Transcription
[Music] Well, if you have your Bibles, I'm going to direct you to Romans chapter 10. Romans chapter 10. The title of the message is the basics of salvation. The basics of salvation. And I think it's so appropriate at the start of the year that we'd find ourselves talking about salvation. They'd find ourselves talking about something that is so absolutely basic to our Christian faith. Salvation is the beginning of a walk with God. Salvation, and the message of salvation, is the key to the delivering power of God operative in the lives of people that we meet.
Paul said in Romans chapter 1 and verse 16, "I'm not ashamed of the gospel, why? For it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone, not some, everyone who believes." That there's a power of God that comes into a person's life when they put their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And you and I, as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, once we are born again, having experienced the power of salvation, having experienced personally the life-changing difference salvation makes, we understand that everybody needs to experience it, right? It's not anybody that doesn't need to know God's saving power in a personal way. It's what this church is all about. We've got core values that we talk about, and the first one is that we believe God has raised this church up to reach the lost. That we're about sharing the gospel with people everywhere and all the time. And so, at the start of 2019, it's good for us to be reminded of this great salvation. Good for us to be reminded about the basics of salvation, what Jesus did for us, and what salvation does for us. And it's good for us to be reminded how people can be saved. Amen.
So, as we come to Romans chapter 10, that's what this is all about. Just by way of introduction again, and a reminder, we're in that section of Romans chapter 9, chapter 10, chapter 11, where the Apostle Paul is dealing with God's plan for the nation of Israel and the Jewish people. Chapter 9, we saw he writes of why they have not yet been saved, about what's happening. Chapter 10, he writes about how they can be saved, how anyone can be saved. And then in chapter 11, he talks about God's plan for Jews and Gentiles together. This morning, we're going to be looking at Romans chapter 10 and verses 1 through 13. We're going to see how a person can be saved. We're going to understand what happens at salvation. It's a wonderful, wonderful reminder that God saved us. Let's jump into it.
Romans chapter 10, verse 1. "Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them." For who? For primarily the Jewish people, we could say in a specific sense, but in a broader sense, Paul would say his heart's desire and his prayer to God for anyone who does not know the Lord is that they might be saved. Paul looks at his Jewish friends, he looks at his Jewish family, and it absolutely breaks his heart that they do not know the wonderful salvation that Jesus Christ provides. I want to ask you this question: Do you feel the same as Paul does? Does it break your heart? Is it your heart's desire, and is that your prayer to God, that people who don't know Jesus might be saved? When you look at your prayer list, on your prayer list, is there a place for people you're praying for to come to know Jesus? When you think about the area in which we live, and you see the tremendous needs of Southwest Missouri, is there something in your heart that says, "Oh, my heart's desire and my prayer is that they might be saved, that the people in this area might be saved"? When you look at our country, and you watch certain things about where it's headed and what's happening, do you say, "Oh, it's my heart's desire that people would be saved. It's my prayer that people be saved"?
See, if if you're not praying that, and you're not thinking that, then it's one of two things: either you have forgotten the incredible salvation that God has given you, or you've never experienced it yourself. Honestly, because once we know how awesome our salvation is, once we understand the truth of God's Word, once we grasp what God wants to do in the hearts of people, and that our prayers are essential to the transformation of their lives with the gospel, it will cause us to pray. Do you understand the importance of being right with God? Do you grasp? Is it in front of you? Do you remember? Is it vivid to you? The people who don't know Jesus Christ as their Savior, no matter how nice, no matter how kind, no matter how devout they are to whatever else, they don't know Jesus. They're going to spend an eternity in hell, forever in hell, forever away from the goodness of God and anything that would make life wonderful, not to mention the incredible suffering. Does that bother you? Does that cause you to pray? Listen, if we're going to see God touch this area, if we're going to see a revival in Southwest Missouri, then it begins there. As I read this week, history is silent regarding revivals that began without prayer. There are none. When you and I begin to pray for people to get saved, we're going to see people get saved. And the more we pray, the more we'll see. Oh, pray. Let it be your heart's desire that people come to know Jesus. First, I could stay there the rest of the morning, but we got to get moving here.
"For I bear them witness," talking again primarily about the Jewish people, but we could say this applies to anybody who does not know Jesus, because you'll see what you see in the Jewish people and the lives of people all around us is we're going to see in a moment. "I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For being ignorant of the righteousness of God and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness."
Here's what he's saying. Paul is saying that they were zealous for God, but not according to knowledge. In other words, their zeal for God made them decide to try to please God in ways they thought of themselves. For example, in the in the Jewish system, they said, "Well, you know what? The Ten Commandments has 613 letters." So what we need to do is we need to write 613 laws to help us, one for each letter in the Ten Commandments, that can show us how to be righteous, how to be, how to be zealous for God, how to show that we love God. And they had 248 affirmative laws, 365 negative laws. And what happened is they confused zeal for God with righteousness in God's sight. People do that today.
Here's what people do today. They think they're okay spiritually because they're passionate about something good. I mean, hey, we all, we've all seen people who say they'll say things like, "Well, you know, I'm not religious, but I'm spiritual." Like that. "I'm a spiritual person, so I, I take care of my spiritual life." Or they say, "You know what? I'm not really into organized religion, but I'm very passionate about helping people. I'm passionate about social justice." Which, hey, nothing wrong with social justice, something worth of passion, but not exclusively. And a passion for social justice doesn't save you. Or people say, "You know what? I'm really, I'm really passionate about the needs of people around the world, and, and I'm really more into compassion things. I, I want to give shoes to kids who don't have them." Great thing to do. Won't get you to heaven. Or I want to give water to people who don't have water. Great thing to do. Won't get you to heaven. Or I, I want to, you know, I'm trying to be a really good person. I try to be good to people. I try to be kind. Oh, great thing to do. Won't get you to heaven.
People can become very zealous about certain things, but it's a zeal that is without knowledge. It's not according to knowledge, and it's ignorant of the righteousness of God. It's not taking into account how God calls us to be righteous with Him. And when people confuse zeal for something good, or simply being a good person, with the same thing as being righteous, they're an illustration of "seeking to establish their own." They did not submit to God's righteousness. In other words, they're saying, "Here's what makes me acceptable to God." And the proof of that is when you go to him and you say, "Do you believe in heaven?" "Yeah, I think there's a heaven." "Do you think you'll go there when you die?" "Well, I hope so." "Well, what would make you think you would go there?" "Well, you know, I'm a good person." Or "Well, you know what? I gave to this, or I do that, or I'm passionate about this." What they're doing is they're establishing their own righteousness, saying, "Because I'm this, God will accept me."
Well, Romans chapter 10, verse 4, Paul says, "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes." Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. All right, we're going to take a moment because this is a really important statement that at times people read through it and they don't really get it, and they're like, "Yeah, I guess that's so," but don't know what he's talking about there. So, the law was the means by which Jewish people, they said, "If I obey the law, if I keep the law, if I observe the law, then God will view me as righteous." Which we know is not true. It's not our righteous acts that make us righteous before God. Everybody with me on that? Not saying it's bad to do righteous acts, that's a good thing to do, but our hope of going to heaven is not the things we do or don't do, right? In terms of keeping certain rules.
Now, I want to take us back because this is relief. You know, "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes." What does that mean? Romans chapter 7, remember we talked about the law? "So my brothers, you also," that's Christians, "died to the law through the body of Christ." Now, remember, and you've got to kind of think back on this, but I'm talking about this because everybody has to firmly grasp this prior to coming to Christ. Paul says in Romans 5, "We're in Adam." That means what he did, we did. When he sinned, we sinned. What happened to him happened to us. It's the sin nature. When a person comes to Christ, now we're in Christ. What happened to Him happened to us, is the way God views it. So when He died on the cross, we died on the cross, right? Everybody with me with that? Paul makes that very clear, spends all of chapter, first part of chapter six, talking about that. What He did, we did. That's what it means to be in Christ. We're in Him. We're united with Him. "I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me." My life is in Him. What He did, I did. What He does, I do. So I'm in Him. I'm united with Him. I'm linked with Him. When He died, the sin I died. The sin. When He was resurrected to a new life, I was resurrected to a new life. Everybody with me on that?
Now, relative to the law, it's important to understand this. The only reason Jesus died on the cross was because of God's law. He died because of God's law. You say, "What do you mean?" Let's look at it. Galatians chapter 4: "But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son." So that's Christmas time. "Jesus was born of a woman, born under the law." So you say, "What do you mean? He's born into a Jewish setting. The Jews are observing the law." But more than that, He's born under the law. Up to the time of Christ, the way a person would try to please God was by keeping the law. They'd be accountable to the law. "Born under the law to redeem those who were under the law." He came to redeem people under the law. Who are the people under the law? Every single person in all creation is under the law. You're born that way. God's law is written on your heart. Whatever you, a person knows when they stand. Remember when we, when we read in Revelation chapter 20, it says, "And I saw the books opened, and the dead, great and small, rich and poor, stood before Him who sat on a great white throne. The books were opened, and each one was judged according to what they had done, as was recorded in the books." Here's, here's what this is telling us. When a person, the minute they're born, every thought, every word, every deed, if there's a record of it. And every single person, at the end of their life, will stand before the judge, before God, before Jesus Christ. And each person will give an account for what they did, as was recorded in the books. Nobody will be in hell by accident. Nobody will say, "Well, I don't know how I got here." The books will be opened. Here's what you did. And the penalty for breaking the law, and everybody has, is death, eternal death, spiritual death. Jesus came to redeem those under the law. Everyone who's not a Christian is under the law. They'll be judged by the law, by the law they knew, by the law that's written on their hearts. And the law cannot be ignored. It cannot be set aside. It is immutable. It is everywhere.
Thinking about that a couple of weeks ago, we're in Washington D.C., and we went through the Museum of the Bible. It's a new museum. It's a, if they, fantastic museum. If you get a chance to go to, we spent five and a half hours on a tour and did not get to see it all. It was really spectacular. But they take you through this one part of the exhibit, and you're, it has to do with the giving of the law when God gave the law to Moses. And one of the ways that they illustrate it, they've got this, you go into this room, and all of the commands are on the ceiling, they're on the walls, they're on the floor, they're on the person in front of you, they're on the person behind you, they're on you. In other words, what, what it's saying is, God has literally tattooed His law on us. Men can say they can try to ignore it, but you cannot escape the revelation of who God is. The law is God's law, and God's law is as just as He is. And God's law demands that the punishment for sin is death. In other words, let's just be clear on this. God does not wink at sin. God cannot look at any individual sin and just pretend, or you can't say, "You know, I just like you so much, I'm gonna pretend you didn't do that." Or pretend I didn't see that. Although He is love, He cannot say, "Oh, well, I forgive you," otherwise He is not just. The law demands punishment for sin, and that punishment is death. And that is why Jesus died on the cross, because we've all sinned. So He came into the world to deliver us from the condemnation of the law. And here's how He did it. He was born under the law. That is, He was subject to the law. So what did He do? He honored the law. He lived the law perfectly. Never broke one law. He did it on our behalf. He did it as our representative. He kept the law perfectly in every way. And then on the cross, He took our place. He died as our representative. The only one who was ever totally perfect for our all of our sin. And God punished Him on the cross for our sin, which is why He died. He died for our sin. He took the punishment our sins deserve. And when He died, remember, because we're in Christ, it's as if we died.
Now, Romans 7, verse 4: "So my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ." So when Jesus died to the law, the law did not die. Jesus died, but when He died, He satisfied the demands of the law. What was the demand of the law? "The soul that sins will die." And He was, at that point, finished with the law. After He died, He was no longer under the law. The law, He satisfied all of the demands of the law. Which means, this is great news. When you become a Christian, you are dead to the law through Christ, and what He did, the claims of the law on you have been satisfied. That's why all of the things that you've ever done are gone. They're erased. The blood of Christ washes them away. But you're free from the law. The law can't point a finger at you and say, "You didn't do this, you didn't do that, you didn't." You're not under the law. You've satisfied the demands of the law, and you can't be charged with any crimes according to the law. I mean, remember we saw when we're looking at Romans chapter 7, dead people are not charged with crimes. If somebody kills somebody else, and then they're killed, they don't charge them with homicide. They're dead. The law has no jurisdiction. As a Christian, I died with Christ. You died with Christ. The law has no jurisdiction over me. I'm completely outside the jurisdiction of the law, which means the law cannot accuse me. The law cannot condemn me. The law cannot judge me.
Now, Romans chapter 10, verse 4: "For Christ is the end of the law." Remember, He was born under the law to redeem those under the law. How did He get rid of the law? How did He end the law? He died and bore the penalty that the law prescribed. "For righteousness to everyone who believes." So whoever believes, they get that. And what do they get? Look at it. It says, "For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness." Let me explain this. When a person puts their faith in Christ, righteousness is what you get. I realize, I, you know, hey, Sunday morning is cold outside, a little bit of a, you know, sleepy kind of morning. This is really good news, and this is very important that you and I, a lot of Christians struggle with guilt. They struggle with condemnation. They allow the, the enemy to constantly bring up God's law to accuse them, because they don't understand what happened on the cross and what Christ did for them. They also don't understand their standing before God. So they're constantly starting over in their mind. They're constantly living under a load that God never intended that they carry or that they bear. It was done at the cross. If Jesus said, "It is finished," and when He said, "It is finished," we know it's finished, right?
Let me, let me remind you. Justification. When a person is saved, they are justified. What does that mean? Justification is the act of God whereby the sinner is given faith to believe. So you couldn't even believe in God unless you were given faith to believe. "To every man has been given the measure of faith." The Word of God says, "For it is by grace you have been saved, in another place it says, through faith, and this not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, so that no one can boast." No means I just had so much faith. No, you got the faith from God, so you can't brag about it. Justification is the act of God whereby the sinner is given faith to believe, receives forgiveness of all sin, all sin, past, present, and future. All sin placed on Christ at the cross. You say, "Well, what about the sins I haven't committed?" "How can He forgive the sins I haven't yet committed?" Well, how could He forgive any of the sins you hadn't yet committed back on the cross? He did. You hadn't committed one sin, but God knew and laid all your sin on Christ and punished Him for your sin. So every one of the sins that He bore on the cross was future, yet to be committed by you. So don't let that trip you up. All sin is all sin, past, present, and future. On the cross, the shed blood of Jesus covered our sin, removed our sin. "What can wash me white as snow?" Nothing but the blood of Jesus. It's gone. As far as the East is from the West, all sin, He has removed from us. So all sins forgiven.
Now, it says, "and is a sign the righteousness of Christ." How righteous are you? Yours is righteous as Jesus. How does God view you? He views you as clothed in the righteousness of Christ. That's why the Bible calls you a saint. Why are you called a saint? You say, "I don't feel like a saint. I'm not worthy to be called a saint." You're right, you're not worthy, but He is, and you're clothed in His righteousness, which makes you a saint. You are set apart. You are holy. And when God looks at you, He sees the righteousness of Christ.
Romans 10, verse 4, give me verse 4 one more time, because I want people to see this. "For Christ is the end of the law." Now we understand that. "For righteousness," whose righteousness? His righteousness, clothed in His righteousness, "to everyone who what? Believes." This is the wonder of salvation. This is the joy of being right with God, that suddenly there's no gulf between you and God. That your sins are forgiven, which you could never get rid of. He did through your faith in Him, and He clothed you with the righteousness. He takes your unrighteousness, gives you His righteousness, so that you can walk with God. It's absolutely amazing, and that's such great news. And here's why.
Romans 10, verse 5: "For Moses so Moses is the one God gave the Ten Commandments to. Remember, Moses is the one who writes the first five books of the Bible, the law, Exodus and Leviticus and Numbers and Deuteronomy. Great books, but I mean, when you start reading about all the laws, you're like, "Yikes! If I have to do all of those, how could I ever?" And the whole idea is, the idea is, when you read that, it's good for you to read it because you realize suddenly, who could ever keep all those laws? No one. So, for Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law." In other words, Moses is writing about, "Listen, if you're going to approach God on the basis of, I'm living a good life, if you're going to approach Him that way, you do it on the law." And the problem with that is, you keep the law. And an even bigger problem is, if you break one law, you're guilty of having broken them all. And that's a repeated principle in Scripture. I mean, how many sins does it take to send you to hell? One. Who can live a perfect life? No one. I mean, this is, this is the stunning reality that the law causes us to recognize that on our own, we could not please God. "There is no one righteous, not even one." This is why we need a Savior. "The person who does the commandments shall live by them." In other words, if you're going to try to keep the law, you gotta live by all the commandments. And there's not one person who can do it. And Paul is simply showing us the grace of Jesus Christ. Can you imagine how hard it is for a person to try to keep all of the laws? Can you imagine 613 laws? And the Jewish people got so tired of trying to do that, they were so overwhelmed by it, they finally decided, "Man, if we could only keep one, which one is it?" And that's the question that's preeminent in Jesus' day, over and over again. The scribes and the Pharisees come to them, they say, "Teacher, what is the greatest commandment?" Jesus, "If we can only keep one, because we surely can't keep 613, if we can only keep one, you tell me, what is the greatest commandment?" They recognized how difficult it was, how hard it was.
Now, listen. Romans chapter 10, verse 6: "But the righteousness based on faith says." So you can either try to be right before God by keeping the law, no one can do it, and it's impossible, or you can come to Him by faith and receive a righteousness. And you say, "Well, what do I got to do? How hard is this?" And this is Paul's point. It's not hard at all. Compared to keeping 613 laws, this is really, really easy. "The righteousness based on 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 abyss?' that is to bring Christ up from the dead." You say, "Oh, what in the world is that saying?" Keeping the law is impossible. No one can do it. But salvation is not impossible. That's what this is saying. It doesn't require some mystical journey like trying to mystically climb up into heaven. It doesn't require you to take some difficult journey down into the depths of the earth. It doesn't require you to try to figure out how you're gonna journey across the deepest ocean, climb the highest mountain. It's not like God says in the Bible, "Okay, if you want to be righteous and you want to go to heaven, the black witch has a golden goblet she drinks out of once a year. It's guarded by ten dragons. Whoever can bring me the golden goblet gets eternal life." Do you don't have to do that. Forget the black witch and the golden goblet. You don't have to do that.
I mean, verse 8, look at it. "But what does scripture say? The word is near you, in your mouth, in your heart." It's like I was talking about the Museum of the Bible. It's all around you. It's tattooed on you. It's there. It's obvious. The revelation of God is everywhere. I mean, the psalm, there's, there's the natural revelation of God. Remember Psalm 19? "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no language where their voice is not heard." The, its voice goes out to the ends of the earth. I mean, all you have to do is look around. Look at the sun, look at the stars, look at the sky, look at the seasons, and you conclude one thing: there's a God. But beyond that, then there is the, the Word of God, which is the spiritual revelation. And it is all around us, as well as all around the Jewish people. It was near them. It was around them. They had it. They were, they were the guardians of it. It was everywhere. Can I just say the same is true for us in the United States of America? The Word of God is everywhere. You can get it on TV, you can get it on radio, you can get it online, you can get it on your phone, you can get it at the bookstore. If you want to know how to get saved, just Google it. I, yesterday, googled, "How can I be saved?" Look at it. Got questions. Why do I need to be saved? Who could be saved? Do you realize how the Word of God is everywhere? I mean, it's all around you. God is screaming out, "Here's how you get saved." He wants everybody to come to a knowledge of the truth. Let's not make this difficult. He never did. Salvation is very, very simple. I'm not saying the process or what He did was simple. I'm saying He's made it simple for us to receive it, simple for us to understand it, simple for us to take hold of it. Why? Because God is not willing that anyone should perish, but that all would come to eternal life. That's His heart. He wants every single person to know the awesomeness of His grace, and His glory, and His forgiveness, and His power, and His person, and His working in their life. It's so amazing.
Romans 10, verse 9: "Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved." Now, let me just make a comment here. Paul is going back and paraphrasing part of what Moses wrote in Deuteronomy. And so, if you think about it, the confession and the belief are almost out of order. You should believe first, then confess, is the way most people would, it would express that. And so in verse 10, he'll flip that. But here's what he's saying. What do you have to do to get saved? Two things. Just two things. All you have to do if you want to get saved is, number one, confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord." In other words, what you're saying there is, you're saying, "Jesus, I'm putting You in charge of my life. Jesus, You're gonna be the King of my life. You're gonna be the," that's what Lord means, ruler, sovereign, King, Emperor. He's the one in charge. "Jesus, I'm putting You in charge of my life. Where You lead, I'll follow. What You say, I'm gonna do. What You ask of me, the best of my ability, I'm following You. Jesus, I don't want to be in charge of my life anymore, because if I'm in charge of my life, my life becomes a mess. When You're in charge of my life, my life is markedly better. I'm gonna follow You. You are in charge." And then look at this: "and believe in your heart God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved." "Jesus, I believe You died on the cross for my sin. You rose from the grave. I believe the gospel account. You died, You were buried, You were resurrected as proof that God accepted Your life as the sacrifice for my sins." And when a person does that, the miracle, the greatest miracle known to humankind, the greatest miracle that you and I will ever experience, is the miracle in that moment of our life being radically, wonderfully, powerfully, miraculously transformed. We move from darkness to light. We move from being dead to being alive. We move from being under God's judgment to suddenly being God's child. It is a miracle. Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. Not you might be saved. Not you'll get a number like the DMV, and when they call your number, if they call your number before you die, good on you. Can you imagine that? People would be trying to trade people numbers. You will be saved. Not might be saved. Not may be saved. You will be saved.
Romans 10:10: "For with the heart one believes and is justified." Are you serious? I become a child of God? I have every sin forgiven? I, I no longer will face the judge of all the earth as, as judge, but I will face Him as my Father and as my friend? Are you serious? That now I'm gonna know God, and God's gonna walk with me, and I'm gonna have a whole new experience of His goodness and His grace, and I get to spend eternity with Him? Are you serious that I don't have to be afraid of dying and what comes next? I saw in the newspaper, Pat Boone's wife passed away yesterday. Pat Boone wrote on social media something like, "Notification: Change of address. Shirley Boone is now living in a mansion prepared for her and her husband." I mean, that's, that's what it means to be saved. That's the power of being saved. You're justified. You believe, and you're justified. What is justification again? What happened? You were given faith to believe, your sins are forgiven, and you're clothed in righteousness. You're saved. What are you saved from? Hell, eternal judgment, the wrath of God. Saved and justified are just simply two sides of the same coin. And watch this, because it gets better. You don't think it could get better, but it gets better.
Verse 11: "Look at it. For the scripture says, 'Everyone who believes in Him will not be put to shame.'" I like the way the Message presents it: "Scripture reassures us, no one who trusts God like this, heart and soul, will ever regret it." You know, there's some of you, and I'm gonna, I'm gonna be very candid, some of you are not born again. You've heard one invitation after another, and you're not born again. And I don't know what you, you have your reasons, no doubt. But can I just say, no one trusts God like this, gives their heart to Jesus. This is the Word of God. This is God's gilt-edged guarantee. This is His money-back promise. No one who ever gets saved will ever regret it. No one who gets saved will ever regret it. I know that's true in heaven. One second into heaven, you'll spend the next million years with your mouth hanging open. You'll be like, "Are you serious? I mean, I, I said Jesus is Lord and believed God raised Him from the dead, and I get this?" Are you serious? But I would suggest to you, it's not just in heaven, but it's here now. I would suggest to you that when you believe God, you're, you're, you're living a better life. Being a Christian, I'm just taken out of the realm of talking about you, I'll talk about me. Being a Christian has given me a better life than I'd ever had without being a Christian. It's given me a better marriage. It's made me a better father. It's given me better kids. It's given me a better way of living. It's given me a better way of looking at life. It's given me a better way of handling problems. It's given me a better power. It's given me a better peace. It's given me a better grace to do life. I mean, it's better, better, better in any way you can imagine. Knowing Christ is better. There is not, there is not one day that I've sat down and said, "I don't know, I wonder, I wonder if I'd have been better off if I'd never given my heart to Christ." No one who gives their life to Christ, no one who trusts God like this, heart and soul, will ever regret it.
You say, "What, you know, John, that's not my problem. I promise, I'm just not sure that God will take me, that God will have me, because John, I've been a lot of places and I've done a lot of things, and I'm not proud of them, and there's things I wake up and regret every single day." And so you say, "That the gospel is for everyone? Is it?" Verse 12: "For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing His riches on all who call on Him." All who call on Him, not some who call on Him, not most people who call on Him, not Jewish people who call on Him, not Gentile people who call on Him. All. All means all. The gospel is for all. God's rich in mercy to all who call on Him. The Message puts it this way: "It's exactly the same, no matter what a person's religious background may be. The same God is for all of us and acting in the same incredibly generous way to everyone who calls on His name." He's incredibly generous. You say, "Oh, John, you tell me a story about getting saved, it sounds so generous, but that's you, you're a preacher." No, He's generous to everyone who calls on Him. He wants to be generous to you. That's what salvation is all about. Took something as complicated as saving people from their sin and made it as simple as He possibly could. But if you just asked, if you just asked, you just say, "Jesus, I believe. I believe You died for me. I believe You rose again, and I want to follow You." Done. Can you believe it? You do that, and you get heaven. You do that, and your sins are forgiven. You do that, and the God of the universe lives in you, walks with you.
[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Unbelievable. Here's the thing though. Salvation can be all around you. The Word of God can be everywhere. People can be talking to you. You can be sitting in this church week after week after week, and God can want to save you, but only you can make the decision for God to save you. We can have a prayer meeting, have thousands of people at the prayer meeting, and all of them can be praying specifically for you, but that's not gonna save you. Your mate, maybe the godliest person you've ever met, but their faith will not save you. Your children can be praying for you. Your mother can be praying for you. Your friends can be praying for you. Will not save you. You can say, "You know what, John, I agree with everything. I like coming." That will not save you.
Romans 10:13: "For everyone who calls," not everyone who thinks. It doesn't say, not everyone who says, "Well, I, I think I probably agree with that." No, it's not everyone who goes to church. It's not everyone who goes to James River. It's not, listen, it's everyone who calls, because your mouth is involved along with your heart. It's not just what you think in your head, it's what you say with your mouth. There's a place for the confession that Jesus is Lord, and the belief, the belief in the heart that springs two words from the mouth. It's, "Jesus, I believe." "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." But you have to call. Have you called on Him? Have you given your life to Him? And if not, can I just say that at the start of 2019, there's nothing more important in this one day, and this one moment could change every single moment of the rest of your life on this earth, and an eternity, and you'll never be sorry you did it. And let me just say this, the making of the decision on your part to get saved will impact people around you who will get saved. I don't have time to go into the story, but I was thinking as I was writing this, that my family was, you know, really the very least backslidden, but away from God, moral, but not saved, moral, but not born again. And I don't know which one of my sisters, my older sisters, got saved, but one of them did, and ultimately all of us did. One of them did. All of us did. Six kids, two parents. Took my dad a while, he was a holdout for a while, but somebody had a heart's desire and a prayer for his salvation, my mom, and she prayed and prayed and prayed, and he got saved. Listen, your decision to get saved, not only bless your life, change your life, but you have no idea how many lives it will change beyond that.