for John chapter one. And verse seven. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another. In the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son cleanseth us from all sick. if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness we say that we have not sinned we make him a liar and his word is not in us for the last two Sundays prior to last Sunday when Mr. Gibbs was here we were speaking on the subject of the blood of Christ And I want to continue that this morning. The first morning we were speaking, if I remember right, on the need for cleansing. And the reason Christ came, and the reason we need to be cleansed, is because of sin. Had sin not entered the world, Jesus Christ would never have entered it as a substitute. So because sin entered, then Jesus Christ came to put that sin away. By man, sin entered into the world, and by man, sin can be put away. And that's the man Christ Jesus. Then last week, if I remember right or three weeks ago, we were speaking on the ground of cleansing. First of all, the need for cleansing, and then the ground for cleansing. And the ground for cleansing was the precious blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. This morning I want to speak on the range of cleansing. Guess what is the range of this cleansing? What does it embrace? That's a very important question. Well, I want to look at it in the light of three things. The range of cleansing, first of all, are cleansed heart and a cleansed conscience. Then you have a cleansed walk, and then you have a cleansed account. Here is the range of the cleansing of the precious blood of Christ. How far-reaching it is, how all-inclusive, how embracing is the power of the precious blood of God's beloved Son. And so we have the range of cleansing. It cleanses the conscience. I want to take apart verse nine, if I may. In our sermon this morning, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That word confess, if we confess our sins. Now that means coming clean with your sins, not lopping off a limb here, a little twig there, like pruning a tree. No, that's not it. A lot of people, when you confront them with the gospel and the way of salvation, well, I've got to start doing better. And they start laughing off a little limb here and a little limb there, trying as it were to improve themselves. I'm going to stop this habit and I'm going to stop that habit. And a whole lot stopped the habit of recently, I'm glad to say, the habit of smoking for fear of cancer. Salvation hasn't been of a thing to do with us. You wish people would stop habits because of the spiritual situation involved. They're interested in the physical, but what about being interested in the spiritual? People stop habits to improve their health, but how many stop habits hoping to please God or obtain salvation? But even stopping habits won't say. That's the case of lopping off limbs. God says the whole tree is rocked. The whole tree needs to come down right down to the stump, yay, down into the roots, get it out. In other words, you're a sinner from top to bottom. If we confess our sins, you know the publican, he didn't say, well, I'm going to try and do better. I haven't done so well. In the past, I'm going to try and improve. He didn't do that. He smote upon His breast. God, be merciful to me, the sinner. That's it. I'm a sinner, Lord, from top to bottom. Inside and out, I'm a sinner. And I want to confess that fact. No, it's true. We can't be blamed. I'm not to blame. Neither were you to blame for being born in sin. Adam sinned and therefore that fallen nature has been transmitted from generation to generation from parent to child. None of us are to blame for Adam sinned. And God's not going to hold us, Mr. Washington, for that. But we are to blame for becoming sinners by choice, reaching the age of accountability and choosing to live a life of sin. And we're content to be sinners in that way. Sinners by choice and sinners by practice. Content to remain in that condition of sin that you were born into this world with. And that's what God's going to punish men and women for, not because they were born in sin, but because they're sinners by choice and by practice. They're content to stay in a condition of sin and they will not confess. And so we must confess our sin as our text says here. Not to man. No man on earth can forgive you your sin. Absorbity won't do a thing. It's not a case of confessing your sin to the church. You're to confess your sin to God. And remember, like David, against thee the only have I sinned and done that evil in thy sight. Oh, you may have sinned against your family, or your sin may have affected your family. Your sin may affect the community, but first of all, and primarily, no, your sin has affected God. Against me, the only, have I sinned and done the evil in my sight. Therefore, God has got to forgive me. And so it says here, if we confess our sin, and it's to be confessed to God. You know, man has a strong disposition to cover up his sin instead of open up. He's always trying to cover up, to cover up, to cover up. Or the old game of passing the buck. You know where that started? Back in the garden. When God confronted Adam with the sin that had been committed, Adam said, The woman now gave us me. She gave me of the through to the tree and I to eat. How many men are willing to pass the buck on to their wife? Well, you know, my wife said this or does that or the other thing. Passing the buck. You know, I've met men that's kind of amusing in my life, talking about coming to the meeting. Well, I'll have to ask the wife. I'll have to ask the mission. Invite and come to church. They never ask her anything else or any other time. In the case of going to the ball game or going hunting or going fishing, fooey, they don't ask her a question. Makes no difference to them what their wife thinks. They're going to go. But oh, when you ask them to come to church, I've got to ask the wife. And we'll be under her if she doesn't say you can't go. Because he doesn't want to go. And then you see God confronted the woman. And what is this about? She says, the serpent beguiled me and I did eat. Adam passes the blame onto the wife, and the wife puts the blame onto the serpent. And that thing is true today. Instead of a man or a woman standing on his or her own hind feet and saying, listen, I've sinned. I've sinned. I'm going to face up to it. I'm going to confess it to God. I'm going to complain with it. I'm not going to cover it up, but I'm going to open up. But you know, the thing is, God keeps the score. He has everything written down for future reference. You might just as well confess it. Everything's written down, being written down for future reference. Make no mistake of that. A woman went to see her pastor. She says, Pastor, this is an embarrassing situation. You married me, didn't you? Yes, and I have the record, the date of it, of your wedding. And she says, you baptized my child last Sunday. You sprinkled it, and you gave me the certificate for the child's baptism. Yes. Has that gone into the church records? It has. She says those two dates are too close together. I'd like to have it erased. The date of my wedding and the date of my first child, the dates too close together. I don't want my future relatives to see that. I can't forgive myself, but there's the records. Pastor, will you change them? No, he said, I couldn't do that with a clear conscience. The records are there. There are the facts. Let me tell you, God is keeping records. Supposing that minister had stooped to a thing of that kind and had changed the records, falsified them, to keep future generations from finding out, or to win the family Bible, to keep future generations from knowing what had happened, Supposing they were able to eliminate that information. Facts are facts. That woman knows the facts. It hasn't eased her conscience one bit, only to know that others don't know about it. She knows about it. The facts are facts. And let me tell you one thing, friend, you can't change God's record. A man may suit to that, not God. God has the records. He's keeping account for future reference, unless you get that sin forgiven. And remember, you know what you've done. You may try and pull the wool over other people's eyes. And every time anyone spoke to that woman about the situation, she may try and say there's something wrong with the dates or try and falsify them herself. But back in her mind, she knows the truth. Her conscience troubles her. And friend, let me tell you this. You can't dodge it. You know you sin against God, not maybe in the category of that woman. But you have sinned, and God wants you to face up to, be a man. Say, I've sinned. You don't have to confess it to any man, but confess it to God. I've sinned. Although it's gone into the record, there's one thing God's records can be cleansed. And you may have a clean sheet in heaven, nothing to meet you in eternity if only you'll come to the Lord Jesus and trust the precious blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so facts are facts. Sins are sins and you've committed them and you know it. And if your face would turn crimson, if this audience not to mention the world, if this audience were to know some of the things you've done in your life, your face would turn red. What would it be in eternity when the whole world sees your life and the sins you've committed? thing to do is get this thing taken care of and settled before you do die. Or maybe before it does get out into the public, because God says, be sure your sin shall find you out. Makes no mistake about it, it may take time, but it'll come out. But if you come to know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior and have your sins put away, God and His sovereign grace may so maneuver it that it won't come out in time. But it won't come out in eternity if you're born again. We confess our sins. You know, one mistake on some of our busy highways is all it takes to give you something you'll never forget and never forgive yourself for. I've been on highways especially up New York. free lane traffic going north, three lane traffic going south, and they're just whizzing by like that, you've got to stay in your lane. All it takes is just one mistake, and you won't forget it. And you won't forgive yourself either if it means that loved ones have been injured and killed or someone else was killed in the cracker. And it all goes into the records, the police records, just one mistake. You can't erase it. You can't put those bones back. You can't bring that life back. I know you can't do it. It's gone into the record. All it takes, friend, sometimes is to make one mistake in life. There it is. It's in the record. And it will wreck you for life. It will ruin you for life. And there's a sin that will ruin you for eternity and that's the sin of saying no to Jesus Christ when he's trying his best to extract a yes from you when he's trying his best to win you to himself you say no and if death cuts you short or Jesus Christ comes that goes into the record and it'll never be erased and you'll Remember that sin forever and suffered its sad consequence. It's just one mistake. That's all. How sad and how tragic it is when people play and playful with this. What does God mean when he asks you to fear him? Does it mean for you to turn pale? Does it mean for you to run and hide? No, that doesn't do any good. That's not what the fear of God really means. The fear of God certainly means this, to stand up to it. Face them with the facts. Don't go and hide. That won't do you a bit again. It means to face the facts, to acknowledge your sin before God and accept the Lord Jesus Christ, his Son as your personal Savior, the provision God has made to put away your sins. That's what it means to fear God. I'm going to face the facts. I'm going to acknowledge them. David did that. He says, I acknowledge my sin before the Lord. That's exactly what God wants you to do, is to acknowledge your sin before him. There is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared. How wonderful. And that's where true fear, the fear of God, comes in, is for a person to face up to it. Not turning pale, you'll turn pale the day to come. not running away in hiding, you'll not do that in eternity because they'll call for the rocks and the mountains to fall upon them to hide them from the face of him that fills before the throne. Heaven and earth will flee away from before his face, but you won't. There'll be no running then. It'll be an awful thing in that day. What God wants you to do is to fear him today. Face up to the facts and acknowledge, Lord, I've sinned. I've sinned. and I've sinned against you, and I know I'm going to be punished for my sin, but I want my sins forgiven. Lord, I'm going to do what you asked me to do. I'm going to accept Jesus Christ as my Savior. I'm going to trust His precious blood, believing it was shed upon the cross for me, that all my sins might be forgiven, that everything may be erased. That's what it means to fear God. Are you going to fear God? this morning. I trust you will. Face up to the facts and accept Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. Supposing you stayed out from work for five days with no real reason for so doing, the boss kind of got a little impatient and he called you up and he just asked you a simple question. What about it? When are you coming back to work? And he said it in such a tone that you knew he meant business. Just what about it? I'm not putting up with this any longer. This situation can't continue. And the boss says, what about it? When are you coming back to work? He means business. You would take that message, that question seriously, wouldn't you? That's what God's saying to some of you this morning who are not Christians. What about it? When are you going to accept Jesus Christ as your Savior? And there's a tone in his voice which simply means this. This situation can't continue. When are you going to do it? When are you going to settle? And if you fear God, you'll settle it the small. That's it. That's what it is to really fear God. God means business. Just like you could tell that employer and he meant business, you could tell with the sound of his voice, by what he said, he meant business. And you realize if it's time for me to mean business too. God is saying to you this morning, do you want to be saved? Do you want to have all your sins forgiven? What about him? He means business. Do you mean business? But God's not always going to be gracious, the Bible says. He's not always going to tolerate your procrastination. What about your sins? They're piling up. Thus far God has been gracious. But you know what God says? You're treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath and the revelation of the righteous judgment of God. Another day sins, more judgment. Another day sins, more judgment. You're just piling them up. you're just increasing the wrath that's going to fall upon them. What about it? Do you mean business? Or don't you? God means business, and He wants you to mean business too. That's what it is to fear God. You know God is real. Sin is real. Very real. Judgment is real. Forgiveness when experienced is real. Oh, it's so real. It's not A fantasy? No. It's not a myth. It's real. It's not a dream. It's real. Friend, you can understand and you can experience the reality of sins forgiven this morning if you only desire to. Are you real? Do you mean business? Then this morning confess your sin. And what does it say here? if we confess our sin, that is facing up to the facts and being real in this thing. What's the message? He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. Now, isn't that wonderful? If we mean business, God means business. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. That's very wonderful to me. You'll notice You only have a comma there. There's not a period. There's not a column. There's not a semicolon. It's just a little comma. If we forget, confess our sins, and he hurries right on, he's faithful and just to forgive us. How quick God is to forgive. When David had sinned so grievously against God, you know, David says, I have sinned, and God doesn't even wait to start a new sentence or a new verse. Nathan, the prophet, says, Thou shalt not die. God hath forgiven thee thy sins. How quick God wants to forgive the moment David said, I have sinned. How quick God is, according to this verse, to forgive when we confess. You know God wants to forgive you your sins more than you want to have them forgiven. Why? He knows if you don't get saved and get those sins forgiven, He knows what he's got to do with you in eternity. He knows the awful judgment that he's got to pour out upon you. He knows the awful hell that awaits all those who die without Christ and die in their sins. For Jesus Christ said himself, If you die in your sins, where I am, ye cannot come. And Jesus Christ is going to heaven. He's there. Yet Jesus Christ himself said, If you die in your sins, where I am, ye cannot come. God is so anxious to forgive you your sins, because He knows what He's got to do with you about those sins if you don't get saved, and if He doesn't forgive you. Oh, that you were as anxious to be saved as God is to save you. Oh, that you were as anxious to have your sins forgiven as God is to forgive you your sins. He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Isn't that a wonderful verse? Verse nine. It says here, he is faithful and just. Faithful what? Faithful to his promise. What God has promised he's able also to perform, how faithful he is to his promise. God has given us all these wonderful promises in his word, and he's faithful to them. If he said it, he means it. Not one thing hath failed of all the good things that the Lord spake concerning you. All came to pass. I like those words spoken by the angel on the resurrection morn of our blessed Lord. Here is the angel and he comes and he finds a few of the followers of the Lord Jesus. And what did he say? He says he is not here. He has written, And he said unto you. I love those words. The angel says to the few of the two, He has not here, and He has risen as He said unto you. In other words, He told you He was going to do this, and He did it. He told you He was going to rise from the dead. Did He not? Did He not say, I must be crucified, and on the third day rise again? Well, He did it, as He said unto you. Let me say this morning to anyone here who is not a Christian and you want to be, you've sinned and you want to have all your sins forgiven. As he said unto you, he said, believe on me. Believe the fact that I shed my blood upon the cross to put all your sins away. And if you will accept me with all your heart and confess me with your mouth, I will give you everlasting life. I'll put away all your sins, every one of them. I'll give you everlasting life you'll never perish. And he'll do just that, as he said. You believe his promise, and he'll fulfill it. He is faithful and just to forgive. He's faithful to this blessed book. He cannot deny himself. You believe, and he'll do the rest. You open your heart and receive them, and He will put away your sins, every one of them. As He said unto you, you'll have His word for it. We're born again by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever, as He said unto you. Isn't that wonderful? So He's faithful to His promise, and He's faithful to Christ God. It's faithful to His Son. My Son, by your going to the cross, and taking the sinner's place and becoming accountable for the sinner's sin and suffering there at Calvary, and I poured out my wrath upon you. Because you became the sinner's substitute, I couldn't let you go. You took the sinner's place, so you must take the sinner's punishment. And seeing man has sinned against me, I am the one to do the punishing, the judging, and my son, I've got to punish you. But I promise you this, that everyone who will accept you as his or her Savior, I will forgive them all their sin. And God will be faithful to Jesus Christ. God will be faithful to his son. He can't deny himself. He'll go back on his son if he doesn't save every sinner who trusts him with all his heart. God is faithful and just. Faithful to His promises, faithful to His Son, faithful to us. He'll be faithful to you if you'll only take Him at His word and believe what He's telling you. But the work that saves is accomplished at the cross. Now it says faithful and just to forgive. Where does the justice come in? Sin must be punished. His justice must be satisfied. His claims must be met. All accusers must be silenced. Satan is silenced. Satan can't accuse the work of Christ. The transaction that was drawn out at Calvary was so legally right that even Satan himself can't accuse it. He cannot accuse God of injustice. You know, if God took anyone to heaven who didn't accept Jesus Christ, if God took anyone to heaven who didn't face up to the facts and acknowledge them before him and accept Jesus Christ as his Savior, the devil could accuse God of injustice. You took a soul to heaven without punishing those sins he committed. And in the beginning you said the soul that sinned at it shall die. You said one soul to heaven who didn't trust Jesus Christ. You went back on your word. You said sin's got to be punished, and the soul of sin in it shall die. God says, No, I'll never take anyone to heaven, unless that one faces the facts and acknowledges his sin, his sin except Jesus Christ. That's why you've got to accept Jesus Christ. That's why you've got to confess your sin. Then God will not only be faithful, He'll be just, even Satan, won't be able to accuse him of injustice. Satan's mouth is silenced this morning. Satan can't accuse God of injustice because God has punished sin in the person of the sinner's substitute. Why, my sins have been punished. They were punished at the cross. All my sins were laid upon and Jesus bore them on the tree. God who knew them laid them on and believing I am free. So seeing Satan cannot find any flaw or fault in the work of salvation, what's he trying to do to keep you from enjoying it? He's trying his best to keep you from accepting Jesus Christ as your Savior, knowing full well that if you do that, God will save you. And that's what he doesn't want. God is faithful and just to forgive. And what does it say further in our text? Faithful and just to forgive or to cleanse and to cleanse from all unrighteousness. Oh, how wonderful. To cleanse, what does it mean, to erase? You know, when God says a sinner, he does more than forget. You can't tell me in your, show me in your Bible where God forgets our sins. Forgetting our sins. is something, it's an affliction or an infirmity that belongs to humanity, not to deity. To forget something means that you've got a lapse of memory and it's gone for the while, but it'll come back. You'll remember it sometime. God has no afflictions. He has no memory of that kind. Whenever in your Bible do you read about God forgetting your sins, He forget, and he does more than forget, he creates an act of oblivion. He cannot recall. Where's your Bible for that? He says, your sins and your iniquities will I remember no more. Meaning he has created an act of oblivion. He has erased them, just like if there were a blackboard up here and all your sins were written on them. I took a cloth and I wiped it clean. I erased it. I erased it. That's what the precious blood of Christ does. God says, I will forgive. And that goes beyond forgetting. There are lots of things you and I wish we could forget, but they keep coming back. That's one of the afflictions and infirmities of the human mind. But God has no such afflictions. He creates an act of oblivion, and that's the end of it. He remembers your sins no more. Isn't that wonderful? Something we can't apprehend, but it's true. God says your sins and your iniquities will I remember no more. Not one of them. Furthermore, they're not only out of his mind, they're out of sight. He says, I've cast them into the depths of the sea. I've cast them into the depths of the sea. There. out of sight. You can't see anything down the depth of the sea. They tried their best to see the bottom of the ocean when that submarine sank nearly a year ago. But they couldn't see clearly. God says, I'll put all your sins out of sight. I think I told this a couple of years ago about the boy who got saved. He's about twelve to thirteen years of age. Quite a studious little fellow. and he got saved and so he started reading the Bible. Mahi was so happy reading the Bible. Prior to this, of course, he had been reading a lot of other books and he was devouring book after book and his mother thought, well, he's just not normal. He's not like other boys out running around having a good time. He's been reading all the time. Oh, he's got his nose in a book. So she spoke to the doctor about him, the doctor says, well, give him something else to read. Give him something else to read. For instance, she said, what would you suggest? Well, let him read the Bible. Well, she couldn't have said anything better. Well, the little fellow had just trusted the Savior. So she encouraged him to read the Bible. One day, you know, as he was reading the Bible, He says, Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. He got all enthused. She kept running in. She says, What in the world do you find in there to praise the Lord about? She says, Mom, he said, Mom, I just discovered in this book that the sea is seven miles deep. And God says he has cast all my sins in the depth of the sea. Praise the Lord. Yes, isn't that wonderful? God has cast all my sins in the depths of the sea. They're outside. Then, then, Furthermore, they're out of reach. God says, as far as the east is from the west, now you have north and south, those points of the compass, but you don't have east and west. God doesn't say as far as the north is from the south. As far as the east is from the west, they're out of reach. He goes further, they're out of existence. He says, I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgression, and as a cloud thy sin, they turn unto me, for I have redeemed this. That's it. How wonderful. He says here, He is faithful and just and forgiven to cleanse from all unrighteousness, out of mind, out of sight, out of reach, and out of existence. Do you know all your sins were forgiven when Jesus died on the cross? Some people think, well, if I accept Christ right now, He'll put my sins away right now. In other words, He'll lay them on Jesus. No, He won't. He's already made them all. The Bible says in I Peter two twenty-four, who his own self bear our sins in his own body on the three? It was when Jesus Christ was on the cross, God took your sins and mine and laid them on him. And all my sins were a future when Jesus died. Every one of them, not only my past sins, my present, my future sins, sins I haven't already committed were a future when Jesus died. And if they weren't, then my future sins means that Jesus Christ has got to go back to the cross and suffer again for no sin or Christian with sin on can enter heaven. All my sins were forgiven when Jesus died. How wonderful it says he has blotted the mouth as a thick cloud. You know there's a text I love, and here it is. where you find this in Colossians two four. And you, being dead in your sins, have quickened us together with him, having forgiven all trespasses, forever blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us. He took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross. You know, among the Orientals, they have a custom that beautifully illustrates this text. For instance, here's a man, and he's got a debt, a bad debt. So finally he pays it. No, all over town he's got this debt. Or maybe there's been a feud between he and his neighbor, and he's responsible, and his neighbor forgiven, whether it's a debt or whether it's forgiveness. When they get the thing settled, why, here the receipt is written out, the debt's been paid, or here is an agreement signed. by both parties that that little feud is now settled and the man's been forgiven. You know what they do? They go and nail it over the door in their dwelling, over the door in the front of their dwelling, that everybody can see that that debt's paid and that person has been forgiven. It's a public acknowledgement that debt's paid and forgiveness has been granted. You know that's a wonderful thing. Right here in this text you read that. What does it say again? And you being dead in your sins, hath he quickened together, with him, with Christ, having forgiven you all trespasses, how long? For ever. Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, he took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross, nailing it to his cross. To me, you know, that's wonderful. You and I are hopeless debtors to God. By nature, and at Talbre, our glorious security, our glorious Savior, what did he do? He took the terrifying list of your sins and mine. He took them in his hand to the cross. And when the spike went through his hand, The spike went through that death of sin. The spike went through that terrifying list of sins that I had committed and nailed them to his cross. It was seen in public. God wants heaven and earth and hell to see that he has forgiven forever everyone who will trust his beloved son. I wonder this morning if you will accept our Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. I'll have all your sins forgiven. He is faithful, and just to forgive us our sins, to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we confess, confess it now to God, and God will save us, and you'll have the opportunity right after this meeting, which is now closing, to confess it before men, publicly. He that confesses it before men, says the Lord Jesus, so I confess before my Father which is in heaven. Are you ready now to face facts, face up to the situation, and have all your sins forgiven? How about it now? You've been putting it off long enough, and like that man saying to his employer, Chloe, how about it? Why not this morning settle this question, settle it once and forever? Open your heart, receive Christ. You shall be saved. Let us pray. Our Heavenly Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus, we come to be. We thank you for thy word, thy precious word, thy holy word. May it please thee to use it to the salvation of precious souls in our audience. We thank you for thy wonderful forgiveness. How wonderful thy salvation is. How complete. How eternal. Grant that someone this morning may indeed accept our Lord Jesus Christ and enter into peace and pardon, help them to do it. But close this meeting. We ask for Christ's sake. Amen.