Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to the first epistle general
of John and reading from our text in the first chapter, verse
nine. If we confess our sins, he is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. 1 John chapter 1 and verse 9. We read together in Psalm 51
of David's repentance and petition to the Lord after he had sinned
in the matter of Bathsheba and in the murder of Uriah, her husband. David had been convinced of sin
through God sending Nathan, the prophet, to him, and he had confessed
that sin and said, I have sinned. The Lord also said, Nathan, hath
put away thy sin, thou shalt not die. And the sentence, of
course, against those that commit murder was death. And yet he
had been forgiven. He had been pardoned. and yet
there was still to be the chastening hand of the Lord upon him, and
there was also still to be the blessing of being restored. And this is what David prays
for here. He prays for forgiveness, but
also to be washed, to be cleansed from his iniquity and his sin. He wants to have the Lord hide
his face from his sins, but he wants also a clean heart. He wants the Lord's presence.
He wants the joy of salvation restored. He wants everything
made right again after the ravages of sin. And God has a way that
poor sinners, when they sin, because we all sin, and sin separates,
and it separates between our communion with God and with His
people, and it brings us into a downward spiral, and we must
know what is God's plan for His people, that though forgiven,
they are still sinners, and in a sinful world, a world in which
Satan is such a tempter and accuser of the brethren, What is God's
plan for restoring a sinner, for bringing him back, for restoring
joys and comforts and bringing him on his way? And it's very
important for us that we be very clear on what is God's way, what
is not God's way, so that we don't spend our efforts and be
looking in a way that will never restore and never give joy and
help. Nor do we listen to Satan who
says, you've sinned against light and knowledge. There's no hope
for you. There'll be no restoring, no
going back. Never again will you know the
blessings and joy of fellowship with the Lord and his people.
You can just give up. You can just have no hope. That
is the devil speaking. But God does have a message.
And in verse five of our Chapter here, in 1 John chapter 1, we
read this then is the message which we have heard of Him and
declare unto you. And in part of that message is
this direction from the Lord to His people in what they are
to do when they have sinned, when they have lost fellowship
with Him, if we confess our sins. He is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. There is a way back from sin,
God's way back from sin. So I want to look with the Lord's
help this morning at three points from this text and context showing
us the way back from sin. The first is this, to be honest
with ourselves about sin. The second is don't look in the
wrong place. And there is a wrong place, a
wrong way of trying to relieve ourselves from the burden of
sin and the fruits and effects of sin. And thirdly, to trust
and walk in God's way of forgiveness and of cleansing, which is set
before us in our text. But firstly, we are to be honest
with ourselves about sin. We have a deceitful heart, we
are born in sin and shaped in iniquity, and the heart is deceitful
above all things and desperately wicked. And we should expect
that from our own heart there will be those things that are
not honest with ourselves about sin. We go about deceiving ourselves. I'm happy to have that so, and
it's a great mercy if we're delivered from that. There are countless
millions in this world that though they are told the gospel or told
the way of salvation, they're happy to believe a lie. and happy
to deceive themselves and to comfort themselves in hoping
that there is to be deliverance and heaven at last when the Word
of God is plainly telling them that that is not the case. May
we be delivered from that deceit, from making the Word of God of
none effect by saying, well, we are members of a church and
really we do still attend and we still have the form of worship
and we trust it will be right at the end. And every warning,
every admonition, every direction in the Word of God falls upon
our deaf ear because we think, well that does not apply to us,
applies to someone else, but not us. When was the last time
we read the Word of God and we read that we switched searching
And we said this applies to us. I am the character here described. I am the one that is guilty of
this sin. I am the one, even it may be,
that I'm walking in this sin and something must be done about
it. We read in the verses prior to
our text that God is light. and in Him is no darkness at
all. We may be sure when we are to
know and be honest about sin, that if there is any darkness,
any deceit, any lie, any uncleanness, anything contrary to the Word
of God that does not come from God, is not consistent with Him. In here, in the context, God
is described as light, He's also described in the Word of God
as a holy God, one that cannot look upon sin without utter abhorrence. He hates sin and hates evil,
and for that reason He came, suffered, bled and died to deliver
and save His people. We are liable to make sin to
be graded, as it were. Great sins, and yes, you might
say with David, murder and adultery were great sins. But whoso offendeth
in one point is guilty of all, though he may not have committed
those great outward sins. The Lord said, whoso looketh
upon a woman to lust after in his heart hath committed adultery
already with her in his heart, even though he has not done like
David did. Whosoever, says our Lord, hateth
his brother without a cause, hath committed murder in his
heart, although he may not have committed the murder of David
and used the people of Rabba to do so, to slay Uriah, yet
we are still transgressors in that way. And we can easy then
just pass by this sin and that sin and live a life comforting
ourselves that we can live as far or as close to the world
as we can, as far from the Lord as we can, and yet still get
to heaven. But if the Lord has mercy to
us, he will not allow us to go that way without us realising
that we do not have communion with him anymore. We do not have
fellowship with the people of God, we are strangers to them.
The word of God is a dry breast to us. We've lost the appetite
for it. Our prayers are becoming hard
and dead, short, distant, and no real feeling to them. We are
shut out. The Lord is silent. He says in
Ezekiel, I return to my place until they acknowledge their
transgression. That was his purpose in withdrawing. And so our first point here is
to be honest. to be honest about our transgressions,
about those things that we allow and do and go along with and
do not deal with in our hearts and in our lives. We read in verse 6 that if we
are saying that we have fellowship with Him and we walk in darkness,
we actually lie. In other words, the Lord is saying
if you walk in darkness, if you walk in sin, and you do not walk
in the truth, walk in a way of holiness, then you will not have
fellowship with me. And if you still say that you
are and that you're walking in this way, you're actually lying. That is not the truth at all.
And so our walk has a direct relationship with our fellowship
with the Lord. That is very evident in verse
6. Fellowship and walk, they go
together. May we be honest with ourselves
about that. Verse 8, if we say that we have
no sin, God's people are not sinless in this life. The Hymn
writer says, sinless perfection we deny, the chief of Satan's
wilds. And we do sin, and we do have
then sin that is to be confessed, sin that is to be dealt with,
sin that is to be fled from, sin that is to be managed. We
read in Hebrews 12, you have not yet resisted unto blood,
striving against sin. and say, well, I'm a Christian,
I'm working in my faith, then we're not being honest with ourselves. Because all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. And there's none that doeth good
and sinneth not. And all our righteousnesses are
as filthy rags. It won't be the case that some
of the Lord's people need this text and some don't all need
this text. And if we don't know the secret
of it, then we're not being honest with ourselves and with our sin,
either excusing our sins or making out that, well, they're not too
bad, not bad enough, so that we need to confess them and to
forsake them. In verse 10, if we say that we
have not sinned, we make him a liar. that say, well, we do
not have original sin. They don't believe that men are
sinners at all and that we haven't sinned at all. But the word of
God is very clear that all have sinned and come short of the
glory of God. There are past sins as well as
present sins and sins to come as well. We are under the law. We are under condemnation already
in Adam. in the day that thou eatest thereof,
thou shalt surely die. It behoves us to be honest with
ourselves concerning sin, and not just be blinkered and just
go through life as if, well, the disease that we have, the
illness that we have, is not really very serious. Now, if
we had an illness, a natural type in our bodies, that was
eating in our bodies, that had symptoms of it, and we kept ignoring
those symptoms, saying, well, it doesn't really matter, I'm
really in remission, or it's not really affecting my work,
or how I'm getting on, and we just ignore these breakings out,
these symptoms, these evidences, and we don't apply any remedy,
nor seek remedy, We would call that person to be a foolish person,
and so it is with sin. We are to be honest with ourselves
about it, about its presence in us, its working in us, its
effect upon us, and its separating work between us and our God,
alienating us from Him and from His people. So may we have this
first part, this vital aspect of dealing with sin or the way
back from being banished and being distanced from the Lord,
the way back from sin is honesty, truly facing up to what we are
and what we do and what we think and what we say. We are not to look in the wrong
place. What would we think of someone
who had an illness, who had the symptoms, but they were going
to completely the wrong specialist, the wrong doctor, using the wrong
medicines? We would say to them, how can
you expect to be healed. How can that be a right remedy? And so it is regarding sin as
well. The Word of God clearly sets
out before us those ways that are wrong ways. We are born and
under the covenant of works, do and live. a curse upon those
that do not, a blessing on those that do. We are under the law,
and very often the very first thing that we try and do is to
deliver our sins by turning another leaf, by starting to do that
which is good and right, and we think that by doing that shall
banish all sins, shall blot them out, and shall set us on a right
course, and shall make it all right between us and God. We look to works, we look to
our own works. Imreiter knew it well when he
says, I cannot promise future good to bring. M6, 168 verse 4. God's people
will know that. They know that the good that
I would, I do not, the evil that I would not that I do, wretched
man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death? The word of God sets before us,
especially in the example of the children of Israel, how useless
it is to be looking to a covenant of works. We have in Deuteronomy,
we have through the law of Moses, those blessings set before the
children of Israel, and the curses set before them. We see through
the pattern of their lives, the history of their nation, those
times that they did walk well and the Lord blessed them. The
times then that they turned aside and did evil and the Lord brought
the rod and brought the curse upon them. And that is the pattern
right the way through Israel. It was not a lasting blessing
that was wrought through their works. And as a nation, it all
culminated in the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ. They
had persecuted and killed the prophets that warned them, and
they came at last and crucified the Lord of life and glory. And
the Lord then brought on them in 70 AD, the complete destruction
of them. of his people, the banishment
from their land. What a lesson we have in them.
Many times we are directed in the New Testament back to the
Jews, back to their rebelliousness, back to their actions in the
wilderness and pointing that here is nature, here is man trying
to fulfil the law of God but cannot. and so we are directed
away from works. Paul speaks to the Galatians
and he says of them that while they were seeking to be under
the ceremonial law, under the law that pointed to Christ, under
those rules and regulations and laws that were to be obtained
by the works of the flesh, they were not to be saved that way. They were still under condemnation. By the deeds of the law, no man
living shall be justified or free from guilt. Bunyan, in his
pilgrim's progress, pictures this very clearly when his pilgrim
had gone through the Wicked Gate, but then was seeking to be delivered
from his burden. from the sins that were upon
his back. And worthy, wise man, he directed
him to the law. He directed him to Sinai. But that mountain nearly fell
on him. He fled from it in terror. No help, no deliverance was to
be found there. And it was not then until he
came to the cross, until he came to Calvary, that he obtained
that deliverance from his burden. What the law could not do, in
that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son
in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in
the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled
in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. To be spiritually minded is life
and peace, to be kindly minded is death. There is a wrong place
to look, looking at self, looking at our own efforts, looking at
the law, looking at trying to fulfil it in our own strength,
looking away from Christ, all outside of Christ, looking to
man's direction, man's prescriptions, looking away from the word of
God to that which man will set forth is a wrong place, a wrong
way. The Jews in Christ's day, they
laid before men burdens that were heavy to be borne, grievous
to be borne, teaching for commandments the traditions of men, implying
that to do all of those traditions, all of those rituals, that there
would be some relief, some saving in them, that our Lord He cried
to those that were burdened under those directions and under those
prescriptions to come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy
laden and I will give you rest. And so may we remember there
is a wrong place and really the easy way to know the wrong place
is all outside of Christ, all away from Christ, every effort
of our own to redeem and save our own soul and to put things
right in our own strength and in our own way. Now, of course,
this does not mean that we are then to sin that grace might
abound, be careless and indifferent. A soul that is honest about sin
will be honest in their desire that they be free from it and
to be delivered from it, and not walk in it, and that every
effort in that way will be made to abstain from sin and to flee
from it, but not with the thought that we will obtain forgiveness
that way, and not with the thought that by those efforts on their
own that we will then free ourselves from the yoke and bondage of
sin, or bring ourselves again into fellowship with the Lord. Our desire to be free from sin
is because we hate it, because we know what it did to our Lord,
and we know what the wages of sin are, which is death. But
don't look for deliverance then in a wrong place. look for in God's provision. So I want to look then thirdly
the right way, trust and walk in God's way of forgiveness and
cleansing and this then is in our text. Really the ways of God's salvation
are simple ways. Remember Naaman the Syrian? God's
prescription was that he should go and wash in Jordan seven times
and he was offended at it. It's too simple. We need to be
careful that we don't view God's prescription and say that is
too simple. That can't be what my soul needs. I'm so sinful So far off, so
hard and cold, this surely can't be what God prescribes, but it
is. And that is the path that we
read of in Psalm 51, that David walked in. If we confess our
sins, it is confession of sin, not before a priest, not before
men. Yes, if we have sinned against
a man, then we are to confess our faults one to another. that
this is before God. David, in Psalm 51, you might
say, sinned against Bathsheba, he killed her husband, he committed
adultery with her, and he sinned against Uriah, taking away his
life. But David says, against thee,
thee only have I sinned. And sin is a transgression, not
of the law of man, but of the law of God. And is those sins,
that we are to confess to God and God alone, to come before
Him when we have been honest with our sins, and to tell the
Lord about them, own them, confess them before Him, lay them before
Him. And may we keep short records
of this, not think, well, I realise that I have sinned in this, I've
said this, I've thought this, I've done this, But don't worry,
I'll wait till my evening time of devotions, and then I'll confess
it. May we be helped to live a life
of that confession, may not be orderly, but confessing even
like Hannah, her lips move, her voice was not heard, or sometimes
not even lips moving. But it brought before the Lord
in prayer, and lay before the Lord, this is my sin, this is
what I've done, this is what I've thought, this is evil, this
is my life, these are these things that I would be rid of but keep
rising, rising up in my heart. May we be reminded at this time
of what our Lord said when the disciples came and said, how
many times shall my brother sin against me And I turn and repent
and I forgive him till seven times. And the Lord said, no,
till 70 times seven. We are not to think, well, we
have had to confess this sin so many times. We can't keep
coming. We can't keep turning away. We
can't keep repenting. Yes, again and again, it must
be done. And so we would be encouraged
to walk in this confession of sin. This is the way that the
Lord would have his dear people to walk in. But there's two other
aspects, and really we can draw these from the promises of our
text. In confessing of our sin, there
is a trust in the faithfulness of God to forgive us our sins. He is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins. If we confess our sins, how can
He be faithful? What is He faithful to? How can
He be just in forgiving a person their sins? And it was all centering
in our Lord Jesus Christ, who has made sin for us who knew
no sin. who endured the wrath of God. We read in chapter two, he is
the propitiation for our sins, a wrath-ending sacrifice, and
not for ours only, that is the Jews, but also for the sins of
the whole world, the Gentile world as well. Not for every
man, woman, and child, but for those that are elect, those the
people of God. those who know their sins, those
who confess their sins. It is Christ that died, yea,
brother, that is risen again. God is faithful to His promise,
is faithful to what He has undertaken to do in His beloved Son. His name shall be called Jesus,
for He shall save His people from their sins. and that is
from their sins today and tomorrow and the next day, right through
our lives, that sin shall not have dominion over us. For we
are not under the law, but under grace. We are not seeking for
salvation from the law. We're seeking it from the Lord.
We're seeking it on mercy's ground. We're coming with the publican,
God be merciful to me a sinner. We're seeking it on the ground.
that our sins have been put away at Calvary. We're seeking it
on the ground, that the Lord Jesus Christ has finished the
work, that he has done what we could not done, that his blood
has been shed for us. When I see the blood, I will
pass over you. And it is a confessing sinner
that is bringing before God their trust in that blood. They're
resting in that precious blood that was shed at Calvary. So it is trust in the Lord that
He will do as He says here. He is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins. Now note this. Our part is the
confession of sin. Our part in one sense is to,
and it is the Lord's work to, to give us this to do it. But
it is faith comes with the Word of God, trust in this prescription. It is to trust in what the Lord
will do for us. It's not forgiving ourselves.
It's not dealing with ourselves and applying forgiveness and
pardon and peace ourselves. The Lord will do that. We're
looking to the Lord to do that for us. God to do it for us. We come as sinners, we come defiled,
we come lost, we come ruined, we come with no hope in ourselves. But as we confess our sins, our
hope is that the Lord will do for us. He will forgive. He will turn our captivity. He
will wash us. He will cleanse us. He will take
away the love of sinning. He will pardon our sins. And
this shall be faithful and just, because the debt has already
been paid, because the Lord has already suffered at Calvary,
because the Lord has said that all sin and all iniquity shall
be forgiven unto man, that he it is that has put away the sins
of his people. I lay down my life for the sheep. I lay it down that I might take
it again. This commandment have I received
from my Father. He hath been made sin for us
who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. The hymn writer says, Sinners
can sow, none but they. How precious is the Saviour.
And this prescription of the Lord in dealing with our sin
is designed to bring us to the Saviour again and again. and
to prize the power of God and the work of God for us, not a
self-help remedy, not a prescription from earth, but a prescription
from heaven in the word of God that needs a living God and living
saviour and the power of the Holy Spirit to apply it to our
souls and to set us free and to loose us from the cords of
sin He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. The third
aspect is this, to trust that He will cleanse us from all,
not just some, but all sin, all unrighteousness, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. It is the Lord that is able to
cleanse our walls. not our resolutions, not our
own efforts. The Lord himself does this. We read in Ephesians that it
is through the washing of water by the word. The Lord uses the
means of the word of God to cleanse us. And as we take heed to the
word of God, we read, Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ
also loved the church and gave himself for it, that he might
sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having
spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and
without blemish. This is the Lord's work for his
church and in his church. This is God's work. It's not
our work to cleanse ourselves from our own unrighteousnesses
or to forgive ourselves our own sins. But it is God's work to
do so. And our eye must be solely upon
Him, looking to Him to do this for us. And the prescribed way,
the way that we are to walk, is a way of confessing. unto
the Lord, before the Lord, before our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ,
to come before Him and seeking those blessings that flow from
Calvary and the blessings that flow from a living Saviour, a
living God, who's able to do exceeding far above all that
we can ask or think. We read in Ezekiel chapter 36. A beautiful word of what the
Lord will do for his people. Sprinkling clean water upon them. From all your filthiness and
from all your idols will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I
give you. A new spirit will I put within
you. I'll take away the stony heart
out of your flesh. I'll give you a heart of flesh.
I put my spirit within you, cause you to walk in my statutes, and
you shall keep my judgments and do them. Is not this what we
have in our text? And here it is set forth in the
Old Testament in Ezekiel. And he says, thus saith the Lord,
I will yet, for this being acquired of by the house of Israel, to
do it for them. This then is the work. as we
confess our sins, the Lord doing for us what we cannot do for
ourselves, blotting out our sins, forgiving us our sins. He is
exalted to give repentance and remission of sins unto Israel,
His spiritual Israel, His people, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So dear friends, may we know
this remedy and in practice walk it out, coming before the Lord
like dear David, and that we might know that bringing back
from a path of banishment, a path of sin, a downward road, may
tender in the fear of God, honest with ourselves concerning sin,
and from day to day know what it is to come and be often confessing
our sins before him. The Lord at his blessing. Amen.