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Bibleline Bibleline, here God’s word on Bibleline, here God’s truth on Bibleline. Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Ralph Yankee Arnold, pastor of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida. Clearly declaring the gospel of Jesus Christ through the radio and the internet. Your regular prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the You can reach us toll-free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made by clicking on the donations link on the BibleLineMinistries.org homepage. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s message will be a blessing to you and your family.

Turn to the book of Romans, the book of Romans, the tenth chapter of Romans. I talk to a lot of people that have questions about the Old Testament and what did they really have to know? What did they really have to believe? And I believe that they had to believe what we believe. I believe they had to believe in the death, burial and resurrection of the Messiah, just like we believe. But when he starts off in chapter 10 of Book of Romans in verse 1, brethren, feel the heartbeat of the Apostle Paul.

Why was God able to use Him in such a great way? He says, my heart’s in prayer desire for Israel is that they might be saved. I believe He had caught a glimpse of heaven. He had traveled with Luke, who wrote the book of Acts and the book of Luke, and Luke’s the one that talks about and gives us the picture of hell in Luke 16. So those two men, one had a vision of hell and the other one had a vision of heaven.

And I imagine that between the two of them, They had a pretty good picture. And now they sometimes got to say, now here’s the picture. And we’re to take it by faith that what God says is true. So he makes a statement in verse one, 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. They have a zeal.

There’s a lot of religions today that have zeals. I believe the Muslims, they have a zeal. They believed that they’re doing Allah a great favor because they were told that this is how they honor Allah, their God, their fallen, their religion made up by a man. But they have a zeal, the Jews had a zeal and many religions to date. They got zeal but he says here, but not according to knowledge. In other words, they don’t know the truth.

So in verse 3, he says, for they be an ignorant of God’s righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness. Now, evidently, he’s talking to the nation of Israel and he’s talking to them about in the previous chapters how that he had given them the law. So God gave the law to Israel. So they were not lack of knowledge concerning the law for righteousness. They knew the law, but they couldn’t keep the law. But they were ignorant of the righteousness that God would give as a gift.

And if you’ll notice there in verse 32 of chapter 9, because they saw it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law, for they stumbled at that stumbling stone. Now they couldn’t stumble at the stumbling stone, which is Messiah, if they didn’t have them, if they didn’t know about them. But the Old Testament did tell them about the Messiah. As it is written, Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense and get this whosoever believe it on him shall not be ashamed.

This is talking about for Christ’s righteousness. The righteousness that they could have had by faith, they stumble over it because they had the law given to them and so they just assume you’ve got to keep the law and yet they didn’t keep the law. They had a zeal but not according to the truth. They didn’t understand something. They didn’t see something. They’re just like people today. They’re religious people all over the world. And yet they have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God, so therefore they go about to establish their own righteousness.

And the only ones who do that are those that don’t know the truth. Because once you do understand it and you know that it’s free, well then you don’t have to try to earn something that you know is a gift. But they don’t know it’s a gift. And so I do believe that this portion of scripture, chapter 10 is talking about. Where does faith come from? This new righteousness because he’s explaining how that God had dealt with the nation of Israel.

So chapter 9, generally we say talks about the past of Israel in chapter 10, the presence of Israel in chapter 11, the future of Israel, and it’s kind of like thrown between chapter 8 and chapter 12. But if you’re reading through the book of Romans and you get to chapter 8, you can just jump from over chapter 8 and go right into chapter 12 and it doesn’t miss a beat. So these three chapters are sitting right in here for a reason.

They’re written to explain some things that have been said before, how that salvation is free, you’re saved by faith, you’re never condemned, God will never cast you out and never lose you. And so he uses the nation of Israel as an example, a living example, how that there’s always a remnant. They cannot be annihilated. They will always be. And just like you as a child of God, you will always be a child of God. So we see that. We understand that.

So now look there in verse 3 of chapter 10. So we are talking about how a man is to be saved because he said, brother, that’s my heart’s desire for Israel that they might say, but they don’t know. And so he says, for they be an ignorant of God’s righteousness. But why were they ignorant? It wasn’t that God didn’t give it. They didn’t believe it. They You wouldn’t believe it. They stumble over that. Many people stumble over the gospel because well that’s too easy.

That’s too easy. It’s too simple. It’s got to be more than that. So they stumble over that truth. And it’s just by faith. There’s a, can’t believe it. One man told me says, you can’t tell me. I says, no doubt I can’t. But he says, they go about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. So there is a by works righteousness and a by faith righteousness. By works God says you can’t have it because it’s not by works.

No man is going to be justified in the eyes of God by his works by the law. And so there is another righteousness that God will give you and it’s by faith. So whenever you read the book of Romans in chapter three, then it tells you that the righteousness of God, which is by faith in Jesus Christ. And that’s the only way. Now look there in verse 4. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that does what?

That believes. Is that talking about now or was that before the cross? I believe that’s always been. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness because He’s talking to the nation of Israel. It’s jumping on them because they had not believed and why haven’t they believed it? All these years, 1500 years of the nation and they wouldn’t believe. And yet Christ would have been the end of the law for righteousness for them because God used the law to show that a man cannot save himself by his works.

And even though they made the sacrifices in the temple, all those sacrifices did not pay for sin. And those sacrifices, the blood of bulls and goats, as it says in Hebrews chapter 10, will never take away sin. But now hold your place right here and just look at Romans chapter 3. I want you to see this one verse. In Romans in chapter 3, look there in verse 25, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation, the satisfaction, the payment through faith in His blood to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed to the forbearance of God.

That’s a whole testament. That’s what they did before the cross. They still had to believe in the sacrifice, the payment that was going to be made by the death of Christ and had their faith in His blood because putting faith in the blood of bulls and goats won’t cut it. It would never satisfy and the blood of bulls and goats can never take away sin. And then He says in verse 26, to declare, I say at this time, this side of the cross, His righteousness.

So before and after it’s all deals with Christ. And so now he’s talking to the nation of Israel, the Jews, referring to what they could have had and how that they were saved by faith the same way. And so now as he writes to the Romans and tells them that a man is saved by faith and all the world is guilty before God. The Jews had an advantage because they had the law given to them in Romans 3. Look now in verse 5.

Moses. Now look where you’re going to. All the way back to Moses. And this is written in the book of Deuteronomy in chapter 30. These scriptures were fixed in the read are from that person of scripture way back there. And this is what they mean. Now sometimes the scriptures tells us things that wasn’t previously known. For example, when you read in the book of Jude, when it says an Enoch walked with God and that he was a preacher. And he preached this.

It says that he preached about the Son of God, the Lord, coming in glory to execute judgment upon all the wicked, and has about three verses there. But whenever you go back to the Old Testament where it says there in chapter five of the book of Genesis, in it what with God and he was not for God took him. That’s all there is. Not until we read the book of Jude in the New Testament right before the book of Revelation.

do we find out that in it was a preacher and he preached about the Lord and that’s Jesus Christ coming in power and great glory and to execute judgment. But we wouldn’t have known that if it hadn’t been revealed here in the book of Jude. So there’s a lot of things they were told and a lot of things they knew and yet not written down in scripture. So how do you know that? Well, remember it makes this statement in the book of 2 Peter in chapter 2 that Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.

Talk about how wicked the world was, but Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. And God used him to build an ark for the saving of his household and the whole human race. But when you read 2 Peter in chapter 2, it makes this statement, was a preacher of righteousness. Now we didn’t know that he was a preacher of righteousness, never said that. Not when you read back there in the Old Testament, but he was a preacher of righteousness.

Now we’re talking about man’s righteousness or you think you’d be talking about the righteousness of God So see they did preach Just like there’s people today. They may worship the church house and they worship the Bible But not the God that made the world and the God that made the word They don’t worship him and so people can worship the creature more than they’d create her So things change but the word of God still means what God intended So here in the book of Romans in chapter 10, look here in verse five, for Moses described the righteousness, which is of the law that the man which do it them shall live by them.

In other words, if you want to live, and in chapter eight of the book of Deuteronomy, it talks about this. And also in the book of Deuteronomy in chapter 30, it talks about this, but he says, I said before you this day to choose life or death. In other words, whether you live or die and he’s talking about physically there, obey my law. And so there’s laws that God gave to the nation of Israel that affected their protection upon the earth, their blessings of God upon their land and their help.

And they had to make choices. They make the right one. God blessed. They didn’t. God curse. So God said it before them. They had decisions to make, but they did not keep the law. They didn’t obey the law. So the law was the reveal that every man is sinned. Come short of God’s profession. By the law of the righteousness, which is of faith. So in verse 5 the righteousness of the law, and verse 6 the righteousness which is by faith.

So chapter 10 I believe is to get us to understand if you’re not saved by the law and you’re saved by faith, where does faith come from? Where do you get it? He got the law from God. Do you get faith from God? So there are people who believe that by grace or you say through faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God and they think that the faith is the gift of God. And they translate Ephesians 2, 8, 9 to mean that.

So that means that if you want to be saved, you have to wait until God gives you the faith. God give me the faith. So if that’s true, then no man can be saved until God gives him the faith. And if he doesn’t trust the Lord, it’s not his fault, it’s God’s fault. So that’s fatalistic. That’s not what the Word of God teaches. You see, faith is not the gift of God. Be enslaved and have an eternal life. That’s the gift of God.

For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourself. It’s the gift of God that’s the reference to your salvation. That’s free. But where do you get the faith from? Because some people believe and some people don’t believe. Every man is born with the ability to trust. You start with your parents. You have to trust them. Maybe you knew it or didn’t know it. But as you grow, you may get to the place where you have doubts about your mom and your dad.

Whether they can do this or do that. And you question whether or not there is bright and wise as you once thought they were. And then after you live about another 30 years, you’ll find out what they were smarter than I thought. But you can put your faith in anything. You see, a man can put his faith in the pure to take him to heaven, but that doesn’t mean that few can take you there. You can put your faith in this church to take it to heaven, but that doesn’t mean it can take you there.

You see, you’re the one that determines where you place the faith. So you can place your faith in the Lord or you can place your faith in things. Can that thing, that object of your faith, do what you believe it can do? See, it’s not the size of my faith that gets me to heaven. It’s the object of my faith. I can put a lot of faith in this microphone that takes me to heaven and it got lots of faith.

I really believe that I don’t have no power. And so a man can trust in his good works, and it has no power. So he says, when you trust Christ as your Savior, he gives you eternal life. You go to heaven and what he did. So where does the faith come from? So then, so then, you know that you need it because that’s where you get the faith of righteousness. A righteousness God gives you by faith. Where are you going to get this faith from?

So look there in verse 17. And you are on the line this verse in your Bible if you haven’t underlined it yet. So, all calls we’re talking about if a man is saved by faith, then where does it come from? So, faith cometh by what? Hearing and hearing by the Word of God. And you can’t trust in the Lord unless you hear about the Lord. And then you can’t hear about the Lord unless somebody tells you about the Lord.

Therefore, that’s why a man is to speak with the mouth and confess with the mouth of what he believes in his heart. that others can hear and understand how to be saved. It’s not a matter that you and I have to go up into heaven and get a hold of God and bring him down here. And we don’t have to go down into the pits of hell and get a hold of God and bring him up here. So I don’t have to ascend or descend.

And yet this scripture comes from the book of Deuteronomy where it says, shall you ascend into heaven and bring down the Messiah or reach down into hell and bring up the Messiah? Wait a What’s the Messiah doing in hell? Because that’s what the scripture says. See there in verse 6, but the righteous, which is of faith, speaketh on this wise, say not in thine heart, who shall ascend into heaven? That means to bring the Messiah down. Who shall ascend into heaven?

That is to bring Christ down from above. This is a quote from the Old Testament that was said by Moses. You say, well Moses didn’t understand anything about Jesus Christ. Doesn’t it say in the book of Hebrews in chapter 11 that Moses esteemed the reproach of Christ to be greater riches than the treasures in Egypt? So evidently he made his decision based upon Jesus Christ and upon the treasures that he would have with the Lord. And therefore he was able to muster up I guess the courage to leave everything that he had and to take a stand that he was going to deliver Israel from the iron grips of Egypt.

The only problem was that he was willing to do it 40 years before God was ready. He’s going to do the same thing, but he did it 40 years later. The timing wasn’t right. He was the right person. He thought that God was going to deliver Israel by his hand. He learned the ways of the world for forty years and came to the conclusion, look what I am, forty years on the backside of the desert realizing that he wasn’t nothing.

And God had done learning, teach him some new things. And then God had to retrain him. And so the man lived to be a hundred twenty years old. But now look what he says in verse eight. And this is all in the Old Testament in the book of Deuteronomy. Or who shall descend into the deep? That is to bring up Christ again from the dead. If this is what it meant to bring up Christ again from the dead, then evidently they knew that Christ, the Messiah, came from heaven and was on the earth and will be there and will be killed and come back again from the dead.

That’s Old Testament. So they knew that the sacrifices that they were making would not save them because they were not to trust in them. What if they weren’t to trust in those sacrifices? What then were they to trust in God doesn’t say people two different ways. Everybody’s always saved the same way. Were saved by grace through faith. They were saved looking forward to the cross the payment the Messiah would make and we’re saved looking back to that very same event.

So we’re saved by faith on both sides of the cross. Then look what he says in verse eight, but what say that the word is nigh the even in thy mouth and in thy heart. That is the word of faith which we preach. Why should we preach? Why should I tell people how to have eternal life? Because they can’t be saved except by faith. And they can’t have faith to trust the Lord unless we tell the gospel message. So we preach the gospel so that people can hear and understand it and trust the Lord.

We are not responsible for their decision. I am not responsible for any man trusting Christ or rejecting Christ. I have nothing to do with that. I and you are just to be faithful to give the gospel. So whenever you give out a track, you’re given out the gospel. See, you don’t have to be behind this podium up here to be a preacher of the gospel. Supplementary child of God is to preach the gospel some way or another.??? So you preach and by that somebody liable to believe and their eternal destination rests upon that truth.

Now if you don’t really believe that then you won’t have a great desire to get it out. But if you really believe that then you do. Now you’re going to live and you’re going to die. And the thing is is what did you do with the time that God gave you or whatever God gave you? See all of us have a responsibility to the Lord to do what we can or whatever God has blessed us with. But now get this in verse nine Remember we’re talking about how is a man saved by faith and that a man has to hear it Because if he doesn’t hear it then he can’t believe it and he can’t trust So he says in verse nine that is if that if thou shall confess with thy mouth The Lord Jesus and shall believe in thine heart that God has raised him from the dead thou shall be saved if you believe this

If you believe it now you don’t confess with your mouth to be saved but you confess what you believe. Only way that we can spread the word is I confess with my mouth what I believe in my heart. I believe that Jesus Christ died on that cross, paid for my sins, came back from the dead because I believe he did it for me. I confess with my mouth for the last 46 years, I want people to know it. I want them to hear it because if somebody hadn’t told me, then I wouldn’t have heard it.

And I couldn’t trust Christ because I had never heard the message before. And those that know the truth, those that believe that this book is true, it is most difficult, like pulling teeth, get a person to witness to get them to pass out tracks, to get them to pray for the lost. And yet it’s so simple. He says it’s by faith and faith alone. And this is why Paul made the statement. He says, brother, my prayer and heart’s desire for Israel is that they might be saved.

And then first part of chapter 9, he says, I would be willing to give myself to be separated from God, to be a curse from Christ for my brethren. In other words, be willing to go to hell so that his brethren could go to heaven. Go into your bedroom or a closet space where you can get alone and turn out all the lights and just let it be dark. Picture yourself in hell for all eternity in the flames of eternal conscious torment forever and ever and ever and knowing that you will never get it’ll never end.

And you had a chance, did not take advantage of it. You talk about a living hell because the body will burn but not be consumed. But see, if we only had a vision, could catch it, could see that. But you can’t make somebody see something. Because as you read the Word of God, you have to see it. And as I read the Old Testament, I don’t see much scripture in the Old Testament that talks about the literal place of hell, though it’s bare.

But it’s a real place, and you and I are supposed to believe that. But it makes a statement here in verse 11, for the scripture says, Do so ever believe it in him or on him shall not be ashamed. In other words, you’ll not be ashamed or ever regret that you ever trusted the Lord. You’ll never be sorry. We sing a song sometime from the choir. I’ve never been sorry that I trusted his name. Remember that song? Somebody going to help me out singing it over here?

Just go for it. I’ve never been sorry that I trusted the Lord. thing when we get to heaven, we’re not going to be sorry we did so. Now down here you may be afraid or ashamed of somebody who knows your Christian. But in heaven you won’t be. But the Lord says, I will be ashamed of you because you were ashamed of me. That doesn’t mean you don’t get to go to heaven. You still get to go to heaven. But you’ll be ashamed because you never witnessed for him.

And the Lord says, live now because one day he’s coming and in the book of 1 John in chapter 2 verse 28, now my little children abide in that that when he shall appear, we shall have confidence and not be ashamed before him and his coming. And a lot of God’s children are going to be ashamed, ashamed and never did what they could have done. Because we’re not asked to perform miracles down here. We’re not asked to be supermen.

We’re not asked to do anything we can’t do. We can do what God wants us to do. All we have to do is just explain the gospel to people. So when you leave, make sure you have tracks, always ask the Lord, let me talk to somebody this week, somebody, give a track to somebody. That’s the Word of God. Somebody, I’ll trust the Lord from it. And it may lead to an open door where you might get to talk to him about the whole thing and explain it to him.

You see me do the hand gesture a thousand times, learn how to do it. Be an expert at it. A soul winners nothing more than a person who makes the gospel clear for the lost man to understand. The power is in the message. It’s not in you, it’s in the message. Enough the message is in you, yes. But God can use you. Look up here. This man represents you and me and the wallet represents sin. We all have sin upon us.

God says that He loves us. He hates our sin. And for you and I to pay for sin is eternal separation from God. But God loves us and wants us to go to heaven and to go to heaven, we have to be perfect as righteous as God, because heaven is perfect. God is perfect and we have to be perfect to go into heaven. But we can’t because of sin. God will not allow us into heaven. Remember, the sin is not just the sin that I commit, it’s the sin nature that’s within me.

I could take this away and I still can’t get in because you see the sin nature is still inside of me. I committed this because I am a sinner. So God has to give me a new birth, not change me, not change me, not send me to church and do all of the deed. God has to give me a new birth. So this hand represents Jesus Christ, he’s the Lord God in the flesh. He came into the world, he has no sin, no sin nature.

So he has no sin. But Christ, because he loves us and hates our sin, it says that he hates it because it separates us from him. So what Christ did for us, He took our sins, paid for it on the cross, came back from the dead and said, if we would believe it, He would give us His righteousness. And if God gave me His righteousness, then I would be as righteous as God. Can I go to heaven if I’m as righteous as God?

Well, yes. That’s a righteousness that God gives to me by faith in what He did for me. And God says, once you trust Him, He’ll never cast you out and never lose you. news and all the world. Let’s pray, shall we? With every head bowed and every eye closed and no one looking around, if you’ve never trusted Christ as your Savior. Right now, why not just talk to the Lord and say something simple like this? Lord, I know I’m a sinner.

I don’t understand it all, but I know that I’ve done things wrong. I believe that Christ died, paid for my sins, and I’m going to trust Him this morning. It’s my only hope of going to heaven. Friend, I’m not going to have you forward. I’m not going to embarrass you. But right where you’re sitting, if what I said made sense, would you say, yes Lord, I will trust Christ as my Savior right now. And friend, by doing that, God will give you eternal life as a free gift.

And He’ll never cast you out, never lose you. And you can know that you’re going to heaven when you die. Would you believe it? Would you trust Him? If you’ve already trusted Christ as your Savior, do you see the responsibility? How that all of us as God’s children are responsible to preach the gospel. One way or another, find a way, because one day we’ll all stand before the Lord and give an account of ourselves. Our Father, we ask your blessings upon each one here, as Father your protection, because we’re living in a sinful world, and help us to have the confidence and the boldness that we need, and use this for your honor and glory and Christ’s name we pray.

Amen. Are you a new listener to Bibleline? Do you enjoy the teachings of Dr. Arnold? Well, if you’ve never contacted us before, we want to give you Dr. Arnold’s book, The Gospel Driven Man. Every day we receive many emails from folks who have questions about repentance and salvation, about faith in works, and about how to share the gospel with friends and loved ones. This book, The Gospel Driven Man, covers all those topics, and we want all new listeners of Bibleline to receive a free copy.

There’s no obligation, no donation necessary, simply call us at 1-800-576-3771 or write to us and request your free copy of the Gospel-Driven Man. Mailing address is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Again, don’t forget to include your mailing address, and God bless you and thank you for listening to Bibleline. Thanks for joining us ERRORLINE. If you are in the area, we welcome you to visit us. The address for Calvary Community Church is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. And now, a closing thought from Pastor Arnold.

Friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound. And we will be changed. Caught up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day. Believing that the Lord is coming soon, just keep looking up.