Prayer Series - Confession
The second letter in the ACTS acronym stands for confession. We are thrilled to have 1 John 1:9 in the Scripture. We rest in the fact that we can have our sins forgiven if we confess. However, many do not understand what confession really means. It is not just admitting that we did or did not do something. We are guilty whether we admit it or not. Admitting is a good sign of personal responsibility, but it is not confession as John taught.
To confess is to homologeo, which while it does mean to assent as in confessing Jesus to be Lord the word is made up of the Greek words homo - same and logeo - to say. Literally it is to say the same thing. We come to God and say the same thing about our sin that He does. Our sin is wicked and damnable and needs to be forsaken. We have no peace because we only assent that we did it and that it is wrong, but we do not hate it as God does and we do not seek His power to be released from it. Repent literally means to change your mind. We need to change our minds and get ahold of His and see sin and react to sin as He does. He abhors it and judged it on the Cross. We need to develop that kind of mind that will set us free from our sin not just admit that it exists. Admitting is easy. Agreeing is easy. Forsaking requires the power of God.
I have chosen as my example prayer of confession Psalm 51. It is the best known and since David is confessing the two sins in the Old Testament that had no sacrifice for forgiveness it gives us great hope in the mercy of God. David should have died, as he was guilty of two capital offenses, yet God allowed him to live. So also we, because the blood of the Son of God has bought us that are saved or born again are freed from the death sentence of sin. However, we suffer from the consequences of our sins here and lose reward in Heaven. Confession is made to return to fellowship with God and there is no joy in the Christian life without that fellowship. Let us listen to David confess and receive restoration that we might do the same.
Ps 51:1-19
1. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.
2. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
David is asking the almighty God to bend down in kindness to Him. Mercy is often described as not getting what we deserved, but the idea here is someone bending down in kindness to an inferior and indeed we are inferior to God. David also said, "What is man that Thou art mindful of him?" We are so undeserving of His favor and yet David appeals to God’s lovingkindness not to justice or righteousness, but to His love. Justice and righteousness would only merit us death and damnation. Jeremiah in Lamentations said that God’s mercies are new every morning. Therefore there is a multitude or abundance of mercy in God.
It is through God’s lovingkindness and mercy that our sins are blotted out or literally erased from our account and God’s memory. David did not count on his works, for he said, "If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?" (Psalm 130:3) If salvation were by our works then none would be saved. The blood of Christ blots out our transgressions from birth until death if we are born again. Yet we need to be washed to maintain our blessing of fellowship.
Jesus said that the disciples, soon to be apostles, were clean, but needed to keep their feet clean. (John 13:10) As we walk through this dirty world we will get dirty feet, but confession cleanses us thoroughly from our perversity or iniquity. We are cleansed from our sin and made as one that is innocent and are morally clean and able to approach unto our holy God and His throne of grace.
3. For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.
He acknowledges or is absolutely aware of his transgressions, which are actually rebellion against God. Each time we sin, we become traitors to the Kingdom and aid and abet our adversary the devil. It is more than disobedience, it is rebellion and we need to see it as such to develop the hatred for sin that we must have to forsake it. James says that to love the world or to be its friend is to hate God and give Him a reason to oppose us. (James 4:4)
God forgives and forgets, but we may not. The devil will remind us and in David’s case each time he saw Bathesheba, he would remember his sin and the son he lost because of it. Sin forgiven is not without consequence. Nathan may not have left David’s life either, so each time Nathan walked by he would hear, "Thou art the man!" Interestingly, we praise someone by saying, "You’re the man!" David would never hear that phrase as praise.
4. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.
When you take into account that Uriah died, Bathsheba became an adulteress and her name associated with adultery throughout time and she surely felt guilt once she realized she aided in the murder of her husband, the child died and the children of David felt the effects of his sin, it lookslike David sinned against a lot of people, but he says that only against God did He sin.
To a great degree, this is logical though we are told to confess our faults/sins to one another. God is the ultimate lawgiver and to whom we are responsible. Our sin against Him often collides with people and affects their lives, but since He establishes the moral laws of the universe He is the one we are sinning against. People may be the recipient of the outflow of our sin, but the sin started in the heart as rebellion against God’s decrees.
What people experience is the fruit of our sin once conceived in our hearts and then expressed by whatever activity or lack of activity on our part. In cowboy terms, the gun was fired against God and the ricochet hit others. The rebellion was against Him and others were collateral damage for a modern analogy. Thus when we confess our sins to one another, we are truly confessing the sin against God that they were hit by and seeking their forgiveness for the damage caused by our rebellion against God.
The crazy thing is that we do it in God’s sight. We cannot escape the watchful eye of God and yet we sin with impunity as if He will never know it like He was the false god of Baal that might not be aware of what we do because he is asleep or on a journey.
Being an eyewitness to our sin or crime makes Him an even more capable judge. There are no mitigating circumstances, no botched evidence, or missing evidence. Indeed, the word justified means to be right in a moral or forensic sense. He has all our genetic material and fibers needed to convict us. When He speaks, we cannot contest His testimony for He has it on better than videotape for He is the eyewitness, the prosecuting attorney and the judge in this case yet it is not a kangaroo court for all is in order and we are condemned without excuse. His judgment is clear and pure. Unless, we have Jesus as our Savior and the Holy Spirit as our paraclete/advocate we are doomed for eternity.
5. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.
This speaks to our fallen nature and not to any concept of David’s mother conceiving him in fornication or adultery. We are sinners from birth. This is the Old Testament version of Paul’s "I know that in me dwelleth no good thing." (Roman 7:18) We are born with the Adamic nature and tend towards evil not towards righteousness. The image of God within us is tainted by sin so that even what good we do is colored by sin. That is why David can say that man at is best is vanity or useless and Isaiah can say that all our righteous acts are as menstrual clothes. (Psalm 39:5; Isaiah 64:6)
6. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.
Here is where the wisdom kicks in. Man looks on the outside, but God looks on the heart. (1 Samuel 16:7) Too many times we compare ourselves with others and think we are pretty good when inside we are not right with God. (2 Cor 10:12) This is not to say that outward things are not important for we are to do good works and to avoid all forms of evil. (Titus 3:8; 1 Thessalonians 5:22)
The problem is that it is easy to affect a form of godliness and yet deny the power thereof and look lean and clean like a holy machine but inwardly be full of rottenness. (2 Timothy 3:5; Matthew 23:27) James demands us to show our faith by our works for indeed that is the only way that men can see our living faith. (James 2:18) Yet, works are not complete proof of faith for many shall claim to be working for God and He will deny that He knew them. (Matthew 7:21-23)
In fact, the word truth conveys the idea of stability and trustworthiness, which is more than just assent or possession of the truth. If, as a doctor, I knew that you had a disease and that the disease was terminal unless treated yet did not tell you nor treat you I would know the truth in my mind, but would not have truth as my character for I was not trustworthy of that truth nor possessed the stability to act upon that truth. Suppose you die and your survivors found out that I had not acted, as I should have. I would be then be sued for malpractice and wrongful death. We also are guilty if we have head knowledge, but not heart knowledge of truth and that truth is Jesus Christ, Who is the Truth. (John 14:6)
Wisdom is proper application of the truth. Knowledge makes you proud and useless unless you have the ability to apply that knowledge in your life and the lives of others in love of God, the truth and others. (I Corinthians 8:1) Many know the theory of Christianity, but do not have the practical application of it in their life. They are smart in the abstracts of Biblical principles yet cannot discern the concrete applications of those principles. That is why some can call themselves Christians and not be saved or be saved and not victorious in their lives. They can create a recipe for a cake and bake and decorate it, but they are unable to partake of it and make it a part of themselves and benefit from it. Many can describe Christ, quote His principles and yet not eat and drink of His blood making Him a part of them and receive the spiritual nourishment they need. (John 6:53-58) That partaking and nourishment is what God desires of us because that is how we grow and the image of Christ is formed in
us. All else is flesh and is sin. The Spirit must indwell and put this truth and the trustworthiness of it in our soul and spirit to be revealed by the body unto the world.
7. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Cleansing and purging is what we need both as lost sinners and saved ones. The first cleansing saves us from Hell as we receive what has been done on the Cross for us. The continual cleansing of confession and repentance keeps us in fellowship with the Father and the Son and allows the Holy Spirit to perfect us.
Hyssop was used in applying the blood on the doorposts of the Jews in Egypt to protect them from the death angel. (Exodus 12:22) It was used in ceremonial cleansing of a leper and leprosy is used to picture sin and its consequences. It was also used to quench Jesus’ thirst on the Cross. (Leviticus 14:4,6,51-2; John 19:29) It is a mint. We use mint to freshen our breath and often to soothe stomach problems both inward troubles. It was an instrument of applying the blood.
This may well be prophetic as David is asking God to cleanse him. God used His Son’s body as the tool to apply the cleansing power of His blood to those who are saved. He was covered in blood and then applied that blood to the Heavenly mercy seat as the once for all sacrifice for sin that paid for the sin and not just covered/hid sins, as did the blood of bulls and goats in the Old Testament. As the mint is a sweet smelling savor, so also is the sacrifice of Christ pleasing to the Father! While hyssop applied the blood for acts of sin and was effective until another sin was committed, Christ applied the blood for all sins and once applied to the sinner is efficacious forever!
David wanted to be washed clean and in those days, they washed in the river by stomping their feet on the clothes against rocks. Sometimes it is only by trials and tribulations that we seek cleansing. God has to work us or put us under pressure between the rock, which is Jesus, and the water of His Word to get us clean. We are all baptized and washed by the Spirit into Christ when we are saved (I Cor 12:13; Titus 3:5) Once we and Jesus have reasoned together and we have confessed our sins and received Him as Lord and Savior we enter into that state of being white as snow though our sins were as scarlet and impossible to cleanse without His blood. (Isaiah 1:18)
8. Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones, which thou hast broken may rejoice.
As a shepherd, David would understand the occasional need to break the leg of a wandering sheep. The sling would be used to send stones to direct the sheep to the right or left or to turn him around to keep him in the fold and out of trouble. If the sheep persisted in going astray, the sling would be used to break his leg. The sheep would then be tended to and carried about on the shoulders of the shepherd until the leg healed. This close attention and care usually resulted in the sheep never straying far from the shepherd again. It found peace and joy in being near the one it had grown to know during a time of pain.
David had a few broken bones and he was seeking the healing of the Shepherd of his soul for he knew that is when he could find joy and gladness again and would rejoice over what the Shepherd had done for him. So, often we also must have our leg broken because we misunderstand the warning rocks of guidance landing around us frustrating our way. Only when our leg is broken and we can do nothing but spend time in the love and care of the Shepherd can we learn to rejoice in that guidance and look for it and rest in it.
9. Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.
God cannot look upon sin and do nothing about it. He must either act in judgment or in mercy. How He acts depends upon the one who committed the sin. If he is arrogant or frivolous about sin then God must act in judgment, but even in wrath He remembers mercy and will in the judgment seek to restore the sinner unless he dies in unbelief and then there is no hope of restoration. If, as David, the sinner cries out for mercy than God can blot out or erase all iniquities or sins. David wanted forgiveness and recognized he had heart trouble.
10. Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
David knew because of the sin nature that only God could create a clean heart in him. You cannot get anything pure and clean out of what is impure and unclean. God did this for David because it was within the desire of God to remove a heart of stone from His people and to give them a heart of flesh with His commandments written upon that heart. (Ezekiel 11:9; Jeremiah 31:33) That was fulfilled in Acts 2 when the Holy Spirit came to indwell and put a right Spirit within His people.
11. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.
Until Acts 2, the Holy Spirit only came upon people to perform special acts or to give them the ability to prophesy and then He left them. David had been blessed with a continual anointing of the Spirit, as He is a type of Christ who is Prophet, Priest and King. The Spirit never departed from Christ. The presence of God was the blessing and fellowship with Him.
David’s sins had cut off that presence of God and the Holy Spirit was not active in David’s life and hence the feeling of separation from God and His Spirit. He felt as if he was cast away like satan was cast down from heaven when he sinned. Our sins also grieve the Spirit and though He still indwells us He is quenched and in a sense inoperative in our life except as a convicter rather than a comforter and we feel as if He and God have left us. That is good as it drives us to conviction, confession and restoration!
12. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.
Note that David asked for the restoration of the joy of his salvation, not to be saved again. While he felt cut off from the blessings and presence of God, He did not doubt God’s love for Him nor fear that restoration was impossible or that he would die and go to Hell. It was the joy of that salvation that he longed for and he knew that confession was the only way to get it.
He also knew that it was the free spirit of God that held him up and allowed David to walk in righteousness. He needed to lean upon God for strength. Unbelievers often taunt us and say that God is just a crutch. How little they realize that is the truth for we cannot walk without Him like a cripple cannot walk with out a cane or crutch. The unbeliever lies on the ground cursing us who walk with our God given crutch. We shall one day walk into Glory while the ground they cling to will open up and swallow them depositing them into Hell. Hallelujah for the Cross, for it is the crutch that gets me home!!! Without the Cross, I would be flat on my face in unpardoned sin never to know love and forgiveness, so let me walk with my crutch while I praise Jesus for it!
13. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.
14. Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.
15. O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise.
Many times when we sin we get busy to "pay" for our sins or as some form of self-flagellation. Note that David knew that it would not be until he was forgiven and his joy restored unto him that he could serve. Then he would teach transgressors and they would respond and be converted. Going on a tract-passing binge will not be very fruitful or at least you will not know about it. God may use His Word in the tracts to get them saved, but they may end up in another church and you will not know it lest you see it as God blessing you rather than His Word. You can do all sorts of good deeds, but it will not solve your problem. Only confession and restoration will bring you joy and fruit.
Ever notice folks that are not singing in the service? Some may be afraid of their voices sounding bad, but others are not able to sing aloud of God’s righteousness because they are convicted. They are guilty of a sin that they have not confessed and gotten under the blood to regain their fellowship and they cannot sing the songs of Zion while they are in the captivity of sin. (Psalm 137:3,4) Sin has closed their lips and has muzzled them. Only God can open them again by restoration! Then their mouth can show His praise. The word praise means literally a hymn. Hymns are a blessing and even if we are not gifted singers our hearts pour forth in songs of praise that are a blessing to His ears.
16. For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering.
17. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
Those works of penance we try and do are sacrifices of flesh and offerings like Cain’s and they cannot be blessed or accepted by the Lord. Obedience is better than sacrifice and when our obedience fails we can only turn to the One Whose sacrifice has been accepted and receive the cleansing of His blood.
When we come to Him with a broken and literally collapsed spirit then He can believe our confession. I do not mean that we need to weep and wail though some may do that nor beat our chest for that may only be custom and show. When we finally come to Him sick of our sin and tired of exercising that sin with a spirit that knows its weakness and is deflated of pride then we can expect the cleansing of God and restoration of our joy and service opportunities to spare. Arrogance or half-heartedness will get us nowhere and leave us in our stench. God will despise that confession like He did the Pharisee, but the humble confession of the Publican will bring joy.
18. Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls of Jerusalem.
19. Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering: then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar. (KJV)
When you find your peace than you can pray for others and for God’s will. You will be glad to see God exercise His will in your life and that of your home, church and nation. You will see Him as the primary defense of your nation, not government nor military might. He builds the walls and He can tear them down. When a people confess and repent, they are safe in God’s arms no matter what foe may amass themselves against them for the Lord will protect His own.
Then those people can offer up sacrifices that are pleasing to the Lord for they are offering them in the right heart and spirit. Friend, if you do not know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior you cannot offer up any sacrifices. None are good enough to get you into Heaven. Jesus has offered up Himself as the perfect sacrifice. Call unto Him for forgiveness of sin and for deliverance from Hell and He will cleanse your soul and grant you great joy as you serve and love Him. Brethren, we need to confess. We cannot live the abundant life that He died to give us unless we are ’fessed up and have that joy of our salvation restored to us. Oh, may saint and sinner alike pray
…God be merciful to me a sinner. Luke 18:13 (KJV)
