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Summary

This episode features a discussion on the importance of confession, forgiveness, and maintaining a strong relationship with God. Pastors Mike Kirkpatrick and Jim Butler, along with Wim Kerkhoff, address why Christians should continue confessing sins even after being forgiven, explaining that confession maintains intimacy with God and acknowledges human imperfections. Key questions answered include: “Why is it important for Christians to confess their sins even after being forgiven?” and “How does confessing sins impact a Christian’s relationship with God?” The pastors also discuss 1 John 1:9, which teaches that confession brings forgiveness and cleansing, underscoring the ongoing need for repentance as a form of honoring God and sustaining a close relationship with Him.

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Transcript

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

sin, god, confess, iniquity, sinner, relationship, forgiveness, lord, john, forgiven, love, jesus, justified, psalms, means, christ, pardon, repairing, psalmist, glory

SPEAKERS

Pastor Mike Kirkpatrick, Wim Kerkhoff, Pastor Jim Butler

Wim Kerkhoff  00:07

Okay, and why is it important for a Christian to continually confess his sins?

Pastor Mike Kirkpatrick  00:14

Because we still commit real sins. And I think first, it doesn’t change the fact that we are righteous in the sight of God, our standing, if you believe on Christ, and you’re justified that that status never changes, but we still commit real sins, as we still struggle in this present evil age. And 1 John, I think, is very instructive in this, especially because one of the main issues is the heretics he’s writing against. They basically deny any sort of sin, the nature of sin, and the acts of sin. And so you know he, does say multiple times that you make God out to be a liar. You deceive yourself if you don’t recognize that there is sin in this world. And so then I think one of the passages that I’ve quoted a lot and use a lot, is 1 John 1:9, If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That’s for us, sensible sinners. We’ve sinned, we’ve violated God’s law and we are forgiven in Christ, but we still struggle with sins, so we need to go to our to our God and confess them. And John does say, My little children in chapter two, these things I write to you, So that you may not sin, so we strive, by the grace of God, not to sin. But he says, If anyone sins, we have an advocate. And so that highlights, you know, the priestly work of Christ. One a priest is one who sacrifices, which Jesus did once for all time, but a priest also intercedes for us. And so Jesus is still interceding at the right hand of God, the Father, for us. And we still, because we still struggle with remaining sins. And all of our sins are forgiven and in him, but all the sins we will commit are forgiven in him, but we still need to confess them to him. And because, you know, the Bible does tell us, we need to do that in verse John one nine.

Wim Kerkhoff  02:05

So what happens if we don’t like it’s not held against us or anything, right?

Pastor Mike Kirkpatrick  02:11

No, it’s not held against us.

Pastor Jim Butler  02:12

When we’re justified by God’s grace, all our sins are forgiven and we receive the righteousness of Jesus Christ, which we you know, that’s the hallmark of our religion. It’s not our works. It’s not our doing. It’s the doing, dying, and rising of our Lord Jesus. I kind of parallel it to a father son relationship. You know, if my son sins against me or does something wrong, I don’t disown him. I don’t cut him out of the will, not that there’s a great, big will for him to be on anyway, but the relationship is a bit hurt. There’s a fracture, you know, or a husband, wife, husband, wives. They get into altercations. They get into arguments. Sometimes the, you know, words get a little bit harsh. Well, that doesn’t mean they’re divorced. It doesn’t mean that it’s dissolved. The relationship, the relationship is hurt. The relationship is not what it is when you’re not talking that way. So, I think you know, at least for us, us word when we confess our sins to God, it is an acknowledgement that by our sin, we’ve basically gone astray. We’ve left the one that we love. We’re sorry for that. We ask for forgiveness for that, and we want that restoration of that fellowship and that communion. It’s not an earning, you know, as long as I, you know, confess all my sins, I’m going to earn the pleasure and the smile of God, and I think that’s the way we’re supposed to look at it. It’s just maintenance of relationship through the means that God’s ordained.

I mean, First John is a great passage when Mike says sensible sinner. I think there’s a bigger way to deal with that phrase, and I don’t think that’s what you were meaning that hyper Calvinists will talk about a sensible sinner, meaning somebody who’s got some preparatory work. I think he means by that we’re mindful as God’s children now when we are prone to wander and when we do leave the God that we love. And so, first John one isn’t an evangelistic invitational text to sinners, to come to Jesus. It’s for us the maintenance of that relationship with our Heavenly Father, and you see it in the Psalms as well. You know, if you Lord should mark iniquities, oh Lord, who could stand? David says, but there is forgiveness with you that you may be feared. So we seek that forgiveness, and it then has that reflex action on us, where it provokes in us or promotes in us that fear of God or that right relating to God, so we receive forgiveness, and that it impacts us in such a way, that we then hopefully march onward and don’t commit those same sorts of things. But! we most likely will, and we have an advocate with the Father, even Jesus, Christ, the Righteous. So all of it is designed to locate glory upon the Savior. And if our confession of sin brings glory to Jesus, then let’s confess our sin.

Just thinking about Psalm 25 this morning, and it’s one of the passages that I like to go to when it talks, when, you know, we talk about forgiveness of sin. And it really, you know, the way the psalmist prays here is so contrary to the way that we do. No, maybe not you guys. I just know for me, he says, For Your name’s sake, oh Lord, pardon my iniquity, for it is great. Do we usually go to God, Lord, you know, I really tried doing the best I can in light of that, could you just pardon my sin? Now, David’s argument is, you have to pardon it, because it’s great. There’s just so much of it. It’s just so bad! So there’s basically a request pardon my iniquity, and two reasons. One, for your name’s sake. Oh, Lord, God’s name is glorified in the pardoning of my iniquity. But then the second reason is the greatness of the iniquity. Again, that’s not typical natural prayer for us, God, I want you to do something in terms of forgiving me of my sins, and I want it to be for your glory. Usually, it’s I want my peace. I want my happiness. I want my joy. And usually, we try to minimize our sin because we think we’re at the bargaining table. See, God, I have tried, the woman whom you gave me… You know, we always want to evade what is clear in our paths or clearly wrong in our path. But the psalmist says, I need forgiveness, because it’s great. I got a lot of sin. And I just, I just think that the psalmist is a lot more, I don’t want to say honest, because that means we’re dishonest, but I think a lot more open than we are when it comes to the freeness of God’s grace. I think of the subscription or superscription in Psalm 102, a prayer of the afflicted when he is overwhelmed and pours out his complaint before in the Lord.

That’s a great sort of parallel to Luke, you know, the importunate widow. Why does Jesus tell that? Because men were losing heart. What’s the remedy against losing heart? It’s to pray to God Almighty. So, when you come to the Psalms, you get a good dose of real religion. Psalm 116, again, I don’t, you know, I think about this because I read the Psalms. I don’t think I would think about this intuitively. But when’s the last time you went to a prayer meeting, and somebody said, I love the Lord because He has heard my voice and my supplications. It almost sounds like he’s affording a reason for his love. I love God “because”, we don’t usually talk like that. I love God because, I mean, we might, in a general sense, because he saved me, he keeps me, and all that sort of thing. But here specifically, I love him because he’s heard, because he’s inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call upon Him as long as I live. So, you know, we’re not only justified by the just judge of all the earth, but we’re adopted sons and daughters of our blessed God, and we’re in relationship with Him. And so, I would look at the ongoing confession of sin as ongoing maintenance of that relationship, not again, to secure it, to make sure it doesn’t go away, but because in relationship, that’s what you do. If I sin against you, I need to go to you. If I’ve hurt you, I need to fix that. And that doesn’t immediately cause all pain to go away, but it goes a long way to repairing that relationship.

Wim Kerkhoff  09:02

That’s excellent. I’ve never heard it explained that way in terms of repairing relationships. So it’s helpful to me as well. So thank you.

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