sermonette: Confessions of a Sinner

Joseph B. Baity
Given 06-Jun-26; Sermon #1879s; 17 minutes

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I have a confession to make. Please prepare yourself for it. I can no longer hold it back. I am a sinner. And I'm not proud of that fact. But it is a fact. And without trying to sound judgmental, I believe that each of you listening today, I, I have it on pretty good authority that each one of you is also a sinner. Yeah, I do not want to trivialize the matter by stating the obvious in such a fashion, but there is no greater challenge that any of us is confronted with on our salvation journey than sin. The sin I'm guilty of the sin you're guilty of, there is nothing trivial about it. The wages of sin is death. Now we do not exist in a vacuum. We do not sin in a vacuum. My sin affects you. Your sin affects me, whether or not either of us is even aware of the other's sin. And sadly, as much as we would like to deny it, sin has placed and will continue to place its indelible mark upon our fellowship until we are redeemed as the first fruits of God. Sin complicates our lives and our fellowship. It adds extra burdens to our already challenging walk. And though we are hopefully working diligently to eliminate sin's stranglehold on our lives and by extension our fellowship, we know we will not be 100% successful as long as we dwell in these mortal carnal bodies. Romans 8:7 and Jeremiah 17:9 tell us that our minds are inherently in opposition to God and that our hearts, the very essence of our being, are wicked and deceitful. It's difficult therefore to come to any conclusion except that we are going to have to deal with our sins within our fellowship right up until the end of this age. So given our mission to overcome sin and to inspire and even assist others in doing the same. I believe we can say that how we deal with sin, our own and each other's, is about as important as anything we do. So with an introduction like this, I guess I could probably go now in a lot of different directions, maybe a John Wrightenbaugh like 20 part series, but that's obviously not my goal today. Instead, I wanna focus on a singular aspect of our fellowship that we do not talk about very often regarding the confession of our sins. And I'm narrowing the discussion quite a bit, dealing less with the crucial commandment that we all better be familiar with that we confess our sins to God. But instead today I want to focus on our confessions to one another. Now we all know that sin is committed against God and only he can grant us justification. But it is my belief that our confessions to one another in certain circumstances can be nearly as important as our confessions to God and certainly worth our attention. And I was really glad when I heard Ted split last week. I told him he did a great job of setting me up this week. He spoke of our need and God's command to love him and one another, that we are interdependent, that we are a group, a collective, one body. And I liked that word interdependent. There is a lot implied there. We need each other. And then he ended up. Reading my key scripture for this week. Not once Not 2, but 3 times. But instead of being overly concerned, I took it as a sign that I was on the right path for this week. So for a 4th reading, let's turn to James 5:16. James chapter 5 and verse 16. Confess your trespasses to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. Now Ted used this scripture in the context of our love and thus our obligation to pray for one another. And I wanna break a few of James's words down further, but before I do that, I wanna start building a case for why I believe we need to consider more closely our confessions to one another. So consider this. The apostles John and Paul wrote about us needing to walk in the light as children of light, light in this case being a very strong metaphor, of course, for truth, that truth is foundational to our walk and foundational to our fellowship with God and each other. Thus it behooves us to be truthful and able therefore to admit our own sinfulness in general. And perhaps in certain situations, more specifically to the right person at the right place and at the right time. And while we shouldn't publicly declare every one of our sins, that would be foolish and potentially harmful. There are certainly times though when a quiet, sincere, and properly measured confession is needful, and I believe this is one of the reasons our loving God called us into a fellowship. God wants us walking in the light and typically with one another. And while this is not always pleasant or easy, Paul wrote in Ephesians 4:25, Therefore, putting away lying, let each of, each one of you speak truth with his neighbor, for we are members of one another. So consider next that we are taught to make sincere and urgent efforts to make right any wrong we may have committed against a brother or a sister. Turn quickly to Matthew 5:23 and 24. Matthew chapter 5 verses 23 and 24. Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go your way. First, be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift. Quite simply, reconciliation between two or even more persons in the fellowship is not only needful, but it requires a confession. Not just to God But between one another. Now next we have an even more difficult responsibility to consider. Matthew 18:15 instructs us. Moreover, if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother. When one is wronged by a brother or a sister to the extent that he or she is really troubled. The one wronged needs to go to the other quietly and privately so that he or she can gently but firmly. Encourage a confession of the wrong so that they can maintain and preserve and likely even strengthen the relationship. And this we should keep in mind can be difficult, even burdensome. Adding to this is Galatians 6:1 where Paul implores, Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself, lest you also be tempted. Now this strongly implies that to restore someone who has sinned will involve some form of, once again, confession between brethren. Let's turn quickly to Ephesians 4:32. Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 32. This is where Paul wrote and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another even as God in Christ forgave you. Brethren, how important is the doctrine of forgiveness to our walk? Once again, I'd say it's foundational. But exactly how are we going to forgive one another if no one has given us any indication that they may have sinned against us or anyone? So once again I think we can conclude that where forgiveness is that there must be confession taking place and likely on a pretty regular basis. I do not want to give the impression that we are to go through some rote ritual of confession like the Catholics do when we sin. Confession, like sin, needs to be taken far more seriously. But we need not only to be willing to confess but to listen to a brother or sister when they are seeking help with a weakness or a fault with both parties' greatest concerns being directed toward genuine repentance, forgiveness, and restoration. Now, all of this brings us back to James 5:16. And guess what? I'm going to read it for a 5th time. Confess your trespasses to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed. The effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. Now I've highlighted three key words from that scripture. They are confess, trespass, and heal. And I want to make sure that we understand what James is driving at, that there are no questions about what these words mean, words mean, and thus this scripture. Starting with confess, it's transliterated examala geho. It's a good one. Strong's number 1843 to acknowledge or by implication of assent agree fully to confess, profess, or promise. Easton's Bible Dictionary adds an acknowledgment of sins to God and to a neighbor whom we have wronged. Then we look at trespass or the King James, I think uses faults. Strong's number 3900 Prama. A side slip, lapse, or deviation, unintentional error or wilful transgression. Fall, fault, offense, sin, trespass pretty straightforward. Thayer's Greek lexicon adds to fall, lapse or deviation from truth and uprightness, a sin, a misdeed. So finally we look at the word heal. Strong's number 2390. Yaomahi. Meaning to cure literally or figuratively. Heal, make whole. Thayer's lexicon adds to cure, heal, to make whole, to free from errors and sins. And then to bring about one's salvation. To be sure, there are no tricky words or definitions involved. Uh, this is a very straightforward scripture in my, in my mind. It's very easy, I think, to catch the essence of what James was getting at. Now I'd like to read an excerpt from an article written many years ago by one of our late elders John Reed commenting on James 5:16. The article is entitled Out of the Abundance of our prayers, quote. Though James seems to be speaking about praying for those who are sick, the overall command is specifically to pray for one another. Further, James instructs us to confess our faults or our trespasses. The apostle does not mean that we should reveal every sin and foible to everyone in the congregation. He implies though that we should confide our problems to a close, trusted friend so that he or she can help us by praying to God for help in overcoming it. Such loving help is the essence of true outgoing concern. Unquote. And then I found another commentary on this scripture from John Piper, a former minister and currently the chancellor of a seminary school up in Minneapolis, quote. I take this to mean simply that in the normal life of the Christian, honesty and truthfulness and purity of heart involve continual admission and confession of sin to appropriate people in our lives. The result of this will be greater than physical. It will include spiritual health as well, unquote. So brethren, Sin often carries with it a great stigma which if not properly confessed and dealt with can seriously harm our spiritual self-esteem. Leading a fellow brother or sister in the faith to feel alone, detached, drained, an outcast on the outside looking in. David in Psalm 3235 declares, When I kept silent, my bones grew old through my groaning all the day long, for day and night your hand was heavy upon me. My vitality was turned into the drought of summer. Selah. I acknowledged my sin to you, and my iniquity I have not hidden. I said I will confess my transgression to the Lord, and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Brethren, the kind of love, the love that God showed David when he confessed his transgressions, is a love so powerful that it engenders the level of trust necessary for David to be able to open up and confess his sins. So within our fellowship. Shouldn't we be striving to develop that same kind of love for one another, especially when we see so many of us struggling with sin today. Not to take God's place in the process. But to take our place, making the sacrificial effort to right a wrong we committed by confessing our sin to another or to restore our brother or sister in a spirit of gentleness by allowing or if appropriate, even encouraging them to confess. It really does seem foundational to our calling. A burden Possibly and at times even likely. And while we should always take care to avoid overburdening one another. Aren't we taught to bear each other's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ? Like Ted said, we are interdependent, we need each other. Finally, I want to repeat and reemphasize that justification and absolution for our sins only comes through the blood of Jesus Christ by way of our confession and repentance to our great God, and we should only look to him and not to any man for the same. However, as we are learning to become members of God's family. I believe there are spiritual principles regarding confession, forgiveness, and restoration involved here that we should pay careful heed to. So that we are able as brethren. In a most remarkable fellowship to work together to provide the needful and sometimes burdensome assistance to one another but only as we are encouraged and enabled to do so by both the Father and the Son, remembering always that by suffering with each other today we will one day rejoice with each other, sharing an exceedingly abundant and indescribable joy. I Corinthians 12:26 from the ESV, which will serve as our final scripture today, does declare, if one member suffers, all suffer together and if one member is honored, all rejoice together.