In any assembly of God's people,
where those who are charged with the responsibility of spreading
the diet of God's truth have any sense of their God-given
responsibility, they will be concerned not only to mark out
a course of ministry that in due course will aim at covering
what Paul calls the whole counsel of God, but they will from time
to time bring into sharp focus and unmistakable articulation
the very nerve centers of the Christian faith. And it is that
latter responsibility that I wish to undertake by the help of God
tonight as I speak on the very fundamental and basic theme of
what does it mean to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. or
approaching it from another standpoint, I will be speaking topically
on the subject, the nature and the actings of saving faith. What does it mean to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ? I cannot remember a Lord's Day
in this place, one in one way or another. Some degree of a
summons did not go forth from this pulpit that men and women,
boys and girls, should believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. One
of the Puritans stated that in the assemblies of Christ's people,
every Lord's Day, Christ is freely and fully offered in the gospel. And I pray God that will ever
be true in this place. However, it is important from
time to time to take that very theme that is woven through the
warp and woof of any ministry that is biblical and to focus
in upon it in a very explicit way, lest there should be those
among us who stumble along and never really grasp the heart
of this which is a matter of life and of death. And in order
to persuade each one of you that you ought seriously to engage
your mind as we wrestle with this question, what does it mean
to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? Let me set before you,
by way of introduction, three of the most fundamental truths
that lie at the heart of biblical religion. The first is that all
men are sinners and are by nature under the wrath and condemnation
of God. That truth lies at the very heart
of true and saving religion, that all of us are by nature
sinners under the wrath and condemnation of God. You are familiar with
the texts that clearly state this. In Romans chapter 3, the
apostle says in verse 10, as it is written, there is none
righteous, no, not one. There is none that understands.
There is none that seeks after God. And down in verse 19 he
says that now we know that whatsoever things the law says, it says
to them that are under the law that every mouth may be stopped
and all the world may become guilty before God. You children,
many of you have memorized the words of Isaiah the prophet,
all we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned every one of us
to his own way. Romans 5 in verse 12, As through
one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and
so death passed upon all men, for that all sinned. This is
a very pillar of revealed religion, that all of us are sinners by
nature and under the wrath and condemnation of God. But secondly,
At the heart of revealed biblical religion is the truth that God
has graciously provided one remedy for sinful man in the person
and work of Jesus Christ. God has graciously provided one
remedy for sinful man in the person and work of Jesus Christ. He himself declared this in John
14, 6, I am the way, not one way among many, the truth, not
a truth among others, and the life, no man comes to the Father
but by me. Or the words of the Apostle Peter
in Acts chapter 4 and verse 12, neither is there salvation in
any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among
men, whereby we must be saved. God has graciously provided but
one remedy for sinful man, and that in the person and work of
Jesus Christ. But then there is a third truth,
and this brings us closer to the heart of our subject that
lies at the very nerve centers of biblical religion, and that
is this, that the divinely provided remedy for guilty, wrath-deserving
sinners, is appropriated by faith alone. The divinely provided
remedy for wrath-deserving sinners is appropriated by faith alone. Surely this is taught in the
most well-known verse of the New Testament. For God so loved
the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever
believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Or Romans 1 16, I am not ashamed
of the gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation to
everyone who believes. It is the power of God to salvation
to everyone who believes. Or the familiar words of Ephesians
2, 8 and 9, for by grace you have been saved through faith
and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God not of works
that no man should boast or the familiar words of Paul and Silas
to that distressed jailer who conscious that he stood naked
and exposed before the God who shook the jailhouse The God who
so worked in his servants that they could be singing songs and
hymns of praise at midnight when unjustly brutalized, when he
cried out, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? They did not give
him a complex answer. They said, Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. So these three fundamental
truths lie at the very heart of revealed religion. All men
are sinners, and by nature under wrath and condemnation. God has
provided one remedy for sinful man in the person and work of
his son, and that the divinely provided remedy for guilty, wrath-deserving
sinners is appropriated by faith alone. Now, not by a faith that
will remain alone, or by a faith that is divorced from any other
acting of the soul. The Bible makes clear that saving
faith will always have a Siamese twin. It's called repentance. And it will always have children
that are called love to Christ and obedience to Christ. But
you will search the Bible in vain to find one verse that says
we are saved by repentance, or saved by love to Christ, or saved
by obedience to Christ. But you will find dozens of texts
which say we are saved by the instrumentality of faith. And so reducing the heart of
the Bible's saving message to its irreducible elements, we
may say, salvation is for sinners alone. Salvation is by Christ
alone. And salvation is by faith alone. Now that's not complicated, is
it? It's for sinners alone. It is by Christ alone. it is through faith alone now
let me ask you a question if you were the devil if you were
if you were the devil and you hated God and all that God is
and all that God does and you hated every creature made in
the image of God and he does he's hated by He hates every
single one of us. Every one of us is hated by the
devil because we were made in the image of the God he hates.
Now if you were the devil and you hated God and all of his
purposes and you hated creatures made in his image and you were
determined to drag them into your own ultimate destiny, the
lake of fire, how would you do it? In the light of these truths
that lie at the very nerve centers of all vital, saving, revealed
religion, how would you do it? Would you not attempt to keep
men ignorant of their true condition as sinners, so that they would
feel no need of Christ? You would try to blind men to
their true condition as guilty, helpless, hell-deserving sinners. Or if you failed there, You would
then try to blind them to the glory of God's provision for
sinners in the person and work of Christ. You would try to whittle
Christ down to something less than what He is in the uniqueness
of His person as the God, Man, Christ Jesus. Or you would try
to whittle away at the nature of His work on behalf of sinners,
His substitutionary bloodletting, His vicarious sacrifice of Himself,
His literal bodily resurrection from the dead, which was God's
vindication of the validity of His work for sinners. You would
either blind men to their need of Christ, or blind them to God's
provision in Christ, or thirdly, you'd seek to confuse them about
the one way to lay hold of Christ. And that would be to confuse
them about the nature of saving faith. Now, you don't need to
be a great logician to come to the conclusion, do you? If you
were the devil, and hated God, and hated image bearers of God,
and you were determined that they would not know the blessedness
of His salvation, would you not wage your warfare at one or more
of those fronts, blind men to their need? stupefy them to think
they are something other than what they really are, sinners
accountable to God, under the wrath of God, helpless to deliver
themselves from their sin, or to blind them to the glory of
God in the face of Christ, or confuse them on the question,
how can Christ be theirs? Now it's out of the conviction
found in scripture and validated in the history of the church
and in biography and in our own observation that the devil greatly
succeeds in that third area in every generation. And it is for
that purpose that I wish tonight to speak to you very pointedly
and simply on the subject, what does it mean to believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ? What is the nature and what are
the properties of that faith that is unto salvation? Not that we are going to make
a Savior of our faith. Christ and Christ alone is the
Savior. But He is received by faith alone. And therefore it is crucial that
we have a biblical understanding of what does it mean to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. And I want to lay before you
three simple statements which embody the heart of the biblical
teaching concerning the nature and the properties of saving
faith. Now remember, we're not talking
about faith in general or the faith that should be suffused
in our prayers. We're talking about that faith
to which the Bible refers when it says, by grace are you saved
through faith. That faith which is spoken of
in the words of Paul and Silas to the jailer, believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ. And the first thing we must understand
concerning the nature of saving faith is this. In saving faith,
the sinner brings nothing but his sin to Christ. In saving faith, The sinner brings
nothing of his own but sin in his coming to Christ. In saving
faith, the sinner brings nothing but his sin to Christ. Now this is one of the biggest
stumbling blocks to the person whom the Lord has mercifully
released from the first attempt of the devil to destroy his soul. God has used the ministry of
the Word, the prickings of conscience through the Spirit acting by
the Word, to strip away all sense of self-sufficiency. The man,
the woman, the boy or girl has come to a felt consciousness,
I am a sinner. I am guilty before God. I am helpless to go up into heaven
and scrub out the record that is against me. I am a sinner. I have nothing to commend myself
to God. I have nothing that can earn
the favor of God. What must I do to be saved? Well, perhaps for years that
person thought, oh, being saved, simple thing. When I get around
to it, I can just believe on Jesus. I've heard all my life,
believe on Jesus, believe on Jesus. When I get good and ready,
I'll believe. However, there's a problem. Let that person begin
to know something of real Holy Spirit conviction. And now the
biggest problem in the world is how can a holy God do anything
other than damn me? I've sinned against light. I've
sinned against privilege. I've sinned against the Word
of God and the overtures of the grace of God. And now I'm being
told that all I need do to have all of that mountain of sin is
cast myself upon Christ alone, that I must bring absolutely
nothing to God, no vows that I will be this and that and do
this and that, no track record that I am sincere. You mean I
am to simply take my soul in all of its native stain and ugliness
and hell-deservingness and cast it wholly upon Jesus Christ? And I answer, yes, you must. For in saving faith, The sinner
brings nothing but his sin to Christ. Saving faith is the empty
hand taking a full salvation in a gracious Savior. John 1.12,
As many as received Him, to them gave ye the right to become the
children of God, even to them that believe on His name. Believing on His name is receiving
Him, the empty hand that takes a full salvation in a gracious
Savior. According to John 7, faith is
the thirsty soul drinking of the water of life. Jesus said,
If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. As the scripture
says, He that believes on me, out of his innermost being shall
flow rivers of living water. Faith is the naked soul coming
to be clothed in the righteousness of Christ. 1 Corinthians 1.30,
But of God are you in Christ who is made unto us righteousness. The prophet says, He hath clothed
me in the garment of salvation. Faith is the empty hand that
takes a full salvation in a gracious Savior. It is the thirsty soul
drinking of the water of life, the naked soul being clothed
in the robes of another. In the light of John 3, it is
the bitten soul looking to the uplifted serpent of brass. As Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up that
whosoever believes on Him. Those Israelites who had been
bitten by the serpents as a judgment from God upon their murmuring
against Moses What did they need to do when Moses lifted up that
serpent of brass? They brought nothing to that
serpent of brass, but they're lying with eyes as they were
heading down to an untimely death. And it says, as many as, look,
lived. You see, this is a stumbling
block to the natural man. And I want you to turn now, I've
quoted many passages from memory in your hearing, but I want you
to get this passage through the eye gate as well as the ear gate,
in Romans chapter 4, where Paul has been hammering
out this truth that the salvation that God has provided for guilty
sinners is received by faith alone. He writes in Romans 4
and verse 4, Now to him that works, the reward is not reckoned
as of grace, but as of debt. But to him that does not work,
but believes on him, now notice, that justifies the ungodly. His faith is reckoned for righteousness. At the point that God justifies
a man or woman or boy or girl, what is his or her condition?
Our text says he or she is ungodly. Now they won't remain ungodly.
They will not continue in the state of ungodliness. But at
the point that justifying faith is exercised, that sinner is
perceived in his own eyes as ungodly. That's what he is. And God delights to justify the
ungodly. That person brings nothing of
his own to Christ but his sin. And rather than being rejected
when he comes with nothing to bring but his sin, God for Christ's
sake, on the grounds of the perfect righteousness of Christ, declares
that ungodly sinner just as if he'd never sinned. And you see, What seems to be
so simple when you have no felt pangs of Holy Ghost conviction
becomes a tremendous problem because it goes counter to all
of our natural instincts to think that the gracious, almighty,
holy God of heaven and earth will upon the souls throwing
itself upon Christ. blood of all of its sin, declare
that one righteous with a legal title to heaven, I say it reverently,
so God himself is legally bound to bring the believing sinner
into his presence as much as he was bound to receive his son
back to his presence after he had raised him from the dead. And this is why the apostle and
his companion could say to that jailer who cried out, Sirs, what
must I do to be saved? They didn't have to say, well,
it all depends. We got to know a little bit more about your
background. And if this and this has been true of you, then you
need to do this and this and this. And then eventually you
may be warranted to believe on the Lord Jesus. They didn't need
to ask anything about his background. They didn't need to ask anything
about the depth and the nature of his past life of sin. Sensing
that this man cried out of an awareness that he had to have
dealings with a God who shakes a jailhouse, looses the prisoner,
but then restrains them from all busting loose and going to
the four points of the compass, he's seen this mighty manifestation
of the power of God in the physical realm, In the moral realm, Paul
and Silas praising God at midnight, though they'd been unjustly treated,
restraining these prisoners who, though their shackles fell off,
did not bust loose from the prison. And he wants to have dealings
with this God in a way of saving mercy. And without any tongue
in cheek, they say in answer to his question, Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. Think of the thief
on the cross. His sins were of such a nature
that even society said he's not worthy to remain among us. And
when he cries out, Lord, remember me, Jesus does not say, well,
I'd like to. But if I declare that by simply
acknowledging me to be who I am, simply by saying, Lord, remember
me when you come in your kingdom, simply acknowledging that I am
God's king and that I do exercise a reign and rule of grace and
that I will come through my immolation upon the cross and into my kingdom
in resurrection life and power if I were to declare openly that
you are forgiven and accepted and given an entrance to heaven
simply by calling upon me why that would give such no no it
doesn't give any misconception It is a marvelous validation
of the very nature of what it means to believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. And so he says, today you shall
be with me in paradise. He couldn't even come down off
the cross and make a public confession. He couldn't be baptized. He had
no time to write out a litany of resolutions as to how he would
serve and honor his newfound Savior and King. He cries out
just a short while before he breathes his last, Lord, remember
me when you come in your kingdom. And Jesus, delighting to display
the firstfruits of his sufferings with someone hanging on a cross
next to him, says today, you should be with me. in paradise. And then think of that publican
in Luke 18. What does he bring to God? Beautiful
example of this. The Pharisee stands off. He's
got a lot of things to bring to God. He knows he needs to
be right with God. So he said, now God, here's all
my brownie points. I fast. I tithe. And by the way, God, I want you
to know I'm a notch above the rest of men. I am not this, that,
and the other. And I'm not even like this publican.
He brought all kinds of stuff to God. What did the publican
bring? He brought nothing but his sin.
He cried out, God be propitious to me, be merciful to me, be
disposed in propitiatory grace and mercy to me, the sinner. That's all he brought, was the
reality, the ugly, stark reality of his sinnerhood. And what did
Jesus say? This man went down to his house justified. That's what Jesus said. What
did he bring? Nothing but his sin. What did
he go away with? Nothing but a righteousness imputed
to him on the grounds of the death of Jesus that was yet to
be accomplished in space time history but in the mind of God
has been accomplished from eternity. He is the lamb slain from before
the foundation of the world. So dear children, you struggle
with this. You hear so much. You memorize
your catechism and you ought to memorize your verses. You
hear mommy and daddy speak about the necessity of being converted
and believing on Jesus. And you wonder, well, what must
I do? And what are the things in the
peace? Dear children, young people reared in the midst of gospel
light, I pray God by the Holy Spirit will open your eyes to
see the beautiful simplicity, saving faith, you bring nothing
but your sin to Christ and he never turned anyone away who
came with nothing but his sin he'll turn away any who comes
with anything else but when you come with nothing but your sin
crying with the blind beggar son of David have mercy on me
the Lord doesn't say well what do you got to pledge to me in
exchange for my mercy. There is no exchange. There is
no pledge. In the language of the well-known
hymn, Nothing in my hand I bring. Simply to thy cross I cling. Foul, foul I to the fountain
fly. I bring nothing but my sin. And
there will be people damned for their unwillingness to believe
that simple truth as much as people will be damned for pridefully
refusing to acknowledge that they are sinners. For just as
pridefully refusing to own your sinnerhood will keep you from
ever going to Christ, thinking you must bring something other
than your sin to Christ will keep you from casting yourself
upon May God grant that you will not be deceived by the enemy
of your soul into thinking that you must bring anything other
than your sin to Christ. But then quickly in the second
place, when we ask the question, what is saving faith? What is
the nature and what are the properties of saving faith? Not only do
we need to understand that in saving faith, the sinner brings
nothing but his sin to Christ. But secondly, in saving faith,
the sinner receives a whole Christ and all that is in Him. In saving
faith, the sinner receives a whole Christ and all that is in Him. Now listen carefully. This is
not playing with words. In the Scriptures, the object
of saving faith is always the Savior Himself. Christ himself
in the glory of his person and the perfection of his work is
always set forth as the object of saving faith. Think for example
of the familiar text we've already quoted tonight. God so loved
the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes
in his death for sinners. That's the way a lot of people
read the text and talk about it. If you believe in Christ,
cross work for sinners. That's not what the text says.
Look at your Bible. What does it say? Whosoever believeth
in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. He that
believes on the Son hath everlasting life, John says in 1 John 5. Thou shalt call His name Jesus,
Matthew 1.21, for He it is that shall save His people from their
sins. Or 1 Timothy 1.15. This is a
faithful saying worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus
came into the world. Sinners to save. Who came to
save? Christ Jesus Himself. And so the object of saving faith
again and again in the Scriptures is Christ Himself. Now, not any
Christ that we would make Him to be the Christ of biblical
revelation. That means the Christ who is
set before us as the God-man. And the Christ who is set before
us as the one who lived a perfect life, died a substitutionary
death, was raised from the dead, ascended to the right hand of
God the Father. But it is never His incarnation
It is never merely His crucifixion or His resurrection that is set
forth as the object of saving faith. It is the person who was
incarnate, the person who died, the person who rose, the person
who was exalted to the right hand of the Father. And now God
says, in that person is all of my salvation. In him there is
complete pardon for all of our sins. Look at Acts chapter 13
for an example of this wonderful declaration of one of the cardinal
blessings that is offered to sinners in this person. Acts
chapter 13. Paul is preaching and he's bringing
his sermon to a conclusion and says in verse 38, Be it known
unto you therefore brethren that through this man is proclaimed
unto you remission of sins and by him Everyone that believes
is justified from all things from which you could not be justified
by the law of Moses. Through this man is proclaimed
remission of sins by him, everyone that believes. is justified. Complete pardon for all of our
sins is proclaimed in Christ. A perfect righteousness is proclaimed
in Christ. Romans 5.19, through the disobedience
of the one Adam, the many are constituted sinners. So through
the obedience of the one Christ Jesus, the many are constituted
Righteous adoption into the family of God. John 1.12, as many as
received Him. He gives the right to become
the children of God. The gift of the Spirit is offered
in Christ. Galatians 3.13 and 14, Christ
redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for
us. To what end? That upon the Gentiles might
come the blessing of Abraham. That we might receive the Spirit
by faith. The gift of the Spirit is offered
in Christ. Deliverance from bondage to sin. John 8.35 Whom the Son sets free
is free indeed. Eternal life that extends on
into the ages of the ages. He that hears My word and believes
Him that sent Me shall not come into condemnation, but is passed
from death unto life. He that believes on Me, He said,
has eternal life. What is offered in Christ? Complete
pardon for all of our sins. A perfect righteousness. Adoption
into the family of God. The gift of the Spirit. Deliverance
from bondage to sin. The pledge and certainty of eternal
life. These and many more. God has
stored them all up in His beloved Son. He doesn't parcel out of
one of them outside of Christ. But He doesn't deny one of them
to any. who are in Christ. And so he
says in the Gospel, I set my Son before you. Believe on, believe
upon, believe into, believe in. This is the emphasis of the New
Testament, that Christ Himself in the uniqueness and glory of
His person and in all the perfection of His work He is the object
of saving faith and in saving faith the sinner receives a whole
Christ and all that is in him. Now let me be quick to say, does
that mean no one has believed on Christ unless he understands
everything that's in him? No my friend, we'll be spending
an eternity exploring all that we received in Christ. You'll
never know the fullness of it in this life or even in the age
to come. Because there is an infinite
supply of blessing in Christ, and we are finite. And one of
the glories of heaven will be that God can continually pour
into the redeemed an ever-growing awareness of what He has conferred
to them in Christ. But because it's exhaustless,
He can continue to expand that knowledge and appreciation. No,
it doesn't mean you've got to know everything that is in Christ
to believe upon Christ. Nor does it mean that you have
a clear understanding of all that is yours if you are in Him. Listen carefully to how I've
tried to express the biblical truth. In saving faith, the sinner
receives a whole Christ and all that is in Him. That is, as Christ
is offered to the sinner, the sinner embraces that Christ who
is offered. takes in Christ all that God
has stored up in him, however limited his knowledge may be,
God gives to that sinner every spiritual blessing in the language
of Ephesians 1.3 that he has stored up in Christ. so that the description of a
Christian is given so simply in a passage like Colossians
2.6 where Paul says, As you have therefore received Christ Jesus
the Lord, so walk in Him. Root it and build it up in Him.
As you have received Him, so walk in Him. Now you see, you don't honor
Christ by groveling in a constantly reiterated sense of your sin
and your unworthiness. Try to imagine with me a man,
a woman, a boy, a girl brought to filth and squalor because
of irresponsible parents in the case of a child, or irresponsible
personal living, an adult who through drunkenness and gambling
came to utter destitution, public shame, poor, a cast off from
society. And a wealthy, beneficent man
sees this man in his filth and squalor and says with no conditions
other than his willingness to commit himself to the care to
the constant nurture, to the provisions of this wealthy benefactor. He says, come into my home and
into a personal relationship with me and I will commit myself
to meet all of the needs arising from your irresponsible lifestyle
or that of your parents or your relatives. Whatever it is that
brought you into this condition, I take upon myself the responsibility
to reverse it. Now how does that needy individual
magnify the benevolent heart and the benevolent hand of this
person? By standing off in the distance
and saying, well, I appreciate that expression of your benevolence,
but really I'm not worthy? Is that how he magnifies the
benevolence of that man? No. By saying, I don't understand
why you'd ever cast your eyes on me. I don't know why your
heart would ever be moved to me, but if you're not playing
games with me, sir, then I cast myself into your care and into
your provision." And in so doing, that needy individual magnifies
not his own abilities, but the benevolence and the kindliness
of the benefactor who in love and pity has been moved toward
him. And you see, God's determined to magnify his grace in the gospel. He's determined to display elements
of his character in the gospel that are displayed to such brilliance
in no other theater. That's why Paul can write in
Ephesians 3 and say that now through the church God is determined
to display to principalities and powers all of the wonders
of his own character and his manifold grace. And there again,
you see, there's the rub and the stumbling block. That sounds
too good to be true. Yes, it is. It's God revealing
His grace and His love to hell-deserving sinners. And in saving faith,
the sinner who brings nothing but his sin to Christ also receives
a whole Christ and all that is in Him. But then thirdly and
finally, in saving faith, the sinner withholds nothing of his
heart from Christ. In saving faith, the sinner withholds
nothing of his heart from Christ. And here I want you to turn with
me to a passage familiar to many of you, but I want us to look
at it a little more closely than the many others we've quoted.
In Romans chapter 10, the apostle declares in these well-known
words, 8 through 10 what does it say that is what does the
scripture say the word is near you in your mouth and in your
heart that is the word or the message of faith which we preach
because if you shall confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord
and shall believe in your heart that God has raised him from
the dead you shall be saved For with the heart man believes unto
righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, Whosoever
believes on him shall not be put to shame. For there is no
distinction between Jew and Greek. For the same Lord is Lord of
all, and rich unto all that call upon Him. For whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Now note first
of all that the object of saving faith in this passage is exactly
what we've said when we've looked at previous passages. The scripture
says, whosoever believes on him, verse 11, shall not be put to
shame. The same Lord is rich unto all that call upon Him.
Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, that is, the
Lord as revealed in the gospel, shall be saved. But in that calling
upon Him, it is not just a blind calling out of some sense of
need to some God who is out there, it is the God revealed in the
gospel who declares that His Son was delivered up for our
offenses, raised for our justification, and Paul fastens on that element
of the work of Christ, His resurrection, and says, If thou shalt confess
with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, believe in thy heart God hath
raised Him from the dead. Not that item of faith isolated
from the whole corpus of the gospel, No, raised from the dead
as the one who was incarnate, lived the life we should live
but did not, died the death we deserved but dare not, and was
raised from the dead to validate that His saving work was indeed
accomplished. If you shall confess with your
mouth, Jesus Lord, Believe in your heart, God raised Him from
the dead, you shall be saved for... Now notice, having mentioned
believe in your heart, he says, with the heart, man believes
unto righteousness. With the heart, man believes. Saving faith involves the heart. And hence I have stated, in saving
faith the sinner withholds nothing of his heart from Christ. Now what is the heart in the
Bible? The heart is the seat and the
source of all affection, desire, motivation, and choice, and will. Therefore the faith which is
unto salvation is one in which the heart is engaged. It unreservedly
receives the truth revealed about Christ, and it unreservedly receives
the Christ in whom all the blessings of salvation are offered. Man
with the heart believes unto righteousness, Now we have a
problem. We say, well, I think I believe
it with my head, but I don't believe it with my heart. My
heart's not in it. And we get into this heart-head
distinction. And the best way I know, or one
of the ways I know to get out of that horrible treadmill of
wondering, well, is my heart in it? Am I just believing things
that mom and dad have told me? Is it just head knowledge? Is
it heart knowledge? Here's the crux of the issue.
What has your heart has you. Just that simple. What has your
heart has you. Now ask yourself, does Christ
have me? Is it the settled disposition
of my heart to desire to place all of my trust in Him alone
and out of gratitude to Him to live for Him alone? Has my professed faith in Christ
been believing from the heart? For with the heart man believes,
believes what? All that is revealed about Christ,
and all of its suitability to my need as a sinner, and engaging
Christ in faith, nothing of the heart is withheld from Christ. That's implicit in the statement,
if you shall confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord. Does that
mean simply say, Jesus is Lord? I said it, I must be saved? Of
course not. God everywhere condemns any actions of the mouth that
aren't the expression of the state of the heart. When He says,
confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, that means in my heart
I have engaged Him for who He is, the only Savior of sinners,
the exalted Lord, constituted dogs, Christ at His right hand,
and in that confidence I embrace Him as my own. And I'm prepared
now to confess Him to be Lord, not as a mere empty exercise
of my lips, but as a true echo of the state of my heart. For with the heart, man believes
unto righteousness. Now, if this is true, that in
saving faith, the sinner withholds nothing of his heart from Christ,
then it should not surprise us that saving faith will always
have its inevitable fruits and accompaniments. And one of the
most amazing things about the Bible's description of a true
believer is that no sooner is faith born in the heart of a
believing sinner, then immediately that faith will have both a child
and a grandchild. Now I lived 27 years before I
became a father. and another twenty-three or four
before I became a grandfather. But when faith is born in the
heart of a sinner, no sooner is faith born than faith holds
a baby in its arms and no sooner do you look at that baby when
you find that baby's got a baby in its arms. Faith is always
three-generational immediately. You say, Pastor, what in the
world are you talking about? Simply this. The moment saving
faith is born in the heart of a sinner, a faith that brings
nothing but its sin to Christ, that receives Christ and all
that is in him, and withholds nothing of the heart from Christ,
no sooner is faith born in the human heart that it holds its
firstborn called love to the person of Christ. Now, I don't
want to steal my own thunder from 1 Peter chapter 1, but I
want to at least give you a teaser. This text makes this very, very
clear, that there can be no faith in Christ without love to Christ
as its accompaniment and its first child. 1 Peter chapter
1. He says, after speaking of the
revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen, verse 8, whom
having not seen, you love. Who loves Him? All the elect
sojourners of the dispersion, all that have been foreknown
by God the Father, sanctified by the Spirit, brought unto obedience
and sprinkling of the blood, all who have been begotten again
unto a living hope, Verse 3, Whom having not seen you love
all of you, on whom though you see him not yet believing. Everyone who is believing on
him loves him. Love is the first child of faith,
and love is no sooner born in the heart than it has its child,
which is obedience. For Jesus said, If you love me,
you will keep my command. He that hath my commandments
and keepeth them, he it is that loved me. Why do you call me
Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? So that in saving
faith, as the sinner withholds nothing of his heart from Christ,
there will be born its firstborn love and its next generation
a pattern of obedience. So we come around full circle. to where we started in our introduction. Here you sit tonight, here I
stand tonight, part of a race that fell in our first father
Adam. We were all brought under condemnation and wrath. We are
unable to extricate ourselves. We are unable to march up to
the throne of God and yank the record books out of God's hands
and blot out the horrible indictment against us. What are we to do? We are to come to the place where
we see that God in mercy has sent forth His Son, and in His
Son has made a provision adequate for the need of the vilest of
sinners. And being brought to the place
where we own our sinnerhood and bring nothing to this Christ
but our sin, and we embrace this Christ and all that God has stored
up in Him withholding nothing of our heart, from him in that
embrace, we have the assurance of the Word of God. He that believes
on the Son has everlasting life. You in all your need and the
Savior in all of his grace come into direct embrace in saving
faith. The sinner in his need, the Savior
in his grace, the direct embrace of faith. I close with these
simple words of exhortation and urge everyone sitting here tonight
to face this basic truth. You are not safe until you are
a believer. You're not safe until you are
a believer. He that believes on the Son has
everlasting life. He that believes not the Son
shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides right now upon
him. But you say, Pastor, I'm not
rebelling against the truth and I'm not rejecting any truth. I just haven't yet. You're not
safe until you believe. Don't think you're safe because
there is a kindly disposition to Christ. That's commendable. I'm grateful there are a number
of you that don't have an openly unkind, hostile disposition to
Christ and to the Gospel. But you see, you're not saved
until you believe. And the God of Heaven commands
you to believe. 1 John 3.22. This is His commandment,
that we believe on the name of His Son, Jesus Christ. It is
a gracious command. You say, well, I don't know if
I'm elect. May I say it again? You can say, God, You didn't
ask me to discover whether I'm elect or not. You command me
to believe. And if You command me to believe, it means You must
want me to believe. And if You want me to believe,
You want me to embrace Your mercy. Go to God and argue like that
with God, and He'll be pleased. He'll be pleased. You're not
safe. until you believe but listen
to my second statement you are safe in believing even if you
don't have a clue when you began to believe you are safe in believing
even if you don't have a clue as to when you started to believe
and I'm speaking this especially for you reared in Christian homes
say well did I believe I thought Listen, it's sitting here right
now because all the promises are not to him that believed,
past tense, punctiliar action. They are all present tenses.
He that believes present tense upon the Son. It doesn't say
he that believes knowing when he started to believe. I don't
remember when I started breathing. My mother tells me about it,
but I don't remember. But I sure enjoy breathing right
now. I cannot remember when I began to have life in this world. I
could care less. I know that I'm alive and I'm
breathing. You see, it's not important if
you know when you began to believe. The issue is, are you believing
now? And you have the promise of God,
He that is believing has everlasting life. You're not safe until you
believe. You are safe in believing even
if you don't know when you first began to believe. And my third
observation is, if you're truly believing in Him, you will love
and obey Him. If you truly believe in Him,
you will love and obey Him, not with a perfect love, not with
a perfectly even and constant love, but with a love according
to Jesus that is greater than your love for father, mother,
brother, sister, yes, and your own life also. And Jesus said, he that does
not love me more than father, mother, brother, sister, and
his own life is not worthy of me. That's what Jesus said. The gracious Son of God who took
upon Himself all of the liabilities of our sinful condition, Himself
being God, cannot righteously allow any lesser place than that
of supreme devotion and affection in all those who are bound to
Him in faith. If truly you believe in Him,
you will love Him. Love Him more than father, mother,
brother, sister, and your own life also. Love Him more than
peers and schoolmates and classmates and work associates. Christ will
have the place of supreme affection. And if you say you love Him,
the validation is not what you feel when you have your devotions,
but what you do when you get up from your devotions and go
into life. Do you frame your thoughts and
your words and your deeds by his precepts? He that says, I
know him and keeps not his commandments is a liar and the truth is not
in him. What does it mean to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ? Certainly I would not say I've
exhausted the subject of saving faith, but I hope this has helped
to bring some light, excuse me, of the scriptures upon this most
central issue. To believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ is to own what you are as a sinner. And in the owning
of that reality, in saving faith, you come bringing nothing but
your sin to Christ. You take a whole Christ and all
that is in Him and withhold nothing of your heart from Him. Do you
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? Notice I didn't say Have you
believed, past tense, but do you believe right now on the
Lord Jesus Christ? If not, why not? The God of heaven
graciously commands you to believe on your son. And if you are tempted
to treat lightly this issue, may I remind you of the solemn
word that was quoted in this pulpit a few weeks ago from Revelation
21.8 Along with liars and murderers and openly immoral, the scripture
says all unbelievers shall have their part in the lake of fire. Don't treat lightly your duty,
your obligation to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us pray. Our Father, we thank you for
your holy word. We thank you for the gift of
your dear son. We marvel that you would ever
have been moved in love and pity to come to the likes of us. We
say from the depths of our hearts, not unto us, but unto your name
be glory and praise. for your wonderful grace and
kindness in Christ our Savior. And we plead with you, our Father,
that by the Holy Spirit you would bring some this night to believe
on your dear Son, that you would use your word to clear away the
cobwebs of their misconceptions and the insidious influence of
the enemy of their souls and oh God by grace bring some to
rely upon, to trust in, to believe upon the Lord Jesus. And we who
are your children who have been brought to believe upon him and
who do now believe in him, we ask that you will help us more
and more to understand all that is ours in him and understanding
it to live out the wonderful obligations of grace and of gratitude. Help us, we pray, with such a
wonderful message not to be silent in communicating it to others.
Help us, O our God and Father, to be used in Your hands to bring
to a needy world this message of life and salvation. Seal then
Your word to our hearts, we pray, and dismiss us with Your blessing.
In Jesus' name, Amen.