I Believe in the Forgiveness or Sin

Text: 1 John 1:8-10

Theme: This morning I am going to propose that the way to cleanse the human heart is through the voluntary act of confession to Christ.

Date: 05/16/21 File name: ApostlesCreed14 ID Number: OT32-03

I believe in the forgiveness of sin. The Apostle’s Creed is a doctrinal statement that was crafted almost two millennia ago to set forth certain core beliefs of the Christian faith. Up until now the Apostles’ Creed has listed concise statements about the nature of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, and the Lord’s Church. But now we show up, and we show up because this clause in the creed is all about us. And when we show up in the creed, we show up as sinners who desperately need forgiveness. It is here that the confession nails us to the wall by reminding us that we are sinners needing grace.

Unfortunately, we are ministering in an age that has declared war on the notion of sin. The modern psycho-therapeutic revolution has so shaped the mind and the worldview of the culture that most Americans have simply disabused themselves of the idea that sin is a legitimate category of personal behavior. And if they ever do feel shameful about a behavior it’s because their guilt has been forced upon them by an oppressive belief system that is part of an antiquated outmoded morality system called Christianity. So how do modern progressive Americans deal with shame and guilt? They are either encouraged to ignore it, deny it, or find a therapist who will counsel them to ignore it or deny it. But that’s like ignoring or denying a diagnosis of cancer. You do so at your eternal peril

The Bible repeatedly affirms the reality of sin. We are conceived in sin, born as sinners, will exhibit the tendencies of sin very early in life and will, at some point, choose to actively sin, and never stop.

Our central text for the morning is 1 John 1:9 — “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9, NIV84)

Walking in the light means regularly confessing our sins to God that we might experience his cleansing.

Four points this morning: 1) The Problem of Sin 2) The Purpose of Confession, 3) The Power of Forgiveness, and 4) The Promise of Righteousness.

I. THE PROBLEM OF SIN

1. the Bible tells us that man has a problem, and that problem is a nature and character that is saturated in sin; we’re marinated in it; if we were pigs we’d gleefully wallow in it

a. we are thoroughly infected and affected by our sinful nature

b. ever since the Fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden our minds and our will, our emotions, and our bodies are subservient to the sinful nature

1) if you are outside of Christ, your spiritual father is the Devil, and your Adamic nature is alive and in control and leaves you no choice but to sin

2) if you are in Christ, you spiritual father is God, and your new Christ-nature makes you alive in Christ giving you control and victory over the old sinful nature

a) that’s the essence of the New Birth

2. I’m going to make the assumption that I don’t have to belabor the reality of sin to a congregation of worshiping Christians

a. and yet, we cannot completely ignore the point

1) one of the problems I’ve noticed in my own life is something I think a lot of Evangelical Christians deal with — it’s a laissez faire attitude toward sin and forgiveness

2) we’ve heard so many sermons on forgiveness and salvation and redemption and reconciliation that we tend to take God’s grace for granted, and in doing so take the seriousness of our sin for granted

3. if we could ever see our sin for what it is; if we could understand the sinfulness of our sin; if we could see our sin as God sees our sin, it would destroy us

“Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. 3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. 4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge.” (Psalm 51:1–4, NIV84)

a. Psalms 51 is King David’s prayer of confession and repentance after his sin with Bath-sheba and his complicity in the murder of her husband

b. David admits that his sin is always before me — it’s his way of saying guilt and shame are eating him up

ILLUS. David understands the sinfulness of his sin, not because he has just come from his therapist, or not because he has watched an episode of Oprah or Dr. Phil, but because a prophet of God has shown up and forced David to take an in-depth look at his soul where he discovers the ugliness of his sin.

1) David admits that his sin is always before me — when he looks to the right and when he looks to the left his iniquity is there

2) when he looks up and when he looks down his iniquity is there

3) when he opens his eyes, and when he closes his eyes his iniquity is there

c. only confession, repentance and forgiveness can restore him to God and alleviate the shame and guilt

4. because we have a mostly superficial understanding of sin we never see sin as seriously as God sees it

a. 1st, the Apostle Paul saw sin as failing to measure up to God’s glory

“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” (Romans 3:23, NIV84)

1) now, let’s face it ... that doesn’t sound like such a big deal

a) I’m not God, I’m merely a creature ... of course I’m going to fall short of the glory of God

b) how can anyone not fall short of the glory of God

c) I’m in the same boat with every other human being who has ever lived

2) what we forget is that falling short of God’s glory implies that there is a standard by which we are being measured

a) God measures our lives by His own glory, and demands that we be holy as he is holy if we hope to spend eternity with Him

b) it’s because I (we) fail to measure up to that standard that we are rightly condemned and consigned to the Lake of Fire

b. 2nd, Paul also saw sin as actively robbing God of His glory

1) God takes His own glory seriously, and refuses to share it with his creatures

ILLUS. In the Book of Numbers (chap. 20) God has led the Israelites to a place called Meribah. The people and their livestock need water desperately. God told Moses to speak to a rock so that it would send out water for the Israelites to drink in the desert, but in anger Moses struck the rock with his staff instead. Certainly the direct consequences of this action were not bad for the Israelites. They had been in danger of dying of thirst, and this action saved them. But the indirect consequences were very dangerous spiritually. Moses was not allowed to enter the Promised Land because of his sin. What’s the sin? I mean ‘speak to the rock; strike the rock’? they got water, didn’t they?

God had told Moses to gather all the Israelites together in front of the rock, and God had given him these instructions: “Speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water.” Instead, Moses gathered the Israelites and said to them, speaking for himself and his fellow leader Aaron, “Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?” Then he struck the rock twice, and water came out. In response to this, God told Moses, “Because you did not believe in me, to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.”

2) Moses robbed God of His glory, and for doing so Moses sees the Promised Land, but he never enters it with the people

3) way more than we care to admit, we rob God of His glory ... we are by nature glory thieves

a) a glory thief steals the honor and praise that God deserves by making himself the object of glory and praise that God rightly deserves

b) we rob God of His glory when we try to solicit praise from others for our accomplishments

c) we rob God of His glory when we engage in false humility

d) we rob God of His glory when we take credit for the accomplishments of our life

e) we rob God of His glory when we give credit to others for the accomplishments of their life

4) that the lost man robs God of His glory should not surprise us ... as Christians we know better, and must regularly guard against it

ILLUS. "What is the chief end of man?", asks the first question of the Westminster Shorter Catechism. Its answer is wonderfully simple, but theologically stunning: "Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever".

5. until you see your sin as God sees your sin you will never fully appreciate the grace of God poured out on your life when you were saved

... the Presence of Sin in Your Life Is Real

II. THE PURPOSE OF CONFESSION

1. the Apostle tells us that we cannot walk in darkness while claiming to have fellowship with God

a. if we do, we’re living a lie

2. walking in the light means that we will have a Biblical understanding about sin

a. the Apostle tells his readers that if we confess our sins ...

b. in that simple statement he is attempting to help his readers — and us — correctly deal with the sin in our lives

A. CONFESSION AGREES WITH GOD THAT OUR SIN IS SIN

1. in order to understand the purpose of confession we must first understand what John means by the word confession

a. what does it mean to confess our sins?

b. the word confess is from the Greek verb homologeo, and basically means to agree with

1) to confess means to say that same thing about something that God is saying about it

2) when God’s Word says that the thing you did is sin, you are to agree with God’s way of looking at it

3) when God’s Spirit convicts you that the thing you did is sin, you are to agree with God’s way of looking at it

4) you are to say, “You are right, Lord, I agree with you that this thing I did, or this thought I had, or this attitude I have is sin.”

c. that is what it means to confess your sins

1) this is the correct way for a Christian to deal with sin in their life

2) when God calls something “sin” we are not to obfuscate, deny, or argue for a lesser charge

3) we acknowledge the reality of our transgression and plead the blood of Christ

2. we don’t confess sin because God doesn’t know about our sin

a. the attitude of “What God doesn’t know about won’t hurt Him” is not the way for a professing Christian to go through life

b. I assure you ...God knows!

3. if we look at our text we will see some practical clues as to how confession plays out in our lives

a. "If"—suggests that confession is a conscious choice and not forced upon us by God or man

1) God does not coerce us or pressure us into confession

2) “If” means that, by choice, we will openly and honestly face sin without hiding it or finding excuses for it

b. "If We" —means that confession is for everyone; all have sinned and are responsible for their own sin

1) it’s always easy to see the other guy’s sin — it’s harder to see the sin within

2) “We” means taking a deep, introspective inventory of our own sin

c. "If we Confess" — means admitting wrong doing, and taking personal responsibility for our sinful choices

1) we confess our sins to show repentance and renewal of life, and we keep on confessing

2) the verb confess is in the present, active tense which means confession is not a one-time event, but something the believer will regularly do as we become conscience of our sins and seriously attempt to deal with them

ILLUS. We don’t necessarily have to go to the lengths of Martin Luther. For Luther, confession was a daily discipline. Sometimes he confessed for as long as six hours at a time! He took it to the highest extreme. The other brothers came regularly to their confessors and said, ‘Father, I have sinned. Last night I stayed up after ‘lights out’ and read my Bible with a candle.’ Or, ‘Yesterday at lunchtime I coveted Brother Philip’s potato salad.’ (How much trouble can a monk get into in a monastery?) The father Confessor would hear the confession, grant priestly absolution, and assign a small penance to be performed. That was it. The whole transaction took only a few minutes. Not so with Brother Luther. He drive his Confessor to distraction. Luther was not satisfied with a brief recitation of his sins. He wanted to make sure that no sin in his life was left unconfessed. He entered the confessional and stayed for hours every day. In fact, because of his obsession with confession, Luther was even deemed crazy by his fellow monks.

Luther’s reason for confession was because of his terror over God’s judgment. He lived in daily fear of the immediate judgment of God on his life. He said on one occasion, “If I could believe that God was not angry with me, I would stand on my head for joy.”

3) here is the key ... if you’ve been born again, you can stand on your head for joy knowing that perfect complete redemption is yours

4) do you still sin? do you still need to confess you sin?

a) absolutely

5) but you need not spend half-the-day doing so ... but then again, most of us probably should spend more time at it than we do!

d."If we Confess our Sins" — at the root of confession are our transgressions against God

1) our disobedience against the commands of God are not errors of judgment or mistakes or struggles with inner demons — they are sin, and we’re usually guilty of multiply ones

4. confession, therefore, is admitting and taking responsibility for our sin by an act of our own free will

III. THE POWER OF FORGIVENESS — “

1. how many of you know there is power in confession?

a. the key to understanding this power is found in vs. 9

b. confession unleashes the power of God in the believer’s life in that through confession we experience God’s grace through forgiveness and cleansing by the Spirit

2. "He" — that is, God, is the justifier of those who sin against Him

a. He is willing to do so because He is abundant in grace and mercy demonstrated through the atoning sacrifice of His only begotten son

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—” (Ephesians 2:4–5, ESV)

“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,” (Romans 3:23–24, ESV))

3. "He is Faithful and Just" — here is the assurance — God is faithful with respect to his promises

“Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.” (Romans 5:9–10, ESV)

4. "He is faithful and just and Will" — the power of God to do what He has promised is assured in the lives of all who confess their sin

a. there is no “maybe” here

5. "He is faithful and just and will Forgive us our sins" — the power of God is the forgiveness of "OUR" sin

““Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.” (Isaiah 1:18, ESV)

a. the question many believers ask is “Does the author of 1 John refer here to an initial confession of sins at conversion (when a person becomes a believer), or to ongoing confession of sins in the life of the believer?”

1) the author is not worried about the initial justification of the people to whom he is writing

2) he regards the members of the community as genuine believers

3) the author points out that if Christians confess the sins they are aware of, they may be sure that God will forgive their sins

b. forgiveness is perhaps one of the sweetest words in any language

1) the verb forgive in this passage describes the act of canceling a debt and the restoration of the debtor

IV. THE PROMISE OF CONFESSION

1. the promise that comes with confession ends with purification

2. "And"— shows us that forgiveness itself is not the end of God's promise to those who humble themselves in confession

a. the glorious promise of the gospel is the free and gracious forgiveness of sin given to everyone who truly repents and believes in the person and work of the Son of God

b. that divine pardon is so comprehensive that God removes all believing sinners’ defilement, guilt, and punishment and replaces those things with righteousness, sanctification, and heavenly reward

3. "And Purify"— means to free from sin, guilt, or other defilement

a. true believers are habitual confessors who demonstrate that God has not only pardoned their sin and is faithfully cleansing them daily from it, but has truly regenerated them, making them new creatures with holy desires that dominate their will

“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,” (Romans 8:1, NIV84)

4. "And purify Us"— again this applies to all who have obeyed this teaching thus far

5. "And purify us from All"— there are no limits to the purification process presented here

6. "And purify us from all Unrighteousness"— unrighteousness is any behavior that denies God His sovereignty over our life

a. one of the things I find interesting is that even many non-believers will recommend confession because confession is good for the soul

1) what they mean by that is that confession is psychologically and emotionally therapeutic

a) weather-or-not there is really a God who really forgives sin is irrelevant

2) it is an act that helps people feel good about feeling bad, ensuring that they “feel” forgiven and experience emotional and psychological healing

b. the difference between therapeutic confession and biblical confession is that when the believer confess sin, an actual spiritual transaction takes place

1) God really and actually restores the relationship and cleanses our conscience

V. SOME APPLICATION

1. 1st, sin remains a real problem in our lives even after conversion

a. we need to be aware of it

b. we need to ruthlessly evaluate our lives, comparing them to the New Testament, and praying that the Holy Spirit might reveal our sin to us

2. 2nd, confession humbles us—it shows us who we are and who God is

a. confession is God's tool for changing us — it is not for God’s benefit, but for ours

b. confession says that I’m in a love relationship with God and I won’t attempt to hide anything form Him or from myself

c. guilt and shame are not part of oppressive belief system that is antiquated, but the result of very real sin

1) in the modern psycho-therapeutic culture guilt and shame drive people to their therapist ... it’s meant to drive us to God

3. 3rd, the power of forgiveness is real

a. do you desire forgiveness of your sins?

1) find a quite place

2) speak your sin out loud

3) believe and receive the promise of Christ when he says he will forgive you

4) experience the powerful cleansing of Christ's forgiveness

4. 4th, the Apostle is telling us that forgiveness in and of itself is not the end product of the Christian’s confession of sin

a. spiritual cleansing and a renewed life of righteousness is

b. perhaps the most erroneous view of confession some believers gain from this passage is that believers are forgiven of only those sins they confess

1) if that were correct, it would mean that unconfessed sins remain with believers until the judgment seat of Christ, at which time they will have to give an account for those iniquities

2) but such is simply not the case

c. no one will enter heaven with a list of unconfessed sins still hanging over his head because the finished work of Jesus Christ completely covers all of the sins of those who believe, including those that remain unconfessed

“My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 2 He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.” (1 John 2:1–2, ESV)

2. but our regular confession of sin results in regular cleansing of guilt that in turn aids us in living in a regular relationship with God

a. the promise of confession is that we will be cleansed and feel cleansed

Conclusion:

As we come to our invitation time where I ask you to make a public commitment to Christ, let me ask your: 1st, Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? Has there been an initial conversion experience in your life where the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit has saved you and caused you to repent of your sin and confess Christ as Savior and Lord?

2nd, Are you, as a Christian, biblically dealing with your sin? Do you regularly and consistently ask God to show you your sin? Do you confess and repent of the sin He shows you is a part of your life?