What Does It Mean to Confess? Insights from Scripture

Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church Podcast,

where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.

In this podcast series, we're going to be looking into biblical

words that have great significance to our faith.

The name of this series is called the Word of the Week, where

once a week we will dive deeper into these words that we are

familiar with in scripture.

So come along with me, let's study the Word of the week.

Pastor Josh here with another word of the week.

The word of the Week this week is confess.

Depending on one's background or church history, that word confessed

or confession might mean different things.

What we're talking about here in this case is what Scripture says

is confessing our sins to God.

And really we know that ultimately that is who we are to

confess our sins to.

And we're going to look at what that word confession means or

confess means and when we are to do it.

And is it a one time thing or is it something that we do over and

over again in our lives?

And I've heard many people say, you know what?

I've asked for forgiveness once in my life, I've confessed my

sins one time and that's it.

And in regards to salvation, that is true.

We know that in the book of Ephesians and many other places,

the Bible tells us that we find forgiveness from God in the

moment that we come to him in faith.

And so we're repentant of our sins, we're coming to him and confessing

our sins.

We're asking him for forgiveness, and he extends that

forgiveness to us.

And that's what's called positional forgiveness, or you could

even call it judicial forgiveness.

So in the eyes of God, when He forgives us, he now no longer sees

our sin in our guilt, but he sees Jesus paying the price for our

sins.

He sees Jesus's sacrifice on our account.

Therefore he's able to extend his forgiveness and grace, and we

are now able to experience that forgiveness and eternal life

in Him.

So, so that is what we would call positional forgiveness.

But there's other passages of Scripture and one passage of Scripture

that we're going to focus on for most of our time here in this

study is 1st John 1:9.

John 1:9

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our

sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

So, so one might say, well, that's obviously him talking about

salvation.

And though those statements there that he makes in 1st John 1:9

John 1:9

are true, in regards to salvation, we have to understand

context.

And in context we Know that First John is written to believers.

And so if you read a few verses ahead in First John, chapter

one, we'll start in verse five, says this, then, is the message

which we have heard of him, and declare unto you that God is

light, and in him is no darkness at all.

If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness,

we lie and do not the truth.

But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship

one with another.

And the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.

So we've already talked about that.

That's speaking of positional forgiveness.

It's the blood of Jesus Christ that cleanses us from sin, that forgives

us of sin.

But then we say in verse eight, this is kind of the life that

we live after salvation.

So it says if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves.

And so there's someone who says, well, you know what?

I'm a Christian now, and I don't sin says here that we deceive

ourselves, we're lying to ourselves, and the truth is not in

us.

And then we see again the major verse that we're studying.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our

sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his

word is not in us.

And so the type of forgiveness that we're talking about when it

comes to First John, chapter one, is what some folks call relational

forgiveness or what we would call familial forgiveness.

So.

So the relationship that I like to explain in this is a father

and a son, right?

I have a.

I have children.

And so when my child sins against me or rebels against me,

he or she might come to a place where they reject the.

The fellowship that they have with me as a father.

It doesn't mean that they lose their relationship with me so positionally.

They are still my child, but there are things that they can do

in disobedience and in sin that can cause a wedge or divide

between our relationship.

And so if a son does something wrong to his father and.

And the son then at that point has hindered his relationship with

his Father, that.

That fellowship is what we would call broken.

But though the fellowship is broken, the relationship stays the

same, but the relationship certainly suffers in that case.

And so as a Christian, yes, we are saved positionally at the moment

of salvation.

And God, then His forgiveness is extended to us, and he removes

our sin as far as the east is from the west when it comes to our

guilt or our condemnation.

Because the Bible says In Romans, chapter 8, verse 1, we have

Romans 8:1

no more condemnation if we are in Christ.

But what First John, chapter one, verse nine is talking about,

I believe, is that familial or relational restoration that we all

seek when it comes to our sin.

And it doesn't mean that God turns His back on us.

It means that in our sin and in our unrepentant spirits, we have

turned our back against Him.

And so he's waiting there for us, but yet we are pushing him away

because of our disobedience.

And so we go back and look at what that word confess means, if

we confess our sins.

And so what does that mean?

Does that mean just, hey, I did this, but I'm not really sorry

for it?

Well, no, there's.

There's repentance.

Repentance means turning away from something.

There's repentance in our confession.

But literally the word confession means to say the same

about something.

If you, if you look at the Greek word that we get, the English

word confess, it's actually two words put together, homo or homo,

which is one or.

Or single, the same, so to speak.

And then logea, or.

I'm not pronouncing it correctly, I'm not.

I'm not a great pronunciate person who pronounces Greek.

I'm sorry about that.

But it's homo logea, which basically means to say the same thing,

to say the same thing as God.

So as God sees our sin, so we should see our sin.

So God sees lying as a sin.

And so we should see lying as a sin to say the same thing about

something.

And so we're acknowledging our sin, we're acknowledging what it

means to God.

We're acknowledging that this sin is an offense to God.

And we are agreeing with Him.

That is something that we should turn away from.

And so in that confession, and we go back to that verse, verse 9

of 1 John 1, if we confess our sins.

So there's that if there, if we do this, if we do what we just

described, when it comes to that relational forgiveness, if we

do that, he that's talking about God is faithful and just.

And so there's.

There's those two things there.

He's faithful and just.

And so he's faithful to do this.

And he's just, in doing so, he's okay in doing this.

This is the right thing for him to do because he has the opportunity

to do so because the payment of sin is, is, is his.

It's not our payment.

We did not pay for our sins.

We could not pay for our sins, but he was able to do that, so he

is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us

from all unrighteousness.

And so this, this confession is not a confession to a priest.

You, you, you know, as a pastor, I don't need someone to come

in and confess to me everything and then me explain to

them how they need to get themselves out of that.

Certainly there can be that, but ultimately it's, there's only

one mediator between God and man.

And the, and, and the Bible tells us that's Jesus.

And so he is the way, the truth and the life.

And so this confession of, of sin will allow us to restore our

fellowship with our Lord.

And so if, if we fail to do this, if we reject the importance

of confessing our sins, what will happen is that ultimately we

will, we will possibly in, in the case of a Christian face, discipline

of the Lord or lose what we see as the joy of our salvation.

We cannot lose our salvation, but what we can do is that we can

certainly in points of our life, in the rejection of the Holy

Spirit's conviction is to lose the joy of our salvation, lose the

effectiveness of our witness, our gospel message that God has entrusted

to us.

And so we don't lose our salvation, but we do lose our fellowship

with God that is, is hindered when we live and rest and dwell in

our sin.

And so proper fellowship with God is impossible unless we confess

our sins to Him.

And the Bible speaks of God desiring this restoration.

So we, so we need to confess our sins to the Lord as soon as the

Holy Spirit brings those sins up to us.

And in that what we call conviction of the Holy Spirit.

And that way we can maintain that close walk with God.

So we, we go back to the idea that, no, you don't lose your salvation.

Um, we, we believe that Romans chapter 8 speaks of the security

Romans 8 · chapter mention

of our salvation.

And I would encourage you to go through Romans chapter 8 sometime.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

That would be an awesome study.

Speaking of that, that nothing can separate us from the love of

God.

That, that no one can pluck us out of his hand.

But we do know that even so, as we have what's called eternal

security, we, we do have the opportunity to break fellowship with

God when it comes to that personal walk with him on the daily

basis.

And so we should strive to know him more.

We should, we should strive to see the same Things as he sees in

our life.

And so that's that idea of confession.

To say the same about an issue or to say the same about a sin in

our life, to recognize the hindrance that it is to us.

And so our prayer lives can be affected, our Gospel witness can

be affected, our love for others, our love for him can be affected.

Our Bible study can be affected when we are harboring that,

that sin in our heart.

And so in faith, we reach out to God and we say, lord, just as

you said, you'll never leave me nor forsake me, it also says that

you will restore me when I come back to you in confession.

So when you hear that word confession, it's not about coming

to someone and saying, okay, I need to pray this many prayers to

get back into good standing with God and then for him to save

me.

No, you don't lose that salvation.

But it's the same idea when it comes to that father, son relationship.

Even though, you know, there are children that have said, you

know, that person is no longer my father, I.

I renounce my, my sonship to them.

It doesn't mean that still that they're not the child.

It just means that they're not recognizing that relationship.

And so I would say the same thing when it comes to our salvation

in Christ.

You know, no matter what we do in our sin, God still sees us as

his child.

But yet after we've come to him in faith, but yet we can hinder

all of those benefits and blessings of what it means to be

a child of God.

And so my goal for myself and my goal for my family, my goal for

you is that we can rest in the goodness of the salvation of God,

the joy of our salvation.

I think it's even David who in the Psalms mentions restoring me

the joy of my salvation.

And we have a lot of Christians that are walking around

because of unrepentant sin in their life that have caused themselves

to get to a place where there is no joy in their salvation.

There's no joy in their walk with Christ.

We want that to be the case.

We want that, that joy to be there, because that's something that

God has imparted to us.

And so it's a very simple thing to recognize the conviction

of the Holy Spirit through studying the Word of God.

So I study the Word, I see that I'm wrong.

The Holy Spirit is convicting my heart.

The gauge to what's right and wrong is Scripture.

But the Holy Spirit is what allows me to be sensitive to what

is right, what is wrong.

And then at that point in time, when the Holy Spirit convicts,

I admit I repent, I confess to the Lord.

Repentance just literally means to turn away from.

I confess it to God and then God restores me in fellowship and

therefore he equips me to walk in righteousness.

And I think that that's one of the beautiful things about scripture

is that that scripture tells us that.

That the Word of God is.

Is there to teach us where we are wrong.

Most definitely.

To show us where we've made mistakes and what we need to believe.

All scripture is given by inspiration of God.

So it's given to us by God for a purpose.

And that is to teach us doctrine as it says in second Timothy,

chapter three, verse 16, for reproof, to tell us that we're wrong,

to.

To tell us how to correct that, for correction and for instruction

and righteousness.

So how to fix it?

And how to walk in that.

That a man of God may be perfect or complete, thoroughly furnished

unto all good works.

And so if we want to walk that walk of effectiveness or fruitfulness

for the cause of the gospel, we walk in truth to the Word of God,

we walk in sensitivity to the conviction of the Spirit, and we

walk in fellowship with our Heavenly Father.

And so that is confession.

That is what biblical confession is.

And I hope that that's something that you can learn through

the Word of God, specifically there in First John, chapter one,

verse nine.

So we will be back next week with another Word of the Week.

I hope that these studies are profitable for you.

I know that they are helping me in my own walk as we study each

of these things that God wants us to know from His Word.

So hope that you have a wonderful week.

We will be back next week with another Word of the Week.

God bless.

Hey, I really appreciate that you listen to the Word of the Week

podcast.

If you have any questions about the podcast or about our church,

Middletown Baptist Church, you can find more information about us

on Facebook or YouTube or you can find the podcast on NBCPodcast.org

you can contact me directly at Josh Massaro at middletownbaptistchurch.org

stay tuned for future Word of the Week episodes where we dive deeper

into words that impact our life according to scripture.

Thank you so much.

God bless.

We'll talk to you soon.