Our scripture readings this evening are from Ephesians chapter 1, verses 3 through 14, and our text will be Psalm 32. Ephesians chapter 1. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved." In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace, which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times, He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, in Him. In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things, according to the counsel of His will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory. In Him you also trusted after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession to the praise of his glory." Turn now to Psalm chapter 32, which is titled, A Psalm of David, a mictum, or a contemplation. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. When I kept silent, my bones grew old through my groaning all the day long. For day and night, your hand was heavy upon me. My vitality was turned into the drought of summer. I acknowledged my sin to you and my iniquity I have not hidden. I said I will confess my transgressions to the Lord and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. For this cause Everyone who is godly shall pray to you in a time when you may be found. Surely in a flood of great waters they shall not come near him. You are my hiding place. You shall preserve me from trouble. You shall surround me with songs of deliverance. I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go. I will guide you with my eye. Do not be like the horse or like the mule, which have no understanding. which must be harnessed with bit and bridle, else they will not come near you. Many sorrows shall be to the wicked, but he who trusts in the Lord, mercy shall surround him. Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, you righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart. It's a great privilege to proclaim the word of God. But it's an even greater privilege, I think, to proclaim the word of God to people that you know and you love and that you know also love you. So tonight I'd just like to thank the session for inviting me to proclaim the word of God to my spiritual family. And I hope and I trust that it will be edifying to you because of the Lord's blessing on his own word. So I want to ask a question tonight. Do you believe in the forgiveness of sins? Do you believe in the forgiveness of sins? If you worship here with us regularly, or if you've been visiting with us for any length of time, you know that it is our custom to confess the Apostles' Creed. We did so just last Sunday evening. And there's one phrase in the Apostles Creed that reads, I believe in the forgiveness of sins. And you might think as you confess that, or as you simply read that in your home, you might think that we're confessing our belief in the forgiveness of sins in the abstract. But if you look very carefully at that confession you see that its structure is according to the triune nature of God. We confess what we believe about the Father, we confess what we believe about the Son, and we confess what we believe about the Spirit who is the one who applies to us the benefits that have been purchased for us by the Lord Jesus Christ. So it's one thing to believe in the forgiveness of sins in the abstract, but it's another thing to believe in the forgiveness of your sins. And so in Psalm 32, David is rejoicing in the intimate fellowship that he has with the Lord. through the sincere and contrite confession of his sins to the Lord. He's rejoicing in his own personal forgiveness that he has received as a result of what has been purchased for him, what will be purchased for him in the person of Jesus Christ. For David, it's not enough just to believe that God is willing and able to forgive sins. His joy comes from knowing that his sins are forgiven. If you are going to have abiding joy in the Christian life, you also must take hold not only of the forgiveness of sins in the abstract, but the forgiveness of your sins. Take hold of it in such a way that you begin to experience the power of the doctrine in your heart and in your life. So we'll be looking at Psalm 32 tonight. Psalm 32 is one of the penitential psalms, a psalm that Martin Luther thought of as one of the best psalms. He called it a Pauline psalm. He called it a Pauline psalm because in that psalm there is an expression of the doctrine that was so near and dear to his heart, the doctrine of justification by faith. The 32nd Psalm, if you remember during the summer, in the preaching of the word, Psalm 51 was opened up from this very pulpit. Psalm 32 is very closely connected with Psalm 51, and there are many similarities even in the language that is used in those two Psalms. But there's a difference between the two Psalms. Psalm 51 is written, and even in the title it says that that psalm is a direct result of David's sin with Bathsheba and his sin of ordering the murder of Uriah. But Psalm 32 is a little bit removed from that. In Psalm 51, David asked that the Lord would restore the joy of his salvation. In Psalm 32, the joy of his salvation has been restored through the confession of his sins. So we're going to look at Psalm 32 tonight. We're going to see that David's confession is a pattern for us. So the theme of the Psalm is the joy of forgiveness. And we're gonna learn tonight, Lord willing, that when you confess your sin to the Lord, He forgives you through faith in Jesus Christ and comforts you with the assurance of pardon in Him. When you confess your sin to the Lord, He forgives you through faith in Jesus Christ and comforts you with the assurance of pardon in Him. We're gonna see that in three simple points. Forgiveness, its nature, its manner and result, the nature of forgiveness, the manner or the way, the means of forgiveness, and the result of forgiveness. Let's look first at the nature of forgiveness. We see that in verses one through two of the psalm. where we read this, blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity and in whose spirit there is no deceit. So what does it mean to be forgiven? Well, David tells us what it means in one word, the word blessed. To be forgiven is to be blessed and that word blessed runs throughout the scriptures and it's a covenant word and it's a word that tells us what God himself wants to do to his people. He wants to bless his people and the chief way that we experience the blessing of God is through the forgiveness of our sins. Forgiveness is the restoration of our relationship with God. See, David is assuming here one of the most basic truths of the scripture. He's assuming that we are not by nature, any of us, in a right relationship with God, that our sin needs to be dealt with. And he describes how God's forgiveness changes that. God forgives us by removing our transgression, by covering our sin, and by not imputing our iniquity to us. He uses, David does, three words here for sin. The first word that he uses is transgression. And what he means by that word transgression is, it's really the idea of crossing a boundary. Sin is the transgression of the law of God. We've crossed a boundary. We've transgressed what God himself has commanded. We've done that which he has told us not to do, and we've not done that which he has commanded us to do. We've crossed a boundary by nature. each one of us. It's also the covering of sin. Sin, the word here means missing the mark. When I was younger, much younger, we had in physical education class an archery period where targets would be set up, these huge white targets, and we would each have a bow and we would try as hard as we could to somehow hit the target with the arrow in our bow. And I can say to you that I can't remember a time that I ever actually hit the target. And what is being expressed in this word sin is that we, by nature, are always missing the mark. What mark? The mark of God's glory. The mark of His holiness. The mark of His nature. We are always missing the mark. There's another word that David uses here, and the word that he uses is iniquity. And this word really refers to the guilt that we incur. in our sin, the guilt that we incur, the liability to punishment. See, not only are we sinners, but we're sinners by nature. And we have, because of our connection to our first parents, Adam and Eve, we have inherited a sinful nature and even the guilt of Adam's first sin, not to mention the guilt of our own sins, which follow after that. And so we are guilty by nature. We are liable to the wrath of the living God. And so forgiveness then is what God does to restore our relationship to him. Forgiveness is God's justifying sinners. without himself becoming unjust. Forgiveness is God's justifying sinners without him becoming unjust. In the United States, whenever a president or a governor gets to the end of a term, and sometimes even before they get to the end of their term, you sometimes begin to hear of long lists of people being pardoned of their crimes. And often you begin to think to yourself, why was this one pardoned and this one not pardoned? And it often has to do with money and politics. But God is not like that. God does not pardon the sin of anyone simply by overlooking what they have done. It costs. A great deal. It cost the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ for men and women, for boys and girls to be pardoned. And so what we read here in our text is that God does three things. There are three words for sin, and now there are three expressions for pardon. We see that God removes our transgressions. And we see that where it says that transgression is forgiven. The word there really means to be lifted off like a weight off of one's shoulders. And if you've ever been in sin for any length of time as a Christian, you know what it's like to, after confessing your sin, to have that weight lifted off and to be once again in a right relationship with God. Sin is the removal of our transgressions. He takes them away as far as the east is from the west. Like the scapegoat ceremony in the Old Testament, where one goat was slain and the other goat was sent into the wilderness after the priest having placed his hand upon that goat, symbolizing that the sins of the nation of Israel had been imputed to that goat. Christ became sin for us. to take away our sins forever. Our sins are taken away in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so he removes our transgression. Not only does he remove our transgression, but he covers our sin. He hides it from his sight. He provides us with a substitute, a propitiation. He provides us with one who stands in our place, with one who takes the full weight of the infinite fury and wrath of God Almighty upon himself. He provides us with a covering for our sin. If you remember in the Old Testament, when Adam and Eve had sinned against God, God himself provided a covering for Adam and Eve by slaying an animal, shedding blood, and covering them with coats of skins. And that principle of covering runs throughout the Old Testament. And finally, it is in the Lord Jesus Christ that our sins are covered out, blotted out. We have a mediator, Christ being the only mediator who is able to cover our sin before God. Now, thirdly, God does not impute to us our iniquity. He does not impute to us our iniquity. What does that word impute mean? Well, children, if you know what it's like for your parents to stop at the gas station and to pull out a debit card and to put it into the machine and to somehow get gas using that card and that machine. What you've seen is in some sense a kind of imputation. What is in one account is reckoned or accounted to another account. The money has not actually moved from one account to another, but it has been credited to another account. That is a simple picture. of something that is really far more glorious, far more majestic, something that happens in the Lord Jesus Christ. What does it mean to impute? It means to reckon, to consider, to regard. But what is David saying here when he says that God chooses to not impute to us our iniquity? Is he simply saying that God wipes away the debt? that he overlooks it, that he looks away. No, he's saying that he imputes our sin to Christ and Christ's righteousness to us. Through his sin, David has experienced something of the agony of being out of fellowship with God. And now he knows something of the sweetness of the reassurance of God's love for him. And what we see in this text is that God imputes our sin to another. We read that in Romans chapter four, where Paul really takes the implication of what's being said here in this psalm, and he unfolds it for us. And we discover that not only are our sins not imputed to us, But Paul says that whenever that happens, there must be an imputation of the righteousness of Christ. If forgiveness means that God does not impute to us our sins, it must also mean that he imputes to us the righteousness of Jesus Christ. This very psalm is quoted in Romans 4 to make that argument. The one always includes the other, and we call this justification. As our shorter catechism teaches, justification is an act of God's free grace wherein he pardons all of our sins and he accepts us as righteous in his sight only for the righteousness of Jesus Christ and received by faith alone. And so we see, don't we, that this is a great blessing, that the justification that we receive, that the forgiveness of our sins is a great blessing. It's a blessing that is a fountain of many other blessings, as Jeremiah Burroughs says. And we also see that to be forgiven means much more than simply to be justified. Justification is a wonderful blessing, but with justification come all the other blessings of the Lord. Those spiritual blessings that we read about in Ephesians chapter one in our justification. We are forgiven of our sins. And then because of our justification, we are adopted into the family of God and become heirs of all the benefits purchased for us by our Redeemer. We read that in Colossians chapter 1. It means also that being justified and adopted by God, we are sanctified by the Spirit and begin more and more to die unto our sins and to live unto righteousness. So David speaks of much more than just justification when he says here that the blessedness of forgiveness includes, as we read in our text, a spirit in which there is no deceit. If you remember the description of Nathanael in the New Testament, an Israelite indeed in whom there is no guile. And one in whom there is no deceit is one who knows Jesus Christ, the one who has not only had his sin dealt with but who is even beginning to walk in the newness of life that comes through the Holy Spirit's work of regeneration and sanctification. The man who is forgiven knows that his sin has been dealt with in God's sight and is free to be honest and transparent. with God and with others and with himself. Does your conscience ever bother you? Do you ever feel as if the heavy hand of God is weighing down upon you because of your sins? One of the benefits, one of the blessings of forgiveness of our sins is peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Ghost. If you've never received God's pardon for yourself, then you don't know what this is like. But if you have, if you have received this blessedness, it will bother you. You will wrestle and struggle when you're walking outside of of the will of God for your life, when you're walking in sin and deception it will bother you and God himself will call you back to himself when you confess your sins to him. And so we've looked now at the blessedness of forgiveness, the nature of forgiveness, let's look briefly at the manner of forgiveness. We see that in verses three through seven, the manner of forgiveness, how is it that God without becoming unjust justifies the sinner. When I kept silent my bones grew old, through my groaning all the day long, for day and night your hand was heavy upon me. My vitality was turned into the drought of summer." In these two verses we see that David has an experience here of being out of communion with God. He's experiencing what it's like to have no assurance of his salvation. He's looking back to that time that he mentions in Psalm 51 when he feels as if God may at any moment take away his Holy Spirit from him. After committing adultery with Bathsheba, it was about a year before the prophet Nathan confronted him and said, David, you are the man. When you refuse to confess your sin, you turn your back on God as David did. You choose to live apart from God, as an enemy of God, separated from God. Can you be happy in that condition? Can a true believer in the Lord Jesus Christ be happy walking outside of the favor and good pleasure of God? I know. that I can't and I'm sure that you can't if you know the Lord Jesus Christ in spirit and in truth. So David was out of communion with God, he also felt God's displeasure, he felt God's displeasure. He says here in the text that he kept silent. He refused to confess his sin to the Lord. That's what it means that he kept silent. But then on the other hand, it says that he was groaning and the word there really means roaring. So in one sense, he's silent. In another sense, he's not silent. He's crying out in distress, but he's not crying out for forgiveness from his God. He's crying out. He's roaring. He's in agony. It feels to him as if he's living a living death. The hand of God is crushing him so much so that it feels as if the full weight of God's hand is down upon him and he feels almost physical pain. His bones, he says, seem to be growing old. He feels weak. He feels as if he has no strength. And then it says also that his vitality was drained, was turned into the drought of summer. He feels dried up. He feels as if he has no spiritual life. Have you ever felt that way? Have you ever felt that way when you have, for whatever reason, not gone to the Lord your God and confessed your sin and have allowed it to grow and to fester and become worse and worse? If you have, you know what it's like to be dry spiritually. He feels God's displeasure. God appeared to David not as a father, but as a judge. I say he appeared that way to him because that's not in actuality how God was to him. But then David declares his sin to God. Psalm 38, 18, we read this. Psalm 38, verse 18, For I will declare my iniquity, I will be in anguish over my sin. And David When he confesses his sin to God, he does so because he is in anguish over his sin. He's grieving because he has grieved God. His sin, he realizes, is not against anyone else primarily, but against God and God alone. And that's why he grieves over his sin, because he knows that his sin grieves God. He acknowledges his sin. He acknowledges sin for what it is. in the sight of a holy God. He doesn't try to hide it anymore. It's amazing that we can sometimes try to hide our sin from the one who knows us better than we know ourselves, who looks deep into the secret recesses of our hearts and sees us as we are. It's amazing that we can do that at times, but David no longer wants to do that. His heart is now instead of being full of deceit and instead of seeking to hide from God as Adam tried to hide from God in the garden, he now confesses his transgressions. And notice the plural there. It's not that he confesses his sins in some general way, but he confesses his transgressions. Each one that God brings to his awareness, he confesses them individually. He confesses them completely. And in so doing, he receives the assurance of pardon from God. Verse five, I acknowledged my sin to you and my iniquity I have not hidden. I said I will confess my transgression to the Lord and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. You forgave the guilt of my missing the mark. You forgave it. You took it away. You blotted it out. Why? Because you have given me a mediator. You have given me a redeemer. You have given me a Messiah." David received the assurance of pardon from God. Have you ever wondered why it is that we need to confess our sins to God? God who knows everything Why is it that we would have to confess our sins to the one who knows our sins even better than we do? Well, our confession is not the reason that God forgives us. Let me repeat that. Our confession is not the reason that God forgives us. It's simply the way, the manner. God chooses to forgive us through our heartfelt confession as we go to him in faith, a faith that he himself has given to us. Calvin says, David obtained pardon by his confession, not because he merited it by the mere act of confessing, but because under the guidance of faith, he humbly implored it from his judge, from his father. So through his sin, David has experienced something of the agony of being out of fellowship with God. He's also experienced something of the character of God. Look with me at Exodus chapter four where we read of the character of God. The character of God revealed to Moses after Moses asked the Lord that he would show him something of his glory. And it says that the Lord passed before him, Exodus 34 verse six. The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands. And listen to this, the very same words that we're reading here in Psalm 32, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generation. God is a God who by his very nature is full of mercy and grace. He's willing, he's able, and he's provided a way. And as we confess our sins to the Lord, he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins because we have a mediator, a propitiation, an advocate in the Lord Jesus Christ. So what does David learn from his experience? We read that in verses 6 and 7, what David learns from his experience. He says, for this cause everyone who is godly shall pray to you in a time when you may be found. Surely in a flood of great waters they shall not come near him. You are my hiding place. You shall preserve me from trouble. You shall surround me with songs of deliverance. The blessedness of forgiveness teaches David, and it ought to teach us, that we should pray at all times. That we should pray at all times. David has learned that God's assurance of pardons and the peace of conscience, the joy, the fellowship with God, all of those things that come along with fellowship with God, is the greatest possible motivation to prayer. And how much more true is that for us? We read in Hebrews chapter 10, verses 19 through 22. Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he consecrated for us through the veil that is his flesh, and having a high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water." So we see that the blessedness of forgiveness teaches us to pray at all times, to pray even when it seems as if God is not there but especially when we feel that God is near. David says, in a time when you may be found. When is it that God may be found? Well, God is especially near to us, especially near to us in times of public worship. He's near to us right now. He's near to us because he promises to bless the reading and the preaching of his word and the worship and fellowship of the saints. And so when we pray in public worship, God is near. And as you join your heart to the prayer of the minister, you yourself are expressing that you want to be in fellowship with God. David has learned also that the blessedness of forgiveness teaches us to rely on God in times of trouble. to rely on God in times of trouble. He speaks of a flood of great waters. He speaks of the Lord being his hiding place. And so there are times when God feels especially near to us, times perhaps in our prayer closet where we feel as if God is right there. And there are other times where God feels far away, especially when the afflictions of this world are pressing down heavy upon us. It feels as if God is far away, and yet David is saying that because I have prayed in those times when God is near, and because I have sought to be near to God, God will be near to me in times of distress. God will be my hiding place. God will be my shelter, and he will be my shelter because I have a mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will be my shelter because my life is hidden in God, in Christ. And so, David has learned that when he has peace of conscience before God, he need not fear anything that might come against him. How much more ought this to be true of us? How much more ought this to be true of you? The truth of justification and the related truth of adoption and sanctification ought to point you to two related and equally glorious truths. First, we're in union with Christ. Our justification points us backwards to the eternal counsel and decree of God, which is sure, which is steadfast, which cannot change. And it points us forward to our glorification at Christ's return, when he shall come and he shall transform our mortal bodies to be like the body of Jesus Christ. And secondly, it tells us that we have a mediator right now. on the throne in the very presence of God interceding for us so that when we pray to him he hears our prayers and he answers us according to his holy will and he does for us that which only he can do and he works in us both to will and to do according to his good pleasure. Has God in his mercy been teaching you these things? Has he been teaching you these things? When God makes you sensitive to sin, do you stop everything and pray? In the night seasons, when you're on your bed at night, and when for some reason you can't sleep, do you get up, get on your knees, pray to God, ask him to search your heart and show you if there's any wicked way in you? Do you pray to God in a time when he may be found? Do you in public worship join your heart to the prayers of the minister? Do you in the singing of praises to God, which are actually prayers to God, do you join your hearts with the people of God as they sing songs of deliverance? As the people of God are surrounding you, do you sing with them to your God, praising him for his nearness? Well, David has learned from his experience and we should also learn from our experience being delivered from sin that we have great reason for joy and for hope. And we see that here in the result of forgiveness, verses 8 through 11. The result of forgiveness. Forgiveness produces intimacy with God. We see that in verses 8 and 9. Who's speaking here in verses 8 and 9? God is speaking in these two verses. He's answering David's prayer and he says, I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go. I will guide you with my eye. Do not be like the horse or like the mule, which have no understanding, which must be harnessed with bit and bridle, else they will not come near you. Forgiveness produces intimacy with God. God is speaking to David and he's responding to David's confession with words of comfort and of grace. He promises to watch over him personally. He promises to be a God to him. You see, God is the one who sent Nathan to rebuke him to his face. God is the one who did that. in his mercy and in his grace and God is the one who graciously perhaps sends other Christians into your life to rebuke you when you're walking in the ways of sin. God is gracious and merciful to hold us accountable to one another in that way. When he sends an elder into your home to speak to you about the way that you are living or about the way that you are not following his ways, he's doing so because he has given you elders to be overseers those who watch over you spiritually. He also warns us. I say us because the pronoun here, the pronoun you shifts to the plural in this verse. He warns us of our need, each one of us. This goes for Everyone in the church, from the smallest child among us all the way up to the oldest in our congregation and even the elders and the minister, this warns us that we need to have a teachable spirit. Forgiveness must never be taken for granted. See, the Lord deals with us as children and as friends. We read that in John chapter 15. And we don't need to be forced like an animal to obey the Lord. We shouldn't. As we heard this morning in the preaching of the word, the Lord God supplies everything that we need in order to follow him, in order to obey him. We shouldn't need to be forced to love God and to obey him because we love him. If you've ever been to Charleston, as my wife and I were not too long ago. You will notice often that through the streets are these carriages being pulled usually by a mule. We got to ride on one of those carriages and the carriage driver told us that the mule is a pretty good animal and he will go where he's told to go. However, If for whatever reason he were to get detached from the cart and the driver wasn't there to drive him, he would go where he wanted to go. And he would go right back to the carriage house where there was lots of food and water and the things that he wanted. And so that's what it's like to be a mule. And what the Lord is saying is that we're not horses and mules. We don't need to be broken like a horse. We shouldn't. The Lord has given to us his spirit, he works in us to believe and to obey. And the believer does so because he wants to, not because he needs to be whipped into submission by the Holy Spirit. And so forgiveness produces intimacy with God. And forgiveness leads to joy in the Holy Spirit, verses 10 and 11. Many sorrows shall be to the wicked, but he who trusts in the Lord, mercy shall surround him. Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, you righteous. Shout for joy, all you upright in heart." Notice that refrain, be glad in the Lord, that's one time. Rejoice, that's two times. Shout for joy, that's three times that we are told to rejoice. Why? Because we have been forgiven and because we have all of the blessings that come to us. because of our justification, our adoption, and our sanctification. Faith enables us to know the blessedness of being overwhelmed by God's mercy, his covenant love. And though we experience many of the same sorrows as the wicked in this life, knowing we are forgiven and God is not punishing us but chasing us, allows us, enables us to have joy in the midst of our suffering, in the midst of those tribulations through which we must enter into the kingdom of God. If you really know the blessedness and joy of forgiveness, are you living a life of thankfulness and obedience? Do you remember in Luke chapter seven, The woman who wept and washed the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ with her tears and her hair. Do you remember that? And the Lord Jesus was questioned about this. And he said, he or she who has been forgiven much loves much. And who among us tonight, if we know the Lord Jesus Christ, has not been forgiven much. We ought to love much. God gives us not only reason to rejoice, but he commands us to rejoice. Why? Because we are in Christ and we can do no other. Confess your sin and rejoice. Remember that Christ went to the cross for the joy that was set before him, and we have great reason for joy in him. So do you believe in the forgiveness of sins? Do you believe that God, without any works or merit of yours, but only for the righteousness of Jesus Christ, has forgiven you of all of your sins and is calling you to a life of prayer, repentance, faith, obedience and service in the church? Do you believe that? When you confess your sin to the Lord, no matter how great, No matter how long you've been living in it, when you confess your sin to the Lord, he is faithful and just. He forgives you through faith in Jesus Christ and comforts you with joy in him. So I would urge you, brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ, do not rest until you have confessed your sins, even this very night to the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't rest in the assurance of days past. Don't rest in yesterday's peace of conscience. But rest yourself in the Lord Jesus Christ, in his work at the cross, and in his ascension into heaven, and in his intercession for you at the right hand of God. God is a God who delights in mercy. So when you confess your sin, he surrounds you with mercy, like a father who welcomes a wayward child back after many years. What are you holding back? Pride? Anger? Lust or other sexual sin? What are you holding back? Resentment towards your wife or towards your husband or towards your children? Alcohol or drug abuse? What are you holding back? Unbelief? If you confess your sins, he is faithful and just to forgive you your sins and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness. Let us pray. Our gracious Father in heaven, you are the God of all comfort. and you have comforted us supremely in the person and work of your son, Jesus Christ, and how we glorify and magnify your name because of what you have done in him. We pray, O Lord, that we would not rest in a mere external, formal, outward, mental belief and an abstract forgiveness of sins. That we would not even rest in believing what has happened long ago in history, but that we would rest personally, each one of us, that the Lord Jesus Christ is merciful and gracious, and that in him there is plenteous redemption. We pray, oh Lord, that you would forgive us our sins for his sake, amen.