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ROMANS 10
Verse 1, "Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God
for the Israelites is that they may be saved." Pauls' attitude
toward those who hurt him and wronged him, those of his own race is
exemplified in this first verse of chapter 10. He prays for their salvation.
Instead of giving in to the desire to pound them he prays for them.
And he prays for their salvation. God put a huge desire in Paul's heart
for his people's salvation. The desire turned into a constant prayer.
Paul understood that his witness would not be effective unless it was
backed by prayer. John Bunyon said, "You can do more after you have prayed
but you can not do more than pray until you have prayed."
Look at the effectiveness of Paul's ministry in the conversion of whole
Churches of Gentiles across the Roman empire. Prayer changes things. What
we learn here is that prayer must accompany the proclamation of the gospel,
for it to touch hearts. We tend to think that we can get so much
more done in the flesh than we can get done in prayer. Many times we
save prayer for an act of desperation, after we have done all we can--when
we've gone for the first, second and third diagnosis, and the doctor
says "It's in the hands of God now."
We were created for fellowship with our heavenly Father, and we can't
understand how to live effectively for him, what he wants us to do--without
that fellowship with him. Prayer, simply stated, "is talking to God like
you would talk to a friend." Throw away your past ideas of prayer.
Many Christians believe they can work for God without having been with
God in prayer. To live without waiting on the Lord is to embrace humanism
and to wrap it in Christian trappings. The humanist lives as if he was
God and sadly, a lot of Christians are living that way.
God wants to hear about the daily challenges you face during the day.
He cares. He's interested, and as you quiet down in prayer, you start
to get direction from him.
When we pray we acknowledge that we need God, and that there is an invisible
war going on. Prayer keeps you aware that there is a God and that he
loves you. Ordinarily the flesh recoils from prayer, so that many Christians
are prayerless Christians. But we have a God that is intimately interested
in our lives. He cares and cares and cares so much about us.
We should pray, "Direct me Lord, I want my service to be directed by
you." Prayer is not a bummer. Prayer changes things because prayer opens
doors. Look at Colosians 4:2, "Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful
and thankful." Paul says pray with thanksgiving. Christians are people
who should cultivate thanksgiving. Pray for open doors--a door for the
gospel--that it will spread. Once the door opens, we should pray that
the gospel spreads quickly. II Thessalonians 3:1.
"Finally, brothers, pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread
rapidly and be honored, just as it was with you." Spiritual power and
victory are linked to prayer. Joshua prayed for the sun to stand still
because he needed more time to achieve a military victory. He knew that
prayer transcends natural laws. If Einstein or Steven Hawking were to
put it in their language, prayer transcends time and space, it functions
outside time & space, because God is outside time and space. He dwells
in eternity, he inhabits eternity. He created the space/time continuum
and has total control of it whenever he chooses. God has the ability
to control everything. Spiritual victory and power are linked to prayer.
Acts 4:23-31. "On their release, Peter and John went back to their own
people and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to
them. When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer
to God. 'Sovereign Lord,' they said, 'you made heaven and earth and the
sea, and everything in them. You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the
mouth of your servant, our father David: "Why do the nations rage and
the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand and
the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Anointed
One [Psalm 2:1-2]." Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with
the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against
your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. They did what your power
and will had decided beforehand should happen. Now, Lord, consider their
threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.
Stretch out your hand and heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders
through the name of your holy servant Jesus.' After they had prayed,
the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled
with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly." God shakes
things up when you pray.
Another example of the power of prayer to enable the preaching of the
gospel is found in Acts 16:16-34. "Once when we were going to the place
of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit by which she
predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners
by fortune-telling. This girl followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting,
'These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the
way to be saved.' She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became
so troubled that he turned around and said to the spirit, 'In the name
of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!' At that moment the
spirit left her.
When the owners of the slave girl realized that their hope of making
money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the
marketplace to face the authorities. They brought them before the magistrates
and said, 'These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar
by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice.'
The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates
ordered them to be stripped and beaten. After they had been severely
flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to
guard them carefully. Upon receiving such orders, he put them in the
inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.
About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God,
and the other prisoners were listening to them [kind of hard not to listen.
A captive audience at midnight when everyone is trying to sleep!] Suddenly
there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison
were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everybody's
chains came loose. The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors
open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought
the prisoners had escaped. [This became the jailer's worst nightmare.
This is the jailer that beat Paul and Silas. Roman law stated that if
one prisoner escaped the jailer paid with his own life. This earthquake
and Paul's Christianity shook up this jailer's life. Look at what took
place next.] But Paul shouted, 'Don't harm yourself! We are all here!'
The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul
and Silas. He then brought them out and asked, 'Sirs, what must I do
to be saved?'
They replied, 'Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved--you
and your household. Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to
all the others in his house. At that hour of the night the jailer took
them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his family
were baptized. The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal
before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in
God--he and his whole family."
As you can see, prayer can arrange things in a certain way so that people
are boxed in, and brings them face to face with the issues of life. And
it's all because someone is praying for them--just as Paul and Silas
were praying for this jailer.
The effective fervent prayer of a righteous person does much. God moves
heavenly armies into place in answer to some of our prayers. Elisha had
been giving the movements of the king of Syria, his army and chariots,
to the king of Israel, telling the king whatever God told him to. It
was God passing military intelligence to the king of Israel through Elisha.
The king of Syria didn't know how Elisha was finding out these things
but set out to capture Elisha and stop him. This is an interesting story
of the kind of power and spirit military force God surrounds us with
at the beck and call of our prayers. Let's pick it up in verse 12 of
II Kings 6. "And one of his servants said, 'None, my lord, O king; but
Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the words
you speak in your bedroom.' So he said, 'Go and see where he is, that
I may send and get him.' And it was told him, saying, 'Surely he is in
Dothan.' Therefore he sent horses and chariots and a great army there,
and they came by night and surrounded the city. And when the servant
of the man of God arose early and went out, there was an army, surrounding
the city with horses and chariots. And his servant said to him, 'Alas,
my master! What shall we do?' So he answered, 'Do not fear, for those
who are with us are more than those who are with them.' And Elisha
prayed, and said, 'Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.' Then
the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw. And behold, the
mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. So
when the Syrians came down to him, Elisha prayed to the Lord, and said,
'Strike this people, I pray, with blindness.' And He struck them with
blindness according to the word of Elisha. Now Elisha said to them, 'This
is not the way, nor is this the city. Follow me, and I will bring you
to the man whom you seek.' But he led them to Samaria [the capital of
Israel where the king's army was based]. So it was, when they had come
to Samaria, that Elisha said, 'Lord, open the eyes of these men, that
they may see.' And the Lord opened their eyes, and they saw; and there
they were, inside Samaria!" (II Kings 6:12-20.)
You know, if the Church [and I dare say, the collective Church, the body
of Christ] fully understood the power of prayer, nothing would be impossible
for her. Listen to what Andrew Murray says, "We must begin to believe
that God in the mystery of prayer has entrusted us with a force that
can move the heavenly world and bring its' power down to earth." God
must wonder why we pray so little. Listen to what the former missionary
to India, Dr. Wesley Duall had to say about prayer.
"Prayer is a form of spiritual bombing to saturate any area before God's
army of witnesses begins their advance. Prayer is the barrage to drive
back the demon hosts who are determined to stop the triumph of Christ.
Prayer is the invincible force to break down every opposing wall and
open every iron gate, and fast closed door. Prayer penetrates every curtain
of darkness, crumbles every bastion of darkness. Prayer demolishes every
fortress of hell. Prayer is the all-conquering invincible weapon of the
army of God."
If some of you couples with problems would start praying together you'd
need less counseling together. If families would pray together they would
stay together. There's power in prayer. Why is it any surprise then that
Satan attacks us during our prayer time? Prayer is our weapon, not talk,
not meetings, not boards, not counseling...prayer is where the power
is.
Again, why is it any surprise then that Satan attacks our prayer time?
And he gives men especially a repulsion to prayer--men are just scared
to death to pray. Why? Because Satan knows, 'the righteous fervent prayer
of a righteous man avails much.' 'So keep em off their knees at all costs.'
'Make em embarrassed'--that's Satan's reasoning. Because when people
pray the kingdom of darkness starts shaking. Prayer is the power behind
ministry. You see great churches and ministries--they're not great. But
what might be great is the prayer-force behind them.
William Carrie is known as the father of modern missions and God used
him in mighty ways to bring the gospel to India. [Families, by the way,
kill any of their members who try to become Christians in India.] People
credit Carrie with a lot--but do you know what? It wasn't Carrie, and
he knew that. What a lot of people don't know is that he had a bedridden
sister who prayed for him for fifty years. She was paralyzed. All she
could do was lie in bed and pray. That's all she could do. It got the
job done. Without prayer the Church is nothing, just sickly and dying.
Many of us get so busy for God that we don't spend any time with God
anymore. But prayer's power is not limited to time or natural law. Remember
what Samuel Chadwick said, "The one concern of the devil is to keep the
saints from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless
work, prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil, mocks at our wisdom,
but trembles when we pray."
Remember the example of Moses, Aaron and Hur on the mountain top praying
for the victory of Israel over the Amalekites. There are two levels here.
1) What is happening on the Mount of Prayer, 2) determines the outcome
in the valley. Why do you fail in your Christian life? Because you have
ceased to pray. Pray on. [This is a word for word transcript taken from
a sermon by Pastor J. Mark Martin of Calvary Community Church, Phoenix,
Arizona.]
Romans 10:1-4,
"Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is
that they may be saved. For I can testify about them that they are
zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. Since they
did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish
their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness. Christ is the
end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who
believes." Many people are religiously sincere, but sincerely wrong.
You can be sincerely wrong. The people in Waco Texas were sincere
and they had a zeal for God, so much so that they would shoot themselves
in the head and then burn themselves up. Now that's zeal for God if
I've ever seen zeal, but it was wrong. They were sincere, but sincerely
wrong. Now before they got that weird they were still sincere. Before
they got so weird and socially unacceptable, nobody would say "they're
wrong!" Everybody would say, "Oh they're sincere, leave them be." But
wrong thinking will lead you to wrong living. We see people today who
are religiously sincere. They go by two's, they knock on our doors
and they hope to earn heaven by the hours they turn in. They hope that
by what they're doing they'll be right with God, and nobody's ever
been made right with God by what they do.
The first thing that enters your mind when you realize that you're not
right with God is that you think, "I'll do something, I'll make
God a promise, I won't do that again." God must laugh! What you do on
the outside can't earn God's favor, but the first thing we think when
we realize we're not right with God is "What can I do?" This goes
back to Adam and Eve our original parents. After they sinned, suddenly
they realized they were naked. All of a sudden they felt very naked and
exposed. They did what God said was wrong. They knew it was wrong, they
felt guilt, they felt shame--they felt naked before God who's Holy. Ever
have "Naked" dreams where you are in front of a bunch of people
and you're doing your thing, giving the business presentation?? Every
preacher understands this dream because they've all had it at least once.
It's a preacher's nightmare. Everyone's had it at least once, every pastor
I've ever known. You're standing up here and you're in your shorts, hopefully.
Adam and Eve had this type of feeling of nakedness, so they looked around
and you know they must have been in a panic--they couldn't be thinking
straight--because the leaf they picked, the leaves they picked to sew
together were figleaves! Those are the prickliest, scratchiest leaves
on earth. And then God provided something better for them. It says in
Genesis 3:21 "the Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife
and clothed them." Isaiah 61:10 says, "I will greatly rejoice in the
Lord, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation." God is in
the business of covering up our shame and our nakedness. God is showing
us how foolish it is for us to try to cover ourselves--how absolutely
absurd it is for us to do something to try to get ourselves out
of this mess. There is NOTHING we can do, he's got to do it for
us. He provided the skins for them. He probably had to sacrifice a little
animal, probably a little lamb, in order to give them covering. And so
he gave us his Son, Jesus Christ, so that we might have covering.
Romans 10 is a beautiful picture of the simplicity of salvation. Do you
think it's hard to be saved? If you do you've been exposed to religion--you
haven't been exposed to a relationship with Jesus Christ. If you think
it's hard, listen up, because I've some good news for you. Someone has
said, and it is well said,
"There are only two kinds of religions, one may be spelled "do", the
religion of DO, "DO this, DO that, DON'T DO that, you'd better DO this." And
the other religion can be spelledD-O-N-E. Christianity
is a religion that is based on something that is DONE, it's not a religion
based on what we have to DO. The emphasis of Christianity is not what
you have to do. The sad thing is that there's people all over the country,
and that's what they're getting preached to them. "DO" for God. That's
not the emphasis of the Word of God, the emphasis of the Bible is what
God's done for you, because God's smart, and that's an understatement.
He knows that once we get a grip on what he's done for us--we'll do like
crazy for him. It's true.
People don't understand that. They look out and they think, "These people
need to be told what to DO!--You need to get out there and you need to
hammer 'em, man. Tell 'em what to DO!" No, you need to tell them what
God has DONE. Otherwise you might as well be a part of every cult or
false religion that guilt trips people into everything. Christianity
is not an eternal guilt trip, it's a grace trip. It is a grace experience.
The gospel is not about something I do, it is about something Jesus has done.
Sincere people are sincerely wrong, verse 3 says, 'when they go about
to establish their own righteousness, and not subjecting themselves to
the righteousness of God--because Christ is the end of law keeping for
righteousness.'
You can not be saved by doing good things. By going to church, by being
baptized, by being sprinkled, by being confirmed, by taking Holy Communion,
by going to the temple, or by anything else you might think of--you cannot
be saved by those things. Look at Galatians 2 and listen to what the
same guy, the apostle Paul, has to say on the same subject--the simplicity
of salvation. Galatians 2:16, "Knowing that a man is not justified by
the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ. Even we have believed
in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not
by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be
justified. Now look at Galatians 3:10: "For as many as are of the works
of the law are under a curse: for it is written, 'Cursed is everyone
who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of
the law, to do them.'" Do you want to come under the law--the old
covenant law of God? Then you had better DO everything
the law demands.
It's funny how people will take parts of the law [old covenant law of
God], put people under them, and ignore whole other parts. One of the
big things we had to do was keeping the Sabbath [this minister grew up
in the 7th Day Adventist Church], Saturday. Now that's in the law [of
Moses]. If you keep the law you'd better keep the Sabbath--but you know,
we didn't keep the Sabbath the way you're supposed to keep it. The Bible
says that if you light a fire on the Sabbath you should be stoned to
death. I know many Sabbaths we lit fires in the fireplace. And you can't
cook, no preparation of meals on the Sabbath. "Well, that's legalism" you
might say. No brother, that's Bible. That's the way the Sabbath was meant
to be kept. The Bible says if you're going to be under law, you'd better
do it all--because if you don't you're under a curse.
There are two ways to be saved in the Bible: 1) One is to get this righteousness
you need. You need rightness with God to inherit Eternal life in the
kingdom of God. But we are born wrong. We need to somehow be made
right. And you've got to find this rightness you need. And one way is
the Law. But the problem is that if you put yourself under law you have
to do it all because the only way you can be saved is by
perfectly doing the law, all of it. So if you've already messed up, you
can't be saved by lawkeeping, because you have to have a perfect sinless
record. [There's only one man other than Jesus Christ who came close
to having a sinless record. It was Job, and by all appearances he was
sinless, until God pointed out that he was self-righteous! Oops.]
2) The only other way to be saved is by faith--you get the rightness
by faith. That's too easy! Yes! That's the whole thing. This is so easy
that people stumble over it. People think it's hard to be a Christian.
That it's hard to be saved.
Let's look at Romans 10:5, "Moses describes in this way the righteousness
that is by the law: 'The man who does these things will live by them.'" In
other words if you can keep the law you could live and have eternal life.
But if you can't keep the law you can't be saved, if you're going to
try to be saved by lawkeeping. Salvation is so simple and so close. And
you know, we need to communicate that when we talk to people about Jesus.
You have to let 'em know that this is simple. Salvation is so near to
us all. It's not like you have to climb a ladder to get near heaven.
Trying to be saved by good living is impossible. The only way to be saved
is by what Jesus has done for you, and you can get into that so simply.
It's so close. Verse 6-10, "But the righteousness that is by faith
says: 'Do not say in your heart, Who will ascend into heaven? (that is
to bring Christ down) or Who will descend into the deep? (that is to
bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? 'The word is near
you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,' that is, the word of faith
we are proclaiming: 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 your heart that you believe and are justified,
and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. As the Scripture
says, 'Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame.' For there
is no difference between Jew and Gentile--the same Lord is Lord of all
and richly blesses all who call on him, for, 'Everyone who calls on the
name of the Lord will be saved [Joel 2:32]." Verse 6 says you don't
have to ascend up to heaven to get Jesus to bring him down--as if somehow
you have to climb to heaven to get Jesus--to gain access to him. And
then again you don't have to debase yourself thinking 'I'll lay on a
bed of nails. I'll walk on hot coals of fire. I'll do penance, I'll light
candles, I'll give money, I'll buy a window for the Church.' No, you
don't have to descend into this kind of abyss either. ('That is, to bring
Christ up from the dead.') No, salvation is not a long journey you have
to get on and maybe find him. But what does it say? Verse 8, 'The word
is near you.' The word of salvation is so close to you he says, 'How
close? 'It's in your' what? 'Mouth'--and where? 'and in your heart.'
That is the word of faith that we are preaching. What does verse 9 say? "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
with the heart man believes resulting in righteousness and with the mouth
he confesses resulting in salvation." Salvation is so near it is in your
mouth and in your heart--and if you'll just confess that Jesus is Lord
and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead--you will
be saved. That is so incredible!
Ultimately, the Bible says, the whole world, everyone who has ever lived,
will be forced, at the Judgment Throne of God, to confess that 'Jesus
is Lord.' Philippeans 2 says 'that at the name of Jesus every knee shall
bow, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the
glory of God the Father.' The day is coming when you will have to confess--"Jesus
is Lord." [and this fellowship teaches, "you may not want to say it at
this point, but you'll be forced to say it, and then you will be sent
to hell." A few other fundamentalist Christian fellowships believe that
last scenario isn't so, but at this time of the Great White Throne Judgment
the rest of unsaved mankind's opportunity for salvation will come to
them. This study will not be delving into the secondary beliefs of any
Christian group, fellowship or denomination beyond briefly mentioning
what they believe in. The focus is on the primary knowledge of the gospel
of Christ. Salvation in Jesus Christ and how we attain it in the here
and now for us is primary knowledge of salvation. What happens
to the "unsaved dead" is secondary knowledge of salvation. One group,
the majority of Christians, believe the "going straight to hell" scenario,
the other group believe in the "they're given their first opportunity
for salvation in Christ" scenario. But as long as believers believe the
primary knowledge and Jesus lives in them by the indwelling of the Holy
Spirit (John 14), which Jesus does for us, we will be saved.]
Salvation by confessing belief in Jesus Christ as Lord (Messiah) is not
just a matter of saying the words. It's not some magic formula that you
say. It's not mouthing the words. Again, that would be a work you do.
It's not going through a ceremony. It's not knowing in your head that
saves you, it's believing in your heart--because when you believe in
your heart something, it extends all the way through your life, doesn't
it? How many of us know that we should be eating differently than we
are? Be honest. But knowing those things doesn't change us, because it's
not here in your heart, it's merely headknowledge. But when you get the
bad news from the doctor that unless you change your diet you're going
to croak--all of a sudden, it's 'buy the juicer! Get those carrots, man!
We're going to take the vitamins! No fat in this diet, man! I'm going
to live on rice crackers now!' But you know, until something happens
to you which forces what's in your head down to your heart and you act
on it, it doesn't matter what's up here in your head. Many people in
this world know Christianity in their heads, but don't know it in their
hearts. Jesus talked of this type of Christian in Matthew 7:21-22 which
states, "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom
of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in
your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?'
Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'" If
your don't have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ it's all useless
head knowledge. Let's look at John 5:11, "And this is the testimony:
that God has given us eternal life in His Son. He who has the Son has
life; he who doesn't have the Son does not have life. These things I
have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you
may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe
in the name of the Son of God." O.K., this is like simplicity, isn't
it? How do you know that you're saved? Very simple--do you have Jesus? "He
who has the Son has life." Now this is a real encouragement to those
who are always wondering "I'm I saved?" Salvation, again, is not what
you do, salvation is based on what He (Jesus) has done for you. Do you
have Him? Do you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ? If you
don't, you don't have life. If you do have Jesus, you do have life. 'Are
you willing to stake your whole hope for eternal life on what I've done
for you?" Jesus asks. If you are, then that's real saving belief.
Verse 11, "Anyone who trusts in Him will never be put to shame [Isa.
28:16]." The original Greek in this verse is very strong, using a
double negative. More accurately rendered, it states, "Whoever believes
in Him will never, no never be disappointed."
You're never going to be embarrassed. Everybody else will disappoint
you, but Jesus won't.
Verses 12-13, "For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile--the
same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for,
'Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved [Joel 2:32]." Now
the question you have to ask is "Have I called on the name of the Lord?" Have
you ever called upon the name of the Lord? "We know, I thought what my
parents did for me would save me (infant baptism). No, the Bible says
'If you want to be saved you have to call upon the name of the Lord.'
One of the last things Jesus says to us is in the book of Revelation.
Revelation 3:20.
"Behold I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens
the door, I will come in to him and dine with him and he with me." Get
the picture. He's on the outside of your life, knocking on the door of
your life. And he says, "If anyone will hear my voice." So he's also
calling your name. "Joe, Sue, Mary, Pete, Mike, Bill, Beth, Mark, Julie,
Tom, Teresa or whatever your name is--it's me, Jesus. Open up, I've got
something for you. I've got life, I've got peace, I've got forgiveness
of your sins here for you. Open up." Jesus is basically saying 'If anyone
hears My voice and opens the door I'll come in and I'll be their friend
forever.' This is incredible! But you've got to ask him into your life.
You've got to open the door. He's not going to bash down the door into
your life to give you salvation. It's your choice. Have you called upon
the name of the Lord? Have you ever asked Jesus to come into your life
and save you from your sins? If you haven't, you're not saved.
It says, "calls on the name of the Lord." If you've done something else
besides calling, I don't know, you're on thin ice. When he says 'calling
on God,' he means asking God to come in because God is a gentleman, the
Lord Jesus is a gentleman, he won't break down the door. He respects
your will. You can invite him into your life.
And you know, when you come to Jesus Christ, things change. What a wonderful
transformation takes place. Whoever will call on the name of the Lord
will be saved. You can thank God for one word, "Whoever." Your sins will
all be forgiven. That is why he died on the cross. God put all your ugliness,
all your sins and all the wrong things you've done on Jesus. He was punished
and died the way you should be punished and die, but God didn't want
to punish you. Jesus wanted to take your place. He's bought the whole
world and everyone in it with his blood (John 3:16). That's what the
cross is all about, and he was buried and he rose again and your sins
were forgiven. And he purchased eternal life for you and he's waiting
for you to receive it.
How do you call on the name of the Lord? We should pray something like
this aloud to Jesus. "Lord Jesus I know I need you. I've been wrong Lord.
Please forgive me of my sins. Please come into my life, and give me a
new beginning. I believe that you died for me, and that you rose again
from the dead. I'm calling on you right now Jesus. Please save me. And
I believe that you accept me, just like I am. Come into my life now and
change me I pray. In Jesus name, Amen."
Now Paul put a plug in for those that bring the gospel, for people cannot
call on the name of the Lord if no one brings them the gospel--the good
news of salvation through Jesus Christ. Romans 10:14-15. "How, then,
can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they
believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear
without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they
are sent? As it is written, 'How beautiful are the feet of those who
bring good news! [Isa. 52:7]'"
Paul goes on to raise another question, which gets us into the subject
matter of Romans 11. Romans 10:16-21. "But not all the Israelites
accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, 'Lord, who has believed our
message? [Isa. 53:1]' Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message,
and the message is heard through the word of Christ. But I ask: Did they
not hear? Of course they did: 'Their voice has gone out into all the
earth, their words to the ends of the world. [Psalm 19:4]' Again I ask:
Did Israel not understand? First, Moses says, 'I will make you envious
by those who are not a nation; I will make you angry by a nation that
has no understanding. [Deut. 32:21]' And Isaiah boldly says, 'I was found
by those who did not seek me; I revealed myself to those who did not
ask for me. [Isa.65:1]' But concerning Israel he says, 'All day long
I have held out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people. [Isa.
65:2]'
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