3. Confession of Sin. Psalm 51:2-5

Text: “For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.  Against Thee, Thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in Thy sight: that Thou mightest be justified when Thou speakest, and be clear when Thou judgest.”

Psalm 51:3-4.

          “When Jesus heard it, He saith unto them, They that are whole (sinless) have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

Mark 2:17.

Good morning, sin-sick Christian!  You and I, since Christ saved our never-dying souls, detest the fact of our sinfulness before we were graciously saved; and, if we are honest Christians, continue to detest with a deep detestation the sins that we find ourselves naturally committing every single day.  We are indeed, sin-sick Christians.

Verse 3. “For I acknowledge my transgressions. He seems to say, ‘I make a full confession of them.’  Not that this is my plea in seeking forgiveness, but it is a clear evidence that I need mercy and am utterly unable to look to any other quarter for help.”

Verse 3.“And my sin is ever before me. My sin as a whole is never out of my mind; it continually oppresses my spirit.  I lay it before Thee because it is ever before me: Lord, put it away both from Thee and me.  To an awakened conscience, pain on account of sin is not transient and occasional, but intense and permanent, and this is no sign of Divine wrath but rather a sure preface of abounding favour.”  (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 238)

When the Lord God saves a very real sinner, through the Sacrifice of a very real Saviour - Jesus Christ – that saved sinner forever after detests sin and continually seeks to flee from it.

“He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth (continues to confess) and forsaketh (continues to forsake) them shall have mercy.”  (Proverbs 28:13)

“David owneth (acknowledges) his sin and confesseth it as his own.  Here is our natural wealth: what can we call our own but sin?  Our food and raiment, the necessities of life, are borrowings.  We came hungry and naked into the world; we brought none of these with us and we deserved none of them here.  Our sin came with us, as David after confesseth.  We have right of inheritance in sin, taking it by traduction and transmission from our parents: we have right of possession.  So Job: ‘Thou makest me to possess the sins of my youth.’” (Samuel Page 1646) (Job 13:26)

Show me the sinless person – and I will show you the Lord Jesus Christ, and Him alone!  “There is none righteous, no not one.”  (Romans 3:10) (Psalm 14:1-3)

If a professing Christian can bear to sit with blatant sinners, as they practice their natural sin, and revel in it – then I must begin to immediately doubt that person’s Christian profession.

If a professing Christian can go from day to day, week to week, month to month, and year to year without any real Spiritual desire to fellowship with God and other sound Christians – then I must begin to immediately doubt that person’s Salvation. 

If we really and truly and deeply love someone, then it naturally follows that we shall desire to continually be in close relationship – fellowship – with that person.  We prove to ourselves and to all others our love and commitment to Christ, when we fervently desire to be in close fellowship with Him, and with His genuine people.  We hurt, when we sin against the Christ Who has suffered and died to pay the full price of our vile sin.

Verse 4.  “Against Thee, Thee only have I sinned.  A sin of infirmity may admit apology; a sin of ignorance may find out excuse; but a sin of defiance can find no defence.”  (Sir Richard Baker, 1568-1645)

It is therefore most healthy a position to take, to deem every sin we professing Christians commit as ‘wilful sin’; because, we who are regenerated by God the Holy Spirit, and in whom the Spirit of God resides, are well aware of sin’s vileness, and well aware of the grief we cause our indwelling Lord God. 

We cannot hide our daily sins from the all-knowing Lord God.  We fully understand that the Lord God will forgive us when we repent of sin and confess it to Him seeking forgiveness.  So, why then do we seek to hide our sins from God, by denying our sins to our very selves?

“There is a godly sorrow which leads a man/woman to life; and this sorrow is wrought in a man/woman by the Spirit of God, and in the heart of the godly; that he/she mourns for sin because it has displeased God, Who is so dear and so sweet a Father to him/her.  And suppose he/she had neither a Heaven to lose, nor a Hell to gain, yet he/she is sad and sorrowful in heart because he/she has grieved God.”  (John Welch 1570-1622)

It is so strange a thought, perhaps, to think that we professing Christians should, for one moment, forget that the Lord God Jehovah created Adam sinless; yet was present when our progenitor fell from grace with his ‘help meet’ Eve, and committed the sin of disobedience in Eden’s Garden.  It is yet more strange, perhaps, to imagine that our Holy Lord God somehow doesn’t KNOW when we have sinned against Him!  Thus, we search for the fig leaves of Spiritual denial, to try pathetically, to hide our daily sins from an all-knowing Lord God.

Verse 5. “Behold (look and fully understand), I was shapen in iniquity. He is thunderstruck at the discovery of his inbred sin and proceeds to set it forth.  This was not intended to justify himself but it rather meant to complete the confession.  It is as if he said, ‘Not only have I sinned this once, but I am in my very nature a sinner.  The fountain of my life is polluted as well as its streams.  My birth-tendencies are out of the square of equity; I naturally lean to forbidden things.  Mine is a constitutional disease rendering my very person obnoxious to Thy wrath.”  

“And in sin did my mother conceive me. He goes back to the earliest moment of his being to...acknowledge the deep taproots of his sin.  It is a wicked wresting of Scripture to deny that original sin and natural depravity are here taught.  Surely men who cavil at this doctrine have need to be taught of the Holy Spirit what be the first principles of the faith.”  (C.H. Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 239)

Confession of sin, to God alone in prayer, is the Christian’s passport to a close union with the Christ of God, and the means of grace to draw close to the full joy of Christ Jesus.

Thought: Sickness of our sin is a most healthy position for any real servant of Christ.