John K. Jenkins Sr - A Walk Through Romans, Chapter 10

Good evening, good evening, good evening! Let me thank our praise and worship team, Brother Larry, and our praise and worship team for leading us in worship and reminding us of the great God that we serve. I hope you’ve had a great day today. I am in Florida again this week-I’m live in Orlando-and want to give a shout-out to our First Baptist Church of Glenarden production team. A couple of these really sharp guys are here setting up my hotel room with cameras and technical equipment so I can come to you live tonight. I want them to know how grateful I am. If you’re joining us for the first time tonight, we welcome you to First Baptist Church of Glenarden. Tonight is our Tuesday night Bible study that we do every week, and if you’re a first-time visitor, just put a «1» in the chat to let others know you are joining us for the first time. Wherever you are in the country, I’m grateful that you’ve joined us.

It looks like we have people from Michigan, Tennessee, Florida, North Carolina, New Jersey, South Carolina, Georgia, New York, California, Pennsylvania, Louisiana-shouting y’all out-Connecticut, Indiana, Mississippi, and we have four international locations: St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Somalia, Russia, and Puerto Rico. Thank you all for joining us, wherever you are in the world. It’s my joy and honor that you carve out time from your schedule to be with us on this Tuesday night. I’m going to pray, and then we’ll dive into our lesson for tonight. So let’s pray.

Heavenly Father, I thank you for your loving-kindness and tender mercies. Thank you for your loving-kindness that you extend to us, along with your mercy and patience. I pray that you will bless our time in your Word today. Make this Word clear; let hearts be open and receptive to hear your truth. I pray, Heavenly Father, that you would give this revelation of what Paul is saying to someone 's heart, mind, and spirit, so that they would comprehend and know what the Spirit is saying to the church today. I thank you and give you the praise, glory, and honor in Jesus ' name. Amen.

All right, we are in Romans Chapter 10. Let me welcome you to Romans Chapter 10 tonight. For those of you who may not remember, we are listening to Paul’s dialogue with the church in Rome. He is in Corinth and writing to them from Corinth to Rome, talking to a church primarily composed of Gentiles and some Jews. These are Gentiles who have accepted Jesus Christ and are receiving critical theological instructions from Paul. His instructions to them are essential to our understanding and beliefs.

Let me just jump right in and tell you that Chapter 10 focuses on some things he has already discussed in previous chapters. It all boils down to this: we are saved by faith. I find it amazing that he repeats this truth over and over again, approaching it from different perspectives and angles because he is trying to drive home the truth that we are not saved by works. I told our music department on Sunday during one of the services that they sang a song which might lead some people to believe that one has to climb a rough mountain and do their best to make it into heaven. I told our music team, «Hey, we can’t sing that song anymore; that’s not biblically accurate .» The truth is, we are saved by faith alone.

All right, let’s open our Bibles to Romans Chapter 10 and start with these first few verses. The first 13 verses deal with the fact that righteousness is by faith alone. That 's what the first 13 verses are аbout: conveying to the people in Rome that righteousness-being in right standing with God-is solely based on faith alone. Chapter 10 is significant, and you will see shortly that it highlights some key verses we use in our Romans Road to Salvation. There are several passages we use throughout the book of Romans, and this whole 10th chapter zooms in on the fact that we are saved by faith.

So let’s look at these first 13 verses. I’m going to begin at verse 1. Here 's what it says: «Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved.» That is his first challenge; that’s the heart’s desire of Paul. He says, «I’m hoping and praying, and I believe above all that Israel would be saved .» He desires that his people accept Jesus Christ and that all of Israel would come to salvation. I’m hoping that you all understand that-that’s verse 1. Paul again reveals his heart’s passion to see his people in Israel saved.