THREE KINDS OF CONFESSION !

THREE KINDS OF CONFESSION: For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. (Romans 10:10). The New Testament speaks of three kinds of confession: (1). The Lordship of Jesus; (2). The believers confession of his or her sins; and (3). Faith in the Word, Christ, and God the Father. Jesus made a very important statement in (John 16), showing that the center will be convicted by the Holy Spirit for just one sin: "they believe not on me." In other words, they believe not the Word of God ! (John 16:7-10). "It is expedient for you that I go away: for if our goal not a way, the comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. And when he hears come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they believe not on me; of righteousness, because I go to my Father. How often we've insisted that the center confess all the sins he or she has ever committed in order to get saved. But, actually, he or she couldn't confess all of his or her sins, because he or she couldn't probably remember everything they've ever done wrong ! No, the principal confession the center must make is the Lordship of Jesus. The second confession mentioned in the New Testament is the believers confession of his or her sins when he or she is out of fellowship with God. John tells us, "if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). The third kind of confession is confessing faith in the Word, Christ, and God the Father. (Matthew 3:5-6). "Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judea, and all the regions round about Judea, and were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins". This passage is a picture of God's covenant people, the Hebrew Jews, confessing their sins and being baptized by John. This was not Christian baptism, because Jesus had not yet died and risen. John also, was not baptizing in the Name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost; he baptized In the Name of the Father. "Believers" in John's day were Jews who were under the law. New covenant believers, on the other hand, are spoken of in (Acts 19:18), which says, "And many that believe came, and CONFESSED, and shewed their deeds." These were believers are Christians who had sinned. It doesn't say what they confessed, but it is evident they were confessing magical arts they had been practicing. They were not confessing these things in order to get saved; they were already saved, and now it was easier for them to confess these practices. A full gospel missionary told of the reviver that broke out in 1956 in Brazil, where 268,000 people were saved and nearly hundred thousand were baptized in the Holy Spirit. In a years time, more than 100 Bible-based buildings were built. That's revival; especially when you realize that 99% of the people were Roman Catholics. The missionary said, "I spent seven years in Brazil. We had a little mission station with only 37 in Sunday school and. I begin to give time to studying God's Word, fasting, and praying. Fasting and praying didn't do it alone; it was a matter of my getting in line with God's plan. Fasting and praying simply gave me a little more time to wait on God. "As I waited on God, I didn't preach against anything our anyone. I begin to preach on what the W's ord said. The Catholics had a song about the blood, so we adopted this as our theme song when we started holding tent meetings. As we started singing, the people thought we were Catholics, and they came in droves. When they asked if we were Catholics, we would say, Yes, but not Roman Catholics. The word Catholic means general, and we believe there is but one universal church."