[0:00] Good morning, everyone. My name is B.K. Smith, and I have the pleasure of being one of the pastors who has the blessing to serve here.
[0:12] We will be in a passage which is found in Romans chapter 10. But before we go there, let us pray to the Most High God. Dear Father, your victory, to be honest, has always been assured.
[0:29] We've always known it. You have been telling us. You've sent prophets. You've sent your Son. You've sent apostles who've raised up disciples who've continued to preach your word to us.
[0:44] Father, in a world that seems desperately lost and unable to understand this world, you are a beacon of light.
[0:56] You are the lighthouse in the storm. Father, your cross stands magnificently loud. It deafens the skeptics.
[1:11] It gives sight to the blind. And it gives us power, O Father, as believers in Jesus Christ, to know that the power of our faith is not found in ourselves, but it's found in you.
[1:30] You said you were the Son of God. When you rose into heaven, you sent a comforter, a helper, the Holy Spirit to indwell us, to empower us.
[1:42] We thank you for these things, O God. And as we get into this word, O Father, I pray that you will make my voice clear and understandable.
[1:53] Father, I give you praise for the family members and friends that are here that are just here to show their loved ones that they love them.
[2:05] But I pray that even in this, that there will be something in this sermon for them to relate to, to understand, to take away.
[2:15] Father, we thank you for all the good gifts that you have given us. And as Lynn has said, this grace. We ask these things in your most holy and precious name.
[2:27] Amen. Amen. Amen. As you know, there is many traditions that happen over the holidays, but one of the traditions that certainly gets spoken about is how we greet each other.
[2:41] And more emphatically, how we greet each other on Easter Sunday. It's a greeting that began with a cohort of Marys showing up to the tomb and wondering where Jesus was, only to find an angel sitting on a rock and simply state, He has risen.
[3:09] And since that time within the Christian faith, these three simple words commemorate the greatest event in history. He is risen.
[3:23] These three words commemorate an event that stands as the bedrock of the Christian faith. It is the event that is the pinnacle of divine revelation.
[3:35] It is the event that is the cornerstone of the Christian life. And it is the event that is the heartbeat of our hope. It is an event upon which all of Christianity hinges upon.
[3:54] The resurrection of Jesus Christ. This morning, I want us to turn our hearts and our minds and our souls to a passage that encapsulates the essence of the Christian message.
[4:10] It is a passage, when we first look at it, is profoundly simple, yet it contains some of the deepest mysteries of the Christian faith. It is a message that only can be true because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
[4:27] Let's pray. Allow me to read this morning's text to you, and you can read along with me here. Paul writes in Romans 10, beginning in verse 8, But what does it say?
[4:42] 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.
[5:02] For with the heart, one believes and is justified. And with the mouth, one confesses and is saved. This morning, I want to share with you four truths in this passage that only exist because of the resurrection.
[5:22] Four truths. The first truth, which is found in verse 8, which states the word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart. And that truth is, the gospel is always near us.
[5:37] The gospel is always near us. The phrase that Paul is using here is actually taken from Moses. Back in Deuteronomy 30, he was speaking about the law, and he was challenging the people of Israel.
[5:53] You do not have to go climb the highest heights of heaven or cross the furthest seas to find God or what he has said.
[6:05] He stated that the law of God is not far off. In this way, Paul is assuring his listeners that the gospel, this truth about God, is not some distant, unreachable idea.
[6:20] No, this gospel, the very word of faith we proclaim, is very near. The gospel is on our tongues as we confess it.
[6:33] And it's in our hearts as we believe it. This gospel is not only near, it's real. And it's as real as a loved one whispering in your ear a word that only you can hear.
[6:48] The fact of the matter is, there is no shortage of people in this world that seek after God. If you didn't know a little bit about my background, I had the pleasure of going to university at the University of Western Ontario in London.
[7:04] And I did something kind of strange. I started off in a phys ed degree, and they decided to make it more science-based. So I said, nuts to that. And I switched over to religious studies and philosophy.
[7:17] And what was interesting about the religious studies department is that it was unusual than every other department in the university. Because the average age of the student taking a religious studies degree was significantly older than every other degree.
[7:37] And when I had my other classes, I spent classes with 19, 20-year-olds, 21, 22. But when I switched over to the religious studies philosophy, I found students that were in their 30s, 40s, 50s, even 60s.
[7:53] And what was interesting is they weren't so much there to study religion, but they were really seeking after God. They wanted to find God.
[8:04] At some point in their life, they decided that they needed to understand God. And many of them thought that taking these university courses would help them.
[8:16] What was interesting is that everyone had a story, and they were quite interesting. Some of these people became my friends as I was just a young 20-year-old. But many of them had taken pilgrimages around the world, seeking out the one they wanted to go.
[8:31] Some had traveled to monasteries. Sacred sites. They had been to every type of place of religious and historical significance, both in the East and in the West.
[8:47] And from them I learned. And it was a truth that I have always understood. God is never far off. God has never made himself something that you have to search somewhere in the world to find.
[9:08] In fact, Jesus is not found in the remote. Jesus is found in the near. Jesus is not just found in the quietness of life, but Jesus is found in the messiness of life.
[9:25] It is my experience as a pastor that Jesus is more often found in our struggles than is in our joys. Jesus is found in our lives. That Jesus is found in our windfalls just as much as in our bankruptcies.
[9:41] Jesus can be found in the wonderfulness of marriage. And Jesus can be the found in the pain of our divorces. Jesus can be found in the highest peaks of our lives, but he can also be found in the lowest depths of our lives.
[10:01] What this means, what Paul is telling us, is that the means for encountering Jesus doesn't require a great pilgrimage or taking extraordinary measures.
[10:12] It begins with a simple, dare I say, profound acknowledgement that we need him.
[10:24] It's engaging with the scriptures, which are the word of God. We engage with them not as some ancient historical text or a rule book that is filled with do's and don'ts, but it's a book that affirms that it is Jesus Christ in this word that is the affirmation of who he is.
[10:49] It is truth. That Jesus Christ is a living word, speaks directly into every single circumstance of our lives.
[11:01] It's in the prayer whispered in the quiet morning over coffee and devotions or in the bold declaration of God's goodness in the face of a trial. Jesus is the word that is near you, my friends.
[11:17] He's as close as to the confession of your lips and the belief in your hearts. So the first truth I want you to understand as we speak about this person, Jesus, who we claim resurrected, that history affirms, is that Jesus isn't to be found solely in Israel.
[11:38] He is found right here in Squamish, B.C. The second truth that we understand because of the resurrection is that confession brings us close to Jesus.
[11:50] Confession brings us close to Jesus. Verse 9, 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.
[12:05] Paul here in this text cuts to the heart of the gospel and lays out for us the crux of our faith. It begins with confession.
[12:18] Confession. Now there's several parts to confession. And the first part I need you to understand is that Paul is not talking about the mere formality of having to make a one-time statement at the moment of conversion.
[12:35] What Paul is talking about here is a confession that is the ongoing posture of our lives. It is a declaration born out of an understanding that Jesus is not simply sovereign over all creation, but that Jesus Christ is sovereign over our lives as well.
[13:00] How often we want to forget that, right? If we were asked who is God, he's the creator of this world, he rules over this world, but there always seems to be some sense of hesitation when the question is, does God rule over our lives?
[13:21] You see, this confession is a declaration that Jesus is not simply near or present, but Jesus is still Lord in the pain as much as he is in the pleasure.
[13:38] It's a declaration that Jesus is Lord in the valleys and in the hardships of our lives. Jesus just isn't near us in the messiness, the struggles, the bankruptcies, the divorces, but Scripture affirms that Jesus is Lord over the messiness of our lives, over the struggles of our lives, over the bankruptcies of our lives, over the divorces of our lives.
[14:12] Jesus is as much Lord in the valleys as he is in the mountaintops. You see, the doctrine of Christ's Lordship is affirmed by his resurrection.
[14:24] And this demands a response, not just in our words, but how we think and how we live. It is a radical call.
[14:38] It is a radical call to discipleship, to a life that mirrors the humility in obedience of Christ himself. That's the first part of our confession.
[14:53] The second part of the confession, it goes along with this, but in the original Greek, this word carries a weight far beyond merely admitting something is true.
[15:03] It is a public declaration, dare I say, a bold proclamation. This declaration that we make that aligns us with God's declared truth.
[15:17] If you were with us on Good Friday, I read for you the text when Peter was asked by Jesus Christ in Matthew 16, who do you say that I am?
[15:31] Peter rightfully declared, you are the Christ. It's the martyrs of the early church as they were set aflame and hung upside down.
[15:46] They stated, Jesus is Lord. And it's us today in a world often hostile to the gospel.
[15:59] It is declaring the lordship of Jesus over our lives, our families, and our careers. In fact, every part of our existence. To be honest with you, I cannot think of a better time in history to declare the truth that Jesus is indeed Lord.
[16:19] My friends, we actually grow spiritually when we speak out our faith. Words today are even more important than yesterday because they're trying to make words more confusing and understandable.
[16:35] We live in such a world of lies. And there was this great article by a reporter. And the reporter, and I'm not trying to get into anti-government or pro-government kind of statement, but he said, during this COVID time, he said, the governments of this world were more responsible at any other time for more disinformation regarding a disease and how to save ourselves from this disease than any other entity that existed in the world.
[17:06] And he simply asked the question, why can't they confess this? why can't they just say, you know what? We got some of it wrong.
[17:20] Taking kids out of school was wrong. Mask really didn't work that well. He just simply asks, why can't we confess?
[17:35] You see, when we confess with our mouths that Jesus is Lord, we're not just stating a fact. We're actually aligning ourselves with the kingdom of God. When we confess with our mouths that Jesus is Lord, we're declaring allegiance to a king whose reign is characterized by truth, by grace, by justice, and unending love.
[18:03] Because of the resurrection, we know that Jesus is near. We know that the confession brings us to Jesus. And the third truth that we understand because of the resurrection, we receive Jesus by believing in our hearts.
[18:21] Verse 9 again, 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.
[18:31] Paul here couples the confession of our mouth with belief in our heart that God raised Jesus from the dead on the Easter Sunday that we celebrate today.
[18:46] This belief isn't just an intellectual ascent. It is a deep, abiding trust that is to transform our entire being. It is the kind of belief that shapes how we see the world, how we see ourselves, and how we see our God.
[19:06] It is a belief that is so profound that it moves us from spiritual death to spiritual life. It takes us from despair to hope.
[19:19] To believe in your heart means to trust fully and completely in the resurrection of Jesus as the definitive event that proves God's love and God's power.
[19:32] Amen? Amen? It's to stake your life not on just a historical fact of the resurrection, but on its implications for your personal salvation.
[19:48] Its implications for your daily living. And you find within it the implications for your eternal destiny. There's a very often used story, and excuse me if you've heard this story before, but there is a story that is used of a tightrope walker who strung a rope across Niagara Falls.
[20:12] After successfully walking across, he asked the gathered crowd if they believed he could carry a person across in a wheelbarrow.
[20:23] The crowd cheered. The crowd yelled, yes, yes. They affirmed their belief. But you all know the punchline. When he asked for a volunteer, there was none to be found.
[20:40] You see, it's one thing to believe in someone's ability to do something extraordinary. It's another to trust your life with it. You see, believing in the resurrection of Jesus with our heart is our spiritual act of getting in that wheelbarrow.
[20:59] It's not just cheering from the sidelines. It's entrusting our lives to the one who has defeated death itself. You are saved not because of your belief, but what your belief is based upon.
[21:17] It's the trust that doesn't acknowledge Jesus' lordship, but surrenders to it. It's letting it guide every thought, every decision, and every action.
[21:30] And the reason is, belief is never passive. Belief changes us. Belief compels us to live differently. Belief compels us to pursue holiness, to demonstrate compassion to the lost and the lonely.
[21:45] You see, the call of Christ is the call to demonstrate the kindness and patience that Jesus Christ shows us. And you know exactly what I'm talking about.
[21:57] It's the call to humility. It's a call that does not demand our rights over the rights of others. It's a call to humility that considers others greater than ourselves.
[22:14] Notice, it's to consider, it's not to treat others greater than ourselves, but Jesus Christ is actually calling us to consider others greater than ourselves.
[22:28] Not only that, it's the call to forgive others. Jesus Christ is the call of Christ. And get this, Jesus' love compels us to keep no record of wrongs.
[22:44] How good we are at forgiving, but we can count every time we've forgiven, can't we? When we get it like Jesus, there is no counting because we don't even notice.
[22:58] dare I say, it's a call to love one another and bear with one another through the valleys and the depths and the mountains of this life.
[23:11] So what does this belief look like for you this morning? I don't know, but maybe it's stepping out in your faith to follow a calling you've been resisting.
[23:28] Perhaps it's forgiving someone who's wronged you and it's trusting God will bring ultimate vindication. Perhaps it's no longer holding onto that memory of hurt that has brought you shame for so long.
[23:50] Or it might be simply resting in the assurance of God's love for you even when you don't feel worthy of God's love. Finally, this resurrection, this glorious day that we celebrate, gives us this fourth truth and it's a marvelous truth.
[24:17] It is the assurance of our salvation for those who believe. Verse 10, for with the heart one believes and is justified, that means made right with God, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
[24:40] Paul assures us in Romans that this confession with our mouths and believes in our hearts brings true salvation. It isn't a hopeful guess or a maybe. It is a certainty rooted in the power and the promise of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
[24:58] past. The assurance of salvation is the anchor for our souls. It is the bedrock upon which we stand when the winds of doubt and the waves of trial seek to toss us to and fro.
[25:15] If you've been with us through our study of Romans, it is why Paul is so able to say so confidently with every fiber of his being, I am not ashamed of the gospel.
[25:33] For it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. In a world filled with doubt and despair, the assurance of our salvation is a profound gift.
[25:52] And here's the thing I need you to think about. Our faith is not contingent on our performance. Our faith is not contingent on whether we have a good day or a bad day in the moral scoreboard of our lives.
[26:12] Our assurance is and always has and always will be based on the finished work of Christ, the one who lived a perfect life, who was without sin, who took on our sin, who rose again, conquered death, and offered us his life.
[26:42] If you're here and you want to know what a mature Christian is, mature Christian is not someone who doesn't have any doubts or doesn't struggle or even doesn't even question their salvation.
[26:58] A mature Christian is someone who understands because God has been driving it into them over time that their salvation is not based on the grip of God or their goodness, maturity, or religiosity, but it's based on God's grip on them.
[27:17] God, this is a mature Christian. Our assurance doesn't rest on our ability to hold on to faith, but it's on Christ's faithfulness to hold on to me.
[27:35] The assurance is what enables us to face life's hardest moments, not with despair, but with hope. hope. It's what allows us to grieve with hope when we face loss.
[27:49] It's what allows us to walk through trials with peace. It's what allows us to face our own mortality with a steadfast heart. For we know that in Christ death is not the end, but the doorway to eternal life with God.
[28:08] And this is because He has. risen. My friends, this assurance isn't meant to make us complacent or passive.
[28:22] This assurance is to be our gas. It's to motivate us in our mission and our passion. This assurance drives us to share this hope in a world that is so lost and desperate for it.
[28:36] Today, let's be honest, we live in a world that struggles to identify what a woman is. We live in a world that doesn't agree that two plus two equals four.
[28:49] And I don't say that to belittle anybody, but there's obvious, true confusion that exists today. But in Christ Jesus, there's this assurance of God's love that God was willing to place His only Son on the cross on Good Friday and raise Him from the dead on Easter Sunday.
[29:10] for if we are so assured of our salvation, how can we keep this news from the ones we love? So let me say to this, to you, perhaps here struggling with doubt, here that your salvation is secured not by your strong faith, but by a strong Savior.
[29:36] let me assure you that if you have confessed with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believed in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, then the promise of salvation is yours.
[29:54] And you are to stand firm in this assurance, letting it be the foundation for how you live out this faith.
[30:10] As we close this Easter sermon, let's remember what Paul teaches us in Romans 10. We've seen that the word of faith is always near us. It's in our mouths and it's in our hearts.
[30:25] We've been reminded of the power of confession that declaring Jesus as Lord with our mouth is an act of allegiance and worship. we've delved deep into the depth of belief recognizing that to believe in the resurrection of Jesus with our hearts is to trust Him with our entire being, our entire lives, with every decision, with every aspect of our future.
[30:50] I cannot say anything more other than our everything. thing. My prayer for you today is that you would let the resurrection of Jesus Christ be more than a historical fact for you.
[31:08] My prayer is you would let it be the foundation of your confession and the bedrock of your belief. And if you're here today and you've never made that confession, you've never placed that belief in your heart, then what's stopping you from letting you make today that day?
[31:34] There is no magic formula. There's no religious ritual that you need to do. There's no amount of things that you need to make up for.
[31:50] That salvation is simply confessing with your mouth. that Jesus is Lord. And believing in your heart that God raised him from the dead.
[32:04] This is it. This is where salvation begins. And I promise you, this is where life truly begins.
[32:16] Let us pray. Dear holy heavenly father, father, we know the story of your resurrection. We know the story of your death, but oftentimes we do not know enough of the story of how you changed lives.
[32:35] That you made doubters turn into radical believers that die defending the lordship of your name.
[32:46] father, you have made those that are brokenhearted become strong mountains of faith because they believed in your name.
[33:05] Father, we thank you for this simple truth that Paul boils down for us in Romans 10. We thank you for this Easter Sunday, this resurrection Sunday. for believers, perhaps it's a reminder for some of us that God is Lord in our trials, that God truly deserves everything.
[33:33] And here's the thing, God wants everything. God wants our broken marriages, our broken relationships, our broken finances, our broken sexuality, our broken thinking that it despairs and is anxious all the time.
[33:55] And sometimes we're almost so polite, Jesus, you don't want this. But he tells us in scriptures that his burden is light.
[34:06] Give me yours. Let me carry it for you. Father, on this Easter Sunday, I pray that this would be a resurrection of change, of change priorities, of change life.
[34:33] Perhaps for some, it'll even mean a changed destiny, a changed eternal destiny. God, you are our hope and our promise. And everything I said today is based on your words.
[34:48] These aren't my words, these are your words. And with that, I pray that your power reigns through the power of the Holy Spirit linked to your word in the lives here today.
[35:03] And all of God's people said, Amen. Amen.