like an oasis in the desert. Coming here on Wednesday, I look
forward to this, to come here and gather with
the Lord's people, open the Word of God, and hear what the Lord
would have for His family, for us. That's priceless. You see these
commercials and they'll say this, this, this, and then they'll
say priceless. This is priceless. I want you to turn back to Romans
chapter 10. I titled the message, Confessing
Christ. Confessing Christ. I read a story of an old lady during the war between France
and Germany. The German army was headed toward
Paris, and on their way there they went
through several villages, and one of the villages the people
came out with Just crude weapons, you know. Yes, that army, they
come out with crude weapons. And there was one old lady there
who came out, and she was on crutches. And she took one of
her crutches, and she was swinging it in the air. And someone said to her, you
need to go back inside. They will think you're crazy.
And I love her reply. She replied, at least they're
going to know what side I'm on. That's confessing Christ. At
least they're going to know what side I'm on. Here in verse 9 and 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. For with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness." This is where it starts. It starts in
the heart. Heart faith. That's where faith
starts. It starts in the heart. And with the mouth confession
is made unto salvation. Now this is a two-fold emphasis
in this text. We have the confession of the
mouth and the confession of the heart. And these two, you can
mark this down, these two always go together. They always go together. Where there's real, genuine heart
faith, where God has granted faith and repentance in the Lord
Jesus Christ, That sinner will confess Christ. That sinner will
follow Christ, and that sinner will confess Him openly. Openly. Not ashamed. Paul said, I'm not
ashamed. I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. It's the
power of God unto salvation. To be ashamed of the gospel would
be to be ashamed of Christ, because He is the gospel. He said, I'm
not ashamed of it. So these two always go together.
Now where there is no real heart faith, there will be no true
mouth or open confession of Christ, just a hypocritical one, but
not real, not real. Our Lord said to those Pharisees,
you honor me with your lips. You say, praise God. You take
God upon your lips in prayer, but your heart Your heart is far, far from me. Far from me. This is not the
kind of confession spoken of here in this text. This is not
the kind of confession that accompanies salvation. Outward lip service
does more damage, for there's no heart faith, just lip service. It does more damage than you
and I can even imagine. It gives no glory to God, and
it brings no salvation to the hearers at all. Now, what are
we doing, first of all, when we confess Christ? Well, first
of all, it's an expression of faith. We know that. It is an
expression of faith, of God-given faith. It's an expression of
total dependence upon Jesus Christ for everything. That's what it
is, first of all. And then we are confessing our
sins. When we are confessing Christ,
we're confessing our sins to Christ. You can't have heart,
faith in Christ and not confess your sins before the Lord. You
can't do it. Now, we don't confess our sins
to one another. We don't confess our sins to
a priest or to each other. You know, our nature is such
we don't need that. You don't need me telling you
about my sins. And I don't need you to tell
me about your sins. We confess our faults. We confess our weaknesses. We confess our inabilities. But
we confess our sins to Christ. David said, Against thee and
thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. We confess
our sins to Him. And then we confess our need
of Christ cleansing us. David sent over a psalm Turn
over there, over in Psalm 51. This is known as a psalm of repentance. But I can tell you this, there
is no such thing as repentance where there is no faith. There's
no such thing. David says here, Have mercy upon
me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness, according unto the multitude
of thy tender mercies. blot out my transgressions, wash
me, Lord, cleanse me, and listen, wash me throughly, inside and
out, my whole being, Lord, wash me, throughly, from mine iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin. That's confessing Christ. That's
what it is to confess Christ. It's to confess my sins to Christ.
is to confess my need of him washing me, is to confess my
need of forgiveness. Lord, forgive me. Forgive me. We need forgiveness. We need
cleansing. We need forgiveness. It says
over 1 John, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just
to forgive us our sins. and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness,
if we confess our sins." Now that's not, like I said, that's
not confessing our sins to one another. That's confessing our sins to
Him. And if we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive
us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And then when
we are confessing Christ, we are confessing Christ as our
Lord. He is our Lord. I'm his servant. I'm his subject. He's my Lord. Lord, what would you have me
to do? You know, we do not think like
the world, like we get up and we see what's going on with the
world, and we see what the President's doing, No, we get up with, Lord,
what would you have me to do? Lord, thy will be done. It's a recognition of being under
his lordship continually, continually. We need to live in the consciousness
that he is our Lord. Now, I know we say that, and
it's true. But I tell you, there's something
to this thing of living in the consciousness, continual consciousness
of it. He is our Lord. Look over in Luke chapter 8. We're confessing him openly as
our Lord. Luke chapter 8. Now listen, our
Lord has no secret disciples. I don't think there is such a
thing. I don't think there can be such a thing at all. I do
not believe there can be a secret disciple. I want you to look
at something here. In Luke chapter 8, look in verse
43. And a woman, having an issue
of blood twelve years, which has spent all her living upon
physicians, neither could be healed of any, she came behind
him and she touched the border of his garment. She slipped up
behind him because she knew, she kept saying within herself,
it says in another gospel, she kept saying within herself, if
I can but touch him, if I can just touch him, if I can just
touch the hem of his garment, I will be made whole. She kept
saying that to herself. That's faith. She didn't realize that. I'm
sure she didn't realize that at the time, but that's faith
crying out. That's heart faith. If I can just get to Him, give
me Christ or else I die. That was what she said. Give
me Christ. If I can just touch the hem of
His garment, I will be made whole. She knew that. She was confident
of that. And she came behind him and touched
his garment, and immediately her issue of blood dried up. It stanched. It started to stain.
And Jesus said, He knew. He knew who touched Him. He's
God. He's God. He knew who touched
Him. He watched her. He saw her sneaking
up behind Him. She didn't realize it, but He's
the Almighty God. He's the Omnipotent God. And Jesus said, who touched me?
When all denied, everybody just backed off. They thought they
were in trouble. You ought to say, that didn't work. I said,
who did that? It's like, I don't know. I didn't do it. I don't know. Until you say something
good about them. Well, I did it. But here they
thought they were in trouble. And they said, it wasn't me. They all denied. And Peter and
they that were with him said, Master, they hadn't got it yet. Master,
the multitude thronged thee and pressed thee, and you're saying,
and sayest thou, who touched me? They're all thronging you. They're pressing upon you. They're
pushing him. I can see him going. I'm getting
off track here. I can see him going through this
crowd and they're just pushing and pushing and shoving. But
there's one there touched him. Touched him. And he said, somebody's touched
me for I perceive that virtue's gone out of me. And when the
woman saw that she was not hid, I bet you he turned around and
just looked. You know, there's this crowd.
When he says this, he's looking her dead in the eye. And she goes, he's got me. He's got me. She knew it. She
knew it. She came trembling. And falling
down before him, she declared unto him before all the people
for what cause she had touched him. She declared why she touched
him. She declared her trouble, her
problems, and she said, and you've made me whole. And how she was
healed immediately. This woman, this woman, here's
the whole point of this. This woman was, she slipped in
behind him. She kept saying, if I can just
touch the hem of his garment, I'll be made whole. She touched
him. And she was made whole. And she
was going to slip right back out and go home. That's what
she was going to do. He turned around and he said,
hold up. Somebody touched me. Listen to this. She came trembling
and falling down. When he sent that out, he said,
who touched me? It just went like a bullet, like
an arrow shooting into her heart. And she came trembling before
him and fell down at his feet. She said, I did. I did. And she had to confess. Now listen,
she confessed before that whole crowd. See, by the law, she wasn't
even allowed to be out there. She wasn't supposed to be out
there. This woman had an issue of blood. She's supposed to stay
home. She's unclaimed. She's unclaimed. She's not supposed
to be there. And he made her confess before
that whole crowd. her disease, her sin. And as she confessed, I'm whole. He made me whole. There are no
secret disciples. That's what I'm saying. Confessing
Christ is confessing Him as our Lord and is confessing Him openly. Openly. He said in one place,
You are my witnesses unto the uttermost parts of the earth. I'm looking at the witnesses
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We bought this building from
the group that's known as the Jehovah Witnesses. I'm telling
you the truth. Jehovah's Witnesses are sitting
right there. I'm looking at you. You are His Witnesses. Now, we
don't go by that name, but you are His Witnesses. That's confessing
Christ. It's confessing Look over in
Matthew chapter 10. Look 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. But here
it is, whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will
I confess before my Father, him will I pray for, him I intercede
for, which is in heaven, before my Father which is in heaven.
And then when we confess Christ, we are confessing his deity. for confessing his deity and
his lordship. Look over in John chapter 20. John chapter 20. Look in verse 26. And after eight days again his
disciples were within. and Thomas with them. Then came
Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said,
Peace be unto you. Then said he to Thomas, Reach
hither thy finger, and behold my hands, and reach hither thy
hand, and thrust it into my side, and be not faithless, but believing. And Thomas answered and said
unto him, My Lord and my God." He looked at Jesus Christ. He
looked at that man standing in front of him, and he confessed
before everyone in that room, there stands my Lord and my God. That's what confessing Christ
is. It's confessing Him as my Lord and my God. Now, how do we confess Him? I gave you what it is to confess
Him. Now, how do we confess Him? First of all, it's through baptism. Through
baptism. He that believeth, that's first
now, that's first. With the heart man believes unto
righteousness. That's first. Faith is first. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved. I want you to turn over to Acts
chapter 8. Acts chapter 8. Next, chapter eight, look in
verse thirty-five. Then Philip opened his mouth,
preaching to this eunuch, and began with the same scripture
and preached unto him Jesus. He preached the gospel to him.
He preached Christ crucified to this eunuch, and as they went
on their way, they came unto a certain water. And the eunuch
said, See, here is water. What doth hinder me to be baptized? Evidently, in this message that
he's preaching to this eunuch concerning the Lord Jesus Christ,
he mentions to him this matter of baptism. And that eunuch says, Oh, there's
some water. There's water. He wanted to. He wanted to stop right there. No, let's not wait until we find
a more convenient place. He said, stop the chariot. He said, here's what hinders
me from being baptized. And Philip said, if thou believest.
Now, if you don't believe, you have no business being baptized.
You have absolutely no business being baptized if you don't believe
the gospel. If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest."
And he answered and said, I believe with all my heart. That's what
he's saying. I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He
is the Messiah. And he commanded the chariot
to stand still. And they went down both into
the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and they baptized him.
And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the
Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more, and
he went on his way Rejoice in Him. Rejoice in Him. Being baptized doesn't save. There's no salvation in the water. It's a confession of Christ.
It's a biblical confession of Christ. We are saying to the
world that we no longer belong to it, that we have died with
Christ, We're confessing the death, burial, resurrection of
Christ, that we are His. We are a new creation, and we're following, listen,
we're following the command, command of what? Our Lord. I
said He's our Lord, didn't I? Well, the Bible says He's our
Lord. What I say doesn't matter, but He's our Lord. I have absolutely no confidence.
And I believe I have this scripturally. I have no confidence in anyone
who will not submit to being baptized or taking the Lord's
Supper that they believe God. I have no confidence in them. Not at all. Now, somebody might
be physically unable to do that. The thief on the cross was physically
unable to do that. But a person who's able to do
it and won't do it is a rebel. I'm telling you, it's a rebel. Believers submit. Children submit
to their Father, to their Lord. They follow Him. They follow
Him. We confess to everyone that Jesus
Christ is our Lord. But we no longer belong to the
world. We belong to Him. And we're doing it out of obedience
to His command. It's obedience. Faith, now where
there's real heart faith, where there's real heart faith, there's
real obedience. And it starts right there with
being baptized. Submitting to the Lord in baptism. And here's
another way we do it, by our attendance right here. Our attendance
in this worship service. Right now, we are confessing,
the believers that are here, you're confessing Christ again. With the family, you've gathered
here, we've gathered here, I'm standing here preaching. What
am I doing right now? I'm confessing Christ. Preaching
Christ, confessing Christ. David said, I was glad when they
said to me, let us go to the house of the Lord. Oh, he said,
I was glad. I was glad when it rolled around
time to go to the house of the Lord. Hear Him preach. Worship Him with the family.
Here's another way we confess Christ. By our fellowship with
one another. Our fellowship with one another.
That's how we do it. Look in Ruth. Look at a couple different scriptures.
Ruth chapter one. I remember Ruth like this, Joshua
judges Ruth. That's how I remember where Ruth
is. Ruth chapter one. Let me start
reading in verse six of chapter one. I'm going to read down through
verse 18. Then she arose with her daughters-in-law,
that is Naomi, that she might return from the country of Moab,
for she had heard in the country of Moab how that the Lord had
visited his people and given them bread. Wherefore, she went
forth out of the place where she was, and her two daughters-in-law
with her. And they went on the way to return
into the land of Judah. And Naomi said unto her two daughters-in-law,
Go, return each to her mother's house. The Lord dealt kindly
with you as you have dealt with the dead and with me. The Lord
grant you that you may find rest, each of you, in the house of
her husband. Then she kissed them, and they
lifted up their voice and wept. And they said unto her, Surely
we will return with thee unto thy people. And Naomi said, Turn
again, my daughters. Why will you go with me? Are
there yet any more sons in my womb that they may be your husbands. Turn again, my daughters, go
your way, for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say
I have hope, if I should have a husband also tonight and should
also bear sons, would you tarry for them till they were grown?
Would you stay for them from having husbands? Nay, my daughters,
it grieveth me much for your sakes that the hand of the Lord
is gone out against me." And they lifted up their voice and
they wept again. And Orpha kissed her mother-in-law,
and she laughed. You know, she loved her mother-in-law.
She kissed her, but she loved her mother back there better.
Her family, you know, her fleshly family, she went back to them.
But Ruth claimed to her, she claimed to her, and she said,
behold, thy sister-in-law is gone back unto her people and
unto her gods. Return thou after thy sister-in-law.
And Ruth said, entreat me not to leave thee or to return from
following after thee. For whither thou goest, I will
go. And where thou lodgest, I will lodge. Thy people shall be my
people, and thy God's my God." How do we confess Him? When we
get together and we fellowship with one another, I can say this
and you can say this. Thy God is my God. The Jesus Christ you believe
and worship is the Lord and He's my Lord. And we do this when we have fellowship
one with another. Let me show you another place.
Look over in Malachi chapter 3. Malachi. Been here in chapter 3. In Malachi chapter 3, look in verse
16. Then they that feared the Lord
spake often one to another. What were they speaking of? Work? It's not what they were speaking
of, it's who. Whom they were speaking of. And then they that feared the
Lord spake often one to another, and the Lord hearkened and heard
it. And a book of remembrance was written before him for them
that feared the Lord and that thought upon his name. And they
shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in the day when I make
up my jewels, and I will spare them as a man spareth his own
son that serves him." How do we confess him? In our fellowship. In our fellowship with one another. Here's another way we confess
him. Did we not pray in His name tonight?
Back in the study? Here? Did we not pray in His name?
That's confessing Him. That's confessing Christ. Here's
another way we confess Him. We confess Him under trials. Under trials and hardships. We do not go through trials alone. Someone's always watching. I assure you, I assure you, that
when God puts you through a trial, puts me through a trial, people
are watching. And in our walk, and in the way
we are handling that, is a confessing of Christ. It's the Lord. What does Job say? It's the Lord. No, it's Eli. It's the Lord.
Let him do what he will. Job said, The Lord giveth and the
Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. In those hard trials. What trials? But that's a real
opportunity. One of our greatest opportunities
in confessing the Lord Jesus Christ. Confessing the power
of His grace. Confessing his graciousness, he's able to keep, isn't he?
He's able to keep. And then we confess him by our
daily walk without saying a word. The believer confesses Christ
every day. Everywhere you go, everywhere
you go, the name of the Lord is on you. You know, you're not like here. I'm not a pastor here and we
all come here and we greet one another and we have fellowship
and then I go out to the shop when I have to go out there.
I'm something else. I'm someone else. No. Not at
all. A believer confesses Christ every
day, every step, every day. That's confessing Christ. And then last of all, we confess
Christ when we take the Lord's table. When we take the bread and the
wine, we are confessing once again the Lord Jesus Christ. We're confessing our need of
his death, the purpose of his death. We're confessing who died, what he accomplished. Every time we take the Lord's
table, we are confessing Christ. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved. I pray, I tell you this, I pray
the Lord will enable us to confess Him more and more. To live in
the reality of it every day. To live more in the reality that
every day I'm confessing Him. It's an opportunity to confess
Him. It's an opportunity to brag on Him. Even if I don't say a
word. Even if I don't say a word, I'm
still confessing Him.