Chapter 6, the last part of the 12th verse,
Paul says to Timothy, you have professed a good profession before
many witnesses. I've entitled this message, what
is a good confession? Paul says to Timothy, You've
confessed a good confession. That word professed and profession
is the exact same word as confessed and confession. And don't miss
this. He said, you've professed or
confessed a good confession before many witnesses. That's very important. What would your children say
of your confession? What would your spouse say of
your confession? What would your relatives say
of your confession? What would your in-laws say of
your confession? What would your fellow employees,
your boss, the people under you say of your confession? What
would the people who serve you at restaurants say of your confession? What would the members of your
church say of your confession? Now this is very important. This
confession is before many witnesses. If it's not before many witnesses,
it's not a good confession, whatever else it is. Now the word confession,
he said, you've confessed a good confession. The word confession
means literally to speak the same thing. It's agreement to speak the same
thing. You know, when you confess your
sins, you're agreeing with what God says about your sins. That's
what you do. When you confess your sins, you
agree with God and you take sides with God against yourself. That
is confessing your sins. That's one of the way we use
the word confession. We confess our sins and confession
always has something public to it. Turn to Matthew chapter 10. I want to have this good confession
that Timothy had. In Matthew chapter 10 verse 32,
the Lord says, whosoever therefore shall confess me before men. Notice the public nature of this. Whosoever shall confess me before
men, him will I confess also before my father, which is in
heaven. Well, I want the Lord to confess of me before his father,
don't you? But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will
I also deny before my father, which is in heaven. Confession
is public. Now turn to first John chapter
four. I want you to look at several scriptures. Verse two. Hereby know ye the Spirit of
God. Every spirit that believeth that
Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit
that believeth not that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh
is not of God. I didn't read that right, did I? Didn't read
that right at all. It says, every spirit that confesseth. You know, you don't really believe
any more than you confess publicly. Every spirit that confesseth
that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. We confess he was
before he came. He's the eternal son of God.
He came in the flesh. The Word was made flesh and he
did exactly what he came to do. Thou shalt call his name Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins. And that's what
he did. And we confess that and we confess that publicly. And
someone who fails to confess that, the reason they fail to
confess it is because they do not really believe it. I must confess with my mouth,
the Lord Jesus. and believe in my heart that
God raised him from the dead. For with the mouth confession
is made unto salvation. With the heart man believeth
under righteousness and with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation. It's only what we confess that
we really believe. Turn to John 12 for just a moment. Verse 42. John 12, verse 42. Nevertheless,
among the chief rulers, the higher ups in religion, also many believed
on him. They were very much like Nicodemus. They saw his miracles and said,
no man can do the things that you do except God be with him.
Hold your finger there and turn to John chapter 2. This is the
kind of faith these people had. Verse 23. Now, when He was in
Jerusalem at the Passover and the feast day, many believed
in His name when they saw the miracles which He did. I mean,
you can't deny. He raises the dead. He gives
sight to the blind. He controls the weather. There
must be something to Him. They believed in Him. It was
a faith based upon sight. Now, if I told you that I could
pick up that piano with my left hand and hold it up over my head,
would anybody here believe me? No, you wouldn't believe that.
But if you saw me do it, you'd believe me, wouldn't you? That's
a faith based on sight. And it's not really saving faith. That's the kind of faith these
people had. They had a faith from what they
saw. Now back to John chapter 12. Nevertheless, among the chief
rulers also, many believed on him, but because of the Pharisees,
they did not confess him. Lest they should be put out of
the synagogue, they'd lose their position in religion. For they
loved the praise of men more than the praise of God. Now, this is an intellectual
type of faith. Now what do I mean by that? I believe from the very depths
of my heart, I believe the Bible teaches what we call the doctrine
of grace. I believe that. I mean, I can
read the Bible and that's what it teaches. The Bible teaches
that men are totally depraved. They can't save themselves. The
Bible teaches that God, before time began, chose who would be
saved and elected a people. I mean, you just can't, you can't
read the Bible and come up with anything else. The Bible teaches
that Christ died for the elect. He said, I lay down my life for
the sheep and he accomplished their salvation. The Bible teaches
that by grace, you're saved grace. It didn't offer grace actually
saves. You can read the Bible and see that it teaches that,
but you know what? You can believe all that and
go to hell. That is just an intellectual
faith. It's the same kind of faith the
demons have. You believe there's one God,
you do well. The devils believe, and they tremble in fear. Now, we must believe what the
Bible says, but just seeing something, that's believing because of what
I see. that's not saving faith. These people had a type of faith,
but not enough to cause them to confess Christ. Now, did these
people have saving faith? Well, if they did, there isn't
much to saving faith. If they believed and yet they failed
to confess. No, they did not have saving faith. They had some
kind of intellectual assent to some things they saw, but they
did not have saving faith. You see, saving faith confesses
what the heart believes. With the heart, man believeth
unto righteousness. And what's that mean? With the
heart, man believeth unto righteousness. Well, my heart is my understanding. It's my affections, and it's
my will. I understand that the righteousness
of Christ is my personal righteousness before God, and that's the only
righteousness I have. Understand that. Not only do
I understand that, I love it. I want it to be that way. It
rejoices my heart to know that Jesus Christ's righteousness
is the righteousness of me, my own personal righteousness. Not
only does this move my affections, and I love this, if I'm given
the choice, what do you want? Would you rather be saved by
your righteousness, if you could have a perfect righteousness,
or Christ's righteousness? That'd be a no-brainer to me,
Christ's righteousness. With the heart, man believeth
unto righteousness, and with the mouth, confession is made
unto salvation. Now, in this confession, there
is a love for what we confess. There's an element of praise
in confession. Listen to this scripture. Hebrews
13, 15 says, let us offer the sacrifice of praise continually. That is the fruit of our lips
giving thanks. And that word giving thanks is
the exact same word translated confess. We're thankful for what
we confess. We love what we confess. You know, the Lord Jesus Christ
said at that time, it's in Luke 10, 21. At that time, the Lord
rejoiced in spirit and said, I thank thee, O Father. And there
the word is once again. I gladly confess to thee, O Father,
Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hid these things. Now
think of that. Look at what he's thanking him
for. You've hid these things from the wise and the prudent
and revealed them unto babes, we confess what we confess, because
we love it. John 14, six, Lord said, I am
the way, the truth and the life, no man cometh to the Father,
but by me. And I confess that the only way
you can get to the Father is by Christ. And I love it being
that way. No way you can get the Father
any other way, but by the Lord bringing you to the Father. What
that means when our Lord says, no man comes to the father, but
by me, he's saying the only way you're going to get there is
if you're in me. And when I come to him, you're with me. Now,
I love that. I confess that I confess it publicly.
There's so many things I could say I love. We confess in Him
dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. I love to confess
that publicly. I love to confess to people who
don't believe it. I really do. I love that and I love this and
you are complete. You are complete, lacking nothing
in Him. Don't you love to confess that?
We confess with our lips. I love this scripture, Romans
8, 29. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be
conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn
among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate,
then he also called. Whom he called, then he also
justified. Whom he justified, then he also
glorified. What shall we say to these things?
If God be for us, who can be against us? We love to confess
that, don't we? We find our salvation in that.
And we're proud of the gospel we believe. And we love to confess
the Lord Jesus Christ. We love and praise God for what
we are confessing. Now, we confess to that which
we are willing to pay the cost or consequences of that confession. Paul said in Acts 24 14, he said
they've made all these accusations against me and they can't prove
them, but this I confess to thee, that after the way which they
call heresy. So worship I, the God of my fathers. That way they hate, the way of
grace, the way of Christ, they call it heresy. I confess to
you, so worship I, the God of my fathers, believing all things
which are written in the law and in the prophets. If you put
me to death for believing this, so be it. We confess this. And this confession that I'm
talking about, that the Bible is talking about, is the work
of God in a man. 1 John 4.15 says, Whosoever shall
confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him,
and he in God. Now, if you confess he's the
eternal son of God, and I tell you what, if you really believe
he's God, you believe he must be successful in whatever he
does. You believe he must be in absolute control of everything
if you believe he's the eternal son of God. But if you confess,
not just say you believe him, but you confess it, God dwells
in you, and you dwell in God. Now, you and I would be no different
from those people who believed didn't confess because they love
the praise of men more than the praise of God, unless God does
a work of grace in our hearts. Now, I ask again, what is a good
confession? We see what the word means from
the scriptures, but what is a good confession? I want to have this
good confession, don't you? I want it to where the Lord would
say of me, I've got this good confession. Now, I've got four
very brief, simple points. With a good confession, first,
there is a content. There's a content to that confession.
You know, there's something we believe, isn't there? There's
someone we believe, there's an actual content to that confession.
With a good confession, there's a confidence in that content. And in a good confession, there's
a committal to that which we have confidence in. And in a
good confession, we confess that which we are committed to. A content, a confidence, a committal,
and a confession. Now, first of all, in a good
confession, there is a content. The word means to speak the same
thing and there is a content to our confession. Let me say
this right off the bat. The content to our confession
doesn't have anything to do with these confessions of faith. You
know, there's the London confession, the Heidelberg confession, the
Westminster confession, the Philadelphia confession, and all these different
confessions where men have written these documents. that they think
are very good, and in these documents we can show what we believe and
so on. And I'm sure there's good stuff
in them, I wouldn't deny that. But to me, I fall asleep when
I try to read them. I mean, they're boring to me.
They're written by men, and they're technical, and they're just,
I've never been, I try to read, I just fall asleep as soon as
I start reading them. It's a man-made confession. Who
cares about a man-made confession? All I care about is the Word
of God. That really is, you know, we have this big document to
prove what we believe about the Word of God. All you need is
the Word of God. I believe what the Bible says.
What do you got to believe to be saved? Everything God says
in His Word. It's that simple. But I can make
this a whole lot more simple. And actually it's much more profound,
this confession. The Lord said, whosoever shall
confess me before men. Now there's our confession. Whosoever shall confess me before
men, him will I confess before my father, which is in heaven,
but whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I deny before my
father, which is in heaven. Paul said, I know whom I have
believed. Not what. Somebody says, I know
what I believe. Well, who cares? Really, I don't. I don't. Who do you believe?
I know whom I have believed. And what you believe will be
determined by who you believe. The what is completely determined
by the who. I know whom I have believed,
Paul said, and I'm persuaded that he's able to keep that which
I've committed to him against that day. Now, I confess that
this is publicly, I'm doing it right now. By the grace of God,
I hope I'll do it before anybody. I confess who he is before men.
He's the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the Son of God. He is the true, eternal Son of
the Father. There cannot be a Father without
a Son. And there cannot be a Son without
a Father. He is the eternal Son of God. Whoso believeth that Jesus is
the Christ, is born of God, I believe he is the Christ. I believe that he's
the Word of God, God's prophet. I believe he's the priest of
God, the priest of God's providing, and he's the only way I can come
into the presence of the Father is if he brings me there. I believe
he's God's sovereign king, that he rules and reigns over everything. Now, I confess, I confess There's
only one reason for election. Jesus Christ. Chosen in him. I confess that. I confess justification. He is justification. Justified
by his righteousness. I confess he is my sanctification. I confess that he's the only
one to preach. I confess that there's only one
who gets all the glory and that's Christ. I confess that there's
only one reason for forgiveness. God forgives for Christ's sake. No other reason. I confess with
Paul for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. There's one
name we plead when we come into God's presence. We don't say
hear me because of anything but hear me for Christ's sake. Hear
my prayer for Christ's sake. I have no other reason. We confess him before men. We
have that glorious confession, whoso confesseth that Jesus Christ
is come in the flesh is of God. We confess he was before he came. You know, I love that scripture
in John one, in the beginning was the word and the word was
with God and the word was God. The same was. I love that. The same was in the beginning
with God. I confess he came in the flesh,
he kept the law in the flesh, he died in the flesh, he put
away the sins of the elect in the flesh, and he was raised
from the dead in the flesh, and there's flesh right now sitting
at the right hand of the Father. I confess that. The God-man Christ
Jesus. Look in 1 Timothy chapter 3. Now, when Paul says in verse
16, without controversy, I love the story, I've told this before.
1 Timothy 3, 16, without controversy, there was two brothers who were
preachers. If you haven't heard this, you'll like it. You've
probably heard it. If you haven't heard this, you'll like it. Two brothers
who were preachers, one believed in the deity of Christ and the
other didn't. And the fellow who didn't believe in the deity
of Christ said to his brother, he said, now I want you to come
preach for me, but I don't want you to preach on anything controversial.
He said, OK, I won't. So he announces his text. Without
controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest
in the flesh. I love that. But you know that
word controversy? It's literally confessedly. Confessedly. It's the adverb for the word
confession. Confessedly. This is what we
confess. Without controversy, confessedly. Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh
and he was justified in the spirit. The spirit gave testimony to
his great work of justification. He was seen of angels. This is
what angels were interested in looking into. Watching the Lord
Jesus Christ. Don't you know they watched every
move? There's all kinds of other stuff going on in the world.
They weren't interested. They didn't care. But boy, they cared about
this, didn't they? Watching the Lord Jesus Christ. They were
ready to smite when they were nailed into a cross. He said,
don't you know I could ask my father to send 12 legions of
angels and they'd wipe you all out? I mean, they were watching
every move. And I love this. Preached unto
the Gentiles. That's a mystery. You know what
that means? That means it's a mystery of great grace that when you
get to hear the gospel. Do you find that mysterious?
That you actually get to hear the gospel of God's grace? We're
the Gentiles and we get to hear the gospel. It's a mystery that
God would give his glorious gospel to me. What a mystery of grace.
and he was believed on in the world. Oh, this is a great mystery. I actually believe what I'm preaching.
I believe that God was made a man, the God-man. I believe He put
away sin. I believe He gave me a new nature.
I believe I'm a partaker of the divine nature. I believe I'm
going to persevere all the way to the end. I believe the Gospel.
That's a great mystery that I believe this. Somebody says, do you really
believe that stuff? Yes, I do. I do. I do. and received up into glory because
he finished what the Father gave him to do. This is our great
confession. God manifested in the flesh,
justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached to the Gentiles,
believed on in the world, and received up into glory. Now, that's the content, him. Him. Don't you like that content
of our gospel? Him. Whoso confesseth me, that's
our confession. Him. What we believe is determined
by who we believe. And I've said this so many times
before, it's impossible to believe him and not believe in his successful
redemption for his elect. It's impossible. Because if you
really believe he's God manifest in the flesh, you believe he
must be successful. Now, secondly, there is a confidence
in that content. Second Timothy 112, Paul said,
I know whom I have believed and I'm persuaded that he's able.
I'm persuaded, I'm convinced that he's able to keep that which
I've committed to him against that day. Now, Abraham, scripture
says, was fully persuaded that what God had promised, he was
able also to perform. Do you believe he's able to save
you? That's a real simple question.
Do you believe he's able to save you with no help and no contribution
from you where he does it all? Do you believe what that leper
did when he said, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. You believe that? You believe
what those two blind fellas believed when they came in? Lord said,
what do y'all want? He said, that we may receive
our sight. He said, do you believe that I'm able to do this? You
believe he's able to save you? You believe he's able to give
you your sight? There's a confidence, a confidence. Paul said, I know
whom I believed and I'm persuaded he's able to keep that which
I've committed to him against that day. There's a confidence.
I'm persuaded he's able. And thirdly, there's a commitment.
I know whom I have believed and I'm persuaded. that he's able
to keep that which I've committed to him against that day. Now,
let me show you what the Bible means by commitment. Will you
turn with me to Genesis chapter 39? I think this is a beautiful
illustration of commitment. Verse one. And Joseph was brought down to
Egypt, and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard,
an Egyptian, bought him of the hands of the Ishmaelites, which
had brought him down thither. This was when he was sold as
a slave. His brothers betrayed him. This is when he's first
bought. And the Lord was with Joseph,
and he was a prosperous man. And he was in the house of his
master, the Egyptian. And his master saw that the Lord
was with him and that the Lord made all that he did to prosper
in his hand. I mean, his master saw whatever
this man does, it's successful. It prospers. It works. So what did he do? And Joseph found grace in his
sight, and he served him, and he made him overseer over his
house, and all that he had he put in his hand." Now, that's
commitment, isn't it? All that he had. There wasn't anything
he had. He didn't keep anything back.
He put it all in Joseph's hand. Now, isn't that what we do when
we trust Christ? We put it all in His hand. We trust Him only. And it came to pass, verse five,
from that, from the time that he made him overseer in his house
and over all that he had, that the Lord blessed the Egyptian's
house for Joseph's sake. That's the gospel, isn't it? God blesses me for Christ's sake. I put all my hope of salvation. Now understand this. If you believe
in works in any way, it's a failure to commit. The only way you commit
is if you believe totally on him only with nothing from you. Now that is commitment. And in
doing this, the man's house was prospered for Joseph's sake. Can you trust the greater Joseph
like Potiphar did this lesser Joseph? The boy in the burning
house, up on the second floor, believes the man can catch him.
And he proves it when he jumps out the window and he commits
all of his salvation to that man being able to catch him.
If he can catch him, he's fine. But he has committed himself
to him. Now, as I said, any belief in
works is a failure to commit. Now listen to this statement
very carefully. I am hanging the entire weight
of the salvation of my soul on this statement. It is finished. I have no plan B, and if that's
not so, I won't be saved. I have committed, hands off,
I have committed the salvation of my soul to him. And with the
confidence in that content that causes commitment, there will
be confession. Now what's involved in a good
confession? With the mouth. Confession is
made unto salvation. Let the redeemed of the Lord
say so. If I confess with my mouth, the
Lord Jesus. and believe in my heart. I confess
with my mouth. I might not be able to know what
to say or how to say it, and I might get nervous and think
I'll botch it when I say it. All of us have thought that before
and think we won't say it right. But I tell you what, we'll confess.
We hear the truth and we say, that's what I believe. I identify
with that. That's it. I believe that's the
gospel I believe. That's the gospel I identify
with. I cast my lot with the folks
who believe that way. That's confessing Christ. You might not be able to articulate
it as well as you like, but you, when you, you know, when you
hear it and you say, amen, that's what I believe. I stand for that.
I believe that I rest in that with the mouth confession is
made to salvation. Now turn with me to Mark one.
This is very important. Mark one. Verse four. John did baptize
in the wilderness and preach the baptism of repentance for
the remission of sins or concerning the remission of sins. He didn't
mean your sins will be remitted if you repent. How many times
do we find these two words together? Repentance and remission of sins. Everybody thinks naturally that
we'll get our sins remitted if we repent. And then when God
saves us, we repent of that kind of thinking. And we know that
we get our sins remitted because God put them away for Christ's
sake. That's what repentance from dead works is, but go and
read in verse five. And there went out unto him all
the land of Judea and they of Jerusalem, and were all baptized
of him in the river of Jordan, confessing their sins. Now the act of baptism. going
under the water, coming back up. The act of baptism was their
confession of their sin. That doesn't mean they went out
and started confessing their sins publicly and telling everybody
the stuff they did before they got baptized. That's an abomination.
I know that some churches kind of come clean, confess. No, don't
do that. Don't do that. You confess your
sin before God. You don't tell your sin to other
men. That act of baptism was the confession
of sin. In that act of baptism, I'm saying
I'm so sinful. that the only way I can be saved
is if Christ lived for me, died for me, and was raised from the
dead for me. That's my confession. We confess
the gospel in baptism. And baptism, listen to this very
carefully, baptism is very much like the marriage ceremony. This
is our public confession. We confess what baptism signifies. Now in our day, how often do
men and women live together while being married? Happens all the
time. It's getting bigger and bigger
and bigger. Men and women living together
without being married. And you say, well, isn't that
wrong? Well, we love each other. We
love each other. Marriage is just a ceremony.
It's just a piece of paper. It doesn't really mean anything.
We love each other and we're committed. If you really love each other,
you commit to each other for life. And that's what you do
in baptism. That's what you do in the marriage.
When I'm marrying somebody, when I got married, I committed to
Lynn for life. I'm yours till you die, you're
mine. There's a commitment there. And that's what baptism signifies.
It's a commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ. He's mine. forever and I'm his forever. Baptism is my public confession
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I confess him by identification
with his people and the message of the gospel. Paul said, don't
be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me, his prisoner,
but you be a partaker of the afflictions of the gospel. Uh,
I'm, I'm not ashamed of the gospel and I want to, Birds of a feather
flock together, don't they? I want to be identified with
the folks who believe that Christ is all in salvation. I'm like
Ruth. Your people are my people. Your
God's my God. I identify with those people.
That's part of confession. There's an identification with
the gospel and those who believe it. And finally, we confess Him
by our life. Turn to Titus. Titus chapter
1. You know, I've made the statement
before, you don't believe any more than you put into practice.
And I wish I'd never said anything like that, because there's a
lot of things that I believe that I don't put into practice as I ought
to. So if I were to say anything like that again, say, you shouldn't
have said that. That was hypocritical. Because it was. I've heard preachers
say, you don't believe any more than you put in practice. Well,
I reckon I know what they mean. But let's look at this scripture
in Titus chapter 1. Verse 16. They profess, that's the same
word, they confess that they know God. They confess to be
believers, Christians, people who pray, walk with God. They
profess that they know God, but in works, they deny him. Being abominable and disobedient. and into every good work, reprobate. If I say I believe in the forgiveness
of sin and I'm unforgiving, my belief in forgiveness is just
talk. If I say I believe in the mercy
of God and I'm unmerciful, My works deny what I say I believe. If I say I believe God is sovereign
and yet spend all my time worrying in dread and fear, I don't really
believe what I say I do. If I say that I believe that
salvation is by grace, pure free grace, And yet I'm always trying
to hold people's feet to the law, to the fire of the law.
I prove I don't really believe what I say I do. If I say Christ is all, and yet
I covet everything this world has to offer, I'm denying him
by my works. Now this good confession, we
confess with the mouth, by baptism, By identification with his people
and with his gospel and with my life, may the Lord enable,
by divine grace, all of us to confess this good confession. Let's pray together.