Turn with me, if you would, to Romans 10. Romans 10. Before our worship was interrupted by everything, We were going verse by verse through the book of Romans. That was one of the books that we were going through. And we made it up through Romans 10 verse 11, which says, for the scripture sayeth, whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. If the Lord is willing, I would like to pick back up with Romans and finish the book if the Lord opens it up and sends messages for the book. But what I want to do for this Bible study is recap what has been said so far in the book of Romans so we can get our mind back on it. Everything, as you go verse by verse, you're building on what has been said before. And I just want to get our mind back on what is being said in the book of Romans. The Lord, through Paul, has laid the foundation in the beginning chapters for what he is going to say in the ending chapters. And I want to summarize it with this statement. What Paul is saying, the evidence of salvation is faith. That's, that's what he's saying. The evidence of salvation is faith. The evidence is not works. Like a lot of people think it is. The evidence is not works. It's faith. Faith in and on the Lord Jesus Christ. True faith in His blood. True faith, believing in and on His blood. In and on what He did. Hebrews 11 verse 1 says, now faith is the substance of things hoped for. The evidence of things not seen. If men and women could just get a hold of that, honestly, if they could just get a hold of that, if God would truly reveal that to a person, it would deliver that person from all of his error. That's where men and women are in the flesh. We all start out in error, all of us. And if God would reveal that, it would deliver us from our bondage. It would deliver us from our false religion. Faith alone in Christ, faith alone, faith alone. That's what God's people are called out of religion to see. All false religion, doesn't matter what denomination it is, It's all works, some way, shape or form. That's where false religion differs. One says you got to do this work. Another says you got to do that work, work, work, work, work, work. And then when God calls his people out of that, he calls them to faith in Christ. He calls them away from works. Faith is the only thing that you cannot make a work out of. It is the only thing. Men and women can make a work out of anything except for God-given faith. I told you this little illustration before, and it's simple, but it gets the point across. Never has there ever been a company put an ad out that they want to fill a position. They're looking to hire a believer. Never. Not one company. You know, we're going to hire us a believer. So the man, you know, answers the ad and he goes for the interview and he says, well, what, you know, what would this job entail? Well, you would be a believer. We would pay you to believe. We would, we would tell you things and then you believe it and we pay you. That's not a work. That's not a work. Men and women can make a work out of anything. You can make a work out of listening. Psychiatrists do that. You can make a work out of speaking. I'm doing it right now. People say, what do you do for a living? I pastor a church. Y'all pay me to do this. This is my work. If a man desires the office of a bishop, he desires a good work, but you would not pay me to stand here quietly, silently, and believe. If I just stood here and believed, just got up, said nothing, just believed, I wouldn't be much of a preacher if I didn't believe. But it's not a work. We're not gonna pay you for that. You just stand up and believe for a while. And then sit down. It's not a work. It's not a work. Faith is not a work. It's the only thing that doesn't work. Now the flip side is, if it's not faith, it's a work. If it's not faith, it's a work. Anything other than believing what Christ has said, just believing it, just believing on Him, believing Him, concerning His work, His finished work, His accomplishment, anything other than believing Him is not faith. It's a work. Paul is the very man who wrote to the Ephesians. He said, by grace are you saved through faith. That is not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship. created in Christ Jesus, and then this is what he said, unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. God forbid. Should we strive to straighten up and fly right? Absolutely. Should God's people act like God's people? Should a believer act like a believer? Absolutely. Absolutely. No doubt about it. Paul is going to exhort good works in this book. We're going to get to that. He is going to exhort Good works, but he's laid the groundwork that good works are not the evidence of salvation. This is critical. This is one of the most critical things I know to preach. This is critical. This is the difference in bondage and Liberty. It truly is. It's the difference in error and truth. You can find good works in every religion known to man. You can find good works, but that doesn't mean you can find true faith in Christ in every religion known to man. Therefore, that doesn't mean you can find salvation in every religion known to man. Faith in Christ, belief on him, that's the evidence. Paul spent chapter one of this book saying the Gentiles, which is us, Anybody who's not a Jew, anybody who was not born into this world, a Jew is a Gentile, every other nation. He spent chapter one saying the Gentiles are awful. I mean, they're ruined, ruined by the wickedness of sin. Paul spent chapter two saying the Jews are awful. They're terrible. They're totally ruined by the wickedness of sin. Therefore, he said in chapter three, it's clear that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Jew, Gentile, there is none that doeth righteousness. There's none that does good. No, not one, none. But he said there in chapter three, thank God our salvation is not in us doing righteousness. It's not in us doing good. It's in Christ doing righteousness. It's in His goodness. Turn over there with me to Romans 3. Romans 3 verse 20, it says, therefore, by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight. For by the law is the knowledge of sin. What that means is, people say, well, now the Bible says you better do this. Or the Bible says you better not do that. And that's right. But we can't do this. And we can't stop doing that. So all the law does for us is expose our sin. Had God not written that in His law, we would not know that we cannot do what God requires of us. Verse 21, He said, But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested. That's a person. That's Christ who was manifest in the flesh. The righteousness of God without the law is manifested being witnessed by the law and the prophets. All the law and the prophets are pointing to him. This perfection. This fulfillment, it's all pointing to Him. Verse 22, even the righteousness, which is of God, righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe, for there's no difference. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Verse 24 says, being justified freely. How are sinners justified before God? freely. What do I have to do? What do I have to pay? What do I owe in return? It's free. It's free. Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation. That means a bloody victim. That means a covering, an atonement. through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God to declare, I say at this time, his righteousness, that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Where is boasting then? It's excluded. By what law? Of works? Nay, that's no way. No way, but by the law of faith. Verse 28 says, therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Could that be any more clear? Could that be any more clear? That's saying Christ saved his people without his people. That's what it's saying. Without their help at all, He by Himself purged our sins. He did it alone. Faith is not the final component in salvation. It's not the last step. It's not the last step. Christ finished salvation. That's done. Whoever is going to be saved is saved. That's done. But the evidence of who he did it for, the evidence of who he did it for, is he gives faith. He sends his own faith. And with his faith that he gives, his people totally believe on him. Totally. That's the evidence. Now Paul illustrated this in chapter 4 with Abraham. Chapter 4 verse 1 says, What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found? For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof the glory, but not before God. For what saith the scripture? How was Abraham justified? It says, Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him for good works, for good deeds, for righteousness. All he did was he believed God. What specifically did he believe? Verse 20, he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith. giving glory to God. He was strong in faith. That line led me to write an article for the bulletin today. The difference in no faith, weak faith, and strong faith. It said he was strong in faith. What that means is he didn't look to his own flesh at all. He didn't look to the deadness of Sarah's womb at all. Verse 21 says, being fully persuaded that what he had promised, he was able also to perform. He believed that what God had promised, God was able to perform. He believed God. He believed Christ. Now through chapters five and six, he says, Does knowing this, does knowing these things, the fact that Christ did it all and as Romans 5 verse 6 says, when we were yet without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. Who did Christ die for? Who did Christ die for? He died for the good people, those people who don't cuss, drink, smoke, chew, or run with women that do. He died for the good church-going folks. No, he didn't. He died for the ungodly, the ungodly. He said, I didn't come to call the righteous. A man says, look at my righteousness. He says, I didn't come to call the righteous. I came to call the ungodly. I came to call sinners. Verse six, when we were yet without strength and due time, Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet peradventure for a good man, some would even dare to die. But God commended his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Paul in these next two chapters is asking the questions, does knowing that, knowing that our eternal souls are secured, you know how people say, well you better watch it, you're going to lose your salvation. No you won't. Not if Christ saved you. Men want to go around saving themselves, they go around saying, I got saved, I got saved, I decided to. Well if you saved yourself, you'll lose it. But if Christ saved you, You are secure in Him. You're complete in Him. And does knowing that Christ died under our works and we live under His works, in His works, does knowing that Christ freed us from the bondage of the law by fulfilling the law for us and fulfilling that law in us, Does knowing that cause a child of God to want to dive head first into rebellion and sin against Him? Because this is what many people will say. Well, if I believed that, I'd live like I wanted to. I'd go do whatever. I'd just go sin as much as I wanted to. Is that what it causes God's people to do? God forbid. Absolutely not. Knowing what Christ has done for them, in spite of them, makes men and women fall in love with Christ. It does. It makes them hate what they did to Him. They see Him on the cross and say, I did that to Him. That was supposed to be me. It makes them cry, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. It makes them long to be like Him and no more to be like what they are in the flesh. In Romans 7, Paul is confessing to everybody, this is what I feel about myself. Here's the response to all of this. If you want to know what I think of myself in the flesh, look at Romans 7 verse 24. Paul said, O wretched man that I am. He didn't say was, this is not Saul of Tarsus speaking that same man in religion, persecuting God's people and killing God's people. He's, this is God's apostle. This is, this is a man right now, writing the words of God. He said, Oh, wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death. Who is it? He clearly spells it out in chapter eight, verse one. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. Aren't you so glad that doesn't say there is therefore now no condemnation to them who straighten up and fly right? Aren't you so glad that that doesn't say there's no condemnation if you will stop thinking the thoughts that go through your mind? There's no condemnation to them who stop saying things they shouldn't say. Aren't you so glad it doesn't say that? There's no condemnation for whoever God puts in Christ. Period. Verse 29 says, for whom he did foreknow. That means elect, choose beforehand. He also did predestinate, predetermine. to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom He did predestinate, them He also called, and whom He called, them He also justified, and whom He justified, them He also glorified. What part is mine in that? What did he say? If God will do this, as long as you do that, it says he, he, he, he, he, he did it all. Start to finish, he did it all. Verse 31 says, what shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? If God be for us. who can be against us. Now in chapter nine, Paul warns after talking about God's love for sinners and God being for us in chapter nine, he warns that God is not for everybody. He's not for everybody. And he said, God has clearly revealed that to us with Jacob and Esau, these two boys, Jacob and Esau. Chapter nine, verse 10, it says, not only this, but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac, for the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil that the purpose of God, according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth, It was said unto her, the elder shall serve the younger as it is written. Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. And then he says in verse 14, what shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. Is that wrong of God to say that and, and do that? God forbid. God is absolutely sovereign. God is God. Look down at verse 21. He said, hath not the potter power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel under honor and another under dishonor? This is God we're talking about, the sovereign God. He has every right to do what he wants with who he wants. We're the clay. He literally made us from the dust to the ground. We're the clay. And back up in verse 15, it says, for he sayeth to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that willeth. Man wants to talk about his free will. You just make your free will decision. Well, it's not of him that willeth. Man can make his free will decision all he wants to, but it's not of him that willeth. nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. It's of God that shows mercy. That's the message of Romans. That's the message of the whole Bible. It's of God that shows mercy. And God has said, this is what Paul goes on to say. God has said that he is going to reveal that mercy through the preaching of his gospel, through the preaching of his word. And I'll just tell you where so many people go wrong. I don't say this arrogantly, this is truthfully. My heart breaks for People who are sitting in pews listening to a man preach lies, my heart just breaks. Those poor people, bless their hearts. God be merciful. My heart breaks for and my heart is a little angry towards men who stand in pulpit and tell lies to people. But where all of us will go wrong is the moment we leave this word and start preaching what I think or what my grandmama told me. It's this Word alone. And whenever God calls a man, and it doesn't have to be this man, any man, when God calls any man to preach this Word, this Word right here, God will open people's ears to say, I didn't know the Word said that. I've never seen that in the Word before. And through this means, the only reason I stand here is because God ordained it. Had this not been the means He chose, I would sit down. Let's just all go somewhere and read our Bibles. But He has chosen this means of us sitting down, listening to a man stand up and declare, thus saith the Lord. And with thus saith the Lord, the Spirit takes that word, not the man, but the Spirit, He takes that word and He, boom, you're mine. Boom, you're mine. Believe. And the sinner says, I believe. It is through his word, the declaration of his word that God calls his people. This is what Paul's declaring. So he says, I'm going to preach it. I'm going to declare it. And he says, I'm going to preach it to whoever God gives an ear to hear it. Now this will open up chapter 10 to us. All right. Romans 10. I've loved this chapter for so long, but this will open up chapter 10. We preach because God is sovereign and God will choose and God will save and God will call and do all those things. He said. It pleased the Lord by the foolishness of preaching to do all that for His people. So chapter 10, verse 1, Paul said, Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel, the Jews, my kinsmen after the flesh. Paul was a Jew. We're Gentiles. He was a Jew. He said, Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God." They know about God and they're going through the motions, they're doing the works of the law, they're trying to anyway. But he said, it's not according to knowledge. Not at all according to knowledge. They've not been taught the Word of God by the Spirit of God. Verse 3 says, for they being ignorant of God's righteousness. What is God's righteousness? It's a person. His name is Jesus Christ, the one who came to do good for all his people because they couldn't. They being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness have not bowed. They have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. to everyone that believeth. That's the evidence. Believes on Christ, believes that Christ did everything that had to be done to save his people from their sins. Verse nine says, if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart, man believeth unto righteousness, goodness, good deeds. And with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. That means if God has given us faith to believe that Christ has finished the work, and faith to believe that God is satisfied. God's satisfied with Christ, and God is satisfied with us in Christ. If God has given us faith to believe that, that's the evidence that we're among the saved. And he goes on to say that faith is gonna come through. If God gives it, he's gonna send it through the preaching of his word to whosoever. Whosoever. In verse 1, when Paul's saying, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved, what he's saying is, I want them to be saved. But if they won't hear it, I'm going to go preach it to the Gentiles. That's what he's saying. Verse 12, he said, for there's no difference between the Jew and the Greek. The same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon Him. They need to be saved too. They need to be saved too. Now, I'm done. I'm done, but I just want us to think about this. This is what Paul is about to say in chapter 11, and when the Lord wills, we'll get to it. But in the Old Testament, all through the 4,000 years, that time of the Old Testament, the Jews thought only they were God's people. That's what they thought. Only they were God's people. They only saw the Gentiles who are constantly called heathen, they're constantly called outcast. They only saw the Gentiles to be idol worshipers. They had their own gods and they did not call on God, the Gentiles, they did not. They were not looking to God. And all that's accurate. What the Jews thought of the Gentiles, that's true, they didn't. But God called some of his apostles to go preach to the Gentiles. God sent the message of His Word to the Gentiles. And by His Spirit, He revealed Himself, the true and living God, to the Gentiles. Here we see it. Here we see it. God saved Some Gentiles, not every Gentile, but he saved some Gentiles. In Acts 11, verse 18, the Jews realized this, and this is what they said. They were shocked. They said, then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life. That new mind that stops looking to themselves and starts looking to Christ. Shocked by it. The Jews saw it really is whosoever. It really is whosoever, whosoever God chooses to have mercy on Jew or Gentile. All right now. And I would adore this if we, if this is the Lord's will, I would adore seeing this in our lifetime. We Gentiles need to see and understand the same thing. We Gentiles need to understand the same thing. Right now we see the Jews. to be the idol worshipers. They got their candles, they got their hats, they got their this, they got their that. They are not looking to Christ. They don't acknowledge his name. They don't think the Messiah has even come. They're still waiting on the Messiah to come the first time. They don't acknowledge Christ. They have all their form and all that kind of stuff and it's so far from God. It's so far from his word. But we shouldn't be shocked at all if God in mercy sends His Word and His Spirit back to the Jews. That's what Paul's about to say. If He calls them to Himself, and here's the reason why, there's no difference in Jew or Gentile. We all need salvation through faith in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. God is going to quicken. He's going to call. He's going to give faith to believe and he's going to do it to whoever he's pleased to do it for. And he's going to use the preaching of the gospel. So may he give us a message. Honestly, may he give us a very clear, deliberate message of truth. May he bless the message. May he give us the ability, the opportunity, the heart, the concern, the desire, the burden to point men to Christ. I mean truly point men to Christ, no longer to themselves and only to Christ. And I'm going to stop, but down through the end of this, that's what he says. How are they going to hear if they don't have a preacher? How's he going to preach except he's sent? We need this gospel. We need Christ. May God send it to us. All right, you're dismissed.