THE CLEANSING OF CONFESSION
I John 1:5-10
Today we are continuing our series that you see on the front of your worship folder: A Dedication to Daily Discipline. Looking at spiritual disciplines that we want to begin incorporating into our lives on a daily basis.
We have looked at prayer, fasting, studying God’s Word. Still to come, seeking Godly guidance and the exciting discipline of celebration. But there is a spiritual discipline that has grown foreign to us in the protestant community. In fact, just the mention of this discipline would probably send the majority of us into a similar picture of imagination.
It would look something like this: an individual sitting in a very dark, solemn, and almost closet like room. On two sides, deep wood walls, to the front, a door, and to the left side a screen of some sort. The type of which provides enough transparency to recognize that someone is on the other side, enough transfer of air to allow for conversation, and yet an ability to feel like the other person can not see you or pick out who you might be. And then this picture in our imagination comes to life with the words, “Father, forgive me for I have sinned.”
In Catholic circles, the practice of the confessional can be very common, almost routine. However, in our evangelical protestant world, a unique thing seems to happen at conversion, and confession becomes a thing of the past. In fact, in the ministry, the lack of confession has almost become an occupational hazard.
Four preachers met for a friendly gathering. During the conversation one preacher said, “Our people come to us and pour out their hearts, confess sins and needs. Let’s do the same. Confession is good for the soul.” In due time all agreed. One confessed he liked to go to the movies and would sneak off when away from his church. The second confessed to liking to smoke cigars and the third one confessed to liking to play cards. When it came to the fourth one, he wouldn’t confess. The others pressed him saying, “Come now, we confessed ours. What is your secret or vice?” Finally he answered, “It is gossiping and I can hardly wait to get out of here.”
Is it any wonder that we are hesitant to actively participate in the spiritual discipline of confession? Especially within “holiness denominations” there seems to be a transformation that occurs at conversion that takes us from confession to cover-up. Or as Dave Stone has written, “Usually we become [are] more concerned with concealing, than confessing.”
It happened immediately following the first recorded act of sin in the Bible. When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden the first thing they tried to do was hide their sin from God. And as you read on through Biblical history, you learn that in the New Testament church there were some in the church spreading lies about the nature of sin and how a believer should deal with sin.
Some of the people said that they were above sin and no longer sinned; still others said it didn’t matter; and a third group said that they didn’t have a sin nature anymore. And in the midst of this confusion and disagreement, John finds himself having to deal with these attitudes through the writing of a letter. We find this small letter, probably written around the year A.D. 90 to a circle of churches near Ephesus near the end of our modern Bibles. Beyond the Gospels and Romans, Hebrews and I and II Peter you will come to the letter which today we title I John.
Last Sunday Dave was sharing with us regarding the discipline of studying God’s Word. And during his message he highlighted the “If. . .Then” nature of many statements in the Bible. This morning I want us to look at one such statement. In fact, it is found in a series of “If. . .Then” statements in the book of I John, the first Chapter. I John 1:5 (read and break down through verse 10).
A series of “If. . .Then” propositions and truths. But the one I want us to clearly see today is found in verse 9 (read).
Is it possible? Could it be that in a world of beaten down people, beings who are bruised and battered emotionally, that in this short verse an answer to all their guilt and pain can be found? And in the reclamation of a centuries old spiritual discipline called “confession” that great freedom awaits?
There is no doubt that a huge hang up for many people in our world today is guilt. It keeps us up at night and controls our thoughts. Dr. Karl Menninger said he believed that the number one reason that most people ended up in psychiatric hospitals was guilt. If they could just confess their guilt and know they were forgiven, 75% of them could leave the hospital that day, he said.
I don’t know the mathematical accuracy of his statement, but I know we live in a world where people are riddled by guilt, and longing to experience true forgiveness.
Writer Ernest Hemingway wrote a story about a father and his teenage son. In the story, the relationship had become somewhat strained, and the teenage son ran away from home. His father began a journey in search of his rebellious son.
Finally, in Madrid, Spain, in a last desperate attempt to find the boy, the father put an ad in the local newspaper. The ad read: "Dear Paco, Meet me in front of the newspaper office at noon. All is forgiven. I love you. Your father." The next day, in front of the newspaper office, eight hundred boys all named Paco showed up. They were all seeking forgiveness. They were all seeking the love of their father.
Most people today are seeking forgiveness and the love of a father. We each have a deep desire to be forgiven and accepted by our heavenly father. And if we chose to believe God’s Word. If we chose to accept what is in this book as truth. Than we have an “If. . .Then” statement that suggests that the love and forgiveness we so desire is within our grasp. However, it also clearly suggests that there can be no forgiveness unless there is an admittance that we have something in our lives that needs forgiving.
That is where confession comes in. It is that open, verbal admittance to God that we have sinned. And unlike the Catholic tradition of history, it is not something you have to do through a priest or with a minister. Confession is made directly to God, wherever you are. And, “If we confess our sins, God is faithful to forgive our sins.”
Let me share with you three things about Confession. We will package it up all nicely with the statements all starting with “P” to help you remember them. You can follow along and fill in the blanks on the back of your worship folder. Let’s start with. . .
THE PRACTICE OF CONFESSION
What does John mean by the term confession? If we are going to implement the practice of confession in our daily discipline, what is confession? Well, if we look at our text we will see some clues to help us understand what John is teaching. Let’s just look at it word by word. . .
“If”: This suggests that confession is an act of free will and not forced upon us by God or man. Doesn’t say “You must”, doesn’t say “God will force you to.” It says, “If”. “If” you make the choice to do this act. “If we. . .”
“We”: All of us. Including the author John himself, as an active believer. Not just those who haven’t received Christ. He doesn’t say “If you. . .” or “If they. . .” but “If we.” Confession is for everyone. Saved and unsaved. Ministers and laypeople. Church goers and pre-Christians. God’s Word tells us that all have sinned. “If we confess our sins.”
”Sins”: At the root of confession are our transgressions against God. Our sins. Notice vs. 8 (read), and vs. 10 (read). Both prior to and after today’s verse we are reminded that we are sinners. And those reminders on both sides help our passage stand out as the solution to our problem. “If we confess our sins.”
“Confess”: Admit wrong doing; take personal responsibility for our sins.
After dying, there were three friends, Robert, Sam and Tim who woke up outside of heaven. And St. Peter says that before any can enter, they have to pass through a muddy bog. All those who pass through this muddy bog sink in proportion to the amount of unconfessed sins they had when they died. Robert starts out and immediately begins to sink. He struggles onward, and finally pushed to the opposite side, just as the mud reaches his neck. He looks back, and sees his friend Sam walking across, his shoes barely sinking into the mire. Robert says, “I can’t believe it. I never would have thought you were so holy!” Sam replies, “Oh, I’m just standing on Tim’s shoulders.”
Doesn’t work that way. This passage doesn’t say, “If we find someone else’s shoulders to stand on. . .if we have someone else acknowledge our sins. . .if we have someone else pray on our behalf. . .all will be made well.” No, “If we confess our sins. . .then He is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Therefore confession is: Admitting and taking responsibility for our sin by an act of our own free will.
That is the practice of confession. It is not a once and done deal. It is a daily discipline. What did Jesus say when He provided His followers with a model of how to pray?
You have probably heard this a million times, but turn back to Matthew 6 (read Matthew 6:9-12). Forgive us our debts, our trespasses. We acknowledge our sins, our shortcoming, and our failures. We take personal responsibility through our own free will for the things in our life that are not pleasing to You. That is the practice of confession. But what is. . .
THE PURPOSE OF CONFESSION
Why confess? What good is it? God already knows my sins, why can’t He just forgive them? Well. . .I think there are a number of reasons. First. . .
A. Confession humbles us: Shows us who we are and who God is.
There is a popular Christian song by a group called Casting Crowns that says,
“Who am I, that the Lord of all the earth.
Would care to know my name. Would care to feel my hurt.
Whom am I, that the bright and morning star.
Would choose to light the way. For my ever wandering heart.
Not because of who I am, but because of what You’ve done.
Not because of what I’ve done, but because of who You are.
“I am a flower quickly fading. Here today and gone tomorrow.
A wave tossed in the ocean, vapor in the wind.
Still You, hear me when I’m calling, Lord You catch me when I’m falling,
And You told me who I am. I am Yours.”
“I am a flower quickly fading. Here today and gone tomorrow.” Confession is a great reminder of who we are, and who God is. Secondly. . .
B. Confession allows God to change us: It is God’s tool for changing us, not our tool for changing ourselves.
Until we confess to God our need for Him, we are working on fixing ourselves. And we don’t have the tools to do that. Have you ever tried to hammer in a nail with a tweezers? Good luck. That’s not the tool for the job. And we do not have in our personal tool box the tool needed to redeem ourselves. Redemption is one of God’s tools. And our confession of our need for Him allows His tools to go to work in our lives. Third. . .
C. Confession allows God’s grace to be activated in our lives: We are never closer to God than when we are on our knees confessing our weakness and His strength.
Richard Foster writes, “At the heart of God is the desire to give and to forgive.”
John 1:12 says, “To all who received Him He gave the right to become children of God. All they had to do was to trust Him to save them.”
Revelation 3:20 says, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him.”
It is God’s nature, it is the unfolding of His redemptive plan, and it is the purpose for sending His Son down from heaven to die on the cross so that His grace can be activated in our lives. And confession allows that to happen. Fourth. . .
D. Confession allows us to be free: The purpose of guilt is to drive us to Christ,
once we are there we are free from its power over us.
The story is told of a shoplifter who wrote to a department store and said, "I’ve just become a Christian, and I can’t sleep at night because I feel guilty. So here’s $100 that I owe you." In a little postscript at the bottom he added, "If I still can’t sleep, I’ll send you the rest."
The solution to guilt is to openly confess our sins to God. Come clean. Tell God everything, He already knows. Confession reassures you that you’re forgiven by God. There is something relieving about verbalization. Psalm 32:1 says, “What happiness is there for those whose guilt has been forgiven! What relief for those who have confessed their sins and God has cleared their record.”
Confession allows us to be free. And that leads us directly to. . .
THE POWER OF CONFESSION
There is great power in confession. Let’s look at it again, word by word. “If we confess our sins. . .He. . .”
“He”: Who is the “He”? Throughout these “If. . .Then” statements we see “He”, “Him”, who is that? If you follow it all the way back to the beginning of our section you will find out. Verse 5 (read). “God is light. . .and in Him.” God is the “He”. So the power of confession is not in us but in Him. Remember, when we are talking about worship, purpose, eternity, you name it. . .it’s not about you and me, it’s all about Him.
“He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. . .”: The power is assured in the lives of all who confess their sin. There is no maybe here. God’s Word tells us that “If we will confess our sins. . .He will forgive us our sins.” AND. . .
“Cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”: A complete cleansing. This is not like having me do your laundry. You don’t pull your spirit out of a drawer three days later and still see what you had for dinner Monday night.
The power of confession that John is trying to give assurance to is the power of the forgiveness of our sins and a complete cleansing from all unrighteousness.
Have you looked around our society lately? Even the unbelievers understand that there is power in confession. People confess to all kinds of people. They confess to Psychiatrists, Doctors, Professional Mentors, Family members, Friends. All in the hopes that they can get freed up from the guilt of sin, yet without the power of Christ’s forgiveness it is a futile exercise.
Actress Ann Heche, former partner of Ellen Degeneres, was abused sexually as a young girl. In an interview with Larry King she said, "I did a lot of things in my life to get away from what had happened to me. I drank, I smoked, I did drugs, I had sex…. I did anything I could to get the shame out of my life.’’ She missed it. She didn’t do anything she could. She didn’t do the one thing she needed.
The Psalmist says “Against you and you alone have I sinned”. We must receive forgiveness from the one whom we sinned against. That is where the power of confession lies.
Maybe today you feel ashamed of what has happened to you or what you have done. And you would do anything to get rid of the shame. But I am here to tell you, if you would just trust in Jesus Christ and confess to Him your sins, the shame can be gone. God said in Isaiah 43:25 says, “I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake; and I will not remember your sins.”
I’m a big fan of the author John Grisham. In his book The Testament, John Grisham paints a portrait of one man’s surrender to God’s will.
Nate O’Reilly is a disgraced corporate attorney plagued by alcoholism and drug abuse. After two marriages, four detox programs, and a serious bout with dengue fever, Nate acknowledges his need for God. Grisham describes the transformation:
“With both hands, he clenched the back of the pew in front of him. He repeated the list, mumbling softly every weakness and flaw and affliction and evil that plagued him. He confessed them all. In one long glorious acknowledgment of failure, he laid himself bare before God. He held nothing back. He unloaded enough burdens to crush any three men, and when he finally finished Nate had tears in his eyes. ‘I’m sorry,’ he whispered to God. ‘Please, help me.’
“As quickly as the fever had left his body, he felt the baggage leave his soul. With one gentle brush of the hand, his slate had been wiped clean. He breathed a massive sigh of relief, but his pulse was racing.”
There is power in confession. There is power in knowing that your slate has been wiped clean. There is power in knowing that you no longer have to live under guilt, condemnation, and the chains that Satan desires to bind you with. Chains to your past. Chains to your mistakes. Chains to your choices that you made, and regret daily. The power of confession can break those chains, and open the floodgates to God’s forgiving grace and cleansing blood.
One more story. This one is about a man who robbed a bank and drove off. He thought he was in the clear until he opened the bag and it exploded with permanent ink. He was florescent blue from head to toe. Might have been a good thing for a UK football game, but not for this bank robber.
Day after day he scrubbed himself trying to get free from the ink but it was futile. He lived with all this money yet could not leave his home for fear the paint would be seen and he would be arrested. The ink served as a constant reminder of who he was and what he had done, a constant reminder that he was a guilty man and the shame drove him mad.
He was completely isolated from the world because of the ink and was driven almost insane. Finally the day came when he could no longer take the paint and he decided to turn himself into the authorities for at least in prison he could be free from the guilt of what he had done.
Some of you may feel like this man. You may not have robbed a bank, and for sure you do not have blue paint all over your body but it’s my guess that many of us have sin that weighs us down in the same way. Sin that has to date gone unconfessed. Like the man maybe our sin has lead us to a place of isolation from others and threatens to drive us crazy.
Today I want to encourage you that there is a cleansing waiting for you. A cleansing that will remove the florescent blue stains of sin in your life. So today, I want us to unleash the power of confession in our church.
Right where you are, just between you and God, I want you to reflect for a moment. You may want to bow your head, close your eyes, whatever posture it will take for you to draw near to God and allow Him to make visible to you what He sees.
First, I want you to reflect on your life. Are there things in your life that you need to confess to the Lord today? Maybe they are physical actions or activities. Maybe they are attitudes or judgments. Maybe they are emotions and deep seated places of hostility. What are those things within your soul, in your personal life and world that no one else even knows about that you need to confess to God today?
Next, I want you to reflect on your circles of influence. Maybe a spouse, your children, your co-workers. Again, are there physical actions, activities, attitudes, judgments, or emotions that you need to confess to God today are sinful towards those people? They are not representative of people called by His name as Christians.
Then, I want you to reflect on our church. Throughout 40 plus years of ministry, have there been physical actions, activities, attitudes, judgments, or emotions that we need to confess to God today, and ask His forgiveness for? Towards other denominations. . .towards the lost in our city. . .towards political leaders in our city, state or country. . .towards our own denomination or district leadership. As a church, have there been moments, expressions, communications that were not in the light? Were not indicative of the call to be a city on the hill, a light in the darkness.
Whatever things came to your mind. I want to give you some time to confess those to God today. Many of you have probably been in church services where they had you write down your confessions on a piece of paper, and then bring them to the front of the church where they were burned in a container of some sort. Well, here at Stonewall, we don’t have a real good history with sanctuary fires.
So simply in your mind and your spirit list out those confessions that came to your mind, and over the next few minutes of worship, let me encourage you to share those with our Heavenly Father. While you sit and reflect, while you stand and sing, or while you come to the altar and pour out your heart before God. Unleash the power of confession in your life.
And especially let me speak to those of you who have never confessed your personal need for Christ to come into your life as Savior. You have been living with guilt, and pain, and the burdens of your life for years. Like Nate O’Reilly you can have your slate wiped clean today.
Like the simple little flyer in your worship folder maps it out. . .God has made you and filled your life with potential. He has made a way for you to enjoy a personal relationship with Him. He has prepared a community – this church – to help you grow in your faith and fulfill life’s purpose. And all that is available to you by simply confessing that you need Him. Accepting His plan for beginning a personal relationship with Him. And as it says in I John 1:9, confessing your sins so that He can forgive them, and cleanse you from all unrighteousness.
As we worship together, if today is not only a time of confession for you, but a time of asking Christ to come in and take control of your life, I’ll be standing right over here at the side of the altar, and I hope you will come forward, and give me an opportunity to pray with you and celebrate a new start together.
