If you will, let's open our Bibles
to Romans chapter 10. Romans chapter 10. No matter what man thinks, says
or does, what creeds they have, what people they follow, Testaments
of faith they follow, confessions of faith. Mankind approaches
God in two ways. We either come in the righteousness
of the law. We do something. We keep something. We don't do something. We got
some doing. Or we come with the righteousness
of the faith of Christ. He did it all. That's our only
claim. To be in God's presence, you
have to have no sin. No sin. And you have to be holy. You have to not have the capacity
to sin in the future. That's what He requires. We don't
understand those things. We can say it, we don't really
grasp it. You must have the righteousness that is equal to His Son. Christ
Jesus the Lord. Paul's been writing to us here
about righteousness. Elect children of God that were
Gentiles, they didn't follow that law. They didn't do anything
in that law. But they latched on to eagerly. They attained. They clung to
Christ our righteousness. And they had it. Now those religious
men, physical nation of Israel. They tried their best to follow
that law. They thought they were following it, but they did not
attain. They did not arrive or come close
to anything that looks like righteousness. Not in the Lord's eyes. They
all fell short. But Paul still prayed for them.
Look here in Romans 10 verse 1. Brethren, my heart's desire
and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved.
Maybe, just maybe, the Lord's got some elect in that nation.
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.
They haven't submitted to Christ. Verse 4, For Christ is the end
of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. For
Moses describeth the law, describeth the righteousness which is of
the law. He tells us what that is. If you want righteousness,
you want to come to God by you keeping the law, that the man
which doeth those things shall live by them. If you want eternal
life, you have to do the law. All of it. Every bit of it. You have to keep that Mosaic
Law. You have to keep the Ten Commandments. Oh, we put them
up on the schools. Put it on the courthouse. That means we're
keeping it. That's just letting people see
it and hear it. You have to keep that Levitical Law. People say,
well, I'm not a Levite. Well, if you're going to be a
priest to God, you are. You got to keep those 613 rules. It hurts my feelings. People
say, oh, I'm keeping the Law of God. You ever got poison ivy?
Did you shave your head? No, why would I shave my head?
You're going to hell. You deserve an eternity of damnation. You ever get a nice steak? I
like my steaks medium. Some people get a little bit
of pink in the middle of that steak. Death. Keep all the rest of the law.
The stuff we don't even pay attention to. Ceremonial law, I keep all the
feasts. Sacrifice that lamb, the continual feast, you can
keep that one twice a day. The moral law, you have to look
to the Lord with a bright attitude of obedience and love and faith
to God in all things at all times. Always. You get that? A man told a preacher years ago,
he was going through the book of Romans, like we are. He got
about halfway through, and after service, he come up to him and
he said, listen, we get it. Man can't keep the law. We're
sinners. We got it. Move on to something
else. That pastor said, by you saying
that, you ain't got it. We read that the other night
in Malachi 4. The Lord began saying, He's going to burn this
earth up. But those that fear Him, oh, He's going to keep them.
Those that He's taught to honor Him are going to be kept forever.
And He immediately says, Remember ye the law of Moses, My servant,
which I commanded unto him for all of Israel with the statutes
and judgment. You remember all that? And then
He says, I'm going to send you My prophet, and I'm going to
keep your hearts forever. I'm going to turn your fathers
and your children to Him. We are to remember this law.
Why? I brought that up a lot about the whole beans and corn,
you can't plant, that's one of the 613 laws. Every time I go
out and plant a garden or I water those plants, I think, I haven't
kept the law, I need Christ. That law's written on your heart,
isn't it? Written saying I can't do it and he can. But Moses didn't
tell us to try and do your best. You just give it a good old college
try and you'll live. He said, do. There in verse 2
we read, it says, they have a great zeal, but not according to knowledge. A good motivation, a good intent
will not save you. Good intentions won't save you.
You have to do the law, all of it. He didn't say three strikes
and you're out. If you don't get on the first
go, it's okay, try again. James told us, he said, for whosoever
shall keep the whole law, yet offend in one point, he's guilty
of all of it. He said, do not commit adultery.
He also said, do not kill. So if you don't commit adultery,
but if you kill someone, you've done both. You're guilty of the
whole law. You break it in one offense,
you're guilty of the entire thing. Moses didn't say if you just
hear it, you'll live. Paul told us in Romans 2, he
said, for not the hearers of the law are just before God,
but the doers of the law shall be justified. You have to do
it all. That's the road you're going down. You've got to commit
to it. Remember that rich, young ruler? He said, Lord, I've kept
the law from my youth up. I've kept it. And Christ said,
really, did you? Go sell everything you own and
follow me. Now, does that mean we've got
to, financially, we're not allowed to have a lot of stuff? That's
spiritual. I've done all the goodness of
my life. I've read the Bible three times
a day, and I've prayed twice a day, and I've done this, and
I've never got a tattoo, and I've never drank a shot of whiskey.
Take all your doing and go sell it. Foe it away and follow Christ. Our flesh can't do it. Covetous.
Not a stuff of our works, of our doing. Turn over to Romans chapter 3.
What's the purpose of this law if we cannot receive life and
righteousness from it? Why'd the Lord even give it?
What's the purpose of it? Romans chapter 3 verse 19. Now
we know that what things soever the law saith, everything I've
been telling you, it saith to them who are under the law. It's
telling this to everybody that's trying to put themselves under
that law, trying to get righteousness from that law. It says that every
mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before
God. Therefore, by the deeds of the
law shall there no flesh be justified in His sight, for by the law
is the knowledge of sin. Keep looking to that law so we
know what we are. What did the voice tell that
prophet? in the wilderness cry what am
i going to cry all flesh is grass here's what that law means we're
grass in second corinthians it says but if the menstruation
of death written and engraved in stones. That's that law. All
it can serve is death. It can't serve life. It can't
serve righteousness. If it was so glorious so that
the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face
of Moses for the glory of his countenance, which glory was
to be done away with? All that glory that when Moses
went up that hill and got them tablets and come down, he was
glowing because he was in the presence of the Lord holding
his holy law. Oh, that law was holy. He didn't
wear a veil. He was so bright they couldn't
look at him. And that's going to be done away with. If that
was so glorious, how shall not the menstruation of the Spirit
be rather glorious? Think about what the Lord is
going to use to give life. Think how much more glorious that's
going to be. Turn over to Galatians chapter
3. Now if this law came just to
show us what we were, and it's going to be done away with, does
it conflict with salvation by Christ alone? Does it get in
the way? Oh no, that schoolmaster points us to the master who fulfilled
it, who fulfilled the law. Go to Galatians 3 verse 21. I'm in the wrong spot. 3 comes after 2, don't it? Galatians
321, is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid. For if there had been a law given
which could have given life, verily righteousness should have
been by the law. That was something we could have
kept or done. We could have been saved by the law. We could be
holy by the law. But the scriptures hath concluded
all under sin. That The promise by faith of
Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. We see this
law, we're given this law. And all the scriptures tell us,
you can't keep it. And it takes a miracle of God
Almighty coming through the preaching of His Word, entering the hearts
of His people to say, that's right, I can't keep it. It takes
a miracle for that to happen. And all that's done so that we
look to that promise by faith of Jesus Christ that it might
be given to us who believe. Christ is the only one who could
fulfill the law. And for any man to make any attempt
at even trying to look to that law for salvation, for sanctification,
for righteousness, for redemption, for regeneration, for resurrection,
for anything, it's ridiculous. It's foolishness. Oh, Galatians,
who has bewitched you? Sorcery. Turn over to Galatians
chapter 5. Am I mixing works and faith,
works and grace? Is that something that I could
be guilty of in whatever I'm doing? Look here in Galatians
5 verse 2. Behold, I, Paul, say unto you,
that if you be circumcised, now this is why you're speaking in
Galatians, but you substitute any word from any generation
into circumcised. I'm keeping the Sabbath. I'm
baptizing other people. I'm baptizing myself. I'm going
to church. I'm reading my Bible. I'm condemning
people. I'm teaching people. Anything
we can put in there, any doing, any verb, Behold, I, Paul, say
unto you that if you be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.
For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, or that's
working, looking to that law, that he is a debtor to the whole
law. He's reminding us. And he says to them, Christ has
become of no effect unto you. Whosoever of you are justified
by the law, you are fallen from grace. I don't have to point out the
crooked sticks to you. That's all around us and up the
road and everything else. There's a straight stick. Well,
now, we believe in five points of Calvinism. We believe in grace,
but we think you ought to be doing this. You've fallen from
grace. You're looking to something other
than Christ. It might hurt a lot of people's feelings, but it
ain't me hurting them. Let's look over in Proverbs chapter
30. Proverbs 30. We'll see more on
this here in a minute, but let's pose a question to ourselves.
I want to say I want to give you a question and I'll reword
it. I want to ask myself. You ask you. Can a person be
justified? Can they justify themselves?
Can they take away their own sin by something they do? Is
there a formula they can follow to remove their sin? Or can they
make themselves holy? Is there a pattern we can follow?
Is there something we can do to make ourselves holy? Can we
do so? Agra asked this question. Proverbs 30 verse 2. Surely I
am more brutish than any man, and I have not the understanding
of a man. I neither learned wisdom nor have the knowledge of the
holy." He's saying, I'm helpless, I'm hopeless, I'm a sinner in
this flesh, and I can't save myself by any means. Verse 4,
Proverbs 34. Who hath ascended up into heaven
or descended? Who hath gathered the winds in
his fist? Physically, you can ask somebody,
you ever stopped a tornado? You ever got a hold of the wind
and stopped it? We can't do it. Spiritually, have you ever got
a hold of the Spirit of God that blows where it lifts us? Have
you ever sent it to somebody? Oh, I saved him. They know God
calls me. Did you hold the wind in your
fist? And it said, who hath bound the waters in a garment? You
ever took a nice thin linen cloth, go out and keep them waves from
going down on Coronado? Physically, we don't do that.
Spiritually, is your robe of righteousness that you've made,
just like Adam made that fig apron, is it able to withstand
the wrath of God? Will it hold up in His throne
of judgment? Who hath established all the
ends of the earth? Have you controlled everything
in this universe? What's His name? And what is His Son's name,
if thou canst tell?" It says, who can do these things? And
if you know who can, I want His name and I want His Son's name.
That only leaves one answer, doesn't it? Somebody says, well,
I'm doing pretty good. You doing this? I want Your Son's
name. The triune God. Salvations of
the Lord. That's the God of our salvation,
isn't it? The only one who can do it. Now back to our text there
in Romans 10. We've seen the righteousness of the law. It's
not profitable. Don't try it. Now we'll see the
righteousness of faith. Paul's quoting Moses here to
drive this point home to those in that day. They're in Rome. The words given to Moses there
in Deuteronomy 30, they were said by Agur, and by the time
that Paul was preaching here, Moses said it, Agur said it,
and now, by this time, it was a phrase in common usage. It
was a slang. People would say, oh, well, who
will ascend into heaven, or who's going to descend the deep? When
I was growing up, people would always say, well, if the Lord's
willing, then the creep don't rise. There's a long history
behind that, but that's incorrect. That needs to be corrected, don't
it? Our Lord's will is not conditional on a creek, and it's not dependent
on anything. No different than that, Paul's
both correcting and using that error to teach these people something.
They keep quoting this from Moses and Agor, and now he's gonna
teach them something. Verse 6, Romans 10, 6. But the
righteousness which is of faith, not that righteousness by the
law, the righteousness which is of faith, speaketh on this
wise. Here's how it talks. Say not
in thy heart. Don't say this. Who shall ascend
into heaven, that is, to bring Christ down from above? Ascending
into heaven, what he's speaking of is justification. Did you
go to heaven and make Christ come down to die for your sin? Was it your will that accomplished
your justification? A believer's heart does not speak
on that wise. We declare Christ's blood saved
us from our sins. He willingly laid down His life,
He bore our sins and His body on that tree, and no one forced
His hand, including me. With joy He did that. He bore
that burden. Verse 7, Or who shall descend
into the deep? That is, to bring up Christ again
from the dead. What's Paul talking about? Sanctification. Christ's resurrection from the
grave is the proof that that propitiation, that that bloody
sacrifice was accepted by the Father. Christ's sheep were made
holy. We have an empty tomb. Y'all
heard me say that a lot. That's whenever He became our
sanctification. We know it. Do you work? Did your work or
your law keeping, did that make Christ rise from the grave? Does
it now? Righteousness that is by faith
does not say in its heart, now I've got to make myself holy.
Now I've got to get ripe enough for heaven. That's already been
accomplished. We remember Martha speaking to
our master after Lazarus died. Christ said, thy brother shall
rise again. And she said, I know he'll rise again in the resurrection
at that last day. I know what's coming. Judgment,
way down the road, whenever that day is, I know he'll be saved
then. And he corrected her. He said,
Martha, I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth
in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever
liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? She's looking God Almighty in
the eye. And he said, honey, I am resurrection. Do you believe me? The believer's
heart does not say we coerced Christ into washing our sins
away, and it does not say that Christ wiped the slate clean,
and now we've got to make ourselves holy. So what does it say? What
does that righteousness by faith say? That given by Christ. There, verse 8. But what saith
it? The word is nigh thee, Christ
is near thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart. That is the
word of faith which we preach." Christ is one with His people. He's on the lips as we profess
Him to everybody around us. When they say, Lord, Willamette
Creek don't rise, that's not my God. The Lord don't depend
on those things. He creates those things. That's
on our lips. That's Christ speaking on our lips. whenever we observe
His ordinances. We're not ashamed. We're declaring,
He did it. It's done. Declaring something
that's already done. Why? Because there's a heart
work done in us. The Lord dwells in that incorruptible
seed that He gave life in a stony, cold heart of ours. I don't know if I read this or
somebody preached it the other day, A little boy told Henry
one time, years and years ago, and he said, if Christ lives
in me, I'm a little kid. He said, wouldn't He come out?
He said, He sure would. There will be evidence, won't
there? It will bust out of you. You can't keep a stoic, mad face
all the time. The Lord gave His Son for us. Verse 9. Romans 10 and 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. Remember that Ethiopian eunuch,
Philip, started talking to him. He said, what prevents me from
being baptized? He said, do you believe with all your heart?
He said, I believe Jesus is the Son of God. He's accomplished
everything God said he was going to accomplish from days of old.
Verse 10, for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness,
and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the
scripture saith, whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
Christ saves his people. The Lord circumcises the hearts
of his elect, giving them that new spirit that believes on Christ
our righteousness. the Lord our righteousness. The
message that's faithfully preached now is the message that Paul
is preaching. And there's no change in the
gospel. It didn't vary over the years.
Since creation, the gospel hasn't changed over time. Well, it's
a little bit different now. Some people say, well, that's
an Old Testament God and this is a New Testament God. Look
over at Deuteronomy chapter 30. This is what Paul is talking
about anyway. I think Paul would have had us
do a lot of turning, too. In that last couple of messages,
we looked at Hosea and Isaiah, and now Moses. Deuteronomy 30. Moses preached that the righteousness
of the saints was of faith. He's the one that carried those
tablets down the hill, and he preached that salvation is of
God alone. Our righteousness is what Christ's
righteousness is. Look here in Deuteronomy 30,
verse 6. And the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart and
the heart of thy seed to love the Lord thy God with all thine
heart and with all thy soul that thou mayest live." You know what
he's telling these people? After you broke that conditional
covenant, we looked at Exodus 19 the other day. If you do this,
then you'll be my holy nation. Then you'll be a priest. After
you break that conditional covenant, God's going to come to His elect
Israel, that spiritual nation, and He's going to give them a
new heart. He's going to do heart work in you. And that new heart's
going to love the Lord with everything in it, every fiber of it, looking
to Him always and only for everything. Verse 8, Deuteronomy 30, verse
8. And thou shalt return and obey
the voice of the Lord and do all His commandments Plural,
which I have commanded thee this day. That new man is going to
complete all those laws. We just saw how a man or woman
cannot do these commandments. How are we going to obey them
then? Verse 11, for this commandment, singular, which I command thee
this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is far off. Say
something we've got to grasp at. It is not in heaven that
thou shouldst say, who shall go up for us to heaven and bring
it unto us that we may hear it and do it. Like Paul was telling
us, you're going to bring Christ down from above? Verse 13, neither
is it beyond the sea that thou shouldst say, who shall go over
the sea for us? Who's going to travel so far
and do the work to go get it and bring it to us that we may
hear it and do it? Paul said that is to bring Christ
up from the dead again. Here's the commandment that makes
us effectually obey the Lord's commandment singular. There in
verse 14. But the word is very nigh unto
thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it. How are we going to fulfill the
law of God, all the law? Christ is near unto thee. He
is one with His people. Do you fulfill the law? If He's
one with you, you've never had a medium well steak. We are dead to the law because
Christ who gave us His seed, He satisfied all of us. Now that
new holy heart that's in us, it's as holy as Christ is holy. So therefore, you can have eternal
life. You can go into God's presence because of Him. Back to our text
in Romans 10. How are we going to be righteous
and holy to enter into God's presence and stay there for eternity?
Christ is near unto you. He's on your lips. He's busting
out, isn't He? And He's on your heart. He's one with His people,
and He's given us His righteousness. That's been, in our account,
so effectually, the Lord counted it there. That's what imputant
means. You mark down what's already there. His people's holy. Romans 10, verse 8. But what saith it? The word is
nigh unto thee, even in thy mouth. And in thy heart, that is the
word of faith which we preach." Who's preaching that? Moses preached
it, didn't he? Paul preached it. And if the
Lord enables me, that's what you hear in the night. Nothing's
changed. Verse 9, "...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."
If you declare from your new uncircumcised heart that Christ
has accomplished the salvation of sinners for all those he came
to save, you shall be saved. Flesh and blood didn't reveal
that to you. Verse 10, For with the heart man believeth unto
righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
For the Scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be
ashamed. Oh, that's good news, isn't it?
You know, the first thing my old rotten flesh does, that battle
that's going on inside of me all the time, it says, how do
I know that's me? How do I know for sure if it's
a mouth work by just saying this stuff or is it a heart work?
Do I know this in my head or do I know this in my heart? How
do I know? Turn to 1 Thessalonians. While you're turning there, you
can profess the five points of Calvinism. You can argue them. You can defend them with people
and fight for them. But so did Simon Magnus there
in Acts 8. He said, oh, I believe that. I'm going to be baptized.
And he was. And then shortly after, Peter
and them, they were laying on hands. That was a gift the Lord
gave just to the apostles. And he came to them and said,
let me give you some money and you let me do that. He was working. He was paying, wasn't he? And
Peter said, you've got a problem with your heart. The Lord needs
to deal with you. Repent. And pray the Lord gives
you a new heart, because he hadn't done it yet. That's an example
of the head. Then we have an example of the
heart. See, there in the head, you know it, but you're still doing
the old stuff, ain't you? Then we see Lydia there in Acts
16. She was worshiping God, it says,
but that word means religious. She wasn't truly worshiping God.
She was going through the motions. She was a member of church somewhere.
But then she heard us, Paul wrote, whose heart the Lord opened.
She heard the gospel preached and the Lord opened her heart.
And she attended to the things which were spoken of Paul. Paul
preached to her. All of a sudden, she went from
doing those religious activities to hearing something, believing
the gospel, looking to Christ for righteousness. Not still
working. So something happened to Lydia.
She was religious and the Lord opened her heart after she heard
the gospel. Now look here in 1 Thessalonians
1 verse 4. 1 Thessalonians 1 verse 4. Knowing, brethren beloved, your
election of God. For our gospel came not unto
you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Ghost,
and with much assurance. As ye know what matter of men
we were among you for your sake. And ye became followers of us
and of the Lord, having received the word with much affliction,
with joy of the Holy Ghost." Whenever you heard this word,
it shook you up. It stung the first time. And
then the joy of the new man that the Holy Ghost put in you come
out. Still stings when we're rebuked, I know. Verse 7, "...so
that ye were examples to all that believe in Macedonia and
Achaia. For from you sounded out the
word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also
in every place your faith to God is spread abroad, so that
we need not speak anything." They're spreading that gospel
with everything in them. Verse 9, for they themselves
show us what manner of entering we had unto them, and how ye
turned to God from idols to serving the living and true God. You
stopped all the doing. You turned from those idols,
and idols anything between you and Christ. You turn from that, and you serve
the living God. Just like Lydia, you were worshiping,
you were going through the motions, that bodily exercise. Oh, I was
memorizing Bible verses every day, and I was carrying picket
signs in the parking lot down there condemning sin. All of
a sudden, in power, God came to you, and you turned from all
that nonsense, that garbage, and you started looking to God
only. serving Him, verse 10, and to wait for His Son from
heaven, whom He raised from the dead. There's our sanctification. Even Jesus, which was delivered
us from the wrath to come. What's that mean? We're waiting
because it is finished. And when you wait, what do you
do? Sit down and rest, don't you? There's a pastor that died
several years ago, and I know his son. And on his tombstone,
it says, waiting. Lord's coming. Just lay down
and wait. Calm down. All right, so let's
turn to Acts 13, and we'll close. Acts 13, 38. The Law of Moses
could not give us life. It could not reconcile us to
God, and it could not forgive us. Only the Lord Jesus Christ
can do this for His people. He's the only means for salvation,
for redemption, for sanctification, for anything. It's impossible
with man. God has to do it. Acts 13, verse
38. Be it known unto you therefore,
men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you
the forgiveness of sins through Christ. That's where forgiveness
is. Verse 39. And by Him all that believe are
justified from most things. And you've got to do the writing.
No. You're justified from all things. All things. from which he could not be justified
by the law of Moses. Everything we cannot do in that
law, Christ did it for his people. All things. We remember there
in our text it read, for the scripture said, whosoever believeth
on him shall not be ashamed. He's accomplished all for his
people. There's no room for being ashamed, is there? Do you believe
in your heart and confess with your mouth, Christ is all. That's
my only hope. That's my only want. Then you're
justified from all things. Wait on Him and rest. Just rest. As Maurice Montgomery
said, go sit underneath the shade tree and eat a ham sandwich.
Work's done. I hope that's a blessing for
you. Let's pray together.