This morning, we're going to
look at Romans 10, beginning at verse 1 through verse 4. And
I'll go ahead and read these verses here. Paul, the Apostle Paul, writing
here, and he says, 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." Now this last verse here, verse four, is where
the title, my title comes from, end of the law for righteousness. Now, due to all that the Apostle
Paul had said previously and was about to say, he didn't want
his kinsmen to think that he was saying these things due to
any hatred that he had toward them or ill will. Instead of having hatred or ill
will toward them, Paul says in the first verse here, Brethren,
my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they
might be saved. He says they're lost. And we
continually have to deal with these things here. Now, Paul,
in my opinion, according to previous verses and the verses a chapter
later, is mainly talking to his brethren as far as him being
a Jew and as far as him being a neutralite. But you can apply
all these things to all individuals without exception, even God's
elect, before regeneration and conversion. And as we go through
this study this morning, we need to remember that that Paul, even
though he's talking to his brethren according to the flesh, I believe
here, that it applies here to every individual. We're all have a zeal of God, but it's
not according to knowledge. And we all have zeal, religious
zeal, prior to God saving us in our false religion. And I
know some of you were in some of these false religion, and
you had a zeal, just like I did, prior to God saving me. And I
prayed that he would cause me to have a zeal now toward the
true God. Now, and so like I said, it wasn't
ill will and hatred that Paul had, but it was sincere affection. they had toward them, and that
affection is displayed here in verse 1. The same expression
is expressed at the beginning of chapter 9. Let's look at Romans
9, beginning of verse 1. Paul says, I say the truth in
Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the
Holy Ghost, that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow
in my heart, For I could wish that myself were accursed from
Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen, according to the flesh. His love
and desire for their salvation motivated him to speak the truth
in love and not to compromise the gospel of God's grace in
order to gain their affection or their friendship. The best
thing we can do is tell somebody the truth about this gospel and
pray that God will use it for the saving of the soul. Now,
after Paul said in this first verse here, my heart's desire
and prayer to God for Israel, that they might be saved, he
then says in verse two, for I bear them record that they have a
zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. Paul readily acknowledges
their religious zeal and sincerity. Their problem was not lack of
that zeal and dedication, or passion. Their problem was also
not a lack of sincerely trying to be righteous by their works
before their God and before man. Paul himself, before he was converted,
had the same zeal and same sincerity. Paul says in Philippians 3, beginning
at verse 4, though I might also have confidence in the flesh,
if any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust
in the flesh, And then he goes about, circumcised the eighth
day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, and Hebrew
of Hebrews, as touching the law of Pharisee, concerning zeal,
persecuting the church, touching the righteousness which is of
the law, blameless. Paul here in these verses is
telling these Jews that he knew what they were doing because
he had done the same thing that's listed in Philippians 3 here.
prior to God saving him. You see, their problem and the
problem of all men by nature, as we're born into this world,
is not our zeal and compassion for our religion and our God
at that time. Our problem was ignorance of
Jesus Christ and the only way of salvation, righteousness and
eternal life. We didn't know the true God by
nature. As verse two will tell us, They
were ignorant of God's righteousness. They missed and or they rejected
the knowledge of how God justifies the ungodly by His grace and
by the Lord Jesus Christ. They rejected a justification
that totally excludes any and all works done by the sinner.
Instead of looking to Christ's righteousness alone for their
justification before God, they went about to establish their
own righteousness by their law keeping. You all heard the saying,
ignorance is the mother of idolatry. Well, in the case of not knowing
or knowing God, the true and living God, this saying applies.
If a sinner is ignorant of the only true and living God, that
sinner will, in his own imagination, he will conjure up and make up
a God in his own mind that will be suitable for him to worship. This God, a God of his own imagination,
is an idol because it's not the true God of scripture. And we
were all guilty of this ignorance before God saved us by his grace.
See, you don't have to have some kind of a carving of an image
that you're worshiping here. First of all, somebody on Facebook
put, last week, put a picture of all of a religious place to
worship. All these statues and all these
symbols and everything out there. And I made a comment back on
that, and they were talking about false god. And I said, yes, and
you know, all of this originated in man's mind. That's where it
all starts. It starts in your mind. And we will make up a God that's
suitable for us to worship. And there's many false gods as
there are individuals. You think about it, because all
of us, by nature, we have a little bit of different take on who
we believe God is. God must bring us from that darkness
to light by his Holy Spirit and through the preaching of the
true gospel. The gospel of God revealed by the Holy Spirit causes
us to believe and to trust the only true God and the true Christ,
Scripture. Look at what Isaiah says here
in Isaiah 45, 20. Assemble yourselves and come,
draw near together. Ye that are escaped of the nations,
they have no knowledge that set up the wood of their graven image,
and pray unto a God that cannot save. Tell ye, and bring them
near you. Yea, let them take counsel together. Who hath declared this from ancient
time? Who hath told it from that time? Have not I the Lord? And there is no God else beside
me, a just God and a Savior. There is none beside me. Look
unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth. For I
am God, and there is none else. And God's not going to share
his glory with all these false gods. Being ignorant of the only
way in which God will save a sinner is to be ignorant of the true
God and the true Christ of Scripture. And to be ignorant of this is
to be lost and without God in this world. And we don't say
that because we hate someone or have any ill will toward them.
It's just true. We're just telling them, hoping
that they'll flee to Christ, flee the only
way of salvation, turn away from their self-righteousness and
religious pride. Now we know that salvation is
not just a matter of head knowledge, but when God saves us, he teaches
us by his spirit and his word. He teaches us what we need to
know of him and of ourselves and of Christ. Look at Christ's
words in John 17.3. Christ says, and this is life
eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and
Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. Life eternal, that they
may know thee, the only true God. Look at what the Apostle
Paul says of himself after God revealed himself to Paul. Philippians
3, beginning of verse 7. Paul says, but what things were
gained to me? That's all those religious works
that we did by nature, and Paul did them too. There's no difference. Those I count at loss for Christ.
Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency
of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I've suffered
the loss of all things and do count them but dung, that I may
win Christ and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness,
which is of the law, my law keeping, but that which is through the
faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith." Notice
that the Apostle Paul counted all things lost for the excellency
of the knowledge of Jesus Christ. You notice that he repented from
all those dead works that he did in his former religion. He
says, what things were gained to me. At that time, he thought
they were gained to him. He says, I counted all them worthless,
no good. He says, do count them but dumb,
just completely worthless. They're worthless in the sense
that they can't in any way bring salvation. They're done by us,
by nature, and we think they will, but they can't. God requires
perfection. He then states why all those
works were worthless, and he does it by comparing them to
the perfect righteousness of Christ, the righteousness which
is of God by faith. After stating in verse two that
his kinsmen, according to the flesh, had a zeal of God, but
not according to knowledge, he then goes on to tell them what
they were ignorant of in verse three. Paul says in verse 3,
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. Paul shows exactly what the self-righteous
Jews and all sinners by nature were and are ignorant of. He
says they're ignorant of God's righteousness, a righteousness
that a sinner must have in order to be accepted by God. This righteousness
here that sinners are ignorant of is God's only way of justifying
sinners by His grace and through the Lord Jesus Christ. A righteousness
not only required by God, but a righteousness that is also
provided by God. It's required by God and it's
provided by God. This is the gospel. This is how
a holy God saves sinners. Romans 1 beginning at verse 16. For I'm not ashamed of the gospel,
Paul says, the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God and
to salvation to everyone that believe it, to the Jew first
and also to the Greek. For therein, therein this gospel
is preached out that we're talking about. Therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith, that is, that body of faith, the gospel,
to faith, that is, that God-given faith. As it is written, the
just shall live by faith. God's holy and he's righteous
in himself. For anyone to be accepted and
be able to have fellowship with the true God, they must have
a perfect righteousness which is perfect satisfaction to God's
law and to his justice. God must punish sin, and he will
by no means clear the guilty. Look at Exodus 34, 7. Keeping
mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and
sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty. I could take off and start talking
about a lot of things right now concerning that, but I got to
stick to what I got here before I can finish. God must be just
when he justifies men and fallen self-righteous men by nature.
If we're born into this world, we're ignorant of the only way
God justifies the ungodly. That's why we preach the gospel
out to all without exception. because God uses that to identify
himself, identify Christ, identify us as helpless, hopeless sinners
in need of salvation. And he spells out in the gospel
the only way, the only righteousness that he'll accept, because it's
perfect. It's what Christ produced. All
of this is proven. by the evidence of the way sinful
men seek to be justified. God tells us here that they all
by nature are going about to establish their own righteousness.
And we all do that by nature. Well, we'll always seek to be
justified before God by our efforts to keep the law. in our morality,
sincerity, charity, and dedication. Like I said earlier, Paul himself
was a prime example of this, as he described himself in Philippians
3 that we just got through reading, talking about he had confidence
in the flesh. And I did, too, prior to God
saving me. I had confidence in the flesh
at that time. I didn't know the true God. I
didn't know that He required perfection, either. And that's
the reason I had confidence in the flesh. I didn't know myself. I didn't know the true God. He talked about circumcision.
He talked about Hebrew of Hebrew, Pharisee, zeal of God. He talked
about all these things. This way of religion and works
of law that all of us are in by nature is the way that seems
right to unbelievers. Whether you're sitting in some
religious organization or whether you're irreligious, the way of
work seems right. But it's a way of death, according
to Proverbs 14, 12, that says, there is a way which seemeth
right unto a man, but the end thereof are ways of death. And
I mentioned up here that it's in the case of irreligious people,
too. I've talked with real religious people that would tell you, oh,
you've got to do something. And I've talked to irreligious
people. People don't go to church or anything. Pretty rough bunt
sometimes, you know? But they'll tell you the same
thing. Oh, you've got to do something for God to save you. They think
highly of themselves. We all did by nature. This way
that seems right to all of us by nature is self-righteousness. And it denies the glory of God
and salvation by grace. And it rejects the Lord Jesus
Christ and his great work on Calvary. Galatians 2, 21, Paul
says, I do not frustrate the grace of God, for if righteousness
come by the law, my law-keeping, then Christ is dead in vain.
This way that seems right also exalts sinners in their self-righteousness
and gives them room to boast, according to Ephesians 2, verse
8. It says, for by grace are you
saved through faith, and that not of yourself is a gift of
God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Boasting's gonna
be excluded. This way that seems right to
us by nature is the wrong way. It's that broad way that leads
to destruction because it is impossible to approach the true
and living God apart from a perfect righteousness. The works of fallen,
depraved sinners are just not good enough to make us righteous
before God. Let's look at what Christ says
here in Matthew 5.20. Christ says, For I say unto you
that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness
of the scribes and of the Pharisees, you shall in no case enter into
the kingdom of heaven. Now, later on in these verses
here, Christ goes about Instead of the, he says, you've
heard of old, thou shalt not commit adultery, talking about
these outward, that the Pharisees were teaching, outward things.
But he says unto you, and he goes on, he talks about so many
things, thou shalt not kill. But I say to you, that whosoever
is angry with his brother, without a cause, he says, the same thing
as killing someone. The spirit of the law. Look at
what Christ himself says about some of these moral religionists
who justified themselves before God by their law-keeping. Luke
16, 14, And the Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all
these things, and they derided Christ. And he said unto them,
Ye are they which justify yourselves before men, but God knoweth your
heart. And that which is highly esteemed
among men is an abomination in the sight of God. What was it
that was so highly esteemed among men? It was their law-keeping. These outward deeds that other
men could look at and see. God tells in Romans 3 verse 19,
that by the deeds of law no flesh should be justified in his sight.
Romans 3.19 says, Now we know that what things soever the law
saith, it saith of them that are under the law, that every
mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before
God. Therefore, by the deeds of law,
there shall no flesh be justified in his sight. For by the knowledge,
by the law is the knowledge of sin. That's what the law is intended
to do as we look at it for us to see that we're sinners. As
sinners, we ought to admit to God and the man that we are sinners
and in need of salvation by the grace of God. But instead, we'll
go about thinking that we can somehow, by our deeds of law,
by our works, We think we can be accepted before God by nature. That's what we do. We deceive
ourselves into thinking that we're much better than we really
are. And that's self-righteousness.
Now, our last verse we'll deal with, verse four, Romans 10,
says, for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to
everyone that believeth. Here in verse four, we see for
Christ, which should remove, any doubts or arguments about
the phrase the righteousness of God. Christ is the very righteousness
of God for his people. For he is the Lord our righteousness
according to Jeremiah 23 6. In his days Judah shall be saved
and Israel shall dwell safely. And this is his name whereby
he shall be called the Lord our righteousness. Thanks be to God
for causing his elect his sheep to have no righteousness but
Christ's righteousness alone. A righteousness that's not a
work that we perform, but a work that has already been accomplished
by our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. It's a work in which
God imputes and charges or accounts to our account. And this righteousness
that we have charged to our account is all based on Christ's work
of obedience unto death, which is according to Romans 10.4,
the end of the law for righteousness. The word end here refers to the
complete fulfillment of the law. The word end also refers to the
termination or the completion of the law. John 19.30, when
Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, speaking of Christ
on the cross, he says, it is finished. And he bowed his head
and gave up the ghost. What was finished as he hung
on that cross? The work of righteousness was
finished. And it was fulfilled and completed
by Christ as he finished the work that the Father gave him
to do. He obeyed the law even to the shed blood and death on
Calvary's cross. Who are these of whom Christ
satisfied the justice of God on that cross? He did it for
someone. It wasn't for all without exception.
If it was, all without exception would finally be saved. Well,
let's look at John 6, 37-39. Christ says, all that the Father giveth
me shall come to me. Now, we all take a long look
at that. The Father gave him somebody in eternity past. He
was elect. God chose him. He gave him to
his son. That's what God's Word says.
And him that cometh to me, I will 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 is sent me, that of all which he hath given me, I should
lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.
Man can add nothing to what Christ accomplished on the cross. And
for man to try, to add something to what Christ accomplished on
the cross. Is self-righteous? Pride? Unbelief? Even if it's
their faith, and you can just put any other thing in there,
in that blank space. And then the last part of Romans
10, 4, for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believeth. For whom is Christ the end of
the law for righteousness? fall without exception, as I
said? The answer is no. It is for those whom God brings
to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and repentance of dead works
and former idolatry. Paul has already shown that we
as fallen, rebellious sinners will not willingly subject ourselves
to Christ, but God has a people whom He chose before the foundation
of this world, before this world was ever created, whom He has
justified and redeemed by the blood of Christ, and whom He
sent the Holy Spirit into the world to give them the life of,
the knowledge of, and the faith in Christ, their Savior. God's command is to believe in
Christ and repent, of our own righteousness, which is nothing
but dead works, and it's fruit under death. That's the final
result of those dead works. If you remain in them, it's death,
eternal death. We see again in these scriptures
that it is the center of self-righteousness, religious pride, and unbelief
that keep them from believing and trusting in Christ alone
for salvation. As Paul says in the first verse,
He said, brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for
Israel that they might be saved. And we're not only talking about,
as I said, the nation Israel. We're talking about all men without
exception. That's my prayer. That's my desire,
that they be saved. I, too, have the same desire.
And it's for not only my closest kin, my friends, but also all
sinners in general. I do see that most religious
people, they have a zeal for their religion. I did. But it's a zeal that's not accompanied
by the knowledge of how God saves a sinner by Christ's righteousness
alone. And as Romans 10 3 says, for
they being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about
to establish their own righteousness. My prayer this morning is that
sinners will flee to Christ for salvation. For Christ is the
end of the law, for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Believeth
what? Believeth the gospel wherein
the righteousness of God is revealed. Christ our righteousness. Amen.