Know and Submit to God's way.

Why do People Not come to Salvation

Romans 10:1–3 (NKJV)

1 Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved.

2 For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.

3 For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God.

Paul Desire and prayer was for Israel to be saved.

Now not all Israel was saved, Some were saved and some were not saved

Paul was reflecting the Heart of God

1Timothy 2:4 “[God] who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”

The Jews can represents the religious world.

People with alot of zeal for God, for religion but their zeal is not based on Knowledge. Their belief is not based on Knowelge.

Two things kept the people of Israel, or the Jews in particular from salvation.

They were ignorant of God’s rightheousness ( Christ)

They would not submit themselves to God’s rigtheousness becuase they were seeking to establish their own Rightheousness.

Who is God’s Righteousness

Christ is God’s righteousness.

Christ is God’s body, his flesh ( the word became flesh ) in whom all th fullness of the Godhead dwells in bodily form .

Importantly, Christ is God’s way of salvation.

John 14:6 “6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

Hebrews 10:19-20 “19 Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh,”

Therefore, Two things keeps people from Salvation.

Ignorance of God’s way of salvation

Unwilling to submit to God’s way

God’s perogitive over salvation

God has the perogitive to determine and establish the way in which we will be saved.

Psalms 3:8 “8 Salvation belongs to the Lord. Your blessing is upon Your people. Selah”

Isaiah 45:22 “22 “Look to Me, and be saved, All you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.”

Acts 16:17 “17 This girl followed Paul and us, and cried out, saying, “These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation.””

God having come down in The flesh, made the way for salvation of the soul of mankind known to his desciples.

Acts 4:12 “12 Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.””

Isaiah 52:6–7 NKJV

6 Therefore My people shall know My name; Therefore they shall know in that day That I am He who speaks: ‘Behold, it is I.’ ” 7 How beautiful upon the mountains Are the feet of him who brings good news, Who proclaims peace, Who brings glad tidings of good things, Who proclaims salvation, Who says to Zion, “Your God reigns!”

They are proclaiming Salvation based on the Knowledge of the Name of the Lord.

The name Jesus which is the name of God the Father.

John 17:6 “6 “I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word.”

Luke 24:45–48 NKJV

45 And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures. 46 Then He said to them, “Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, 47 and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. 48 And you are witnesses of these things.

John 1:11–13 NKJV

11 He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. 12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: 13 who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

IGnorance

The zeal is there, The efforts is there but there is no Knowledge.

Proverbs 19:2 “2 Also it is not good for a soul to be without knowledge, And he sins who hastens with his feet.”

Tow types of ignorance: willfull and unwillfull.

Isaiah 5:13 “13 Therefore my people have gone into captivity, Because they have no knowledge; Their honorable men are famished, And their multitude dried up with thirst.”

Ignorance keeps one bound.

Ignorance of God and his way

John 8:31-32 “31 Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. 32 And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.””

Hosea 4:6 “6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me; Because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.”

Salvation is based on knowedge.

Unwillingness to submit to the ways of God.

Romans 10:3 “3 For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God.”

Jeremiah 6:16 “16 Thus says the Lord: “Stand in the ways and see, And ask for the old paths, where the good way is, And walk in it; Then you will find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’”

There is a naturally tendency for man to refuse to submit to God’s way even if it was showed to him.

The story of the Naaman the Leper

2 Kings 5:9–12 NKJV

9 Then Naaman went with his horses and chariot, and he stood at the door of Elisha’s house. 10 And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored to you, and you shall be clean.” 11 But Naaman became furious, and went away and said, “Indeed, I said to myself, ‘He will surely come out to me, and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place, and heal the leprosy.’ 12 Are not the Abanah and the Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?” So he turned and went away in a rage.

Luke 13:23-24 “23 Then one said to Him, “Lord, are there few who are saved?” And He said to them, 24 “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able.”

Matthew 7:13-14 “13 “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. 14 Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.”

Conclusion

Ignorance of God’s way and unwillingness to submit to his ways keeps people from salvation, from enetering his Kingdom

Isaiah 2:1–3 (NKJV)

1 The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

2 Now it shall come to pass in the latter days That the mountain of the Lord’s house Shall be established on the top of the mountains, And shall be exalted above the hills; And all nations shall flow to it.

3 Many people shall come and say, “Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, To the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, And we shall walk in His paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth the law, And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

God has to teach us his way (knowedge) and we have to chose to walk in it.