Now in that passage that Brother
Joe just read in Romans 9 and 10, if you'll return there, I
want to speak to you this morning a little bit on the subject of
the secret of attaining righteousness. The secret of attaining righteousness. Now just to give you an idea
of how important this is, To be saved, for one to truly claim
salvation and not be deceived, but to be truly saved in essence
is to actually say of myself that I have attained righteousness. Those two things go together. Somebody said, well, to be saved
is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, to believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, truly believe on Him, is to say of myself,
if I claim that, that I have attained righteousness. To enter Heaven's glory is to
say, I have attained righteousness. No one will enter Heaven's glory. who has not attained righteousness. Everything in religion, now listen
to this, everything in religion can be and must be reduced to
this question. Do you have a righteousness that
answers the demands of God's justice? And if you do, how did
you attain it? That's the whole of religion,
really. And so, with that in mind, the
Apostle Paul, writing by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, after he
had written eight and a half chapters, he didn't write it
in chapters, obviously, but after he had written up to this point,
asked this question, look at verse 30 of Romans 9. What shall
we say then? What conclusions should we draw? That's the question. Now this
involves everything that God the Holy Spirit inspired the
apostle to write up to this point in the book of Romans. What he
inspired him to write about the necessity of the gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ. The necessity of the person of
Christ. Who is Jesus Christ? Made of
the seed of David according to the flesh, declared to be the
Son of God with power by the Holy Spirit. He's God in human
flesh. We were in Washington, D.C. last week, and when we went to
the National Zoo, there were so many groups of Jehovah's Witnesses
going through the different areas. And I just thought, I said, you
know, they probably think that we believe the same Christ, but
we don't. They deny his deity. And that's
a false Christ. Somebody says, well, what are
you going to say about that? Well, they're lost. Now, I'm not saying
that because I'm a religious bigot. I'm saying that because
that's what the Word of God says. I believe I'm a follower of Jesus
Christ and this is what He taught. And that's why I say that. I
don't say it because I'm mean. I may be mean. I don't think
I am. But, well, sometimes I am, I guess. But that's not the issue
here. I don't want to... You know,
Paul said, my heart's desire and prayer for Israel is that
they be saved. I want people to be saved. I
don't want to I don't want to count people lost just because
I desire that or I'm proud or anything like that. I know I
have pride. I know I have to fight pride.
All of that. But no, no, no. What does the scriptures teach?
Well, who is Jesus Christ? He's Emmanuel. That's a name
that you don't give to a mere man. That means God with us. He said, I am Jesus of Nazareth. The one born of Mary said, I
am, didn't he? Several times. You don't take
that name upon yourself unless you're claiming to be God. He
said this, he said, before Abraham was, I am. That's the self-existent one
who has no beginning and no end, friend. So, did he claim to be
God? Yes, he did. And if he's not
God, then he's an imposter, he's a liar. But he is God. Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. And yes he is man. Every bit
man as you and I are. Except for one difference. He
was without sin. And there's no way scripturally
that you can ever make him a sinner. That's right. And to do so is
blasphemy. You see this thing comes down
to who Jesus Christ is. And Paul had written about what
Jesus Christ accomplished. And you know how he phrased it?
One phrase, listen to it, Romans 1 16. He says, for I'm not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believe it, to the Jew first and the Greek
also, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to
faith as is written, the just or the justified shall live by
faith. He summed it up in this phrase,
the righteousness of God. So how are we going to attain
righteousness? He talks about the sinfulness of man. Why do
we need the righteousness of God? Why do I need that? Well,
because the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all sin,
all unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness. And he goes on to talk about
the depravity of man, the sinfulness of man, the fall of man, We're
sinners. We have no righteousness. We
can attain no righteousness by our works. We want no righteousness. God's way of establishing it
and giving it. All of that. And then he goes
on to talk about how those who are in Christ are so blessed
of God. There's no condemnation to them
which are in Christ. There's no sin charged to them.
Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? They're
destined for glory, predestinated to be conformed to the image
of Christ. And all this was God's plan and
purpose and sovereign working from the beginning. He overrules
all things and everything for the glory of Christ in the salvation
of his people. He will deliver us under glory
and nothing will separate us from the love of God in Christ.
God never fails to keep His promise. Oh, what about the Jews? Didn't
He promise to save them? Yes, but you've got to put that
in its proper context. And he said just because the
majority of the nation Israel rejected Christ doesn't mean
that God failed on His promise. Because they are not all Israel
which are of Israel. The Israel that God promised
to save is not the nation Israel. You say, well you're talking
out of both sides of your mouth. No, I'm just telling you what the
scripture teaches. Look over at Romans 2. Look at verse 28. For he is not a Jew, which is
one outwardly. Now what in the world does that
mean? I mean, here's a natural born Israelite. And Paul says, well now, he's
not a Jew who's one outwardly. He says, neither is that circumcision
which is outward in the flesh. In other words, Paul's saying
here, when I'm talking about a Jew now, or when I'm talking
about one who's circumcised, I'm not talking about physical
things. That's what that means. I'm not talking about ethnicity
or their pedigree. And you know what? The Apostle
John was in agreement with him. The Apostle Peter was in agreement.
The whole Bible's in agreement with him. Even Isaiah was in
agreement with him. Jeremiah was in agreement. All
of them. But he said, here's what I'm talking about in verse
29. He is a Jew, which is one inwardly. Now what is an inward
Jew? Does that mean he has a bloodline? No, he's not talking about physical
things there. And circumcision is that of the
what? the heart. Now the question I
have to ask myself is this, do I have a circumcised heart? Because if I do, then I'm a Jew
inwardly. According to Paul's definition
here, as he was inspired by the Holy Spirit to write. So what
is a circumcised heart? Well we'll look at that in just
a moment. He says circumcision is that of the heart and the
spirit, not in the letter. That means when the Bible talks
about the letter, it's talking about the old covenant law or
the commands given in physical commandments, even that which
was given to Abraham physically. And he said, whose praise is
not of men, but of God. So he's making a distinction
here. And he says, now go back to Romans 9, he says they are
not all Israel which are of Israel, but the children of the promise. The children of the promise,
verse 8 of Romans 9 are counted for the seed. Now who are the
children of the promise? Turn to Galatians chapter 3. Now we could go to a lot of other
scripture too, but I'm just showing you just an example. Look at
verse 26. Now the church in Galatia was
a region in Asia Minor that was pretty well widespread. And most
of the historians, the biblical historians, believe that there
were several small groups peppered throughout this area called Galatia.
And that's who Paul's writing to. Some believe it's just one
group of people like us here in Ashland. Maybe. It doesn't
matter. But here's the point. In the
churches or church of Galatia, you had both believing Jews and
believing Gentiles. And that's to whom Paul is writing
here. Believing Jews and believing Gentiles, both. Now here's what
he says to them, verse 26. You are all the children of God
by faith in Christ Jesus. All of you, believing Jews, believing
Gentiles, for as many of you as have been baptized into Christ
have put on Christ. Now that baptism into Christ
means placed into Christ. You're one with Christ. Christianity
can be summed up in the phrase union with Christ, can't it?
Look at verse 28. There's neither Jew nor Greek.
Now Greek was a way of referring to all Gentiles back then because
it was a Hellenistic or Greek world. There's neither Jew nor
Gentile. Now what does that mean, there's
neither Jew nor Gentile? It means in Christ, as a child
of God, that distinction is gone. You see that? Under the old covenant,
that distinction was real and there, ever-present in their
daily lives. But under Christ, under the new
covenant, the everlasting covenant of grace, That distinction is
gone. There's neither bond nor free.
There's neither male nor female. That distinction is gone. Now
that doesn't mean there's not Jews and Greeks and bond and
free back then and doesn't mean there's not male nor female.
In fact, we were studying today in 1 Corinthians 14 about the
role of men and women in church. There's a distinction there.
But in Christ as being a child of God, there's no distinction. Whether you're a male or female,
Jew or Gentile, if you're in Christ, you're a full-fledged,
100% child of God. And so he says, for you are all
one in Christ Jesus, and if you be Christ, if you belong to Christ,
then are you what? You see that in verse 29? What
are you? Abraham's seed. And heirs according
to the promise. Now that's the children of promise.
Go back to Romans 9. So Paul says that they're not
all Israel, which are of Israel, the children of the promise.
That's the Israel I'm talking about. And then he uses the examples. He talks about Abraham and Sarah,
Isaac and Rebekah. Rebekah had sons, Jacob and Esau. He says, Jacob have I loved,
Esau have I hated. God made that distinction sovereignly. And it had nothing to do with
anything in them, or of them, or from them. He said before
they could do any good or evil, that the purpose of God according
to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth. Verse 15 of Romans 9, For he
saith to Moses, I'll have mercy on whom I will have mercy, I'll
have compassion on whom I will have compassion. God is sovereign. God has an elect people. A chosen
people, chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.
That's what the Bible teaches. And if that weren't the case,
there'd be none of us saved. We'd all perish in damnation. And it's God's choice. God is
sovereign. God has a people that he chose
out of the Gentiles. He has a people he chose out
of the Jews and he's going to save them. His promise will be
fulfilled. He works all things after the
counsel of his own will. Now, verse 30, what are we going
to conclude? What shall we say then to these
things? Now, years and years ago, I was
preaching down in Georgia and a fellow come up to me and he
said, he said, I don't like the conclusions you draw in your
preaching. And I said, well, why not? He
said, well, if what you're saying is true, I'm lost. And I asked
him this. I said, well, now, are you sure
that that's my conclusion or God's conclusion from the word?
Because that's what you need to distinguish here. He said,
well, you just draw too many conclusions that you ought to
let people draw for themselves. Well, here's the problem with
that. If we're left to draw our own conclusions, our conclusions
will be wrong. Let me give you an example right
here in Romans 9. Now Paul says, what shall we say then? What
are we going to conclude? Well, look at man's conclusion
in verse 14 of Romans 9 concerning God's electing grace. What shall
we say then? Is there unrighteousness with
God? God forbid. What's man's conclusion when
he hears about election, predestination? He says, well God's not fair.
Wrong. It may not seem like to you that
God's fair, but He is. He's just. He says here, it's not of him
that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth
mercy. Talks about Pharaoh, how he raised him up for this very
purpose. Verse 19, look at this. Thou
wouldst say then unto me, why doth he yet find fault? For who
hath resisted his will? That's a way of saying, well,
then it doesn't matter what we do. God's sovereign, and it's
not based on our will or our choice, so it doesn't matter
what we do. That's man's conclusion. Wrong. You say, well, I can't understand
it any other way. Well, that's your problem. And
that's my problem. It's not God's. And he goes on. Verse 20. Nay, but, O man, who art thou
that replies against God? Shall the thing formed say to
him that formed it, why hast thou made me thus? Well, I'm
going to blame God then. Wrong. So Paul goes all through this,
you see. And he says, listen, this was prophesied in the Old
Testament that God has a people out of every tribe, kindred,
tongue, and nation. He has a people out of the Jews.
He talks about that in verse 29. Look at verse 29. Isaiah
said before, except the Lord of Sabaoth hath left us a seed,
we'd be just like Sodom and Gomorrah. If God hadn't saved a remnant
out of the nation Israel, they would have all perished like
Sodom and Gomorrah. And then he also predicted through
the prophet Hosea that there would be Gentiles who are saved. Verse 24, even us whom he hath
called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles, as
he saith also in OC or Hosea, verse 25, I will call them my
people, which were not my people, and her beloved, which was not
beloved. So God has a people out of every tribe, kindred,
tongue, and nation. Now, what are you going to conclude? Verse 30, what shall we say then? Well, here's what we should say. Here's the conclusion that God's
word draws for me and you. And what he does, he says, we
conclude, number one, God is absolutely sovereign in all things,
especially salvation. That's what the Bible says. God
is faithful to save all the object of his love, both Jew and Gentile.
That's what the scripture says. All of salvation is of God's
free sovereign grace conditioned on Christ alone. God justifies
the ungodly. And God is just to justify the
ungodly based upon one ground and one ground alone, and that's
the righteousness of God in the person and work of Jesus Christ. That's the obedience unto death
of the Lord Jesus Christ. So what are we going to conclude?
Here's what we conclude, or we should conclude. My only hope
of salvation is in Christ. Nowhere else. No one else. Not
in me. It's not in you. It's not in
my will or your will or my works or your works. It's in Christ. I want Christ. That's the conclusion. Now how does he relate that?
We'll look at verse 30. What shall we say then? Now he
begins with believing Gentiles. He says that the Gentiles which
followed not after righteousness have attained to righteousness
even the righteousness which is of faith. Who's he talking
about there? Is he talking about all Gentiles
without exception there? Well obviously not. Have all
Gentiles without exception attained righteousness? And the answer
is no. Well, who's he talking about
here? He's talking about Gentiles who have attained righteousness. Who is that? Believers. He said
they followed not after righteousness. What does that mean? Well, he's
setting up a contrast here. A contrast with the Jews and
the Gentiles, the Jew who had the law of Moses. And he says these Gentiles followed
not after righteousness. That word follow means to pursue
with intense energy. Like a hunter pursuing his game. Or a man pursuing a fleeing enemy. And they didn't pursue righteousness. Righteousness means justification,
which is a right standing before God. In other words, what he's
saying here is that these Gentiles were not in their history seeking
to please the God of Israel. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and
Moses. Now there were a few exceptions.
Read the Old Testament. I don't have time to name them
all, but actually there were a few. I can tell you about Ruth.
Remember Ruth? Read the book of Ruth. She told
Naomi, Your God will be my God. Your people will be my people.
Where you go, I'll go." She was a Gentile. I can tell you about,
in the New Testament, an Ethiopian. He was following after righteousness
because he went to Jerusalem to see if he could find it in
the law, and he didn't find it, and he went on his way back home
out in the desert. What happened? God sent him a
preacher named Philip. And Philip preached Christ to
him from Isaiah 53. I'll tell you about a man named
Cornelius, a Roman soldier of the Italian band, it says. So
there were a few exceptions, but on the whole, the Gentile
nations did not follow after righteousness. They didn't seek
after the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They didn't have the
law of Moses. Now, that doesn't mean that they
were not religious. Among the Gentile nations, they
were just like every other nation. You had the immoral segment,
the irreligious segment, but you had religious people among
the Gentiles. You had moral people among the
Gentiles. Before, they were without righteousness
and not interested in the righteousness of the law of Moses. That's what
he's saying. They followed not after that. They had the law
of nature. They had the law of conscience.
Romans chapter 2 teaches that. They had religion, they had morals, but they had no right standing
before God. They didn't even know God, didn't
even hear of God. But he says in verse 30 that
they attained it. They attained a righteousness.
Now how did they attain a righteousness? It's the righteousness which
is of faith. Now what is faith there? Well,
faith has to do with two things. Number one, it has to do with
the message of the gospel wherein the righteousness of God is revealed. Okay? The doctrine of Christ,
the doctrine of His person, and the doctrine of His finished
work. What is your faith? If somebody were to ask you,
what is your faith, what would you say? Say, well, I'm a Christian. When I was in Washington last
week, I could have gone up to any number of people and they
said, well, I'm a Buddhist, or I'm a Hindu, or I'm a Muslim. That was their faith. That's
the body of teaching that they adhere to and they follow. That's
their life plan, their life goal, their life walk. Secondly, faith
has to do with a sinner born again by the Holy Spirit brought
to believe that gospel, believe in Christ. Now, what he says,
what he means here when he says the Gentiles have attained a
righteousness, even the righteousness which is a faith, he's talking
about believing Gentiles. The elect of God, redeemed by
the blood of Christ, called out, regenerated and called out by
the Holy Spirit. He's referring to Gentiles who
have been called to Jesus Christ to find righteousness. They've attained it. Even the
righteousness which is of faith. What is the righteousness which
is of faith? It's the righteousness of God.
which is the obedience unto death of the Lord Jesus Christ as the
surety and substitute of his people. Dying for our sins, putting
them away, satisfying the justice of God, enabling God to be just
and justify. And what I'm saying is everything
in salvation, everything religion must be reduced to that. They
attained it. The righteousness which is of
faith. Not a righteousness of their own. Not a righteousness
of man. Not the works or deeds of the law. Not even faith itself
in place of righteousness. That's what most people today
believe. They believe their believing is their righteousness. Your
believing is not your righteousness. If you believe, if you truly
believe, Christ is your righteousness. You see the difference there?
That's not just splitting hairs now. I'm telling you. That's
a big difference. If you think your believing is
righteousness, that's just the same as salvation by works. We
do believe. What do we believe? We'll look
at verse 4 of chapter 10. For Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness. To everyone that believes. You
see that? I believe Christ is my hope. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. You see, your believing is what
you trust. Your believing is what you rely
on. If you, you know, some people have, Brother Mahan used to put
it this way, he said they have faith in their faith. What's
the difference between a sinner lost in his sins and a sinner
saved by grace? And most people say, well, the
difference is I believed. What do you believe? Down south they'd say, well,
I believe Lord's greasy. Well, that's true, but it won't
save your soul. Lord won't save your soul. It
won't let you slip through heaven. I believe that Jesus Christ is
the son of God. When that Ethiopian said that
to Philip, That involved everything that was written in Isaiah 53
as Christ, our substitute and surety, who died for our sins
and made us righteous before God. That's what Philip preached to
him. So it's not faith itself in place of righteousness. Faith,
believing, is distinguished from righteousness. Remember what
we read there or what I quoted in Romans 1, 16 and 17 when he
talked about The gospel is the power of God
unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and
the Greek also. For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith, from the teaching to believing." You see, they attained it. This
righteousness of faith is the righteousness of Christ that
is freely imputed, charged, accounted to God's people. and which in
time under the preaching of the gospel by the power of the Holy
Spirit, they receive Him by faith. It's not because faith is the
cause or condition of it, but it's the revelation of it made
to faith. Do you believe it? I believe
it. These believing Gentiles being
regenerated and called by the grace of God, they attained,
that means they received, they apprehended righteousness. When
did they do that? When they believed in Christ.
When they received Christ. Remember John wrote in John 1.11
that he came unto his own and his own received him not. But
to as many as received him, to them gave he power, the right
to become the sons of God. And it's not by light of natural
conscience or nature, but by revelation from God through the
light of the Gospel. Having been chosen before the
foundation of the world by a sovereign God in the Lord Jesus Christ
and justified Him as our surety, having been redeemed by His blood
on the cross as our substitute, having our sins charged to Him,
imputed to Him, having been regenerated by the Holy Spirit, they attained
righteousness. They became justified not only
before God, but in their own conscience. But look at verse
31, but Israel, now here is the unbelieving Jews. Now he talked
about believing Gentiles. Well, now he's gonna talk about
the unbelieving Jews. But Israel, which followed after
the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness.
Wherefore, or why? Because they sought it not by
faith. What is it to seek righteousness by faith? It's to seek it and
find it in Christ. Now, if you seek it anywhere
else or in anyone else, you're not gonna find it. Even if you
seek it in your faith, You won't find it because that's the same
as seeking it in yourself. They sought it not by faith,
but as it were, by works of the law. They were seeking righteousness,
trying to attain righteousness. How? By their works. And what happened? Well, they
stumbled at that stumbling stone. Now, what's he talking about?
He's going back to an Old Testament prophecy of the Lord Jesus Christ
that's found in the book of Isaiah. He quotes from two passages,
Isaiah 8 and Isaiah 28. You can look those up. And he
says in verse 33, As it is written, Behold, I lay in Zion, that's
his church, a stumbling stone and rock of offense, and whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed. That rock of offense,
that stumbling stone is a him. It's a person. It's the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now if you believe on him, You
won't be confounded. That's what that means. You won't
be confused. You won't be destroyed. You won't
be ashamed. You know where shame began? You ever felt ashamed? You ever
told your children, you ought to be ashamed of yourself? You
know where shame began? Way back in Genesis chapter 3.
And you know what caused man to be ashamed? He lost his righteousness. He disobeyed God. He ate of the
tree, the forbidden tree. And he discovered that he and
his wife were naked and they became ashamed. Nakedness in
the scripture is emblematic of being void of righteousness. You don't have one. And ever since then, shame has
been man's way of life. and all religion and all materialism
and all, all of, even, listen, even his immorality is a way
of either covering up or denying or ignoring his shame. Why do
you think homosexuality is so publicly rampant today? It's
because man is in the process of coming to the pinnacle point
of denying his shame. He doesn't have to be ashamed
anymore, he's going to be proud of it. But the first thing that
Adam and Eve did when they were ashamed is what? They hid from
God. And they tried to cover it with
fig leaf aprons. And what did God do? He took
off the fig leaf aprons, and then He got an animal, which
I believe was a lamb, and He slew the animal, shed blood. Without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission of sin. That's the emblem. and he made
them coats of skin, that's the righteousness of God imputed.
He put it on. Now to stand before God in anything
other than the righteousness of Christ imputed to me will
ultimately, whether I see it now or not, be a shame. Proof
in point, Matthew 7, 21 through 23. Haven't we preached in your
name? Does that cover my shame? I'm right here before you preaching
in His name. Is that what covers my shame?
No. Christ covers my shame. He took my shame on Himself. He was made sin. That's what
that means. My sins were charged to Him.
My guilt, that's shame. Guilty. And my guilt was charged
to Him. He suffered in my place. He took my shame. And just like
in the shedding of His precious blood, He was open. That's why
He was open and naked. hanging on that cross, because
of my sins imputed to Him. And He suffered and bled and
died, and out of His death came that righteousness which God
put upon all His people to remove our shame. You see, if I stand
before God in my own works, I'm going to be ashamed. But if I
stand before God in Christ, I have nothing to be ashamed of. He put away my sins. He washed
me clean. God does not and cannot charge
me because He laid that account to Christ. And that's what he's
saying. Look at verse 1 of chapter 10.
Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that
they might be saved. Now, Paul says, well, I don't
know if they're one of God's elect or not. I don't know whether
to pray for them or not. No, I pray for them all. Listen,
I pray for everybody. All sorts of men, Paul told Timothy. Kings, peasants, slaves, everybody. I don't know. I preach to anyone
who will listen. Go into all the world and preach
the gospel. We're not to try to pick and
choose. No, sir. Anybody who will sit and listen
to the preaching of the gospel. He says, I bear them record,
they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. They're
religious, they're zealous, they're sincere, but they're ignorant.
And what are they ignorant of? Look at it now, verse 3. They're
ignorant to the secret of attaining righteousness. They being ignorant
of God's righteousness, that's God's justice. Lord, if thou, Lord, shouldest
mark iniquities, who would stand? Not me. The best that we can offer unto
God is vanity. And going about to establish
their own righteousness. If you're going about trying
to make yourself righteousness in order to attain or maintain
salvation in heaven, I can tell you right now, you're ignorant
of God's righteousness. You don't know God. Because if
you knew God, you'd know that that's an impossibility. And they have not submitted themselves
unto the righteousness of God. Now, what does that mean? They've
not submitted themselves to Christ. They stumbled at the stumbling
stone. Verse 4, here's the secret to attaining righteousness. For
Christ is the end. That word end means the finishing.
the completion, the perfection, the accomplishment of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believe. The issue is, do
you believe in him? Who is the Lord our righteousness?
Or are we trying to establish one of our own? The secret to
attaining righteousness is Christ crucified and risen.