Sermon

March 4/5, 2001
Lent 1

God's Saving Word Is Near You!

(Romans 10:8-13) "The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart," that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming:9 That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.11 As the Scripture says, "Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame."12 For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile??the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him,13 for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."

In Christ Jesus, who Word alone makes us wise for salvation, dear fellow redeemed,

It was just six weeks ago that I heard about it on the evening news. Maybe you did too-about the Hindu religious festival that in just two days had drawn 30 million people to the waters of the Ganges River in India. It was expected that another 40 million would join their number before the 6 week festival was over. People had come from all over the world. They were living in a tent city that lined the river bank for 18 square miles.

Why had they come? The Hindu scriptures teach that gods, in an ancient battle in the sky with demons, spilled a few drops of the nectar of eternal life into the Ganges. It is further taught that there is great benefit to the soul who is willing to come and wash in the waters of that river during a festival that is held only once every twelve years. One man said during an interview, "I've bathed in the Ganges on the most auspicious day. Now I'll go to heaven when I die." Another fellow who had brought his entire family from England to participate in the event said, "It just feels great! I'm excited! There's nothing in the world I could give up for this." ¹

As I listened to those interviews, it struck me how much people are willing to do and how far they're willing to go in order to live forever. Friend, what are you willing to do? How far are you willing to go for eternal life? All the way to India, to the Ganges River? I have great news for you today. You don't have to go anywhere. For God has come to you. Let's consider what this means for our lives here and here after, taking as our theme today: God's Saving Word is Near You: 1) to believe; 2) to confess; 3) and to share.

I've been speaking of the spiritual zeal of the Hindus. In the opening verses of Romans 10, the Apostle Paul speaks of the spiritual zeal of his fellow Jews, many of them Pharisees as Paul had once been. Regarding these people Paul says: "For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge.³ Since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness" (Romans 10:2-3).

So many of Paul's fellow Jews looked upon the Scriptures God had given them as a book by which they could earn the holiness they needed in order to live with God forever. The zeal with which they sought such holiness was very impressive but also very damning. Paul shares their sad story with us so that we might examine our lives and our zeal today.

God's saving Word is near us. Paul says: "it is in your mouth and in your heart," (v.8). We don't have to go in search of salvation. God has brought the Word of life to us. But now that it has come to us, what should we do with it? I don't know about you, but I have come to realize that there's a Pharisee in me that loves to think of the Bible as a coupon book full of discounts on salvation and the blessings that go along with it. For example, I get into disagreement with a family member or friend, the conversation turns ugly and I know I've done wrong. What should I do? "What would Jesus do?" I ask myself. I turn to his Word. It says he'd love his neighbor as himself. I'll put that coupon to use. I'll make peace with my neighbor. I'll be more loving in the future. And through this effort and promise I make peace with my conscience and my God. That's exactly what the Pharisee would do.

Now maybe my example sounds a bit over-simplified, but how often haven't you sought peace in this very same way? If you've ever felt closer to God because of some act of kindness or some display of patience on your part, if you have ever felt more at peace with God because of some offering you've given him, some sacrifice you've made for him or because of some temptation you've resisted for him, then, you too have been looking for righteousness and the peace it brings in all the wrong places. Not because there's no righteousness to be found in these things. The Lord himself says: "Keep my decrees and laws, for the man who obeys them will live by them" (Leviticus 18:5). There's righteousness to be found in kindness and patience and generosity and self-sacrifice and in resisting sin, but only if you are perfect in all these things and in every other way all of the time. For the Lord also says: "Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law." (Galatians 3:10). We who want to make our peace with God, must keep all of the commandments all of the time. If we do not do so, and of course, none of us does, then instead of having God's peace, we are under his curse-a curse that says we must bear the guilt of all of our sins and we must pay for that guilt by dying in hell forever.

Trying to make peace with God through our own efforts is always impossible and always damning. What is more, it is always unnecessary as the gospel of Jesus Christ declares. Paul says this gospel is "...the word of faith we are proclaiming:⁹ That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.¹⁰ For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified..." (vv. 8-10). The Bible isn't a rule book, telling us what we must do to be saved. It's not even a coupon book offering valuable discounts on eternal life. The Bible is a gift certificate bringing us salvation to the door of our heart absolutely free of charge. The Bible is the word of faith-a message that commands us to do nothing but believe what it promises, that Jesus lived and died to free us from sin and rose from the dead because his sacrifice was complete and acceptable to God who for Jesus' sake and his alone has justified us, that is, declared us all not guilty of sin. The Bible is the word of faith because God has given the Bible's good news the power to work in us the very faith it commands so that not even our believing is a work we must perform. Our faith is God's work in us, a gracious gift from him just like the forgiveness, the peace and the life it brings to our hearts. Paul says later in this same chapter, "Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ" (Romans 10:17).

God's saving Word is near us for us to believe! And it is near us for us to confess. Paul says, "...it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved" (v.10). With these words Paul shows us that faith is not just a matter of the heart. Faith fills our entire being. When the word of faith says to us, "Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved"(Acts 16:31), the faith which this powerful word creates moves our mouths to confess "I believe! Jesus is my Lord, my Savior God."

We are saved by this confession not because it earns us God's approval, but only because it is part and parcel of the faith God has given us. Our mouths are simply giving a voice to the trust God has worked in our hearts. He alone gets the credit for the saving faith we confess as Paul makes clear when he states in 1 Corinthians 12:3, "...no one can say, 'Jesus is Lord,' except by the Holy Spirit."

Everything about our salvation is God's gracious doing through and through. First God gave us his Son to save us. Then he gave our world the good news about his Son's saving work. But still that wasn't enough. Leaving nothing to chance, God has brought his saving Word near to us in the Scriptures and in the Sacraments. In fact he's doing so right now. Right now he's putting his Word in our hearts and with it he's growing our faith in Jesus and all he has done and will do for us to bring us home to heaven. Right now he's putting his Word in our mouths so that with it we can express the faith he has given us and lay claim to all its rich blessings. And still his grace is not finished with us. For even as God opens our mouths to express the faith he's given us, it is God's plan and purpose to use our confession to produce faith in the people around us, people of every nation and race. In other words, God's Saving Word is near not only for us to believe and confess, but also for us to share with people everywhere. As the Scripture says, "Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame."¹² For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile--the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him,¹³ for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved" (vv.11-12).

Earlier in this letter to the Romans, in chapter three, Paul had said: "There is no difference,²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus" (Romans 3:22-23). What Christ has done for us he has done for all. And so the message that has brought us faith is intended for all. There is not a different God for the Hindus just as there was not a different God for the Pharisees. Our Lord is Lord of all. We cannot be content to think that if people don't share our Christian faith it doesn't really matter as long as they have their own religion. Those who do not have the Christian faith have nothing! Salvation doesn't come for some through drops of nectar spilled from heaven. It comes to all through the blood of Christ spilled on Calvary. Sins are not washed away by the water of the Ganges but only by the water of baptism, water used by God's command and connected with God's Word-a Word that we are compelled to share with Jews and Gentiles alike out of gratitude to God for the wealth of peace and joy his Word has brought to us.

We need never doubt the wonders this Word can work in others when we share it with them. Just look at us. We are living proof of what a powerful Word the gospel is. It has saved unworthy, undeserving sinners like us, removing the guilt and shame of our sins forever. It will do the same for countless millions who are searching far and wide for what we already have. They need search no further. For today in his grace, God has brought his saving Word near them also by giving it to you and me to believe, to confess and to share its good news that all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved for Jesus' sake. Amen.

¹Source of information: ABC News: World News Tonight, January, 24, 2001; Story by Bill Blakemore.