Faith Bible Study Guide
Notice that the third kind of confession that is spoken of in the New Testament is of the believer confessing his sin when he has broken fellowship. In Psalm 137 we see a type of broken fellowship.
PSALM 137:1-4
1 By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.
2 We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof.
3 For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion.
4 How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?
In Psalm 137 we see that Israel had sinned. They were carried away into captivity in Babylon. They could remember Zion, of course. Their harps were
hung on the willows and when their enemies asked for a song, they cried, “How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?” (Ps. 137:4). This is a picture of broken fellowship. Friends, we as Christians lose our testimony the moment we sin. Sin always puts the light out. Faith has no song when fellowship is broken!
1 JOHN 1:3-10
3 That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have FELLOWSHIP with us: and truly our FELLOWSHIP is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.
4 And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.
5 This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
6 If we say we have FELLOWSHIP with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have FELLOWSHIP one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. 8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and
the truth is not in us.
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
Notice that the word “fellowship” is mentioned four times in these verses. Read these verses care-fully and go over them again and again. They are not written to sinners. Don’t ever use these verses in praying with a sinner; they don’t belong to him. These words are written to the believer. (First, as a warning against broken fellowship.) Second, these scriptures show the believer the way back into fellowship. If we say we have fellowship with the Lord and yet we walk in darkness, the Bible says we lie and do not tell the truth (1 John 1:6).
In other words, God is saying that if I’m out of fellowship and I declare that I am spiritually all right, I’m not telling the truth because I’m not all right with God. If I say I have not committed sin, and yet my fellowship with God is broken, then my faith is feeble. Then God says if I confess my sins, He is faithful and just to forgive my sins and to cleanse me from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). It is important not to take verses of Scripture out of their setting. Some people take verse 10, which says, “If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us,” out of its setting. Don’t take that verse out and try to apply it to everyone. This verse is talking about the person who has been born again but who is out of fellowship with God and won’t admit it.
Let me say this, friends. If you’ve sinned, you know it. And if you don’t know it, for goodness’ sake, don’t be trying to drag up something to condemn yourself with. When you are always looking for something to condemn yourself with, you are robbing yourself of faith. If you sin you know it. The minute you sin, you know it on the inside of you; and if you don’t know it, then you need to get saved.
Christians have a “monitor” – the voice of our conscience – on the inside of each of us, and it lets us know when we’ve done wrong. If you miss the mark and mess up in some way, don’t wait to repent; stop right then and say, “Lord, I missed it. Please forgive me.” He’ll do it, and then you can just keep walking in
fellowship. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). If I confess my sins
once, that moment He forgives me and I can stand in His Presence as though I had never sinned.
Once you confess a sin, don’t keep confessing the same sins over and over again because that only builds weakness, doubt, and sin-consciousness into your spirit. If you confessed your sin once, God for-gave you and He forgot it, so you need to forget it. God forgave you and He forgot it, so you need to for-get it. God has no memory of your sin once you truly repent and ask for forgiveness.
ISAIAH 43:25
25 I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions … and will not remember thy sins.
Once you repent and ask forgiveness, God does not have any memory of the sin that broke your fellow-ship. Since God has no memory of it, then why should you have memory of it? That isn’t the Holy Spirit or God who is condemning you. That is Satan trying to take advantage of you; and if Satan can keep you thinking about that sin, he has you at a disadvantage. The thing you must do is refuse to think upon that sin any longer. If you continue to condemn yourself once you have asked for forgiveness, your faith will be throttled and held in bondage.
PSALM 103:1.3
1 Bless the Lord, 0 my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name. 2 Bless the Lord, 0 my soul, and forget not all his benefits:
3 Who FORGIVETH ALL THINE INIQUITIES; who healeth all thy diseases.
I hear Christians say, “I don’t know if God will hear me or not when I pray.” People come wanting me to pray for them. They don’t know whether God will hear them or not because they have sinned and they have failed. But if they have repented, God doesn’t remember that they’ve done anything wrong!
ISAIAH 43:25
25 I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.
ISAIAH 1:18
18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
PSALM 103:12
12 As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.
Can’t you see with what confidence, faith, and boldness we can come to Him? Someone said, “How does God forgive and wash my sins clean?” I don’t know how He does it, but, thank God, He does it! You can’t figure God out. He’s too big! Let’s just rejoice in the truth. So many people have talked themselves right out of faith. There’s no need for that. If we have sinned and have asked God to forgive us, then He did and He forgot it and we should too.
What I’m saying is this: The believer must be willing to forgive himself just as the Father God is willing to forgive him. Many people have robbed themselves of faith because they are not willing to forgive themselves. They hold themselves in a state of condemnation and it robs them of their faith.
JAMES 5:14,15
14 Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:
15 And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and IF HE HAVE COMMITTED SINS, THEY SHALL BE FORGIVEN HIM.
I have used this scripture for years in preaching divine healing, trying to get through to people that it is God’s will to heal them. But most of us have never really read that last clause: “. . . and if he have committed sins, they SHALL BE forgiven him.”
However, a short time ago, I was praying about a certain man and I knew this man was involved in sin. In fact, I knew that he just kept stumbling over the same sin, doing the same thing again and again. As I was praying about this fellow, I said to the Lord, “I don’t know about this fellow. After all, he’s committed the same sin over and over again.”
As I said this, the Lord said to me, “In the first place, do you think that I would require and ask you to do something that I wouldn’t do?” I said, “Why, no, Lord, certainly not.” The Lord continued, “Didn’t you ever read in My Word where Peter said, `… Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?”‘ (Matt. 18:21). Then I understood what the Lord meant. The Lord said, “I said to Peter, `Not up to seven times, but seventy times seven.”‘ (That is four hundred and ninety times!)
Then Jesus said, “Would I require you to do something that I wouldn’t do?”
I said, “No, that would be unjust, and You’re not unjust.” “Well,” the Lord said. “I’ll forgive the man; you go ahead and pray with him.” Then sometimes we may think about a person, “Yes, he’s done wrong; he’s going to reap results of his wrongdoing. In fact, he’s sick now because he’s done wrong.” And sometimes broken fellowship will cause sickness. But the Word of the God says, “… and if he have committed sins, they shall be for-given him” (James 5:15).
I’ll be honest with you, the revelation of that gave me fresh encouragement to be able to help others because I’ve seen too many people talk themselves right out of faith due to condemnation about the past. They think they are going to lie there on the bed of sickness because they have failed and sinned. But, oh, thank God, the Bible says, “. . . the prayer of faith shall save [or heal] the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him” (James 5:15).
There is healing in forgiveness. Can you see that? That’s almost too much for us humans to comprehend sometimes, but thank God for His grace. His grace is beyond our human comprehension. I remember sometime ago I was preaching at a convention and in the day service I was teaching along this line. The district superintendent of a particular denomination said to me, “You know, Brother Hagin, there was a time when I wouldn’t have agreed with what you are teaching.
But I remember before I became superintendent we were working in a new church we had built and we only had one man in the church. The women were carrying the burden and doing what they could to keep up the payments on the building. The only man in the church was the owner of a business. He was financially better off than anyone else in
the church, but the most he ever gave was about a dollar a week. We needed his sup- port so terribly.”
The superintendent continued, “About two o’clock one morning the telephone rang and it was this man on the line. He said to me, `Just before closing time yesterday I broke my ankle. The man next door is here with me and I was talking to him about healing. He’s Roman Catholic but he told me he thought if I would call you and have you come and pray for me, God would heal me.’
“Well,” this district superintendent said, “there I was. I was just sure God wouldn’t heal this fellow because he was so unfaithful and stingy. In fact, I felt like saying to him, `Brother, God’s not going to heal you,’ and then just hanging up on him. But I couldn’t do that. “So I got dressed and went over to his house and went in, and he introduced me to the Catholic man. The Catholic man told me that he believed God could do anything. Before I realized what was happening, I was kneeling at the foot of that bed, laying hands on the man’s ankle, which was in a cast, and I was declaring, `God heal him now in the Name of Jesus Christ!’ And I knew in my spirit he was healed.
“I stood there and watched as that man cut his cast off and jumped out of bed on that ankle and instantly walked!” The district superintendent said, “That night I couldn’t sleep.” How come God healed him? I kept wondering. Then I remembered, `… the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him’ [James 5:15]. God knew more about the man and his situation than I did. I knew the fellow had prayed and had asked God to forgive him because I heard him doing that while I was praying for his ankle. I heard him praying, `Dear God, forgive me of every wrong.”‘
Isn’t it wonderful that God is merciful? This superintendent continued his story, “About that time, I left that church. The church continued to grow, but the war came and about half the people moved away. So it looked as though the district
office was going to have to make the payments on the property. But this man stepped forward and said, `I’ll make the payments.’ During the war, he paid more than $4,000 on that property.
“Several years after the war, the church finally paid the mortgage off and they invited me down for the burning of the mortgage papers. I said to the church board, `You ought to pay this man back, because after all he has put a lot of money into this property, and I understand you have quite a bit on hand financially.’
“This fellow replied, `No, I’ll just be happy with about half that much.’ Then he told the church secretary, `When you make that check out, just make it out to the home missions department for this district.”‘ This superintendent told me, “I sincerely repented for acting the way I did about having to go and pray for that man.” You see, friends, it makes all the difference in the world whether we look at things the way the Word of God says, or the way we think things should be. Oh, when we can see things God’s way, what a big difference it makes! “… if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him” (James 5:15).
When you understand the Bible, you can under-stand why God does things the way He does. You can understand why and how things work many times. Let me finish this lesson with a scripture found in Hebrews.
HEBREWS 10:1-4
1 For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.
2 For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins.
3 But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year.
4 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.
This passage of Scripture tells of the failure of the blood of bulls and goats under the Old Covenant to take away sins. The blood of bulls and goats could only cover sins. Those animal sacrifices still left the sin in the heart of man. And with the sin was sin consciousness. But God, in our redemption in Christ, has redeemed us from sin consciousness. Once we have asked forgiveness for our sins, we don’t ever have to remember them again.
HEBREWS 9:14
14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, PURGE YOUR CONSCIENCE from dead works to serve the living God?
1 JOHN 1:9
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to CLEANSE US from all unrighteousness.
If you sin, and you repent and confess your sin to God, you should have no more remembrance of it. God doesn’t, so why should you? Then you can see with what confidence we can come before God in prayer and know with a certainty that He hears us.