Nehemiah 9: Confession: Good for the Heart, Vital for Relationships

Did you ever hear that old expression, “Confession is good for the soul?”

We’ve talked about all of these things that happen when the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit works in the life of people

Restoring and Renewing them

a renewed desire to hear from the Word of God

expressive worship—weeping, worshiping

Obedience to the Word of God—getting back to doing what God had told them to do

And the things that we have talked about are not meant to be a “prescription”. I don’t think that they are meant to be like a 12-step program

But they are all very necessary things

And they are all evidence of the work of God

These things cannot be manufactured and faked, at least not in a way that is life-changing and lasting

Today, we are going to see God moving the people into yet another clear way that proves that He is at work in their lives—confession of sin

English Standard Version (Chapter 9)

The People of Israel Confess Their Sin

1 Now on the twenty-fourth day of this month the people of Israel were assembled with fasting and in sackcloth, and with earth on their heads. 2 And the Israelites separated themselves from all foreigners and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. 3 And they stood up in their place and read from the Book of the Law of the LORD their God for a quarter of the day; for another quarter of it they made confession and worshiped the LORD their God.

So, I just want to pause here for a moment

My intent originally was to read the whole chapter, but the more I dug into this passage, the more I felt like it would be good to stop here for a moment

Here we are a few days after the feast of tabernacles had ended

You remember how we talked about that the people, as part of the work of God in their lives, went back to living holy lives

Doing what God had told them to do

They had a time of celebrating and rejoicing

And you know, they could have thought, “Well, that’s good enough. We’ve done what God asked us to do. Now, let’s get back to life as normal”

But clearly, God isn’t done with them yet

And I would encourage us, as God leads us to living consecrated and holy lives, let’s not discount the work that He wants to continue to do in our hearts

“He who began a new work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ”

His work will continue in our hearts as we allow Him

Mark Driscoll and John Lindell controversy

They may be trying to live holy lives, but clearly there is still some work to be done in their hearts

Because we see them gathered again. But this is a very different gathering

They aren’t rejoicing

They aren’t building booths

In fact, the mood among them seems very somber,

The people seem very sober

They were fasting

Abstaining from food

We’ve talked about fasting here many times

It’s a way of showing God how serious you are about something

A way of putting my needs and my comfort on the line in order to hear from God

They were wearing sackcloth

garments made from animal hair

Not soft fur as from a rabbit

Rather it was made from stiff, prickly hair, particularly that of a black goat

It was coarse, it was prickly, it was rough

It was meant to be uncomfortable

It was a way for people to “mortify (put to death) the flesh”

Making themselves extremely uncomfortable to show how humble and serious they were before God

And they put dirt on their heads

Again, this was closely tied to the other two symbols of fasting and wearing sackcloth

We have many examples of people doing this in Scripture

I just finished reading the book of Job in my own quiet time

And Job, when all the “misfortune” befell him, it says that he

Tore his robes

He put on sackcloth

And he dumped ashes over himself

And then at the end, when God told Job’s three friends what he thought of their lousy council, it says that they

Weep

Tear their robes

Sprinkle ashes on their heads

A sign of deep humility and repentance

A way of saying, “God, before you, I am worth nothing. You are completely right, God. I am completely wrong

When you put on sackcloth and put dust or ashes on your head, it was a way of saying

“I have no excuse. I can’t justify myself any longer”

What do you do in order to show God that you mean business?

For me, it’s getting on my knees.

I find it incredibly uncomfortable

Here’s the thing with sackcloth and ashes and these symbols of grief and repentance

There were times when the sin of the people was great, and the hand of God was heavy upon them

And they would get out their sackcloth and ashes and they would offer sacrifices

And God would say, you know what? I’m not really buying that

You’re sorry that you got caught. You’re sorry that your sin has caught up with you

But you aren’t sorry for the offense that it has caused

You aren’t sorry that you have broken MY law

You aren’t grieving that the relationship between us has been broken

So, you can just put away your sackcloth, and go wash your ashes off, because it doesn’t mean anything

Isaiah 58 is an example of such a time when God wasn’t really buying their wearing sackcloth and ashes

He said, “I’d much rather you follow my law and live lives of justice and mercy than to continually fast with sackcloth and ashes”

But, back to the Jews in Jerusalem

And I want you to notice that this gathering is not something haphazard or random

In fact, it looks very intentional

The people came together

WITH fasting

WITH sackcloth

WITH dust on their heads

They came together for the express purpose of humbling themselves before God and expressing their sorrow over sin

Is that something that we could do?

If we announced, hey, everyone come tonight at 6:00 for a time of expressing our sorrow over sin, that would seem pretty intimidating, wouldn’t it?

They purify themselves

Separate themselves from all foreigners

And they begin to confess their sins

they confess their own sins AND the sins of their fathers

Remember the prayer of Nehemiah back in chapter 1, how he not only took responsibility for his own actions, but he confessed the sins of his ancestors

We are getting a picture of how big a role confession plays in the work of God in our lives

And how they recognize sin as being a collective problem, not just an individual problem, as we tend to see it

And it says that they stood up in their place and read from the Book of the Law of the LORD their God for a quarter of the day (3 hours), and for another quarter (3 hours), they made confession and worshiped the LORD their God

Folks, these people are serious in their business with the LORD

yeah, you know what, they all have lives

They all need to make a living

They all have houses and fields to take care of

But, the evidence of the Spirit of God working on them is that there is something else that takes a higher priority at this time in their lives

That is confession and grieving over sin

I just want us to think about this for a while this morning

You know we are in a different era than these Jews were

We are in the New Testament

We have a different relationship with God than they did

We have the privilege of having our sins paid for by the blood of Jesus Christ

We have the privilege of being reconciled to our Father God through faith in what Jesus has done

He declares us righteous on the basis of what Jesus has done

And we live and walk in the amazing freedom that this brings to us

But, as we have said a number of times already, we are still in the process of being made holy. We have not yet reached perfection

Even though we have been freed from being slaves to sin,

We still do sin.

meaning, we still think, act, and talk in ways sometimes that are against the will or the character of Jesus

We still have thoughts that are full of lust or greed

We have moments of anger or fear or selfishness

We say things that were just better left unsaid

Whether or not our intentions were wrong, sometimes the words were wrong

If we are honest with ourselves, we have probably all done these things

And because we are in the process of being made holy, and we still have things inside of us that God would consider to be sin

We have a couple of options, (actually there is only one option I think. Except sometimes we tend to make our own option)

We could take the attitude of “Well, Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty for all my sin, past, present and future. Therefore, you know I’ll try my best to be good, but if I sin, that’s OK. Jesus already paid for it! I don’t really have to do anything!”

Well, there’s actually a little truth to that. Jesus did pay for the sin of the whole world, past present and future

But that doesn’t mean that we are totally absolved of all responsibility when it comes to sin

Because James 4:17 “17 So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.”

in this context, James is talking about boasting

But it brings to mind the thought, hmmm, if the Holy Spirit reveals something to me, and I don’t follow through with it, I wonder what God would have to say about that?”

If I sin, and the Holy Spirit convicts me of that, and it might not be immediate. It might be after the fact.

It could be through a thought

It could be reading the Word

Or through the words of a friend

If the Holy Spirit reveals that to me, that is my response?

What SHOULD my response be?

Well, we see what the response of the people in Nehemiah was

They begin to confess their sins and the sins of their forefathers

They began to confess

Confession: Do we still need confession?

As people who have been saved and redeemed, do we still need to confess our sins

I believe that Scripture would teach that for the people of God, confession is not only something that we should do every now and then, but it is something that should be a way of life.

It is something that should take place daily and moment by moment as needed in our walk with the Lord

It’s something that we should be eager and willing to do

Why should we confess sin? In no particular order

It is a command

The disciples of Jesus came to him and said, “Lord, teach us to pray”

Here’s the thing. They knew how to pray. They were Jews. They had been taught to pray

But one of the things that Jesus taught them to do is say, “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors”

Praying for forgiveness, I believe would include confessing to God what you are asking forgiveness FOR!

James 5:16 “Confess your sins to one another”

He doesn’t really leave this as an option

Confess your sins only if you mess up a little bit, or if you aren’t too embarrassed to

For Healing

He goes on to say, “Confess so that you might be healed”

This is in the passage where it instructs us to anoint the sick with oil

But I think that this should not just be something that we do when someone is sick and wants to get better

Remember, in the minds of the Jewish people, there was a very close relationship between dealing with sin, and being physically healed

When Jesus healed the man who had been let down through the roof

The first thing he said was “your sins are forgiven”

And when the religious leaders grumbled, Jesus said, “Hey, what’s easier to do, forgive sins, or heal a man who is lame? But, so you know that I have the power to forgive sins…and then He turned to the lame man and said, ‘get up and walk”

See, He knew exactly how they were thinking. Confessing, dealing with sin, and healing are very closely tied.

I don’t pretend to be able to explain it any more than that

But my question is, what happens to us when there are things that need to be confessed to each other, but we don’t do it?

it has an effect on us, doesn’t it?

Relationships become sick. We become sick

Apostle James says, “Confess your faults to each other, and pray for each other so that you may be healed”

I’ve anointed a few people, and not all of them are healed

So, it seems like, as in other parts of the Bible, when it comes to healing, there is something deeper on the heart of God than just physical healing

It is healing for the brokenhearted, the wounded, those who have been scarred by sin

Confession strengthens our bonds of fellowship

Confession with and to each other is so important because it is a way that we strengthen our bonds of fellowship

Confession brings openness and honesty with each other

How can we be more honest with each other than to confess the areas where we have failed, we have fallen, we have sinned

Areas in which we have failed in our relationship with God and in our relationships with each other

To confess these sins and these failings takes some serious humility!

But you know what? That is exactly what God asks of His people

Jesus Himself said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are they who mourn”

And Paul, says this Ephesians 4:1–2 “1 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love,”

Ephesians 4:32 “32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”

You know, we could spend a lot more time on this.

But isn’t this a tremendous picture of what the Body of Christ should be

Openness, honesty, bearing each other’s burdens, extending forgiveness, receiving forgiveness

It’s very hard to forgive one another when there is no confession

So, confession with each other is so importan

Confession keeps us honest before God

I am reminded of the passage in 1 John 1.

1 John 1:5–10 “5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.”

We don’t know a lot about this epistle. The

The author doesn’t identify himself

He doesn’t write any greetings like you read in some other epistles,

His reasoning is sort of circular, he usually spends only a little time on a subject, and then comes back to it later.

But one thing is clear: 1 John is a book that is written to Believers

That’s especially clear in chapter 3 where he says, “1 John 3:2 “2 Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.”

And I think it is significant that in writing to believers, John opens up the epistle by talking about walking in the light and dealing with sin

He says, in verse 7 if we walk in the light here’s what it does

Walking in the light means that we have fellowship with each other

That’s the horizontal relationships that we talked about just briefly

We walk in freedom with each other

We don’t owe anything to anyone

Walking in the light means that we receive cleansing from our sin

That is, our relationship with God

And then, he probably imagines hearing the protests from his audience of, “Hey wait a minute, our sins have been forgiven. We have moved from darkness to light

Because then he goes on to say, “If we (that is, we as believers) say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. And we aren’t living the truth”

And in verse 10, “if we say that we have not sinned, we make Him (GOD) a liar, and His Word is not in us”

BUT if we confess our sins, He (God) is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and cleanse us from ALL unrighteousness

Usually we hear this quoted when someone is being lead to the LORD for the first time

But, again, this letter is written to believers, because the Holy Spirit knew that we as Believers need to be reminded of this as well!

I think that John is really honing in on this fact:

We are still in the process of being made holy. We will have a long ways to go. (Chapter 3, “What we will be has not yet appeared”)

Compared with the perfect standard of holiness, GOD, we still have a long way to go

And we have been called to BE holy, to live holy lives, lives that are consecrated to him

But in the midst of that, who among us can say that we do not sin? Is there anybody here who can say that?

I certainly can’t say that

But maybe there are some who would say, “hey, I’m saved. I haven’t sinned for years now”

(I’ve actually heard of people saying things like this)

But I think John would say, “My friend, you are walking in darkness and you are making a liar out of God

And so, with that sin, as we live in a broken and sinful world, there comes the need for confession

Confession of faults to each other

Confession of sin to God

And I would argue that this should be a daily thing. Confession is something that we should practice, make a regular part of our lives

And this isn’t a thing of always feeling rotten about ourselves and always down on ourselves and always feeling like, “Man what a lousy person I am”

But it is simply a thing of living lives of humility and doing what Jesus said to do

And to have an opportunity for restored relationships!

Because again, with confession comes forgiveness

God is faithful and God is just

And His idea of justice is to forgive when that sin is confessed to Him

And with confession and forgiveness comes cleansing

I trust that all of us know what it is like to confess to God or to someone else, to receive forgiveness and to experience that feeling of being clean!

If I do something to offend my wife, whether intentionally, or unintentionally, what do I need to do?

Honey, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to do that. Would you forgive me?

What happens if I don’t do that? Our relationship is damaged. We become distant

So, too, our relationships with each other and God. Sometimes we might feel, oh I feel so distant from God. Well, how much time have you spent confessing lately?

And as our time is ending, this is my challenge for you

First, do you believe that confession should be part of your life with Christ and with the Body of Christ?

Should it be a regular part of your life, of my life?

Secondly, when is the last time that you have honestly confessed to God

When is the last time that you have honestly confessed to someone else?