If you will open your Bibles
to Romans chapter 10 and verse 10, I want, as God the Holy Ghost
will enable me, to talk to you for a little bit about confessing
Christ. Romans chapter 10 and verse 10. In the opening statement, Paul
says, with the heart, man believeth unto righteousness. does not
mean, that does not mean that if you believe, you will establish
righteousness. If you believe, you will be made
righteous. That is not what it means. It
means that you believe with reference to righteousness. You believe
regarding the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ the Lord. Faith in Christ is a matter of
the heart. Faith is the confidence of the
heart with reference to the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ the Lord. Faith is the heart of man. trusting
the doing and dying of the Lord Jesus Christ as the sinner's
substitute. Faith is confidence of righteousness
by the obedience and death of a substitute, God the Son. With the heart, man believes
with regard to righteousness. Faith is more than simply agreeing
with certain facts, accepting certain doctrines about the person
and work of Christ. Knowledge is necessary, yes,
but faith is more than knowledge. Faith is the confidence of the
heart, a God-given confidence in the person and work of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And this faith alone brings all
the blessings of God's salvation. and eternal life to the soul.
Then the apostle says in the next line, and with the mouth,
confession is made unto salvation. Now again, let me tell you what
that does not mean. If you're fool enough, I chose
my words deliberately. If you mamas and daddies are
fool enough to send your children to vacation Bible school down
the road this year, I'll tell you what they'll do to them.
I'll tell you what they'll do to them. If you're fool enough
to send them to the movies and entertainment and all the religious
nonsense that goes on, I'll tell you what they'll do. They'll
get them and try to get them to say, I believe in Jesus. I
believe in Jesus. Hey, you're saved. Everything's
all right. God bless you, you're saved now. If you're fool enough,
that's what they'll do. And that's what preachers do
all over the world all the time. They get men and women and boys
and girls to say, I believe in Jesus. And then they say, you're
saved. That ain't what this text talking about. That ain't what
this text talking about. With the mouth, confession is made
with reference to salvation. With mouth, confession is made
regarding this salvation. that God performs and God gives
in Jesus Christ the righteous one, so that those who are born
of God are men and women who believe with their hearts and
confess with their mouths the Lord Jesus. Look at Romans 10,
9 and 10. 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. Our confession doesn't save us. Our confession has to do with
our salvation. Let me see if I can be clear
and tell you how heavily My heart has been in preparing this message
so simple. I told you earlier, I plan to
go see my sister who's about to meet God in judgment. And my heart breaks for her. When we were small children,
I was seven, she was nine, we went to church like folks do
you get in trouble, mamas and daddies. Every time I got in
trouble with, I was a little boy, bigger, as long as I was
at home, I would get the Bible out and read it and read about
heaven and hell and judgment. And then we'd go to church. And
we went to church and something went on. I don't have any idea
what the preacher said, what he did, but when it was over
with, everybody was pressured to make a decision and everybody
was bawling and running to the front of the church and kneeling
down at the mourner's bench at the altar, they called it, And
I joined in. I was seven years old and scared
to death to go into hell. And I went and knelt down. Somebody
led me down to Romans Road and asked me if I was a sinner and
convinced me I was because I'd done some wrong stuff and said,
Jesus came to save sinners. Do you believe that? And I said,
I guess. And they said, well, Scripture
says if you'll confess Christ with your mouth, you'll be saved.
Will you confess Christ? I said, what do you mean? He
said, I believe in Jesus. I said, I believe in Jesus. Now
repeat after me and say this prayer. Bless God, Don, you're
saved now and everything's all right. And about everybody I know, about
everybody I know, and you too, almost everybody you know involved
in church looks back to some such hellish deception and calls
it salvation. You just as well go to the Pope
himself, bow down and kiss his big toe and say I'm a sinner.
It'll do you just as much good. Well, preacher, what is it to
confess Christ? What is this business of confessing
Christ? It's something we all ought to
be interested in. With the mouth confession is made unto salvation. That which a person knows, that
which he knows, he can tell you about. That which he believes
in his heart, he confesses with his mouth. Out of the abundance
of the heart, the mouth speaketh. You ask a man about his hope,
and the first thing he says, that's what he believes. That's
exactly what he believes. First thing he said, that's exactly
what he believes. And then you say, well, what about, and he'll
start changing his talk, he'll say it the way you want him to
say it. First thing he said, that's what he believes, ah.
First words out of his mouth, ah, ah. That's exactly what he
believes. Out of the abundance of the heart,
the mouth speaketh. Now the Lord God declares in
the book, ye are my witnesses. What does that mean? Men and women who are witnesses
tell what they know. I know I'm saved, I hear folks
say, but I can't explain it. I know I'm saved, but I can't
tell anyone how God saves sinners. I know that I've experienced
salvation, but I can't put it into words. I know what I believe,
but I can't explain that to anybody else. I've got a problem with that.
What you know, you can explain. And if you can't explain it,
you don't know it. That which a man believes, he can tell.
Just ask him. Ask anybody why he voted for
Mr. Trump or why he voted for that
woman who wears breeches, Clinton. Ask anybody. Ask anybody. They'll
tell you why. I mean, they'll spend an hour
telling you. I don't care how educated they
are or how uneducated they are. They'll tell you in a heartbeat
what you know you can explain. I know what I've experienced,
but I can't put it into words. Yes, you can. That which a person
believes, that which he's experienced, he can tell. All of God's people
are witnesses. God's witnesses. God's witnesses. Witnesses are people who tell
what they know. Brother Billy McCormick's sitting
back there. If you'd like to know how to raise tobacco, talk
to Metro Services. There's an older one, didn't
see Oscar sitting there. Want to know how to raise tobacco?
He can tell you. They can tell you, I've seen
both the fields. You want to know how to raise
corn? Ask them. They can tell you, you want to know how to
raise tomatoes? Bill and Jan Lita raised scads of them. Ask
them about them. Ask them about them. They can
tell you. Tell you exactly how it's done. If you want to know
how to bake a cake, talk to that lady right behind you. Man, she
can bake a cake. She can bake a cake. You want
to know how to build a house? Talk to Merle or Rex and ask
them. They can tell you. They know
what they're doing. If you can't tell anyone what you believe
and why you believe, the fact is you don't believe. There are
multitudes who say, I believe in Jesus. I don't know anyone
who doesn't believe in Jesus. I don't know anyone who doesn't.
I know the vast majority of people in this world believe in Jesus. The devils in hell believe in
Jesus, but there are few people in the church or out of the church.
who can honestly tell you anything at all about who he is or what
he did. Ask him. Ask him. Who is him? Why did he come into this world?
Where was he before he came? If he came, he had to have been
somewhere before he came. What did he come to do? What did he
do while he was here? Why did he do it? Where is it
now? What's he doing now? Ask him.
Go ask the preachers. Ask the preachers. They don't
have a clue, let alone the folks to whom they preach. There's
a reason for man's ignorance. If a person can't answer these
basic elementary questions about Christ, he simply doesn't know
him. You can't tell what you don't
know any more than you can come back from a place where you've
never been. That which a person has experienced in his heart,
he can and will confess with his mouth. I don't care what
it is. If you've experienced it, you'll
tell it. You'll tell it. Faith, a faith
that can't be explained. A faith that I can't explain
is not faith at all. Apostle Peter says, sanctify
the Lord our God in your hearts and be ready always to give an
answer to every man that asketh a reason of the hope that's in
you with meekness and fear. Be ready at the drop of a hat,
tell a fellow why you think you're going to heaven. Be ready at the drop
of a hat to tell somebody why you're saved. Be ready at the
drop of a hat to tell somebody what your hope is. A hope that
I can't explain is no hope. A salvation I can't explain according
to the word of God is no salvation. Now, I don't suggest, I don't
think, I don't say that you must be smart, well-educated, or good
with words. Not at all, not at all. I do
say a person who has a good hope of salvation is able to tell
you what his hope is. He's able to tell you why he
has hope. Our confession of Christ is and
must be according to the word of God. David said, I hope in
thy word. Whatsoever things are written
in the scriptures, Paul said, those things written before time
were written for our learning and for our comfort that we through
patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. I have no reason
to believe I'm a child of God unless I can open this book and
show you the reason. You have no reason to believe
you're a child of God unless you open this book and show me
why. Brother Don, that shuts me out. If it does, I hope you
heard that. You have no reason to believe
that you're God's child if you can't show me from the Word of
God the reason of your hope. This is what I'm saying. If you're
a child of God, you can tell how you became a child of God.
If you're redeemed, you can tell how you were redeemed. If you're
justified just with God, you can tell how you became just
with God. If you're born again, you can
tell how God gives life to dead sinners. If you have faith, you
can tell what that faith is. If you've experienced the grace
of God in salvation, you can tell what grace is. Most everybody
sings amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch
like me and they don't know what grace is and they don't know
what a wretch is and they don't know what salvation is. But they
sing it because it sounds pretty and sounds good. I'm going to
make a public confession of my faith in Christ. I want to tell
you three simple things that I believe, that I have experienced,
that I know. Three things have been written
on my heart by the finger of God. Three things you must know. These three things I endeavor
to preach every time I stand in the pulpit. Let's look at
them briefly together. First, I believe according to
the Word of God that all men, that's you and me, your mama
and your daddy, your sons and your daughters, my mother and
daddy, my children, my sisters, my family, everybody. All of
us were ruined, utterly, completely ruined by the fall of our father
Adam. Look in Romans chapter five,
verse 12. Romans chapter five, verse 12. What happened in the garden? Hardly anybody knows. But if
you find out the answer to that question, you won't have any
difficulty understanding anything else written in the book of God
about salvation. What really happened in the garden? You don't believe in that Adam
and Eve fairytale, do you? If it was a fairytale, I wouldn't.
If it was an allegory, I wouldn't pay much attention to it. If
it was a parable, I wouldn't pay much attention to it. But
it's not a parable, it's not an allegory, it's not a fable,
it's a fact. Romans 5, verse 12. Wherefore,
as by one man, sin entered into the world, and death by sin,
and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. Now look what it says, by one
man. by one man. A man God created
in his own image, in his own likeness. A man God created and
set him in the garden and created the universe. I mean, God created
the heaven and the earth, the fowl and the fish and the cattle
and the four-footed beast and the creeping things. He said,
Adam, this whole thing is yours. It's all yours. Tell me what
you want to call this tree and that's what we'll call it. Tell
me what you want to call that animal, that's what we'll call
it. And God gave it all to Adam, all of it. Now there's one thing,
there's one thing. Right here in the middle, right
here in the middle is a tree. Don't you eat that tree. Don't
you eat that tree. That tree is the constant acknowledgement
that I'm God. Don't you eat that tree. It's
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And one day, Adam
chose to eat the fruit of the tree. Well, what could be so
bad with that? What could be wrong with that?
Here we are. Here we are. Don't you drink that water? Don't
you drink that water? I will if I want to. That's what's
wrong with it. That's what's wrong with it.
Do you know what would happen to my daughter if I told her
to stand up and she sat down? Or if I told her to sit down
and she stood up? Do you know what would happen to her if I
said don't drink that and she drank it? Ask her, she'll tell
you. Well, why would you punish a
child for something so simple as that? Because it is defying
who I am and asserting who she's not. That's why. And that brings
chaos and disorder to everything. That brings chaos and disorder
to everything. You mamas and daddies who let
your children get by with it, that brings chaos and disorder
to everything. Everything. Everything. God said,
Adam, everything's yours. Everything's yours. As long as
you acknowledge that I'm God. And one day, Adam did what God
told him he would do. He said, in the day you eat thereof,
you'll surely die. Eve was deceived and took that
fruit. And she said, Adam, honey, look
here, I ate this fruit, nothing happened to me. God didn't tell
her not to eat the fruit. He told Adam not to eat it. He
didn't say, Eve, in the day you eat, you'll surely die. Eve was
represented in Adam. He said, Adam, in the day you
eat thereof, you shall surely die. And Adam said, God, you
go to hell and get out of my way. I'll do what I want to.
And he took the fruit. He took the fruit. And man's
been telling God to go to hell ever since. You see, we died in Adam. because we sinned in Adam. And
sinning in Adam, Adam's sin was imputed to us because we sinned
in him. And we came out of our mama's
womb, wearing Adam's nature, living with Adam's heart, and
Adam's hatred, and Adam's enmity against God. So that every child
comes forth from his mother's womb, speaking lies. Every child. We are all of us
born rebels. We're all born rebels. Man's
heart by nature is full of evil. Just a constant erupting, bubbling
over cesspool of iniquity. That's the heart of man. That's
the heart of man. Because we're all sinners, we're spiritually
dead, helpless, and hopelessly condemned. dead in trespasses
and in sins. By confessing my sin, my ruin
by the fall of my father Adam, I confess that I need Christ. I need a substitute. I don't
have any righteousness. I need somebody else's. I have
no ability to make myself righteous. I need somebody else's work.
I have no ability to make up with God. I need somebody else
to do it. I have no way to pay for my sin. I know I'm going
to hell unless somebody pays for my sin. I know God's justice
requires it. I confess my need of Christ. And Sam Wall, until God shows
a sinner his sin, he'll never know his need of Christ. Why
do you keep talking to us so much about what we are? Because
until God shows you what you are, you will never come to Christ.
You won't do it. You'll keep holding on to yourself.
You'll keep holding on to your church. You'll keep holding on
to your silly religious decision. You'll keep holding on to your
baptism. You'll keep holding on to your doctrine. You'll hold certain until God
shows you your sin. And I'm not talking about what
you do. Oh no, what you do. irrelevant. Merle, I'm talking
about what you are. What you are. I have an older
sister. Many of you have met her, Jean.
She's one of the best people I've ever met in my life. She
really is. She's like my wife. The rest
of us grew up, y'all never had this, but there were four of
us. There was one child. The rest
of us were something else. Jean was perfect. Jean never
did anything wrong. Can you imagine growing up behind
her? She was the oldest sister. The rest of us, we didn't stand
a chance. I mean, there was a chance, and
we didn't even want one. The rest of us were rebels, not
Jane. She was just whatever Daddy wanted.
She was whatever Mama wanted. She made good grades in school. She was a little hot-tempered,
but that's all. That's all. She was just perfect. And I'll tell you something about
Jane. She has a heart just like mine
and just like yours. She just hides it better than
we do. That's just fact. That's just
fact. That dear lady there, I never
met a better human being, but she's got a heart just like mine
and just like yours. She just hides it better than
the rest of us do. That's all. See it. See it. Brother Don,
I just don't believe that. Let me ask you this. You mamas
and daddies, you husbands and wives, you sons and daughters,
how many of you would like to stand up here right now and tell
everybody here everything you've thought, everything that's run
through your mind in the last 20 minutes? If you dare do it,
I'll sit down and listen to you. You won't dare. You won't dare. That's what you are. That's what
you are. Second, I believe according to
the scriptures in redemption by the precious blood of God's
darling son, the Lord Jesus Christ. He who is God in the flesh. lived in perfect righteousness
before God. And he who knew no sin and did
no sin was made sin. And when God made his holy son
sin, God poured out all the fury of His holy wrath and justice
upon His Son for sin. Well, the clause, God made His
darling Son everything God hates. God made His darling Son everything
that turns your stomach. God made his darling son everything
that you, in your high opinion of yourself said, I don't see
how any man could do that. That's what God made his son.
That's what God made his son sin, sin. He drank of the brook,
by the way. The brook he drank. That brook where they took all of the sacrifices,
that is all the waste, all the filth, all the corruption, all
the rotting stuff, and threw it in that black cesspool of
a brook. And he drank of the brook, by
the way. The Son of God took all our sin into Himself. Made our sin His sin. And when
God found sin on his son, God drew forth the sword of his justice
and slaughtered his holy son in fury. In fury like no king
ever slaughtered an enemy. In fury like no angry man ever
murdered another one. God slaughtered his son in the
rage of his wrath. until at last there was no wrath
left in God, no fury left in God, but God
was satisfied. When the Lord Jesus was made
sin for us and died as our substitute, as he was dying, he said, it
is finished. bowed his head and gave up the
ghost because the work was done for which he came into this world. He had brought in everlasting
righteousness. He had satisfied divine justice. And the Lord God, the Father,
Son, and Holy Ghost accepted the sacrifice of God's darling
son, the Lord Jesus Christ, in the room instead of his people,
and accepted us in him. A preacher, how do you know that
God's accepted him? How do you know that everything's
all right? God raised him from the dead.
God seated him at his own right hand. With his own blood, he
entered at once into the holy place. The picture is the high
priest on the day of atonement. He stripped off his gorgeous
clothes and he put on those white linen britches and those white
linen garments and he walked in with censure and with blood
and he had a hyssop in his hand and he sprinkled the mercy seat. And covered out of God's view
Oh, the broken law of his people. And he came back out, having
obtained forgiveness by blood. With his own blood, Jesus Christ
entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal
redemption for us. And he sat down on the right
hand of the majesty on high, because the work is finished. You mean preacher? There's nothing
else to be done. Nothing else to be done. You
mean God doesn't require anything from me? Not only doesn't require
it, he won't accept it. You can't come to it with any
hands. You gotta drop it all and come to God trusting his
side. A third thing. Believe according
to this book in regeneration by the power of God the Holy
Ghost Turn to John chapter 3 John chapter 3 Nicodemus came to the Lord Jesus
and they sneak around back night because he he was a leader of
the Jews and he won't buy to see him and he said He's a good master. We know you're
a teacher come from God. Nobody do things you do if God
wasn't with him. And the Lord Jesus, he just wasn't a very
good preacher. He hadn't been to seminary, hadn't
learned anything about soul winning or all that stupid stuff they
teach in Bible college. He was interested in man's soul.
And so he dealt with Nicodemus honestly. Jesus said to Nicodemus,
verse three, I say unto you, except a man
be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Folks talk about born again Christians
as if there was some other kind of Christian. They use it as
a word of slander. That's exactly what, the born-again
folks. Did you ever notice the people
that the media is trying to convince you voted for Mr. Trump? They're
so polite and so nice. You know, poor ignorant country
folks, white folks, born-again Christians. People who have,
they have a little trouble reading and writing and doing two plus
two arithmetic. They're the ones who did that.
Born-again Christians, born-again Christians. except you be born
again, you can't see the kingdom of God. You can't see it. You can't perceive or understand
anything written in this book. You can't do it. You can't do
it. I can teach you the facts. I can teach you the letter. I
can teach you the doctrine. But you can't perceive or understand
anything in this book. unless you're born again. Can't
say it, can't say it, can't say it, but you don't. And Nicodemus
saith unto him, religious folks, especially when they're smart
religious folks, I think they are, are smart addicts. He saith
unto him, how can a man be born when he's old? Why, that's just
stupid. Can he enter the second time
into his mother's womb and be born? Do you reckon Nicodemus
really thought that? You think he really thought a
grown man can crawl back in his mama's belly and be born? Do
you think he really thought that? If you do, you sure enough don't.
Now, Nicodemus was being a smart aleck. And the Lord Jesus said,
verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water
and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
Now, I'm not certain whether that word water refers to natural
birth or whether it's talking about the word of God. Both of
them are true. Except a man be born naturally and be born again
in spirit, he can't be born again. Except a man be born by the water
of the word, born again by the preaching of the gospel. That's
how God saves sinners. Born again by the spirit of God.
He can't enter into the kingdom of God. You can't get in unless
you're born again. You can't do it. You can get
in the church, you can get in the priesthood, you can get in
the ministry, you can get in the seminary, you can get to
be a professor, you can get on television and talk about religion,
but you can't enter the kingdom of God unless you're born again. That which is born of the flesh
is flesh. That which is born of the spirit is spirit. Marvel
not that I said unto thee, ye must be born again. Nicodemus asked him, in his smart
aleck response, how can a man be born when he's old? And the
Lord Jesus finally told him. Look at verse eight. The wind
bloweth where it listeth. Thou hearest the sound thereof,
but canst not see whence it cometh, and whither it goeth. So is every
one that is born of the Spirit. Brother Don, are you telling
us this is altogether God's work? If that's what you got out of
the message, I did a pretty good job preaching. This is altogether
God's work. Altogether God's work. We pray. I pray for you. I pray for your
sons and daughters. I pray for my grandchildren and
yours. Pray for them. Throughout the day, all day long,
pray for them. And we teach them. And we preach
to them. Try to tell them the truth. And
leave them alone. Just wait. Just wait. You got to strike while the iron's
hot. You do that if you're making horseshoes. You don't do that
trying to save sinners. You gotta deal with folks at just the right
time. You gotta make a decision. Only
if you want them to be deceived. What do you do? We preach the
gospel and wait. And I'll tell you who'll be saved
today. I'll tell you exactly who's gonna
walk out of here born of God's Spirit today. Walk out those
doors born again. Everyone upon whom the Spirit
of God comes. in the saving power of His grace,
in the operation of His mercy and causes to believe. You're in God's hands. God help
you to believe. Amen.