that this is a very important section of the Bible. Because it's this section of the Bible that tells us how to receive Jesus Christ. And without receiving Jesus Christ, we are all damned. And that's the reality of the matter. I mean, we are born in this sin-cursed world, and we are victims of circumstance, if you want to call it that. But also, I mean, God allows every birth. I believe that. God allows every birth. No one is an accident. And you might want to comfort people with that idea every once in a while when you have somebody who's down and out. I used to go to the jail, and I told you this before, up in Michigan in a medium security juvenile facility. And those boys, a lot of times, had no parents. They were orphaned or they were kicked out of their house. They were on the streets since they were little. They got into gangs. They got into the wrong environments. And when they would come to the service, they would come to hear me teach them. A lot of times, they were just down and out. And all they've ever known is a correctional facility. And they would say things like, well, I shouldn't be here. My mom and dad never loved me. No one loves me. And I shouldn't have been born. And I would always try to at least comfort them with the fact that God knows you're born. God allowed you to be born. You are not an accident. I can't imagine how many of those kids were told, well, you're just a mistake. We should have never had you. You're not that. If that was you, if that was your life, God is in God knows you. God allowed you to be born. And you say, well, he allowed me to be born in such a home. Well, yes, he did. But look where you are today. Look what he's revealed himself to you today. And so he's he is the greatest father you'll ever have. You even if you had the greatest father on this earth. Doesn't even compare to your Heavenly Father. And so, anyway, I don't know where I got all that from. But anyway, this is how you receive Jesus Christ in this chapter. And if you don't receive Jesus Christ, as I said, you'll be damned. And it's the devil's, you know, Brother Beard, we often recite him around here, but he's the one who told us, he said to me one day, he said to Pastor, he said, you know how you learned to spot a counterfeit dollar bill because he was in police work, you know how you learned to spot a counterfeit? Well, you don't study all the counterfeits, you study the real thing. And what you do is you can recognize when you see a counterfeit because you've studied the real thing. And when you've studied the Bible, you know the real way to get saved. And any other way is where the devil comes in and he makes that little difference in the dollar bill. And he makes that little subtle change and we think, oh, that's not a big deal. You still believe in Jesus. Well, it's not enough to believe in Jesus. We've covered that. The devils believe in tremble. And we'll go over a little bit more of that today, but we need to be sure that we've received Jesus Christ. And we need to be sure when we're talking to others that they receive Jesus Christ. So let's just read verses one through four. 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 zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. Now, we've covered that. Many people have a zeal. I think billions of people, literally billions of people in this world have a zeal of God. But look what it says, but not according to knowledge. So having that knowledge is very important. It's plain right here in the scriptures. And what has the devil tried to do? He's taken that scripture and he's perverted the Bible, right? And he's given us multitudes of Bibles, multitudes of plans of salvation, but not according to knowledge. Verse three, for they being ignorant of God's righteousness, speaking of Jesus Christ in this respect, and going about to establish their own righteousness, which is what they did in the Old Testament, which is why the Israelites have a problem, because they're seeking to establish their own righteousness, rightly so in the fact that that was what Moses told them to do. And that is what God told them to do. But they have a stumbling stone before them, someone they're supposed to receive instead of that, and that was Jesus Christ. So they, being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God, which is His Son. For Christ is the end, and here's the definition of it, for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. So now it's just a matter of believing who Jesus claimed to be, who He was. And in their case it was the Messiah. In your case, He's King of kings and Lord of lords. Okay, there is that difference. He's not your Messiah as a Gentile. He didn't come for you. He came to be, you know what I'm saying when we say Jesus Christ, Christ is the anointed one. So when we reference Jesus Christ, if I'm a Jew, if we're referencing Jesus Christ, if I can use the word Christ, then I'm admitting that He has come and He is the Messiah. So Christ, and Paul, when he says that, he's addressing the Jews at this point. All right, but he's also addressing the entire world. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. For Moses, and we'll just get a little more context. Well, let's stop there. We're gonna look at verse four. And we did already, so I'm gonna go quickly through here. If Jesus Christ has completely fulfilled the righteousness of the law, then what God offers an unsaved man is the righteousness of a perfect man. See, in the Old Testament, and this is very, I know this is very basic for all of you, but get this point, in the Old Testament, you need to be righteous, right? You need to follow the commandments. You need to do what God told you to do in that time. But now we're gonna trade all that in, and we're gonna do what verse four says, for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. We're gonna turn all of our righteousness in as filthy rags, And we're going to say it doesn't compare. We all fall short of the glory of God, which is Jesus Christ, which is the righteousness that was revealed in Romans chapter one, as it's stated. And so then God is offering a perfect man to take your place. And so that's why the simplicity in Christ, right? That's why our message is so simple. And really that's why everyone that Paul encountered wanted to stone him and kill him because it was like an indictment against them that you're not worthy enough and you just have to believe in this man if you accept who he claims to have been. And so that's why a Jehovah's Witness is on his way to hell. As sincere as they are and as have much of a zeal of God as they do, they won't receive Jesus Christ for who he claimed to be, which was God in the flesh. Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. He was. It wasn't just that he claimed. You know, every Muslim will challenge you and say, well, where did Jesus Christ say that he was God? And if you're ignorant of the Scriptures, you may not know, but he has many, and we're not going to study that right now, but many times he has. Before Abraham was, he said, I am. Well, he took on the name of Jehovah God, I am. I am, I always was, I always will be, I am present, I am eternal. They knew what he meant, but the stupid Muslims don't know what he meant. And they're going to challenge you, and if you're reading any other Bible, you may not have an answer. All right, but anyway, we trade all that in for a righteous man. Now, just go back a page, Romans 8.4, and look at what it says here. This is what you get in exchange for your filthy rags when you believe on the name of the Son of God, which is in Romans 8.4, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. See, in believing in Jesus Christ, and we won't go through this, but there are a multitude of things that happen to you when you believe in Jesus Christ. The gift of God was given to you. And that was the comforter that Jesus said, I'm going to go and exchange myself for the comforter. So everyone who believes in me gets the comforter to dwell inside of them. And when you do, guess what? The righteousness of the law that everyone in this world thinks they have to follow because as you knock on their door or shake their hand or meet them and give them a gospel tract, and you say, are you going to heaven? They say, I hope so. I think so. And you say, why? And you say, because I'm a good person. because I tried to follow the law. I don't hurt anybody. I don't steal from people. I don't kill. I don't lie. And they're doing their own righteousness. We trade all that in, and that righteousness that you want to fulfill, guess what? I have news for you. If you just believe in Jesus Christ, He'll fulfill all that in you. Do you believe that? And you can stop trying so hard. I'm not telling you to go out and do wrong and start lying and killing and cheating. But what I am telling you is that Jesus Christ will fill all of that and the Holy Spirit will come in and dwell inside of you and seal you to the day of redemption. So, just a good reference for that. Now, adding, any works or personal righteousness is declaring an insufficiency in Christ. Do you realize that? Here's Jesus, if you can picture it, and I'm sure you can, hanging on the cross, shedding his blood for you, being beaten beyond recognition, and it pleased God to bruise him. He's taking all that for you, and you say, well, that's great. Thank you, Jesus, but I still have to do this. He says, no, I'm here so if you just believe on me. I'm taking, the Bible says he took our sins upon him. He became sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. And we stand over here in our religion and say, no, but I still have to do this. I still have to do this because it's on me. And the Bible clearly tells us, not of works, lest any man should boast. And so you say, well, they're sincere, they love God, but not according to knowledge. See, and what's God gonna do with those people? He's gonna accept their good intentions? No, because all their righteousness are as filthy rags. He can't accept that. He cannot accept that. He only accepts what he accepts, and that is his son, Jesus Christ. Once that bar has been raised to where Jesus Christ showed up and given his righteousness in exchange for yours, that you cannot, it's a slap in God's face. to say, well, yeah, but I still have to go to church three times a week, and I still have to do this, and I still have to do that. No, you are not fully, completely trusting in Jesus Christ. Hey, I like to tell a Catholic, I don't, because I don't usually get this opportunity, but if I could, I would say, do you believe in Jesus Christ? Oh yeah, absolutely, and I have no doubt that they do. And I'd say, well then, Would you be willing to excommunicate yourself from the Roman Catholic religion and leave the church? If you had to make that choice, would you receive Jesus Christ or would you stay? See, they equate the church with their salvation. And they won't do it. So you gotta sometimes dig deep into what people are really believing. All right, so that's, look, go to Titus chapter three. Titus chapter, we dare not declare an insufficiency in Christ. But far too many people do. Titus chapter 3 and verse 5. Not of works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us. Wouldn't you rather have mercy? If you're in the court and something's been done to you, or you've been accused of something, wouldn't you rather just have mercy? Do you really need to plead your case if the judge is gonna give you mercy? Just take the mercy. All right, Jesus is granting mercy. We don't have to make up for anything. We don't have to live our lives a certain way so he'll accept us. He'll accept us if we accept him. And so according to his mercy, he saved us. By the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost. Look at 2 Corinthians 3.5, just real quick. And we'll move on. 2 Corinthians 3, 5. It says, not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God. That's your claim today. How do you know you're going to heaven? Well, my sufficiency is of God. I'm not sufficient in myself. That's what the Bible told me. I can't do the law. It's very clear by Paul, and in the New Testament, there's nothing you can do. And if you attempt to do anything, then you are separating yourself, according to Galatians chapter five, from the grace of God. So it's very important. So let's move on, Romans 10 in verse five. We'll read verse five through eight. For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law. There is a righteousness of the law. and you can attain unto it, but you couldn't attain unto it perfectly because even if you did that, you know this, you would go to Abraham's bosom in the center of the earth when you died. Because perfect full justification had not happened until Christ showed up. And so there is a righteousness of the law, but don't confuse that with the righteousness of God, which is given to us now, which is Jesus Christ, which is the gift. All right, so Moses describeth the righteousness of the law, that the man which doeth those things shall live in them. Again, if we go back to Galatians, go to Galatians. I've taken you there many times, but go there just as a refresher. Go to Galatians chapter five, and then we'll come back. Now this is a stark contrast. Paul often talks about the law as a curse, as bondage, and here he talks about it that way. And he also talks here in Galatians 5.1 about being at liberty from the law. He says, stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free. Free from what? Free from the law. Oh, happy condition, right? That's the song we sing. It says, stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free and be not entangled again. with the yoke of, there's that word, bondage. Behold, I, Paul, say unto you. Now, isn't that arrogant of Paul? I, Paul, say unto you. Listen to me. Hey, listen to me. I, John, say unto you. Well, what authority do you have, John, to say unto me anything that's supposed to be dogmatic doctrine? I don't, except as I quote the Bible, but I'm quoting Paul, and Paul had that authority. It was given to him by God. You see, that's why we make such bold statements around here as we don't follow Christ, in the way that other people do. All right, we accept Jesus Christ. We declare him as our Lord and God and Savior. But we don't follow him because he didn't ask us to. He asked us to follow Paul as he followed Christ because he's a pattern of what we ought to believe and what we ought to do. And what also we might go through in this life. So we follow Paul. So Paul, again, says, behold, I, Paul, say unto you that if ye be circumcised, get this, Christ shall profit you nothing. Well, Christ is the free gift that's given by God. He's the righteousness declared of God. He was manifest to the world. He's our Savior. Well, he's gonna profit you nothing if you attempt to do anything in your flesh to appease God so that you can have merit with God. Well, that's Old Testament. Yeah, that's Old Testament. Don't confuse the two. But in the New Testament, if you try to do that, if you continue to do circumcision as a means of something special, as an outward manifestation of something special, then you are, as Paul says, Christ shall profit you nothing. And then in verse three, for I testify again to every man that is circumcised that he is a debtor to do the whole, once you start down that path, you're obligated. That's why I would tell a Roman Catholic, get out of that, excommunicate yourself. Because once you stay down that road, if you put any trust, any faith in that church at all, if you're adding to Christ at all, then you have not put your full trust in him. You've put partial trust in him. That's what Paul is saying. He's saying, for I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor. You are a debtor to do the whole shooting match. You want to do the law? Then you do the whole law. You know why you have to do the whole law now and you didn't have to do it back then? Because there's a new standard. The standard is Jesus Christ. He showed up. He lived a perfect life. And you can't match that guy. You can't match it. Now, you could match a Pharisee, You can match any of the Old Testament saints, but you could never match Jesus Christ. We all fall short. So once you start down that path, guess what? You're stuck. You better do it all. That's what he's telling you. And then verse 4, for Christ has become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law, ye are fallen from grace. Didn't we just say we'd rather have mercy in the courtroom? Well, guess what? You stood up and started stating your case. You stood up and said, well, let me tell you about me. You stood up and said, well, let me tell you about my past and my background and my character. And the judge says, OK, I was going to let you go if you would have just put your trust in me to let you go. But you had to declare your own righteousness. You had to start clearing your own case. So let me hear it. Because I'm going to tell you right now, it's not going to work. And that's the lesson here. And so let's go back to Romans chapter five, or 10. And we were in six, but the righteousness which is, well, we were in five. For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, that the man which doeth those things shall live by them. That's not where I wanna be. I don't wanna be living by the law. I'm glad I'm not in the Old Testament. And so verse six, but the righteousness which is of faith, Now that's a clear switch, isn't it? I mean, can you read English? Can you read the Bible? Do I need to do fancy word smithing on the Bible to get you to think, to realize there's a difference between the righteousness of the law and then the righteousness of faith? He's making a clear contrast, right? Why can't most Baptists see that? Why can't most Christians see that? Why do they have to struggle with you that you're a dispensationalist or a rightly divider? Why is that so hard? It's right there. All right, we're not twisting the scripture. We're not resting the scriptures to get that. The righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise. Contrary to what Moses told you, this is what I'm telling you. I'm Paul. Who are you, Paul? I was set aside by God. I was ordained a preacher by God. I was set aside. I was called. I'm an apostle to the Gentile. That's who I am. And all through, by the way, all through Paul's writing, he's condescending of himself. I'm the least of the apostles, he said. I'm not worthy. I'm as one born out of due time. I don't deserve this. Paul was not ever arrogant or just showy. In fact, they said, you're rude in speech, Paul. We know you have an education. What's wrong with you? He would always lower himself down so that the message could get across. All right, but this is what he's saying. It speaketh on this way. Say not in thine heart, now he's talking to Jewish people. Say not in thine heart, and when we looked at this before, it's in Deuteronomy 30. We won't go there for sake of time, but in Deuteronomy 30, you get this same thing. It's a contrast from what they were talked about back then. Say not in thine heart, who shall ascend into heaven? That is to bring Christ down from above. Because he has already come down from above, and you stumbled at him. If I could interject my own words there. Or, who shall descend into the deep, that is, to bring Christ again from the dead? But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth. You know what I'm saying is true, because there have been many infallible proofs that He's risen from the dead, and this is within the time frame that they would all know. There were above 500 that witnessed it. And of the most part, they're still alive, is what the Bible tells you. Now we'll look at that maybe in a second. Or who shall descend into the deep, verse eight, but what sayeth that the word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thine heart? That is the word of faith which we preach, not the one Moses preached. Put that out of your mind. Now that's like me talking to a Catholic and saying, put aside the Catholic church. When I go to a Jew and say, put aside Moses, you know what they're thinking? Who are you? Well, I'm nobody, but I'm quoting the Bible. What is the Bible? You see, to a Jew, the New Testament is not the Bible. The Torah is the Bible, the Old Testament. And we won't get into all that. Torah really only means the first five books, but then, you know, they have their own Old Testament. They don't recognize what Paul said. They never recognized it as you read through the text of what Paul wrote, and they still don't recognize it today. But anyway, let's read from the paper. Paul is contrasting the law of Moses with the law of faith. That's clear. That's easy to see. That is not a resting of the scriptures. To do so, he uses an Old Testament passage. He quotes to them from the Old Testament to say, you know, this is what we're looking for today. We're not looking for Christ anymore. He came. We're not looking for him to come down from heaven. We're not looking for him to rise again from the dead. He already did those things. Are you gonna accept him? And so just as the Old Testament were not, just as the Old Testament commandments were not far from the Jews, the word of faith with many infallible proofs of their Messiah was now in their mouth and in their heart. The following verses, meaning what we'll read next, reveal the responsibility of every man in the light of that knowledge. That is, look at just verse eight, let's go ahead, or verse nine, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth, come on, let me hear it. Don't be a closet Christian. Don't be hiding in the background. Don't be saying, well, I believe that, but I'm over here, I'm doing the Law of Moses and going to the synagogue every week. I wanna hear it with your mouth. It says that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, it's not just that he's Messiah, he's Lord. All right, and so the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Now you've been around, you've seen Jesus, you saw him. You saw him get crucified, you watched his life, didn't he live a sinless life? Can any one of you prove any sin against him, except in that kangaroo court that you put together just before his crucifixion, and no man was able to even prove their case there. It was just a bunch of rioting people. who had blood on their brains, they just had a thirst for His blood, and an envy towards Him, and a desire to get rid of Him. There was not one of you that made a case against Him. Do you believe now? And if you do, I wanna hear it from your mouth. And we have no difference here. And we tell somebody, hey, do you believe in Jesus? All right, then let's pray. Let's hear it, because, go to verse 13, for whosoever shall call, confess it to me, I'm not your priest. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. It adds more context. So let's pray. Well, I'm afraid to pray. I don't know how to pray. Do you know how to ask for a cookie? Do you know how to ask for a bottle of water? Do you know how to ask for a meal at the restaurant? Well, ask your creator to save you. That's all it is. See, our religion gets so much in our way. Well, I don't have the words. Yes, you do. All you have to do is ask for it. Because God knows your heart. Because he said, believe in your heart. He sees the heart. We discussed that two weeks ago. Now, I was going to go over some things and I won't do it. I did a message here, and you can look it up online, about the proofs of the resurrection. You might want to listen to that because the Bible tells us about the many infallible proofs. Acts 1. Go there. Go to Acts 1. Yeah, it's Acts 1, verses 1-3, we'll just read that, this is the very beginning. It says, the former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus both began to do and teach, until the day in which he was taken up, after that he, through the Holy Ghost, had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen, to whom also he showed himself alive after his passion, by many infallible, infallible, infallible proofs. being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God." Let me just tell you, yes, without faith it is impossible to please God, but let me also assure you that it is not based on blind faith. God never, he asked you to have faith, and yes, when we study the Bible, it's like, you know, the Bible is just, I was thinking about this this week. Why, I think this way, why? Why do you have to make the Bible like this, Lord? Why do you have to make me turn pages and dig and cross-reference and compare, and I have to put all this puzzle together, why? Yeah, because he likes faith. He wants to say something outlandish, like believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. And he expects you to believe it. He expects you to trust that he wrote a Bible, and he allowed men to write that Bible, so that you'd have a reason to doubt. But by faith, you accept what he did, you see. And so he likes that, he likes that element of faith, but he never tells, but he always, the proof is always there. When you dig and you dig deeper, and he tells you here, many, many, many infallible proofs. Now, one of the things that, and I'll just say this and we'll move on because the time is escaping me as it always does. I've listened to homicide detectives talk about how they prove cases, who killed what, and murder cases and things like that. And when Jesus says there's many infallible proofs, he says, being seen of them 40 days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. And there were above 500 that saw him and they were alive at the time Paul was writing. And many of them were alive. Some of them, he said, had died. And one of the things that a homicide detective will tell you is that you have to have the lowest possible number of co-conspirators possible in order to pull off something. If you have a lot of co-conspirators, well, then the stories are going to get crossed. And people are going to get separated. You go in this room, and you go in this room. You tell me the story, and you tell me the story. And if the stories don't match, guess what? We've got a problem. And so you have to have, but the Bible tells you, this is where it is in 1 Corinthians 15, six, just turn there. Come on, be fast, I'll be fast. 1 Corinthians 15, six, I won't wait for you. After that, he was seen of above 500 brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are falling asleep. Hey, you wanna go talk to anybody about what they've seen? Go, there's 500 of them, 500. That's not a few co-conspirators, that's a lot. And so the Lord allowed himself to do that, and so they were able to validate the story, right? And you need a short time span. You know how long this has been that we're reading this story 2,000 years later? You'd think that if this was some kind of scam pulled over the wool of eyes by Jesus, some kind of plot by Jesus, this guy who calls himself God, that it would have been dispelled by now. But there's many infallible proofs. And also, you know, these things fall apart under persecution. That's another thing that they will put you under the spotlight. You know, you've seen the movies where they put you under the bright light, and you're sweating, and they're, tell me, tell me, you know? Well, when you're under that kind of pressure, usually the story breaks apart. Okay, okay, I'll confess, or I'll tell you what I really know. Well, the people, you read about every one of the apostles, you know what happened to them? They were all martyred. They were all beaten. They were stoned. They were crucified. And you'd think that if they were pulling the wool over people's eyes, if they were just charlatans asking for their money, that the story would have broken apart, especially of the churches. You know how many churches where Paul went in and wreaked havoc? The Bible said he wreaked havoc in the churches. You know, they were separated from their families. Their kids were torn from them. They were put into the Roman coliseums and the lions were let loose so that they could be eaten and killed. Why would you do that? If what you claim to believe was just a hoax, listen, it would all just fall apart. I'm just giving you a small sampling of what I preach there. Go back to Romans. That is many infallible proofs, not to mention the proofs of the Bible itself and all of the prophecies. We mentioned before the Bible is over 30% prophetic. You wouldn't dare write a book like that if it wasn't the word of God. It would just destroy itself. with the prophecies that don't come true, but we've learned over time that the prophecies that have come true, the statistical probability of those things happening are incalculable, and yet they happened. And so anyway, God does not expect us to believe anything blindly. Let's move on. Verses nine through 11, we already read it, but let's read it again. That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart, that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. So the plan of salvation throughout scripture has always been belief in what God has told man to do at that time. You might wanna underline that phrase. You might even wanna write that in the front of your Bible. Don't lose hold of that one sentence right there. Let me read it again. The plan of salvation throughout scripture has always been belief in what God has told a man to do at that time. You get a hold of that, it's gonna unlock your Bible. You get a hold of religion, you become a Baptist first, then you're gonna be confused as many Baptists I've ever met. Well, yeah, but the Bible says this here and it says this here. Yeah, what's wrong with that? a different time, a different thing that God told you to do. Don't confuse the two. The gospel for this time is the death, the burial, and the resurrection of a man called Jesus Christ. Christ being the anointed one, Christ being the one, the Messiah sent from God, the Son of God, equal with God. You believe that? You believe that only? You believe if you never step foot in this church, many of you are watching me online because you're homesick. Do you know if you never step foot in this church ever again, it wouldn't affect your salvation whatsoever? Say, well then, good, I don't have to come back to church ever again. John just told me. No, I'm not telling you that. I'm just telling you that it has nothing to do with your salvation. Well, I'm a non-denominate. I'm a non-denominate. I can't say it. Say it for me, somebody. Thank you. Fine. Do you believe in Jesus Christ? Listen, just don't say, I am a Baptist, I am a Methodist, I am a Lutheran, I am a Presbyterian, a Catholic, whatever you want to... Don't say that! When someone asks you, what are you? What religion are you? I'm a Bible-believing Christian. I believe, that's your opportunity to witness to them. I believe in Jesus Christ. I know, but what denomination, what kind of church, it doesn't matter. That's irrelevant, and the reason they're asking is because they're religious. And they want to know if they should stop listening to you or start listening to you. That's what they want to know. So anyway, It's the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The method of receiving this gospel is found in verses 9 through 10, and actually all the way down to verse 13. First, we confess with our mouth the Lord Jesus. We don't confess our sins. You notice that? Well, let me just sit down for a while and list down all my sins so that when I go into that prayer, I can list every sin that I've ever committed. No, that's Catholic. Nothing to do. You confess yourself as a sinner, I'm unworthy, and that's all the scripture we've ever referenced before, and the one that always comes to mind is where Job said, I abhor myself because I repent in dust and ashes because I abhor myself so much. I'm a sinner, and I hate that I'm a sinner, and that's why many of us just want to leave this world because we're sick and tired of being sinners and living in a sin-cursed world and taking care of all these requests of diseases, right, and troubles. That only comes from sin. And you confess that you're unworthy, not that declaring my own righteousness or my own good works, those filthy rags we talked about at the beginning. We're not declaring any of that. We confess Jesus Christ. All right, and so first, we confess with our mouth the Lord Jesus. His righteousness, His gift, His atonement, His exchange for our life. We are not giving Jesus a try. This is not, well, I'll try your religion for a few weeks and see if I can handle the preaching, see if I can handle, if I like the people, if I like the atmosphere, if you have enough things for me to do, if you have enough good donuts back there, and all that kind of thing, I'll try it out. No, we don't try it out. You lock, stock, and barrel believe in Jesus Christ. He knows your heart. So we're not giving Jesus a try or acknowledging Jesus as one of the many possible ways Well, yeah, you know, Jesus is a way, Oprah, to heaven. There are many roads, that's one of her big things, right? There's many roads to the same path, the same God, it's the same God, it's just, we all have our own different, why are you giving so much credit to people's minds to say, well, if they choose to take that path, it's okay? No, there's one way, Jesus said it, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man, not even Oprah, comes to the Father, but by me, Oprah. So, reading on, second, we believe with our heart, not merely with our head. I don't like this idea of repentance, a change of mind. We believe with our heart. And that's what Job did. I abhor myself. It's a heart attitude. So, in this repentance, we believe with our heart that He is risen from the dead. To me, this implies repentance and acknowledging of one's sinfulness. Just go to Jeremiah 17. There's one reference there that's worth turning to. I mean, they're all worth turning to, but for sake of time. Jeremiah 17, in verse 10. Look at what the Lord says here. It's right after the verse we all know, the heart, verse nine, the heart is deceitful and desperately, this heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it? But look at verse 10. I, the Lord, search the heart. Jeremiah 17, 10. I, the Lord, search the heart. I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings. So if there's any doubt that the Lord knows your heart, he does know. He searches your heart. He doesn't just see it, he searches it. He knows what you believe. I don't know if I believe 100%. Do you reject all other things and only receive Jesus Christ? Is he the only way? Then you believed enough. You don't have to have this passionate, tearful belief and this idea that I have to be crying tears or I have to be like on my face and I have to be, no, no, just you believe and acknowledge that Jesus is God. That he's the only way that you can ever get to heaven. Not of your own good work, then you believe enough. Okay, you believe that, then you're fine. Scripture reveals that the mouth and the heart are linked together. Go to Matthew chapter 12. Why do you have to confess it with your mouth? Why is that a big deal? Well, Matthew chapter 12 will shed some light. Verse 34. Matthew 12, 34. It says, O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. Isn't that funny? It says in Romans 10 that if you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth, what's in your heart comes out your mouth. And so if you don't believe in your heart, you're the person that says, well, I don't really know how to pray. I don't know if, you know, I have the right words. This is kind of a private thing for me. I'll do this later. Well, then you don't, then I'm, then my thinking is Matthew 12, 34. Because it's not in the abundance of your heart yet. You don't really believe. You're not really sure. And you can come back to me whenever you are sure. Because you have a free will and I'm not going to force you. And again, I've mentioned before, we have to be careful with young children. Well, don't you want to be saved? You don't want to go to hell, do you? We don't want to force the issue. We want it to be genuine. Because I, the Lord, search the hearts. I try the reins. I don't want mom and dad manipulating the situation. Okay? And giving false assurance and false hope. I was one of those kids. It wasn't my parents' fault. It was my own. I just, I had an assurance of a moment in time when I asked my mom to please come in the room. Mom, can you come in the room? Yeah, what do you want? You know, what do you want? I'm in bed. I want to be saved. Well, she didn't ask me anything else. She came in. And she told me to pray. And I was the nervous kid. I didn't know what to pray. Okay, so I get that part. I didn't know what to pray. I didn't know what to do. And so we went down on our knees, and she said, well, pray. And I'm silent. Well, pray like this. And she started to pray. And for the life of me, that's where I go blank. I can't remember what happened. But you know what? I very clearly remember that night. I very clearly remember the conversation between her and I. And you know, I went for the next 10 years on that conversation. And whenever a preacher would say, now, if you need to be saved, I would say, yeah, I think I probably do. But I remember that incident with my mom. Now listen, that's not enough. John Albrecht needs to believe in his heart and confess with his own mouth what he believes and have a genuine heartfelt where the Lord searches my own heart and knows that I'm saved. So based on my experience, I hate the idea of giving a child a false hope. Well, don't you remember we were in the room together, and don't you remember what you said, and don't you remember you repeated after me? And then to save face, because we're all proud like that, yeah, I remember, okay, I guess I'm saved. Now, your heart can condemn you. The pastor's been going through that in 1 John 3, I believe it is. And your heart can condemn you, and if you don't have faith towards God, you get this conviction of guilt. But that doesn't mean you're lost. But I'll tell you what, you better make sure. I made sure. All right, let's get back to this. Here in Matthew, go to chapter 15, verse 18. Say, well, you're just trying to get people to get saved over again so you can say that you got them saved. No, I'm not. I don't care about that. But I do care about you going to hell and having a false hope. And well, I did this little ceremony and I'm saved. No. Did you really? And why not make sure of it? Listen, you can't get saved more than once. But, you know what I did? I was 19 years old, I laid in my bed and I clearly, clearly, now I'm not a charismatic, you know that. But I clearly saw hell right in front of my eyes. And you know what else I saw? I saw hell, I saw it burning. And I saw a cross right above it. I'm not a Catholic either. But I saw both things. And you know what else I saw? And it was clear as day to me. I saw written across it. Now I'm telling you, I saw this in my mind's eye, okay? I saw Romans 10, 13 written right out in front of my face. And the Lord said, did you ever do that? I said, yeah, a thousand times. You know I've done that. He said, well, when are you going to do it for the final time? The first time, I want you to do it and believe it. I said, I'll do it right now. And I never prayed that way again. You say, is that when you got saved? Yeah, probably. I don't know, but probably. And I'm just telling you, I finally put my trust in the Word. It was the Word of God I trusted in. I'm telling you, he talked to me, and he said, and again, I'm not charismatic, but you know what I'm saying, right? You ever have the conversation with the Lord and go back and forth? He said, are you going to believe that verse or aren't you? Because if you don't believe that, you don't believe me. You don't trust me. Now I'm a dumb 19-year-old kid. Right? I don't talk to myself like that. I know that was the Lord. And I said, I do trust you. I'm going to trust you right now. Are you in Matthew 15? Matthew 15, 18. It says, What comes out of your mouth is what's in your heart. All I'm telling you, God knows. And that's why the strange wording, if you want to say so, in Romans 10. Let's go back to Romans 10 and look at verse 9. That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart, that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Alright, so the script reveals the mouth and the heart are linked together and therefore true belief maketh not ashamed. That's why it says in verse 11, for the scripture saith, whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. And we covered that. There were Pharisees that believed on him but would not confess him openly because they were afraid of being cast out of the synagogue. There was the blind man who was blind from his youth And he was healed by Jesus and they called his parents and they were afraid to answer whether or not what happened to him. He said, ask him, he's of age. And the Bible tells you the motive of their heart because they were afraid of being cast out of the synagogue. And again, I'll go back to the Catholic Church. Many people are being afraid of being cast out of the Catholic Church because their real hope, their real trust, their real faith is not in Jesus Christ. It's in their religion. And they're afraid of being cast out of that because they're afraid of what it means and they've been duped You need to be willing to put everything aside and trust only in the Word of God, what it tells you how to be saved. And so, let's see here. Furthermore, the Lord will require every man to confess his name, if not in this life, in the hereafter. Go to Philippians chapter two. You know this too, but Philippians chapter two in verse 10. Well, look at verse nine, that wherefore God hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name. Now, if you cross-reference that verse, verse nine, with Psalm 138, verse two, you're gonna see that there's something above even that name, and it's the Word of God. And you know what, there's no difference between Jesus and the Word, because the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God. There are three that bear record in heaven, and the Word is one of those. All right, so there's a name above this, but God hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, not the name of Allah, not the name of Buddha or Confucius or Gandhi or any other name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow. Oprah needs to read this verse. Every knee should bow of things in heaven and things in the earth and things under the earth that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. So here's the news flash. One of these days, if you don't wanna confess Jesus now, you will confess him. But you know what? It'll be too late. You might just wanna confess him now instead of having to confess him later.