A GREAT BIG PRAYER, Part 2

A Great Big Confession

Nehemiah 1:6-7 "let Thine ear now be attentive and Thine eyes open to hear the prayer of Thy servant which I am praying before Thee now, day and night, on behalf of the sons of Israel Thy servants, confessing the sins of the sons of Israel which we have sinned against Thee; I and my father's house have sinned. "We have acted very corruptly against Thee and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the ordinances which Thou didst command Thy servant Moses."

There have been some great revivals throughout history. And in those revivals you will always find one thing--confession. Nehemiah is praying for revival, but he knows that that won’t happen apart from a confession of sin. Nehemiah confessed to God the sins of the people. We should note some important characteristics of Nehemiah’s confession.

The term translated "confess" (KJV) or "confessing" (NASB) is a particular Hebrew term which means "to confess, praise, give thanks." The term is sometimes translated "confess," but is frequently translated "praise" or "give thanks." Let me read Vine’s dictionary explanation regarding this term, "An affirmation or confession of God’s undeserved kindness throws man’s unworthiness into sharp relief. Hence, a confession of sin may be articulated in the same breath as a confession of faith or praise and thanksgiving. The confession is not a moralistic, autobiographical catalog of sins--individual infractions of a legal code--but a confession of the underlying sinfulness that engulfs all mankind and separates us from the holy God."
Hold on to that thought and apply it to the most memorized of all verses related to confession of sin, 1 John 1:9. Consider the context of this verse. 1 John 1:5 says, "God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all." And then 1 John 1:8 continues, "If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us." Then 1 John 1:9 speaks to us with this promise, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Confession then is first a realization that God is holy and without sin. It understands and appreciates that in the flesh we still have a sin problem in which we fail to measure up to God’s standard of holiness. Confession is to be an ongoing activity in the life of the believer as we gaze upon the holiness of God, and deal with the reality of our ongoing sin problem. The word translated "confessi" in 1 John 1:9 means "to say the same thing," and that is what we are doing when we confess our sins, we are agreeing with God that He is holy, that we are sinful, and that there is a need for His cleansing, His transforming influence, His victory imparted to us, that we might put off sin and put on His holiness.

Nehemiah’s confession was based on two tragic realities. The first: "We have acted very corruptly against You." The term translated "very corruptly" is a term that means "to ruin, destroy, or spoil," it is translated "offend" in Job 34:31. In other words what Nehemiah was confessing was that they had offended God inasmuch as they had degraded His holy covenant and the laws which were apart of it by their disobedience. In one sense the believer in Christ is a changed man--he has been born again, he is a new creature in Christ, he is freed from sin (Romans 6). That does not mean, however, that he is without sin. There is still the flesh and as long as we remain in these earthly bodies we deal with sin (Cf. Romans 7). There will always be a need for confession of sin, because as long as we are apart from Christ here on earth we will deal with it. In fact, the more we grow in holiness, the more we realize the disparity that exists between ourselves and our holy creator God.

The second: "(We) have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the ordinances which You commanded Your servant Moses." Their offense against God, their corruption, was made evident in their disobedience. They had not kept any of the law. They had utterly failed in all respects. Nehemiah openly confessed to God the failure of His people, His father’s house, Himself in failing to uphold the covenant.

I was talking to a man the other day who didn’t see himself as a sinner. So I went through some of the ten commandments and explained how we have all failed to measure up to God’s holy standard. He was still unphased, so I told him that he had the wrong standard of measurement when it came to sin. The standard is not everyone else--when we use that standard we can always find some other poor soul who we think is worse off that we are--the standard is God, the standard is Christ (perfect in righteousness, perfect in love). We all fall short of Christ’s attitudes and actions. Consider one verse, "Let no unwholesome word proceed out of your mouth": who amongst us perfectly fulfills that command in a day, or in an hour. We are to be "overflowing with gratitude": oops failed again! "Do all things without grumbling and disputing." Missed the mark on that one too!"

In his book on prayer, Andrew Murray catalogs some of the kinds of sins that we need to confess:

We must confess and acknowledge the working of pride in us.
We must confess the breaking out in anger.
We must confess our love of the world.
We must confess our sensuality.
We must confess our worry and impatience, our grumbling and lack of contentment.
We must confess our lack of love for the brethren and how we have failed to show love towards our family, neighbors, and friends.
We must confess our sins of the tongue.
We must confess our spiritual laziness.

Notice in the confession of sin that Nehemiah didn’t give any excuses. He did not try to explain it away. He did not rationalize it. He did not blame anyone else. He simply acknowledged to God the utter failure of His people to do what it was that God commanded them to do. D. L. Moody once visited a prison called "The Tombs" to preach to the inmates. After he had finished speaking, Moody talked with a number of men in their cells. He asked each prisoner this question, "What brought you here?" Again and again he received replies like this: "I don’t deserve to be here." "I was framed." "I was falsely accused." "I was given an unfair trial." Not one inmate would admit he was guilty. Finally, Moody found a man with his face buried in his hands, weeping. "And what’s wrong, my friend?" he inquired. The prisoner responded, "My sins are more than I can bear." Relieved to find at least one man who would recognize his guilt and his need of forgiveness, the evangelist exclaimed, "Thank God for that!" Moody then had the joy of pointing him to a saving knowledge of Christ—a knowledge that released him from his shackles of sin."

Confession opens the door through which God can pour forth His grace and mercy. Nehemiah confessed his sin and the sin of his people, God answered his prayer. Later in this book we will read of a great public confession that will take all of chapter nine. But Nehemiah’s confession came first. Psalm 32:3, "When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away." Psalm 32:5, "I acknowledged my sin to You, And my iniquity I did not hide; I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the Lord;" and You forgave the guilt of my sin."

Pastor Jerry