Well, once again, we are in the
Book of Romans. Continuing along, Romans chapter 10. And I want
to give a quote from Henry Mahan with some verses that he references
to. I've titled this morning's message,
God's Righteousness. Henry Mahan wrote these words.
He says, those who are elected to life in Christ shall be saved. And he quotes from John 6, verses
37 through 40. Very familiar words that you
and I know, some by heart. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise
cast out. For I came down from heaven,
not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.
And this is the Father's will, which hath sent me, that of all
which he hath given me I should lose nothing. but should raise
it up again at the last day. And this is the will of Him that
sent me, that everyone which seeth the Son and believeth on
Him may have everlasting life. Everyone who is elected to life
in Christ shall be saved, as we just read. But they shall
be brought to repentance, and faith by the means which God
has appointed. And he gives us these scriptures
to show us how God has appointed us to receive faith and repentance. 2 Thessalonians 2.13, But we
are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved
of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning, now this
is how the Lord brings us to repentance and faith, from the
beginning hath chosen, chosen you, to salvation through. So this is how He breathes. He chooses us. He chooses to
bring us to salvation through the sanctification of the Spirit. That means the setting aside.
Taking out of the world and setting us aside. Making us holy before
God. Through the sanctification of
the Spirit. And there's another thing to this verse. and belief
of the truth. That's how we're saved. We're
saved, we are brought to repentance and to faith through the sanctification
of the Spirit, that being made holy by the Spirit, and belief
of the truth. And then he quotes this also
from Mark chapter 16, verses 15 through 16. Mark chapter 16. We are brought to redemption
to repentance and to faith by the means that we just saw there
through the sanctification of the Spirit and belief in the
truth. And here in Mark chapter 16 verses 15 and 16 we read these
words, and he said unto them, Go ye into the world and preach
the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned. He also says over in 1 Corinthians
1 21, for after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom
knew not God. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching, to save them that believe. Henry goes on to write
that, he says it is on that premises, the premises that God brings
us to repentance and faith through the sanctification of the spirit,
belief in the holy truth, and the foolishness of preaching,
that Paul wrote these words to Timothy. And it's recorded in
2 Timothy 2, verse 10, therefore I endure, writes Paul, all things
for the elect's sake. He endured all the troubles that
he was going through, the persecutions that he was going through. We
endure all the persecutions that we go through for the sake that
maybe God has one of his elect to see what we have to go through.
People are watching us. They see how we deal with things.
Are we just throwing our hands in the air and saying, oh, how
unlucky I am? No. God's people are saying,
What a burden. I'm not trying to make light
of your burden at all. We don't make light of our burdens,
but we sure do know who brings them our way, don't we? Like
Paul, we glory in our persecutions. Therefore, Paul writes, I endure
for the elect's sake that they may also obtain the salvation
which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. And then he says
this in 2 Corinthians 5, verses 19-21, to wit, that God was in
Christ reconciling the world unto Himself. God Almighty, through
His Son, the Lord Jesus, is reconciling us to Himself, not imputing our
trespasses unto them, and has committed unto us the word of
reconciliation. Henry closes his statement with
these thoughts. He says, a belief in sovereign grace that destroys
prayer for sinners evangelistic and missionary zeal, and a sincere
invitation to all men to bow to the claims of Christ and receive
Him as Lord and Savior is not of the Lord and is a false doctrine."
Now, I want to stop for just a moment and think about this.
I've shared with you the discussion I had with my aunt recently.
Don't you folks believe that you must come to Christ? You
must call upon Christ? And my answer to her was, Absolutely. Folks, when Gene preached to
John Reeves that day, he told me of a Savior. He invited me
to come to that Savior, to come to the throne of grace. We invite
those to come to the Lord Jesus Christ. But those that come know
that we would not have come unless Christ had given us a new spirit
to throw good. And you know, I feel so insufficient
in my argument, in my presentation back to her, even though it was
God's word. I didn't express it properly
as far as I'm concerned. We do invite those to come. But
if you don't tell them who it is that gives them the ability
to come, then all you're doing is talking to dead people. We
do invite. I've invited my son to come hear
me preach in Madisonville He's agreed to come. I don't know
what the Lord's going to do with it, but we do invite. I told her, and I don't know
if I was expressive enough about it, I said, absolutely, we do
invite. We do encourage you to come to Christ. John came to
Christ. I received God in my heart because
he the day of His love. That's what they don't tell us.
That's what they don't tell the people. They tell the people,
it's up to you to decide now. God has offered it, now you've
got to do something. And that's not what Scripture
tells us at all. It's of grace, not of works. That's what we
have to tell them. We're saved by grace through
faith. God-given faith. If you stand
before people and all you do is declare that you can't come
to Christ, then you've missed giving the Gospel that you can
if Christ has given you life. Our Lord says, I am the Alpha
and the Omega. He calls Himself the Author and
the Finisher of our faith. When we speak about the Gospel,
we have to take the whole counsel of God's Word. Both sides. Look at Romans chapter 10, verse
1 with me. Brethren, my heart's desire and
prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. Isn't that
what we're talking about here? My heart's desire is that my
son might be saved. But I know that he won't be unless
God does a work in his heart first. And I have to make that
clear to him. I want to invite him to hear
the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, the Lord offered life. Did you know that? He offered
life. He said, if you do this and don't do that, you can have
life. It's called the law. Not one man, woman, or child
outside of Christ Jesus ever could walk that walk. No, that
walk pointed us to know that we have a need. We can't. We can't walk that walk. We can't
accept that offer. Dead people can't do anything.
Jews hated Paul for his gospel. They rejected the message of
the cross, yet he expressed again and again and again his deep
love for them. My son hates the gospel of Christ. My children hate the gospel of
Christ, yet it is my greatest desire that they might be saved.
Folks, we must never cease to pray for our unbelieved loved
ones. We must never cease to pray for God's ordained means
for their conversion. Look at verse 2. Paul says, For
I bear them record that they have a zeal, a devotion of God,
but not according to knowledge. Folks, these people weren't atheists.
They believed that there was a God. They were about as religious
as you could be. They had a zeal for the law and
the ceremonies, but they were ignorant. Now that doesn't mean
that they were stupid. That means that they didn't know
something. They didn't know grace. They
saw the Word of God and they thought, my only way to get it
is to attempt to do the best I can. That's what the religious
folks of the world are doing now. They see the Word of God.
I've got to come down and accept something. I've got to do something. I've got to get into the baptism.
I've got to show up on Sunday. I've got to do this. I've got
to do that. That's exactly what these folks were doing in the
old days. In the days of Israel, they were trying to earn their
salvation by what they were doing. They didn't know. They were ignorant
to grace. They didn't understand the spirituality
nor the purpose of the law and the ceremonies were to point
them to the One who would fulfill it for them. Yeah, they were
sincere, alright, but they were sincerely wrong. You and I were
very sincere at whatever it was we walked in one day before the
Lord gave us life, but we were sincerely wrong. How will they
know the truth, lest one be sent to speak the truth? Isn't that
what we read in John 17, 3? And this is life eternal, that
they might know Thee. Not that they might know the
ceremonies, not that they might know the law, not that they might
do this or do that, but that they might know our Lord and
Savior personally. I've hammered this late in my
recent messages, and I'm going to hammer it again today in both
of these messages. It's grace experienced. You must
experience grace. You must experience the grace
of God on you being a deserving sinner of hell, wrath, and damnation,
and that wrath and damnation being put upon our Savior. That's
grace experienced. Look at verse 3. For they being
ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish
their own righteousness have not submitted themselves to the
righteousness of God. That's my title for this message,
for today's study. The Righteousness of God. They
were ignorant of the purity and the holiness of God's law. They
thought their little humanistic ability to do whatever it was
they were doing would be enough. But it's not. It has to be perfect. It has to be holy. Not one part
of the law can go unpunished. And Christ Jesus took all of
our punishment upon himself. Every drop of it. They were also
ignorant of the strictness of God's justice. Listen to the
words of Galatians 4.21. Do you not hear the law? Do you
not hear how it condemns you? Paul was going through that same motion that they were. He saw
the worthlessness of their motions. He saw the inability that was
there for a human, a natural man, to do the perfection that
God requires. Tell me, A, that desire to be
under the law. Do you not hear what it says?
Do you not hear the law? In Galatians 3.10 we read these
words, For as many are as under the works of the law are under
the curse. For it is written, Cursed is
everyone that continueth not in all things which are written
in the book of the law to do them." They were trying to merit
acceptance with God on the strength of their own works, their own
deeds, their own religious duties. And they were passionate about
their duties. I heard somebody one time say,
you know, I've never met any religious person more holy who
go about saying they're Jehovah's Witnesses. They come out to the,
it was a camp or something, somebody was telling me this. He says,
man, we've got all kinds of religions come to this camp. And I was
making a delivery to their campground, some religious campground. And
he says, we've got all these different religions that come
here. He says, and the one in two weeks where the Jehovah Witnesses
show up, the camp is just, it's way more prettier than it was
when they showed up. Those folks are so holy. I'm
thankful they left the campground better than they, than when they
were there. But what we do on this earth
does not make us holy. These folks were religious, very
religious. They thought that their strength
was in their works and their deeds. Is that not a picture
of the Christian religions that we have today? See what we have
accomplished? Look at all the people that we brought into this
church. There's 2,000 people that come to this church twice
on Sunday mornings to hear our messages. Don't you see how good
we are? Don't you see how good we preach?
Don't you see how God has blessed this ministry? I'd rather be
right here with five of you, seven of you, eight of you, whoever's
on the tape TV there. I don't know who joined us on
the internet. But I'd rather be right here with you than 2,000
people in a goat barn down the street. I've heard our pastor.
You've heard him, too. I'd rather be in a bar with a
bunch of drunkards than in one of them goat barns down the street.
These folks refuse to submit to the true righteousness, the
righteousness which is Christ Jesus in the flesh, on the cross,
and the glory is in His righteousness. The divine method of acceptance
and justification requires nothing but to be submitted and received
by us from the Lord Jesus. Listen to John chapter 1 verse
12. But as many as received Him, See, we receive Christ. We receive
Christ in our hearts. Once we've been made alive to
do anything. Once we've been quickened. Once
the light has been commanded to shine in our hearts. That
comes first. I was thinking about that this
morning. I think I might preach on that
when I go to Danville. Maybe Frank Tate's place, or
maybe I'll do it at David Evans. I don't know anyone who preaches
at those three places yet, but I was thinking about a message
on that very thing. The cart before the horse. That's
really what it's all about when you're talking about your will
against God. Not only are you raising yourself up to be above
God, but you're putting the cart way out there in front. You're
saying this cart is pulling the horse. As many as received Him,
to them gave He power. to become the sons of God, even
to them that believe on His name. But even at that, no one will
receive Him until God first does the work, giving life to a dead
soul. Look at verse 4 with me. For
Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believes. Now there are a couple of things
that I want to suggest here. First, is the embracing of Christ for
salvation means the end of the law for us. means the end of
the law as a method of justification. It doesn't mean the end of the
law. The law is still there. The law is good. Oh, how I desire
to walk the law better than I do now. Don't you? Folks, I told
you this last Sunday. If sin doesn't bother you, if
your sin doesn't bother you, you may want to sit down and
reconsider what it is you believe. God's people's sin bothers us. We abandon all hope in ourselves
and we look to Christ as the one who fulfilled the law for
us. Secondly, we see in this verse,
the goal of the law is to bring the sinner to Christ. This is
why it is given to us. Look over Galatians. Hold your
place. Look over Galatians chapter 3. The law is our schoolmaster. It's to teach us that what we
cannot do, our Savior has done for us. our righteousness. Galatians
chapter 3 verses 24 and 25, Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster
to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith,
that we might be set apart, that we might be made holy by faith. But after that faith has come,
we are no longer under the schoolmaster. Once God has given us the faith
to believe, to believe that Christ Jesus is our righteousness, to
have no confidence in this flesh, but have all the confidence in
our Savior, then the law is no longer our schoolmaster. Thirdly,
the law contains terms of life. Do this and live. Christ is the
end of those terms, for He has fulfilled what we could not.
We're no longer under the law as a covenant or a curse. Verse
5, back in our text, Romans chapter 10 verse 5, for Moses described
it, the righteousness which is of the law, that the man which
doeth those things shall live by them. The righteousness of
the law lies in doing perfectly all that the law requires, not
only in deed, but also in thought, in attitude, and in motive. We've heard this saying before,
a man who tills his ground, tills the pasture, tills the ground
to grow food for his family. If He doesn't do it in the glory
of His Savior, the Lord Jesus, He does it in sin. Because that's
what man is without Christ. We are sin. Listen to the words
of Romans chapter 8, verses 3-4. You will recall we just looked
at these not too long ago. For what the law could not do,
in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son
in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in
the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled
in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. Now look at verses 6 and 7 of
our text back in Romans chapter 10. But the righteousness which
is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart
who shall ascend to heaven, that is, to bring Christ down from
above, or who shall descend into the deep, that is, to bring up
Christ from the dead. Now I'm going to quote from a
man by the name of John Brown. And I've got to be honest with
you, I'm not going to say much about these two verses because
I don't know that much, but I thought this might bring a little light
to it for those of you who need it. He says, do not think that
divine justification depends on something to be done by you
or I or anything else. There is no need to say, who
shall ascend to heaven to bring the Messiah down. He has already
come and has performed the work which He came to do. He has finished
our righteousness and redemption. There is also no need to say,
who shall descend into the deep to bring Him up from the grave,
for He has risen. He has risen for our justification
and intercedes for us. The gospel which reveals it tells
you that the all-sufficient Savior is to believe and to be received. Let's go on now, if you would,
verse 8. But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in
thy mouth, and in thy heart, that is the word of faith which
we preach. Let's read verse 9 too. And if
thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe
in thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt
be saved." In other words, you can't go into heaven and bring
the Lord down, you can't go into the depths and bring Him up,
but believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. 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."
Confession of Christ with the mouth is to make a sincere, hearty
confession to God before men that Christ Jesus is our prophet
to reveal God to us. He is our priest to atone for
us. He is our Lord to reign over
us. When this is our experience,
we confess it in Believer's Baptism. To believe in our hearts that
God raised Him from the dead is to believe that He came to
this earth as God in the flesh, and you can read that in John
1, 14. It is to believe that He truly died on the cross for
our sin, as we read in 1 Peter 1, 18 and 19. It is to believe
that the sacrifice was effectual and sufficient, for our God raised
His Son Prove it. That's in 1 Corinthians 5, 13-22.
Now look at verse 10. And we'll close with that. For
with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with
the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Now the Apostle
Paul is explaining the nature of faith. It's not based on just
mental ascension or a doctrinal knowledge. No, it is a genuine
heart work. grace experienced. It is believing
with the affections of your heart. It is believing with our will
and our understanding of His power and our inability. It is to behold the Son and His
glory and His fullness and His willingness and His sufficiency
to save. Through this faith, we are saved
and we are justified. Listen to Ephesians 2, 8 through
9. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God, not of works,
lest any man should boast. And then in 2 Timothy 1, 12,
for the which cause I also suffer these things, writes Paul, nevertheless,
I am not ashamed. For I know whom I have believed
and persuaded that he is able. to keep that which I've committed
unto him again that day.