Turn in your Bibles with me this
morning to Luke chapter 12. Luke chapter 12. I want to concentrate all my attention
this morning on just two verses of Scripture in Luke 12, verses
8 and 9. Let's read these two verses together.
Luke chapter 12, verse 8. Also I say unto you, whosoever
shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of Man also
confess before the angels of God. But he that denieth me before
men shall be denied before the angels of God. Now I wonder this
morning, If someone were to put you on
the spot, unexpected, you were leaving here or coming, whichever,
and somebody meets you in the hallway and said, what is your
hope before God? What would you tell them? What
would you tell them? Would we go into all the doctrines
and begin to talk about predestination and election What would we tell
them if somebody said, what is your hope before God? If God himself were to ask you
in the day you died, what is your hope before me? What would
you tell him? What is our hope before God? What is the believer's hope?
Christ. I don't have to go into the doctrines.
I don't have to go into anything. I just tell them, my hope is
Christ. All my eggs are in one basket. Like the poker game, if you watch
the finals of it, they get down and each one of them, there's
only two or three left, and each one of them has this big stack
of money, and they're looking at each other's face, and looking
at their own hands, and looking, and finally somebody says, I'm
all in. That's what it is. I'm all in
with Christ. He's all I got. I don't have
anything else. Nothing. Nothing. Well, man's
will? No, it's not of him that will
it. Not of him that will it. And this is the thing. You see,
Christ is all. He's all my hope. The only answer
to that question, and it doesn't lie in all the doctrines and
creeds of religion, Whether they'd be true or whether they'd be
false. The answer is Jesus Christ our Lord. Christ in you is what
the scripture said. The hope of glory. There is no
other hope. The doctrines tell me who He
is. Is doctrine important? Oh, you bet. It tells me who
Christ is. It tells me why He came. Why did He leave heaven, come
to sin to become a man and dwell on this earth for 33 and a half
years and die on the cross? Why did He come? And then what did He do? The
doctrines tells me what He did. Not only who He is and why He
came, but it tells me what He did. Did He do anything? Was His whole life and appearance
on this earth just a A best effort of God or a last effort of God? What did he do? And where is he now? And I'll
give you one more. What's he yet going to do? The
doctrines tell us that, but our faith and hope is in the person.
It's in the person. We have nothing to teach but
what God has taught us from the Scriptures. Peter warns us, he
said, beware of teachers, that is, false teachers, who privily,
what's that mean? Of himself, of himself, by himself,
shall bring in damnable heresies. How does he do that? He said,
well, the Lord told me The Lord called me. The Lord
told me. He appeared to me in a vision. He said, I was on the Mount of
Transfiguration. I saw Christ Himself transfigured
before my eyes. I saw Him talking to Moses and
Elijah. He was talking about His exodus.
That's what that word is, exodus. his departure from this world. But Peter said, we have also
a more sure word of prophecy, where unto you do well to take
heed is unto a light that shineth in a dark place until the day
dawn and the day star arise in your hearts. Now listen, here's
the next verse right after that. Knowing this first, that no prophecy
of the Scripture is of any private interpretation. It don't come
from you. Here's a book. I sit down to
read it. What's my understanding dependent
on? Me? No. No. That's what he said. It's not
a private interpretation. God reveals his word to you.
And he does so through the means that he's ordained. You're not
going to sit down and figure this book out. I don't care how
intellectual you are, how smart you are. You're not going to
sit down and figure this book out. It's a mystery. It's a mystery. And the Bible is not a collection
of man's ideas and philosophies gathered over thousands of years.
That's not what it is. He tells us prophecy came not
in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as
they were moved by the Holy Ghost. That's why I can tell you when
I read a scripture, the Holy Ghost said, instead of Paul,
and still be right on both counts. He didn't write anything that
he wasn't moved by the Holy Ghost to write. And Isaiah said, if
they speak not according to this word, what word? All the word
there was in that day, the law and the testimony of the prophets.
If they speak not according to this Word, it's because there's
no light in them. And the key to understanding
the Scriptures is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The Bible is
a book of redemption. It's a book about one man taking
the whole counsel of God from his hand and revealed it to his
people, accomplishing the will of God. In both John 17.3 and
1 John 5.20, He tells us in the plainest of
language that eternal life is to know God. To know God. Not to just know of Him, but
to know His very character and will. To know the heart of God. And the only way you're going
to know that is for God to reveal it to you. No man, Christ said, knoweth
the Father, save the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal
Him. And Christ is the only master
theologian ever and always. He said, you call me master,
you do well, for so I am. My name, he said, is the Word
of God. The Word of God. Before there
was this book, there was the Word. And this book is about
the Word. He's the only master theologian
of God and of His way and of His will. So much so that He
said to His disciples, I am the way. They said, we don't know
the way and how do we know where you're going? He said, I am the
way. I am the truth. I don't know
if I know the truth. You do if you know Him. He said,
I am the truth. And I am the life. No man cometh
unto the Father. Any way you want to use that
word. You can't come to an understanding of the Father. You can't come
to the Father. You can't come and be taught
of the Father. You can't even submit to the
Father because you don't know who the Father is. No man cometh
unto the Father but by me. That's what he tells us. Listen to this over in 2 Corinthians
4 and verse 5. Paul said, We preach not ourselves,
but Christ Jesus, the Lord, and ourselves, your servants, for
Jesus' sake. For God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ." He revealed Christ to us. He revealed Him
in us, in our hearts, that we might preach Him among the heathens.
He revealed Christ to us, the very wisdom of God, and then
he says we have this treasure in earthen vessels, just old
clay pots, that the excellency of the glory may be of him. The excellency of his power might
be of him and not of us. Christ is our wisdom. Paul said
in him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Now
I started out in this study to teach four valuable lessons,
and we'll get into the other three, but I soon realized that
I needed to give all my attention to this first one all by itself.
Confessing Christ. That's what our Lord's talking
about. Confessing Christ. What does it mean to confess
Christ? How do believers confess Christ? Well, confession begins with
knowledge. Don't it? You have to know him. How am I going to confess him
if I don't know him? That's why people are so troubled
with all these variations of baptism and all of these things,
because they don't know him. If you knew him and knew what
he did and why he did it and where he's at, you'd understand
the only way to baptize is to be buried. That's how he saved
his people, isn't it? We were in him by divine union. Made one with him. He's our representative. And when He died, we died. When
God raised Him from the dead, He raised us from the dead. And
when He ascended into glory, we're seated there with Him.
That's union with Christ. That's your confession before
man in baptism. But it begins with knowledge.
You can't tell what you don't know, Brother Barnard said, any
more than you can come back from somewhere you haven't been. You
have to know Him to confess Him. In Romans 10-11, the Apostle
Paul quotes a verse of Scripture from Isaiah 28-16. He also quotes
that Scripture in Romans 9-33. But the passage is quoted to
prove the connection between faith and righteousness and the
confession of Christ. And he says this, Whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. In Romans 9.33,
it says, shall not be ashamed. It means the same thing. And having quoted this scripture,
and that's a broad statement, isn't it? Whosoever. What a statement. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. Let no man stand in a corner
and say, well, he's not talking about me. Yeah, he's talking
about whosoever. Whosoever, I'm not a bit afraid
of that term, whosoever, shall call upon the name of the Lord.
And then he asked four questions. How then shall you call on him
in whom you have not believed? How you gonna do that? Ask the
average person who Christ is, he can't tell you. He'll throw out general, he's
the son of God, okay, what's that mean? What's that mean? What's God's Son doing here?
Tell me about Him. Who is He? You don't know who
He is. How are you going to call on Him in whom you have not believed?
Now the name of the Lord is who He is. That's who He is all through
the scriptures. The first account of it is actually
in Genesis 1. He uses the term God. He's talking
about Elohim. That's absolute God. God the
Creator. He's God. God over all, blessed
forever. He's God. And then in Genesis
chapter 2, he starts talking about the Lord. The Lord is God's
covenant name to his people. And from then on, all the way
through the Old Testament, when he talks about the Lord, he's
talking about Jehovah, the covenant God, all through. The name of the Lord is who He
is, and all through the Old Testament, God reveals Him under those two
names. And Jehovah is God's covenant
name, and He always uses this name in relation to His people. When He's talking about the salvation
of His people, Noah and Ark, the Lord shut them in. He shut
them in. And then all through the scripture
he uses his covenant name in compound with certain of his
attributes. Listen to this, Jehovah, that's
the covenant God, that's his name. Jehovah Jireh, the Lord
will provide. Jehovah Rapha, the Lord who healeth
thee. Jehovah Nissi, the Lord our banner. Jehovah Kadish, the Lord who
sanctifies thee. Jehovah Rea, the Lord our shepherd. Jehovah Shalom, the Lord our
peace. Jehovah Sidcanu, the Lord our righteousness. What does
that tell you about our covenant of God? He's our righteousness.
That's what that tells me. He's my peace. He's my sanctification. The name of God is who He is,
and the name of the Lord is who He is as our covenant God and
Savior. And Peter tells us in Acts 4,
verses 11 and 12, he said, this is the stone which you builders
set it not. And God made him the head of
the corner. You looked at him like a mason looks at a brick,
and he said, well, I don't like this one, and he threw it away.
The Jews looked at Christ, who claimed to be the Christ. They
looked at Jesus. He claimed, his claim was to
be the Christ. And they called him out. They
said, no, he ain't the Christ. He's not the one that we're looking
for. They called him out. And then
he says, but God made him the head of the corner. And neither
is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name
under heaven given among men, whereby you must be saved. That's
the name. That name is revealed in Christ.
God, just and justifier. God being merciful and gracious.
God being perfectly righteous. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone who believes in Him. God being love, being kind and
long-suffering, God being holy, all His attributes in perfect
harmony at all times. God is not going to save anybody
contrary to His character. And this name is declared in
the person and work of Christ alone. All right, here's the
next question Paul asked. He said, how shall they believe
in him of whom they have not heard? Ephesians 4 tells us our
Lord gave his ascension gifts to the church. The first two
he mentions are apostles and prophets. Why did he say that? We don't have any apostles and
prophets. What was he talking about? He was talking about this
book. He gave his apostles and prophets
for the writing of this book, the completion of the whole canon
of God. It's right here. What else did
he give to the church? He gave them evangelists and
pastor-teachers. What are they going to do? They're
going to tell you who Christ is. They're going to tell you
what the apostles declared. They're going to unveil the mystery
to you. Every fallen son of Adam shut
up to a book he cannot and will not understand. Where does it
say that in the scripture? The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God. He won't do it. Is this book
a thing of the Spirit of God? You bet. Every word. Every word. Natural man won't receive it.
He'll argue it's philosophy. He'll argue his church creed.
He'll tell you what the world believes and what they don't
believe. He'll tell you what the world accepts and won't accept,
but he won't argue on the basis of this book. He won't do it. We're shut up to a book we can't
understand and will not understand. Being under sin, Paul said in
Romans 3.10, none righteous, none that understandeth. You
think those Jews didn't study this book? They knew when a period
was out of place. They knew when a comma was out
of place. They hand-transcribed the scriptures. Their relatives
wrote the Bible. They're not talking about people
they didn't know, ancient men. They're talking about their great-grandfathers.
How many times did Christ tell them, the fathers, the fathers,
the fathers? We shut up to a book we can't
understand, and there's none that understandeth, and therefore
none that seeketh after God. Well, what's that mean? That
means salvation is of the Lord. It's of the Lord. Now, here's
the third question. How are you going to hear without
preaching? You can't call on Him in whom you have not believed.
You can't believe in Him of whom you have not heard. And how are
you going to hear without preaching? I didn't say that, the Holy Ghost
did. He did. We're shut up to the
sovereign way of God in salvation, and that way is through preaching.
In the wisdom of God. Now listen, here's God's wisdom.
In the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. So it pleased God through the
foolishness of preaching to save them the place. That's how you're
going to do it. That's how you're going to do
it. And you can get on that other bandwagon if you want to, but this is how
God saves sinners. To confess Christ, I must know
Him. To know Him, He must be declared
to me out of God's Word. And thirdly, He said how they're
going to preach if God don't send them. They got no more understanding
of that book than you do. If he don't open it up to him,
it ain't gonna open. And then secondly, to confess
him, I must first come to him. I've got to come to him. How
do you come to God? By faith. By faith. I come in sincerity with the
heart as well as the mind. I come by rational, reasonable
decision. Boy, that wrecks Calvinists right
down the back. We come by rational, reasonable
decision. Our Lord said over in Isaiah
1, He told Israel, He said, come let us reason together. When
can the natural man reason? When God reasons with him. When God reasons with him. Actually, decisions are made
every time we do anything. If I want a drink of water, I
have to decide if I want it or not. Decision made everything
you do. But salvation ain't any decision.
That decision is the result of it. And listen to this, our decision's
made being shut up to Christ. He takes everything else away
and he said, now what are you going to do? Oh, I'm going to
believe in Christ. Why? Because there's nothing else
to do. Nowhere else to go. Where are we going to go? That's
the word of eternal life. That's what the disciples told
Christ. We come to Him by a rational,
reasonable decision, being shut up to Christ. And we come being
taught of God. How in the world... Our Lord
told those Pharisees, they were murmuring. He was talking about
being the bread from heaven. That man was a nutter and a fruitcake.
And he said, don't murmur. No man can come unto me except
he be drawn of my Father. If the Father don't draw him,
he ain't coming. He's going to explain what he's talking about.
He said, as it says in the scripture, they shall all be taught of God.
Now here's my question. How does God the Father teach?
James chapter 1 tells you. Of his own will begat he us with
the word of truth. You're going to hear the gospel
through a preacher. And then he says, now, you be
slow to wrath and be real slow to speak. Boy, how quick. How quick we are. I've got to
get my two cents in. No, just keep your two cents
in your pocket. Just be slow to speak, slow to wrath. of his own will begat he us with
the word of truth. Now here's the results of all
this. I know whom I have believed. Isn't that what Paul said? Well, what's that got to do with
anything? Well, he said, and I'm persuaded, because I know
whom I have believed, I'm persuaded that he's able to keep that which
I've committed unto him against that day. I know whom I have
believed. I know what He saves sinners
from. He saves us from the curse of
sin. He saves us from the condemnation
of the law. He saves sinners. I know how and who saved me. The God-man mediator saved me. The Redeemer, the Representative,
the Substitute. And I know how He saved me. by
putting me in an eternal union with his son. I was talking with
some folks last night about election, but election doesn't mean anything
apart from Christ. If he didn't choose me in Christ,
I still don't have a substitute, I'm just chosen. I'm chosen in Him by an eternal
union in His Son and by His mercy and grace and by the merits of
His perfect obedience. I'm saved by His blood. I'm saved. And I know why He saved me. Why
would He save anybody? Well, He says it's according
to the good pleasure of His will. That's how He saves him. Why
in the world would God save a sinner? A man kicking and scratching
and cursing and blaspheming, why would God save him? It saves him according to the good
pleasure of His will. It saves him according to the
glory of His grace. That's His purpose in all things,
is to show His glory in the salvation of sinners. Alright, so how do
we confess our Lord before men? First of all, by obedience. By
obedience. Know ye not that to whom ye yield
yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye
obey? You're not going to confess Christ
apart from obedience. It ain't going to happen. Paul said, but God be thanked
you were the servants of sin, but you have obeyed from the
heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then
made free from sin, you become the servants of righteousness.
How do we confess Him? We confess Him in believer's
baptism. In baptism we confess our salvation
in a simple ordinance, telling the world that all our hope is
in Him. God made me one with Him. If
He didn't, I'm a goner. And how did He do it? He slayed me on a cross. He buried
me in a hole. He raised me from the dead on
the third day, and He ascended up to glory with me, and I'm
seated with Him there. And this thing of baptism is
not an option any more than obedience is. It's not a request. It's a divine command. We confess
Christ in believer's baptism, and we confess Him in our theology. I have no confidence in anyone
who says, I believe, and then he blends in with those who don't
believe and preach another gospel. And then fourthly, we confess
him in the place of assault. Damn. Your pastor comes under attack.
You going to sit on the sidelines? He said it. No. No, you're going to stand with
Him. That's what you're going to do. You're going to stand
with Him. You're going to throw darts at
Him, throw them at me. I believe the same thing you
do. You confess Him in the place
of assault, and believers will always stand with the truth. Moses said, everybody's on the
Lord's side, come over here. The rest of you go over there. And God sent them to hell with
their shoes on. And then, people, we confess our Lord in our daily
lives. In our kindness, being gracious, merciful, forgiving
one another for Christ's sake, honesty, generosity, thankfulness,
and on and on it go. We confess Christ in our daily
lives. A man told Henry one time, he
said, notice you don't pray in public, like in restaurants and
stuff. He said, no. Well, he said, how are they ever
going to know if you're a Christian or not if you don't pray in the
restaurant? He said, I think they'll get a good idea when
they see the tip. And it's the same thing in your
house. Mow your grass. You want to be
a witness to the Lord? Mow your grass. Keep your house
up. Be honest in your dealings with people. Be friendly. Well,
you've got to lose us. You don't need to get that stern
face at everybody. My soul, you've got no excuse
not to love your enemies. And lastly, we confess Christ
in our death. Don't leave your funeral in the
hands of people who don't know God. Don't do it. Make arrangements
now. Let a godly man, a man sent of
God, stand up and preach what you believe. It may be the last
time your relatives ever get to hear it. And then our Lord speaks of those
who confess Him not. I'm not going to spend a lot
of time on this. I'm already out of time. But denial is the
opposite of confession. If you know the truth, refuse
to obey it, refuse to confess it, refuse to declare it, you're
denying the Lord Jesus Christ. You're denying Him. And to deny
Christ is to refuse to obey Him. In baptism, attendance to worship,
support of the church, and everyday activities, James said, faith
without works. is alone. It's a useless soap
bubble. That's what it is. It's just
a soap bubble. When God saves a sinner, He reveals
His Son in him and to him, and he becomes a partaker of the
glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. And to deny him is a sure confession
that we know him not. May the Lord add His blessings
to His Word. Thank you.