Lev 5:5, 'So it shall be when he becomes guilty in one of these, that he shall confess that in which he has sinned. 
This morning, we continue with our deliberation on the fact that we do have to come into agreement with God that we need His working salvation in our lives. That is what it means to confess after all. It is to agree with God that we are sinners who have transgressed God’s holiness and will suffer the eternal and just and righteous consequences of that sin if we do not receive God’s forgiveness. We agree with Him that there is both an eternal penalty and daily costs that we must bear if He does not change us by His power and His grace and His love and His mercy. 
Without Him as both Savior and Lord, we are doomed. That is the core reality of why it is imperative to come unto Him and to admit that we have sinned vilely against Him, and Him only. This we must do with all humility and reverence in awe that He would even want us in His presence. 
The main point that we want to emphasize over and over again, is that we must come to God with a clear picture of who we are apart from Him. If we think that we can save ourselves in any way, we are futilely deceived. If we hope to bargain with Him or in any measure try to earn our salvation, we are foolish and impudent. As long as we think that we can do something to save ourselves, we are practicing the deceit of arrogance with which we have been duped. We will find ourselves wracked with guilt and shame and struggling to eek out something that will make us think that everything is OK.
When we truly look at what this world is offering, with its promises that our good deeds only have to offset our bad ones in order for us to end up on the positive side of the ledger, we will find ourselves abjectly humiliated by the fact that we could be so tricked and gullible. Sin is sin, whether it is small or large and God cannot accept any sin. It cannot be in the presence of the Most Holy Lord God. It will be absolutely and utterly consumed by the perfect righteousness of the One True and Living Lord God Almighty. To think anything else is unreserved and unqualified lunacy. 
The Apostle Paul, in Rom 3:21-26, points out this fact for each of us to face head on. There is no way that anyone can be OK on their own. All have sinned and all are lost apart from Jesus Christ. Thank God that He has made the way of salvation through His Only Begotten Son. Without the grace of God, none of us would have any hope for anything other than the rightful punishment that we truly deserve. 
Rom 3:21-26, But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. 
We must come to God without any thoughts of earning or bargaining or thinking that we can connive or argue our way into eternal life. There is only one way and that is by the provision which God Alone has made for any who will call upon and believe in His Only Begotten Son. In order to do that, we need to know that we are in need of Him to save us and to change us.
As we are told in Prov 28:13, those who will come to God with confession in their hearts to the point of wanting to change will find compassion. But those who try to hide the fact of who they are apart from Jesus Christ will never find a way out of their horrid situation. Prov 28:13, He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, But he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion. 
Unlike what many of us think in our hearts, we cannot hide our sins and trespasses from God. He is Omniscient and He knows us better than even we know ourselves. That is why He works and works to bring us to the point that we recognize that which is inherently part of us under our old nature. He makes it abundantly clear that we need Him. That is when we humble ourselves and seek Him to do all that is necessary to deal with our old nature and instill a brand new nature within us, the life of Jesus Christ.
In line with the agreement with God that something needs to change in our lives comes the desire to forsake our sin and to please God for the fact of His so great salvation. 
This is not a matter of doing good things in order to be saved. It is, as Brother James tells us in James 2:26, by the fact of our faith in Christ that our works are effective and reflective of who we now are. James 2:26, For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead. It is not a matter that we are saved by our works, but that because we are saved, because we are filled with the faith that is the gift of God, so will our deeds and our attitudes and our behaviors and our desires now show forth the new life of Christ in us. We will want to forsake those things that we confess as having no place in our lives and do only those things which please God.
The Prophet Jeremiah, in Jer 3:12-15, if you would please open to it in your Bibles, declares this to the nation of Israel. Jer 3:12-15, "Go, and proclaim these words toward the north and say, 'Return, faithless Israel,' declares the Lord; 'I will not look upon you in anger. For I am gracious,' declares the Lord; 'I will not be angry forever. 'Only acknowledge your iniquity, That you have transgressed against the Lord your God And have scattered your favors to the strangers under every green tree, And you have not obeyed My voice,' declares the Lord. 'Return, O faithless sons,' declares the Lord;' For I am a master to you, And I will take you one from a city and two from a family, And I will bring you to Zion.' "Then I will give you shepherds after My own heart, who will feed you on knowledge and understanding. 
	Notice how all Scripture shows forth the truth that God was making the way for His people to find Him if they would …'Only acknowledge your iniquity, That you have transgressed against the Lord your God And have scattered your favors to the strangers under every green tree, And you have not obeyed My voice,' declares the Lord. The salvation that was open to the Old Testament patriarchs was based on looking forward to the Christ to come. They, too, were asking God to save them based on the recognition that they needed the Messiah, a Savior far beyond the scope of their own understanding. The sacrifices and the oaths and the rituals indicated and were symbolic of the need to count on God to be their Lord and their Savior.
	The prophet Daniel acknowledged this in Dan 9:3-11, as he gave homage to God and made confession for himself and for the people as they were in captivity. He knew that the Lord was being righteous in His dealings with them because they had sinned and sinned grievously before the Lord God of Heaven and Earth. 
Please follow along with me in reading this passage as Daniel details all that the nation had done in their sinfulness and iniquity before God. Dan 9:3-11, So I gave my attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes. And I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed and said, "Alas, O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and lovingkindness for those who love Him and keep His commandments, we have sinned, committed iniquity, acted wickedly, and rebelled, even turning aside from Thy commandments and ordinances. "Moreover, we have not listened to Thy servants the prophets, who spoke in Thy name to our kings, our princes, our fathers, and all the people of the land. "Righteousness belongs to Thee, O Lord, but to us open shame, as it is this day — to the men of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and all Israel, those who are nearby and those who are far away in all the countries to which Thou hast driven them, because of their unfaithful deeds which they have committed against Thee. "Open shame belongs to us, O Lord, to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, because we have sinned against Thee. "To the Lord our God belong compassion and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against Him; nor have we obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in His teachings which He set before us through His servants the prophets. "Indeed all Israel has transgressed Thy law and turned aside, not obeying Thy voice; so the curse has been poured out on us, along with the oath which is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, for we have sinned against Him. 
	Notice that Daniel did not do what so many of us do when we are put into those times of trial and tribulation and castigation. He did not blame God for his misery and the misery of his people. He did not put the onus on someone else, protesting that so and so was to blame for the suffering being endured. He joined himself to the whole nation as he declared that all were guilty of the shameful acts of iniquity and rebellion and wickedness before the Most Holy and Awesome God. 
As a matter of fact, the prophet made it very clear that the Lord is righteous in all that He does. And I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed and said, "Alas, O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant and lovingkindness for those who love Him and keep His commandments, we have sinned, committed iniquity, acted wickedly, and rebelled, even turning aside from Thy commandments and ordinances…"Righteousness belongs to Thee, O Lord, but to us open shame, as it is this day — to the men of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and all Israel, those who are nearby and those who are far away in all the countries to which Thou hast driven them, because of their unfaithful deeds which they have committed against Thee.
	There was a very clear recognition that what the nation was suffering was because of what the nation had chosen to do against the Lord. There was no blaming the Lord for being too judgmental, for being too holy, for being too righteous. No, the fault was clearly and absolutely placed on the people for the sins that the people had committed in rebellion and unfaithfulness to the Lord. 
	With all of this in the forefront of our consideration now listen to what the Lord makes so very clear through the writing of the Apostle Paul in Rom 10:8-10. This is the measure of what it truly means to come into complete agreement with God unto His glorious and single plan of salvation, no matter what!
Rom 10:8-10, But what does it say? "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart " — that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved; for with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. 
Our agreement not only is that we are sinners in need of a Savior, unable to save ourselves in any measure, but that Jesus Christ is the only means of anyone’s salvation. He is the Son of God sent forth from the very heart and love of the Father to redeem any who will but call upon His glorious name. That is our confession, our eternal agreement with God. It is the combined manifestation of our total being – heart, mind, and mouth, presenting to God and to all of creation the depth of our belief in Jesus Christ. 
Again, it brings us back to Brother James with the truth that faith without the resulting change of being and character and behavior is worthless. James 2:26, For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead. We can easily make statements that we do not truly mean. However, when we make the confession of Jesus as Our Savior and Our Lord, everything changes. Not that we can do it, but that He does it in us and makes us want to please God through the manner in which we now live forth on this earth.
That is not to say that we claim to be perfect and without sin. In 1 John 1:8-10, we are reminded of the truth of what is in us and what He does in us. 1 John 1:8-10, If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to 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. …If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 
This is the truth of what God has now brought into reality in us if we are in agreement with Him as to the condition that once was true of our lives apart from Jesus Christ, and what is now true of us in Jesus Christ. Our confession of sin and the need for a Savior brings us to our confession of Jesus as our only hope of salvation. In that truth, we give ourselves to Him as Our Lord in order for Him to do the cleansing work that is needed. He works to remove the stain and the residue of sin from our daily life that once was the course of our eternal death. He has saved us from ourselves and brought us unto Himself for all of the eternal ages upon ages. So be it.
'So it shall be when he becomes guilty in one of these, that he shall confess that in which he has sinned. Amen.

This morning’s benediction is 1 Peter 5:6+7. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety upon Him, because He cares for you. Amen.