Marching Orders
"So Help Me God"
Matthew 10:32-33
Although we concluded our verse-by-verse study of the "Marching Orders" found in Matthew 10 last week, I want to return to the chapter for one additional look at a couple of verses in particular.
I think it important on this Veteran's Day Sunday to take a little time to honor our veterans. You may not realize it, but there is a debate going on in religious circles regarding the appropriateness of honoring soldiers in our churches.
The arguments against such practices generally range from the worship time being used to honor Jesus and not men, or misusing Scripture to elevating the nation over the kingdom of God.
I will say, some of those arguments voice valid concerns, and I don't want to minimize their significance. But I would also point you to the ample use Scripture makes of soldiers and their example of how we should serve Christ.
For instance, Paul told Timothy, "You . . .must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ." And it just seems to me if Paul likened our service and sacrifice to that of a soldier, there are some things we should learn and observe from the military world.
Personally, I am grateful for the sacrifice and service of our veterans, and I think it is absolutely appropriate that they be honored in any and every setting, both religious and secular, and I know you join me in giving them our thanks and support.
(applause)
I also don't believe I've ever met a soldier or veteran who thought that we were elevating them to a place of worship equal to that of the Lord simply because we say "thank you" in a worship service.
And I trust you're intelligent enough to understand what we do when we do that, and most importantly, why we gather on Sundays.
So what I'd like to do this morning, in agreement with my brother the Apostle Paul, is see if there are some things we can learn about what it means to be a good soldier and how we fulfill these marching orders that we find in Matthew 10.
Now just to refresh our memories and set the table for our study this morning, let me remind you of what Jesus told His followers in this chapter. The words are initially spoken to the original 12 apostles, and because of their inclusion in Scripture, they are
addressed to all believers down through the centuries, including us.
In particular, their assignment is to go out into a hostile world and preach the gospel and do the kind of ministry the Lord has modeled for them.
He reminds them they are going out as sheep among wolves. It is a dangerous assignment.
But the assignment is going to give them opportunities they otherwise would not have had, such as speaking before kings and authorities.
But the assignment will also bring with it some persecution and hatred and opposition, even in their own families. In fact, they are going to experience some of the very things the Lord has experienced.
But the good news is, God is sending them out with some resources and promises. He is going to take care of them and eventually, His justice will prevail and they will be rewarded.
And nestled in the middle of this marching orders, Jesus says this:
Matthew 10:32-33
What does Jesus mean by the word "confess"?
1. The Confession
The word "confess" means to affirm or acknowledge. It carries the idea of agreement or assent. The idea is that of a verbal statement of identification, a testimony of our faith and belief in Jesus as Lord, and the subsequent life that follows that confession. And Jesus says that confession is before men.
Obviously, that includes the confession of our mouth, as we read in Romans 10. But we also confess with our life as we live out that confession.
Every veteran that has served in the Armed Forces of the United States, has taken an oath that reads like this:
"I, _____, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God."
Now the dictionary defines a veteran in a couple of different ways. A veteran can be a person who has had long service or experience in an occupation or office such as a veteran of the police force.
It also says a veteran who is a person who has served in a military force, especially during a war.
But both definitions have one fact in common, and that is a veteran is someone who has served. They have some experience that qualifies them to be identified as a veteran.
That means there's more to being a veteran than just taking the oath. In fact, and someone may need to correct me, but just because you enlist and take the oath doesn't make you a soldier. You have to earn the right by completing basic training, and once you complete basic and become the property of the Department of Defense, then you take a second oath and your enlistment become official.
So the oath is not just repeating some words. It is following those words with some actions and involvement that prove you meant what you said.
And to use the words of Jesus, it is a confession, an outward, spoken statement of what is in our heart and soul.
Now don't miss what Jesus said there in 32, He said we confess Him "before men." In front of men literally it says. Standing up in front of men. He is emphasizing the public character of the confession, and it cannot be reduced in any way.
You cannot be saved apart from this public confession. Again, it couldn't be more clear than what we read in
Romans 10:9
The confession is a public testimony of the heart's response to and belief in Jesus.
Now the implication of what Jesus is saying in Matthew 10:32 is that it's going to cost us
something to be a Christian. The confession must be public, and its authenticity is marked by our willingness to confess, to affirm and acknowledge that we belong to Christ no matter how hostile the elements around us.
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can you tell if someone is genuinely a disciple of Jesus Christ? They confess it with their mouth, but they live it with their life. They don't just say the oath or put on the uniform. They fall in. They follow orders.
If you know someone who once walked the aisle or got baptized or responded to an invitation, but their life gives no evidence to their confession, then they are not a genuine disciple.
They may have taken the oath. They may have signed up for the benefits, they may have been issued a uniform, but their life testimony voids any words that may have been said.
In fact, listen to the testimony Jesus gives of the church at Pergamos in
Revelation 2:13
He says, "I know how you live. You have named My name and you have not denied My faith even in the midst of persecution when somebody died." True disciples confess the Lord in the face of any hostility at all costs and then they live it out.
By the way, this would be a good place for us to examine our own confession and see if we're really genuine.
You say, "Well Brother Terry, does that mean we'll never have a lapse? We will never struggle with making that confession public?"
We all have lapses in our lives as Christians. We fail to live up to the standard. If that weren't the case, then we'd all be perfect and it doesn't take much investigation to discover that's not right. There will be times when we don't take the stand and make the confession and outwardly live as we should.
If you need evidence, I would submit Peter as Exhibit A. He denied his Lord, but as a result of that, he went out and wept bitterly. It broke his heart to know he had missed the mark.
Think about Timothy. The finest student Paul ever discipled was Timothy. He was molded and shaped into a pastor with a heart for God. But read 2 Timothy,, and you will discover there was a time in his life when Paul said to him, "You need to renew the faith that was passed along to you by your momma and grandmother and stop being so timid."
And history records for us the man of God Timothy went on to become. He had a lapse, Peter had a lapse, and you and I will struggle, but a genuine believer confess and then go on to live it.
Then, notice
2. The Confidence of the Confession
verse 32b
What does that mean? It means exactly what it says. There will come a day when those who have confessed the Lord will stand before God and Jesus will say to God on the day of judgment, "This one belongs to Me."
In other words, Jesus Himself will openly and publicly affirm His loyalty to you just as you have openly and publicly affirmed your loyalty to Him.
Now think about what we're reading here. This is the way our Lord is assessing genuine discipleship. The one I will confess before my Father in Heaven is the one who is willing to go public for me and take whatever that brings.
The disciple of Christ is the one who is willing to confess Christ. The pattern of their life will be a willingness and a desire to openly live as Christ lived, and if need be, to be treated like He was treated.
I can't even imagine what it will be like to someday stand before God, and have the Lord Jesus Christ slip His arm around me and say, "Father, this one belongs to Me."
What an incredible thought that is, and what a marvelous promise. Think of the confidence that must have brought to the life of this little band of rag-tag disciples.
Here they are, nothing, as far as society is concerned. Jesus has just told them of the incredible opposition and persecution they should expect as His followers. But then He says, "But know this boys. One of these days you're going to stand before God, and I'm going to be right there beside you. And just as you've confessed me, I'm going to confess you!"
It's the idea of a double loyalty. When we are loyal enough to Jesus Christ to speak His name in the midst of any situation, He will speak our name in the Father's presence.
One of the lesser known emperors of Rome was a man named Trajan. There was a governor in the province of Bithynia named Pliny who served during the reign of Trajan.
A few years ago, archaeologists unearthed a letter that Pliny wrote to Trajan regarding some of the problems he was having with Christians in his province.
Apparently some anonymous informers had come to Pliny and told him there were Christians among the populous and so he decided that he would try to stamp them out.
He called for all Christians to immediately abandon Christ and revoke their worship of Christ, and instead, worship the gods of Rome and more specifically the emperor himself.
In the letter he wrote, he told Trajan of all the things he had tried to coerce these Christians to forsake Christ, but nothing had worked. Then he closed the letter by saying, "None of these acts, those who are really Christians can be compelled to do."
Isn't that interesting, and from a pagan, no less! "If they're real Christians", he said, "they won't do this."
Why? They knew one day they would stand before God and hear Jesus confess them before our Heavenly Father.
Thirdly, notice
3. The Consequences of No Confession
verse 33
Now Jesus shares the other side of the story. Now He could be talking about people who openly and flagrantly deny Christ, those who have nothing to do with Him and hate event he mention of His name.
After all, there are a lot of people who despise Him and blaspheme His name. But I don't think they are the focus of what Jesus is saying.
Remember, He's talking to those who are being sent out to preach the gospel in a hostile environment. And the suggestion seems to be how they will deal with the persecution they are about to encounter.
And it seems to me the intent of verse 33 is to address the person within the sphere of Christianity, someone in the surroundings of discipleship, someone who has at some point made this declaration of their faith, but when push comes to shove and the going gets tough and the temperature heats up, they deny the Lord.
After all, standing there in that crowd of twelve were two that eventually would not confess the Lord before men. One of them was named Judas Iscariot, who betrayed the Lord, and the other was Simon Peter, who denied the Lord.
And it seems to what Jesus is saying is He can be denied with silence. You could deny the Lord by just not saying anything.
I remember reading about a young man who took a job, and his pastor was concerned about the work environment and the temptations he would encounter. After a few months, the young man returned home for a visit, and the pastor inquired if he'd had problems living his faith and being a Christian. He smiled and said, "Oh no preacher! Nobody even found out I was a Christian!
You could deny Him by absolute silence.
You could deny the Lord by your actions. Just live the way everybody else lives and use the same language and laugh at the same jokes and participate in the same activities. You can deny Christ a lot of ways, short of open, vocal denial.
But before you do that, you better carefully consider the consequences because your denial will be repaid in kind. Notice. just as in verse 32 the Lord says, "I will confess," in verse 33, He says, "I will deny," and the future tense verb points to the final judgment.
And I think maybe what He has in mind is the same crowd He talked about in the Sermon of the Mount who said, "Lord, it's us. We did this in Your name, we did that in Your name and this other thing in Your name, and He'll say, "Depart from me, I never knew you."
Isn't that something? He will deny that He even knows them because their life was a denial of Him.
What a fearful thought it is to think that we refused to confess the Lord and the day comes when He will refuse to confess us.
So how would this little band of disciples be able to fulfill their marching orders? It must have seemed like an overwhelming task. So few of them, so many in opposition. Such a dangerous battlefield, filled with vicious enemies.
The key to how they would be victorious is found in the confession they made.
Take note of The Military Oath of Enlistment, and in particular, notice how it ends: “So help me God.” That little phrase made its earliest appearance in the military oaths of the United States as early as 1778.
So why is that phrase included? It is because without God's help, the requirements of the oath would be impossible to fulfill.
When Paul recorded that confession in Romans 10:9, the Holy Spirit instructed him to write it down like this:
"that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved."
The Christian confession of faith includes a phrase that is exclusive to us. Our confession is based upon the fact that God raised Jesus from the grave.
And because of the resurrection, there is a power available to those who make that confession that is unlike anything else in the world. In fact, it is supernatural power given to natural men so they can do what they are called to do.
How would this little band of twelve fulfill their marching orders? They would do it in the power and strength of their commanding officer who overcame the power of death and hell by his resurrection. And you and I have the same resource available to us.
One hundred years and XXXX minutes ago, at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of the year 1918, an armistice was signed between the Allied Forces and Germany that effectively brought an end to World War 1.
America was brought into the conflict on April 6, 1917 because of increased German attacks on American ships and a threat of invasion from Mexico.
When the war came to an end, American losses exceeded 100,000. Altogether, the war would claim 14 million lives, including 9 million soldiers, sailors and airmen from 28 countries.
One of the forgotten details of World War 1 is that it was a war about principles and ideals and those ideals took on a religious imagery and language. By many it was viewed as the great threat of a non-Christian Germany and their ideology against Christian values and morals, and in many ways that was right.
The correspondence of American soldiers are filled with word descriptions of a Christian America and an anti-Christian Germany. One such letter was written by American pilot Kenneth MacLeish who wrote a letter to his parents in which he defended his decision to go to war.
He wrote,
“Do you think for a minute that if Christ had been alone on the Mount with Mary, and a desperate man had entered with criminal intent, He would have turned away when a crime against Mary was perpetrated? Never! He would have fought with all the God-given strength He had!”
The truth is, World War I was not a war of religion. Men from different religious backgrounds fought
alongside each other and killed men with whom they may have, in another circumstances, sang a hymn or shared communion.
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this stand for truth and right and values led to a bitterly-fought war that continued to the very end.
In fact, historian Joseph Persico estimated the total dead, wounded and missing on all sides on the final day was 10,900.
Even though the Allies and Germany agreement to end the war took place six hours before the armistice was signed, hundreds were killed along the Western Front right up to the very end.
Among the most tragic deaths of the day were Augustin Trebuchon, George Lawrence Price and Henry Gunther, all considered by their nations to be the last men to fall in combat.
Trebuchon was a 40 year-old French soldier who was shot just 10 minutes before his friends would blow the bugle signaling the cease-fire..
George Lawrence Price was a 25-year-old Canadian Private who was slain by a German sniper at 10:58 am, and about 150 miles away in France, a 23-year-old American named Henry Gunther was killed by German machine-gun fire one minute before the armistice.
Historians speculate on the many reasons why men kept falling until the call of the bugler at 11 a.m.
Some say it was fear that the enemy would not abide by the armistice.
Others say it was sheer hatred after four years of unprecedented slaughter. Perhaps it was the ambition of commanders craving a last victory or bad communications.
But dig a little deeper and you will discover the specifics of these three deaths, and in and of themselves they preach a sermon about our commitment to our call.
Augustin Trebuchon was a highly decorated French artilleryman who had been fighting for 4 years. On November 11, he was carrying a message to the front lines. News of the armistice had swept through the ranks and plans were being made for a meal to be shared by the men at 11:30, and he was carrying the message of that celebration.
His commitment serves as a reminder to those of us who are called to take God's message to the front lines, regardless of the cost.
George Lawrence Price was marching with his regiment through a small village. They had been warned Germans were still in the area and to stay low. But according to the Canadian War Museum historian, it is believed a girl from the village waved to the soldiers, and Price rose to return her wave when a sniper gunned him down at 10:58.
His death serves as a fitting reminder of the need to keep our eyes and mind on the task before us, and avoid the distractions Satan would use to bring us down.
American Henry Gunther spent his last days volunteering for the most dangerous of missions. He was of German descent, and there were questions regarding his loyalty to the American cause, fueled by a letter he had written that was intercepted by the Army. In the letter, he questioned some of the living conditions and things that were going on, and many believe he volunteered to prove his allegiance.
In fact, he was killed just one minute before 11 by a German sniper as he ran toward their position.
His life, also, reminds us there should be no question as to Who we serve and our commitment to the cause.
But the primary reason these men kept fighting is because they took an oath. And, at least in the case of Gunther, that oath ended with the words, "So help me God".
That is a soldier's way of saying, "What needs to be done, I cannot do by myself. It will require God to be successful in keeping this oath."
In like manner, that's what our cofession is all about as well. If you will be saved, you can't do it by yourself. But through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we confess our faith in Him and believe that God will do for us what we cannot do ourselves.
if that oath would motivate men to fight and kill to the last moment before peace comes, perhaps we should give equal energy and fight to the last moment we have so that men would live, so help us God!
Let's pray.
