We're all going to turn tonight to the book of Romans. Romans chapter 10. I've always counted it a privilege to have the opportunity of preaching the glorious gospel and speaking on behalf of our Lord Jesus Christ. And it is a special joy to be able to visit all the friends in this congregation here in Toronto. We have that special affinity and closeness. Mr. McClellan was making us feel very old, going back those long, long, long years. But here we are. We're still present. And it's a lovely thing to gather around the Word of God and remember our indebtedness to Christ. We look back and see the hand of God in our lives. We're looking forward to all the meetings this week. It's the first time when I have attended the week of prayer in the American continent, and so it's a very special occasion. And then we have Tuesday night as well. We're going to read some verses from the start of the chapter. It's Romans chapter 10. Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. 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. For Moses describeth, or he writes about, the righteousness which is of the law, that the man which doeth those things shall live by them. But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart who shall ascend into heaven, that is, to bring Christ down from above? Or who shall descend into the deep, that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead? But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart. That is, the word of faith which we preach, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 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. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek. For the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Amen. May the Lord be pleased to bless the reading of His holy Word to all of our hearts. Let's keep our Bibles open. We'll bow together in prayer. We will commit the preaching of the Word to the Lord, and we will pray also that the Word of the Lord will have ready access to our hearts. If you're not a Christian, I want you to pray. The Lord will speak to you tonight. If you can say, yes, I am a believer, but you're not as close to God as you ought to be, then surely this is the time and you're in the right place when you can say, Lord, draw near to me. Our Father and our God, we pray that thy presence will fill this place. Take thy holy word, break the bread of life to us. May we come with hunger of heart, May we feed on that living bread. Our prayer is that the Holy Spirit of God will reveal Christ to us. Show us the Lord Jesus Christ, thy dear Son, in the scriptures. We pray for unction, for the infilling of the Holy Spirit, for grace from God, for utterance in the things of the Lord. Help us, Lord, to preach the way of life. Wisdom given to make that way as plain as day. May some who are in the dark, others grappling with uncertainty, may they come to that point tonight where they can say, I can see it clearly now. May they rest on Christ the well-beloved. O God, grant Thy touch tonight. We need Thee to come and stand alongside of us in the ministry of Thy Word. Let Thy Word reach every one of our hearts, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. I want you to give your attention to the words of the eleventh verse there, where the Apostle is saying, For the Scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. There is the very essence of the gospel. For the apostle explains what it is to have the faith of Christ. He explains how to be saved. And he gives us good ground for saying, yes, there is such a thing as having the assurance of Christ in your heart. That sort of assurance. whereby the man who believes on Christ can confidently say, I am a child of God. I belong to the Lord now. The Lord has put away my sin. These feet of mine are treading the road to glory. You see, this message is given to us with all authority. The apostles saying, for the Scripture says, whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed." The Lord draws our attention to this very message. I think I may say that because we have direct repetitions of these very words elsewhere in Scripture. And then, widening our range of thought, we can look at ever so many parallel verses where It's almost a matter of saying, the Word of the Lord has been brought to us using different expressions, but emphasizing this message. Let me show you what I mean. If you look at the last verse of Romans 9, so everybody can turn back to Romans 9 there. And the Scripture is saying in this place, as it is written, Behold, I lay in Zion, a stumbling stone and rock of offense, and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed." You must notice something here. The latter part of the verse 33 of chapter 9 emphasizes the subject that I have in mind tonight, the subject of faith in Christ, explaining what it is for the soul of the sinner to rest on Christ and to have that unshakable assurance now that the Lord has granted everlasting life. So there we can link up the verses, Romans 10 and 11. I want you to do this. You will see the importance of this in a moment. I want you to look at Romans 10 and 11. Pray these words into your heart and soul. Think about them carefully. For the Scripture says, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. Then look directly across to the verse at the end of chapter 9, verse 33, as I remind you, where the words are as it is written, Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense. Many stumble at the gospel instead of receiving Christ. They create all sorts of difficulty. And these difficulties are barriers in the way of them coming to know the Lord. But at the end of verse 33, mark the words again, And whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. The Lord has a purpose in threading this line of teaching throughout the Bible. If you keep a marker in this part of the epistle to the Romans and go across to 1 Peter 2, what I want you to do is to mark this occurrence also. You must notice how the Lord By repeating this text, as it were, throughout the Bible, throughout your Bible, points you in the way of life. He gives you the ground of certainty whereby you can say with all confidence, Yes, I am a child of God for sure. I know my sins are put away. I know that my home is in the glory. I have that certain hope in Christ. I Peter 2 and verse 6. Wherefore, also, it is contained in the Scripture. Mark the words. Let me go slowly with the verse. Wherefore, also, it is contained in the Scripture. Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious. And he that believeth on him shall not Be confounded. Here is the warrant for our faith, the grind of certainty. As I am saying, the Apostle shows us now in words like these what it is to have the faith of Christ. Now, I want you to look at these words even more closely because there is something very striking about the three references I have given. Go back to Romans 10 and 11, our starting point. It is remarkable that every one of these three references points attention to the Word of God as the basis for our faith in Christ. If you take Romans 10 and 11, before we even get into the believing on Christ, before we think of the results of resting our hope on Christ alone, we begin verse 11 with the indication from the Apostle. It is the Scripture that says it. Thus, the authorization for my faith lies in God's holy Word. The Church of Christ must rest on Scripture. the individual Christian, if he is asked to give an explanation of his personal faith in Christ, he must relate to Scripture. It is what God Almighty says in His Word. So I can urge this message on your attention by saying, Look, whosoever believeth in Him shall not be ashamed, because the Scripture says so, praise the Lord. Now, the remarkable thing is, when you go across there to chapter 9 and verse 33, if we were to condense the verse, you will observe its commencement, verse 33, chapter 9, as it is written. Once more, the Holy Spirit points attention to the written Word. In these days, When there is uncertainty about the preaching of the way of life in Christ, it seems as if ever so many are prepared to stress this and stress the other aspect of the gospel. And maybe, just maybe, there is the tendency to get away from the written Word itself. It is not the practice of the apostle to preach Christ in all his fullness without bringing the hearer down to Scripture itself. And it is remarkable, men and women, when we thread these similar references together, that every one of them brings our attention straightway to Scripture. Chapter 9, verse 33. Let me just take the beginning of the verse and the end of the verse. As it is written, Whosoever believeth in him, shall not be ashamed." Can you keep that marker there in Romans? Go across to 1 Peter 2. You will know by now that we have the corresponding reference in 1 Peter 2. You will have noted by now the similarity of the language. You will say, yes, it is the same text. It is the very same message. But do you see that the message, although the same given in Peter, does not stand in the chapter without the reference to the Word? I may just as well say to you, you have no faith unless you are resting on what God says in His Word. Faith is not feeling. Faith is not an emotion. Faith is not an imagination. Faith is not a matter of you convincing yourself against everything else that you stand there on redemption ground. But faith is resting on the Word. 1 Peter 2 and 6. I stand back tonight. I say again, in the most emphatic way I can think of, that this remarkable statement, the whosoever of the gospel, the pointing of the sinner to Christ, the certain fact that if you are resting on Christ God's dear Son as your Savior, you have absolute certainty of having eternal life. But yet, you have nothing without the Scripture. Isn't it remarkable that this very reference as well, corresponding as it does to those other references in Romans, should not be lacking in this? That 1 Peter 2 and 6 should bring you to the Scriptures. We have Christian workers here. We have young people who know and love the Lord. We have some in this congregation who are desirous of being stronger in the faith of Christ. And let me say to you, you have to come back to the Scripture, to the Word of God. That's where your faith rests. And if you're going to talk about the feeding of your faith, The strengthening of your faith, the development of your faith, faith comes directly from what God Himself says. I know I am saved. I know I am a child of God. I know that God has put away my sins because of what Scripture says. Verse 6 then, 1 Peter 2. Let me take the beginning of the verse and the end of the verse. Wherefore, also it is contained in the Scripture, He that believeth in him shall not be confounded. There is only one chart and compass for the voyage of life. I am talking now about God's holy word. And the Lord has put his holy word into your hearts. so that you can pilot your way safely through the stormy seas of this life. And you may say all the while, if I hold to this Word, I'll avoid the rocks of disaster and those treacherous currents wherever so many have made everlasting shipwreck. And here, with the faith of Christ, with this Word as my chart and compass, Sailing for the heavenly harbor, I can sail on confidently. I can sail on happily and securely, knowing that at the last I will reach the calm of the heavenly harbor. I have the Word of God as the authority of my faith. Do you know that the Lord Jesus Christ used the Scriptures? He who is the very Son of God If you can refer to the Gospel of Luke, chapter 24, it would be worthwhile looking at this, for the Lord here is speaking to His own disciples, speaking to the two in their own timeis. Luke 24, verse 25, the Lord is saying to them, reproachfully, O fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. Now, our Lord Jesus, above all, Instructors in the Word could have used divine revelations. He could have spoken of visions, of angels, of ecstatic utterances. But you will observe that our Lord Jesus, the highest authority, takes His disciples to the Word. He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. He opened up the Word of God, brought them to Christ in the Scriptures. And these two on the road to Emmaus, you'll hardly need to be reminded, are God's children who have lost the joy, who have departed from the fellowship, who have got out of touch with God. Their countenances are crestfallen. And it is clear that they are no longer in that place of closeness to the Lord. What is the cure for that child of God who has swallowed up with grief? He has lost his way. He does not come any more to the prayer meeting. He is no longer found among those whose souls are burdened for prayer, not really pulling their weight in the church. What shall be said to such a one? Why, our Lord provided this remedy. He opened to them the Scriptures. Their heart began to burn. And straightway that very night, although the road to Jerusalem from where they lived was almost eight miles. And the evening had already come. The time for journeying was at an end. But such is their joy, their thrill of having met the Lord and the way the Scriptures have been opened up unto them, causing the heart to burn. They're back right away to Jerusalem, into the fellowship, participating with all joy because the Lord showed them the basis of faith in the Scripture. I'll take another interesting illustration. It's the book of Acts, chapter 17. And this is a word that should not be lost on any of us. Acts 17, verse 2. Why am I bringing you to this portion? I'm showing you that it was the practice of the apostles to bring believers to Scripture. I am showing you that it was the direct approach of the Lord Jesus Himself in counseling His disciples to bring them to Scripture. And here is the example of the Apostle. Acts 17, verse 2, just to abridge the verse, shows us how Paul for three Sabbath days reasoned with them, but out of the Scriptures. And Paul had more revelations, more experiences of the glory of God descending upon a soul than any other individual alive at the time. But he doesn't refer to these things. If it's a matter of tutoring men concerning Christ, he takes the Scriptures. He reasons out of the Scriptures. And if you have lost your way, if your faith is not as it should be, you have to come firstly to the Word of God. Verse 3 is most illuminating. Opening and alleging that Christ must needs have suffered and risen again from the dead, and that this Jesus whom I preach unto you is Christ, is the Messiah. To refer back to verse 2, notice the word manner. Paul, as his manner was. Now that's an interesting highlight on the ministry of the Apostle. It was his custom, his practice, or to use the word in the verse here, his manner of ministering. Even though some of the people there in this synagogue that spoken about were hard of heart and prejudiced against his message, yet it was his manner all the time to reason out of the Scripture. It's just to take the Word and break the bread of life for those who sat around Him. Men and women, if we want to talk about the gospel, we have to base what we say on Scripture itself. And Scripture quotes Scripture. And we have seen that. How from Romans we have gone into 1 Peter chapter 2. The similarity is striking there. We can't possibly miss the emphasis. But do you know those references come from the Old Testament? There may be some who say, I didn't know the Old Testament preached the Gospel. But the Old Testament is full of the Gospel. The message that Christ had on the Emmaus Road when he opened to them all the Scriptures, these Scriptures were the Scriptures of the Old Testament. And in an instant of time, The Lord took his servants through these passages so that in a marvelous way they saw the grace of God and redemption there. Let me conduct you to Isaiah chapter 28 because it's right here in the book of Isaiah 28 that we have the origin for those repeated texts in the New Testament. It's chapter 28 in the book of Isaiah. I'm showing you that Scripture quotes Scripture. That from the prophets to the apostles, not discounting the ministry of the Lord Jesus, that all the time, at every turn, it's coming back to the book, back to the Word of God. And the Christian must learn to feed on the living bread. It's the Word of God that sustains your faith, your joy, your everyday life in Christ. It is so important that you spend time with the Scripture. And there is someone here, I am sure, in my mind who is not giving proper time to the reading and prayerful searching of the Word of God. Isaiah 28, 16. Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation. He that believeth shall not make haste." This is the original. May I say something? If you would look at the introduction to that verse 16, if you have Isaiah 28 in front of you, you ought not to miss this. God's speaking here of a foundation stone. It's the foundation stone for your faith. And before we get right into the verse, it's prefaced by the following words, Therefore, thus saith the Lord God. And the preface to verse 16 is so close to what we have in the New Testament and all those references, again, bringing us to what God says. So it's not what you feel and it's not what you can claim by way of experience that really is the be all and end all. That's what God says. That's the grind of certainty. When people in the world make promises, They tend later to make conditions for them and renege on those promises. A big company in Northern Ireland made a play on getting a lot of customers and they said, well, we'll supply you the cable service and as well there will be the telephone and free internet, 24 hours a day if you could use it. And it was only in spite of such a marvelous a promise being made. It was only a matter of months until they had gone back on their commitment. It wasn't going to be that way at all. It was just a shabby trick to get customers. I suppose some of those executives could have called it good business, sharp practice, but it was far from being right and honorable. Many have to go back on the promises they make. And there are men who whittle down the Word after they have given their solemn undertaking. They have to whittle down on the Word because they are not able to meet with their obligations. But the fact is, with God it is wonderfully different. For the Lord widens His promise. Instead of narrowing down the field and bringing in new conditions so that, as it were, He can extract Himself from the obligations of the promise. No, it's not that way. The Lord actually widens the conditions of the promise so that more and more can avail themselves of the precious Word He gives. Will you look then at Isaiah 28 and 16? You're looking principally at the last part of that verse. He that believeth shall not make haste. Can you see any reason for proceeding in the way that I have explained? That God in the New Testament will widen His Word, so to speak? Well, in Romans, where this promise is quoted, where Isaiah says, "...he that believeth." Romans 10 and verse 11 says, "...whosoever." The meaning is the same. It is not changing the meaning. The prophet here is saying, he that believeth will mean that man who comes on the strength of God's Word to receive Christ. No, the meaning doesn't change. But the expression is such that the person getting a hold of it can say, why, this is God extending His Word and making it accessible to the whosoever, praise the Lord. I am never ashamed of the Word whosoever. I believe in the Gospel. I believe in the power of the grace of God that I can proclaim the Word of the everlasting God to the whosoever. There are two little words that are added in the New Testament. Did you notice them? You will say by this time, well, you took us through those references. You took us through Romans 10 and 11. And you took us to Romans 9.33, and then again 1 Peter 2 and 6. And now I've brought you to the original, which is Isaiah 28.16. Have you thought about the words that are added? There are two words that are added in the New Testament. Did you make a note of what they were? Those two words. Two words. are in themselves the heart and the essence of the gospel. For the two words are, I think probably you've got them by this time. Did you notice them? The two words are on Him. He that believeth on Him. That's why at the start I said I'm talking about the faith of Christ. I'm talking about that saving faith that brings the sinner out of darkness into a newness of life in Christ. It's believing on Him, as the Scripture says. The Scripture pointing you the way to Christ and giving you the basis for your faith. Believing on Him. And then where it says in Isaiah, he that believeth shall not make haste, the meaning there being there will be no panic, no distress, no distress of mind. You will not make haste. You have got God's peace about it. I don't know how many I have seen come to Christ who have said, now I have got the peace of God. I heard of a man being saved at Christmas there. He was a wild sort of sinner. Something of an alcoholic. Never went much to hear the gospel of Christ. And after the Christmas holidays, since he worked for a Christian company, his boss said to him, well, now that they were back with the new year, starting work again, anything special over the holidays? Oh, he says, yes, absolutely. I had a visitor in the holidays. Oh, did you? And who was that? He said, it was the Lord. The Lord came into my home. The Lord came into my life. I have got saved, he says. And you wouldn't believe it. The likes of me, sitting down in my house, reading the Bible to my children. He says, it's just unthinkable that that's the kind of man I am now. And oh, the peace of God! The peace of God in my soul! I could never have believed it! That's resting on Christ. As the Scripture says, The peace of God. Let me just wrap it up, if you look at Isaiah 28 and 16, because, as I say, this is the original. This is that passage in God's Holy Word from which all these other references in the New Testament are seen to come. And the Lord is speaking now about Christ, the one foundation. And the Lord Himself is the only foundation on which you can build for eternity. If you think about happiness, the only foundation for real happiness is in Jesus Christ. If you're talking about hope, hope in this life and hope beyond the river of death, hope for eternity, the only foundation for any sort of hope that is of value is Christ the Lord. If you don't have Christ as the foundation for your faith, you have nothing. I come back to the point because it's so important in these days of charismatic influence, where many are looking for angelic experiences, ecstatic utterances, looking for all sorts of revelations. thinking that these things are superior to the Word, I pity them. In no way whatsoever are these things to be put before the utterance of Scripture. No one could have spoken with more authority if it was a matter of getting to the ecstatic utterances and heavenly revelations. I say no one could have done more to get to the heart of man with such things. as our Lord Jesus, but He takes men to the Word. I bring you to the Word tonight. It says here, it's a sure foundation. If you have Christ, you can be absolutely sure Christ will never fail. And that's why in the New Testament it says, Whosoever believeth in Him shall not be ashamed. You'll not be ashamed to own Christ as your Savior. You are not going to be ashamed finding that after believing in the Bible for years, the Word of God has at the last left you desolate without an answer. You will not be ashamed in death. You will not be ashamed in the judgment before you have the Lord Jesus Christ Himself to come alongside of you and confess your name before the presence of His Father and the holy angels. Two dear women, faithful daughters in the family, were speaking to their aged mother one day. And she had news for them. She said, Do you see Him there? They saw nothing. But she explained The Lord has come by. He has come for me today and he wants me to go with him. Both those ladies, her daughters, knew the Lord and they said, Mom, if the Lord Jesus has come by today to call you to come unto him, just rise up and go with him. And she did. Whosoever believeth in him, Shall not be ashamed. No, not in life. And not in death. And certainly not in the judgment. I think I have to say, looking at the other side of the coin, if you do not have Christ as the only foundation, if you do not have Christ as your Lord and your Savior, you're going to be ashamed at the last. Ashamed that you denied Him. Ashamed in death, I ashamed in the judgment, lost for all eternity. It's a tremendous word. And you can say getting in on the whosoever. Whosoever believeth. See the two words in the New Testament that have been introduced to the message. Whosoever believeth on him. That's it. That's bowing prayer. Dr. MacLennan is coming. He may have a verse or two verses of a hymn. He may wish to close in prayer. And as we go to prayer now, let me ask you, how is it with your soul? Where do you stand? If it was a matter of opening God's book and saying, look, this is the explanation for my faith, my salvation. I can show you where I stand and I know I am saved. You look at the Word and that's it. That's a solid ground of certainty. As we just study the matter for a moment, can you read your title clear to mansions in the sky? Is there a certainty to your faith that will stand the hour of death and the test of the great judgment day? Or is your faith going to be a faith that will falter? It cannot if it rests on the sure foundation.