If you would, turn to Romans
chapter 10. We're still there, Romans chapter 10. Now, before
I read the verses I have that's been up on my mind, I mean, I don't have this in my
notes, but I've been thinking about it. And since Paul and
Joe did not preach really long, I'm gonna go ahead and give you
this. Today, I did listen to the Pope this morning for a bit.
And of course, much of what he had to say, rather most of what
he had to say was about current events. He flavored it with a
little bit of resurrection and hope because of the resurrection
and that kind of thing. And I suppose that this morning,
most so-called churches and pulpits will have behind their have behind
the pulpit, the podium, men who will deal with current events,
school shootings, nations attacking other nations, people abandoning
their young babies in trash cans. I have something to say about
those current events. It tells me this, we are a corrupt,
people. And no matter how much we have
progressed above and beyond those of our counterparts that we think
they lived years ago, and they were so barbaric, we've gotten worse, not better. not better, so there's my Easter
message for current events. Romans 10, I will read what I
read last week, but go on to verse nine. Romans 10 verse one,
brethren, and before I, I will do kind of like I did last week.
I will read my verses, these nine verses, make a few statements.
I will give a couple opening statements, and then I will deal
with three things. The last one will be what will
take most of the time. Romans 10, brethren, my heart's
desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be
saved. May God enable us by his grace never to become hard-hearted
toward others, no matter how bad they are, whether it's in
immorality or in false religion. For, Paul says, I bear them record
that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.
For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, here's where that
ignorance really manifests itself. I mean, it really manifests itself.
For they being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about
to establish their own righteousness. And here's what happens when
you do that. All the time, no exceptions. Have not submitted
themselves unto the righteousness of God. And then Paul defines
to us this righteousness. For Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Now we're gonna
continue on. For Moses describeth the righteousness
which is of the law. There is a righteousness that
is of the law. And Paul quotes a portion Just
a portion, even of a verse, as we have it. You can look at it,
I'll give it to you here in a moment. For Moses describeth the righteousness
which is of the law, that the man which doeth those things
shall live by them. When you seek righteousness that's
of the law, it has to be absolute and full and complete. You cannot
leave out even one jot, just a jot, or a tittle, let alone
the whole command. But, but, oh, what a glorious
word. But the righteousness which is
of faith. And there is a righteousness
which is of faith, and I've dealt with that, so I'm not going to,
faith is righteousness. Because faith is a quality that
exists in God alone intrinsically. And he gives a measure of that
faith, and as Paul pointed out, it's even smaller than a grain
of mustard seed. Faith is righteousness. But let
me go on. I don't wanna get into that.
But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise.
Now he's quoting Moses again. Paul's not coming up with something
here. He's quoting Moses. Say not in thine heart who shall
ascend into heaven. That is to bring Christ down
from above. or who shall descend into the deep, that is the sea,
that's the way it's put by Moses, or at least translated in the
Hebrew and the Old Testament. The deep, that is to bring up
Christ again from the dead. But what saith it, that is this
word of faith, 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, and here it is. This is it summarized. This is
tying up all the loose ends. This is bringing it down to its
lowest common denominator. A lot more could be said, but
if you don't have this, all the rest don't matter. If you've
missed this, you've missed it all. No matter how much all of
this out here you understand and know. That if thou shalt
confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus. And that's not just a
phrase which everybody calls him Lord that professes to be
a Christian. but they actually deny his actual
lordship. In other words, he's absolute
sovereign over all things and all people and all time and all
events and all creation. Those so-called black holes that
they say exist out there, he made them. He made them. And the light that they're saying
took so many billions of years to get to us, in common thought,
yes, it would take that long. But it doesn't when God says,
let there be light, there's light right then, even if it spans
billions of light years. This world don't get that. They
don't get that. If thou shalt confess with thy
mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in thine heart, that
God hath raised him from the dead. There's your Easter. The
resurrection, right? That God hath raised him from
the dead, thou shalt be saved. Again, I emphasize, again I emphasize,
Paul, in this epistle especially, but not only in this epistle,
Paul is relentless. Paul refused to capitulate. Paul demands that law righteousness
and faith righteousness, they are not twins. They are not companions. They don't go together. If you
believe one, you hold to one, you accept one. I'll use that
word. Then you can't hold to the other. It's one or the other. It is no both together in any
form, shape, or fashion. They are opposites. They are opposites. And in our
verses, but especially verses five, six, seven, eight, and
nine, Paul shows this clearly. So, here's my title. Moses taught
faith righteousness. Moses taught faith, righteousness. Let me read it one more time.
But the righteousness, which is a faith speaketh on this wise.
Now he begins to quote from Moses, the Old Testament. Deuteronomy,
I believe, yes, Deuteronomy chapter 30. Say not in thine heart who
shall ascend into heaven, that is to bring Christ down from
above, or who shall descend into the deep, that is to bring up
Christ again from the dead, 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. So number one, even Moses distinguished
between the two. Even Moses distinguished between
the two. Law righteousness, we have Moses quote, or at least
a portion of it, and that which the Spirit of God knew and it
ordained to be that which we need to deal with. That the man
which doeth those things shall live by them. The law does not allow for one
sin. It says thou shalt not or thou
shalt. No reprieve, no reprieve. But there's also faith, righteousness. And again, I won't read it again.
I've read it twice. Paul is quoting from Moses. That's the first thing. But here's
the second thing. What exactly is the difference?
You wanna know the answer to that? What exactly is the difference? Anyone that looks at this, And
I'm talking about saved or lost. But anyone that looks at what
Paul wrote here, within the honesty of words and language and its
meanings, has to say Paul makes a clear separation, a clear difference
between law righteousness and faith righteousness. Does he
not? Does he not? What is the difference? Try to
give you four things real quick, because we got a third thing
to get to. Number one, law righteousness demands full, unfailing obedience. Now turn back to Leviticus chapter
18. Leviticus chapter 18, and we will read the passage from
which Paul quotes. Leviticus chapter 18, and we'll
read a lot more than or a good bit more than what Paul quoted
from. But remember the Spirit of God It's taking away a lot
of convolution from our minds when he has Paul quote just what
he quoted. That's what I'm wanting to point out. But let's look
at the context. And the Lord spake unto Moses,
saying, speaking to the children of Israel, and saying to them,
I am the Lord your God. After the doings of the land
of Egypt where you dwelt, ye shall not do. And after doings
of the land of Canaan, whether I bring you, shall you not do?
Neither shall you walk in their ordinances. In other words, where
you was and where you're going, don't live like they live. Isn't
that what he's saying? Don't live like Lelev. Ye shall
do my judgments and keep my ordinances to walk therein. I am the Lord
your God. Ye shall therefore keep my statutes
and my judgments, which, and here we go, if a man do, he shall
live in them. I am the Lord. Brothers and sisters, that is
pure, absolute law. That is Mosaic law, Sinai law,
Levitical law. Don't try to separate those things.
It is absolute, pure law. And Paul gives us a little insight
as to the import of that. Turn to Galatians now, chapter
three, just so our minds are not floating around out here
in La La Land as to what Paul's talking about. Now look at what
it says, Galatians chapter three. Verse 10, for as many as are
of 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. And also then verse 12,
and the law is not of faith. So if you're keeping the law,
you're not believing God. Even though God commanded Israel,
you keep my law. Look at it. And the law is not
of faith, but the man that doeth them shall live in them. Do you see it? So law righteousness
demands full, unfailing obedience. Secondly, faith righteousness
says none among us can do this work for us. Deuteronomy chapter
30 now, turn it back. Deuteronomy 30. And we're gonna read what Paul quoted from from Moses.
Deuteronomy chapter 30. We'll move on if you catch up.
Verse 11. For this commandment, which I
command you this day, is not hidden from thee, neither is
it far off. Does that sound familiar? It's what we just read from Romans
10, right? For this commandment which I
command thee this day is not hidden from thee, neither is
it far off. It is not in heaven that thou shouldest say who shall
go up for us to heaven and bring it to us that we may hear it
and do it. Neither is it beyond the sea, there's the deep, Paul
puts it, calls it the deep, that you shouldest say who shall go
over the sea for us and bring it unto us and we may hear it
and do it. But the word is very nigh unto
thee in thy mouth and in thy heart that thou mayest do it. Now. Sometime later, if you so
please, go back and read that whole chapter. That whole chapter,
except for those verses, is pure law. You hear what I'm saying? It's pure law, just like Leviticus
chapter 18, verses one through five, okay? Faith, righteousness
says none among us can do the work for us. In other words,
who shall go up for us? In other words, we can't do this
ourselves. Christ don't need our help. I am paraphrasing the whole thing.
Christ don't need our help. He did it all himself. I've subbed
that all up. He did it all himself. We don't
need to help him. He's our help. We don't need
to work with him because we cannot. We are so far below. Now again, hear Paul's explanation
of Moses' words, because I'm sure somebody's thinking now,
now wait a minute, when you read, or when I read, I read along
with you, preacher, that verse six, and verse seven, and verse
eight of Romans 10, it's not the same wording as Deuteronomy
chapter 30, verses 11 through 14, right? It's not, I'm not
gonna sit here and try to lie to you. And somebody says, well,
Paul changed the meaning. Oh, no. Well, Paul added to it. Oh, no. Paul took away from it. Oh, no. Paul's giving us the
true sense of what those words were. Moses knew what he was
saying. But we are so corrupt in our
minds that we'll read chapter 30 and we see law, law, law. Law, law, law, righteousness
in the law, righteousness of the law, and we get to verses
11 through 14 of 30, and we're still reading law. Paul, by the
Spirit of God, is giving us the true sense, the true meaning
of what Moses was saying when he said those words, and then
when God moved him, inspired him to write down those words.
So this is what it means. But the righteousness which is
of faith speaketh on this wise, say not in thy heart, who shall
ascend into heaven? That is to bring Christ down
from above. Somebody go help Jesus. You ever thought about
it that way? That's what he's talking about.
Can't do it. That is to bring Christ down
from above. Or who shall descend into the deep? That is to bring
up Christ again from the dead. But what saith it? The Lord is
nigh thee even in thy mouth and in thy heart. That is the word
of faith which we preach. Missed all of that legal warning
all of a sudden. Grace. and faith righteousness
is there, but it's obscured. It's obscured because it's given
right in the midst of the law, and our natural minds will always
revert to law rather than grace. Even as believers, unless Paul
had told me what that meant, I would have probably got those
verses wrong. What about you? What about you? Paul told us
what they really meant, didn't he? Aren't you glad? Aren't you
glad? Number three, free grace graciously
enables its recipients to stop trying to help the Messiah, save
them, and just submit to him. He came down from above and he
didn't need our help. He used the Virgin's womb, but
he didn't need the Virgin. He ordained it to be that way
that He might join us to join Him to us. He had to join Himself
to us before we could ever be joined to Him. It behooved Him
to be made like unto His brethren. He had to be made flesh or we'd
all went to hell, elect or not. elect or not, free grace graciously
enables its recipients to stop trying to help the Messiah save
them and just submit to him. Number four, thank God for Paul's
spiritual insight. Aren't you glad? When I first
read this, I mean I knew of it, I mean I've been preaching for
a while, I knew these verses, probably have preached from some
of these verses, but I went back and actually read what Moses
said and I was scratching my head. And I remember, wait a minute,
Paul's as inspired as Moses. No less so, no more so. And Paul's
not adding to or taking from. He's giving us the actual meaning
of what Moses said. Number three, Paul then defines
this faith righteousness with these four essential God-ordained
designations. But what saith it, what is this?
Verse eight, but what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in
thy mouth and in thine heart, that is the word of faith which
we preach, that if thou shalt 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. It must be, number one, three
things, I told you, three things. Or no, I said four, I'm sorry.
It must be personal. He didn't say if you all, if
ye. He says that if thy shall confess
with thine. I can't confess for you and you
can't confess for me. You can't take mommy with you
or daddy with you or your children with you or your spouse with
you or your loved ones with you. You gotta confess him yourself.
Personal. Well I believe like Sovereign
Grace Chapel don't mean squat. But do you hear what I'm saying?
That is good in and of itself, but it is no righteousness. It
is no righteousness. There are people out there that
believe what we believe and they could care less about Jesus Christ. He's
just another part of the equation to them. No, he is the whole
sum, the whole thing. I forget, you have your top number,
your bottom number, and then you have your sum. He's all three
of those. He's even the plus or the minus
mark that goes with it and the line that goes over it. He's
everything. It must be personal. The word
is now thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart. So it's not
just what you say out here. Because we can say, you know
what, we all know what we are. We can say a lot of things out
here that don't really matter down in here. In thy heart. In other words, no one else can
believe for me. And as Earl used to say, God
doesn't believe for me. He just enables me by His resurrection
power to believe. God don't believe for you and
let you go on in absolute unbelief and then just take you to glory.
He gonna make you believe. But believe what? No, who? You're gonna confess Him, confess
Him. Here's another thing, it is outward
confession. Thou shalt confess with thy mouth. In other words, No being ashamed
of Christ. And that's what he actually starts
out this with in verse 33 of the previous chapter. As it is
written, behold, God said, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and
a rock of offense. That's what he is. Let us never
try to make him not be that. But that's what this religious
world and free willism has tried their best to do. Make him not
to be a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. No, let's
leave him like he is. That's the only one that'll save
anybody. Mm, ah, and whosoever believeth on him shall not be
ashamed. Somebody says, preacher, is it
that simple? Yeah, it's that simple, and yet
that impossible apart from the grace of God. Number three, my fourth one I
will tell you now will be a summary. Number three, this confession
in itself, that it's personal and it's inside too. It's a part
of what God's made you to be, not just what you are. There's
another part of what you are, you don't want nothing to do
with that. Now you're stuck with him, that old man, you're stuck
with him, but we're to start mortifying his members. That's
what, we can't get rid of him, but we're to start deadening
his members. Those appendages called fornication, deceit, and
murder, and malignancy, all those things. It's what God's made
you to be down in here by his grace. I have so much unbelief,
but I know I do believe. And it may seem so small, Paul,
and insignificant at times, but it's the faith God gave me, therefore
it's glorious, no matter whether it's that big or that big, right?
It's glorious. This confession has two essential
facets. Confess Christ is Lord. What's
that? And again, that's not an incantation. It's not just saying the words.
I mean, there's places I go by that have had Christ is Lord
on it, and I know these people, they don't believe he's Lord.
They say things like, but Paul mentioned, God's done all he
can do, now it's up to you. Well, that ain't no Lord. That
kind of God, that kind of Jesus is subservient to the people
he's trying to get them to do their part. Confess Christ is Lord. Somebody
said, do you gotta believe in the sovereignty of God? No, you
gotta believe the sovereign God. You can believe in the sovereignty
of God and perish, but you cannot believe the sovereign God and
perish. Because you confess this, Lord, thou shalt be saved. Confess Christ as Lord. But here's
the second part of that, this essential facet. Heart belief
that God raised Christ from the dead. Do you see that? Now I
know people say they used to get after all, well you're just
using words, it's all we got. But this society in which we
live in now, words don't matter, meanings don't matter. You can,
what is the phrase, I can't even get it now. You can choose to
be whatever you want to be. If you're a male, you can choose
to be a female. If you're a female, you can choose
to be a male. And yet the CDC says males can drink a little
more alcohol and be safe than females can. So if I am a female
and I wanna drink more, all I gotta do is claim to be a man. I can
drink more now, I'm still be safe. Most of us laugh, but you see
the madness of this world? Heart belief that God raised
Christ from the dead. It is not, I believe in the resurrection. No, you believe that God raised
this Lord from the dead. It's not even, I believe Jesus
was raised. No, the Lord Jesus was raised. God raised the Christ, the Messiah,
the Lord, God manifest in the flesh. So my fourth point is
yes, there is a summary. A summary to all of these verses.
and I've been hammering on it the past few minutes. Here it
is. That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus,
and it's more than just this outward confession though, and
shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him, that
Lord, from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Not just when you believe,
but you'll never stop believing. If God brought you to do this,
it'll never stop. So quit saying, I hope. If you
believe him now, you will believe him tomorrow. Now, call it what
it is, your unbelief is your unbelief. Lord, I believe. Help thou, even that, don't help
me to do it, help thou mine unbelief. Heavenly Father, God bless us
through your word and the power of thy Holy Spirit. Not these
clay pots that have been standing here preaching, but use your
word by the power of your spirit to comfort us, guide us, lead
us, and keep us. In Christ's name, amen.