Church 1/10/2024
Sermon message:
Thesis: Confession releases faith.
A pastor’s job is to equip the saints for ministry. And part of that is to teach the word of God.
Confession releases faith.
Romans 10:9-10
that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Faith is believing in your heart.
Believe it and say it. What you believe you say.
Death and life are in the power of the tongue.
Proverbs 18:21
Death and life are in the power of the tongue,And those who love it will eat its fruit.
Confessing your faith is releasing your faith.
Confessing is not only about confessing your sins, faults, and mistakes. It’s important to do but don’t obsess on this.
Confessing is also about acknowledging what is true—that Jesus is God, His blood cleanses you, and God raised Him from the dead, that you are forgiven, that God supplies all your needs through Jesus.
Tonight: two forms of confessions from the New Testament to go into detail tonight. Two more later.
Point #1: Confessions of sins of the Jews.
Testament = covenant = agreement / contract between God and humanity (His people).
John the Baptist baptized people via water, confession of sins. A cleansing baptism.
Matthew 3:5-6
Then Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the region around the Jordan went out to him and were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins.
This was the Old Testament baptism, because Jesus hadn’t died for our sins or risen from the dead yet.
John the Baptist baptized in the name of the Father only.
Point #2: Confession of sinners today.
John 16:7-9
Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me;
Verse 9 is the focus verse here (cross reference back to Romans 10:9-10)
of sin, because they do not believe in Me;that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
The number 1 sin in the world is not believing in Jesus Christ.
Question: should we get people to confess all their sins? Or to confess that they believe in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.
John 16:9-11
of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.
Verse 9 again for emphasis.
of sin, because they do not believe in Me;
- Our number 1 thing should be to get people to confess Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.
We are under the New Covenant, not the Old Covenant.
Romans 10:9-10
that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Jesus sends His disciples to preach the Gospel.
Mark 16:15-16
And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.
The point is to tell people how to get saved. To give people hope. That upon receiving Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you will head straight to heaven upon passing away out of the flesh.
Focus on Mark 16:16
He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.
Water baptism doesn’t save you. But it is important. What it is is an outward expression of what the Holy Spirit has done in baptizing you to Jesus Christ. When you confess Jesus as your Lord and Savior you are baptized by the Holy Spirit.
John 3:16-18
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
Just believe on Jesus. Truly believe on Jesus in your heart.
Romans 3:23
Romans 3:23
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
The Bible says not to put the cart before the horse.
Get saved and receive Jesus Christ first, then He will help you get free of sin, and get sanctified and cleansed. Not the other way around.
Acts 19:18-19
And many who had believed came confessing and telling their deeds. Also, many of those who had practiced magic brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted up the value of them, and it totaled fifty thousand pieces of silver.
They believed, and then they got rid of their sins or junk related to their sins.
Moral: don’t demand that someone be perfect before they can come to church and receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.
Let your feelings catch up with your faith. Don’t let your faith be interrupted by your feelings.
Point #3: Confession should be public.
Matthew 10:32-33
“Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.
God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit all know more than King Solomon who was the wisest king in Israel’s history.