Believing is the power

Amazingly, Billy Graham was once given the Congressional Medal of Honor for preaching the gospel to "more people than anyone in history,” but the truth is he does a huge disservice to saved people and those looking to become saved--robbing them of any assurance or liberty--by sloppily mixing and mingling doctrines from all over the Bible and putting his own heretical spin on things.

As I mentioned in a post on January 11, Graham says one of the conditions for “finding Christ” is, “You must confess Jesus Christ as Lord of your life. I have always asked people to make public confession in our meetings because Jesus in His earthly ministry demanded a definite commitment. He had reasons for demanding that people openly follow Him. Jesus knew that an unwitnessed vow is no vow at all. Until you have surrendered to Christ by a conscious act of your will, you are not a Christian.”

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Paul writes in Romans 10: 9-10: “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. [10] For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”

Jordan reasons, “That verse is quoted constantly and said, ‘That’s how you get saved,’ but do you see anything about the Cross in that verse? There’s no blood in that verse.

“Notice in verse 10 the order is very clear. What happens first? Your heart believes and you get righteous. You’re justified. After you’re a justified person, your mouth naturally will confess what your heart understands.  Jesus says, ‘For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.’

“Paul says ‘with the mouth confession,’ but notice that’s not salvation to become justified. That salvation is something beyond justification because you already got justification whether your mouth said anything or not.

“All of a sudden you say, ‘Well, maybe I better study a little bit.’ What a concept! Because it’s not just like falling off a log.

“By the way, think about Matthew 6:33. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, ‘Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you.’ He’s talking to Israel about Israel’s program, and He said the first thing is the righteousness of God. How are you going to have that? You’re going to believe. ‘Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness.’ It’s to have faith in God’s Word to you.

“But when Israel believed God, there was a salvation package of things—the material possessions of Matthew 6 would be added to them. What came first? Righteousness. Then there was more to come for them after that. It’s the same principle here.

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“When Paul says, ‘if thou shalt confess with thy mouth,’ who is the ‘thou’? Look back at Romans 10:1: ‘Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.’ Who’s he talking about? He’s talking about the salvation of the nation Israel.

“If you go back to Romans 9:1, he writes, I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost,
[2] That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart.
[3] For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh.’

“Notice he didn’t say he wished himself were accursed BY Christ, but FROM Christ. Why? For my kinsmen. That’s exactly the position the nation Israel is in in the dispensation of grace. That’s exactly the position Paul is telling Israel they’re in.

“Israel’s been set aside. They’ve been cut off. They’re no longer God’s chosen people in the dispensation of grace. And Romans 9-11 is talking about the nation Israel and the dispensational setting.

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“The missing element in modern theology is ‘Israelology.’ They’ll talk about soteriology, angelology, ecclesiology, eschatology, and all these other ‘ologies,’ but nobody ever has a department on Israelology! Paul did! There are three whole chapters where he explains what’s happened to Israel in light of the change of program.

“God isn’t finished with them. In fact, when Paul says in chapter 10, ‘my hearts prayer is that they be saved,’ look at chapter 11:25: ‘For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.’

“Israel has been blinded until the dispensation of grace is over and ‘so all Israel shall be saved as it is written.’

“We live in a mystery age that wasn’t prophesied, but what God wrote in prophecy about saving the nation Israel, He’s going to perform once this age is over with. Paul said, ‘I don’t want you to be ignorant of that lest you don’t know what’s going on.’ So Paul knew Israel would be saved according to prophecy.

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“What about those blinded, lost Jews out there? Paul said salvation’s gone to the Gentiles to provoke those lost Jews to jealousy. Paul says, ‘I’m conducting my Gentile apostleship in a way that will provoke lost Jews to see the only hope they have is in what I’m preaching.’ That’s what Paul was doing during the Book of Acts!

“Romans 10:5 says, ‘For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, That the man which doeth those things shall live by them.
[6] But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:)
[7] Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.)

“That’s a quote from Deuteronomy 30. That’s what Moses said. Did you notice those parenthesis in verse 6. Paul adds that parenthesis; that’s not in Deuteronomy.

“Paul’s saying, ‘You know what, Jesus said it.’ Christ said, ‘Moses wrote of me. Search the scripture they are that testifieth of me and if you’d have believed Moses you’d have believed me. You know why you didn’t believe me? You didn’t believe Moses. I’m the Word of God. Moses gave you the Word of God. If you’d have believed in the Word of God through Moses, you’d have believed the Word of God when Christ showed up, because you’re in the business of believing in the Word of God.’

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“Paul quotes the same verses in Deuteronomy that they’re quoting; they’re saying these verses over and over. He says in verse 8, ‘But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach.’

“These Jews had God’s Word in their heart and God’s Word that was in their heart spoke of Christ; it pointed to Him.

“Romans 9:31 says, ‘But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness.
[32] Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone.’

“Unbelieving Israel stumbled because they didn’t believe God’s Word. So Paul says, ‘Look, all you lost Jews out there. I want you to get saved. I understand what’s going on. God’s Word said this and you were quoting God’s Word that was pointing to Christ. But you didn’t believe any because you didn’t believe God’s Word. It’s right there in your mouth! It’s right there hidden in your heart! You got these verses! You just need to believe what the word said!’

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“Do you ever wonder what Paul was preaching in the synagogues when he went around in Acts 9 and Acts 28? People who read the Book of Acts try to figure out what he’s preaching. Paul tells you what he’s preaching in Romans 10. You don’t need to read Acts 13, 17, 18, 19 to figure it out.  He tells you right here what he preached. Luke’s telling you what he preached back there about something else.

“In Romans 10: 9-12 is Paul’s message to the Jews in the synagogue when he’s trying to provoke them to trust Christ.

“There were two great issues the Jews had. One, they didn’t believe He was the Messiah.

“Go to I Kings 8. I’m just going to use this verse because it’s easy to use. You could start in Leviticus 26. God required Israel to confess. To get out from under that fifth course of judgment, Leviticus 26:40 says they had to confess their sin and their breaking of the covenant; they had to confess Him as their Savior.

“Solomon, when he dedicates the temple in I Kings 8:33, says, ‘When thy people Israel be smitten down before the enemy, because they have sinned against thee, and shall turn again to thee, and confess thy name, and pray, and make supplication unto thee in this house.’

“Verse 35 goes on, ‘When heaven is shut up, and there is no rain, because they have sinned against thee; if they pray toward this place, and confess thy name, and turn from their sin, when thou afflictest them.’

“When he says ‘confess thy name,’ that’s Jehovah. Confess Him as the one who’s going to provide for them what they couldn’t do for themselves. He’ll be their Messiah and Redeemer. Their Savior.

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“In John 8:24, Jesus is talking to the Pharisees. The verse says, ‘I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.’

“You see, a Jew had no problem with the issue of a blood sacrifice. They did it all along. They just believed Jesus wasn’t the Messiah. They believed He was a counterfeit. So the first issue for a lost Jew was he needed to recognize that Jesus Christ was God’s Messiah; God’s Redeemer. The real deal.

“The other thing those lost Jews back there had a problem with was the resurrection. They believed it was just a big hoax; just a rumor.

“You remember the story in Matthew 28 that the chief priest told the soldiers to say? ‘Go out and say that His disciples came and stole Him’ and they spread that abroad. That was the answer everybody had to the resurrection.

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“Now, the resurrection is the testimony to the identity of the Savior. And what He’s telling them is, ‘You know what you need to do; you need to recognize who the Lord Jesus is.’ That’s the issues the lost Jew faced. Now those things weren’t going to provoke a Gentile, but they would provoke Israel.

“So He says to them in verse 10, ‘For with the heart confession made unto salvation.’ Notice the order clearly. With the heart man believes unto righteousness. If you’d sit down and do nothing else, you’re justified. How do I know? That’s what God said.

“And as a response, the mouth would make confession unto salvation. It would confess to the program that’s going on. Verse 11-12: ‘For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
[12] For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.’

“Well, that’s not true in ‘time past’ in Israel’s program, but it is true today. Now you tell a Jew that--in the Book of Acts you know what he did? He went bonkers. Go back and read Acts 13 when Paul goes in and the whole city comes together to hear the word and the Jews begin to contradict, blaspheme and have a cat.

“And that’s when Paul says to them, ‘It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles.’

“What’s he doing? That’s that provoking ministry and that’s what he’s doing here: ‘for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’ He’s sticking it in their eye and saying, ‘See, the Gentiles are out there calling on Him because they believed on Him! You ought to too!’

“My point to you is if you understand what this passage is about, you understand how that the prayer and the confession and all that stuff back here is not the point. Now, what you and I need to do is make sure we have our mind keyed on what IS the point.

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“Paul says that ‘the gospel which was committed to me was how that Christ died for our sins, was buried and rose again the third day and was seen.’ Two doctrines and two evidences. One, He died for our sins according to the Scripture. He was buried—proof that He died. He was raised again, according to the Scripture. And He was seen—proof that He was resurrected.
“You see, it’s by grace through faith and not of yourself; it’s a gift. You just believe that Jesus Christ, that His blood paid for all of your sin debt; that it settled every issue between you and God. And you place your trust; you place your dependence exclusively in Him.

“Then, as a saved, justified person, you call on Him—over and over and over and over and over. Why? Because you have peace with God. You have access through Him, with boldness and confidence based upon His blood.

“You see, when you begin to add that religious twist at the end of it, because Romans 1:16 shows you why this is real important. Where’s the power of God unto salvation? It’s in the gospel of Christ that Jesus Christ died for our sins and was buried and raised again for our justification.

“It’s the power of God TO everyone that believes. You see the proposition there?

“The way you get the gospel to be the power of God for salvation for you, is you believe it. If you don’t believe it, it’s not the power of God to salvation for you. That’s why it’s important.

“Because if you come along and tell somebody that you got to work, then you told them believing wasn’t enough, and grace isn’t grace anymore because the only response grace will accept is faith. And grace requires faith as the only response.

“So if you tell somebody to pray, or confess, or to walk an aisle, shake a preacher’s hand, make deals, go do ceremonies, live a life, turn away . . . if you give then anything to do to get saved, even as simple as praying, you substituted a work for faith and the gospel is the power of God only to those who simply, exclusively believe in Jesus.

“And you literally, in the words of I Corinthians 1, ‘make the cross of none effect,’ where people can know all about the gospel, know all about the Cross, and it have no impact in their life. Why? Because they didn’t simply believe it, trust it, depend on it exclusively. The first prayer a saved person should pray is to say, ‘Thank you, Lord, for saving my soul.’

“You need to keep your mind, keep your ears tuned like a laser. Just like your tongue can taste the difference in meat, your ear needs to be able to hear that message.

“If you listen to the Christian radio, you read Christian literature or you watch Christian television, its design, its intent, its result, is to dull your hearing so that you aren’t sharp enough, because your flesh would like to do anything it can; the religious system would like to do anything it can, the Adversary would like to do anything he can, to hide the gospel of God’s grace, and you and I need to be careful that we don’t fall into that trap ourselves.”