I want to read a verse in chapter
10 of Matthew, verse 32, and then also a verse in the book
of Romans, and preach on something that I've been wanting to preach
on for a while, since one of our previous and recent Exodus
studies. And I thought since we're Gathering
around the table tonight. This would be a good time to
speak on this subject confession of Christ We talked about confession
of sin when we saw how that Pharaoh in a manner confessed that he
had sinned but That draws our minds to something else Something about this look at
Matthew 10 32 whosoever therefore shall confess me Before men Him
will I confess also? Before my father which is in
heaven does that make you want to know what confession is? But
whosoever shall deny me before me Him will I also deny? before my father which is in
heaven and then turn to Romans chapter 10 verse 9 Romans 10 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. With the heart
man believes on Christ, who is our righteousness. And so faith
is unto righteousness. Faith is not righteousness. Our
faith is full of sin as anything else we do. But it's unto righteousness
that we believe because Christ is our righteousness. He said,
whosoever therefore, in Matthew 10 there, shall confess me. And the word me, of course, is
of primary significance. It's not the confessing of a
confession of faith. People have what they call confessions
of faith. It's a list of things that they
believe. There used to be one hanging
on that wall right there before we got here. And I've seen many
of them in my lifetime. To say, to have a confession
of faith drawn up and say, that's what I believe right there. That's
not confessing Christ. There are also those who say
with their mouth, I believe in Jesus. I believe that Jesus is
the Christ. There are many false Christs.
And they have the same name as the true one, don't they? They
call him Jesus Christ, but he's not the Christ of the Bible.
He's not the Jesus of scripture. And so the me in that verse is
so important. It's the confession of one specific
person identified in Romans 10, nine as the Lord Jesus. the Lord Jesus. Now I know that religion also
throws this word Lord around quite a bit, but it doesn't take long to figure
out what they mean by that. Confession is a response to the
gospel. If you read the rest of Romans
10, after Paul says, When you believe in your heart and confess
with your mouth, the Lord Jesus, you're saved. And then he goes
on to show how that happens. Everybody that calls on his name
is saved, but how should they call on him of whom they've not
heard? And how should they hear without
a preacher? And how should they preach except
God send them? So confession is a response to that preached
word. That's clear in the context there.
If you preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus to some who confess
that Jesus is Lord, if you were to confess the sovereign Lord
Jesus Christ, who saves whom he will, who died effectually
for his sheep, who intercedes in his priests for only those
that the Father gave him from the foundation of the world,
you'll find out pretty quick whether they're confessing the
Christ of the Bible or the Jesus of free will religion. We know
that. Just to say Jesus is Lord is one thing. When the Lord Jesus says to you,
and he says this in the gospel, in his word, if the Lord were
to say to these ones who in religion say Jesus is Lord, but preach
another Jesus, If he were to say to you, let's not think about
them, let's think about us, me. If the Lord says to me, it's
not right for me to take my children's bread and give it to a dog like
you, what are you gonna say to him? I know what I've heard people
say, that's not fair. That's not fair. And everyone
deserves a chance to be saved. That's what some who say Jesus
is Lord. They respond that way to the
truth of God's sovereign electing grace. He has mercy on whom he
will. And if he says it wouldn't be right for me to have mercy
on you, I'm going to have mercy on somebody else. I'm going to
give my bread to my children and it wouldn't be right to give
it to you. How would you respond to that? If you confess the Lord Jesus,
you'll say, that's the truth. That's the truth. You see what
I mean? And then you'll beg him for a crumb. That's what happens
when the Lord Jesus says that. If you confess him, you say,
Lord, that's the truth. I need a crumb. Even a dog. I am a dog. You're right about
that. but I must have a crumb from your table or I'm gone. And if we confess him, he says
that he'll not only give us a crumb, but he said, you'll sit at the
king's table from then on and eat what he eats. But it's a
matter of who you see you're confessing. They confess in a
Jesus that they call Lord, but this one who saves whom he will, I don't hear too many people
in this world confessing him. Confession of Christ is to acknowledge
and submit to and believe on his word. What he says about
you. That's what that little lady
did. She confessed the Lord Jesus. The word confess is a compound
word there in the original Greek. It's the combination of the word
logos, which is word, and another word which means agreement or
identification with. She agreed with Christ. That's to confess him. And she
did it with her mouth. She agreed with him. She said,
that's the truth. That's confessing the Lord Jesus
right there. When he reveals himself in his
sovereign Lordship, you agree with him and identify with him. If he says you're a dog, you
say truth, but Lord, I wanna be your dog. That's what I want. If he says you don't deserve
anything from me, you say what she did, truth, Lord. You confess
in the Lord Jesus. You remember when we talked about
Pharaoh's confession of sin in the book of Exodus. Confession
of Christ, as we've said tonight, is submission to his truth concerning
you. If you say, I confess Christ,
I agree with Christ, but then when he speaks, you say, well,
I don't believe that. You're not confessing the Lord
Jesus. It's to submit to his word, his truth. Now, submitting
to his truth concerning you is what we talked about in that
study in Exodus. It's confession of sin. That's
agreeing with Him concerning yourself. And we saw that Pharaoh's
confession was false. Even though he said, I have sinned,
it was evident in his language. And not always evident when people
say things with their mouth. We're going to talk about that
in a minute. There's more to it than just saying it with your
mouth. But sometimes even what comes out of their mouth makes
it clear. But it's not true confession. That was the case with Pharaoh.
He said, I've sinned this time. Reveals an ignorance of our continual
sinfulness. You've sinned every time, Pharaoh,
and I have too. Every time I open my mouth, I
sin. Every time I think a thought, I sin. When I till my garden
this spring, it'll be sin. The Lord said, the plowing of
the wicked is sin. It won't be in his eyes because
in Christ it's not. But in myself, what I do in myself,
In this flesh dwells no good thing. And so he said, I've sinned this
time. That reveals ignorance about what sin is, doesn't it?
And it shows that his estimation of sin was based upon the consequences. He said, I've sinned this time
because he didn't like the consequences this time. If you sinned and
got away with it, would you be saying it, Pharaoh? I reckon
not. But when the plague came, he
said, oh, I've sinned this time. Our estimation of sin can't be
based upon the consequences of it. And we saw several other
indicators of a false confession. It was just words, wasn't it?
It wasn't an expression of a true change of heart because once
the immediate consequences of his sin were taken away, he resumed
his defiance of God. That's not true confession. The
true confession of Christ assumes true confession of sin, because
it's agreeing with Him in His truth concerning us, in His word
concerning us. It's to confess Him also as your
only hope. And He's your only hope because
you're who and what He says you are. If you're what religion
says you are, then you have, you know, you can always fan
that spark into a flame. You can always make a good decision.
But if you're who the Lord Jesus says you are, you're gonna have
to come to him for mercy. You're shut up to his mercy if
you're a real sinner. You're not confessing him if
you deny his word. That's what we're saying. A religious person may have a
Jesus is Lord bumper sticker on their car. I've seen some
be proud of that thing. But when they're presented with
the Christ, as he's revealed in this Bible, as having mercy
on whom he will, as giving life to whomsoever he will, without
consideration of man's will or man's works, they say, that's
not fair. That's denying the Lord Jesus.
He said, I'll deny you before my father. And then Paul said, we are to
confess the Lord Jesus. Well, everybody uses that word.
Yeah, but there's one whose name was called Jesus for a reason. The name Jesus is used to designate
false Christs. We know that. They call their
Lord Jesus too, although he's not the Jesus of the scriptures. So we see the need for the acknowledgement
of His sovereignty. It's not just Jesus. They like
to throw around, well, Jesus this, and he's the Lord Jesus. You try to find one of his apostles
or disciples just calling him Jesus in this book. They didn't
do it. They addressed him as the Lord
Jesus, or just the Lord. They never said, hey, Jesus. Like religion does so much. Let's
have a little talk with Jesus. Who in the world are they talking
about? There are a lot of Jesuses in
this world, but there's just one that's on the throne. There's
only one Lord Jesus. But also, His Lordship being
established, we've got to consider also this word, Jesus. Matthew
1.20, turn there with me, let's look at the, you're familiar
with this, but His name is Jesus for a reason. They didn't just
think that sounded good. The Lord God said call Him Jesus. Matthew 1.20, Joseph is fretting
over the fact that Mary is with child and while he thought on
these things and was heartbroken, we know Behold, the angel of
the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou
son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for
that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. You didn't
have anything to do with it, Joseph. You were just in on it. And she shall bring forth a son,
and thou shalt call his name Jesus. If thou shalt confess
with thy mouth the Lord now, the Lord, not just any Jesus,
but he's the Lord Jesus. He's the Lord for he shall save
his people from their sins. When you confess in the Lord
Jesus, you're confessing the sovereign Christ who came down
here for a specific purpose. And the father said he's going
to get it done. Thou shalt call His name Jesus
because He's going to do His best. No! He's going to save
them. He shall save them. When our Lord was born, the angels
proclaimed in Luke 2.11, Unto you is born this day in the city
of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. the Lord Jesus, the
Lord Savior, a Savior who is Lord, a Savior who is God's Christ,
God's anointed, God's sent prophet, priest, and king come to redeem
his people from their sin. He's the Christ, the Lord Jesus. He's a Savior who does what he
wants to do. He's a Savior who says, I quicken
whom I will. He's the Savior who is the Lord. He does what He will, when He
will, with whom He will. That's who the Lord Jesus. That's
who we must confess. Now, understand this. Confession
is a heart expression of faith, or it's worthless. That's what
I was saying a minute ago. You could say anything. Words
that are correct, true concerning Him. But Paul said in Romans
10, 9, with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made. Without the heart faith the mouth
confession is a waste of air at best. Well was old so-and-so when he
made a confession of Christ, was it true or was it false?
I'd have to be able to look on his heart to tell you that. And
I can't do that. Because if he believed in his
heart and confessed with his mouth, then it was true. If he
didn't, if he just popping off with his mouth, then it was a
false confession. I can't answer it for you because
I can't see the heart, but the Lord does. The Lord looks on
the heart. You can say some words and somebody
else can repeat some words. But Paul said, there's faith
in the heart that brings this confession to the lips. Or it's
not confessing the Lord Jesus, it's just talk. Talk is cheap. The Ethiopian eunuch, he's a
perfect example of this. He wanted to be baptized. He
was reading from the book of Isaiah, and the Lord sent Philip
down there to cross paths with that Ethiopian eunuch. And Philip
came upon him and the Lord said, the Holy Spirit said to Philip,
go join yourself to that chariot. And Philip ran over there and
saw this man reading the scriptures and said, do you understand what
you're reading? And he said, how can I, except
some man should guide me. And the Lord, as he does, he
used one of his sent ones to speak to this man. And it says
that he began right there at that scripture that he had been
reading in Isaiah chapter 53 and preached unto him Jesus.
And the man said, what does hinder me to be baptized? I want to
confess the Lord Jesus Christ. I want to confess what I know.
And in Acts 8 37, Philip said, if thou believest, with all thine heart. Thou mayest. There ain't no sense
in being baptized unless you believe with all your heart.
You're just gonna go in there and dry sinner and come out a
wet sinner. It's just a ritual unless there's faith. Is that
clear? We take that for granted, but
do you know how few people understand that? Thank God for revelation
concerning that. If you believe with all your
heart, God gives faith and that causes a confession. That's why
that man said, what does hinder me to be baptized? Because he
believed in his heart and he wanted to be identified with
him upon whom he had believed. Some want to be baptized just
because it's the thing to do. You know, parents, their children
are, you know, getting on up in age. They're like, oh boy,
they need to be baptized. And so they coerce them to do.
They start, you know, enticing them to do that just because
it's the thing to do. It's worthless. It's, it's an
abomination in the sight of God. Unless it's a confession of heart
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. But he said, if you believe with
all your heart, I'll baptize you. I'll do it. I'll baptize you. And that man
said this. You want to know what confession
with the mouth is? I believe that Jesus Christ is
the Son of God. He confessed the Lord Jesus,
didn't he? He's the Son of God. And you know what? Philip did
not ask him if he was an infralapsarian or a superlapsarian. He didn't
You didn't qualify that at all. Did you know that you don't really
even need to know what that is? And yet, some have the militant opinion
that you have to take a stand on one of those or the other
in order to know God. That man wouldn't have known
what Philip was talking about if he had started saying those
words. It's foreign to the gospel, and it's offensive to God's people
to insist upon such thing, to take a stand on points of doctrine. We better stand with Him. To
confess Christ is to say, I'm with Him, in everything He says. Not what you say, what He says.
That's confession of Christ. What did that Ethiopian eunuch
believe? Well, read Isaiah 53. We won't take the time to turn
over there tonight, but that's where Philip saw him reading. He was reading from Isaiah 53. It pleased the Lord to bruise
his side. He hath laid on him the iniquity
of us all. Oh, who hath believed our report? To whom is the arm of the Lord
revealed? He shall grow up as a tender plant. and as a root
out of a dry ground. We hid as it were our faces from
him. We said he was despised and forsaken
of the Lord, but he was wounded for our transgressions. He was
bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was on him, and with his stripes we're healed. That's who he believed. He said, I believe that that
Jesus, he's the son of God. He's God's anointed Christ. He's
God's Savior. He's the one that God has promised
from the beginning that he would send into this world to atone
for the sins of his people. I believe what you say. I believe what you preach. But
Isaiah wasn't talking about himself. He's talking about the Son of
God right there. And that's my Savior. That's
my hope. If there's any hope for a sinner like me, it's in
that Savior in Isaiah 53. I believe He's the Christ. I
believe He's God's Son. That's confession of the Lord
Jesus. He believed what He heard, and
He believed it with all of His heart, with all of His heart. And it caused him to want to
confess him in baptism, to identify with him in baptism. And it caused
him to say with his mouth, I believe, I believe. Mark chapter one, we won't turn
there. We've read this recently. Baptism
itself is confession. There in Mark chapter one, it
says that some were baptized, confessing their sins. And that's
part, as we've seen, of confessing Christ. That you're confessing
your sinfulness and your need for the One who died and was
buried and rose again for the sins of His people and your identification
with Him in that. We're dead to this world. We're dead to sin and alive unto
God and raised in newness of life with Him. Because He died for us and was
raised again. for our justification. Baptism
itself is confession. Both of God's ordinances. Are
you confessing Christ when you eat that bread right there? You
better believe it. He said you do show forth the
Lord's death till he come. That's confessing him. Religion now has replaced true
confession of the Lord Jesus Christ in baptism with walking
an aisle and repeating some prayer that some other idiot wrote.
You don't even know what it says until you're repeating after
him. Does that have anything to do
with your heart? Believing with all your heart
and confessing him. Just repeating something that
somebody else wrote. And that's your ticket to heaven?
What an abomination that is. make some kind of decision you
don't replace what the lord has ordained and the lord has ordained
these ordinances for the confession of his son before men that's
what baptism is paul specifically he specifies their confession
with the mouth in romans chapter 10 because there are other ways
to confess him and that's baptism And by this table, as often as
you eat this bread and drink this cup, you do show the Lord's
death till He come. You're saying not with your mouth
there, but with the action of observing the ordinance that
the Lord gave us in order to confess His Son. You're identifying
yourself with Him. You're agreeing with Him. That your only hope is His shed
blood, broken body. That you have life because of
the flesh and blood of the Son of God. Because by faith we eat
His flesh and drink His blood. If you don't, there's no life
in you. We agree. We know that's right. And so,
by His grace we eat and we drink. Not just of physical elements,
but of Him, spiritually. And then the word confess, as
I said, is a compound word of logos, which is word and the
word together or in agreement with. We're identified, we're
with him, we're together and in agreement with him, together
with him in every way that we can be with him. And it is by
what you say and often by what you do to show agreement with
and identification with the Lord Jesus Christ. And so every time
you do that, you're confessing Him. It's not just a one-time
thing. It's not just something, you
know, that happens down at the front of a church or some nonsense,
and then you just go live your life like religion perpetuates
constantly. But we always, ever after, confess
Him. Always turn to Acts 24. Verse 10. Listen to the Apostle
Paul. Here's a we saw the Ethiopian
unit confessing him from a from a heart of faith in the Lord
Jesus. I believe and so he spoke. Listen to Paul then Paul in verse
10 after that the governor had beckoned unto him to speak. He's
called before the law to answer for accusations against him. And he answered, For as much
as I know that thou hast been of many years a judge unto this
nation, I do the more cheerfully answer for myself, because that
thou mayest understand that there are yet but twelve days since
I went up to Jerusalem for a worship. And they neither found me in
the temple disputing with any man, neither raising up the people,
neither in the synagogues nor in the city, Neither can they
prove the things wherever they now accuse me." And he could
have stopped right there, couldn't he? There ain't no way they could
convict him, you know, not reasonably convict him, because he wasn't
guilty of anything. He never broke a law here. And
all he had to do was state his innocence, and he said, let them
prove it. Let them prove what they say,
and then sit down. But he didn't do that. He said,
but here, this I confess unto thee. I'm not gonna confess,
I'm not gonna agree with the charges against me that are brought
this day, but I'll agree with them on this. After the way which
they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers. He goes on later now, we won't
read the whole rest of this chapter, but he goes on later talking
about how he had preached the resurrection of the Lord Jesus
Christ and that his hope was in a risen Christ. So he's confessing
the Lord Jesus. That's what he's doing. He said,
I confess that what they call heresy, they got me. That's what I believe. I worship God in that gospel
that they hate. Believing all things which are
written in the Law and in the Prophets. You'll always find
faith and confession together. Always. Whatever you believe,
that's what you'll confess. Believe in all of God's Word.
I agree with God. in the record that he gave concerning
his son. I confess the Lord Jesus. Let them call me what they will,
but I have hope toward God, which they themselves also allow that
there shall be a resurrection of the dead. We agree on that. both of the just and the unjust. And herein do I exercise myself
to have always a conscience void of offense toward God first and toward men. He confessed
the Lord Jesus. He didn't just defend himself.
He identified himself as somebody, as being one of Christ's. John 12, 42, listen to this. Here's the opposite of that.
It says, nevertheless, among the chief rulers also, many believed
on him. There was some kind of a belief
of some truth, but because of the Pharisees, they did not confess
him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue. We've talked
about now how that confession is a waste of air without faith. Let me tell you something. We
already know from the word of God that there's more than one
kind of faith, isn't there? There were those that believed
on him because of the miracles that he didn't commit himself
to because he knew what was in them. It wasn't true saving. It wasn't the faith of God's
elect. And so the other way is true
too, isn't it? If there's no confession, no
true confession of Christ, then you got the wrong kind of faith.
You got faith that you worked up, not the kind that God gives
you. Because if God gives you faith in his son, everybody's
gonna know it. You'll have a hard time proving
otherwise from this book. They would not confess him lest
they should be put out of the synagogue. For they loved the
praise of men more than the praise of God. If you confess the Lord
Jesus Christ, this world will not love you. They will not. These chief rulers knew that.
And they acted accordingly. And if
you care about that, you never will confess him. But by God's
grace, there are some in this world who agree with him, who
identify with him, who say, I'm with him. With regard to my sin,
with regard to his revelation of myself in his book, I agree
with him. With regard to my sin, he says,
you're a dog and you don't deserve anything from me. And I know
that's right by his grace. I know that's right. And by his
grace, I'll say that's right. I agree with him with regard
to his revelation of himself. You're going to either have to
believe what religion says concerning him, or you're going to have
to believe what this book says concerning him, because it's
two different things. You're going to confess him,
agree with his revelation of himself in his book. He's sovereign. He's holy. He's just. He's gracious. He's sovereign. He has grace and mercy on whom
he will. He chooses the sinner, and then
the sinner chooses Him. He loves, and we love because
He loved us. He comes to us, and then we come
to Him. We know that's right, and we
agree with it. We're thankful for it, not grudgingly
in agreement with it, but bless God for His sovereign electing
grace. that he came where I was. When
I not only didn't know who he was, but what I knew of him I
didn't want anything to do with. In that while I was yet a vile,
wretched, God-hating sinner, he came where I was and saved
me in every sense of the word. If you confess the Lord Jesus
Christ, you confess who he is according to him. And by God's
grace, we agree with him in how a sinner can be saved. Not by
walking an aisle or making a decision or doing anything for him or
for anybody else, but by him doing something for us. Because
of what he did for us, we're saved. Salvation is of the Lord. By his grace, I'm not looking
for another door. If he says, are you going away
like everybody else? Confessing him is to say, Lord,
where would we go? You have the words of eternal
life. You're our hope. You're our very life. I'm not
looking for another way into God's favor and blessing. Christ
is my effectual sin atonement. He's my propitiation before God. He's my righteousness, not looking
to add anything to the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's
not His righteousness plus my decision. It's not His righteousness
plus me living the Christian life. There's just one righteousness
and it's His. And unless He is my righteousness,
I must perish forever. Like Paul, As he talked about
in the book of Philippians, we leave all of our supposed and
imagined goodness, law keeping and heritage and religion behind. We cast it off of ourselves like
filthy rags and run to the Lord Jesus Christ. Press toward the
mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. And then by his grace, we're
not ashamed to let everybody know about it. That's confession
of Christ. And may he, may he increase our faith, the
faith from which that confession springs and cause us to tell
everybody in this world while we're here who will listen that
Christ is all and in all to his everlasting glory. May he do
that. Don't you want to honor him while you're here? How much
longer are you going to be around here? How much longer? Don't
have any idea, do you? Doesn't matter much, really,
if you're His. But what does matter is this.
Whatever time He's given us, let's glorify Him here, shall
we? I want you to desire that. I know I have no power to do
that, no ability to do that, but I want it. I want it for
His glory, by His grace. Let's bow in prayer.