Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 519
“For with the heart man believes unto righteousness. And with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” Romans 10:10.
EVERY star in Heaven yields its ray of light to cheer the mariner upon the watery waste. But there are leaders among that sparkling host—stars of the first magnitude—whose golden lamps are so dexterously hung, and trimmed with such excessive care that they offer way-marks to the wanderer by which he may be able to steer his vessel to the desired haven. So all the promises of Scripture are full of comfort. In their sphere, they glow and glisten with the warmth and light of love. But there are “bright particular stars,” even among these—promises, conspicuous as Orion, brilliant as the Pleiades, fixed as Arcturus with his sons.
Brethren, you know those soul-saving texts to which I refer, which are radiant with comfort, and have in them such a blessed combination of simple words, and comforting sentences that they guide multitudes of sinners to the port of peace in Jesus Christ. My text, I think, is one of these. At least, the doctrine which it teaches—that of salvation by faith—is the very polestar of the Gospel. And he who steers by it shall find the heavenly shore. Be not at all displeased that such a Truth of God should again be proclaimed in your hearing. The physician who is about to go abroad and knows that he shall not be able to procure more drugs, lays in a store of all the valued medicines in pharmacy—but he buys the largest stock of remedies for the more common diseases of the body.
And so, my Brothers and Sisters, we are bound in our ministry to preach upon all sorts of subjects. We ought not to bring out things old and old, but things new and old. Yet the preacher must dwell most upon that doctrine which is the most required and is most likely to heal the sin-sick soul. We believe that for every one converted under another doctrine, there have been ten brought to Christ by the simple preaching of salvation by faith. Although every Truth in Scripture is like a mesh of the great Gospel net, the great Truth of justification by faith makes up so many meshes that it constitutes the major part of the net and holds within its influence great multitudes of fishes.
God help us to cast this net today on the right side of the ship. While I let down the great dragnet, you take your share in the Gospel fishery, and pray that God may send the fishes into it. And may His name be praised this day both in Heaven and on earth. The text very simply divides itself into two parts. Faith and confession. The two are joined together, let no man put them asunder. “With the heart man believes unto righteousness. And with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
Three things on each of these topics. First, upon faith. We have here set before us, either in the text, or in the context, the Object of faith, the nature of faith, and its result.
I. THE OBJECT OF FAITH is clearly mentioned in the context. The preceding verse runs thus—“That if you shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved.” It is evident, then, that Jesus Christ, dead and risen, is the foundation of faith.
The Object of faith is probably the most important subject of our contemplation. I believe there are many who think too much of their faith and too little of the object of it. For many a weary month they are questioning whether they have the right sort of faith—whereas they would do a great deal better if they looked to see whether their faith rested upon a right foundation. For after all, while faith is important, the foundation of that faith is all-important, and we must look most to that.
Now, soul-saving faith rests, according to a thousand places in Scripture, upon Christ—upon Christ in all His Characters, works, and offices. Faith, first of all, rests upon Christ, as incarnate. What was sung by angels becomes the song of the poor depressed spirit. Jesus, the Son of God, was born in Bethlehem’s manger—God was made flesh and dwelt among us. Faith believes this great mystery of godliness—God manifest in the flesh—believes that He, by whom the heavens were framed, and without whom was not anything made that was made, did for us men and for our salvation, come down from Heaven to tabernacle in the virgin’s womb.
Faith so believes this as to draw comfort from it. For, says Faith, “If God thus became Man that He might come into nearness with our nature, this deed of love attracts me, gives me confidence toward God, and bids me approach the Lord with boldness, inasmuch as God comes to me.”—
“Till God in human flesh I see, My thoughts no comfort find. The holy, just and sacred Three Are terrors to my mind. But if Immanuel’s face appears, My hope, my joy, begins— His name forbids my slavish fear, His Grace removes my sins.”