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True Confessions Psalm 51:1-12 |
November 6, 2006 Pastor Tom Marcum |
Well, it happened again just this past week as another politician invited an incredible amount of completely unnecessary grief into his life by refusing to do the simplest of things—offer an apology. I’m talking, of course, about Senator John Kerry who, on Monday while speaking at Pasadena City College told the students, “If you study hard; you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. And if you don’t you get stuck in Iraq.” His remarks immediately set off a firestorm of criticism because, on their face, his remarks clearly implied that our soldiers are not very bright. Not a smart thing for a politician to do.
But, as bad as it was, the entire mess would have disappeared in an instant if Kerry would have immediately said, “I’m so sorry that my poorly spoken words have caused any offense.” But he didn’t do that, instead, he became defiant angrily declaring that he would never be bullied into an apology. His defiance lasted a grand total of 48 hours—during which time he was the subject of an endless cascade of outrage and criticism from Democrats and Republicans alike, forcing him to go into hiding and cancel campaign appearances because his fellow Democrats didn’t want to be seen with him. Finally, on Wednesday, he yielded to the pressure and issued an apology…of sorts. A written statement suddenly appeared on his website stating not that he regretted his statement, but that he regretted, “that his words had been misinterpreted…and apologized to anyone offended.”
Now, while John Kerry is a recent and well-known example of this aversion to confessing personal failure, let me quickly say that John Kerry is not alone in this. This aversion to confession is endemic to the human creature. Even when we’re caught red-handed our natural inclination is to rationalize, blame someone else, change the subject or do just about anything we can think of to avoid the horror of simple, honest confession.
Some years ago, Ann Landers ran a column comprised of excuses that drivers had offered to their insurance companies in the hope of shifting the blame for their accidents off of themselves. Here’s a sampling:
--“The accident occurred when I was attempting to bring my car out of a skid by steering into the other vehicle.”
--“A pedestrian hit me and went under my car.”
--“To avoid hitting the bumper of the car in front of me, I struck the pedestrian.”
--And, my personal favorite, “An invisible car came out of nowhere, struck my vehicle and vanished.”
Our resistance to the whole notion of a free and full confession is incredibly strong. Sadly, this resistance to confession produces a host of negative consequences in our lives—it ruins relationships, it stunts our emotional development and, worst of all, it is absolutely devastating to the spiritual growth that God is working to accomplish in us and the blessings that God desires to give us.
As we consider, today, the importance of confession we’re going to be guided by the example of a man named David. Let me refresh your memory with a Reader’s Digest condensed version of his story.
As our story begins, God is searching for a successor to Israel’s King Saul. His search ends in the most unlikely of places. David is a shepherd, a musician and the youngest son of Jesse’s 8 boys. Once selected, however, the spirit of God came upon David in a mighty way.
David would rise to become a national hero as a great military commander and, after Saul’s death, David was anointed as Israel’s king. It’s an incredible story of success. Sadly, David’s legacy was forever tainted by a terrible lapse in judgment.
Walking on the roof of his house one afternoon he notices a woman taking a bath. He makes some inquiries and learns that her name is Bathsheba and that she is the wife of one of his soldiers. David yields to the temptation and Bathsheba is soon pregnant with his child.
When David learns of her pregnancy he sets in motion a series of deceptions in the hope that he will not be found out. When his initial plans fail, David devises a plan that leads to the death of Bathsheba’s husband. The once great and godly king had fallen into a pit of moral bankruptcy.
But, of course, the sin that David had hoped to conceal had never been concealed from God and God sent a messenger named Nathan to assure David that God knew all about his sins and failures. Every last one of them. Shamed and humiliated, David finally did what a man of godly character does, he stopped trying to deny, avoid or cover up his sin and simply confessed it. In 2 Samuel 12:13, David says, “I have sinned against the Lord.”
In fact, David went on to write an entire psalm, Psalm 51, about this experience and in doing so offered us a wealth of lessons about true confession. Let’s begin by reading the first four verses. In Psalm 51:1-4 David writes,
“Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge.”
Does that sound sincere to you? Does it ring true? It sure does to me. And here’s why— True confession is always rooted in a spirit of humility. And, that’s the spirit that we see, here, in David. Folks, humility is the only spirit that leads to true confession. Any time we attempt to confess while zealously and defiantly holding on to a prideful spirit our confession inevitably sounds hollow and untrue because it is hollow and untrue.
--A confession that is carefully constructed to make it sound as though we haven’t really done anything wrong is not a confession. That’s just a subtle expression of pride.
--When confessions are rooted in pride they oftentimes sound as though we’re really not sorry for what we’ve done…we’re just sorry that we got caught. Folks, that’s not confession.
True confession is always rooted in humility. And that’s the spirit that we see here in David.
David doesn’t try to minimize his offense. He doesn’t offer any excuses. He doesn’t try to shift the blame on to someone else. Instead, he humbly and freely acknowledges that he and he alone is responsible for the wrong that he has done.
--“O God…blot out MY transgression.”
--“O God…wash away all MY iniquity…”
--“O God…cleanse me from MY sin.”
--“O God…” I have “…done what is evil in your sight...”
David is still the king, but he completely surrenders his pride, asks for no special considerations or treatment of any kind and simply confesses his sin and pleads for God’s mercy and in doing so reminds us that true confession is always rooted in a spirit of humility.
The second lesson that we learn from David’s example is that true confession is always specifically directed to the offended party. True confession moves us beyond generic apologies addressed to no one in particular to that point where we acknowledge that our actions have caused real hurt, real wounds or real offense to a real person or persons. And when the offending action is sin, the offended person is God so our confession must be directed to Him.
So, as David continues his heartfelt and humble confession to God he writes, in verse 4, “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight…”
Were other people impacted by David’s appalling behavior? Absolutely. Our sin oftentimes impacts others and when it does, we need to do all that we can to make things right with them. But it’s important that we never forget that the sin was against God. And until the sin is confessed to God, it stands as a blessing barrier between God and us.
We find a third lesson as we read a little further into the psalm. In verses 10-12 David writes,
“Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.”
So, what’s the lesson? The lesson, here, is that true confession always acknowledges the root cause of the offending behavior. A true confession doesn’t stop with the acknowledgement of our regret over the wrong that we’ve done and the offense that we’ve caused. True confession takes us all the way to that point where we identify and acknowledge the source of our offensive behavior. And this is a critically important step in the confession process because until we honestly acknowledge the cause of the offending behavior we are doomed to repeat the offending behavior.
So, what was it that caused David to sin?
--Well, he didn’t sin because Bathsheba was flaunting her beauty in her bathtub.
--And he didn’t sin because women are attracted to powerful men.
No, David sinned because he had an impure heart. And until his heart was changed, he would continue to be vulnerable to every Bathsheba who crossed his path. And, folks, there’s always another Bathsheba. So, the key to victory for David was not to put up curtains around every bathtub in Israel. The key to victory for David was a changed heart. So he cried out to God in humility and brokenness and he prayed, “O God, create in me a pure heart and sustain me with a steadfast and willing spirit.”
Now, the good news is that God forgave David’s sin. And the even better news is that God stands ready to forgive our sin as well if we will come to Him in a spirit of humility and honesty and brokenness and simply pray,
“O God, against You and you only I have sinned and done what is evil in your sight. Wash me and cleanse me of all my sin. But, O God, don’t stop there. Create in me a pure heart and sustain me with a steadfast and willing spirit that I can turn from my sin and break free of it’s hold on me and sin no more.”
I don’t know the sin with which you struggle…but I know that you struggle with sin…because we all struggle with sin.
I don’t know the sin that you need to confess…but God knows and that’s really all that matters.
But I do know this…I know that when we confess our sin that God is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteous. And I know that because His word tells us that it’s so in 1 John 1:9.
And I know something else. I know that there is something very important that you need to understand about God and that is that He delights in answering that kind of prayer. He delights in forgiving the sin of the humble, repentant sinner. And, folks, all you have to do to know that that is true is to come here to this Table and see what He was willing to do to offer you the gift of His forgiveness.
God allowed His only Son to be put to death on the cross…not for His sin, but for ours. And God accepted Jesus’ death as payment in full for all our sin. The price for the forgiveness of our sin has already been paid. The gift of forgiveness is available to all who will receive it. And all you have to do to receive it is to confess your sin, trust in the sufficiency of Jesus’ sacrifice and ask for God’s forgiveness.
“Father, I confess my sin. I thank you for Jesus’ sacrifice, which makes forgiveness possible. I repent of my sinful ways. Forgive me. Wash away all my sin. Change my heart. Help me to live my life in a way that is pleasing to you.”
Before we come to the Table, I invite you to confess and receive the gift of God’s forgiveness. You can do that right where you stand…you can come forward here to pray at this platform…if you’d like to pray with me I’ll gladly meet you.
© Copyright 2006 Pastor Tom Marcum