True Confession Brings You Peace

My Friends, there is only one thing that can take the peace out of your heart. Not two, not three, not four, just one. Sin, that’s all. If you don’t have peace tonight, it’s because of sin. Sin robs you from peace. Now, let me say, furthermore, there’s only one kind of sin that can cause you not to have peace.

It’s your sin: not what your husband did, not what your wife did, not what your teacher did, not what your mother, your father did, not what your pastor did, and not what your boss did to you. Someone can slap you in the face, and you’ll still have perfect peace, if you’re right with God.

But when you get an attitude toward their slapping you in the face that’s wrong, at that moment, you’ll lose your peace. Only one thing can take away peace: sin. Only one kind of sin: yours. Only one thing that will restore peace: confession. Oh, but not every confession. Some confession does not bring peace, and some confessions don’t bring pardon.

Now, what kind of confessions don’t bring peace? We’re going to do a Bible study through the Bible today, and I want you to notice where different Bible characters will use precisely the same words, and yet they’ll not have their sins forgiven. The words that these Bible characters will use are these: “I have sinned.” They will confess their sin, but they won’t find peace.

Our title for today is "True Confession Brings You Peace"

Our Scripture is taken from Exodus 9:27

Exodus 9:27 NLT

27 Then Pharaoh quickly summoned Moses and Aaron. “This time I have sinned,” he confessed. “The Lord is the righteous one, and my people and I are wrong.

I want to talk to you about 5 types of confessions, they are:

I. The Horrified Confession

II. The Hypocritical Confession

III. The Half-Hearted Confession

IV. The Hedged-In Confession

V. The Healing Confession

I. The Horrified Confession

First of all, we find these words on the lips of Pharaoh in Exodus 9: 27: “Then Pharaoh quickly summoned Moses and Aaron. “This time I have sinned,” he confessed” (NLT).

Well, that sounds like a mighty orthodox confession. And the Bible says, “If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.” 1 John 1:9 .

1 John 1:9 NLT

9 But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.

But there’s something wrong about this confession. There was something wrong about Pharaoh’s confession. The confession of Pharaoh we will call the horrified confession. And you can judge the value of his confession when you see the circumstances that surrounded his confession.

So back up to Exodus 9:22–27

Exodus 9:22–27 NLT

22 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Lift your hand toward the sky so hail may fall on the people, the livestock, and all the plants throughout the land of Egypt.” 23 So Moses lifted his staff toward the sky, and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and lightning flashed toward the earth. The Lord sent a tremendous hailstorm against all the land of Egypt. 24 Never in all the history of Egypt had there been a storm like that, with such devastating hail and continuous lightning. 25 It left all of Egypt in ruins. The hail struck down everything in the open field—people, animals, and plants alike. Even the trees were destroyed. 26 The only place without hail was the region of Goshen, where the people of Israel lived. 27 Then Pharaoh quickly summoned Moses and Aaron. “This time I have sinned,” he confessed. “The Lord is the righteous one, and my people and I are wrong.

When the hail fell from heaven, when the lightning flashed, when the thunder roared, when the fire ran along the ground, when Pharaoh was horrified, when he was frightened out of his wits, when he trembled, when his heart palpitated, he said, “I have sinned.”

But I want you to notice something. The repentance that was born in the storm died in the calm. I want you to notice, if you will, another verse. And here’s the key. Here’s why Pharaoh found no peace with God. Here’s why Pharaoh found no pardon with God.

Notice in verse 34: “But when Pharaoh saw that the rain, hail, and thunder had stopped, he and his officials sinned again, and Pharaoh again became stubborn. Because his heart was hard, Pharaoh refused to let the people leave, just as the LORD had predicted through Moses."(NLT).

Do you know anybody like that? I know lots of them. And I may be preaching to some of them: people who, when they get in a bad circumstance, when they have a problem, or when the doctor’s given a bad prognosis, or when they’re about to see the doctor, when there’s about to be a cancer smear, or when the child lies sick in the hospital, or when the job is about to collapse, and when, so to speak, there’s thunder and hail and lightning and fire and calamity, they come to God, face white, lips trembling—“God, I’ve sinned.

God, have mercy”—and they make holy vows to God, sacred promises. The crisis passes, the storm clouds blow away, the thunder quiets, the lightning sheaths its fearful sword, and they’re right back in the same business—and sometimes worse.

Some men who were overseas made holy, sacred promises to God in a foxhole. “O God, O God, if You’ll just get me back home safe; O God, if You’ll just deliver me, here’s what I’ll do, God. Here’s what I’ll do.” I wonder if it wouldn’t do us all good to think back on those times when we made some holy sacred vows to God that we’ve broken.

May I tell you what a broken vow will do to you? Here’s the danger of a broken vow. It will harden your heart. You see Promises un-kept harden your heart. Notice in verse 34: “

But when Pharaoh saw that the rain, hail, and thunder had stopped, he and his officials sinned again, and Pharaoh again became stubborn. Because his heart was hard”

You may have forgotten those holy vows that you made to God, but God has not forgotten them. There’s the horrified confession. But it didn’t bring peace, and it didn’t bring pardon.

II. The Hypocritical Confession

Now I want you to notice these same words on the lips of another Bible character. I call this confession the hypocritical confession. In Numbers 22:34, we find these words on the lips of a strange character whose name is Balaam: “Then Balaam confessed to the angel of the LORD, “I have sinned. I didn’t realize you were standing in the road to block my way. I will return home if you are against my going." (Numbers 22:34 NLT).

What’s the background of all of this? Without trying to tell the entire story, because time would not permit it, let me just give you the cliff notes. Balaam was a prophet, of sorts. He was a strange man. He uttered some of the most eloquent prophecies in all of the Bible, and yet he offered some of the most diabolical and treacherous advice that ever fell from the lips of a man.

He had, in a sense, the lips of an angel and the heart of the devil. Balaam was a prophet of God, who knew some things about God. But there was a king whose name was Balak. He was the king of Moab. And the king of Moab was fearful of the children of Israel. So he tried to bribe Balaam to put a curse upon the children of Israel, thinking that, since he was a prophet and a man of God, he could pronounce a solemn, holy curse upon the Israelites and they would not prevail.

Balaam was too smart for that, because he knew that God had said, “Those that curse Israel, I’ll curse” (see Genesis 12:3). He said, “I can’t do that. I can’t put a curse upon them.” But then he thought of the reward that he was going to get. And his palms got itching for that money, and greed took over.

He said, and I am paraphrasing “I’ll tell you what I will do, however. I’ll tell you how you can get God to curse them. You just get them to sin.” And then he said, “You get some of the women of Moab to take up with some of the men of Israel, and so forth. And I know the lustful hearts of these men. I know what they’ll do. They’ll mix and intermingle, and they’ll commit fornication. They’ll commit adultery. Then I won’t have to curse them. God will curse them.”

Can you imagine such a thing coming out of the heart of a man who knew the ways of God so much that he himself refused to curse the people of God? I’m saying, here was a man with a mixed heart. Here was a man who was an A-number-one garden-variety hypocrite. He wanted to play both sides of the fence.

God had forbidden him to follow after the king of Moab for gain. And, finally, when God almost kills him—and you remember the story: the angel had stood there with a drawn sword ready to take Balaam’s life if he’d have come a step further, and the poor donkey had fallen out beneath him. You remember the story of Balaam’s donkey that talked and rebuked him in the Book of Numbers, the 22 Chapter [Numbers 22].

That all took place here—and then Balaam has the nerve and the gall to say, “Oh well, I’ve sinned; if it displeases you, I’ll just go the other way”—“if it displease you.” That hypocrite! It was a hypocritical confession. It was a confession from a man who really did not mean business.

Now, my dear friend, let me tell you something. Admitting your sin and confessing your sin are really two different things. Some of you come to church on Sunday and confess your sins, and go out on Monday and live like the devil. You’ll be just like Balaam. You’ll not find any peace, because there’s been no genuine repentance in your heart; there’s been no change of life.

Someone described the average Sunday churchgoer this way: “They are praising God on Sunday. But they’ll be all right on Monday. It’s just a little habit they’ve acquired.” The hypocritical confession: it doesn’t bring peace, doesn’t bring pardon. And, I want to tell you I don’t care how much you confess your sins: unless there’s a change of heart about that sin. You’ll never find peace, and you’ll never find pardon.

III. The Half-Hearted Confession

The third confession I want you to notice. Look, if you will, in 1 Samuel 15. These words are on the lips of a man named Saul who was the king of Israel. First Samuel 15:24

Don’t Read

1 Samuel 15:24 NLT

24 Then Saul admitted to Samuel, “Yes, I have sinned. I have disobeyed your instructions and the Lord’s command, for I was afraid of the people and did what they demanded.

“Then Saul admitted to Samuel, “Yes, I have sinned."

There it is: sounds orthodox, sounds good, sounds like it ought to bring peace, sounds like it ought to bring pardon. “Then Saul admitted to Samuel, “Yes, I have sinned. I have disobeyed your instructions and the LORD’s command, for I was afraid of the people and did what they demanded.”

Now, what was wrong with this confession? I call this confession a half-hearted confession. Here was a confession, not necessarily from a man who was a hypocrite like Balaam, but from a man who never really felt guilty. It was a confession that was accompanied with an alibi. It was a confession that had, along with it, an excuse.

There’s one thing that God will never accept for sin—and that’s an alibi. There’s one thing that God will never accept for sin—and that is an excuse. You see, he had a wonderful little excuse. God had told Saul to do a certain thing.

Saul, as God’s commander-in-chief, was commanded to destroy the Amalekites, who were demon-worshipers, and who were a cancer to the human race, and who were the sworn enemies of God. God said the Amalekites were to be destroyed, all of them, and God also said to destroy all of their cattle—the sheep, the oxen, did I say all of their cattle.

Samuel came to Saul, and he said, “Saul, did you do what I told you to do?” Saul said, “Yes, I’ve done just what the Lord told me to do. Blessed be the name of the Lord.” Samuel said, “What’s this I hear? The bleating of the sheep, the lowing of the oxen—what’s this?”

“Oh, those. Well, oh, see what had happen was, I saved those. They were the very best. And it seemed such a shame to put them to death. I’ll tell you what I’m going to do with them. I’m going to sacrifice them to the Lord. You'll see, I am going to make an offering to God out of these.” Listen folks … God said, “Put them to death.” But Saul had a better idea.

Now, if you had said to Saul, “Saul, you’re being disobedient,” Saul would have said, “No, not really. This is such a shame to put all these oxen and all these sheep to death. And, besides that,” he said, “the people were pressuring me. I feared the people. I mean, after all, I’m just a king, and there are all these people out here.” And, as you read this whole story, you get the idea that Samuel didn’t accept this confession.

As a matter of fact, God said to Samuel, “You tell Saul that he’s rejected from being king. I’m not having anything to do with this phony confession.” It was a confession with an alibi. Go read 1 Samuel chapter 15.

And that’s the oldest indoor sport known to man: alibiing our sins.

It started in the Garden of Eden. God said to Adam, “Adam, did you sin?” Do you know what Adam did? He alibied. He said, “Well, the woman You gave me, she caused me to eat.”

Now Adam was saying, in effect, “Whoever’s fault it was, it wasn’t mine. It was Yours, or hers. You gave her to me, and she made me do it.”

DON”T READ

Genesis 3:13 NLT

13 Then the Lord God asked the woman, “What have you done?” “The serpent deceived me,” she replied. “That’s why I ate it.”

You’ll find the same thing when God spoke to Eve: “Eve, did you do thus-and-such?” “The devil made me do it.” That’s what she said: “The serpent beguiled me” (Gen. 3:13 )—a confession with an alibi.

Any time you come before God with an alibi—an excuse for wrongdoing—you’ll not find peace, you’ll not find pardon. A half-hearted confession.

IV. The Hedged-In Confession

All right, I want you to notice another confession. Turn to Joshua 7:20. These are the words that fall from the lips of a man named Achan. And I want you to notice what he says: “And Achan answered Joshua, and said, Indeed”—now, underscore these three words—“Achan replied, “It is true! I have sinned against the LORD, the God of Israel".

Joshua 7:20 NLT

20 Achan replied, “It is true! I have sinned against the Lord, the God of Israel.

Sounds orthodox; sounds good; certainly sounds like Achan ought to have forgiveness; sounds like he ought to have peace; sounds like he ought to have pardon—but he doesn’t. His confession gets no higher than the ceiling. The ears of God are stopped up against this confession. Why? Because this confession is what I call a hedged-in confession.

Who was this man named Achan? Achan was one of the Israelite soldiers who had gone into the city of Jericho after Jericho had fallen, and had taken some of the booty and some of the treasure from the fallen city of Jericho, and had taken it home and hidden it in his tent. He actually dug a hole in the floor of his tent, buried the treasure—a wedge of gold, shekels of silver, a Babylonian garment—and then he covered the hole.

Because of what he had done, and because there was sin in the camp, Israel was tragically defeated when they went against another little city: the city of Ai. … Joshua knew that there was something wrong, and he stretched himself out before the Lord in prayer, and said, “God, what happened? Lord, why are we failing? Lord, why can’t we go forward?” And God said to Joshua, “Why are you lying there upon your face? Get up. Israel has sinned.”

Joshua knew there was sin in the camp, and he knew that sin had to be found, and he knew that the sin had to be judged, and so finally lots were cast. And the omniscient God enabled His commander to put the finger right on the sore spot. And Achan, end up having the finger put on him. He’s faced with the man of God, the man who is representing the judgment of God. And Joshua says, “Confess it.” And Achan confesses. But do you think that Achan is forgiven? Do you think he is pardoned? No. You see, there was nothing else he could do.

The Bible says he was stoned, and a heap of stones was left upon him as a solemn reminder of how God hates sin. You could be thinking, “Well, surely God would have had mercy on him.” Yes, God would have had mercy on him, had he confessed at the right time.

Suppose Achan, who had done this terrible heinous thing, had lain down in his tent. And suppose that he couldn’t sleep.

Suppose his conscience is thundering in his heart, reverberating through his soul.

Suppose his lips quiver, his hands tremble.

He says, “My God! What have I done? What a fool I am! Do I think that I can sin against the God of Israel and get away with it?”

Suppose he wakes up, unrolls his bedroll, claws into the dirt, and takes these things that he stole and goes over to Joshua’s tent, and says, “Joshua, wake up! Oh, Joshua, what a fool I have been! Joshua, I have sinned.

Here, Joshua, I give it back. Joshua, get the high priest. Let’s go to the tabernacle. Let’s offer a lamb, a blood atonement. I’m so sorry! I want God to forgive me.” Do you think he would have been forgiven? Of course he would have! Proverbs 28:13 says " People who conceal their sins will not prosper, but if they confess and turn from them, they will receive mercy."

So, why wasn't this man forgiven? Because he waited until he was hemmed up, and then he confessed. Did you know that every sinner will confess his sin at some point? It’s only a matter of time. Read Romans 14:11

Romans 14:11 NLT

11 For the Scriptures say, “ ‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord, ‘every knee will bend to me, and every tongue will declare allegiance praise to God.’ ”

Do you think those people who bow in that last day will be forgiven? They will not. They’ll confess and then be cast into hell. Every demon will confess that Jesus is Lord.

V. The Healing Confession

One last confession. And I want to call this one the healing confession, or the heartfelt confession, or the happy confession. Call it what you want. But I want you to see what kind of a confession God hears.

Look in Luke 15:18. And one more time you’re going to read these words, but this time I want you to see how God expects us to say them and what He wants us to mean.

In Luke 15:18, you read the words of a prodigal son who had forsaken his father’s house and gone into a far country, and wasted his substance with unrighteous living. And notice, as we begin to read here in verse 18, the prodigal son said to himself, “I

I will go home to my father and say, “Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you [Luke 15:18]

"”—same three words: underscore them.

But what a difference they made!—“I have sinned against heaven, and you”—oh, get the difference! See where the direction of this confession is, and notice the humility of this confession—“and am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants.

The scripture continues ….. With these words …

“So he returned home to his father. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him. His son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son.’

“But his father said to the servants, ‘Quick! Bring the finest robe in the house and put it on him. Get a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet. And kill the calf we have been fattening. We must celebrate with a feast, for this son of mine was dead and has now returned to life. He was lost, but now he is found.’ So the party began.

(Luke 15:18–24 NLT).

What made this confession a real confession?

What caused it to bring peace and pardon? The answer is that it was marked by genuine sorrow. You see it was delineated by his turning from his sin. The Bible says he left the hog pen. He was not only broken over his sin; he was broken from his sin. He forsook his sin.

Again we return to Proverbs 28:13

Proverbs 28:13 NLT

13 People who conceal their sins will not prosper, but if they confess and turn from them, they will receive mercy.

Genuine sorrow, genuine repentance, and coming to the true source of forgiveness:

Luke 15:18 again says ….“Father, I have sinned against heaven, and you” (Luke 15:18).

And I tell you, when you come to God that way, I will guarantee you, on the authority of this book, I remind you the words written in 1 John 1:9 But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.

Conclusion

I want to close with this statement "There’s only one thing that can take away your peace—and it’s sin; and only one kind of sin: it’s your sin.

There’s only one thing that can take away your sin—and it’s confession; but only one kind of confession: genuine confession.