Matthew chapter 10 today, and
as I looked over this portion of scripture, what I really,
really was impressed to deal with is this statement found
in verse 32 and verse 33. Whosoever therefore shall confess
me, confess Christ 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. Wouldn't you agree with me that
confessing the Lord Jesus Christ is the most important thing in
our life, in our being? What does it mean to confess
Christ? It means to own Him. I own Him
as all of my salvation. Not part of it, not some of it,
but all of my salvation before God. So I'm taking the title
for the message from that verse 32, confessing Christ, confessing
Christ before men. To publicly confess the Lord
Jesus Christ before men is to own Him, is to say before men,
He's mine. Whatever He is to you, I don't
know, but I know what He is to me. He's my Lord, He's my Savior,
and He's my prophet, priest, and king. He's everything, everything
to me. everything in our salvation.
To own Him is to say that He is all of our salvation. To own
Him is to give Him all the glory for His grace and His mercy to
us, which is given to us every day. We have daily mercy and daily
grace to own him to say, but of him are you in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. We own the Lord Jesus Christ
as everything to us. We own him. We confess him. We profess that he's all our
hope of salvation. We say with the Apostle Paul,
in Him dwells all the fullness of a Godhead bodily and we are
complete. We are complete in our Lord Jesus
Christ, Christ is all and in all. Now you remember that these
instructions were given to the 12 men called the 12 apostles
that the Lord set apart, set aside, and he ordained them and
he sent them forth to preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He sent them out not as counselors,
not as advisors, But he sent them to preach the gospel. Did
you notice verse 27 in Matthew 10? He says, what I tell you
in private, what I tell you in the darkness, speak out openly
in the light. And what you have been taught
in the ear by Christ himself, you preach that upon the housetop.
We have no private doctrine that we talk about secretly and then
openly talk about something else. what we and what has been revealed
to us from the Word by the Spirit of God, we openly declare that
salvation is all of God. All of God. Did you notice over
here the same chapter? Chapter 10, verse 7, it says,
as you go, preach, saying, the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Preach Christ. That's what he's saying. Preach
Christ. He sent them to preach the gospel of the kingdom or
the gospel of God concerning Christ as king. And he truly
is king of kings. He's Lord of all men. He's Lord of heaven and earth.
He's king of kings and he's Lord of lords. We don't make him Lord,
God made him both Lord and Christ. The Lord warns these men that
opposition and trouble would come, they would face opposition.
Remember in verse 22 of Matthew 10, you shall be hated of all
men for my name's sake. But he that endureth to the end,
the same shall be saved. He said, if they've hated me,
verse 25, it is enough for the disciples that he be as his master,
and the servant as his lord. If they called the master of
the house Beelzebub, and that wasn't a nice name, that's basically
calling him the devil. How much more shall they call
them of his household? He said, if they hated me, they'll
hate you. Don't be surprised. Don't be surprised. And then
the Lord tells them not to fear what men may do or what men may
say. Verse 26, fear them not, therefore,
for there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed and
hid that shall not be known. Verse 28, fear them not, which
kill the body, And most of those apostles, apart from Judas and
John, were all killed as martyrs of the gospel. Fear not them
which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul. The
soul is immortal. But rather, fear him which is
able to destroy both soul and body in hell. And then he gives
them this word of encouragement in verse 29. particularly tells them of his
particular loving care and how he would provide for them. And
he gives this very simple illustration about two sparrows. Now, what's
the value of a sparrow? Not much, is it? And he says,
are not two sparrows, if they're sold, they would be sold for
just a tenth part of a penny. What's the tenth part of the
penny? Well, it's very small. But he says these sparrows, he
says, and one of them shall not fall to the ground without your
father. The sparrow that flies and the
sparrow that falls to the ground and the sparrow that perishes,
that all happens by the sovereign decree of Almighty God. Even
the path of a little sparrow, God controlled everything about
that little sparrow. And then he says, Fear ye not,
therefore, you are more valuable. The sheep of the Lord Jesus Christ
are more valuable than many sparrows. More valuable than many, many
sparrows. What he's saying to these men,
he's saying to them, I'm going to take care of you. I'm going
to provide for you. And we know that God will provide
for his people in a loving, tender way. They are much more valuable
to him than any mere little sparrow or a flock of sparrows. We learn
from this that the sovereign providence of God reaches to
the most minor, minute details of all things in this life. known unto God are all his works
from the beginning, in whom we have attained an inheritance
being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh
all things, all things after the counsel of his own will,
all things are of God. The apostle said, of him and
through him and to him are all things, to whom be glory both
now and forever. And then he says, amen. So be it. If not one little insignificant
sparrow falls to the ground without the Lord's will and purpose being
accomplished, and since he controls even the flight and fall of a
mere little bird, how much more does the Lord Jesus Christ care
for his sheep and look out for them? No wonder his name is Jehovah
Jireh, the Lord will provide. He's provided everything for
us, everything for us. How much so does the Lord care
for His people? He said, I'm the Good Shepherd.
The Good Shepherd laid down His life for His sheep. He said,
no man takes my life from me. I have power to lay it down.
I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received
in my Father. The Father loved us so much that
He gave the Lord Jesus Christ as a sacrifice for our sin. And
He obtained for us, with the shedding of His blood and His
death, He obtained for us eternal life. And He says, I give them
eternal life, and they shall never perish. How much more shall
the Lord, if He takes care, He feeds the little birds. They
don't have barn or storehouse, but He feeds the little birds.
How much more shall the Lord take care of you? How valuable
are the Lord's people unto Him? Let's find some Scripture here.
Turn over to Romans chapter 5. Romans chapter 5. Look at verse 6. Romans 5 at
verse 6. For when you were yet without
strength and due time, Christ died for the ungodly. For when
we were yet without strength, according to the time, Christ
died for the ungodly. For scarcely for righteous men
will one die, yet peradventure for a good man some would even
dare to die. But God commended his love toward us in that while
we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more than being
now justified, we shall be saved from wrath through him. Oh, he
cares for us. He chose us. He came for us. He died for us. Here's another
scripture. If you want to turn, you can.
If not, I'll just read it to you. But 1 John chapter 4. 1
John chapter 4 at verse 10. We quote this all the time. 1
John 4 verse 10. Here in His love, not that we
love God, but that He loved us. And He sent His Son to be the
propitiation for our sins. That's how much God loves us.
He gave the jewel of heaven. The Lord Jesus Christ came in
the fullness of time and redeemed us from the curse of the law.
How much more valuable are His people unto Him? Now, in the
lives of the Lord's children, nothing happens by accident. There are no accidents. In the
lives of the Lord's children, Nothing happens by lady luck,
misfortune, mother nature, random chance, or blind fate. Everything
works according to the purpose, the eternal purpose of God. the
eternal purpose of God. And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are called
according to His purpose. All things are of God, and they
work for our eternal good. I remember reading this statement
many, many years ago, 35, 40 years ago, and it never, never
left my mind. But old John Gill, lived back
in the 1700s. But when he made comment from
the scripture in Revelation 21.6, where it says that Christ is
the Alpha, the Omega, that means he's the beginning and he's the
end. He's the beginning and he's the
end. He's the Alpha and the Omega of salvation, creation, and providence. But old John Gill from that verse
said, God is the first cause and last end of all things. The
first cause. He's the beginning and He's the
end. He's the first cause and last end of all things. He cares for His people and He
watches over them. A mere sparrow doesn't fall without
the Father's will being done. How much more? How much more? Oh, I think what the Lord said
to those men on that boat that day, that boat was sinking, taking
on water, and they were so fearful, they shook the Lord and woke
Him up. He's over there sleeping. And they said, don't you care
about us? We're perishing. Surely He cared
about them. You remember what He said? O
ye of little faith. The Lord does care for his people,
and he will watch over them with tender care. Now, the second
thing I want us to consider, not only his care of us, but our confession of him. His
care for us and our confession of him. Whosoever, therefore.
Now, my pastor used to always tell us that word whosoever is
a wide word. I'm one of those whosoever believeth
that Jesus is the Christ shall be saved. I'm one of those whosoever,
whosoever, who it is, Jew, Gentile, old, young, black, white, doesn't
matter, whosoever, therefore shall confess me before men. Him will I confess also before
my Father which is in heaven. Now notice a reference on that.
You see Romans 10 verse 9. That's what we read just a moment
ago, remember? Romans 10 verse 9 says that if
thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe
in thine heart God raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved.
With a heart man believeth unto Righteousness and with a mouth
confession is made unto salvation. Now, knowing and loving the Lord
Jesus Christ and confessing and owning him comes by hearing the
word of the gospel. You cannot confess faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ as all of your salvation without first hearing
about him. You can't believe in someone
of whom you have not heard. So you cannot confess faith in
the Lord Jesus Christ as all of your salvation without first
hearing about who he is and what he did and why he came to save
sinners. This is why we make such a vital
part of our coming together and worshiping the Lord around preaching
the gospel. Faith comes by hearing and hearing
by the word of the Lord. You cannot believe and trust
an unknown Christ or trust the true Lord and Savior without
knowing Him by the revelation of God the Holy Spirit through
the preaching of the gospel. Now turn back, hold your place
there, and just turn back, excuse me, just look over across the
page. In Matthew 11, if you have the Cambridge that I'm looking
at, in Matthew 11, verse 25, you see at the bottom of the
page, Matthew 11, 25. I thank thee, O Father, Lord
of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from
the wise and prudent, and revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father,
for so it seemed good in thy sight. All things are delivered
unto me of my Father. And no man knoweth the Son, but
the Father, neither knoweth any man the Father save the Son.
And he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him. When God reveals
Christ unto our heart, through the preaching of the gospel of
the Lord Jesus Christ, it's not a burden to confess Him as everything
in our salvation. To own Him. To own Him. I own Him. I own Him as everything. That is why the Lord puts importance
and prominence around the preaching of the gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ. It pleased God, through the preaching
of the gospel, to call out his people. To call out his people.
That's why the Apostle Paul, when he's sitting on death row
in Rome, waiting to be executed for the gospel, and when God
gives him the privilege of writing back, under inspiration, words
of instruction to young Timothy about Continuing in the ministry,
he says, I charge ye before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who
shall judge the living and the dead at the appearing of his
kingdom, to preach the word. Preach Christ, who he is. and what he has done. Our Lord
told the disciples to go into all the world and preach the
gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved. Turn over here to the last chapter
of Matthew, Matthew 28, verse 18. The risen Lord here gives
his apostles instruction Matthew 28, 18, all powers given unto
me in heaven and in earth. Now, does he have all power?
Absolutely. The Father had given him all
power over all flesh and he should give eternal life to as many
as thou hast given him. Go ye therefore and teach all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son
and the Holy Spirit. teaching them to observe all
things that whatsoever I've commanded you, and lo, I'm with you always,
even to the end of the world. Baptizing them in the name of
the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. I was sitting
on my front porch this morning, thinking about this message,
and thinking about this scripture, and I don't think I've ever seen
this before, what he's really saying here. When He says, baptize
them, and that's the way we baptize. We baptize in the name of the
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But when He's saying this, He's
saying that salvation is of God the Father choosing us, and that
salvation is through the redeeming blood of the Lord Jesus Christ,
in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of
sin according to the riches of His grace, and then the Holy
Spirit. It's the Holy Spirit that quickens
and regenerates us. So we preach salvations of the
Lord, of the whole Godhead. Father choosing, Son redeeming,
and the Holy Spirit regenerating. Now, I know you all have seen
that before. I'm just slow. I'm just slow,
but I've never really put that together. And it's the same exact
thing that he says in Ephesians chapter 1. the work of the Father,
the work of the Son, and the work of the Holy Spirit. And
it's all His doing. It's all His doing. Now, verse
32, Matthew 10. Whosoever therefore shall confess
me before men, him will I confess before my Father which is in
heaven. Now, we see the blessing that's
involved in confessing and owning Christ before men. He will confess
and own us before the Father. I will confess them before my
Father, which is in heaven. We've read this scripture so
many times in the book of Jude, one chapter, verse 24 and verse
25, that He's able to keep us from falling and to present us
faultless before the presence of God's glory with exceeding
joy. He presents us. He confesses
us. He's not ashamed to call us brethren
before the throne of God. He presents us in Himself without
spot, unblameable, unrebukable, holy, unblameable in the presence
of God. Wouldn't you say that's good
news? Our Lord writes this in Luke
9 verse 26, For whosoever shall be ashamed of Me, And of my words
of him shall the son of man be ashamed when he shall come in
his glory and his father's, in his father's and his holy, with
his holy angel. And that's why I picked out that
song in the song book this morning. Ashamed of Jesus, can it be? A mortal man, ashamed of thee? Ashamed of thee whom angels praise,
whose glories last through endless days? Believers are not ashamed
to own Christ as everything in our salvation before whoever
we stand. Before men. Before men. Now turn
back to Romans again, Romans chapter 1, about this thought
about not being ashamed, not being ashamed. We confess him,
we own him, we're not ashamed to call him. That's everything. All our hope is salvation. In
Romans 1 verse 16, but look at verse 15 as well. Romans 1 verse
15. So as much as in me is, I'm ready
to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also, for I'm not
ashamed. of the gospel of Christ. For
it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to
the Jew first, and also to the Greek. Therein is that righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the
just shall live by faith. Not ashamed of the gospel of
Christ, the power of God, the power of God unto salvation.
Now if you want to turn to this when you can, most of you know
it by heart, it's 2 Timothy chapter 1. 2 Timothy 1, verse 8. Notice this, verse 8. And here
again, Paul is in prison. Writing back to Timothy. And
words of encouragement in 2 Timothy 1, verse 8. Be not thou therefore
ashamed of the testimony of the Lord, nor of me, his prisoner,
but be thou a partaker of the afflictions of the gospel of
God. The gospel according to the power of God who saved us,
called us with a holy calling. not according to our work, but
according to his own purpose and grace, which is given us
in Christ before the world began, but now is made manifest by the
appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who has abolished death
and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel,
whereunto I'm appointed a preacher, an apostle, a teacher of the
Gentiles, for the which cause I suffer these things. Nevertheless,
I'm not ashamed. I'm not ashamed, for I know,
and here's why, I know whom I have believed. And I am persuaded
that he is able to keep that which I committed unto him against
that day. Hold fast the form of sound words
which thou hast heard of me in faith and love, which is in the
Lord Jesus Christ." Hold fast. Hold fast. This thing of confessing the
Lord Jesus Christ, it is so vital. It is so vital. And when He gives
us faith in Him, to trust Him for all of our salvation, we're
not ashamed to confess Him before men. Now, I want you to look
at the Scripture here. In John 12, look at verse 42. John 12, verse 42. There were
some men in the day of the Lord who said, Oh, we believe Him.
but they wouldn't confess him. Look at this carefully. In John
12, 42, 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, for they loved the
praise of men more than the praise of God. Did they really believe
him? No. because they wouldn't confess
the Lord Jesus Christ before men. So, back to Matthew chapter
10. Whosoever therefore, verse 32,
shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before
my Father which is in heaven. Now, what is it then, what is
it to confess the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, first of all, it's
to confess Him to myself in my heart that He's all my salvation. What is it? The word is nigh
thee in thy mouth and in thy heart, the word of faith. which
we preach, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord
Jesus, and believe in your heart God raised Him from the dead,
thou shalt be saved. With the heart man believeth
unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation. So to confess the Lord Jesus
Christ is first of all to believe in your heart. You cannot truly
confess Him in faith without believing Him in your heart that
Christ is everything in salvation. We confess who He is, God Almighty. We confess what He did. He put
away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. Now, in this confessing
the Lord Jesus Christ, we also confess something else. I want
you to find 1 John 1. 1 John chapter 1, we also confess
something else. As we confess the Lord Jesus
Christ, God giving him a name above every name, that at that
name every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus
Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Look at 1 John
chapter 1. Verse 7, if we walk in the light
as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another,
and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all
sin. If we say we have no sin, notice
that singular, sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not
in us. If we say we have no sin nature, if we, verse 9, if we
confess our sins, now don't confess them to me, Confess Him in your
heart before Him. If we confess our sin, He is
faithful and He is just to forgive our sin and to cleanse us from
all unrighteousness. I'm going to confess that He's
my Lord, my Savior, and I'm going to confess I'm a sinner. And
I need Him to be my Savior. Now look at verse 10. If we say
that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar. and the Word's not
in us. So I confess, He's my Lord. I
confess that I'm a sinner. What is to confess the Lord Jesus
Christ is to own Him as all your righteousness, all your hope,
as your only Savior, as God our Savior. And then to confess the
Lord Jesus Christ is not only to own Him, but to meet where
His people meet together. If you look at the book of Acts
chapter 24. We identify with him and we identify
with his people where the gospel of God concerning the Lord Jesus
Christ is preached. In Acts chapter 24, they accused
the Apostle Paul of heresy, but he said, they cannot prove these
things wherein they accuse me. Acts 24 verse 14. But this, here's
what I do confess. But I confess this, that 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 the prophets,
and have hope toward God, which they themselves also allow, that
there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just
and the unjust. Paul said, I confess this, what
Abraham believed, what Moses believed, what David believed,
what all the prophets of the past, to him give all the prophets
witness, what they believe, I confess, and I identify with them in salvation
of the Lord. Abraham believed God, and it
was counted to him four. salvation, for righteousness,
for righteousness. So we publicly confess him, we
own him in our heart, and with the mouth we confess him. Secondly,
we identify with his people. All the way back, we identify
with them who look to the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. And then we also identify with
Him and confess Him in believers' baptism. Believers' baptism. Who should be baptized? Believers.
Turn back here to Matthew chapter 3. Remember we saw this in Matthew
chapter 3, look at verse 4. The same John had his raiment
of camel hair, and a leather girdle about his loins, and a
leather girdle about his loins, and his meat was locusts and
wild honey. They went out to him in Jerusalem
and all Judea and round about Jordan, and were baptized of
him in Jordan, confessing their sin." Baptism is a confession
of our sin. And it's also a confession of
his death, his burial, and his resurrection as all our hope
of the putting away our sin. And that's what baptism is a
picture of. We're confessing Christ and him
crucified as all of our salvation, his death. as our death and our
condemnation for our sin and his resurrection as our resurrection
before God. He was delivered for our offenses
and raised again for our justification. While baptism, now listen to
me carefully, because this is, a lot of people say that water
baptism is salvation. It's not. It's not. Christ is
salvation. While baptism is not essential
to salvation, It is, to the believer, essential to the obedience of
the Lord's command. Did you get that? It's essential
to obedience to the Lord's command. If God has given you faith to
believe the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, it is your privilege
and your honor to confess the Lord Jesus Christ in believer's
baptism. those in the book of Acts. And
we've been through the book of Acts many times. But when Philip
and Peter and others, when they went and preached the gospel
and God granted faith, they confessed their faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ by believer baptism. And Philip preached to the eunuch.
And the eunuch said, what hinders me from being baptized? And Philip
said, Lord, if you believe with all your heart, you can. And
he said, I do believe. that Jesus is the Son of God. And they went down in the water
and were baptized. When that Philippian jailer asked
the Apostle Paul, what must I do to be saved? He said, believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Notice there's
always a predicate of faith before baptism. You can't confess someone
if you don't know him. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. And Paul preached to him the
gospel, the word of the Lord, and God granted him faith. And that Jaeger and his whole
house were baptized, confessing the Lord Jesus Christ. Now there's
a flip side to this, in closing, and I'll be real brief. So what a blessing it is to confess
Christ before men. Confess Him in preaching, confess
Him in in believer's baptism, confessing by identifying with
his people where the gospel is preached, and then, whosoever,
verse 33, shall deny me before men, to deny the Lord Jesus Christ,
to deny who he is and what he has done, and where he is now,
and why he died for us, him will I also deny before my Father
which is in heaven." Now what a terrible thing it would be
to stand before the final judgment of God and to stand there in
the merit of your own puny works, sinful puny works, and to hear
him say, depart from me, I never knew you. To stand before God
with no Savior, no Mediator, no High Priest, no Advocate, Oh, may God give us grace to
confess the Lord Jesus Christ as all our salvation. You remember those in Matthew
7, where they said, Lord, we preached in your name, we cast
out devils in your name, we've done these many wonderful works
in your name. Matthew 7, verse 22. They talked
about everything they have done, they have done, they have done.
They didn't confess Him as Lord, did they? They didn't own him
as Lord, did they? Then I'll profess unto them,
I never knew you. It's apart from me, you that
work iniquity. They used his name, Lord, Lord,
but they denied his character. He denied his true character.