Good morning, good to see you
here. I especially want to welcome our visitors. Y'all pray for
me as I try to stand in for Bill this morning. Our primary text
for today is Romans 10, 1 through 4, and as you can see the title
of the message is Lost and Found. I chose that title because I
believe in just these four verses we have a clear and a distinguishing
description of both those who are spiritually lost and those
who are spiritually saved, who are found, like that one lost
sheep found by the shepherd in the perilous Jim Red Forest,
lost and found. I know some of you have traveled
probably before, and you may have checked into a hotel only
to, when you check out, leave something behind unintentionally.
I have, and sometimes you might not recognize it's even missing
for a few days or maybe a week or so. And until you discover
it's lost, you don't even search for it. But when you recognize
it's missing, you'll start searching, and if it's of any value at all
to you, and eventually it might dawn on you to call the hotel
and see if you left it there. They'll transfer you to their
lost and found department, and hopefully you'll find what is
lost. Now, I waste a little time here with this example, But it's
because I want to focus your attention on the fact that there
is a parallel to that in the spiritual conversion of each
and every one that God saves. We must first discover our spiritual
state of having been lost, if we're to search and find, or
more aptly, be found, so as to be counted among the spiritually
saved. And in this short passage, these
first four verses of Roman 10, Romans 10, God describes for
us what is true of every lost but religious sinner. And being
religious, we'll see, is to not think you're lost. If you're
practicing religion somewhere in some fashion or form, you
may be worshiping the true and living God, but you may be mistaken.
In other words, you might think you know the way of eternal life
and really be lost, not know it. And on the other hand, we
have here in this passage something that's true of every saved sinner,
every true believer. And I'm assuming that all who
hear this message, they're religious, at least to some degree or the
other, or you wouldn't be listening. as God challenges us in 2 Corinthians
13.5, let's this morning examine ourselves as to whether we be
in the faith. And this very brief, but I think
loaded passage that we're looking at provides a great tool to do
just that. So in light of these verses,
let's ask ourselves, am I, are you among those described here
as the religious lost? Or is the description here, does
it describe you as it does true believers. And it's one or the
other for each of us. Well, before we dig in the verses,
let me catch up on the immediate context of Romans 10. Paul is
writing to believers in Rome, and in the latter part of the
preceding chapter 9, he quotes Isaiah saying this in verse 27,
that though the number of the children of Israel be as the
sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved. He's telling his fellow
Jewish believers here that although there are many of us Jews as
the sands of the sea, only a remnant, a small number have been and
will be blessed with true God-given faith and repentance. And then
he goes on after that to contrast them with the believing Gentiles.
Now the Gentiles who did not have the advantage of the old
covenant law of Moses, as did the Jews, that foreshadowed and
pictured Christ and his way of salvation. But he says of the
Gentiles, he says, they have attained or come to the law of
righteousness. And he was contrasting them with
the majority of these Jews of whom he spoke, saying who followed
after the law of righteousness. That is referring to their attempts
to keep the law. But of them, he says, they did
not attain or come to the law of righteousness. And look with
me at those last two verses that lead up to our text in chapter
nine. In verse 32, he addresses why
or how this is so. He says, wherefore or why? He
says, because they sought it not by faith, but as it were,
by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling
stone, as it is written, behold, I lay in sign a stumbling stone
and rock of offense. and whosoever believeth on him."
See, that stumbling stone was a him. It's referring to the
person, Jesus Christ. Whosoever believeth on him shall
not be ashamed. The word that's translated ashamed
means confounded or perplexed. It means that trusting in Christ,
and as we'll see in the next four verses, and his imputed
righteousness for all salvation. Believing on him who was a stumbling
stone to most of the Jews, he's telling us we'll prove to have
been worthy of their trust. It's going to stand up at the
judgment. They shall not be ashamed. When
I think of that, one of the saddest things to consider is how ashamed,
how perplexed, how confounded many religious folks have been
and will be when they die like those preachers described in
Matthew 7 who said, have we not prophesied in thy name and in
thy name done many wonderful works only to hear Christ say,
depart from me ye that work iniquity, I never knew you. You see, that
would be folks who would die, and Paul is about to describe
here just these people for us. who, if they stayed in that state,
would die in full expectation of entering heaven's eternal
glory, only to find out they had it all wrong. They thought
they knew the way, but they were tragically mistaken. They were
lost, and they didn't know it. Well, Paul starts to describe
that for us in our text as we begin reading in Romans 10, 1. He wrote, brethren, my heart's
desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be
saved. For I bear them record that they
have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being
ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish
their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto
the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believeth." Well, let's
dig into this a bit. First, you can see from verse
one that Paul doesn't take delight in sharing with his Jewish brethren
in the faith how most of their fellow Jews were spiritually
lost. And we know this because he begins
by expressing his compassion for their eternal well-being.
His heart's desire and prayer is that they might be saved.
And you know, likewise, any who preach the true gospel of God's
grace The gospel wherein his righteousness is revealed, as
we'll see. They do not relish, they do not
delight in pointing out, as they preach the gospel with distinction,
how the majority of so-called, quote, Christendom fall in the
same category as these Jews. And it's based on the exact same
evidence here. So we see that the relevance
of this, it goes way beyond just these Jews. And we only point
those things out for the same reason, because we're talking
about folks we care about, friends and relatives. And we know if
they are to be saved, that they, like all who are saved, they
must at some point also come to see how tragically mistaken
they've been. And that through the revelation
of God-given faith and repentance so as to come to Christ and plead
his righteousness that he's speaking of in this passage, plead that
alone for all their salvation. So clearly that's Paul's motivation
as it pertains to the majority of his fellow Jews. And in that
he desires and he prays for their salvation, we can know that he's
speaking of those who need salvation. So first we see they're lost.
And secondly, we know from verse two, they're religious, religious
but lost. Now, look, we know that's not
true of all folks. There's a lot of people who have
no interest in religion whatsoever, but these of whom Paul wrote
likely are similar to all who will hear this message. They
have some religious interest. Paul put it this way, saying
this, he said, they have a zeal of God. And we know Paul could
identify with that. He was so zealous before his
spiritual conversion that in the name of his former religion
he was busy persecuting true Christians. You remember that's
one of the things he cited in that list of things in Philippians
3 that he said he once thought was gain, they were gain for
him. In other words, they thought,
he wasn't talking about repenting of immorality, he was talking
of repenting of what he thought gained him favor with God and
he said concerning zeal, persecuting the church. But as that passage shows, of
all those things, Paul repented. Many of these devout Jews, they
prayed, they fasted, they tied their money, and that even over
and above that which the law called for in many cases. Many
of them strictly observed the ceremonial law that they were
commanded to obey and observe. So their zeal really was not
in question. And I kind of once fit into that
category, and I know some of you did too. I was zealous in
my former religion. Yeah, I wasn't playing at church.
I was serious about it. But like these that Paul describes,
I once was lost, religious but lost. And as such, I don't doubt
at all the sincerity of most religious friends and folks that
I know. But as was true of me once, you
can be sincerely religious, like these that Paul is describing,
and yet still be in a state of spiritual blindness, lost and
not even know it. But the problem with them here
didn't lie in the fact that they were zealous and religious. There's
nothing wrong with that in and of itself. But that their religious
zeal, he said, was not according to knowledge. They lacked some
vital knowledge. so vital that it is what Paul
is using to identify them as in need of salvation here, of
being lost, misguided. And he doesn't just say, well,
they're missing something. Let's all just pray and hope
that someday they'll figure it out. No, he immediately and precisely
tells them exactly what they were missing, what knowledge
they lacked. As we read in verse three, they were ignorant of
the righteousness of God. righteousness of God. Boy, this
must be important. It's mentioned four times in
these four verses. And what is the righteousness
of God which Paul says they were ignorant of? Well, we can know
that from the context. Some will say it's the attribute
of God being a righteous God. Some will say it's the righteousness
of the law. In other words, it goes beyond
just the outward deed, the law of Moses, but reaches the motive
and our thoughts as Christ explained in his Sermon on the Mount. But
that's not the righteousness spoken of here. We know from
verse four, which I think is about as concise of a biblical
definition of the righteousness of the gospel that one can get.
We can know he's referring to the justice-satisfying merit
of Christ's obedience unto death on the cross. The righteousness
he came to establish and did establish in perfect satisfaction
to the law and justice of God. Christ, it says, is the end in
verse 4. The completion, the fulfillment,
the finishing of the law for righteousness. And that's the
righteousness he's speaking of in verses 2 and 3 as well. And that is the righteousness
which most of the Jews were ignorant. This righteousness is described
in more detail for us back in Romans chapter 3. Look there
with me. Beginning in verse 21. But now
the righteousness of God without the law, without your obedience
to the law, is manifested. Being witnessed by the law and
the prophets, even the righteousness of God which is by faith, or
the faithfulness of Jesus Christ, and unto all, I believe that
means proclaimed unto all, and upon all them that believe, that
is, it's put upon them, it's imputed to their account. For there is no difference, for
all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, being justified
freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus, whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation, that is,
a sin-bearing, justice-satisfying sacrifice. God hath set forth
to be that, a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare
his righteousness, for the remission, the payment, the forgiveness
of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God, to declare,
I say at this time, his righteousness." That's that satisfaction to God's
law and justice that Christ made as a surety, as a propitiatory
sacrifice. As it reads here, He declares
his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of
him which believeth in Jesus. See, from this passage we see
that God can't just look over our sins and say, well, I'll
forgive you of them without his justice being satisfied. They
have to be dealt with according to his strict justice. So that
means Christ had to be that vicarious, propitiatory sacrifice so as
to pay the sin debt due unto God's justice, see, for all he
saves. And here we see that this is
his righteousness, so that God might be true to his righteous
character, that he might be just and still save or justify them. Now, this is his redemptive glory. And I believe that is what Paul
is just more concisely restating in Romans 10-4 when he said,
Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believe it. Let's consider further the description
of lost sinners found in verse 3. And I think this verse needs
to be considered as a whole and not divided up in this sense,
as if Some religious folks might be ignorant of God's righteousness,
but not necessarily going about to establish one of their own.
No, the religious but lost here are identified as one being ignorant
of God's righteousness. I'm getting where I'm stumbling
over righteousness. I've been saying it so much.
Y'all forgive me. But they're identified as one
being ignorant of God's righteousness. And, and so underline that word
and in your mind's eye. And two, and I believe you can
say automatically, by default, being ignorant of God's righteousness,
they're going about to establish their own righteousness. And
so thereby, it's concluded thirdly that they have not submitted
themselves unto the righteousness of God. That's the explanation
of why Paul knows them to be lost, why he prays for their
salvation. You know, most everyone I know
who considers themselves to be of the quote Christian faith
they will agree that only those who believe the gospel shall
be saved. And maybe that's because of familiarity
with scriptures that tell us that, such as the great commission
Christ gave to his disciples in Mark 16, 15, and 16. He said,
said unto them, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel
to every creature. He that believeth, believeth
what? The gospel he commanded them to preach, and is baptized
shall be saved. But he that believeth not, what,
believeth not the gospel, shall be damned. So, you know, in light
of that clear passage, and others most profess belief in what they
call the gospel. The problem lies in that the
gospel so many believe is what the Bible calls another gospel,
not God's gospel. Now, how can we know if it's
God's gospel? We often quote from Romans 1,
16 and 17, where it's declared that the gospel, God's gospel,
is the power of God unto salvation. It is what is believed by those
who are saved. But we can't ignore verse 17,
which makes it clear that this is so because therein is the
righteousness of God revealed. So that tells us it is impossible
to believe God's gospel while ignorant of God's righteousness,
because righteousness is what is revealed to those who believe
God's gospel. Well, what constitutes ignorance
of this righteousness? Well, some are like myself in
years past, pretty much oblivious to it. You know, I knew the word
righteousness was in the Bible, but for the most part at that
time, my thoughts were limited to only considering righteousness
as an attribute of God, describing how he was holy, he was just,
he was righteous, God does right. Although, you know, I now know
in hindsight I didn't even truly appreciate God's attribute of
righteousness in that sense. See, I didn't think God would
be so righteous, so strict, so just as to accept nothing less
than the perfection which only Christ could and did render as
a surety and a substitute for his sheep. Surely he wasn't that
righteous, or so I must have imagined, because I sure wasn't
looking there. Secondly, like many, I also had
no idea of my need for a perfect righteousness. Now, I understood
I couldn't obey enough. I couldn't do enough good deeds
to get me into heaven. I knew the Bible taught that
salvation was by grace, not by works, and yet I had thoughts
totally contrary to that scripture. I thought my believing is what
made the difference. It's what differentiated me from
the laws. In other words, I'd made faith
a work, even though I called it a gift from God. I said, he
enabled me to believe. But it was a work that was somehow
different and unique from God's other commands in that it was
exempted from having to measure up to some standard of perfection
required by a holy and righteous God. You see, I didn't know I
needed a perfect righteousness. thought Christ somehow made up
the difference for my shortcomings if I just kind of strike my end
of the bargain by believing something that whatever was prescribed
by the preachers I was under, something about Christ. And we
call that salvation by grace. But thankfully it was later exposed
to me that I was really believing in a system of works, salvation
by works. a system that was just disguised
as grace under the name of grace, but it was grace in name only. So to be ignorant is to not know
you need righteousness. If God brings you to see your
desperate need for his righteousness, it's only because he's revealed
it to you by God-given faith and repentance, and that under
the preached gospel of God's sovereign grace, wherein it is
revealed, as we read. Thirdly, to be ignorant of the
righteousness of God is to be ignorant of it as the standard
by which God shall judge us. It's like an open book test here.
In Acts 17, 31, well, in verse 30, Paul tells the Athenians
there on Mars Hill, he says, God now calls on all men everywhere
to repent, verse 31 adding, because he hath appointed a day in the
which he will judge the world in righteousness. whose righteousness,
by that man whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath given assurance
unto all men, and that he raised him from the dead." Wow, so just
as sin, imputed to Christ, demanded he die. The wages of sin, which
you can earn by sin, is death. Just as that's true, righteousness,
satisfaction to God's justice, full payment of the penalty demanded
life that he live. And it demands it for each and
every one for whom he rendered that righteousness by dying for
them. Look at that verse. How righteous is it saying we
must be? I've got to be as righteous as the Lord of glory. I can't
produce that. And you can't either. I can't
obey the precepts of God's revealed will. I can't keep the law in
that sense. The New Testament law where he
says, love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and body,
and your neighbor as yourself. I can't do that. Not perfectly. And I have, listen, and being
a transgressor of the law, a sinner, I can't pay the penalty that's
due unto a holy God for that. I can give up my life, but my
life is not valuable enough to pay that debt. You see, I could
spend an eternity in separation, eternal separation from God,
but that never would pay the debt. You see, His righteousness must
somehow be made to be mine. I've got to have His. And that
brings me to the next aspect of how many are ignorant of the
righteousness of God. For all the years that I spent
zealously practicing what I now know to be, have been a false
religion, I never even heard the term imputed righteousness. I never heard any emphasis on
passages like Romans 4-6 where David is quoted as having described
the blessedness of the man and to whom God imputeth righteousness
without works. Now, if you could be convinced
that you need righteousness for acceptance before a holy God,
which you do, But you know nothing of the doctrine of imputation,
you'd be left in despair and without hope. You'd be one who
knows you need something for your salvation that you have
no way of acquiring, no hope. Thankfully, God the Holy Spirit,
he doesn't leave us there. He doesn't truly convince us
of sin without also convincing us of his justifying righteousness
and how this is accounted unto those who are saved. Consider, if you're really truly
convinced of your need for righteousness, it's because you've been convinced
of sin, of your total depravity. God has exposed to you what you
are and how you fall short. all have sinned and come short
of the glory of God." So convinced that if some preacher comes along
and tries to answer your dilemma, here's the dilemma, I'm a sinner,
I can't produce righteousness, God requires me to have righteousness,
and they try to answer that dilemma, as some are doing in our day,
by pointing you within to try to find righteousness. They'll
say something as if he gives you a righteous nature. Well, and here's the evil part
of that. When they do that, on the other
side of the equation of 2 Corinthians 5, 21, they have to say, he makes
you inherently righteous and he also makes Christ inherently
sinful. I heard one recently say Christ
had to die for his own sin. Well, that would defy all of
the pictures and types of the Old Testament, the Old Covenant,
of an unblemished lamb. It would defy the scripture.
It says he offered himself up without spot, that it was he
who knew no sin. You see, this is where that subtle
error gets magnified into the evil nature of it. But you see,
if somebody tries to do that and convince you of that, and
you've been truly convinced of sin, it won't work for you. Not
if God's done the convincing, because you've discovered there's
nothing that proceeds from yourself that isn't tainted with sin.
Listen, not even the work of the Holy Spirit in us. Love,
joy, patience, long-suffering. Look, faith and repentance. Is your faith perfect? Is your
love perfect? It's not. We're sinners and all
that we do is tainted by who we are for everyone, every daughter
and son of Adam who were ruined by the fall. To need the righteousness
of God is to need a perfect one, an untainted righteousness that
answers fully the demands of God's holy law and justice. You
must have Christ's righteousness put to your account. It must
be imputed to you because nothing else will fit your need. Only
by having righteousness imputed can we who are sinners in and
of ourselves be accepted as righteous before a holy God. You know what
the scriptures call believers that? Unreprovable, blameless. Well, see, just as the sins of
God's elect were charged or imputed to Christ so that he could be
the surety. He said, I'll pay the debt, just
as sure as that happened, so he could bear the demerit,
the guilt that's due unto him, and pay a penalty, see, of such
value. that it would pay the debt due
to the offense of all the sins, past, present, and future, of
God's elect who live in each generation, sin that was against
an infinitely holy God, and that he did in his death in the shedding
of his precious blood. Well, likewise, God has imputed
or charged to the account of everyone for whom he lived and
died the merit of what he accomplished thereby in satisfying God's law
and justice, his righteousness. And that is the essence of 2
Corinthians 5.21. That's the only righteousness
that fits my need, and it's not in here. It resides right now
at the right hand of the Father in the person of my Savior, my
surety, my substitute, Jesus Christ, who the scripture says
is ever interceding on my behalf. And on what basis? On that basis.
He has my righteousness. See, it's on the basis of that
which he did for me, not based on the work of the Holy Spirit
in me. And that is an important distinction. You see, the miraculous work
of the Holy Spirit in me, they'll have me totally change my mind
about who God is and how he saves sinners. You see, that work is
what has me and keeps me looking exclusively to what he did for
me for my salvation. Now, Paul adds that in their
ignorance, they're going about to establish their own righteousness.
The word there that's translated establish, it means to make stand
in the sight of God. In other words, they presume
to be able to stand something up, something they do, that will
stand up to the justice of God as their justifying righteousness. So it's to imagine that salvation,
see, is at least in some way, and or to some degree, condition
on the sinner. That's the definition of salvation
by works, which God says he won't have. Rather than seeing how
all that is required for salvation was fully met, and only met by
the doing and dying of the Savior. Now that's salvation by grace. See, nothing we can do, listen,
nor anything that we might credit God the Holy Spirit with doing
through us meets that standard by which he said we're going
to be judged. We're going to be judged against the perfect
righteousness of Christ. So if you're religious, but you're
not looking to Christ and his righteousness imputed as your
only ground of salvation, then by necessity, whether you recognize
it or not, That is to be going about to establish your own righteousness. Because you see, if your plea,
that is your basis for counting yourself saved, is anything other
than Christ and His imputed righteousness, the only thing left to plea then
is to bank on something that you do to make the difference.
Something done by you and through you, the center. And listen,
that's to attempt to place that which proceeds from you in rivalry
with the finished work of Jesus Christ, the only righteousness
God will accept. And so, as I often characterize
it, it's to be sadly and tragically mistaken. Well, it's just not
to be sadly mistaken, as we all are by nature according to God's
word initially. But it's to be sinfully, rebelliously
sadly mistaken. You see, it's evil and opposed
to the very glory of God and the person and finished work
of Christ. God tells us in Galatians 2.21 that if righteousness come
by the law, the law is a set of conditions and requirements,
right? If it comes by your meeting some condition or requirement
in order to be saved, then Christ is dead in vain. So there's where
we see the evil. And if God shows you the evil,
that's what brings on repentance. You see, it's to imagine salvation's
condition on me, the sinner, on my faith, or my good intentions,
or my church going, whatever. It's, that is to esteem the death
of Jesus Christ as a vain thing. Now you, that you, I know when
I did that, that means empty, worthless thing. And I know when
I did that, I surely didn't think I was doing that. I thought I
was trusting it. I called Jesus my savior. But
you see, that was another Jesus. The one of my imagination, not
the one who brought in this everlasting righteousness. So Paul, he concludes
verse three saying that they've not submitted themselves unto
the righteousness of God. Submission. A pastor's been leading
us in a Bible study on the Sermon on the Mount. And as I consider
this lack of submission of which Paul speaks, I'm reminded from
the Beatitudes there, the description of those who are eternally blessed
with salvation. How they're described in Matthew
5.3 is blessed are the meek. for they shall inherit the earth."
As Bill taught there, that word meekness denotes submission. And when one has been humbled
so as to submit to the righteousness of God, notice it doesn't say
they earn anything thereby, not because of their submission,
but they inherit. And that's what I want, I want
an inheritance. I want that which the impeccably
spotless son of God, my savior, earned for me. You see, to be
submitted involves a humbling that's reflected in repentance
from our dead works. From ever imagining we could
be saved, that the difference, real difference makers, I believed
and somebody else wouldn't. Now, are these descriptions relevant
to us today? Who fits the description of not
being submitted to the righteousness of God? Well, obviously, it includes
these of whom Paul directly points his comments toward. To them,
these Jews, Christ was a stumbling stone, a rock of offense. But
I want you to consider also that the Jews did look forward to
a promised Messiah. Okay? Unlike other world religions,
for example. But it just was not the one who
would execute righteousness in the earth by which men and women
are justified before God. So is this only descriptive of
these unbelieving Jews? Well, the majority of them didn't
recognize Jesus of Nazareth to be the Messiah, not this one
who came to establish and did establish a justifying righteousness
by dying. Well, isn't that like most who
profess to be of the, quote, Christian faith today? See, just
as the Jews profess belief in a Messiah, others profess belief
in Jesus Christ as having been that promised Messiah. And like
me, they may believe he lived and died and rose again. but
as that verse says, not according to the scriptures. It's not the Christ of the Bible,
not the Christ who brought in that everlasting righteousness
by which any for whom it was established were justified and
shall in time in each generation be converted. The majority of
religious folks in our day and in our part of the world believe,
as I once did, that Jesus Christ died for everyone who ever lived,
including the multitudes that the scriptures make clear shall
perish. You know, in hindsight, it seems
like to me it should have been obvious. But in spiritual blindness,
it wasn't. See, it wasn't because I was
stupid. although I'm not all that smart, but it wasn't due
to my stupidity, it was due to my spiritual blindness that I
didn't see this, but think about it. To believe that Christ died
for all automatically must have you looking for something else,
not Christ, to make the real difference in your salvation,
since according to that doctrine, the doing and dying of Christ
just didn't get the job done for all those who were perishing.
And many, if they're challenged about this, will respond as I
would have at the time. I said, oh, but you've got to
believe to make what he did for you effectual. And I know when
I would reply that way, I did so without any sense of the evil
and the prideful and the God dishonoring suggestion. See that
my faith was a real difference maker, not the doing and dying
of Christ. that my faith could accomplish
what took the doing and dying of the Lord of glory? Well, that's
faith in faith, that's not faith in Christ. And that is to be
just as ignorant of and just as not submitted to the one justifying
righteousness of God, that which Christ alone could and did render,
as these unbelieving Jews were in Paul's day, going about to
establish a righteousness of their own. Well, lastly, there
are those whose doctrine seems more consistent with the gospel.
I consider myself fortunate that when I started just beginning
to hear the gospel, wherein his righteousness was revealed, at
the same time I was learning what many call the doctrines
of grace, what some refer to as Calvinistic doctrine. And
it amazed me at that time to discover there were folks who,
a lot of folks who were not as mistaken as I had been about
the sovereignty of God and salvation, of the doctrines of election,
in particular redemption. But at the time, being young
in the faith, I was baffled that those doctrines had not turned
their world upside down like it had mine. And see, this was
evidenced by their ability to embrace others as spiritual children
whose gospel doctrine was the same as that of which I had repented. See, I discovered I'd been worshiping
a God in my imagination, a counterfeit Jesus, and I'd shown that through
God-given faith and repentance. That's a complete change of heart
and mind about who God was and is and how he saves sinners.
Nothing but the imputed righteousness of Christ would do for me from
then on. See, my point in all that is this. Paul did not say,
well, today, brethren, I want to teach you some deeper theology
so we can all grow a little. He didn't say, I want to talk
to you about why Christ came and what he accomplished in establishing
righteousness. But don't worry, even in your
ignorance of these things, you're still okay, brother. No, Paul
couldn't do that. See, he cared for these people,
and he could only have told them that if he really believed it
to be true. Most people would never lie about
something so vital, eternal life and death, to their dearest friends
and family. So what we find out is there
are a lot of people who know a lot of true doctrine, including
believing God to be sovereign, even sovereign in salvation as
he is. And yet if they believe, and we can tell this from this
passage, if they believe any are saved in ignorance of Christ's
righteousness, they expose they too really remain ignorant of
and not submitted to it, that is, to his justifying righteousness. They might not be oblivious to
the biblical terms as I was of righteousness or imputed righteousness,
But make no mistake, if you can count others saved who are ignorant
of and not submitted to the righteousness of God as revealed in the gospel,
and who by default are going about to establish one of their
own, then that exposes the absence of a heart work, not a submission
to his righteousness, not as the only ground of salvation.
And that in spite of any other doctrinal head knowledge. A few
verses down in Romans 10, Paul describes that which he and others
preach this way in verse 9, that if thou shalt confess with thy
mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God
hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Now, a lot
of folks like to stop right there, but let's don't. Verse 10, for
with the heart, the mind, the affections, the will, man believeth
unto righteousness. And with the mouth confession
is made unto salvation. For the scripture says, whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed. They won't be confounded,
perplexed, and disappointed. See, believing on him is believing
unto righteousness. Well, back to our text. I'm sorry
I've kept you this long, but I'll hurry. Back in our text,
in verse 4, Paul describes what is true of everyone, not just
some, but all that believeth. He said, for Christ is the end
of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. He's
the end, the completion, the fulfillment, the finishing of
the law for righteousness. That word that's translated end
is derived from the same word that Christ used in his last
words on the cross when he said, it is finished. And he finished
it. He's the end, the finishing of
the law for righteousness. And that to every true believer.
So it's clear from this passage that if Christ isn't the end
of the law for righteousness to you, then you're still going
about to establish a righteousness of your own and you have not
submitted yourself into the righteousness of God. And for any that that
would describe our heart's desire and prayer to God is that they
too might be saved. And that's why we tell them these
things. You see, it's clear from this
passage that if Christ isn't the end of the law, then you
are going about to establish one of your own. Well, how about
you? Is he the end of the law for
righteousness to you? Is his perfect satisfaction to
God's law and justice by his finished work on the cross, is
it the only thing that will do for you and fit your need? it'll
find you a sinner justified before a holy God. Justified, that means
not guilty. Well, if it is, it's good news.
God's Word says that's what's true to everyone that believes
on Him for their righteousness by which they're justified, that
they are the believers. And you see, and with that blood-bought
gift of faith and repentance, one can honestly then sing that
stanza from Amazing Grace, I once was lost, but now I'm found.
Was blind. Y'all excuse me. Blind, but now
I see.