Practicing Confession of Sin
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To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba. 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. 18 Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; build up the walls of Jerusalem; 19 then will you delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on your altar.
PRAYER
Read 1 John 1:9
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Confession of Sin is Agreeing with God
Confession of Sin is Agreeing with God
If we confess our sins
If – this is a condition. The implication is that if we do not confess sin, we will not know the forgiveness of God in any measure. We cannot be converted without the confession of sin. We cannot grow in Christification or sanctification, if we do not confess our sins. We cannot come to Christ or become more life Christ apart from confession of sin. There is a condition which we must meet in order to experience the following realities mentioned in this verse
We confess – I do believe John has in mind believers, Christians, followers of Christ as he wrote “we”. This activity is one belonging to God’s people. What is the activity specifically? It is confession. This word communicate the concept of saying the same thing, it means to agree together with. When one confesses sin to God, there is an agreement with all God says about sin. There is an honest acknowledgement of sin. It is also important to note the word is in the present tense, which means confession is an ongoing activity for the people of God.
Our sins – There is a reality while we are living in this age, we still sin. Graciously and thankfully, there will be a time when we will not sin, but it is not here and now.
Spurgeon, “Children of God sin! Some of them have claimed to be well-nigh free from it; but—I will say no more; I think they sinned when they talked in such a lofty strain. God’s children sin, for they are still in the body. If they are in a right state of heart they will mourn over this, and it will be the burden of their lives. Oh that they could live without sin! it is this that they sigh after, and they can never be fully content until they obtain it. They do not excuse themselves by saying, “I cannot be perfect,” but they feel that their inability is their sin. They regard every transgression and tendency to sin as a grievous fault, and they mourn over it from day to day. They would be holy as Christ is holy. To will is present with them, but how to perform that which they would they find not.”
Since we still sin, we need to confess individual sins to God. We need to recognize and repent and ask for renewal in the ability to turn from them from the greatest to the least, from the public to the private, from known to unknown, from the presumptuous to those of ignorance. We must confess our sins.
Unconfessed sin hinders true fellowship and communion with God.
Unconfessed sin fosters spiritual decay and insensitivty to the Spirit of God
Unconfessed sin causes us to pray for wrong things or with wrong motives.
Unconfessed sin leads to the pursuit of vain or unprofitable things.
Unconfessed sin distracts us from the Great Commission.
Unconfessed sin separates us from fellowship with other believers.
13 Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.
Confession of Sin Recalls God’s Character
Confession of Sin Recalls God’s Character
He is faithful and just
He is faithful – he is trustworthy and reliable to do what he said he would do concerning our sin and guilt. He is not toss about like men and their decisions. God is resolved and bound to keep his word. God will keep his promises.
13 Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures throughout all generations. The Lord is faithful in all his words and kind in all his works. 14 The Lord upholds all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down.
23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.
And just – Not only is God faithful, but he is just or righteous. As you know, this is a concept that I love. Just. God is a God of justice. That is true, but John is telling those who have sinned to confess this to a God who is just. However, in this case, it is not a terror, but a comfort. Why would John present the justice of God in relationship to our sin as a comfort? Well, quite simply, he understands the character of God regarding the accomplishment of redemption by Christ Jesus in his life, burial and resurrection. If Christ truly was punished for our sin on the cross and satisfied the just demands of God on our behalf, then it would be unjust for God to disallow the application of forgiveness to us after the cross work of Jesus.
21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 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, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
Confession of Sin is Trusting the Gospel
Confession of Sin is Trusting the Gospel
To forgive us our sins
To forgive – to remit, to cancel, to send away, the removal of an offense.
18 Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love. 19 He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities underfoot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. 20 You will show faithfulness to Jacob and steadfast love to Abraham, as you have sworn to our fathers from the days of old.
Us our sins – our personal failure to accomplish the will of God in obedience. Our failure to do right and our failure to avoid wrong
1 Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. 2 Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. 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 5 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
Confession of Sin Cleanses the Conscience
Confession of Sin Cleanses the Conscience
And to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Cleanse – purify, make clean, washed
25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.
From all unrighteousness – We are washed from all wrongdoing. One might ask the question, I thought we were forgiven of all sin at the cross? Or I thought I was forgiven all my sin at conversion? Why do I still need forgiveness now? I do not think our ongoing confession of sin does anything to add to forgiveness secured by Christ Jesus on the cross. I believe the way to understand this cleansing from all unrighteousness is that God give a fresh application or realization of what Jesus did for us on the cross and our consciences are freed from the guilt of remaining sin. In addition, we are made confident of our acceptance with God through Jesus Christ. We are free from every single sin in that it cannot be charge against us legally, not weigh down our conscience. We are free from all forms of condemnation.
13 For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
Conclusion:
Conclusion:
Thomas Watson:
1. Confession must be voluntary
It must come as water out of a spring, freely.
2. Confession must be with compunction
The heart must deeply resent it. A natural man’s confessions run through him as water through a pipe. They do not at all affect him. But true confession leaves heart-wounding impressions. It is one thing to confess sin and another thing to feel sin.
3. Confession must be sincere
Our hearts must go along with our confessions. He is convinced of the sins he confesses, and abhors the sins he is convinced of.
4. In true confession a man particularizes sin
A wicked man acknowledges he is a sinner in general. A true convert acknowledges his particular sins.
5. We must confess our sins with resolution not to do them again
What king will pardon that man who, after he has confessed his treason, practices new treason?
1 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.