Note: This is the sermon manuscript that Ben carried into the pulpit. Feel free to use it in any way to advance the kingdom of God.
Christianity 101:
How To Be Saved
Romans 10
Englewood Baptist Church
Sunday Morning, June 22, 2008
Let me begin with a quick review…the last time we were in Romans together, we studied chapter 9 which emphasizes God’s sovereignty in salvation. And I made the statement recently that we as Christians must “stand where we may not understand.” I don’t know how electricity works but I refuse to sit in darkness until I figure it out. Likewise, I do not understand how salvation works, but it is not necessary for me to fully comprehend it before I receive it. It is a mystery. Even Jesus hinted at the puzzling process of salvation when he said this in John 3:8,
The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit. John 3:8
Without question, salvation is draped in mystery. Even Jesus would not begin to try to explain it to us. But being a follower of Christ, does not mean that we have every answer. Sometimes we must stand where we do not understand.
In Physics class, I would often walk out of a lecture scratching my head and saying to my classmate, “I don’t get it.” That doesn’t mean that the laws of physics do not hold. It simply means that I don’t comprehend them well. The same is true for our faith. I don’t get how Jesus Christ was fully man and fully God. I don’t think I can diagram it, but I believe in the Incarnation of Christ. I believe that he was 100% God and at the same time, 100% flesh.
Beyond that, I confess that I don’t understand the Trinity. How can three be one and one be three? Yet this mystery is to be believed rather than entirely understood. Consider prayer. It is stated in Scripture that God’s plans are always accomplished—that he is not like man that he changes his mind. However, the Bible clearly teaches that our prayers affect the outcome of the events on earth. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. So what should we do? We should pray! We may not be able to explain how prayer works, but we are called to a lifestyle of prayer because it does work.
And while we are on this subject of God’s wisdom, let’s be honest. Wouldn’t you be disappointed if you had everything “figured out” about God? This Creator who spoke the solar system into existence, who produced gravity so that we don’t float off into outer space, this God who gave you a brain that is 80% water, yet has the ability to recall an incident from your childhood. This God gave you a body that grows from the time you are born, every single part of your body grows over the course of your life, except for your eyeballs. You have the same size eye that you had as a baby. Who told the eyeball not to grow? God. This God is beyond our comprehension. But, here is the good news. While it is impossible to understand him, it is not impossible to know Him. The Bible says that He loved you so much that He created a way for you to know Him personally, to be saved.
In Romans 10, our text for today, Paul is about to explain salvation. He is about to teach what every Jew needs—salvation through Christ. And not just every Jew, but every Gentile, every single person scattered across the face of this watery earth. We must be saved. But how?!?
It must be complex. After all, God is unquestionably complex. This plan of salvation must be intricate and detailed. It must take years to understand. No. Salvation is so simple that even a child can grab ahold of it. Even a man with a 1st grade education can understand it. Look what Paul says in these first 5 verses of Romans 10…
Read Romans 10:1-5.
Paul begins with a heartfelt confession. He says, “My heart’s desire, my prayer, is for the Jewish people to be saved.” They need to be saved. And he goes to make the first point about salvation.
The Simple Plan of Salvation
1. Salvation is free. (vv.2-4)
I wish my people understood that! Paul says. V.2, They have a zeal for God but their zeal is not based on knowledge. Without question, the Jews were religious people. They were sincere, but sincerity does not replace truth. I do not question the sincerity of those Mormon boys that walk the streets of Jackson. They truly believe in what their selling. The only problem is: it’s not true. I have studied the history of the Mormon faith and the facts are just simply untrue. And on top of that, their “gospel” is not the gospel of the New Testament. It is another example of a works-based righteousness.
And Paul wished that Jews could understand how futile this thinking truly is. Look at vv.3-4.
It has been said that “Salvation is not a reward for the righteous. It is a gift for the guilty.” You cannot earn it. If ever there was a man that could have behaved his way to heaven, it was Paul. Look what he says in Philippians 3:
If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless. But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. Phil. 3:4-7
Paul says, “If the Law could bring life, I would be immortal, but it cannot bring life. Jesus Christ is the truth and the life, and I am following Him.”
I remember when I was in seminary. I had to drive to Louisville, KY, for a one-week course and I decided to take the scenic route through Kentucky. It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon. The sun was shining just right. The grassy pastures were a fluorescent green. The clouds looked like the hair on Santa’s head—perfectly white and puffy. The horses were galloping around the tall trees. There was not a car on the road and I was cruising along at a consistent speed. It was a smooth ride, but then suddenly my heart began to beat fast. I started to sweat for I realized that I should have seen a sign for the interstate by now. I was so busy watching the farmland that I was not watching for my turn. And sure enough, 15 minutes later, I realized that I was now traveling in the complete wrong direction. I was making good time on the wrong road. It was all loss.
Paul makes the same point of the Jews. It’s not that they aren’t religious folks. They are just wasting their time in travel. It’s all for nothing outside of Jesus Christ. Salvation is not something that you compete for; it is something that you receive—free. And he longed to see the Jews get on the right road that leads to heaven. The first thing they needed to understand about salvation: it is free.
Now, let’s move on because he has more to say about salvation…
2. Salvation is easily accessible. (vv.5-9)
Now Paul is about to use a very loose quotation from Moses here. He is trying to help us understand that stark difference between salvation that comes by faith and salvation that comes by works. Salvation by faith is very simple; salvation by works is very complex. Look what it says in vv. 5-9…
Now this is a confusing portion of this passage, but don’t check out on me. Let me explain. If you decide to live according to the law, you must live in perfection. Good luck. But if you want to live according to the way of Christ, you simply receive perfection. Well, how do we do it? How do we receive the righteousness of Christ?
Do have to go on some pilgrimage to heaven to track him down? Do we have to fly up to heaven to bring Christ down? No, no one has to ascend up to heaven, Christ has already come down. He left the glory of the Father to become flesh and dwell among us. We don’t have to bring Christ down.
Well, then, do we have to descend to the grave to pull Christ up? No, he is risen. Up from the grave he arose, with a mighty triumph o’er his foes.
We don’t have to scale the heights or plumb the depths to find salvation. It is right here! Paul says in v.8, “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart.” And here is the recipe of salvation. It is found in vv.9-10…
Did you hear that? A man can be locked up in jail. He can be cut off from all communication to the outside world. He can have no internet access, no television, no newspaper, no magazines. He can have no phone, no personal contact with people. He can have no view of the sunshine or of the glow of the moon. He can be wrapped in a straightjacket and blindfolded so that he cannot see. And yet, he has the supernatural power in his hands to call upon the name of the Lord and be saved for eternity! That’s how accessible this gospel is. God made is so accessible that whosoever will may come.
God rejected Israel because Israel rejected the gospel. If you are here today and you are without Christ, it is not because you are non-elect, but because you are freely refusing a readily accessible salvation from Christ. Revelation says that he stands at the door and knocks. And mankind continues to leave him out in the rain. Our sinful hearts will not surrender. Skip down to v.21 and see what God says of Israel… All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people.” And the same continues today among the Jews and the Gentiles. Christ holds out his nail-pierced hands and people walk away from him. Like a treasure chest of gold, the gospel is right there waiting to be opened, and still people walk away from it.
Now, look at these two aspects of salvation in vv.9-10. Paul mentions the heart and the mouth. Salvation requires inward belief and outward confession. In other words, this isn’t just intellectual assent. It’s not as simple as saying, “I agree with the Bible. I like what Jesus had to say. He seemed like a nice man.” No, that is not salvation. That is agreement. Salvation means surrender. It means that you are trusting in Christ and surrendering your life to him. This is not a truce; it’s a take-over. And Christ will have it no other way. You must make him Lord.
Imagine a wedding where the bride gets into the car after the ceremony and she says to her new husband, “What a wonderful day this has been. Take me home, my love.” And he smiles in agreement. But somewhere along the way, she says to him,
“I think you made a mistake. That was my home right back there. That was the street I grew up on. That’s where my mother and father live. Take me home.”
And he says, “I don’t understand.” She replies, “Well, I just want to see you on the weekends, when it is convenient. If I happen to get sick or need some money, I want to be able to call on you and get what I need, but don’t think that I am going to change my life because of some confession I made at a church. I’m not going to change the way I live. Are you crazy?” she asks him.
No, she is crazy. What kind of nutty marriage is that? Her idea of a marriage is warped.
People try to do the same thing with their relationship with Christ. They sit in a worship service, they come under conviction, they feel guilty about their sin and they know that they deserve hell, and so they come forward at the end of the service. They make a confession before hundreds of people—that is a great thing—and the very next week, Jesus says, “OK, I’m going to need your wallet. I’m going to tell you how to spend your money. I’m going to ask you to tithe.” And what happens? The whole thing is called off. Does that mean the man lost his salvation? No, of course not. It means that he was never saved to begin with! Jesus says it in the parable of the soils:
14The farmer sows the word. 15Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. 16Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. 17But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. 18Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; 19but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. 20Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop—thirty, sixty or even a hundred times what was sown." Mark 4:14-20
What is the difference between the soils? What makes the fruitful Christians unique? Here it is: The fruitful Christian not only confesses Christ, but allows the truth to penetrate the soil of his heart. He places his trust in him. You must confess Christ with your mouth because confession shows possession. That’s why we invite people to walk an aisle. It’s not because that walk is some kind of sacrament, some holy pilgrimage from a pew. That’s not why we do an altar call at the end of the service. So why do we do it? Because at the end of that walk is a flock of people that you can face and confess Christ as Lord to. That’s why we don’t baptize people in private pools because you are proclaiming Christ publicly what Christ has done in your heart. Your confession means possession, but it doesn’t stop there. To be a child of God, you must follow after Him. It’s the easiest and hardest thing in the world to do. It’s costs you nothing and it costs you everything.
And so I ask you: have you been saved? Has the words of your mouth changed your heart?
3. Salvation is equally accessible. (vv.11-13)
Look at vv.11-13…everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
It doesn’t matter what island or continent you live on, whether you live under communism or capitalism, whether you sleep in a palace or a mud hut, whether you are a hairy man or a dainty woman, the gospel is for you. God loves sinners, and he does not wish for any to perish—Jew or Gentile. This is not just a New Testament idea. It is woven throughout the entire Bible—that God’s desire is for all peoples to worship him.
Jesus didn’t introduce “missions” in Matthew 28 when called us to go to all nations and preach the gospel. This wasn’t a revolutionary concept or an appendix to the story. Missions began in the book of Genesis. From the Fall of man in the Garden, God has been seeking to call men back to himself. He began a passionate pursuit of men and women, boys and girls.
In Gen.12, he calls out Abram and makes a promise to him. He promises to make him the agent of redemption for all the earth. Through Abram, all peoples on earth would be blessed. And God chose for himself a people called Israel that would be a witness to a lost world and win them back to God.
But Israel failed. He gave them the Law to follow so that they would be different than all the other pagans on the earth. They were to lead others to “acknowledge the Lord” (Is.19:21). But they rebelled. They rejected God’s laws and He loved them enough to send them truth-tellers—prophets that would speak the truth in love and restore the nation to their rightful place as the light unto the Gentiles. God wanted to see the whole world redeemed through Israel.
Look at the book of Jonah. You can’t read that book without seeing God’s heart for lost people. He sends the prophet Jonah to Ninevah—a city filled with nasty, filthy people. Jonah bolts in the other direction, takes a detour through the digestive system of a fish, but finally reaches the dark, lost people of Nineveh. For 40 days, he preaches to them and to his disgust, the whole city is saved. Jonah is depressed. He is angry at God for saving his enemies and this is what he says in 4:2,
“I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.” Jonah 4:2
Jonah knew that God would love those awful people. He knew the character and personality of his God. He knew that this was a missionary God who would send an agent of redemption and show mercy.
Paul says in Romans 10:13, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” There has never in history been one person that came to Jesus in repentance and faith that was not saved. Jesus says in Revelation 22:17,
Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.
It is equally accessible to all people—the rich, the poor, the healthy, the sick, the politician, the prisoner, the king and the peasant, the man, the woman, the Asian and the African—everyone who calls on the name of the Lord can be saved. Are you saved?
Now there is one final point that Paul must make about salvation. This is critical for us as Christians…
4. Salvation must be declared. (vv.14-15)
Here Paul speaks about the necessity of evangelism. Let me read to you vv.14-15…
Paul says, “How can they hear without someone preaching?” That word for preaching means “to herald.” In ancient times, before we had the 6 o’clock news or the internet, communication had to take place orally. The role of the herald was vital in any town. That person was the major means of transmitting information. This man’s sole responsibility was to get the word out. He would stand in the city square or in marketplace—wherever there were lots of people—and he would declare the important news from the King. The only way that people could hear the pronouncements of the King was by listening to the spoken words of the herald.
Likewise, unless someone has the courage to stand up and speak the truth that men go to hell outside of Christ, to preach the cross—if we don’t do that then there is no hope for sinners. They cannot believe in someone they have not heard of. So, who will rise up and be a herald? Who will share the King’s message that salvation is free. It is easily accessible—it is near. And not just that, it is equally accessible—that all people are invited to the table! The Son of God is risen!
The world’s greatest need is not education, or Christ would have come as an educator. The world’s greatest need is not money, or Christ would have come as a banker. The world’s greatest need is not healthcare, or Christ would have come as a doctor. The world’s greatest need is salvation, and so Christ came as a Savior. He was sent by God. Isaiah tells us that is was God’s will to crush Him so that men would be spared from His wrath.
How beautiful are the feet of those who bring this news of escape.
I know that in many churches today, evangelism is considered old-fashioned. We are told that we should be friends with people. That we should not jam the truth down their throats. And I am certainly aware of the need for tact. My evangelism professor in seminary, Chuck Lawless, he tells the story of a young Pentecostal boy that was in his class in elementary school. Every morning this boy would approach him and says, “Chuck, it’s a good thing you lived through the night. You would be in hell right now.”
That’s probably not the best way to share the gospel. This boy had passion, but needed to improve his presentation. He was too harsh. But, let me ask you: is this really our problem in 2008 Christianity? That we are pushing Christ too hard? Are we driving people away because we are so adamant in sharing the gospel? Or, are we using that as an excuse? You can spend your whole life building a friendship with someone that is lost, But there will come a point when you must risk the relationship and preach Christ to them. You have to flat out tell them that hell exists and that Christ died so that you don’t have to go there. Is that an easy message? No. But, how beautiful are the feet of those who carry that message.
I heard John MacArthur speak recently on the radio. MacArthur is a well-known Baptist pastor in Californian. He was sharing about his experience on airplanes. It used to be—that whenever he sat by a man and they began talking, the question always emerged, “So, what do you do for a living?” For years, MacArthur would say, “I am a Baptist preacher.” And that was normally the death of the conversation. The person would become nervous and shut down. So after a few years of sitting in awkwardness, MacArthur took a new approach. Today, when the man on the plane asks, “What do you do for a living?” MacArthur says this, “I’ve got the greatest job on earth. It’s true. I get to travel around the world and tell people that there is God who loves them and wants to forgive all their sins. Are you interested?”
When I heard that, I thought, “What a great way to think about evangelism.” I appreciate that pastor’s heart, and that should be my heart, but it’s not just the job of pastors to be fishers of men. That is the job of disciples. I beseech you, brothers and sisters in Christ, be fishers of men and have the courage to stand up and say to people, “God loves you and wants to forgive your sins. Are you interested?” How beautiful are the feet of those who bring this news.
