| “What
It Means To Believe in Jesus”
This is a transcription of a sermon
by Dr. Charles F. Stanley, and part of a quality six audio-cassette
series titled LEARNING TO WALK BY FAITH. The whole six tape
series is available online at http://www.intouch.org
or by mail at INTOUCH MINISTRIES, PO Box 7900, Atlanta, Georgia
30357, or by phone 1-800-323-3747. IN TOUCH ® Copyright
1998 ©, ITM, Inc., Atlanta, Georgia, USA, used with permission.
All rights reserved. This sermon transcription gives clear
and concise teaching on just what it means to believe in Jesus,
or in other words, to be born-again, to be a real Christian.
If you answered an altar call, or were led to say the sinners’
prayer, did that alone make you a Christian? Find out from
this informative sermon. Are you in Christ and He in you-or
do you just think you are? Find out for sure. Continue reading.
“What does it mean to believe in Jesus Christ? All through
the Bible I found these verses that talk about believing in
him, but what does that mean? It’s very evident in Scripture
that in order for a person to have their sins forgiven, in
say, in order to go to heaven [receive eternal life, as some
would say] a person must place their trust in Jesus Christ.
But what does it mean to believe in Jesus? Well that’s
what I want to talk about in this message, because there are
so many people who think they believe in
Jesus Christ, but who do not really truly understand what
that means. So I want you to turn if you will to John chapter
3, and that verse that’s the most familiar of all, John
3:16. You say, “Well I know that one by heart.”
Well I’m sure that most of you probably do, but I want
you to turn there if you will for a moment. I want us to read
this verse. Jesus was talking to a very knowledgeable man,
Nicodemus, about his relationship with God. And he said to
him, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom
of God.” [More literally, “Except a man be born
of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom
of God.”] And so in the course of that discussion, Jesus
comes down to say in verse 15, “that whosoever believes
may in him have eternal life.” And then he says in verse
16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only
begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish,
but have eternal life.” But what does it mean to believe
in Jesus Christ? Well that is the purpose of this message,
and what I want to do is explain, from a Biblical point of
view, ‘What does it mean to place you trust in him?’
‘How do you know that you’ve done that?’ And
so it’s interesting in Scripture how very clear God has
made it. For example, he says in John chapter 1, if you’ll
turn there for a moment. In John chapter 1, in the 12th verse
he says, “but as many as receive him, to them gave he
the power (or the right) to become children of God, even to
those who believe in his name.” Now to believe in his
name, for example, the name represents everything a person
is. So when a person believes in the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ, that is the same as believing in him. You recall in
Acts chapter 16, verse 31 when the Philippian jailer and Paul
were talking, he said ‘What must I do to be saved?’
And Paul said, ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and
you will be saved.’ You recall in Romans chapter 1 Paul
said, ‘I’m not ashamed of the gospel of Christ,
because it is the power of God and the salvation to all who
believe.’ That is, the gospel of Christ for all who believe
in him. For example, he said in Romans chapter 5, verse 1,
‘Therefore being justified by faith’-which means
to be declared no longer guilty, but now righteous, saved
in the eyes of God-“therefore being justified by faith
we have peace with God.’ He said in Ephesians 2:8-9,
“For by grace you are saved through faith, and that not
of yourselves: it is the gift of God. Not of works, lest any
man should boast.” You and I could go all the way through
the New Testament, verse after verse, every single time it
is placing our trust, believing in the Lord Jesus Christ.
So, the question is, it’s very clear that what you have
to do-but what does it mean? Well I think there are a lot
of people out there who are very deceived, who really and
truly believe that somewhere along the way that they have
believed in Jesus Christ, and therefore they are saved-they
are comfortable that they are saved. So what I’d like
to do is to think just a moment with you about what these
people are thinking and how they think when they say ‘Yes
I do believe.’ Well I think there are some people who
are genuinely-would say to you-‘Yes, I believe the Bible,
I believe in God, I believe in Jesus Christ’-and therefore
they think that they’re saved. What they’re saying
is ‘I believe the facts, that this is
the Bible, this is God’s Word, I believe the Bible does
teach about God, the Bible does teach about Jesus, I believe
all those things.’ That’s talking about believing
facts. Then someone comes along and says, ‘Well sure
I believe in Jesus, my mother believed in Jesus, my grandmother
believed in Jesus, my whole family’s believed in Jesus-sure
I believe in Jesus.’ What they’re saying is, ‘I
do believe in the fact that there was such a man as Jesus
Christ.’ Now the truth is their degree and the quality
of their belief is the same as if you said to them, ‘You
went to school?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Do you believe
there was a man George Washington?’ ‘Yes I do.’
‘Do you believe there was a man Abraham Lincoln?’
‘Yes I do.’ ‘Do you believe there was a person
named Jesus?’ ‘Yes I do.’ Same category, same
level and quality of belief, they’re believing facts
about a person. That is not New Testament belief. So you come
along and say ‘Do you believe in God?’ ‘Yes
I do, I do believe in God, I’ve always believed in God.
My mother believed in God, I believe in God-I’ve always
believed in God.’ ‘Don’t think I’m an
atheist. Just because I don’t live like you want me to
live doesn’t mean I don’t believe in God. I feel
very comfortable that when I die I’m going to heaven-I
believe in God.’ And what they’re saying is ‘I
believe in the God that you talk about in the Bible.’
And so you ask somebody else, ‘Do you believe?’
‘Well here’s what I believe. I believe there’s
a God. I don’t believe in this whole idea of evolution.
I believe there’s a God and if I believe in God I’m
OK and I’m saved and I’m going to heaven because
I believe in God.’ And then you ask someone else, ‘Well
what do you believe?’ ‘I believe, but don’t
get prying into my spiritual life, but I believe and believing
is enough, so I believe and that’s it.’ The truth
is, they don’t have a ghost of an idea what they believe,
and the reason some people won’t tell you what they believe
is because they don’t know. That’s
the reason they don’t tell you. ‘Do you believe
in the Bible?’ ‘Yes I do.’ ‘What do you
believe about it?’ ‘Well, you know I believe it
and that’s enough. I won’t tell you what I believe
about the Bible.’ The truth is, they don’t know
anything about it. Now, I’m simply saying this. Many
people believe that they believe, according to the Scripture
in God, in Jesus enough to have their sins forgiven or to
go to heaven [a term he uses to mean to receive eternal life,
the way some denominations look at it]. And they genuinely
believe that, but what they’re doing is that they’re
making a mistake. And here’s the mistake, the mistake
is this. Just because you ascent, that is, you concur with
something that, ‘Yes I do believe that’s true’
and ‘Yes I consider the fact that God said that, and
the Bible is true’-that does not mean that you
have New Testament faith.
There’s a difference between believing according to the
Scripture and having, intellectually being willing to affirm
or concur with someone ‘Yes I do believe those facts
are true.’ And so, often times what they’re believing
is they’re believing facts. They’re
believing truth. And they may say ‘Yes
I do believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God’-fact. ‘I
do believe that the Bible was inspired by God’-fact.
‘I do believe that God is a good God and that he sent
his only begotten Son’-fact. But know believing in the
Lord Jesus Christ for the salvation of their soul is an entirely
different thing. And so I say to you my friend, and I say
it in a loving sort of way, you can believe all that and be
just as sincere as you can possibly be and be lost and separated
from God. ‘Do you mean to tell me that if I believe that
Jesus Christ was, he was a good man, that he was a preacher
and teacher and a prophet and came from God-do you mean to
tell me that I’m not saved?’ No, if that’s
all you’ve got, no you’re not. Because believing
in the fact of something is not New Testament belief. And
I think a lot of people are very deceived. You say, ‘But
listen, do you mean to tell me that if I sincerely believe,
I’m still lost?’ My friend, being sincere is fine,
but being sincerely wrong will not get you to heaven [into
the kingdom of heaven]. And you say, ‘Are you being critical
of my faith?’ No, I’m just saying, I want you to
understand what it really means Biblically “to believe.”
You see, if sincerity mattered, these verses of Scripture
would not be in the Bible. I can remember reading these Scriptures
as a kid and it sort of frightened me. Turn if you will to
Matthew chapter 7. People say ‘I don’t believe a
lot about the Bible, but I do believe in the Sermon on the
Mount.’ Well, you know what? You believe in the strictest
portion of the entire Word of God. And it’s interesting
to hear people say ‘I don’t believe in all of it,
but I believe it.’ Well you’d better
read those three chapters again. Listen to what he says in
these verses. I can remember as a kid reading these and thinking
‘Lord, could this possibly happen to me?’ Listen
to this, watch this. If sincerity would get you [into the
kingdom of] heaven, these verses wouldn’t be here. Listen
if you will. Beginning in the 7th chapter, and I want us to
begin reading in verse 21. “Not everyone who says to
me” Jesus speaking, “Lord, Lord, will enter into
the kingdom of heaven. But he who does the will of my Father
who is in heaven” (which is to believe in him, and he
says that clearly in another verse). “Many will say to
me on that day” (the day of judgment) “Lord, Lord,
did we not prophesy (teach) in your name? Cast out demons,
devils in your name? And in your name perform many miracles
and wondrous works?” Jesus says, “And then I will
declare unto them, ‘I never knew you, depart from me
you who practice lawlessness.’” My friend, if good
works would get you to heaven [into the kingdom of heaven],
that verse wouldn’t be in there. If just believing facts,
and believing and being sincere about what you do would get
you to heaven, that verse wouldn’t be in the Bible. He
says it’s not that, but those who do the will of my Father
and that the will of his Father is to believe in him-believe
in his name. Now when it says believe in his name, remember
we said to believe in his name means to believe in who he
is and what he is and all the Bible says about him, because
his name represents all that he is. And so sincerity just
absolutely will not get you to heaven no matter what. There
is a difference in intellectually affirming the truthfulness
of a fact or intellectually affirming of the truth of what
you say and placing your trust, your faith in Jesus Christ
as your savior-all the difference in the world.
Now the question comes, that is, what’s the cause of
this kind of deception that people live in? Well, I think
some people genuinely do not understand, they misunderstand
the Scripture when it says “believe.” They just
put that on the level of daily belief-‘Yes I believe
that piano is sitting there. Yes to believe I’ll be able
to get up and go to work tomorrow, yes I believe my car will
start when I put the key in the ignition. And so they put
all this kind of belief in the same category. My friend that’s
not what we’re talking about. And so they genuinely misunderstand.
A second reason is this. I believe that people purposely,
deliberately limit-listen-limit what they’re faith encompasses.
And so, here’s what they decide. ‘Here’s what
I believe. I believe there’s a God, I believe he’s
a good God, I believe one of these days when I die I’m
going to heaven just like anybody else because I think I’m
just as good as anybody else is, and therefore I believe in
God.’ And so, what do they do? They don’t want to
get into the Scriptures, they don’t want to get into
this thing about Jesus Christ and being born again. They deliberately
limit the quality and the degree and, listen, they limit the
stretch of their faith. They’re only gonna limit it to
what?-to their lifestyle. If I am expected
to believe something that interrupts my lifestyle, if I’m
expected to believe something that limits the way I want to
live, then my faith is limited to believing in God and in
Jesus, the kind of person I think he was and the kind of person
I think God is and therefore they misunderstand. It is a deliberate
misunderstanding. And my friend, listen, you’ll never
get to heaven [into the kingdom of heaven] if that’s
your idea of believing in Jesus Christ.
Then there are those people who have been misled. They go
to church, and I think this is so very important, that this
is why I am spending this time in this message, because oftentimes
children go to Sunday school, to Bible school, to vacation
Bible school, and often times in revivals things get hopped
up and heaped up, and the pressure’s on-“Just as
I am without one plea that thy blood was shed for me”-and
someone is calling “Come on to Jesus, come on to Jesus,
believe in Jesus” and often times the invitation is often
nebulous, the invitation is so far removed from a Scriptural
invitation that people walk down the aisle-and they’re
not sure what they’re supposed to believe-just believe
in Jesus. Well you know if I was sitting up there and somebody
said ‘If you just believe in Jesus and come on down here
and tell us you believe in Jesus and you’ll go to heaven
when you die’--I’d run down here if I was lost-if
that’s all it took. Because, you see, most of the time
the idea is you believe in him as a fact.
That is, believe in the fact that he was and is and so forth.
That will not do it. Oftentimes people are being misled. Now
I’m not saying somebody would deliberately mislead them,
I’m simply saying this, we have to be very careful. When
a child, for example, says, ‘I want to be saved’,
that we help that child understand what is meant by ‘being
saved’ and what it means to ‘believe in Jesus Christ’,
because any child’s gonna grow up with parents who love
the Lord and bring their children to church and say to them
‘Do you believe in Jesus?’ and they’ll say
‘Yeah I believe in Jesus, my mother believes in Jesus,
my father believes in Jesus, my pastor believes in Jesus,
I believe in Jesus.’ What does it mean to believe in
him according to Scripture? So oftentimes a person is misled.
And so they don’t really and truly understand what they
believe. Now, what’s the consequence, what are the consequences
of this? Well, let’s take, for example, let’s say
here’s a person who says ‘Yes, I do believe in Jesus’
and they do not understand what it means, and so their idea
is that they’re just believing in the “fact”.
Well, what kind of consequences is presently, that is, right
now in their life? Well, right now in their life they’re
not saved. In John chapter 12, listen to what he says. He
says a person who has not placed their trust in Jesus Christ
for their salvation, here’s what he says, in verse 46
of John 12. “I have come as light into the world, that
everyone who believes in me may not remain in darkness”,
which means that a person who’s never placed their trust
in Jesus Christ truly, that person is walking in darkness.
You say ‘You mean to tell me that if I don’t believe
just like you believe, I’m walking in darkness?’
No, that’s not the issue. The issue is, if you don’t
believe the way God teaches in his Word. It has nothing to
do with what I believe, necessarily, it’s simply, what
does the Bible teach? And all I want to do is explain to you
very clearly, unmistakably and certainly, very defensively
(if I needed to defend it), exactly what the Bible teaches
about believing in Jesus Christ-what it means to place your
faith in him for your salvation. Because the Bible certainly
teaches that the forgiveness of my sins is based on my faith
in Christ, that my salvation, being able to die and go to
heaven when I die is certainly based upon that. So for a person
who is deceived, there is a consequence. First of all, they
couldn’t be a very good testimony if they have never
placed their trust in Jesus Christ, genuinely. They may be
sincere-and say, what are they gonna do? [They’re gonna]
say, ‘Well here’s what I did, I just believed in
Jesus, and so I got saved.’ You may just believe in the
facts about him, and that did not save you.
Well, there’s a second thing I want you to notice. That
is, presently, what is the consequence? Now, what is the consequence
in a person’s personal life? Now what about the consequence
in their church life? Here’s what I’ve discovered.
Now I’ve been a pastor for over forty years and here’s
what I’ve discovered. That oftentimes people who have
never truly placed their faith in Jesus Christ, have never
truly been born-again, but who’ve believed all these
facts about the Bible and facts about Jesus and facts about
God, because that’s what they’ve been taught and
their parents taught and their friends believe and so forth-here’s
what happens-they come to church, they get in church, and
oftentimes conflict and disunity in the church can be traced
back to people who have never been saved but who claim to
have been saved [not to be confused with a Christian who may
start attending a local congregation, having come from another
denomination, and finding that he or she doesn’t totally
believe all the secondary doctrines of that new denomination
they’re attending-which can cause some doctrinal disunity
and disagreement. Another instance of this is being a part
of a denomination that just went through major secondary doctrinal
changes, which will oftentimes leave local members in many
positions of differing secondary doctrinal interpretation
throughout the congregation for years down the road-this happened
within the Worldwide Church of God, and we still struggle
with this condition. This form of disunity absolutely does
not point to a lack of conversion in the attending members,
so we must be very careful not to point fingers when such
situations exist.] Likewise, you’ll find that those people
are very hesitant to get involved in the work of the church
and the life of the church. What happens is, they end up being
spectators, they want to look on, because you see, ‘Don’t
try to get me too committed, because my faith has a limitation,
I’ve already said how much I’m gonna believe.’
‘I’m gonna believe in God and I’m gonna believe
in Jesus, but if you’re asking me to believe to the degree
that’s gonna govern my lifestyle and tell me how I’m
gonna live, no I’m not gonna do that.’ And so not
only are there points of dissention, but oftentimes they end
up being spectators and oftentimes when they do get involved
there seems to be conflict that surrounds that kind of person.
They’re trying to do a supernatural work in the supernatural
power of God, and they don’t have it on the inside of
them-because they’ve never placed their trust in Jesus
Christ for the forgiveness of their sins the way the Bible
requires that, and so they just believe, and things don’t
work, and they wonder why. And so likewise a person who comes
to church and they’re a part of that, here’s what
happens. Deep down inside of them things don’t seem to
click, and they listen to the gospel and they listen to the
message, and some things will maybe irritate them, or (they
say) ‘You don’t have to believe everything in the
Bible, you can believe part of it or some parts of it.’
What happens? That person is never quite satisfied. They hear
the invitation and oftentimes the invitation irritates them.
And what they don’t realize is the Spirit of God is trying
to say something to them. They say ‘I’ve already
believed, so it couldn’t be me-mustn’t be-give me
a couple of Bufferin or something’-because they don’t
want to deal with the issue the Spirit of God is trying to
convict them of to show them the truth. It is the truth, the
only thing Jesus said is the truth is what sets us free. And
so oftentimes what happens to that person, they don’t
understand why they get upset, they get confused about things-they
don’t understand why their expectations are never quite
there. Well, why? Because they have never genuinely been saved.
They believe some facts and have been very sincere about it,
but that sincerity is not enough. Now, that’s the present
result.
What about the future result? Here’s what happens. The
Bible says “It is appointed once to die and after that
the judgment.” We’re all going to die and stand
before our Lord and given an account. What are the two inevitable
consequences of a person who dies and who has never placed
their trust in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sin?
Two things are going to happen [according to many Christian
interpretations in the heaven/hell scenario, but not all are
in agreement, even to what hell is or who goes their. Happily
these doctrinal disagreements will vanish at Jesus Christ’s
return.]. Number one, shock, when they stand in the presence
of Almighty God the Lord Jesus Christ to give account for
their life-dying thinking ‘I believe in God, I believe
in Jesus, everything’s gonna be safe-stand in his presence
and recognize, no they never placed their trust in Jesus Christ,
they placed their trust in thoughts, they placed their trust
in themselves-they were good enough, they didn’t need
to believe in this new-birth business and putting your faith
in Jesus Christ so that it changes your life-shock! Secondly,
eternal separation. [Turn to the article on this Webster titled
“Battle Over Hell” to see all the differing views
Christians believe about the doctrine of hell. Sadly there
is no agreement or consensus of belief on this subject amongst
Christians.] Those two words, they sum up what happens when
a person stands in the judgment who has never placed his trust
in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of his or her sins. Shock,
#1, and separation, #2.
Now, so we have to ask ourselves the question, “Then
what does it mean to place your trust in Jesus Christ for
the forgiveness of your sin?-and have the Holy Spirit come
inside of you and live in your life.” What does it mean
to know in your heart that you are rightly related to him
in such a way that when you die, you can die singing “Amazing
grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me, I
once was lost, but now I’m found, was blind but now I
see” with absolute total perfect assurance? Somebody
says ‘Well can a person ever really truly be that assured?
Turn to 1 John, listen to what John says, he says, ‘This
is the reason that I’m writing this epistle to you’(to
those who were to be his readers). He says for example, verse
13 of 1 John chapter 5, he says “These things I have
written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God in
order that you may know that you have eternal life.”-very
important that we understand what believe means,
because our eternal life depends upon it. Listen to what he
said now. Verse 13, “These things”, all these things
that he’s written in these first five chapters, “These
things have I written unto you who believe in the name of
the Son of God, in order that you may know”-he
says-that you may know-“that you have eternal life.”
God wants us to place our trust in him for our salvation,
God wants us to know, he wants us to have absolutely unwavering,
unquestionable assurance that we have a relationship with
him, that absolutely cannot be tampered with by the devil
or anyone else. Absolute assurance, that is the will of God
for us. That being the case, then, we go back to what he said
in John chapter 3, verse 16. He says, “Whosoever”-listen-“whosoever
believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
Now, I want you to jot three things down. I’m gonna give
you three words, and you can jot them down on something, but
you need to keep these somewhere. Put them in the back of
your Bible somewhere. This is not the ultimate definition
I want to give you, but it’s a very important part. What
does it mean to believe in Jesus? Well, first of all, if I’m
gonna believe in something I’ve got to have some knowledge.
First word is knowledge. If I’m gonna
believe in something, believe what?-what
is this? Why is this? Where did it come from? What’s
is the origin of it? What am I to believe? First of all, if
I’m gonna place my faith in Jesus Christ as my personal
savior, I’ve got to believe something. What is it that
I am to believe? So, first of all there’s got to be knowledge.
There are some very basic things that are absolutely essential
for me to believe if I am going to be saved, if I’m going
to trust Christ as my savior, if I’m going to heaven
[to receive eternal life-a more accurate Scriptural term]
when I die.
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