Abiding In Christ

Confession & forgiveness

Lesson 3

A. Confession

Question: What does the Bible mean by confession?

Answer: (1) to say the same thing as another.

(2) to agree with God.

So, when God brings sin to our attention, we must agree with and confess the same thing God says about it.

Jeremiah 3:13 (ESV)

Only acknowledge your guilt, that you rebelled against the Lord your God and scattered your favors among foreigners under every green tree, and that you have not obeyed my voice, declares the Lord.

Psalm 32:5 ESV

I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah

Sometimes sin is so deep we are not fully aware of it - we must therefore ask God to reveal it to us. Psalm 19:12.

Psalm 19:12 ESV

Who can discern his errors? Declare me innocent from hidden faults.

B. We cannot hide sin from God

Question: Can we hide sin from God?

Answer: We can sometimes hide it from one another, but never from God.

B. We cannot hide sin from God

Read Isaiah 29:15, Jeremiah 16:17, Psalm 90:8, Luke 12:2,3.

Isaiah 29:15 ESV

Ah, you who hide deep from the Lord your counsel, whose deeds are in the dark, and who say, “Who sees us? Who knows us?”

Jeremiah 16:17 ESV

For my eyes are on all their ways. They are not hidden from me, nor is their iniquity concealed from my eyes.

Psalm 90:8 ESV

You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence.

Luke 12:2–3 ESV

2 Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. 3 Therefore whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops.

C. What happens when we do not confess our sins?

Unconfessed sin is an awful thing which causes us to lose our fellowship with God.

It is not enough to do God’s work; we must do it with clean hands and a pure heart. Unconfessed sin is one of the greatest obstacles to accomplishing the Lord’s work.

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Illustration: If a man were wearing a pair of spectacles and he never cleaned them, of course we know what would happen. Every day more and more dirt would accumulate on his glasses and so day by day he would see less and less through those glasses. 

So, it is with sin. When we do not constantly confess it, we allow a great barrier of sin to build up between us and God. If we allow this barrier of sin to build up, our hearts harden, sin increases and soon we are under its control again.  

Read Psalm 32:3,4 and see how David experienced just that.

Psalm 32:3–4 ESV

3 For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. 4 For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. Selah

D. God wants to forgive us and restore our fellowship when we confess our sins

1. Confessing our sins makes real in our experience what God has done for us through the death of His Son.

2. Confession allows God's love and forgiveness to flow into our lives.

3. God cannot fill a dirty vessel with His love and power.

Demonstration

1. Take a glass half filled with dirty water.

2. Add clean water to it and see how the water remains dirty even though clean water has been added. God says that He will not hear us if we cherish sin in our heart. Psalm 66:18.

3. By confessing our sin, the dirty water is thrown out of the glass and God can pour in His beautiful clear water of life.

Psalm 66:18 ESV

18 If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.

Read Ps 86:5, 1 John 1:7, 9. By confession and walking in the light with God and one another we will have true fellowship.

Psalm 86:5 ESV

5 For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon you.

1 John 1:7–9 ESV

7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

E. We must "breathe in" this forgiveness

Read Philippians 3:13.

Philippians 3:13 ESV

13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,

Illustration: Just as our bodies require us to breathe in and out in order to live, so we need to “breathe out” confession and “breathe in” forgiveness in order to live spiritually.

Many Christians struggle to believe that God can forgive them of terrible sin and so feel depressed and do not lead the abundant life.

We must not reduce the power of Christ's blood to cover all sin. We must believe God when He tells us repeatedly in His Word that He wants to forgive us - that is why He sent His only begotten Son Jesus Christ to die for us.

By faith we must simply accept His forgiveness and have fellowship with Him moment by moment. We must also forgive ourselves of the sin we have committed, otherwise we will live under our own bondage of unforgiveness.

F. We must forgive others

Read Matthew 6:14,15; Mark 11:25,26.

Matthew 6:14–15 ESV

14 For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, 15 but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Mark 11:25–26 ESV

25 And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”

Since God has forgiven us of so much, we must forgive one another – constantly. Read Matthew 18:21-22.

Matthew 18:21–22 ESV

21 Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” 22 Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.

G. Confession is always joined with repentance

Question: What does repentance mean?

Answer: Repentance means "a change of mind" and "to turn in the opposite direction." Confession by itself is not enough, we must repent and stop doing that particular sin.

Read Proverbs 28:13, if we confess and forsake our sin we shall have mercy.

Proverbs 28:13 ESV

13 Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.

Read Psalm 51:1-17 and see how David prayed after being confronted by the prophet Nathaniel about his sin with Bathsheba.

Psalm 51:1–17 ESV

1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! 3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. 4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. 5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. 6 Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. 7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice. 9 Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. 10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. 11 Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. 13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you. 14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. 15 O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. 16 For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. 17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

Illustration: The tadpole and the bullfrog

There is a story of a little town which received its water from a nearby dam through a pipe. This pipe had a sieve at its entrance in the dam to stop leaves and dirt going through and also a sieve at its exit at the town. Then a strange thing happened. As the weeks went by the amount of water coming out of the pipe became less and less until it finally stopped. The townspeople were very surprised and on investigating found that a huge bullfrog was stuck in the pipe which prevented the water passing through. Of course no one could understand how this huge bullfrog could have gotten through the sieve until they realized that it must have got in as a small tadpole and grown into a big bullfrog. 

Unconfessed and unrepented sin is just like that bullfrog - it starts small but grows and grows until it dominates our lives and stops the flow of the Holy Spirit's living water through us.

Be quick to confess and receive God’s forgiveness whenever the Holy Spirit reveals a sin to you. Remember God has chosen you as his child, John 1:12,13, and wants to do mighty things through you - so always confess and receive the forgiveness from your Father who sent His Son to die for our sin.

John 1:12–13 ESV

12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

Memory Verse

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".

Notes

What happens when sin is confessed?

1. The sins are blotted out. Acts 3:19

2. They are forgiven. Exodus 34:7; 1 John 1:9; 2:12

3. They are made white as snow and as wool. Isaiah 1:18

4. They are cast behind God's back. Isaiah 38:17

5. They are forgotten. Isaiah 43:25; Hebrews 8:12; 10:17

6. They are purged away. Psalm 79:9; Hebrews 1:3

7. They are covered. Psalm 32:1; Romans 4:7

8. They are removed as far as the east is from the west. Psalm 103:12

9. They are cast into the depths of the sea. Micah 7:19

10. They are washed away. Revelation 1:5.

11. We are freed from them. Romans 6:7, 16-23; 8:2

What happens when sin is not confessed?

1. It causes death. Ezekiel 33:8-13; Romans 8:12-13

2. It hinders prayers. Psalm 66:18

3. It provokes God to anger. 1 Kings 16:2

4. It makes God weary. Isaiah 43:24

5. It separates us from God. Isaiah 59:2

6. They testify against us. Isaiah 59:12; Jeremiah 14:7.

7. They are remembered by God. Psalm 25:7.

8. They bring punishment. Amos 3:2.

9. They damn the soul. 2 Thessalonians 2:12.

10. They cause one to be of Satan. 1 John 3:8

11. They cause hardening of heart. Hebrews 3:13