Speak the Truth Boldly

Tom Shrader continues his series on living faithfully in a morally confused world, focusing on speaking the truth boldly from Romans 1:16. He emphasizes that effective witnessing requires both making the invisible God visible through our transformed lives and boldly proclaiming the gospel when opportunities arise. Tom uses personal illustrations to show the dangers of living changed lives without verbal witness (being a coward) or proclaiming truth without life change (being a hypocrite).

“You cannot save a soul, but God wants from me obedience, God wants from you obedience.”

— Tom Shrader

Series: How to Stay Straight in a Crooked World (2001)

Recorded: March 08, 2001

Duration: 44 min

Themes: witnessing, boldness, truth, evangelism, testimony, courage, authenticity, light, facing moral confusion, new believer, struggling with courage, workplace witness, neighbor relationships, parent, young adult, mentor

Scripture: Romans 1:16, John 8:12, Matthew 5:14-16, John 10:25-30, John 3:1-8, John 6:44, 1 Corinthians 3:6-11, Romans 10:9

Theological Themes: biblical authority, scripture authority, sanctification, holy living, gospel proclamation, evangelistic witness, christian distinctiveness, spiritual transformation

Full Transcript

We are in session 7, and I think it will be 12 weeks. We need to do the introduction every week because I'm struck, the more I think about this, of how logically this lesson progresses, and I like that. So let me just do a quick summary.

When we're all done, we'll pass out a little information sheet with all the points summarized. But as we're working our way through it, here's what we said. The title is "How to Stay Straight in a Crooked World." The premise is that the world is crooked. By that we mean not that it's corrupt, though it is, but that it's lost its moral compass, its moral direction. Things that were taboo and unspoken about a decade ago are now mainstream and okay. Tomorrow they'll be—what's edgy today will be timid by tomorrow.

So what do we do in this world that's very confused? Well, the first thing we do is establish the Bible as the final authority in our life. We said that's absolutely critical. From there, now we can begin the process of living.

The Progressive Nature of Christian Living

So now I begin to commit myself to a lifelong passion for learning. Obviously when we're talking about learning, we're talking about not just learning the scripture, though that's a part of it, but understanding you're in a changing culture. In the midst of that, there's continual learning.

Now I've got the Bible, I'm learning. Now it's time to live. So I have to make godly decisions. Godly decisions are just based on what does God say, and now I begin to do it.

Now I can live life with a certain sense of boldness. I don't need to be timid because I know I'm making decisions based on God's Word. I can live life boldly, not because everything's going to work out smoothly for me necessarily, but I'm doing what God would have me do.

So now as I begin to live life confidently, I understand that with a certain sense of assuredness, I can now move my faith into every area of my life. I don't have to compartmentalize my life. I don't have to take this little thing and move it over here and say, "Well, the spiritual component is here, but this part over here, we just never really—they never intertwine or they never meet." I don't have to say that.

Making the Invisible God Visible

Then last week, here's what we said, and this becomes our mission: to make the invisible God visible. Now when Jesus is on the earth in John 8:12, He said, "I'm the light of the world." Now He says to us in Matthew 5, "You are the light of the world. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they see your good works and glorify your Father who's in heaven."

The idea here apparently is that there must be something distinctive about me. There's a sense in which they should be able, apparently, to look at me and say, "You're a Christian." There's supposed to be something in our life that makes us distinct and different.

Let me caution you on two things. When we started, we said the assumption of this series is you're a Christian. Though we're more than confident that not all of you are, the assumption is that you are a Christian.

When we're talking about making the invisible God visible and a difference in our life, understand that's not what makes us a Christian. Our Christianity is not about an ethic. Our Christianity results in an ethic, but our Christianity is really based on our belief. We believe Jesus who He said He was. We believe that He rose from the dead. We believe He will come again. We believe that there's heaven through Him and Him alone. Because all those beliefs are true, now it affects the way that I live, and that's really a significant point.

The Problem with Separating Savior from Lord

There's teaching around, and it gets ingrained in some very powerful places, that you can accept Jesus as Savior, but you never need to embrace Jesus as Lord. There's another way of saying this: you can believe Jesus is who He said He was, but it doesn't make any difference in your life, and you still go to heaven.

I have a great deal of problem with that teaching, and my problem is both practical—I don't see any practical ramification positively of that. That I can just take Jesus as my Savior and He never makes any difference in my life practically doesn't wash.

But also biblically, the word is there again and again and again that there'll be a change in my life. There'll be a difference in my life. "You will see my good works." "If you love me, you'll keep my commandments." There's a difference. There's a distinction. Those are never separated.

In fact, it seems to me we could build the case, as James writes, that the demons believe. That's what it says. So when you say, "You know what? Here's what I do: I believe Jesus who He said He was," then they're not—the demons, when they possess the guy—here's what they're saying to You: "Jesus the Son of God." The demons believe. So if you believe but there's no life change, if you believe but don't trust, then you're qualified to be a demon. That's where you are in your whole process, but you're no further than that.

Now here's what we said last week: number six, make the invisible God visible, and number seven must be inseparably linked. You cannot break these apart and still be effective in your Christian walk.

Speaking the Truth Boldly

Here's number seven. This is the only thing we'll talk about today. Number seven is: Speak the truth boldly.

Romans chapter 1, verse 16, Paul says this: "I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jews first and then to the Greeks."

Paul says, "I'm not ashamed of the gospel." Well, it's kind of an odd thing. Why would he say something like that? Well, at this point he's been imprisoned in Philippi. He's been stoned in Galatia. He's been run out of Thessalonica, mocked in Athens. He was thought to be a fool in Corinth. He's had all sorts of suffering and hardship, and he said, "I'm not ashamed of this gospel at all." There is zero shame for me. In fact, I guess he would say the other side.

I'm proud of the gospel. I'm bold for the gospel, for it is the power—Greek word dunamis from which we get the English word dynamite. While that's true, I hate to use that because so often we think of dynamite blowing something apart, which indeed it does. But I think what we're talking about here is the dramatic power that the gospel has to pull things together, to change things. The power that we talked about is a constructive power, not a destructive power.

It's the power for salvation. When we see that word salvation, what we're talking about there is deliverance or rescue. So here you go: we move because of the gospel and believing that gospel. We move from death to life. We move from darkness to light. We move from danger to protection from the wrath of God. I wrote this yesterday morning—I think it's right—we move from alienation to intimacy. Now God, instead of reconciled, I'm alienated, I'm lonely, I'm vulnerable in this world. Now I'm not alienated anymore. Now I have intimacy.

The Power of Belief

Here's what He says. Let's finish the verse and we'll come back and apply it: I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it's the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. The word believes there means trust or relies on. When it's talked about in the idea of salvation, it's in the present tense and it's not just an act once and for all but it's the continuation in that belief. It's an act of my mind. It's an act of my will. It's an act by where I understand Jesus is who He said He was and now my life radically begins to change. If you love me, you keep my commandments. It's really as simple as that. Let your good work shine.

Two Essential Elements

So here we go. I'm going to try to apply this. I'm going to spend a lot of time today on application.

Number six: make the invisible God visible. Number seven: speak the truth boldly. When we're talking about speaking the truth boldly, we're talking about proclaiming the gospel. Now the point I want to make to you again is you cannot separate these. If you speak the truth boldly but there's no action there, you're a hypocrite. If you make the invisible God visible but you don't speak the truth boldly, you're a coward. When you put the two of them together—you speak the truth boldly and make the invisible God visible—you are a powerful witness for the gospel.

Let me give you three illustrations, two from my life, and then I needed a good one of the way it's done correctly, so I had to go to somebody else's.

Making God Visible But Failing to Speak

Here's the first one. This is a case of me in this case making the invisible God visible but failing to speak the truth boldly. I had a friend who I had gone to school with and he was considering moving down here, so he came down and stayed with us for a while. It was the last night before he was to go back, so we went out just he and I to have dinner.

We're having dinner. We're having salad, and he said to me, "Tom, there's something different about you." I said, "Well, you know, I lost a little weight I think," which raises the issue how fat a pig was I, but that's a whole different thing.

So then we're talking a little more, now into the main course, and he said, "You know, there's something different about you. I've been watching. There's something different about you." I said, "Well, I get a little older and the hair's thinning and it's a little gray and a little wrinkled and you know."

So now we're eating cheesecake. We're at dessert, and he said, "You know, I've said this to you three times, and I'm going to drop it after this, but I've stayed with you for four or five days. I've watched you interact with Susan. I've watched you with the girls. I know you—we go all the way back to kindergarten. I know you very well. This isn't you, Tom. There's something different about you."

I looked the guy right in the eye, and I said, "Living in Arizona really agrees with me." After my third denial, I could hear in the background... But do you see what happened? I had let my good works shine in such a way that people saw it. They want to glorify the Father, but they're looking for me to point Him there. The invisible God had been made visible. Do you see that? But now it's time to speak the truth boldly, and I gagged it. I'm a coward.

Speaking Truth But Failing to Make God Visible

Let me flip it around. Here's a time when I spoke the truth boldly, but I failed to make the invisible God visible. I've been a Christian—I became a Christian about 21 years ago right now in March of 1980. Interestingly enough, I don't ever watch calendars or anything, but I heard coming in today that it's March 8th, and if I remember correctly it was March 8th, 1971 that was the first Ali-Frazier fight, so it's the 30th anniversary of the first Ali-Frazier fight. Those are the kinds of things that I can remember. I can't remember a lick of a verse out of this Bible, but I can remember that.

So I became a Christian in March of 1980. It's now June-ish and I pick up the paper one day, sports section, and I see it's a Friday—it's a Thursday—I see that the next day, Friday, they're having quarter hot dog, nickel beer at Prescott Downs, the racetrack in Prescott.

So I get a hold of the guy in the cube next to me, and I said, "Listen, I know you're a health food nut. I am a health food nut. It seems to me that we ought to go up there with quarter hot dog, nickel beer, and we've always been on the cutting edge." So I said, "We'd better get somebody to drive," so I said to the secretary, I said, "What are you doing tomorrow?" She said, "Well, I've got to do some stuff." I said, "No, we've got an assignment. We have to go look at some property." So away we go.

So we drive up to Prescott—quarter hot dog, nickel beer all day, do the horse races. We're coming back. In the old days, those of you will remember, the real Arizonans, you'll remember that road into Prescott had nothing on it but a Circle K. There was one Circle K, and that was really it. So I said, "Man, whoa, pull in the Circle K."

Because the car breaks down or something, we better have - we could die of thirst - we better get something to drink for the trail, juice for the road back. So we get down, the car makes the trip. I can tell you we were exactly at Dunlap and the freeway. I was in the backseat. She was driving. He was in the passenger side in the front, and I said "Jesus Christ has changed my life." And He turned around. I got to take a couple of words out, but He basically said "You look like the same blank drunk to me."

And it was like an instant sobriety. I got back down and they dropped me off at my office down on Central Avenue. And I sat in my car an hour, an hour and a half just weeping. As I said, that was a Friday. Well, I normally meet Larry on Tuesday, so I called Larry Saturday morning. I said "Can we get together?" and He said "No, I can't meet until Tuesday. I'm booked up." I said "Larry, I've got to talk to you." And He said "Well, it'll have to wait till Tuesday."

And I sat there all day Saturday, all day Sunday, all day Monday filled with tears and remorse. And finally I got in there on Tuesday, and I said "Larry," and I told Him the story. And He just started to laugh. I said "This isn't funny. This is not a funny story." He said "No, He said it is funny because at this moment you're in a significant place here. You either are - and you got to figure it out - a hypocrite or a sinner saved by grace. You better figure out what you are."

The Right Focus

But the focus of the story is on "Jesus Christ has changed my life." I spoke the truth boldly from a drunken stupor. You see the difference? Here's the third illustration. I finally got it right.

I ran into a guy, and I said "Have you seen our buddy?" - mutual friend. And He said "Yeah, I just saw Him yesterday." And this guy had been through everything in His life. His wife had walked out on Him. He had been just a thousand problems. And my friend was there. I said "How was He?" and He said "You know, I'm fact. I said to Him, 'I don't know how you do it. I don't know how you handle all this. You're just incredibly self-disciplined.'" He said "It's not self-discipline. He said I discovered Jesus Christ. Jesus is my Lord and my Savior."

And my friend said "You know what, I'm not a spiritual guy, and there for a second maybe have to think again about it." But I was able to overcome that and move on. But you see the impact that has.

Making God Visible

Here's what we're saying to you: You make the invisible God visible. Your life begins to change and now God's going to use you to speak the truth boldly. What we're talking about in a sense here is what we typically use with the idea of witnessing for Christ or sharing a testimony.

Webster - here's what Webster says. A witness is a lot of definitions, but basically this: to attest to a fact, to bring personal knowledge of something. Now is to tell what you know. You are supposed to be able to testify, speak boldly about the distinction that's taken place in your life. Why you're different.

We're studying First Corinthians chapter 3 right now in church. Here's what Paul says. He's talking to this church - it's a goofy church. He's talking to this church, and He says "You know what? I planted, Apollos watered, God caused the growth." That's the way it takes place. It's so important for you to understand that as you speak the truth boldly, it's God who's at work in this.

Not Optional, Not Mandatory - Inevitable

This stuff, by the way, is not optional. So often we think of mandatory. We think of somebody out passing out tracts, knocking people in the door, knocking on doors for Jesus. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about living your life in such a way that people see the difference. And it's not optional, and it's not mandatory. It's inevitable.

When somebody called you today and said "Can you meet tomorrow morning at seven?" and you said "No, I go to this thing," and they said "What kind of thing is it?" and you said "Well, I don't know, it's kind of like a Bible thing" - the minute you said that, they take your life and throw it under the microscope, and they're looking at every aspect of it. The minute you say "I'm a Christian" or the minute you say "I'm even interested in spiritual things," they are going to scrutinize every aspect of your life.

You're going to be a witness. You may be a lousy one. You may be a great one. If you're one of those guys that has the world's biggest Bible sitting in your office on your credenza, do you understand when people come in and take a look at that, that all of a sudden they're going to see you differently and judge you differently? I'll tell you something else and hold you to a different standard - most oftentimes a standard even higher than the standard you hold for yourself.

This witnessing is not optional and it's not mandatory. It's inevitable. And it's been this way since the beginning.

Historical Perspective on Christian Witness

Edward Gibbon in "The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire" looks at the early church. He writes this one sentence: "It became the most sacred duty of a new convert to diffuse among His friends and neighbors the blessing He had received." He said you look at this very new convert and it became His duty to diffuse this blessing.

Justice, the historian looked at the early church and what a great phrase He's got here: "The great feat of Christianity was accomplished" - now He's talking about the spread of Christianity. How did this thing start in this one little pocket and how did it move around the world? "The great feat of Christianity was accomplished by means of," and I quote, "informal missionaries."

Let me help you out. That's you. You are a missionary. I'm talking to a guy the other day who - God has just really put in His heart the Ukraine. He goes to the Ukraine. He's got missions going on. He's got all this stuff there. I have no call to the Ukraine. I don't even feel guilty about not being called. I feel no compulsion. It doesn't occupy a second of my thought. I know I have an obligation to try to assist people who are called there, but I feel zero call there - none.

Talking to a guy and now Mexico's His issue and man, He's in Mexico and He's moving stuff.

down there medicine and all that. He's trying to make me feel guilty. I said, "You know how much I feel drawn to Mexico? Zero. None. Not a lick."

Then all of a sudden he starts trying to get to me like I'm feeling guilty about it. I said, "Whoa, whoa. Whoa, I don't feel guilty at all. Because a lost soul is a lost soul, and right now I feel the call to the Valley of the Sun. That's what I feel, and I see that as much as a mission field as the Ukraine or Mexico City." Most of you must feel the same thing, or I presume you'd be in the Ukraine or Mexico.

So this is your mission field. This is where God's placed you for a reason. He's left you here for a reason, and the reason is to be His hands and feet, to be missionaries right here.

You Cannot Save a Soul

Let me ask this question: How are you doing? We understand that you cannot save a soul. I'm watching TV the other night that's supposed to be Christian, and there's a guy on there talking about his church. He said, "We're so winning church. We're winning souls to Christ." You cannot win a soul to Christ.

That's what Paul said: "I planted, Apollos watered, God caused the growth." You can share your faith. If I sit down with a guy and I share my faith with this guy and this guy says, "What up your nose with a rubber hose?" I share my faith with this guy and he says, "Oh, I can't wait, boy. Tell me, give me that prayer again. How do I do this?" Where is God happier with me—with this guy or this guy? You know the answer: He's equally happy in both cases, because winning a soul is not up to me.

God wants from me obedience. God wants from you obedience. He wants you to do what He's called you to do, to be obedient in a world that's focused, almost obsessed, with statistics and results. God says it's all process that I'm concerned about.

When Did God Last Use You?

Having said that, having understood that you can't win a soul, let me ask you this question: When's the last time God used you to bring someone into the kingdom?

When's the last time you're sitting in the office or you're at the club or you get out of the shower, you just got done—the last time somebody said to you, "There's something different about you. Something unique about you. I see something different in you when I look at you. There's something different," and you share the gospel and God opens this person's heart and brings them into the kingdom? When's the last time that happened to you?

That ought to be, it seems to be in my mind, a regular occurrence in your life. You ought to be creating thirst in people, making the invisible God visible. Now you ought to be speaking the truth boldly when somebody says to you, "There's something different about you. There's something unique about you. I don't know what it is, but in your life, there's something different." You ought to be able to say, "It's all about Jesus," and I ought to be able to explain this.

The Greatest Mistake About Witnessing

Why wouldn't you witness? Here's what James Montgomery Boice writes: "I suppose the greatest mistake a person can make as he reads about the witness of John the Baptist—and we'll talk about John in a minute—is to think that he is somehow peculiar. By peculiar here, we don't mean odd. He means that he's doing something that we don't necessarily need to do. But that is an error, and a serious one. Witnessing is every Christian's job. If we are to witness for Jesus, we must first forget about ourselves. We must first think about the other person and their need for a Savior."

John the Baptist understood that that was his call, that was his mission. He said, "I'm here for one reason: to prepare the way." John the Baptist is standing, and here are Jews all around him, maybe on their way to make sacrifice, lambs all around him, sacrifice being prepared. In the midst of this, he stops, he says there, and probably points right to Christ and says, "Behold the Lamb of God. There's the sacrifice. This is all a picture. There's the real sacrifice."

John the Baptist, we're told by Jesus, there was no greater man that has ever lived to that point in time than John the Baptist. John the Baptist was basically single-focused: "I preach Christ and Christ crucified"—that's what Paul said. John the Baptist says, and here's the key, it's exactly what Boice is talking about: first forget about yourself and then think about others and their need for a Savior. John the Baptist nailed it cold. He, speaking of Jesus, "must increase; I must decrease."

Do You Even Care?

Let me tell you why I don't think a lot of people witness: I think you don't even care. I think you don't even give a rip that the people around you are going to hell, and some of them you're kind of happy they're going.

I'm talking to a guy who comes into one of the studies, and he looked absolutely awful. I said to him, "You don't look very good." He said, "I haven't slept in three days. I'm not eating. I'm a mess." I said, "What's the problem?" He said, "I have a friend who's dying, and he doesn't know Christ. If he dies in this condition, he's going to go to hell. Today I'm going to the hospital to share with him." I said, "What a great story. Let's pray for that. Let's hope that God works in that way."

Here's what I was struck by when he left: We live in a world filled with dying people. That great moment in the movie The Sixth Sense when the little boy says, "I see dead people"—well, if you've got eyes to see spiritually, that's what you see when you walk through Fashion Square. That's what you see at a Suns game. Speaking of dying fast, no lead is safe.

All of a sudden, here's what you've got: You see it all around you, and there ought to be a sense—and I understand it's not going to be I'm laying up all night three nights—but there ought to be a sense in you that you've got these dead people all around you spiritually. You ought to be as compelled to share your faith with them as this man was with his dying friend.

Learning from John the Baptist

We talked about John the Baptist. We got 15 minutes or so. Let's look at John the Baptist and then we'll try to apply just some principles we see in his life to ours. Here's the first thing:

We see this in John the Baptist. That was the heart of the messenger. We see his heart was right. He understood exactly who he was.

There were several times when they were trying to say, "John, are you the Messiah? Are you the one?" That's a pretty big ego trip. "Are you the one?" No, no, not about me. He must increase, I must decrease. John the Baptist knew exactly who he was, and he knew he too was a sinner who needed a Savior.

A Hard Week and Misplaced Solutions

It's been a hard week because you've got two or three or four—can't keep track of them anymore—school shootings. And they're trying to figure out what do we do? What do we do here now? We get metal detectors and we need tighter gun control. And here's what's wrong. Everybody's picking on kids. Hey, when I was in school, we were stuffing kids in toilets, and they didn't come back and shoot you the next day. You got real serious stuff going on here.

Here's the problem. This is a real no-brainer. I'm watching yesterday because I'm at the gym. Oprah's on, and it actually was kind of an interesting show. It was on women going through menopause, and I've never given it a lot of thought. So I'm watching this thing and they're talking about it because one gal gained 60 pounds, and so they were talking about what to do food-wise. And then they're talking about, "I lost my libido," and I perked up and said, "Well, what is that and how do they figure that out?" So they gave some things there.

But I'm telling you—and I know, I know, I know the charge, I know what you're gonna say. "I'm a male chauvinist pig. I don't get it. I don't understand it. Yada, yada, yada"—I have never seen a group of more selfish, self-centered people in my life than these gals on this menopause show. It was, "I feel this, I feel inadequate. My children were here and now I've raised them and I don't know how to deal with myself." They must have used the singular personal pronoun five trillion times in this show.

And here we go. Let's do the disclaimer so you don't shoot me. If there's a chemical problem, we deal with it. But here's the problem these chicks had: they got no reason to live but themselves. There's nothing bigger than them. Their bodies are changing, the kids are leaving, their life is different. Let me give you a wake-up call, babe. You need a Savior. That's what your problem is. You're absorbed in yourself, you sinful little wretch. That should have been the message, but that wasn't what Oprah said.

But I'm telling you, I'm on that treadmill or whatever—I'm on this elliptical—and I'm going, and I look down. All of a sudden I'm going, "I've never gone this fast on this thing before." And all I'm waiting is just for someone... and again, I felt broke. But I mean, these ladies are weeping, looking for help, and all they want to give them is another pill and change your diet. They need Jesus really badly. But see, if you don't think of the sinful heart...

The Heart of the Messenger and the Message

Here's the heart of the messenger. And then what was the message? What's the basic message we take to the world? Well, here it is. It's real simple. It's Jesus Christ.

Again, it's fresh because we're studying at first Corinthians 3:11: "There is no foundation that can be laid but the foundation that is laid in Jesus Christ." There is our answer to everything.

This is my favorite time of year. I love it when we get to Good Friday and Easter. And this always brings about all these conversations. Over the years, I've had great conversations around this time. A few years ago, I had a guy who was a part of a mainline denomination and he had started hanging around the Bible studies and was struck maybe by some of the conservative side of maybe where we are in the literal way that we interpret Scripture.

So He set up a meeting with a big shot in His denomination. So we went in, and this guy had more—I mean, He had more degrees than a thermometer after His name. He just had all this stuff. 4,800 times smarter than I am. I got no qualm about that.

The Confrontation Over Truth

So we're talking along and we're talking about Jesus. And I said, "We're coming up here on the Good Friday," and I said, "What do you think about Jesus? Did He die on the cross?" And He said, "Oh yeah, He died on the cross." I said, "Why?" And He said, "Because He's a political prisoner, and that's how they killed political prisoners in that day."

Really? That's it, huh? Yeah. I said, "What do you think? He rose from the dead?" And He said, "I don't really think it's important."

I said, "Really? Not important? That's interesting to me. Well, what is that Easter thing all about?" And He said, "You know what it is? It's life. It's spring. It's things coming to life again, the hope in the future."

And I said, "Really? That's new stuff to me." Because I said, "Let me just tell you what I think. Here's what Paul says in Romans 10: 'If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.'"

So here's what I'm saying to you, pal: if you don't believe in the resurrection, you're not a Christian.

The Coming Debate and the Bottom Line

We got this same thing. I'm just telling you, you get your local newspaper four weeks from this Saturday, and they're gonna have this giant debate on whether Christ rose from the dead. Pat McMahon will come out of retirement. He'll have a priest, a rabbi, and a Protestant minister. It'll sound like a bad joke, and it won't be. It'll be Pat doing two hours on the resurrection and "What do we know?"

And here's the bottom line: I don't care what the rabbi says. I don't care what the priest says. I don't even care what the Protestant minister says. The scripture says if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you're a Christian.

Now, if that verse is true—and it is, or it wouldn't be in here—then if you don't believe in the physical resurrection of Christ, you're not a Christian. You may call yourself a Christian, you may be in a big ol' honking denomination, but you're not a Christian.

The heart of the gospel is Jesus Christ, His sinless...

life, His perfect death—the death that atoned for our sin—His rising from the dead, and the fact that on that cross when He cried out, "My God, my God." What a dramatic moment. Christ hangs on that cross. There's that moment where He calls out, and for the first time really in His ministry, He doesn't refer to the Father as His Father, but He says, "My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?"

It's at that moment—and by the way, it ought to give us just a little glimpse of what hell must be like—it's at that moment that He experiences the abandonment and the despair as He's overcome by the wrath of God. There's a picture of hell right there. Hell is people continually crying out, "I'm forsaken. I'm abandoned. I'm helpless. I'm hopeless."

The Heart of the Message Centers on Christ

As you speak the truth boldly, it has to be centered on the person of Christ. Why did they kill Him? Well, in John chapter 10—let me just make a—because you guys are pretty good about taking assignments. You need to take John chapter 10 and study it and understand it from beginning to end, because John chapter 10 is going to explain to you so many heavy doctrinal truths in such a simple way.

In John chapter 10, the Jews come to Him and they've had it. Here's what they say: "If You're the Christ, tell us. How long are You going to keep us in the dark? If You're really the Messiah, will You tell us?" Here's what He says in John 10:25: "I told you, but you don't believe. The works I do are in My Father's name, and those bear witness of Me. But you don't believe them because you're not My sheep. My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, and no one will snatch them out of My hands."

Let me stop there a second. Those of you that wonder, "Can I lose my salvation?" No. No one can snatch you out of the Father's hand. And then He goes on and He talks about these works, and then in verse 30 says, "I and the Father are one." And the Jews took up stones again—this had already happened before—to stone Him.

Jesus said, "I showed you many good works from the Father. Which of these are you stoning Me for?" And the Jews answered, "For a good work we don't stone You, but for blasphemy, because You, being a man, make Yourself out to be God." That's why they killed Him. Jesus claimed to be God.

The Witness of Scripture

As you're dealing with this heart of the messenger and if you're dealing with the core of this is Jesus, and we talked about the witness of John the Baptist, let me give you somebody even better as a witness than John the Baptist: the Lord Jesus Himself in the classic passage in John chapter 3.

Nicodemus comes to Him, and Nicodemus comes and he just makes an observation. Nicodemus is a Pharisee, religious guy. I don't know how religious you are—Nicodemus was more religious than you. He came to Jesus by night and he said, "Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher. No one can do the signs You do unless God is with Him." Doesn't ask a question, makes a statement.

Jesus says, "Nicodemus, truly, truly"—whenever you see that repetition, you know that He's emphasizing a point—"truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."

The Necessity of Being Born Again

What do I have to do to see the kingdom of God? See the kingdom of God, kingdom of heaven—what do I have to do to go to heaven? I must be born again. Here's what He didn't say. He didn't say, "You know what, Nicodemus? Knuckle down and get religious. Go to temple more." He didn't say, "Just work harder, be nicer to others. Do your best and I'll do the rest." He didn't say any of those things.

The reason I emphasize that point is so many of you—and it's kind of cute in its own way—will start coming here and God begins to work in your life, and you can't wait to tell me you're going to church again. "I started going to church again," which is really nice. But it doesn't do you any good if you're not a Christian.

Nicodemus doesn't get from Jesus any of those. He says, "Listen, unless you're born again, you're never going to see"—the word "see" there doesn't mean see physically, it means to understand—"you're never going to get it, Nicodemus, unless you're born again. You're never going to understand these spiritual things."

If you want exhibit A of that, Nicodemus said, "Well, wait a minute. How can that be? How can a man be born when he's old? How can he enter his mother's womb a second time? How can he be born again?" It's like Jesus could have said, "See, you idiot? That's My point. I just said to you you're never going to get this if you're not born again, and here's evidence you're not born again: because you're thinking physical. I'm talking spiritual. You're thinking physical, Nicodemus, and you're missing My point, man. You don't get this because you weren't born again."

Then He goes on to say, "That which is born of flesh is flesh, but that which is born of the Spirit"—and it's a capital S, that says born of the Holy Spirit of God—"that is truly spirit."

Three Essential Truths About Salvation

Here you go. As you're dealing with people and you're witnessing, just remember these three things. Number one: man cannot change himself. Change is necessary. You must be born again. Unless you're born again—and listen, if you're not born again, you're not going to see the kingdom of God. We have that phrase "born again," and some of us think Jimmy Carter kind of ruined it for all of us. But we hear that phrase and we use it so much, and we go, "Jesus said that." The change is absolutely necessary.

But what John tells us in Jesus' words in John chapter 6, verse 44: "No one can come to the Father unless the Father draws him." You don't have the ability to save yourself. You don't have the ability to change. Some of you have decided that what you're going to do is clean up your act. I hear this all the time: "I'm so bad, I don't think God can begin to deal with me. But here's what I'm going to do—I'm going to clean my act up, and then I'll start..."

Listen, what He demands is perfection, and you're never going to get

You're missing the point. This whole thing is not about you. It's about Him.

Here's the second thing to remember: salvation is through Christ and Christ alone. There is no other name. There is no other way. And Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me." At that point He eliminates all other possibilities.

Handling Common Objections

Oh wait a minute, because they get this all the time. Remember what we're talking about today: speaking the truth boldly. So now you're sitting down at Denny's and you're having an oatmeal and you're talking to the guy. You're talking about Christ and you're talking about these things, and they say, "Wait a minute. That's the only way? What about the Aborigine? What about the person who never heard? What about this?"

Well, here's how I handle that. Why don't we talk about the Aborigine later? What about you now? You've heard. What do you believe? Because it's either true or not true. It's true regardless of the Aborigine. And I know He's a holy and just God and He'll figure out the Aborigine, but we're not talking about the Aborigine. We're talking about you at that Denny's. Where are you?

Life Change Follows Faith

And the last point is when this whole process begins to work in your life, your life will change. So what does it mean to be a Christian? It means, in its really simplest form, to believe that Jesus is who He said He was and that He will do what He promised to do, and now you plan for your life and death accordingly. It's as simple as that.

Is that really that simple? I was one time teaching in a nursing home as a favor to somebody on a Sunday morning, and I'm talking about that's what it is. There's a lady in the back, and as the hearing goes, the speech gets a little louder. So in a voice that perhaps you could only hear for maybe a radius of a mile, she said, "Well, it's not as simple as that!"

This is a little frail old lady in a walker, and I'm not going to take this lady on. So I said, "Well, why don't you tell us what you think it is?" "I don't know, but it's not as simple as that!"

The Simple Truth of Salvation

That's exactly what it is. It's as simple as that. It's you today acknowledging that Jesus is your Lord and your Savior, that He died in your stead, and your heart is broken over that. Your sin overwhelms you, and that is the joy of understanding that truth. It's as simple as that.

It's not isolated to that—your life begins to change. And one of those changes is you begin to speak the truth boldly. Now the way you live—witnessing isn't optional, witnessing isn't mandatory, witnessing is inevitable in this Christian life.

Coming Next Week: Christian Freedom

There's something that makes this Christian life a little difficult for us. In this Christian life we have freedom. Here's what we're going to talk about next week: Is it okay to have a beer? Is it okay to go to an R-rated movie? Where am I free? Where does my freedom lie? How do I wrestle with those issues? Next week we'll take a look at that.

Closing Prayer

Father, help us. Help us make the invisible God visible and help us speak the truth boldly. Help us be men and women that You use in a powerful way—not because we're so special, we aren't. We're ordinary people who worship an awesome, extraordinary God. Because of that in our life we can do some extraordinary things, because it's You working in our life to accomplish that.

God, I pray that always there would be that powerful combination of making the invisible God visible and speaking the truth boldly. We pray that to You this morning in Christ's name. Amen.