Alright folks, we are in Romans 10. Romans 10. You remember in Romans 9, Paul is talking about the fact that not all Israel is Israel and yet Paul says very clearly that he has a tremendous desire to see those who are ethnically Jewish saved. Paul himself is Jewish and those who have tried to suggest that somehow being anti-semitic is compatible with Christianity are obviously not only ignorant of the scriptures but devoid of the Spirit of God. You cannot, by definition, worship a Jew and be anti-Semitic. So I would submit to you that those who are anti-Semitic are not really worshiping the Lord, because they don't know Him. They don't know Him. In Romans 10, Paul continues to show us how salvation is God's work. Romans chapter 10, this is God's word. Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they might be saved. For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. 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. Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes. Moses describes in this way the righteousness that is by the law. The man who does these things will live by them. But the righteousness that is by faith says, do not say in your heart who will ascend into heaven, that is to bring Christ down, or who will descend into the deep, that is to bring Christ up from the dead. But what does it say? The word is near you, it is in your mouth and in your heart. That is the word of faith we are proclaiming. 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. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. As the scripture says, anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame. For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile. The same Lord is Lord of all, and richly blesses all who call on Him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then can they call on one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news. But not all the Israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed our message? Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message and the message is heard through the word of Christ. But I ask, did they not hear? Of course they did. Their voice has gone out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. Again I ask, did Israel not understand? First Moses says, I will make you envious by those who are not a nation. I will make you angry by a nation that has no understanding. And Isaiah boldly says, I was found by those who did not seek me. I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me. But concerning Israel, he says, all day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people. I ask then, did God reject his people? By no means. Am an Israelite myself a descendant of Abraham from the tribe of Benjamin God did not reject his people whom he foreknew Don't you know what the scripture says in the passage about Elijah how he appealed to God against Israel Lord, they've killed your prophets and torn down your altars. I'm the only one left and they are trying to kill me and What was God's answer to him? I have reserved for myself 7,000 who have not bowed the knee to Baal. So too, at the present time, there is a remnant chosen by grace. And if by grace, then it is no longer by works. If it were, grace would no longer be grace. What then? What Israel sought so earnestly, it did not obtain, but the elect did. The others were hardened. As it is written, God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes so that they could not see and ears so that they could not hear to this very day. And David says, may their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them. May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see and their backs be bent forever. Again, I ask, did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all. Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious. But if their transgression means riches for the world and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their fullness bring? I'm talking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I'm the apostle to the Gentiles, I make much of my ministry in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of them. For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? If the part of the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy. If the root is holy, so are the branches. If some of the branches have been broken off and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, do not boast over those branches. If you do, consider this. You do not support the root, but the root supports you. You will say then, branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in. granted, but they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but be afraid, for if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either. Consider, therefore, the kindness and sternness of God, sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you also will be cut off and if they do not persist in unbelief they will be grafted in For God is able to graft them in again after all if you were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature and Contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree How much more readily will these the natural branches be grafted in to their own olive tree? I? I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be conceited. Israel has experienced a hardening, in part, until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. And so, all Israel will be saved. As it is written, the Deliverer will come from Zion. He will turn godlessness away from Jacob. And this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins. As far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies on your account. But as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs. For God's gifts and his call are irrevocable. Just as you who were at one time disobedient to God have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience, So they too have now become disobedient in order that they too may now receive mercy as a result of God's mercy to you. For God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all. Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable his judgments and his paths beyond tracing out. Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has ever been His counselor? Who has ever given to God that God should repay Him? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen. May God add His blessing to this reading from His holy and inspired Word. Paul says, my heart's desire is that the Israelites might be saved. That's what I wanna see happen. But Paul makes it very clear that the only folks who are going to be saved, Jew or Gentile, are those who come through Jesus Christ. Jesus said in John chapter 14, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. And the Apostle Paul makes it clear that Christ has now put an end to the law. That way is not open. It never worked. No one was ever saved by keeping the law. Abraham was not saved by keeping the law. Moses was not saved by keeping the law. Joshua was not saved by keeping the law. Nobody was saved by keeping the law. That's why the whole sacrificial system was there, was to remind them continually that they were in an ongoing way transgressors. And some substitute had to provide salvation. And all those sacrifices pointed to the substitute. Jesus was not just the best sacrifice. He was the sacrifice that all the other sacrifices pointed to. It was all about him. It was all pointing to him. And so under the old covenant, the only way to be saved was by God's grace. But the people had this elaborate system of laws that God had given them to show them their sinfulness and to show them a picture of what he would do in order to bring salvation. Now in the new covenant, We are no longer trying to keep all God's laws from the old covenant. We are recognizing that our righteousness is by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Because he perfectly fulfilled God's law and then offered his sinless life as a substitute, paying the penalty that we owed. He died to pay for our sins. He took our punishment. Therefore, 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. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it's with your mouth that you confess and are saved. It is absolutely essential that you really believe With your heart. In other words, it's not just intellectual. Yeah, yeah, I believe that. Yeah, I think that's true. It is heart conviction. It is down deep in the core of your being. This is what you believe. You believe Jesus is Lord. Folks, that means not just that Jesus is important, it means he is your owner, your ruler, your master, your boss, he's in charge. He's the one who calls the shots. You belong to Him. Jesus is Lord. And you've got to express it. You've got to be willing to confess it with your mouth. If you don't believe that Jesus is alive and that He is Lord and confess Him as your Lord, You're just whistling Dixie like tons of folks in the church. There are a whole lot of people who, when it comes to the way they live their life, do not really believe that Jesus is alive. They don't really believe it. They treat Jesus as if he's some figure from history, somebody who lived a long time ago, but not someone who they can know right now, someone they can have a personal relationship with. And if you don't believe He's alive, and you don't confess Him as your Lord, you're not really convinced, and therefore trusting in Him, and therefore obeying Him. That's not saving faith. Thank God for the book of James that makes it abundantly clear what real faith looks like. Real faith expresses itself in action, in obedience to God. If it's mere intellectual assent, you just, yeah, I believe, yeah, yeah, sure, yeah, right, whatever. That's not saving faith. But if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you'll be saved. As the scripture says, anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame. What does that say? Anyone who trusts in him, where's your trust? What are you counting on? See, again, it's not about just believing something intellectually. I believe that Abraham Lincoln was the President of the United States. I don't trust in Abraham Lincoln, you know? Well, you know, when I get in a jam, I just depend on Mr. Lincoln. Well, that would really be psychotic, okay? Lincoln's dead. He was assassinated. He's no longer alive. He's not with us anymore. Well, I've seen his statue in Washington, D.C. It was very impressive. I was deeply moved. Well, that's all lovely. But you don't know Mr. Lincoln. Oh, I know lots about him. I have studied him. I've read books. I feel like I know him. Well, that's nice, but you don't know him. You don't know him. He's dead. He's dead. Well, I still talk to him sometimes. Well, then you're crazy. Okay? You're crazy. Because he's dead. But see, Jesus is alive. That's why you need to believe in your heart that God's raised him from the dead and therefore confess him as your master, owner, ruler, boss. He's in charge. If you trust in him, you'll never be put to shame. For there's no difference between Jew and Gentile. The same Lord is Lord of all and will richly bless all who call on him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Pastor, I've recently come to believe that you are correct about election. I've been reading these passages over and over and over again, and it seems pretty clear that God does choose some and not choose others. So my concern is this. What if a person cries out to the Lord to save them, but they're not one of the elect? What happens then? It doesn't happen. Well, how do you know? I mean, I'm concerned. I'm thinking, you know, I've asked God to save me and I know I have no other hope unless he does, but I've asked him to save me. But what if I'm not one of the elect? Well, guess what? If you're not one of the elect, you're not going to be running to him for mercy. You're not going to be calling on the name of the Lord for salvation. The only people who call on the name of the Lord for salvation are those whom God foreknew. And that's what we just read. The universal response of an unregenerate person is to say, no thanks. I've got it under control. I'm, I'm, I'm doing okay. The problem with the Jews that didn't believe in Jesus, according to Paul, is they were trying to pursue righteousness, not accept God's righteousness, but establish their own. I can fix this. I can do this. I was trying to make a curtain for my room and I, unfortunately, I measured wrong and so I cut off too much of the fabric. And so the curtain was about three inches too short. So I took it back down and I cut off a little more and I put it back up and now it was even worse. So I took it down and I cut off some more. Would that be a stupid way to go about it? Would that be stupid? Okay. Folks, when you're trying to establish your self-righteousness, that, you know, I know I've made mistakes, I know we all mess up, we all sin, but I'm trying really hard. All you're doing is making it worse. The only folks who receive God's mercy are the folks who know that they have no other hope. If you come to the point, by God's grace, of recognizing that your only hope is in Him, then you are ready, you are ready to enter into the joy of the redeemed. How blessed is the man whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. David said that in the Old Testament. Because that's the only way anybody ever got saved. It wasn't by cleaning up our act and fixing ourselves up. It was by God's grace. We need forgiveness. That's why Jesus said, I'm the physician and I've come for the sick. He came to seek and to save that which was lost. So everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Uh, you mean just, just if they're elect everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. So how then can they call on the one they've not believed in and how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? But not all the Israelites accepted the good news. In other words, even when the good news went out, not everybody who was Jewish believed. For Isaiah says, Lord, who's believed our message? In other words, even back in the Old Testament, even in the time of Isaiah, Isaiah speaking prophetically about Messiah coming and yet still speaking to the people in his day. Isaiah said, Lord, who has believed our message? Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ. But I ask, did they not hear? Of course they did. Did you hear that? Did they not hear? Of course they did. And then he quotes from the scriptures. Their voice has gone out into all the earth, their words to the end of the world. Well, did Israel not understand? First Moses said, I'll make you envious by those who are not a nation. I'll make you angry by a nation that has no understanding. In other words, it's not about the intellect. It's not about the language. It's not about how smart you are, how knowledgeable you are. It is the supernatural work of God because lest you say, well, I don't think the Jews understood. You think the Gentiles did? You think the Jews didn't but the Gentiles did? The Jews had much more reason to understand humanly. The Gentiles had much less reason to understand humanly. But God saved the Gentiles. Oh, I don't understand that. Well, it's exactly what he said he was going to do. Verse 20, as Isaiah boldly says, I was found by those who did not seek me. I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me. But concerning Israel, he says all day long, I have held out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people. God says. Ho everyone that thirsts come to the waters. Come, let us reason together. Choose life. God offers life, offers life, offers life. And the universal response of unregenerate man is to say, nope, no thanks, not interested. Why? Because the natural state of an unsaved person, man, woman, or child, No matter the ethnicity, no matter the language group, no matter the economics, the natural human response of the human heart toward God is no. Goes all the way back to the garden. When our first parents with free will made a choice to say no. God says you can eat the fruit of any of the trees of the garden except that one right there. What did we do? Well, that one looks good. And this snake told me it'd make me smart. I think I'll try it. Didn't make us smart. It did make it so that we know good and evil. Imagine if you'd never had any pain, only pleasure. And I said, hey, hey kid, come here. I'd like to introduce you to pain. You ever heard of pain? Oh, you're gonna love it. We went from knowing only good to knowing good and evil. What a bargain. We went from knowing only life to knowing death. We went from not knowing God's grace to knowing life and grace in Jesus Christ when he did for us what we could not do for ourselves. We started out in a position of death because our ancestors went from life to death. We, by grace, through what Jesus did, have moved from death to life. And that changes everything. That changes everything, but it's only through Jesus. And so the apostle Paul describes how this is the fulfillment of what was said in the old covenant. It's not something that was unanticipated, something new. He brings these old Testament scriptures to light and he says, I want you to see this is what God said all along. But then in chapter 11, he says, I asked them, did God reject his people by no means? Am an Israelite myself a descendant of Abraham from the tribe of Benjamin God did not reject his people whom he foreknew. Did you hear that? God did not reject his people whom he foreknew that explains What he's talking about in chapter 8 when he says those whom he foreknew he also called and It wasn't that God looked down through history, through time, and he saw who would believe and said, okay, I choose them. No, he didn't reject those whom he foreknew. Don't you know what the scripture says in the passage about Elijah? God says, verse four of chapter 11, I have reserved for myself 7,000 who have not bowed the knee to Baal. So too, at the present time, there is a remnant chosen by grace. Chosen by grace. The basis of God's choosing was not chosen by God anticipating what we were gonna do. The basis is that we were chosen by grace, and if by grace, it's no longer by works. If it were, grace would no longer be grace. What then? What Israel sought so earnestly, it did not obtain, but the elect did. The others were hardened. God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes so they could not see and ears so they could not hear to this very day. And David says, may their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and retribution for them. May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see and their backs be bent forever. Now folks, I don't know how Paul could make it more clear. Those who are saved, whether Jews or Greeks, whether Gentiles of any nation of the earth, those who are saved, it is by grace. It is entirely, entirely by grace. That's the only way anybody gets saved. But whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. It's not like we have to be worried that, oh, somebody might wanna get saved and ask God to save them and cry out for mercy and God's gonna say, nope, I didn't choose you. Anybody who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Anybody who believes in their heart that God has raised him from the dead and that Jesus is Lord and they confess that and they're trusting in him, that person's saved. But they're saved by God. They're not saved by what they did, they're saved by what God did. God gave these people blindness and gave these people life. It's His doing. And He's the one who deserves all the credit. Because we were all a bunch of corpses. We were all a bunch of dead bones. We had no life in us. The reason why Paul spends the first part of Romans laying out so forcefully how tragically corrupt and spiritually dead we are apart from Christ is so that we will understand that it was only by grace that we could be saved. You know, if everybody in here had a broken leg, that's a happy thought. If everybody in here had a broken leg, We brought in a team of physical therapists and said to you now those of you who do your physical therapy are going to get better and Those of you who don't do your physical therapy are going to end up with a limp permanently That would be a believable scenario but if everybody in here was dead and I mean dead, really dead, okay? I don't mean you feel dead or you're kind of sleepy this morning. I mean you were really dead. And we brought in a team of physical therapists and said, okay, those of you who are willing to work with us, do your exercises, go through your therapy, you're gonna do well. Those of you who won't do your exercises, you're just gonna continue to be dead. How many of us would do our exercises? None. Why not? Because we're dead. You understand? So Paul in the book of Romans establishes the fact that apart from Jesus Christ we are spiritually dead. And that the only way we can be made alive is through God's supernatural work giving us life. What does it look like when He gives us life? Well, we become aware of our sin and we realize we need a Savior and we cry out to Him and we trust in Him. And that's life. That's spiritual life. That's new life. And it's all by grace. God makes us alive in Christ Jesus. Why didn't he do that for everybody because he chose not to Well, it doesn't seem very democratic. It's not It's not because it turns out the universe is not a democracy. It's a kingdom and And there's only one king and it's God So if you don't like that plan of salvation You're not a part of it But if you are a part of God's saving grace, you are so grateful, you are so amazed, you are so astounded that He would save us. Why in the world would He save us? Because He chose to. It was by grace. If it's by grace, then it's not by works. That's what he says right here. And over and over and over again. Now, we don't have time to finish chapter 11 today. We read it earlier. God willing, we'll pick it up next time. But I want you to understand this. Please take it to heart. Please take it to heart. What Paul is saying is very clear. God is the one who saves. and it's only through his grace which we receive by faith in jesus christ anybody who trusts in jesus anyone who calls on the name of the lord anyone who believes is gonna be saved don't worry about whether or not you're one of the elect just ask him to save you but what if i'm not one of the elect then you're not really gonna worry about it it's like people who are I'm afraid I might have committed the unpardonable sin. I was reading in the Bible and it says, you know. No, people who've committed the unpardonable sin are not worried about whether or not they've committed the unpardonable sin. Understand? People who commit the unpardonable sin don't worry about it. The people who are worried about committing the unpardonable sin haven't committed it. Okay? It's just a given. It's part of the nature of the unpardonable sin. It's sort of like corpses not feeling the pain, you know? When you're spiritually dead, you can get slapped in the face. And it's like, no big deal. I can't believe he did that. He just hit himself right in the face. If I'd done that to him, he would have been upset. I want you to understand, corpses don't feel pain. Yeah, but Pastor Woods, you're not really a corpse, are you? Not yet. But I want you to understand this. I want you to understand this. The only way we get saved is God saving us. That's it. He saved us. Go back and read Titus 3 again. He saved us. He saved us. It's all by grace. So did he reject the Jews? Not those he foreknew. Not those he foreknew. What about people who don't believe? If they persist in unbelief, they will be lost. But all of us at one time did not believe. God is the one who, through the Word of Christ, gave us faith, and that's why we believe. Let's pray. Thank you, Father, for sending Jesus to save us. Thank you that because of Him, we don't have to be afraid. Help us to believe the good news, and we'll give you the praise. In Jesus' name, amen.