La confession mène au réveil

Introduction:

1 John 1:9 is a promise that states if we are willing to confess our sins, God is willing to forgive us and cleanse our hearts and souls of any unrighteousness! But do we fully understand what it means to ‘confess’ our sin to God?

What does the world think of confession? Many hear the word confession and think this… [show angry nun picture]

But in reality, today confession is often viewed as something we have to do AFTER being caught! It is like owning up to some sort of action or deed on our own!

Usually the only SORROW that takes place is that we are sorry we got caught! People may confess their deeds but only when caught AND most will NOT confess any guilt for those deeds…

Many want to say it was someone else fault that they were doing what they were doing… but the only sorrow portrayed is that they were caught and did not get away with it!

You may have heard someone say this, “Well, I am sorry you had to find out about this, but I am NOT sorry for what I did…”

My friends that is NOT a real confession! This is NOT the confession that God desires! When it comes to sinful acts in our lives our confession must be REAL! Confession, in the Bible is much different… in chapter 9 of Nehemiah this morning we will see what I believe to be the anatomy of a confession…how confession SHOULD LOOK!

However, before we get to that, let’s take a look at what was going on in the lives of these people at this time:

They HAD been in exile, but now they were back!

They HAD been oppressed by ‘bullies’ around Jerusalem, but now they had overcome them!

They HAD been living in an unprotected city, in fear and shame, but NOW they had a wall of protection and the shame was fading away!

They HAD believed their enemies were invincible, but they had seen them vanquished by God’s intervention!

They HAD seen Godly leadership and a God-sized miracle happen before their very eyes!

They HAD just worshipped together in their ‘reborn’ city and had just experienced the JOY of God’s blessing during the Festival of Booths!

These people could see where they HAD BEEN and they realized where God had brought them. They knew and understood that they did NOT deserve God’s blessing because they knew and understood that they had failed God on many occasions… but YET God was still merciful and gracious… God was there WITH them and He was reaching out TO them… providing rescue FOR them!

The reading of God’s word in ch8 and their rejoicing in God’s blessings led these people to a sense of conviction… They understood that they had been negligent of God and sinful in their hearts, but that God had remained faithful… WHAT COULD THEY DO? How were they to react to God’s mercy and grace?

We find that their reaction was a heart of repentance and confession! Let’s look throughout this chapter to see what their confession consisted of and how it applies to US as believers today!

The first thing I see from the people here is that they had…

The Posture of Remorse in their lives

They had a willing recognition of their need to repent

In v1 we find that they initiated this action. They assembled together out of conviction of God’s spirit. They did so without compulsion from the religious leaders, but out of conviction by God to seek his forgiveness!

I. Cherchez la repentance v. 1

They had a willing recognition of their need to repent

In v1 we find that they initiated this action. They assembled together out of conviction of God’s spirit. They did so without compulsion from the religious leaders, but out of conviction by God to seek his forgiveness!

They had a willing preparation of their hearts to repent

They understood the need for repentance and they knew that repentance does NOT simply happen, but repentance can only truly come from a willing and broken heart. So the very first thing we can see here was a total willingness to confess their sin…

So often this is the most difficult hurdle to cross for us as humans… we NEVER want to say that we were wrong… we never want to admit our ‘wrongness’ – it is human nature to resist this, but here we find these people were willing to submit to God’s word and surrender their hearts to Him! They were willing to confess their sin!

Another thing we can see was that they had a willing heart to PREPARE themselves FOR confession! They understood that to confess their sin that their heart must be right, and it was NOT! So they ‘prepared’ themselves for confession!

They prepared their hearts for confession by fasting and covering themselves with sackcloth and ashes… now most of us know about fasting… the denying of food or some other pleasure for spiritual gain, but what about this sackcloth? Ashes?

Well this was a means of relaying their remorse for the sin in their lives! BUT this was MORE than simply confessing sin to God and being remorseful in their hearts!

To put on sackcloth and ashes meant a PUBLIC display of extreme remorse or repentance or grief for a thing. This was a PUBLIC act that revealed to ALL that they were remorseful for the sin in their live!

SO often today our idea of confession is a silent prayer to God about our sin… and MOST of the time we are probably very generic in that prayer! “God forgive me where I have failed You!” and it is NOT “God forgive me for ________” and we tell God what our sin is…

How often do we travail at the altar over our sin? For many, they do NOT want anyone to know that they are dealing with sin in their lives… “It’s a private matter preacher… no one else needs to know about it!”

Well no one needs to know the details BUT we ALL are here for each other… to lift each other up in support and encouragement… to hold each other accountable!

We MUST be willing to OPENLY confess our sin to each other… We should be willing to PUT on the sackcloth and ashes in our confession on sin! These people were willing…are we?

Now this may sound a bit simple to many of us but these people were willing to CONFESS sin and seek repentance FOR that sin…it was NOT that they had been caught and felt they MUST confess… it was that they KNEW they had sin in their lives and they came TO God with confession of that sin.

The RIGHT thing here is not so much their actions as it was the attitude of their heart! Yes their actions were right and appropriate, but what I see here is that they were doing it for the RIGHT reasons!

Are we willing to confess our sin and seek repentance? These people were willing and we find this listed in many places in this chapter!

I believe the one specific KEY to this is that they were WILLING as a people… willing to recognize their need of repentance, willing to prepare their hearts FOR repentance and finally willing to ACTUALLY confess and repent! This was a matter of Corporate submission to the Word of God!

But not only do we see recognition of a remorseful life, but we can also see…

Romains 10.9 NEG

Si tu confesses de ta bouche le Seigneur Jésus, et si tu crois dans ton cœur que Dieu l’a ressuscité des morts, tu seras sauvé.

II. Séparez-vous du péché. v.2

III. Confessez vos péchés. v. 2-3

IV. Adorez l’Éternel, votre Dieu. v. 4

III