Turning your Bibles to the Gospel
of St. Matthew, Chapter 10. The Gospel of Matthew, Chapter
10. Those of you that have living
mothers, you honor them, of course, as you will, I'm sure. Not only on this day, but every
day of their lives. we honor the memories of our
mothers who are gone. In Matthew's Gospel chapter 10,
I begin reading with verse 32 and would read down through verse
39 or verse 40 it is. 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.
Think not that I am come to send peace on earth. I came not to
send peace, but a sword. For I am not come, for I am come
to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter
against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And
a man's foes shall be those or they of his own household. He
that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of
me, and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not
worthy of me. He that taketh not his cross
and followeth after me is not worthy of me. He that findeth
his life shall lose it, and he that loseth his life for my sake
shall find it. He that receiveth you receiveth
me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me. I wish to speak this morning
about our confession of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our confession
of Christ. It says in verse 32, Whosoever
therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also
before my Father which is in heaven. Our Lord Jesus here speaks
of those that are his followers, those that are his people, and
he says that whosoever they be that are believers in me, that
confess me before men, he says I will confess that I own him,
I will confess that he's mine when I stand before the Father
which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before
men, whosoever will not confess me before men, whosoever will
not own that they know me before men, him will I also deny. I will not own them before my
Father which is in heaven. I will deny them before my Father
which is in heaven. He says, think not that I am
come to send peace on earth. I came not to send peace, but
a sword, preparing their minds that in blessing Christ, being
a disciple of Christ, following Christ in this world, you need
to expect great trial and difficulty and test along the way. This
is no easy path. that the believer trods in this
world. It's a time, it's a place where
we find great conflict and where we find in human relationships
a great deal of difference. And many, many times we're unable,
we feel we're unable to give a witness to what the Lord has
really done in our lives because it disturbs, because it bothers,
because it upsets, our relatives and those near of kin. In verse
35 it says, For I am come to sit at man at variance against
his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law
against her mother-in-law. The Lord Jesus says, A man's
foes shall be they of his own household. The Lord has on many,
many occasions saved one member of a household and left the rest
to be reprobate, left the rest to themselves, bypassed the rest. And that one individual in a
household showing the light, that one individual trusting
the Lord, believing on Christ, believing the Bible, believing
the word of God, walking in the light of the scriptures, that
individual creates, as it were, a great deal of struggle in that
household. Now, we know that the Bible says
that men hate the light, and they will not come to the light
because their deeds are evil. And many times, children of light,
believers, the Bible calls them children of the day. The Bible
calls them children of light. and many, many times when God
sets one of them in an evil household, God sets one of them in a situation
where there are unbelievers all around them, many, many times
there's great conflict, great horrible conflict to the point
where that many times there becomes a schism to the point where that
one member of the household cannot live in that situation. Many
times believers must depart and sometimes unbelievers elect to
depart because they cannot stand the light that has been turned
on in maybe their wife's life or their husband's life or maybe
it's one of the children. But listen to this in verse 37,
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of
me. The Lord Jesus says this because
on many occasions a daughter or son or daughter must stand
up and testify and witness to their unbelieving and carnal
parents and tell them what the truth is. Tell them who is the
truth. that the Lord Jesus is the truth.
Many, many times there's religion involved in this. The parents
are very, very religious. The son or daughter is converted
to Christ and comes to see that there's nothing in that hollow
shell of religion in which they've been raised. And then they must
confront their parents and tell their parents You don't have
life. Life is in a person. Life is
in Christ. And you're not, you do not belong
to Christ. You've not been born again of
the Spirit of God. But he that loveth son or daughter
more than me, he's not worthy of me. If a parent is saved,
born again, and it isolates the son or daughter because of their
testimony, because of the parent's consistency of life, and because
of their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, they must let the son
or daughter do with the testimony whatever they will because you're
not worthy of Christ if you do not stand and be a witness of
what you know and what you believe. So it works both ways. It works
with the son and the daughter or the mother or the father.
And he that taketh not his cross and followeth after me is not
worthy of me. Jesus says if a man don't bear
his cross, Meaning that if you're in this kind of a situation,
and there is struggle and heartbreak and heartache, and you say, well,
I'll just give up the faith rather than cause division in the home,
I'll give up Christ rather than than be just a source of trouble
in this marriage, I'll just give up Christ. Well, Jesus says that
he that taketh not his cross, meaning that this cross the Lord
has given you in that you have to stand and confess Christ and
bear witness to Him in this situation. That's your cross. That's where
the Lord's placed you and the cross He's placed upon you. And
you must be faithful to it. And if one taketh not his cross
and followeth after me, he's not worthy of me, Jesus said.
He's not worthy of me. You know, Jesus came into this
world, the Bible says He hated evil. The Bible says He loved
righteousness and hated evil. The Lord Jesus suffered at the
hands of sinful men in this world, and Jesus says the servant is
not greater than his Lord. If men hated me, they'll hate
you. And certainly God's people are a hated people in this world
if they stand consistent to what they believe. And so we must
take up our cross and follow the Lord Jesus, else we'll not
be worthy of Him. Whatever be our situation, we
must be willing to bear that cross of truth and that cross
of true relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ before whoever
we must bear in this world. And then in verse 39, he that
findeth his life shall lose it. Meaning that the man or woman,
boy or girl, that says, okay, I just cannot have this stress
and therefore I'll give up the cross, therefore I'll give up
my testimony, therefore I'll seal my lips, therefore I will
not raise an objection anymore to what goes on in this household.
I will just give up the faith. That way you will find your life. in that, that you will find your
relationship to be undisturbed with the people of this world,
the people of this life, but you'll lose your life in the
life to come. You'll lose your life. And that,
of course, is consistent with what our Lord has said earlier
when he said, if you confess me before men, I'll own you before
men. If you deny me, I'll deny you.
If a man will not take up his cross and follow Christ, and
if he gives it up, it's because he never really had a grasp. It's because the Word of God
had never really taken root. It's because you never really
tasted and seen that the Lord was good, and therefore you gave
it up. You said, I'll find my life here. Well, the Lord said, you're going
to lose it in eternity. And he that loseth his life for
my sake, he that says, for the sake of Christ I take my stand,
wherever and whatever the fallout may be in this world, wherever
it places me, whatever I must bear, how much I must suffer,
who turns away from me, who says I give up on you, and who leaves
you, you must. That is for Christ's sake that
you do this. He said you lose your life here
and lose many of the friends and the comforts of relationship,
human relationships here, But if you do that for my sake, then
you'll find it. You'll find eternal companionship
with me. You'll be eternal partners with
me. You'll have my blessing upon
you both in time and eternity because you do this for Christ's
sake. And then in verse 40, he says,
He that receiveth you, receiveth me. If you go out and bear witness
of Christ, bear witness of His saving grace and His mercy, His
sovereignty and His truth, then He said, He that receiveth you,
He receives me. And he that receiveth me, receives
him that sent me. And so the truth here is that
if a man will receive the true servant of God, he does indeed
receive Christ. And if he receives Christ, then
he receives the God that sent him, the Father that sent him
into this world. Now then, I think that there
are some things that we need to understand in connection with
this confession to the Lord Jesus. We read over in Romans chapter
10, verse 9 and 10, It says that with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation. You might want to turn, if you
haven't already, turn to that passage of scripture, and I'd
like for us to look at it. And we're going to talk a little
bit about our confession of the Lord Jesus Christ and where it
begins. Well, where it begins is here
in verse 9, or let me back up just a little bit. uh... to where
we uh... find in verse five it says moses
describe of the righteousness which is of the law that the
man which do with those things shall live by them keep uh... that work in your mind, but the
righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, say not
in thine heart who shall ascend into heaven, that is to bring
Christ down from above, or who shall descend into the deep,
that is to bring up Christ again from the dead, but what sayeth
it?" Well now, what he's talking about is the confession that
these are about to make who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And
he says that Moses said the righteousness of the law, if a man was to have
that, if a man was to be justified by the righteousness of the law,
then he must do this or that. But Paul says the righteousness,
which is of faith, has an altogether different message. It says, it
doesn't tell us that we have to go to heaven and get Christ
and bring him down. That's not ours to do. that's
already been done god has done that on our behalf other words
what he's saying is is that the doing has been done the doing
has been done by god almighty we don't have to ascend up get
christ and bring him down we don't have to decent into the
deep and that is bring up price begin for the day our hope is
christ but we don't have to go get him and bring him here but
what does the word of faith What does it say? The word is neither
even in your mouth, it's in your heart, that's the word of faith
which we preach. That if thou shalt confess with
thy mouth the Lord Jesus, And shalt believe in thine heart,
that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation." Now, beloved, this confession of the mouth,
first of all, a man must find what he will confess or what
this person will confess, they must find it in their heart.
They must find that word in their heart. That word of faith. It must be in the heart. And
it cannot come out of the mouth unless it be in the heart. The
Lord must work it into the heart. He gives us faith to believe
on His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. To believe that Jesus died in
our room instead in place. To believe that God the Father
has sent Him to provide all that is demanded by the justice of
God on our behalf that God has sent Christ and that Christ loved
us he died for us and that God raised him from the dead so if
a man believes in his heart that God hath raised Christ from the
dead, the scripture says, thou shalt be saved. And then, as
he believes that in his heart, he believes unto righteousness.
He believes unto righteousness, meaning that when one believes
on the Lord Jesus Christ, essentially what it means is that the righteousness
of Christ becomes ours by faith and that we stand before God
as righteous as Jesus is when we believe on him. Now that's
the only way God can accept you. You're a sinner. You're a sinner. You cannot listen to me now.
You know, we've got this idea somehow or other. We live in
a world here, and it's God's world. We eat God's food, and
we drink God's water, and we wear God's clothes, and we're
just dependent on God. And somehow or other we get the
idea that, you know, if we do this a little bit and that a
little bit, and if we stop this and start something else, then
after a while, we're going to be acceptable and well-pleasing
unto God. You know, the Bible demands,
God demands, that we be as righteous as He is. and you cannot go to
heaven dear soul unless you're as righteous as christ you cannot
there is no way you can get to heaven and not be as righteous
as christ is now you know the thing that ought to wake up a
lot of people is you know the bible says we're to love the
lord our god with all of our heart all of our mind all of
our soul all of our strength and to love our neighbor as ourself
but you know you can't come into this building here on sunday
morning and spend an hour and a half and concentrate solely
on God Almighty, on the Bible, on worship and praise and prayer. You can't do that for an hour
and a half. You can't even do it for 30 minutes. You come in
here and just a few minutes you're thinking about something that
you did yesterday or something you are going to do after this
meeting is over. I hope it's over in a hurry.
You want to get out of here and go and do your thing? You've
got some idea. Or you think somebody ought to
be doing what they're doing, or so-and-so ought to act different. Your mind is on something else.
That's what I'm trying to say. Our little bit of pious holiness
is not sufficient to satisfy God. You can't concentrate for
a half or three quarters of an hour an hour or an hour and a
half on the things of God. You don't love God with all your
heart, all your mind, all your soul, all your strength. And
you never once ever loved your neighbors yourself. Never. My friend, listen to me. This
morning, if you're going to heaven, you must believe in your heart
unto righteousness. You must believe that Jesus Christ
provided for you what you never can provide for yourself. And
you must believe that Christ He's provided this and will give
it to you as you are able to believe on Him. And you believe
on the Lord Jesus and the Bible says, then you make confession
with your mouth unto salvation. You say, I believe that Jesus
Christ died for me. I believe He died in my room
and stood in place. And you make that confession
from the heart. And you make that confession,
somebody says, do you make that to men or do you make it to God? I believe the confession is made
unto God. God reads your heart and the
confession is made both unto God and to men. But first of
all, I believe that this faith confesses Christ to God the Father
as our only hope of acceptance with Him. We acknowledge before
God we believe in Christ and that He alone is the Savior and
that He is Lord, and we confess Him before the throne of grace
as being our entire hope, our entire confidence for time and
eternity. We make that confession. Christ
is our all-in-all. Christ is our Redeemer. He's our Savior. He is God's
beloved Son, and He is that One who has come and rescued us from
an eternal and certain hell. Christ has died in our place. Then, believing Christ, the Child
of God has another confession that He must make. Now this confession
is, he confesses his Savior in Believer's Baptism. The Bible
teaches that once one believes in his heart unto righteousness. Now if you turn back to the sixth
chapter of the book of Romans, I want you to get this, we may
not be able to finish this message today, but I want you to get
these things as we go along. First of all, then, faith has
spoken in our hearts and we've made the confession that we believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and we have acknowledged to God the
Father that what he demanded of us we could not provide ourself
and so we come with no offering in our hand but the Lord Jesus
Christ we cling to his cross and we come to God in faith believing
on Christ and then we're to be baptized and in Romans 6 it says
this know ye not in verse 3 that so many of us as were baptized
into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death Therefore we are
buried with him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was
raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so
we also should walk in newness of life. For if we've been planted
together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the
likeness of his resurrection. Now baptism, and I want you to
listen carefully, is the line of separation between those who
follow Christ and those who do not. Baptism is the line of separation
between those who are the disciples of Christ and those who are not. When a person is buried with
Christ in the watery grave of baptism, he publicly confesses
three things. He publicly confesses three things. Listen now. Number one, he confesses
that I died with Christ my substitute. That I died when Jesus died.
That's what we confess. That when Christ died on that
cross, I died with Him. I died with Him. Secondly, I
have been raised from death to life by the power of Christ,
my risen Lord. That when Christ was raised up
from the grave, that I was raised up in Him. That when He came
out of the grave, I did too. and that he lives and because
he lives, I live. I live spiritually because my
spiritual head, the second Adam, the Lord from heaven, lives.
Christ lives. I am he that was dead, but now
I'm alive, am alive forevermore. I am alive in him. I've been
raised in the Lord Jesus Christ. Number three, I testify, I confess
in my baptism that I'm henceforth to walk with Christ in the newness
of life that the Lord Jesus Christ has put God has put his spirit
in me God has put his spirit in me and that I walk not after
the old letter but I walk after the newness of God's spirit and
I'm alive in the spirit and I read the Bible and the Bible comes
alive to me I receive promises from God in the Holy Scriptures.
I hear from God in the Word as I read it and as I meditate upon
it. God makes the Word to be spirit
and life to my heart because Jesus said, the words that I
speak to you, they are spirit and they are life. The Word of
God becomes alive, and we feed on that Word. So we walk in the
newness of life. The Bible says, if any man be
in Christ, he's a new creation. Old things are passed away, and
behold, all things become new. The old path, my friend, is given
up. And the old way is given up.
And there's new life. And there's a newness of life
that translates into a new walk. And we walk differently in this
world. And that's what verse 5 there
says. We've been planted together in the likeness of His death,
wishably also in the likeness of His resurrection. knowing
that the old man is crucified with Christ, that the body of
sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve
sin. For he that is dead is freed
from sin, in that sin does not have dominion over him. It's
not that sin no longer lives in us, but that sin no longer
has dominion over us as believers. So baptism then, So important that nowhere, now
listen to me carefully, nowhere in the New Testament is a person
called a believer who refused to be baptized. To refuse to
be baptized is to refuse to confess Christ. Now did you get that? Nowhere in the New Testament
is anybody, some people said, why? I'm going to slip in as
a secret disciple of Christ. I'm going to creep in, I'm going
to just find my way into the kingdom of God, but nobody's
going to know anything about me being a Christian. Beloved,
in the Bible, nobody is looked upon as being a believer. who
has not been baptized. To refuse to be baptized is to
refuse to confess Christ. Somebody says, what about the
thief on the cross? The thief on the cross, I believe, was
a believer, but he had no opportunity to be baptized. If you have opportunity
to confess Christ in this world, that man did it with his mouth
on that cross. But if you have opportunity to
be baptized, then my friend, you cannot call yourself a believer
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Every believer is to confess
Christ. We read in Acts chapter 1 and verse 8 where the Lord
Jesus said, the Holy Ghost shall come upon you and you shall be
witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and Judea and even unto the uttermost
parts of the earth. So we're witnesses of the Lord
Jesus Christ. A child of God is a disciple. He is a witness of Christ, one
who continually lays down his life for Christ, gladly confessing
him in word and deed regardless of the cost now this is brought
out so clearly over in the book of Isaiah and I want to try to
get to this today I may not be able to get to everything that
I meant to get to but turn over to Isaiah chapter 43 Isaiah chapter 43 and I want
you to see this because it it brings this out I think so clearly
as believers in this world it brings it out so clearly to us
I want to start down here with verse 9. It says, Let all the
nations be gathered together, and let the people be assembled. Who among them can declare this,
and show us former things? Let them bring forth their witnesses,
that they may be justified, or let them hear and say, It is
truth. Ye are my witnesses, saith the
Lord. and my servant, whom I have chosen,
that you may know and believe me, and understand that I am
he. Before me there was no God formed,
neither shall there be after me." Now here, beloved, all the
nations are gathered together before God, as it were, And there's
a big courtroom and all the nations are gathered together. And God
says, and let the people be assembled. Let them all be assembled. Let
the nations be assembled before me. Who among them can declare
this and show us former things? Now what the Lord is saying here
is that the Lord is demanding here that there shall be presented
before him in this court plain prophecies
and distinct declarations which could not have been uh... foreseen
human events that could not have been foreseen by mere human uh... humans in this world the gods
of the heathen failed because they could not bear witness,
they could not testify that they had any of their gods that could
see from the past into the future and make a prophecy, a declaration,
and it come to pass. And God said, assemble the nations,
let them be gathered together, let this big assembly be here,
we'll have court, and let one of your gods testify. You testify where one of your
gods prophesied and it came to pass. You say your gods are real,
your gods are true gods. Now you produce the evidence. But then he called the nation
Israel once these false gods failed to produce one case in
which they prophesied and it came to pass. And he says to
Israel, he said, ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord. You're my witnesses. Other words, you're my witnesses
of the fact that I speak, and when I speak, when I prophesy,
when I say something, then it comes to pass. It comes to pass. What I say comes to pass. Now
he says to them, you're my servant, whom I've chosen. I've chosen
you. Jesus said to his people, he
said, you did not choose me, I've chosen you. He said, I've
chosen you that you may know and believe me, that you may
know me and that you may believe me and understand that I'm he,
that I'm God. Before me there was no God formed,
neither shall there be after me. Now what's one of the testimonies
that Israel could give to the fact that their God was the true
God. And you and I are to bear witness
to our God in this world. Look back with me to the book
of Genesis chapter 15. The book of Genesis chapter 15. And Abram, the father Abraham,
the father of the faithful, in this 15th chapter of the book
of Genesis, The sun was going down one evening, and a deep
sleep, verse 12, fell upon Abram, and lo and horror of great darkness
fell upon him. And he said, that is, God said
unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger
in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them, and they
shall afflict them four hundred years. And also that nation whom
they shall serve will I judge, and afterwards shall they come
out with great substance, and thou shalt go to thy fathers
in peace, thou shalt be buried in good old age. now here god
speaks to abraham and he says the children of israel are going
down into egypt and they're going to be there four hundred years
and then i am going to deliver them and when i deliver them
he says i will uh... uh... and also that nation whom
they'll serve which the children of israel did serve you remember
they made the bricks and they they they serve the egyptians
he says god said i'll judge them I'll judge them and you remember
the Lord did judge them and sent the death angel and all of those
plagues upon them the Lord did indeed and afterwards shall they
come out with great substance you remember the children of
Israel went around borrowing all the silver and gold that they
could have and when they came out they had all they had many
of the riches of Egypt And they shall go out to thy fathers in
peace, and thou shalt be buried in good old age. Let me say that
the children of Israel, this is to back up what I'm talking
about, you're my witnesses, the children of Israel could stand
and testify that over 400 years before they came out of Egypt
that God told Abraham This nation of Israel is going down into
Egypt. They're going down there and
they're gonna serve this nation I'm gonna judge that nation.
I'm gonna bring them out and they're gonna bring wealth out
with them They're going to have substance when they come out
I'm gonna do this and do you know that four hundred years
the children of Israel was in the land of Egypt and do you
know that on the very hour they were there four hundred years
God delivered them and brought them through the Red Sea judged
the armies of Egypt and he brought them out God testified long before
it ever came to pass but in the time when it was prophesied it
would come to pass bingo it came to pass just like that it came
to pass the Lord delivered his people now the point I'm making
is this that God's people are witnesses in this world of their
God and of their faithfulness of their God and of the preciseness
of their God and the truth of their God and God said before
me there was no God formed neither shall there be any after me I
even I am the Lord and besides me there is no savior I've declared
and have saved I've showed when there was no strange God among
you therefore you're my witnesses says the Lord that I am God so
you see God's people are witnesses of their God now every one of
us must witness if we be Christian I said we must confess If we
be a child of God, if we refuse to make this confession in baptism,
then we refuse to acknowledge Christ, we refuse to be his disciple,
and every witness is required to speak and to confess that
the Lord Jesus Christ is their hope, that he's that one which
God provided, He's that one which God sent. He's that one which
they're relying upon, that they have not a ray, a shadow of hope
outside of the Lord Jesus Christ. And they're to speak the truth,
the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. So help them,
God, every day they live in this world. They're to speak the truth
about their God. Now, beloved, direct evidence
is always the best evidence in a court. Direct evidence not
hearsay evidence. What do you know firsthand? About
your God the general of Israel could stand up and say our God
delivered us He prophesied 400 years beforehand. We was going
into a bondage yeah in a heathen nation and God delivered us and
over and over again you see in the scriptures them talking about
it and uh... remembering god deliverance of
them beloved has got done anything for you that's the question as
the lord spoken to your heart as the lord delivered you have
you been born again as the spirit of god come into you have you
been made a new creature in christ have you been liberated by the
power of god in your life Have you felt the power of God in
your own soul? What do you know firsthand? True
religion is more than what a man can teach you. True religion,
in the hearts, like that old primitive Baptist mother told
her children, said, you need a blessing I can't give you.
And true religion is a blessing that nobody can teach you and
nobody can give you. If you have a true experience
of grace in your heart, it's because the Lord has done something
for you. Now a witness must take care
not to damage his own case. Now for you to try to witness
who God is, and the faithfulness of God, the truthfulness of God,
and for your life to contradict what you're saying with your
mouth. My friend, that's to, as the old expression is, is shooting yourself in the foot.
You must testify in your life, be lived according to your testimony. Now then, every witness must
also expect to be cross-examined. You've heard of cases where that
A fella came into court and it looked like the case was iron-clad. And then they started cross-examining
the witnesses. And you see, the witness, these
witnesses have to be there. They've been subpoenaed. They've
got to be there. They've got to witness. You've
got to get in the box. And as a believer, you've got
to be in the box. And you're in the box. And you're going to be cross-examined.
The devil's going to see to that. That you're going to be cross-examined.
Number one, the devil says you say that you love God, do you? You say you love God? Well, if
you love God, then it's going to make a difference how you
live your life. If you love me, then you'll keep
my commandments. You'll keep my word. You'll keep
my word. You'll obey my word. If you love
me, if you love me, then you'll follow me. You'll do what I want
you to do. And then The devil will say,
you trust the providence of God, do you? Now you're in the box.
Oh yes, I trust the providence of God. Well, what about all
that murmuring last week? What about all that complaining
you do? What about all that carrying on, and that wringing of the
hands, and all of that frustration that you experience, and you're
trusting the providence of God? Now you remember you're in the
box, and you're being cross-examined, and you say, I'm a witness! I'm
His witness! I'm a witness to His absolute
faithfulness. And the devil said, I heard you
say one time that all things work for the spiritual good,
everything works out for the spiritual good to them that are
called of God to them that are those that God has purposed to
save, called according to His purpose. I heard you say that
one time. And you say, well, yes I did
say that. Well, do you believe that or
don't you believe that? and uh... you say well i sometimes
believe it and i guess sometimes i don't believe it but you're
his witnesses whatever you say beloved remember this whatever
you confess you're going to be cross-examined you're bound to
be cross-examined you're his witness now you said the devil
says there's another thing i'd like to bring up to you and that
is you said that this relationship with christ that you have that
it is a joyous relationship. And I have noticed, the devil
says, that you have a rather long face. And I wondered how
you could reconcile that you say your relationship with Christ
is a joyous thing, and then you have, your face betrays you. Your very face betrays you. Your
speech betrays you. What is it that you're a witness
of here? Is it a true witness that you're
giving? Well, these are things that are upon my heart this morning. And beloved, these things we
need to... Did you ever think about how
that the martyrs, when they were tied to the stake, how that they
were cross-examined by their own conscience, and how they
were cross-examined by those around them? all my friend listen
it's not an easy thing to be a witness for the lord and to
confess christ in this world it's not an easy thing a man
must believe the word of god you know i love to read the testimony
of men and i enjoyed very much in reading church history i'd
draw that i'm jaw reading written sermons i'm joy that very very
much but you know My faith and my doctrine which I teach and
preach to others is not based on those things that I read in
sermons and that I read in the confessions of men and so on.
It's based upon what I believe the Word of God to teach, what
I believe the Bible teaches, what I know that the Bible teaches. I believe that every doctrine
which is spelled out, which is clear, which is emphatically
taught in the Bible, I believe that doctrine. I believe it because
it's the Word of God. And our doctrine is logical,
but it's not based upon logic, somebody said. And our doctrine
is well established in the history of God's Church. But it's not
based upon history. Our doctrine is based upon and
it rises from the plain statements of God's Holy Word. Susie was reading the other day
and she dug out this quote of Charles Spurgeon. He said, He
who believes what he knows shall soon know more clearly what he
believes. I thought that was a tremendous
statement. He who believes what he knows shall soon know more
clearly what he believes. We know because the Bible says
it. We know because the scripture
teaches it. quickly and I'll be done. I believe
that God is absolutely sovereign in all things because the Bible
says it. Our God is in the heavens. He
hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. None can stay his hand
and say unto him, What doest thou? God declares, I'll do all
my pleasure, Isaiah 46 and 10. I believe and we believe God's
absolutely sovereign in all things. We believe that salvation is
of the Lord because that's exactly what the Bible says in Jonah
chapter 2 and verse 9. Or Jonah, yes, chapter 2, I think
it is in verse 9. And then I believe in the total
depravity of man because God said, the heart of man is deceitful
above all things and desperately wicked. These are things that
we must have in our hearts when we're testifying and witnessing
to men. I, the other day, listened to
an interview that Dan Rather, CBS News, had with Billy Graham. And Billy Graham, he asked, Dan
Rather did, about the presidents that Billy had been friends with,
and one of the best friends that Billy ever had in the White House
was Richard Nixon. And so Dan asked him about Richard
Nixon and how he felt about uh... the watergate situation and and
uh... billy said well he said the thing
that hurt me the most was when i listen to those tapes and i
heard what came out of his mouth and he said you know the bible
says that out of the heart out of the abundance of the heart
the mouth speak and billy said i i just couldn't believe that
these things could have come out of the mouth of richard nixon
all of these and all of this cursing and this language could
have come out of his mouth. And I thought to myself, well,
Billy, it's because you don't believe in the total depravity
of man. If you believe in the total depravity of man, you wouldn't
have any trouble with that. Because to me, depravity, the
old human nature, is like an open sewer. and scott lee coming
up from the bottom in just a little that's what that's what the prairie
it's corruption flowing over the top just picture a big old
sewer here and all this stuff coming out of the top well that's
human nature and if you believe in total depravity that's exactly
what you believe about human nature but all billy he he just
believes that man was partially disabled at all he didn't believe
you for a He believes there's some good in everybody and all
you gotta do is just kinda stay around long enough and it'll
come out. But what happened was he stayed around too long and
he saw the truth as it came out. Now I'm not saying nothing against
Richard Nixon. I don't know that much about
the man. I'm saying all men I'm talking about. I'm not talking
about Richard Nixon only. I'm saying that everybody's that
way. The Bible says that The heart of man is deceitful above
all things and desperately weak. And so when you're dealing with
men, you've got to bear truth. You've got to bear witness. Confess
the truth about man. And then we believe in unconditional
election. because God said you've not chosen
me but I've chosen you and then I believe in limited atonement
because God said for the transgressions of my people was he stricken
Isaiah 53 and 8 and I believe in irresistible grace because
God says that Christ's people shall be willing in the day of
his power Psalm 110 verse 3 and then we believe in the perseverance
of the saints and confess it because the Lord God says I give
unto my sheep eternal life and they shall never perish Neither
shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father which gave
them to me is greater than all. No man can pluck them out of
his hand." Well, beloved, we, as we begin to speak those things
and bear witness faithfully to those things, will hear the Arminians
and the workmongers hoot and holler. But we must go on in
steadfastness be dogmatic, and insist upon these glorious, basic,
fundamental truths that is necessary. Well, I can't say the word for
some reason or other. I'll have to come back to it,
I guess. But anyway, it's necessary because of the plain statements
of the Word of God, which we say we believe. We believe. Well, I don't know. Sometimes,
you know, you wonder when you get a little bit older whether
it's your teeth, whether they're getting crossways or just what
it is that things, the words don't come out. Like that you used to be able
to spit them out. Well may the Lord bless us, make
us all witnesses. Remember you've been subpoenaed.
You've been subpoenaed. And what that means is you've
been commanded to appear in court. You say I'm a believer, you've
been commanded to appear in court. What's your witness? What's your
confession? What is it? Father, in the name
of Jesus, save poor lost sinners that are in our meetings. And
may they stand and confess, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son
of God. I believe on Him in my heart
to righteousness. And I make this confession unto
salvation. And then may they submit to baptism.
and go out day by day to live out their lives here in this
world, making confession of the great doctrines of the faith,
being a witness of what God Almighty has shown them directly in their
hearts. Make us to be faithful, forgive
our sins, our weaknesses, and where we fail to measure up,
and where when upon cross-examination it's been shown that we were
not as sincere as we ought to have been. Forgive us, in Jesus'
name, amen.