“The Romans Road to the Redeemer”
Romans 3:23, 6:23, 5:8, 10:9-10
9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
POLL ON SALVATION
56% say a good person can earn their way into Heaven.
44% say if a person does not consciously accept Christ as savior, they will be condemned to Hell.
44% say all people experience the same outcome after they die, regardless of their religious beliefs.
34% say there are some sins that God cannot forgive.
31% believe that Hell is a literal, physical place, 37% say it is separation from God
39% say it doesn’t matter what faith you embrace because they all teach the same lessons
53% contend that if a person is good enough, or does enough good things for other people, they will earn their way into Heaven. One-third of all born again Christians (34%) accept this notion.
Barna Research Group, Ltd., Oxnard, CA — (10,000 Sermon Illustrations)
Intro:
I. The Declaration – agree with God
That if thou shalt confess - The word here rendered "confess" ??µ????e´? homologeo¯ is often rendered "profess"; Matthew 7:23, "Then will I profess to them, I never knew you;" Titus 1:16; Titus 3:14; Romans 1:22; 1 Timothy 2:10; 1 Timothy 6:12-13, 1 Timothy 6:21; Hebrews 3:1, etc. It properly means to "speak what agrees with something which others speak or maintain." Thus, confession or profession expresses our "agreement or concord with what God holds to be true, and what he declares to be true."
a. The profession
It denotes a public declaration or assent to that, here expressed by the words "with thy mouth." A profession of religion then denotes a public declaration of our agreement with what God has declared, and extends to all his declarations about our lost estate, our sin, and need of a Saviour; to his doctrines about his own nature, holiness, and law; about the Saviour and the Holy Spirit; about the necessity of a change of heart and holiness of life; and about the grave and the judgment; about heaven and hell. As the doctrine respecting a Redeemer is the main and leading doctrine, it is put here by way of eminence, as in fact involving all others; and publicly to express our assent to this, is to declare our agreement with God on all kindred truths.
With thy mouth - To profess a thing with the mouth is to speak of it; to declare it; to do it openly and publicly.
b. The prerequisite
Shalt believe in thy heart - Shalt sincerely and truly believe this, so that the external profession shall correspond with the real, internal feelings. Where this is not the case, it would be hypocrisy; where this is the case, there would be the highest sincerity, and this religion requires.
c. The person – Jesus
Hosea 13:4 “Yet I am the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt, and thou shalt know no god but me: for there is no savior beside me.”
SALVATION ITSELF
Today Jesus Christ is being dispatched as the Figurehead of a Religion, a mere example. He is that, but he is infinitely more; He is salvation itself...
d. The position – Lord
The Lord Jesus - Shalt openly acknowledge attachment to Jesus Christ. The meaning of it may be expressed by regarding the phrase "the Lord" as the predicate; or the thing to be confessed is, that he is Lord; compare Acts 2:36; Philippians 2:11, "And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord." Here it means to acknowledge him as Lord, that is, as having a right to rule over the soul.
A key accomplishment of the empty tomb is so Jesus might be “the Lord of both the dead and the living.” Lordship implies ownership or the right to exercise authority over another. When we come to Jesus, we're under new management.
Someone once said, "To many people Jesus is nothing. To some people Jesus is something. But to a few people Jesus is everything."
II. The Doctrine – that God has raised Him from the dead
THE RESURRECTION IS CRUCIAL
So significant is this event that the whole of the Christian faith would fall if the resurrection of Jesus Christ were not true. William Lane Craig suggests that, “Without the belief in the resurrection, the Christian faith could not have come into being. The disciples would have remained crushed and defeated men. Even if they continued to remember Jesus as their beloved teacher, His crucifixion would have silenced any hope of his being the Messiah. The cross would have remained the sad shameful end of his career.” Therefore, it is crucial that the events of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection are true and historically accurate.
“The Gospels do not explain the resurrection; the resurrection explains the Gospels.”
“The Resurrection of Jesus Christ is the cornerstone of the Christian faith.”
“Adrian Rogers said, “without the resurrection Christianity topples like a house of cards”
Paul insisted if Jesus resurrection was not fact the whole Christian message then was based on a lie.
“Take away the resurrection,” he said, “and you destroy both the very foundation and fabric of the Christian FAITH!”
a. God’s promise –
Acts 13:27For they that dwell at Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they knew him not, nor yet the voices of the prophets which are read every sabbath day, they have fulfilled them in condemning him. 28And though they found no cause of death in him, yet desired they Pilate that he should be slain. 29And when they had fulfilled all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree, and laid him in a sepulchre. 30But God raised him from the dead: 31And he was seen many days of them which came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are his witnesses unto the people. 32And we declare unto you glad tidings, how that the promise which was made unto the fathers, 33God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee.
b. God’s prerogative
The easy answer is to say that God raised Jesus from the dead but it is a more nuanced truth than that.
Acts 2:24 — 24 Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.
But the Bible indicates that all three Persons of the Trinity were involved in Jesus’ resurrection. Galatians 1:1 says that the Father raised Jesus from the dead. First Peter 3:18 says that the Spirit raised Jesus from the dead (see also Romans 1:4, and note that Romans 8:11 clearly says that God will resurrect believers “through His Spirit”). And in John 2:19 Jesus predicts that He will raise Himself from the dead (see also John 10:18). So, when we answer the question of who resurrected Jesus, we can say God did. And by that we can mean it was the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
c. God’s power –
The simple but profound truth is if God can raise the dead then He can do anything He chooses including saving you and I and giving us new life by that same resurrection power. Ephesians 2:1 “And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; 2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:”
“That God hath raised him - This fact, or article of Christian belief, is mentioned here because of its great importance, and its bearing on the Christian system. If this be true, then all is true. Then it is true that he came forth from God; that he died for sin; and that God approved and accepted his work. Then it is true that he ascended to heaven, and is exalted to dominion over the universe, and that he will return to judge the quick and the dead. For all this was professed and taught; and all this was regarded as depending on the truth of his having been raised from the dead; see Philippians 2:8-11; Ephesians 1:21; Acts 2:24, Acts 2:32-33; Acts 17:31; 2 Corinthians 4:14; 1 Corinthians 15:13-20. To profess this doctrine was, therefore, virtually to profess all the truths of the Christian religion. No man could believe this who did not also believe all the truths dependent on it. Hence, the apostles regarded this doctrine as so important, and made it so prominent in their preaching.” See the note at Acts 1:3.
III. The Deliverance – Thou shalt be saved
Thou shalt be saved - From sin and hell. This is the doctrine of the gospel throughout; and all this shows that salvation by the gospel was easy. Barnes Notes
"God will save you quicker than quick."
Rev. Waylon Golden
Saving Faith
It is the personal surrender of one’s will to God’s will. Without the element of submission there is no real faith. There is no trust without obedience. Obedience is the inevitable outcome of believing.
(Word Meanings in the New Testament, Ralph Earle p 156)
a. Personal – thou
SITTING DOWN
It’s said that when Henry Ward Beecher was a boy, he had a teacher at school who asked one of the boys in class a question which the boy answered. The teacher became angry and told the boy he was wrong and commanded him to: "Sit down!" The boy was obviously confused because he’d thought he’d answered correctly, but he sat abruptly down.
Several boys were asked the same question, they gave the same answer and promptly rebuked by their teacher. Finally Beecher was asked to stand and answer the question. He gave the same answer and was commanded "Sit down!" But Beecher held his ground and insisted that the answer was correct.
For a few moments the teacher stormed at him, but seeing Beecher wasn’t going to give up he smiled and said,
"Well, boys, you were all correct, but Beecher was the only one sure enough to stand up for it.”
(From a sermon by Jeff Strite, Confession Is Good For the Soul, 10/24/2010)
b. Promise – shalt be
The critical issue is do we believe what God says? Has Go ever not kept His word?
Numbers 23:19 God is not a man, that he should lie; Neither the son of man, that he should repent: Hath he said, and shall he not do it? Or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?
We can trust God to come through because God is faithful. It is contrary to his divine nature to lie or to make an empty promise.
Hebrews 6:18 That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:
c.
John Bevere said he visited Jim Bakker in prison and Jim told him that his experience brought about a change of heart. He experienced Jesus as Master for the first time. He lost his family, ministry, everything he owned, and then found Jesus. He said, "John, this prison is not God’s judgement on my life but his mercy. I believe if I had continued on the path I was on, I would have ended up in hell!" He also said, “I always loved Jesus, yet he was not my Lord, and there are millions of Americans just like me”.
(page 82, The Fear of the Lord, John Bevere)
COMMITMENT VS. SURRENDER
In The Incredible Power of Kingdom Authority there is an account of a conversation between the late Adrian Rogers and Rev Josef Tyson, the Romanian pastor, author, and president of the Romanian Missionary Society who survived years of persecution and exile under cruel Communist rule. Rogers asked Rev Tyson for his perception of American Christianity.
Josef said the key word in American Christianity is commitment. This is not good.
"As a matter of fact, the word commitment did not come into great usage in the English language until about the 1960s. In Romania we do not even have a word to translate the English word commitment. If you were to use commitment in your message tonight, I would not have a proper word to translate it with.
When a new word comes into usage, it generally pushes an old word out. I began to study and found the old word that commitment replaced - the word surrender."
What is the difference between commitment and surrender?
“When you make a commitment, you are still in control, no matter how noble the thing you commit to. One can commit to pray, to study the Bible, to give his money, or to commit to automobile payments, or to lose weight....but when you surrender there is no turning back. We sing “I surrender all,” but what we really mean is I’m making a commitment. There is a great gulf between these two words.
“Jesus Christ is not valued at all until He is valued above all.”
St. Augustine.
