Romans chapter 10. I titled the message, and I took
it from verse 9. It says, if thou shalt believe
in thine heart that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt
be saved. I titled the message, if you
believe, if you believe, you shall be saved. Now, back in chapter 9, Paul set forth the sovereignty
of God in salvation, and he set forth the fact that not all that are of Israel are Israel. They are the children of God,
just as not everyone who professes to believe, believe. There'll
be many in that day who say, Lord, we preached in Your name,
we cast out devils in Your name. We've done many mighty works
in your name. He's gonna say, depart from me. I never knew
you. So just as not all those Israelites
were children of God, not all who profess to be Christians
are true Christians in the true sense of that word. But he established here that
in chapter nine, that God is sovereign. that it's not of him that willeth,
nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy." The
salvation is the work of God. Salvation is of the Lord. I know
that. You know that. You know that. It's the sovereign grace and
mercy of God that any sinner is saved. Now, after establishing
this, the sovereignty of God and salvation. Paul says in verse
1 of chapter 10, Brethren, my heart's desire, this is the burning
desire of my heart and prayer to God for Israel is, it's this,
that they might be saved. This is the heart of the true
preacher of the gospel. Everyone who stands and preaches
the gospel, whom God has called to preach the gospel, the burning
desire of their heart first is to glorify Christ, but it's that
everyone who hears them preach, they would be saved, that God
would save them. Every time I preach, I pray that
everyone in this room will be saved. I do. You know, I have
family members that believe another gospel. They believe another
gospel. They believe on another Jesus.
As Paul said, they will come preaching another gospel on another
Jesus. My heart's desire and my prayer for them is that God
will save them. Believing in the sovereignty
of God in salvation does not kill. It does not kill a desire
to see sinners saved, no matter who they are. It doesn't kill
it. In fact, it inflames it. Because
it tells me this, God is going to save sinners, and I know they're
sinners. They just don't know it. They
don't know it. And I pray God make them know it. It takes God
to make you know what a wretch you are. It takes God to make
you know and understand your need of Jesus Christ. It takes
God to make you and me to hunger and thirst after righteousness. We don't do that by nature. The
Scripture says that man drinks iniquity like water. He has a
thirst for iniquity. He has a thirst for sin, but
he does not have a thirst for being right with God. And I know
that, as I stand to preach, I know that. I know that everyone I
preach to, if they are lost, they have no thirst to be right
with God. That's what it is to thirst after
His righteousness, is to be right with God, to stand in His presence
accepted, to stand in His presence without spot or blemish, to be
right with God. And that's what Paul's saying
here. He said, this is my heart's desire. Look over in chapter
9, in the first three verses. I say the truth in Christ. He's
calling the Christ in, the Lord in as His witness here. I lie
not. My conscience also bears me witness
in the Holy Ghost. I have great heaviness and continual
sorrow in my heart, for I could wish that myself were accursed
from Christ, separated from Christ, for my brethren, my kinsmen,
according to the flesh." Paul said, I have such a love for
my brethren, according to the flesh, that if me being separated
from Christ and being sent to hell would save them, I would
do it. And he means it because he called
God in on it as a witness. And this is the heart's desire
and prayer for everyone who stands to preach the gospel that's called
of God. It's to see the hearers saved. The hearers saved. And he says
here, for I bear them record that they have a zeal of God,
they have a real enthusiasm of God, but not according to knowledge. It's not according to the truth
of the Scriptures. They have a zeal, but it's wrong. Listen, zealously wrong is wrong. It's wrong. Just because someone
is sincere in what they believe doesn't mean they are saved. Sincerity doesn't save me. Christ
saves me. Christ saves me. And He gives
me sincerity of heart. They went about doing what they
did and going through the ceremonies and offering the sacrifices.
They did that zealously. They did it meticulously. But
they were ignorant of what they were doing. And they were ignorant
of the One they were offering these things to. Now, listen,
they were not ignorant of His existence. They were not atheists. They believed there's one God. And they believed that one God
was their God. But they didn't know Him. You see what I'm saying? They did not know Him. Now listen, watch this. I bear
them record. And the reason He can bear them
record, because He was with them. He wasn't about to destroy the
church. He was so zealous over the law and the ceremonies and
what they had been given at Mount Sinai, that He was so zealous
over that, He tried to destroy the church. I bear them record. They have a zeal of God, but
not according to knowledge, for they being ignorant of God's
righteousness." Now, listen. There's a lot of things I can
be ignorant of, and it's okay. I can be ignorant of a lot of
things, and I'm going to be all right at the end of the day.
I don't have to know the... You know, I can be ignorant of
Spanish. I've been trying to learn a little
bit of Spanish, and it's just harder. I can't get it in my
ignorant mind here. But you know what, if I never
learn it, it's all right. At the end of the day, it's just
fine. I can be ignorant of math, you know, not too, I need general
math. I need two plus two needs to
equal four. That way when I count out money,
I know I'm not getting cheated. But there's a lot of things I
can be ignorant of, and I'm okay. I cannot be ignorant. of God's
righteousness. I cannot be ignorant of the demand
of it, my need of it, and the provision of it. I can't be ignorant
of that and end up all right. You see, here's what they were
ignorant of. Now listen. First of all, they were ignorant
of the righteous nature of God. And they proved that by thinking
they could, by their obedience, which was a flawed obedience,
very flawed obedience. But they thought by that, by
their obedience, even their flawed obedience, God would be happy
with them, that that would be enough righteousness, so to speak,
that God would accept them. They were ignorant that God is
so righteous. And they had forgotten this,
that by one act of disobedience, God kicked Adam out of the garden
and the whole human race came under condemnation. The whole
human race fell by one act of disobedience, just one. It wasn't
many acts, like our children, I'm gonna give you a spank, if
you do that again, he does it again. I'm gonna give you a spank,
I'm telling you, I'm warning you. No, God, one time. God told
Adam one time, don't eat. He did and he kicked him out
of the garden and the whole human race fell in him. Because in
that one act of disobedience is all the sin you and I see
right now. If the root is corrupt, so is
the fruit. You know, there's some trees
that bear fruit, but they're poison and you're not to eat
them. You're not going to go out there and eat poison berries. I watched a show one time where
a young man went out in the wilderness and he was eating some poison
berries and it killed him. You can't be ignorant of God's
righteous nature. And you can't be ignorant of
your ability to produce righteousness. Listen, you don't get clean water
And salt water, the Lord said, from the same fountain. Do you? If you get clean water from a
fountain, that's what you get. If you get salt water from a
fountain, it's not going to be clean, you're not going to drink
of it. It's going to be salt water. You cannot get a pure righteous
act from an unholy person. A sinful, ungodly nature cannot
produce a complete perfect act. And God said it must be perfect
to be accepted. You can't be ignorant of that.
You can't be ignorant of God's righteous nature. You can't be
ignorant of your need of righteousness and you can't produce it. And
you can't be ignorant of Jesus Christ who is our righteousness.
You can't do it. "...they being ignorant of God's
righteousness, and because of that," listen, "...because of
that, they went about to establish their own righteousness, and
have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God."
You see, the righteousness by which we are saved is a righteousness,
listen, that you and I submit to. We don't produce it. We submit
to it. We receive it. We are commanded to receive a
righteousness, not produce one. They have not submitted themselves
unto the righteousness of God. The righteousness of God is the
righteousness of Jesus Christ, who is God, manifest in the flesh. Now he says here in verse 4,
For Christ, Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believeth. The law can go
no further than Christ. If I have Jesus Christ, if I
believe on Christ, and that being so, then Christ is in me. Christ
in you, the hope of glory. The law cannot demand of me any
more than Jesus Christ. He is the fulfillment of God's
law. He fulfilled it completely. Look
over in Galatians chapter three. In Galatians chapter three, listen
to this. Look in verse 24. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster
to bring us unto Christ." That's what the law was given. Those
ceremonies, the types, the pictures, the offering of the Lamb, all
those things, they were given to bring us to Christ. That we might be justified by
faith. To bring us unto Christ that
we might be justified by faith. But now, listen, but after that
faith has come, now listen, Let me read it this way. Let me read
it this way. In verse 25. But after that Christ
is come. You can put Christ right there
where faith is. But after that Christ is come,
we are no longer under the schoolmaster. The schoolmaster has, so to speak,
handed us over. And it's over with. That's why the veil of the temple
was rent in two when the Lord cried, it's finished. It was
finished. He finished keeping the law. He finished redemption. The law
ends at Jesus Christ. Now, they missed that. They kept on going with it. They missed that. The Lord Jesus Christ, He's the
end of the law, He says. But after that Christ has come,
we are no longer under a schoolmaster, for ye are all the children of
God by faith in Christ." Not by anything we do, but by faith
in Christ. For as many of you as have been
baptized into Christ, you put on Christ, I want you to look
in verse 28. Because in Christ, I want you to know something,
all distinction is gone. You see that? You see, in this
life we have nationalities, we have education levels, we have
gender difference, we have all of this. But now listen, there
is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there
is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ. In
other words, in Christ, All distinction is gone. It's gone. We are all one in Him. And we
are righteous in Him through faith in Him. The righteousness
of Christ is imputed to us. It's reckoned to us through faith
in Him. Not by works, but by faith. Now listen here in verse 5, Moses describes the righteousness
which is of the law. Now, if you want to talk about
the righteousness which is of the law, by which the Jews were,
at that time, were hoping to be saved, and still at this time,
at this time. For Moses describes the righteousness
which is of the law, that the man which doeth those things
shall live by them. If you want to be saved that
way, if that's the way you want to be saved, You've got to do every one of
them perfectly. That's the righteousness of the law. That's the righteousness
it demands. Here's what you've got to do.
You've got to keep the law perfectly in thought, word, and deed. Perfectly. I've never done anything
perfectly. We're not capable of that. We
can't even comprehend perfect. We can't comprehend holy. We
speak of God as holy. We have some idea, but we can't
comprehend what holy is. That's the reason we can't comprehend
the torments of hell. It's everlasting. You know, I
can't comprehend that. I honestly cannot comprehend
that. But I understand this. God is holy. He's holy. And the only one who's able to
satisfy God is who? God. God. A sinful man can't
do it. A death of an animal in my place
can't do it. The death of an animal can't
put away the sins of a man. It can't do it. Only God can
do that. And those who perish can never
satisfy God's justice. They can't satisfy it. That's
why it's eternal. They hate him more there than
they do now. Because there it's unchecked.
It's unchecked. It's let go. Moses describes the righteousness
which is of the law, that the man, if he's going to do that,
then he's got to do it perfectly if he wants to live by it. But
the righteousness which is of faith speaks on this wise, say
not in your heart, Who shall ascend into heaven?"
Who's going to go into heaven and bring the Messiah down? That's
what he's saying. Who's going to go to heaven for
us and bring the Messiah down? Well, you're not going to do
it, and I'm not going to do it. We're not allowed in that place as we are. You're not allowed in that place.
Not apart from Christ and His righteousness. And faith says
this. See, faith says not. Who's going
to go? into heaven and bring the Messiah
down because faith says He's already come. Faith believes
that Jesus Christ is the Messiah. Nobody needs to go get Him and
bring Him down because He's already come down. And then it says in verse 7,
"...or who shall descend into the deep..." That is, the grave.
That's to bring Christ again from the dead. Faith doesn't
say who's gonna bring Him up because faith already believes
He's risen and seated at God's right hand. You believe that,
don't you? I believe that Jesus Christ is God and I believe He's
the Son of God and I believe that Jesus Christ is seated right
now at God's right hand. That's faith. And that's God-given
faith. He's not in the ground. He's
seated at God's right hand. See, faith believes the gospel. It believes the gospel. But what
saith it? What saith it in verse 8? What
saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy
heart. That is the word of faith, the gospel which we preach. We confess with the mouth and
we believe in the heart. This is where salvation takes
place. It takes place in the heart. It's a work of God. It's a work
of God. He said in Ezekiel, I will give
them a new heart and a right spirit. I'll give them a new
spirit and I'll put my spirit within them. Ezekiel, I think
it's chapter 36. The word is confessing Christ. When you hear the gospel, you
hear it in your heart, your heart cries out, I believe that, I
believe that. And then it comes out of your
mouth. You confess Him with your mouth. Just like that woman with
the issue of blood. He's turned around and said,
who touched me? And it says, she confessed before Him and
all those people for why she touched Him. She believed that
she could be healed. In verse 9 here, that if thou
shalt confess with thy mouth, not do something, salvation is the free gift of
God, it's the free work of God, it's the power of God, Jesus
Christ is the power of God. And if you'll confess Him, He
says, with thy mouth, the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine
heart that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved."
Now, first of all, believing that God raised him from the
dead is more than believing in the resurrection, that a man
named Jesus Christ was raised from the dead. Lazarus was raised
from the dead. He was resurrected from the dead.
The Lord said, Lazarus, come forth. But when you confess with
your mouth and you believe in your heart that God raised Jesus
Christ from the dead, that He accepted, that God Almighty accepted
His work, or He'd still be in the grave. But you believe with
all your heart that Jesus Christ kept the law, died for my sins,
And God raised Him from the grave. He accepted Him. He was raised
again, it says in Romans 4. He was delivered for our offenses
and raised again for our justification. He was raised from the dead for
my justification. He was raised from the dead that
God may be just and justify me. God has accepted everything He
did on my behalf. I believe that. and that He not
only raised Him from the dead, He's seated at God's right hand
right now, ruling and reigning over the universe, over every
person, over every animal, over every mosquito, every gnat. And they can't even bite me without
Him. And they do bite me. But I know he must give him the
freedom to do so. It's amazing what you find out
in you just from a mosquito bite. You say, I can't believe it. He's got full control over absolutely
everything, everyone. Nothing moves and nothing wiggles
in this life without Jesus Christ. Nothing. You can't even take
your next breath without Him. That's the truth. And if you
believe in your heart, He says here, thou shalt confess
with thy mouth, because there are no secret disciples. There
are no secret disciples. There have been many in the past
who've lost their lives on this earth over confessing Christ,
but they confessed Him. That if thou shalt confess with
thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart
that God raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Well, I don't feel this. He didn't
talk about feeling, he talked about believing. We feel different
every day. We're like a thermometer. We
just go up and down, up and down. Whatever the temperature is today
has a lot to do with my feelings. Really. It's believing. I believe God. That's what Paul
said when he's on that ship and it was getting ready, it was
about to crash, and they were going to jump overboard. And
God told Paul to stay on the ship, and all those that stay
on the ship would be safe. And he says, sirs, and he told
him what God told him, he says, sirs, I believe God. It'll be
just as he said it would be. I have a full expectation of
being saved when I leave this life. Because verses like that,
verses just like that, I believe. And I believe, listen, I believe
because I can't help but believe. I believe God. I can't help but
believe Him. Verse 10, For with the heart
man believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession
is made unto salvation. With the heart... This is a work of God. This is
a work of God. Let me see if that's in Ezekiel
36. I'm thinking, for some reason, I'm thinking it's Ezekiel 36. Yes. Let me see where I want to start
reading. Let me start reading verse 21.
But I had pity for my holy name, which the house of Israel had
profaned among the heathen, whether they went. Therefore say unto
the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord God, I do not this for
your sakes. You know why God's forgiven you?
If God's forgiven you, you know why? For Christ's sake. That's exactly what he says.
For Christ's sake. Oh, house of Israel, but for
my holy name's sake, which you have profaned among the heathen,
whether you win. And I will sanctify my great
name, which was profaned among the heathen. And you and I have
profaned the name of God plenty of times. And he's speaking here
to the house of Israel, his house, his true Israel. which you have
profaned in the midst of them, and the heathen shall know that
I am the Lord, saith the Lord God, when I shall be sanctified
in you before their eyes. For I will take you from among
the heathen," that's exactly what God has done with us, and
gathered you out of all countries. God is saving people out of every
kindred, tribe, tongue, and nation under heaven, and will bring
you into your own land. The kingdom of God, he says in
Colossians 2, Colossians 1, that he has translated us from the
kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of his dear son. That's
our land, the kingdom of Christ. Then will I sprinkle clean water
upon you, and you shall be clean, and all your filthiness, and
from all your idols will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I
give you. That's the work of God. 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, and I will put My Spirit within you, that's the Holy Spirit,
and cause you to walk in My statues, and you shall keep My judgments,
and do them, and you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your
fathers, and you shall be My people, and I will be your God."
One day we will walk on a new earth, that one that He has promised
to His Son Jesus Christ. and He will be our King. The
first king, Adam, sinned and failed. God made him king over
this world, over this earth, over this world. If he had not
sinned, he'd still be the king. But he failed. But the King of
glory will not fail. And you and I will walk on that
new earth, and Jesus Christ will be our King. And He is our King.
And He'll still be our King. And what a loving King we have.
What a loving King we have. But He says here, if you confess
with your mouth and believe with all your heart that God raised
Him from the dead, you shall be saved. For with the heart
man believes unto righteousness. That's how righteousness is obtained. By faith, not by anything you
will ever do in your life, but by faith. And by that same faith,
you'll walk in righteousness. You'll walk in a right path.
You'll follow after Him. With the heart man believes unto
righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. That's how righteousness is attained. God is righteous, He demands
righteousness, and this is how we obtain righteousness. The
righteousness of Christ. is obtained through faith.