The Ingredient Of Confession Series

INTRODUCTION

• SLIDE #1

• TWO ITEMS ONE FOOD ANOTHER NO-FOOD. GUESS THE EDIBLE ONE.

• Last week we started looking at the ingredients of salvation.

• When you ask the question, “What must I do to be saved,” you will get a variety of answers.

• I believe that when we are asked that question, we need to be able to give people an honest biblical response.

• Last week we examined ingredient number one, faith. But does faith alone make salvation?

• I like for us to explore the ingredient of confession together today.

• I would like to start us out with a definition of the term “confession”.

• SLIDE #2

• To confess means, “To say the same thing, to speak that which agrees with something which others speak or maintain.”

• In the context of our passage and regarding salvation, it would mean to say the same thing about Jesus that God says, namely that Jesus Is Lord!

• Let us turn to Romans 10:9-10

• SLIDE #3

• Romans 10:9–10 (ESV) 9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

• Let us begin by looking at…

• SLIDE #4

SERMON

I. What is the ingredient of confession?

• What is the nature of confession?

• We defined it earlier as….

• SLIDE #5

• To confess means, “To say the same thing, to speak that which agrees with something which others speak or maintain.”

• This confession is an initial confession made at the time of conversion.

• Confession is a definite ingredient in God’s recipe for salvation.

• In one of the greatest confessions recorded, Jesus asks Peter who Peter thought Jesus was.

• SLIDE #6

• Matthew 16:16 (ESV) Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

• To get the full impact of this ingredient it is important to for us to understand that confession is not just about parroting a statement, but it something said that come from the heart.

• Peter was not parroting something, he was convicted.

• The confession is a statement of belief of faith that comes from the heart.

• Confession is a conviction that is verbalized for others to hear.

• When we make a public confession of our faith, we are telling the world that we believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that He was crucified died and was buried and on the third day He rose from the dead.

• The confession we make has content, we believe that Jesus was raised from the dead by God.

• Convictions should change our life; convictions should what we build our life on.

• We are saying that we know that Jesus is the way the truth and the life.

• We are saying that we know that without Jesus we are lost that without Jesus our lives have no meaning and purpose.

• We are saying that we know that Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father!

• Paul understood the importance of the reality of the resurrection!

• SLIDE #7

• 1 Corinthians 15:14 (ESV) And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.

• We must boldly and unapologetically proclaim that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God!

• In Matthew 16:16, Peter made this statement of faith and Jesus told him that upon that statement, the church would be built and the gates of Hades would not prevail over it!

• SLIDE #8

• Matthew 10:32–33 (ESV) So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.

• In Matthew 10:32 we are told that if we confess Jesus before men, Jesus will confess us before God, but in verse 33 He tells us that if we deny Him, He will deny us also.

• An initial confession of faith the bible speaks of is verbally proclaiming that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. It also involves this proclamation being made from a heart which is convicted that Jesus has been raised from the dead by God Himself!

• SLIDE #9

II. What does an examination of the ingredient of confession reveal?

• Our confession ultimately reveals our true allegiance. It reveals who we trust in for our salvation!

• Look at verse 9 in Romans 10 again.