Believing with the Heart

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Romans 10:10

For with the heart man believes to righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made to salvation.

I. THE OBJECT OF FAITH (ver. 9). There are many who for many a weary month question whether they have the right sort of faith; whereas they would do better if they looked to see whether their faith rested upon a right foundation. Now, soul-saving faith rests upon Christ —

1. As incarnate.

2. In His life. Faith perceives that He is perfect in obedience, sanctified wholly to His work, and although "tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin."

3. But chiefly in His death. Faith hears the expiring sin-bearer cry with a loud voice, "It is finished," and adds a glad Amen, "It is finished! "

4. In His resurrection. Inasmuch as Christ was put into the prison of the tomb as a hostage and bail for His people, faith knows that He never could have come out again if God had not been completely satisfied with His substitutionary work. "He ne'er had been at freedom set." Faith, therefore, perceives that if Christ is risen the soul is justified.

5. In His ascension. Faith beholds Him in His session at the right hand of God, sees Him pleading as the great High Priest, and expecting until His enemies are made His footstool. Mark, not so much as a hair's breadth of faith's foundation is to be found out of Christ. Faith does not build on its own experience, on any knowledge which it has obtained by research, or on merit which it fancies it has procured by long and ardent service.

II. THE NATURE OF FAITH. "With the heart man believeth."

1. We generally attribute the act of faith to the mind, but our text makes it to be a work of the affections.

(1) In order merely to state that faith must be sincere we must heartily believe it. It must not be a notional faith which a man possesses, because his mother was of the same persuasion, or because he would be singular if he were to be an infidel.

(2) To make a distinction between doctrinal faith and the faith which accepts Christ. I know scores who are well read in divinity, who are orthodox to the last turn of the scale, and who fight like tigers for but one hair of the head of a creed, and yet, they will never be saved by their faith, because it is merely a belief of certain abstract propositions which never affected their nature.

2. What is this believing with the heart?

(1) The first work of the Holy Spirit in man is not to teach him doctrines, but to make him feel a great hungering and thirsting after a something, he scarcely knows what. His heart, like the needle, touched with the magnet, cannot rest, because it has not found its pole. Now, when Christ is set forth as a complete Saviour, able to give salvation now, then the heart says, "Why, that is just what I have been wanting." Just as the flowers which have been shut up all night, as soon as the sun is up, open their cups as if they felt — "There! that is what we were wanting!" The heart stretches out its arm to Christ, and Christ comes into that heart, and the heart presses Him close to itself. Believing with the heart is the heart's own conviction that Jesus Christ is just what it wants. Many of you have a true faith in Christ and yet you have never read "Paley's Evidences," nor "Butler's Analogy." You hardly know upon what ground the Bible is accepted as true, and hence, cunning infidels give you a good shaking when they get hold of you upon that point. But there is one thing upon which you can never be shaken, you feel the gospel must be true, because it just suits the wants of your heart. If any man should say to you when you are thirsty, "Water is not good," by a process stronger than logic, you could prove that water is good because it quenches your thirst. When you are hungry, if a philosopher should say to you, "You do not understand the ground upon which bread nourishes the human frame," you would say, "One thing I know, bread is good to eat if I am hungry, and I will show you." So the believing heart is hungry, therefore feeds upon Jesus; is thirsty, therefore drinks the living water.

(2) Again, is it not man's heart which is led to perceive the difficulty of reconciling the Divine attributes? Do you not remember when your heart said, "God is just; it is right He should be. Yet I know He is merciful, but I cannot understand how He can be both, for if He is just, He has sworn to punish, and if He is gracious, He will forgive." You came up to the sanctuary when your heart was thus perplexed, but you heard the preacher show clearly that Christ became the substitute for man, you understood how God had all His justice satisfied in the death of His beloved Son, and your heart said, "There, this is the very answer I have been wanting." Now, "I see how righteousness and peace have kissed each other." Oh! the joy and gladness with which your heart laid hold upon a crucified Redeemer, saying, "It is enough, my trouble is removed."(3) Believing with the heart implies a love to the plan of salvation. As you are thinking it over, something whispers, Why, such a plan as that must be true." Then, the sweet promise flashes across your mind, "Whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed"; and your heart says, "Then, I will believe on Him; that plan so magnificent in its liberality is worthy of my loving acceptance."

3. What is true of us when we commence our spiritual career is true all our lives long. Soul-saving faith is always the belief of the heart. I think I see some grey-headed man rise up and say, "In my young days I gave my heart to Christ, and I had a peace and joy such as I had never known before. Since that time, this brow has been furrowed with many cares, but the Lord has been my heart's stay and confidence. When trouble has come in upon me, I have been able to sustain it.

4. This is the right way to believe in Jesus, because this is the way in which you can believe in Him when you come to die. You have heard of the renowned bishop on his dying bed. His friends said to him, "Do not you know us?" There was a shake of the head. Next, the children beg him to remember them. But he shakes his head. Last, came his wife, and he had forgotten her. At last, one said in his ear, "Do you know Jesus?" The response was instantaneous. "Know Him?" said he, "yes, He is all my salvation and all my desire." Though the heart may know the wife and the child, yet never can the heart know the dearest earthly object as it knows Christ. He that believeth with his heart hath Christ in him, not on him, the hope of glory.

5. It is a very blessed thing that "with the heart man believeth"; because some of you might say, "I have not head enough to be a Christian." Even fools may still believe. "The wayfaring man, though a fool, shall not err therein."

III. THE RESULT OF FAITH. "Unto righteousness." The man who believes in Christ is righteous; he is righteous at once, in a moment; he is righteous in the germ.

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