One of my aims this morning is to help clarify as well as I can what it means in Romans

10, 9 to believe in your heart that God has raised Jesus from the dead.

And the reason that needs clarification is because Satan does that and Satan will not be saved.

Satan also confesses that Jesus is Lord.

Again and again, it says in the Gospels when Jesus met demons,

I know who you are, the holy one of God. You are the son of God. What have you

to do with me, Jesus, son of the most high God? Satan and all his forces have no doubt whatsoever about the

identity of Jesus Christ. He is son of God and Lord of all, which puts a question to every individual in this room this morning,

is your

belief in your heart that God raised him from the dead

like Satan's leading to destruction or like Paul's

leading to salvation.

that's a very, very important question.

And what I'd like to do then is notice with you the context of this passage here, Romans 10, 9, where it talks about believing in our heart that God raised Jesus from the dead.

And the first thing we need to do is observe that there's a problem that Paul is trying to solve behind Romans 9 to 11.

And the problem is this.

How is it that Jews, the chosen people of God, are now rejecting Jesus their Messiah, for whom

they've been waiting for so long. Paul agonizes with the curse that Israel is bringing upon herself

by rejecting Jesus, Romans 9.3. And he struggles and says it is his heart's desire and prayer to God in Romans 10.

1, that they might be saved. How can it be that the people of God who lived under the tutoring of God in the law for so many centuries are now rejecting the one who comes as the goal and fulfillment of that very law.

Now here in Romans 930 to 1010 roughly,

Paul gives us an answer to why the Jews are rejecting Jesus.

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