Sermon March 1, 1998 Confess With Your Mouth based on

Romans 10:9

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the

Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

"That if you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is

Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised Him

from the dead, you will be saved."

Introduction

Our text is contained in a section of Romans which is

discussing the righteousness that is by faith. This is to be

contrasted with the righteousness that comes by works. Now

righteousness has to do with having things be right with God.

We are righteous if there are no outstanding charges against

us. We have righteousness if God is happy with our

performance under His laws. Being righteous means keeping

all of God's requirements for us.

However, a simple, honest evaluation of our lives shows

us that we have not kept God's requirements. We may only

need to consider one of the Ten Commandments and the

expansion which Luther gives in the Small Catechism to see

where we fall short. Looking at ourselves truthfully can only

lead to the conclusion that we are not righteous.

The Scriptures teach us over and over again that we

cannot become righteous by our works. God does offer us the

free gift of righteousness, however. He does want to give it to

us apart from our works. He gives it through the channel of

faith. Faith is not properly understood to be a work of ours,

rather, it is another of God's gifts given to us. And through the

channel of faith pours the righteousness which comes by faith.

What is Confessing

That faith leads us to two activities pointed out by our

text. We believe in our hearts and we confess with our mouths.

Believing is the natural thing to do with faith. Faith is

believed that is what you do with faith. You trust in it, you

live by it, and you let it be seen by others.

Faith is seen by others when we confess it. Confessing

our faith is a natural companion to believing it. We let our

faith "leak out" when we confess it. We are unable to keep

from sharing with others that which is built up inside of us.

What does it mean, "to confess?" In English the word

means "to admit." It comes from a common usage where we

talk about confessing our sins. We tell another person or

speak to God those things we have done in thought, word, or

deed which violated God's requirements for us. The definition

"to admit" has the negative side to it, in that we don't often

want to say what we need to confess. We don't want to admit

to our sins. We don't want to tell others we were wrong.

There is another use of the word "confess." The

definition "to admit" doesn't really cover what we mean when

we talk about confessing our faith. The text speaks of

"confessing with your mouth Jesus is Lord." We confess

our faith when we speak the Apostles, Nicene or Athanasian

Creeds. To understand the word "confess" appropriately here,

we need to go back to the meaning of the word in the original

language of the Bible. The Greek for our text would define

confess as "to say the same thing." When you confess, you are

saying back to someone the same thing they said to you.

Confessing our faith is saying back to God what He said

to us. We repeat back to God what He gave us when He gave

us the gift of faith. Faith comes by hearing the message of the

Good News. When we repeat that good news back to God and

to other people, we are confessing with our mouths.

Jesus is a perfect example of confessing by mouth in our

Gospel reading today. He responded to the devil's temptations

by speaking God's very words to the devil. He confessed, that

is, said the same thing to the devil. First He said, "It is

written, Man does not live on bread alone." He quoted

Deuteronomy 8. Then He said, "It is written: Worship the

Lord your God and serve Him only." Here He quoted

Deuteronomy 6. Finally He told the devil, "It says: Do not

put the Lord your God to the test," again quoting

Deuteronomy 6. Jesus said the same thing, as He confessed

God's very words to resist temptation. This is a powerful

reason for us to learn Scripture by heart.

We can also see in the Old Testament reading this

morning from Deuteronomy 26, that Moses encourages the

Israelites to confess what God has done for them after they

enter the land promised to them. They are to say the same

things as God has done for them, confessing what kind of God

they have and His love for them.

We certainly confess our faith when we join a

congregation. This morning at St. Paul's we had Shirley

Murray confess her faith. She said back the same thing she

was taught. She spoke the words of the Apostle's Creed back

in the rite of confirmation.

Our church membership is actually a confession of our

faith. It is our responsibility as Christians to associate with

believers who confess the same faith as we do. By being

members of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, you are

confessing a specific faith. This type of confession is passive,

meaning it is simply your name on a membership roster that

indicates your faith. Our membership in the LC-MS does not

force us to believe the same as the other members of the LC-

MS believe. However, if someone has a different belief that the

LC-MS, they are mis-confessing. Their membership doesn't

match what they truely believe.

I might make just a comment here on our Rite of

Confirmation used this morning. It speaks of membership in

the Evangelical Lutheran Church. This is not the same as the

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America or ELCA. The

Evangelical Lutheran Church consists of all individuals who

are Lutheran, that is they accept and confess the Lutheran

Confessions, and also are evangelical. The word evangelical

here is the old use of that term, which means "Good News." In

other words, Gospel-based Lutherans. The members of the LC-

MS are members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church because

they agree with the Lutheran Confessions and focus on the

good news that Jesus died for our sins.

There is another passive confession of our faith we

make, and this is when we receive the Lord's Supper. In

receiving the Sacrament in a church we are confessing to be in

agreement with what that church teaches. This is why we

would ask visitors to our church to be instructed in what we

teach before taking Communion with us. Likewise, if you

receive the Lord's Supper in another church, you are

confessing agreement with what that church teaches.

Therefore, you, too, are encouraged to be aware of exactly what

other church bodies teach before you commune with them.

Difficulty in Confessing

So, confessing your sins is not the same as confessing

your faith. We don't want to admit our sins, but our faith we

want to confess freely...or do we? Well, many of us would have

to admit to being uncomfortable confessing our faith at times.

Some social situations just make us uncomfortable.

I would like to share a story with you of one who was in

such a difficult situation. I received this story by email and

was told it is a true story. Just a few years ago at the

University of Southern California there was a professor of

philosophy who was a deeply committed atheist. His primary

goal for one required class was to spend the entire semester

attempting to prove that God couldn't exist. His students were

always afraid to argue with him because of his impeccable

logic. For twenty years, no one had ever had the courage to go

against him.

At the end of every semester, on the last day, he would

say to his class of 300 students, "If there is anyone here who

still believes in Jesus, stand up!" In twenty years, no one has

ever stood up. They knew what he was going to do next. He

would say, "because anyone who does believe in God is a fool."

Holding up a piece of chalk, He said, "If God existed, he could

stop this piece of chalk from hitting the ground and breaking.

Such a simple task to prove that he is God, and yet he can't do

it." Every year, he would drop the chalk onto the tile floor and

it would shatter into a hundred pieces. All the students could

do nothing but stop and stare. Most of the students were

convinced that God couldn't exist. Certainly, a number of

Christians had slipped through but for twenty years, they had

been too afraid to stand up.

Then there was a freshman who happened to get

enrolled in the class. He was a Christian, and had heard the

stories about this professor. He had to take the class because

it was one of the required classes for his major, and he was

afraid. But for 3 months that semester, he prayed every

morning that he would have the courage to stand up no matter

what the professor said or what the class thought. Nothing

they said or did could ever shatter his faith, he hoped.

Finally the day came. The professor said, "If there is

anyone here who still believes in God, stand up!!!" The

professor and the class of 300 people looked at this student,

shocked, as he stood up at the back of the classroom. The

professor shouted, "You FOOL!!!!! If God existed, he could

keep this piece of chalk from breaking when it hits the

ground!" He proceeded to drop the chalk, but as he did, it

slipped out of his fingers, onto his shirt, onto his pants, down

his leg, and off his shoe. As it hit the ground, it simply rolled

away, unbroken. The professor's jaw dropped as he stared at

the chalk. He looked up at the young man and then ran out of

the lecture hall. The young man who had stood up proceeded

to walk to the front of the room and share his faith in Jesus for

the next half hour. 300 hundred students stayed and listened

as he told of God's love for them and of his power through

Jesus.

This is an incredible story of one college freshman

confessing among many who were afraid to confess or rejected

what he confessed. In the face of this example, many of us

might fall short. We might fail to confess with our mouths

Jesus as Lord. Perhaps we can all think of situations where

we did not confess as we should. We can all think of times

where we could have stood up, but we remained the shy ones

in the back, who just went along with what everyone else was

doing.

Forgiveness for Failing to Confess

For these sins, and our many others, however, Jesus did

die. And then, as we confess, God raised Him from the dead.

Jesus' successful sacrifice means that our sins are forgiven.

Our failures to confess are erased by the same faith which we

confess.

Yes, in our state of sinfulness, we run to the Lord for

forgiveness. There we confess as the Psalm today confessed,

that we seek shelter in the Lord. We make Him our refuge and

fortress. He promises to save us. He promises to cover us.

Our Lord promises us the righteousness that comes by faith.

To all who confess and believe will be saved. In knowing and

confessing the forgiveness of Jesus, we can be strengthened as

we go on to confess again. We can know that the Lord is with

us when we confess. We need not fear. This we also heard in

the Psalm. "If you make the Most High your

dwelling even the Lord, who is my refuge, then no

harm will befall you, no disaster will come near your

tent." We make our dwelling with God when we confess our

Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

The peace of God which passes all understanding keep

your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.