THE GOSPEL OF
CHRIST
SPREADING THE SOUL-SAVING MESSAGE OF JESUs
(Chapter 10)
Introduction by narrator accompanied by a cappella singing:
THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST. Spreading the soul-saving message of Jesus. And now, Timothy Sparks and Ben Bailey.
Ben Bailey:
“Brethren, My heart’s desire and prayer to God for
Timothy Sparks:
I’m Timothy Sparks. Welcome to our study of the Book of Romans. This message is brought to you by
individual members and congregations of the
We now come to Romans 10. In verses 1 and 2, Paul says, “Brethren, my
heart’s desire and prayer to God for
Ben Bailey:
Paul's concern is on display in Romans
10:3 when he says, “They, being ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to
establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of
God.” Basically, Paul says they had utterly failed. In Romans 10:4, Paul speaks about this when he says, “For Christ is
the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.” Christ is
not necessarily finishing the law—He’s not ending the law—in the sense that
there is “no more law.” Rather, He is the finality of the law—the fulfillment
of God’s ultimate plan. The Jews at the time of the writing of the Book of Romans were trying to find
their own way to be righteous. Doesn't
that sound a lot like our society
today? People are intent on creating their own way of salvation. They are deciding
what they want to do to be saved. In
the end, whatever the Bible says may not really matter. It reminds me of the
prophet Jeremiah, who said, “Oh Lord I know, I know the way of man is not in
himself it is not in man who walks to direct his own steps” (10:23). We can’t create
our own path to Heaven. Jeremiah said clearly that when we try, we will
fail! In Proverbs 14:12 and 16:25, the Bible says that “there is a way that seems right to a man, but the end
thereof is the way of death.” The Jewish Christians who were trying to make
their own way of salvation by the Old Law—a law that had been nailed to the
cross—had utterly failed. They failed in such a way that they were no longer
righteous, and thus no longer pleasing to God. We today must not try to create
our own way to Heaven. We must not follow the writings of men. Instead, we must
look solely to the Bible as our guide. What men say when it comes to matters of
salvation is frequently not worth hearing. We must hear the Word of God. We
must listen to Jesus and the words that He left us so that we can have eternal
life. I'm reminded of what Peter said in John 6. Jesus had made some hard
statements, and He had spoken about some difficult things. From that point on,
some of His disciples decided not to walk with Him any more. Jesus then turned
to the rest of the group and asked, “Will you also go away?” Peter responded,
“Lord to whom shall we go? You have the words of
eternal life” (vs. 68). The same is true for us today. Our way of salvation is not the right way. From Isaiah 55:9-11 we learn that God’s ways
and man’s ways are not the same. God’s ways are much loftier and holier than
our ways. So in Romans 10:3-4, Paul shows that people were not going to be
saved by the Old Law.
Timothy Sparks:
Paul makes it clear that it is only through the proclamation
of the Gospel that people can be saved. Any time we come to a study of the Book
of Romans, we need to keep in mind Romans 1:16-17, where Paul says that the Gospel
is God’s saving power. The Gospel reveals God’s righteousness. Paul makes it
clear that it takes preachers and teachers of the truth of God’s Word in order
for people to come to a knowledge of the truth. He started out this discussion
by explaining what a great love he had for the Jews. He wanted them to be
saved, but their zeal was uninformed. They had a zeal for God, but it was not
according to a knowledge of God’s Word. Preachers and teachers of God’s Word
can help people come to the knowledge of the truth so they can be saved (1 Tim.
2:4). Do you remember Saul of Tarsus (Acts 22)? If anyone could have been saved
by direct intervention of God, surely it would have been Saul. Christ appeared
to Saul on the road to
Ben Bailey:
Romans 1:16-17 tells us that the Gospel has the power to save, but what does it mean to “obey the Gospel”? We learn something about that here in Romans 10:9-10. We learn that belief and confession are part of the plan of salvation. Paul tells us that it is with the heart that one believes. With the heart, we believe unto salvation, and with the mouth we confess that Jesus is the Son of God. This is not all God says on these subjects, of course. If we took only bits and pieces from here or there, we would not get the full picture of everything God has said. As we study in the Book of Acts, for example, we see that in every account of conversion, people believe. They heard the Word. They repented. They confessed. They were baptized, and then they lived a life of faithfulness to God. Romans 10:13 (probably one of the best-known Bible verses in our world today) teaches us that, “Whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.” Many people want to think that they have “called on the name of the Lord.” They like to think they can say simply, “Lord, Lord,” and feel they are saved. Yet, there is much more to it than this.
Timothy Sparks:
Jesus actually addressed this when He said, “Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not do the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46). In Matthew 7:22, Jesus said, “Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’” Verse 23 records, “Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’” Previous to these two verses, Jesus had said, “Not everyone who calls upon him as Lord, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven” (vs. 21). In Romans 10:13, Paul is actually referring back to a prophecy that Joel made in the Old Testament. Joel prophesied, “And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (2:32). Peter quoted Joel’s prophecy in his sermon in Acts 2 when he said, “Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (vs. 21). When the people asked, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” (vs. 37), they were asking (in that specific context), “What shall we do to call on the name of the Lord that we might be saved?” In contrast to a lot of religious teaching today, Peter did not say, “All you have to do is accept Jesus Christ into your heart as your personal Lord and Savior.” What did Peter tell them? He told them, “Repent and be immersed, everyone of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins” (vs. 38). The way that we “call on the name of the Lord to be saved” is by rendering obedience to the Gospel. We come to believe in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God. We repent of our sins, which includes a change of mind that leads to a change of life. We confess that Jesus is the Son of God. Then, we are baptized into Christ to access His cleansing blood. Baptism is not a meritorious work by which we “earn” our salvation. Rather, it’s how we accept the grace and mercy of God. So, when we read passages such as Romans 10:9-10 in which we learn that with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation and with the heart one believes to righteousness, we need to take into consideration what other Bible writers, and even the Lord Himself, had to say in regard to the plan of salvation, and what we must do to be saved. We have to take the whole counsel of God, which is exactly what Paul tried to preach and teach (Acts 20:28).
Ben Bailey:
The idea of “calling on the Lord” seems to carry with it the connotation that we are in distress, and that we are calling out to God for help. It’s as though a person is sinking in quicksand, and they call out for help for someone to throw them a lifeline. If someone does that, will that person reject the help? Hardly! It’s the same type of thing when we “call on the name of the Lord.”’ We are sinking in the quicksand of sin. God is extending the gift of His salvation. When we call on God’s name, we have to reach out and do whatever God tells us to do to be saved from our sins. “Calling on the name of the Lord” is not simply saying “Lord, Lord.” Rather, as Jesus pointed out in Matthew 7:21, it means that we obey God and do His will. One of the saddest verses in the entire Book of Romans is found in Romans 10:16. Paul says, “But they have not all obeyed the gospel.” What a sad verse. Here, Paul laments the fact (as he did in Romans 9:1-3 and Romans 10:1-4) that not everyone has obeyed the Gospel. Truly, it is so sad that we are living in a world where every day people are dying in a lost condition—dying lost, to spend eternity with the devil in a sinner’s hell. What a sad fact that is. It is our heart’s desire, and our prayer for you, that you won’t be lost. If you’re not a child of God, you need to make that right before its everlastingly too late. You need to make that right by submitting to the system of faith found in the Bible. Some might ask, “How do we obtain faith?” The answer is found in the Romans 10:17, where Paul says, “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.” Faith comes by hearing God’s Word. We don’t receive faith in the middle of the night by some special “moving of the Holy Spirit.” We can’t get it by osmosis. We don’t get it in any other way except by reading and understanding the Word of God. This verse in Romans 10:17, which tells us how we obtain faith, says that we must know God’s Word. When we read the Old Testament and see the examples of how that, in every case, God was faithful to His Word, it should help us to have faith in that Word. As we read the New Testament, we then can understand that it is the inspired will of God. Through the centuries, God has faithfully supplied His Word to us. Romans 10 is a great example of what it means to have faith. We must study the Bible, as Paul told Timothy when he said, “Study to show yourself approved unto God” (2 Tim. 2:15). In Proverbs 15:26-28, the Bible says, “The heart of the righteous studies how to answer.” We must be “people of The Book.” It used to be that religious people were known for studying and knowing their Bible. Sadly, that’s not the case anymore. Today, perhaps it could be said of us, as it was in the days of the prophet Hosea, “My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge” (Hosea 4:6). We must have faith—which brings us full circle to the theme of (Romans 1:16-17). We must have faith, for the Gospel is a system of faith based on faith that creates faithfulness.
Timothy Sparks:
As we look at Romans 10:17, which is sandwiched between verses 16 and 18, we learn two valuable lessons. Notice that Paul says, “They have not all obeyed the gospel” (referring to Isaiah 53:1). Not all the Jews had obeyed the Gospel. But, in verse 18, Paul asks, “But have they not all heard?” He then answers his own question when he says, “Yes indeed.” Paul’s point is that while everyone has not obeyed the Gospel they have heard the Gospel. This reminds me of Romans 1:8 where Paul said, “I thank God through Jesus Christ that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.” The Christians in the first century did a tremendous job of taking the Gospel to every person in that day and time. Not everyone obeyed, but at least they had heard. Some people might say, “I don’t know if that really means what it’s saying there. I don’t know if everybody really did hear the Gospel.” But Paul says “Yes indeed.” From Colossians 1:6 and 1:23, we learn that the Gospel had been taken “into all the world.” Thus, there are at least three passages in the New Testament which confirm that the Gospel had been taken to the then-known world. The first-century Christians did a wonderful job of taking the Gospel to people. We live in a day of incredible technology, in which we have more means of transportation and communication than anyone has at any time in history. How dedicated and how zealous are we in spreading the truth of God’s Word? There are a lot of people who are spreading what they “believe” to be true, but as Paul said, they have a zeal for God that is not according to knowledge. We need the truth of God’s Word communicated today. We don’t need people who are unwilling to study, and who simply want to say, “I have a feeling deep in my heart that I wouldn’t trade for a thousand Bibles.” The Bible is God’s Word. And it is that Word which presents the Gospel that saves us. As the psalmist said, “The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul” (Psalm 19:7). So it is today. It is the Word of God—the Law of Christ—that does the convicting and the converting. Nothing else can accomplish that. We need to be concerned with spreading the pure, unadulterated Gospel. We don’t need to know what “everybody else” thinks; we don’t need opinions. What we need is book, chapter, and verse preaching. We need to know what the Lord says, we need a “thus saith the Lord.” As Colossians 3:17 says, “Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord.” We need the authority of God and the authority of Christ behind everything we do—in our life, in our teaching, in our preaching, and in our worship. We need to be more committed and concerned with what God has said in the Scriptures. God has told us exactly what He wants us to do. He has given us His law and His will concerning what we do in worship, and He has given us a guide in life—the Bible—that will lead us to our heavenly home.
Ben Bailey:
Paul closes Romans 10 with a very sad quote from Isaiah
65:2. He lamented the fact at the beginning of the chapter that the Jews were
ignorant of God’s will, and that while they had a zeal for God, it wasn’t according
to a knowledge of God’s Word. Now, he closes this chapter with a quote from the
Old Testament where God says, “I have stretched out My
hands all day long to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, according to their
own thoughts.” God was very
displeased with
Timothy Sparks:
We find from the Book of Romans an excellent lesson for us today. We need to take the Gospel, and incorporate it into our hearts and lives. Then, we need to be the type of people who will valiantly and boldly go wherever we can in this world, teaching and preaching the glorious Gospel of Christ. As we look at Romans 10:13, we see that the way to truly call on the name of the Lord is by believing in Him with all of our hearts, repenting of our sins, confessing that Jesus is the son of God, and then by being baptized into Christ to access His cleansing blood.
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Narrator accompanied by a cappella singing:
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1. In Romans
10:1-2, Paul said, “Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for
2. According to Romans 9:1-3, how much did Paul love his fellow Jews?
3. What did Paul mean when he wrote in Romans 10:3, “They, being ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God.”
4. In Romans 10:4, Paul said, “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.” How is Christ “the end of the law”?
5. Explain the connection between such passages as Proverbs 16:25, Jeremiah 10:23, and Proverbs 14:12.
6. Romans 10:3-4 teaches us that something will not save us. What is that “something”?
7. According to Romans 10:9-10, there is something that plans an important part in man’s salvation. What is it?
8. In Romans 10:13, we read: “Whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.” How do we call on the name of the Lord?
9. In Romans 10:13, Paul is referring to a specific statement from the Old Testament. Where is that statement found?
10. When Paul says in Romans 10:16 that “they have not all obeyed the Gospel,” to whom is he referring?
11. Explain the statement, “The righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith” (Rom. 1:17).
12. What important point is taught in Colossians 1:6, Romans 1:8, and Colossians 1:23?
13. Explain Isaiah 65:2, “I have stretched out My hands all day long to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, according to their own thoughts.”
14. Discuss the importance, within the context of the biblical plan of salvation, of Hebrews 2:9.
15. According to Psalm 19:7, what “converts the soul”?
16. Explain the connection between 2 Timothy 2:15 and Proverbs 15:26-28.
17. The phrase “calling on the name of the Lord” carries a specific connotation. What is it?
THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST,