If you would open your Bibles
with me to Matthew chapter 10. Matthew chapter 10 is where our
lesson will be taken from this morning. Before we begin, let's
bow together in prayer. Our Father, Lord, we bow in your
presence this morning, thankful that you are God. that you rule
and reign in all things. We're thankful that you are the
sovereign, that salvation is in your hand, that you hold the
keys of heaven and hell. Father, we're thankful that all
events, all things in this creation are in thy hand. We're thankful
that the heart of the king is in thy hand. And we're thankful,
Father, that the heart of all men. We're thankful that our
hearts are in your hand. Father, we thank you that in
your infinite grace and goodness to your people that you have
turned our hearts, that you've turned us to the Lord Jesus Christ,
that you in mercy and grace have been pleased to reveal Christ
to so many here. We're thankful that in your sovereign
goodness, you've been pleased to put your gospel here in this
place and given us the awesome privilege to come and to worship
you through the preaching of your word. Father, we're thankful.
How can we ever thank you enough? We know it's not because of any
goodness found in us, but it's all in your goodness and your
providence to your people. And Father, we thank you and
we praise your matchless name. And Father, I pray as we meet
together this morning that you would enable us to worship thee.
Give us an hour of true worship. Let the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ be exalted. Here in our class this morning
and in our children's classes, Father, I pray you'd bless. Bless
the teachers and bless those of us who are here. Father, we
pray for those that you brought into the time of trouble and
trial. There are so many different afflictions of body, soul, spirit
and circumstance. Father, I pray you'd bless, bless
your people. Father, we know these things
do not come by accident, but according to your eternal will
and purpose to bring about your good providence. And Father,
I pray that you would teach us in this time of trouble, teach
us, teach us to look to thee, teach us more of your sufficiency,
more of the glory of Christ our Savior. Give your people fulfillment
of the promise that you not leave nor forsake your people. Father
again, I beg of thee, you bless us in this hour. Enable us to
look into your word and see more of our Lord Jesus Christ. Learn
more to depend, to depend more and more and more fully upon
him. It's in his precious name we pray and give thanks. Amen. All right, Matthew chapter 10,
we have two verses in our text this morning, beginning in verse
32. 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. Now confessing Christ, the Savior
says, whosoever shall confess me before men, Confessing Christ
is a very important subject, isn't it? The Savior says here
that we're not saved because we confess Christ, but he's saying
that people who God saves, they will confess the Savior. And
whoever's not saved, whoever it is that God has not saved
will not confess Christ. Now that's serious business,
isn't it? Well, what is it then to confess
Christ? If what the Savior says here,
if I confess Him before me and He'll confess me also before
my Father, which is in heaven, well, what is it to confess Christ? Well, I'm going to give you five
ways this morning that a believer confesses Christ. Now, first,
look at Romans chapter 10. Number one, to confess Christ
is to believe Christ. You know, confession of Christ
has to begin with faith in Christ. It has to begin with believing
Christ. In Romans chapter 10 verse 9, that if thou shalt confess with
thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart
that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation. Now the key to these two verses,
the key phrase here to being able to understand these two
verses is not confessing with your mouth. I've heard people
quote this and they say they know they're saved because they've
confessed Christ with their mouth. That's not the key to these verses.
The key to these verses is believing in the heart. Salvation is a
heart work. Salvation is a work that God
does in the heart of His people. And they will confess Him, but
now salvation in Christ is not mere lip service. A person can
only confess what is truly in their heart. Your brother Henry
used to tell us, you can't tell what you don't know anymore and
you come back from where you haven't been. Well, the same
thing is true about this confession. You can't confess what you don't
know. You cannot confess what you do not believe. You cannot
confess Christ if you don't know him, can you? So confessing Christ
begins with faith, faith in the heart. In verse 11, this is what
the apostle is saying, for the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth
in him shall not be ashamed. It's not whosoever just shall
confess him, but whosoever believes on Christ, they'll not be ashamed
because they'll never be found guilty. And if you truly believe
Christ, you certainly are not going to be ashamed to say what
you really believe in your heart. If you believe Christ, you're
going to be ashamed to confess him. Now the word confess that
he uses here and the same is what the Lord uses in our text,
the word confess. It means to say the same thing
as somebody else, to say the same thing as somebody else and
to say it publicly. So to confess Christ is to say
the same thing as who? It's to say the same thing as
God, to say the same thing that what God says in his word. Now, what is it that God says
in his word? Well, we're going to spend a
lifetime studying this book, aren't we? I mean, we can't just
can't go through everything that God says in his word, but The
believer, I'll tell you this, when they run across something
in God's word, they say, amen to that. Now they say, amen,
I confess what it is, but what concerning salvation, let me
give you a few things that God's word says about this matter of
salvation. Since we're in Romans 10, this
is where we'll start. Confessing Christ is saying the
same thing that God says is to say that Christ is my justification. The way I made without sin is
in Christ. Verse nine, Romans 10. 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. Now, confessing Christ is saying
that he died for my sin. If Christ was raised from the
dead, he had to die first, didn't he? Why did he die? He died for
my sin. Christ was made sin. He made
my sin to be his sin. And then he died the death that
that sin deserved to satisfy God's justice, to pay for that
sin. And after he died, the father raised him from the dead. He
raised him from the dead because the sin that had been charged
our Lord Jesus Christ is gone, wiped out by his blood. The resurrection
of Christ is the proof, the evidence that the death of Christ justified
his people. He died as their substitute and
by his death, he justified them. We're not justified because we
start sinning less. No, we're justified in Christ,
by His sacrifice for us. And every believer, I don't care
where you find them, every believer confesses that. All right, now
look back at Matthew chapter 3. Matthew chapter 3. In Matthew chapter 3, we read
about the baptism of John, John the Baptist. Matthew chapter 3, verse 5. Then went out to him, to John
the Baptist, Jerusalem, and all Judea, and all the region round
about Jordan, and were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing
their sin. Now the baptism of John was a
public confession that confessed God's right, I'm a sinner. That's
what the baptism of John was. God's word says there's none
good, no not one. And we confess Christ, we say
God's right, I'm no good. That's what we confess. The baptism
of John confessed the same thing. All God's people confess, I'm
no good and I need a savior to come. I need a savior who will
save me from my sin. And if he doesn't come, if he
doesn't die for me, if he doesn't come to put my sin away, I've
got no hope. And every believer confesses
their sin. And really what we're confessing
is our sin nature. We're confessing everything I
do is sinful because I've got a sin nature. And we confess
our need of Christ to come put our sin away. That was the baptism
of John. And this confession, this saying
what God says, saying the same thing that God says, this confession
always has to do with Christ. Always has to do with Christ.
It's who Christ is and what He has done. And no one is saved
by our confession. We're saved by Christ. So what
are we confessing? We confess Christ. We confess
him. We know that Abraham believed
God. Abraham is held up to us as the example of faith in scripture.
Abraham believed God was counted unto him for righteousness. Well,
you know what? Abraham confessed. He confessed
Christ. Our Lord said, Abraham saw my
day and was glad. Abraham confessed. He saw that
day he took his son. his only son up to that mountain,
that place that God would show him to offer him as a burnt offering.
And Abraham turned and saw that ram behind him, caught in a thicket
by his horns. Abraham saw what that meant.
He saw that picture. He understood there's a lamb
coming. He said, my son, God will provide himself a lamb for
the sacrifice. Abraham confessed Christ. Confession
always has to do with Christ. Let me show you that in the book
of Philippians. Philippians chapter 2. Confession
always has to do with Christ. Philippians chapter 2 verse 10. That at the name of Jesus every
knee should bow of things in heaven and things in earth and
things under the earth and that every tongue should confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Now I know
what Paul is writing about here. I know that one day, in the day
of judgment, every son of Adam will confess. They're going to
say the same thing God says. Jesus Christ is Lord. I know
they will on that day. But believers confess, Jesus
Christ is Lord, and we confess it right now. I mean, right now. This is an underpinning of our
hope. Jesus Christ, our Savior, is
God. He's Lord over all. That's the
hope of our salvation. If God is my Savior, I can't
fail to be saved. We confess Jesus Christ as Lord,
we say the same thing that God says. And since He is God, the
Lord Jesus Christ is the sovereign Savior. Since He's God, He's
got the right to choose to save whom He will. And since He's
God, He cannot fail to save His people from their sin. Since
He's God, He's got the power to save any sinner. that comes
to him and believes upon him. There is no sin so great that
the blood of Christ cannot wash it white as snow, completely
gone because of who he is, because he's God. Now look at 1 John,
1 John 1. The Lord Jesus Christ, by his
death, made it right for God to save his people in mercy.
1 John 1 verse 9. If we confess our sins, he is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. Now God is faithful and he's
just to forgive the sins of his people. Not only faithful to
forgive sins, he's just. It's right for him to forgive
the sins of his people because Christ took that sin away and
he paid for it. We don't pay for it, he did.
Every saved person confesses that, every one of us. Now John
isn't saying, he talks about here if we confess our sins.
I think everybody knows this, but let's just be sure about
this. When the Lord says confess your
sins, he's not telling us that we ought to confess our sinful
deeds to one another, that we ought to confess all of our sinful
thoughts and sinful desires to each other. If we did that, we'd
hate one another. I mean, we just, we could not
stand to be around one another. That's not what the Lord is saying
here. What John is saying is every believer confesses, I have
a sin nature. Look at verse 8 in 1 John 1. If we say we have no sin, now
here he's talking about not sins, plural, but specific deeds. We
have no sin nature. If we say that, if I say I don't
have a sin nature, if I say I can do some good things, we deceive
ourselves and the truth is not in us. A believer confesses,
I have a sin nature. And Christ came, not only did
He come to put my sin away, He came to give me a new nature.
See, I had to have my sin paid for, but somebody's got to give
me a new nature too. And that's what Christ came to
do. We confess, that's what He did for me. And anybody who confesses
or says the same thing that some false prophet says, you know,
it tells them, you know, no, no, you can do some good things
for God. You know, you can, you've got the ability to make a decision
to get saved. You know, you've got a decision
to, to decide whether or not you're going to accept Jesus
or not, you know. Anybody that confesses that, that says the
same thing as that false prophet, they're lost. They're lost. They
don't know Christ because they're confessing something contrary
to this book. No, they're lost and they're going to go to hell
unless God does something for them. Look at verse 10. If we
say we have not sinned, we make God a liar and his word is not
in us. You're confessing something that's
not in God's Word because you don't know Christ. Now the only
way that we can confess the Lord Jesus Christ is my Savior, the
only way we can confess Christ is by God-given faith. Look at
1 John chapter 4, verse 15. Whosoever shall confess that
Jesus is the Son of God God dwelleth in him and he in God. See, the only way we can say
the same. Remember, confessing is saying the same thing God
does. The only way we can confess and say the same thing that God
says is if God's in our heart, it begins. This true confession
begins with believing God. That's that's a confession of
Christ. All right, number two, what is
it to confess Christ, to confess Christ? is to walk with Christ,
to follow Him in this world. Now remember, in order to truly
confess Christ, there's got to be faith in the heart first.
Got to be. You cannot confess who you do
not know. But when there is faith in the
heart, I promise you there's going to be a changed walk before
me. Because there's a new sheriff in town. There's a new heart.
God gives his people a new heart in the new birth, and that new
heart rules. So there's going to be a changed
wall. And you know I'm not saying a believer's going to be perfect,
not by any stretch of the imagination. But a believer before men, now
this is talking about confessing Christ before men. A believer's
going to be known as an honest person. They're going to be known
as a kind person. Something's seriously wrong. if that's not the case. A believer
will be a hardworking person. They'll be a good employee. And
you know why they'll be a good employee? Because they're working
as unto the Lord, not to the boss in the corner office. That's
why. A believer will be a generous
person with their material blessings that God's given them. And they'll
also be generous with their words of praise and thanks to others.
We were having dinner with the Floyds on What night was that? One night this week we were.
I think it was Friday night. We were talking and Janet told
Eric how much she appreciated him teaching that class every
week. That's a sacrifice. Our teachers
can't be out here in this class. They're teaching. He's giving
up something doing that. I appreciate your time and your
talent. You just got such a gift to teach
the kids. I'm so thankful. And you know what he said? He
said, I'm thankful for Tara. He said, because by the time
they come to me, they're so well taught. That's exactly what that's
talking about. Being generous with your words,
being generous with words of praise and thanksgiving. And
someone who confesses Christ, they're just going to set their
moral compass by the word of God, not by the logic of men,
you know, because what men say is good and bad. What is moral
and immoral changes over the course of history, doesn't it?
So we don't set our moral compass by what the world says is right
and wrong, but by what the word of God says. That's true spiritually
is what's right and what's wrong. How is it that God saves centers?
And how is it that God does not save centers? You know, what's
the gospel? What's not the gospel? What is the Lord Jesus Christ?
And what is another Jesus? We, we determine that by the
word of God. And that's true about how you live your life
in this world. What's right? What's wrong? What's
the right thing to do? What's the wrong thing to do? You know,
we determine that by the Word of God. And here's another way
a believer lives their life, confessing Christ before men.
It's by not thinking of ourselves more highly than we ought to
think. That's confessing Christ before men. You know, a person
who confesses Christ, you know what they will do or what they
won't do? They're not going to take credit for salvation. They're
not going to act or think, I'm better than somebody else. They're
not going to be judgmental, and they're not going to look down
their nose at others, even when we know they're wrong. Now, I'm
not saying you don't make a determina- when you talk about being judgmental,
I'm not saying don't make a judgment, don't make a determination about
what's right and wrong. You have to do that. You have
to do that. But this is what it's saying.
Don't look down your nose at them. knowing you're cut from
the exact same cloth they are. And what's the reason you're
not doing what they're doing? It's God's grace to you, and
that's the only reason. And when you know that, you live
like that, that's confessing Christ. All right, number three,
what is it to confess Christ? To confess Christ is to be identified
with the people of Christ. You know, a very important and
public way that we confess Christ is by being where God's people
meet together to worship. We confess Christ when we just
make it a point to be where the gospel is preached. You chose
to come here today. You all choose to come here week
after week after week. And when you do that, that's
a public confession of who you believe and what you believe.
You know, there are certain places I will not, I mean, I utterly
refuse. I would, to darken the door,
I just will not go in that place. Because doing so might look like
I put my seal of approval on what they preach there, what
they do there, and I just won't do it. When you come here every
week, you're making a public confession, I'm identifying with
that gospel. I'm identifying with those people.
And I want people to know this is the place I am on Sundays
and Wednesdays. For this reason, I identify with
the gospel that's preached here. I confess it. I confess these
people, that's my family, these are the people I love. I want
to be identified with you. And if you truly believe Christ,
don't you have to be where he is? If you truly believe Christ,
don't you have to be where he's preached? Don't you have to be
where he's worshipped? You do, don't you? You know,
I really doubt the sincerity of someone's confession when
they do not faithfully attend the worship service. I mean,
somebody just never, ever, I kind of doubt, you know, because a
true confession of Christ is going to lead a person to order
our lives around him, around his worship, around the worship
of Christ. I want to find a way to be where
he's preached. I want to find a way to be where
he's at. I want to find a way to be with the other people of
God. That's a confession of Christ.
All right, fourthly, look in Matthew again, Matthew chapter
10. To confess Christ is to believe Christ, and it's to believe him
all the way to the end. In Matthew 10, verse 22. And ye should be hated of all
men for my name's sake, but he that endureth to the end shall
be saved. Now, enduring to the end. is
an evidence of salvation. The Lord's not saying here that
that is a condition of salvation. You have to, you know, muster
up the strength to be able to endure all the way to the end
and then you'll be saved. No, what he's saying is enduring
to the end is an evidence of salvation. It's an evidence that
God saved you. Now, if you saved yourself, you're going to quit.
If God saved you, you won't. And when a person does not endure
to the end and a person leaves and turns away from the gospel
and turns to something else, tell you what that, it can only
mean one thing. It can only mean they never did believe Christ
in the heart. Never did. And I'm not being
too hard on that now. I'm going to confess the same
thing God says. Look, 1 John 2. 1 John. Chapter two. In verse 18. Little children, it is the last
time. And as ye have heard, the Antichrist shall come. Even now
are there many Antichrists. See, the Antichrist is not one
person. There are many. It's a spirit that's Antichrist. It says that it does not confess
Christ. It preaches a message that's opposed to Christ alone.
They're Antichrist. Whereby you know that it is the
last time. Now they went out from us. Some went to follow
these Antichrists. They went out from us but they
were not of us. For if they had been of us, they
would no doubt have continued with us. But they went out, they
might be made manifest that they were not all of us. They went
out and they followed another message that's anti-Christ because
they never did believe Christ. They never did have God-given
faith in the heart in the first place. Now you who believe Christ,
that scares you to death, doesn't it? Scares you to death. Does me. Remember when the Lord
told his disciples, one of you is going to betray me. And they're
all petrified. They said, Lord, is it high?
Because I know I do that. If the Lord take his hand, I
do that. Is it I? What will keep a believer from
doing that, from following something that's anti-Christ? It's God
given faith in the heart. Look at verse 20, the same chapter.
But you have an unction from the Holy One and you know all
things. You believe Christ and you have an unction from the
Holy One. That's what keeps you from believing. You know what
is true and false. You know the gospel when you
hear it because you've got God-given faith in the heart. Now look
back at Hebrews chapter 11. Saving faith will continue confessing
Christ all the way to the end. Hebrews chapter 11 tells us about
all these who believe God, the hall of faith here, all these
who believe God. The writer says in Hebrews 11
verse 13, these all died in faith. They went to the end, they died
in faith. They lived in faith and they
died in faith. Not having received the promises,
not having received these things all completely here on earth,
but having seen them afar off and were persuaded of them and
embraced them, And they confessed that they were strangers and
pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things
declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they'd
been mindful of that country from which they came out, they
might have had had opportunity to have returned. The Lord said,
will you also go away? Go. You can return. You're free if you want to go.
But now they didn't go. Now they desire a better country. That is in heavenly. Wherefore,
God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he hath prepared
for them a city." See, they confessed, I'm following Christ. And he
confessed them. He said, that's my people. He confessed them and he's not
ashamed to be identified with them. These all died in faith
and they didn't quit. They confessed this world's got
nothing for them. I believe Christ and I'm looking
for a better country. I'm looking for something better.
I'm looking for a heavenly country with spiritual life and spiritual
blessings. True faith never quits. It believes
Christ to the end. And then lastly, what is it to
confess Christ? It is to confess Christ and follow
the Lord in believer's baptism. Now, believer's baptism is very
important. In Matthew 28 verse 19, our Lord commanded us to
go teach all nations baptizing them, baptize them in the name
of the Father, the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. In Mark 16, verse
16, the Lord said, he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. Our Lord Jesus himself was baptized. Remember, he went to John the
Baptist to be baptized. And John said, oh no, I'm not
worthy. And he said, suffer it to be so now that we fulfill
all righteousness. The Lord was baptized. So baptism
is very important. Now here's a question. Does a
person have to be baptized in order to be saved? Absolutely
not. Now that doesn't mean baptism
is not important. It just means this, you've got
to believe Christ in order to be saved. That's all. You believe
Christ and Christ alone. If you believe your salvation
is Christ plus your baptism, you're not confessing Christ.
Salvation is in Christ and Christ alone. It's believing Him alone. You must believe Christ in order
to be saved. But there is reason to doubt
the confession of someone who is not obedient to our Lord's
commandment to be baptized. I ask, just like attending the
worship service, how can you believe Christ and not obey him?
I mean, how can you love Christ and not want to confess him as
he commanded? He's commanded us to be baptized,
to confess him in believer's baptism. And if we truly believe
Christ, You know, confessing Christ in believer's baptism
is a joy. You know, we talk about this
is the Lord's commandment. Brother, His commandments are
not grievous. Now, confessing Christ in baptism, not saying,
well, I just got to do this and obey it and get through it. No.
It's a joy. It's a joy to be able to confess
that Christ saved me. Oh, it's a blessing. To be able
to confess Christ and what He did for me, that Christ died. He was buried and he rose again
for me, for me. And I understand, you know, someone,
especially, you know, our children, our young people grow up hearing
the gospel and just, I did. So I understand them. I understand
the way it is. I understand. I mean, I do. I
experienced it. I understand. I understand this
thing of thinking, well, How do I know that this is just not
up here in my head? My parents drilled it into me.
I got these teachers back here drilling it to me every Sunday
in Bible school. And they come here to the service
and my parents believe it. This is why I've always said,
how do I know that it's just, this is the only thing I know.
This is just what I have always done. And there's faith in the
heart. That I don't want to do this
flippantly. Well, only you can determine
that. It's faith in the heart. But
almost every time someone debates and wrestles with this for a
long time, they confess Christ almost every time. I said, I
wish I'd done this a long time ago. I did. I wish I'd done that
a long time ago. Because baptism is a confession
of Christ. It's a confession of salvation
through union with him. That what he did, he did for
me. What he did, I did in him, through
union with him. When Christ died for my sin,
I died to sin in Him. When Christ died, I died to God's
justice in Christ because I was in Him. When He died, I died
because I was in Him. That's how I'm delivered from
the justice of God against my sin because I already died to
it. When Christ was buried, I was buried in Him. And when Christ
was raised, I was raised to new life in Him. That's what we confess
in Believer's Baptism and what a joy to be able to confess Christ
that way and to confess Christ in each of these ways that we
looked at this morning. That's a blessing to be able to confess
Christ. Can you ever get over that God
did that for you? My soul. What a joy to be able
to confess him and what he's done for us. I pray the Lord
will enable us to confess him like that. I hope the Lord bless
that to you.