["The Star-Spangled Banner"] Alright, open your Bibles back
to Romans 10, if you will. Romans 10. Romans chapter 10. Let's read verse 10 again. Romans 10, verse 10. With the heart, with the heart
man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession
is made unto salvation. Ezekiel, our Lord in Ezekiel
said this concerning his salvation, his people. He said, a new heart
also will I give you. And a new spirit will I put within
you. I'll take away that stony heart
out of your flesh. I'll give you a heart of flesh,
a tender heart, a broken heart. Salvation is a heart work. Salvation is a heart work. God said in Jeremiah, He said,
I will put my law in their inward I'll put my word in their inward
parts, and I'll write it in their hearts,
and I'll be their God, and they shall be my people." With the heart, man believeth.
With the heart, man believeth, not just the head. With the heart,
man believeth. Believeth what? Believeth God's Word, believeth
the gospel of God's Son. I mean, with heart, really believe. With heart, a person believe
it. With heart, someone is absolutely
convinced. You're only really convinced
if you're convinced in heart of who God is, who Christ is. If you're only convinced in your
head of something, if someone is only convinced you and persuaded
you in your mind of something that somebody else more clever can unconvince you, can un-persuade
you, right? It's just your head. But now
it's the Word of God. God Almighty does something for
your heart. put something in there, nobody
can touch the heart. If it's just, if the Word of
God, this Bible, if the doctrines of grace, which many call the
gospel, the doctrines of grace are only mentally agreed to. Oh, I agree. And only mentally
and logically believe. I believe that. It says it right
there. That's it. the mind will soon
grow tired. This is the reason people eventually
get dull of hearing and they hear the gospel and it's just
doctrines to them they've heard before and they just fall asleep.
It doesn't mean anything to them. That's because it's just right
there. If it's just your head, to hear
the same things over and over again is like a broken record. But now if it's a heart, if it's
a heart, if someone loves the truth, if the love of the truth is in your heart, someone who
loves the gospel, not just agrees with it, but loves the gospel,
whenever the gospel is preached, the heart beats a little faster. I don't know that I wake up someone
who loves God. I don't go tired of hearing about
God. You see, this thing's hard work. It's hard work. Now, I don't want to preach to
your head. The truth doesn't bypass the brain. The truth doesn't
You know, just go straight here. It's got to go through your head.
It goes through your ears and your mind starts working on it.
And God does give us an understanding. But it's got to go deeper than
that. It's got to. It's got to go down into the
affection. A love of the truth. It's got to go deeper than that's
the truth. That's the truth. You can argue
it. You're persuaded of it, and you're
mine. But now, if it goes down into
your heart, I love that. God's God. Yes, that's true.
Oh, he's my God. I love him being God. Christ
is the gospel of truth. My only hope, my hope is built
on Christ alone. It's down to the affection. Oh,
my hope. My hope. All my hope is built
on Jesus Christ's blood and righteous love. You see the difference? There's a big difference. It's
a saving difference. Someone loves it. If you love
somebody, we're talking about somebody. We're talking about
Christ here. That's what salvation is. God Almighty causing someone
to fall in love with his son. If you love somebody now, nobody
can diminish that. If it's true love, it can't be
diminished. True love does not diminish. It grows stronger. You know that? It grows stronger.
does not diminish, and nobody can convince you. It's in your
heart. They can't get at your heart. True and lasting, all true and
lasting feelings are of hearts, especially this thing of love.
Love, you know, listen to me very carefully. Let me illustrate
here. Love is very quickly kindled. I don't necessarily believe in
love at first sight, but I tell you, it doesn't last much longer
than that. I mean, it doesn't take much longer than that. Those
of you who found your true mate and one you truly love, how long
did it take for you to be around them till boom? Huh? Some of you are laughing and
smiling. You know it's so. You know it's so. It's quickly
kindled. True love, God puts that there.
Same with the gospel. God puts the gospel in your heart
and bam, bam, heart broken. smitten. It's quickly known. Oh, you may be take a little
while and admit and a little while you're scared, you know,
you've never run into this thing before. What's happening to me?
It's love. And you're afraid of, you're
just afraid. It's a fearful thing, but, and
it's all consuming. Real love is consuming. If you
really fall in love with somebody, You eat, drink and sleep that
person. It's like nobody else exists. You forsake everybody and everything
for that person. That's love. That's love. There's no such thing as anything
otherwise. Is it not so with you all? Somebody's
talking about a certain elderly couple. Well, he's elderly. She's in her forties. They're so in love, like teenagers.
He's in his fifties, she's in his forties, and I'll not mention
any names, but their initials are Fannin. Anyway. Talk about
them being like teenagers in love, you know, just, ah, they
look at each other. That's the way love is. It really
is. It's all-consuming. They just
drift along in their own little world. Nobody else is around. And it lasts. True love grows stronger with
the years. It doesn't diminish. That infatuation,
you know, when you first fall for somebody and just, you know,
you're infatuated with everything about them and you just literally
eat them. Eat them up, you know, just live.
You know what I'm talking about? And that infatuation, that newness
and everything, and after a few years and all that, that wanes,
you know. It must. You've got to go to
work. You've got to clean the house. You've got to do things,
you know. You can't just live on love. Life sets in, you know. You've
got to... But now that real love doesn't... It just grows strong with the
years. go strong. And it never dies. Even if that
person dies, you'll always know. And nobody can take their place. Nothing and no one will ever
take their place. Is that right? Is that right? Those of you who have lost loved
ones in heaven. It doesn't die, even
if they do. That's love. Though they're gone
for years, they're on your mind and your heart. So it is with
the gospel of Christ. This is a heart work. If it's just a head, you'll be
gone. Ten years, twenty years, some
as long as thirty, forty, but you'll be gone. If it's of the
heart, it grows stronger. Infatuation diminishes
a little bit. Now that deep abiding love. It
just goes from there. And even if they're gone, they're
on your mind. That's the gospel of Christ.
It's a heart work, with the heart man believing it. With the heart man believing
it. Do you see why salvation is of the Lord? You see why salvation is of the
Lord? I've convinced several people of the gospel, and some
of them are gone. But now if the Lord does something
for your heart, I can't run you off. And you can't get enough. When
are you going to open the doors next so I can hear about my loved
one, the Lord? See that? Church members go. Christ's members don't. They
love the Lord. They love Him. This book says,
with the heart man believeth unto righteousness. This book,
from cover to cover, talks about righteousness. How many times
have you heard this word? But this book, from cover to
cover, tells man he's not righteous. Tells man, man, woman, boy and
girl, you're not righteous. This book from cover to cover
says God is righteous. That means holy. That means God
loves only holy things. That God hates iniquity and hates
those that work it. That's what this book from cover
to cover says. Mankind knows that. You know
that? Mankind knows that down in his
conscience. He does. That's why he feels
right and wrong. That's why his conscience convicts
him of when he does something wrong. He knows it. That deep
in his heart, he knows, even though he doesn't acknowledge
there's a God, even though he says he's an atheist, he knows
something, he does something wrong. Who said what's right
and wrong? God said what's right and wrong.
And even though a person doesn't even say he believes God, doesn't
acknowledge God, doesn't go to church, so to speak, Yet in their
heart, they know it's wrong to kill, to lie, to cheat, to cuss,
to take somebody else's whatever. Don't they? Everybody knows that,
from a jungle native to a corporate executive. They all know that
their conscience smites them when they're doing something
wrong. Why? God is holy. God is righteous. God is right. Everything must be right. So
he's displeased. And he puts that in their heart.
He's not going to give any human being any peace or comfort in
their mind, in their conscience, in their hearts. Why? Because
they're sinners against God. David, a man after God's own
heart, when he committed sin, he said, against thee and thee
only have I sinned. A man, his wife, yet David said,
I've done this against you. Pardon. It's against you that
I've sinned. Man knows that God is righteous.
And his conscience in him convicts him that he's unrighteous. And
so what does man do? To appease his conscience. In
order to appease his conscience. to try to get a little peace.
What does he do? He's going to clean up. I'm going
to clean up my life. I'm going to quit my drinking.
God's mad at me because I'm drinking. No, God's mad at you because
you don't give a flip about Him. Because you've never given Him
a word of thanks all your life, and all He does is feed you and
clothe you and water you and house you and give you, give
you, give you, give you, and you never even spit toward God. You're drinking's the least of
your problem. It's smoking cigarettes. Ain't nobody going to hell for
smoking cigarettes or drinking beer. It's ignoring God. So man's convinced in his head In order to get feeling better
about myself, I'm going to quit this. I'm going to quit that.
I'm going to start this and start that. Start living right now. And then
some, every now and then, good thing. Well, if you quit your
meanness, things will be better. They will be. If you quit your
meanness, things will be better. People will treat you nicer.
When I was a young teenager, 18, 19 years old, you know, in
the 70s. That's the hippie movement. And
I wore my hair long, the beard, looked like Charles Manson, you
know, like all of them did back then. Every one of them looked
like a serial killer, me included. I can't imagine somebody coming
to want to date my daughter looking like me. But I did. God's grace and Eddie
Ballard let him, allowed him to make his daughter a serial
killer. Anyway, I, you know, I thought,
now, I just came to my senses a little bit. I thought, now,
I can't, if I want a good job, nobody's going to hire me looking
like Charles Manson. So I went to cut my hair, clean
up my act, just got a little smart, you know. And I got a good job. I mean,
it happened because you got a good job. But today, it doesn't seem
to matter. You can go with a bone in your
nose. And if you don't get the job,
they'll sue you. You don't need the job anyway. You'll get a
million dollars for job discrimination. Well, back then, you had to make
an impression on somebody, you know. If you wanted a good job,
you had to look pretty good. So I cleaned up and I got the
job. Quit your meanness, better things will happen. Start going
to church. I spotted a girl, a friend of
mine, my old crony, his sister, mighty sharp to me. And she was
religious. And if I'm going to get a nice
girl, you know, I'm either going to have to go to the library
or church. It won't be over in, you know.
So I said to that girl, so I went to church and sat beside her
and, well, they said he's got religion. Yeah, maybe I did. I cleaned up. Things started
looking better. She started looking my way. I
did a good job. Was I saved? No. I wasn't interested in God. I was interested in her. How many times have you heard
this story? I don't grow tired of it because
this is my story. But one day, sitting under the
gospel, the person's only going to be, the Lord's only going
to speak to them one way. Not sitting out on the hillside,
not sitting on the porch and lightning striking and he gets
religion. Not if his friend dies and he
gets scared to death. No, no, no. It's under the sound of the gospel.
Preacher preaching. And there's that old stony-hearts
feller sitting there. only got eyes for somebody else,
not God, not Christ, not religion. He's there for what he can get
out of God, out of life. And this gospel, and in the fullness
of time, in God's time, when God says it's time, that word's like an arrow in
the hands of the Spirit of God. And that old stony heart fella
sitting there ain't heard a word for years. He's talking to me. That creature's talking to me. And you forget the person sitting
beside you. And you start listening. And God's operating on the heart.
I knew the gospel when I was 12 years old. In my head. You could argue that. But it never got further than
that. I'll tell you one day, what you're
hearing right now, the gospel, that's right. With the heart,
man, believe it, unto righteousness. I cleaned up my act. Got religion. Got the girl. Got a good job. I wouldn't say. But with the
heart, Man believed upon if I had died right then, I'd have split
hell wide open before. But the heart, man believed upon
the righteous. And Paul wrote nine chapters
talking about this. He said Abraham was an idolater,
seventy-five years old. But Abraham believed God. By
the grace of God, he believed God. And he was counted righteous,
right there. Didn't do a thing. When God up,
when God hit the heart with the gospel, I got to look at the
rest of these verses. I wanted to look. Well, let's
look at it. Here's the commentary. Man believes he man knows it. What I was trying to make in
a long way around was man thinks I got to clean up, clean up. I'll be better. I've got to be
pleased with me and everything. If I live, if I live right, God's pleased with me and everything's
all right. That's what he said in the first three verses of
Romans ten, didn't he? He said, my kinsmen, they're
trying to establish their own righteousness. That means they're
trying to just live right and thinking God's pleased with them.
No, sir. Verse four, Romans ten, verse four, Christ is the end
of the law. We're righteous to everyone that
believes in him. Belief what? Believes that Believes God. Believes that you're unrighteous. You see, when the gospel comes
and breaks the heart, it breaks it over what? Sin. When that
gospel started coming to me and breaking my heart, it was not,
oh, I used to take this or do that or be... I am a hellion. I am an unworthy, no good, thankless
taker all my life. I ain't worth nothing. I'm not worth living. I'm not
worth this girl. I'm not worth... God ought to
kill me. Why in the world would He put
up with me? Broken up with sin, over yourself,
what you are, not what you've done. And that's involved. That's what you are. You're a
person. Your heart hurts you. About yourself. And so you believe
that you're nothing. But then God brings forth the
gospel. This is what it says over there
in verse 14 or verse 15. It says, how beautiful are the
feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad
tidings of good things. Oh, my preacher, my pastor is
also my father. Now, you know what a young rebellious
teenager thinks about his father. But now when the gospel comes
and begins to take the rebellion out and the hatred out, not only
hatred of God, but all things become new. My dad became my
pastor, my preacher. I began to listen to him for
the first time in years. My, my. When I heard the gospel, that
wasn't my dad. up there preaching. God Almighty was speaking to
me through him. I would count so many times just being broken
over messages. I just didn't, it didn't enter
my mind. That's my father up there. How beautiful, the gospel of
peace, glad tidings. This righteousness, Christ is
the end of the law for righteousness. You believe what you are, the
gospel comes, and you believe Christ. Christ is the end, the
goal, the purpose, the end. If you want to be righteous,
it's all in Christ. And he says several things down
through here. He says, don't say, you know,
well, I got to get to heaven by doing this, or I got to quit
this or do that. Or some say, well, when Christ
comes, He'll save us. He did. Or bring Him up again from the
dead. People are doing the mass and all that. That's killing
Him all over again. Here it is, verse 8 and 9. The Word is now
you, even in your mouth and in your heart. This is the Word
of faith which we preach. If you confess with your mouth
the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart, God hath raised him
from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man
believeth unto righteousness." Moses said, do this and live. Live right, perfectly, and God
will accept you. We can't do it. Christ came down
and said, I did. Christ said, I did it. I live perfectly. You can't,
can you? And your conscience, your heart
convicts you, always. He says, now I give this righteousness
to everybody to ask for. I give this perfection. God will
totally accept you, completely accept you, and justify you through
me and through me alone. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. Only those come unto me, he said, and I'll give you
rest. From a troubled conscience, I'll give you rest. From trying
to clean up, I'll clean. Perfectly. Inside and out. I'll give you peace. The world
can't take it. I'll give you joy that you never
had before and the world can't give it or take it. I'll give
you an understanding which I've hid from everybody else. Open
your eyes, come unto me, all ye that labor in heavy labor,
and I will give you rest. And by the Spirit of God, some
can come. That means to believe. I believe. Lord, I believe that. Help my
unbelief. That Christ is our righteousness.
Not doing, but believing. Not working, but believing. Christ, needing Him. You need
Christ? Do you really need Christ? That's
believing. You know that? The world doesn't
need Him, and so they don't believe Him. They need Him. You understand
that? Just needing Him is believing.
Do you need Him? That ought to give you some comfort,
you know, just needing Him. Just believing Him. Believe in him. Receiving him
means that a man can receive nothing except it be given from
above. It's gospel. I do what I will, but you can't,
it won't find a place in your heart. But now, you hear this
gospel and 90% of the time it rejoices your heart. It makes
you happy and glad and peace and comfort and joy. Well, that's receiving. With
the heart, that's receiving. But this is what I was saying. This thing's a heart work and
only a sinner with a broken heart needs Christ. Look down at verse
10. He says, With the heart, man
believeth unto righteousness. With the heart, man believeth.
Only a heart. Broken over sin will need Christ and His righteousness. What He did, He did it for His
people. And His death puts away their
sin. Only a heart that's poor and needy, help. Broken over, poor and needy,
Only a heart like that will call on Christ, will believe, and
will be saved. Verse 10 says, "...with the heart
man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession
is made." With the mouth. Peter. Peter. They were in the boat, and the
Lord was walking on the water. Peter believed that he's the
Christ. son of the living God, didn't
he? He believed him. He loved him. He sure did. Christ was
coming. Peter was afraid. Peter said,
Lord, bid me come to you. I'm scared to death. I need you. Wherever you are, I'll go. I need to come to you. He was
out on the water. He said, bid me come to you.
He did. Come on, Peter. He started walking. He did what he could not do.
But, you know, he's flesh and he looked down and, oh, I'm going
to fall. He did. He fell. What'd he do? He called. Lord, save me right
there. I'm going down. What'd the Lord
do? He reached down. There's not one
person in this whole book that's ever called on the Lord, truly,
from the heart. But the Lord didn't save you.
Somebody says, I'm not saved. Then you've never called on the
name of the Lord. It says in verse 13, For whosoever
shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. I don't
think I'm saved. Have you called? With the mouth
confession of my life. That girl, all right, I fell
in love with her, didn't I? And I was so scared, I was scared
to say it for a long time, wasn't I? Ah, little innuendos here
and there. Said everything but that. You know how it is for
a young man. It's scary. It's a commitment. It's a lifelong
commitment. Isn't it? But finally, the boy
fits in there. He's got to come out. Out of
the abundance of the heart, the master. Right? What it is, you see, you love
somebody so much, and you know it, and you want to say it, and
you're afraid they might not love you. And you got to hear it back. Don't
you? Oh, if you don't hear it back,
your heart will be broken as never before. Unrequited love. Nobody's ever called on the name
of the Lord that he didn't save them. And no one's ever said,
Lord, I need you that he didn't save of your mind. Nobody has
ever confessed Christ that he didn't confess them to them,
to them, and before others, before others. To, you see, with a mouth,
confession is made. You with a heart, man, believe
it. Now, the Lord looks on the heart. He's listening to the
heart. But it's got to come out. The
Lord saved me, to Him and to others. I stood up one day, twenty-three
years ago, and before all witnesses, I couldn't live another day by
myself. I had to have this girl with
me 24 hours a day. I didn't want to go home. Her
daddy said, get. I didn't want to. So finally
I asked her daddy, I want her forever. His old question, I asked her
dad first, her daughter, his daughter's hands were married.
And what boy ever does that? I might consider it. Anyway, before all those witnesses,
do you take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife?
I do. Y'all hear that? All you eligible
bachelorettes? This one is the one I want. Do you promise to live with her
and love her? I do. I will. To the day you
die? Yes. You mean that? Come on. And that's what a person does
when they confess Christ. They call to Him, Lord save me
or I perish. I will. Everyone has done that.
Whosoever calleth on the name of the Lord, shall be saved. Mix them up. And then they both confess their love
to one another, and then they got to tell everybody else. Then
the believer tells everybody else, hey, all you buddies, all
you, listen, I'm in love with somebody. The Lord Jesus Christ. Come see my wedding." Like that. Commitment. Do you take this
Christ to be your Christ? I do. I do. Do you believe, Philip said to
that eunuch, do you believe Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the
Living God, your righteousness, your only hope. Do you believe?"
And Enoch said, with all my heart. Old Brother Manuel in the Dominican
Republic said it in Spanish, con todo corazón, with all my
heart. Mi corazón, my heart. With a mouth, confession is made.
Look at this, verse 12. You've got to see this, and I'm
going to quit. I promise. He says there's no difference
between the Jew and the Greek. Same Lord over all is rich unto
all that call upon him. Whosoever for whosoever shall
call upon the name. I'm not arguing against this
verse. I'm arguing for it. Whosoever, there's no difference,
Jew and Greek, it doesn't matter who it is. He saves Charles Manson's. He saves young potential serial
killers. He does the worst. Paul said, this is a faithful
saying and worthy of all, everybody out there, the worst of sinners
needs to hear this. Christ came into this world to
save sinners. He said, I'm the chief, I'm the
worst of the bunch. Now look at me. There's no difference. Same Lord
takes the same Lord to save a woman who thinks she's a saint, an
angel, never, liquor's never touched her lips, sitting in
a pew, she's full of self-righteousness. She's going to split hell wide
open, the same as that drunk in the gutter. She thinks she's
good and God's accepted her because she's good. She doesn't need
Christ as her goodness, and God hates that because Christ came
down here to die for people. What kind of people? No good
people. She's too good. She doesn't need
Christ. She just needs an insurance escape
or a fire escape out of hell. So she doesn't care anything
about Jesus Christ. And the drunk in the gutter doesn't
care anything. It ain't no difference. They're both the same before
God. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God, Scripture
says. There's no difference. How are they both going to be
saved? Same way. Same gospel is going
to break her of her self-righteous heart. It's going to break him
of his gutter heart. And they're both going to see,
hey, I'm no good. I need Christ. They're both going
to come together and agree. We need Christ. Lydia and Mary
Magdalene are going to stand side by side. We need Christ,
both of us. And each one is going to think
they're worse than the other. But they're worse. I'm a chief
of sinners, Mary says. No, Lydia says. No, I'm a chief
of sinners. God can't save you both. It's
a bunch of chiefs. Whosoever, same Lord is rich
unto all that call upon Him. All that call upon Him. No different. Rich. I love that. Same Lord
is rich. We need mercy. Mercy. Great mercy. Have mercy on these
sinners. You got any more mercy left? God, everyone he saved has been
by mercy. He spared them. Got any more
left? Oh, yes. He's rich in mercy.
He's rich in mercy. We're saved by grace. The Lord
is going to save us by giving us his righteousness. by giving
us His shed blood, by giving us faith, by giving us repentance,
by giving us a broken heart, by giving us all a gift. He's
going to do it all for us. He's going to have to do it all.
We don't want to do anything. We won't even call unless He
causes us to call. He's rich in grace. We need this
grace. And here's a fellow, Lord, I
hear you saved by grace. You got any more? Oh, he's rich. I've got plenty. None left over,
but I've got plenty. Ah, boy. Rich on all that call on Him.
And it says in closing, verse 14, well, how are they going
to call on Him whom they've not believed? Nobody's going to call
on the true God if they don't believe He is God. Nobody's going
to ask for mercy to a This peanut God that preachers are telling
them how much God loves them, they're not going to ask for
mercy to Him. They're going to ask for a new Mercedes or a new
job from a sugar daddy. But the God of the Bible now,
they're going to call on Him because they're going to believe
that He may not love me. He may annihilate
me. How are they going to call on
him whom they not believe? How shall they believe in him
whom they not heard? They're going to have to hear
the gospel. How shall they hear without a
preacher? God, please God, by the foolishness of preaching,
Paul wrote. How shall they preach except they be sent? God's got
a few here and there. He always has. He never left
himself without a witness. He is a true preacher. The gospel. How shall they preach except
they be sinned? And they're sinned. And oh boy, the person that they're
sent to, they fall in love with not only God and Christ and His
people, but with the preacher. But they haven't all obeyed the
gospel, have they? Verse 16. The gospel goes out
and many hear it. Well, who does hear it? Isaiah
complained, Lord, who hath believed our report? preach to so many
and yet so few. Did you read the article in the
book this morning? I told you how long it takes.
I wrote that and tore it up about six times. Do you need to read that article? If they haven't all obeyed, how
do we start this thing out? How do we start this thing out?
If it's just the head, you're gone. If not now, eventually. Who has to leave now, of course? Faith comes by hearing, hearing
by the Word of God. Who has to leave? Well, some
have. Thank God for the heart. The
heart. I have belief in the righteousness
of the heart. Now, is the Lord going to work
in your heart? Paul said, I trust that you shall
know. Is the Lord going to work in
your heart? Let me ask you this. Do you need Christ? That's the
bottom line. Do you really need Christ? Does
this gospel find a place in your heart? You need mercy. You need grace. You need this
salvation of Christ. Oh, you're dying day. You're
living day. You're dying day. You need Christ. Never stop needing
him. That's love. It grows. It doesn't die. It doesn't die.
You keep calling. They were called. True hard work calls every day. True hard work. Every living one. His wounds
for me shall bleed. Let's stand and sing. Brother
John, come up if you would please. Number 228. Stand. Let's sing
the first and third verses. First and third verses only.
Number 228. I faith and found salvation,
praise God in these lives for me. I trust the ever-living One,
this good Lord we shall see. I need no other argument, I need
no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died,
and that He died for me. My heart is weeping on the Word,
the written Word of God. Thou makes it by my Savior's
name, Thou makes it through His blood. I need no other argument,
I need no other plea, Till he's up, then he's down, and then
he's back for me.