Look in our Bibles here tonight to the book of 1st John. 1st John chapter 9. I'm sorry, 1st John chapter 1 verse 9. There we go. If you have a 1st John chapter 9, let me know. And we'll double check and compare notes here. 1st John chapter 1, we'll begin there in verse 9. And when you find your place, stand there with me if you would. And we'll read the word of God together. This will be the second message in The one that we did the other Sunday night, which was, How Do I Know I'm Saved? And we talked about the other week, there in 1 John chapter 1 and verse 5 through 7, about accepting the true message, and accepting the gospel, the light of the true message. And if we've accepted the message, then number two, if it was something that changed our life, did our life change afterwards? that when we get saved, there should be a change in our life, that we shouldn't be walking the same course that we were walking before, that there should be a genuine change. Now I understand, don't mean we're perfect, but there should be a genuine change in a person's life when they get saved. And so then we're gonna get to the third one here tonight, and we're gonna begin there in verse nine, and we'll go ahead and read verse nine and 10. We may get further, I don't know, but we'll read verses nine and 10 first, The Bible says if we confess our sin, our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And if we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. Let's pray. Father, we come to you this evening, we do thank you, Lord, once again, for your goodness tonight. Lord, I pray you'd help us this evening as we go through your word. Lord, I pray that you'd help me as I preach tonight. Lord, that you would help us all. Lord, just to enjoy God's salvation. Lord, that you've given us. Lord, I pray that you would just bless the night and just help me as I preach. And all this we ask in Jesus' name, amen. Amen, you may be seated. The other week as we talked in the first few verses there in verses five and seven, and we were speaking on the light of the message, the light of the gospel, and how the little G, the little God of this world, does everything he can to blind the hearts and minds of men to the light of the glorious gospel. And we talked about how the Lord was in essence seen there in verses one and two as the word of life. He was seen as the life. And he was also, we can also see him as that eternal life. Jesus is life, and that's why the Bible says he that has a son has life. Because Jesus is life. Without Jesus, there is only death. And so Jesus is life himself. And so accepting the life-giving message of Christ is essential, of course, for salvation. The Lord, because he is life, is able to impart unto us life. And you've heard me say it before, that a man cannot give what he doesn't already possess. And so how could Jesus give us life, even eternal life at that, if he did not possess it himself? And so Jesus being life, there in verse one, the word of life, and verse two, being life, is also that eternal life. Now you can have life, but he's not just life, he's eternal life. Everlasting and so he gave us not just life, but eternal life because that's who he is So we've accepted the message we we have changed in our walk But then as we walk and we go through the, as we live our Christian life, we understand that we can get into things and we can do things, of course, that, you know, as I said, we're not perfect people, but understand, listen, God's faithfulness to forgive is not a license to sin, amen? We are thankful that God does forgive and we're thankful that he does cleanse us of sin, we're thankful that He is a righteous God that is willing to do these things, but let us understand that we don't have this idea that, well, you know, I'll just live the way I want to, and I'll just ask God for forgiveness for it and just do what I want. If that's the way we feel, then I think we would definitely need to do an internal check of who we are. Because we want to make sure that we are a people that are doing things that are pleasing to the Father. And so, we see there that we don't want to use the grace of God. as a license to sin. And we also got to understand this too, and we talked about this the other week, as that, listen, we can be forgiven, yes, God is willing to forgive, but just because we are forgiven on this earth, doesn't mean necessarily that we escape the consequences of what we've done. Now, I know we are forgiven in heaven, amen, praise the Lord, our sins are forgiven, but still, listen, there are consequences to our actions. And so sometimes here on this earth, we can say, God, forgive me for doing this, or forgive me, God, for getting into that, and will God forgive? Yes, he will, but sometimes there are still some consequences that may follow after that. here on this earth even though we have been forgiven by God. Because we have a God that also tells us in the book of Hebrews that because He is like a father, He chastens those whom He loves. And so how many of us parents, we love our kids and we forgave our kids, but just because they said they were sorry still didn't mean they didn't receive some correction. And so sometimes in life we have to just understand that. But we see right here there in verse 9 as we think about the idea of salvation. And I'm going to bring out several points. Two of them are going to be here and a couple of them in another place. But there in verse nine, the Bible says if we confess our sins, that he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Now I love verse nine because one of the things it does is it shows us this great verse of a new start, wiping the slate clean and starting over with God. Man, I love that. I'm so thankful that we have a God that we can come to and then ask for forgiveness and God's ready to start over. God's ready to meet with us and give us a new fresh start. Man, I praise the Lord for that. But before we actually get to a place of confession, I think there's one thing that we get to that's not here in verse nine, but is in other places in the Bible. And I just wanted to kind of bring that out. We may be able to even see that in chapter two in verse nine, where it says, whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin. The idea is that we don't, not that we, the idea of commit sin has the idea of living, of practicing a life of that. But I think one of the things that we can see is, listen, before we get to a place of confession, there's one thing that's going to happen to the believer, and that's going to be, before we actually get to a place of confession, there's going to be one thing that probably, more than like is going to take place first, that's going to be something called conviction. Conviction. Before normally I'm gonna come to God and ask God for forgiveness, there's gonna be one thing that's gonna bring me to that place. And that's gonna be conviction that's gonna bring me to the place of confession. And what's gonna happen is, is after I'm brought to this place of confession, then what's gonna happen is I'm gonna be brought to another place. The conviction is gonna bring me to a place of confession. The confession's gonna bring me to a place of repentance, which is change. and that change is going to then bring me to a place of cleansing, which is restoration. Now, two of those is listed here in this verse, but we can see that before we get, in essence, to the place of confession, there is an element of conviction that comes upon the believer's life. Remember back in the book of Isaiah, I believe it's maybe Isaiah 6 and verse 5, whenever Isaiah was there, he said, and when he got into the presence of God, the Bible says, he says, Woe is me! He says, woe is me for I am a man of unclean lips. He saw himself when he got into the presence of God, the light, the brilliance, the beauty, the majesty of an almighty God. When he got into his presence, one of the very first things it's almost like he did was as he looked at God, he looked at himself. He says, wow. Look how different he is than I am. Look how much work that I need done. He says, in essence, when he got into the presence of God, he says, woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips. And listen, that's exactly what even when I was trying to get to there on Tuesday night is, and even this morning as we preach about it, as we grow and we get closer to the Lord, one of the things that we see is as we get more into his light, we see as his light reflects back on us, we begin to see ourselves begin to notice some things about ourselves that we need some work on. And so he says, woe is me, for I'm a man of unclean lips. And then we get over to verse chapters in books like Psalm 51, where we see when David, in essence it seems, wrote this psalm perhaps after his affair that he had with Bathsheba, and he went sometime before he got to this place of repentance in his life. some say probably around a year, and so then God sends Nathan the prophet down there to him, and begins to talk to David, and begins to tell him, thou art the man. And so David then began, was convicted by the Holy Spirit of God, and began to look at himself, and the Bible begins to describe there in Psalm 51, in great detail, about how what this spirit, in essence, was doing to him on the inside. How he felt like that even, His bones was being crushed on the inside. That he felt the weight of conviction in his life. And realized that he needed to change. He'd come to this place where he said within himself, God, I have sinned. And he realized that he was wrong. But before he can get to this place of confession, there was this conviction that needed to come to his life. And I would dare say, and we'll get to it as well later on, but I would dare say that, listen, in the believer's life, if there's no conviction, then we maybe ought to really evaluate ourselves. If there's no conviction, listen, if I can live like the devil and there's no conviction in my heart and my life that what I'm doing is wrong about this, I mean, if the scripture is blatantly obviously true on it and I can live in this place and there's no conviction, then I think there should be an element of examination in our lives. Because listen, when we get saved, there should be a change. There should be a change in our life. And so, I think, number one, there should be a conviction. There should be a conviction. The next thing, I believe, is of course we see here in our text, and that would bring us to confession. Notice the Bible says if we confess our sins. Now what does confess mean? Well, confess has the idea that what I'm really doing is I'm agreeing in essence with what's wrong. I'm confessing, I'm seeing what it is that's wrong. I'm confessing, I'm agreeing that God you are right and God I am wrong. I'm confessing this. And so we ask ourselves, listen, as Christians, do we live a life, do we have conviction in our life when we're not living for God? Then number two, are we living a life of confession? Listen, every day, listen, every day. I have to ask God for forgiveness every single day. And I don't ask God for forgiveness every single day because I need to be saved again. Listen, my relationship is already there, but my fellowship with God, I wanna make sure is always the way it needs to be. And so every single day, I have to come before an almighty God and say, Lord, and listen, if I got it on my mind, if it's something I know and I can name, Then I say, Lord, please forgive me of this. God, please forgive me of that. Especially when God brings conviction to your heart. Listen, you want to keep short accounts with God because, listen, the Bible tells us in Psalm 66 and verse 18, I'll read it to you. You can jot this down, but in Psalm 66, 18, the Bible says, If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. And listen, the last thing I want to do is have iniquity in my heart, and know that it's not there, have sin in my life, and live an unrepentant life, backslid on God, because, listen, I want my prayers to be entering into the throne room of heaven. And so the Bible shows us here that, listen, an unrepentant life, listen, is gonna lead us to a place of, listen, we regard iniquity, we know it's there, but yet we don't come before God in confession to these things, then we are definitely gonna, I'm sure, endure some chastening along the way until God brings us to a place of confession. Because that's what conviction is, to bring us to a place of confession. And so we can see here in the text, he says, if we confess, we can see there in verse nine that the confession isn't something that God makes us do, but through the chastening of God, we may wish that we did a long time before, but we can see that the confession is not something that God forces us to do. The Bible says if we confess, but listen, as a believer, I would like to think that as a believer that that is something that we would seek, that we would seek to confess our sin before God. Why? Because a believer has a desire in his heart because he's changed because he is a or she is a changed person. because they believe the light of the glorious gospel, their desire is to be like their Lord and Savior, and because they want to live for Him, and because there is a change within them, because the Holy Spirit now lives and dwells inside of you, there is a desire to change and live for God. Even though there's this battle, even though there's this war between the spirit and the flesh, there is this desire that has now been awakened. There is this light that is inside of you that desires to burst out through the darkness and live for Christ. And the Bible shows us here, if we confess. So I believe the conviction should lead us to a place of confession. To where we would say within ourselves, yes God, you are right, and I am wrong. You're right, and I'm wrong, and listen, if we try to live a life outside of confession, then man, we are definitely hindering our prayers before God. hindering our prayers before an Almighty God. So I believe confession should be a hallmark. It should be, in essence, a staple of the Christian life. That should be something that we should just do. We should be used to being in a place of confession. Now, this confession wasn't about going to the Pope and asking the Pope, or going to some priest somewhere and dumping your load of sins upon him. The Bible's not telling us that. But we are saying that we confess before who? Before an Almighty God. Listen, you don't have to come to me and dump your load of sins on me. You don't have to go to nobody else and do it. Listen, I'm thankful we have a God in heaven that we can come to, that we have a God that we can say, Lord, yes, I'm guilty of this. God, yes, I agree, I'm wrong, and I'm confessing this before you, and God, I wanna get it right. Listen, all I can do is just point you in the right direction, but your confession to me isn't really, I can't forgive you of your sins. I can't do that. The Bible shows us here that if we confess, so God's not gonna make you confess, but I believe it should be a staple of the Christian life, that that is something that we should do. And if we are living a life outside of confession, then listen, I would definitely say that in that life of un-confession, unrepentant, backslidden state, that we're gonna probably be suffering some chastening along the way. Be living a powerless life. And so, the Bible says if we confess, So I believe confession is something that should be evident in our Christian life because we want to be pleasing to God. Notice he says, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. The Bible tells us that when we bring our sins before him and we realize and we understand, listen God I agree with you, I confess, excuse me, I agree with you and I confess to God I'm wrong and you're right. And Lord, I want to get this thing right. So what happens is we see that conviction then brings us to a place of confession. And then this confession brings us, of course, to a place of change. And what we would call this is repentance. Repentance. Now, confession is me saying, God, I'm right and you're wrong, and I see that I'm right and you're wrong. Repentance is, not only do I see that I'm wrong and you're right, let me get that back straightened out. For the sermon audio, let me make sure I get that right. God, I see that I'm wrong and you're right. That is the confession. But then the repentance is, not only do I see that I'm wrong and you're right, but now I'm gonna change my mind and do something about it. So there's a difference. Confession. Yes, I see God that I am wrong and God that you are right. But then what's going to happen is not only am I going to confess that, but now that's going to bring me to a place of repentance to where I'm going to say, you know what? Now I need to change directions. Because I'm not going to keep pressing forward in this direction that I know is not right before God because I'm not going to take advantage of the grace of God. Listen, I'm thankful for the grace of God. I'm thankful for it. but let us, as I said, God forbid, use it as a license to sin and live the way we want to live. The Bible shows us in this text, says, if we confess our sin, he's faithful and just to forgive us of our sin. But listen, before he does, I mean, when he does, we see that in between this, there would obviously, or there should be, an idea of repentance that would be there. a change. You know, when I got saved, God changed my life. Listen, and as I live my Christian life, one of the things I have to do is I have to come before God and confess my sin and make sure that I'm right with God. And as I do that, the Lord, and repent of the direction that I'm going and turn around and go the opposite way. See, one of the things I think happens is that we can be guilty of saying, God, please forgive me. Lord, I've done this, I've done this. but then, and God gives a forgiveness, but then there's no change in our direction. We just keep going down that same direction. God, I shouldn't have done this. Lord, I shouldn't have went there, and God, I shouldn't have said this, and I shouldn't be living this way, and we come to the Lord, oh, Lord, please forgive me. I confess, I know I was wrong. God, I want your forgiveness, and God graciously and faithfully and justly gives that to us, and then, but instead of turning around repenting and changing our direction we just Accept the grace of God and just keep marching forward Well, I'll just when I do it again. I'll just ask forgiveness for it again down the road Without there ever even being a thought of a change of direction so before Well, I think along the way. I think there should definitely be number one some conviction and I think that conviction should bring us to a place of confession. I think that confession should bring us to a place of changing, which we would see as repentance. So our response to the conviction would be confession, and then it would be repentance for a change. But then the next thing, if we confess our sin, he's faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The last thing, the last C that I would have to be there for you tonight, would be the idea of cleansing, which would be restoration. So we see we confess before God. Then after we confess, we see that it brings us to a place of changing. And then that changing, that repentance brings us to a place of restoration, of cleansing. There in verse 9, if we confess our sins, He is faithful. He is faithful. to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Not just those sins that we can think of, not just those sins that necessarily God has brought to our mind, but listen, even other things that maybe perhaps we've done throughout the day that maybe we don't even realize we've even done. Listen, I'm thankful that the God of heaven cannot just forgive me of the sins that I can think of that I've done, but listen, even all the things that I can't even think of that I've done. I mean, there's lots of things I believe, perhaps. The Bible says He can cleanse us of all unrighteousness, not just certain sins. You know, He says He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sin and cleanse us of all. I think what that shows us is, listen, not just the sins that maybe we can think of and not think of, but also the sins that we would, in our hearts and minds, would say, well, those are big and those are small. God can take care of every single one. You ever got something on your outfit or whatever, and you know, and you was looking at it, and I believe us men, we were kind of talking about that in the room today. I think Mackie got fussed at today. Because he was getting food on him, and I believe Gabe got fussed at today. No, he didn't get fussed at. No, he didn't. He's not sharing stuff. I'm sorry. I forgot to mention that. I got fussed at today just a little. And I forgot fussed at last week for the same thing. Getting stuff on my, eating lunch and getting stuff on my suit. But anyhow, we get stuff on us. And sometimes, listen, sometimes we can get stuff on us that's pretty bad. And we have to think to ourself, man, we're going to have to really spend some time trying to get that out. We're going to have to spray this on it and we're going to spend some time scrubbing it and let it sit for a while and spray some more stuff on it and let it sit for a while And there's some things we can just kind of wipe off and brush off and clean real easy. What I think we see is, is not only the sins that we can think of that we've done and things we can't even think of that we've done that God's willing to forgive, but I think also the fact that when he says all in righteousness, meaning no matter how, no matter what degree we see that it is, whether we see this is bad in our sight, this is really bad, or this is, you know, not quite so bad, however it is that we may view it, God says, I can clean it all anyway. I can clean it all anyway. Sin is sin. But we see there in verses nine and 10, the Bible says if we confess our sin, he's faithful and just to forgive us of our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Now, if it cleanses us from all unrighteousness, then that means that that which he has cleansed now has no more marks. That means there's nothing else on it. You ever got something on your clothes and you put it in the washing machine and when you got in the washing machine and you got it out, you know, you put the shower on or whatever it is you had to do, you put it in there and you washed it and you got it out and you was like, well, before, listen, maybe before you got out, you said, you went, I wonder if it came out of his shirt. I've heard it before. I wonder if this came out of his shirt. And look at it and say, look at that. Like it never was there. All clean. The spot's gone. Cleansed from all unrighteousness. So whenever we see, we ask God for forgiveness. It's like, yeah, those things that, man, I really fumbled the ball today. God can forgive that. But then also those things, and listen, I understand, but also those things in our mind, in man's mind, where we may consider, well, this ain't as bad as that, and so when we, all those things, God says, listen, I can forgive that too, all the sin, no matter what it is, whether you done this, or whether you done this, or whether you done that, I can forgive it all. And it'll be like it was never there, cleaned, washed, restored back to where it was. I praise the Lord for that tonight. That I can be cleansed, I can be washed, I can be restored back to where I was. The Bible shows us here in this text, I believe he says if we confess our sin, and this confession is definitely gonna lead, this confession is gonna lead to a place of restoration. If we just take those two that are here. If we confess our sin, he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So he can make us clean. So when we think about our salvation here tonight, have I believed in the truth of the light of God's word? Is there a change that has taken place in my life? Am I an obvious different person than I was? Am I walking in the light? Am I forsaken the darkness and am I walking in the light? Number three, am I living a life of confession? Am I confessing my sins before God? because He is faithful and just to forgive us. Listen, I think as God's people, we want to take advantage of the idea that God's willing to forgive when we confess. If we confess our sin, He's faithful, a faithful God who is willing to forgive. He is just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. I mean, I tell you what, it sure is hard for us to say that God would be unjust whenever it is that we're the one that's the guilty party asking for him, asking him for forgiveness. So when we see here when it says, if we confess our sin, he is faithful and just, who is he being just to? I mean, we see that, I mean, because God's not guilty, we're guilty. And so who is he being just to? I'd probably say himself. But he is justifying us, cleansing us, as we never sinned. Praise the Lord for that. And so, if we confess our sin, he's faithful and just. to forgive us of our sins, just because He knows the ins and outs, just because He knows the beginning from the end, just because He knows our frame that we are but dust, just because He is the Almighty God from heaven that sees all, knows all, understands all, and He is willing and He is ready to forgive us of our sins. and to cleanse us, to bring us back to a place of restoration, to cleanse it so it can be wearable again, to cleanse it so that it can be usable again. Now how many of you bought some stuff, you know, clothes or whatever before, you got something on it, you put it in the washer, did everything you did to try to get it out, and it never came out? And you know what you did? You probably decided, well, I guess this is a work shirt now. How many work shirts we got sitting in drawers around the house? They're work shirts because now it's too dirty for you to wear somewhere where you want to be nice. Where you want to be presentable. Well what God does is He says, I tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to cleanse you and make you to where we're going to bring you out and be presentable again. We're going to cleanse this and make this right here usable for the best purpose that I had it planned for. Because listen, when we're spotted and we're not walking with God and living in unconfessed sin and living like the world, it sure is hard to be used for the purpose that God desires to use you for. But praise God we have the ability tonight to come before the God of heaven and say, Lord, I know I'm spotted and God, I know I'm guilty of this and Lord, you're right. And God says, well, I'll tell you what, we'll just wash this out of the way and I'll use you for the purpose I wanted to use you for whenever we started. Praise God for that. Let's pray tonight. Lord, we come before you this evening. God, we thank you, Lord, for your faithfulness. We thank you, God, for being just, the just God that you are. We thank you, Lord, for your help tonight as you even perhaps help us to bring us to a place of confession through conviction and Lord, maybe even through chastisement. Lord, I pray tonight that all of us here this evening that we know we're saved, that we know we're on our way to heaven. As the piano player gets ready to play tonight, maybe it is that there's somebody here this evening that would say, Preacher, I'm not saved. I need to get saved. I want to get saved. Can somebody help me tonight with that? And somebody would just raise their hand. Anybody like that here tonight? Preacher, I'm not saved, but I want to get saved. I'd like to get saved. And I'd like to have some help with that here tonight. Anybody like that anywhere? Just raise your hand. All right, as the piano plays here tonight, what we want to do is we're going to open up the altar here tonight, and it could be But as we come up, we say, you know what, Lord, I'm thankful for the God that you are. And Lord, here tonight, I'm just praying that, Lord, that you would just keep me going in the right direction. It could be that you're even here tonight and you can say, Lord, you know what, I do have this. Maybe God throughout the message has put His finger on something in your heart and your life. And you're just saying, you know what, I need to get this right before God. And you want to come up front and just, you know, just kneel at the altar and just say, hey Lord, I'm here. I heard your voice tonight. And Lord, what I desire to do is just bring it before you and just ask for your forgiveness. I'm thankful we have a God that's willing to forgive. A God that is just in all that He does. Who is faithful, far faithful to us than we are to Him. And maybe it is tonight, you just say, you know what, I just want to thank God. I just want to come up and just thank God for forgiving me, for blessing me, for helping me. I just want to thank God tonight for hearing my prayers and answering my prayers and just spending time with me. God, I know that you hear me. Maybe it is tonight we want to come and intercede for somebody else. Maybe we got some friends or family that are lost and we're just coming to say, God, I'm praying for some people I really love tonight. There's some people that I know that are lost, and God, tonight I'm coming to pray for their salvation. For God, I'm coming to pray on their behalf. Lord, they're not able to be here. God, they're sick. Lord, something's just happened to them in their life, and they're just mad in their spirit, bitter, got a bitter heart. Lord, I'm praying, God, tonight that you would crumble that to ashes here this evening, and just bring them before your face. There's so many things that we can bring before the Lord here tonight. What is it that you would bring before an almighty God? The Bible says if we confess our sin, that he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. No matter what sin it is, no matter what we've done, the God of heaven is willing to forgive. And if he's placed his finger on something in your heart and your life tonight, no better time than this evening. and to bring that before God and ask God for forgiveness, to ask God for cleansing, to ask God for a place of restoration. God, bring me back to this place where I can be used for your honor and glory like you would like to use me once again. Whatever it is we have in our hearts and lives tonight, you've heard me said a million times, there is no sin that can stain the soul so bad. The blood of Jesus can't wash away. Maybe your prayer here tonight is God just help me to continue to live for you. The closer we get to God, we acknowledge even that much more sometimes of our failures and how much work that we still need done in our lives. but it can bring us to a place where we can also say, Lord, help me to continue to follow You, so I can live a life that is pleasing to You. God, help me not to get out into the world, and help me not to fall to the wiles of the devil, but Lord, help me to stand, help me to put on the full armor of God. Amen. Amen. Praise the Lord for God's forgiveness. Amen. We need it every day. His mercies are renewed every morning. So thankful. All right, well, let's be dismissing prayer tonight. And I pray everyone has a really, really good week. Louis, do you mind dismissing us tonight?