Essentials Of The Faith / Sunday Morning Sermon Series / Romans

Romans 10:6-13

INTRO: Any one ever hear of the Edmund Fitzgerald? It was a freighter about 1000 feel long, almost as long as the Empire State Building is high. The ship sailed the first week of November 1975 from Deluth, Minn. full of iron ore, making it's way across Lake Superior to the Soo Locks to bring the ore to the industrial cities of the South. The first day out, a terrible storm moved down out of Canada to the Lakes region, which was a very common event on the Great lakes in the winter months. But this was an especially bad storm with the waves reaching 25-30 feet high. The captain of a freighter following the Edmund Fitzgerald, from whom there is sworn testimony to what happened was worried.

     Somewhere along the way, the Edmund Fitzgerald began to take on water and developed an increasingly strong list or lean to the left side. The boat began to sit low in the water. The captain of the other ship kept in radio and radar contact but the captain of the Edmund Fitzgerald kept radioing back that everything was all right.  The last communication from the doomed freighter was this tragic message: 'We are holding our own.' Minutes later the ship headed into a wave that washed over it's low-lying decks and it never came up. In less than 10 seconds the Edmund Fitzgerald sank, with the loss of all 27 people aboard and w/o one life boat being used. The captain of the ship that was following reported that it simple disappeared from his radar screen. One minute it was there, the next it was gone forever, the prop that was still turning driving the ship directly downward until it broke into pieces on the lake bottom.

EXP: Ethnic Israel was and is still much like the captain of the Edmund Fitzgerald, as they go through the storms of life, they are heading for certain doom. Yet all the while saying 'everything is all right' and 'We are holding our own.' Only a fool would say they were 'holding their own' when they were sinking.

     Ethnic Israel was and is foolish...But how about you? Are you traveling through life w/o Christ and saying 'everything is all right', 'I am holding my own.' If so, like the Edmund Fitzgerald, you will end up at the bottom of the lake..the Lake of Fire. Your sin driving you straight to hell like the propeller of the ship. And who knows how soon that may be.

TRANS: BUT! Paul in Romans 10:6-13 reminds ethnic Israel, and you here this morning that there is Good News. You don't have to go down with the ship. A life boat is available and he encourages us to cling to it...the life boat, is Jesus Christ. Open you Bibles to Rom. 10:6 where Paul does not tell us of the bad new of the Edmund Fitzgerald but the Good News of Salvation.

II. God's Correction Illuminated: Salvation by Faith Rm. 10:6-21
    A. Salvation by Faith: PROFESSED   (Rom. 10:6-13)
        1. Salvation by faith: OT profession. (vs. 6-8)
Read: Rom. 10:6-8

           Paul tells his readers that the righteousness that leads to salvation is based on faith and is readily available to them, right now. He uses a quote from Deut. 30:11-14 to show that righteousness and salvation are by faith. And he tells them that they really are not that difficult to obtain. You don't need to look in heaven for someone to bring salvation to you. And you don't need to look beyond the grave for someone to conqueror sin and death for you. Paul triumphantly states that you don't need to search for someone who will do this, because, there is one who has already done it. He is near, you know about Him, He is Jesus Christ. And this word, this good news of salvation by faith is near, it is in your mouth and your heart. What does he mean by that...mouth and heart thing?

        2. Salvation by faith: Personal profession. (vs. 9-10)
Read: Rom. 10:9-10

ILL: There is no such thing as a free lunch. Pull yourselves up by your boot straps, climb the ladder of success. Work Hard is the Protestant work ethic. Self- help is our motto. People take pride in their ability to fend for themselves.

           It was not much different in Paul's day. He had to fight a centuries old attitude of obedience to the Law, and good works. And we fight the same thing today with our 'good works and self-help mentality. Paul tells his readers and us too that everything  we try to do to obtain righteousness and eternal life apart from faith will not work. And that we really are complicating matters with all our self-righteous methods.

           Here is all you need to do. It is quite simple really, not difficult at all. Just two things: believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead and confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord.

          Verse 9 states it backwards with confession first and belief next. This is perhaps how we might first recognize saving faith in someone. We would hear their words before we would understand their heart. Verse 10 give the correct order but it is important to understand that both are necessary for salvation. And it is essential that we understand what each actually means.

 To be saved, you must believe deep down in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead. The other requirement of salvation is that you

Cranfield, a noted Biblical scholar said ' The confession that Jesus is Lord means the acknowledgment that Jesus shares the name, nature, holiness, authority, power, majesty and eternity of the One and only true God...There is expressed in addition the sense of His ownership of the one who acknowledges Him and of the consciousness of being His property.'

          Now, I am not saying that you will have this attitude completely down and perfectly worked out immediately when you ask Christ into your heart. It will be a growth process...theologically called 'Sanctification' or growing more like Jesus.  But this is where you begin, by admitting that Jesus is God and that He has the right to sit on the throne of your life. So, very simply, to be saved, to go to heaven, you need to believe, deep in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead and confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord... That's the Good News of Jesus Christ.

       3. Salvation by faith: World Wide profession  (vs. 11-13)
          And it's just that simple. And Paul in verses 11-13 says that not only is it that simple, it is universal.

Read: Rom. 10:11-13

           All who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. All who believe in their heart that God raised Jesus from the dead and confess Jesus as Lord, will be saved.  There are no exceptions, no matter how sinful or rebellious your life may be at the moment or in the past. Regardless of your nationality of current religious affiliation. Believe and confess and you will be saved. You have God's Word on it.

CONCLUSION
     There is no greater message in the world today than  this. There is nothing more important in life than to believe God raised Jesus from the dead and to confess that Jesus is Lord. Romans 9 teaches election and God's sovereignty. Romans 10 teaches our responsibility in God's sovereignty. Chapter 10 is important because after reading chapter 9 you may think you have the right to abdicate your responsibility to be in relationship with God because you think you can do nothing about your unbelief.

     We like being absolved of responsibility. Look at crime today, criminals always have reasons for the crimes they commit and it is always someone else who is responsible; bad parents,an  unfair, cruel society, violent TV shows.. no one wants to take responsibility for their own lives anymore.

ILL: Will Rodgers once said ' There as been two eras in American history; the passing of the buffalo and the passing of the buck'.

     We pass the buck when it comes to accepting responsibility for our lives...even before God. In chapter 10 God places the blame where it belongs, with you and with me. Next week we will see that ethnic Israel was rejected by God because they rejected God. This week I need to tell you that if you are w/o Christ, you are facing an eternity in hell, separated from God for all eternity, and it is NOT because you are not one of the elect.  It is because you do not believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead and you are not confessing Jesus as Lord. You are rejecting God too. That too is as simple as it gets.

     So what must you do to obtain eternal life, to be saved? Listen again. Believe God raised Jesus from the dead. That means you believe He was sinless and died for your sins. By believing this you are accepting responsibility for your sins and asking Jesus to forgive them.

     Confess that Jesus is Lord. This means you admit that Jesus is God and that He has the right and permission to show you how to live for Him. That's it! If you do this you will be saved..
 your sins forgiven,
 you will have a personal, intimate relationship with God through His Son, Jesus,
 you will have and experience God's never ending presence,
 you will be indwelled by the Holy Spirit of God who will lead, teach, correct and gift you, you will spend eternity in heaven...
 you will be saved!

     What can be more important in your life than that? At the same time, what can be keeping you from God's presence,
 what can be standing in your way of salvation?...Whatever or who ever it is, Put is aside, right now, take responsibility for your life. Don't be like the captain of the Edmund Fitzgerald that as he and his ship were sinking beneath the gigantic waves kept saying 'Everything is all right, We are holding our own.' Do it now, you don't know how long you have and its too late when you're dead. God's Word says, believe and confess, and you wont be disappointed.

    For everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.