[0:00] This message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alfred, Georgia. It is our prayer that you'll be blessed by the preaching of God's Word. Take your Bibles, if you would, and open them to Romans chapter 10.
[0:11] Today is a special day. All days are special when you're just being alive, but being in church and serving God. But we have a newlywed couple here somewhere. Alex and Maribel Cook, where are you?
[0:24] They are, hold your hands up high. Are you ashamed? There you go. Glad to welcome them back. How about a round of applause for Brand Newlyweds? Glad to have them back here in the first service and excited for that.
[0:36] And then we have a brand new baby. I don't know, Ryan, where are you? Okay, there's Ryan and Evelyn and Kylie. Kylie, did I say that anywhere near right?
[0:46] Hold your hand up real high. Proud Papa and Mama. How about another round of applause for them? Always good to see God's blessings on different families in our church. Now, in Romans chapter 10, you've got the wildest thing happening.
[1:00] Because in Romans chapter 9, the religious crowd got told, God is going to save people that are not a part of your group. And the religious people, they got angry.
[1:12] They almost always do. They hate it when they think that other people could get saved. And I thought today, as we started into Romans chapter 10, I would just introduce you to some things that have happened in the ministry of your church as God has been saving people around the world.
[1:29] So I'm going to show you some slides real quickly of different people. I want you to know that whosoever will can be saved. Would you say that with me? Ready? Go. Whosoever will can be saved.
[1:41] Say that. Whosoever will can be saved. And I want you to know they can. And this first picture here, that is a guy named Rashid. And he is in Morocco. And he and his family have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior.
[1:54] This next one is Fatima. And they're in Morocco also. And Jillian Bashor is in that picture. And she was able to lead this young lady to Christ. And then we'll flip over to Egypt.
[2:05] And David Gates and his family had the privilege of seeing Mariam accept Christ as her Savior. She kept the kids there for a while. And then the next picture is our son David.
[2:16] And he has led two of these young men to Christ. One of them said, I'm not ready to trust Christ. But Bryson and Irving accepted Christ as their Savior. And this morning, standing in their church there in Iglesia Bautista Omega, or Omega Baptist Church, there are people that are hearing the gospel and being saved.
[2:35] And then another fellow named Alejandro has gotten saved. And another one named Alex has gotten saved. All those are in Peru. And then Babalo in South Africa has gotten saved out of the ministry of Kevin Hall.
[2:49] And then I sent the load out asking for this. And Mark Coffey hadn't got a ministry going yet. And I was talking about whosoever will be saved. And he said, well, my daughter got saved under my ministry.
[2:59] And so there's Mark and Amy. And they're now in South Africa. But you know that whosoever will call on his name, whosoever will call on his name will be saved.
[3:11] And that's what Romans chapter 10 is about. Whosoever will call on his name will be saved. You saw in Romans chapter 9 great things about the sovereignty of God and the greatness of God.
[3:22] And in Romans chapter 10, it's blowing the Jews' mind. It's blowing the cultural Christians' mind that God would save anybody, no matter what their racial background, no matter what their social level, and no matter what their sin background was, he would save them.
[3:39] So read with me, if you would, Romans chapter 10. And we'll start in verse 6. And the Bible says, But the righteousness, which is of faith, speaketh on this wise. Say not in thine heart, who shall ascend into heaven?
[3:53] That is to bring Christ down from above. Or who shall descend into the deep? That is to bring Christ up again from the dead. But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart.
[4:05] That is the word of faith, which we preach. That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
[4:18] For with the heart men believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
[4:30] For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek. For the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.
[4:40] For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?
[4:51] And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent? As it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things.
[5:04] But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah said, Lord, who hath believed our report? So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
[5:16] But I say, Have they not heard? Yes, Truly, Verily, Their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world. But, I say, Did not Israel know?
[5:29] First Moses said, I will provoke you to jealousy, by them that are no people, and by a foolish nation I will anger you. But Isaiah is very bold and says, I was found of them that saw me not.
[5:44] I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me. But to Israel he said, All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and a gainsaying people.
[5:55] Now I want you to go with me to chapter 10 and verse 6, and we'll start there. But let's ask God to help you understand and put it in your heart what he's doing. Father in heaven, I pray that your name will be glorified.
[6:07] I pray that you would save somebody who's not saved. I pray you would motivate your people to share the gospel message. Convict us of the need to talk about Jesus and salvation, and to bring people to know you.
[6:20] And I'll give you praise for it all. In Jesus' name, Amen. Before we read verse 6 again, I want you to know that the religious people are angry in Romans chapter 10.
[6:31] The religious people are angry. There's this almost racism built into Christianity, or built into religion, that believes your race and your people are the ones, and the Jews were no exception.
[6:44] They believed they were the people. And in Romans, God's doing this great thing, where he's opening the door and he's saving people. Nothing new. He did it in the Old Testament, but they kind of ignored that.
[6:56] But now, I mean, it's a wide open door for everyone to be saved. And in Romans chapter 9, he had to say to them, Now you don't tell me what to do. I'm in charge here, and I'll decide who I use, and I'll decide who I use to be my messengers, and I'll open the doors.
[7:11] When I want to open the doors, you're not in charge. In Romans chapter 10, he says, in the first five verses, he said, Hey, Paul said, I know you have a zeal. You love God. You act religious.
[7:22] You're always at church. But, to be honest, you don't know God. You have religion, but you don't know God. That's where most people are. There's a ton of religion.
[7:33] Everywhere you turn, they're religious people, and they express themselves religiously. They express themselves morally, but they've not come to know Jesus Christ. And so they're angry.
[7:44] And so in chapter 10 and verse 6, the first thing we'll look at, is they know the truth, no matter what they say. See, these Jews, they knew the truth. Look at verse 6.
[7:54] But the righteousness, which is of faith, speaketh on this wise. Say not in that heart, thou shalt ascend into heaven, that is to bring Christ down, or descend to the deep, that is to bring Christ up from the dead.
[8:05] See, salvation does not require any superheroic acts on your part. You don't have to climb into heaven. You don't have to go down to the place of the dead.
[8:16] You can stop acting like religion, or Christianity, or true salvation, has to do with any externals. It never was based on externals, on things you do, on things people can see, on your good acts, and on your morality.
[8:33] God is a God of internals. God's a God of internals that affects externals. And these Jews were like, we have the law. We obey the law. We've been circumcised.
[8:44] He said, it's not hard to understand. You Jews are acting like it's hard to understand. But in verse 8, he said, hey, the word is close to you. The word's close to you.
[8:55] It's even in your mouth. The word of faith. You know it. You guys are the ones God used to write the book. And you guys are the ones that memorized the book. And you guys are the ones that taught the book.
[9:05] And you know what it says, but you never apply it. Isn't that a pretty sad indictment? That somebody who's religious could know a whole lot of Bible. They don't live. Isn't it a pretty sad thing?
[9:17] That your head could be full of a ton of God stuff. And you could know right and from wrong. And you could know about Jesus. And you could know about God. And you never act on that. You could know that Jesus died on the cross.
[9:28] And you could know that he was buried. And you could know that he rose again. And you could know that he paid for your sins. But you never trusted him. And believed him. He said, that's what's going on. You guys have all the knowledge.
[9:39] The word is close to you. But you won't act on it. And that's why he says in verse 9. Look at it. Romans 10, 9. One of the most famous, soul winning passages you've ever heard.
[9:52] That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God hath raised him from the dead. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth salvation, where the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
[10:07] You see, they were in the middle. Look at me now. I want you to listen. They were in the middle of the things of God. They knew the Bible. They knew the Old Testament. They knew about Jesus.
[10:17] They knew about the sacrifices. They knew the truth. Like you do. You are surrounded by it. You come to a church where we open the Bible and we show you about Jesus all the time.
[10:31] And they knew that. They knew what was right. They knew it. They knew it all. They had it memorized. They could discuss its finer points of theology. They could describe all the things that went on.
[10:44] They knew about the books of Moses, the first five books of the Bible. And they knew about the major prophets and the minor prophets. And they knew about the poetry books. They knew all about it.
[10:54] He said it's close to you. It's all around you. But you have yet to believe it in your heart. Did you know you could come to church and know all the right stuff and never believe?
[11:06] Did you know you could quote verbatim verse after verse and not believe? He said, hey, what's needed is that you believe in your heart and you confess with your mouth.
[11:17] He said, you know what the Bible says. You've been surrounded by the truth. It's close to you. You're zealous for God. You're excited about religion. You're excited about Jewish stuff.
[11:30] But you don't trust Jesus. Notice in verse 9, it said, you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus. That's a title like sir in English.
[11:40] It's a title of respect. It's what they would have called the Roman emperor. It's the name they would have used for the Greek gods. But it's the name that the Jews would have used for Jehovah when they translated into the Greek New Testament.
[11:52] We must believe that Jesus died and was buried and has risen from the grave and is alive today. Now you look this way just a second. Listen to me real quickly. It's a scary thing to be here.
[12:06] It's a scary thing to be here. It's a scary thing to know as much as you know. It's a scary thing to have heard as much preaching as you've heard. It's a scary thing to know all you know and never have acted on it.
[12:18] And here's what he said. He said, hey, it is believing it to be true. If I were to ask you, do you know that Jesus died on the cross?
[12:28] I think everybody knows. Yeah, everybody knows that. The whole world knows about it. That's how you divide time. I mean, there's A.D. or B.C. and A.D. Is that right?
[12:40] My brain went into Spanish here for a second and that was really a problem. There's before Christ and there's after Christ. And we know Jesus came and we know Jesus died.
[12:52] And we know He was buried. And we know they say He rose again. Do you believe that He did all that? To pay your sin debt. And so here comes the Apostle Paul and he's going to rush into something wild and crazy.
[13:07] He's going to say to them, whosoever can be saved. Whosoever, anybody. That was going to be the wildest thing they'd ever heard. They thought if you wanted to get saved, you could become a Jew.
[13:20] You could adapt their religion. You could put on all their externals. You could be circumcised. But here's what He says in Romans 10. It doesn't matter who you are.
[13:30] If you will believe, you will not be embarrassed. You will not be disappointed. You will not be put to shame because He saves and He justifies. Look at Romans 10.
[13:40] In verse 11. The Scripture says, Whosoever, Whosoever. Would you repeat that word with me? Whosoever. Would you say it with me? Come on. Who? Come on.
[13:51] What's it say? Whosoever believes on Him shall not be ashamed. Now you're probably thinking to yourself, Well, of course. That's talking about us. But in verse 12, He kind of clears that up.
[14:03] Look at verse 12. It has nothing to do with your ethnicity. In verse 12, He said, There's no difference between the Jew and the Greek. There's no difference between the Jew and the Greek.
[14:15] For the same Lord over all is rich upon all that call upon Him. Now wait a minute. You've got to understand me. Paul has been leading them into a trap. He starts off in Romans 10 saying, Guys, I know you love God.
[14:29] I know you're zealous. I know you get down there and you make your offerings. I know you do all your tithing. I know you've done all the religious stuff you're supposed to do. And just let me say, You know the Bible.
[14:40] If anybody ever knew the Bible, you guys know the Bible. He said, The Word's all around you. It's not of you. It's even in your mouth. But you've not got it down to your heart yet. But I want you to know something.
[14:52] God saves people. And if you'll confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, you'll be saved. And then he said, Because God will save anybody. Whosoever believes won't be ashamed. And they would have been going, Amen.
[15:04] That's right. Say that again. I believe that. I agree. We're religious people. Yes. Yes. We're moral. Yes. We do the good stuff. Yes. Yes. Bring it on. Yes. Yes. Whosoever believe will be saved.
[15:17] Whoa. Whoa. Excuse me. I guess you're talking about one of them. Okay. I'll go with that. Any one of us Jews that wants to believe we can be saved. And then he says, Nope. There's no difference between a Jew and a Greek.
[15:28] Now that's where a Jew's going to go. Oh. Excuse me. That's not true. There's a big difference. We're Jews. They're Greeks.
[15:38] We're special. They're not. We're the people. They're the dogs. Not going to happen. But he said it has nothing to do with your ethnicity. Look at verse 13. He said, For whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
[15:53] Would you read that out loud with me? Can I get you to read that out loud with me? Are you ready? Verse 13. Everybody read it with me. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
[16:04] We didn't do a very good job. Let's do it again. Are you ready? It says, For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. It would be an interesting thing to go through here and knock all the whosoever.
[16:15] Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. So anybody could get saved. Not just a Jew, but a Greek.
[16:27] Not just a Jew, but a Greek. It was not about ethnicity. Anyone could be saved. Now look if you went at verse 14. For whosoever to get saved, they have to hear the gospel.
[16:38] For the whosoever to get saved, they have to hear the gospel. Now that's an important thing I need you to listen to. That's a clear indication that universalism is not true.
[16:51] In other words, not everybody is going to go to heaven. All dogs don't go to heaven, nor do all people go to heaven. Somewhere along the way, you've been led to believe Jesus is so good.
[17:02] He died on a cross so man could get saved. He died so everybody could go to heaven. And Paul said, whosoever can be saved. Whosoever can be saved.
[17:13] That's true, he said. But they can't get saved unless they believe. They must believe or they can't get saved.
[17:23] So you can be surrounded by the Bible. You can be surrounded by morality. You can be super religious. You can get baptized until every frog in every creek knows you by first name basis.
[17:36] You can do all the religious acts. You can tithe so much that every treasurer loves you. But that's not what gets you to heaven. Whosoever believes. Whosoever believes.
[17:47] So read with me if you would. Verse 14. Now see, Paul, he's kind of arguing with them. I mean, they're not really talking, but he's hearing what they're thinking. And he's going ahead and telling them what they're going to say.
[17:58] And he said in verse 13. Whosoever. Let's read verse 13. Look at it with me. Verse 13. He said, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Well, so anybody can be saved.
[18:09] Then he said, let me qualify that. Look at verse 14. He said, how shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe of whom they have not heard?
[18:21] And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of them would preach the gospel of peace and bring good tidings.
[18:33] Glad tidings of good things. Anyone, whosoever, can be saved if they will believe. But they must hear.
[18:45] You saw the pictures. Those people got saved the same way you got saved. Somebody told them the truth. Somebody told them that we had failed against, we had sinned and failed God.
[18:59] That we rebelled against God. But that God and Jesus had died on the cross and paid our sin debt so we could be saved. And they heard that gospel message. And they trusted Jesus Christ to save them by what he did on the cross of Calvary.
[19:13] They believed that he is the Lord, he is God, and that he died. That's why we have to be a missionary sending church. And I am so glad you are.
[19:24] You give and you participate and you help the gospel get out. And you get the message out. But the truth is we got to give it to our friends. You listen to what I've got to tell you. The guy that works next to you may be a very good guy.
[19:37] He may be the most moral person in the business. And he may know all sorts of things. But knowing it and having it all around you and having it even in your mouth is not enough.
[19:48] It's got to get from your mouth down to your heart. And you got to believe in your heart so that what your heart feels comes out of your mouth. And so a person truly gets saved.
[19:59] The real point of this message is that Israel has no excuse. They have heard. They simply refuse to believe. They have no excuse. Israel is kind of mad.
[20:12] Hey, you're bringing all this new stuff on us. You're bringing this Jesus stuff. And Paul said, I don't bring anything new. You've had all 39 books. You know what the Bible says. You've known the truth.
[20:22] But yet you've not believed. Hearing was not the problem for Israel. They simply didn't want to believe. They didn't want to obey the gospel. They didn't want to give up their own righteousness and accept his.
[20:34] Look at verse 16. Romans chapter 10 and verse 16. But they have not all believed the gospel. For Isaiah said, Lord, who hath believed our report?
[20:46] Do you see what's going on? Now look just a second. Look. He said, they know, but they don't believe. They know, but they refuse to obey.
[20:57] You see, here's the truth. You might know. You might know everything that I know. But knowing is one thing. And obeying is another thing. And this obedience is, I admit I'm a sinner.
[21:10] And I trust Jesus. And what he did on the cross of Calvary to save me. And he said, these Jews, but they don't hear. But they had heard. Look if you would in verse 17.
[21:23] So then faith comes by hearing. And hearing by the word of God. You get faith because you hear what this book says. You understand what this book says? You understand this book says that you're a sinner.
[21:35] That the Bible is clear that we have sinned against the Holy God. That we deserve to die and go to hell. That Jesus died on the cross to save us. And we trust that. Verse 18.
[21:45] In Romans 10, 18 he said, But, I say, haven't they all heard? Yep. Truly, verily, their sound went into all the earth. And their words unto the end of the world.
[21:57] They knew. They knew. Israel is rejecting what they know. Israel is rejecting what they know.
[22:08] Probably one of the most exciting things that could ever happen is when you're on the mission field. And all those pictures I showed. Many of those people have never heard. They know things about Jesus. And they know things about God.
[22:19] And they know things. But they've never really heard that it applied to them. And you tell them. And they get so excited. I mean, they're like sponges. Man, they soak it up.
[22:29] They're like, wow. God loves me. Wow. Jesus paid my sin debt. Wow. I hear it. And I believe it. And I trust. But Paul said, Israel, you didn't do that.
[22:41] You know. But you refuse. You have heard. But you refuse. And what God was doing was he was opening the door to bring in all of these nations. So that all those people's pictures that I showed you.
[22:54] And all of you could come to know Jesus. Look at verse 19. Look what he said to the Jews. He said, I say, did not Israel know? For first Moses said, I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people.
[23:06] And by a foolish nation, I will anger you. You see, those Peruvians and those Moroccans and those Egyptians and those Africans and other pictures that I could have thrown up there to show you, they knew.
[23:21] But they were foolish nations. They're nobodies. They're not Jews. They're not religious. They're not moral. They're not the guys that ought to get saved. But God said, I'm going to use a no people, a no people, some nobodies.
[23:36] And I'm going to save them. And I'm going to save them by a foolish nation. And it's going to make you mad. Sad to say, but religious people almost seem to get angry when lost people get saved.
[23:49] They want their kids to get saved. But, man, you let that person come in here that's lived a wild and rough life and he's never been to church and he's always been a bad guy.
[23:59] And he comes in here and God saves us. And some of the religious people are just like, I'm not in there. I don't know about that. That's a little too much. Israel knew the church, the truth. They simply love the law more than the lawgiver.
[24:10] They love their morality more than they love the truth. God makes a move to get their attention by using the church to provoke them to jealousy. God saved a people that weren't even looking for him.
[24:24] On the planet, there's one nation that's God's people, Israel. And since the book of Genesis in chapter 11, they've been the people. They've been used to write the Bible.
[24:36] They've been used to give us the apostles. They've been used to give us Jesus. And they're the people. But in Isaiah, back in the Old Testament, verse 20, Isaiah is very bold and said, I was found of them that didn't look for me, that sought me not.
[24:51] I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me. One of the wildest stories in the book of Acts, one of the wildest stories in the book of Acts that Luke tells us about the gospel spreading, was when the persecution came on the church in Jerusalem.
[25:06] It was Jerusalem. Man, the Jews were so excited about seeing each other get saved and seeing other people find out about Jesus. And they were telling the gospel and telling the gospel. But they stayed in Jerusalem. And in Acts chapter 8 and verse 1, persecution came on the church.
[25:19] And when persecution came on the church, they escaped out of town. And they were running for their lives. And everywhere they went, they found other Jews. And they talked to them about Jesus and what had happened on Calvary.
[25:29] And they were excited. And one of them accidentally slipped up and told a Greek. He told a guy who was a different race. He was standing there talking. And I'm sure the conversation went something like this.
[25:40] The Greek guy said, you're not a Jew? Yep. You're not from Jerusalem? Yep. Well, what are you doing here? He said, man, Jesus came. And you're not going to believe us. He came and he died and he was buried.
[25:50] And on the day of Pentecost, they taught us all this truth. And, man, people everywhere were trusting Jesus. And the church was growing. And they started all persecuting us. And I ran for my life. And the guy said, well, tell me about this Jesus.
[26:02] And that guy was so excited. And he slipped up and told a non-Jewish people, a non-Jewish person. He said, hey, Jesus died on a cross so everybody could be saved.
[26:12] And the Gentile looked at him and said, I'll take it. I want to be saved. And a guy who was not even looking. Jews studied the Bible every day. They memorized the Old Testament.
[26:23] They met at the synagogue. They were religious. But all of a sudden, the gospel broke out into all these other people. Israel time and time again had refused to believe and obey.
[26:35] Look at verse 21, if you would. But to Israel, he saith, all day long, I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and a gainsaying people.
[26:46] You just run your mouths. That's all you do. You talk a good talk. You talk good religion. You run your mouth with empty words. And you are rebellious. You will not do what the Bible said to do.
[26:58] You won't give up your own righteousness. You won't give up your own goodness. And you won't trust God. It's been a waste of time. You see, Israel knew the truth. But they refused to obey.
[27:09] They refused to believe. And that's why they aren't saved. And the same thing applies to you. It is so dangerous to be brought up in church all your life.
[27:19] It is so dangerous to be brought up where you know all the stories. All somebody's got to do is say, Noah. And you go, I know that story. All somebody's got to do is say, David. You go, I know that story.
[27:30] All you've got to do is say, Hosea. And they say, yeah, I know that story. I mean, we know it. We know all about it. But we've not believed. Israel wanted to blame God for not being saved.
[27:42] They want to say, God, you wouldn't do it. But it's not God. But you who refuse to believe. You who refuses to obey. You know the truth. You know what you are to do.
[27:55] You simply don't want to do it. Quit making excuses. Stop trying to hold on to your own goodness. And prove how you are worthy of God's love.
[28:09] Admit your sinfulness. Accept the fact that you never have measured up. And you never will measure up. Quit acting like it's hard. And you can't believe because it's so hard to believe.
[28:20] You don't have to climb up into heaven. And you don't have to crawl down into hell. Just believe God. Today is the day of salvation. Today is the day for you to act on what you already know.
[28:33] Now here's the truth of the passage. Whosoever will call on his name can be saved. It doesn't matter what your skin color is. It doesn't matter what your social level is.
[28:44] And it certainly doesn't matter what your past is. Whosoever will can call on him. And so he moved from the Jewish people. And he said, hey Jews, you're trying to blame me with me moving towards the Gentiles.
[28:58] And you're upset with me. But the facts are you know and refuse. In the southeast of the United States. And I just say it's probably one of the most dangerous places you could ever live.
[29:09] And the whole planet. It's one of the most dangerous places you could live. It's one of the most dangerous places you could raise your children. You say why? Because you think you know God without trusting Jesus.
[29:22] Because you think you know God because you're good. Because you think you know God because you got baptized. Because you think you know God because somebody christened you. Because you think you know God because everybody in your family is religious.
[29:37] You somehow think it's about who you are. Your ethnic group. Your social background. Where you come from. My family's always been church people.
[29:49] I'll close. With a story of how my son Chris accepted Christ. And Chris had grown up in the home of a preacher. And his mother a pastor's wife all of his life.
[30:02] From the time he was born. In fact it was before he was born. When his mama found out she was pregnant. We didn't have the sonogram. We didn't know how to know. We didn't know how to know. Whether it's a boy or a girl. But I told Betty.
[30:12] I said it's going to be a little boy. And I'm going to name him Christopher. Because it means Christ bearer. And I'm going to name him Christopher. So he can take the gospel of Jesus Christ with him. And tell others about Jesus.
[30:24] And so Chris was in church. And Chris felt like he was saved. He said he was saved because after all. He was a very good boy. He was saved because his daddy was the pastor.
[30:37] He was saved because his mother was a Christian. He was saved because his grandparents were believers. And the guy stood up and preached one day. And it wasn't me. And the guy stood up and preached one day. And he said if you're in the room and you've never trusted Christ.
[30:50] Today's your day. You need to trust Christ as your Savior. And Chris was sitting there thinking I hope they do. I hope all of them do. I mean after all. I'm on my way to heaven. You know I'm a gardener.
[31:01] My daddy's a preacher. And so the guy looked and said. And by the way. It doesn't matter who your daddy is. And Chris said he went. Hold it a minute. You know.
[31:12] He said even if your daddy's a pastor of the church. That won't get you into heaven. And Chris said he was in his little mind. He was just getting aggravated. What you. Who are you talking about. It doesn't matter how good you've been.
[31:23] You must realize you've sinned. And after he talked about how Chris's mama couldn't get him to heaven. Never said her name. How Chris's daddy couldn't get to heaven. Never said his name. How going to church all the time couldn't get him saved.
[31:34] And he took away all of those things. Chris said today I will trust Jesus. As my savior. And really what God needs to do in your life. Is knock all the props out. Because you really do think your baptism did something for you.
[31:49] And you really do think that you took the Lord's Supper. And you really do think that you've been moral. And you really do think that you're a good person. And you really have a hundred reasons. But when it comes down to it.
[32:00] You won't say this. I was a dirty law sinner that deserved to go to hell. And I understood that Jesus died for me. And I trusted Jesus. And what he did on the cross at Calvary.
[32:11] And that's how I got saved. You do know that when we get to heaven. There will be not one. Not one bit of bragging going on up there. The Bible says in Ephesians 2.8 and 9. For by grace are you saved through faith.
[32:23] And that not of yourselves. It's a gift of God. Not of works. Lest any man should boast. In simple tendency. He'll be the language. Which what it means is God says. I saved you when you didn't deserve it. So when you get to heaven you can't brag.
[32:35] So nobody will walk in there saying. My daddy was a preacher. Nobody will walk in there saying. I was a really good guy. I gave more money than everybody else. I, I, I. He said no. When you get to heaven you'll walk in.
[32:45] You'll say this. Man. If it wasn't for God being a good God. And sending Jesus to pay my sin debt. I couldn't be saved. Whosoever will call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
[32:57] Whosoever can be saved. Whosoever. Anybody can be saved. Doesn't matter what your skin color is. Doesn't matter what your past is. Doesn't matter how much money you have. Doesn't matter how many times you failed. And doesn't matter how good you've been.
[33:09] Some need to repent of their past because of sin. Others need to repent because you've just been so stinking good. You are too good for your own good. And you need to trust Christ.
[33:20] So today I invite you to believe Jesus. And what he did on the cross. To believe that God in human flesh came and died on a cross and carried your sin debt.
[33:33] You can't be angry like the religious people. You can't be saying it's not fair. Trust Jesus. And what he did. Father in heaven I love you. And I praise you for the opportunity to speak to your people today.
[33:46] Holy Spirit I pray you would convict hearts. I pray that you would draw people to you. I pray that your name would be glorified. And I will magnify you for all that you do. Lord I'll trust you.
[33:57] This message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alfred, Georgia. For more information log on to www.visionbaptist.com where you can find our service times, location, contact information, and more audio and video recordings.