I invite you to turn this morning to Romans chapter 10. Romans chapter 10. And as we're in between series, finishing Mark last week, I thought taking a moment here and considering why profession of faith is so important, why we do this, and not just assuming that this is just understood. Sometimes it's helpful to remember why we do what we do and to not always assume that we always grasp it the way that we should. So Romans chapter 10 is a great help in that way. I'm going to read the entirety of the chapter. The focus will be in the text in verses 9 through 13. This is the word of the Lord, Romans chapter 10. Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For being ignorant of the righteousness of God and seeking to establish their own righteousness, their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandment shall live by them. But the righteousness based on faith says, do not say in your heart who will ascend into heaven, that is to bring Christ down, Or who will descend into the abyss, that is to bring Christ up from the dead? But what does it say? The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart. That is the word of faith that we proclaim. Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, everyone who believes in Him will not be put to shame. For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek. For the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing His riches on all who call on Him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in Him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news. But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us. So faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ. But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed, they have. For their voice has gone out to all the earth and their words to the ends of the world. But I asked, did Israel not understand? First Moses says, I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation. With a foolish nation, I will make you angry. Then Isaiah is so bold as to say, I have been found by those who did not seek me. I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me. But of Israel, he says, all day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people. There ends the reading. of God's Word. Well, what a wonderful moment we have this morning as two of our young people are going to stand up and profess faith in Christ. And I know this is always a day of real excitement and joy, especially for parents, but also especially for those who are standing up and publicly professing their faith. I also know that over the years there has been a lot of confusion over this practice. There's been some question of is this a man-made practice? Some young people will hold off because they misunderstand the practice. They don't grasp the practice. They don't understand it. They see it as some sort of programmed expectation that we have invented as a Reformed church that we are just to follow the model. Just to follow the model. Go through the checklist. be rubber stamped, and do what we are expected to do. What I've observed then in many is those who struggle to understand why we are even doing this. For some, there's been so much emphasis put on this moment of what we call profession of faith, it almost seems like this is the reformed way of forcing an altar call. If you can't get them excited to come forward, at least make them say, I do. You've got to have something. Well, I want to this morning think about this. Have us think about it. Is this just some reformed tradition? Is this something that we have just put in place that says we've got to have something because we baptized our children? We've got to have something. I want us to have a biblical appreciation of what we do why we do it and understand why profession of faith matters why it's so important if we can appreciate this uh this morning as a work of god's grace in somebody's life well then we're going to understand since the christian life is one of witness since the christian life is one of following christ professing christ confessing christ this should be sort of as natural as breathing. It becomes a public witness and a public testimony to the grace that God has given us to believe his gospel. That's what it is. And when we see that, then we understand that it becomes a sort of launch pad and a great place for a life of witness, a life of following and commitment to Christ and telling others that you belong. The very question and answer one, I belong to Christ. I'm going to tell others about that. That's important. We need to understand why that's important, don't we? We step into the middle in this of a somewhat complex section in the book of Romans where Paul makes a really beautiful, simple statement about this in verses 9 through 13, but wanted to explain the struggle and the phenomenon of Israel. Something seemed to have gone really wrong with Israel. Something seemed to have failed with Israel. And Paul began to explain this at the beginning of chapter 9. And we're going to see how this all relates this morning because we commonly talk about this in terms of election and the doctrine of predestination. And maybe some of you struggle with that doctrine that is clearly taught here in Romans 9. Why would that make any of this even matter then if that stuff is true? And Paul is explaining this about the problem of Israel. If you don't think Israel's a problem, just look at that nation to this day that sits in unbelief. Sure, there are a remnant. And there are people who, we have one guy who went to Westminster Seminary who has a church in Israel. It's really remarkable. But Paul explains at the beginning of chapter 9 that Israel had all these external blessings. They had the adoption. The glory, the covenants, the giving of the law. They had all this external stuff that God had intended to be a blessing for them. But the problem, you'll notice, at the end of chapter 10 that we just read, is all day long I've stretched out my hand to a disobedient and contrary people. They did not obey the gospel. They did not come. They did not believe. And Paul made that statement that is very important to understand this of what happened to Israel. And he helped us to say, well, that seems like maybe God failed then. And Paul says, no, no, no, no, no. No, you have to understand, they're not all Israel who are of Israel. Just because all this stuff is in place, it doesn't make salvation automatic. You need a new heart. You need to be born again. Growing up in a church and having all this stuff does not secure you heaven. And he made a crucial distinction in this chapter. That there are those who are the true Israel, and then there are those who are not really Israel, even though they outwardly are of bloodlines. And I talk to my children about this all the time. I say, listen, to put it in the most simple terms for you children, you need to understand that even though you go to a Christian school, even though everything in this is Christian, you're around, your whole environment's Christian. You ever talk to unbelievers? Your whole environment's Christian. You need to understand that in that, there are believers and there are make-believers. It's just the reality. It was always the reality. People need to be born again. They need a new life. Nicodemus, you Pharisee and you leader in Israel, you pastor in Israel, you don't know you need to be born again? You don't understand this? You don't understand that your dead heart has to have life? And so Paul's been explaining this. He's been explaining this since chapter 2, that they're not Jews who are those externally. True Jews are those who are internal. Evidenced by a circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not of the letter, not by law-keeping. But you've got to have this. When we talk about circumcision of the heart, it's the same reality that's described in the New Testament of being born again. So Paul went on to explain this in the way that this inward circumcision, which is what the outward circumcision was pointing to, the inward circumcision was brought about by the Lord to whom He sovereignly set His love on, the true Israel and His election. The true Israel are those of the promise, aren't they? And that's God's purposes according to election, Not of works, but of him who calls. We'll come back to calling in a minute. But of him who calls. Not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. Your free will didn't do it. He just said it. He has to take a dead heart. He's got to give life to it. It's really important. But this teaching in God's sovereignty of salvation and His election doesn't lead to some kind of what people say, well, that leads to a kind of fatalism. God opened a window for us in Romans 9 into His decree, into His purposes according to election to encourage us and tell us that this does happen so that we would not lose heart and that we would remember it is by His power that anyone saves. it is by His sovereign will and choice. And you should be incredibly thankful for that if you know who you are and you know what you could do. We're able to look behind the curtain a little bit in Romans 9 to see the sovereign worker, a glimpse He gives us to encourage us in His power. But I say all that, that that does not minimize or make insincere the call of god that he gives to everyone and that's what's happening uh today in the escondido united reform church and that's what's happening around the world in christian churches today where we publish this great call whosoever believes in the name of the lord jesus christ will be saved and paul's building to that you'll notice that paul builds to that in um in chapter 10 and verse 13, for everyone, everyone, Jew or Greek, it doesn't matter what your background is, whoever, not just for the Jews, it's for the Gentiles, whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. It's working to that. And then explaining why Israel did not attain to that. Well, Paul gives that reason here in the middle of all of this to help us understand when you look at Israel and say, what in the world? Why did they not attain to this? Why did they not make it? What happened to them? And Paul says very plainly in the middle of this, they would not submit to God's righteousness. They tried to establish their own. They listened to the law and they tried to do it themselves. Israel fell into the trap of thinking that if we've got all this stuff, got all these outward things, that marks us and therefore if we just do it all right, We'll be there. Now you think that's a problem today. Of course it's a problem. Of course it's a problem. And he's explaining why they did not listen and what the problem was. They sought to establish their own righteousness by the law. And God says all day long, my message, you know, we've gone through Genesis and Exodus. I stretched out my hand of gospel to them. To a contrary people who would not listen to it. And so explaining all of this, asking and thinking about, well, if Israel didn't receive their Messiah, and Israel, this is Paul's purpose here. Paul's purpose here is to say, if this is Israel's great failure, that's give as a teaching tool for the world to understand how someone can be right with God. Israel tried it themselves, they failed. So Paul's goal is to say, you don't want to make the immense mistake of Israel. And Paul comes to the crucial summary that he's been building to and working from in this passage where he says in verse 4, for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. The intention of all of this was to show that it pointed to Jesus who would fulfill all righteousness for you. So you think about what the apostle's doing here and it begins to raise questions for us and who we are as Gentiles. And the message is really clear. Paul just said in verse 4, Jesus is the answer. Jesus is the answer. You think of the rich young ruler's question when he asked Jesus, what must I do to inherit salvation? That was the problem with Israel. What do I need to do to inherit? But a fundamentally different question was asked in Acts by all those people who heard the gospel and understood their sin. What must I do to be saved? Which young ruler wasn't asking for that? So Paul's explaining then how we can avoid this catastrophe of Israel and it's a really important question that Paul is now having us think about and challenging us with, well, if we don't see Jesus, which we don't see Jesus. I know in the gospels we're given all these calls to come to him come to him come to him you're telling me to come to somebody i don't see that doesn't make sense to me what does that mean he's not here it's uh it's similar to the struggle of the the women last week uh he's risen he's not here he's gone before you what do we do with that leaves us somewhat confused at times and we we see nothing. We can't behold him. There's really nothing of outward glory going on here today, is there? None of this feels very powerful. I don't feel a lot real powerful. There's no Jesus here, is there? And Paul knew that the tendency of the church, especially looking at how he dealt with Corinth and the churches of the New Testament. And as we're studying in Revelation, Jesus dealt with his churches. Paul knew that the tendency of the church would be to try to fix this problem themselves. To make this happen in a way that is really meaningful for people. In their view. And Paul's having us consider this dilemma of what appears to be the absence of Jesus. when Jesus is the end of all of this, of righteousness, when Jesus is the answer. And so you'll notice in verse 6 that he introduces two very different mindsets and two very different ways of speaking that go on in people's lives, in those who have come in contact with the God of the Scriptures. And there's two different mindsets here that he outlines. And he goes through it a little bit. It seems a little bit complex, but it's really not that complex, where he says in verse 6, the righteousness that, excuse me, for Moses, verse 5, writes about the righteousness that's based on the law. The person who does the commandment shall live by them, but the righteousness based on faith says, do not say in your heart who will ascend into heaven. That is to bring Christ down. Problem. See? Where's Christ? We don't say, if you're going to talk in a faith way, how do we get Christ to us? How do we get Him down? Who will ascend in the abyss? How do we go get him and bring him here so that people really get excited about Jesus? What does it say? We'll come back to that. It's a really interesting moment of the apostle where he's challenging Christians to think about two different mindsets here. There is a mindset that seeks to bring Jesus to us our own way. How are we going to get Jesus here to be meaningful for us. Music doesn't do it. We try to make that happen. Music doesn't do it. No matter all of the ways we could try to dress this up and make it really feel powerful and that it's spirit-driven and inspired and that Jesus is present. You could try many things. Many things to convince yourself that Jesus is near. Many things to try to manipulate God to get Jesus here. We're good at it. We preach Corinthians for a reason. This is what they tried to do. But Paul's saying, if it's something you're trying to make happen, you're falling into the air of Israel. And we know the glaring moment where they tried to make it happen. When they said, we're not excited about all this wilderness journey. We need a God who's near to us. We need a God we could see. We need a God we could touch. And they held out a golden calf. That's where they ended up. That's not it, Paul says. That's a whole different way of thinking that's trying to establish this on your terms, yourselves, to try to bring life to yourselves. Sorry. Righteousness of faith doesn't speak that way, Paul says. It doesn't speak that way at all. It doesn't think that way. You're not getting Jesus to you your way. Paul's saying God's done it for you. The righteous of faith understands that God's done something for you. So he sums it up like this. The one who has Christ's righteousness does not by his own merit try to pull Christ down and bring Christ to him. But what does it say? Verse 8. Verse 8 is great. The Word is near you. The Word. in your mouth, and in your heart. That is the word of faith that we preach, proclaim. This is why we're doing this right now. This is why preaching is so important. God is saying to you this morning, I put it all in place for you. Now whether you'll listen to it is the issue that you have to think about. That was the problem with Israel. They didn't. All day long I kept doing it and they were a stiff-necked people who refused me. But I kept doing to Israel what I'm doing for you right now. All day long, I gave the way. This is really important because you'll notice here that the Lord is saying to you today, I've put it all in place for you. You don't have to worry about this. This is what we do incessantly in the church. We worry about this. You don't stop worrying about this. That's a wrong kind of righteousness you're trying to establish. So he says in verse 13, let me show you how I put this all in place for you. Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. And look at verse 14. How then will they call on him in whom they've not believed? Starts working backwards here. How will they call? You've got to call. Well, if you're going to call, you've got to believe. How will they call on him in whom they've not believed? How are they to believe if they've never heard? So if you're going to believe, you've got to hear something. well how's anyone going to hear something without someone preaching and if you're going to hear somebody have somebody preaching somebody's got to be sent to you to do this that's what he says in verse 15 how are are they to preach unless they're sent as it's written how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news so he just said to you wow this is kind of remarkable everything that i've ever known in my life everything that i've ever been sitting in my life he just said you've enjoyed what god has put in place for you how have you looked at that how have you valued this so here it is this is why it's so important people who abandon the church and stay away from the church say we don't need the church you're saying i don't need salvation that's what you're saying notice what he says here there's sending there's preaching there's hearing, there's believing, and there's calling. God has to send. That man needs to preach. People need to hear. They need to believe it. Then they need to call. Paul just said, it's all in place. It's all in place. Jesus is brought to you. I'm always, I love to think about for a minute the Ethiopian eunuch. Remember the Ethiopian eunuch's reading the bible he's doing personal bible study by himself reading isaiah 53 and the spirit says go overtake the chariot chariot philip go overtake it and so philip goes up and what's the first question do you understand what you're reading in all honesty he says how can i unless someone guides me and then it says very purposely in the text philip opened his mouth and began to preach Jesus to him. And the Ethiopian eunuch says, what do I need to do to be saved? What do I do? Here's some water. Be baptized. Do you believe? It's all there. Preacher was sent. Preacher proclaimed. Ethiopian heard. He believed. He called. Baptized. Followed. Professed. It's all there. Now, how then is Jesus brought to me? Well, we've just looked at it, and I want you to notice now how beautiful Paul applies this to us and the responsibility that we have in this, in verse 9. So he says in verse 8, the word is near you in your mouth and in your heart, that is the word of faith that we proclaim, because, here it is, if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead you will be saved. Hmm. For the scripture says everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame. With the heart one believes and is justified and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. I was reflecting on this this week and thought again, you know, sometimes we just need to be reminded of the simplicity of this. It'd be something if he said to you, you know, what do we need to do to be saved? Here's my list. Here's the law, like I read this morning. It's not what he said. He said, if you confess and believe, you'll be saved. Have you ever thought about how much work the Lord has done to keep this program going all these years? You know, here we are in 2017. People writing preaching books say, well, they don't have much of a mind tension span anymore. We're competing with football, competing with Disneyland. We're competing with just a widespread because there's so much here in the United States, general apathy to all of this. And every week in the midst of all these challenges, in the midst of persecutions around the world, in the midst of all of these obstacles, incredible obstacles, the Lord just keeps this program going. We're doing it right now. Every week he sends preachers and if they're doing their job and they're being faithful against all of these pressures to make the church into a show and an entertainment center, he keeps his servants preaching the gospel in season and out of season. Just keeps doing it. You just went through a whole season of listening to the critical details of the crucifixion of Christ. Think about how much he inspired and wanted you instructed in this. He just said to you, it's all here, if you believe and confess in your mouth, you're saved. What does that mean? Let's explore that just for a minute. He's not describing two separate things that need to happen, is he? They're kind of bound up together so much that really they're the same thing, in a sense. We need to think about it for a moment. And I think this is where, to be perfectly honest, the real struggle comes. I talk with young people. I spend a lot of time talking with young people. And at times I think it feels for them like we're just laying the path for how it all is supposed to go in a cookie cutter kind of way, right? For some of our young people, we need to understand they feel like this is an artificial pressure to outward conformity. baptized, got it all mapped out for me, and here's how it's supposed to go. Here's how it's supposed to go. We're going to go to the school. We're going to go to the Christian college we should go to. We're going to find a spouse. We're going to come back. We're going to keep in step with how every former generation looked and acted. and profession of faith is viewed as part of that forced conformity to the model if the profession and then you have this challenge if the profession on the part of previous generations had just been an outward moment with no real heart in it the new generation sees that as just another rubber stamp for a life that has been determined for them and i can tell you right Now, millennials are not going to sit in the pew. The baby boomers may have stayed and been disgruntled. The millennials, no, they're gone. So lingering doubt holds us back. Seems just so outward. Our solution? Our solution has been to say, well, we have this problem of just being outward as reformed people. It's got to be in the heart. What does that mean? you say, well, it's a personal relationship with Jesus. But without thinking, we've just said, now, our faith is a very private matter. Our faith is very private. It's really between us and God. Is it? See how we're programmed to say things. We've got to think about them a little bit. You ever hear people say, well, I just don't talk about my faith. So we go through all the externals of this. Never talk about it. The people I hear always saying that are the people who are always saying it's all about the heart. Are some of the most tight-lipped people I know when it comes to confession with the mouth. In fact, when we say it's all about the heart, if we're going to, truth be honest, for many people, that is a great excuse to put your lamp under a bowl. So we pit these two things against each other. I was listening to Hank Hinegraft the other day, the Bible Answer Man. He's recently defected to Eastern Orthodoxy and his reasoning is, this was a real moment, his reasoning was, I was all about truth, but my wife was all about life. And he said, I was lacking life. So we're heading there. I'm not going to go into what I think of that. But did you hear the division he made? He pitted and he made a great divide between truth and life. Between what's in the mind and mouth and in the heart. Well, that's what Paul says happened to the Jews. Did you notice at the beginning of chapter 10, they have a passion for God, but not according to knowledge. I love what Herman Boving said. I read it this week and it just stopped me in my tracks. The knowledge of God in Christ is life itself. Notice, that is not here as Paul is addressing this. He's saying it's belief in the mouth and in the heart. Paul sees the inner state. Paul sees the inner state of something reflected by outward conduct. And what is outward conduct? Here it is. Here's the outward conduct he's telling you here. Confessing Jesus is clearly a solemn Christian act that we do as a public declaration that we believe in Jesus and that we've made a public commitment to him in the body, before the body. Is that forced conformity? That's my question. If you think that way, I understand then that you think this is just some man-made thing we're about to do. But you have to ask if professing Christ is a forced church rule. Is it? We just had two new members the other night come before us for the elders. And I hope I summarized their position well. Forgive me if I don't. But they spoke of their past a little bit. And the approach to church that felt like forced submission. And you know what they said as they were coming in here? They said to the whole elder body, they said, you know, when Saturday comes, we are so excited. Sunday's coming. We want to be there. That's the highlight of everything. At some point, we all come to a moment, don't we, where either this is all just man-made, we just devised this. Or God has done something quite remarkable for us. And we should think about how thankful we are for that. When I never asked for it. Tell me if this sounds forced. When I never asked for it while I was yet a sinner. God, when I was a helpless baby, subject to death. Didn't even have a mind to think like I could when I grow older. said, mine, put a seal on me. A sign and a seal. A sign of washing on your little infants. On you, if you were baptized as a baby. Then spoke promise to you all your life. Promise after promise after promise after promise. Promise that the blood of Jesus washes away all of your sins. Your parents make that up? That mad maid? Did God put a claim on your life? Taught you, raised you, gave you all this care and instruction. When you then pursued ignorance and you went and tried to sow the wild oats, terrible thing. Didn't care much about your life, did some reckless things to your life. Here you are today. Your whole life has been a testimony of his pursuit of you. Want to argue with that? And of your careless disregard of him. At some point when you come to an age of understanding, and I was challenged, is it really unclear whether he's included me or excluded me? What's unclear to you? Do you believe him? God laid a claim on me as a son. Either I have no faith and I'm going to reject him like Israel and harden my heart and go through the motions of all this just to keep somebody happy. Or I'm going to bow my head and I'm going to listen to this call. I'm going to listen to this call because there's a remarkable demonstration. If I just look down the path of his faithfulness, there's a remarkable demonstration of his love. All day long, I've stretched out my hands to you. That's not a URC thing. That's not a CRC thing. That's not a Presbyterian thing. It has nothing to do but with the sovereign Lord who made a claim on you and put you into the body of Christ. You gonna hear it or not? And if I kick dirt in his face at his baptism and spit on his baptism by running away from it all, what do you think that should deserve? And yet he still extends his hand. You see, my public response to that when I'm of age to understand it's a baptism unto repentance and faith for those who are raised in covenant of grace homes. It's a recognition of the grace He's given to me to bring me to this place today. That makes the act, the solemn act, of publicly confessing and professing Christ a privilege that I get to do in response to His love for me. because you see it was always his work the promise of deuteronomy that he would circumcise our hearts to do what to love him to love him with all of our hearts soul mind and strength is this then forced conformity or is it love love on his part and love in response on yours when god circumcises your heart that's not an empty duty of going through the motions you see and you're claiming the indescribable gift and you get to come now and say you know in front of god's people solemn way i believe i'm glad to confess that jesus died for me and lived for me what a privilege to confess him as the Lord Jesus Christ, the name given above every name. He's Lord. That's a whole Old Testament history. And I confess God raised him from the dead for me. He's a victor for me. He won for me. And the Lord says, well, here's what happens. When you're brought to that place with the heart one believes unto righteousness, that very moment the sinner trusts in Jesus, when you trust in jesus right then god justifies you he forever covers you and there's nothing more than god delights than to forgive your sins to let them go to cover you and wrap you in his arms and love as a son saying son every sunday this is one of the benefits of sunday every sunday son forgiven nor your sins. When the heart believes that and it flows out of the mouth in confession, you have just called on the name of the Lord. All of that, of course, is in direct contrast to what Israel did. All this external stuff, got it all mapped out, but never came. Stiffened their necks. The Lord leaves you with this this morning. All who believe and confess Him. Here's the wonderful promise. For the Scripture says, verse 11, Everyone who believes in Him will not be put to shame. Doesn't shame take on a little meaning after the study of Christ on the cross? For there's no distinction between Jew and Greek. For the same Lord is Lord over all, bestowing His riches on all who call on Him. For everyone who calls on Him on the name of the lord we'll be saved every time you go through the psalms now when you start reading i will call upon the lord who's worthy to be praised or i will offer you the sacrifice of thanksgiving and i will call upon the name of the lord it would seem to me that we should think a lot about whether we are calling on the name of the lord and this morning we're going to have two young people stand up and call and you're going to hear that voice. You don't have to look for Jesus anywhere else, beloved. You really don't. You don't have to bring him to you. You can let go and now take the gloves off and receive him. It's all in place for you. You're not lacking anything. And you're not going to get anything more anywhere else. He's near to you today with arms outstretched and he just said to you, Have you confessed Christ and believed in Him that God has risen Him from the dead? Do you believe in your heart the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus? If so, and you call on the name of the Lord, you will be saved. Well, that's a reason to thank Him in prayer. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank You for instructing us in these things this morning. Thank You for helping us understand this great privilege of profession of faith. And I pray, Lord, for all of us together here as a body that this would not just be a one-time thing, but that it's a way of life for us. And we're thankful from the heart. We get to come every Sabbath and sing and hear and receive and be strengthened. And then we have opportunities all throughout our lives to tell the wonderful things that you've done for us in Christ. Always remember as you train us and instruct us in the faith that the knowledge of God in Christ is life itself. Would that kind of response be something that pleases you in our life as we get to express love, knowing not that we first loved you, but that you first loved us and gave your Son for us. Thank you, Father. In Jesus' name, amen.