I invite your attention this
morning to Matthew chapter 10, please. Matthew chapter 10, verse 32. When visiting and preaching to
other congregations, I often inquire and ask those who I know
there about folks that I don't know. And the men who visit here
to preach often do the same. with concern and interest, we
ask, has this particular person, has so-and-so confessed Christ? And what we're asking is, are
they a professing believer? But what does it mean to confess
or profess Christ? Have you ever thought about it?
Is confessing Christ walking to the front of the church building?
No, it can't be that. In our Lord's day, they didn't
have church buildings to walk to the front of. Is confessing
Christ giving a detailed account of your sin to the preacher?
No, it can't be that. Our sin is against God and God
only, and the preacher cannot forgive sin or reconcile the
sinner to a thrice holy God. Is confessing Christ making a
decision, raising your hand, repeating a prayer, joining the
church? No, it can't be that. Many have
done those things and still perished in their sin. So I want to ask
you two questions this morning. First, what is it to confess
Christ? And then secondly, have you confessed
Christ? We must answer the first question,
obviously, and to correctly answer the second one. Now here in Matthew
10, verse 32, the Lord Jesus is speaking and He makes a very
crucial statement about confessing Himself. The Lord says here,
Whosoever therefore shall confess Me before men, Him will I confess
also before my Father which is in heaven." Now I'd have you
notice that the Lord makes no distinction here as to who it
is that confesses Him. He says, whosoever. Whosoever,
that's a broad term. It includes everyone. It doesn't
matter who they are. And some are immediately going
to say, preacher, I thought God only saves the elect. He does. And whosoever God in mercy saves
is revealed to be the elect of God. When God saved me by His
grace, though through the preaching of Christ crucified, I didn't
know that I was an elect child of God. I just know that I needed
God. I just knew that I needed the
Lord Jesus. God simply made the gospel of
Christ effectual to my heart, and I believed it. And I didn't
know that I believed because God had chosen me and ordained
me to believe from the foundation of the world, before the world
was ever made, before I'd ever done any good or evil, to reveal
to me that I was saved not by works, but of Him, of God, they
call it. I didn't know that. Whosoever,
therefore, shall confess Me, the Lord says, before men." Who
are these sinners to confess in order to be saved? They're
to confess the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord said, Whosoever, therefore,
shall confess Me before men. We are to confess Christ. The
Lord said, Whosoever, therefore, shall confess Me before men. Now why should sinners confess
Christ before men? In verse 32, again, the Lord
Jesus tells us, the man who confesses Christ, the woman who confesses
Christ, says him or her will I confess also before my Father,
which is in heaven. Now I want Him to confess me
before His Father in heaven, don't you? Sure you do. Now as you know, the word confess
means to admit guilt. The word confess means to plead
guilty. When one confesses of a crime,
they're admitting guilt to doing that crime. How do you plead,
the judge asks? I plead guilty, or I plead not
guilty. It's to confess that the one
that has accused you is right. You've been accused of a crime.
In this case, that crime is sin, disobedience to God. And God
is the accuser. How do you plead? I plead guilty. We confess our guilt. And when we confess our guilt,
what we're saying is that God is right in accusing us. That's what David said in Psalm
51 verse 4. He said, Against thee and thee
only have I sinned and done this evil in your sight. My sin is
against you, God. All of it. That thou, God, mightest
be justified. You might be right. That's what
the word there means. When thou speakest and be clear,
you might be right when thou judgest. When God speaks against
me, when God accuses me of my crime, He's right. And I must
plead guilty. God is right and we are wrong.
And we agree with God. We say this all the time. We
take sides with God against ourselves. Now that word confess also means
to own up to the truth. It means to accept the blame
of our sin. It's to confess Christ as the
only means of the sinner's forgiveness. Have you done that? Has God shown
you by His grace that Christ is the only means of your forgiveness? It's to ascribe the whole of
our salvation to that Christ is our only acceptance before
God. Do men and women, the sinners that we are, the sinners that
they are, really believe that they can, by righteous work that
they do, be accepted of God? Well, the answer is yes. They
do. There are many that think just
that. They really think that they can.
You see, naturally speaking, they've always thought that.
Naturally speaking, they still think that. And naturally speaking,
they always will, unless God divinely intervenes. And Christ
gave us an example of that in Matthew 7, verse 22, when He
said, Many will say to Me in that day, that day of judgment,
Lord, Lord. They profess Him to be Lord.
They say, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name? And
in Thy name have cast out devils, and in Thy name done many wonderful
works? Oh, they call Him Lord with their
lips, but their hearts are far from Him. What is their confession? Well, we've prophesied. We foretold
future events. We've spoken under divine inspiration. We exercise a prophetic office. Does that sound familiar? We
have many today claiming the same things. What is these false
professors' confession? Well, in your name we've cast
out devils. Everybody everywhere anymore seems to be casting out
devils. In your name, we've exercised power over Satan. In your name,
we've done many wonderful works. Not just a few, but many. Not just works, but wonderful
works. We've done many wonderful works. Now, we've done them in your
name, but we've done them nonetheless. But they mention absolutely nothing
of Christ's wonderful works. That's a telltale sign. The gospel
is not what we do for God, it's what God does for us. To confess
Christ is to confess that He alone has done for sinners everything
that God has required of them. And salvation is not about what
sinners do, but about what God has done for them. What we've
done, friends, has no bearing on being reconciled to God. Absolutely
none. None. Matter of fact, a sinner
that talks about what they've done for God knows nothing of
the effectual finished work that Christ has done for chosen sinners.
Confessing Christ is not confessing our works, but confessing His
finished work. It's finished. What's finished?
My salvation. My reconciliation to God, it's
finished. Christ finished the work. He
kept God's law. He satisfied God's justice. And
now in the eyes of God, I'm as holy, righteous, and perfect
as Christ is himself. What a wonderful message this
is. Our Lord said to these do-gooders in Matthew 7, He said, I never
knew you. I never knew you. See, salvation
is God knowing us. I never knew you, depart from
me, ye that work iniquity. Christ calls man so good, so-called
good works, iniquity. That's what God calls them. Well,
we've done this, we've done that. God says iniquity, nothing but
iniquity. Salvation is Christ knowing us. Those that he foreknew from the
foundation of the world. are those that He predestinated,
those who He predetermined to save. They are those that He
affectionately calls by His grace. They are those that He justifies
in Christ Jesus. They are those that He will one
day glorify when they are perfectly conformed to the image of Christ,
His Son, and they're given that sinless body that we've so longed
for. Oh, to think about having a body
without sin? How glorious that is, truly. That's the glory of God. Salvation
is Christ knowing us. The Lord said, My sheep 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. Paul wrote, but if any man love
God, the same is known of him. Salvation is Christ knowing us. Confessing Christ is not simply
confessing that you believe God exists. I know a lot of people
that believe that. It's not to simply confess that
God is the only true God. Why, James said, thou believest
that there's one God, thou doest well. The devils also believe
and tremble. Obviously the devils are not
saved. So it's not enough to just believe that God is the
one and only true God. The devils, demons, believe the
same truth. They know and believe that there
is but one God. And knowing and confessing that
will not save you. Knowing this didn't save these
fallen angels from their first estate when God reserved for
them everlasting chains of darkness until the judgment of that great
day. They believe there's one God and only one God, and yet
they will forever perish when God wraps this shootin' match
up. Confessing Christ is not confessing things about God.
It's not to confess religion. It's not to confess the creeds
of a denomination. You ask someone if they're saved
and they'll say, oh yes, I'm Pentecostal or I've always attended
a Baptist church. That's not confessing Christ.
Confessing Christ is not to confess doctrine. It's not to even confess
the doctrines of grace. It's not to confess to believing
in election. The Lord said, whosoever shall
confess me, me, to a sinner without Christ, God can mean to them
whatever they want Him to mean. Men and women can make a God
out of anything. And most of the time, they make
their God to be themselves. Oh, I picked myself up by my
bootstraps and I chose God. I gave Jesus my heart. I made
Jesus my Lord. No, it's not about what you do.
And you didn't do those things anyway. God can only mean one
thing in Christ. He's a just God and a Savior. And the only way that God can
remain just and justify the sinner is in the Lord Jesus Christ.
You see, that's the issue. God must remain just. He's just
and holy. He can't sweep sin under a rug.
Sin's got to be dealt with. Sin's got to be paid for. Who's
going to pay for it? You? It won't get it done. Sin must be punished in order
for God to remain just. So how then can any sinner be
spared and justified? Only one way. Christ is that
way. He's that truth and He's that
life. And He's the just one that died in the room instead of the
unjust that He might bring them to God. To confess Christ is
to ascribe the whole of our salvation to the Lord Jesus. It's to give
Christ all the glory for saving you by His grace. But it's more
than that. It's not to deny Him. Look at
verse 33. There's that word again. Oh, I don't want to deny Him. To not confess Christ is to deny
Him. You don't have to say that Christ
is not real to deny Him. You don't have to say that Christ
did not come into the world to save sinners to deny Him. You
don't have to say that Christ cannot, Christ will not, and
Christ did not save His people from their sin to deny Him. To not confess Him is to deny
Him. One of the synonyms for that
word deny is refuse. Refuse. Refusing to confess Christ
is to deny Him. Another synonym for the word
deny is renounce. To refuse to confess Christ is
to renounce Him. Another synonym for the word
deny is to turn one's back on. To not confess Christ is to turn
your back on Him. Now I want to briefly give you
four things as to what confessing Christ is, and I want you to
turn with me to Romans chapter 10, if you would. Romans chapter
10, and we'll look at this chapter together. Here, Paul praying
for those he loves in verse one, Romans 10, wrote, Brethren, my
heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel, for those that
he loved, his brothers, so to speak, in the flesh, that they
might be saved. That's something every child
of God wants. We want those of our family,
those of our children, those that we love to be saved, don't
we? Sure we do. And Paul here praying for those,
his heart's desire for those, was that they might be saved.
You see, friends, God is a holy God, and man is an unholy sinner. How can an unholy sinner be just
before a thrice holy God? I'll never forget Brother Mahan
telling me one time, said, these three things ought to be in every
gospel message. How holy God is, how unholy man
is, and how the two can be reconciled together. That's the issue. How
can a wretched sinner like me be reconciled to a God who, when
sin is in His presence, they're consumed. Those with the sin
are consumed. I got to be perfectly righteous.
I have to possess the perfect righteousness of God. Verse 2,
for I bear them, Israel, the ones that I love, I bear them
record, that they have a zeal of God, but not according to
knowledge. Now there's a lot of folks today that have a zeal
for God. They're more zealous than I am. But it's not according
to knowledge, as Paul says here. It's not according to the truth.
For they, being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about
to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves
unto the righteousness of God." Now we know this, anyone who
goes about to establish their own righteousness, to endeavor
to do a work that they call righteousness, in order to reconcile them to
God, is ignorant of God's righteousness. Now that word ignorant just simply
means Unknowing. They don't know. It don't mean
they're stupid. It doesn't mean that they are
imbeciles or anything like that. It just means that they're ignorant
of God's righteousness. To go about to establish your
own righteousness is not to submit to the righteousness of God.
We must submit to God's righteousness. How do we do that? How do we
submit to God's righteousness? By submitting to the Lord Jesus
Christ. By confessing Him to be our Lord
and Savior. By confessing Him to, by His
perfect work of righteousness, putting our sin away. Look at
verse four. This is exactly what Paul's saying.
For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believe it. If you're going to endeavor to
establish your own righteousness, a righteousness by your doing
and by your keeping, then you're gonna have to keep God's law
perfectly. That's the only way that God
will accept you. Verse five, for Moses described
it, the righteousness which is of the law. That's the righteousness
that men attempt to obtain by working, doing something. He
says that the man which doeth those things shall live by them. There's a righteousness that
comes by keeping the law, friends, but it'll never, ever be accepted
because a sinner cannot perfectly keep the law. If you want to
be saved by doing good, then do it. That's what Paul's saying
here. If that's how you want to be saved, then do it. Maybe
it'd be better to say, just try it. Because you won't do it. You can't accomplish it. Your
doing must be perfect if God is going to accept it. So there's
no acceptance in our doing because we can't perfectly do it. That's
why God sent Christ to do for us what we ourselves couldn't
do. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness. If you are going to obtain and
have this perfect righteousness that God requires, it's going
to be through the Lord Jesus Christ, no other way. And that
simply means that Christ perfectly kept the law for us. It's the
only way the law can be perfectly kept, by a perfect man. And that's why Paul says here
in verse 6, don't say you had anything to do with it, paraphrasing,
say not in thine heart, who shall ascend into heaven? That is to
bring Christ down from above. God has already brought Christ
down. What think ye of Him? Christ
came into the world to save sinners. He's already come. In verse 7,
Paul says, Who shall ascend into the deep to bring up Christ from
the dead? God raised Him from the dead.
You didn't have anything to do with it. Verse 8, But what saith
it? 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. So the first thing of the four
in confessing Christ, that we see in confessing Christ, is
that I must believe in my own heart that Christ did for me
what I couldn't do for myself. Gotta believe it in my heart.
According to verse 10, confessing Christ and having His perfect
righteousness begins in the heart. And then verse 11 confirms that
whosoever, there's that word again. Listen, election doesn't
shut anybody out of heaven. Election assures the salvation
of some. And here in verse 11, Paul confirms,
whosoever believes on Christ shall not be ashamed. So if I
am to truly confess Christ, I must do so from my heart. And that immediately brings us
to the second thing. And that is to confess Christ
with my mouth, because that is what I believe in my heart. You
see, it's out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks. Again, verse 9, if thou should
confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in thine
heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be
saved. Now look at this, for with the
heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession
is made unto salvation. So this begins in the heart,
and then it comes out through the mouth. It first begins with
the effectual grace that God instills in a believer's heart,
and then the believer confesses it. This confession is made with
my mouth unto salvation, and I cannot truly confess with my
mouth what is not truly found in my heart. Why, to do so would
make me a hypocrite. It's out of the abundance of
the heart that a man truly speaks. And to do so, to do otherwise,
would be just that. Make me a liar. Now one time
Benjamin Franklin was traveling and someone asked him where he
was going. And Franklin replied, I'm going to hear George Whitefield
preach. And the man that asked him said,
well, you don't believe the way George Whitefield believes. And Franklin said, no, but he
sure does. And I like hearing a man preach
what he believes. But friends, that won't get it
done. That won't get it done. Just because I believe it won't
save you, or just because you believe it won't save someone
else. We must believe in our own hearts. We must confess with
our own mouth that which is in our heart. And let me say this. I didn't want to make this a
message about baptism, but I've got to say this. Baptism is the
scriptural way to confess Christ. I love the story of Philip and
the eunuch. I read it often. I love it. You know the story well. Philip
heard the eunuch and his chariot reading from the book of Isaiah
the prophet, and he asked that eunuch, do you understand what
you're reading? And the eunuch answered this,
how can I except some man guide me? Now listen, if the Lord is
ever going to save you, it's going to be through a preacher.
That's God's ordained means. Through preaching. to save them
that believe. God sent this eunuch a preacher. If you ever understand the Scriptures,
that's how it's going to be. And Philip preached Christ to
that man. It says that Philip opened his
mouth and began at that same Scripture and preached unto him
Jesus. And when they came to some water,
that eunuch said, here's some water. Philip didn't bring it
up. Philip ain't like preachers today.
Won't you come down now? Won't you be baptized? Won't
you give your heart to Jesus? Then you need to get baptized.
Then you need to join the church. And then you need to give us
10%. No, it's not about that. The eunuch asked Philip, he said,
here's some water. What doth hinder me from being
baptized? And do you remember what Philip
said to him? Philip said, if thou believest with all your
heart, if you believe with all your heart, thou mayest be baptized. And the eunuch answered and said,
I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And that eunuch,
he commanded that chariot to stand still, and he and Philip
together went down into the water, and Philip baptized him. Baptism
is confessing that you belong to Christ. It's confessing that
you died with Him, that you were buried with Him, that you are
risen with Him. Baptism is a confession that
these things are so. It's declaring to the world that
you belong to Christ. On the day of Pentecost, we're
told that 3,000 souls gladly received the Word of God and
were baptized. And were baptized. When the scales
fell off Paul's eyes on the road to Damascus, you remember that?
The Lord struck him off his high horse. He had scales on his eyes
he couldn't see. But when the Lord removed the
scales from Paul's eyes, he was baptized. Lydia. Lydia heard
the truth of Christ and was baptized. Some of you have heard the gospel
for several years now and profess to believe. But you have never
been baptized since coming to know the truth. You may have
been baptized under a false gospel, I don't know. But not under the
true gospel, not knowing Christ in spirit and truth. And I mentioned
this at Danny's funeral service as one of the things that made
him so endearing to me. He came up to me and said, I
want to be baptized. And I said, well, Bruce, I thought
you'd been baptized. He said, I was under a false gospel. I
hadn't been baptized. I hadn't confessed Christ since
I came to know the truth. And I want to do that. What hindereth
me to be baptized, he said. Nothing. Because you believe
that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And that He gave Himself
for you. That's the only requirement.
Cornelius heard the Gospel one time and was baptized. That Philippian
jailer heard the Gospel one time and he was baptized. Him and his whole house. The
Lord Jesus Christ, as our example, was baptized. John said, I have
need to be baptized of you. And Christ said, we must fulfill
all righteousness. God has given us the way of baptism
to confess Christ. And it's very puzzling to me
as to why any professing believer would not confess Christ in baptism. To those of you who profess to
believe in Christ and have not been baptized, I have to ask,
are you ashamed to confess Christ before men? Is that why you have
it? Scripture tells us over and over
and over again, believe and be baptized. Now, I'm not going
to get into the debate of whether or not baptism is essential to
be saved. No, it's not. No, it's not. And people always say, Well,
you know, the thief on the cross wasn't baptized. I'm going to
tell you something. If he wasn't hanging on the cross, if he wasn't
nailed to the cross, he would have been. I can assure you of
that. The only thing essential to salvation
is the Lord Jesus Christ. But God commands us to believe
and be baptized. So we should be. Baptism is something
special. Did you hear me? Baptism is something
special. What hinders you? Oh, I pray
that you're not ashamed to confess Christ. Whosoever confesses Christ
before men, Christ will confess before His Father. And whosoever
denies Him before men, He'll deny before His Father. Thirdly,
to confess Christ is to be identified with the things of Christ. It's
to be identified with His church. It's to be identified with His
people. It's to be identified with His
Word. It's to be identified with His Gospel. John said, we know
that we've passed from death unto life because we love the
brethren. He that loveth not his brother
abideth in death. Someone that has no desire to
be with God's people, to worship and sing praises to God with
them, to hear the glorious gospel of Christ with them, are denying
Christ. Turn with me to Acts chapter
2, just a few pages. I want you to see this. Acts
chapter 2. This speaks better than any words
I can speak do. Acts chapter 2 and verse 41. We're told here that they who
gladly received the Word and were baptized, 3,000 of them
on the day of Pentecost, in verse 42 it says, they continued, now
look at this, they continued steadfastly in the apostles'
doctrine and fellowship. You couldn't run them off. You
know, men today plead and beg men and women to come to church.
You can't run a believer off. They're going to want to be there.
They're going to want to hear the Gospel. Verse 44, And all
that believed were together, and had all things common, and
sold their possessions and goods and parted them to all men, as
every man had need. Look down at verse 46. And they,
continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread
from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and
singleness of heart, praising God and having favor with all
the people. And the Lord added to the church
daily such as should be saved. And friends, that's what it is
to be identified with the things of Christ. That's what it is
to confess Christ. First, to confess Christ is to
believe with all your heart that Christ is the Savior. Secondly, to confess Christ is
to confess with your mouth that which you believe in your heart.
Thirdly, to confess Christ is to be identified with God's people
and God's gospel. And then fourthly and lastly,
to confess Christ is to confess Him in our daily walk. Turn with me to James chapter
2. This is the last place I'll turn you and I'll finish. James
chapter 2. James chapter 2 and verse 14. The Apostle James asked this
question. I'll give you a moment to get
there. James 2 verse 14. James asked, What doth it profit,
my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and hath not works? Can faith save him? Now it's
the kind of faith that produces no good works. Can the type of
faith that produces no good works really be saving faith? Verse 15, if a brother or sister
be naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto
them, depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled, notwithstanding
you give them not those things which are needful to the body,
what doth it profit? A man is naked, a man is freezing,
he's hungry, and you tell him to be warm and give him no clothes
or a coat? How can he be made warm? A man
is hungry, he's starving, he's famished, and you say, hey, eat
up and be filled, but you don't give him any food? How is he
supposed to be filled? And James says in verse 17, even
so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. And this
is the kind of faith that most in our day don't have. It's not saving faith, and it
denies the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at verse 18. Yea, if a man
say thou is faith, and I have works, show me thy faith without
thy works, and I'll show you my faith by my works. My mother used to say, as you
know, my mother had a lot of sayings. Most of them didn't
make any sense. A lot of times you just scratch
your head and go, I have no idea what she's just saying. But my
mother used to say this, put your money where your mouth is.
That's what faith is. It's putting action with what
you believe. For if you don't, what does it
profit? That's what James is saying.
Put your money where your mouth is. So let me close with the
second question. I told you in the very beginning
I had two questions. Here's the second one. Have you
confessed the Lord Jesus Christ? If you have, then believe in
Christ's finished work with all your heart. If you have, confess
boldly with your mouth what God has put in your heart. If you
have, you're identified with God's church, which is His people. And if you have, you prove your
faith in Christ by how you walk day in and day out. By His grace,
may God enable each of us to confess the Lord Jesus Christ,
because it's by His grace that He will confess us before His
Father. You see, friends, when it comes
right down to it, it's all of grace. And we call it sovereign
grace. It's the only kind of grace there
is. God is sovereign and His grace is sovereign. It's effectual.
It always accomplishes what He sends it to do, just as His Word
does. And it's for God's glory, and
it's for our good, and it's for Christ's sake. May God enable
us to believe these things.