57) Call on the Name of The Lord
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Pastoral Reminder: Head Heart Hands
16 All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
Please turn with me to chapter 10 of the book of Romans. In this three chapter section of Paul’s letter. He is describing the truth of Israel in regards to God’s plan of redemption for man. As God’s chosen people we read of all of the advantages and promises that God has given them throughout their history.
In the first eight chapters, Paul detailed out an exposition of the gospel and man’s need to be justified by God in order to be saved from the condemnation, anger and wrath of God that is poured out on those that are found guilty before him.
Over and over again he spoke on the Jews and how they were part of this plan and how they had missed the truth that was contained in the words of God. Each time Paul showed how God pointed to the fact that Gentiles would be saved and that faith is the only way to be justified, not by works.
Starting towards the end chapter 9 Paul speaks on the issue that had led them astray for so long. Their trust was in their own accomplishments and privileges and not in God’s grace. They trusted in their works and not God’s gracious gifts.
30 What should we say then? Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained righteousness—namely the righteousness that comes from faith. 31 But Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not achieved the righteousness of the law. 32 Why is that? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone. 33 As it is written, Look, I am putting a stone in Zion to stumble over and a rock to trip over, and the one who believes on him will not be put to shame.
They stumbled over the stumbling stone that is Jesus. To believe that the saving king was a carpenter’s son from Nazareth. And not some great conquering king was not acceptable for them. Chapter 10 works to bring light on faith and belief. The Gentiles were not looking for the righteousness that would bring them eternal life but found it by faith and believing in the stone that the builders had rejected.
Jews pursuing their own righteousness in the Law did not receive salvation as they were ignorant of the true righteousness of God. So they would not submit to it. But for anyone who believes they find Christ as the end of what is needed, longed for, and required for salvation.
4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes,
Paul is explaining that for those that have faith they are called, believe, have a changed heart, confess, proclaim, and call on the name of Jesus as their Lord and savior.
8 On the contrary, what does it say? The message is near you, in your mouth and in your heart. This is the message of faith that we proclaim: 9 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. 10 One believes with the heart, resulting in righteousness, and one confesses with the mouth, resulting in salvation. 11 For the Scripture says, Everyone who believes on him will not be put to shame, 12 since there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, because the same Lord of all richly blesses all who call on him. 13 For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
Everyone who believes on him and calls on his name as Lord will be saved. This the profession and message of faith. Believe and confess. This seems so simple and if Israel had so many advantages why did they stumble and not believe as a nation. This is what Paul addresses in the rest of this chapter. Isreal is found to be in unbelief and has not found the righteousness by faith. So what must be done, for Paul has already expressed his desire that the Jews, his fellow brother and sisters be saved. So we come to our passage today.
14 How, then, can they call on him they have not believed in? And how can they believe without hearing about him? And how can they hear without a preacher? 15 And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news. 16 But not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed our message? 17 So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the message about Christ.
If everyone, both Jew and Gentile, must call on the name of Jesus to be saved then how does that take place.
God established a means for his grace in people obtaining the righteousness that comes by faith.
14 How, then, can they call on him they have not believed in? And how can they believe without hearing about him? And how can they hear without a preacher?
One Does Not Call Without Believe
One Does Not Call Without Believe
If one must confess Jesus as Lord and believe that God raised from the dead and call on his name to be saved, then Paul asks the question. How can a person call on whom they have not believed. How can a person invoke the name of Jesus as their Lord and savior if they do not believe in him. One must believe in the heart resulting in justification.
10 One believes with the heart, resulting in righteousness, and one confesses with the mouth, resulting in salvation.
In order to call on the name of the Lord he must be known and real. One can either believe or deny that he is who he says he is. But without understanding there is no possibility of belief.
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek.
One Does Not Believe Without Hearing
One Does Not Believe Without Hearing
But how can they believe without hearing about him or of whom they have never heard. Belief comes from hearing.
11 In him we have also received an inheritance, because we were predestined according to the plan of the one who works out everything in agreement with the purpose of his will, 12 so that we who had already put our hope in Christ might bring praise to his glory. 13 In him you also were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and when you believed.
To the Ephesian church he wrote that they were sealed with the Holy Spirit when they heard and believed. What did they hear? The gospel of their salvation, the good news that they can be saved by the accomplished work on the cross. The gospel is what Jesus has done. Who he is, why he came and what he has accomplished. This is the word of truth that is believed in. To the church in Thessalonica he wrote.
13 But we ought to thank God always for you, brothers and sisters loved by the Lord, because from the beginning God has chosen you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and through belief in the truth. 14 He called you to this through our gospel, so that you might obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Chosen for salvation by the Spirit through belief and truth. Those he called he justified and how does he call? Through the gospel. Through the message that Christ came to seek and save the lost. That Christ saves sinners.
15 This saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”—and I am the worst of them.
The truth of God must be heard and believed in or their is no faith. For in Hebrews it says that without faith it is impossible to please God for one who draws near must believe that he exists.
6 Now without faith it is impossible to please God, since the one who draws near to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
The reward of eternal life, for those that are justified and saved from condemnation, is the reward that we trust we will receive if we believe and seek him. To love him with all of our life and being. If we do not believe he exists then how do we please him.
If there is a man in Argentina that I do not know exists can I please him to receive rewards I have never heard about and that I don’t know he has ever promised. That is foolish to think of, so for one to believe they must have heard the truth about Christ.
And how can they hear without a preacher?
One Does Not Hear Without A Preacher
One Does Not Hear Without A Preacher
Unless someone comes from Argentina to tell me about this man that promises me rewards for being pleasing to him, there isn’t any way that would ever work. A preacher must be sent. In the context here we can picture in our mind a herald. They did not have the written and digital forms of communication that we take for granted at every point of our day.
There was a need to hear from one who was sent with news from one place to the other. News would travel by foot or animal but if no messenger was sent, then no message was recieved. and if no message is recieved then there is nothing new to believe in. We can think of John the Baptist that was sent to prepare the way and to preach and herald that there was one coming.
23 He said, “I am a voice of one crying out in the wilderness: Make straight the way of the Lord—just as Isaiah the prophet said.”
John testified an bore witness that the Lord was coming. But today the preachers herald that the Lord has come. He was rejected by his people. Falsely accused, sentenced, crucified, and died on the cross. He was buried and on the third day he rose and lives today as he sits on the throne and mediates for his people.
The preacher that Paul speaks of are those that testify about the message of Jesus. They take the words of God with them as they are from him and in their hearts.
Preachers are those that God is making his appeal through.
20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf, “Be reconciled to God.”
The preachers speak what has been given to them to say. They are not dependent on their own wisdom or talent but they depend on the message that was given to them and passed on to them. God spoke in the past through the prophets but now he has spoken to mankind by his son.
1 Long ago God spoke to our ancestors by the prophets at different times and in different ways. 2 In these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son. God has appointed him heir of all things and made the universe through him.
Jesus revealed the love of God as demonstrated on the cross. He revealed the righteousness of God through his perfect life. He completed the work of God’s redemptive plan on the cross when he said it is finished. He told the disciples to teach all of commands that he gave them.
They were not to get creative, but just to faithfully teach what was given to them. For if Jesus does not speak on his own we should be careful that we do not speak contrary to what Jesus taught.
49 For I have not spoken on my own, but the Father himself who sent me has given me a command to say everything I have said. 50 I know that his command is eternal life. So the things that I speak, I speak just as the Father has told me.”
God has spoke through Jesus and the apostles proclaimed what Jesus had given them to say. The message of salvation. This was recorded in the scriptures and given to the saints and the church to continue to proclaim until Jesus’ return.
15 But if I should be delayed, I have written so that you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God’s household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.
The message has been passed down from the apostles through the scriptures from generation to generation
2 What you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, commit to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.
The word tells men and women to be diligent and careful with the scriptures. To not be flippant with them of neglect them. In them there is life and they keep us from sin and many other things as David writes in Psalm 119. This message of reconciliation must be preached if it is to be heard, believed in and people are to call out in response to it.
And if preachers are to preach then they must be sent.
One Does Not Preach Unless They Are Sent
One Does Not Preach Unless They Are Sent
15 And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news.
Jesus gave the disciples the great commission to go and make disciples of all of the nations.
19 Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Each generation of believers passes on this message and sends out messengers to preach the good news to those that are far away.
1 Now I want to make clear for you, brothers and sisters, the gospel I preached to you, which you received, on which you have taken your stand 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold to the message I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I passed on to you as most important what I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve.
This message is spread from person to person. From one who believes to the next person who believes. Why Jesus chose to use people to carry his message is a wonder to me. In all of the unlimited power he has in his will, the fact that God uses the children adopted into his household through the Spirit, to proclaim to others the good news that you too can be saved, is an amazing truth and also a daunting responsibility. Turning to Ephesians we see that it is Christ himself that is speaking through God’s children.
13 But now in Christ Jesus, you who were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he is our peace, who made both groups one and tore down the dividing wall of hostility. In his flesh, 15 he made of no effect the law consisting of commands and expressed in regulations, so that he might create in himself one new man from the two, resulting in peace. 16 He did this so that he might reconcile both to God in one body through the cross by which he put the hostility to death. 17 He came and proclaimed the good news of peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near.
Many times it seems that we complicate the message of the gospel. There are all sorts of processes and recipes and plans to convince people of God. But the truth is that what people need to hear is simply the message that has been passed down. That God has saved you from your sin and will do the same for you if you believe. It is speaking about what you have seen and heard.
19 Peter and John answered them, “Whether it’s right in the sight of God for us to listen to you rather than to God, you decide; 20 for we are unable to stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.”
What we proclaim is the message that has the power to save. The message that promises life and life abundantly. The message that God sends the Spirit to dwell in his children. To give us what we need to live. The make us right before a holy God. That erases the certificate of debt that we owe.
What have we seen and heard? That Jesus saves and he works in the lives of his children. That he brings peace in trial, calm in the storm, gives new desires and a new nature. Helps us to put the deeds of the flesh to death. How he has renewed our minds? Trained us in righteousness. Answers prayers. Provides all that we need. Forgives our sin. Develops his heart and mind in us. What is the message? That Christ has reconciled us back to God.
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come! 18 Everything is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. 19 That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and he has committed the message of reconciliation to us. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf, “Be reconciled to God.” 21 He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 1 Working together with him, we also appeal to you, “Don’t receive the grace of God in vain.” 2 For he says: At an acceptable time I listened to you, and in the day of salvation I helped you. See, now is the acceptable time; now is the day of salvation!
Everything is from God, he says, God is reconciling us to himself through Christ. God has given us the ministry of reconciliation. He has committed the message to us. God is making his appeal through us so we plead on Christ’s behalf “Be reconciled to God”. God made Christ sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God. Working with Jesus appeal to the lost.
In all of this God is the one at work but he has chosen to use men and women as the instruments of his ministry and message. To be those that preach the good news of Jesus. This is a work we should not take lightly. For the world needs to hear the message of God’s heralds. How beautiful are the feet that bring good news.
7 How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of the herald, who proclaims peace, who brings news of good things, who proclaims salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns!”
The message is passed down through the work of the Holy Spirit and faith comes from what is heard.
17 So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the message about Christ.
In the context of this section of Paul’s letter there is an emphasis on the unbelieving Jews and that his heart longs for them to be saved. So how will they be saved, by sending people to preach the gospel. So that they may hear, believe, and call on the name of the Lord to be saved.
Conclusions
Conclusions
Paul has already stated that God is at work in the saving of his people.
30 And those he predestined, he also called; and those he called, he also justified; and those he justified, he also glorified.
No one can be separated from the love and promises of God. In Chapter 9 we saw that God is free to choose his people and he has done so throughout the bible and history as his children are brought into God’s household through faith. And even though we know that God is at work in all of it;
We are still responsible for believing and proclaiming the Gospel. We have been given the message and the ministry to be heralds of the saving work of Jesus. We are to proclaim and appeal to the lost world around us proclaiming that God saves sinners. That God has saved me. That Jesus died on the cross that I may live. That Jesus recieved the punishment on the cross that I deserved so that I may be free from the condemnation of my sin. That Jesus was rased on the third day and lives as out Lord. As the king of the heavenly kingdom, the head of the church, the firstborn over the house of God, the high priest over the his people.
We have been tasked with the message so that people may believe. For faith comes from what is heard.
My question for us today is why when the world gets darker and darker in our time, does it seem like God’s people get quieter and quieter. I would say that part of the issue is that we have created a culture in church where is it more about what we get than what we proclaim. We attempt to build up the walls and fill the seats of the church instead of the hearts of men and women.
Our hearts are hard with the thoughts that the church isn’t providing what I want. I talk to people all the time that leave church and usually the answers given revolve around the fact that the church does not provide for what I want. But that is the issue. What is the church? It is God’s household. Which we profess to be a part of. Who is in charge of the home, the church? It is Jesus.
The question has never been? Does this church meet my needs? The question should always be Lord, how can I be of use to your household? What can I do to be in service to you for the other members of the home?
12 For just as the body is one and has many parts, and all the parts of that body, though many, are one body—so also is Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and we were all given one Spirit to drink. 14 Indeed, the body is not one part but many. 15 If the foot should say, “Because I’m not a hand, I don’t belong to the body,” it is not for that reason any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I’m not an eye, I don’t belong to the body,” it is not for that reason any less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But as it is, God has arranged each one of the parts in the body just as he wanted. 19 And if they were all the same part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body. 21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” Or again, the head can’t say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that are weaker are indispensable. 23 And those parts of the body that we consider less honorable, we clothe these with greater honor, and our unrespectable parts are treated with greater respect, 24 which our respectable parts do not need. Instead, God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the less honorable, 25 so that there would be no division in the body, but that the members would have the same concern for each other. 26 So if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. 27 Now you are the body of Christ, and individual members of it.
Weekly attendance/consistent attendance/
Compare our home to God’s home with participation
What we need to remember is that we need the message. It need to be in our homes and every part of our lives. When we stop thinking about what is in it for me and instead saying use me, we will find that there is an abundance of ways in which we testify about the work of God in our lives.
When you speak of the church? If you speak of God? What is the message that you proclaim?
Let us pray.
Let us pray.
Prayer
Blessing/Benediction
16 May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us eternal encouragement and good hope by grace, 17 encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good work and word.
