May it please God to bless us
together this evening as we consider his word. Let us turn to the
first epistle of John and the first chapter, and we'll read
verse 9. The first epistle of John, chapter
1, and we'll read verse 9. If we confess our sins, he is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins. and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. This verse must really be a wonderful
comfort to the Church of God, because it speaks to us a great
and important truth, and that truth is that we may have our
sins forgiven. Every one of us needs that. We cannot go to heaven unless
our sins are forgiven. There is no doubt about that.
Because heaven is a holy place. Sin does not enter into heaven. It is a holy place. And therefore
if we were there with any sin, we would not be allowed in. And
therefore it is so necessary, it is so essential, that every
one of us has the evidence that our sins are indeed forgiven. Well, sometimes there may be
that question and that desire for a wonderful revelation of
sins forgiven, and sometimes that is granted, but not often.
It's very rare by comparison. And yet we have a promise like
this, which is so sure and so certain. And the weakest believer
can lay hold of a promise like this. If we confess our sins,
he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. Now, as this is a wonderful word
and verse of comfort to the Church of God. It's also separated on
either side by verses which ensure that there is a critical consideration. And verse 8 tells us, if we say
that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not
in us. If we say that we have not sinned,
we make him a liar and his word is not in us. Now, naturally,
we don't like to admit that we are true sinners and a sinner
through and through. We don't like to admit that in
our natural state and it's only as the Spirit of God reveals
to us something of our true state, that we realise the blessing
of this ninth verse. And really, John in this epistle,
he hones in very positively on the necessity of walking in the
light, and not being found in darkness. Because if we are in
darkness, we may speak words, we may say words, but in fact
they are not from the heart, they're not in the light, and
they are not from the Holy Spirit of God. You know, we have examples
in the Word of God about such people who said they were sinners,
but clearly haven't confessed their sin before God. And we
can think of three people at least Achan, you can remember
Achan, he went and disobeyed God and hid that goodly Babylonish
garment and a wedge of gold in his tent. And when he was found
out to be the one who had sinned, he confessed and said, I have
sinned. But he didn't actually seek for
forgiveness. And then Saul, King Saul, He
said he'd sinned, but he didn't seek for forgiveness. And then
of course we have Julius Iscariot, when he went to the priest and
threw down the money that he'd been given, and he's confessed,
I have sinned. But he didn't seek for forgiveness,
he didn't confess his sins, seeking that he might receive that forgiveness. If we confess our sins, he is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins. See, that's the
great question, whether you and I recognise our need to be forgiven. Now, how are we to be forgiven?
How are we to be forgiven of our sins? It's a familiar phrase,
I'm sure, to all of us perhaps, the need to have our sins forgiven. But how are we to have our sins
forgiven? Well, the seventh verse tells
us, and it's very beautiful, it's very wonderful. It tells
us this, if we walk in the light, I'll come back to that, as he
is in the light, we have fellowship one with another and the blood
of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanseth us from all sin. That is a most
wonderful and glorious gospel text. And we ought to rejoice in it
and be thankful for it and bless God that it's recorded in those
simple words, the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanses us
from all sin. And so if our sins are to be
forgiven, if we come and confess our sins and desire that they
should be forgiven. This is the only way. The only
way. The blood of Jesus Christ, His
Son, cleanseth us from all sin. Now the blessing for us will
be if the Holy Spirit of God has shone into our hearts with
heavenly light and reveals to us the importance of this personal
knowledge that the Lord Jesus Christ has died upon Calvary's
cross, has shed his precious blood to take away all our sins. That is the vital question. That is what we need to know,
that the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleansed us from all
sin. Now, it's very easy to be taken
up with theory. There are many people who understand
in their head the truth of God. But a knowledge in the head,
good as it is, it needs to filter down into our heart so that our
heart is affected by the word of God and we have the evidence
that that light has shone into our heart. You may say, well,
how am I to know that that light has shone into my heart? It would have made a change in
our lives. It's just like light and darkness,
isn't it? What a difference there is between
light and darkness. When we're in darkness, when
there's no moon or stars, it's very dark. and it's in darkness. When the sun shines, it's very
light and it's glorious to behold the light. Now it's no different
with regard to our spiritual life. We were born in sin and shaken
in iniquity. We were born into darkness and
we shall remain in darkness unless The Spirit of God comes upon
us and shines into our heart and gives us that view of the
true light, the Lord Jesus Christ. The Savior said, I am the light
of the world. My friends, there's the light.
There's the light. And it's a blessed light when
Christ shines into our heart. There's the difference. We know
that we have passed from death unto life because of the evidence
of that light shining and it reveals to us the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's when the light really
shines. Now then, we need that light of course to shine to show
us that we're a sinner and we have need of a saviour. But the
blessing is when that light shines and reveals Christ to us, Christ
as the all-sufficient Saviour. And then it is, as we view Him,
as this statement here, and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son,
cleanseth us from all sin. Now don't expect to be able to
understand everything clearly when that light first shines.
No, you see, often it's not very clear. There was an account of
that man in the scriptures, when he was asked if he saw things
and he said, I see men as trees walking. He didn't see them very
clearly. He didn't see the detail. He didn't see the outline. But
he did see something. My friends, it's a blessing for
you and me if we had our spiritual eyes open, if the light has shone,
so that we do see the need of the application of the cleansing
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. That we are looking to Him and
Him alone and we are able to recognise the simple truth, Jesus
is the one thing needful. I without Him perish must. That's a great truth. Well, if
the light has shone into our hearts, we can bless God if he's
revealed up to us that he is the one thing needful. And may
it lead us to the realisation that Jesus is precious. You know, something which is
precious means it's valuable. Tonight, what does Christ mean
to you and to me? Is He valuable? What does He
mean? What does Christ really mean?
It's a very important question to be able to come and to answer.
Because if we are in this place, confessing our sins, realising
that He is faithful and just, who is He? The Lord Jesus Christ
is faithful and just. to forgive us our sins and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And so tonight, what think ye
of Christ is the test, to try both your work and your scheme. Ye cannot be right in the rest
unless you think rightly of Him. It's very simple, isn't it? but
it's very deep. And it's the work of the blessed
Spirit of God to shine that light into our hearts, so that we pass
from dark state in which we were born and the light shines. And
when that light shines into our hearts, it's wonderful to behold. And the amazing thing is this,
we are so surprised We never understood things before. It's
as though a veil was over our eyes, scales upon our eyes and
suddenly they were taken away and the light shone and we saw
the great and glorious plan of salvation. My friends, what a
great plan it is. How wonderful it is to rejoice
in it. And we see then How we were born
in sin and shaped in iniquity. We then see all our righteousnesses,
our righteousnesses, are as filthy rags. There's nothing good in
ourselves. We hunt for it. We try to find
it. All we can find is our sin. And then as the Spirit of God
works in our heart, and as we grow in grace, what do we see?
More sin. sins that we never knew existed. The work of the Spirit convinces
us of sin, and more sin, and more sin. Sometimes we stand
and we say, can ever God dwell here? I'm just so bad, I'm just
so vile, I keep doing and thinking the wrong things. Now then, brought
to that place by the Spirit of God. This is the word that will
comfort you and strengthen you if we confess our sins. He is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. It's a wonderful gospel text,
is it not, to a needy sinner. Now, it's only a needy sinner
that will rejoice in a verse like this. It's only as the Spirit
of God convinces us of our true condition, that we have indeed
sinned, that the blessing of God will enter in and bring us
into that light. It's so significant that we must
be convicted of our sinful nature and to seek that we might indeed
be able to come and truly and rightly confess our sins. You know, Israel went through
some dark times in their lives, some very dark times. And we
can remember after they had come to the wilderness and had spent
some time in Canaan, and how they had then disobeyed the prophets. The prophets had spoken again
and again to them and they disobeyed them. Eventually, that which
had been prophesied came to pass. They went down into Babylon,
70 years. 70 years of famine, really. No temple, no sacrifices. Oh, what a terrible time it must
have been in Babylon for those 70 years. And they would have
been reminded of their sin. They were reminded of the condition
that they were in. Well, God was gracious. Isn't it wonderful? We have a
gracious God who doesn't deal with us as our sins deserve. He didn't deal with Israel as
their sins deserve. He brought them forth. He brought
them back to Jerusalem and Nehemiah and Ezra were some of the first
to return and in the book of Nehemiah In the first chapter
we can read of Nehemiah's prayer to his God. And he said, I beseech
thee, O Lord God. He goes on and says, Let thine
ear now be attentive, and thine eyes open, that thou mayst hear
the prayer of thy servant, which I pray before thee now, day and
night, for the children of Israel, thy servants, and confess the
sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against
thee, both I and my Father's house have sinned." Nehemiah
doesn't exclude himself. He brings himself into this situation. And I believe that is the effect
of the work of the Holy Spirit. We come here, we confess our
sins, Nehemiah confessed the sins of the people, confessed
his own sins, and he desired the Lord would be attentive to
him. Now if you pray, if you're brought
to this place to really pray, Your desire, the Lord will be
attentive to you. You won't just want to repeat
a verse of scripture and say, well that's the job done. Not
at all. If the Spirit of God is shown
into your heart and the light shone and shown your true condition
before a holy God, prayer will be a reality, it won't be a formality. and it will come like this and
you'll be in urgency and you'll say, Lord do hear, do be attentive
to my prayer. And so you will then come confessing
your sins. If we confess our sins, he is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins. It won't be a worthless
prayer. The effectual fervent prayer
of a righteous man It won't be an ineffective prayer because
it will be the work of the Spirit of God which has shone light
into our hearts and revealed our need of a saviour, the need
of a saviour. And so we see and we're thankful
we have these records in the Word of God directing us to consider
the real need there is to pray for forgiveness. And then perhaps
we might come and remember David, King David, in that familiar
51st Psalm. David was a convicted sinner. And my friends, he wasn't really
convicted until Nathan came to him. And Nathan directed a parable
at him. And initially, he thought he
was on the right side and was very angry about that person
who had taken that poor man's little ewe lamb. But you see,
when the Spirit of God came, when the Prophet said, when Nathan
said, Thou art the man, he didn't look around. My friends, remember
this, when the Spirit of God speaks, it speaks to your heart
and my heart. Thou art the man, Thou art the
woman. We don't look around. We know. We're the guilty one. We're condemned. We stand before
a holy God, and we have to pray then, when that light shines
and condemns us. It shone into David's heart.
David knew he was a sinner. And what does he tell us in the
51st Psalm? He says this, verse 4, Against
thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight.
Thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when
thou judgest. There was Confession. Confession
now. Confession is not easy. I don't
think confession is easy. David had sinned some while ago. I don't know precisely when it
was. But he was clearly wrong and
done those sins. We might think they were great
sins, but remember, any sin is sin before God. Any sin needs
to be pardoned. And so, here we have then this
clear view that David was convicted when Nathan spoke. And he hadn't
confessed his sin before that. He had sinned. He hadn't confessed
it. When the Spirit of God comes
and speaks to us, it's like an arrow. It goes home. It goes
into our heart and we know that we're the guilty one. We're the
one that needs forgiveness. It's when the light shone. The
light shone and convicted us. My friend's real conviction is
painful. It's not easy. It's not easy. David had to come. He had to
cry. He had to pray. Have mercy upon
me, O God. And you and I would have to come
there and pray, have mercy upon me, oh God. We'll understand
what that publicans prayer was. Oh God, be merciful to me a sinner. It's only a short prayer. It's
a very blessed prayer. If you and I pray it from our
heart and it never becomes old fashioned. You know, true confession
doesn't go out of date because we continue to sin. The problem
is we still have our old nature. We still have our old flesh.
And we still possess that which is wrong and evil. It's the new
nature which struggles against our flesh. But we have that,
and therefore we do sin. And we continue to sin, not because
we want to sin, but because sins within us, as the Apostle Paul
says, in me that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing now. It's
the Spirit of God that shows you and me that. and bless God
when we see ourselves as a really bad person, when we're really
ashamed of ourselves and we have to cry out into God for forgiveness
and we come like this and we then confess our sins. You see,
it's then the work of the Holy Spirit has come and done something
within that light shone so that we know that we're the person,
it's not someone else, we're the guilty person. Well, tonight,
let me ask the question, have you been the guilty person before
God? Have you been convicted? Have you stood in the dark before
the great judge and you've had to hang your head as the guilty
person? And you weren't able to make
any excuses? You see, we sometimes try and make excuses. Remember
Adam and Eve, they both tried to make excuses. The excuse is
not acceptable to God. No, but when the Holy Spirit
comes, when the light shines, it convicts us. We don't look
around. We're the guilty person. We're
convicted by the Holy Spirit of God. And then it is that we
cry out to God. We confess our sins and it's
a blessing then to be brought to that place to truly confess. It comes then from our heart. may have come from our head before,
we may have prayed many times for the forgiveness of sin, perhaps
we were brought up as children to pray that way, nothing wrong
in that, but the truth is when the light shines, it is as though
we are by ourselves, which we are, before a holy God and those
eyes of God are piercing and they come right home and they
direct it to us, to you and to me, and we stand guilty before
a holy God, and then there is true confession. We can't hide
then, we can't make excuses, we had to come then and as it
were make a clean breast of our sin before God, and there is
then the true confession. Now then, when the Lord brings
us to that place, and it's a good place, It's a painful place,
but it's a good place. And when the Spirit of God brings
you there, and enables you to truly confess your sin, you'll
be thankful for it, and you'll know it's the work of the Spirit
of God, and you'll bless God for it, because you can believe
then the truth which follows. He is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Cleanse us Totally, you see,
these words then are fulfilled, and the blood of Jesus Christ,
his Son, cleanses us from all sin. I believe then, when the
work of the Spirit of God teaches us to truly confess our sins,
then it is that we see the need of a Redeemer. We see then the
need of someone to deliver us from that Condition of condemnation. You know, Paul says, doesn't
he? Romans 8 verse 1. There is therefore
now no condemnation. To whom? To those who are in
Christ Jesus. That's the only place of safety. That's the only place of forgiveness.
And that's the only place where there's no condemnation. in Jesus
Christ. Now that's bringing us to a good
position to be found then, relying upon what Christ has done. No
condemnation, no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.
And those who are in Christ Jesus are those to whom the light has
shone, the light has revealed the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't
think, my friends, these things just arrive. It's the work of
the Holy Spirit of God when he reveals Christ to us. I don't often mention myself,
as you know, and I have told you before of that occasion in
my life when I was ill. and I tried to pray. I wanted to pray. I wanted to
seek forgiveness in the Lord's face and it just seemed to me
as though there was a solid black brick wall in front of me. My
prayers didn't get anywhere. It just seemed hollow, ashaming. It bounced back and it was like
this. The Spirit of God spoke into
my heart or my head like this and said, Well, it's for Jesus
Christ's sake. And I remember praying then the
prayer for Jesus Christ's sake. And I then saw what I'd never
seen before. It was opened up to me that the
wonder of the high priesthood of the Lord Jesus Christ. He
took my prayers. He presented my prayers to his
father. My prayers were not pure. Your
prayers will never be pure. But what a wonderful relief it
was to know that my prayers did enter in, not because of what
I'd said, not because how well formed they were, but because
of what the Lord Jesus Christ had done. What had he done? He
died upon that cross at Calvary to atone for my sins. It was
indeed a precious time, something I'll never forget. Now I'm not
saying that the Lord grants us blessings. Mostly not. And we walk by faith and not
by sight. But nonetheless, there was that revelation and that
blessing. And so the light shone. There
was darkness. When the light shone, there was
a wonderful view. There was a wonderful vista. And I saw then the need of a
saviour. The need of the Lord Jesus Christ. I've been brought up, of course,
since I was a baby to go to chapel and hear the truth of God. It
had never come to me before that time in that way. So then, the
Gospel then, there's a new light, there's a new situation. If we confess our sins, He is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. Now then, You must remember that
we have the examples in the Word of God of confessing sin and
how important it is that we follow the examples of those who do
confess their sin. Daniel, he was a man of God,
wasn't he? We all know Daniel was a man
of God, a man of great strength and a man of great faith. The
Lord wonderfully blessed him and he says And I prayed unto
the Lord, my God, and made my confession and said, O Lord,
the great and dreadful God, keep in the covenant of mercy. And
I believe when the Spirit of God convicts, we'll see God as
a great God. He won't be a little God. He'll
be a great God. Great and dreadful God, keep
in the covenant and mercy to them that love him and to them
that keep his commandments. We have sinned. and have committed
iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing
from thy precepts and from thy commandments. Yes, this is Daniel. And then he says, O Lord, to
us belongeth confusion of faith, to our kings, to our princes,
and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee. Now then, those of us who have been brought
up under the sound of the gospel. We're very guilty, aren't we?
How much we turn our back upon God. Clearly, confusion of faces
is our situation. How little have we really come
and confessed our sins before God. It's just passed off. We
just pass it off as a phrase with no real Feeling it, perhaps
a desire, but not a, as it were, a real God-given desire. Not really in our heart, it might
be in our mind, in our head. But it's a blessing when the
Spirit of God works within us, so that we stand before that
Holy God by ourselves, and we have to plead then. Plead what? The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Here it is, the blood of Jesus
Christ, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. And to know that
you and I are under that blood, that Christ has died for us and
shed his most precious blood. The Apostle Peter knew it, didn't
he? He tells us, redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. He knew something of the value
of that sin atoning blood. Well, it would be a good thing
if you and I know something by the Spirit of God of the value
of the precious blood of Christ. It's so valuable because it delivers
our soul from hell. It takes away all our sin. Yes,
there was no other good enough. to pay the price of sin. He only
could unlock the gate to heaven and let us in. Oh, my friends,
do we value the blood of Christ? If we are blessed with this confession
of sins, if we are truly blessed with it, in our soul, our heart
cries out for forgiveness, realising we must be forgiven. The only
way is through the precious blood of the Redeemer, the blood of
Jesus Christ, his Son, cleansing us from all sin. And just remember
what the Apostle tells us. If we walk in the light, it's
an if, but may it be a good if that we are walking in the light.
As he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another.
And there is that fellowship. with the people of God. It's
a wonderful thing. Fellowship one with another.
Because we're joint heirs with Christ for that eternal kingdom. We're travelling through this
world. We're on a journey. And we're
brethren, brothers and sisters in Christ, united together with
Christ. And we have fellowship one with
another. Now we don't want to have fellowship
with the world, we have to live in the world of course, and we
have to earn our living in the world. But the blessing is if
you and I have fellowship, one with another, with other Christians,
fellowship, bless God for it. And here's the statement, we
have fellowship, one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ,
his son, cleanses us from all sin. Well then, may we be found
in that, walking in that way, and may the light have shone
into our hearts. And tonight, may we have the evidence, may
we be able to search our hearts to see whether that light has
shone. Let us not be deceived. As I
mentioned, Achan and Judas and King Saul, you see they didn't
know the truth. The light hadn't shone into their
hearts. that they made a statement, they made a confession. My friends,
may the power of God be evident in our hearts, and may you be
able to look into your heart and realise, yes, the Lord has
opened my eyes. Once I was blind, but now I see,
and I see the grand truth of the gospel, and I see the need
I have of a saviour, And it's a precious gospel to me. And I rejoice in it. And my hope
is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. That, my friends, is a good foundation
which will not be taken away. The Apostle, sorry, David knew
what it was to be founded upon that rock. When he said he brought
me up out of the horrible pit, the Mari clay, set my feet upon
a rock, and established my goings, and has put a new song in my
heart, even praise unto our God, many shall see it." Yes, you
see, that was the evidence in David's case, and he acknowledged
that it was God that had brought him up and put him on that rock,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, what a favour it would be
if that light shone into our hearts and has brought us up,
so that we tonight have the evidence that yes, we're standing upon
that rock, and that rock is Christ. My friends, then you see, when
the storms of life come into our lives, which they will, they
will, we shall not be moved because we're on that rock, the Lord
Jesus Christ. If we confess our sins, He is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins. and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. May we indeed be blessed with
living faith, living faith to come to our God and desire that
we might be favoured with true confession, true prayer before
our God and that he will bless us with the knowledge that this
word is true in our case, The blood of Jesus Christ, his son,
cleanses us from all sin. Let us never undervalue the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. There's a line in one of our
hymns which says, invaluable blood, and it's a great truth,
and may you and I understand it, and may you and I prove it,
and may we bless God for it, and thank him for the great and
glorious gospel, and be able to come and find that we are
inside this text, we're not outside, we're inside it. If we confess
our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and
to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Amen.