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00:00 Today's passage is taken from Psalm 32 reading from the NIV 2011 version.
00:08 Blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.
00:13 Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord does not count against them and in whose spirit is no deceit. When I keep silent,
00:21 my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your
00:27 hand was heavy on me and my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. Then I
00:34 acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, "I will
00:40 confess my transgressions to the Lord and you forgave the guilt of my sin.
00:46 Therefore, let all the faithful pray to you while you may be found. Surely the
00:52 rising of the mighty waters will not reach them. You are my hiding place. You
00:58 will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance. I
01:04 will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go. I will counsel you
01:09 with my loving eye on you. Do not be like the horse or the mule
01:15 which have no understanding but must be controlled by bit and bridal or they
01:21 will not come to you. Many are the woes of the wicked but the Lord's unfailing
01:26 love surrounds the one who trusts in him. Rejoice in the Lord and be glad
01:32 you're righteous. Sing all you who are upright in heart. This is the word of
01:38 God. Thank you very much. Well, good morning church.
01:46 So, well, we are going to be entering into a season of uh when our preaching
01:52 and our disciplehip programs will focus on intimacy with God. And so, there is
01:59 no better book in the entire Bible than Psalms. Psalms basically are a
02:07 reflection of how a man or a woman interacts with God in the total
02:13 dimension theologically, emotionally, psychologically.
02:18 And we hope that through preaching through this that you will be able to use the Psalms at home uh and use the
02:26 words that express these emotions when you actually pray to the Lord. It is
02:33 hoped that your prayers will be deeper, richer, more repentant and in that way
02:41 transform us together. All right. So that's what we plan to do now. Uh so
02:47 next week I'll be preaching on praying our repentance. After that Joash will be
02:53 doing praying our worship and then praying our depression by Brandon Wong.
02:58 So those who are all depressed must come. We all get depressed at some stage. You put your hands up if you've never been
03:05 depressed, that you're amazing person. All right. So, um to remind you again,
03:10 our gamma group will go deeper into Psalms than what the uh sermons will be portraying. Please, if you're not in the
03:16 disciplehip group, join one either on Zoom or on a physical one on a Thursday.
03:23 Now, Psalms, uh let's pray first. Father Lord, we ask that you you speak to us.
03:30 We're now coming to a season of preaching from the book of Psalms. And our request today as in the next few
03:39 months is we want to grow closer to you. We want to have the words that
03:44 articulate intimacy and love. And often we don't know, we don't even have the vocabulary to do that. And and so
03:52 therefore, we want you, oh Lord, to fill us with your spirit to break down those
03:57 defenses in our hearts so that we can actually
04:03 feel and grow closer in intimacy with you. We ask
04:08 Jesus say amen. So traditionally the Psalms is the prayer book. Baptists
04:15 don't have prayer book. The Anglicans have a prayer book which is very good thing. We should examine that one day. And it's a hymn book of all the people
04:22 of God in worship. They take the basic themes of theology and they turn them to
04:28 song because the songs will evoke emotion. All right? And the emotion will
04:34 translate into our spiritual growth and the way our soul grows as it were. Now
04:39 the first part we're going to be doing is we're going to be dealing with penitential psalms. Psalms of confession
04:45 or repentance and there are about seven of them there if you can take note and and I use them very much in my
04:52 confession all the time. All right. Uh so if you can take note today we're going to be dealing with Psalm 32. Uh
05:01 confession and repentance are basically synonymous. They actually come one after another. They're together. It's very
05:06 hard to break it up. But because we want to focus on this very important aspect of life, I've chosen to divide it
05:14 artificially. And today we just focus on uh on praying our confession and and next week we're going to be praying our
05:20 repentance. Okay? You you can't repent without confessing anyway. All right? So these are the two the plans. Now the
05:27 difference between confession and repentance is very uh simple. Confession
05:33 is driving on a one-way street the wrong way. and you realize alah I'm going the wrong
05:40 way. Repentance is actually realizing you went the wrong way and then turning
05:46 your car around. Some of us realize we're going the wrong way in the oneway
05:52 street, but because there's no policeman, we carry on driving. That means you're confessing, but you're not
05:57 repenting. All right? So, you actually need to have both in your uh uh
06:03 experience. So, confession is admitting you're wrong. It can be words. It can be momentary. And it deals with past
06:10 action. I've done wrong. I've got into the wrong lane. Whilst repentance is actually turning your car away from sin,
06:16 it always produces change ongoing, lifelong, and it shapes future
06:22 direction. So in future, I'm not going to drive in the oneway uh street on the wrong way anymore. So there are three
06:29 points I want to get across from this psalm today. Why should we confess? How
06:35 should we confess? What happens when we confess? Right? So, let's start off now.
06:40 These two psalms back to back Psalm 32 arise from a context. The context is
06:46 David's sin. One day in the spring when the army had gone off to battle David
06:53 was decided not to go. He thought he deserve a break. He was standing on his
06:58 balcony and looking around the whole of Jerusalem and he suddenly spied a
07:04 beautiful young woman who was bathing in public on the rooftop. I don't know why they do that. All right. But somehow he
07:12 caught eye uh of her and summoned her over. They had a illicit sexual affair
07:20 which in those days there's no pill nor condom. So automatically she got child.
07:26 All right. And that kind of evidence is very hard to hide. All right. So what he
07:32 wanted to do is to cover the scandal up. So he called back the husband from war
07:39 and tried to persuade him to have sex with his wife. But he was a very very
07:44 honorable man, Uriah. And he refused to do so because he cannot do these things
07:49 while his men are fighting for their lives. So therefore he refused. No
07:55 evidence there. So he went back and so what David did was he corrupted his army. He told the chief of the army and
08:02 said to him, "Look, uh, you know, big fighting over there. Uh, can you send this chap with his entire platoon at
08:10 that particular stronghold?" And he knew that was such a terrible, it was like a mission impossible kind of thing. And he
08:16 went there and obviously Uriah was killed along with some of his men. All right? So therefore he actually arranged
08:22 the murder. Then nothing happened for about a year and at the end of the year
08:29 the prophet Nathan came up to him and said you know told him a story okay
08:34 there's a man who had many many sheep all right very rich and one day he had a
08:39 visitor coming and then and he wanted to show him a good time so instead of taking one of his sheep to roast he took
08:48 his neighbor sheep. Now the neighbor sheep only go neighbors uh only had one sheep which he loved you know and he fed
08:57 from his hand grew up as a lamb and he took that sheep and killed it and David
09:04 was so upset he got upset wow who is that fellow he should die actually you steal sheep
09:11 you don't die but it was over I mean he got his emotions and Nathan turned around hey that one brother is
09:19 And David was struck with great guilt. He repented and out of that came
09:27 these two psalms. In fact, the psalms, the majority of psalms are actually written by David. It encompassed all
09:36 sorts of emotions, especially during the time he was actually uh um persecuted on
09:42 the run. So David's psalms represent the feelings of a true Israelite to God. So
09:48 we're going to explore this. Now why do we actually confess? One, because
09:54 there's blessing. The blessing is forgiveness. Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is
09:59 covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity.
10:05 How many of you like confessing? Put your hands up.
10:12 I grew up as a Catholic and we have to go at least once a month to the cat the
10:18 c you know the booth they sit down there and then there's some some net so they cannot see your face right and then you
10:25 confess and that's the worst thing a Catholic can do I mean you're afraid you know why because we don't think
10:31 confession is blessing confession is meaning you're wrong how would you like
10:36 each time to come is it the most comfortable joyous this period of your life when you stand before your wife say
10:42 I'm wrong. Every time I'm wrong. You didn't take out the garbage. I'm wrong.
10:48 All right. You You didn't go to your son's uh uh uh birthday party. I'm wrong. Nobody likes that, right? We
10:56 don't think it's a blessing, but Psalm 32 turns it around. You know if you you
11:03 look at this parallel psalm blessed are the poor blessed in spirit blessed are those who mourn blessed whatever here
11:10 you say blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven so when we
11:15 actually come to our spiritual walk with God we come to confession it is a time
11:21 where we will be blessed that's a promise so if you see it at such a naked
11:29 time when all our imperfections and impurities are you know exposed to the
11:34 world and to God and realize what a scumbag we are actually that is when we
11:41 are actually being honest and with that honesty comes blessing all right it's
11:46 transgression sin iniquity NIV doesn't translate the last one well and why does
11:52 he do that because what he's trying to do it's not enough to come to God hey God I s okay bye-bye what he's doing
11:59 he's exploring ing the dimensions of his sin. All right. Now, I remember, let me
12:06 tell you this. One day, I was driving and backing my car out and I thought I
12:12 had hit my neighbor's car, right? So therefore, I quickly drove past, quick
12:19 glance and then drive. Nothing like don't bother that. It says, "Lord, I sin." Okay, it's
12:26 okay. Small bend. I'm going across. I wasn't really sorry. I was I trying to avoid it. If I was really honest, I stop
12:34 my car, get out there, check the paint, point here, there, and then tell him, "Right, then I'm really truly
12:41 confessing." I hardly made a look because it made me feel so bad. I'd been driving for 30
12:48 years and I did a rookie mistake. You see what I mean? So what the psalm does
12:53 is a psalm gives you the language to to explore the comprehensiveness of
13:00 your sin. It's not just didn't take out the garbage, you know, why didn't you take out the garbage, you know, uh was
13:08 it inconsiderate for your wife, lack of love, stubbornness, so many dimensions. So therefore, what
13:14 David does is he he he describes the sin in way many ways, transgression, pesa,
13:20 which means rebellion. That mean your sin, his sin was absolute rebellion against God. Don't say just mistake is
13:27 rebellion. I purposely don't want to take out the garbage.
13:33 You know, I don't like garbage. I don't like the fact you tell me to take the garbage out. I don't want I'm rebelling,
13:38 right? That's what it is, right? The other one is ha missing the mark. That
13:44 means you have the divine standard. God expects this standard whether accident
13:50 or or deliberate doesn't matter. You miss the mark. It's like going for exam. Suppose you get 100 mark you got 99.
13:57 Whatever it is, you miss the mark. The last one is awan. It's a perversion or
14:02 disrespect of God. So therefore, by not doing this, you're actually not honoring
14:09 it, which is his due absolutely due. So therefore, these are the dimensions of
14:15 sin of which he actually articulates, giving us the language when we come before God where we've sinned. Lord, it
14:22 is a rebellion. I've missed the mark and I've disrespected you and I didn't care
14:27 or I didn't give a damn about you. That's the language of our hearts. And
14:33 then rebellion, forgiveness means you lift up
14:39 and you throw away. Right? The Lord gives that hata missing the mark is
14:46 covered out of sight. All right? So this when when Lord you ask you to forgive means he's covering it out of sight.
14:52 That doesn't mean the sin is gone. All right? It's like a document and you redact it. All the black marks that you
14:59 cannot see. Uh and for example this chap the former AG everything covered cannot
15:06 see. Then a new AG come in everything uncovered. I mean but the but the sin is still
15:12 there. All right. So the last one is uh forgiving iniquity. That means it does
15:19 not impute. If there is a condemnation, there's a price to be paid. Instead of debit, it becomes a credit. Very much
15:25 like Abraham and he believed God and God counted to him as righteousness. Which
15:32 means he confessed before God and God counted to him as righteousness. And the same thing applies to us. And Paul says,
15:38 "Blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin." When we come to confession, the Lord does not
15:45 count our sin. I was reading an article uh in CNN
15:50 and this happens in Switzerland. Driver faces up to $110,000 US in fines for
15:57 speeding on a Swiss street. Right? So whenever you go to holiday in Switzerland, don't speed.
16:04 All right? But he said what? He can afford it because he's a millionaire. So
16:10 he'll be driving his Lamborghini, Ferrari all the time. He's not bother because he pay he he can pay the fat
16:17 fine, isn't it? What's the problem? Now you thought this is in Switzerland. You come in Malaysia. So this chap is called
16:24 Adam. It's Adam something ahead of Basatu or one of the and what happens? He was actually caught for 12 corruption
16:32 charges. And then recently the the court acquitted him of money laundering after
16:40 paying a compound. Now why would you pay a compound if you were righteous? So
16:46 which means I can commit the graft as long pay the fine I get off with it. So
16:51 in a sense why do we need confession when Jesus paid for all our sin all our
16:57 compound paid really isn't that on the cross isn't it yesterday tomorrow today
17:02 all my sins are paid for. So why do we have to confess what is this are we just play acting or pretending? Well,
17:10 confession enables us to remain in the truth. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity and whose
17:17 spirit there is no deceit. When we are actually in sin, we're going against the
17:23 truth. This is John. One John brings this sharply to focus. This is the
17:29 message that we've heard from him and proclaimed to you that God is light. In him is no darkness at all. If we say we
17:36 have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and we do not
17:42 practice the truth. So the there's a contradiction in our nature. We're supposed to be totally forgiven, covered
17:49 with the blood of Christ, totally holy and righteous in the Lord's eyes. And yet the ugly truth that we are still
17:56 sinners. And that's a contradiction which we find very very hard to reconcile in every single one of us. uh
18:04 if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the sin is not in us. So
18:10 no Christian can come before the Lord and say we have no sin. We have been forgiven of our sins. There's no
18:16 condemnation but we cannot say we have no sin which is brings us to our re the
18:21 reformation uh uh Martin Luther he says simust which means you're simultaneously
18:28 just by God yet we are still sinners
18:34 says sin cannot condemn us and it has lost much of its power over us but it is
18:39 still present we must imagine that we are completely free of it and that's something we need to Remember sometimes
18:45 you walk around church and you seem to think that some of you are sinless,
18:53 isn't it? And you look upon and the worst thing is worst people on display
18:58 are your elders. You're supposed to be sinless when you become elder, right? And then, oh, he
19:05 said that. Oh, he betrayed. He told a lie. He was so unhelpful.
19:12 He was rude. Wow. You think you got sinless people walking around. The fact
19:17 is leaders in our church are also sinners.
19:22 Hopefully more for confessing all the time, right? But that sin is still there. See what he wants to what John
19:30 wants to get across is everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness. Sin is
19:36 lawlessness. You know that he appeared in order to take away sins and in him there's no sin. No one who abides in him
19:42 keeps on sinning. The issue is someone who is totally under the power of sin and continues to sin. You cannot do
19:49 that. Emperor Constantine was the one with the edict of Milan reversed all persecution
19:57 of Christians and there was a great controversy whether he was a Christian or not. And
20:03 in fact he only got baptized on his deathbed. He knew he was going to
20:08 die early then he got dead. And and many authors have actually speculated. You
20:14 know why? He was not a nice man. He killed his son. He killed his wife
20:20 Hostess. He killed a lot of people. They reckon he wanted to be baptized at the
20:26 end because with baptism comes confession and after that you cannot sin anymore. So he will live this sinful
20:32 life and wait last minute get baptized, confess and all that and after that he doesn't sin anymore. a a
20:38 misunderstanding because you you you're living a life of sin and you just because just before you die you pray it
20:45 all goes away. All right. So we are mis we are we are misconstring the whole
20:51 idea of forgiveness. We have judicial forgiveness. Colossians says you were dead in your trespasses and
20:57 uncircumcision your flesh. God made alive together with him have forgiven us of all our trespasses cancelelling the
21:04 record of debt that stood against us with all his legal demands. This he set aside nailing it to the cross which
21:10 means in God's eyes judicially we are forgiven. But there is a relational
21:16 aspect to the forgiveness where we actually feel guilt when we actually sin. For when I kept silent my bones
21:22 wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy on me and my strength was dried up
21:28 as by the heat of summer. Now here's a misunderstanding of judicial forgiveness and relational forgiveness. Here is a a
21:35 a Christian who pastor who actually runs a Dallas radio program. He says under
21:41 grace we need only to accept the finished work of Christ. We are completely forgiven forgiven of all our
21:46 sins forever. After this there's no sin in the believer. Wow. Nothing we can do
21:51 will ever change the fact. We are secure forever and free in Christ to do whatever we like. Does that sound
21:58 correct? Absolutely. Here, here you actually have
22:04 Mount Si. The people of Israel go there. If you look at Exodus 19 and Hebrews 12,
22:10 thunder, lightning, thick clouds, drought tumb,
22:15 there's a fence. You cannot come near. You you come even a goat comes near the and touches the mountain, it dies. The
22:21 mountains tremble. Moses actually trembled with fear and Isa and they
22:26 said, "Let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and no awe." Why
22:32 is God a big teddy bear? He's an allconsuming fire. Sometimes in our
22:38 worship, we don't consider God an allconsuming fire. We're so blas about it. We think we're in a rock concert.
22:46 And that is totally disrespectful. Here's Isaiah. He sees a vision of God.
22:52 All right. And the foundations of the threshold shook at the voice of him who called and the house was filled smoke.
22:57 And he said, "Woe is me. I am lost. I'm a man of unclean lips. I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. My
23:03 eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts." That is a correct worshipful
23:09 response. And you have the other guy from Dallas says, "Oh, we have forgiven. We can do whatever we want." A direct
23:16 contradiction. So therefore, confession is reconnecting with the truth. If we
23:23 confess our sins, we're not perfect, but we confess our sins, he is faithful and
23:29 just to forgive us of all our sins and cleanse us from all our unrighteousness. So it's reconnecting with the truth.
23:36 It's like driving. After a while, when the rain comes and the dust comes, you
23:41 can't see much, right? And then you need a windshield wiper. And that takes away all the grime and
23:47 the dirt and you get and and dirt and you can actually see properly. And that's what confession does. Confession
23:53 grounds us so that we are no longer blinded by sin. Because if you keep sinning and not confessing it, the sin
24:01 will become a normal course of life. And so what we do when we confess, we are wiping all that to see God more clearly.
24:08 You see, God saves us when we're justified. We accept Jesus as Lord and Savior through the gospel. Our sins
24:15 past, present and future are forgiven and then we are made holy. So when
24:21 confession, what do you do in in in confession is you actually reapply our
24:28 justification by God. So what so therefore you have accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. You repented of your
24:34 sin and you live a repentant lifestyle so that the father's displeasure at your
24:40 sin is continually removed and fellowship is renewed. All right. John
24:47 Piper um gives us a outline of what happens in confession. Confession is you
24:52 agree with God that what you've done is wrong.
24:57 You are ashamed of I mean you agree and then you're not ashamed. I think something wrong and then you turn from
25:03 it which is repentance. Then you embrace and rest in the finished work of Christ
25:08 and then you enjoy the fellowship which he has secured for you. All right. Now, Proverbs say, "Whoever conceals his
25:15 transgression will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy. Blessed is the one who
25:21 fears the Lord always, but whoever hardens his heart will fall back into calamity." Uh author wrote, "The enemy knows what
25:30 that shame grows in the dark. As he tends to our shame, whispering lies into
25:37 the guilt that has fed into the shadows, it grows bigger and bigger and bigger."
25:43 And what this author is saying is that as you refuse to repent,
25:48 the shame that you get from your sin lurks and grows in the dark. it gets
25:54 bigger and bigger and bigger that and and and and the more you don't confess the harder it is for you to confess and
26:02 then it controls your life. So important thing in confession is our relationship with truth. We can deny the truth, we
26:09 can ignore the truth or we can distort the truth. Let me give you a perfect example. I have a great relationship
26:16 with God. I have a great relationship with evangelicals. I like to be good. I
26:22 don't like to have to ask for forgiveness. And I am good.
26:27 I didn't do a lot of things that are bad. I try to do nothing that's bad. I think
26:34 if I do something wrong, I think I just try to make it right. I don't bring God into the picture. I don't.
26:41 This is typical example of denial, ignorance, and distortion. All right?
26:47 You you God has not given us a better example.
26:54 A and it's in his own words. So whoever are proTrump bro, you must be blind not
27:01 to see this. Okay, but I guess don't laugh at him. Many of us are the same.
27:09 We only hide it better than him. We never go on CNN and say all those things. We hide it at the back. But in
27:15 real life, we deny. We're purposely ignorant like me driving away from the car and we distort the truth and that is
27:23 a danger to our lives. We confess because we get relief from the pain of
27:28 guilt. For when I kept silent my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was
27:34 heavy on me. Your my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. So
27:40 descriptive of the guilt that we feel, isn't it? Right. Look at Psalm 38 by
27:45 David. He says, "For my iniquities have gone over my head like a heavy burden. They're too heavy for my for me. My
27:51 wounds stink and fester because of my foolishness. I'm utterly bowed down and prostrate. All day long I go about
27:58 mourning. From my sides uh are filled with burning and there's no soundness. My flesh I'm feeble and crushed. I groan
28:05 because of the atmal of my heart." So when you actually have a prayer confession, use Psalm 38 because it
28:13 expresses it describes in graphic detail how we feel. Psalms give us those words.
28:21 So what I usually do when I'm uh repenting, I just take the psalm. There are six pen seven penitential psalms and
28:26 and and mouth these words because David's experience is my experience,
28:32 right? And then you move towards the truth. So we have guilt. Very easy. You can see her face, right? In fact, they
28:38 did a study uh that looked at various people who were carry different loads
28:44 and they found that those who car carry a heavier load experience a higher level
28:49 of guilt. And someone tried to get rid of this guilt by apologizing.
28:54 And the favorite trick is you apologize halfway. Means partially I'm sorry if I
29:00 caused you some trouble. Actually, I wasn't wrong. And and studies have shown that if you actually seek redemption by
29:07 partially admitting the the the big lies, you actually feel worse. You might
29:12 as confess all because psychologists tell you if you actually partially confess, you will actually feel worse
29:17 than you fully confess. All right? Uh Catholics, let's get back to Catholics
29:23 because I grew up as a Catholic. Catholics have a different view. Catholics go to confession because in
29:30 confession it is a sacrament that restores grace which means if you have a
29:35 mortal sin which is defined as a sin which you did intentionally knowingly right and then you got venial
29:42 sins you accidentally do if it's an intentional sin and you died before you
29:48 confess you will not be saved so therefore if you were in air India a
29:54 couple of months ago what happens is that just before the plane comes out, you must clear the decks and quickly
29:59 confess because if you don't, those sins will kill you eternally. And if you
30:06 actually have that kind of theology, it actually undermines the beauty and the magnificence and the gravity of the
30:12 cross. Uh and and you makes the average Christian so fearful that maybe there's
30:19 one sin I forgot. Gone. Finish hell forever. And that's very sad.
30:26 So for by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. So why is it hard to
30:33 confess? I I've mentioned before and I will keep mentioning again because when we identify our sin, our self-esteem and
30:41 our identity are linked up with our sin. What you did is who you are. That is the
30:50 problem. So because you did that, if you lie, you're a liar. All right? If you have looked at
30:58 a woman with impure thoughts, you're an adulterer. Did you realize that Jesus
31:03 said that? So you walk around with a big label on your head, adulterer, then you
31:08 see the adulter, you walk away. All the women run away. All right? That's what happens because we're tied there, right?
31:17 So we refuse to repent because it diminishes our self-esteem and selfworth and it compels change. You know why you
31:23 wanted to repent? Because we don't want to change. That's another aspect. And so confession is actually evidence of
31:30 repentance. If you confess means you've repented as it were, right? So what happens is that
31:35 you you focus on God's steadfast love, Christ love and work on the cross. And
31:41 there is your self-esteem. There is your identity. what he did is who you really
31:46 are and then you begin to hate your sin and reject your sin which you you change
31:52 position you move from yourself being a fortress defending yourself and to join God and attacking your sin as it were
31:59 right so that's why we should confess now how should we confess well a story
32:06 was told u of a young woman who went to the priest and he says father bless me
32:11 for I have sinned then the father said what is your sin I've committed the sin of vanity. Every
32:16 day I look at myself in the mirror and tell God how beautiful I am. Then the priests look through the stained, you
32:24 know, the mesh and see, oh, good news for you, my daughter. You have not sinned. You've made a mistake.
32:33 That was a joke. Okay. No, no expressions on anybody. I
32:38 couldn't I couldn't resist that one because I go to confession all the time.
32:43 when I was young and very terrible situation. Anyway, so first take full
32:49 responsibility of your sin. I acknowledge my sin to you. I didn't cover it up. I said I will
32:56 confess my transgressions to the Lord. Okay? And you forgave me. A lot of
33:03 people in the world, they never confess. Jaime Diamond, JP Morgan, uh mistakes were made. Didn't say who's who made the
33:10 mistake, right? Mistakes were made. Uh what about Samuel uh with King Saul?
33:15 They were supposed to to attack the Amalites, destroy them, man, woman, child, even
33:21 the goats. Everything done offered to the Lord. And then Samuel came to Saul and Saul said to him, "Blessed be to
33:28 you, the Lord. I perform the commandment of the Lord." The Lord was very specific. Everything goes. He said to
33:34 Samuel, "I've done everything." Then then Samuel said, "Oh, oh, I heard
33:40 how come moo moo moo all the cows and you know the stuff they're supposed to have killed." He didn't. And you know
33:47 what Saul said? Saul said, "Oh, they bought them from the
33:52 people spared the best of the sheep and oxen to sacrifice to the Lord your God, your God. And the rest we have devoted
33:59 to destruction." So he blames what? The people. The people did it. I'm the king
34:04 only. I have no power to do anything. Right? And then uh and then Samuel
34:09 answers, "Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and
34:14 sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice and listen than the fat of
34:20 lambs." So the fact is you didn't obey. You tried to cover up by saying other
34:26 people did it and they sacrificed. It was a good intent, but you didn't obey.
34:31 And Sal said, Saul said to Samuel, "I've sinned. I have transgressed the commandments, Lord, and your words
34:38 because I feared the people and obeyed their voice." So what is he doing here?
34:44 He sinned. Yes, he finally agreed he sinned, but it's a partial confession because he blamed the people. I was
34:49 afraid of the people and I obeyed their voice. Here, you know how stupid this is? The king telling me I obey the
34:56 people. You think about elections in those days. He looked at the poll and the poll said, you know, he didn't look
35:02 at the poll. He was king. And for him to tell Samuel, I obeyed their voice. It's
35:07 a little bit disingenuous to say the least. What about this chap? The woman
35:13 whom you gave me to be with me. She gave me the fruit of the tree and I m
35:19 all I did was m wife gave me I see again excuses, right? A proper one
35:29 is Oscar Ptorius, a famous South African gentleman who had blindly shot his
35:34 girlfriend or wife uh in the in the bathroom. Uh and he apologized to her
35:39 mother and he said these words, "I beg your pardon, my lady. I'll speak
35:44 up. I'd like to apologize and say there's not been a moment and there has not been a moment since the tragedy
35:50 happened that I haven't thought about your family. I wake up every morning and you're the first people I think of, the
35:55 first people I pray for. I can't imagine the pain and the sorrow and the emptiness that I have caused you and
36:01 your family. That is a confession because he's
36:07 exploring the contours of that sin and the pain it has actually caused and is
36:12 truly actually sorry. So when we come to the Lord just like David I confess I
36:19 know it's heinous it's a rebellion. I can't imagine how a God who created me
36:25 so wonderfully made that I turn against you and you and you alone. That's what
36:31 confession is. The second thing that it changes our perspective on the effect of
36:37 sin. I acknowledge my sin and I didn't cover it up. It's something horrible and heinous. I will confess my
36:44 transgression. Right? The word confess in Greek is homologous
36:50 to say the same thing to be of the same mind. Which mean you look at your sin the way God looks at it. You no longer
36:58 look at your sin the way you look at it to try to downplay it. You look at it at the way God sees about it. You feel
37:06 about it the same way God feels about it. All right. So I acknowledge my sin
37:11 before you. I did not cover my ini uh my iniquity is my sin. Isn't it? my iniquity, my transgressions, and you
37:18 forgave my sin. Here's Justin Timberlake. Uh, listen, I know it's been a rough week for everyone. He said,
37:24 "What occurred was unintentional, completely regrettable. I apologize if
37:30 you guys were offended." Doesn't say anything wrong about about what he had done wrong. It's just that if you're
37:36 offended, legacy, I say sorry about that. All right. So, that's not taking responsibility. Third thing is that you
37:43 need to distinguish between grief and self-pity. I will instruct you and teach
37:48 you in the way you should go. I will counsel you with my eye upon you. Be not like a horse or mule without
37:54 understanding which will be which will be curbed with bit and bridal or it will not stay with you. There's a difference
38:01 between grief from confession of your sin and self-pity. Let me give you an
38:07 example. During the days of Exodus, there was a plague of locust
38:13 covered the whole land of Egypt because the Pharaoh would not let his people go and everything was they had famine and
38:20 Pharaoh hastily called Moses and Aaron and said, "I've I've sinned against the Lord your God and against you. Now
38:26 therefore, forgive my sin. Please only this once plead with the Lord your God only to remove this death from me." So
38:33 basically what he wanted was just to remove the death. All right, this terrible locust plague. So the Lord
38:40 turned the wind into a very strong west wind which lifted the locust and drove them to the Red Sea. Not a single locust
38:47 was left in all the country of Egypt. The Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart and did not let the people go. You see,
38:55 grief about your suffering and grief about sinning against God are two
39:02 separate things. People often change because they reaping the harvest of their sin. So let's say you cheated your
39:11 partner in a law firm. There's a big lawsuit. You lost. You got very upset.
39:17 You had to pay him $5 million. And your grief is the fact that you lost your $5 million,
39:23 right? The grief is not because you did the wrong and you cheated him. There is
39:29 a difference. One will produce lasting change, one will not. Because as soon as
39:34 the lawsuit is lifted, somebody else paid the fine for you. Oh, I'm back to the same old behavior again. You need to
39:42 distinguish in your heart whether it's confession because of true grief or
39:47 because of self-pity. So we look at Saul. I've sinned against I've sinned
39:55 yet honor me now. So you know his sin instead of being very repentant and
40:00 ashamed honor me now before the elders of my people before Israel and return
40:05 with me that I may bow before the Lord your God. You remember what he's saying he's always say your God you know he's
40:12 never saying my God you know he never fails to say it is your God and all he
40:18 wants is forgiveness so that I can stand with all the elders with the prophet
40:23 before God. See all he he's basically embarrassed. He's a king and he's messed
40:30 up. And because he's messed up, he will his his his stature in front of people will drop. And all he wants to do is
40:36 restore that honor, restore that stature. The moment that's done, he's going to forget about God.
40:43 That is the issue. And that that that comes into so many of the marital strives we have. You say the wife giving
40:49 the husband final ultimator. One more time, you didn't take out garbage, I leave you.
40:55 Yeah, six months later on he was six months very good. After that, she's talking she won't leave. Then back to
41:01 the same old habits. Okay. Right. So that is the difference. Self-pity and
41:08 actually grief. Fourthly, we need to change our hiding place. You are a
41:13 hiding place for me. You preserve me from trouble. You surround me with shouts of deliverance. So God is now a
41:20 hiding place. The the problem is that when you sin, we hide from God. It's
41:27 counterintuitive. The one you sin against, you of course run away, right? So like for example, your wife, you're
41:34 supposed to pick up the kids, right? And you forgot you're playing majong.
41:40 So when you see her, do you run to her or run from her? Of course, you run from
41:45 her. I mean, you are the one forgot. You see, and and this is the most counterintuitive thing that I find in my
41:52 own life. If you sin against God, I often take a long time to confess because I'm trying to be a good boy,
42:01 you know, give more tithing, do more help to people, then maybe I come before God, I got face to show. Otherwise, I
42:07 have no face to show. It is totally counterintuitive to run towards the one you sinned against, right? But yet
42:15 God is a loving faithful God characterized by cassette faithful love
42:21 that where the trick to defeating sin is to run towards him and the one that
42:28 helps you run away is Satan because Revelation says he's the accuser. Satan
42:33 the word Satan is not satan is is accuser of the brethren. Day and night
42:41 accuses you before our God. He says, "Oh, you you did that. You lied. You
42:47 cheated. You Christian, how many years? 500 years." And you're still doing the same old thing again. Every time you
42:52 sin, the the first thing that Satan says again. You want to ask for forgiveness again? That's the number one. And so
42:59 therefore, if it's again, well, I've got to make sure that I've sufficiently changed before I married coming to God
43:07 and asking for forgiveness for the same sin. You see what I mean? And that goes in your brain as if the next time it
43:14 should be better. But if it's not, then you cannot go to God. That's how he accuses you. John Newton, horrible slave
43:21 trader. It's untold the kind of misery that he inflicted on the Africans. Came before
43:28 the Lord and wrote this hymn. Besides Amazing Grace, bowed be down beneath a
43:34 load of sin. by Satan sorely pressed. By war without and fierce within, I came to
43:40 thee for rest. Be thou my shield, my hiding place, that sheltered by my side,
43:47 I may my fierce accuser face and tell him, "Thou has died."
43:54 So when you confess, you learn to run towards him because he is your hiding
44:00 place. Some of us turn the act of confession into a way of earning forgiveness. We we
44:07 feel really sorry. I feel really bad. I'm weeping. Tear your hair. Uh tear your clothes. I
44:14 I have my ex driver do carry kavadi. Some of us do the equivalent of that.
44:21 Why do they carry kavadi? Because they're trying to atone for their sin, pay for their sin. If you go to Catholic
44:29 confession, uh the the priest has a power to forgive you, but you've got to
44:34 pay penance. Five Hail Marys, 10 our father. You say all those things,
44:40 then God will forgive you. Which means praying to God is such a horrible thing
44:46 that I'm punished with it. And for a long time in my life, I felt praying to God was a real chore. And his
44:53 punishment metered out. And I did it because show face to God. Say the five Hail Mary, five lur father, then I'm
45:00 forgiven. Which is a total distortion of the truth that the truth is I run to my
45:06 Lord Jesus Christ at his side is all my sin and they all forgiven in him. George
45:12 Whitfield says my repentance needs to be repented of. You see Judas is a typical
45:19 example. He betrayed Jesus. Then he went to all the high priests who
45:24 gave him the 30 pieces of sh silver. And they says, "I've sinned by betraying innocent blood." They said, "What is
45:31 that to do? Not my business. You go and count him yourself." That's exactly what they said. So how did he count himself?
45:37 After throwing down the pieces silver into the temple, he departed and hanged himself. So why did he throw the 30
45:43 pieces of silver? Because he realized he was wrong. and the that that gain that un that the
45:52 that ungodly gain he gave up and he gave up his life.
45:57 What a tragic mistake because he should have run to Jesus and Jesus would have
46:03 given him forgiveness even for that sin. Lastly, what happens when we confess?
46:18 Many are the sorrows of the wicked, but steadfast love
46:24 surrounds the one who trusts in the Lord. Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice,
46:31 oh righteous, and shout for joy, all you who are upright in heart.
46:38 So when we come and run before the Lord, what happens? It is God's steadfast love
46:45 for you who trust him. You know, if you look back in your life,
46:52 you may have been a Christian 10 years, 20 years, 30, 40 years. The God who
46:57 actually took you in. The God who actually sent his son to die for you.
47:04 Do you know that when the moment he forgave you of your sins when you were 17, when you were 30, when you accepted
47:10 Christ is the same God that is here today and tomorrow. The
47:17 forgiveness is the same. Why? Because this God doesn't change. The most beautiful thing about God is his
47:23 steadfast love. He will never let you go. And it surrounds you who trust. Who
47:31 are the one who trust the Lord? the ones who confess. If you confess before the
47:36 Lord, it basically you're applying your justification again. You are righteous.
47:41 And so therefore, when you confess, you should shout with joy. You upright our heart. And so we have a sanctification
47:48 cycle. We've got peace and joy. And then we sin. We mess up. Then we have loss of
47:55 peace and joy. We confess. God forgives us. And then we got peace and joy. And
48:01 it goes round and around and round. And this is called our engine of growth. For
48:08 the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant. But later, it
48:14 yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. That's what Hebrews says.
48:21 You see, as I plum the depths of my sin and see how serious it is, that the
48:28 height of his love is magnified. Here you have the arrows going in different directions. Whether you're a Christian
48:34 of one year and you're Christian of 20 years, the only difference you will see
48:39 is that at 20 years, you will know how terrible your sins are. When I first become a Christian, my sins were very
48:45 tiny. But as I know how terrible my sins are, I can see how magnificent his love
48:51 and grace to me is. And that produces faith, confidence, joy, and holiness. We
48:59 reconnect with God again. So confession is the way you reconnect with him. So I
49:06 want you to meditate on this psalm as you go home. Search me, oh God, and know my heart.
49:16 Try me and know my thoughts and see if there's any grievous way in me and lead
49:23 me in the way everlasting. In the choir now lead you in a song that expresses
49:31 what we want. We want the Lord to change our hearts. Father Lord, we come before you
49:39 a broken people. There is none righteous here. We have
49:44 all sinned, but we come this day to reconnect with you. To confess our sin
49:52 before you the way we have rebelled, the way we missed the mark, the way we've
49:58 disrespected, the way we've lived our lives,
50:03 we confess them because we want to reconnect with the truth. And father Lord, this day we come before you
50:11 because of our Lord Jesus Christ who stands by your side this day and who
50:17 demands justice for us. The justice is that he has paid for our sin and we are
50:23 now clothed with the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Restore us with joy,
50:29 fulfillment, and peace that we may walk tall with our heads risen high. Not
50:35 because of what we've done or not done, but because of what you have done. We pray that you become more precious to us
50:41 each day as we confess to you each day. We ask for Jesus' sake. Amen. May you be
50:49 seated. We'll have the benediction.
50:54 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching, admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms
51:01 and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do in word and deed, do
51:08 everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Now God's people said,
51:14 "Amen." God bless you. For some of us who would like to have the elders pray for you or leaders pray for you, just
51:20 come forward.
