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Romans 9-16

Israel's Present

Josh Yates · Sunday, 5 October 2025 · Romans 9:30-10:21 · 49:27 · 8,001 words

Romans S24 · 9:30-10:21 Lake Orion

There is no public page for this message yet — the transcript below is the whole of it.

The speaker shares his early conversion and testimony of God’s grace, then turns to Romans 9–10, showing how Jews and Gentiles can miss righteousness by depending on works instead of faith. He stresses that salvation is a free gift by grace through faith alone, calling each listener to confess Jesus as Lord and trust his resurrection. Finally, he urges believers to share the gospel with love and humility, reminding them that the opportunity to speak is short and that their feet are a reminder of the good news they carry.

What this sermon is about

Ranked by keyness against every other sermon in the corpus. Each one is a word this sermon actually said — nothing here was written by a model.

jesus 96 zealous 8 save 52 believe 50 evangelical 5 insidious 4 declare 10 feet 10 shame 9 senior 5 yahweh 3 california 4

Topics

Salvation 10 Faith 10 The Gospel 5 Sin 3 Prayer 3 Righteousness 3 Grace 3 Israel 2 The Law 1 Mission & Evangelism 1 Atonement & Sacrifice 1 Obedience 1

Scripture referenced 23

Verified against the transcript. A reference the recording does not support is never listed here.

Romans 10 6:51 Romans 9 6:53 Romans 10 6:56 Romans 9 8:00 Romans 9 8:00 Romans 9:30-33 8:00 Ephesians 2:8 9:18 Isaiah 49:23 10:41 Isaiah 49:33 10:41 Isaiah 49:23 10:48 Joel 2:26-27 11:14 Romans 10 14:03 Romans 10:1 14:08 Romans 8 15:55 Romans 8:2-4 17:24 James 2:19 20:30 Romans 10:5-8 21:50 Romans 10 28:56 Joel 2:32 33:42 Joel 2:32 33:51 Romans 10 35:10 Romans 10:14-15 35:17 Matthew 9:35-38 44:29

Transcript

Every word, as spoken, with the second it was said. Each word links to its own entry in the index.

Pre-service announcement — 18 lines, 0:46. Excluded from every count and search on this site, kept here so nothing is hidden.

Hey everyone, my name is Joanna.

Thanks for checking out this message today.

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Thanks again for joining us today

and we hope you're blessed by this message.

We have, I think we're about 25 ladies

from here in Lake Orion

that's at the ladies' retreat right now.

So it's just been a great weekend so far

and just thankful that the ladies

are able to get away for a retreat this weekend.

Be praying for them as they travel home today.

So I appreciate that.

The work day that's coming up,

it's on.

The 18th of October.

Just want to make sure you know that.

It's a week from Saturday

and we plan on doing a bunch of outside work.

We have some signups up at guest services

if you'd like to help out.

We will need people to come

and help us out on that work day.

We're going to be pulling weeds

and doing some different stuff

around the grounds here and the house

and different areas like that.

We got some work that we got to get done.

So again, there's signups at guest services.

Please check that out.

If you'd like to help,

we could use your help.

If you have any questions,

Jamie Brown, who's one of our deacons,

is heading that up

and he's, he'll,

he's in the back as well.

You can ask him any questions

you may have about that day.

But that's going to start

right around nine o'clock,

I think, in the morning.

Don't quote me on that.

and you can find that out.

All right.

So looking forward to doing that together.

This morning, we continue our series

in the book of Romans.

And I just wanted to ask,

do you remember who first led you to Jesus?

Do you remember who helped you see

how much God loves you for the first time?

Do you remember who first showed you

the beauty of the gospel

that made you a Christian?

That may have been five minutes ago.

That may have been 50 years ago.

I don't know.

But do you remember who first showed you

that who Jesus is?

For me, I was three years old

and I had been in church since really

before I was born, pretty much.

And I knew that I didn't want to go to hell.

I wanted Jesus in my life.

And so I walked into my mom's sewing room.

I remember it well,

at least as well as a three-year-old can.

But I can picture our mobile home

in Linda, California,

just outside of a military base

there in California.

And I walked into her sewing room

and I said,

Mommy, I don't want to go to hell.

How can I get Jesus in my heart?

And I remember praying that prayer with her.

And then I remember in kindergarten one day,

because now I'm a more mature five years old.

And I'm like, I don't know if that took.

So when the teacher asked

if anybody wanted to accept Jesus,

I went, I do.

And I made sure that I knew Christ

at five years old.

So I thank the Lord

that I got to know Jesus

at a young age.

And I get this from people sometimes

that you think that

if you accepted Christ at a young age

and you knew Jesus your whole life

and you didn't do drugs

or you didn't smoke pot

or you didn't get drunk all the time

or you didn't do this thing,

then you don't have a testimony.

No, you still have a testimony.

You have a testimony of the grace of God

that he saved you from all of that

before you ever got a chance to do it.

All right?

Every single person has a testimony

if you've come to Christ.

Some of you have those testimonies.

And that's,

that is so much about

the power of God in your life.

Every testimony is about

the power of God in our lives

and what he's done

and his grace and his mercy.

But maybe you're here this morning

and you haven't yet met Jesus

as your savior.

I pray this morning

that you would do that.

maybe today that's your story.

That's my prayer for you.

But then for me,

as I grew up,

you know,

there were two men in my life.

So my dad,

some of you have heard my testimony,

but since Paul's been talking about this,

I wanted to share a little bit of it.

My dad weighed 800 pounds

my entire life.

And so he was bedridden

from the time I was at the age of two

until he died

when I was the age of 17.

And there were two men in my life

that helped me stay on the path

to the Lord.

One was my youth pastor,

Paul Radabinko,

who I'm getting old too

because he is now retired

and lives in Ohio.

It breaks my heart.

We knew each other in California,

but he's an Ohio State fan.

Oh, it's,

it's a point of contention for us.

he, but he's,

he's retired with his wife

and he's got,

he's got two daughters

and they were like my little sisters.

And he stepped in

where my dad couldn't.

And I also had a student council advisor.

I was, I had,

I had the privilege of going

to a Christian high school in California

and became student body vice president,

He was a student council advisor

and he really helped me

when my dad died specifically

because he died the day

of my senior baccalaureate.

I went to my senior trip on a Friday

before I came back.

I came back on Sunday

before we get to the hospital.

My dad passed away.

And so that was the senior baccalaureate.

Senior baccalaureate that night,

that's where you pray over seniors.

And so that's what we celebrated.

And then on Wednesday,

we had the funeral

and Thursday I graduated high school.

So it was a tough, tough time.

And that summer I went

through a really hard period.

You know, I was,

I was dating somebody who,

who loved the Lord,

but we were, you know,

doing things we shouldn't do.

And ultimately she ended up

breaking up with me.

And I remember one night,

finally, before I went off to college

to become a youth pastor,

I flipped off the sky and said,

told God where he should go.

But God didn't go anywhere

because his grace and mercy

is bigger than anything

we're going to do.

It's bigger than our attitude.

It's bigger than any of those things.

And he did not let me go that night.

And ever since he has still

not let me go.

And as we spent last week

talking about how much Paul

loved the Israelite people,

In fact, he was willing

to become anathema,

to become accursed from God

so that his people could know

Christ as their savior.

But his people had missed

Jesus as the Messiah.

And Paul had anticipated

questions and accusations

of God's failure to fulfill

his promises because that's

probably what he knew

that's what the people would do.

Well, if God isn't going to save us,

then he didn't fulfill his promises.

But yes, he did.

We still have a choice.

When it comes to Jesus,

every single one of us has a choice.

And we're going to learn that today.

And last week, we talked about

how God divinely elects people,

how God chooses people.

But this week, we're going to talk about

how we bear responsibility

in this process of salvation

in 2 and chapter 10.

So if you have your Bibles,

we're going to start

in Romans chapter 9 briefly.

And then we're going to get

into Romans chapter 10.

But we're talking about

how the responsibility we have,

that we all bear, coming to God for salvation, or rejecting him outright, and we can go our own way.

A lot of people say today, you know, well, why did God, why does God allow us a choice if he knew

this was going to be so bad? Well, the reality is, if he didn't allow us a choice, we'd know,

none of us would have the ability to love another person. Love would not be an option. There has to

be a second option for love to truly be love, because love is a choice. Any of you that know

the Christian group DC Talk from way back in the day in the 90s, yes, I'm older, love is a verb.

Some of you just heard that in your mind, love, love, love is a verb. Anyway, that was the song.

But love, we often think it's all this lovey-dovey, it's all these emotions. No, love is a verb. It's

something we live out, it's something we do. And if we didn't have a choice to come to God,

none of us would have a choice to love him or to love another person. And Paul's heart for his

people continues to shine. So let's read this.

Chapter 9, verses 30 to 33, just to wrap up chapter 9 from last week.

So Paul answers one final question, and basically makes a statement that, look, these Gentiles,

who their whole, for generations, of which we are, by the way, we are all Gentiles,

they never pursued righteousness, and yet they actually attained it through Jesus, Paul says.

And his countrymen, the Jewish people, who had generation after generation after generation

of seeing God's hand, of knowing the Old Testament, of knowing all the promises,

seeing the law and the prophets, actually missed the fulfillment of all of that in Jesus. Why?

Because they made it about what they did, rather than about the faith they had,

in God. They pursued it through their works. They didn't pursue it by faith.

It echoes what Paul said in Ephesians 2, 8, and 9, for it's by grace you have been saved,

through faith. And this is not your own doing, it's a gift of God, not a result of works,

so that no one may boast about it. In fact, Israel was fulfilling a prophecy given by Isaiah.

They had stumbled over Jesus. He had become an offense to them.

It sounds kind of interesting, because I feel like that's exactly what's happening in our culture

today, and may even happen in this room. Because a lot of us will say, I love God,

I want God, I want the guy upstairs, I believe in God. As soon as you start talking about Jesus,

that's when people start tripping over a stone, and they also start tripping that way too.

That's the reality. People freak out when we say the name of Jesus, because at the name of Jesus,

every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that he is Lord one day. Question is,

will you bow now, and receive his salvation, and become part of the family of God?

Or will you bow later, when judgment will come, and it will be,

too late to be part of the family of God? It matters what we do with Jesus.

And then he says, but whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.

And that's where these prophecies, Paul's not just talking about, where he quotes this here,

whoever believes in him will not be put to shame, in verse 33. Isaiah 49, 23, this is part of his

promise, part of the promise that God gave. Isaiah 49, 23. Kings shall be your foster fathers,

and their queens your nursing mothers. With their faces to the ground, they shall bow down to you,

and lick the dust of your feet. Then you will know that I am the Lord. Those who wait for me

shall not be put to shame. You hear what he's saying here? God is telling the people of Israel

to look. Kings and queens are going to bow down to you, because you are my children one day. That

will happen. That's the promise to his children of Israel. Joel 2, 26 to 27 says,

you shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God,

who has dealt wondrously with you. And my people shall never again be put to shame. You shall know

that I am the Lord your God, and my people shall never again be put to shame. You shall know that I

am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God. There is none else, and my people shall

never again be put to shame. These are the promises that Paul knows. These are the promises that really

these Jewish people know, but they missed the fulfillment of these promises, because they

wanted what they wanted. They wanted their gospel. They wanted Rome out. God came and said,

I want to put to death sin, which will give you eternal life. Not just a temporary,

cushy life without Rome, because there's something so much more insidious than Rome.

There's so much more insidious than a government that's oppressive. There's so much more insidious

than the things that are outside. It's the sin in us that condemns us to be apart from God for

eternity. And God wanted to set things right, and the Jewish people missed it. And they didn't wait.

So many people don't wait. We want to have it our way. We think God should act our way. We think God

should do things the way we want. Things are supposed to be this way, we say. We think our

eyes are wide open for truth. We think we're looking for truth. But in reality, what we're

looking for is our own truth. It's one of the strongest and most, I'm going to use the word

again, insidious, terrible things of pragmatism in our world. That everybody can have their own

truth. That is a lie straight from the pit of hell. Truth is always truth, or it ceases to be

true. And we don't get to define it. There is objective truth. And my friends, Jesus is king.

He's Lord of all. He died for your sin. He's real. He lived. He died. And everyone who

comes to him will be saved. And it matters what you do with him. Man, we try to find our own way

to salvation. Because I think if I can do enough good things, God will weigh it out. My friend,

there is no scale on this earth that will weigh your good deeds against your bad and weigh them

in your favor. Because our bad deeds are worse than we think. Here's the thing. God always has

so much more in store for us if we would just follow him. He loves you so deeply. More than we

can even think or fathom God has in store for us. He loves you so deeply. He loves you so deeply.

But then when God gets outside of our boxes we want to put him in, we miss him. And that's what

happened to Paul's people, the Jewish people. So how does Paul respond in chapter 10? In anger and

frustration, believing he's superior? Let's hear Romans 10 verse 1. Brothers, my heart's desire

and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. No. He wants nothing more for them than

to know who Jesus actually is. He just keeps asking the question, I think, internally, how could we

have missed Jesus? See, grace, the grace of God should humble every single one of us. It really

should. When we realize and remember what we've been saved from and what we've been saved to,

we can't look at the people around us and think that we're better than them. Because, my friends,

grace is given. It's not earned. I think that our problem becomes when we think that we're better

than somebody else, we begin to think that we deserved grace in some way. That we did something

that made us deserve it. No, no, no. God is so good that he gives it to us.

Freely. Why? Because he loves you. I say it often. There is nothing my daughters can do

to ever change my love for them. Let's be honest. I think about what happened last Saturday or last

Sunday. The family of that man did that, still love him. They're just broken, right? Love for

us is so much greater than that. He loves you no matter what. Nothing. We've heard this in Romans

chapter 8. Nothing can separate you from his love. Even when we don't choose him, he loves you.

When we don't choose him, we still have to bear the consequences of that choice.

Because God loves you enough for you to be able to choose to not have him.

When there was nothing good in me, when I was at my lowest point at the age of 17, like I just said,

and I flipped off the sky, God met me where I was. Life can be a roller coaster. There's ups and

there's downs. But at my lowest points, God has never came up to me and said, I told you so.

He's never come to me and tried to make me feel ashamed. And he's never been ashamed of me, even

though I've been ashamed of myself. Not once have I ever been removed from God's love and grace. He's always met me in my life.

He's always met me in my lowest moments and in victories. And he's always called me to himself

to remind me how much he loves me and how much he has for me and how much he wants for me.

And he has the same love for you. I am nothing special. And when we remember how much grace

actually costs, what it is, how it's been given through Christ, that's when we can actually show

and give grace to those around us and actually have compassion for people rather than anger and

raised fists. And then Paul continues to speak in verses 2 to 4. He says,

So Paul comes in, he says, look, I'm not questioning the zeal of my fellow countrymen.

I'm not questioning how sincere they are about their faith. In fact, they're some of the most

zealous people that he knew. What he questions was their decision-making. See, they thought that

they were being zealous for the righteousness of God by pursuing the law. But in the middle of it all,

they actually ended up establishing their own law. They established their own way of doing things.

And they believed they had a righteousness of God, but they ended up trying to create a righteousness

in their own performance. How often do we do that? When we try to have a righteousness in our own

performance. Hey, I did something. Hey, God, you see me? Look what I did today. I changed a super

stinky diaper in the nursery. Come on, God. Right? Or whatever it is, you fill in the blank. We try

to feel good about something we do. Why? Because it's how we're built. That's our nature.

We want to feel like we've accomplished something. Can we accomplish great things for the kingdom? Yes,

but only through the Holy Spirit and his working in us. See, they believed they had become something

to be worshiped in the middle of it all. We see it surrounding the death of Jesus. That's why the

Jewish people miss Jesus and why so many people miss Jesus today. You know, I hear often, it doesn't

matter what you believe, just as long as you're sincere in what you believe. We hear that a lot.

As long as you're sincere, it doesn't matter. God's going to understand. My friends, I cannot say it more clearly

this morning, more clearly this morning, and I want you to hear me. It matters what you believe,

not what you say you believe. It matters what you actually believe, and you will know what you

actually believe based upon the fruit of your life. I'm not here to make anybody feel guilty.

My prayer is that there's conviction of the Holy Spirit this morning, because we can say a lot of

religious things and still not know Christ. Paul says it here that Jesus is the end of the

law and of righteousness, because Jesus alone is our righteousness. He alone is our Savior. He alone

is King. Jesus plus nothing equals salvation. It's Jesus alone, Jesus first, Jesus always. It's about

Him, nothing else. Not your goodness, not somebody else making you do something, not having a good

righteous attitude, not anything. It's Jesus. What you do with Jesus determines your eternal

destiny. You want to know how I know that? James 2.19 says, you believe that God is one, you do well,

even the demons believe, and shudder. There are so many people that would say, I believe in God,

that's great. What are you going to do about Jesus? Oh, I don't worry about that. You have to.

Either Jesus is who He says He is, or He lied about it all, or He's a crazy person. We have to,

what we do with Jesus is the linchpin of salvation. It is what, it is the central core. What do you believe

about Jesus? Is He the Son of God? Did He die in your place? Do you trust Him because He rose from

the dead, and you've placed all your faith and you're trusting Him? Then you're going to be

saved. I'm getting ahead of myself in the message this morning, so we're going to move on. Just

because someone believes in God, it doesn't mean that they know Him or that they know Jesus and

are saved. It is possible to be a religious person or a lost person. It's possible to be a religious

person and not know Him, and it's possible to be an irreligious person. You can be lost in

legalism, following everything you know is right, following all these rules, and you can be lost in

rules, and things you think are going to get you there, or you can be lost in hedonism, being caught

up in your pleasure. And the burden Paul carried here was so big that he desired to reach people

with the gospel. Then Romans 10, 5-8 says this,

It's a little interesting comments. What's Paul saying here? Well, I love what Kent Hughes says

about it. He says, he goes back to the Old Testament, because Paul, remember, Paul's talking

to a Jewish audience, and so he's trying to make his argument for the gospel of Christ. So the law,

this is Kent Hughes, the commentator, he says,

God never intended that the Jews would be saved through perfect obedience to the law. And we look

at the Ten Commandments, we're all guilty of them. Nobody could perform all of the law of the Old

Testament. That was his point. The whole point of the law of the Old Testament wasn't so that,

oh, I can become perfect now. No, that was all about the fact that, look, this is what it requires

to have a relationship with God, and you can't do it. I can, God says. And so this law, Kent Hughes

says, it wasn't that they would be saved through perfect obedience to the law, but rather by their

failure to live up to it, they would be driven to grace.

And then I wrote this statement. I'm going to say it, and I'm going to tell you something. I said,

we're driven to grace by the mistakes we make, by the sin in our lives. And I looked at that,

and I went, we all have to stop doing what I just did. And this is what I wrote. I said,

you know what? I want to clarify something here. It's easy for me to do this here, too.

I wrote that first statement. I could have changed it, but I want to clarify it because

it's something we all do. The sin in our lives is not just a mistake. It's not a mistake. I mean,

it is a mistake, but it's a deadly one. Because sin, every sin,

is an affront to God. It's me or you saying, I know better, and I'm going to do things my way.

I am the God of my life. It is, to coin a word from Paul from last week, anathema to God,

designated for destruction. Sin designates us all for destruction, for damnation. Every single sin.

It's just like a 17-year-old boy looking at heaven and telling God to go where I wanted him to go,

every time we lie, every time we sin.

I don't say that to make us feel bad. I said this early on in Romans. We have to know how bad the

bad news is so we can truly understand how good the good news is. There's this new kind of

undercurrent in Christendom where people are trying to say, we're not as bad as we think we are.

God doesn't really view us as evil. God loves, I mean, yes, God loves us. But the Bible tells us

that before Christ, we were enemies of God. We have to know how bad the bad news is so we know

how good the good news is. Because the good news isn't about me. The good news is about God.

It's about him and what he's done for me and what he now makes me. Because without Christ,

I am accursed. I am anathema. I am under judgment. But with Christ, I am free from sin. I am free

from curse. And I have ability to have a relationship with a holy God, not because

I'm good, but because he is. And he makes me more like him every day. Because of his work in me,

not my own. Because here's the thing. Only when we see our sin as God does can we begin to see him

overcome it in our lives. It's not just a mistake. If it's a mistake, then we work at it. If it's sin,

God works it out of us. Big difference. And this is what Paul's talking about. Jesus fulfilled the

law and brought us a righteousness based on faith, not on works. We can't ever be good enough or do

good enough to get to God. We can't bring Christ down to us, Paul says. We can't go into the abyss

of death and overcome that. See, the Jewish person would have these questions and they were trying to,

they would continue to try to work out their own righteousness before God. And it doesn't

work. And some of us here are still trying to work out our own righteousness. If I do this,

God will be happy. If I do that, God will be happy. If I do that, it'll be better. I just have to have

my good. No, stop trying so hard. It's about Jesus. It's about him. And Paul says God's word tells us

that Christ is near us. The word is near us in our mouths and our hearts. If we call on Jesus,

the gospel is accessible, available, and simple. See, many people are zealous for so many things,

even religious things. Another commentator put it like this. It's so easy for a zealous person to be

lost if one thinks religion exists as a ladder to elevate oneself to righteousness and acceptance

before God. Catch what he's saying there? If you being here this morning, you think you're climbing

a ladder to get to God, you've got it all wrong. You being here this morning has nothing about you

doing something, get acceptance from God. We come to gather together because we simply want to be

in God's presence together. It isn't about I have to or a ladder to do more. We want to come together

to become more like Jesus because he's become our everything. That's why we gather. It isn't

a religious exercise. He continues, now, I do not want to be misunderstood. A true believer ought to

be filled with zeal. A lack of zeal may even mean that one isn't a believer. But religious zeal is

not an infallible sign that one knows the truth. In fact, a man or a woman can be zealous for the

programs of the church, zealous for body life, zealous for all these things, and still not know Jesus.

Each person must ask himself or herself where he or she is in relation to Christ. Paul wanted the

Romans to see that zealous people can be lost people. This was and is a matter of life and death.

And so Paul gives the gospel. He gives the good news. He speaks to the Jewish reader and says you

can't be righteous in and of yourself, but here's the path. Here's your way to salvation. Romans 10,

9 to 13. Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that

the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth

one confesses and is saved. For the scripture says, everyone who believes in him will not be put to

shame. For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing

his riches on all who call on him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

He lays it out. Don't you just love when you hear these passages? Maybe I'm just a Bible nerd. I don't know.

I love it though. This verse we've heard so much, right? You just heard the context. Doesn't it make

it jump off the page a little bit more? Oh my goodness. He loves his fellow countrymen so much.

He's like, wait a minute. It isn't about works. It's about Jesus. And here's the way. I can hear

Paul. He wrote much better than he spoke. We know that about him. He stuttered. He wasn't a very good

public speaker, but man, the, I was going to say, I should say it the other way, but boy, the man

could write. That's better. But what do you do? What is the path? Well, he says it. Confess with your mouth that Jesus

is Lord. See, this is a profound statement. We can read over this and go, okay, Jesus, you are Lord.

No, that's not what it's about. These aren't just words you're speaking when you come to God, when

you give your life to Jesus. I also want to tell you this morning that I believe we've in the church,

the big C church, it's coming to Christ. It's not about just praying a mantra that turned us into

new age believers. It's not about saying the right words. It's about actually meaning and understanding

what you're committing to. I think process of asking Jesus into your heart and praying a specific prayer

probably has done some damage overall. Because we can think if we say the right words, then we're in

the club. No, it's about following Christ and accepting him as your Lord. What does that mean?

Declaring Jesus as Lord means a lot. It means you are declaring that he is God. He is everything he

said he was. He's the son of God. He's the Messiah. He's the savior. You believe that,

and this is what you're taking your life on when you say that he is Lord. You are submitting to

his leadership in your life. Your life is no longer your own. You are deciding to identify with

Jesus and fall on him for everything in your life. If you are declaring that Jesus is Lord,

this is what you're declaring. And finally, you are living for his kingdom and not your own. He is

your Lord, your king. And by the way, a little background of Paul writing to the Romans. This

was in stark contrast to everybody around them in that day. Because the reader of Romans that's

living in Rome, people would attest and proclaim aloud that Nero was Lord. They would

attest and proclaim that Nero was the Lord of the entire world. And Paul is saying, no, you declare

that Jesus Christ is Lord with your mouth in every situation. This isn't a small statement that Paul's

making here. And then he says the next thing, believe in your heart that God raised him from

the dead. This is knowing that Jesus is alive today. He is not dead. This act is what justifies

us and makes us clean. This belief, you trust that Jesus did what he said he did,

and that he alone is your salvation, not your works, not anything else in all creation. It is

what Jesus did on the cross and raising from the dead, and I place everything in him. That is what

believing God raised him from the dead means. That he has done it, and you have faith that he has

done it. And then he says those who believe in Jesus will not be put to shame. They will never

be forsaken. They will be saved. But my friends, sometimes we have to read the opposite to

understand the gravity of what Paul's saying here. Because in contrast, there is no salvation for those

who do not know Jesus. There is and will be shame for anyone that does not confess that Jesus is

Lord and does not believe that God raised him from the dead. Paul declares that everyone who calls on

the name of the Lord will be saved. And again, Paul is quoting a passage of scripture in Joel 2.32.

And Paul, in this statement, is equating Jesus with Yahweh. In Joel 2.32, it says,

and it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord Yahweh

will be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, there shall be those who escape, as the Lord has

said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the Lord calls. Jesus is God. Jesus is Yahweh. He

is Lord, and he saves. He saves. So what do we do with this good news? What do we do with this?

We respond. We come to Jesus. And if you're here this morning and you don't know Jesus,

my friends, there's a lot we're talking about, but it is really simple. Confess with your mouth that

believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, and you will be saved. It is a free gift of

God. It's nothing you can earn. Then what are we supposed to do? Our feet become beautiful. I know

some of you are like, feet are ugly, bro. They kind of are, but not these feet. Romans 10 to 14.

10 verses 14 to 15. How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? This is one of the

most beautiful passages of scripture, I think. How then will they call on him in whom they have not

believed? And how are they to believe in him in whom they have not believed? This is one of the

of whom they have never heard. And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they

to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach

the good news. My friends, something we have to understand here before we get into what we do with

our feet and take the gospel to people. We need to have a burden like Paul had for other people.

But here's the other part of it. We have to have a theological conviction that a person must believe

in Jesus to be saved. Because if you don't believe in Jesus, you're not going to be saved. You're

not going to be saved. You're not going to be saved. You're not going to be saved. You're not going to

be saved. You're not going to be saved. You're not going to be saved. You're not going to be saved.

Here's what we know by statistics. For the general Christian population in 2020, a survey from the

Cultural Research Center found that only one-third of American adults embrace the traditional biblical

view that salvation comes through Christ. And only 52% of American Christians, actually I should say

an 09 study, found that 52% of American Christians believe other religions can lead to eternal life.

Among evangelical Christians, I know that's kind of a bad term today. I want to take it back.

Evangelical only means it has nothing to do with politics.

It has everything to do with Jesus. Everything to do with Jesus. But even among those who are

evangelical, belief is not universal. A 21 Pew study found that 44% of evangelical Christians

believe other religions can lead to heaven. In a separate study from the C.S. Lewis Institute,

only 45% of evangelicals clearly affirmed that personal belief in Christ is essential for

eternal life. People that are born again that believe you have to accept Christ,

some studies have shown that belief in pluralism is increasing even among those

people. In 21, probe ministry survey found that nearly 70% of born again Christians disagree with

the position that Jesus is the only way to God. How will people call on Jesus if we don't tell

them? I bet there's some of you in this room right now trying to finagle away. Well, Jesus might not

be the only way. Let me say it as strongly as I can. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life,

and no one comes to the Father except through him. Full stop. Full stop. We've got to get theology right

because when we think incorrectly about God, it is a matter of life and death for people around us.

And you can say, well, that's so harsh, and that's so critical, and that's so mean.

No, if God was fair, none of us would have a chance. But he gave us a way, and it's through

Christ, and it's his grace and mercy that's given it to us. And we have to be right about this

because the reality is God's revealed it, and we've got to tell others about it. We've got to

tell others about it because people are dying and going to a very real place called hell every day.

How will they believe if they've never heard of Jesus, the real Jesus, the one that actually is

there, not just a man, not just a prophet, the Son of God, the one who lived a perfect life,

who died on the cross to play the penalty of our sin before a holy God? God dying, God dying for us

in our place, and he is alive today, seated at the right hand of the Father, standing in the gap.

He took the blow so that we can be saved. That's Jesus. How will they hear if no one tells them?

What do they need to be told? Everything I just said, and that everyone who calls on the name

of the Lord Jesus will be saved. That if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and

what that means, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

How will anyone preach unless they're sent? If you don't go, how will anyone know? I hear from

people all the time, it would be so awkward to bring up faith because that's just one thing you

don't talk about. Religion and politics, right? If we've reduced Jesus to a religion, that's where

we're struggling. That's where we're failing. Because here's the thing, if you're a friend,

I don't know, what's something good here? Let me think about it for a second. If your friend

has an achy knee and you really believe in essential oils, what are you going to say?

Ooh, I found this new thing from doTERRA or from living whatever, and you can find it here. Oh my

goodness, if you rub it like five times a day, and then you heat it up, and then you cool it down,

and then you do all this process, your knee will feel like brand new. We'll see that in an instant.

When somebody is struggling in life, they don't know where to turn. Isn't it worth a little bit

of awkwardness to let them know how much God loves them? Because here's the thing,

your feet are beautiful as you carry the message of Jesus Christ. Paul's referring back to messengers

that would bring news from a front line, declaring that the war was over. Somebody declaring that a

war is over, their feet are pretty beautiful. Friends, in a very real way, when we carry the

message of Christ, we're declaring that the war is over. The war can be over between you and a

holy God. Your debt is paid in full by Jesus Christ. Call on the name of the Lord and be saved.

So what I want you to walk away from this is the,

I want you to answer one of two questions wherever you are. Have you confessed with your mouth

that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead? Do you know

Jesus today? If you don't, call on his name. And if you don't know how to do that, I would love to

speak with you. There's people at guest services that would love to speak with you and pray with

you. This is why we do what we do, because this is the truth. Every single one of us has sinned

and fallen short of the glory of God. The wages or the payment of that sin is death. Separation

from everyone we know and separation from God for eternity.

But the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. And God demonstrated his

own love for us in this, that while we were still sinners, while we were still sinners,

Christ died for us. And this salvation is by grace through faith and this not of work so that no one

can boast about it. And that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your

heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. That is it in a nutshell. That's the

gospel we proclaim. Number two, who are you being called to carry the name of Jesus to? Who are you

being called? It's been said that the gospel is only good news if it gets there on time. We can't

force anyone to come to the Lord. Even though some of us in this room have family members that we

would love to go, come on, are you serious? Come on. Our job is to be faithful and to love well.

And don't be a jerk that shares the gospel. Because that's not what Paul's doing here. Paul is

exuding with love, right? Do you have a burden for those around you, even those that you may

be really different from, those that may oppose you? Are you heartbroken?

When people live apart from Jesus and are arrogant toward God? Or does your blood boil because they

are wrong and your viewpoint is right? We've become way too divided even in the church from

people that are different than us. We've got to remember that it's not about the world around us

that we want people to see Jesus. Because Jesus is what will change what's going on around us.

Not a political system, not a government, not finances, not better jobs. Jesus changes.

Jesus is speaking in Matthew 9, 35 to 38.

It talks about Jesus.

And when he, Jesus, drew near and saw the city of Jerusalem, he wept over it, saying,

would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace.

But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you when your enemies will

set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down

to the ground and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon you,

upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.

Jesus is weeping over the people.

And he does that today. Remember what Jesus said on the cross as he was dying about the people who

put him on the cross. Father, forgive them. Friends, time is short. Come back tomorrow.

He'll come back in 150, 250, 350 years from now. We don't know how much time you have.

There are some of us here this morning that are playing religion. They're acting like you have

it all together. Call on the name of Jesus for real. It's not about religion. It's about a

love for you and loves you. Don't play about it anymore. There's others of us who there's a name

that popped into our heads this morning. For some of us, we know exactly who we're supposed to be

telling Jesus about, who we're supposed to carry the gospel to. Others of us may not have any idea.

Start praying for people because you're going to reach people that I never will. I'll reach people

that you won't. That's the beauty of the body of Christ. And all of our feet are beautiful,

sometimes stinky, but always beautiful if we're carrying the gospel. Christ, if so,

will you carry Christ with you? Heavenly Father, thank you so much for your love.

Thank you for the gospel. Thank you for, thank you for salvation. None of us deserve it. And

you give it freely. So God, this morning, I just pray that if there's anyone here that doesn't

yet know you as their savior, they would give their life to you this morning. Maybe they even

prayed that prayer years ago and they thought they were good. And maybe they're feeling

conviction this morning that they didn't actually believe at that time. God, I pray that they would

get over whatever pride that might be in their heart and that they would confess with their

mouth that you are Lord and believe in your heart that you were raised from the dead so that

they can be saved and really declare you as Lord of their life. Give them courage to ask questions

if they have them. For those of us that know Jesus and have not been carrying the gospel very well

and our feet have not been as beautiful as they can be, God, I pray that you would help us to know

how and who to talk to. I pray you provide opportunities that are just out of the blue

that we would just be ready for to be able to talk about you to people and not being a jerk about it,

but sharing what you've done in our lives and what he can do in theirs. God, give us courage. Give us

compassion. Give us a burden for those around us. Thank you for Jesus. Thank you for dying for us.

Holy Spirit, move in our hearts now. In Jesus' name we pray.