Confessing Christ

I know every day is the Lord's day, but this is a special day. When we can come together, as you said in your prayer, God's family has struck me. God's family. That's the family that's going to last when all others are gone. All our relationships in this flesh sooner or later will be dissolved every one of them but our relationship to one another in christ will never be dissolved it'll just grow better and better and better when you said god's family in your prayer that's just set my mind to thinking of god's family now the title of this message is confessing christ That's the short title, Confessing Christ. But this has to do with confessing Christ, no compromise and we don't quit. We don't quit because of persecution. We don't quit and we don't compromise because of persecution.

Let's look at this. When I began to look at this, I put this together yesterday, this is one that I've looked at and been thinking about. One of my first thoughts after reading this portion of scripture, you know the Lord doesn't paint a rosy picture to them, does he? Their ministry, their life on this earth, he doesn't paint a rosy picture.

You would think that everyone that everyone would love the gospel when they hear it preached. Grace for the guilty, pardon for the sinner, forgiveness of all my sins through the blood of Christ. You would think everyone would love that message. You know, years ago, I preached two or three times at a jail. I think it was in Greenup County, I preached at a jail. And I stood on the outside of those bars. And the only difference between me standing on the outside of those bars and those guys were on the inside of those bars was the grace of God. God taught me that as a young man.

And I preached And they had no more interest in anything. Here they are, I'm telling them about the forgiveness of sins, all your sins, justification, sanctification. You can stand before God, holy, accepted, and they had no interest at all. Zero interest.

And the only reason you and I have an interest is by the grace of God. That's the only reason. The reason most of us have never been in jail is because we didn't get caught. That's right. So you'd think that they would love this message, but yet the opposite is true. The gospel is not good news to the unregenerate heart. It's not good news. Only when God saves a sinner, does that sinner find the gospel to be the best news he can hear. Only when God gives a saving interest in Christ does a sinner desire to hear of Christ above everything else.

The Apostle Paul, when his name was Saul before God changed it, HATED Jesus Christ, DESPISED Jesus Christ. He did everything he could against the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then God saved him. God struck him down. The Lord revealed himself to Paul and he became a flaming witness to the Lord Jesus Christ.

He said, I have suffered the loss of all things for the excellency of the knowledge. That's the excellent knowledge. That's the knowledge you need. That's the knowledge you want. I was a machinist for 40 years. I owned a machine shop 25 years. Ran a business for a man that owned a machine shop for a few years.

All that knowledge right now, all that knowledge is worthless to me. It's worthless. But the knowledge I have of Christ is priceless. It is absolutely priceless. That's a knowledge that's only going to grow. Paul said, Oh that I might know Him. Don't you know him, Paul? Paul learned this, there's no exhausting the knowledge of Christ. He's the wisdom of God. Who can exhaust the infinite wisdom of God? Christ is the wisdom of God. That's the knowledge I want to grow in. Now I know you have to have a career, you have to have an education. A good education is great. But I promise you, if you live long enough, all that you learn will be useless to you one day. But not Christ. Not the knowledge of Christ. So only when the Lord gives a saving interest to a sinner, will that sinner desire to hear Christ above everything else. The cry of his heart will be, Give me Christ or else I die. Isn't that the cry of your heart? That's the cry of my heart, I know. And I know it's the cry of your heart if you know the Lord.

You know, when the Lord first saved me many years ago, I thought everyone would be glad to hear what I had to say, where I was going, the place I was going to. Instead, they hated it. They absolutely hated it. And eventually I had to leave that place and move where the gospel was faithfully preached and where God's people gathered. I was sadly mistaken, thinking that everybody there where I was going was going to love what I heard. And then I told them, and they hated it.

The one thing I've learned over the years That the scriptures, the scriptures are exactly right. When I was young, I thought the world was a playground. I saw it as a playground. And after the Lord saved me and I've grown in grace and knowledge of Christ, I've learned this by experience. First John 5, 19, and we know that we are of God. May God have saved us.

And the whole world lies in wickedness. Does it? The whole world, there's not one part of this globe where men and women live that is not saturated in wickedness. You try to move from one place, there's a lot of trouble going on, you move to another place and what happens? There's trouble going on. You just can't get away from it. You can't get away from it.

But knowing this, our Lord still sends His sheep into the midst of wolves. What a fitting description of unregenerate men and women, wolves. That's what the Lord calls them here. The Word of God calls things as they are, and this is one reason the Gospel is offensive. IT DOES NOT PAINT A PRETTY PICTURE OF HUMANITY, IT DOESN'T DO THAT! IT TELLS US WHAT WE ARE BY NATURE! IT TELLS US THIS! AND WE NATURALLY, IF THE LORD LEAVES US ALONE, WE NATURALLY DON'T WANT TO HEAR THAT!

I know we live in a day of compromise and there are many things we do compromise and can compromise in order to get along. Paul said as much as possible to live peaceably with all men. And in doing that, compromises have to be made, but not over the gospel. Not over the gospel of God's glory. We never compromise in any way, shape, or form. Not in the truth of the scriptures. We never compromise. I know we live in a day where there's a lot of compromise.

Live and let live. Isn't that popular? Don't rock the boat. You remember that song 1974? Don't rock the boat, don't rock the boat, baby, don't tip the boat over. That's the attitude of, that's the general attitude of the world. Don't, of religion, false religion. Don't rock the boat. Let's all get along.

Well, when it comes to the gospel, the Lord said, I didn't come to send peace, I came to send a sword. His word, and His word divides the sheep from the goats. A tear from the wheat, it does that. Christ still sends His sheep though among these wolves. And He tells them here in verse 16 through 25, He warns His disciples That not everyone they preach to is going to love what they have to say. He warns them that persecution is coming. It's coming.

You know, one of the greatest evidence of human depravity is the hatred people have over the gospel. I think the only greater evidence of human depravity is when they nailed Jesus Christ to the cross. The Son of God. That's the Son of God hanging there on that cross.

He came unto His own and His own received Him not. They turned thumbs down on Him. We will not have this man to reign over us. Well, He's reigning over them right now. He reigns over all. He reigns over all. The hatred, listen, this hatred comes, and it comes for these reasons.

First, it offends man's pride. We're so proud by nature. You know the first, God said there are seven things he hates? You know what the first one was, or is? It's a proud look. I'm somebody. I'm somebody. You'd like to walk into a room and everybody just goes, Oh, proud, proud of race, proud of face, some are even proud of grace.

And then it offends his wisdom. You see, the gospel is a stumbling block to the Jew, the religious man, and it's foolishness to the Greek, the intellectual. I have seen this over the years, the more one is educated, the further away from God they seem to go, generally. Then it offends man's thoughts of God. In Psalm 50, 21, Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such a one as thyself. When you hear of God's sovereignty, God saves whom He will? That's offensive to the natural man. That's offensive. Because the carnal mind, the scripture says, is enmity against God. It's hostile. That word enmity means hostile. It's hostile against God. God's law reveals this hostility.

Tell someone don't go in that room. What do they want to do? They want to go in that room. We naturally despise authority, don't we? We do. I bet you I've never known anyone to smile when a policeman pulled them over. Thank you for pulling me over. I shouldn't be going this fast. I know that. I haven't known anybody do that. I've known many try to talk their way out of it.

We do not like authority by nature. Why do you think there's such conflict between parents and children? It starts coming out at such an early age. It's that natural enmity against God. God set the authority figures. God set the home. He set the mother and the father as the authority figure.

And we naturally, at a very young age, don't like that authority. And especially when we get to be a little older, it's like, don't tell me what to do. I'm telling you the truth. God's Word paints us as we really are, not as we imagine ourselves to be.

God does not send His servants to preach what men want to hear. I wouldn't be preaching this this morning if I was preaching what men want to hear, what men and women want to hear. I'll be preaching what you want to hear, if you were lost. I'll be preaching what you want to hear.

That's how these preachers keep their job. As one preacher said to Henry, he said, I believe what you're saying, but I wouldn't have a job if I preached that. I don't have a job, I have a calling. I have a calling. A hireling has a job. The Lord sends them to preach the truth. Tell me the truth. That's what I want someone to do, stand in a pulpit, tell me the truth. Be honest with me.

I don't care how much it hurts, be honest with me. If you go to the doctor and you have cancer, do you want the doctor to come in and just dance around and tell you, you're fine. You're fine, don't worry about it. You're healthy when you're dying of cancer. Don't lie to me, tell me the truth.

The gospel has a two-fold effect when it's preached. There's a softening, melting, quickening effect when the gospel is preached. Or there's a hardening effect. There's a hardening effect. The same message can produce opposite responses. I want you to read two portions of Scripture.

Turn over to Acts chapter 2. Acts chapter 2. Let me see what I want to read. 36 verse 36 and 37 Therefore Let all the house of Israel know assuredly That God hath made that same Jesus whom he crucified both Lord and Christ Now when they heard this they were pricked in their heart and said unto Peter and and the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do?" What shall we do? Now turn over to chapter 5. Here's the two different responses to the gospel. Look in chapter 5 verse 29. Then Peter Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to beg God rather than men.

And God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom he slew and hanged on a tree. Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a prince and a Savior, for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are His witnesses of these things. And so is also the Holy Ghost whom God has given to them that obey Him.

Listen, look at verse 33. When they heard that, they were cut to the heart and took counsel how they might slay Him. Some heard this and some heard that. Some said, what shall we do? We're in trouble. And the other said, we're going to kill you, despised the gospel. It'll have one or two of these effects when it's preached.

Now he says here, I'm going to send you my disciples among wolves. Now I know this applies to his disciples going out preaching the gospel, but this also applies to all the Lord's sheep, doesn't it? Notice, you notice that he's gonna send him out as sheep among wolves.

Sheep are always sheep wherever they are, wherever they are. They are not chameleons that change color depending on their surroundings. You're a sheep in here. You're a sheep in the house, at home. You're a sheep at the workplace. You're a sheep in the community.

Our surroundings don't change us. It doesn't change our relationship to Christ. We're His sheep. We're His children. We're sons of God wherever we are. We're not one thing here and another thing at home. If I'm another thing at home, I'm not His. We're sheep wherever we are. And we're sheep among wolves, which speaks of danger. Yet Christ gives them instruction when they go among these wolves. He says, be wise as serpents. and harmless as does.

We don't deliberately go out and provoke people and try to make them mad. We don't do that. We preach and we witness to them in love, don't we? That's how we do it. Paul preached the truth in love. He said he preached the truth in love. We are not sinner slayers. That's God's business. That s God s business. We preach the gospel of grace with grace, remembering that we ourselves were plucked from the fire, we were in the same pit they are still in. We preach from the heart to the heart.

You know, if you've experienced something, if you've gone to a doctor and he's helped you and given you medication that's healed you, and you have a friend or you know someone else that has the same problem, you say, you've got to go to this one, you go to this doctor. Well, you just tell them all about the doctor you went through, don't you? Sinners, you know, sinners just tell other sinners who the true physician of souls is. How many times does the Lord say, go home and tell them what things the Lord's done for you?

That's what Samuel said. Tell of what great things God's done for you. You don't have to be a theologian to be a witness of Christ. Just saved. A sinner saved by grace. That's all. I think many good messages and been ruined by a bad attitude in its delivery. Scott Richardson gave this example one time. He said there's two ways of feeding chickens. You can take the chicken feed and throw it at them and watch them just run or you can take it and just drop it on the ground. You can do it one of two ways.

I don't want to just take the gospel and throw it at you or anybody I'm preaching to. I want to preach as a dying man to dying men and women. Now the Lord says, He says here, Beware of men. Don't be fooled. Don't be fooled. Beware of men. You know over in 1 Peter 5.8 it says this, Be sober, be vigilant. Be vigilant. That word vigilant means this, it's intense, unremitting watchfulness. Those are powerful words. Be vigilant, be intense, unremitting watchfulness.

And you'll notice here where persecution often, mostly, comes from. They will scourge you in their synagogues. Now nobody here has had a scourging with a whip, but I bet you have with somebody's tongue. Because this church split several years ago. And you know there's people in his family, even family members, there's people in his community, even family members that has been divided over the gospel here. But he says here, they will scourge you in the synagogues. Many times those who profess to know God will become your fiercest enemies, even if it's in your own family. And he says some of you are going to even come before governors and kings.

Listen to this. The Lord tells them exactly what's going to happen to them. Do you know what's going to happen a minute from now, a second from now? Do you know what's going to happen? The Lord does. HE SAYS TO THEM, THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN TO YOU. THERE SHOULDN'T BE ANY SURPRISES. HE SAID THIS IS WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN. NOTHING TAKES GOD BY SURPRISE.

THEIR SUFFERINGS WERE ORDAINED FOR A PURPOSE, HE SAYS HERE, FOR A TESTIMONY AGAINST THEM AND THE GENTILES. OUR SUFFERING ALWAYS HAS A PURPOSE IN IT. AND GOD'S HAND IS ALWAYS IN IT. IT'S ALWAYS IN IT. GOD DIRECTS BOTH THE STEPS OF HIS SERVANTS AND THE HANDS OF THEIR PERSECUTORS." Do you know how the gospel was spread in the early church? Persecution. They were scattered abroad and it says, as they went, they preached the gospel. I'm paraphrasing, but they were scattered and as they went, they preached the gospel.

We love our comfort zone. We don't want to get out of our comfort zone. And God has to make us a time to get out of our comfort zone. Let the gospel be spread. Now he says, when this happens, don't you worry about what you're going to say. Now that's not an excuse for me not to study. That's not an excuse for me not to study. I've heard several men, before I heard the gospel, the place I was going, I could tell they didn't study. They didn't study God's Word. They had nothing to say. But He is saying this, when persecution comes, take no thought however what you shall speak. The Lord promises to give them His Word in that hour. Don't fret, don't worry. My Heavenly Father will give you His Spirit and His Words and you'll know exactly what to say.

And he says here in verses 21 through 36, opposition is going to come from family members sometimes. Now if you go back to when our Lord spoke this, family members were among the Jews, they were cut off from the family, excommunicated. I mean it really, really had a meaning when you confess Christ, especially then. Especially. And I think this, I think that the most painful trial comes from your family when they stand against you. I told a family member one time, we don't believe the same gospel. We were discussing it, and I finally told him, I said, we don't believe the same gospel. We don't believe the same God. We don't believe on the same Jesus Christ. We don't.

That's not easy to do, to be honest with them. If you love them, if you love them, if you love your friend and the opportunity comes up and you don't tell them, a family member. But He said, He that endures to the end. You know, Our Lord's instruction here is very simple. Don't quit. We don't quit. Those who believe God don't quit.

When persecution comes, he said, in one city flee to another city, not to hide, not to hide, but to continue preaching the gospel. They preached the gospel and there was some sheep there, they heard it, they believed it, and then persecution came. Then they'd go to another city, do the same thing over and over and over.

And you know from all of that, we have it today. We have it today. We are reading the experience of our forefathers in the faith. This is what we're reading. THEY SUFFERED! THEY SUFFERED! THEY GAVE THEIR LIVES, THEY DIED FOR IT! And here we sit today, beneficiaries of it. Don't quit, he says, don't quit.

He said, Expect persecution, the disciples not above his master. If they hated me, they'll hate you. You know, if someone really hates you, if they really hate you, you've got children, they don't like your children either. They don't like them either.

But our Lord commands us in verses 26 and 28, He says, He says, He commands us to fear God rather than men. Fear them not. Fear them not. You know, we have a real tendency to fear what's in front of us. We can't see God. God is Spirit. And here somebody comes, physically a man comes and threatens us and we're scared to death of him. And we forget God. Fear them not. The Lord repeatedly says, fear them not. Men are but dust. They are passing shadows.

Therefore whatever Christ has taught us in secret, He says, what you hear in the ear that preach you up on the housetop, DON'T! Don't let them stifle you, or shut you up, or scare you to the point where you're afraid to stand up and say something on behalf of Christ. Don't be afraid to tell sinners the truth. He says, I tell you who to fear, THERE IS ONE TO FEAR, AND IT'S NOT ONE MAN ON THIS EARTH. THERE IS ONE TO FEAR, FEAR GOD! FEAR GOD, HE SAID FEAR HIM WHICH IS ABLE TO DESTROY BOTH SOUL, BODY AND HELL.

IT'S LIKE THAT YOUNG MAN I TOLD YOU ABOUT, I WORKED WITH HIM YEARS AGO IN MY TWENTIES, AND HE WAS JUST ALL TORE UP. YOU KNOW, HE WAS WANTING TO GET SAVED, AND HE'S TALKING TO ME. And I said, and the Lord had to have given this to me. I said, which? His name was Dwayne. I said, what do you fear the most, God or hell? He said, I fear hell. I don't want to go to hell. I said, if you find favor with the judge, you don't have to worry about prison, do you? I said, you fear the wrong thing. You have a misplaced fear. If you fear God, if we fear God reverently, properly, we have nothing else to fear. We have ZERO else to fear if we fear God. If you fear God, you fear no one else. If you don't fear God, you fear everything.

You fear everyone else. You'll just be afraid of everything. You think you're sick, all over. You'll be like Fred Sanford, this is a big one. My mind just Those things pop them. Have you ever watched that show back then? He's always having the big one.

Everything, afraid of everything. We do not fear a place called hell. Hell is not my message. Jesus Christ is my message. We fear Him. Most of religion out here, that's going on right in this community, is trying to scare people into making a profession. If you accept him as your personal savior, you don't have to go to hell. Hell has nothing to do with my salvation.

Here's what I need. I need Christ to put away my sins that I might be one with God, that I might have fellowship with God, my Creator. That's what it's about. It's not missing one place and going to another. It's not an eternal vacation or eternal punishment. It has nothing to do with that.

How can I, a sinful man, be justified with God? How can I stand in God's presence? How can I do that? That's what's important. That's what's important. And our Lord comforts His disciples with His providential care. He warned them that persecution is coming, and now He's going to give them some comfort over this persecution coming. He says, Not a sparrow falls to the ground without your Heavenly Father, without His knowledge and will, nothing dies. NOT ONE THING DIES THAT GOD DOESN'T TAKE IT'S LIFE! IT'S NOT THAT GOD GIVES LIFE AND SATAN TAKES IT!

We had a nephew that died, he was killed in a car wreck years ago, and the pastor said to his mother, God didn't do this, this is satan, satan did this. That's what he said. Really? If that's the case, then you might want to fear satan. God gives life and God takes life. It's His to give and His to take. Not a sparrow falls to the ground without your Father's knowledge and will. If only we understood the care our Heavenly Father exercises over His people, nothing touches us apart from His will.

Lay down and go to sleep. It's all right. It'll be all right. Isn't that the way you comforted your children when you put them to bed? Everything's all right. And then they trusted you, you were telling them the truth. They trusted you were gonna take care of it. Now listen, how much more our Heavenly Father? Much of our fear comes from unbelief, from forgetting God's power and property that's over us. The one that governs the sparrow governs every detail of our life.

Now let me close with this, and I'll put this at the end of it, but, Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, because that's what he's sending his disciples. This is before he made them apostles. These are disciples. There are disciples of Christ here in this room. Every one of you who believe is a disciple. Not all of you are called to stand in a pulpit like I am. But you'll have an opportunity out there to witness from time to time.

Whosoever therefore shall confess me before him will I confess before my Father which is in heaven. What does it mean to confess Christ? Well, it's to confess a real living person that's revealed in this book. We don't confess a religion, a movement, Not some human ideology, not merely doctrine, but it's Jesus Christ.

We confess Him. We confess His Lordship over all things. The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Can we say that? Only by His grace we will. We confess His Lordship first It's not accept Him as your personal Savior. It's bow. It's bow down, sinner. Bow down to the feet of the Sovereign. Like that leper, he fell down at His feet and worshiped.

And he said, Lord, if You will, You can make me clean. It's to confess His Incarnation, God in the flesh, God manifested in the flesh. It's to confess His perfect life and sin-atoning death. CONFESSETH, that means continually, continually. We confess His purpose in coming to bring sinners spotless before God. We confess His resurrection and His exaltation at the Father's right hand.

There's a man, there's a real man seated at God's right hand that's ruling and reigning over all things. His name is Jesus Christ, His name is King Jesus. Brethren, we're under a theocracy. We might live in a democracy, but we're under a theocracy. This whole world is under the Lord Jesus Christ, under His authority.

And we confess His saving work through which sinners are reconciled to God. We were reconciled to God. We didn't sit down at a table and bargain back and forth. You don't bargain with the Sovereign, you do what He says. And we confess Him publicly through baptism in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Those who deny Him will hear Him say these dreadful words, ìDepart from Me, I never knew you, I never knew you.î Christ never promised that following Him would be easy, He said, ìCount the cost.î He said count the costs. He didn't make it look fun, he told them what's coming. There will be trouble because of the gospel we believe and because of our union to the Lord Jesus Christ. There will be opposition from the world, from false religion and sometimes even from our families.

Yet Christ says, He says fear not, fear not it's alright. Our Father rules over every sparrow Our confession is not for a moment, but for a lifetime. We do not compromise. We do not quit. We do not hide. We do not shut up when our Lord's name is being defamed.

Too many times I believe I have shut up when I should have spoke up. Christ is our life, and by His grace we will confess Him before men even as He confesses us before the Father. I know this, every child of God here, your great desire this morning is for Him to confess you before your Heavenly Father, to intercede for you. Do we expect the same of ourselves? My, my, my. Matthew 10, verse 32, WHOSOEVER THEREFORE SHALL CONFESS ME BEFORE MEN, HIM WILL I CONFESS, own also before my father.

Confessing Christ

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