Well, good to see everyone. As you can see, the title of
my message this morning is Lost and Found. And this is from Romans
chapter 10. We'll be looking at the first
four verses of that chapter. And we have in these four verses,
the identifying characteristics of two mutually exclusive states
of eternal significance. We have here the identifying
characteristics of both those, one, who are spiritually lost,
and two, those who are spiritually saved. That is, saved or found
like that one lost sheep, the one out of the hundred found
by the shepherd in the parable that Mark read there in Luke
15. lost and found. To be lost, we know, is to not
know the way to our desired destination. Spiritually speaking, to be lost
is to not know the way to heaven. That is, God's way of salvation
as it's set forth in his word. The Bible teaches that we all
start out this life's journey spiritually lost, spiritually
blind, in a spiritually dead state. So with that, our first
religious notions will have us all assume a way of salvation
that is false because we first assume consistent with the natural
spiritually dead state in which we all begin. And apart from
God's gracious intervention, we won't recognize our lost condition.
that would bring us to exercise God-given faith and repentance,
that which identifies all who are saved. So like that one lost
sheep described in the parable, who upon being found was likened
to the joy that shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth
more than over ninety and nine just persons, that is, justified
in their own eyes, which need no repentance. So we must discover
the condition that we're in at some point in time. Well, based
on the identifying characteristics of these two polar opposite states,
saved and lost, and as it's set forward in our text, I'd like
to challenge us this morning to ask ourselves this question.
Am I or you among those described here in our text, as we look
at it, as religious but lost, or is the description that's
given here of all true believers true of you? And it's one or
the other for everyone who hears this message. Well, before we
look at the clear assertions in Romans 10, let me bring you
up to speed on the immediate context. Paul is writing this
to believers in Rome, and in the latter part of the preceding
chapter, 9, he quotes from Isaiah in verse 27, saying, though the
number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a
remnant shall be saved. He's telling his fellow Jewish
believers, there are a lot of us Jews, but only a small number
have been and will be blessed with true God-given faith and
repentance unto salvation. When he gets to verse 30, he
begins to contrast the believing Gentiles who did not have the
advantage of the old covenant law of Moses that would point
them to Christ and picture him tight. So they did not pursue
righteousness by their law keeping, but whom he describes as having
attained or come to the law of righteousness. And he contrasts
them with the majority of the Jews who he said followed after
or they did pursue the law of righteousness. And that referred
to their attempts to keep the law in order to find favor with
God. But of them, he says, they did
not attain or they did not come to the law of righteousness.
In other words, their efforts fell short. And then in verse
32, he tells us why, when he asks wherefore or why, he says,
because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the
works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling
stone, as it is written, behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone
and a rock of a fence. And whosoever believeth on him,
that stumbling stone was a him, a person, the Lord Jesus Christ.
He says, whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
In other words, trusting in him will stand up at the judgment.
And then we get to our text, Romans 10. Beginning in verse
one, brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel
is that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they
have a zeal of God, but 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, for Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Well, you see
from verse one that when Paul is in sharing with his Jewish
brethren in the faith how most of their fellow Jews were spiritually
lost, we know he's not taking delight in that fact, and yet
he's compelled to point it out. And we know that because of the
compassion he's expressing here. He says, my heart's desire and
prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. And you
know, I believe, I love this kind of passage where it sets
forth the true from the false. And I believe that true gospel
preachers who preach with clarity, with distinction, and when I
say distinction, I mean so as to distinguish the true from
the false. the true gospel from the many
false counterfeits, one true and living God from the idols
of our imagination, who set forth the gospel, as we're told in
Romans 117, wherein the righteousness of God is revealed. And I believe
true preachers, and they're pointing out how the majority of so-called,
quote, Christendom today, they fall in the same category as
these lost religious, but lost Jews. And based, I'm suggesting,
on the exact same evidence that Paul sets forth here as to why
he knows them to be lost. So what I'm hoping you see is
that the relevance of this passage goes way beyond just the application
of it to these Jews. And faithful gospel preachers
like Paul, with respect to his fellow Jews, I think they only
point this out in knowing there's an offense to the cross in doing
so, because it's folks they care about, friends, relatives, family.
And we know that if they are to be saved, that like all who
are saved, they must at some point see how tragically mistaken
they've been. And that through the revelation
of God-given faith and repentance under the preaching of the gospel
that would bring them to Christ so as to plead his righteousness
and that alone for all their salvation. You know, God's command
to repent is universal. Remember in Acts chapter 17,
a passage Bill often quotes there, on Mars Hill, remember the context,
Paul is talking to the philosophers on Mars Hill about their religious
notions. You remember he talked about,
he walked by the monument to the unknown God, I guess it was,
and he's speaking to them about religion. And when he gets to
verse 30, he says, but now God calls on all men everywhere to
repent. The point being in the context,
we can see this isn't, he's not calling on them in this repentance
to repent of their evil thoughts, their evil deeds, although we
are to repent of those things. But this is a call to repent
of that initial, natural, religious notions that we all first entertain. That's that initial repentance
that always accompanies genuine God-given faith. And so I believe
that's Paul's motivation in being so direct in pointing out the
problem with his fellow lost Jews. And in that he desires
and he prays for their salvation, well, We know then he's speaking
of those who need salvation. So one, we see that he's speaking
of those who are lost. And then from verse two, we know
not only are they lost, but they are religious. And you know,
that's not true of all lost folks. You know people that would give
no evidence of having any interest in spiritual things, and you
certainly wouldn't characterize them as being religiously zealous,
for example, as Paul does here. I do believe that the descriptions
of verse three can be attributed to all who are lost, but we know
not all folks are zealous in their religion or religious at
all. Some show no interest or very little interest. Still,
I think this is an excellent passage for all of us and everyone
who hears this message. to examine whether we'd be in
the faith because, see, like these lost but religious Jews,
I assume everyone who hears our messages, I assume they're religious. I figure they wouldn't be listening
if they weren't. And so this makes it applicable
to us all. Well, Paul put it this way concerning
his fellow Jews. He said, they have a zeal of
God. You know, he could identify with that. You remember when
Paul was on the road to Damascus, At the time of his conversion,
he was heading there to persecute true Christians, not those he
thought were the children of God, but the true Christian church. And he was going there to arrest
Christians. And if you remember from Philippians
3, I think it's there on your screen, in that passage where
Paul is listing all these things that he once thought he was so
proud of, he thought recommended him to God, Hebrew of Hebrews,
touching the law of the Pharisee. He goes on down there and he
says, it's concerning zeal, persecuting the church, touching the righteousness
which is in the law, blameless. So we see his zeal was one of
the things he cited as being something he had previously been
proud of, that he thought found him in favor with God, but of
which he's since repented, as we see when he gets to verse
seven. Those things that were gained to me, I now count lost. He goes on and he even describes
it as, he describes it as, he counts it dung. that he might
win Christ and be found in him, not having its own righteousness,
which is of the law due to his law keeping, but he might have
the righteousness, which is by faith or the faithfulness of
Christ. Well, many of these devout Jews,
they prayed and fasted and they tithe their money. We know from
the scriptures some of the Pharisees even did so over and above that
which the law called for. So their zeal was not in question.
So the problem didn't lie in the fact that they were zealous
and that they were religious, but that their religious zeal
was not according to knowledge. They lacked some vital knowledge.
So vital, it's what identifies them as in need of salvation. And I suggest it identifies It
identifies people even in our day in need of salvation if they
fit this description. Paul doesn't just say, well,
they're missing a little something, but they're okay. I know they
mean well. They're looking for a promised
Messiah and they're doing their best. They just need a little
teaching. No, he was very direct. He prayed
for their salvation. He's saying they are lost. And
he tells them exactly what they're missing. He said the knowledge
they lacked was they were ignorant of the righteousness of God.
What is the righteousness of God? Of which Paul says they're
ignorant. Well, we can know, we're gonna
look at Romans 3 in a moment, and we can know a lot from there.
But even verse 4 of our text, which I think may be the most
concise definition of righteousness that we'll find in scripture,
we know when we consider these passages together that this righteousness
is referring to the justice-satisfying merit of Christ's obedience unto
death on the cross. The righteousness he came to
establish and did establish, and that as a substitute for
all he saves in perfectly satisfying the law and justice of God in
their stead for them on their behalf. As verse four reads,
Christ is the end, the completion, the fulfillment, the finishing
of the law for righteousness. And that's the righteousness
of which most of these Jews were ignorant and of which those who
are lost in our day remain ignorant. Paul describes this righteousness
as I said back in Romans 3. Look there beginning in verse
21. It says, but now the righteousness
of God without the law, that is, without your meeting the
conditions or requirements set forth in the law, now the righteousness
of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and
the prophets, Even the righteousness of God, which is by faith, or
the faithfulness of Jesus Christ unto all, I believe that is preached,
declared, proclaimed to all, and upon all them that believe,
that it's been put upon, it's been puted, placed to their account. For there is no difference. For
all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, being justified
freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus, he purchased his church, whom God hath set forth to be
a propitiation. That's a sin-bearing, justice-satisfying
sacrifice. And he set forth to be that propitiation
through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for
the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance
of God. You may recall in a sermon I
did some time back, I was dealing with remission of sins and forgiveness
of sins, and I had done a word study and I found where the Greek
word that's translated remission in one place, in another place
it's translated the same word, translated forgiveness. And that
makes sense, right? When you get a bill in the mail
and it says remit to, you write out a check, you send it in and
they cash that check. When the remission's been made,
The debt's forgiven, and each and every one for whom Christ
paid the sinner's debt, they're forgiven of their sins without
fail. He says in verse 26, to declare, I say at this time,
his righteousness. Again, that's the satisfaction
to God's law and justice that Christ rendered by his obedience
unto death. He said to declare it, his righteousness,
that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth
in Jesus." See, God can't merely look over our sins. They must
be dealt with in keeping with his character as a just God,
in keeping with his strict justice. So that means Christ had to be,
see, that vicarious, propitiatory sacrifice so as to pay the sin
debt for all he saves. And here we see that this is
his righteousness. so that God might be God. He might be true to his character.
You see, if it's any other way than based upon this righteousness,
then God, that's an idol of our imagination. That can't be the
God of this Bible, for he must be just and justifier of the
ungodly. That's his redemptive glory,
a just God and a savior. Well, I think this is essentially
what we see here in Romans 3, is what Paul is more concisely
restating in Romans 10, 4, when he said, Christ is the end of
the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. You
know, I would have probably taken that verse in years past, and
I would have twisted it to read like this. I'd say, you know,
Christ will be the end of the law for righteousness for you,
too, if you will believe. Well, that's not what it's saying.
It's stating that if you are a believer of God's gospel, remember
from Romans 117, the gospel wherein is righteousness is revealed,
well then Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to
you. It's been revealed to you. And it's important not to confuse
the cause and effect here. As we read in Romans 8.10, if
Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the
spirit is life because of righteousness. It's the fruit of righteousness.
We're only given spiritual life that we might believe on Christ
because of righteousness having been accounted or imputed to
us. Well, consider further with me
the description of these lost centers here, found in verse
three. And I think we need to be careful not try to divide
that up. I know that we're all prone to
want to compromise, especially to those people we care a lot
about. We want to think the best of
people. But we shouldn't divide this up so as to say, well, I
know they seem to be ignorant of the righteousness of God,
but maybe this doesn't apply to them. Because I was talking
to so-and-so the other day, and I asked them if they were banking
on their self-righteousness. And they said, oh, no, I'm not
banking. I don't know anybody that calls themselves Christians
that says, I'm banking on my self-righteousness, although
they are. But they don't know that. I certainly
was banking on my self-righteousness at one time, but I didn't call
it that, and neither do they. No, here's the description that
identifies the loss by Paul. He says they, one, they're ignorant
of God's righteousness, and underline the conjunction two in your minds
out there, and And I believe you could say it this way, if
they are religious and they're ignorant of God's righteousness,
well, being religious, they're going about to establish their
own righteousness. So thereby, it's concluded thirdly,
they've not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
You obviously can't submit yourself unto that which you're ignorant.
And this is, I believe, the unambiguous explanation of why Paul knows
them to be lost. This is the record he bears of
them. You know, most everyone I know who calls themselves Christian,
they agree that only those who believe the gospel shall be saved.
That may be due to their familiarity with the Great Commission in
Mark 16, where Christ told his disciples, go ye into all the
world and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth
the gospel, he told them to preach, and is baptized, that's the profession
of it. He says, shall be saved, but
he that believeth not shall be damned. So it's pretty clear,
and most would profess then if they call themselves Christian,
they say they believe the gospel. But the problem lies in that
the gospel that so many believe is what the Bible calls another
gospel. Not God's gospel is set forth
in his word. I've mentioned Romans 117 a couple
of times, and I look at that at Romans 116, Paul said, for
I'm not ashamed of the gospel. The gospel is the power of God
unto salvation to everyone that believeth. To the G first, and
also to the Greek, and when he gets to verse 17, he says, why
is it the power of God unto salvation? He says, for, or because, therein
is the righteousness of God revealed. So it's impossible to believe
God's gospel while ignorant of God's righteousness. Because
righteousness is what is revealed to those who believe God's gospel
through which he powerfully saves them. So what would constitute
being ignorant of this righteousness? Well, some are like myself in
years past, just totally oblivious to the righteousness of God in
Christ as it pertains to being the merit or what he earned by
his finished work. that which is revealed in the
true gospel. I suppose I would have said in years past that
the righteousness of God referred to an attribute of God, as in
God must do right. And then when I came under the
sound of the gospel, in the era of my false doctrine was exposed
to me, that false doctrine exposed, I didn't even really believe
that God would do right, although I thought I did back then. In
fact, most of my doctrine denied practically every attribute.
of God as I had presumed him to be, but my doctrine said otherwise. Well, secondly, like many, I
had no idea I needed a perfect righteousness. I said, well,
nobody can do that. I thought, in my years past,
Christ somehow made up the difference for my shortcomings, if, big
if, if I just strike my end of the bargain by doing my part,
see? Well, that certainly fell short of thinking I needed a
perfect righteousness and to not know of your need for Christ's
righteousness. That's to be ignorant of the
righteousness of God. Thirdly, to be ignorant of Christ's
righteousness as the standard by which God shall judge us.
That's to be ignorant of the righteousness of God. I mentioned
Acts 17 there. He was talking to them about
their religious notions, and he got to verse 30 and says,
God now commandeth every man everywhere to repent, or something
to that effect. And when he gets to verse 31,
he tells us the standard by which he will judge us. Okay? So he's commanding people to
repent because by nature, we don't believe that's how we will
be judged. Okay? So we see that repentance is
a repentance from dead works. It's a repentance of pertaining
to our religious notions. And here's what he says that
standard is. He said, I call on every man
to repent. Because he hath appointed a day
in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that
man whom he hath ordained, the Lord Jesus Christ. And whereof
he hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath raised
him from the dead. Here we got the open book answer
to how we're going to be judged. He's going to judge you in the
perfect righteousness of Christ. And not only that, but he gives
assurance to everybody. He says, I'll prove it to you.
It got the job done. He raised him from the dead.
Satisfaction was made to his justice. And where satisfaction
was made, righteousness demands life. And he came out of the
grave. So according to this, how righteous
must we be? As righteous as the Lord of glory.
I can't produce that. I don't think you can produce
that. I know you can't produce that. I can't obey the precepts
of God's revealed will perfectly. And I have nothing, not even
my own death. It's far, far insufficient to
pay the debt due to the strict and holy justice of God that's
due unto my sin. You see, it's His righteousness.
It's the righteousness of the sinless, spotless Son of God,
who the scripture says, offered Himself up without spot. who
offered the payment of his infinitely valuable blood. That righteousness
must be somehow made to be mine. And that brings me to the next
aspect of how many are ignorant of the righteousness of God.
During the years I spent zealously practicing my false religion,
I never even heard the term imputed righteousness. I didn't hear
emphasis on passages like Romans 4, where in verse 6, David is
quoted as having described the blessedness of the man unto whom
God imputeth righteousness without works. Now, if you believe the
Bible, and you read Acts 1731, and you could be convinced by
that you need righteousness for acceptance before a holy God,
which we just read you do, but you knew nothing of the doctrine
of imputation, I think that would leave you in despair and without
hope. Because that would be to know
you need something you have no hope of producing. And thankfully
God, the Holy Spirit, doesn't leave us there. You know, he
doesn't truly convince us of sin without also convincing us
of his justifying righteousness and of judgment. We see that
in John 16 when you look at the work of the Holy Spirit there.
And he also shows us how it's accounted. unto all of God's
elect children, those whom He saves. You know, if you're truly
convinced of your need for His righteousness, it's also because
you can't separate that work of the Spirit from is listed
there in John 16. You've also been convinced of
your sin, of your depravity, so much so that if some preacher
comes along and tries to answer this dilemma, If you need a perfect
righteousness that you can't produce, and they tell you, well,
God will make you righteous in here, inherently righteous. And some are suggesting that
these days, going so far to even say that he'll put a perfect
righteous nature within you that cannot sin. Well, that won't
work for you. Not if God, the Holy Spirit,
did the convincing, convincing you of sin. You see, because
to be convinced of sin is to be convinced that nothing that
could possibly proceed from me, there's nothing that's not tainted
with the remaining presence of sin. We know that the evil thoughts
and evil deeds that we might do, we know that that's clearly
sinful. But you know, we don't often
think of all the things that we do in service to God even.
It's still tainted with our sins. For example, I pray for my children
and grandchildren daily. I know some of your children
and grandchildren, and I'm sorry to say I don't pray for them
every day. Now, why is that? That's born out of selfishness.
It's self-love. You see, my children and my grandchildren,
they're an extension of me and Susan. I'm not apologizing for
praying for my children and my grandchildren, but what I am
saying is we can't get away from this body of sin and death, and
we won't. We'll have the warfare between
the flesh and the spirit until God takes us home and we no longer
have the presence of sin. See, to need the righteousness
of God is to need a perfect, an untainted righteousness, one
that answers fully the demands of God's holy law and justice.
So that means you must have Christ's very righteousness put to your
account, that is, imputed to you, because nothing else will
fit your need. Only by having righteousness
imputed can we, who are sinners in and of ourselves, can we be
found acceptable and unblameable as righteous before a holy God. Just as the sins of God's elect
were charged or imputed to Christ so that he could bear the demerit,
the guilt due unto them. And see, he didn't become contaminated
by it. He wasn't made a sinner within,
no more than we're made righteous within. No, the scripture says
he offered himself up without spot. We needed an unblemished
lamb as typified by those Old Testament sacrifices. No, sins
were imputed to him so that he could bear the demerit, the guilt,
and then pay a penalty of such value. They would pay the debt
due to the offense of all the sins of all God's elects throughout
all the generations. And in those generations, there
are past sins, there are present sins, there are future sins.
And that he did in his death, in the shedding of his precious
blood. And the scripture teaches us that likewise, in the same
way, God has imputed are charged to the account of everyone for
whom he lived and died, for whom he bore their demerit, he has
imputed or charged to them the merit of his accomplished work
in satisfaction to justice, his righteousness. And that's the
essence of that great exchange in 2 Corinthians 5.21. For he
hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might
be made the righteousness of God, and underline those last
two words, in him. You see, that's the only righteousness
that fits my need. And it doesn't reside within
me. No, it resides right now at the right hand of the Father.
You know, He arose and it said He sat down. The work was finished
at the right hand of the Father. So it resides in Him. my surety,
my substitute, my redeemer, my substitute, my representative,
my mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ, who the scripture says is ever
interceding on my behalf on that very basis, on the basis of that
which He did for me. See, it's not based on the work
of the Holy Spirit in me. No, the miraculous work of the
Holy Spirit in me is what has me and will keep me looking exclusively
to what he did for me, for my salvation. That's what keeps
us looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, Hebrews
12. Well, Paul adds that in their
ignorance, they're going about to establish their own righteousness.
The word establish means to make something stand up in the sight
of God. In other words, they're presumed
that something that proceeds from them will stand up as their
justifying righteousness. It's what they imagine differentiates
them from being saved rather than lost, but something other
than the righteousness of God. And whether we call that righteousness
or not, it's simply to imagine salvation is some way to some
degree, at least in part, conditioned on you, the sinner. That's work
salvation. rather than seeing all the conditions
for salvation were fully met and only met by the doing and
dying of the Savior. That's grace. So nothing we can
do, nor anything we might credit God, the Holy Spirit, with doing
in or through us, they don't meet that standard we just read
about in Acts 17, 31, by which we're gonna be judged. No, we're
gonna be judged by the perfect righteousness of God in Christ.
If you're religious, but you're not looking to Christ and his
righteousness imputed as your only ground of salvation, well
then, by necessity, whether you recognize it or not, if you're
religious, you're going about to establish your own righteousness.
And think with me, because if your plea, your basis for counting
yourself among the saved, is anything other than or anything
in addition to Christ and his imputed righteousness, well then
what's left? The only thing left to plea or
bank upon would be something done by the other party in this
transaction called salvation. If it's not exclusively the doing
and dying of the Savior, then it's something that proceeds
from you, the sinner. And listen, here's the evil of
that. That's to esteem that which is proceeding from you in opposition,
in the place of in rivalry with what it took, the finished work
of Jesus Christ, the only righteousness that God the Father will accept.
Remember in Ephesians 1, we're told sinners who are saved, they're
accepted in the beloved, in the Lord Jesus Christ. In other words,
it's due to their being made one, their union with Christ
before the justice bar of God. And, you know, I use this phrase
often, I'll say, and to think otherwise is to be sadly mistaken. But, you know, it's much worse
than just simply being sadly mistaken. It's to be sinfully,
rebelliously sadly mistaken because it's evil. And it's opposed to
the very glory of God and the person and finished work of Christ.
God put it this way in Galatians 2, 21. He said, if righteousness
come by the law, That's akin to your meeting a condition or
requirement in order to be saved. He said, then Christ is dead
in vain. Now, I don't know anyone who
calls themselves Christian naming the name of Christ who'd say
Christ died in vain. I would have never said that.
But my doctrine that had me imagining salvation was conditioned on
me, the sinner. had me esteeming, that's exactly
what my mind's thoughts were about the death of Christ. It
was a vain thing, whether I recognized it to be so at the time or not.
Why, he died for multitudes and it did them no good, according
to my former theology. Well, Paul concludes verse three
saying this, they've not submitted themselves unto the righteousness
of God. Submission. In the Beatitudes
in Matthew 5.3, Those who are eternally blessed with salvation
are described this way, blessed are the meek, for they shall
inherit the earth. And meekness there denotes submission. Notice here, when one's been
humbled, so as to submit in meekness to the righteousness of God,
they don't earn anything thereby, by their submission. No, they
inherit. And that's what I want. I want
an inheritance. I want that which the Lord of
Glory, the spotless Savior, could earn for me. To be submitted
involves a humbling that's reflected in our repentance from dead works.
The dead works being whatever we presumed made the difference
in our salvation. Our decision, our baptism, whatever
that might have been. And that repentance from dead
works always accompanies genuine God-given faith. Now, are these
descriptions of these lost Jews, are they relevant to folks in
our day? Who fits this description, like these non-believing Jews,
of not being submitted to the righteousness of God? Well, obviously
it included them. Paul is specifically directing
his remarks there. Christ was a stumbling stone,
a rock of a fence, and yet You consider those Jews, I mean,
among the Pharisees were considered to be among the most moral, sincere
religions that perhaps have ever existed. And this is among those
he's describing. You see, they were sincere. They had a zeal of God. And they
were looking for a promised Messiah. It just was not this one who
would execute righteousness in the earth. by which men are justified
before God. Well, is that only descriptive
of these unbelieving Jews? Is it any different from most
who profess to be of the, quote, Christian faith today? The Jews,
there are some differences. They profess belief in a messiah
that had not come yet in their mind. And many so-called Christians
rightly profess belief in the historical Christ as being the
promised messiah. But it's not the Christ of the
Bible. It's not the Christ as he's identified
by his person in his finished work. It's not the Christ who
brought in this everlasting righteousness by which any and all for whom
it was established are justified and shall in time be saved, be
translated from spiritual darkness into his marvelous light. I know
the majority of religious folks in our part of the world, they
believe like I once did, that Christ died for everyone, and
that included the multitudes that the scriptures declare shall
perish. And in so believing that, we
esteemed his death on the cross to have accomplished no more
for those who are saved than it failed to do for those who
perish, you see? And I know it's a challenge.
People would respond like I would have. Oh, but you've got to believe
to make what he did effectual, I would say. And you know, when
I would reply that way, I did so without any sense of the evil
and the prideful and the God dishonoring reality of thinking
that my faith was the real difference maker. See, it was a crowning
event. It wasn't the doing and dying of Christ. Why, he did
that for everybody. A bunch of them perish anyway. that it was to imagine that my
faith could accomplish what took his doing and dying. Well, that's
not faith in Christ, that's faith in faith. Oh, I thought I believed
in Christ, I called Christ my savior. But the reality is that
whatever is presumed to be the ultimate difference maker in
your salvation, whatever does the saving, well, that's your
savior. I said it was Jesus. But my former
doctrine exposed my savior at that time was my act of believing,
believing what I'd been erroneously taught, a false gospel and worshiping
a false God under that false gospel. And that's to be just
as ignorant of and just as not submitted to the one justifying
righteousness of God, which Christ alone did render as these unbelieving
Jews were. And so thereby it was going about
to establish a righteousness of my own. Well, lastly, let
me say there are those whose doctrine would seem a bit more
consistent with the true gospel, certainly than my former doctrine
was. I consider myself fortunate in that when I first heard the
gospel wherein his righteousness was revealed, it was at about
the same time that I first began to learn and see in the scripture
what many call the doctrines of grace, or what some refer
to as quote Calvinistic or reform doctrine. back when God first
drew me under the sound of the gospel, there was this group
within the Southern Baptist Convention that was just starting to emerge
called the Founders Group, and they claimed to believe some
of those Calvinistic doctrines. But being young in the faith
at the time, I found it amazing and was baffled by how such folks
could have not been as mistaken as I had about for example, the
sovereignty of God and salvation about the doctrines of election
and particular redemption. But I was baffled that their
world had not been turned upside down like mine. And that was
evidenced by their able to casually embrace others as spiritual brethren
whose gospel doctrine was the same of that which I had repented.
See, here's the difference. I heard these doctrines within
the context of God's gospel wherein his righteousness was set forth
and revealed. And as such, I experienced a
complete change of heart of mine about who God was and how he
saved sinners. See, the gospel, I believe, identified
my God. So when by God's grace, I changed
gospels, I changed gods, and I repented of the idol, the idol
that was exposed by my previous erroneous notions of how I thought
God saved sinners, a way that I discovered denied every attribute
of the true and living God of the Bible. And so nothing but
the imputed righteousness of Christ would do for me from then
on. And what I discovered is there are many that learn much
doctrine without hearing with the spiritual ear of faith the
true gospel wherein the righteousness of God is revealed. So Paul,
he didn't say to these to his fellow Jewish believers here,
I want to teach you a little higher doctrine today, a little
deeper theology. He didn't say, I want to talk
to you about why Christ came and what he accomplished in establishing
righteousness, but I don't want to upset you. I know you're serious
and you're probably OK. He didn't do that. He was pretty
blunt. He cared for these people. And
he could have only lied to them like that if he actually believed
that to be true. You wouldn't lie to your dearest
friends and family about things that you knew pertain to their
eternal life and death. You look across the street and
your neighbor's, the attic of their house is ablaze, on fire. You call them up and you say,
hey, you having a good day? Everything going all right? Yeah,
it's been a nice day, hasn't it, you know? Look, when you
get a chance, you might want to walk around and, you know,
check. I just got a feeling something might be wrong over there. But,
you know, just when it's convenient, you'd scream out to them, get
out of there. Your house is on fire. You're
in danger. And listen, any who will speak peace to those who
still give credence to the false gospel that's so popular in our
day, Among most who consider themselves of the Christian faith,
we do well to remember 2 John verses 9 through 11. Whosoever transgresseth and abideth
not in the doctrine of Christ, and the doctrine of Christ is
the true gospel wherein his righteousness is revealed, he hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine
of Christ, he hath both a father and a son. And if there come
any unto you and bring not this doctrine, Receive him not into
your house, and as you've heard Bill explain this, I believe
it too, that it's referring to houses of worship, because they
would meet in their houses to worship. We know he can't be
saying that you can't have any fellowship with your lost friends
and relatives, because as Mark read in the parable, at the first
part of those, the first verses, he was being accused of hanging
out with a bunch of sinners. But what he is saying here is
do not have religious fellowship with them. And we know that because
he adds, neither bid him Godspeed. That is, do not condone his or
her religion or speak peace as if they're okay, to use Jeremiah's
words. Peace, peace, where there is
no peace or where they're ignorant of or not submitted to the only
ground of peace between God and man, the imputed righteousness
of Christ. Verse 11, for he that biddeth
him Godspeed is a partaker of his evil deeds. So there are
people who know a lot of true gospel, true doctrine, shouldn't
say gospel, and including believing God is sovereign even in salvation
as he is. But if they can consider themselves
or others to have been saved at a time in which they were
ignorant of Christ's righteousness, then they suppose that they too,
they've not submitted to his justifying righteousness as the
only ground of salvation, because in their mind they must be thinking
there's another ground whereby these folks that I won't account
save can be saved. You see, that's an indication
that humbling submission has not taken place. Well, in verse
four, as I said, Paul describes what's true of everyone, not
just some, but every believer, when he says, Christ is the end
of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. He's
the completion, the fulfillment, the finishing of the law. The
word translated in there is derived from the same root word that
is used in some of Christ's last words on the cross when he said,
it is finished, and he finished it. He's the end, the finishing
of the law, and that to every true believer. Well, how about
someone new who hears this message? Is Christ the end of the law
for righteousness to you? Well, if it is, it's truly good
news, isn't it? As God's Word says in verse 4,
this is true of everyone that believes. Boy, there's assurance
there, and it's really that simple. You know, for most of my life,
I sang that popular hymn, Amazing Grace. But only when one has
received that blood-bought gift of faith and repentance in belief
of God's gospel, wherein his righteousness is revealed, only
then can they honestly sing this phrase from that hymn. I once
was lost, but now am found. Was blind, but now I see. Lost
and found. I've kept you late, so we're
going to forego the closing hymn, and I'll close with a word of
prayer. And Amy will play a song while we dismiss. Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, thank you for the opportunity to gather together
around your gospel of grace, the gospel where we see your
very righteousness, the righteousness by which you justify sinners.
But would you find us complete in our Savior's substitute and
representative, our surety Jesus Christ. Lord, we're privileged
that we can gather together and actually call you by this name,
the Lord our righteousness. It's in Christ's name I pray,
amen.