We just had a Bible study on
the subject of denying self. Now, I'd like for us to look
at the subject of confessing Christ. I told you that these
would be two sides of the same coin, and they are. They truly
are. Denying self Confessing Christ. If a sinner confesses Christ,
he will deny himself. She will deny herself. It's one or the other. That's what I want us to start
off with. It is one or the other. It can't be both. You cannot
mix the two. We're either going to deny self or we're going to deny Christ. We're either going to confess
self or we're going to confess Christ, but it's not going to
be both. It's one or the other. May God cause all of us to confess
Christ. It's our prayer. Lord, cause
us to confess Christ. Now, this is gonna be our text
for this message. If you look with me at Matthew
10, verse 32, it says, 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."
From those two verses, we can see that confessing Christ is
critical. It's vital. It's absolutely vital. There is no salvation without
it. None. The God who cannot lie. You know, God does not say anything
that will be thrown away. He doesn't say anything flippantly.
He doesn't say anything. He cannot lie. Every word of
his shall stand. In verse 32 says, 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. That sounds pretty critical,
doesn't it? If we are going to be saved,
Clearly we just saw in our Bible study that we need to deny ourselves. But hopefully we're about to
see that with that we also need to confess Christ. If we are going to be saved,
we must confess Christ. Now I'm about to ask a question.
And don't anybody come running down the aisles, okay? Everybody
stay in your seat. Here's the question. Have you
confessed Christ? Have you confessed Christ yet? It's critical that we all do.
Every soul in here needs to. I am here. I have been placed
right here. I believe I pray by the Lord.
I am here to encourage all of us this morning to confess Christ. Hopefully we're about to find
out what that means, but in order to do that, we are going to need
to forget about baptism for just a minute. I'm going to repeat
that. I'm here to encourage all of
us to confess Christ. And my prayer is that the Lord
is about to reveal to us what that means. And in order for
us to really get a good look at that for just a moment here,
we're going to have to forget about baptism. I'm actually going
to talk about baptism a lot in order to help us forget about
baptism for just a moment. When someone says confess Christ,
everybody automatically thinks baptism, right? And I do want to say, I want
to preface first by saying that baptism is a very important ordinance. It really is. It's an ordinance
that has been given to us by our Lord to observe. Just like the Lord's table is
a very important ordinance to observe. Our Lord said, do this. And we do often, as often as
we do it, we observe the Lord's table. The Lord's table should
not be neglected and water baptism should not be neglected. If it
was not important, I mean, if it honestly was not important
and if it was not something that we should obey the commandment
of our Lord in, we would not have put a baptistry in the new
building. That was a big expense. And if it was not important,
we wouldn't have put one there. Water baptism is an important
And it is a commanded ordinance of the Lord. But if we're going
to get to the heart of what it is to confess Christ, then we
need to forget about water baptism for just a moment. Because, and
I'm telling you the truth right here, countless numbers of people
have entered into a pool of water baptism and have never confessed
Christ. I'm telling you countless, not
able to count them, numbers of people have entered into a pool
of water baptism, but have never confessed Christ. And that's
what I want us to get ahold of. Our Lord said in verse 32, whosoever
therefore shall confess me. We're not going to turn there
for the sake of time, but you can read in the scripture where
it says that men and women came to John the Baptist to be baptized
and they were confessing their sins. That's what it says. They
came confessing their sins. That is a good thing to confess to God. That's a good thing to
confess, but that's not confessing Christ. That's confessing our
sins. It's a very good thing to confess
our sins and to confess that we are sinners, but that's not
what it is to confess Christ. The apostle Paul told a group
of people that in Acts chapter 19, again, for the sake of time,
you can look at it if you want to, but in Acts chapter 19, he
told them that very thing. After he explained to them what
behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world
means he was talking to him and he, he said, you know, as the
Holy Spirit, Come to you. And they said, we didn't know
there was one. And he said, well, then, you know, what have you
been? They said, we were baptized with John's baptism. And he explained
to them what John's message was. John's message. Wasn't baptism.
It was behold the lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of
the world. And after he explained that to him, it says he baptized
him again. Because this time they were confessing
Christ. So their water baptism clearly
was not them confessing Christ. He baptized them again. All right,
now look with me if you would at Romans 10. Our brother just
read this for us. Go over to Romans 10. Romans 10 verse one, it says, Brethren, my heart's desire and
prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. God has
a people and he calls them spiritual Israel. And Paul is talking about
his brethren after the flesh here, but God has a people called
spiritual Israel and they're going to be saved. But concerning
his kinsmen, he said in verse 2, I bear them record that they
have a zeal of God but not according to knowledge, for they being
ignorant of God's righteousness," which is a person, and they're going about to establish
their own righteousness in their own person. And he said, in doing
that, they have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness
of God. Verse 4 says, for Christ, That's
the righteousness of God. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believeth, everyone that
God gives faith to. Salvation is not had by anything
we do. This is a revelation. Salvation
is not had by anything that we do. Salvation is had by everything
that Christ has already done. Verse 3 says, They being ignorant
of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own
righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness
of God. Christ is the end. Finished. Over. The end of the lawful righteousness
to everyone that believeth. So salvation is not by anything
that we do, it's by everything that Christ has done. And when
God puts faith in one of His own, That's what he or she will see
and say. When God gives that faith to
a child, that's what the child sees and that's what the child
says. That will be the confession of
the faith. You've heard about confession
of faith. That will be the confession of
the faith that God puts in the child. God puts the faith of
Christ in his child which means God puts the confession
of Christ there. That's what the faith confesses. With that faith, this is what
the child confesses. God put it there. God did it
all. Look at verse eight right here,
Romans 10, verse eight. But what sayeth it? The word
is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart. It's in your
mouth, it's in your heart. That is the word of faith which
we preach. Verse nine, 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. If you confess with your mouth,
our Lord said, out of the heart the mouth speaketh. So he said, 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. Confession before
God is not made in the water. It's made in the heart. and it
comes out of the mouth. That thief on the cross confessed
Christ, and he never made it into a pool of water. But he
confessed Christ. Think about all the things that
the Lord calls that man to say. He confessed Christ. Just like
him, that's what all of us must do. Let's take just a minute
here and consider what it truly is to confess Christ. Okay, it's
a belief that God puts in the heart of a sinner concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, if God puts that believing
confession in us, what will it be? If God puts that believing
confession in us, What will it be? What are we confessing in
confessing Christ? First, we need to understand
this. To confess Christ is to confess Christ. It's not just to confess God. Paul said they have a zeal of
God. This is Oh, may the Spirit of
God descend on us and open our eyes. It's not just to confess
that there's one God. In the book of James, it says,
you believe there's one God? That's great. The devils believe
that. They know there's one God. So it's not just confessing God.
It's not just confessing religion. People think they need to get
religion. They feel a little guilty and
they think, well, I ought to go get some religion. I know
I need to be back in church. You know how it started out,
right? And somewhere I went wrong and I mean, I need to be saved
and I need to start doing the right thing. No. It's not just to confess God.
It's not just to confess religion. It's not just to confess the
law. This is what a lot of people think. Well, it says I'm supposed
to, so I'd better. I'd better obey the law on it. No. To confess Christ is to confess
Christ. Nothing more, nothing less, nothing
added, nothing taken away. It's to confess Christ, the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now I have five things and I'm
going to be brief, but I have five things concerning confessing
Christ that I believe every child of God in hearing this will say,
yes, that's my confession of him. That's my confession of
him right there. Okay. Number one in confessing
Christ, we are confessing who he is. Something is placed in the heart. God does something in the heart
that causes us to believe on who he is. Turn with me, if you
would, to John chapter 20. John 20, look with me at verse
26. And after eight days again his
disciples were within, and Thomas was with them. Then came Jesus,
the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace
be unto you. Then said he to Thomas, reach
hither thy finger and behold my hands and reach hither thy
hand and thrust it into my side and be not faithless, but believing. And Thomas answered and said
unto him, my Lord and my God. Who is he? He is the Lord God. The Lord means sovereign. He is the sovereign God. Emmanuel, God with us. Who are you talking about? Jesus
of Nazareth. This one that everybody just
sees to be a good man and, oh, we really ought to be more like
him. And he was good because God sent him down. No, God came
down. He is the great eternal. I am. I love how he always just
referred to himself as I am. I am what God. Not generally specifically. He is the one who said to Moses,
you go tell the people I am, this is my name. I am. In John chapter eight, he said,
before Abraham was, I am. He didn't say I was, I am. He said, if you believe not that
I am, you'll die in your sins. All of God's people confess he
is. He that cometh to God must believe
that he is. He is, I am. He is. He is, I
am. This is beautiful. He said, I
am the bread of life. He is. He said, I'm the door. He is. He said, I'm the light. He is. He said, I'm the good
shepherd. He is. He said, I'm the true
vine. He is. He said, I'm the way. I'm the truth, I'm the life.
He said, I'm the resurrection. He is. He said, he that had seen
me hath seen God, I am. In confessing Christ, we're confessing
who he is. That's our confession of him,
isn't it? All right, number two, we are confessing what he did.
In confessing Christ, we're confessing what He did, not what I did.
I deny myself. Confessing Christ is confessing
what He did, okay? What did He do? Just listen to
these, listen to these scriptures. Pray the Lord will make them
a blessing to you. He made Himself of no reputation. Who? God. Made Himself of no reputation
and took upon Him the form of a servant. and was made in the
likeness of men. And being found in fashion as
a man, he humbled himself. And he was touched with the feeling
of our infirmities. In all points, tempted like as
we are, yet without sin. But he bore our sins in his own
body on the tree. And He became obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross. That's what He did, isn't it?
Who is He? He's God. What did He do? He humbled Himself all the way
down to this sinful, wretched place to bear the sin and the
death of His people for them so they wouldn't have to. Number
three. In confessing Christ, we are
confessing why He did it. Why did He do that? I'm going
to tell you. You know, Paul in Romans 10,
he's like, my heart is breaking for these people. My heart breaks
for people. Many, many people do not know
why He did that. They know what He did, but they
don't know why He did it. Many, many people do not know
why He did it. They do not confess why he did
it because they do not know. Why did he do that? There are
so many scriptures I want to turn to for this, but just go
to second Corinthians five. Second Corinthians five. Verse 21 says, For he hath made him to be sin
for us, who knew no sin, that, here's the reason why. Why did
he do that? Why did God the Father lay all
the sin of His people on His Son? Why did He do that? Verse
21 says, we might be made the very righteousness of God Almighty
in Him. Why did He do that for us? Did
He do that for us so that He could show us how to get ourselves
to God? Did He do that to us so that
He could make salvation possible for us? If we would just finish
the work that He started, No. He did that so that He could
purge us from all of our sins. And so that He could forgive
us for all of our rebellion against Him. He did that so that He could
obtain eternal redemption for us. He did it in order to redeem
us back to God by His blood. And He accomplished what He set
out to do. He did it. He did it. He came to save His
people from their sins and He did it. Number four, in confessing Christ,
this is what we're confessing, We are confessing where He is
right now. Is He still in the grave that
they laid Him in? I believe a lot of people think that. He's not. Is He standing at anybody's
heart's door right now knocking and hoping that they'll let Him
in? No, He is not. Where is He? To confess Christ
is to say He is right now seated in the heavens doing whatever
He wants to do. He is reigning and ruling from
His throne. He is doing all things and He
is doing all things very well. Very well. That's what it is
to confess Christ. It's to confess who he is, what
he did, why he did it, and where he is right now. Now, this is
the last component of what it is to confess Christ, okay? Number five is what it means
for me and you. To confess Christ is to confess
what all of that means for me and you. Colossians 2 says it
means we are complete in Him. It means we are safe in Him. We are secure in Him. There is
no condemnation in Him. We have the ability to boldly
approach His throne of grace. and will be accepted in Him and
because of Him. It means in Him, everything that
He is, we are. Everything He endured, we endured. And that's what water baptism
represents. Our Lord gave us two ordinances,
baptism and the Lord's table. One of them represents us in
him, water baptism. You go down, you're engulfed,
us in him. The other one represents him
in us, life in us. Us in him is union with Christ,
us in him. Him in us. And this water baptism
represents everything that He is and has done, we are and have
done in Him and with Him. When you go down, we're saying,
confessing Christ, we're saying, I died in Him. Whoever lives
and believes on Him is never going to die. Why? We already
did in Him. and being fully immersed under
is to say, I was buried in Him. When He was buried, that's it.
It's appointed unto man once to die. That was it. And in Him,
I've risen with Him. But here's the thing about it.
It's all about Him. It's not about my anything or
my thoughts on anything. It's not about Kingsport City
tap water at all. It's all about Him. We are confessing
Him. Anytime us enters our mind, deny
it. Anytime, well, what about deny
it? We're confessing Him. Him, it's all about Him. Now,
let me leave you with this. Okay, I'm done. Let me leave
you with this. If the water is not the issue,
why do we do it? That thief wasn't baptized. He's
in glory. If the water is not the issue,
why do we do it? If the water itself is not our
salvation, and it's not, then why do we do it? Two reasons. Number one, our Lord said so. That's really the best I have
on it. Other than that, I don't know.
Had he not said so, we wouldn't. Our Lord said so. It's not law,
it's not written in the law. He put that away. He said, a
new commandment I give unto you, love each other. The same night he broke bread
and he said, you remember me in this. Why do we do it? Number one, our Lord said so. He said, I want you in these
two ordinances. He said, I want you to do these. And that's, our Lord said so. All right.
Number two, our Lord said in our text, that He commanded us
to confess Him before men. He said, if you confess Me before
men. Our confession to God is in the
heart and it's something He put there. He knows what our confession
is because He put it there. He knows what our faith believes
because He put it there. He's the author and the finisher
of our faith. But He's commanded us to confess
Him before men. And this is what I want to say.
We can confess with our mouth. If you confess with your mouth,
I can do it right now. I can confess to you with my
mouth. But our Lord has chosen this means of water baptism for
our confessing to each other that I bow to this God. Our Lord chose the means of preaching
to call out His people, therefore we do it. And He's chosen to
use this means of water baptism for us to confess to each other,
I want you all to know, I bow to this God. And I believe this gospel. Not the other ones, there is
not another one. But I believe this gospel and
I want to be identified with this faith. and everybody who
has been given this like precious faith. So if you have this confession
of Christ in your heart, if this has resonated with you and you're
saying, yes, yeah, then I want to not only strongly encourage
you to, I'm not in the business of baptizing. The apostle Paul
said, Christ didn't send me to baptize. He sent me to preach
the gospel. I don't ever baptize anybody else. That's his business. But because of what he has said
and instructed, I not only want to strongly encourage you to,
but I want to very happily repeat the command of our Lord through
his apostle. If you have this in your heart
and you're struggling over these things, then just listen to the
word of God's own apostle. Why tarryest thou? Arise and
be baptized. Confess Christ in your heart
to him and confess Christ in his means
to all your brethren and tell all of them, let it be known,
I'm one of you, I'm one of his. I love the story of Philip and
the Ethiopian eunuch. We don't have time to turn there.
Don't you love that story? Philip and the Ethiopian, that
poor eunuch was trying to read Isaiah 53. Man, what a passage. And the Lord prepared his heart
to softly receive the question from Philip, do you understand
what you're reading? The natural flesh says, get away
from me, who do you think you are? He said, how can I except
some man should guide me? And he got up in there and he
read about the lamb slain. Came out as a root, root out
of dry ground, a tender plant. No form nor comeliness in the
sins of God's people was laid on him. He was led as a sheep
to the slaughter. But by his stripes we're healed. And after he preached Christ
to that Ethiopian eunuch, that eunuch said, here is water. What doth hinder me to be baptized?
Can I confess this? Can I be a part of this? Can
I be identified with this? Philip said, if you believe on
Him and His Word with all of your heart, you may. And that
eunuch said, I believe Jesus Christ. I believe that He is
the Son of God. What does that mean, Mr. Eunuch?
That means all the fullness of God dwells in Him. I believe he is God manifest
in the flesh. I believe he is God's provided
lamb sacrificed for sin. I believe he is the only mediator. I believe he is the only way. I confess Christ. Phillip said, let's go. May God cause every soul here,
honestly, to confess Christ. Let's forget about water for
a minute. May God cause every soul here to confess Christ. I pray he'll do a work in our
hearts, and I pray that work will flow out of our mouths,
and I pray it'll cause us to want to be identified with him.
All right, Brother Eddie, you come.