Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayer for attention to the first epistle general
of John and chapter one and reading for our text, 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. In commencing this morning, a subject
that is dealing with sin. I feel it is right that we should
remind ourselves of what sin actually is. Because we have
in the verse prior to our text, if we say that we have no sin,
we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. We have sinned. Each one of us have sin in us. In verse 10, after our text,
if we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word
is not in us. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. The subject of sin Concerns me,
concerns you, concerns everyone. And so may we be reminded of
what sin is. We are told that sin is the transgression
of the law of God. This is very highlighted in the
reading that we had of David's confession. in Psalm 51. We might say that David had sinned
against Bathsheba. He had taken her. He had lain
with her. He had committed adultery with
her. He was the king. She had not
much choice in the matter. We might say he had sinned against
her husband. in taking his wife and then in
killing him. But David says against thee,
thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. The inspired word of God, written
by David there in Psalm 51, it tells us that however Our actions,
wrong actions, actions that are against God's law and man's law,
however much they might hurt others, sin is against God and
God only. It is the transgression of the
law of God. And we need to remember this.
We are told that we are to confess our faults one to another when
we realize that we have injured and wounded another person, then
we are to confess that to them, we are to seek their forgiveness,
and we are to walk in a path of humility in that way. But we are to remember that we
are God's creatures, we are made in his image, We're accountable
to God, we are under the law of God, and that sin is the transgression,
the crossing, the boundary of the law of God. It is against God. It came into
the world, into the world that was sinless and perfect and pure
through Adam, our first parent's transgression of the law. God
gave the law, Adam transgressed it, sin entered into the world,
and death by sin. There is the first consequence
of it, the great consequence of sin. God said that in the
day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. A man
died spiritually, losing communion and fellowship with God, banished
from the Garden of Eden, and incapable of knowing spiritual
things. He is dead in trespasses and
sins. And so then the consequence is
that he cannot cease from sin. What was in the state of innocency,
something that he could choose or reject, Now it is something
that man is born in sin and shapen in iniquity, and he sins as part
of his nature. It springs up within. The Apostle
Paul, he says in Romans 7, that the good that I would, I do not,
and the evil that I would not, that I do. Though wretched man
that I am, Who shall deliver me from this body of death? He clearly shows forth what a
sinner he is. He says, if I do that which I
would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth
within me. And so he says, I find a law
that when I would do good, then evil is present with me. He is describing that sinful
nature, the old nature, that which is in every one of us,
that which is in a believer and an unbeliever. The believer feels
it, the unbeliever does not feel it. But sin, its consequences
brought death, and then not only death spiritually, but death
literally, and we all must die. We all must pass that way. Every graveyard testifies of
it. Every person that has lost loved
ones and parents or children, they testify of the reality,
the finality of death. Sin also has brought what leads
to death. Affliction, sickness, imperfection,
pain and suffering and sorrow, contests and wars and every distress
that is in this world. Men distressing their fellow
mortals. Men persecuting others, bringing
others into subjection. The great atrocities in the world
have been men doing things, terrible things to their fellow men. Many people will try and blame
God for these things, but sin has entered into the world and
man, as sinners, man is a willing participant in these sins. He goes on in sin and he does
not want to hear even that it is sin. He does not even want
to know that there is a God. And if there is a God that he
is accountable to God, or that actions that he is doing that
he loves, he doesn't want to be told that God does not love
those things. God has forbidden them, and God
will punish them, that they are a transgression of the law of
God. Man by nature does not want to
know that. And this as well is a consequence
of sin, of the transgression of the law of God. But God has a people, and God
has mercy, and if God would save his people, then there must be
consequences, even for God. And that is that God is a just
God, a holy God, And he cannot just pass by the transgression
of his people. He must punish sin. He must carry
out the sentence that he has said he would carry out on the
transgression of sin. And we are told that without
the shedding of blood, there is no remission. So God sent
his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh. taking the body
and soul that his people have and yet taking it as spotless
and pure being born of the Virgin Mary through the overshadowing
of the Holy Ghost. And in that body he did not need
to die because he had not sinned. His life was perfect from beginning
to end, no sin, no transgression, always did that which pleased
his father, truly God and truly man. And then in that body, he
laid down his life, he suffered, he bled, he died, and he died
to take away the wrath of God, to bear the punishment instead
of his people. This was a consequence of sin. The sin of God's chosen, eternally
loved people. The consequence of that was the
Lord Jesus Christ, who suffered the agonies of the cross, the
wrath of God, the hiding of his father's face, the mocking, the
contradiction of sinners, death itself, the grave. These are the consequences of
sin. The consequences of sin. Sin
unpardoned. Sin not forgiven. They go beyond
the grave because man, we, are created with an eternal soul. A soul that never ceases to exist. And the consequence of sin is
that after death there is the judgment, and after judgment
there is eternal hellfire and the wrath of God forever and
ever, banishment from God. And this is because of sin, that
God must punish sin, and that if it is not punished in His
dear Son, then it will be punished in us. we shall bear the wrath
of God instead of the Son of God. But for God's dear children,
for those that are brought to know their sin, to mourn over
it, to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and to trust in him, they
shall not see condemnation. Christ has forgiven them their
sins, eternally forgiven them. that for those outside of Christ,
the consequences are terrible. When we think back to Noah and
the ark, the whole destruction of the world was because of sin,
the wickedness of the world so very great. And all except those
in that ark, eight persons, perished. At the end of the world, God
says, the world shall be destroyed by fire, but those that are in
Christ Jesus shall be saved, they shall be delivered. May we remember then what the
consequences of sin are. We need to be delivered from
sin. But if we think, as many will
do, lightly of sin, they will think, well, we want to be forgiven. We want to go to heaven. And that is as far as it goes. They don't look that they might
live lives that are godly lives, that they are not subject to
sin here, or what I mean is, sin will live in us, but we are
not to live in sin. But many are happy to live in
sin, walking openly, blatantly, in ways that God's word forbids,
and still hope that they will go to heaven. that God has joined together. If we are pardoned and forgiven,
if we are to go to heaven, then we will know the power of God
over sin in our own lives. We will know it here below. Sin
will be a grief to us, a sorrow to us, We want to be delivered
from its power and from its working within. But as we sung in our
middle hymn, we will prove that the power of sin is a great power,
a power that is too much for us. We cannot restrain it by
laws, We cannot restrain it by rules, by resolutions. We are in love with sin. We like
it. On our own, it is too much even
to pray against it because we do not want to be free of it. When God begins with a person,
then sin will become a real thing, a powerful thing. We'll know
something of the consequences of it, of how sinful it is. The Apostle Paul said, I was
alive without the law once, but when the commandment came, sin
revived and I died. He thought that he was not a
sinner once, but then he was brought by the law of God to
know that he had transgressed that law and he was a sinner. Our Lord in the Sermon on the
Mount taught that adultery extended even to a look, and that whoso
offendeth in one point is guilty of all, The reason why the law was given
was that all the world might become guilty before God. If you and I feel guilty because
of sin, guilty because of our own sin, we feel how strong that
is and how much we are in love with it how reluctant we are
even to be free of it and yet feel hedged in because there
is that testifying in us that God will deal with our sin. On one hand then we have the
wrath of God and the judgment of God, on the other hand we
have a malady within that we cannot heal ourselves of and
free ourselves from, and many times even feel unwilling to
do so. And the case seems so hopeless,
such a helpless case. We are used to, in our lives,
if there is something wrong, that we go to someone who can
tell us how to put it right. We're used to a series of steps
as to follow this and it will work. Take this medicine and
it will work. We are used to dealing with a
method, with rules, with laws, with something within our power
to be able to do it and to perform it. But dear friends, if sin
was in that league, there would be no need for Christ to have
come or Christ to have suffered. If sin was an easy thing, a light
thing, something that could easily be managed by us. It would not
need such drastic action by God Himself to send His Son and to
suffer in the way that He did, nor to send the power of God
in the Holy Spirit to attend the preaching of the Word of
God. It wouldn't need all of these
things. It is because sin is the nature
that it is, that it must be dealt with by God. It is God's work
to save from sin. Man's work is insufficient. It cannot deal with it. No one
of us can save ourselves or deliver ourselves from our sin. We must look at the overall great
plan of salvation and realise what a great thing sin is and
what a great work God has done to deliver and to save from it. And so when we come to the word of our
text and we are speaking of the experience of God's children,
a sense of forgiveness of sin. And not only a sense of the forgiveness
of it, but the power of it working in us and in our lives to be
subdued and to be broken. and that that is wrought by God,
and that God does that when we confess our sins. And why we
confess our sins? It is because the Lord Jesus
Christ has died on Calvary and put away our sins there, and
therefore he has sent forth his Spirit to convict us of our sin,
to make us to be in trouble over it, to make us be concerned,
to make us want to live right lives, but feel the power of
sin within us. If we are amongst those that
are anticipated here in verse 8, that say we have no sin, we
won't want a saviour. We're deceiving ourselves, the
truth is not in us. Or if we say that we have not
sinned, it might be those that say that
they have never ever sinned. We make God a liar because he
has said that all have sinned. But there are those that take
a precious truth and that truth is that for God's children, it
is on Calvary that he has put away their sin. The debt is fully
being paid there. The satisfaction God has required
is given there. And that's why the Lord was raised
from the dead. So some say, well, because we
believe and because the Lord has blotted out our sins at Calvary,
then we now have no sin. We are perfect. We don't have any sin now. It's
all put away. But for such to say that, we
would say they do not know what sin is, their sins aren't put
away, because God's children know in their experience that
in their daily lives they cannot go an hour, a minute without
sinning. We are sinners. We cannot say
we have no sin. We sin in thought and word and
deed. We're constantly sinning. But then there's others that
will go. And they will say, well, because we cannot stop sinning,
then Well, let's just give full rein to it. Let's just live as
we will because there's nothing we can do against the power of
sin. But if we are brought in the
words of our text, then we will hate sin. We don't want to live
in sin. We want to be free of sin. And
this is my burden really this morning. How can we be free of
sin? Sometimes we feel so wrapped
up in it, so burdened with it, so full of sin. We wonder how
is the way out? How can we be right with God? How can we have restored the
joy of salvation? we mention regarding David and
Psalm 51. As soon as he was convinced of
his sin through Nathan coming and telling him the parable of
the poor man's lamb. As soon as he was convinced by
Nathan saying thou art the man, he's seen sin in another in the
story put to him. And now Nathan tells him that
is you. What you can see in that man
in the story, that is you, David. And David fell under that. And
he said, I have sinned. But Nathan said immediately,
the Lord hath also put away thy sin. The reason why God sent
Nathan to him to convince him of sin was because his sin was
put away. The reason why he was brought
to confess his sin was because his sin was put away. But just because David's sin
was put away doesn't mean to say David was not then chastened. The consequences of that went
right through his life. The sword did not depart from
his house. All his days he had trouble in
his house. And the child that was first
born of Bathsheba died. God balanced it because the two
sons, Solomon and Nathan, that were later born to Bathsheba,
were both in the line to Christ. One in the line to Joseph, one
in the line to Mary. The Lord balanced it and turned
that curse and even that sin into a blessing. But we see in
Psalm 51, the real attitude of one that sins forgiven, but who
wants to be free from the power and dominion of sin, the working
of sin in their hearts, and wants to be brought into sweet fellowship
and communion with God again. And our text gives really a very
I was going to say a simple, but it is a profound pathway
for one that feels however much their efforts have been, they
still are immersed in sin, they still are held within, they still
feel the power of it. What are they to do? How are
they to be delivered from it? I may say this, the only thing
that will deliver from the power of sin is God himself, is God's
power. We worship the true and living
God, a God that sees and hears and knows and has almighty power
to come and in a moment take away the inclination to sin,
in a moment take away the guilt of it, the wrath of God felt
as against it, in a moment, banish from us all those evil thoughts
and desires and affections and make this den of thieves that
is our heart so often a calm, delightful house of prayer. We
have it in hymn 381. The Lord says, if the sun shall
make you free, you shall be free indeed. and what I bring before
us this morning is the need of the power of God in us to cleanse
us and that we might be freed, freed from sin by God's power,
by his blessing in our souls. Yes, later on we hope this evening
to speak of how the Lord uses means to keep his people from
sin, but it must be by the power of God. So there are three things,
three things I briefly bring before you this morning. There
is the confession of sin, there is the forgiveness of sin, and
there is the cleansing of sin. if we confess our sins. The confession of sin. This is the path that should
exercise our souls. And it may be you and I have
to begin with prayer, Lord help me to confess my sin. And maybe
also, realise that we won't look upon our confession and say,
well, wasn't that a wonderful confession? We'll look upon our
confessions and say, what hard-hearted confessions, what insincere confessions, what poor confessions. But may our desire be to Confess,
because this is confronting our sins. It is identifying our sins. It is acknowledging our sins. As David said, against thee,
thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. How many
times in the day, and especially at night, have a time when in
prayer we actually acknowledge and confess our sins to God. And it must be to God. It's not to have a confessional
as with the Roman Catholics where we are confessing to a man and
spreading before man our sin. It is before God. And it is in
secret before God, confessing our sins. We're not making ourselves out
to be anything other than what we are. Part of those sins will
be our hardness, how we return to them, how much it holds us
fast, how much we love those sins. How strong they are upon
us, that we've tried and tried to get rid of them, but our tries
have been very, very poor and very insincere. There's so many aspects of our
sin. Seldom does one sin remain alone. But this is the path that is
set before us. confession of our sins and blessings
that flow forth from that. A soul confessing his sins, her
sins, is still a sinner. They are still bound by them,
they are still not forgiven, they are still maybe feeling
all of the working of sin within. but they are confessing their
sins. And the work that follows in
this verse is God's work, is God's work. It is God's promise,
and it sets before us what he is faithful to do. And so the
second point is the forgiveness of sins. We said before, and
this point here, God's children, their sins are all forgiven in
Christ at Calvary. We are not in any way suggest
that as we constantly sin, we need to find another remedy and
be freshly forgiven for those sins. The sins of God's people
on Calvary, past, present and to come are all blotted out there. But we are to seek a sense of
forgiveness. We are to seek a fresh application
of the precious blood of Christ to our conscience. We are to
ask the Lord to forgive us our sins, to bring us the sense of
that forgiveness and pardon as often as sin defiles us, to know
that those freshly contracted sins that have brought, may be,
the chastening hand of God, the hiding of his face, taken away
the joy of his salvation, that those sins are forgiven and that
we know that by having those joys returned. David says, restore
unto me the joy of thy salvation. Really, what we have in our text
is the fruit of what Christ has done at Calvary. God tells us
through this that those whose sins are pardoned at Calvary
will, as they sin here below, confess those sins before God. They will be sorry for their
sins, and this shall be an evidence of his putting away those sins
at Calvary. God tells us through this, on his part, he has put away
our sins. And on his part, he has blessed
us with a spirit to confess our sins. And because of that, it's
his work at Calvary, it's his work to give us that confession
of sin. And so he is faithful and just
to forgive us our sins. We are forgiven because of Christ's
work, not our own. Sin has been atoned for. If he was not to forgive us our
sins, it would be unjust of him, because he has received satisfaction
for it. And the signs and evidences of
it are in the heart of a poor sinner. who comes confessing
his sin. And you know one that is confessing
and seeking the forgiveness of sin will be of one that is seeking
to turn away from those sins. Repentance is joined with forgiveness. The Lord Jesus Christ is exalted
to give repentance and remission of sins unto Israel. And so there's
a third thing that is in this text, and that is the cleansing
of sin. We might feel, well, what we
want is not just forgiveness, but the Lord would take away
the power of sin. He'd take away the love of it.
that He'd turn our feet into His ways, that He'd leave us
not to go on in sin. And sometimes our heart fails
and we feel it's an impossible task. And so it is. And the hymn
writer says, I cannot promise future good to bring. We cannot. If the Lord said, I'll forgive
you your sins, if you can promise not to walk in the same way again, You may say, I've every intention
to walking in a right way, I want to walk in the right way, but
I cannot. I keep turning back again and
again. But we have this beautiful promise
here. And to cleanse us from all unrighteousness,
a cleansing from sin. It's God's work. He will do it. He will take away the love of
sinning. He will reduce its power. He will take away the force of
the temptation. It is God's work. And that's
what we are to look for and hang upon. To change our heart. To renew our will. To turn our
feet to Zion's hill. So often we're looking to ourselves
to do these things. We look upon the miracles that
our Lord did on earth and we say they are miracles. We look
upon the bread broken and the thousands fed and those who were
raised from the dead and we say they're miracles. But every sinner saved is a miracle
of grace. And everyone that is brought
to confess their sins before God is a miracle. And everyone
who has had their sins forgiven is a miracle. Now the Lord had
one brought before him, born of four, sick of a palsy, helpless,
he couldn't do a thing. Others were carrying him to the
Lord. The Lord's first word was to
him, thy sins are forgiven thee. And others round about, they
said, how can this man forgive sins? God only can forgive sins. They were true of that. They
couldn't see that he was God. But then the Lord gave them an
outward sign. And he said that you might know
that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins. He
said that the sick of the palsy take up thy bed and walk. A miracle. And he did. The forgiveness of sins is a
miracle. It is God's work. The same as
making one sick of the palsy to rise up. And so it is a miracle
that we should have that power of sin taken away and to cleanse
us from this unrighteous, ungodly, worldly way of walking. That
is a miracle of God. How often we're trying and trying
to do it ourselves. without success. And it's a good
thing it's without success, because it's not by works of righteousness
which we have done. If we knew a dear brother and
we looked upon them and we said, what a holy, godly man, how upright
they walk in their lives. You ask them, they would not
say I'm holy, godly, and upright. They would say, I feel very much
my sin and the evil of my heart. And if the outside is kept clean,
it is by God's grace. And if the Lord has made me to
show forth his praise, it is all his work, not mine. And you and I must walk that
way as well. Be absolutely convinced that
it is the Lord that has broke the power and dominion of sin
in us. And it is He that has forgiven
us our sins. In one sense, our righteousness,
that which is our title for heaven, is Christ's righteousness. It's
His obedience. That is what we shall stand in
faultless before God. But here below, God's people
are to be a people that are different, a people that walk in the Lord's
ways are a holy people, be holy as I am holy, but that holiness
is from the Lord. And it is through the Lord's
chastening, correcting, dealing, but through His power, through
His power in us to change our heart, to change our way, to
change our lives. to renew us, to make us a willing
people in the day of his power. And this is his work. May we
go from the Lord's house this day, not despairing, not despairing,
not feeling our case is hopeless, but feeling our case is a case
that only the power of God can meet and deal with. and that
we will walk in this way of confessing our sins before God and relying
upon his precious promises here that he will forgive us our sins
and he'll cleanse us from all unrighteousness. But what a blessed
thing if we even desire that our sins be forgiven and that
our lives don't continue in a whole path of ungodliness and sinning
and evil, but we truly desire that we might be a holy people,
a people that show forth the praises of a holy God, a people
that desire to be free from sin, free from its power, its guilt,
its consequences, its working in our hearts, and free from
that which was the cause of all the sufferings of our Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ. With this word then, we bring
to you, the Lord brings to you, if we confess our sins, He is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. Amen.