I Believe According to the Scriptures: Confession and Absolution - John 20:23

When guilt weighs heavy and the conscience convicts, where do we turn? Not to self-justification. Not to denial. Not to despair. To the cross—and to the clear word of forgiveness spoken in Christ’s name. “Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.” (Psalm 32).

Information about The American Association of Lutheran Churches (TAALC) can be found at www.taalc.org

Transcript

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Welcome over to Faith Comfy Theory. Join Dr. Harry Larson, the presiding pastor of the American Association of Lutheran Churches, as he ventures into the challenges of everyday life and the deep need to hear the truth that we are saved by grace, through faith, through Christ Jesus alone. Each episode is an invitation not just to listen, but to truly hear and embrace the good news of Christ Jesus for you and for all.

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For today's message concerning, we believe, according to Scriptures, confession and absolution, I want to bring you to Psalm 32. So listen to the word of the Lord. Blessed are one whose transgression is forgiveness, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and whose spirit there is no deceit. For when I kept silent my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me. My strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover up my iniquity. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord, and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Therefore, let everyone who is godly offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found. Search, surely in the rush of great waters they shall not reach him. You are a hiding place for me, you preserve me from trouble, you surround me with shouts of deliverance. I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go, I will counsel you with my eye upon you. Be not like a horse or a mule without understanding, which must be curved with bit and bridle, or it will not stay near you. Many are the sorrows of the wicked, but steadfast love surrounds the ones who trust in the Lord. Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart. Psalm 32. Let us pray. Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen. Dear brothers, dear sisters in Christ's grace and peace, you're from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who is the way and the truth and the life. Amen. So we're walking in this in the scriptures here today, and we continue our work as we understand how we ought to believe. And it's the wonderful, wonderful part about being a Christian is you got a God who has spilled this out so spelled it out so well for us in his book, and that if we just follow it and just don't impose our own things, we find ourselves with a God who continues to give us the things that we need and when we need it. Including the Bible talks about how he has wired us as such that we know the law. I will put my law in their heart, he tells us. So whether you're a believer or a non-believer, you got God's law, and with that is attached a conscience. This is from Romans, the second chapter, verse 15, since they, that be the Gentiles, the non-believers, show that the requirement of law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them. I'm reminded that I personally, and I know others as a pastor and as I just a person in life, we're so gifted at justifying our wrongs. Well, he hit me first, was the first thing I said to my mom and dad when my brother smacked me, and it was a justifiable thing to smack a back. Always a little bit harder. I can't believe you guys would do that, would you? No. Okay, I didn't think so. Or he's looking at me, or when the girls were growing up, she's looking at me, and it's like, well, lighten up, Francis. I mean, come on. But what we have, though, when we deal with things that we've done wrong, we struggle with things within. We have pains of guilt, we we feel the cut of remorse. And often we can use that in an unhealthy situation, we can beat ourselves to the point that we feel that we're worthless, worthless to God and worthless to other people. But God gives us a conscience, and that's important. It's how he wires us. And it's important that we use this conscience for the good of all, let alone ourselves. And I know you've been there because you're a human. And you look back at your last month, you look at last week, you look back at yesterday, and you know perfectly well there was something, something going on in your life, and it might have been even a thought, that was not according to the will of God. And you find yourself wrestling with that, and you find yourself feeling guilty about that. I shouldn't be doing this. And and the conscience works on our hearts in such a way. Now, the thing about a conscience, the conscience has to be bound to something. And you don't have to look very far in the world, and the world will use such flowery language that it actually sounds pretty good. Your heart needs to be your guide. Follow your heart. What does your heart say? And so we trust this heart. Okay. But the trouble is, is my heart, God tells us, Jesus Himself, God in the flesh, tells us that from the heart comes all evil. Okay? Well, maybe the world, maybe the world can inform me of where I should bind my conscience. And Jesus Himself will talk about how the world changes, it's finicky and fickle, and what's in today is gone tomorrow. And we find ourselves chasing the wind, vanity of vanities, David's son Solomon writes in Ecclesiastes. We find ourselves chasing the wind if we're going to bind our conscience to the world. So where are we to go? And God would have us to bind our conscience to this. Jesus Christ is eternal. He is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow, and his word is the same. So by binding your conscience to this, you got a true guide. And when your conscience convicts you, when you know you've done wrong, what does this book say? It tells us many good things, and I want to share some of these with you. Going back to Psalm 4, that we can find ourselves, if we don't confess our sins, we find ourselves in a world of hurt. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me. My strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. In it? Not confessing our sins. It starts working against us. And as a pastor, I find people will do one of three things. The first thing that they'll do is go into denial. Well, other people do this. Or I'm justified in doing it. Oh, we're so good at justifying our sins. Or it just didn't hurt anybody. You have two consenting people in this, how can it hurt anybody? We are so gifted at denying God's will. We're so gifted at denying our guilt. The other part, and it's just as bad, is we go into despair. There is nothing that God can do to forgive me. These things that I have done in the past are unforgivable. You'll never find that in the Bible. We find ourselves, and the devil loves this, one or the other. You justifying your sin, you're justifying your rebellion against God, or you find yourself so doggone down that you think you're out of reach of God's mercy. But where God would have you is to confess your unbelief, to confess your rebellion against God's will. And you did that. You did that in the form of this confession song. First and foremost, you you had your private moment with God. God, I have not followed your will or however you prayed it, and it was a sweet prayer to God. And then we sang that corporate song that is so loaded with so much. Not only have I rebelled against you, God, I have rebelled and I've hurt the ones I love. Where am I to go?

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Understand it.

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And so the word of God, the law of God, God's God causes our conscience, bound by his word, to run to the cross, and you have someone who just has been given the wonderful, beautiful feet, if you will, to proclaim the gospel. Your sins are forgiven. You're free. Every service, with some exceptions of some Wednesday nights, but every Sunday service, we start with a confession. Lord, I have done wrong. I need to get this off my conscience because my bones are aching. And I don't go, I don't go, yeah, you're a bunch of screw-ups. Now go home and think about it. You would say, hey, Pastor, you got work to do. And the old faith, in the old way of doing the faith, the pastor was given the gift by the congregation and by the very words of Jesus, the things that you forgive on earth are forgiven in heaven, the old faith and the old words, and so one day I'm gonna bring them back on you. And the office and in the stead, and the office of the pastor, who is one sent by God to proclaim God's grace and mercy through his son. And in the stead, in the place of. And what that means then is hold on to your hats. Jesus is gonna use my voice. And then the pastor says, I forgive you all your sins. And it's not me. I'm just a man. I can't forgive anything, I can't make any sins go away. I can forgive the wrongs that you've done to me, and I ask that you would forgive the wrongs I've done to you. And those are certainly what we need to do. But the ultimate atonement of your sins cannot be done by a man. It is done by the man God, Jesus Christ. And he has put his seal with my voice and says, I have forgiven you all your sins. Isn't that great? But what about, what about it's done? It's done. And that's the beauty when you come here to worship. Not only do we come into this worship space, and that font is there for a reason. Not to trip over when you come forward here. It's to remind you you are a child of God. You're baptized into Jesus Christ. He has gushed out all his mercy and grace and love and forgiveness. One for you on Calvary's Cross, and it starts there. For some of you, it was here. For some of you, it was someplace else. You were adopted into the family of God, and you are a child of God. And I was having a conversation with somebody before church start yesterday this morning, and just she was struggling with some things, and I reminded her what God tells us that we're children of light. To Satan, we look like spotlights, like stars walking around, because we radiate the love and the mercy and the forgiveness of God. Starts there. And then we come to worship and we know the things we've done. And we hear God has forgiven us. And then we come to his table and we receive his mercy, his forgiveness. It's constant. And that's what worship is about. Confessing sins and being absolved of them. God is worthy to be praised because you've forgiven all my sins. In fact, in fact, I believe in Psalm 4 he says that I have taken your sin and I have scattered it as far as the east is from the west. Or even here's a better one. Oh, this is so good. You gotta, you gotta, you gotta take this in. Actually, Psalm 103, as far as the east is from the west, so I have removed your transgressions. Jeremiah 31, 34. Take this one. For I will forgive their wickedness, my wickedness, your wickedness. All people call upon the Lord. And I will remember their sins no more. You have a God that chooses to have amnesia about your sins because when he looks at you, he looks at you through the blood of Jesus Christ, who is atoned for all your sins, and you are free, just as I told you moments ago. Free. Free from the accusation of the law. Law is good. But when I dwell in this in despair and want to defy against it, and Lord have mercy on me, you are free. The devil says, Well, if that's a Christian you are, if you are a Christian, would a Christian do this? Satan, what of it? You can accuse me all the day long, and you know I'm a sinner, but I got the blood of Jesus Christ on me. I'm set free. And even one day will come when you know your time is short. And some of you, I pray that's a long, long, long, long time. But you will be lying on your bed, and Satan or some demon is going to come along and whisper in your ear and say, Were you good enough for God? You didn't do all the things you were supposed to do. And I pray that a pastor, if it isn't me, it's some other pastor, comes to your side and reminds you that you're a precious child of God, that lift that cross before your very eyes and know that you are redeemed. And nothing can separate you from the love of God. Not sickness, not your sin, not this world. This world can destroy everything, but you got God and you got eternity. And this body, which is in decay, will rise whole, perfect. I can't wait. But in the meantime, through Jesus Christ and Christ alone, we know we're forgiven. And being forgiven people, guess what we get to do? We get to share that with others. And when others have offended, we get to give them forgiveness. This world, you don't have to spend much time on the internet and on the TV to see how messed up this world is. This world doesn't need justice as it defines it, it needs the peace of the Lord. It needs forgiveness. And God is sending you out on this morning to be an ambassador of this kingdom that offers forgiveness. Forgiveness. Because he has forgiven you all your sins. And the blood of Jesus Christ has washed them all away. And you know what you're left with? Peace. Peace. The peace that passes all understanding. It only comes from Jesus.