In the sermon 'Confess, Believe, Call' by Scott Brown, Romans chapter 10 is explored to highlight the critical elements of salvation through faith. Brown emphasizes the importance of confessing Jesus as Lord, believing in the resurrection, and calling on the name of the Lord. He illustrates these points using a story of a boy hanging from a cliff, symbolizing the need to let go of self-reliance and trust completely in God. The sermon underscores the sovereignty of God in salvation, the agency of man, and the tragedy of Israel's rejection of Christ's righteousness. Through this passage, Brown urges believers to translate their desires into prayers, to not become complacent about the lost, and to recognize the simplicity yet profound nature of true belief, which involves a complete trust in and submission to Jesus Christ as Lord.

Let's open your Bibles to Romans chapter 10 and find verse 1 as we continue our studies in this great and wonderful testimony of the grace of God. Romans chapter 10 verse 1. This is the inerrant, all-sufficient, sweeter than honey word of God. Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.

For they, being ignorant of God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own righteousness have not submitted to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. For Moses writes about the righteousness which is of the law saying the man who does these things shall live by them but the righteousness of faith speaks in this way do not say in your heart who will ascend into heaven, that is to bring Christ down from above, 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 which we preach. That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture says, Whoever believes on him will not be put to shame. For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek.

For the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon him. For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. The grass withers the flower fades but the word of our God stands forever. Let's pray. Father these words are for us today you've ordained that we would hear them and I pray that you would bring them deeply within our hearts to help us to understand the greatness of your kingdom and how wonderful your call is To all to confess and believe and be saved.

Amen Please be seated So returning here to the book of Romans finding ourselves in chapter 10 in the midst of a context of chapters 9 through 11 which really are speaking of the sovereignty of God and salvation and also the agency of man. And these verses really reveal the drama of every human soul. And on the one hand, the implications of justification by faith and also the heart of a person believing in Jesus Christ. Those two things, you know, are here. And of course, the apostle has been working this doctrine through over and over again in so many different ways.

And why is he repeating this? Because the verses that we're in today are really a continuation of the verses that we were in last week. And why is there so much repetition? Well, because we need it, basically. This is pastoral care.

We need to have the great things of God repeated to us. You know, every parent knows this, that a child doesn't learn a principle just once. A child needs continual shepherding. And it's so true in a church as well. Churches need continual shepherding along the same lines.

And that's why, you know, most likely, so many of you won't hear anything new. You're just going to hear it again because it's so true and it's so good and you don't want to depart from it. And The teaching of the Word of God is always met from the home and into the church to be something that is comprehensive. That's why in a home, parents are taught to teach their children when they sit in the house, when they walk by the way, when they lie down, and when they rise up. Well that's exactly what the Apostle Paul is doing.

He's being a good parent in the church. Now you have an outline in front of you. This is sort of a tour guide of this passage. What I want to first make it clear is that there's this situation that the apostle is addressing. And You find it in verses one and two, his heartbreak over his countrymen that have rejected the gospel.

He also gives the reason for their lostness. And then he gives a sense of the tragedy of how they missed it when it was right in front of their faces. So that's the situation. And then he turns and really declares how to be saved. It's such a wonderful section that you confess his lordship, that you believe in your heart, that you call on the name of the Lord and will camp on each one of those for what they really mean.

I have a friend who preached a sermon on this passage And he started out the sermon with a story of a boy who falls off the edge of a cliff. And he is able to grab onto a twig, something that would hold him from falling the rest of the way down to the cliff. And he, my friend, tells the story that there is a voice at the top of the cliff that says, climb back up. And at the bottom of the cliff was another voice that says, let go. But the boy had no arms.

He was holding on by his teeth and so he faced an impossible situation. If he would let go, he would fall. If, on the other hand, he could not climb up. And he used this as an illustration of the simplicity of salvation. That one must let go.

They must let go of everything and trust God and trust that they will fall into the arms of a faithful Savior. And then he said something and I don't want to trivialize what he said or this passage at all, but he said, salvation is as easy as one, two, three, let go. And in some ways it is that way. And so I'd like to try to explain it from this passage of scripture. So we find this repetition of the sovereignty of God and the agency of man here in this passage.

But I was struck by something that I read many years ago that John Piper said about this situation, about Israel's situation, this situation as you have it in your outline. Israel was in a situation and what Piper says is that the problem of Israel is the problem of every man. I'm gonna read to you how he explains it. By God's design, Israel is the historical microcosm of the world's conscience. Your conscience.

Israel is the historical theater where the drama of every human soul is played out for all to see. What goes on inside you spiritually and every other person has gone on in Israel historically. And the story is told that we can see ourselves and see the world and understand. If you want to know your own spiritual condition before God as a human being, if you want to know the greatest issues of all the world, you can learn it from watching the history of Israel as it is interpreted in the Bible. And this is why you cannot throw away your Old Testament because God has spoken from the beginning.

And so the history of mankind and the history of your life and my life is found right here in these words. And it can be summed up in a phrase and that is that man seeks his righteousness on his own and this was Israel's problem. This is the situation, this is the problem that all men have And so the religious Israelite and the pagan Greek and the modern American have the same desires and the same problems as we find in Israel. And it's stated so succinctly in this passage, they are seeking to establish their own righteousness and have not submitted to the righteousness of God. And so that's why this situation is exemplified in Paul's heartbreak over his countrymen, because they're hardened to the gospel.

And so that's what we find here first in the first two verses, Paul's heartbreak over his countrymen. He says, Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. And you'll recognize, if you remember, he says the exact same thing in the first verses of chapter 9. Now in chapter 10 he repeats his sorrow for his countrymen. And you can see the Apostles love for the lost, it's not dampened.

His desire is for what? That they would be saved. Saved from what? Saved from the wrath of God, saved from their own righteousness, saved from their own unprofitable ways. And what the Apostle is Making very clear right at the beginning is that there are only two conditions you are either lost or you are saved.

And his heart's desire is that his countrymen would be saved. Now, there's something to learn about here in prayer, about prayer. Paul does what all of us should do. He translates his desires into his prayers and his desire in this case is for his countrymen. But that's what we should be doing as well, translating our desires, our godly desires, into our prayers.

You might just consider the various good desires that you have, Translate them into prayer. Don't be a prayerless person. Don't forget to pray for things that are of legitimate import in your life. This matter of being concerned is another critical matter. We often become unrighteously unconcerned for the lost around us.

I know that's my experience And I was very struck by what Martin Lloyd-Jones said about this. He was very convicting, just condemning. If you're not deeply concerned about the lost condition of anybody who is dear to you, then you are a monster. You have become lopsided and unnatural in your thinking. I lay that before us that we might really consider that as a church.

But you see Paul's ongoing sorrow for his countrymen, and we should be very careful not to allow the doctrine of God's sovereignty to dampen our despair or our abandonment of concern for the people that we know who are lost. So maybe we should make some bigger lists than we have. But you see here that their problem, his heartbreak is based on their problem. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God but not according to knowledge. In other words, they are misguided.

You have people in the world that are misguided. In this case, the Jews are relying on their ceremonies, they're relying on their laws and on their traditions. Many of them, most of them made up. And they are sincere and yet lost. Here's a principle, sincerity is no test for salvation.

Now this could be a description of anyone in America. You know, wherever, whenever you witness to people in America, all of them are saved. They are good people. There's not a bad person in America, hardly. Everyone is good enough for the holiness of God.

And so that's what was happening with with the Jews. They were ignorant of their of the reality of their sinfulness. Ignorant of the fact that if you break one law, you've broken them all. And if you fulfilled one law, you didn't do it perfectly. That's the problem that we have with sin.

And so the first part of the situation here is Paul's heartbreak. The second is really a declaration of the reason for their lostness and why the Jews missed it. The reason for their lostness is stated in verse three. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own righteousness have not submitted to the righteousness of God. In other words, they did not submit to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

They rejected it, not submitted to it. They did not put themselves under it, but they rebuffed it. And the reality is they did not understand Jesus Christ. They did not understand that Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God who is sent to take away the sin of the world This is the issue of submission. They would not submit to the sacrifice of Christ That is the characteristic of every lost person.

They have not submitted to the reality of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ Charles Spurgeon said it like this you can be ruined by your righteousness just as surely as you can by your unrighteousness. That was the case of the Jews. So in spite of the very clear teaching of the Old Testament the Jews like their own standards of holiness and did not submit to the righteousness of God. That's always the problem with the unbeliever and the person who's holding back. They do not want to submit to the righteousness of God, which will completely alter their life.

That's the problem. And then he further explains what this means, verse 4, for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. This is the essence of the gospel that Jesus Christ has fulfilled the law And Lloyd-Jones calls this verse the Christian charter. It's the heart of the gospel. Maybe it's the heart of the chapter that Jesus Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

It's like, this is like a capsule ization of the gospel. That Jesus Christ has fulfilled the law. So the Jews were ignorant of the mission of Christ. They did not grasp what was happening when Jesus Christ came. They did not understand that Jesus Christ carried out every element of the law and He summed up the law.

He was the end of the law, the summary of it, the capsulization of it, because Jesus Christ is the righteousness of God. Making him the embodiment of the law, a picture of every law of God, a summary of the law, a demonstration of the law, and a showing of what faithfulness to the law looks like, what obedience to the law looks like, that's what it means for Jesus Christ to be the end of the law. And of course, theologians like to talk about this in two ways. The active obedience of Christ, meaning he obeyed every specific law, every commandment of God, and then the passive obedience, in that he obeyed his father in his death. So the active and the passive obedience of Jesus Christ.

And here's the statement, for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. Don't miss those last words, to everyone who believes. So I'll refrain from talking about how Jesus Christ has not nullified the law, has not abolished the law, has not made the law irrelevant. There's that's a whole nother discussion. And it's obvious.

And even in this passage that that the law is not nullified or put aside In this passage, in the first 20 verses of Romans 10, he quotes Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Isaiah, Joel, Nahum, and the Psalms. So he's obviously not putting aside the word of God in the Old Testament. Here's what he's saying. The believers righteousness is in Jesus Christ, not his own. And you know, There's a place where the apostle Paul stated this really succinctly to the church in Philippi.

In Philippians 3, 9 he says that, He would be found in him not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ the righteousness which is from God by faith that I may know him in the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being conformed to his death. And this is for everyone who believes. And then the third situation, and it's really the tragedy of the Jews, and it's a tragedy that they missed it. That's in verses 5 through 8. And now he begins though by saying that the Jews knew that the law demanded perfect obedience.

That's verse 5. Look at verse 5. For Moses writes about the righteousness which is of the law, the man who does those things shall live by them. In other words, if you want righteousness from the law, you have to live by it. All the time, in an unbroken way, you can't you you must keep the law perfectly.

It was very clear in the Old Testament that in order to keep the law you had to keep it perfectly. And so that's the point here. The point is that living by the law, though it's good for you to live by the law, it cannot save you. It is actually very good to live by the law. Like if you don't murder and you don't steal and you don't commit adultery, life's gonna be a lot better for you.

That's so, you know, that's true, but it won't save you. And, but then he, he talks about this, it's a difficult language in verses six through eight here, but he's making it clear that The news of salvation was easy for the Jews to see. It wasn't complex. He says, but the righteousness of faith speaks this way. Do not say in your heart who will ascend to heaven.

In other words, don't say you have to do some radical thing, some big miracle, you know experience some big great thing. Don't say that. He's quoting Deuteronomy. That's the way it was in the Old Testament. And then he says, and do not say bring Christ down from above or who will descend into the abyss, that is to bring Christ up from the dead.

He's quoting Deuteronomy 30 in all these in all these phrases. And he's he what he's saying is that salvation was never that complex. You didn't have to jump through hoops to be saved in the Old Testament any more than you do under the new covenant. And he's saying the law is not mysterious, it's understandable, it wasn't hidden from the Jews, it's not hidden from you either. And it was simple.

There was no climbing up, there was no descending, there was no having to have a special experience, don't have to go on a mountaintop, don't have to go on a retreat, don't have to go to a conference. The Word is near you in your heart. You can be saved anytime, anywhere. It's as easy as one, two, three, as my friend said. But what do you have to do?

Well that begins in verses 9 through 13 and he describes the way to be saved. Some of the most beautiful, helpful, compelling, simple language for how to be saved. And you confess his Lordship, that's verses 9 through 11. You believe in your heart and you call in the name of the Lord that's how one is saved so let's talk about this you confess his lordship verse 9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made to salvation.

If you confess. Now what does it mean to confess? It doesn't mean babbling words. It actually means to say the same thing. That's literally what the word means.

To say the same thing. If you're going to confess, you say the same thing as the Lord. And again, it's not just saying words, It's to actually say the things that represent the goodness of the Lord. And you're confessing something very particular. It's right here in the text.

You're confessing the Lord Jesus. You're confessing that He is Lord. Now you're not just saying words, you're actually saying something greater that you have become a captive of Jesus Christ. That He is your Lord, and your master, and your leader, and he is the one who is taking you on. In other words, to confess, and this is really important, children understand this, to confess that Jesus is Lord isn't just saying Jesus is Lord.

It's actually to put your whole life under his authority. That he is Lord. You're bringing your whole life under the agreement of everything that is in the name of Jesus Everything that the name of Jesus represents is what you are setting yourselves under you are submitting to the righteousness Of God in that sense as well It it is it's so tragic that so many think that becoming a Christian is repeating words, just repeating words, but they are not words without content. And this is this is the word of sovereign rulership. If you if you confess Jesus as Lord you are saying that you are putting your entire life under his authority.

It's interesting in the book of Acts the word Savior appears two times, The word Lord appears 92 times. That's telling. And this type of, this principle runs all throughout Scripture. At Jesus' baptism, it's very clear that God established Jesus Christ as Lord. In Matthew 17, 5, while he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud saying, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.

Hear him. Hear him. In other words, my son is Lord. My son is in charge. Listen to my son.

To become a Christian, to confess the Lord Jesus is to quit listening to the world and start listening to the Son. And That's why when Thomas met the Lord Jesus Christ, he really, it was very clear that he understood what it meant to confess Christ as Lord. He said, my Lord and my God. This is true Christianity. It's not just repeating phrases.

The Apostle Paul emphasizes this in Romans 14 verse 9 where he says, for this in Christ died and rose and lived again that he might be Lord of both the living and the dead. In Philippians 2 9 we have the same idea Therefore God has also highly exalted him and given him the name which is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of those in heaven and of those on earth and of those under the earth and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. He is Lord. That means that the confession of the mouth and the desires of the heart are in harmony. And of course, there are many ways that a person can confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

There are many ways that a person can submit themselves to the authority of God. And I think, of course, it begins with the person who says, Lord, rule my life. Like that song says, take my life and let it be consecrated Lord to thee. Take my hands, let them move. Take my mouth, take everything.

It's that heart desire. You might utter it on your bed or when you're in your car you you want the authority and the lordship of Jesus Christ to confess Christ is not just to use words but it is to offer up the heart to God as a size a living sacrifice we know we confess the Lord Jesus Christ when we come together. Like, all morning long we've been confessing Jesus Christ with our mouths. My guess is most of you are confessing it with all your heart. And you loved the words of those songs you were confessing it wasn't you weren't just babbling mouthing the words you loved those words you were confessing that Jesus Christ is Lord You confess Him when you observe the Lord's Supper in a worthy manner.

You confess Him when you're baptized. You know what a joy it is to to hear baptismal testimonies as people go into the water. Baptism is a confession. Now it can be a false confession, but it certainly can be a true confession. We confess the Lord Jesus when we fellowship together and we're fellowshipping in spirit and in truth and and our we recognize that we are ministers with one another we're not we're not just hanging around We actually have a spiritual role to play in one another's lives.

We are confessing him when we are ministering to one another, when we are conversing about the word of God, comforting one another, encouraging one another. We're confessing in spirit and in truth when we fellowship that way. There's so many ways that we rightly confess. We confess when we're evangelizing. We're confessing when we operate our businesses according to the word of God.

And perhaps, hopefully, if we are conscious, we'll confess him at our death. And we'll praise God at our death, and confess Him as our Lord and Savior and our only hope in life and death. If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus. It's as easy as one, two, three. It can be.

If you let go. And then next, believe in your heart. So to confess with your mouth without Christ as Lord is to make a false confession But believing in your heart in the same way Without Completely trusting him is also to make a false profession. Verse 9, that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart That God has raised him from the dead you will be saved for with the mouth for with the heart one believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation for the scripture says whoever believes on him will not be put to shame. So he says, it says here that this confession of being raised from the dead, that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and that he has raised him from the dead.

What this means is that the belief is based upon a historical reality, that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead. This identifies Christ as the only name by which people might be saved. And This word belief is one of the central principles of the New Testament, mentioned almost 500 times alone in the New Testament. The Lord Jesus Christ, He explained what it meant to believe. You need to know what it means to believe.

This is not just an intellectual assent that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead. Anybody can believe that, but the Lord Jesus said this to many people who believed in him he said if you abide in my word you are my disciples indeed and you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free so this isn't just an intellectual belief this is an abiding an abiding devotion to the Word of God James tells us that even the demons believe. So just to believe in the gospel is not the kind of belief that he's speaking of here. James says, but someone will say you have faith and I have works. Show me your faith without your works and I will show you my faith by my works.

You believe that there is one God you do well. Even the demons believe and tremble. But do you want to know, Oh foolish man that faith without works is dead here's what this means the devil has all the right theology he believes that God is one He believes in a biblical doctrine of God. The demons are theists. The demons have a correct eschatology.

They know what's coming. The demons know about heaven and hell quite well. The demons are orthodox in their doctrine. The demons are afraid of judgment. The demons know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

So what James is saying is to have biblical faith is not just to believe the facts of the gospel because even the demons believe the facts of the gospel and there are many people who have demonic belief that Jesus Christ is God, that Jesus Christ is a sacrifice, and that Jesus Christ is coming again. The demons believe all that and it's so easy to be caught with a demonic belief and thrown into hell because you did not actually believe the way that the Bible teaches you to believe. Spurgeon, to make a profession without a possession is a cloud without rain, a riverbed choked with dry stones, a play actor. He says you are in the devil's you are in the devil's tinderbox. And so belief has more to do than complete trust than it does intellectual assent.

Than it does intellectual assent. This idea that a person can be saved by just confessing and believing in a surface level has sent more people to hell in our country and really all over the world. But true, true belief is belief that says that Christ is my master. Believing in Jesus and not obeying Him is what Satan does. You know, there's this old story.

I bet you I heard it 50 years ago and it's told. I'm sure, I'm sure many of you've heard this story, but I think it really fits to help particularly maybe children and older to understand what belief really is. There's a story of a tightrope walker in the 1850s. His name was Charles Blondin. And he would walk over Niagara Falls and he was famous in 1859 and 1860.

He would go over Niagara Falls on a tightrope blindfolded and then he would go over on stilts and then one time he went over and he carried a wheelbarrow across and he came back and the crowd you know was so elated and he would ask the audience if they believed that he could carry a person over on that wheelbarrow and of course the crowd said yes of course you know they rejoice they'd already see him do it and then and then Charles Blondin would ask for volunteers. Who would volunteer for such a thing? And you know this is you know you you use this to demonstrate the difference between belief that is simply intellectual assent and belief that trusts completely. And that's that's where the the lost person should trust the Lord Jesus Christ and let go. And trust Him with everything in their life.

Not just have intellectual assent. You know, you believe in Christmas, but actually you put your trust in Jesus Christ. That's what it means to believe. And then to call on the name of the Lord. You confess his lordship, you believe in your heart, and you call on the name of the Lord.

For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. This phrase, exact phrase is repeated six times in the New Testament. Whoever, all who wish to be saved, Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord. Jesus Christ died for everyone who would call on the name of the Lord. This does not contradict the sovereignty of God at all.

Both of them are true. You cannot reconcile them. God is sovereign in salvation and at some point in somebody's life God's gonna light up their heart and they're gonna call on the name of the Lord. This is a prayer of allegiance to the Lord. In Zephaniah 3, 9, it makes it clear that when you call upon him, it means that he changes your speech.

He actually reforms the way that you talk. Here's how it reads, for then I will restore to the people a pure language that they may call on the name of the Lord and serve him with one accord. It's actually a it's a prayer for deliverance. In Lamentations 3 55, Jeremiah says, I called on your name, O Lord, from the lowest pit. You have heard my voice.

Do not hide your ear from my sighing, from my cry for help. You drew me near on the day I called you and said, do not fear. Oh Lord, you have pleaded the case for my soul. You have redeemed my life. Jeremiah called on the name of the Lord.

It is a call on the name of the Lord. What it means to call is not just a simple cry of trouble, but it's to cry on a particular, cry for a particular person. It's a particular cry for the name of Jesus You're crying out for everything that Jesus Christ has everything that Jesus Christ is That's what it means to call on the name of the Lord and there where there is nothing held back. David said, I called upon the name of the Lord deliver my soul. This phrase, whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved, is a quote from Joel 2 and it appears in the Apostle Paul's sermon in Acts 2.

But whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. These are really wonderful words. To confess his lordship, to believe in your heart, and to call on the name of the Lord is the most wonderful thing that you can ever do in your life. And in some ways it is as easy as one, two, three, If you truly believe in your heart and confess and call upon the name of the Lord. He says this in verse 12, For the Lord is rich to all who call upon him.

The Lord hears the cry of the person who wants to be saved. And it really is true that a person must let go they must let go of the things They're hanging on to they must let go of the world They must let go of the think the things that they think are gonna bring them pleasure They must let go in order to receive the kingdom of God but the Lord is rich to all who call upon him. Would you pray with me? Lord, we are so thankful that you have sent your Son that whoever might believe on him would be saved. We are so thankful that you are so rich in your care for your people and I thank you for these people who have called upon your name and you are blessing them I can see it and for anyone is holding back oh Lord that you would help them to let go amen