Our first reading of scripture this evening is the book of Isaiah chapter 48. Isaiah chapter 48. Beloved congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ, let us hear the word of God. Hear this, O house of Jacob, who are called by the name of Israel and who came from the waters of Judah, who swear by the name of the Lord and confess the God of Israel, but not in truth or right. For they call themselves after the holy city and stay themselves on the God of Israel. The Lord of hosts is his name. The former things I declared of old, they went out from my mouth and I announced them. Then suddenly I did them and they came to pass. Because I know that you are obstinate and your neck is an iron sinew and your forehead brass, I declared them to you from of old. Before they came to pass, I announced them to you, lest you should say, my idol did them. My carved image and my metal image commanded them. You have heard, now see all this, and will you not declare it? From this time forth, I announce to you new things, hidden things that you have not known. They are created now, not long ago. Before today, you have never heard of them, lest you should say, behold, I knew them. You have never heard, you have never known, from of old your ear has not been opened. For I knew that you would surely deal treacherously, and that from before birth you were called a rebel. For my name's sake, I defer my anger. For the sake of my praise, I restrain it for you, that I may not cut you off. Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver. I have tried you in the furnace of affliction. For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it. For how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another. Listen to me, O Jacob and Israel, whom I called. I am he, I am the first, and I am the last. My hand laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand spread out the heavens. When I call to them, they stand forth together. Assemble all of you and listen. Who among them has declared these things? The Lord loves him. He shall perform his purpose on Babylon, and his arm shall be against the Chaldeans. I, even I, have spoken and called him. I have brought him, and he will prosper in his way. Draw near to me. Hear this. From the beginning I have not spoken in secret. From the time it came to be, I have been there. And now the Lord God has sent me in his spirit. Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. I am the Lord, your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you in the way you should go. Oh, that you had paid attention to my commandments. Then your peace would have been like a river and your righteousness like the waves of the sea. Your offspring would have been like the sand and your descendants like its grains. Their name would never be cut off or destroyed from before me. Go out from Babylon. Flee from Chaldea. Declare this with a shout of joy. Proclaim it. Send it out to the end of the earth. Say, the Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob. They did not thirst when he led them through the deserts. He made water flow for them from the rock. He split the rock and the water gushed out. There is no peace, says the Lord, for the wicked. This is the word of God. And I invite you to turn with me now in your Bibles to the book of Romans, chapter 10. St. Paul's letter to the Romans, chapter 10. And this evening, we will be looking at verses 1 through 13 of Romans, chapter 10. So Romans 10 and beginning in verse 1, before we hear the Holy Scriptures, let's pray together. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for the scriptures which are inspired by you and profitable for us. And we pray this evening that by your spirit you would bring illumination to our minds that we may have a right understanding of your word and produce faith in our hearts that we may believe all that scripture teaches. And we ask this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior. Amen. Romans chapter 10 and beginning in verse 1. Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For being ignorant of the righteousness of God and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. But the righteousness based on faith says, do not say in your heart who will ascend into heaven, that is, to bring Christ down, or who will descend into the abyss, that is, to bring Christ up from the dead. But what does it say? The word is near you, in your mouth, and in your heart, that is, the word of faith that we proclaim. Because 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. For with the heart, one believes and is justified, and with the mouth, one confesses and is saved. For the scripture says, everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame. For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek. For the same Lord is the Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. This is the word of God. Now in the first place, let me point out that Paul is talking here about the subject of righteousness. In verse 3, he says that the unbelieving Jews, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, sought to establish their own righteousness. Righteousness has to do with our standing before God. We are either righteous in the sight of God or we are unrighteous in the sight of God. You have one status before God or the other. So righteousness has to do with our standing, our status before God. And if we are righteous in God's sight, then he justifies us. But if we are unrighteous in God's sight, he condemns us. And so righteousness leads to justification, while unrighteousness leads to condemnation. Now Paul says that the unbelieving Jews, in verses one through three, the unbelieving Jews were seeking to establish their own righteousness. They were pursuing righteousness, hoping to attain a right status before God so that they would be justified and not condemned. But the unbelieving Jews failed to attain the righteousness that they were seeking because they sought it, Paul says, by works and not by faith. Since only the doers of the law are righteous before God and justified, the Jews pursued righteousness and justification by doing the law, by keeping the law. That is, by their own obedience to the law of God, by works of the law, they attempted to gain a right standing before God. They were seeking to establish their own righteousness, verse 3, by works of the law, and that's why they failed to attain it. Because by works of the law, no one will be justified, Paul says in Galatians 2.16. No one will be, no one can be justified by works of the law. So there are two ways of seeking righteousness, two ways of pursuing a righteous status before God, and those two ways are contrary to each other. One way is by faith, and the other way is by works. Now that's the contrast that Paul makes here in verses five and six. It's a contrast between the righteousness of faith on the one hand and the righteousness of works, or the law, on the other. In verse 5, Paul says that Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law. So that's the righteousness of works, the righteousness that is based on the law. And by way of contrast, Paul says in verse six, but the righteousness based on faith, that's the righteousness of faith. So there's the righteousness of the law on the one hand and the righteousness of faith on the other. Now Paul is talking about two different ways of seeking righteousness, two different ways of pursuing righteousness, two different and contrary ways of trying to attain a righteous status before God. There is the way of the law on the one hand and the way of faith on the other. And Paul illustrates those two ways of pursuing righteousness by citing a few verses from the Old Testament. In verse 5, he illustrates the principle of the righteousness of the law by citing Leviticus 18 and verse 5. Now look here at Romans 10 verse 5, again Paul says, and here he cites what Moses said in Leviticus 18, The person who does the commandments, who keeps the commandments, who obeys the laws shall live by them. Now that's the principle of the righteousness of the law, the righteousness of works. In other words, the way of righteousness revealed in the law is based on the principle of works. And that principle can be stated very briefly do and live. The person who does them shall live by them. Do and live. The person who does the commandments of God shall live by them. Now that works principle, do and live, is contrary to the righteousness of faith. Believers, Paul says, do not seek righteousness by works, but by faith. Not by works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ alone. As Paul said back in Romans chapter 4 verse 5, to the one who does not work but believes. Now notice that contrast between works and faith. The one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness. Now that's the righteousness of faith. It's not pursued or attained by works, but by faith alone. It is received as a free gift from God by faith alone. Now Paul illustrates that way of righteousness, the righteousness of faith, by citing some more verses from the Old Testament. And here he cites Deuteronomy chapter 30. Look at what Paul says in verse six. But the righteousness based on faith, not the righteousness of the law, but the righteousness of faith says, do not say in your heart who will ascend into heaven, that is to bring Christ down, or who will descend into the abyss, that is to bring Christ up from the dead, but what does it say? The word is near you, in your mouth, and in your heart, that is the word of faith that we proclaim. Now those citations here of the Old Testament are rather puzzling. It's not obviously clear, it's not exactly clear how they illustrate Paul's point that righteousness, the righteousness of faith is received by grace alone, not by works. He says again in verse 6, the righteousness of faith says, do not say in your heart who will ascend into heaven or, verse 7, who will descend into the abyss. The righteousness of faith tells us not to say those things. It tells us not to say those things in our heart because those things are cries of utter despair. The pursuit of righteousness is not a hopeless pursuit. It is not destined to end in failure and should not lead us to despair of ever attaining it. Righteousness is not so far removed from us that we cannot reach it. It is not beyond us. It is not placed somewhere that we cannot get to it. Now, of course, if we pursue righteousness by works of the law, it is hopeless. That pursuit is destined to end in failure. If we pursue righteousness based on our own obedience to the law, then that is as far removed from us as it possibly can be. We will never attain it. By works of the law, no one will be justified. We can no more attain righteousness by that path, by the path of the law, than we can ascend into heaven or descend into the abyss. But the righteousness of faith, on the other hand, is not unattainable. It's attainable. It's within our reach. It is near us. And so, verse 6 again, the righteousness of faith says, do not say in your heart who will ascend into heaven or, verse 7, who will descend into the abyss. You see, those cries of despair are tantamount to saying that the righteousness of God has not been revealed to us and is not attainable by us. It's beyond our reach. It's out of our reach. We can never get it. Now look more carefully at what Paul says in verses six and seven and you'll see how he explains this. In verse six he says, but the righteousness of faith says, do not say in your heart who will ascend into heaven, that is, that means to bring Christ down. The question, who will ascend into heaven, when asked by someone who despairs of attaining righteousness, is tantamount to declaring that Christ has not come down. That Christ has not come down from heaven to attain righteousness for us. Now that's why the righteousness of faith says do not say that. Do not say that in your heart. It means don't despair of attaining righteousness because Christ has in fact come down from heaven in order to achieve righteousness for us. Christ has come down from heaven to achieve our justification. Now in verse 7 Paul adds that the righteousness of faith says do not say in your heart who will descend into the abyss, that is the grave. And then Paul interprets that to mean that is to bring Christ up from the dead. Now this question in verse 7, who will descend into the abyss or the grave? When asked by someone who loses all hope of attaining righteousness is tantamount to declaring that Christ has not been brought up from the dead for our justification. And so those questions in verses six and seven reveal the despair. They reveal the utter despair of someone who thinks that righteousness is absolutely unattainable. But the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ says otherwise. It says that righteousness is attainable because, on the one hand, Christ has come down from heaven to achieve it for us, and on the other hand, Christ has been brought up from the dead and has himself been justified by God and has been raised for our justification. So it is attainable. It is within our reach. We can have a righteousness before God. And so by the life of Jesus Christ, his life of perfect obedience, his atoning death, and his resurrection from the dead, which attests to his own perfect righteousness, Christ has achieved our justification. He has done everything required for our justification. And there is nothing more to be done. Christ has done it all, he has secured it, he has achieved it perfectly, finally. Now, without the incarnation of Christ, without his coming down from heaven, without his life, without his death for our sins, without his resurrection from the dead, without his coming up from the abyss, there would be no justification for sinners at all. No possibility of justification for sinners ever. There would be no righteousness to offer them. And if that were the case, then to cry out in despair because you cannot be justified would be appropriate. In fact, it would be the only thing that we could do because our condemnation, our eternal condemnation would be absolutely certain. But friends, the gospel of Jesus Christ says you can be justified. Even though you are a sinner, even though you are ungodly, even though because of your violations of the law of God you deserve hell, you can be justified. because of the redemptive work of the Lord Jesus Christ who did in fact come down from heaven in the incarnation and who came up from the grave in his resurrection. Now that's the righteousness of faith, that's the righteousness that is freely offered to us in the gospel. And that righteousness, Paul wants us to know, is near us. It's not far off so that you can't reach it. It is near you because Christ has come down. Christ is truly, freely offered to you in the gospel. And his righteousness is freely offered to you in the gospel and imputed to you by the grace of God alone. Now look at this in verse 8, Paul stresses the nearness of that righteousness, it's not beyond us, it's not out of our reach. In verse 8 Paul says, but what does it say, it here being the gospel or the righteousness of faith, the word of faith, what does it say? The word is near you in your mouth and in your heart. That is the word of faith that we proclaim. The word is near you and therefore the righteousness of Christ offered in that word is near you. The righteousness of God revealed in the gospel is near you because the gospel is near you. That word is near you. Paul said in Romans 116, I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek, for in it, in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed. It is revealed from faith for faith as it is written, the righteous shall live by faith. That's the righteousness of faith. It's the righteousness revealed in the gospel and imputed to us by God and received through faith alone. So righteousness and justification are not unattainable. They are not inaccessible as if they were far removed from us, out of our reach, as if we would have to ascend into heaven to get it or to descend into the abyss to get it. We do not need to do that, Christ has himself come down from heaven and has himself been brought up from the grave to achieve that righteousness for us and he himself is near us and offered to us as our righteousness in the gospel. So it is not inaccessible, it's not unattainable, it's not far removed from us, out of our reach. Now, righteousness and justification most certainly would be unattainable, inaccessible, far removed from us, out of our reach. They most certainly would be if we were to pursue them by works of the law. If we were trying to attain them by keeping the law, we never could attain a righteousness before God. The righteousness of the law cannot ever be attained by any sinner. But the righteousness of faith can be, it is near us, it's offered to us. Again, Paul's point in verse 8 is just that. Paul says in verse 8, but what does it say? The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that is the word of faith that we proclaim. God's righteousness is near us because God has brought it near us in Christ and brings it near us through the word of faith that is proclaimed to us. That's the gospel proclaimed to us. It's near us because Christ has achieved it for us, it's freely offered to us, and it is imputed to us by grace alone and received through faith alone. So the word of faith is the gospel to which our faith is directed. It's the word of faith, the word to which our faith is directed. Our faith is directed toward that gospel that is proclaimed to us. Now you'll notice that Paul points out here a relationship between the word proclaimed on the one hand, the gospel preached on the one hand, and the word believed and confessed on the other. The minister proclaims the word of faith and the one who hears it believes it and confesses it. And that's what Paul means when he says that the same word proclaimed to us is in your mouth and in your heart. It is in your heart because you believe it, it's in your mouth because you confess it. Again, verse eight, the word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that is the word of faith that we proclaim. So when that gospel is preached to us, we hear it, we believe it with our hearts, we confess it with our mouths. The word of faith proclaimed to us is in our hearts by faith and in our mouths when we confess it. The same gospel that is preached is the gospel that's believed, it's the gospel that's confessed. So that's how, as Paul says later in Romans 10 verse 17, that's how faith comes by hearing and hearing through the word of Christ. When the word of Christ is preached to us, God by his spirit produces faith in our hearts so that the same word preached to us is believed by us and confessed by us. We believe it with our hearts, we confess it with our mouths. Now this leads Paul to his main point here in this passage, and that main point is stated in verses nine and 10. Now these verses are probably verses that most of us have memorized, probably memorized them in our childhood, our youth. They're very popular verses because they tell us the way of salvation. They're part of the Roman road to salvation. I remember seeing that as a very, very young child, the Roman road to salvation. The Roman road begins with Romans 3.23, all of sin falls short of the glory of God. 6.23, that the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. And then finally, the third signpost on the Roman road is Romans 10.9 and 10, where Paul says, Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, that's the gospel, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, that's the gospel, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. Now, I have a whole lot to say about those two verses, enough for a whole other sermon, but I'm not going to say them tonight, thankfully, maybe some other time. I can come back and say what I have to say about those two verses, but let me just point out a couple of things here about these two verses in closing, two things that I think are very important. First of all, Whenever the gospel is proclaimed to us and it is positively received, there is a positive response to the preaching of the gospel. That positive response includes a two-fold action. a two-fold action. There is a two-fold act of faith and a positive response to the gospel that has an inward side to it and an outward side to it. Something that is inward and then something that is outward. Inwardly, in that positive two-fold faith response to the gospel, the gospel is believed with the heart. Outwardly, that gospel is confessed with the mouth. And that's what Paul says, 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. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. And so there was an inward believing with the heart and an outward confessing with the mouth. And those two things are two sides of the same coin. The one who believes the gospel with his heart confesses the gospel with his mouth. The one who believes in Christ confesses Christ. What is believed is confessed. So there are two sides to the same coin. They're not two different steps as if first you do this one, second at a later time you do this one, but they're two sides of the same coin. Now secondly, the other thing I'll point out here, just from these two verses briefly, is that when Paul says that believing confession on the part of the one who responds positively to the gospel, that two-fold believing confession, believing in your heart, confessing with your mouth, is Jesus is Lord, which is the earliest Christian creed, and it is a summary of the entire gospel. The whole gospel of Jesus Christ in all of its entirety, in all its fullness, is summarized in a nutshell in those three little words, Jesus is Lord. Believing and confessing in the lordship of Jesus Christ, Jesus is Lord, is to believe and confess that God raised him from the dead because in his resurrection, he exercises his lordship. It's because he is raised and exalted to the right hand of the Father as the King of kings and Lord of lords that he reigns as the Lord of heaven and earth. He exercises his lordship because of his resurrection. So to believe and confess that Jesus is Lord is to believe and confess that he has been raised from the dead. And that of course presupposes that Christ died, that he died for our sins, which of course presupposes also his perfect life of obedience to God, because without that he would not have been resurrected from the dead. God raised him from the dead because of his perfect obedience. And that of course presupposes his birth, his incarnation, that he came down from heaven. which also presupposes that he has a divine nature. He's the second person of the Trinity. And so the whole gospel of Jesus Christ is summarized in that one very brief confession of faith. Jesus is Lord. And to believe that with your heart, to confess that with your mouth, to believe in Christ. It's not those words that we believe in. It's the one proclaimed in those words that we believe in. It's the person whom we believe. We believe in Christ. We confess Christ. We confess Christ as Lord and by believing in him we are united to him so that His justification in his resurrection becomes our justification. His righteousness becomes our righteousness so that we have a right standing before God through faith in Christ alone. That's the righteousness of faith. That's the gospel. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ, your eternal son who came down from heaven and took upon him our human nature and who lived a life of perfect obedience to you and merited for us righteousness, justification, and every benefit of the gospel. We thank you, Father, that you raised him from the dead and declared him to be righteous before you, and that by your spirit you unite us to him so that his righteousness is shared with us. Father, we thank you for revealing this to us in the gospel, for the word of faith that is near us. for achieving this righteousness for us and for offering it freely to us in the gospel and enabling us by your spirit to receive it in faith. We pray all these things in Christ's holy name. Amen.