I preached a message a few months
ago from Romans chapter 10, verse 9 and 10. I want you to listen
to that scripture. I'm going to read it this morning.
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus to be Lord, and
shalt believe in thine heart that God raised him from the
dead, thou shalt be saved. man believeth unto righteousness,
and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." And
I kept talking about believing on Christ with the heart, with
the heart. Well, after I preached that message,
I received a letter from a TV listener in which this question
was asked, what do you mean by believing on Christ with the
heart? Now, there's no way for me to
preach a message on every letter that I receive or every question
that is asked. I'm not going to attempt to do
that. But I was so impressed with the sincerity of this person's
letter and so impressed with the question which she asked,
which is at the very center and core of salvation. If you miss
heart faith, you miss Christ. If you miss heart faith, whatever
else you have, you miss salvation. And so she asked this question,
what is it to believe with a heart? And I'm bringing that message
today. What is it to believe with a heart? Now, I know sometimes
we preachers make so many distinctions about faith. We try to define
repentance and define faith and define love that true seekers
get terribly confused. terribly confused. We talk about
head faith and heart faith, we talk about temporary faith, and
we talk about saving faith, and we talk about natural faith and
spiritual faith. It's possible, very possible,
that the more we try to define faith, that the more we confuse
people. That's right, the more we try
to define it. Our Lord simply said, our Lord simply said to
his disciples, you go into all the world and preach the gospel,
He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. He didn't define
it at all. He just laid it out there. He that believeth and
is baptized shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be
damned. When the Philippian Jaeger, the message I brought to you
last Sunday morning, when he asked Paul, what must I do to
be saved, Paul didn't bother to define faith and to tear it
apart and spread it out, you know, and all the different aspects
of faith. He just said, believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ. But now, this scripture that I read, it definitely
says something about believing with the heart. It does. It says,
with the heart man believeth unto righteousness. It says,
if you believe that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead in your
heart, you shall be saved. That's what it says, twice, with
the heart, with the heart, with the heart. And listen to some
more scriptures. And really, I could spend the
rest of my time this morning just reading scriptures which
refer to the heart. And of course, we're not talking
about this organ that pumps blood and oxygen to different parts
of the body. We're talking about the inner
man, the soul of man, the mind of man. That's what we're talking
about, that real person, not just the exterior, but the inner
person. Listen to some of these verses.
Psalm 34. says verse 18, the Lord is known to them that are
of a broken heart, a broken heart. In Psalm 51, the sacrifices of
God are a broken heart, a contrite spirit, a contrite spirit. Jeremiah 29, the Lord said, ye
shall seek me and find me when you search for me with all your
heart. And then in Proverbs 4, 23, The
wise man Solomon says, my son, give me your heart. Give me your
heart. In another place, he says, keep
your heart. Out of it are the issues of life.
That's where all the issues of life are decided, in the heart.
In the heart. And then in Acts chapter 8, the
man Simon Magus, who attempted to buy the power of the Holy
Spirit, what did Peter say to him? He didn't say your profession
wasn't right, or your baptism wasn't the right mode, or you're
not associated with the right people. He said, your heart's
not right with God. Your heart's not right with God.
In Luke 16, 15, when our Lord condemned the self-righteous
Pharisees, He said, you're they which justify yourselves before
men. But God looks on the heart. God,
listen, knows your heart. And that which is highly esteemed
among men is an abomination to God. So, as I said to you a moment
ago, I know we make a mistake to try to split up faith and
define faith instead of just calling on men and commanding
men to believe on Christ. But this scripture definitely
says, with the heart, man believeth unto righteousness. With the
heart. And really, there are several reasons why the scripture
insists insists upon faith being a work of grace in the heart.
Insist upon it. Now don't you miss this. There
are several reasons why the scripture insists that faith be a work
in the heart, a work on the inward man. I'll tell you why. The word
heart indicates sincerity. That's what it indicates. Saving
faith is sincere as opposed to hypocrisy and pretense. Now that's
the reason the word heart is used. Our Lord said, you call
me Lord with your lips, but your hearts are far from me. You pretend
to be my servant. You pretend to be my child. You pretend to love me. You give
me this title, Lord, with your lips, but I'm not Lord in your
heart. You see the difference? So this
heart work denotes sincerity. It denotes sincerity. It indicates
sincerity. That's what our Lord was saying
to the Pharisees. He told them, He said, you cleanse
the outside so that you appear beautiful to men, but within
you're full of extortion and excess. And this is where the
problem is. It's in the heart. He said, thy
blind Pharisee, blinded by religion and tradition and customs, blinded
by these things, you blind Pharisee. cleanse first that which is within,
give attention to attitude, motive, spirit, give attention to the
heart, and the outside will be clean. So this word heart indicates
sincerity as opposed to hypocrisy. And then the word heart, secondly,
distinguishes, now listen to this, it distinguishes between
a traditional inherited and doctrinal faith as opposed to experience. So many people have hand-me-down
religion. Now let me ask you a question.
If you'd been born in China rather than America, would you be a
Confucius? If you'd been born in India or
Japan, would you have been a Buddhist? If you'd have been born in Italy,
would you have been a Catholic? If you'd have been born somewhere...
So many people are what their parents were. They've just got
hand-me-down, traditional, inherited doctrine. That's all. Why are
you a Baptist? Why are you a Methodist? Why
are you a Catholic? Well, my parents were, and my parents were before
them. It goes right on down the line. Well, what if you'd have
had heathen, hut-and-tot parents, would you have been a heathen?
You see what I'm saying? Now, this thing of faith bypasses
country, race, parents, background, heritage. Heart faith is personal
faith. It's personal experience. It's
what I believe in my heart. Listen to the words again. If
thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus to be Lord, and believe
in thine heart God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be
saved, for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness. This is serious. It says Paul
said, I know whom I have believed. I'm persuaded he's able to keep
that which I have committed to him. And you say, using a lot
of I's there, well, I'm the one that's got to die, and I'm the
one that's got to face God in the judgment, and I'm the one
that's got to go to hell or heaven. So I'm interested in I, and you
better get interested in you, too. And this thing is the reason
it talks about the heart. It talks about sincere, genuine
faith, experience, as opposed to tradition. I'm just what I
am because that's what they were before me. That's what I've always
heard, you know. And then thirdly, the word heart
distinguishes between a material, covetous, fleshly desire. You
know, a lot of people's faith in God is born of nothing in
the world but covetousness. I listen to these television
preachers so much, and they say, now if you're tired, you send
me 10% of your income, God will bless you. Bless you how? Bless
you physically. Bless you materially. You'll
have health and wealth. And all your bills will get paid,
and you'll get a better job, and you'll drive a bigger car,
and you'll live in a finer home. Tommy Rock. That's all I've got
to say to that foolishness. Heart faith has nothing to do
with automobiles and houses, even physical health. Heart faith
has to do with the heart. Our Lord Jesus rebuked people
on this very principle when he walked on this earth. He turned
to some folks one time that they followed him all the way around
the lake and they came up to him and said, Lord, when did
you come over here? We've been looking everywhere
for you. Our master turned to him, to those people, and he
said, you follow me because you ate of the loaves and fishes.
I know what you're interested in. You're interested in your
bellies. You're interested in your bodies. You're interested
in your flesh. You're interested in eat and
drink and be merry. You're interested in food. He
said it'd be better for you if you'd seek first the kingdom
of God. A man's life does not consist of the things he possesses,
the things he owns. Life is in Christ. You better
learn this. This faith we're talking about
is a heart faith. It's got nothing to do with this
flesh. My union with Christ is important to me inwardly. It
doesn't matter whether I'm poor or rich, whether I'm sick in
bed, or whether I'm walking on my feet, whether I'm in the grave,
or whether I'm walking on this earth. To be with Christ is far
better. To have Christ is to have life.
On another occasion, in John chapter 2, a bunch of people
followed him, and he said, I'll tell you why you follow me. You
saw the miracles. You saw the miracles. People
got their bodies healed, and they threw away their crutches
and all these things, and that's why you're following me. Now
you read John 2, 22, 23, and 24. Jesus did not commit himself
to them. He knew what was in a man. He
knew that covetousness and materialism and ambition that's in the heart
of man, and he had nothing to do with them. You know what Job
said about this thing of faith? Old Job had lost everything he
had. Everything he had was swept away, destroyed. Even his children
were all killed. And he sat out there on the ash
heap, scratching his balls with a piece of glass. And somebody
came to him and said, won't you just curse God and die? He said,
though he slay me. I'll trust Him. I'll trust Him. I'll trust Him in the valley.
I'll trust Him on the mountaintop. I'll trust Him in the sunshine.
I'll trust Him in the rain. I'll trust Him in the day of
health, and I'll trust Him in the day of care. I'll trust Him
if I stand on my feet. I'll trust Him if I sit in a
wheelchair. I'll trust Him. That's what I'm
talking about. Heart faith is genuine, it's
sincere, it's personal, and it does not rest in the gifts Rest
in the giver, in the giver. I want to try to explain what
I mean by believing in the heart. I showed you why the word heart
is used. That's why it's used, to denote
sincerity, to denote genuineness, to denote, contrary to materialism,
contrary to tradition and custom, is to denote a personal experience.
A love for Christ, not just for what He gives me, not just for
what He can do for me physically, not just for the gifts that He
supplies, but love Him. Where would John Bunyan be if
he had that old materialistic faith that they're trying to
shove off on us today? He spent 12 years in jail. Where
would John the Baptist be? He got his head cut off when
he was 32 years old. You can just go right on down
the line. Where would those old people Those old believers do
in Smithfield that were burned at the stake and their heads
chopped off with a guillotine, the Christians who fought the
lions in the Colosseum. Wasn't their God real? Wasn't
he able to deliver? Wasn't he able to save? Wasn't
he able to heal? Same God you believe in. Same
God I believe in. I'm going to give you five or
six, seven things here. Now, heart faith. Here's what
it is to believe with a heart. Heart faith has one object. Jesus
Christ. He's supreme. Our faith is in
Him and Him alone. Now listen, if thou shalt confess
with thy mouth, Jesus to be Lord, that's His deity, that's His
divinity, He's God Almighty. He's prophet, priest, and king.
He's God Almighty. If thou shalt believe in thine
heart that God raised him from the dead. Now a fellow to be
raised has to die, so he died. He died for our sins according
to the scriptures. He was buried And he rose again,
according to the scriptures. Who raised him? God raised him.
And God exalted him. God raised him to what? God raised
him to preeminence. That every knee should bow and
every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory
of God the Father. According to the scriptures,
soul-saving faith rests not on an experience, not on a creed,
rests not on a prayer, not on human merit, not on a decision,
Saving faith, soul-saving heart faith, rests in a person. It
believes his character, who he is. It believes his work, what
he did. It believes his office, where
he is now. The only mediator between God
and men. That's what it means to believe
in the heart. To lay hold of, by faith, Jesus Christ. Now secondly, heart faith is
always born of need. Here's where so many folks miss
it. Heart faith is born of need. The first work that the Holy
Spirit performs in conversion is not to teach a person doctrine.
That's not the first work. It's to convince a person of
sin in the light of God's holiness and God's glory. It's to convince
a person of his sin, consequently of his need of Christ. A man
will not look to Christ who does not need Christ. That's what
our Lord is saying when the disciples When our Lord was eating with
publicans and sinners, and the Pharisees said to the disciples,
why does your master eat with sinners? Why does he eat with
publicans? Why does he eat with those people? And our Lord heard
them, and he said to them, the well don't need the doctor. It's
folks that are sick. Go learn what that means. I'm
not come to call the righteous. I'm come to call sinners to repentance. If you never have a need, you'll
never look to Christ. If a man's thirsty, he believes
in water. If a man's hungry, he lays hold
of bread. If a man's lost, he believes
in mercy. You see what I'm saying? Everyone
in the New Testament who came to Christ, came to Christ because
there was nowhere else to go. There was no one else to meet
their need. Blind Bartimaeus cried, Jesus, our son of David,
Have mercy on me." That was his only hope. The woman with the
issue of blood crawled through that crowd, 12 years sick. She'd spent everything she had
and was no better. She said, if I can get to him,
I'll be made whole. She reached out her hand and
touched him. The thief on the cross, Lord,
remember me. The man in the temple, the publican,
God be merciful to me, the sinner. Saving faith, heart faith is
born of need. And that gospel which suits my
case and meets my need and reaches my heart and can do for me what
no one else can do, that's my gospel. I don't come preaching
to me the gospel of works. It won't help me. I don't have
any work. Don't come preaching to me the
gospel of morality. I don't have any. I couldn't
make a down payment on a square foot in heaven. Don't come to
me preaching the gospel of merit. I don't have any merit. I'm like
the apostle Paul who said this, I'm less than the least of all
the saints, not worthy to be an apostle, the chief of sinners.
But I know who came to save the chief of sinners, and that's
heart faith. It's born of need, need, need,
need. If you've never been emptied,
you'll never be filled. If you've never been lost, you'll never
be found. If you've never been dead, you'll never be raised.
If you've never been stripped, you'll never be clothed. That's
so. You believe me here, it's like
that fella says on the television commercial, you pay me now or
you pay me later. You believe me now or you'll
believe me later. Because every knee's gonna bow
and every tongue's gonna confess that he's Lord. That's right. You may not have a knee now,
but you will. And then it'll be too late. Then they cry for
the rocks and mountains to fall on. Now you can cry to Christ.
Now you can cry for mercy. Now you can seek grace. But then
you'll be crying for the mountains and rocks to fall on you and
hide you from his face who sits on the throne. Different, isn't
it? Heart faith, listen to me thirdly.
Heart faith agrees with this justice of God. Now, I know I've
upset a lot of people already talking about God punishing sin,
and God dealing with the ungodly, and God dealing with the wicked
hearts of men, and God justice and holiness. But heart faith
agrees with it. Now, David, if you want to read
a psalm of repentance, read Psalm 51. Psalm 51. And David starts
off, number one, acknowledging his sins. He said, Lord, blot
out my transgressions. He said, my sins are ever before
me. Against thee have I sinned. He starts out acknowledging his
sins. He continues by mourning over
his sin. And then, in verse 4, he acknowledges
that his sins are against God, and God would be just to condemn
him. And God would be clear to judge
him. Let me ask you three questions.
Will God punish sin? Well, you say, yes, I believe
He will. It's God just to punish sin. Will he do right if he punishes
sin? Well, I kind of think he will
do right if he punishes sin. If he sends sinners to hell,
will he do right? Well, yes. Yes, he will. What if he sends you to hell? Well, I don't know about that,
man. Well, now that's what I'm talking about. Heart, faith says
yes. Heart, faith says yes to all
three of those questions. God will punish sin. God ought
to punish sin. God be just to punish my sins. That's right. Oh, you say, I
don't know about that. Well, he spared not his own son.
And his own son wasn't a sinner. He bore somebody else's sins
by imputation. He was made sin for me and some
folks that believe on him. They weren't his sins at all.
He knew no sin. And God delivered him into the
hands of men, the hands of Satan, and the hands of an angry justice,
and God Almighty bruised him on the cross, his own son, and
turned his back from him. And he cried, My God, why hast
thou forsaken me? Christ endured hell on that cross,
and he's God's son, only begotten, well-beloved son. Heart faith justifies God, clears
God in his wrath. And then heart faith agrees with
and loves and approves of God's way of salvation in Christ. That's
right. In 1 Corinthians 1.18, listen
to this. To those who are perishing, the preaching of the cross, of
substitution, of the atonement, of the effectual sufficient work
of Christ in the sinner's place, to those who are perishing, that's
nonsense, sheer nonsense. To those who believe, to those
who are being saved, It's the power of God. It's the wisdom
of God. Here's one group of people that
looks at the cross where Jesus Christ hung in agony and in death
and died under the judgment and wrath of God. One group looks
at it and says, that's nonsense. That's foolishness. Give us our
candles and our our tablecloths with names on it, and our uniforms,
and our ritualism, and our stained-glass windows, and our chimes, and
cantatas, and all of our atmosphere. Give us this law. Give us these
things to do, our work. Give us our ordinances, baptism,
and sacraments, and communion. Give us these things. That's
foolishness, that substitution, that man on a cross, that blood
streaming from his wounds and from his hands and feet. That's
foolishness. But to those who are saved, That death of the
cross, that blood of the cross, that offering of the cross, that
sacrifice of the cross, is the power and wisdom of God. That's heart faith. You see,
heart faith sees in this. Saving faith understands how
the person and work of Christ, not only in his death but in
his life, Not only in his passive obedience, but in his active
obedience, not only in his sacrifice, but in his righteousness, saving
faith sees and understands how that righteous work honors God. It honors God's attributes. John
summed it up in 1 John 5, 20. He said, we know that the Son
of God has come and given us an understanding. We understand
some things. We understand that we might know
him that is true, and we're in him that is true, even in his
son. Heart faith understands God is sovereign in creation,
in providence, in salvation. He'll be merciful to whom he
will be merciful. Whom he will, he'll harden it.
Heart faith understands that, that God is sovereign. Heart
faith understands that God is holy, that Christ as a man must
obey and honor God's holiness. Heart faith understands that
God is just. Our sins have got to be laid
on us or on Christ, but they've got to be paid for. Heart faith
understands that God is true and faithful, and none for whom
Christ suffered, and none who lay hold upon Him, and none who
believe on Him shall perish. God is faithful to His promise.
God is true. And all these attributes, His
power, His majesty, His holiness, His righteousness, His justice,
His love, His mercy, His grace, His faithfulness, all of these
attributes are met and honored in Christ. Where righteousness
and peace met and where truth and mercy kissed was at the cross. Heart faith understands that,
lays hold upon it. And heart faith will continue.
Now get this, it'll continue. Heart faith's not going to play
church a while and then quit. Heart, face not going to walk
an aisle and then leave. Heart, face not going to sing
in the choir for six months and sing in the saloon for 60 years.
Heart, face not going to do that. It's going to continue. It's
going to continue. Now what happened to a lot of
you? Your faith rested in the arguments of men and the logic
of men. And a man who rests his faith
in the arguments of men can be argued out of that position by
another man. You see what I'm saying? A man
whose faith believes because of an emotional experience can
change his faith by a greater emotional experience. A man who
follows a man will change and follow another man who has a
stronger personality. But those who have Christ, those
who look to Christ, love Christ, trust Christ, believe in Christ
for themselves will never leave Him. For example, when our Lord
stood there and several thousand people walked off, He turned
to his disciples, and he said, just 12 of them left, 5, 6,000.
And he said, will you also go away? And they said, to whom
shall we go? You have the words of eternal
life. We believe and assure that you're the Son of God. You see,
they weren't trusting those people and their arguments and logic.
They weren't trusting their experiences and their emotions. Brother,
emotions would have sent you away. You're outnumbered, Peter,
James, and John. No, we're not outnumbered. greater
are those that for us and those against us. And heart, faith,
listen, it regards and receives trials and afflictions as from
the Lord. Job said, amid all his afflictions,
the Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name
of the Lord. I heard a man say on television
the other day that God told him, it was the devil that killed
your wife and two children. God didn't have anything to do
with it. Now you wait a minute. Now you hold on. Job didn't say
that, he said the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. The
God of the Bible kills and He makes alive. But we know this,
the believer knows this, whatever the trial, all things work together
for good to them who love God and those who are called according
to His purpose. And that's heart faith.