Confession
By Chap Bettis

Over the past several weeks we have examined the basics of temptation.

· We saw that we should expect temptation.

· We can resist temptation using the power of Scripture and the Holy Spirit and other doors of escape that God provides.

But what happens when we don’t resist temptation.

· There will be times that we will not take that door of escape.

· The cross has saved us from the penalty of sin and from the power of sin but not from the presence of sin.

· What are we to do?

Really we only have two choices, conceal, deny and cover up our sin or confess it.

Proverbs 28:13-14, 1 John 1:8-9

· 13 He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy.

· 14 Blessed is the man who always fears the LORD, but he who hardens his heart falls into trouble.

· 1 John 1:8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

Let’s look at guidance from God’s word on how to handle

First, if you harden your heart, you will fall into trouble.

· he who hardens his heart falls into trouble.

· Stated another way, let me plead with you - Don’t let harden your heart to God or sin or to other people.

· God’s word says, Today if you hear God’s voice, don’t harden your heart.

I am told that certain foods are bad for your arteries. Unfortunately the problem is that those foods taste soooo good.

· For example, my grandmother used to cook with bacon fat. She would cook bacon for breakfast and then save the grease. And when she went to cook some vegetables, she would slap some of that grease into the pot.

· But what scientists have told us is that all that fat gets into our system and starts building up on the side of the arteries and veins. And as the arteries and veins become more clogged, less flexible, we run the risk of dying.

· Likewise in the Xian realm, as we run the risk of hardening our attitudes.

The Bible continually warns of the danger of a hard heart.

· The reason unbelievers cannot understand the gospel is because their hearts are hardened to the things of God. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. (Eph 4:18)

· You can be religious and have a hard heart. Mark 3:5 Jesus became angry at the Pharisees because of their hardened heart.

· You can be a believer and be in danger.

o If you hear his voice don’t harden your heart as you did in the rebellion. Heb 3:8

o Encourage one another daily so that none of you will be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. Heb 3:13

God promised that when we come to him, he takes our heart of stone and turns it into a heart of flesh. But like a sponge, that heart of flesh can become dried out over time.

· That’s the root meaning of the word for hard. To become dried out.

· We even use the words of dryness. “I am going through a dry time in my walk with the Lord.”

· We are saying the pipeline that connects us to God has become clogged,

· or stated another way the sponge of my heart is drying out.

Fear a hard heart. Know that if you harden your heart or allow it to become hard you will fall into trouble.

Your heart will grow hard if you conceal your sin. Don’t conceal your sin.

· Proverbs 28:13 He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy.

· The natural human tendency is to conceal our sin.

o To withdraw. Moses covered up his murder,

o Achan covered up his covetousness,

o David covered up his sin with Bathsheba

· Psalm 32:3 When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and hight your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. Then I acknowledged by sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord” – and you forgave the guilt of my sin.

· 7 years ago, David Hornoff was convicted for the murder of Victoria Cushman. He proclaimed his innocence all along but the lies he told along the way convinced the jury he was guilty. As far as the police were concerned, the case was closed. 13 years ago, Todd Barry stepped forward to confess to the murder. Why? He was home free.

· Todd Barry began his own business, Barry Construction; his wife gave birth to their second child, a daughter; a real-estate boom gave him a tidy profit when he sold his Pawtucket house and bought another in Cranston. By fall 2002, Todd was having serious mental problems. Since breaking into carpentry a few years out of North Kingstown High School, he had felt self-assured, handy, competent. Now completing even simple tasks was difficult, a chore. He felt "edgy."

· He chalked it up to stress; he stopped working to see if that would lighten his load. That backfired. Out of work, he could not sleep. A doctor prescribed sleeping pills; they did not work.

· At first he didn't know what was rising from the depths of his mind. He felt something coming out his subconscious about "how awful I felt."

· In a video-taped confession to the state police, Todd says: "Listen, 13 years, 13 years. There's a lot of things going on in 13 years that you don't remember, that you've put back into different corners of your mind, and then you have a breakdown, and you haven't slept in two-and-a-half weeks almost."

· Then on a Saturday morning he suddenly knew what haunted him: He had killed Vickie Cushman. "And then the whole thing comes -- it's coming crashing down that I've been hiding all these years and this guy's in jail and there's no way I can have this guy in jail with me outside. No way. No how."

· Although this is an extreme example, there is a principle here. How much restlessness do we have in our hearts because of concealed sin? How much do we miss God’s blessing because of concealed sin?

But then the question arises, how do I keep a tender heart?

You keep a tender heart by being sensitive to the Holy Spirit and his prompting of your sin.

· Gal 5:16 So I say, live by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

· Romans 8:13-14 –If you live according to the sinful nature you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

· The Holy Spirit’s leading will show you your sin.

· We want the Holy Spirit to lead us concerning different decisions and He will. But the Holy Spirit’s primary leadings is to specific sin. because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. After all he is the Holy Spirit. Get it. The Holy Spirit.

· A quotation from Oswald Chambers is helpful here.

o When I get into the presence of God, I do not realize that I am a sinner in an indefinite sense; I realize the concentration of sin in a particular feature of my life. A man will say easily - 'Oh, yes, I know I am a sinner'; but when he gets into the presence of God he cannot get off with that statement. The conviction is concentrated on - I am this, or that, or the other. This is always the sign that a man or woman is in the presence of God. There is never any vague sense of sin, but the concentration of sin in some personal particular. God begins by convicting us of the one thing fixed on in the mind that is prompted by His Spirit; if we will yield to His conviction on that point, He will lead us down to the great disposition of sin underneath. That is the way God always deals with us when we are consciously in His presence.

o This experience of the concentration of sin is true in the greatest and the least of saints as well as in the greatest and the least of sinners. When a man is on the first rung of the ladder of experience, he may say - I do not know where I have gone wrong; but the Spirit of God will point out some particular definite thing. The effect of the vision of the holiness of the Lord on Isaiah was to bring home to him that he was a man of unclean lips. "And he laid it upon my mouth, and said Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged." The cleansing fire had to be applied where the sin had been concentrated. (July 3rd)

o Thomas Watson said the same thing, “A child of God will confess sin in particular, an unsound Christian will confess sin by wholesale – he will acknowledge that he is a sinner in general.

We do this several ways

1. Listen to the Spirit through our conscience.

Keep a clear conscience.

The way you do this is to pray, “Lord show me my sin.”

· Keeping short accounts with God. Keep the pipeline flowing. Keep the heart soft by the water of the Holy Spirit.

· Asking yourself, “Is there anything bothering my conscience?”

· Our conscience is not perfect.

· But it is the organ by which the Holy Spirit leads us.

· Those who ignore their conscience will eventually harden their hearts.

· How do I differentiate the voice of the Sprit and the voice of demonic beings?

· The Holy Spirit will convict you to bring you back to God.

· Demonic forces will condemn you to weigh you down.

2. Listen to the Spirit through the Word – not in general but in particular.

3. Listen to the Spirit through others.

Story of Billy Graham interview and TV lights showing up dirt. (Morgan, under “Confession of sin”)

If you have any questions, comments or observations, please call Chapman Bettis at 401 727-2367 or John Riley at 401-453-5550 or email at johnr@cornerstoneri.com