Confession and Belief
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
There are one of two events we can guaranteed will occur sometime in the future:
1. You will experience a physical death.
2. You will be alive and remain until the second coming of Jesus Christ.
If we're honest, none of us are exactly looking forward to either of these events happening anytime soon.
If you're a Christian and believe the Bible you may have a sense of security about this future; but you're probably not making any plans anytime soon!
If you're a spiritual seeker, you may less assurance of what the future holds for you. You may experience anxiety and fear just thinking about it.
We Can't Ignore This!
Either way, the worst thing anyone can do is to dismiss these thoughts from their mind and refuse to consider what lies beyond this life.
We can't ignore this!
Review
5 Truths We Must Believe
In order to lay the foundation that we will build upon in this series, we must begin with 5 truths that we must believe.
God Exists
God Creates
God Determines
God Decides
God is Good!
Last week we looked at why we need to be saved?
We are accountable to God.
We are guilty.
We cannot save ourselves.
Misdirected Zeal
Misdirected Zeal
Dear brothers and sisters, the longing of my heart and my prayer to God is for the people of Israel to be saved. I know what enthusiasm they have for God, but it is misdirected zeal. For they don’t understand God’s way of making people right with himself. Refusing to accept God’s way, they cling to their own way of getting right with God by trying to keep the law. For Christ has already accomplished the purpose for which the law was given. As a result, all who believe in him are made right with God.
The apostle Paul’s desire was for his people, Israel to be saved.
Though they were enthusiastic for God, their zeal was “misdirected”.
They failed to understand God’s way to be made right and refused to accept it.
They were clinging to their own way of getting right with God by trying to keep the law.
Meanwhile, Christ had already accomplished the purpose for which the law was given and as a result, all who believe in him are made right with God.
The NKJV says, “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.”
The word “end” means ‘goal’ or ‘termination’.
Quote: This is implied in Matthew 5:17, ‘Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfil them.’ And the law’s requirements are fulfilled in the lives.
Bruce, F. F. (1985). Romans: an introduction and commentary (Vol. 6, p. 200). InterVarsity Press.
For Moses writes that the law’s way of making a person right with God requires obedience to all of its commands.
The Way of Faith
The Way of Faith
In fact, it says,
“The message is very close at hand;
it is on your lips and in your heart.”
And that message is the very message about faith that we preach: If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved. As the Scriptures tell us, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced.”
The message Paul preached was “faith”.
He then makes it explicit:
Declare (Confess)
“If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord...
This declaration means you believe everything that has been revealed about Christ.
Virgin birth
Sinless life
His humanity
His divinity
His death, burial, resurrection, and ascension.
This declaration confirms because of his life and ministry God has exalted him to his right hand.
Believe
This declaration must be accompanied by the belief Jesus was raised from the dead.
Why?
When we believe in the resurrection of Christ, we are believing his sacrificial death was acceptable to God.
This means we believe his “acceptable sacrifice” was for our sins.
It is this believing that makes us right with God and this declaring that saves us.
This Is The Message
This Is The Message
Believe me, friends, all I want for Israel is what’s best for Israel: salvation, nothing less. I want it with all my heart and pray to God for it all the time. I readily admit that the Jews are impressively energetic regarding God—but they are doing everything exactly backward. They don’t seem to realize that this comprehensive setting-things-right that is salvation is God’s business, and a most flourishing business it is. Right across the street they set up their own salvation shops and noisily hawk their wares. After all these years of refusing to really deal with God on his terms, insisting instead on making their own deals, they have nothing to show for it.
Any attempts to be made right with God any other way than through faith in Christ is “backwards”.
We must deal with God on his terms. We can’t make our own deals.
Anyone who insists on living perfectly obedient to the law will live a life with every detail regulated by “the fine print”!
So what exactly was Moses saying?
The word that saves is right here,
as near as the tongue in your mouth,
as close as the heart in your chest.
It’s the word of faith that welcomes God to go to work and set things right for us. This is the core of our preaching. Say the welcoming word to God—“Jesus is my Master”—embracing, body and soul, God’s work of doing in us what he did in raising Jesus from the dead. That’s it. You’re not “doing” anything; you’re simply calling out to God, trusting him to do it for you. That’s salvation. With your whole being you embrace God setting things right, and then you say it, right out loud: “God has set everything right between him and me!”
It is the word of faith that welcomes God to go to work, setting things right for us.
We embrace, body and soul, God’s work of doing in us what he did in raising Jesus from the dead.
That’s it!
We trust God to do it all!
And we declare, “God has set everything right between him and me!”
Scripture reassures us, “No one who trusts God like this—heart and soul—will ever regret it.”
We will live with no regrets and never be disgraced.
If we depend on our own efforts, we will always fail and deal with both “regret” and “disgrace”.
This Is For Everyone
This Is For Everyone
Jew and Gentile are the same in this respect. They have the same Lord, who gives generously to all who call on him. For “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
This “gospel”, the good news of salvation is for everyone.
Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved!
It doesn’t matter what one’s ethnic, religious, or nonreligious background may be.
This invitation is for “whoever will”.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
This is the message we must communicate to others!