Latest / HBCWestminster / 8.6.23 Romans 10:5-21 Pastor Danny Gardner

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8.6.23 Romans 10:5-21 Pastor Danny Gardner · HBCWestminster

• 0:00
  Romans chapter 10 and verse 5, the title of our sermon this morning, Two Roads to Heaven and a Springboard to Evangelism. And as you're turning there, perhaps you are wondering, or maybe you're even new to the church and new to us and wondering, why the Bible? Why so much time devoted to it? Why does its reading and preaching occupy such a large portion of our worship service? Why does it seem that Christians are so obsessed?
• 0:30
  with this particular book and the story goes that a group of men showed up at a park to play basketball one of them realized they didn't bring a basketball to which his friend replied well forget the ball let's just get on with the game and preaching something other than the bible would be like playing basketball without a basketball like you're missing the entire point it'd be like saying man that point guard on that basketball team is just obsessed
• 0:57
  with the ball it's like the team's entire offense just revolves around the ball imagine how many more things they could do and how many more plays they could run and the creativity they would enjoy if they just stopped obsessing about the basketball and friends the word of god is the ball it is the point i mean it is what we run our entire offense around and i know that
• 1:25
  Many pastors and some churches have kind of shrugged their shoulders and said, forget the ball, let's get on with the game. But church, may it never be true of us that we would forget the ball. The whole point is the communication of God, the revelation of God through His Word. And like Peter said in John 6,
• 1:45
  Lord, to whom shall we go? Where else are we going to go? You have the words of eternal life, and consider, church, as we are about to read from Romans 10, the book that is sitting on your lap contains the words of eternal life. We said last Sunday that errant thinking can pose a threat to our souls when it leads to false doctrine, no matter how sincere that errant thinking may be. We said that if the devil can convince you that you are genuinely saved, even when you're not,
• 2:14
  if he can dupe you into believing that you have no need for a savior when you actually do or that there's no such thing as sin or that your wrong behavior or wrong thinking are not wrong at all then you will be the most difficult to convince to repent and to ask for forgiveness this was the problem the first century jewish people had they were convinced of their ability to be justified
• 2:39
  By their adherence to the law, we said last week that their zeal, although genuine, was without knowledge. And they rejected God's method of salvation by faith. They were sincere, but they were sincerely wrong. We'll conclude our study of chapter 10 this morning. And I know it's a longer passage than we would normally take on. But it really all belongs together because it's one continuous thought. And so with that in mind, would you stand in honor of God's word as I read our text, verses 5 through 21.
• 3:09
  The Word of God says, For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. But 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. 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.
• 4:03
  How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed?
• 4:07
  How are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news. But they've not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us? So faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ. But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed, they have. For their voice has gone out to all the earth and their words to the ends of the world. But I ask, did Israel not understand?
• 4:36
  At first, Moses says, I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation. With a foolish nation, I will make you angry. Then Isaiah is so bold as to say, I have been found by those who did not seek me. I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me. But of Israel, he says, all day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people. Would you pray with me? Lord God, we come to you with anticipation because of what we know you will do as we sing worship to your name.
• 5:06
  As we spur one another on to love and good deeds, as we shake one another's hands, as our souls are fed through the hearing of your word. And so with Bibles open, we await your spirit's voice through its preaching. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Church, thank you. This morning we are studying two roads, like I said, and one springboard. And we're going to jump straight in. Let's look at these two divergent...
• 5:34
  roads and notice they can be found in verses five and six that first road verse five says is a righteousness based on the law and notice second in verse six the second road is a righteousness based on faith many years ago when i was in my early 30s i decided to climb one of the many 14ers that our country has to offer
• 5:59
  this was a particularly difficult one 23 miles round trip and a significant elevation change as we get up to the top very nearly top not quite the summit but then the trail goes back down again before you have to climb back up again to reach the top i and my friends were standing there at the summit with our backs against we had
• 6:19
  climbed up this trail that was very clearly marked and clearly defined. It was a gradual route to the top, nevertheless difficult. It took us 12 hours round trip for young men in relatively good shape. And so as we're standing there at the summit, high-fiving each other and thumbs up and kind of arm-in-arm taking pictures, we had our backs...
• 6:39
  to a cliff a sheer cliff going down several thousand feet the view from the top was spectacular but you could get to the top after having climbed up this gradual trail to the top and look over several thousand feet down to where the valley began to go down deeper and deeper and deeper and as we were standing there kind of arm and arm taking our pictures a man appeared as if out of nowhere
• 7:03
  And I couldn't figure out where he came from because it was like he was not there. And then all of a sudden he was there. He didn't come up from that gradual trail that the rest of us had taken. He came instead from behind us. He suddenly showed up in our pictures. Where did you come from? We're looking over the edge. Like, how did you do that? And he said, oh, I climbed up from this side of the mountain.
• 7:26
  And I said, didn't you know there was a trail right here? I said, you climbed up? And he says, yeah. He said, I took what is called the Mountaineer's Route. The Mountaineer's Route was scaling, rock climbing this sheer cliff several thousand feet. I'm looking over the edge and, you know, even getting a little bit of vertigo, like woozy, looking over. You climbed up that. How long did that take you? And he said, it took me several days. I said, you slept?
• 7:57
  how'd you sleep on the way up and he said well i've got all these ropes and he did he had all of this gear hanging off of him he said i got these ropes and he says the way that you do it is you climb and anchor and whatever and then when you're sleeping and need to need to rest you just tie yourself you tether yourself to the side of the cliff and you sleep on the side of the cliff and i'm like you are out of your mind man like you're nuts and eventually at one point i just said how do you go to the bathroom you know and i won't
• 8:27
  You know, share the disgusting portion of that story with you. But you just go to the bathroom. You're like, how did you go to the bathroom? It took you several days to get to the top. I was baffled by it. I was stunned that there was a second route that I had never even considered. And honestly, the reason I had never even considered it is because it wouldn't work. I couldn't do it. It's completely unattainable for me.
• 8:54
  the mountaineer's route maybe you remember robert frost's old poem to the road not taken right he says two roads diverged in a yellow wood do you remember that poem and he hammers on for several stanzas but then he ends with two roads diverge in a wood and i i took the one less traveled by and that has made all the difference well that was not my experience on the mountain that day i very intentionally took the road everyone traveled by why because it worked and because i could do it
• 9:23
  Because I had no shot at the mountaineer's route, it was so undoable that I completely neglected its existence. And church, let me ask you, how many roads are there to heaven? One. We very quickly say there is one road. You can only be saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Amen? But church, I just said there were two roads. There are two roads. Verses 5 and 6 describe two different roads.
• 9:55
  We've just been trained to completely neglect the other road. Why? Because it is so undoable, so unscalable, so unattainable that we forget that it's even there. What our text tells us this morning is that there actually exists a second way, a second path to heaven. Don't stand up and start screaming heresy yet. I'm going to explain what I mean, okay?
• 10:21
  I know Don, I will tackle you right now, Pastor Danny. And he would win. You guys have seen him, right? We have been so completely trained to neglect the other path because it's so unscalable. But what this says is that there is actually a second path to heaven, two ways for a person to achieve righteousness. The first is a righteousness based on the law, based on perfection. If you're perfect, you can go, right? I said it was unattainable.
• 10:51
  and second based on faith charles hodge has worded it this way there are two possible ways in which righteousness can be attained by works by your own works is what he's saying or by faith based on the works of christ we must either have a righteousness of our own or receive and trust in a righteousness which is not our own which has been wrought out for us and presented to us as the ground of our acceptance with god
• 11:20
  The righteousness we've been discussing the last several weeks, and specifically in last week's text, found in chapter 9 and verse 31, called the law of righteousness, and then found again from last week, chapter 10 and verse 3, called their own righteousness, is now in verse 5 called the righteousness that is based on the law. These are all the same righteousness. This is a righteousness based on your own good works, your own merits. It's a works-based system.
• 11:48
  of legalism that the jews were holding to 2 000 years ago which many of our we said last week our unsaved friends and neighbors hold to today it is salvation by your own standards by your own rules by your own sense of right and wrong or a denial of morals all together that you can somehow feel better about yourself based on your own works now what was last week called god's righteousness is this morning called the righteousness that comes by faith
• 12:16
  You notice our text this morning is riddled with Old Testament quotations and allusions. The author assumed he was speaking to a Jewish crowd who understood them. They were familiar with those. And notice how he describes road number one. He quotes from Leviticus 18. Road number one, he's describing that salvation by your own works or by your own perfection. Verse 5 says, Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law. And then here's that quote from Leviticus.
• 12:45
  that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. In other words, he says, if you're going to trust in the law for your salvation, then you had better live by the law. The scriptures are clear. Sin, no matter how small, is a flagrant affront to the holiness of God, which means that even the slightest infraction incurs the harshest
• 13:17
  punishment because if god is infinitely holy then sin no matter how inconsequential in our own eyes offends god an infinite amount and because of this adherence to the law for righteousness must be perfect without infraction james chapter 2 and verse 10 says for whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it
• 13:50
  How many, church, laws do you have to break in order for you to be considered a lawbreaker? You only got to do it one time. Do you see what he's saying? You could be perfect your entire life and blow it one time. One time. And even then, just that one time, that makes you a lawbreaker, accountable for the sin that you've committed. And God's legal system demands perfection, and humanity is anything but perfect.
• 14:21
  Romans 3.23, you probably memorized this at some point in your Christian journey. It says, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And that phrase, fall short, has the basic meaning of being inferior or coming in last place. I think sometimes when we think about falling short of the glory of God, we think about it kind of in terms of this scale where God's glory is up here. And when we say, well, man, I just...
• 14:52
  fell short right his standard was here and i man i just missed it i missed it by one point i had like the 88.9 percent and and hopefully the teacher will round up right i just fell short but that's not what it means when it comes to the glory of god romans 3 says humanity has come in last place we weren't even close to achieving perfection are those who are perfect
• 15:22
  who are indeed completely free from sin, can enter the paradise designed by God for us. But unfortunately, if you're not perfect, if you haven't done everything to the glory of God, every decision and every word and every thought and every action perfectly meeting God's righteous law, then the only thing that awaits is condemnation. Remember last Sunday, I asked us to raise our hands.
• 15:52
  if you are in christ and are therefore righteous you remember that everybody put their hands up all the believers in the room i am in christ and i am therefore righteous and remember i said now keep your hand up if you at all times act righteous and everybody's hands shot back down if you could have left your hand up legitimately left your hand up i am i am righteous and i at all times act righteous i never
• 16:19
  fail and i never make a sinful mistake if you could indeed leave your hand up then yes you can achieve road number one but if you had to put your hand down then there's another road that we can rejoice in and verse five is is maybe bad news but there's some good news in verse six and if our text ended this morning in verse five if that was the end of the chapter we would be left without hope you can imagine
• 16:53
  Princess Leia's projection there, help us, Obi-Wan Kenobi, you're our only hope. Well, that is not our only hope. Our hope can be found in verse six with a little tiny three-letter conjunction. Do you see it there in verse six? What's the word? The word but. But, and praise God for that little three-letter conjunction because it is our only hope. There is another road. We can be saved by the works of Jesus.
• 17:24
  Look at verse 6. 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. In other words, he's saying Moses says one thing, verse 5, but faith says another, verse 6. And that phrase, righteousness that is based on faith, can properly be understood to say a righteousness which faith produces.
• 17:50
  A righteousness that flows from faith, or the righteousness which is received by faith. The author, I think, very effectively uses the words of Moses in Deuteronomy, expressing or communicating the impossibility of such a thing. When Moses says, who will ascend into heaven, the implied response is, well,
• 18:13
  No one can ascend into heaven. Do not say in your heart, he says, who will ascend into heaven? Even if you are able to scale the stairs all the way to heaven to look for a Christ, a better Messiah, a better Savior, he says, you could not find one. Or if you could descend into the abyss, if you could swim all the way down to the deepest part of the ocean in order to find a better Messiah, a better Christ, a better Savior, you could not bring one up.
• 18:44
  Who can ascend into heaven? No one can ascend into heaven. Who can descend into the abyss? Again, no one can descend into the abyss. The means of receiving this righteousness based in faith is not by climbing the highest mountain or by swimming the deepest sea. Those things cannot be done. In the same way, saving righteousness cannot be attained by one's own work. I liked how one author has worded it when he said, the plan of salvation by faith
• 19:16
  does not require us to do what cannot be done. Praise God for that. Because if it required us to do what cannot be done, then church, who could be saved? Nobody could be saved. None of us could stand. Do you remember the psalmist when he says, Lord, if you counted iniquities against us, who could stand? Nobody could.
• 19:41
  But praise God for his forgiveness in Christ. The author continues, nor does the righteousness of faith require us to do what is now unnecessary altogether. It does not require us to provide a savior, to bring him from heaven or to raise him from the dead. No new savior is needed but Jesus Christ. The only righteousness which man can aspire to.
• 20:06
  is that which has already been accomplished by Jesus. The righteousness which we obtain by faith is Christ's own, which has been given to us. And it's based on his obedience, not on ours. It's based on his works and not on ours. It's based on his blood and not ours. It's based on his death and not ours. And his work becomes the basis of our standing before God.
• 20:35
  verses 8 to 12 contain again probably some memory verses at some point we use them in the romans road but it describes the way to obtain that righteousness by faith how do i get on to that second road and the answer is simple two words confess
• 20:51
  And believe, notice verse 8, 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. And the gospel, instead of commanding us to do what is impossible, actually states that salvation is quite easy. Believe, it says, and you'll be saved. And by stating that it's near, it's already in your mouth, it's already in your heart, the author is communicating that it is attainable and readily available. You don't actually have to know very much in order to believe.
• 21:22
  is what he's saying. Your words need not be eloquent. Well, what do I need to know and what must be confessed? Verse 9, because, and here's your memory verse at some point, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, confess that Jesus is Lord. Openly recognize His authority to its fullest.
• 21:51
  Acknowledge that he is exalted above all principalities and powers. He is over angels. He is universally sovereign. He is seated on heaven's throne. He is the central figure in heaven and should actually be the central figure in my life as well. Confess Jesus as Lord. In fact, turn with me if you would to the right. Let's go to the end. Turn with me to Revelation chapter 4.
• 22:20
  Revelation chapter 4, we get something very unique in Revelation 4 and 5. These two chapters give us a glimpse into heaven's throne room. It's like we get to peek behind the veil and see the throne room of God in heaven. The author here is the apostle John, the man whom Jesus loved deeply, the disciple whom he loved. And he gives us here a snapshot.
• 22:47
  of heaven's throne and one of the clearest pictures i think of the lordship of christ look at revelation 4 verses 1 and 2 he says after this i looked and behold a door standing open in heaven can you imagine what if in the middle of your prayer time suddenly the lord allowed you to see heaven a door opens and there it is and he's going to describe what it looks like for us the first voice which i had heard speaking to me like a trumpet that's i think probably jesus from revelation 1
• 23:17
  said come up here i will show you what must take place after this and at once i was in the spirit and behold a throne stood in heaven with one seated on the throne now if you do a study here of isaiah 6 and the book of ezekiel and john chapter 12 and revelation 1 and the descriptions there i do think this is jesus on the throne he sees the throne he sees christ seated
• 23:45
  On the throne. And the rest of chapter 4 is really just describing the centrality of heaven's throne. The one who is seated on the throne. And you're going to notice everything revolves around the throne. Around the lordship and the authority of the one who sits on the throne. Around his majesty. Notice verse 3. It says, around the throne. Do you see that? Around the throne was a rainbow. It had the appearance of an emerald.
• 24:15
  an emerald verse 4 around the throne were 24 smaller thrones and 24 elders clothed in white garments verse 5 from the throne came flashes of lightning and rumbles and peals of thunder again verse 5 before the throne were burning seven torches of fire which are the seven spirits of god the fullness of the spirit of god verse 6 before the throne there was as it were a sea of glass
• 24:44
  Like crystal, and again, verse 6, around the throne were four living creatures with eyes in front and behind. The end of verse 10, all of these people, it says, cast their crowns before the throne, saying, worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power. We see the lordship of God there. You created all things, and by your will they existed and were created. Everything in heaven.
• 25:14
  revolves around the throne. So what does it mean to confess Jesus as Lord? That's what it means. It means that He sits on the throne of our hearts and our lives revolve around Him. When we come to Christ, that is what we are proclaiming. Jesus is my Lord and every decision I make is going to be in light of where He sits exalted on the throne.
• 25:47
  Every decision that I make, every relationship that I have is going to be had in light of His Lordship on the throne in my life. My entire life will be reoriented just like heaven is oriented around the throne of God. My entire life will be reoriented with Jesus as the central figure. Confess, it says, Jesus as Lord. We'll go back now to Romans chapter 10.
• 26:16
  If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, it says, and here's the second word, if you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Believing in his resurrection means that you also believe that he lived, that he died, and that his resurrection means that he really is all that he claimed to be. His resurrection actually proves that the demands of hell's justice were met.
• 26:45
  What if he had made all of those claims? What if he had preached all of those sermons? What if he had actually even done all of those miracles and was crucified and died and was buried but then did not rise from the dead? We'd be left questioning whether everything he said was actually true. Whether he really did satisfy all of hell's demands and that there now waits no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. But the fact that he rose from the dead means that everything he said worked.
• 27:15
  He really did absorb the fullness of the wrath of God because if he had not, he'd still be in the grave paying it off. Do you see what he's saying? By believing in the resurrection of Jesus, you're saying, I believe in his life, his death, his burial, his resurrection, and that there therefore waits no condemnation for me. I really am completely forgiven. And by his resurrection, Christ proves that he accomplished what he came to earth to do, to redeem sinful mankind as...
• 27:46
  Our substitute, and the question I have to ask right here, friends, is do you believe? And have you confessed? And if you have, then you are saved. What a promise there. You are saved. Verse 10 says, For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, Everyone who believes in Him will not be put to shame, for there is no distinction between Jew and Greek. The same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing His riches on all who call on Him.
• 28:19
  If you're sitting here this morning feeling like you have to clean yourself up first before you can be made right with God, then honestly, you've missed the point of grace altogether. Grace says that you can actually come to God exactly as you are. You don't have to fix anything first.
• 28:39
  He already knows. He already sees. You can simply humble yourself before the Lord. You can ask for His forgiveness and help, and God will do the work. In fact, this says He's eager to receive you and to bestow on you, to lavish upon you spiritual riches beyond measure. Our conclusion has to be this. There are indeed two roads to heaven, not one. You can either get there based on your own works,
• 29:07
  or you can get there based on the works of jesus the problem is only one of those works roads works and this is where we find that springboard to evangelism look at verse 13 for everyone who calls on the name of the lord will be saved if you genuinely believe that only the second road works based on jesus's merit through faith then you should be compelled to evangelism
• 29:34
  You notice the author's use of four rhetorical questions which kind of trace the process of salvation from the end back to the beginning. Look at verse 14. How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? Answer, they can't. How are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? They can't. How are they to hear without someone preaching? They can't. How are they to preach unless they are sent? They can't. And let me summarize it quickly. How can they call on God if they've never believed in God?
• 30:01
  You don't believe in God, you're not going to call on God. How can you believe in Jesus if you've never heard of him? If you've never heard the name of Jesus, how can you put your faith and trust in him? You can't. Well, how can they hear about Jesus if no one tells them about him? You can't. How can anyone tell others about Jesus if no one...
• 30:21
  equips them and sends them and kind of the implied responsibility of those who read this passage and are sitting here even in our church this morning is this we should be involved in sending we should be involved in witnessing in order to be involved in those things we should also be involved in equipping and we should be involved in preaching this is meant to compel us
• 30:45
  To share our faith. And if it is true that only one road to heaven actually works, and that is by faith, if it is also true that unless the people of God share the gospel of God, that none will hear and call on the name of the Lord Jesus for salvation, we have to commit ourselves to become evangelists. Verse 15 continues, as it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news, but they've not all obeyed the gospel. Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed what he heard from us?
• 31:17
  So faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ. The unbelieving nations must hear about Jesus. And the only people to tell them is the church, those who know who he is. There was an old man who lived in a forest. As he grew older and older, he started losing his hair until one day on his deathbed, he was completely bald and beautiful, I might add, although I added those words to the story. That day, he called his children.
• 31:49
  to a meeting at his deathbed. He said, look at my hair. It used to be so magnificent, but it's completely gone now. He said, my hair can't be saved, but look outside at the forest. It's such a lovely forest with so many trees, but sooner or later, they will all be cut down. This forest will look as bald as my hair. What I want you to do, the man continued, is every time a tree is cut down or dies, plant a new one in my memory. Tell your descendants to do the same. It shall be our family's duty to keep this forest
• 32:21
  strong. And so they did. Each time the forest lost a tree, the children replanted one, and so did their children and their children after them. And for centuries, the forest remained as lush and pretty as it once was, all because of one man and his receding airline. Consider this for a moment. The gospel has been passed down from one generation of believers to the next. Starting with the apostles, that first century church that we read about in the book of Acts,
• 32:52
  it has survived through the time of the church fathers through the patriarchs and then the roman and byzantine eras and then the crusader era and the renaissance and the reformation and the enlightenment through post-modernity eventually the gospel was entrusted to you that gospel torch was given to you and each of those eras in the gospels history presented unique challenges each had champions of the faith and each had enemies but through all of those eras
• 33:22
  The faithful disciples of Christ have taken hold of that gospel torch and have faithfully passed it to the next generation who would hold that firebrand high until eventually somebody handed it to you. Friends, what will you do with it? Will you carry that torch? Will you faithfully stand against our generation's gospel challengers? Will we become this generation's champions of the faith or will the gospel flame die out?
• 33:52
  with us and the remainder of our passage verses 18 to 21 the author here describes kind of a really unfortunate situation there was a group of jewish people who had been handed the truth the revelation of god and they had allowed that gospel torch the truth torch to die out they were so stubborn in their preconceived ideas about the messiah that they allowed the truth that god had entrusted to them to die with them
• 34:20
  Using a series of Old Testament texts, the apostle issues both a rebuke and a challenge. And notice verse 18, he just asks, have they not heard? And then he says, yes, indeed, they have heard, for their voice has gone out to all the earth and their words to the ends of the world. In other words, this truth had been handed to them and it had gone out all over the place. It is impossible for them to say, I've never heard the truth. And then he says in verse 19, well, maybe they didn't understand.
• 34:49
  Maybe they heard it but didn't get it. And then he says, no, that's not it either. And Moses says, I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation. With a foolish nation, I will make you angry. They knew exactly what was going on. They became jealous of the Gentiles for their faith. And then he says in verse 20, Isaiah is so bold as to say, I, he's now speaking on behalf of the Lord. It's the Lord speaking, I have been found by those who didn't seek me. I've shown myself to those who didn't ask for me. And you say, okay, well, he is clearly here. Set the Jews aside.
• 35:19
  They're gone. He's no longer going to work with them, but that's not where he ends in verse 21. But of Israel, he says, all day long, I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people. And such was the gracious and patient attitude of God that he held out his hand for mercy, even in the midst of his people's rebellion, in the hopes that they would humble themselves and take hold of his hand and be saved. And friends, he does the same for us.
• 35:50
  Do not hear the good news and remain unmoved. Do not hear verse 5 that you've got to live according to the law in perfection and then leave and say, well, there's no hope for me. Listen to the hope that we have in verse 6. Righteousness by faith, obtained by faith, which flows from faith because of the works.
• 36:10
  of jesus christ today can actually be the day of salvation for you there are indeed two roads to heaven based on your works or based on the works of christ and the problem is that only one of the works roads works if this is true and we know it to be true and we believe then we've got to share that news because all who call on the name of the lord will be saved that is true but no one else will be no one will be saved who trusts in their own righteousness
• 36:40
  So the question that I'll leave us with and the challenge maybe is to whom will that gospel torch which has found its way into your heart, to whom will it be passed on? Lord, thank you for the truth of your word and thank you, God, for the hope that we have because of the work of Jesus Christ that we celebrate every time we take communion, that you are a gracious God who has saved us by faith that as we confess.
• 37:08
  with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in our heart that God raised him from the dead, we will be saved. Confess and believe. And Lord, may our lives be oriented around your kingship in our hearts, that you would sit on the throne of our hearts, that our lives, our minds, our thoughts, our speech would revolve around you. And it's in your name we pray. Amen.