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.