"Persecution Leaves" Matthew 10:26-33 Sunday Morning Worship Service

This morning, Matthew seven, verses twenty-six, I mean sorry, Matthew ten, verses twenty-six through thirty-three.

Jesus says this.

So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known.

What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.

And do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul, rather fear him who can destroy both the soul and body in hell.

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny?

Not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your father, but even the hairs of your head, they're all numbered.

Fear not, therefore, you are of more value than many sparrows.

So every one who acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge before my father who is in heaven.

But whoever denies me before men, I will also deny before my father who is in heaven.

This question, this passage here, presents an encouragement for Christians to evangelize.

That's the larger focus of Matthew 10.

It's Jesus training up the twelve and sending them out with the commands to go into all the nations.

It's going to culminate in Matthew 28 to extend to all Christians throughout the church age, to go into all the world, making disciples of all nations.

That provokes a question in our hearts.

Why don't people evangelize more?

Or to say it differently, why does Jesus need to provoke us to evangelize?

Why does he need to prod us to get out the door and open our mouths?

If we're the cows here, why do we need the prod?

Shouldn't we be naturally drawn towards evangelism?

Why do we need Jesus to tell us to go?

And the implied answer in Matthew 10 is because of persecution.

That we stay quiet because we don't want to harm relationships in the family or relationships at work.

You know, there's a certain element that the gospel is a foolish message, and that's why we don't want to say it to people.

The gospel is the message that God, the creator of heaven and earth, came to earth as a man, that the eternal Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, came to earth, born as a human being, led a sinless life, and yet was killed by people.

His sinless life is credited to us, and our sins are given to him through faith.

He was executed, his body went to the ground, his soul went to the grave, he ascended from the grave on the third day, resurrected, and is in heaven now, and is making intercession for us, and that we can have our sins forgiven by placing our faith in Christ.

That is a foolish message according to the world standards.

Paul tells the Corinthians that the gospel is the wisdom of God, but it's the foolishness of mankind.

And so we don't evangelize often because we recognize that what we're saying is foolish to the people we're talking to.

Moreover, it's also confrontive.

The gospel is confrontational.

It tells people that God is judging their current life as sinful and calling them to repent.

They have to confess their sins before the Lord, turn and go the other way, confess their sins before God, and not just confess that they are sinners and they've done bad things, but to confess to the Lord that their whole life stands under judgment, that who they are at their core is guilty and not just, you know, surface level guilty, but deserving of an eternal punishment in hell.

And to give that up and to confess that you were wrong about everything that matters to you and receive the forgiveness of Christ.

So when you tell somebody that, that provokes a defensive posture in them.

They don't want to admit their whole life is wrong.

They don't want to admit that they've been living for a lie.

They don't want to admit that they're not a good person, and they don't want to admit that they deserve hell.

And so people resist the message.

And it is not only that they resist it, but that they resist it in the language of Matthew 10 by pushing back against those who deliver the message.

It says earlier in Matthew 10 that they will drag you into synagogues and courts and you'll be whipped.

It says that they will drag you and put you on trial.

And it says that families will divide against families, that brother will give up brother, that children will give up parents, or parents give up children.

There will be division at the core of the family, and you don't want that.

And so if you stay quiet, you can have a relative peace in your family and get along just fine.

That's the reason Matthew 10 gives people don't evangelize.

I read recently a book by a guy named Aaron Wren called Life in the Negative World.

It's more of a sociology book than a theology book, so I wouldn't necessarily recommend the book to you all.

But he crafts a, I think, a pretty coherent thesis in the book that there's been three stages of Christianity in recent history.

That from the 1960s to the 1990s, Christianity had a positive implication in our society.

And he gives all kinds of data, and you can quibble about this or that, but his main thrust in this is that from the 60s to 1994, he says, from the 60s to 94, everything about Christianity had a positive connotation to it.

If you wanted to rise in the corporate ladder, it was helpful to you to be associated with a church or to be called a Christian.

One of the pieces of evidence he gives is that politicians in that time period, even if they didn't actually go to church, they all identified themselves as some form of religion, especially Christianity, and by attaching themselves to a church that helped them politically.

If you wanted to run for president, you at least needed to say that you were a church member somewhere of some kind of church, even if nobody believed you actually went.

You just had to say that.

That was the idea.

In other words, Christianity had a positive implication to it in society until 1994.

1994 is the year I graduated from high school.

Everything went downhill after that.

From 1994 to 2014, he calls it the neutral world.

Where being associated with a church, it might help you or it might hurt you.

Or people don't care.

Mostly they don't care.

Politicians in that time period, that 20-year time period, may or may not have connected themselves to a church, but it wasn't an issue one way or the other.

Nobody had a hard time going through politics because they weren't associated with the church, and nobody had a hard time going through politics because they were associated with the church.

Granted, different geographical areas may vary, but for the most part in our country, those 20 years were just neutral towards Christianity.

Yeah, you think back to during that time period, Rick Warren hosting a presidential debate.

Do you remember that?

Oh, that was just comical now.

Like that would never happen now for 10,000 reasons.

Like it was just a different world then where that was accepted by both parties.

From 2014 to present day, Aaron Wren describes it as a negative world towards Christianity.

Where now, if you're connected with an evangelical church, it hurts your prospects politically.

It hurts your prospects at work.

It hurts your prospects in the government, it hurts your prospects to climb the ladder in any social setting.

It has a negative implication to it.

That's his argument.

I think he does make a pretty persuasive argument.

And as you take a step back from that and look at it, I think that's what Jesus is getting at in Matthew 10.

That people are hesitant to evangelize because they don't want the negative association with being affixed to a Christian group.

They don't want the stigma that comes from that.

They don't want the hindrance at work.

They don't want the difficulties on the horizon.

They don't want the problems in their family.

If they're just quiet about the gospel, then everything in their family can stay relatively cohesive, even if it's a kind of unity around a false worldview.

That's okay, because if I open our mouth about Jesus, everything will fall apart.

We'll all divide.

And so Jesus responds to that fear.

It's not a particularly American fear, it's a transcendent Christian fear.

He responds to that by commanding you to be courageous in evangelism.

And in fact, in the passage we just read, he gives you four courage-compelling commands.

There's four different imperatives in this passage to drive you towards evangelism.

The need of this hour in our society, the need of this hour is people that have the courage to open their mouth and share the gospel.

To open their mouth, explaining their convictions, and to stand with boldness.

To help get you there, he gives you four commands.

The first is do not fear people.

Don't fear people.

This is how the passage begins, verse 26.

Have no fear of them.

Now, the of them here is the people that we looked at in last week's text, verse 16 down to 25.

He's sending you out as sheep among wolves.

So don't be afraid of the wolves.

Verse 17 Those men will deliver you over to court and flog you.

Don't be afraid of them.

You'll be dragged in verse 18 before governors and kings.

You'll have to testify in verse 19.

In verse 21, brother will deliver brother.

Parents will be delivered by their children and be put to death, verse 21 says.

They're going to persecute you all over the place.

Therefore, Jesus says, Don't be afraid.

Now that is an incongruous command, isn't it?

They're going to arrest you, they're going to flog you, they're going to put you on trial, they're going to kill you, so don't be afraid of them.

It would make more sense if he said, They're going to do bad things to you, but listen, their bark is worse than their bite.

Inside, they're all puppy dogs.

Don't be afraid of them.

They can't actually hurt your life.

That's not what he says.

He says, No, it's going to be bad.

Some of you will die, so don't be afraid of them.

Why does he tell you not to be afraid of them?

If you're a sheep going to wolves, fear would be an appropriate response, but he says, No.

Don't fear.

The reason he gives is because the gospel will ultimately be validated.

Look at verse 26.

Nothing is covered that will not be revealed or hidden that will not be made known.

If you're a believer, you have the light of the gospel in your life.

You can't hide that.

How long can you hide that for?

You're going to put your light under a bushel?

How long are you going to leave that precious light under your laundry basket?

Before eventually the light's going to seep out anyway.

Eventually you're going to move the laundry basket.

You buy a nice precious light, you're not going to keep it covered forever.

That's the nature of being a Christian.

You have the gospel inside of you, you have the light to the world inside of you.

You're going to try to hide it.

How long are you going to hide it?

It reminds me of Jeremiah.

Remember, Jeremiah said, Jeremiah was persecuted, persecuted, thrown in the pit, persecuted, persecuted.

And he eventually said, You know what?

My life would be so much easier if I just shut my mouth.

Jeremiah 17, he says, I was able to do that for about 30 seconds.

Remember?

It's like your word is like a fire in my bones.

I've swallowed it.

And though I make a covenant with myself to be quiet, I cannot do it.

It just escapes.

That's what believers are like.

So you may as well lean into it.

You know, you have the light for the nations in your heart.

You may as well let it shine.

Don't bother trying to conceal it because it's going to get out anyway.

It's going to be revealed.

Nothing's hidden that won't be known.

This is a conversation that is happening out in the middle of nowhere.

Jesus says in verse 27, I tell you in the dark, you'll say it in the light.

This is a conversation happening up in Galilee.

Israel was kind of a backwards part of the Roman Empire.

It was on the outskirts of the Roman Empire.

And Galilee was the outskirts of that outskirts.

It's out in the sticks up there.

And this is where Jesus is having a conversation with 12 disciples, mostly fishermen, uneducated, not wealthy.

This conversation in the middle of nowhere, and that conversation is going to snowball down into Jerusalem and then from Jerusalem to the nations.

The gospel is going to go global.

This conversation is going to echo throughout time.

It is right now.

We're talking about it right now.

That's what Jesus means that this conversation, though it's hidden now, it's isolated now, it's in the darkness now.

It's not going to stay there.

The gospel will be vindicated.

It might seem hidden at the moment, but it is going to shine everywhere.

He says, What you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.

This conversation right now out in Galilee, it's just the whispers.

But these disciples are going to have to own it and proclaim it.

Sometimes my kids might be studying for a speech or a presentation at school, and they'll rehearse it.

And I'll be sitting there, and our deedra will be sitting there, and they'll get to a part where they stumble or they they don't know the next thing to stay or they forget the next point, and then we'll we'll whisper it from the couch.

We'll say ps.

And they'll go, oh yeah, and they'll say it.

And that works for practice, but when they get to school, they're gonna have to stand up in front of the classmates, and they're gonna have to own it themselves.

They can't, if they they freeze at school, they can't, there's no lifeline.

They have to own it.

That's what Jesus is talking to disciples right here, as if they're the children.

He's saying, I'm whispering to you what to say right now.

I'm putting it in your ear.

This is what you're gonna say, this is what you're gonna do, but eventually you're going to have to own this.

Eventually, what I'm whispering to you, you're going to have to proclaim in front of a hostile crowd.

It won't always be in the quiet conversation of Galilee.

It'll be before judges and synagogue leaders that will persecute you.

And Jesus says, Don't worry about it.

Don't worry about it.

I have a friend who often responds to people's complaints with, I'm not worried about that.

I'm not worried about that.

People who work for him will say, Hey, I've got this concern, and he'll say, I'm not worried about that.

And eventually somebody who works for him said, You know, you have to stop saying that because it's pretty dismissive.

Like I'm coming to you with something I'm concerned about, and your response is I'm not concerned about it, so just get over yourself, kind of thing.

So he's working on removing that from his vocabulary.

We talked about that this week, and then I get to this passage, and the disciples are saying, We're gonna be flogged and we're gonna be our family's gonna blow up, and Jesus says, I'm not worried about it.

Why are you not supposed to fear those people?

Because they can't really harm you, verse 28.

Don't fear those who can kill the body, but can't kill the soul.

What are they gonna do to you?

Persecute you, put you to death, blow up your family?

Okay, you're still going to heaven when you die.

They can't do that.

They can they can whip you in the context, they are wolves, and they can eat you in the context, and they can put you on trial in the context, but they can't touch your soul.

I mean, what is what does persecution look like in our own country?

You know, you can lose your job, you can lose your promotion, you can have a bad relationship with your neighbor.

The county can take away your building occupancy permit, they can fine you.

The health department can slap you with a citation, drag you before some traffic judge in Fairfax City and make you explain yourself, and what fine, you throw another fine on top of you, that's what they can do to you.

Wow.

They can't kick you out of heaven.

The worst they can do to you, you're still on your way to heaven.

What are you afraid of?

They cannot kill the soul.

All these truths are going to be vindicated, all the gospel will be evident.

You want to be on the right side of history, as kids these days say?

Then embrace the gospel, because it's where history is headed.

You will be vindicated in glory when the gospel is evident to all and Jesus Christ reigns over the nations.

The second command in this.

Don't fear people.

But do fear God.

But do fear God.

This is the second part of verse 28.

Rather, here's an imperative again: fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

That's the core of it.

Fear God more than you fear people.

Now, all over the Bible, you know this about sanctification, I'm sure.

When the Bible tells you something not to do, it always follows it with something to do.

You can't just tell somebody, stop sinning.

That does not very effective at sanctification.

Stop sinning.

You have to give them the positive action.

So, for example, the Bible says, to the thief, don't steal anymore.

Rather get a job and earn money and give it away.

Or to the person who cusses all the time, the Bible says, Don't let impure speech come out of your mouth.

Rather, profitable speech that is fit for upbuilding the church and edifying other people.

To the drunkard, the Bible says, Don't get drunk, but rather be filled with the Spirit.

So there's always the put-off put on.

So the person who has got anxiety or worry about this, the Bible says, Don't worry, don't fear men.

Rather, instead, put on this.

Fear God instead.

So shed the fear of man, dress yourself in the fear of God.

Jesus challenges your fear of man by reorienting it around himself and saying, take off the fear of people and put on a godly, Godward attitude.

Fear God.

In the evenings, I've been preaching through Proverbs, and Proverbs 1:7, remember, defines wisdom as the ability basically to navigate life in a fallen world.

Proverbs 1:7

That's what wisdom is, the ability to get around life in a fallen world, to figure out how to live your life in a way that corresponds to the nature of the world God made.

And there's a sense in which non-Christians can have that kind of wisdom.

But then Proverbs 1.7 says the fear of Yahweh is the foundation of wisdom.

The word foundation in the Bible, it's not like chronological foundation, like step one.

The word foundation in the Bible is literally like a foundation of a house.

How the house is there, the house is built on the foundation.

The fear of Yahweh is the foundation for your life.

And so Jesus here says, don't fear man, rather fear Yahweh.

Listen, if God is sovereign over the sparrows, he's sovereign over the lights in here.

Don't fear man, fear God.

This authenticates Jesus as God, by the way, because he's putting himself in the position of the one who's sovereign over who goes to heaven and hell.

And he's reminding his disciples, you have a natural fear of people.

It is natural for a person in a fallen world to have a precious message that will confront those around them.

It's totally natural and obvious for you to be afraid of them or for you to be anxious about it.

That's obvious.

Of course you're gonna be anxious.

Of course you're gonna be afraid of them.

That's why he's telling you don't do that.

Fight that and put on the fear of the Lord.

And he gives you a word picture to help you in verse 29.

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny?

Sparrows are worthless birds.

They're an invasive species in Virginia.

Literally, they're an invasive species.

The Virginia Department of Wildlife wants them gone.

They're a worthless bird.

And a pair of them would be sold for a penny, it says.

I've never seen somebody selling sparrows, by the way.

Never seen it.

A penny, this is the in the Greek currency, the word that's used here, it's one sixteenth of a denarius.

It's the smallest coin they have.

It's one sixteenth of a denarius.

A denarius is the day's wages for a day laborer.

So in American dollars today, that's about 160 bucks for a day labor.

It's, you know, if you're thinking 20 bucks an hour, eight hours, or whatever, you're around 160 or so.

So one sixteenth of that would be ten bucks.

So it says a penny here, two sparrows for a penny, but in the American economy with inflation and whatnot, that's ten dollars.

Thanks, Biden.

Two sparrows sold for ten dollars.

And they're worthless creatures.

Do you matter more than a sparrow?

Because if you approach the conversation from this way, if you start by saying, do you believe in the sovereignty of God?

everybody says yes.

And it's like, do you believe that God is sovereign over bad things that happen to you?

You're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

The kind of God that I believe in is sovereign over big picture stuff and important stuff, but not all the details of life.

Certainly not the bad things that are happening to me.

If there's bad things happening to me, especially at the hands of other people, if I'm being punished for being a Christian, I don't know, God's sovereign over that.

Come on.

And so Jesus backs into that declaration by saying, consider the birds.

And he says, one of them doesn't fall from heaven in verse 29, fall from the gr fall to the ground except from your father's will.

A sparrow is not going to hit your window and fall down dead unless God decreed it to happen.

And you are more significant than the sparrows.

So if you grant that God is sovereign over all things, That's at one end.

And at the other end, you grant that he's sovereign over sparrows.

You've got to put yourself in the middle of that.

You are one of the all things, and you're more important than sparrows.

So whatever you say God is sovereign over, you're stuck.

He's sovereign over you and your life.

Even the bad things that happen to you.

Theologians call this the decree of God, the sovereign decree of God, that before time, God decreed in his mind all things that would happen throughout all of time.

Every detail, every atom that would move, every molecule that would waver, everything throughout all of human history has been decreed by God in his secret divine counsel before he made anything, before the first day of creation, his sovereign decree covers all things, including sparrows.

How about this, the next phrase?

Even the heads on your hair are all numbered.

You preach that to yourself in the morning.

A hair doesn't fall out of your head unless God, in his sovereign decree, declared that it was going to fall out of your head.

Now, this doesn't, this is the doctrine of providence.

This doesn't mean that God is actively causing the sparrow hit your window, that God threw it into your window.

A hair falls out, that an angel plucked it out.

No.

This is the sovereign providential decree that all things in this world are happening according to God's foreknowledge and his foreordained will.

It's all happening according to his providence, it's directing all things to work all things to his perfect purpose and plan, including sparrows.

This scripture says it's appointed for man who wants to die, meaning God has set your end point.

He knows the day you'll die.

He decreed it.

He knows how you'll die.

He decreed it.

That's true of sparrows, and it's true of you.

So this is the data point Jesus gives you to help you fear God rather than man.

Instead of fearing men, they don't have decrees over all things.

They might render their verdict or give their decree.

Nonsense.

It's God's sovereign eternal decree that reigns over all things.

So fear him.

And to head off the objection, people will say, well, if God is sovereign over all things, why should I pray?

And I always turn that around and say, if God is not sovereign over all things, why would you pray?

The reason you pray is because God is sovereign over all things.

If it's not him that's in charge, then you should take your request to whoever is.

You don't ask your neighbor for permission to go on vacation at work.

Your neighbor doesn't have authority over that.

You ask your boss.

You bring your prayers to the one who is in charge, who has authority over all things.

You pray to him, and he answers your prayers according to his perfect and sovereign will that he has decreed from before the foundation of time.

This is the absolute sovereignty of God.

And Jesus goes there when he's trying to tell you about persecution.

So that when you're drugged before the judge, or when you are whipped or flogged, or when your family blows up over your Christianity, Jesus doesn't say, I'm sovereign, so I'm going to fix it, I'm sovereign so it's going to go better for you.

No, he says, I'm sovereign, that's why it's happening to you.

So fear God.

Fear him instead.

If you're tracking so far, this should lead you to a comfort and a solace in your Father's heavenly love over your own life.

That's how Jesus understands the sovereignty.

God, look at verse 31.

So fear not.

You are of more value than many sparrows.

So trust the Lord.

The third imperative.

Do not deny Jesus.

I'm getting this from verse 33.

Whoever denies me before men, I will deny before my Father who is in heaven.

We're going a little bit out of order in the text here, so I can keep the negative, positive, negative, positive kind of format here.

Don't fear people, do fear God.

Don't deny Jesus.

Denying Jesus is saying, I don't know him.

Denying Jesus is saying I love the world more than God.

I mean, eventually you're going to be in the point where you have to choose between obedience and faithfulness to God or societal fitting in.

Do you obey God or do you fit in with society?

Do you obey God or do you keep the harmony in your family?

Do you obey God or.

And you have to get to the point where you're not going to deny Jesus.

And I love this these commands in here because given the earlier command of be wise as a serpent, remember a serpent knows how to avoid problems?

And I've said over the last few weeks that being wise as a serpent means you're a sheep.

You don't need to get eaten by every wolf.

Like you can figure out how to definitely navigate complicated situations at work and at home in a way that doesn't make everything a persecution showdown.

You can diffuse and you can navigate through life without all the persecution all the time.

It would be possible for you to hear that and take it as an excuse to always keep your mouth shut.

Like every situation becomes, I can be a serpent and get out of this, I can be a serpent and get out of that.

And your whole life becomes a pattern of serpent-like behavior, which is not good.

And so Jesus follows that instruction.

I know it was two weeks ago, but it's still in the same conversation with him.

He follows that instruction with, you're going to be put in a point ultimately where you will have to open your mouth and either acknowledge Jesus or deny him.

And you better not deny him, because if you do, he will deny you.

That language of he will deny you, that's drawn from 1 John, where we have an advocate in heaven interceding for us, but not if you deny Jesus.

It's drawn from the Sermon on the Mount, a few chapters earlier, where Jesus says, On that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, didn't I know you?

And he'll say, I have no idea who you're talking about.

Me, we haven't met before.

What deny Jesus here means is a person who says, ultimately, when it comes down to it, is I value my reputation in this world more than Christ.

I value family harmony and dynamics more than faithfulness to Christ.

I value career opportunities and climbing the ladder more than faithfulness to Christ.

I value fitting in in society more than I value faithfulness to Christ.

That's denying Christ.

And the person who's doing that doesn't say, oh, today I'm denying Jesus.

The person who does that just has an ocean of compromises, one after another, until eventually they take a step back.

And there was no one point where they say, I deny Jesus.

It's just a track record of it.

And Jesus says, if that's you, I deny you.

It's not talking about a one-time compromise.

You make a bad choice, you had an opportunity for evangelism, and you didn't, and you're convicted about it later.

I mean, that's normal Christian living right there.

Remember, Peter denied Jesus, not once, not twice, but thrice.

Who received this sermon?

And how did he respond when he denied Jesus?

He wept, cried, repented.

How did Jesus respond?

Received Jesus.

Received Peter.

Hugs, embraces, restoration.

But if you deny him, because that's your pattern in life, if you choose the pleasures of this world over faithfulness to Christ, he will deny you.

And what does that look like when Jesus denies you?

For the person apart from Christ when they die, the person who doesn't know Jesus, when they die, their body goes into the ground or thrown into the ocean, wherever.

Their soul goes down to the grave, to Sheol, where it is held in judgment until the day of the resurrection.

Then God will bring the soul up from Sheol and will resurrect the body from the grave or from the ocean.

This is Revelation 20, verse 13.

Revelation 20:13

The sea will give up its dead who were in it.

Death in Hades, death in Sheol will give up the dead who are in them.

There, the soul and the body are reunited, and they will be judged by God.

They will be judged, Revelation 20, verse 13 says, according to what they had done in this life.

Revelation 20:13

Galatians 3, verse 10 says, Cursed is everyone who does not do all the things commanded by God.

Galatians 3:10

A single sin in your life makes you guilty before God and deserving of judgment.

A single sin, because cursed be anyone who hasn't done everything God has commanded.

So when that person dies, their soul goes to the grave, their body decomposes, eventually they'll be reunited, stand before God, reconstituted, and they will be judged according to what they did in this life.

Revelation first is the books of their works, the book of what they did, their deeds will be opened up in front of them.

And the sexually immoral, the effeminate, the liars, the necromancers, the materialists, the idolaters will have no place in the kingdom of God, but their place will be in the lake of fire.

And they'll deserve it.

And at that moment they won't have a defense because it's the books of what they did that are opened.

So they stand guilty before God.

They might make an appeal to Jesus and say, But uh what can't Jesus help me here?

And that's where Jesus will say, I don't know who you are.

Revelation 20, verse 15.

Revelation 20:15

If anyone's name is not found written in the book of life, in other words, Jesus says, I don't know them, then he will be thrown into the fire.

Later on in Matthew's gospel, it says that fire lasts forever and ever and ever.

Isaiah 66, speaking about the new heavens and the new earth.

Isaiah 66 says the people in the new Jerusalem will go out and look on the dead bodies of men who have rebelled against me.

Their worm will not die, their fire will not be quenched, and they will be in abhorrence to all flesh.

In other words, that judgment lasts forever and ever and ever.

Paul tells the Thessalonians, they'll perish away from the presence of his glorious might.

They'll never have a saving encounter with God in his glory again.

As they suffer forever and ever and ever.

That's what happens to those who deny Christ, who treasure this world more than Jesus, who esteem this world above Jesus, is that is their future.

So don't do that.

That's the imperative.

Don't do that.

Don't deny Jesus.

Because there's no recovery from that in a few chapters.

So call out the unforgivable sin.

When you attribute the works of Jesus to the work of the devil, you've denied him, you've renounced him, you've said you love yourself more than him, he will deny you, and the lake of fire awaits you.

The final imperative is do confess Jesus.

Do confess Jesus.

This is verse 32.

So everyone who acknowledges me before men, that word acknowledges is a great word.

Homologueo.

Homo being same or like or one.

Legeo from the word logos, which is the word word.

You know, Jesus is the logos, the word of God.

Homologueo means to say the same word.

Sometimes translated promise.

My favorite use of homologue is with Stephen.

This is one of those word uses that uh lets you know what the word means, like it fills out the rest of the meaning of the word.

Stephen says, Abraham was promised by God a nation, and 500 years later, 700 years later, some long time later, they're in the Exodus, and there's a million plus Jews everywhere.

And it was the promise of God being experienced.

In other words, what was happening in reality was the same thing God had promised centuries earlier.

There's a word for that in Greek.

I love it.

A word that was said, and then a long time later, reality matches that word.

The most well-known use of that word is Romans 10.

If you confess, that's how it's translated there, with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

What is that word confess?

Homologue.

If you describe Jesus in a way that matches who he truly is, you can be saved.

What does that mean to describe Jesus in a way that matches who he is, that matches reality?

Well, that Jesus is the eternal God who came to earth as a man and who led a sinless life and received your sin from you and gave you his life in exchange, was crucified.

And remember, Romans 10 goes on to say, you confess into your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believed in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

That's that word.

That's the word Jesus uses here in verse 32.

It's translated in the ESV acknowledges, but it's the same word.

If you acknowledge me, or if you confess me before men, Jesus will acknowledge or confess you before his Father who's in heaven.

So when you confess Christ and then you die, your story is different.

When you confess to Christ and you die, your body goes in the ground or in the sea or wherever, and your soul, it doesn't go down to Sheol, your soul goes up to heaven, where you will be with the Lord in spirit.

And then in the future, at the second coming of our Lord, at the rapture of the saints, the Lord will descend from the clouds with a shout, with a triumph, and your soul will be with him.

Your body will be raised from the earth or given up from the ocean, your soul and your body will be reunited in the air, and now you'll have a physical presence before the Lord that will last forever.

You'll stand before God for judgment at that point.

And rather than the books of your works being opened, instead, those books are shelved.

A new book is opened.

That's the book of the Lamb's book of life.

It is the names of all those from aforetime that God wrote this book before he made anything, before day one of creation, God wrote this book as part of his perfect decree, and he'll find your name in it.

And so, not your book of works.

Your book of works for you, if you're in Christ, your book of works, that was nailed to the cross.

All the sins that you've done, written down, nailed to the cross.

Jesus paid for them, their receipt is torn up.

That book is toast.

And instead, it's just you with your name in the Lamb's book of life.

Your sins are covered by him.

He is your advocate before the Father, and the Father receives you into heaven, it says in verse 32, based upon the confession of Jesus Christ.

You say the same thing about him, he says about you.

You confess him, he confesses you.

Oh, this person's with me.

Wave him on through.

And you're in Christ.

Very powerful use of that word, John 9, 22.

Where the Jews said, if anyone confesses Jesus to be the Messiah, they will be put out of the synagogue.

That's what the religious leader said about Jesus.

If you confess him, you are no longer part of the Jewish community.

You are put out of the synagogue.

So that's the choice that Jesus likely has in mind right here.

Do you confess Jesus even though it'll cost you so much in this world?

Or do you deny Jesus to maintain the relationships and opportunities and potentialities in this world?

If you confess him, he confesses you.

If you deny him, he denies you.

If you believe these commands, that should be a powerful motivation for you to have courage in evangelism.

Lord, we're thankful for the resurrection of Christ really that frames all of this.

We know that Jesus died and that he was raised and that he lives to this day.

So Lord, we want courage in evangelism.

We want to be used by you to reach the world.

We do confess this morning that we treasure you above all in this world.

Given the choice between silver and gold and riches untold, we would choose you.

Given the choice between worldwide fame and a relationship with Christ, we choose Christ.

I pray for this congregation.

I pray that would be the confession of each of their hearts.

I ask this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

And now for a parting word from Pastor Jesse Johnson.

Thanks for joining us.

If you're in the Washington, D.C.

area, I would love to see you at Emmanuel Bible Church.

For more information on our church or our current service times, go to IBC.church.

For more information about the Master Seminary and their Washington, D.C.

location, go to TMS.edu.

I hope this resource has been a blessing to you and it helps you seek the Lord daily, serve others around you, and share the gospel with boldness.