Untitled Sermon

“Confess and Believe”

Romans 10:5-13

CBC 1/28/24

Different — Transformed — Study of famous salvation passages

Romans 10:5-13 Beauty of Salvation

Salvation doesn’t come from great exploits of boldness and grandiose by us (vs. 6-7)

Quoting Deut. 30 Salvation is as simple as vs. 9-10 But we have to remember it is also by grace through faith, a gift from God, such a complex topic that it take pages and pages and chapters and chapters of theology textbooks to try to define it!

Justification, Sanctification, Glorification, Propitation, Atonement, Redemption—all these words and so many more to define the result of Romans 10:9-10 As simple as this one sentence and yet as complicated as theology textbooks attempt to describe—let’s look at this passage in reverse…

Not what is salvation but what salvation is not! What Salvation is Not

Salvation is Not being unwilling to “go public”. (“Confess with your mouth”)

We must not understand this as a work unto salvation—simply that if you are truly redeemed, Jesus has truly changed you—then you will not keep it secret. Not about public speaking, fear of being in front of a crowd—all of those things can be worked around. Your faith is personal it is not private! This was written during a time of Christians being persecuted by the Roman Empire.

Surely if it was important enough to be stated in a time when if you confess Christ as Lord you might end up being used as a lantern to light one of Nero’s garden parties—then I think we should figure out how to overcome “I don’t want to be in front of the church to be baptized.” Salvation is Not—Rejecting the Supernatural (“God raised Him from the dead”)

Resurrection is the centerpiece of Christianity—it is because Jesus lives that we have hope to live beyond this life. But—Jesus lives because He is God!

He is God through the Virgin Birth… Because He is God, He was and is able to perform miracles, signs and wonders that gave and give evidence to His deity. Some say “I accept Jesus’ teaching, going to live by it, but not the supernatural stuff”

Not an option! C.S. Lewis, “Mere Christianity” ““I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him [that is, Christ]: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic–on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg–or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse…. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come up with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.” Salvation is Not A General Confession/Belief. (“Your mouth, your heart”)

Phrase used often, to the point it becomes a joke in mainstream media, “have you accepted Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior”

I don’t personally use this verbiage in sharing the Gospel, but if we define our terms correctly it’s ok… PERSONAL— Salvation happens to YOU!

Not I know God is real, I know the Bible is true, ….

Have you experienced this? MacAruthur says it this way, “a person can hold orthodox theology, lead a moral life, acknowledge his sin, desire eternal life, be scrup-u-lously religious, and yet go to hell.”

Description of Pharisees in the Bible! Salvation is Not Accepting Jesus as Savior but Not Lord. (Jesus is Lord)

You can’t have a Savior without submitting to Him as Lord! How do you know?

Ongoing, unrepentant sin in your life Life decisions without prayer Lack of spiritual discipline Lack of love for people, especially believers Continual unforgiveness No/llittle concern for the things of God Salvation is Not—Head Knowledge

Old saying that the difference in heaven and hell is 16 inches—the distance from an adults brain to their heart. What is the heart?

We think of heart as love—

“Don’t tell my heart, my achy breaky heart” “With all my heart, I promise to, give all I”ve got to give to make all your dreams come true” Seat of emotion, intellect, morals, encompassing who you are When all that I am believes God raised Jesus from the dead

Results in a confession that He is Lord

Then I will be saved. Response

Has that happened to you? Or are you living in the Salvation is Not…