The NXR Podcast - THE SERMON - Cowards Will Go To Hell

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00:00:27.600 Please join me in standing for the reading of God's word.

00:00:29.540 Our text for today is the gospel according to Matthew chapter 10, verses 24 through 33.

00:00:35.080 Again, that's Matthew chapter 10, verses 24 through 33.

00:00:38.500 I'll read our text for us in its entirety.

00:00:40.560 When I finish reading the text, I'm going to say this is the word of the Lord,

00:00:43.800 at which point I would appreciate very much if you would respond by saying thanks be to God.

00:00:48.700 One final time, our text for today is the gospel according to Matthew chapter 10, verses 24 through 33.

00:00:54.940 The Bible says this.

00:00:56.300 A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master.

00:01:01.060 It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher and the servant like his master.

00:01:06.540 If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household? 0.88

00:01:13.960 So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known.

00:01:20.880 What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the

00:01:27.280 housetops. And do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul. Rather, fear him

00:01:33.760 who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a pinning? And not one

00:01:41.020 of them will fall to the ground apart from your father. But even the hairs of your head are all

00:01:47.040 numbered. Fear not, therefore, you are of more value than many sparrows. So everyone who

00:01:54.300 acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven. But whoever

00:02:01.080 denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven. This is the word of the

00:02:08.480 Lord. All right, please be seated. Let's go ahead and dive right in. I want to focus our attention

00:02:14.680 on verses 24 and 25 the first two verses of the text

00:02:18.420 seen here the calling of the disciple what's at stake what the qualifications

00:02:26.060 are the conditions the criteria what the cost of discipleship entails

00:02:31.720 Jesus says to his disciples a disciple is not above his teacher and the point

00:02:40.120 that Jesus is making here is that the disciple, a student, should not expect to have a radically

00:02:48.300 different experience than his teacher. If something happens to the teacher, it is very likely that the

00:02:55.620 student will have a similar experience, right? If they persecute the teacher, they will persecute

00:03:02.600 the disciple, the student. If they persecute the master, they will persecute the slave. There's

00:03:09.640 only one way, ultimately, to escape persecution in this life, and that is to be a bad disciple.

00:03:16.580 You can be loved by the world, and it's actually not that complicated. It's fairly simple. All you

00:03:22.680 have to do is look nothing like Christ. That's all you have to do. And the cost is also

00:03:28.900 straightforward. It's heavy. I won't lie. It's a steep cost, but it's straightforward. The cost

00:03:34.540 is your soul. You will be denied by Christ before his father and cast into hell. So easy to garner 0.97

00:03:44.000 the love of the world, easy to escape all forms of persecution from the world, and all it costs you

00:03:51.860 is eternity in hell. Now the alternative is to actually be commended by Christ before his father

00:04:02.400 who is in heaven, and to experience the eternal bliss of joy and peace in the presence of God

00:04:07.740 forever. But the cost of that, namely the cost of discipleship, is that you will endure some degree,

00:04:14.960 some measure, at some periodic moments of time, seasons in this life of persecution. Why? Because

00:04:21.700 Jesus did. And a good disciple, a good student, is going to be formed more and more into the

00:04:28.320 likeness of his teacher. A good servant is going to love his master and obey his master, behave as

00:04:37.260 the master behaves, and he's going to slowly, gradually, through sanctification, look more and

00:04:42.880 more like his master. So whatever the consensus is of the world toward the master, that will be

00:04:50.180 the consensus toward the slave. Whatever the consensus is of the world towards the teacher,

00:04:57.620 that will be the opinion that the world holds toward the student. This is inescapable. A good

00:05:04.560 disciple looks like Jesus. And if you look like Jesus, you should assume and anticipate

00:05:12.260 experiencing what Jesus experienced, which is both sharing in his glory and sharing in his

00:05:21.080 suffering. I've written in your notes, true Christian discipleship will always involve at

00:05:25.800 least some degree of identification with Christ in his suffering. If we are in Christ, that union

00:05:32.640 brings with it a share in both his glory and his rejection. Remember Isaiah prophesying, speaking

00:05:40.940 of the Christ. Said he came to his own people, but they received him not. That persecution

00:05:47.480 contains within it a rejection. Rejection from the world. The believer, therefore, must count

00:05:56.660 the cost of discipleship. Faithfulness leads to conflict. Faithfulness leads to conflict.

00:06:04.740 there is a cost to discipleship when it comes to salvation salvation is a work of god's grace

00:06:11.860 and god's salvific grace is free it is without cost right all who are weary and heavy laden

00:06:20.260 come to me and i will give them rest right jesus promises that he'll give a honey and milk without

00:06:27.040 price. So the salvation that we have is free. It is the free gift of God. It is by grace alone,

00:06:35.520 through faith alone, in Christ alone. But discipleship, there's a distinction here.

00:06:41.280 Discipleship is the lifelong process from the point of conversion, salvation, to the point of

00:06:47.120 death, where we are following Christ and becoming more and more conformed into His image. And if we

00:06:54.660 are to do this, which is also by grace and the work of the Spirit within us, if we are to do this

00:07:00.660 well, then we will experience a cost. We will experience what Jesus experienced, at least some

00:07:08.340 measure of that. Some degree of the persecution that Jesus experienced will be our experience

00:07:14.480 as well. So there is a cost to discipleship. So again, I don't want to blur lines here theologically.

00:07:20.120 Salvation is free.

00:07:23.000 Discipleship is costly.

00:07:25.280 Now, that said, there is no salvation apart from discipleship.

00:07:31.340 So what does that mean?

00:07:32.280 Is it tit for tat?

00:07:33.680 Quid pro quo?

00:07:35.100 Is it I have to be a disciple and do a good job following Jesus

00:07:40.020 and rack up persecution and suffering points in order to earn or merit salvation?

00:07:46.740 No, it's exactly the opposite.

00:07:48.780 It is not if we work hard at being disciples and experience the rejection and persecution that Christ himself experienced,

00:07:57.260 then we will somehow earn or merit salvation.

00:08:00.600 No, it's if we have, in fact, received salvation freely, completely free,

00:08:06.420 then we will necessarily, not to earn salvation, but as an evidence of salvation, we will be good disciples.

00:08:14.120 And if we're good disciples, because we've been saved and salvation entails being transformed and being made a new creature in Christ Jesus with a new nature that allows for us and also compels us to live in new ways, to go against the grain, if these things happen by grace alone, as a free gift without cost alone, it will necessarily evidence itself.

00:08:43.400 This salvation, this transformation, being made a new creature in Christ Jesus will evidence itself in a new life, in a counter-cultural life.

00:08:54.820 And that life of discipleship, that's what will merit persecution. 0.98

00:08:59.340 So no, it is not be a good disciple, get persecuted, earn salvation.

00:09:04.420 No, it is receive salvation as a free gift of God through faith, which is also a gift, right?

00:09:11.200 The salvation itself is the grace. Grace is free, unmerited favor, undeserved love. So the grace

00:09:19.500 of salvation is free. And the empty hand that receives the gift of grace is faith, which is

00:09:27.480 also a gift. So it's the gift of salvation that is grace. Grace is a gift. That grace is picked up

00:09:34.440 by the hand, empty hand of faith, which is also a gift.

00:09:38.380 God gives faith.

00:09:40.820 Faith comes from God.

00:09:42.460 It is not something that we in ourselves,

00:09:45.380 apart from God's miraculous work in conversion,

00:09:48.980 faith is something that no man is capable of conjuring up

00:09:53.180 in and of himself.

00:09:54.580 So it's both the grace, salvation itself,

00:09:57.280 and the faith that picks up that gift of grace.

00:10:00.840 Both are a gift from God.

00:10:02.400 Grace is a gift. Faith is a gift. And if God freely gives you these two gifts of grace and faith,

00:10:09.760 then you will be a new creature in Christ Jesus. And all of that comes without cost.

00:10:16.380 But the evidence of that, the outflow and manifestation of that is a new life, a life of

00:10:23.460 discipleship that looks more and more like Jesus and therefore merits and garners similar experiences

00:10:30.280 that Jesus himself endured, namely persecution. That's verses 24 and 25 of our text. Now, John

00:10:39.360 chapter 15, verse 20. Jesus is teaching the same concept here. And he says, remember the word that

00:10:46.560 I said to you, a servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also

00:10:52.600 persecute you. So thus far, what we've discussed is the idea of the student should look like the

00:10:59.560 teacher, right? The slave should look like the master. And if the teacher slash master experiences

00:11:06.960 persecution, then so will the student slash slave. But to get a little bit more specific now,

00:11:14.240 see, John just speaks of persecution. John 15 verse 20. Remember the word that I said to you,

00:11:21.000 a servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted, there's the word me, they will also

00:11:26.100 persecute you. But what's helpful about our primary text for today, namely Matthew chapter 10

00:11:32.180 verses 24 and 25, is that Jesus adds a little bit more specificity. He's a little bit more

00:11:39.560 particular and clarifying on what form that persecution will likely come. And what is it?

00:11:48.520 He uses this word in verse 25, malign, malign.

00:11:56.300 Look at verse 25.

00:11:58.020 It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher and the servant like his master.

00:12:02.000 If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign? 0.60

00:12:10.220 Not just they might also malign.

00:12:13.000 If they maligned me, that is slandered and lied about me.

00:12:18.520 not just nailing him to a tree.

00:12:20.960 That's persecution.

00:12:21.920 That's rough.

00:12:23.280 And I can't promise,

00:12:25.180 but statistically,

00:12:26.360 it is very likely that no one in this room

00:12:28.500 will be crucified.

00:12:29.680 Praise God. 0.96

00:12:30.900 That's great.

00:12:32.080 However, that's not the only type

00:12:34.480 or category of persecution that Jesus endured.

00:12:37.780 One of the most frequent forms of persecution

00:12:40.400 that Jesus endured

00:12:41.800 was men's speech against him.

00:12:46.000 They lied about him.

00:12:48.520 they bore false witness about him.

00:12:51.920 They slandered him.

00:12:53.840 Or the word in our text today,

00:12:55.900 they maligned him.

00:12:57.140 And in this case,

00:12:58.380 when it comes to the physical persecution of Jesus,

00:13:02.060 we're probably not going to experience

00:13:04.940 more physical persecution than Jesus.

00:13:08.820 Now, for the record,

00:13:09.920 there have been historically throughout this church age

00:13:12.860 many followers of Jesus,

00:13:14.460 many martyrs who did experience that degree

00:13:17.880 or even greater degrees of the persecution that Jesus experienced, even in the physical category.

00:13:24.080 Peter himself was crucified upside down. Men were beheaded. Men were boiled alive, drawn and

00:13:31.940 quartered. I think I explained that a couple Sundays ago, but it's worth explaining again

00:13:36.180 because this is just a fan favorite for the kids. You know, for every mom, you know, tonight having

00:13:40.460 to console their kids, you know, that I'm too scared to go to sleep. But being drawn and quartered

00:13:45.460 Is where they would use a sword and cut a portion, severing the appendages here, but not entirely, with your arms from your torso and then also your two legs.

00:13:56.800 And then they would tie your wrist to two different horses and your ankles to two different horses and then say, giddy up.

00:14:05.640 And you would be ripped apart, physically ripped apart.

00:14:09.100 Not great.

00:14:10.300 There's a lot of ways to go.

00:14:11.720 That's not the top of the list, right?

00:14:14.580 That's not great.

00:14:15.460 Here's the point. There were people who died this way for their faith and devotion to Jesus.

00:14:21.520 So there have been people in this church age, in this gospel age, who have suffered even in the

00:14:26.980 physical category of persecution as much or even more greater physical suffering than Jesus did

00:14:34.740 himself. In our current moment, it's not to say that it could never happen again, but in our

00:14:40.300 current moment, it is likely, can't promise, but likely that we will not endure that degree of

00:14:46.940 physical persecution. So we will be persecuted if we look like Jesus. We probably will experience

00:14:53.220 less physical persecution than Jesus did. However, the words of Jesus, we can't miss this, the words

00:15:00.000 of Jesus, they seem to promise that we would experience in another realm of persecution,

00:15:06.900 not physical but in terms of speech maligning slandering that we would experience not less

00:15:13.840 but actually more persecution than jesus again the text this is verse 25 second half if they

00:15:20.480 have called the master of the house beelzebul how much more will they malign those of his household

00:15:27.680 and that i think is incredibly applicable and relevant for us probably not going to be martyrs

00:15:36.740 could happen. Hope it doesn't. Pray it doesn't. Physical martyrdom is unlikely for us in this

00:15:45.780 moment, in this context. But being maligned, that is very likely. And not only is it likely

00:15:53.840 or plausible that we might be maligned to the same degree as Jesus or a lesser degree,

00:16:00.940 but again the words of christ himself how much more will they malign those of his household

00:16:08.000 see christ himself was called beelzebul right he was called satan they they called the son of god

00:16:17.580 a son of satan or satan himself there's another context in the gospel narratives where jesus is

00:16:26.420 casting out demons you guys remember this where where the pharisees and the religious jewish

00:16:31.980 leaders of that day they say of jesus they say well yeah he's casting out demons we can't deny 0.95

00:16:37.980 that but he's doing it by the power of the prince of demons and jesus says that that's that's dumb

00:16:46.180 no a house divided against itself cannot stand what what like what could you explain to me 0.62

00:16:53.020 the strategic benefit that satan would have for casting out his own kingdoms no that's not what's

00:17:01.220 going on but the point is they lied they continually slandered they continually maligned

00:17:08.860 rather than recognizing christ as the son of god they called him satan record rather than

00:17:14.920 recognizing that jesus was doing things under the supernatural power of god as god they said

00:17:21.420 well, the source of his power is actually the devil. This was slander. And this form of

00:17:27.500 persecution, men's speech against you, should be anticipated by the Christian in any season, 0.89

00:17:34.620 in any place throughout this church age, but especially, especially, I think, in our current

00:17:41.260 context and where we live today. One more word about this. We saw last week over and over,

00:17:50.100 And we can't miss this. Jesus talks about the blessing for those who are persecuted.

00:17:55.080 But he doesn't just stop there. He finishes the thought persecuted for my name's sake.

00:18:01.920 So it's not just persecution for any reason. I say I am following Jesus and I am being persecuted.

00:18:10.180 It's like, when's the last time you even said the name of Jesus out loud?

00:18:14.420 When's the last time you were preaching the gospel?

00:18:16.680 Like, my brother in Christ, you are not being persecuted for his namesake. 1.00

00:18:21.180 You're being persecuted because you're a jerk. 1.00

00:18:24.820 People hate you, but they're not hating you for preaching the gospel. 1.00

00:18:28.740 They're hating you for preaching everything else other than the gospel.

00:18:33.740 And so that has to be considered.

00:18:35.840 That has to be considered.

00:18:37.060 However, all right, so there's a disclaimer.

00:18:39.460 And we talked about that a couple weeks ago.

00:18:41.760 Persecution for his namesake.

00:18:43.580 and what does that mean his namesake that the overarching impetus of this whole chapter of

00:18:50.160 matthew and persecution of the student experiencing the persecution of the teacher and the slave the

00:18:56.280 master is being persecuted chiefly for the proclamation of the gospel of the kingdom

00:19:03.780 the proclamation of the gospel of the kingdom preaching christ preaching jesus christ that's

00:19:11.000 the big idea now that said we can make this argument i'm not going to get you know too

00:19:16.300 too far-fetched where it's like ah is that exegesis i i think you just made that up

00:19:21.580 using scripture many of jesus of the 12 his 12 apostles because they were uniquely

00:19:31.440 charged by jesus to remain in israel remember we saw that last week stay in you will have not gone

00:19:39.580 through all the towns in Israel

00:19:41.520 before the Son of Man comes.

00:19:44.240 And that's speaking of Jesus' second coming.

00:19:46.840 I know this is confusing

00:19:47.740 because you've all been taught differently.

00:19:49.500 His second coming,

00:19:50.520 which is distinct from his final coming.

00:19:52.620 So there is a final physical return of Christ

00:19:56.160 to judge the living and the dead.

00:19:57.740 We say that, we confess that

00:19:59.060 in line with the historic church

00:20:01.240 for the last 2,000 years.

00:20:02.620 We say that in the Apostles' Creed.

00:20:04.160 We affirm the Nicene Creed, Athanasius' Creed.

00:20:07.660 We believe that in our future, there is a final physical return of Christ and a culmination of

00:20:14.280 all things and ending of the gospel age. We believe that. However, we also, I'll speak for 0.84

00:20:21.580 myself, most of us, I believe that there was a second coming of Christ that is actually in our

00:20:27.440 past. So a final physical return of Christ in our future. But there was a second coming, a parousia

00:20:34.840 that has actually for us already happened. 0.74

00:20:38.200 Now, remember, we use this hermeneutic often.

00:20:41.100 All Scripture is for you, not all Scripture is to you.

00:20:45.340 All Scripture is for you in the sense that it's all of Scripture,

00:20:48.280 no matter what verse it is.

00:20:49.780 It's useful for training and rebuking.

00:20:52.340 And so the man of God would be equipped for every good work.

00:20:55.840 But not all Scripture is to you in the sense that

00:20:58.160 every single text of Scripture has in view an immediate human audio.

00:21:04.840 And so when Jesus is speaking to his disciples, it's to them.

00:21:08.580 It is literally to those disciples who are standing in front of him.

00:21:13.320 But it's for us with many universal, timeless Christian principles and virtues and doctrine

00:21:20.660 that is for all Christians, all of Jesus' broader disciples and future disciples

00:21:25.080 in all times and all places.

00:21:27.820 Okay, but as it relates to the disciples, the 12, Jesus said,

00:21:33.520 and we looked at this a couple of weeks ago,

00:21:35.740 Jesus said, you will have not gone

00:21:37.680 through all the towns in Israel

00:21:38.820 before the Son of Man comes.

00:21:41.100 And I believe that what he's speaking of,

00:21:43.640 this was the view of R.C. Sproul

00:21:45.060 and many others throughout Reformed tradition and thought,

00:21:49.180 that that coming of the Son of Man

00:21:51.480 was in reference to AD 70.

00:21:53.740 And that Jesus did in fact come,

00:21:55.900 not a final physical return,

00:21:57.840 but a spiritual parousia.

00:22:00.100 That the spirit of the risen Christ,

00:22:02.440 Jesus, in his body, glorified body, remained at the right hand of God the Father Almighty

00:22:08.180 until he finally and physically returns. But in AD 70, he spiritually returned, and he returned

00:22:15.360 on the clouds. And these are not happy clouds with little baby cherubim, you know, playing harps.

00:22:20.220 No, the clouds signify judgment. The prophet Joel chapter 2 talks about clouds and billows of smoke,

00:22:27.960 right? Where do these clouds come from? Little wisp, you know, in the air and there's happy music

00:22:32.980 and pretty angels. No, these are clouds that are filled with blood and soot. These are the clouds

00:22:39.100 that are formed when buildings topple, when there's destruction and desolation. And so that's

00:22:45.440 what's in reference is that Jesus actually did come spiritually, a spiritual perusa, and he came

00:22:51.460 in judgment, just as he promised. Matthew chapter 24, he says, this generation will not pass away.

00:22:57.500 It's not a metaphor. It's not this type of generation. No, he's saying these people, you who I'm talking to, this literal generation will not pass away until all these things come to pass.

00:23:08.880 And the things that are in reference in the Olivet Discourse in Matthew chapter 24 is not one stone of the temple will be left standing on top of another.

00:23:18.740 And all of this came to pass in the province of God, in his sovereignty. Titus came in. He destroyed Jerusalem. He destroyed the temple.

00:23:25.760 they didn't leave one stone connected to another because the stones were inlaid with gold. And so

00:23:31.700 they actually separated every single individual stone that the temple was built with in order to

00:23:37.040 scrape off and harvest all of the gold. And those things happened in AD 70. And that was the

00:23:43.520 fulfillment of what Christ said, this generation, not this type of generation, but this literal

00:23:49.160 physical generation will not pass away until these things come to pass. Those people that Jesus

00:23:55.380 preached through in Matthew chapter 24. It was about 40 years later that they actually saw the

00:24:01.760 fulfillment of Jesus' words still living in AD 70. So Jesus says, you will not go through all

00:24:09.800 the towns in Israel until I come. And that's speaking of his parousia spiritual second coming

00:24:16.320 in AD 70. All right, all that being established. Here's the point. For the 12, okay, and we know

00:24:23.020 that you know Judas gets replaced with Matthias but for the 12 and that's who this this text is

00:24:28.300 to it's for you for me but to them for the 12 Jesus commanded them explicitly to fulfill the

00:24:38.940 great commission but to focus their efforts and attention throughout their lives all the way up

00:24:44.880 until his coming in 80 70 in Israel in Israel that was their focus it was the apostle Paul

00:24:52.460 who is called to be an apostle to the Gentiles.

00:24:55.560 And there are others who go with them. 0.52

00:24:57.800 We have Barnabas and Silas.

00:24:59.960 But for the twelve, they're focused in Israel.

00:25:03.000 Now here's the point as it relates to persecution,

00:25:05.320 specifically persecution coming in the form of slander,

00:25:09.140 being maligned.

00:25:10.600 For the twelve, because their primary harvesting grounds,

00:25:15.800 their primary target audience where they're called is Israel. 0.97

00:25:19.940 For them, when they preach Christ explicitly,

00:25:24.880 He is God.

00:25:26.160 You crucified the Son of God.

00:25:29.380 You crucified the Christ.

00:25:31.720 When they preach those kinds of sermons

00:25:33.680 among their hearers,

00:25:36.380 primarily Jewish hearers in Israel,

00:25:40.060 they get persecution.

00:25:42.700 When Paul and some of the other,

00:25:44.760 not the main 12 apostles,

00:25:46.780 but some of the other lowercase a apostles

00:25:48.900 of the church, not apostles of Christ commissioned by him directly, but apostles of the church. The

00:25:54.540 apostle Paul was an apostle of Christ because he was a witness of the resurrected Lord. Jesus

00:25:58.860 appeared to him and called him, but others who did not have that experience. So they weren't

00:26:03.440 capital A apostles of Christ, but lowercase a apostles of the church sent by the church

00:26:08.860 outside of Israel to different Gentile cities. When they went into their context with their

00:26:15.140 hearers non-jewish hearers what what was it in their preaching more often than not that garnered 0.84

00:26:21.680 persecution well it wasn't so much uh you crucified the lord of glory you crucified the son of god

00:26:31.000 that's that that that's a little offensive i'm sure it caused some problems but that was not 0.88

00:26:38.360 what caused the major problems in these Gentile cities. In these Gentile cities, think of Ephesus

00:26:45.840 and the Hall of Tyrannus where Paul is arguing for three hours a day for a long time. He's arguing 1.00

00:26:52.440 with philosophers and the great debaters of that age and all that. What gets Paul and other apostles

00:26:58.500 with him, not the 12, but other guys in these Gentile cities, what gets them persecution? What 0.89

00:27:04.680 gets them in trouble it's usually not so much their exaltation of christ but it's them toppling

00:27:12.180 and demolishing other false gods it's uh it's the great uh goddess artemis it's it's the preacher

00:27:20.540 says and these other gods are no gods at all that's when all of a sudden they get persecuted

00:27:26.380 that's when they get run out of town that's when they get thrown in prison because they're

00:27:30.820 disrupting. They're actually disrupting even their economy, not just religiously and culturally and

00:27:37.100 politically, but even economically. The silversmiths and the blacksmiths in Ephesus are losing customers.

00:27:44.760 Their bottom line is failing. And now all of a sudden they have a problem. They have less of a

00:27:49.860 problem. We see this kind of language in certain Gentile places. They have less of a problem of 0.71

00:27:55.160 just the preaching of Jesus, even Jesus resurrected, even Jesus as the Son of God, because they're

00:28:01.900 content in many places to simply add Jesus as just another additional idol in the pantheon

00:28:11.420 of gods. They're content. They're like, sure, we'll take Jesus. We'll, you know, right here

00:28:17.120 in between Baal and Molech, you know, we can clear a spot on the shelf in the pantheon of false gods 0.82

00:28:22.120 and we'll put a little Jesus statue there. 0.54

00:28:25.280 And that's not really a problem, again, for the Romans, right?

00:28:29.340 They're polytheists.

00:28:31.000 That's not really a problem.

00:28:32.580 That's not really a problem for a lot of people in Antioch.

00:28:36.440 One of the reasons why many of the Christians,

00:28:39.360 after being so severely persecuted in Jerusalem,

00:28:42.700 actually make their way to Antioch

00:28:45.240 is because Antioch actually had in its legal system

00:28:48.220 certain provisions that allowed for worship of Jesus without being persecuted. But what you

00:28:56.400 couldn't do is say, well, Jesus is the only one worthy of worship. That's when you would get into

00:29:03.340 trouble. So again, my point is this, with the 12 apostles called to remain in Israel with primarily

00:29:10.500 a Jewish audience, what garnered persecution for them? Preaching Christ. What garnered persecution

00:29:18.240 for the Christians who went to a Gentile context outside of Israel? Well, it wasn't so much preaching

00:29:24.700 about Christ positively, but preaching about all these other false gods negatively. Does that make

00:29:32.540 sense? And I think, I'm always trying to apply the scripture for us. I want it to be relevant. I don't

00:29:38.440 want it just to be this heady, ethereal, you know, principle. I want there to be application.

00:29:44.620 So in our place and our day, what do you think we're more like? Do you think that our context

00:29:52.400 and our culture and the religious culture of our day, is it more like Israel? Where if you say

00:29:58.780 Jesus is the Son of God

00:30:01.400 and there is salvation in Him

00:30:03.980 by grace, through faith.

00:30:07.460 He lived a sinless life.

00:30:09.920 He died on the cross for your sin

00:30:12.420 and He rose physically from the dead

00:30:15.020 on the third day.

00:30:16.980 In America, in 2025,

00:30:19.880 how much trouble will that get you in?

00:30:24.360 Not that much.

00:30:26.560 Maybe some.

00:30:28.780 But not that much.

00:30:30.920 However, think of now the apostles and the missionaries

00:30:35.220 and the elders who were in Gentile context

00:30:37.480 and preaching not just positively for Christ,

00:30:41.180 but negatively against other idols of the day.

00:30:45.380 So now you preach Christ.

00:30:47.320 Jesus is the Son of God.

00:30:48.900 He lived a sinless life.

00:30:50.120 He died on the cross for your sin.

00:30:51.560 He bodily rose from the grave

00:30:52.860 and He ascended to heaven

00:30:54.400 and is seated at the right hand of God the Father.

00:30:56.340 and you can be saved as a free gift from God

00:30:59.500 by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.

00:31:02.620 That sermon will not get you in too much trouble.

00:31:07.100 However, if you say that,

00:31:09.380 and you can't ever say less than that,

00:31:10.940 please don't misunderstand me.

00:31:12.620 Never would I argue for anything less than that. 0.79

00:31:15.600 Preach Christ.

00:31:17.200 Preach the gospel. 0.97

00:31:18.440 Preach that.

00:31:19.200 But then if you go further and you say,

00:31:21.700 oh, and these other gods are no gods at all. 1.00

00:31:24.300 feminism is no god it is an idol it is worthless it's destructive it's poisonous and it must be 1.00

00:31:35.280 torn down and destroyed what we have literally an entire economy built on feminism our entire 0.99

00:31:43.860 economy is built on uh two incomes for each household america we we've gotten so off the

00:31:51.940 rails, not just culturally, not just religiously or theologically or politically, economically,

00:31:57.160 where America cannot afford, it financially cannot afford to reject feminism without the

00:32:05.300 economy crashing. Now, in the long run, it'll get better because obedience to God's word always 0.65

00:32:11.220 brings blessing. But often with sin, the initial repentance is costly. It gets worse initially

00:32:20.360 before it gets better.

00:32:22.660 It hurts.

00:32:24.120 There's a cost to repentance

00:32:25.820 just as there's a cost to discipleship.

00:32:28.560 So you preach against feminism

00:32:30.200 as a false god,

00:32:32.300 the divine feminine,

00:32:33.900 as a false god, as an idol.

00:32:35.860 And you begin to give practical,

00:32:39.360 not just theoretical,

00:32:41.440 not just theological,

00:32:42.440 but practical instructions

00:32:44.340 for husbands and wives

00:32:47.260 and the dynamic of the home.

00:32:50.360 And all of a sudden, it will be like the silversmiths and blacksmiths in Ephesus.

00:32:57.080 He's desecrating the temple of the great Artemis.

00:33:00.420 And our own livelihood is now in jeopardy. 1.00

00:33:03.160 We need to kill him. 0.99

00:33:05.340 If I say publicly, Jesus is Lord. 1.00

00:33:09.220 In 2025, I get thunderous applause. 1.00

00:33:13.660 If I say feminism is from the devil and every wife should go home. 0.68

00:33:20.360 all of a sudden, like the statements I made earlier about, I don't think anyone's going

00:33:26.080 to be crucified in 2025. I might get proven wrong. Do you see what? So when it comes to

00:33:33.480 persecution, again, I don't want you to miss this. As we've seen the last two weeks, it is always

00:33:39.400 persecution. If it be genuine persecution, it is persecution for his name sake. It's not just

00:33:47.680 persecution for your pet ideas and soapboxes. Ask me how I know. I've got a few soapboxes and pet

00:33:55.820 ideas. I'm familiar with this concept. I have received persecution for faithfulness. I have

00:34:02.420 also received persecution for stupidity. I've done a little bit of both. And I hope by God's 1.00

00:34:08.660 grace that it would be more of the former and less of the latter. That said, real, true, genuine

00:34:14.700 persecution, the persecution for which we will be blessed by God, the persecution that God favors,

00:34:21.380 that God blesses, that pleases the Lord, is always going to be persecution for Christ's namesake,

00:34:28.340 not for our own. However, in that category of genuine persecution for Christ's sake, I think

00:34:34.700 there are two primary subcategories is the way to think about it. You can be persecuted for his

00:34:40.740 namesake, for Christ's sake, for preaching Christ positively, but also for preaching against every

00:34:48.920 alternative to Christ, every false idol that exalts itself over and against Christ negatively.

00:34:55.840 And I think by and large, obviously there are some exceptions. I'm giving a general rule,

00:35:00.540 trying to give a 30,000 foot view so we can see in simplicity, just the general big picture idea.

00:35:06.780 in general for these guys right those that the text is two it's for us but to them for the 12

00:35:15.260 they experienced a lot of persecution for just preaching that Jesus is God and that the Jews

00:35:23.060 crucified the the Lord of glory that got them in a lot of trouble but for others other Christian

00:35:34.100 leaders, apostles, lowercase a apostles and elders and missionaries in Gentile context,

00:35:40.640 if they went there and said, Jesus is the son of God and the Jews killed him. Some of those

00:35:49.180 contexts would be like, yeah, they did. They're not offended by that. They're like, yeah, that's

00:35:56.980 great. Jesus is God. Okay. Here's our pantheon. We currently have 4,537 different gods. And let's,

00:36:05.840 you know, sweep away some cobwebs here and, you know, move a couple of these up. Jesus. We added

00:36:11.420 him on the list. And you said that he came to his own and they rejected him. They received him not.

00:36:19.040 Those other guys over there, they did. Yep. So you're telling me I have to add Jesus to the God

00:36:24.540 roster and admit that the Jews killed him. Great. Great. No problem with that. 0.96

00:36:35.580 But the second part of the message, the implications, or as the Puritans called it,

00:36:41.020 as we like to, the applications is, oh, by the way, there's one more sticking point.

00:36:45.960 You added Jesus in this pantheon of gods, but all the other ones need to be ground into ash

00:36:55.860 and destroyed. It's only Jesus. All the other ones are false gods. Feminism is a false god.

00:37:04.660 Zionism is a false god. Egalitarianism is a false god. All these other ones are false gods. 1.00

00:37:12.840 secularism is a false god globalism is a false god all these other idols must be destroyed it is 0.99

00:37:23.620 only christ and anything that asserts itself as the ultimate orthodoxy the ultimate dogma the 0.89

00:37:31.400 ultimate religion because that's what we're talking about these are not just ideas in our

00:37:36.540 current context today these are religions these are faith systems we're talking about worship

00:37:43.180 it is absolutely worship the post-war consensus is real and it is a religion

00:37:50.740 egalitarianism is not just an idea it is god in our culture today and when you begin to say no

00:38:01.080 it's only christ and it's the christian worldview and the world as christ made it in the beginning

00:38:09.420 was the word and the word was with god and the word was god and by christ by this word the logos

00:38:16.040 all that has been made was made and he has a natural order for the world that he made and we

00:38:23.240 must abide by it humbly for his glory when you start preaching that all of a sudden you get in 0.95

00:38:30.780 trouble you just preached jesus loves you he died for your sin like there's a bunch of maggot guys

00:38:38.620 would be like yeah uh-huh jesus and trump amen and don't get me wrong i i appreciate trump june

00:38:49.140 not the best month for trump july seeming promising i'm excited right i think there's a little bit of

00:38:56.340 hope. ICE is now funded. I think the budget is equal to the budget for the Marines.

00:39:04.760 Love it. Love that. That's great. That's great. America might actually have a chance. We might

00:39:11.200 get our country back. That's incredible. Here's my point. I like Trump. Here's my point. That's

00:39:16.500 not my point. My point is this. You can preach Christ positively, and you'll get a lot of

00:39:23.040 acceptance. But when you preach against false gods negatively in our context, that's where you

00:39:30.880 start to get a lot of persecution. So persecution, if it be genuine and pleasing to God, it will not

00:39:38.100 be persecution for your namesake. It'll be for Christ's namesake. That's the only kind of

00:39:42.740 persecution that's genuine. Within that genuine persecution for Christ's namesake, I do think

00:39:47.780 there are two subcategories. Preaching Christ's name positively, and also preaching against all

00:39:55.360 false antichrists negatively. Both of those, I believe, are genuine, authentic forms of preaching

00:40:03.700 Christ. And that, in some contexts, the first one gets you in trouble. In Israel, for the 12,

00:40:11.400 in the first century, the first one, Jesus is God. You crucified the Lord of glory. That got

00:40:19.340 them in trouble. In more Gentile context, like Ephesus, Artemis is not God. And your blacksmith 0.99

00:40:28.260 business is about to go out of business. That's the one that got them in trouble. And if I'm

00:40:33.600 comparing it, trying to give application and relevancy for us today in the year of our Lord,

00:40:39.840 2025 in America, I think it's going to be preaching against false gods that will probably

00:40:46.120 garner more persecution than positively preaching the true God. You can't do one or the other, okay?

00:40:53.280 I've said that. I want to say it one more time. I'm not advocating for you can just do one. You must

00:40:58.900 do both. You must preach Christ and exalt him, but you also must preach against idolatry

00:41:07.320 and decimate that.

00:41:10.440 And there are some places

00:41:11.420 where the exaltation of Christ

00:41:13.540 garners persecution.

00:41:15.100 And there are some places and times

00:41:16.800 where the demeaning of idols

00:41:20.120 is what garners persecution.

00:41:22.980 But both, I believe,

00:41:25.120 are genuine forms of being persecuted

00:41:28.180 for His name's sake.

00:41:30.040 All right, verses 26 through 31.

00:41:31.820 I've written in your notes this.

00:41:33.320 Do not fear those who kill the body.

00:41:34.960 Fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

00:41:39.440 A beautiful and comforting verse.

00:41:43.420 This one goes against a lot of modern evangelical sensibilities

00:41:47.220 because you might think, hey, you don't need to be fearing man.

00:41:51.180 You don't need to be a man pleaser.

00:41:53.040 The fear of approval.

00:41:55.380 But instead, the antidote for the fear of man's approval,

00:42:00.300 this fear of rejection,

00:42:01.480 the antidote is the love of God.

00:42:04.960 Right? Yeah, man might hate you, but God accepts you and loves you. Right? You might be rejected

00:42:12.280 by people, but you're accepted by God. But that's not actually what Jesus provides. That is true.

00:42:18.540 But what Jesus explicitly says is this. He doesn't say, do not fear man in his rejection,

00:42:23.720 because you have God in his acceptance. No, he says, no, man can reject you, but God will reject

00:42:30.100 you forever. God will reject you harder. God will reject you far worse. Man might reject you all

00:42:37.120 the way to killing your body. God will kill your body and kill your soul forever. Powerfully 1.00

00:42:43.620 motivating. That's wonderful preaching, right? Jesus is a good preacher. I mean, he really,

00:42:48.080 he knows how to motivate the people. He's like, hey, you need to fear God. Why? Because he's

00:42:53.840 terrifying oh and the reality is this the only true antidote to casting out lesser fears is a

00:43:06.600 greater fear right it's it's the person who i mean there's so many examples of this but just for

00:43:14.480 instance um there could be someone who's scared to death to leave their home for whatever reason

00:43:20.320 but if they run out of food and they've gone without eating and water food and water long

00:43:26.760 enough well the fear of starvation might eventually begin to override the fear of

00:43:32.520 leaving their home and it drives them out and that's the concept that Jesus is providing here

00:43:38.340 now it's not I'm not saying that that it's not true that for those who are in Christ that

00:43:43.420 that God accepts us and loves us and consoles us the Holy Spirit one of his names is comforter

00:43:49.460 right all this is true and first john even says perfect love casts out all fear so there is an

00:43:55.980 aspect of of the love of the father first john chapter 3 verse 1 see what love the father has

00:44:02.820 given to us that we should be called the children of god and this perfect love of the father for

00:44:08.020 his children uh it does cast out all fears but also so it's not either or but also the fear of

00:44:16.420 God cast out lesser fears. The love of God cast out fear, but also the fear of God cast out lesser

00:44:25.140 fears. And this is what Jesus is saying here. He's saying, look at the big picture. Make a wise

00:44:31.360 decision. Invest appropriately, wisely. Yeah, if you are faithful to Christ, you will be rejected

00:44:41.800 by the world. If you're not faithful to Christ, you'll be rejected by my Father. And his rejection

00:44:49.340 is far worse. One, because his power is infinite. But two, because it's also an eternal duration.

00:44:59.120 His rejection is of greater severity and greater length, greater duration. Man can reject you to

00:45:07.700 to only a certain degree and for only so long and then it's done. But not with God. God can reject

00:45:15.580 you forever and he can reject you completely. That's the idea. Proverbs 1 verse 7 says this,

00:45:23.780 the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Fools despise wisdom and instruction. The fear of 0.99

00:45:29.460 the Lord is the foundation for knowledge and wisdom. Going back to 1 John again, it's, I wrote

00:45:36.380 a book about it. So 1 John is always just etched in my brain. But 1 John talks about no fear of

00:45:43.260 judgment. So for the Christian, we actually should rest in the love and salvation and justification,

00:45:49.700 acceptance of God to the point that we're not fearing the judgment of the Lord. We should not,

00:45:56.080 our salvation should not be like a little girl sitting on a hillside with a daisy, you know,

00:46:00.280 he loves me he loves me not he no no we we need we desperately need to be assured of our adoption

00:46:07.640 assured that christ uh has loved us and that we have union with him and that the father loves us

00:46:14.440 as his sons the holy spirit dwelling within us our body is now a temple the holy spirit

00:46:19.580 and he is affirming our adoption within us abba father and so we want an assurance of salvation

00:46:26.700 that we're not going back and forth, back and forth.

00:46:29.360 He loves me. He loves me not.

00:46:30.480 Maybe I'm saved. Maybe I'm not.

00:46:31.880 Maybe I'm saved. Maybe I'm not.

00:46:33.340 But that's not what we want.

00:46:35.560 However, although the Christian should not fear judgment,

00:46:39.040 the Christian should still fear God.

00:46:42.120 And there's a distinction between the two. 0.61

00:46:44.700 Fear of the judgment of God versus fear of the Lord Himself.

00:46:49.580 A reverence for God.

00:46:51.120 A reverence for what He could do.

00:46:54.020 Even though we know that if we're in Christ,

00:46:56.100 he's promised not to, but still a reverence of his power, a reverence of his glory, a reverence

00:47:02.480 of his strength, of his majesty. And it's the fear of the Lord that is the beginning of wisdom

00:47:08.080 and is the fear of God, this great fear that cast out all lesser fears. One of the most powerful

00:47:16.700 things that motivates me day in and day out to where I just don't care. I don't care if people

00:47:23.180 reject me i don't care what people are saying is the fact that i i don't want jesus to deny me

00:47:31.660 before his father and that's how our text ends we'll get there in just one moment

00:47:37.300 all right so first god is sovereign over all things he has the power to destroy the body

00:47:42.560 and destroy your soul in hell forever that said his sovereignty god is in control over all things

00:47:49.780 and he could absolutely decimate you so you should fear him more than man but then Jesus gives these

00:47:57.100 words of comfort immediately following and saying that all of that power all of that sovereignty of

00:48:03.140 God that could destroy you if you're in Christ is now wielded for your benefit so the same God who

00:48:11.780 is sovereign and powerful enough to kill your body and destroy your soul in heaven is also

00:48:16.640 so it's not just fear it's a two-pronged motivation don't fear man because god's scarier

00:48:23.180 also don't feel fear man because god's also more loving it's both god's scarier than people are

00:48:30.080 but also god loves you more than people do so continuing uh verse 27 it says uh verse 28 do

00:48:40.540 not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul rather fear fear him who can destroy both

00:48:45.260 soul and body in hell, are not, now look, the power of God now wielded toward your good, are not

00:48:51.180 sparrows sold for a penny, and yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from God noticing

00:48:56.220 it, God seeing it, and God allowing it in his sovereignty. Verse 30 now, but even the hairs of

00:49:02.920 your head are numbered. Fear not, therefore, you are of more value than many sparrows. So what Jesus

00:49:10.140 is saying is don't fear man because God is more fearful, but also don't fear man because God

00:49:16.360 loves you. All the things about his majesty, his power, and his sovereignty that makes him a greater

00:49:22.040 threat also makes him a greater advocate. And if God be for you, who can be against you? And if

00:49:29.500 you're in Christ, he is in fact for you. So even the hairs of your head are numbered. In your notes

00:49:35.960 I've written this. The same God who can destroy the soul is also the one who numbers the hairs 0.99

00:49:42.040 of our head and governs even the fall of sparrows. God is meticulously in control over all things.

00:49:50.920 Our trials are not random. What happens in this world is not arbitrary. The believer is called

00:49:57.740 to reverence God and rest in His sovereign love.

00:50:03.060 So it's two motivations for not fearing man.

00:50:07.740 Reverence and rest.

00:50:10.280 Reverence and rest.

00:50:12.380 Why do we not fear man?

00:50:13.800 Because God is powerful.

00:50:15.840 And that power is worthy of our reverence

00:50:20.360 in what He could do to us in destruction and judgment.

00:50:24.240 but also that power if we be in christ is being wielded for us on our behalf and therefore we can

00:50:32.900 rest we can rest assured that god is our shield that god is protecting us that god is providing

00:50:38.780 for us so the power and sovereignty of god over all things even sparrows and the number of hairs

00:50:45.420 on your head, that power produces both reverence, fear of the Lord, and rest, a safety and a security

00:50:55.420 in the Lord. And it's that double, two-sided motivation, reverence and rest, that is the

00:51:02.480 antidote to the fear of man. Last two verses, verse 32 and 33, confessing Christ without shame.

00:51:10.740 we see these words terrifying words Jesus says so everyone who acknowledges me before men

00:51:18.380 I also will acknowledge before my father who is in heaven but whoever denies me before men

00:51:24.260 I also will deny before my father who is in heaven the absolute necessity of public confession

00:51:33.220 The Christian faith is a public faith.

00:51:37.640 Faith is not a private matter.

00:51:39.720 It is a public allegiance to Christ as Lord.

00:51:43.100 Jesus' warning is real and serious.

00:51:46.240 The danger of apostasy, turning away from Christ,

00:51:50.320 is not mentioned here as a mere hypothetical.

00:51:53.920 Those who deny Christ will be denied by Christ.

00:51:58.280 And this is not a works-based salvation,

00:52:01.500 as we saw in the beginning of the sermon,

00:52:03.780 but rather the fruit of regeneration

00:52:05.720 is visible in a bold confession.

00:52:10.040 Apostasy is real.

00:52:11.480 How does it work theologically?

00:52:13.260 It's not that Christ saved me

00:52:15.300 and then I lost that salvation

00:52:17.360 by turning away from Christ at a later date.

00:52:20.860 And then ultimately,

00:52:22.340 he then denies me before his Father

00:52:24.380 who is in heaven and I go to hell.

00:52:26.500 That's not how it works. 0.99

00:52:28.080 Apostasy is someone

00:52:29.260 who was a part of the visible church,

00:52:31.960 but who was never truly saved.

00:52:34.680 First John chapter two says,

00:52:36.220 they went out from us because they were not of us.

00:52:40.020 It doesn't say they went out from us.

00:52:41.980 They left the church and left the faith 0.51

00:52:44.220 because they were Christians once upon a time

00:52:47.440 and then they changed their minds. 0.98

00:52:49.620 No, they went out from us because they were never of us.

00:52:53.100 They're not a part of us anymore,

00:52:55.260 but they were never a part of us.

00:52:56.960 There's a way of a person belonging to the visible church,

00:53:01.640 a way of them being baptized and taking the Lord's Supper

00:53:05.220 and participating in worship and the fellowship of the saints

00:53:08.320 and all these things without having ever truly belonged to Christ,

00:53:13.060 without being regenerate, without being justified,

00:53:16.640 without being a Christian. 0.96

00:53:18.600 So the apostate is the one who belonged to the visible church, 0.86

00:53:22.740 but never the invisible church.

00:53:24.480 the apostate is the one who looked like a christian but was not a christian and what

00:53:30.660 jesus is saying is for those who deny me before men i will deny them before my father who is in

00:53:37.180 heaven he's not saying that there's a way of losing your salvation he's saying that there

00:53:41.780 is a way of ultimately manifesting evidencing that you never had that salvation to begin with

00:53:47.900 and one of the chief ways of eventually proving and bearing fruit that you never really were

00:53:54.280 a Christian is cowardice. There's a there's a number of ways to reveal that you are an apostate,

00:54:03.960 not someone who lost salvation, but someone who ultimately never had it. There's a number of ways

00:54:08.840 to do this. You can do this through sexual immorality. You can do this by simply abandoning

00:54:15.540 the church and still being a moral person in many ways. But but you just you don't believe you don't

00:54:20.620 You don't confess Christ anymore.

00:54:21.960 You don't go to a church.

00:54:23.060 But the way, there's many ways to go apostate.

00:54:26.360 But the way that Jesus found necessary to explicitly mention in our text today with his apostles is cowardice.

00:54:36.360 And I don't think that that should be lost on us.

00:54:39.700 Jesus could have said, you know, I'll deny you before my father if you stop living a life that's filled with the fruit of the spirit.

00:54:48.420 Or if you stop attending church.

00:54:49.920 And those things, actually, there's an argument to be made for those things,

00:54:54.800 those forms of apostasy from a whole biblical theology.

00:54:58.500 But the particular type of apostasy that's explicitly mentioned by Christ Himself

00:55:04.160 here in our text is those who deny Him before men.

00:55:11.120 So what kind of apostasy does Jesus have in mind, in view here in our text?

00:55:16.860 the type of apostasy

00:55:18.880 that is a coward's apostasy.

00:55:23.860 That you could still be living a moral life 0.97

00:55:26.080 and you could even still be a part of the church,

00:55:28.540 but you're unwilling to confess Christ

00:55:31.840 publicly before men.

00:55:37.420 And in that case, Jesus promises

00:55:39.800 He will be unwilling to confess you

00:55:43.860 before His Father

00:55:46.240 who is in heaven. Christianity is a public faith. It's an individual faith, right? It can't just be

00:55:55.420 the faith of your parents or the faith of your forefathers or the faith of your country. Well,

00:55:59.900 I'm a part of a Christian country. No, it actually has to be an individual faith, but an individual

00:56:05.720 faith that is not a private faith. So it is personal. Christianity is a personal faith, but

00:56:12.720 not a private faith. It's personal and public. Even our baptism is public. It's publicly confessing

00:56:21.120 Christ. And that doesn't mean that you have to be suicidal. I'm not saying that you have to stand

00:56:26.920 on your desk in the middle of the workplace, you know, and just start railing against feminism

00:56:31.760 in Christ's name. I'm not saying that you need to get fired. We don't have the benevolence 0.93

00:56:37.800 fund available for all of you to lose your job which is you know so please you know exercise a

00:56:43.600 little bit of wisdom however however yes be prudent yes be shrewd but but in the name of prudence

00:56:52.860 brothers and sisters last thing i'm going to say in the name of wisdom and shrewdness and prudence

00:56:58.500 don't go to hell that's what's at stake here this is not just a hypothetical and it's not just you 0.79

00:57:08.980 know just verbose wording no jesus is being literal he's saying that if you're a coward 0.99

00:57:17.480 you will go to hell if you will not confess him publicly before men he will not acknowledge you 0.89

00:57:26.500 before his father.

00:57:29.560 And it's not that you will have lost your salvation.

00:57:32.880 It is that you will have proven

00:57:34.720 in the final analysis

00:57:36.020 that you never actually had that salvation

00:57:38.800 to begin with.

00:57:40.520 So don't be suicidal.

00:57:42.660 Yes, exercise prudence.

00:57:45.220 But you better be real discerning

00:57:47.300 and real careful

00:57:48.400 and have accountability in your life

00:57:50.820 to help you see the fine line

00:57:53.220 between wisdom and cowardice.

00:57:58.520 Because a lot of cowardly things

00:58:01.420 have been done in the name of wisdom.

00:58:04.400 I'm just being wise. 1.00

00:58:06.460 No, you're being a coward. 1.00

00:58:08.780 And likewise, a lot of foolish things 1.00

00:58:10.920 have been done in the name of faith. 0.87

00:58:13.440 Faith can be a euphemism for foolishness.

00:58:17.060 But wisdom can be a euphemism for cowardice.

00:58:20.680 and we need to have people in our life who help us to not deceive ourselves and console ourselves

00:58:29.840 to think i'm just being prudent i'm just being shrewd no you're just compromising

00:58:36.040 you're just compromising and publicly confessing christ in our context i think it's different this

00:58:44.720 is my opinion all right so i'm suggesting this part i'll preach it a little bit softer

00:58:49.220 other parts are clearly from God's Word.

00:58:52.360 This is my application that I think is right.

00:58:55.880 Preaching Christ and being persecuted

00:58:58.240 on account of Christ for His namesake

00:59:00.300 in our American context in 2025,

00:59:03.500 I think has a little bit more to do with Ephesus

00:59:07.280 than with Paul in Ephesus

00:59:09.980 than it did with Peter in Jerusalem.

00:59:13.000 So what I mean by that is I think

00:59:15.460 it's a faithfully and publicly acknowledge Christ

00:59:18.880 before men today in our modern context

00:59:22.780 is not just preaching, exalting Christ,

00:59:26.360 preaching Christ positively,

00:59:27.620 but also preaching against all the antichrist negatively.

00:59:34.120 I think that that piece is a prerequisite

00:59:38.340 for confessing Christ publicly in our day,

00:59:42.940 in our time, in our place.

00:59:44.720 because we all know you you can write love songs about jesus

00:59:50.760 and and your life you don't experience person your life immediately will improve

00:59:57.240 you just go take a katie perry song and get rid of the word boyfriend insert the word jesus

01:00:03.920 and and you you'll be celebrated you won't be persecuted there are plenty of people

01:00:11.400 who will publicly say, I'm a Christian. I love Jesus. There are actors who say it. There are

01:00:17.260 athletes who say it. There are politicians who say it, usually with an Israel flag in their office.

01:00:22.760 You know, but there are plenty of people who say, I love Jesus. And Jesus is God. And he died for

01:00:30.140 your sin. Penal substitutionary atonement. And bodily raised, was raised from the dead. And it

01:00:36.380 doesn't get you in a whole lot of trouble. But it's it's then saying Artemis is no God at all.

01:00:45.600 Artemis is a false Jesus. Jesus is Lord and he will share his glory with no one.

01:00:57.740 Exclusivity of Christ and the toppling of every antichrist. I do believe especially in our

01:01:05.800 context today with as many idols as we have as many false orthodoxies and dogmas and religions

01:01:12.500 it's not just ideologies they're religious and our day i do believe that the toppling of these

01:01:18.840 anti-christ is a part of the the public confessing of the true christ and if you do both and again

01:01:28.900 it's not either or it's always it's both but if you do both then all of a sudden you will start

01:01:34.320 to experience some persecution and I think that that is an indicator often not perfect indicator 0.99

01:01:41.980 because you can get persecution for just your own namesake and being dumb and being a jerk 0.95

01:01:46.440 but okay so it still requires discernment but I think in general persecution is a a decently 0.98

01:01:56.040 accurate indicator for whether or not you are truly and publicly professing Christ if you go

01:02:03.560 through your life with zero pushback, with zero persecution, then I don't, I don't know.

01:02:12.960 I just, I'll just say this. I don't want to be you on that final day. I, that's, that to me,

01:02:19.960 that is terrifying. You were a Christian and you found a way to make it through this world

01:02:28.060 for 75 to 85 years

01:02:30.980 without anybody being upset at you?

01:02:38.700 Jesus, He might deny you

01:02:41.540 before His Father.

01:02:44.260 And you need to feel the weight of that.

01:02:47.020 Because that's the text.

01:02:49.400 It's like, oh, I don't like this sermon.

01:02:51.060 I feel like you're trying to scare me.

01:02:52.580 Jesus right here is talking to His disciples

01:02:55.000 and trying to scare them.

01:02:56.120 because he loves them.

01:03:00.200 Jesus who loves them

01:03:01.780 is trying to scare them

01:03:03.760 into righteousness

01:03:05.120 and away from all those things

01:03:06.800 that ultimately would destroy them.

01:03:08.740 We do this as parents.

01:03:11.000 I love you.

01:03:11.980 This is right.

01:03:12.740 Also, this leads to death and destruction.

01:03:17.300 Be afraid.

01:03:18.800 Be rightly and appropriately afraid of this

01:03:21.580 and run towards that.

01:03:24.120 It's a very loving thing to do.

01:03:25.620 This is Jesus scaring his disciples, and I hope by God's grace that you're a little bit scared today.

01:03:31.640 You might stand before him one day and hear, depart from me, I never knew you.

01:03:36.900 You might.

01:03:38.560 And one of the best ways to ensure that you don't hear that is to be a student that looks like the teacher,

01:03:45.380 to be a slave that looks like the master, particularly in the category of persecution.

01:03:51.940 Persecution for his namesake,

01:03:54.200 which is to preach him positively,

01:03:56.580 but also to preach against all those idols negatively.

01:04:01.240 Both two prongs of publicly confessing Christ.

01:04:06.020 And you will garner persecution.

01:04:08.560 And then what you can do is take that persecution,

01:04:12.620 lie your head down on the pillow at night,

01:04:15.500 with a little smile on your face and say,

01:04:17.920 well, a lot of people hate me.

01:04:21.020 But one thing's for sure, I'm going to heaven.

01:04:24.960 At the end of the day, that's like people are like,

01:04:27.680 what are some of your lifelong goals?

01:04:29.200 One of my lifelong goals, like top tier, don't go to hell.

01:04:33.520 It's like, I'm like thinking about that every day.

01:04:35.620 Seriously, I'm like, don't go to hell, Joel. 0.99

01:04:37.880 Don't go to hell. 0.99

01:04:38.520 Don't go to hell.

01:04:39.060 Don't go, Jesus, keep me, preserve me, change me, help me,

01:04:44.080 give me strength, make me courageous.

01:04:46.720 and i i some of you you may think like what do you mean maybe like i'm a coward i am a coward

01:04:56.020 i am all the time i all the time i'm thinking

01:05:02.600 i'm worried about this i'm scared about that like some people think like oh you're so courageous

01:05:11.060 i am constantly convicted of all the ways that i have adopted liberalism all the ways i've adopted

01:05:20.820 modernity secularism like i read these old christian writers and i'm like i'm a lib

01:05:28.100 i am such a liberal i am so effeminate

01:05:33.440 i i i often am ashamed and asking the lord please help me grant me the gift of repentance 1.00

01:05:42.920 sanctify me change me if i was having a lunch with the puritans i'm pretty sure i'd be put

01:05:51.160 underneath church discipline help me god help me to be a historic christian

01:05:58.940 not a 20th century liberal 0.80

01:06:01.920 walking around in a Christian skin suit 1.00

01:06:04.340 help me Lord 1.00

01:06:06.000 to not promote the Christianity 0.52

01:06:07.920 that my Christian fathers hated 0.99

01:06:10.260 and more importantly

01:06:12.820 that Jesus hates 0.96

01:06:14.860 Jesus hates modern Christianity 0.71

01:06:17.560 you need to know that 0.97

01:06:19.420 he hates your modern Christianity

01:06:21.580 he loves the faith

01:06:24.040 once and for all passed down to the saints

01:06:26.120 historic Christianity

01:06:27.960 that has stood the test of time,

01:06:31.040 that is tried and true.

01:06:32.960 He loves that Christianity, 0.99

01:06:34.780 the only real Christianity. 0.85

01:06:37.300 And all of us could do with more courage.

01:06:41.440 And there's so many times where we might think,

01:06:43.420 oh, I'm courageous enough,

01:06:44.620 or we're in enough trouble,

01:06:45.840 you know, or we've gotten enough conflict.

01:06:48.260 You have to look at that and say,

01:06:51.380 pan out and compare yourself to the apostles,

01:06:55.420 compare yourself to the first century church,

01:06:57.260 compare yourself to the Puritans, the Reformers, pan out.

01:07:00.400 Because if you're comparing yourself 0.97

01:07:03.280 to just the other Christians you know today

01:07:06.020 and saying, well, I'm more courageous than them.

01:07:10.260 Well, congratulations. 0.86

01:07:12.560 You have more courage than the most cowardly generation of people 0.96

01:07:16.140 that have ever lived on the planet. 0.88

01:07:19.900 Looking around you in 2025 cannot be the ruler,

01:07:24.260 the ruler, the measuring rod for what's pleasing to Christ. That cannot be the metric you use for

01:07:30.980 determining Christian virtue. Guys, we are in a sad state of affairs. Are you aware how sad the

01:07:37.740 state of affairs of the nation, of the world, and of the church currently are? So no, you cannot

01:07:44.560 Not just say, well, I'm more courageous than that guy.

01:07:50.020 More courageous than that guy.

01:07:52.040 What?

01:07:53.300 That guy has long hair and limp wrists.

01:07:58.440 Jesus is not impressed.

01:08:01.220 That's not going to do.

01:08:03.260 That's not going to do.

01:08:04.600 Preach Christ.

01:08:05.900 Publicly confess Him.

01:08:07.240 And endure persecution for His name's sake.

01:08:11.340 And if there is no persecution,

01:08:12.900 then come talk to me come come talk to Connor come talk to Michael um and and and seriously have

01:08:21.660 have meet with one of the elders and say um guys I I'm concerned for my soul I want to be faithful

01:08:28.920 to Christ but the last five years I've never had anybody upset with me about my faith and

01:08:36.260 and that concerns me and we'll respond by saying good that should concern you that's good let's

01:08:42.020 talk about that. What does it look like for you in your daily life to follow Jesus? Because to not

01:08:48.540 have any conflict, any pushback, to not have any persecution from men, that's the whole point of

01:08:54.840 our text today. It should scare you. Let's pray. Father, bless your word to your people. We pray

01:09:00.380 that you would bring for yourself great glory by the preaching of your word. Whatever I said that's

01:09:04.860 not true to your word, I ask, Lord, that we would forget and that it would not stick. But whatever's

01:09:10.660 true lord i pray that um that it would not be something that's easy to shove off but it would

01:09:15.540 it would remain and and that each of us would have to wrestle with that and uh and that we

01:09:20.840 would repent if repentance is needed and that we would be motivated to be more courageous and

01:09:26.500 faithful towards you we ask this in jesus name amen

The NXR Podcast - July 07, 2025

THE SERMON - Cowards Will Go To Hell

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