Sixth Grade Lessons, Block 5—How to Contact the Lord
Week 26
Confessing Sin
Reading Reference: Crucial Truths in the Holy Scriptures, vol. 2 Chapter 24; 1 John 1:9; Heb. 12:1; James 5:16
Memory Verse: If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and cleanse us. (1 John 1:9)
Suggested Songs:
Scripture Reading: 1 John 1:9; Heb. 12:1; James 5:16
Points to Emphasize:
Every saved one should confess his sins to God. If we sin after we are saved, we should confess our sin to God to receive His forgiveness and cleansing. We should clear away the barriers between God and ourselves through the confession of our sins to recover and maintain our fellowship with Him. If we also want to have spiritual hunger, thirst, pursuit, and growth, we must come before God and confess our sins one by one.
When we confess our sins to God in this way, we cannot be general; we cannot confess, in principle only, that we have sinned greatly. We must be specific and confess our sins one by one. We cannot bring a bag of sins to God, throw it down before Him, and forget about it. We must open the bag of sins before God and mention each sin; we must open the bag and thoroughly confess each sin one by one (Heb. 12:1).
He wants us to realize how we have offended our parents, brothers, and sisters; and how we owe our teachers, fellow students, friends, relatives, and neighbors. He also wants us to realize how we cheated and stole from people, sought personal gain, profited at the expense of others, were falsely benevolent and falsely righteous, were evil in thoughts and devious in actions, and committed other sins and transgressions. If we let Him enlighten us, He will uncover all our sins and enlighten us. When we become aware of a sin, we should confess it to Him. This is not related to our salvation; it is related to our living after salvation.
Confessing Sin to Man
Most of our sins offend others, so we should not only confess our sins to God but also to man. We confess our sins to God because every sin that we commit offends Him. However, the sins that we commit not only offend God but also man (James 5:16).
As we deal with each other as brothers and sisters, there are always matters in which others offend us or we offend others, so we must confess our sins to each other.
Oh, brothers and sisters, a Christian who has never confessed sins to others is almost certainly a Christian who has never grown in life! The amount that we grow is determined by the amount that we confess our sins. If we are continuously growing, we certainly are continuously confessing our sins to others.
Confessing our sins to others also causes our spirit to be released, revived, strengthened, and enlivened. The spirits of many brothers and sisters are not released and are in a dry, weak, and deadened condition because they have offended others and are unwilling to confess their sins to those whom they have offended. Sin deadens our spirit. This is especially true of the sins that offend others.