Message by Dr. David Drake
Confess Your Sins
Nehemiah 9:1-3 (Part 1)
Psalm 130:1-4 (NASB)
1 Out of the depths I have cried to You, O LORD.
2 Lord, hear my voice! Let Your ears be attentive To the voice of my supplications.
3 If You, LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?
4 But there is forgiveness with You, That You may be feared.
About Forgiveness…
1. Our sins involve guilt, therefore, we need forgiveness.
Isaiah 59:2 (NASB)
2 But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, And your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.
2. Forgiveness is offered by God through the death of His Son.
1 Peter 3:18 (NASB)
18 For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit;
3. The confession of sin is the necessary condition in receiving forgiveness.
Psalm 32:5 (NASB)
5 I acknowledged my sin to You, And my iniquity I did not hide; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD”; And You forgave the guilt of my sin.
1 John 1:9 (NASB)
9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
I. TRUE CONFESSION OF SIN WILL BE USED OF GOD TO HUMBLE US
Nehemiah 9:1-3 (NASB)
1 Now on the twenty-fourth day of this month the sons of Israel assembled with fasting, in sackcloth and with dirt upon them.
2 The descendants of Israel separated themselves from all foreigners, and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers.
3 While they stood in their place, they read from the book of the law of the LORD their God for a fourth of the day; and for another fourth they confessed and worshiped the LORD their God.
Nehemiah describes this humbling process through…
1. Fasting…which speaks to us about DENIAL
Ezra 8:21-23 (NASB)
21 Then I proclaimed a fast there at the river of Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God to seek from Him a safe journey for us, our little ones, and all our possessions.
22 For I was ashamed to request from the king troops and horsemen to protect us from the enemy on the way, because we had said to the king, “The hand of our God is favorably disposed to all those who seek Him, but His power and His anger are against all those who forsake Him.”
23 So we fasted and sought our God concerning this matter, and He listened to our entreaty.
2. Sackcloth…which speaks to us about SORROW
Esther 4:1-3 (NASB)
1 When Mordecai learned all that had been done, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the midst of the city and wailed loudly and bitterly.
2 He went as far as the king’s gate, for no one was to enter the king’s gate clothed in sackcloth.
3 In each and every province where the command and decree of the king came, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, weeping and wailing; and many lay on sackcloth and ashes.
3. Ashes…which speaks to us about PAIN/LOSS
1 Samuel 4:10-12 (NASB)
10 So the Philistines fought and Israel was defeated, and every man fled to his tent; and the slaughter was very great, for there fell of Israel thirty thousand foot soldiers.
11 And the ark of God was taken; and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, died.
12 Now a man of Benjamin ran from the battle line and came to Shiloh the same day with his clothes torn and dust on his head.
HUMILITY gives the heart a “spiritual check-up”
Deuteronomy 8:1-3 (NASB)
1 “All the commandments that I am commanding you today you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the LORD swore to give to your forefathers.
2 “You shall remember all the way which the LORD your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.
3 “He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD.
HUMILITY obtains or secures the action/attention of God
2 Chronicles 7:14 (NASB)
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.
HUMILITY is being exalted “BY” God to spiritual greatness
Matthew 18:4 (NASB)
4 “Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
(NEXT SUNDAY, OCTOBER 18 – CONFESS YOUR SINS – PART 2)