Alright brethren, let's turn
to Matthew chapter 10. I want to read verses 32 and 33. This is the Lord Jesus speaking
and He says, Therefore shall confess me before
men. Him will I confess also before
my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before
men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.
Now the context here, the Lord is speaking to His preachers.
He's sending them forth and He's forewarning His ministers about
how they're going to be hated for the gospel that they proclaim. But this applies to all of us. It applies to every believer.
Every believer who's called to speak the truth of Christ, who's
called to confess Christ before men. Now I want to read a little
bit of the passage before it and after it so you can see the
context here. Verse 24, he says the disciple
is not above his master. Now let's look at verse 23. Let's
look at verse 22. He says, You shall be hated of
all men for my name's sake, but he that endureth to the end shall
be saved. You see, he's speaking of being
hated for Christ's sake. He said, When they persecute
you in this city, flee ye into another. For verily I say unto
you, you shall not have gone over the cities of Israel till
the Son of Man be come. And then he says there, The disciple
is not above his master, nor the servant above his Lord. It's
enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the
servant as his lord. If they have called the master
of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of
his household? Fear them not therefore, for
there's nothing covered that shall not be revealed, and hid
that shall not be known. What I tell you in darkness,
that speak ye in light. And what you hear in the ear,
that preach you upon the housetop. And fear not them which kill
the body, but are not able to kill the soul, but rather fear
him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. You
see this wanting to kill His witnesses is because we proclaim
the truth of Christ. It's for confessing Christ. And
he says now in verse 34, Think not that I came to send peace
on earth. I didn't come to send peace but
a sword. And he speaks about a man's foes
being in his own household. And then he says in verse 37,
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of
me. And he that loveth son or daughter
more than me is not worthy of me. What do you love more than
mother or father, son or daughter? He's taking our greatest loved
ones here. And he's saying now, if you love
your greatest loved one more than me, you're not worthy of
me. Now look, he says, verse 38,
And he that taketh not his cross, There's going to be some suffering
involved. It's going to be painful. That's what a cross is. He that
taketh not his cross and followeth me after me is not worthy of
me. So we see the context here. It's
to his preachers. It's to believers. And this word
can be applied to those who will not confess Christ, who refuse
to confess Christ. He says there, He says there
in our text, Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men,
him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven.
But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before
my Father which is in heaven. Now first thing I want to ask
you is will a true believer be ashamed to confess Christ before
men? Will a true believer be ashamed
to confess Christ before men? Look at Romans 10. According
to the Scriptures, the answer to that question is no. No. A true believer will not be ashamed
to confess Christ. Look at Romans 10 and verse 10. He says here, With the heart man believeth
unto righteousness. or from any works that we do,
salvation is through faith in Christ, Christ the righteousness
of God. With the heart man believeth
unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation. There is confession with the
mouth. For the Scripture saith, whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed. He will not be ashamed. He won't be ashamed to confess
Christ. And the other translation is
he won't make haste. It means he will not be hasty
to retreat from the suffering that he's going to endure for
the cause of Christ, for the name of Christ. He won't be hasty
to try to get himself away from that suffering and spare himself
that suffering. when a sinner has been regenerated
to see his sin, to see that he's totally ruined by Adam's transgression
in the garden, totally ruined by sin nature. that he's unable
to do anything whatsoever to help himself before God. When
God shows that sinner this, that he is a helpless, worthless,
hell-deserving sinner, and then God shows that sinner Christ. He shows him Christ, his beloved
Son. He shows him that Christ is God,
that he's God. His name shall be called Jesus. Why? For He shall save His people. He came for a particular people
and He shall save His people. That's why His name is Savior.
Jesus, Savior. Because He shall save His people. When that sinner is made to behold
Him who said, I lay down my life for the sheep. When he is made
to behold Christ who put away the sins of His people by the
sacrifice of Himself, who succeeded in putting away the sin of His
people by the sacrifice of Himself. When that sinner is made to behold
Christ who says, my sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and
they follow me, they follow me, they confess me before men, they
hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, And I give
unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall
any man pluck them out of My hand. When that sinner is made
to behold that Christ the King is reigning and ruling in this
earth successfully, and He's doing just what He said in John
17 when He said to God the Father, Thou hast given Me power over
all flesh, that I might give eternal life to as many as Thou
hast given Me. Now here you have this sinner
made to see his utter nothingness, his guilt and his sin and his
condemnation before God. And then God shows him the Savior. Do you think that sinner is going
to have to be coaxed into laying hold of Christ and confessing
Christ before men? Do you think he's going to have
to be persuaded into that by men? I'll tell you a little story. One time I was out fishing. And I was telling Eric about
this Thursday night. And I had a little hole in the
boat. And water was coming in. But I could dip the water out.
I'd just fish a while and dip a few little buckets of water
out. And boats would go by. And I
never called for any help. This was no big deal. I can get
the water out. Well, then one morning, we were
on our way duck hunting. 3 o'clock in the morning, and
it was about 30 degrees outside. in the middle of the dark, and
I ran over a tree in the river, a little tree limb in the river,
and somehow it got between my motor and the boat, and the whole
time I was running up that river, it was pouring water over into
the back of the boat, right over the transom. And I had a Q-beam,
I didn't see it, I looked back, and when I looked back, that
whole boat was completely full of water. And the only thing
I could do, all the water was out of the bank, so there was
no driving to the levee, I had to go and just drive it up in
the middle of some trees and try to get it lodged in some
trees so it wouldn't sink. And you know what I did as soon
as I got that boat stabilized up in a tree? I began to call
for help. Every boat that went by, I called
for help. Why did I call for help then, but I didn't call
for help when I just had that little hole in my boat? Because
I had a need I had an urgent need. I was dead in the water.
And that's the problem with sinners. Sinners, as long as they just
see a little hole in their boat, they won't call on Christ. But
when they're flooded and they see that God's justice is pouring
in on them and there's no way they can escape it, that's when
they'll lay hold of Christ. And you don't have to persuade
them. They will. They will. And true
faith's not silent. It's not hidden. True faith confesses
Christ before men. Now listen to me. There's no
middle ground between not confessing Christ and just denying it. There's
no middle ground between not confessing Christ and denying
Christ. They're one in the same. One
in the same. Scriptures speak of a head knowledge
that people have, which is cowardly. Turn over to John 12. John 12. Now here's your knowledge in
the head. This is not a work of grace.
This is just an understanding in the head. natural wisdom. John 12 verse
42. It says, nevertheless among the
chief rulers also many believed on him. Among the chief rulers
many believed on Christ. It says, but because of the Pharisees
they did not confess him. What did Christ say? Any man
that won't confess me? I won't confess him to my father.
These men believed on him. They believed he was the Christ.
But because of the Pharisees, they did not confess him, lest
they should be put out of the synagogue. For they loved the
praise of men more than the praise of God. You see, that's not faith. That's not God-given faith. That's
just a historical faith. That's a false faith. That's
just a head knowledge. They had not been changed in
their heart. They had no need of Christ. Look at John 9. The blind man's
parents. That's another example. John
9 and verse 20. Remember that blind man that
the Lord gave sight to? And the Pharisees questioned
his parents. And in John 9, they said, in
John 9.20, His parents answered them and said, We know that this
is our Son, and that He was born blind, but by what means He now
seeth, we know not, or who hath opened His eyes? We know not. He's of age, ask Him, they said. He shall speak for Himself. Now
look at this next word. These words, now this is the
Holy Spirit telling us what was in their heart. These words spake
His parents because they feared the Jews. For the Jews had agreed
already that if any man did confess that he was Christ, he should
be put out of the synagogue, excommunicated. These folks here,
this is their own son that was blind and is given sight to see
now. And they don't go running out
trying to say, we want to meet this one who gave you sight.
They sat there and denied him. And they suspected, these folks,
it tells you there in that last phrase, that they thought this
was the Christ. And now look here, but the blind
man, he confessed that he had at least thought this was Christ.
Look here, in John 9, 25, he said, One thing I know, one thing
I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see. And when they reviled
him, look at verse 30, He says, the man answered and he said
unto them, while herein is a marvelous thing, that you know not from
whence he is, and yet he has opened mine eyes. Now, watch
this, he is going to start preaching to them. He says, now, we know
that God heareth not sinners. He is saying, this man, this
man Jesus, when he opened my eyes, he spoke to the Father,
he spoke to God. And God wouldn't have hurt him
if he was a sinner. God wouldn't have hurt him if
he was an imposter. God wouldn't have hurt him if
he was a phony. And he said, he said, but if any man be a
worshipper of God and doeth his will, God heareth him. And he says, look at verse 32.
He says, since the world began, was it not heard that any man
opened the eyes of one that was born blind? Verse 33, if this
man were not of God, he could do nothing. And they answered
and said unto him, Thou was all together born in sins, just thou
teach us. And they cast him out. Here was
a man that Christ had only begun a work in. He'd just begun a
work in this man. And this man's already standing
up before the Jews, confessing this man's got to be of God.
This man's got to be. He's telling them, I think this
is the Messiah. And then when Christ came back
and revealed Himself fully to them in verse 38, He said, Lord,
I believe, and He worshipped Him. You see the difference here
between God's grace working in the heart and when it's not working
in the heart? And likewise, Christ's preachers, when He sends His
preachers, they're not afraid to confess Christ before men.
Peter stood up on the day of Pentecost. Look at Acts 2. Peter stood up on the day of
Pentecost. Acts 2, verse 22. Listen to this now. This is pointed. This is direct. You hear preachers
talking about, you know, you can catch more flies honey than
you can with vinegar. Listen to this right here. This
is nothing but pure vinegar right here. Look at this. Acts 2.22. You men of Israel, hear these
words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved
of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs which God
did by Him in the midst of you, as you yourselves also know.
Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God, you have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain,
whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because
it was not possible that he should be holding of it. He's telling
them, this very one you crucified, He condemned sin in the flesh
for His people. This one that you crucified removed
the stinger out of death. He took sin away, He took the
sting out of death. He satisfied justice. He brought
in an everlasting righteousness for His people. It was not possible
that death could hold this one. He's standing there preaching
Christ. He's confessing Christ before
these men. Christ preachers preach that
hated doctrine of election. You know why? Because it confesses
Christ. Because all spiritual blessings
are in Christ. God's people are chosen in Christ
before the foundation of the world and blessed with all spiritual
blessings in Him. And because the blessings are
all in Christ, because His people are elected under salvation in
Christ, that guarantees that every promise God's made is going
to be brought to pass in time by our Redeemer. That's why we
preach it. Christ preachers preach that
hated doctrine of predestination. Because predestination says that
it's confessing Christ. That's why we preach it. It's
because it says that at the appointed hour, at the appointed hour,
He predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus
Christ. And at the appointed hour, at
the appointed time, right where God has predestinated it to occur. God is going to send forth the
spirit of His Son into their hearts, crying, Abba Father,
that spirit of adoption whereby they know that they've been chosen
and redeemed and adopted into the family of God. We preach
that hated doctrine of particular redemption. Because we're confessing
that Christ did not fail, but that Christ came forth and fulfilled
the law, upheld justice, satisfied God, appeased the wrath of God,
and He did it for a particular people. So that they must be
called out, they must be given faith, they must be given robed
in this righteousness that Christ has worked out for them. And
so that God gets all the glory for it. And man gets no glory. God gets all the glory. And God's
preachers confess in the Gospel. We confess Christ in the Gospel
because we've been called by the power of God. Paul told Timothy,
God has not given us the spirit of fear. The Lord said, don't
fear men. And He's not given us the spirit
of fear. Not the spirit of fear to fear
men or God. Not in that way, but he says,
but he's given us the spirit of power, and of love, and of
a sound mind. So be not thou therefore ashamed
of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but be
partaker of the afflictions of the gospel. Why all this talk
from the Redeemer about the gospel is not going to be sending peace
on earth, it's going to be sending a sword? Why all this talk from
the preachers in the early church that you're going to have to
bear the afflictions of the gospel? Why all this talk about how men
are going to hate you and treat you like they treated Christ?
Why was Christ crucified? Because He gave a sinner no room
to glory. He gave a sinner no room to glory
in his will. He gave a sinner no glory in
the will of his mother and father and what they had done for him
when he was eight days old. And He gave them no room to glory
in their blood that they were of the lineage of Abraham. He said that don't think because
you're the sons of Abraham that you're the children of God. The
children of Abraham has nothing The blood lineage has nothing
to do with salvation. It's God's elect. Those are the
ones counting for the seed. But that's why Christ was crucified
and He says, you're going to be treated the same way. But
despite the rage of men, despite men's rage against Christ, everything
men did in persecuting Christ, they were fulfilling the determinant
counsel and foreknowledge of God. They were doing what God
had determined before to be done. This is God we're talking about.
This is God who's really God. So God set His King on His holy
hill of Zion. And that's the King. That's the
one who's given His preachers the marching orders. So do you
think we're going to fear a little puny, powerless, helpless, God-hating
man? No, we're going to fear the King.
and serve the King and confess the King. Because the truth of
the matter is, if there's a work of grace that's going to be done
in the heart of a sinner, he's going to do it. And he's told
us how he's going to do it. I'm going to do it through this
Word. He says, you go forth and preach it. And I'm going to do
the work. Now, you can decide, well, I
think I can build a church by shaving the edges off and doing
it another way. Go ahead. You're on your own. You'll be
building that church on your own. It's going to be your church,
not His church. But now, if you want to see God
do the work, and want to see God save sinners, just confess
Christ in the Gospel, and He'll do the work. He'll do the work.
Secondly, look at this. In the Scriptures, I want you
to think about this. As soon as God persuaded the
sinner that Christ is the righteousness of God, all through the Scriptures,
soon as God persuaded a sinner that Christ is the righteousness
of God, soon as God did that, they believed and they were willing
to confess Christ before men in water baptism immediately. Immediately. Immediately. Whenever Philip confessed Christ
to the Ethiopian eunuch, Christ gave that Ethiopian eunuch a
heart of faith, and immediately, There he is. It's just not him
and Philip. This man, he was the treasurer
of the queen. He had an entourage with him.
And just as soon as God gave him faith to believe, that eunuch
said, what hinders me from being baptized? Here's some water.
What hinders me from being baptized? And Philip said, if you believe
with all your heart, you may. And he said, I believe that Jesus
Christ is the Son of God. Right there before all those
people, he said, I confess Christ. I believe He is the Son of God. He is the Redeemer. I trust Him. Read Isaiah 53. I know exactly what he heard
preached. You do too. We spent about four months in
it. And then what about that Philippian jailer? Paul preached the gospel to him.
And it says that he preached the gospel to him, he preached
the gospel to everybody in his house, and Christ gave that jailer
faith, and he gave everybody in that house faith. And you
know what Scripture says? The same hour of the night he
was baptized, he and all his straightway. Straightway. They were willing to confess
Christ right away. Listen, at Pentecost, when Peter
confessed Christ before those men, Christ gave those men and
women faith to believe Him. And it says, Then they that gladly
received His Word were baptized, and the same day they were added
unto them about three thousand souls. And they continued steadfastly
in the apostles' doctrine, in fellowship, in breaking of bread,
and in prayers. I know folks, I know folks, who
have been sitting under the gospel, hearing the gospel preached in
truth for 10, 15, 20 years. And I tell you, they believe
Christ. They'll tell you privately they believe Christ. And they're
hearing the gospel. And I'm persuaded they know the
gospel. They understand it. They can
tell you what the gospel is. They can tell you who the gospel
is. But they never have confessed
him in believer's baptism. Never even shown an interest
in confessing him in believer's baptism. Give their money, support
the church, everything. Never confessed him in believer's
baptism. But when he irresistibly, sovereignly draws a person They confess Him. It's just all through Scripture.
They confess Him. They're willing. They confess
Him publicly, immediately. Here's another thing. Another
way Christ's witnesses confess Christ before men is by uniting
with His people in a local church. That's very common. I just read
that to you there in Acts. Look at Acts 4. Those 3,000, they continue steadfastly
with the apostles and with one another. They united themselves
to Christ's people. They did. When God makes you
to see that you are an outcast to this world, that you are a
pilgrim passing through it, that nothing in this world is going
to be here, that nothing in this world has any lasting value,
you'll want to be with birds of the same feather. You sure
will. Look at this. Shortly after Pentecost,
the rulers arrested Peter and John. Look at Acts 4.18. And
they called them and they commanded them not to speak at all nor
teach in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered and
said unto them, Whether it be right in the sight of God to
hearken unto you more than unto God, you be the judge. For we
cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard. Now that's what the case is whenever
Christ has done a work of grace in the heart. When God has created
a new heart and given you faith to behold Christ, We can't help
but speak that which we've seen and heard. So these enemies threatened
them. And they let them go. They told
them, don't preach this word anymore. And look at verse 23.
And being let go, they went to their own company. They went
straight to the church. That's where they went. To where
the church was gathered. They went to their own company.
And they reported all that the chief priests and elders had
said unto them. Oh, I bet that made the church
run and hide. Look here, verse 24. And when
they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one
accord. And they said, Lord, thou art
God, which hath made heaven and earth and the sea and all that
in them is, who by the mouth of thy servant David hath said,
Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things? The kings of this earth stood
up and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and
against His Christ for of a truth against the Holy Child Jesus
whom thou hast anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate with
the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together
for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before
to be done. Don't you know Peter and John
just got beat up by these religious rulers, these self-righteous
holy folks, and now they're running back to their people. Don't you
know that strengthened their heart to hear that whole congregation
saying this? Singing this out loud with one
voice and one accord. Reminding them of the sovereign
power and grace of God, of the victorious reigning of Christ
Jesus their Redeemer. That's why we come together.
That's why we need each other. It sure is. Now look at this,
verse 29. And now, Lord, behold their threatenings,
and grant unto thy servants that with all boldness they may speak
thy word. They may go forth and confess
Christ all the more boldly. See, it didn't make them back
up. Who controls men? God does. The scripture says
the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord as the rivers of
water. He turneth it wither so ever
he will. That's why Christ said, fear
not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the
soul, but rather fear him that's able to kill both soul and body
in hell. That's who to fear. And he said
this, two sparrows are not, they're not, they're sold for a farthing. They're about a worth a penny.
And what two sparrows are worth. And he said this, he said, and
one of them shall not fall on the ground without your father. But the very hairs of your head
are all numbered. You think the very hairs of your
head is worth a penny? He says, fear ye not, therefore
you are of more value than many sparrows. You see, God's in control. He's ruling everything. The God-man
has all power in heaven and earth. He's ruling all things, so even
in persecution, Christ is accomplishing His will and calling out His
people. I can show you that. Whenever they were assembled
together at a local church, confessing Christ before men, Paul was beaten. He was taken and he was beaten
and he was thrown in jail there at Philippi. And Christ threw
him in jail right there with one of his lost sheep to preach
the gospel to him. That was the purpose of it. When
Paul was persecuted at Corinth, he was persecuted and persecuted
to Corinth. He was going from another place,
persecuted all the way, and he ends up at Corinth. And he's
about to leave Corinth. Then spake the Lord to Paul in
the night by vision, and said, Be not afraid, but speak, and
hold not thy peace. For I am with thee, and no man
shall sit on thee to hurt thee. I have much people in this city."
How could he say that? How could Christ speak and say,
No man is going to sit on you to hurt you. Nobody is going
to lay their hands on you and hurt you. How could he say that
if he didn't control men? because he controlled them. And
he wasn't going to let them sit on him and hurt him. You see,
you, my friend, you're like a ditch, like a car going down the road
that's out of line. And God's got his hand on the
steering wheel. And if God lets go of the steering
wheel, you'll be right off in the ditch. You'll be right off
in the ditch. God's got to hold. Oh, I wouldn't
do what that man did if God takes his hand off of you. You would?
You would? You're bad, but you're not near
as bad as you could be if he just let go of you. If he just
let go of you. And anytime we think we're better
than somebody else, just remember, it's just because God's got his
hand on you. That's the only reason. That's the only reason.
At Jerusalem, Paul was arrested and brought before the governor
and the chief rulers. And you know what he said? He's
standing there before them. These are the big shots. This
is at Jerusalem. And he's standing there and he
said, they can't prove the things whereof they're now accusing
me. And he said this, but this I confess unto thee, this I confess
unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship
I the God of my fathers. Yes sir, the way they're calling
heresy, Christ Jesus the Lord, I sure do. I worship Him. I worship
Him. You just imagine if these early
believers were afraid to confess Christ before men. We wouldn't
have the Scriptures. We would have never heard the
Gospel ourselves. We wouldn't have any brethren.
We wouldn't have the Gospel preached to us. We wouldn't have a place
to meet together. We'd be in a sad spot. Here's what I want to show you
lastly. Confessing Christ, now when we've looked at these things
here, and Christ said it in the passage of our text, confessing
Christ may mean bodily persecution. It may mean bodily harm. We're
so spoiled that we haven't had to face that. We don't even know
what that's like. We, it's hard for us just to,
we think it's a great sacrifice just to go to church more than
twice a week or three times a week. What if you had to, what if you
were doing it and it was somebody was laying in wait for you to
kill you all the way there and all the way back? It could happen. It's not unheard of in our day. Have y'all read this story about
this woman, Miriam Abram? Have y'all read about her? In
January in Sudan, this is what got me looking at this scripture.
In January in Sudan, that's a Muslim country, she was first charged
with adultery because she was married to a Christian man. And
the Muslims regard that as adultery. She married a Christian man.
And they sentenced her to a hundred lashes by a rod, with a rod. Which about equals to death.
A hundred lashes. And so they brought her to the
court to stand up publicly before the court. And you know what
she did? She confessed Christ before them,
before the court. And so they laid to her charge
apostasy from the Muslim religion and sentenced her to death by
hanging. This was in January. Well, they gave her four days
to think about it, to renounce Christ. Four days to think about
it. And they came back to her, and she said, I'm not renouncing
him. I trust Christ. Just like Paul
said, the way they call heresy, that's the way I worship the
God of my father. And somehow, I'm saying this
tongue in cheek, somehow, her lawyers had enough time to appeal. You know why? Because she was
pregnant. And although Sharia law regards
the child of a Christian to be illegitimate. It does forbid
execution until two years after the child's birth. And so they
had time to appeal. And so not only was she not ashamed
to confess Christ, she arrived in Philadelphia this
week and went home to Massachusetts. Boy, she was lucky. They had
no such thing. They had no such thing as luck.
We know that all things work together for good to them that
love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose. That's how they work together,
according to His purpose. That's why Christ said, Don't
fear man, fear God. And so, the Hebrew writer said,
seeing what we accomplished about this great cloud of witnesses,
this cloud of witnesses who would not take a lesser sentence so
that they could have a better resurrection. They confessed
Christ before men so that Christ would confess them before His
Father in glory. And seeing as how we're surrounded
by this great cloud of witnesses, he says, now, here's what you
and I need to do. We need to lay aside every weight
and the sin that so easily turns us aside. And we need to look
to the Lord Jesus Christ. And we need to look to Him and
realize for the joy that was set before Him, the glory of
God and the redemption of His people, for the joy that was
set before Him, He endured the cross and despised the shame. And now he sat down at the right
hand of the Father. And it says, For consider him,
lest you become weak and faint in your minds. Consider that
great contradiction of sinners which he bore against himself.
Because you and I have not, we've not resisted unto blood striving
against sin, like Christ did. Consider him, brethren, his beard
was plucked out, he was stripped naked, His visage was marred
more than any man. He was forsaken of God. Is it nothing to you, all you
that pass by? Behold, and see if there be any
sorrow like unto my sorrow which is done unto me, wherewith the
Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger. And
so brethren, are we going to be fearful of powerless, God-hating
men? Are we going to be in reverence
of Christ and take up His cross? Are we going to exalt men? And
that's what fear means. Are we going to exalt them high
and lifted up as being so powerful that we've got to kowtow to men?
Or are we going to exalt Christ by confessing Him before men
instead of fearing men? Well, Clay, that's easy why we're
not suffering. Yeah, that is. It's true. It is. And we don't
have any strength when we do suffer. That's why we pray with
the psalmist. Oh, my God, I trust in Thee.
Let me not be ashamed. Let not mine enemies triumph
over me. And you know what he promises?
He says they shall be ashamed and also confounded, all of them. They shall go to confusion together
that are makers of idols. But Israel shall be saved in
the Lord with an everlasting salvation. You shall not be ashamed
nor confounded, world without end. That's His promise to His
people. How did those people bear that?
How were they sown asunder? How were people able to stand
up before a court and say, I'm not renouncing Christ? It's only
by the grace of God. It's only by God's Spirit working
in us that we could do that, brethren. Now, let me close with
this. If you have no saving interest
in Christ, if you're sitting here and you care less, the Holy
Spirit hasn't given you a heart, you haven't been born again,
Christ hasn't washed you by His blood, and you have no interest
in these things whatsoever, don't you dare take a form of godliness. Don't you dare even come near
the waters of baptism. Don't even come near Him. That'd
be the worst thing you could possibly do. Don't come near
the Lord's table. Don't even fake joining a church. Don't do it at all. The Lord's
command to you is, repent and be ye saved. Repent to Christ
from all your vain way and trust Christ to save you. That's His
word to you. But now for you and I who profess to believe
Christ, to me, his preacher, and to all those who rebel against
him and say, I'm not confessing him, this is what he says. He says, whosoever therefore
shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before
my Father which is in heaven. And he said, but whosoever shall
deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father
which is in heaven. One old preacher put it this
way. He summed that up. He said, you can take this home
with you. He said, what Christ is to you on earth, that you
will be to Christ in heaven in the day of judgment. What Christ
is to you right now on this earth, that's what you'll be to Christ
in heaven in the day of judgment. If He's dear to you, you'll be
dear to Him in the day of judgment. And all the praise and all the
glory will be to His grace for making it so. But if He's unworthy
of confessing before men, He promises you, you'll be unworthy
of Him confessing you before His Father. And there'll be nobody
to blame for that but you. That's how it works. If we're
saved, He gets the glory. If we're damned, it's our own
fault. That's just so. I pray He'll give us grace and
the power to confess Him. Amen. Let's stand together, brethren. Father, thank you for your word.
Thank you for gathering us here again today. We pray that you'll
bless the word and make us truly witnesses of your beloved son. Make us speak the truth always,
all the time to everybody that'll listen. Make us not ashamed,
Father. We pray it in Christ's name.
Amen.