“A Need to Hear the Good” Rom. 10:5-15 8-10-08; Ezekiel 33:1 Rev. Dr. J. Ben Sloan at Lake Murray Presbyterian Church
Perhaps only the Olympics is an event that can overshadow a great war between two powers of the former Soviet Union. In the Olympics there is also the possibility of the good. One of the fastest female athletes is Sanya Richards. Sanya says this about how her faith helps her in her running: My faith keeps me grounded. People always ask me how come I'm so good, and even though I try never to overwhelm people with my faith, I always think to myself, how come God is so good. My faith also encourages me to give my best. I know that my talent is God's gift to me, and how I use it is my gift to him. Her favorite verse is Philippians 4:13- “I can do all things through him who gives me strength.” Ms. Richards has confessed with her mouth publicly the good news. I hope many were listening.
When someone joins the church- (and we had two this past week) They are asked about their profession of faith and their belief in God. It is important to recognize what this passage in Romans says about joining the church. I believe what is says is wonderful, great news for everyone. Maybe even more important is what it doesn’t say.
What it doesn’t say is that you have to get your life straight to be a member of a church. Maybe to some that is bad news. I think the world would really like for the church to have it so together that they could say that there is a place where everyone does what is right, good, true, and love each other properly all the time. There is a part of me that wants that too. In heaven that will be so. But on this side of heaven, we still stumble, struggle, and still need to confess our sins and still need to repent. A Christian at least knows they need to confess and repent, and know that they are accountable for their actions to Almighty God.
I have known many people over the years, hundreds, who will come to church, but they refuse to join because they know their life is a mess. In some ways I respect their decision not to join. For that means they hold the church in high regard. But that is church pride. In reality, no one is sent a letter by God saying, “It would be our privilege to have you come into the church and into heaven.” Church is the one organization that you join because you admit that you are not worthy to join. The first question a person answers when they join this church is, “Do you admit that you are a sinner and in need of God’s mercy?” I have known some churches who will not let someone into their congregation unless they have gone through a rigorous interview, agree to attend a certain amount, agree to give a certain amount, and even agree to do a certain amount of charitable work. They do not care about how many members they have, they only care that their members are committed and really up to their standards. The great news is that such a church will do a lot in a hurry. The sad news is that there is little or no grace there. Our theme this year is “Lake Murray Presbyterian- where grace makes the difference.”
Every Protestant knows that belief is a matter of the heart. It is emphasized over and over by Christ in his teaching that religion is not for show. He condemned the Pharisees as hypocrites for being religious on the exterior but not on the interior. In 2003 I heard John Edwards speak in Georgetown and got to speak a bit to him afterwards. I was impressed that as a very wealthy and smart man he seemed to care for the poor. I was hoping he was a politician who wouldn’t be a so deceptive. I was wrong. No man can judge someone’s heart- but to be a Christian your heart has to be right. But I will also say, that if anyone says they are sorry, there is room at the cross for them- no matter what they have done. To some this is despicable. But I am glad God has forgiven me- and hope he’ll forgive others too.
Believing in God is more than knowledge and it is more than feelings. James says the demons believe in God with their heads- but he implies their faith is not enough to save them. We may be moved in an argument to believe there is a God up there somewhere, but that is different from trusting and putting our faith in Him. We may be moved by some event in our life to feel God’s presence and love, yet an emotional feeling is not the same as what Paul means when he says believe in Him with our heart. When it speaks here of believing in our heart it is contrasting and asking us to combine the inside faith with the outside faith. Belief and confession,
What we have de-emphasized in our day is the need to do the other thing- confess with our mouth. This is the public-communal part of the faith. The word “CONFESS” in Greek is homologeo= speak the same. In other words a confession of faith- is joining our voice to the voice of others- and the voice of scripture. There is a common misconception of pietism that we can be a Christian all to ourselves, quietly, privately, personally and leave others to go their own way. While the faith is personal- (we are to believe in our hearts), and we don’t need to about pointing to ourselves loudly, there is Paul says a need to confess with our mouths what we believe. It is risky to believe in your heart, but it is even riskier to confess with your mouth and let your faith be public. In the work place today, too often we hide our faith lest it offends someone. We live in a culture that is teaching us to be offended by people who confess with their mouths. It is okay to believe on Sunday, just don’t let anyone know in any way about your faith. The two things we’re not supposed to talk about are politics and religion. How does that jibe with confessing with our mouths? How does that jibe with Christ’s command to tell everyone? We are told “live and let live.” That is easier. But it is not what the scriptures call us to do. I really think Presbyterians in particular have fallen down on the job here. We want to believe in our hearts, but we want to witness with our lives instead of with our mouths. Paul said we must confess with our mouths. I do not think he was talking about a once in a life time joining the church, do you? Paul certainly didn’t do it once and then was quiet.
The Old Testament has a beautiful story of deliverance. Hundreds of thousands of enemy soldiers had laid siege to the Capital of Israel. The people were running out of food. The prophet said that in one day they would have more than they could eat. That night the enemy soldiers thought they heard a relief army coming, and they fled in fear leaving all their bounty and food behind. But no one knew it. Some lepers inside the city said to themselves, “Let’s leave the city and go to our enemy- maybe at least we’ll live.” When they got there the enemy camp was totally deserted and there was all this food. The lepers at first just gorged themselves on the food, and then they said to themselves, “Shouldn’t we tell the people?” They could have kept it to themselves. But that would be a terrible selfish tragedy. Finally they let others know. Should we not learn a lesson from this about our spiritual life? The people inside the city needed to hear that food and salvation was available, but the lepers for their own good needed to tell them. People need to hear about Christ- all the hope, grace, mercy, kindness, forgiveness, strength he offers- and we need to tell them.
Peter in his great sermon on Pentecost gave two complimentary requirements to what Paul said- Paul said believe and confess- Peter said repent and be baptized. Both of these two statements are complimentary. I believe confession and baptism are outward shows of what is going on inside. We have always seen baptism as a dedication a washing away, a sign of repentance from the old way of life. When we are baptized we are outwardly telling the world that we confess that we believe. I have some friends who are Presbyterian missionaries in Japan. They tell me that there is tremendous pressure to not be Christian there. The churches there regularly have a lot more attenders than they have joiners. Because once you are baptized there, then you stand to be cut off from the family and lose your inheritance. It is a bit complicated as the family expects in parts of Asia that you do worshipful acts toward the ancestors. Baptism was the cut off point for them. Once you were baptized you really confessed you were a Christian. Baptism was outward confession- a witness and a dividing point with the world. Once you were initiated into the church in baptism you had left something behind. It is not so clear to us today in America, but as our world has more and more secular pressures, it is becoming more and more of a dividing point.
The other two similar things are believing and repenting. Paul said we must believe in our hearts. Peter said repent and be baptized. You know I don’t want to oversimplify this because there are hundreds of books written about what theologians call the “ordo salutis” (the order of salvation). They want to separate every little part of salvation to a fine art. I think they overcomplicate the issue. If you believe there is repentance involved One theologian wisely said “regeneration is the renewing of the heart and mind, and the renewed heart and mind must act according to their nature.” (John Murray rap p.106). “The faith that is unto salvation is penitent faith and the repentance is believing repentance” (Murray p.113). If faith in Christ is salvation from sin, then there must be hatred of sin and the desire to be saved.
The football coach, in an effort to teach his young quarterback, told him to fake left before throwing right. The quarterback does it in the game, and it works for a twenty yard gain. Now it is really academic or irrelevant if we try to measure how much that quarterback believed his coach. He had to believe him somewhat in order to act by faking left and throwing right. He acted, and he obviously believed. The same is true somewhat with confession, baptism, and inner belief and repentance. There must be some willingness to believe and to repent in order to publicly say you are a Christian. In the end, only God can judge the heart. We are limited in our insight into the heart. There have been people that have joined the church that I thought were not really believers, that they were just lip sinking or mouthing the words of the faith. But some of them have been people of great faith and witness. Others I thought were so sincere, and they have disappeared from any semblance of following Christ. Only God knows the true heart.
There was a fellow in McBee who had a bitter persimmon fruit tree. His persimmons were always bitter. He really wanted a peach tree so he could have delicious peaches in July and August. So he took the bitter fruit off, bought a basket of peaches, and replaced the bitter fruit with the peaches from his basket. Everyone thought he had a peach tree, but in reality, it was just a bitter persimmon tree with peaches stuck on it. If all we do is say we are Christian, but we do not have the faith deep in our hearts, then we deceive no one but ourselves. Even if we do good things, but our faith is not there, it is empty and in vain. God sees into our core.
The good news is presented to all. Any human being- whosoever will is invited by God to respond. God entreats, commands, calls, presents his good news to everyone without any discrimination or distinction. Verse 12 of our passage says, “there is no difference between Jew and Gentile= he richly blesses all who call on him.” Jesus said, “come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden.” He said “he who comes to me I will never drive away” (Jn. 6:37); God says whosoever will let them come and drink freely of the water of life. The preacher, in this passage who brings good news, is just the inviter.
What would you think of someone who was offered free tickets to the Olympics- paid expenses, but refused to go? What would you think of someone who was offered to be an athlete in the Olympics but refused to go? I love the game of basketball, but I do not watch the NBA because so many NBA players have refused to play for our country. They did it in the 2000 Olympics and we beat Lithuania in a come-from-behind game by two points. In the 2004 games America won the bronze because 10 of the top 12 players refused to play. Interestingly NBA players born in other countries like Yao Ming and Steve Nash have never refused to play for their countries when invited. I don’t think anyone should be forced to play. But the invitation is a privilege. How many have been invited to something far greater than the Olympics. All are invited to know God- not all respond. Olympic glory lasts only for a bit, heavenly glory lasts forever. I invite you to believe in Jesus with your heart and confess with your mouth God raised Him from the dead. Amen.
There is a sense in which all people are invited to know Christ by creation. The Psalmist said that the very heavens declare the glory of God and His works declare his praise. Paul said God shows himself in the invisible things of creation so that people are without excuse (Rom. 1:19,20). I believe that those who respond to what has been revealed will be given more. In Acts 8 an Ethiopian eunuch sought to know more about God and God sent Philip to make things clearer to him. In Acts 10 a Roman named Cornelius responded and Peter went to him. Missionaries tell us about many instances like this. The Caren people of southeast asia believed that God would send a white man with a holy book to tell them how to be saved. When Adoniram Judson showed up, they instantly believed by the thousands and do for the most part today.
All are invited, but not everyone comes. The old saying is you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make them drink. I have had family members beg me to convert their beloved spouse or parent. I can talk, I can try to persuade with reason, but in the end, each person makes their own decision. You are not a Christian because your parents were or because you were. You are a Christian if you are in your heart right with God. I have heard some say, “Well my parents went to a Christian church, and I’m not Buddhist, or Hindu, or really an atheist- I guess that makes me a Christian.” We are not saved because our parents went to church and believed. Each person must stand before God alone. At that time our parents cannot save us. Our friends cannot save us. Our church cannot save us. Many have influence over you now. You are doubtless here today because of friends or family who have encouraged you to come. But we do not go to church on the faith of our parents. It is about like having life here. Parents can bring us to the point of birth, but we must breathe on our own. A Parent cannot breathe for you. They can do cpr, but that is limited. We are not saved because of our parents or our grandparents or our friends. We are saved only when we respond to the gracious call of God. And He calls each of us to respond.