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Okay, and why is it important 
for a Christian to continually confess his sins? because we 
still commit real sins. And I think first, it doesn't 
change the fact that we are righteous in the sight of God, our standing, 
if you believe on Christ and you're justified, that status 
never changes. But we still commit real sins 
as we still struggle in this present evil age. And first, 
John, I think is very instructive in this, especially because one 
of the main issues is the heretics he's writing against, they basically 
deny any sort of sin, the nature of sin and the acts of sin. And 
so, you know, he, he does say multiple times that you make 
God out to be a liar, you deceive yourself if you don't recognize 
that there is sin in this world. And so then I think one of The 
passages that I've quote a lot and use a lot is 1 John 1, 9, 
if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive 
us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That's 
for us sensible sinners. Like we've sinned, we've violated 
God's law and we are forgiven in Christ, but we still struggle 
with sins. So we need to go to our God and confess them. And 
John does say, My little children in chapter two, these things 
I write to you so that you may not sin. So we strive by the 
grace of God not to sin, but he says, if you anyone sins, 
we have an advocate. And so that highlights, you know, 
the the priestly work of Christ. One, a priest is one who sacrifices, 
which Jesus did once for all time, but a priest also intercedes 
for us. And so Jesus is still interceding 
at the right hand of God the Father for us, and we still, 
because we still struggle with remaining sins, and all of our 
sins are forgiven in Him, but all the sins we will commit are 
forgiven in Him, but we still need to confess them to Him, 
and because, you know, the Bible does tell us we need to do that 
in 1 John 1, 9. So what happens if we don't? Like, it's not held 
against us or anything, right? No, it's not held against us. 
When we're justified by God's grace, all our sins are forgiven, 
and we receive the righteousness of Jesus Christ, which we, you 
know, that's the hallmark of our religion. It's not our works. 
It's not our doing. It's the doing, dying, and rising 
of our Lord Jesus. I kind of parallel it to a father-son 
relationship. you know, if my son sins against 
me or does something wrong, I don't disown him. I don't cut him out 
of the will. Not that there's a great big 
will for him to be on anyway, but the relationship is a bit 
hurt. There's a fracture, you know, 
or a husband-wife. Husband-wives, they get into 
altercations. They get into arguments. Sometimes 
the, you know, words get a little bit harsh. Well, that doesn't 
mean they're divorced. It doesn't mean that it's dissolved 
the relationship. The relationship is hurt. The 
relationship is not what it is when you're not talking that 
way. So, I think, you know, at least for us, us-ward, when we 
confess our sins to God, It is an acknowledgement that by our 
sin, we've basically gone astray. We've left the one that we love. We're sorry for that. We ask 
for forgiveness for that. And we want that restoration 
of that fellowship and that communion. It's not an earning. You know, 
as long as I confess all my sins, I'm going to earn the pleasure 
and the smile of God. I don't think that's the way we're supposed 
to look at it. It's just maintenance of relationship. through the 
means that God's ordained. I mean, 1 John is a great passage. When Mike says, sensible sinner, 
I think there's a bigger way to deal with that phrase, and 
I don't think that's what you were meaning. The hyper-Calvinists 
will talk about a sensible sinner, meaning meaning somebody who's 
got some preparatory work. I think he means by that we're 
mindful as God's children now when we are prone to wander and 
when we do leave the God that we love. And so, 1 John 1 isn't 
an evangelistic, invitational text to sinners to come to Jesus. It's for us, the maintenance 
of that relationship with our Heavenly Father. And you see 
it in the Psalms as well. you know, if you, Lord, should 
mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand, David says, but 
there is forgiveness with you that you may be feared. So, we 
seek that forgiveness, and it then has that reflex action on 
us where it provokes in us or promotes in us that fear of God, 
or that right relating to God. So, we receive forgiveness, and 
then it impacts us in such a way that we then hopefully march 
onward and don't commit those same sorts of things. But we 
most likely will, and we have an advocate with the Father, 
even Jesus Christ the righteous. So all of it is designed to locate 
glory upon the Savior. And if our confession of sin 
brings glory to Jesus, then let's confess our sin. Just thinking 
about Psalm 25 this morning, and it's one of the passages 
that I like to go to when we talk about forgiveness of sin. 
And it really, you know, the way the psalmist prays here is 
so contrary to the way that we do. No, maybe not you guys, I 
just know for me. He says, For your namesake, O 
Lord, pardon my iniquity, for it is great. Do we usually go 
to God, Lord, you know, I've really tried doing the best I 
can. In light of that, could you just 
pardon my sin? Now, David's argument is you 
have to pardon it because it's great. There's just so much of 
it. It's just so bad. So there's 
basically a request, pardon my iniquity. and two reasons. One, for your name's sake, O 
Lord. God's name is glorified in the 
pardoning of my iniquity. Then the second reason is the 
greatness of the iniquity. Again, that's not typical, natural 
prayer for us. God, I want you to do something 
in terms of forgiving me of my sins, and I want it to be for 
your glory. Usually it's, I want my peace, 
I want my happiness, I want my joy. And usually we try to minimize 
our sin because we think we're at the bargaining table. See, 
God, I have tried. the woman whom you gave me." 
You know, we always want to evade what is clear in our paths or 
clearly wrong in our path, but the psalmist says, I need forgiveness 
because it's great. She's got a lot of sin. And I 
just think that the psalmist is a lot more, I don't want to 
say honest because that means we're dishonest, but I think 
a lot more open than we are when it comes to the freeness of God's 
grace. I think of a subscription or 
superscription in Psalm 102, a prayer of the afflicted when 
he is overwhelmed and pours out his complaint before the Lord. That's a great sort of parallel 
to Luke, you know, the importunate widow. Why does Jesus tell that? 
Because men were losing heart. What's the remedy against losing 
heart? It's to pray to God Almighty. So, when you come to the Psalms, 
you get a good dose of real religion. Psalm 116. Again, I don't, you 
know, I think about this because I read the Psalms. I don't think 
I would think about this intuitively, But when's the last time you 
went to a prayer meeting and somebody said, I love the Lord 
because He has heard my voice and my supplications. It almost 
sounds like He's affording a reason for His love. I love God because. We don't usually talk like that. 
I love God because. I mean, we might in a general 
sense because He saved me. He keeps me, you know, all that 
sort of a thing. But here specifically, I love Him because He's heard, 
because He's inclined His ear to me. Therefore, I will call 
upon Him as long as I live. So, you know, we're not only 
justified by the just judge of all the earth, but we're adopted 
sons and daughters of our blessed God, and we're in relationship 
with Him. And so, I would look at the ongoing 
confession of sin as ongoing maintenance of that relationship, 
not again to secure it, to make sure it doesn't go away, but 
because in relationship, that's what you do. If I sin against 
you, I need to go to you. If I've hurt you, I need to fix 
that. And that doesn't immediately cause all pain to go away, but 
it goes a long way to repairing that relationship. No, it's excellent. I've never heard it explained 
that way in terms of repairing relationships. That's helpful 
to me as well. So thank you.