Andy Woods - Soteriology 11: Confession (Romans 10:9-10)

and what's that we're good okay the prayers worked so thank you for praying now what people do and it's I think a lot of this is the works based tenancy in us because we're works based by nature instead of you know relying on the 200 clear passages to share the gospel and as a method of sharing the gospel people want to go to the remote passages and you'll find in a lot of evangelistic tracts you know people like to build their gospel presentations not from the 200 clear ones but from the handful of isolated ones so that's why I've been walking through very slowly the isolated passages and I'm trying to show you the proper way of understanding these in light of belief God's one condition for justification so we've talked about repent lordship receive Christ believe in work and last time we talked about baptism and now we're entering into another area where people try to argue that in order to be saved a person must confess Christ before man and if they don't confess Christ before man in addition to believing in Jesus then they're probably not a true Christian has anybody heard that kind of thing from people okay and what she'll discover is a lot of evangelistic tracts will say you're you're not saved by works but then at the end of the track they'll give you a bunch of works to do and one of them is this idea that you have to confess Christ before man which is not a bad thing to do at all it's just not a condition for justification and when you tell people that the verse they all go to is Romans 10:9 and and you all have heard that before right so what you have and a lot of evangelistic presentations is the ABC method the a stands for you get the person to admit they're a sinner B stands for you get them to believe in Jesus and then C stands for the fact that they've got to make some kind of public confession and so what people do is they go to these parachurch evangelistic ministries and they get programmed with a method ABC and they're never really taught to think about it biblically biblically and the method may work and so they spend the rest of their lives following this method rather than getting back to the scripture and seeing what does the scripture actually say about this so if you believe in the ABC method see I'm a bee person I don't believe in the a or C the Spirit convicts people of their sin of unbelief and then as the Spirit of God places them under conviction we have the opportunity to share the gospel with them I'm not getting them to admit anything I'm sharing the gospel with them and inviting them to trust in Christ or believe and that should seal the deal but you see with a lot of ministries that doesn't seal the deal you've got to have some kind of visible sign you know walk forward raise your hand fill out a card confess Christ publicly and they present it in such a way that they make you feel that if you don't do that third thing the see you're really not a Christian at all and a lot of their literature is kind of reads this way as well it's very confusing so it turns into nothing more than a gospel of works so it's what I call the Texas two-step not one step to Jesus which is believed which is what the Bible teaches but there's some additional step you know even before we look at this biblically just think about how impractical this is for just a minute if you believe this for example what if someone is moot and can't talk how in the world are they supposed to confess Jesus Christ what if somebody and there are many cases of this like in a hotel room and they reach into the drawer to find a revolver and they find a Bible there and they open up to a John 3:16 and they get saved you know but it's like 3 o'clock in the morning there's no one really to confess to I mean I guess you could order room service or something like that but you know you can see practically how this really doesn't work and this is this is sort of an American doctrine because in America we have the freedom in most cases to come out and publicly state that we belong to Christ and suffer very little retaliation as a result of it some people do from their own family but by and large you know it's not in America that people are being crucified by Isis and groups like that but what do you do with somebody in an Islamic country that somehow by the grace of God hears the gospel maybe through a missionary maybe through the internet or some something and they believe it and they know that if they publicly say anything about their newfound faith in Christ that they could be killed or tortured or maybe even worse their family their children their parents could be tortured burned to death and they just because of fear of retaliation they don't say anything see how does the sea work in that circumstance I mean are we gonna actually say that such a person that believes in Christ but never confesses Christ publicly in a totalitarian such a government situation is not a true Christian I mean of course we're not going to say that but what I'm trying to say is this idea of the sea e-even before we look at it biblically it doesn't even work itself out pragmatically so is it possible for a person to trust in Christ but never publicly say anything about it to be a true Christian and I would say that possibility is open in the Bible and there are two verses that I like to use that almost nobody cites in their evangelistic tracts everybody that cites Romans 10:9 and 10 they never cite John 12:40 - which says and you can turn over there with me if you want we're going to be going back to Roman's 10 in just a second but it says nevertheless many even of the rulers believed in him but because of the Pharisees they were not confessing him for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue so in Christ's ministry you have a lot of Jews that believed in Jesus but they didn't say anything about it one of them I think was Nicodemus who was more of a secret disciple I'll show you another example of a secret disciple in just a second but they trusted in Christ but they never said anything about it because they knew that if they publicly confess Christ they'd be kicked out of the synagogue now getting kicked out of the synagogue in that day didn't mean oh you can't go to First Baptist so you're gonna go down the street to Second Baptist instead or third Baptist or 15th Baptist you know today in America if you get kicked out of one church it's not that big a deal you could just join them with another church but in Christ day if you got kicked out of the synagogue you were cut off from everything you were cut off from the religious life of the nation you were cut off from society you were cut out a lot of business contacts and things were made in the synagogue so you were cut off economically you were an embarrassment to your family so you were cut off from your family so if you got kicked out of the synagogue in Christ day you know there were real consequences people experienced so as a result there's a lot of people that believed in Christ but never said anything about it for fear of being kicked out of the synagogue now are we going to say these people aren't saved I don't think we can say that because it says in this verse many even of the rulers believed in him the Greek construction there is pistou o ice pistou o believe I sin and then in this particular object Jesus Christ and John all the way through his gospel says about a hundred times this is all that's necessary to receive the gift of life in fact the very end of John's Gospel puts it this way therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of his disciples which are not written in this book but these have been written so that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that by believing you may have life in his name so there's pistou o ice you believe in Christ trust in him for your eternity and John says that's all that's necessary to receive the gift of life so going back to John 12 42 for a second these people clearly were saved if the same Greek construction is interpreted consistently throughout John's book and yet they weren't confessing Christ yet they were saved see another example where the sea confession doesn't work is John 1938 you know last weekend we celebrated the death burial and resurrection of Christ Christ was buried in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea and look what it says of Joseph of Arimathea after these things Joseph of Arimathea being a disciple of Jesus so he's a disciple disciple means a follower so we get the idea that at some point he became a believer and then he became a disciple or a follower of Christ but he believed in Jesus being a disciple but look at this a secret one for fear of the Jews and then he came and asked Pilate for the body finally he spoke up but he until he spoke up and asked Pilate for the body of Christ was clearly a disciple but he was pretty much incognito and secret about it now are we going to say Joseph of Arimathea was not saved because he never confessed that would get kind of silly wouldn't it so what is the verse that people quote over and over again that say you have to confess Christ publicly before man to be a Christian and the one they always quote is let's go over to Romans 10:9 and 10 you probably know it by heart it says that if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you will be saved for with the heart a person believes resulting in righteousness and with the mouth he confesses resulting in salvation so almost in every gospel tract you'll find when people push the concept of sea confession they're gonna quote Romans 10:9 and 10 and if you start talking the way I'm talking saying that's not a requirement for justification someone is going to quote to you Romans 10:9 and 10 so it's a very oft used in sided verse and what I want to show you is Romans 10:9 and 10 has been wrenched completely from its context if you go back and study the context which I'll give you the meaning to it becomes very clear so we're kind of living in a time period where people like to cherry-pick verses to support points and people aren't doing the hard work verse by verse steady anymore so it's easy to pick things out of context to support anything you want to support right so Judas went out and hung himself go thou and do likewise and what you do do quickly so there we have it the Bible supports suicide right because I just pick three verses randomly strung them together to present something you can make the Bible say anything you want it to say if you don't care about context so what is the context of Romans 10:9 and 10 and can I I hate to keep asking for this but can I get a tiny bit of air up here if someone can do that but not not to the point where these people over here start to suffer it's something about being up here in these lights makes me start to get warm all right so what is and let us know if it gets too cold will will shut her down if it does what is the whole context of the book of Romans well when you go to the end of Romans 8 paul says a bunch of things like nothing can separate us from the love of Christ you know neither distress famine peril nakedness sword angels powers principalities can separate us from the love of Christ because of our security and him now somebody in the church raises their hand and says Paul I have a question what about those Jews didn't God make a covenant with them in the Old Testament called the Abrahamic covenant Paul would say yes he did well aren't those Jews in a state of unbelief right now Paul would say yeah most of them are there Christ rejecters so Paul if God can't keep his promises to the Jew nationally in the Abrahamic covenant why should I trust him to keep his promises to me a Gentile so consequently Paul launches off into Romans 9 10 and 11 which is all about the nation of Israel Paul is saying in Romans 9 10 and 11 God has not cast aside israel yes they're in unbelief presently but nationally although a few Jews occasionally get saved in the church age by and large Israel is an unbelieving nation Paul spends three chapters explaining how God has a whole plan where he's going to bring Israel back into the fold one day in the events surrounding the Great Tribulation and things like that and then you get through that section and you get to chapter 12 verse 1 and he says therefore now when we see the word therefore we have to ask what the word therefore is what therefore therefore I urge you brethren believers by the mercies of God what mercies the fact that God can't forget his promises he didn't forget you he's not going to forget Israel if God can forget Israel then he's like maybe he'll forget his promises to you that's the question posed to Paul but Paul explains God is not going to forget his promises to Israel when you understand the whole plan and program of God therefore since God is trustworthy offer your bodies to him as a living sacrifice so you can submit to a God you can trust right but if there's lingering question marks in your mind about the faithfulness of God how can you submit to a God like that so romans 9 10 and 11 is a is not aid and it's sad to watch so many commentators they say well that's just a diversion you know Paul is going off on sort of a digression or a rabbit trail no it's not romans 9 10 and 11 if you understand where it shows up in the book is critical to Paul's argument vindicating the faithfulness of God so Romans 9 10 and 11 is all about the nation of Israel Romans 9 Israel in the past has been elected Romans 10 Israel in the president has been rejected why because they stumbled over Christ Paul says in Romans 10 at the end of Romans 9 and at the beginning of Romans 10 they tripped right over him because they thought they could be saved through right works righteousness that's not how God saves people but don't don't fear because Israel in the future will be accepted Romans 11 so Romans 9 Israel in the past elected Romans 10 Israel in the present rejected Romans 11 Israel in the future accepted so when we start quoting out of Romans 10:9 and 10 you have to recall and remember that that whole those verses come up in Paul's discussion about the nation of Israel so having said all that let's take a look again at Romans 10:9 and 10 notice what it says Romans chapter 10 verses 9 and 10 if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you will be saved for with the heart a person believes resulting in righteousness and with the mouth he confesses resulting in salvation now don't stop reading there keep on moving and go down to verse 13 see I noticed these evangelistic tracts that quote this verse they never quote verse 13 verse 13 is a prophecy of the acknowledgment that Israel is going to make one day and you'll notice it's in it's being quoted there and he's quoting there Joel 2 and verse 32 which says in verse 13 whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved now if you go back and you study Joel chapter 2 verse 32 what you'll discover is that whole section is dealing with the events of the tribulation and into chapter 3 the events of the tribulation Armageddon the events of the tribulation and the Kingdom that will follow so Joel 232 is the nation of Israel calling confessing calling on Christ to save them at the end of the great tribulation period so the return of Jesus I'm not talking about the rapture which can happen any minute I'm talking about what's happening after the rapture of the church the return of Jesus to the earth at the end of the seven year Tribulation Period in event we call the second Advent is triggered by Israel's public acknowledgment of Jesus or confession to him that's what Joel 232 is talking about that's what Paul is quoting here in Romans 10 verse 13 and that's what he is espousing there in Romans 10 verses 9 and 10 if you can hold your place here in Romans 10 go over to Matthew 23 for a minute and I'll show you this from a slightly different angle Matthew chapter 23 verses 37 through 39 Jesus here has just given a blistering denunciation of the Pharisees you'll notice that whole chapters in red recording the words of Christ and I kind of think it fits in read given Christ's emotional anger at these Pharisees and he gets to the very end it's this it's a total takedown of these guys he calls them whitewashed tombs and all of these politically incorrect things and he says this in verses 37 through 39 Jerusalem Jerusalem you who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to you how often I wanted to gather your children together the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings and you were unwilling behold your house is left to you desolate for I say from now on you will not see me until you say let me read that again for I say to you from now on you will not see me until you say blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord now Christ is speaking he's speaking to unbelieving Israel of the first century because he says Jerusalem Jerusalem and he says I wanted to come and gather you together it's a beautiful imagery the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings in fact the Greek word for gathering there is epi soon ah go now from that Greek word soon ah go someone tell me what Jewish word comes from that verb soon ah go synagogue what is the synagogue it's a Jewish gathering he says I came to you the first time and I wanted to have synagogue with you it's basically what he's saying the problem wasn't me the problem is you you would not have me and then he begins to describe and this is right out of Deuteronomy 28 Israel isn't under the Mosaic Covenant which had blessings and curses he begins to describe the curses that are going to come upon the nation as a result of them rejecting him this is not God casting aside Israel this is God sending Israel through discipline and this was meted out very aggressively by Titus of Rome in AD 70 about 40 years after the time of Christ when over a million Jewish lives were lost if he wanted to read more about it I would read Luke 19 verses 41 through 44 and he makes a statement here he says behold your house now the house is the temple your house is left desolate now isn't it interesting that he always called the temple his father's house my father's house would be a house of prayer now he's saying it's your house and the reason it's your house because he is because you all kicked me out of your house so your house is about to be left desolate it's you know kind of like in in my household when our daughter does something really cute my wife goes look at our daughter isn't she the cutest thing but then when she acts up my wife suddenly switches the pronoun around she goes did you see what your daughter just did so Jesus is switching the pronoun he's no longer saying it's my house he's saying it's your house now the replacement theologians say that's it God is through with Israel because they stopped reading right there but that's not the end of it is it if you look at verse 38 for I say you will not see me again until in other words Israel's blindness is not final one of these days the blinder is is going to come off and Christ is going to return and rescue that nation at the end of the Tribulation Period but it's conditioned upon them saying publicly blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord now you'll notice in verse 39 that blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord as a citation it's a citation from psalm 118 and verse 26 which is a messianic psalm if you go back into Matthew 21 what you'll see is this is the citation around verse nine right in there it's a citation of some people on Palm Sunday some of the crowd was chanting this because they were acknowledging Jesus as the Messiah unfortunately not enough of them did the Pharisee certainly didn't so Jesus is saying your house is left desolate you're going into discipline and you as a nation I'm gonna go work with another people now the church you as a nation are not going to see me again until I hear psalm 118 verse 26 in other words you have to publicly confess me as the Messiah and then and only then will I return and rescue you now Matthew 23 leads into what Matthew 24 right you all agree with that thinking Matthew 23 first and Matthew 24 Matthew 24 is the Olivet discourse and I asked in a class once why do we call it the Olivet discourse and a student says because we get all of it and that's not the right answer all of that discourse means it was given on the Mount of Olives so Jesus begins to articulate the circumstances through which Israel will come to faith which is the events of the Great Tribulation he's going back to Old Testament themes in the book of Deuteronomy he's I believe in his mind as Jeremiah 30 verse 7 and other passages which says Israel is going to be converted to God eventually through a time of dis great distress called the Great Tribulation Period and then the time will come where they're going to acknowledge him as the Messiah and then what's going to happen look at Matthew 24:31 this is not the rapture forget the rapture I mean don't forget it but the rapture concerns the church we're dealing here with Israel after the church is gone and he will send forth his angels with a great trumpet and they will gather his elect that's the Jewish people from the four corners of the earth from one end of the sky to the other now notice this word here the heat they will gather them you know a Greek word that is epi soon ah go synagogue it's the exact same verb that he used at the end of Matthew 23 when he said I wanted to gather you the first time but you were unwilling but the second time you will as a people acknowledge me you will chant publicly psalm 118 verse 26 and I will gather you and then Matthew 24 leads into what Matthew 25 then I will set up my kingdom through you and you get all of these kingdom type parables for example Matthew 25:31 talks about Jesus when the Son of Man comes in his glory with all his angels he will sit on his glorious throne he will judge the nation's that's the kingdom and the davidic age but you see all of that is conditioned on Israel's public response to Jesus you follow that that's why when Paul cites Romans 10:9 and 10 as he is articulating God's plan for Israel he is dialing back into joel 232 and perhaps in his mind are passages like Matthew 23 verses 37 through 39 so what am I trying to say what I'm trying to say is this if you understand the Bible in context what you'll discover is Romans 10:9 and 10 has absolutely nothing to do with a church age believer trusting in Christ and confessing Jesus to get saved it has zero to do with that what it has to do with is Israel publicly fulfilling a condition by acknowledging Christ at the end of the Tribulation Period and Paul is not rehearsing every jot and tittle of that because he's assuming that the audience he's speaking to understand these things we don't because we're not taught very well about the Bible in Christendom today and so we we go in and we cherry pick a verse without really understanding what it's saying we think it means I've got to believe and and tell my neighbors about Jesus well I'm not a Christian when in reality Paul is saying it's a public confession and prayer by the Jews to God at the end of the tribulation period in order to be gathered by Christ and rescued from the Antichrist that's that's what it's talking about so Romans 10:9 and 10 is not saying what people think think it's saying and just don't don't take my word for it I know I just gave you a lot of stuff to think about but but study it out in light of the context that this appears in there's a reason this statement shows up in Romans 10 where Paul is articulating God's program for the nation of Israel all right I'm sure there's a lot of questions on that so let me go to another verse we'll do questions at the end let's go over to Matthew 10 verses 32 through 33 this is another verse that people use that say you have to publicly confess Christ or you're not a Christian matter of fact we've got some very dear friends of our family and they found out I was speaking somewhere and they said are you going to give an altar call and I said no not that I'm against altar calls if they're explained correctly but I said no and they said well you're violating the Bible I go I am they said yes you are and they quoted Matthew 10:32 through 33 so let's let's look at this jesus says therefore everyone who confesses me before men I will I'm getting a little bit get up here sorry I don't know if it's because I'm moving around or what but are you guys getting warmer not every it's it it's a little warm so if it's a little warm for you it's probably really warm for me therefore everyone who can maybe it's a subject matter that's maybe that's why I'm sweating therefore everyone who confesses me before men I will confess him before my father who was in heaven whoever denies me before men I will also deny him before my father who is in heaven so now I say this gently because my own mother was saved under the influence of Billy Graham's ministry but this is the verse that Billy Graham and and all the other evangelists quote when they're at the end of their crusade giving people opportunities to come forward and publicly confess Christ they always quote this verse you got a you confess him before man then he'll confess you before the father now I had a student and I was trying to put this in context and a lot of times your teaching you don't know whether you're getting through to people or not but she came out to me afterwards and she said I'm so grateful that you went over this today in class I said why she said because in my church they give altar calls every single week and I have been scared to death to go forward and I have been thinking all of these years that I really am NOT a true Christian because I have never mustered the courage to go forward now am i against people must are encouraged to come forward to trust Christ of course I'm not against public displays of Christ what I'm against is making people feel that believing in Jesus is not enough you have to believe in confess see and because these verses are thrown at people constantly they sit there and they say well if I don't go forward I guess I'm not a true Christian not to mention what do you do with the person in the wheelchair or the person that's an invalid or the person that's paralyzed from the neck down watching it on TV what are they supposed to think you see and I think because we're sloppy with our use of verses we emotionally and unnecessarily can injure people so here's the verse they all quote confess me before men and I will confess you before my father you might remember the discussion we had about lordship salvation where I spent some time talking about the offer of the kingdom does anybody recall that okay I had half a hand go up so the offer of the kingdom to Israel is something you have to understand to interpret verses correctly in early Matthew so very quickly the nation of Israel has a covenant with God called the Abrahamic covenant where Israel was unconditionally as a nation given ownership of three blessings land seed and blessing you'll find all of that in Genesis 15 then and that is that covenant conditional or unconditional unconditional meaning it rests totally upon God fulfilling these things not on the performance of Israel then God about 600 years later took Israel to a place called Sinai and he gave them the Mosaic Covenant after they had been in Goshen in prison or in confinement or isolation for about 400 years so they came out that's where the exodus event happened the parting of the Red Sea and so forth and he brings them to Sinai and he gives them the Mosaic Covenant and in the process God says this as the nation was gathered at Sinai now then if you indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant then you shall be my own possession among all the peoples of the earth all the earth is mine and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation these are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel and I see the words if and then if you do this then I'll do that is that conditional or unconditional that's conditioned so the great issue is then if Israel has an unconditional covenant called the Abrahamic covenant why is God giving them conditions in the Mosaic Covenant and here's the best conceptual tool I know of to explain this there's a difference between ownership and possession you can own something but not actually possess it or enjoy it so for example let's pretend I have a beach house in the Hamptons which I don't by the way but I'm so busy working paying for it I own it at least the bank owns most of it but I'm working my way through that paying it down and now I'm starting to own more and more but I'm not really enjoying it because I'm not in a place where I can possess it yet you follow you can own something but not possess it so the Abrahamic covenant gives to the nation of Israel ownership of these blessings land seed and blessing nothing can ever take those away from Israel those those blessings will always be Israel's for eternity because they're given unconditionally in the Abrahamic covenant however in order for any generation of Jews to enjoy what they own possess what they own they have to respond to the condition of the Mosaic Covenant as long as Israel is in disobedience to the Mosaic Covenant they will be the owner and not the possessor and the kingdom earthly manya Kingdom will be in a state of postponement not cancellation but the moment Israel spawns to the Mosaic Covenant and by the way who does the Mosaic Covenant point towards directly to Christ in John 5 jesus said if you would have believed Moses you would have believed me for he wrote about me and in the Mosaic Covenant in Deuteronomy 17 verse 15 the nation is obligated to enthrone the king of God's choosing which points to Christ right so there has never been a nation there's never been a generation of Jews that have done that so consequently they are the owners but not the possessors and as long as they are the owners but not the possessors the kingdom will remain in a state of postponement not cancellation God can't cancel Israel's program because of which covenant Abrahamic covenant but he cannot bring the kingdom to the earth regardless of what Israel does because of which covenant Mosaic Covenant and so what is happening in the Gospels particularly Matthew the first 12 chapters is Israel is being given an opportunity to enthrone the King Jesus who was right there in their presence and so the kingdom that will come to the earth one day when Israel is both possessor and owner because she'll be in faith is very well described in the Old Testament you if you just read tonight Isaiah 2 1 through 4 in Isaiah 11 6 through 9 you would get a pretty good description of the kingdom it's a time where Jerusalem is the center of worlds and spiritual political power it's a time of perfect justice it's a time of world peace it's a time where there's even peace in the animal kingdom or wolf and lamb will lie down together and a child will put his hand or her hand and the cobras nest and not be harmed and it's a time when the knowledge of the Lord fills fills the whole earth that's what is developed in the prophets as they predict the kingdom and that is what is offered to first century Israel on a silver platter that's what is meant by the expression repent for the kingdom of God is what at hand you'll notice in Matthew's Gospel he records that phrase is being used by John the Baptist Matthew 3:2 Jesus Christ himself Matthew 4:17 and who else used the expression the Twelve Apostles that's what's happening in Matthew 10 the that's that's using the the passage there already quotes about you got to confess me before man in Matthew 10 Jesus is sending out the twelve and saying just as you saw me preach the offer of the kingdom and John the Baptist preached the offer of the kingdom now you go only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and preach the offer of the kingdom the turning point in the whole thing is matthew 12:24 where the pharisees attribute Christ's miracles to who satan and you'll find that in matthew 12:24 that that changes everything once that happens because once that takes place the offer of the kingdom is withdrawn it's off the table it never even shows up again until Matthew's description of the Tribulation Period and so what we learn is a postponement in the kingdom where there's going to be a new age of time called the inner admin age that you and I are living in that's been going on at least 2,000 years and Christ explains the course of that age through eight parables in Matthew 13 and it's at this point that Jesus begins to talk about an interim program called the church because says in Matthew 16:18 I will build my what church and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it you look at that say Church where did this come from the church was always contemplated in God's mind it just hadn't been revealed until the right time because first century Israel had to have that opportunity to receive the king and the kingdom which they rejected well Matthew 12 makes it very clear that they're not going to accept it so now we get a description of an interim age Matthew 13 and a description of the church we know one of these days I hope sooner than later the church will be removed from the earth through the rapture now can god forget Israel no he cannot because of which covenant Abrahamic covenant so he puts them under duress here's some good theology ready the guy that led me to Christ gave me this piece of theology I'd never forgot it God knocks us down so we look what up isn't that how he works in all of our lives when you think about it that's how he's going to work with Israel he can't just give them the kingdom while they're in unbelief which covenant will prevent him from doing that mosaic so he's going to put them under great stress called the tribulation whereby they won't have a friend in the world and the man they thought there was their Messiah the Antichrist just desecrated their temple three-and-a-half years into the tribulation and this is where they just say I don't have anybody to trust on but God and it's during that second half of the Tribulation Period that they will confess Christ Romans 10:9 and 10 be rescued by Jesus from the Antichrist at the end of the Tribulation Period so one of these days that Kingdom will be accepted so what you have to understand is there's a huge transition going on in Christ ministry right there in Chapter 12 chapters 1 through 12 is public ministry chapters 13 through 28 is private ministry first part of the book he is offering the kingdom to the nation second part of the book the offering offer the kingdom is off the table and he's now training the remnant who are going to be the foundations of the what coming age of the church didn't doesn't ephesians 2:20 say god built the church on the foundations of the apostles and these guys when you study i mean god didn't have much to work with with these guys gives us hope too right if he can use them he can use us but he's got to shape these guys character and that's who he's working with in the second half of Matthew's Gospel so his miracles change in purpose their original purpose was to prove to the nation that he's the king but then he says no more miracles for you you adulterous generation you will not receive one more miracle for me except the sign of Jonah which is his resurrection which will prove to them that they were wrong in rejecting him the miracles in the second part of Matthew's Gospel are all for the benefit of who the training of the remnant that's why he has Peter walk out to him on the water and Peter begins to sink and so forth he's preparing Peters faith because he's going to be the main man in acts 1 through 10 he just doesn't know it yet see he's got it he's got to be prepared the offer of the kingdom is prominent in the first part of the gospel it disappears in the second part the phraseology repent for the kingdom of God is at hand doesn't even show up again until after the church is long gone in the events of the tribulation where Israel will receive the offer again probably through the 144,000 Jewish evangelists and the two Jewish witnesses and you'll find a reference to the reinstated offered the kingdom late in Matthew 24:14 other than that there's no reference to it in the first part of the book Christ taught publicly in discourse forum in the second part of the book he starts talking in parables now he never gave the Sermon on the mountain parables he never gave the missions discourse in parables why is he talking in parables all of a sudden because a parable is designed to conceal and reveal a parable conceals truth from one person and reveals it to another he's deliberately concealing truth from the nation that just attributed his miracles to belzebub and he's revealing truth to who the remnant the interim program of the age of the church has never hinted at in the first part of the book but you get into the second part of the book and it becomes very very prominent so what am I trying to say I am trying to say there's a context here for Matthew 10 verses 32 and 33 is what I'm trying to say the context of this is not to get every Church in the age of the church to give an altar call that's not its purpose it's the words of Christ that he gave to his disciples as he sent them out to preach the offer of the kingdom now if you're going to say Matthew 10 verses 32 and 33 is normative today in the life of the church then you can't just grab those verses you also gotta have Matt Matthew 10 verses 5 through 7 you know what that says the twelve Jesus sent out after instructing them do not go the way of the Gentiles see that do not enter any city of the Samaritans but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel why would he say that because this is an offer of the kingdom to them because they are the Covenant ination so they were given the opportunity to embrace Christ and have the Kingdom which they rejected so if you're gonna make Matthew 10:32 and 33 normative in the life of the church which a lot of people do then you can't just stop reading there you have to include verses 5 through 7 obviously verses 5 through 7 are not things we quote today or use I mean if you're having a missions conference are you gonna use Matthew 10 5 through 7 go only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel now why is it that when you get to Matthew 28 the Great Commission he no longer says go only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel but he says go and make disciples of every nation you see the radical change between this verse here in Matthew 10 and the Great Commission in Matthew 28 why the change because there is a change of rules that's happening through Matthew's Gospel the offer of the kingdom has been extended and rejected now he's raising up who the church the church's mission is not to bring in the kingdom the kingdom will come when who responds to the king Israel the church's mission is to go and make what disciples of all nations now you compare Matthew 28 and Matthew 10 and you'll see two radically different sets of instructions and you cannot make any sense of that unless you understand this framework that I'm giving you that there was an offer to Israel and it was rejected the offer was withdrawn first century Israel was moving off into discipline now God is working through a totally different entity what Paul calls a new man called the church so all of this to say going back to Matthew 10 verses 32 and 33 what's he getting at here therefore everyone who confesses me before men I will confess him before my father who is in heaven but whoever denies me before men I will also deny him before my father who was in heaven who is he talking to the disciples as he's sending them out to preach the offer of the kingdom how do I know that go back to the beginning of the chapter Matthew 10 1 and 2 Jesus summoned his what 12 and gave them authority over every clean spirit to cast them out and heal every kind of disease and every kind of sickness now the names of the Twelve Apostles are these first Simon who was called Peter Andrew his brother James the son of Zebedee John his brother Philip Bartholomew Thomas Matthew the tax collector James the son of Alphaeus Thaddaeus Simon the zealot Judas Iscariot the one who betrayed him that's who he's talking to you and then he says in verse 5 do not go to the way of the Gentiles do not enter any city of the Samaritans but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and as you go preach saying the kingdom of heaven is at hand he is commissioning them to go out and preach the offer of the kingdom now as they are preaching the offer of the kingdom what do you think unbelieving Israel is going to do to these guys reject him so Christ then knows the timidity of the disciples and he makes this statement whoever confesses me before men I will confess him before my father who is in heaven whoever denies me before men I will deny him before my father is in heaven that is not a statement about the saved status of the disciples we know that they are saved every one of them except Judas he is making a statement they're not about their salvation but about rewards you're going to go out you're going to preach this offer of the kingdom you're gonna experience hostility back but I want you to know that if you continue to speak out and offer the kingdom to Israel aggressively then I will confess you before my father not in terms of whether you're saved but whether you're going to be fully what rewarded at the Bema seat you see that it's a statement here about reward it's not a statement about whether these people are saved or not whether they've gone through two steps or not so I would say this math you tend to use it and apply it to the church as a requirement for an altar call is number one an abuse of the passage you say well can't we apply some of it well okay if you want to apply some of it I would apply it this way you're gonna go out in your workplace you're not going to preach the offer at the kingdom you're gonna preach the gospel and there's an awful lot of people out there that are gonna make fun of you they're gonna call you a Jesus Freak they may call you the f-word which is the worst word you can call somebody in this culture fundamentalist and you're gonna be tempted to just sort of withdraw and not be bold about the gospel but go ahead and share the gospel anyway because Jesus knows what you're doing for him and one of these days he's gonna give you a full what reward see the difference it's not oh I've got to believe and confess Christ or I'm not saved that's not what it's saying at all he is encouraging his disciples to preach the offer of the kingdom so they can be confessed before the there in terms of a full reward so we our salvation is secure but we should live for Jesus boldly proclaim Jesus not because I'm somehow afraid that I'm not a Christian but there is a doctrine of rewards in the Bible all those rewarded are believers but not all believers are equally rewarded that's that's what that's the theology I'm using here everyone who receives a reward is a believer but not all believers are equally rewarded not all believers are rewarded some make it into heaven and they smell the smoke on their garments you say well where do you find that in the Bible it's in 1st Corinthians 3 verse 15 you'll see it crystal-clear G God who is all-knowing knows that some of his children are living for him aggressively and some art now whether you live for Christ aggressively or not doesn't determine whether you're saved because that would be a salvation by works but God who is all just and all-knowing is aware of which of his children are living for him and which ones aren't and the ones that are are going to be more fully rewarded than others now so if you want to apply Matthew 10 in any sense that's how I would apply it if that makes any sense at all so all of that to say is confession of Christ before man a condition alongside faith for justification based on Romans 10 and Matthew 10 answer is No those are passages which I would describe this way they are dispensation Alima supplied God has two programs one for Israel and one for the church just like an author can have multiple themes in a book and bring them together beautifully can't God do that with this program for Israel and his program for the church and when people are cherry-picking verses for God's program for Israel as they do in Romans 10 and as they do in Matthew 10 as I've tried to explain and indiscriminately apply them to the church they are dispensational II miss applying verses so some of you look stunned dazed and confused so will it if you got to go and get your kids will let you do that at this time and then I'm sure there's probably some questions you

Channel: Andy Woods' Unofficial Channel

Views: 3,818

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Keywords: andy woods, andrew woods, osas, once saced always saved, eternal security, abc, confession, soteriology, romans, 10, jd farag, lordship, confess, Jesus, Lord, salvation, grace, works, thru, faith, chafer

Id: b_ggXJmkTek

Length: 61min 48sec (3708 seconds)

Published: Thu May 23 2019