Turn in your Bible to Romans chapter 10. The first three chapters of Romans deal with the subject that all humanity has sinned. Doesn't just mean that we've all committed sins. We can think of how this started when we were younger and as children we would disobey parents. We would fight with siblings or others our age or You know, have the grocery store temper tantrum or something like that. But we actually inherit, just as we do genes from our forefathers, we inherit the sin of Adam from Adam. And it's guilt. So we are born with a propensity to sin. And I illustrate that usually by telling folks, you have to tell a child to tell the truth or you have to teach him how to lie. They know how to lie by nature, but you need to teach them how to tell the truth. They don't do that always. So as sinners, we need to be saved not by keeping the law or keeping God's commandments or doing our best. We need to be saved by believing in the work of Christ on our behalf. Romans 4 and 5. Then we have the life of the spirit, Romans chapter 6, 7, and 8. But in all of this in the first century church, there was a large Jewish element. What about them? Chapters 9, 10, and 11. And once all this doctrine is covered, chapters 12 through 16 cover the practical application of that doctrine to the daily life of the believer. So we're going to fall down right in the middle of the section on Israel. Chapter 9, has God finished with Israel? No, not at all. He called them. They are His chosen people. He is going to accomplish His will with them. But for the time being, chapter 11, they've been set aside and God is focusing on the larger church. It's not that He's not saving the Jews, but His focus in our dispensation is on the larger church in the world. It includes Jews and Gentiles. Say, who are the Gentiles? Everybody who's not a Jew. Okay? And then right in chapter 10, he's going to describe that these Jews, as well as Gentiles, have always been able to be saved by faith. And that's what he's discussing in chapter 10. Sometimes we think, can a person stand on a beach, look at a sunset, and say, there must be a God, and then poof, they're saved? No. You can look at the sunset, and you can say, there must be a God, but there's no poof, and you're not saved. Why? Because faith comes by hearing, and hearing what? The Word of God. So this is the context of our passage. Reuben Archer Torrey, R.A. Torrey, in his excellent little book, How to Bring Men to Christ, explains in the sixth chapter of his book, just how a Christian can deal with those who entertain false hopes of salvation. Probably the largest group of individuals who've heard the gospel perhaps, but are not saved. Those who entertain false hopes. They think they are. And remember in Matthew 7, in the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord said, Many shall say unto me in the day of judgment, Lord, Lord, Aren't we saved? Aren't we yours? And Jesus will say to them, no, I never knew you. You are workers of iniquity. So there are a lot of people who think they're going to heaven who aren't. Jesus says there are many who will say that. So Torrey speaks of those who expect to be saved by their righteous lives. I'm not too bad. I think I'll go to heaven when I die. Those who think, quote, God is too good to damn anyone. God is good, but there's no such thing as being too good to be fair. and God is fair. And in the third place, those who say, well, I'm trying my best to be a Christian. Doesn't that get me to heaven? Short answer, no. Number four, those who say they're saved, even though they're leading sinful lives. And finally, those who say, well, I feel that I am going to heaven. I feel that I am saved. And in this last group, he mentions a woman who had only several weeks earlier lost her young child. She had been very interested in spiritual things until her child died. But since then, her concerns had largely left her. And Dr. Torrey asked her, do you not wish to go where your little one has gone? And she replied at once, well, I expect to. Torrey said, what makes you think that you will? She replied, I just feel like I will. I feel that I'm going to go to heaven when I die. Torrey asked her if there was anything she could point to in God's word which gave her a reason for believing that she was going to heaven when she died. No, she said. I don't know of anything in the Bible that says that. Then the woman turned and questioned Torrey. Do you expect to go to heaven when you die? And he replied, Yes, I know I shall go to heaven. How do you know it? The woman asked. Torrey turned to a scripture passage that confirmed that every believer in Christ shall be saved. In this way, the woman was made to see that the basis of salvation is not just feelings we may have about it, but it is in fact exactly what the scripture says. The passage she turned to is Romans chapter 10. Look down at verse 8. Romans chapter 10 and beginning in verse 8. He says, But what does it say? That is, what does the Scripture say? The Scripture says that the Word is near to you, the Word of your salvation. It is in your mouth and in your heart, that is, the Word of faith. or the message of faith that we proclaim. Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, or is the Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. Why is that? Because, verse 10, with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. So everywhere Paul went, he preached this message of believing, this word of faith. And what was Paul's faith message? Well, essentially that you can't be saved by working, that you can only be saved by believing. Now that does go against the grain of a lot of world religions. Hinduism, which accounts for about 15% of the world's population, teaches, quote, if a person lives a good life, the soul will be reincarnated into a higher state and eventually to Nirvana, the Hindus' equivalent of heaven. Islam, about 20% of the world's population, teaches, quote, life on earth is a period of testing and preparation for the life to come. The angels in heaven record a person's good and bad deeds. People should therefore try their best to be good and help others, and then trust in God's justice and mercy for their reward. In other words, you get into paradise by doing your best, by trying to be good. Buddhism, about another 15% of the world's population, believes in Buddhism and it teaches, quote, each person's position and well-being in life was determined by his or her behavior in a previous life or in previous lives. For example, good deeds may lead to rebirth as a wise and wealthy person or as a being in heaven. A person's evil deeds may lead to rebirth as a poor and sickly person. Roman Catholicism, about 17% of the world's population. Quote, the plain truth is that Christ and his apostles said that many things were necessary for salvation. First, of course, is faith. Baptism is also necessary for salvation. Good works, too, go into the making of salvation. So they say faith is necessary, but that's not the only thing. You have to have good works, sacraments like baptism, animism. It's the worship of spirits. Spirits this morning in the snow. Spirits in the lakes and rivers. Spirits in the creatures that wander about on the land. Spiritism is another name for this. They teach that the spirits must be honored if a person expects to be honored before entering the spirit world. And then finally, Eastern Orthodox Greek and Russian and Ukrainian Orthodox. Anglican and mainline Protestants account for some 20% of the world's population, teach salvation through good works. You see a pattern in this? should, the world's populations teach that salvation is earned by a person doing good things. And Paul comes along and says, no, I have a message of faith that you have to believe to be saved. You cannot do to be saved. After you are saved, your heart is changed and you can do things that the Lord approves of. But until my heart is changed, I cannot. Religions of the world say work. God, on the other hand, says you cannot work. You are too bad. Do you know that God says that? Most of you I don't know, so I can't say you're a bad person. But God says that even your righteousnesses, even the good things you do, He sees them as filthy rags. That's what He calls them. No matter how many of the commandments you obey, that does not earn you one day or one moment in heaven. No matter how much you try and be a good neighbor, a good person, do good things, God says the good things you do, all they do is highlight how bad you really are. The only way you can be saved is by accepting the salvation He Himself provided for you. Our chapter is divided into three sections. Chapter 10, the first four verses, Paul compares the two different approaches to God. One called one's own righteousness and another called God's righteousness. Or, the righteousness that comes by faith. Paul's burden for the Israelites. They try so hard to do good, and yet they never will do good enough to be saved. The second section in verses 5-80 bases his entire argument on Scripture. Leviticus 18 shows how the Jews are attempting to earn their own righteousness by doing what the Old Testament says. And Deuteronomy chapter 30 shows that The believing Jew bases his righteousness, his sense of acceptance with God on his faith. And then our passage from verses 9 to 13, he explains the correct way. The only way to be right with God. This is Paul's salvation track. You've seen these little pamphlets. Do you want to know how to go to heaven? Read this. This is Paul's. Do you want to know how to go to heaven? Read this. He is going to illustrate this. But it's not his word, is it? So we begin. What does it say? The Word is near you, in your mouth, in your heart. What is this message of faith that Paul was always preaching? That if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. Why? Because with the heart, one believes and is justified. And with the mouth, one confesses and is saved. Verse 9 contains a promise. Anybody know what the promise of the verse is? You will be saved. There's the promise. But it also has, in order to obtain that promise, two conditions. What's the first one? I have to confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord. What's the second one? I have to believe in my heart that God raised him from the dead. And if I do that, then the promise is mine. And so we say, how do you know that you're saved? And the answer is, God himself says I am. I have confessed, I have believed, and he promises me that I am saved. You know, some people would think that if you said you knew you were saved, that would be a very prideful thing to say. Why, how dare you say you know you're going to heaven? How in the world could you know you're going to heaven? Because my going there doesn't depend on how good I am. It depends on what Jesus did for me when He died on the cross. And if He really did what the Bible says, and God really is faithful when He makes His promise, then I did exactly what He said. And if he's faithful, then his promise is true. I have been saved. So let's consider first the promise. The promise is you will be saved. I remember the first time I ever heard the gospel, a person asked me, are you saved? I grew up in Charleston. There's lots of water. When you say saved, the first thing I think of is from drowning. Are you saved? Well, no. We're driving in a car. We're not on the water. So I have no need of being saved. What are you talking about? I'd never heard that kind of terminology. What is it that we are saved or delivered from? What danger do folks have to be delivered from? Well, in a word, the danger is what? Sin. It is that propensity in me to do the wrong thing. And the wrong thing is measured by what God says I should do. Sin is the inclination that every human being inherits from our earliest forefather, which directs us away from the will of our Creator. God says, thou shalt have no other gods before me. And mankind says, but I like a lot of gods. I'm not going to do what you say and only have one God. I'm going to have A whole bunch of them. Hindus have over six million. That's a lot of deities to keep track of. I mean, I got one in my razor. I got one in my countertop oven. I got one in nearly everything I have, and I have to placate them all. That's pretty difficult. God says you shall not take my name in vain, but wow, is that ever a popular thing to do today. God says you shall honor your father and your mother. Not so popular. Schoolgirl asked my daughter, you talk about your parents as though you really like them. She said, I do. Really? She turned her face up. Who likes their parents when you're a teenager? Safe people do. God says thou shalt not kill, but you say, well now I've never done that one. Jesus we know says that if you're angry at someone that you're guilty of murder. Okay, I have done that. God says thou shalt not commit adultery. Aha, I've never done that. Jesus says if you look at a woman for the purpose of lusting, you've committed adultery with her already in your heart. Okay, in fact we could go through all of them and we're guilty of all of them. So sin is the problem and sin not only keeps me from living the life my Creator intended for me to live, but there's another danger as well. I want to read you a quote. Sin is the dare of God's justice. It is the rape of His mercy, the jeer of His patience. It is the slight of His power, the contempt of His love, the upbraiding of His providence, the scoff of His promise, the reproach of His wisdom. And that is the way unsaved people feel about God. But the condition itself is not the only danger. The danger is also found in the consequences of sin. Not only does it really mess up life on earth, but sin really messes up life in eternity. See, the consequence of sin is that I cannot have a relationship with God and I cannot have it for all eternity. I am consigned to a place Revelation calls the Lake of Fire, and I will be there forever, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. In fact, the word that's used to describe that suffering is the word torture. The result of man's sin is estrangement from God, one's fellow man, and even from oneself. Estrangement from God, from others, from ourselves. This permanent estrangement is defined in terms of guilt before God and the penalty which that guilt has attached. What is the penalty? Well, we already talked about that. It's conscious torment in the lake of fire separated from God. You say, well, how long do I have to be there? That's the problem with sin. The penalty is eternal suffering, not just suffering for time, not suffering for a year or a hundred years or a thousand years, but permanent suffering. That's the penalty of sin. That's the penalty Jesus paid on the cross to save us from sin and its consequence. Have you trusted Him as your Savior? Who makes the promise here? Well, it's Paul's message of faith, which he preaches in the name of God. Well, then whose promise is it? Is it Paul's promise? Well, no, it's the Lord's promise. In fact, if you just drop down to verse 13, look what it says down there. Everyone who shall call on the name of Paul shall be saved. That's not what it says. Whose name do I have to call on to be saved? The Lord's name. And so whose promise is it? It's my Creator's promise. It is the Lord Himself who made this promise to me. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. It's not the early church's message or Christianity's message or a Baptist's message. It is the Bible's message. It is the promise of Almighty God in His Word that He will save us if we trust the Lord Jesus Christ. People sometimes ask, how do I know He'll save me? Well, just look down at verse 10. What does it say He will do? It says there, excuse me, verse 9, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, you say, I've done that. And you believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead. I've done that. I do believe. Then what's true? You will be saved. So, is God telling the truth or not? I have ample evidence from the Scripture that He is. Deuteronomy 7 and verse 9, Know therefore that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy. He is faithful. Emet, the Hebrew word means truthful. He tells the truth. When He says, you shall be saved, He's not just sporting with us. He's not a practical joker. He's telling the truth. Psalm 36 verse 5, Your mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens. Your faithfulness reaches unto the clouds. You always tell us the truth. Lamentations 3 verse 23, Your mercies are new every morning. Your faithfulness is what? great is your faithfulness. Oh God my Father, there is no shadow of turning with you. When you say something is true, it is true. When God says he will do something, what? He does it. 1 Corinthians 1 19. God is faithful. 1 Corinthians 10. 13. God is faithful. Excuse me, 1 Corinthians 1. 9 says that and 10. 13 says that. 1 Thessalonians 5. 24. Faithful is the one who calls you who will also do it. If you've come this morning and you don't know the Lord Jesus as your Savior, God will save you just as He called you to come to this meeting and to hear this message. I dare say it's not the first time, is it? Hebrews 10.23, let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering for God is faithful who promised. He made a promise, you shall be saved. And He's faithful to do exactly what it says. When does that promise become true for me? When God says you shall be saved? Is that something He plans to do in the future? Maybe, you know, we'll see how your life turns out. A little bit of faith and a little bit of good works? No, Paul's message is a message of faith. not faith and good works. So when am I saved? The moment I savingly believe. The moment I put my trust in Him. Now, you know as well as I do that you've probably said things you didn't mean. Isn't this a lovely gift on Christmas morning, you know? Well, it certainly is the most unusual gift I've ever received. You're trying not to tell a lie. You're trying to be nice. So a person can say, I believe. and not really mean it in his heart, and know that you don't really mean it in your heart. Well, unfortunately, God knows the heart. God knows that you don't mean it and therefore you shall not be saved. You'll be one of the many who stand before the judgment seat of Jesus Christ and say, Lord, Lord, I attended church. I gave him the offering. I called myself a Christian, a follower of Christ. And he will say, I never knew you. You never meant it in your heart. You were never saved. There was never any evidence of a change. So the promise becomes true as soon as I savingly believe. So there it is, God's promise to you that you will be saved. Not destined for hell, but destined for heaven. Heaven is just the fruitfulness of conversion. Sometimes heaven is represented as the end of everything. Do you want to go to heaven and not go to hell? Ironically, people who love their sin, the idea of heaven is not really all that appealing to them. Now granted, the idea of hell is not really all that appealing either. But the fact is, we'd like to go somewhere where the booze flows freely forever and I can drink it and feel the drunkenness without ever having to pay any penalty for that. Or I can get high on heavenly drugs and never have to pay any penalty for that. Or I can sin all I want. Whoa, whoa, right there, see? There's the problem right there. Because God made us for himself and not for sin. And if you wanted a heaven where you could sin forever, you would be just as miserable as you are here. Why? Because sin will never make you happy. Sin is not what you were made for. It's like putting together one of those assemble-it-yourself tables with a claw hammer, and that's all. It doesn't really work, and we can't make life work by sinning. Say, well, you know, I make all my decisions to make myself happy. That's what I want. I want to be happy. Now the problem is your happy meter, see, is all messed up with sin. It's like the gas meter in my truck. It broke, by the way. So I have to keep track of how far I go on my gasoline, or I'll run out. What happened? Sin messed up the meter, and sin has messed up your happiness meter. You think this is a good thing, and it turns out to be a very bad thing, and you say, how could I make such a dumb mistake? Oh, hang on. You'll keep making them the rest of your life if you don't get saved. if you don't put your faith in Christ. So there are conditions for realizing this promise. There is belief, excuse me, a belief that because Christ died on the cross that everyone is saved. Jesus died to save mankind, therefore everyone is saved. By the way, that's called what? Called universalism. Everybody's eventually going to be converted. What's the problem with that? Well, I mean, if you think about it for just a very few seconds, you realize, wait a minute, why did Jesus even come then? Why did He have to live a good life then? Why does the Bible tell me to go and carry this message to everybody? Why can't I just stay here and kind of do my own thing if everybody's going to eventually be saved? Anyway, Well, the problem is that disagrees with what verse 9 teaches. Verse 9 teaches that the first condition is if I confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord or is the Lord. The key word in this expression is the word confess. It means to admit something, to acknowledge something. It means to say it out loud. In this case, what am I admitting or acknowledging or agreeing with is another way of saying this. Well, I'm saying, I'm confessing, I'm admitting that the person called Jesus of Nazareth is exactly who the New Testament says he is. In the beginning was this word, Jesus, And the Word was with God, and the Word was God. I am believing that Jesus was divine. Now, at the end of next week, you're going to see stuff on TV because it's Easter time, and they like to show Hollywood's version of Biblical events at Easter time. And they'll show you this very dramatic portrait about Jesus, which is almost never the Biblical portrait of Jesus. Jesus was, in fact, absolutely and fully deity, and absolutely and fully human at the same time. So I don't understand that. Well, that's okay. You know, God is pretty amazing. I mean, it doesn't really surprise anybody that you don't understand a person as vast as God is. And He sent His Son to be the Savior of the world. And in order to do that, he had to come. He had to be fully man so that he could mediate between man and God. He had to be fully God because he had to pay the equivalent of our eternity in hell in just six hours on the cross. He had to take every sin we would ever commit. Every one. I mean, imagine that. We all started pretty young. And then every motive, every attitude, every word, every thought that was a violation of God's ultimate standard of right. He took all that on himself and he died in our place. And then He hands us salvation. He says, I have paid the price for your sins. What do I have to do to have that? Confess with your mouth that Jesus is this Lord. I'm not simply confessing that Jesus is a prophet or a religious leader. It's not a confession that Jesus is some good person. It's a confession that Jesus is everything the New Testament says he is, that he did everything the New Testament said he did. He performed miracles. He didn't just perform unique events. He performed miraculous, nature-suspending, health-overcoming miracles. I mean, really, raising people from the dead, that's pretty miraculous, right? There are a whole bunch of folks in town having a hard time doing that, and yet they get paid a lot of money to try. So he actually did the things the scripture says he did. So we're not just admitting that he is one of the religious leaders in a long list of religious leaders. No, he is the unique religious leader. He is the way to heaven, the truth about eternal life. He is the life. And he said, no man comes to the Father except through me. Now is he telling a lie or is he telling the truth? If he's telling the truth, then he's the only way we can know the Father. He is the only way we can have our sins forgiven. According to our text, how am I to make this confession? With my mouth. One fellow said, it's a public declaration of commitment to Christ and faith in Him. There are three things about this confession that we need to clarify. It is a definite confession. There was a time in each of our lives when we had not made this confession yet. A time when we made it. And now a time in the past that God looks back to the moment we met this condition. Sometimes you ask people, are you saved? They say, well, I was born into a Christian family. Well, when did you get saved? Well, when I was born. I mean, I've just always been saved. See, that idea is impossible. You won't find a verse to support that. That's for sure. In fact, David says in Psalm 51 that in iniquity he was conceived. It doesn't mean his mom and dad were sinning. It means that as soon as he began to exist, there was the guilt of Adam. There was the sin of Adam. And He was destined to demonstrate that depravity. There is a definite confession. This is not a nebulous idea of confession. There was a time when I made it. And a time before it was made. A time after it was made. It's also a deliberate confession. Hell today is full of people waiting for God to do something. Man, that was something today. I mean, you really said it like it is. Did you get saved? Well, no, I'm just kind of waiting for God. Well, don't wait until He sits on the throne as your judge, because then it's too late. In fact, God is here. The Holy Spirit is here. And He's taking His words and He is telling you, do this! And you're saying, when? When? I really don't have the feeling now. And he's saying, do it now, feeling or no, do it now. You need to confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus or you will not be saved. It has to be a determined confession, knowing that the promised outcome depends on you. If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, if you believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, then you will be saved. But not before, and not somehow if God decides to work in your heart or to give you some feeling. What did the Ethiopian eunuch say with his mouth? Acts 8.37, he says, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He said that with his mouth and he believed it in his heart. Therefore, he was what? Saved and able to be baptized. But there's another condition. This one is essential. You can't have one without the other. You can't say, well, I'm going to confess it, but I'm not really going to believe it in my heart. Well, what good is that? When we were teenagers, I'm sure none of you ever did anything like this. We wanted to get into places you had to have an ID. So here you were 17, and you made an ID saying that you were 18. It was a fake. I mean, that's the way some believers are. They say, well, I have to say these words, and if I say the words, then I can get in. No, heaven's not a bar. It doesn't make any difference what your ID is. It's what's real in your heart. Confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, the second condition, believe in your heart. This one word phrase or one word in this phrase tells us what we have to do. We have to believe. Now what does that mean? Well, it means I have to know a thing before I can believe it. Some Christians will say, well, I believe the whole Bible. Have you read the whole Bible? No. Well, how can you possibly believe it? I believe all the laws in Canada. Have you ever read them all? How can you believe in something that you don't even know about? So I have to have knowledge, but that's not enough. I have to consent that that knowledge is true. I not only have to hear things about Jesus and say, okay, now I know that Jesus did these things, but I have to say, I think it's true that Jesus really did do these things. I have to consent to that truth or assent to it or to that knowledge that it really is true. I believe, and I don't have to, but I really do believe that an airfoil allows wind to go slower or air to move slower over the top of it than it does underneath it and that creates a condition called lift. and that if I attach airfoils to a, I'm sure there's a name for the main part of the plane, and then get it going fast enough, the fuselage, thank you, that principle goes into action. And it has lift, even with me and a bunch of other people on the airplane, it still goes up. See, I know that, I assent to that truth, therefore I get on the airplane. But the third element of real faith is commitment. I don't savingly believe until I place my reliance on that truth. I may know in my mind and believe with my consent that Jesus really did die for sinners, but I'm not saved until I place all my reliance on that truth. And we don't head salvation by saying, well, you know, just to make sure I'm really going to be okay, I'll be a practicing Buddhist too. Or I'll be a practicing Hindu, too. Or I'll do some other things, too. Just in case faith is not enough. He says faith is enough. Is he lying? He says he's the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father except through me. Is he telling the truth? See, when I get saved, when I savingly believe, I put all of that reliance for eternity on Him alone. He is my Savior, and if He will not save me, I am lost forever. I'm not going to trust in this religion or that great teacher or this movement. He is my Savior, period. You say, well, are you saying that other religions are false? Jesus is saying that other religions are false. I am the way. No man comes to the Father. How? Except through me. So he says no man comes to the Father through Hinduism, through Buddhism, through Islam. You say, well, that's pretty narrow. Don't take it up with me. Take it up with God. He's the one who made it narrow. Now that's going to be a sad thing when you have to answer to Him for his not living up to your expectations at the judgment seat. That will be a sad time for you. So what is it that I have to believe? That God raised Jesus back to life after he died and was buried. Say, well, I believe in a near death of Jesus. Well, that's fine, and you're free to believe that. It's just not true. Because the Bible said that he actually died. If I take the Bible at face value and try not to read into it something that might be more agreeable to my way of thinking, then I'm going to come away believing that Jesus experienced a literal, physical, total death followed by a literal, physical, total burial, followed by a literal, physical, total resurrection. This is the plain meaning of the words. If they do not refer to a supernatural act, then you do not have a supernatural salvation. But see, we do. We do have a supernatural salvation. The penalty has been paid. I can have Jesus Christ as my Savior. And when I stand before God and He says, why should I let you into heaven? I just step aside and say, He will answer for me. And He does. And I am granted an entrance into heaven as His co-heir. Where do I have to believe this? In my heart. to believe in my heart that God has raised Him from the dead. Maybe I should answer the question, why the resurrection? I mean, of all the things that happened, why do I have to believe that? Because the resurrection was His guarantee that everything He said in life was true. As soon as He rose from the dead, He turns to mankind and says, see, I told you, I told you I was God. I told you my word was real. I told you that death could not keep its prey. And that's why the resurrection is important. That's why it is a key event. So I have to believe this in my heart. What does that mean that I have to believe it in my heart? Well, it just means I have to be genuine. The significance of the mouth and the heart are the outward and the inward aspect of these conditions. One man said, the mouth without the heart might be hypocrisy. The heart without the mouth might be cowardice. Both the outward and inward are important. No one is saved by the merely outward. The state of the heart is important, but Paul does not contemplate an inner state that is not reflected in an outer conduct. If anyone really believes, he will confess Christ. So it is natural to link the two together. And what is the proof of salvation? Verse 10, For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved." This gives us the reason that a person meeting these two conditions specified in verse 9, this person really is saved. Now the big question is, have you done this? I did. I did it over 40 years ago. Forty years and two and a half months. I pulled my car off the road and I said, God, I don't understand everything about Your Word, but I know that I'm a sinner. And I know that I need to be saved. And I take the Lord Jesus as my Savior. Now, I grew up in a religion where you had visions and all that kind of stuff, so I opened my eyes and waited. I knew I meant it. I meant it with all my heart. So where are the angels? Where is the split in the sky? I mean, I thought maybe I might go right up then. I didn't know. There was no angel. There was no split in the sky. There was just crickets. And I thought, well, God, I did mean it with all my heart. And if what you said is true, then I'm really saved. And I pulled back on the highway and off I went. But my life has never been the same since. I thought when I got home that night I'd want to read the Bible. Never stopped doing it since then. I had a desire to be with God's people. I had a desire to pray to God. Amazing that on one day of the week you look out at the world and it is a marvel that is pretty sometimes and is ugly at other times. It smells good at some times and it stinks at other times. But I didn't understand where it came from or where I came from or what I was here for. And now all of a sudden I do! And it's not because I did anything. In fact, I find out in the Word of God that He gives me the faith to believe. That He draws my soul to Himself. That He works in my heart the willingness to do His good pleasure. So that it was all of Him. So are you saved. Do you know Him? You will never make a more important decision in life than this one. And I would urge you to make it right now. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we thank you for your word. Thank you for giving us the book of Romans through your spirits as he used Paul to write it down. Thank you, Lord, for giving us the rest of your New Testament and the Old Testament. Thank you for loving us when we were unlovely. And Lord, we acknowledge with the Old Testament Saint Jacob that we're not worthy of any of the good things we enjoy. But God, you have been kind to us. As the psalmist says, you've not dealt with us as our sins deserve. You have not rewarded us according to our iniquities. but as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is your mercy toward those who fear you." And Lord, I pray that every single person in this room and those downstairs would understand the truth of the gospel and would get saved. We think that there's rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents, more than over 90 in nine who need no repentance or think they don't need repentance. So Lord, I pray that you would get joy out of this service, that someone would turn to you. Father, you know the hearts. Help someone here today who's lost just to bow their heart and their head and say, God, you know me. You know I'm lost. You know I need to be saved. I take Jesus now as my Savior. Forgive my sins. Make me Yours. And that when they do that, You will honor Your Word, because You promised they would be saved. Help them, Lord, to confess with their mouth the Lord Jesus. Help them to believe in their heart that You've raised Him from the dead, that they might have life. I pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.