Preached at the SGAT Meeting in Lisburn, Friday, 24th May 2024
While I am happy to have this opportunity to seek to bring a message from God’s Word on this very important subject, I am saddened that Dr John Douglas is unable to be here to speak as was originally planned.
I know that you will pray that he has a full recovery from the sickness that has overtaken him. I am sure you all will join with me in sending him a ‘Get well soon’ message. We recall with comfort one of the titles the Lord has given us of Himself — “Jehovah-Rapha: I am the LORD that healeth thee”.
May our brother know the blessing of just such a healing and be raised again to speak in His name, “the wonderful works of God,” Acts 2:11.
Please turn now to the passage in Romans 10 that sets forth the subject I wish to speak on. This portion of this great epistle is dealing with God’s purpose for His ancient people of Israel. Starting at chapter 8, verse 18, Paul begins to set forth the truth of what happy ti mes lie ahead for the redeemed of this age. “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.”
From the glorious prospects of the believer, Paul is moved to think upon the sad state of his fellow Israelites from chapter 9, verse 1. “I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh.”
This expression of grief by Paul for his ‘kinsmen according to the flesh’, is akin to the Spirit of the Lord Jesus, Who “loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish,” Ephesians 5:25-27.
He begins chapter 10 in the same spirit. “Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved,” verse 1. However, before that can come about they must learn a great truth. “For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth,” Romans 10:3-4.
As we look at the verses which follow this, 5-13, we will see the truths that Paul would desire his “kinsmen according to the flesh” to grasp. They are, in fact, the very same truths that all men need to grasp if they are to go to heaven.
Please note first of all.
I. THERE ARE TWO MEANS BY WHICH A MAN MAY BE DECLARED RIGHTEOUS BEFORE GOD
“For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, That the man which doeth those things shall live by them,” verse 5.
“But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise,” verse 6.
1. The keeping of the law of God is what the Jews sought to do with the hope of justifying themselves before God. However, the problem with that is that “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God,” Romans 3:23. Man being a sinner CANNOT keep the Law of God. Paul pressed this point upon the Galatians who had been beguiled into leaving the path of gospel faith and foolishly seeking justification by the works of the law. “But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith,” Galatians 3:11.
2. The pride of man would deceive him into thinking that he is capable of keeping God’s law satisfactorily. This is the very first obstacle the preacher runs into when seeking to point sinners to heaven by faith in Christ. Man thinks he can by his efforts please God and keep His Law and thereby ‘earn’ heaven! That cannot be. The earnest and honest soul who seeks to go down this path soon learns a lesson from the ‘schoolmaster’ of the law.
“Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin,” Romans 3:20. Our inability to keep any one of the commandments of God will soon convince the earnest soul that there is no justification by that route but rather condemnation. Heed these words. “For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death,” Romans 7:9-10.
Once the sinner seeks to use the law to obtain heaven he finds himself condemned by it. So, far from obtaining justification by the works of the law, men will only find themselves condemned as breakers of God’s law.
3. God in His grace has opened a way to heaven for the poor condemned sinner and that is the way of ‘faith’. As already mentioned, Paul sets over against the righteousness which is by the keeping of the law, the way to righteousness which is of faith.
He wishes to have his fellow Jews abandon their vain efforts at keeping the law as a means of pleasing God and turn to and heed the gospel of Jesus Christ.
He told the Gentiles in Ephesus, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast,” Ephesians 2:8-9. The lesson which these Gentiles had learned he would have his fellow Jews learn.
If you are not saved you also must learn this truth for it is not only the Jew who vainly believes that men can earn their way to heaven by works!
It is what the average ‘church’ teaches, be it Protestant, Roman Catholic, Hindu, Muslim or any one of the many editions of false religions in the world. It is the ‘religion’ into which all are born and from which all must be delivered if they are to gain entrance to heaven by the only door, the Lord Jesus Christ. “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me,” John 14:6.
II. PAUL GOES ON TO SET OUT THE GOSPEL’S PLAN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS WHICH IS BY FAITH
“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 saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach,” Romans 10:6-8.
What does Paul mean by these words?
1. He allows the righteousness which is by faith to speak for itself. That is the method he uses to explain this truth. He actually uses the words of the great ‘law giver’, Moses, for these words are basically a citation of Deuteronomy 30:12-13.
Man does not have to ascend to heaven to learn the mind of God on this matter. Nor does he have to try and bring the Saviour down from heaven in order to avail of salvation. Nor does the sinner need to think that he must go down to death in order bring Christ up from its clasp.
No, “the word of faith” tells us that all that is required for our salvation is set forth in the gospel. “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,” verse 9.
2. Here is precise instruction as to what we have to believe in order to be saved. It entails two matters.
A. Confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus. That is, own publicly all that the Bible teaches us about the Lord Jesus.
We must own Him unashamedly as the Lord of Glory. We must acknowledge that He is divine. He is God manifest in the flesh. He has two natures, that which is eternally God and that which is sinlessly human.
B. Believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead. That means we must first of all believe that Christ really did die and that as a sacrifice for the sins of His people. “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit,” 1 Peter 3:18. As we love to sing:
Saved by grace alone!
This is all my plea:
Jesus died for sinful men,
And Jesus died for me.
Furthermore, it requires belief in the acceptance of Christ’s sacrifice since God raised Him from the dead. Had the blood sacrifice of Christ failed to make atonement for the sins of His elect then He would have remained under the condemnation of our sins which he bore on the cross and under the power of death! But, praise God, He “was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for (or because of) our justification,” Romans 4:25.
These things are the essence of saving faith.
III. THE FINAL POINT TO BE NOTED IS THE WONDERFULLY SIMPLE MEANS OF AVAILING OF THE GLORIOUS SALVATION CHRIST HAS PURCHASED FOR SINNERS.
The final verse of our passage sets that out. “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved,” Romans 10:13.
What the law could not do because of our inability to keep it, Christ has purchased for us and we have but to simply ask for it!
1. We have but to address the Lord in prayer out of a heart which believes what the gospel tells us, asking to be saved. How many thousands obtained Christ’s blessing simply by asking! Blind Bartimaeus was just such a one! “And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out, and say, Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me. . . And Jesus stood still, and commanded him to be called. And they call the blind man, saying unto him, Be of good comfort, rise; he calleth thee. . . And Jesus answered and said unto him, What wilt thou that I should do unto thee? The blind man said unto him, Lord, that I might receive my sight,” Mark 10:47-51. Count his words! He uttered 7 words in response to the Saviour’s question and was wonderfully answered for “immediately he received his sight, and followed Jesus in the way,” verse 52.
Salvation instantly comes to those who likewise ask the Lord for salvation.
2. Please notice the word ‘whosoever’. It cannot be stressed enough that mercy is offered to all. As has been rightly said it is for the ‘guttermost’ sinner! “Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them,” Hebrews 7:25. Every converted one in heaven does not deserve to be there for “God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us,” Romans 5:8. We were, each and every one who is saved, “sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled,” Colossians 1:21.
3. Please also learn the certainty of it all. “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved”. There are no ‘ifs’ or ‘buts’ or ‘maybes’ here but a bold and clear assurance that God will hear and answer that cry.
Listen to the most assuring words of the Saviour.
“Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: for every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?” Matthew 7:7-11.
Could anything be more plain?
This is what Paul would have his “kinsmen according to the flesh” believe that they may be eternally saved. In like manner, we cry unto all who hear this message tonight to heed and obey these words.
“Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David,” Isaiah 55:1-3.
May you indeed ‘hear’ and one day, even today, enter upon the enjoyment of the bliss that David is even now experiencing.