INTRODUCTION
We have come now to what I believe to be the clearest instructions in all the Bible that tell a person how they can be saved. How they can get from Texas to heaven. You may see in the bulletin there a little outline, you might want to follow along and fill it in. I’m convinced people in our church like to do that because it lets them know when I am almost finished. Instead of saying, “Well, there’s ten more minutes”, they say, “Well, there’s only two more blanks to fill in.” If you don’t believe me, just listen to what happens when the last blank gets filled in. You may be like the lady who said to me one time. She meant well, but it didn’t come out right. She said, “Oh, brother David, you’ll never know how much your sermons mean to my husband since he lost his mind.” Another lady said to me, “Oh, pastor, every sermon you preach is better than the next one.” Some of you will get that a little bit later.
Have you ever been lost and you stop and ask someone for directions? You always appreciate it– if they give you some clear, simple directions. Well, here, as I said, in Romans, chapter 10, we have the clearest, simplest directions anywhere in the Bible about how a person can be saved. I would like to ask all of you a question this morning. I really wish I had the time to just sit down one on one and look into the eyes of every single one of you and ask you this question personally. Have you ever come to a place in your life that you know for certain you have eternal life and you will go to heaven when you die? Now the answers you may give are, “Yes.” or “I’m not sure,” or “No.” Well, in this passage of scripture we are going to find out how you can be sure that you can go to heaven when you die.
We’ll begin reading in verse 8 of Romans 10. We pick up here because we have been talking about what the Old Testament says about faith. I’d like you to see how many times the word faith and also, the recurrence of the words heart and mouth are found. Romans 10:8, “But what does it say? [meaning the Old Testament] The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart, that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart, [not your mind] that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess, and are saved.” As the Scripture says, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame. For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile–the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him” Now, verse 13 is a great verse, but I want to intentionally misread it, and if I didn’t point it out, most of you wouldn’t catch it: “for everyone who calls on the Lord will be saved.” You say, “Well, you left out the phrase, “the name of the Lord,” is that important?” Well, it is tremendously important! It is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug. I mean it is of tremendous importance! There are some people who say, “All you have to do is just believe in the good Lord somewhere” and they have sort of thought about some mysterious, ethereal, ambiguous God somewhere...and said, “Lord, help me.” The Bible says the Lord has a name. Calling on the Lord has never saved anybody, but calling on the name of the Lord, who is Jesus, always saves. How can you do that? How can you have that kind of faith?” I’ve noticed there are at least three different types of faith (probably more) I think everybody possesses one of three types of faith. Of course, the first two are defective, inferior faith, and they don’t save anybody. The third one does.
TYPE A: COUNTERFEIT FAITH
1. Heart: No real change (conversion)
Let’s talk about type A. I call this “counterfeit faith”. It looks like faith. It sounds like faith. It even smells like faith, but it’s not real faith. You’re going to see that there are some people who possess this false facsimile of faith that we could call “counterfeit faith.” In each one of these cases there is a characteristic of the heart and a characteristic of the mouth. What’s the characteristic of the heart in this kind of faith? There is no real change in the heart. A person who has “counterfeit faith” has really never had their inner person transformed or changed. There has been no conversion.
We’re going to be talking this morning about your heart. I want you to understand that when the Bible talks about heart in the New Testament, it is the Greek word, kardia, just like our word cardiac, but it is not talking about this pumping organ in your chest. You know, even ancient man before they had perfected surgery knew there was something alive seemingly in the chest of every person, and that something was beating and pumping. You could even feel the heart beat. They realized that when the beating stopped, life ceased. So they were fascinated with this aspect. Ancient philosophers and ancient men began to ascribe to this place in the chest a meaning that went deeper than a physical sense, and heart became the word to describe the core of your personality, the control center of your life. So, today when we talk about your heart, we are not talking about this organ. We are talking about who you really are on the inside. A person who has “counterfeit faith” has never really been changed on the inside. There is no difference between that person and a person who claims to have no faith.
2. Mouth: “I’m a Christian!”
Secondly, what’s the characteristic of their mouths? A person who has this faith says with their mouth, “I’m a Christian.” They say, “Hey, I’m a Christian.” Here’s the situation. They confess with their mouth, but they do not believe really in their heart. Their heart has never been changed. You realize, of course, that any person can say anything out loud, but that doesn’t make it true. I can stand up here before you today, and I can make a statement that is false. I can say, “I am a tree. I confess that I am a tree. I am a flowering pear tree.” and you say, “You’re a blooming idiot, that’s what you are.” Saying it does not make it so. Do you know why? Because I do not have the inner nature of a tree. A person can say with their mouth, “Hey, I’m a Christian.” and not truly be saved.
In America we have a lot of people who claim to be Christians, but I think they have “counterfeit faith.” A few weeks ago in the Tyler paper there was an article about George Barna and his Christian Research Organization in California. George Barna has interviewed thousands of Americans to see where they stand on their beliefs. You may be interested to learn that in America 90% of our residents own Bibles. In America 83% of Americans say, “Jesus Christ is the son of God.” 78% of Americans believe that there is a personal God to whom they pray on a regular basis. 73% of Americans agree with this statement. “Jesus Christ was raised from the dead.” 67% of Americans call themselves Christians. Catch that: 67% of Americans say, “Yes, I consider myself a Christian.” Now, when you contrast that with our North American Mission Board, and Southern Baptists have done a lot of work working with Americans, our Southern Baptist North American Mission Board says only 35% of Americans have truly been born again...have truly shown evidence of being saved. How do you justify one group saying only 35% of Americans have been born again while 67% of Americans say, “I’m a Christian.” Here’s the difference. There are a lot of people who confess and say, “I’m a Christian” but they are clueless about what it really means. George Barna also asked some people some questions about the Bible. He asked this question. “Who preached the Sermon on the Mount?” Only 32% knew that Jesus was the one who preached the Sermon on the Mount. Do you know what the number two answer was? Billy Graham. George Barna asked this question. He said, “Is this statement in the Bible? God helps those who help themselves.” 68% of Americans said, “Yes, that is in the Bible.” It’s not. When asked the question, “Who lived first, Moses or Abraham?” 69% got it wrong. (I’ll give you a second to figure out the answer to that one.) Who came first, Moses or Abraham? Abraham did. I mean, there are so many people who are claiming to be Christians, and they are totally biblically illiterate. They are clueless about what real faith is. I call this “counterfeit faith.”
Here’s the problem. You cannot take or receive Jesus as Savior and reject him as Lord.
This verse doesn’t say, “Believe in your heart that Jesus is Savior” it says, “Believe in your heart that Jesus is Lord.” There are a lot of people who have weakened the gospel, who have watered down the faith, and they say, “Well, all I want is a Savior.” There are some people who suspect, “There may be a Hell. There may be this place of torment, and man, I don’t want to go there so I’m going to get Jesus to be my Savior so he can give me a little “eternal fire insurance.”
So, I’ll pray a little prayer or I’ll walk a little aisle or I’ll get dunked in the baptistry and then I’ll have this “eternal fire insurance,” just in case. But, I won’t live any different; there won’t be any change in my life. I’ll even go to church four or five times a year to renew the policy. That’s what they have done. They have tried to receive Jesus as Savior, but they haven’t made him the Lord of their life. You cannot receive Jesus as Savior and then say, “No, I don’t want you as Lord.”
Twenty-five years ago this June, my wife and I were married. I remember almost 25 years ago as we stood in that church in Montgomery, Alabama, and the preacher looked at me and said to me, “David, do you take this woman as your wedded wife?” What if I had said, “Let’s see, I’ll take her as housekeeper. I’ll take her as cook.” She would have looked at me and said, “Hit the road, Jack, and don’t you come back no more, no more, no more! No way, José! You can’t have me as that!” When you receive a mate, you don’t receive them as anything, you receive them for who they are. We use this terminology incorrectly. You don’t receive as anything, you receive Jesus for who he is. Jesus. That’s it. And, my friend, Jesus is Lord!
Now, I’m guilty of this and so I’m pointing my finger at me, but in the past I have made the terrible mistake of asking people to come and receive Christ as Savior. The Bible never mentions that. In the New Testament Jesus is only called Savior ten times. He is called Lord seven hundred plus times. What I have tried to do is correct this by saying, “You come, receive Christ and surrender to him as Lord.” Some people think you can take him as Savior and reject him as Lord. You say, “What about when you are a child and you don’t understand the lordship of Jesus?” Well, it is true that you may come into a better understanding of the lordship salvation as you grow older but when I was saved as a 9-year-old child, I promise you this, my friend, I gave all I had of me to all I knew of him. You cannot hold back anything from Christ and consider yourself saved. So, there are some “counterfeit” Christians going around. You may know one. You may be seated next to one.
Did you hear about the twenty-dollar bill that got into circulation? Looked like the real thing. In fact, it did some good things. It bought some groceries for a hungry family. It paid the utility bill for another family and then it bought some shoes for somebody who needed shoes. That twenty-dollar bill even ended up in a bank in a drawer stacked up with several of the real things. But, one day under the eyes of an expert, it was declared to be counterfeit and it was destroyed. The sad thing is that there are a lot of people today who may be deceived into thinking they are the real thing. That’s possible because Jesus said in Matthew 7:21, “Not everyone who confesses to me, ‘Lord, Lord’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he that does the will of my Father which is in heaven.” So, my friend, you may be confessing with your mouth, but here’s the question. Has your heart ever been changed? Are you the kind of person who has two different sets of vocabularies? One for church, and then one for everywhere else. Are you the kind of person who has two different lifestyles? One for church and one for everywhere else. No, that’s counterfeit, false faith.
TYPE B: CAUTIOUS FAITH
Not only is there “counterfeit faith”, but number two there is a type of faith, type B, that I call “cautious faith.” It’s sort of a reluctant, formative kind of faith that’s moving in the right direction, but has not yet arrived. How do you characterize it? Well, with the heart this person is beginning to believe. They are on the pathway to believe. They are moving in the right direction. They have really considered the claims of Christ. They have heard messages. They have read books. They have studied the Bible. They are coming to a point where they are about ready to accept it, but the problem is this. They believe in their head, but they have not yet believed in their heart.
1. Heart: Beginning to believe
Do you know there are going to be some people who miss heaven by eighteen inches? The distance between the head and the heart. This may make some of you mad, but I believe it with all of my heart, I think the Bible teaches it. It is possible for a person to intellectually acknowledge in their head that Jesus was born of a virgin, he performed miracles, he died on the cross for our sins, and intellectually affirm that he was raised from the dead, he ascended into heaven and one day he is coming back. It is possible for a person to intellectually affirm those facts without ever being saved. Did you notice? Roman 10:9 doesn’t say, “If you believe with your head God raised him from the dead”, it says, “If you believe with your heart that God raised him from the dead, you’ll be saved.”
2. Mouth: No personal confession
Here’s the difference. Notice the characteristic of their mouth. They are beginning to believe with their heart, but number two, their mouth, there is no personal confession and there is no public confession of Christ. Did you notice the “counterfeit faith”? The mouth was doing the right thing, “I am a Christian.”, but the heart had never been changed. “Cautious faith”, the heart is beginning to do the right thing, but the mouth hasn’t confessed. Salvation is not some Texas Two Step where you kind of go Step One, Step Two… belief and confession are two sides of the same coin because when your belief in your heart becomes mature, confession with your mouth will happen.
Here’s the problem with this cautious kind of faith as I call it. You cannot remain a secret believer for long. There may be sort of a transitional period in which you are sort of a closet Christian, a secret agent Christian, but you cannot remain that way for long because you will have to confess Jesus personally, and publicly, “Jesus is my Lord.” You see there is no middle ground. There is no way to straddle the fence. Look at what Jesus said in Matthew 12:30. He said, “He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters. “Counterfeit faith,” the first kind, saying it with your mouth, do you agree with me that you can say anything with your mouth and it not be true in your heart? “I am a tree, I am a tree” it’s not true. Watch this. It is impossible for something to capture your heart without it coming out of your mouth. It is impossible for your heart to be full of something or someone and it not come out of your mouth.
It will always come out of your mouth. You say, “Does the Bible teach that?” Absolutely! Write down this reference. Matthew 12:34. Jesus said in Matthew, 12:34, “Out of the abundance or the overflow of a person’s heart their mouth speaks.” If you want to know what a person’s heart is full of just listen to what they talk about. I know for some people, their hearts are full of their jobs because that’s all they want to talk about. I know for some people, their hearts are full of Dallas Cowboys Football: that’s all they want to talk about. Now, isn’t that sad? I know some people whose heart is full of their hobby because that’s all they want to talk about. I know some people whose heart is full of their grandkids because that’s all they want to talk about. Somebody said, “Did I show you the pictures of my grandkids?” and I said, “No, and I appreciate it.” The Bible says whatever is filling your heart is going to come out of your mouth. Listen to me now.... if Jesus Christ is living in your heart and filling your heart, it is going to come out of your mouth. You can’t help it. You will confess Jesus as Lord. Some of you have this “counterfeit faith” and what you need to do today is realize it and confess it and turn to true faith and let Jesus change your heart. Some of you are on the right track and you have this “cautious faith” and today there are some of you who need to go on and complete it and say, “Listen, I want to confess that Jesus is my Lord.” You say, “How do I do that?” We’re going to see that in just a moment.
TYPE C: COMPLETE FAITH
1. Heart: “I believe Jesus is alive–in me!”
Here’s the third kind of faith and this is the good kind, this is type C. This is what I call “complete faith” or “courageous faith.” It’s the real thing. It’s true Biblical faith. It is “saving faith.” “Counterfeit faith” can never save. “Cautious faith” does not save. But, this faith does save. How do you characterize this faith? Well, it’s right here in Romans 10, 9 and 10. “The heart says this, “I believe Jesus” [not was, but is] “is alive. Not only do I believe he is alive, I believe he is alive in me.”
Do you understand there is a difference in saying historically, “I believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ” and in saying, “Christ is alive living in me today. He’s alive! He’s alive! He’s alive! There’s a big difference. What I am saying is you can intellectually say, “Yes, I believe the tomb was empty. I believe he came out of the grave alive.” But that’s not the same thing as saying, “He has come into my life and changed my heart.” You see, the whole thing about the Christian life is not getting you to believe something in your head, it is getting you to receive someone into your heart.
Look at what it says in Ephesians 3:16-17. Paul says, “I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his spirit in your inner being so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.” Can I just ask you simply today, “Is Jesus alive in your heart today?” Either he is or he isn’t. Notice the Bible does not say if you believe in your heart that Jesus was crucified. Oh, thousands were crucified. It does not say if you believe in your heart Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Many kids were born in Bethlehem. It says “if you believe in your heart God raised Jesus from the dead.” The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the one act that validates everything Jesus said and everything Jesus did. I promise you we would not be here today worshiping and celebrating if Jesus had not come out of that grave. History is littered with the corpses of dead religious teachers, Buddha, Mohammed, Confucius, but Jesus is the only one who came back from the dead and is alive today.
Maybe you heard, this is a true story. It circulated in political circles. When Nikita Khrushchev, the leader of the Communist Party who died in 1971, had fallen out of favor with some of the Communists in Russia, some of them did not want to bury his body in Russia. It is said they even asked President Nixon if Nikita Khrushchev could be buried on American soil. He said, “Absolutely not!” They asked several other countries and no country wanted to let Nikita Khrushchev be buried on their soil. They contacted Golda Meier, the Prime Minister of Israel, and she had a tremendous sense of humor. She said to the Russian official, “Sure, we’ll be glad for you to bury Nikita Khrushchev in Israel, but I must warn you, our nation has the highest resurrection rate of any nation on earth.” The Russians decided, “No, thanks. We won’t take a chance.”
2. Mouth: “I’m not ashamed! Jesus is Lord!”
The only character in human history who died and came back from the dead–I’m not talking about somebody who was resuscitated or someone who was revived only to die later–the only person in the history of the world who lived, died and came back alive, and is alive forevermore is Jesus Christ. You can believe it in your head, but if you have not received it in your heart, you’ve not reached this point of “complete faith.” So, it involved the heart. The other side of the coin is the confession of the mouth. If Christ is truly your Lord, you will say it this way. You will confess, “I’m not ashamed. Jesus is Lord! I’m not ashamed to say it. I’m not ashamed to confess Jesus is Lord.
Notice what it says in Romans 10:11, “Whoever believes in him will not be ashamed.” I heard about a guy by the name of Tony who grew up in a community where he had a terrible family life. Even as a young teenager he did all kinds of terrible, wicked, filthy things. He got in with the wrong crowd. He did about everything wrong you can imagine, every kind of drinking, every kind of drugs, and every kind of running around, stealing. He was one of the worst teenagers in the entire community. But, when Tony went to college somebody shared Christ with him and he prayed and received Christ into his life. Jesus began to change Tony’s life and he even felt like God was calling him to preach. Well, for his first sermon Tony was going to go back to his home community and preach at a little church there. Everybody in the community who remembered what a terrible sinner Tony was came. The church was packed that night. They wanted to hear what he had to say. Tony was all fired up and he was excited about getting up and preaching about Jesus, but just as he stood up to preach a man in that congregation stood up and said, “Before he speaks, I have something I want to say.” He had a long, written list and on that list were a lot of the crimes and the sins Tony committed as a teenager. On that list were the names of some of the people Tony had hurt and sinned against. That man said, “Before this guy speaks, I want to read this list”, and he began to read all those things and he turned to Tony and with a smirk on his face the man said, “How dare you stand up there and talk about God!” He said, “Why, you ought to be ashamed of yourself having done all these things.” Tony’s heart was broken, and he just simply looked at the congregation and said, “I am ashamed of myself. I did all those things and more.” He said, “I am ashamed of myself, but I am not ashamed of my Lord, and I want to tell you what a difference he has made in my life.” Are you ashamed of Jesus? It says, “He who believes in him will not be ashamed.” If Christ is truly living in your heart, you will want to confess him. You can’t help but confess him. “I’m not ashamed Jesus is Lord.”
a. Proof: I’m not ashamed to publicly identify with Jesus. How? Baptism–a local church
When it comes to “counterfeit faith” and “cautious faith”, there are some problems attached to it, but I want to show you some proof. If Jesus is your Lord and you have this “true kind of Biblical faith,” there are some ways you can examine yourself and say, “Do I possess this kind of faith?” There are three points on the checklist. Number one. If Jesus is truly your Lord, you will say, “I am not ashamed to publicly identify with Jesus. I am not ashamed to publicly identify with Jesus! I don’t mind anybody knowing that I am a follower of Christ”. How do you publicly identify with Christ? There are a lot of different ways. Two of the baby steps are baptism and a local church. The first and best way a person publicly confesses Christ is to follow him in believer’s baptism. Are there some of you in this room that maybe you are in category B type of faith, and you are considering this? If somebody asked you, you would kind of consider yourself a believer, but you have never followed through and publicly followed Christ in baptism?
Have you ever thought about it? Baptism is not a private act; it is a public expression. In the early church as believers were baptized, they confessed with their mouth, “Jesus is my Lord”. Have you done that? I’ve always been amazed at some people who say, “Well, I believe in Jesus and I follow Jesus”, but they have never been baptized. It just does not fit to me. The Bible commands that Christians are to be baptized. To me, it is just a matter of obedience. Listen, if the Bible said we ought to be baptized one thousand times, you’d be looking at a waterlogged preacher up here, I promise you. I wouldn’t be baptized 999 times. I’d be baptized one thousand times. It only says once, so I’ve done it. That was my way to publicly identify with Christ, and it’s your way too.
Get involved with a local church. It’s also amazing to me that some people can say, “Well, you know I am a Christian, but I don’t participate in any church anywhere. I like Jesus, but I don’t like the church.” You cannot, because the church IS the body of Christ in the world today. You say, “Well, I’m looking for a perfect church.” You will never find a perfect church. If you find a perfect church, don’t you dare join it because when you join it, it won’t be perfect anymore. I guarantee you Green Acres Baptist Church is not a perfect church. It’s a healthy church, but it is not a perfect church. It doesn’t have a perfect pastor, a perfect staff, perfect deacons but I guarantee you we have a perfect head and His name if Jesus Christ. The church may not be much. We’re the bride of Christ and he’s getting us ready for the time when we will be presented to him, spotless and without blemish, but right now, we have a few spots. We have a few blemishes–every church does. If you love Jesus, you’ll identify with a local church. Maybe that’s what is lacking. You just have not been willing to publicly be identified with Jesus and his church. That’s part of the checklist.
b. Proof: I’m not ashamed to allow Jesus to rule over my life
Number two. If Jesus is your Lord, you will say, “I’m not ashamed to allow Jesus to rule over my life.” That’s what the word Lord means. It means boss, it means master, it means controller. You see, this is where a lot of people fall because there are still some people today who say, “I want to maintain control of my life.” When you make Jesus Lord of your life you surrender control of your life to him.
Did you hear the joke about the airplane that landed the other day at the Dallas Fort Worth Airport? It made a terrible landing, a hard jolt on the runway and it bounced up and jolted down again. Finally, it was slowing down and the pilot turned to the co-pilot and said, “Man, that’s the worst landing you have ever made.” The co-pilot looked at the pilot and said, “Me? I thought you were landing the plane.” Being a pilot I understand in any cockpit where there are two pilots there is a certain protocol to be followed, and it is good advice. If the pilot is controlling the airplane and he wants to give control of the aircraft to the co-pilot, he says, “You’ve got the aircraft.” and the co-pilot acknowledges, “I’ve got the aircraft.” If they put it on autopilot they must say, “Autopilot on.” In other words it’s on the cockpit voice recorder. “Autopilot off.” Whoever is controlling the aircraft acknowledges it.
Do you know what you ought to do if you haven’t done it yet? You ought to say to Jesus. “Jesus, you’ve got my marriage. It’s not my marriage Jesus, it’s yours. You control it. Be the Lord of my marriage.” Jesus says, “Click. I’ve got your marriage.”
“Jesus, you’ve got my job.”
“I’ve got your job.”
“Jesus, you’ve got my finances.”
“I’ll be Lord of your finances.”
“Jesus, you’ve got my thought life. You’ve got my hobby life. Jesus, you have all of my life.” He says, “I’ve got it. I’m Lord.” You see, if Jesus is not Lord of all, he’s not Lord at all. Have you surrendered control of everything in your life to Jesus? You can’t hold back anything. You can’t say, “Lord, I want this little closet, this little habit I have, this little secret sin, this little thought life, I want to keep it for myself.” No. You have to surrender everything to him.
c. Proof: I’m not ashamed to devote my life to pleasing Jesus
Here’s the third little part of the checklist. If Jesus is your Lord, you will say, “I’m not ashamed to devote my life to pleasing Jesus. I’m not ashamed to devote my whole life to pleasing Jesus.” What’s the goal of your life? Is it to make enough money to retire? So you can do what? What is the goal of your life? Can you really say, “Pleasing Jesus Christ is the goal of my life?” I have sat at the bedside of many people who were dying, whether in the hospital, in a hospice, or in their home. These people knew they were dying. I’ve had some great conversations with some of these people, but I assure you I have never one time heard a dying person say, “Gee, I wish I had spent more time on the job.” Or “Gee, I wish I had spent more time in my business.” Nobody has ever said that. What they say is, “I wish I had spent more time praying, giving, serving…more time with those people I love.” You see there are a lot of people who spend all of their lives climbing the ladder of success only to come to the end of their life and realize it’s leaning against the wrong wall. If you make pleasing Jesus the goal of your life, you’ll never be disappointed in the end, and you’ll be greatly rewarded.
What does it mean to you to say, “Jesus is Lord?” It means different things for different people. Paul was writing to the church at Rome. Do you know why the Roman Empire was throwing Christians to the lions to die? Do you know why Romans were tying Christians to stakes and burning them alive? Do you know why they were tying them in leather bags with poisonous serpents and throwing them into the river? Do you know why they were killing Christians? Was it just because they were mean people and didn’t like Christians? Oh, no. You see, during the time Paul wrote these words in the Roman Empire a subject in the Roman Empire had to make an annual confession, a statement. They were required to burn a little pinch of incense and to say these words, “Kaiser est kurios.” Translated, “Caesar is Lord.” Every year all they had to do was burn a little pinch of incense and say out loud, confess with their mouth, “Caesar is Lord.” If they did that, everything would be fine. They could have a job. They could carry on business. Everything was great. But, Christians came along and they said, “No, I can’t say that, because there’s only room for one Lord.” Did you know that? So, instead of saying, “Caesar is Lord,” they said, “Jesus est kurios” We’ll give you one more chance. Say, “Caesar is Lord.” “No, Jesus is Lord” So, they accused them of treason and killed them by the thousands.
My friend, are you willing today with your lips and your lifestyle to say, “Jesus is Lord,” whatever the cost? That’s what “true faith” really is. I want to ask you one more time. Have you come to a place in your life that you know for certain that you have eternal life and that you will go to heaven when you die? If not, listen. You’ll never be able to use the excuse, “I never heard the truth.” Today, you heard the truth! Now, how will you respond?
OUTLINE
TYPE A: COUNTERFEIT FAITH
1. Heart: No real change (conversion)
2. Mouth: “I’m a Christian!”
Problem: You cannot “take” Jesus as Savior and reject Him as Lord
TYPE B: CAUTIOUS FAITH
1. Heart: Beginning to believe
2. Mouth: No personal confession
Problem: You cannot remain a “secret believer” for long.
“He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters.” Matthew 12:30
TYPE C: COMPLETE FAITH
1. Heart: “I believe Jesus is alive–in me!”
I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. Ephesians 3:16-17a
2. Mouth: “I’m not ashamed! Jesus is Lord!”
Proof: I’m not ashamed to
a. Publicly identify with Jesus. How? Baptism–a local church
b. Allow Jesus to rule over my life
c. Devote my life to pleasing Jesus
