Acts chapter 16 Now verse 35 Begins and when
it was day This is the day after Paul and Silas were thrown into
prison. It's the day after the Day the
morning after the earthquake had happened when it was day
the magistrates sent the sergeants and saying, let those men go. Paul and Silas are in prison.
And the magistrates sent their underlings and said, let those
men go. Now, Lord willing, next week we'll look in greater detail,
or as we get to it, we'll look in greater detail at the fact
that it was the Lord Jesus Christ who turned the hearts of these
men, though they didn't know it. But we'll look at why and
what the Lord did for the brethren by using the magistrates the
way He did. But tonight, we'll look at what
it is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and to confess Him.
Romans 10.8 says, the scripture says, the word is nigh thee,
even in thy mouth and in thy heart. That is the word of faith
which we preach. That if thou shalt confess with
thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart
that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with
the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture
saith, Whosoever believeth on Christ the Lord shall not be
ashamed." They won't be confounded, they won't be reproved, they
won't be put to shame. Now, like all other aspects of
grace, and truth. Sinners have conjured up a lot
of false ideas of what it is to confess Christ. So we're going
to learn something, I think, here as we look at the magistrates
and what they did. Now, Pastor, are you saying that
the magistrates believed on Christ and confessed Him? I'm not saying
that. I'm not saying they did any more
than those who do what the magistrates did and claim they believed on
Christ and confessed Him. But we can look at what they
did and by contrast we can see something about what it is to
confess Christ. Let's begin here. My first point
tonight is a true confession of Christ is produced by Christ
Jesus the Lord. Verse 35 says, when it was day,
the magistrates sent the sergeant saying, let those men go. Now
it would be supposition for us to link any of those happenings,
the earthquake, or to say that maybe somebody came with evidence
that made them realize Paul and Silas were were innocent, so
that's why they suffered. That would all be supposition,
but what's not supposition is to look here and see what's clearly
revealed. And what's clearly revealed here
is as far as these men were concerned, they had this change of heart,
not because the grace of God was working in their heart to
bring them to Christ, but simply for some natural reason. But
we know that because they rejected Paul, they rejected the Gospel,
they rejected Christ altogether. So this was a natural, something
natural, carnal, physical, of the flesh caused them to have
a change of heart and say, let these men go. And that's one
of the first things we need to see here is that natural causes,
can produce a mere change of heart. But a mere change of heart
produced by natural causes is not true repentance and faith
and results in a false confession of Christ. Now you get this,
in Acts 5.31, we're told here that repentance is the gift of
God through Christ Jesus the Lord our Savior. It says, hath
God exalted with His right hand a prince and a Savior for this
reason, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.
So if we're going to have repentance, it's going to be the same way
we have forgiveness of sins. It's going to be by Christ Jesus
the Lord. We can't have forgiveness of sins by something we did,
and we can't have repentance by something we've done. It starts
with God. And then Ephesians 2.8, you're
familiar with this, but it says, By grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves. It's the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. So we've got repentance and faith,
two sides of one coin. We can't have one without the
other. We're told here that by Christ we're given repentance
and by God we're given the gift of faith. So we read in Romans
10 that with the heart man believeth unto righteousness and with the
mouth confession is made unto salvation. We know then that
to confess with the mouth, that we believe on Christ, it must
be because Christ, through the Holy Spirit, has given us a new
heart that repents and believes on Christ. And therefore, we
confess Him. We confess Him. That's why He
said to the Pharisees in Matthew 15, verse 7, He said, Ye hypocrites,
well did Isaiah prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth nigh
unto Me with their mouth, and honoureth Me with their lips,
but their heart is far from Me. And he said, it's not that which
goeth into the mouth that defileth a man, but that which cometh
out of the mouth defiles a man, because it comes from his heart.
Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. So, this confession
that comes forth on the lips, if it's not the fruit that the
Holy Spirit has produced, then it's a false confession. Repentance in faith and confessing
of Christ is what Christ does. Now, you sometimes hear folks
who have something monumental happen in their lives and they
get very religious. But the thing is, if it's something
that's just produced by natural causes without the grace of God
working in the heart, it's not true repentance. It's not true
faith. It's not a true confession of Christ. Well, here's the second
thing. Confessing Christ means standing
for the glory of God our Savior. Now, verse 36, the keeper of
the prison, the jailer, who had been converted the night before
by God's grace, was excited to get this news. And so he comes
and he told this saying to Paul. And he said, the magistrates
are sent to let you go. Now, therefore, depart and go
in peace. He was so happy for Paul and Silas to be set free.
But listen to Paul. But Paul said unto them, they've
beaten us openly, uncondemned, being Romans. and have cast us
into prison. Now do they thrust us out privily? Nay, verily, but let them come
themselves and fetch us out." You see, Paul had this heart
of repentance and faith. He had this heart that confessed
Christ, from which confession was made. And it was for that
reason that he shows us here what it is to confess Christ.
You think about this now. Paul knew what they had done
to him before. The day before. He still got
fresh wound. He still got blood coming down
his back from what took place there. But Paul knew this. What they did to him and Silas,
they did publicly. And it was the same as if they
had done it to Christ Jesus the Lord. Because they were doing
it to Paul and Silas because they couldn't get to Christ.
And so Paul, if he accepts this release privately, then the public
who saw them be condemned and all their accusers will be left
then as if they were just in condemning Paul and Silas and
as if Paul and Silas were really guilty of something. Moreover, towards Paul and Silas'
Lord. That's who would be condemned.
That's who's honor and glory is at stake here in Paul's mind. And so faith in Christ wouldn't
allow Paul to go out of that prison without the glory of Christ
being upheld. He couldn't walk out of there
under these conditions. And that's what it is to confess
Christ. Confessing Christ is more than
and walking in an aisle, or going out and shouting to everybody
that you believe on Jesus, or going down to some closet somewhere
and telling some man how you've sinned. Confession is much more
than that. It's much more than that. Christ
the Lord, the Servant of God, is called in Revelation the faithful
witness. faithful because as the servant
of God, he believed God the Father. He believed God the Father without
wavering, without any doubt whatsoever. He believed God. And he was a
witness because he held to the truth of God and told the truth
of God to everyone he came in contact with, even when he was
in this same position Paul was in, even when it meant death. Turn with me and let's look at
some scriptures. In John 18, verse 33. And we're looking at the second
point. Confessing Christ means standing for the glory of God
our Savior. Now look at John 18, verse 33. Then Pilate entered into the
judgment hall again, and called Jesus and said unto him, Art
thou the king of the Jews? Jesus answered him, Sayest thou
this thing of thyself, or did others tell it thee of me? Pilate
answered, Am I a Jew? That all nation and the chief
priests have delivered thee unto me, what hast thou done?" Jesus
answered, My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were
of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should
not be delivered to the Jews. But now is my kingdom not from
hence. And Pilate therefore said unto
him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that
I am a king. To this end was I born, and for
this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto
the truth. Everyone that is of the truth
heareth my voice. Then look at John 19. John 19. And look in verse 5. Then Jesus came forth wearing
the crown of thorns and the purple robe, and Pilate saith unto him,
Behold the man! When the chief priests therefore
and officers saw him, they cried out, saying, Crucify him! Crucify
him! And Pilate saith unto them, Take
ye him and crucify him, for I find no fault in him. The Jews answered
him, We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because
he made himself the Son of God. And when Pilate therefore heard
that saying, he was the more afraid. This crowd was in a,
they were in an uproar just like that crowd that beat and called
for Paul and Silas to be beaten. And so Pilate was afraid of them.
And it said, and he went again into the judgment hall and saith
unto Jesus, Whence art thou? But Jesus gave him no answer.
Then saith Pilate unto him, Speakest thou not unto me? knowest thou
not that I have power to crucify thee, and I have power to release
thee? And Jesus answered, Thou couldst have no power against
me, except it were given thee from above. Therefore he that
deliver me unto thee hath the greater sin. You see, our Lord,
even in the midst of of the strongest opposition, when it meant he
was about to be put on that shameful cross and made a curse for his
people, he wouldn't deny the truth. He wouldn't deny God the
Father. Nothing could make him deny God
the Father. Somebody will say, well, I don't
know if I have that kind of boldness. Well, you don't. I don't either.
Listen, I can sit here and look at this and look at what Paul
and Silas did, and I can assure you I don't have that kind of
boldness. I don't. But I can tell you, in the hour
you need this kind of boldness, the same Redeemer who has laid
down His life for you, the same Redeemer who poured out His blood
for you, the same Redeemer who bought you, who owns you, whose
you are and who you belong to, that same Redeemer who forgave
you of your sins and who gave you repentance and faith and
a new heart to believe on Him, that same Redeemer will give
you the grace you need to trust Him and speak boldly. in His
name. I guarantee you that'll happen.
You remember Stephen? You remember Stephen? I love
this. It says in Acts 6.13, they set
up false witnesses and they said, This man ceaseth not to speak
blasphemous words against this holy place in the law. For we've
heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this
place and shall change the customs which Moses delivered us. And
all that's said in the council. Now listen. You know how it is
when you're in a place and all attention all of a sudden gets
pointed to you and everybody looks at you? Now all the council,
looking steadfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face
of an angel. I don't know what it looked like.
I don't know. But I know where it came from. Because over in
verse 55 it says, He, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up
steadfastly into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing
on the right hand of God. And I'll tell you this, when
the Holy Spirit fills you full, and you behold the glory of God
in the face of Christ Jesus, your face will shine as the face
of an angel. When you look into the face of
the angel, your face will shine as the face of an angel, and
that's how God strengthens His people to confess Him in the
midst of the most strenuous opposition that you'll face. Well, a true
confession of Christ is produced by Christ the Lord, and it's
standing for the glory of God our Savior. And then look here
thirdly, confessing Christ is not only private, but it's a
public matter. Acts 16.37, Paul said unto them, Acts 16, 37. Paul said unto them,
to those sergeants, he said, they've beaten us openly, uncondemned,
being Romans, and have cast us into prison. Now do they thrust
us out privily? God won't allow anyone to reject
Christ publicly and then confess Christ privately. That's not
going to happen. And with anybody. Not just a
believer. Everybody. Everybody. Listen,
Paul says here they beat us openly, and now they seek to make amends
privately. He said they condemned us who
stood uncondemned, being Romans, and they did it openly. And now
they seek to confess our innocence in their wrongdoing privately. You know, in another place, Paul
said concerning Christ, he said this thing wasn't done in a corner.
Concerning what our Lord did, it wasn't done in a corner. I
pray, this is my prayer, that God would convince you, the sinner,
that you, all these days that you have rejected Christ, you
have beaten Christ openly. You have laid unjust charges
against Christ the righteous. You have cast Him away from you. and yelled, in your heart of
hearts, no, God. You know what the height... I'm going
to save it for Sunday. I'm not going to say it. But
I'll tell you, I'm going to give you a definition Sunday of what
a fool is, what God says a fool is. But listen, now that you've
done that publicly, rejected Christ publicly, do you think
that you can confess Him privately? that you can confess Him privately
and God will be satisfied with that? These words here in this
text, cast and thrust, these words are the heart of the matter
because first of all, it shows it was the work of their own
hand. They did it. They cast Him into prison and
now they're attempting with that same defiled, sinful hand to
make up for it and cast Him out of prison. But here's the second
thing about those words. Those words mean They have the
meaning of to cast something out with the same regard or disregard
that you take a piece of trash and throw it into the trash can.
That person, no matter how religious, how sincere they may seem to
be, that person who by their own hand sees that I've sinned,
now I'm going to fix it by my own hand. That person who does
such a thing by his acts of religion or whatever it is that he's doing
without having a broken heart and coming to God, that person
regards Christ in his so-called repentance and faith and confession
of Christ, the same way he regarded Christ when he was outwardly
rebelling against Him. Same way. No regard whatsoever. No regard whatsoever. Because
sinful flesh, thanks to emphasis and the focus and the spotlight
for repentance and faith and confession of Christ, is me.
It's me. I don't know if they do it up
here, but back home and down in the South, You know it got
big there for a while And it's through the years people have
always done it where they'll have stand up and you give a
testimony man It becomes a it becomes a contest of who can
out sin the other one of who was the worst sinner and worse
than the other one I mean getting into detail about who was the
worst about and it's to the point of bragging about it Same regard
for Christ after the claim to repentant and believe as it had
when he was in sin same regard Christ didn't save His people
in a corner. We didn't reject Him in a corner,
and we can't confess Him in a corner either. We're going to confess
Him openly. God raised Him up before all,
declaring that He's well-pleased with His only begotten Son. It
pleased the Father to save them that believe through the preaching
of the Gospel, because through the preaching of the Gospel,
it is an open, public proclamation of God's holy son, that he's
righteous and that he's just and God's pleased with him. And
God chose that when a sinner is brought to faith in Christ,
that sinner is going to confess Christ openly, publicly in water
baptism. And we don't just confess Christ
when we're baptized. That's the beginning of it. From
then on, as long as we're trusting Christ and profess to believe
on Him, we're confessing that there's absolutely nothing worthy
in me and all my hope is in Christ Jesus the Lord alone. And we're
going to confess that openly. And that's why Paul says here,
Nay, verily, let them come themselves and fetch us out. You, you sinner,
must come to Christ and confess Him openly. This word, fetch
us out, the meaning is not conveyed by the word take. The meaning
is not conveyed really by the word bring. It's not even the
word lead. It means let them walk us out
of this prison, right beside us, arm in arm with us, identifying
themselves with us before everybody, confessing that we are innocent,
we're just, we're right, and they're wrong. That's what God
calls on you and I to do. If we're going to confess Him,
we've got to walk out before everybody and say, I'm right,
He's righteous. Or, I'm wrong, He's righteous.
That's what's going to have to happen. The God with whom you
must face says to you who attempt to confess him privately, nay,
verily, you come yourself and walk out of the prison with my
son." A man has spent his whole life sinning against God openly
for everybody to see. And then something happens and
he falls under conviction. And so he seeks to do a little
something. He starts reading his Bible.
He starts going to church with his wife or what have you. And
the people receive him. So he feels pretty good about
it. But he won't ever confess Christ. He hasn't confessed Christ. He won't come forth and say,
Christ is all my hope and confess him. Why not? The Lord said,
John said, among the chief rulers, many believed on him. But because
of the Pharisees, they didn't confess him, lest they should
be put out of the synagogue, for they loved the praise of
men more than the praise of God. And then look over at Matthew
13. On the other hand, you have somebody who makes a profession,
says they believe on Christ, and they want everybody to see
it. They desire for people to see it. And they wear their religion
on their sleeve. They profess to rejoice in Christ. But then this world gives them
a little resistance. A little resistance. And they
prove to be the stony ground here. Look here in Matthew 13. Matthew 13 and verse 21. It says here, Yet hath he not
root in himself? Verse 20. He that receiveth the
seed in the stony places, the same as he that heareth the word,
and anon with joy, he receives it. Yet hath he not root in himself? but doeth for a while, for when
tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by
he's offended. And then we see here in verse
22, the thorny ground hearer. He also that receives seed among
the thorns is he that heareth the word, and the care of this
world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and
he becometh unfruitful. Listen to what the Lord says
over in Matthew 10. Matthew 10 back a few chapters
there. Matthew 10.32. He says, Whosoever, therefore,
And whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, and the
word here is, whoever will declare the doctrine of Christ before
men, will stand for the truth of Christ before men. He says,
him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven.
And He says, but whosoever shall deny Me before men, him will
I also deny before My Father which is in heaven. Think not
that I have come to send peace on the earth. I came not to send
peace but a sword. He said, don't think now that
confessing Me and standing for the truth that I've taught you
means that it's going to be peace and harmony. It's not. If that's
what you want, you're going to deny Him. You're going to deny
Him. He said, For I have come to set a man at variance against
his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law
against her mother-in-law, and a man's foal shall be they of
his own household. because the gospel. Because the
gospel is going to create peace in the hearts of those that love
Christ, that are regenerated and born of God, to behold that
Christ is all our righteousness, all our hope of salvation, that
He's put away our sin by Himself. But those who are yet trusting
in themselves, whether they're mother or daughter or father
or brother or sister, whoever they are, they're not going to
like it. They're just not going to like it. And he says here,
and your foes will be in your own household. But he says, he
that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of
me. He that loveth father or mother
more than me won't confess me, won't stand for me. By and by
he'll be offended. And he'll go back, by and by.
He'll just start out little by little agreeing or saying nothing
at all until finally he just wholeheartedly agreed and denied
me. And he says, And he that loveth
son or daughter more than me, he's not worthy of me." Are you
afraid that if you confess Christ, those former friends, that former
family who yet believes that they're saved by their free will
and by their self-sanctifying works, are you afraid they're
going to deny you? They're going to kick you out? They will. That's what he's saying right
here. They will. Expect it. Don't just speculate about it.
He said, expect it. Are you afraid your personal
gain is going to be lost, that you're going to lose some business
acquaintances, that it might hurt your business, that some
people might not do business with you because they think that
you believe Christ? It must happen. He said they
will. You can bank on it. It's going
to happen. Are you afraid mama or daddy is going to write you
out of the wheel? They're going to take away your inheritance?
They know you've confessed Christ, that you didn't confess to believe
that you really... Now you're saying, I really didn't
believe when I made that profession when I was sitting under you?
They will. They will. That's what he's saying. That
blind man whom he gave sight to, it says, 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. And they said, we can't be put
out of the synagogue. We'd sooner deny our son than
be put out of the synagogue. So He said, expect it. It's coming. That's right. What the Lord said
there in Matthew 10.38, He that taketh not his cross, it's going
to be painful. It's going to be suffering. You're
going to have to suffer. But he that taketh not his cross
and followeth after me, he's not worthy of me. Not worthy
of me. the sinner who bears witness
before God and men of the absolute unworthiness of himself and of
all men, and declares that salvation is of God the Father who chose
a people and put them in Christ, it's of Christ the Son who came
to where we are and redeemed that people, perfected them forever,
who's now risen and seated in the heavens, who sends forth
His gospel, who regenerates His people through the Holy Spirit,
through the Word of Truth, and that He shall not lose any, but
save them and preserve them and keep them and bring every last
one of them to Himself, that person is going to expect. You're
going to either deny Him, and agree with those you love, are
you going to confess Him and say, we're just going to have
to be divided. We're just going to have to be
divided. All my former acquaintances, I've said this to you before,
I don't choose who my friends are. God chooses who my friends
are. I know many, many folks who were
standing in a great congregation of folks preaching a message
when Christ revealed Himself in them. They lost it all. They lost everything. But they
really lost nothing. They really lost nothing. Because
they gained everything in Christ. The Lord says, We have to confess
him. True confession of Christ is
produced by Christ Jesus the Lord. True confession of Christ
is a stance for the glory of God our Savior, and true confession
of Christ is an open confession of Christ. I'm going to stop
here, and I'm going to take up the rest. I have two more points
for you, but we'll pick those up next time. Let me give you
an illustration. I thought was fitting for this. I watched a
documentary recently that I enjoyed about Joe Frazier, the boxer.
You know he's still living. He lives right over here in Philadelphia.
I'm thinking about going to see him. Joe Frazier. But he helped out Ali whenever
Ali wouldn't go to the Vietnam War and all those things. He
helped him out. Gave him money. and helped support
him when he had lost his title, his license to box. And then, after he came back,
Ali came back, and he got his license back, and he started
boxing. Well, he wanted to fight Frazier, and they set up a fight
and all that. And then, you know the history probably of this,
but Ali just went to publicly humiliating Frazier. Every time he could get on the
television, he did it. And he called him Uncle Tom because
he had some white businessmen in Philadelphia that were supporting
him. And Ali wasn't anything but he was a puppet of the Nation
of Islam and was meeting with the Ku Klux Klan together because
they were trying to keep whites and blacks separated. They had
that point they agreed on, the Nation of Islam and the Ku Klux
Klan. But he was doing all this and it got so bad. He was calling
him a gorilla, calling him stupid and ignorant and all these things.
And it got so bad that the first time they fought, Joe Frazier's
son couldn't even go to the fight because there were death threats
against him and his family. And his son had to stay home
because Frazier was afraid his son would get killed. So it ends
up he fights him a couple times. They get down there in Manila,
and they have that fight in Manila, and at the end of it, after Ali
had walked into a couple of those left hands with Joe Frazier's,
he wasn't nearly as cocky as he was before, and he called
Frazier's son. They had fights over Frazier's
back in the locker room, and he called Frazier's son out,
and he apologized to him, and he said, I just want to let you
know that I apologize for what I said about your father and
he's a good man and he's a great boxer and said all these nice
things about Frasier. And man, his son went back so
happy and went back there to the locker room and burst in
the locker room and said, Dad, you won't ever believe it. Ali
apologized. He told him everything that happened.
And he said, isn't that great? Just like the jailer came to
Paul and Silas and said, they said you can go in peace. And
Fraser said, son, you're not me. And he said he did everything
he did and said everything he said in public against me. And he said, he hasn't said anything. He hasn't apologized until he
comes and gets me. and brings me out into the camera
and apologizes to me in public. He hadn't confessed any wrong
and apologized at all. That's what Paul said here. Paul
said, they hadn't done a thing till they come and get me and
bring me out. And Christ said, you hadn't confessed
to him. You've said everything you've
said publicly, done everything you've done publicly, And he
says, we hadn't confessed him till we come to him and come
out in the light and say, I've done this evil in your sight.
I've sinned against you and you alone. You're right. You're righteous. You're all my hope. Do with me
what you will. And he said, then you've confessed
me. Then you've confessed me.