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Session 4: Confess Your Sins "If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). Confession enables God to begin working within our hearts to transform us into his image. Truly, I believe that confession of sin is the first step to being converted into the very image of the Lord we propose to represent through intercession. It is only by confronting our own vile flesh, and permitting God to purify even the most intimate areas of our lives, that we can we be transformed into his image. By no means do I believe that this is easy. It can be one of the most difficult and painful disciplines in a disciple’s life. But it can also be one of the most powerfully sweet and joyful times as well. When you are willing to allow God to take you anywhere within your heart and show you what is truly there, you will find the joy of seeing – before your very eyes – the Father transform you into the image of his Son. Hallelujah! I get really excited about that. I want him prying around inside of me if it means that, in my ‘tomorrows,’ I will look just a tad more like Jesus. I see so much of my stinky old self sometimes that I get sick to death of it! Be sure not to approach the Lord with pretense, and try to drum up sins to confess in order to fulfill this step! D.M. McIntyre says… Above all, we dare not, in confessions to which are addressed to a Holy God simulate an experience which we have never known let us, confess the deep sin of our nature. It has been said with much truth that the only “sign of one’s being in Christ which Satan cannot counterfeit” is the grief and sorrow which true believers undergo when God discloses to them the sinfulness of inbred sin… Confession is the first act of an awakened Sinner. When God desires a Habitation in which to dwell, He prepares “a broken and a contrite heart.” The altar of reconciliation stands at the entrance of the New Testament temple; from the altar the worshipper passes on, by way of the laver, to the appointed place of meeting – the blood stained mercy-seat. It is God’s job to convict us of sin, not ours. God’s conviction is the only way that godly sorrow can bring about the necessary confession to bring about change. When we drum up sins to confess merely for the sake of fulfilling this step, we open the door for the enemy to bring condemnation. Romans 8:1 says, “There is therefore now no condemnation for them that are in Christ.” Conviction is the first step of confession. I can never stress enough how important it is to make sure that what you are feeling is conviction. Ralph Erskine in his diary, dated January 23, 1733, notes a very important caution to those seeking to enter into this discipline within the Secret Chambers. “This morning… I was quickened in prayer, and strengthened to hope in the Lord. At the beginning of my prayer I discerned a lively frame in asserting a God in Christ to be the fountain of my life, the strength of my life, the joy of my life; and that I had no life that deserved that name, unless he Himself were my life. But here, checking myself with reflections on my own sinfulness, vileness, and corruption, I began to acknowledge my wickedness; but for the time the sweetness of frame failed me, and wore off. Whence, I think, I may gather this lesson that no sweet influence of the spirit ought to be checked upon pretense of getting a frame better founded upon humiliation; otherwise the Lord may be provoked to withdraw.” What is he saying here? Simply that – although it is important that God show us our wicked hearts – it is never to the point that we are in danger of losing sight of our assurance of Sonship, or our sense of the preciousness of Christ. I confess that this has been a very large obstacle for me. I have experienced this hurdle again and again. I am not going to say that I may never have to deal with this again. I will say that God has taken me by the hand and begun to work with me. Recently, I had to bathe a pet for its own good. This pet is well-known to hate its bath. Knowing how very much it needed the bath (the smell alone was enough to make me gag), I also knew what the pet didn’t – without this bath, infection would set in. I tried to walk over to my pet as if nothing out of the ordinary was about to happen. I smiled and reached out to touch this otherwise nice animal. It seemed to be able to read my mind, because it looked at me in a state of blind panic and bolted as far away as it could. What looked like a chaotic, frenzied, mindless retreat, (I quickly learned) became a methodical attempt to escape its bath. Many minutes ticked by, mind you. Later, I had my pet in my hands (well at least for a second). For, very quickly, I felt its teeth sinking into my hand. I dropped my pet and then realized I would have to catch the bugger again. Putting on gloves this time, I finally recaptured my pet. Its bites couldn’t hurt me now. I walked into the bathroom to place the animal into the bathwater. It was then that I realized mere gloves could not protect me from a pet who obviously didn’t want this much needed bath. For, suddenly, I felt excruciating pain as the pet literally began to claw its way up my arm. This creature had found the furthest place from the bathwater that it could find, for it was now standing upon my head, claws digging deeply into my scalp. I reached up, grabbed the little rascal and quickly dunked him in the water, peeled him again off my scalp, soaped him up, dunked him again, and once again peeled him off my scalp. Finally I wrapped him in a towel, dried him off, threw him on my bed and began tending my wounds. Looking over at him, I noticed he was glaring at me and I sent him a glare back. We sat together in silence and licked our wounds and wounded pride. However, I have another pet that also needs a bath from time to time. My little girl also is scared of her bath. When I approach, she starts to shake and quiver, but she sits very still waiting for me to begin. I need only tell her to, and she enters the bath. When it’s over, she crawls right up into my lap (a sight to see as she is so big that she literally hangs over the edges of my lap) and begs me to hold her and comfort her. I generally do, even though I end up feeling that it was I who had been bathed and not her. Now, my second pet is often clean. My first pet, however, only gets a bath when I absolutely have to; consequently he is often stinky and rarely gets to come out and socialize when others are around. I say all this not merely for the sake of amusement, but to say this: So often I am like my pet when it comes to confession. Confession is like a bath I need, but often don’t want. God has shown me that I have a choice. I can approach my bath like my first pet, or I can willingly enter the bath, like my second, and submit to the washing of the Holy Spirit by the word of truth. Either way, I am in sore need of a bath. I often wonder if that is not why God used the laver in Exodus 38:8 and Exodus 30: 17-21 as a type of confession. In Exodus 38:8, the Bible says: “They made the bronze basin and its bronze stand from the mirrors of the women who served at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.” How interesting that God ordained for women’s mirrors to be used to make the laver that symbolically cleansed the priests and readied them for service. Picture this with me … Shaul woke up like any other day. He was a descendant of the house of Levi. His clan was the one called to enter the house of meeting, and to serve there. He began his day much as any man would – with a prayer of thanksgiving that he had awoken from his sleep. It was such a way of life now that it seemed more natural to him than breathing or swallowing. Today was different in one way, however. It was his turn to enter the place of meeting. He started the intense physical cleansing efforts to make sure his body was as clean as possible. Every inch of his body was combed and cleaned. But he would have to go through one more cleansing once he arrived. Standing in the courts – after making a sacrifice to atone for the sins he had confessed – he walked straight up to a huge bronze bowl. Shaul already knew that the bowl was filled with water. It wasn’t the water he feared, it was the bowl itself. You see, Shaul was well aware that the animal just sacrificed had made his hands and feet bloody. With polished bronze as clear as a mirror, it would be plainly visible. He knew that, before he could serve, he would need to be purified of that blood. But first he would have to see it in all its goriness. Timidly he walked up and, sure enough, there in the reflection was all that blood and gore all over his hands and feet. Shaul washed his hands clean and then looked again. There he was clean and fresh, made almost like new. Clothing himself again in his priestly robes, he looked one last time and saw a sight of such beauty and purity that it seemed as if the prior reflection was but a dream. Confident and assured, he entered the place of meeting. Beloved, this Old Testament picture shows us the purpose of confession, and its hope. Be Careful Also About an Attitude of Innocence John, the beloved disciple, warns us against an attitude of innocence before a holy God. To say that we have nothing to confess to God is to call him a liar, and to practice self-deception before our Maker. David says: "Behold I was shaped in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me" (Psalm 51:5). And Isaiah adds to his own unworthiness before a holy God when he says: "All our righteousness [that is, our best efforts] are as filthy rags" (Isaiah 64:6). Most of us misread that passage and think that God means "all of our unrighteousness." But it is all our best efforts at living that good and moral life that is still as filthy rags. Even if we could keep all the law and stumble in only one small point we would be guilty of all the law. Isaiah, a man filled with the Spirit, a prophet of God, a man above reproach, is a good example of this truth. In Isaiah 6 he first sees the Lord in all his beauty, high and lifted up, and glorified. The sight was so awesome that the just and righteous Isaiah fell on his face before God with an acute awareness of his own sinful nature. Oh that it might happen for each person taking this lesson. He was not exaggerating. He was not bemoaning the sinfulness of other people. He saw himself in the light of God’s holiness and cried, "Woe is me! For I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips" (Isaiah 6:1-5). We are not just to come into God's presence presumptuously, but humbly (2 Chronicles 7:14), contritely, with a sincere perspective of our own nature. Father God, give us a vision of ourselves, our true fallen nature, our minds which are unclean, and of which God knows every passing thought (Psalm 139:1-5). Until we recognize
our own state of
bankruptcy before a holy God, we cannot truly lean upon His
Righteousness,
without which no man will see the Lord (Hebrews 12:14). We would
instead come
into his presence as the Pharisee, proud, bragging of his kept laws,
righteous
deeds, and his right to gain the Father's favor. We need to see
ourselves as
destitute, and totally depraved, without the righteousness of Christ.
We have
nothing of which to boast. We need to see ourselves as God sees us,
like the
rich In The Pursuit of God, A.W. Tozer says, "We need to admit ... the shallowness of our inner experience, the hollowness of our worship, the worldliness of our lives, our fleshly fallen nature that lives on, yet unjudged within us, uncrucified and unrepudiated, and the hyphenated sins of the human spirit, self-righteousness, self-pity, self-confidence, self-sufficiency, self-admiration, self-love, self-indulgence, and a host of other self-sins. They are not something we do, they are something we are..." Regarding Iniquity in my Heart "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me” Psalm 66:18 (KJV). To regard iniquity means to actually “cherish sin” (NIV), to know it is there and do nothing about it. It is to hide it, to cover it by excuses, to consider it unimportant, to ignore its dangers. God considers any iniquity to be an abomination. An abomination is a horrible, disgusting thing. There are no "good guy" iniquities, no little white lies, and no insignificant rebellions of the heart! God calls rebellion in any form "as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness as idolatry" (1 Samuel 15:23). God considers sin as sin and all equally appalling to his holiness. Sin in our heart is to the Lord like festering sores and maggots in his holy offerings – slimy, crawling, slithering, disgusting maggots defiling the whole (Isaiah 1:6)! Confession of Sin A man that truly enters into the presence of God cannot help but see himself as unclean. Even Scripture admits that "all of our good deeds are as filthy rags" (Isaiah 64:6). So was the feeling of Isaiah before the throne in Isaiah 6, and of Daniel in chapter 9. The holiness of God cannot tolerate the presence of sin! We are exhorted to confess our sins to God (1 John 1:8-9), and even admit our faults to one another (James 5:16) in order to pray effectively and fervently and be healed. What to do With Your Sin
We cannot do penance for our sins; it would do no good. We cannot pay the penalty of our sins. The penalty or "wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23). Therefore. God has provided a better way… Jesus paid it all on the cross, so we can then say with him, "It is finished." He asks us to lay our sins on Jesus. He is your sin-bearer. Lay them there and rejoice in what God says he has done with your sins. Confession is asking and receiving forgiveness and the covering of the blood of Jesus. Do not leave the altar of confession without appropriating the provisions of the cross! Be forgiven and give thanks. |
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