Trouble Over The Gospel

Q: What does the Bible say about trouble over the gospel?

The Bible warns that preaching the gospel will lead to persecution and division, as outlined in Matthew 10. In Matthew 10, Jesus forewarns His disciples about the inevitable trouble they will face due to the gospel. He states that they will be hated by all men for His name's sake, indicating that the gospel brings out the natural enmity within the hearts of people toward God. Jesus sends His followers as sheep among wolves, highlighting the vulnerability they will experience while preaching truth in a world that prefers darkness over light. This division caused by the gospel is a testament to human depravity and the resistance against God's truth.

Q: Why is the gospel considered good news for the guilty?

The gospel offers grace and salvation to those who acknowledge their guilt and shortcomings before God. The gospel is heralded as good news particularly for the guilty because it presents salvation freely through Christ. It addresses the deepest needs of individuals who are spiritually 'broke' and thirsty for righteousness. The message of God's grace reveals that despite our natural enmity against Him and our sinful state, we can be redeemed by the blood of Christ. The gospel does not shy away from revealing our true condition; rather, it uncovers our sinfulness so that we might realize our desperate need for a Savior. This grace is extended to those willing to accept the truth about themselves.

Q: How do we know the doctrine of suffering for the gospel is true?

The New Testament recounts numerous instances of apostles suffering for their faith, affirming the doctrine of enduring persecution. The doctrine of suffering for the gospel is substantiated through the experiences of the apostles as recorded in Scripture. In Matthew 10, Jesus tells His disciples they will face hostility and persecution as He did. This prophecy is confirmed through accounts in the book of Acts, where we see Peter and Paul being persecuted and even martyred for their unwavering commitment to the gospel. Their willingness to suffer illustrates the truth of Jesus' warning and serves as encouragement for believers to endure similar trials in pursuit of proclaiming the gospel.

Q: Why is it important for Christians to acknowledge their guilt before God?

Acknowledging guilt is essential for recognizing the need for grace and salvation offered through Christ. For Christians, acknowledging one's guilt before God is a vital step in the process of repentance and faith. The gospel confronts us with the truth about our sinful nature, which, when realized, brings us to a place of humility and desperation for God's grace. This self-awareness fosters a genuine confession of sin, leading to restoration and reconciliation with God. The truth about our depravity does not only highlight our need for a Savior but also magnifies the mercy and love of God in offering redemption through Christ. Such understanding cultivates a deeper appreciation for the grace we've received.

Q: What does it mean to confess Christ according to Matthew 10?

Confessing Christ means acknowledging Him as Lord and Savior and identifying with His people. To confess Christ, as outlined in Matthew 10, involves openly declaring Jesus as our Lord and Savior, acknowledging His work of redemption and His sovereign authority over all. This confession extends beyond mere words; it includes the commitment to follow His commands, such as baptism, and to identify with the community of believers. This act signifies a lifelong allegiance to Christ, demonstrating a willingness to endure hardships for the sake of the gospel. Those who do not confess Him or align themselves with His mission risk being denied before the Father, emphasizing the importance of this lifelong commitment.

Turn back to Matthew chapter
10. Matthew chapter 10, the title of the message is Trouble
Over the Gospel. Trouble Over the Gospel. The best news that we can tell to a lost and
dying world is the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ, the gospel that concerns him. Grace for the guilty. That's
the best news that we have for a lost and a dying world. Salvation
in Christ, free. Free, no charge. Ho, come to
the water. Everyone, he says, they're thirsty. Come, buy wine
and milk without money and without price. That's good news to a
broke person. If you are broke, dead broke,
that's good news. You can have something to eat
or something to drink without money and without price. But it's the worst news for Satan. And it's the worst news for his
followers. And the Lord says, you're going to meet it. He has
called his disciples As we saw in the first part of this chapter,
he has called his disciples. He says, I've given you power,
power to preach, power over sickness and diseases at this particular
time. I'm going to send you out to
preach the gospel, and as you go, preach the kingdom, that
the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And you know, I was thinking
about there. of what we've already been going
through here in this book of Matthew. They have seen miracles. They've seen healings. One risen
from the dead, that daughter that was risen from the dead.
Multitudes following. And our Lord is saying to them
and warning them and everyone else afterwards, don't be fooled
by this. He's going to die. He's going
to rise again. He's going to be ascended back
to heaven. And men to whom you preach, you're going to go from
city to city, place to place. And you're going to preach. And
this is going to be mostly the results. You're going to be hated.
See, after this time, they were really popular because he was
healing and multitudes were following. Ecstatic. Yeah, we're ready to
go. Well, let me tell you how it's really going to be. And
this is what he warns. He never lets anything slip upon
his children. He warns them. You are going
to be hated of all men. And a man's enemies are going
to be they of his own household. Some of your worst enemies are
going to come right out of your family. Some of your worst enemies. The gospel will bring out of
men and women that natural enmity that is in their hearts toward
God. He said it's going to bring it
out. It's been laying dormant. They're religious. They're playing
their games. But when you go and you tell the truth as it
is, he said it's going to bring out that natural enmity. It's
going to bring it out. We live in a world that is in
spiritual darkness. That's the world we live in.
This is not heaven. This is not heaven. This is a
fallen world, and you live in a world of spiritual darkness,
and that darkness hates. We see this over in the Gospel
of John, hates, he says, the light. Men hate the truth. I think of that movie, Jack Nicholson,
that one line, he says, you can't handle the truth. Men can't handle
the truth. I'm telling you, natural men,
apart from a divine work of grace, can't handle the truth. It's
too offensive. Truth about ourselves is too
offensive apart from a work of grace. And that's the kind of world
we live in. The scripture says that they will not come to the
light, the light of the gospel. lest its deeds should be reproved,
exposed. We don't like being exposed,
not naturally. But although men hate the gospel,
they hate the light, the great shepherd of the sheep, the Lord
of the harvest, is going to send his disciples, his twelve disciples
here and his disciples ever since, into a world that hates the message. He said, I'm going to send you
as sheep. Now, where am I going to send you? In the midst of
wolves. I'm going to send you as sheep
in the midst of wolves. This is a fitting description
of lost men, wolves, devouring. The gospel calls men what they
are. The gospel doesn't cover up.
It uncovers. He says, that which is hid shall
be revealed. It uncovers. He said, they're
wolves, and I'm going to send you a sheep among wolves. And
he warns of trouble and persecution over the gospel when we preach
it. We went through the book of Acts not too long ago. Paul
standing before Felix, Agrippa. You know, eventually he stood
before Nero. And all these apostles, except John in the Isle of Patmos,
was martyred, put to death, and many since then. You know, this
is a good lesson for us to see our spiritual forefathers, what
they went through in preaching the gospel. And he said, you're
going to be drawn up before governors and kings for my name's sake. And I think this is probably
the greatest testimony to human depravity, their hatred of the good news
from heaven, the good news from a far country. I think this is
probably one of the greatest testimonies to human depravity
except for when the Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy One of Israel,
the One who knew no sin, was nailed to a cross. When men by
wicked hands took the Lord of glory and nailed Him to a cross
because they absolutely hated Him. Men despise that good news. The
gospel is offensive to natural men. It's not offensive to the
sheep when the Lord does the divine work of grace. It's good
news. It's good news for guilty. It's
good news for the thirsty. It's good news for the hungry.
But it's not good news to everyone else. Not good news to everyone
else. It offends a man's pride. It
offends his wisdom. It offends his thoughts of God.
He said over in Psalm, you thought I was altogether like yourself. You thought I was like you. I
read that to Isaiah. My thoughts are not your thoughts
and my ways are not your ways. Not at all. Not even close. Not
even close. When the gospel is preached as
it is revealed in the Word of God, He says to His disciples,
He gives them this warning. It's going to bring out this
multitude here that you see that's following us. In a little while,
it's going to turn against us. That same multitude cried, crucify
Him, crucify Him. The Scripture says in Romans
8, 7, the carnal mind The lost, dead man, that's everyone born
into this world that stays in that natural state, is enmity
against God. When the good news of the gospel
comes, it brings out that enmity, just like the law. You know,
people want to, they want to hang up the Ten Commandments.
Thou shalt not, thou shalt not. Well, I'll tell you why. It'll
bring out the sin that's in you. It won't subdue it. The law will
not subdue the sin that's in us. It'll bring it out. Don't
go through that door. Now, don't go through it. I guarantee
you, somebody's got to go through it. Somebody's got to go through
that door. Come hell or high water, somebody's
going to go through that door. It brings it out. The law brings
out sin just like the gospel brings out that enmity that is
in us by nature. Until God breaks us and God strips
us and God brings us to defeat. of the Lord Jesus Christ by His
grace. The Gospel does not paint a rose-colored
picture of ourselves, does it? No, it doesn't. I'll tell you
what it paints. It paints a true picture. It paints a true picture of ourselves. And that truth hurts. Truth hurts. The natural man, it hurts. He
doesn't like it. It's painful. It's painful to
look in the mirror and see that I am this ugly mess. That's painful. But that pain has to come. It
has to be dealt with. It's convicting. If this is true,
then I'm in trouble. If this is true, then I'm a mess.
If the gospel is true, then what a wretch I must be. See what
it says about me? Did it take such a death and
such suffering to save me? Then what does that say about
me? I know what it says about God. Oh, what grace. What mercy. But what does it say about me?
What a wretch. What a wretch. God does not send his preachers
to preach what men want to hear. He sends his preachers to proclaim
the truth, the truth about God, the truth about Jesus Christ,
and the truth about ourselves. We must hear the truth if we
are going to be saved. We've got to hear the truth the
way God sees it, the way it is. And that's the way God sees it,
the way it is. The gospel will have two effects when it's preached
every time. It'll have two effects. It'll
have a softening effect, a stripping, a bringing down, a bringing to
the feet of Christ, or it will have a hardening effect. It'll
make you even harder against God and against the gospel. Let me start a little bit here
in verse 22. You men of Israel, hear these
words, this gospel. Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved
of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which
God did by him in the midst of you, as you yourselves also know. Him being delivered by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God, God did this. God's hand
was in this, God sent him, but here's your part. You have taken
and by wicked hands have crucified and slain whom God raised up,
having loosed the pains of death because it was not possible that
he should be holding of it. Now look over in verse 36, and
after he preached this message to them, the gospel. Therefore let all the house of
Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus whom
ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ." He's alive and He's
reigning and He's ruling right now. He's alive. The one you
crucified is not dead. He's alive. He's the Savior.
He's the Lord. He's the Master. Now when they
heard this, They were pricked in their heart
and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, men and
brethren, what shall we do? We're in trouble. We are in trouble. God revealed to them their enmity. They saw what they did to the
Son of God and it broke their heart. It pricked their heart. And they said, what shall we
do? We're guilty. They admitted their guilt. Then
Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of
you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and
ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. Oh, that's the
one effect. Now turn over to chapter 5. This same message now, this same
message is preached. Look in verse 29. Then Peter
and the other apostles answered and said, we ought to obey God
rather than men, because they had told them to shut up. They
said, no, we're not going to shut up. We're going to obey
God rather than men. And I believe he said that. I
believe he said it in a gracious manner. I don't think he just
got in her face and, you know, he said, no, we ought to obey
God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised
up Jesus, whom he slew and hanged on a tree. Same message. Same
message. 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 witnesses of
these things. We witness this. We are eyewitnesses,
earwitnesses. We witness this. And so is also
the Holy Ghost whom God hath given to them that obey him.
And when they heard that, listen, they were cut to the heart and
they took counsel to slay Him. Same message. Same message. Same message. Different results. Some heard this and some heard
that. When they heard this, they were
pricked in their hearts and said, what are we going to do? When they
heard that, they were mad. They took counsel and said, How
are we going to shut these men up? We've got to shut these men up.
They're accusing us. They're making us guilty of His death.
We need to shut them up. They want to kill Him. The Gospel
will always have a softening, a bringing down, a bringing to
the feet of Christ, or it will harden you. It will harden you. Now, He says here to them, Because
our Lord knows this. He knows this is what will happen.
He says to His disciples, I'm going to send you as sheep among
wolves. And this applies to His disciples there at that time,
and His disciples, His preachers throughout all time. And this
applies to the whole church, because every one of us are disciples
of the Lord Jesus Christ. I thought the first time, I can
say that I thought that when I heard the gospel the first
time, When I heard, I said, told you this before, when I heard
it the first time, I was thrilled to death. And buddy, I couldn't
wait to go to the place I was attending and tell it. And when
I did, they made me, they told me to leave. I thought they'd
be happy to hear it. I thought everyone would be happy
to hear it. But at that place, at that time, I was the only
one happy to hear it. They told me to leave. And this is the result, he says
here. But now listen, he says, I send you a sheep among wolves. Sheep are always sheep. No matter
where they are and who they are among, they're always sheep.
And we go preaching the gospel looking for what? Sheep. Looking
for lost sheep. We have a message for some lost
sheep out there. I don't know who they are. God
knows. We have a message for them. He's going to call them
by this message, this gospel, this truth. Not a compromise because
of trouble. because it's going to upset somebody.
No, it's going to be the truth. It's going to be the truth. But
sheep are always sheep. We are not chameleons. We don't
try to blend in with the background. No, no, we are sheep, and we
preach the truth. And we are to always be, listen,
we are to always be as gentle as sheep in the preaching of
the gospel. That's not a weakness. You know,
it's like meekness. Meekness is not a weakness. It's
not a weakness. It's a great strength. Our Lord
was the meekest man of all. So if meekness was a weakness,
He would be the weakest of all. He tells us here, He said, Be
like sheep. Be gentle as sheep. Be gracious. Be kind. You're not devouring wolves.
We're not going out there just to get in an attack mode. He
said, You go out there and you preach. And you're going to preach
and you're going to be among wolves. But listen, be wise as a serpent,
harmless as a dove. A serpent was said to be the
most subtle of all the animals in creation, back there in Genesis.
A serpent is something that never advertises its coming, does it? You don't hear a serpent just
ringing bells that it's coming in. No, it slides in. And when danger comes, a serpent
will slide out and you'll never even know it. Cole and I was
the other day walking, took him on a hike. And he kept saying,
is there snakes over here in this grass? And I kept saying,
no, no, no. And I didn't no more turn around,
there was a black snake. He didn't see it, he was looking
to the left. And I didn't say a word to him, but there was
a black snake that just slithered, I said just slithered, went right
through the grass and went right on. He never knew it. He says,
don't go into town like you're going into town for a fight.
You're ready for a fight, you're going to start to fight. You're
not going to start to fight. He said, be wise as serpents
and harmless. That's our greatest weapon. The
character that he gives his sheep is their greatest weapon. Meekness,
quietness. He said, you be wise as a serpent,
harmless as a dove. Don't purposely go into town,
into these cities, Purposely going to provoke somebody. I
guess you say, I'm going to slap somebody tonight. That's what
I'm saying. He's saying don't do that. Don't
go with that attitude that you're going to just take this thing
on and do it yourself. It's not you. It's me. I'm the one that's going to do
the work. I'm the one that's going to do the slaying. I'm
the one that's going to do the bringing down. You just go tell the truth.
And don't you back off. Don't you back off. Because we
have a tendency to back off. I hate, I am telling you, I hate
contention. I despise contention. But if
the gospel brings it, then so be it. We have to deal with it.
We're not going to back down from it. We're not going to back
down. But use wisdom. Pray. Pray for wisdom and common
sense. Oh, I tell you, it's amazing
how far common sense comes. Use common sense. Don't purposely
agitate the wolves. You'd have to be a nut to purposely
go in and agitate a wolf. He said, don't do that. That's
not the purpose of preaching. The purpose of preaching is finding
the sheep. It's not just agitating wolves. It's to find the sheep. That's what we're looking for.
And don't miss that mark. Don't forget what your purpose
is. It's preaching the gospel of
Christ, and through that, the sheep are going to be called
out. So don't lose that. Don't lose that sight of that.
But preach the gospel. Paul said this, preach it in
love. Preach it in love. Be gentle among them like a dove.
Don't go with an attitude of slaying sinners. That's God's
business. God will slay the sinner. We
just preach to them. I wrote this last night. I need
to learn. I need to learn how to preach
the gospel of grace with the Spirit of grace. To preach as one who has been
plucked out of the fire. To preach as one who has tasted
that the Lord is gracious. That's how we preach it. The
powers of God. The powers of God. I think many
great messages have been ruined Not a bad attitude or bad delivery,
just an attitude you're going to just slay everybody. It may
be true, but boy, it was hard to take. I don't need to be the offense
if the gospel is offensive enough to natural men. It will cause
enough trouble without me having to put in my two cents worth
in. And they said, beware of men. And these men are the wolves
he's talking about. Trouble is going to come without
my help. It's going to come. Expect trouble over the gospel.
You will not be popular. Oh, this multitude is not going
to be with you. You're not going to be popular
at all. You'll be whipped and you'll be scourged and they'll
take you to the synagogue and they'll beat you. In other words,
those who profess to know God will be your worst enemies. They'll be the ones against you
the most. And you'll be brought before governors and kings like
Paul was. You know, I told you Paul was
from Felix and Agrippa. You go back and you read those
situations in the book of Acts and you see how gracious Paul
was when he spoke to those men. You see how respectful he was
to those wolves. He said, Agrippa, Agrippa said,
I believe it was Agrippa, said, almost thou persuadest me to
be a Christian. He said, Agrippa, he said, I would to God. You
were altogether, almost and altogether such as I am, except for these
bonds. I don't wish these chains on you. I wish God set you free. But expect trouble over it. When this happens, he said there
in verse 19, when this happens, when this trouble comes, And
you're brought before governors and kings. And your life is on
the line. And it will be. It will be. Your life will be on the line. Don't worry about what you're
going to say. Don't worry how you're going
to stand before this king whose life can be taken by him if the
Lord allows it. Don't you be afraid. Don't you
worry about what you're going to say. The Spirit of your Father
will speak in you. If we start making up what we're
going to say, we're going to start taking the edge off of
it. When our life is on the line and we're in great trouble, He
says, don't you worry about it. The Lord will speak. Your Father,
the Spirit of your Father will speak in you. He'll take care
of this thing. He'll take care of that matter.
He'll not leave you alone. He'll not leave you alone. He'll
not leave you to yourselves in such an hour. You stand there,
and God Almighty will speak through you to that King who is subject
to the King of kings and Lord of lords. Don't you be afraid
to tell the truth, even to kings. He said, it's not you that speak,
but the Spirit of your Father. If he was to leave us alone,
I'm telling you, we'd compromise. But he says he'll take care of
it. He'll take care of it. And some of your greatest foes.
And then he goes on to this. Let me go back here to verse
21. Yeah, and the brother, here's
what's going to happen. This is the division the gospel
will make. It's sad, but it's so. The brother shall deliver up
the brother to death. They'll give their consent to
it. And the father his own child. This is how hateful men are toward
the gospel. They will deliver up their own
child. They'll deny their own child.
He said this will happen. And the children shall rise up
against their parents. They'll give their consent against
them and cause them to be put to death. All natural lost men are going
to hate you because of me. They're going to hate you because
of me. You shall be hated of all men
for my name's sake. Here's the hatred. Here's the
hatred you're going to have to endure. Here's the reason for
it. your union to me. See, you take Christ out of the
picture. You take the truth of Christ out of the picture. And
you're not going to have to suffer for it. It's not going to be
a problem. You see, all religions can get
along. All false religions are alive. So they can get along. But I tell you what, light and
darkness can't dwell together. They cannot even be in the same
room together. Not have harmony. Not have true
harmony. They can't do it. He said, you're
going to be hated of all men because of me, because of your
attachment to me, because their natural enmity is against me. They do not want me to have the
glory. Satan does not want him to have the glory. Satan does
not want him to have you. So they're going to hate you
because of me. But don't quit. No matter how
hot the battle gets, no matter how divisive it gets, It doesn't
matter if your parents or your child cut you off. Don't quit. He says don't quit. He that endures
to the end shall be saved. There's an end to this and salvation
is at the end of it. There's a better day coming.
The journey home is rough, but you will get there. You'll get there if you don't
quit. If you quit, it's evident you
never had. It's evident you were not born of God. And when this
happens, he says to his disciples here particularly, when this
happens, when they persecute you, flee to the next city. What
for? Preach the gospel there also.
Not to hide, not to find a safe haven. That's not the reason.
We're not looking for safety. We're looking for another place
to preach. If this one rejects it, then go to the next one.
Go to the next one. as God's means of spreading the
gospel. Look over in Acts chapter 8.
God uses this mean of afflictions and persecution to spread the
gospel. In Acts chapter 8, in verse 4, it says, Therefore they that
were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word. As they went, they preached.
They were persecuted and they had to scatter abroad. And as
they did that, they preached the gospel. It was God's means
of spreading the gospel. Now, he says here, the disciple, and he uses himself here, is
not above his master. You see, they've not yet, but
they're going to. They have not yet seen the sufferings
and the rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ that they are about
to witness. Everything right now up to this
point has been going just fine. Everything has been popular,
people have been following, people have been healed, but it's going
to get bad. And he's saying the disciple,
and this was a Jewish saying anyway, he used a Jewish saying
to convey this point. The disciple is not above his
master. He's not above his master. Did
Christ suffer? Did he suffer? Did he suffer
for the message he preached? Did he suffer for the gospel?
Yes, he did. Yes, he did, unto death. So shall
we, if we are true. Now listen, if we are true to
the gospel, if you don't take the edge off from it, if you're
witnessing, you're talking to somebody out there, out there
in the street and where you work or home or whatever, You tell
the truth, and you'll find out who loves the gospel and who
doesn't. If you're true to the gospel. He said the disciple is not above
his master. Look how they treated him. That's
the way they'll treat you. And if they called him the prince
of the devils, Beelzebub, that's what they're calling him. This
shows how utterly Contempt. Just contempt they had for him.
Contempt. They called him Beelzebub, God
of the flies. That's what that is. They called
him, or Beelzebul, they said it should have been translated
Beelzebul, God of the dunghill. They said, you're God? I'm going
to tell you what kind of God you are. You're God of the flies.
He said, well, if they call the master of the house Beelzebub,
what are they going to call you? I'll tell you what they're going
to call you. If they call Him the God of the
fly, you're the fly. If they call Him the God of the
dunghill, you're the dunghill. That's how much contempt they
have for Him and for His people. You see, this is what they'll
do to you. But fear them not. Fear them not. This is our reason
for not fearing. Fear them not. Everything's going
to be made manifest in His time there in verse 26. Everything
that's His is going to be revealed. It'll be revealed who they are
and it'll be revealed who you are. Judgment's coming. There's a day, He says, of judgment
and it's coming. It's coming. And what I reveal
to you in secret, what I reveal to you in your hearts, what I
teach you, you tell that. Don't you hold it back. Don't
you hold it back. He said you tell it. Well, the
people, you know, they can't take this. No, you tell it. You
tell it. He said, what I tell you in secret,
you tell it. Proclaim it, he says, on the housetops. See,
back in that day, the housetops were flat. They weren't built
like our houses when we had peace. They were flat. He said, you
get up on the flat of that house, up on the top of that house,
stand up there, and you proclaim like a herald over that city,
the Lord has come. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
Savior. The Messiah has come. You proclaim
salvation in His name. Not in these ceremonies or in
these rituals, in His name. You proclaim it, and don't you
be afraid to do it. Don't you back down. Don't back
down. If you're going to fear someone,
he says, if you're going to fear someone, they're in Now through
verse 27, if you're going to fear someone, I'll tell you who
to fear. Fear Him. Don't fear men who cannot, they
can destroy the body if God lets them. But here's who you fear. You fear Him who's able to cast
both, and here's a little light here, body and soul into hell. That rich man lifted up his what?
Eyes. He said, fear Him who's able
to cast body and soul. That's who you fear. You don't
fear men. You fear Him. You fear God. That's the one
we fear and respect and stand in awe. And if we do, if we are
able to stand in fear and awe and respect of God Almighty,
you'll not fear men. You'll not fear Him. If we truly fear Him, we'll not
fear anyone else. God's people are sheep, but they're
not cowards. They're not cowards. They're
sheep, but they're not cowards. Now, let me wind this up. He's
going to give them His providential care of them. Because He's going
to leave soon. He's going to die and He's going
to rise and go back to the Father. He's going to leave them. And
it's going to get tough. And they did. They got very tough
on the disciples. But it says here in verse 29,
Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? Practically nothing. And one of them shall not fall
on the ground without your Father, without His will, without His
purpose? I mean, the very purpose of God
is in the falling of that sparrow. We don't think nothing of it,
do we? His providential care is over all the minute things
of this life, even the animal kingdom, insects, I mean, you
just name it. His providential care is over
it. Are you not worth much more than a sparrow? Are you not worth much more?
He says you're worth more than many sparrows. But he says the
very hairs of your head are all numbered. He's in every small detail concerning
you. He's in the very smallest of
things concerning you. The hairs of your head are numbered. Now, I don't think he's just
saying that just to give an example. I think they really are. I think
they are truly numbered. That's how minutely God knows
His children. That's how involved he is with
his children. It seems like sometimes that it's far off. Where is it? You know, David
said one time, the heavens are like brass. Oh, the very hairs of
your head are numbered. How minutely he watches over
us. Now he speaks of confessing Christ,
and I'll close with this. They're going to go out and they're
going to preach the gospel. They are going to confess Christ
in their message, in their preaching, and they are going to be converts.
The Lord is going to save. The gospel is sent to save sinners,
to find the lost sheep of the house of Israel. But what is
it to confess Christ? First of all, it is to confess
Him, not Judaism, not religion, not an event. is to confess Him,
a real living Lord. And then we confess Him when
we confess His Lordship, His sovereign Lordship over all. Who's running all this? The Lord
Jesus Christ, that man from Nazareth, that Nazarene that was despised
and rejected of men, That man right now is running all this. He's Lord of all. We confess
that. We believe it. And then we confess
what He did. He came into this world. He became
incarnate. That's the Son of God. That man,
Jesus Christ, is God manifested in the flesh. That's who that
man is. We confess He's coming into the
world. We confess that he bore our sins in his body on the tree. We confess that he suffered and
died for sinners, the ungodly. We confess. And we confess why
he did this, that he might bring us to God. There's no other way
for me to come before God except through the blood and righteousness
of Jesus Christ. That's the only way. And we confess
this. And we confess that he is right now seated at God's
right hand, making intercession for those who confess him. Making
intercession, it says, for the transgressors. Boy, I'm glad
that's who he's making intercession, transgressors. I can fit right
in there. But the first way, and Frank
touched on this, the very first way we openly confess Christ
is we follow his command to be baptized. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved. That's how we do it. And then we confess him by being
identified with his people. Ruth said, your people's my people,
your God's my God. And he said, but those who deny
me, I'll deny them before the Father. He said, depart from
me, I never knew you. Those who won't identify with
this gospel, those who will not identify with my preachers, the
ones I sent, those who receive you, receive me. Those who receive
me, receive him that sent me. But they reject you, they rejected
me, they rejected the Father. Don't you know those Jewish people,
those religious leaders, were saying, we're not rejecting God,
we're just rejecting you. No, he said, if they reject you,
they reject me and they reject the Father. You can't reject
one without, you can't reject the messenger and not the one
who sent the message. He said, you can't do it. You
can't do it. But here's why our Lord is teaching
His disciples and His church throughout all ages. You're going
to have trouble over the gospel if you preach it as it is revealed
in the Word of God. If you preach it, if you witness
it to people out there, you're going to have trouble over it.
You're not going to be popular. It's not going to be popular.
But don't quit. He said, don't quit. He that
endures to the end shall be saved. And I'll take care of you. I'll
take care of you. I know the very hairs of your
head. I know how many hairs are on your head. I'll take care
of you. You confess me. You confess me before men. And
this is a lifelong confession. It's not something we do one
time. It's a lifelong confession.

Trouble Over The Gospel

What does the Bible say about trouble over the gospel?

Why is the gospel considered good news for the guilty?

How do we know the doctrine of suffering for the gospel is true?

Why is it important for Christians to acknowledge their guilt before God?

What does it mean to confess Christ according to Matthew 10?

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Trouble Over The Gospel

What does the Bible say about trouble over the gospel?

Why is the gospel considered good news for the guilty?

How do we know the doctrine of suffering for the gospel is true?

Why is it important for Christians to acknowledge their guilt before God?

What does it mean to confess Christ according to Matthew 10?

Sermon Transcript

About John Chapman

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