If you would turn with me to
the 10th chapter of Romans, Romans chapter 10, I won't hesitate
to tell you that one of the greatest desires of my heart is that all
of you here might be saved. I have children that are not
saved. I have family members that are
yet lost. I have friends that don't know
Christ. Some of them claim to be saved.
Some of them are religious and faithful to a church. And some
of them that I love are not at all religious. But whether they're
religious or not, it seems that all of them, in one way or another,
think that if they can just do the best they can do, that that
counts for something. And that somehow, some way, If
they just do the best they can do, heaven awaits them. It was
no different for the Apostle Paul. He had the same burden
for the loss as many of us do. Here in chapter 10, verse 1,
he says, 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 it's not according to knowledge.
The Jews had a zeal, that word means passion. They had fervor,
they had enthusiasm for the Old Testament scriptures. They had
a zeal and great enthusiasm and zeal for the law of God, but
it wasn't according to knowledge. They would compass land and sea,
the Lord told them that, to make one proselyte, one convert, But
none of their zeal was according to knowledge. And do you remember
what our Lord said? It's on the front of our bulletin,
has been for over 40 years, John 17, 3. The Lord Jesus said, and
this is eternal life. He tells us very plainly what
eternal life is. He says that they might know
Thee, the only true God. Salvation is knowing God, knowing
Him in truth. Knowing Him as this book declares
Him. And Jesus Christ whom that God
has sent. Knowing God and Christ is eternal
life. But you must know them in truth
as this book portrays them. Let's say you're in a conversation
with someone and the name of Larry Brown comes up. And your
ears perk up a little bit because you know a Larry Brown. But there's
a lot of Larry Browns in this world. I know for a fact that
there's one who's a professional basketball coach. There's another
who was an NFL football player. And there's another one who's
a plumber over in Union County. A simple search online, I found
19,080 people with the name of Larry Brown in the United States
alone. So the Larry that you and I know may not be the same
Larry Brown that someone else knows. So the person that begins
to describe the Larry Brown they know, you listen and you conclude,
well, that doesn't sound like the Larry Brown that I know.
And what you're saying is, is that you don't have any knowledge
of that Larry Brown. You don't know him. And friends,
it's the same with God. I hear people all the time talk
about and describe their God. and not to try to be haughty
or look down my nose on anyone, but the God that they described
doesn't sound at all like the God that I know, the God that
this book declares. He doesn't in any way resemble.
Now the Jews had a zeal for God, but it wasn't the God of the
Bible. They had no real understanding or knowledge of the true God
of Scripture. There's certainly a lot of that
going on still today, the same as it was in Paul's day. Men
and women have taken the word of false teachers and preachers
and have believed a lie. They haven't searched out for
themselves in the Scriptures the God that this book declares. For the most part, God has been
portrayed as some kind of entity that made salvation possible,
and he made salvation available to those who, according to their
own free will and decision, accept that salvation that God made
possible and available. They've made a decision to believe
it, and their hope of redemption is based on their will and their
ability to accept what God has offered. But it's usually quickly
exposed in the things that they say, even though they say them
with great zeal and enthusiasm. I will never forget a co-worker
who was usually always in a bad mood, who came into work one
Monday morning years ago where I work, smiling from ear to ear
and enthusiastically declaring, I gave my heart to Jesus. I made Jesus Lord, he said. I
accepted Jesus as my personal Savior. But if you just listen,
they confess themselves that these are things that they gave
and made and accepted. It's all about what they did.
Those who make such statements do so, but it's not according
to knowledge. No knowledge of the scripture.
No knowledge of sin. No knowledge of self. No knowledge
of God. No knowledge of Christ. No knowledge
of the true gospel. No knowledge of God's righteousness. Now that's what I want to talk
to you this morning just for a little while about. And that's
perfect righteousness. That's what you've got to have
in order to be accepted by God. You see, this thing of salvation
has nothing to do with your acceptance of Him. It never has been about
that. But all about His acceptance
of you. Folks have a zeal, but it's not
according to knowledge. Look at verse 3. For they being
ignorant, that word means without knowledge, means untaught, without
true understanding. They being ignorant of God's
righteousness, that's what we gotta have. That's what we gotta
know something about, God's righteousness. and going about to establish
their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto
the righteousness of God. So we see here that when it comes
to righteousness, this is where we need to start. There's God's
righteousness and then there's self-righteousness. I hope we
never get tired of hearing it because it's the foundation of
the gospel. It's the foundation of salvation. God is holy and so is his justice. And because of that, he can by
no means clear the guilty. He declares from this book that
the soul that sins, it shall die. The wages of sin is what? Death. We know that, or do we?
Proverbs 17 5 says this listen to these words very carefully
he that Justified the wicked and he that condemneth the just
Even they both are an abomination to the Lord You see God is too
holy and his justice is too strict for the wicked to be justified
and at the same time the just to be condemned and Just as God
can by no means clear the guilty, God in His holiness can by no
means condemn one who's just, right, perfect, holy. Someone
who meets the qualification of being just, holy, righteous is
going to have to stand and you're in my place. Or this holy God,
the God with whom we have to do, is going to have to condemn
you. Because the law of God pronounces
you and I wicked and guilty. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. There's none that doeth good,
no, not one. Sin will not be excused. Sin
will not be disregarded. Sin cannot be ignored by a thrice
holy God. And at the same time, God is
too holy, so holy, that one who is just, righteous, perfect in
keeping, fulfilling, and satisfying the law and justice of God cannot
be condemned. There's only one man that meets
that qualification. He is the only one who has perfect
righteousness to justify the wicked or condemn the just, even
they both are an abomination. And that word means loathsome,
means detestable, it means disgusting, repulsive. They're an abomination
to the Lord. The Lord finds them loathsome,
detestable, and repulsive. God cannot save a sinner and
compromise his justice. You follow me? Justice has to
be honored. It has to be satisfied. So how
do men and women go about to establish their own righteousness?
That's what Paul said they did. They're ignorant of God's righteousness
and they prove so by going about to establish their own. So how
do they do that? Well, it's very simple. By thinking
that they can do something for themselves that only God can
do, the only one that's qualified to do for you all that God requires
of you is the Lord Jesus Christ. So there's no salvation apart
from Him. He has done, He has finished
the work. He's fulfilled and satisfied
His holy law without compromising His justice at all. And that's
what Paul tells us in verse four. He says, for Christ, now look
at this, Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to
everyone that believe, that believeth on him, that trust in him to
be that perfect righteousness for them. God has made an end
to the law as a means of justification. We abandon all hope in ourselves
and we look to Christ's finished work. God's law was given to
bring the sinner to Christ. It wasn't given for you to keep.
It was given to show you your inability to keep it. Wherefore
the law was our schoolmaster. What does a schoolmaster do?
Teaches us. that we might be justified by
faith, by believing and trusting in Christ as the only substitute
and sacrifice for sin, Galatians 3, 24. And Paul goes on to say,
but after that faith has come, we're no longer under schoolmaster. For ye are all the children of
God by faith in Christ Jesus. That's the only way. The law
contained the terms of life. Do this and live. Do that and
die. Christ is the end of those terms.
We're no longer under the law for Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness. The sinner has to obtain God's
perfect righteousness through him. The only hope of obtaining
the perfect righteousness of God that God requires is in,
by, and through the substitution and sacrifice of Christ for us.
You know, the real issue between God and man is how, how a holy
and just God can accept you and accept me, and I know this much
about that, is that it can't be done at the expense of His
justice. I'm reminded of a story I heard
years ago about the chief and the thief. There was a particular
Indian tribe who was suffering from the effects of severe drought. Things had got so bad and food
had got so sparse that it started turning up missing. The chief
was a just ruler of his tribe and he issued a law that if anyone
was caught stealing, that they'd be taken to the center of the
village in front of the whole tribe, tied to a pole, and whipped
publicly. Sure enough, the next day, the
thief was caught red-handed. Everyone turned up that afternoon
for the punishment and to see who it was that offended the
chief's law. And to everyone's shock, it was
the chief's own mother. What could this just chief do? He could not justly ignore the
law that he had made, and he had to be just. But his mother
was old and frail, and no doubt this beating would more than
likely kill her, and not to mention that he loved her. Which would
prevail, his love or his justice? His justice can't be compromised
in order for him to remain a just chief. So he orders his mother's
wrist to be tied to the pole, and he calls forth the punisher
with the whip in his hand. But then this chief does what
none expected him to do. He steps between his mother and
the punisher, and he stretches his broad shoulders around her,
covering her completely. And then he orders the punishment
to be carried out. And as the cords of the whip
fall and rip his flesh, they fall on him and not her. And
he absorbs the full brunt of her penalty. It's called substitution. And in this act of substitution,
the chief remains both just in carrying out the penalty of the
law and also shows forth his great love by suffering the penalty
of the law himself. That's what Christ done for his
people. God and His holy justice were offended and holy justice
demands satisfaction. And this was the only way that
God could be both just and justify the ungodly. And what good news
that is! For Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believes. Do you believe? Do you see that only Christ can
absorb the brunt of your wages for sin, which is death by the
way. He died the just for the unjust. And it's crucial for
us to know what sin is. The Bible describes sin in 1
John 3, verse 4, this way. Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth
also the law. For sin is the transgression
of the law. I've heard people talk about
what commandments they've kept and what commandments they've
not kept. None of us have ever kept any of them. And that's
doubly true when you consider that they've got to be kept perfectly. In the first commandment, God
said, thou shalt have no other gods before me. And the word
gods there is a little g-god. And we've got a lot of little
g-gods in our life, I can assure you that. All of us do. And we're
so prone to serve them by putting them before our sovereign Lord. So we missed out on that when
the second commandment is thou shall not make unto thee any
graven image. And we've all got false images
and ideas of God that suit our own thinking. Most of us have
thought God at one time or another to be altogether one like unto
ourselves. The third commandment deals with
irreverence. We've all taken the Lord's name
in vain, and that doesn't just mean using God's name in a curse
word. So many times we show irreverence
with the enmity that comes from us when we're hostile to God
and His sovereign providence. To complain about anything is
to take God's name in vain. Many times in frustration, men
say, good Lord, or for Christ's sake. Fourthly, we're all Sabbath
breakers. We know little of the spiritual
rest that we have in Christ our Sabbath. We have trouble resting. Fifthly, we've failed so many
times in honoring our parents or any authority for that matter
that God has put over us. Sixthly, by nature we're murderers
just in the fact that we've slandered and murdered the character of
others. We're all guilty of it. Number seven, we're all spiritual
adulterers against Christ our heavenly husband. Eighth, we're
all thieves that have endeavored to rob God of His honor and glory. Number nine, we're all liars.
We come forth from the womb speaking lies. And lastly, we're all covetous
by nature, greedy, and usually the first words out of a child's
mouth is mine. We have kept one commandment
as God meant for them to be kept, and that's perfectly. must be
perfect to be accepted. Isn't that what the word says?
Now look at verse 5 here. Paul says, For Moses describeth
the righteousness which is of the law, that the man which doeth
those things shall live by them. You've got to keep them all and
you've got to keep them all perfectly if you're going to live that
way. And then in verse six he says, but the righteousness which
is of faith speaketh on with this wise. So Paul here speaks
of two, the righteousness of the law and the righteousness
which is of faith. Now, what is required in this
righteousness of the law? The righteousness of the law
can be summed up in one little word that we talk about so often,
and that's do. Do. What is required in the righteousness
of the law? Do. It's not enough to know the
law. It's not enough to admire the
law. It's not enough to try to keep the law. It is to do. You've got to do it, and you've
got to do it perfectly. I heard this story years ago.
There was a young man who had just graduated college, and before
he started his job, he wanted to go and spend some time with
his grandmother who he hadn't seen in a while. While in college,
this young man had become very zealous in his religion. And
as he went to see his grandmother, who, by the way, had walked with
the Lord for many years, she was a true believer, he began
to tell her all that he had done and all that he was doing for
the kingdom of God. And she lovingly told her grandson,
she said, darling, you and I are separated by a great gulf with
only two small letters. The young man replied, what do
you mean, grandmother? And she said, you're trusting
in what you do. And I'm trusting in what Christ
has done. Two little letters. There's life
and death difference in those two little letters. Galatians
3.10 said, cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things
which are written in the book of the law to do them. The law of righteousness that
Paul here talks about is impossible and unattainable for lawbreakers. That's what you and I are. And
if you and I offend in one point, John said, we're guilty of the
whole law. We're guilty of all of it. Can
you imagine studying for a test in school, and you study, and
you study, and you only miss one out of 100? And you think,
man, I made a 99. That's an A for sure. He said,
nope. On this test, if you miss one,
you missed them all. You made a zero, and you flunked.
Well, that's what the law is. Life and death difference in
do and done. And in verse six again we read,
but the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise. You see, the righteousness of
faith has something different altogether to say. Paul said
in Romans chapter four, verse five, but to him that worketh
not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith
is counted for righteousness. Does God save sinners by what
they do? Not according to the teaching
of scripture. Justification comes to him or her that worketh not. And justification comes to the
ungodly sinner who believes on Christ as their only righteousness
before God. If any part of our justification
is dependent on something that we do, then justification is
by works. But the righteousness of faith
speaketh on this wise, after this manner, and first it tells
us what not to say. Did you notice that? Why does
Paul begin here with the negative? Because everything we do naturally
is backwards. Everything we do begins with
a negative. That's how we think, and that's
how we act, and that's how we live by nature. And Paul says,
say not in thy heart who shall ascend into heaven. That is to
bring Christ down from above. Now, you and I cannot ascend
into heaven. What can I do to get Christ to
save me? What can you do to get Christ
to save you? Nothing. Nothing. Paul says don't
say that. That's attempting to do something
to be saved. Verse 7, he says, or don't say
this, who shall descend into the deep, that is to bring up
Christ again from the dead. Don't ask what you and I can
do to make Christ's death work for us. You know, most people
do not think that their salvation is dependent upon Christ's death,
but what they do with that salvation to make it effectual for them.
That's salvation by works. However you calculate it, it's
putting the deciding act in your hand. Paul says, stop talking
like that. He asked this question in verse
8, but what saith it? What does this righteousness
of faith in Christ say to us? But what saith it? He tells us,
the word is an ivy. It's near you. even in your mouth
and in your heart, that is the word of faith which we preach. What is the word that we preach? Verse nine, that if thou confess
with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in thine heart
that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. What is it to confess with your
mouth the Lord Jesus? You ever thought about that?
What does that word confession here mean? It certainly doesn't
mean to repeat a prayer. Okay, repeat after me. It certainly
doesn't mean to stand up in front of the church and confess all
your sin to everyone. This confession has something
to do with pleading guilty. When you confess to something,
you plead guilty. The word confession means to
speak the same thing. It means to be in agreement.
It means to be in agreement with God against yourself. It's agreement
with what God says about our salvation. All true believers
agree on the same thing. If thou shalt confess in thy
mouth the Lord Jesus. And the word Lord there, it means
something. It means power. It means supremacy. You believe the Lord has He's
not some little pygmy Jesus trying to do something if you just let
Him have His way. No, sir. He's powerful. He's
supreme. He's got all power. That word
actually means controller. He controls all things. Works
all things after the counsel of His own will. He's the Lord
in creation. He's the Lord in providence.
He has mercy on whom He'll have mercy. And whom He will, He has
compassion. And if you're ever saved, it'll
be by the will and the purpose of God. Our salvation's in His
hand. He's not in our hands. He's not
waiting for our operation in order to save us. You can't make
Jesus Lord of your life. Let all the house of Israel,
all the people of God to know assuredly that God hath made
this same Jesus whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. He's already
Lord. If thou shalt believe in thine
heart that God hath past tense, God hath already raised him from
the dead, thou shalt be saved. Now listen to me closely. You
believe that God raised Christ from the dead, then you have
to believe that your sin is put away and forever gone. If all
my sin was put on Christ, and yet He still rose from the grave,
that means that God's holy justice has been satisfied. That means
that God's wrath and judgment was extinguished. It was stamped
out on Him. And God raised Him from the dead
because He could ask no more. His justice was completely satisfied. God said that's enough. Christ
from the cross said it's finished. Verse 10, for with the heart
man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession
is made unto salvation. Now the heart here is the whole
being of a man. In the scripture, when it speaks
of a man's heart, it's not talking about that little organ that
pumps blood through our body. It's talking about the whole
of a man, includes a man's will, includes a man's desire. He knows
that Christ has provided for him the perfect righteousness
of God. No, that's the only way that
He could ever have it. He was made to be sin for us,
that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. I understand now
that the only righteousness that I have is the righteousness of
Jesus Christ. I not only know that, but I love
that. We won't remain quiet about this.
See, with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation. We confess
that we're only saved by the righteousness of Christ and truly
out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. There's a way
that God can accept you as you are and still remain just. And that is for Him to take your
sin, put it on His perfect Son, justly punish that sin on Him. Your sin, punish it on Him. And
because He's perfect, He knew no sin, did no sin, that God
made Him to be sin for us. And made what? Made us the righteousness
of God in Him. That's the only way it can be
accomplished. That's why our Lord could say,
I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no man cometh to
the Father but by me. Let me close with this. Turn
back a few pages to Romans chapter three, verse 25. Verse 25 here in Romans 3 says,
whom God, speaking of Jesus Christ, whom God has set forth to be
a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His
righteousness. What do we preach? We preach
His righteousness, not ours. We have none. to declare His
righteousness for the remission, for the payment of sins that
are past, through the forbearance of God, to declare, to preach. This is what we preach. I say
at this time, what do we preach? His righteousness, that He might
be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
By the perfect righteousness that Christ provided for His
people, God is just and the justifier of those who believe in Jesus
Christ. That's the gospel.