And who is sufficient for these
things? This blasphemy against the Holy
Spirit is a difficult thing. But, alright, verses 8 through
10, our Lord is speaking to his disciples. He says, I say unto
you, whosoever shall confess me before men, him shall the
Son of Man also confess before the angels of God. But he that
denieth me before men shall be denied before the angels of God. And whosoever shall speak a word
against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him. But unto him
that blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven. It shall not be forgiven. What we're going to look at is
confessing Christ, denying Christ, forgiveness, and blasphemy. Verse 1, it says that there was
an innumerable multitude of people, so much that they were walking
all over one another. So many people. There are more
people now than ever, aren't there? More people on this earth
than ever. It's fitting. that we look at this because
there are so many profess... These were people who came to
hear him. Many of them claim to believe
him. Okay? How fitting this is because there
are more professing Christians now than ever before. More professing Christians than
ever. Most of whom do not know him
and have not confessed and believed and confessed the true Christ. Most of them have not, but they've
only accepted a poor Jesus who is a fire escape for them. Now
you know it's that. You know it's that. Most deny
The Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord's talking about confessing
and denying. And most people who, like this
multitude of people, they ended up, the vast multitude, ended
up saying, kill him. Right? And just a few did not,
a few believed. But most today deny the Lord
Jesus. Most people deny His sovereign
person. They deny His finished work,
they deny it, and they blaspheme, many people blaspheme the Holy
Spirit, who is the spirit of truth. And the scriptures talk
about turning away ears from the truth. I don't want to hear
that. And many of them call the truth doctrines of devils. Don't they? So, this is prevalent
now. And our Lord said, first of all,
you remember that, beware of the 11 of the Pharisees, which
is hypocrisy. All right? Acting apart. We looked at that in depth. Playing
apart. Don't play at this. He's talking
to his disciple. He began to say to His disciples
first of all, see that? Because His disciples are the
only ones who are going to hear that. God's true people are the
only ones who are going to hear it. Because He has to give you
ears to hear it. And we're convicted by this.
And like His children, we're chastened, we're reproved, rebuked,
corrected, instructed in righteousness. He says, beware of hypocrisy. Don't play a part. Don't act. Don't do anything to be seen. Like the Pharisees, don't pray
a prayer to be heard by men. Don't do it. Don't play at anything,
but don't play at death. This is what he's saying. Beware
of hypocrisy. There's so many. And you know
it's so. Religion is such a farce today.
It's a facade. It's a game. It's for earthly advantage. To
be seen. It's to save face. It's to get
businesses. You put a fish on your side,
you get more business that way. It's an abomination to God. Draw
near with the lips and the heart's fire. And to do what you do in
the name of God, for money, for advantage. Do anything but that. You know, it would be better
to be a harlot in this world than a Pharisee. That's what
the Lord said. He said the harlots of the public
are going to go in before Pharisees. That's what He said. He said
it's going to be easier in the judgment. more tolerable in the
judgment for a harlot, a streetwalker, than a pharisee, a professing
preacher, false preacher of the gospel. It's going to be more
tolerable for a harlot. That's serious. Don't play at
that. He told his disciples, remember he's speaking to his
disciples, nothing covered that won't be revealed The darkness is light to the
Lord. Nothing covered. Everything spoken
in the ear is going to be heard on the housetop. It's going to
be revealed. The books are going to be opened, our Lord said.
And He tells them in verse 3, whatever you've spoken in the
darkness will be heard in the light. And in Matthew's account
it says, whatever I tell you, you go speak it from the housetop. Don't be ashamed. Don't hide
there. In other words, our Lord doesn't
have any secret disciples. He just doesn't. And people that claim to believe
this but don't preach it, they're a liar. They're a liar. With the heart, man believe it.
Whatever your heart believes, the mouth speak it, out of the
abundance of the heart, a staunch Democrat will, you know, he'll fight you
over his political beliefs. Well, that ain't worth fighting
over. It doesn't matter whether you're
a Republican or a Democrat. It doesn't. Who's on the Lord's
side? What make you cry? He said in verse 4 and 5, fear not
man. Don't fear man. Oh, is that ever... Revelation 21 says this, if you
want to turn you can. This is a striking revelation. verse of scripture. Have you
ever seen this? Revelation 21, verse 7, he says,
He that overcometh shall inherit all things. What is it that overcomes
this world? How are we going to get through
this world and not be consumed by it? Faith. Believe in Christ. Trust in Him. Believe in Him
and not believe in man. Trust in God and not trust in
man. That's how faith is overcome.
All right, read on. It says, I'll be his God. He'll
be my son, but the fearful and unbelieving. Have you ever read that? Oh, the Lord has struck this
world with fear in it. They're afraid of what? Not Him. They're not afraid of Him. I'm afraid of dying. Our Lord says the fearful and
unbelieving, they go together. Fear of man, not God. Fear of
losing your life, rather than fear of losing your soul. That's
what we ought to be afraid of. The unbelieving. Whosoever believes
with the heart and mouth speaking out of the heart are the issues
of life. Someone really knows and loves
God and loves Christ and loves the truth, boy, they're going
to tell it. Christ will be their life. All
right, go on. Verse 8 of our text says it. Here's what the Lord said, Now
whosoever shall confess Me, And he allays their fears by saying,
you're worth more than sparrows. The Lord feeds sparrows, clothes
the lilies, houses the sparrow. You ever wonder where sparrows
and all these birds go when these two-foot snows come? Where do
they go? Don't you ever wonder? And then
the next day, the sun will come out, and they do too. Where were
they? Why weren't they killed, all
of them? God. If He cares for the little sparrow,
you know, we feel so responsible for our birds that we feed. At
times I let the bird feeder get empty, you know, oh no, oh no,
what are they going to eat? They don't need me. They don't
need me. God feeds them. If he feeds them,
so, and then he says, your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore,
you are worth more value than many spirit. Now, also I say
unto you, verse 8, whosoever shall confess me before men,
him shall the Son of Man also confess before the angels of
God. Now what is it to confess Christ?
Well, to confess Christ is to do just that, confess Him. Him. If you confess with your
mouth the Lord Jesus, Romans 10 and 9. You confess with your
mouth, no, I believe in Jesus. No, no, no. It's to confess the
Lord Jesus. When you hear that name, Jesus,
your knee will bow, if you ever hear of Him and believe Him,
that He's Lord. Your knee will bow and your tongue
will call Him Lord. And the Holy Spirit does this.
He creates the fear of God, conviction of sin, righteousness, and judgment,
all concerning Christ. And you'll feel like the chief
of sinners on earth, and you'll hear that Christ is your only
hope, and you'll hit the knee, bow the knee, and call on the
name of what? The Lord. Lord, save me. Right there. And if He does,
you'll confess Him. To confess Him is to confess
He's the Lord God who made this world. And He's your Lord. Like Barnard said, you can't
accept some Savior and not have Him as Lord. No, you don't make
Him Lord. What you find out first, here's
what God does. The thing you find out first
is He's your Lord. You don't know if He's your Savior
or not. You know he's your Lord and you're in his hand. That's
what Saul of Tarsus found out, that he was in the hands of this...
He thought he was just Jesus. He found out he's Lord and my
life is right now hanging in the balance in his hands. He
can kill me or make me alive. He can damn me or he can save
me. Lord, what wilt thou? Oh, he was a free willer. He's
not now. You know, he went around saying,
well, tell you what I'm going to do with Jesus. And then when
he met the Lord, he, what are you going to do with me? This
happens to every son of Adam that God purposed to save and
sent Christ to die for and sends the Holy Spirit to the preaching
of the gospel. It's the first thing they hear.
He's your Lord. I don't know if he's your Savior
or not. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The
knowledge of the Holy is understanding. He's holy, I'm not. He saves
me, hallelujah, if He doesn't, what I deserve. Right. So it's to confess Him. He's
the Lord, He's God, He's Christ. Christ, what's that mean? There's one person God will accept
on behalf of any human being. It's the Messiah, it's the Christ,
it's the covenant head. That's who it is, it's the Christ.
It's prophet, priest, king. Prophet, priest, king. That woman
at the well, remember? She said, when Messiah's come,
that prophet, he'll tell us all things. Damn. Dropped her water pot. She didn't
just drop her water pot, she dropped her religion. She said,
our fathers, we were Methodists, you're Baptists. She dropped
that. She now knows the truth. Christ, that prophet, that priest,
some in here were Catholics and confessed your sins to a man.
Boy, you regret that, don't you? You look back on that and you
think, you're ashamed, don't you? Boy, you've got a high priest
now. He's not sitting in a little
dark booth. He's sitting at the right hand of the majesty on
high. He's the only one able to forgive sin. And here's what
He said, I'll forgive them all. Frankly, freely, completely,
eternally, forgive them all. Confess them, they're gone. Why
would you want another? King. We have a king. We have a king. Oh my, this is...
and His people are His king. Now let me go on. To confess
Christ is to confess Him. He's the only... Way, truth,
and lie. Only way to God, only truth.
All other religions, all other ways are a lie. Everything man
says is a lie. Only what Jesus Christ said is
true. You remember the woman, the Canaanite
woman, when she came to him and wanted help and he said, he said,
tell her I'm only sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,
the elect. I'm here for the elect. Now,
that would turn away most people, wouldn't it? I don't believe
in that election. Whether you believe it or not, it's true. Christ said so. All right? Secondly,
he said, not fit to give the children's bread to dogs. You
know what she said? First, he ignored her. He didn't
even speak to her. Now, that would turn away most
everybody. How could he ignore me? When it's all said, everything
our Lord said, you know what she said? One word. Truth. You're the truth. Everything
you say out of your mouth is truth. Everything you say about
me is truth. Everything you say about salvation
is truth. Everything you say about yourself
is the truth. Thou art the truth. The way,
the truth. And she uttered that simple prayer,
Lord help me. Did he? That's who he came for, the helpless,
those who believe his truth. He asked his disciples one time,
whom do men say that I am? And they began to say this and
that and the other, you know, good man, and they say many things
today. Time Magazine one time had a picture of this, of Wild
Bill Hickok on the cover, you know, and it said, who is Jesus? That's what that guy, that depiction
of Jesus looks like, Wild Bill Hickok, just like him. One of
the brethren, you know, he's on the rock, you know. One of
our brethren said, he's holding aces and spades. He's about to
get shot. He needs to be made fun of. That's
an idol. That's a graven image. Who is
Jesus? And men, they have all different
opinions, aren't they? He said to his disciples, whom
do you say that I am? Simon Peter. Have the heart to
mouth speak. Thou art the Christ. The Christ. There is no other. The Son of
the Living God. The Son of David. The Messiah. The Covenant Head.
The Second Adam from above. The Holy One of Israel. The One
sent by God. Your God come to earth. Thomas,
what do you say? You're my Lord and my God. No man cometh unto the Father
but by you. To confess Christ is to confess
His person, it's to confess His work, His will. The leper came down, many people
followed him. One man who was a leper came
and worshipped him, didn't he? What did he say? Lord, if you
will. That's worshipping. You can make
me clean. You don't have to. I can't do
it. if you will. I can't will it, and I can't
cleanse myself. Only you can, if you will. What
did the Lord say? I will. To confess Him is to
deny yourself. When you confess Christ, you
deny yourself. When you deny Christ, you'll
confess yourself. We're going to look at Matthew
7 in a minute. But to confess Him and deny yourself is to say,
He's holy. I am nothing but sin. He's true. I'm false. False and full of
sin I am. He's righteousness. I'm wrongness. Everything about me is wrong.
Iniquity. He's sovereign. I can't do anything without Him.
He's all. I'm nothing at all. He's my only
salvation. There is no other. That's to
confess crime. And if He does save you, and
He said He would, you'll confess Him. You won't confess you. You'll
say, when people ask you, are you saved? You say, yes, I believe
the Lord has saved me. That's what you'll say, the Lord
has saved me. Not I got saved. The Lord saved me. The Lord had
mercy on me. The Lord revealed Himself to
me. The Lord sent the gospel and gave me ears to hear it.
The Lord was gracious to me. This is the language of everyone
that God saved. The Lord did it. Not I, I, I,
I, I, I, I. Him, Him, Him, Him, Him. Right? If somebody drowned saving you,
would you go around talking about how you let them save you? No way. No way. You'll be speaking that person's
praises for the rest of your life. And if God saves you, that's
what you'll say. Let the redeemed of the Lord
say something. What? The Lord redeemed them.
That's what they're saying in heaven. He hath. Unto Him. Unto Him. Unto Him. He hath.
Brought us. Brought us. Taught us. Saved
us. Kept us. Salvations of the Lord. And you'll
confess it. What is it to confess the Lord?
Turn to Acts chapter 2. It's to be baptized. Our Lord
said this, He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.
Rich, are you saying that you've got to be baptized to be saved?
I didn't say it. Jesus Christ said it. End of argument. At Pentecost here, There was
not one person that said, do I have to be baptized? There
was not one person that said the thief on the cross wasn't
baptized. Every single person that heard
the gospel, what did they hear? They heard a sovereign Christ
on the throne, crucified. buried, risen, reigning and ruling. Let all the house of Israel know
that this same Jesus whom you crucified, God hath made him
Lord." And Peter sat down. He didn't ask for an altar call.
He didn't say, now what are you going to do? He sat down. What
happened? The Holy Spirit of God pierced
their hearts. We've killed God, God's Son. Now He's going to kill us. What
shall we do? Repent. Believe. And be baptized,
every one of you. You know what happened? Look
at Acts 2, verse 41. They that gladly received his
word, Peter said, he said, your sins will be gone, just confess
them. Oh, really? They were baptized,
all of them, every one of them. And baptism is, you're not confessing
yourself when you're baptized, you're confessing Christ. You're
confessing you were crucified with Christ, buried with Christ,
risen with Christ, in Christ, that what Christ did on the cross,
hopefully you pray, you believe, He did it for you. That Christ
was made sin? You say, I'm a sinner and I deserve
to be made a curse, be cast out, but I believe, I hope, I pray
that Christ was cast out for me, that Christ was forsaken
for me, that Christ was made a curse for me. That's what you're
saying when you're baptized. And when he was buried, this
old man deserves to die and be buried and put out of sight,
out of mind, let him be gone forever. That's what you're saying. But
I hope and pray that I've been quickened together with Christ
as He rose by the Spirit of God. I've been raised to walk in newness
of life. What's life? His! That's what
you're saying when you're baptized. You're not confessing yourself.
You're confessing Him. And if you haven't confessed
this Christ, you haven't confessed Christ. If you made a profession
of some Jesus you accepted, you have not confessed the Lord Jesus
Christ. And the sooner you do it, the
better. Why wouldn't you? Do you know what it costs Saul
of Tarsus to be baptized? He's going to be the next high
priest, Saul of Tarsus. Do you know what it costs him
to be baptized? Everything. He lost it all. His reputation, his seniority. He lost his seniority. He thought
he'd been saved for years. Now he's just a babe. They lead
him around by the hand. He said, that's just fine with
me. I'll just be a babe and it came from here on out. And he
was baptized. He lost all his friends. He lost
all his status. He lost his religious seniority. Who cares? He said, it's all
done. Now that I have Christ, I have
all that. I don't need it. I need Him. Alright, look at the next verse.
Acts 12, it says, He that denieth me before men shall be denied
before the angels of God. To deny Him. To deny Him. Now turn with me to Matthew 7.
Matthew chapter 7. And now, for our comfort, here's
for the comfort of every believer, because every believer has denied
Him. Still denies Him. We deny Him
by our attitudes. We deny Him by our silence. We
deny Him by our sins. We deny Him by our unbelief and
our fears. We deny Him. Don't we? It's really a worse denial. But
God is so merciful. He knows our prime. And so many,
all believers have denied Him. Every one. Simon Peter, oh my,
he saw more than you and I am. And he denied Him. Didn't he? What happened? The Lord looked
at him. The Lord just looked at him.
You ever had the Lord look at you through His Word? He went out and wept bitterly.
You know what he thought? I just have one more opportunity. I'll confess him to high heaven.
He did. He laid down his life for him.
He's crucified for him. That would be him. There was a man named Thomas
Chalmer. He was bishop in England, 1555, exactly 400 years before
I was born. High-ranking bishop. He preached
the truth. Back when the Reformation all
was going on, he preached the truth, Martin Luther and all
that. He preached the truth. Well, they were, Buddy Queen
Mary was starting to kill people. And he got scared. Thomas Chamberlain,
he got scared. And they were passing around
a petition, the men who would sign it to denounce the truth. to renounce the truth, and he
signed it. A little while later, his heart
was so convicted. He said, I couldn't eat, couldn't
sleep, couldn't go home for days, for months, couldn't preach,
couldn't do anything. I had denied my Lord. Well, he then recanted
his recantation. He quickly told everybody, you
know what I renounce? I believe it. I believe him. Well, he was sentenced to burn
at stake, to burn his body alive for the truth's sake. And he
said, when I go to that stake, don't tie up my right hand. Don't tie up my right hand, because
I want it to burn first. That hand, and while he was dying,
he said, oh wretched hand, oh wretched hand that denied my
Lord. He hung it in the fire. And then he said his last words
were, Lord Jesus, receive my spirits. You reckon he did? Our Lord said, whosoever shall
speak a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven him.
That's hard to understand, isn't it? Everybody at Calvary was speaking
against him, weren't they? Everyone up, Saul of Tarsus was
speaking against him. All of those soldiers were taking
great pleasure in killing him, and the people were all crying,
crucify. But our blessed Lord, hanging
on that cross, you know who he came for? Sinners. The ones that
put him there. And the first word, Father, forgive
them. Who's he praying for? At least
3,000 persons all around that cross, crying for his crucifixion. And I wasn't there, but if I
had been, I'd have been doing the same thing. And I lived years
without giving a thought. I don't care about that. Same
thing. And the Lord saved 3,000 men,
not to mention women and children, though they spoke a word against
the Son of Man. And now, like Saul of Tarsus.
Saul of Tarsus now went around saying, you know the one I used
to deny? I believe him now. I believe him now, by God's grace. Matthew 7, I was going to have
you look at it. To deny our Lord, and this is the blasphemy of
the Holy Spirit also. Because the Spirit is the Spirit
of truth, takes the things of Christ, and what this is, I've
got to hurry. It's a final denial of Christ,
an apostasy, it's leaving, turn away from the truth. And here
in Matthew 7, here are some people that... Claimed to confess Him, but didn't.
They were confessing themselves. Verse 21, Not everyone that saith
unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. He
that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. What's the
will of God? This is the will of Him that sent me, that everyone
that seeth the Son believeth on Him, I'll raise him up. And
this is the will. Believe on the Son. These people didn't
believe in Christ. They believed in themselves.
Look at it. Many will say to me in that day,
Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name? Have we not in Thy
name cast out devils? Have we not in Thy name done
many wonderful works? Are they confessing Him? Are they confessing Him, cast
out a devil in them? Are they confessing His wonderful
work of redemption on the cross? No, they're confessing Himself.
So they're denying Him. and they're confessing themselves.
And he says, I profess unto them, I never knew you. He denied them
before the angels. So deny him is to deny his person,
his sovereign will, his power, his truth, his righteousness.
And to confess, that's to confess yourself. Yourself. One more scripture. Hebrews 6. And our Lord said, But unto him
that blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven.
And this is difficult. But this is the best way we can
understand this. Here's what this says in a couple
of verses in Hebrews, alright? Hebrews chapter 6. And Paul spoke
of the Holy Spirit more than anyone. And Romans 8, the Holy
Spirit is mentioned more than any other place. And he talks
about being led of the Spirit, dwelling of the Holy Spirit.
And Christ talked about the Holy Spirit being the teacher of truth
and taking the things of Christ and showing them unto us and
giving us repentance and faith and crying. In Hebrews 6, look
at verse 4. It's impossible for those who
were once enlightened Now here's what this is talking about. It's
talking about apostasy. Someone hearing the gospel, claiming
to believe the gospel, being part and parcel of everything,
have tasted of the heavenly gift, claim to believe and love it
and like it, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost. He's not dwelling
in them, not led by him, but they were hearing and claim to
believe the gospel of truth. Verse 5, they've tasted the good
word of God and the powers of the world to come. If they shall
fall away, if they shall leave, it's impossible to renew them
again under repentance, seeing they crucify to themselves the
Son of God afresh and put him to open shame. But I love verse
9, Beloved, we're persuaded better things of you, things that accompany
salvation. It's not possible that the sin
against the Holy Spirit, the sin, unpardonable sin, God's
people cannot sin it. They cannot fall away. Peter
denied Him, but when the Lord called him, he came diving into
the water back, didn't he? Crawling back to Him. One more,
I said one more. Hebrews 10, look at this. Hebrews
10, look at this. It expressly speaks of despising
the Spirit of God. Verse 23, let us hold fast the
profession of our faith without wavering. He's faithful. cling to him. Let us consider
one another, provoke unto love and good works, not forsaking
the assembly of ourselves together, as a manner of some is. Many
went away, and Simon Peter said, to whom shall we go? Exhorting
one another, so much more as you see the day approaching,
if we sin willfully. That means leaving the gospel. Departing from the living God.
That's what that meant. Apostasy. After we've received
the knowledge of the truth, there's no more sacrifice for sin. A
certain fearful looking for judgment, fiery indignation, which shall
devour the adversaries. Down in verse 29, it says, How
much sore punishment, suppose you, shall he be thought worthy,
who trodden underfoot, the Son of God, the one you claim to love, counted
the blood of the covenant that you claim redeemed you, and that
holy thing, you don't need it anymore, and hath done despise
unto the Spirit of grace. God says vengeance belongeth
to me. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the
living God. I believe that's what he's saying there. So what
about us? What about you? What about me?
Do you confess Him? Do you deny yourself? Is this words of life to you?
Is Christ your life? Is He? Okay. Alright.