Rev. Ron Sumners
August 7, 1994
One of the most difficult things to deal with in sharing the Christian Faith is the fact that most people, even Christians, think of our Faith as a system of morals and nothing more. Christianity, for many, is a system of do's and don'ts with a heavy emphasis on the don'ts! We often use the term "Christian behavior." More often than not we use this term in relating to a person who is normal and decent and a good neighbor. When someone says, "Let's be Christian about this,” he is saying that love and tolerance and restraint must be used.
But today I want us to think on the question, WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE A CHRISTIAN?
If a man is moral in his conduct and speech; if he treats all men fairly; if he is honest; if he loves his family; if he gives to charitable causes; if he believes in God; if he supports the public schools; if he coaches little league and teaches those children that playing hard and fairly is more important than winning; if he helps his wife with the household chores and supports the projects she is interested in; if he does not drink alcohol or smoke; and if everyone thinks of him as a wonderful fellow; is he a Christian? What is your answer?
If you answered “Yes” then you do not understand what salvation entails. Morality and Christianity are not synonymous terms. A Christian will be a moral man but there are many moral people who do not know Jesus Christ as Savior and are LOST!
I have visited many men who have countered my attempts to get them to come to Church by saying, “I’m just as good as those folks who go down to your church.” Or I’ve heard many say, “I’ll not go down to that church with that bunch of hypocrites.” Both of these statements tell us two things. One, Christians have a responsibility to lead a moral life before their neighbors so they will not be a stumbling block. And it tells us that they either are avoiding the issues of their own salvation by throwing up a smoke screen or they do not understand what Christianity is. They see our Faith as a practice of ethics that they are better at than the man who calls himself a Christian. So why should he waste time with those people who need the crutch of the church; he can live their faith better than they can without it!
Some of you here today know someone who has used this excuse not to come to church, or to accept Christ as Savior. Some of you here right now may be using this excuse. I want to share today some of the dangers of the moral man who sees no need for Christ or the church.
1) The moral man, however good, has an unchanged unregenerated nature which will keep him from heaven. Jesus said to Nicodemus, "Verily, verily I say unto you, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." (John 3:3) Man is born into a world that is in rebellion against God, and man's very nature is evil. That nature must be changed. We must become "NEW CREATURES" through the power of Jesus Christ. We cannot do it on our own - no matter how moral or good we may be.
2) The moral man, however good, has sin in his life, but he has no sin offering and no sin bearer to take away his sin. I John 2: l-2 tells us, "My little children, these things I write unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for our sins only, but also for the sins of the whole world."
Sin is abhorrent in the eyes of God. It cannot be in His presence. And all men have sinned! Often, we confuse symptoms with a disease. Some diseases have very obvious symptoms that are easily recognized by everyone, such as measles. The symptoms of measles are impossible to hide when one is afflicted by the disease. On the other hand, some diseases have almost no outward symptoms. Diabetes has fewer outward symptoms, and many people have the disease for years without their closest friends realizing it. Yet, Diabetes is a much more serious and life-threatening disease than measles. The moral man may not have many outward symptoms of the disease called SIN like the alcohol or the adulterer or the murderer, but he suffers from the same malady and it is just as fatal for him as it is for the most reprehensible of sinners. Without the sacrifice of Jesus Christ to bear away our sins, we will all die from our disease! It is the righteousness of Jesus Christ that saves us, not our own goodness or morality.
3) The moral man has no power in himself lo live right before God, even if he were cleared of all his past sin. Our power to live right before God comes from the Holy Spirit that dwells within us. And you cannot receive the power of the Holy Spirit until you have received Jesus. The thing that makes us right before God is not how good we are. It is the recognition of His sovereignty and our devotion to Him. This will include moral behavior, but it is not simply moral behavior. It is so much more. It is realizing our lostness without Him. Romans 7:21-24 tells us that even when we do good, evil is with us because that is our nature and only God can set things right. "I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" A moral man without Christ does not have the power to defeat his human nature. Only the Holy Spirit can provide that.
4) The moral man sets himself up as his own savior and rejects the son of God and the savior of the world. John 3: l 8 tells us, "He that believeth on Him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." The fallacy of the moral man is that he believes that salvation is earned. He believes that his own goodness will get him into heaven. He is living his life based on the premise that he heard at his mother's knee, "Be a good boy and you'll go to heaven." No one has ever been good enough to earn heaven! Our Salvation is not to be found in the fact that all the good deeds in the world amassed together and put to his account could not earn Heaven for him. Eternal life is a gift from God and cannot be earned. It can only be received. The moral behavior of the Christian is part of a lifestyle lived in response to the grace of God, not as an attempt to earn his place in heaven. The moral man must realize that he cannot save himself no matter how good a man he may be.
5) The moral man contradicts the plain statements of the word of God that Christ ONLY is the way, the truth and the life. In John 14:6 Jesus clearly tells us, "I am the way, the truth, and the life, no man cometh to the father, but by me." Acts 4:12 reaffirms this truth.
"Neither is their salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." The word of God tells us over and over again, in various ways so there will be no chance of misunderstanding, that the only way to the Father is through the Son! At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that He is Lord, not if, when. Most moral men will tell you that they believe in God and the Bible. If we do believe the scripture, then there can be no misunderstanding; morality cannot save, only Christ can save!
6) The moral man is resisting and rejecting the four great agencies which God placed in this world to save men: 1) The appeal of the Holy Spirit; 2) The warnings of Scripture; 3) The work of God's people and His church; and 4) The call of God's providences. Romans 1:20 says, "For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world arc clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead; so, they are without excuse." Even God's creation tells us that there is a higher authority to whom we must answer.
The moral man will die like every other living thing and he will die unprepared to meet God if he takes nothing but his own morality.
The moral man has great influence upon others, and rightly so, but he is carrying them with him away from God and life eternal. So many people admire and respect the moral man. He is beloved by all. He has no need for the Church, why should they. "I want to be just like daddy,” says his little boy, and daddy beams with pride never realizing that unless that son finds Christ somewhere down the road, he has led his own son away from eternal life. The children in the neighborhood think of him as the best guy they know; he'll play catch when none of the other dads will. They see him and want to be like him, and he never shows them Jesus and he has led them away from eternal life.
The moral man is coming up before God in the judgment, without an advocate and without an excuse. He'll not be judged by how much he gave to the American Cancer Society. He'll not be judged on what a good husband and father he was. He'll not be judged on the feelings of affection that his neighbors had for him. The only question that will matter on that day is, "What have you done for Jesus." And the moral man who never accepted Jesus will have no claim on heaven and the most terrible words in all of creation will be spoken to him by God Almighty, "Depart from me, for I never knew you."
There are many, good, moral men who do not know the Lord Jesus Christ and all their goodness will be as filthy rags on that day. 0 my dear friend if you are basing your salvation of the fact that you are a good, moral person, you have no savior, and if you have no savior, you have no hope!
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