God Will Rescue You If You Call On Him!
Romans: Unashamed - Building the Church through the Gospel • Sermon • Submitted
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Introduction
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BRIDGING SENTENCES
[Subject: Modifier:]
Textual Idea:
Main Idea: God Rescues All Who Call on Christ!
Interrogative:
Transition:
Body
Satisfaction
1. God Rescues Apart From The Law (vs. 4-5)
4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
Explanation - Christ is the “End” or the “Goal” of the Law.
In other words, because Christ fulfilled the Law, the Law is no longer binding on the believer. They are freed from the laws demands.
“Run John Run, the law demands, but give us neither feet nor hands,
Far better news the gospel brings: It bid us fly and gives us wings.” - John Bunyan (1628-1688)
The Law is no longer binding on the believer.
“The old covenant has ended” - ESVSB
Righteousness comes through Christ, not the law.
5 For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them.
Paul is quoting Lev 18:5, and Moses declares...
5 You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules; if a person does them, he shall live by them: I am the Lord.
At first reading, one might concluded Paul is saying one is saved by following the Law.
However, Paul clearly states in Roman 1:18-3:20 that the law isn’t sufficient for salvation
Also, look at what Paul says in
16 yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.
While it is possible theoretically, these passage prove that practically speaking the Law is not capable of salvation because we are not capable for keeping the Law.
Remember, “All have sinned (broken God’s law) and” “therefore there are none righteous, no not one.”
What is Paul’s point in these verses?
Jesus is the goal, the end of the law, not your ability to keep the law perfectly because you cannot. It is impossible.
Jesus, on the other hand, did keep the law in its entirety which qualified Him to be THE ACCEPTABLE SACRIFICE TO ASUAGE or SATISFY THE WRATH OF GOD.
He absorbed God’s wrath so you would not need to. Absorbed it and freed you from your obligation endure it. Why should you endure it in the first place? Because you have broken God’s law and are thus required to pay off the penalty of your sin in prison - Hell prison.
Jesus’ absorbing of God’s wrath for you frees you from this eternal obligation. If you are in Christ, you are free from God’s wrathful punishment.
The Purpose of the Law
Evangelist Fred Brown used three images to describe the purpose of the law. First he likened it to a dentist’s little mirror, which he sticks into the patient’s mouth. With the mirror he can detect any cavities. But he doesn’t drill with it or use it to pull teeth. It can show him the decayed area or other abnormality, but it can’t provide the solution
The law is also like a flashlight. If suddenly at night the lights go out, you use it to guide you down the darkened basement stairs to the electrical box. If you had old wiring, when you point it toward the fuses, it helps you see the one that is burned out. But after you’ve removed the bad fuse, you don’t try to insert the flashlight in its place. You put in a new fuse to restore the electricity.
In his third image, Brown likened the law to a plumbline. When a builder wants to check his work, he uses a weighted string to see if it’s true to the vertical. But if he finds that he has made a mistake, he doesn’t use the plumbline to correct it. He gets out his hammer and saw. The law points out the problem of sin; it doesn’t provide a solution.
Argumentation - Christ’s role in your salvation is so multifaceted that the law could never possibly save you in the way he has.
Trying to be saved by the law is an emphasis on your work.
Being saved by Christ is a focus on His.
Review - God Rescues All Who Call On Christ
God Rescues Apart From The Law
2. God Rescues Supernaturally (6-8)
Again, you do not have what it takes to abide by God’s Law and be saved.
Jesus did have what it takes, because God intervened supernaturally on your behalf to rescue you.
These next verses are challenging to understand, but once you do, you will see God’s supernatural work of rescue.
Take a look at verses 6-7...
6 But the righteousness based on faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ down) 7 “or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).
Paul quotes Deut 30:12-14
12 It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend to heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ 13 Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ 14 But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.
Why does Paul include this passage? To contrast righteousness based on faith and righteousness that comes from the Law.
According to the ESVSB, “The righteousness based on faith reinterprets these Old Testament statements and sees them now fulfilled in Christ.”
20 For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.
We do not need to go retrieve Christ from heaven, His already came to us.
We do not need to raise Christ from the dead, God already accomplished this supernatural feat!
God did what we could never do. Two things here in this passage...
Incarnation - God became a man and lived among those in need of rescue. Which is everyone!
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Resurrection - God raised Christ from the dead thus proving His power over death and providing the only way to God.
25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
6 And he said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him.
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
The point? God’s work, a superhuman work, is only able to be accomplished by God Himself, not human effort.
What does God as of you? Faith in what He has accomplished through the gospel. This is the essence of verse 8...
8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim);
We don’t need to go get the word, the Word is near us! What word is near us? The word of faith.
And Paul made it his life’s goal to proclaim, to herald this word of faith.
The Epistle to the Romans 2. Two Ways of Righteousness, 10:1–13
For Paul the word is not a series of commandments, but the word of faith, “the message that calls for faith” (TH) as he immediately explains.35 This means the whole way of faith that was the burden of his preaching, the word that tells of faith and that invites to faith. The verb we are proclaiming37 is in the present tense, denoting the habitual act. Paul and his companions constantly proclaim the word of faith.
All of these things mentioned - The incarnation, resurrection, and the Word of Faith are all empowered by God and thus supernatural.
Illustration - ???
Argumentation - I want you to understand something. God loves you so much He has moved and continues to move supernaturally to reach your ear and heart. He wants you to fall deeply in love with Him and He continuous to work his plan to draw you to himself.
44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.
God is working to pursue and reach you with the glorious good news that you can indeed have a relationship with God supernaturally through Jesus Christ.
Application - You have to understand this. If you are saved, it’s not because of your effort. It is because of God’s grace alone.
What must this do for you? Believer, it ought to humble you! It ought to cause you to be grateful beyond words. It ought to cause you to live your life with the trajectory of pleasing him!
Review - God Rescues All Who Call On Christ
God Rescues Apart From The Law
God Rescues Supernaturally
3. God Rescues a Confessing Mouth and Believing Heart (vs. 9-10)
The last point was a focus on God’s part in the salvation process. Now lets see what Paul has to say about your part.
Perhaps you are asking the question right now, what must I do to be saved? Great question! Everyone should ask it. And if you are, Paul has some very specific information for you...
Because the word of faith is near you. In your mouth and your heart. Paul then says...
because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
“Confess…that Jesus is Lord” This means a mental and verbal affirmation that Jesus Christ is Lord. So, in order to be saved, you must recognize that the Christ is the Lord of All I is not only an acknowledgement but a deeply held conviction.
By the way, it cannot simply be an acknowledgment. After all, even the demons acknowledge Christ...
19 You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!
So, as I said it’s not simply an acknowledgement, but a deeply held conviction that Jesus is Lord and God raised him from the dead.
To be clear - You must believe that Jesus Christ is Lord of all - including oneself!
Lord - Yahweh, God very God! You must believe that Jesus is God!
You must believe that He is King over all, including the King over me!
Please notice the text contains three crucial components for salvation.
Repenting from Sin
Trusting in Jesus for rescue / salvation
Submitting to Him as Lord
Remember this is the responsibility of the individual
10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
Confess with your mouth - What is confession?
Believe in your heart - What is belief?
This process and all that entails, saves or rescues the individual.
Save - “soterian” - “To deliver from a direct threat.” “to bring save and sound out of a difficult situation.”
We have the wrath of God on us. This means we stand condemned before the judge of the universe. We have broken His laws over and over. We have lived in rejection of Him...
And the ONLY way out of this predicament, is through the process he has revealed in His word.
Illustration The other day in the mail, a credit card application arrived. The credit card application said, “You have been prequalified for a $15,000 limit.” This meant that I had already been determined to be acceptable to the company. This meant that the credit card company had already given the OK. However, the invitation did not automatically grant me membership. In order to get the card, I had to fill out a form and send it in. Even though the company had already extended the credit approval, that did not mean that I would automatically get the card. I had to write back and say that I wanted it.
God has already prequalified you for heaven by paying for your sins on the cross, but He can only activate your account if you tell Him you want Him to do so. If you still believe that you must pay for it yourself, what you’re saying is, “I don’t need Your card. I’ve got my own and I’m going to satisfy You by my own human efforts.” A person needs to understand that in order to receive eternal life they have to admit that they are a sinner and therefore unable to save themselves.800
Tony Evans, Tony Evans’ Book of Illustrations: Stories, Quotes, and Anecdotes from More than 30 Years of Preaching and Public Speaking (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2009), 268.
Argumentation
Application
Review - God Rescues All Who Call On Christ
God Rescues Apart From The Law
God Rescues Supernaturally
God Rescues a Confessing Mouth and Believing Heart
4. God Rescues All Who Trust In Him (vs. 11-13)
11 For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.”
Cited from Isaiah 28:16
16 So this is what the Sovereign Lord says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; the one who relies on it will never be stricken with panic.
What is the point?
Everyone - Jews and Greeks/all people who believe will not be put to shame.
“…the end-time humiliation that those judged on the last day will experience when they are sent to Hell.” ESVSB
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.
This harkens back to Paul’s passion for the church at Rome. You are not a Jewish Christian or a Gentile Christian, you are a Christian Christian! There is NO DISTINCTION between Jew and gentile! He gives rescue and the accouterments of salvation lavishly and evenhandedly.
Matthew 20:1–16 (ESV)
1 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. 2 After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. 3 And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, 4 and to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’ 5 So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. 6 And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ 7 They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’ 8 And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.’ 9 And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. 10 Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. 11 And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, 12 saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ 13 But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? 14 Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. 15 Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’ 16 So the last will be first, and the first last.”
Paul is making a significant point in this passage. Look at verse 13...
13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
What is the promise in this verse? EVERYONE who CALLS on the NAME of the Lord WILL BE SAVED.”
Illustration
Argumentation
Application
Review - God Rescues All Who Call On Christ
God Rescues apart from the Law
God Rescues Supernaturally
God Rescues a Confessing Mouth and Believing Heart
God Rescues All Who Trust In Him
Conclusion
Visualization
Reiteration
Action - FOUR WORDS
The great English statement and man of God William Wilberforce once wrote that "Christianity can be condensed into four words:
Admit, [Christ as Lord]
Submit, [To Christ as Lord]
Commit, [Our lives to doing His will]
and
Transmit [The Love of God to a dying world]."
(Draper's Quotes, Accessed QuickVerse Platinum 2010) Samuel Wilberforce (1805--1873)
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