May it please Almighty God to
bless us together this morning as we meditate in His Word. Let
us turn to the Epistle of Paul to the Romans, chapter 10, and
we'll read verses 8 and 9. The Epistle of Paul to the Romans,
chapter 10, and reading verses 8 and 9. But what saith it? the word is
nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart, that is the
word of faith which we preach. 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. the Apostle Paul had a great
concern for the salvation of souls. And surely this should
be the concern of every one of us, not only those who preach
the gospel, but every one of us should be concerned about
souls being saved. Saved from the wrath to come. Because if we just ponder for
a moment the enormity, the terribleness of a lost soul. Surely it should produce in our
hearts a real concern that souls might be saved. Therefore, as
we read in this first verse, the apostles desire from his
heart and prayer to God was that Israel might be saved. And he acknowledges that there
was in ancient Israel an outward position. He says, for I bear
them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to
knowledge. A zeal to God, but not according
to knowledge. And we see today around us many
who are false worshippers. They have what we might speak
of as a zeal of God, but it's not a true zeal and it's not
according to knowledge. And that really is the vital
thing that we are blessed with a true knowledge. knowledge of
God. And the Apostle goes on to tell
us, for they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going
about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted
themselves unto the righteousness of God." Well, what a statement
that is and how true it is for everyone to be found in this
condition of submission to Almighty God. Here it is spelt out, because
there are those who go about to establish their own righteousness. Some people don't really appreciate
what they're doing. They think that they're serving
the Lord in this way and that way, and really what they're
doing is just trying to establish what they're doing is good and
right, and therefore earning them commendation from God. Well,
of course, our works, our fleshly works, will never give us any
commendation to God. Now our works, indeed, as the
Apostle tells us really, all our righteousnesses are as filthy
rags. They're not of any value at all. And it's good that that is so
because it means that we are therefore dependent upon the
righteousness of another. And that righteousness is only
found in the Lord Jesus Christ. And what a wonderful truth it
is to realise that we do have such a great saviour who is righteous,
who always has been, who always will be. And what he's done,
he's kept the holy law of God which you and I could not keep
because of our fallen nature, because of our sinful nature.
We could not keep the law of God. and therefore we are guilty
before God, we are condemned. before God. We are sinners before
God. And because of that we deserve
eternity in hell. We cannot ever think that we
deserve eternity in glory. But because of our sin, we're
not able to cleanse us, we're not able to rid ourselves of
our sin. But it's there. And we are utterly
impotent to do anything to redeem ourselves. And so we need to
be redeemed. We need to have our sins taken
away. We need to be blessed with a
righteousness which is not of our own making. Well, where is
the provision of these things? It is only in the blessed work
and finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Apostle tells
us very simply, but very significantly, for Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. So it comes down
to this, doesn't it? Without believing, we have no
righteousness. What a blessing then if God has
given you and me living faith, to believe the truth of God,
to believe in the work of the Holy Spirit, to believe in the
finished work of the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, and therefore
to have received that faith to believe the gospel. Faith to believe the gospel as
we read the word of faith. The word of faith is really the
gospel. and how wonderful it is when
the Holy Spirit comes upon us and gives us that faith to believe
the great truths of the Gospel, so that we rejoice indeed in
what it declares to us, rejoice in what the Lord Jesus Christ
has done. And we're told the righteousness
which is of faith speaketh on this wise, And here the Apostle
lays before us, first of all, a negative, which is, say not
in thine heart who shall ascend into heaven, that is to bring
Christ down from the above, or who shall descend into the deep,
that is to bring up Christ again from the dead. We're told we
are not. not to say or believe those things
in our heart. Say not in thine heart. And we may perhaps be looking
at those kind of situations, but we are not to look there.
We are to look beyond that. And so the apostle then asks
the question, but what saith it? What does it say? Well, this
is what it tells us. The word The gospel, the word,
the word of God is neither even in thy mouth and in thy heart. That is the word of faith which
we preach that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord
Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God has raised him
from the dead thou shalt be saved. Now remember the Apostle desired
that Israel might be saved. This was his great prayer and
his great concern and surely that should be our great concern
and prayer that those we meet with and those we think of might
be saved. And so here we have this description
given to us here in these words that the word is neither even
in thy mouth and in thy heart. It means it doesn't just stick
in our brains, it is a theory. It does go there, but it comes
down into our heart. It's the effect that the word,
that the work of the Holy Spirit has upon our heart which is deep
within us, which doesn't leave us, which is the effect of God's
work, which abides with us and truly does us real and eternal
good. And so we should recognise that
the true work of the Spirit of God is not something which is
just superficial, which can be picked up and put down when it's
convenient. The work of the Spirit of God
is effectual. It is a gracious work. It's a
blessed work. It does produce a change in our
lives. It does turn us from dead works. It turns us from death to life. It turns us towards the great
and glorious Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ as the only way
of salvation. Well, may we meditate upon the
great need there is of this work, this effect, of this faith in
our hearts. And there will therefore then
be the outworking of it. The work of God is not something
which is just done within our hearts and no one knows about
it. You may say, well, why isn't
that? I'll tell you why that is. Very clearly, very clearly
throughout the word of God, our lives are for the honor and glory
of God. Very clearly. And the apostle
in this chapter tells us the need there is to therefore speak
of these great truths speak of those things which God has done
for us now we have our great adversary the adversary of our
souls who would always shut our mouth that is his great aim and
he's pretty successful isn't he? he's pretty successful as
you and I go about in the Christian world he's pretty successful
at shutting the mouth of true believers But here the Apostle
directs us in this way, and tells us, that if thou shalt confess
with thy mouth. He doesn't say, look, if you
just make the right signs, if you just live a good life, and
if you just walk with your feet the right way, that will be enough.
It's not. We might perhaps be tempted to
think it is. But the Word of God here spells it out to us.
that we have to confess with our mouth. What do we confess?
What are we to confess? We're to confess the Lord Jesus. And what will that mean? That
will mean confessing that we have no hope in ourselves to
procure salvation by our works. It will mean that all our hope
is upon and in what the Lord Jesus Christ has done, his finished
work. And so the word surely here is
very clear, is it not? That if thou shalt confess with
thy mouth the Lord Jesus. Well, what a blessing if that
is the evidence of the work of God, if that's the evidence that
God has given us faith to believe, were able by his grace, and it
is by his grace, to come and to confess with our mouth the
Lord Jesus. What a blessing that is, to come. And the true Church of God, those
in whose heart is the work of the Spirit, will desire to do
this. They desire to do it because they desire that the name of
their Saviour is honoured and glorified. They want Him to be
exalted because of His wonderful mercy in loving their soul and
not casting them off as they so richly deserve. We all deserve,
don't we, to be cast off, to be cast out, to think. The Lord has been gracious and
hasn't dealt with us as our sins deserve. His compassions fail
not, as Jeremiah tells us. How true it is. What compassion
the Saviour has to you and to me in saving our souls, hard-hearted,
rebellious, rebellious, rebellious thou hast been and art rebellious
still but since in love I took the end my promise I'll fulfill
and that promise is of course to redeem our souls and so is
it not a mercy if we have been rebellious perhaps if we are
rebellious the hymn writer obviously understood that in his own heart
He knew what it was to be rebellious and Matthew and I know what it's
been to be rebellious. And what we really said is this.
We will not have this man to reign over us. We're not going
to bow down. We're not going to obey this
God. We're going to do our own thing. We're going to do it in
our time. We're going to acknowledge the
Lord when we want to. Well, but 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. Is not the inference, clearly
there, that if these things are not worked out in our lives,
we will not be saved? I really came to this subject
today when I was thinking about somebody that I've known who
has been an outward worshipper of God. All her life. And yet, there's no real evidence
of the work of grace in her soul. No real work of grace at all. She can talk the things of God. That's not sufficient. That's
not sufficient. She's been a regular attender. in the house of God. That is
not sufficient. The word of God is so clear and
you and I don't want to be deceived, do we, in our life. We don't
want to think that we're on the right road when in actual fact
the devil is just pushing us along in a dead form, a form
where there's no spiritual life. We do need to have the evidence
in our hearts that we are saved, saved from our sins, delivered
from the wrath to come. It's a frightful consideration
and to have our hope and to have our trust firmly fixed upon the
work of the Lord Jesus Christ and therefore to possess the
life of God within and not to be found that we're lacking. Can't be sure of nothing worse,
can there? You and I come down to die, which we all will, every
one of us. It's a one certain thing in our
life, isn't it? You and I must die, must die. Must give up our life, give up
this body. It won't live forever. And then
you know how necessary it is to have the evidence of the work
of the Spirit of God which is within us. And the Lord tells
us, it's recorded by Luke in his Gospel, and when he was demanded
of the Pharisees when the kingdom of God should come, he answered
them and said, the kingdom of God cometh not with observation. And he's speaking here about
the spiritual kingdom. Neither shall they say, Lo here,
or Lo there, for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you." Well, that's important, isn't
it? And wonderful if we have the
evidence, therefore, of the kingdom of God within us, which is the
kingdom of light. It's not the kingdom of darkness.
It's the kingdom of light. the kingdom of light shines through
the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. The evidence of him, of his grace
and favour to us is the evidence of light within. And so what
a a blessing it would be if you and I are found therefore in
that condition and that position, that the Kingdom of God, the
life of God is indeed within us, within our heart, thereby
the work of the blessed Spirit of God. You know the God's servant
Jeremiah had some hard things to say and things to speak and
things to observe but it's very wonderful to know that God wonderfully
blessed his ministry and especially as we're able to read the words
that he was able to write and in the 31st chapter we read these
words Behold the days come saith the Lord that I will make a new
covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah,
not according to the covenant I made with their fathers in
the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the
land of Egypt, which my covenant may break, although I wasn't
husband unto them, saith the Lord, but this shall be the covenant
that I will make with the house of Israel. After those days saith
the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write
it in their hearts, and will be their God, and they shall
be my people. And they shall teach no more
every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know
the Lord, for they shall all know me. From the least of them
unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord, for I will forgive
their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more. Well, how needful that is for
all of us today. How needful it is for all those
who are saved from themselves to enter in to the experience
of this. The hymn writer has it when he
said, something must be known and felt. The two go together,
knowledge and feeling. They're not separated. They go
together. There's the knowledge of the great truth of God revealed
to us by the Spirit. And it has, therefore, an effect
upon us. Something must be known and felt. So in our little lives it would
be a great blessing if we can before God thank him for his
work, the work of grace in our hearts and we can confirm that
there was something which was known and is known and was felt
and is felt the blessed evidence of the wonderful work of God. You see, he says, in their inward
parts, in their inward parts. You may remember that the God's
servant David in the 51st Psalm, he speaks about that, in the
inward parts. Yes, to know the effect of the
work of God in our inward parts, what a mercy it is if that is
so. So here we have then this statement. The Word, the Gospel, the Truth
of God is even in our mouth and in our heart. It's combined,
it's there. The Work of God must be in our
heart and the outward effect of that is to speak forth to
His praise that which is done for our souls. The Word of God
encourages us to come And hear all ye that fear God, and I will
declare what he hath done for my soul." Oh, the church, we've
got to love to hear what God has done. How confirming it is
to know that God's work is continuing. It hasn't ceased. And we're thankful
to believe it won't cease until the end of time. But then, when
that last soul is converted, the last soul is blessed. Time
will be no more. No need for time anymore. Because
God's work will have been completed. And what a favour if you and
I are amongst those who are blessed with the work of the Spirit within
our heart. And that is of course the great
revelation of the Gospel. Well, is the Gospel good news
to us today? Is it that which we'd love to
hear about? Do we love to hear about the Lord Jesus Christ?
Is it music in our ears when we hear of what Jesus has done? Can we say with a hymn writer
how sweet the name of Jesus sounds? And who does it affect? In a
believer's ear. You see, the name of Jesus won't
be sweet to the unbeliever. It won't be sweet to the unbeliever.
Because there won't be any need of the Savior. But bless God,
it has been that gracious effect. So the Lord is precious. And
then we can come, we can say, How sweet the name of Jesus sounds
in a believer's ear. As we hear the name of Jesus
spoken of, not in a blasphemous way, of course, but in a right
way, amongst the true Church of God, does our heart rejoice?
Do we love to hear? Do we love to speak about the
name of Jesus? Well, here we have this truth,
and in thy heart, that is, the word of faith which we preach. Yes, and it's through the foolishness
of preaching the Lord has ordained this to occur. And that's why
we should never despise the preaching of the gospel. And the apostle
goes on to explain this. He says, whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved. It's a wonderful gospel
word that, isn't it? And how encouraging it must be
to those who feel themselves lost, with no hope. Here's an
encouraging word, whosoever, doesn't matter how bad we are,
whosoever shall call, that means to pray unto God. Whosoever shall pray unto God,
Call upon his name, shall be saved. And the apostle then explains
what that means, and it's important that we do have an understanding
of what that means. How then shall they call on him
in whom they have not believed? Well there's no point is there,
in calling upon someone to save us, if they have no ability to
do so. We can think of it in a natural
way. If we were drowning, there would be no point in calling
upon someone to save us who we realised had no ability to do
that. We would need to call upon somebody
who could come and who could save us. And we would have, therefore,
to believe that they could. Same truth here. How then? So they called on him. in whom
they have not believed. We cannot call truthfully, we
cannot call effectually on someone that we have not believed. So we need the work of the Spirit
of God to give us faith, to believe that when we come to God, we
are believing that he will hear and he will answer. And how shall
they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall
they hear without a preacher? This is the ordained way of God,
through the preaching of the Word. And how shall they preach,
except they be sent? That means sent by the Spirit
of God. It's not somebody just standing up and thinking they
can proclaim the Word of God. Those who are sent to proclaim
the great truths of God are blessed with that unction from on high.
The blessed Spirit of God attends the Word with power, so it enters
into the heart of the believers. And the Lord has ordained, through
the foolishness of preaching, this shall occur. And how shall
they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, how beautiful
are the feet of them which preach the gospel of peace and bring
tidings of good things. So what a mercy if there are
those who are sent to preach the gospel and the word comes
to us where we are. And then the Apostle reminds
us, but they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah said,
Lord, who hath believed our report. How many people today do not
believe the truth of God's word? How many people today have sat
under the sound of faithful preachers and have not heard the true report? Have not heard it with spiritual
ears? They've heard it with natural
ears perhaps many, many times and it has not entered in. What
a tragedy. How terrible, how solemn. Oh, you and I may search and
to seek and to have the evidence that God's Word has entered in
to our heart. It's not just passed us by. It's not just tickled our fancy. It's not just had some vague
effect upon our mind. are just our natural understanding,
but it's come and touched our hearts. And so, as Isaiah said,
who hath believed our report? Well, Paul tells us, so then,
he brings it to a conclusion really. So then, faith, God given
faith, cometh by hearing. and hearing by the Word of God. So may we have ears to hear. Remember when the Apostle John
was on the Isle of Patmos and had those letters to write to
the seven churches, when he had spoken those words, he said this,
those that have ears to hear, let them hear, all that we may
have. Ears to hear. Spiritual ears. Not natural ears. We've all got
natural ears. I know some people are naturally deaf, but anyway,
most of us have natural ears to hear. But we're all deaf until
the Holy Spirit grants that enlivening. We're all spiritually deaf. And
so what a blessing if God has given us ears to hear. Spiritual
ears to hear, faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word
of God. But I say, have they not heard? Yes. Verily, their sound went
into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the earth.
But I say, did not Israel know? First Moses said, I will provoke
you to jealousy by them that are no people, and by a foolish
nation I will Anger you well, it's a good thing. You know if
we've been spiritually jealous of Those who have heard the Word
of God Have been given live in faith And we seem to be out of
the secret It's a good thing if the Holy Spirit gives us a
holy jealousy to desire and to pray earnestly and that we may
have the blessings of God given to us, so that we do have something
to speak about in a spiritual way, confessing the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And 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. And it's very wonderful to see
the phraseology that the Spirit of God uses. That we are to believe
in our heart that God hath raised him, that's the Lord Jesus, from
the dead. What does that mean? That means
that therefore Jesus died. He wouldn't have been raised
from the dead unless he died. And he died therefore to atone
for our sins. He died that sin atoning death
on Calvary's cross and in that appointed way that God had ordained
that Christ Jesus should come into this world to save sinners
by his sin atoning death. And so to believe that the Lord
Jesus Christ was raised from the dead. That surely was the
culminating evidence that this was God's work. There was the
evidence of the empty tomb. And again, it's good for us to
realise that the Lord in his wonderful mercy didn't just allow
one person to witness the empty tomb. There were a number of
people that came and witnessed the empty tomb. And we have therefore
all their testimonies that Christ rose from the dead. How encouraging
for us therefore to have the truth of God's Word which speaks
to us in the way to encourage us that we have a risen Saviour. One who has conquered sin, death,
hell and the grave. And that Saviour today is seated
on the right hand of the Majesty on high in glory. Not a dead
Saviour, but one who is alive forevermore. My friends today,
that's the Saviour. That's the God that God's people
worship. That's the one who we adore. That's the one who we Desire
to come to in prayer and seek for the evidence that he has
saved us with everlasting salvation and if then we've had that confirmation Sometimes we may think that we
need some wonderful amazing revelation the Lord doesn't promise us that
at all and What we are promised is a very simple statement, that
our hearts, like Lydia's, might be opened to receive the Word
of God. What did she do? She believed
on the Son of God. Her heart was opened. There was no great earthquake,
there was no amazing lightning, but nonetheless it was the blessed
work of the Spirit of God So my friends, if your heart and
my heart has been opened by that Spirit to receive, oh the Word
of God, thank God for it, bless God for it, has given you and
me faith to believe. A very simple, nonetheless a
very mighty, a very wonderful work in our soul, so that we
have being brought from darkness into the marvellous light of
the everlasting Gospel and to the Church of God, to the living
Church of God. It is a marvellous light. There we were in darkness until
the light shone. And when the light shone, oh
my friends what light there was. And it's a light that will never
go out, because it's the light of the Saviour, who is the light
of the world. Yes, what a wonderful favour
then to realise, that we today, unworthy as we are, can come
to this great and blessed Lord God, realising that He is the
One, the only One that can redeem our soul. You know, the Lord
Jesus tells us Himself, really very similar words, I know of
course these aren't really the words of Jesus anyway, but He
says in the 10th chapter of Matthew, when he says, and fear not them
which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul, but
rather fear him, which of course is the devil, which is able to
destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold
for farthing? One of them shall not fall to
the ground without your father, but the very hairs of your head
are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value
than many sparrows. And we may fear ourselves to
be of no value. We may fear ourselves to be rubbish
and a waste of time. But if the Lord's had mercy upon
us, then we can come in. Whosoever therefore shall confess
me before men, him will I confess also. before my Father which
is in heaven, but whosoever shall deny me before him will I also
deny before my Father which is in heaven.' Does it not indicate
that if we are silent we are denying the Lord? And so may
we be thankful for the mercy of God and realise the promises
of God. And the Lord goes on to tell
us, he that findeth his life shall lose it, and he that loseth
his life for my sake shall find it. There is a cost to true religion. That's why the Lord tells us,
he that taketh not his cross and followeth after me is not
worthy of me. We don't take up our cross. We're
not worthy. You think of what the Lord's
done to redeem our souls. Yes, he came to the cross, didn't
he? He lived his life, a life of
opposition on this earth, and he lived that perfect life in
order to save our souls, to be crucified upon that cross, to
be that one sacrifice for sin, for the sin of his whole church
and to think that your sin and my sin were amongst those for
whom the Saviour died. Well, if the Word of God, if
the Gospel of God is applied to our heart by gracious application
of the Holy Spirit, we shall rejoice. We shall bless God. We shall thank God. We shall
go on our way rejoicing to know that we have the evidence of
the life of God in our soul. And we'll be thankful, therefore,
that there are these words written. And as the apostle continued
in 10th verse 4, with the heart, man believeth unto righteousness,
and with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation. Well, they're simple words, aren't
they? They're very simple words. What a blessing if such words
are applied to our soul, that we have the evidence, therefore,
that God has given us faith to believe unto righteousness. This is the whole blessing and
free gift of Almighty God. And he's blessed us with that.
And also then to move on, and with the mouth, to confess Confession
is made unto salvation, a testifier of his great work on our behalf,
that we have a hope in that finished work. My friends, we all must
have it, mustn't we? Without a hope in the finished
work of the Saviour, we are eternally lost. But with that good hope
and the evidence that we are saved in everlasting love, we
are then safe, eternally safe, safe in the arms of Jesus. And all of us may rejoice in
it, having the evidence of it, that we can thank God for his
word and praise him for all that he's done. Remember the gracious
words 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, thou shalt be saved. Amen.