Confession and Repentance: The Path to Restoration

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Thanks for listening to the Generations Church podcast. Today,

we continue our series entitled Back to the Basics.

This morning, we take a practical look at confession and repentance.

Without repentance, a confession is just empty words.

God desires that our confession lead to repentance, and in turn,

our repentance will result in restoration.

So grab your pen and your Bible as we listen to week three of Back to the Basics,

the basics of confession. And now here's today's message.

Past few weeks, we have been in a series that we've called Back to the Basics.

And we've done exactly that, where we've said, in order for us to be the Christians

that God has called us to be, there's some things that we need to reset.

Like a football team, when it's time, you know, they're not holding on to the

ball, they're not doing everything correctly.

Sometimes you've got to go back to the basics.

And so over the past few weeks, we've been back to the basics of Christianity.

In week one, we went back to prayer. And we said that we've got to make prayer

a priority in our lives. Okay?

And we've encouraged you, hey, come out to Wednesday night prayer at 630.

Testimonies keep coming out of people that have come and needed healing.

And have received it, not for any of our glory, but for God's glory.

I want you to make prayer a foundation in your life.

Last week, we talked about the basics of making Scripture, making the Word of

God the authority in our lives, meaning coming under it.

Not just saying that we read it because, hey, reading it is fantastic and that's

a great start, but reading it gives us knowledge if it's not applied to our lives.

And so we want the Word of God to be read in our lives and studied,

but primarily we need to submit to the authority in our lives.

And I hope and pray that you have been actively pursuing prayer on your own.

I hope and pray that you've been actively pursuing being in your Bibles,

the Word of God, because I believe with all my heart that it will change your life.

Lisa was just praying, and she was praying about healing.

That some of us need some spiritual, emotional healing, maybe relational healing.

And the thought occurred to me just a minute ago as she was praying that healing comes and begins,

with the topic that we're going to be talking about today, and that is confession

and repentance. Repentance.

This week, I read a funny story about four pastors, and they were from different

churches, and they would get together every month to play golf,

right? How many of you like to play golf?

All right. How many of you are any good at golf?

That's what I thought. Yeah. A lot of us like to get up and try to whack that

ball, but not a lot of us are very good at it.

But these four pastors every month would gather together to play some golf,

to hopefully encourage each other, keep each other accountable.

And so one of the pastors had a great idea and he said, you know,

our people come to us all the time and they bring us their pains and they bring us their hurts.

And a lot of them will come for us for confession of sin.

Like not as in confession, like we go to confession and it's forgiven,

but just they come with these heavy burdens.

And so this pastor said, what if all of us today, in order to keep one another accountable.

Would just say, hey, this is one sin that I'm struggling with.

Let's be raw and honest today.

And let's just confess one sin that we're struggling with so that we can pray

for each other. And so we can hold each other accountable.

And so the others agreed, yeah, this is a pretty good idea.

So the first pastor said, you know, my confession to you guys is this,

man, I know I shouldn't, but I really, really like to gamble.

I get my paycheck and I go out to the casino, and I'd just like to blow some

steam on the slot machines, but it's really affecting my family.

I've lost a lot of money. I know I shouldn't be doing it. I'm not being wise with my finances.

Guys, I need you to keep me accountable. And they agreed. Yeah, absolutely.

Then the second pastor, he confessed that recently because of stress,

he started smoking cigarettes.

He had given it up a long time ago, but he re-engaged in that.

He's like, I know it's not healthy. I know it's bad.

I know it's not a good use for my finances.

Guys, I need your help. Keep me accountable.

Absolutely. The third pastor confessed, guys, I don't even want to say this to you.

He said, I've been hiding whiskey flasks around the church.

And when I have a hard appointment or when I'm stressed out,

I'll go back behind the welcome center and I'll grab my flask skin.

I'll sip on some whiskey.

Now they're like, wow, man, they're all comparing their sins.

Okay, that's not bad. That's not bad. That one's worse.

And he said, all right. All right, brother, what's yours?

They asked the fourth pastor, what's your sin that you need to confess to us

today? And he was hesitant.

He didn't want to say anything and he wouldn't come clean.

And finally, he's like, all right, all right, all right. I'll tell you what I'm struggling with.

He said, I really, really, really have a hard time.

And I'm like, with what? You got to confess. You're struggling with it.

He said, guys, I struggle with gossiping.

And I cannot wait to get out of here and tell everyone what's going on in your lives.

I think maybe that's how it is with confession that we don't often want to tell

our stuff off because someone else might judge us or someone else might start spreading it.

And so we just would rather not say anything about confessing our sins, right?

Each week, I've been trying to give you a big idea. And so if you've got your

notes with you, here's today's big idea. It's this.

Confession without repentance is only words.

Confession without repentance is only words. What we need is godly confession

that results in repentance.

And so this morning, we're going to dive into what confession is and what it

looks like and why we need some godly confession confession that leads to repentance.

So let's go ahead and pray this morning as we dive in.

Heavenly Father, we need you this morning. It's good to be in the house of the Lord,

but we fall down before you in worship knowing that we are not worthy to stand

on the ground that you are part of, that your presence is here.

And so we just ask simply that you would speak to us, Holy Spirit,

speak through the word of God.

We know it always accomplishes its purpose. So would you please accomplish your purpose in us today?

We know you want to speak to us. Give us ears to hear. In your name we ask it. Amen.

What is it when you think about the word confession?

I know for a lot of us, maybe we were raised in the Catholic church and our

mind goes right to, okay, you need to go to the confessional today.

Confession is at five o'clock and you need to go tell the priest all your sins.

And so then he's going to give you an assignment and you can say three Hail

Marys or our fathers, or you can do this or you can do that in order to pay the penance of sin,

which we know it's already been paid for by Jesus Christ on the cross.

Forgiveness only comes through the blood of Jesus. Others of you may think,

man, I grew up, maybe I was in this denomination or that denomination,

and I had to go, and I had to recite the confessions or the creeds that you learned.

Good things. All good things.

But let me give you a definition for confession so that you understand it,

so that we're all thinking about the same thing together.

Confession is the the act or process of admitting or acknowledging one's wrongdoings,

faults, or sins, whether to God or to another person.

Because how many of y'all know that we have to confess to the Lord our sins,

but when we sin against somebody else, we have to go to them and we have to confess to them, right?

As I was studying it this week, I was looking at the word confession in the

New Testament and it comes from this word up here.

It's pronounced homo legeo.

How many times did I have to listen to that to try to say it right?

But it means to confess, profess, admit, and agree with God and what he has

said on a matter that he's speaking the truth and that we're wrong.

That word, homo legeo, homo meaning same, and legeo meaning speak, word speak.

And so what confession is, is agreeing with God on what he says is sin.

You get that? We're agreeing with God what he says is sin, not what I think is sin or not sin.

And so we go to him and we acknowledge our sins before God.

In just a little bit, Adam's going to lead us in communion, and I always look forward to that.

But before we do, we're going to look at two passages of Scripture. I always want...

Our time together, when I have the platform, every time I speak,

I want it to be real and I want it to be applicable to our lives.

And so I just want to look at two scripture passages that talk about what we're

talking about, and we're going to read it together, and we're just going to

pull a few takeaways from it, if that's all right.

The first passage is a confrontation and a conviction of David's sin.

This is the same David, David and Goliath, right? The psalmist.

Scripture says that God called him a man after his own heart.

Yet we know he's real and raw and full of so many failures.

How could that be? If you have your Bibles, turn with me to 2 Samuel chapter 12, one through seven.

2 Samuel 12 · chapter mention

2 Samuel 12, one through seven. And again, I want to encourage you,

You bring your Bibles to church. It's God's word.

Get into it. Highlight it. Take notes. If it's on your iPad or your iPhone,

not an Android because those are lesser.

But if you have an Apple product, go feel free to bring it. A little plug.

So let me just give you a synopsis of what has happened in David's life,

which is about to bring the confrontation we're going to read about in 2 Samuel.

Let me give you the synopsis real quick.

So the story of David and Bathsheba is found in 2 Samuel 11,

and it begins with King David.

And he's out one morning, and he's on his rooftop strolling.

And who does he see but this beautiful woman named Bathsheba.

And she's taking a bath on her roof. And David says, I like what I see.

I want that. Go and bring her to me. And that was the beginning of an incredible

journey in David's life of sin.

It resulted in Bathsheba becoming pregnant. Now.

To cover up the affair, David tried to get Bathsheba's husband,

Uriah, to come home from the war, to come sleep with Bathsheba so she would

be pregnant and he would believe that the child is his.

But it didn't happen that way because Uriah was so faithful to his men in war.

He said, I'm not going to go home to sleep with my wife when my men are on the

front lines and they're being attacked and they're dying.

How could I do that when they're out here doing this?

So what does David do? But he says, all right, then put Uriah on the front lines

of the battle. So maybe he'll be killed.

Oh, the great lengths that we will go to, to cover up our sin.

We go to incredible lengths to cover up our sin.

And what happened? Uriah died, didn't he?

And David eventually marries Bathsheba.

And this is where we pick up the story in 2 Samuel 12. And here's what it says.

So the Lord sent Nathan to David.

When he arrived, he said to him, there were two men in a certain city.

He's going to tell him a story, an Old Testament parable, if you will.

There were two men in a certain city, one rich and the other poor.

The rich man had very large flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing except

one small ewe lamb that he had brought.

He raised her. She grew up with him and with his children.

From his meager food, she would eat. From his cup, she would drink.

And in his arms, she would sleep.

She was like a daughter to him.

And now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man could not bring himself

to take one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare for the traveler who had come to him.

Instead, he took the poor man's lamb and prepared it for his guests.

So he grabbed something that wasn't his when he had everything in abundance.

Verse 5 says, David was infuriated with this man and said to Nathan,

as the Lord lives, the man who did this deserves to die because he has done

this thing and shall no pity.

He must pay four lambs for that lamb.

And I can just imagine Nathan there pausing dramatically and saying, David, you're the man.

You're the man I'm talking about. Man, he must have been overcome and overwhelmed

with guilt at that point.

And I want to pause here and just say this. Isn't it true that we all need a Nathan in our lives?

We need someone who will love us enough to speak the truth to us,

even if it's going to maybe make you angry.

Maybe if it's going to cause you guilt or cause you shame.

Man, we need each other for accountability. We need to call each other out on

the carpet when we're in sin.

In verses 8 through 12, Nathan tells David what is going to happen as his consequences for sin.

And that's where the turning point comes in verse 13.

He has this incredible response, and it's one of humility.

2 Samuel 12, verse 13, David says, Nathan, I've sinned against the Lord.

2 Samuel 12:13

It hit him like a dagger in the heart. I know it. I've done it.

I was wrong. I've sinned against the Lord.

Then Nathan replied to David, the Lord has taken away your sin and you will not die.

See, God took the penalty, which is death, away for David, but he never took

the consequences for his sin.

How many of you know that we always live with consequences of our actions?

If we live in obedience, there's protection and blessing. If we live in sin,

there's pain and there's consequences.

I want to give you three quick takeaways from this second Samuel passage,

and then we're going to move on to the next passage. Here's the first one.

A loving confrontation can result in godly confession of sin.

I didn't say it will result. I said it can result.

There are times where we're going to confront someone about their sin,

and we're going to do it in love, and we're going to do it with a nonjudgmental

spirit, yet it never reaches their hearts, and they never confess.

You cannot make someone else confess.

You cannot make someone else repent, no matter how hard you try. eye.

It's got to happen from the Spirit of God working in their hearts and their lives.

Something else that I noticed too in this passage I thought was really poignant is this.

A judgmental spirit will never turn anyone from sin.

Never. You ever come up to someone and start judging them?

Hey, you're doing this. You're doing this. You're doing this.

Get your life straight. Oh, I feel convicted of my sin now. No.

A judgmental spirit never turns someone from sin.

Takeaway number three, true confession brings forgiveness, but does not take away consequences.

Was David forgiven when he confessed?

Absolutely. Are we forgiven when we confess our our sin to the Lord?

Absolutely. The penalty is taken away, but we live with the consequences.

You get drunk and you accidentally kill someone with your car,

you can confess and you can receive forgiveness, but there are still going to

be consequences for your actions.

Sin always, always has a consequence, and you'll live with it for the rest of

your life. So, that's passage number one.

Passage number two is Psalm 51. Psalm 51.

Wouldn't it be cool if after David's prayer and he confessed that everything was just great?

This passage here that we read about, we see David's response to the confrontation.

And so, this is what, as we read through this passage, you know that David is

thinking about what he just was confronted He was just confronted about a sin, and he writes this.

God, this is a great prayer to pray.

Be gracious to me, God, according to your faithful love, according to your abundant compassion.

Blot out my rebellion.

Verse 2, he says, God, completely wash away my guilt and cleanse me from my sin.

For I am conscious. I know my rebellion. I know what I've done and my sin is always before me.

Against you, you alone I've sinned and done this evil in your sight.

And I want to point a few things out here. David acknowledges here in verse

4 that when we sin against others, who is it that we're actually sinning against?

Yes, we're sinning against them, but we are sinning against God.

When we sin against our spouse or when I sin and I get angry and I say stuff

at my kids that's sinful, I'm not just sinning against them.

I'm sinning against God.

And that should challenge us. You know, it's one thing to want to change because

I shouldn't have said that to my wife.

It's another thing to want to change because what I said to my wife was sin against God.

That should drive us to confession and repentance.

Verse four continues. He says, so you are right when you pass sentence.

You are blameless when you judge, God.

Instead, I was guilty when I was born. I was sinful when my mother conceived me.

Surely you desire integrity in the inner self and you teach wisdom deep within.

Verse seven, purify me with hyssop and I will be clean.

Wash me and I will be whiter than snow.

And here David is pointing back to the Israelites at the Passover when they

took the hyssop branches and they dipped them in the blood of the Passover lamb.

And God had said, if you will paint your doorposts, when the angel comes by, you will be spared.

And it's the symbol of David taking this hyssop branch and dipping it in the

blood of the lamb and painting the sides and painting the top.

Because when you receive forgiveness, guess what? You are forgiven.

You are forgiven.

The Bible says without the shedding of blood, there's no remission or forgiveness of sin.

The Old Testament, it was the blood of goats and lambs and bulls.

In the New Testament, it's the blood of Jesus Christ, that when we confess,

we're applying the blood to our lives, and he cleans us and makes us white as snow.

The next takeaway, confession brings freedom and lifts the weight of sin.

I think, Adam, you alluded to this Wednesday night when you were talking to

us about the weight and the heaviness and the misery of sin.

When we sin, if you have the Spirit of God in you, guess what?

You're going to be miserable until you seek confession and repentance. Repentance.

If you don't feel guilty for sin, you might need to ask yourself if the Spirit

of God is actually alive and in you.

Listen to what Charles Spurgeon said. Yes, I love, I'm a Spurgeonite.

I really, I just made that up.

But he said this about the weight of sin, and it just hit me like a ton of bricks.

He said, there is no trouble like genuine conviction of sin.

Racks, torture, Racks, scorpions, death.

These are troubles to be laughed at as compared with the weight of guilt pressing

on the conscience, the sight of an angry God and the fear of the wrath to come.

Is there a sin this morning that you have failed to confess?

Is there a sin that's been waiting beating you down, and you just keep trying

to push it aside, just keep pushing it aside.

I'm not going to confess to that person. I'm not going to confess.

I'm going to ignore it. It'll go away.

It's not going to go away. It's going to eat you alive.

Confessing and humbly coming into agreement with God will free you from the

weight of your sin. It'll free you.

Verse nine, he said, turn your face away from my sins and blot out all my guilt.

God, create a clean heart for me and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

That steadfast spirit and that peace and that joy that we all want in life,

life it happens after we confess right he says restore the joy of your salvation

to me i just skipped over verse do not banish me from your presence you know when you sin.

You're you're not allowing you you're kind of pushing away the presence of god

you're not feeling the presence of god in your life it's good possibility because

there's sin And after you confess, there's joy that's restored.

And then he says, sustain me by giving me a willing spirit.

After you confess, it's really important to say, God, I was wrong. Please help me.

I need you to make me want to do the right thing because how many of you know,

I don't always want to do the right thing.

I don't always want to do the right thing. So God, give me a willing spirit to follow after you.

Here's the turning point with David's confession, because now it's going to turn to repentance.

You see, what I want you to know is that confession and repentance are not the

same thing. They're different.

Confession is the acknowledgement of sin.

Remember what we said? Homo legeo, it's the same God speak.

It's me confessing that God, what you say is sin, and what I did was wrong. It's acknowledgement.

It's confessing and acknowledgement. But repentance, repentance is the turning away from sin.

You're walking one way and you turn away from the sin and you say,

I'm confessing God that I'm walking towards the sin. I repent and turn.

And now I'm walking the opposite way and I'm walking away from my sin and I'm

walking towards holiness.

Guys, confession is important and we need to get back to it.

But we only should be confessing if it's followed up by repentance that turns from our sin.

Because if you're continuing in your sin, then it's just talk.

If you continue in your sin, it's empty words.

We need a confession that leads to repentance, that leads to holiness.

St. Augustine of Hippo said, the confession of evil works is the first beginning of good works.

You want to be filled with something good today? You want to do something great for God?

Confess your evil works, turn from it and move towards good works.

Godly confession brings about repentance and change.

Remember the big idea that we started with, with confession without repentance is only words.

We need godly confession.

We need godly confession that results in repentance.

We don't need more words. Man, one of the most frustrating things as a parent,

you probably know this, is, he hit me.

Say you're sorry. I'm sorry. He hit me. Say say, you're sorry. I'm sorry.

And we just keep doing it. Does that sorry mean anything?

No. Why?

Because it's empty words, unless it's followed up by a change of behavior.

David continues in verse 13. He says, then I will teach the rebellious your ways.

See, he's turned that corner. He was walking in sin. He confessed.

He's repented. Now he's walking king in God's way. And now he's saying,

I'm not just going to live this way. I'm going to teach you.

I'm going to teach the rebellious your ways and sinners will return to you.

He's saying, I'm done living this way.

I'm changing my life and I'm going to begin to live out the purpose that you have.

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But it's empty words until you change and you repent and you say, I'm done with this.

I'm headed back to you, Lord. Empower me.

I can't do it by myself. I need you. Hey, let me give you a secret.

Guess what? I'm with you.

There's things in my life I have to confess and I have to repent from,

and then I have to say, God, help me. I need your help.

I'm just a dude trying to do your will.

We need him to sustain us. We need him to empower us. We need the power of the

Holy Spirit in our lives.

Verse 14, save me from the guilt of bloodshed, God.

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God of my salvation and my tongue will sing of your righteousness because when

you're forgiven, you can't help but praise him.

We don't get up here and sing songs just to be heard.

We get up here to praise him and to worship him because he's worthy,

because he's forgiven us.

Because he brought me from the pit and he gave me a new name and a new identity.

To God be the glory, great things he's done in our lives.

May we never get over that we were forgiven of such great, awful sins. ends.

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David wraps his prayer up, and I'm going to wrap up too.

In verse 16, he says, you do not want a sacrifice, or I would give it.

You're not pleased with a burnt offering.

He's saying, God, you don't want the things that I can do.

It's good to volunteer. It's good to do this. It's good to do this.

But he says the sacrifice that pleases you god is a broken spirit,

you will not despise a broken and humbled heart god and here's what he's saying

to you and here's what he's saying to me god doesn't want your rituals or your

ceremonies or anything that you have that you can offer to him.

All God wants from you is a broken, humble, repentant heart.

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Want to be completely surrendered. We want to be completely,

we just want to be used for your kingdom and your glory.

Forgive us when we think that we can build it or when we can do this or we can do that. We can do this.

We come to you and we fall flat on our face in awe of you that you would love

us, that you would forgive us, that you would empower us, that you would help us.

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Lord, as we move into a time of communion,

Holy Spirit, I pray that you would search our hearts, search our minds,

see if there's any wicked ways in us that we need to confess.

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We pray that you would help us to make those things right.

We don't want to live lives full of empty words we want to live lives that honor you,

and is completely surrendered to you forgive us cleanse us with the blood of

Jesus the perfect lamb that covers and removes and takes away the sin of the world,

we love you Lord in Jesus name Amen,

You've been listening to the Generations Church Podcast. Be sure to check back

next week as Pastor Jeff wraps up our current series, Back to the Basics.

If you'd like more information about Generations Church, feel free to get in

touch with us at info at generationchurch.us or head over to our website.

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