Transcript for:
Romans 10:1,13 -Call Upon Him- Pastor Rick Beaudry 2023-08-20

Romans chapter 10 verses 1 through 13, would you please stand with me as we read God's Holy Word together. Romans chapter 10 beginning with verse 1. Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes. For Moses describes the righteousness which is of the law, that the man which doeth those things shall live by them. But the righteousness which is of faith speaks on this wise, say not in your heart who shall ascend into heaven, that is to bring Christ down from above, or who shall descend into the deep, that is to bring up Christ again from the dead. But what saith it, the word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart, that is the word of faith which we preach. That if thou shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, whosoever believes on him shall not be ashamed. 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. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Father, we thank you that, Lord, you gave us a measure of faith to respond to, that you moved and worked within our hearts, Lord, being predestined from the foundation of the earth, Lord. You wooed us, you drew us, Lord. You put a garrison of the Holy Spirit around us, guarding us from even from ourselves, Lord, that we not fall away. Lord, you saved us. We've responded, Lord. We exercised our free will in response to your love as you revealed yourself unto us, and we cried out unto you, Lord, and you say that whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And, Lord, we thank you for our salvation, so great a salvation. Thank you, Lord, for rescuing us from this world, rescuing us, Lord, from our flesh and from the devil and from hell. Thank you, Lord, for salvation, so great a salvation, Lord, to be in fellowship with you once again, to be in harmony, to be in sync, Lord, and knowing that we have a future and a hope that you're coming soon for us, your bride, and you're going to continue throughout all eternity to lavish your love upon us, Lord. So, bless now, we pray. Reveal yourself unto us to a greater measure than we've ever known you, Lord. Open the Scriptures. Be our teacher, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Would you please be seated? So, Paul is presenting the gospel. Romans 1, 16 and 17 is his theme. He's not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation, to everyone that believes, to the Jew first and also unto the Gentile, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith. And then he goes on to describe his gospel using eight chapters, and then he comes to the question concerning the Jew. Well, what about the Jew? So, in Romans 9, we saw the past election of the nation of Israel. So, when Israel rejected their Messiah in his first advent, his first coming, does that mean the church replaced the church in Ephesians 2? It was a secret, a mystery once hidden, now revealed. Nobody even knew that there was going to be a church, you know. So, Paul and the others are looking at this, these Jewish, you know, guys, the founders, the apostles of the church, and they're wondering, you know, what's going on? So, the Lord's revealing the church that it starts, the priority is to the Jew, but as the nation as a whole rejects Jesus, Jesus is weeping over the city. How often I would have gathered you as a mother hen does gather her brood under her wings, but you would not. Behold, your city's left you desolate. So, he's seeing prophetically that within 40 years, the city of Jerusalem is going to be under siege by Romans, General Titus, and over a million people, close to 2 million Jews who hold up in Jerusalem, who refused to give in to the Romans, are going to be wiped out. So, he's weeping over the city. He came in days earlier, and everybody's shouting out, Hosanna, Hosanna, save now, save now, and the palm branches and all, they're welcoming him as a king. Within a few short days, these same people are crying out, crucify him, crucify him, let his blood be upon us and upon our children. So, officially, the nation has rejected him, and so the question is, does the church replace Israel? And Paul's saying, no, no replacement theology. The majority of churches today believe the church replaces Israel. That's why they don't understand prophecy. That's why they can't teach prophecy. That's why they don't teach the book of Revelation, because they teach the book of Revelation as it was fulfilled in 70 AD, is how they look at it. And they look at, allegorically, they don't take it literally, interpretive, in that there's a 77 of Daniel, Daniel 9 27, a final seven-year period of time, the time the Bible describes as the time of Jacob's trouble, where God is going to cause the nation of Israel to go through the Great Tribulation period, and a one-third remnant is going to be purified. They have the true Israel of God. And so the nation of Israel, according to Ezekiel 36 and 37, in a miraculous way, was reborn on May 14, 1948, unprecedented in history. So Romans 9 is Israel's past election. Romans 10 is Israel's present rejection. Presently, the nation of Israel does not recognize Jesus Christ as their Messiah. There's a whole rumbling of people wanting to rebuild the temple and getting the ashes of the Red Heifer and getting everything ready at the Temple Institute for the rebuilding of a temple. God didn't tell them to rebuild the temple. They rejected Jesus. Why would they rebuild the temple? Because they rejected Jesus. So during the Tribulation period, they're setting themselves up for the Antichrist. In John 5, Jesus said, I came in my father's name and you received me not. Another shall come in his own name and him you will receive. This Antichrist in place of Jesus Christ. You see, Satan, when he rebelled against God in Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28, he said, I'm gonna be as the Most High God. Satan is an angel, a fallen angel named Lucifer. And so Lucifer, as he fell, he fell with one third, in Revelation 12, of the stars of heaven. One-third of the angels rebelled against God and fell with Lucifer. These are demons. This is the principalities and the powers that we fight against, that we wrestle against, that Paul alluded to in Ephesians 6. Satan is the little g-god of this world, but he sees himself as a big God. I'm gonna be as God. And then he has his counterpart, his son, which is the seed of the serpent in Genesis 315, who will be the Antichrist. And then the false prophet, a counterfeit Holy Spirit. And so when Jesus returns, he's going to destroy the Antichrist and the false prophet and all these pretenders with the brightness of his coming and the sword of his mouth, the blood as high as the horse's bridle at Armageddon. All of the kings and the people, the globalists, all of them, their bodies are going to be strewn. They're going to be simply a slaughter, a slaughter for the carnivorous birds to feast upon and all in Revelation 19. So they laugh, they talk about how they're going to be gods and all, but the Lord is simply setting the stage. He's setting the stage for the return, the second coming of Jesus Christ. So in chapter 10, we have the present rejection. And then in chapter 11 of Romans, we're going to see the future restoration of the nation of Israel. And so this church age continues until verse 25 of chapter 11 in Romans, when the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. So blindness in part has happened unto Israel, meaning not very many Jews recognize Jesus as the Messiah. And yet there are some Jews that presently and throughout history recognize Jesus as the Messiah and his first coming. And so they would be Christians just like you and I. And so the church is made up of both Jew and Gentile, male, female, barbarian, Scythian, bond and free, out of every nation, tribe, tongue, and kindred. So whosoever will, let him come. Whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. So blindness in part has happened unto Israel until, and that's the point of the rapture, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. When the fullness, when that last person that's holding out comes in, it's rapture time. And no man knows the day or the hour. We don't know, but in a general way we know there's a period of time, an epoch of time, a dispensation that presently is called the dispensation of grace or the dispensation of the church age. That dispensation will change to the dispensation of, yes we're dispensationalists, of the tribulation period, the 77 of Daniel, which starts not with the rapture but starts with the signing of the peace treaty that the Antichrist is going to sign with the nation of Israel. He's going to help them rebuild their temple. He's going to go into that temple at the midpoint, 1260 days later after signing that peace treaty. He's going to go into that temple and he's going to declare himself to be God 42 months later. He's going to declare himself to be God and demand to be worshiped as God. And the nation of Israel, their eyes are open to that point. They realize they've been tricked. They've been tricked. And so he pours out his fury. Satan's cast out of heaven, down to the earth. He knows his time is short and he pours out his fury against the woman, Revelation 12, which is the nation of Israel. And as we said, two-thirds of the Jews are going to perish during the tribulation period. There's 144,000, 12,000 from each tribe who are sealed, who are marked. Antichrist can't touch them. Devil can't touch them. There are evangelists going all over the world sharing the gospel. A numerable multitude of people in Revelation 6 and 7 are beneath the throne of God who gave up their heads, according to Revelation 20 verse 4, to refuse the mark of the beast, the mark upon the right hand of the forehead, where men, rich and poor, can't buy or sell without that mark, which we see coming. It's coming, right? The central bank digital currency is just a prelude to what ultimately the Bible describes as this digital currency that's going to be on the person's forehead or in their right hand. And the Bible doesn't do it ambiguously. It's real clear, on the forehead or the right hand. Not the left hand? No, not the left hand. Right hand. On the right hand. Something about the right hand that has more ability to recharge the battery or keep it all going. I've heard different things. But in any event, real clear, you know. It could be a tattoo, a barcode, which are radiological now, which can give out information. So a means of scanning and getting the information that they need concerning your bank account, your health condition, everything about your ID, a digital ID. Oh, it'll solve voter fraud. Oh, it'll solve, you know, stealing of babies, child trafficking. Oh, it'll solve fraud, you know, economic fraud. Your bank account went dead. Somebody hacked into your account. It's gonna solve it all, you know. It's a crisis reaction solution. Alright, so Roman 10 speaks of Israel's present rejection of God. So Paul's desires for Israel to be saved. He wants Israel to be saved presently. They're rejecting him. And so now he explains the problem of rejection, the principle of righteousness, the process of regeneration, and the promise of reception to whosoever shall call upon him. Number one, the problem of rejection, verses 1 through 3. Why the rejection? Why is Israel rejecting? Why do people reject Jesus presently? In many cases, as we see with the Church of Laodicea in Revelation chapter 3, one of the predominant things is like we saw with Sodom and Gomorrah. With Sodom and Gomorrah and Ezekiel 16, the problem there was pride. They were filled with pride. When Lot cast his tent, when he left Abram, he pitched his tent toward Sodom. It was a fertile area, a very, very fertile area. And then pretty soon he's living in the city and all. And the city's getting into him. The corruption's getting in him. But pride, fullness of bread. So they're filled with pride, fullness of bread. The economy is really good. A lot of money to be made in Sodom and Gomorrah. Idleness. They don't need to work six days a week anymore. They can work four tens, have three days off, which, praise the Lord, many of you get to enjoy. That's a good thing. And then, so you got the idleness. What are you gonna do in those three days? And then, they cared not for the poor and needy. So selfishness. That was the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah, which led to, as you see in Romans 1, the inability, the unwillingness to glorify God as God and begin to worship and serve the creature rather than the Creator. And now they're given over in their idleness and in their pride and in all their rejection of God. Then they're given over to the sexual sins that are part of God's judgment toward them. Today, we would look at the Laodicean Church. As Jesus wrote to the seven churches, the nation of Israel had the same problem, which is self-sufficiency. What do we need God for? We got technology. We got a huge 401k. We got lots of money in the stock market. Our houses have millions of dollars of equity in them. I mean, we're just, we're set. We're not like these other nations, you know. We print the dollar. We can print as many dollars as we want, you know. We can have trillions and trillions and trillions of dollars in our budget because we're never paying any of it back. We just keep printing it up. Just keep printing it. It doesn't matter. The self-sufficiency of the Church of Laodicea. Jesus said, I would, because you're lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, you make me sick. I want to spew you out of my mouth. The problem with America is not a political problem. It's a spiritual problem. It's a spiritual problem of being self-sufficient, thinking, hey, we got it all. And this, this self-sufficiency, and you notice the position of Jesus in Revelation 3, verse 20. He's outside His church. He tells the Church of Laodicea, I'm going to give you a progress report. Last days apostate church. Apostasy means a falling away from the faith. Many churches meet today, but they'll, they'll have one or two verses, and then they'll just talk philosophy. They'll talk psychology. They'll talk therapeutically of a feel-good message. Trying to think of what is it they want to hear today. What, how can I calm them down, you know. Certainly you wouldn't start out talking about climate change, right, and all that other stuff, you know. You rile people up, you know. Keep them calm. Calm them down. And don't let them, don't let them be faced with the reality of the times in which we're living. Tell them smooth things. Doctrines of demons and such. And so the progress report is that you're lukewarm. You neither hot nor cold. I'd rather you're hot or cold. Be on one side or the other. Don't try to be a fence-sitter and call yourself a Christian. You make me sick. I want to spew you out of my mouth. So he's describing a spiritual sickness as a result of that self-sufficiency. And that's the same thing with the nation of Israel. They didn't care that Jesus is there causing people that are blind to be able to see. The dead to be raised from, you know, raised to life. And the, you know, the poor have the gospel preached unto them. And the lame are able to walk. They didn't care. They were self-sufficient. They were making lots of money with the Romans there and stuff and praying upon the people. Jesus looked upon the multitudes with compassion because they were sheep having no shepherds. The shepherds were were making merchandise. They were fleecing the sheep. He says, because you say, so this is what they say in Laodicea, we're rich and increased with goods and we're in need of nothing. It's the economy, stupid. They don't care about the morals anymore. They don't care about same-sex marriage anymore. We're going to groom the children and we're going to convince the children and the families that transgenderism is normal, that pedophilia is normal, that it's good for the kids. And over the course of time, they'll give in to us. The people will give in to us. And we'll have more and more of these children that the state will control. I'm rich and increased with goods. I have need of nothing. But Jesus says, no, no, you're true-conditioned. Reality, reality check. You're wretched. You're poor. You're blind. You're miserable. That's who you really are. Spiritually, you know, you look at the church, your bank account might be okay, but why is much of the church self-medicating? Why can't you cope with reality? Because you have a cursory relationship with Jesus. You don't, you don't know Jesus. You don't rely upon Jesus. He's like a historical figure. You, when push comes to shove, when the pressure is applied, the tribulation applied, you crack. You crack under pressure. You don't experience peace. You don't experience the peace that he offers that surpasses all understanding because you haven't learned to go to him, how to go to him. The pastors have been presenting broken cisterns that can hold no water. And Jesus is saying, if any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. As the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow torrents of living water. He's got living water for us. So the crisis can draw, cause us to draw closer to Jesus, or it can drive us away from Jesus, looking for, looking for solutions that are momentary, that, that really can't sustain us in a time of difficulty. So he says, no, you're wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. You're apostate. You're falling away from the truth, Israel, America, and you're ready to be spewed. The spiritual sickness is such that you're ready to be spewed. Secondly, the other problem of rejection is you're sincerely wrong. You say, but I'm sincere. I'm sincere. I've been doing good deeds, you know, I care for the poor, you know, and I give, you know, I show up at church, you know, once a week, you know, I'm sincere. Well, you're sincerely wrong. You're worshiping God, but not, it's not true worship. And he says, for I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. These guys are zealous religious people, and yet their activity is an empty activity. You know, they don't know the true living God. What good's it do to go to temple, and to be going through the Mosaic law, and the festivals, and such, or go there for Passover, and not recognize Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, as John the Baptist said, you know. You, you profess that you know God, but in works you deny him. There's no fruit. There's no evidence thereof that you have a relationship with the true and living God. In John 4, Jesus, in speaking to the woman at the well, he said, he said, the time cometh, and now is, when they that worship God will worship him in spirit and truth. For the Father seeks such to worship him. For they that worship God must worship him in spirit and in truth. So we don't want to be like in Isaiah 1, where we're just going through the motions as a nation of Israel. Going to church, giving the offerings, going through the motions, but he says, come now, let us reason. Though your sins be as scarlet, I'll make them white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, I'll make a white as wool. They were still wretched. They were still doing wretched things, and following idols, and anti-idolatry, and the things of the world, and such. And the Lord was wanting them to come out from among them, be separate, and worship him in spirit and in truth. Jesus said, these people do not draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. God wants your worship. The four and twenty elders bowed before the throne of God in Revelation chapter 4, and said, thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, honor, and power. For thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. You know, the angels are worshiping God, you know, in chapter 5 there, who is worthy to open the scroll, and loose the seal, the line of the tribe of Judah, and everybody's worshiping, you know, King Jesus. He's worthy of worship. We ascribe worth unto him. J. Vernon McGee, the late J. Vernon McGee, I used to love when I lived as a new Christian in Southern California, and you can still get into the, get on the bus, you know, the Bible bus with J. Vernon. You can still listen to him. He's still proclaiming the gospel and such. But anyway, he said 75%, he's quoted as saying, 75% of all church members are not saved, just members of a religious club. Lots of activity, but no substance, not according to truth. Think those numbers have increased since he wrote that back in the 60s, 70s, 80s, somewhere in there? 75%. Now we're, we're running a drive to get more church members. If you'd like to become a church member, we've got a sign-up sheet out back there. You need to be born again. You don't join the church, you don't join the club. You must be born again, Nicodemus. It's a relationship that you have with God that nobody can take from you. If I tick you off and you don't like me, you didn't lose anything, you know, probably a headache, and you move somewhere else, and, and you still have your relationship with Jesus, because it's between you and Jesus, you know? Don't ever let the heavies, you know, lord over you that you're gonna do this or you're not gonna be a member here anymore, you know? You know, we don't have any members. You have to be born again. It has to be a relationship with the true and living God. So he says, you see them on bicycles, you hear the knock at the door, how many doors to be one of the 144,000? How many good deeds, how many beads, how many beads should I pray? How much should I give? What mountain should I climb? Oh, but they're sincere, they're so sincere, they're so zealous. They're sincerely wrong. There's, there's no, you know, inclusiveness. We're gonna include everybody. It's the exclusivity, and here's where people get angry, the exclusivity of Jesus Christ. There is no other way. There is no other name under heaven, under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. Why do I know that? Why do I know that with all my heart? Because he was crucified. He said, destroy this temple in three days, I'll raise it up. Who can do that? These pretenders, these Klaus Schwab's, these globalists are projecting that they're gods. My challenge is, go be crucified, be buried for three days, and raise your self from the dead, and then we'll talk, you know. It's just a bunch of lip, you know. How many people throughout history claim to be gods? You know, it's the, it's the lie within the garden that's gonna be re-emerging during the tribulation people, where people are gonna think, you know, hey, I can be connected to technology, and I'll never die. That's a lie. It's appointed unto all men once to die, and then the judgment, you know. You're gonna die, and you better get ready for heaven. Death is a separation from God. I don't fear death. You'd be asking the bodies be present with the Lord. I'm already dead. I'm already crucified with Christ. I don't fear death anymore. Death is a good thing for me. I move out of this body into a new glorified body. There's no more sorrow, no more pain, no more crying, no more tears, plenty of ribeyes. I mean, it's glorious, you know. Jesus was, Jesus was, he was fixing some fish for the boys, some protein, some good protein, you know. He likes to eat. Even, touch here, touch here, but hey, he's still gonna eat, you know. He's still gonna eat with the boys. Hey, children, you caught any fish? Come and dine. He's got some fresh bread and, and some broiled fish there for you, you know. I could hang with a guy like that. That's a good thing. Concerning zeal, Paul said, as a Pharisee, in Philippians 3.6, you want to know how zealous I was? I persecuted the church. You could get no more zealous as a Pharisee than to go out there and persecute one of God's enemies, you know, persecuting the church. Paul said he wasted the church, that he was the chiefest of sinners. He compelled people to blaspheme, you know. He was grabbing families and separating them and incarcerating himself. All the way to Damascus, he was so zealous to persecute the church, going there with letters and all. In John 16.2, Jesus promised, and I hope this is in your promise jar, they shall put you out of the synagogues, yea, the time comes that whosoever kills you will think that he doeth God's service. So you're looking in there and, alright, I want a good day, and you pull that one out. Oh man, I don't want that one in there, you know. I want to make me richer and, oh yeah, my best life now. I'm getting skinnier right now. Look at that. The fat's just melting off me. I love those kind of promises. They're great, you know. Only promises are not true. And so they're going to call evil good and good evil. They're going to think they're doing God's service by killing you, by snitching on you, and ratting you out, and then hauling you away, and executing you because you are an enemy of the state. You're not falling in line with the COVID lies and the climate lies, and your social credit scores dropping, and you can't get to your bank account, and you're going to starve to death. And if that don't work, we're going to haul you away in the middle of the night, you know, and nobody's going to see you again. In Matthew 7.22, Jesus said many will come to me in that day saying, Lord, Lord, you know, did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not cast out devils in your name? Did we not do many good deeds in your name? And he's going to say to them, away from me. These are religious people. Away from me. I never knew you, you that practice iniquity. Your sins haven't been forgiven. You don't know me. You're religious. You're a religious pretender. You're a religious poser. You don't know me. Christianity is a relationship with the true and living God. Going to church does not save you. Maybe coming to Calvary Bremerton does, but going to church typically doesn't save you. I got an in with them. I can get your name in the Lamb's Book of Life. Just come see me. Give more money. I can pray you're dead. I can pray your dead family out of purgatory too, so just come see me. You give me enough money, I'll give you indulgences, right? You can go sin and then come back and confess it to me, you know, and I'll give you four Our Fathers and three Hail Marys and we can erase the books, you know, we can make you right again, you know. People fall for that stuff. They fall for that stuff. These are religious leaders that prey upon unsuspecting people who don't read their Bible. They won't let them read their Bible, so they can't grow in their relationship with God. If they grow in their relationship with God and get to know God through the study of His Word by His Spirit, then they know when a guy's a fraud standing up in front of them, right? Not because of some white smoke or black smoke going out of the building, you know. Crazy people. All right, so the problem of rejection is self-sufficiency, sincerely wrong, and thirdly, a self-righteousness. They're just incredibly self-righteous. Jesus spoke a parable in Luke chapter 18. He spoke concerning the difficulty of how prideful the Pharisees were, and He said two people went up the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and one a publican, and the Pharisee said, I thank you that, you know, that I'm not like other men are. You know, there you go right there. You start now, and he's filled with pride. I thank you that I'm not like these other dregs, you know. I'm from Bremerton, man. Hey, and can anything good come out of Nazareth, you know? So people can pride themselves on all sorts of things, but the Pharisees, you know, they're a strict sect, and they're holding to the letter of the law, and Jesus is saying, hey, accept your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees. You'll know why as enter the kingdom of God. These guys were masters at the external, but Jesus went on to explain to them that the law convicts you from within. If you look upon a woman with lust in your heart, you're already an adulterer. If you're angry with your brother, you're already a murderer. The laws convicted you. The laws made you guilty, but these guys are self-righteous, and in their pride, I thank you that I'm not like other men, men that are extortioners or unjust adulterers, you know, and, but hey, or even like this publican here, the publican there, and I fast twice a week, and I give tithes of all that I have, and Jesus said, that man prayed with himself. His prayer didn't hit the ceiling, came down, didn't even reach the throne of God. He had no access to a living God because he had no relationship with God, but the publican, who's a hated tax collector, they all hated the publicans, he wouldn't so much as lift up his eyes up to heaven, looked at the ground, smote his breasts, and said, God be merciful to me a sinner. Jesus said, this man went to his house justified, justification, just as if I've never sinned. His sins were forgiven him because he confessed it right then and there, and Jesus said, whosoever exalts himself shall be abased, and whosoever humbles himself shall be exalted. So the self-righteousness, the proud, the cross is beneath them, and they don't want it. Verse three, for they be ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. And so they're ignorant, they're ignorant of the righteousness of God, and like the Pharisee, they're trusting in themselves that they're good enough, they're clueless, they're delusional, they don't get it, they don't know Jesus, they think they can do outward, external things that people see and applaud, and somehow that's going to get them into heaven. And yet God resists the proud, he gives grace unto the humble. The cross is an offense to the prideful, because it levels the playing field for every man. Every single person is a sinner, that's what the cross spells out. Because if you're not a sinner, we don't need a cross, we don't need to, God doesn't need to send his son to die for anybody's sins if you can get there by being good enough. So for the prideful person, I'm not like all these other losers, I'm better than, you know, I'm better than these people and all. It humbles each and every person, makes each person recognize their need of Christ. In 1st Corinthians 1.23, Paul says, we preach Christ crucified unto the Jews, a stumbling block. They weren't looking for a suffering Messiah, they weren't looking for a Messiah that was going to be crucified, you know, by the Romans and such. They were looking for a conquering king, they were seeing Jesus in his second advent, they didn't see the first coming and his suffering in Isaiah 53 and Psalm 22 and such, and Psalm 69. They didn't see a suffering servant, a suffering Messiah, that he'd be despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and we hid, as it were, our faces from him. They didn't see a Messiah whose beard would be pulled out, they didn't see a Messiah that would be beaten beyond the recognition of a man as John sees him, even in heaven. In Revelation 5, he saw him as a lamb that had been slain, still bearing the scars when he shows Thomas, you know, touch here, look at the scars that you guys gave me. As Chuck Misler often used to say, the only man-made thing in heaven is the scars that we gave Jesus. A reminder of his love for us. You say, oh, I got questions for you, man. When I get there, you know, you've got some answering to do. I think once you see those scars, all your questions go away. At least mine would. I wouldn't have the guts to ask any question. Where were you when, you know? No, I'm sorry, I better keep my mouth shut there, you know? Watch what I say. And so the preaching of Christ crucified under the Jews' stumbling block, they fell over and under the Greeks' foolishness. Like, why would a God, all-powerful God, allow that to happen to his son, you know, in the mind of the Greeks? That's just, that's and secondly, the principle of righteousness. Well, how are we going to be right? How can I get right with God? I know I'm a sinner. I'm convicted by my sins. I know that I don't need a list of ten things that I can do or don't do. I know within my heart that I've sinned. I know that when I mistreat somebody, my conscience is violated, and I know that I've done wrong. I don't go to church. Nobody's evaluating and showing me all the little nuances of my behavior, but I just know within my heart that I'm a sinner. I know that I've fallen short of the glory of God. I know because of the guilt I'm carrying that I've mistreated a lot of people, people close to me, and I don't know how to get rid of that guilt. I don't know how to get right. Can I go out on the day of Yom Kippur, the great day of atonement? Can I go out and do a bunch of good things real quick to set the balance in the ledger, you know? Can I go out and give money and do a bunch of stuff for the poor to counterbalance all the bad I did all year long, you know? What am I to do? How can I fix this? You can't. That's the whole thing. The principle of righteousness, verses 4 through 8. The principle of righteousness, number one, is imparted by faith. Notice verse 4. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes. So Jesus fulfilled the law. We have the first Adam, our first federal head. Adam blew it. Adam imputed his unrighteousness to each of us. We're born in iniquity. I have a fallen nature, original sin, if you will. And so from a baby, from my mother's womb to the present, I have an old, fallen, endemic nature. And if I'm in Galatians 5, the flesh is warring against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh. And that old fleshly nature is not going to stop until death. It's death that sets me free from that fallen nature when I get my new glorified body. So it's it's death or the rapture. But I can't reform that fallen nature. There's no steps. There's no books. There's no way to take me as Rick Beaudry, the endemic, fallen dude, and make him a better Rick Beaudry. Maybe a little better. Maybe a little better. A little counseling. Eat better food. Talk nice. More hugs. Not drugs. Not so much alcohol. I'm a little bit better. I'm better than I was. Am I good enough to get to heaven? Am I as good as Jesus? Am I perfected? No. Then you can't get there. There's no way to take Rick Beaudry in prison and reform him. You can't reform him. It's hopeless. God doesn't want to reform your old nature. He doesn't want to make you a better you. God wants to transform you. He wants to use a metamorphosis. He wants to make a new you. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. You got to be born again, Nick. You got to be born again. No longer body and soul. You need to be body, soul, and spirit. You need to be born of the Spirit. When you believe in Jesus, you're born again. No longer separated from God. You have access to God. You're a new you. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things are passed away. All things have become new. We still have that old damn nature fighting against our new nature now. But if I yield to the new nature, if I yield to the Holy Spirit, sin shall not have dominion over me in Romans 6, we learn. I can have victory over sin, the world, and the devil. Now I fall. In 1 John, if I say I have no sin, I'm a liar and the truth isn't in me. But if I confess my sin, he's faithful and just to forgive me my sin and to cleanse me of all unrighteousness, I'm restored to fellowship again. I didn't lose my salvation. The righteousness imputed to me is complete. It is finished. Totalist, I paid in full. I'm righteous. I'm justified just as if I've never sinned. But there's still a battle that goes on between the flesh and the spirit as long as I'm in this body. Well, let's look at the positional righteousness. How am I going to get this positional righteousness? It's imparted by faith. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes. Jesus fulfilled the law. He lived a perfect life. He that knew no sin. He's perfect. He knew no sin. Became sin. He became sin. He is the worm in Psalm 22. I'm a worm and no man. He's hanging on the cross of Calvary. He that knew no sin became sin. And what happened at that point? We see him in Psalm 22 written a thousand years before he went to the cross. My God, my God, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani. My God, my God, why is thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from my roaring? Father, if you're willing, remove this cup from me. But nevertheless, not as I will, but thy will be done. If there's any other way to get these guys righteous, let's find another way. Is there any other way? No, there's no other way. I prayed three times and I'm sweating as it were great drops of blood in the olive press in the Garden of Gethsemane. There's no other way. So for the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame and seated down at the right hand of the Father. He that knew no sin became sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Your righteousness is found in him, not in yourself. Found in him. It's his righteousness imputed to you. And not just positional. We need the positional. But in the practical outworking, he's changing you and I'm not reforming you. He's transforming you. The real see the devil's the counterfeit transhumans. These are all God's ideas. The devil trying to play God. The problem is those guys can't do it. They think a little chips and stuff are going to do it. He's going to transform you from within a transformation, which is a metamorphosis. You go from being a worm to a butterfly. Butterfly kisses, too, for you guys, right? You're a new creation. God give you a new heart. If you're like me, I grew up, I grew up just holding on to the anger to protect me. And when I became a Christian, that anger went away. All of a sudden, I'm a crier now. I never used to be a crier. Jesus wept, so don't make fun of me. Jesus wept. Real men don't cry. Well, Jesus cried. Wept over the city. But that wasn't me. That isn't what real men do. Just get angrier. But the Lord changed my heart. I don't want to hurt anybody. Older I get, I think about all these brave men and women talking about what they're going to do. I don't want to hurt anybody. I'm not a pacifist. I will if I have to. I'm going to lay down my life if I have to. But I don't think it's a cool thing. I'd rather win him to Christ. I'd rather see him come to Christ. I believe that's the heart of God. He could destroy us all if he wants. His righteous life in exchange for our sinful life. His righteousness imparted to us. So in an accounting term of imputation, it's imputed. His righteousness imputed unto me in the ledger to Talistai, paid in full. My name is in the Lamb's Book of Life. Rejoice not that the demons are subject unto you, Jesus said. You've got this power that demons have to do what you say. I cast demons out. But rejoice rather that your name's written in the Lamb's Book of Life. Your name's written in heaven. You're in the Book of Life. God keeps great records. The principle of righteousness imparted by faith. Secondly, it's impossible to fulfill. Impossible for you and I to fulfill the law. You can get to heaven by fulfilling 613 precepts in the Mosaic law. 100% of the time your whole life long, you can get there. But if ever, ever, ever, ever, you have one infraction, you're guilty of all. And the wage which you deserve is death, which is eternal separation from God. If you want what you deserve, if you want justice, the wage of sin is death. If you want mercy, but the gift of God's eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord, he'll be merciful to you. He won't give you what you deserve. For Moses describes verse five, the righteousness which is of the law, that the man which doeth, the emphasis upon doing, doing. Rick Warren came along and the emphasis on doing, doing good deeds. Getting a bunch of unbelievers in the Protestant churches and doing a social justice doing, rather than believing, rather than doctrine, rather than teaching them so they can do. Leaving them anemic and dependent upon his ideas. Every week the pastors get their pastors.com latest idea, the theme, thematic preaching, rather than the word of God. That the man which doeth those things shall live by them. He's quoted in Leviticus 18.5. Galatians 5 verse 3, I testify again to every man that is circumcised that he is a debtor to the whole law. So the outward, the outward circumcision identification, a sign that the Lord made with the nation of Israel, that you're a Jew, that you identify with him. And in that circumcision, the Jews would pride themselves, well hey he's circumcised, he's holy, he's gonna, you know, admittance into heaven. Well Paul's saying, hey Galatians, you've been freed from the letter of the law. The letter of the law kills, the spirit gives life. Why are you going back into Judaism? You're trying to avoid persecution? You're being seduced by the Gnostics with greater knowledge inside information they think they have that nobody else has? They have a different Jesus? If somebody comes to you with a different Jesus, a different gospel, let them be anathema. If they're gonna emphasize, you know, circumcision, I wish they'd emasculate themselves completely. He's a debtor to the whole law. You don't want to go back into the law. You've been freed. Jesus fulfilled the law. Don't go back there. James says in James 2.10, whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet offend in one point, he's guilty of all. It's impossible to fulfill. God made it impossible for a reason. The law was a pedagogue. The law was a tutor in Galatians 4. A tutor to drive you to Christ. As you try to fulfill the ten commandments today and you fail. You just failed in your mind. Right now you just failed. You had a bad thought. You're done. You're guilty of hell. Bad thought. You're guilty of all. That should drive you to Christ. You should be crying out in Romans 7, Oh, wretched man that I am. The things I want to do, I don't do. The things I don't want to do, I do. And I have New Year's resolutions that I'm gonna lose weight this year and smile more and cut my hair and be nice and give more and serve more and all that. And by February you quit the gym. That's how it works. Us gym rats, we got to put up with most of you in January, February. By March you're gone. Can't take it. It's good. More cardio for me because I know what a sick puppy I am. I know there needs to be a transformation of life. Pain is what motivates me. If I stop, I go back into pain. So I can't stop. I learned that. But for many, it's just the cosmetic thing. It's just a vanity. I'm gonna look better. Well, it's okay to look better too. A lot of good reasons. Bodily exercise profits little. Godliness profits much. You got to keep the main thing, the main thing. Keep Jesus first. So do the Spirit. Invest in the Spirit. Invest in eternity. But for many of us, we have good intentions. We have desires. But we don't have the power to fulfill those promises, those desires. Let your yea be nay, your nay be nay. Be a man, a woman of your word. You know, don't make promises you can't keep. So better to admit to the Lord, Lord, I can't do this. I need a Savior. You cry out to God, God help me. I'm desperate now, God. You've got to save my marriage. I can't fix it. God, I need help. I need you to intervene. Rick put me first. You put me on the back burner these years. You put it on cruise control. You got away with it for quite a while, but not anymore, bud. You got to come back to square one and put me first. Bring your family to church. Read the Bible with your family. Pray with your family. Pray with your wife. Hold her hand. Allow me to fill your heart with the love that I have for you. Lord, I can't stop drinking. I love my family, but I can't stop drinking. Rick, that's the first step right there. There's a step. You want a step? That's the admission that you can't do it. You need to admit you can't do it. Rick, cry out for help for me. I will help you. I'll give you the power, moment by moment, day by day, to continually say no to those temptations. I'll give you something better in its place. The power of the Holy Spirit in your life. I'll transform and I'll change you from within. Not the external, dry drunk that's just craving for a drink. I'm going to change you from within. I'm going to change your desires. I'm going to change your appetites. You're going to be a new creation in Christ Jesus. His righteousness is imparted by faith. It's impossible to fulfill and inscribed within. God inscribes within us. He writes his righteousness in our hearts. He's the only one that can do that. He gives you a new heart. We cry out, we sing, create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. David sinned with Bathsheba. David killed Uriah, and he's crying out in Psalm 51, create in me a clean heart. My heart's filthy. We studied in Jeremiah 17.9 last week that the heart's deceitful above all things, desperately wicked, and who can know it? I don't even know my heart, but I know my heart enough to know that it's filthy. It's a deceiver. It's a liar. People can't see it, but I'm hiding it from people. And God, you see it. And God, you've convicted me, and I can't get away from it. I can't get away from myself. I can't change myself. That hatred's still there. That bitterness is still there. That lust is still there. Lord, change my heart. Reprogram me. You know, rewrite my brain. Rewrite my heart. Inscribe your Word within me. God's Word is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, dividing the center of soul and spirit, and joint and marrow, and a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. It's God's Word that transforms your mind. That's what Paul says, be not conformed, in Romans 12 verse 2. Be not conformed. So we're getting in 9, 10, and 11. This is still doctrinal. When we get to 12, you're going to see how Paul transitions, like he does in his letters, to the application. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, looking back to all that you've learned, what should your reaction be? I beseech you, therefore, brethren, that you present, that word present, once and for all, that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service, which means a reasonable, it's logical, it's reasonable, in light of what He's done for you, who He's made you, what He's given you, adopted as sons, predestined adopted as sons, that your response would be, Lord, hear my, use me, a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable, well-pleasing unto Him, which is your reasonable service. It's an act of worship. That word service is where we get our word worship. It's reasonable worship, that you'd worship God in this way. And then he says, this application, and be not conformed to Klaus Schwab and the globalists. Be not conformed to this world. Don't let them push you in their pattern, threatening you with social credit scores, or whatever it may be, you're going to lose your job. Don't let them push you in, press you into their mold that they have for you. Be not conformed, be a non-conformist. Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed. You can conform to the world. You can continue to go with the flow of the world. And any dead salmon can go with the stream, down the stream. The salmon that's alive is the one that swims against the current. You're swimming against the current. They're saying, where's your mask? Where's your mask? Double mask. Everybody conforming the pressure. Everybody enforcing it. Except the wonderful police officers in our community. Didn't, but all the, all the bills, I would say Karen's, but I'm gonna make it bills now. All the bills in the area. So funny, once they got a little authority, the way they used that little bit of delegated authority to ridicule people. What was it, a restaurant I like in town here, Silver City. You know, if you didn't go in there with a mask on, they called you COVIDiots. The COVIDiots are here. Got such good food, I still go there. All right. I forgave them. I forgave them. But I didn't eat there. I didn't wear a mask. And Oak Table, I love Oak Table. Oh man. And they, they kicked us all out. They wouldn't let us in without masking up. And God, I love them guys. They're so nice. But I forgave them too. I still eat there. I had to forgive. But while they're enforcing the mask, I mean, I kicked, I got kicked out of so many places. Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. You want to know God's will? Be transformed. Allow God to transform the way you think. Don't fall for the group think, the group thinking. You can be that one salmon that swims against the grain, swims against the current. That one person at work that says, no. I've been that guy my whole life. In school of ministry, wherever I've been, I've been that one weirdo that says no. And they ridicule you, make fun of you, the teacher, all of them. And then the next year, the teacher's gone. And the guys admit I was right. Well, they didn't admit it, but I was right, weren't I? Very seldom do they ever admit it. But, but you just got to, you just got to live to please Jesus. If you live to please man, you're not pleasing Jesus. Just live to please one person, please Jesus. And so he says, but the righteousness which is of faith speaks on this wise, say not in your heart, who shall ascend into heaven, that is to bring Christ down from above. Deuteronomy 30, 11 through 14. Now, one thing I want to side note and bring out to you. Do you like how Paul is using the Old Testament to teach you and I? Do you like how he's reaching over here and he's quoting out of Deuteronomy and Leviticus and he's taking verses that his audience would be aware of. And he's bringing them forth into the New Testament and tying in New Testament truth with Old Testament truth, allowing the Bible to teach you and I, don't you like that? That's why this entire sermon is scripture. It's God's word. Looking at the old, the new people are like, man, you sure you went through the whole Bible in that sermon? Yeah, I tried to, I tried because it's the word of God that's going to transform you. It's the word of God that's going to transform and change the way you think. Allow God's word to do the talking, not my ideas. Hey, I got a great idea. I got a vision. We're going to go on a Daniel diet for 21 days. Who do you think you are? Is God telling you to put everybody on a Daniel diet? Where did they come up with this stuff? But it becomes a fad in the church. Everybody, oh, we're all fasting for 21 days. No, you're not. No, you're not. I fast. You're doing, you're doing a few hours. You're not going 21 days with no food. You're doing bone broth or something, dude. Don't be tricking me. But it's a fad. The incarnation. God came down. He is near. He's the bread of life. The manna come down from heaven. So say not in your heart, who shall ascend into heaven? That is to bring Christ down from above. Christ came down. He became the babe of Bethlehem, or verse seven, or who shall descend into the deep? That is to bring up Christ again from the dead. The resurrection. God rose from the dead. He is near. He gives us a picture of Jonah. As Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so shall the son of man be three nights and three days in the heart of the earth. There's a picture for you. Jesus authenticates the book of Jonah. He authenticates the whale, the big fish, swallowing Jonah and Jonah being held there for three days. Jesus said, destroy this temple in three days. I'll raise it up. Speaking of the resurrection, a wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign. The only sign you're going to get is the sign of the prophet Jonah. The resurrection is the heart of the gospel. Without a risen savior, we have no gospel. We have no good news. In Romans 4.25 says, who was delivered for our offenses and was raised again for our justification. Verse eight, but what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart. That is the word of faith, which we preach, inscribed within, written in your hearts. Now we come back to the theme of the book, the gospel message. I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes to the Jew first and also to the Greek for there in where they're in within the gospel. God's righteousness is revealed for there in the rights of God revealed from faith to faith. As it is written, the just shall live by faith. The revelation, God, within your heart, he writes it within your heart, that this is this is what I'm asking you to do, to surrender your heart and life unto me and believe in my son written in your hearts. Paul's desires for Israel to be saved. The problem of rejection, number one, the principle of righteousness, number two, and thirdly, the process of regeneration. Verses nine and ten, that if thou shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and shall believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shall be saved. Paul and Silas are in Philippi. There's a woman who's possessed by a demon. She's a soothsayer. She's a 900 psychic woman, can tell people's futures and stuff like that. And following Paul and Silas around, and Paul pretty soon is angry about it, indignant about it, rubbing him the wrong way, and he cast the demon out of her. This demonic serpent demon that had held on to this woman, and her owners, her traffickers, were angry because that's how they made their living, parading her around. So they went to the magistrates, they had the apostle Paul and Silas arrested. They went into the Philippian jail, and they were in stocks, and they were in the inner recesses of it, and it comes about midnight, and now Paul and Silas begin to worship the Lord. They begin to sing, and they brought the house down. Earthquake hit, all the chains, and all the stocks, everything was holding all the prisoners came off of them. They were free. The Philippian jailer realized it. He takes his knife to kill himself. Paul says, stop, stop, stop. Everybody's still here, and the guy knew it was a miracle. Why wouldn't these criminals leave? Because outside there's just normal world. Inside here, God just did something, got my attention. God did something so incredibly radical that I've never seen anything like this before. Number one, these guys were whipped. They were beaten. They're put in stocks, and the response of their heart was worship. I want to know the God that they're worshiping, and they stayed. And the Philippian jailer, how did he know? He says, what must I do to be saved? How did he know he's lost? What must I do to be saved? And Paul says, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and your whole household prophetically will see them come to faith too. Well, what's it mean to believe? The word belief speaks of faith. It speaks of trust. It speaks of dependence upon, agreeing with God. What is it you're agreeing with God about? God reveals his son to you as Lord Jesus, as God, speaks of his deity. If Jesus is not God, you're believing in the wrong Jesus. If he's just a man, you're believing in the wrong Jesus. It's the wrong gospel. He's God. In the beginning was the word. The word was with God. The word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made. He was in the world, and the world knew him not, right? But as many as received him, to them gave he the power to become the sons of God. And the word, verse 14, and the word became flesh, the logos, the word of God became flesh, the incarnation, and we beheld his beauty as the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, Jesus Christ, incarnate deity, the incarnate word. In John 1, Colossians 1, Revelation 1, you can proof text the deity of Christ in each of these chapters to help people understand who Jesus is, who he claimed to be. So you confess this to be true. God crucifies his son. He pours out his wrath upon his son. He kills his son in your place. Then he raises him from the dead three days later, thus proving his deity that he is God. So Klaus Schwab, all these guys that want to say that they're gods, they need to be crucified, buried, and three days later come back from the dead. But they can't do it, can they? Can't do it. And so they don't have the power of life. Satan doesn't have the power of life. He's a counterfeit. So you not only acknowledge this with your mind, but with your heart, you know it to be true. So it goes from your head. It's not an intellectual consent that, hey, these facts are true. I read the book. But it comes to your heart, and you know that you know that you know that these are the facts, that this is true, that God bears witness with by his spirit, with your spirit, that you're a child of God. So you agree with the Holy Spirit. You depend upon trust Jesus as your righteousness, noting that you are an utter failure, that you and I are losers, that we are failures, that we will continue to fail until finally we are perfected in our new glorified body. You don't get saved and then try to work out your salvation by being good. No, you work out your salvation with fear and trembling, dependent upon God that he's making you good. There's no boasting. It's a work of God's spirit, that you're his poema, his work of art. Verse 10, For with the heart man believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. From the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. You get saved, and you just got to tell somebody. You got to tell people, hey, what's different about you? Hey, Rick, come on out for a drink. No, I'm not going to do that anymore. I don't want to do that. Well, come out and get something to eat. You still eat, don't you? Oh, yeah, I still eat. I listen real well around ribeye. Pastor Rick, I need to talk to you. I listen real well around ribeye. Pastor Rick, I need counsel. Yeah, okay. You talk, I'll eat. Four types of soil. The word of God is spread out. You spread the word of God out. You're telling people about Jesus. You can't convert people. You can't make them believe. You just got to testify. You got to shout from the rooftops, I was blind, now I see. That's all I know. I don't know even John 3 16 yet. All I know is I was blind, and now I see. He's revealed himself to me. He's come into my heart and life. I've got a relationship with Jesus. He's put a smile on my face and a love in my heart that was never there before. And my desires are changing from within. He's changing me from within. And, you know, I'm not cussing as much as I used to, you know. My wife's still cussing, but I'm not, you know. I get away with that because she's in the other room there. Yeah. So we, the Welsh Revival, when the Welsh Revival came through, the guys would go to the mines to work, and the mules wouldn't listen because they weren't cussing anymore. From the bunt of the heart, the mouth speaks. They had cussing, cursing commands before that. And so the bars aren't as full. People are at home. They have more money. Do you realize how much money we spend on drinks? Just go out to dinner with somebody that orders four drinks. Man, your bill doubles, doesn't it? It's like huge. All of a sudden you got money to put food on the table. And man, if you quit smoking, you really got a lot even more money, you know. If God, you know, gives you the grace and the, you know, the desire to stop all these vices that cost so much money, you know. So just interesting the way the Lord does it from within, though. It's not imposed upon you by the church like you will do it. No. God's working from within. He's working within your heart. And it's just beautiful. So four types of soil. The sower goes forth to sow. And one type of soil is a wayside soil. Another type of soil is a rocky soil. Third type of soil is the weedy soil. The fourth type of soil is the good soil. And so this seed goes out there. And Jesus interprets this parable for you so you don't need to wonder what this means. He said, the seed is the word of God. The word of God is what you and I take out there. Go out there and make disciples, you know. We share the glorious gospel. We're not ashamed of the gospel. So the seed falls on the wayside soil and the bird comes. Jesus identified the bird as the devil. The devil comes and takes that seed away so that it can't permeate and grow within that person's heart. Bummer. One out of four not saved. Now we got the second type of soil, the rocky soil. The rocky soil, the guy's really excited, comes forward, raise their hands up. Everything's great. But Jesus said, in this world you will have tribulation. You're going to be tested. So the sun beats down and begins to test that seed, test that profession of faith. And it withers. It melts. That isn't what I signed up for. We're going to see a lot of that coming up as things get harder. The third type of soil is America. It's the cares of this life, the deceitfulness of riches, and the love of pleasure. It's weeds. It chokes. It chokes the plant. Chokes you off. You don't have the ability, you know, to bear the fruit that God intended. Because why? Because you're so in love with the world. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. All that's in the world, the lust of the flesh, lust the eye, the pride of life, is not of the Father, but of the world. And the world perishes in the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abides forever. Friendship with the world is enmity with God. See, we take it on that type of soil, and we say, hey, it's the blessings of God. I've got more stuff. I got more pleasure, more things, the cares of this life, and all that stuff, you know. Hey, I must be doing good. Look at all the stuff. But spiritually is what the Lord's talking about. You're choked off spiritually. You're not bearing spiritual fruit. If riches increase, just set not your heart on it. Don't let it become an idol. There's the problem, the idolatry. The fourth type of soil hits the ground. Good soil brings forth fruit in abundance. Abundance of fruit coming forth in that life. Jesus said, by their fruit you shall know them. So the problem of rejection, the principle of righteousness, the process of regeneration, and fourthly and finally, the promise of reception. Who then can be saved? The rich, the disciples asked Jesus after the rich young ruler walked away, and Jesus said, it is easier for a rich man to go through the, a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven. Who then can be saved? The disciples are saying, with man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible. Salvation is the greatest miracle there is. When you got saved, when I got saved, when somebody gets saved because we had the blessing of presenting the message of the gospel and they get saved, that's the greatest miracle we've ever encountered, ever seen. Somebody goes from being transformed to death to life, you know, from the pit of hell to heaven, you know, with God all things are possible. Verse 11, for the scripture saith, whosoever believes on him shall not be ashamed. Again, Paul quoting Isaiah 28 16. This word of shame means disappointed, disappointed. He will receive you. You don't need to be disappointed. You don't need to fear that he won't receive you. Jesus said, all that the father gives me shall come to me, and him that come to me I'll no wise cast out. Why aren't you a Christian? Well, I guess I'm not one of the elect. I'm not predestined. How do you know? He says, all that come to me I'll no wise cast out. Why don't you come? I don't know. Are you exercising your will and that you don't want to? Why don't you try? What do you got to lose? Why don't you come to Jesus? Why don't you pray and ask Jesus in your heart and life? Well, I don't want to. Why don't you want to? He'll receive you. Well, I like my sin. Now you're being honest. I like darkness rather than light, John 3. So it's not you cannot come. It's not an intellectual problem. You understand what's being asked of you, what's being taught you. It's you will not come. You love your sin more than you do the savior. And you're deceived in thinking that you're going to give up something that's far greater than what he has for you. You're living a life of deception. Why won't you come? 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. Unto all you won't be refused. The balance of predestination and the free moral agency of man is illustrated by a scholar named Harry Ironside. Ironside had what's called the Ironside door to illustrate this. So you're going down a hallway, hallway of life, and you come to a door and up above the door it says whosoever will let him come. And there's a doorknob on the outside. And you turn the knob and you go on inside. The door shuts and you look up over the door on the inside and it says predestined before the foundation of the world. That's the Ironside door. I didn't know I was predestined. I didn't know he was going to choose me. But I responded. I responded when I heard the gospel. I gave my heart to Jesus right then and there. And then later I look back on it. It's like I didn't choose him. He chose me. He chose me. He backed, I have free will, but he backed me so far into a corner playing chess, checkers, whatever. He backed me into a corner and it was like you have a decision. What do you want to do? Suicide or surrender to me? I guess I better surrender to you, you know. So you can be Jonah and you're going to go to Nineveh and you can be unwilling, but he's got a fish for you. He can make you willing. I don't understand. I don't know how it works. Election, free moral agency, sovereignty of God. I just know it works. I just know both are true. Whosoever calls on me, I will no wise cast out. Call upon the Lord while he's near. Call upon him with your heart. Verse 13, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Call upon him. Isaiah 55, 6 says, seek ye the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near. What's that mean? Today is the day of salvation. Tomorrow you might die. Call upon him while he is near. You're here for a reason. You're here. He drew you here for a reason. The very first time I heard the gospel, I responded. You might have heard the gospel a hundred times and haven't responded, but you're here this moment and he says, seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near. It's appointed unto all men once to die and then the judgment. After death, it's too late. Today is the day of salvation. Sense the urgency of now. Psalm 145, 18 says, the Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him. To all that call upon him in truth. You want to be sincere? You want to be without wax? Sincere, the word means without wax. The pottery many times would have cracks and they'd put a little bondo in there and they'd cover it up and they'd try and sell it in a dark room, you know? And you'd take the magnet and you'd go along the car. Oh, there's some plastic in here. Oh, was this an erect? Oh no, I can't. Oh no, it's never been erect. Well, that's how the vase would be. There'd be wax in there. Sincere means no wax. There's no duplicity. There's no ulterior motive of why you're going to church. A lot of us guys, not me, but a lot of guys get saved because they want the girl and the girl is a Christian and invites them to church, you know? There's an ulterior motive there, isn't there? So you got to come in truth. Call upon him to all that call upon him in truth. Jeremiah 33, 3. Call unto me and I'll answer thee and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not. Call upon the Lord. Pick the phone up. It's not busy. You won't get voicemail. He'll pick it up. You'll be there. You'll have access. The very first call you need to make is, Lord, save me. What must I do to be saved? You have access. The Pharisee's prayer just hit the ceiling. He prayed thus with himself in his self-righteousness. You smite your breast. Say, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. That's a prayer he hears. That's a prayer he responds to. Call unto me and I'll answer thee and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not. You have no idea. He's going to do exceedingly abundantly above all you could ask or think. He has such a great plan and purpose for your life. It might even include martyrdom. You might have the privilege of dying for Jesus. What a great plan and purpose he has for your life. Not mine, but yours. So call upon him. He's near. He'll save you. Whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Whenever you need help, dial 911. Dial 911 for help. Psalm 91, verse 1. God will help you. He says, he that dwells in the secret place of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. You have a secret place to run to, a place of refuge, a place to, as you call upon him, you run to Jesus. You dial 911 through prayer. Lord Jesus, I need help. Run to him. He says in verse 15 of Psalm 91, he shall call upon me and I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble. Anybody here in trouble? The Lord says he'll be with you in trouble. Call upon him. I will deliver him and honor him. You want to be delivered? You want to be honored? With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation. Call upon him. That's what the Lord's doing for me. That's what he's doing for me. He's let me live long enough to see my grandkids, see children, to see my life bear some fruit for eternity. He's let me get to know people that love Jesus, who are in love with him, who would never back down, who would never, ever, ever blaspheme, who cry out, who are true worshipers, who follow him even under pressure. They know who to turn to. He shall call upon me and I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble. I will deliver him and honor him. With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation. I didn't even know him and he saved me and I've been walking with him since 1980. There's no regrets. Only regret maybe I have is I didn't get to know him sooner and if he takes me home today, there's no regrets because our life was spent in things that matter, things that are eternal. In our value system, we have an eternal value system. We gave up the temporal for the eternal. So what did we really give up? So as Jim Elliott said, no man's a fool to give up that which he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose. The only losers are those who die without Jesus. Call upon him. If you're in trouble, call upon him. Call upon him while he is near. Today is a day of salvation. Whosoever, that means me and you, whosoever calls upon him shall be saved. All that come to me, Jesus said, all that the father's given me shall come to me and him that comes to me I'll no wise cast out. He's not going to reject you. He's ready to receive you with all your warts, with all your failures, with all your secrets. He's ready to receive you as you call out to him and he says, let me do the work. Let me transform and change you. Leave it up to me. Let's pray. Father, we thank you, Lord, for the simplicity of the gospel. We thank you for your love, Lord. If you made it any more complicated, we wouldn't get it. But Lord, you came to save sinners. You came for the sick and we're some real sick puppies, Lord, and we thank you for saving us. We thank you for rescuing us, Lord, from the pit of hell, from our old habits, from our attitudes, from our anger, from our lust, from our idolatry, whatever it may be. Lord, you're there. You've always been there and, Lord, you brought us through some of that dark time, but, Lord, we walk in the marvelous light now. We walk in fellowship with you and, Lord, we cherish moment by moment that we can know the true and living God, that we can rest in you and your finished work. Lord, we pray evermore that you'd empower us in the power of your Holy Spirit to be witnesses in these last days, to have discernment, to not give in to the lies of the wicked one as the world is given over to deception. Help us to be lovers of truth. Give us ears to hear. Give us eyes to see. Give us the faculties, the spiritual faculties, to know what is right and what is wrong, to not be deceived. Take heed that no man deceive us, you said, to worship you in spirit and in truth. And while your heads are as you continue to pray, if there's anybody here this morning, it's your day. This is your day, and you know it, and the Lord is tugging on your heart. Call upon the Lord. Call upon the Lord. Whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Just lift your hand up. Lift your hand up. We want to pray with you as you receive Christ into your heart and life. He's knocking on the door of your heart. If you hear his voice, just open the door. The handle's on the inside in this picture. He's on the outside knocking on the door. There's no knob on the outside. He's not going to open. He's not going to force it open. But he's knocking, and the knob's on the inside, and he's waiting for you to exercise your will to turn that knob and open your heart, inviting Christ into your heart and life. And he promises he'll transform and change you. You go from being body and soul to body, soul, and spirit. You'll be born again, born from above, born of the Spirit. A whole new world will open up to you, the life of the Spirit. Jesus said, I've come that you might have life and that you might have it abundantly, the abundant life of the Spirit, and knowing God. Anyone here this morning, just lift your hand up. Father, thank you. Thank you for the peace that we share, the peace that we know, that we love, that, Lord, there's no guilt, there's no fearful looking to have judgment. We know that we're not appointed unto wrath. We know that Jesus was punished in our place, and that we have access. We can boldly come before your throne of grace, not of judgment, to find help, to find mercy, to find all that we need each and every day in the person of Jesus Christ. So, Lord, evermore as we draw near to you, Lord, draw near to us. Fill us to overflowing with your love today. Cause our lives to just be bubbling over with the goodness of who you are. Anoint and use us for your kingdom and your glory in these last days. Lord, give us open doors that no man can shut, where we share the glorious gospel, the good news of your coming kingdom. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen.