Turn to 1 John chapter 1. Let's just read this first chapter
to get started here. That which was from the beginning,
which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which
we have looked upon and our hands have handled are the word of
life. for the life was manifested and we have seen it and bear
witness and show unto you that eternal life which was with the
Father and was manifested unto us. That which we have seen and
heard declare we unto you that ye also may have fellowship with
us and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his
Son Jesus Christ. And these things write we unto
you that your joy may be full This then is the message which
we have heard of him in declaring to you that God is light and
in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship
with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth.
But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship
one with another. And the blood of Jesus Christ
his son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin,
we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess
our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and
to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned,
we make him a liar and his word is not in us. Well, yes, as you
can see, the title of my message today is Faithful and Just to
Forgive. And that's taken from the text.
I just read that often quoted verse 9. It says, if we confess
our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and
to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. When I first preached from this
passage about six years ago, original interest in studying
this was inspired by a devotional that I'd read from an old gospel
commentator on this verse. And in particular, I was struck
by his emphasis on the certain assurance of salvation that can
be gleaned from the, this just is one verse when it's rightly
understood in both its immediate context and in the broader context
of the whole of scripture. You may have noticed the emphasis
I put on that conjunction, and when I cited the title, God is
faithful and just to forgive. And I hope I can adequately relate
to you how sure and certain eternal salvation is to those who confess
their sins as it is to be understood in this verse. That is, for those
whose sins have been truly remitted, truly paid for, forgiven by the
doing and dying of Jesus Christ as their substitute and their
surety. Before I get to the meat of the
message, I think it's important to first address a common scriptural
misinterpretation of this verse that leads people to expect to
be forgiven as a result of something other than exclusively the death
of Christ. And I'm specifically talking
about mistake of believing that God forgives a sinner of his
sins because of their confession of their sins. Other preachers,
I've heard it, they put it this way, that the forgiveness of
sins comes at the expense of your repentance. And of course,
there they're talking about a sorrowfulness over sins that would prompt them
to confess their sins. So it's kind of one in the same.
The problem lies in the fact that the word if, it's often
used, commonly used to set forth a condition. As in, if you do
this, then the following will result because of what you did. And so many misinterpret this
verse in keeping with that. so as to mean that God is faithful
and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness
if we will meet this presumed condition of confessing our sins. So consequently, many mistakenly
believe that sinners are forgiven because of or as a result of
their confession. And that's supported by a lot
of preachers who tell their listeners God will give them all the blessings
of salvation, including the forgiveness of sins, if they will just do
something, if they will believe. If they'll say this sinner's
prayer, walk this aisle, invite him into their hearts, be baptized,
or something to confess Christ before men. Or some, they just
say, if you just kind of admit you're not perfect, you fall
short a little bit. But listen. no matter how often
you've heard that or continue to hear those suggestions, that
your salvation and its multifaceted blessings, which includes the
forgiveness of sins, is conditioned, at least in some way to some
degree, on you, the sinner. Well, you need to know this about
that message. That is not God's gospel of grace,
so do not be deceived. It's a deadly presumption to
imagine that a holy God will forgive you a sinner based on
your confession of anything. Because as a sinner seek all
that proceeds from you, including your confession. It's tainted
by sin. And by that I mean even our good
and acceptable works, they even fall short of the perfection
of God's righteousness as established by Christ by which we're all
going to be judged. So how then are those good works
acceptable and pleasing to God? Well, in Ephesians 1.6, Paul
stated how God made his people accepted in the beloved due to
that union with Jesus Christ. He continues in verse saying
of the beloved, he said, in whom we have redemption through his
blood. The forgiveness of sins according
to the riches of his grace. You believe you've been forgiven
of your sins because you made some confession. That is not
forgiveness through his blood. And that would not be according
to the riches of his grace. So how are we to understand this
if we confess our sins? Consider that the word if is
not always used to set forth a condition that's to be met
in order to achieve a result. In fact, I believe I haven't
studied this or surveyed the whole New Testament, but I know
for a fact that many times in the New Testament, it's not used
to set forth a condition. It's often used to cite an evidence. or be an indicator of something. As if to say, if this describes
you, then you can know that the following is true of you. For
example, if I, I've used this example before, but if I said,
if you're breathing, you're alive. Well, you know what I mean by
that. And a reasonable person, they would not constitute that
to mean you could go to the morgue, walk up to a lifeless corpse
and instruct that body to breathe so that it could thereby make
itself alive based on that condition of following that order. No,
but you know, a paramedic, he might well come upon an accident
and find someone unconscious. And he might check to see if
they are breathing to determine if they're among the living.
If that evidence exists, see, their breathing would be an indicator,
an evidence of life, not the cause of it. Well, from the whole
of scripture, we can know that 1 John 1, 9 is not suggesting
that by confession, your sins, you can thereby procure the blessing
of forgiveness of sins for yourself. No, here's what it's telling
us. If you confess your sins, you are identified among those
who have been forgiven in Christ. You know, the immediate context,
1 John tells us that as we read there in verse seven prior to
verse nine, but if we walk in the light 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. So the confession of sins
by the pardoned is not the cause of their pardon. You may have
heard this definition of confession as agreeing with God concerning
our sin. And that seems appropriate when
you consider that all of the saints chosen in Christ before
the foundation of the world, all of these who were in time
redeemed by his blood, as Jim read earlier this morning, in
the fullness of time, God sent forth his son, made of a woman,
made under the law to redeem them that were under the law.
They're also in their respective lifetimes in each generation,
they're brought into the knowledge of the light of the gospel, as
they're given spiritual life and they're drawn to Christ under
the gospel of God's grace. And see, thereby, they discover
the necessity and the reality that it is the blood of Christ
alone that cleanseth us from all sin, as 1 John 1-7 asserts. Their blood-bought, Holy Spirit-inspired
confession has them all, without fail, eventually agreeing with
God concerning their sin and that truth that we often sing,
that nothing but the blood of Jesus. can wash away our sins. So let's just briefly discuss
what this confession of our sins involves. The word that's translated
sin here in 1 John 1, it's the word that's most commonly used
for sin in the New Testament, the Greek word. Same word that's
used in Romans 3.23, where we're told, for all have sinned and
come short of the glory of God. Again, in the first part of Romans
6.23, for the wages of sin is death. And as you know, that
simply means missing the mark. And the mark that we miss, that
we fall short of, is the perfect righteousness of Christ. That's
the righteousness that Christ established, by which all men
shall be judged, as we so often review from Acts 1731. That is,
our righteousness must equal the merit of Christ's perfect
obedience unto death, whereby all of God's revealed will, the
precepts of the law, if you would, all was complied with perfectly
in deed and thought. And that perfect, that continual
compliance with the revealed will of God has never been achieved
by anyone in any age other than by the sinless humanity of Christ,
the incarnate Son of God. And if lawbreakers, sinners such
as all of us, if we're to be found righteous, clear of guilt,
forgiven, in God's sight, well then, the law's penalty also
must be extracted. The wages of sin is death. So,
you see, we must somehow come to possess the merit of Christ,
all of Christ's finished work, his doing and his dying. And
the only way sinners such as we all are can possess that righteousness
is, as most of you know, by God's gracious and merciful imputation
of it to us. We often quote 2 Corinthians
5, 21. For he, God the father, has made
him, God the son, to be sin for us. He the son who knew no sin,
that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. all whom God is
faithful and just to forgive and cleanse from their unrighteousness,
they had the demerit of all their sins imputed or reckoned to the
account of Christ, who in the eternal covenant of grace, as
a surety, essentially said to the Father, like Paul told Philemon,
put it on my account, lay it on my account, I'll pay the debt
that's due unto your holy justice, for all the sins of all those
that you've given to me. And this verse here, 2 Corinthians
5, 21, it teaches us that all for whom he died, that God has
graciously imputed or reckoned to them the merit of this perfect
obedience unto death that he wrought out on the cross. His
perfect satisfaction to God's justice, and I believe that is
in both precept obedience of the law, and the penalty that
was due unto us as sinners. That's his righteousness. In
John 16, we're told of the work of the Holy Spirit, which takes
place in the conversion of a born-again sinner. Specifically, we're told
how they're convinced by the Holy Spirit of sin, righteousness,
and judgment. So if confession is agreeing
with God about our sin, about our missing the mark of his perfect
righteousness, the righteousness is required for acceptance before
a holy God, then that's what one who truly confesses his or
her sins, that's what they have come to see. They're taught of
God through the preached gospel that they must have the very
righteousness of God that's revealed in that gospel. It must be put
to their account. And so to be convinced of sin
is to agree with God when he said, and where he inspired the
words of Romans, that therefore by the deeds of the law, there
shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law is
the knowledge of sin. As God's children come to Christ
by God-given faith and repentance, they see the extent of the law
and the perfection It must be rendered under it. So as to agree
with God about how even their very best efforts and their very
best needs, they fall far short of that standard by which we're
all judged. And that's his impeccable righteousness.
Any who have been so convinced so as to no longer approach a
holy God for acceptance. as we're naturally inclined to
do based upon something that proceeds from ourselves. And
listen, that would include even the most sincere sorrow that
one might muster over a recognition that they're sinners, the sorrow
over their sins. But I'm speaking of those who
no longer look to that, but they now look to Christ alone for
their righteousness. They are in agreement with God
concerning their sins. and each and every one that God
the Father gave to God the Son in that everlasting covenant
of grace, they shall, without fail, so come to confess their
sins before God. You know, it's against God that
all sin is committed. In John 6, 37, Christ assured
us of this by saying, all that the Father giveth me shall come
to me, and him that cometh to me I will in the wise cast out.
So if that confession of sins, in agreement with God, has been
experienced by you, then now, you see here, we have the first
solid reason for drawing comfort, for gleaning a greater sense
of eternal assurance and security from this verse. No man can come
to me, Christ said, except the Father which sent him draw me,
draw him. Christ told the unbelieving Jews,
as Jim mentioned this morning in John 10, that they believed
not because they weren't one of his sheep. They weren't one
of those given to him by the Father. He said, the good shepherd
giveth his life for the sheep, and he told them they weren't
his sheep, that he didn't come to die for them. Well, like these
unbelievers, the natural man cannot place He can't do what's
required, and that is place all his trust and hope for salvation
in Christ and in him alone. And I shouldn't have said required,
I should have said they can't do what evidences their salvation. But Christ says his sheep will.
They will in time come to him for all of salvation, in confession
of their sins, in acknowledgement of their utter inability to contribute
anything towards saving themselves. They need God's mercy in Christ. They must have Christ and his
righteousness imputed because being convinced by the spirit
of sin, righteousness, and judgment, why, nothing else will do for
them. So all who are graciously drawn by God to confess their
sins, they're thereby identified as being among those whom God
is faithful and just to forgive their sins and cleanse them from
all unrighteousness. Well, let's focus in first here
now on how God is faithful to forgive their sins and cleanse
them from all unrighteousness. You know, the Bible sets forth
what I call the unfailing faithfulness of God, and I know that's redundant,
but I use the same word meaning there to emphasize it, the unfailing
faithfulness of God. In Lamentations 3, beginning
in verse 21, The prophet Jeremiah penned these words. He said,
this I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. So what did he recall
to mind? It is of the Lord's mercies that
we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They
are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. The
Lord is my portion, saith my soul. Therefore will I hope in
him. those who've been convinced of
sin so as to confess their sins, or they who see themselves as
sinners deserving to be consumed by a holy and just God, deserving,
if judged in themselves, destruction. And that would be even according
to their very best deeds and works. I know that many expect
to be saved because They believe they, I once believed this, I
struck a deal with God, I fulfilled what the preacher told me I needed
to do in order to be saved. They'll recall a profession of
faith or perhaps a baptism, some spiritual event in their lives
in which they sincerely, perhaps, I believe most of them are sincere,
I was, sincerely dedicated myself, they sincerely dedicate themselves
to their God, and by that I mean their God, meaning God as they
perceive him to be. And on that basis, the basis
of their presumed faithfulness, their free will choice to follow
Jesus, whatever it is they did, they expect to be saved. And no doubt, that is the sincere
hope of many. but it's not a good hope. It's
a tragically false one. According to this passage, their
being spared the wrath of God, if they are, is owing solely
to the mercy of God. It's because his compassions
fail not, because of his unfailing faithfulness, if you would, not
theirs. Early I read from Romans 3.20,
look with me there again at that verse and a couple verses to
follow. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh
be justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of
sin. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested,
being witnessed by the law and the prophets, that would include
the prophet Jeremiah who penned Lamentations. Even the righteousness
of God which is by faith are the faithfulness of Jesus Christ
unto all and upon all them that believe. As you know, I think
that's preached, the unto all, and then upon all was put upon
them, imputed to them. It's all owing to the righteousness
which Christ was faithful to establish in his obedience unto
death. And so by the mercy of God in
Christ, his elect shall never be consumed. All of their earthly
belongings may be consumed as we saw in these last few episodes
of hurricanes. Their bodies may be consumed
in a tragic accident or wasted away by disease or the effects
of aging. And ultimately, they all shall
be consumed by a physical death unless the Lord comes back before
then. But not their immortal souls. For it is well with the
souls of those chosen in Christ, their substitute in surety, chosen
to be blessed with him and with an eternal salvation. It's again,
as Jim spoke this morning, an inheritance, that in heaven's
never-ending glory. Well, just as Lamentations 3.22
tells us that it said the Lord's mercy that we're not consumed,
owing to his unfailing faithfulness, God says in Malachi 3.6, for
I am the Lord, I change not. Now, because I change not, he's
saying therefore. That's what that there is there
for. Therefore, ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. So here, too,
we see that a lek, sinner, spiritual Israel, these sons of Jacob,
as they're called here, they're spared the eternal wrath of God
because of who he is, because he is the unchangeable, unchanging,
immutable, perfectly faithful Lord. The word Lord there is
the same as that one, as it was found there in that passage in
Lamentations, it's Yahweh, which means Jehovah who saves. His
compassions fail not, for He's the eternal God. His love's an
everlasting one. His compassions are new every
morning. They're constant and perpetual. He faithfully keeps
us and chastises us. And as in the case of Jeremiah
here, He so orders our lives to ensure that our hearts are
not only drawn to Him in initial faith and repentance, but He
will always recall to our minds the blessings we have in Him,
that good hope of salvation according to His mercy and His grace, according
to His faithfulness, not our own. Assurance is drawn from
our knowing God. You know, John 17 3 says this
is life eternal, that ye might know the only true God in Jesus
Christ whom thou hast sent. Assurance comes from knowing
God and that would include His attributes of faithfulness and
immutability, and for those who misplace their hope in their
own presumed faithfulness to meet whatever condition has been
prescribed rather than relying exclusively on his great faithfulness,
well know this, to believe that, to base it on something that
proceeds from you, that is, this God that you're worshiping is
not the Lord. That wouldn't be a Jehovah or
a God who saves. Because the true and living God
is one who, he doesn't react in response to what you, the
sinner, does or does not do. He does not save any sinner because
that sinner believes. The sinner who believes does
so because he's been saved. And that's not an insignificant
distinction there. God does not forgive any sinner
because that sinner confesses his or her sin. The sinner who
confesses their sin does so because they've been forgiven through
his blood. Think with me. If God reacted
to the sinner and changed his mind about that sinner's eternal
destiny because that sinner believed or whatever the condition was
they met, well then What would such a mutable, reactionary,
changeable God do when that same less-than-perfectly-faithful
sinner had a moment of doubt? Seems to me such a God as that
would react to that doubt and change his mind about that sinner's
eternal destiny. No, our God is not like that.
He is not a mutable, reactionary, and therefore an untrustworthy
and unfaithful God. unfaithful to his promises. God
brings those he saves to repent of these God-dishonoring notions,
causing us instead to look to Christ alone for all our salvation. In knowing that our triune God
is faithful, God the Father, faithful to his covenant promise
to save a people that he gave to God the Son, The son who was
faithful to come some 2,000 years ago, live and die in their place,
redeeming each and every one of them given to him by the Father,
establishing for them the very righteousness they needed for
eternal acceptance. God the Holy Spirit, faithful
in each successive generation to bring each and every one of
these sons of God to believe on Christ, Providentially ordering
their lives to put them under the sound of his word of regeneration,
this gospel. And giving them spiritual life
and faith that would have them, in repentance, confess their
sins, agree with God about their sins, and place all their trust
in Christ based on his finished work. And he's the same God who'll
be faithful to raise them up into heaven's eternal glory.
And knowing his faithfulness in this way, it humbles those
he saves. It causes them to know of their
great need for his mercy, so as to not get what they would
otherwise deserve. You know, I've heard folks who
don't believe this gospel describe those of us who do as we've got
some prideful doctrine, thinking we're the elect. with pride. Now that's not what, when you
come to see the gospel and God's faithfulness, you become a mercy
beggar. And that's humbling. That's as
humble as it gets. You see, that is to see it's
truly of the Lord's mercies that were not consumed by the just
wrath of God. That wrath instead having been
poured out on our substitute, who died in their place, our
place for sins, So seeing their great need for him, they're pleased
like that of the tax collector, the publican in Luke 18. God
be merciful to me, a sinner. His faithfulness to forgive our
sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness would have us
pleading that we be included among those objects of his eternal
mercy and grace. And so thankfully, to be reduced
to such a mercy beggar actually gives evidence that we are among
the eternally blessed of God. What about God's justice? Let's
look at that. He's not only faithful to forgive
sins, but He is also just. Faithful and just. Just. It's a powerful word. It carries
with it a great and glorious and comforting truth, whereby
we see the wisdom and glory of God in the gospel. You've heard
men say, You know, don't give me, I want mercy. Don't give
me justice. And they say that, meaning I
don't want what I know I deserve. But God doesn't say that way.
God will not save. Show mercy at the expense of
his justice. How can he be just to forgive
us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness? A lot
of folks speak of God's love and his mercy and his grace in
pardoning sinners. But how can he be just to do
so? Doesn't God's justice demand
the punishment of sin? He tells us that the soul that
sinneth shall surely die, and that God shall by no means clear
the guilty. That's all in accordance with
his strict and inflexible justice. Think of the strict justice of
God as exemplified throughout the Bible. You know, the psalmist
David wrote, if thy Lord shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who
should stand? And yet His justice demands that
those sins not be overlooked. The Bible teaches us God is the
judge of the earth and He must do right. We look at the destruction
of Sodom and Gomorrah and that tells us something about God's
wrath against sin. The world being destroyed by
the flood was a manifestation of God's just wrath. The torment
of hell itself declares the awful vengeance of God against the
sins of the multitudes that perish. God will not simply overlook
sin. Vengeance will be the Lord's against all sin. Because God
is immutable and faithful to who he is as a just God. Because of that, not one sin
shall go unpunished. And as we read, we all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. So how then can God be not
only faithful, but also just to forgive us our sins and cleanse
us from all unrighteousness? Many of you know how. The faithful
Lord of glory became a surety, a substitute for all those that
the Father gave to him. And he came to this earth in
their place, in the place of the election of grace. He endured
the just punishment that was due unto them. For them, he fulfilled
the whole law by his doings and by his sufferings. For them,
he bled. And for them, he died. And for
them, he rose again. And for them, he ascended up
to the right hand of the Father, where he now ever lives, interceding
for them. And just as his strict justice
demands that not one sin will go unpunished, Now that same
strict justice demands pardon for those in whose place he stood. I like that. Excuse me. And justice then enters in its
righteous plea. God is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Do you see
how these two attributes of God being engaged to put away our
sins. Do you apprehend it as I do?
It's like, to me, it's like a doubling down, so to speak, to give us
just the absolute certain assurance. I'm losing my voice here, excuse
me. The certain assurance of salvation because of who he is. He's faithful and just. You know,
that word translated forgive, you've heard me say it before,
comes from the same Greek word that's elsewhere. is translated
as remit or remission. When the debt's been paid or
remitted, the debt's always forgiven. The old writer that I referred
to earlier, he wrote this, and I just want to quote him. He
said, see the difference. He said, mercy begs and justice
demands. He says, mercy says, I ask it
as a boon. That's an old English word for
a benefit, so I'll say it this way. I ask it as a benefit. Mercy
is a part of God's character. Looks down with pity and compassion
on the mourning criminal, the lawbreaker, the sinner. But justice
says, and here I'm referring to the sinner's forgiveness,
Oh, it is his due. It is his right. It belongs to
him. It's because the Redeemer has
discharged his debt, because the surety has stood in his place,
because the Savior has obeyed that law for him, which he could
not obey in his own person." End of quote. So for those who
come to see how God can be both a just and merciful Savior, who
received this blessed and glorious truth as evidence by their being
convinced of sins so as to confess their sins. They rejoice in knowing
that God is faithful and not merely faithful but also just
to forgive them their sins. Romans 3.26 sets forth how the
very righteousness of God that's revealed in God's gospel how
it declares to us how God might be just and the justifier of
him which believeth in Jesus. A just God and a savior. Do you know him in that way?
Does the gospel you believe set forth a way of salvation whereby
God is not simply seen as being merciful and faithful to save,
but also just in doing so? Well, in so believing we have
every reason to rejoice in the certainty of the full, free,
and irrevocable pardon of all our sins. What a sure and certain
salvation from one who's faithful and just to forgive. Thank you.