Have It Your Way?

There's a fast food chain that pedals its sandwiches with this slogan, have it your way. Some people, if they really could have it their way, would have something like what's on the screen. And take you a week to eat that, but some people would say, that's my way, that's the way I'd like it. Well, that slogan really captures the thrust of our culture today. Have it your way. Individualism, pluralism, relativism. Those are all words which describe the prevailing philosophies of our culture which basically together say, there is really no absolute right or wrong. There's no absolute truth. You have it your way. I'll have it my way. We can do whatever we want. You have your religion. I have my religion. All religions are equal. You've got yours. I've got mine. And so you take your religion. I'll take my religion and we'll all be okay in the end. I'm here to tell you this morning that God says when it comes to salvation, there is only one way. Only one way. He's very exclusive and very clear about that. There's only one way. You cannot have it your way. Two brothers were born into a godly family. One trusted the Lord for his eternal salvation. The other decided I will have it my way. I'll be religious, yes, but I'm going to have my own religion. I'll do it my way. And that brother who decided to have it his own way was very angry and dissatisfied with his brother, whom he thought was so narrow-minded to think that you could only approach God in one way. Finally, that enough of that. And in an argument, he was so angry with his brother that he killed him. Their names, Abel and Kane. From the very beginning of mankind's history on this earth, man has tried to get to heaven his own way. He has tried to say, I'll have it my way. I'll get there my way. I'll do it my way. I'll sing Frank Sinatra's song. I had it my way. And God says you can't get to heaven except one way. And that's through Jesus Christ. Now, this was Israel's problem as we're seeing it in Romans 9 and 10. This morning we find ourselves in Romans 10 as we make this amazing journey through that great book of Romans. In chapters 9 through 11 of Romans, Paul is answering the question, where does Israel fit into the gospel? He's been describing the gospel, the righteousness that comes down from God. This is something that God gives to us. He declares us righteous. He gives us his righteousness. And the average Jew in the first century would say, okay, you're talking about Jew and Gentile becoming part of one body. This new work that God's doing to church and righteousness is given to... What about Israel? What about God's Old Testament promises to Israel? Are you saying Israel really has been set aside for a time for God to do this new work, the church, and Paul is saying yes. And so the question is, well, what about Israel? Does that mean God's forgotten his promises to Israel? What happens to Israel in the midst of all this gospel righteousness from God? And that's what Paul's answering in chapters 9 through 11. In chapter 9 we found that the first part of his answer has to do with God's sovereignty. Very strong statement of God's sovereignty. Basically what Paul says in chapter 9, God can do as he pleases and we cannot question him. Although he does remind us at the end of the chapter, he had warned Israel in the Old Testament what would happen if they rejected his righteousness. He had warned them about that. But basically the thrust of chapter 9 is God can do as he pleases and we can't question him. If God chooses to set the nation of Israel aside for a period of time, that's his choice. Just like in the Old Testament, the examples that are used in chapter 9, God chose Isaac and did not choose his smule. God chose Jacob, did not choose Esau. God said to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. And he demonstrated that by not obliterating the nation of Israel when they had sinned with the golden calf. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. And then he turns around and says to Pharaoh, I will harden whom I will harden. And we saw last week that very strong statement of God hardening the heart of Pharaoh. Now that's one side of the answer. God is sovereign. He can do what he wants and we cannot question that. He's God and we're not. Remember we talked last week about there are not four members of the Trinity. If that were the case, only three. And you're not one of the members of the Trinity. So you're not God. God is God. So we have to let him be God. Now there's another side to that truth about why Israel or us today, if we do not accept God's righteousness, why we may be rejected by God. There's another side to that truth. Yes, God is sovereign, but also you are responsible. Man is responsible to choose the Savior. And that is the thrust of chapter 10 that man is responsible. Remember last week we tried to illustrate that and I want to repeat that illustration. So for those of you who are here last week, you got a five minute snooze here. Two minutes snooze. Okay, I want to repeat that illustration because it really does picture it. In my mind, so well, the balance between divine sovereignty and human responsibility. The illustration comes from RB Kuiper who used to teach at Calvin Seminary and Grand Rapids. He said, here's how I think of God's sovereignty and human responsibility. I liken them to two ropes going through two holes in the ceiling and over a pulley above. If I wish to support myself by them, I must cling to them both. If I cling only to one and not to the other, I go down. He goes on to explain the illustration. He says, I read the many teachings of the Bible regarding God's election predestination, his chosen, and so on. And by the way, that's Romans 9. He says, I read also the many teachings regarding whosoever will may come and urging people to exercise their responsibilities, human beings. That will be Romans chapter 10. He goes on to say, these seeming contradictions cannot be reconciled by the puny human. With childlike faith, I cling to both ropes fully confident that in eternity, I will see that both strands of truth are after all one piece. I think that's a beautiful illustration of the balance that we must maintain between the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man. God is sovereign. You can do as he chooses, and we can't question that. But God also has given you and me the responsibility to understand that we need Jesus as our Savior and trust Him as our Savior. Everyone in this room has a responsibility to make that choice. And that's what chapter 10 is about. In fact, God will say the reason for Israel being set aside ultimately boils down to the fact they wanted to have it their own way. Israel said, I'll have it in my way rather than God's way. In verse 3, if you'll notice, he really capsulizes here, summarizes the thrust of his whole argument in these verse 13 verses. Verse 3 says, since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit the God's righteousness. So it's clear what he's going to describe in these verses is two different kinds of righteousness. Their own righteousness, man's righteousness, and God's righteousness. Those two kinds of righteousness are described in this passage. And he's going to contrast them and show what they're both like. He begins in verses 1 through 5 with man's righteousness. Here's a description of man's righteousness. Before he jumps into it, however, he reminds us in verse 1 of where his heart is. Verse 1, he says, brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. He's doing the same thing you did at the beginning of chapter 9 where he assures them that this is not a cold-hearted, reasoned logical approach to this whole subject. My heart is in this. I want my people Israel to be saved. I want my fellow Israelites to come to Christ. That's my heart, my desire for my people. But I'm going to be honest. I'm going to point out the futility of trying to get the heaven by your own righteousness. And so he jumps in in verse 2 to describe what man's righteousness is all about. The first element or description of man's righteousness is this. Man's righteousness is characterized by zealous works but without knowledge. Zealous works but without knowledge. Look at verse 2. Where I can testify about them, the Israelites mentioned in verse 1, I can testify about them that they are zealous for God but their zeal is not based on knowledge. So zealous for God zealous works but without knowledge. That's the description of man's righteousness. And by the way, that was so true of the nation of Israel in the first century. They were zealous for God and they had been for over 500 years. You see, if you go back to Israel's history in the Old Testament because of disobedience and rebellion against God and because of idolatry worshipping other gods, God judged them. Remove them from their land, took them into exile into a foreign country named Babylon. And for 70 years they were in exile being judged by God. You know what? After that 70 years they came back to their land, at least a great many of them did and that cured them of idolatry. I mean, they would be guilty of other things maybe in the next centuries but they were not guilty of idolatry. They were zealous for the true God of Israel and that zeal reached its peak between 171 and 163 AD. About 170 years before Christ was born a Syrian king named Antiochus rolled into Jerusalem furious because he had been spurned by Egypt and not able to win a battle there. And so he walked into the temple and sacrificed a pig on Israel's most holy author and set up a statue of Zeus and the holy of Holies, desecrated the Jewish temple, put many Jews to death. And the Jewish nation as a whole rose up against that in their zeal for God. We will not let our temple be desecrated that way. We will not let the place where we worship God be treated that way. And they rose up in an eight year war of national independence brought independence from Syria. They were zealous for God but part of what righteousness was and what of what God wanted them to see was that I am sending you your Messiah, the Redeemer, the Savior. And when he came they did not recognize him. So they had a lot of religious zeal but without the proper knowledge, without the knowledge that Jesus is their Redeemer, Jesus is their Messiah, Jesus is their Savior. So they didn't realize that the only way to really know God is through Christ. He is the one who fulfilled all the Old Testament symbols, fulfilled all the Old Testament sacrifices and they didn't recognize him when he came. So they had a lot of religious zeal but without the proper knowledge of who the Messiah was, there are a lot of people like that today. A lot of people who have a lot of religious zeal but without the right knowledge of Christ, there are religious groups who send their young people all over the world. Some of them much more zealous than we are who give up careers, who give up potential lucrative positions in life to take the message of their religion to other parts of the world. They have a lot of religious zeal. There are people who are very zealous to do good works, to be community minded and involved in good endeavors. There are many great philanthropists who give great sums of money to help the poor and to feed children across the world and those are worthwhile endeavors. But there are many people who have a lot of religious zeal and doing good things but without knowledge of Christ. There are even people in churches that way, even good Bible believing churches. People have a lot of religious zeal. They have been coming to church since they were bounced on their parents' knee when they were a little baby. And so they have grown up in church. All they know is church and they come to church because it is the thing to do on Sunday. Maybe you are one of them. And so you have a lot of religious zeal but you don't know Christ. You don't have the knowledge that you must have in order to be saved. Religious zeal will never get you to heaven. All your good deeds, all your efforts, all your attempts to be a good moral person, law-biting citizen, good provider for your family, wonderful neighbor. All of that will never get you to heaven. You may have the greatest religious zeal in this world but if you do not have the knowledge of Jesus as your Savior, you will not get to heaven. Paul himself was the greatest example of what he is writing here. He is talking about people who have a lot of religious zeal but don't have the proper knowledge. Paul himself is the best example of that. He gives his own personal testimony in the book of Philippians. Listen to this testimony that he gives in Philippians chapter 3 where he says, if anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, if anyone thinks that what they have done in this body is enough to get them to heaven, he says, I have more. You put up your list of credentials, you list your resume, I can outdo you. And here it is circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews. What he is describing there is an impeccable ethnic racial pedigree, religious pedigree. Not only am I one of those old testament people of God, not only am I a missoralite but I came from the tribe of Benjamin, the only tribe to show its loyalty to Judah when the nation split. I am one of the real patriots, I am one of the realist relights. I am a Hebrew of the Hebrews and he goes on to say in regard to the law, a Pharisee, the most conservative religious branch of the day that took the law of God seriously, so much so that they added a bunch of their own rules to interpret it. That was the problem Jesus had with them. But there were very conservative groups, Paul says, I was in that group, I was a Pharisee, as for zeal, here it is, as for zeal, persecuting the church. Paul said, you talk about a guy that had zeal for what he believed religiously, this new group comes along called the church and they're claiming to be the way, I'm going to put him to that. That's how zeal I am for my religion. He's got religious zeal, giving that. He says, as for legalistic righteousness, faultless. You talk about someone who's doing his best to live up to the Old Testament standard of the law of Moses, you'd have a lot of trouble putting the finger at me and seeing anything wrong. This guy was on the mark, he was crossing all of his teeth, dotting all of his eyes just right religiously, but he goes on to say, there in Philippians chapter 3, all of that, all of that, he counted loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, and here it is, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whose sake I've lost all those things. You see, he had a lot of religious zeal, but he didn't have the knowledge of Christ as he saved your Paul was a great example of that. Richard Strypling is an executive in the Southern Baptist Convention in Waco, Texas. He's a mission guy in that part of Texas. And one day someone asked him, a lady asked him, are you a minister? And he said, yes, and she said, well, what denomination are you? And he said, well, I'm Baptist. And she said, oh, you're that part of that narrow-minded group that thinks you're going to be the only people in heaven, right? He said, lady, I'm more narrow-minded than that. I don't think all of our groups are going to be there. And you know what, he's right. And the same thing could be said about every denomination, every religious group, including independent churches like ours. Not sure all of us are going to be there because it's possible that even in this church, it's possible that right here this morning, there could be people who are here in church and you come every Sunday. You've got a lot of religious zeal, but you don't know Christ. You've never come to the real knowledge and understanding that you're a sinner that needs a savior and that Jesus died for you on the cross. And you've never embraced him by faith as your savior. It's possible to be religious, to have religious zeal, but without knowledge, without the knowledge of Christ. That's Paul's first description of man's righteousness. Notice the second description, verses four and five. Law keeping, but without hope. Law keeping, but without hope. Verse four, Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes. Moses describes in this way the righteousness that is by the law the man who does these things will live by them. Now I want to take verse five first and then we'll back up to verse four, okay? Because Paul's real thrust of this description of man's righteousness is in verse five. He says, I'm going to describe for you, in fact Moses describes in Leviticus 18, he quotes from, Moses describes the righteousness that is by the law. In other words, if you're going to try to get to heaven by keeping the law, this is the kind of righteousness you have to have. That's not like you're going to get to heaven by keeping the law. The scripture makes it clear that's impossible. But if it were possible, this is the kind of righteousness you would have to have if you're going to be a law keeper. You know keeping the 10 commandments, trying to keep the law of Moses. Here's how it would have to look. The man who does these things will live by them. And the idea of that verse is if you're going to try to get to heaven by keeping the mosaic law or by keeping any of the Old Testament law, you've got to do it perfectly. You've got to live by 24 seven. Every moment of every day, you've got to make sure you're perfect in keeping the law. If you at one time in your life break one of God's commandments, you're hopelessly doomed. That's what he's saying. He says the same thing in Galatians chapter three in a little different way. Look at this verse on the screen. For all who rely on the works of the law, as a means of salvation in the context he's talking about. If you're trying to rely on the law for salvage, you're under a curse. As it is written, cursed is everyone. Here it is who does not continue to do everything written in the book of the law. If you're depending on the law to get you to heaven, the only way to do that is to do everything continually. That's written in the book of the law. Otherwise, you're under a curse. You're condemned. If you don't do that, James said it this way in James chapter two in verse 10. For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. Here's the scenario. You live to be 80 years old. Let's say at age five, you come to the point where you're able to determine the difference between right and wrong. Let's just use it as an example. It's not a set age. Let's say you have 75 years with the ability to determine what's right and wrong. In all of those 75 years, if you ever do one thing to violate God's commands, you're hopelessly doomed to a Christless eternity. That's what James is saying. You are just as guilty as if you've broken all of God's laws. So here's the point. Here's the point Paul is making. If you're going to try to get the heaven by keeping the 10 commandments, by living by the sermon on the mount, trying to keep the law of God, that kind of thing, you're hopeless. You can't do it. No one can do that. No one can live a perfect life, your whole lifetime on this earth. Oh, wait a second. One exception. One exception. Now, back to verse four. For Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes. What does Paul mean when he says Christ is the end of the law? Some people think that he means well Christ put aside the law. Christ did away with the law. And the scriptures do teach that in a certain way. The scriptures do teach that Jesus did set aside the law by his work on the cross. Look at these verses, if you will, Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 15 on the screen. You want to turn there by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. He did set aside the law with all of its commands and regulations by what he did on the cross in his body when he died. Paul says this way to the Colossians in Colossians chapter 2 and verse 14 having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness which stood against us. That's the condemnation of the law against us, the law condemning us, telling us that we're sinners. By he put that away, he canceled it and condemned the law that condemned us. He has taken it away, Paul says, nailing it to the cross. And then the writer of Hebrews says this in Hebrews 7. The former regulations speaking of the Old Testament law is set aside because it was weak and useless for the law made nothing perfect and a better hope is introduced by which we draw near to God. He goes on to describe that better hope is through Christ. So the scriptures do teach that Christ by his death on the cross put away the law, annulled the law, nailed it to his cross in these two ways. Number one, it can no longer condemn us. The law, the purpose of the law is still valid even in the New Testament. It shows us that we're guilty and that we cannot possibly live up to God's standards. But once you receive Christ, the work on the cross is applied and that condemnation is no longer valid. Christ put it away by the cross. The second way in which he put away the law is it's no longer a rule of life for those of us who are in his body, the church. It was the rule of life for Israel and the Old Testament, but it's no longer our rule of life. And in that sense, he put aside those regulations and commands and so forth. Doesn't mean the law is no good anymore. It has still has a purpose to show us that we're sinners, but as far as condemning us, as far as the way of life for us, Christ said it aside. So the scriptures do teach that, but I don't think that's what Paul means in Romans 10. You know, we use the word end in that way when we look at someone and we say end of discussion. In other words, we're done. We're not talking about that anymore. It's finished. We use the word that way, but we also use the word end in a second way. And the Greek word here is also used in that way. And in this context, it makes more sense. We use the word end in a second way. We are discussing this with the end that we may come to a conclusion or we may find a solution. And what we're talking about there is we're discussing this for the purpose of for the goal of so that we might reach a conclusion of fulfillment, and that is a solution to this problem. Now that's the way Paul uses the word end here. For Christ is the end of the law. What he means is that Christ perfectly completed the commands, the demands of the law. Christ perfectly fulfilled the law for us. So if we believe in him, we can have righteousness. That's what the verse is saying. And because in verse 5, he says, you can't do that. You can't live perfectly. I think in verse 4, he's talking about the fact that Christ did. Christ did fulfill all the commands and demands of the law. That qualified him to be a savior because he has perfectly qualified to die for your sins. He had no violations of the law himself to account for. He was perfectly morally qualified to be our savior because he perfectly kept the law. He's the only one that's ever done that. So Christ is the complete fulfillment of the law so that we might believe and have God's righteousness. You see, Paul's point is this, if you try to get to heaven by keeping the law absolutely hopeless because if you ever one time violate God's law in your entire life, it's just as though you'd violated everything. You're condemned, you're lost. There's only one person who qualified himself to be the savior. You're not the savior. I'm not the savior. Jesus is the savior. And he qualified himself by perfectly keeping the law. So man's righteousness is law keeping but without any hope. I want that to be very, very clear to all of us this morning that if you're trying to get to heaven by your own works, whether it's being a good moral person, a church member, because you've got a baptism certificate or because you're a good law-biting citizen, a good provider for your family or because you kept the law or you're trying your best to. If you're trying to get to heaven that way, you will never get to heaven that way. You don't have the proper knowledge of Christ. You're woefully ignorant of the way of salvation and you're hopeless. You cannot possibly get to heaven that way. The reason I want that to be so clear is because so many people don't see that. Don't really grasp that. I'm alarmed by some of the statistics that I read. George Barna, who is kind of the George Gallup of the Christian world. He's a poster that does a lot of polling and surveys for Christian organizations and so forth. George Barna in a recent survey stated as a result of this study that 55% of Americans believe that a good person can earn his way to heaven. Now we might say, well, yeah, that's probably to be understood and expected in America. That 55% of people would say we can get to heaven on our own. That's not the startling statistic to me. This is the startling statistic in that same survey. He found that 40% of those in America who say they have committed their life to Christ. Now please understand, these are people who claim to have committed their lives to Christ. 40% of them in this survey reflected across the board agree with this statement. If you are a good person or do enough good things for others, you can earn a place in heaven. That startles me. Is it really true that 40% of people in America who claim to know Christ would agree with that statement? If I do enough good things, if I'm good enough to people, then I can earn my way to heaven. I tell you something. I don't know if people are just kind of misinformed or don't know how to say things, but I hear a lot of times at funerals. If anybody ever gets to heaven, that person is your will. And I hear good people who claim to know Christ saying that kind of thing. And what they're saying basically, that was a really good person. That was a good man. That was a good woman. If anybody makes it, they'll make it. Nobody makes it that way, my friend. Nobody gets to heaven on their own. You may be the best person in this world, but if for 75 or 80 years, however long you live, you're not perfect. You won't get to heaven by your own good works, your own good deeds. That's what Paul is saying. Man's righteousness will never get you to heaven. You're absolutely hopeless if that's what you're trusting in. But thank God there is another kind of righteousness. And Paul goes on to describe that in verses 6-13. There is another kind of righteousness. And it's God's righteousness that is offered to us. Now Israel's problem was they tried to work their own righteousness and they rejected God's righteousness. Now Paul is going to describe for us what God's righteousness is. Four descriptions. Number one, God's righteousness is God's work. It is God's work. Look at verse 6. But the righteousness that is by faith, here begins the contrast. The righteousness that is by faith says, and he quotes again in the Old Testament, do not say in your heart, who will ascend into heaven, that is to bring Christ down, or who will ascend into the deep, that is to bring Christ up from the dead. Now that may sound a little confusing at first, but what Paul's really saying is a lot of people feel like they have to do wonderful, amazing, great things to be able to get to heaven. And he describes it kind of from two extremes. Send up to heaven, send down into the deeps, the deep. And he illustrates it by saying, what if you could ascend all the way up in heaven and bring Christ down to earth? What if you could ascend all the way into the depths of the grave and bring Christ up from the dead? That would be pretty amazing, wouldn't it? Think you would get to heaven by doing that? No, no, God's already done that. You had nothing to do with bringing Jesus down to this earth. The incarnation Christ coming to this earth was totally a work of God. You had nothing to do with the resurrection of Christ, bringing him up from the grave. God did that. So what makes you think you can add anything to the cross of Christ, what he did in his death? If you had nothing to do with this coming to earth, if you had nothing to do with this resurrection, if you can't accomplish either of those, then how are you going to accomplish your own salvation? I mean, God did both of those. God did everything else that was needed for your salvation by providing Christ on the cross. Salvation is God's work. Don't feel like you have to or even can do anything spectacular that will impress God and he'll let you into heaven. Salvation is God's work. God provides everything that's needed. Second characteristic of salvation is that salvation is received by faith. Look at verse 8. But what does it say? What is it there? Well, back to verse 6, where he introduced it. It is the righteousness that is by faith. Okay. How does that happen? What does it say? Verse 8, the word is near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, he's quoting again from the Old Testament, Deuteronomy 30, he's quoting from there. That is the word of faith we are proclaiming. In other words, what he's saying is, it's right there in front of you. You don't have to ascend up into heaven to do any great thing to impress God. You don't have to go down into the grave to resurrect Christ as if you could do that. You don't have to do any great amazing feat to impress God. The way of salvation, the way of righteousness is right there in front of you. It's near you. It's as close as faith. It's the word of faith which we proclaim. And would you please notice the emphasis on faith in this passage. Verse 6, the righteousness that is by faith. Verse 8, the word is near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart. That is the word of faith we are proclaiming. Verse 9, if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart. That God raised him from the dead, you'll be saved. Verse 10, for it is with your heart that you believe and are justified. Verse 11, as the scripture says, anyone who trusts in him five times, he makes it clear that God's righteousness comes by faith. It is by trusting him. Now here's how it works. Faith is simply believing what God says and accepting it. So faith, the kind of faith that brings salvation is believing what God says about you and me. We're all sinners. Romans has already made that clear. We've all sinned. We've all fallen short of God's glory of his nature's character, his righteousness demands. We're all fall short of that. We're all sinners. And trusting Christ to save your means, I believe what God has said about me. I'm a sinner. And trusting for salvation, faith for salvation means that you believe and accept and trust what God has said about the results of that. The wages of sin is death, eternal separation from God. We all deserve to be eternally separated from God and help because of our sin. And faith says, I agree with you God. I believe you, you're right. I trust what you're saying. And then faith trusts God when he says, I have given you the remedy, the only way of salvation. And that is through my son, Jesus, who came to this earth to take your place and die for your sins on the cross. And you say, I believe that for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him shall never perish but have everlasting life. And so faith is simply trusting what God has said in his word. I am a sinner. I deserve separation from God because of that. But I believe that Jesus came to die for my sins and pay that penalty for me on the cross. And I embrace him by faith. I trust him as my savior. That's the only way I will get to heaven is through confidence and trust in him, not in myself. Salvation is received by faith. Third thing about God's righteousness, not only is it a work of God, not only is it received by faith, but third, it leads to genuine submission, at least a genuine submission. I want you to see what verses 9 and 10 say. Verse 9 says, that if you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord. And believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with the heart that you believe and are justified. In other words, you're declared righteous when you trust from your heart, you believe in Christ. And then he goes on to say, it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. Now, it almost sounds like Paul is saying there are two steps to salvation. One is when you believe from your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead. And what is the only mention, the resurrection, because that's what sets the death of Christ apart. That's what makes it unique. No one else has died and been resurrected to live eternally. That's Jesus was the one who did that. So that sets apart the death of Christ. You place your faith in the death and burial and resurrection of Christ for your salvation. And then it sounds like he's saying you've got to publicly confess that too in order to be saved. So it almost sounds like he's doing a two-step thing. You know, trust from your heart, but you're not really saved until you walk forward in church. And there have been many people who have misunderstood that. That's not what Paul's saying. Walking forward in a church will not get you to heaven. That's not saving you. In fact, it's not even the act of making a public confession that is the key here. It's what you publicly confess to others that shows where your heart is. And what you publicly confess in verse 9 is that Jesus is Lord. Now, put that in the historical context. In first century Rome that Paul was writing to, that would hit people right in the face. I mean, that would speak volumes to them. Because in the Roman Empire, every year, once a year, every Roman citizen was supposed to vow allegiance to Caesar. Every Roman soldier, but every Roman citizen was supposed to vow allegiance to the Caesar. And the way they would do it was with three words. Caesar is Lord. And it was, he's my authority. He's my God. I owe reverence and submission to him. And what Paul is saying is a believer has a new authority figure in his life. He is under the domination, the authority of a savior, Jesus. And so our creed, our statement is not Caesar is Lord or anybody else is Jesus is Lord. Now, that statement is used five times by John in his first epistle to describe the deity of Christ. And so it does refer to the fact that Jesus is God. And what first century Christians would be saying and many of them died for this. Is they would say no Caesar is not my God, Jesus is my God. He is my Lord. But included in that very statement is a recognition that he is my authority. I am under his lordship. I am submitting myself to him. Now, I want you to see that Paul very clearly puts these two things together as a part of our salvation. We do believe in our heart, but that also results in a confession in our life that Jesus is our Lord. Now, there's been a lot of controversy over the past two or three decades about Lordship salvation. I think a lot of that's been blown out of proportion. Both sides are misrepresenting each other. Here's what I think the Bible teaches. If you genuinely believe Jesus Christ is your savior put your faith in him. He is your Lord. And the change in your life that will come because you are genuinely saved will cause you to recognize and submit to his lordship. It's not that you have to understand everything about his lordship before you get saved and say, okay, yeah, I accept him as Lord too. It's not that. It's that in the heart of a genuine believer where Christ is your God, your Lord, when you are faced with that truth, you readily submit to that. Paul would never have imagined someone claiming to be saved and then when they're faced with the truth, well, Jesus is supposed to be your Lord. He's supposed to be the ruler of your life. Paul would never have imagined the true believer saying, I'm signing up for that. I don't want anything to do with that. I'm running my own life. I mean, I want a fire escape from hell. Yes, but I'm running my own life. Paul would never have imagined that a true believer could feel that way or act that way or see things that way. A true believer when faced with the demands of Christ willingly submits to the lordship of Christ. That doesn't mean we're perfect at that. I'm not perfect at that. There are times when I say things or do things or think things that represent the fact that Jesus in that moment is not controlling my life. He's not my Lord. But as a general rule of life for the believer, for the true believer, you understand that Jesus is in control. He's your Lord. You submit to him. It's not just a fire escape from hell. You have a new master. We saw that back in chapter 6 of Romans. You have a new master when you get saved. So God's righteousness leads to genuine submission. It's a part of the package. It comes with Christ as Savior. He is Lord. Fourth description of God's righteousness is that God's righteousness is available to all verses 11 to 13. As the scripture says, anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame. He quotes from Isaiah 28 Old Testament. Chocked full of Old Testament scripture in these three chapters. Why? Because he's writing about Israel. So he's supporting everything from the Old Testament scriptures. So he uses Isaiah 28 to describe anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame. Now he applies it in verse 12, for there is no difference between Jew and Gentile. The same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him. So he's saying in this new work that God's doing now, the church and this body that he's building, it's composed of both Jew and Gentile, all who call upon him. There's no distinction anymore. It's not that there is a special people of God and the Gentiles are excluded. No, no. Anyone who calls on him from Jew or Gentile can be saved. And so verse 13, he quotes again from the Old Testament, Joel 2, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. So the gospel is available to all this righteousness of God is available to everybody. It's available to anyone who will hear and will receive Christ. And what Paul is saying is that Israel's problem was they rejected Christ. And that's the reason why they are rejected of God. As I said last week, if you die, unsaved and spend eternity in hell, it will be because you rejected Christ. And that's what Paul is saying here in chapter 10. That was Israel's problem and that may be your problem. You may be religious. You may be a good lawkeeper. But if you've never trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior, then you're not saved. You're not one of the family of God. You don't have a home in heaven. You will not be in heaven forever. And I say that I believe, I hope, as Paul said at my heart's desire and prayer for you is that you will be saved. Give up your demand to have it your way. Having your way may work with hamburgers, but not with salvation. You cannot do that with salvation. In a book that was written not too long ago, a recent book by George Vanderman called Planet in Rebellion. He describes this scene. He says it was May 21st, 1946. The place lost Alamos. A new or young and daring scientist was carrying out a necessary experiment in preparation for the atomic test to be conducted in the waters of the South Pacific atoll at Bikini. They'd already dropped a couple of atomic bombs on Japan. Our government had our military had. And they were doing more tests to figure out more about how this works. And so here's the description of the test. This scientist was conducting. He had successfully performed such an experiment many times before in his effort to determine the amount of U-235 necessary for a chain reaction. Scientists call it the critical mass. He would push two hemispheres of uranium together. Then just as the mass became critical, just as it was beginning to start this chain reaction that would result in a nuclear explosion, just as this mass became critical, he would push them apart with a screwdriver. I can imagine that. Then, thus instantly stopping the chain reaction. But that day, just as the material became critical, the screwdriver slipped. The hemispheres of uranium came too close together. Instantly the room was filled with the dazzling, bluish haze. This young scientist, Louis Sloaton, instead of ducking and thereby possibly saving himself, tore the two hemispheres apart with his hands. And thus interrupted the chain reaction. By this instant, self-forgetful daring. He saved the lives of seven other people in the room. As he was waiting for the ambulances that would come to take them all to the hospital, he said quietly to his companion, you'll come through this all right. But I don't have the faintest chance myself. And sure enough, nine days later, he died in agonizing death. When Jesus came to this earth, he looked sinned square in the face and he grabbed it with both hands. And he stopped the potentially devastating chain reaction, the devastating consequences of sin in your life and mine. And he went to the cross. It cost him his life. But he died there as a sacrifice for you and for me. He died there in our place, taking our sin, stopping the devastating consequences of sin in your life and mine by paying the penalty for our sin. My friend, that is the only way to be saved. You cannot get to heaven by your own law keeping, by your own good deeds, by your own religious zeal. It is only through the death of Christ who stopped the devastating consequences of sin for you and made it possible for God's righteousness to be given you and for you never to be condemned again. That's the only way to get to heaven. And you must lay down your demand to have it your way. There's only one way. It is through Jesus Christ. It is death for you on the cross. If you're trusting in anything else, you will never be in heaven. You must come to the cross and trust the Lord Jesus as your Savior. Would you bow with me in prayer? Father, you have made so clear to us in your Word. Our way, which is without the proper knowledge and its hopeless, and your way, your righteousness, given to us, received by faith in the Lord Jesus who is our substitute on the cross. Father, I pray that if there's anyone in this room today who is depending on their own efforts to get them to heaven, father, by your Spirit, help them to see that is hopeless. And may they, under the conviction of the Spirit of God, come to the Savior today. May they recognize their need and trust Jesus as Savior. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.