Romans chapter 10. Romans chapter
10. Give us a little introduction.
In the very end of chapter 9, you remember Paul starts out
this, chapter 9, witnessing of his heaviness and
his love for the children of Israel, that they might be saved. And so in verse 30 he gives this
conclusion, he said, What shall we say then? This is what we're
going to say, that the Gentiles, which follow not after righteousness,
have attained to righteousness. Isn't that a miracle? They didn't
follow after righteousness, they didn't desire to be righteous,
and yet by grace, by the grace and mercy of God through the
offering of Christ, they are made righteous. even the righteousness which
is of faith. You see, this is the righteousness
of God, the righteousness that Christ has obtained by His faith,
His obedience. But Israel, on the other hand,
Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, what
happened to them? They have not attained to the law of righteousness.
Why? Wherefore? Because they sought
it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law, For
they stumbled at Christ. They stumbled at the stumbling
stone. As it is written, Behold, I lay
in Zion a stumbling stone, a rock of offense, but whosoever believeth on him
shall not be ashamed. And then the Apostle again breaks
forth in his love and compassion toward his kinsmen, toward Israel. And he says, 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 the
righteousness of God, and going about to establish their own
righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness
of God. Righteousness of God. It's had a title would be the
righteousness of God, which is a faith. Righteousness of God,
which is a faith. And the apostle. I want us to
see this first, that when he talks about the righteousness
of God, I want you to see this. He is talking about the gospel. The gospel. In the beginning
of this book, Paul had one desire. He had one purpose, and that
was to preach the gospel. He said this in chapter 1 of
verse 15, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at
Rome also. For I am not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ. For it, the gospel of Christ,
is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believe it,
to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein, now therein,
in the gospel, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed. How do we know anything at all
of the righteousness of God? How is it revealed? It is revealed
in the Gospel that we preach. It is revealed from faith to
faith. As it is written, the just shall
live by faith. Paul was ready to declare and
preach the Gospel. And that's what I desire to do,
is preach the Gospel. If any man claims to be a preacher,
sin of God, but his message is something other than the gospel
of Jesus Christ, that man is not of God. That
man is not of God. Listen, if I do not preach the
gospel of Jesus Christ, you should not hear me. Isn't this what
Paul says in Galatians chapter 1? He says, I marvel that you've
been moved from him to another gospel. You see the link he made
with Christ and the gospel? To be removed from Christ is
to be removed from the gospel. To be removed from the gospel
is to be removed from Christ. They're one and the same. Because
our gospel is Jesus Christ. And Paul said, he said, I marvel
that you move to another gospel, which is not another, there ain't
no other gospel. There's some that trouble you,
that pervert the gospel, but though we or an angel from heaven
preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached,
let him what? Go to hell. Language here is
strong. It's strong, it's very strong. If they are not preaching Christ
and Him crucified, let them go to hell. Do not go with them. Because to remove from the gospel
is to remove from Him. Now listen, you can remove from
me. I'm not the gospel. The gospel is Christ. There is only one gospel. This one gospel is one that Paul
preached, the apostles preached, that Christ taught, which is
the gospel of salvation by the free grace of God through faith
in Christ alone. That's the gospel. That's the
gospel. I know men would seek to confuse
you by using names and things like that. I really don't have
an affinity for names. You put anything you want on
the door. Isn't it easy to put anything you want on the door?
You could say, well, I'm a Sovereign Grace Baptist Church. Anybody
can put that on the door, right? You can say Baptist, Methodist,
whatever you want to put out there. I've always tried to make
it as simple as possible for you. There are only two messages,
two religions in the world. Salvation by grace through faith
in Christ or salvation by works. There are only two. If a man
is saved and accepted of God by something he does, that is
a message of works. If a man is saved, in any part,
in any measure, by his works, that is false religion. But if a man is saved by the
grace of God, by the merits and obedience and sacrifice of Jesus
Christ, simply based on the grace of God, that's the gospel. That's the gospel. But there are some who have crept
in seeking to preach another gospel. And what they say is
this, well, we believe salvation is by grace. We know the scriptures. It says,
for by grace you are saved through faith and that not of yourselves.
It is a gift of God not of works, lest any man should boast. We
believe that. Here comes. But. And when you hear that. Run. But. You still must do this. You see, Christ did it all, but
somehow you have to sanctify yourself. Listen. If my sanctification
depends upon any work that I have done, then part of my salvation
is due to me. Sanctification is just as necessary as redemption. Just as necessary as righteousness. And so if we desire to sanctify
ourselves, And we've taken part. We've grabbed
a part for ourselves. I said, well, Christ did it all,
but I have to do this. Listen, that's a false gospel.
I know men think about it, and there's a lot of them that just
want to say, oh, I'm sanctifying myself just in, you know, my
manners and stuff like that. Well, you don't use that word. Because that word means something,
it means holy, it means set apart. Oh, some say you got to be baptized,
some join the church, some obey the law. You got to start obeying
the law. Therefore, they deceive the souls
of men by trying to combine grace and works. Can you do it? Can
you combine grace and works? Paul said you can't. next chapter Romans 11 he tells
us so then at this present time there's a remnant according to
the election of grace and if by grace then it is no more of
what works no more works otherwise you don't mean grace you've changed
the definition But if it be of works, then it is no more grace. You see? It's either or. Otherwise,
work don't mean work. You cannot mix works and grace
in election, redemption, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification. You can't mix works with it.
It's either grace or it's not. Either salvation of sinners is
all of grace, all of God, or it's all of works and all of
man. Now what did the nation of Israel
find when they sought it by works? When they sought the righteousness
of God by works, what did they find? In chapter 11 in verse 7 it says,
What then? Israel hath not attained to that
which it seeketh for, but the election hath attained it, and
the rest were blind. What did they seek for? They
sought righteousness by works, by obedience. In chapter nine, we read that
just a second ago. You can read that again. Look
at verse 31 of chapter nine. But Israel, which followed after
the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. They sought salvation by the
works of the law. And Paul here at the beginning,
he says, Look, I bear them record. They have a zeal. They are unmatched in their zeal
concerning the law. But not according to knowledge,
for they being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and going
about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted
themselves to the righteousness of God. There was no group more
zealous and more determined and more devoted than the Jews. How true this is of most works
religion today, they are very zealous. I do not doubt their
zeal. They have so many foundations
and so many, they're engaged in so many things that by the
appearance of them, they are good things. There's nothing
wrong with feeding the hungry, is there? There's nothing wrong
with providing housing for the homeless. These are good things,
they have foundations for diseases and all types of things. But if they, like the Jews, hope
to be accepted based on these works, based on some perverted
gospel, some mixture of Christ's work and theirs, listen to me,
I don't care how zealous they are, they're ignorant. They're
ignorant of one thing, listen to me, they're ignorant of the
gospel. They are ignorant of the righteousness
of God. Remember, the righteousness of
God and the gospel are the same thing. He's that's where the
that's where the righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel.
They're ignorant of the righteousness of God because they do not believe
the gospel. And the proof of this is right
there. They go about to establish their
own righteous. That's proof of their ignorance. Paul told them in Romans 1 that
he was not ashamed of the gospel because the gospel was the power
of God unto salvation to everyone that believe it. For therein
in the gospel is the righteousness of God revealed. And this is
the sum of the gospel, the whole of our salvation. The gospel
reveals the righteousness of God. Isn't this what men need? Isn't this what sinners need? Because God requires righteousness. And without righteousness, without
holiness, no man shall see the Lord. We need this. If a man is striving then to
earn his righteousness by something he does, if he is seeking to
combine his work with Christ, then that man has no idea of
the righteousness of God. He's ignorant. And I confess,
we were ignorant. We who now believe, we once did
this. This is what the natural man
does. And we're ignorant of the righteousness
of God, first of all, because we're ignorant of our own unrighteousness. We're ignorant of our condition.
Man by nature is ignorant of the righteousness of God because
he's dead. He is depraved and he cannot
know God or what God requires. This is what this is, what we
are by nature. Now, every man knows there is a God. Every man
knows there's a God. And those who deny him are willing
fools. Have you ever seen somebody run
around and try to deny there is a God at all? It's just a
mockery. He defies his own conscience.
That man has a conscience, and he knows there's a God. Listen,
I know that there, I'm gonna break some bubbles here, probably
children maybe listen to this. There's no tooth fairy. But you
don't see me running around with red face and angry because people
believe in the tooth fairy. Why? Because I know there's not. Why do you see them so red faced
and angry? Because they know there is. They
defy their own conscience. Paul tells us that. The wrath
of God is revealed from heaven against ungodliness, unrighteousness
of men who hold the truth and unrighteousness, because that
which may be known of God is manifest in them. For God hath
showed it to them. For the invisible things of him
from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood
by the things that are made, even the eternal power in Godhead. So there without excuse. You
can't look at a tree. You can't look at a blade of
grass. You can't look at anything and
not know that God didn't make it. By this you know His power. He
spoke the worlds into existence. And so then all men are without
excuse. They know there's a God. Paul said this, that they know
he will judge sin. In verse 32 of Romans 1 he said,
knowing the judgment of God, which they which committed such
things are worthy of death, not only do the same but have pleasure
therein. And they know there's a God because
his law is written in the hearts of every man. Isn't it astounding
that you go to some of these other cultures who never heard
of the God of the Bible, and yet their laws are very similar
to his. I mean, still, in some of these
dark places, murder is still bad. Why is that? Adultery is
still bad. Why is that? The law of God is
written on the heart of man. And so he knows there is a God,
but what does he do with such knowledge? Paul said this, they
knew God and glorified him not as God. They changed the glory
of the incorruptible God and made it into the image of the
corruptible man. Birds and beasts and creatures. Men know there's a God, but how
righteous, how holy is this God? Man does not know, he cannot
tell. So then what does he do? He makes
a God in his mind. He makes a God in his own mind. We make a God like unto ourselves. We imagine ourselves and we create
a God based on what we know, what we think, what we feel,
in our corrupted minds, all those whose God is in the
creation of their thoughts and feelings, of human logic and
earthly wisdom, God rebukes them when He said this, Thou thoughtest
that I was altogether such in one as Thyself. I will rebuke thee, I will reprove
thee and set thee in order. Now consider this, you that forget
God, lest I tear you in pieces. all who follow after a God of
works and free will religion no matter how zealous they are
their zeal is ignorance if they are going to establish their
own righteousness in any measure friends and I mean this is this
is very important the whole book of Galatians was written based
on one thing circumcision they sought to add one thing And Paul
said this, if you add that one thing, Christ profits you nothing.
You see that how important that is? And so all men who seek to add
anything are ignorant of the of what the righteousness of
God. Here, then, the reproof of God
to forsake that false gospel and hear the gospel For therein
the gospel is the righteousness of God revealed. Now how righteous
is God? That's important. How righteous
is God? Habakkuk says He's of purer eyes
than to behold evil. Thus for one to be accepted of
God he must be as holy as God. However holy God is, that's a
standard. That's a standard. There is no such thing as partial
holiness. To be accepted, you must be holy,
be ye holy, even as I am holy, it's not a suggestion. Without holiness, no man shall
see the Lord. God is so holy, Isaiah says he
charges the angels with folly. How then shall man who is born
full of sin be righteous as God? Can he do this by his works or
the law? The answer in scripture is emphatically
no. Paul says if you desire to be
under the law, now listen, anybody desires to be under the law in
any part, you're under its curse. For it is written, cursed is
everyone that continueth not in all things written in the
book of the law to what? Do them, you got that? So if you want to obey the Ten
Commandments, you better get a lamb, you better get a priest,
and you better knock down that mosque over there, and you better
build a temple, and you have to go back to the law, in all
the law. Don't give me that, that, well,
we can't. Who cares if you can't? If you
desire to be under one thing, you're under the whole thing. And what was the purpose of the
law? Romans three, that every mouth may be stopped and the
world become guilty before God. That's the purpose of the law.
By the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in the
sight of God is evident. Paul says that it's just evident. If you don't believe that, why
you're ignorant of the righteousness of God? Can you not see, then, that there
is no hope for any under the law You not clearly see that
you cannot meet the righteous demands of God's perfection by
the law. When Israel saw God, when he
came down on Mount Sinai, remember that and actually came down on
Mount Sinai, listen what they said. We can't even hear him
or we'll die. He came down in thunderings and
lightning, that whole mountain was on fire. And they said this,
let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, neither let
me see his fire anymore that I die not. You know what God
said? He said this, they have well spoken. That's just right. So then how may a sinner be made
righteous? pleasing to God can God forgive
sin then without payment I know that's a popular view
men just think God is going to be some loving grandfather and
eventually it's just all going to work out God really don't
require much of me I went to a little ring ceremony for Audrey
I don't know if I said this before but they went a little ring ceremony
and they They quoted that scripture, What doth the Lord require of
thee? Do justly, walk humbly with thy God. And they thought,
well man, that's just being honest. You know, you just need to be
honest. That's what that means. That's all God requires. Just
be honest. Just be humble. Put people before
yourself. And that's what God requires.
That's not at all what that text means. That text means you need
to be holy. That's what God requires of thee,
old man, to be holy, to do justly at all times, to be righteous. What does God require? And if
you don't, God demands sin be punished. The soul that sinneth, it shall
what? surely die. And the question must be asked,
how can God be just and still justify the ungodly? Therein
is the message of the gospel. The gospel alone has the answer
to that question. Here it is. Jesus Christ. How can God be just and justify
the ungodly? Only by Jesus Christ. Go to Deuteronomy. Go to Deuteronomy. Well, if I had it written down,
that'd be great. I'm thinking it's 32, but I don't
believe it is. Nope. Well, I don't believe I'm going
to be able to tell you exactly where it's at. Hold on a second. Anyway, listen to what God said
to Moses. God says this, I will raise up to them a prophet from
among their brethren. likened to thee. I will put my
words in his mouth, and he shall speak unto them all that I shall
command him. And it shall come to pass that
whosoever will not hearken unto the words which he shall speak
in my name, I will require it of him. Here is the message of
the gospel that God is going to send a prophet. Remember,
Israel told us that we can't hear him anymore. We can't go
to him. We can't approach him. And this
is God's message of hope. He said, Look, I'm going to send
a man like Moses. Moses hitting the man, but I
will send one like him. He's going to be a prophet. He's
going to be a priest. And listen, he's going to have
my voice and you need to hear him. This is Christ. God says,
I'm going to send a savior, a mediator, one to go between you and God,
one to satisfy the law of God in your stead. Behold that Jesus Christ is the
only God-man mediator. This is God's mediator and high
priest. By whose righteousness are all
those he represented made righteous? God said, I'm going to send a
representative. I'm going to send a mediator. And this is
what he's going to do. He's going to provide that righteousness
for you. The righteousness God requires. When God required righteousness,
He didn't lower His standard. He just sent somebody who could
do it. He sent His Son. Romans chapter
3 and verse 22. This is how the righteousness
of God is made. Even the righteousness of God
which is by the faith of Jesus Christ. That's how righteousness
is made. Not just any righteousness, is
it? What kind of righteousness is it? The righteousness of God. to provide the righteousness
of God. Oh, that men would believe this
gospel, that God reveals that Christ alone is all the
righteousness of God. Now listen, I know this, that
God is gonna deal with all men based on two representatives.
Either he's going to deal with you in Adam or he's going to
deal with you in Christ. In Adam, what happened? All died. By Adam sin came and death came
upon all men. By Adam all were made ignorant
of the righteousness of God. And therefore, like Adam, go
about to establish their own righteousness. Isn't this what
Adam did by his fig leaves? He tried to cover his sin. This is what men do with religion.
They cover their sin. They seek to make themselves
acceptable to God by their works. But see the greatness and goodness
of God in Jesus Christ, that all who are in Christ are raised
from the dead. All who believe on Jesus Christ
are made the righteousness of God in Him. And those that believe, we confess
this, we confess our sins. We confess our unrighteousness. When God ever speaks to the heart
of man, first thing he's going to see is his need. That God requires righteousness
and he doesn't have any. God requires righteousness and
he can't make any. Have you seen this? Do you know that you need the
righteousness of God? that you cannot help to make. You know, I love that picture
of the. The altar of earth. I believe it's an exodus, and
Moses said, when you build an altar of earth and you put stones
together, he said, do not lift up your hand or a hammer to chisel
anything on it. He said, the moment you touch
it, you defile it. What a picture of Christ's work.
Christ's work is perfect. His righteousness was God said
of him, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. You know he said that to no other
man but him. God was never pleased with any man's work but Christ's. How perfect is his righteousness?
It was so perfect that God says it's perfect. God said it was
perfect. How ignorant is it for man to
come along and say, well, I need to add a little bit to it. No,
you touch it, you defile it. His offering was perfect. His
offering was perfect. He shall see how many I think
700 years before actually Christ died. This is what God said about
his offering. He shall see of the travail of
his soul and be satisfied. After it was done, Paul said
this, he said, But this man, after
he had offered one sacrifice for sins, forever sat down on
the right hand of God, henceforth expecting his enemies to be made
his footstool, for by one offering he hath perfected forever. Them that are sanctified. When
I preach the gospel of the righteousness of God, who am I preaching? I'm
preaching Christ. I'm preaching his perfect obedience
and his perfect offering. And all who believe on him. All who believe on him. The scriptures
are clear. They're made righteous. They're made righteous. Remember
those Gentiles? They attained a right. They didn't
seek righteousness, but they attained it. How? By the faith of Christ. Christ
had obtained their righteousness. And by grace through faith, Christ
had given them this righteousness. It's theirs. You ever hear that saying some
men saying, well, I'm trying to be a Christian. Well, you you're ignorant of
the righteousness of God. No, Christ has made me acceptable
under God. You listen, you look at me and
you make you follow me around and you go see nothing but see.
You'll be able to point out all my sins, man, look at that pastor
boy, he's just horrible. I really don't care about people's
opinions. What does God say about us? In that day and at that time,
the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for and there shall
be. See, we've been made the righteousness
of God in Christ. So what do all what must we then
do If we see that Christ is the perfect righteousness of God,
we must then forsake all our own righteousness. Remember what
Paul said in Philippians? He said, of all his righteousness,
I do count them but dung. What do you say about your righteousness?
What do you say about your goodness? I count it but dung. that I may
win Christ and be found in him. Not having mine own righteousness,
which is of the law, but the righteousness which is of the
faith of Christ. That righteousness he made, that's
the righteousness I need. It is the righteousness of God. Our Lord Jesus Christ, Paul Hebrews
nine says, but Christ being coming high priest of good things to
come a greater and more perfect tabernacle. What is that? It's
his body. A temple was not a perfect tabernacle,
but Christ's body was. Not made with hands, that is
to say, not of this building, neither by the blood of goats
and calves, by his own blood he entered in once into the holy
place, having obtained eternal redemption. for us. This is the greatness of our
gospel, not of works, but of grace, the righteousness of God,
the redemption of sin by Jesus Christ alone. He has fulfilled
both the law in obedience and the law in payment. Therefore,
what is Paul saying? Look back in your text real fast.
First four. For Christ is the end of the
law. or righteousness to everyone
that believe. Do you desire to know the righteousness
of God? Do you know your need of it? Verse 5, Moses described it,
the righteousness which of the law. that the man that doeth
these things shall live by them. You want to live under the law?
You have to live by them constantly. You have to do them constantly. But the righteousness which is
of faith speaks like this. Don't say in your heart, who
shall ascend into heaven? That is to bring Christ down
from above. Or don't say this, who shall descend in the deep?
That is to bring Christ up again. In other words, he's saying,
look, the righteousness, which is the faith, does it say, well,
what do I need to do to build myself up to God or what sacrifices
do I need to make? How low do I need to go to please
God? We don't say that because Christ
has already accomplished those things. He has already plumbed
the depths of hell for our souls. He is already ascended into the
heavens. The righteousness which is of
God says this, The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in
thy heart, the word of faith which we preach, that if thou
shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in
thine heart that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be
saved. For with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness. And with the mouth confession
is made unto salvation. I just want to make a note here.
You see how that's flipped. It's at first it says confess
with the mouth and believe in the heart. Right. Well, that's
how we see things. Right. I really can't see in
your heart unless you confess. Unless you confess your need
of him. And confess that Christ is all
I don't know that you believe in him. I don't know what's going
on in your heart. But truly this is how it takes
place first. For with the heart man believeth.
You see there's the first act. When God quickens the heart,
what happens? That man believes. Believes what? Believes Christ. And then with what happens after
that? With the mouth confession is made unto salvation. See, then, that all who believe
on Christ. What do we believe about Christ?
He is the righteousness of God. Now, what you believe about him? This is the gospel we preach,
even the righteousness of God. Righteousness of God, by the
faithfulness of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that
believe. knows what he says in verse 11,
the scripture said, whosoever shall believe on the name of
the Lord shall shall not be ashamed. Now, there's no difference. You
got that? There's no difference between
the Jew and the Greek. The same Lord over all is rich
unto all that call upon him for whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. Is that not a most gracious text? I like whosoever surely mean
to me. You have a need. Do you need the righteousness
of God? Do you see that Christ is the righteousness of God? Call. On him. And what does he promise? What
does God who cannot lie promise? You shall be saved. Is that not a gracious call?
Is that not a gracious promise? It's a promise. I know this, that no man's going
to call on Christ except the spirit give him life. But I know this, everyone who's
given life will call on Him. And let me ask you that called
on Him, do you not, do you ever stop calling on Him? When's the
last, I've been, the whole time I've been standing here, I've
been calling, I've been begging. I need Him. Without Him, I have nothing. I want Him. He is the righteousness of God
and my only hope of salvation. This is the gospel we preach.
Jesus Christ crucified. Believe on Him. And He swears you shall be saved. May God bless you in this. Let's
stand and be dismissed in prayer. Father, dismiss us with your
blessing and mercy. Let there be any sinner who have
need. Show them Christ. Show them His
victory and His righteousness. Cause them to bow to Him as Lord
and Savior. Give them grace to call. And
Father, Your people, we are a constant and needy people. We need You
constantly to reveal this to us. Show us again the glorious
Salvation of our Lord Jesus Christ, restore the joy of our salvation
and forgive us our sins. We pray thee in Christ's name.