It is a cause for great thanksgiving to hear a prayer so full of the true Gospel, for you have set forth the very way of salvation as the Apostle Paul declares it. 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.
This is the order which God has appointed, faith first and confession following. The result of faith and confession is salvation, and salvation is of the Lord. It was His in the planning, His in the providing, and His in the applying. None but Himself could have devised it in infinite wisdom, and none but Christ could have wrought it upon the cross. We have nothing to pay, no price to bring, for salvation is freely given to us in Christ Jesus. The Gospel says, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. It invites you as much as if there were not another person in the world.
Take care that you understand what this faith and confession must be. Sincere faith in God must treat all His Word alike, and the faith which saves the soul shows itself in obedience to the precepts which He lays down and in forsaking the habits which He condemns. To believe with the heart is to trust Christ alone to save you, with the consciousness of being lost in yourself and found in Him, leaving your soul in His hands. Such faith is not a mere historical belief in a past transaction, but a living trust wrought in the heart by the Spirit of God. The new born life runs instinctively to grace and lives by faith, and simple faith is always the work of the Spirit who points us always to Jesus.
And with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. It is the duty of each Christian to confess his clear faith in Christ, and to do so early in his Christian career and openly before his fellow men. We are not only believers in Jesus when we meet at the Communion Table or at a Prayer Meeting, but we are believers in Jesus out of doors, at our work, in our business, and in our daily occupation. In confessing Christ we must confess all His words as well as Himself, calling ourselves by His name and taking up our position with the people of God without shame. When there are few coming forward, it is the more needful that you take up your cross and follow Christ decidedly and openly.
You have spoken rightly also that we must confess and turn from our sins. Faith which believes in Christ delivers from pride and self conceit, and that faith which is true will beget a holy fear and obedience. At the back of everything must be faith in God, and that faith will produce a practical, work day obedience in the daily bread, in the house, and in the trade and business of life.
Your counsel to read and study Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and to begin in the book of John, is most wise. There you will see the person of Jesus Christ revealed, that you may know Him whom you are to trust and obey. Go to that Gospel with prayer that the Holy Spirit, who bears witness to Christ, would establish you in confidence in the righteousness of Christ and make your faith more simple and childlike.
Let us pray together for all who are looking for salvation even now. O Lord our God, look in mercy upon every seeking soul. Give them faith to believe in their heart that Jesus is Lord and that Thou didst raise Him from the dead. Grant them courage with the mouth to confess Him before men, not having confidence in the flesh but rejoicing in Christ Jesus. Work in them by Thy Spirit a true turning from sin and a sincere following and obeying of Thy Son. Lead them into Thy Word, especially into the testimony of John, that they may behold Thy Son and find in Him Thy salvation, for salvation belongeth unto Thee. Bring them into the full assurance that Thou wilt perfect that which concerneth them, and keep them by Thy mercy from presumption and from despair, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
