Unveiling True Righteousness: The Pathway to Faith in Jesus Christ

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.

If you have your Bibles turned with me to Romans chapter 10.

We're going to pick up where we left off last week.

What did we study last week?

We studied what it means to find true righteousness.

You know, there's a lot of people in this world that are seeking some sort of righteousness in their life.

And the Bible even tells us that in the time of Paul here, as the Book of Romans was written, there were individuals that were seeking after their own type of righteousness.

He even mentions his own people, the people of Israel, they who we're trying to find righteousness through the law, through works.

And so essentially, Paul is saying here that there are many people that are trying to find righteousness their own way, but there's only one way to find true righteousness.

And he explains that's through faith in Jesus Christ, not by works that we have done.

We read that this morning in Titus chapter three.

There's nothing that we can do to find righteousness.

All we can do is trust in faith, believe in our hearts what the Bible says about Jesus Christ and what he did for us.

And in that faith, the Bible says that God gives us righteousness.

He imputes righteousness upon our life.

And so therefore, we can live in righteousness, but not in our own righteousness.

It's the righteousness of God.

And so it's salvation by faith alone.

And so Romans chapter 10 tells us what that looks like.

Verse 9, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus.

Now, I want to break these verses down very clearly here this morning, because sometimes there's confusion on how someone is saved.

Do they have to say a certain thing?

Do they have to pray a certain prayer?

Do they have to do something within the church?

And.

And so the Bible clearly teaches here what it means to find salvation, what it means to come to a place of what we would call justification.

Justification is a big word to describe something that God does for us.

And essentially, justification means to be declared righteous.

And so here we see in verse nine, it starts with, if we confess with our mouths the Lord Jesus.

Now, what are we confessing about Jesus well, we have to go back to what that word confess means.

Literally in the Greek, it means to agree with, to say the same thing.

So what does it mean that we should agree with what?

Well, it says there Jesus, but not just that Jesus exists, because there's a lot of people in the world today, actually most people in the world today would admit that Jesus existed.

I was watching a video not too long ago, and this lady was on the video, and she goes, oh, yeah, Jesus existed, but he wasn't perfect.

Jesus existed, but he died, and he's dead now, today.

And so she believed in a Jesus, but not the Jesus that is proclaimed in the Word.

And so what we see here in verse nine, he says, confess, say the same thing about, agree with intellectually, what the Bible says about Jesus.

And so what have we seen so far in the Book of Romans?

Well, Jesus is God.

Jesus came in the flesh.

Jesus walked amongst those people there in Israel.

He lived a perfect life.

He didn't destroy the law, he fulfilled the law.

And then because of his righteousness, he was able to offer that perfect gift of a sacrifice which we see in Romans, chapter 5, verse 8.

God commendeth or demonstrated his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

So Jesus died for our sins.

He didn't die for his sins.

He died for our sins.

And the Bible says that he offered that willingly.

It wasn't against his will.

He submitted to the Father.

He said, I will do this.

And as we see in other places in the New Testament, the.

It actually brought him joy to go to the cross because he was fulfilling the Father's will and he was offering that gift of salvation to all those that believe.

But then the Bible says more there.

It says that he didn't just die on a cross because there are actually some people that would say, yes, we know that Jesus was martyred.

We know that Jesus died on a cross.

But many people don't believe that Jesus conquered death through the resurrection.

And what we're going to study in a few weeks on Easter is that the resurrection is vital.

It's a necessity for our gospel.

We can't just believe that Jesus died and then figuratively conquered sin.

No, we must believe that Jesus, yes, spiritually conquered sin, but physically conquered death by the resurrection.

The tomb's empty.

There were witnesses.

People went on to die for that truth.

And so we understand that the Bible says when we're hearing the gospel, it's not just the good news about Jesus making our life better.

It's the good news of Jesus coming and saving our lives through his death on the cross, his resurrection, and ultimately his power and his ruling and reigning today.

And so when we look at verse number nine, we see that part of salvation is intellectually understanding and confessing and agreeing that everything that the Bible says about Jesus is true.

But it doesn't stop there, because we have to understand that there's many people that will read that in the Bible and go, yeah, I, I, I think that that's true.

I believe that that's true.

But what we see next is this, and shall believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead.

So there's further understanding to what salvation is.

Salvation isn't just only intellectual agreement, but it's also faith in one's heart about the true scope of who Jesus is, as we see death, burial and resurrection.

So yes, we believe intellectually, we have the proof, we understand.

But it also talks here about faith.

Now, what is faith?

Faith is believing in something that we don't necessarily see right in front of us.

Hebrews chapter 11 talks about that.

It doesn't mean blind faith because we know that we have certainly a lot of evidence to believe what Jesus said about himself to be true.

We certainly believe that the Bible is authentic because of many different aspects of validation.

But what it says here essentially is this, that everybody at some point must take a step of faith.

There, there are some people that, that say, well, you've got to convince me.

I, I got to have all the facts laid out.

I, I've got to understand everything in every way.

Folks, I'm going to tell you that you can study the Bible your whole life, every day for a hundred years, and you're still not going to understand everything.

Why?

Because God is beyond us.

His thoughts are beyond our thoughts.

His actions are beyond our actions.

All of us have to come to a place in our life where, where we say by faith.

I might not understand this, but I believe this to be true.

And so what we have to understand is this.

Even people that are atheists, even people that believe in all the things that counteract the Bible, must at some point take a step of faith.

Everybody is a, is a person of faith, whether they know it or not.

It all boils down to what is our object of faith?

What are we placing our faith in?

I've used this analogy before and I'm going to use it again.

Let's say that there was a person in our church who was a furniture maker.

Maybe there is, right?

It's A carpenter.

And they, and they built a chair right up here.

And then I said, okay, I'm going to try to do my best to build a chair.

And if some of you know me, I would not be able to build a chair that was pretty sturdy.

It probably was wobbly.

And we would look at both of those chairs.

Both of those are chairs.

Both of, Both of those are things that we could sit in.

But hopefully all of you, with the evidence that you see in front of you, would say, well, I'm going to put my faith in the chair that's a lot more sturdy that can hold me.

And, and.

And then I don't want to sit in this chair because that might hurt me.

I don't have faith in that chair.

So what we can see in our lives is that God has proven to us every reason that he is faithful, that he is sure that he is strong, that he can hold us up, that he can save us, that he will sustain us.

And so when we put our faith in number nine, that it's about believing in our heart that God hath.

That God hath raised him from the dead.

And then we see, thou shalt be saved.

The promise here is that those who agree and those who believe come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, and we as Christians must believe the complete Gospel.

There are two sides of the coin on this.

Well, one side of the coin on, on, on.

On one side is that we bring all these people in here, and I say, how many of you want to go to heaven?

And all of you raise your hand and say, well, I want to go to heaven.

And I say, okay, just say these three words after me.

Jesus is Lord.

And everyone says, jesus is Lord.

And I say, okay, that means all of you are saved.

That would be misleading because maybe there are people who don't believe that to be true, but they're just agreeing with that statement in that moment.

Why?

Because I want to go to heaven.

Who doesn't want to go to heaven?

But then the other side of the coin, so, so that would be what we would call in some circles, easy believism.

And, and some people accuse me of being easy believism because I say all you have to do is believe.

But that would be even further.

That would be just, hey, say these exact words and you're going to heaven.

It doesn't matter what you believe.

That would be wrong.

That would be misleading.

Then there's other people that say, okay, well, that's believing and then doing and then proving and then doing all these actions forever, and then you're a saved.

No, that's adding to the simplicity that is the gospel.

And so there's two sides of the coin that we can fall on.

We can fall on the side of, well, it really doesn't matter what you believe as long as you're saying the right thing and agreeing to this.

And then there's other side of the coin as well.

It does matter what you believe, but it also matters what you do after this.

Then.

Then those both would be misleading.

And so what we can see here is, he says, it is the agreement with our minds that what we see is true and what we don't see is true and what we're told is true.

And then there's that belief in our heart.

There's that agreement with our hearts.

And then it says in verse 10, for with the heart, man believeth unto righteousness.

That's where we find the righteousness, not our righteousness.

The way we find righteousness is through faith in the Lord we believe.

And that brings us righteousness, that brings us justification.

And with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation.

So you actually see a very interesting pattern here.

You see, it starts with what we confess, what we believe, what we say.

Then it turns to what we believe in our hearts.

And then it goes further.

It says how we find salvation is through belief, verse 10 in our hearts.

And then what's the product of that?

The product would be confession.

So, so really what we see is this.

And Paul is going to describe this later on in this chapter.

The word of God is preached.

Can't be saved without the Word of God.

You can't be saved without the work of the Holy Spirit, which we're going to talk about in Titus, chapter three.

But then from there, what happens is that the Word is presented.

The Holy Spirit convicts.

The individual has a responsibility to respond, whether it be in faith or rejection, obedience or disobedience.

And then what happens is that belief produces what we see.

In verse 10, the mouth, confession is made unto salvation.

Which means, yes, our lifestyle should be different, yes, our lives should change after salvation, but it's not the change that makes us saved, it's the salvation that makes the change.

And so oftentimes within church, we.

We struggle with that because we look at an individual and we say, well, they must be saved because they're in church.

That's not right.

We might have people here today that are coming for different reasons.

Maybe someone dragged you here today.

Maybe someone promised you lunch after church and you say, okay, I Want a free lunch?

So I'll come and you didn't know what you were signing up for.

Okay, but here's the thing.

It's not just about the outward show that proves our salvation.

Well, that person looks the part.

That person.

That person might teach a class.

That person might serve in this capacity.

What does the Bible say about that?

Well, in Matthew, chapter seven, it says that one day there will be people that say, well, I'm saved because I did this.

I prophesied in your name, I cast out demons, I did all these good works, and Jesus is depart from me.

Why?

Because I didn't know you.

And so it's not a matter of the actions that save us, but what the Bible does teach.

And I think we could agree that in the Book of James, it talks about this in many other places.

Is that true?

Authentic faith does affect our works.

It doesn't mean that we're going to be perfect.

It doesn't mean that we're going to be completely mature the day we get saved.

But what it means is that we're cast in a direction in which we're growing closer and closer to the Lord.

So, for example, many of you that have had children, they're born, they're human beings, but they're not fully functioning human beings that could go out and get a job at three days old, right?

There is that process of maturity, there's that process of growth that must happen within the Christian's life.

And so what he's talking about here is, he's talking about, what does salvation look like?

Well, salvation looks like belief in agreement, but also outward.

It was proven by the way that we live our lives.

Verse 11.

He says, for the Scripture saith, whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.

So he actually quotes a passage of Scripture from the book of Isaiah.

He says, it is those who are in faith that no longer have to live in shame.

They no have.

They no longer have to live in a state of embarrassment, even though we live in a world today that should be embarrassed and their sin, and there's no more shame.

And that's a product of just open rebellion to God.

But standing before God, everyone will one day be ashamed of what they have done if they're walking outside of faith in Jesus Christ and they're living in their bad works or good works, because the Bible says even our good works are like filthy rags before the Lord.

So if someone's living outside of God's righteousness, if someone's living outside of faith in Jesus Christ, The Bible says that one day all will be brought to shame, all will be brought to justice, all will be brought to a place of judgment.

So he says, the way that we can avoid this type of shame, the way that we can avoid this type of judgment, the way that we can avoid this type of separation is why?

Well, it says in verse number 11, Whosoever believeth on him.

And so the distinction is not, well, I'm a good person.

I follow the law.

I'm a good person, I go to church.

I'm a good person.

I serve in 30 different ministries.

No, those are all things that should happen after salvation.

But it's not what proves our salvation.

What proves our salvation.

What is the delineating line between saved and unsaved is faith or belief, as it says here in verse number 11.

So for us today, hopefully, that's not very offensive.

To you, maybe for some of us, that's an offensive message.

But the Bible does say that the Bible and the gospel and the truth of who Jesus Christ is is an offensive message.

We looked at that at a few sermons ago.

Remember the rock of offense?

For some, Jesus is the rock that's precious that we build everything off of.

For others, Jesus is the rock.

The gospel is the rock of offense.

It's a stumbling block because no one wants to be told in their flesh that they're sinners.

Nobody wants to be told in their flesh that we're not good.

But the Bible says that we're not good.

There's none good.

No, not one.

And the only good that we can find in our life, truly for eternity is through Jesus Christ.

And so for the people hearing this, remember who specifically Paul is talking to in this context.

He.

He's talking to believers in Rome and particularly the Jewish believers that were confused because remember the.

For the most part, the Jewish people at the time of Paul were not believing in Jesus.

The leaders were not believing in Jesus.

They had rejected Jesus.

And even Peter preached about that in Acts, chapter two.

He says, those people that put Jesus to death, you guys are the ones that need to believe.

And so here in this case, he's talking to people who thought to some degree that their righteousness was found through following the law.

Their righteousness was found through the bloodline that they lived in.

Their righteousness was found by how steadfast they could be.

And what Paul is saying here is that it's not about how steadfast you are in your actions.

It's about how steadfast you are in your belief and ultimately how steadfast God is and what he has done for us and his faithfulness.

And so verse number 11, he says, the way to find this type of confidence, because what's the opposite of being ashamed?

Well, some people have different opinions on that, but essentially in this context, it's having confidence, having hope, having some type of security and peace.

And so on the other side of the coin, the only way that we can find security and peace and comfort and confidence is through belief in Jesus Christ.

We.

We have a lot of people in this world today, as you know, that are living in fear.

They're living in brokenness, they're living in anxiety, they're living in confusion.

And the answer to all of that is a relationship with Jesus Christ.

But then we see another problem in our society today, within our churches today, that we have people who claim to believe, but yet are riddled with all the things that the world is riddled with.

You say, well, Pastor, what does that mean?

Does that mean I'm not a Christian?

No, that doesn't mean that.

But it does mean that sometimes, and I have even myself been guilty of this, that I have struggled in the circumstance that I'm in, because I'm not putting my faith in Jesus Christ, even though I put my faith in Jesus Christ for salvation, I'm not putting my faith in Jesus Christ for the problem that I'm facing today, the struggle that I might be facing today.

So what we see here is that the answer to all of our struggles would be growing faith in our Lord and Savior through every trial that we might face in our life.

And so the irony sometimes is this, that some of us as Christians will believe that.

That God can save us from our sins and that I'm going to heaven, that I'm not going to hell.

But I'm struggling with thinking that God is going to get me through this problem today at work, or he's going to get me through this financial issue that I'm having in my life, or.

Or maybe even this health issue that I'm facing.

And we struggled.

And therefore we're not living in confidence or hope or because biblically speaking, hope is just a confident expectation that God is going to keep his word.

And so here he says to.

To be those types of people who can live in confidence and not in that shame would be to continuously grow in our faith.

Verse 12.

For there is no difference.

And what he's about to say here might not sound very offensive to us today, but for the people that were listening and reading this, it would have been Very offensive.

And I think that if we take it just from maybe a little bit different angle, it might start to ruffle our feathers just a little bit.

But verse number 12, he says, for there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.

So what does he say here?

He says, it doesn't matter if you are part of the Jewish faith.

It doesn't matter if you're part of the Gentiles, it doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter if you were born in this country.

It doesn't matter if you were born in that country.

He says everyone who comes to the Lord receives the same riches.

Now, I'm not talking about financial riches, because all of us probably have varying degrees of money, but the real truth that he's talking about here is the spiritual riches.

And I would encourage you, if you've never done that, study on what it means to be spiritually rich in Christ.

Study the book of Ephesians, because the book of Ephesians speaks of the storehouses, the abundant riches that we find in Christ.

And so I would say there is a prosperity gospel, but not the prosperity gospel that's being propagated today.

When it comes to financial and material success, there is a prosperity gospel and the spiritual prosperity that we all can find in Jesus Christ.

And so when I say this today, when I say Jew and gentile, that doesn't resonate with us because that's not something that we're living with in our culture too much because of, the vast majority of us were Gentiles in here today.

But the, but the irony that Paul is getting across to them is that you guys think that everyone's saved the same way, but many of you think that after you're saved that different people have different riches that are given to them, that we have more blessings because we're this type of bloodline.

And so what does that look like within our churches today?

Well, for, for me, from, from my perspective is that sometimes we see people come in that what we would consider look the part of who would fit in at our church.

And when they get saved, we totally understand how God can use them, right?

They're, they're from good stock, they're from a good family.

They're, they, they have a lot to bring to the table.

But what the Bible says is that doesn't matter how that person looks as they're coming in to find Jesus Christ.

It doesn't matter what their background is.

It doesn't matter what their record is, it doesn't matter anything when it comes to the spiritual riches that they can find when they come to Jesus Christ and faith in God.

As we have seen throughout Romans chapter 9 and 10 is that God can use anybody for the cause of his kingdom, for the cause of the gospel.

Now, it doesn't mean that sins that we commit from our past don't come back sometimes and give us struggles.

I mean, the Bible doesn't tell us that we can live free of any problems in our life because of our sins that we've committed.

That's not what he's talking about here.

But what he is talking about is the riches, the spiritual riches that we can receive when it comes to our faith.

And so he says, Jews and Gentiles alike, it's the same Lord.

It's not like he's a different guy to different people depending on their background.

He's the same Lord and he is rich unto all that call upon his name to all.

And so here today we, we do sometimes within our churches in America and within the world have some sort of statuses that we look at.

And we say, well, because, because that person is doing this, they're, they're more important or, or that person probably is gifted more.

Folks, I'm going to tell you in another study that would be so beneficial for all believers to go through is the study of the spiritual gifts.

If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, God has gifted you in a manner that's supernatural to use for his kingdom.

It's not the same as everybody else, but the Bible does speak in Romans chapter 12, which we're going to be getting there in this study about unique ministering gifts that all of us are given.

And what happens sometimes within our churches is, is that sometimes we look at certain one of those gifts as more important, but what we see is that they're equally important.

They're just distinct in their ways that they're lived out.

And so what I want you to understand here today is that it doesn't matter what your background is.

It doesn't matter where you came from.

It doesn't matter how much money you have in your bank account.

It doesn't matter what car you drive.

It doesn't matter if, if what your appearance is.

The Bible specifically speaks of those riches are poured out in our lives and, and those riches, that grace is what changes us.

You know, oftentimes I've, I've struggled with this and I want to, I'm trying to learn to be more transparent when I Get up in front of everybody because I don't want anyone to think that I have it all figured out that, that I'm the only right one.

And I'm coming down on all of you folks.

I'm not coming from a perch of perfection.

I'm coming from a place of growth and understanding.

So, so one of the things that I struggle with is I've looked at certain things and situations in my life and I've said this and maybe you have as well.

Well, well that person or that situation or, or, or that instance in my past has, has given me a place where I cannot experience that type of blessing, that type of joy.

And I've even said maybe in some cases, well, that joy has been stolen from me or, or that hope, I, I, I could never be used that way.

Or, or I, I, I think that person over there, their gift is better than mine.

I, I've been guilty of that.

I've looked at that person's gift and I've said, you know what, if God would have just given me that gift, I would have been a lot more useful.

Folks, the Bible says not to be covetous over other people's gifts.

God has specifically given you that gift.

And therefore there's an opportunity to be thankful and having the attitude of gratitude in our life.

And when we do that, we can be effectively used for the gospel.

And so in verse 12 he says it's that same type of riches that is poured out upon all of us.

Now the struggle is, is that we look at certain individuals life and sometimes it does look as if God is blessing certain people more than others.

Why is that the case?

Well, in some cases we see that there are some individuals, as we talked about before, that are believers.

But they have not been discipled, they have not been taught how to experience the blessings of God.

And so if we think about that inheritance, I want you to go to Titus chapter three.

We started there this morning.

And I want you to see something so interesting here.

There, there are people that when we believe in Jesus Christ, the Bible says that we can cry out to God.

This is Romans, chapter 8, Abba Father, which means we can have a personal relationship with God.

And then the Bible says that we're now joint heirs with Christ as children of God.

So what does that mean to have that inheritance?

Well, it means that as a believer we are gifted certain things.

We are gifted those spiritual blessings.

But sometimes, as many of you know, that there, there could be an instance in your life that you have something that is rightfully Yours given to you, but because you don' about it or because you haven't accessed it, you can't reap the benefits or the blessings of those gifts given to you.

So our daughter had a birthday recently, and, you know, she gets presents right at her birthday and as most of us do, and, you know, let's say she got a box and it was wrapped and it was there, and we said, okay, happy birthday, Here it is.

And she takes that gift and she puts it on her countertop and she says, you know what?

I like that box just the way that it is.

And I'm just, it's a pretty box.

It's got a nice, pretty bow on, and I'm just going to leave it there.

That gift was given to her by her parents with something nice inside, something that we know she would like, something that she would enjoy, something that she would be excited about, maybe something she could share with her friends at school.

But if she doesn't open up that box and dig into it and see what it is and maybe read the instructions and maybe learn, she's not going to be able to experience the blessings of that gift.

Why?

Because she hasn't accessed it.

And the Bible says that as we believe in the Lord, our faith is what accesses and assimilates the promises of God.

Access, meaning we can have it assimilate, meaning it's ours.

And so faith without works, as the Bible says in James, is dead.

That doesn't mean that, hey, you got to work to be saved.

What that means is, is that in our life, sometimes we, I have shallow faith.

And our shallow faith allows us not to experience the great riches that God has given to us in our life.

And so Titus, chapter three, verse five.

Five, he says this, not by works of righteousness, which we have done.

We've been reminded of that.

We've been reminded that it's not our works.

But then he goes on to say, but according to his mercy, he saved us.

So I, I, I've heard people even say, well, I, you know, I saved myself back in, you know, whatever.

No, we never got saved by ourselves.

I, I know.

And I've even heard people say, well, you know, Pastor, so and so saved me.

It's like, well, I know what you mean by that.

But at the end of the day, the one who does the saving is our Lord.

Okay, I understand what we mean.

Someone leads us to faith, and we're going to get to that.

In Romans, chapter 10, how can they believe if they don't have a preacher?

So, so it doesn't mean that we just sit back and go, well, I don't lead people to Christ, but we never take credit for saving anybody, and we don't give anybody else credit for our salvation other than the Lord.

And so it says here in verse number five, he says he saved us according to his mercy, by what?

The washing of regeneration?

We're washed, we're cleansed.

Now, some people take that as, that's my baptism.

So, Pastor, I'm not completely washed until I'm dunked in the water.

No, that water up there is not any holy water.

That water up there doesn't wash the sins away.

What washes the sins away is the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost.

What we're doing in.

In baptism within the church is a proclamation publicly, symbolically of what's already happened in our life.

And so this happens at the moment of salvation, our sins are washed away.

Now, it doesn't mean that we're sinless.

It means that we're still dealing with the flesh.

And the Bible says that we can get muddied up by the things of this world, but when it comes to our salvation, when it comes to our guilt, our condemnation before the Lord, it says here very clearly that it's the moment of salvation, that we are washed in regeneration and we are renewed in the Holy Ghost.

And then he says in verse six, which he shed on us abundantly, means this.

At the moment of salvation, God doesn't say, well, I've got the Holy Spirit over here, and now you got to be faithful for one year, and then you can get the Holy Spirit.

Because some people actually believe that.

Some people actually believe that you have to do certain things to be indwelled by the Spirit.

But the Bible clearly teaches here that in many other places that at the moment of justification, the moment of salvation, he says that the Holy Spirit is abundantly shed upon us, abundantly given to us.

There's other passages in Romans chapter 8 that speak that you cannot be a child of God without the Holy Spirit.

And so the way that we receive those gifts, the way that we understand that peace, the way that we understand that confidence, the way that we can understand this perspective, if you will, is as it says here in Titus chapter 3 and in Romans chapter 10, only through the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, and the only way that we can have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in our life, verse six, is what?

Through Jesus Christ our Savior.

Through Jesus, we can't reap the benefits of having The Holy Spirit in our life without faith in Jesus Christ.

And so some of you today might be saying, well, Pastor, I already know all this, so don't preach the gospel to me.

Preach the gospel to the unsaved.

Well, number one, I don't know everyone in the room, so I gotta preach the gospel no matter what.

But number two is us as Christians need to hear this.

We need to understand what happened to us.

We need to understand what we're living in today.

We.

We need to understand the victory that we have in Jesus.

We need to understand how to articulate this to other people.

And so that's why we need to rest in this and glory in the gospel and glory in the Holy Spirit and get excited about that transformation that happened in our hearts.

And so it says here in verse seven, that being justified, there's our word for the day.

They're justified by what?

By his grace.

By God's grace, not my own.

His grace.

We should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

The heir means this.

I am a beneficiary of the blessings of God.

And in this particular case, what does this say is the blessing the hope of eternal life?

Folks, I know we are a people, including myself, that are desirous.

We want things.

I know with me, I'm driving on the road and I see a truck.

It's really nice and raised up and shiny.

And I go, man, I want that truck.

I don't know what.

Something in my flesh just wants to have things.

And in that fleshly pursuit, what it actually leads to is just really no satisfaction.

Oh, I want more.

I want more.

Yeah, I had this meal, but now I want a better meal.

Yeah.

And that's how.

That's how we are in our flesh.

But what the Bible says is that our greatest hope, our greatest joy, our greatest gift, as it says here in Titus chapter three, verse seven, is our hope of eternal life.

And so what we can say, like Paul says and like many of the other saints of the Old Testament and the New Testament say, basically, is take everything else away from me.

But all I can, I can, I can say that I have it all with Jesus Christ.

I can say that I have it all with my relationship with God.

And that brings us to a place of joy, that brings us to a place of contentment, that brings us to a place of being effective.

Because when we're so laser focused on what God has for us, we don't care if someone else gets something else.

We don't care what another person over here is doing.

We say, you know what?

I get to do what God has for me.

I get to serve him.

I have the hope of eternal life, and I'm going to live in that and live in that joy and satisfaction of having that relationship with Jesus Christ, folks.

I'm still struggling with that.

I still, every day I wake up and my flesh wants me to want more.

But what I basically want to tell you here this morning is that with the Lord, you have it all, and everything else is just an abundant blessing that we just are thankful for.

Paul even talked about that in Philippians chapter four.

He says, you know what?

I know how to be full.

I know how to be empty.

I know how to be celebrated.

I know how to be persecuted.

And then he essentially says, I know that in every way how to be content.

He says, in every circumstance, therewith to be content.

Network intent is not a word that, that our society wants us to think about, because being content means there's no.

I don't need it anymore.

Really, what the Bible says is that I don't need anymore if I have Jesus Christ.

And so we get to verse number 13.

In Romans, chapter 10, Romans, chapter 10, verse 13, he reiterates what basically he stated back in verse number nine, in a more simplistic way, he says, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Now, if you were to read that just out of context, we would go back to what I said earlier today.

How many of you want to go to heaven?

I want to go to heaven.

All right, Say the word Lord.

All right.

Everyone says lord.

Okay, we're going to heaven.

You call upon the name of the Lord.

No, but remember, context is key.

So he says, call upon the name of the Lord.

What way?

The way he just described.

And so the question that I would have for you here this morning is this.

Who or what is the object of your faith?

You would say, well, you know, it's Jesus.

Fantastic.

Is that what you're saying?

Or is that what you're saying and believing and then doing?

Because what we do in our life, again, I think all of us could, at least at some point in our life, can identify with this statement is that I believe that God exists.

I. I believe that he is good.

I believe he wants what's best for me.

But I'm struggling to see that in this situation right here.

So therefore, I kind of want to take control, kind of want to do it in my own way.

And there was an individual, even in the New Testament that was talking to Jesus.

And he says, lord, I believe, but help my unbelief.

And I think that's all of us.

Some of us might struggle in that application of what we say, we believe.

How many of us are willing to say, lord, I give my family over to you, Lord, you're in control, Lord, I want to do it your way.

How many of us would say, now this is where pastor's really stepping on toes.

How many of us would really say, lord, take, take, take my job.

Not take away my job, but take control of it.

Take control of my finances, Lord, what do you want me to do with it?

Because really, when you think about it from this perspective, if God is your master and Lord, everything that you have has been given to you by him, therefore it belongs to Him.

That's a.

You know that.

That.

Some people squirm there, okay?

Some.

Some people squirm.

I swear with that.

Sometimes I'm like, not that.

Don't take that away.

And God might not take away God.

Actually, the opposite.

When you trust in the Lord, there's abundant blessings upon you.

He doesn't take anything away.

I used to think when I had pastors come into our.

Our chapel at school, and the pastor would get up there, he's like, give your life to Jesus.

And I'm like, yeah, but I don't want to be without.

I don't want to miss out.

I want to have fun.

I want to have enjoyment.

I want to live my life.

I want to experience the world.

But the moment that I gave my life to Christ, that was the moment where I felt and believed and experienced the fact that God had given me everything.

And therefore I haven't missed out on anything.

Actually, I probably miss out on things I should be missing out on.

And so that's what the Bible teaches is give it all over to the Lord.

Give it all over to him.

Give him your life.

We're going to get to Romans chapter 12, and it says that we should present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable, with God, which is your reasonable service, which means God wants your heart, but God wants your all.

And when we give him our all, that's in the moment where we say, lord, I believe.

Lord, I. I confess you to the world.

I was having a conversation with some believers here recently at a Bible study, and we all agreed.

It's so easy to profess Jesus with people that believe in Jesus.

Like, when I'm sitting around a table with other believers, like, I'm the most bold Christian in the world.

Like, you know what?

Yeah, let Me tell you this.

Let me tell you what the problem is with all these people.

Let me tell you how you can be saved.

But the true test is really when we take it to the streets, when we take it to a world that isn't welcoming to the gospel.

Are we going to believe that boldly with people around us who don't necessarily believe the same things that we believe?

That's the test.

That's the challenge.

That's where the rubber meets the road.

And so we see that Paul says, okay, how do we do this?

How do we get people to believe this?

How do we spread the word?

Verse 14.

This is where we're going to end this week, and this is where we're going to pick up next week.

Okay.

I love how this sermon series has been.

It's kind of been like, end.

He gives us the answer, and then we launch off to the next one.

So verse 14.

He says, how then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed?

Meaning?

Well, we're asking people to believe.

And in this case, he's even particularly talking about his own people in Israel.

He says, remember at the beginning of Romans 10 and at the beginning of Romans 9, he says, it's my heart that my people come to believe.

It's my heart that they all come to a place of revival.

But then he says, here, how can they believe if they have not heard?

How shall they believe in him who they have not heard?

And how shall they hear without a preacher?

So we asked some really pointed questions here.

He says, okay, we want people to believe.

I hope we do.

I hope that because of your belief in the Lord and the way that he's transformed your life, that you want other people to believe.

That's actually our goal in life, is to.

To make more disciples.

So he says, okay, how can they believe if they don't hear?

How can they call out to someone who they don't know?

Well, he's going to answer some of this, but he.

He asked.

The other question is, well, how can they hear without a preacher that word preaching just means proclamation to proclaim.

There.

There used to be like the.

The town crier, right?

I guess none of you guys remember the town crier.

It was way before all of our times.

But, you know, in history, there used to be a guy who would come and he would yell out the news to the.

To the town.

You know, so.

And so did this.

This is what happened.

That's essentially the idea.

Proclaiming being a messenger of the Gospel.

And so sometimes people read verse 14.

And they think, well, that means everyone is off the hook because it's only the preacher that has to proclaim the gospel.

Well, I am a preacher.

I'm also a pastor.

But actually what the Bible says is that all of us are preachers in different capacities.

You say, well, that means I get to go preach next week.

No, that's not how it works.

But we are to live our lives in proclamation to the gospel, to those around us.

And so if we look at this world today and, and I'll end with this thought, and I think it'll be a challenge for us and all.

Everyone, I think all Christians, how many of us would look out into the world today and say there's a problem?

I think we would all agree.

We all agree that there's a problem in this world.

Now, different people have different opinions on what that problem is.

But if you're a believer, we would all agree that the problem is the problem of sin.

And so what does that mean?

Well, that means that if there's people in their sin, the Bible says that they're on the path to a way of destruction, they're on the path to hell, they're on the path to judgment.

And if we want the world to turn to the Lord, if we want the world to go to what we believe to be the truth, we can't just sit around.

And this is something I've been guilty of, sit around at church with a bunch of people who agree and just say, hey, we.

We just need to complain about this world.

Because sometimes we can become complainers and we can kind of wax eloquent about how evil everyone is around us.

Or, or sometimes what happens is, is that we do everything within the church context for us, and there should be edification, there should be exhortation.

But sometimes we can be so myopic in our focus that we just focus on the people that are in these four walls.

And we miss out on the fact that the vast majority of people around us need Jesus and we are the ones.

There's nobody else.

We as the church are responsible to take that out to the world.

It doesn't say that Hollywood is the pillar and ground of truth.

It doesn't say that only preachers are the pillar and ground of truth.

The Bible says that it is the church that is the pillar and ground of truth.

And therefore it is all of our responsibility, yes, to encourage those that are believers, to strengthen those that are believers, to.

To love on other believers.

But also, as we're going to study in the next Study in Romans is that we are to take that message and send people out into the world as ambassadors for Christ, as representatives of the gospel.

And so the challenge for us is this.

Number one, do I believe?

Number two, do I believe enough to tell others?

And do I believe enough to tell others and love God enough to say, you know what?

I'm going to take that as my responsibility to find an avenue with my particular spiritual gift to present the gospel to the world.

Not all of us are teachers.

Not all of us are able to get to a place where we can get in front of a pulpit.

But all of us are spiritually gifted, whether it be through the gift of mercy, whether it be through the gift of administration, whether it be through the gift of giving.

There's a lot of gifts that even behind the scenes that God uses for the proclamation of the gospel.

And so I want to leave you with the question that Paul asked in verse 14.

How can they believe if they haven't heard?

How can they hear without a preacher?

And we're going to talk more about that next time.

How we as a church and as believers are responsible for certain elements of the gospel being presented to those that need the truth of who Jesus Christ is.

But the answer to all of this, the answer to the struggles of this world, the answer to the division in our country, the answer to the division in our world, the answer to the division within churches today is always to go back to the gospel, to go back to Jesus Christ, to go back to what he has done for us, to go back to the washing of regeneration and the renewal of the Holy Spirit.

I want to leave you with this.

This is something that I've really been thinking about and praying about, and.

And I believe that it's a biblical truth, and we see this within the context sometimes of church, is that we have two individuals.

And I use this analogy at one of our Bible studies recently.

We have two individuals that are sitting here.

One says, I'm filled with the Holy Spirit and I'm following God every way that I can.

Okay?

Then pretend like there's someone else standing up here with me.

And they say, I'm filled with the Holy Spirit and I'm following God every way that I possibly can.

And then we get down to the wire and both of us disagree on something.

Okay?

So we're disagreeing on something.

It doesn't mean that if you're indwelled with the Holy Spirit that you'll agree on everything, okay?

Because that will never happen.

But how we deal with this conflict and disagreement will dictate whether or not one or both of the individuals are truly being indwelled by the Spirit.

Why?

Because if I am indwelled by the Spirit, and this guy over here, whoever he is, if he is indwelled by the Holy Spirit, we have the same Holy Spirit living within us.

And the Holy Spirit will not fight against himself.

So what do we do?

Well, we seek after the Lord's guidance on how we can come to a place of agreement.

If we can't come to a place of agreement, we come to a place of compromise.

Not compromising the word of God, never compromising the truth.

But let's say, for example, by the way, by way of argument, this guy over here wants to paint the walls blue, and this guy wants to paint the walls green.

Well, what's the Bible say about that?

Well, you might say, well, I think the green's better.

Okay, what's our opinion?

The Bible doesn't speak about either one of those things.

So what do we do?

Well, we're going to see it in Romans 14.

We come together and find a way in which we don't offend one another.

And we.

And maybe, maybe someone else says, I think the wall should be purple.

Neither one of us are right.

Okay, so the idea would be this.

Don't stress about the colors of the wall.

That's.

That was this analogy.

Okay, but.

But the idea would be this.

The ideas would be this, that we as believers, if we say that we're being washed and.

And renewed by the Holy Ghost, should be able to walk in fellowship with our own folks.

Enough to say that when we go out into the world.

Because actually, we'll study this more next week.

But in John 17, Jesus says the way that the world can see the gospel is through people being in unity.

And his prayer to the Father was that we would be unified so the world could see him.

So how can we reach people in the world for the gospel if we as the church can't even get to.

Just so that we can be different, so that we can be forgiving, so that we can be honest, so that we can be in.

In a place of.

Of forgiveness when we deal with other people in our lives?

And so that's the message of the gospel.

The message of the Gospel is so important.

It's the most vital message that we have today.

The good news, the greatest news.

And so what we're going to do as we close here this morning is I'm gonna have a few questions for you if you're able to Stand with me, every head bowed, every eye closed.

We're gonna get to a place where I want us all to respond today to some degree.

I. I don't necessarily mean that you come forward and kneel the steps.

That's not required.

But what I am saying is that I do believe that all of us have to come to a place in our minds, in our hearts, about a few questions.

Number one, are we willing to come to Romans chapter 10 and say, honestly, not before, Pastor, but before God, That I am trusting in what Romans 10 says about salvation?

That I believe in my heart that all the things that the message of the Gospel is all about Jesus.

And we've already talked about what that looks like, that that's what I'm trusting in for salvation.

I'm confessing, I'm agreeing in who Jesus is intellectually and in faith.

If you are trusting in anything else for salvation here this morning, the Bible says to get that right today, because today is the day of salvation.

Tomorrow is not guaranteed.

I don't care if you've been a member of the church for 40 years or this is your first time visiting the church.

Get that right today.

Because the Bible says that that is the only way to find righteousness, that is the only way to find justification.

That's the only way to find the Holy Spirit in our lives, guiding us and changing us.

So salvation is the first question.

What are you trusting in?

What is your object of faith?

But then secondly, if your object of faith is Jesus Christ, are you trusting in him for everything?

Not just for your salvation, but for the other things that God says that he richly blesses us with, with the affairs of life, with the struggles at work, with our physical bodies, with our families, with our finances, with our service.

Are we trusting him in all of those capacities?

I mean, if I'm honest, I struggle with that daily.

And so if we do struggle with that, how do we find hope?

Well, we go to what the Bible says, that we are heirs of the eternal hope of Jesus Christ that's found through the dwelling of the Holy Spirit, the filling of the Holy Spirit, and the obedience to the Holy Spirit.

So maybe today we need to just realign ourselves with not going after what we want in our flesh, but what God wants in our spirit.

So may that be a challenge for us this morning.

And let's think about kind of prepping ourselves for the next study in Romans 10:14.

Where are we at in that process of proclaiming the message to the world?

Are you a preacher of the Gospel in your home?

Are you a preacher of gospel in your workplace?

Are you preacher of the gospel in your community?

Let's think about that here this morning.

And if not, let's ask the Lord to give us wisdom and strength on how to find that effective nature of presenting the gospel to those that need it.

Lord, I pray that you'd be in this time of invitation, working hearts and lives as we continue this study in the book of Romans, challenge our hearts, convict our hearts, comfort our hearts to the place where we can find obedience in you, that we can find satisfaction in you, that we can find that confidence in you.

Lord, I pray that you be with those folks that might need Jesus this morning as Savior.

May they be willing to confess, may they be willing to believe, may they be willing to submit to you for full salvation not by works of righteousness that we've done, but according to your mercy.

Lord, we trust in you today.

We ask all these things in Jesus name.

Amen.

As the music plays, follow as 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 blessing for you.

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.