Jesus’ Person & Work Are Inseparable

Transcript

GRM 852
5/18/2003
Jesus’ Person and Work Are Inseparable
Selected Verses
Gil Rugh

I want to talk to you about the gospel this morning. An area that every evangelical ought to be in agreement on but is not. In fact, one person has written, and this is a man who years ago spoke here. I won’t say his name right now. But he calls the position I am going to present “Pagan Dualism”, a shameful perversion of the gospel. It is neo-paganism. He’s now in glory and knows I was right. But you see something of the strength of feeling that runs with some of the issues we are going to talk about.

If you have a bulletin or a piece of paper you could write down just two sets of words: First, Theology from Practice, Theology from Practice; and then write Practice from Theology, Practice from Theology. The difference here is major, and it is one that is dividing the evangelical church today. Theology from Practice means that you develop your theology from what you do, you determine what you’re going to do, how you’re going to function, and then you begin to massage and work your theology, so it fits into your practice. When you do that, you have a strong emphasis on methodology. I’m constantly receiving brochures, as you might expect, for pastor’s conferences, and I received another one about a week and a half ago and I’m tearing it up all into little pieces getting delight. Then I’m thinking, I wish I had saved that, it would have been a good illustration. But it’s gone. But it’s a multi-page again, I get so many of them, color brochure, and it’s about a conference that will show me how to be a successful pastor, to have a dynamic growing church that makes a difference like these, and they have all the different speakers that will be there. Again, what I was impressed with, as I am with so many of these kinds of conferences and brochures advertising them, is they focus on methodology. Everything is about the methods—how to build a dynamic church, all the how-to. I guess they assume you will work your theology into this. Basically, the emphasis and the most important thing is to develop the right methodology, your practice, and then your theology comes out of your practice. It is a man-centered approach to ministry.

The Biblical way of doing things and the way that ought to be the way of the evangelical church, (by the evangelical church I mean churches that claim to believe the Bible, believe the gospel is the power of God for salvation, believe the church is to be the pillar and support of the truth), is that we develop our practice from our theology. We must first determine what does God say. Then our ministry and our life is to be shaped and directed and controlled by the authority of the Word of God. A major change has taken place, it’s a change that goes on all the time, but the cycles repeat themselves. The evangelical church in this country in particular is in the process of rolling over. You don’t leap from one approach to the other in one big step, but we gradually move our emphasis away from a serious consideration of the Word of God to becoming successful, to reaching more people, to being people-focused and people-centered. Our theology becomes less and less the focal point. We fail to realize we have begun to build on a foundation of sand. The Bible is the Word of God. That’s just not a doctrinal statement, that is to be the truth of our lives and we are to live accordingly.

I want to talk about the matter that is at the heart of being an evangelical or an evangelical church. That is the gospel of Jesus Christ. I am very concerned, as many of you are, that we cannot even agree in the evangelical world today on what must be believed for a person to be saved. What I preach as the gospel that must be believed, the man that I referred to says this is neo-paganism, a shameful perversion of the gospel. It’s a degree of pagan dualism. How can we be so far apart and claim to be Bible-believing, gospel-preaching servants of the Lord. We are both not right. I appreciate the fact he’s clear on that. If he is right, I am a pagan. But if what I’m going to present to you is correct, he has distorted and undermined the gospel of Jesus Christ. I’ve had a number of conversations with this man and from what I could tell he is a born-again man, was a born-again man. As I mentioned, he’s home with the Lord now, I believe. The terrible confusion on the subject of the gospel. A number of our evangelical seminaries, and there aren’t that many of them to begin with, have gone this same route, abandoning the clarity of the gospel.

My understanding is that for a person to believe savingly, in other words to have faith that brings salvation by the grace of God into a heart and life, a person must believe in the person and work of Jesus Christ. You cannot believe in the person and deny the work and be saved. Nor can you believe in the work and deny the person and be saved. You must believe in the person and work of Jesus Christ. That is part of the content of the gospel. That does not mean that a person has full understanding of the person and work of Jesus Christ. That is a life-long process, and none of us has exhausted it yet. But you cannot deny either the person or work of Christ and be saved.

Let’s look at the work briefly, and then I want to concentrate on the person. I Corinthians chapter 15 is a good summary, I Corinthians chapter 15. Paul shares the gospel that he preached. In verse 1 he says, “Now I make known to you brethren the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand.” So, here’s the gospel I preached, the gospel you received, the gospel you’re standing in now. It’s the gospel by which you are saved. Verse 2, “if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.” Unless your response of faith was superficial and empty, you were going along with the crowd, you were responding in the emotion of the moment. “I delivered to you,” verse 3 “of first importance what I also received, Christ died for our sin according to the scriptures, the death of Christ for our sins.” Paul presupposes the issue of our sins here. Why would you go to a Protestant church that at least has some general belief about the death of Jesus Christ and be offended when people talk to you about sin. Why in the world do you believe that Jesus Christ died? You’re not a sinner, if there’s hope for you outside of the savior that God provides, what was the purpose of His death? I was baptized, I went to church. Well, the Bible says Christ died for our sins. That’s the good news from God. He was buried, He was raised on the third day according to the scripture, and He appeared to Cephas and the twelve and other witnesses. The burial is proof that He died, the appearances are proof that He was raised from the dead. That’s the substance of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. You must believe in the work of Christ to be saved. But you understand, you must believe in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved. You’ll note in verse 3 of I Corinthians 15, “I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the scripture.” It wasn’t Theophilus, it wasn’t somebody else, it was Christ. Do you realized that if you do not believe that Jesus is the Christ you cannot be saved. You understand we talk about the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s not just three names like my name is Gilbert Warren Rugh. He is the Lord Jesus Christ, not three names like that. Here are three names or titles that reveal His character and His person. Christ means the anointed one, the Messiah. In fact, in the edition of the Bible I am using they have a note by the name Christ, and in the margin, it says, in other words the Messiah. He’s the anointed one, the Messiah of Israel. The Christ, the Messiah of Israel, died for our sins. If you do not believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah of Israel, you cannot be saved. That’s part of the person of Christ. Look back in the gospel of John chapter 20, John’s gospel chapter 20. Look at verse 30, “many other signs therefore Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples which are not written in this book”. But note this, “but these have been written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the anointed one, the Messiah of Israel, the Son of God. And that believing you may have life in His name.” By believing He is the Messiah, the Son of God, you have life. John said that’s why I wrote this whole gospel, “to offer convincing evidence that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that be believing you might have life in His name.”

Turn over to I John. That’s written by the same author but it’s one of his epistles. All of the way back at the end of your New Testament, just before the last book, the book of Revelation. Come forward a few pages and you will find the epistles of John and go to I John chapter 2. He’s writing to them as believers, those who have the Holy Spirit. In verse 21 he’s writing to those who know the truth, he says, and “no lie is of the truth.” Then note what he says in verse 22, “who is the liar?” I John 2:22, “who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ.” That makes you a liar, that means you’re not part of the truth, that means you do not have the anointing of the Holy One. This is the antichrist, and you know what happens when you deny that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son, whoever denies the Son does not have the Father. You see what that is? If you deny that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah of Israel, you don’t have God the Father. Because if you deny the Son, you don’t have the Father, you’re a liar, you’re an antichrist, you’re His enemy. You can’t be saved without believing that Jesus is the Christ.

Look in I John chapter 5, over a page or so. Verse 1, “whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God.” How do you know you’re born again? You believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah. I thought all you had to do is believe in His death and resurrection. Well, that’s His work. But you must also believe in His person. You can’t say, oh well, I believe He died, I believe He was raised from the dead, I do not believe He was the Messiah of Israel. Well, I’m sorry, you cannot be saved. You understand Lazarus died; Lazarus was raised from the dead. Lazarus is not a savior. It would not be enough to die and be raised from the dead. Only one person could die and be raised from the dead and thus provide salvation for all mankind. He’s the one called the Christ, the Messiah of Israel. “Christ died for our sins” according to the scriptures, I Corinthians 15:3 says. In spite of this one of those who would agree with the person is a different man, but he’s written on the subject, uses it as a proof. I mean if people have to believe in the person of Christ, they’d have to believe that He was the Messiah. I mean he writes that off as that proof, you don’t have to believe in these facts about the person of Christ. I say it proves just the opposite. Didn’t those verses seem to say that to you? You have to believe He’s the Christ. Doesn’t mean you have to understand all that is entailed, none of us did, especially when we were saved. I had precious little knowledge, but I could not deny He was the Christ and be saved.

I want to talk about His name Jesus means savior. Messiah, Savior, Lord. “They call His name Jesus for He shall save His people from their sins.” Jesus is the same name as Joshua in the Old Testament, means Jehovah saves or Jehovah is salvation. Jesus is the Savior. It’s probably our most often reference to Him, as our Savior or our personal Savior. I want to talk about the matter of Jesus as Lord and focus our attention on that because that’s what divides the evangelical world today. The fact is Jesus Lord or is Jesus not Lord. I wrote down some statistics. I have a lot of pieces of paper, and you know you’re in trouble when I come to a sermon with a lot of pieces of paper. We’ll limit ourselves to the New Testament. In the Old Testament the word lord, in the Greek translation of the Old Testament a couple hundred years before Christ. The Jews translated the Old Testament into Greek. The word lord, kurios, appears over 9,000 times in the Old Testament. I thought we would look at each of those references this morning. No, we’re not going to go into the Old Testament. Over 6,000 of those references translate the name God with the name kurios, Yahweh or Jehovah, as we’re more familiar with the translation. So kurios is used over 6,000 as a name for God in the Old Testament.

We’re going to look at the New Testament. In the New Testament Jesus is called Lord 925 times, over 800 times, 822 I believe, He is called Lord and then there are Lord Jesus and Lord Jesus Christ that bring it to 925. The word Savior is used a total of 24 times in all the New Testament. Surprise you? If I had given you a multiple choice test this morning and said how many times does the word Savior appear in the New Testament, do you think you would have guessed more than 24 times? Only 18 of those 24 times refer to Jesus Christ, the other 6 refer to God the Father. Notice the overwhelming emphasis in the New Testament is on Jesus as Lord. He is the Lord. Now I don’t think we determine our theology by deciding which name or which word appears most often, but we ought to look carefully at the emphasis the scripture has. When Jesus is referred to as Lord over 900 times and as Savior less than 20, we get some idea of where the emphasis is.

We just studied the book of Acts together. In the book of Acts, Savior is used two times. We studied the first 30 years of the church’s history. Twice in that record of the early church’s history the word Savior is used, 111 times in Acts Lord is used. Again, you get some idea of the emphasis. The early church preached Jesus as Lord. When they proclaimed the gospel that Jesus had told them to carry to the world, they preached Jesus is Lord. We most often use the expression, and I use it, we tell people you should receive Jesus as your personal Savior. You know there is no time anywhere in the New Testament that anyone ever used that expression. Paul in all his preaching, Peter, they never called anyone to receive Jesus as their personal Savior. Now I’m not saying by that there is anything wrong with the expression. What we mean when we say personal Savior, we’re trying to express salvation as an individual matter. You personally, individually, are responsible before God. You can’t be saved as part of your family or part of a group, you are saved individually and personally by God. Jesus is the Savior, God is a Savior. When we study I Timothy, Paul will begin by referring to God our Savior. So don’t misunderstand, I’m not minimizing in any way the fact that Jesus is a mighty and powerful and wonderful Savior. But I do think it is worth noting that when the apostles proclaim Jesus Christ, their emphasis was on I proclaim to you the Lord, the one before whom you must bow, the one to whom you must submit, the one in whom you must believe.

That word Lord, I went to a Greek dictionary, in fact I went to two Greek dictionaries. One is 10 volumes, one is 3. The 10-volume one is just for side reading. I looked up one word there and there were 67 pages on that word. I went on to the 3-volume edition. But I just say that these are an exhaustive analysis of Greek words. The one 10-volume edition, under the word kurios gives a history of the word and it means the one who has authorized and legal authority, power. In all religions the concept of God must contain the element of legitimate power, in other words the power to which man must concede authority and before whose sovereignty he knows he must bow. You’ll note that. Why was the word kurios used over 6,000 times of God? Because it carries the idea of legitimate authority. As this Greek dictionary says, in all religions the concept of God must contain the element of legitimate power, the power to which man must concede authority and before whose sovereignty he knows he must bow. My concern is how do we get in the evangelical world to the thinking of you tell someone that Jesus is Lord, the one before whom you must bow, we have become neo-pagans. We have shamefully distorted and corrupted the gospel. In fact, this dictionary goes on in its full development to say if your concept of God does not have that element of authority before whom you must submit, it’s just an idea in your mind. It’s nothing more. The word means, kurios, having power, authoritative, might, lord, ruler, one who has control. It contains the idea of legality and authority. It’s legal authority. The exalted kurios, Christ, rules over mankind, all powers and beings in the universe must bow the knee before Him. You don’t have to go to a dictionary to look at this, I mean it is just Biblical theology. Yet I have three files about this thick where I’ve collected articles and letters that have come to me and so on, on this subject. You know what, it’s amazing how the just of it is, that people do not understand that Jesus is Lord. To be saved you must believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who died on the cross to pay the penalty for your sins, and was raised from the dead. You have to understand all of that? No. Let me ask you, can a member of the cults who comes to your door and says I deny that Jesus is God, but I believe He died and was raised from the dead, can that person be saved? Believe that Jesus was not God? You say no. Well, why? He believes the work; he says he believes Christ died and was raised from the dead. But you have to believe the person as well as the work. If you deny the deity of Jesus Christ, you cannot be saved. If you deny that Jesus is the Messiah, you cannot be saved.

I’ve shared with you before, when I lived on the east coast, I worked for a man who was a rather conservative Jew, observed all of their holidays and so on. We had many interesting discussions. Much of my discussion with him focused on the issue of Jesus is the Christ, looking at Old Testament passages that prophesied what the Christ would do, His suffering, His death, and then look at how Jesus fulfilled that. He could not be saved as long as he rejected the fact that Jesus was the Christ. In dealing with a Gentile, we may not spend as much time emphasizing the fact that Jesus is the Messiah of Israel as we might in dealing with a Jew, but the fact is that anyone who denies that He is the Messiah of Israel cannot be saved. Anyone who denies that He is the sovereign Lord, He is God. One writer, you know, sometimes I think I’m losing it. I’m reading a man who is arguing that kurios means that Jesus is God. This is a man who for many years taught at an evangelical seminary. He’s arguing that Lord means that Jesus is God. Then he goes on to argue that does not mean we have to submit to Him. In other words, we have a God that does not have to be obeyed, a God who does not have legitimate authority over me. Then we’re back to what this dictionary wrote, all religions have in their concept of God the concept of one before whom you must bow and yield authority. You know what we’ve done? We’ve put man in the driver’s seat. You know what our presentation of the gospel is like? We have the Lord Jesus Christ who died on the cross and God the Father sits on the throne, and they’ve done everything they can and now they’re wringing their hands just hoping that you’ll decide for Christ. We’ve put man at the center. That’s why when your theology comes from your practice it becomes a man-centered theology. It’s built around man, man deciding. Then we divide it up to make it easier for man. So maybe you don’t want to go to hell, so you’re willing to have Him as your Savior, but you sure don’t want Him as the authority of your life. So, we’ll divide up the person of Christ. You can have Him as a Savior, so you don’t have to go to hell, but you don’t have to have Him as the Lord. Can you do that with the person of Christ? Can you decide that you’ll divide up the work of Christ and believe in His death but not His resurrection? According to I Corinthians 15, “if Christ is not raised from the dead there is no salvation.” Done. It’s part of the package. Where do we get the idea that man is so sovereign, he can select I will believe and accept this about the person of Christ, but not this.

You know the title for the unbeliever in the New Testament is a son of disobedience, and as though we can continue to be disobedient to God but have the assurance of knowing at least my sins are forgiven. That’s not the gospel of the New Testament. Comes to be a problem and that’s why we’ve backed off from presenting Christ as Lord. Why is the overwhelming emphasis in the New Testament on He’s the Lord, that He’s the one before whom we must bow, we must yield all. Say that’s not a work added to saving faith. Saving faith means you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ who died on the cross to pay the penalty for your sins and was raised from the dead. That’s the package.

Come to John chapter 16, John chapter 16. Just one of many passages, but here Jesus spoke of the coming ministry of the Holy Spirit. Verse 7 of John 16, Jesus says “I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away. If I do not go away the helper shall not come to you, but if I go, I will send him to you. And he,” referring to the Holy Spirit, “when he comes will convict the world concerning sin, righteousness, judgment.” And in verse 13, “But when he, the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth.” He’ll convict the world and he’ll guide the believer into the truth. You know as soon as we move away from God as the center of our theology and put man there, then we come up with programs and methodology to get the job done. Charles Finney was the one who popularized this in modern day, and he developed all kind of what were called then new measures, you know, what we know as altar calls and all of that. He found that he could get more responses by doing certain things. Well, you know I understand the Bible to say that the Spirit is the one who convicts of sin, righteousness and judgment. Quite frankly if you want to pray for me and my preparation in preaching, and I’ll share with you what I pray as I prepare to preach, I pray that the Spirit of God will work to convict unbelievers of sin and righteousness and judgment. God, use your Word powerfully today. May your Spirit take the truth as it is presented and convict the hearts of unbelievers of their sin, of righteousness and of judgment. Now if we’re not satisfied that God can do His work with His Word we begin to come up with things. Maybe if I told a few sad stories, moved people to tears, got people to respond in a way that would encourage others to respond. I’m not saying people don’t get saved in other kinds of meetings. I’m just saying we need to be very careful that we don’t being to usurp the work of God. That’s arrogance. Thus, we delude and deceive people because we’ve used the same methods. Some people are good salesmen. You can to go classes and learn how to be a salesman and pretty soon we’ve reduced the gospel to just a product being sold. The issue becomes am I a good salesman, so then preachers are told how to use the right methodology and you’ll get people into your church. Get the right methodology and people will want to work in the church. Use the right methodology, and quite frankly we could get the work done without the interference of the Spirit of God. That’s how the church rolls over. Churches became liberal rather quickly, but not just in one step. They began to move from the serious study of the Word and that is the foundation for all that we are and all that we do to our practice becoming central, and as we roll over to our practice, we emphasize methods, and we emphasize man. Now we have to build our service around people.


What do people want when they come to church? What are people looking for in a church? What do people want to hear? What are the kind of subjects they want when they come to church? You see how man has become the center. Because then the place gets filled, we think this is success. We had better hold a conference and tell people how to implement these methods. You know I almost never get a brochure inviting me to a conference to show us how to seriously deal with the Word of God, how to teach the Word of God faithfully and consistently so the Spirit can convict of sin, righteousness and judgment, so that the Spirit can guide God’s people into all the truth. Oh, I know we all believe that we all believe that, but let’s get onto the methods. The church becomes man-centered rather than God-centered. I do not believe we can preach the gospel without preaching Jesus Christ is the Lord. He is the one before whom men and women must bow. That means there must be repentance, turning from sin to turn to Him. This two-step process, you can get saved today and “make Jesus Lord” sometime in the future.

Turn over to Acts chapter 2. First sermon that was preached after the Holy Spirit came to indwell in fulfillment of the promise that Jesus gave in Acts 16. The church began in Acts chapter 2 and on that first day Peter, now indwelt by the Holy Spirit stands to preach and what does he preach? Verse 21, at the end of the quote from Joel’s prophecy, you’ll note this sermon is filled with Old Testament scripture. Verse 21, “And it shall be that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Men of Israel listen to these words, Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles, wonders, signs which God performed. You know about this man delivered by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men, you put him to death.” Talk about getting right to the heart early on in your sermon. You’re as guilty as can be, you’re the enemies of God, you took the Son of God and nailed Him to a cross. God raised Him up again. There we are the work of God in Christ. You have to believe the person and work. The work already touched on the person because you have to call upon the name of the Lord. It comes down to support from more Old Testament scripture that Christ had to suffer and die and be raised from the dead.

Then look at verse 36, “Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” That whole expression, you make Jesus Lord, is contrary to the truth. He is Lord. You don’t tell people you need to make Jesus Lord of your life; I need to tell them almighty God has made Him Lord. This is the one with whom you have to deal, you must come before Him. If the Spirit of God has been working in their heart and life, then He opens their blinded eyes to see and believe and they bow before Him. The Spirit does his work, there is no problem in bowing before Jesus Christ, submitting to Him. How can you get saved? Paul said to the Corinthians, you are not your own, you have been bought with a price. We don’t have time to go into Romans, you were slaves of sin, now you are slaves of righteousness. Then give people the idea, look, just trust Him as your Savior. You don’t have to do anything else I’ve shared with you when I was in Bible college, they told me when you present the gospel never tell them they have to give up their sin, never tell them they have to submit and obey Christ. That’s adding works to the gospel. Never did seem to make sense, so the first sermon I preached in Bible college was Jesus Christ must be Lord to be saved. I even saved them. It wasn’t that good of a sermon, but it was my first. He must be. What’s He saving you from? Well, I just don’t want to go to hell, but I sure don’t want to give up my lifestyle, I sure don’t want to give up my sin because I rather enjoy some of that and I sure am not ready to give up running my own life. You’re right, I don’t want to go to hell, so I’ll bargain. Here’s what I’ll do for you, Lord, I’ll take Jesus as my Savior from hell, the Savior from my penalty for sin. That’s what I’ll do for you today. You can keep working on me and maybe sometime in the future if I feel so moved, I will be willing to make Him Lord. That sound like a gospel you find in the Bible? Why are we preaching that kind of gospel? Why do we preach a gospel that He is the Lord Jesus Christ and part of God’s supernatural work of salvation is to so work in a heart that a person’s eyes are opened to see and believe that He is the Lord who died and rose again. They think that’s neo-paganism, a distortion of the gospel.

What is the future of the evangelical church when they don’t even know what the gospel is? The man who has a radio ministry, had a print ministry, had a newsletter that went out monthly, men in our seminaries teaching that oh no if you say you have to submit to Jesus Christ that would be works. You understand it’s the work of the Spirit. Faith is not a work because the Spirit of God acts in your heart. This is part of saving faith. I mean it’s not a work that you have to know that Jesus died for you and rose again. That’s not an intellectual activity you did, therefore it’s a work you did. No, we’d say no. Part of saving faith the Spirit of God opens your eyes to understand and believe. Why do we have that problem, then, in understanding the Spirit of God in salvation opens your eyes to the person of Christ. I realize many Protestants and Catholics are parading around saying it’s the Lord Jesus Christ and have no understanding of salvation. They’re parading around talking about the death and resurrection of Christ and have no understanding. That’s why salvation is a work of God, only He can open blinded hearts and blinded minds.

That’s the pattern, and I have a list of a dozen or so passages we were going to go through, but we won’t do it in the book of Acts to remind you. You start out and now we’re going to have through the book of Acts over a hundred times we’re going to emphasize Jesus as Lord. Twice we’re going to mention He’s Savior. Are you implying then that He’s not Savior and that’s not…. No, He is. But I’m saying when you present Him as Lord you confront a person with a major situation. It’s clear at the beginning, you will bow before Him, or you are doomed. You don’t have two equals coming together to see if we can work out an agreement. This one has been appointed Lord, this God, according to Philippians 2, has ordained that every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. That’s going to happen. He made Him Lord, and everyone will acknowledge it. For those going to hell they will acknowledge it on judgment day at the Great White Throne, too late for salvation. By God’s grace those who are to be saved come to realize it and acknowledge it in this life.

It does not seem so difficult. You know this is not a new error. I have a sermon from Charles Spurgeon, he preached this February 1st, 1872. That’s before most of us were born. Listen to what he says in this sermon. The title of the sermon is “The Royal Savior”, and I’m just breaking into the sermon. “There are some who seem willing to accept Christ as Savior who will not receive Him as Lord. How sad it is that some talk about their faith in Christ, yet their faith is not proved by their works. I cannot conceive it possible, for anyone to truly receive Christ as Savior and yet not to receive Him as Lord. If it were possible for sin to be forgiven and yet for the sinner to live just as they lived before, he would not really be saved." Then he gets into issues like what does repentance mean, and some in his day were saying repentance only means a change of mind, it has nothing to do with a change of life. So, nothing new. The devil just keeps recycling his old, bad doctrine, and it roams through the church and undermines the foundations.

I say we have a glorious gospel to preach. We preach the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the sovereign God who has all authority, the Savior who is the Messiah of Israel. He suffered and died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins and was raised from the dead. That is what you must believe to be saved. I don’t say you have to understand it all, but you cannot deny any of it. That helps. You know some people make a decision for Christ. I decided for Christ, I prayed. They go on. I have a letter in my file I was reading, came from a man who was an attorney. I say that because I think it demonstrates they have the ability to reason and think clearly. He had written and said he really, had become familiar with our ministry and had gotten some material. He said he was writing to say we were in serious error because he said he had trusted Christ, but that didn’t change his life. He continued to drink and be a drunk and live a… won’t go into it all. Then years later he made Christ Lord and that changed his life. We wrote to him and said no you got saved years later. You simply made an empty decision. Remember when Paul said in I Corinthians 15, “those who believed in vain.” Where do we get the idea that you died with Christ in Romans 6, “you’re raised with Christ in newness of life, you’re no longer a slave to sin, you’re a slave to righteousness,” but nothing changes in your life. What a terrible disservice we do to people. Because you prayed this prayer, because you made a decision, now you’re saved, you’re saved for eternity, you’re saved, whatever you do you’re saved. Have a book in my library by a man who was a professor in an evangelical school that many of the young men from this church went to for years. He says in there now if you blaspheme Christ you’re still saved for eternity, now if you deny the Bible you’re still saved for eternity. I say where in the world does he get such doctrine, except it’s the doctrine of demons. Where do you cross the line, when you even begin to wonder whether the man promoting that can be considered himself saved. Only God knows the heart.

But I say this, we need to be strong. Someone was talking to me from this congregation within the last two weeks about another evangelical church in town, and their major problem with us is we preach that Jesus Christ is Lord, and I’m concerned because there are some people visiting with people from there and he says you know they are beginning to get confused. Don’t get confused. Anyone who denies the person of Christ but believes the work is lost for eternity. Anybody who believes the person but denies the work is lost for eternity. God doesn’t bargain in these things. You believe in the person and work of Christ, and you’re gloriously saved. That means you came, you repented of your sin by God’s grace, you turned from that sin to the Savior, you bowed before Him trusting Him alone, you’re cleansed, you’re made new, and you never live the same again. Praise God. That’s the only kind of salvation we would want. It’s the only kind of salvation there is.

Let’s pray together. Thank you, Lord, for the greatness of your salvation. Thank you, Lord that it not only forgives us from the penalty, but it delivers from the power of sin. Lord, I pray that we might never be confused on the matter of the glorious gospel, the corrupted, vile thinking that arrogant man would think that he can come and pick and choose. Lord, the gracious work that you do in a heart humbles a person, causes us to realize our own wretched unworthy condition, causes us to realize we are not Lord, but Jesus Christ is Lord. Lord, I pray for those who are here today. Some may be self-deluded and self-deceived. They are trusting that they made a decision, but their life is unchanged. Lord, I pray you might open their eyes by the work of your Spirit. Lord, I pray for believers who are here. Lord, it’s easy for us when we begin to stray, even as your children, to begin to try to manipulate the truth with our practice rather than submit to the truth in your sovereignty in our lives. Thank you, Lord, for your gospel. Thank you that it sets free and makes new. We praise you in Christ’s name. Amen.