Let me ask you to turn there
to Romans 10. I want you to read one verse
of Scripture with me. Romans 10, verse 10. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness. And with the mouth, confession
is made unto salvation. With the heart, man believeth. When the Scriptures speak of
the heart, what does it mean? It means the nature, the desire,
the will, the affections. It means the innermost being,
everything that you are. The natural heart is stone. Harder than a rock. It's just stone. He's not speaking here of that
heart. That heart's the product of Adam. That heart is the product of
your first birth. That nature, that desire, that
willingness is for nothing, nothing that has anything whatsoever
to do with the truth of God. And it may want to have a lot
to do with religion, They want to have a lot to do with these
scriptures. They want to have a lot to do
with the law of God. They want a lot to do with church,
and with outward forms, and with rules, and with regulations,
and with all sorts of things that sound godly. But that man born from your mother
the first time, that person born from your mother the first time,
your innermost being is to have absolutely nothing at all to
do with truth. Not at all. The heart that believes
unto righteousness is a whole new being, a whole new creation,
a whole new willingness, an entire new nature, an entire new affection,
an entire new desire, an entire new man created by God. Go over to Ezekiel 36, verse
26. Ezekiel 36, verse 26. The Lord says, a new heart. Ezekiel
36, verse 26. A new heart also will I give
you. And a new spirit will I put within
you. And I will take away the stony
heart out of your flesh. And I will give you a heart of
flesh. A heart different from that stone
heart. Not of your flesh, but a heart
that's Teachable and desirous to know God and longs after God
and no to know true God truth and he says and I will put my
spirit within you and Cause you to walk in my statutes and you
shall keep my judgments and do them Now this is the heart that
Paul's talking about that believes God With the heart man believeth. This is the heart which is born
of God. This is that new man in whom
God imparts his gift of faith so that you can believe. This is not that which was born
the first time. Not at all. That which is born
of the flesh is flesh. And that which is born of the
Spirit, the Holy Spirit, God the Holy Spirit, is spirit. Do you find yourself believing
God? Do you find yourself longing
after the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you find yourself delighting
when you hear the gospel preached. Do you find yourself wanting
to know? Strangely, you want to know more
about Christ. You want to know more about who
God is and how God saves. There's an interest there now.
Do you have that? Is there a delight and a rejoicing
there that wasn't there before? You know. You know. The Lord said, when the spirit
of truth is come, he will guide you into all truth. Paul said, we've received not
the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God.
That spirit we just read about that He said, I'll give you.
That we might know the things that are freely, freely given
to us of God. Alright, look there at verse
10 again. For with the heart, and we know
what this is, we're talking about something that is entirely new,
entirely the creation of God the Holy Spirit. For that, for
with the heart, man believeth unto righteousness. The man believes. God doesn't believe for you.
He doesn't believe for me. Nobody else is going to believe
for you. But this man that God creates, that God gives desire
after Him, believes. Can't do anything else. Why is it that the cow in the
green field will walk right by a dead carcass and just eat grass
and eat grass and eat grass. And the buzzard will hop right
over the green grass and go right to the dead carcass and just
eat and eat the dead carcass. The buzzard has absolutely no
desire to eat grass and can't make himself eat it. And the
cow has absolutely no desire to eat a dead carcass and can't
make himself eat it. That's what they are. That's
how God made them. Now if God makes this man in
you, we're talking about, you're going to believe And you can't
do anything but believe. That man that we're talking about,
that God creates within you, he's not going to do anything
to the old man. He's going to leave him like
he is. He's going to create a new man.
Now that old man is going to be brought into subjection. He's going to be brought into
constraint. But it's the new man that believeth. It's solely to the glory and
praise of God alone that you'll believe. And you'll say, I cannot
not believe. He that's born of God doth not
sin. He cannot stop believing on God. He can't. Because he's born of
God. And the incorruptible seed of
God, that Spirit God has given him, is in him. And he can't
stop believing God. He can't stop trusting the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now, look at it again. For with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness. Faith is not righteousness. Faith is not righteousness. Faith is believing unto righteousness. Faith is not righteousness. Faith is believing unto righteousness. Christ is the believer's righteousness. Faith is the gift whereby we
renounce any righteousness in ourselves. And now, we believe, freely receive,
freely given to us, Christ Jesus, who is all our righteousness. We believe unto righteousness. Scripture says, Abraham was strong
in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully persuaded that
what he had promised, he was able also to perform. What had
God promised Abraham? He promised him that he was coming
through his lineage in a body in flesh and blood. He said,
I'm going to give you a seed, Abraham. And in that seed, all
your children are going to be saved from their sins. All the
true children are going to be saved from their sins. And Abraham
believed he was able to do what he said he was able to do. What
did Abraham believe? He was going up the mountain
with Isaac and he said going up there because God said take
Isaac up there He said now this is the boy that that promised
seeds coming through Now you take him up to the mount. I tell you to and you kill him
offer him to me for a burnt offering and Moses got everything together
and he started up that mountain and his son said, Father, we
got wood, we got fire, but we don't have a lamb. What are we
going to do? We don't have a lamb for a burnt
offering. And Abel said, My son, God will
provide Himself a lamb. That's what God told him when
he promised him that Christ was coming. God said, I'm going to
provide myself, the Son of God, as a lamb, without spot and without
blemish, and he's gonna die. And he's gonna die, and he's
gonna pay everything you owe me, Abraham. And not only that,
he's gonna be the full, complete, Holy obedience that you owe me
Abraham and Abraham said I believe God's able to do what he promised
he's able to do And they went up that mountain and he bound
Isaac They got all the way to the top of the mountain Still
didn't see anything no lamb and Not with the eye, but he saw
him by faith. He took the boy and he laid him
down on the altar, and Isaac permitted himself to be laid
down on that altar. Still, look around, don't see
a lamb. They saw him by faith. Isaac allowed him to draw back
that knife, and Abraham drew back that knife. Still don't
see a lamb, but they saw him by faith. And all of a sudden God stopped
him and there was a lamb, a ram, physically a ram with his eyes. He saw him and he was caught
in a thicket in a thornbriar. And God said, now stop. I know
that you believe I'm able to perform what I promised you.
And it, it, The righteousness of Christ Jesus, that Lamb, was
imputed to Him for righteousness. Abraham believed God. He believed Him. Was Abraham
born of this Spirit? Yes. The Lord said, except a
man be born of the Spirit, he can't believe. Without faith,
it's impossible to please God. Faith's the gift of God, and
that's not of yourselves. It's the grace of God that gives
it. He was fully persuaded that what
God had promised, he was able to perform, and therefore, He
believed unto righteousness. The righteousness of Christ was
charged to Abraham. That's what faith does. We freely
receive the gift that God's given. He says here in verse 10, For
with the heart man believeth unto righteousness. And there's
something else that happens. You know you can believe something and nobody else know it. But the Lord says, the man that
believes, or Paul says, the man that believes unto righteousness,
he says, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. What's righteousness? What's salvation? Whatever righteousness is, Paul's
putting it right here in the same category with salvation. Righteousness is everything you
need. All you need. All that's required. And the man who has Christ for
his righteousness will confess Christ is his righteousness with
his mouth unto salvation. The confession's
not salvation, but he's confessing Christ is all my salvation. He's all my salvation. Those who believe in the heart,
this heart God gives, this heart God gives, this new man God gives,
believes Christ to be all his righteousness in that inward
secret man of the heart. And you know what that man does?
He confesses with his mouth that Christ is all his salvation. Those who believe in the heart
Openly plainly now. Here's the key. Here's the key
with certainty with certainty confess that Christ is all I
need End of story all I need period all I need Nothing else
at it All I need, He's all my salvation. And He knows that
certainly. And will confess it certainly.
Now, verse 11 says, For the Scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on
Him shall not be ashamed. The word in the Old Testament
is, He won't be confounded. He won't be hasty. He won't be confused. He won't
object. He won't be hasty to shut it. He'll know and He'll be certain.
He'll be planted. He won't be confused. He won't
be confounded about it. He has a certain, sure understanding
that Christ is everything. Christ is all. It's not yea and
nay. It's not, well, but I'm going
to do this just in case. It's not, it's yes and amen. All the promises of God, everything
that God has promised, He is able to perform. And He has performed
them. And He has performed them in
God the Son who came down and who perfectly, absolutely fulfilled
everything that was written. All the law bears witness that
He is righteous. Just the ceremonial law? No,
the moral law too. Everything moral law ceremonial
law everything that's written was written of him to declare
his righteousness and to declare me to have absolutely none And everything that was written
in the prophets he absolutely fulfilled himself and he is without
a doubt the end of the law. He is my righteousness. He is my sanctification. Paul said over in Galatians chapter
2, he said, now let me, before we go there, let me look here
at Romans 10. Romans 10. Look back up there
in context. I want you to see what Paul's
been speaking about, writing about. He says there in verse
1, My heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they
might be saved. He said, I bear them record.
They have a zeal of God. They do. They're zealous. They
memorize scripture. They were moral. They were in
the synagogue. They were trying to do everything
the Lord said do. And they thought they were doing
everything the Lord said to. The Lord said, you're bringing
everything down to a level of man. Everything. And you're ignorant
of God's righteousness. You're ignorant of what God demands,
what God requires. Ignorant that God will not settle
for less than what He demands. They have a zeal of God, but
not according to knowledge, for they being ignorant of God's
righteousness. This was the problem. It was
ignorance of God's righteousness. Paul, how could you say that? Don't judge. Paul, how could
you say they're ignorant of God's righteousness? Because they're
going about to establish their own righteousness. Surely a man wouldn't tell another
man. If this righteousness is talking
about Christ dying under the penalty of sin and justifying
us, if that's what this is meaning, surely they wouldn't be going
about telling somebody, you need to die under the penalty of sin
so you can justify God. That wasn't what they were telling
folks. They were saying, There's something
you can do to be right with God. There's something you can do
to merit a right standing, a right relationship, a communion with
God. Over in Galatians. Let's go over
there now. Galatians chapter 2. Nobody in
our day is telling anybody. Everybody will tell you Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness. Justification. And He is. He has satisfied the justice
of God absolutely and completely. But that's not what men are telling
people. You come under this free justification
and now you go right back and let us now start putting you
under all our A, B, C, D, things that you have to do. And it's
just the fact, brethren, that you have to be watched and kept
an eye on and coddled this way and coddled that way and you
have to be pulled and you have to be coerced. That by itself,
that's what we're talking about here. The believer does not have
to do that. The believer wants to follow
God. He wants to serve his Lord. He wants to serve Christ. He
wants to walk honorably before the Lord. But he does not have
to be told by anybody to do it because he wants to do it. His
Lord is telling him in his heart to do it and he wants to do it.
He wants to hear Christ declared. He wants to hear God's glory
set forth in the face of Christ Jesus. He wants to Be with the
Lord's people! He wants to walk after Him and
rejoice after Him because when He hears the glorious good news
of the Gospel, it is what thrills His soul and feeds that appetite
and feeds that desire and He believes and He's grown and He's
nourished in the inner man and He's refreshed and revived in
His Lord and He follows His Lord. And he can tell you just in an
instant when you start trying to feed that one who's alive
an old dead carcass. He just don't have a taste for
it anymore. He tasted the sincere milk of
the Word and he does not have a taste for garbage anymore.
He used to just want to eat that and glory in somebody else and
what he got them to do and what others saw him get other people
to do. And now he's got glory in himself
alone. That is, the Spirit of God's
in him. And he's in communion with God
and he's following his Lord. He walks with him in the way. He doesn't have to set a time
to make himself pray. He doesn't have to set out of
a place to make himself go into a specific area to pray. He's
walking along praying with his God constantly in constant fellowship
and communion with his Lord. Does he have times that he goes?
Yes. You don't have to make him do it. He's doing it because
it's his lifeblood. He's got to. Paul said this, If I build again
the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. For I through the law am dead
to the law that I might live unto God. What's law? It's just the Ten Commandments.
It's whatever you think you're going to do that's going to commend
you to God. It's whatever you do that you
think is going to make God receive you and accept you other than
Christ Jesus the Lord alone. That's the law. I don't care if it's one denomination
over another denomination, or if you think it's some particular
thing you did years and years ago, or if you think it's something
you did today. It doesn't matter. Paul said,
through the law I'm dead to the law that I might live unto God. I'm crucified with Christ, verse
Galatians 2.20, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ
liveth in me in the life which I now live in the flesh. I live
by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself
for me. And I don't frustrate the grace
of God. Why? Because if righteousness come
by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. Now look here with me
at verse 10. Well, Clay, don't you think,
though, that we should tell people they've got to observe the Sabbath? There's nothing more important
than to meet with the Lord's people on the Lord's Day and
hear the gospel of your blessed Redeemer. But if the grace of
God don't make you want to do it, me telling you you've got
to observe a day sure ain't going to make you want to do it. You
might show up then, but you're going further away from God,
and if you If anything, for as many as are of the works of the
law are under the curse. Can you hear that? For it's written,
cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written
in the book of the law to do them, but that no man is justified
by the law in the sight of God. It's evident for the just shall
live by faith and the law is not of faith. It's not a fact. Well, you don't
think a man should commit murder, do you? Well, no, the law says
you should. But I don't think if you've never
committed murder, that's going to give you any room with God
whatsoever. You might not be in a baddest
depth of hell as Charles Manson, but you'll be there with him
if you think you're going to come to God because you didn't
commit murder. Well, there, see, he's talking
about justification. He said, the just shall live
by faith. Well, back up there in verse 3, Galatians 3. He says,
Are you so foolish, having begun in the Spirit? Are you now made
perfect by the flesh? They were just telling them to
add something in addition to Christ. That's all. Just add
something in addition to Christ. And Paul says now, back in verse
10, chapter 10 of Romans, Paul says, This is the problem. They're going about to establish
their own righteousness. Exactly how much does a man have
to do to be going about to establish his own righteousness? Anything other than Christ alone. That's all. And he's going about
to establish his own righteousness. And they've not submitted themselves
unto the righteousness of God. For Christ, Christ, is the end
of the lawful righteousness to everyone that believeth. When you come to the end of the
law, there's Christ. And you're walking with Him from
then on. I tell you a good illustration,
I used that illustration out of Romans 7 this morning about
what Paul gave there about the law, being dead to the law and
married to another. When you ladies walk an aisle,
you walked an aisle when you got married, did you do that?
Yes, sir. When you started walking that
aisle, you belonged to your father. When you got to the end of it,
and were married, you belonged to your husband. And you left your father. And
you was married to that husband. And you two became one. You come
to the end of the law. If God brings you to the end
of the law, and you meet Christ, You leave the law behind. You
leave your works behind. You leave your merits behind. You leave your self-justification,
your self-sanctification. You leave your yoking. You leave
your... You leave it all. And you trust
Christ. For Christ is the end of the
law, for righteousness for everyone that believes. Now watch again.
For Moses described it, the righteousness which is of the law. The man
which doeth those things shall live by them. If it's going to
be by works, all by works. If it's going to be by grace,
all by grace. They can't be mixed. They're
mutually exclusive of one another. If it's works, it's not grace.
If it's grace, it's not works. Can't be a mixture. Can't be
a mixture. Now, here's what I'm wanting
to get to. Here's what he's talking about. He said, whosoever, he
says, now everything he said with the heart, that's in total
distinction, total opposite of doing, hands, body, physical,
all these things. The heart. The heart. The heart
in here. And the mouth. Righteousness
and salvation. It's here. It's the heart. It's
a new man believing God, confessing Christ is everything. And he
says, and the one that does that, the one that has this new man,
he believeth with the heart, man believeth unto righteousness,
and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the
Scripture says, whosoever believeth, that is, whoever God has called
and given faith, and they really believe, whosoever they are,
God says, he shall not be confounded. He won't be confused about this
thing. He'll have it down. Now, you're
going to have this. You're going to know this. The
Spirit's going to guide you into this truth. You're going to know
this. And Paul, that's what he's about to tell us because here's
what the law says. Verse 6. The law of faith. The righteousness which is of
faith speaketh on this wise. Say not in thine heart. Don't even entertain this thought
in your heart. This is the righteousness of
the faith. Say, not in that heart. Who shall ascend into heaven?
That is, who's going to bring Christ down from above? Faith
believes in the heart and confesses with the mouth, Christ is God,
the Son of God. He has come down already. He has come down and He has fulfilled
all righteousness. He has come down and He has perfected
forever all them that are sanctified by Him. He has come down. He has paid all that I owed. And He did it on a cross when
He died and when He was buried. I died and I was buried. Faith
says that. Faith doesn't say, Oh, who's
going to, when's He going to come down and do this for me?
Faith says He's already come and He's done it. It's done.
It is finished. That's what faith says. It's
not yes or maybe. It is done. It's done. Well, what else does faith say?
Verse 7. Or, who shall descend into the
deep? That is, who will bring up Christ
again from the dead? Faith doesn't say, well, I know
He died, I don't know. Faith says, I know
He died and I know He was buried, but I know He came out of that
grave because He satisfied God and God the Father raised Him
because He made complete and Absolute total satisfaction and
the fact that there is an empty tomb where the body of Christ
was laid is a Glaring declaration of all my hope and all my salvation
that he was raised again for my justification I don't have
a maybe about it. I know I God came down, the Son
of God. He lived, He died, He paid my
debt, He was buried, and He has risen. And I'm not saying, well,
what's going to happen? Who's going to bring God down
to me? Or who's going to bring Him up from the dead? It's done. With all certainty, salvation
has been wrought for me. given this new nature by Him,
given faith to believe Him, and He's all my salvation. Not trying to add a thing to
it. Not looking for a reward because of anything I've done
as far as this world calls rewards. Well, the reward I'm looking
for is the crown of life with my Lord. Everlasting life with
my Lord. Uninterrupted communion where
I don't have to... Paul and I don't have to say,
answer these objections that we know is going to come up.
Because it's just communion with Him. But what does it say? What does
it say? Verse 8. What saith the law of
faith? The Word is nigh thee, even in
thy mouth and in thy heart. That's where He said it is. And
it's in the heart, it's in the mouth. What you hear me saying
right now, I'm saying because it's in my heart. It's the new
man God's made. And salvation's in me. It's here. Christ is in me. And I'm in Him. And listen now,
that is the word of faith which we preach. This is what I'm saying
to you, this is what I'm preaching. That if thou shalt confess with
the mouth the Lord Jesus. What does it say? If you shall
preach that Christ, if you shall believe Christ has come in the
flesh. That's what I'm saying. If you believe with all certainty
He's come in the flesh, He's satisfied judgment, He's satisfied
eternal righteousness, He's brought in an everlasting righteousness,
He's made me perfect with God, He's gone into the grave, He's
risen again, and He's seated with God. If you know He's come
down, and shalt believe in thy heart that God hath raised Him
from the dead, Not just the fact that he's come and he raised
again, but what he accomplished by it. What he accomplished. The end of everything that held
me captive and kept me from God. He accomplished it. And now I'm
right with God. This minute, right with Him. You see, it's a certainty that
Paul's talking about. For with the heart, not with
the hands, not with anything, with the heart that God's made. Man believeth by the faith God's
given unto righteousness. He's persuaded that what God's
promised he's able to perform. Has and is and shall. And with
the mouth he says, this is all my salvation. Christ is all my
salvation. For How do you know that's the
way it's going to be? Because the scripture says. That's
how God says it's going to be. Whosoever believeth on him shall
not be ashamed. He won't be confounded. He won't
be confused. He might not be able to tell
you what all the final terms that men
give everything, but he knows this. He knows this. Christ is
everything. And I don't have to add another
thing. If I had to add one more thing,
there would have been no need for Christ to come. And what
Christ did when he came is all in vain if I got to add one more
thing. He knows it. He knows it. Turn
over to 2 Timothy chapter 1 and we'll end with this. They went
on their way. I want to tell you a few stories
as you turn over there. They were going along, Philip
and that Ethiopian eunuch. He'd been preaching Christ to
him out of Acts. They were going along there and he said, what hinders me from
being baptized? Just out of the blue. Yeah, wouldn't
that be something? You're just sitting there preaching
to somebody, going along with them in a chariot, and they don't
ask you. They don't say, well, but now
what about, what hinders me from going into a, being immersed
in a watery grave and confessing that I died with that Lord? And
I've been saved by Him, and He's all my salvation. What hinders
me from doing that? And Philip said, if you believe
He's the Son of God, If you believe, if you're persuaded that He's
the Son of God that came down, accomplished salvation, and is
risen to the Father, and you don't have a thing else to add,
you can. He said, I believe. Philip said,
stop the horses right here. And he went down there and baptized
Him. Right there. Why? Isn't there something else
that needs to be added? Don't He need to be, have a little
time? No. He believes. He believes. That blind man that
they cast out of the synagogue, they said, you can't be a part
of us. You can't have anything to do
with us. Don't you know it's not lawful to do anything on
the Sabbath day? And the Lord came to him and
He said, do you believe on the Son of God? Just what Paul said
here. It was certainty. Do you believe
He's come? He said, who is it, Lord, that I might believe on
Him? And He said, He's standing here talking to you. He said,
Lord, I believe. And he bowed down and worshipped
Him. That thief on the cross was sitting there hanging on
the cross. And that one thief was railing on Christ and railing
on Christ. And that other thief, he was hanging there. He went
up on that cross, an old, dead, depraved, hell-deserving sinner. And sitting there with his hands
nailed to a cross and his feet nailed to a cross, Life entered
into him from the life hanging on the cross between him and
that other thief. And life gave him faith. And he looked with life and with
faith at that one hanging right there between them. And he said
to that other thief with his mouth from that man made brand
new, he said, we're getting exactly what we deserve. This man hadn't
done anything wrong. He said, Lord Jesus. Remember me when you come into
your kingdom. And the Lord said, you're going
to be with me a day in paradise. We're going right now. We're
going right now. Ain't nothing else to be done.
Nothing else to be done. Here's what Timothy said, he
that believes not ashamed, he's not confused about anything.
You know what all Paul suffered? He suffered. He suffered. He
suffered. I mean suffered. Here's what
he said. 2 Timothy 1, verse 7. He said, God hath not
given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and
of a sound mind. That's that new man. Be not thou
therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord. Don't be confused
about it, Timothy. Don't be hasty. Don't be shy
away or anything. Nor of me his prisoner, but be
thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the
power of God, who hath saved us. He has done it, he said. And called us with a holy calling. not according to our works, but
according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us
in Christ Jesus before the world began, but is now made manifest
by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who hath abolished
death and hath brought life and immortality to light through
the Gospel." That's exactly what he was talking about over there,
about that certainty, about what he's done. This is confessing
Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. Confessing that He's risen
from the dead. Not just the fact that He did
that, what He accomplished by it. He hath saved us, given us
before the foundation of the world, but now made manifest
by the appearing of our Savior. He's abolished death, He's brought
life and immortality to light through the Gospel, whereunto
I am appointed a preacher, and an apostle, and a teacher of
the Gentiles, for the which cause? Because I stand up and preach
this. I also suffer these things." Everything he suffered, this
is why he suffered. He's preached it with certainty.
Nevertheless, I'm not ashamed. I'm not confounded. I'm not confused. I'm not drawing back. I'm not
wavering between two opinions about this thing. I know whom
I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that
which I have committed unto him against that day. And he says,
Timothy, hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast heard
of me in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. For with
the heart Man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth
confession is made unto salvation. Whosoever believeth on him shall
not be ashamed, for it is written, whosoever believeth on him will
not be ashamed. And that goes for Jew and Greek,
rich and poor, male and female. It doesn't matter who you are.
Doesn't matter if you've been sitting in church all your life
or ain't never, this is the first time you ever heard the gospel
preached. If you've heard Him, you believe Him, delight in Him,
and you trust that there's nothing else to be added, confess Him. And you will. And you will. And
everyone that Christ accomplished that work for shall do just that. Everyone of them. Amen.