If We Confess Our Sins

When I was 17 years old, I got myself into a situation where I tried to hide the truth.

Um it's kind of a long story.

Per usual, I will spare you the majority of the details.

I'll just basically tell you the essential things.

I was at school, a few of my friends and I, my buddies were there, and we were supposed to be in class, but we were not.

Yes.

I heard that audible gasp.

Yes.

We were typical mischievous boys, and so we happened to be in the basement of the school, which was where like there was a mechanical room and a boiler room.

Technically, it was kind of, I think, off limits, but lo and behold, there we were, fooling around.

And all of a sudden, we heard the sound of someone coming our way, and so we did what mischievous boys often do.

We started to run.

So as we started to run, again, it's a dark basement, I did not notice there was a low-hanging pipe.

So I, yep, I began to run, and all of a sudden I hit the top of my head on the pipe, and immediately I'm like, oh no, I I broke the pipe because I felt something dripping.

The pipe was not leaking, but my head was.

My head was leaking.

And so I had split the top of my head open, and so my friends and I, we scurried up the stairs.

We we kind of spread out, went to where we were supposed to go.

I went to the bathroom first to try to clean up what was going on, and I tried desperately to hide what had happened to me.

In fact, believe it or not, I managed to make it through the rest of the school day without any teachers finding out what had happened.

Now here's the challenge.

When I got home, my parents knew right away that something was up.

Maybe I was woozy, I don't know.

But they saw me, they knew something was up, and after a little while, I started to feel the pressure, and before I knew it, reluctantly, I had to come clean.

I told them the truth, the whole truth about what happened.

They could tell, again, I was acting differently, so I told them the whole truth.

And so then after going to the doctor, where I ended up getting six staples in my head, I came back home and then I was in trouble, right?

So why am I telling you that story this morning?

Well, I'm sharing it with you because what happened in the dark, it couldn't stay in the dark forever.

It had to be brought to light.

I couldn't keep that truth hidden any longer.

Eventually, I had to come clean to deal with what had happened to me.

And spiritually speaking, I think there's a sense in which we all kind of know that struggle.

Because when we sin, we have this instinct naturally to hide what we've done.

I want you to know that's not something new that's always been there.

It's been there since the garden.

We have a tendency to hide those things.

We pretend like nothing happened, or we minimize what we did, or we make excuses, or we blame somebody else, or we just hope that if we ignore it long enough, maybe it'll go away.

But the truth is, hidden sin is a problem.

It's a big problem.

It has a way of weighing us down.

And for many of us, we walk through life, even for those of us who are Christians, just feeling this burden of our recent failures.

I'm here to let you know today that if you are a follower of Jesus today, there's a better way to live.

There's a new way to live.

The Apostle John wants to show us this.

And so this morning, if you want to see what he has to say about walking in the light, then I want to invite you to go ahead and open your Bibles with me to 1 John chapter 1 this morning.

1 John 1 · chapter mention

1 John chapter 1, that's where we're at today.

1 John 1 · chapter mention

If you're a guest with us, if this is your first time here, welcome.

If you brought your Bible, great.

We open our Bible every Sunday.

If you didn't bring a Bible, we got you covered.

There's a verses on the screen, a Bible in front of you.

You're welcome to take that and use that.

If you don't own a Bible, take that Bible home.

We'd love for you to have a Bible.

And uh if you're looking for the book of 1 John, it's near the end of your Bibles.

Now, here's the thing: if you open your Bible, maybe three-quarters of the way in and you get to the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and you're you're like, oh, John, there I am.

Wrong book.

Okay?

Not the book that we're supposed to be in.

There are there's the book of John, the Gospel of John, about three-quarters of the way in, and at the end of your Bible, there are what's called epistles of John.

First, second, and third John are these little epistles or letters.

We are in 1 John, 1 John chapter 1.

1 John 1 · chapter mention

Uh it's right after the book of 2 Peter, and it's one of those small little books right before the book of Revelation.

So, 1 John chapter 1, that's where we're at.

1 John 1 · chapter mention

I'm here, unfortunately, to also announce to you that today is the last day of our summer sermon series.

Isn't that a bummer?

Always a bummer when it's the end of our summer sermon series because it means that summer is now drawing to a close, which stinks.

Um, I've enjoyed this series.

I'm excited about next week.

As you heard from Nick, next week is going to be a blast.

Baptism at the Banshell.

I hope to see you there.

Again, don't come here.

We're not meeting here.

Five o'clock is where we gather at the Bench Banshell in Frankenmouth.

Six o'clock is when the service begins, five o'clock for food.

Uh, we're excited and we hope to see you there.

But I've enjoyed this series.

And as we wrap up our summer sermon series, I've just really enjoyed uh preaching through the series.

I've enjoyed listening to the few messages that other people preached.

Drew preached last week.

Drew, you crushed it.

Good job, buddy.

Great message last week when Jordan preached and when Pastor Mark preached.

I mean, just a great, uh, great series.

And so I've enjoyed this.

And if you haven't been with us, just to kind of give you a heads up of where we've been this summer, we've been looking at some of people's favorite Bible verses and trying to dig deeply into them.

And there's a reason why we've chosen to do this series.

Uh, the reason we've chosen to do this is because oftentimes, especially if you grew up in the church, there are verses that have become familiar to you.

And that's great, that's important.

But sometimes when those familiar verses become too familiar, they become common.

And when they become common, we tend to overlook them.

And so the goal is to revisit those verses and to unpack them in a far deeper way so we understand them.

Because sometimes the verses you know the best are the ones you need to hear the most.

And so that's what we want to focus on through this series as we wrap up today.

So today, 1 John chapter 1, verse 9, this is a famous verse.

1 John 1:9

Some of you maybe have this memorized.

Uh, it's a great verse.

It says this if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

This is our verse for the day.

And so, if you guys are ready to dig deep, let's get ready to jump on in.

Now, before we look at this specific passage and this text this morning, I want to do as I often do and take a little time to just unpack the context for you.

We are reading a letter, just a reminder about that.

This is a letter that John the Apostle, the guy who wrote the Gospel of John, that he wrote to a group of churches in and around the region of Ephesus.

He would have written this at the end of the first century.

That's kind of an important feature to know.

Now, when you read the letter, the internal evidence makes it abundantly clear that these churches have been through some challenges lately.

Recently they had been shaken by some false teaching.

So there were some people in the church who claimed to know God, but the problem was they denied some important aspects of who Jesus was.

They denied some of the truths of Jesus.

Not only that, but there were people in those churches also who minimized the seriousness of sin.

And there are people who talked the talk but didn't walk the walk.

By that I mean they talked a good game about knowing Jesus, but their lives didn't often reflect it.

And so John writes into all that confusion to help these Christians understand what genuine faith is supposed to look like.

Now, by this point in history, John is much older, right?

And so he's writing this letter filled with wisdom from an older, wiser Christian.

In fact, throughout the letter, he repeatedly calls his listeners my little children.

I love that.

There's affection in the way he speaks in them.

He's writing as if he's their spiritual father.

And that's important to know because these are young Christians, and it's important for our text today to understand that he's not talking to people who are unbelieving.

He's talking to people who are members of this church.

He's talking to Christians.

He's talking specifically to people who have been saved by Christ.

People who heard the good news, the gospel, that there's a loving God who sent his one-of-a-kind son to suffer and die for their sins and rise for their salvations.

They heard that news, they believed the news, they turned to Jesus, and they were saved.

They've been united to Christ by faith.

These are people who've been declared righteous.

It's not their own righteousness, it's the righteousness of Jesus.

These are people who are already forgiven.

In fact, in 1 John chapter 2, verse 12, he reminds his readers of this.

1 John 2:12

You can look there real quick if you'd like.

I'll put it on the screen.

This is what he says to his readers.

He says, I'm writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for his namesake.

Now let's pause here for a moment.

I just want to unpack for a second the grammar behind what John is writing here.

He writes this in Greek, and what he says when he says, Your sins are forgiven, the way he writes this, he's describing something that has already happened, but something that still remains true.

In other words, these people have been forgiven and they remain forgiven.

So this is not like a, oh, am I forgiven kind of thing.

Like this is a certain thing.

And this isn't a temporary thing either.

Like, oh, I guess I was forgiven in the past, but I'm not forgiven.

No, it's not a temporary thing.

This is a settled reality for those who are in Christ.

So hear me this morning.

If you've trusted in Jesus for salvation this morning, if you're a Christian, you are forgiven.

Just let that sink in for a moment.

You are forgiven.

That's incredible news.

Jesus has made full payment for your sin.

In Christ, you no longer stand before God, guilty, condemned.

Your guilt has been dealt with.

Your old life has died with Christ.

You've been raised to a new life.

You're a new creation.

The penalty for your sin, past, present, and future, have been paid for.

It is finished.

You're forgiven.

That's incredible news.

John wants to remind us of this news.

He wants to remind his readers of this news.

However, at the same time as he says this, when we go back to our verse in chapter one, notice what John says here.

That's very interesting.

He's writing to these same people, and he says, if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

So he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins.

Hold on a second.

What?

Did we catch that correctly?

Something must be wrong here.

I thought John just said, your sins are forgiven.

So if our sins have already been forgiven, already been dealt with at the cross, if today we stand before God, clothed in the righteousness of Christ, and we have a good standing before God, we're forgiven people, why does John tell forgiven people that they need to find forgiveness?

That's a weird thing to say, isn't it?

How do we understand this?

How do we reconcile this?

Well, to answer it, we have to dig deep.

And so that's what we're doing today.

So as we jump into the text itself, the first section I want to cover with you, it comes from verse 8.

The first thing I want to talk about, number one, it's all about our sins concealed.

Our sins concealed.

So in verse 8, this is the passage that comes immediately before our verse.

Notice what John is writing to these little children, these believers who've been forgiven.

He says, This if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

Now remember, John is writing to Christians here.

He reminds these believers of something really important.

He reminds them that following Jesus does not mean that we cease to struggle with sin.

We talked all about this when I preached on Galatians 2.20.

The moment that you trusted in Jesus for salvation, if you're a Christian today, the moment you did that, your old self was crucified with Christ.

When Jesus died, your old self died.

Your old identity died.

The person who you once were, apart from Christ, that person who stood condemned because of sin, that person is dead and gone.

We are new people in Christ.

But the truth is that new reality about us does not mean that sin is no longer part of our life.

No, sin is still prevalent.

It's still part of our life.

We still battle with the flesh.

We still experience sinful desires, even as Christians.

We feel that pull, don't we, toward selfishness and toward greed and toward idolatry, toward pride, toward lust, toward anger.

We feel that pulling at us, this nagging inclination to do what we want to do rather than what God wants us to do.

That's part of the Christian life.

It's a struggle.

And if people say otherwise, they're deceiving themselves, according to John.

Christian, today in your heart, there is a battle being waged.

It's happening all the time.

You and I face it each and every day.

And if we're honest, and I want you to know this morning, I have a little bit of a theme for the day.

We're going to keep it real today.

Is that all right?

We're going to keep it real this morning.

If we're honest with ourselves, we know that struggle is real.

We like to come into church and pretend, like, look all nice, dress really nice, come in, smiling faces, our family's perfect, we have no problems.

Let's be real.

We know there's a struggle.

Romans 7 describes this for us.

There are times where the things we want to do, we don't do.

And the things that we hate, those are the things we end up doing.

There's a battle going on, but here's the thing: it's hard to fight an enemy that you fail to recognize.

It's hard to fight an enemy that you fail to recognize.

This is John's point here.

Even though sin no longer condemns us, that doesn't mean that sin doesn't matter today.

No, the flesh is still a problem.

We can't ignore it.

We can't excuse it.

We can't just pretend that it doesn't exist.

Because when we do, John says we deceive ourselves.

He says when we do that, the truth is not in us.

Sin is still a problem.

It's something that we struggle with.

But here's the good news: we don't struggle, we don't battle sin alone.

Not in Christ.

No, in Christ, if we're followers of Jesus, the truth is we've been set free from that bondage to sin.

We've been set free.

We're no longer slaves to sin.

The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set us free from the law of sin and death.

And so the truth is, through the power of the Spirit, the life of Christ is being made manifest in us.

God is working in and through us to live out this new life consistent with who we are in Christ.

So we can begin to put to death these sinful practices, not through our own strength, but through the power God provides.

We have the Spirit living within us.

We can increasingly put on Christ and walk in a new kind of life.

But here's the truth: until the day Jesus returns and he finishes what he started and he completes our redemption, we will always battle sin.

In the body here today, we will always wrestle with sin.

And so here's the point.

If Christians still struggle with sin and we still battle with sin, and at times we're victorious, and at times we succumb to it, when we do fall into sin, how do Christians respond?

That's the question.

Well, that's what John wants to answer for us.

And so now that we've seen number one, our sins concealed, if we say we have no sin, right, we're lying to ourselves.

We're deceiving ourselves, the truth is not in us.

Even as Christians, we still struggle with sin.

The next section I want to look at, number two, is our sins confessed.

Our sins confessed.

So now, looking at our verse today, verse nine, notice in light of this idea that Christians understand that we have sin, that we still struggle with at times.

In light of this, John says to those believers these words.

He begins by saying, if we confess our sins.

Now, here at Frank and With Bible Church, we're a non-denominational church that draw a lot of people from diverse backgrounds.

Some of you came from different denominations and backgrounds.

You found yourself here.

Maybe your experience growing up was different than the kind of church we are.

Maybe there's a few things doctrinally that are different.

Maybe you had no church background.

We have a whole host of people.

We have many of you who perhaps came from a Catholic background.

Now, if you're familiar with the Catholic Church, you might be familiar with the sacrament of penance or the sacrament of confession.

So in Roman Catholic teaching, confession to a priest is the central part of that sacrament.

And so the Roman Catholic Church would teach that a priest, if you make confession to a priest, they can pronounce absolution, not because they have some inherent ability in and of themselves to forgive your sins, but as a minister of Christ, that's what they have the authority or ability to do.

That's what the Roman Catholic Church teaches.

Now, I would distance myself from some of those things that are said there.

I'll share why in a moment, but before I do, let me be really clear about something.

I don't disagree with this idea that there are times that we should confess our sin to other people.

Why do I think that that's something we should do sometimes?

Well, because the Bible tells us we should do it.

You read the book of James, the book of James tells us in James 5, 16, confess your sins to another and pray for another.

Men out there, find godly guys in your life to be honest with, to be transparent with, not to hide or pretend, but somebody that you can openly share your struggles with so they can hold you accountable and pray.

Ladies out there do the same thing.

Find women in your life who can pray for you, you can share your burdens and struggles with, who can be on your side, who can hold you accountable.

Husbands and wives do that for each other.

There are times where we are called to be honest and transparent and confess our sins to others.

It's for our benefit.

It helps us walk in the light.

You see, but here's the thing: when it comes to receiving forgiveness from God, I do not believe that we need another person here on earth to be our go-between between us and God.

Why is that?

Because I believe that scripture is clear.

There's one mediator between God and man, it's the Lord Jesus Christ.

He is my great high priest.

He is the one I go to, and it's through him, my great high priest, that I have full access to God.

Because of what Jesus has accomplished for me, I can go directly to the Father.

The author of Hebrews describes this for us with clarity.

He says, This, we have now confidence to enter into the holy places by the blood of Jesus, through the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain.

That is his flesh.

You see, we can approach God today through Christ.

He is our great high priest, and we can come to God at any time.

We can come before him, and in humility, in honesty, we can confess our sins to him.

And here's the thing we have a God who hears.

He is the God who hears us when we cry out to him.

We have access to him today.

That's an incredible truth.

But the challenge with that, and again, can we just keep it real this morning?

If we're honest with ourselves, the challenge with this, the challenge is that sometimes we don't really feel like we can approach God.

If we're being honest.

We may know this doctrine, we may know clearly that we're forgiven, but there are times, as Christians, when we do certain things, and it just feels like there's a wedge or a distance, and we don't want to come before God.

Instead of running to God, we tend to avoid Him.

Because deep down we start to feel, you know, maybe God is disappointed with us, with our behavior.

Maybe God's angry with us.

Maybe through our recent failures, somehow we are less acceptable in God's sight.

And so we try to avoid him.

Can I remind you of a few truths this morning?

Number one, God already knows everything.

He's God.

You can't hide anything from God.

He sees all, he knows all because he's God.

Psalm 139 says, Where can I go from your spirit?

Where can I flee from your presence?

It goes on to say, if I go to heaven, you're there, if I go to the depths of Sheol, you're there, if I go to the mountains, you're there, if I go to the seas, you're there.

Everywhere I go, you see me, you know me.

We cannot hide from God.

As I was prepping for the message this morning, this thought, this memory fired off in my brain.

Haven't thought about it in years.

I have a cousin who's the same age as me.

His name is Jeremy.

And I remember we were four or five years old.

We were in the back of my grandpa's car.

I think my grandpa was getting things prepped to go somewhere.

And me and him were kind of in the backseat.

And my cousin Jeremy started to climb down kind of where the um like your feet go.

And so we weren't buckled, and it was it was the 80s, so maybe nobody was buckled.

I don't know.

But either way, he was climbing down to where this the the floor was, and he was curling up and he might have done something wrong.

I don't remember, but I was like, What are what are you doing?

And he said, I'm hiding from God.

Right?

And and I was like, I I wasn't not a theologian at that point, but I was like, I don't think you can hide from God.

And he said, Watch me.

And then he like curled even further.

And we we think about that and like that's funny, but like that's kind of all of us, isn't it?

We we may know that that's ridiculous, but there's a part inwardly where we all are kind of like my cousin Jeremy sometimes.

We we we feel like maybe if we just avoid detection, we stay off the radar, maybe God will just kind of not see.

And so we avoid him.

And yet, let me remind you: if you are in Christ, your sin does not change your standing before God.

Hear me this morning.

Your acceptance by God is not based on your performance this past week.

Your acceptance by God is not based on your performance this past week.

Your acceptance by God is based on Jesus' performance on your behalf.

Jesus did the work to make you acceptable before God.

You are acceptable because of Jesus.

You are now clothed in his righteousness.

The righteousness that you have is alien.

It's not your own.

It's been imputed to you.

It's been given to you through what Jesus did.

You've now been united to Christ if you're a Christian.

You're adopted into God's family, and because of what Jesus did through his death, burial, and resurrection, you don't have to be afraid to approach God.

You can come before him honestly.

You can go and walk into the light.

You can be open with him.

You can confess.

The word confess that's used here that John uses, this is a word that has carries this meaning of agreeing with the reality of what our sin is.

So when we confess to the Lord, we stop defending what we did.

We stop minimizing what we did.

We stop calling it something other than what God calls it, sin.

Again, the theme of the day is keeping it real.

Let me keep it real with you.

When I sin, when I do things that are wrong and I'm called out on it, I am really, really good at making excuses.

I am the king of excuses.

I have a reason for why I do everything.

I am really good at defending myself and justifying myself.

And in those moments, guess what I'm forgetting?

That I have a great high priest who is in the heavenly places, who always lives to make intercession for me.

I don't need to defend myself when I do something wrong.

Jesus is already pleading my case before the Father.

He always lives to advocate for me.

He is my defender.

He is the one who justifies me through what he has done.

I don't have to justify myself.

I can sit back and own it.

How cool is that.

But I often forget that when I fall into sin.

I forget that.

No, confession means we agree with God.

It is sin.

Call it what it is.

It's wrong.

Yes.

It's contrary to God's will.

We admit it fully.

We recognize that truth.

This is what we're encouraged to do as Christians when we sin.

And what's the result of this confession?

Well, we have to keep going.

That leads us to our final point.

So now that we've seen number one, our sins concealed.

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves.

The truth is not in us.

As Christians, we fall into sin.

On this side of glory, we will always battle sin.

And so there's a present battle being waged within our hearts.

It's the flesh warring against the spirit.

So don't conceal it.

Don't pretend like it's not there.

We struggle with this.

Number two, our sins confessed.

We should come honestly and openly to the Lord and confess our sin.

Why?

Well, thirdly, because we're going to see, number three, our sins cleansed.

Our sins cleansed.

Let's look in the entire verse now.

Again, writing to believers, if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Notice the promise here.

Remember, John has made it clear that sin is a reality in the life of the Christian.

Anyone who denies it, they're deceiving themselves.

Christians struggle with sin.

And remember, that sin does not condemn you, not in Christ Jesus.

There's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

In Christ, we stand forgiven.

Our relationship with God is secure because of the finished work of Jesus.

And so in our union with Christ, we've already been washed clean.

But as we continue to walk through this world when we fall into sin as Christians, there's a part of us that doesn't feel very clean, does it?

Because sin is messy.

As I said, even Christians who are forgiven people, we commit sin, and that begins to weigh on us.

Our conscience convicts us.

We feel the guilt of what we've done.

I have a dog whose name is Bo.

Some of you know this.

He's a great dog.

This is Bo.

Isn't he cute?

Yeah.

Aww.

He's a burnadoodle.

Um and uh great dog.

We love Bo.

Bo loves me.

Actually, I used to be his favorite human being in the whole wide world.

It was awesome.

Uh however, just like my children, he now prefers my wife.

So it's fine.

I'm fine.

I'm not bitter.

Either way, Bo is a great dog.

Once a month, we give Bo a bath.

Uh when we give Bo a bath, it takes a lot of work.

He's got a lot of hair, um, like a doodle, right?

It's not so easy to wash him.

And so we do that once a month.

And uh and he's clean, right?

So once we do that, it's great.

But here's the thing about Bo.

Uh we live in the country, I don't think he knows he's a doodle because he thinks he's a tougher dog than he is.

When we're outside and he sees like a turkey, you know, like strutting its feathers, trying to look all tough, he kind of like starts shaking and gets excited, and he'll go chase the turkey.

Or if he sees a deer prancing, he'll go run after the deer.

He he loves that, kind of like a farm dog, but even though he's a doodle.

So he'll run and chase the animals through the field, and then he'll make his way back to the house.

And inevitably, when he does this, even if he's been washed recently, he comes back with dirt all over his feet.

I had I took a picture a couple years ago.

This is Bo had had some sort of grooming recently.

He's clean, if you notice, but his well-manicured little paws there are dirty.

And in these moments, by the way, this is our sliding glass door.

Bo is wanting to come in to have fellowship with us, and we're we're not really interested in that because you saw he's on the couch.

We don't want to get stuff all over our house.

So in these moments, he's already had a bath.

I'm not gonna give him a bath, but I will take him, I'll carry him to the bathtub, and I'll just rinse off his feet.

Interestingly enough, Jesus describes a similar picture in John 13.

You don't have to turn there.

I'll just describe it for you.

This is the foot washing story.

This is where he washes his disciples' feet.

Now remember, in the ancient world, uh when you would walk places, your feet would get filthy.

Uh you would walk in sandals, you'd walk through the dusty, dirty roads, which were filled with excrement from animals and all sorts of stuff.

So when you would go places, your feet were filthy, and if you were in some sort of environment where you're gonna have a meal or something, there was a normal act of hospitality where people would wash uh your feet as you come in, particularly a servant would do that.

In John 13, however, Jesus, the Son of God, right, the one who's exalted far above every name, he gets low, he humbles himself, and he begins washing his disciples' feet.

And when Peter sees what's going on, he's like, No, I don't want anything to do with this.

And he even begins to kind of rebuke Jesus.

Hey, Jesus, you're not gonna wash my feet.

Like you are the Son of God, I'm not gonna let you wash my feet.

And what does Jesus say in response to this?

He says, Well, if you want to have fellowship with me, then you have to let me do this.

And Peter, in typical Peter fashion, right, always an over-reaction, an over-correction, he swings the pendulum to the other side.

He says, Well, hey, if you've got to wash my feet, then why don't you just wash my head, my hands, and everything?

Wash all of me, Jesus.

And Jesus responds by saying something really important.

He says, This the one who is bathed does not need to wash except for his feet, but is completely clean.

Now Jesus revisits this idea in chapter 15 and he says, All of you are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you, all of you except one.

He's talking about Judas.

When he's talking about clean, he's talking about the fact that they're all believers.

Because of the word of Christ that's been spoken to them, they believe it, they're believers, they've been cleansed, they've been washed.

But here he says, the one who is bathed does not need to wash except for his feet, but is completely clean.

In other words, Peter, you don't need another bath, you're already clean, but your feet, they need to be cleansed.

This gives us a beautiful picture of what John is talking about here.

If you're in Christ, you've already been cleansed, you stand forgiven.

That's a settled reality.

In your union with Christ, you are already clean.

But in your daily walk with Christ, in your communion with Christ, there are times where you stumble into sin and your feet get a little bit dirty.

That's just the reality.

And in those moments in our hearts, we feel as if there's a barrier, right?

A fellowship.

We want to come in, but we feel like there's something there, don't we?

And so what do we do in those moments?

Well, when that happens, we don't need another bath.

We don't need to be saved again.

You're already clean.

No, instead, you simply need to come to Jesus, honestly, with confession and have him wash your feet.

This is the blessing of confession.

I realize we're a Protestant church.

We don't talk much about confession in the Protestant church, but this is biblical, people.

Confession is part of the Christian life.

Christ continually offers forgiveness and cleansing throughout the Christian life so that we can enjoy unhindered fellowship with Him.

How beautiful is that! How freeing is that?

The freedom that Jesus offers you today, it's incredible.

The blessing he's offering you today, it's incredible.

Let's keep it real, though, this morning.

That's the theme of the day.

Some of you as Christians, you you know that you're forgiven.

You know that you stand before God forgiven.

You know the gospel, you know what Jesus did, you you believe the gospel, you've received salvation, but practically as you walk through your Christian life, you're still carrying a lot of guilt and shame.

Because you you lose those battles, you fall short.

You stumble to sin throughout the Christian life.

Maybe there are mistakes you've made recently.

Maybe there's some poor choices you've made recently.

Maybe there are things that you've said recently, things that you've done that you know are wrong, and maybe just maybe you're trying to keep those things in the dark.

You're trying to keep those things hidden.

You have you haven't dealt with them, you haven't brought them before the Lord, you've just carried that burden with you wherever you go.

And maybe the longer that you carry it, that hidden sin, maybe it's gotten heavier and heavier.

I mean, let's just be honest.

Maybe you're struggling to forgive yourself.

So, like, why would Jesus forgive me today?

It feels impossible.

You don't need to avoid God.

You don't need to doubt his love for you, you don't need to doubt his acceptance of you.

Why?

Because you are fully loved and accepted in Christ.

You are fully loved and accepted in Christ.

So that means what happens in the dark, it doesn't need to stay in the dark.

Not any longer.

It doesn't need to stay in the dark.

Christ invites you today to bring those things to the light.

He invites you to come clean and find freedom from the burden of that guilt that you've carried from this last week.

He invites you to do so.

Confession is an invitation to stop carrying what Christ has already saved you from and continually wants to cleanse you of.

The big idea this morning, very simply, I want to leave you with, is this don't hide your sin.

Bring it to the Lord.

Bring it to him.

There is freedom today found through confession.

That freedom comes with being honest before the Lord.

We're called to walk in the light as he is in the light.

Don't keep your sin hidden.

Bring it to the Lord.

Bring it to him.

David, who wrote many of the Psalms, he describes what happens when he kept his sin hidden.

In Psalm 32, he says these words, For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away.

For through my groaning all day, day and night, your hand was heavy upon me, my strength was dried up as the heat of summer.

You see, he was feeling weighed down, burdened by the weight of his sin.

But then he came to a point where he confessed before the Lord, and he says, This, but I acknowledge my sin to you, God.

I did not cover my iniquity, I said, I will confess my transgression to the Lord, and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.

This is a freedom that's available to you, not just in the moment you believe, but each and every day throughout the Christian life.

It's the freedom that comes through confession.

Right here, right now.

You don't need to keep this stuff hidden, not with the Lord.

Come to Him.

Don't hide your sin.

Bring it to the Lord.

So we're gonna get real practical this morning.

I'm gonna do something a little different.

The end of the service here, we're gonna take time.

I'm gonna pray in just a little bit, but I'm gonna have you take time to silently pray.

Silently pray.

Of Psalm 139, which I referenced earlier, I believe that Psalm ends by saying, Search me, O God, and know my heart today.

See if there's any wicked way in me and lead me in the way of everlasting.

So you take time, the Lord with him, to search your heart.

Examine your heart.

If there are things you need to confess, we're gonna take time to do that.

Now, here's the thing: I have a twofold approach to this.

Number one, I do not want to presume that every single person here is a Christian.

John was writing to Christians, I've been preaching to Christians.

Maybe you're here today and you're like, hey, Pastor Joe, I'm not a Christian.

I'm exploring faith.

I don't consider myself a follower of Jesus today.

Or maybe you're somebody who, as you're kind of searching your own heart, you're like, yeah, I definitely don't know the Lord.

Like I try to follow all the rules and be a good person, but I'm realizing that I don't think that that's what faith is anymore.

I don't think that's what a relationship with Christ means.

Here's what I want to say: if you're somebody in the room who's not a Christian, who's not a follower of Jesus, and you're beginning to feel a sense of conviction because you look at your heart, you look at your sin, you know that what you've done has violated the holy standards of God, that you've fallen short, and you've come to the point where you realize you need someone to rescue you from your sin.

If that is you today, you have an opportunity in the quiet of the room to pray and to turn to the Lord and maybe for the first time offer up a confession.

Scripture says if we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in our heart that God raised him from the dead, we will be saved.

You for the very first time can take a moment here and now to confess to the Lord that you're a sinner, that you are far from him, that you need his son Jesus, make that confession and for the very first time in your life experience the forgiveness that only God can provide.

This could be you this morning.

And so if you're an unbeliever, take this time to do that.

If you're feeling convicted, if you're feeling the work of the Spirit drawing you to yourself, drawing you to God, take that time to do that.

Perhaps the first time, experience God's forgiveness.

That's to the unbeliever.

For the person who's a believer, same thing.

Search your heart.

This week, this month, things that you've tried to stuff down and keep from the Lord.

This is an opportunity for you to come clean, to come before Him honestly, confess your sin, turn to Jesus, experience His cleansing.

Today, here and now, God offers you this blessing today.

Today in Christ.

And so let's take a moment now, in the quiet of the room, search our hearts, and honestly approach God.

Search us, O God.

Know our heart today, see if there's any wicked way in us and lead us in the way everlasting.

Father, I pray in this moment for those in the room who are far from you, in this moment, Lord, I pray that you would breathe into them life.

Those who are spiritually dead, Lord, I pray that you would breathe into them new life, that by faith they would receive the gift of salvation and experience for the very first time in their life the freedom of being forgiven before a holy God, not because of what they've done, but because of what Jesus has done.

Lord, I ask you to do a miracle today.

To raise from the dead those who are far from you, so they might behold the glory that is your Son Jesus Christ, that you might shine into their hearts the light of the knowledge of the glory of Christ.

So, Lord, we ask for you to do that miraculous work for those who are far from you and for those of you who are your disciples today, who for whatever reason tend to just overlook what your word continuously teaches us.

Lord, your son Jesus gave a prayer for his disciples, for his followers.

The most famous prayer ever, the Lord's Prayer.

And in that prayer, he says, forgive us our sins as we forgive those who've sinned against us.

May we not lose sight of what's biblical.

Yes, we are forgiven in Christ.

But yes, there is a continual cleansing that's made available to us if we simply come honestly and openly and confess our sins.

You are faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness because of the work of Jesus.

I pray that we would have unhindered fellowship with you, that we would feel so close to you in this moment because we are just free from those things that we've tried to keep hidden.

I pray that we would be open and honest with you, the God who already knows it all.

And so, Father, help us through the power of your spirit to walk in the light as you are in the light.

There's no need to be hidden, there's no need to be fake or phony in this place.

We're all a bunch of sinners.

Many of us saved by grace today because of Jesus.

So we can be honest, we can be real, we don't need to pretend not with you.

You know it all already, and in Christ, you forgive.

And so, Father, help us to come before you.

Help us to come before you openly in this moment and feel that freedom.

Feel that connection, feel that fellowship more deeply, more strongly than ever before.

For your glory, for the good of your people, I ask and pray these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.