Romans 10:1-13 • Beautiful News

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(This transcript was prepared using software tools and has not been reviewed for complete accuracy.)

 The last time I was with you, I asked that you prayed for me about a trip to Cuba and the inability we had received at that time to have religious visas that allow me to preach and teach in Cuba along with our team. So I'm going to give you a quick report. I made it to Cuba. It's a little bit of adventure, I'll tell you more. But on the other hand, I want you to see some of the things that we saw and the importance of them. If you just think of Havana, where we were, beautiful city, particularly if you're a little distant from it, the closer you get, the more you see this, past glory in decay.



 When Fidel Castro took over in 1959, the U.S. government began the embargo. The Cubans for a while depended upon Russian funds until 1989, when again the Russian Empire imploded across Eastern Europe and the funds dried up for Cuba as well. The consequence was you haven't been able to go to a hardware store for 60 years. Think what that would do to your house. Think what it does to your car.



 You begin to see lots of consequences of the inability to be able to repair. So if you like old, classic cars, not women. I'm not talking about the women.



 They are classy women. It's a classic car. But we rode in that car and it was one of many that you would find has many, many problems in it. Because again, the Cubans have not been able to import cars since 1959, except for Russian and East German cars, which again in 1989, with the fall of the Eastern Empire, couldn't get those either. So the cars on the road are decaying and difficult. We took a ride, a quick ride to the airport in that car, and I'll tell you a little bit more about that in the message. Despite the difficulties, there are amazing believers. These are all pastors, mostly young pastors. We had opportunity to minister to about 300 young pastors in a nation where atheism is required of most people. If you want to be a government official, if you want to be a tradesman, if you want to be in the military, you may not be a Christian. You have to recognize for many years that was enforced militarily. When Fidel Castro took over in Cuba, the population was roughly 95 percent Roman Catholic. By the year 2000, only 5 percent of the population would claim to be Christian at all. But Christianity is growing quickly. Bible believing Christians now number between 13 and 15 percent of the population. Much is happening and these young leaders are a major part of that. We had opportunity to minister to them in a church setting that in itself is unusual. Most churches were closed years and years ago. You are not allowed to build a church. You are not allowed to buy a church. The reason we were in this church was it has a property deed in the name of a single person. And so that person was able to maintain the deed. No other congregations are able to have churches or multiply churches. So we will see later there are innovative ways that Christians who believe the Scriptures and want to tell the message of Christ find to worship together. We had the privilege of meeting in this church and I had the privilege of serving with a team from Grace. I will just tell you honestly when we first arrived, the Cubans were surprised that Americans would come to serve them.



 Their experience is typically that Americans come to Cuba expecting to be served as tourists.



 But our people came to serve. And once the Cubans understood that was the goal, I will tell you it just opened relationships in tremendous ways. And I'm so thankful for the members of the Cuba team from this church who were able to come with us.



 Let's talk about that gospel and the way in which it is presented by the Apostle Paul. Romans 10 is where I want to take you this day as we continue to think about the importance of the gospel message to all peoples.



 The last time I was with you, the Apostle Paul was opening wide the welcome of the gospel, saying to Jews who were returning to Rome after the death of the Emperor Claudius, "Open your homes, open your churches to Gentiles. For just as God chose you to be part of the covenant through faith as your father Abraham had, so God is opening the covenant to the Gentiles. Open wide your arms, they too shall be saved by faith."



 It's a wonderful message, but people are people. And the consequence was that those who were Jews, Paul's brothers and sisters by ethnicity, now begin to question.



 Paul, are you just concerned about the new people? Are you just spending all your time and attention on them? Don't you care about us anymore?



 Paul answers that question. Romans 10, let's stand as we read the first four verses of Paul answering the question,



 don't you care anymore about your brothers and sisters from the covenant of the law? Paul says, "Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them," that is the Jews, "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, they did not submit to God's righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes."



 Let's pray together.



 Father open wide our hearts to this gospel, that we too would believe and be ready to speak to others of the belief that they may share, that Christ might be called upon in such a way that sin would be put away, shame removed, and brothers and sisters made right with God forever. Teach us how, incline our hearts toward you for the sake of the glory of your Son in whose name we pray, amen.



 Please be seated.



 My little boys were more excited than I realized when I took them to the hospital years ago to meet their first new sister.



 They were quite literally bouncing off the walls as we're going down the hallways to meet mom and the new little baby. And when we got into the hospital room, my second son jumped up on the hospital bed to hug his mom, to hug and kiss his new little sister, then he stood up on the bed and in his zeal to be the bestest big brother ever.



 Before I could get the words out, "Do not jump on the…" He took one giant Winnie the Pooh's Tigger bounce, went way up in the air, off the bed,



 and a big thump on his head on the floor.



 Now parents, you know immediately what's going on inside of you, two competing emotions. Inside your heart, you are so angry that he would endanger himself in that way, and you are so concerned at how bad he might have hurt himself. And both of those emotions come out of exactly the same heart.



 And very similar emotions are coming out of Paul's heart here as he speaks about his brothers and sisters by ethnicity who are Jews in Rome. And he speaks of them saying, "They have a zeal for God, and they want to serve so well, and they want to do so well, but it is a zeal based upon their own righteousness whereby they are turning away from the gospel." And in exactly the same moment, he is so upset with them for turning away from the end of the law where it was supposed to lead to Christ, and so concerned for them that they know Christ.



 It may sound a long way removed from us, but every single one of us has some parallel experience.



 Because we, some of us, may be parents who recognize children who have bounced from the faith to pursue some other morality or pursuit away from Christ.



 Or maybe some of us who recognize we have invested so much in children in Sunday school, in friends in Bible studies, in co-workers, and then they bounce from the faith, pursue a reputation or recognition or a promotion or a person that's destroying their life and their marriage. And right at the same moment, we are so upset with them and so concerned for them at exactly the same moment. And it's that conflict in us that the Apostle Paul is reflecting here when he's saying, how do you respond in those moments where you're so concerned for people and so upset with them at exactly the same moment for their wandering from the faith?



 You begin, the Apostle helps us know, by showing a great heart of grace, a beautiful heart. It's in the very first verse, "Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them," that is the Jews, "is that they may be saved." I'm still desiring their spiritual best. I want them to be saved.



 But you have to remember who they are.



 My heart's desire for them, my countrymen, my fellow Jews.



 We're now late in the ministry of the Apostle Paul, which means he's riding from Corinth. He's getting ready to go to Jerusalem to take money that he's collected, to take back to the church in Jerusalem that's struggling under a famine, but he plans to get to Rome ultimately. And he's riding from Corinth to those in Rome saying, "My heart's desire for the Jews is that they would be saved." But you have to remember what he's actually told those in Corinth about these same Jews.



 If you went to 2 Corinthians chapter 11, you would find the Apostle Paul saying this, "Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes minus one." Thirty-nine lashes with a cat of nine tails that had stuck in the leather, the glass and the metal that would flay your back into a bloody mess with only a blow or two. And five times he had received the thirty-nine lashes at the hands of the Jews who did not want him teaching about Jesus. Who can actually hurt us the most?



 The people we love the most.



 The child who's walked away, the child who accuses or blames, the spouse who has turned the back, the in-law who we can't get close to. We want to love, but instead we feel anger. We still hurt coming from the other direction.



 And sometimes the greatest hurt is what they are doing to themselves despite our love for them. And Paul says, "Here are my brothers. I'm going across oceans. I'm going across deserts. I'm going across difficulty for their sake. And what do they, they beat me."



 Not only the thirty-nine lashes five times, three times I was beaten with rods.



 Once I was stoned, I'd been in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, and danger from my own people.



 In the city, in the wilderness, at sea, and from my own brothers.



 How that must hurt. I'm doing so much for them, and they turn on me. And yet here is the apostle in the face of it saying, "And yet my heart's desire for them is that they would be saved." They turn on me. I turn to God in their behalf and ask that they would be saved. Our human response is anger, distance, turn away, and yet here's the apostle saying, "My heart's desire for them." Why?



 Because I recognize the great spiritual danger that they are in. Verse one right at the end, "My heart's desire and prayer for God is that they may be saved."



 It is rescue language as the apostle Paul perceives the wrath of God, the evils and harm of hell and the future of those to whom he is ministering, and recognizing the great future of eternal damnation that is before those that he loves. He says, "I know they hurt me. It hurts me that they hurt themselves, but I'm going to keep praying for them. I'm going to be working for them." If we could perceive it, if I could just ask you, I know it's difficult, but think about the persons who have hurt you, and maybe the greatest hurt that they have done to you is the way they have hurt themselves.



 And say, "Despite all of that, if you could perceive their eternity in hell, what it would mean to live under the consequences of the wrath of God forever, you would move heaven and earth. You would do whatever you could that they could hear the message of the gospel, that they would be saved." It is the consequences that continue to bring concern out of our heart. And it's the very thing that the apostle is recognizing because he said, "I don't just recognize the real danger that they are in. I recognize the false hope that they are turning to." Verse 2, "For I bear them witness." They have a zeal for God.



 Not according to knowledge, for being ignorant of the righteousness of God. Now, every Jew is going to be offended.



 The Jews are ignorant of the righteousness of God? Wait, wait, wait. I have followed the law, I kept the standards, I follow the commandments, I keep the dietary customs, I've offered sacri... What do you mean? I don't know the righteousness of God.



 Over and over again in the book of Romans, Paul has said the righteousness of God is not just holy standards.



 It is a caring heart. The righteousness of God is not only good standards, it is a good heart toward sinners. And the Jews have not recognized the fullness of the righteousness of God. They only perceive the standards, not the goodness of heart that is making available the grace of the gospel through Jesus Christ. They seem to be ignorant of the righteousness of God. How are they ignorant? Verse 3, "They are seeking to establish their own righteousness, and they did not submit to God's righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes." What was that law meant to do? To humble you, to show you you could not live according to the standards of God. He said, "I'm holy, so you be holy." And if you begin to perceive truly what it means, never be selfish.



 Never lie.



 Never lust.



 Never seek anything other than God's glory. You say, "I can't do that. I'm humbled by that. That standard breaks me. I need help here."



 That was the intention.



 Christ was to be the end of the law. He was to take, the law was to take us to our need of Him. And the Jews are only perceiving themselves, "I'm going to do it. I'm going to fulfill the law." Paul says, "Their zeal is actually giving them a false hope, and as a consequence of that false hope, they are not turning to the hope that they need." So what does He do?



 He begins to show more of that beautiful heart, not just desiring their good, but praying for it.



 Did you catch that in verse 1? "Brother, my heart's desire and prayer to God for the Jews, if that they may be saved." This isn't just lip service.



 I desire that they be saved. The thing that I pray in church, the thing the pastor prays for in church. No, one of the ways that we check ourselves, do we really desire that they be saved? Are we praying for them? For my child, for my relative, for my coworker? Am I on my knees praying for them? Does prayer actually strike us as necessary at all?



 The last time I was with you, I asked you to pray.



 I asked you to pray for a religious visa for me so that I could enter Cuba and be able to teach and preach the pastors who are sharing the gospel there.



 And I must confess, all of us wonder at times, does that make any difference that people pray?



 I think of later that day as the word came, we didn't yet have the religious visa, yet it was time to get on the plane and go in faith that somehow I'd be able to serve, maybe just private conversations, maybe just serving in the kitchen crew that the Lord so I left. I'm wondering, I wonder if anybody is praying.



 Watch the Miami airport where you have to purchase the visa, no religious visa. Bought the tourist visa to get wondering, I wonder if anybody is praying.



 Went into Cuba, was there for a day, and we got the word late. The religious visa has been issued, but not yet given to the leaders of the conference. It didn't really matter. In order for me to obtain the religious visa, I had to leave the country.



 So because that word came in late that day, I got on a plane late, we were running late when Sandra and Anne and I got in that old car to try to get to the airport in time.



 Roughly every half mile on the major highways of Cuba, there's a military officer.



 We were about two miles down the road, already late to the airport, when one of those military officers pointed us coming down the road and pointed us to get off the road.



 Immediately, Sandra and Anne began to pray in the car, "Lord, turn this away. Let us through."



 We prayed, we were questioned for five minutes or so, had to show the papers that were needed, et cetera. We were let go. Now we're even later. We get to the airport, long line of people registering to get on the flight that we need to get on. Finally, get to the ticket agent. The ticket agent hearing that I want to go out of Cuba and back in one day refuses to issue the ticket.



 I wonder, is anybody praying?



 We asked for the supervisor.



 The supervisor issues the ticket. Somebody must be praying.



 I go now to the long security line. Wait, wait, wait. Plane is almost going to go. Somebody gets to the customs desk. The customs officer shuffles through some papers, finds my name on a list, and tells me to get off the line and go wait in a holding area.



 I'm wondering, is anybody praying?



 I'm in the holding area and after a while, a military officer comes with a lot of insignia on his shoulders. He conducts me over to another customs office where I hear another series of questions. Inside I'm going, I wonder if anybody is praying.



 They stamp my documents, I can go. But now the security line is even longer. I'll never make it. And then somehow this little blonde angel about four feet tall comes, takes me by the hand and takes me to the front of the security line.



 Somebody must have been praying.



 I get through the security line and now I'm going through the x-rays.



 Uh oh.



 I have one piece of luggage because I'm coming back the next day with a religious visa. I'm leaving with a computer bag and no luggage. They don't like that.



 Everything I have is examined. Now when I travel, honestly, as much as I travel and you let me go to these countries to share the gospel, I have every travel medication you can imagine for every malady that could possibly occur. And it's all in my computer bag.



 All those, I'm looking like I'm a walking pharmacy.



 And they do not like that. Every bottle is examined. I'm looking at my watch, I'm looking at the line, my gate I can back to, but I can't get there.



 They look, everything's okay. All right, all prescription. Wait.



 What is this?



 That's my wallet.



 It's got Cuban money in it. Yeah, I exchange my dollars for Cuban pesos.



 Cuba has a closed currency. You cannot leave the country with Cuban currency. You cannot go.



 I'm coming back tomorrow.



 No.



 You cannot go.



 I'm thinking, is anybody praying?



 Would you please reconsider?



 Okay, you can go, but don't you do this again. You can believe me, I won't do this again.



 I get to Miami. I now have to have the religious visa issued to me. It hasn't come yet actually to the hands of the leaders who can now scan it and mail it to me so that I can get back into the country with the religious visa. I'm wondering, is anybody praying?



 Late that morning, the religious visa comes through with the wrong name on it.



 Is anybody praying?



 But it has the right passport number. So I go to the airport, I go to the Cuban officials, I'm here with my religious visa. Great. Wait. It's got the wrong name on it. I know. But look at the passport number. It's the right number. Okay. I think somebody must be praying. I get now out of Miami, back into Havana. I'm going through the customs office. What's the first thing they say?



 This religious visa has the wrong name on it. I know, but it's got the right passport number.



 Okay.



 Somebody's praying.



 I didn't really know all the story until the first day of the conference. It was attended by the president of the Baptist convention of Cuba.



 He said that on that day that I had asked you as the people of God to be praying, that he was at a social event with cabinet leaders of President Raul of Cuba. And the immigration cabinet member was bragging to other people of shutting down our conference because the church in which it was being held had one known dissident within it. And she said, I'm going to punish that church by not letting them have that conference, not knowing the president of the Baptist convention was overhearing what she was saying. So he said, I'm the president of the convention of those churches. I assure you, we will change the venue if you will issue the visa.



 Two days later, she issued the visa and I thought, my people were praying right at that moment. He was there when it had to happen. And I think to myself, this is the work of God over and over again. These iron bars yield. We see the gospel move forward. The gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And it's not just because we pray for missionaries and not just because we pray for the pastor. I recognize when we recognize the effectual fervent prayer of the righteous, availeth, much that what God is saying to every single one of us is, don't just depend upon you and your righteousness. That's what you believed before the gospel. You are now mine. Seek me, depend upon me, call upon me. When your children wander, when you're wondering how do you pray for a child who's bounced out of the faith? When do you start praying for the Christian spouse for your child long before? I think for Kathy and me how important it was in those teenage years when the line between great danger to our children both spiritually and physically was so narrow between what they might do to themselves and a path that was much better and how much we prayed in earnest and how good as it were those difficult years for our prayer life, how good it was for our marriage to be together praying about those things. And I thought about it in my own life how I was instructed by that as a man that I respected talking about his own teen years, how he was going a different direction. But one day came down the stairs of his home and looked into his parents' bedroom and saw two elbow prints on the bed where he knew his mother had been on her knees praying for him because she knew where he planned to go. And he turned him around.



 The effectual, fervent prayer of the righteous availeth much. And what God is promising to us is we have a beautiful faith and this beautiful faith can be expressed from a beautiful heart if we truly desire that people be saved and we truly pray for it. It's not just something we do by routine and ritual that we truly are on our knees in our hearts praying for the salvation of others. And God says to his people that he honors and he does so in the life of the apostle here because what's being prayed for is that these people would embrace the beauty of God's grace. It's actually on display here as the apostle makes people hear what they should hear. Paul writes to the Jews, verse 5, "Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that a person who does the commandments shall live by them." Hey, if you're going to base your hope on the law, you better keep the law.



 If you're going to live by the law, then live by the law. But what's the problem?



 I can't, Lord.



 If that's your standard, never lust, never lie, never shade the truth, never live selfishly, I can't live that way. So how do people typically respond? Verse 6, "The righteousness based on faith says, do not say in your heart, who will ascend into heaven, that is to bring Christ down?" What's the response of many people? Well, I can't live according to God's high standard, so I'll just say his standard isn't really that high. I'll begin to pull the standard down. Well, yeah, don't lie unless your boss requires it.



 Start with integrity unless it jeopardizes the bottom line.



 Live in faithfulness unless she's willing to agree and you're willing to agree and it doesn't really hurt anybody.



 And so we take the standards of God and we pull them down until we can reach them and think that's going to be helpful.



 The other alternative, of course, is verse 7.



 Or some people will say, "Who will descend into the abyss?" That is to bring Christ up from the dead. Well, nothing I have done really requires the sacrifice of somebody else. I mean, shed blood for my life. I don't need that. Jesus, you don't need to go to hell for me.



 Come on, get up, Jesus. Get up. You're making me look bad.



 No?



 Faith is not pulling the standards down or pulling Christ up. It is the reminder of what the Apostle Paul has said over and over again here. There is none righteous, no, not one. And the wages of sin is death.



 That there is eternal condemnation ahead for those who are not able to meet the holy standards of God and no one can. And so the standards of God are meant to direct us another direction, which is to faith in Jesus Christ. What does that faith look like? How do we know if we've got it? It says the Apostle. Verse 9, "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." It begins here that we actually say the right things. Confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord. I believe that God sent Jesus, the Christ, to be my Lord, that he would die for my sin that I made right with God through Jesus. I'm going to confess that.



 But the Apostle is smart enough to know this can just be lip service.



 Right? People can just say the right thing. I mean, even Pilate nailed above Jesus on the cross, King of the Jews.



 I mean, the ones that crucified him could say, "Jesus is Lord."



 What's the mark that says, "No, this is genuine faith."



 It is not just confessing with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, but believing in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, that he is alive, that he is the living Lord, that he has daily input in my life, that glory to him is my daily obligation, not because it makes me righteous, because he's the Savior. And because he has saved me, I'm living in response to his grace. And living in response to that grace is shown as genuine when it is the commitment of my heart to live for his glory. One of my great privileges when I came to this church was being invited to the bedside of a man who knew that he was dying.



 He was not desperate.



 He wanted to proclaim the gospel to me. He said, "There was a pastor in this church years ago who told me that I was 12 inches short of salvation, because I could say the right thing, but it was not the commitment of my heart from the way that I was living."



 And when he said, "I heard that message.



 I recognize the commitment of my heart had to be to Jesus Christ." I say it to so many of us raised in the church. We can say the right things. We know the answers people expect, but it is not lip service that the apostle is asking us to express. Is there a commitment of your heart to Jesus Christ? How do you know your heart is committed to him? Because you're living for him. You wake up in the morning and you say, "I'm going to live for the glory of Jesus today. That's what I'm about." Do you recognize how many people far into their adult years are living in adolescent Christianity, the boundary Christianity? What can I not say? And what can I not drink? And what can I not see? And what can I not…?" And they just live their Christianity boundaries. And the apostle Paul is saying, "I'm calling you to boundless praise. To recognize your heart's commitment is to live for the one who is the living Lord, to live for his glory." I think of those of you who went to the fellowship of Christian athletes banquet and you listen to Mike Matheny who readily confessed, you know, "Sometimes I lose my temper. Sometimes I'm not all that I should be."



 But I wake up in the morning thinking, "How can I bring glory to God?"



 It's the mark of those of us who are truly Christians by…not lip service, but by life of faith. I'm living for him. My life is committed to his purpose. And in doing so, I begin to recognize I have the glory, the privilege, the purpose of living for him. It's not my safekeeping. It's not just trying to stay on the good side of God. No, he's given me his good side. He gave me a son. I'm living for him now. And in that I know the glory and the goodness of what it means to have purpose in life and be able to show love to my Savior. It's what we ask other people, what we pray to God other people would believe and know and reflect.



 And so Paul says, "Listen, you just have to make sure they get the news." What is the news?



 It's verse 10. "For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. If heart and lip come together, real salvation, taking you away from sin and shame is there." Verse 11. "For the Scripture says, everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame."



 It's the great blessing of the gospel. Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame. Not just some, not the good people, not just the ones who've shown up here for years and years. Everyone who believes that Jesus died for their sin and rose from the dead, so now they're living for him, every single one of them without distinction is going to be saved so much so that they will be without shame.



 Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be able to live without shame.



 One of the great fathers of the church in history was Augustine, who taught the church early so much of what it meant to live by faith and not by works. He'd been raised in the church, at least by a Christian mother, who taught him the right things to say.



 But in his teen years and early adulthood, he lived a wanton life, immoral, without integrity, without care for anybody but himself. What brought him to his senses was one day walking by an orchard and stealing some pears



 from a poor farmer.



 He didn't want to eat the pears. He wanted to admire the pears. He threw them to the pigs.



 He just delighted to steal.



 And he recognized he had become completely amoral, nothing good in him anymore. And it broke him. It crushed him to recognize, despite his ideals, despite the things that he thought about himself, he was willing to do what would hurt other people without a shred of conscience until the Holy Spirit broke through and said, "You would steal pears for nothing."



 And he turned his heart and his life over to Christ, which changed him. As he began to live for Christ, he turned from his old lifestyle. One day he was walking down the street and a lover began to chase after him to call his name again, "Augustin! Augustin!" He just kept walking, walking away from him, "Augustin!"



 Finally she said, "Augustin! It is I!"



 To which he finally turned and said, "But it is no longer I.



 I am not Augustin anymore. My sin has been put aside. My shame is gone. I am in Christ Jesus. His identity is my own and I will not come back to you." Why? Because I no longer have to live in shame. It's not just ancient history. I think of a friend of Cathy's and mine whose addiction to immorality destroyed his marriage, destroyed his career, destroyed his reputation. And I met him some years later and talking to him, found a man who was just kind of deeply, profoundly joyous and at peace. And I had to say, "What has happened to you?"



 And he said, "I found peace in my heart because I'm no longer ashamed before God.



 I've learned the meaning of it old him. We don't sing it much in this church. This shall all my glory be that Jesus is not ashamed of me."



 That's my glory. That's your glory. God who knows the worst of us, Christ who died for our sin. It wasn't Jews who lashed him, it was my sin that lashed him. And yet he cared so much for me, he would die for me and no longer hold my shame against me. And it's not just me, it's not just you. People kind of know it because you've been in the church a long time. Verse 12, "For there's no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord is Lord of all bestowing his riches on all who call on him." Jew and Greek, those who've been long in the church, those who are new in the church, those who have nice backgrounds, those who have terrible backgrounds, those who've known the gospel a long time, those who are just coming into the gospel.



 The Lord is Lord of all. Why? Not because of their ability, but because in their poverty of spirit and righteousness, the riches of God have been applied to their account. This is what God is promising. The riches of the righteousness of Christ are your. God has bestowed his riches on all who call upon him. So what is the message? Verse 13, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." Not because you qualified, not because of your background, not because you've done this or that or failed to do this or that. It's because you've said, "God, I can't make it right with you, but Jesus did, and I trust him, and I'm believing in him.



 And as I now love him so deeply, I'm going to live for him. That is my heart's commitment, not just the lip service I'm giving. This is what I really believe. Jesus made a way, and he's alive, and he's my Lord, and I'm going to live for him because he's living for me."



 When that is the commitment of your heart, everything begins to break away of sin and shame and loss.



 It's what we want for those that we love, and it's what we want for those who have hurt us who are in danger of hell because it's what Christ himself wants for them, and we love him.



 I could not help but think of this as I was preparing these verses and in Cuba.



 As I mentioned, the Cuban Christians cannot meet in regular places of worship. It's rare that they can.



 And so the church that I preached in last Sunday was a cemetery.



 The name of the church?



 The Way of Life.



 Get it?



 And as I watched people come into those cemetery gates, I looked at people young and old, some obviously from deep poverty, some middle class doing fine, some respectable, some not respectable appearing at all.



 But they came to the Way of Life, and they put aside the path to death because they had put their trust in Jesus Christ.



 So may you. I urge you, whatever you would trust in, your goodness, pulling Christ down, his not lack of need to help you, pulling Christ up, you don't really need to die for me, that you'd put it away.



 And you would say, "Jesus, help me.



 I need you and your righteousness.



 Take my shame away, my sin away, and help me now to live for you.



 And when you call upon him, remember everyone who does will be saved."



 Father so work in the hearts of every one of us here. Some of us need to renew prayer for those who have hurt us.



 And some of us doubt if any prayer could save us.



 So remind us right now of how great is this gospel, how good is this grace.



 For hearts that are wondering if you would really love them still, make this the prayer of their hearts even now.



 Jesus, help me.



 Forgive my sin.



 Put aside my past.



 Wash away my shame and love me.



 With this assurance, those who call in the name of the Lord will be saved.



 Thank you, Jesus.



 We love you and claim this promise in Jesus' name. Amen.