our scripture reading tonight is from Paul's letter to the Romans. I thought Dr. Bittner and I didn't even plan to disorient you with him preaching from a psalm and me preaching from the New Testament. But our reading tonight is from Romans chapter 10, and we'll take up our reading at verse 6 and read down through verse 18. Romans chapter 10, beginning our reading at verse 6. Let us hear God's own Word. 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 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 end of the world. So far the reading of God's word. Well, I've been doing some study on my own in the book of Romans. We all have had different kind of COVID projects. And preachers have curious projects. And mine has been returning to my study of the book of Romans. Some of you remember we studied Romans together in adult Sunday school a number of years ago. and I thought, well, maybe I would try to write that up, and it's been a lot of fun for me to get back into that material and to realize again what a great blessing the book of Romans is to the church, and to realize also that people over the years have sometimes been a bit intimidated by the book of Romans and thought that it is difficult. There certainly are challenges in the book of Romans, but I would argue it's not fundamentally difficult if we listen carefully to what Paul is doing. He's presenting at the beginning a great summary of the gospel and then elaborates on that summary as he goes along. He talks about the universality of sin and how the only salvation from sin is by turning in faith to Jesus Christ. And then he talks in chapters 6 through 8 at the heart of the book about the struggle of the Christian life, the struggle against sin and to live more and more for the Savior. And then he comes to those chapters that have, through the centuries, really caused people to scratch their head. Chapters 9 through 11. I suspect occasionally people skip chapters 9 through 11. And certainly it has often been argued that those are the most difficult chapters in the book. There's certainly been a great deal written about those chapters and a fair level of controversy as exactly what they mean. And I've just been working on that, so you get a little of fruit of my labors. And as I've studied it, certainly we notice many things about it. One of the things we notice about it is that Paul is really responding to criticism that has come to him from the Roman church. Now, most of us who are pious and go to church Sunday night would never think of criticizing the Apostle Paul. But in his own day, he was the subject of criticism, not only from those outside the church, but sometimes from people inside the church. And one of the things that is clear when you look at the book of Romans very carefully is that some in the Roman church thought Paul was not giving enough attention and enough credit to the centrality of the Jews in God's way of working. And Paul is really answering that criticism, particularly here in chapters 9 through 11. And he is really here saying, my critics, whether in the Roman church or in the synagogue, don't understand the Old Testament. I understand the Old Testament, says Paul, and I'm going to explain it to you. And he presents his argument in chapters 9 through 11 with over 30 quotations from the Old Testament. So really, Romans 9 through 11, over 25% of it is simply quotations from the Old Testament. And what Paul is doing is marshalling all these verses that he believes have been neglected or misunderstood by many people to show how the Old Testament ought to be read and how he is a faithful apostle of Jesus Christ and a faithful interpreter of the Old Testament. And one of the verses that he quotes is from the prophet Joel, chapter 2, verse 32. It's just a little verse, and we might be tempted to kind of read rather rapidly over it as we're reading along. It's the verse there in verse 13 of Romans 10. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Now, this verse apparently was important in the life of the new church. Because Peter quotes that verse, doesn't he, at Pentecost. In his great Pentecost sermon, when the Spirit comes upon the church. And usually when we think of Peter at Pentecost and his quotation from Joel chapter 2, we think particularly of a few verses earlier, Joel 2.28, where Joel had said that in the day of the Messiah, God would send His Spirit on all flesh. And that certainly is at the very heart and center of what Peter is preaching and how he is explaining what is happening on the day of Pentecost. But Peter doesn't just quote that one verse. He goes on to quote through verse 32 and to say, whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. And so this is a verse on the mind of the church, in the heart of the church, at the heart of the ministry of the church. And I was studying then this use of this verse in chapters 9 through 11. You probably all wish you could be at my house and participate in these fascinating endeavors. And what I realized is that the section, Romans 9 through 11, is a carefully constructed unit. I think often we break these chapters up and we look at chapter 9 if we want to study election and we look at chapter 11 if we want to study covenant and the future of eschatology. I always tell seminary students, never use the word eschatology in a sermon. Talks about the future, maybe. And so we can break this section up and not see how intimately connected it is. It is what the ancients would have called a chiasm. If you don't know what a chiasm is, you can live all your life without knowing and not suffer very much. But it's a literary figure that connects the parts of this section of Scripture with one another, and we can see that just, we won't go into any details about this, but Paul begins at chapter 9, talking about his emotions, how sad he is that there are so many unbelievers in Israel. And how does he end chapter 11? Talking about his emotions, his joy in God's purpose and God's accomplishments. And if we were to go through these chapters, and I promise we won't, what we discover is The beginning of chapter 9 corresponds to the end of chapter 11. A lot of chapter 9 corresponds to a lot of chapter 11. The beginning of chapter 10 corresponds to the end of chapter 10. And when you look at it this way, what you discover is the very center of this whole section, the heart of what Paul is saying here, is verse 13. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Why does he want this to be what I'm calling his simple center in this complicated section of Scripture? He wants a simple center to encourage us, to build us up in the faith, to ensure that we're not discouraged by the complexities of things that he's been talking about. Now, I've never understood it myself, but sometimes people are discouraged when they think about election. They get confused or they get worried. And so Paul himself in chapter 9 has to say, now this is not to say there's any injustice in God. He sees how people are going to react to this and maybe get confused and maybe get worried. And he clearly thinks we have to talk about election. If we want to understand God and his purposes, we have to reflect on election. but we mustn't let it upset us and then in chapter 11 he talks about the covenant and he talks about the fullness of the Gentiles and of Israel and he talks about the remnant and and people could begin to worry am I part of the remnant am I in of the remnant or am I out of the remnant am I a branch cut off or am I branch grafted in but there are a lot of questions that could arise and I think what Paul is doing here at the very heart of this section is saying the questions that are arising I will answer the questions that are arising are important but I want you to hold on when the complex issues come up to the simple center of what I'm saying And the simple center is this. When you think about election, when you think about covenant, when you think about justice, when you think about branches cut off and branches grafted in, always remember this. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. And here Paul is reminding us that even though it's true that some are elect and some are reprobate, that some are vessels of mercy and some are vessels of wrath, that some are part of the branch and some are not, that some are part of the remnant and some are not, it doesn't have to lead us to worry. It doesn't have to lead us to any kind of concern. You know, that's the great worry that some people fall into. Am I elect? Or am I reprobate? Am I part of the remnant? Or part of those who are cut off? How can I know? What should I think? And what Paul wants to say is, there is a universal promise to every human being. And the universal promise is this, if you call on the name of the Lord, you will be saved. So, well, what if I'm not elect? Well, what Paul would say is this. If you call on the name of the Lord, you will be saved, and that will be evidence that you're elect. So don't get distracted. Don't be led astray. If you're worried about the state of your soul, it's not bad to be worried about the state of your soul, at least concerned for the state of your soul. The place to look in the first place, to find peace for your soul, to find assurance for your soul, is not in the doctrine of election in and of itself, but in the promise of God that comes to every one of us. If you call on the name of the Lord, you will be saved. Now, it's good to ask other theological questions. It's good to be concerned about election and covenant. But if you're getting spiritually confused, if you're getting spiritually upset, what a wise minister ought to always say to you is, wait a minute, just remember this, if you call on the name of the Lord, you will be saved. There is not a word anywhere in all of Scripture that undermines that promise. It is a promise that goes out to the world. It's a promise that should resonate in every one of our hearts. And so I want to say, especially tonight, if there are anyone here who is worried about your spiritual state, maybe even more pressingly, if there's anyone here who isn't worried about his spiritual state but ought to be. This is what the Lord says to you. Call on the name of the Lord because everyone, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. This is the simple center that Paul wants to resonate in our hearts. And this becomes then crucial not only for us individually in our personal relationship with God, but it's crucial also for evangelism. There's been an approach to evangelism in America in particular that has wanted to begin the evangelistic enterprise by saying to everyone, God loves you. And I've told this story before, but some of you may not remember. When I was in college, I heard a very well-meaning Christian say to an unbeliever, a fellow student, God loves you. And this was a bright student, and he said, well, if God loves me, then I'm perfectly all right, aren't I? If God already loves me, I don't have to do anything, do I? It was a pretty clever response. And that's why Paul really doesn't say God loves you to everyone indiscriminately. What Paul says as his evangelistic message is, you need God. You are a sinner. And God has provided Jesus as the Savior of sinners. And the good news is, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. You don't have to doubt that promise. You don't have to doubt what God is doing or saying or concerned about for you. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. So that's the simple center that Paul wants to underscore here in this text with so many complexities. The center that we always want to hold on to. And then he wants us to think about the sincere call. Call on the name of the Lord. What kind of calling do we need to do? Because there are warnings in Scripture, aren't there? Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount says, Not everyone who says, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of God. That's very serious, isn't it? That's very critical. And it's a message that has been true amongst the people of God through their whole history. We can think back to Psalm 50. You know, I'd get to the Psalms eventually. Where the psalmist looks out at a people who are worshiping regularly, but whose hearts are far from God. And the psalmist, Psalm 50 at verse 16, says, But to the wicked God says, What right have you to recite my statutes or take my covenant on your lips? If your heart is far from me, your mouth will do you no good. That's what the psalmist says. It's what the prophet Jeremiah also said in chapter 12. You are near in their mouth and far from their heart. So this is a problem that religious people have to face. It is not by being in a place, even on Sunday night, that we are made right with God. It is not by going through motions that we are made right with God. It is not by some shallow articulation of words, like reciting the Apostles' Creed. We can know the creed in our minds, we can recite it with our mouth, but if it's not in our heart, if it's not what we believe, if it's not what we're committed to, it won't do us any good at all. There has to be a sincere calling on the Lord from the heart. That's what Joel was talking about. That's what Peter was talking about. That's what Paul is talking about here. It needs to be sincere from the heart and with the mouth that Jesus is Lord. That's what Paul is developing beautifully here in Romans chapter 10. but it's very much what Joel had originally talked about in his prophecy. He talks about the necessity of sincerity, and that sincerity is expressed in a variety of ways. He wrote in Joel 2 verse 1, blow a trumpet in Zion, sound an alarm on my holy mountain, let all the inhabitants of the land, tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming. It is near. Do we tremble before the Lord rather than just take Him for granted? Does the Lord sometimes take our breath away? That's what Joel is calling us to recognize. Or Joel 2 verse 12, Yet even now, declares the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, with mourning. Rend your hearts and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and He relents over disaster. In the ancient world, it was common when people were mourning, when they were grieving, that they would tear their clothes. It was an outward expression of the emotion that they were feeling. And the prophet Joel doesn't criticize that action, but he does say it's possible just to tear your clothes and pretend to be mourning. Pretend to have feelings that you don't really have. Rend your hearts, he said, and not your garments. It is from the heart that the Lord calls us to call out to him. That's where we find a sincere call to him, not just words on our lips. Peter takes this up in Acts chapter 2, as he's really preaching a sermon on Joel 2 at Pentecost. And when he gets to the application of the sermon, when the people say to him, what then shall we do to be saved? He could have just quoted Joel 2 again and said, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. But he expands on that. He talks about what sincere calling will look like when he says to them, repent, recognize your sinfulness, turn from it, grieve over it, and be baptized. Now, why would Peter talk about baptism in this context? Baptism, too, can be just a formal external that means nothing. But what Peter is saying is, baptism says to the world, I cannot cleanse myself. Someone else must cleanse me. In baptism, whatever you believe about baptism, in baptism, the one baptized is passive. We are baptized. Now, in the interest of full disclosure, there have been a very small number of people in the history of the church who believed they could baptize themselves. But we don't have to worry about them. There aren't very many of them, and they're wrong. I was on a trip. We heard about going to Israel. I was on a trip where we were on the Jordan River near a spot where it was believed that John the Baptist had been baptizing. And there was a person there who was looking for someone to baptize him. He wanted to be baptized in the Jordan River. He'd already been baptized, but he wanted to be baptized again in the Jordan River. And no one would baptize him, and so he went in and baptized himself. The poor fellow was very confused. Because what baptism says is, I can't cleanse myself, someone else must do it. I can't save myself, someone else must do it. And so when Peter said, be baptized, he's really saying, this is a way of calling on the Lord and saying to the Lord, I know I can't save myself. You have to save me. You have to rescue me. Everyone who calls in sincerity on the name of the Lord will be saved. And this is so important for anyone here who's not made profession of faith. A profession of faith is done largely with the mouth, but it needs to be an expression of the heart. If you've called from the heart to Jesus to save you, then it's right to stand up and say, I've called to him and he saved me. Because it's heart and mouth, Paul says in Romans 10, that need to be engaged for us to be saved. So, from this simple center of what Paul is arguing, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. He talks about the sincere call that needs to be issued and how that sincere call has to be issued to the saving Christ. The Lord on whom we call is Jesus. The Lord on whom we call is Jesus. Paul says that very clearly in Romans chapter 10. Jesus is Lord. And having said that Jesus is Lord in verse 9, when Paul gets to verse 13 and says, everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved, he's not talking about a different Lord. He's talking about the Lord Jesus. It's the Lord Jesus on whom we call to be saved. Peter makes exactly the same point in his Pentecost sermon, Acts 2.36, where Peter says, Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him, that is Jesus, both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. Jesus is Lord. Jesus is Lord precisely in the sense that Joel talked about. This is one of the great proofs of the divinity of Jesus in the New Testament. That prophecies like Joel that talk about calling on the name of Jehovah. Everyone who calls on the name of Jehovah will be saved. That's what Joel really said. And now Peter and Paul are saying the Jehovah on whom we call is Jesus. Jesus is the Lord. Jesus is the Lord God of Israel. Jesus is the Lord God of Jew and Gentile. Jesus can save because He's God, come in the flesh to dwell among us. And so what a glorious truth is being taught us here. Joel in chapter 2 at verse 27 wrote, You shall know that I am in the midst of you. This is God speaking. You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel and that I am the Lord your God, and there is none else. And what Paul is doing here is saying, you see, everything that Joel had been saying, Everything that the whole Old Testament had been saying is pointing to and is fulfilled in Jesus Christ. And is fulfilled in Jesus Christ in such a way that every human being, every Jew, and every Gentile who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. That's what the Old Testament has been pointing to. How really wonderful that Dr. Bittner providentially preached from Psalm 87 today. Who will be born in Zion? Egyptians and Babylonians and Philistines. Are there Philistines? I don't know. Philistines and Dutchmen and Frisians. and Swedes and Hungarians, every kind of people, Chinese, nobody is excluded. Nobody is left out. Because no matter who you are, where you come from, you're still somebody. You're still part of everybody. You're still one of everyone, and the promise is everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. And that's why those words from Isaiah 55 should be so memorable for us. I memorized Isaiah 55. Some of you will be amused to know at the urging of Harold Camping when I was a high school student and we went on a young people's retreat and one of our projects on that retreat was to memorize Isaiah 55. And it's been a great blessing to me over the years to have memorized that. Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near. and the Lord will show mercy to us. That's the promise. The promise that every one of us should have deep in our hearts, if we call on the name of the Lord, we will be saved. And it's a message we can carry out to people who are in distress, people we meet, and we can say to them, call on the name of the Lord, and you will be saved. May that great promise bring us great comfort and encouragement. Amen. Let us pray. Oh, Lord, our God, we are thankful for your word. We are thankful for its depth, for its riches, for its profundity. But even more, we're thankful for its simplicity and its encouragement. And we pray that every person here tonight who hears this word from you will be able to say, I have called on the name of the Lord, and I am saved. Grant us that great blessing, O Lord, and encourage us in your service, we pray, for we pray in Jesus' name, Jesus, who is Lord. Hear us. Amen.