Sermon Brief
Date Written: September 21, 2006
Date Preached: September 24, 2006
Where Preached: OZHBC (AM)
Sermon Details:
Sermon Series: Living a Life of Integrity
Sermon Title: Integrity is being willing to confess your sin!
Sermon Text: Daniel 9:5-6
5…we have sinned, committed iniquity, acted wickedly and rebelled, even turning aside from Your commandments and ordinances. 6 "Moreover, we have not listened to Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings, our princes, our fathers and all the people of the land.” Dan 9:5-6 (NASB)
Introduction:
Last week I spoke to you about humility before God was a must in the life of the believer. I told you how pride and arrogance were incompatible for the believer to walk in Christ!
Well the message today is basically a continuation of that message, but yet it can stand on its own as well. This morning I want to share with you about confession of sin!
There is NO greater roadblock in the Christian’s life than pride and arrogance; it is because pride and arrogance prevent us from seeing what God sees… it prevents us from looking at ourselves honestly and truthfully.
When we are prideful and arrogant we refuse to believe that we are doing things that are NOT of God and we overlook what we call mistakes or downfalls… but God cannot and will not overlook them… He calls them SIN!
Sin is what separates us from a holy and just God. It was because of sin that Adam and Eve were driven from paradise and humanity fell from the physical presence of God.
We are without hope because this sin creates a wide chasm that we cannot cross. We are on the sinful side of this chasm and God is on the other side, we do not have the wisdom, ability or knowledge to reach Him. And because of this sinful state we are in, we are FOREVER doomed to torment, pain and hell…
But the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is that there is a way to be delivered from our sinful state. The Bible shares with us in John 3:16-17, “… For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him…”John 3:16-17 (NASB)
In other words, Jesus came to this world to offer humanity deliverance from sin and salvation for the soul. Jesus came to open a doorway so that we could escape hell’s torment!
Now, I know that there are many people who look at John 3:16 and totally misunderstand what Jesus is saying in this passage. They think that Jesus is saying that if we simply believe in Him that we will be saved, but that is NOT what Jesus is saying…
When we look at the context of what Jesus was saying to the Pharisee, Nicodemus, here in this passage we see that Jesus is really telling him that a basic knowledge of Him or a basic belief is NOT enough! You see Nicodemus had even said to Jesus, you are a great teacher and the things you do let us know that you are from God. So Nicodemus had a basic belief in Jesus, but what Jesus was saying is that Nicodemus had to submit and surrender by placing his faith and trust TOTALLY in God’s hands…in the person of Jesus Christ!
The point I am trying to make here is that the forgiveness of God and the salvation offered by Jesus… they do NOT come through an easy ‘believism’ in Christ. In other words, it is NOT enough to have a head knowledge about Jesus. But we must place our full faith and trust in Jesus.
But how do we do this… how can we come to God and surrender to Him? How can we place ALL of who we are in faith and trust in the hands of God?
I believe that our passage of Scripture this morning represents a great illustration of one surrendering to God and one placing ALL of what they believe in God… We can see that Daniel placed all his trust and faith in God and reserved NONE for his own good works.
Daniel places all his faith and trust in God by first understanding WHO God is and then by understanding who he is. Daniel comes to God with a confession and he seeks God’s forgiveness, mercy and grace. He does this because he knows it is the only way Israel will be restored.
And like Daniel in this passage of Scripture, if we are to live a life of integrity in this world… if we are to be the ‘city set on a hill’ as described by Jesus in Matt 5… we have to learn the importance of CONFESSING our sin!
We MUST confess our sin before God can move and work in our lives! So this morning, I want to share with you…
5 UNDERSTANDINGS THAT THIS PASSAGE IN DANIEL TEACHES US ABOUT CONFESSION OF SIN…
1. Daniel understood the problem of sin (v.3-4)
4 I prayed to the LORD my God and confessed and said, "Alas, O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and lovingkindness for those who love Him and keep His commandments,
Daniel knew that sin separated the nation of Israel from God and it was because of their sin and turning their backs on God that they were in captivity.
Daniel knew that the only solution to their captivity lay in the nation confessing their sin to God Himself. He knew that the nation’s sin problem could not be cured on its own or by anything he could do as a leader, but that it must be confessed before God!
Now you may be sitting there thinking, pastor, this is TOO simple! [point to people in the crowd and say…] I know this, she knows this, he knows this… pastor we all know that sin is bad and only God can forgive sin.
Well to you it may sound simple but as a pastor over the years I have seen many believers [who supposedly knew this as well] fall into the trap of thinking they could do something about cleansing the sin in their lives… they seem to believe that they could clean up their act and get back to serving God…
[Strong Emphasis} I want to make it clear to all here this morning that sin is an evilness that you can NEVER overcome on our own…
• Sin is your personal rebellion to the recipe of God.
• Sin is your insistence on doing things YOUR way instead of doing things His way.
• And therefore sin separates you from God and His purpose for your life!
Sin in our life means that there is absolutely NOTHING we can do to remedy the problem of that sin and what it brings into our lives.
And even though the Bible tells us that sin is pleasure for a season, it also shares with us that ultimately sin can only bring death and destruction! And we are utterly helpless to ourselves of that death and destruction under our own power! However there is good news, the Bible says if we take our sin to God, He can and will forgive us.
1 John 1:9 reveals to the believer, “…If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness…” 1 John 1:9 (NASB)
The key to this verse is that we must CONFESS our sin. We can see that Daniel understood the problem of sin and what it had done to him and his nation.
It was here that Daniel confessed so that his sin and the sin of the nation of Israel could be forgiven… But we can see another understanding that Daniel had and it was that…
2. Daniel understood that confession of sin was taking personal responsibility for sin…v.5-6
5 we have sinned, committed iniquity, acted wickedly and rebelled, even turning aside from Your commandments and ordinances. 6 "Moreover, we have not listened to Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings, our princes, our fathers and all the people of the land. Dan 9:5-6 (NASB)
In other words what Daniel is saying here is that the finger of blame for their situation could only be pointed in one direction and that is at them! It was NOT the fault of the Babylonians. It was not the fault of God! It was their fault and theirs alone!
So often, as believers, we feel the situation we are in is because of someone else’s actions. But when it comes to sin in our lives… it is OUR actions not others that bring about God’s judgment and discipline!
I want you to listen to what I am about to say… it may surprise you! When we have sin in our lives it is NOT the Devil’s fault! We cannot say “The Devil Made Me Do It!” because he is just the tempter… he cannot force us to do anything.
We cannot say that it is our friend’s fault because they talked me into it or they pressured me into it… your friends are NOT going to answer to God for YOUR decisions and YOUR sin, YOU WILL!
And what I see in these verses is that many believers in the church fall into sin because we do not listen to God or we do not listen to the ones God has sent to reveal His word!
Now that is as plain as the nose on your face… we sin because we don’t heed God’s warning… because we don’t listen to the man God has placed in our midst to reveal God’s word to us…
We cannot lay blame for our sin on anyone else but ourselves. We have the choice to turn our backs on sin by leaning on God’s plan and God’s strength.
• We have seen how Daniel understood the problem of sin …
• We have seen how Daniel understood that sin was a willful act on our part and that we cannot blame anyone else for our sin…
But I want us to continue to look at the understandings of Daniel in this chapter, when we look closer we can also see where…
3. Daniel understood that sin separated him from God and sin has its consequences and punishments… v. 11-12
11 "Indeed all Israel has transgressed Your law and turned aside, not obeying Your voice; so the curse has been poured out on us, along with the oath which is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, for we have sinned against Him. 12 "Thus He has confirmed His words which He had spoken against us and against our rulers who ruled us, to bring on us great calamity; for under the whole heaven there has not been done anything like what was done to Jerusalem…” Dan 9:11-12 (NASB)
In v.11 Daniel speaks about the curse and it being poured out on “us”. In this passage he is referring to the covenant in which the people of Israel had pledged to God and the curse that went along with breaking that covenant.
We see this revealed in Lev 26 and Duet 27-28. The most feared of the curses for the nation was that of losing their land, of being displaced and sent into captivity… as they had been in Egypt.
And here we find Daniel pointing out that the most feared of the curses had come to pass as they had been taken captive and their land was no longer theirs…
For the common Hebrew, the promise of God was that they would inherit and inhabit a land flowing with milk and honey. This promise had been fulfilled after God delivered them from Egypt.
For the common Jew, the land was a manifestation of God’s favor on the Jewish nation! So for their land to be taken away, meant God’s favor on them had also been taken away.
Daniel recognized that the sin of the nation had been the catalyst that had brought them into captivity in Babylon. And their captivity was the consequence of their actions before a holy and just God.
Another point I want to reveal here is that Daniel is revealing in his prayer that the nation was aware of this covenant with God and this captivity was God merely holding them to their end of the covenant… it was a punishment or a judgment that came directly from God.
As believers, we have come to rationalize our sin and our sinful lifestyles so much so that we don’t think God cares or even sees what we do. We so easily justify sin today because we think God would not judge us because of our special circumstance.
But I am here to tell you that sin WILL be judged. You may NOT see the judgment here in this world, but judgment is coming! And one day you WILL stand before God and be judged on what you have done in your life.
If you have willfully sinned against God, if you have lived a life of sinful acts and attitudes, God is going to judge you guilty and sentence you to exile in to a place of torment and flame! A place from which there is NO rescue!
But if we come to God and seek His forgiveness… if we come to God with a broken and repentant heart He will forgive us and will cleanse us as white as snow… He will cover us with a forgiveness that is eternal!
Daniel understood that sin was a problem, that sin was an action on our part and that sin carried consequences… but another thing that Daniel understood that this passage reveals is…
4. Daniel understood that their sin was damaging and dangerous to the nation’s witness… v. 16b
16b …for because of our sins and the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people have become a reproach to all those around us. Dan 9:16b (NASB)
Daniel understood that sin was wrong and it carried with it consequences such as being taken captive and losing their homeland, but more importantly Daniel understood that God’s people had NOT represented God in a worthy manner.
You have heard it said, "Christians are NOT perfect, just forgiven!" And that is a true statement. We are to strive to be perfect as Christ was perfect, but we are human and we are going to fall.
And when we fall there are going to be consequences to our sinful acts, but the ultimate consequence to sin in the life of a believer is NOT how God judges him or her here in this world… or by how God disciplines them here in this world.
The ultimate consequence is what affect your sin has on your witness to the world. The Bible tells us to be imitators of Christ, but when we are fussin’ and fightin amongst ourselves… does the world see Christ in our actions?
What about when we decide that we can let our guard down and drink just ONE can of beer? What about when we think no one is looking and we take something or say something that we should NOT have…?
Daniel understood that the nation of Israel was God’s chosen people and they had brought reproach upon God’s great name! After all He had already done for them, they had been a terrible witness for Him!
Likewise, as believers, we are called out by Christ to be witnesses to the world for Him! And when we willfully and unrepentantly sin in our lives, we bring reproach on the name of Christ!
The apostle Paul wrote that when we are saved we become a new creature… that we are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds… that our way of thinking and doing things is to be radically changed.
But when we claim Christ as our Savior and we continue to live as we did before we professed Christ as Savior, then we are bringing reproach on the name of Jesus.
Sin destroys our witness, it destroys our ability to share Christ with the world around us… if the world looks at your life and sees that it is NO different from theirs… why would they want to be saved and changed?
• Daniel understood that sin was bad…
• Daniel understood that sin was a personal choice…
• Daniel understood that that sin had consequences, and…
• Daniel also understood that sin destroyed our witness to the world…
But finally this morning I want us to look at the fact that…
5. Daniel understood that it was God’s forgiveness that they needed and it was not something they could do to change… v.18
18 "O my God, incline Your ear and hear! Open Your eyes and see our desolations and the city which is called by Your name; for we are not presenting our supplications before You on account of any merits of our own, but on account of Your great compassion.
Dan 9:18 (NASB)
Daniel understood that nothing the people could do… would bring about a change in their situation, but that God’s mercy could change things for them!
Daniel was casting the nation of Israel at the merciful feet of God and asking Him to be merciful to such a sinful nation. Daniel was asking for forgiveness and restoration on the behalf of an entire nation.
As believers, God has promised to forgive our sin when we confess that sin to Him. But I want you to understand that when you confess sin to God… that is NOT the reason He forgives the sin… the reason is that God is merciful and gracious to His creation!
God does not have to forgive us… God NEVER had to show grace to this world. Grace is God’s unmerited favor and love showered out on His creation. It is NOT because we have done anything but because He has done EVERYTHING!
Daniel understood that even though we confess our sin, it is still the grace and mercy of God that brings about the forgiveness of those sins…
Conclusion:
As a church today, I believe we have lost sight of what true confession and true repentance is…
We have come to a point where we expect God to grant us forgiveness…
We have lost sight that God’s mercy is God’s FAVOR poured out on us, not because of what we do, but because of WHO He is…
I believe that the average American Christian today [whether they know it or not… whether they believe it or not] suffers from pride and arrogance!
We have a pride and arrogance about us… look at us… look at our Missions programs… look at what we are doing in the world and in our country…
We have lost sight of God! In the Southern Baptist Convention there are some great and wonderful things going on, but we cannot lose sight of who we are and who we serve!
We cannot lose sight that all we that is successful for Christ is HIS doing and not ours. It God who provides the increase! We are merely broken, sinful vessels seeking to do the will of the One who has saved us!
And with that in mind, we must be constantly confessing to God and asking Him to forgive us where we fail Him. We cannot go to God and demand forgiveness, but humbly come before Him and throw ourselves on His mercy.
I challenge this church to begin to repent of its arrogance and pride…
I challenge this church today to seek God’s forgiveness by coming to God with a truly repentant heart…
Do you want to see this church grow and prosper? Do you want to see our country return to God?
We will NEVER see these things by any process that we initiate or do on our own, but we can do one thing that God has promised He would honor! We can repent of our sin!
If the church today wants to see our numbers grow… if the church today wants to see our country begin to turn back to God… Then the church today has to come to know what real confession is, and we can find a great example of confession in our passage today and we can also find it in 2 Chron 7:14 …
“…and My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land…”
2 Chron 7:14 (NASB)
NOW THAT’S CONFESSION!
As bro jerry comes to lead us in our hymn of invitation I call on ALL believers to come forward today and make things right with God… don’t let your pride and arrogance keep you from confessing your sin to God with a repentant heart!
If you are here this morning and you have NOT trusted in Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord… I urge you to come and give you heart to Him today. Come and be saved from the hell and torment that awaits all who reject Him! Confess your sin today and God has said he is faithful to hear you and forgive you!
Won’t you all come and bro jerry lead us…
