Certain Eternity Part 12 – Light and Confession
1 John 1:9 November 24, 2024
Introduction
After Pope John Paul’s death in 2005, Cardinal Ratzinger was elected Pope and
choose the name Pope Benedict XVI. When the Vatican went to secure the
website for the new pope, they found that a man by the name of Roger
Cadenhead had snagged the domain name a couple weeks earlier. Cyber
squatting at its finest. But Cadenhead didn’t want to be paid for the website. A
regular blogger and self-described “lapsed catholic”, on his blog (and in the
interviews that followed) he asked the Vatican for three things, 1) one of those
bishop hats, 2) a free stay at the Vatican hotel, and 3) “complete absolution, no
questions asked, for the third week of March 1987”.
o Source: Max Lucado, 2006, Facing Your Giants, Nashville Tennessee:
Thomas Nelson, p142-2, 148; Pope’s domain names snatched up – Apr. 21,
2005; My Life as a Religious Parable
Studying how God is light and walking in the light…examples of walking in
darkness vs walking in the light so that one may have confidence/certainty in
their salvation. Today, we’ll focus on the critically important place that confession
plays in walking in the light.
1 John 1:5-10 “5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to
you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say we have
fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the
truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with
one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say
we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess
our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness. 10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his
word is not in us.”
Exposition
Confess (Gk homologeō) from root words (Gk homou) meaning same, and (Gk
logos) meaning word (in totality of meaning)
o Therefore, homologeō literally means to say the same thing as another, i.e.
to agree with, assent or concede, to profess that what the other says is true
Psalm 14:1-3 “The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are
corrupt, they do abominable deeds; there is none who does good. 2
The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if
there are any who understand, who seek after God. 3 They have all
turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who
does good, not even one.” (quoted in Romans 3:10-13)
o Confession acknowledges not just generally that I am a broken sinful man,
but it specifically acknowledges the sin and then asks the Lord to help us
turn from it (i.e. repentance).
(After seven sons of Sceva are overcome by demonized man in Ephesus) Acts
19:18-20 “18 Also many of those who were now believers came, confessing and
divulging their practices. 19 And a number of those who had practiced magic arts
brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they
counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver. 20
So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily.”
o Confession must be paired with turning from the sin (repentance),
otherwise, it is mere intellectual acknowledgment and sorrow over getting
“caught” (i.e. experience earthly consequence) which leads to death and
not heart change that leads to life
o Warren Wiersbe wrote “Confession is not praying a lovely prayer or
making pious excuses, or trying to impress God and other Christians. True
confession is naming sin – calling it by name that God calls it: envy, hatred,
lust, deceit or whatever it may be. Confession simply means being honest
with ourselves and with God; and others if they are involved too… True
confession is the heart of repentance.” (The Transformation Study Bible
(NLT), Colorado USA: David C. Cook Publishers (2009), commentary by Dr
Warren W. Wiersbe, p.2130)
2 Corinthians 7:9-11 “9 As it is, I rejoice, not because you were
grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a
godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us. 10 For godly grief
produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas
worldly grief produces death.”
Confession without repentance is essentially just self-pity…I’m
sorry I got caught and the consequences I face, but I am not
willing to really acknowledge that what I’m doing is against God;
I’m not really willing to change…and that leads to death.
o Repentance begins when blame shifting and self-pity end
and ownership of my wrong moves me to repudiate my
sinful behavior, thoughts, speech, etc. and ask the Lord to
give me the strength, desire, and self-control to pursue a
life of holiness instead of a life of that particular sin.
Qualities of God – Yahweh is holy, orderly and forgives because:
o Faithful = trustworthy…does what he says
(after Adam and Eve sin) Genesis 3:8-9 “8 And they heard the sound
of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the
man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God
among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man
and said to him, “Where are you?””
God went “looking” for them because He want to be in
relationship with us and faithfully pursues us and the first
question God asks in the bible. Not “what did you do” (he knew
that…also knew where they were)…instead he was testing to
see if they would invite Him into their failure, if they would
confess and repent.
o Just = righteous and upholding the law by rendering what penalty is due
without partiality
Jesus paid penalty (1 John 2 topic)…and there is a penalty for every
transgression against the Lord.
Someone once told the story of a wealthy grandfather who was
getting on in age. He was going deaf, but he went to the doctor and
was fitted with a unique hearing aid. It not only overcame the man’s
deafness, but it allowed him to hear perfectly. When he went back to
the doctor for a check-up, the doctor commented, “Well, your family
must be extremely happy that you can now hear.” The grandfather
said, “No, I haven’t told them about my hearing aid. I just sit around
and listen to the conversations. I’ve already changed my will twice!”
God knows everything….why do we keep trying to hide…we
just make things worse for ourselves.
Matthew 5:23-24 “23 So if you are offering your gift at the altar and
there remember that your brother has something against you, 24
leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to
your brother, and then come and offer your gift.”
We do not wait to be confronted with our sin…we take the
initiative to clear it
Exodus 34:6-7 “6 The Lord passed before him and proclaimed,
“The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to
anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7
keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and
transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the
guilty…”
o Forgiveness is a free gift of God’s grace and mercy as we
come to Him in humble, faith-filled confession and
repentance – but that forgiveness has a great cost – a
cost that Jesus paid with His life and that we continually
acknowledge by living our lives for Him and His kingdom
and not our own prerogative and pleasure.
Gnostics – justice and faithfulness not a priority
o Secret knowledge was the prime and paramount pursuit – inherently self-
centered worldview. No care for justice or faithfulness unless it served the
self-seeking aims of acquisition of secret knowledge.
So, this is, again, a rebuttal of gnostic views of spirituality and their
twisted view of truth and faith.
Application
Examine yourself
o ask the Lord to reveal areas of your life that are in darkness and need to be
brought into the light
o Ask others around you what they see in you.
o If you don’t know how to be introspective, google examination of
conscience questions…there are many helpful suggestions out there.
Confess and be blessed
o Psalm 32:1-4 “1 Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven,
whose sin is covered. 2 Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts
no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. 3 For when I kept silent,
my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. 4 For day and
night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the
heat of summer. Selah”
o It has been said in many places, “we are only as sick as our secrets”
o Proverbs 28:13 “Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but
he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.”
Tim Keller “…the gospel of free justification – that we are saved and
accepted through Christ apart from any of our good works or efforts –
changes the nature of repentance. When we forget the freeness of
grace, the purpose of our repentance becomes the appeasement of
God. When we aren’t sure that God loves us in Christ, then
confession and repentance become a way of keeping on God’s good
side with expressions of sorrow that we hope impress him with our
sincerity and move him to take pity on us. If that is what repentance
becomes, it is self-righteous and will be bitter all the way to the
bottom. It will lead only to forced compliance of the will, not change of
view, motivation, and heart.” (Tim Keller, Prayer, 2014, p. 208-209)
Our assurance of salvation can be seen through our attitude
toward and practice of confession.
Yet, when we understand God’s grace and embrace faith-filled
forgiveness through humble repentance and truly receiving the
pardon that the Lord offers through Jesus, we walk in blessing.
Matthew 5:3-7 “3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the
kingdom of heaven. 4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they
shall be comforted. 5 “Blessed are the meek, for they shall
inherit the earth. 6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for
righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. 7 “Blessed are the
merciful, for they shall receive mercy.”
Confess and Pray (for one another)
o 1 Timothy 2:5 “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between
God and men, the man Christ Jesus”
o James 5:16 “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one
another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has
great power as it is working.”
o Dietrich Bonhoeffer “A man who confesses his sins in the presence of a
brother knows that he is no longer alone with himself; he experiences the
presence of God in the reality of the other person. As long as I am by
myself in the confession of my sins everything remains in the dark, but in
the presence of a brother the sin has to be brought into the light.”
(Bonhoeffer, Life Together, 1952, p116)
isolation vs. community characteristic…I know that someone is in
trouble (i.e. probably sinning or in danger of sinning) if they have cut
themselves off from community. Who are they confessing to? No one.
Confession is a corporate discipline, not an individual one.
o Augustine “The confession of bad works is the beginning of good works.”
o Mister Rogers “Anything that’s human is mentionable, and anything that is
mentionable can be more manageable. When we can talk about our
feelings, they become less overwhelming, less upsetting, and less scary.
The people we trust with that important talk can help us know that we are
not alone.”
o John Piper “It doesn’t mean you need to broadcast to the whole world your
specific sins. That wouldn’t be good for them, and it wouldn’t be good for
you. It does mean that you need to be known as an open book,
appropriately read by accountable, mature people in your life. You’re not a
secretive person, a hypocritical person. Ephesians 4:25 says, ‘Therefore,
having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his
neighbor, for we are members one of another. That’s going to include
doctrinal truth, relational truth, truth about God, truth about others, truth
about circumstances, and truth about our own souls. We are people of
truth. That would be a foundational building block in the theology of
relational confession.”
Confess and Forgive (one another)
o Matthew 6:9-15 “9 Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be
your name. 10 Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in
heaven. 11 Give us this day our daily bread, 12 and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil. 14 For if you forgive others their trespasses, your
heavenly Father will also forgive you, 15 but if you do not forgive others
their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”
Recognize the connection between confession/forgiveness of
ourselves and the need to forgive others
Martin Luther “If anyone insists on his own goodness and despises
others…let him look into himself when this petition confront him. He
will find he is no better than others and that in the presence of God
everyone must duck his head and come into the joy of forgiveness
only through the low door of humility.” (see Luther’s Large Catechism,
page 93)
Colossians 3:12-14 “12 Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy
and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness,
and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a
complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has
forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on
love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.”
Walking in faith-filled confession and repentance provides our
forgiveness…that we then extend to others.
Confess and Worship
o Confession is our first step to give God the glory he is due and without it we
can’t walk in life, holiness, or truth.
o Psalm 32:5-11 “5 I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my
iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and you
forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah 6 Therefore let everyone who is godly
offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found; surely in the rush of
great waters, they shall not reach him. 7 You are a hiding place for me; you
preserve me from trouble; you surround me with shouts of deliverance.
Selah 8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will
counsel you with my eye upon you. 9 Be not like a horse or a mule, without
understanding, which must be curbed with bit and bridle, or it will not stay
near you. 10 Many are the sorrows of the wicked, but steadfast love
surrounds the one who trusts in the Lord. 11 Be glad in the Lord, and
rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!”
Conclusion
The example of Cadenhead’s request for his pope website has become a
sermon illustration for many a pastor since 2005…and many have wondered
what happened the third week of March 1987 that Cadenhead would need such
absolution. Well, writing again on his blog in 2019 he finally confessed what that
week was about: it was the week he started dating his future wife…and godly
physical boundaries were set aside.
While I certainly hope that Mr. Cadenhead is no longer lapsed in his faith, I
appreciate the example that he has provided of the central place that confession
plays in our walk with God in the light.