My text this morning is found
in Romans chapter 10, if you would turn there with me. Romans chapter 10. As most of you know, the 10th
chapter of the book of Romans is very informative in describing
the difference between the righteousness of the law, our obedience, and the righteousness
of faith, Christ's obedience. In verse one, Paul affectionately
states, brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for
Israel is that they might be saved. And that's every believer's
affectional desire that those that they know and those that
they love, family, friends, even foe, might believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Those who are elected to life
in Christ shall be saved, but they'll be brought to repentance
and faith by the means that God himself has appointed. What is that means? Gospel preaching. That's it. Not by the wisdom
of the world, but by the wisdom of God. For after that, in the
wisdom of God, the world, by wisdom, knew not God. It pleased
God by the foolishness of preaching, what the world considers foolishness. The foolishness of preaching
to save them the belief. If you're ever gonna be saved,
you're gonna believe the gospel, the true gospel. of Christ and
Him crucified. That's why the Lord Jesus said,
go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned. Matthew
16, 15 and 16. Well, Brother David, now I know
you have to believe to be saved, but do you really have to be
baptized also to be saved? Well, the Lord said, he that
believeth and is baptized. Baptism is our public profession
of believing in Christ. It's stating to the church, the
world, that I identify with Christ, I died with him, I was buried
with him, I've been risen with him. It pictures just that very
thing. Well, what about the thief on
the cross? He would have been baptized.
I've told you that before. If he could have been baptized,
he would have been, but his hands and his feet were nailed to the
cross. No doubt in my mind that he would have been the first
one in the baptismal pool, the waters, had he been able. No doubt in my mind. The Jews
hated Paul and his gospel, and I've been preaching the gospel
long enough now that I do, that I too have experienced some of
the things that Paul did. I'm not comparing myself in any
way, shape, or form to him, but every gospel preacher has experienced
some of this. There are some who despise them
for the gospel that they preach. They reject the message of Christ
in him crucified. They hate the thought that salvation
is of the Lord. They don't mind the salvation
being of the Lord with a little bit of their help. But when you
say the salvation's of the Lord, period, and that's what follows
that statement in the scripture, we've said that many times, a
period, nothing to add to that. Salvation's of the Lord, period,
that upsets folks. Salvation of the Lord without
any participation from the sinner. And I'll be the first to confess
that it's often difficult to love and care about those that
hate you and the gospel that you preach. But Paul did. His
heart's desire and prayer to God was that God might save them. And our Lord said, but I say
unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do
good to them that hate you. and pray for them which despitefully
use you and persecute you. Paul expresses and displays his
deep love for them. May God enable us, friends, with
affection and fervency to pray for unbelievers, even those who
might hate us. Now in verses two and three,
Paul tells us what their problem, what the gospel was. He says,
for I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but it's
not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's
righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness
have not submitted. You see that? They've not submitted themselves
unto the righteousness of God. The Jews for whom Paul prayed,
well, they weren't atheist. They were just religious. They
had a zeal for the law of God and the ceremonies of the law,
but they were ignorant, and the word simply means unlearned and
untaught. I remember there was a young
man that attended here at one time, and he told his mother-in-law,
who was a believer, he said, he said, Mom, I'm not stupid. but I'm just ignorant of the
Scriptures." And I was impressed by that because he knew he was
unlearned and untaught, and he had an interest to be taught
and to learn. They were ignorant of God's righteousness.
They didn't know God the Father. They didn't know Christ the Son.
They didn't know the purpose of the law. They did not know
what the ceremonies pictured. Now I've told you time and time
again, and this is so, so very important, the law was not given
for us to keep in order to be saved. The law was given to show
us we couldn't keep it. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster
to teach us, to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by
faith, by believing, not by doing. But after the faith has come,
we're no longer under a schoolmaster. The schoolmaster has done its
job. The law has done its job. It's
taught us that there's none that doeth good. It's taught us that
there's none righteous, no, not one. It's taught us that we need
Christ. And that's what brings us to
Christ. The Jews were ignorant of the purpose of the schoolmaster. They were ignorant of the purity
and the holiness of God's law. They were ignorant of the strictness
of God's judgment. They went about to establish
their own righteousness. They were trying to merit acceptance
with God on the strength of their works, their deeds, and their
personal righteousness. I tried that for years. Many
of you did. Many folks today still are. You know what our personal righteousness
is? Filthy rags. Leper's napkins. Menstrual cloths. The true righteousness
of God is Jesus Christ. Our acceptance with God doesn't
have anything at all to do with us submitting or producing anything. Our works are not involved. Christ finished works what saved
us. Verse four, for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believes. I love that verse. I love that
verse. Christ is the end of the law
when it comes to the chosen sinner obtaining righteousness. That
simply means that Christ is the believer's righteousness. The law has done its job as our
schoolmaster. The law of God has no claim on
me if I'm in Christ. Now three things are suggested
in this verse. First, the embracing of Christ
for salvation means the end of the law is a method of justification. We abandon all hope in ourselves
and we look to Jesus Christ alone for our salvation. That's what
the law will do. That's what the law will teach
you. Secondly, the purpose of the law is to bring the sinner
to Christ, and it's accomplished. If you come to Christ, Christ
is the end of the law. And thirdly, the law contains
terms of life. Do this and don't do that. Isn't
that what Adam was under? Adam, you can eat of every tree
of this garden, but not this one. That one you can't eat of. You do this and you live. You
don't do this and you die. Christ is the end of those terms.
We're no longer under the law as a covenant or a curse. Christ
finished, fulfilled, accomplished, and satisfied all the terms of
the law for us. Well, if you ever truly see the
law and what it is and what it stands for, that'd be best news
you ever heard. You that desire to be under the
law, do you not hear what the law is saying? The law is saying
you've got to be perfect to be accepted, and you can't be perfect. Verse 5, For Moses describeth
the righteousness which is of the law, that the man which doeth
those things shall live by them. Now hear me out on this. The
righteousness of the law is accomplished by doing perfectly all that the
law requires, not only in deed, but in thought, in attitude,
in motive. What was your motive in doing
something? I hear men and women alike say
that their hope of salvation is doing the best they can do. No, the hope of salvation is
found in doing the best that God can do. Not doing the best
you can do, but doing the best God can do. God said, be ye holy
as I am holy. In order to be accepted of God,
we've got to be as perfect as He is. The self-righteous Pharisees,
oh, they took great pride in not being adulterers and murderers. You remember the Pharisee in
the temple, he prayed thus with himself, yeah, Father, I think
you ain't like other men. I'm not a adulterer, I'm not
an extortioner, I'm not a murderer, and I'm certainly not like that
publican that sits back there in the back. No, sir. He took great pride in not being
like him, but the Lord told them, you're guilty of both. The Lord told the Pharisees,
He said, you've heard it was said by them of old time, thou
shalt not kill, and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger
of the judgment. But I say unto you that whosoever
is angry with his brother without a cause is in danger of the judgment. You're just as guilty of murdering
someone as if you took a gun and shot them or a knife and
stabbed them. The Lord told them, well you've
heard it said of old time that thou should not commit adultery.
But I say unto you that whosoever looketh upon a woman to lust
after her hath committed adultery with her already where? In his
heart. Right here. Just as guilty. It's a hard matter. You cannot
personally obtain the righteousness of God by doing the best you
can do. You will always, always, always
come short of the glory of God. Always. I've always had difficulty understanding
verses six and seven here in Romans chapter 10. Let's read
them together. It says, but the righteousness which is of faith
speaketh on this wise, say not in thine heart who shall ascend
into heaven, that is, to bring Christ down from above, or who
shall descend into the deep, that is, to bring up Christ again
from the dead. Well, what does that mean, who
shall ascend into heaven? And what does it mean, who shall
descend into the deep? Well, this is what Paul is saying.
Paul is saying there's no need to say, who shall ascend into
heaven to bring the Messiah down? He's already come down. He's already performed the work
that he came to do. He's already finished our righteousness
and redemption. Paul says there's no need to
say, who shall descend into the deep to bring him up from the
grave? He already is risen from the
grave. He is our justification. He's at the right hand of God.
Ever making intercession for us. These things are finished. They're accomplished. The all-sufficient
Savior is to be believed and trusted. Now, are you going to
try to work your way knowing that you can't keep the law perfectly
as God requires? If you're guilty in one point,
you're guilty of the whole law? You hear what the law is saying? Christ is to be believed and
trusted. Look at verse eight. But what sayeth it? The word
is not thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart, that is the
word of faith which we preach. Paul is saying the righteousness
of faith is the gospel that we've preached to you. That's all you
need to hear and believe, to be saved. If you believe the
gospel, the word is in your mouth and in your heart. Verse nine,
that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and
shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from
the dead, thou shalt be saved. What is it to confess with our
mouths? Well, the Lord said out of abundance, of the heart to
mouth speaketh. It's to make a sincere confession
of the heart. It's to confess before man that
Jesus Christ is your Lord. It's to believe in your heart
that God raised Him from the dead. To believe that Christ
came to this earth as God in the flesh. To believe that He
died on the cross for the sins of His chosen people. We weren't
redeemed with corruptible things such as silver and gold. You
can have a boatload of gold. You're not going to buy salvation. It's corruptible. Not redeemed
with corruptible things such as silver and gold, but with
the precious blood of Christ as a lamb without blemish and
without spot. That's what Peter said. It's
to believe thirdly and confess that the sacrifice of Christ
was effectual. And it was sufficient for God
to raise the Lord Jesus from the dead. Verse 10, for with the heart
man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession
is made unto salvation. Now Paul is explaining the nature
of faith. It's not our mental assent. You
can sit all day long and go, I believe, I believe, I believe,
I believe, I believe, I believe. And not believe. It's not a doctrinal
position. Well, I believe the five points
of Calvinism. And you'd probably go to hell
if you don't see that Christ is the fulfillment of those five
points. It's a work of the heart. That's
what it is. It's believing with affection. It's being made willing
to trust in Christ and Him alone. To cast your soul upon Him for
everything that you need before God. It's being made willing
to trust Him. It's with understanding to rest
in Christ's finished work. That's what true faith is. Without
this faith, it's impossible to please God. You won't please
God without this faith. It's impossible to be saved without
this faith. Now, with all this said, we come
to the verse that I wanted to deal with. Here we've got 12
words that sum up how sinners are saved. 12 words that would
distinguish trusting in the law from trusting in Christ. Big,
big difference between. Big difference. First, our proof
of salvation is found in the scriptures. It's found in this
book right here. It's called God's Word. It's
called the Holy Bible, the Holy Scripture. Let's start with the
first four words of verse 11. These give proof of what Paul's
teaching concerning salvation by the law and salvation by grace
in Christ. For the scriptures say it. Religion today does not encourage
the use of scripture. Don't. The tendency today is
to diminish men and women's faith in the word of God. Well, you
don't have to bring your Bible. You don't have to read your Bible.
You don't have to dust it off and look at it. False religion
persuades folks to rest in and on something else. Church doctrine,
man's doctrine, anything but God's doctrine, anything but
God's word. I've had someone tell me more
than once, the Bible was written by men. You believe the Bible? Yeah,
I believe the Bible. The Bible was written by men.
They said men wrote the Bible. Listen, for the prophecy came
not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake
as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. God could use a worm to
record His Word if He choose. Matter of fact, He did. Man recorded
this, and man is a worm in the eyes of God. That's God's prerogative. All scripture is given by inspiration
of God and it's profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction,
for instruction in righteousness. That word inspiration means divinely
breathed. It means God breathed. God breathes
into his word, this book, the Bible, the same as he breathed
life into Adam's nostrils and he became a living soul. We talked
about the first hour, he formed Adam out of the dust of the ground,
God did that. Then he breathed into him the
breath of life. And that's when he became a living
soul, not until God breathed the words into his prophets and
they spoke and wrote of Christ in this book. That's what the
Old Testament is. God breathed, and beginning at
Moses, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, He expounded, and all
the prophets, every prophet in the Old Testament, He expounded
to them in all the scriptures the things, what? Concerning
Himself. It's about Him. Moses and the
prophets of old, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Nehemiah, Hosea, Amos,
Zechariah, and all of them, they all wrote and spoke what God
told them concerning Jesus Christ. God breathed. God breathed. The gospel is the word promised
before by God's prophets in the holy scriptures concerning His,
God's Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 1, 2, and 3. For the scripture sayeth. For
the scripture sayeth. What does the scripture say?
I had a man ask me not long ago if he could read our church's
articles of faith. And I told him the word of God
was our articles of faith. And he said, no, I wanna read
your church creed. I said, Jesus Christ is our church
creed. We don't have any man-made rules
or doctrines. No church creed, no articles
of faith, just the word of God. Just Jesus Christ, our Lord. Someone asked me one time if
I was a pre-millennialist or a post-millennialist. Now I can
barely say it. And which is, Melillus talks
about the thousand-year reign. Well, if Christ comes before
a thousand-year reign, or if he comes after a thousand-year
reign, what difference does it make? I mean, really, if I'm
not saved, I'll be in hell, so it won't matter. And if I am
saved, I'll be reigning with him. It's nothing more than just
being sidetracked from the real issue. What is the real issue?
What think ye of Christ? I'm not interested in what men
think, I'm really not. I'm not interested in what happens
in the millennial, with the exception of being with Christ. Someone asked Brother Winford
one time, they said, well, you know, kind of insinuated that, you
know, that not believing like them, that we make it to heaven,
but just barely by the skin of our teeth. And instead of having
a mansion on streets of gold, we'll have a little cabin back
on the backside. Brother Winford said, well, that'd
be all right. He says, Christ gonna be there.
Christ's gonna be in heaven, isn't he? And they said, yeah.
And he said, well, that's all that matters to me. Don't matter
if I got a mansion on streets of gold or a cabin in the back
pasture. Matter of fact, he probably would
have preferred the cabin in the back pasture, wouldn't he? I
would. As long as Christ is there, what difference does it make? I'm not interested in the millennial.
I'm only interested in Christ. The words, it is written, appear
65 times in the book of Romans alone. Isn't that something?
It is written. The words, thus saith the Lord,
appear 415 times in the scriptures. Why shouldn't it? This is what
the Lord says. What does God say about salvation? Verse 11, for the scripture sayeth,
and here it is, whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. Paul here is quoting Isaiah 28,
six. Listen closely to what it says.
I won't turn you over there. It says, therefore, thus saith
the Lord, behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation of stone, a
tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation. He that believeth shall not make
haste. Now the original text, Paul quotes
here and he says, he that believeth. or Isaiah said in the original
day, he that believeth, and Paul states it here is whosoever believes. I love that. This is the true
meaning. He that believeth means any he
that believes. Did you catch that? He that believeth
means any he or she that believes, whosoever. Whosoever he is, if
he believes, whosoever she is, if she believes, they shall not
make haste. We ought to take the promises
of Holy Scripture in the widest possible application. I don't
mean just make up things and add to what God says. Any promise
that's made to us by God Almighty, who can do anything and everything
should be interpreted in the widest sense. He can do anything
and everything. Now, any promise that is made
by man, we ought to take in the narrowest sense because we can
do nothing. And we usually exaggerate. Man
is fickle, unable, and in most cases unwilling, but not God.
God's thoughts are higher than our thoughts. God says something
and it's high, we say, well, it's even higher than that. We
can't even think as high as God. God's ways are higher than our
ways. Well, I could see that, but no, His ways are higher than
ours. You can think much higher than
that when it comes to God. God loves to see faith taking
Him at His word. He can do exceeding, abundantly
above what we could think or ask. He's God. Isaiah said, he that believeth
shall not make haste. That word making haste there
means being fluttered or alarmed. Makes it a little more understandable,
doesn't it? I used to think not make haste,
that means not get in a hurry. He that believes, trusts, and
rests in Christ shall not be fluttered, or alarmed, or concerned
about anything. Why are we? Paul pulls back the drapery,
so to speak, to let us see the expounding of the teaching of
the prophet Isaiah. Whosoever believes on Him, Christ,
shall not be ashamed. For this is what the Scripture
saith. And listen, we don't convince sinners with our own so-called
intellectual phrases. I don't care how many big words
you know. and how intellectual you may
sound, we use the words which the Holy Ghost teaches us. We
use Scripture. That's what we preach. For thus
saith the Scripture, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by man's
wisdom and intellectual... No. No. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing
by the Word of God. Secondly, the scriptures teach
us clearly that salvation is to believe on Christ. What must
I do to be saved? Believe. Believe. Verse 11 does not say, believe
on Him and you shall be saved, or believe Him and you shall
be saved. It doesn't say that. It says
believe on Him, on Him, on Him. One who believes on Christ believes
everything that the Lord Jesus taught. Faith that saves is not
just believing certain truths. Faith that saves is not believing
that Jesus is a Savior. Faith that saves is depending
on Him. It's believing He can save you. It's believing that He will save
you. It's laying all your weight and your hope upon Christ. It's
leaving the whole matter of salvation with Him in unquestioning confidence. He can do anything. He can save
a wretch like me. He can do everything. He can
save a wretch like you. Jesus Christ is the object of
this faith. It's believing on His person.
It's not just believing certain things about Him. God's Word doesn't say whosoever
believes the doctrines of grace shall be saved, does it? It says
whosoever believes on Him, on Him. The believer's faith is
mixed, is fixed, sees me upon the person of the Lord Jesus. It's not blind faith. Blind faith
never saved anybody. Well, I'm a man of faith, what
do you believe in? I don't know. Believe in something. Whosoever
believes on Him shall be saved. It's believing on a man who is
God. That takes faith to believe.
Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. It's to believe
and trust on him with full assurance. Now listen, the age, the length
of your faith doesn't have any bearing. It's the presence of
this trusting. Perhaps the one who trusts has
only believed in the last five minutes. He shall not be ashamed. The length of years we've believed
is not a factor in salvation. Believers are saved whether their
faith has been for a half a century or half an hour. Whosoever believes
on Him. You remember the parable about
the workers who started to work at the end of the day? They were
paid the same as those who started work the first thing that morning.
And again, note the soulless. the singular of the object of
faith. Whosoever believed on Him, not
Him and, He's the sole object of true faith. Nothing or no
one else is mentioned there. Whosoever believed on Him, on
Christ. Christ is the solid rock we sing.
Christ is the one foundation that we sing. We cannot rest
in part. Christ is the solid rock on which
we stand, right? Both feet must be on the rock
of ages. You got your feet on the rock
of ages? Thirdly, those who believe shall
not never. I know it's not good English,
but that's true. They shall not never be ashamed.
Those who trust in Christ are never driven into worry or hurry. They shall not be ashamed. They
will not be fluttered. He or she that quietly walks
with God and does not make haste through fear, if a man is on his deathbed and
is trusting in what he himself has done in order to be saved,
then in his death he'll be ashamed. I can assure you of that. He
will be ashamed that he followed his own judgment instead of God's
Word. For thus saith the Scripture.
The reason a believer is not ashamed is because his faith
is not in himself, but in Christ who cannot fail. I'm not ashamed of my hope. I'm
not. I love to state it. I love to
glory in it. I'm not glorying in myself because
my salvation is in Christ. I love to make it known to others. I love to tell folks about what
Christ has done for me. I'm not ashamed of Him who loved
me and gave Himself for me. The believer has no cause to
be ashamed. Don't you be ashamed of Christ.
To trust in a work of righteousness that you do, yes, you can be
ashamed of that. To trust in a work of righteousness
that you don't have when God's word is so plain that there's
none righteous, well, that's just absurd, isn't it? One who
trusts in absurdity will be ashamed. But there's nothing unreasonable
about God so loving His people that He gave His only begotten
Son that whosoever should believe in Him should not perish but
have everlasting life. If our faith is in Christ, it
can never be disproved. No one can disprove that Christ
came to earth. No one can disprove that He did
not die on a cross. No one can disprove His resurrection
or His ascension. There have been many who have
tried. Until someone can disprove that there was no Christ, until
someone can disprove that there's no propitiation for sin, the
child of God will never be ashamed to believe. Rest assured these
things will never be disproved. You know why? Because they're
true. They're true. How do I know they're
true? For the Scripture sayeth. It's written. Thus saith the
Lord. What's my proof? The Spirit,
God's Spirit, beareth witness with my spirit that we are the
children of God. Romans 8, 16. Okay, stay with me a little bit
longer. Fourth thing, lastly in our text,
we see a wide door for the seeker of Christ. In that word, whosoever. I've already touched on this
briefly, but I want to leave you with this blessed truth.
There's none who can not be saved if they so desire to be. Did
you hear me? There's none that cannot be saved
who want to be saved. Preacher, are you debunking now,
after all this time, election and predestination? Are you now
promoting free will? No? Not in the least. Whosoever will is whosoever God
wills. He has mercy on whom he'll have
mercy, but it's nonetheless true that God will have mercy on whosoever
truly wants mercy. Do you believe that? Mr. Spurgeon
once said, nothing limits this whosoever. Whosoever believeth
on Him, Christ, shall not be ashamed." The word ashamed means
to be guilty, sorry, abased of one's actions, characteristics,
and associations. How could one be ashamed when
they're found perfect? being perfectly conformed to
the image of Christ. Our Lord said, Him that cometh
to me, I will in no wise cast out. In no wise there means there's
no possible reason, no way, shape, or form. A term whosoever, well
it dismisses any distinction of rank, of name, class, or reputation. Whosoever! The rich man, he can
come from mercy. The poor man, he can come from
mercy. The white man, the black man, the poor, the rich, the
educated, the uneducated, whosoever. And on that day, the heavens and
earth shall melt with fervent heat. That day is coming. One day it's going to all be
burned up and nothing shall be seen but Christ upon His throne
of glory. Judging all the earth. And those
who have not believed on Christ, they're going to be ashamed.
They'll have no excuse to offer. None. They don't have an excuse
now. They definitely won't have an
excuse then. So what do you say to that, Brother David? I say,
come ye sinners poor and needy. Come to Christ before it's too
late. He never turned down one to come to Him for mercy and
grace. Not one of them. You can't find
it in the Scriptures. Not one time did someone come
to Him and say, Lord, have mercy on me, that He didn't give them
mercy. Seek the face of Him whose wrath
you cannot bear. Seek the face of Him who is plenteous
in mercy. That's a good word, plenteous.
He's got plenty to go around. But the scripture said, whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed.