of the Resurrection, which is everywhere attested to in the Holy Scriptures. And it is from time to time we deal specifically with the passages about the Resurrection. I think it's always good to at the very least read them together on Resurrection Sunday. Paul devoted all of 1 Corinthians 15, which is one of the longer chapters in the Word of God, to declaring the importance and the necessity of the doctrine of the resurrection. And my heart was drawn to Romans 10 verse 9, which will be my text for this morning. We will begin reading at verse 1 of Romans 10. 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 For Moses describeth 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? 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. no difference between the Jew and the Greek, for the same Lord is overall as rich unto all that call upon Him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things. But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah said, Lord, who hath believed our report? So then, faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. But I say, have they not heard? Yes, verily, their sound went into all the earth and their words unto the ends of the world. But I say, did not Israel know? First Moses saith, I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people, and by a foolish nation I will anger you. But Isaiah is very bold and saith, I was found of them that sought me not I was made manifest unto them that asked not after Thy Word, the Holy Scriptures, which we have read a portion of together. We pray that as we open Thy Word, that it may be attended by the power of Thy Holy Spirit, that we may hear the truth, that the truth would set us free. We pray that we may know our need of a Savior, our need of a Savior who died, our need of a Savior who was raised again for our justification. Lord, we pray that Thou has opened our hearts to receive Thy word with gladness and understanding, Pray that Thou would deliver us from hard necks, hard hearts, make us tender towards Thy Word, tender towards the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that Thou would undertake now for the preaching of Thy Word for the sake of Christ our Redeemer. Amen. Beloved congregation, the Bible clearly teaches that salvation is It is not something that man can generate within himself. It is something that God gives to a sinner to convert him and change him. Romans 10 verse 9, Paul says 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, Paul says there are two things that are necessary on the part of man for the evidence So this is not a contradiction. Salvation begins with God, but there is evidence that God has done a work within the heart of his people. A changed heart means changed behavior. Someone could gift me with a house. Say, here's your house. And let's say it's a great mansion. And I would say to you, well, that's my house. And you say, we have an idea. even the Lord Jesus Christ. And these are two that Paul deals with very specifically here, that a changed man, a changed heart, a changed woman, leads to change in behavior. Many people say that they are Christians, but how can we tell that they're actually saved? How do you know that you're actually saved? There is to be evidence. of that salvation. So let us look first of all at that first evidence, and that is that a true Christian confesses with his mouth the Lord Jesus. It is a speech that can be heard. It is a vocalizing of what is in the heart. This is formally done when people join a church. In our congregation, we ask people to give a word of testimony. What has God done for you? And generally, people are very happy to be able to do that. When the Lord has changed your heart, you want people to know you have a song in your heart. You have a testimony to give. But I want this congregation to know that I feel that I belong in this congregation. I believe that I belong with this fellowship of saints. I want to be part of this community. And on the other side, aren't each of you members of this congregation, aren't you delighted to hear that testimony? Isn't it wonderful? The testimony that you have heard others give as they become members is different from your own. Everyone is a little bit different. bringing a sinner out of the state of sin into the state of salvation. But the details are all different. And it's wonderful to hear what the Lord has done in your heart. And it's wonderful to be able to share those things. They love to sing about their Savior. And so it's a wonderful thing when you can't keep that down and you have to say what the Lord has done for you and in you. It's often done in conversation with others. You speak of what God has done. You're aware of God's presence in your life, how he's opened doors, how he's sometimes closed doors, how he's answered prayer, how he's provided for you in various ways. the Lamb of God, the Lamb of His flock. And in a sense, we can say you've made a certain confession of your faith even by entering this building today. By saying I'm not going to do other things because I must be with the Lord's people. This is the Lord's day. I must be with God's people. And for some people it's a temptation. We woke up to a really of the saints, the admonition from God's Word, the communion that we have as saints in the Lord Jesus Christ is precious, precious to those who are indwelled by God's Holy Spirit. So when you make this confession, there are things that you are saying. If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, or we can say that Jesus is Lord, That is what we are confessing. By using the word Lord, we are confessing that He is divine. It's connected with, if you look in your Old Testament Bibles, you will see He is God, He is divine. Not a little bit divine, He is completely God. He is God Himself. So, if Christ is your Lord, you don't have another Lord. You don't share Lordship, you don't share mastery. Jesus said that, didn't He? No man can serve two masters. Either Christ is your Lord or He is not. It's one or the other, it's not halfway or partway. So remember that Caesar was often happy to have Christians take a pinch of incense. They would be released from prison off their promise. If you take that pinch of incense and say, Caesar's Lord, you'll be free. And you could talk about Jesus. That's not a problem. You could say, Jesus is Lord and Caesar is Lord. That was no contradiction for them. But for Christians, it was a contradiction. He said, I have one Lord. There can only be one Lord, I can only have one master. And so they said, I would rather be tortured, I'd rather stay in jail, than to say, Caesar is the Lord, I can't do it, it's not in my heart. And so the Christians here, that confession is very significant for the Roman. Jesus is my all in all. He's my everything. Jesus is all the world to me. There were areas that came along and denied that Christ was divine. By this, we're saying that Christ dwelt in our midst, that He became one of us, and that He bore our sins. He had to be human in order to die on the cross. We talked about that on Friday morning, as we met for a Good Friday. as by one man's disobedience, that is Adam, as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. So he had to come in order to be our second Adam. There were various heresies in the early church as well, Gnosticism and Gnosticism, enter into your life. He couldn't really identify with you, and yet the writer of Hebrews says he was tempted at all points like as we are, yet without sin, Christ was tempted in his humanity, and at his comfort to the Lord's people. So a true Christian does confess with his mouth the Lord Jesus. But a true Christian also believes in his heart, of the resurrection, and it's something that we certainly do. We do it with a special focus on Easter or Resurrection Sunday, but it's the focus of our worship every single Sunday morning. Worship on the first day of the week, because that is the day on which Christ rose from the dead. Every Sunday is Resurrection Sunday, really. But we do well to focus in on about how the Lord Jesus was raised from the dead. Never been done before. It was all the glories of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Interesting that each of the members of the Trinity is connected with the doctrine of resurrection. God the Father, we just read that God has raised him from the dead, Galatians 1 verse 1. Paul says, I'm an apostle by Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead. That's probably the way we generally think about the resurrection. God the Father raised God the Son. But the Holy Spirit, it says in Romans 8 verse 11, speaks of the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead. So the Holy Spirit raised Jesus. John 10 verse 17, he says, I lay down my life that I may take it again. I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again. No man take it from me. He was crucified by guilty sinners, but he didn't fight back, he didn't object. He laid down his life voluntarily. Well, maybe I should say, have we ever lived in an age, has the church ever been in an age where the doctrine of the resurrection has not been denied? It was denied from the very beginning. They said, go and tell everybody that the disciple stole his Bible, because we've got to figure out what happened to that Bible. So they were trying already, right from the very beginning, to cover up the Bible. which is one of the events of history that has the greatest evidence, the most eyewitnesses. There's only evidence for the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, and yet people continue to deny it because they know of what's involved in that. So beloved, if you believe from your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, When you think about these things, there are other questions that come to mind, like the question, was he truly dead? You have this womb theory. People say, well, he just kind of fainted on the cross, and then when they laid him on that stone, the cold stone of the sepulcher, then he kind of revived and came to himself, and then after he'd been nails and through his hands and feet that he was able to move that huge stone somehow and get out of there. The stories never make sense if you really analyze them. But people want to deny because he was raised from the dead. He must have been dead. He must have truly died. So what does it mean to believe in the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ? It means he must have really died. And it means then, as I mentioned earlier, not only that he was fully God, but that he was fully man, because only a man can die. It's impossible for God to die. You could ask, why did he have to die? Lots of people died. There were two other men crucified with him. What makes the death of Jesus special or particular or different in history? Well, it's to save sinners. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Now you're faced with the question of whether you're a sinner. Christ Jesus come to save me? It doesn't say he came to save everybody. Did he come to save me? If he came to save me, what does that mean? It means I'm a sinner. It means I've transgressed God's law. It means I've gone my own way and not God's way. It means that I better have a savior in order to be right with God. How is it that we came to be in such a sinful estate that only death could save us? thou shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead." It's much more than just believing that these things are true. As I said earlier, there's lots of evidence that they're true. Many people believe that they're true without believing, savingly, the Lord Jesus Christ. The resurrection is, absolutely happen, and the empty tomb is evidence of that. All the other religions of the world have tombs for their leaders. We have an empty tomb. Very, very significant. Jesus said, my way is the only way. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes unto the Father but by me. Believing it entirely different matter from knowing that it is true. Paul stood and testified before King Agrippa. What did he say? He said, King Agrippa, believest thou of the prophets? I know that thou believest. I know that you understand. I know that you have a Jewish background. I know that you are aware of these things. And yet, Agrippa was He used good words, he used good arguments, but I'm not there. He believed something about Jesus, but he didn't have salvation. He didn't know Christ as his Savior. And that's crucial. You must know the Lord Jesus Christ. That's how personal the crucifixion is. That's how personal the resurrection ought to be to you. It affects my life, my behavior, my being. This faith is not an experience. Faith always has an object. We have to be very careful. I know He lives, He lives within my heart." That's a feeling. You may wake up tomorrow and not feel like He lives within your heart. No, you ask me how I know He lives, the Bible tells me so. You ask me how I know He lives, the Bible says, that was good enough for me. My wrath against sin was satisfied. And in token of that, I am willing to raise Him from the dead, as a public testimony that the work of Christ satisfies my wrath against sin. I am appeased. There is peace between me and the sinners for whom The Word of Faith movement has an experience. They all speak about various things that happened to them. But experiences come and go. And the remembrance of those experiences come and go. What happens is that if you've had a very dramatic experience as yourself, The more you get from that experience, the less certain it is. Because you're only relying on your memory. And it's usually a poor thing to rely on. The longer my wife and I live together and we go back and remember about things that happened earlier in our marriage or in our dating, I have to say we sometimes come up with different stories. We just remember them differently. That's all. But there's an objectivity. Christ in his death, Christ in his resurrection, Christ in his ascension. And the Bible gives you the facts that it calls upon you, God calls upon you to believe those facts about the Lord Jesus Christ. People fall in love. It's a good feeling. If you depend upon that feeling, rather than depending upon your marriage vows, you may end up in trouble. Because later on, you may have a different experience, and you may be drawn to another person. You might say, now I'm in love with that person. I made a mistake by marrying this person. poverty and wealth. So there's the problem with rooting your salvation in an experience. Those times when you don't feel safe, what are you going to do? You're going to be frustrated, you're going to be in despair. And what does the Lord use to bring you out of that? What is it that brings you up? It's the Word of God, and the Word of God, the Spirit of the Lord, brings you to Christ. Shows you, in a new way, Christ crucified. Yeah, sometimes we don't have assurance because we're living in sin. We're going on in sin. Well, you can have assurance of salvation by your sin and you wonder whether Christ could have died for that sin. But it's very important for you to have a faith to know that Christ covered that sin. Let me take a moment and relate to you something that I just received this morning. One of the problems up in northern Kenya amongst the young people in Bala and I've long thought Education is a wonderful thing. We ought to promote it and provide it where we can, but these young people just really place such a high premium on their education that a number of them have taken scholarships. I'm just not happy here. He's not providing me any help. Judith relates in an email. I'll post this on the bulletin board later. Peter asked him about their experiences in Islam. They told him they have not gone to mosque now for four months. Quote, we are not comfortable when we are there. Quote, there is nothing personal for us in that worship. We miss the personal. We can't relate personally Another one says, you have to pray only at specified hours. Allah is not available otherwise. The prayers we hear in the mosque, we do not know what they are saying. It is like a religion for robots. It is as if worshippers are programmed by the computer with specific things to say, specific things to pray. Another one says, Allah got stuck in Muhammad's era. Christianity in their church at home, the church that they have been raised in recently. When they go away from that, they see the emptiness. They see just the motion, the motion of it. And now they want to come back. So Peter said, I'll take you out back to Bala from Kenya. They're going to school in Nairobi, sorry. Take you out for Easter Sunday. So they went. They were concerned. They were really scared. And I've talked to some of these men who have converted. And they've just dropped out of communication from me. It's very frustrating to hear. And I don't know whether one of the young men was being real. I don't know whether he's one of these now. But he said, we're going to go back to our church. And due to reports that, let's see if I can find the page here. Peter said that the reunion was beyond telling in words. When the youth saw the returnees back, they jumped for joy. They hugged them, crying tears of joy, singing. He said it was beyond anything. tears running down his own cheeks. There's forgiveness with the Lord. There's also forgiveness from the Lord. Isn't that a beautiful testimony? That these young people have just seen how empty the promises of Islam are. And they come back, and they're received again, and forgiven. Beloved, it has meaning. It has meaning in your life. It has an effect on what you do and say. If you believe in your heart that God rose Jesus from the dead. So, beloved, your faith must be in Christ and in Christ alone. True faith says Jesus' death on the cross was necessary to atone for my sin. I can have forgiveness and Christ gives His own eternal life. Beloved, do you believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead? It must be. You must have that faith. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank Thee for Thy mercy and Thy grace. We thank you for the reconciliation that took place, the gathering together of the saints, rejoicing in the finished work of the Lord Jesus and in his glorious resurrection. How we thank you, Lord. rest and security and refuge and peace in the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, how we thank you for that peace, how we thank you for this day that thou has given us to celebrate that peace. Gather us again this evening, Lord, that we may continue with thee, that we may devote this day unto thee in all of its fullness, to meditate upon thy word and thy works, to sing the praises of Him who first loved us. Hear our prayer this day. We pray in the name of Christ our Savior and Redeemer. Amen.