 So with that said, let's begin reading here in the book of Romans chapter 10 I'll begin at verse 1 read verses 1 through 4 and We'll get into our study Romans chapter 10 beginning at verse 1 reading to verse 4 Paul writes brother and my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is That they may be saved for I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God But not according to knowledge for they being ignorant of God's righteousness and Seeking to establish their own righteousness have not submitted to the righteousness of God For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes and so Paul had closed chapter 9 by sharing how the Gentiles could be made right before God and The way that's going to take place and he pointed that out is by faith in Jesus Christ And this is a theme that he will later develop in this letter, but he's already been doing that To some extent from the beginning remember in chapter 1 verses 16 and 17 He had said I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ where it's a power of God to salvation For everyone who believes for the Jew first and also for the Greek for in it The righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith as it is written the just shall live by faith and Chapter 4 verse 11 he said he speaking of Abraham received the sign of circumcision a seal of the righteousness of the faith Which he had yet being uncircumcised That he might be the father of all them that believe though they be not circumcised that righteousness might be imputed to them Also, and so he's already been developing how people are made right with God He spoke also of the Gentile nations and so he stated that the Gentiles have been opened to Christ But Israel has rejected him and this is because they believed that they became righteous by obedience To the law and so they they have missed the key to being right with God, which is faith in Messiah Now that has been described and he described it as a stumbling stone He spoke of Jesus in that way in first Peter Peter also said it he said in verses 6 and 6 through 8 in chapter 2 He said therefore it is also contained in scripture behold I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone Elect precious and he who believes on him will by no means be put to shame therefore to you who believe He is precious but to those who are disobedient the stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone a Son of stumbling a rock of offense And so he's pointed out that the Jews have stumbled at Jesus Christ who is that stumbling stone In first Corinthians 1 23 he had said we preach Christ crucified to the Jews a stumbling block to the Greeks foolishness So chapter 10 begins with Paul revealing his heart's desire and prayer for the nation of Israel And he says it very clearly his desire and prayer is that Israel would be saved And so in practice, this is how this Occurs he reveals the desire in two ways one He he wants to let them know his desire for them to be saved is is Evidence by the fact that he preaches to the Jews first and then second He makes reference to the fact that they are in his prayers constantly Now when you read your Bibles in the ministry of Jesus Jesus obviously Took the message to the Jewish nation first and that's revealed in the Gospels for example in Luke 4 16 It says he came to Nazareth where he'd been brought up and as his custom was he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath They stood up for to read and so it was his practice He would go and preach obviously and teach the Jews in Matthew 15 24 He answered and said I wasn't sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel but later on a Jesus in his training and commissioning of the apostles He had taught them to reach out first to the Jew Remember when he said that you shall receive power after that the Holy Spirit has come upon you you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem so it began there Judea Samaria then unto the other most parts of the earth and so they were commissioned to reach out to the Jews first Now when Paul's ministry he'd often go to the Jewish synagogues a good example of this is when he was in a place called Pasidian and Pioch It's recorded in Acts 13 44 through 46 where it reads on the next Sabbath Almost a whole city came together to hear the word of God but when the Jews saw the multitudes they were filled with envy and Contradicting in blasphemy they opposed the things spoken by Paul then Paul and Barnabas grew bold and said it was necessary That the word of God should be spoken to you first But since you reject it and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life. He said we we turn to the Gentiles Now Paul's desire is that his Jewish brethren according to the flesh be saved and he also prayed for them constantly Again, that was for them to be saved He preached with great fervor that Jesus was the way to God He not only preached but he also prayed with great fervency He said God I want you I pray that you would move their hearts and So he's speaking concerning that in verse 1 here in chapter 10 when he says my hearts desire brethren My heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved I preached to them and I pray for them. I want them to be saved And that's my greatest desire the desire of my heart But he goes on to develop in verse 2 and says I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God But not according to knowledge This is a zeal that the apostle Paul himself could understand because he too before he was saved had a zeal And he would have said it was a zeal for God What he was really zealous for was for the traditions of his religion When he was writing to Timothy in 1st Timothy chapter 1 He said in verses 12 and 13. I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has enabled me For that he counted me faithful putting me into the ministry who was before a blasphemer a persecutor and Injurious that I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. He too understood Zeal without knowledge So he could understand their zeal, but he also could understand their ignorance They were going about ignoring God's way of righteousness through faith because they're Their foundation of belief for a righteous relationship with God and a righteousness that they could possess Came by following the law of Moses Jesus said it like this in John 5 45 through 47 He said do not think that I shall accuse you to the father. There is one who accuses you Moses in whom you trust for if you believed Moses you would believe me for he wrote about me But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words? And so the Jews went about establishing their own righteousness by attempting to obtain it by obedience to the law a law that they could not Actually ever completely Obey they couldn't fulfill it He says in verse 3 they being ignorant of God's righteousness seeking to establish their own righteousness Have not submitted to the righteousness of God By rejecting the gospel they're remaining ignorant of God's righteousness What happened is they ignored Jesus and his cross And they were caught in a trap of their own works And he points this out in verse 4 He says Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes When he says Christ is the end of the law. He's saying the law of moses is pointing to him The law is concluded in him Moses's writings Are pointing to him the law is pointing to Jesus the one who fulfills the law And so why can't the jews be righteous by following the law? Because the law pointed to Jesus Christ and is fulfilled in him He said in matthew 5 17 and 18 Think not that i'm come to destroy the law or the prophets I am not come to destroy but to fulfill For verily I say unto you till heaven and earth pass one jot or one tittle Shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled So jesus came to fulfill the demands of the law And so he's speaking concerning that why cannot israel be made righteous because they're rejecting the one who fulfilled the demands Israel could not by their obedience do so because they were weak by flesh Jesus did it because he had no sin and therefore was capable of keeping the law perfectly And that's why we are to look to him the law was pointing to him He says in verse 5 moses writes about the righteousness which is of the law The man who does those things Shall live by them So moses's writing reveals the frustration that you have in trying to obey the entire law Again why well the law reveals the inner motives as well as the lack of holiness In galatians 3 12 paul said this he said the law is not of faith But the man that does them shall live in them He went on in chapter 3 verses 21 and 22 of galatians to say Is the law then against the promises of god god forbid For if there had been a law given which could have given life verily righteousness should have been by the law But the scripture has concluded all under sin That the promise by faith of jesus christ might be given to those who believe And so this is called the righteousness of faith Verse 6 says the righteousness of faith speaks in this way Do not say in your heart who shall ascend into heaven that is to bring christ down from above Or who will descend into the abyss that is to bring christ up from the dead Who's going to ascend to heaven? Who's going to descend into the abyss? What is he saying he's saying self efforts to become righteous are not possible God has made it possible by faith in him God has made it possible for us to have relationship And fellowship with him through christ We cannot ascend nor can we descend what we need to do is recognize that this has been done by jesus christ Jesus incarnated jesus died He was buried but he was resurrected and so he's pointing to the fact that you can't Keep the law and be made made whole and righteous But you can believe in the one who's perfectly obeyed it and thus gives to his us his own righteousness And so he goes on and he says What does it say? The word is near you in your mouth and in your heart That is the word of faith Which we preach the word is near you even in your mouth in your heart in the gospel This is revealed. How can I be saved by jesus christ? Now I want to touch something that is kind of old But some of you may have been familiar with it heard it It's still used this phrase is still used today And I want to kind of touch on this for a moment again. Look at verse 8 It speaks of the word of faith which we preach. Well, he uses the phrase the word of faith There was there were and still are teachers who are on television on the radio and print writing books and going different places holding conferences and seminars And they speak of what is called the word of faith and they're called the word of faith ministry Some of you are familiar with them. We have people in our fellowship Who uh, who came out of the word of faith ministries, which is basically if you confess it you possess it And they refer to that as the word of faith Many many years ago now I was given a series In on sunday mornings and and I was mentioning this particular doctor and i'm not going to be labor this point right now But I was speaking concerning This doctrine and its error because it was it was a it was a message that was bringing a lot of people into bondage their faith They would say was just not enough They didn't have the ability to command god so that he would obey them because in fact they thought that their faith would make god Do that which they desired And so I pointed that out and there was a particular well-known preacher at that time was on television and all And I had some of his material I had printed out some of his quotes and And so as I was speaking I um, I quoted this particular fellow and and pointed out why what he was saying was error And then I did it later. Well, I did it the next week Well, I was at The bible college I used to teach at the bible college the calvary chapel bible college up in when it was in twin peaks And I was teaching a class up there. I I did it on a couple of occasions. I took students to Classes and this guy walks up to me On the first day And he says I want to talk to you for a moment and he said of course and he says He says, you know, he goes I want you to know That I went to your church He said and uh, he's he lived in the area. He said I usually went to this particular teachers church He goes and you quoted him And I'd been going to his church for some time And you quoted him And you said that he was teaching error. He said it got me angry he said because I had all of his tapes He said and so he goes when you quoted him you also gave the reference You told me the tape number and the and the title of the message. So he said I went directly home And I got that tape because he had all his tapes. He said in his garage And he said and I played that message through And he says it it kind of it shook me up because you quoted him correctly and in context And that bothered me He said so the next week I came back Because I wanted to make sure you know that uh That I could prove you wrong He said and you did it again. He said you quoted him a second time See, I never do that but this time I did he said you quoted him again He got I he said I got angry and I went home and I found the tape and I listened to it. He said and And you did it again you it was right. He says I just want you to know That I was part of that ministry for many years But he says now I'm a bible study student here after that I was at a Calvary Chapel pastors conference And he walks up to me at the conference And he had become a Calvary Chapel pastor. He passes a church in San Antonio, Texas His name is Ron Arbaugh And so I introduced him to the other pastors by saying this guy was a heretic, but now he's okay You know Well, see that that's the word of faith that That the phrase was taken out of context and that's the reason I told you that story Because what it was doing it was placing an emphasis on your personal faith, but that's not what he's speaking about It's called the word of faith because it's referring to the gospel That when received by faith results in salvation It's not a phrase that refers to faith-filled words It's a phrase that speaks of the message of salvation In Galatians 3 verse 2 Paul said this only I want to learn from you Did you receive the spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? And so this is a message of faith This is the word of faith and you receive it by faith and that's the point he's making And so he in speaking of this word of faith that he's preaching This is what he says verse 9 if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus And believe in your heart That God has raised him from the dead You will be saved The word confess is a word that is translated To say the same words or to agree Homo legale say the same words it speaks of agreeing It speaks of agreeing with what God has said about Jesus If you are in confession with God if you're in agreement with God that Jesus is Lord If you are agreeing with God about the lordship of his son and by faith You have trusted him You will be saved Remember the apostle thomas we know him as doubting thomas In john 20 verses 27 and 29 through 29 Jesus saw chapter 20 27 through 29 Jesus was speaking to thomas This is what he said to him. He said reach your finger here Look at my hands Reach your hand here Put it into my side Do not be unbelieving But believing And thomas answered and said to him my lord My god Jesus said to him thomas Because you have seen me you have believed Blessed are those who have not seen And yet have believed how are you saying? Have you seen jesus physically? No We see him by the eye of faith The word of god reveals him to us The holy spirit convicts us of our sin and of righteousness and of judgment And because we're convicted we confess in agreement with god And we say god be merciful to me. I'm a sinner forgive me of my sins God's word says if you confess or your sin, he's faithful and just to forgive you of your sin and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness And so you confess you're in agreement with god That jesus is lord And by faith you receive him and that's the point that paul is making here. That's how you get saved you see There are people have who have gone up and Answered in invitation or perhaps have repeated a prayer But when you're truly confessing christ You actually consider him your lord and you follow him Completely it's like what he said in loop 923. He said if anyone desires to come after me Let him deny himself take up his cross daily and follow me and so Confessing christ's lord is yielding yourself to him recognizing who he is By faith acknowledging him as your savior turning from your sin and receiving the power of the spirit who resides within you So he goes on and he says uh in verse 10 with the heart one believes unto righteousness With the mouth confession is made unto salvation for the scripture says Whoever believes on him will not be put to shame For excuse me for there is no distinction between jew and greek For the same lord overall is rich to all who call upon him for whoever calls on the name of the lord Shall be saved For whoever calls upon the name of the lord shall be saved Salvation is for everyone for everyone who calls upon the name of the lord There are those who think that there are only certain people who are going to be saved And that salvation is available to only certain people But salvation is for everyone God so loved the world that he gave his son. He loved the world So much that he gave his son In first simothy 2 verse 4 Paul tells us that god will have all men to be saved And to come into the knowledge of the truth. That's why That's why we preach the gospel and that's why paul would go to the synagogue That's why paul would preach the message to the jew first and also to the gentile That's why he would take this blessed message to people and he would share with them the goodness of god and encourage them to believe and turn from their sin That's what you see in the bible when you when you're like even now we're going through the book of axon sunday i'll be sharing some of these things with you As we continue our journey through snapshots in the book of axon And just just uh this just today i finished preparing the study concerning Um the work of the spirit in in the mouths of and in the lives of the apostles and jesus had given them a message And he had said to go to go and preach this message to all creation to all everywhere Go throughout the world and proclaim this message And the message of the of the gospel goes throughout the world And a lot of preachers have had the opportunity of doing that to actually to go on boats or to travel travel on horseback To fly And and and they've taken this message throughout the world It's it's not just for it wasn't just intended for the middle east It was intended for the entire world and and it's a message we preach in 2000 years later we continue to preach this this particular message Why because whoever calls on the name of the lord will be saved? And it's our desire for people to have a relationship with god for their sins to be forgiven and their miserable lives Be changed so that they might have joy so they might have love so they might have peace So they might exercise faith so they might have relationship with others that their life would be blessed by god That's why we preach the gospel so that when they close their eyes here They open them up there That's why when one of our friends or our loved ones passes on and and leaves we grieve We grieve in ways that sometimes the world doesn't understand they think where's your faith? Why do you cry so deeply? It's because we love deeply and when you love deeply you miss deeply But we know they hear on the face of the earth we say goodbye, but it's temporary We know that one day we'll see them again You see and that comes through the gospel. That's why jesus came. That's why jesus gave his life That's why paul went to the jew first and also the gentile. That's why he prayed for them and that's why he preached them I really believe that the church needs to wake up in these last days and and once again be ignited to do that Guys, you know, I I really feel and I'll say this quickly I really do believe that darkness is overcoming in some ways I think that there is an evil that it's the mask of the devil is being removed and we're seeing it more clearly now We've seen it more clearly But i'm i'm not as I i'm not without hope because even even if It seems that that evil is going to conquer jesus said the gates of hell shall not prevail Against this kingdom and so we continue to proclaim this message and we encourage people to live for jesus christ Why because they'll be forgiven of their sins They'll be cleansed of their unrighteousness and when they close their eyes here they behold him there What a promise we have and that's why paul said I want to preach the gospel in revelation 22 17 We read the spirit in the bride say come Let him who hears say come and let him who thirst Let him come and whoever desires Let him take the water of life freely It's offered to us Take it if you come While he goes on in verse 14 he says How then shall they call on him in whom they haven't believed? How shall they believe in him? Of whom they have not heard And how shall they hear without a preacher And how shall they preach Unless they're sent As is as it is written how beautiful Are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace Who bring glad tidings of good things How beautiful are the feet my mom didn't like my feet Because I preached without shoes, but anyway, I better get back to the study He says in verse 14 how then shall they call on him in whom they've not believed You see If we are saved we have the responsibility To proclaim this message of the gospel Sometimes we rely on other people to do the work That we cannot at that time or yet do ourselves That's understandable When I first got saved First got saved A week, two weeks, three weeks in Jesus What do I know? I was blind, now I see I was lost, now I'm found That's as much as I knew But what is it I and a lot of people did at that time? Some of you might have heard stories of this Perhaps you were saved back at that time too What did we do? We could only share so much But we would say come and see a man who told me everything I've ever done What we would do in other words was invite people to church We invited them to, I invited them to Calvary Chapel Coastal Mesa I invited them to go and hear a young man named Lonnie Frisbee And I didn't know how to present the gospel yet But I knew I was supposed to And that became my quest in life is to learn to communicate the truth of God's word You see, I knew from the beginning And this is the heart, by the way, of the Jesus movement or revolution We were to reach out to the lost And it wasn't just some special preacher We were to learn to communicate the gospel ourselves There are those who say, but I don't have the gift of evangelism I'm not a missionary Well, we may not all be evangelists or missionaries But we are all witnesses And that's what Jesus said You shall be witnesses to me So we can speak of that which we've seen and experienced And so we're to go out, we're to preach How shall they call on him in whom they haven't believed? How shall they believe in him of whom they haven't heard? How shall they believe in him of whom they haven't heard? How shall they hear without a preacher? That makes us the preachers He goes on in verse 15 How shall they preach unless they're sent? As is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace Who bring glad tidings of good things It requires God to send forth his preachers Notice verse 15 How shall they preach unless they're sent? God sends forth his preachers And preachers are those who proclaim the message The proclamation of the message is done by the one commissioned by God Remember in the book of Jeremiah in chapter 1 verse 7 It reads, The Lord said to me Do not say I'm too young You must go to everyone I send you And say whatever I command you And so Jeremiah said Oh Lord, I am but a youth I'm too young, I have no experience So God rebukes them and says No, don't be saying you're too young You go to the ones I send you Here's something for you to do You might want to learn to do this You might want to ask the Lord when you're getting up in the morning Who do you want me to share with today? Who would you like me to share with today? I'm not saying you'll do it every day Maybe you will, maybe you won't But be prepared You will be surprised how many opportunities open up to you You'll be surprised Somebody will be talking to you What did you do this Sunday? Well, I went to church Why'd you go to church? What's wrong with you? Well, that's why I went to church There's something wrong with me So you have opportunities I can't share with you many opportunities that I've had Just by being available I encourage you to be also You see, Paul had a commission That he had received from the Lord In Ephesians 3-8 he said I, who am less than the least of all the saints This grace was given That I should preach among the Gentiles The unsearchable riches of Christ And so how beautiful, verse 15, are the feet Now, when it says how beautiful are the feet Of those who preach the gospel of peace When he uses the word feet There's a couple of ways you can look at this one It can be speaking of the way someone lives Also called a person's walk Colossians 1-10 says That you may live a life worthy of the Lord And please him in every way Bearing fruit in every good work Growing in the knowledge of God So it speaks of your walk Living a life worthy of the Lord Or in 1 John 2-6 Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way Which he walked And speaking of a way of life And so how beautiful are the feet Could speak of your way of life And also can be speaking Of simply the fact that you're sent To proclaim this message Now it says in verse 16 They haven't all obeyed the gospel They haven't believed Speaking of Israel National Israel rejected Messiah The Messiah who was portrayed to them So clearly in the book of Isaiah And various other Old Testament books But he goes on in verse 17 And because we're going to have communion Next week I've been kind of hurrying To do this so we can have communion together He says this Faith comes by hearing And hearing by the word of God Faith comes by hearing And hearing by the word of God And I'll close I'll take a couple moments to share this I'll be, I've been I'm going to be preaching at the pastors Conference that's coming up in November At the pastors conferences And I'll be teaching this year I've chosen To speak on the Apostle Peter Everyone of the pastors Who's going to be teaching has been Requested to To give a special snap Snapshot Of a Bible character I chose to speak about the Apostle Peter I especially Wanted to speak about The Apostle Peter In the portion of the Gospel of John Where he was restored To ministry I won't go into all of that right now I'm keeping an eye on our time Jesus when he restored He asked him a question He said do you love me We all know the story Do you love me Do you have a copy for me And Peter says You know that I have Fileo friendship love for you Peter do you love me More than these You know that I have friendship Love for you and finally Jesus says to him Peter do you love me But he used the word Fileo I'm going to receive you Where you're at and I'll take you where I am I'm going to be sharing with the pastors this He said if you love me feed my sheep And take care of my lambs What am I going to exhort Pastors to What you guys receive Every time you come here To avoid the temptation Of wanting to become the popular preacher Teaching on subjects And things that don't edify To the obedience of Christ To make sure we teach The word of God line upon line Chapter by chapter Book by book So that we as pastors Can actually tend Or tenderly care for The young ones in the church Young in faith as well as in age And the seasoned saints Who still need to be Directed in the proper direction So that they might have a more fruitful To the end of their life experience with God What is the thing that I as a pastor Am very concerned about Is that because there seems to be Amongst younger people At least an appearance of A lack of interest in the things of the spirit That pastors are attempting To entertain them Into the kingdom of God By getting special music Or special speakers or special subjects Trying to find that place But I discovered a long time ago That if you teach to the whole Council of God The various subjects that the culture May be going through is going to They will be addressed And you can bring the word there And bring it to that situation But if every week I give To you the topic of My interest You're going to be formed into my image And not into the image of Christ You're going to start sharing Many of you would just leave others will stay Those who stay Are going to be shaped into my image My interests, my subjects And as a result of that They're not going to know the whole council And so if you teach through The whole word of God, you have the opportunity Of speaking of a variety of things That the culture is going through You just have to be as clear as you can Concerning those things So that people have the opportunity Of knowing these things are going on But here's the solution to those things Before I got saved We had the same kinds of problems We had ecological concerns We had drug concerns We had violence concerns We had war concerns We had diseases You name it Same kinds of concerns that are today So I thank God For those who are faithful To preach the solution And not just speak of the problem The solution was Changed lives in Jesus Christ How do you change a world One person At a time When you touch that one person That one person might touch two Or three others with the gospel And so on and so on And so on And if you look at the early history of the Calvary movement There were young men 17, 18, 19, and 20 That God began to use Men like Greg Laurie Who was 17 years old Men like Raul He was in his early 20s And others like them Myself included at the age of 20 And God grabbed hold of our hearts He changed them And he gave us ministry He gave us opportunity To proclaim this message To see the transformation Of not just a few But for us 42 years Of seeing God do transformations In lives And it all comes through the preaching Of the gospel of Jesus Christ And that's what the church is To be faithful at doing And that's why Paul's prayer And concern for his brother And according to the flesh That they might receive the Messiah They're trying to become righteous To the obedience to the law of Moses But the grace of God Is shown in the face of Jesus Christ And when they get saved They can have relationship with God And bring this transforming message to others That's how it works That's why we need the Holy Spirit That's why we need God's holy word Because the holy word and the Holy Spirit Will produce holy lives And holy lives Can reach out to people And see transformation When you're faithful to the holy message And so we're going to stop here We'll pick up next week