Turn your Bibles to Romans chapter 10. Romans chapter 10. We're gonna make huge progress today. We're gonna get through all of one verse. But I hope you'll see that it's worth camping out on that one verse this morning and some important things that we need to learn. Why is good doctrine so important? Why must we be so careful to rightly interpret and apply the word of God? Because it's the difference between truth and error, the true gospel and a false gospel, and between eternal life and eternal death. We'll see this again today as Paul moves to emphasize two key elements of the gospel. Both have been attacked and denied throughout church history by heretics. But as we'll see, Paul will say both must be understood and believed if one is to be truly saved. Number one, Paul declares that we must confess that Jesus is Lord. That Jesus is Lord. And we'll talk about the Lordship, anti-Lordship controversy that's really swirled in the church for the last 30 years. It's been that long since the more modern iteration of that heresy and struggle has really occurred. Number two, we will see that we must believe that God did in fact raise Jesus from the dead. Of course, all who have denied the supernatural will deny the resurrection of Christ and somehow try to circumvent the need to embrace or believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. But Paul clearly will say in this verse that we must believe that God did, in fact, raise Jesus from the dead if we are to be saved. Any who deny these truths and believe otherwise sadly but truly remain in their sin and are damned to hell. Again, that's how serious it is that we understand the truth of the gospel rightly. But all who believe these key elements of the gospel will be saved and will have eternal life. Read with me this one verse that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. So Paul begins here by saying, if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and to confess something is to agree with or to say the same thing and admit that something is true. And Paul even says here, confess with your mouth. So this is an outward public statement or declaration of agreement with the truth that he will state here. The opposite, of course, is to deny it or even to somehow try to keep it or think you can keep it to yourself. Be a secret disciple, if you will, or a quiet disciple. And perhaps you've had this experience that I have when you've tried to ask somebody about their relationship with God or when they became a Christian and you get this response that, you know, that's a personal matter. And I don't talk with other people about that. And immediately, if you're like me, it causes concern about, are they really saved? Where are they really at if they aren't willing to openly confess what they believe about Jesus and what God has done in their life? If they are unwilling to openly confess Jesus as Lord, then strong questions, and ultimately, That doesn't change they're not truly born again. Jesus spoke to this issue. Jump over to Matthew. Matthew 10, verse 32, and really a chapter on commitment and the cost of discipleship, the cost of following Christ. And he makes this statement in verse 32 of Matthew chapter 10. Therefore, everyone who confesses me before men, I will also confess him before my Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies me before men, I will also deny him before my Father who is in heaven. Those who are not willing to openly take a stand, openly be willing to declare what they believe concerning the person of Jesus Christ. Ultimately, if that continues, are not born again and will not be saved. Jesus will not confess them before His Father. But coming back to Romans and that other statement in Matthew, He says, those who do confess Me, I will confess before My Father. And so to Paul's point here, if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, true believers openly declare who Jesus is and what Jesus has done for them in salvation. And if you were saved as an adult, I was saved as a 10 year old, so this wouldn't have been as true for me, but I think for many or most who are saved as adults, what is one of your first reactions to being saved? You wanna tell everyone you possibly can. The store clerk at Starbucks, the person you're working out with at the gym, your coworker, all your family members. In fact, some will say, man, we've got to slow this person down somehow. Even when it's maybe not the best time, they're blurting out what God has done for them. There's no sense of you having to be forced to share this or somehow generate an excitement. No, God has saved you. He's forgiven you. You're now a child of God, and there's a joy and excitement that comes from within that you want to share. with others, even with the goal of seeing them, because you want to see them get saved and come to know the same Lord and Savior that you do. I think another clear example of this confession and a willingness to confess what we believe about Jesus would be baptism. And really, baptism, of course, commanded by Christ in Matthew 28, that we go and make disciples, baptizing them and teaching them all that I have commanded you. He's really commanding that believers then be baptized, be water baptized, immersed, as the word indicates. The word baptized is immerse. that they would be immersed and baptized and declare openly to the church body, but also to all the world that I've turned my back on my sins. I've admitted I was guilty and that Jesus died for me and paid for my sins. And I've now committed my life to him, surrendered to him as my Lord and Savior. They make that open declaration. And again, anybody who refuses to be water baptized, it would seriously cause question about their true salvation. And let me encourage you, if you've not been water baptized and yet would say, I'm a believer, follow Christ, talk to me today or talk to me soon about scheduling a baptism and following through this command. And it's not part of what, it doesn't save us, but it is a command that all believers follow in water baptism and to make this open and public declaration of their love for Christ and their recognition of who Christ is and that now they have surrendered their lives to Him. Well, what here back in verse nine does Paul say that we must openly declare to be saved? Again, at the end of the verse, he states, you will be saved if you confess, if you believe. What does he say that we must confess that Jesus as Lord, Jesus as Lord. And so the word that Paul uses here for Christ's deity, Jesus' deity is not only interesting, but very important. It's the word Kyrios. And kirios is a designation and personal title for God, and often, as we'll see, used of Jesus as well, who is God. And really, the translation of the Hebrew word Adonai in the Old Testament in our translations is Lord. It is translated Lord. And even the word Yahweh, which isn't brought into our translation, but you see the word Lord in the Old Testament in capital letters, And that is the word Yahweh. The translators have followed the Jewish lead not to put Yahweh in the text, but instead have put it Lord. So one of the clear things when we say Jesus is Lord, we are acknowledging that Jesus is God. We believe that Jesus is God come in the flesh. When one cannot be saved without acknowledging and agreeing with Paul, agreeing with Christ, agreeing with God's Word that Jesus is God. that He is God come in the flesh, that He's fully God and fully man. Jump over to John 1. We saw this months ago in our Sunday school class. John 1.1, one of many clear declarations of the deity of Christ, in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God, all things came into being through Him, and apart from Him, nothing came into being that has come into being. So Jesus, as the second person of the Trinity, is the one who spoke in the beginning, let there be in the beginning, and created all that we see and all that we are and are a part of is due to His creation. And then jumping down to verse 14, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. He became one of us, part of His own creation. He became man, fully humanity, and yet He was also God, and therefore demonstrated in the greatest way ever or possible the glory and the greatness and the perfections of God to us. One of the reasons, one of the sad reasons that JWs, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Mormons, and many false religions are lost and on their way to hell is because they deny this very truth, this very doctrine that Jesus is God. They will not admit it. They will not acknowledge it. Even as we spoke about in our Q&A, those in Islam, Muslims, deny the deity of Christ. Therefore, they are lost. You must believe, you must acknowledge who Christ is in order to be saved, that He is God. And then, of course, believe, as we'll talk about His death and resurrection, and ask Him to forgive you of your sins. But there's also a further meaning that flows out of this word kirios, and that is the idea of master. Lord is master. The idea of ownership, thus having complete authority over someone. And of course, as we think of Jesus being Master, all the negative or sinful or evil connotations of that are gone, don't exist in Him, because He's perfect as God. And so everything He does as Master, as Lord, is for His glory and for our good, ultimately. He is the perfect and holy and righteous Master. In fact, I think Lord could be and perhaps should be translated Master in our translations. Because I think it would be more clear of what the meaning is of that word. We don't use the word Lord and even in our past history would not tend to use the word Lord. We may think of England and the Lords perhaps, but what does that really mean? What does that indicate? But if we say Master, we quickly understand what that means. And I fear that maybe because of the negative things, the sinful aspects of Master, they didn't want to use it. But yet, I think it would be so much clearer. And we often don't think about how often this word, Lord, this title, Lord, is used of Jesus in the New Testament. But it's often. It's a lot. In fact, in Romans, we could find nine uses of the Lord Jesus Christ or the Lord Jesus in Romans. And if you look throughout the whole New Testament, you find 103 uses of one of those phrases, Lord Jesus or Lord Jesus Christ. And so if we substitute master and said the master Jesus Christ, master Jesus, again, I think it would have that clear connotation of ownership and authority over us that we at times don't understand or don't remember or think about just like And I think John MacArthur's done a study, even a book on this, that he would say often where the word servant is used in the Bible, it should be slave. That the word for doulos, for slave, is really what the word is and what the real meaning is. And because, again, to soften the notion, they use servant. But how much better it would have been if they would have translated it slave. And I think the same for Jesus as Lord. If you would have used Master those 103 times, it would have made it very clear, much more clear, I think, in many ways, that Jesus is Master. And as we'll see, to believe in Him or to confess Him, you must confess Him as Master of your life. So why does Paul point out this aspect of Jesus' deity as what a true believer must agree with instead of other titles for God? Why would he focus on Lord here instead of other possible titles? And I think it is because the idea of master declares the very truth that we as sinners have rejected. It's at the heart of our sin and rebellion. That we will not, that we do not, that we don't acknowledge who he is, we will not follow, we will not submit. And Paul has already covered this. Go back to Romans 1. Romans 1 verse 21. And here Paul in verse 20 has said that all man, every human being, does know absolutely of the existence of God in verse 19 and 20. And they know it because they're part of creation. They're created themselves and they live within creation itself. And so there's no one who could say, I didn't know. There was no one who said, I didn't understand. No, Paul's saying everyone knows through creation because God is the one who created. God is the one who sustains his creation. And the last phrase of verse 20, so that they are without excuse. They are held accountable for this knowledge. But how did we respond to this knowledge that one true living God, one almighty, great and awesome God created us and sustains us. Verse 21, for even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but became futile in their speculations and their foolish hearts were darkened. We would not honor Him. We would not acknowledge that He was and is God. We would not worship Him and give Him the thanks and the praise that He deserves, so central to worship. We would not do that in our sin. but instead we did the most despicable, wicked thing we could possibly do in verse 23 and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and forfeited animals and crawling creatures. We replaced this incredible, awesome, glorious God with idols, with blocks of wood covered with precious metals. And notice in verse 25, he states again, for they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. We worshiped. We still worship. We still serve. We still have a master. It's just not God. It's the idol. It's the demons behind the idol. It's Satan. It's ourselves. It's what we want. It's not God. And so I think back in Romans chapter 10, Paul highlights this attribute of God, this truth about Jesus as God that is at the heart of our rebellion. If we are to be saved, we are to be forgiven and born again. We must come to acknowledge that Jesus is God, that he is master. And finally, now we are willing to surrender, to submit to Him, to worship Him as He deserves, to give thanks to Him, ultimately to live our lives for Him as our Master and our Savior and Lord. Believing in Jesus for salvation means believing that He is God and as God is our rightful Master from that point on. And then we, by His grace, are committed and able to live for Him and obey Him. And my question is, could Paul be any more clear about this truth here? That if you confess, openly declare Jesus as Master, and the 103 uses in the New Testament, could it be any more clear? That in order to be saved, you must believe and receive Jesus as Master of your life. As the Master that He is, the God and Lord. Sovereign Master that He is. And this is why the anti-lordship, as it's often called, teaching and heresy is so insidious, so evil. And this dates back all the way to the 1980s, at least the current iteration of it. It's certainly been, has come up and been believed or taught throughout church history. The rejection of Jesus as master or Lord. And this teaching or heresy was that you can believe in Jesus as Savior, as the one who died to pay for your sins and rose again victoriously, but you don't necessarily need to receive Him as Master, as Lord. That's optional. And that's how it was taught. That's how it's taught today. That's an optional thing. It's a good thing and we hope it happens, but it's not part of salvation. In fact, they would rail against those who would say it is. This verse. And they would say, that's a false gospel, and that's unacceptable. But I think this heresy attacks the very core of who Jesus is, and who we must finally accept and confess Him to be in order to be saved. And to believe that Jesus is my Savior, but not my Lord is in reality to deny His deity. To continue to refuse to surrender my life to Him. Now the anti-lordship position would protest that they do believe in Christ's deity, and certainly technically that would be true, but practically and in reality it just isn't so. To deny that one must believe in Jesus as both Lord and Savior is blatantly to deny the deity of Jesus and His rightful authority in my life. If one is going to be honest and biblical, Paul says here again that we must confess that Jesus is master in order to be saved. Jump over to 2 Peter 2. 2 Peter 2, we see Peter in the negative saying the same thing. He says so in a negative way. Of course, we could look at many other passages even Matthew 10 that we briefly touched on would speak of taking up our cross and following Christ and loving Him more than our father and mother and clearly pointing to the master Christ and our willingness to surrender to Him. But notice in 2 Peter 2 verse 1, but false prophets also arose among the people just as there will also be false teachers among you who will secretly introduce destructive heresies. So they're going to try to make it sound good. They're going to try to make it sound biblical. Notice one of these destructive heresies, even denying the master who bought them. They're going to deny the lordship of Christ. They're going to deny that he is their master. They have to serve, or you have to serve, be willing to serve him, surrender to him. And notice it bringing swift destruction on themselves. And I think that the next verse Highlights the outcome of this. Highlights the meaning of this. To deny Christ as Master or Lord. What does that bring? Many will follow their sensuality. And because of them, the way of truth will be maligned. And the book of 2 Peter goes on to talk about the horrible sins of false teachers. The lusts and the evil they pursue. One only need to read the headlines of the Catholic church for the last 20 or 30 years. to see vivid proof of this, or pastor after pastor that ends up being caught in terrible immorality or adultery and all kinds of wickedness and sin. The false teacher is characterized by sin and lust because ultimately he teaches and practices that Jesus isn't Lord or Master, and I can continue to live how I want, but I've accepted His salvation. I've believed Him as Savior, but I don't need to receive Him as Lord. And so it leads to flagrant disobedience, a continual life of flagrant sin. And someone can go from marriage to marriage to marriage, and yet they're still a believer. Or they could be a drunk and continue to get drunk week after week, month after month, and yet they're still a believer. Not only is it a deception, but it's also terribly destructive to them. They continue to suffer the consequences and be deceived all the while. I'm a believer because I've received Jesus as my Savior, but no, I continue to live life the way I want, and that's just fine. And so this notion that you can believe in Jesus as Savior, but continue to be an adulterer, a drunkard, or homosexual, or whatever sin you want to fill in the blank, In fact, Zane Hodges is the man back in the 80s, 1980s, that wrote a book on this, and really MacArthur ends up responding with his book, The Gospel According to Jesus, and there were a number of books back and forth. And so Zane Hodges really was the modern promoter of this heresy, and he was from Dallas Theological Seminary, a professor there for many years, I think even decades. But he went so far to say that you could believe in Jesus at one point in your life and then become an atheist. And yet you're still saved because you believed. And it's by faith alone. And so if you believed and said you believe, then you're a Christian and it doesn't matter how you live. It doesn't matter what you do. Jump back over to James 2 that Joseph read for us, James 2. And you come to these passages, I believe Zane Hodges wrote the commentary on James. I believe it's either the Bible knowledge commentary or the expositors. Both were written by Dallas faculty, and much of them are very good, and much of the doctrine is very good. But sadly, when he writes in James, here we have this passage about what does real faith look like? That's really what the whole book of James is about. What is real faith? How do I know I'm saved? I say I believe in Him, and maybe I can parrot some of the truths of the Gospel, but is my life really changed? Is there an evidence of the indwelling Holy Spirit? And that's what James is telling us, or explaining for us. And so he talks about the brother and sister in need, and you say, be well, be warm and filled, and yet you don't do anything to help them physically. And he says in verse 17, even so, faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself. Guess how Zane Hodges interprets this verse. This person is still saved. This person is still a believer in his theology, in his teaching. Clearly, James is saying they're not. Their faith is dead. It's not real. It didn't save them, because there's no change. There's no effect of the indwelling Holy Spirit. And if He's going to be consistent, verse 19 would mean that demons could be saved, because you believe that God is one, you do well. The demons also believe and shudder. They have belief. They have faith. They know. They won't deny or wouldn't deny that God's real. God exists. They see Him directly as spirit beings, and yet, they don't repent and submit, do they? They merely shudder and continue the fight, continue the battle to try overcome God and His work and His people. This is a terrible heresy. It is a distorted, destructive gospel that cannot be supported by Scripture. Sadly, the position goes on to teach that, yeah, it'd be great if you do receive Jesus as Lord. It's a second step. It's hopefully a crisis in your life later on. And it really comes from some bad theology back in England, 100 years or more, called Keswick theology, and it's this idea that sanctification is a two-step approach. You get saved, you get your sins forgiven, but it's really then a second step when you really commit yourself to Christ. And even this teaching that disciples is a second step. You're not a disciple until you really commit, but you can be saved before that. Scripture does not teach that. In fact, James is one of the books we've seen, 1 John, at other times, and Hebrews, whole books that really are written to counter this kind of heresy, this kind of lie to say, no, if you're a believer, then the Spirit dwells in you, then there'll be an effect, there'll be fruit that flows from your life, and over time, you'll be able to see that. Someone as popular as Beth Moore, has taught this heresy, and she taught it in her first study, perhaps 20 years ago, called Breaking Free. And at my last church, many years ago, someone was using her material, and so I jumped in to look at the material, and especially this first book that was being used. And the entire thrust of the study is that I'm going to help you if you've been stuck in this sin for 10 or 15 or 20 years, I'm finally going to help you break free. And yet it was treating the person as a believer. There was no sense of, no, you're not saved. You need to get saved if you're still dominated by sin. Then the Spirit clearly is not in you as 1 John or James would teach or Hebrews. And so she taught the same false gospel, heretical lie that you can receive Jesus as Savior, but not necessarily as Lord. And this is a second step. This should not be surprising to us that there are many who would teach and promote this. 2 Peter 2, we will go back there, but it talks about many teaching this and many following their error, following their lies. Because what does this teaching appeal to? It appeals to the flesh. That I can be a believer and still continue to enjoy my sin. You can have my cake and eat it too. And so I'm going to heaven. I've got fire insurance. But it doesn't matter if I keep being a gossip. It doesn't matter if I keep living sexually immoral. And again, you fill in the blank of the sins. You know, the great news that the Scripture does teach us is that we must confess Jesus as Master, as Lord here in Romans 10. We must surrender our lives to Him, but the result of genuine salvation is that the power of sin is broken for the believer. And we've seen this in our previous study in Romans. It doesn't mean we become perfect, of course, or sinless. And we saw in chapter 7, Paul teaching that he still had this battle with sin. He even said, I do at times the things I don't want to do. But becoming a believer doesn't mean we're sinless or perfect. But in chapter 6, he taught that the power of sin was broken. That we are no longer slaves to sin if we're truly saved and the Spirit has come in to live within us. And the power of the sin nature is broken. That we're no longer dominated by our sin nature. And even urges us then to offer our bodies as instruments of righteousness. To stop offering them to wickedness, but instead to righteousness. And because of the blessing of salvation, the great news is I'm not still destined then to continue to be dominated by being a liar, by being a thief, by being an arrogant, selfish person. But through Christ, the power of sin is broken, and now I can see that sin, and I can, by God's grace, admit it, confess it, and start to turn away from it. and live in soberness and live in love and live for the good of others and live to glorify Christ and put others first. Praise God. True salvation is a powerful salvation. And Jesus, as that perfect God and master, becomes the Lord of our life. And as we grow and mature, more and more of our life is transformed by His grace and mercy and power and forgiveness. Well, Paul moves on to a second belief here, a second core aspect element of the gospel. Not only must we confess Jesus as Lord, as Master, if we are to be saved as God come in the flesh, but we are to believe in our heart that God raised Him from the dead. That if you believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, Of course, this word belief, the idea of faith, trusting in, is not new to our study of Romans, is it? We've seen it many times already in chapter 3. After cataloging our sinfulness and need of salvation in chapters 1 through the middle part of chapter 3, he talked of faith. By faith we can receive the righteousness of God, who died and rose again paying the price for our sins. In fact, chapter 4, if you remember, was a major defense of salvation by faith alone. And Abraham, as the father of faith, was given as the prime example who believed 15 years before he was circumcised. Circumcision being an act of obedience. It was a command of God. It wasn't optional. similar to baptism for the believer today, in the sense that God commands it, but it's not what saves us. Nor did circumcision save Abraham. Paul pointed out in chapter 4 that 15 years separated the two. He believed and God credited to him his righteousness. In Genesis 15 and Genesis 17, he was circumcised in obedience to God's command 15 years later. And so Paul says it's by faith alone, both for the Jew and the Gentile. All are saved by faith alone. And even in recent verses here, at the end of chapter 9 into chapter 10 here, we've seen the emphasis of faith. That it's by believing. And the Gentiles came to faith, believing in God, receiving His righteousness. The Jews refused and continued to hold to their pride and arrogance that they could earn God's favor. They could become good enough. and their own righteousness could merit them salvation. But no, it was by faith. By believing. And what is the belief that he will emphasize here? It is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That the Father, that God raised Jesus from the dead after three days. Though He died and was buried, He was not held by the grave. And He was brought back to life and was given a glorified body. Why not mention the death and burial of Christ here? You may wonder, why just go right to the resurrection and not give the full breadth of what Christ did? And really, we have the person of Christ in the first part here, and now the work of Christ in the second part. Why not mention Christ's death and burial? And really, as I mentioned just a little bit ago, Paul's already talked about the death of Christ back in chapter three and again extensively in chapter six. So he's already covered that that's a part of the gospel. I think in many ways, when he mentions the resurrection, it assumes the death of Christ and burial, assumes that he died to pay for our sins, was buried, and then rose again, then rose victoriously to give us eternal life. But I think probably the reason that he would simply emphasize that here as well, or primarily, is because it's really the part of the gospel in addition to the deity of Christ that's been the most disputed or would be the most disputed. That people would deny the resurrection. That they would not believe or receive the truth and truly trust in that Jesus was truly raised from the dead. Of course, the resurrection by definition is supernatural. It's something outside of the normal functioning of God's created order. We haven't seen someone in our lifetime being raised from the dead. We can't observe it and test it and verify it. It is by faith that we must receive it. And yet, the vital importance of the resurrection to the gospel cannot be overstated. The resurrection is core and central. For without it, the gospel is dead and our faith is dead. if the resurrection is not true, if Jesus was not raised from the dead. And so Paul rightly summarizes the gospel with this second core part of our belief, that in order to be saved, we must believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Turn with me back to 1 Corinthians 15. And we've looked at this before, especially on Resurrection Sunday in the past. But if there's one section that highlights the importance of the resurrection to the gospel, it would have to be 1 Corinthians 15. And it's good to really store this in your mind and have this ready as a defense to any who would attempt to deny the resurrection or minimize the importance of the resurrection. Because here Paul is going to declare without any question that the resurrection is absolutely necessary if our salvation is to be true and the gospel is to be true. Now he says in verse 1, I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which you also received and which you also stand, by which also you are saved. And so he's going to talk about the central message of salvation here. And he says, by which you are saved if you hold fast the word which I preached to you unless you believed in vain. And the lasting nature of true faith, saving faith is lasting faith. And he highlights that in verse two. But verse three, I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Jesus died for our sins according to the scripture, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures. Here are these key aspects of the gospel, the death, burial, and resurrection. That is what I preach. That is what you believed. It is of first importance. It is the core of the gospel. But he's really going to focus on the resurrection again, because that's the part that people would deny, would challenge. Very few would deny the death of Jesus, that there was a historical figure named Jesus and that he was crucified. But the real rub comes when you talk about the resurrection, that he came back to life, that he did not remain in the grave. but God raised Him from the dead. And so as he wants to defend this truth and to highlight how important it is, he begins by showing that not just two witnesses, but 500 plus witnesses saw Jesus experienced Jesus after He rose from the dead. They are witnesses. They are personal eyewitnesses of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And notice, we read this, it's not only friendly witnesses, which would be the majority of them, but it's also hostile witnesses, those who would not have wanted to believe, who did not believe, and yet the truth prevailed. And they were brought to ultimately surrender and acknowledge that it was true, even declare it was true. And so he appeared to Cephas in the 12, verse 5. After that, he appeared to more than 500 brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep. I love how God kind of gets carried away. You know, two witnesses in the Old Testament, but two isn't good enough, and neither is 50, and neither is 100, but over 500 people. This is unquestionable. 500 people plus. witnessed Jesus, saw, interacted, experienced Jesus after he was raised from the dead. No question could remain that it really happened. But as I mentioned, not only are there favorable witnesses here, but there are two very unfavorable or hostile witnesses, two who did not want to and did not believe when initially encountering or being told about or taught the resurrection of Jesus Christ. One was one of the disciples, right? One of the 12. And we know him by his infamous name, Doubting Thomas. Doubting Thomas. I will not believe. The 11 saw. Jesus appeared to the 11 or the 10. He was with them in the room. They excitingly tell Thomas, who was absent for some reason, and what does he say? I will not believe unless I touch the nail print, unless I put my hand in the side. I mean, that's unbelief. That's a hostile witness who's saying, you cannot convince me by anything you say. I have to personally touch and experience the resurrected Jesus, or I will not believe. And of course, God in wisdom uses his unbelief to set up, again, this incredible proof. because Jesus then the next day appears to him and he falls down, my Savior, my God, and believes. He can't deny, he can't maintain his unbelief any longer, but openly admits going forward that Jesus was resurrected. But we have a second hostile witness. In verse seven, he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared to me also, Brian the least of the apostles, and not fit to be called an apostle, but I persecuted the church of God. You couldn't get a more hostile witness than Paul. He was the Pharisee of Pharisees. He was driven. We might call him the Type A personality, I guess. He was adamant that this was a lie, that Jesus was not the Messiah, that this was fabricated or false. He's out there killing Christians, taking responsibility, imprisoning them, doing all he can to shut down the church, to destroy it. And what happens? Jesus appears to him on the road to Damascus. The Lord, the risen Christ, God, appears to him, and he's completely changed. He's saved, born again, even is blinded initially, and the blindness is taken away. I think just picturing the salvation, spiritually, that he encountered. And this is so clear and so powerful that what does Paul do? after this encounter with Christ, and after he receives his sight, he immediately goes and starts declaring Christ Jesus as the Messiah, as the risen Christ. And he, throughout his ministry, will defend the resurrection of Jesus Christ, as he is doing here to the believers at Corinth. Very hostile, as hostile as you could get, and yet was absolutely convinced that Jesus did rise from the dead. The proof is without question or unassailable. Well, he goes on here in the next section to mention then how important this truth is and why this is central to our salvation in the gospel. Because some at Corinth evidently were teaching not that Jesus wasn't raised, but they were teaching that the resurrection, no one's raised, that the resurrection doesn't happen. There is no supernatural, kind of like the Sadducees, who of course, as you've heard, I'm sure many times are Sadducees because they don't believe in the resurrection. They had infiltrated or were in the Corinth, the church at Corinth and teaching that Christ was not raised or that they were teaching that resurrection itself did not happen, but evidently not necessarily connecting the dot to try to get away with their false teaching. And so what does he say in verse 12? Now, if Christ is preached that he has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say there is no resurrection of the dead? And he goes on here to give us six different effects, six destructive outcomes to the faith and those who believe it if there is no resurrection and therefore Christ is not raised. And so he goes on to say, Verse 13, if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised, number one. So Christ himself is still in the grave. His bones are still there. He hasn't come out of the grave. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith is vain, and that word is empty, meaningless. So the preaching of Paul and the faith of the Corinthian believers, and of course our faith, would be all empty. and of no value. Our sins are not forgiven. We aren't children of God. We can't look forward to glory if Jesus has not been raised because there is no resurrection of the dead. Verse 15, number three, moreover, we are even found to be false witnesses of God. Paul himself is a false teacher, and the apostles are false teachers, and this is all a lie. Because we testified against God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised. We've been claiming throughout our ministry that Christ was raised by the Father, that God did raise His Son, and yet if there is no resurrection, Christ is not raised, we are liars. We are false teachers. Again, restating in verse 16, if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, Your faith is worthless. You are still in your sin. 4. What we believe, our trust in what Jesus did, and that someday we will be raised, that our sins are forgiven, and that we have a glorified body awaiting us and a kingdom and eternal glory is all a lie, is all false, and our faith is no good. It is worthless. It is meaningless and empty. We are still enslaved to our sins, still headed for destruction. Verse 18, then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. Number five, your saved loved ones who are already dead. And we think sadly and know that those of false religions are in Hades, are going to be in hell, are suffering. And it breaks our heart. And it's a terrible reality that we know is true. But he's saying, actually, no, believers are the ones who are in Hades, are suffering the consequence of their sins. They died in their sins. They do not have the hope of eternal life, only of eternal judgment, if Christ has not been raised. And then finally, verse 19, Christians should be pitied the most. if there is no resurrection and Christ has not been raised. If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied. Why? Because we do believe Jesus is our master. We have surrendered our lives. We are living for Him, turning from sin, walking in obedience. We are suffering persecution. We're not trying to have it all here. We know that the next life is what it's about. We know the kingdom and the glory of that and the eternal state. We're living for that and suffering and going through hardship. But if it's all a lie and it's all a sham, then we are of all men most to be pitied because what? We've wasted our lives. We made the wrong choice. And instead of the world being the ones who are wasting their lives and unbelievers, we've wasted our lives. And so thankfully, in verse 20, Paul comes back to the truth he knows and has already declared, but now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep, and goes on to speak about that resurrection that we too will be raised anew with Christ someday. Praise God. The resurrection is true. It did happen. Our faith is real. It is right. We will enjoy and receive the blessings and promises that God has made through Christ and through the salvation he has promised. I think the key question for us today is do we understand the significance of the resurrection of Jesus Christ? Do we understand what Paul is telling us here? This is central to our faith. It is not optional. It is a hill to die on. We must teach. We must defend. We must continue to trust in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Number two, have you believed? Have you trusted in what Jesus did for you? Not that your parents are believers. Not that you come to church regularly. Not that you give to church or you do good works. What are you trusting in for your salvation? Is it the resurrection of Jesus Christ? Is it that He died in your place, took the wrath of God on Him and rose again to new life? And if you confess who He is, if you believe who He is and believe that He was raised and ask Him to forgive you, that you can have eternal life. And there's a third question I'd want to ask as believers, and that is, do we include the resurrection in our gospel presentation? Do we include the resurrection? We highlight the death of Christ. We talk about people's sinfulness as we should. But I fear that we often don't emphasize the resurrection as strongly as we should. You know, I remember as a child and a young person learning the Romans Road, which I think is a pretty good road to try to use in sharing the gospel, but I don't remember a strong emphasis on the resurrection. Yet from 1 Corinthians 15 and here in Romans 10, it ought to be a strong part and emphasis that Jesus was raised from the dead, victorious over sin and death. And if you believe that and receive him as your master and as your savior and ask him to forgive you, you can have eternal life. I'd urge you to join me in really trying to make sure we include this strongly and clearly in the gospel that we present to the lost, hopefully on an ongoing and regular basis. Paul has shown us once again in this one short verse that doctrine and truth matter a lot. Not so we can arrogantly say that we're right and someone else is wrong. Not so we can pridefully win Bible trivia. and scoff at those who are ignorant. Truth matters because truth is the substance of the gospel and right belief that leads to genuine salvation and eternal life. We've seen clearly here in verse 9 of Romans 10, two key elements of the gospel that are worth dying for, that are absolutely necessary to confess Jesus as Lord, as Master, and to believe that God raised Him from the dead. If you've believed that, if you have trusted in Jesus, as God become a man who died on the cross and rose to new life, and you've asked Him to forgive you, surrendering your life to Him, you've been saved. You've been given eternal life. And the goal for us now is to go to a lost and dying world again this week, again today, to a neighbor, to a friend, to a coworker, and to declare this truth to them, urging them, to surrender to Christ, to believe in Him as their Lord and Savior, as their master, and believe in His resurrection from the dead. Let's pray together. Father, thank you for Paul's teaching here. Even in one verse that is critical to our understanding, critical to salvation, if we are going to be born again or have eternal life, then we must believe that Jesus is our master. He is God and master and again, surrender to Him. That which at the core of our sinfulness we were unwilling to do. We were living in rebellion and sin. Yet by your grace and mercy and through the gospel coming to understand that He is our master and Lord and receiving Him as our God and Savior and master. and Lord to believe in him and his resurrection that he did die. That the wrath of God was poured on him that he was buried. And then he was raised to new life that you in your power and might raised him to new life as a glorified Savior and raised him even to your right hand. Where he now intercedes for us. As we believe and ask for his forgiveness. You give us His righteousness and You take our sins and wash them all away. Lord, thank You for the truth of the gospel. Thank You for the good and right doctrine that You've given us in Your Word that we can study and learn. Lord, help us as we do that to discern error as well, to discern heresy and false doctrine and false gospels. We've talked about just one area or two of error, heresy, and yet we know there's many more. Because Satan is alive and active and his demons and the false teachers that they inspire and empower are many. The errors they promote are multiplied. The Lord help us as we learn the truth and we believe it then to stand firm against that error and learn your word so that we can defend against it and point that out to those who are misled or deceived. And help them to come to know the truth. Be strong and steady and steadfast and be able to stand on the truth. God, thank you for your goodness and grace. Thank you for the word that we can study and learn and know the truth and believe it and live our lives based upon it. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.