Funeral of Don Baxter (Rom 10:5-17)

Introduction

If you have a Bible with you, please turn it to Romans 10:5-17. If you don’t have a Bible with you, you can find this morning’s passage in today’s Worship Guide, which you all should have received.

When Nancy asked me lead today’s service it really didn’t take me long to realize what I needed to preach on this morning. Anyone who knew Don knew how much He absolutely loves Jesus and wants others to know and love Him. In fact, I remember hearing him lament about how many churches today don’t bother to give people an actual opportunity to respond to the Gospel whether that was through an altar call or by some other means like asking people to respond after the service. So, I thought for today’s sermon, the best thing for me to do would be to clearly, plainly, and faithfully proclaim the Gospel and give you an opportunity after today’s service to respond.

So, let’s get into it. Our passage is Romans 10:5-17. Let me give you just some brief background before jumping in.

The Letter to the Romans was written by the Apostle Paul and it is unique in that it is the only letter to a church in which Paul didn’t actually start the church—and thus, he didn’t really know the people as well as he did other churches that he wrote to like the church in Ephesus or Corinth or Thessalonica.

Because he didn’t really know the people, he uses this letter to essentially give an overview of what Christians believe—essentially, he wants to both prove and insist that they’re likeminded when it came to the basics of the Christian faith. He does that by first telling the Romans what true Christians believe in Romans 1-11 and then in Romans 12-16, he tells them how they ought to live because of the beliefs given in Romans 1-11.

With that in mind, Romans 10:5-17 then gives us the most fundamental truth about Christianity—and I say it is the most fundamental truth because without it none of us could be saved—it is that important.

But before I get too ahead of myself, let’s read the passage together.

Romans 10:5–17 ESV

5 For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. 6 But the righteousness based on faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ down) 7 “or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). 8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); 9 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. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. 11 For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. 13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” 14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? 15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” 16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” 17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

Prayer for Illumination

The Impossibility of Working for Salvation (5-8)

This text starts by explaining the impossibility of working for our own salvation—the phrasing is a little confusing in vv. 5-7, but the idea at hand is actually very simple.

Paul writes that if a person desires to earn their salvation through work—they’re certainly welcome to, but the reality is that it isn’t going to work.

He points out the Mosaic law and by pointing out the Law, Paul essentially makes the argument that if you’re going to earn your own salvation, it would be by keeping every aspect of the Old Testament Law perfectly.

But the issue is that anyone who is honest recognizes that they’ve already broken different aspects of the Law and it isn’t actually too difficult to figure out that we’ve done it—all we have to do is think about the Ten Commandments.

For instance, anyone who is honest would have to admit that they’ve broken the command of not lying or bearing false witness—so, we’ve already broken one command.

Or, for instance, while we might never have committed adultery or murder, Jesus states that if we’ve ever lusted in our heart or hated in our heart, that we’ve already broken those commands.

And James makes it abundantly clear that the breaking of any part of the Law is disobeying the whole Law of God.

And the Mosaic Law is abundantly clear that a person must keep every part of the Mosaic Law perfectly.

No wonder it’s so impossible for us to do—we all struggle with keeping any part of God’s Law because we live in a sin-cursed world and we’re affected by sin itself.

Paul’s illustration of the impossibility of earning our own salvation is stated in the hypothetical questions, “who will ascend into heaven” to bring Christ down and “who will descend into the grave” to raise Jesus from the grave.

The answer is two-fold—first, no human can do either of these things—no human can ascend into heaven and pull Christ down; no human can descend into the grave to raise Jesus from the grave. Second, they’re both clearly things that only God Himself can do.

And that ought not surprise us—the Bible repeatedly tells us that salvation is of the Lord

So, if you want to earn your own salvation—the way that you do that is by perfectly keeping the Law of God, but no human person can perfectly keep the Law of God. And the reality is that when we try to keep the Law of God perfectly in an attempt to earn our own salvation, it drives us to despair because we’ll recognize that we can never keep the Law of God perfectly.

The beauty, however, is that God never intended for us to earn our own salvation, rather, He fully intended to save us purely by grace through faith alone in Jesus Christ—and that’s how Paul continues in vv. 9-13.

Salvation is by Faith Alone in Jesus Christ (9-13)

Salvation is of the Lord and He offers it to anyone who simply confesses that Jesus is Lord with their mouths and believes in their heart that God raised him from the dead.

Now, I do want to clarify that this is more than just saying the words or uttering a prayer. When the Bible speaks of confessing in a context like this in which belief is also included—the idea is that you actually mean what you’re confessing.

Or, in other words, salvation isn’t a magical formula of words that you can say—it’s a genuine belief in Jesus Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection and His ability to atone for your sins that results in a true confession of faith that you can’t hold to yourself—you must testify about or confess verbally about.

Or, put differently—true salvation is the result of a genuine belief in God’s ability to save you through Jesus Christ who paid the price for your sins.

After all, “with the heart,” which represents that whole person, “one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.”

True salvation isn’t the result of just repeating words or going through the motions—true salvation is the result of genuine belief that results in a faith or a trust in Jesus to actually save you.

It isn’t enough to know that Jesus can save you—you must actually and genuinely believe that He saves you.

Note Paul’s statement, for those that do genuinely believe, that “everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.”

It’s a reminder that God is a covenant keeping God who indeed keeps His Word, which is a reoccurring theme throughout the entire Bible—that if God says that He will do something, He will actually do it.

That’s the basis for why we trust Him—because He does keep His Word and that applies to salvation itself.

Regardless of who we are, what are ethnicity is or as James mentions—whether we’re rich or poor, a CEO or the janitor, there are no distinctions, everyone and anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

Of course, for those of us who like Don have indeed believed in our hearts and confessed with our mouths, we read a passage like this and it causes us to praise and give thanks—as initially stated, we couldn’t possibly have saved ourselves, and yet, God, who is rich in mercy gave His Son to atone for our sins. So, we give thanks, but Paul continues and tells us that there’s really more to do.

Salvation by Faith Alone Must Be Proclaimed (14-17)

He poses a few more questions concerning those who have yet to hear—how can they possibly believe in God (how can they believe in their heart and confess with their mouth) if they’ve never heard?

And how can they hear unless someone is there to proclaim the good news to them?

Or, in other words, as Paul tells us how salvation isn’t earned, but rather the result of belief and confession—he then states that those who believe do so because they hear the word of Christ.

The implication being that if you do believe—then it is now part of your role as a believer, as a Christian who genuinely has faith, to go and proclaim the good news to others in hopes that they too hear and believe.

Truthfully, to me, that makes sense—and here’s why.

When you truly understand how you couldn’t have saved yourself—how Jesus had to save you because He is the perfect sacrifice for your sin and that His saving of you is a gift that you didn’t earn.

When you fully comprehend the Gospel itself and you allow the truth of the Gospel to influence you in every aspect of your life.

When you have really tasted the goodness of God.

You cannot help but to tell other people—you can’t help but to give praise, to worship, to give thanks.

And that is where our application comes in:

Application

I’m fairly confident that the majority in this room already believe in Jesus Christ—you’ve believed in your heart and you’ve confessed with your mouth— you are saved. My application for you is simple

If you are already a believer—give thanks for what Jesus has accomplished for you and then go and proclaim the Gospel—go tell other people.

Now, I don’t know all of you and I would be foolish to assume everyone here does genuinely believe—so, here’s my application for you. if you’re trying to earn your salvation through your own work and effort—stop.

It won’t work. You will never be able to work hard enough, do enough, achieve enough, or make enough to be saved.

You will never be able to keep every aspect of the Law of God.

You cannot do the things necessary to actually save yourself—you need to do exactly what this passage says.

You need to confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead.

You need to mean this, you need to live like this, you need to genuinely have faith in Jesus Christ.

Until you do, you are not saved and the Bible is clear that the wages of your sins is death after which you will face judgment for your sin.

Until you genuinely believe, you are lost.

And it is days like today—as we reflect on and remember our friend Don, that God is calling you to think about eternity. There are only two places for you to go after this life—today is the day to repent, to believe, to follow Jesus Christ.

Now, I do want to give you an opportunity to respond, but due to today’s purpose, we won’t have an altar call—rather, if you’ve recognize that you’ve never actually genuinely believed—you’ve never repented from your sins, you’ve never called on the name of the Lord, you’ve never believed and confessed.

Come and talk to me as soon as our service is done today—I want to help you and Don would want you to come and talk to me as soon as humanly possible.

Now is the time to follow Jesus—don’t hesitate.

Pastoral Prayer

Pastoral Prayer