(This was the 2nd of two sermons preached by our Associate Minister Scott Jewell while I was in Israel)
Open with the Lord’s prayer from Matthew 6:9-13
We’re continuing to learn from the Lord’s prayer by using the acronym ACTS.
As a refresher, the acronym represents four parts to prayer that help us maintain a proper balance in our conversations with God- Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication. Today we are going to focus on the idea of confession.
Webster’s Dictionary definition of "confession":
1- statement in which you say that you have done something wrong
2- the act of telling people something that makes you embarrassed, ashamed, etc.
3- the act of telling your sins to God
I need to begin with a confession of my own. I’m not a big fan of confession. I’m guessing there are more than a few of you who are right there with me. After all, who actually enjoys admitting they’re wrong, that they’ve made a mistake, that “yes dear, you were right”, having to swallow their pride and eat a slice of humble pie, coming face-to-face with the notion that they’re a sinner in the need of grace and they can’t simply give an excuse and move on like nothing has ever happened. Confession can be very painful, it makes us vulnerable, it subjects us to another’s mercy, it takes away our sense of being in control as we submit ourselves to whomever is listening. Confession forces us to look in the mirror and take responsibility for the choices we’ve made or the actions we’ve taken. In fact, just last night, our plan was to pick up our dog from the Army house on the way home and we had texted that we would be there by 7:30. However, I had programmed the gps to direct us home and I forgot to turn off the route to get Larry. Terri went to text BJ to let her know that I had missed the turn so we’d be a bit late. I suggested that all she had to say in the text was that we were running late, no need to point out my error. Such a small thing, but I didn’t like having to say it was my fault, but there it is.
Confession is good for the soul. -Scottish Proverb
No one knows this better than King David. Turn in your Bibles to Psalm 32 while I explain what prompted David to pen these words. Recap the events of David and Bathsheba, Uriah, and Nathan. Soon after these events took place, David wrote the 32nd Psalm. In the heading, you’ll notice that it is identified as one of David’s psalms, then referred to as a maskil. The word maskil carries this idea of a lesson or teaching, so right up front that David wrote this psalm to teach us something- as we shall see, that lesson is the value of confession. Read Psalm 32.
The Psalm begins by declaring how blessed it is to be forgiven. Charles Spurgeon points to the plural form of blessed and describes this as an exuberant expression of joy that comes with the relief of a burden no longer carried- “Oh the blessednesses.” I like to picture him saying, “Oh the blessednesseseseses.” He then goes on to explain why with this vivid description:
Note the three words so often used to denote our disobedience: transgression, sin, and iniquity, are the three headed dog at the gates of hell, but our glorious Lord has silenced his barkings for ever against his own believing ones. The trinity of sin is overcome by the Trinity of heaven. -Charles Spurgeon
David uses three words to describe his downfall that led to his misery- transgression, sin, and iniquity. Now, at first glance I thought, how nice, the psalmist got out his thesaurus and found different ways to express the idea of wrongdoing. He mixed it up, got creative, waxed eloquent for our listening pleasure. If you dig a little deeper though, each of these words convey a slightly different nuance that presents a fuller picture when brought together. Let’s look at the verbal picture David was painting.
Transgression: a going away, a departure from God
David uses the word transgression to draw a picture of someone running away from something or someone. The word reminds me of how the prophet Jonah tried to run from God. Here is a man who is told by God to proclaim His judgment upon the Ninevites. Jonah was more concerned about what the Ninevites might do in response to his message than what God could do if he disobeyed. So he goes and buys a one-way ticket to Tarshish- a city as far away as possible from Nineveh. Of course, we know that God whipped up a storm, Jonah gets thrown in the sea, and a big fish swallows him before spitting him out on the shore near Nineveh after three days. It seems silly to think of running from the God who is everywhere, but how often do we do the exact same thing? Something happened that we’d rather justify than confess, so we seek to avoid God. Maybe that looks like skipping a little study and prayer time, missing church here and there, dodging concerned brothers & sisters in hopes the problem will eventually just go away. When we transgress, we separate ourselves from God.
Sin: missing the mark or target
When David uses the word sin, he draws a picture of missing the mark, falling short of the target, much like the archer on the screen. Paul uses this same type of imagery. In Romans 3:23, he writes, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. No exceptions, no excuses. In Romans 6:23, Paul tells us that the wages of sin is death. Some parenting experts say that you should never give your kids an allowance. Why? Because an allowance by definition is a promise made with no strings attached. If the kids do their chores, they get their money. If the kids don’t do their chores, they get their money. Instead, these experts say we should offer our children wages because wages are something a person earns. If the kids want to receive their money, they’ve got to do their chores. It helps prepare them for the working world as they become adults. It also helps us see that sin earns us death. When we sin, we hurt ourselves.
Iniquity: something that is twisted or distorted
The third word that David uses in painting his masterpiece is iniquity. This word carries the idea of taking something that is direct or pure and twisting or distorting it. We’ve learned in math and geography classes that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. As you can see in the above graphic, God’s plan gives us a straight line, but too often we take detours, sometimes even going round and round in circles as we seek our destination. Even worse, when we take the straight, simple truth of God and we twist or distort it to fit our comfort, our iniquity often hurts the people around us, especially those we love.
David goes on to describe the result of holding on to the guilt of our transgression, sin, and iniquity in our lives. If you’ve held your place at Psalm 32, you’ll see in vss 3-4, the anguish of holding on despite our guilt.
As David maintained silence about his wrongdoing, it felt as if his bones were wasting away. The very framework that holds us together and keeps us in human shape, felt as if it was decaying away because of the guilt David felt. He felt the weight of God’s hand upon him day and night, thinking God cannot love me anymore after what I’ve done. His strength was sapped, feeling emotionally drained as if he’d been out in the fields working all day in the heat of the sun. Have you ever been there? Knowing you did wrong, hoping no one would ever find out, only to feel like your entire body is being tortured by the pain of knowing you did wrong and hoping no one would ever find out? Edgar Allan Poe describes this guilt-induced self-torture in his story, The Telltale Heart. The main character of the story had an older roommate that he believed was always watching him, his vulture eye open and watching even while sleeping, so he murdered him and hid the remains under the floorboards. When the police came to interrogate him, he sat directly above the body. As the detective calmly asked questions, the narrator became more and more agitated because he was convinced he could hear his victim’s heart beating louder and louder until finally he jumps up and admits what he had done, furious that the detective had been ignoring the obvious beating of the man’s heart this whole time.
But David doesn’t conclude his psalm in guilt and anguish. Just as he used three words to make it clear that we sin in every manner possible, he describes forgiveness using three different concepts to show us how God responds when we confess.
David’s first word is forgiven. When we stop running from God and confess our transgression, through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God has removed our sin so that we might return to Him. The relationship between God and man is restored.
David’s next word is covered. Romans 6:23 told us that the wages of sin is death. Romans 3:23 informed us that ALL have sinned and therefore are worthy of death, but Paul continued in verse 24 to say, “and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” Jesus covered our wages, the price has been paid in full. When we confess, we can know that our sin is now covered.
David puts the final touches on this work of art with the phrase not counted. This means that when we confess, God no longer holds our sin against us. Imagine, if you will, that your life is represented by a chalk board (for some of our younger folks, those are old school white boards complete with dust and the screech of nails being dragged across the board if the class was being unruly). Some of us may need to imagine a larger chalk board than others. On this board, God has placed a tally mark for every sin you’ve committed. When you confess these sins, they are no longer counted. So God pulls out the eraser and wipes the board clean. Your sin is gone. It has been removed as far as the east is from the west. When the day of judgment comes, God will not dig deep into the recesses of his memory and say, “You remember that one time you kept picking at your sisters until your mother had reached her limit and then you stepped back to let them continue and watch as they received the consequences of their bad behavior?” Terri’s over there thinking, your sisters would be wondering exactly which of those times you’re referring to, Scott. You have confessed, the weight is lifted, your sin will not be counted.
Several people were talking about the Undercover Boss episode featuring Marco’s Pizza and the experience of Bryon Stephens on that show. I love how Comcast provides on-demand service because I wasn’t where I could watch that episode as it aired, but I was able to watch it with even fewer commercials at a later time. At one point in the show, Bryon was talking to a young man about how his ambition reminded Bryon of himself when he was a young man, how that ambition brought great sacrifices and even regret, and that he wanted to help this young man learn from his mistakes so they wouldn’t have to be repeated. David is doing the same thing for us with this Psalm. After sharing the anguish he went through while holding on to his guilt and the blessing of finding God’s forgiveness in confession, he gives some pointers for how we should proceed.
Verse 6- Go to God while there is still time. Confess your sin in prayer without delay, knowing the day will come when it will be too late and we need to be prepared as we don’t know that day or hour.
Verse 9- Don’t be stubborn about this like a horse or mule that must be controlled by bit and bridle. As we’ve often told our girls, it’s much better to admit the truth of what you’ve done wrong than to try to hide it in hopes of getting away with it. I promise you, God already knows what you’ve done. Why make yourself suffer from the guilt of carrying a burden He has offered to take from you?
Verse 11- Rejoice! That may sound odd in the midst of discussing confession, but think about it. If you’ve been carrying a guilty burden you know the pain and anguish of the load you’re carrying. What a relief when that burden is gone. Even when there are consequences that remain, you have cause to rejoice. Last fall a movie called War Room came out. If you’ve not seen it yet, I apologize for this bit of a spoiler alert and encourage you to watch it soon so that there won’t be any more spoiler alerts. It’s a good movie. At one point, the husband lost his job for padding his sales numbers. Turns out he was also keeping some of the product to sell on the side. He had humbled himself before God to confess his sin, humbled himself before his wife to confess the hurt he had caused her, and even humbled himself before his daughter to confess how he had been failing her as a father. After stressing over the decision, he returned the remaining product in his possession, knowing his confession could land him in jail, but he had to do what was right. How did his boss respond? One of them wanted the police called right away. The other asked for a couple days to consider his options, then requested that the husband sign an agreement to repay the company for the product he had sold on the side. The boss respected the husband’s fortitude and humility in returning the product and, while he couldn’t give him his job back, agreed to not press charges. The husband and wife recognized the grace God had given and they rejoiced over his provision.
What is it that’s been weighing you down? What burden have you been holding on to that you need to release? What sin in your life are you trying to hide from the people in your life and from God? Here’s the thing- He already knows and many times they do to. Confession- it is good for the soul because it releases us from the burden we’ve imposed upon ourselves.
When Paul was writing to the Romans about how Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness, he quotes from this psalm in Romans 4:6-8. Just as David understood the blessing that comes from confession, Paul understood that confession could only happen when we place our trust in God.
Invitation
