Evidences of the New Birth - Part 1 — Paris Reidhead

For sound, or wired for posterity. But in any case, any of you have been teachers? How many here have been public school teachers? I'll have to do it myself. Would you write on the blackboard for me? I will.

Oh, you will. All right. I want you to put down number one. That's not all. Thank you. Then the opposite of that, I want you to write awakening. Oh, I think it's beautiful. Try two. See what you do with the two.

And then under awakening, I want you to write conviction. Try three. You're doing great. You're on a roll here. Let's see what you can do with the three. Repentance. Try a four. Faith. Let's put a faith.

The Biblical Evidences of the New Birth

And then after it, put saving. And then a five. Boy, isn't that great? And they're all legible, too. That's the better part of it. I know. I've done good. Witness of the spirit. If I had gotten here at 8 o 'clock, I couldn't have done it that well.

Thank you. Now we're going to First John, but on the way to First John, I want you to stop off here at the blackboard. We're talking about the biblical evidences of regeneration, being born of God, as it's found in First John during this series of studies together.

But it's important for us to understand something of what God does when he saves sinners. Now, I have an imagination that tries to set a background for the scripture. I don't know that this is precisely what happened, but I get the feeling that John is out on the island of Patmos in exile.

And they run a, you have a Holy Land tour here in the bulletin. Well, they had a let's go visit Brother John tour from the church. And they got together. They chartered a bus, got themselves a boat, and they went out to the island of Patmos, a group of the people that had loved him and known him.

And they're sitting on the shore watching the blue Mediterranean flow around the rocks looking at the sunset. And one of the brothers who knew John back in the time of his ministry, when he was so effective, said to Father John, you know, there's a crowd of people coming in around us now.

And they claim to be Christians. Persecution's over. See, it's about 90, 85, 90 AD. And he said, they're not like the old timey ones. There's something different about them. They don't, there's something, I don't know what it is.

I don't want to say somebody isn't or is. Who are we to do that? But would you write us a letter? Just write us a letter and tell us in the letter. How can you tell who's really been brought, born into the family of God?

We don't want to guess. We don't want to presume. But you knew the Lord and you walked with Him. So ask Him. And, you know, you're the one that wrote that letter to your gospel and says that they might know that they have eternal life.

And that hadn't been written very long. It had only been written, oh, just a few years. Now, would you follow it up and give us the Bible, you know, if I didn't, give us what the Lord has to say about who has been truly born again, part of the family of God.

So that's the background of this little letter. A little while later, they get it and it's delivered to them. And that's what this letter is about. In the third verse of 1 John 1, that which we have seen and heard, back in the time when we walked with the Lord, declare we unto you that you may have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ.

And these things write we unto you that your joy may be full. What happens when God wants to take a savage and make him into a saint or a cannibal and make him into a Christian? Well, you can say they believe.

Awakening Before Conversion

Isn't it funny? Paul was in that Philippian jail all night long. And he must have done a lot of preaching and singing and so on. But you know what he didn't do? He did not say, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, until the jailer asked him, what must I do to be saved?

He wasn't preaching to all those prisoners. Now, fellas, if you want to go to heaven, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. It didn't make any sense. Then, I have an idea what he did. He talked about the holiness of God.

He talked about the law of God. And he talked about the sinfulness of sin and the justice of God's wrath and God's marvelous concern and grace and the miracles that attended the life and ministry of Christ and His resurrection from the dead, certifying that what he said was...

Oh, he said a lot! But you know what he didn't say? He didn't tell him how to be saved. You know what we've done in the last years in America? We've gospel-hardened a generation of sinners by telling them how to be saved before they knew that they needed to be saved.

We've been so anxious to get them in that we didn't realize when Paul said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. When? He said it when the jailer was ready. Did he say it to everybody? No. He said it to the ready one.

Think of it. Think of it now. If he had said that earlier, it wouldn't have meant anything to the jailer when he needed it. But because he could hold it back and say what was appropriate to say at the time, what did he have to do?

First, they had to be awakened. Why? Because they were dead in their trespasses and sin. The God of this world had blinded their minds, lest the light of the gospel should shine unto them. And they had to be awakened.

Now, Paul couldn't do it. He wasn't able. He could take them and shake them and jostle them and shout at them, but that wouldn't awaken them. You and I have got loved ones. They know the gospel as well as you do.

But that's not the issue. They haven't been awakened to their need and their problem and their state. Maybe the gospel hardened them when they were children by telling them how before they knew why. It's a strange thing that 75 of the people who make professions of faith in Sunday school lose interest in the Lord when they get 21 or older.

Maybe it's because things happen to them. Then, like what happened to me when my pastor took me into the church before I was born. At any rate, awakening. It's the ministry of the Holy Ghost. For it says in Romans, God hath not given us again the spirit of bondage to fear.

Now, that says God hath not given us. And God does not give evil gifts. And when He says the spirit of bondage to fear, it's not some evil spirit. That is the ministry of God, the Holy Spirit, I believe, showing us our bondage and teaching us the reason why we should fear.

Conviction of Sin by the Holy Spirit

It's the awakening ministry of the Holy Ghost. When He, the Spirit of Truth, is coming, He will convict. Awakening conviction. That's the next phase. What is that? That's when the Holy Spirit applies the law of God to the heart of the sinner and causes the sinner to realize that he is guilty.

Now, sin is a crime. It's treason against just government. It's rebellion against proper authority. It's anarchy. I'll rule my own life. They turn everyone to their own way. It's transgression going over and against the proper rule and terrain.

And it's enmity because the carnal mind is enmity against God. So when you're talking about a sinner, you're talking about someone who's a traitor against just government. You're talking about someone that's a rebel against authority.

I'll do what I want to do. You're talking about someone who's an anarchist. I'll do what I want to do. I'll make a fool. You're talking about someone who's a transgressor and someone who's an enemy of God.

Now, that doesn't sound very nice when you put all those things together, do you? But he's been that all the time. Now he has to be awakened to his bondage to himself and his attitudes and convicted of his crime of turning to his own way and then come to the place that he repents.

Repentance as a Change of Mind and Will

And to repent means to change one's mind. You see, at the age of accountability, every one of us became criminals before God because we made treason the rule of our life and rebellion and anarchy and transgression.

We certified as being our policy the policy of Mother Eve and Father Adam. We turned it into a crime because we said, this is how I'm going to live. I'll do what I want to do. At the age of accountability, we reinforce everything that we'd inherited and had happened to us by making this the policy or practice.

That became our mind. I'll do what I want to do. They turned everyone to their own way. All have sinned and come short of the glory. What is sin? Sin in its essence is adopting as a principle, I'm going to rule, govern, and control my life.

Now, what's conviction? Conviction is conviction of sin. And treason and rebellion and anarchy and transgression are all expressions of sin. And sin is, I'm going to do what I want to do. That's the essence of it.

That's the crime. Now, repentance is not sorrow. The Bible doesn't say that repentance is sorrow for sin. It says godly sorrow works repentance. I have a hammer. I have a nail. I use the hammer to work the nail into the board.

But that doesn't change the hammer into the nail. It doesn't change the nail into the hammer. Hammer is hammer. Nail is nail. Board is board. And sorrow is sorrow. And sorrow is the hammer that works repentance, which is a change of mind, of will or purpose, into the board, which is the heart.

And they're not the same. And don't ever let anyone tell you that repentance is godly sorrow for sin. Because sorrow is sorrow, and repentance is repentance. And sorrow is the hammer, perhaps, one of the hammers God uses to change our minds about sin.

It looks good. It seems pretty. We earned it. It was the reward. And then when we've done it, we're so sorry because we've grieved God against thee. And the only have I sinned and done is evil and I sin against God.

Is sorrow worth the change of mind? I won't do that again. It's sorrow that works. It's the hammer, but it's not the nail. The nail is repentance. And repentance is that change of mind or will or purpose, initial, permanent, entire, hearty.

That's what it is. That is the basic. That's why Paul said when... You see, I remember when I was in school being thoroughly imbued with dispensationalism, I was being taught that repentance was Jewish.

And it wasn't for today at all. All you did today was say, believe. But then I came across a book written by Dr. Harry A. Ironside, who was one of the outstanding dispensational teachers of Great Moody Church in Chicago for years.

And he had a book called Except to Repent in which he said, I take total disagreement at umbrage with my brethren who have the same persuasion as I. Repentance is not Jewish. Repentance is biblical and it prevails in every generation.

And Paul said he was night and day to the Ephesians who were Gentiles, night and day from house to house teaching repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. I pled with book publishers to republish and distribute widely the little book entitled Except to Repent by Harry A. Ironside.

They get it, look at it, and say, well, it isn't important. But it's important. Because one of the most devious crimes ever committed against God the Holy Ghost was to take the teaching of repentance out of the preaching of the Gospel.

Because except to repent you'll perish. Okay, now repentance and then on the basis of that is faith. Heart faith. I said faith saving. Because there are a variety in the store. Like Heinz Faith has 57 varieties.

Saving Faith Versus Intellectual and Dead Faith

There's all kinds of faith. Oh, for instance, there's a head faith which is an intellectual assent to what is written. Agreeing with it, sure, that's just true, it's the Bible. I agree with it. Is that faith?

Well, sure, it's a kind of faith. I'm not going to argue with the Bible. It's there. So it's there. That's faith. Intellectual assent to what's written. Then secondly, there's another kind called a dead faith.

I saw that with my Muslim friends in Africa. They accepted the Koran as being inspired. And they accepted all the obligations. They tie 2 of all their possessions every year, which, by the way, is a lot more than 10 of the earnings they were giving you.

They gave annually 2 of everything they had. When they get something together, that made quite a pile. That's what some of them did. That's why it's spreading so fast, by the way, did you know? Throughout Africa, there are about three people being one to Islam and one being one to Christ.

They're really going at it. They're serious about it. I talked to a businessman, a trader, way out in the blue in the Sudan, along the Sudan-Ethiopian border. I said, oh, I see you're a trader. He looked at me, drew himself up straight, and said, are you a missionary?

I said, yes, so and so. My business is to be a messenger of Allah and a servant of Muhammad's prophet. I pay my expenses by trading with people. And they've got thousands and thousands of people throughout Africa just like that.

Self-supporting, in a way. Well, they tie 2 of everything they possess. They prayed five times a day. Jews prayed three times a day with three said prayers. The Muhammadans prayed five times a day.

And they fast one month out of the year from sunup to sundown, not even swallowing their spittle. They memorized the Quran, which is a book the size of the New Testament, from, well, from Matthew, about halfway through 2 Peter.

Memorize it, word for word. That's most of their school, is memorizing the Quran. And then they make a pilgrimage to Mecca. Spend their life. I've seen known people spend 40 years trying to get to Mecca and back home.

Well, what do they have? If you were to say to them, does the Muhammad live in your heart? Ha, they'd laugh you out straight. They'd say, do you know you're going to go to heaven when you die? They'd laugh you off straight.

What? They have a dead faith. No life. But they do all of these things out of a dead faith. It's a lot of power. A head faith, a dead faith, and there's a third kind that I've found called a devil's faith.

That's the kind the demons have, remember? It says, you say you believe, what do you do more than the devils? The devils believe and they tremble. What's the difference? They don't repent. That's what they don't do.

They believe, they tremble. What? They know it's true, and they're emotionally stimulated by the fact that that's not... Oh, there have been a lot of people that have had a devil's faith, an emotional response to the beauties of heaven and the horrors of hell.

But then there's heart faith. And we sung it. Not today, but in the past. I know not how this saving faith to me He did impart, or how believing in His Word wrought peace within my heart. But I know, I don't know about, I know whom I believe.

And I'm persuaded. So there's a heart faith. A heart faith. What is that faith? That is when, having been awakened and convicted and genuinely repented, the Spirit of God enables us, as it were, to reach the hands of our hearts, throw the keyhole of the truth 2 ,000 years into the past and lay hold savingly on the Son of God.

Not just to glimpse and say, Oh yes, there He is. But to reach out and embrace Him. To know we're embraced by Him. Saving faith. And saving faith issues into the fifth, which is the witness of the Spirit.

The Witness of the Spirit and Assurance

Do you know why they closed the churches to John Wesley in England? I'll bet someone would say because he was preaching the truth. Have you ever read the 39 articles in the Church of England of the Episcopal Church?

Well, you should read them sometimes. Orthodoxer than which you cannot be. Believe me. There might be a shade or two that you disagree with, but believe me, the 39 articles are Orthodox. And they were there when John Wesley was preaching.

And the church held to them. But what difference did it make? In England, the time of John Wesley, 1 of the people would go to church. About 1 to 2%. In England, it wasn't nearly as large as it is now.

And you'd go into the church and you'd see a bulletin board like that and over there would be signs that says the canon or the rector has taken over the management of the bull and the horns or whatever, pub, and promises the drunk for a ha 'penny, dead drunk and straw, for a penny.

Run by the rector in order to get money enough so he could survive. He ran a pub and told his parishioners that they could come to him and he'd get them drunk for half a penny. And dead drunk with some straw to lay on for a penny.

That was the England of Wesley. Now it went on like that. You had a George Whitefield, yes. You had Charles Wesley. You had Isaac Watts. But what happened, how'd they come around? They came around because there was a people that came over from England, from Germany, from Herrnhut in Germany called Moravia.

And they came saying that there was something called the Galvanized People and Changed People. Wesley'd met them on his trip out to Georgia. He was in charge as the spiritual leader of the group of Anglicans, or Church of England people, going out to Georgia.

And there was also a group of Moravians that were going out. They came into a serious storm. Oh, it was days and days. A mass flew down. A ship was just tossing. They'd lost all control of it. And the Episcopals, the Church of England people, were down the bottom of the ship crying to God to spare them.

And the Moravians were up on the deck, lashed their part of the time, looking out at the sea and saying in a moment, looking for the smile of joy on their face. Wesley said, What do they have? Do we know?

Wesley felt this thing going to be a season of it. Well, they finally made it to Savannah. And Wesley went to work as a missionary to the Indians. And after two years or so, he wrote back to the bishop, and he said, I came to convert the Indians, but alas, who will convert me?

And he returned and met the bishop and sent him out and said, I saw among the Moravians something of reality, a reality of which I know nothing, and I seek that reality. Should I give up preaching until I find it?

He said, Now, preach and tell those who will hear you that you are seeking that reality. And then when you've experienced it, you can tell them that you've found it. But don't wait. Don't give up the preaching.

And he went then to visit his brother and others down at Oxford, and there they found that they'd formed a holy club. And he listened to them. Then later, at a place on Aldersgate Street, he was listening as one of the Moravians was reading in English, reading in German, translating into English Martin Luther's introduction to the Book of Romans, talking about justification through faith.

And Wesley said, his heart was strangely warm. Well, what was it strangely warm? It was the witness of the Spirit. And as he studied the Scripture, that's what he found. That strange warming was that inner knowledge that he had indeed passed from death to life and had been born in God.

You see, the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of adoption. And God has entrusted to us many things to do for Him. But He never abrogated His right to be the Spirit of adoption. Never. That He retains as His sovereign right.

There are some things we can do for Christ. Number one, we can live Christ before sinners as a sample of His grace. Number two, we can intercede for sinners. Number three, we can witness. But when we've done those three things, live Christ before them as a sample, witness, intercede for them and witness to them, we have used up all the tools we have.

There's nothing more you can do for a sinner. Then it is God who awakens. It's God the Holy Spirit who convicts. It's God who brings them to repentance and the sinner that repents. You can tell them how holy God is in your witness and how just is His judgment.

You can tell them the moral imperative of the law and the rationale of the law. You can tell them the sheer necessity of repentance if there's to be forgiveness. That anyone whose mind is set to do evil and continues to commit crime against God cannot expect amnesty or pardon or forgiveness.

You can tell them that faith will result from genuine repentance. You can tell them that there will be the witness of the Spirit. But the tragedy is we're in our zeal to see people born again. We have usurped the prerogatives of God the Holy Ghost.

And we have said, now believe what you see. What's that say? What's that say? What's that mean? That means you're saved. And if the devil ever comes around and tells you you're not saved, you quote this verse of Scripture and we arm them with the Scripture to fend off the Spirit of God.

You can't do that. You can't do that. You just can't do that. Because God the Holy Ghost is jealous of His prerogatives. And never has He said that He cedes to us. That's worse than Catholicism ever dared to think it would be.

They never presumed on such a thing to say that men have the right to perform the functions of the Trinity. Only we Protestants have ever dared to be so, use such temerity and rations. That it's done.

Over and over. If God began to speak to me, I would have given anything to have gone through years of my dealings. What's that say? Now, bleep, bleep, bleep, bleep. Give me a nickel and I can get a convert.

Give me a package full of nickels and I get a package full of converts. Only thing is, when I went back a year later, they were still just as they were before they opened up. I read in David Brainerd's book one time he'd gone into a group of Indians.

False Assurance and Spurious Conversions

And he had been preaching because there was such trouble among them. He was preaching the consolations of the children of God. And when he finished, there were 13 people that seemed to profess faith in Christ.

And he rejoiced that day. And he said he went then to his bed and rest and was coughing blood because he suffered from advanced tuberculosis. He said, I slept not at all that night. For God was troubling my spirit that these who were under the sentence of death had mistaken the consolations that belonged to the children of God as though they were their own.

And so he said, the next moment, the next morning, arising at the time that the sun did break the sky, I went from house to house of those that had professed to have found peace with God. And alas, alas, my worst fears were realized.

For of the 13, there were only three that had good hope in Christ. And the rest had spuriously mistaken the consolations that belonged only to the children of God as applying to them while still remaining under the sentence of death and in their sins.

Then said Brainerd, I realize that in that day arising in the lake of fire, they could have condemned me before God as an unthankful. But I went to them and pled with them not to confuse the consolations of the children of God as being for them.

When Jonathan Edwards' diary of David Brainerd was cut, that was cut out. And I regret so greatly now because it was something that was called for. Now, here you see this gracious world of spirit awakens in me and brings me closer to God.

Now, what is John said in 1 John? That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you that you also may have fellowship with us, and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.

I haven't written it, but I have it in my mind, so I never read this verse without going to Galatians 4, verses 4 to 6, the Euclides Church. Galatians 4, 4 to 6. In the fullness of time, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that are under the law.

And since we are sons, God has sent forth His Son into our hearts, whereby we cry, have a... sent forth... sent forth His... excuse me, I'm going to have to go back to this. I've got my name somewhere.

But when the fullness of time has come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because we are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.

Do you understand? God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, whereby you say, Daddy, Father. That's what Abba means, Father. Angel. Well, you have it. Because the Abba was from Peru. And it's children speaking in the language of the time.

And it says, it's a transfiguration. Now, these things that we have seen and heard declare we unto you that you may have fellowship with us, and our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ, the Father, sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.

And these things write we unto you that your joy may be full. So this little letter is written that we might have joy. God isn't trying. This isn't done designed to hurt you. Why? Why am I giving you this?

Why? Because every one of you has someone who's not sure that they're born again. I've had them come to me, you know, Brother, I'm not sure. What are you going to do? Pat them on the back? Oh, listen, we're members of the same church.

We go to the same Sunday school class. We go fishing together. We go on picnics together. We've known each other for years. What do you mean you're not? Has anybody saved your faith? I'm not sure. Is that what you want to say?

Who are you? Who are you to presume to know what's going on in another human heart? It's like going to a doctor. He's cancer specialist. And you go and you say, Doc, Bill, you know him well. He's your friend.

I think I have, possibly I have cancer. Hey, what's the matter with you? We were with you on Sunday night for supper. We're good friends. We go to the games together. We go on vacations together. What do you mean you've got cancer?

What's that got to do with cancer? Now, what does that have to do? Now, if he's your friend, do you know what he's going to say? I hope it's not true. As long as you have the concern, I promise you, I am going to use all of the technical knowledge and skills and resources that are available to me to try to help you find out.

Because if you have, it's not a day to lose. And if you haven't, you shouldn't have another moment's uncertainty in your life. Correct? Isn't that what a friend would do? Where do you get all this patting people on the back?

Don't worry about it. You're all right. What do you know about the human heart? How are you going to help that person that says, I'm not sure? You better take him to the doctor. Who's the doctor? The Holy Spirit.

He's the x-ray machine. That's why first God is so important. Because you bring him up against and let the spirit of God work. What do you want your doctor friend to do if you think you've got cancer?

Every technique possible to find out. You haven't any time to waste. And someone comes to you and says, I'm not sure. What are you going to do? Something superficial? Take these two aspartyl and all and you're going to be all right.

No, don't do that. Bring him up to the scripture. Let the scripture work. Now, this is just the first evidence. Draw a little line. Make a check. I don't care how you do it. Underline any way you want.

Walking in the Light as Evidence of New Birth

But verse 6 of chapter 1. The first evidence that we've been born of God. Now these things were written that you may have fellowship with us. Verse 6. If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth.

How do you walk? That's the first thing. Bring them up against the word of God. How do you walk? How do you walk? Do you know what walking is? I've heard it defined as walking is controlled falling. Controlled falling.

Directed falling. Because when you're walking, you're in a fall position. You're falling, but you're controlling. Now, do you know the difference between falling and walking? What's the difference? Falling is uncontrolled walking, if you will.

And walking is controlled falling. When you lose control and you walk, you fall. When you control your fall, you walk. Now, the scripture said that we could fall, peki, lest ye fall into sin. Now, you do know the difference then between walking and falling.

Let's suppose we're here today, and tomorrow you're down town, you're down some shopping center somewhere nice and quiet, a nice place, and you see, and you look at Paris for a day, and you say, look at that.

He taught Sunday school yesterday, and there he is, lying right next to the curbstone on the street. Oh, do you know who is that? My, my, my. Well, I got news for you. If you see me lying against the curbstone in the street, I want you to know that is not my natural habitat.

I fell. My heel caught in the fact that the sidewalk sunk and the curb was there, and I didn't see it, and I fell. Okay? Because that's not my habitat. But don't think you stand, peki, lest you fall into sin.

There isn't any one of us, any period of time in our life that isn't capable of sin, falling into sin. Theodore of Basel, the successor to John Calvin, wrote in his 82nd year, Oh, God, save me from making shipwreck of my soul when I'm just in sight of the harbor.

That was Theodore of Basel, no presumption there. That was a man who feared God. What am I talking about? I'm talking about the fact the scripture says that we are to walk in light as He is in light. And if we walk in darkness, step after step after step after step, and we say we have fellowship with Him, how do we?

Now, with that, you have to go back to Ephesians chapter 4. See, no scripture is a private interpretation. That is, everything in the scripture relates to something else in the scripture. And in verse 17, Ephesians 4, 17, and thereafter, clear down into the fifth chapter.

And this I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you henceforth walk not as other pagans, Gentiles walk, but how they walk, in the vanity of their mind. Boy, I got it made. Having the understanding darkened.

We're talking about a friend of someone who couldn't see. The understanding darkened. Alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart. Now, that's what it means partly to walk in darkness.

Something else? Verse 22, put off concerning the former conversation, the old man which is corrupt according to deceitful lusts. Verse 24, put on the new man which is created, verse 25 rather, putting away lying.

26, be angry and sin not. 27, give no place to the devil. 28, let him that stole steal no more. 29, let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth. 31, let all bitterness, wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you.

Verse 3 of chapter 5, but fornication, all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not once be named among you as become a saint. Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting. For this you know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, or covetous man, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ, and of God.

And then verse 8, walk as children of life. Now, you bring them up against the scripture. My dear friend, you're not sure that you're born of God. How do you walk? Step after step after step. I didn't say, have you ever fallen?

Have you ever stumbled? That isn't the issue. It isn't a question of did you fall or stumble. All of us have fallen. All of us have stumbled. All of us have had to come to the Lord God to forgive me for this.

And He knows that. Because in the 7th verse it says,. And the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin. And if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. But if we confess our sin...