[0:00] There is now a part of the First Episcopalum John Chapter 1. We shall read verse 9, 1 John Chapter 1, verse 9.
[0:19] If we say, if we confess our sins, we shall be grateful to forgive the sins, and to cleanse them from all the sins.
[0:39] I think I said to you, that it was my intention to divide these aspects of three different sections of three different thoughts.
[0:52] One of the sheds is love. That is compassion of sins. And I did my best to explain to you what the Apostle John meant by compassion of sins.
[1:11] Now, the second part that we have is that if we confess our sins, God will forgive us and cleanse us from all the sins.
[1:28] That is the thought that I am going to dwell on this evening. Why are we? The third part, which we will deal with next week, or is there, is the reason for which people get forgiveness and cleanse.
[1:46] And we have this reason in God himself. Not in us. It is because God is faithful and just that we are forgiven and cleansed.
[2:02] But if there is no change to the second part, in this, if we confess our sins, God forgiven our sins and cleanses us from all the rest.
[2:14] Now, if I were to divide these words into big instructions, I would divide them by this.
[2:27] I would say that they are first of all an expression of doctrine. How did John know that if he and David confessed their sins, this would happen?
[2:44] Well, he knew simply because God told him so. The apostle John had no warrant for a statement ever from you and Adam.
[2:57] He had the warrant of the word of God. And he made the statement because it was said in the word of God and God believed so the statement healed.
[3:11] So the next person had doctrine. But I would also say that it is an expression of experience. If we confess our sins, John knew that he would be forgiven.
[3:30] Why? Because he experienced forgiveness already. So you see, it is not only a statement of doctrine, it is also a language of experience and there is not nobody who can tell it so well what will happen.
[3:47] And that statement knows that that thing happened already because it happened to yourself. And the third way I would express this is that it is the language of de-sincerity.
[4:05] But John was speaking, he was speaking with all his heart. God has the forgiveness of sins and clencers from all the rest.
[4:15] Now when I say that in the language of sincerity I mean by that also goes the language of pain. Now first of all let us consider the forgiveness of sins which follow upon confession.
[4:38] Now depends on who has the sins forgiven. Depends on who is conscious of his own gift and of the discretion that he has given to God by sinning against him.
[4:53] There is a lot difference between to the idea of sins cherished by the world or by people who are merely awakened in conscience and the peasants see sin in the light of the word of God that has holiness.
[5:15] And the difference is that the man that he sins as a bleak of the know he knows that he has sinned against God and that he has contracted him upon his conscience.
[5:35] He is conscious of this and then he knows that by doing this he has displeased God caught God to be angry beyond anything he can tell.
[5:53] Now there can be no of this there can be no of this knowledge and it has been all forgiveness in my truth grown out in the until they become conscious of what sin really is in the life of God's sin and peace.
[6:16] So this thing John speaks of sin not in a language as we are. we talk about those sins as if there was just a mere touch on the picture as scratch on some part of our body as likely as that.
[6:39] But there is no sin like every sin is serious. It's a tremendous thing to displease God to cause him to be angry with this.
[6:53] No the person knows that he does sin knows that. Now when forgiveness is received as the consequence of confession forgiveness is received for all sins.
[7:13] There is a little theological conundrum here. sin it is quite clear that sin is forgiven in a first instance but it is all forgiven.
[7:36] When God forgives sin after the confession and when confession comes to Christ then all the sins of the past are forgiven all the sins of the present and all the sins of the future so all are forgiven.
[7:54] How then did that Christian like John say if we are dead God will forgive us. Does God forgive twice?
[8:07] Now this is the theological passage not a difference but a theological truth passage means passage of the night.
[8:29] God does not forgive twice as unmarked of as a matter of doctrine as a matter of state as a matter of justification only once as humanity generated only once he is forgiven only once in the initial sense everything is locked down to death.
[9:01] How then does John say this? He says it because there are two things in life.
[9:14] When a believer sees then God is said to be angry. Now in the deepest sense God is not angry because he's angry for every time that we have to cross.
[9:34] But God hides his face for it. God chastens it because of the sin. And this is referred to as God's anger with his spirit.
[9:47] But please don't confuse God's anger with his spirit with his anger with those who are not to speak. God is forgiven or justified by pain.
[10:04] He is never more a child of wrath. Only unbelievers have children of wrath. But God ever is forgiven and justified by pain and is God's child sin.
[10:23] When he ends, God shows his discretion with him for his sin. He chissed him in withholding his face, instructing him and beating him until he brings him to confession and repentance and submission.
[10:45] Now when a believer sins against God and how he does and the Holy Spirit reveals his truth.
[10:58] Then he goes into practically the same moral state that he was in before confession. But there is a vast difference between the two. But as far as killing is concerned it is very likely.
[11:12] And he prays God to forgive him. Now when God's forgiveness is applied by the Holy Spirit in his conscience then God said to forgive his sins.
[11:29] Now I hope by making it clear to you I find my very best anything so that you will not confuse the two things. So then if you have heard if you have sinned against God and God has manifested his discretion to you and there are many reasons which he does so he does it by withholding light from the Bible you read it by hardening your heart so that you cannot fear it you would like it he does it by blacking your soul you don't pay fruit as you want to he does it also by beating you and smiting you in your providence in different ways now God does this but when you are forgiven then the blood is applied
[12:31] God shows that he is not angry with you anymore he has forgiven you because you have confessed you and it tells you that you are going to him and you know that you are going to him now this is what John behaved the application of the blood to the conscience of the believer after he has learned that he has gone away and he has made confession of his name of God so now then think of this in relation to yourself you may be conscious tonight that you have in some way attended your God well now it could be not from what you are to ask God to justify you have already been justified you don't need to ask that because you will never get another temptation but you would not be wrong but very right if you ask
[13:42] God to forgive you but when you are asking him to forgive you you sin remember that you are not asking it as you were asking it when you were first awakened it is not the same way that you are forgiven or those same land that speaks peace to you on both occasions and when you make confession of your sin then God will apply the blood and assure you that he is not displeased with you anymore of course you may be conscious of forgiveness and God may be at the same time chastening you for the sin that you have done this happened in the case of David I have sinned against the Lord and the Lord has been more with thy sin forgiven thy sin never pledged and here was a man who not only had forgiveness for a sin or for sins that he committed but he was assured of it by the mouth of the prophet but the chastisement for that sin continued into this dying day now try and work this out for yourselves don't think that you are not forgiven because you are still chastened for your sin and even because you know that there is an intimate connection between the sin that you have done and the chastisement that you suffer in still don't conclude that because of this you are not forgiven remember the case that
[15:30] I mentioned and you can see how true it is that you can suffer chastisement and at the same time be quite sure that your sin has been taken away now there is another thing like this and I must go on to it how would you know and I like to make these distinctions in order to comfort you that's why I always frame such questions in this way how would you know if your sins have been forgiven now remember I'm not talking to people who remember who refer to the initial act of forgiveness I'm referring to Christians who have heard and gone astray I have secretly a wound of you how would you know how can it for sure well there is an encaliple way of hiding everything we have it in the scriptures if you want to be cleansed as well as forgiven then you have been already forgiven now there's nothing sure than that there's something that nobody ever did or ever will do who is not a
[17:03] Christian and that is to ask both for forgiveness and cleansing a lot of people have asked for forgiveness who were not Christians but nobody asked for the two sincerely except are the Christians yet cleansing also now the subject of the cleansing is quite a deep subject when you cleansed from all of righteousness do you know that you have been cleansed well in a way you do although you still are conscious of the shame and of the defilement put you have out upon yourself how then well
[18:26] I tell you one two ways when you cleansed from righteousness you don't make any excuses for your sin you see that is righteousness and righteousness is the opposite of that now on a period it's a two stop sin and he starts making excuses for sin but children do very often when you ask them if they did this thing they say no or if they say yes they say that it was somebody else who made them do it or something like that now we say this is unrighteousness and people have it when they grow up it's the opposite of uprightness but if a child is upright strictly truthful and you say did you do it you say yes I did I sorry I did it now that is a confession of uprightness so then friends the person who was forgiven by
[19:32] God and who was cleansed by God will never take an excuse before him mercy he will see how deep this goes and how wide it goes I wish I had more time to talk about it to you take for example and I love to ugly sins sins that cast a reflection in the forest but let us take it to something that might meet every one of us sooner or later let us take it that somebody wrongs us somebody does something wrong at least we think he does and we are doing it and then if somebody says to you why don't you forgive him why did you say that he said well it says fault he did it now that's all in true but when you like that your attitude towards sin is a sinful attitude and as long as you make excuse for your own attitude by saying it was his fault then you have not been cleansed in that instance from your righteousness once you have been cleansed from your righteousness you will not make excuses for yourself you see the fault you confess your memory and you make no excuses and this has been cleansed from the righteous now another thing is when you are cleansed you do not conceal anything from
[21:21] God or sight and I prefer to be cleansed the water of cleansing goes into the cause of the soul you see if people were cleaning a house and a church and they didn't go into the corners but they made clean only the parts that are very visible that's not cleansing in the real things cleansing is not hurting so when a person isn't cleansed is cleansed from his unrighteousness then God goes into the corner of his heart and he conceives that he brings the door into the open to God and confesses it and that soul is cleansed from him and another thing you can't tell if you are forgiven if you are being cleansed from the love of sin if you don't love it nobody in the world can tell if you love sin or not but you can't tell if you love sin just the same as you can't tell if you love anything else just the same nobody can tell but you can tell it's just as easy to know if you love sin as it is to know if you love your child just as easy they have good love as the same characteristics in both cases and then another thing if you cleanse from all your righteousness then you forsake the sin that you confess this is an intolerable sign of forgiveness you turn away with hate with trans profession so this is being cleansed and being cleansed then is the intolerable mark of being forgiven and being forgiven is the intolerable mark of a true confession everything here is linked together and when you are cleansed you cleanse from all the righteousness when you are forgiven you are forgiven all the sin there is a completeness in the word of god so remember that you are forgiven not only in part or cleansed in part but that you are cleansed from all righteousness forgiven for all the sins now then let us put it like this supposing tonight that there is guilt in your old conscience and you say well
[24:11] I would give anything in the world if I hadn't done that thing and an angel from heaven came to you as a messenger from god and told you that your sin was forgiven as the messenger of god the human messenger told david would you be quite satisfied with that when you ask yourself this question and if you are a true christian and you could think over this kind of thing your answer would be no much as I value forgiveness and much as I seek it and happy as I would be to get it there is one other thing that I would like to have and that is purity I would like god not only to take away the streams that pollute my life but to get right down to the very well from which the flow and cleanse the well and make me cute and you say as far as
[25:17] I can see I'll never be happy as long as any impurity remains in me well friend if you can honestly say thou or sentiments like these in your old words then you have made confession you have been forgiven and you have been cleansed you can take that from me for I state it on the authority of the word of god will know one more amount before I lose how does all this start the consciousness of the soul supposing you confess your sins how does the forgiveness and the cleansing sparkly the consciousness what feeling does it give well just a reminder this is the feeling it is joy in supposing any earthly joy after knowledge of being forgiven and you know that you are forgiven because god says so in his word but because of what we feel if we confess god forgives god says so you believe what god says well then there is speak of the joy for the forgiveness this is in the consciousness of the soul and then on the other hand there is this intense sorrow and disturbance and heart ache for the impurity that still remains the unrighteousness that still ends now you just think open that for yourself this is what the soul feels this is the way it feels it is glad before god that is been forgiven ashamed and sick because he so liked god to forgive and that there still remains so much unrighteousness and deceit and impurity notice the consciousness of the man often this is but now it would never do if we stopped there and next week or anyway we shall go on as I said to the ground on which all this takes place and this my friends is what rejoices our souls more than anything that god forgives not because of the intensity of our confession not because we stayed up all night to confess not because we wept before god but god forgives and cleanses because he stayed full and just isn't that wonderful well we consider then these truths concerning the almighty saviour next week
[28:24] I hope we'll profit to those souls it is turned now to the first epistle of john chapter one