7/21/24 “Believe. Confess. Receive.”
“Believe. Confess. Receive.”
Romans 10:1-21
(Play ‘Count of Monte Cristo’ Clip)
What you just saw was a clip from one of my favorite movies called “The Count of Monte Cristo.”
The old man who crawled up through the floor was a retired priest who had been locked away for 11 years in an old French prison called the “Chateau D’if”
The startled man whose cell was ‘invaded’ by the priest – his name was Edmund Dontes – the protagonist (hero) of the movie.
For 5 long years, the priest had been laboriously digging a tunnel away from his cell, all the while believing that he was digging toward the outside of the prison - toward freedom…
But, unfortunately for him, he had been digging in the wrong direction…
He was digging back underneath the prison, and rather than gaining his freedom – he ended up in no better shape than when he had begun.
This situation involving the Priest and his misguided attempt to find deliverance from physical bondage….
…perfectly illustrates the way in which Paul describes his fellow Israelites – and their attempt to “dig” their way out from under the curse of the law…
The Israelites were trying to work their way toward spiritual deliverance……. just as the Priest was trying to work his way toward physical deliverance.
In both cases, however, deliverance was never attained through the work of man.
Paul begins chapter 10 in much the same way that he began chapter 9…
He starts by expressing his heartfelt sorrow and anguish over how his fellow Israelites had rejected the message of righteousness through Christ – In favor of attempting to obtain righteousness through their own efforts.
In verse 2 (Romans 10:2) of our passage for today, Paul describes his fellow Jews as a ’Zealous’ people…
The word “Zealous” basically means to display a great deal of passion and enthusiasm toward a particular cause or objective.
For instance, you might say that I am a zealous about my ‘Team Scoopy’ kid’s meal custard coupons! 😊
The Israelites were zealous for God, but Paul explains that their ‘zeal was not based on knowledge.’
Verse 3 (Romans 10:3) reveals their ignorance.
Rather than understanding that righteousness comes by faith, they were living in such a way as to “Establish their own righteousness” before God through their meritorious system of obedience to tradition and self-made regulations.
Just as the Priest from ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’ was working under an erroneous understanding as to the location of the outer wall of the prison….
…So also the Israelites were working under an erroneous understanding of what God actually required of them for salvation.
The Jews had an intellectual awareness of the outward demands of God’s law, but they did not have the discerning spiritual knowledge that comes only from a saving relationship to God.
As John MacArthur puts it: “They (Describing the Israelites) had the kind of superficial religious knowledge that causes pride and arrogance.”
Just as we see today, adherents to every world religion other than Christianity live under the faulty assumption that their good deeds will – like a bank account - somehow accrue to the point where God will be compelled to grant them salvation.
But unfortunately, when man relies upon his own works to obtain a level of righteousness with God….it only results in toxic self-righteousness, self-pride, and self-adulation.
In 1 Corinthians 8:1-2, Paul says, “…Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know. But the man who loves God is known by God.”
Godly knowledge is understanding the fact that our own works are but “filthy rags” in the sight of God…
One of Israel’s biggest blunders was that the people were ignorant of God’s infinite righteousness…
Through their own self-righteousness and pride, they had brought God’s holiness and purity down to their own sinful level.
…and by doing this, they created an unbiblical view of God that saw Him as becoming more and more tolerant of sin as each generation progressed.
This is one of the principle reasons why many Jews rejected the message of repentance proclaimed by both John the Baptist…and Jesus.
They simply assumed that by being a descendant of Abraham & the patriarchs
– and through works done in accordance with the law – they were already righteous, with no need for this repentance spoken of by John & Jesus.
…This, of course, led to a great deal of arrogance & pride.
The Israelites obviously didn’t listen to the prophet Jeremiah when he said these words: “This is what the Lord says: ‘Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom, or the strong man boast of his strength, or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight’, declares the Lord.” …….(Jeremiah 9:23-24)
Scripture clearly tells us that the only way man may be made righteous before God – and therefore obtain salvation - is through the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ..
…And this righteousness only comes by way of the cross…through the sacrificial atonement of Christ…by his cleansing blood.
It is to this topic of salvation that Paul turns next in Romans chapter 10.
Verses 9-13 are some of the most important verses in all of scripture…those of you who underline - or highlight - your bibles…you know what to do!
A prominent pastor was once given this scenario…he was asked: “If you were only allowed to only speak one verse – just one verse – of the bible to anyone you would meet for the rest of your life…what verse would it be?”
Many of us would probably say John 3:16...and that’s certainly not a bad choice.
Well, the pastor responded by saying this: “Without a doubt, I would choose Romans chapter 10, verse 9”…”I believe that it encapsulates the entire process of salvation in a way that no other verse does.”
Romans 10:9 says this: “That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”
If someone possessed just this one 26-word-bible-verse containing the essence of the gospel message….and they had no other passages of scripture at their disposal…
…They would have enough information to go from unsaved to saved….from unbeliever to believer…
…from being a sinner apart from God & destined for hell, to being a redeemed sinner adopted into God’s family and saved by grace.
Have you ever heard of ‘Reverse-Engineering’?
Reverse Engineering is the process of taking a fully functional machine, or product of some kind, and disassembling it in order to learn about its individual components.
This often happens in times of war when one country captures a technologically advanced weapon from their enemy…
They take it apart to better understand its functionality…AND, in many instances, to build something very similar.
For example, awhile back, Iran was able to recover a US drone that had been flying above their airspace.
Since that time, I’m sure they’ve been attempting to do some Reverse-Engineering to better understand how its highly technological parts make it work.
Let’s do some reverse-engineering on Romans 10:9…And we’ll toss in Romans 10:10 as well, since verse 10 is essentially a summary of verse 9.
The first thing Paul talks about is confession.
Some of you were raised in a particular denomination that refers to confession as checking yourself into a very tiny booth where you would be expected to spill all of your recent sins to a shrouded priest who would be listening from another tiny booth right next to you.
This is NOT what Paul has in mind here when he speaks of confession.
The Greek word in this verse for confession (Homologeo) literally means “To be in agreement with someone, or to speak the same thing.”
Confession, as Paul is using it here, means that you verbally agree that Jesus Christ is Lord of your life…
you are agreeing with the message of the gospel as it pertains to your own life.
Confession also involves the essential components of trust and submission.
Trust goes beyond just cognitive assent….
Trust means that you not only agree with a statement of fact, but that you also act upon that declaration of agreement.
Does anyone recognize the name ‘Charles Blondin’…also known as ‘The Great Blondin’?....
‘The Great Blondin’ was a French tightrope walker who became famous back in the 1859 for crossing Niagara Falls on a tightrope.
He not only walked across once, but he did it multiple times – each time making it more difficult than the last.
He would walk blindfolded…he would walk across on stilts…he balanced himself on a chair…
He even pushed a wheelbarrow loaded with bricks across the 1,100’ span.
Before he took off with the wheelbarrow, he asked the large crowd “How many of you trust that I can safely push this wheelbarrow to the other side and back?”
And the crowd all clamored “Yes! We trust that you can do it!” We have No Doubt in your amazing ability!!!”
Well, the Great Blondin and his wheelbarrow of bricks easily traversed the span…in fact, he went back & forth a few times.
When he returned for the final time, he once again asked the crowd “Do you trust in my abilities!?!?”
The crowd shouted “Yes, we trust in your amazing ability!!!”
So, what old Chuck did next was very interesting.
The Great Blondin took the bricks out of his wheelbarrow and then said to the crowd “Now then, how many of you trust that I can safely carry a human being in my wheelbarrow to the other side and back?”
The crowd loudly applauded, yelling: “Yes, we believe that you can safely carry a human being across in your wheelbarrow!”
The Great Blondin proceeded to say: “Who – then - will be my first volunteer?”
Not. One. Person. Raised. Their. Hand.
A few seconds ago, they were all proclaiming their absolute trust in the amazing skills of the Great Blondin…
But, for some reason, their attitude changed when it became personal to each of them.
It was all fun & games up until they were asked to submit themselves to an element of danger…then, their proclaimed trust was nowhere to be found.
Folks, your confession of trust in Jesus Christ will - at times - require you to get in the spiritual wheelbarrow!
Genuine faith will involve moments in your life when you will not be comfortable.
There will be many times when God will ask you to volunteer for Him – and the question is – will you raise your hand and say: “Here I am, I’ll do it!”
…or will you remain safely on shore, waiting for someone else to accept the challenge?
We see the Prophet Isaiah exemplify genuine trust when God asks him to accept a difficult mission.
Isaiah says “Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I. Send Me!” (Isaiah 6:8)
Isaiah wasn’t afraid to get into the wheelbarrow.
Isaiah’s confession was genuine - full of trust and submission.
Our confession in the Lordship of Jesus Christ needs to be full of trust and submission as well.
Paul not only talks about confession in verse 9 (Romans 10:9) but he also says this: “….and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead…”
The first thing to establish concerning belief is that belief is much more than mere intellectual assent, or cognitive agreement.
Belief must involve a submission of the heart in order for it to be genuine.
Too often people hear the message “believe and be saved” …
And they think: “well, if I just accept the historical fact that Jesus was a real man who taught good things to people, then he died on a cross…
Maybe he even rose from the grave and ascended back to heaven….if I simply believe the truthfulness of these facts – I’ll be saved…I’ll be good to go for eternity.”
Folks, this is NOT genuine, biblical belief!
True belief in Jesus (True faith) goes far beyond the cognitive – it must also involve a transformed heart that produces the observable fruit of obedience.
Remember the sobering words that James says in chapter 2 of his epistle concerning the problem of superficial belief?
He says: “But someone will say, ‘you have faith; I have deeds.’ Show me your faith without deeds and I will show you my faith by what I do. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that – and shudder.” (James 2:18-19)
Satan and his legions of demon all believe the empirical facts about the person and nature of Jesus!...yet they have never (and they will never) submit themselves to him in genuine belief.
Brothers and sisters, I’m afraid there are FAR too many professed Christians who are in the same boat!
It’s easy to believe in the factual evidence surrounding Jesus, but it is something far different – and far greater – to completely submit your life to him on the basis of those facts.
To make him Lord of your desires, Lord of your wants, Lord of your attitude, Lord of your tongue, Lord of your emotions, Lord of your LIFE.
Last week at Expeditions, one of the campers was telling me about their rock-climbing experience they had earlier in the day.
They told me that they believed the harness was built well enough to hold their entire body weight…
But when the staff member secured the harness to their body and told them to begin repelling down the rock….
That’s when a completely different level of belief was needed in order to go through with the activity!
Some of you might know the story of John Patton, a Scottish missionary to the New Hebrides Islands (Now called Vanuatu) in the South Pacific.
Since the natives had a penchant for cannibalism, it was a relatively dangerous environment for the missionary from Scotland.
John Patton began the daunting task of translating the gospel of John into the native language of those on the island, but he ran into a problem…
There was no word for ‘Believe’ in the language of the people that conveyed anything beyond a cognitive understanding of the facts.
Finally, one afternoon, the member of the tribe who was assisting John with the bible translation process came into John’s tent exhausted from working.
The man – in desperate need of rest – threw himself down in a chair across from where John was sitting.
John picked up on this and said to the man “What is the term for what you just did?”
The man responded with a word that meant “Sit” ….
John said, No – you were exhausted and desperately needed the stability of that chair…what do you call that?
The man told John a word that conveyed the idea of throwing one’s entire weight on something to help support them.
This was the word John was looking for.
So, to this day, in the Vanuatu language, Romans 10:9 reads something like this “That if you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and place your whole weight upon the fact that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”
Isn’t that a beautiful way of conveying a genuine, dependent, belief in Jesus?
Paul wraps us verse 9 (Romans 10:9) with a promise from God.
If you truly confess through trusting and agreeing that Jesus is Lord…
And if you genuinely believe in full dependence upon the name of Jesus…
…You will be saved.
What an amazing promise! What an amazing God we serve…Amen!
In verse 10 (Romans 10:10) Paul restates the truths of verse 9 in more of a chronological order in the process of salvation.
When we come to Jesus, the first step is to believe…and – because of that authentic belief - we are justified before God because of that genuine belief.
Then, we confess out loud that we have fully submitted our lives to Jesus Christ.
In accepting this wonderful gift offered to you through the work of Jesus on the cross, you can be delivered from sin, death, pain, sorrow, injustice, and every form of ungodliness for all eternity.
If you have not yet fully confessed – fully believed – in Jesus…do it today!
Don’t wait another minute…you & I don’t know what tomorrow may bring.
Like the man Jesus taught about who stored up treasure for himself and pridefully proclaimed that he would simply take it easy for many years…his life was taken from him that night before coming to a true belief and confession of faith in God.
Please, please, don’t let that be you.
Come to Jesus today…climb into His spiritual wheelbarrow – and allow Him to safely guide you throughout the rest of your life.
Then, when you reach the other side of this life – Jesus will continue to escort you into eternity with Him.
Let’s Pray.