Charles Francis Berry, a major league umpire, was once asked if he ever made mistakes in calling
balls and strikes. He looked at the person as if he were joking, and said, "Of course I may mistakes.
My only trouble is I can't admit it." The tragedy is that the inability to admit mistakes is not limited
to umpires. The world is filled with people going down the wrong road to destruction just because
they refused to admit they made a wrong turn. No man ever gets going right until he admits he is
now going wrong. No man can ever hit the mark until he is willing to confess that he is now missing
the mark. My father had a statement he liked to make frequently to my mother. He would say, "I
may not always be right, but I'm never wrong." It was a joke, but most of us take that philosophy
seriously. Nobody likes to be wrong, and the result is that confession of sin is one of our least
favorite exercises.
In spite of the fact that God has provided a cleansing agent that can eliminate sin, the world is
stained, blotted and polluted because people will not confess their need for cleansing. Because
people will not admit they are sick they will not take the prescription of the Great Physician. And so
you have one of the craziest paradoxes of life. People could be healed and made well by God if they
would only confess that they were sick, but they refuse and insist that they are well. The result is
that they get sicker and sicker. Hobart Mowrer the psychologist writes, "The neurotic is, without
exception in the author's experience, a person who had done things of which he is ashamed, but who,
instead of avowing and forsaking his imaturities, has tried instead to deny, repudiate, and repress his
own self-condemnation, shame and guilt."
David followed the same foolish path and had to go through a great deal of mental agony, and
even physical illness, because he struggled against confessing his sin. David learned that with
dealing with sin from God's perspective you must begin with His mercy, and from man's perspective
you must begin with confession. He had to learn the hard way, and it is recorded so that we need not
travel the wrong road before we admit our wrong turn. David went a whole year before Nathan
confronted him with his sin of adultery and murder. A whole year he tried to hide his sin, and he
found out what modern psychologists see everyday, and that is that un-confessed sin can make you
sick. It makes you mentally sick first. David prays that God will restore to him the joy of his
salvation in verse 12. All the while that he hide his sin he was not joyful, but depressed and
unhappy. He longed to be happy again and remarks in verse 8 that he longs for his bones to again
rejoice. Physically and mentally he was sick.
To get the total impact of how David relates sin and sickness, and un-confessed evil to deep
physical problems, we want to look at several other confession passages in the Psalms. Psalms 6:2
says, "Have mercy upon me O Lord; for I am withered away: O Lord heal me; for my bones are
vexed." Psa. 32:2-3 says, "Blessed is the man whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.
When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long." Psa. 38:2-3 says,
"There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine indignation; neither is there any health in my
bones because of my sin." There is no way to separate medicine and psychology from religion, for
sin affects the mind and the body, and only God has the solution to this problem of sin. If a person
will not admit they are sick, they will not go to a doctor. If they will not admit they have a mental
problem, they will not go to a psychiatrist. If they will not confess they are a sinner, they will not
turn to Christ. When you come right down to it, man's biggest problem is not that he is a sinner, for
God has made full provision for that problem. Man's biggest problem is that he will not admit he is
a sinner, and without confession of sin there can be no cleansing of sin.
Come now again thy woes impart,
Tell all thy sorrows, all thy sin;
We cannot heal the throbbing heart,
Till we discern the wounds within.
The greatest healing ministry in the world is in persuading people to be honest before God and
confess their sin in crying out for mercy, as David did. Jesus came to save His people from their
sins, and the term Savior has two meanings. It means deliverer and healer. Jesus not only delivers
us from the penalty and power of sin, but he heals us and cleanses us from the polluting sicknesses
which hidden sin produce. Confession of sin, therefore, is a vital issue, which affects us on all
levels-spiritually, mentally and physically. The sinner does not have the power to do anything with
his sin, but he has the same freedom as the sick person. He can admit his need and go for help. That
is what confession of sin is. It is an admission that one is what God says he is. He is a sinner, and
one who cannot get rid of sins destructive effects without God's help.
In verse 3 David becomes a confessor of sin. He says, "I acknowledge my transgressions." He
admits he is a sinner and cries out for God in mercy to cleanse him. His confession is the basis for
his request. He is admitting his need and acknowledging that God is the only one who can meet that
need. Until David admitted that he blotted his own biography he could not expect God to erase the
blots. If he would have persisted in hiding his sin, it could never be washed away. He admits that
his sin is ever before him. His conscience kept his sin in his consciousness so that however hard he
tried to hide it from God and others, he could not hide it from himself. His sin was like a portrait on
the wall, and no matter what part of the room he was in, it seemed to be looking at him.
Awakened conscience acts the artist,
Uses the sun of heaven's law
To photograph the sinner's life:
Then holds it up, a hideous monster,
To the affrighted eye.
Unconfessed sin forces a man to watch constant reruns of what he hates on the screen of his
mind. Only confession and forgiveness can shut down those x-rated and horror movies of the mind
that rob life of its joy, even for believers. We can stand to live in a world with sin all around us, but
sin within us is intolerable. Robert Campbell was ordered to raid the Scottish village of Glencoe and
put the inhabitants to the sword. He obeyed with merciless severity and committed one of the
blackest crimes in Scotland's history as he murdered men, women and children. After this he tried to
assume an air of unconcern, but everyone knew he was a changed man, and that the scene of
Glencoe was ever before him.
Sin does not look so bad at all before it is a fact. In the fancy of the imagination sin can look so
enticing and exciting. Even at worst it does not appear very frightening, but once it becomes an
historical fact to be flashed over and over again on the screen of the memory, it gets worse with
every showing. David finally got sick of trying to hide a monster in his mind, and so he confessed to
God that he was its creator and that he needed God's help to slay it. David could face the giant
Goliath with confidence and courage, but this giant of his own making was like a Frankenstein
monster, which could not be slain. After much futile struggle he finally came to the conclusion that
he could not conquer without confession. The way to victory over the monster of the conscience is
to admit defeat and let God deal with it. If you try to fight them or hide them as if they didn't exist
he will live in a house of horrors that will sicken you to your very bones.
A simple law runs all through the Bible. It is the same in both Testaments. Prov. 28:13 says,
"He who concealed his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds
mercy." I John 1:9 says, "If we confess our sins He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sin
and cleanse us from all unrighteousness." As simple as this law of life is, it is hard for men to
follow. It is hard for man to be honest with himself. David suffered for a year before he came forth
in honesty before God. Human pride would rather try all kinds of maneuvers to justify itself. We
are all tempted at times to try and be clever rather than confess. We are like the fisherman who had
hard luck, and so on the way home he entered a fish store. He said to the dealer, "Just stand where
you are and throw me 5 of the biggest fish you have." "But why throw them?" asked the puzzled
dealer. The less than honest fisherman replied, "So I can tell my family I caught them. I may be a
poor fisherman, but I'm no liar." If clever deceit was limited to fisherman, I suppose the world
would not suffer seriously, but there is no such limitation in man's efforts to avoid honesty about his
failures.
Edmund Gosse in Father And Son tells of a very pious man, a Mr. Dormant, who received into
his home a paying guest. The old man was very wealthy and soon died, and he left his entire fortune
to Mr. Dormant. A son of the old man returned from abroad and discovered what had happened,
and naturally went to court. It came out in the trial that Mr. Dormant had held the old man's hand
and made him sign the will on his deathbed. He tried to justify his action before the judge by
maintaining that he had only done his duty in preventing so much money from being spent on the
evil pleasures of the world. He went to prison but he never admitted to any wrong doing. So great
is man's power of self-deception that someone said there are Christians who, if they found someone's
purse left in a pew, could persuade themselves that it was the providence of God in meeting their
financial need. Failure to be honest about sin leads to all kinds of hypocrisy. If we walk in the light
we will be honest with ourselves, with others, and before God. We will escape much of the sorrow
of sin if we are quick to confess it.
Paul said in Acts 24:16, "I always take pains to have a clear conscience toward God and
toward men." Paul had too many battles to fight, and too much to do for Christ to get bogged down
in the futile struggle of trying to hide sin. He apparently confessed his sin immediately to God, and
then went out of his way to confess and apologize to men when he sinned against them. Paul kept a
clear conscience and was able to maintain his mental health and moral strength.
Confession of sin can be either a private or a public matter. Sin can be against men as well as
God, and the confession then must be made to the offended person as well as to God. When the
Prodigal returned he confessed he had sinned against heaven and against his father, and he was no
more worthy to be called his son. In verse 4 David says, "Against thee, thee only, have I sinned."
This has been a puzzle for many, but it really is no mystery. He could not confess to Uriah whom he
had killed. Bathsheba had shared in his sin and was now his wife. On the human level things have
been worked out, and it was only before God that all was still a mess. David had no one to confess
to except God. It was God's law that he had broken, and it was God that he was continually
offending by his unconfessed sin. Sin may only last a moment, but the sin of being unwilling to
confess it can last moments without end, even until there is no one left to confess to but God.
All sin is sin against God. If we sin against people it is only sin because we violate a law of God.
All confession, therefore, is legitimate before God, but not all sin should be confessed before men.
Confession is to go as far as the sin. If your sin has hurt another person, then confess to that person.
If it has hurt the church, then confess to the church. Public confession of private sin is a dangerous
practice, which can do more harm than good. Public confession meetings are a gold mine for
gossipers. All private sin should be dealt with in private. The person who confesses mental sins is
being foolish. Nothing but simpleminded folly could convince a man guilty of lust to go and confess
this to a woman. It would be proper to talk to a counselor, but not to the object of lust, or in public.
Confession can be a means of getting attention and of actually promoting sin. A preacher,
listening to a young man confess his sin, interrupted, and said, "You aren't confessing, you are
bragging." As important as confession is for forgiveness and health, it can be harmful if this rule is
not obeyed: "The circle of confession should be the circle offended by the sin." It is foolish to share
private sin that never affects others. To do so is like the old German immigrant who years ago
ordered a stone from a mail order house. When it arrived it had no legs on it, and he wrote the
company as follows: "Vot you mean, the stove came already yet, but I no find some laigs on which
it to stand. The stone is no good widout some laigs. I send him back your expense. I paid for stone
with laigs, and want my money back quick. PS: "Since writing above I find the laigs inside the
stove, not send him back now."
No harm was done by his sharing his frustration, and his sending the letter actually added to the
world's store of humor. This is not the case, however, when you share your mistakes about people
with other people. If you misjudge someone and later learn you were mistaken, just correct your
attitude, but do not go to the person and say I use to think you were a snob, but now I know better.
Such a confession is uncalled for, and can be very offensive. It could lead to a strained relationship
that otherwise might have been good. Folly is only magnified by being made public. Never write on
the page of history any folly that can be erased while still in your mind. The reason Jesus stressed
that sin begins in the mind is so that we can deal with it before it ever becomes a matter of action.
Once a sin is out in the open, however, it must be openly confessed to the one offended.
D. L. Moody was giving an address one time and a theological student interrupted him. Moody
snapped and irritated retort and went on. When he came to a close he paused and said, "Friends, I
want to confess before you all that I made a great mistake at the beginning of this meeting. I
answered my young brother down there foolishly. I asked God to forgive me. I asked him to
forgive me." Then, as the world's most famous evangelist of that day, he stepped off the platform
and went to shake the hands of the student. Someone said it was the greatest thing they ever saw
Moody do. Great men of God are men who have learned the importance of keeping a clear
conscience before God and man. They are men who frequently must say with David, "I
acknowledge my transgression.
