I'd like to read verses 9 through
11, Romans chapter 10. The Apostle Paul writing to the
church at Rome, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth
the Lord Jesus, or if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus
to be Lord, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath
raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation. For the scripture saith, whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed to confess him with their
mouth. shall not be ashamed. He that
believeth on him will not be ashamed to own it. About fifty years ago, I was
a young man and I was pastoring the First Baptist
Church of Brownsburg, Indiana. and I was asked by a church close
by to come and hold a series of revival meetings. I was always
amused when someone asked me to come to hold a revival because
I always told them that if I was holding one, I'd let it loose.
But anyway, I was asked to come and hold these meetings. They
had an old preacher there And he was an amusing sort of a fellow
to me because I would ask him every once in a while what he
preached on the Sunday before. And he would say, well, he said,
I would go up through Romans 3.23 and on up through Romans
6.23 And then I'd come back around
and come down through Romans 9, 10, and 11. And he always
amused me because I think really that's all he knew really. But
every time you ask him, that's what he'd tell you. That's the
trip he took. And these verses that we have
here today or before us are tremendous verses. Yesterday they were burning the
fields behind our place and got into some of that smoke and it
didn't do my voice any good. But we'll do the best we can
with what we have here. But I want us to think about
verses 9, 10, and 11 here this morning. So be praying as we
preach these verses that the Lord will own them. You remember
the Apostle Paul said that he endured all things for the elect's
sake that they might obtain the salvation which is in Christ
Jesus with eternal glory, 2 Timothy 2 and 10. And in 1 Corinthians
9 and 22 he said, I made all things to all men that I might
by all means save some. The Apostle Paul always took
care so to write and so to preach that men by his preaching and
teaching that they might be led savingly by the Spirit of God
to the Lord Jesus Christ. In both his preaching and teaching
that was his aim that he might save some. that he might be an
instrument in the hands of God to bring the lost sheep into
the fold. And he sought to speak that troubled
consciences might come to peace through the Lord Jesus Christ
whom the Apostle Paul loved so well. We know Romans 5.1 Paul
said, therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ. And this is one of the reasons
why he so often gives us weighty condensations of the gospel when
he packs the truth together very tightly in verses of scripture
such as we have here before us today. Our text today seems to
me to be a little Bible in itself. It seems to be a miniature body
of divinity does it not in itself. Now Paul several times puts the
gospel in a remarkable plain and simple and brief manner in
his writings. You remember in 2nd Timothy and
chapter 1 and verse 9 he said who has saved us and called us
with a holy calling not according to our works, but according to
His own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began. How that is packed full of gospel
truth. And then you remember in 1 Timothy
1 and 15 Paul said, this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom
I am chief. And then over in 1 Timothy again
in chapter 3 and in verse 16, the apostle Paul talked about
great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifested in the flesh
and he was justified in the spirit. He was seen of angels, preached
unto men. The Lord Jesus Christ, he said,
was this great mystery of godliness and God working with him. How
he sets forth in that just short verse, the marvelous mystery
of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so we need to understand
that he was a master at this, and that's what we have in our
text this morning, the condensation of great truth into just very
short verses. Now, beloved, the gospel, as
Paul sets it forth in this chapter, is a gospel of faith. It's a
gospel of faith. You remember he said over here
in verse six, but the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on
this wise. He had in verse five described
the righteousness which is of the law. And he didn't say a
word about faith in verse five. He said Moses said as he was
describing the law, the righteousness which would come by the law,
he says that the man which doeth those things shall live by them. In other words, if a man is going
to be justified by the law, then he must do what the law says. He must obey the law. The word
is do, the word is obey. But in the gospel of faith, as
he speaks of it in verse 6, This is the gospel of imputed righteousness,
this is the gospel which truly saves, and this is a gospel of
faith. And so, beloved, today if we're
going to be affected by the gospel, it will be as we believe the
gospel. as we trust the Lord Jesus Christ
and depend upon him. This gospel of faith is evidently
intended for lost men and women. Verse 9 sets that forth. He says that, If thou should
confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in thine
heart that God hath raised him from the dead, Thou shalt be
saved. Evidently, the gospel was to
those who were lost in order that they might be saved. The
gospel, it does not regard us as having life by nature, but
as needing life. And if you're here this morning,
you're outside the Lord Jesus Christ, you have never been touched
by the Holy Spirit and bringing you to repentance and faith in
Christ, then my friend, you need the Gospel. You need Christ. You need life. The Gospel of
God comes to us as dead sinners who need to be made to live and
then to be kept alive by the power of God through faith in
Christ Jesus. We're to be saved by this gospel. This gospel is a saving gospel
and how wonderful it is to be able to preach this gospel that
is a saving gospel indeed. When it is said that we shall
be saved, it implies that we have fallen into a loss, into
a ruin, an undone condition, and out of this the gospel is
to rescue us. And if you're here this morning
and you're outside of Christ, only the gospel can rescue you
from the condition that you're in. and you're in a lost condition,
a ruined condition, and only the gospel can bring you out,
and lift you up, and lift you up unto faith in God. I am to declare plainly this
morning this gospel, because to you this gospel is sent. It is sent to you who need it.
to you who need the gospel. Now it is sent to the lost, and
if you're not lost, then you don't need saving. The Bible
says that the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that
which was lost. He came on that very errand into
this world. He came down here to seek and
to save that which was lost, and we believe that all those
who truly get lost that He finds them and He saves them. But those
of you here this morning yet unsaved, it's because you've
never yet found yourself lost. You've never discovered that
you're entirely lost unto God. And only when you come to understand
that will you begin to seek after Him who is life. Now, if you've
not fallen, as we said, you don't need any restoring. But we all
fell in Adam, and if we ever rise, it will be in the Lord
Jesus Christ. If we ever rise, it'll be in
Christ. Now, if you've not sinned, you
would need no forgiveness, and you would have no need of repentance
if you had never sinned. Romans 3 and 23 says, All have
sinned and come short of the glory of God. All. all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. Now if you were not far
off from God, you would have no need to be brought nigh by
the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. But it's because
you're far off in sin, in the wilderness of sin, that you need
to be brought nigh to God by the blood of His own Son. Now the gospel of salvation is
sent to those who are under the curse of the law those who are
condemned and must pay its penalty. Cursed is everyone who continues
not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do
them. Cursed are those who have broken God's law. And if there
be not the heavenly remedy applied to your soul, the gospel, the
balm of Gilead applied to your soul, then my friend you must
die and go off yonder to that place of eternal suffering. Some
think that all that would be necessary really for us to do
is to preach a milder form of the law or preach a more easy
way of works. Don't be so strict about it,
but just fix it so that people can, you know, get in easily
and if you have a way of works and a way of the law which men
can obey and they can get by doing it, well then, that will
save them. But my friend, we preach the
demands of God. We preach the demands of God,
and that is that you be reconciled fully and entirely to Him, and
that you have a complete and perfect righteousness down to
your account on the books of God. We do not preach law, but
we preach the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. We do
not preach works, but we preach gifts. The Bible says, for the
wage of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through
Jesus Christ. And John 10 and 27, our Lord
said, I give unto my sheep eternal life. We preach gift, not works,
not are you obeying some milder form of the law, but we preach
the gift of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now the gospel
is in very deep good news. It is, because we're preaching
to you this morning that you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and you will become as righteous before God as Jesus Himself is. We preach to you that God will
save you by believing on His Son and confessing Him with your
mouth as your Savior. We have not come to tell men
what they're to do for God. but what God has done for them. If a preacher gives you something
to do for God before he tells you what God has done for you
in the person of Jesus Christ, that man is a false prophet.
My friend, God has done something for sinners. Will you listen?
Will you hearken? Something has been done for lost
sinners, and that is that God gave His only begotten Son, Jesus
Christ, to die on Calvary's cross to suffer the penalty of our
sin in order that we might be saved. Now, it is not what you're
to bring to Jesus, but it's what Jesus has brought down to us. He came on an errand from heaven,
and he accomplished that errand. He came down here, God gave him
a body in the womb of the Virgin Mary, and in that body he served
the will of God, he obeyed the will of God. Every jot and tittle
of the law he kept. in order that He might establish
for you a perfect righteousness. And when you come to believe,
you believe in what the Lord Jesus Christ has brought down
to us. Hear me, this book and its message
is for those who need saving. There's a saving message in this
book. Now the Christ whom this book
sets forth is for sinners. He is for sinners. The whole
need not a physician, the Bible says, but it's the sick. that
needs a physician. Paul says, by the Spirit of God,
that the believer shall be saved. Though he is lost, he will be
saved if he believes. Thou shalt be saved. Now salvation,
the word salvation, saved, what a word it is. Short, But long
on meaning. It's long on meaning. What is
it to be saved? My friend, I wish that everyone
here this morning could put it in their resume. Saved. Saved by the grace of God. Saved. My sins are all gone. My sins have been put away. But what is it to be saved? It
means to be saved from the punishment of all my sins, and we've accumulated,
oh, how many sins. We could not begin, we could
not venture to say, how many is our sins before God, on God's
books. But to be saved means for that
all to be blotted out. and for our sins to be forgiven,
that we be not punished for our sin, save from going down into
that eternal pit. Save, my friend, from the blackness
of darkness forever. Save from the everlasting wrath
of the Most Holy and High God. Saved from his wrath. Saved from the second death,
which is the very hell of hell itself. Saved from eternal burning. Saved from sin itself, the criminality
and the guilt of it. From its stains you shall be
washed whiter than snow. Clean, clean every wit. Now what the Lord Jesus told
Peter? He said, if I wash you not, He said, you'll never be
clean, but if I wash you, you'll be clean every whit. How would
it feel to be washed in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ? My
friend, it would feel like you're cleaner than you've ever been
in all of your life to be cleansed by the blood, the shed blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is written, I have blotted
out as a thick cloud thy transgressions and as a cloud thy sins. Oh my friend, it is a blessed
salvation of which the apostle speaks here. and all around salvation
because it's a salvation for the past, it's a salvation for
the present, and it's a salvation for the future. Hallelujah. It's all wrapped up in this one
person, the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what this gospel is all
about. This is what we're to testify
to you this morning. We could not have a grander message
to present to the sons of men than that of, if you believe
with your heart the Lord Jesus Christ and confess with your
mouth, then thou shalt be saved. I mean, what a grander message
could we have to preach? Oh, the completeness of it. Hebrews
7 and 25 says, He is able to save to the uttermost. all that
come unto God by Him, seeing that He ever lives to make intercession
for us. It comprehends heaven itself
and all of its bliss. My friend, to be saved comprehends,
we say, heaven itself and all of its bliss. I'm looking forward
to heaven. I look forward to eternal life. I look forward to all the promises
of God toward His own being fulfilled in the person of Jesus. Thou
shalt be saved reaches from the gates of hell to God's throne
and lifts the sinner up from between the jaws of death to
the white robed orchestra of the New Jerusalem. It's a complete
salvation. It's a thorough salvation. Those
of you who cannot say one good word about yourself, you that
feel your own unworthiness, you who are sinking far from the
peaceful shore, listen to me my friend, catch hold this morning
of this rope, this rope, this gospel rope this morning and
hold on to it. Hold on to it. This gospel rope
is that if you believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from
the dead and confess with your mouth him to be Lord, which no
man can do except by the Holy Ghost, then he is saved. Now those of you who cannot say
this this morning, there's a message. There's a message indeed in this
chapter. So lean forward and don't miss
it. Don't miss this word of this
chapter. It assures your loss. This is
a word for you. A word for you this morning.
Now my second point is this. that saving faith concerns itself
with Jesus Christ only. With Jesus Christ only. I want
you to turn back quickly in your Bibles to Romans chapter 1, and
look here as Paul sets this forth. He says in verse 1 of Romans
1, Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated
unto the gospel of God. which he had promised afore by
his prophets in the holy scriptures. Concerning, verse 3, concerning
what? Concerning his son Jesus Christ
our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the
flesh and declared to be the Son of God with power according
to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead. What does the gospel concern? Does it concern a few do's and
don'ts for you? Absolutely not. The gospel concerns
His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. And the faith that saves, the
faith that Paul is talking about, when he talks about the faith
speaketh in verse 6, but the righteousness which is of faith
speaketh on this wise, concerns itself entirely with the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now beloved, this faith is one
which grasps the truth. True saving faith concerns itself
wholly about the glorious person and the gracious work of Him
whom God raised from the dead. Now if you take note here in
verse 6 and 7 of Romans 10, he says, But the righteousness which
is of faith speaketh on this wise, say not in thine heart,
say not in thine heart." In other words, my friend, when a man
believes the Gospel, when a boy or girl or anyone believes the
Gospel, the faith that's in their heart quits raising issues. as to who their faith is really
laid hold of. Now, our faith lays hold of Christ. He says, say not in thine heart
who's going to go up to heaven and get Jesus. Saving faith don't
say that. Saving faith says He's already
come down from heaven. He's already down here. He's
already come into this world. He's already come down here and
died on the cross. He's already bled, poured out
His life's blood to save four sinners. He already has. So nobody
needs to go up to heaven. We won't concern ourselves with
that. Concern yourself with a Jesus that has put in an appearance
in this world and has accomplished the purpose of God when He came. And that was to save His people
from their sin. And then look at verse 7. Or
who shall descend into the deep? That is to bring up Christ again
from the dead. It is true that when our Lord
Jesus Christ died, that he went down into the heart of the earth
and he preached, the Bible said, and he was raised up. It's not
an issue where Christ is. He's been here and he's now ascended
back to glory. But the Lord Jesus Christ, my
friend, is a living Christ and one who is, according to the
Bible, set forth as one who's been here and is now ascended
at the right hand of eternal majesty to give repentance and
faith unto his people. Oh my friend, this comprehends
from Bethlehem to Gethsemane and to the right hand of the
Father. This is the spear of the sinner's
faith. I mean, you believe that he put
in an appearance in Bethlehem, in the manger? You believe he
was born there as a babe, don't you? Absolutely. And you believe
that as he lived out his life, he assumed the great burden and
responsibility of our sin and our guilt? And he went there
into the garden of Gethsemane, where he sweat as it were great
drops of blood, and then he went to Calvary. And there that man,
as he hangs upon the cross, the God-man, my sin upon his shoulders,
your sin upon his shoulders. And then he was taken down, buried
in the tomb, and then God raised him out. And then he had a ministry
among the brethren, and over 500 brethren at one time witnessed
the Lord Jesus Christ, him having been resurrected. And then he
ascended up yonder to heaven to be seated at the right hand
of the Father. This is the sphere of the sinner's
faith. He believes all of this. Faith
is where Jesus was and is. He was with the Father where
the world was. He was in the world living. Under
the law, He died on the tree having been made sin for us.
And He was delivered for our offenses. And He was raised again
for our justification. And as we said, He's the High
Priest now at the right hand of the Father. Faith takes in,
my friend, where Jesus is and where He's been. And it believes
all of that. If salvation to be had, salvation
is to be had concerning His Son. Salvation is to be had in the
Son of God. Faith observes Him, as we said,
from Bethlehem to the accursed tree. And she says, My life is
here. That's where it is. Right there
in the God-man. If ever I'm saved, I must be
saved here. I must be saved by believing
these truths about my blessed Redeemer, what He went through,
and where He is now. Upon a life, the poet said, I
did not live. Upon a death, I did not die,
hangs my whole eternity. hangs my whole eternity. Faith
resolved is to look only to Jesus. Faith resolved is to look only
to Jesus, her all, for she is persuaded that besides Him there
is none else. You have that kind of faith that
says, Jesus either saves me or I'm a goner. Jesus Christ either
is my righteousness or I shall never enter heaven's portals.
Jesus Christ is my all or God will refuse me an entrance into
that holy place because I'll never be holy apart from being
in this blessed one. When you come to that point,
my friend, then you're saved. I believe, I believe you're saved
when you come to that place where you say, Jesus only is my savior. When Jesus is all your salvation
and all your desire, the work of grace has surely begun in
your soul. Jesus is our Boaz and we have
come to the right conclusion about him when we resolve never
to glean in any other field but that. Amen? Amen! Have you come to that place?
Now faith has its eye also on facts. The eye of faith is on
what Jesus did and what He suffered. She reflects that He died and
reflects that He rose again and is gone into glory and is coming
again. Facts, not fiction, is our comfort. Facts. Now you say, how do you
get facts out of this preacher? I believe the testimony of the
Word of God about how the Lord Jesus Christ came, how He died,
how He was buried, and how God raised Him up. I believe the
facts. And I'm going over them, and
I'm going over them, because you're going to have to believe
it in order to be saved. And if you believe it, thou shalt
be saved. Thou shalt be saved if you believe
it. Now then, the weight of sin is not to be borne by theories
or speculations. Only actual transactions can
meet our dire necessity, and these are to be found only in
the person and experience and work of the Redeemer, the Lord
Jesus Christ. All this talk about your little
doing, doing of this and that is a slur on the Lord Jesus Christ. The fact is, all that can be
done has been done. Do you believe that? All that
can be done has been done. I would say all that needs to
be done has been done. Is faith stirring in your soul? If it's stirring in your soul,
you'll reach out and grab that and hang on to it. All that needs
to be done has been done. It's all been done. Now then,
why do you want to attempt that which has already been done?
You say, well, I'm trying to please God. I'm trying to do
something that's right. I'm just trying to do a little
something that's right. Why don't you just believe in
one who did everything right? Won't you believe in Him? Won't
you trust Him? Won't you rely on Him? He's the
one that's done all the doing. Now it is finished, says Christ.
Why do you try to do it over again? Why do you try to do it? You say, well, I just don't know
whether we ought to put all our eggs in one basket or not. My
friend, everybody that don't put all of their eggs in this
basket, the Lord Jesus Christ, will go to hell when they die.
There isn't but one Savior. But one Savior. There is only
one way to get out of the mess we're in by nature. One way. One person in all the universe
that can deliver a soul, a lost soul, from eternal wrath and
judgment. And that's Jesus Christ, God's
Son. And he said, it's finished. And
so why should I go on and try to do it over again when all
I've done is failed already? I've already failed, and you
have too. All men by nature are failures.
They're all failures. I mean, you can examine them
and you don't even have to have a microscope to do it. They're
all failures by nature. There's only one that never failed. And I'm here to preach Him to
you. Not me, not anyone else, but
Him. We're set forth as the righteous
Son of God, the Savior of sinners. Now, you want to work? Well,
are not his workings enough? Well, there's nothing wrong with
a man who is saved walking after the Lord. If a man says he knows
Him, he ought to walk as he walked. There's nothing wrong with being
engaged in the service of Almighty God, being His servant. Once
you know Him, once you believe in Him, you won't be able to
help it. You'll just want to do what He wants you to do. You
want to enlist in His service. All your doings and willings
and your feelings are your attempt at self-salvation. It's your
attempt at self-salvation. It's all a mistake. All the doing's
been done. Jesus did it all long, long ago. Hear that your soul may live. Hear it that your soul may live,
my friend. The doing has been done. Now then, thirdly, saving faith
has a confession to make. It has a confession to make. If thou shalt confess with thy
mouth the Lord Jesus. When our Lord sent his servants
out to preach he said, In Mark 16, 16, he that believeth and
is baptized shall be saved. Now, baptism is the confession
of our faith. However, that is not the confession
spoken of here in our text this morning. Constantly in the scripture,
the faith to which salvation is promised is a faith which
makes confession of itself. It is not a dumb faith. It is
a faith that speaks, a faith which owns its own existence. How can I know what you believe
in your heart? I have no way of knowing what
you believe in your heart. You say this out of one side
of your mouth and that out of the other side of your mouth.
See, I don't believe there's any God out of one side of your
mouth. And then I'm sure that when the
pressure and the stress gets on, and whenever you come to
the place where you're just, as it were, between a rock and
a hard place, you'll probably find yourself somewhere out praying
to God. Praying to God. No God for me! But then you'll be praying for
God when you get in trouble. But my friend, listen, this is
not a dumb faith. I don't know what you believe
in your heart until you confess it with your mouth. Paul says,
confess with your mouth. How can I know what you believe
then? I must hear it from your own mouth. Out of the abundance
of the heart, the proverb says, the mouth speaketh. Speak that
we may know you. Speak that we may see the real
you. Confess with your mouth the Lord
Jesus Christ. I'm talking about the obedience
of faith, but taking up your cross and coming out and confessing
Him. Romans 10 and verse 11 says,
For the Scripture says, Whosoever believeth on Him shall not be
ashamed. Now, I used to think that there
were people in our group that believed, but they just wouldn't
confess it. Ah, my friend, listen, that needs
to be, we need to rethink that. And I'm going to tell you what
I understand this to mean. It says if you believe, then
you will not be ashamed to confess it. You will confess it if you
believe. Now then, what are we to believe?
What we're to believe is that you are an unbeliever unless
you have the grace and the grit and whatever it takes to stand
up and confess that you believe that Jesus is Lord and confess
it with your mouth. That's the only way we're going
to know what is in your heart. Now the Spirit of God, as a comforter,
has not and will not bear witness with your spirit that you're
a child of God because you have never borne witness to your Lord
by confessing Him with your mouth. The comfort of blessing and believing
with the heart is hindered by the absence of confession with
the mouth. Now we desire to be saved, do
we not? I will not preach a backstairs
gospel for cowards, No, my friend, a secret lane of salvation which
you can travel without ever being known and being seen? Absolutely
not. You say, I'm a secret disciple.
Well, you're going to have to prove to me that secret disciples
are anything other than unbelievers. Because in my opinion, that's
exactly what they are, the fearful and the unbelieving. The Bible
says, shall listen, they shall have their part. Listen, they
shall have their part. Hear me! In the lake of fire,
the fearful and unbelieving are going to hell. That's what the
Bible says. That's not what I say. That's what the Bible says. Now,
we must not be moonlighters then. Let us follow Jesus Christ in
the broad daylight. Let us come out and confess. He that confesseth me before
men, him will I confess before my Father which is in heaven.
But he that denieth me, which means he that does not confess
me, will I deny before my Father which is in heaven. Hear the
text. Hear the text. Hear it clearly.
If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, then you
will be saved. What must we confess? The Lord
Jesus Christ. We are to confess Him as Lord. That Jesus is Lord. Not that He's the preacher's
Lord. Or not that He's the deacon's Lord. but that He is my Lord. I confess Him as my Lord. I confess that I bow to Him in
my heart at all times. Even when I can't bow my knee.
Even when I'm too busy to bow my knee. Even when I'm at work
or doing whatever I'm given to do. I've always bowed in my heart
to the Lord. I'm submissive to the Lord. I'm
laying down my life as it were before the Lord. He is my master. He is my Savior. He's what I'm depending on to
keep me out of the fires of hell. He's what I'm depending on, is
Christ. Now, I a soldier under Him, He's
my commander and leader. He's my commander and leader. Now note, if you will, how very
definite this confession must be. You may say, Preacher, I
don't want to go out on a limb about this thing. I do believe
in Christ, and I will try to live like I believe in Him, but
I cannot see where I need to say yea or nay. That sounds like an honorable
thing. Does it not? That sounds very
honorable. However, the confession, I mean,
if I could let you off, I would. I'd let you off. The confession
required by the text is expressly said to be with my mouth. With thy mouth. Now, don't blame
me for this. I did not write it. But the scripture
says, with thy mouth. And you are vocally what this
means. And if he meant something else,
then he ought to have said something else. But you are vocally to
own Jesus. You are definitely and distinctly
to say with your tongue before men and women, your mouth, your
lips, that He is Lord and Savior. It's not to be an inference drawn
in silence from your life. Did you get that? It's not to
be an inference drawn in silence from your life, but a declared
statement of the mouth. Now that's the meaning of this
text. Why did he say with the mouth?
if he did not require a spoken word. Why is this confession
necessary? Well, let me say just a word
or two about that, and I'm going to let you go just right away.
First of all, this confession with the mouth is a breaking
away from the world. a breaking away from the world. Now when a person says with their
mouth, truly, Jesus is Lord and I believe that he's my Lord,
he is saying to the world, I'm done with your world. Christ
is my Lord and my master. From now on I'll follow him,
obey him, I'll walk with him. From now on he's my Lord and
my God. Now he has come away and out
from the unbelieving world when he makes that statement. He stands
up. You say, well people don't, well
you know, the people, they just, oh my, I'd be just called a fanatic
and everything else if people, if I were to do that. Well, that's
what it takes. You need to come out from the
world. Now you know when the man with the withered arm was
in the synagogue and our Lord healed him. He did not take him
into a room off the side or even over in the corner somewhere
to heal him. He did not do that. He said to this man, you know
what he said? He said, stand forth. Now remember, he's in the synagogue.
And Jesus said, you stand forth. And he stood right out in the
middle of the congregation. And when the Lord said, stretch
forth thine hand, he did it. And seeker, you must stand out. You must stand out. You must
be willing to separate yourself from the world. Oh, somebody
said, well, I think I'd die at the stake. Well, you ain't about
to die at no stake if you're not willing to confess Him with
your mouth in front of some believers. You're not about to do that.
You say, well, if the pressure ever gets on, if the pressure
ever gets on, you'll be worse than you are this morning. You're
going to tuck tail and run, my friend. Only those who solemnly
declare boldly and confess Him to be Lord, only those would
stand in such a day as that. You must come from your companions
and your sinful connections and say, I'm for Christ. He's my
Savior. And so my friend, this cuts you
loose from the world. And the judgment that's coming
on this world cuts you loose from it. Next, this confession
is also a way, I think, of forming a visible union with the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now we believe that all those
who believe on the Lord Jesus are in union with Him. That's
right, the Bible talks about us being married to Christ. We're
in union with Him. They that are joined to the Lord
are one spirit. And we're joined to the Lord
if we be believers. But a visible union with Him. It's good to see people joined
to my Lord. I love the Lord Jesus. He died for me. He died, He saved
me. And I like to see people visibly
in union with Him. I mean, where they're singing
about Him, where they give Him praise, where they give Him glory. Where they honor Him with their
lives. Where they're willing to do whatever
He would ask them to do. Visible union with Him. And that's what happens when
you stand up and confess Christ. Everybody says, that soul belongs
to Christ now. Why? They are identified with
Christ. Christ is their Lord. So my friend, I hope that we
can form this union. When you do this, you take side.
and His cause on the earth. You take sides with Him. Now
this man, Jesus, He's ridiculed in the world, you know that.
You take sides with Him. My friend, this is what God would
have you to do, and His cause on the earth. Are you for His
cause? I assume that if you're here
and you take your song book with everybody else and open it, sing,
I assume that you are supportive of His cause on earth. I suppose
that you are. I would suppose that you were.
And so my friend, this is what we're talking about. The confession
of the saved is very often the very means which God uses to
save others and to bring others to that point where they confess
Christ. This is the way we sacrifice
ourselves to the purpose of God in Christ. Your candle is under
a bushel. Bring it out. Bring it out. Bring it out. It can never be
right to hide the light. that God has put in you. Come
out, ye cowards! If you love Christ, confess Him
and enlist! under His banner. I have not
gone one inch, I don't believe, beyond my text. If I have gone
beyond my text, you show me wherein I have. The Bible is plain on
it. Faith has a sure promise to rest
on. It has it. God said if you believe
and confess, that's a sure promise. A sure promise. And so my friend,
I'd say to you, put your ear to this text. Put your ear there. The voice of God speaks. Thou
shalt be saved. No ifs, no buts. Thou shalt be
saved if you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth. Cast yourself. Sink or swim on
Him. On what He's done. This holy
book is not a lie. Amen. This holy book speaks the
truth with my mouth, and I like to do this every once in a while.
With my mouth, I do again confess. the Lord Jesus and my dependence
upon Him as an unworthy soul, a desperately lost soul without
my Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And I do believe Him to be very
God, a very God, my Master, my All. This God is my God. And I confess Him over in my
heart. I do verily and assuredly believe. that God raised Him from the
dead. This is not Easter Sunday, but it's as much Easter Sunday
as Easter Sunday morning will be. This is the first day of
the week, and this is the day our Lord rose from the dead. He has risen! And we believe
that God raised Him up from the dead, and I'm glad of it. and
it's my comfort and joy, and it's my confidence. And I know,
my friend, that if I did not possess this faith, confidence
in my blessed Jesus, that when I die you could put on my tombstone,
and you must put on my tombstone, without hope. Without hope! This man died with no hope! Because there is no hope apart
from the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you believe the book? Do you
believe the book? The message of the book, He lives.
The great Redeemer lives. And what joy the blessed assurance
of this gives to your soul. We're going to have a hymn.