Romans chapter 10 verse 13 Romans 10 13 the outline that
you have should run us through the end of the chapter we may
be able to consummate that I don't know
we'll see what happens here Romans 10 13 says this for whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. For whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. In the last couple, two or three
studies, we've been dealing with some very catchphrases in terms
that are common to our thinking. We dealt with in verse eight
of chapter 10, the word of faith. We addressed that. We tried to
leap over the hurdle of conventional understanding of that phraseology
as it has been taken by certain denominational groups and used
as a marker of identification. And we've tried to understand
that the word of faith is the gospel of Jesus Christ itself.
It's not some unique system of of faith principles by which
you operate. The word of faith is the message
of Jesus Christ. That's what we learned. And every
believer who is saved has received the word of faith. We're going
to see this as we go on down to verse 17. So we leaped over
that hurdle. And then we went on to deal with
verses 9 and 10, where again, in cultural captivity, You have
phrases that are used that are common to our hearing, but we're
not necessarily really rooted in what the Bible teaches concerning
these things. The verse tells us in chapter
10, verse nine, if you shall confess with your mouth, the
Lord Jesus, they shall believe in your heart that God raised
him from the dead. You shall be saved. We believe
that with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. And yet what
we have learned is that that phrase is not some mantra that
a person quotes in a time of desperation in order to get God
to do something for him. Neither is it a phrase that a
person says in a sort of empty parenting fashion by which they
can be secure that they're going to heaven just because they say
Jesus is Lord. Didn't we learn that? Just to
say Jesus is Lord does not secure you for glory. We've learned
that when the Bible says no man can call Jesus Lord except by
the Spirit of God that that's not saying that a devil or an
unregenerate man cannot literally verbalize the words Jesus is
Lord. So we have to leap over cultural
definitions and conventional ideas about biblical verses and
concepts and really understand what the text says so that we
might know the significance of why the author wrote those things
and we've learned that what it means to confess Jesus as Lord
is to not only understand or know who he is, but from our
heart, by a convicting work of the Holy Ghost, be so inclined
to confess him as Lord, both in our life, but also in our
death. We are willing to die for the
truth of the gospel. To confess Jesus as Lord is not
a one-time event, it's a lifelong thing. We learned that it starts
off by believing the gospel. This is what he's getting ready
to further develop. And it results in a life that's committed to
the glory of God and the person of Christ, even if we have to
face persecution and death. And so to put this phraseology
in a proper biblical context, Jesus said in Matthew 10, if
you do not confess me before men, I will not confess you before
my father and the holy angels. And in the larger context of
the first century Rome, Caesar had a law where once or twice
a year, if you didn't burn incense to him and call him God, that
is Kyrios, you would lose your privileges as a citizen. You
could be ostracized, cast out of the city or even killed. And
so Christians faced the ominous challenge of confessing Jesus
as Lord with the possibility of losing their life. Now the
concept of calling Jesus Lord takes on a whole nother level,
doesn't it? We also talked about the concept of faith or believing. We talked about that last week
extensively. What is faith? Because what was
said in verse nine is a couplet. Confess Jesus as Lord, which
means to say the same thing. homologous, to say the same word,
to say precisely what God says about Jesus is what we are to
say about Jesus. That's what it means to confess
him. What does God say about Jesus? Well, that's what I say
about Jesus. Now, in order to do that, you
gotta know Jesus. You can't talk about somebody
you don't know. And then rooted in that confession
has to be a heart that believes. And so we saw coupled with confession,
is the word faith. Those two combined constitutes
a true confession. We saw in Matthew chapter 7 where
a bunch of folks were confident that when they stand before Jesus
on the last day, they'll be able to say, Lord, Lord. That's the double emphasis in
both the Greek and in the Hebrew. They are confident that when
they stand before God, they'll get accepted into glory, not
because they know him. but because they were able to
use his name in ministry. You remember that? Verse 20 and
21. Didn't we do this? Didn't we do that? Didn't we
do the other thing? And Jesus says, yeah, but I didn't know
you. And so a true confession of faith is rooted in a relationship. A true confession of faith is
rooted in a relationship. You got to know the Lord. That's
what he's getting ready to expand on now. to confess him as Lord
and to believe in your heart, you're saying that God has revealed
himself to you in the person of Christ. He's made known to
you the truth of the gospel. And because he's revealed himself
to you, you can't help but say what you have both experienced
and have come to know. So we're talking about what Jesus
said in John 17 three, and this is eternal life, that they might
know you the only true God and who Jesus Christ whom he has
sent. Now he goes on to develop in
verses 11 and 12 what we're going to deal with tonight. For the
scripture said, whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between
the Jew and the Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich unto
all that what? call upon him. And that's what
we're going to get into tonight. The concept of calling upon the
Lord. This is what we were headed towards
in our previous outline. If you still had your previous
outline, you'd know that some of the things we were dealing
with was confession, believing and fundamentally calling. Now,
last week, we dealt extensively with three aspects of faith that
I just want to rehearse just briefly tonight. And that is
faith, in terms of its origin, faith in terms of its grounds
and faith in terms of its cause. For those of you who are new
with us, I will raise the proposition to you again so that you can
hear it just in case you don't hear it in your own circles.
And that's this, faith does not naturally reside in the heart
of an unsaved person. Faith does not naturally reside
in the heart of an unsaved person. That is, saving faith is not
an inherent virtue or quality in the fallen nature. This is
something that has to be understood. While you and I may be privileged
if we are called to the ministry, to beckon men to believe God,
The imperative to believe God does not necessitate the presence
of faith in the heart of those who are called upon to believe
God. This will be very plainly seen
as we work through the text. And I remind you once again,
the premise upon which Paul is explaining chapter 10. So when
we call men and women to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, we
are not assuming That by virtue of us calling them to do that,
that they have faith. The Bible is clear that not all
men have faith. Did you know that? 2 Thessalonians
chapter 3 verse 2, just in case you don't know it. 2 Thessalonians
chapter 3 verse 2 tells us not all men have faith. The book
of Deuteronomy chapter 32 verse 20 tells us that Israel was a
people in whom there was no faith. Now when you begin to explain
the absence of faith in the heart of the unregenerate, now you
understand why people act the way they do when you tell them
the truth and they don't like it. There's a reason for which
people shrink away from the gospel. There's a reason why people argue
against the truth. There's a reason why people don't
respond at all. There's a reason why people hate
the gospel. It's because they don't have
faith. There are other components that
are relevant to that factor as well. Men are not merely absent
of faith and therefore incredulous. I don't believe you. I don't
believe you. The proverb says it like this, not the proverb,
but the psalm says it, like this in Psalm 14 and in Psalm 58,
the fool has said in his heart, there's no God. That's a fundamental
premise in the heart of unsaved people. Now, there's a double
entendre there. Let me make sure you understand
that. The fool has said in his heart, literally in the Hebrew,
no to God. Not just that there is no God,
but no to God. See, when we come out the womb,
we don't come out the womb saying yes. We come out the womb saying
no. Haven't you noticed once your
children start learning how to talk, one of the power plays
that they use is the word no. No. That's how we are by nature
with God. When God comes with his truth,
we disagree with God. That's because faith is a what? Gift. Did you know that? Faith
is a gift. Saving faith in Christ is a gift
of God. When you meet one person who doesn't believe, he hasn't
received the gift. You meet another person they
do believe, it's because they received the gift of faith. It's
what the Bible calls it in 1 Corinthians chapter 12. We have received
the gift of faith. Ephesians 2 verse 8 and 9, for
by what are you saved? Grace. Through what? Faith. And that not of yourselves, it
is a what? That's right, of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. And so when a person finds in
their heart the ability to hear God and receive God and embrace
God and to enjoy God and to serve God and to pursue God, it's because
God planted faith in their heart. So we give him glory for a disposition
of believing, don't we? We said then that faith has its
origins in God. Faith comes from God. In fact,
you can read it in your own time. Faith is a fruit of the Spirit.
Galatians chapter 5 verses 17 through 19. The fruit of the
Spirit is love, joy, hope, goodness, meekness, faith, temperance,
self-control. So God plants in a person faith
because as we learned last week, faith, like righteousness, is
an attribute and characteristic of who? God. You guys got that? Now, one of the things I said
last week in simplifying the salvation experience for those
of us who are not real brainy is this, to be saved is to have
God enter into your life. Salvation is in its simplest
form, concept, the entrance of God into the life of a person. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
What that means then is all of the different components that
we find in scripture that constitute the saving experience doctrines
that elucidate the character of the believer in terms of salvation
are merely attributes of God that are manifested in our life
because of the presence of Christ in us. Am I making some sense? So even when we talk about in
Ephesians chapter six verses 10 and following, be strong in
the Lord and in the power of his might put on the full armor
of God that you might stand against the wiles of the devil. And having
done all you could do, you are to stand. And then it goes on
to talk about the apparatus of the warfare, the armory that
we put on the breastplate, the helmet, the shield, the girdle,
the sword of the spirit, having our feet shot with the preparation
of the gospel, all of those things. All of that is really simply
a metaphor for the character of God. To have God is to be
clothed in power. To have God then is to be clothed
in that defense that cannot be penetrated by the demons of hell. That's all that is. When you've
got God, you've got all that. So salvation is really God entering
into the life and primarily in the person of the Lord Jesus
by the power of his spirit. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
That does not exclude the father. All three persons actually reside
in the believer. That's the mystery of the scriptures.
You can't separate the three. They have distinct personhood,
but you cannot separate them. Be careful now. They have distinct
personhood, Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost. They are distinct.
They are not one and the same in terms of their personhood,
but they are one in essence, and they are one in spirit. Because
they are, you cannot radically separate them. When you've seen
the Son, you've seen the Father. And when you have comprehended
the Spirit, you have comprehended the Son. And if you've gotten
the Spirit and the Son, you've gotten the Father as well, all
three. are one, the Bible says. And
so all three reside in the life of the believer. Now mark this,
because of the presence of the spirit of God in our life, this
makes it possible for us to understand the things of God. That's what
we're about to get into now. The issue is, is when the word
of God is taught or preached properly, let's assume that that's
the case. Is the auditor, the person listening, able to comprehend
it? and receive it as the truth is
in Jesus. If that so, it's because God
has entered into you and God is bearing record with his own
truth. You guys got that? Because when
we have become children of God, we have received the spirit of
adoption whereby we cry, Abba Father, and we have the witness
in ourselves. So God's actually witnessing
to himself in the scriptures and you and I get to be a bystander
observing that witness, that reciprocation. The word, external
word, the medium of the spirit, and the internal testimony of
Jesus Christ. That's why Paul said in Colossians
127, Christ in you, the hope of glory. Christ in you, the
hope of glory. I laid that foundation because
I wanted you to be very clear that The problem that we have
sometimes today is a superficial approach to scripture. And I
don't want you to have that stumbling block in your life as you deal
with scripture. Scripture is as profound as God
is, but he has also made it comprehensible because of his own agency. So
let's look at the text now and work through this a little bit.
I'm at verse 13. For whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. You guys got that? for
whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."
That's a wide open statement but at the same time it's a statement
that has qualifiers and we want to develop that by exercising
our senses through our outline. The subject matter at this point
is calling on God, calling on God if you use your outline we're
looking at verse 11 and 12 it says who who is calling on God
who is it that's calling on God I want you to understand that
when he says for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord
Paul has specific categories of people when he says that when
he says whosoever he's actually still dealing with the larger
issue of Romans chapter 9 and where in Romans chapter 9 he's
explaining why it is that national Israel who had all the privileges
of the gospel rejected that gospel and failed to see Christ for
who he was and yet the Gentiles who didn't seek him found him
and was able to both confess him believing on him and serve
his name so when Paul says whosoever he's speaking in the first sense.
I'm going to help us see this. He's speaking in the first sense
to his Jewish audience. And when he speaks to his Jewish
audience in the whosoever sense, what he is saying is God is also
calling what Gentiles. You guys got that? Very important
for you to know. So I'm going to raise three propositions.
It's in your outline. Proposition number one, here's
the phrase, whosoever will is not the same as everyone will. You guys got that? Whosoever
will is not the same as everyone will, nor whosoever will is not
the same that anyone can. The assumption just as it is
with faith. If the Bible calls men to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and I shall be saved and yet without
God instituting faith in the life, that person will never
believe God. So it is with those who call upon the name of the
Lord. When the Bible says, whosoever shall call upon the name of the
Lord shall be saved. What the Bible is saying is,
There are things that must precede in order for people to actually
call upon God. However, what the Bible is also
saying is, those who call upon the name of the Lord will exceed
the parameters of the Jewish people. That's the context from
which Paul is speaking. Notice what he says, for whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord. In your outline, I have
verses 11 and 12, right? And what it does is it says no
distinction. And the no distinction has to
do with no distinction between Jew and Gentile. Do you see that? I think the text actually makes
that fairly clear over in verse 10. Verse 11 rather, for the
scripture says, whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed,
for there is what? No difference. Between who? Right,
so contextually, the whosoever is Jewish people and Gentile
people. Isn't that right? Now, what I'm
doing is I'm staying within the context to help discipline your
thought. on a prevailing argument that
often goes on in religion, who is it that's going to be saved?
And how do we use terms in the Bible when we see them in certain
contexts, like the word all, or the word world, or the phrase
anyone, or everyone. Let me put that out here so that
you can think this through. All, or world, or Whosoever, that's the better
one, I'll use that one. Because the common passages surrounding
all three of these terms are where you find controversy in
the church. The Bible says in John chapter
three, verse 16, for God so loved the world. There's our word world,
right? That whosoever believeth on him
should not perish, but have everlasting life. So here's our second word,
whosoever. So God loves the world and he
loves the whosoevers. And yet we know that when we
say the world, we can't be meaning absolutely every person. And we can't be meaning every
person in two categories, in the area of God's loving them
or in the area of everyone believing. We know when it says, whosoever
who forgot to love the world, that whosoever believing on him
should not perish cannot be concluded that everyone in the world is
going to believe or that everyone in the world is loved by God. Now, we went back several weeks
and we dealt with that. And I'll just remind you what
the Bible says in Romans chapter nine. And I say this frequently
for for those of us who have been hindered by the clarity
of the scripture in the category of phraseology in terms. And
I'll take you through some passages to show you what I mean by it's
dangerous for us to draw conclusions based upon conventional interpretations
rendered to us by men without scaling the parameters of scripture
to prove that. For instance, if God hates one
person, then it cannot be said that God loves everybody. Is
that just good logic? Is that good logic? Or else God
is so contradictory. Can you love everybody and hate
everybody at the same time? Come on now. Don't destroy yourself. Because you see in this pluralistic
ideological world, people hold to what we call relativism. And
relativism is the idea that you can hold two opposing contradictory
views at the same time and that they don't really contradict
each other. This is part of the monism that goes on in Middle
Eastern philosophy, that you can hold contradictory views.
And what we understand is that God doesn't contradict himself.
God's not the author of what? And because of that, we have
to say when God says, God so loved the world that whosoever
believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life. We
have to understand that in the context of the larger revelation
of scripture. Esau perished, didn't he? And the Bible explicitly says
that God hated him. And then the Bible tells us all
through the Psalms, God hates workers of iniquity. He abhors
liars. God hates those who are extortioners. Proverbs says six things that
the Lord hate. So the Bible is very explicit
that there are things that God abhors. And what I try to share
with people who want to sort of buy into this fuzzy thinking
about the love of God is this. If God loved everybody without
exception in the same way, then what is hell all about? You guys got that? What is hell
all about if God loves everybody equally without distinction?
And so what I say is we need to be careful about how we use
terms. Also in the Bible, you'll hear the phrase all used, all. The Bible tells us in 1 Timothy
2 that God will have all men to be saved. Well, we have a
couple of challenges with that proposition. The first challenge
is this, that if God wills that all men be saved, and yet multitudes
perish under his wrath, then either God can't fulfill his
will while he wills men to be saved, his desires are trumped
by men's resistance to his will, which then destroys an attribute
of God which we call omnipotence. because of God is all powerful
and God is willing. Why can't this all powerful God
who is also also willing not be able to save the people whom
he alleges to be objects of his love? Are you hearing what I'm
saying? Why would I take delight in a
God who says he loves me but can't save me? Am I making some
sense? And I was having a debate with
some individual last week and I told him that this is the God
that prevails in a lot of Christendom today and Isaiah says this is
a God to whom people pray that cannot save. In Isaiah chapter
45 you can read it for yourself. You pray to a God that cannot
save you. So what I say is if we make propositions
while they may sound emotionally good to us If they don't stand
the test of scripture, if they raise contradictions, we gotta
throw those propositions out. I may not like the conclusion
that the Bible renders concerning truth, but I'd rather deal with
my not liking the conclusions than to try to change God's word
or change God's revelation just because I don't like it. So I'll
give you an example of why it's dangerous to pour into portions
of scripture these kinds of ideas. Go with me to John chapter two.
give you an example I'll give you just a couple examples while
we go on to develop this and in fact you may not know it but
it's true that what we are doing right now as we analyze the scriptures
is really what was the intention of the Spirit of God by which
he wrote Romans chapter 10 addressing the issue of salvation from the
perspective of Israel failing to obtain it. Let me say that
again. Romans chapter 10 is given to us on the premise of Israel
having failed to obtain it. And the question is, how is it
that a people group having all the privileges that Israel had
still miss Christ? And what Romans 10 is doing is
explaining that. Listen to what the Bible tells
us in John, I'm sorry, it's John chapter three. I'm over in John
chapter three. And here is what the Bible says
concerning the Jewish rulers as they are speaking to John.
I'm over in John 3, verse 24. For John was not yet cast into
prison. Then there arose a question between
some of John's disciples and the Jews. John 3, verse 25. And verse 26 now. And they came
unto John, these here are the Jews, and they said unto him,
Rabbi, he that was with you beyond Jordan, that is Jesus, to whom
you bear witness, behold the same baptizing. You guys see
that? Now watch this. And all men come
to him. Now, what does that mean? Does
that mean that every person in the world comes to Jesus? Obviously
not. So then what is the fundamental
rule of interpretation? Context, context, context, context. Isn't that right? Context. What
John chapter three is addressing is the fact that John's ministry
was waning and Jesus' ministry was abounding. And John explained
that no man can receive anything except to be given to him from
above. I must decrease and he must... John chapter 12, go to
John chapter 12. John chapter 12. I just want
you to see how important it is for us to reason both from the
context of scripture and from the larger text of scripture
in addressing issues. I'm in John chapter 12, this
is Jesus speaking himself. I'm in John chapter 12, verse
31 and 32, are we there? Now is the judge, Jesus says,
now is the judgment of this world. Now shall the prince of this
world be cast out. He's talking about what would
happen when he go to Calvary. Verse 32, and if I, and I, if
I be lifted up from the earth, will draw what? All men unto
me. Now does that mean all men without
exception? You guys got it? Does that mean
every human being, as a consequence of Christ being crucified, would
then be drawn to him like a magnet? It can't mean that. All right,
so then think this through. I want you to get this now, because
this will help you. This will help bridge a gap in your thinking,
in your thinking skills, your critical thinking skills. You
and I are Americans. who live in the 21st century.
We're not Greeks in the 1st century or Aramaics in the 1st century
or Hebrews in the 1st century, which means when phrases and
terms and assertions and propositions are laid down, particularly passages
of scripture are set down, they're not set down under the assumption
that you and I are going to understand them the way they talked back
then. I found that with the Greek culture and the Aramaic and the
Hebrew culture, there are forms of language that they use, forms
of terminology, syntax, semantics that they use, that unless I
get behind the language and understand the thinking, the rationale of
that culture, I'm going to be reading something into the passage
that really is a product of my own generation. So when the Bible
uses phrases like all, what one of the language devices that
has been understood to discover or discovered to comprehend this
is the language device of what we call hyperbolism, hyperbolism,
hyperbolism, being hyperbolic. Hyperbolic means that you describe
the essence in a complete or in a magnified view. So when
you use Hyperbole, you will say everybody came to the party.
But you didn't mean literally everybody. You just meant a lot
of people. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
Now, I just gave you a key to the Greek culture. Because in
the Greek culture, that's how they talk. Now I'll say that
to say this. Words used in a hyperbolic fashion. like metaphors and analogies
and similes and proverbs are principles of economy. And what that means is God doesn't
explain the whole concept every time he utters a verse. See what
I'm getting at? God doesn't explain what he means
thoroughly just because he says, if I'd be lifted up, I'll draw
everyone to me. The culture of that day didn't
conclude that what Jesus meant was absolutely every human being
in the world would be brought to Jesus as a consequence of
him being lifted up. Neither should our culture be
thinking that. See what I'm getting to? Go with me to another Bible
verse, I'll show you. Go to 1 Timothy chapter two. Now, if you are sensing a little
bit of labor in our study, It's because you need to labor in
order to rightly divide the Word. If you are lazy in your study
of the Word, you will not rightly divide the Word. And you will
end up doing what the philosophers of Acts 17 charged the Apostle
Paul for doing, being what is called a seed picker. They called
him a babbler. What does this babbler have to
say to us? In Acts 17, Athens was a city
very much like our country today, where there were a lot of metropolitan
activity going on, different cultic religions, a lot of polytheism. It was very pluralistic too.
So when you went through Athens, you went through a polyglot of
different cultures all at once. It was like a mall of cultures.
And the Bible says that Paul went through Athens and he saw
how that they were very religious people, given over to religion. And he saw that they had idols
all over the place. And then he saw one statue, one
podium, one altar that was devoted to what they call the unknown
God. They put that one up there just
in case they missed the God. Well, if we missed him, we're
going to call him the unknown God. Now we don't know him, but
we're going to worship him anyway, just because we want to cover
our bases. And what Paul said was this unknown God, this is
the God I know. And this is the God I'm going
to preach to you because you don't know him. And The language of Acts 17 is
a Greek word that they used to describe Paul when they said,
what does this babbler have to say? And it's a word that depicts
a bird stealing seed. going around stealing seed. And
the idea is that Paul adopted a worldview and philosophy from
someone else who had built up a system of interpretation. And
he was simply peddling something that he didn't labor to acquire.
So Paul was just sort of a slick huckster with a system of ideology
that he was peddling in a very convenient place where people
listened to peddlers. A peddler would be somebody who
would take a soapbox, put it down in the middle of the mall
of Athens, stand on that soapbox, and start speaking great swelling
words eloquently, setting forth different philosophical worldviews,
Socratic ideology, Platonian theories, and they would weave
it through very eloquent terminology and they would spellbind the
people listening to them for 20 or 30 minutes. The people
didn't know whether they were coming or whether they were going
by what he said, but it felt so good and sounded so good that
after he got through with his spiel, he could stick his bag
out and people gave him some money and they went on to lunch.
Got it? Sound familiar? They thought that that's what
they were getting with Paul. They thought that that's what
they were getting with Paul until he opened his mouth. And when
he opened his mouth, the power of God went forth in great clarity,
speaking to eternity bound souls that were created by the creator.
And whenever God wants to speak to you, he can speak specifically
and clearly to you, his creature, his truth. And, you know, you
have heard from God that day. And so. So this is what was happening
with Paul. and we're in second uh... first
to me the chapter two and here is what paul says in second timothy
chapter two verse five are we there now started verse three
for this is good and acceptable in the site of god our savior
he was exhorting the church art timothy rather to exhort the
church to pray for the leaders of our nation for this is good
except when the side of god our savior verse four who will have
all men to be saved and come unto the knowledge of the truth.
You guys got that? Now, when Paul used that statement
or that phrase, what he was talking about was the larger, linear
objective of God for the salvation of sinners from every nation,
kindred, tribe, and tongue so that all men corresponded with
the Gentiles. You guys got that? All men corresponds
with the idea of saving all kinds of men from different ethnic
groups around the world. Am I making some sense now? And
that's the only way that we can conclude this because the testimony
of scripture and history has proven that not many are called,
not many are saved, but those that are saved and those that
are called are called from every nation, kindred, tribe and tongue.
So it's not being all inclusive when it uses the word all, it's
just simply being comprehensive with relationship to the scope
of the gospel. When you hear the word world,
Be very careful to understand the world in terms of either
the Gentile world or Jews and Gentiles together. You guys got
that? That's all that means. It does not mean absolutely every
individual on planet Earth. One more verse. Go with me to
1 John 2. 1 John 2. I want you to see this. And then
we'll go back and we'll work through our text while we have
about 30 more minutes. I want you to see this. I want
you to be able to face it in your Bible and to draw a consistent
interpretation that is faithful to what we call the analogy of
scripture. The analogy of scripture is what
the Bible teaches from Genesis to Revelation. When we use the
phrase the analogy of scripture, we're talking about the whole
of the Bible. And when you read the Bible carefully, what you
see in the Bible are the acts of God. From Genesis to Revelation,
you see the acts of God. And 1 John chapter 2, we're gonna
be at 1 John chapter 2. You see the acts of God from Genesis
to Revelation. If you read the Bible and you
accept the Bible as the Word of God and you embrace it as
the Word of God to you, you have now what we call a Biblical worldview. You guys hear me so far? A Biblical
worldview is a view that a person holds that reflects what the
Bible has revealed, how God has worked from the foundation of
the world. So, A non-biblical worldview would be the idea that
you and I are the product of a protozoa or an amoeba or a
Big Bang Theory and the compilation of a mass of matter that over
time continues to increase in intelligence, in order, in power
without a divine intelligence being behind that process. That
would be a non-biblical worldview. Are you hearing me? Nowhere in
your Bible does it tell you to embrace evolution. for a lot
of reasons we won't go into it, but I can tell you there are
a lot of so-called Christians who hold to an evolutionary construct
of a worldview and they smack diametrically opposed to the
testimony of scripture. God knows why he wrote the Bible
the way he did. And the Christian who is going
to accept John 3, 16 is going to accept Genesis 1, verse 1. And so, and in the way that it
was intended to be interpreted, literally, historically, grammatically,
redemptively. Now, listen to what he says in
1 John 2. I want you to hear this. It's
gonna be verses one and two. 1 John 2, one and two. My little children,
these things I write unto you in order that you do not sin.
And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus
Christ the righteous. Now, I'll just use verse one
to help us continue to hone in on this principle of discerning
phrases and terms in their context. You notice it says, now, if any
man, what? Sin, that's in verse one. Who
are the any man in that context? It can't be every person in the
world. It's speaking to the believer.
My little children, that's the context. If any one of you sin,
watch this. We have an advocate. Not everybody has this advocate.
See what I'm getting at? See, so John has a scope and
an object when he says, my little children, any man, we. He's talking about the household
of what? Faith. So now watch how he goes on to
say, we have an advocate with the father, Jesus Christ, the
righteous one, and he is the propitiation for our what? And
not for ours only, but also for the whole world. The phrase,
the sins of is an italicist. It shouldn't be there. And he
is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but also
for the whole world. What does he mean? Does he mean
that Jesus Christ propitiated, satisfied divine justice, vindicated
God's holiness, Put away the sins of the whole world so that
no one stands guilty. No one stands culpable. Everyone's
clothed in Christ's righteousness. Everyone's headed to glory because
Christ was their substitute on Calvary Street. Is that what
this passage means? You got it. It doesn't mean that.
This is what's so dangerous about a very general superficial interpretation
of God loving the world. What do you mean by God loving
the world? Is that a legitimate question?
What do you mean? Because you do understand that
if you take the concept of God's love and carry it through its
full redemptive implication, you mean that God has saved the
whole world. Because the redeeming love of
Christ is what saves you. Am I making some sense? If Christ
out of love was your surety and your substitute, and he took
your place, and he undertook the obligations of redeeming
you from all iniquity, and he actually did that, then you are
saved. See what I'm getting at? And
you didn't have anything to do with it. Either Christ redeeming love
for sinners actually accomplished eternal redemption for them by
which God could look at them in Christ, and attribute to them
all that Christ is, so that in the mind of God, they were already
with God in glory, already glorified, not on the grounds of what they
did, but what their substitute did. God now can deal with them
in mercy anytime he wants to, because he has been propitiated
by their substitute. Am I making some sense? Now,
if that's true for every human being in the world, No one's
going to hell. Got it? Got it? Or if Jesus died for everyone's
sin as their substitute, as their surety, and actually satisfied
God's justice. Read Isaiah 53 for yourself.
God says, it pleased the Lord to bruise him, to put his soul
to grief. He made his soul an offering
for sin and God was satisfied. And yet men and women still end
up in hell for whom Christ died. You know what the Bible calls
that? Double jeopardy. What it means is God has not
been just. For while he punished the criminal's
crime in a substitute, he then again punished the criminal for
the same crime twice in himself and in his savior. And no court
system in the world would ever see to it that your sins were
actually punished, eradicated, put away, and then hunt you down
and tell you you gotta die for your sins also. Are you hearing
what I'm saying? No court system in the world.
No court system in the world. What makes the gospel good news,
saints, is the word substitution. I'm gonna talk about that this
Sunday. Without the word substitution, nothing that Jesus did means
anything. It's a gazing stock, it's a wonder,
it's a marvel, but it didn't save you. So the question is,
is Jesus a real substitute for every person living or is he
a substitute for persons that God chose in Christ before the
world began? What's the answer? Is it the
first or the last? Let me say it again because I
want to shake you up so that you get your gospel right because
this is the heart of the issue When the Bible says in Matthew
chapter 1 verse 21 The angel told the angel Gabriel told Joseph
and Mary to name him Jesus For he shall save his people from
their what sins Did the angel say Jesus will try to save them
Attempt to save them almost save him I didn't say he shall save them
from their sin now do you understand that the persons who are designated
to salvation are called his people you guys got that my people my
sheep my bride my children my church My redeemed people, real
sinners. Well, everybody's a sinner. Find
one for me. Find a real sinner for me. I
mean, really find somebody that will agree with God about their
sin. I guarantee you, you will be
hard pressed to find a real sinner. Are you hearing me? You will
find religious folk. You will find self-righteous
people. You will find sorry people. You will find morbid people.
You will find angry people. You will find people who are
not confident. You will find all kinds. But
you won't find a real sinner unless that sinner has met God
by the power of the Holy Ghost and showed him that he is a real
sinner. See what I'm getting at? So when
the Bible talks about he came into the world to save sinners
This is again first Timothy chapter 1 where Paul says around verse
15 of whom I am chief The term sinner for you and I in our view
is a term that designates everyone for the Bible says all have what?
But the Bible also says he came not for the what righteous See
what I'm saying So there are folks who have a perspective
of themselves which exclude them from the benefits of redemption.
Did you hear what I just said? So when the gospel comes and
it says any sinners in the house, I'll tell you two truths while
we go back to our text. If the Holy ghost doesn't make
one, no one will say, here's one. Do you hear me? There was a prince who would
frequent the prison. This is a story that Charles
Spurgeon would teach. Go back to Romans chapter 10.
There was a prince that would frequent the prison from time
to time, and his job was to once a year, it was a pattern, to
go into the prisons. These were your hard, notorious
prisons, where your hard-nosed criminals were. And he would
go into the prison system, and no one would know who he was.
He would go in there undercover. He was a prince. He was a ruler. He was a king. And he would go
into the prison system, and he would have conversations with
the prisoners. And he would ask one after the
other after the other, and then another here, another there.
So what you in here for? Oh man, you know, they say I
stole something, but man, I really didn't. You know, that wasn't
me, man. Here you go to the next one. So what you in here? Well,
they, you know, they say I committed murder, but man, I couldn't have
committed that murder cause I wasn't even there that night. And one
by one by one, he'd go through the prison and he'd come out
and the, the, the, his, uh, his colleagues would say, or his,
uh, subordinates would say, did you pardon anybody today? He
said, no. And they say, why? Cause I couldn't find anybody
guilty to pardon. All he wanted was one person
to say I'm guilty I'm guilty The prince the king
who had power to pardon came in unbeknownst in a form of humility
Am I preaching the gospel? That's right See so, you know Romans chapter 10 verse 13 then
is to be understood in the larger biblical sense that the whosoever
shall be those of both the Jewish and the Gentile peoples and they
will be saved because they call upon the name of the Lord. So
the next thing I want to talk about briefly is what it means
to call upon the name of the Lord. Look in your outline. Calling
upon the name of the Lord means to worship him according to the
revelation of the gospel. Here's my proposition. You cannot
worship God ignorantly. I'm gonna share with you some
Bible verses. So now why am I saying this? I'm saying this because
if you tell somebody to just call on the Lord, and they don't
know who that Lord is to call on, they are gonna be hard pressed
to find the one Lord that can save. What what Paul is doing
is shutting us up From chapter 10 verses 1 to where we are The
road gets narrower and narrower. We're getting on a narrow road
now What he's about to explain to us is how people get saved
How people get saved through a very narrow process a process
that cannot be violated So what he does is he says, calling upon
the name of the Lord is a work of God's grace in our life, but
it doesn't happen by accident. It doesn't happen because like,
you know, you get into a car accident and your car's flying
over the cliff and you fly out the window and you happen to
get a hold to a branch and that branch is about to break and
it, Lord help me, Lord save me. That's not what it means to call
upon the name of the Lord. Please understand that. That's
not because as soon as that branch stops breaking and the paramedics
and the fire truck come along and tow you out, you're going
to wipe the sweat off your face and go on back living in your
rebellion like you did before you called on the Lord. Are you
hearing me? I love it the way my friend Pastor
Mayhem put it. Noah builds this ark that's two
hundred 200 yards long, two football fields long, three stories high.
And he tells the people you need to get in this arc because God's
gonna rain his judgments upon you. Everybody will run into
that arc while it's raining. But as soon as it stops raining
and the sun starts shining, you gonna see boards getting kicked
out on each side of the arc and people climbing out, they go
back to living life like they used to. And here's the reason
why. You're not saved by circumstances
and events of fear and hair-raising, almost death-defying circumstances. That's not how you're saved.
Oh, I know some of you probably watched or listened to Unshackled
20, 30 years ago and watched how they had those series where
people got right on the brink of destruction. They cried out
to the Lord. Only problem is, will you hear
me? That pattern is not found in
the scriptures. That pattern is not found in
the scriptures. Now, that's not to say I want you to hear me
now because I want to develop this, I want to make this very
clear to you. That's not to say that a person who doesn't have
all of the prerequisite information necessary to be able to call
on the true and the living God in a time of panic or difficulty
and thus does so that God will respond to his cry. You understand
what I just said? What I'm saying is the person
who does not have these prerequisites operating in his life as a privilege
from God doesn't know the true and the living God to call upon.
And as a consequence, he will not be available to the benefits
of the gospel merely because he calls on some celestial being
to deliver him from a physical plight of destruction. People
die every day in calamity. They die every day through difficult
and horrific circumstances. Who never ever heard the gospel. You guys got that? Who never
ever heard the gospel. Did somehow God just save them
anyway? Even though he's plainly told
us faith comes by what? Which is what he's getting ready
to narrow us down to. See, when we use these sort of
hypothetical, ethical scenarios by which we say God can do anything.
See, once you start using the phrase God can do anything, you're
talking about a pagan God. I know that stuff, but it's just
true. God cannot do anything. Remember, read your Bible. He
can't deny himself. That's one thing God can't do.
God can't change. That's one thing God can't do.
God can't fail. God can't lie. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
There's a lot of things that God can't do because God cannot deny
his nature. God's not a God of chaos. He's
not a random God that just sort of acts on the spur of the moment. God is a God of order and God
is a God of righteousness and justice. God can't do unjustly.
Are you hearing what I'm saying? So when we use the phrase God
can do anything, we better qualify that statement. See what I'm saying? We talked
about this a few weeks ago, the doctrine that prevails in what
is called the liberal church. The liberal church is a church
that pretends to love Jesus, but in reality, it doesn't love
Jesus at all. It just, it loves everything
and everybody and every doctrine. That's the liberal church. And
the liberal church has this idea that God saves people even if
they never heard the gospel before. God saves people even if they
don't believe the gospel. God saves people in other religions
whose religious system are contrary to the message of the gospel,
but God saves them anyway. This is the sort of all roads
lead to Rome ideology. This is your pluralism again.
If God saves people that way, the God of the Bible is a liar.
Is that true? Think about it. You know, people don't say, you
know, Allah. Allah! Allah! When they get mad. You
don't hear people do that, do you? You don't hear people going,
Buddha! Buddha! Do you? You know why? Because Allah and
Buddha didn't say what Jesus said. This is why the Bible depicts
the battle as the battle between the Antichrist world system and
Jesus. The Bible depicts this whole
conflict that's going on in our world between the world system
as a conglomerate whole and Jesus Christ and his awesome claims
of exclusivity in the matters of who he is and what he did.
I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to
the Father except through me. Got it? So now what Jesus did
by laying down that gauntlet is exclude every other way of
salvation. So we can make movies and we
can draw up sitcoms and we can develop all the scenarios that
we want to of how God oughta, you know, I used to watch this
flick years ago, some of you did too, it was called Touched
by a Devil, remember that? You remember that? And the purpose
of Touched by the Devil was in order to demonstrate how magnanimous
God was in saving people to the complete and utter exclusion
of Jesus. And Christian folks sucked it
up. They love watching that show. I wrote an article, Touched by
the Devil. Because the whole thing was about how angels rescued
people and changed their lives. Do you know that that is a bold-faced
open assault against biblical revelation? And it's a denial
of the Son. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
This is the battle that we're in. So when I say that the Bible
teaches the concept of calling upon the name of the Lord, as
falling within the category of God bringing a sinner to the
place where he has heard God's word and come to realize who
he is and out of a God prompted anxiety and desperation seeks
the true and the living God and finds in the true and the living
God a satisfaction for his eternity bound soul and as a consequence
worships that God as his savior. That's what it means to call
upon the Lord. I want you to see what I'm saying. You have
it in your outline. I want you to see it. The first
verse I want you to look at is John chapter 9. Give me 15 more
minutes of your time. John chapter 9. I want you to
see them. I'm going to share with us four
or five verses there are in your outline. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7,
8, 9, 10, 11 passages that you can look at
in your own time to substantiate this particular assertion that
I'm making. That to call upon the name of the Lord is to worship
Him. is a consequence of God's revealing himself to you in the
person of Christ and you realizing that Christ is your savior and
as a consequence you love him worship him and serve him such
call upon the name of the Lord. In John chapter 9 I'm going to
read verses 35 through 41 where Jesus had come along and healed
the blind man remember that? When he healed the blind man
The blind man found himself going through a controversy. We've
talked about this several times. The conclusion of that controversy
was that the rulers of the church kicked him out of the synagogue
because he said Jesus was the one who healed him. You guys
remember that? So as soon as Jesus heard that
he was cast out of the synagogue, Jesus went back to seek his sheep
because that's what he comes to do. And we read over in verse
35 these words. Are we there? Jesus heard that
they had cast him out. Did Jesus know they were going
to cast him out? Did Jesus determine the whole scenario by which he
would find himself confronted by the rulers of the church and
having to defend not only what he experienced, but Jesus himself?
Did Jesus know that? And so our savior, being the
good shepherd that he is, hunts down and seeks out and saves
his sheep, doesn't he? Verse 35 says, Jesus heard that
they had cast him out, and when he had found him, he said unto
him, watch this now, do you believe on the son of God? Got it? Now watch the blind man who now
sees, after having gone through what we call a work of grace,
where he was once utterly blind and ignorant of the true and
the living God, having had no communicable relationship with
him, merely religious, stuck in a legalistic system of works
righteousness. He was so blind, he didn't know
he was lost until Jesus showed up. Cause Jesus has to show up
for you to know the truth. So the Bible tells us in the
first verse that Jesus found the blind man. The blind man
didn't find Jesus. He wasn't even looking for Jesus.
Jesus was looking for him though. Got it? And Jesus was the one
who told the blind man what to do. He didn't even ask the blind
man to make a decision for him. Because the father had made a
decision for the blind man in eternity past and placed him
in the bosom of his surety Called Jesus and told Jesus go hunt
him down. That's my child and Jesus hunted
him down Got it. And then Jesus said this is what
I want you to do. He did what Jesus said do and
the war was on and But what was happening in that blind man's
life was he was coming to know the power of God and the grace
and mercy of Jesus Christ. It was so effectual in his life
that he couldn't even deny the rulers the truth when his mom
and daddy had rejected him and everybody in the church had rejected
him. And he's standing before these jackals and these hounds
and these dogs and they would have chewed him up and spit him
out if it were not for the fact that he had actually experienced
the grace of God. And then when he was done wearing
them out, they threw him out of the church. Do you teach us?
Yeah. The Lord comes to him and he
sets his eyes on Jesus. Look at me now. He sets his eyes
on Jesus for the first time. He sets his eyes on Jesus. Now,
Jesus had been dealing with him prior to revealing himself to
him. But now he reveals himself to
him. So he's looking at his creator
for which his eyes were made to do. And his creator is speaking
to him the very salient term or concept. Do you believe on
the son of God? Now, a proud religious person
might say, yes, but he didn't do that. Here's what he said. Look at the text. And he answered and said, who
is he, Lord, that I might believe on him? You know what he's saying? How
can I believe on someone I don't know? How can I worship someone who
hasn't been revealed to me? How can I embrace in a wholehearted
commitment someone who hasn't taught me who he is and what
he did for me? Are you hearing what I'm saying?
So now notice what he goes on to say. And Jesus said unto him,
you have both seen him and it is he that talks with you right
now. And he said, Lord, I believe. And he did what? Worship. That's
what it means to call upon the name of the Lord. Do you hear
me? That's what it means to call
upon the name of the Lord. I want you to go to another verse. I want you
to go to another verse, Matthew chapter 15, verse six. What I'm doing for us in this
Romans chapter 10 study is again what is anticipated to be done
in that study. And that is to explain why it
is that people fail to have a saving relationship with the true and
the living God. I wanna make sure you understand that you
might think that we have been over tedious in our examination
of the scriptures for several months now being in Romans 9
and 10. But what I want to press home
to your heart is this. This matter of knowing the Lord
Jesus Christ is not the consequence of a few quick sayings. And that wasn't the reason for
which Romans 10 was given. It wasn't given for you to make
a quick roadmap to lead people to Jesus. This was not sort of
a mechanical device by which you guide people to say the right
words so they can get saved. That's not what this was about.
This is an explanation as to why a whole group of people ethnically
for 2,000 years miss God. And then others who had never
even thought about him actually comprehended and embraced the
truth of the gospel. Paul is explaining what happened.
And that's what we're about to get into. But we're talking about
calling upon the name of the Lord. So in Matthew chapter 15,
I want you to read with me verse six, and I'm going to start back
at verse four. The question was raised to Jesus
by the rulers of the church, but he answered and said unto
them, because they asked in verse two, why do not your disciples
wash their hands before they eat? And he said unto them over
in verse three, why do you also transgress the commandments of
God by your traditions? See now that's politically incorrect
today. You hear all the time, don't be arguing, don't argue,
don't debate, don't discuss it. Jesus was an antithesis folks. Jesus was an antithesis. Jesus
didn't accept any kind of propositions or assertions or ideas thrown
at him that he wasn't willing to send it right back down your
plate. with even a more salient and
germane proposition. Because he wasn't buying into
the idea that we can all just get along. I mean, you know,
you got your view, I got my view, we all got our view. No, Jesus
didn't buy into that. He understood the underlying
assumptions behind these questions that were raised by the leaders
of the church. Here's the underlying assumption that was radically
hostile to the truth that these Jews had received. The assumption
was this, We all are doing it. It must be right. Why aren't
your disciples doing it? You guys got that? We're all
doing it. And so for the rulers of Israel's
day, they had bought into what goes on in our culture today.
And that is ruled by consensus. The institution of certain methodologies
and techniques, techniques by which to do church. And if we
can get the masses to do it, it becomes law. One of the rules among the Jews
was, particularly the leaders was, you are holy if you are
clean. You guys have heard it, cleanliness
is next to holiness, godliness. And so the rulers really pulled
the wool over people's eyes by washing their hands every time
they ate. And when they went to the marketplace,
and I've said this before, but for those of you who haven't
had much experience outside of Oakland and San Francisco, I'll
say this, And that was a joke. You could have laughed at it.
But if you've not gone to a third world country and you have not
experienced the throngs and the masses of the marketplace, in
the marketplace you are bumping up against each other and rubbing
each other constantly because you have hundreds of thousands
going through these little corridors. And you got all of these different
little bazaars and salons where people sell stuff. And the way
that it is today in third world countries is the way that it
was in the first century. Nothing different. And so the
rulers said, if they go out into the marketplace, having been
subjugated to Roman government and authority, and therefore
being among all of these pagan Gentiles, if I touch one of these
Gentiles, just if I rub up against them, I'm unclean. That means
when I go home, having just touched one of the Gentiles before I
eat, not only do I have to wash my hands, I have to take off
all my clothes and do a complete baptism. That's what Mark chapter
7 says. They wash completely before they
eat. Why? Because they were holy.
So they thought. And here comes Jesus, right out
the chute in the beginning of his ministry, preaching, and
healing, and casting out devils, and opening the eyes of the blind,
and exalting his father's glory. And whenever him and the boys
were hungry, they went on and bought their chicken, and said,
Lord, I thank you. gave a wave offering, Lord, I
thank you, just started eating. And the Pharisees would stand
back and say, see, we got him now. See, he didn't even wash his
hand. He nasty. Jesus heard that going
on around and he heard it. So he intentionally went over
Simon, the Pharisee's house, which had a great feast. He had
brought in all of the Pharisees and he sat down at the table
food there and all the Pharisees standing around. And the Lord
Jesus know they're watching. And he look at the falafel bread
and all of the different cultural food and he said, Lord, I thank
you. He start eating. And Simon, the Pharisee said
in his heart, this man doesn't even wash before he eat. How
can he be a master in Israel? And while the Lord Jesus is eating
the chicken and the barbecue, he said, Simon, I heard that.
I heard that. I caught that, Simon. He says,
I've got a question for you now. You see, I've got a question
for you. And the same question is raised here. Listen to it.
I just want you to see it. Why do you transgress the commandments
of God by your traditions? For God commanded, saying, honor
your father and your mother. And he that curses father and
mother, let him die the death. Do you know that Jesus always,
always, always, always quoted the scriptures? Always. always quoted the scriptures.
Why? Because he believed the Word
of God. Why? Because he wrote the Word
of God. He was his author and he was
his essence. But he did it for more reasons
than that. He did it because they didn't
do it. The preaching by the rulers of
that day was not a precept upon precept, line upon line, rightly
dividing the Word of God and giving God the glory for being
the revelation of truth set forth in the inscripturated Word? They
spoke from tradition and experience and all of the other mechanisms
by which men seek to draw you under their ideas and their concepts
of God. So in the same way in which today
people can sit under preaching and teaching and they don't even
have to bring their Bibles because all that preacher is doing is
philosophizing. Mumbo-jumbo, very slick, Phrases
and concepts that tickle your ears and make you feel good slogans
and quick sayings That's what they were doing in the first
century and what Jesus did was always brought the word He always
brought the word and the Bible says the people that were a far-off
listening said this man doesn't speak like the Pharisees He speaks
as one that has authority And that's because he always brought
the word. And he brought the word because
they didn't bring the word. You guys got that? Now notice
what he said. And we'll wrap it up here. I'm
over my time. We'll go back next week. Verse six. And you do not honor your father
or your mother. You shall be free. Thus you have
made the commandments of God of non effect. by your traditions. Do you see that? You completely
disannulled the Word by your traditions. In other words, your
traditional practices veil, obscure, minimize, completely set aside
the efficacy and power of the Word of God that should prevail
in the conscious and in the hearts of God's people by your practices.
So you practice religion, and in doing so, you set aside the
truth of God's Word. How can people be saved? How
can they be conformed to Jesus? How can they love the God of
the Bible? How can they be confident that this is even the Word of
God, if our traditions are setting aside the authority and veracity
of Scripture? How can it be? See, the two are
mutually exclusive. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
They're two mutually exclusive entities. You cannot be led and
taught and governed by tradition and then by truth at the same
time. It either has to be truth or tradition. Are you hearing
what I'm saying? If you're gonna have a tradition,
that tradition better be rooted in the truth. See what I'm getting
at? In the truth. So then here's
what he goes on to say. Here's my proposition as I close.
You cannot, cannot, Properly be said to be calling on the
Lord if you don't know him or if you worship him ignorantly
Or if you worship him contrary to his word listen to what he
says in verse 7 and 8 you hypocrites Well, did Isaiah prophesy of
you? Told you he wasn't politically
correct was he? Saying this people draw nigh unto me with their
mouth and Honor me with their lips But their heart is far from
me Verse nine. But in vain they do worship me,
teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. Do you see that? Their
worship is empty. It's vain. It's useless. Now, that's not my assessment. That's Jesus' assessment. That's
what he said was going on in his own generation at that time. in the temple and in the synagogues
up and down the highways of Jerusalem and Capernaum and Galilee. He
said, your traditions have completely voided out the gospel. And we
know this because when he came unto his own, his own received
him not. And he said in John six, listen,
if you would have really believed Moses, when I came, you'd have
jumped all over me. that's what he said but because
you don't believe me it's evident you didn't even believe moses
got it all right we'll take this up next week father we thank
you for your word we thank you for the lord jesus we thank you
for his boldness we thank you for his example we thank you
for his humility we thank you that he saved sinners oh lord
make us such as realize what we are and then help us to see
the glory the glory of God in the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And then, Lord, may that glory invade our life and transform
us and change us and bring us to be joined with you as heirs
and join heirs with Jesus Christ, inheriting that glory, which
is unspeakable and full and full and full of glory. As we go our
way, give us traveling mercies. Take us home safely tonight.
Lord, give us rest. May we worship you on Sunday
in the fullness of the spirit and according to your wonderful
truth. In Jesus name, we pray. Amen. I need some fellas to do something
for me. So you guys make sure before you take off, I need two
of these six foot tables.