Paul’s heart pounded with sorrow throughout Chapter 9 as he was reminded of God’s grace while he penned Chapter 8 which really  reminded him of his crime against his own people…how for years he was the one who led the assault against the very grace that he now preaches.  And as he developed his thought concerning his desire for all of his Israelite brethren to come to the saving knowledge of that very grace, he spoke of God’s sovereignty.  God’s perfect knowledge in promising Isaac, promoting Jacob and repulsing Pharaoh. 

This week, as we get into Chapter 10, Paul will continue his heart cry to Israel as we’ll see him speak of God’s equity, His equality, His impartiality, His utter fairness in His present dealings with Israel because no doubt by now many of the Jews are reading of righteousness being granted to the gentiles who did not seek it by the law and they are thinking “HOLD UP!”  “We’re the ones who keep the law!   We’re the ones who structure our very culture around righteousness and lawfulness!”  And God’s reply to them through Paul has continually been, “yes but don’t you yet see?  Your life, your law, your culture has utterly departed from that which it so desperately seeks…righteousness…why, because it’s not by the law it is by faith…total dependence and submission to Me!”  

You know that’s what faith is…faith is not some sort of emotion that tells you which way to point your rudder…faith is not some sort of magical force that we use to accomplish our will…no.  Faith is an obedient response to God.  That’s it.  That’s the deal.  And later in this chapter we’ll read that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God…are you dead set determined to learn truth and then live truth? 

Paul has spoken of how the Jews desire for righteous equality with God, (self exaltation), has led them light years away from righteous equity that is only to be found in the Savior.  To the point that they missed Him.  Jesus came on the scene.  Fulfilled every prophecy in every prophetic, messianic verse down to the crossed “t” and the dotted “I”.  Every minute detail perfectly fulfilled in the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth yet blinded by their own self righteousness, they missed Him.

And what we’ll see through this Chapter is that revelation from Paul which is found in the first four verses.  We’ll see that some of Paul’s countrymen will receive Jesus, verses 5-15.  And finally we’ll see that most will simply reject Jesus as Savior, verses 16-21.  And the kicker in the end, won’t be their verbal rejection but their rejection is shown solely through their disobedience to the Word of God…their lack of faith…

Romans Chapter 10 Verse 1

• Real quick here.  We’ve talked about why Paul’s heart is broken for his people so we don’t need to develop that truth any further, but one practical principle I see here, important and essential, is that one’s heart to serve…to honor God…to  bless and to love…will always start right at home. 
• This is why Paul wrote to Timothy in 1 Timothy Chapter 3 verses 4 and 5 to not serve alongside a person who is not absolutely broken primarily for their own home.  Who does not have the heart to serve and to be the least of all in their own home…because as they settle in here…into ministry…and this becomes more like home…guess what?  They will no longer have a heart for the church either.  And so you who believe God has placed a calling on your life to serve Him corporately, know this.  He has placed a primary calling on your life to serve Him completely and that begins, sustains and ends in the home.
• Man I got that wrong for years.  I was like Iron Man without the miniaturized arc reactor!  God had set me free, given me His Spirit, discernment, drive and determination!  It was like H.I.!  Heavenly intelligence right!  Downloaded right into my main cpu!  Very different from A.I.  The artificial intelligence that I had all my life had fallen off of me like weights!  But now…as I walked through the Stark Industries platform of eternity…crash, the breastplate of righteousness.  Ping, the shield of faith.  Clink, the helmet of salvation and shing!  The sword of truth!  The armor of God installed…like Iron Man only stronger…Platinum Man…(heavenly chorus – hopefully that actually happens during the study) – but one thing missing…the arc reactor…no power…why?
• Because as I charged off to tell the world…tell ‘em man of the freedom…tell ‘em man of the grace and the love and the truth and the salvation not just for eternity, although that is enough, but for today…salvation for even this present predicament, this judicial junk between you and your husband, between you and your neighbor…even between you and your enemies!!!  Freedom man!  I forgot to show my family!  And in all my evangelizing, in all my witnessing, in all my serving, not for a moment was I serving the Lord…because His command to me was to start at home…
• Man, real service to the Lord…is founded, learned, sustained and increased ONLY in the home…this place, this ministry, your ministry, is in truth, a by product…and really the truth is…your ministry at home is a by product of your ministry directly to the God Himself.
• You got no love for your wife…you got no love for the Lord.  You got not heart to honor your husband and…you go not heart to honor the Lord.  You got no ear to obey your parents…you have no desire to obey the Lord…
• You learn to serve God not on the streets of this world but within the walls of your world man…right in your home and that is the very knowledge from which you personally can impact the world…not the other way around.  You don’t impact the world and then come home powered up to serve your husband, love your kids, serve your wife, lead your roomie…nope.  You serve, love and lead first in your own home…that is the knowledge that you and I need to grow in our intimacy with God!  This is the knowledge that the Jew did not have…

Romans Chapter 10 Verse 2

• Paul knows first hand.  He doesn’t need a witness, he’s the witness that they know all about God but they don’t know God.  This is huge.  This is major.  This word in the Greek for knowledge is not to know someone by name.  It’s not to know someone by reputation, by fact, by perception, by sensation…this word is to know someone through experience.  Epiginosis.  
• This is what the Jew lacked in all of their religiosity yet what even the gentile could attain to in the grace of God’s love.  In that He put skin on, stepped into His creation and showed us precisely what He’s like and then after paying the price for our sin upon the cross and rising after three days, He delivered to mankind the ability, the gift, the indwelling Holy Spirit so that anyone, whosoever, all that would call upon Him in humility, void of self righteousness, anyone who would believe in Him would know Him from the inside out…and the experience comes not only with the abiding but with the responding.  Hence the knowledge Paul speaks of…
• What do you mean not only with abiding but with responding?  Well, there was one who abided with Jesus all throughout His earthly ministry but NEVER responded, correct?  Judas Iscariot.
• I’m talking about drawing near to Him.  Knowing Him.  Living not just with Him but for Him.  To live is Christ Paul would write…and knowledge, experiential revelation, divine wisdom…manifests.  Man this is huge, why?  Because this is what religion misses.  This is what carnality misses.  This is what sin and Satan attempt to stop.  Ready for this?
• This is the knowledge that produces wisdom in the believer (Ephesians 1:17).  This is the knowledge that protects unity in the body of Christ (Ephesians 4:13).  This is the knowledge that causes love to abound in your life (Philippians 1:9).  This is the knowledge that leads the believer into a walk that is fully pleasing to God (Colossian 1:10) and the knowledge that fills you with grace and peace (2 Peter 1:2).  THIS is what God wants to show you (1 Timothy 2:4). 
• SO many say they know God, they walk with God, they follow God, they press in on God and yet their tree withers!  Wisdom fails as their emotions burst forth and they react, react, react.  Strife and division, lovelessness (well not really lovelessness in total just love for others), grace and peace are requested – not manifested – and yet the whole time they plead their case that the problem is not them…James would say these are the same who look in the mirror, behold their face and then walk away immediately forgetting what they see…
• No peace, no grace, reaction Jackson!  The Bible is not true in every other situation EXCEPT for this one!  You have a knowledge issue man.  And Paul dives to the root of the problem as he continues.  That the experience of God, walking with the Lord, sowing to the Spirit, revelation man…begins, originates, stems from something that the religious, the carnal, the victim lacks…submission…

Romans Chapter 10 Verse 3

• That word for ignorant there is actually “willfully ignorant.”  It’s the root word from where we get our word agnostic.  And so it’s not that they haven’t heard, haven’t been told, haven’t considered…they have, it just doesn’t work for them.  Because when you read of God’s will, God’s ways, God’s laws guess what, it’s not about me!  It’s all about Jesus!  Doesn’t work for some…
• God wants me happy.  God wants me to have what I want.  God wants me comfortable.  God wants me to be respected, to be served, to be high and lifted up!  Really?  Let me offer you some correction in love.  God wants the best for you.
• I want the best for my children.  Do you really think that giving them everything they want, making their lives couchy comfortable, bowing to them, serving them hand and foot, night and day…do you really think that is best for them?  Not hardly man!  My grandfather worked on a peanut truck from the time he was 12 years old to help support his mom and dad and siblings.  Every day he would get up, go work, go to school, come home and go to work. 
• And guess what.  When he became a man, he led.  He walked the soles out of his shoes to provide for his own as a door to door life insurance salesman.  Listen up young men.  His shoes were always tied.  His pants were always secured with a belt above his butt.  His hair was always combed.  His shirt was always pressed and his demeanor was always respectful and powerful. 
• David tended his family’s flock from a young age.  He cared for them, watched them, did not sleep on protecting them because that was his responsibility.  And guess what.  When he became a man he led.  He defeated the lion and the bear.  He defeated Goliath…both David and my grandfather honored the Lord and the blessings of God were provided to this dark planet through them…ONLY because they knew about submission man…
• They read the scripture and accepted that it’s not about them, it’s about Jesus and what flowed > not zeal, zeal is only as good as the volume of your voice but knowledge, knowledge that is good for generations…in David’s sake good for eternity as Jesus said that heaven and earth will pass away but in no way will My Word pass away and guess who’s all up in His Word?  David!
• “My God wants me to be happy!”  What?  “My God wants me to be served”  Come Again?  “My God wants me to have peace at the expense of others.”  Say it to my face!  (Nacho Libre alert!)  Get saved!  You got the wrong God!  And that is precisely what Judaism had metastasized into!  Jesus said they honor God with their lips but their hearts…GONE!  Why?  Because they seek their own righteousness rather than submitting to the Kingship, the love, the grace, the purity, the ONLY subject and object (not just the primary, not just the component) the only substance of real righteousness in all of ever…God Himself!
• And God Himself revealed.  The Savior sent to save us all from sin…Jesus Christ.  Look at verse 4.

Romans Chapter 10 Verse 4

• Why is this so hard to get man?  Folks hear this, they nod north and south to this but then they go home and press for their own way with their wives…and its face palm time for the Holy Spirit and for me as your pastor…submit to God!  “I am submitted to God.”  Then put down the fiery darts that Satan gave you to use against her…and just love man!  Know Jesus experientially just as while we were His ultimate and eternal enemies, He willfully, humbly and gladly took the cross on man!  Is your husband your ultimate and eternal enemy?  No of course not.  Is your boss your ultimate and eternal enemy?  Is your roommate?  Is your ex-wife?  No!  Of course not…then what’s the problem?
• Correct answer.  Only answer.  You’re not submitted to God!
• Check this out.  You go to Amazon to buy something.  You see it.  It’s awesome.  You got the cash.  You fill out the order form, do you have it yet?  Is it yours yet?  No.  What do you have to click?  “Submit!!!!”  It’s not yours until that little box labeled “submit” is clicked is it?  And until then…what you even can see…what is even within your reach…ain’t yours!  This is where the majority of Christians settle in their hokey pokey Christianity.
• One leg in, one leg out…half in the Lord, half in the world.  The application is filled out…the prayer has been uttered…they know God as fact, as friend…but the revelational knowledge of eternity ain’t even close to being delivered man…it’s not even shipped yet you see…because that little button “submit” remains unpressed.  And life is still about you…
• The core of God’s indictment against religion.  The root cause of the turmoil in your today’s…I wonder do you have the courage to accept the truth today.  I wonder will you accept what is best for you.  I wonder do you have the strength.  Do you have the will to gain wisdom, to protect unity, to let love abound and to walk fully pleasing to God?
• Time to complete the order form…time to click submit and live for God.  The problem isn’t meeting commitments usually, it’s making them…time to commit to learn God’s ways through His Word and then learn Him personally through walking the soles of your shoes out to provide for your family and honor your Father.  Install the arc reactor.  Power up man and get out of the battle for your own soul…tie your spiritual shoes…pull up your spiritual slacks man and take the city for the Christ!  In Jesus name!