Embark on a journey through the perspectives of heaven and hell as articulated in Christian theology. This episode presents an introspective look at salvation, justified by grace, and the profound changes that occur through being born again. Discover how these foundational beliefs have shaped countless lives and continue to influence Christian thought today.
Greetings to the brightest audience in the country. I’m Nicole McBurney, filling in for your usual Wednesday afternoon host. And today we’re going to go back to an old Bob Enyart sermon entitled, What is a Christian? I figured it’s always good to go back and take a look at the basics. We can get so caught up in other points in theology, but it’s always good to remember the simple facts of the scripture. And so let’s take a listen to this sermon titled, What is a Christian?
SPEAKER 02 :
In August of 1977, I arrived at a Christian college in New York State, eager to study the scripture and prepare for a life of service to God. It was Nyack Bible College, atop the rising green hills at the Tappan Zee Bridge that crossed the Hudson River just north of New York City. My Bible teacher was the renowned Professor Kenyon. who at the end of the year had given us an exam that I’m going to present to you today. A denomination called Christian and Missionary Alliance ran Nyack College and that’s Christian and Missionary Alliance, CNMA, and their missionary emphasis resulted in a student body which included maybe a couple hundred American kids who grew up in South America and in Africa. And as a result, for a small college of about 500 students, we had an excellent soccer team. I mean, that was really what excelled at that school. And by the way, I enjoyed playing varsity tennis, volleyball, and soccer. And because we were such a… a good school for sports, we got in quite a division. In fact, we got to play against Penn State. I got to play against them and other extraordinary schools. But one concern I had back then, which still resonates nearly 30 years later, was that the Bible classes were as though they were for little kids. It seemed that it was all milk and very little meat, and I was discouraged. The only classes of substance that I thoroughly enjoyed were the Greek courses, which were preparing us to read the language of the New Testament since the last 27 books of the Bible were written in Koine Greek. That’s pretty neat if you could read the Bible in the original language that it was written in. but the theology and Bible classes seemed like Sunday school classes for kids, like second, third, fourth, fifth grade. That’s what it seemed like to me, and I couldn’t comprehend why. I remember the final exam after two semesters of Bible 101. It was worth about a third of our grade, and it consisted of a blank piece of paper on which we were to write our name, and a single question, and then we were to write out the answer to this question. And what question was that? It was this. What is a Christian? Question mark. That was the final exam. That was it. What is a Christian? Professor Kenyon, he was a hard grader. He disliked grade inflation, and he thought it had become too easy to get A’s and B’s, and so he would grade on a curve, only it was only a downward curve. He wanted to give C’s and D’s as many as he could. Well, I had answered the question with very small lettering, so I could put about six paragraphs on that single piece of paper, And after a few days, our final exam grades were posted outside of his office, and I was rather shocked to see that he had given me a B. Wow, a B. So I retrieved my single answer sheet and set up an appointment with Dr. Kenyon, a man whose faith I admired and whose time I valued. And very politely, I asked him if he would reconsider my grade. And first, I presented him with the notes that I had taken throughout the semester. And in these notes, I highlighted everything that he had presented that directly related to the question of what is a Christian. And next to each of those points were the Bible verses that you could read and find those truths revealed. And then I pointed out that everything highlighted throughout the whole semester related to the question, what is a Christian, was recreated on my exam paper. And next to each point, I wrote the Bible reference. You must believe on the Son of God, John 3.16. You must be born again, John 3.3. And so on, and explaining these concepts. By the way, at Denver Bible Church, we are dispensationalists, and dispensationalism is the study in scripture of how God changed the rules over time, and specifically how he gave different rules to Israel and to the body of Christ, and how very important it is to understand the dispensationalism not only for the Bible but even for the gospel itself. How very important it is to know what would God have us believe to be saved because the message that Christ has died and been raised from the dead was not always preached. Jesus sent the 12 out to preach the gospel during his three years of earthly ministry. And they went out and they preached the gospel, but they did not believe he would die or be raised from the dead. In fact, when Jesus would tell them, I’m going to be crucified and raised from the dead, they would say, no, that’s not true. And the gospel writers would say they didn’t believe it and they didn’t understand it. And yet, Jesus would send them out. He’d say, go preach the gospel, and they would go out. And they would preach the gospel of the kingdom, but they would tell no one that the Messiah would be crucified and would be raised from the dead. Why did they tell that to no one? Because they didn’t believe it. And even when Jesus did tell them that, he told them in private, and he said, don’t tell anyone. So at Denver Bible Church, we are dispensationalists which means that we pay careful attention to how God has changed the rules and his message over time. For example, another example, someone reading through the Bible for the first time, a sincere human being who believes this is the word of God, he might think that in order to be saved, he would have to build an ark like Noah did. And of course, that person would be biblically correct, but dispensationally in error. Isn’t that right, Mrs. Miller? Mrs. Miller taught me that. For God told Noah to build an ark, not us. And if you go in the Bible and you take out a command and you start obeying it, you might be disobeying God if the command was not given to you, if it was given to someone else. And we might think, that if we’re going to have many children, that we would be saved. But that would be false, even though the Bible tells us that God said to Abraham, you’re going to have many children, and Abraham believed God that he would have many children, and God accounted it to him for righteousness, and he was saved. He was saved by believing he would have many children? How does that save you? Well, ultimately, salvation is having a relationship with God. Trusting God. So Genesis 15 shows us that Abraham trusted God, that he would have many children, and he was justified. And Paul repeats that in Romans chapter 4. Abraham believed God, that he would have many children, and he was justified. He was saved. Ultimately, trusting God means having a relationship with him. Not on your terms, but on his terms. Last night, Cheryl and I watched a devastating documentary of a wicked crime of kidnapping and murder. And the criminal told his victim that he loved her. But of course he did not. A moment later, he killed her. Now, this relationship was on his terms, and his terms were not valid. Some people think that they can have a relationship with God on their own terms. But those terms may be invalid. If my terms are, God, I want to love you the way you want to be loved, then my terms are good. But if my terms are God, I don’t really care what you’ve said or what you’ve revealed. I’m only going to do that which I agree to. And if you’re going to be a good God, you’re going to agree with me. Otherwise, I don’t want any part of you. That is agreeing to have a relationship with God on your own terms. And that is no relationship at all. That is destructive. Many people are not interested in God’s terms. They think if there is a God, he has no choice but to accept me because I’m that good. I am good enough to go to heaven. And if he doesn’t like that, well then, tough. I’d rather go to hell with my friends. And we point out, hey, there are no drugs in hell. No bars in hell, no pornography in hell, no political campaigns to lose yourself in, no soap operas or romance novels, no Barnes and Nobles, no Starbucks or 24-hour sports channels in hell. And they still say it, I’d rather go to hell. Well, I’ve heard that sentiment so many times over the years. Has it been hundreds of times? I think so. hundreds of times, and it has reinforced my belief from Scripture that all those who eventually end up in hell do so because that’s where they want to go. They want to go to hell. And Christians, some wrestle with, well, I believe the Bible’s the word of God, but how can God be good and send people to hell? They want to go to hell. To those in rebellion against God, to them, heaven is hell. To them, heaven is hell. No matter how bad hell is, heaven is worse. Because in heaven, you humble yourself before God and you fellowship with others who love him. I know many people who flat out do not want any part of Jesus Christ. And especially, I can think of those who want nothing to do with Christians. You think you have to live for God? And you think I’m going to hang out with you? No, I’m not going to hang out with you. There are unbelievers who want to know God and who are waiting for someone to share the gospel. There are those who are unsure but willing to listen and can be persuaded. And then there are those who’ve hardened their hearts and say, I don’t want any part of Christians. Whatever that even means, being a Christian, I don’t want any part of it. But eternal life is trusting in God, having a relationship with God. And if you trust God, it must be on his terms, not on your terms. Not on my terms, on his terms. God told the Israelites that they had to circumcise. If they wanted their family to be in covenant relationship with him, they had to circumcise. But later, the Apostle Paul wrote to us in the body of Christ that if we circumcise, then we’re cursed. Because we’re obeying the wrong set of commands for a different group of people. It’s okay to circumcise for cultural reasons, but if you think you’re doing it to obey God, you’re obeying the wrong set of commands and you’re disobeying the right set. For Israel, God gave the covenant of circumcision, whereas we are of the covenant of grace. God changed the rules, but not all of them. God commanded Adam, Noah, Abraham, and Paul to trust him. So that trusting God is universal. It’s cross-dispensational. Now please turn to Titus, Paul’s epistle to Titus, most of the way through the New Testament, a couple pages before Hebrews, Titus chapter 3. Now earlier I used the term born again, you must be born again. And some dispensationalists have asked, when Jesus said you must be born again, was that terminology specifically for Israel or is it also valid for the body of Christ? And to that question I answer, it’s also valid for the body of Christ. The Apostle Paul said that we need to study the scripture rightly divided so that we would not be ashamed as workmen for the Lord. The Bible rightly divided, knowing what is for Israel and what is for the body. But once we make that division, we don’t need to exaggerate that division beyond how God has shown it to be. We don’t have to invent differences with other Christians just to defend our own position. We need to come alive to God just like Abraham needed that. We need to be born anew, to be born from above, to be born again. The birth from our mother’s womb was not sufficient to give us eternal life. We needed to become new creatures And these are cross-dispensational truths. Writing to Titus, the Apostle Paul stated in Titus chapter 3, go to verse 4, that the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit. Now the washing of regeneration, that’s not baptism. That word translated in English, regeneration, is in Greek, it’s the word that would literally be translated born again. It’s a compound word, pollen, again, and from the verb which we get generation from. generation, generated to come into existence, to be born. The love of God, our savior toward man appeared not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy that he saved us through the washing of regeneration, of being born again. We were born from above. We were born of the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, regenerated. When we became a new creation, we were saved. Now let’s continue reading verse 6, Titus 3, 6. that through being born again by the renewing of the Holy Spirit, verse six, whom God poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by his grace, we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. We have been justified. That is, we have been made right by God’s grace, by the goodness of God, made available to him through the death and resurrection of God the Son, Jesus Christ. God the Father is able to save us because of what God the Son did for us. One God in three persons, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. If God did not pay our debt of sin, if he did not take our punishment, we could not be saved. God could not wink and make believe that our sin had been dealt with. God is God, but he’s not a magician. He is not the God of make-believe. He is the God of reality. And when we sin, we have then suffered the consequence, which is death. And death cannot just be winked at. That debt, that separation between us and God is real. And Jesus Christ could not wave his hand like a magician waving a magic wand and say, you are forgiven, live forever. It wouldn’t work because there was a true debt that was incurred. We died. That is, we were separated from God. And we could not be restored to God unless that debt was made whole, unless it was repaid. And there are millions, no, billions of human beings that have sinned against God. And how vast, how infinite that debt is. And so God, in order to redeem us, knew that he would sacrifice himself. He would die. God the Son would cry out to the Father, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? He would be separated from the Father, not for all of eternity, as Jesus. our punishment would have been for us. But because of the eternal relationship the Son had with the Father, because of the value of that relationship, because of the depth of that relationship, Jesus Christ could be separated from the Father for three days and three nights in the depth of the earth. And then, as Paul writes… He could be reconciled to the Father. He was crucified. He died. He was reconciled and raised from the dead so that thereby God the Father could save us. Thereby. Because of what Jesus Christ did for us. Well, what is a Christian? A Christian is a being made in God’s image and likeness. A human being who became spiritually dead, fallen through sin against God, sin committed individually, though inherited from Adam, who has come to acknowledge his sin and has repented from his life in rebellion against God and has asked God to forgive him and has trusted in Jesus Christ and believes that God the Son died for our sin on the cross, and was raised from the dead, and that we have eternal life through Christ’s resurrection. And this trust in God has made him a new creation. He has been born again, born from above, born of the Spirit of God, and sealed with that Holy Spirit until the day of redemption that is what a Christian is. I now realize that even if a Bible college wanted to teach the deeper things of God, they would have trouble. They would have trouble because the vast majority of their applicants have such a poor foundation in God’s Word and have adopted so many cliches as though they were revealed from God that it is very difficult to present the deeper things of the Lord when people are confused or even reject the milk of the word. I spent time this weekend with dear friends who told me of attending a very well-known Southern Baptist college in that the worldliness on that campus and the sexual immorality of that place was so severe as to be oppressive. And that’s at a campus of a reasonably conservative fundamentalist evangelical Christian denomination. I now realized that my professor Kenyon had determined that he couldn’t really get anywhere with his students unless first they understood what it meant to be a Christian. After reviewing my exam, he looked up at me, I’d gone to his office, said, what’s with a B? He went over it and he looked up at me and said, looks like a B to me. And I said, respectfully, Dr. Kenyon, and this is how I recall it, and I don’t think my attitude or demeanor would have changed. I said respectfully, Dr. Kenyon, the grade is your decision, not mine, but I will better understand this B grade if you can indicate to me anything, just one thing that I’ve written that is wrong or even just one thing that I should have included in this answer that I left out. Could you indicate just one of either? Something I wrote that was wrong or something I left out that should have been there? And he took the paper from me again and went over it and grabbed a red pencil and wrote and handed it back to me. And he had crossed out the B and he changed it to an A. An A minus. And I said, minus? And he said, don’t push it. So I said, thank you, doc, and went on my way out of his office and off the campus and out into the world. where I have taken ever since the solid understanding Dr. Kenyon helped drill into me of the importance of understanding what it means to be a Christian. What is a Christian? You should be able to answer that. And then the next question comes immediately, who is a Christian? And I pray that for each of you, When you answer, who is a Christian, that you would start off with, well, first of all, me. I hope that each of you would answer for yourself. Well, I am a Christian because I know what a Christian is. And I trust Jesus Christ for eternal life. Now, if you want that to be your answer, but you are not sure if you are a Christian, I know almost everyone in this room rather well. And the people I know well that I know, I believe you guys are Christians. People I’m looking around, looking at different people, and we have wonderful Christian fellowship. But I don’t know everyone as well as I’d like to. And each of us know ourselves better than others know us. And if you want that to be your answer, that you want to be a Christian, but you are not sure if you are, then please, after the service, come up to me or to any of the elders of the church in our bulletin. If you didn’t get one, the elders are listed by name. And you could just ask me or ask them. And we would be thrilled to share with you the gospel and pray with you. And that prayer is so simple. that we thank God for what he’s given us, life. We tell him that we’re sorry. We confess, which means to agree with God. We confess that we have sinned against him. We have hurt others and ourselves and God, our maker, and that we thank him that he hasn’t left us in our sin, but that he sent Jesus Christ to die to pay the penalty for our sin. and that we are trusting in him and his resurrection for eternal life. So any one of us would be thrilled to go over that gospel with you and to pray with you. And that’s all you need to do to be a Christian. You don’t have to complete some kind of a rigorous discipleship course. You don’t have to check off seven means of grace or salvation. You have to have a relationship with God, which means trusting him for what he has asked of you. And what he has asked of us is not to give a certain amount of money to ministry, not to go to church every Sunday, not to… do any number of things or don’t do any number of other things, which would be sinful. What he’s asked of us is to have a relationship with him, to trust what he has revealed to us. That is, if you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, that he has been raised from the dead, you will be saved. And to all of you, The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. May God bless you all. May he make his face to shine upon you.
