Pastor Pat Edwards 11/5/2006
Grace Baptist Church in Bountiful, Utah

1 John 1 8If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.

The problem is not that we claim to be without sin but that we fail to confess to one another. We’ve probably all heard the news this week that Ted Haggard, a prominent Christian pastor and President of the National Association of Evangelicals has been accused of ongoing sin in his life. I’m sure that he’s not a hypocrite although he certainly appears to be and I can understand people calling him that. I’m certain that he probably agonized over his sin and repeatedly confessed to the Lord, seeking forgiveness and cleansing.

But I’m equally sure he didn’t follow the command of James 5.16. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. The Bible makes it clear that it’s not enough to confess to God alone in the privacy of our own little room. Why else would Jesus tell the disciples they have the power to forgive sin. John 20 22And with that he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit. 23If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven." I assume he’s talking about people seeking forgiveness and life with God. I assume the disciples aren’t simply to walk around generously forgiv-ing whoever happens to cross their path. Instead the process of confession and forgiveness is to be a regular and common practice among the followers of Jesus.

As most of you know I have an accountability relationship with another pastor, Dean Shriver. We meet weekly to share and encourage and confess. Sometimes I’m headed to a meeting with Dean and I wonder why confessing a sin to Dean is so much more difficult than confessing directly to Lord. Shouldn’t I feel more embarrassed when I have to confess to the Lord than when I have to confess to Dean? You would think so but that isn’t the way it works and the Lord knows it and that’s why the Spirit tells us to confess to one another.

Recently I read Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s explanation of why confession to one another is necessary. He calls it, Breaking through to Certainty. In confession a man breaks through to certainty. Why is it that it is often easier for us to confess our sins to God than to a brother? God is holy and sinless, He is a just judge of evil and the enemy of all disobedience. But a brother is sinful as we are. He knows from his own experience the dark night of secret sin. Why should we not find it easier to go to a brother than to the holy God? But if we do, we must ask ourselves whether we have not often been deceiving ourselves with our confession of sin to God, whether we have not rather been confessing our sins to ourselves and also granting ourselves absolution. And is not the reason perhaps for our countless relapses and the feebleness of our Christian obedience to be found precisely in the fact that we are living on self-forgiveness and not a real forgiveness? Self-forgiveness can never lead to a breach with sin; this can be accomplished only be the judging and pardoning Word of God itself.

Who can give us the certainty that, in the confession and the forgiveness of our sins, we are not dealing with ourselves but with the living God? God gives us this certainty through our brother. Our brother breaks the circle of self-deception. 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 sins everything remains in the dark, but in the presence of a brother the sin has to be brought into the light. But since the sin must come to light some time, it is better that it happens today between me and my brother, rather than on the last day in the piercing light of the final judgment. It is a mercy that we can confess our sins to a brother. Such grace spares us the terrors of the last judgment.

And that brings us to the Lord’s table which we are celebrating today. 23For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, 24and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me." 25In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me." 26For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

27Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. 28A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. 29For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. 30That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. 31But if we judged ourselves, we would not come under judgment. 32When we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world.

We need to examine ourselves but we also need to hold each other accountable and that only happens when there is confession and forgiveness in the body of Christ. Today as you examine yourself realize that if you haven’t already, you need to make a commitment to make confession to another believer part of your life with Christ since it is the teaching of the Bible and it is the only way we break the power of sin in our lives.

The day of the Lord’s Supper is an occasion of joy for the Christian community. Reconciled in their hearts with God and with the brethren, the congregation receives the gift of the body and blood of Jesus Christ, and receiving that, it receives forgiveness, new life, and salvation. It is given new fellowship with God and men. The fellowship of the Lord’s Supper is the superlative fulfillment of Christian fellowship. As the members of the congregation are united in body and blood at the table of the Lord so will they be together in eternity. Here the community has reached its goal. Here joy in Christ and his community is complete. The life of Christians together under the Word has reached its perfection in the sacrament.