Confess Him

Introduction

Good morning. Welcome to our visitors. Thank you for coming to be with us. If you could be with us tonight at 5 o’clock, I’m going to present a lesson at that time called The Problem with Our Young People. Great. The young people are going, I don’t know if I want to show up for this one. The problem of the problem with our. What’s their problem? Well, you might be surprised at the answers to that question tonight. And so I hope you’ll come back at 5 o’clock to hear about that. This morning’s sermon idea comes from Brother Sewell Hall. Sewell Hall, I believe, is now in his 80s, who has been a long time preacher of the gospel, respected by many brethren throughout the country and throughout the world for that matter.

And Brother Sewell Hall has a lot of wisdom. And he was speaking in an article he wrote recently about the time when churches, when brethren conducted two to three-week gospel meetings. I’m not old enough to remember that. Some of you are, perhaps. Boy, those were different times. Two to three weeks long. Perhaps people were different then, but society was certainly a little different then. And probably not holding two to three-week meetings in a commuting area like this would be my guess. But perhaps there were some.

Would always, it seems, be devoted to making the good confession. And then he talked about another older gospel preacher who earliest recollections of the decision to obey the gospel was from another visiting gospel preacher who said to him, Young man, have you made the good confession? And Sewell asked, How long has it been since you heard a sermon on the good confession? Or heard someone ask the question. Young man, have you made the good confession? So I don’t want to disappoint Sewell. So here we go. A sermon on the good confession. And I take you this morning to Romans the 10th chapter, verses 8 through 13. We’re going to get the flavor of the context here in Romans 10. That’s important. We’ll get that in a moment.

Romans 10 and verse 8. But what does it say? What does it say? The Old Testament text is in reference here. What does it say? The word is near you in your mouth and in your heart. That is the word of faith which we are preaching. What I’m doing, what me and other evangelists in the New Testament are doing, was actually done by Moses. And he quotes Deuteronomy chapter 30 and verse 14 about the word of faith. And so he connects something with the Old Testament with something he’s doing now, and he says that, the word of faith which we are preaching that, if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved.

For with the heart, man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. For the scripture says, whoever believes in him will not be disappointed. For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek. For the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches to all who call upon his name. Underline that phrase, abounding in riches for all who call upon his name, for whoever upon the name of the Lord will be saved. So the goal of this lesson this morning is simply your confession. And again, it would be a tremendous success if everyone in this audience would do what Romans chapter 10 says, confess with our mouth unto salvation, to confess Jesus, so that we might abound in riches with all those who call upon him.

1. A Declaration of One's Allegiance

I want to make some observations this morning about confessing Jesus. And number one, I want to call to your attention that a confession of Jesus is simply a declaration of one’s allegiance. In the New Testament, it is declared by both words and actions. I’m reminded of the psalms that we were singing this morning as actually serve as a form of confession. In 479, I know that my Redeemer lives. And as we sing all four of those verses in that song, we are confessing to everyone here. I know that Jesus lives, and some of the implications of that God is so good. We say, He’s so good to me. Blessed are we. We have humbly sought his name to confess. Our singing is all about confessing him.

Let’s look at some other passages. In 1 Timothy chapter 6, obviously, a specific confession is under consideration, both in Romans 10 and here in 1 Timothy chapter 6, where Timothy is told to fight the good fight of faith, and that ties us to the Romans 10 context. Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life to which you were called. And abounding riches, I might add, to which you were called, and you made the good confession. There’s the phrase, that’s why the preacher asked the question. Have you made the good confession? The good confession in the presence of many witnesses. We need witnesses for our confession. Timothy made such a confession, and it’s a confession based upon the example of Jesus. I charge you, in the presence of God who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate.

Well, what confession was that? In John 18, it was the confession that he was a king. Are you a king? And he said, Thou sayest. And he talked about his kingdom. We had a lesson on that just recently. And so Jesus confessed the truth that he was indeed a king. And so, on the basis of who Christ is, who testified the good confession, as you did, Timothy, he says, You need to fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, and consistent with that, keep the commandment without stain or reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. Hope to have a sermon on that phrase in the very near future. I’m still working on that. It could take me several weeks to complete that.

But I want you to turn over also to Acts chapter 8 and verse 37. Because here is the occasion of the conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch. He couldn’t understand what he was reading in the book of Isaiah. Philip comes along miraculously, sits in the chariot, and starts talking to him, beginning from that scripture, he preached Jesus to him. The next thing we know in the story, we’re not told about that whole sermon, other than the fact that Jesus was preached to him. The eunuch brings up, the nobleman brings up, here’s water. What prevents me from being baptized? One of the great implications of Scripture. You have to necessarily infer from that when Philip preached Jesus, that it must have involved the necessity of baptism for the remission of sins because the nobleman’s the one that brings it up.

Look, water. What prevents me from being baptized? And Philip said, If you believe with all your heart, you may. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. So he said, I do believe. And he confessed his belief. And so he ordered the chariot to stop. And they both went down into the water, Philip as well as the eunuch, and he baptized him. They came up out of the water, and he went on his way rejoicing, and the Holy Spirit snatched Philip away. Now, if you were reading in your Bibles, you may have noticed some brackets around verse 37. Some of the earliest manuscripts do not contain this question of Philip, if you believe with all your heart, or this statement of Philip, if you believe with all your heart, you may, and then the preceding confession of the nobleman, I believe that Jesus is the Christ, is the Son of God.

Some earlier translations don’t contain that statement. That’s okay if that’s the case. If it was not originally that which was penned by Luke, it’s certainly consistent with the passage we’ve already read in 1 Timothy chapter 6 and the passage in Romans chapter 10, verses 8 through 13. And apparently, if it wasn’t in the original document that Acts wrote, it was certainly what people reported about that incident that somehow it got ascribed in the text and included that a confession was made by the eunuch, and that was that confession. There’s no way to determine on the manuscript evidence its authenticity or not. But it’s certainly consistent with other passages, and it speaks to a common practice of early disciples confessing Jesus with their mouth prior to their being baptized.

2. Confession Must Go Beyond Mere Words

But what I want to point out is that this confession must go beyond mere words. Luke 6 and verse 46. Jesus said, Why do you call me Lord? There’s a confession. There’s an acknowledgement of Jesus as Lord. I know that my Redeemer lives. Why do you call me Lord? And do not do the things that I say. And notice in the context of 1 Timothy chapter 6 that we read, verse 14, as he told him to fight the good fight of faith and lay hold on eternal life and talked about the good confession that he had made, he then tells him to keep the commandments. Why do you call me Lord, and do not do the things which I say? And then in the greater context of Matthew chapter 10, in Matthew chapter 10, where the statement is made, everyone who confesses me before men, him will I also confess before my Father who is in heaven, verse 32, Matthew 10, 32.

And then 33, if you deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven. That’s more than just words. Matthew 1032 is not simply talking about a confession that someone makes prior to their being baptized into Christ. It’s more than words. It is a confession of one’s life. And if you look at the context here, he talks about fearing, don’t fear those who are able to kill the body but can do nothing else. Well that’s a lot. But they can’t affect your soul fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. And he says the very hairs on your head are all numbered, just like a sparrow doesn’t fall from the ground apart from the knowledge of our Father.

He knows you intimately. And what he’s saying is, you may be put in a circumstance where it’s the choice of life or death. Confession or denial. And he says, You will need to confess. Regardless of the consequences. And a man’s foes may be they of his own household. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword, he says, someone in your own family may turn against you. He goes on to talk about. Whoever he says does not take his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. You see, it’s more than just words. You’ve got to take up your cross and follow me, he says in verse 38. He who has found his life shall lose it, but he who loses his life for my sake shall indeed find life.

3. As Essential as Repentance and Baptism

So, number one, confessing him. It’s a declaration of our allegiance to Jesus Christ, and it’s as essential in the salvation process as repentance and baptism. Here’s the interesting thing that comes up about Romans 10. Why doesn’t he mention baptism in Romans 10? Why doesn’t he mention repentance in Romans 10? The only step in our initial salvation in coming into Christ that’s mentioned in Romans chapter 10 is the confession with our lips. Something that’s not mentioned in a lot of the other conversion passages. Though Timothy made the good confession in modeling Jesus’ good confession, we have the example of the Ethiopian eunuch, it seems, in Acts chapter 8. We have this passage in Romans 10 that talks about with the mouth confession is made, resulting in salvation.

But a lot of the other passages about salvation don’t mention it specifically. And in this passage, we have only the mention of confession.

I want to quote a recent article on Romans chapter 10, written by Barry Kirchhoffville, incidentally, who’s holding our meeting in a couple of months. Here’s what he says about Romans 10. Paul is using shorthand, he calls it. Shorthand. Some of our young people don’t know what that is. Shorthand was something that used to be used, where a boss might dictate to a secretary, and she would use a style of writing known as shorthand, so she didn’t have to write out every word and could go back later and take shorthand and make it longhand, exactly what the person said. Don’t use that anymore. We have all these recording devices. We don’t need shorthand. It’s dead. My poor mom used to teach shorthand. Okay. Paul is using shorthand, that was his term, to speak of righteousness based on faith instead of seeking a righteousness based on law.

You see, he’s looking at the whole context of Romans in. It would be cumbersome for Paul to list every command of the Lord every time he spoke of what it meant to have faith in Christ. He says the point is he’s emphasizing the word of faith and a confession of faith that results from one’s belief. And so only mentions that. And so that one statement of confession sort of represents the whole of the salvation process. And that’s known, that’s a figure of speech known as, anybody know what that is? Hard to say, hard to spell. It’s synectique. But a lot of times where a part of something stands for the whole, a lot of times that’s used in regard to the way salvation works. For example, 1 Peter 3 21.

Baptism doth also now save you. That’s it? One step? Baptism. That’s it. No. Baptism represents the whole. It’s the culminating step in the process, I like to say. But that doesn’t exclude belief. Actually, belief is written all over baptism. But belief, it doesn’t exclude repentance. In fact, he says baptism is the answer of a good conscience toward God. You’ve got repentance implied there in that phrase. And it’s no substitute for confession with one’s mouth. But baptism represents the whole. Some other examples. The Philippian jail. The initial words of Paul. Believe in the Lord Jesus, you shall be saved. Well, that’s synectiche. He isn’t simply saying, well, if you just believe that Jesus is the King, that He’s the Lord, at that point you’re saved and saved forever.

That’s what people preach. It’s not true. That’s not what the Bible says. But that’s synectiche. We find immediately he was baptized in that context in Acts 16 and verse 33. And why immediately? Because that’s a part of the salvation process. But it’s spoken of in synectiche. Belief stands for the whole. Another example. Repentance. Acts 3.19. Repent and be converted. Those two words are added. There’s repent, there’s some other steps involved, but repent and be converted, in order that your sins may be blotted out and times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord. Repentance stands for the whole. So any one of the steps can be spoken of in relation to the whole. So why confession here? Well, that has to do with the whole context of justification by faith.

And Barry says some interesting things about the two verses preceding verse 8 when he talks about going into the abyss or ascending into heaven. He says, Isn’t it wonderful that the answers we need for salvation, we don’t have to go to heaven to get them because Jesus came to earth? And though Jesus died and quote, went into the abyss, we don’t have to go there because he came out of Sheol to provide our salvation through his resurrection. And so we don’t have to go into heaven, we don’t have to go into the abyss. The message is here, the word of faith that we’re preaching. And what he’s saying is that even in the old law, even in the old law, where we have a works based salvation, that’s the only kind of salvation that was possible.

It’s possible if you kept the law perfectly. Really, the real essence of the law was a word of faith. Moses trying to produce faith in the people because ultimately we’re all the children of Abraham by what? By faith. They weren’t saved on the basis of a law system because none of them kept it perfectly. They were saved by faith, just like you were, just like you are. He’s saying in Romans chapter 10. Well, that’s the short course on Romans, I mean, Romans chapter 10 and Deuteronomy chapter 30. And I just want to point out that Romans 10 is certainly a place you can go to show that confession is as essential as repentance and baptism in the salvation process. Now, let’s get to the issue I really want to bring home to you this morning.

4. Confession Issues from Positive Association

I said the goal was for all of us to confess. How am I going to get you to confess the Lord? Let me tell you when that happens. That issues from positive association. Let me tell you what I mean. Let me illustrate this. We have no problem whatsoever in many discussions and relationships telling people where we stand on political matters. If we are positive about our association with some cause, we don’t have any problem whatsoever telling people where we stand on it. Political national citizenship. I’m a citizen of the United States of America, better yet, I’m a resident of the state of Texas. And if you’re like me, you’re a Hoosier Texan. You originally started in Indiana, but you got to Texas as quickly as you could.

But I told you talk about two states that have a lot of state pride, it’s great to say I’m a Hoosier. I’m a Texan. We don’t have any problem telling people about that because our positive association with that state our sports allegiances. I know Kentucky took a thrashing yesterday, but I’m still proud of my association, one of the greatest college basketball programs. I’m a Kentucky fan. I’m an Auburn fan. It doesn’t matter we only won three games last year. Y’all are Aggies and you’re very proud of your Aggies now. The longhorms are awfully quiet. But still give you a hook em if you want to see it. We’re proud we have a positive association. Some even say, go tigers. G-E-A-U-X. Some even crazier people wear cheese on their head to show their allegiance.

Here’s the point. Acceptable confession naturally resolves when you have positive association. I talk about in a sermon that I wrote 20 years ago, and I still preach sometimes about the three greatest athletes of my generation. And I think I’ve preached that here, and I’ve talked about who were they? Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky. Well, I may have to change the sermon because LeBron James is making a run at Michael Jordan’s. But the greatest athletes of all time. We talk about, we want to know the greatest of everything. You realize who Jesus is? He’s the greatest person that ever lived. He’s the only one that could ever claim, I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me shall never die. The only one who said, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No one comes to the Father but through me. I remember when Muhammad Ali said, I am the greatest, but I want to tell you, he wasn’t even close. The greatest ever to walk on the face of this earth is now the reigning king, Jesus Christ. And you will confess him. If you have that positive association. In fact, he warns. He warns in Mark chapter 8. He says, You’ve got to deny yourself and take up your cross and follow me. We read that earlier in Matthew 10, but he says, What does a man profit if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? And then in verse 38, for whoever is ashamed of me and my words and the adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him.

When he comes in the glory of his Father with His holy angels, I want to tell you, I don’t know how you feel about Jesus right now, but when that day happens, when he comes with his holy angels, you’re going to want to be on his side.

5. Everyone's Going to Confess Him

Heaven forbid we would have been ashamed when he comes. Confess him. And I’m here to tell you, while I’m encouraging you to do it today, there’s a day coming when everyone will. Everyone’s going to confess him, but by then it may be too late. Every one of us is going to give an account to God. We’re all going to stand before the judgment seat of Christ according to Romans chapter 14. And every knee is going to bow, and every tongue is going to confess that Jesus is Lord. Everybody’s going to do it.

Shaking of the fist in God’s face, saying, I won’t do that. No, when they see the awesome power and authority of God, they will confess. But then it’ll be too late.

We need to confess him now. He who took upon himself the form of a servant and was made in likeness of man and humbled himself and became obedient of the death, even the death on the cross, has now also been highly exalted. And given a name that is above every name. What? That every tongue should confess. Whereas Romans 14 says, every tongue will confess on the day of judgment. Philippians 2 says, every tongue should confess. Because ultimately every tongue will. Somebody says, I’m just not ready to make the good confession. When will you be ready? Are you investigating diligently to see if he is worthy of your allegiance and worthy of that good confession made before witnesses? I’m just not ready yet. When are you going to be ready?

Everyone who arrogantly rejected the story of Jesus as being beneath them is going to one day confess that he lives and that he’s the king. Everyone who subscribes to the ludicrous idea that the origin of the world is the result of chance. We talked about that a couple of weeks ago, and who belittles the biblical account of creation. What kind of foolishness to believe in that? One day they’re going to stand before their creator. Confess him with their lips. So they can think of me what they want. And that’s another thing I was going to say earlier that I forgot about confession. It doesn’t matter what other people think about my confession of Jesus. Because one day they’re going to confess it. Everyone who persists in spiritual rebellion and selfishness will be humbled before the Lord.

Conclusion

And no more exaltation shall ever come their way. He who exalts himself will be humbled. He who humbles himself shall be exalted. Matthew 23, verses 11 and 12. And every single person who ignored him or didn’t think that Jesus was worth the time will one day regret that foolish decision. And I want to conclude with this in Hebrews 13, verses 12 through 15, as a result of the fact that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The fact that we ought to be offering up spiritual sacrifices with our lips out of hearts of thanksgiving. He says, let us go outside the camp. Bearing his reproach. That’s confession, folks. Never had tied the two together, but that’s what it is. Going outside the camp and bearing his reproach.

You know, it’s not hard to come in here and say, I know that my Redeemer lives in his time. He loved me so. God is so good. Blessed are we who keep his commandments. But you know, we’re sort of inside the camp here.

The harder part is when we go out there outside the camp. That’s where it gets tough. That’s where my actions have to be consistent with the words that I’ve spoken in this place. This is where Jesus is wondering, will he confess me before men? And if so, I will confess him before my Father who is in heaven. Will you declare your allegiance outside the camp? And let me tell you, young people, how you do that. I’ll say a lot to you today.

You know which is one of the first indicators in today’s times. Who your allegiance is to.

With your mouth. We live in an age of awful profanity.

Young people and adults. You want to show people where your allegiance is, your purity of speech will show them. The way that you dress, the modesty of your attire, the kindness of your character, by those actions you will declare to the world, I belong to Jesus of Nazareth. And may that be indicated by the fact that we are people of prayer. Fight the good fight of faith. Lay hold on eternal life. No allegiance to anything in this world pays more dividends than allegiance to the king. Abounding in riches, Paul says in Romans chapter 10. Today, right now, is a wonderful opportunity if you’ve not done so to confess him and to declare your allegiance to a risen king. Won’t you respond to his invitation while we stand and say?