Tell me the story of Jesus Write on my heart every word Tell me the story of Jesus Sweetest I've ever was heard ♪ Tell me of Jesus, tell me again ♪ ♪ Tell me of Jesus, tell me the story again ♪ ♪ Tell how the angels in chorus ♪ ♪ Sing as they welcome his birth ♪ ♪ Glory to God in the highest ♪ ♪ To die in still earth ♪ ♪ Tell me of Jesus ♪ ♪ Tell me again ♪ ♪ Tell me of Jesus ♪ ♪ Tell me that story again ♪ ♪ Tell of the cross where they nailed him ♪ ♪ Tell of his suffering and pain ♪ ♪ Tell of the great worthy labor ♪ ♪ Tell how He was once again ♪ ♪ Tell me of Jesus ♪ ♪ Tell me again ♪ ♪ Tell me of Jesus ♪ ♪ Tell me the story again ♪ ♪ Tell me the story so tender ♪ ♪ Tell me just where we are seeing ♪ ♪ How Jesus came for us sinners ♪ ♪ Off into a joyful ring ♪ ♪ Tell me of Jesus ♪ ♪ Tell me again ♪ ♪ Tell me of Jesus ♪ ♪ Tell me the story again ♪ Tell me of Jesus, tell me that story again. Alright, thank you kids. We'll let the little ones go in their class now. This is Shores, 6-5-4-3-2-1. Appreciate, again, the children's fire and their hard work in preparing to sing for us here today. You can open your Bibles up to Romans chapter 10. Romans chapter 10 and verses 1 through 11. And that was really an appropriate song to sing before what we're going to look at today, because we're just going to tell the story again about Jesus. And this is the basics of the gospel. We love the book of Romans as a book that does spell out the gospel very clearly to us. And Paul's got a burden as we come to this passage. It's a burden that he wants to move. and just can't. I remember thinking about my dad as a child. I grew up thinking my dad could do anything. If there's something that needed to be moved, he could move it. I hope my kids think the same thing about me, but if they saw me trying to lift Mark's fish tank this past week, they probably wouldn't think that. But there's something about men You just kind of think if you grab hold of it, you know, it's gonna move. And I think Paul was a man's man like that. There was in Paul a determination. If anybody could move something, spiritually speaking, it's Paul. But as Paul lifted this burden, he wanted to lift it. There wasn't anything that he could do about it, even though he greatly desired it to move. What Paul was burdened about is the unsaved Jews, his family, his heritage, his people. He's burdened about them. He wants to see them get saved. He's got a deep desire to do something about it, but salvation is an individual decision. As much as a mom can be burdened about, we talked about this morning in Sunday school class about James Stewart's mom and Hudson Taylor's mom being burdened to pray for their child, that their child would get saved, and earnestly desiring to see their sons, in this case, get saved, there was nothing that they could physically do to bring that child to salvation other than to pray and say, God, please continue to work on this person's heart, continue to draw this person to yourself. And as Paul is, seeking to reach these people, what are these people? Well, these are Jewish people. These are people that had the scriptures. They were the people of God that God had dealt with. He was over them. In the theocracy of the Old Testament, He was their God. I mean, He was over them until they got a king, right, and kind of usurped God's place a little bit. But they had the scripture, they had the blessing of God. It was through them that the Messiah came. But the Bible says about Jesus, he came unto his own, and what happened? His own received him not. Sadly, they, of all people, should have embraced the Messiah, but the Jewish people rejected the Messiah. And they're religious. and they're self-righteous. Self-righteous just meaning they trusted in the fact that they were good. I mean, they try to keep God's law. They try to fulfill everything that's said in their mind's eye, the way they thought to do it, and they thought they achieved it. And so in their self-righteousness, yet they had never accepted Jesus Christ, and so they're self-righteous, trusting in themselves, but they're lost. And Paul says about that again in verse one, brethren, My heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. This morning, I wanna look at the answer to those that are religious but lost. And frankly, in our society, there are numerous people, numerous religions that that's all it is. It's religion, but lost. It's religious, but lost. And how do we reach somebody like that? We can think about that as we consider that this morning. Those of us that are saved, how do I reach somebody like that? And those that aren't saved, to consider, is that me? Am I somebody that is trusting in myself, or am I trusting in Christ, in his salvation? And so maybe I'd use this this morning as we consider this passage. It's good for us to come to this passage this morning. Let's pray and ask God to bless it to our hearts. Father, we're thankful for the opportunity that is ours to consider what the Word of God has to say specifically about being religious but being lost or being self-righteous, trusting in ourselves rather than trusting in Jesus Christ. And Father, as Paul shared this in the book of Romans, he wasn't trying to be mean. He wasn't trying to be demeaning or unkind. But Father, truth is shocking at times, and yet truth is what's necessary to change men's lives and change men's hearts. And so, Father, give us truth today again. May the Spirit of God open our eyes to what the Word of God says specifically regarding salvation. And Father, I pray that be instructive, I pray be helpful, I pray, Lord, that I give it in the spirit of love and that the spirit of God would use it. And Lord, help me as I speak. I need your help. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen. So the first thing Paul says, and Paul is writing this, I believe, hoping that his Jewish brothers are gonna come into contact with this truth, and that it's gonna impact their heart and life, because this is the answer to somebody that's religious, or they're in a religion, but they're not saved. He says, first of all, to them, you have a dilemma. You have a dilemma. He says in verse two, as he begins, for I bear them record, that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. As Paul says, I bear them record. It's a record that Paul is very familiar with. Paul is very familiar with it because Paul was brought up in it. He was, of all Jews, Paul was more a Jew. Of all Pharisees, Paul was more of a Pharisee. He had been brought up in the schools that they went to. He had been brought up in the religious system. He had lived it. He had tried it. He had tried it to his utmost. You know the story of Paul's salvation. He's on his way to kill Christians, to persecute them, put them in prison. Why? Because he's zealous for God. He doesn't believe that Jesus Christ at that point is the Messiah. He's rejected him, but he is full of zeal for God, full of desire to please God with his work. So zealous that he's going and he's taking these, what he views as false prophets. He's putting him in prison, he's putting him to death. In fact, the Word of God says Paul's testimony in Philippians 3, 4 through 6, as far as his ability to trust in himself, his self-righteousness, He says, though I might also have confidence in the flesh, if any other man thinketh that he hath, wherever he might trust in the flesh, I am more. Circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, and Hebrew of the Hebrews, as touching the law of Pharisee, concerning zeal, persecuting the church, touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. If anybody had succeeded in keeping the law for righteousness, it was Paul. So he's not speaking, as we come to this passage, he's not speaking without knowledge of what they're facing. Paul has been there. And he says to them, first of all, zeal without knowledge is vain. Zeal without knowledge is vain. Verse two says, I bear them record, they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. Oh, were they religious? Yes. They're very religious. Are they sincere? Yes. They're very sincere, but in their sincerity and in their zeal, it's not according to the knowledge of this book and what the word of God did, in fact, teach about who the Messiah was, what he do as he died on the cross for their sins, how he was the atonement, how he was the way to God, how he was the only way. They didn't know it. They had zeal, but not knowledge. And you might think, well, I mean, zeal's a good thing, especially in the area of religion, but I don't know how many of you enjoy sports. I know Laura does. But if you have a favorite sports team, and I'm playing on your sports team, and I'm loaded with zeal, I mean, of all people on the team, I have more zeal than anybody, but I have no knowledge of football whatsoever. I'm the last person you want on your team. You put me on your team. If I have no knowledge of the sport, I'm doing everything zealously. I mean, I'm sincere. I've got a good heart, but I'm winning the game for who? The other team, right? Nobody looks at that and says, well, hey, zeal without knowledge is fine. But it's sad, in our society, you know, everybody says, be tolerant, be tolerant, you know, and you gotta approve of other religions, you gotta look at them and say, hey, that's fine. But you know what, zeal without knowledge is not fine. It's not enough within society that people are sincere, that they're religious, if they're not following what the word of God teaches regarding what true religion is. Does that make sense? And so Paul's dealing with that, he says, I bear them record, they're sincere. They're sincere, but they're sincerely wrong. And zeal of itself isn't admirable. Only zeal according to knowledge has value. And so they have a dilemma. They have zeal without knowledge and it's vain. They have another dilemma that self-righteousness is ignorance of God's righteousness. You know, something's missing in our understanding this morning if we think that we are righteous enough to go to heaven. Something's missing. First, to get to that position, we'd have to be ignorant of what God is when it comes to righteousness. How much sin does God have? None. None. If God was to stand here before us this morning, the comparison would be, I mean, we couldn't even look at God because God's so holy. God is completely separate from sin. And so Paul says to them, these people that are trusting in their goodness, he says, there's ignorance in your life, and the ignorance is of God's righteousness. He says, for they being ignorant of God's righteousness. I think most of you know that I like stones. If you come to my house, you see a cabinet full of stones, and they're not just ordinary stones. They're agates and geodes and semi-precious stones. But you know, I've got one geode that I really love. It's an amethyst geode. It's beautiful. And a lot of you have seen it. It's about this big, and it's got the beautiful purple crystals in it. You know, I could be very proud of that. Say I was, say it was even of increased value, say it was more valuable than this, but I could be very proud of that and say, wow, you know, look at this amazing amethyst geode. I could be proud of it until I go to the National Museum and you go to their rock collection. that's there, and you see a geode, amethyst geode, that you could stand in. It's that big. And all of a sudden, what happens to my beautiful geode that I love and think, oh, this is so cool. I still think it's cool anyway. But it's nothing, is it? I'd be ashamed if I'm boasting about, oh, I got the best geode in the world. It's amazing. then all of a sudden I see something like that, and I'm sure that in comparison with what God knows what there is somewhere in the world, I'm sure a roomful, Geo, the size of this room, that's beautiful amethyst crystal, you look at it and go, it's nothing compared to it. And so there's people that, they look at their life and they say, well, you know, I'm a good person, you know, but, in comparison with others, perhaps, but not in comparison with God. And that's the problem. Compared to God's standard, we fall woefully short. Isaiah 646 says, but we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. And we all do fade as a leaf, and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away. That's written in the book of Isaiah. It's a prophetic book. It's saying everybody is full of sin. All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. In God's sight, God looks at it, and we might say, well, this is good. And God says, it's not. It's not. Because the things that you've done in your life, those sinful things, those things are there, and I see those things. and it's not good. I wrote an article, pray about this, I get to write an article for the advertiser and participate in it. A minister's column and it's called Views from the Pews and they're going to be starting it pretty soon. But I wrote an article and I hope they'll print it and it's entitled, Do Good People Go to Heaven? My first question after that is, I say, I didn't start the article, maybe a better question would be, is there such a thing as a good person? Right, we could start and say, yeah, good people can go to heaven, but the problem is what? There's none good. No, not one. All of us have iniquity. All of us have sin. So, I mean, it's kind of a false premise. Good people go to heaven. Yep, but wait a second. Who's good? Who's good? And that's, again, what Paul is saying. We've got a problem because of sin. Sin is to miss the mark. Romans 3.23, it says, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Again, that word sin means to miss the mark. It's like, I like archery. In the States, I've got a bow. I've got a compound bow. I've got a gator clip that goes on it that I can draw back with and a trigger that I release with my finger. It's a very precise bow, and I love shooting it at my target. You know, and as I'm shooting at my target, if I miss the target, that's like what the word sin means. But the problem with sin is you're not even getting close. It's like you and I standing at Ben Nevis, each of us got our bow, and we're going bing, trying to shoot arrows over it. And you can be proud of the fact that your arrow went further than mine. But what's the problem? Nobody's going to shoot an arrow over Ben Nevis. It's not going to happen. But there's a lot of people that are bragging to God saying, God, look how far my arrow went. Look how far my arrow went. It's like God says, you still missed the mark. Sin misses the mark. And so for all of sin, they come short of the glory of God. So compared to God's standard, we fall woefully short because God is completely without sin and cannot sin. You see, God is the only one that meets the standard. And I shared that in my article, at the end of the article, there's a verse about the Lord Jesus Christ. He says to somebody, why callest thou me good? There is none good but one, that is who? God. Jesus Christ alone measures up to God's standard. See, God stood at the gate of heaven and said, I'm only gonna let good people in. The only person that could cross into heaven is Jesus Christ. But here's the truth, if you're saved, who do you have in your heart? Jesus Christ, right? But I myself, I'd stand there and go, I can't get in because why? I don't measure up to God's standard. God is completely without sin. In Isaiah six and in Revelation chapter three, there's a song being sung in heaven. It's being sung by the elders that are on the throne. It's being sung by the multitudes in heaven. It's being sung by the angels that are there in the presence of God. And the song is this, we sing it as well, it's in our hymnal. holy, the thrice holy God. As they sing about God in heaven, they sing about His perfect sinlessness. There's no sin there in heaven. It's complete righteousness. So God is not gonna accept our claim to righteousness. Verse three says about these people, they're going about to establish their own righteousness. And again, it's like they're working so hard, they're working so hard to do it, and it's just not happening. It's not getting done. It's like a squirrel taking his nuts, he's trying to gather his nuts, and he's putting them into a tree that has a hole down in the bottom of it. You know, he puts it in the hollow tree. As he puts one in, one rolls out the bottom. He puts one in and it rolls out the bottom. He puts one in and it rolls out the bottom. He's working, working, working, working, working, and he's getting nowhere. And that's what self-righteous religion does. It causes the people that are in it to keep trying and trying and trying to establish their righteousness before God, but it's not going to happen. It can't happen because of our sin. The only righteousness that we have hope of to get us into heaven again is the righteousness of Christ. 2 Corinthians 5.21. For he hath made him, Jesus, to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. To answer the question this morning, if I could say it this way, what is the requirement to get into heaven. How much righteousness do you need? You know what the answer is? You need the righteousness of God. That's it. There's nothing else that God will accept. God demands that to go to heaven, we be righteous as God is righteous. So how do we get that? Well, through salvation, God took the handwriting of ordinances against us, guilty of lust, guilty of covetousness, guilty of anger, guilty of all these things, put it on his cross. And God is willing to take the righteousness of Christ and put it on us. That's what that verse says. We just read it. He who knew no sin, he made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of what? God in him. When I got saved, God completely took my sin away. Completely. He made me righteous. That's the hope of mankind because the fact is, again, I'm trusting in my goodness to get to God. God is perfectly holy. He's completely without sin. I sin once in my life and what happens? I deserve what? Hell, not heaven. And I don't just deserve it, I'll receive it because I've earned it. The wages of sin is death. But that's why the gift of God is everlasting life. It's something that God does for us. So Paul's dealing with this and saying, you're trying to establish your own righteousness, and that's pride that refuses to submit to the righteousness from God. Verse three, they go about to establish their own righteousness, right? They're working hard about it, but what have they not done? They have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God. God's standing like this, He's saying, look, I'll give you righteousness, it's through Jesus Christ, it's through His atonement, it's through the work that He did on the cross, I offer it to you. And this person goes, no, no, no, no, I'm gonna earn it, I'm gonna earn it, I'm gonna earn it. And in seeking to be good, to go to heaven, it's like they're saying to God, God, forget it. They refuse, and that's strong, isn't it? Refusing to submit to the righteousness of God. It's like God's saying, here, God, no, God, no, because I'm gonna establish my own righteousness. And so Paul's saying, again, you've got a big problem here, being ignorant of God's righteousness, trying to establish your own righteousness. But then Paul says, secondly, he says, I have a declaration. I have a declaration to share with you, in that Christ has ended the law for righteousness. Verse four. says for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. Okay, who gave the law? God did. And so what's the law do? The law says, here's the standard. It's impossibly high. I mean, it's way up here. You mess up and the Bible says you break the law in one point, you're guilty of all. So again, it's a very high standard that God gives, but the Bible says Christ is the end of the law for righteousness, for righteousness. You know, all the law does, it's like a schoolmaster that comes to us and says, hey, you messed up. That's all it does. The schoolmaster in this case never comes to us and says, wow, hey, you're doing such a good job. You have absolutely succeeded in keeping my rules. Never. The schoolmaster only comes to us and says, you messed up and I'm gonna take you to the headmaster of the school. You messed up, I'm taking you to the headmaster of the school. That's all it says. It's just, and that's what the word of God says about it. Galatians 3, 24, wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to do what? To bring us unto Christ that we might be justified by faith. So you can say this morning, but that's so heavy. I mean, we've got the schoolmaster saying guilty, guilty, guilty. But what's the point? So that we find out I've got to go to Christ. I've got to go to Christ. Because all the schoolmaster does is condemn me. You know what the world has done? You think about it. With evolution and anti-God, there is no God, atheism, what's it do? It says, schoolmaster, you don't exist. And so what happens? It never takes me to Christ. So what happens? I die and I go to hell. Do you see it? Because if there is no God, there is no law. And if there is no absolute truth, there is no law. So why is the world all about that? Because they want to get rid of the schoolmaster that says guilty, guilty, guilty, so that they don't have to go to Christ. But the problem is it doesn't change eternity. It doesn't change the fact that the wages of sin is death. But it never brings me to salvation. Make sense? But the schoolmaster is there for a reason. He's there to say guilty so that we go to Christ. And so, When you get to Christ, what happens? Schoolmaster's done. He's done for those that believe. Verse four, for Christ is the end of the law to everyone that believe it. Isn't that precious? I'm glad for that. The schoolmaster says, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, but I go to Christ and it's as if God looks at me and says this. He goes, you know, Ben, the schoolmaster says you're guilty and you are. but Christ died for you. He paid the price for your sin. My son was punished in your place, and Ben, I offer you a pardon. I offer you grace. I offer you forgiveness. If you'll accept what the schoolmaster says, you are guilty, but Christ died for you, and Ben, he didn't stay dead. He rose from the dead. And if I'll accept that, you know what happens? I'm set free from the schoolmaster. I'm no longer every day getting up and saying, I gotta be good, I gotta be good, I gotta be good or I won't go to heaven. I gotta be good, I gotta do these things. And there's people that are just shackled by their sin in the law because they think that's the way to righteousness. Hudson Taylor speaks about the law putting a man in bondage. He was a holy man. a man that was self-righteous. You know what they did with this man? They took Hudson Taylor to show him this man in China. And Hudson Taylor's back in the 1800s. But as they took them to see this man, they looked through the window to see this man. He's in this room. And the only light into the room is this little to give the man food. So the dark hallway that's the only light that comes into this room because there's no windows in the room and then they realize there's no door. This man's walled in. Why is he doing that? Why is he so enslaved? Because he feels like if I do enough good things then when I die I'll get heaven. I'll get a pleased God. By denying myself every earthly pleasure and all these earthly things I'm gonna But that's what religion, false religion without Christ does to people. You gotta do this, you gotta do this, you gotta do this, you gotta do this. If you don't do these things, you're not going to heaven. And it's a burden. And it's the law bearing down upon them. But when somebody comes to Christ, and God's law is different, God's law is specific. It does say, hey, this is sin. It doesn't please God. But it's to bring us to Christ that set us free. Because it's bondage, it's bondage. If you live under the law of self-righteousness, it's bondage. Verse five says, for Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, that the man which doeth those things shall live by them. This person has to get up every day and say, I have to do this, I have to do this, I have to do this, and if I don't do this, then I'm condemned. And in a sense, if they're speaking biblically about the law and they understand the law as God meant it to be understood, they understand they haven't made it. They ought to. The problem with self-righteousness is somehow they think they've achieved. But in reality, have they? I mean, have they never told a lie? Have they never lusted? Have they never coveted? Have they never gotten angry, disobeyed their parents, disobeyed an authority, stole? No. And so, you know, honestly, they haven't lived up, but they're still trying, they still think, if I just do enough good things, if I just can somehow please the schoolmaster, then God's gonna accept me. And it doesn't work. And so it's bondage. The law cannot possibly take you where grace alone can go. By the way, about the law, and this is important to understand this passage, in Deuteronomy chapter three, or I'm sorry, Deuteronomy chapter 30, verses 11 through 14, When Moses gave the law, he said to the people, hey, the word of God is here. He says it this way. And what Moses at that point was saying to the people is we have God's revealed word. It's not up in heaven, you don't have to go get it. It's not down in the sea, you don't have to go get it there. It's right here. But Paul's gonna take that passage and he's gonna apply it to the New Testament. And you'll see that as we continue on here. As he says, the law cannot possibly take you where grace alone can go, where grace alone can go. Verse six, he says, but the righteousness, which is of faith, speaketh on this wise. Okay, self-righteousness is over here saying, I gotta keep the law, I gotta keep the law, I gotta keep the law, I gotta keep the law. Hopefully, someday I'll stand before God and the law will say, hey, you've been good enough to go to heaven. But it won't ever say that. But on this side, he's gonna speak about something different. The righteousness, which is what we need, right? To go to heaven, which is of faith, speaketh on this wise. First of all, you can't get Jesus from heaven by the law, okay? Or you can't achieve it. Verse six, say not ye, who shall ascend into heaven? That is, to bring Christ down from above. Can you do that today? You know, can anybody right now disappear into heaven to go get Jesus Christ? No. And Paul says, that's like your self-righteousness. It's like you're trying to access this. But what has already taken place? Had Jesus already come from heaven? Yeah, the incarnation is taking place. Jesus has been born on this earth. He's lived on this earth, so that's already happened. So it's not something that we have to achieve or something we have to earn. But he says in verse seven, or who shall descend into the deep that is to bring up Christ again from the dead. Children, did Jesus Christ die? Yes. But do we have to help him back to life? Is there something that you or I have to do to somehow bring him up from the dead? No. It's already happened. Jesus Christ already came in the flesh. Jesus Christ already rose from the dead in the flesh. You know what's important about that? Those two things are vital truths that we have to believe for us to get saved. We have to believe God came in the flesh. and that he died on the cross and that he rose again, the resurrection. Those are vital truths about salvation and Paul's saying they're not achieved by works, they're not achieved by goodness, they're achieved by faith, just trust. And so Paul says you've got a dilemma. The law puts you into bondage and the law can't take you to heaven, it can't take you to resurrecting Christ. So what's the answer? Here's the answer. Did you see, you probably remember the Chilean miners that were trapped underground for so long. Did you see that some Chinese, four Chinese miners were trapped? They got released I think yesterday, the day before, after 36 days underground. And I watched a video of that and I saw them, you know, actually they did a video from a camera phone that they put down to them in the mine and with with weeping they said I'm so glad I'm so glad that you're still trying to save us even though the weather's awful and you guys are up there working so hard to get us out thank you thank you so much right but then they show them being saved. That's an awesome thing isn't it? Can you imagine being 36 days stuck underground not knowing if that's going to be your final tomb or if you're going to be set free and then being set free. How amazing that would feel to be set free. You know that's the same, that's a good picture of salvation. Somebody's down there. They're trapped. They may not even realize they're trapped. And God is working. God is working. God is working. God is working to effect their release. He's crucified his son. His son is risen from the dead. He deeply desires to rescue them. And finally, that person understands, I've got to be rescued. They take hold of the rope. They grab on. They're brought up. And what a relief. to be set free. Can you imagine somebody, all their life, I've got to do good to be saved. I've got to do good to be saved. I'm doing all these works. I'm doing all these works. And the schoolmaster is there saying, do this, do this, do this, do this. They're so burdened by it. They can never please Him, never please Him, no matter what they do. And all of a sudden, God steps in and says, yes, you are guilty, but Jesus Christ died for you. You can be set free. And they're set free by God's grace. What a burden this lifted. what a burden is lifted. So how does this take place? Well, salvation is brought near by grace, verse eight. 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. Okay, somebody that's trying to work salvation, they feel like, I gotta go to church, I gotta be baptized, I gotta do all these things. And Paul goes, stop, pause. Here's how easy it is, it's just faith. It's just accepting that what Jesus Christ did on the cross, it was once for all, that he rose from the dead and that God offers you a gift and taking it in your heart. Stop trying to do all these things and trying to please God with your works. Just accept the gift that God gives. That's grace. That's how easy it is. Paul says it's right there. It's nigh thee. It's in thy mouth. It's not a difficult thing to get saved. We've seen more children than adults saved in our ministry. Many people that grew up in church were saved at an early age. It's a great thing when adults get saved, but it's so simple a child can understand it. We've had many children trust Jesus Christ their Savior. Why? Because that's what it is, childlike faith. It says, God, it's not what I thought. It's not how I understood it. But it's the fact that your word's true and your word says this, Jesus Christ died on the cross for my sin. He rose from the dead. He is the way of salvation. I accept it. God, I want to take your salvation. That's how easy it is. Paul goes, it's right there. It's right there. Salvation is received by faith. It's brought near by grace, right? But it is the word of faith which we preach. Romans 6.23 says, for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. So you got God on this side holding out a free gift. It's salvation, it's priceless, you can't afford it. People in doing all their good works, they think somehow they can earn it, and God goes, wait a second, I took my perfect holy son, who is God, dying on the cross for your sin, you can't afford it. So how does somebody get it? They take it. You have this morning, I'm not gonna do this so don't get your hopes up, but if I had a check for 10,000 pounds that I offered to you, how would I know that you had the faith You know, to believe that I was actually giving it to you. If you actually came up, took it, and you deposited it. Right? It's the same with salvation. How do I know somebody believes the Word of God and what it teaches regarding salvation? They take the gift. They stop resisting God. Stop trying to earn it. Stop trying to do all their good things. They just stop in their heart. They go, it's fake. I accept it. They take it. That's when the transaction takes place. You know, If we're sincere before God at that point, what do we do? We confess, God, it's just like you said. That's what it says in our text, isn't it? Romans 10, nine, that thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus. So here we are, Paul's worked, I mean, he's put the burden on him. Self-righteousness can't get you anywhere. But what is it? It's fake, it's naive, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth, confessing is to tell the truth. Confessing, in this case, is to agree with God. God, I'm a sinner. God's sin deserves your judgment. But Jesus Christ died for me. He paid the price and he rose from the dead. I confess it before you today. That's confessing. Will you confess? Have you confessed? Will you confess the truth about Jesus? And then will you bank your eternity on the truth of Christ's resurrection from the dead? Verse nine says, and shall believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead. A lot of people, they laugh at them. They don't believe that Jesus Christ died and that he rose again, but there's an empty tomb in Jerusalem that says otherwise. There's a celebration that we have every year called Easter that celebrates the truth of the resurrection because the word of God says that Jesus appeared to over 500 witnesses at one time and to all the apostles and to other witnesses. Do you believe it? That's where salvation comes from, trusting in the work of Christ and his resurrection from the dead. And if I do that, what happens? If I confess that I'm a sinner, I'm on my way to hell, but Jesus Christ died for me, and I accept the fact of his resurrection, what happens at that point? You know what happens? I get saved. That's when it happens. How do I know that? Well, that's what the word of God says, verse nine. Thou shalt be saved. Can God lie? No, he can't. So if he's told me if I put my trust in Jesus Christ, his death, his resurrection, for my sins, that I just have to put my trust in that, as soon as I put my trust in that, God can't lie, what happens? I get saved. That's how anybody gets saved. It's just that point in time where, in their heart, they acknowledge, hey God, it's true, what you said. I acknowledge that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life, and I accept that. Remember, what was Israel's problem? Here they are, work salvation. They're trying to earn it, they're trying to earn it. But the schoolmaster, what's he saying? He doesn't say righteous, he says unrighteous. But the problem with that is, can unrighteousness go to heaven? No. So to go to heaven, what do we have to have? We talked about it earlier. We have to have the righteousness of God. Look at what it says in verse 10. Here it is. This person, remember this person, is trying to reach the standard of God's righteousness by their works, and they'll never do it. They try, try, try, it's impossible. But when somebody over here puts their trust in Jesus Christ, what takes place? Righteousness. It's what moves the lift. I mean, people could be getting the crowbar out, trying to get the lift to move, but the power is not works, it is faith. It's getting in, trusting Jesus Christ, and up you go, by God's grace. You know, if you do that, the Bible says, if you trust in Christ, you'll not be ashamed. It says in verse 10, for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Verse 11, for the scripture said, whosoever believeth in him shall not be ashamed. You're not going to be ashamed before God, because you have interest in heaven. You're not going to be ashamed before men, because if you're saved, who cares what an ungodly world says about your relationship with God? Who cares? this morning. If you look at this and. Paul spelled it out. Is he spelled it out to be mean? Is he standing, you know, you're not, because a lot of people say you're not supposed to judge, right? All right, don't judge, you're judging. Is Paul standing in judgment upon his brothers because he wants to condemn them? And I'm talking about brothers according to the flesh. Does he want to just drive them into the ground, make them realize what wicked sinners they are? No. Why does he want them to realize the futility of works? Salvation. Because it is futile. Because if they never acknowledge that All that's gonna get them is hell. They'll never trust Jesus Christ as their Savior. He's not just trying to get them to feel bad. He wants them to get saved. This morning, I'm not trying in what I'm sharing to make anybody feel bad. Pastor Ben just wants me to feel bad about how my sin is, no matter what I try to do or anything like that. It's that the Word of God says salvation is by faith. It's not by works. It's not anything we can earn. It's not something we can achieve. It has to be accepted. And for somebody to accept it, you have to come to conviction. You know what? All the law is going to do is say guilty. Guilty. And it says it right now. Can I tell you this? If you're not saved, right now the law says guilty, guilty. And the Bible says you're condemned already. You're under the wrath of God. But if you get saved, immediately God takes that away. And the law can no longer say that. It's gone forever. And so it's a precious thing. I hope you're saved. But if you're not saved, I encourage you this morning to get saved. Trust Jesus Christ this morning as your Lord and Savior. And if you wanna talk about that afterwards, we'd love to share with you from the Bible how you could accept Jesus Christ as your Savior today. All right, let's pray. Father, you used the word of God in our lives this morning. There's a world of people that are trying to achieve righteousness. But Father, they're failing. And they'll never succeed. And it's futile, and it's empty, and it's burdensome. But Father, thank you that Jesus Christ made salvation possible. That he paid the sin debt in full. And Father, that by your grace, we can be saved. Father, this morning, if somebody's struggling, we pray that you just encourage them to faith. That today would be the day of their salvation. Today would be the day where that schoolmaster can no longer condemn them. because they've accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Savior. The sad thing is, Father, if we die without Jesus Christ as our Savior, that schoolmaster is gonna stand there. before a holy God and say guilty, and we're gonna be cast into the lake of fire. It's only when that guilt is removed, when that judgment is removed, that we have liberty and freedom and salvation and hope and eternal life in heaven. And so Father, may that truth just strike through our hearts today. Thank you for your grace and your help in our study this morning. It's in Christ's name we pray, amen. Our final hymn is Come to the Cross, 242. Come to the cross.