Romans 10:12-13

Coram Deo Reformed Baptist Church iconCoram Deo Reformed Baptist Church

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It's just two verses today, so hopefully
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I won't be long. Yeah, it's just two verses.
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The two verses we'll be going over today is 12 and 13. But to keep us on track and in context, we'll do like we normally do.
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We'll start in verse one in chapter 10. The Holy Spirit in Paul says, "'Brothers, my heart's desire in prayer to God for them "'is that they may be saved.
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"'I bear witness with them that they have zeal for God, "'but not according to knowledge.
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"'For being ignorant of the righteousness of God "'and seeking to establish their own, "'they did not submit to God's righteousness.
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"'For Christ is the end of the law, "'for righteousness to everyone who believes.
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"'For Moses writes about the righteousness "'that is based on the law, "'that the person who does the commandments "'shall live by them.
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"'But the righteousness based on faith says, "'do not say in your heart who will ascend into heaven, "'that is to bring
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Christ down, "'or who will descend into the abyss, "'that is to bring Christ up from the dead.
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"'But what does it say? "'The word is near you, in your mouth, and in your heart, "'that is the word of faith that we proclaim.
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"'Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord "'and believe in your heart that God raised him "'from the dead, you will be saved.
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"'For with the heart one believes and is justified, "'and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
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"'For the scripture says, everyone who believes in him "'will not be put to shame. "'For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek.
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"'For the same Lord is Lord of all, "'bestowing his riches on all who call on him.
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"'For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord "'will be saved.'" So last week we went through five through 11, and saw
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Paul point out that this notion of being able to satisfy the law of your own accord is nonsensical, that one should not say to himself who will go into heaven and bring
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Christ down as God did, or go into the abyss to try to raise him up like God did.
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It is impossible. But that we have the one who has done these things.
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But I wanna point out on what we're talking about today in 11 through 13, because you notice this word that Paul keeps using, now it's an
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English word, and sometimes it's translated a little bit differently. Sometimes it says all, sometimes it says everyone.
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But that is a consistent word through here. Just in 11 through 13, 12 is bookended by Old Testament references.
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11, everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame. And 13, everyone who calls on the name of the
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Lord will be saved. Paul is impressing a very important point here, that he has already expressed in Romans.
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So in 12, he says, there is therefore no distinction between Jew and Greek. As we heard before,
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Peter, in Acts preaching to the many on Pentecost, they were the ones who were circumcised, were amazed that what?
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That the Holy Spirit fell on the Gentiles too. It is made very, very plain in scripture that there is no distinction.
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But what I want you to remember is the context, the full historical context of Romans, which we have gone over before.
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Paul keeps impressing this point because it is a point that he needs to press throughout Romans, because they are specifically dealing with this issue.
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He is talking to both Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians, and dealing with the problems that they're having and the things that he's noticing and hearing that is coming out of the
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Roman church. Most notably, we see what we're talking about now, which is this distinction that they have started to make between the ethnic
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Jews returning and the Gentile Jews who are in the churches.
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There is this schism between them. I want to elaborate a little bit more on what
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Paul is saying here, that there's no distinction. And the reason I want to do that is because it is a problem that we still deal with today.
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There is very specific application for what Paul is saying. Paul has already spoken of this.
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If you remember from chapter three, chapter three, verse 22, says the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.
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There is no distinction. 329, not that much further down.
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Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the
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God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also. So we see again and again, this running theme that he is addressing with the
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Romans, that in Christ all are the same. There is no difference, ethnic or otherwise.
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Now some might say, whoa, hang on a minute. Doesn't Deuteronomy prohibit intermarriage?
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That's an ethnic distinction right there. Boom, it's in the scriptures. Well, yes, it does.
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God did forbay intermarriage. So we'll go straight to the text.
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Deuteronomy 7, verses three and four. You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons.
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That was pretty straightforward. Verse four says, for they would turn away your sons from following me to serve their gods.
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Then the anger of the Lord would be kindled against you and he would destroy you quickly. So you see the very text that some would use, this isn't the only text, but the very text that some would use to press upon people today and then that there is an ethnic difference.
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It speaks against it in and of itself. It isn't speaking,
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God isn't talking about denying intermarriage on ethnic grounds. He is talking about denying intermarriage from inside his people to outside his people.
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The worry is that these men or these women would go out and they would marry pagans and they would bring their pagan gods into the land of Israel and lead
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Israel astray. Further evidence for this, on the other end, is why was
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God not furious when Moses married his second wife, a
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Cushite? Or when
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Salmon married Rahab, a Canaanite? Or Boaz married
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Ruth, a Moabite? There's an entire book devoted to that woman in Scripture.
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She is a Moabite. Even today, churches, in the church, we warn against Christians marrying outside of the body of Christ.
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Not because of ethnic grounds or any other grounds, we warn about it because a Christian can very easily be led astray by their spouse.
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There is no specific ordinance that is given to us as Christians that we ought not marry outside of the church, but it is expressed that it is a very bad idea.
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This is a problem when you cherry -pick Scripture to suit what you want. Romans isn't the only place where Paul talks about this, by the way, so we know that it's not a problem just among the
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Romans. In Galatians 3 .28, he says, there's neither
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Jew nor Greek, there's neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
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So Paul further breaking down that there's no distinction. So we can see, particularly, that this is something that Paul hates, and I use that word because it is a strong word, but I don't think that there's any other word that you can use for how
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Paul feels about ethnic segregation, or any other sort of segregation.
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In fact, he calls out another very well -known apostle,
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Cephas, for this very thing. In Galatians 2 .11
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-14, it says, but when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned.
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For before certain men came from James, and he was eating with the
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Gentiles, but when they came, he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party, and the rest of the
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Jews acted hypocritically along with him so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy.
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But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel,
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I said to Cephas before them all, if you, though a Jew, live like a
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Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?
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But let's say for a moment that you don't wanna agree with Paul. Do you wanna persist?
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Well, because we believe in the inerrancy of Scripture and that all Scripture is God -breathed, there's no contradiction anywhere in any of it, then to say that Paul is wrong is to say that the entire thing is wrong, and that will lead you down a road of so many heresies.
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You do not wanna go down it. But in saying that, you would also have to say that Christ is wrong.
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In John 10, 14 and 16, he says, I am the good shepherd.
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I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep.
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And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice, so there will be one flock and one shepherd.
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There is no distinction. We are all one in Christ. While we're on the subject, notice
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I haven't used a particular word that we use today. The word is race.
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The reason I haven't used that word is because it is a new word. And I don't like it because of where it comes from.
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That word has mainly been popularized in our culture by many people, one notably named
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Darwin. And his ideas of race and macro evolution have led to all manner of ungodly atrocities.
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What I want you to do is remove that word from your vocabulary as best you can.
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And here's why. Genesis chapter one, verse 27.
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So God created man in his own image, in the image of God. He created him male and female.
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He created them. There is one race, one blood.
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That is it. We all descend from the same two people.
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There's nothing that elevates one single image bearer over that of another.
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We must understand and operate in our lives today as Paul did, as the apostles did, even imperfectly.
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We must understand and operate in accordance with the fact that when you come into contact with anyone, they are imago dei.
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They're image bearers. And as God has had mercy on you and I, we ought to have mercy on them.
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We have been freed from the domination of sin. We are being sanctified.
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They are not. And that deserves empathy and mercy.
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I watched a, not to interject here, a show not too long ago.
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It was a good show. I'll tell you what show it is afterward if you wanna know. It was a particular group of Englishmen trying to navigate the
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Arctic Circle in history. And they continually came across Inuit people.
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And in the show, there were a considerable group of people that didn't like them. They were afraid of them because they walked around on snow all the time.
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They were different. And one of the surgeons in the show pointed out in scripture that there is no distinction between those
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Englishmen and those Inuit people because they are both image bearers. That's not something you see in a show very often.
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So I was quite surprised by that. But Paul continues.
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He says, for the same Lord is Lord of all. I think that's pretty clear. There is not one
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God for this group and God for another group.
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There is no God of the Old Testament and God of the New Testament. There is one
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God. And he didn't even change between the two. As I said, as I referenced
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Romans 3 .29 earlier, where Paul says, or is God the
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God of Jews only? Is he not the God of the Gentiles also? Remind you that to say that there is any difference in God between the
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Old and New Testament, between Jews and Gentiles is heresy. It is.
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He doesn't change. So be careful how you think about these things and how you talk about them.
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There's one God, one creator, and he is
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Lord of everything. Paul says that he bestows his riches on all who call on him.
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Here's another one. Can't take this one out of context.
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Too many people do. What kind of riches is Paul talking about here?
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Because that is the word, riches, in several different translations.
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Bestowing his riches on all who call on him. Some would immediately go to monetary value.
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Ooh, gold and money and jewels and this and that and houses and abundance. But if we remember from another part of scripture,
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God says these things aren't valuable, that you should not treasure them because they're perishable.
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So what riches is he talking about?
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Perhaps it's just us not understanding the Greek. The Greek word is pluteo.
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It means to abound in something, to have an abundance.
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Okay, well, what is the Lord abundant in? Exodus 34, six and seven says, the
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Lord passed before him, reading Moses. The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, the
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Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.
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Keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression in sin.
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These are his riches. Matthew Poole says of this section, he is rich unto all.
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He is bountiful unto all. So that the
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Jews need not envy the calling or coming of the Gentiles.
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They have never the less themselves. The Lord hath an exhaustible store of grace and mercy.
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Fountain, meaning his fountain is far above our thirst.
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Friends, the number of the elect is finite.
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It is. There's a finite number of us. From the beginning to the end, there's a finite number.
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God is infinite and so are his attributes. There's no amount of sin, no amount of saints that can ever overcome his mercy and grace.
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Paul continues in 13, he says, for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. The text that Paul is referring to here is
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Joel, chapter two, verse 32. It says, and it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the
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Lord shall be saved. Here's another one that might be a bit confusing. We've just been through Romans and Paul expresses clearly about the elect.
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And yet throughout chapter 10 so far, it's everyone, everyone, everyone, everyone. And even
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Joel here referencing Joel says everyone. Well, remember before when we talked about the sufficiency of scripture, that it is inerrant.
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Let's step back for just a moment. Just a little bit ago, Romans 10. Here's a distinction.
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Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
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Romans eight, verse seven, it says, for the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God.
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This is the natural state of mankind. So how can one who is hostile to God confess with his mouth and believe in his heart?
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How can one who is spiritually dead, a corpse, call on anyone?
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It can't. It's a corpse. They don't really do all that much.
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The only way that one can truly and sincerely call upon the Lord is by being brought from death to life by the
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Holy Spirit, being brought from spiritual death to spiritual life.
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Then comes the conviction and then the sincere expression of true repentance from the heart, calling on the name of the
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Lord to save you from his wrath. So he's not referring to absolutely everyone, just everyone who calls on the name of the
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Lord. R .C. Sproul says in his commentary of this section, the
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Lord warns us that when he appears and God's wrath is manifest against the unrepentance, that they will say in that moment,
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Jesus, help me, save me, and it will be too late.
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Paul's statement applies to those who call upon the name of the Lord in the terms he has just used.
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True call is used from the heart and is an authentic reaching for the
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Savior. Anyone who calls truly will not be denied. But how do we apply these two passages, 12 and 13?
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I said a little bit about it before. Understanding that our
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Christian identity is in Christ. If your identity is in anything else, if you identify as a race car driver, or a paramedic, or an electrician, or a dog trainer, or anything else, you are wrong.
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That is not what you are, it's just what you're doing. Your identity is
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Christ. The word
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Christian also, I feel I have to say this, needs absolutely no adjectives whatsoever.
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So before, when I referenced Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians, I did that on purpose to give reference to these two groups that are having problems in Rome.
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They're Christians. There are no African Christians. There are no Asian Christians.
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There are no European Christians or South American Christians. There are just Christians.
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And if you feel the need to tack on another word to it, then you need to first repent.
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Christ doesn't need you to tack anything onto it. And really check yourself hard about who you put your identity in.
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We should also remember that the God that we serve is infinite in His grace and His mercy. While we stand secure in Christ, we should show that same mercy to those who are not, that they are made in the image of God.
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And I say this with all sincerity. If we can claim that of the unborn, that they are made in the image of God and therefore deserve the respect of having life, then we can make the same claim of the adults who despise us.
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Too often for those that we perceive as innocent, we give ground and mercy.
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What makes them different from the people who hate us? The same amount of mercy that you have for small ones you need to have for the big ones too.
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One thing that you did not see the apostles do is lash out in hatred at those who persecuted them, do you?
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They didn't. They didn't draw swords and they were arrested.
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For that one time with Peter, he was corrected. Everyone you will come into contact with in your life is made in the image of God and deserves the respect of that.
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Remember that we are the means by which the gospel goes forth. That we have been given our greatest commission in that.
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That is why the church exists. So it should first and foremost be set in our tasks.
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Priority number one. We should never do that with any amount of hostility, any amount of sarcasm, or any amount of anything other than love, mercy and empathy.
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How many times have we shared the gospel? And this may not have happened to you. And if it hasn't, wonderful.
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Have you been talking, not necessarily sharing the gospel, but talking with someone about God, about Christ, about the gospel, and they got heated, they got mad.
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That's totally understandable. It's really offensive to be told that you're a liar and a thief and a murderer.
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Or figure your face. It's understandable. What we cannot do is rise to the same level of heat.
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Well, who does that win? When you share the gospel, you need to be the ice cube in the room.
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Share it with love and kindness and mercy. And always remember that as we once were, they are still.