16 Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come here." 17 The woman answered him, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You are right in saying, 'I have no husband'; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true." 19 The woman said to him, "Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.
27 Just then his disciples came back. They marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, "What do you seek?" or, "Why are you talking with her?" 28 So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, 29 "Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?" 30 They went out of the town and were coming to him. ESV
Confession of Sin
Why should Christians dwell on sin? James Montgomery Boice answers: “It is simply because Christians are realists. They recognize that sin is an everyday experience and the number one problem of mankind. What is more, they recognize that the Bible everywhere insists upon this.” …
There can be little doubt that many of us experience difficulties because of our sins. That is true not merely because of the natural consequences of sin, but because God chastens us, so that many of our hardships are sent by God in direct response to our sins. Hebrews 12:6 says, “The Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” So even those whose sins have been forgiven through the blood of Christ nonetheless suffer in this life because of their sins. If we want God’s kindness toward us to have a free reign, we will not present God with sins that require Him to discipline us. The path of obedience is ever the path of blessing …
Jesus confronted [the woman at the well] with her sin because He loved her, because He knew her sin, and because her sin stood between her and God. How fitting it is that Jesus spoke to her about her sin, and that He was the One to set this example for us, because Jesus came into the world to deal with the problem of our sin …
If sin was so important to God that He sent His only beloved Son into the world to deal specifically with it; if sin is so great a barrier between God and man that only the precious blood of Christ could remove it; and if Jesus was so committed to the salvation of sinners that He was willing to go to this horrific length to achieve it, how dare we cover up the topic of sin as some embarrassment to us or an impediment to the success of Christ’s church! Do you see why we must be willing to ask people to confess their sins in worship that is offered up in Christ’s name? Do you see why we must preach a gospel not just of cheery sentimentality but of the true and bad news of sin for which Christ paid so great a cost? …
It is unreasonable for us to expect to match Jesus’ skill, since we lack His perfect knowledge and grace. But His example shows us that we should exercise care in bringing people to conviction of sin—as Nathan did when he confronted King David for his sin with Bathsheba—and that we should seek the Holy Spirit’s help through prayer both for our own conduct and for the response of the one whom we hope to bring to conviction of sin and faith in Christ.
Confession of Faith
When a doctor delivers a baby, the first thing he wants to hear is the baby’s cry. This tells him that air has entered the baby’s lungs and that the child has started to breathe. So it is with the spiritual rebirth. When the Spirit enters the heart, the new life He brings causes the spiritual infant to cry out, confessing his or her faith in Jesus Christ. This is the first clear sign that true salvation has occurred …
… the woman at the well, having beheld Jesus’ deity when He revealed Himself as the Messiah, responded with a public confession of faith that clearly showed her new birth. John 4:28-29 tells us, “The woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, ‘Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?’” From her subsequent conduct, it is evident that she was saying, “I have found the Messiah,” and her public confession to her neighbors demonstrated her rebirth. (Phillips, 132, 135, 140, 147-148)
Rick Phillips talks freely about confession of sin. Yet, we would rather talk about politics, weather, sports or our least favorite restaurant than to talk about sin. Or if we must talk about sin, let's talk about the sin of other people. But Phillips shows us from John 4 that Jesus wants us to be interested in our own sins. Failure to discuss our own sin is a failure to discuss the obvious. If you have a rip in your pants that you are blissfully unaware of it doesn’t mean that the rip is not obvious to others. The same is true of our sins. Despite all of our attempts to rationalize our own sins, these sins are still painfully obvious to others around us.
Men, let’s stop pretending that our sins are trivial. They are not. Our flesh is deceptive. It has been skillfully trained by a deceptive heart to cover up the most obvious of realities--our own sin! You would be grateful to a friend for mentioning the embarrassing rip in your pants. You must also learn to value the observations of your family and friends who would point out the even more embarrassing sins that you unthinkingly display. Brothers, it is time to act like men who are serious about loving God.
Go to your wife and ask her to tell you the five most obvious sins that you are oblivious to. Do the same with some close friends. Don’t fight back or offer reasonable explanations about why their observations are wrong. Rather, be thankful that you can begin to address the most obvious things that others notice about you. Like the woman at the well, our sins are all too obvious. By God’s grace, let’s get to work. This is how we can lead our families to take their own sins more seriously.
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