We are going to be reading from Romans chapter 10 verses 1 through 13, if you would like to follow along, but first we are going to open in prayer. Heavenly Father, we come with grateful and thankful hearts this morning. You are the one true living God, the creator and sustainer of all life. You are holy, holy, holy. almighty, all-powerful, all-wise, and all-knowing. And in your greatness, Father, you have shown love toward us by sending your only begotten Son, Jesus, to come and take the sin of the world upon himself, die on that cross, paying the penalty for our sin in our place, and being buried in the tomb, and on the third day, you rose up out of that grave. and you are now seated at the right hand of God the Father. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you for your word. Thank you for your great and precious promises. Thank you for your Holy Spirit coming to and dwell the heart of the believer and sealing us for that day of our complete redemption. And Father, as we come to your word this morning, I ask that you would remove all the distractions from our minds and our hearts, all the cares and concerns of the week. And I pray for those who are unable to be here but are watching through streaming. Father, I pray that this would be a special blessing to our hearts this morning as we hear your word preached to us, Father. And I pray for Brother Jim, that you will give him the clarity and power, Lord, and strength to bring forth your word. And Father, may we have ears open to hear. And I pray that as we leave here today, we will be changed more and more into your image as we think about what we are learning here from your word. We ask in Jesus name. Amen. We are in Romans chapter 10. We will be looking at verses 1 through 13. Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but do not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own righteousness have not submitted to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. For Moses writes about the righteousness which is of the law. The man who does those things shall live by them. But the righteousness of faith speaks in this way. Do not say in your heart, who will ascend into heaven? That is to bring Christ down from above. Or who will descend into the abyss? That is to bring Christ up from the dead. But what does it say? The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart. That is the word of faith, which we preach, that if you confess with your mouth, the Lord Jesus Christ, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart, one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture says, whoever believes on him will not be put to shame. For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek. For the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon him. For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. As we see from Romans 10 here, clearly Paul is extremely concerned about But in learning about this, we can learn a lot about why others don't come to a saving knowledge of Christ. What hinders people from coming to Christ. You see, there are actually at least four different kinds of people, perhaps even four kinds of people that are in this room. One are Christians who know they are Christians. Two, there are non-Christians who know they're non-Christians. I mean, those are the two easy ones. Christians who know they're Christians, and Christians who know they're non-Christians, and they would say they're non-Christians. There is another category of Christians who are doubting their salvation. They are Christians, but they're struggling with their assurance of their salvation. And then there is a final category of non-Christians who think they are Christians. Non-Christians who actually think they are Christians. Is it possible to say you're a Christian, to think you're a Christian, but actually you're not a Christian? And the answer is yes, it is. This is in part because of some of the common misunderstandings that happen maybe as a result of our culture and some of the teaching we get from our culture, or a misunderstanding of God's Word, or a misunderstanding of somebody who's taught us the wrong way. But there are several misunderstandings that I want to point out. One is the idea that salvation is merely transactional, if you guys could put that up. that is merely transactional. It's the idea that there's just this sort of transaction that takes place. I pray a prayer, I believe something, I say some words, and as like a contractual agreement, then I get salvation as a transaction. That is not biblical salvation. Number two, non-Christians who know they are not, or number two, salvation is merely intellectual assent. This is the idea that somebody can actually just academically understand the truths of God's word, but all it is is understanding it from an academic standpoint, not actually applying it and receiving it completely. Another one is salvation is like when you have a come-to-Jesus moment. You ever heard people say that? I had a come-to-Jesus moment. I mean, what exactly does that mean? A come-to-Jesus moment. Or let go and let God. Have you heard people say that? I just need to let go and let God. Or salvation happens when we're being rescued from a physical calamity. Have you heard people say that? Oh, I was in a bad car accident, but I didn't die. God saved me. That's a different kind of salvation. In 2005, a country singer launched her career with a theologically rich song, Jesus Take the Wheel. This is, of course, Carrie Underwood. And in the chorus of this song, it says, It's talking about a young woman who has a baby in the backseat, and she's going down during Christmas time, and it's icy, and she's in a treacherous situation, and she calls on God to take the wheel. The end of the first verse says, before she knew it, she was spinning out on a thin black sheet of glass. She saw both their lives flash before her eyes. She didn't even have time to cry. She was so scared. She threw up her hands up in the air, and then it goes into the chorus, Jesus, take the wheel, take it from my hands, because I can't do this on my own. I'm letting go, so give me one more chance, and save me from this road I'm on. Jesus, take the wheel. Now, there are so many problems with that, it's really even hard to enumerate them all. But salvation is not about Jesus taking the wheel. Salvation is not about rescuing me from some sort of physical calamity. Salvation is not about me gaining greater health or greater wealth. She's later on in the song says, and for the first time in a long time, she bowed her head to pray. She said, I'm sorry for the way I've been living my life. I know I've got to change some So from now on tonight, Jesus take the wheel. That somehow she can change, she's sorry for how she's living her life and she's gonna change herself and the way she's gonna do it is have Jesus take the wheel. This has so many problems with it, and yet it's an example of how our culture inserts certain kinds of teaching that are really completely against what the Bible actually says about salvation. And it leads to people thinking that they are saved, thinking that they are Christians, but they're actually not really Christians. the Jewish people, they didn't think they were Christians, because they didn't want to claim to be Christians, but they thought they were saved in the sense of rightly related to God. They thought, in fact, they had an angle on God. And yet, when they came to the stumbling block of Jesus, that's exactly what they did, they stumbled. And we remember from a couple weeks ago, Romans 9, 32 through 33, it says, Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were by the works of the law, for they stumbled at the stumbling stone. As it is written, Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone, a rock of offense, and whoever believes on him will not be put to shame. Christ is either a stumbling stone or he is a firm foundation, as we learned last week. The Jews got it wrong. Israel as a whole got it wrong. Now, of course, we know that Jewish people came to Christ. They were the first group of people to come to Christ. At Pentecost, over 3,000 Jewish people came to Christ. The gospel came to the Jews first, actually, before it came to the Gentiles. But as a whole, certainly by the time, as we have noted before, by the time Romans is written and Paul sends out this letter to the church at Rome. You have more Gentiles being saved than you have Jews being saved. And so he has to explain in detail how someone actually comes to receive God's righteousness. That is the key issue that we have seen throughout the book of Romans. It is who has received the righteousness of God. And we're going to see here that we have to receive God's righteousness His way. And how do we do that? Well, we're first going to see the problem in verses 1 through 3, and it's willful ignorance on the part of Israel. And we're gonna see how it also applies to us today. The problem is willful ignorance. The solution is understanding God's righteousness. That's the solution. And finally, we're gonna see the application, receiving God's righteousness. Why don't people come to Christ? The problem is willful ignorance. What's the answer to the problem? It's understanding What is the righteousness of God? Understanding God's righteousness and finally the application for that is receiving God's righteousness. Let's begin then by looking at this problem that we find in verses 1 through 3, willful ignorance. Paul, of course, begins with his desire. We've seen this before. He said that he would actually prefer to be cursed and stand in the place of Israel and die and go to hell if it meant for the salvation of Israel. He loved his ethnic brethren, Israel, and he desired for them to be saved. Of course, we know that Paul loved other people as well and desired for all to be saved. We see here in this passage that he says, my heart's desire and prayer to God is for Israel that they may be saved. We know from scripture that salvation actually comes from the Jews and the fact that Jesus was Jewish and that it went first to the Jews. We've seen that many times in the past. God desires that all people be saved. According to 2 Peter 3, verse 9, the Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. And so our desire should be that we see people saved. 2 Timothy 2, verse 10, therefore I endure all things for the sake of the elect, Paul says this, that they may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. Now, I just wanna pause for just one quick second, we need to move on, but one moment, and just ask the question, do you have a heart for the gospel the way Paul does? Do you and I have a desire to see souls saved? The truth of the matter is we can get so caught up in our lives as Christians, our families, our homes, our own study of scripture, our own theology, and all these different kinds of things, and all good things, but folks, we ought never lose, and we ought to actually foster a desire to see people come to Christ. We ought to pray for it. We ought to pray frequently and we collectively together. It is on purpose that our prayer list has more prayer requests about the souls of people being saved and people being discipled than anything else. That is on purpose, because we need to have a heart to see people saved. We see Paul's heart here. It's a wonderful example for us. And he's going to say that, I bear witness, he can bear witness pretty well, because he was one of them. He was in the very position that they were in. But he says, I bear witness, bear them witness, that they have a zeal for God. The problem was not that they were godless in the sense of secular. They had an actual zeal for God. I am actually hearing myself in there. If somebody could step out. I'm glad they have it on there, but unfortunately If I hear myself repeat myself, I can't keep up with myself or something. Anyway, it's just not working. So somebody's got to turn that down. Anyway, so I apologize. Okay. So it says they have a zeal for God. In Philippians 3, verse 5, it says, we see that this is exactly where the Apostle Paul was. They were circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, concerning the law of Pharisee. We find in Acts chapter 22 verse 3, I am indeed a Jew born of Tarsus of Sicilia, but brought up in the city of the feet of Gamaliel, taught according to the strictness of the Father's law, and was zealous toward God as you all are today." See, the Apostle Paul knew he was looking at because he was one of them. He was a Jew, brought up under the feet of Gamaliel, a very highly respected teacher. He had a zeal for God, and yet he was lost. In fact, he was so lost that he was actually persecuting Christians. But it was not according, the problem is, it's not according to knowledge. We see the passage, it tells us that he had a zeal, they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. And knowing God, the knowledge of the true God, that is the root problem. We see this in Psalm 95 verse 10, which says this, For forty years I was grieved with that generation, and said, It is a people who go astray in their hearts, and they do not know my ways. Why did Israel go the wrong direction? Why is it that they were not saved because ultimately they did not know God? They had a zeal for God, they had some conception of God, they even thought they knew God, but they did not know God. Isaiah 5 verse 13 says this, therefore my people have gone into captivity because they have no knowledge. Their honorable men are famished and their multitude dried up with thirst. Hosea continues as we think through the Old Testament, we come to Hosea and it says this, my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you from being priests for me because you have forgotten the law of your God. Catch this, you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children. Why is it that Israel, what happened with Israel? Israel did not know God. That was the problem. What was the root problem? They did not know God. They had the word of God. They had the law of God. But they did not see in the law of God the holy character of God. And so because they did not know God, they were serving somebody they didn't know. That was the root problem. Paul goes on to summarize this and explain it this way. Verse three, he says, for they being ignorant, what specifically did they not know? They did not know, and look at what it says, God's righteousness. What is it that they missed about God? They did not know God's righteousness. So we have root problems here. One is ignorance. They didn't know God, and they didn't know specifically the righteousness of God. And secondly, we see that there was a problem of pride. They didn't know the righteousness of God, so instead of searching out the righteousness of God and the law of God, allowing the law of God to feed them, to show them who God really was, instead they replaced it with their own righteousness. Now they decide to establish their own righteousness, not knowing the righteousness of God. Psalm 55 says, the boastful shall not stand in your sight, you hate all workers of iniquity. This is further explained in Mark chapter seven, verses one, actually verses six through nine. Christ is speaking here and he's explaining what was going on to the leadership of the nation of Israel, he says, he answered and said to them, well did Isaiah prophesy, you hypocrites, as it is written, the people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. And in vain they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. Commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men, the washing of pitchers and cups, and many other such things you do. He said to them, all too well you reject the commandment of God that you may keep your tradition. What happened here? What happened in the nation of Israel? They replaced the commands of God with the traditions of men. They replaced the purity of the Word of God with the rabbinical writings of the day. And in so doing, they lost a knowledge of God. They didn't know God. They didn't understand the righteousness of God. And they refused to submit to the righteousness of God. Well, you can't submit to something you don't know and you can't recognize, you can't identify. And so there's this stubbornness in the life of the nation of Israel where they have not, it says, submitted to the righteousness of God. This word submit means to arrange under. It's also translated sometimes to subject oneself to. We have, for example, several clear examples in Romans 8, 7 through 8, we have where it's used, it says, because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, nor can it be. In Romans 13, 1, let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. There's no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. So they didn't submit to the authority of God because they didn't recognize the righteousness of God, and then they replaced God's righteousness with their own righteousness and thought they were good with God. That essentially was the problem. The fact is, folks, our world does the same thing today, does it not? This is a great quote by by Sanford C. Mills, and he specifically says it's for Israel, but I think it also applies to people today. He says, Israel wants to be a captain of their own soul, the master of their own ship, but Israel lost both her rudder and her compass, and now with her vessel of state careening about in the maelstrom of sin, what is to save her from being drawn into the vortex of hell? Yet the condition of Israel today is even as it is was in Paul's day. This replacement of righteousness, replacement of the righteousness of God with self-righteousness was the problem. Folks, that continues the problem even of this day. I think practically even as parents we need to be aware of this. That our children, as we are raising our children, can have the idea somehow in their minds that they are good enough in order to be able to be right with God. That they're doing good enough things. We need to be careful about that. I think that we even ourselves, We need to ask the question, are we trying to be right with God by doing good things for Him? Are we trying to gain His favor by doing good things for Him? We must not live in self-righteousness. Ultimately, self-righteousness will lead someone to hell. Why did they, as we continue further, we actually are going to find that Paul is going to give them the solution. The solution is to understand God's righteousness. That's the solution in verses 4 through 7. We pick up here and we see it says, for Christ is the end of the law. Notice what it says, for righteousness. I think This is a very important phrase for us to understand. What does it mean where it says Christ is the end of the law? Well, the word end means fulfillment or goal. It can also mean termination. But we've already seen from Romans, for example, in Romans 3.31, it says this, do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not. On the contrary, we establish the law. Romans 3 tells us that we don't void out the law by faith, we actually establish the law by faith. Well, how does that work? Matthew chapter five really helps us with this, verses 17 through 18. I've quoted it many times before, particularly as we went through the series on Matthew. Christ says this, he says, I do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. So Christ did not come to destroy the law. He came to fulfill the demands of the law. And what this passage further tells us is that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. I think a key passage to understand this is actually in 2 Corinthians 3. And I have it up there on the screen for you, or you could certainly turn there, 2 Corinthians chapter 3, and we're going to be looking at verses 7 through 14. But it says there, it's talking about the glory of the law and also the glory of Christ. And it says in verse 7, but if the ministry of death written and engraved on stones was glorious, that's the commandments of God, the Ten Commandments, in fact, was glorious, and it says it's glorious, by the way, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily on the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was, notice, passing away, how well the ministry of the Spirit, that's from Christ, of course, be more glorious? For if the ministry of the condemnation had glory, that's the law, the effect of the law was to show us our condemnation, but it was glorious in doing so. Glory meant it revealed something about God, and in revealing God, it reveals who we are and that fact that we are condemned. The ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory, showing the identity of God, showing who God is. For even what was made glorious had no glory in this respect because the glory that excels. For if what is passing away was glorious, what remains is much more glorious. So the question then becomes, why did the Jews miss the glory of Christ? Why did they miss this? Verse 12. Therefore, since we have such hope, we use great boldness of speech, unlike Moses, who put a veil over his face so the children of Israel could not look steadily at the end of what was passing away, but their minds were blinded. For until this day, the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ." You catch what it's saying there? It's saying that Israel is blinded so that it could not see the glory of Christ. Now, I want to put this all together for us, and I want to use an illustration, pretty simple illustration, but an illustration this way. If you think of a road, and you think of the road being the law, so you have a road, and at the end, the final destination of that road is Christ. So you're traveling down a road, and the final destination is Christ, and the road is the law. What Paul is saying is that the road should lead us to Christ. The road of the law should lead us to Christ. what was the Jews' problem? According to what we said, what were the Jews' problems? They actually weren't following the law. They said they were following the law, they had all these extra commandments and traditions to explain how well they were following the law, the great minutia of following the law, and yet they missed the law. What is the purpose of the law? Ultimately, the purpose of the law is to reveal the righteousness of God. And if you are following the law, knowing the law, receiving the law, and trying to live out the law as God intended, what you're going to understand is, number one, that God, you're gonna understand the true righteousness of God, number one, and number two, you're gonna understand that you don't have it. And that you can't get it on your own. That's because you're going down that road. But what the Jewish people did, they went down the wrong road. They took a left turn or a right turn this way. They took a turn and they started going the road of their tradition. And so when Christ came, they're on a different road. They don't even recognize the glory of Christ. Why? Because they're on a different road. And that's what Paul is trying to explain here as we go through this passage. It is God's intention for Christ to fulfill the law. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21, For he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. And notice what it says in the passage, the condition, the end of the law is Christ to everyone who believes. So that's why you literally have Jewish people, even to this day, who, can I say it this way, are stuck in the law, and yet it actually isn't God's law, it's actually traditions, man's traditions, that have some elements of God's law, but you don't have the purity of God's law anymore, they're stuck in that, because they've never seen the righteousness of God, and they have not seen the glory of Christ. The reality is the same thing. Isn't it true? This is the same thing that's true about everybody else that doesn't know Christ. Not everybody, but most people about Christ. They don't realize who God is. See, if we really want to help people understand who God is, it's wonderful that we know the Roman's road and we go through it with them. or a basic plan of salvation. We need to know that. But as we teach our children, or we have the opportunity to spend time with somebody more frequently, to help them to know God, who God really is, what His righteousness really looks like, how we can't measure up to that righteousness, is going to help us a great deal in leading people to Christ. understanding that if someone could actually say they're a Christian, but they don't know God, and they don't really understand the righteousness of God, and the righteousness of God has never been actually applied to them, then the reality is they're not saved. Now Paul is going to make this argument in verse 5. He's going to make the argument that I've just kind of laid out. I illustrated it this way, but notice what it says in the passage in verse 5. For Moses writes about the righteousness which is of the law, The man who does those things shall live by them. In other words, as you read the law, and you know the law, you see the righteousness of God in the law. That's talking about the Old Testament for the most part. You see the righteousness in the law, you see the righteousness of God in the Old Testament. And then you see the demands of the law, all the Ten Commandments. And the reality is, everyone has broken every one of those Ten Commandments in one way or another, either in thought or deed. Because the Bible says if you commit sin at one point, you're guilty of all. And so you have to live by the requirements and by the consequences. This is why Paul says in Romans chapter seven, verse seven, what shall we say then, is the law sin? Certainly not, the law is not sin. On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law, for I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said you shall not covet. So that God had a very specific purpose for the law to bring us to Christ. And then we see in verses six through nine, it says, but the righteousness of faith speaks in this way. Do not say in your heart, who will ascend into heaven, that is to bring Christ down from above, or who will ascend into the abyss, that is to bring Christ up from the dead. When you came to, I'll be real honest with you. When I came to those verses, I went, whoa, what is that talking about? How many of you ever read this passage and went through and you came to it and like, whoa, this is weird. And it is a little strange the way it's worded. He's actually referencing a passage in the Old Testament in Deuteronomy. And he mentions part of Deuteronomy 9.4 and then Deuteronomy chapter 30. But he's actually picking, he picks certain phrases out of there. And to really understand this, we've got to go to Deuteronomy. Now I have it, I think I have it up there. Are you guys okay? Okay. So Deuteronomy chapter nine, verse four says this, do not think in your heart after the Lord your God has passed them out before you, saying, because of my righteousness, the Lord has brought me in to possess the Lamb." So you have this phrase, do not think in your heart. That's what Paul's concerned about. Don't think in your heart. Do not, it's translated this way, do not say in your heart. Same thing, if you think in your heart or say in your heart, same thing. And then notice then, in Deuteronomy chapter 30, picking up in verse 10, it says, if you obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes, which are written in this book of the law, and if you turn to the law your God with all your heart and with all your soul, for this commandment which I command you to do today is not too mysterious for you, nor is it far off. It is not in heaven that you should say, and here's the phrase, who will ascend into heaven for us and bring it to us that we may hear it and do it? Nor is it beyond the sea that you should say, who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us that we may hear it and do it? And I think the key verse here, which actually Paul's going to quote later on, says, but the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart that you may do it. Here's what Paul's saying here. Paul's point here goes back to Deuteronomy, and the point in Deuteronomy is the law is available, it's here, you don't have to search for it, it's there, we're giving it to you, it's there. You remember Deuteronomy? Deuteronomy was a reiteration of the law. The law had already been given, and to reiterate it and to further explain it, Deuteronomy was given, And so in Deuteronomy 30, there's this explanation, hey, it's given, you've got it, you don't have to look for it, it's there, you've got it, it's available. You don't have to look above or beneath or in the sea or anything. And what Paul is then doing here is he is applying this same law, or we'll use the word word, because it's helpful, the same word of the Old Testament he is saying applies to Christ as well. Christ also is the word, John 1. and he was also available. They didn't have to go up to heaven to search for him, they didn't have to go down beneath into hell, and there's a textual, interesting textual thing that we won't get into there, whether it's sea or abyss or whatever, but bottom line is, he didn't have to go away, but why? Because Christ came. Christ so obviously presented himself to the Jewish people. It was objective. It was verifiable. There are many, many miracles done. Jesus said, I'm here. There's no question about it. And so Paul is saying, just as the law was presented to them, and it was obvious and available, so Jesus was presented to them, and he is obvious and he is available. You don't have to go looking. And the Jewish people should have seen it. Had they been following the already available law, they also would have found, in the way that God intended for them to do, they also would have ended up seeing Christ and recognizing the glory of Christ when He came. So then we pick up in verse 8 here, and we see, well actually a couple things I want to note about this. So just as the law was presented to the Jews and was readily available, so Jesus is. So what was the problem? The Jews had the wrong key to salvation. Their key was the key of self-righteousness through tradition. And they went in to open the door of salvation, and the door, it's the wrong key. The right key is God's righteousness. Problem, of course, is this. You can't muster up God's righteousness. That is why you need Christ, who applies the righteousness of Christ to us. And this really is illustrated, the idea of the law actually ending in Christ, the law leading us to Christ, and then Christ fulfilling and culminating the law. This is actually illustrated very well by Christ himself in Luke 16. Do you remember the story of the rich man and Lazarus? Of course, you'll remember that Lazarus went into Abraham's bosom, which was a figurative play, the paradise, and then you have the rich man, and he went into hell. And in the story, he asks for his brothers to be warned by Lazarus, that Lazarus could come from the dead and go to warn his brothers about the fact that, you know, essentially he got it wrong and he's in hell and don't follow in my ways. And this is what is said here. Then he said, I beg you therefore, Father, that you would send him to my father's house, for I have five brothers, and that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment. Abraham said to him, They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them. And he said, no father Abraham, but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent. But he said to him, if they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded through one who rises from the dead. Did you catch that? He said, they have Moses and the prophets. They have the entire Old Testament. The entire Old Testament leads to Christ. It leads to the way of salvation in Christ. It shows everything that's needed to see in order to accept Christ. The Old Testament does that. And if you don't believe that, and if you don't follow that, you're not gonna even believe somebody coming from the dead and warning you. So that Israel, what is Paul saying? Israel is without excuse. We've already seen that about the Gentiles in Romans chapter one. But we're seeing here then about the Jews that they are without excuse as well. Then Paul then wants us to see the application, in other words, how to receive the righteousness of God. And we see this in verses eight through 13. If we pick up in verse eight, it says, but what does it say? The word is near you. That's quoted also from Deuteronomy. The word is near you in your mouth and in your heart. The word is in you, in your mouth, and in your heart. And from that phrase, we then have this very well-known statement in Romans 10, verse nine, it says this, if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you'll be saved. Now, to really understand this passage, both actually verses nine through the end of the chapter, but certainly verses nine through 10, there's a few things we need to sort of understand in the beginning. There is a lot of confusion about what is necessary in order to receive the righteousness of God. What is necessary? And we have already learned on many occasions before that it cannot, whatever it is, it cannot include self-effort. It can't include self-righteousness, self-effort, or works. We've seen that over and over again in Romans chapter 3, Romans chapter 4, Romans chapter 5. It's very, very obvious that that is the case. But there is another issue on the other side of the spectrum that we have to be aware of, and that is the issue of what is sometimes called easy-believism. I mentioned the idea of just a transactional approach. It's kind of similar to that. this easy believism where I just passively or sort of not really too actively say a few words and believe a few things and then there's this transaction that happens and I'm saved. And there's really nothing else to it. There's no life change. There's no real desire to please God. There's nothing really that follows that. It's just if you say you're saved, you're saved because you just decided you're saved, and you believe that Jesus saved you, but then nothing else happens after that. Now folks, that is dangerous. That is easy believism. Do you know that Jesus addressed this, that there are many people that would actually say with their lips, Lord, Lord, Matthew 7, 22, many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, cast out demons in your name, and done many wonders in your name? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you, depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. So this possibility of naming the name of Christ, maybe even understanding the mechanics of the gospel, but not really actually coming to Christ, is a real possibility. Now the other thing I think we need to understand about this passage is that there is some parallelism in the passage. In verse 10, look at it again with me, it says, for with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. That's verse 10. Verse nine says, there's parallelism there, and in verse nine, that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God hath raised him from the dead, you'll be saved. Now what it's not saying is that there's something certain that you need to do with your mouth, the Lord Jesus, you need to save Jesus as Lord, there is something you need to do with your heart, you need to understand your heart that God has raised him from the dead. These things are really interchangeable. You need to both confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that Jesus is Lord and that he's risen from the dead. These things go together. I think that's important to understand that there is parallelism here. And then what we see then, so understanding that, we then realize that there are three components to saving faith. I want us to recognize these three components. Number one, it says if you confess. That is the idea of agreement. That is the idea, the word confess is the Greek word homo legao, it means to say the same thing. This does not mean to come forward in a service or go see a priest or anything like that. This is to say the same thing God says. We need to say the same thing God says about our sin, but we also need to say the same thing God says about His Son, both in who He is and what He has done, and we'll get to that in a minute. Then we also see, number two, we need to understand. The idea of confessing with your mouth, you can't confess something with your mouth if you don't understand it. You can't articulate something that you don't understand. So it doesn't mean that we necessarily have to understand everything about the gospel, but there are certain things that we must understand with our minds, and we're gonna see what those are in a minute. We've got to agree, but we also have to understand. And then we do, we also have to exhaustively accept. We have to exhaustively accept and believe in your heart. The word heart there, I think is, you have the Jewish idea of heart, and you actually have the Greek idea of heart. There is a little bit of a difference, but overall, I think what we're talking here is about the entire being. The mind, the will, the emotions, all of it. You must believe with all of your heart. Now your heart is not just a feeling. When we think of heart, you know, we just celebrated Valentine's Day and everybody got little hearts with hearts were over everything. And if you're a school teacher, I've discovered that you come home with all kinds of little thingies with hearts all over them. Anyway, lots of hearts everywhere. So I'm not sure we really understand what the idea of heart is. The heart is the entire being. The heart is the entire person. We're supposed to believe with our mind, with all of our being. Now, those are the components. Agree, understand, and accept. What is it that we have to agree, understand, and accept? Do we have to understand all the various intricacies of the gospel? Well, no. I'm still learning about the gospel. You realize that? I think you are too. We're all learning more about the gospel. But there are certain things that we need to understand. The first thing it says is the Lord Jesus. Now, this is translated, the Lord Jesus and your new King James and your King James. In most translations, it's translated, Jesus is Lord. In New American Standard, it's confess with your mouth, Jesus as Lord. ESV is Jesus is Lord. Holman is Jesus is Lord, all the different translations, most of the translations is Jesus is Lord is how it is translated. So we need to confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord. Now it's interesting in 1st Corinthians chapter 12 verse 3 we find this statement and I think it's helpful for us. It says, therefore, I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed, and no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. Now that's interesting. It says no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. That is this. For us to actually recognize that Jesus is Lord, it is something that the Spirit of God must show us. We will not be able to see it ourselves. It's the working of the Spirit of God. It's the demonstration of the working of the Spirit of God. In Philippians chapter two, verses nine through 11, it says, therefore God also has highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name, that the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, those in heaven and those on earth, those under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father." Now there are some that would relegate this idea of Jesus is Lord to simply deity, that all that's really saying here is that Jesus is God and you've got to recognize that Jesus is God. And certainly, that is certainly included. And of course, as you think of the Jewish people, that definitely was a problem. They did not recognize Jesus as God, Jesus presented himself as God, said he was God, they picked up stones to stone him because he said he was God, and certainly then that is part of what it's talking about. But is it all that it's talking about? We find in verse 12 it says, it has the phrase, same Lord over all. Folks, that indicates there, then, that we're talking about at least a little bit more than just deity. We're talking about the fact that He is Lord over all, that there is a recognition of that. Now, this cannot mean that you have to make Christ Lord of your life in order to be saved. It can't mean that, because nobody can make Christ anything. And we've already seen that the Spirit of God is the one that causes us to recognize that Jesus truly is Lord. And it's also not causal in the sense that in order to be saved, you have to somehow recognize this as a condition. So we need to understand that. However, and I put this statement up this way, True saving faith will recognize the authority of Jesus and will include a desire to submit to that authority. True saving faith will do that. If you have true saving faith, it will recognize the authority of Jesus and will include a desire to submit to that authority. And let me, I think this clears up a little bit when you actually look at verse 10. Verse 10, we actually see the order. It says, first, the heart, for with the heart one believes unto righteousness. What does that mean? Unto righteousness means that believes in the righteousness of God, that Jesus lived a righteous life, that Jesus died to pay the punishment for our sin, and righteousness is the result applied to us. Righteousness is the result our lives as a result of our heart believing. With our heart. Not easy believism, but we are fully believing with our heart in what Christ did in paying the punishment for our sin, which he has clearly gone over throughout the book of Romans. That is then followed by the confession. And with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation. You then have a confession after Now, we begin to then, we then look at the rest of the passage, and we're going to see the scriptural basis for all of this. If you pick up then in verse 11, it says, for the scripture says, whoever believes on him will not be put to shame. This is quoting from Isaiah 28, verse 16. It says there, therefore, thus says the Lord God, behold, I lay in Zion a stone of foundation, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation, whoever believes will not act hastily." This, of course, we actually remember. In Romans 9, verse 33, this idea of the stone was brought up there. And the idea of being put to shame is actually a way of talking about judgment for punishment. We won't take the time to turn there, but in Isaiah 50 verses 7 through 8, that's pointed out. So that what it's saying here is that whoever believes on him will not face condemnation. Of course, we've already seen that in Romans chapter 8 verse 1. But then there also is a corporate result. It says, for there is no distinction between Jew and Greek. Why is there no distinction? There's no distinction because there's the same Lord over all. And it says, He is rich to those who call upon Him. We've actually seen this idea in Romans chapter 3 verses 21 through 24. in the very core, the very bullseye of the gospel, we've already seen that the righteousness of God through faith is Jesus Christ to all, and all them that believe, for there is no difference. So what is Paul saying here? Paul is pointing out that when it comes to the people of God, not that ethnic Israel is going to have a place, we're gonna see that in Romans 11, but when it comes to God's people, There is one Lord over all, and it's those who call upon him. And then we find the scope here. What's the condition? What is it? It's not ethnicity. It's certainly not self-effort. It's whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. There's one other thing that we must believe, and that's very important, and that is the resurrection of Christ. Now the resurrection, frankly, implies the death of Christ. And so you have two things here that are at the very core of what we must believe. We must believe that Jesus is who he says he was, Jesus is Lord, and we must believe that he rose from the grave victorious over sin and death, which of course means he died for us and he lived a perfect life for us. It's kind of all summed up in that. so that if we believe in the way that this is teaching, we can have the assurance of knowing that we are truly saved, the righteousness of God is applied to us. And that's one of the things I wanted to mention as well as we go through this. Oftentimes, in our understanding of the gospel, we really focus on being saved from the punishment of sin, and we should, nothing wrong with that. But we actually don't spend a great deal of time thinking about the righteousness of God being applied to us. And it's important that we understand both, that when we are saved, yes, we are saved from sin and its punishment, but we are also made righteous by God as well. We're declared righteous by Him. This brings us finally to three life-changing questions. Number one, do you know God? Do you know Him? That's the very heart of everything. The root of everything is what ultimately caused them to go wrong. Israel did not know God. And they did not, from the law of God, realize who God truly is, particularly the righteousness of God. So if you're wondering whether or not you know the Lord as your Savior, a very rudimentary question is, do you know God? Do you know the God of the Bible? Do you really know who God is? And also, this helps us to understand how we need to, even in our own lives as Christians and as parents and neighbors and friends, We need to help people come to know the God of the Bible, one who is holy and righteous, which brings me to the second question, number two. Are you depending on your own righteousness or God's righteousness? Are you depending on your own righteousness or God's righteousness? This is absolutely critical. There is no one that will enter heaven depending on your own righteousness, on self, And if you're here this morning, and you're depending on your own self-righteousness for your standing with God, can I say it this way? You don't really know God. You're not really saved. You're not really seeing what is in the Bible. You're not really seeing the character of God. But the good news is this. If you understand that you're a sinner, Because as you look at the law of God, you realize you don't match up to it, and none of us do. You look at the righteousness of God and realize you don't have it. You look at the holiness of God and you realize that you fall short of that. Then it's a matter of accepting the righteousness of Christ. Because God made this provision for us. Christ came, lived a perfect life, died, to take on our sin on himself, so that we could have his righteousness applied to us. What we could not do, he did for us, so that we could have his righteousness applied to us, so that we could then be rightly related to God, saved from our sin, and on our way to heaven. Number three, do you have saving faith or merely easy believism? you have saving faith or merely easy believism. Is this something in your life, when you think about being a Christian, that there was just sort of a transactional kind of thing where you just kind of made a decision and moved on with your life? That's not saving faith. Saving faith literally produces a change. It gives us a desire to please Him. It causes us to realize the Lordship of Christ in our lives. Do you have saving faith, or it's really just merely easy belief? If you have questions about that, Maybe you say, well, I'm not really sure. I don't know really where I stand on that. Not sure based upon what you're saying. Let me encourage you, come and talk with me. I'd love to take a Bible and show you how we can work through this and help you to make sure you understand what the nature of saving faith really is in your life. Hello, my name is Jim Ganam, Senior Pastor of Bethel Baptist Church. I'd like to take a minute to thank you for streaming our service. We hope and pray that it was truly a blessing to you. You know, we live in a day where we have access to the preaching of God's Word with just a phone or a tablet or with a couple of clicks on our computer. But we really would love to meet you in person. You know, there is just nothing that really replaces the experience of being in a loving community. Here at BBC, you'll be greeted by people who genuinely want to help you to have the best experience you can possibly have. If you have a family, we can help your kids find their fun, interactive classes, and your littlest ones can get settled into our safe, fun, and well-equipped nursery. Then help yourself to a cup of coffee and join us for the main service for singing, praying, and the preaching of God's Word. Although we'd love to have you visit our church, this is not our greatest concern for you. Our greatest concern is that you know how to have a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ. In fact, I want to let you know about a resource that will help you with this. It is called The Exchange. The Exchange is an easy-to-use, four-week guide that helps people to learn how they can have a relationship with God according to the Bible. If you contact us, we'd love to give you a copy while supplies last, and we'd also love to meet with you either in person or over the phone or over a FaceTime or Zoom video call so we can walk you through this helpful resource. If you're interested in going through the exchange Bible study with us, or if you just have a need we can pray for, may the Lord richly bless you. We hope to see you soon.