Learning to walk a Christian’s walk
Part 1 Sin confession
Psalm 32
Prologue: Today I want to begin a series teaching with you on the basics of Christian living.
• If we were to do a study through the Apostle Pauls letters to the Corinthian church you would see parallels between this church and that one. The Corinthian church was very gifted, in all areas of spiritual gifts, however it was equally immature and spiritually unholy.
• Paul simply wanted to restore the church in areas of weakness. Through the inspiration of the Holy spirit God has revealed areas of weakness that we must address here at TLC, and then respond through obedience if we are to be Gods Holy chosen people.
In my personal walk with Jesus He has taught me that it is of extreme importance for me to live faithfully and responsibly to him. I am convinced we work out our Salvation (Phil: 2-12) by following certain elements of living, to attain holiness before God and yes man.
• We don’t work for salvation, but work out our salvation through the spirit God has put in us. This spirit is Christ’s righteousness. Put it into practice.
2 Timothy 4:1-8: When we have exhausted all self to good work we can be assured that we have lived a life full of purpose and intention of glorifying the King.
As we discuss the fundamentals in this series, not one of them stands singularly in shaping our character, zeal, compassion, love, conduct, moral beliefs or even salvation. Just as the “Fruit of the Spirit” are as one so are these fundamentals. It is not for us to pick and choose which to partake. We are bond servants bent for His will, giving ourselves for His service, so that in steady participation and practice we become testimonials of truth for His good work.
My agenda for this church as a holiness preacher is to urge all that will receive truth, to truly begin relying on the Holy Spirit for victorious Christian living.
• Faith is revealed by obedience and obedience through a holiness heart change.
I believe some of us here will be dismayed to find that in all our spiritualism we have not been lead by the Holy spirit but of the flesh. All because we did not deny the flesh but yet said yes to desire.
• We trash the testimony of Jesus Christ that way.
• Just as the praise of the saints is a sweet smell in the nostrils of God, so mediocrity is also a pungent stench, and must sour Gods stomach.
Intro: We have in our midst today several types of people as it relates to the understanding of Sin.
As we live out our daily lives some are:
• Convinced of their personal sin and are prayerfully putting off the old self.
• Trying to be members of this world and the world to come.(That wont work out).
• Some are just “checking out” Christianity totally un convinced of sin and its end result.
I want to begin with the latter category As we move torward understanding our need to confess our sin.
Socrates a famous philosopher said: “The unexamined life is not worth living”. 2 Cor. 13:5, “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves.
• The reason we have so many failed testemonies in the church is because of an unexamined spiritual life.
1. What confession is not
We were watching a movie titled signs the other evening, and in the movie mel Gibson played the part of a catholic priest. During a scene a young girl at a pharmacy counter said she had felt guilty over some things she had said and done and wanted to confess them to him so that she would feel better. She continued to just pour all of her junk out to him.
A. Confession is not a delete key. Confession to a man does not remove sin. Man cannot forgive sin. It may temporarily clear your conscience, but there isn’t any redemptive value. We some times treat priests and friends as our delete key. This only clears your conscience, but not the penalty of sin. Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life In Jesus Christ our Lord.”
B. Our confession cannot be indifferent to the offense to God.
• We can fall into the trap of thinking we only hurt ourselves when in fact we have offended the righteousness of Christ.
• Remember what Joseph told potaphars wife as he ran from her offer of sex: “Shall I sin against God and do this wicked thing?” He saw clearly This was an offense against God and so is yours. God is just and he will judge the sinner to hell . Hebrews 9:27 “It is appointed to die once, after that to face judgement”.
• You have sinned!! With out the shed blood of jesus Christ covering you, you are under Gods righteous law.
• Examine the law. Give it a try, have you kept Gods ten commandments? Liar, thief, murderer, adulterer ect.
• If you break just one you will be judged by it and perish. The first step toward salvation is admitting you have sinned.
• In psalm 32:5 King David testified, “I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquities. I said I will confess my transgressions to the Lord and you forgave my guilt and sin.”
• Confession is acknowledging personal guilt. You cannot turn to the God you have sinned against without turning from sin.
• Christ is the standard for righteousness, no one else. Romans 3:10, “No one is righteous, not even one.” Your goodness will not earn you heaven because you are no good in light of Gods goodness.
A. Confession to God
Since God is the one we have sinned against, our primary confession must be made to him.
• David had sinned greatly against others, but the overwhelming awareness it was God who was sovereign and it was God he had most dishonored caused David to pray, (PS. 51:4) “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight”.
• Clement, a Bishop of Rome and a friend to Paul the Apostle so strongly advocated confession that in A.D. 96 he said, “The Lord…desires nothing of anyone, except that confession be made to him.”
1. 1 Cor. 15:3, To confess to Christ is to Confess that Christ died for our sins and that he died for you personally.
2. To confess your sin in humble repentance is to look to Christ for forgiveness. 1 John 1:9’ “If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins” 1 John 1:10, “If we say we have not sinned we make Jesus a liar and his truth has no place in our lives”.
• I believe the reason some have been allowed to stay sick, die, remain in prison is their un willingness to confess Sin. John 9:3, ”Jesus said not all suffering is from sin” However suffering has a Godly effect; 1 Peter 4:1, “he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin”.
C. Confession to people
• Confession of sin is a moral obligation to God and also often to people. Matt 25:23-24, If we have sinned against others it is often essential to ask their forgiveness and perhaps also to make restitution where that is possible.
• Numbers 5:6-8, In the Old Test. Confession of sin was a public act. The public could see the sinner going to the temple with his sin offering.
D. The general rule is that all sins which are brought to our memory by the holy spirit should be confessed to God, and all sins against a person or group confessed openly to them. When you openly discouraged the body of Christ in an act or acts of Sin, you must confess and seek earnest forgiveness from the body of Christ so not only can the offender begin anew in clear conscience, but also that the body would not be tempted to sin, by criticizing, resentment, misunderstandings. The offense must be dealt with and purged so that the Spirit of God can move freely to restore the offender, not being hindered by the sins of others.
E. The simple truth is that in order to be sensitive to Gods leading we must meet the conditions for communication and that begins with confession. I believe that the reason so many churches are not experiencing revival and growth is aikenism. There are too many UN confessed hidden sins in the church. Even this very church!
• They are sins such as: Pride, vanity, fear of humility, did I say pride.
• We all are prideful flesh followers if we don’t maintain the fundementals. If we are going to defeat Satan at the root we must make confession, forsake sin and come to an alter of prayer and receive the resurrection power that comes through the forgiveness of those sins.
F. If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins!! Halleleuah. Are you stirred by the Holy Spirit to get cleaner. Stop giving satan a toe hold. We have all been liars, Gossips, thieves, adulterers, murderers, evil doers, UN clean blasphemers. Come now and be loosed into his righteousness. Amen
