The Zeal of Israel: A Call to Genuine Belief

Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church Podcast where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.

My name is Pastor Josh and I want to thank you for listening to this podcast.

I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen you in the word of God.

Now come along, let's look into the Bible and see what God has for us here today.

We're going to be in Romans chapter 10.

We're going to continue our sermon series in the Book of Romans.

And I hope that it's been a blessing for you as we've been able to study this wonderful book as we were even reminded about the power of Romans chapter 8, the reminder that there's no more condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus.

And really the whole book of Romans is painting a picture for the believer to understand the gospel, to understand what it means to trust in Jesus Christ, what it means to have faith, what that means for the believer individually and corporately as the church.

And then we're going to get to Romans 12 and on.

And Romans 12 and on is really all about how to practically apply those truths that we've learned.

And so the Bible says that theology does matter, whether we believe it or not.

What we believe about God affects the way that we live.

What we believe about God affects the way that we share our faith, the way that we what we believe about God affects the way that we love, the way that we forgive, the way that we a deal with the world around us.

But we have been studying Romans 9 and then we're studying Romans 9, 10 and 11, which is essentially right in the middle of the Book of Romans, an instance in which Paul is addressing Israel's rebellion to the truth of who Jesus Christ really is.

Obviously, the people that were living in Jesus time had no problem believing that he existed.

They saw him right in front of them.

They saw him preaching, they saw him working miracles.

But essentially what Paul is explaining here is that the vast majority of people from the nation of Israel at that time, his own people.

By the way, Paul's own people had turned their backs against the Messiah and essentially chosen that they were going to do their own thing.

And even Paul was facing much persecution.

Romans 9, though, tells us his heart for his own people.

Remember, if you go back, Paul says, I have a heaviness of heart.

I have continual sorrow in my heart for my people who have turned their backs against Christ.

He says, it's my desire that they would come to Jesus, that they would come to him in faith.

And he says they've experienced all these wonderful things.

The, the law was given to them, the adoption, the glory, the covenants, all of these things that God used in the Old Testament to reveal Himself came through the people of Israel.

But yet at this time, he explains in Romans chapter 9 that because of their disobedience, God had allowed them to fall into a place of blindness.

And it says at the end of Romans 9, essentially he.

He could con.

Pulls it all the way back together.

He summarizes it by saying essentially this.

Jesus was the stumbling block for people.

It wasn't religion, it wasn't God, it was Jesus.

Jesus is the stumbling block for those who are in disobedience.

And if you have to remember what we talked about last week, if you weren't here, I'll essentially summarize it for you.

That Jesus is precious.

Jesus is a rock of the corner for us that believe in Him.

He's precious.

He's something that gives us comfort, it's something that gives us joy.

But to those who are in disobedience, Jesus is a rock of offense.

It's what holds people up.

And that's what he ended Romans chapter nine with.

And if you remember in the Bible, the chapter divisions weren't originally there.

So his thought continues into chapter 10.

And so he says, brethren, my heart's desire.

So he's restating his heart that he started with in Romans chapter nine.

He says, it's my heart's desire and prayer.

And so I love how he puts that.

He says, it's.

It's my heart's desire.

And I'm also praying for this because sometimes in our life we'll have a desire for something, but maybe we don't put it to prayer.

Maybe we just wish that it would happen.

But he says, no, this is my heart, this is my desire, and this is my prayer to God for Israel, that they might be saved.

He reiterates the theme that he desires that his people, his nationality, his ethnicity would come back to Christ, that they would turn their hearts to the Lord, that they might be saved.

Now, we use that word saved a lot within the church.

What does that mean?

What does it mean to be saved?

I, I've.

I've asked some people in the past, like, are you saved?

And they said, saved from what?

Like, do I need to be saved?

I mean, what's, what does that mean when we use that word, saved?

In a theological sense?

It means essentially saved from sin, saved from punishment, saved from spiritual death, saved from an eternal hell.

The Bible says that when we preach the Gospel, we need to preach it clearly and we need to preach it completely.

If I just come and tell people, hey, just add Jesus to your life, he'll make your life better.

Well, some people might say, well, my life is pretty good.

I don't need it to be any better.

Well, come to Jesus, he'll make you rich.

Well, maybe this person's already rich.

Or, or maybe somebody that comes to Jesus doesn't receive the things that they were promised.

And there might be some confusion there.

And so when we preach the gospel, we need to preach it completely.

Jesus doesn't just come to add to our life.

Jesus doesn't come just to make our life better.

Jesus comes to save us from death.

He comes to save us from sin.

And so that's what Paul's prayer is.

He just.

He's not like, well, I just hope that they add Jesus to their life and they become more religious.

It wasn't Paul's heart that they become more religious.

They already were religious.

And that's what he's going to talk about here.

He's going to talk about their zeal, their passion for religion, but the fact that their passion and their zeal was misplaced.

So as hard as this, that they might be saved, that they might be saved from their life of sin, that they might be saved from their life of disobedience, that they would come to know Jesus, that they would come to know.

To know salvation.

And that should be our heart and our desire and our prayer as well.

As we saw this morning, there's many ministries with the Gideons and many, many others that the whole purpose is to spread the truth of the gospel so that the world can hear who Jesus Christ is and what he has done for us.

That's the point.

The point of church is to proclaim Jesus, as the Bible says in Matthew chapter 28 in what we call the Great Commission, to proclaim Jesus to the world, to.

To lead people to Christ so that we can make disciples for Jesus Christ.

That's the purpose of the church.

The purpose of the church is not just to come together and have a good time, even though we have a good time together.

The purpose of the church completely is not just to have fellowship, even though fellowship is a huge part of the church.

It's not just about coming together and breaking bread, even though, amen, we love to come together and break bread.

The idea would be this, that all together collectively, it's to glorify God by adding folks to the saved, those that are believers.

And so that's his prayer here in verse two, he says, for I bear them record, meaning this is the truth about them, that they have a zeal of God, they have passion, they have a heart to be religious.

They have tradition, they have their actions.

They're committed.

And I would say this, even when I had a chance to go to Israel, I saw some of the most committed religious people I've ever seen in my life.

But what we're going to see here is that Paul makes a very important point.

And the point is this zeal does not equate salvation.

Passion for something, if it's wrong, does not equate the truth.

There's a lot of people that will even say in the world today, as a general statement, that, hey, as long as you're passionate about something, as long as you have a desire and a zeal for something, that's your purpose, that that will save you.

We all kind of reach the same point, folks, that, that type of mountaintop theology with you go up the mountain that side, I go up this side.

But we reach the same point that is not biblical because the Bible says that there is one way, that there is one truth.

And so he says here that they have a zeal for God.

They have a zeal for God, but not according to.

To knowledge, not according to the truth.

The Bible says that we're to worship God with spirit.

Amen.

We're supposed to be passionate about our worship to the Lord and our service to the Lord.

John chapter four tells us to worship in spirit, but then it also says something else that says to worship in truth.

And so we marry those two together, our zeal for the Lord matched with truth.

Because I've even heard people say this, maybe you have as well, that, hey, it doesn't matter how you worship God.

It doesn't matter what you do, it doesn't matter how you pray, it doesn't matter how you serve.

Just do it with all of your heart and everything will be okay.

I understand the sentiment there, like, I'd rather you be doing something than nothing.

But at the end of the day, the Bible clearly gives us truths that we are to obey and to apply when it comes to our service, when it comes to our worship, when it comes to our prayer, when it comes to anything that God calls us to do.

And so here the condemnation from Paul is not, hey, they're, they're atheist or they're not religious or, or they're just evil people.

He says, no, they, they have a zeal for God, they have a passion for God.

And if you know anything about the people that he's talking about, they had traditions.

They had.

They had many different types of ceremonies and things that they would do to be very specific on the fact that they're worshiping God.

And some of them people call the Pharisees, which Paul was one of them.

So he would have understood completely the way that they were so focused on the minuscule things that they would go.

They would take the law as.

As you guys know about, and they would take the law and they would go above the law just to be safe.

They would go beyond the law and say, you know, we're extra special because we take the law, and then we go a step further and maybe two steps further and three steps further.

So essentially what he's saying is this.

It's not a matter of whether or not they worship or they go to church or they have zeal or they're working hard.

It's a matter of the truth of who they are believing in.

And so that goes for us today, when we look at our culture, when we look at our country, when we look at even our church.

What.

What is the focal point to our worship?

What is the focal point to our assembly?

What is the focal point to anything that we do within our Christian life?

Is it just a. I'm passionate about it, I enjoy it, it gives me some type of pleasure, or is it.

I'm doing this because God has called me to do this.

I.

And the truth of God is what's fueling my passion, not my passion fueling my view of who God is.

I want you guys to see the difference of that, because sometimes what happens is that my passion and my zeal drives my truth.

So.

So if I'm passionate about this ministry over here, that's my truth today.

This ministry is my truth, and I'm excited about that.

But the question might come to us with this.

What happens when we lose that zeal?

What happens when we lose that excitement for that?

Does our truth change?

We've even seen in our culture today that's happened.

There were certain things that people saw, and they said, you know what?

That is truth.

That that is wrong.

That is right.

But as time changes and as culture changes and as opinions change, things happen where maybe truth actually starts to begin to drift.

Now, we know truth doesn't drift.

Truth stays the same.

But culture might define things differently.

And so what Paul is saying is this.

Don't allow your zeal to dictate your truth.

Allow your truth to dictate your zeal.

Because when I wake up in the morning knowing that Romans chapter 8, verse 1, I have no more condemnation.

Romans chapter 8, verse 28, that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

Then I say, okay, that's the truth that's going to drive my zeal today.

Not my feelings, not my knee pain, not my headache, not my crazy day at work today, not the person that says things against me, but the truth of what the Bible tells me.

Go back to Romans chapter eight.

I mean, I love that Romans chapter eight was, I might put that as my, my license plate.

I like that idea.

But the idea would be this.

Romans chapter 8.

It tells us at the end of the chapter that nothing can separate us from the love of God.

Nothing can separate us.

And he lists a bunch of things.

Now sometimes we're tempted to think that something separates the love of God from us.

Maybe it's, you know what, I had an opportunity not too long ago to have some, some issues in my life.

And you know what my flesh was telling me is that if God loved you, he wouldn't let you go through that.

He wouldn't let you have that.

That's what my flesh is telling me.

That's, that's what the enemy wants us to think.

He wants us to believe the lies.

But what do we do in that moment?

We don't go to our zeal.

We go to our truth.

And that truth dictates that.

So we worship God in spirit and truth.

So he goes on to talk a lot about a little bit more.

In verse three, he says, for they being ignorant of God's righteousness, wow, those are some strong words.

He says that they're ignorant.

Ignorant just basically means they don't know about it.

They, they're missing the mark.

They're ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness.

There's so much that we could talk about just right there.

He says, instead of appealing to the righteousness of God imparted to us, as we've read about in the book of Romans, they say, you know what?

We're going to try to be righteous before God on our own way.

Don't we sometimes do that?

We say, okay, I know that God's word says this, but I'm going to try to do it my way.

I, I, I know that God's plan for me as a believer is to do it this way, but this seems right because this is what every other church is doing.

This is What I read on the Internet.

By the way, please be careful on what you read and what you watch on the Internet.

I'm not saying that everything that you find there is bad, but what I'm saying is there's a lot of bad teaching out there.

So he says, don't.

Don't follow your path to righteousness.

He says, follow God's path to righteousness.

Now, I think, I hope that all of us understand where true righteousness comes from.

Well, if you don't, here's what it says at the end of verse three, he says, they don't have this type of righteousness.

They have not submitted themselves unto what?

The righteousness of God.

Verse 4.

For Christ is the end of the law.

So what the Bible tells us here is that the way we find righteousness is not through our own works, but through a relationship with Jesus Christ.

And it's his righteousness that is big word here.

Imputed to us, given to us so.

So that we might know righteousness.

So if I look at you and I say, hey, are you a righteous person?

You might start thinking, well, am I a righteous person?

Did I obey all the laws this week?

Was I nice to my spouse today?

Did I do it?

Righteousness is not defined by our perfection.

Because the truth is, is that none of us could be righteous.

Then the Bible actually says, in and of ourselves, there is none righteous.

No, not one.

So I thought you just said, Pastor, that we're supposed to be righteous.

Well, we are, but we're called to be righteous in Jesus Christ because it's his righteousness given to us that we're able to walk in the truth of God.

But when we fail, it's his grace that flows upon us.

And we're reminded that there's no more condemnation.

We're reminded that his forgiveness is forever.

Not just for my past sins, not just for my sins today, but my sins forever.

And the idea would be this, not to abuse that, because that's what Romans chapter six says.

He says, don't just continue to sin.

That grace just keeps abounding.

He says, no, we're supposed to have a change of heart because of the Spirit living within us.

And so what Paul is telling us here in Romans chapter 10, is that his people, the people of Israel at that time were so caught up in works, they were so caught up in tradition, they were so caught up in the law that they believed that they could achieve salvation through their own righteousness, through their own works.

And he says, that's a mistake.

Why?

Because none of Us can reach the fullness of God's righteousness.

And so verse three, he says they're ignorant to God's righteousness because why they're trying to find their own righteousness.

Now, we often look at people that we read about in Scripture and say, well, man, they're really bad.

We, we, we would never do that.

But I would encourage you guys.

This is something that I did recently that I found very interesting.

I don't know if you guys kind of put yourselves in what you're reading, but when I was reading through the New Testament not too long ago, I try not to see myself as one of the disciples, like Peter.

That's where I always, like, put myself.

I put myself as Peter and Paul.

I often don't think about myself being the Pharisee, about thinking about myself being the one that's the negative one in the story.

But if I'm actually inspecting my own life, there's times in my life where I am the Pharisee because of some of the things that I say and because some of the things that I do, I have to be careful of that.

And so when I read this passage of Scripture, I just identify myself as, yep, I'm the one that does it God's way and not my own way.

But if we're honest with ourselves and we look into our own life and we allow God to inspect our lives, maybe some of us would identify areas in which we try to reach God.

Our own way, our own path, our own righteousness.

And we might even say this, well, I'm not as bad as.

I won't say anyone's name, but I'm not as bad as so and so over there.

And I hope we don't do that within the church.

That would be terrible.

But some of you might be tempted to say, well, my neighbor over here, you know what?

I'm better than them.

And the truth is that you probably could find somebody that you live around that you're more religious than.

It's easy to do, probably.

But the other side of the coin would be this.

There's probably someone who you could find that's more religious than you.

So that's a problem.

So.

So the problem is not being more and more religious, more and more devout, and following a list of rules.

The point is verse four, for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth.

Now, what that means is this.

The Bible says that Jesus came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill the law.

So it's not saying here that Christ came and just destroyed everything and just broke the law.

That's.

Jesus did not break the law.

Okay?

Jesus did not break the law.

He kept the law perfectly.

That's what the Bible says.

And because of that, he can give that offering for us in sacrifice.

So what does this mean in verse four?

Well, essentially it means this Jesus Christ is the only way to find this righteousness.

And how do we find it?

Through Jesus Christ.

It says to everyone that believeth, it's a matter of faith.

And really, if you look at the book of Romans, it's.

It's a picture of a story of faith versus works.

Is it works or is it faith?

Well, the truth is that some people teach it's faith plus works, or it's works alone, or it's faith plus works plus going to church or faith plus works plus giving to the church.

And by the way, I'm all for going to church.

Okay?

I'm the first person that will tell you, attend church, please attend church.

I'm all for giving to the Lord.

That's a good thing.

But I'm saying is that's not what saves us.

And you've heard me say this before.

I hope you've heard me say this before or someone else say this.

It's not our works or our good deeds that save us, but it is our salvation that should drive us to those good works and to those things that God calls us to do in our life.

And so verses 1 through 4 is essentially him saying, this is the problem with so many people today is that they're turning their backs against the Lord by trying to do their own thing.

And so I can't explain it any differently than this.

Today, the warning is not to be more religious, to be more devout, to.

To do more works.

He says the true test on where your righteousness falls, the true test and where your eternal destination will be, is whether or not you believe in Jesus Christ, whether or not you believe not in his existence.

And by the way, I mentioned that at the very beginning, those people that saw Jesus earthly ministry, they didn't sit there and go, I don't really believe Jesus existed.

They believed he existed because they saw him right in front of them.

And so the Bible today tells us in, in application today, it's not just telling people, hey, do you believe in Jesus?

Because there's a lot of people that believe in the existence of a person named Jesus.

But it's more than that.

It's believing in the complete Gospel.

It's.

I would say it this way, it's believing in the person and work of Jesus Christ, believing in what the Bible says about his deity, believing what the Bible says about his sacrifice, believing what the Bible says about the resurrection.

And so a lot of people this time were thinking and even to who the law came through.

So he says verse 4, verse 5 for Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, meaning the law does tell us God's perfect standard, right?

The the law is the schoolmaster.

So there's righteousness there.

It shows us the heart of God.

But the law was never there to show us the fall.

Even back in the Old Testament, it wasn't about following the law to be saved.

The book of Hebrews tells us that it's always been about faith.

The law was just there to show people that they needed God, that they needed something bigger than them because they couldn't keep the law perfectly.

And so the law of righteousness was revealed through Moses, ultimately by God.

But then it says that a man which doeth those things shall live by them.

Meaning if you want to keep the law for your righteousness, you have to live by them in every way.

Even if you miss one part, the Bible says you've offended them all.

And so he essentially explains here in verse 6 that this righteousness that we are desiring does not come from following or living the law.

But verse 6 he says, but the righteousness, which is of faith.

So again, contrast between works or the law and faith.

He says, this is what this says.

This is the type of righteousness of faith.

What does it say?

It says this, say, not in thine heart who shall descend into heaven, that is to bring Christ down from above, or who shall descend into the deep, that is to bring up Christ again from the dead.

So, so you're probably saying, what is he talking about here?

Well, as you know, through this study, Paul loves to quote the Old Testament.

All right, We've been doing this each week.

Last week we looked at Isaiah and HOSEA In Romans 9, he quotes, he actually quotes another Old Testament passage.

And he quotes Deuteronomy chapter 30.

If you want to cross reference this, it's actually Deuteronomy chapter 30.

And he quotes really just two or three verses there.

I believe it's three verses.

He quotes Deuteronomy 30, 11, 12 and 13, actually, and 14, he quotes those four verses.

And essentially what we see here is that he's tying what Moses said to the people from God back when the law was given.

Because essentially the covenant was given, the Mosaic covenant was given.

And Some of the people, even back at the time of Moses said, well, that's too hard to do.

We.

We can't obtain that.

And back In Deuteronomy, chapter 30, this same quote happens.

And it's basically a reminder that you don't have to go up to heaven, you don't have to go down to the abyss to reach this type of perfection, that the Word of God is close, that he's a personal God, that you don't have to jump over hoops, that you don't have to do all of these amazing actions with your life to reach this type of faith.

The faith is there and it's close.

And so if you go back to Romans, chapter 10, and he quotes it, he says there in verse number six, he says the type of righteousness found through faith is found not by saying in your heart, who can do this?

Who can ascend to heaven?

Because that's essentially sometimes what people say when they're trying to be religious.

Well, how.

How can any of us reach God?

How could we ascend to heaven?

Do we have to do all of that?

Or as it says in the next verse, or who shall descend into the deep?

Or as some say, the.

The abyss out far.

And the picture would actually be to go out into the deepest part of the ocean.

You don't have to go up to heaven.

We don't have to ascend in the deep.

And he actually gives those parenthetical statements, that is to bring Christ down from above, or as it says that, to bring Christ again from the dead, for from the deep.

But verse 8.

But what saith it so.

So what does faith say?

What does the truth say?

The Word is nigh.

The.

The Word is close.

The Word is personal.

Now we know in the New Testament, John chapter 1, Jesus is the Word.

But in this case he's talking about the truth of God, salvation found in him.

He says that righteousness that's extended through salvation.

He says verse eight, it's close to us.

God is a.

Is an imminent God.

He's.

He's present in our lives.

He not sitting up a thousand miles away from us above, watching down and hoping that we reach him through some type of good work.

Or he's not down in the abyss and we have to go down or bring him back from there.

No, God is with us.

That's what the book tells us in John chapter one.

That he came unto his own and his own received him not, but as many as received him.

Right?

Those are the ones that are called the children of God.

So Jesus is there with us.

The Bible tells us his name is Emmanuel.

The word Emmanuel means God with us, God became flesh.

That's Jesus Christ.

And so that's what verse eight is talking about.

The way to find faith is simply humbling ourselves and coming to him and trusting in him.

He says, the word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart.

That is the word of faith which we preach.

So this is a way for Paul to explain that Israel's hang up or anybody's hang up to come in to find true righteousness and true salvation is found in having faith or no faith.

That's, that's really the hang up.

Some, some people are like, well, I want to believe, but I can't believe.

I've got to see it to believe it.

God, prove this to me, then I'll believe.

That's, that's actually what the Bible says is a lack of faith.

If you go to the book of Hebrews, we don't have time to go there.

But Hebrews chapter 11 is a wonderful explanation of the definition of faith, the importance of faith, the examples of faith.

And I would tell you folks, faith is believing, not, not just blindly believing.

Because the Bible gives us many different opportunities to see that God is true.

And there's evidence to believe that God is true.

There's archeological finds that believe that God is true.

History tells us that God is true.

Everything tells us that God is true.

Creation tells us God is true.

Our conscience tells us our heart that God is true.

But the idea would be this, that it's not necessarily about evidence, it's not necessarily about religion.

It's not about works.

It's about coming to God and saying, I believe in your path.

And that's what he says in verse number nine.

He says it's the word of faith which we preach.

And what is that?

He essentially states the gospel here.

He states the gospel of how we can believe and how we can be saved.

He says that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus.

So the idea that that word confess means, it's a Greek word that means to say the same thing, to agree with.

So I agree with who Jesus is.

I confess with my mouth who Jesus is.

I agree with the word of God.

I believe that he is 100% God.

I believe that he's 100% man.

I believe that he came to this earth.

I believe that he lived a perfect life.

I believe that he died on the cross for my sins.

I believe he conquered death through the resurrection.

That's what he says there in verse nine, and shall believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead.

Folks, that's important to note, because there's a lot of people in this world today that will believe that Jesus existed.

They will even say, I agree with his teachings, but I don't really believe that he was God.

I don't really believe that he had conquered death through the resurrection.

That's a little bit extreme for me.

I just was listening to a podcast not too long ago, a very famous podcaster, and he was saying, I like Jesus.

He's like, I go to church.

He's like, I've been going to church for three years.

And he says, I think that it's very clear that people that live with Jesus's teachings are better people.

He says, I. I believe that all the Christians there are good people.

I believe it helps your life.

But then when it really boiled down to it, he says, do I believe that the Red Sea was parted?

Do I believe that he died on the cross?

Maybe.

But I don't believe that he conquered death through the resurrection.

I. I believe that's a fairy tale, folks.

Someone like that is what we consider to be close.

But, hey, you know, you've heard this analogy before.

I could go to the Grand Canyon.

I've never been there, but I know some of you have been there to the Grand Canyon.

So you could even see this better than me.

And let's say I go to the Grand Canyon.

I say, I can.

I can jump really far, and I'm.

I've got.

I've got.

I'm still a pretty spry.

And I run and I launch out over the edge at the widest part.

Most of you know, I could maybe jump, I don't know, 10ft, but I'm going.

I'm.

I'm falling, I'm falling.

And that's not going to be a good end for me.

And then someone like, let's say an Olympic long jumper comes up, and he's like, I know I can jump farther than that guy.

So he runs up there and he jumps and he doubles me.

But you know what?

Even if he doubles me, he's still not going to make it across the whole way.

And so if we say someone, well, someone's so close.

Like, they're so close.

Yes, they are close.

And we need to keep being persistent with them and preaching the gospel and praying that the Holy Spirit will convict someone's heart.

But just because someone's close does not mean that they're Saved because you could be an inch away from it.

But the Bible says that ultimately has to be what verse number nine says.

Confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, who he is, and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead.

Thou shalt be saved.

Now some people will read that and they'll say, well, believe.

I mean, like, is it just enough to believe in Him?

Well, it's this, okay?

It's faith and believing everything that he says about himself.

It's, it's believing the word of God.

It's believing that he died on the cross for our sins.

It's believing that he resurrected.

It's believing that he rules and reigns.

It's believing that he is Lord.

And so faith and belief are interchangeable.

Faith, belief, he says, have a belief in your heart that has essentially a thought process of this.

It's not just an intellectual ascent to a truth, but it's a heart belief.

It's, it's complete trust in.

And that's what we need to see here this morning.

I, I could preach longer here, but I'm, I'm not going to, I'm going to stop at verse number nine because I think that that is a lot to think about here today, and a lot of it is probably things that we agree with.

I don't think anyone here would say, well, I can reach God my own way.

I, I, I, I hope that there aren't a lot of people here that would say, well, it's not about believing in Jesus, it's just about being a good person.

I, I would hope that there's people that would say that, hey, it's, it's about believing in everything about Jesus, not just about his existence.

But I, but I would challenge us to look at verses one through nine and say this.

Number one.

Am I like those that were back at the time of Paul, that were religious, that had a zeal for God but no truth there?

I, I've been part of churches that there were some people that really, I think they believe that they love the Lord, but they maybe were misguided or maybe didn't want to see the truth.

And they believe that certain things that they did allowed them to earn God's love more.

You know why I know that?

Because I struggle with that.

I grew up in an environment that was a very godly environment, but because of my human inadequacies, I don't want to blame any other church, but because of my human inadequacies and my lack of understanding and my fleshly desires I thought that if I just read my Bible more, God would love me more.

If I just went to church every single time the doors are open, God will love me more.

If I made sure I looked the part, if I made sure that I served in, like, every single ministry that they offered and signed up for every single thing, maybe God would love me more.

But, folks, the Bible says in Romans, chapter 5, verse 8, that God already demonstrated his love for us.

He already said how much he loves us by dying on the cross for our sins.

You can't earn his love.

You can't earn more love.

You.

You can't get in God standing even better, because he already proved himself on the cross for us.

So it's not about a matter of him loving us more.

It's about us loving him more and understanding that love more and more each day.

And so what I would say is this, folks.

I'm not preaching against zeal in the church.

I want you to be zealous.

If anyone in this church wants you to be zealous about serving, it's me, okay?

Because it helps me out a lot when you guys help and when you guys are involved and when we're starting ministries and when we're doing things.

But I don't want us to get in our minds that that is what's saving us or that's what's making us a good church.

What makes us a good church is a church that glorifies and follows God, okay?

It's not a matter how many ministries we have.

It's not about how many things we do for Him.

It's a matter of what we are doing in light of his plan and purpose for our lives.

I would encourage you to think about this.

This is something that I'm really working through in my own life as well.

What is my eternal purpose as a pastor?

I've thought about that a lot.

Because you know what?

It's so easy for me to get into a rut.

I preach on Sunday mornings, I preach on Sunday nights.

I preach on Wednesday nights.

I go do everything that I'm supposed to do.

But sometimes, if we're not intentional and purposeful about the mission that God has give us, we're missing the effect of nature that God has called us to have in our life and the fruitfulness that God has called us to have.

So I want each and every one of us to think about this here this morning.

We what is my purpose for the cause of the kingdom?

Your purpose might be different than my purpose, but at the end of the day.

The ultimate purpose is to glorify God.

I think that most of you, I would assume and hope that most of you want to have a purpose in the Lord, but sometimes it's difficult to find.

And so what I would encourage you to do is think about this, boil it down to the gospel.

Where is my gospel ministry?

I think it's 2 Corinthians tells us it.

It's called the ministry of reconciliation.

We all should have a ministry of reconciliation, meaning we should always have a ministry at some capacity that helps other people be reconciled to the truth of who Jesus Christ is in the Gospel.

And so we see here Israel's rejection of Christ was a burden for Paul's heart, and anyone's rejection of Christ should be a burden for us.

And so we see here it's not about the zeal, but it's about the truth that drives the zeal.

It's not about our works.

It's about our faith.

It's not about our righteousness.

It's about his righteousness.

And ultimately, it's summarized there in verse number 7, 8, and 9.

God is not sitting far away from us, and we have to do some crazy thing to get to Him.

He's right here.

The Bible says that Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us.

That James, chapter 4, verse 8.

We draw near to God, he draws near to us.

And that's not, hey, I work hard and then God meets me.

God's already there.

But when we draw near to him, we're perceptive of his, his closeness to us.

I've used this analogy before as well.

When my kids were little, particularly Micah.

They're not here right now.

Okay, good.

He gets.

They get mad when I use them as examples in church, so hopefully they don't watch back the live stream.

But when they were little, specifically Micah, my oldest, when we would go out to a store, he.

He's.

He's always bought, even today.

Like, if I don't know where Micah is, I usually have to look on my left side or my right side.

He's like, right here.

Okay, there he is.

So, buddy.

Well, when he was little, sometimes he would get distracted and he would, like, be walking around the store, and I'm right there with him.

But he got.

He was looking away and he was distracted.

And he, I, I saw his panic.

He's like, where's my dad?

He thought he.

I was gone.

And.

And it wasn't because I had left his presence.

I was there with him, but because his eyes had been taken away from me and was looking at the toys and looking at the screens that he felt for that moment that God had left him and, or not God, his dad at that point had left him.

But the, the analogy would be this.

Sometimes as Christians, we, because we get distracted with the things of this world, our eyes get turned away.

And for a moment, or maybe even for an extended amount of time, we perceive that God's not with us, but God is there and it's us turning back to him and turning our hearts to Him.

And so I would encourage you to think about that, and I'm going to encourage you to think about professing the truth of Jesus Christ.

Don't over complicate the gospel.

We can complicate it as they start to grow in the faith, right?

There's things that we need to teach every Christian.

That's, that's called sanctification.

That's called discipleship.

But don't over complicate the fact that it's about believing in Jesus Christ in faith for the person and work of who he is and what he's done for us.

From there, we can start teaching about all the different things.

But I would encourage you, when someone's seeking after the Lord, don't over complicate the process.

Just say it's.

And actually the Bible calls it the simplicity of the gospel.

And so let's think about that here.

We're going to come back next week and we're going to talk more about this idea of the gospel and who can receive the gospel.

Because even at that time in the book of Romans, there were people that were against certain people receiving the gospel.

And then we understand that there's importance of preparing the gospel, presenting the gospel, but there's specific ways in which we send the gospel out.

And that's what we're going to talk about at the end of Romans chapter 10.

And essentially we're going to see in verse 17, one of my favorite verses.

And this ties right along with the theme this morning of having the Gideon's Bible distribution ministry here.

He says, so faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.

Faith comes through when people believe in what God has said.

And we're going to talk more about that as this study comes along.

So this morning, if you're able to stand with me, every head bowed, every eye closed, we're going to have a few moments where the music is playing.

I know it's been a very simple message, but here this morning, I think it's an important message for us to stand upon when it comes to what we're trusting in when it comes to our faith, when it comes to our righteousness, when it comes to our service, really, when it comes to our zeal.

Now, maybe some of you and I haven't touched on this too much this morning, have said, you know, I'm all about truth, but I don't get excited about the Lord anymore.

I don't get excited about his work.

When I hear someone getting saved, it's like, yeah, okay, someone got saved.

That's such a sad thing to see.

Because actually, that's what the Pharisees were all about.

The Pharisees were all about truth, truth, truth.

But there was no passion, there was no zeal.

There was no intimate heart relationship.

And so here this morning, maybe you stand on the word of God, but maybe you've lost some zeal and passion for what God has done in your life and maybe someone else's life around you.

Maybe you need to soften your heart to the work of God.

Maybe it's okay to shed a tear.

It's okay to have a time in your life which you're calling out to the Lord.

Look, we don't have any problem cheering our favorite sports teams on.

Maybe some of us as Christians need to cheer the Lord on more as he's working in our midst and he's working in our church and he's working in our culture.

So maybe that's something that.

That that's speaking to you here this morning.

If you're not a believer in Jesus Christ, maybe you've believed in his existence, but you have not believed in the person and work of Jesus Christ, as it says there.

Romans, chapter 10, verse 9.

That he died on the cross for you, that he rose again on the third day, that his sacrifice is the payment for your sin.

This morning you can come and you can see from the Bible what it means to put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ for salvation, for everlasting life, for that forgiveness that the Word of God tells us.

And so, Lord, I pray that you be with us this morning.

I pray that you work in hearts and lives.

I pray that you give us the type of passion and zeal that is aligned with the truth of your word.

Lord, help us to be resting in that truth.

Help us to have a passion for the lost.

Help us have a passion for our family.

Help us have a passion for our community so that the gospel can be presented.

But, Lord, help us to rest in that gospel that we don't get distracted and deceived to think that it's our works that's earning your salvation, Lord, but that it's our works that are proving your work in our life and showing our love for you.

So Lord, I pray that you bless us in this time working hearts and life.

So we ask all these things in Jesus name.

Amen.

As the music plays, follows the Lord leads here this morning.

Thank you again for listening to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast.

I hope that this sermon has been a blessing for you.

If you would like to find out more information about our church or this sermon, you can find us at middletownbaptistchurch.org or find us on Facebook or YouTube.

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Thank you so much.

God Bless.

Have a wonderful day.