9th, or the 10th chapter of Romans
in verse 9, God the Holy Ghost makes a statement, and I take
it for my subject this morning, thou shalt be saved. That's my message, what a message
it is. Thou shalt be saved. This is the word of faith God
has sent me to preach to you. Romans chapter nine, or chapter
10 verse nine. 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. This is God's message to every
sinner in the world who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ. Thou
shalt be saved. Are you a sinner? There are very few. A sinner
is a sacred thing, the Holy Ghost hath made him so. Might have
said, well, everybody's sinners, ask them. Not many. Are you a sinner, lost, guilty,
justly doomed, and damned for hell forever? Without hope, without
strength, without any claim upon God, a sinner. If so, then this
is God's word to you. As you believe God's testimony
concerning his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, thou shalt be saved. Oh, may God, the Holy Ghost,
give me your ear and cause you to hear his message. I have nothing
new, nothing profound to say to you this morning. I have no
intention of entertaining you or impressing you with eloquent
speech or stirring stories, emotional pleas. I simply want to declare
to you what God says in his word. Knowing your desperate need,
And knowing the terror of the Lord, it is my earnest prayer
that God the Spirit will enable me by His grace through His word
to persuade you right where you are right now to believe on His
Son, to come to the Lord Jesus Christ, to trust the Son of God
and be saved. Let me speak directly to each
of you. Would to God I could, speak to
you in such a way that you hear me as if I was talking to nobody,
but just you. I want you to see, to hear and
know just this one thing. If you believe on Christ, as
the scripture has said, thou shalt be saved. No other consideration. No other thing to look at, no
other thing to test to try. If you believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, as the scripture has said, thou shalt be saved. Now let me come at this text
from five directions. I'll make five very plain, simple
statements. I pray they will come to you
with all the clarity that God the Holy Spirit can give them.
Number one, the gospel of the grace of God proclaims salvation
to lost sinners. The gospel is not good advice. The gospel is not good advice. I haven't come here to advise
you what you ought to do. I've come here to proclaim good
news to you. And that proclamation is salvation
to lost sinners by Jesus Christ the Lord. Our text says, 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. When Paul says thou shalt be
saved, the obvious implication is that by nature you're lost.
You're in a lost, ruined, helpless condition. Will you hear me? If you're without Christ, you're
lost. Estranged from God. Dead in trespasses
and sins. We use those terms so commonly,
I fear they lack the significant meaning they ought to have with
us. Lost. A person who's lost is in a place
where he doesn't know where he is. And he has no idea which
direction to take or how to get back to where he wants to be.
He's lost. Lost. You're in a place estranged
from God and you don't know what it is, where it is. It's a strange
place. You don't know what direction
to take. You don't have any idea how to
get home. You're lost and dead. Dead in trespasses and in sins. spiritually dead. Now, dead means
dead. I was once a fellow preaching,
I was a younger preacher and he I'm sure was striving to let
folks know his diligence and study. And he said, that word
dead in the Greek means dead. Well, that word dead means dead. That's exactly what it means,
dead. You can tell a dead man stories. He doesn't feel anything, doesn't
hear anything. You can pour ice water on him and he won't shiver,
he's dead. You can pour boiling water on
him and he won't feel a thing, he's dead. He doesn't have any
passions, any feelings, any emotions, any thoughts, any inclinations,
any desires, he's dead, dead. And spiritually, you who are
without Christ are dead. You have no spiritual passions. desires, inclinations, or feelings,
you're dead. With reference to God, Christ,
and salvation, and faith, and life, and righteousness, you're
dead and guilty. Guilty, oh, guilty. That you
know because God has stamped upon you a conscience from which
you cannot escape. You're guilty before God. guilty
of sin, guilty before God's holy law, under the curse of God's
justice, condemned and dying under the sentence of eternal
death, lost. So far off from God that you
don't even know it. So far off from God that you
cannot get back to God. So far off from God that you
will never come to God. except God Almighty sweetly come
to you and bring you to himself. You were lost by the sin and
fall of our father Adam in the garden. When Adam sinned in the
garden, he was the representative of all humanity. And the scripture
tells us, 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. When Adam sinned
in the garden, you and I sinned in our father Adam. Turn back
to Psalm 14. Listen to the scriptures. Psalm
14, in verse two. The Lord looked
down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any
that did understand and seek God. Now watch what it says.
They are all gone aside. They are all together at one
time in one representative man become filthy. There is none
that doeth good. So that the Lord God declares
concerning all Adam's fallen race, there is none that does
good. We all turned aside from God
at one time. But that's not the only circumstance. You're lost by Adam's transgression,
but you're lost also by reason of your own personal depravity. You were born in sin, born corrupt,
born defiled, born spiritually dead. Behold, David said, I was
shapen in iniquity. In sin did my mother conceive
me, so that that child, as it is conceived in its mother's
womb, as the child is conceived in the womb, the child conceived
is but a sinner conceived. And when you came forth from
the womb, the wicked are estranged from the womb. They go astray
as soon as they're born, speaking lies. So it is the natural bent
of humanity to deceive and to lie. Children come out of the
womb lying. They come out of the womb lying,
and they never cease. That's the way with humanity.
That's the way with humanity. We get all upset when somebody
calls us a liar. You callin' me a liar, I'm ready
to fight you. The fact is, all of us are. All of us are. We've been that way all our lives.
We tried to suppress it, but that's the way we are. We don't
ever, ever, ever, just absolutely show what we are before men.
Somebody'd hang us. We just don't dare do it. But
we are all by nature lying, deceiving sons of Adam. The one thing mamas
and daddies never had to teach their babies how to do is lie.
Never had to teach one how to sin. Never had to teach one to
be a rebel. I recall some years ago with
Oscar Bailey telling me about a boy, OJ, He came in and O.J. had seen a Western on TV and
he pulled his gun out and he just thought he'd practice his
drawing and shot the screen out of the TV. And Oscar confronted
him with it and O.J. acknowledged this and said, I
just shot the TV. I said, Oscar, the difference
between your boy and Mr. Fortner's boy, if you'd have
come in and seen me with the gun in my hand smoking and the
TV shattering, I'd have said, not me daddy, it's that fellow
over yonder that did it. That's just the way of us. Nobody
ever had to teach us how. That's the nature of man. Deceitful,
cunning, lying. But not only were you born that
way, you're lost by reason of your own willful rebellion. The scripture puts it this way.
All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his
own way. Every man walking this path or
that, but every man's path rebellion. Every man's path sin. Every man's
path on godliness. Some choose the high road of
morality and decency and religion and respectability. Some choose
the low road of debauchery and drunkenness and using dope and
getting involved in every kind of evil in the world. But each
one choosing his own way, going astray from God. That's the way of man. You're
lost. but you'll never know your lost
and ruined condition until God the Holy Spirit reveals it to
you. You see, before God lifts up,
he will bring you down. Before God clothes you, he will
strip you. Before he heals you, he'll wound
you. Before he makes you whole, he'll
wither you. Before he raises you up in life,
he'll slay you and kill you. The Spirit of God always precedes
conversion with conviction. He always prepares the way for
the grace of God by Holy Spirit conviction. If you know you're
lost and ruined condition before God. If you are sitting there
and say, Brother Don, I recognize what you said about me, so I'm
lost, I'm guilty, I'm ruined. I've gone astray from God. I've
turned from God, insisting on my own way all my life. If God's
shown you that, only the Spirit of God could have shown you that.
And if you know your condition, I've got good news for you. The
gospel is for you. I'm sent to preach this word
to you who are lost. If you're not lost, you don't
need a savior. If you're not dirty, you don't
need cleansing. If you're not guilty, you don't need forgiveness.
But if you're lost, Christ Jesus came into the world to seek and
save that which was lost. The gospel is for the lost sinner. It is for those who are lost,
estranged from God, and guilty. I wonder if there's a sinner
in this house this morning. If so, God has sent me to tell
you about God's salvation. God has sent me to tell you what
Christ has done for poor, lost, ruined, doomed, damned, helpless,
guilty sinners. If you want to turn to Isaiah
chapter 40, Isaiah describes it for us. Isaiah chapter 40,
verse one. This is God's word to every prophet,
to every preacher. He says, comfort ye, comfort
ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem. And the word is, speak to the
heart of my people. If you speak to their hearts,
then you'll speak comfortably to them. Cry unto her that her
warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned. The warfare's over, it's accomplished. God Almighty was in Christ reconciling
his people to himself when he sacrificed his son at Calvary.
The warfare's over, it's over. There's no reason for God to
be angry with any sinner for whom Christ died. The warfare's
over. Her iniquity is pardoned. Not
might be pardoned. Not if you meet certain conditions.
It's pardoned. Can you hear? Did you hear God
speak? God said your warfare is over. Your iniquity is pardoned
because God punished his son in the stead of every lost, ruined,
helpless, doomed, damned, guilty sinner who ever lived in this
world. God punished his son for you
who are lost. Your warfare is over. Your iniquity
is pardoned. for she hath received the Lord's
hand double for all her sins. He not only has pardoned your
sin, He not only has ended the warfare, he not only has accomplished
reconciliation, he not only has turned sinners to himself, but
he gives to those sinners for whom Christ died, to those sinners
who are pardoned, whose warfare is over, to those sinners who
are reconciled to God, to those sinners who believe on the Son
of God, he's given them perfect righteousness. received double
for all your sins. He forgave you and he made you
righteous. The very righteousness of God
in Christ Jesus. Christ Jesus, the Lord, brings
salvation to guilty sinners. What is that salvation? What
is that salvation? Oh, what a blessed word it is.
Salvation is deliverance from the punishment of sin. I begin
there because that's where the sinner begins with God. It's
deliverance from the punishment of sin. I have often told you
Christ is not just a fire escape from hell. He's not just a fire
escape from hell. But the sinner comes to God with
one great concern. With one great concern. Those
concerns increase. I have concerns now for God's
glory. I have concerns now for the glory
of my Redeemer. I have concerns now for doing
God's will. I have concerns now for the doctrine
of God. But when first God revealed Christ
in me, I was concerned about just one thing, Mark. I was doomed
and damned and hell was burning beneath me. and I was terrified
of God's wrath. I wanted one thing. I wanted
deliverance from everlasting damnation. Salvation is deliverance
from everlasting damnation. Salvation is deliverance from
sin's punishment, from the penal consequences of sin. Come to
Christ, and there is therefore now no condemnation to them that
are in Christ Jesus. Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law. And that deliverance is something
else. Salvation is deliverance from
the guilt of sin. Deliverance from the guilt of
sin. So that when God saves the sinner,
God puts away his sin. And when sin is gone, the guilt
is gone. Guilt is what terrifies you.
Guilt is what keeps you so you can't sleep at night. Guilt is
what makes you scared to death of dying. Guilt is what makes
you afraid of God. Guilt causes you to tremble when
you think about God. Even if you blaspheme his name,
even if you use every other word to blaspheme his name, guilt
is what terrifies you with the thought of God. But the Lord
Jesus comes and gives grace and the Lord God Almighty by His
Spirit testifies in your conscience that you're righteous. Your sin
is gone. You received the same testimony
from God that Enoch had before he was translated, you're righteous. You please God and suddenly guilt
is gone. Guilt is gone. You lift your
heart to heaven and you cry, Abba, Father. Oh, God is my Father. I have
free access to God. I have no sin and I have no guilt. It's gone. It's gone. I love
the picture given, I've told you of it many times in Bunyan's
Pilgrim's Progress. He makes his way with that heavy
burden on his back up to Mount Calvary, and there he sees one
dying in the center stand, a substitute, and he said, as soon as I saw
him hanging on the tree, the burden fell off my back and rolled
down the hill into the abyss, and it's gone forever. so that now the sinner is freed
from guilt before God. The Lord God says, I, even I
am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not
remember thy sins. I have blotted out as a thick
cloud thy transgressions, and as a cloud thy sins return to
me, for I have redeemed thee. So that God declares, when he
saves the sinner, he saves him from the punishment of sin. And
he saves him from the guilt of sin. That scapegoat we read about
earlier. Aaron laid both his hands on
the head of that living goat, just as he did on the goat to
be sacrificed. And that one goat is sacrificed,
picturing Christ, our Passover sacrifice for us, and here's
the scapegoat. And Abraham lays his hands on
his head. And he confesses over that goat's head all the sins
of God's people, all of them. All their sins and all their
transgressions. All their transgressions and
all their sins. And he puts them in the hand
of a fit man. That's Christ Jesus, the God-man,
our Savior. And that goat is Christ Jesus,
the God-man, our Savior. And that fit man carries the
goat with all the sins of the people out into a land not inhabited,
and he sets him free. Because Christ has taken our
sins away. More than that, salvation is
deliverance from the dominion of sin. dominion of sin. The Lord God declares in Romans
chapter 6, turn there if you will, Romans chapter 6, I want
you to see this, verse 11, He's been talking to us about
believers baptism and he says that we were buried with Christ
because we're died with Christ and we're risen with Christ and
now he says in verse 11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to
be dead indeed unto sin God said you're dead to sin You confessed
it in believers baptism. And now reckon yourselves dead
indeed in the sin so that you live all the time, all the time
saying I'm dead to sin, I'm dead to sin, I'm dead to sin, I'm
dead to sin. How can that be? Because I died.
I'm dead to sin. But alive unto God through Jesus
Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in
your mortal body that you should obey it in the lust thereof. Neither yield ye your members
as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves
unto God as those that are alive from the dead, and your members
as instruments of righteousness unto God. Now watch this. For
sin shall not have dominion over you. Now that is a precept. Sin shall not have dominion over
you. But read the precept as God intends it. That's a promise. Sin shall not have dominion over
you, because for you're not under the law, but under grace. This
is God's promise. This is God's promise. In salvation,
God delivers his people from the dominion of sin. I sin all
the time. You too. All the time. There's never a brief portion
of a second when I don't sin. I sin all the time. I'm trying
my best to do the very best I can do right now preaching to you,
and it's shot full of sin. Now, I'm aware of that. I'm aware
of that. But I'm not under the dominion
of sin. I'm not under the dominion of
sin. What's that talking about? I have no guilt before God. The law doesn't curse me. I'm not damned. I'm free from
the law and free from sin in Jesus Christ, my Redeemer. Now
then, since sin does not have dominion over me, let me serve
God. Don't give yourself to your carnal
passions, but give yourself unto God, your Savior. And the Lord
God says to his elect, let not sin therefore reign in your mortal
bodies, that you should obey it in the lust thereof. And knowing
both ourselves and our God, we respond, hold thou me up and
I shall be safe. And I will have respect under
thy statutes continually. I'm aware of my sin and I confess
it to you right now. And I ask you to hold me up that
I may all the days of my life live in this world as a man who
has respect to your word continually. Salvation ultimately. finished is deliverance from
sin's very existence. When Christ through the body
of His flesh will present you holy, unblameable, and unreprovable
before God with exceeding joy. Soon, soon the Lord Jesus is
going to take this man and and present me before his father
without sin. That's called salvation. It is
complete, perfect, absolute deliverance from all sin and all the consequences
of sin, past, present, and future. He comprehends heaven itself
and all the bliss of eternal glory. Thou shalt be saved, reaches
down to the gates of heaven, or gates of hell and reaches
up to the gates of heaven and takes in the whole of our existence
by which God brings us at last to his throne in the perfection
of Christ's righteousness. All right, that's my first point.
The Gospel of the grace of God proclaims salvation. Second,
look back here in Romans 10. Saving faith concerns itself
with just one thing. Saving faith concerns itself
with just one thing, Jesus Christ the Lord. That's all. That's
all. The object of faith is Christ,
not self. Faith looks out of self to Christ. Now listen to me. Are you listening?
Whatever it is about you that inclines you to look inside you,
that's not faith. That's not faith. Whatever it
is about you that inclines you to look at you, that's not faith. Faith is concerned only with
Christ. Unbelief is speculative. Unbelief
guesses. Faith deals with facts. Unbelief
questions. Faith receives. Unbelief is curious
about a lot of things. Faith is interested in just one
thing, Christ. Look at verse four. For Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. For
Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, that the
man which doeth those things shall live by them. But the righteousness
which is of faith speaketh on this wise. Say not in thine heart
who shall ascend into heaven. That is to bring Christ down
from above. or who shall descend into the
deep, that is to bring up Christ again from the dead. But what
sayeth it? The word is nigh thee, even in
thy mouth and in thy heart, that is the word of faith which we
preach, 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. True faith. That faith which
brings salvation is concerned about nothing but the glorious
person and the glorious work of him whom God raised from the
dead. Faith is riveted on Christ. Unbelief looks at his feelings. Faith looks at Christ's sufferings.
Unbelief looks at what it can do. Faith looks at what Christ
has done. Unbelief looks at its own repentance.
Faith looks at Christ's righteousness. Unbelief says, I'm too sinful.
God couldn't save me. Faith says, the blood of Jesus
Christ, God's son, cleanseth us from all sin. Unbelief says,
but I can't hold out. Faith says, Christ is able to
save to the uttermost them that come to God by him. Unbelief
says, I have no strength. Faith says, Christ is almighty
God. Faith looks to Bethlehem's manger
and sees God come in human flesh to save. Faith follows the steps
of the Lord Jesus Christ while he walked on this earth, stitching
together a garment of perfect righteousness by his obedience
unto God. Righteousness called everlasting
righteousness. Righteousness called the righteousness
of God. Such righteousness as only God
could give. Such righteousness as God commands.
Such righteousness as only God can receive. Perfect righteousness. Faith follows the Lord Jesus
on to Calvary's hill and hears him cry, it is finished and sees
there that justice is satisfied. Faith follows the Lord Jesus
to the tomb and there he's buried. He goes to the tomb bearing our
sin and his own body on the tree. He's slain and he's dead and
he goes to the tomb and faith watches as he arises from the
grave He was delivered for our offenses and raised again because
justification is accomplished. Sin's been put away. And faith
sees him ascend to the Father, accepted, having obtained eternal
redemption for us. And faith believes him. Faith
sees King Jesus on the throne of glory and says, victory is
sure. Soon this mortal shall put on
immortality. Soon I shall be raised in his
likeness. Do you understand what I'm talking
about? Faith is interested only in Christ. Faith is interested only in Christ. Erica, listening to you sing,
your mom there. You sat and listened and listened
and listened and listened and interested in a lot of things. I don't know that I've ever discussed
these things with you. I'll guarantee I can tell you what it is. Well,
I haven't repented enough. I don't feel, I don't feel bad
enough. I don't, I don't think I can
hold, have I missed anything? And then the Lord comes and reveals
himself to you. And faith is only interested
in one thing. Christ the Lord. That's all.
That's all. I wonder if he's good enough
for God. I wonder if God'll accept his
blood. I wonder if God'll accept his righteousness. I wonder if
God'll accept his perfection. I wonder if God's well pleased
with him. I don't wonder about any of those things. God has
accepted his blood. God has accepted his righteousness.
God does accept his person. He's able to save sinners. He
is the righteousness of God. Faith is concerned about nothing
else. He's all I offer to God. Not
my feelings, not my experiences, just Christ. Here's the third
thing. Saving faith has a confession
to make. Paul says, if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord
Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God raised him from
the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the mouth confession
is made unto salvation. Now you'll notice that confession
is put first, not because it comes first, but because confession
is the first act of the heart that believes God. There must
be faith in the heart or the confession of the mouth is meaningless
hypocrisy. but faith in the heart can only
be known by a confession made with the mouth. This confession
is made to God and it's made to men. What is it that must
be confessed? Paul says, if thou shalt confess
with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, thou shalt be saved. I confess
to you and to God. that Jesus of Nazareth is God
Almighty. I confess to you and to God that
Jesus Christ is Lord. I bow to him as my master. I
confess to you and to God that the Lord Jesus is that Savior
whom God sent to save his people from their sins. I confess to
you and to God that Jesus is the Christ. He is that one of
whom God in all the scriptures spoke. God spoke about a man
who's the woman seed, a man who must be born of a virgin, a man
like us but a man without sin. A man who must bring in everlasting
righteousness. A man who must die as the Lamb
of God. A man who after three days must
rise from the dead. I confess Christ is that man. He's done everything the prophets
said that Christ must do. How is this confession made?
The confession spoken of in our text specifically is with the
mouth. I take that to mean that God
requires an open, public, vocal confession of Christ. Now I stress,
the confession's got nothing to do with the accomplishment
of salvation. Oh no, it's not the cause of
salvation. But with equal emphasis, I stress, that where there's
no confession of Christ, there's no salvation. Baptism is the
believer's initial confession of faith. He that believeth in
his baptized shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be
damned. That's the same thing Paul says here in our text. With
the mouth, confession is made to salvation. You see, baptism
is an act of obedience to Christ. I know preachers in churches
now and in the past have baptism classes. You've got to have so
many classes on baptism before you can be baptized. You've got
to have a waiting period before you can be baptized, so you need
to understand what you're doing. Let me tell you, I'll speak just
for Don. You other parents can say what
you want to. I had just the one child, and she understood from
her earliest days that the first primary reason for her doing
anything I told her to do is because I said do it. Just that simple. Now as she
got older, at my discretion, only at my discretion, I would
explain to her why she was to do it. But it was my discretion. I would say, Faith, you go help
mama with dishes. And she understood that was her
responsibility from that day forward. Why should I have to
do that? Sally doesn't have to do that.
Susan doesn't have to do that. That doesn't matter at all. I
said, wash dishes. That's all, that's all. Baptism,
first and foremost, is an act of obedience to Christ our Savior. He said, be baptized. Why should
I be baptized? The master said to, the master
said to. Baptism is also a symbolic picture
of our faith in Christ as our representative, as our salvation
being finished by Him. It's a symbolic fulfillment of
all righteousness. Our Lord came to be baptized
to John. John said, oh, I can't baptize you. And the master said,
now John, suffer to be so now, for thus it becometh us to fulfill
all righteousness. Now, I know the Campbellites
all around here, for you who don't know, that's Church of
Christ folks. They say you gotta be baptized to be saved. I'm
convinced that Acts 2.38 was only written for one reason.
That was to give Campbellites rope with which to hang themselves.
Baptism doesn't have anything to do with righteousness except
symbolically. It's a symbolic picture of the
fulfillment of all righteousness. Our Lord Jesus came down here
in the flesh, lived as a man, died under the wrath of God,
and was buried and rose again and ascended on high with new
life. That's what's pictured in baptism. I'm crucified with Christ. I'm
buried with Christ. I'm risen with Christ to walk
with him in the newness of life. Baptism is the confession of
our allegiance to Christ. I belong to him who loved me
and gave himself for me. And still the text requires with
the mouth confession is made under salvation. You see, Christ
is the banner. God's people rally around the
banner. If you trust Christ, confess
Him. If you love Christ, confess Him. If you believe on Christ,
take up your cross and follow Him. That's the promise of God,
and thou shalt be saved. And still above all else, this
is a matter of the heart. For with the heart, men believeth
unto righteousness. In every regenerate soul, there
is a heartfelt acquaintance with the person and work and glory
of Christ. It's called seeing the Son, trusting
the Son, leaning on the Son, coming to the Son, receiving
the Son. So many synonyms given for faith. Because faith is one of those
things that's so hard to put into words. You sometimes just feel like
saying to your wife, I love you doesn't express anything. or
just saying to your husband, I love you, that just doesn't
say it. You gotta say something else.
And everything else is superlative, but sure, it's good to get it
said. It's good to get it said, because just one thing won't
express what's in you. Faith in Christ is looking to
Him, trusting Him, seeing Him, believing Him, coming to Him,
leaning on Him, It is an act of the heart. More than an act
of the heart, it's the life of the heart. It's continually coming
to Christ, being taught who he is, believing him for salvation. There is a heartfelt, continual
enjoyment of Christ as our all, our wisdom, our righteousness,
our sanctification, and our redemption. Number four. Saving faith, trust
Christ's finished work of redemption. Faith holds, believes, and depends
upon certain undeniable facts. It is the firm reliance and confidence
of the heart upon the merit and efficacy of Christ's finished
work. I've often wondered, why does
Paul specifically say that we're to believe in the resurrection
of Christ? Why does he specifically say that? Isn't the primary article
of faith the Savior's substitutionary death? It is indeed. But to believe
that God raised him from the dead implies that I certainly
believe that he once lived and died. If I believe that he died,
I believe he came here to live on this earth. If I believe he
lived, I believe that he came down from heaven. If I believe
in my heart that God raised him from the dead, I believe that
God has accepted him. That God raised him from the
dead. God said, enough, enough, enough. I require no more. Christ is satisfaction. The resurrection
of Christ is God's public declaration that He's accepted His Son in
all His work. The empty tomb is the declaration
of God that atonement is complete and finished. Christ died, and
we died in Him. Christ arose, and we arose in
Him. Christ is accepted, and we're
accepted in Him. Christ sat down in heaven, and
we sat down with Him, quickened together with Him, risen together
with Him, seated with Him in heavenly places. We are in Christ,
one with Christ, and our union with Christ is our assurance
of acceptance. God, as surely as God has accepted
Christ, as surely as God has embraced Christ's atonement,
as surely as God has received Christ's righteousness, as surely
as God has Jesus Christ sitting at his right hand, the God-man,
our Savior. God has accepted me, received
me, embraced me, and seated me with his son. I'm one with him,
brother Claus, one with Christ. That's our joy, that's our peace. Now, one last thing. Salvation
is promised to every sinner who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ. 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. Take that personal singular pronoun
personally, thou. That means you. God is speaking
to you out of heaven who hear his voice. Thou shalt be saved. This promise is made to every
sinner who believes on Christ without exception. I was once talking to a lady.
She said, but you don't know my past. And I responded to her, your
past is irrelevant. Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter
who you are. It doesn't matter what you've
done. It doesn't matter what you bid. It doesn't matter. It
doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. Believe on
the Lord Jesus right where you're sitting and thou shalt be saved. This is a promise of eternal
salvation. There are no ifs, no buts, no
what ifs in the text. When God says shout, omnipotence
is present to perform the work. preaching in Ashland, I raised
the question to the congregation, is salvation, eternal life, the
unconditional gift of God, or is it conditional? Our Lord Jesus
says, I give unto them eternal life. And if He's given that
to Josh Peterson, He says, Josh Peterson will never perish. They
shall never perish. But what if they shall never
perish? What if he falls? They shall
never perish. What if he falls again? They
shall never perish. What if he cusses and denies
the Savior? They shall never perish. What if he commits adultery? They shall never perish. What
if he commits murder? They shall never perish, never
perish, never perish, never perish. I give them eternal life. They
shall never perish. How can you say that, Brother
Don? I see at the throne of God, a fellow named David, to whom God gave eternal life.
I see seated before the Lamb of God a fellow by the name of
Lot, a man God made righteous, to whom God gave eternal life.
I see at God's throne a fellow by the name of Peter, whom the Lord Jesus said, I give
him eternal life, he shall never perish. I see seated at the throne
of God, as near as any man can ever get to the throne of God,
I see seated with Jesus Christ at God's right hand, a fellow
by the name of Don Fortner, to whom the Savior said, eternal
life. He shall never perish and nothing's
going to change that. Nothing I do and nothing you
do. It's an absolute free unconditional
gift and the promise implies a certain passiveness on your
part. The text says thou shalt be saved. It doesn't speak about what you're
going to do, but rather about something done for you and in
you. It's true, you will confess Christ. It's true, you will believe
on Christ. But I'm gonna tell you something. I'm gonna tell you something.
Folks talk about, I decided to let Jesus come into my life.
I made my decision for Jesus. I decided to get saved. No, that
just ain't so. That just ain't so. I'll tell
you what you did. If you're God's, you found yourself believing
Him. And believing Him, you decided
to. You found yourself coming to Him, and coming to Him, you
wanted to. You found yourself trusting Him, and trusting Him,
you gladly trusted Him. Faith is the gift and work of
God in you. Let me see if I can picture it
for you. There's a fellow in the tomb over yonder. His name
is Lazarus. He's been dead for four days. And he wasn't embalmed. He's
stinking. He's wrapped up in grave clothes,
head to toe, bound up in grave clothes. And the Lord Jesus said,
Lazarus, come forth. And do you know Lazarus came
forth? Lazarus came forth. I would like
to have been there. I'd like to have some idea what
that picture was like. I don't have any idea what happened.
But I know this, Lazarus didn't come forth by his own strength.
He came out of that tomb by the power of him who said, come forth. And so it is with faith in Christ. 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. I'm calling on you to believe
on Christ. I'm calling on you to trust the
Son of God. Do you cast yourself, sink or
swim on him? Do you find yourself leaning
the weight of your soul on him? Then you shall be saved. If you're
not, then I'm a liar. This book is a fabrication and
God, the Holy Spirit has borne false witness to what I've said.
And that cannot be. Among the multitudes who sink
down into hell, there's never been one who believed on Christ. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and thou shalt be saved. I know whereof I speak, for with
my heart and my soul, I have verified this text of scripture.
Believe in Christ, I confess him. confessing Him, I'm saved. Saved by the blood of the crucified
one.