Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Nyberg. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 10.30 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
9.45 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com.
Now here's our pastor, Todd Nybert. I'm reading from Matthew chapter
3, beginning in verse 4. And the same John, speaking of
John the Baptist, had his raiment of camel's hair, and a leather
girdle about his loins, and his meat was locusts and wild honey. Then went out to him Jerusalem. and all Judea, and all the region
round about Jordan, and were baptized of him, confessing their
sins." I've entitled this message, What
Does It Mean to Confess Sins? When these people came to be
baptized, did that mean they first had to make a public confession
of the sins they'd committed before everybody, before they
would be allowed to be baptized? What does it mean to confess
sin? Sin. There is such a thing as
sin and sin is against God. Now, one of the things that troubles
me about myself more than anything else is that I'm no more troubled
about my sin than I am. I see it's against God and I
see how evil sin is, a good God. The good God is so good that
He made a hell to place those who sin against Him in. That's
His goodness. Yes, it's His wrath, but it's
His goodness. God would not do this were it
not necessary. That's how bad sin is. Sin is
so bad that the only way it could be put away is by the death of
Jesus Christ, the Son of God on the cross. That's how evil
sin is. Now, what does it mean for someone
to confess their sins when these people who came to John's baptism,
came confessing their sins, does that mean that before they could
be baptized, they had to make a public confession of the sins
they had committed? Let me answer that with a resounding
no. We are not to confess our sins to men. What can men do
anyway? And we are not to want to hear
other people confess their sins. Why? There's a creep factor to
that, to want to hear what other people have done. This thing
of confession is not so much confessing sins before men. So what does it mean? The act
of baptism has inherent in it the confession of sin. Now, what
do I mean by that? What does baptism depict? Baptism
depicts the gospel, the life of Christ, the death of Christ,
signified by going underwater, the burial of Christ, coming
up out of the water, the resurrection of Christ. Now, when I'm baptized,
I say, and I say publicly, that I'm so sinful, I am so sinful,
that the only way I can be saved is by what baptism depicts. I can only be saved if when Christ
lived, I lived and he kept the law for me. I can only be saved
by when Christ died, he was dying for me, putting away my sins.
I can only be saved by Christ being raised from the dead for
my justification. I'm so sinful, salvation's altogether
impossible for me. I'm completely dependent upon
Jesus Christ, who He is, and what He did. Now, that's what
it is to confess your sins. You know, most people never truly
confess their sin. Proverbs 20, verse 6 says, Most
men will proclaim everyone his own goodness. Quick to do that,
but a faithful man. Who can find? A man who is faithful
is a man who confesses his sin before God. Anyone else is not
truly a faithful man. I love the scripture, this gospel
promise, if we confess our sins. He is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Now, what does it mean to confess
sins? Does it mean that I need to confess
every single one of them before God? Now, we have some examples
of Scripture of some men who did confess their sin, and yet
they were not forgiven. They were not saved, so whatever
true confession is, they were not truly confessing. Let me
give you some examples. Pharaoh, when it was thundering
and lightning and fire running on the ground, and giant hailstones
falling, destroying Egypt, Pharaoh said, I've sinned this time.
I and my people are wicked and the Lord is righteous. Now, wait
a minute, Pharaoh. What do you mean about this time?
If you truly confess your sin, you know you sin all the time. Not just this time, all the time. What about Balaam? He said to
the Lord, I've sinned when he saw the angel with a drawn sword
getting ready to smite him. But he went on to even greater
acts of wickedness. And he's actually the false prophet
that the New Testament points out three times. But he said,
I've sinned. What about King Saul? King Saul
said, I've sinned, but he added this to it because I was afraid
of the people. He was not taking personal responsibility
for his sin. I've sinned indeed, but it's
because I was afraid of the people. I was afraid what they would
do to me. He was finding an excuse for his sin like Adam and Eve
did. Adam said, the woman that you gave me, she gave me of the
fruit, and I did eat. And he said, the serpent beguiled
me. In both cases, they were not
taking personal responsibility for their sin. Why Judas said, I've sinned,
in that I've shed the innocent blood. And when he spoke of the
blood of Christ merely as innocent, He demonstrated by that he didn't
really know who Jesus Christ really was. If he knew who he
was, he wouldn't call the blood of Christ merely the innocent
blood. That's the blood of God. That's
perfect blood. That's blood that is impeccable,
that could not sin. He was demonstrating a low view
of Christ when he made that statement. Now I can give you a couple of
examples of men in the scriptures who confessed their sin and it
was real. The first person I think of is
David when he said, I've sinned against the Lord. You can read
about that in 2 Samuel chapter 12. I've sinned against the Lord.
Now, what brought this about? David. The man after God's own
heart. The sweet psalmist of Israel. His name means the beloved. He's
the beloved of God. He was on a rooftop when he should
have been fighting battles, the scripture points out. When king
should be in battles, there he was on a rooftop and he spots
a woman. Her name is Bathsheba. She's
bathing. He threw a Terrible abuse of
power had her come to him. He had his servants go get her
and they brought her to him and he committed adultery with her.
And she became pregnant with his child. Now in order to try
to cover this up, he knew she was married to Uriah, who was
one of the mighty men of valor spoken of in 2 Samuel 22. He was a good man, so he brought
Uriah in and tried to get him to lie with his wife so it wouldn't
seem like it was his child, but Uriah's child. When that didn't
work, he told Joab, he implicated Joab in this crime. He said when
he comes up to the wall of the city, everybody pull back and
let them kill him. He murdered Uriah in cold blood. Now think about what this man
did. He committed adultery. He had the husband of the woman
he committed adultery with murdered in cold blood. He sought to cover
it up. And he brought other people into
his sin. He implicated other people. Joab
was affected by this. Now, somebody says, can a believer
do that? Read the Bible. If you read the Bible, you'll
know, yes, a believer can do something like that. Now, God
sent Nathan to David. Nathan told him the story about
the man who had the lamb that he loved so much. He loved it
like one of his own children, set it at his table, and it ate
with him. And there was a rich man who
had many sheep. And a traveler came to this rich
man, and the rich man, instead of slaving one of his sheep to
feed the man, he went over and got this man's sheep that he
loved so much, and he killed it and fed it to his guest. And when David heard that story,
He said, as the Lord liveth, that man shall surely die. And Nathan said, thou art the
man. And that's when David said, I've
sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said, the Lord hath
put away your sin. Now, I think it's interesting,
when David heard this story, he could clearly see the wickedness
of this man. You know, it's interesting how
we can see the sin in others when we don't really see it in
ourselves. Nathan said to David, thou art the man. I think of
the prodigal when he finally returns. He says, I've sinned
against heaven and in thy sight. And that's when his father said,
bring forth the best robe and put it on him and put a ring
on his hand and shoes on his feet. Now, these men confessed
their sin and they found forgiveness. They found pardon. They found
acceptance. So what does it mean to confess
your sins? I asked that question again,
because we see these men who confessed their sin and it wasn't
real. And we see these two men who did, and it was real. Does
it mean to confess each sin individually? Well, we ought to confess each
sin individually. I'm not saying anything against
that, but I am saying this, most of the sins we've committed,
we don't even know we've committed. We're ignorant of many of the
sins we've committed, most of the sins we've committed. And
if we were going to confess each sin individually, there's not
enough time in the day. We'd be doing a 24 seven. We'd
never have time to eat. We'd never have time to talk
to anybody else. We'd never have time to read the Bible. All we'd
be doing is confessing our sins. So it does not mean confessing
each one individually. Even in my confession, when I
confess my sin, I feel like I'm not sorry enough, that I'm not
sincere enough, that somehow it's not adequate. I've never
felt good about my confession. I know it's... So what does it
mean to confess? Because I see sin in my confession.
What does it mean to confess sin? Well, Here's what it means. The word confess means to speak
the same thing. It means agreement. You know,
you've heard of confessions of faith and the word is used, this
is our confession of faith, this is what we're all in agreement
that the Bible teaches. Now, I personally do not like
confessions of faith because we've got the Bible. Why would
we write a document that supposedly summarizes what we believe when
we've got the Bible? I think that's adding to the scripture,
so I don't really care for that, but I know what the confession
means. It means this is what we all
believe. We're in agreement with this.
This is what we believe the scripture teaches. To confess means to
speak the same thing. So for me to confess my sins
is for me to speak the same thing that God says with regarding
my sins. For me to confess my sins before
God is for me to agree with God. For me to confess my sins is
for me to take sides with God against myself. That's what it
is to confess my sin, to agree with what God says. Now let me
show you from the Scripture what that looks like. I'm going to
read a passage of Scripture from Romans chapter 7 where Paul is
speaking of his sin. He says in verse 7 of Romans
chapter 7, what shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. God's law is holy
and just and good. God forbid. Nay, I had not known
sin, but by the law. For I had not known lust, except
the law had said, thou shalt not covet. But sin, taking occasion
by the commandment, using the commandment as a base of operations,
But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all
manner of concupiscence, evil desire. Let me make a comment
on that. When the law said thou shalt
not covet, that's when I began coveting. I became consumed with
covetousness. For without the law, sin was
dead. I didn't even know what covetousness
was. For I was alive without the law once, but when the commandment
came, sin revived. It came alive, and I died. You see, the commandment stirs
up sin. It doesn't restrain sin. It stirs
it up. It makes, if I say don't covet,
you begin to covet. I begin to covet. And the commandment
which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. Wherefore the
law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. Was
then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid, but
sin, that it might appear sin, that it might be beyond all measure
sin, and that I see it for what it is. Was then that which is
good made death to me, God forbid, but sin, that it might appear
sin, working death in me by that which is good, that sin by the
commandment might become exceeding sinful, sinful beyond all measure. Now, have you and I ever seen
ourselves in that light? We do when we agree with God. We take sides with God against
ourself when we see that we are a sinner. Now, what is a sinner? Well, it's the person who commits
the sins, the transgressions against God's law. Now listen
to this carefully. A sinner is somebody who all
they do is sin. When somebody says, I'm not like
that, well, if you say that, it's because you don't really
understand what sin is. If you understand what sin is, and if
you understand who you are, you'll know that if you do it, it's
sin because you did it. A sinner is someone who all they
do is sin, and they cannot not sin. And this is all their fault. They can't. Blame somebody else
for it. Their sin is all their fault. A sinner can't sit in judgment
on anybody. And a sinner is somebody who
has no claims on God. If God passes me by, just and
holy is his name. Now, when we confess our sin,
when we're at agreement with what God says about our sin,
listen to this scripture, Romans 3 19. We know that whatsoever
things the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law
that every mouth may be stopped, no excuses, and all the world
stand guilty before God. Have I agreed with what God says
about my sin? Let me read you a few verses
of scripture with regard to my and your sinfulness. John chapter
six, verse five. Genesis 6, verse 5, and God saw. This is what God saw. This might
not be what you and I see, but this is what God sees. And God
saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that
every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. In confession, I say, I agree. That is me. Jeremiah chapter
17, verse nine, the heart is deceitful above all things. Somebody says, trust your heart.
Well, the scripture says he trusts that in his heart is a fool.
The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. And that word desperately means
incurably wicked. Who can know it? Now, if I confess
my sins, I agree with what God says about my heart. That's what
confession of sin is. It's agreement with God. Now, included in this thing of
confessing your sin or me confessing my sin, when I confess my sin,
I justify God in my own personal condemnation. Now, to feel this
way about your sin, you really have to be born again. An unbeliever
doesn't have a concept of sin like this. He thinks of sin and
do's and don'ts, things I refrain from, things I do, and that's
just a wrong view of sin altogether. It takes a holy nature to understand
what sin is. You see, when God saves somebody,
he gives them a new nature, and that's when they understand what
sin is and not before then. If I truly confess my sin before
God, I justify him in my own personal condemnation. David
put it this way in Psalm 51, against thee, thee only have
I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. that thou mightest
be justified when you speak and clear when you judge. David justified
God in his own condemnation. And if I confess my sin, I do
the same thing. God's right, I'm wrong. Now,
when I confess my sin, I confess the complete impossibility of
salvation by my works. If you confess your sin before
God, you're confessing that there's no way you can be saved by anything
you do. Have you ever confessed your
sin and seen that there is no way? If salvation is dependent
upon you doing something before God can do something for you,
There's no hope for you. Now, when I confess my sin, I
confess that salvation is of the Lord. If it's up to me to
do something, let me give you an example. Somebody says, you
won't find mercy unless you first forsake your sin and leave it.
And when you leave your sin and forsake it, then you'll find
mercy. Now, we ought to forsake our sin. We ought not ever commit
another sin again, but if my salvation is dependent upon me
first not committing any particular sin, I won't be saved, and you
will not be either. I want to read you a scripture
from Proverbs 28. This is verse 13. He that covereth his sins shall
not prosper, but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have
mercy. Now somebody says, that sounds
to me like you gotta confess and forsake them before you'll
have mercy. Now, it does sound that way if you take it by itself.
But if you have a King James Version, and the reason I love
the King James Version is because when the translators are adding
something that they think that'll make it clear is written in italics,
and they're letting you know that that's not really in the
original. So if you have a King James Version, you'll notice
that the word them is in italics. It is supplied by the translator. He that covereth his sins shall
not prosper, but whoso confesseth and forsaketh this thing of covering
your sins shall have mercy. You know, Adam tried to cover
his sins in the garden, didn't he? And it's forsaking this thing
of covering them and looking to Christ alone. When I confess
my sin, I confess that the only hope I have is in what Jesus
Christ did for me. I confess that if salvation is
dependent upon me, I'm toast. I have no hope. The only hope
I have is that Jesus Christ lived for me. That's what baptism says.
Jesus Christ lived for me. Jesus Christ died for me and
put away my sins. And let me say this, the death
of Christ. If Christ could die for me and
I wind up in hell anyway, the death of Christ is meaningless.
If that's the case, if he can die for me and pay for my sins
and I wind up in hell anyway, why? Christ didn't do me any
good at all. It's somehow up to what I do
and there that puts the burden of salvation on me once again.
That once again is salvation by works. Here's my hope that
when Jesus Christ died, he really died for me and put away my sins
and made them not to be. And when he was raised from the
dead, the scripture says he was raised from unjustification.
My sin was actually put away and his righteousness is actually
given to me. That's the only hope I have of
being saved by what baptism depicts, the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. I'm basing all my hope on this. Christ said it is finished. Have
you ever thought of the implications of that? It is finished. My salvation's finished. It's
accomplished and it has nothing to do with anything I've done.
When he had by himself purged our sins, he sat down at the
right hand of God. Now, when you confess your sins,
you confess your sinfulness. You confess that God is just
in passing you by. You justify God. You confess
salvation by works is altogether impossible. And you confess that
what Christ did is all that's needed to make you perfect before
God. Now, this thing of confessing
sins is a beautiful thing. When the Lord gives you grace
to see that your sin is against him, and you'll only see that
when God shows it to you. And when He shows it to you,
you will confess before Him your sin, your sins, the uncleanness
of your righteousness. You'll confess your righteousnesses
are nothing but filthy rags. You'll look to Christ alone,
and you'll find in Him all that God requires for you to be saved. Now, you're not going to see
any of that apart from this thing of confessing your sins. Now, here's what I want you to
do, and here's what I want to do. I want to believe what God
says about my sin, whether I feel it or not. I want to believe
when God says he saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth
and every imagination of the thoughts of heart was only evil
continually. I believe that. I believe that
with regard to myself. Believing that with regard to
myself, I look to Christ only as my salvation. They were baptized
of Him, confessing their sins. The only way I can be saved because
of my sinfulness is what baptism depicts, the gospel of Christ.
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