This is paramount. Everything that the Bible teaches hinges on the resurrection of Jesus. Everything. Everything hinges on the resurrection of Jesus. Everything. If Jesus is dead, if he's still in a grave, we're all wasting our time. We're all in trouble. But because He's not dead, because He conquered sin and death, and the grave is forever empty, for those who give their lives to Him and submit to Him in true repentance, true surrender, who the Son sets free, is free indeed. But we gotta crucify ourselves if we're really gonna give our lives to Christ. Welcome to This Day in the Word with Pastor John Couch, the radio teaching ministry of This Day Ministries. It is a joy to have you listening today, and we pray that you will be encouraged, challenged, and motivated to live for God like never before. And now, with today's message, here's Pastor John Couch. O Father, I come before you, And as we hallow your name, as we lift up your name, Lord, I know there's so many challenges here in this room, so many issues. And yet I know there's many issues for those listening as well. And God, we live again in a broken, fallen, depraved, wicked, dark world. this largely is par for the course, that we just face challenges. And so God, I pray for the one, or the many probably, who are dealing with something. Lord, I just pray right now by Your Spirit, by Your wisdom, Your enabling, whatever the challenge or challenges are, God, may we cast our care upon You Because Jesus, we know you care for us. And so Lord, don't allow us to be distracted by our challenges. I think the enemy likes to do that, to distract us, to get us off course. But Father, I pray we would always simply be looking unto Jesus. Looking unto Jesus, the author and the perfecter of our faith. And so Lord, keep us from the schemes of the enemy even now as we open your word. Satan is going to try to present his gospel. Oh, he's got a gospel. Don't allow us to get hoodwinked, lured, or baited into his gospel, which seems so close to the real gospel. But may we bathe drink deeply in the true gospel of Jesus Christ today. And so, Father, may the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to You and only You, my Lord, my rock, and my Redeemer. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Romans 10, we are in verses 5 through 13, and as we are launching in and you're finding that place in your Bible with your worship guide and your notes, the original title that I had wrote down earlier in the week was, Who Can Be Saved? And we're gonna see a lot of that today. Who can be saved? But the more I began to think about it over these last days, as we unpack these verses, Romans 10, five through 13 together, I believe we also need to address not only who can be saved, biblically speaking, but biblically speaking, how does one become saved? There is such confusion, whether it be inadvertent or just simply a scheme of the enemy, especially here in the American church where this new gospel, let's call it what it is, this progressive gospel, which is not the gospel, by the way, because God's gospel, His word is not progressing. His Word is solid, it's sure, it's secure, it's final in its meaning, it's intent. God is perfect, He's holy. There's no typos in His manuscript, so to speak, as far as His message. There's no, I gotta go back and redo this. God's Word is clear. God's Word is clear. How we can be saved, And who can be saved? Very clear. And so I pray today as we read these words from God's holy word, I just pray, Holy Spirit, would you give us divine illumination that we can see very clearly, crystal clear, crystal clear, who can be saved and how. We're hearing so much on how, do this, don't do that. Do this, don't do that. Recite this. Tell this person. Pray this prayer. Stand on one leg. I mean, on and on we hear, do this, and somehow God's going to invade your life, bless you, give you everything you want, make your life easy, and yet that's simply not biblical. And so let's read these words together. I'm gonna actually start in verse one from our last time together to give us context. And then we'll roll right in. We're gonna just roll right in to verse five through 13. So Bible open, I pray. Heart open, I pray. Romans 10, verse 1, from last time together. Brothers, this is affectionate, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them, remember who them is? That's who? Israel, good, is that they may be saved, rescued, regenerated, delivered. For I bear them witness, he's testifying, that they do have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge, not according to truth. You can have a zeal for God, it'd be totally misplaced. And we see it a lot, right? There's people out there that are just zealous for God, but it's all misplaced. It's wrong theology, it's bad theology. It's human theology. No. We stick with God and His Word. Verse three, Romans 10, for being ignorant, and that was the key, ignorant, of the righteousness of God, so they don't know, they're out of the loop, and seeking to establish their own. And there it is, right? Always seeking their own, me, me, me, me, me. There was no king in Israel, it says in the Old Testament, and everyone did what? Everyone did what was right in their own eyes. That was Old Testament, welcome to America in 2025. Just do what's right in your own eyes is what we often hear. Do what feels good, because last time together we talked about my truth, which is no truth. When you hear my truth, what people are really saying is they have no clue what truth even is. Then the Bible says this, they wanted to establish their own or seeking to, verse 3, Romans 10, they did not submit. They refused to fall in line. It's a military term. In the military, you submit. You may not like to, but you submit. You fall in line. Well, that's the whole point of human nature. We're rebels. Oh, we're rebels with a cause. And the cause is me, me-ology, me planet, planet me. Planet me, the world revolves around me. That's our cause. We're rebels, and what do rebels do? Well, you take that word rebel, and what do rebels do? They are very rebellious. And that's exactly what happens here. It's like a wayward child, they're rebellious. Well, these here, these Israelites, they sought to establish their own, their own way to God, and they would not submit to God's righteousness. He's clear, even in the Old Testament, as we're gonna see today, God's message of grace is all over the Old Testament. It's all over. I'm going to show you from the Old Testament that God didn't go, hey, oh, wait a minute. We're in the New Testament, the new covenant. I got to come up with some new plan, some new path. Let's go ahead and create this grace and mercy path. That's not what God had. From beginning, from the very beginning, the Pentateuch, the Mosaic law we're gonna see here today, God had his law, yes, but even then he had a plan pointing towards the cross where Jesus Christ would be crucified and executed, that God would give what's most precious to him as only begotten son, that whosoever believes, whosoever gives their life in total surrender, total submission, will not perish, but have everlasting life. And all of that is in the Old Testament. This isn't something new. We call it the New Covenant, yes. But God wasn't scrambling at the midnight hour going, oops, been asleep at the wheel, what do I do now? No. So they did not submit, follow in line under God's righteousness. Verse 4, for Christ is the end of the law. There it is. He's the end of legalism. He's the end of self-help. He's the end of self-actualization that permeates the church culture today. Just believe enough in yourself, dig down deep enough within yourself, pull yourself up by your own bootstraps, and somehow you're going to be in the grace and mercy and good standing righteousness of God. And that's just simply false. That's a lie. Just a lie. Call it what it is. It's an absolute lie. That's part of Satan's gospel. So, today's verses, here we are, 5-13, Romans 10, for Moses, so it just flows, for Moses writes, okay? What did Moses write? Do you remember? The law, so just keep that in your mind. About the righteousness that is based on the law. Okay, we got that. No harm there. That's a true statement. That the person who does the commandments shall live by them. But, verse 6, the righteousness based on faith says, do not say in your hearts who will ascend into heaven. And you got parentheses there, that is, to bring Christ down. Verse 7, or you're going to say this perhaps, who will descend into the abyss? That is, in parentheses, to bring Christ up from the dead. But what does it say? The Word is near you in your mouth and in your heart. Parentheses, that is the Word of what? Faith. There it is. That we preach, that we herald, that we proclaim because, verse 9, here we go. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, what are the next four words? You will be what? Saved. That's good stuff. Verse 10, for with the heart, one does what? Believes, and is what? Justified. And with the mouth, one does what? Confesses, and is what? Saved. 11, for the scripture says, everyone who believes in Him will not be put to shame. Verse 12, For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek. For the same Lord is Lord of who? All. Bestowing His riches on who? All who call on Him. Lastly, here it is, 13. For everyone, how many? Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be what? Saved. And all God's people said, Amen. So we see very clearly who can be saved and how to be saved, biblically. I pray today you're gonna leave here if you're here in this room or listening. I pray today you're gonna go, wow, that was a light bulb moment. I got this cleared up. I'm hearing this foolishness and this foolishness and this nonsense and this nonsense and this viewpoint and that viewpoint and this is what I think the Bible says and this is what I think the Bible says versus what does the Bible say? And we're gonna see right here as we dissect this who can be saved. and how are we saved, okay? Romans 10, five through seven. There's two sections here we broke it down into. Let's go through this. Romans 10, five through seven. For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law. So again, so you got this guy named Moses, and he wrote the law, we call it the Pentateuch. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and what? Deuteronomy. That's God's holy word in its inspiration by the Holy Spirit, the first books of the Bible. And Moses right here writes about this, this righteousness that is based on the law. Now, this is very key. This is very, very key. I want you to stay dialed in. I know there's probably distractions going on right now, but do everything in your power to stay locked in, stay locked in, because this is so key. This right here, this passage, is one of the most paramount passages in all of Scripture, because we're gonna learn who can be saved and how we're saved. That's pretty important stuff, isn't it? I mean, that's why we exist, ultimately. I mean, we're not a country club. We're not here just to gather. I mean, we love having food. We love to fellowship. We love to sing. We love to pray. It's all good. But at the end of the day, we're trying to impact people for the glory of God and teach them how they can be saved and they can be included in those that are saved, amen? And that's our mission. We exist for the glory of God and to be disciples of Jesus that make disciples of Jesus. That is our mission. Our mission is not we exist to occasionally gather on a Sunday, have a great time and go home and take a nap. That's not our mission. Our mission is that we exist for the glory of God. We exist for His glory. We turn our lives over to Him. You're our ruler. You're our master. We do this not begrudgingly. We want you to be in charge, God. Oh, by the way, God, we want to go make some disciples that go and make a whole bunch of more disciples of Jesus. That's the mission. If you don't got a mission, you're aimless. If you don't have a mission, where are you heading? If you don't have a mission in life, you should have a personal mission. I exist. Someone stops you in the grocery store and they go, why do you exist? I don't know. No, I exist. for the glory of God. I exist to live for Him. I exist to go share His love and His Word and His truth. I don't know what your mission is, but I pray today you've got a mission. He's given us another day on planet Earth. Let's not waste it. Let's not be people that are just cruising and coasting and just trying to get by. Let's be people that are living the mission. And right here is the Old Testament Moses, and he's going, look, wait a minute, Moses did write about a righteousness being made right with God that's through the law. In other words, you gotta keep the law perfectly. Woo, that's a tall task, isn't it? I mean, can you imagine trying to keep the law perfectly? Yeah, me neither. Me neither. It says right here in your Bible, verse five, that the person who does the commandments, does, carries these commandments out, shall live by them. So if you're gonna say, look, okay, I'm gonna be righteous, God's gonna view me as righteous, being made right with him, and I'm gonna obey these laws, so that means I gotta live by them every single moment, every single day, without any error. No hiccups, no mistakes, no do-overs, no spiritual eraser on your spiritual pencil. That's not acceptable. Well, then why would he do that? Well, it's interesting. If you look in your Bible in front of you, right here, a quote from Leviticus 18.5, that righteousness is based, again, on keeping the law, which no human can do. But the righteousness that's based on what? Faith. Repeat after me, faith. One more time, faith. What is faith? See, that's a whole nother word that's hijacked, miscombobulated. Oh, I have faith. Faith in what? Like, what do you have faith in? Oh, I don't really know. No one's ever asked me a second question. I got faith, though. What faith is being talked about here in the Greek, the root word of faith and belief is the same. So when we see the word faith, it's talking about belief. And again, this is not some intellectual assent. This is not mental gymnastics. This is talking about a total belief in the person and finished work of Jesus Christ of Nazareth that came to this earth, that was born of a virgin, that lived a sinless life, went to a cruel Roman cross, was executed and scourged and whipped and mocked and beaten, Died. Yes, he actually died. And on the third day, he ran out of the grave. That's what that's talking about. And when it's talking about that, it's not saying that I just kind of high five it and I give a check mark to it and I go, well, it sounds great. And I certainly don't deny it. I'd be an idiot to deny it. No, it's talking about you surrender to it. That's the point. You surrender to this. Jesus didn't die on a cruel Roman cross so that he could be a trophy on the mantle of your life. He didn't get butchered and executed so that he could be first runner up in your life. He died and resurrected so that he could take over your life. That you would sign over the title deed of your life and slide it across the table with no fine print and go, here's my life, you take it, you use it, I don't want it anymore. That's a Christ follower. Boy, the crowd gets thin, doesn't it? It gets really thin, really quick. I mean, to see the absolute nonsense that's going on out there right now. I was watching a clip last night and I literally started to weep. A church had of another denomination that went off the rails, by the way, a mainline denomination went off the rails, and so they had their worship people, and I say that very loosely, they're all dressed up like the Beatles. No, I'm not making this up. They're all dressed up like the Beatles, and they're singing Beatle songs, and they're taking the songs and somehow marrying the lyrics to the gospel. Not making this up. I mean, it just made me furious. I mean, I was just furious. It's a righteous anger. And yet, this is happening everywhere. Right here in greater Richmond. Just here in greater Richmond, you can find places like this that claim, hey, we're worshiping Jesus, when in reality, let's call it what it is, they're synagogues of Satan. Who can be saved? How do I be saved? Well, what does he say? Well, look in your Bible, verse 6, "...but the righteousness being made right with God, based on faith." Again, I just gave you what the word faith means. Total trust in the person, finished work of Jesus, giving your life to Him. He now frames it. This is very interesting. Paul frames it. He frames it as though the righteousness is by faith. This is so Holy Spirit inspired. He frames it as though the righteousness is by faith. is as though it's a person speaking. And he quotes now from Deuteronomy. So, he quoted from Leviticus, Old Testament, and now he's in Deuteronomy, and this is what he says, 30, 12 through 13. Deuteronomy 30, 12 through 13. Do not say in your heart, who will ascend into heaven. So, we don't again have to do all this crazy stuff, like we gotta run up to heaven. Or, we gotta bring Christ down. Christ already did all this. You're to come down from heaven, verse seven, or who will descend into the abyss? That is to bring Christ up from the dead. Like we don't have to go up, we don't have to go down. This isn't self-effort, self-justification. This is all about what Christ did. This is the point of the gospel. The point of the gospel is what Christ did. That's the point. The whole point of the law is the point is to Christ, because He did what none of us could ever do. That is the point of the law. The point of the law is for me and you to look into the mirror of the schoolmaster, the tutor, the teacher of the law, and it looks at me, it looks at you, and I read it and go, I can't do that, and God's like, bingo, chief. Way to go. You're getting this, John. You're figuring this out. That's why I gave my son. He did, John, put your name in the blank. He did for you what you could not do for yourself. That is the point of the gospel. Not to gather and sing Beatles songs with a gospel mixed in. It's just total insanity. And yet you'll fill the place. You'll fill it. People don't want truth. They want to be coddled. They got itching ears. They'll heap up teachers for themselves. They don't want biblical truth. And if they don't repent, they're going to forever rot in the lake of fire. That's the bluntness of this. That's love, by the way. That's not hate. It's not being mean. It's like, this is the Bible. This is true. And yet it pains me. to see so many that just don't care. Verse seven, again, who will descend into the abyss? That's to bring Christ up from the dead. Let me give you key number one. Let's just jump right in here. Key number one, write this down. Key one in your notes, key one. As we see here in Romans 10, five through seven, Attempting to perfectly, and you gotta do this perfectly, obey God's law is impossible. Can we agree on that? And we'll never make a person right with God and give them the righteousness that He requires. Let me, one more time, one more time. Key one. As we see right here in the Bible, Romans 10, five through seven, attempting to perfectly obey God's law is impossible. And we'll never make a person right with God and give them the righteousness that He requires. Obedience to God is not the way to salvation. I want to be clear on this. Obedience to God is evidence of your salvation. Did we get this? Obedience to God is not the way, the path, the highway, the road to salvation. You can obey God. You can be a really, what, a really good person. Matter of fact, if you were to talk with people you know, if I was to go out in the community like I do, the number one thing I hear when I bring up God is take a wild guess. I'm a what? A good person. Isn't that interesting that in our human brokenness, We know, we know that we are not good and that the very thing we do to get around God, to get around Jesus, is we throw out an excuse and an idea that I'm actually something that I'm not to self-justify why I am rebelling against God. The human mind is, is wild, because as the great Puritans would say, the human heart is an idol factory. And when you got an idol factory and then a data center between your ears, and those two are working in tandem, unless you give your life to Christ, you're gonna do everything with a data center between your ears to protect your idol factory. Because you don't wanna give up your idol factory. You'd rather be on the throne of your own life. You want to be your own God. That's what self-righteousness is, self-justification. When people say this as well, I've heard them say this over the years, you know, me and God are good. I don't really need God. They don't per se say that, but we're good. We're good, or I'm good. What they're really saying is, I can save myself. That's the delusion. That's the delusion of Satan's gospel. I'm good, I don't need to hear this, I don't want to hear this. It offends me, it offends my family, it offends my mother-in-law, fill in the blank. We're all offended at the truth. But it's a truth that will set us free. I couldn't help but think of so many things that were boggling in my head this past week. And I know that's frightening for you that know me, because you would agree that there's lots of boggling going on. And I thought to myself, how timely this illustration is. I mentioned last week that it's all over the internet, out there in the internet sphere, I guess you would call it, of a Christian professing couple, we'll say, a professing Christian couple who is on television and they have a popular TV show called Fixer Upper. And we probably all watched it. And it's funny. And it's kind of cool how they take a dilapidated mess and then turn it into a castle. And everyone, as they pull the banners back at the end of the show, everyone gasps, cries, hugs, and goes home. It's amazing. And yet, this couple has caved and buckled under the pressure of achieving the dollar. They've caved, they promoted this new show by helping truly just to destroy the nuclear family. They're dismantling God's design for the family as they're showcasing two men that are married, have two children, and this couple, this Christian couple we'll call them, that profess Christ, they've made a decision to celebrate and endorse and promote what God hates. And a media outlet made this statement that caught my eye. I want you to listen to what the media outlet said. that sources have said that Chip and Joanna have a tough position to negotiate. And I paused there in my mind, I put my glasses down, I thought, what? That there's nothing tough to negotiate here. But I kept reading. Satisfying, oh, there's the word, the demands of an increasing diverse audience across the US and growing their network, ready for this one? while staying true to their faith and fan base, period, end quote. So here's the moral of the story. Forget this subject matter. If this was a show about celebrating a heterosexual male and female who were openly living in fornication adultery, we would still be saying the same thing. This is not one particular sin issue, but this is the one on our doorstep. And so you read this quote, and they're in a tough position, evidently, on what to do. And the reality is, we're not in any tough position on what to do, because we simply open this book, the Bible, and it tells us what to do. But the challenge is right here that they're in a pickle because they're trying to satisfy their audience, their fan base, and still stay true to their faith, and it's impossible, you can't do it. They're trying to do something that cannot be done. You'll love one and hate the other. And then to see the response from the man of this home this past week of defending and much sarcasm back to those who are lovingly. I mean, loving, this isn't like people being mean. They're like, hey, we need you to stay true to the faith. We're in tough times. This is not the time to buckle and cave and bend. Just lovingly and to see the response. of quote-unquote Christians. You are listening to This Day in the Word, the radio teaching ministry of This Day Ministries. All of Pastor Couch's messages are archived and are free to download at thisdayministries.org. In addition, you can share your prayer requests with us via email. Our email address for prayer requests is prayer at thisdayministries.org. That's prayer at thisdayministries.org. And now, back to This Day in the Word with Pastor John Couch. Is obedience important in a Christian's life? And the answer is yes. It doesn't save us, but obeying God's Word, submitting, falling in line to God's Word is fruit and evidence and markers that that life has truly been saved, rescued and delivered. We can't fall into this cesspool of toxins and poisons. It's like detonating a spiritual grenade. We're literally, people are just going down the drain because they're trying to satisfy the people around them, trying to, quote unquote, stay true to the Bible, and you can't do it. You can't. Don't try it. It'll get you sucked in, it will pull you down. It will pull you down. You can't do it. I mean, we need people lovingly, kindly, humbly, graciously, being willing to just stand for truth. We don't be mean, we're not ugly, we're not picketing, we're not bombing abortion clinics and all the other evil that goes on, but it's okay to go, this is not of God and I will stand against it. There is nothing wrong with doing that. Who knows your boldness in that may actually, by the power of the Holy Spirit, be used in someone's life to open their spiritual blinders and save them from eternal hell and damnation. Who knows? And yet that's what we see here in this Word. We can't be people that are attempting to save ourselves. The whole world is doing this to some degree. I'm good, I'm saved, right? And that's a whole other question. I mean, think about this for a moment. So often we ask people, hey, are you saved? And again, oh yeah, I'm saved. Can you explain that? Again, well, when I was six, walked an aisle, said a prayer, did whatever, got wet, saved. Here's a better question to start asking. Ready? Here it is. Here's the better question. Because when you look at this word that we've just studied in the verses we're getting ready to study, there's one word that's brought up over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over. It starts with an R, ends with an S, and has an righteousness in the middle. Righteousness. How about this question? Hey, how you doing? Have you been made right with God? Has God made you holy? Now that's going to be interesting, isn't it? Because when we ask, are you saved? Everybody's saved, right? I'm saved. No, we want to be people. that rest in the truth. Write these verses down, I'll give you a few here. James 4, 4. You adulterous people, unfaithful, they're cheaters. Do you know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Now be very clear here, this is not saying go be mean at your job tomorrow. Tomorrow, when you go to your job, don't talk to anybody. That's not what that's saying. If you read this and understand the context, being a friend of the world is being pulled into the worldly system. And that's why it's so tough to missionary date. You know what missionary dating is, don't you? For usually one of the two, the man or the woman, one's a professing believer, the other isn't. And the professing believer tells those people that are concerned, hey, you know what, it's gonna be okay because I'm going to convert him or her. And yet in my experience, I haven't seen this happen once, not saying it can't, but in my experience, 100% of the time, the person that's trying to do the converting gets converted to the dark side. Happens all the time. All the time. On a missionary date. Be careful. You're in the world but not of it. You're out there tomorrow on your job doing whatever you do in your job to be light, to be Jesus, to go live the gospel. But you just don't go start doing what the world does. You do that, you become now an enemy of God. God's wrath is against you. His hand is against you. God opposes the proud. It literally is as a stiff arm. If you like football, picture the Heisman pose. It's a stiff arm. Like God's given that person a stiff arm. But I oppose you. I oppose you. You can't push back. I'm the great God of the Bible. You cannot push back against me. I'm opposing you. That's what people sign up for when they're prideful, they walk in self, they're not humble and contrite. Remember, the most loving thing you could do is tell people the truth, humbly, kindly, graciously. But we must speak truth, amen? Let me give you several on obedience, just so we have this before we jump into the next. I'm gonna rattle these off. Obedience, what does the Bible say about obedience? fruit evidence of saving faith. Matthew 7.21, Matthew 7.21, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but, but, caveat, the one who does, carries out, obeys the will of my Father who is in heaven. There it is. Again, not for salvation, from salvation. John 14, 15. Easy address to remember. John 14, 15. Jesus says, if you love Me, if you really love Me, you will keep, you will obey My commandments. Luke 6, 46. Luke 6, 46. Why do you call Me Lord, Lord, and not do what I tell you? You call Me Lord, Lord, Master, Master, but you constantly just rebel and disobey. Ephesians 2.10, Ephesians 2.10, for we are His workmanship, not our own, created in Christ Jesus for what? For good works, fruit evidence, which God prepared beforehand. Boy, we studied that a bunch, didn't we, in Romans 9. What? That we should walk in them, that we should do them, that we should obey. James 1.22, James 1.22, but be doers of the word, be obeyers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves, tricking yourselves, seducing yourselves, self-justification, rationalizing, denial, denial, denial, dud, nile. It is a river in Egypt, I get that, denial, I get it. It's just a really bad plan for the Christian life. James 2.26, James 2.26, For as the body, apart from the spirit, is dead, so also faith, belief, trust in Christ, giving your life to Christ, apart from works, obedience, fruit, evidence, is dead. I mean, this makes perfect sense, right? You know, I can get in my car today and drive down to Cape Canaveral, I can go sit there in the parking lot, put on a space suit, get an ID that says NASA, and tell people I'm an astronaut. They would probably call the police. Just because I wear an astronaut suit and have a name tag and sit in the parking lot at NASA doesn't make me an astronaut. Now, they may think I'm flying around among planets, and that's probably true. See the parallel? Just because people say, I'm a Christian, do you even know what one is? We'd ask back. Yeah, you're claiming to be a little Christ. You're claiming that Christ has invaded your life, taken over your life, that you're trusting in His righteousness and not your own to make you acceptable and pleasing and propitiating the wrath of God the Father. That's what it means to be a Christ follower. Lastly, 1 Peter, write this down. 1 Peter 1, 22 through 23. 1 Peter 1, 22 through 23. Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth. Wow. Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth. You think obedience is a big thing? for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again. What does that mean to be born again? To be what? To be saved, to be delivered, to be rescued, to be made right with God. Not of perishable seed, but of imperishable through, here it is, through the living, abiding word of God. As I hold up this Bible, it's all about the word of God. And yet, here's what's going to happen before we roll into the second and last part. You're going to face out there, and I face this group now for decades, but there's a group out there called antinomians. So these antinomians with a spouse is that obeying God's moral law just simply is not that important. And here's the thought, when you read Scripture and you know that obedience, true, is not for salvation, but obedience gives evidence of a true conversion and true fruit being born as you desire to walk in step with the Lord as the Holy Spirit leads and I follow you, follow Him. If you're truly converted, why on earth would you espouse a false doctrine that obedience is not important? Is it important to save you? Can it save you? And the answer is no. My obedience, your obedience, cannot save us without Christ. But Christ saves us. Our response is an obedient response. As He calls, as He draws, as He stirs, John 6, 44, no one can come to the Father unless He draw, unless He stir, unless he woo, unless he awaken the spiritually dead corpse. And he brings life into the corpse. And that's where we awaken. And we give our lives to Christ. And then from that, even though we struggle in these bodies of death, we want to please Him. We desire to please Him. We want to obey Him. Don't fall into that trap of listening to those that simply twist the fact that obedience is not what saves us, but that doesn't mean that obedience is not important once we're saved. That's a loophole to trample on the grace of God and go live however you want. That's what that is. That's a loophole just to trample on the grace and mercy of God. Paul even said, do we go on sinning that grace may abound? He said, what? Certainly not. No, we're people that we want to obey God. And that's why I pray in this last section that it will just drive the nail home. Look at Romans 10, 9-13. Who can be saved? How are we saved? Let's look together. Romans 10. Look at these beautiful verses here. Romans 10, actually 8-13. Let's look at 8-13. Romans 10, 8-13. But what does it say? The Word is near you. So this is quoted from Deuteronomy 30, 14. Again, we don't have to go back and Christ has descended and who's gonna ascend and Christ has descended and who's gonna descend. No, we don't gotta do all that. Christ has taken care of that. But what does the Word say? Say, the word is near you in your mouth and in your heart. That is the word of faith that we proclaim. It's biblical faith. That's what we herald. It's what we declare. Now look at verse 9. Because if you confess, it means to agree with God, with your mouth. This is not just lip service. This is total surrender, true repentance. that Jesus is Lord. God says Jesus is Lord and we confess, we agree with God. Jesus is Lord. He's my Lord. He's my Master. I submit to Him. He's the owner and the ruler of our lives and we claim this. And by the way, this is where true Christianity begins and ends. If Jesus is not Lord, if He's not governing your life, if He's not the one calling the shots, at best, you are on shaky ground. At best, perhaps you're just in a desert experience. At best, and at worst, the profession, the confession, is not true, it's not real. The true believer will want to have Jesus in control. If you're here today and you're listening today and going, you know what, my life's not perfect, I struggle, join the club, amen. But if you desire, if you want, if you're insisting that Jesus take over, that He is in charge, that He's leading, that you are submitting joyfully to Him, that's a glorious sign. It's a glorious sign in your life that you really love Him. that you've really given your life to Him, but there's resistance under the surface behind the smile. I'm not doing that. There's rebelling against, warring against. It's a horrible place to be. Horrible. And if that's you today, I plead with you to repent. Repent today, we have time. Because if you confess with your mouth, verse nine, that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart, so there's a confession of the mouth, a believing in the heart, not a flippant heart belief, not a passive belief. Again, true surrender. Remember, even the demons do what? Even the demons believe and tremble. So again, we've said this before, but let me say it again. Even the demons believe. So the Bible says they have an intellectual belief. They haven't surrendered, they're demons. But they have an intellectual understanding. Think about this, they're fallen angels. Of course they understand. They're fallen angels. They're rebellious, wicked, fallen angels. They know who Jesus is. And they're like, we don't want anything to do with this guy. So what happens? Even the demons believe, and yet they go one step further. They tremble. They have an emotional response. There's tons of people, millions of people, I believe, out in the world today and over the ages that, oh, they've had an intellectual belief, and they've had zero emotional response. So the demons were one step above them. It's frightening, isn't it? It's frightening. Absolutely frightening. Just send chills up your spine. to think about the serious nature here of what's being said. Who can be saved? How are we saved? Is it just a confession of the mouth? Well, let's see. Is it just a profession of the heart? Let's see. Verse 9, because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, this is paramount. Everything that the Bible teaches hinges on the resurrection of Jesus. Everything. Everything hinges on the resurrection of Jesus. Everything. If Jesus is dead, if he's still in a grave, we're all wasting our time. We're all in trouble. But because He's not dead, because He conquered sin and death, and the grave is forever empty for those who give their lives to Him and submit to Him in true repentance, true surrender, who the Son sets free, is free indeed. But we've got to crucify ourselves if we're really going to give our lives to Christ. Verse 10, For with the heart one believes." So we just saw that if you believe in your heart that God raised them from the dead, you will be saved, you will be rescued, you will be regenerated. For with the heart one believes. Now this is interesting. I don't know if you picked up on this. Did you see in verse 9 it started out with this? If you do what? If you confess with what? Your mouth. Look at verse 10, for with the heart one believes. So in verse 9, it was mouth, heart. Verse 10, heart, and is justified. And the mouth confesses and is saved. Well, in verse 9, Paul is following Moses' thought in Deuteronomy 30 and following that same flow. These don't contradict one another. They just underpin each other. So there's a confession of the mouth, and by the way, again, this is a true heart response. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth does what? Speaks. So if the mouth is speaking what's really in the heart, that can be good and that can be bad. So think about this. When one confesses that Christ is Lord, that Christ is risen from the dead, Is that person truly confessing that Jesus Christ really is Lord of their life? I don't know. God does. Time will tell. Time's the great exposer of who we all really are, isn't it? Just give us all time. Just give us all time and who all of us, myself at the top of the list, who we all are will rise to the surface. As we often say, you can't keep up the charade forever. A lot of people are trying, but eventually you get tired of holding up the mask. You don't have to hold up any mask when you give your life to Jesus. That's the beauty. Your arms don't get tired. You just keep casting your burdens on Him. And when He's made you right with Him, you rest in His righteousness as He imputes it to you, the redeemed sinner. Amen? So think on this, verse 11. For the Scripture says, well those are four powerful words, aren't they? Not what I think, not what you think, not what your mom thinks. For the scripture says, this is quoted from Isaiah 28, 16. Do you see all this is being pulled from where? The Old Testament. This isn't something new. Paul's like, quick, we've got to think of something quick here. We're in a jam. What do we do? Got a bunch of Jews out there and hey, they're not understanding this gospel here. And oh, wait a minute, it's already back there. It's back in their law. They've just circumvented it. They've ignored it. For the scripture says, everyone, how many people church? who believes, joyfully gives their life to Christ. Everyone, everyone who believes in Him, who's Him? Jesus, will not be put to shame, will not be disgraced. See, grace by faith has always been God's plan, even from the Old Testament. That's what's so beautiful about this. This isn't something new. You say, well, how do we know and who can be saved and where do we go from this, preacher? Well, look at verse 12. For there is no distinction. There's no separation between Jew and Greek. What's the importance of that? Well, let's go back to verse 11. How many who believe? Everyone. There's no distinction. Isn't that awesome? The door to salvation has flung wide open. Praise God, amen. Like if you're a true believer today, you should be praising the Lord for those verses right there. The door of salvation has been flung wide open. Everyone, everyone. You say, well, how do we know? Well, look at verse 12. There's no distinction between Jew and Greek for the same Lord. This is key. For the same Lord is Lord of who? Of all. All who give their lives to God through Christ are saved. Bestowing, lavishing, lavishing His spiritual riches on how many? All who do what? Who call on Him. Now this is key. The calling is not the typical calling that happens in the American church. The typical calling in American church is we sing a song at the end of a service and at times it's like an emotional song or an emotional story and so someone gets out of their seat and they walk to the front and they say, hey, I want to give Jesus my heart. Or ask Jesus into my heart is the big phrase. Can that be real? Can that be true? Sure. But more often than not, at least in my experience from this side of the desk, more often than not, it's not true. It's just something that is said. Right here, when it says, for those who call on the name of the Lord, call on Him, this is describing, in the Greek language, it's describing someone who is passionately and fervently crying out to be spiritually rescued. That's a big difference, isn't it? It's a big difference that, hey, I just wanted to walk forward to make sure that, you know, if you need help cutting the church grass, I'm there for you. I'm there. That's not what this is. This is someone who understands that without Jesus, they are eternally damned. Without Jesus, that they have no hope. That without Jesus, their best life really is now. Which means, as one famous pastor who just passed away this week used to say, that means you're on your way to hell. This is the most serious thing. that any person will ever deal with in their life. And so often, it's one of the things on the list that gets taken the most flippantly. It's the most serious thing. I've been doing this for decades. My dad was a pastor for 50 years. What's the most important thing in your life? Jesus. Hands are waving. Feet are waving. And yet by the lives that are being lived, you're like, I'm not seeing the fruit matching up with the profession here. I see a whole bunch of other things that are taking precedence. And what we see now is this open ideology of just give God all the leftovers and the scraps and He's fine. Just give him all the leftovers in the refrigerator. Give him all the scraps. He'll be fine. All the leftovers of my time, my schedule. All the scraps. All the leftovers of my talents that he's given me, given you. All the leftovers and scraps of the treasure, the finances that he's entrusted to us to steward. We'll give him a tip every now and then. We'll tip him after we accomplish everything we want to go do. Give him all the scraps. Give him all the leftovers. But we love Jesus. It's just a cancer and a toxic poison that continues to ravage and devastate the American church as a whole. Who can be saved? Who? Help me. All who call on the name of the Lord in desperation and true surrender. But how? See, that's the missing ingredient here. We've been brainwashed often for years on what it looks like. I've asked people, so how did you get saved? Here's what I hear more times than not. Well, you know, they sang a song at the end of the service, and I went down to the front, and I talked to the guy, and he told me, just repeat after me, but make sure you bow your head, of course. Got to make this official. bow your head, make sure this is real, and just repeat these magical words after me, and don't worry about repenting, don't worry about living a life of holiness or obedience or righteousness, you just say these words and you're good. And that's what we've been force-fed now for decades. I mean, the sinner's prayer is nowhere in scripture. I mean, can you pray a prayer of true calling on the name of the Lord and be saved? Of course. One famous pastor years ago said, there's nothing that has sent more people to hell than the sinner's prayer. Because you think about this, it's this man-made mantra where the heart's not in it, the heart's not there. And we want to be people that walk in that truth. Amen? So here's what it says, so verse 13, for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be what? Saved. Will be saved, what a promise. Write this down in key number two, key number two. As we see here in Romans 10, eight through 13, biblical salvation is based on a person truly giving their life to Christ through His finished work. And everyone who gives their life to Christ will be saved. Amen? As we see here in Romans 10, 8-13, biblical salvation is based on a person truly giving their life to Christ through His finished work. And everyone who gives their life to Christ will be saved. Think about this for a moment. Let me give you these verses. John 1.12, John 1.12, straight from Scripture. But to all who did receive Him, being Jesus, who believed in His name, He gave the rights. to become children of God, amen? That's John 1.12. Make sure you write these down, John 1.12. John 6.37, John 6.37. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. But what a promise that is, amen? You truly give your life to Christ, it's real, you're in. Why? Because God has made you righteous through Christ because it's real, it's true. How about Acts 4.12? Acts 4.12, and there is salvation in no one else. For there is no other name given under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. What name are they talking about, the apostles there? Do you remember? The name of who? Jesus. He is the only way. It is exclusive, yes. All roads don't lead to God, only through Christ. Galatians 2.21, Galatians 2.21, I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, We've studied that today, haven't we? Then Christ died for no purpose. Oh, this is a highlightable one right here. One more time, Galatians 2.21. I do not nullify the grace of God, Paul says, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose. He died in vain. No, this is why He died, because no one can keep the law. I can't be good enough. You can't be good enough. Jesus did the work. We trust Him. We fall on Him. We lean on the everlasting arms, amen? And His name is Jesus. Titus 2, write this down from Titus 2, 11 through 14. Titus 2, 11-14, for the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people. Now he's referring here, as Paul's writing to Titus, for all people who give their lives to Christ. That's the context. Training us to renounce ungodliness. So there's training, there's learning. and renouncing worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present age. Waiting. Ooh, who likes to wait? You guys like to wait? You like to go to theme parks and wait in line? You guys like to do that, right? Just wait in line. Oh, I love waiting. Praise God, we get to wait here for two hours to go on a ride that's over in 37 seconds. It's awesome, isn't it? Just awesome, just awesome. I mean, it's wonderful. I spent my whole day, my whole day waiting in line, and I went on rides that totaled two minutes and 12 seconds all day. Yeah, wonderful, isn't it? Waiting, but waiting, waiting is work to the flesh, it's worship to God, and it's always worth it in the end, praise God. We're gonna study that here real soon, just sit tight. Okay, very important. upright and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen, church? Who gave Himself for us to redeem us, to purchase us by His blood from all lawlessness and sin, and to purify us, to make us holy for Himself, a people for, here it is, for His own possession. That's it. Did you catch that? Hey, are you saved? Yeah, Jesus owns me. Ooh, that's good, isn't it? He saved, yeah, Jesus made me right through his blood, through his righteousness with God. He's making me holy through sanctification. Oh, by the way, I'm his possession. Oh, isn't that good? Not I walk down front and talk to some guy and gave me a card. What in the world is that? It's nuts is what it is. It's not in the Bible. It's not real. It's not true so often. I'm not saying someone can't be saved through that process, but I very rarely have seen it. We are His possession who are zealous for good works. Zealous for what? Obedience. Zealous for fruit. Zealous for evidence. Is that you and me today? We get up each day going, God, what do you want me to do? I want to bear good fruit for you today, God. I want to bear good fruit. I want to be obedient today. You're not going to save me or love me more because I'm obedient? No. I just want to please you with my life. Imagine we do that if we're not already how our lives will be changed. And then lastly, 1 Peter. Write this down lastly. 1 Peter 3.18. 1 Peter 3.18. We've said this many times over the last few months, but it's the go-to verse. For Christ also suffered once for sins. How many times did Christ suffer for sins? Once. The righteous for the unrighteous. I raised my hand. The unrighteous. And here's why. that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the Spirit, and all God's people said. Aren't you glad there's this guy named Jesus who's the Son of God? That He resurrected from the dead on the third day. The grave could not hold our King. And He brought us to God. He did what you and I could never do. We don't have talent, don't have money, don't have enough looks, fill in the blank. We could never accomplish this. And yet God, who is rich in mercy for the very people that rebel and hate, He goes, you know what? I'm gonna give what's most precious. I'm gonna give what's most precious to me that He, my son, might bring you to me. Might bring you to me. I love when my grandson, I love when they pick him up and they bring him to me. I just love it. I absolutely love it. In my little head, in my little brain, can't wrap around the thought, but I try to, of what it must be like when Jesus the Son brings true repentant people who give their lives to Him, He brings them to the Father. What a beautiful picture, amen? Who can be saved? All who call with a sincere, true heart on the name of the Lord and give their lives to Him. How? We totally surrender. It's more than just lip service in the mouth and lip service in the heart, but it's true surrender. Jesus, You own me. Take my life and use it for Your glory. Amen? Let's pray together. O Lord, we worship You on this day Thank You, Lord, for Your Word that we can learn very, very directly from Your Word who can be saved and how. In an American church culture that is convoluted and twisted, distorted, and simply butchered in many cases, what Your Word says about how we are to be saved. God, I pray today it's very clear. I pray that there's no ambiguity, that we see it for what it is. It's not complicated. Anyone who really wants to give their life to Jesus, and it's real, can give their life to Jesus, period. How do we be saved? Give your life to Jesus, totally. So simple. and yet it wars and rebels against our flesh. We like the easy approach that's false where we can have Jesus and still be on the throne of our own lives. Oh Lord, I pray if there's one here today or one listening that has never truly given their lives to Jesus. Oh God, I pray today would be the day of salvation. Lord, we love you and we worship you on your day, the Lord's day. And we pray this in Jesus name and all God's people said, amen. You've been listening to This Day in the Word, the radio teaching ministry of This Day Ministries. Don't forget that all of these messages are archived and are free to download at thisdayministries.org. That's thisdayministries.org. In addition, if you have been blessed by the teaching of God's Word during This Day in the Word, we would love to hear from you. Our email address is info at thisdayministries.org. Thanks again for listening as we strive to honor Christ and impact our world as we spend This Day in the Word.