{"id":19102,"date":"2016-03-30T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-03-30T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/soteriology-011\/"},"modified":"2016-03-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-03-30T05:00:00","slug":"soteriology-011","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/soteriology-011\/","title":{"rendered":"Soteriology 011"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[90],"series_event":[459],"sermon_service_type":[473],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-19102","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-romans","series_event-soteriology","sermon_service_type-sunday-school","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Soteriology 011","sermon_date":"20160330","sermon_month":"3","sermon_year":"2016","sermon_notes":3503,"sermon_slides":3500,"sermon_mp3":3501,"sermon_id":"330161945398","series_or_event":459,"service_type":[473],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":90,"chapter_and_verse":"10:9-10","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\n\nSoteriology 11, Romans 10:9-10\n\nMarch 30, 2016\n\nIf we could open our Bibles to the book of Romans, chapter 10, verses 9-10.\u00a0 And as we\u2019re turning there we\u2019ve been spending quite a bit of time here on Roman numeral V, which is a section in the doctrine of salvation called God\u2019s one condition of salvation.\u00a0 You remember what that one condition is?\u00a0 Believe.\u00a0 And the Bible says it about how many times?\u00a0 Anybody remember?\u00a0 About 200 times.\u00a0 Now what people do and I think a lot of this is the works based tendency in us, because we\u2019re works based by nature, instead of relying on the 200 clear passages to share the gospel as a method of sharing the gospel people want to go to the remote passages.\u00a0 And you\u2019ll find in a lot of the evangelistic tracts people like to build their gospel presentations, not from the 200 clear ones but from the handful of isolated ones.\u00a0 So that\u2019s why I\u2019ve been walking through very slowly the isolated passages and I\u2019m trying to show you the proper way of understanding these in light of believe, God\u2019s one condition for justification.\n\nSo we\u2019ve talked about repent, Lordship, receive Christ, believe and work, and last time we talked about baptism.\u00a0 And now we\u2019re entering into another area where people try to argue that in order to be saved a person must confess Christ before man.\u00a0 And if they don\u2019t confess Christ before man, in addition to believing in Jesus, then they\u2019re probably not a true Christian.\u00a0 Has anybody heard that kind of thing from people.\u00a0 And what you\u2019ll discover is a lot of evangelistic tracts will say you\u2019re not saved by works, but then at the end of the tract they\u2019ll give you a bunch of works to do.\u00a0\u00a0 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\u2019s just not a condition for justification.\n\nAnd when you tell people that the verse they all go to is Romans 10:9-10.\u00a0 [9 \u201cthat if you confess with your mouth Jesus as<\/em> Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; [10] for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.\u201d]\n\nYou all have heard that before, right.\u00a0 So that what you have in a lot of evangelistic presentations is the ABC method.\u00a0 The A stands for you get the person to admit they\u2019re a sinner.\u00a0 B stands for you get them to believe in Jesus.\u00a0 And then \u201cC\u201d stands for the fact that they\u2019ve got to make some kind of public confession.\u00a0 And so what people do is they go to these para-church evangelistic ministries and they get programmed with a method, A.B.C.\u00a0 And they\u2019re never really taught to think about it 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.\n\nSo if you believe in the ABC method, see, I\u2019m a \u201cB\u201d person, I don\u2019t believe in the \u201cA\u201d or \u201cC.\u201d\u00a0 The Spirit convicts people of their sin of unbelief.\u00a0 And then as the Spirit of God places them under conviction we have the opportunity to share the gospel with them.\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019m not getting them to admit anything, I\u2019m sharing the gospel with them and inviting them to trust in Christ or believe and that should seal the deal.\u00a0 But you see, with a lot of ministries that doesn\u2019t seal the deal, you\u2019ve got have some kind of visible sign, 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\u2019t do that third thing (the \u201cC\u201d) you\u2019re really not a Christian at all.\u00a0 And a lot of their literature kind of reads this way as well.\u00a0 It\u2019s very confusing.\u00a0 So it turns into nothing more than a gospel of works; it\u2019s what I call the Texas two-step, not one step to Jesus (which is believe, which is what the Bible teaches) but there\u2019s some additional step.\n\nNow even before we look at this biblically just think about impractical this is if you believe this.\u00a0 For example, what if someone is mute and can\u2019t talk, how in the world are they supposed to confess Jesus Christ?\u00a0 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 John 3:16 and they get saved.\u00a0\u00a0 But it\u2019s like 3:00 o\u2019clock in the morning, there\u2019s no one really to confess to.\u00a0 I mean, I guess you could order room service or something like that.\u00a0 But you can see practically how this really doesn\u2019t work.\u00a0 And 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.\u00a0 Some people do from their own family but by and large it\u2019s not in America that people are being crucified by ISIS and groups like that.\n\nBut 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 something and they believe it, and they know that if they publicly say anything about their new found 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.\u00a0 And they just, because of fear of retaliation they don\u2019t say anything.\u00a0 How does the \u201cC\u201d work in that circumstance? Are we going to actually say that such a person that believes in Christ but never confesses Christ publicly in a totalitarian government, situation, is not a true Christian.\u00a0 I mean of course we\u2019re not going to say that.\n\nBut what I\u2019m trying to say is this idea of the \u201cC\u201d, even before we look at it biblically doesn\u2019t even work itself out pragmatically.\u00a0 So is it possible for a person to trust in Christ but never publicly say anything about it to be a true Christian.\u00a0 And I would say that possibility is open in the Bible.\u00a0 And there are two verses that I like to use that almost nobody cites in their evangelistic tracts, everybody that cites Romans 10:9-10 they never cite John 12:42, which says\u2026 and you can turn over there with me if you want, we\u2019re going to be going back to Romans 10 in just a second, but it says, \u201cNevertheless 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.\u201d\n\nSo in Christ\u2019s ministry you have a lot of Jews that believed in Jesus but they didn\u2019t say anything about it; one of them, I think, was Nicodemus who was more of a secret disciple.\u00a0 I\u2019ll 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 confessed Christ they\u2019d be kicked out of the synagogue.\u00a0 Now getting kicked out of the synagogue in that day didn\u2019t mean oh, you can\u2019t go to First Baptist so you\u2019re going to go down the street to Second Baptist instead, or Third Baptist, or Fifteenth Baptist. Today in America to get kicked out of one church it\u2019s not that big a deal, you can join with another church.\u00a0 But in Christ\u2019s day if you got kicked out of the synagogue you were cut off from everything.\u00a0 You were cut off from the religious life of the nation.\u00a0 You were cut off from society; and 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\u2019s day there were real consequences that people experienced.\n\nSo as a result there\u2019s a lot of people that believed in Christ but never said anything about it for fear of being kicked out of the synagogue.\u00a0 Now are we going to say these people aren\u2019t saved?\u00a0 I don\u2019t think we can say that because it says in this verse, \u201cmany, even of the rulers believed in Him.\u201d\u00a0 The Greek construction there is pisteu\u014d eis<\/em>, pisteu\u014d <\/em>believe, eis<\/em> in, and then in this particular object \u201cJesus Christ.\u201d\u00a0 And John, all the way through his Gospel says, about a hundred times this is all that\u2019s necessary to receive the gift of life.\u00a0\u00a0 In fact, the very end of John\u2019s Gospel puts it this way: [John 20:30] \u201cTherefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of His disciples which are not written in this book, [31] but these have been written so that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.\u201d So there is pisteu\u014d eis<\/em>, you believe in Christ, trust in Him for your eternity and John says that\u2019s all that\u2019s necessary to receive the gift of life.\n\nSo going back to John 12:42 for a second these people clearly were saved if the same Greek construction is interpreted consistently throughout John\u2019s book.\u00a0 And\u00a0 yet they weren\u2019t confessing Christ, yet they were saved.\n\nAnother example where the \u201cC\u201d, confession doesn\u2019t work is John 19:38.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 \u201cAfter these things Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus,\u201d so he\u2019s a disciple, \u201cdisciple\u201d 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, \u201cbut a secret one for fear of the Jews,\u201d and then he came and asked Pilate for the body, he spoke up.\u00a0 But until he spoke up and asked \u00a0Pilate for the body of Christ was clearly a disciple but he was pretty much incognito, and secret about it.\u00a0 Now are we going to say Joseph of Arimathea was not saved because he never confessed? \u00a0That would get kind of silly, wouldn\u2019t it.\n\nSo what is the verse that people quote over and over again that says you have to confess Christ publicly before man to be a Christian.\u00a0\u00a0 And the one they always quote is\u2026 let\u2019s go over to Romans 10:9-10, you probably know it by heart, it says \u201cthat if you confess with your mouth Jesus as<\/em> Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; [10] for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.\u201d\u00a0 So almost in every gospel tract you\u2019ll find, when people push the concept of \u201cC\u201d confession, they\u2019re going to quote Romans 10:9-10.\u00a0 And if you start talking the way I\u2019m talking, saying that\u2019s not a requirement for justification, someone is going to quote to you Romans 10:9-10.\u00a0 So it\u2019s a very oft used and cited verse.\n\nNow what I want to show you is Romans 10:9-10 has been wrenched completely from its context.\u00a0 If you go back and study the context, which I\u2019ll give you, the meaning to it becomes very clear.\u00a0 So we\u2019re kind of living in a time period where people like to cherry-pick verses to support points, and people aren\u2019t doing the hard work of verse by verse study any more.\u00a0 So it\u2019s easy to pick things out of context to support anything you want to support.\u00a0 Right?\u00a0 So Judas went out and hung himself, go thou and do likewise, and what you do, do quickly \u00a0[John 13:27, \u201c\u2026 Therefore Jesus said to him, \u2018What you do, do quickly.\u2019\u201d]\u00a0 So there we have it, the Bible supports suicide.\u00a0 I just picked three verses randomly, strung them together to present something.\u00a0 You can make the Bible say anything you want it to say if you don\u2019t care about context.\n\nSo what is the context of Romans 10:9-10?\u00a0 What is the whole context of the book of Romans?\u00a0 When you go to the end of Romans 8 Paul says a bunch of things like \u201cnothing can separate us from the love of Christ,\u201d Neither distress, famine, peril, nakedness, sword, angels, powers, principalities can separate us from the love of Christ because of our security in Him.\u00a0 Now somebody in the church raises their hand and says Paul, I have a question, what about those Jews, didn\u2019t God make a covenant with them in the Old Testament, called the Abrahamic Covenant.\u00a0 And Paul would say yes He did.\u00a0 Well, aren\u2019t those Jews in a state of unbelief right now.\u00a0 Paul would say yeah, most of them are, they\u2019re Christ-rejecters.\u00a0 So Paul, if God can\u2019t keep His promises to the Jew, nationally in the Abrahamic Covenant why should I trust Him to keep His promises to me, a Gentile?\n\nSo consequently Paul launches off into Romans 9, 10 and 11 which is all about the nation of Israel.\u00a0\u00a0 Paul is saying in Romans 9, 10 and 11 God has not cast aside Israel.\u00a0 Yes, they\u2019re in unbelief presently, nationally, although a few Jews occasionally get saved in the church age by and large Israel is an unbelieving nation.\u00a0 Paul spends three chapters explaining how God has a whole plan where He\u2019s going to bring Israel back into the fold one day, in the events surrounding the great tribulation and things like that.\u00a0 And then you get through that section and you get to chapter 12, verse 1, and he says, \u201cTherefore,\u201d now when we see the word \u201ctherefore\u201d we have to ask what the word \u201ctherefore\u201d is there for.\n\n\u201cTherefore I urge you, brethren,\u201d believers, \u201cby the mercies of God,\u201d what mercies?\u00a0 The fact that God can\u2019t forget His promises.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t forget\u00a0 you, He\u2019s not going to forget Israel.\u00a0 If God can forget Israel then maybe He\u2019ll forget His promises to you.\u00a0 That\u2019s the question posed to Paul.\u00a0 But Paul explains God is not going to forget His promises to Israel when you understand the whole program and plan of God. \u201cTherefore,\u201d since God is trustworthy, offer your bodies to Him as a living sacrifice.\u00a0 See, you can submit to a God you can trust, right?\u00a0 But if there\u2019s lingering question marks in your mind about the faithfulness of God how can you submit to a God like that?\u00a0 So Romans 9, 10 and 11 is not a\u2026 it\u2019s sad to watch so many commentators, they say well that\u2019s just a diversion, you know, Paul is going off on sort of a digression, or a rabbit trail.\u00a0 No it\u2019s not!\n\nRomans 9, 10 and 11, if you understand where it shows up in the book is critical to Paul\u2019s argument vindicating the faithfulness of God.\u00a0 So Romans 9, 10 and 11 is all about the nation of Israel.\u00a0 Romans 9, Israel in the past has been elected.\u00a0 Romans 10, Israel in the present has been rejected.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 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 works righteousness.\u00a0 That\u2019s not how God saves people.\u00a0 But don\u2019t fear because Israel in the future will be accepted, Romans 11.\u00a0 So Romans 9, Israel in the past elected.\u00a0 Romans 10, Israel in the present rejected.\u00a0 Romans 11, Israel in the future accepted.\u00a0 So when we start quoting out of Romans 10:9-10 you have to recall and remember that those verses come up in Paul\u2019s discussion about the nation of Israel.\n\nHaving said all that, let\u2019s take a look again at Romans 10:9-10.\u00a0 Notice what it says: \u201cif you confess with your mouth Jesus as<\/em> Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; [10] for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.\u201d\u00a0 Now don\u2019t stop reading there, keep on moving and go down to verse 13.\u00a0 I notice these evangelistic tracts that quote this verse, they never quote verse 13.\u00a0 Verse 13 is a prophecy of the acknowledge that Israel is going to make one day.\u00a0 And you\u2019ll notice it\u2019s being quoted there, and he\u2019s quoting there Joel 2:32, which says in verse 13, \u201cWHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.\u201d\n\nNow if you go back and you study Joel 2:32 what you\u2019ll discover is that whole section is dealing with the events of the tribulation and into chapter 3 the events of the tribulation, Armageddon, and the kingdom that will follow.\u00a0 So Joel 2:32 is the nation of Israel calling, confessing, calling on Christ to save them at the end of the Great Tribulation period.\n\nSo the return of Jesus, I\u2019m not talking about the rapture which can happen at any minute, I\u2019m talking about what\u2019s happening after the rapture of the church, the return of Jesus to the earth at the end of the seven year tribulation period, an event we call the Second Advent, is triggered by Israel\u2019s public acknowledgement of Jesus, or confession to Him.\u00a0 That\u2019s what Joel 2:32 is talking about; that\u2019s what Paul is quoting here in Romans 10:13.\u00a0 And that\u2019s what he is espousing there in Romans 10:9-10.\n\nIf you can hold your place in Romans 10, go over to Matthew 23 for a minute and I\u2019ll show you this from a slightly different angle.\u00a0 Matthew 23:37-39, Jesus here has just given a blistering denunciation of the Pharisees.\u00a0\u00a0 You\u2019ll notice that whole chapter is in red reporting the words of Christ.\u00a0 And I kind of think it fit sin red given Christ\u2019s emotional at these Pharisees.\u00a0 And He gets to the very end, it\u2019s a total takedown of these guys.\u00a0 He calls them white-washed tombs and all of these politically incorrect things.\u00a0 And then He says this in verses 37-39.\u00a0 \u201cJerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to you!\u00a0 How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling.\u00a0 [38] Behold, your house is being left to you desolate!\u00a0 [39] For I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say,\u201d let me read that again, \u201cFor I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say, \u2018BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD!\u201d\n\nNow Christ is speaking, He\u2019s speaking to unbelieving Israel of the first century because He says \u201cJerusalem, Jerusalem,\u201d and He says I wanted to come and gather you together, it\u2019s beautiful imagery, \u201cthe way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings,\u201d in fact, the Greek word for gathering there is episunag\u014d<\/em>, now from that Greek word sunag\u014d<\/em>, someone tell me what Jewish word comes from that word sunag\u014d<\/em>.\u00a0 Synagogue, what is a synagogue?\u00a0 It\u2019s a Jewish gathering.\u00a0 He says I came to you the first time, I wanted to have synagogue with you, is basically what He\u2019s saying.\u00a0 The problem wasn\u2019t Me, the problem was you, you would not have me.\n\nAnd then He begins to describe and this is right out of Deuteronomy 28, Israel is under the Mosaic Covenant, which had blessings and curses.\u00a0 He begins to describe the curses that are going to come upon the nation as a result of them rejecting Him.\u00a0 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 A.D. 70, about forty years after the time of Christ when over a million Jewish lives were lost.\u00a0 If you wanted to read more about it I would read Luke 19:41-44.\n\n[Luke 19:41-44, \u201cWhen He approached Jerusalem,<\/em> He saw the city and wept over it, [42] saying, \u2018If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes. [43] \u2018For the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, and surround you and hem you in on every side, [44] and they will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.\u2019\u201d]\n\nAnd He makes this statement here, He says, \u201cBehold, your house,\u201d now the \u201chouse\u201d is the temple, \u201cyour house is left desolate.\u201d\u00a0 Now isn\u2019t it interesting that He always called the temple His Father\u2019s house, My Father\u2019s house shall be a house of prayer.\u00a0 [Matthew 21:13, And He said to them, \u2018It is written, 'MY HOUSE SHALL BE CALLED A HOUSE OF PRAYER'; but you are making it a ROBBERS' DEN.\u2019\u00a0 Also in Luke 19:46 and Matthew 21:13]\n\nNow He\u2019s saying it\u2019s your house and the reason it\u2019s\u00a0 your house is because you all kicked me out of your house.\u00a0 So your house is about to be left desolate, it\u2019s kind of like in my household when our daughter does something really cute, my wife goes \u201clook at our daughter, isn\u2019t she the cutest thing,\u201d but then when she acts up my wife suddenly switches the pronoun around, she goes \u201cdid you see what your daughter just did?\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 So Jesus is switching the pronoun, He\u2019s no longer saying it\u2019s \u201cMy house,\u201d He\u2019s saying it\u2019s \u201cyour house.\u201d\n\nNow the replacement theologians say that\u2019s it, God is through with Israel because they stop reading right there.\u00a0 But that\u2019s not the end of it, is it?\u00a0 If you look at verse 38, \u201cFor I say \u2026 you will not see Me\u201d again \u201cuntil\u2026.\u201d\u00a0 In other words, Israel\u2019s blindness is not final; one of these days the blinder is going to come off and Christ is going to return and rescue that nation at the end of the tribulation period.\u00a0 But it\u2019s conditioned upon them saying publicly, \u201cBLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD!\u201d\u00a0 Now you\u2019ll notice in verse 39 that \u201cBLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD!\u201d\u00a0 is a citation; It\u2019s a citation from Psalm 118:26, which is a Messianic Psalm.\u00a0 [Psalm 118:26 \u201cBlessed is the one who comes in the name of the LORD; We have blessed you from the house of the LORD.\u201d]\n\nIf you go back into Matthew 21 what you\u2019ll see is this is the citation, around verse 9, right in there, it\u2019s a citation of some people on Palm Sunday. \u00a0[Matthew 21:9, \u201cThe crowds going ahead of Him, and those who followed, were shouting, \u2018Hosanna to the Son of David; BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD; Hosanna in the highest!\u201d]\n\nSome of the crowd was changing this because they were acknowledging Jesus as the Messiah.\u00a0 Unfortunately not enough of them did, the Pharisees certainly didn\u2019t.\u00a0 So Jesus is saying, \u201dyour house is left desolate,\u201d you\u2019re going into discipline, and you, as a nation, I\u2019m going to go work with another people now, the church.\u00a0 You as a nation are not going to see Me again until I hear Psalm 118:26.\u00a0 In other words,\u00a0 you have to publicly confess Me as the Messiah and then (and ONLY then) will I return and rescue you.\n\nMatthew 23 leads into what?\u00a0 Matthew 24, right, do you all agree with that thinking?\u00a0\u00a0 Matthew 23 first then Matthew 24.\u00a0 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 \u201cbecause we get all of\u00a0 it.\u201d\u00a0 And that\u2019s not the right answer.\u00a0 The Olivet Discourse means it was given on the Mount of Olives.\u00a0 So Jesus begins to articulate the circumstances through which Israel will come to faith, which is the events of the great tribulation, He\u2019s going back to Old Testament themes in the book of Deuteronomy, He\u2019s (I believe) in His mind is Jeremiah 30:7 and other passages which says Israel is going to be converted to God eventually, through a time of great distress called the Great Tribulation period.\u00a0 [Jeremiah 30:7, \u201c'Alas! for that day is great, There is none like it; And it is the time of Jacob's distress, But he will be saved from it.\u201d]\n\nAnd then the time will come where they\u2019re going to acknowledge Him as the Messiah and then what\u2019s going to happen?\u00a0 Look at Matthew 24:31, this is not the rapture, forget the rapture\u2026 I mean, don\u2019t forget it but the rapture concerns the church, we\u2019re dealing her with Israel after the church is gone, \u201cAnd He will send forth His angels with A GREAT TRUMPET and THEY WILL GATHER TOGETHER His elect\u201d that\u2019s the Jewish people \u201cfrom the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.\u201d\u00a0 Now notice this wording here, \u201cTHEY WILL GATHER\u201d them.\u00a0 Do you know what Greek word that is?\u00a0 episunag\u014d<\/em>, synagogue.\u00a0 It\u2019s the exact same verb that he used at the end of Matthew 23 when said I wanted to gather you the first time but you were unwilling.\n\nBut the second time you will (as a people) acknowledge Me, you will chant publicly Psalm 118:26 and I will gather you. [\u201cBlessed is the one who comes in the name of the LORD; We have blessed you from the house of the LORD.\u201d] And then Matthew 24 leads into what?\u00a0 Matthew 25.\u00a0 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 nations.\u00a0 [Matthew 25:31, \u201c\"But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne.\u201d]\u00a0 That\u2019s the kingdom and the Davidic age.\n\nBut you see all of that is conditioned on Israel\u2019s public response to Jesus.\u00a0 Do you follow that?\u00a0 That\u2019s why when Paul cites Romans 10:9-10, as he is articulating God\u2019s plan for Israel he is dialing back into Joel 2:32 and perhaps in his mind are passages like Matthew 23:37-39.\n\nSo what am I trying to say? What I\u2019m trying to say is this: If you understand the Bible in context what you\u2019ll discover is Romans 10:9-10 has absolutely nothing to do with a church age believer trusting in Christ and confessing Jesus to get saved.\u00a0 It has zero to do with that.\u00a0 What it has to do with is Israel publically fulfilling a condition by acknowledging Christ at the end of the tribulation period.\u00a0 And Paul is not rehearsing every jot and tittle of that because he\u2019s assuming that the audience he\u2019s speaking to understands these things.\u00a0 We don\u2019t because we\u2019re not taught very well about the Bible in Christendom today and so we go in and we \u201ccherry-pick\u201d a verse without really understanding what it\u2019s saying. We think it means I\u2019ve got to believe and tell my neighbors about Jesus or I\u2019m not a Christian when in reality Paul is saying it\u2019s 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.\u00a0 That\u2019s what it\u2019s talking about.\n\nSo Romans 10:9-10 is not saying what people think it\u2019s saying.\u00a0 And don\u2019t take my word for it, I know I just gave\u00a0 you a lot of stuff to think about, but study it out in light of the context that it appears in.\u00a0 There\u2019s a reason this statement shows up in Romans 10 where\u00a0 Paul is articulating God\u2019s program for the nation of Israel.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure there\u2019s a lot of questions on that so let me go to another verse, we\u2019ll do questions at the end.\n\nLet\u2019s go over to Matthew 10:32-33, this is another verse that people use to say you have to publicly confess Christ or you\u2019re not a Christian.\u00a0 As a matter of fact, we\u2019ve 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.\u00a0 And I said no, not that I\u2019m against altar calls if they\u2019re explained correctly.\u00a0 But I said no, and they said well, you\u2019re violating the Bible.\u00a0 I go I am?\u00a0 They said yes you are, and they quoted Matthew 10:32-33.\n\nSo let\u2019s look at this, Jesus says, \u201cTherefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. [33] But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven.\u201d\u00a0 Now I say this gently because my own mother was saved under the influence of Billy Graham\u2019s ministry, but this is the verse that Billy Graham and all the other evangelists quote when they\u2019re at the end of their crusade, giving people opportunity to come forward and publicly confess Christ, they always quote this verse, if you confess Him before man then He\u2019ll confess you before the Father.\n\nNow I had a student and I was trying to put this in context and a lot of time\u00a0 you teach and you don\u2019t know whether you\u2019re getting through to people or not, but she came up to me afterwards and she said I\u2019m so grateful that you went over this today in class.\u00a0 I said why?\u00a0 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\u00a0 years that I am really not a true Christian because I have never mustered the courage to go forward. \u00a0Now am I against people mustering courage to come forward to trust Christ?\u00a0 Of course I\u2019m not against public displays of Christ.\u00a0 What I\u2019m against is making people feel that believing in Jesus is not enough, you have to believe and confess.\u00a0 And because these verses are thrown at people constantly they sit there and they say well, if I don\u2019t go forward I guess I\u2019m not a true Christian.\u00a0 Not to mention what do you do with the person in the wheel chair, or the person that\u2019s an invalid.\u00a0 Or the person that\u2019s paralyzed from the neck down watching it on TV.\u00a0 What are they supposed to think?\u00a0 And I think because we\u2019re sloppy with our use of verses we emotionally and unnecessarily can injure people.\n\nSo here\u2019s a verse they all quote, confess Me before men and I will confess\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Does anybody recall that?\u00a0 Okay, I had half a hand go up\n\nThe offer of the kingdom to Israel is something you have to understand to interpret verses correctly in early Matthew.\n\nSo 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.\u00a0 You\u2019ll find all of that in Genesis 15.\u00a0 Is that covenant conditional or unconditional?\u00a0 Unconditional, meaning it rests\u00a0 totally upon God fulfilling these things, not on the performance of Israel.\n\nThen 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 confinement or isolation about 400 years.\u00a0 So they came out, that\u2019s where the Exodus event happened, the parting of the Red Sea and so forth.\u00a0 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. \u201c 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.\u00a0 [6] For all the earth is Mine and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation,\u00a0 These are<\/em> the words that you shall speak unto the children of Israel.\u201d\u00a0 [Exodus 19:5-6]\n\nNow you see the words \u201cif\u201d and \u201cthen\u201d if you do this then I\u2019ll do that.\u00a0 Is that conditional or unconditional?\u00a0 That\u2019s conditioned.\u00a0 So the\u00a0 great issue is then if Israel has an unconditional covenant called the Abrahamic Covenant why is God giving them conditions in the Mosaic Covenant?\u00a0 And here\u2019s the best conceptual tool I know of to explain this.\u00a0 There\u2019s a difference between ownership and possession.\u00a0 You can own something but not actually possess it or enjoy it.\n\nSo for example, let\u2019s pretend I have a beach house in the Hamptons, which I don\u2019t by the way.\u00a0 But I\u2019m so busy working paying for it, I own it\u2026 the bank owns most of it but I\u2019m working my way through that, paying it down and now I\u2019m starting to own more and more, but I\u2019m not really enjoying it because I\u2019m not in a place where I can possess it yet.\u00a0 Do you follow? You can own something but not possess it.\u00a0 So the Abrahamic Covenant gives to the nation of Israel ownership of these blessings: land, seed and blessing.\n\nNothing can ever take those away from Israel; those blessings will always be Israel\u2019s for eternity because they\u2019re given unconditionally in the Abrahamic Covenant.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 As long as Israel is in disobedience to the Mosaic Covenant they will be the owner and not the possessor.\u00a0 And the kingdom, earthly millennial kingdom will be in a state of postponement\u2026 not cancellation.\n\nBut the moment Israel responds to the Mosaic Covenant, and by the way, who does the Mosaic Covenant point towards?\u00a0 Directly to Christ, in John 5 Jesus said, \u201cIf you would have believed Moses you would have believed me, for he wrote about me. [John 5:46]\u00a0\u00a0 And in the Mosaic Covenant, in Deuteronomy 17:15 the nation is obligated to enthrone the king of God\u2019s choosing, which points to Christ.\u00a0 [Deuteronomy 17:15, \u201cyou shall surely set a king over you whom the LORD your God chooses, one from among your countrymen you shall set as king over yourselves; you may not put a foreigner over yourselves who is not your countryman.\u201d]\n\nThere has never been a generation of Jews that have done that, so consequently they are the owners but not the possessors.\u00a0 And as long as they are the owners but not the possessors the kingdom will remain in a state of postponement, not cancellation.\u00a0 God can\u2019t cancel Israel\u2019s program because of which covenant?\u00a0 The Abrahamic Covenant.\u00a0 But He cannot bring the kingdom to the earth regardless of what Israel does because of which covenant?\u00a0 The Mosaic Covenant.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 And so the kingdom that will come to the earth one day, when Israel is both possessor and owner because she\u2019ll be in faith, is very well described in the Old Testament.\u00a0 If you just read tonight Isaiah 2:1-4 and Isaiah 11:6-9 you would get a pretty good description of the kingdom.\n\n[Isaiah 2:1-4, \u201cThe word which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.\u00a0 [2] Now it will come about that In the last days The mountain of the house of the LORD Will be established as the chief of the mountains, And will be raised above the hills; And all the nations will stream to it.\u00a0 [3] And many peoples will come and say, \"Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, To the house of the God of Jacob; That He may teach us concerning His ways And that we may walk in His paths.\" For the law will go forth from Zion And the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.\u00a0 [4] And He will judge between the nations, And will render decisions for many peoples; And they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, And never again will they learn war.\u201d\n\nIsaiah 11:6-9, \u201cAnd the wolf will dwell with the lamb, And the leopard will lie down with the young goat, And the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; And a little boy will lead them.\u00a0 [7] Also the cow and the bear will graze, Their young will lie down together, And the lion will eat straw like the ox.\u00a0 [8] The nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra, And the weaned child will put his hand on the viper's den.\u00a0 [9] They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain, For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD As the waters cover the sea.\u201d]\n\nIt\u2019s a time where Jerusalem is the center of world and spiritual\/political power; it\u2019s a time of perfect justice, it\u2019s a time of world peace, it\u2019s a time where there\u2019s even peace in the animal kingdom, where wolf and lamb will lie down together and a child will put his hand or her hand into the cobra\u2019s nest and not be harmed.\u00a0 And it\u2019s a time when the knowledge of the Lord fills the whole earth.\u00a0 That\u2019s 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.\u00a0 That\u2019s what is meant by the expression, \u201cRepent, for the kingdom of God is\u201d what?\u00a0 \u201cat hand.\u201d\u00a0 You\u2019ll notice in Matthew\u2019s Gospel he records that phrase as being used by John the Baptist, Matthew 3:2, Jesus Christ Himself, Matthew 4:17.\n\n[Matthew 3:2, \u201cRepent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.\u2019\u00a0 [3] For this is the one referred to by Isaiah the prophet when he said, \u201cTHE VOICE OF ONE CRYING IN THE WILDERNESS, \u2018MAKE READY THE WAY OF THE LORD, MAKE HIS PATHS STRAIGHT.\u2019\u2019\u00a0\u00a0 Matthew 4:17, \u201cFrom that time Jesus began to preach and say, \u2018Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.\u2019\u201d]\n\nAnd who else used the expression?\u00a0 The twelve apostles, that\u2019s what\u2019s happening in Matthew 10, it\u2019s using the passage that everybody quotes about you\u2019ve got to confess me before men.\u00a0 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 preach the offer of the kingdom, no you go, only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and preach the offer of the kingdom.\n\nThe turning point in the whole thing is Matthew 12:24 where the Pharisees attribute Christ\u2019s miracles to who?\u00a0 Satan.\u00a0 And you\u2019ll find that in Matthew 12:24, [\u201cBut when the Pharisees heard this, they said, \u2018This man casts out demons only by Beelzebul the ruler of the demons.\u201d]\n\nThat changes everything once that happens because once that takes place the offer of the kingdom is withdrawn, it\u2019s off the table, it never even shows up again until Matthew\u2019s description of the tribulation period.\u00a0 And so what we learn is a postponement in the kingdom where there\u2019s going to be a new age of time, called the interadvent age that you and I are living in, that\u2019s been going on at least 2,000 years.\n\nAnd Christ explains the course of that age through eight parables in Matthew 13.\u00a0 And it\u2019s at this point that Jesus begins to talk about an interim program called the church because he says in Matthew 16:18, \u201cI will build My\u201d what\u201d \u201cchurch; and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.\u201d\n\nBut you look it and\u00a0 you say \u201cchurch,\u201d where did this come from?\u00a0 The church was always contemplated in God\u2019s mind, it just hadn\u2019t 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.\u00a0 Well, Matthew 12 makes it very clear that they\u2019re not going to accept it, so now we get into description of interim age, Matthew 13, and a description of the church.\n\nWe know one of these days, I hope sooner than later, the church will be removed from the earth through the rapture.\u00a0 Now can God forget Israel?\u00a0 No, He cannot because of which covenant?\u00a0 The Abrahamic Covenant.\u00a0 So he puts them under duress\u2026 here\u2019s some good theology, ready? The guy that led me to Christ gave me this piece of theology, I\u2019ve never forgot it.\u00a0 God knocks us down so we look what? up.\u00a0 Isn\u2019t that how He works in all of our lives when you think about it.\n\nThat\u2019s how He\u2019s going to work with Israel; He can\u2019t just give them the kingdom while they\u2019re in unbelief.\u00a0 Which covenant will prevent Him from doing that?\u00a0 The Mosaic.\u00a0 So He\u2019s going to put them under great stress, called the Tribulation, whereby they won\u2019t have a friend in the world.\u00a0 And the man they thought was their Messiah, the antichrist just desecrated their temple three and a half years into the tribulation.\u00a0 And this is where they say I don\u2019t have anybody to trust but God, and it\u2019s during that second half of the tribulation period that they will confess Christ, Romans 10:9-10, be rescued by Jesus from the antichrist at the end of the tribulation period.\n\nSo one of these days that kingdom will be accepted.\u00a0 What you have to understand is there\u2019s a huge transition going on in Christ\u2019s ministry right there in chapter 12. Chapters 1-12 His public ministry; chapters 13-28 is private ministry.\u00a0 The first part of the book He is offering the kingdom to the nation; the second part of the book the offer of the kingdom is off the table and He\u2019s now training the remnant, who are going to be the foundations of that what?\u00a0 The coming age of the church.\u00a0 Doesn\u2019t Ephesians 2:20 says that God build the church on the foundation of the apostles. [Ephesians 2:20, \u201chaving been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone.\u201d]\n\nAnd these guys, when you study them, God didn\u2019t have much to work with with these guys.\u00a0 It gives us hope too, right; if He can use them He can use us.\u00a0 But He\u2019s got to shape these guy\u2019s character and that\u2019s who He\u2019s working with in the second half of Matthew\u2019s Gospel.\u00a0 So His miracles change in purpose, the original purpose was to prove to the nation that He\u2019s the King, but then He says no more miracles for you, you adulterous generation, you will not receive one more miracle from Me except the sign of Jonah, which is His resurrection, which will prove to them that they were wrong in rejecting Him.\n\nThe miracles in the second part of Matthew\u2019s Gospel were all for the benefit of who?\u00a0 The training of the remnant.\u00a0 That\u2019s why He has Peter walk out to Him on the water, and Peter begins to sink and so forth; He\u2019s preparing Peter\u2019s faith because he\u2019s going to be the main man in Acts 1-10, he just doesn\u2019t know it yet.\u00a0 He\u2019s got to be prepared.\u00a0 The offer of the kingdom is prominent in the first part of the Gospel, it disappears in the second part.\u00a0 The phraseology, \u201cRepent, for the kingdom of God is at hand\u201d doesn\u2019t 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 evangelist and the two Jewish witnesses.\u00a0 And you\u2019ll find a reference to the reinstated offer of the kingdom late in Matthew 24:14.\u00a0 [Matthew 24:14, \u201cThis gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.\u201d]\u00a0 Other than that there\u2019s no reference to it.\n\nIn the first part of the book Christ taught publicly in discourse form; in the second part of the book He starts talking in parables.\u00a0 Now He never gave the Sermon on the Mount in parables; He never gave the missions discourse in parables.\u00a0 Why is He talking in parables all of a sudden?\u00a0 Because a parable is designed to conceal and reveal; a parable conceals truth from one person and reveals it to another.\u00a0 He is deliberately concealing truth from the nation that just attributed His miracles to Beelzebub, and He\u2019s revealing truth to who?\u00a0 The remnant.\u00a0 The interim program of the age of the church is 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.\n\nSo what am I trying to say?\u00a0 I am trying to say there\u2019s a context here for Matthew 10:32-33, that\u2019s what I\u2019m trying to say.\u00a0 The context of this is not to get every church in the age of the church to give an altar call, that\u2019s not its purpose.\u00a0 It\u2019s the words of Christ that He gave to His disciples as He sent them out to preach the offer of the kingdom.\u00a0 Now if\u00a0 you\u2019re going to say Matthew 10:32-33 is normative today in the life of the church, you can\u2019t just grab those verses, you\u2019ve also got to have Matthew 10:5-7.\u00a0 Do you know what that says:\u00a0 \u201cThese twelve Jesus sent out after instructing them: \u2018Do not go in the<\/em> way of the<\/em> Gentiles,\u2019\u201d see that, \u201cand do not enter any<\/em> city of the Samaritans; [6] but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.\u201d\n\nWhy would He say that?\u00a0 Because this is an offer of the kingdom to them, because they are the covenanted nation. So they were given the opportunity to embrace Christ and have the kingdom, which they rejected.\u00a0 So if you\u2019re going to make Matthew 10:32-33 normative in the life of the church, which a lot of people do, then you can\u2019t just stop reading there, you have to include verses 5-7.\u00a0 Obviously verses 5-7 are not things we quote today or use.\u00a0 I mean, if you\u2019re having a missions conference are you going to use Matthew 10;5-7, \u201cGo only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.\u201d\n\nNow why is it that when you get to Matthew 28, the great commission, He no longer says \u201cGo only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,\u201d but He says, \u201cGo and make disciples of every nation.\u201d\u00a0 You see the radical change between this verse here in Matthew 10 and the great commission in Matthew 28?\u00a0 Why the change?\u00a0 Because there is a change of rules that\u2019s happening through Matthew\u2019s Gospel\u2014the offer of the Kingdom has been extended and rejected.\u00a0 Now He\u2019s raising up who?\u00a0 The church.\u00a0 The church\u2019s mission is not to bring in the kingdom, the kingdom will come when who responds to the King? Israel.\u00a0 The church\u2019s mission is to go and make what?\u00a0 Disciples of all nations.\u00a0 Now you compare Matthew 28 and Matthew 10 and you\u2019ll see two radically different sets of instructions.\u00a0 And you cannot make any sense of that unless you understand this framework that I\u2019m giving you, that there was an offer to Israel and it was rejected; the offer is withdrawn, first century Israel was moving off into discipline.\u00a0 Now God is working through a totally different entity, what Paul calls a \u201cnew man,\u201d called the church.\n\nSo all of this to say, going back to Matthew 10:32-33, what\u2019s he getting at here: \u201cTherefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. [33] But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven.\u201d\n\nWho\u2019s He talking to?\u00a0 The disciples, as He\u2019s sending them out to preach the offer of the kingdom.\u00a0 How do I know that?\u00a0 Go back to the beginning of the chapter.\u00a0 Matthew 10:1-2, \u201cJesus summoned His\u201d what, \u201ctwelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.\u00a0 [12] Now the names of the twelve apostles are these: The first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; and James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; [3] Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; jams the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; [4] Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed Him.\u201d\n\nThat\u2019s who He\u2019s talking to.\u00a0 And then He says in verse 5, \u201cDo not go in the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter any city of the Samaritans; [6] but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.\u00a0 [7] And as you go, preach, saying, \u2018The kingdom of heaven is at hand.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 He is commissioning them to go out and preach the offer of the kingdom.\u00a0 Now, as they are preaching the offer of the kingdom, what do you think unbelieving Israel is going to do to these guys?\u00a0 Reject them.\n\nSo Christ then knows the timidity of the disciples and He makes this statement, \u201cWhoever confesses Me before men, I will confess him before My Father who is in heaven.\u00a0 Whoever denies Me before men, I will deny Him before My Father in heaven.\u201d\u00a0 That is not a statement about the saved status of the disciples.\u00a0 We know that they are saved, every one of them except Judas.\u00a0 He is making a statement there, not about their salvation but about rewards.\u00a0 You\u2019re going to go out, you\u2019re going to preach this offer of the kingdom, you\u2019re going to experience hostility back, but I want you 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\u2019re saved but whether you\u2019re going to be fully what? Rewarded at the Bema Seat.\u00a0 See that.\n\nIt\u2019s a statement here about reward; it\u2019s not a statement about whether these people are saved or not, whether they\u2019ve gone through two steps or not.\u00a0 So I would say this: Matthew 10, to use it and apply it to the church as a requirement for an altar call is, number 1, an abuse of the passage.\u00a0 You say well, can\u2019t we apply some of it.\u00a0 Well, okay, if you want to apply some of it I would apply it this way: you\u2019re going to go out in your work place, you\u2019re not going to preach the offer of the kingdom, you\u2019re going to preach the gospel, and there\u2019s an awful lot of people out there that are going to make fun of you, they\u2019re going to call\u00a0 you a Jesus freak, they may call you the f word, which is the worst word\u00a0 you can call somebody in this culture, \u201cf<\/u>undamentalist.\u201d\u00a0 And you\u2019re going to be tempted to just sort of withdraw and not be bold about the gospel.\u00a0 But go ahead and share the gospel anyway, because Jesus knows what you\u2019re doing for Him and one of these days He\u2019s going to give you a full what?\u00a0 Reward.\u00a0 See the difference.\u00a0 It\u2019s not oh, I\u2019ve got to believe and confess Christ or I\u2019m not saved.\u00a0 That\u2019s not what it\u2019s saying at all.\u00a0 He is encouraging His disciples to preach the offer of the kingdom so they can be confessed before the Father in terms of a full reward.\n\nSo we, our salvation is secure but we should live for Jesus, boldly proclaim Jesus, not because I\u2019m somehow afraid that I\u2019m not a Christian, but there is a doctrine of rewards in the Bible.\u00a0 All those rewarded are believers, but not all believers are equally rewarded.\u00a0 That\u2019s the theology I\u2019m using here.\u00a0 Everyone who receives a reward is a believer but not all believers are equally rewarded; not all believers are rewarded.\u00a0 Some make it into heaven and they smell the smoke on their garments.\u00a0 You say well, where do you find that in the Bible?\u00a0 It\u2019s in 1 Corinthians 3:15,\u00a0 you\u2019ll see it crystal clear.\u00a0 [1 Corinthians 3:15, \u201cIf any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.\u201d]\n\nGod, who is all knowing, knows that some of his children are living for Him aggressively and some aren\u2019t.\u00a0 Now whether you live for Christ aggressively or not doesn\u2019t determine whether you\u2019re saved because that would be salvation by works.\u00a0 But God, who is all just and all-knowing is aware of which of His children are living for Him and which ones aren\u2019t, and the ones that are are going to be more fully rewarded than others.\n\nSo if you want to apply Matthew 10 in any sense that\u2019s how I would apply it, if that makes any sense at all.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 The answer is no; those are passages which I would describe this way, they are dispensationally misapplied. 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\u2019t God do that with His program for Israel and His program for the church?\u00a0 And when people are cherry-picking verses for God\u2019s program for Israel, as they do in Romans 10 and as they do in Matthew 10 as I\u2019ve tried to explain, and indiscriminately apply them to the church they are dispensationally misapplying verses.\n\nSome of you look stunned, dazed and confused, so if you\u2019ve got to go and get your kids we\u2019ll let you do that and then I\u2019m sure there\u2019s probably some questions.","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t