Are You a Christian, or Just Born Again?
by Dr. James West
Dr. James West was the pastor of our home church, Faith Baptist Church in Osterburg, Pennsylvania, for 25 years. He graduated to glory in November of 2021.
“And when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.” (Acts 11:26)
The church at Antioch had a trademark. The people in the area started calling them “Christians.” They weren’t saying they were saved people. They were saying, “These people are acting like that Jesus Christ.” They were criticizing and degrading them, not giving them a compliment.
We need to get back to being Christians. I’m not talking about just being saved, but going farther than that, and being Christians. They were acting and talking and walking like Jesus. Others were mocking and making fun of them. Would to God that someone might accuse us. Wouldn’t it be something if somebody pointed at you and said, “That person’s a Christian.” Not just that he’s saved, but he acts like Christ.
You have to be saved to become a Christian, but not all saved people are Christians. Being a Christian is acting like Christ. We need some people to act like Christ again in our Independent Baptist churches.
Christ is our Blueprint. We ought to be a copy of that blueprint. People ought to look at us and say, “That man, or that lady, is acting just like Jesus.”
Have you ever had somebody come up to you and say, “Boy, I’ve been listening to you, and watching how you act. “You’re just like Jesus.” That doesn’t happen very often, does it? But how many of us have worked with somebody for many years, and all of a sudden we found out that they’re a saved person, and it shocked us. “You mean you’re saved?”
I was witnessing to a fella, and a guy that I knew was there. The man I was witnessing to looked at the other guy and asked, “Are you a Christian?”
The guy looked at him and said, “Yes, I am.”
I looked at him and I said, “No, you’re not.”
He said, “Oh, yes I am. I’m a Christian. I’m saved.”
I said, “I didn’t say you weren’t saved. I said you’re not a Christian. Your lifestyle is the exact opposite.” There’s more to being a real Christian than just being saved.
Let me ask you something. Are you just born again? I don’t mean that degradingly. I go soulwinning all the time. Thank God for people that get saved, but that’s just the beginning. We want to be like Him, to become like Christ. Does your light shine today? Jesus is the light of the world. I’m to let my light shine, to let people see Christ in me. That means I’m a Christian.
Are you a Christian, or are you just born again? Saved? Going to heaven? Sure. Thank God for that. But there’s more to it than that. God wants us to be like Him. Am I a copy of the blueprint of Christ?
Do you Love your Enemies like Christ loved His Enemies?
If I’m going to be like Christ I must love my enemies. The Bible says in Luke 6:27, “Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you.” You say, “Brother West, that’s awful hard.” Sure, it’s hard. It’s one of the hardest things to do, to love your enemies.
In Matthew 26, the Last Supper has taken place. Jesus has gone to the garden of Gethsemane and prayed. Judas has gone to Caiphas and the high priest and the Pharisees to betray Christ. Now look what it says in verse 47, “And while he yet spake, lo, Judas, one of the twelve, came, and with him a great multitude with swords and staves, from the chief priests and elders of the people. Now he that betrayed him gave them a sign, saying, Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is he: hold him fast.” Jesus knew that Judas was His enemy. Judas said, “I know what you’re going to do with Him. Take Him out and kill Him. Hold Him fast. Don’t let Him go.”
I wonder how Jesus will respond to Judas? Look what He says. “Forthwith he came to Jesus, and said, Hail, master; and kissed him.” I wonder what went through the heart of God? Jesus said unto him, “You’re My enemy.” No. “I hate you.” No. “I wish you were dead.” No. What did He say? “Friend...” Friend? Wait a minute, Lord. This man just betrayed You. This man just gave You over to the mob that will crucify You. What do you mean, “Friend”? Jesus said, “Friend, wherefore art thou come?”
Jesus knew exactly why he came -- to betray Him. But He still loved him. Was Judas His friend? No. But was Jesus Christ Judas’ friend? Sure He was. “Friend, wherefore art thou come?”
How do you treat your enemies? Do you do good to them? Do you love them? I know it’s hard. That’s why most saved people aren’t real Christians, because it’s hard to act like Christ. It’s easy to act like the world, but God has commanded us to be different. If I’m to be like Christ, then I must love my enemies.
When I was working at the Palmer House in Chicago, there was a security guard named Doren. This will be hard for you to believe, I know, but Doren hated me. I don’t know why, but I promise you, Doren made my life as miserable as he possibly could. I don’t know what I did to the man. Doren tried everything in the world to get me fired. If I did anything, and it didn’t even have to be wrong, Doren would run to the phone, call the manager, and have somebody come down. They’d say, “Jim, what’s going on?” I said, “I don’t know.” He hated me.
I’d like to stand here and tell you I loved Doren, but I didn’t. I wanted to whip Doren, to be honest with you. I even told him one time, “Doren, I’d like to whip you.” He wouldn’t even answer me. He’d just stare. I knew he was trying to take my job and hurt my family. But this verse kept coming back to my heart, “Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you.” I said, “Lord, I want to be different. I want to be a Christian.”
I went up to Doren and said, “Can I buy you a Coke?” I wasn’t going to spend a lot of money, but I offered to buy him a Coke. He wouldn’t answer. I said, “Doren, I’m going to buy you a Coke. It will be in there. If you don’t want it, fine. But I want to get you a Coke.” He’d never go in there and touch it.
Then I’d say, “Well, I’ll go over here and make some conversation.” Have you ever tried to make conversation with somebody that won’t even speak to you? I’d talk to him and he’d just look straight ahead. I thought, “Man, this guy is nuts.” But I made up my mind I was not going to be just a saved person. I wanted to act like Christ, and if Jesus could look at Judas and call him “Friend,” then how much more should I treat as a friend a man that hates me?
Booker T. Washington said, “No man is able to force me so low as to hate him.”
General Robert E. Lee, during the Civil War, had been summoned to the office of President Davis. Another officer was outside and overheard President Davis ask General Lee about still another officer. General Lee was giving high remarks and recommendation. This officer outside could not believe what he was hearing.
As General Lee left he said, “General, wait a minute. I am astounded at what I just heard you say. Do you realize that officer that you were giving the high remarks about is your bitterest enemy? He wastes no opportunity to verbally attack you.”
General Lee looked at him and said, “Yes, I know. But the President didn’t ask his opinion of me; he asked my opinion of him.” General Lee could have killed that man verbally before the President. He could have destroyed that man’s career, but he acted like a Christian. I would to God we’d rise up and start acting like Christ. God said, “Love your enemies.”
Do you Respond to Suffering like Christ Responded to Suffering?
I know people that are bitter because they went through some things in their life. Everybody knows someone like that. They’re hard because they didn’t respond like Christ would have responded. I know people that are very angry and depressed, that have gone through things they didn’t understand. I know people that have quit going to church and they blame God for what’s happened in their life, when they experienced suffering. All that could have been avoided if they would have responded like Christ responded to suffering.
How do you respond to affliction? First Peter 4:16 says, “If any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf.” I must find out how Christ responded to suffering. “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.” (Isaiah 53:3-7)
Jesus was despised, yet not angry. He was rejected, yet not a quitter. He was a man of sorrow, yet not bitter. He was afflicted and He opened not His mouth. He was smitten, and He did not fight back. He was wounded, bruised and oppressed, yet the Bible says that He didn’t even open His mouth.
How do you handle suffering and affliction when it comes your way? How do you handle trials and tribulations and temptations when they come? Do you murmur?
Can’t you see the children of Israel as they’re forty years in the desert? Everyday, murmuring against God. Can’t you see what other nations would have thought if they had heard them murmuring because they had to suffer a little?
What is it somebody says about you when you’re suffering? I know it’s hard. But I wish somebody would say, “I want to be a Christian. I’m going to respond to suffering just like Christ responded.” He was despised, rejected, wounded, and He never opened His mouth.
I know how I’ve responded in the past. I’m no super Christian. God knows it. But I want to be like Christ.
Do you Forgive like Christ Forgave?
“Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.” (Matthew 18:21,22) Even a lost, heathen man can forgive some. But it takes a Christian to have the attitude to forgive over and over and over again. Jesus said, “Not seven times, Peter, but 490 times.” He’s not just giving you a number, He’s saying that I’m to forgive over and over and over again. If I’m going to be a Christian like Christ, I have to have that attitude, and forgive like Christ forgave.
The word forgive means “to cancel out,” “to be done away with.” It means “as though it never happened at all.” In Luke 23:33-34, Jesus had been to Pilate’s Judgment Hall. He had been lied about, spat upon, beaten, mocked, and stripped of His clothes. It was not uncommon for a man’s intestines to be lying on the ground after a scourging. When they beat Him it wasn’t just a little bruise. His whole body became a bloody bruise.
The Bible says, “And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on the left. Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” What would you have to say to the men who just took the cat-o-nine-tails and scourged your body? What would you say to the men who just walked up and spit in your face and took their fists and beat you to a bloody pulp? If you’re going to act like Christ, you’d have to say, “Father, forgive them.”
Christ was in the middle because the worst criminal was to be in the middle. There He is, hanging on Calvary. He’s getting ready to speak. What would you say if you were hanging there? He had never sinned one time. He had never told a lie, yet they lied on Him. He never raised His fist to harm anybody. Yet they beat Him. I know what I would have said. “Father, kill ‘em. Kill Caiphas. Kill the Pharisees. Destroy them all.” But that’s not how Christ responded, is it? “Father, forgive them.”
Can’t you imagine what those around the cross must have thought? Or the man who drove the nails, who held the bloody hammer in his hand? “I wonder what He’s going to say.” “Father, forgive them.” Cancel it out, Father, as though it never happened. Do away with it. Those that beat Me, those that scourged Me, those that mocked Me, let it be as though it never happened at all.” They had to walk away and say, “That must have been Christ. That had to be Him. Nobody else could say that.” I wish we would rise up with that attitude and forgive.
There are marriages that will end in divorce because we will not forgive. I know a couple that was married for twenty-five years and raised a godly family. Something happened when they were first married and the wife would not forgive the husband. Every time they got into an argument she’d bring it up.
Finally, one day he said, “She’s not going to forgive me. That’s it.” He left and divorced her. What is it today in your marriage you need to forgive?
There are parents whose children have brought shame to you, and you’re not going to forgive them. You’re going to cause them to wreck and ruin their life worse than they already have, because you will not forgive. We need to get back to being Christians. There are people sitting in churches all across America that have grieved the Holy Spirit of God because they will not forgive. And you wonder why we don’t have revival. If Jesus Christ could hang on a cross and pray, “Father, forgive them,” how should we forgive?
Abraham Lincoln had been assassinated. That night they found out that the guard who was assigned to watch the door where the Lincolns were viewing the play was not at his post. Mrs. Lincoln summoned for the guard to come to her room. His name was Parker. Mrs. Lincoln said, “Parker, why weren’t you there where you were supposed to be, guarding the door?”
The guard looked at her and said, “Mrs. Lincoln, I’ve repented bitterly of what I’ve done tonight. I never dreamed that anybody would want to kill such a good man as our President. And I never dreamed they would do it in a public place. I was caught up in the play, and watching the show.”
Mrs. Lincoln threw herself back on her pillow and began to weep. She said, “Parker, I forgive you. But I will never forgive the man that assassinated my husband.”
The Lincoln boy Tad was underneath the desk in the room. He said, “Momma, I wish Papa was here tonight, because Papa would have forgiven even the man that shot him. My daddy forgives everybody.” He was saying, “My daddy acted like a Christian.”
What grudge do you have today? Who is it today you haven’t forgiven? Don’t you want to be like Christ? Are you just settling on being born again.
I must Love the Lost as Christ Loved the Lost
I cannot be like Christ and not have a burden for souls. I didn’t say you couldn’t be saved. I said you can’t be like Christ, be a real Christian, and not have a burden for the lost. Luke 19:10 says, “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” Matthew 9:13 says, “I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” Jesus came to win the lost to Christ.
When was the last time you told somebody about Christ? When was the last time you handed somebody a tract? When was the last time you warned somebody about Hell? Jesus Christ went around preaching the Gospel.
Do you win souls? Do you warn people about hell? If you don’t, you’re not a Christian. You’re not like Christ. Jesus Christ spent His whole life spreading the Good News. The Bible says in John chapter three that Jesus told Nicodemus. In John chapter four He told the Samaritan woman.
The disciples were not like Christ at that time. While Jesus was at the well the disciples were going back to the city as the woman was coming. They passed her by, and not one man stopped her and asked her about her eternal soul. I didn’t say they weren’t saved. I said they were not like Christ. Jesus was there, waiting for her to come.
When she got saved, she went back to the city and told the people about Christ. If you’re going to be like Christ, you have to warn people about Hell. If there’s not a Hell, then close the doors of the church. But if there is a Hell, then let’s go out and win souls, and warn everybody.
The problem is, we have a bunch of people that are saved, that aren’t Christians. Don’t get mad at me. I’m just telling you, if we’re going to be Christians, we have to act like Christ, and Christ went about warning people about Hell.
Paul was a Christian. He spent his life telling people the Gospel. John the Baptist was a Christian. He was winning people to Christ, then whenever he saw Jesus that day at the Jordan, he said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29) Let’s raise up a bunch of Christians that will go out and spread the Gospel. Peter spent his life preaching to the Jews about Christ.
Are you a Christian? To be like Christ I must love the lost, and to love the lost, I must tell them how to escape the torments of Hell. Is not Hell a torture chamber? Is it not where people will go and be tormented for eternity? Then I must do all I can to win people to Christ.
Once I met an 83 year old woman who had been to church all her life. I knocked on her door. “I’m from Faith Baptist Church. I just wanted to come by and get acquainted with you and find out if you have a home church that you go to.”
She said, “I sure do. I’ve been going to the same church since 1966. The Church of God down the street.” I said, “I’m glad you go to church. But there is something far more important than going to church, and that’s knowing for sure that if you were to die today you’d go to Heaven.”
That 83 year old woman looked at me and said, “I don’t know that for sure.”
I said, “Miss Ada, could I come in and share how you can know that for sure?”
I’ll never forget what she said: “I wish you would.”
I sat down with her on the couch and led her to Christ. “Miss Ada, if you had died yesterday, where would you have gone?”
She said, “I would have gone to Hell.”
I said, “If you died today, where would you go?”
She said,”I’d go to Heaven now.”
Yesterday a 22 year old young man accepted Christ as his Saviour. What you don’t know is that that 22 year old man was thrown out of a car fifty feet just two years ago. He broke his neck. They had to cut his head open. You can see the scars where they operated. Twice on the airlift to the hospital he died. I said, “Do you know for sure, if you died today, would you go to Heaven?”
He said, “I don’t know that.”
I didn’t even ask if I could come in. He said, “Would you please come in?” I sat on his couch and led him to Christ. He said, “That’s wonderful.” I’m not telling you I’m some good Christian. I’m just trying to be like Christ.
I looked at him and said, “Jeff, God salvaged your life and didn’t let you die so somebody could come by and give you the Gospel story. If you had died two years ago, Jeff, where would you have gone?”
He said, “I would have gone to Hell.”
“Jeff, where are you going now that you’ve accepted Christ?”
He said, “I’d go to Heaven, because I’ve accepted Christ as my Saviour.”
D.L. Moody said, “When I die, the only monument I want is a monument of two legs going around the world preaching the Gospel story.”
Let’s take the Gospel into every ghetto and tenement. Let’s take the Gospel into every middle class community. Let’s take the Word of God, the Gospel, the Good News that you don’t have to die and go to Hell to the rich and to the poor. Let’s start acting like Christians today, and not just born again.
Stop and think about it today. Are you a Christian, or are you just born again?
The church at Antioch had a trademark. The people in the area started calling them “Christians.” They weren’t saying they were saved people. They were saying, “These people are acting like that Jesus Christ.” They were criticizing and degrading them, not giving them a compliment.
We need to get back to being Christians. I’m not talking about just being saved, but going farther than that, and being Christians. They were acting and talking and walking like Jesus. Others were mocking and making fun of them. Would to God that someone might accuse us. Wouldn’t it be something if somebody pointed at you and said, “That person’s a Christian.” Not just that he’s saved, but he acts like Christ.
You have to be saved to become a Christian, but not all saved people are Christians. Being a Christian is acting like Christ. We need some people to act like Christ again in our Independent Baptist churches.
Christ is our Blueprint. We ought to be a copy of that blueprint. People ought to look at us and say, “That man, or that lady, is acting just like Jesus.”
Have you ever had somebody come up to you and say, “Boy, I’ve been listening to you, and watching how you act. “You’re just like Jesus.” That doesn’t happen very often, does it? But how many of us have worked with somebody for many years, and all of a sudden we found out that they’re a saved person, and it shocked us. “You mean you’re saved?”
I was witnessing to a fella, and a guy that I knew was there. The man I was witnessing to looked at the other guy and asked, “Are you a Christian?”
The guy looked at him and said, “Yes, I am.”
I looked at him and I said, “No, you’re not.”
He said, “Oh, yes I am. I’m a Christian. I’m saved.”
I said, “I didn’t say you weren’t saved. I said you’re not a Christian. Your lifestyle is the exact opposite.” There’s more to being a real Christian than just being saved.
Let me ask you something. Are you just born again? I don’t mean that degradingly. I go soulwinning all the time. Thank God for people that get saved, but that’s just the beginning. We want to be like Him, to become like Christ. Does your light shine today? Jesus is the light of the world. I’m to let my light shine, to let people see Christ in me. That means I’m a Christian.
Are you a Christian, or are you just born again? Saved? Going to heaven? Sure. Thank God for that. But there’s more to it than that. God wants us to be like Him. Am I a copy of the blueprint of Christ?
Do you Love your Enemies like Christ loved His Enemies?
If I’m going to be like Christ I must love my enemies. The Bible says in Luke 6:27, “Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you.” You say, “Brother West, that’s awful hard.” Sure, it’s hard. It’s one of the hardest things to do, to love your enemies.
In Matthew 26, the Last Supper has taken place. Jesus has gone to the garden of Gethsemane and prayed. Judas has gone to Caiphas and the high priest and the Pharisees to betray Christ. Now look what it says in verse 47, “And while he yet spake, lo, Judas, one of the twelve, came, and with him a great multitude with swords and staves, from the chief priests and elders of the people. Now he that betrayed him gave them a sign, saying, Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is he: hold him fast.” Jesus knew that Judas was His enemy. Judas said, “I know what you’re going to do with Him. Take Him out and kill Him. Hold Him fast. Don’t let Him go.”
I wonder how Jesus will respond to Judas? Look what He says. “Forthwith he came to Jesus, and said, Hail, master; and kissed him.” I wonder what went through the heart of God? Jesus said unto him, “You’re My enemy.” No. “I hate you.” No. “I wish you were dead.” No. What did He say? “Friend...” Friend? Wait a minute, Lord. This man just betrayed You. This man just gave You over to the mob that will crucify You. What do you mean, “Friend”? Jesus said, “Friend, wherefore art thou come?”
Jesus knew exactly why he came -- to betray Him. But He still loved him. Was Judas His friend? No. But was Jesus Christ Judas’ friend? Sure He was. “Friend, wherefore art thou come?”
How do you treat your enemies? Do you do good to them? Do you love them? I know it’s hard. That’s why most saved people aren’t real Christians, because it’s hard to act like Christ. It’s easy to act like the world, but God has commanded us to be different. If I’m to be like Christ, then I must love my enemies.
When I was working at the Palmer House in Chicago, there was a security guard named Doren. This will be hard for you to believe, I know, but Doren hated me. I don’t know why, but I promise you, Doren made my life as miserable as he possibly could. I don’t know what I did to the man. Doren tried everything in the world to get me fired. If I did anything, and it didn’t even have to be wrong, Doren would run to the phone, call the manager, and have somebody come down. They’d say, “Jim, what’s going on?” I said, “I don’t know.” He hated me.
I’d like to stand here and tell you I loved Doren, but I didn’t. I wanted to whip Doren, to be honest with you. I even told him one time, “Doren, I’d like to whip you.” He wouldn’t even answer me. He’d just stare. I knew he was trying to take my job and hurt my family. But this verse kept coming back to my heart, “Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you.” I said, “Lord, I want to be different. I want to be a Christian.”
I went up to Doren and said, “Can I buy you a Coke?” I wasn’t going to spend a lot of money, but I offered to buy him a Coke. He wouldn’t answer. I said, “Doren, I’m going to buy you a Coke. It will be in there. If you don’t want it, fine. But I want to get you a Coke.” He’d never go in there and touch it.
Then I’d say, “Well, I’ll go over here and make some conversation.” Have you ever tried to make conversation with somebody that won’t even speak to you? I’d talk to him and he’d just look straight ahead. I thought, “Man, this guy is nuts.” But I made up my mind I was not going to be just a saved person. I wanted to act like Christ, and if Jesus could look at Judas and call him “Friend,” then how much more should I treat as a friend a man that hates me?
Booker T. Washington said, “No man is able to force me so low as to hate him.”
General Robert E. Lee, during the Civil War, had been summoned to the office of President Davis. Another officer was outside and overheard President Davis ask General Lee about still another officer. General Lee was giving high remarks and recommendation. This officer outside could not believe what he was hearing.
As General Lee left he said, “General, wait a minute. I am astounded at what I just heard you say. Do you realize that officer that you were giving the high remarks about is your bitterest enemy? He wastes no opportunity to verbally attack you.”
General Lee looked at him and said, “Yes, I know. But the President didn’t ask his opinion of me; he asked my opinion of him.” General Lee could have killed that man verbally before the President. He could have destroyed that man’s career, but he acted like a Christian. I would to God we’d rise up and start acting like Christ. God said, “Love your enemies.”
Do you Respond to Suffering like Christ Responded to Suffering?
I know people that are bitter because they went through some things in their life. Everybody knows someone like that. They’re hard because they didn’t respond like Christ would have responded. I know people that are very angry and depressed, that have gone through things they didn’t understand. I know people that have quit going to church and they blame God for what’s happened in their life, when they experienced suffering. All that could have been avoided if they would have responded like Christ responded to suffering.
How do you respond to affliction? First Peter 4:16 says, “If any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf.” I must find out how Christ responded to suffering. “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.” (Isaiah 53:3-7)
Jesus was despised, yet not angry. He was rejected, yet not a quitter. He was a man of sorrow, yet not bitter. He was afflicted and He opened not His mouth. He was smitten, and He did not fight back. He was wounded, bruised and oppressed, yet the Bible says that He didn’t even open His mouth.
How do you handle suffering and affliction when it comes your way? How do you handle trials and tribulations and temptations when they come? Do you murmur?
Can’t you see the children of Israel as they’re forty years in the desert? Everyday, murmuring against God. Can’t you see what other nations would have thought if they had heard them murmuring because they had to suffer a little?
What is it somebody says about you when you’re suffering? I know it’s hard. But I wish somebody would say, “I want to be a Christian. I’m going to respond to suffering just like Christ responded.” He was despised, rejected, wounded, and He never opened His mouth.
I know how I’ve responded in the past. I’m no super Christian. God knows it. But I want to be like Christ.
Do you Forgive like Christ Forgave?
“Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.” (Matthew 18:21,22) Even a lost, heathen man can forgive some. But it takes a Christian to have the attitude to forgive over and over and over again. Jesus said, “Not seven times, Peter, but 490 times.” He’s not just giving you a number, He’s saying that I’m to forgive over and over and over again. If I’m going to be a Christian like Christ, I have to have that attitude, and forgive like Christ forgave.
The word forgive means “to cancel out,” “to be done away with.” It means “as though it never happened at all.” In Luke 23:33-34, Jesus had been to Pilate’s Judgment Hall. He had been lied about, spat upon, beaten, mocked, and stripped of His clothes. It was not uncommon for a man’s intestines to be lying on the ground after a scourging. When they beat Him it wasn’t just a little bruise. His whole body became a bloody bruise.
The Bible says, “And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on the left. Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” What would you have to say to the men who just took the cat-o-nine-tails and scourged your body? What would you say to the men who just walked up and spit in your face and took their fists and beat you to a bloody pulp? If you’re going to act like Christ, you’d have to say, “Father, forgive them.”
Christ was in the middle because the worst criminal was to be in the middle. There He is, hanging on Calvary. He’s getting ready to speak. What would you say if you were hanging there? He had never sinned one time. He had never told a lie, yet they lied on Him. He never raised His fist to harm anybody. Yet they beat Him. I know what I would have said. “Father, kill ‘em. Kill Caiphas. Kill the Pharisees. Destroy them all.” But that’s not how Christ responded, is it? “Father, forgive them.”
Can’t you imagine what those around the cross must have thought? Or the man who drove the nails, who held the bloody hammer in his hand? “I wonder what He’s going to say.” “Father, forgive them.” Cancel it out, Father, as though it never happened. Do away with it. Those that beat Me, those that scourged Me, those that mocked Me, let it be as though it never happened at all.” They had to walk away and say, “That must have been Christ. That had to be Him. Nobody else could say that.” I wish we would rise up with that attitude and forgive.
There are marriages that will end in divorce because we will not forgive. I know a couple that was married for twenty-five years and raised a godly family. Something happened when they were first married and the wife would not forgive the husband. Every time they got into an argument she’d bring it up.
Finally, one day he said, “She’s not going to forgive me. That’s it.” He left and divorced her. What is it today in your marriage you need to forgive?
There are parents whose children have brought shame to you, and you’re not going to forgive them. You’re going to cause them to wreck and ruin their life worse than they already have, because you will not forgive. We need to get back to being Christians. There are people sitting in churches all across America that have grieved the Holy Spirit of God because they will not forgive. And you wonder why we don’t have revival. If Jesus Christ could hang on a cross and pray, “Father, forgive them,” how should we forgive?
Abraham Lincoln had been assassinated. That night they found out that the guard who was assigned to watch the door where the Lincolns were viewing the play was not at his post. Mrs. Lincoln summoned for the guard to come to her room. His name was Parker. Mrs. Lincoln said, “Parker, why weren’t you there where you were supposed to be, guarding the door?”
The guard looked at her and said, “Mrs. Lincoln, I’ve repented bitterly of what I’ve done tonight. I never dreamed that anybody would want to kill such a good man as our President. And I never dreamed they would do it in a public place. I was caught up in the play, and watching the show.”
Mrs. Lincoln threw herself back on her pillow and began to weep. She said, “Parker, I forgive you. But I will never forgive the man that assassinated my husband.”
The Lincoln boy Tad was underneath the desk in the room. He said, “Momma, I wish Papa was here tonight, because Papa would have forgiven even the man that shot him. My daddy forgives everybody.” He was saying, “My daddy acted like a Christian.”
What grudge do you have today? Who is it today you haven’t forgiven? Don’t you want to be like Christ? Are you just settling on being born again.
I must Love the Lost as Christ Loved the Lost
I cannot be like Christ and not have a burden for souls. I didn’t say you couldn’t be saved. I said you can’t be like Christ, be a real Christian, and not have a burden for the lost. Luke 19:10 says, “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” Matthew 9:13 says, “I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” Jesus came to win the lost to Christ.
When was the last time you told somebody about Christ? When was the last time you handed somebody a tract? When was the last time you warned somebody about Hell? Jesus Christ went around preaching the Gospel.
Do you win souls? Do you warn people about hell? If you don’t, you’re not a Christian. You’re not like Christ. Jesus Christ spent His whole life spreading the Good News. The Bible says in John chapter three that Jesus told Nicodemus. In John chapter four He told the Samaritan woman.
The disciples were not like Christ at that time. While Jesus was at the well the disciples were going back to the city as the woman was coming. They passed her by, and not one man stopped her and asked her about her eternal soul. I didn’t say they weren’t saved. I said they were not like Christ. Jesus was there, waiting for her to come.
When she got saved, she went back to the city and told the people about Christ. If you’re going to be like Christ, you have to warn people about Hell. If there’s not a Hell, then close the doors of the church. But if there is a Hell, then let’s go out and win souls, and warn everybody.
The problem is, we have a bunch of people that are saved, that aren’t Christians. Don’t get mad at me. I’m just telling you, if we’re going to be Christians, we have to act like Christ, and Christ went about warning people about Hell.
Paul was a Christian. He spent his life telling people the Gospel. John the Baptist was a Christian. He was winning people to Christ, then whenever he saw Jesus that day at the Jordan, he said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29) Let’s raise up a bunch of Christians that will go out and spread the Gospel. Peter spent his life preaching to the Jews about Christ.
Are you a Christian? To be like Christ I must love the lost, and to love the lost, I must tell them how to escape the torments of Hell. Is not Hell a torture chamber? Is it not where people will go and be tormented for eternity? Then I must do all I can to win people to Christ.
Once I met an 83 year old woman who had been to church all her life. I knocked on her door. “I’m from Faith Baptist Church. I just wanted to come by and get acquainted with you and find out if you have a home church that you go to.”
She said, “I sure do. I’ve been going to the same church since 1966. The Church of God down the street.” I said, “I’m glad you go to church. But there is something far more important than going to church, and that’s knowing for sure that if you were to die today you’d go to Heaven.”
That 83 year old woman looked at me and said, “I don’t know that for sure.”
I said, “Miss Ada, could I come in and share how you can know that for sure?”
I’ll never forget what she said: “I wish you would.”
I sat down with her on the couch and led her to Christ. “Miss Ada, if you had died yesterday, where would you have gone?”
She said, “I would have gone to Hell.”
I said, “If you died today, where would you go?”
She said,”I’d go to Heaven now.”
Yesterday a 22 year old young man accepted Christ as his Saviour. What you don’t know is that that 22 year old man was thrown out of a car fifty feet just two years ago. He broke his neck. They had to cut his head open. You can see the scars where they operated. Twice on the airlift to the hospital he died. I said, “Do you know for sure, if you died today, would you go to Heaven?”
He said, “I don’t know that.”
I didn’t even ask if I could come in. He said, “Would you please come in?” I sat on his couch and led him to Christ. He said, “That’s wonderful.” I’m not telling you I’m some good Christian. I’m just trying to be like Christ.
I looked at him and said, “Jeff, God salvaged your life and didn’t let you die so somebody could come by and give you the Gospel story. If you had died two years ago, Jeff, where would you have gone?”
He said, “I would have gone to Hell.”
“Jeff, where are you going now that you’ve accepted Christ?”
He said, “I’d go to Heaven, because I’ve accepted Christ as my Saviour.”
D.L. Moody said, “When I die, the only monument I want is a monument of two legs going around the world preaching the Gospel story.”
Let’s take the Gospel into every ghetto and tenement. Let’s take the Gospel into every middle class community. Let’s take the Word of God, the Gospel, the Good News that you don’t have to die and go to Hell to the rich and to the poor. Let’s start acting like Christians today, and not just born again.
Stop and think about it today. Are you a Christian, or are you just born again?
