yawn when you hear that God will punish you in hell forever because you're not righteous? Do you yawn at it? It does nothing to me. You need to plead with God. Plead with God to convict you. Plead with Him to convince you that you are wrong, that your sin is never someone else's fault. In hell, you will not be paying for someone else's sin. You'll be paying for all your sins forever. Ask God to convince you of that, and see God this very day offering you the gift of righteousness in His righteous Son, Jesus, full and free. You go to Jesus, you confess your sin to him, he will cancel all sin, declare you righteous, because he was punished in the place of sinners like you. Run to him with your confession, and you will be completely forgiven. And beloved church, the way you got saved is the way you keep living the Christian faith, isn't it? You got saved by repentance, faith, Confessing your sin to him, trusting his son. He forgave all your sin, declares you righteous. It's how you're justified. It's also how you keep going and bearing fruit as a Christian. God loves you like a father, so he's committed to your holiness. He convicts you for a time of finding, for a time of being forgiven. So run to him with your confession. He wounds to heal. and he wounds to bring you near to forgive you so that your joy might be fresh in him. Sin, discipline, confession, the cross, forgiveness, joy. It is the heart of your saving relationship with Jesus Christ, which by the way is why Jesus tells us to pray, forgive us our debts. Forgive us our debts. So this is the Christian life. Close with this. Some time ago, I remembered a sin I had committed from my distant past, and I felt so guilty about it. Have you ever been there before? You thought of a sin you committed, and it just crushes you. And it felt like night and day, God's hand was upon me, and I was talking to a brother about this, and here's what he said, he said, Leave it at the cross. And that's what I say to you today. Leave your sin at the cross. Take your sin to the cross. Leave it there. Christ bore it. And if he's punished for it, he'll never punish you for it. He's just. He will forgive you. So, make your confession to God, leave it at the cross, and hear Him say today, I forgive you. And rejoice. Go rejoice in this Jesus who took all your sins. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the Son of God who came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief. Lord, that's the Christian life. All of us know our sins and all of us can say, I'm the chief sinner, but we believe that Christ, you came into the world to save sinners like us. So Lord Jesus, I pray that by your grace, we would come to you boldly, knowing that if we boldly enter your presence through your precious blood, you will accept us, you will forgive us, you will wash us. If we say we have no sin, we lie, the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness. We pray you would do it again in Christ's name. Amen.