Now, let's look back with me
then here in Romans chapter 10. Talking about the righteousness
of faith, the word of faith. He says in verse 8, For what
saith this righteousness of faith? What does it say? The word is nigh thee, even in
thy mouth and in thine heart. That is the word of faith which
we preach, and this is the word of faith. That if thou shalt
confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus Christ, and shalt believe
in thine heart that God hath raised thee from the dead, thou
shalt be saved. Only a saved man believes that.
Only a saved man believes that the Lord Jesus Christ was raised
from the dead, and that God set Him at His own
right hand, and that He's the only hope and plea that we have
before God. Only a man, a saved man can do
that. For with the heart, with the
heart, the heart, the mind, the emotions, the affections, they're
all the one and the same. It's you. When you talk about
your heart, it's you. Your heart is you. What you feel
in your heart, what you think in your heart, what you believe
in your heart. And if you believe in the heart,
man believes. He believes under righteousness.
He believes that righteousness is only in Christ. And with that
mouth, confession is made under salvation. And that's what we
do. I confess the Lord Jesus Christ. You confess the Lord Jesus Christ. You confess His righteousness.
You confess that He's Lord. For the Scripture saith, this
is what it says, this is what the Word says. Paul uses this
phrase so many times. He said, for what the Scripture
saith, or what saith the Scripture. And he says, for the Scripture
saith, and he's quoting Isaiah 28. And verse 16, whosoever believeth
on him shall not be ashamed, shall not be confounded in what
he believes. I was telling somebody yesterday
evening about some deacons from another church that came and
talked to me. They talked to me in public.
They talked to me at the community center where we live and talked
to me every opportunity they got trying to convince me that
my message was wrong. brought their Bibles, come up
here, and I said, it was so funny, they didn't even know what, they
say, I know what's in the Bible there, I just don't know where
it's at. But that's, so we believe. If you can't explain what you
believe, and can't confess what you believe, and what's in your
heart that you believe, then you don't believe anything. Because
you do confess it in your heart. That's where it starts at. It
starts in the heart. That's what the issues are settled
in a man's heart when God begins to deal with him. When God begins
to go after man, that's where the issues are settled in a person's
heart. When the heart's made right by
the Spirit of God, when God takes out that stony heart and puts
in a heart of flesh, issues are settled right there. Eternal
issues are settled before a person ever confesses their faith in
Christ. Now those issues are settled. The issues of who's
gonna be God, the issues of what kind of shape are you in, the
issues of eternal issues. Is God gonna save me or am I
gonna help him? Do I believe the gospel or do
I not? Is Christ my only hope or is
He not? Is Christ, am I a sinner or am
I not? Do I trust Christ alone or do
I not? Those issues are settled once
and for all, and when those issues are settled, you know what a
fellow will do? He'll say, that's my salvation, I'm gonna confess
that. God said these eternal issues are settled before anybody
ever confesses Christ as Lord. Now I want to talk about this
business of the Word of Faith. This business of what a man believes.
Why he believes and what he does when he confesses this. He said,
When thou confessest with thy mouth, the Lord Jesus Christ
believeth in your heart, that God raised him from the dead,
thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believes
unto righteousness, with the mouth confession is made unto
salvation. So what is it that we believe
when we confess our Lord Jesus Christ? What is it that I believe
as I confess the Lord Jesus Christ this morning? As I confess what
I believe in my heart this morning, what would I confess? Well, I
know this, I confess that Jesus Christ is the one who has the
right to rule in this world. that he is the Lord and there's
no limit to our Lord Jesus Christ's right. Men can say he can't do
this, he can't do that, but there is no limit to the rule and the
power and right of our Lord Jesus Christ to rule in this world.
No limit to it. The scriptures tells us that
God has given him power, authority over all flesh. that He, He's
the one who has it, that He should give eternal life to as many
as thou hast given Him. And look over, and you keep this
and look in John chapter, chapter three, in verse 35 with me just
a minute. John chapter three, in verse
35. Look what it says here, talking about our Lord Jesus Christ.
You know they shall call His name Wonderful Counselor, the
Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Mighty God. And on His shoulder
is the government. What government? The government
of this world. The government of powers and
principalities and angels and men and everything that rise
and wriggles on topside of this earth. Christ Jesus our Lord
is the mighty God and the government, God's government, God's providence,
God's rule, God's rights, God's authority, is all vested in that
man, the Lord Jesus Christ. I mean, he's got the government.
And I'll tell you one thing, he's got me. They got that old
song used to go, he's got the whole world in his hand. I didn't
know what they're saying, but that's right. And I'll tell you
one person he's got in his hand, he's got me, and I'm very thankful
that he does. I am very, very thankful that
He does. But look here in John 3 and verse
35. The Father, He loves the Son. And because of that blessed Son
that He loves, He hath given all things into His hand. Now when it says all things,
you reckon that leaves anything out? And listen to this, and he says,
since all things are in his hands, because the Father loves him,
he that believeth on the Son, that the Father loved, who has
all authority, that all power is given unto him, he that believeth
on the Son hath everlasting life. Not gonna get it later, he's
got it right now. But now listen, and he that believeth
not the Son shall not see life, but what happens? Wrath of God
abides on him. And so you see, here we are.
All things are put under his feet. And I know this, beloved,
that our Lord Jesus Christ not only has the right to rule, no
limit to that right, but he exercises that right in this world. Over
in Mark chapter three, it says there that he went unto a mountain. When he started his ministry,
he went unto a mountain and called unto him whom he would. called whom he would. And I tell
you what, when we will, he healed us. You know, when he come to
the pool of Bethesda, there was blind, halt, lame, impotent people
laying all over the place, waiting for the angel to come and trouble
that water. And the person who got in there
first was healed of whatever infirmity they had. Well, there's
people laying everywhere, but our Lord Jesus Christ walked
up to one man, just one man, out of all that crowd. And he
looked at him and says, will thou be made whole? He said, but there's no man who,
Lord, who's here to put me in the water and I'm not able to
myself. He said, will thou be made whole? And you know, he
didn't even wait for him to answer. He says, arise, take up your
bed and walk. And he did. He left all the rest
of them to himself. How many lepers were in Israel
in the time of Naaman? But God only sent two men. How
many widows were in Elijah's day? But God only sent him to
one widow. I tell you now, that's what we're
talking about. We're talking about not only he has that right
to rule, but he exercises that right. He exercises that right. I was talking to Lenny this morning. That's what she said. She said,
God's not going to wait on me forever. I said, no, he's not.
No, he's not. He's not going to sit around
and wait while you twiddle your thumbs whether you decide you're
going to accept Him or whether you decide you're going to confess
Him or whether you decide you're going to believe Him. He's not
going to sit around and twiddle his thumbs and wait on you. You
know who you're going to wait on? You're going to get down
before Him and wait on Him. If anybody does any waiting,
it ain't going to be God. God's not somebody that sits
around and waits. He's got His will, and when He's
passing by, the Scripture says that when they heard that the
Lord Jesus was coming, They come from everywhere to get around
Him. And I'm here to tell you the Lord Jesus Christ passes
through here three times a week. Sometimes more manifestly than
others, but He always is passed by here because He says He will
in His Word. And I tell you what, when He's
coming through here, if you're weak, halt, blind, impotent,
and no ability, you know what you need to do? Oh Lord Jesus! Have mercy on me! and you'll
stop him dead in his tracks. Oh, listen, I tell you, he exercises
that right. He exercises that right over
who gets life. How many dead people died the
day that Lazarus died? How many died the day that Lazarus
died? But the Lord Jesus loved Lazarus. And what did he do because he
loved Lazarus? He came and said, Lazarus, come
forth. He didn't tell anybody else to.
Called him by his name. And oh beloved, he exercised
that right in his prayers. You know what he said? John 17
and nine, he said, I pray not for the world, but for those
thou hast given me out of the world. I'm not praying for the
world. Everybody says, well, we need
to pray for the world. We need to pray for all the lost.
Christ didn't come to save everybody. We pray God save your sheep.
Go after your people. And you know who He goes after?
He goes after His people. And when He goes after His people,
the first thing He makes them know is that they're lost and
that they're sinners. And when He makes them know that
they're lost and they're sinners and no hope in themselves, they
got no place else to go but to Him. And that's where He gets
you, where you ain't got no place else to go but Him. I tried to
go everywhere in this world to find salvation until God took
every false idol and knocked every crutch that I could find
out from under me. I tried free will. I tried Pentecostal. I tried legalism. I tried fundamentalism. I tried works. I tried self-righteousness. I tried separation. Separating
from the world. Not having a television, making
you dress the same, I tried everything there was to get saved. Until
God Himself every time I get, take it away, take it away, take
it away, take it away, until I fell on my face and I said,
Lord, if you will, if you will have mercy on me,
I'll never, ever say another word against you. I'll never,
ever tell another lie on you. I'll never, ever think of you
other than as high and holy and lift it up. Oh, listen. Oh, but I tell you,
the Scriptures teaches us that a man bows to the Lord Jesus
Christ, and that man that bows to Christ, he bows to Him because
he's already saved. Huh? What is it about the Christ? It's to confess Him to be your
Lord. Now let me say a few things about
this word of faith and this confessing, what I confess and what I know
some of you confess. We confess that the Lord Jesus,
when we confess Him as our Savior, as our righteousness, as our
Lord, We're recognizing that the Lord Jesus is the one in
whom we have no right, no claim to, and we become the Lord Jesus'
property, body, soul, and spirit to be disposed of as He wills.
Here I am, Lord. You know that old saying, lock,
stock, and barrel. We give ourselves over to Christ,
lock, stock, and barrel. We hold back no reserve. No reserve. Because we say, Lord, You're
the one that's going to save me. Who else is going to do it? I'm in Your hands and everything
in my life is in Your hands. Everything in my life belongs
to You. I have nothing that You didn't
give me. I know nothing that You didn't
do. If I had sense enough to get it out of the rain, God gave
me that sense. You say, well that's foolish.
That's the truth! If a man's got sense enough to
get out of bed and eat right and walk right and talk right
and not be an absolute fool, God made him that way. Ain't that right? Anybody here
would dare say that anything they got, they got by their own
hard work, industriousness, and the success of their life is
because of them? Oh, not anybody that confesses Christ
don't do that. They confess that Christ owns
me, my body, my soul, my spirit, my home, my life, my children,
my grandchildren. He owns everything and it all
belongs to Him and He can do what He will when He wants to.
If He wants to reach in and take somebody out of it, that was
His to start with. If He wants to bring somebody
new in it, that was His to start with. Ain't that right? There's his. He just gives them
to us. Anything we have, he just gives
us to it until he takes us out of here anyway. I heard a preacher
say one time, the devil's got to lean on it. God's got the
right to it, but devil's got to lean on it. Devil ain't got
nothing on it. Lean on nothing. Everything belongs to God. Oh, listen. Look in Matthew chapter
eight. This is what I'm talking about.
This is what I'm talking about. Matthew chapter eight. Oh, this
is what we confess. Oh, I know you in your heart.
This is what you say. This is what I confess. Yes,
brother Donnie. Yes, preacher. I have no rights,
no claims to the Lord Jesus Christ. But He in sovereign mercy saved
me. So, oh, listen. Body, soul and spirit belongs
to Him. Matthew chapter 8. Look what happens here. When
he was come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed him.
And behold, there came a leper, a leper, awful sin, awful sickness,
horrible disease, and worshipped him. And this is the first word
out of his mouth, saying, Lord, if you will, if you will, It's your will that's
got to be done. It's you're the one with the
power. If you will, you make me clean. You can take away this
leprosy, this disease that's in my body, that's in my blood,
that's against me. And Jesus put forth his hand
and touched him saying, I will. Be thou clean, and look what
happened. Immediately the leprosy departed from him. And our Lord
said, don't tell no man, but go your way and show yourself
to the priest. And I said, why is he doing that?
He said, I want you to go and look at the law and let the priest
himself pronounce you that the law can't even find any fault
in you. You go and confess to the priest. And oh, listen, that's
what that woman came and she said, Lord, My daughter's grievously
vexed. She said, it's not me to take
the children's bread and give it to a dog. She said, yes, Lord,
you're exactly right. You're right. Yes, yes, you're
right. It's not right for you to take
what belongs to the children and give it to a dog like me.
But even the dogs get the crumbs from the master's table. Oh,
I've never seen such faith. And you know what? Oh, she went
away and the Lord gave her just what she came for. She confessed. Confessed that, Lord, I'm in
your hands to do what you will with me. You can give me life
or not. And I tell you what, and when
we confess Christ with our mouth, from our hearts, we're saying
that when we believe the Lord Jesus Christ, have faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ, we're saying that we absolutely have no faith
in ourselves. No faith in ourselves whatsoever.
Ain't that right? When we confess, I confess this
morning the Lord Jesus Christ. I confess with my belief in my
heart, confess Him to be Lord, I confess Him to be my Savior,
confess Him to be my righteousness. And I confess to be saved. And
when I say that, that I have this word of faith, this faith
is preached to me. this faith that I preach, that
the word just now is even in your mouth. When I say that,
I'm saying that I have no faith whatsoever in myself at all. I have no faith in my faith.
Does that make any sense to you all? I have no faith in my faith. Have you ever felt like you didn't
have any faith at all? See, faith didn't save us. Faith
didn't die for us. Faith didn't shed its blood for
us. Christ did. And our faith, beloved, is all
objective. It's all outside ourselves. It's
what Christ did outside of us even before we existed. So we
can't even look to anything, even our own faith, because there's
times that our faith is so weak and so frail. And that is like
a smokin' flax and a... a reed that's got just a little
bit of smoke left on it. Looks like it's going plum out.
And our Lord Jesus Christ comes along and... that thing goes
on fire. When you get around the gospel,
get around people talking about the gospel, talking about Christ.
And how many times has he come and blowed on my faith. You remember that story in Bunyan's
Progress when they went to the interpreter's house and Christian
started on his way and he got in the interpreter's house and
he's interpreting the Word of God to him and he's standing
outside, he's looking at this fire in the fireplace. And that
fire just about gone plum out. And then all of a sudden it flamed
back up. And he said, what does this mean? And he took him around,
he showed him. Satan was standing there pouring
water on it. The devil was standing there pouring water on it. But
the Lord Jesus Christ, every time he'd throw water on it,
he'd pour some oil on it. That's the way it is. You know
he's trying to put out the fire. But our Lord Jesus Christ, he
will not let it go out. And so we don't trust our faith
or look to our faith. We look to Him who died and He
who gave us faith. Our faith's entirely outside
ourselves. That's why Paul said, I count
all of my righteousness. You know what he said? I count
all of my righteousness, but done. That I may win Christ,
be found in Christ, not having my own righteousness, but the
righteousness which is faith in Jesus Christ. Now listen to
me, I tell you something else, when we confess the Lord Jesus
Christ, when we confess Him, and say that He's our Savior,
our Lord, He's our own righteousness, we're telling everybody, I'm
telling every one of you all here, and I know you'd tell me
the same thing, that all of our righteousness is absolutely useless. Useless. Isaiah 64 and 6 says,
all of our righteousnesses, all of our righteousnesses, is as
a filthy rag. Filthy rag. Look in Philippians
3. Let's see what we got here. In Philippians 3. Oh, I tell you. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness. Oh my, we're telling, we're confessing
our Lord Jesus Christ, confessing Him to be our righteousness,
confessing in His righteousness that God raised Him from the
dead. We're telling everybody that our righteousness is absolutely
dumb, useless. Look what Paul said here in Philippians
3, 5. Circumcised the eighth day of
the stock of Israel. That's the way they done our
Lord Jesus Christ. But of course, he was of the
tribe of Benjamin. But he said, circumcised the
eighth day of the stock of Israel of the tribe of Benjamin. I'm
a Hebrew of the Hebrews. I'm telling you what, I'm a step
above all the rest of the Hebrews. As touching the law, concerning
the law, I was a Pharisee. Concerning zeal, you want to
know how zealous I am? I persecuted the church. Touching
the righteousness which is in the law, I was blameless. Righteousness in the law, blameless.
But now listen to me. He says, what things were gained
to me, those I counted lost for Christ. He made him a balance
sheet. What he did, everybody knows
what a balance sheet is. Paul made him a balance sheet.
He put up all the things that made Him to be something in this
world. Made Him to be something in religion. Here's 1, 2, 3,
4, 5. And He put over here all of the things that Christ
did. And He put all the things He
did over here. And you know what He says? He
goes on to say, everything over here is lost. Lost. This is my lost column over here.
This is my asset column over here. And what is that asset column?
I count everything lost. What was gained to me, I count
lost for Christ. You know, it's delete, delete.
We love delete things, you know. He just said, let's delete this
over here. This is awful. And then look
what he goes on to say. But doubtless I count all things
but lost for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord, for whom I've suffered the loss of all things, and do
count them but done that I may win Christ and be found in him,
not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that
which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness of
God by faith. Oh, listen. Our righteousnesses
are useless. Everybody wants to go back to
something good they've done in their life or, you know, I helped
this person, I helped that person, I fixed a flat tire for somebody
one time, I stopped and picked some person up and took them
and got them gas and brought them back to their car. Looking
for anything that they can say, well, I've done this good thing.
Anything to say I've done this good thing. But this is the situation. Nothing you ever did, say, think,
or do don't carry that much weight with God. Right? It carries that much weight. And that's what Paul said. All
that was really weighted to me over here, zip, nothing. Everything that's gained to me
is right here, over here, Christ. the knowledge of Christ, the
winning Christ, being found in Christ, having the righteousness
of Christ. And oh, I tell you, and I confess
the Lord Jesus Christ this morning. When I tell you what, when I
confess Him, I'm telling you that I have no confidence in
the flesh and that I can never, ever save myself. Can't save
myself. Well, you know, I've said it
so many times. You're still in Philippians. You still in Philippians
3? I'm not, but I'll go back there
because I want you to see this in Philippians 3. You know, we quoted so many times,
I know that in me that is in my flesh. Well, it's no good
thing. That that I would do, I hate it. That that I wouldn't
do, I do. I have this awful law, this awful
principle. in my nature, in my flesh, in
this old fallen nature. And so I brought to the place
that when I confess Christ as Lord, that I have no confidence
in this flesh. I have no confidence in the old
man, no confidence in my old fallen nature. And I tell you,
I know I can't save myself, and I confess that I can't save myself. You know, like they told Bill
Sasser, the Lord started dealing with him years ago. He said this,
his mom told him, said, well, Bill said, you's a Boy Scout. Said, you know, that's got to
count for something. I got a Boy Scout badge. I put a bunch of money in the
church, and they put my name on a brick and put it in the
church. That's how good I was. I was in a black church one time
out in Memphis. And down in the basement, I mean,
they had pictures of all the people that had been in that
church, and there'd been somebody in that church, down both sides,
down in the basement. Big old log building, bigger
than, had all these pictures of all these people that'd been
real big shots in that church. Bishops so-and-so, and sisters
so-and-so, and on. I mean, they was dressed, big
hats, fancy clothes and they had pictures everywhere and they
could go through that and tell you all the people and all the things
they had done in that church while they had been in that church.
Some of them had been gone so long that they forgot even who
they was and what they'd done. But God hadn't forgot them and
God hadn't forgot what they'd done. Is that not right? But that's what confidence in
the flesh is. Put your picture up. Put your
picture up. This picture is not a person.
Christ is a person. And we're not looking at pictures.
We're looking at Christ. That's why we don't have no pictures
of Christ. We don't have Him in calendars. We don't have Him
in Bibles. We don't have Him in any of those
things. But look here in Philippians 3. In verse 3. No confidence in the flesh cannot
save ourselves. It says there's three things
about us as we confess in Christ. We are the circumcision. Oh my,
we've been cleansed by the blood of Christ. Our hearts have been
circumcised. And we worship God in the spirit.
We don't worship God by the flesh. We don't have to have the music
going. We don't have to have the... Shirley and I was listening to
this guy the other day, preacher was going somewhere, and every
time the preacher said something, somebody hit the organ. preachers
say something, hit the organ again. Somebody preach, hit the
organ again. You know, they got to keep that
music going. And I got to see them come, but we worship God
in the spirit. If nobody says amen, Nobody makes
a move. Nobody don't even light up their
eyes or anything. We're worshiping God in the Spirit.
Our flesh got nothing to do. And I tell you what, that's the
burden about coming in worship is the flesh. But we worship
God in our spirit and worship God by the Spirit of God. Flesh gets out of the way. We
want to stop. We don't want the flesh to take
over here. And oh, listen to what else he goes on to say.
And we rejoice in Christ Jesus. What do you rejoice in? I read
this morning where David said, I greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soul doeth greatly rejoice
in the Lord. Not my flesh, not my mind, my
soul, the best part of myself, the deepest part of myself. My
soul does rejoice in the Lord. And all we rejoice in Christ
Jesus, rejoice in who He is, rejoice in His blood, rejoice
in His righteousness, rejoice in His power, rejoice in His
grace. We rejoice in His wisdom, we
rejoice in Christ. And then look what He goes on
to say. and have no confidence in the flesh. Have no confidence in the flesh. And that means there's no confidence
in human nature, anything human nature can do. And I know this,
when I confess Christ as Lord, I'm confessing my faith in Christ
today, that Jesus Christ, what does it say here in Romans 10
again? that if thou confess the Lord
Jesus Christ, in verse 9, shalt believe in thine heart that God
raised him from the dead. When you're saying that Jesus
Christ is Lord, and you call him the Lord Jesus Christ, you're
identifying him as both Lord, as God, and Jesus as man. I confess that our Lord Jesus
Christ is as much God as if he was not man, and as much man
as if he was not God, And yet he's both in one person. And
I tell you what. His Godhead never ever kept him
from being a man. And his manhood never ever kept
him from being God. Perfect. I don't know how to
explain it. Except there's one person. The Lord Jesus Christ with two.
He's God. And He's the Son. And I tell you what, when we
talk about Him being Jesus, we talk about Him becoming a man.
And that's why we believe that God raised Him from the dead.
Why did He die? Why did our Lord Jesus Christ
die? Why did He raise from the dead?
Well, He died for our offenses. He died for our sin. He died
to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. He subjected himself
to the Father. He subjected himself to God's power. He subjected
himself to God's power. He subjected himself to God's power. He subjected himself to God's
power. He subjected himself to God's power. He subjected himself to
God's power. He subjected himself to God's power. He subjected himself to God's
power. He subjected himself to God's power. He subjected himself to God's
power. He subjected himself to God's power. He subjected himself to God's power. He subjected
himself to God's power. He subjected himself to God's
power. He subjected himself to God's power. He subjected himself to God's
power. He subjected himself to God's power. He subjected himself
to God's power. He subjected himself to God's power. He subjected
himself to God's power. He subjected himself to God's power. He subjected himself to
God's power. He subjected himself to God's power. He subjected himself to God's power. He subjected
himself to God's power. He subjected himself to God's power. He subjected
himself to God's power. He Sins can't be found anymore, they're
gone. Oh, you've got sin, Donnie. No, not as far as God's concerned
I don't. God said, you know, he cast them
as far as east from the west behind his back and he said he'd
remember them never again. The only person who remembers
sin is us. We're the only person who remembers
sin, God doesn't remember. Ain't that right? We're the only one who remembers
them. God doesn't. And I know this, that person,
and me, and me confessing Christ today, I've been brought face
to face, by my confession of faith, that this essential truth,
that if I'm ever saved, The God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ, will have
to save me. And that He alone can save me.
And any other ruined sinner that looks to Him. He alone can save
me. Nobody else can. I was brought
to that essential truth. That if I'm saved, and I still
feel that, James. That if I'm saved, Christ's got
to save me. When I get ready to leave this
world, and it won't be as long as it has been. And some of you
are getting some age on you. And I think we're going to have
a lot of things happen. And when I come down to draw
my last breath, if I'm still in my right mind and I'm not
unconscious, I will know this. I will know this and I'll know
this essential truth. That if God don't save me at
my last breath, I'll be no hope for me if God hasn't saved me
and don't save me. If I look to my righteousness
in any way in my last breath, be no hope for me. But if I look
to Christ alone, look to Him alone, and say, Lord Jesus, You're
all that I've got. Not only are You all that I've
got, but You're all that I need. And then when my eyesprings close
in death, Dressed in His righteousness alone, Faultless to stand before
the throne, Dressed in His righteousness alone. I'll tell you one thing about
confessing Christ. You know what one of the blessed
things about it is? is that this gospel not only
is wonderful to live by, but it's also wonderful to die by.
Amen. And oh, listen, I confess the
Lord Jesus Christ. Look here in Romans 10 with me.
I confess Jesus Christ as Lord and I submit to him. And it says
down there in verse 11, the scripture said, whosoever believeth on
him shall not be ashamed. Now what does that mean? Does
that mean we won't be ashamed to confess Christ? I've been
places where I should have spoke up and I didn't. There's times that I've dishonored
Christ and didn't speak up when I should have. But that's not
what it's talking about me not being ashamed. Me not shaming
and being ashamed of my ways and my actions. This is talking
about not being ashamed whenever we face the Lord. That's what
this is talking about. We'll not be confounded. We're not
ashamed before God. We may fail before men. We may
even sometimes deny our Lord Jesus Christ by things we don't
say and things we should have said and didn't say. But I know
this will not be brought to shame right now before God Himself.
Ain't that right? And I tell you, that's what he
says here. Whosoever believeth on Christ shall not be brought
to shame. That word shame means confounded.
We won't be ashamed and confounded before God when we face God.
And look what it says there in Romans 10, 4. We won't be shamed
before the law. For Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believes. And I believe
that. That's what I confess that Christ
is the end of the law. I'm not going to the law. I'm
not going to the law. I don't want nothing to do with
the law. I don't want nothing to do with the law. I tell you
what, I'm not ashamed before the law. I won't be confounded
before the law because I fell the law some way. Christ fulfilled
the law for me. He's the end of it. And I tell
you, I won't be confounded and ashamed before my own conscience.
You know why? Because the blood of Christ purged
my conscience from dead works to serve the living God. And
let me show you this in Matthew 7. And then I'm done. I'll show you this. Matthew 7. We'll not be shamed and confounded
before the world. Here's some people that were
shamed. Here's some people that were confounded when they got
to the end of the way. Matthew chapter 7 and verse 22. Many will say to me in that day,
That day that they face God, that day that God calls us all
to face Him, that day of judgment, that day of reckoning, that day
when we go one at a time or whatever, many will say to me in that day,
when they get ready to leave this world, when they have to
stand before God, will say to me, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied
and preached in Your name? And in Thy name have we not cast
out devils? And in Thy name done many wonderful
works. And then will I profess unto
them, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work
iniquity." Working iniquity, preaching in His name, working
in iniquity, casting out devils, working iniquity, doing many
wonderful works. They done it without Christ being
their righteousness and their all in all. Talked about what
they done. They didn't talk about what Christ
did. They talked about all that they did. You know that? That's
what they did. I did, I did, we did, in your name, in your
name, we done all these things. And our Lord said, depart from
me. Now I tell you, that won't happen to a believer. That won't
happen to a man who confesses. This is the word of faith which
we preach, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth, the Lord
Jesus Christ, and believe in thine heart that God hath raised
him from the dead. For with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation. And the scripture saith, Whosoever
believeth on him will not be brought to shame. Amen. Our Father, in the blessed, blessed
name of our Christ, our Lord, our blessed Savior, oh, what
a wonderful confession of faith we have. We confess Christ to
be our all. We confess Him to be everything
to us. We have no one to go to but Him. And oh, Lord, we bless Him for
our salvation, bless Him for our righteousness, Bless him
that we'll not be brought to shame when we leave this world.
Won't be brought to shame right now before the thrice holy God.
We may be ashamed of what we do and say and think, but Lord,
we'll never be ashamed. Christ won't never shame us and
won't never deny us. Won't never cast us out. We thank you for that blessed
truth. God save you people in this place. We're asking Christ's
name. Amen. Amen.