Now go back with me to Luke chapter
12. Let's read verses 8 and 9 again. Luke 12. Verses 8 and 9, the Lord Jesus
Christ speaking to his disciples says, Also 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. Joseph Parks is coming this morning to confess
the Lord Jesus Christ in believer's baptism according to the Lord's
command, who said, He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved,
and he that believeth not shall be damned, those that publicly
confess the Lord Jesus Christ before men. He said, I will confess
before the angels of God. And in thinking about that, confessing
Christ, this Scripture came to my mind. Thinking about him confessing
Christ in baptism, these words came clearly to my mind, what
is it to confess Christ? He said, he that confesseth me,
whosoever shall confess me before me, what is it to confess Christ? And in a minute, what is it to
deny him? Well, the answer, you can be
turning to Romans 10. Romans chapter 10. The answer
is actually in the question, or in what our Lord said. Whosoever
shall confess me, to confess Christ before men,
is to confess Him, who He is, why He came, what He did. and whether or not he did it.
Where he is now and that he's coming again to confess him is
this confession of Christ. Romans 10 is a chapter many,
many people in religion use. But I really don't believe, they
believe this, everyone believes it with their heart. I know because
their mouths condemned them. Verses 9 and 10. Romans 10, 9
and 10 says that if thou shalt 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.
For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with
the mouth confession is made unto salvation." The Lord Jesus,
or as Brother Barnard used to say, confess Jesus to be Lord. The Lord Jesus. What it is to
confess Christ is to confess that that man who came to this
earth 2,000 years ago is God, is the Lord. He's our God. He's Creator. To confess Christ
before men is to say that that one who came is the one who made
this earth. The earth is the Lord's and the
fullness thereof, the world in They that dwell therein, the
fullness thereof, everything about it is the Lord. That he
is Lord. He is sovereign. Not a figurehead. Certainly not Lord if you let
him. That means he's not Lord. If
there's anything anyone can let him do, he's not God. He's not
Lord. He's sovereign. To confess Christ
before men, the Lord Jesus, is to confess that He is Lord, that
He does as He will, with whom He will, because He will. That's
what it means to be LORD, the Lord. To talk of man having a free
will is to deny. the Lordship of Jesus Christ. It's to deny Him who said, I
will. I will. His will alone is sovereign. To confess Jesus Christ, the
Lord Jesus Christ, is to say that He's the Judge over all.
He's the Lord. Lord. You know, over in England,
you have the House of Lords. Those fellows that wear wigs,
powdered wigs, they still wear them. Lords. Well, they're not.
But the Scripture says, and you know those fellows make the laws
and people bow and scrape to those fellows. Well, Scripture
says he's Lord of Lords. Small l-o-r-d. He's capital L. King, capital K, of kings. It goes on to say in Scripture
that the king's heart That is, the very heart, the mind, the
will of the most powerful monarch on earth, whoever, just name
somebody. The king's heart is in the hands
of the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ. See, man got it all backward.
What will you do with Jesus? Here's the question. What's He
going to do with us? See, this is what Peter preached
at Pentecost. Peter preached at Pentecost.
He said, men, ye men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth,
they all knew who that was. A man approved of God, they knew
that. By signs and miracles and wonders,
whom you crucified, you saw Him hanging on that tree, didn't
you? You put Him there. God hath made him Lord, and you're in
his hands to do with as he pleases. And it struck them with fear. It's not just Jesus. It's the
Lord Jesus. And our Lord said then, well,
did Isaiah prophesy of this people? This people draw near to me with
their lips. They say, Lord, Lord. When they
don't believe in their heart that He is really Lord, or else
they would fear Him. They'd be afraid to call His
name. They'd be afraid to say the things
they say about Him. Be afraid to do all that they
do. In Jesus' name. The Lord. To confess Him is to confess
before all men. He's Lord. He's Lord. He's the judge over all. Now,
if you're the judge, does a criminal come before you
to accept you? You've got a guilty man here
and he deserves to die. He deserves to die. And he's
standing before the judge. Can you imagine what that judge
would do if the man stood before him and said, you know, I've
been praying about this and thinking about this. He said, I've decided
to let you pardon me. Yeah, I've accepted you as my
personal savior. What would you do? I don't know
what I would do. Bailiff, bind him hand and foot and cast him
in prison. I'm the judge here. I do the
accepting. That's Christ. That's the Lord
Jesus. Now I've got good news for you.
Everyone that comes in guilty as charged, everyone that comes
bowing before this sovereign judge of the universe, a just
God, Who by no means cleared the guilty. Every single one
that comes before him with a rope around their neck and says, I'm
guilty as charged, undeserving, unworthy of thy favor. I need
mercy. Would you please be merciful
to me, O Lord Jesus Christ. Every single one, he says, Bailiff,
loose him and let him go. And not just
that, he's coming home with me. My son. To confess Him. He's a judge. Confess Him. He's
a judge. He's a creator. He's a sovereign.
He's the ruler. Fear the Lord, he said. That's
when you know somebody's met the Lord Jesus Christ. When they
start fearing Him. Fear the Lord. He is Lord. He
is Lord. Not when you let Him be Lord. Just when He lets you know it.
This is what happened. He let you know it. They're going
to know. He said, my people, I've chosen
them that they might know me, that I'm the Lord. To confess
Him is to acknowledge before all men His Lordship, His authority,
His head. He's the head over all principalities
and powers. To tell this world, Satan's not
Lord. No, no, no. Jesus Christ is. It shocks people, you know, when
you tell them that Satan can only do what the Lord allows
him to do, they think. And then they accuse God of,
you know, well, I'm not going to get into that, but read Job. He's Lord. Confessed before men. I don't understand it fully.
But I believe. That's what the Scriptures tell
us. To confess Him before men is to say, He is holy. His holiness. It's to call Him our Father. His holiness. Reverend. Holy
and reverend is His name. His holiness. His and His alone. There are no holy men on this
earth. No, sir. Jesus Christ is holy. He's holy. To confess Him before men is
to confess His salvation. We saw that in Psalm 3. Salvation belongs to the Lord.
It's His. It's His. It's not up for men
to accept. It's up to Him to give. It's
His. It belongs to Him. Salvation
belongs to Him. It's His right. It's His prerogative,
isn't it? It's His. You can't demand it. To confess before men the Lord
Jesus Christ is to confess His righteousness and His alone.
David in Psalm 71 mentioned the Lord's righteousness several
times. And he said, I will make mention of thy righteousness
and thine alone. Many go about to establish one
and think they have one, you know, their good works and their
religion and all that, and think, well, God's now pleased. No,
He's not. The Lord is well pleased for
His righteousness sake, Christ's righteousness, His righteousness. In Romans 10 it says, Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes it.
This is what the heart believes, that Christ is the Lord, our
righteousness. This is what they believe. His
blood to confess before men that it's the blood of Jesus Christ,
God's Son, that puts away sin. Not my penance, not my repentance,
not my good works, not my turning over a new leaf, not me being
sorry for my sin. It's the blood of Jesus Christ.
That's what atones for my soul. That God sees the blood and He
passes over me. Not because He sees that I'm
trying my best. It's the blood. The blood. To confess Christ before men
is to confess that He is wisdom. He and He alone is the wisdom
of God. Everything else is foolishness.
It doesn't matter what men say. It's foolishness. Let God be
true and every man a liar. And God says the whole truth
and nothing but the truth is Jesus Christ. He's all the wisdom
of God. And by His knowledge, His knowledge,
Shall the righteous servant of God justify man to confess before
men that he is the power of God unto salvation? His life, his
blood, his righteousness, his work, his work, his sanctification. To confess before men is to confess
that the only reason God separates sheep from the goats, what makes
sheep not goats, and so forth, is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. By the witch will, we were sanctified
through the offering of the blood of Jesus Christ, and once more,
sanctified by Christ. He is our sanctification. To
confess before men Jesus Christ is to confess that he is the
intercessor, the only one. There is only one mediator between
God and man, and that is the man, Christ Jesus. He is the
only one God hears. He will hear, God will hear everyone
that comes to God by Him. No other. There is no other.
You see, what is this all about? Well, one more time. This is
to the praise of the glory of our God, His grace in Christ. It's all about His glory. That
according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory
in the Lord. Not our church, not our decision,
not in baptism, not in anything but Him. To confess the four
men is to confess this whole thing, everything is about Him. By Him, through Him, to Him,
for Him, because of Him, it's Him. It's Him. Not us. Not Him and us. It's Him. That's
to confess Christ. And salvation is for the Lord
to show you that. To show you His glory. That's
His glory. To reveal His glory. He said
in John 17, Father, I will that those whom thou hast given me
be with me where I am, that they might behold my glory. He said, in the glory you gave
me, I've given to them. Just like those three He took
up on the mountain that day to see who He really was. He's done
that to many in here. To confess Jesus Christ the Lord,
Jesus Christ before men, is to confess our sin. Go over to 1 John chapter 1. To confess Christ, the Lord Jesus
Christ before men, is to confess our sin. It's to say, I am a hell-deserving
sinner. And when we talk about sin, that's
what it means to know you're a sinner. We're talking about
a hell deserving sinner. Joseph came to me the first part
of the week, last week, and he had his Bible with him. Kelly, open to Psalm 38. You
read that. And he said it blessed him so
much. And he wanted to read it to me again. He said, this is
me. Didn't you? He said, that's me. Psalm 38. Psalm 51. God be merciful to
me. He said that publicly. He said,
that's me. See, this is for those who know
what they are. And that's why they need Christ,
you see. To confess Christ is to confess you're a hell-deserving
sinner and will forever perish unless the blood of Jesus Christ,
God's Son, cleanses me. It's to confess I am a sinner
through and through. Read that by Philpott. Don't
you love J.C. Philpott? Don't you just love
that through Baker's Veil? That man knew the Gospel. Always
glorifying the Lord and debasing man. Because man is a sinner. And Christ came to save sinners.
And man will never be anything but a sinner until God does something
for him. And it does make him a new creature.
Holy and righteous like Jesus Christ. But that's still not
you. You are still corrupt. That old man is still corrupt.
And you know it's so. That's the sin that plagues you.
It's me. To confess your sin is to say,
like Paul said, in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. It's to say, O wretched man that
I am. You know, John Newton wrote to
him, Amazing Grace, that saved a wretch
like me. And you know, modern men change
the word, wretch, to save a one like me. Well, God's people know. They
confess that they're wretched. To confess Christ is to confess
our sin nature and our sins, our sin actions. Look at 1 John 1, verse 8. If we say we have no sin, that
is born in sin. Come forth from the womb. David
said this, in sin did my mother conceive me. My mother was a
sinner. David, one of the few honest people, he said his mother
was a sinner. Mine was too. Is. My mother was a self-righteous
sinner. Chased the devil. I told you about her chasing
the devil out of town one time. In Southern Baptist religion,
you know, didn't know God. My dad didn't know God. Preached,
was a preacher, didn't know God. Weren't you? That's right. But God revealed to them the true God,
the true Christ. The first thing they found out
was we're sinners. It's Him. We have sin. We're born in sin. We come forth
from the womb speaking lies, don't we? We come forth from
the womb speaking lies. And if we say we have not that
sin nature, verse 8, we deceive ourselves. The truth is not in
us. Christ is not in us. This new
nature is not in there. Because if it's not there, there's
no struggle, is there? You're deceived. If there's not
a new heart, And you've got that old heart that's deceitful above
all things and desperately wicked. It will deceive you into thinking
you're a good person. But if God puts a new heart in
there, it convinces you of sin. The Spirit of God, led by the
Spirit of God, convinces you of sin. Who? What? Me. It's in here. That's what that
publican was doing, remember? It's in here and I can't get
it out. Let the blood cover it. Like Philpott said, it's never
going to go away until God puts us in the grave. Read on. If we confess our sins. Oh, I
love my favorite verse in the Bible. Verse 9. If we confess
our sin, guilty, he is faithful, Joseph, and just to forgive. Blot them out. Stephen, clean
slate. Are you a sinner? Yes, I am,
Lord. No, you're not. I just wiped it all out. Holy,
righteous, unblameable, unreprovable. And He said, don't let anybody
lay anything to His charge. The accuser of the brethren. I saw
him the other day. I didn't see it. Because someday you'll silence
all that and put this old man... Read verse 10. If we say we have
not sinned, actually sinned, what kind of sin? All manner
of sins. When the Lord preached the Sermon
on the Mount, He magnified the law, didn't He? He started talking
about murder and theft and adultery and so forth. Who's He talking
to? The disciples. He said, if you don't repent,
you'll perish. Who's guilty of all those things? The Lord magnified
the law to show us that the law is spiritual. Paul said, the
law is spiritual. He said, I thought it was righteous.
according to the law, but when I found out the law requires
perfection in thought, he said, I haven't thought perfect thought.
In being, in motive, in heart, God looks on the heart, he said,
it slowly killed me. The law killed me. Christ made
me alive. So that's what it is to confess
Christ, is to confess our sin. You say, we have not sinned.
We make Him a liar. Christ said, I came to save sinners. His Word is not in. Well, to
confess Christ is to confess our need of Christ. To confess
Christ before men is to confess, like we were saying, I am unrighteous. I need His righteousness. I am
unholy. I need His holiness. I am naked.
I need Him to cover me. I'm ashamed of myself. I need
His glory. I need Him to represent me. I'm
guilty. I need His blood. I'm helpless. He's the only one that can help
me. I'm dependent. I'm totally dependent. He's my
sovereign Lord. I'm far off. I need Him to bring
me nigh. I am ignorant and foolish. I
just don't know. He's my wisdom. I am prone to
wander. I need the Shepherd to keep me,
to come find me, and to keep me forever. That's what it is
to confess Christ. Now, there are three ways, scriptural
ways, that the Lord told us to confess Him. Mark chapter 16.
Mark chapter 16. Three ways that we confess before
men. Before men. We come before God
first. We come before God first. Like
the publican who came, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. He's
saying, God, let the blood of Thy sacrifice, Thy Lamb, be propitiation
on the mercy seeker, me, the sinner. He came to God first.
Against Thee and Thee only have I sinned. Wash me throughly in
the blood of Christ. Purge me with hyssop, and I'll
be clean. Create in me Thy Holy Spirit.
He's coming to God first. We come to God first. and confess before Him who we
are in our need of Christ. Oh, please, let the blood of
Christ put away my sin. Oh, God. But before men, Mark
chapter 16. Look at it. The Lord Himself
says this in verse 15 and 16. He said to the disciples, go
into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
What I just preached to you. Who I just preached to you. He
that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. He that believeth
not shall be damned. So the Lord said for every believer
to publicly confess him before men in baptism. That's what we're
going to do this morning. That's what Joseph is going to
do this morning. Confess him. Now what baptism is? There's
nothing in this. This is just water. It's an old
Franklin County well water. When I put it in there, it was
so brown, I had to put iron out in it. It's just water. It doesn't do
anything, anybody. It's not going to wash away one
cent. We're going to go in there and we're going to come out and
we're going to be the same person that went in. But this is what the Lord said
to do to confess Him. See, we're confessing Him before
men. His life. His life. The life He lived, He did it
for me. My righteousness. My sanctification. My Redeemer. The One that came
to redeem me. We're going to go down into that
water. And what that's saying is His death. Christ was crucified
and buried. His death. That's my due. That's what I earned. That's
the wages that my sin has earned before God. I should have been
crucified at the hands of God. I should be buried and put out
of sight forever for my sin against God. It's kind of like a funeral.
This is both a funeral and a wedding. That's what I've likened baptism
to. A funeral in a way. It's my funeral.
I'm saying before the world that Christ is my salvation and I
deserve to be buried and gone. And someday I will be. The place
thereof will know me no more. And the sooner the better. This
old man. Get him out of here. But now,
hopefully I'm not going to leave you under that barricade. I'm
going to come out. What's that? His resurrection. Christ said, I am the resurrection
and the life. Christ didn't stay in that tomb.
He came out three days later. He did not suffer corruption.
It's like he said, I live. I was dead, but I'm alive. And
he said, because I live, you live also. And Adam all died. We're going to die. We're going
to go in the ground. But if you're in Christ, you're made alive. One of these days, these bodies,
even these bodies are going to come out of the grave. Somebody
says, how can that be? I don't know, but Christ said
it. And it's true. How do you know it's true? Because
He came out. His resurrection and His ascension. Where did He go when He came
out of the grave? Where did He go? To the right hand of God. And
sat down. John, the Scripture said, we're
seated in Him. Right now seated with Him is
Mary Magdalene, thief on the cross, the publican, Rahab the
harlot. You just name some old wretches.
They're all right there, seated with Him, just like He said.
Why? Because He rose. Baptism is like a wedding ceremony,
too. A wedding ceremony. You know, we've got weddings
all wrong, don't we? It's kind of like religion. We
make more of the bride than we do the groom. Religion makes
more man than they do the Christ. They parade the bride down here
and the bridegroom standing over here hoping she'll say yes. Everybody's
just looking how beautiful she is. That's not the way it's going
to be in glory, buddy. The bridegroom. Behold, the bridegroom
coming. And the bride's waiting on him.
Everybody's glorifying the bridegroom. He's already said yes. And she
will too. And like this baptism, I believe,
we come before the world saying before all men, I confess my
faith. God gave it to us. It's not mine,
but yet He is my Lord. I confess that I love Him. My
hope is in Him and Him alone before all the world, I'm here
to say. That this is my husband. This is my Lord. This is my life. Christ is my life. In Mark chapter
5, let me close with a couple of things here. In Mark chapter
5, to confess Christ in baptism and to confess Christ in word,
or that is, a witness to others. We speak to others concerning
Him. Look at Mark chapter 5. This is how. the Lord told us
to witness of Him. Verse 19, this is the fellow
who had the legion of devils cast out of him. Twelve thousand. When he came into the ship, he
that had been possessed with the devil, prayed him, begged
him that he might be with him. He wanted to stay with the Lord.
Howbeit, Jesus suffered him not, allowed him not, but said unto
him, Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things
the Lord hath done for thee. Go home and confess before men
not what you've done for Jesus. That's denying Him. Many will say to me in that day,
Christ said, Lord, Lord, we did this in Your name. We did many
wonderful works. Men that can tell everybody and
sound the trumpet and advertise what they've done for the Lord.
They're not confessing the Lord, they're confessing themselves. People that wear all these things,
they're not confessing the Lord. Maybe, maybe, maybe somebody
could possibly, but I doubt it. But generally speaking, it's
like the Pharisees who wear the phylacteries. Why are they doing
that? That's Scripture verses. Why are they doing that? So you'll
know they're good Christians. That's not confessing Him. The
Lord doesn't mention anything about the way you dress here. Pharisees dressed up. He said
that's hypocrisy. They're playing a part. They're
dressing a part. Why? So people see them. We're not out for them to see
us. To confess Christ is to confess
Him! Him! Go home and tell them, you
know what the Lord's done for me? What great things the Lord has
done for me. Not vice versa. The woman at
the well, remember? She ran home and told everybody,
come see a man. Is not this the Christ? He told
me everything about myself. Not come see our church, come
see our preacher, come see our program, come see our building,
come to a family church where everybody is somebody and you
are somebody. Oh no, come see Christ. Come. To confess Christ, to tell others
of His glory, His power, His mercy. And lastly, to confess
Christ, you can turn if you want to, Acts chapter 2, but to confess
Christ in life, in your life. Again, we're not talking about
an outward show of the way you dress and so forth. No one could
distinguish Jesus Christ from the average man on the street. He didn't dress any way differently
than anybody else did. What we're talking about is life.
Confessing in life is a heart, a spirit, an attitude, a way
of life. Show forth His praises. Acts
2 says, verse 41, after Peter preached and the Lord pricked
their hearts They were crying out, what must we do? He said,
believe. Repent and be baptized. Every
one of you, verse 38, every one of you, repent and be baptized
in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sin. And with
many other words, he said, save yourself. Then, verse 41, they
that gladly received his word, that was good news to them, Christ
was crucified. They were baptized. They confessed
him before men. The same day were added 3,000
souls, and they, verse 42, continued steadfastly in the apostles'
doctrine and fellowship. What's that? Worship. Before, you couldn't get them
into the church house. Now you can't keep them out.
That's why Joseph, he's nodding his head right now. He said to
me, he said, he said, you told me that I've heard that when
the Lord reveals himself to you, you'll start hearing and seeing. And he said, I see, I hear. And
he said, now I can't wait to get there. Can't wait to come. I was exactly the same way. As
a young, real young, at one point, you know, couldn't wait to get
out. And now, by the grace of God, can't wait to get in. Can't
wait to get in. Said that they were breaking
the bread in prayers and fear, verse 43, fear came upon every
soul. Fear of the Lord. Fear of the
Lord. That characterizes God's people,
a fear of the Lord. The world has got God's name
on their lips. Does this still make you... Mindy
and I are watching shows all the time, and they'll use His
name five or six or seven or ten or twelve times, and we're
just going, It's worse than if they were
calling Hannah's name, cussing with Hannah's name. It's worse. I tremble to hearing it and I
tremble for them. They don't know what they're
doing. Calling the only name that's able to keep their souls
out of hell. Oh, fear came down. Verse 44, all that believed were
together. That's what you call family,
isn't it? A body of Christ. Had all things common. Common
faith, common possessions. What I have is yours. You need
it, you've got it. Read on. Verse 46, they continued
daily with one accord, breaking bread from house to house. They'd
eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart. One
purpose, one accord, one mind, one heart. What are they doing?
Praising God. That's what it's all about. Why
do y'all go to church? Well, to praise God. We worship God. That's why. That's
why we go. We want to worship the Lord. We want to see Christ rejoice
in Christ. We don't have any flesh. Get that out of here.
Get that flesh out of here. We want to worship in the Spirit,
in the truth. Praising God, having favor with
all the people, that is, the Lord made them model citizens. And the Lord added to the church
daily such as should be saved. Particular in him. Before the
world began, he had names that he put in the Lamb's Book of
Life. Joseph, I reckon yours was there. There's another one
there I named. There's another Joe Parks. Now I'm up. Now I'm up. May the Lord do it for every
one of us and our children. Now I'm up. Okay. Okay, Joseph, you go repair and
Brother Gabe, you come lead us in a hymn.