Romans Chapter 10:11-14

People say, well, all roads lead to God. I understand what they mean when they say that.

You know, and I used to disagree with that, but you know, I actually, I do agree with that. All roads do lead to God. What happens when you get there is how you interpret these verses. See, because if you believe these verses, you ask God to forgive you of your sins, if you meet God for the first time here, it's going to be a glorious reunion when you get there.

Welcome to Cross the Bridge with David McGee. As Pastor David mentioned, it's very true that each one of us is going to meet Jesus face to face one day. The question is, on what terms will you meet him? Find out today as David McGee continues in Romans chapter 10 with the teaching, We Can Be Forgiven. So we're in Romans chapter 10. Look at verse 11. For the scripture says, whoever believes on him will not be put to shame.

This is a great verse. You never have to wonder about the gospel. It works every time. There's a guarantee that Jesus is made. So when people come forward on Sunday morning, they ask Jesus to forgive them of their sins, I'm not looking at a guy going, well, gee, I hope it works for him, or I hope it works for her. No, I know.

It works. There's a promise in the word of God that if we do these things, we'll be forgiven. God never breaks his word. So as you're sharing with somebody, you don't have to, well, I'm going to share it with them, and if they pray, I hope it works.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. This is the word of God. You can doubt a lot of things, but don't doubt the word of God. Romans 1 16 says, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God, the salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. So in addition, I mean, yes, it will never be put to shame because it fails to function or God fails to live up to his promise, but neither should we be ashamed of what God has said.

The gospel, the word of God, it does what it promises to do. Now, you may not do what you always promise to do. I always do what I promise to do. I may intend to, you may intend to, but we just don't live up to everything. But the word of God is true and will fulfill every promise and prophecy that's in here. Not be put to shame.

Whoever believes on him will not be put to shame. And people that have studied the mind and the brain and chemical body stuff, they cannot answer this question. But friend, when you do something wrong, you feel bad about it. You regret it. Maybe a little or a lot, but there's a regret leads to guilt leads to shame. You can walk around with that shame all your life. Some of you brought it in here with you today, but you don't have to carry it out. You weren't built to carry it. God did not create you to carry your sin and to carry your shame. I've seen people crushed underneath the weight of it. He wants you to come to him and you give him your sin and give him your shame because you got one of two choices, friend.

You can give it to him now or you can be filled with shame later for rejecting it. People say, well, all roads lead to God. I understand what they mean when they say that.

I used to disagree with that, but I actually do agree with that. All roads do lead to God. What happens when you get there is how you interpret these verses.

See, because if you believe these verses, you ask God to forgive you of your sins. If you meet God for the first time here, it's going to be a glorious reunion when you get there. If you keep rejecting Jesus Christ here and you're meeting him for the first time there, it's not going to go well. Now, again, I'm not just talking about you mentally going, yeah, I believe in Jesus. No, I'm talking about confession and believing. Life lesson here, everybody, everyone will meet God. Everyone will meet God.

We won't be ashamed if we've asked Jesus to forgive us of our sins. And understand, you know, sometimes people go, well, I just don't deserve it. Bingo. You don't, well, I got to get a few things worked out in my life before I come to God. No, you don't. Come to God.

Because, friend, let me ask you a question. If you're trying to get things worked out before you come to him, how much do you have to work out? Well, I just want to get a little bit better. I just want to get my life settled. Good luck on that one. It's never going to be settled until you come to him.

What happens is we build up the wall. Well, I need to deal with this and deal with that, and then I'll come to God. I know you come to God, and then God will help you deal with those things. Book of Romans has over time historically revolutionized Christianity. And understand, this is a book or a letter, really, that's what epistle means, a letter that Paul wrote to the church at Rome. Paul had not been to Rome yet, but he wrote this book to Rome. And some of the things that this book says have radically altered history with John Wycliffe and William Tyndale and Martin Luther, one of the more well-known of the Reformation, Ulrich Zürich, these other people who were part of the Reformation and took some of these verses and ran with them.

Because understand, before the Reformation, the main church was the Catholic Church who had become, they'd started teaching some fairly unbiblical things. And they were trying to build St. Peter's Basilica, and they needed to raise money, and somebody came up with the idea that, well, what we'll do is we'll sell forgiveness to people. And they literally did that. It was called indulgences. And they actually had a little menu list that if you did this, you paid a certain amount, and if you did that, you paid a certain amount. Then you could pay like a flat fee and then do a lot of things. So we don't do that here. Some of you are going, can I see the menu?

No. And then you could do it for your relatives, too, even if they were already dead. You could get them out of a place called Purgatory, which is nowhere in the Bible. And they came up with this little marketing slogan that whenever a coin in the bucket rings a soul from Purgatory Springs, Martin Luther saw these things and said, this is not in the Bible. We're not saved like this.

We're not forgiven like this. And it started the fires of the Reformation all over Europe. And one of the things he would say is this phrase in the Latin, sola scriptura, sola fidela, sola gradia. And what this saying means, that sola scriptura is only through Scripture. We've got to base what we believe, how we conduct ourselves, and how we operate the churches according to the Bible.

And that's what we try to do here. When you ask myself or one of the pastors, why do y'all do this, we will pull out the Bible and say, well, the Bible says this. So we always want to be able to point to the Bible, sola scriptura, sola fidelis, only by faith, only by faith. Not by works, but by this faith, this belief, this trust in Jesus. And in sola gradia, only by grace. Meaning if you think that you deserve the forgiveness of your sins, you'll never have it.

It's only by grace. Let's look at verse 12. It says, for there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. Now, understand, it's saying there's no distinction in the sense of how we come to the Lord. The New Living Translation, this verse says, Jew and Gentile are the same in this respect.

They all have the same Lord who generously gives His riches to all who ask for Him. Galatians 3.28 says there's neither Jew nor Greek, there's neither slave nor free, there's neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Now, obviously, there are differences, physical or whatever, between a Jewish person and a non-Jewish person. There's obvious differences between a male and a female, right?

Shake your head. Come on with me now. We're not going back over all that. But, I mean, there's a difference.

You notice from a young age there's a difference. But how we come to the Lord is the same for everybody, every person, whether you're Jew, Greek, slave, free, male or female. Colossians 3.11 says where there's neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarians, Scythians, slave nor free, but Christ is all in all. So we all come to the Lord the same way, through Jesus.

Thank you for joining us for Cross the Bridge. We'll continue with our study in Romans in just a moment. Do you know how Satan can get a grip on you?

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The whole book for the whole world. Now let's return to David McGee's verse-by-verse teaching in the book of Romans. Look at verse 13. It says, The laws on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Man. Believing and calling on His name. It's really not complicated, is it? This isn't just the good news.

This is the great news. This isn't, you know, oh, well, if you come to church enough and you do this and you give enough, you read enough, you do this. Believe and confess. Too often we paint Christianity, you know, you got to try harder, try, ooh, you got to hold your mouth right, and you got, ooh, you know, come on, hip, hip, hooray, come on, jump a little higher, run a little faster. That's Christianity. No, that's not Christianity. Christianity is you're playing on the wrong stinking team.

You need to quit playing for that team and join the other side. Pretty much it's Christianity. And believe and confess. Whoever. Whoever. You understand everybody in here can be a whoever?

Everybody you will see today can be a whoever. That's why it bothers me when people go, well, Christianity is such an exclusive religion. Exclusive religion?

Whoever? Are you in the King James whosoever? How is that exclusive? Anybody that wants to come to Jesus, anybody that wants to ask Him to forgive them of their sins, it's not an American religion. We don't hold a monopoly on Christianity. It's not a white person's religion. It's not a black person's religion. It's not just a Middle Eastern religion. It's for everybody who will come to Him, anybody who will come to Him. So how can people say, well, it's exclusive? In one way, perhaps.

We'll talk about that in a second. Look at this in the, I love the way the English version, which some of the English version I'm not real solid. Anyway, in the English version it says, as the scripture says, everyone who calls out to the Lord for help will be saved. And the amplified version says, for everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord, invoking Him as Lord, will be saved. So anybody, everybody, whoever calls the name of the Lord, believes and trusts in Him, can be forgiven. So how is it the world has this opinion or view of Christianity that is kind of like a club that if you're good enough, you get in?

I don't know, who gave them that opinion? Maybe we did somewhere along the way, but it's not true. 1 John says this, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar.

Him, capital H, God, a liar, and His word is not in us. The only thing that keeps you back from this, if you sit there and go, well, I don't need it. I'm okay. I haven't really sinned. I'm being pretty good right now.

Hopefully if you're sitting in here in your right mind or you're listening to television, internet, radio, whatever, and you're not sitting there going, no, I'm okay. I haven't messed up. I've not sinned.

You've not sinned. Ask your mama. See what your mama says. And if you can't ask your mama, ask your spouse.

Honey, have I ever sinned? When she quits laughing and tells you yes, then understand. So what is it? An unwillingness to submit your tongue and your heart to Jesus Christ, which makes no sense at all because, friend, you know what? Everybody will have to submit that tongue and bend their knee to Him ultimately.

So it's either now or it's later. Talk about it being an exclusive religion. Now, understand, and let me say this. When I talk to somebody that does not believe the Bible, does not consider themselves a Christian, and they say to me, I think there's many ways to get into heaven, I can understand that. They're confused. Maybe they're not sure what the Bible says.

Maybe even in trying to be nice or good to people, they want to try to rewrite the rules or what the Bible says. You know, I can understand somebody like that saying that. Here's what I cannot understand. It's somebody that says they're a Christian, that says they believe in this book, and they say there's many ways to get into heaven. You know what?

That's not an option. If you believe this book, if you believe in Jesus and you're following Jesus, that removes the option that there's many ways to heaven. And the Bible tells us this in Acts 4.12. It says, Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven, given among men by which we must be saved. No other name.

No other name. Jesus in John 14.6, He says, Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. He didn't say I am a way.

He said, I am the way. I've used this before, but if you went to a doctor and the doctor said, well, I got bad news for you. You're sick and you're going to die soon.

You would be hanging on his next words, wouldn't you? And then he says, but I've got a cure. Take the cure. You'll instantly be cured. Are you going to look at him and go, well, doc, is there only one?

It's kind of narrow-minded, isn't it? Shouldn't there be many cures? No, you're not going to do that. You're going to say, you're just going, I am so thankful there's a cure. I don't care if there's one or 15. I'm just glad there's a cure. Well, in this case, everybody in this world is dying of a disease called sin.

It's killed more people than cancer and heart disease and all the other things. And friend, there is a cure, but there's only one cure and His name is Jesus. This is what the Bible says. Let's pray. Let's pray.

Because think of this with me. Jesus, when He was headed for the cross, went into the Garden of Gethsemane and He prayed because He knew what was about to happen. He was about to drink what's referred to really in Scripture as the cup of judgment, the cup of judgment.

Let me explain a little bit more. Imagine if every sin you had ever committed was placed in a cup. Now imagine the sins of everybody in this room, past, present, future.

Now imagine the sins of everybody who has ever lived on the face of this planet. That's the cup Jesus drank from, the sins of the world. And when He was in the Garden of Gethsemane, He prayed and He said, Father, if there's any other way, let this cup pass from me.

Well, we know what happened. Jesus died. He was crucified.

Why? There was no other way. And it's really inhumane to think that God would allow His Son to be tortured and killed to provide just another way to heaven.

The Father was listening that night as He always listened to His Son, Jesus. There was no other way. And so for people who say they believe, the Bible believe in Jesus to say, well, there's other ways to heaven. I'm sorry. You're either believing and following Jesus and understand there's only one way or you're not following Him and you're saying there's many ways. But you can't have it both ways, gang. That's not an option.

Whoever calls. Man, when you think about it, it's just amazing. We used to, you know, still do some, but, you know, go to these theme parks. But it used to be, you know, they have these little height things. And I felt so bad as the kids were young because, you know, they would go up to the height thing and hope to get on the ride and the person go, no, no, you know, you don't measure up, you know. Now it's kind of reversed. We find the rides, they measure up, and I'm going, I'm not riding that thing. That thing goes upside down and twirls in six places. I just sit here with my nausea bag. But that's not the gospel.

Now to some people, they think it is the gospel. Well, who measures up gets to go on the ride. You didn't see the greeters out there doing that.

They'd go, come over here. I got to see if you measure up before you go. Oh, nope, can't go in there. You don't measure up. You don't look the part. You don't act the part.

That doesn't happen. Nobody spiritually sees if you measure up. This doesn't say if you spiritually measure up, then you can call on the name of the Lord. That's not what it says. It says whoever, whoever. You're this close.

You're right here. And the only thing between you and receiving this is a heart that believes and a mouth that speaks the words. Let's compare law righteousness with faith righteousness. Law righteousness was basically only for the Jew. They were trying to be made righteous by the law, and they were going to have the Messiah fulfill the law.

They kind of missed it, but we miss it all too often. Faith righteousness is for whosoever. Whoever. Law righteousness based on works. Faith righteousness comes by faith alone. Law righteousness is self-righteousness, and there's really no such thing.

We talked about that last week. You can't be self-righteous. You can't make yourself righteous in your own good words. God's righteousness.

He closes us in his righteousness, righteousness of Christ. Law righteousness cannot save. Nobody will ever be saved by works.

Not one person ever. But faith righteousness brings salvation. Law righteousness tries to obey the Lord. Faith righteousness calls on the Lord. Law righteousness leads to pride. Faith righteousness glorifies God. There's a big difference between being made righteous by the law and being made righteous by faith. And just so we understand, this isn't just a problem from that day.

This is still a problem. People think they can earn their righteousness, that they can earn their salvation. And a lot of times people, I was raised in a church. I'm good. I'm fine. Now, if you were raised in a church and you've ever looked in this book, you know you're not good, and you know you're not fine.

You need help, and I do too. The awesome thing is help is provided through Jesus. Let's look at verse 14. How then shall they call on Him in whom they've not believed? How shall they believe in Him of whom they've not heard?

And how shall they hear without a preacher? Verse 14 clarifies a little bit of verse 13. 13 says, Whoever calls on the name of the Lord. 14 points out in his first statement, How then shall they call on Him in whom they've not believed?

In other words, you can't just go through the motions mouthwise. You have to believe. How can you call on somebody you don't believe? If you believe in Jesus, you'll call out to Him. If you don't believe in Him, you're not going to call out to Him. People get tripped up on, well, you've got to be sorry, but you've got to be sorry enough, and it's got to be the right kind of sorrow. Well, you know what? If you're willing to ask Jesus to forgive you of your sins, you're obviously sorry for Him, and we can play this game of if you measure up all day long.

The fact is none of us are ever going to measure up. Notice this. How can they hear? How can they believe? We need a witness. We're to be witnesses.

We're not supposed to be the judge and the jury. We're supposed to be witnesses, talking about the goodness of God and the love of God. We see in the Bible in the book of Acts, we see 3,000 people got saved because 120 people witnessed to Him. We see the unit got saved because Philip ministered to Him. We see Paul got saved because Stephen and Ananias witnessed to Him. We don't see in the Bible that Stephen and Ananias ever met each other. But Stephen witnessed to Paul, lost his life, Ananias came behind him later and shared with Paul what the deal was. We see Cornelius getting saved because Peter witnessed.

We see the Philippian jailer because Paul and Silas witnessed to Him. See, this is the way it works. We find out, we know, we go tell others. And this is what's supposed to be happening.

You know what? If we're not doing this, if we're not telling our friends and our family and we're not supporting missionary work around the world, let's just shut and lock the doors because we've become yet another social club. I want to be reaching. I want to be a part of this verse 14 going, we need to tell them and we need to be sharing and this is us. That's not just me. Now, if you're reading the verse and it ends with how shall they hear without a preacher and maybe you're going, oh, there's my out because I'm not a preacher. I hate to ruin it for you.

No, actually, I love to ruin it for you. When it says preacher, it's just simply talking about somebody who tells, somebody who's supposed to tell. Who in here is supposed to tell other people about Jesus?

Every one of us. If you're following Jesus, you're supposed to be telling people. Jesus in Matthew 28 gave the great commission.

He didn't say, hey, some of you should go and tell. Go into all the world, every one of us. The beauty about the way the internet works and the radio works and stuff, we can go all over the world from here and people are taking missionary trips and all these awesome things, all clued back to what? That whoever calls in the name of the Lord shall be saved. We must tell and we must send others to tell. Friend, do you know for sure that your sins have been forgiven?

You can know right now. I want to lead you in a short, simple prayer, simply telling God you're sorry and asking Him to help you to live for Him. Please pray this prayer with me out loud right now. Dear Jesus, I believe you died for me that I could be forgiven. And I believe you were raised from the dead that I could have a new life. And I've done wrong things. I have sinned.

And I'm sorry. Please forgive me of all those things. Please give me the power to live for you all of my days. In Jesus' name, amen. Friend, if you prayed that prayer, according to the Bible, you've been forgiven. You've been born again. So congratulations, friend.

You just made the greatest decision that you will ever make. God bless you. If this was your first time praying that prayer with Pastor David, we would love to hear from you. You can call toll-free at 877-458-5508 to receive our First Steps package with helpful resources to help you begin your walk with Jesus. Also, if you've been blessed by the ministry of Cross the Bridge and David McGee, would you consider supporting us with a financial gift? With your donation this month, we'll send you battle strategies as our way of saying thank you. This powerful teaching will equip you for the spiritual battles we face every day. To give to Cross the Bridge and receive your copy of battle strategies, simply call 877-458-5508.

That's 877-458-5508. Or go online to crossthebridge.com. While there, take a moment to sign up for David's free email devotional or browse our large library of teachings. Again, our website is crossthebridge.com. Thank you for listening, and we hope you'll join us again next time as we continue to Cross the Bridge. .