All right, again, Romans chapter
10. I will overlap just a little
of what I'm gonna read from the verses that I will read, a few
verses from last week, just so we have the context in mind here
for the verses that I'm going to read. Romans chapter 10, I'll
begin in verse eight. But what saith it? Now he's gonna
define that in here in just a moment. But what saith it? The word is
nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart. Here it is. That is, the word of faith which
we preach. Now that's my title, the word
of faith which we preach. Now he begins to define. 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. For with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation. For the scripture saith, whosoever
believeth on him that is on Christ, shall not be ashamed. For there
is no difference between the Jew and the Greek, for the same
Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then
shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how
shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And
how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent? As it is written, how beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring
glad tidings of good things. In these verses that I just read
to you, Paul expresses, as I've already said, the word of faith
which we preach. It is expressed thus, or it's
expressed in this way, and I'll just give you five things. I'll
go back and read them, make a few comments, and then we'll move
ahead. I got three main points I want to give you, but here's
these. This word of faith which we preach, again, is expressed
in these five things. This is how it's expressed. The
word of faith which we preach is this, mouth confession of
the lordship of Jesus Christ. The word of faith which we preach,
that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, that does not mean that
someone who is physically mute cannot be saved. That's not at
all, but I'm not here to deal with all the what ifs, okay? I'm not here to deal with all
the what ifs. But the word of faith which we
preach must have this element with it, or it's not the word
of faith that comes from God. Men preach a lot of things, but
they're not sin of God. And so this word of faith which
we preach has this caveat about it, if you will. Mouth confession
of the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Secondly, this word of faith
which we preach has this caveat. Heart belief that God raised
Christ from the dead. Last part of verse nine. And
shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from
the dead, thou shalt be saved. Now let me just say this. This
is not a one-time belief. This is not walking forward at
the end of some message when some altar call is given and
making some mere profession of faith and then going on about
your merry business and maybe showing up for church services
every once in a while. Has nothing at all to do with
that. It has to do with heart belief,
not the muscle, but what makes you you. What makes you you,
heart belief. that God raised Christ from the
dead. It's not just historical belief. It's heart belief. Thousands, I fear, thousands
have a physical confession, Christ is Lord. They say the word, Christ
is Lord. And they believe God raised him from the dead. But
it's just technical. It's not coming from within who
they really are. The third caveat of this word
of faith which we preach is calling on the name of the Lord. Verse
12, for there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek,
for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon
him. Your station in life, who you are personally, does not
matter. if you confess with your mouth
the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart God raised him from
the dead. Doesn't matter if you're Jew or a Gentile, poor or rich,
black or white, red, purple, yellow, it doesn't matter. Doesn't
matter whether you're rich or poor, male or female, for whosoever,
that's a broad word, but it is not universal. It's broad, but
it's not universal. It is universal only to those
that call on the name of the Lord. If you never call on the
name of the Lord, you're not in the whosoever. So you see
that? So that is the third caveat. Here is the fourth caveat of
this, the word of faith which we preach. No shame in the personal
work of Christ. For whosoever, for the scripture
saith, and this ain't Paul's own personal take. He said this
is what the book of God has already said. For the scripture saith,
whosoever believeth on him. That's Christ. That's Christ. Whosoever believeth on him shall
not be ashamed. Now, be ashamed of themselves?
Oh yes, most definitely they will be ashamed of themselves.
If you're not ashamed of yourself, you're not a part of that people
Paul was preaching about and Joe was preaching about. God
brings his people to feel most fully ashamed of themselves. With Job they cry out, I've heard
of you with the hearing of my ear, but now mine eye seeth thee. And he's not talking about physically
seeing God. He's saying now I've experienced God for who he is.
And I've heard of you with the hearing of my ear, but now my
eye seeth thee, wherefore I hate myself. You see that? And I repent in dust and ashes. So no shame in the personal work
of Christ. I'm not ashamed of him. I'm not ashamed of his gospel.
Don't be ashamed of me, his prisoner. Don't be ashamed of God's people.
As faulty and sinful as we are, we are his people. We ought to
take up for one another not beholding one another down and that's hard
to do Because a man or a woman who's trying to hold someone
else down does so because they're trying to exalt themselves And
all of that still dwells right down in here But we're not ashamed
of him We're not ashamed of his person. We're not ashamed of
his work. That is who he really is and
What he really did Most people are being lied about as to who
Jesus Christ really is and what he really did. Let me try to
illustrate this. I understand it won't be a perfect
illustration by any means. Let's say you are totally, I
mean really down and out, and you've had some catastrophe happen
in your life, this financial crushing, and you have no way
whatsoever of paying this debt. The bank won't loan you money.
The boss can't give you a raise. Even family and friends that
you know, they can't help you. They're kind of exhausted too.
And you find out here there's this rich billionaire that's
willing to help people that's in your plight. And his name
is Walter Pendleton. Cry unto him. Seek him. Find him. And you'll find help. So you travel down to 525 Browns
Road, Princeton, West Virginia, 24739. Walk up to the house,
knock on the door, and it says Walter Pendleton there. And I
come to the door. I say, yes, I'm Walter Pendleton. And you cry out unto me. Guess
what you're going to get? Nothing. I don't have anything
to help you. You're looking to the wrong Walter
Pendleton. You gotta be seeking the right
Lord Jesus Christ, because almost everybody uses the title, but
they don't preach the true person and the true work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Here's the fifth caveat to this,
the word of faith which we preach. This is, God has declared, This is, that this word of faith
comes by God's ordained means and God's ordained means only. Look at it. How then shall they
call on him in whom they have not believed? So you got to believe
first before calling would do you any good. You don't try to
get people, just call on the Lord, call on the Lord, you can't.
It's of no value unless you first believe. Do you see it? This
is God's ordained order. This ain't just the wise way
to do it, this is the only way God does it. You hear what I'm
saying? You say, well, I don't like that
way. Then you're in trouble. You're in trouble. How then shall
they call on him in whom they've not believed? How shall they
believe in him of whom they have not heard? And thousands know
the name, the Lord Jesus Christ, but they've never really heard
of him. They don't know who he really is. I've seen him all
over the place. God opens a small door and you
begin to speak to somebody about who Jesus Christ really is, it's
like you're talking to some alien. Or about some alien. They have
no, what? I've never heard that before.
Then I don't care if you say the words of the Lord Jesus Christ,
you're lost. You're lost. How then shall they
call on him of whom they have not believed? How shall they
believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they
hear without a preacher? And these preacher are fallen
men just like everybody else. I don't like that. You better
bow to it. You better pray God conquer this
hatred that's within me for your ordained means. I'll not listen
to a man, then you'll go to hell. Paul, wasn't it Paul, wouldn't
you quote it? The rich man said, you know, send somebody back,
send Lazarus back. Send somebody back to tell my
brothers. And Father Abraham said, if they don't hear Moses
and the prophets, they won't hear anybody. You're going to
come, you're going to be brought by God through his ordained means
or you will never be brought. It's that simple. How shall they
hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent? Now, I don't say it directly
here, but guess who does this sending? God must do this sending. There's a lot of preachers out
there preaching a lot of stuff, but God didn't send them. How
do I know? They're not telling the truth
about the person and work of Jesus Christ. I mean, there are
men who go into the ministry as their occupation. If anybody has went into the
ministry as their occupation, I'm not saying that the pastor
ought not be supported and taken care of as best as that assembly's
ability is, but if a man's seeking the place of preaching simply
as his way of making money, he's not sent of God. He's not to
preach for filthy lucre. And as I've illustrated, most
of the time when you see a man entering, of course nowadays
you've got all kinds of its and stuff entering the ministry,
but be that as it may, when a man enters the ministry, when he
begins to become a preacher, and he begins to move on up the
ladder, because all jobs don't you know you have to move on
up the ladder. You know, if you start in a business and you're
sweeping the floor, by the time you put in 25, 30 years, Mac,
you wanna be doing something a little different, with maybe
a little more money, prestige, whatever. Men treat preaching
just like that. The pastorate, just like that.
And it's amazing how most, I'm not saying all, but most men
who move from one local assembly or one church or whatever you
want to call it, to another, it's always to bigger and better
and more. Rarely ever will one take a pay
cut to go preach to fewer people in a more troublesome neighborhood.
Now do they? You know it, you know it. And
how shall they preach except they be sent? And I'll just stop
with that right now. Three things. Heart belief, now
listen to me. I want to try to show us, or
I want to say something and pray God shows us this this morning. Heart belief must precede mouth
confession. Even though mouth confession
is stated first in verse nine. If you ever read 9 and 10 and
said, well, Paul switched the order. Yes, he did. And there's
a reason why he switched the order. Have you ever wondered
about that? I did too. When I first started
reading this, I thought, okay, how do I deal with this? Well,
you don't try to start making up stuff. I'm not saying what
I'm gonna give you is everything, but listen to me. Heart belief
must proceed mouth confession, for with the heart, man believeth
unto righteousness. That's where it starts. and with
the mouth confession is made unto salvation. You can say it
all day long, but if you don't believe it down in here. You
can say his name all day long. You can call on his name all
day long, but if you don't believe him, believe him down in here,
it's useless. It's just a religious practice.
Heart belief must precede mouth confession. But, the verse before
he says, 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. Now listen to me. False Christianity. Here's what they say. We need
to get professions of faith. We need to get professions of
faith. You need to come to faith in Christ. No, you need to come
to Christ in faith. And somebody said, you're mincing
words. Yes, I am. I intend to. We need to have people come to
faith in Christ. No! We need to have people come
to Christ in faith. There's a big world of difference
between those two things. False Christianity says we need
to get professions of faith. No, what we need is for God to
give a good heart that's receptive to the word of faith which we
preach. Luke 8 verse 15, our Lord was clear. This is his explanation
of the parable of the seed and the sower. He says those that
the word of faith, this preaching of the good word of God falls
on different kinds of ground, but there's one that's called
good ground. And if you're not good ground,
The word of faith which we preach will be of no value to you. Matter
of fact, it may even make your condemnation worse, because you
may believe it for a while, and then go into apostasy, and your
latter ends worse than your beginning. Yeah, false Christianity. Get
professions. No, we need God to give a good
heart. He came into his own, his own
received him not, but as many as received him, to them gave
he power to become the sons of God. Even to them, to what? Believe
on his name. Don't rest in your saying it.
but have comfort in the fact that you believe it. I didn't
say rest in the fact, I said have comfort in the fact that
you believe it. Ah, which believe in his name,
which were born. God's gotta do, God's gotta act
first before you'll ever spiritually act toward him. 1 John, God again,
1 John 5 verse one, whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ
is born of God. So again, heart belief must precede
mouth confession. So why this reversal? Verse nine
is showing the precedent of the lordship of Jesus Christ. When
you do confess, you must confess his lordship. because believing
God raised him from the dead and you don't confess he is Lord,
it's useless. You're just believing a historical
fact rather than bowing to a literal, actual person. That's why it's
stated in that order in verse nine. He is emphasizing the lordship
of Jesus Christ. Believing historical facts don't
cut it, yet I'm afraid millions have believed historical facts,
are decent moral people. They go to church and they're
gonna die and go to hell. Because they can't confess with
their mouth that Jesus Christ is the absolute ruler of all
things in this universe. From what seems to be the most
insignificant speck of dust, to a cosmic sun out there burning
billions of degrees that heats up a world and helps give people
life. He controls it all. And if it's
10 brothers selling another brother into slavery, evil dastardly
act. They intended to kill him at
first, and God moved one of them to stop that show. Said, we're
not gonna kill him, but we'll just sell him off. God told them
people through that very man himself later on, many years
later, you meant it to me for evil, but God meant it for good. I'm saying Jesus Christ is Lord. He was Lord when he hung on that
tree, and men were torturing him. He suffered them to do all
that. And why did he do that? For this
group of people right here. For this group of people. I'm
telling you, God's in charge of the best of the best and the
worst of the worst. From the most evil act in this
world, whatever that is, and I'm not gonna try to figure that
out myself, whatever it is, from the most evil act in this world
to the most glorious, righteous act in this world, God Almighty
in the person of Jesus Christ controls it all. He's Lord over men's souls. He'll
save you or he'll damn you at his sovereign discretion. I've
never heard of that Jesus and you ain't heard of this Christ,
God's Christ. Number two, heart belief and
mouth confession are not duties to be performed. That's the way
most people think of it. It's called, it wasn't, they
called the Fullerites. And they even had some Calvinistic leanings,
but they thought that faith and repentance, that confession and
all of these things that men do in here and outwardly manifest
itself in some public confession, that was your duty to do, even
as one of the elect. No, it's not, it's a gift of
God. The hearing ear and the seeing
eye, God made both of them. God's gotta give you a belief
in your heart. He's gotta give you a heart to believe with because
the one you're born with won't do it and can't do it and will
not do it. It just won't. He's gotta give you a new heart. Again, heart, belief, and mouth
confession are not duties to be performed, no sir. That's
damning teaching. That's the doctrine of devils
that Paul warned about. These things, this heart belief
and mouth confession are an inward and outward response to God's
Christ being preached. Every time. No matter how bad
your day is. No matter how much your flesh
resisted. If you've been given this heart
by God, there will be this inward and outward response, I believe
Jesus Christ and he is Lord. God raised him from the dead
with all that that includes. He didn't just die a normal death
and God raised him up, he died as a substitute and a sacrifice
for sinners. Again, these things, this heart
belief and mouth confession, they are the inward and outward
responses to God's Christ being preached, heard, and believed,
and called upon. Most people, though I called
on the Lord way back yonder, you're still not calling on him?
You still have no need of his mercy and grace and forgiveness?
The older I get, the more I recognize I need it. I thought things might
get a little better, but they haven't, they've gotten worse.
My flesh raises its ugly head. Now maybe, maybe this is only
a part of it in my mind. Let me explain. It seems as though
now my flesh rises up much more than when I was younger. But
I think that when I was younger, I was just ignorant of the flesh.
I didn't understand it as much as I do now. It was always there
and it always showed itself, but I had ways of kind of skirting
it to the side. Now I can't get away from it.
and as old age begins to come upon you, it becomes more difficult
and difficult just to believe God. Because your mind wanders. You worry about things which
you didn't used to worry about. You complain about things when
you know God's in charge of it. But if you could hear Christ
preached, it don't cause you to say, oh, he's Lord. God raised
him from the dead. I'm not ashamed of him. Then
you missed something somewhere. You missed something somewhere.
And this, listen to me now, this does not at all in any way depend
upon the hearer. The hearer. Now something's got
to be done for the hearer, yes. But right here in our text, I
didn't read those because I'm gonna save that for more detail
later, but look at it. Paul refers to it, now some say
he infers, no, he refers to it, verse 20. But Isaiah, so that
is Isaiah, is very bold. He said this is a very bold statement.
And if you make this statement and tell people what it really
means, emphasize it for what it really is, they'll think,
boy, that's awful bold. Now they may have some other
choice words they wanna call it too, but I won't mention those.
Well, I was gonna say in mixed company, but it probably ought
not be mentioned mixed company or not. But Esaias is very bold
and saith, I was found of them that sought me not. It don't depend upon the hearer,
it depends upon God. It does not say, Isaiah did not
say, I was manifest unto some, and there was a time they didn't
seek after me. Mm, it's not even that. I was made manifest unto
them that sought not after me. You don't seek him until he manifests
himself to you in the preaching of the gospel by the power of
the Holy Ghost. That's the order, that's the
way it works. But Isaiah says very bold and saith, I was found
unto them that sought me not. I was made manifest unto them
that asked not after me. while some people hate that truth.
And will part with you from, even blood kin will part with
you and never speak to you again because of that truth and all
it entails. That's my only hope. Because
I was not seeking after him. Oh, I was seeking after a Jesus,
but it wasn't this Lord Jesus Christ. But he was pleased and
free sovereign mercy to manifest himself to me. Not because I'm
anything. We love Him because He first
loved us. His love for us is the actual
reason and fountain for us loving Him. It didn't say we love Him
but He first loved us. That's the way most people think
of it, right? We love Him because. His love is the cause of our
love for Him. If he loves you, he has always
loved you, and will always love you, and he will bring you to
love him. But he's gonna narrow it down into one man, Jesus Christ
the Lord. Now, that's my third point. Heart,
belief, and mouth confession are toward a person. Well, I
believe this, I believe that. No, I don't care how correct
this and that is. We believe in a person. For the
scripture saith, whosoever believeth on him, on him, on him, shall
not be ashamed. What? Of him, of him. Again, heart, belief, a mouth,
confession are toward a person. They are not a mere act to be
engaged in to get God to do something for you. But that's what most
people are taught. They're not even taught a proper
mouth confession or proper belief in the Lord Jesus and confessing
that he's the Lord Jesus. They're not even taught that,
but people are taught, you do these two things, God's gotta
save you. That ain't so if you just do them. But is it a part
of who you are? Even when you kept your mouth
shut about the Lord when you thought you shouldn't have, you
still ain't ashamed of him, you're just afraid of yourself. afraid
of what you might say wrong or do wrong. And then sometimes
God gives you that liberty to speak with somebody. Mack, it
just kind of comes out. They may believe it, they may
not. I tell you what, it's hard to sit and talk to somebody when
they said tar them and feather them, get them out. That makes
it tough. And they weren't kidding and joking, they were yelling
and screaming. That makes you a little gun shy. But you're
still not ashamed of Christ. Men love to be told, do this
for God and God will do this for you. Don't they? They love
that kind of gospel. I call it that kind of perversion.
Men love to be told, do this for God and God will do this
for you. Men seek and experience ralt of their own efforts rather
than engaging in faith to seek a person. You hear what I just
said? I said men seek and experience
wrought of their own efforts, a confession, a belief, wrought
of their own efforts rather than engaging in faith to seek out
a person, a particular person, the Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
Jesus Christ the Lord, God manifest in the flesh. People are looking
for an experience of righteousness and salvation rather than looking
to Christ for both. I wanna confess. so I can be saved, I wanna believe
so I can be righteous. Ain't that what's taught today?
That's not what Paul's teaching here. Again, people are looking
for an experience of righteousness and salvation rather than looking
to Christ for both righteousness and salvation. Salvation is in
a person. I'm summarizing, almost done.
Salvation's in a person. A man called Simeon comes into
the temple. A little baby, eight days old, is coming, a little
male baby, little Jewish male baby's being brought by his parents
into the temple to be circumcised, and that old man takes up that
little baby. Said, God, I can die now. I'm paraphrasing, but
I can die now, because mine eyes have seen thy salvation. It was that baby. Do you see
it? That baby, that's the person,
that's the one. But he ain't no baby no more.
He's the Lord of glory seated at the right hand of God the
Father with all the power of all flesh being given into his
hand. And righteousness is a person. We already read that, brethren.
My heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might
be saved, for I bear them record. They have a zeal of God, but
not according to knowledge, for they being ignorant of God's
righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness.
And people do it by confessing and believing all the time, trying
to establish their own rather than confessing and believing
in him who is the righteousness of God. Somebody say, you're
mincing words. You bet I am. It's the difference
between your soul maybe going to hell or maybe going to glory.
For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believeth. Father, oh God, burn these truths
or this truth into our hearts and minds. We praise you in Christ's
name, amen.