From the MLJ Archive

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: We're dealing at the moment with the subsection in the tenth chapter of Paul's Epistle to the Romans, which runs from verse 5 to verse 10. Let me read them again to you.

"For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, that the man which doeth those things shall live by them. But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise: Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:) Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.) But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation."

Now, you remember that last Friday night we began our consideration of this subsection. I emphasized then the importance of bearing the context in mind, and it's still important that we should do that. He's still dealing with this whole question as to why the Jews, of all people, should be outside the kingdom of God, whereas the Gentiles, whom the Jews had always regarded as outsiders, were actually to be found in the kingdom of God as the result of believing the Gospel.

The Apostle is here dealing with the cause of that. It's all due to the fact that they'd misunderstood the function and the meaning and the purpose of the law. They'd misunderstood, therefore, the true way of salvation. They were ignorant. They have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. They, being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth.

But now the Apostle wants to deal with this thing finally. You see his method. He's not content merely with throwing out statements. He wants to drive them home. The Apostle was a preacher, and the business of a preacher is to get his point home. That's why he must repeat himself and go on repeating himself.

I am reminded of the story of an old preacher who had been preaching the same sermon on many occasions. A young man who had heard this sermon five or six times went to him on one occasion and said, "You know, I've heard you preach that sermon five or six times before." "Well, what about it?" said the old man. "Well," he said, "I'm just beginning to wonder." "Now, my friend," said the old preacher, "Have you put it into practice yet?" And as the young man couldn't say with confidence that he had, "Well," said the old preacher, "I shall go on preaching it to you."

That is the very essence of preaching. These things are not to be considered intellectually. These things are to be applied. The business of the preacher is to make these things plain and clear and unmistakable. The Apostle, of course, was so concerned about his fellow countrymen. He's been saying that at the beginning of this chapter as he'd said at the beginning of chapter nine. He's in distress about them. The thing's so plain to him. How is it that they can't see it?

So he keeps on saying it. Now he puts it in a new way. He says, look here, the thing is a tragedy. So he dramatizes the two main ways in which men think about salvation. The trouble with the Jew was that he thinks of it in terms of keeping the law as given through Moses. The contrast is this other way, the Gospel way, the way of faith. It's always justification by works or justification by faith.

The Apostle here puts this whole business up for the last time, as it were, and he does it in this way. He dramatizes it and he personalizes it. He says, listen, this is what justification by works really says. This is really what justification by the law has got to say to you. Then he says, "But the righteousness which is of faith," justification by faith, speaks like this. So he puts up two speakers, two preachers, and he says, how can you possibly go astray if you realize what these two preachers are really saying to you?

Now, we considered the first preacher last Friday night, the preacher of the law. "Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law" in this way: "That the man which doeth those things shall live by them." We saw what that meant. It means this: that if you once realize what the law does ask of you, you'll very soon realize that it's something you can never do.

The law was never meant to save. "By the law is the knowledge of sin." It condemns. It was brought in to condemn. If you can keep this, says the law, you'll save yourself. Yes, but what an "if." So you start considering what you're asked to do, and then you'll soon see, if you're honest, that it simply cannot be done. It is impossible. "By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight." He's already said that in the third chapter in the twentieth verse.

Now then, there's the first preacher, and he leaves us in a state of complete hopelessness, absolute helplessness. If people who think that they can make themselves Christian but realized what they've got to do in order to make themselves Christian, they'd never say it again. The trouble with them is that they put up their own little standard. They've never considered God's standard. That is what makes people who think that their good lives are sufficient so unintelligent, apart from anything else.

Once they realize what God asks them to do, they will soon realize that they can't do it. That was the experience of Martin Luther, whose hymn we've just been singing, before his eyes were opened to the truth. It was a way of despair, of hopelessness. It's a way of death. The Apostle has already called it in the second verse of the eighth chapter "the law of sin and of death." Hopeless.

Thank God we can listen to the second preacher. "But," he says, and thank God for this "but," this contrast, "the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise." Listen, he says, to this second preacher. Having been rendered utterly hopeless by the first, listen to the second. Listen to what he has got to say to you. He states the case once more for justification by faith only.

Now, he means by "the righteousness which is of faith" this, of course: the righteousness which is based upon faith, or the righteousness which results from faith, or if you like, still better, the way of obtaining righteousness by faith. That's what he really means.

Now, the form of words which the Apostle uses here have often caused a great deal of difficulty. They're not easy. That's quite true. They're not easy. And yet, I think that if we take them in their context, they're not as difficult as some of the commentators tend to make out. They're a bit difficult simply because of the way in which the Apostle puts the statement of this second preacher. He's personalizing the way of righteousness which is by faith and says, "This is what he says."

The difficulty is due to this. The Apostle clearly here had in his mind the words we read at the beginning from Deuteronomy 30, verses 11 to 14 in particular. But it's equally obvious that he isn't making an exact quotation. The difficulties arise because people think that he is making an exact quotation or misunderstand his object in doing so.

What then is he saying? Well, people have gone astray because they've omitted to notice the point I've just been making. They have said that what the Apostle is doing here is to say this: Now, Moses in the statement of Leviticus 18:5 tells us about the way of righteousness by the law, whereas Moses in Deuteronomy 30:11-14 is giving us a description of the way of righteousness by faith. So that Moses has made the two statements, and he has contrasted the one with the other.

I'm referring to this for this reason, that many commentators have said that, and amongst them, John Calvin. So we can't dismiss this kind of thing as an aside. It is worthy of our respectful consideration. But I want to suggest that it is an entirely wrong and false exposition. I do so for two main reasons.

One is, as I say, the very form of words. If the Apostle were still quoting Moses and Moses's opinion as to the way of righteousness, he would have said so. Moses says this; Moses also says that. He doesn't do that. Moses says this; the way of righteousness by faith says that. That's one reason.

And the second is this, that as our reading of that chapter must have shown us very plainly just now, what Moses is talking about in Deuteronomy 30 is still the law, and he's talking about keeping the law. Moses in Deuteronomy 30 is really saying exactly the same thing as he said in Leviticus 18:5. Exactly the same thing. You notice the emphasis upon the doing and what happens if you don't do. He even says explicitly that he is talking about the law which has been given.

Therefore, I cannot accept this suggestion and explanation that's put forward, that what the Apostle is doing here is quoting Moses's opinion with regard to the two ways. Well then, what is he doing? What is the Apostle doing here? Why does he refer to these words in Deuteronomy 30 at all? It seems to me the explanation must be this, and it is the explanation that has been adopted by many other commentators throughout the centuries.

The Apostle is borrowing the words of Moses in order to present us with a statement of the way of justification or righteousness by faith. What he's doing, in other words, is this. He's got this idea, he knows what he wants to say, and he thinks of these words that were used by Moses there in Deuteronomy 30. He says, now this puts the thing very perfectly. So he quotes the words. He doesn't even quote them exactly. There is a variation. But he uses them in order to convey his teaching and the point that he's anxious to make.

This is something that the Apostle does quite often. I suggest that he does very much the same thing in verses 18 and 19 of this same chapter. "But I say, Have they not heard? Yes verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world. But I say, Did not Israel know? First Moses saith, I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people, and by a foolish nation I will anger you."

This is something which most preachers do from time to time. It's something that we do quite apart from religious truth altogether. A man may be anxious to make a point, and as he's speaking, he suddenly remembers something that Shakespeare said. So he makes his point not by using his own words but by quoting Shakespeare, because the form of words and of expression used by Shakespeare in that particular case, which may not be absolutely relevant to his point, conveys this idea. Now, that is what I'm suggesting to you that the Apostle is doing on this occasion.

What then is he anxious to say? Well, this is what he's saying. What was the main object of the words as used by Moses, especially in those verses 11 to 14? "Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? or Who shall descend into the deep?" and so on. Well, it's perfectly clear, read the chapter again for yourselves when you get home, that that is just Moses's way of bringing out very forcibly this point.

He's addressing the children of Israel at the end of his life. It is the Deuteronomy, the second giving, as it were, of the law. He's now at the end of his address and he's driving the point home. If you remember how he finally ends by saying, "See, I have set before you this day these two ways: life and death, the two possibilities."

Then he says, and this is the point made here, he says, now you can't say that you didn't know. You can't say that God is unfair or that you're being left in a position with something extremely difficult that you are left to find out. He says, it isn't like that. The thing has been put before you so plainly and so clearly. "The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth." It's there. It's obvious. It's right in front of you, so that you've got no excuse at all. You can't say that you didn't know what you were being called upon to do.

Now, that is the exact object of Moses as he used these particular words. He says, it's no use you saying you don't know. The thing is there, staring you in the face. It's right with you, in your mouth and in your heart, as it were. It can't be nearer than that.

Now then, what the Apostle does, I'm suggesting, is to take up that idea. He says now then, the righteousness which is of faith has this characteristic, that it's there right with you, right before you, perfectly plain and clear. Now, that is what the Apostle is conveying as his teaching at this point, and I want to work this out with you.

Now, you notice the slight variation in the language used. The Apostle doesn't say, "Who shall go over the sea?" as you have in Deuteronomy 30. He says, "Who shall descend into the deep?" But of course it makes no difference. The sea is deep. The sea was regarded as unfathomable. Its great depth. The whole notion of the sea became almost synonymous with the idea of depth. Then the idea of depth, in turn, carried the whole notion of hell, the depth of hell, the abyss.

So the Apostle just takes the language and modifies it to that extent in order to bring out the thing he's anxious to bring out. Instead of talking about crossing the sea, he talks about going down to Hades, as it were, in order to bring Christ up again from the dead. But that doesn't make the slightest difference. Indeed, it enforces the exposition which I'm giving you. The Apostle is taking the language, using it in a very general sense to convey just this one big point.

What is it? Very well. The thing he's anxious to do is to show the contrast between this way of righteousness by faith with that other attempt to get righteousness by means of the law. The trouble with that was that it was not only extremely difficult, but it was impossible. What does he say about this? "But," he says, here's a contrast, "the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise." It's not like that. Well, what does it say? Well, it says look here, don't begin to say in your heart, "Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:) or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.)" But what saith it? And on he goes.

Now, you notice that these words, "that is, to bring Christ down from above" and "that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead," are in brackets. That is where people have got into difficulty. You see, the Apostle is really anxious to state the Gospel. Therefore he borrows this pictorial language from Moses and from the book of Deuteronomy, but he makes it clear that what he is really talking about is the Christian Gospel. So we shouldn't have been misled by that into attributing the whole thing to Moses. Paul, by putting this exposition of what he's saying in terms of our Lord, is clearly saying, it isn't Moses who's speaking now. I'm borrowing his language to show you what the preaching of the Gospel says.

Very well, what does it say? Well, the first thing is this, and these are the things for which we should thank God. There is no difficulty about knowing what the way of salvation is. Nobody has any excuse today of saying that he doesn't know what the way of salvation is. Why not? Well, because it's been made perfectly plain and clear. Or to put it like this, there is no need to investigate. There's no need to set out on a voyage of discovery or some great quest. It's all here. There's no need to do that.

Now, you see the importance of all this. It was important then, it is important now, it's always been important. There are many people today who think that the Christian is one who's set out in a great quest for truth and for reality. There are many who think that that is Christianity.

I remember reading a book by a well-known author, an American author, a famous Quaker. He took this view, of course; it's typical of the Quaker teaching. He said if somebody came to me and offered me in the one hand the thrill and the excitement and the pleasure of the quest for truth, and in the other hand, truth itself and the knowledge of truth, he said I would without any hesitation choose the first. The search for reality, the search for truth. What's a Christian? He's a man who's seeking and searching after the truth.

How many regard that as Christianity? Well, here's the lie direct to it. Don't say that. There's no need to. You needn't start off with your heroics, climbing into the heavens, going down into the deep to find truth. There's no need to. That's what he's saying.

You see how important this is today. Some of the most popular books today are the books which say we've got to have a new truth for this century. Men in the atomic age, scientific men, grown up, come of age, we've got to set out to discover truth, the truth that's adequate for men today. The answer is, say not in thine heart, "who." There's no need for you to do anything. It's all here. It's all available. That's what he's saying.

There's no difficulty. We are not, as Christians here, to exhort one another to seek and to search for the way of salvation and of truth. There's no need to. There's no need for you to search at all. There's a revelation been given. It isn't a quest, it isn't a voyage of discovery, it isn't research. It's here. It's given. That's the first thing.

But then, a second thing. He rejoices in the fact that the way of salvation is not impossible. The other was impossible. The moment you realize, as I say, what it asks of you, you realize you can't do it. It's an utterly impossible way. But this is not an impossible way, and he puts it in this extraordinary manner. If you and I had to go up into the heavens in order to get it, well then it would be impossible. If we had to go down into the abyss to bring it up, it would again be impossible. But he says you mustn't say that. There's no need to. It is not impossible, in other words.

That's what he says. And of course, this language that was used by Moses is most appropriate to bring out this notion. Because there are people who really do make the Christian salvation impossible by saying that you've got to go up or down. These are the very terms they're using today in a most interesting manner. You see, the Bible's always contemporary and up to date. God is depth, we are told. And the man who's discovered depth in himself discovers God. That's the very thing we are told here that you mustn't be doing. No, no, you needn't move from where you are. It's not impossible.

What is not impossible? Well, it's this. There is no need, as I say, for man to feel that he's got to now set out in this great endeavor. The truth is always there somewhere in the distance. There's no need for that. The thing is not impossible.

Now, the Apostle has already said this, "they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about," you remember. You remember how we interpreted that. All this going about, this tremendous effort here and there, and a number of parties searching in different directions, and then you try and get all the data together and collate them to see if you can find some sort of solution. It's all put out. It's a denial of Christianity. It's all wrong. The very attempt is already a proof that the man hasn't understood the Gospel.

Or perhaps there's a wonderful illustration of all this thing that I'm trying to say, and that the Apostle is saying here, to be found in the book of Job. That great chapter on the search for wisdom in the 28th chapter of the book of Job. It puts it all very plainly, and you remember how he goes through it all. I'm not going to read it all; it's too long. Read it for yourselves when you go home.

"Where shall wisdom be found? and where is the place of understanding? Man knoweth not the price thereof; neither is it found in the land of the living. The depth saith, It is not in me: and the sea saith, It is not with me. It cannot be gotten for gold, neither shall silver be weighed for the price thereof. It cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx, or the sapphire. The gold and the crystal cannot equal it: and the exchange of it shall not be jewels of fine gold. No mention shall be made of coral, or of pearls: for the price of wisdom is above rubies."

And on he goes. "Whence then cometh wisdom? and where is the place of understanding? seeing it is hid from the eyes of all living, and kept close from the fowls of the air. Destruction and death say, We have heard the fame thereof with our ears. God understandeth the way thereof, and he knoweth the place thereof. For he looketh to the ends of the earth, and seeth under the whole heaven."

And so on. And then he ends, "And unto man he said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding." You see, you've set out in this great quest to search for wisdom, and you needn't have moved. The thing is essentially simple: the fear of the Lord. That's all you've got to do, then you'll be given it.

Now, this is very much the same idea. It's not something that you and I have to search for, to try and find it. It is not impossible for us to do.

And thirdly, the way of salvation demands no effort on our part because it is provided by the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, he puts this, you see, at the end of verse 8. "That is, the word of faith, which we preach." And then he goes on to elaborate that as we shall see in verses 9 and 10. "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation."

So I put this as a principle in this way. The way of salvation, thank God, says the Apostle, but listen to this, this is what it says. You don't have to indulge in these heroics either mentally or in your works and your behavior and conduct. Why? Well, because it is all provided by the Lord Jesus Christ.

So we can put it like this. We don't have to provide the Savior. We don't have to ascend into the heavens to pull down the Savior. Neither do we have to go down into the abyss to bring him up again from the dead. We don't have to do that. Now, there are people who almost give the impression that they do have to do that. They, as it were, have to bring him down or raise him up again.

Or secondly, we do not have to struggle to find him or to lay hold upon the Savior. Now, there are many as I'm going to show you who seem to try to do that. They say, yes, the Lord Jesus Christ is the Savior, but how can I get hold of him? What a tremendous task it is. I've got to climb up into heaven to lay hold or I've got to go down into the deep to lay hold of him. There's no need to, says the Apostle, it's all wrong. You don't have to do that. He's not difficult to find. He's not a far away off somewhere. He's with you, he's at hand, wherever you are, he's there.

Why are we so sure of this? Well, the answer is, he says, there is no need for you to go up into the heavens to drag the Savior down because the Savior came down himself. When the fullness of the times was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law. This is how the righteousness of faith speaks. It preaches an incarnation. There's no need for us to try to scale the heights and to climb into heaven. Why? Well, because he's come down. And a man who tries to climb into heaven when he's come down is a fool.

He can't do it to start with, but he shouldn't even try it. The Savior has come down. It's a Gospel of the incarnation. The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. He's come down from heaven, so you needn't try to bring him down.

Not only that. You needn't go down into the depths and try and bring him up again from the grave. Coming into this world and bearing our burden cost him his life and he was buried in a grave. You say he's been defeated, he's finished, if only he could have conquered. You needn't say that; he has conquered. He's come up from the dead. You and I don't have to bring him up. He has done everything himself. Everything that is necessary for us. In other words, that's another way of saying what he's already said in verse 4. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth.

Man has failed to keep the law. Man at his best has failed to keep the law. We need somebody more than man to keep the law. Where can I find him? You needn't start searching, my friend; he's come. The only one who's ever kept the law's already done so. Yes, but there was the penalty of the law, which is death. It's all right; he's paid the penalty and he's proved that it was sufficient by rising again from the dead. So you need do nothing at all. It has all been done.

Not only that. There is no difficulty about knowing how he's done this. It's been preached, says the Apostle. "That is, the word of faith, which we preach." He says, I've set it before you. You remember his extraordinary phrase that he uses in writing to the Galatians. He uses it there in the third chapter at the beginning. "O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?" Patently set forth. Clearly set forth amongst you. And he's got the same idea here. He preached Jesus Christ and him crucified.

There is no difficulty about discovering the way of salvation in Christ Jesus. The Gospel is full of it. It says that he came and had to take on human nature, otherwise he couldn't represent us. It says that he had to live a life of perfect obedience to the law in order to satisfy that law which we'd broken and which condemns us. It says that he must pay the penalty, the penalty being death, and he's done so. This is the preaching of the Gospel, the word of faith which we preach.

There's no difficulty about it. You see, it's men who make the difficulties. It's men who make it sound involved and complicated and difficult. The Gospel itself is essentially simple. "The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart."

So that we put it finally in this way: that we are not called upon to make some impossible effort of understanding. You are not saved by your understanding, my friend. You are saved by your simple belief in and trust in and abandonment of yourself to the Lord Jesus Christ.

In other words, this is salvation for all, for anybody who believes. However ignorant, however poor in the matter of intellectual equipment. It doesn't matter at all. It isn't a man's intellectual understanding that saves him, otherwise he'd be saved by works. It is his simple trust in the word preached, which tells him: believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.

Now, that's the message of the Gospel, says Paul. That is the word of faith which we preach. It was the old message preached to the Philippian jailer. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house." And explained to him the word of the Lord. He wasn't a man of great intellectual understanding, but he was able to believe. The common people heard him gladly. The word is nigh thee. It's simple. It's not some great effort up into the heavens or down into the deep. No, no. A little child can believe it. A child can be saved.

The way of salvation is as simple as that. It is this simple belief and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth. Now then, you see how the Apostle has contrasted the two ways of salvation. The first involved difficulty and in the end, impossible. This one: simple, plain, done for us, simple belief. All of grace by faith.

Now, that is the Apostle's message. But I must apply this. The Apostle was applying it, and you and I must apply it. This Epistle to the Romans chapter 10 is not something theoretical or academic. We don't meet here simply in order to take this as if it were a lesson in literature and give an alternative translation or analyze it. No, no, this is to be applied, my friends, and it's most urgent and most important because this ancient misunderstanding still persists.

The application was first of all to the case of the Jews at that time, and it is still true about the Jews. They rejected the Gospel because they thought that they could justify themselves by keeping the law and attain a righteousness in that way. And they were altogether wrong. They'd misunderstood the purpose and the function of the law. They'd never realized what it demanded. They'd substituted their own standards, their own interpretation of the law, which was wrong as we saw. They were altogether wrong.

But here's the tragedy: that they prefer to try that and fail rather than accept this offer, which told them that all had been done in the Lord Jesus Christ and that they can have it as a free gift. Their pride was such that they preferred to try in their own effort and fail rather than to admit that they were paupers and receive it as the free gift of God's grace. That was the trouble with the Jew.

But it is still the trouble with all who refuse to believe the message of justification by faith only. It is still the position of all those who trust to their own works and to their own activity. It is still the trouble with those who regard our Lord as but a teacher and an example to follow.

That's the trouble with them. They've never realized what they're saying. How easy to say, "I'm going to follow Jesus." Follow Jesus? You stop and think what he did, who he was, what he was like, and then you won't move a fraction of a centimeter in an attempt to follow him. You can't follow him, and it's only blindness that makes men and women talk about following him. No, no, he's the Savior, not the example.

It applies to them. But it can be much more subtle, and I do want to emphasize this. There are very subtle denials of this teaching. The two I've referred to are open and obvious. The case of the Jews is a very obvious one, and the case of all people who think that a bit of morality is the same as Christianity. That's an obvious case. Any man who says he can make himself a Christian, well, there's no difficulty about him. He's altogether wrong; he hasn't started seeing the Gospel at all. People who think that being members of churches and being nice and good and moral and don-like the people you read about in the newspapers and see on the television, people who think that that makes them Christian—well, they're such obvious and complete misunderstanders of the Gospel that there's no difficulty about them.

But there are others who are much more subtle. Who are these? Well, who am I referring to? Well, I'm thinking of people now who do subscribe to the essential Christian doctrines and the Christian teaching, but who nevertheless do violence to this particular teaching. What sort of people? Well, let me put first the mystics. The mystics. What's the teaching of the mystics? Well, some of the mystics have believed all the great doctrines of the Christian faith with respect to our Lord, his person and his work.

But having done that, they then set it all on one side and set out to save themselves. They say that what they want to know is to arrive at that knowledge of God. "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God." So they set out on what is called "the mystic way." The way of self-denial, the way of trying to find the God that is in you, the negative way, the dark night of the soul. And you follow the mystic way. They've books written, books and manuals about this mystic way, telling you what you've got to do. It'll involve perhaps a good deal of fasting, it'll involve regular prayers at given times, and you just thus die and die to yourself until you enter into that completely negative state, and then you reach the stage of contemplation. You read the works of the mystics if you like, and you'll see what's involved in it.

Now, that's a complete denial of all this. The mystic is a man who ascends into the heaven or tries to, and tries to go down into the abyss. He enters out into this tremendous effort. The answer to him is, "Say not, stop, the word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart." So here is really a condemnation of mysticism because ultimately the mystic is trusting to his own effort. Now, they're very honest, they're very sincere, and they make tremendous efforts. It is like trying to climb into the heavens or go down into the abyss. But the answer to the mystic is this: it's all unnecessary. Look and live. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Paul and Silas didn't say to the Philippian jailer, "Look here, we'll set you off on the mystic way. You can start now, but it'll involve this, that, and the other, and you must go on and on." Not at all. Believe and thou shalt be saved. And he was, and rejoiced immediately with all his house. That's the word of faith which we preach. This is the Christian message.

Then there are others who are equally guilty with the mystics. The Gospel, I say, is always contemporary. So the second error, or the second way of error, second misunderstanding of this text is, of course, the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church. It was when he discovered their error and saw this that Martin Luther was saved and was filled with a spirit of rejoicing and the Protestant Reformation broke forth.

The teaching of the Roman Catholic Church is a denial of these verses that we are examining together, and it is still a denial. There is no change in the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church. They may allow certain parts of the mass to be said in English in the future; they may make some slight alterations in their psalter. But when they have changed their doctrine, I shall be very glad if you let me know. They haven't done so. They're not proposing to do so. I'll go further: they cannot do so. It would cease to be the Roman Catholic Church.

What do I mean? Well, what I mean is this. Paul says, "The word of faith which we preach says this: you needn't go up into the heavens to try and get hold of him or down into the depths. He's with you, he's at hand, he's here. Turn to him where you are, believe in him and you're saved." No, no, says Roman Catholicism. The Lord Jesus Christ is very remote. He's the Lord. He's far away in the glory. So far that we must get somebody to help us to get to him. Who can we get? Ah, his mother.

Now this, I'm not caricaturing their teaching. That is precisely their teaching. They say she's a woman, she's tender, and she will have influence with him. She understands us, and she'll have influence with him. Let us ask her to help us. You see, they put her between him and us. He's so far away in the heavens. They banish him. And Mary is necessary first. So in many of their churches, you go into them and you see Mary, and somewhere behind him, there he is on the cross. Or look at their pictures very often. He's generally represented as a babe. He's either the babe or he's someone who's so far removed. Mary's always essential.

And this is an utter denial of the teaching. You don't need her. The Virgin Mary is not necessary for us to arrive at the Son of God. We don't need the saints; there is no need to pray to them. There is no need to borrow from their works of supererogation. There is no need of the church; there is no need of a priesthood; there is no need of sacraments. The Roman Church says all these things are essential.

The sacraments, they say, absolutely essential. Baptism and the Lord's Supper, they say his body is in there, you've got to eat of him literally, and the church alone can do this, and the priesthood alone can work this miracle. Not only that, they say the church alone can expound the scriptures. Nobody else, they say, can understand the teaching of the scriptures. You mustn't say, "The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart." You mustn't say that it isn't difficult. It is tremendously difficult, so difficult that only the church can really expound the scriptures. You must take our tradition in addition to the word. Mustn't say the word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth. This word of faith which we preach is very difficult.

And you've got to do penance, and you've got to make great sacrifices. And you need the sacrament of extreme unction at the end, otherwise your whole destiny's going to be doubtful. It's a tremendous problem. It's an awful problem, this problem of salvation. You notice the exact opposite of what the Apostle tells us.

That's why we're going into all this so thoroughly. Don't be misled, dear Christian people, by niceness. Realize what the teaching is, what the doctrine is, and you'll see as Luther saw that it is a denial of the plain teaching of the scripture. It had held him in darkness and in bondage and in misery. This "but" is not there; they do away with the "but." They make it difficult. It's as difficult as the law was.

And to be perfectly fair, let me end by saying that there are those who make it difficult from a purely intellectual standpoint. And this includes many Protestants. I say once more that the most ignorant and the most illiterate, the most benighted, can believe this message and be saved by it in a second. That's the whole basis of the missionary work. What's the point of sending missionaries to the heart of Africa if it is a man's intellectual apprehension of doctrine that saves him? It isn't. You're not saved by a knowledge of doctrines. You are saved by the person of the Lord Jesus Christ and what he has done on your behalf. It is he who saves, not the doctrines concerning him, nor even what he has done.

Let us be very careful, therefore, that with a kind of false intellectualization or intellectualism, we again turn this word that is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart, into something extremely difficult, which only the great brain of the theologian can understand.

No, this is the beginning of salvation. That's what the Apostle's dealing with. I know that when you come on to other aspects, you need all the ability of God, but even that won't help you without the Holy Spirit. But this initial... it doesn't matter what you are, nor how great your brain or how small your brain; it doesn't matter at all. By grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.

Let us, therefore, be careful, even as Protestants, that we don't turn this, which is no longer difficult and impossible, into something which is difficult and impossible. Let us realize that the word of faith which is preached is a word which is nigh us, even in our mouth. There is nothing which we have to do but to believe as the Philippian jailer did. Let's never forget that the common people heard him gladly. Let's not forget what the Apostle says to the Corinthians, "You see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. Thank God!"

We don't have to drag him down or lift him up. He's done it all. He's come. He's done the work. He's risen again. So that all you and I have to say is, "Just as I am, without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me, and that thou bid'st me come to thee, O Lamb of God, I come." I don't understand fully. Many a conflict, many a doubt—doesn't matter. Go as you are and cast yourself upon him, and he will receive you.

Oh, the tragedy that the Jews were rejecting this and attempting the impossible! How monstrous, how foolish, how blind! But what of us, my friends, what of you? The word of the Gospel is this: Only believe, and thou shalt see that Christ is all in all to thee. Only believe. By grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, though you've come to this meeting from the very jaws of hell and though you're the vilest sinner that London has ever known, though you've got no intellect, no brain, nothing. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ now, and you shall be saved now. That's all. You don't ascend into the heavens; you don't descend into the deeps. You believe this word: salvation is by faith, justification is by faith, and by faith alone.

Let us pray.

Oh Lord our God, how can we thank thee sufficiently for this blessed word! We are acutely aware, oh Lord, of our blindness and of our folly, how ready we are to bring in something of ourselves still. Oh, grant us to see this in all the glory of its clarity and essential simplicity. We bless thee for this way of righteousness by faith, which speaks to us in this way and tells us that he has come from the glory into the world and has lived and died and has risen again and is seated at thy right hand in the glory everlasting. Oh Lord our God, teach us to rest our faith on him alone, who died for our transgressions to atone. Grant that we all may know as never before the blessed rest of faith. Give us this understanding and grace to lay our everything upon him who came in order that we might do so.

Hear us, oh God, and receive our unworthy praise. And now, may the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship and the communion of the Holy Spirit, abide and continue with us now, throughout the remainder of this our short and certain earthly life and pilgrimage, and evermore. Amen.