Let's turn back to Hebrews chapter
three. There will be a bridal shower for Emily Bryan this Tuesday
evening at 6.30, and please sign up in the foyer if you plan to
attend. It's so good to have Emily's
mom and dad here. I'm just, great seeing you guys. The road warriors. Also, Darwin Pruitt will be preaching
for us tonight. He's preaching in Danville this
morning, and I've asked him to come and preach to us tonight.
He's a pastor, I can't remember what the name of the church is.
It's in Arkansas though, so you can figure that one out. Our profession. Our profession. The first thing that I would
consider is what is meant by this word profession. Our profession. It is the exact same word also
translated confession. Our confession. Now there are two things that
I want us to think about. First, Profession or confession
means literally to speak the same thing. Complete agreement. So our profession, if we're in
the hour of our profession, It will be something that we're
all in complete, 100% agreement on. Our confession. Second thing that I would point
out about this word, what is it when we confess something?
We plead to guilt. This is something that we believe
and are willing to face any consequence that might be from believing
this. This is our life. This is not
just something we give adherence to. Like Paul, this I confess
to thee, after the way which they call heresy, so worship
I. the God of my fathers, believing
all things which are written in the law and in the prophets. So when we use this word profession,
keep these two things in mind. This is what every believer's
agreement on. And this is what every believer
is willing to pay the cost for if necessary. This is not just
some Facts, you happen to believe that something by grace, you're
willing to die for. Our profession, who is meant
by the pronoun hour? Who is the hour? Well, they're
identified in our text. Wherefore, holy brethren. This is a description of every
believer partakers. of the heavenly calling. You've been called by God. Consider
the apostle, the saint one, and the high priest of our profession,
Christ Jesus. Now the our refers to every believer,
all of the elect, all who are termed holy brethren. partakers of the heavenly calling. All who Christ was sent for. The apostle means the sent one.
He shall save his people from their sins. All who have him
as their high priest representing them. That's who the hour is
of our profession. Now, The content of our belief
is found in our profession. And I love the simplicity of
the content of our belief. Consider the apostle and high
priest of our profession, Christ Jesus. Our profession is a person. Our confession is not a carefully
crafted document written by men in order to safeguard the truth. Truth doesn't need protecting.
Just preach the truth. Our profession is a person. You know, we hear the word reformed
faith, the reformed faith. Do you know I hate that term?
Let me tell you why I hate it. Truth never needed reformed.
It never needed reformed. And whenever you hear the reformed
faith, you have these reformers who brought it back into life.
No, no, no. Our profession is a person knowing
who he is. Everything we believe is predicated
on who he is. What we believe is completely
dependent on who he is. This identifies everything. Our
profession is a person Let me show you that in Hebrews chapter
four. Verse 14, seeing then that we
have a great high priest that's passed into the heavens, Jesus,
the son of God. There's our profession. Let us
hold fast. our profession. Turn to Hebrews
10. Let us hold fast the profession
of our faith. Now, I'm not real sure why the
King James translators translated that word faith, because it's
the word that's always translated hope. Who's our hope? Our hope is this
person, Christ, who is our hope. Let us hold fast the profession
of our faith without wavering, for He is faithful. He is our profession. Turn with me for a moment to
Luke chapter 1. profession. Luke chapter 1. I love this introduction
to Luke that Luke gives us. Verse 1. For as much as many have taken
in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things
which are most surely believed among us even as they delivered them unto
us which from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of
the word. I'm going to read you a passage.
You don't have to turn there. Keep your, keep your, um, uh,
hand there and look chapter one, but look what John says. Remember
the eyewitnesses and ministers of the word. Listen to this first
John chapter one, that which was from the beginning, which
we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we
have looked upon and our hands have handled. of the word of
life, the person of the Lord Jesus Christ for the life. Don't you love the way Christ
is called the life? He said, I am the life. The life was manifested
and we've seen and bear witness and show unto you that eternal
life, which was with the father and was manifested unto us. That which we've seen and heard
declare we unto you. Now that's this person that we're
bearing witness of. Verse three. It seemed good to
me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first,
to write unto thee in order, in an orderly fashion, most excellent
Theophilus, his name means lover of God, and this is written to
all lovers of God, that thou mightest know the, what? Certainty. The certainty. of those things
wherein thou hast been instructed." Now, our profession as far as
a written document is found in all the words between Genesis
1.1 and Revelation 22.21. It's called the Bible. But if I were going to pick one
passage of scripture that clearly states our profession, what every
believer is at complete agreement on and what every believer by
the grace of God would die for. Now don't miss that. This is
more than just what we believe. This is so precious to us that
by his grace, we'll die for this. If I was going to depict one
passage of scripture that clearly states what every believer believes,
I would go to the thief on the cross. There's a reason. We know this man was saved. And we know he wasn't saved very
long. You know that statement, we know
this man was saved. This is the one the Lord said,
today thou shalt be with me in paradise. Is there any question
whether or not this fellow was saved? Lord said that. And we know that he would be
one who, for lack of a better term, had the bare bones minimum
of saving knowledge. He had the minimum of saving
knowledge. And I love being able to say,
I know this man is saved. Now, with regard to everybody
in this room that I believe is saved, I have
some good hope that they're saved. I think my wife is saved, but
I don't know that she is. I think she is. I believe she
is. And I have about as much hope
for her as I do myself. But as far as saying to anybody that
the Bible doesn't say we know they're saved, well, I hope you
are. I hope I am. We'll see if we
persevere to the end. Yeah, you can say then. But this
man, we know he was saved. Would you turn with me to Luke
chapter 23? Now this is our profession. Every believer will be at complete
agreement with everything that is said. There will be no discord. There will be no, I'm not sure
about that. Every believer will be at perfect
agreement with what is said. Now, as I said, with regard to
this man, we know beyond the shadow of a doubt that this man
was somebody who Christ saved. And if you and I are saved, we'll
be saved the same way he was. The dying thief rejoiced to see
that fountain in his day. And there may I, though vile
as he, wash all my sins away. This man was saved by grace through
faith. You and I are saved by grace
through faith. And we will believe the same
as this man. And as we shall see, everything
he believed came out of knowing who Jesus Christ was. And that's an important distinction.
Somebody says, I know Jesus Christ. Well, I hope you do. I hope I
do. But let me take something that's
really even more important than that. I know who He is. Now, I want to know Him and I
want Him to know me, but I know who He is. And everything we
believe comes from that. Now, when this
man was first nailed to the cross, He didn't know who Christ was.
He was cursing him with his buddy, the other thief. The scripture
says they both cast the same into his teeth. When he was first
nailed to that cross, he had no idea who that was beside him
was. But at some time during his crucifixion,
it was revealed to him who Jesus Christ is. He'd only known Him for a small
amount of time. He saw the Lord die. He heard
the seven sayings of Christ from the cross. You know, faith cometh
by hearing. You don't just up and all of a sudden know without
hearing anything. The Lord uses His Word. He uses His gospel.
Faith cometh by hearing. He heard the gospel. When He
HEARD the seven sayings of the Savior, the cross, and he's a
very young believer with probably the most minimal amount of knowledge,
yet that being said, he knew all things. Because if you know
who he is, you know all things. 1 John chapter 2 verse 20, You
have an unction from the Holy One, and you know all things. You see, if you know who He is,
you know all doctrine, even if you haven't heard it yet. For
instance, if you know Him, as soon as you hear of election,
you'll know it's so, because you know Him. You know all things. I feel persuaded
that this thief, while he was hanging on the cross, he never
heard the word election. If you would have said it, he
would have known what you're talking about. He never heard the word of Christ's
effectual redemption only for the elect. He didn't hear that.
He didn't hear of regeneration by the Holy Spirit. He didn't
hear any of those things. Somebody said, yeah, he didn't.
But he knew them all. because he knew who he was. Now, the first thing that I would
notice about this man, Luke 23 to 39, and one of the malfactors which
were hanged railed on him saying if thou be Christ save thyself
and us now both of them began with this
railing but now there's a man who's no longer railing and what does he say verse 40 but the other answering
rebuked him saying, does not thou fear God? Seeing thou art in the same condemnation. Now this man's saving knowledge
began with the fear of God. Now when he was first nailed
to that cross, he had no fear of God. But now he has the fear
of God. And this is what every believer
has in common. They have the fear of God. Proverbs 1.7 says the fear of
the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Now here's where saving
knowledge begins. This is where the thief's saving
knowledge began. The fear. of the Lord. Proverbs 9, 10 says, The fear
of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Knowledge and wisdom
begins right here. The fear of the Lord, if you
know who He is, you WILL fear Him. The fear of God is not something
we hear much about in this day. I know some people have talked
about how good it was back in the old days, good God-fearing
people. That's a bunch of malarkey. That's, well, it's what I said
it was. The fear of God is not the fear
of punishment. The fear of God is not the fear
of hell. The fear of God is not the fear
of mistrust and unbelief. The fear of God is not the fear
of what you might lose. Everybody has those kind of fears.
Everybody's thought, oh, I'm gonna be in trouble. I did this,
I'm gonna get punished. God's gonna take it out in some
kind of trial. That's not the fear of God. That's
the fear of mistrust and unbelief. That kind of fear is not born
of a love for God or of a respect for his person. The fear of God is, you know
who He is, and you worship Him for who He is. That, and nothing
less, is the fear of God. You know who He is. And you worship
Him for who He is. I think the leper gives us the
great example of this. Behold, there came a leper and
worshiped him. Now, He hadn't done anything
for that leper yet, as far as that leper knew. The leper came
saying, if you will, you can make me clean. As far as he knew,
he hadn't been made clean yet, and he didn't know whether the
Lord would make him clean. But he came and worshipped him. The Lord's to be worshipped,
whether he does anything for me or you or not, because of
who he is. Now, every believer bows before
who he is, his name. His name is his attributes, his
holiness. You bow down, his absolute sovereignty. You bow down in your heart. You
say, yes. His absolute justice, you bow
down, yes. This is who he is. His omnipotence,
you bow down. You bow down to who he is. Somebody
says, well, how did he know who he was? Same way you do, revelation. That's the only way you know
who he is. You have those two thieves, what's the difference
between the two of them? Well, the Lord revealed himself to
one. The other was left to himself. And he now knows who he is. And he says to his fellow thief
who is railing on Christ, don't you have the fear of God? Now
the fear of God, I can make this real simple. I hope it's the
Lord making it simple. If you're afraid of God, and
I'm talking about the beginning of wisdom, here's how it's demonstrated. You're afraid to look anywhere
but Christ. You're afraid to look anywhere
but Christ alone. Now if you can look anywhere
else, you have no fear of God. You have no respect, you have
no reverence, you have no awe of his person. That other thief
didn't, did he? He was railing on Christ. Saving knowledge is the fear
of God. And when he said, don't you fear
God? This man knew that Jesus Christ
was God. Let me repeat that. This man knew that Jesus Christ
was God Almighty. Do you know that? Do you believe
that? That Jesus Christ is God, God
the Son, the second person of the blessed Trinity? He knew more clearly than Philip
did. When Philip said, show us the
father and it sufficeth us. And the Lord said, if I've been
so long time with you and yet has thou not known me, Philip,
he that has seen me has seen the father. In him dwelleth all
the fullness of the Godhead in a body. You believe that? Do you believe that Jesus Christ
is God? Well, how did this man know this?
I repeat the same way you know it. Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah,
flesh and blood didn't reveal this to thee, but my Father,
which is in heaven. Verse 40. But the other answering rebuked
him, saying, Dost thou not fear God? Now look what he says next. Seeing that thou art in the same
condemnation, and we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward
of our deeds. Now the next thing that this
thief wholeheartedly believed, He believed he was a sinful man. He believed that about himself.
He said, we're getting exactly what we deserve. We're receiving the due reward
of our deeds. I want to say this as carefully
as I know how. This man believed in the justice
of God in the damnation of sinners. And he believed in the justice
of God in his own damnation. You know, when I hear people put God on trial. How could this
be fair? How could that be fair? How could
it be fair for God to predestinate some and pass by others? How
could it be fair for Christ to die for some and not die for
everybody? That's not fair. The only reason
somebody says that is they don't believe that they're sinners.
That's it. No other reason. This man believed he was receiving
the due reward of his deeds. Now, why? He knew God. You know, you will not understand
human sinfulness until you know who he is. It'll all just go
over your head. You won't really Believe it all
that much. It'll just go over your head
until he reveals to you who he is. And you'll be like Job at
that point. I've heard of thee with the hearing
of the ears, but now mine eye seeth thee, wherefore I hate
myself and repent in dust. and ashes. You see, if you know who he is,
you'll see his justice in your personal damnation. And you'll
see very clearly that the only hope you have is for him to do
something for you. You see that? Thief did. And this is the faith of every
single believer. You see, if you know this person,
you know all the doctrine even before you hear it. Because our
profession is a person. who he is and everything we believe
comes out of that. This is not cliche. This is not
just what we, we preach a person, you know, you can, you can say
that because it sounds good, but I mean, we really believe
we preach a person and everything we believe comes out of who he
is. Verse 41 and we indeed justly for we receive
the due reward of our deeds but this man hath done nothing amiss. Now two things I want to point
out about this. The thief believed in the humanity
of Jesus Christ. He believed that God was manifest
in the flesh. Now, once again, let me remind
you, you say, how could he have known that? Because God revealed
it to him. That's why. Same way you would know it. But
perfect humanity in the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is more,
I want to say this right, he's more what real humanity is than
me and you are. He's the perfect man. He is perfect humanity. Me and you debase that. He is
the real man. You want to know what manhood
is? Jesus Christ the Lord. that he was before he came in
the flesh, eternal God. He knew he came in the flesh
and he did what he came to do. But I love the way he says this
man hath done nothing amiss. He's never sinned. Now listen
to me. If you're thought of Jesus as
one who could have sinned, you got the wrong Jesus. You don't
have the Christ of the Bible. The Christ of the Bible is the
one who hath done nothing amiss. He didn't have the potential
to sin because of who he is. And you might think, well, that
man didn't even know Christ for a couple hours. How could he
have known over those 33 years he'd done nothing amiss? Because
he knew who he was. If you know who he is, you know
he cannot sin. He cannot lie. He cannot be unjust. He did no sin. He knew no sin. In him is no sin. He's incapable
of sinning. You believe that? You know, did this man know that
the perfect obedience of Christ was his obedience? Well, I wouldn't
say he didn't. It doesn't say that, but I believe
he did. He looked to the obedience of
Christ as the way he could stand before God accepted because Christ
did nothing amiss. You have a strong conviction
that this man has done nothing amiss. Verse 42. What did this thief
believe? Well, he had the fear of God. He believed that Jesus Christ
was God. He believed himself to be a sinner
and God would be just in his condemnation. He believed that
Christ was man. He believed that Christ did nothing
amiss. And now look what he says in
verse 42. And he said unto Jesus, Lord. I think this is the most glorious
thing. He looked at that one who was
hanging on a cross. You couldn't even recognize his
face. His visage was marred more than
the sons of men. And he said to him who seemed
so helpless. Lord. He knew that Jesus Christ was
the Lord. What does that mean? He knew
he was Lord of creation. He's the creator of the universe.
He knew he was Lord of providence, that everything that was happening
was happening according to his will, because he willed it, because
he purposed it. He believed he was Lord of salvation,
that salvation was in his hands. He believed the same thing the
thief did. Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. I mean,
the same thing the leper did. He believed he was Lord. No man
could say that Jesus is Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. He believed
in the absolute Lordship of Jesus Christ. Do you? Do you believe he's the
Lord? Thief did, so does everybody
else included in our profession. Verse 42, and he said unto Jesus,
Lord. He didn't call him Jesus, did
he? He called him Lord. You call
me master and Lord, you say well. For so I am. Lord, remember me when thou comest
into thy kingdom. Now he looked at that one, nailed
to a cross, bleeding and dying. And he said, you're not gonna
stay there. You're gonna come back as a mighty, reigning, King of kings, Lord of lords,
you cannot possibly fail because of who you are. Failure's not
even in the equation with you because of who you are. Now,
did that man know that Christ only died for the elect? I doubt
if he even thought about it, but he did know this. Whatever
Christ did could not fail. Same thing, isn't it? Same thing. Whatever Christ does, he can't
fail because of who he is. You're going to come back as
a mighty reigning king. You're not going to stay dead.
He believed that the Christ would be raised from the dead because
death couldn't hold him because of who he is. Because of who
he is, he cannot fail. Whatever he intended to do, he
did. We are relying on him who cannot
fail. Is that your Christ? The one
who cannot fail? Who if he died for you, you can't
run the risk of the possibility of anything being but saved because
he died for you. He's the Lord. He's God. He's the perfect man. And he said, Lord, remember me. When you come back in your kingdom
as a mighty reigning king, remember me. If you remember me, Nothing else
needs to be said. If you acknowledge me as one
of yours, I remember him. The father gave him me. I died
for his sins. I completed his righteousness.
He's one of mine. Will anything else need to be
said? Lord, Remember me. That is what I need. Lord, remember me. When you come back in your kingdom. Now what the Lord said to him, no one in all of the Bible was
given more assurance than this man. And Jesus said unto him, verily,
truly, I say unto thee, don't you love it when the Lord says
I say? I say unto thee, today Shalt thou be with me in paradise. Our profession, our confession,
what by the grace of God we believe. All believers are in agreement.
Our confession, we confess this and our only hope is found in
this and by His grace we're willing to die for this. It can all be summarized by the
fear of God. Somebody doesn't believe the
gospel has no fear of God. It's summarized by the fear of God.
It's articulated like this, Jesus Christ is God. He is God. We are sinful. We justly deserve
to be condemned. Jesus Christ is man, the God
man. And in the flesh, he did nothing
amiss. Nothing. And whatever he does
is successful. When he was hanging on that cross,
whatever it was he intended to do, he did. He's incapable of
failure. He's going to come back as a
mighty reigning king, the king of kings, the Lord of lords. And all my hope is found here,
Lord. Remember me. You come into your kingdom. That is the profession of our
faith. That is our profession. Who he is. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for who
you are. How we thank you for the revelation
of who you are. How we thank you for the revelation
of who we are. And how we thank you that you
sent your son to save his people from their sins. And that is
precisely what he did. Lord, we ask that you bless this
message for your glory and for our good. In Christ's name we
pray. Amen.