How to Cure Hypocrisy, Part 2

Lord, I will follow thee. Those words are the invitation that Jesus gives when it comes to salvation. Very few people understand that, but that is exactly his gospel message. Follow me. It's unfortunate that we have rearranged that gospel message to phrase it this way. Have you accepted Jesus as your savior? That's not a biblical way of presenting the gospel. Have you prayed a prayer about asking Jesus into your heart? That is not the way to present Jesus of the Bible and the salvation that he offers.

We have misconstrued the gospel message so that we can get many followers, pretenders in the pew. That's unfortunate. And today we will understand a little bit more about what Jesus says when it comes to following him and obeying him and serving him, what genuine salvation really consists of.

Jesus said in Luke chapter 12, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. All false religion is hypocritical in nature. Hypocrisy is different than fraud. Hypocrisy is different than cheating. Hypocrisy is different than lying. Fraud, cheating, lying are used in the material world, but hypocrisy deals with the spiritual world. It deals with the souls of men and women. Hypocrites are pretenders. They pretend to know God. They pretend to believe in God. They pretend to have experienced the forgiveness of God.

They pretend to know the way to God and convince you of that way, but they have not experienced God's forgiveness. They have not experienced God's true love. They have not experienced the reality of that relationship with the living God. Thus, the things they offer you are hypocritical. They are pretenders. And Jesus came against that. He came against it so ferociously that he would condemn it publicly. All false religion must be condemned publicly. All false prophets must be condemned publicly because what they say publicly must be denounced publicly.

Jesus came to Israel. He came to the Jewish nation who had bought into the party line of the hypocritical teaching of the Pharisees. And so he came to denounce that. He is the truth, truth incarnate. He had to expose the error that had permeated the nation itself. And so Jesus comes and proclaims the truth of the gospel. He's concerned that people are swept away in the permeating influence of the Pharisees, their hypocritical teaching, those works-based ideas that somehow have convinced people that this is the way to heaven.

And people have bought into that. Our Lord is concerned. And so as the crowds begin to gather, when Jesus began his ministry, there were a number of people who followed. And they were able to get on the Jesus bandwagon because it hit so incredibly strong. His miracles were pervasive. They were powerful. And people wanted to follow. And they did. The crowds were huge. But even toward the end of his ministry, when they had convinced the crowd that Jesus did what he did by the power of Beelzebul, the Lord of the flies, that what he did, he did under the influence of Satan, the crowd still began to grow.

So much so that when you come to Luke chapter 12, and this is the latter half of the ministry of Christ, he's on his way to Jerusalem, he's soon going to die. There were so many tens of thousands of people that they began to step on one another because they had to hear what he had to say. And when you gather a crowd that big, you must confront the error of their belief system. And so Jesus speaks, as the text says, to his disciples. And we've told you that those disciples fall into all kinds of categories.

There are the counterfeit disciples. There are the casual ones who have come along for the ride, maybe because a friend has gone along for the ride. They are casual learners. They are casual followers. We know there are counterfeit followers because Judas was one of those, people who pretended to be a certain or committed follower of Christ. But they were counterfeits. There were those who were the curious. They had not yet made their decision about who Jesus is, and they were curious as to where his powers came from and how it is he did what he did.

And so they got on the Jesus bandwagon. There were the committed, those who truly were committed to him and had given their life to him and were willing to follow him wherever he went. There were the cold and even the calloused followers. They had become cold in their following. Even though they were there, they were calloused to the things he had said because they had heard him so frequently. And they had gone in one ear and out the other, and they had not responded to what he said. And so they became more and more calloused to the truth that the Son of God would give to them.

So in that realm of the cold, the calloused, the counterfeit, the casual, the committed, the curious, Jesus speaks to these learners, these followers. Don't think just because it says disciples that they are truly committed believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. The word mathetes just simply means learner or follower. If you come to church and you are here to learn, you are considered a disciple. You might be a curious disciple. You might be a casual one. You might even be a counterfeit one. It doesn't mean that you're a committed disciple of Christ.

And so while all true Christians are true committed disciples, not all disciples are true Christians. That make sense? I mean, that's what the Bible teaches. So we must understand that. So Jesus, wanting to make sure that this crowd or those in the crowd, these curious ones, these casual ones, don't get swept away in the influence of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. He wants to protect them from that. Well, the same is true for us today. It's so easy to be swept away in the hypocritical religion of our day.

And don't think for one moment that it's not huge. It is so huge, it permeates almost every church in America because there is a false system being perpetrated by those in the pulpit or behind the pulpit. They don't preach the true gospel. Any church that doesn't preach the true, unadulterated gospel is a church committed to hypocrisy. You must understand that. Don't just think because you go to a church and it says church on it, or it says evangelical church, that it's a pure church not preaching hypocrisy.

It must be the true gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. So our Lord is concerned that people don't get swept away in this hypocritical thinking, that they understand the truth that he came to preach. That makes sense? That's where Jesus is in Luke chapter 12. Beware, he says, of the leaven, the influence, the negative influence of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy, pretending to have the truth when in reality, because they've never partook of that truth, they can't effectively present the truth to you.

And so he gives us some reasons, some ways in which you can protect yourself. So the title of the message is how to cure hypocrisy, how to deal with the hypocrisy that is around us so that we don't get swept away in it as well. So we began last week by telling you, number one, make sure that you remember your accountability to God.

You are accountable to God. He says, there is nothing covered up that will not be revealed and hidden that will not be known. Verse two, verse three says, accordingly, whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light and what you have whispered in the inner rooms shall be proclaimed upon the housetops. You're accountable to God. Everything that you have said, everything that you have heard, everything that you've tried to conceal one day will be revealed in the light. You're accountable to God.

That's why over in Romans chapter two, it says these words in verse number 16, on the day when according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus, the secrets of men over in first Corinthians chapter four, verse number five, therefore do not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men's hearts.

So not only the secrets of your heart, but the motives of your heart will be revealed because there is a God you are accountable to and he will expose everything that you have said in the dark, everything that you have thought in the silence of your closet, it will all be exposed for all the world to see. So remember, number one, your accountability to God.

Number two, recognize that the only one you should fear is God himself. Because you're accountable to God, you better fear God, right? If he is going to expose all things, you better make sure you fear God. And so the Lord says in verse four, then I say to you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body. And after that, I have no more that they can do, but I will warn you whom to fear. Fear the one who after he is killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him. You need to fear God.

The Bible speaks throughout the scriptures about the fear of God being the beginning of wisdom and knowledge. You need to fear God. The Bible says in the book of Isaiah, I'm sorry, the book of Psalms, verse number 33, chapter 33, verse number 18, behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope for his loving kindness to deliver their soul from death and to keep them alive in famine.

The Lord's eyes on those who fear him, not those who don't fear him. The unbeliever has no fear of God before his eyes. The Bible says in Psalm 34, how, oh, taste and see that the Lord is good.

How blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. Oh, fear the Lord, you, his saints. The believer is the one who fears the living God. The Bible says over in the book of Psalms again, Psalm 115, verse number 11, you who fear the Lord, trust in the Lord.

He is their help and their shield. Verse 13, he will bless those who fear the Lord, the small together with the great. And then over in Psalm 147, it says in verse number 10, he does not delight in the strength of the horse. He does not take pleasure in the legs of a man. The Lord favors those who fear him, those who wait for his loving kindness. So the Lord God is committed to those who fear him. And so the Lord comes and says, you know what? Don't fear the one who just can kill your body. You need to fear the one who can kill body and soul and cast it into hell.

Now, I know that hell is not a very modern day teaching today. In fact, I received an article this past week about a man in Grand Rapids, Michigan, who wrote a book entitled Love Wins. He pastors an evangelical church in Michigan. And in that book, Love Wins, he points out the fact that somehow we must win out in the end because of the forgiveness of God, the peace of God, the love of God that he came to preach because that's what people need. Really? Really. People need to be saved from their sin.

That's what they need. But he preaches a gospel that really sounds good until you examine it. He says that somehow hell is only mentioned some 12 times in the Bible. Well, he can't count, number one.

You don't go to a church where the pastor can't count, okay? And that's not including eternal judgment, eternal punishment, eternal damnation, all that's included there. And the Lord had more to say about hell than he ever did about heaven. And so if his conclusion is, well, hell is only mentioned about 12 times in the Bible, why even talk about it? Then we should certainly never talk about heaven because Christ spent less time talking about heaven than he ever did hell. You see, we go to churches and we just assume that everything the pastor says is true.

You have to examine it, don't you? We have to be like the Bereans and examine the text to make sure that what is said truly is the gospel. The Lord said, don't fear the one who can just kill your body because that's what hypocrites do. They only fear man. Why do they only fear man? Because they are consumed with what man thinks about them. They want the approval of man. They want to be liked by man. They want man to give them money because that's what hypocrites do. They want your money. And so they spend their time trying to convince man that you are worth liking or they are worth liking.

They seek the approval of man. Jesus never came to seek the approval of man. He came to do the will of his Father who is in heaven. And that's what he did. He came to preach the truth. And so he did. You make sure that you remember, remember your accountability to God and realize there's only one you should fear and that's God himself. If you do, then you need to realize how valuable you are to that God you should fear. He says very simply in verse six, are not five sparrows sold for two cents and yet not one of them is forgotten before God.

Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear. You are of more value than any or than many sparrows. This God you fear, this God you're accountable to, if you fear him, you need not fear any condemnation because of the value you are to him. Then this is where our outline left off last week. Number four, you need very simply to respond with public confession of the Christ. Respond with public confession of the Christ. Listen to what Jesus says.

And I say to you, everyone who confesses me before men, the son of man shall confess him also before the angels of God. But he who denies me before men shall be denied before the angels of God. A public confession, respond with a public confession of the Christ. Now, Jesus said this earlier in his ministry in Galilee in Matthew chapter 10. In Matthew chapter 10, verse number 32, he says, everyone therefore who shall confess me before men, I will also confess him before my father who is in heaven.

Heaven, very important. If you confess me before men, I will confess you before the angels in heaven and I will confess you before my father who is in heaven. To respond with the public confession of the Christ is absolutely essential in understanding genuine saving faith. What does it mean to confess the son of man before men? The word is homologese, which is from homologo, which means homo meaning the same, logos meaning the word or the word of the truth. And so you are going to say the same truth about the Christ that he says about himself.

And you say, okay, we understand that. But it's more than that. Listen carefully. To confess Christ before men is not just with your lips, it's with your life. And if you confess him only with your lips and not with your life, you are a hypocrite. You are not genuinely born again. That's important. Confession is just not saying something and then doing something contrary to what I've said. Jesus would speak against that in Matthew chapter seven because there would be many people who would say, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name?

Did we not perform miracles in your name? They would say and confess with their lips, Christ as Lord. And yet Jesus would say to those in Matthew chapter seven, depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. They would confess Jesus as Lord with their lips, but not with their life. And because of that, Jesus said, depart from me, you practice lawlessness. See, it's not what you say that gets you to heaven. It's what you do that gets you to heaven. People say that's heresy. You don't get to heaven based on works.

No, you don't. But you get to heaven based on a true confession of the Christ, which affects both lip and life. And you can't divorce one from the other. We do today, but that's not true. According to the true gospel that Jesus presents. So let me explain that to you in just a variety of ways, because this is the essence.

You must respond with a public confession of the Christ with both life and lip. If you do, he will affirm you before the angels of God and before his father in heaven. If you don't, then he will not confirm you. He will deny you. He will say, depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. So important. Turn to me in your Bible, second Timothy chapter two, second Timothy chapter two, a verse that people use misquoted often, unfortunately, take it out of context.

It's one of the trustworthy statements. There are five of them. There are three in first Timothy. There's one in second Timothy and one in Titus.

They're called trustworthy statements. They're words of affirmation. They're axiomatic in the church. Everybody in the church understands and believes them and supports them. That's why they're called trustworthy statements. They are something that we can count on, that we believe in, that we know for certain, and that we affirm as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. And listen to what Paul says in second Timothy chapter two, verse number 11.

It is a trustworthy statement. For if we died with him, we shall also live with him. If we endure, we shall also reign with him. If we deny him, he also will deny us. If we are faithless, he remains faithful for he cannot deny himself. Now we read that and on the outset we say, well, you know, it's a good thing that God is faithful to us when we deny him because that's what the text says. No, that's not what the text says. You say, yeah, it does. It says very simply this in verse number 13. If we are faithless, he remains faithful.

And I don't know how many people I've talked to over the years say, well, when we are faithless, he remains faithful to us. Well, it is true that when we are faithless, he is faithful, but you can't use this verse to prove that. Why? Let's look at it together.

It says, if we died with him, we shall also live with him. You understand that, right? Galatians 2.20, Paul says, I am crucified with Christ. Okay. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not I, but Christ lives in me. Paul talks about his death, his spiritual dying, not spiritual death, but his dying to himself, right? When he comes to the Lord God, he dies to himself. He abandons his life and gives his life to the Lord God. Romans 6.3 says the same thing. 1 Corinthians 15.31 says the same thing. We are crucified with Christ, right?

So if we die, the text says, with him, we shall also live with him. Then it says, if we endure, we shall also reign with him. Now, we know that the Bible talks about the perseverance of the saints, those who endure through trials, through difficulties, because endurance is a gift that God gives to his people to bear up under the pressure so that they will prove the genuineness of their salvation. The faith that God gives never fails fully and finally.

It will fail at times. Peter was one whose faith failed, right? But it never failed finally, and it never failed fully.

It just failed temporarily for a brief amount of time. But the Lord God said, I'll pray for you that your faith will not fail completely, finally, and fully, and that you'll return and strengthen your brethren.

That's exactly what Peter did. So if we endure, we shall reign with him. And that is a truth paramount throughout the scriptures. Then it says, if we deny him, he also will deny us. Now, we just read about that in Luke chapter 12, right? Matthew chapter 10. If you confess me before men, I will confess you before the angels who are in heaven. But if you deny me, I will deny you. So we understand that statement. If you deny me, I will deny you. It's characteristic of false teachers to deny Jesus as master.

How do we know that? Second Peter chapter two, verse number one says simply this, but false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the master who bought them bringing swift destruction upon themselves.

False prophets deny God as the master who bought them. Over in the book of Titus chapter one, verse number 16, it says this about false pretender, pretenders in the pew and false teachers. They profess to know God, but by their deeds, they deny him being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed. So we know that the characteristic of the unbeliever, the hypocrite is to deny the master is to profess that they know God, but in deeds, they deny him. That's the characteristic of the unbeliever.

That cannot be the characteristic of the believer. You agree with that? That you, I didn't hear any amens. I hope you agree with that. Okay. There are other churches that don't agree with that. Maybe you ought to go to, but, but the bottom line is that that is the truth. If we confess him with lip, you will confess him with life. I'll prove that to you here in a moment as to what the Bible says.

So you can see it, but, but, but that's important. So Christ through the pen of the apostle Paul says, if we deny him, he also will deny us. If we are faithless, that is those who deny him, that means we are faithless. He remains faithful, faithful to do what? Faithful to do what he said he would do. What is that? To deny you. Make sense? He, for he cannot deny himself. He cannot change what he said he's going to do. He's already said, if you deny me before men, I will deny you before my father who's in heaven.

That's a promise that the Lord God gave. So if you deny him, if you are faithless, he remains faithful to what? To his word that says, if you deny me, I will deny you. That make sense? Folks, that was a trustworthy statement in the early church. There was never a question about people denying Christ with life and making a profession with their lips as if there was a true conversion. Not in the early church there wasn't. In the 21st century church there is, but in the early church there wasn't because they kept their finger in the text to prove what was true.

And so Jesus says, if you confess me before men, if you say the same thing, if you speak the truth about me before men, then I will confess you before my father who is in heaven.

If you deny me before men though, then I will deny you before my father and before the angels in heaven. So what do we confess? Well, first John chapter four, verse number 15 says, whoever confesses that Jesus is the son of God, abides in him and he in God.

Make sense? If you say the same thing, the truth about Jesus, that he is the son of God, then the text says, God abides in him and he in God. So the first thing you confess is the deity of Jesus Christ.

Jesus is God. You must believe that. You can't get to heaven and not believe that Jesus is God in the flesh. You must confess his deity. You know, when we go to Israel, we go to a place called the pools of Bethesda. It's a real place. We know that because of where it's located in Jerusalem. And so we go there and we preach on John chapter five because it's at the pools of Bethesda that the tide, no pun intended. Oh, you missed that, didn't you? The pools of Bethesda. No. The tide began to turn. Man, I tell you, you guys are really slow today.

Anyway, it's there. The tide began to turn against Jesus. It's that place. There was a man member who Bethesda means the house of mercy. Okay. It's the house of mercy. And if you go back to John, turn back to John chapter five with me for a moment. Just real quick. Turn quick. Time is fleeting. Faster, faster, faster, faster, faster, faster, faster. So John chapter five, pools of Bethesda. Okay. There was a certain feast. We don't know which feast it was. Jesus went to Jerusalem. In Jerusalem by the sheep gate, a pool, which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, having five porticos.

And these lay a multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, and withered, waiting for the moving of the waters. For an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool and stirred up the water. Whoever then first after the stirring up of the water stepped in and was made well from whatever disease with which he was afflicted.

Now there's a big debate about whether or not that's really in the original text. Is that really true or not? Well, that can be debated. The problem is that verse five and six and seven speak to the fact that there is something that the people believed about the waters. Now, was it true? Probably not. I don't think it would be because people would wait for the water to stir and then somebody would jump in and the first guy to jump in was healed.

If all these people are laying around the pool and the water begins to stir, how do you know who the first guy is that jumps in?

Well, the guy who's healed, that's who is. But was there any record of any healings at the pool of Bethesda? That's the question. And so it's at this time that Jesus finds a man. He says, certain man was there who had been 38 years in his sickness. And when Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been a long time in that condition, he said to him, do you wish to get well? Yeah. Here's a guy been a 38 years in the same condition. Jesus says, hey, you want to, you want to be made well?

What's he going to say? Nah, not today. Maybe tomorrow I'll get better. Well, what's he going to say? Of course he wants to get better, right? For 38 years in the same sickness, sick man answered him, sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up. But while I am coming to another steps down before me, I'd like to be, to be made better. I'd like to be well, but I can't get to the water quick enough. Nobody's there to throw me in when the water stir. So Jesus without, by the way, stirring any water said, arise, take up your pallet and walk.

And immediately the man became well, took up his pallet and began to walk. The simplicity of that is, is just to me, overwhelming. There was no skipping and dancing and yelling and screaming about how, how he was healed. It was just, he took up his bed and began to walk. That's exactly what happened. There was no fanfare involved, no whistle blowing, no horns, no lights, no balloons, no parade. Just, he took up his bed and began to walk. Okay. Now it was the Sabbath on that day. Therefore the Jews were saying to him who was cured, it is the Sabbath and it is not permissible for you to carry your pallet.

You know, I, I, I marvel at the religious establishment in Jesus' day. Instead of saying, Hey dude, look at you, man.

You're, you're walking around. Congratulations. How'd that happen? They said, you can't do that. You can't carry your pallet. You can't walk and carry that on the Sabbath. What's wrong with you? But he answered them. He, he who made me well was the one who said to me, take up your pallet and walk. They asked him, who is the man who said you take up your pallet and walk? But he who was healed did not know who it was. For Jesus had slipped away while there was a crowd in that place. Afterward, Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, behold, you've become well.

Do not sin anymore so that nothing worse may befall you. The man didn't know who Jesus was, but he knew where to go once he was healed. That was to the temple to praise God. That's where Jesus found him. That's where Jesus found him. By the way, Jesus always finds you. You never find him. Just in case you always are messed up about that. He always finds you. The reason being is because you never, you never looked for him. You never searched for him. You're dead in your trespasses and sin. You're not looking for Jesus.

Jesus always finds you. And he did. He said, be careful you sin no more that something worse may befall you. What would be worse? Eternity in hell would be worse. That's what it would be worse. And so immediately the man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who made him well. And for this reason, the Jews were persecuting Jesus because he was doing these things on a Sabbath. Now here it comes, verse number 17. Ready? This is where the tide turns. Ready? Here it goes. But he answered them, my father is working until now and I myself am working.

That right there, that statement right there turned the tide against the Messiah. Why, why, why, why that statement? Because no Jew in the history of Israel had ever referred to the God in heaven as his personal father. Ever. Ever. Jesus is called the son of God 80 times in the New Testament. He referred to God as his father 151 times in the Gospels. But if you were to read the 39 books of the Old Testament, God is referred to as father on two occasions and only in a national sense, not a personal sense.

And 15 other times God is referred to as a father indirectly, but never is he referred to in a personal sense as his father or as a father. Jesus, remember in Luke chapter 2, when he was 12 years of age, made one statement that is recorded in the Bibles, in the Bible, before his ministry began. Just one statement. Why are you looking for me? Don't you know, I had to be about my father's business. No Jew ever had referred to God, Yahweh, in a personal sense as father. Ever. Why? Because it would indicate that you were of the same essence as God.

Now I'm preaching on this in the pools of Bethesda a number of years ago. And we go to the Jewish quarter and in the Jewish quarter, there's a rabbi there named Moshe. And he gave a testimony to the people that went with us to Israel. And he said, and I just preached at the pools of Bethesda that morning. We are there right after lunch. And he is saying to the people that went with us, he says, you know, people always ask me if I have, if I've ever experienced a personal relationship with God. He says, no Jew would ever say that.

No Jew would ever say that. Because for me to experience a personal relationship with God would mean that God was my father. And that would mean that I had the same essence as my father in heaven. And I don't have that. And people are looking at me and looking at him. You just said that earlier today. And I said, yeah, because no Jew had ever done that. So Jesus says, my father is working.

My father is working meaning in the house of mercy. My father is showing mercy and so am I. Right? Now to prove that what I said is true, let's know what it says. For this cause, therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him because he not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God his own father. What's the next phrase? Making himself equal with God. See that? He made himself equal with God. He called God his own personal father, meaning that he was the son of God, meaning that he was equal in nature, equal in authority as God himself.

That's why he's called the son of God, the Wios of God, which means equal in nature. The word Wios never refers to origin, never. Always refers to equality in authority. And that's what Jesus called himself, the son of God. So if I believe and confess Jesus, I confess him in the fullness of his deity, that Jesus is God in the flesh. And that's what happened on this day. And that's what turned the tide against Jesus in Jerusalem in John five, at the beginning of his ministry, that the Jews, and remember in John's gospel, the Jews always refers to not the nation, but the religious establishment, the Pharisees, the scribes, the Sadducees, that religious establishment that governed Israel.

And there it turned the tide against him. And in John 5, 24, Jesus says, truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and does not come into judgment, but is passed out of death into life.

He says in verse number 23, in order that all may honor the son, even as they honor the father, he who does not honor the son does not honor the father who sent him. In other words, if you don't see me as God in the flesh, then you disown your father in heaven, because we are one in the same. And that's why Jesus said in John 10, I and the father are one. And they wanted to pick up stones to kill him. People say, well, they're just one in purpose. You don't kill somebody for being one in purpose.

He was talking about the fact that he was one in nature, one in essence, as his father in heaven. See that? So if I confess Jesus as Lord, if I confess him before men, I confess that Jesus is a son of God. Over in 2 John 7, 2 John 7 says, not only must I confess his deity, I must confess his humanity. Verse 7, for many deceivers have gone out into the world. Those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, this is the deceiver and the Antichrist. So not only must I confess his deity, I must confess his humanity.

I must confess the fact that God became man and dwelt among us. If you don't confess Yeshua, HaMashiach, Jesus, the Messiah, as God in the flesh, you have denied him before men. And he will deny you before his father who is in heaven. But it goes way beyond confessing his deity and way beyond confessing his humanity. You must confess his sovereignty over your life. Romans 10, verse 9. If you confess with your mouth Jesus as what? Lord. And believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved.

You must confess him as sovereign ruler of your life. He is the master of your life. He is the controller of your life. And you are subject to all that he says. The Lordship of Christ is absolutely essential in presenting the Gospel. Those who do not present the Lordship of Christ in their presentation of the Gospel are hypocrites. They cannot be true believers in the Lord Christ because you must say what is true about the Christ. You must say that Christ is God. You must say that Christ is God who became man and dwelt among us.

And you must say that Christ who is God and man is sovereign ruler of my life and controls my life. So Romans 10, 9 says if you confess Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. For with the mouth man confesses unto salvation and with the heart man believes unto what? Righteousness. So therefore to confess Christ as Lord is to confess him not just with your lips because that's what they did in Matthew 7. Lord, Lord did we not prophesy in your name?

Did we not cast out demons in your name? Did we do marvelous deeds in your name? And Christ says depart from me I never knew you those who practice lawlessness.

You did not confess me with your life. You just confessed me with your lips. See that? Because with the heart man believes unto righteousness. There's a righteous character that permeates the life of the believer. And so therefore if there has been an internal transformation there is a public confession coupled with a personal demonstration of that transformation. That's salvation. That's what happens when you confess before men Jesus as God coming in the flesh as a human dwelling among us as a sovereign ruler of the world.

You just can't confess his deity. You just can't confess his humanity. You must also confess his sovereignty. In other words salvation is I am done with me. If any man come after me let him deny himself take up his cross daily and follow me. That is the salvation gospel. You know I have the opportunity to preach to at many memorial services throughout the years. And usually there's one, two, sometimes three a year where I will go and preach at a memorial service where nobody knows me. Okay? They've asked me to come and preach because they've heard of me or whatever and I go to preach.

And invariably I will go to those kinds of services and preach the gospel and you would think that I had just dropped off of Mars onto this planet. And they look at me as if the deer in the headlight look, you know, and they're like completely dumbfounded when I begin to preach the gospel.

Because they don't hear those things in their churches. They don't hear them on a regular basis. And I go away preaching about how you must give your life to Christ. You must follow him. You must deny yourself. You must take up your cross daily and be committed to him because it's all about giving your life to him and you abandon yourself and follow him. They're like, what are you talking about? Because that's normally what people think because they have heard something so wrong for so long that when somebody comes and says, if you're going to be a Christian you must be through with yourself.

You must deny yourself, self-denial, take up your cross, self-sacrifice, and follow me, self-submission. That's salvation. Christ says in Luke 12, if you confess me before men, if you say the truth about me, if you speak the truth about me before men, I will confess you before my father in heaven.

I will affirm you before my father. I will affirm you before the angels in heaven. And when he uses that phrase, the angels in heaven, he's talking about Matthew 25 at the judgment of the nations in Matthew 25 because that's what's going to happen. When the son of man comes with all of his holy angels, remember, sits on his throne in Jerusalem there and he splits the Mount of Olives and there in the Valley of Jehoshaphat, he judges the nations of the world, put his sheep on his right, the goat on his left.

Why? Because when the judgment happens, listen carefully, when the judgment happens in Matthew chapter 25, there wasn't, he didn't even talk about a confession of the lips. It's all about the confession of the life. When I was hungry, fed me. Thirsty, gave me something to drink. In prison, you visited me. Naked, you clothed me. And those who are the unbelievers never saw you in prison, thirsty, naked, hungry. And Jesus says, when you did not do this to the least of my brethren, you did not do it as unto me.

It's the sheep, the sheep, he says the same thing. And their response is, when did we see you naked or hungry or thirsty? He says, because you did it unto the least of these my brethren, you did it as unto me. See, there's nothing in the judgment of Matthew 25 about what they said. It's all about what they did because, listen very carefully, the believer in Matthew 25 who has gone through the tribulation and now is being rewarded by God, the work they do for God is so innate to their character that they didn't even know they were doing it for God because it's so, it's so innate to who they are.

See that? They just do it. That's why we say it's not what you say that gets you to heaven, it's what you do that gets you there. Because a lot of people are going to say, well, Lord, Lord, I knew you. Lord, I said this for you, Lord. And he will say, I'm sorry, I never knew you because you practiced lawlessness. You lived contrary to what you said you believed. Those who love me don't do that. There is a confession with life and lip about my identity. They live my life. Christ says, you want to cure hypocrisy?

You want to make sure that you are not overtaken by the influence of the Pharisees, their hypocrisy? You respond with a public confession of the Christ with both life and lip. And if you do, I will affirm you before my father who is in heaven. Now listen carefully. In Caesarea Philippi, when Christ said, who do men say that I am? Who do you say that I am? Because he followed that up with a subsequent question. Peter said, thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. And Jesus said to Peter, flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, Peter, but my father who is in heaven.

In order for you to confess publicly Jesus as Lord, Jesus as sovereign master, as God who came in the flesh to die for your sins, it can only happen if the father in heaven reveals it to you. That's it. It's not something you muster up. Well, I'm going to do this for God. I'm going to serve God. I'm going to be all that he wants me to be. I'm going to be like the guy in the army, be all I can be. No, it's not about that. It's God who does it in you in order to do it through you. That's why it becomes so innate to the believer.

He just wants to do for the God. He wants to confess him. There's no worried about when you go in public, whether or not we should pray or not. You just get up and you pray in front of everybody else. And you ask the Lord, you praise him for your food. That's just a simple thing. But there are so many people who just won't even pray in public because of what others might think or pray in the cafeteria at their high school because of what their friends might think. Really? You can't even make a prayer for Christ in your high school cafeteria?

Are you kidding me? What is that? Yet people are just afraid. Jesus says, if you can't do that, be assured of this.

I will deny you before my father who is in heaven. Those who know Christ are not afraid to speak for Christ. I'm not afraid to stand for Christ and certainly are not afraid to show Christ as Lord of their lives. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for today. Thank you for all that you've done. Truly, Lord, you are a great God and worthy to be praised. And our prayer, Father, is that we will be followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. In Jesus' name. Amen.