Turn to Romans chapter 10. Righteousness is that which God demands. He will accept nothing short
of absolute, I was going to say perfect righteousness, but is
there any other kind? It's like saying sovereign grace.
Is there any other kind? If it's grace, it has to be sovereign.
If it's grace. But our God demands righteousness,
perfection. I mean, absolute. And you and I cannot in the least
degree I mean in the least degree producive. We cannot come up
with even an ounce of righteousness of ourselves that God can be
pleased with, that God can accept. His standard of righteousness,
and our standard, is poles apart. It's as different as daylight
and dark. That's how different it is. And if one is ignorant of God,
of God's righteousness, they'll make this mistake. They'll
go about trying to establish one of their own. You notice
it says there in verse 3, they've been ignorant of God's righteousness
and going about to establish their own righteousness, one
of their own. that they can bring and present
to God and God will be pleased with. A salt fountain, you know,
a fountain that sends forth salt water cannot send forth clean
water. It can't do it. And men and women
who are born into sin, shaped in inequity, cannot produce one
good thing that God would accept, can accept. That's the truth. That's the truth. Throughout
the whole universe, throughout this whole world, not one person
can produce righteousness. But there is one that did. There
is one. There is one who wrought out
a righteousness that God accepted. And the only thing we need to
do if you want to, if I can put it that way, is to submit to
it, to receive Him who is our righteousness, the Lord Jesus
Christ. He is the Lord, our righteousness. But let's look here at verse
one, and I really wanted to get to verse 11 through 17, but in
verse one, I want you to notice here, I want you to notice the
desire of God's preacher. This is the Apostle Paul, and
he says, Brethren, my heart's desire, the craving of my heart
and my prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved.
The gospel does not kill evangelism. I want to spread the gospel.
You want to do it. That's why we are on the radio.
I want sinners to hear the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, because
God is not going to save anyone apart from it. No one will be
saved apart from hearing the gospel of the grace of God. And Paul said, my heart and prayer
to God, he prayed for this. That they might be saved, that
God might save them. You know, look over in chapter
9, verse 3. Well, let me read verse 1. I
say the truth in Christ, I lie not. My conscience also bear
me witness in the Holy Ghost, that I have great heaviness and
continual sorrow in my heart. Now, that's not a cold heart,
is it? That's a new heart. That's that new heart that God
gave to Paul and that God gives to everyone, his children. You
have a continual In areas of continual sorrow, you want to
see sinners saved. You want to see your family members
saved. You want to see friends saved. But you want to see the
Lord save sinners. You do. If you're born of God,
you do. And he says here in verse 3,
I could wish that myself were a curse from Christ. That's a statement now. Cut off
from Christ are my brethren, my kinsmen, according to the
flesh. If that would save them, he said, I'd do it. I don't know if I can say that
or not. I'm telling you. Paul's not making just a statement. He means it. He really means
it. He said, I bear them records.
They have a zeal of God. They're religious. Paul said
he was a Pharisee of the Pharisees. He said he kept concerning the
law. He said he was blameless. Outwardly,
he thought he was blameless. They have a zeal of God. You
know, I personally, I've never met an atheist. I've never had
anyone say to me, no, I don't believe there is a God at all. Everyone that I've ever met in
my 55 years believes there is a God. Religious. Men are religious
by nature. They're going to believe in some
kind of superior being or they're going to believe in something.
I bear them record. They have a zeal of God, but
it's not according to knowledge. It's not according to the Scriptures.
They don't know the God of the Scriptures. They don't know the
Christ of the Scriptures. Paul said they'll come preaching
another Jesus. It's not according to the Scriptures,
not according to knowledge. They're being ignorant of God's
righteousness. And that is one thing you do
not want to be ignorant of. I can be ignorant of a lot of
things, and I'll come out all right. But I cannot be ignorant
of God's righteousness. When Adam failed, how many sins
did he commit before the whole world came under condemnation?
Before God said, all right, that's enough. That's one. Here is the strictness of God's
law, God's righteousness, God's holiness. Adam disobeyed one
command. That's all he had was one. That's
all he had was one. They've been ignorant of God's
righteousness. They've now gone about to establish
one of their own. And they've not submitted themselves
unto the righteousness of God, that righteousness which is of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Look over in Romans chapter 1. Paul says in verse 16, For I am not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ, for it is the power, it is the dynamite of God unto
salvation to every one that believeth, not doeth, but believeth, to
the Jew first and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed." Wherein? The law? No, the gospel. For their end is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith. As it is written, the
just shall live by faith. But they rejected the righteousness
of God as in Christ. They rejected His righteousness
and held on to their own. And they were doomed for it.
For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. The law
can demand no more than Christ. It could demand no more than
Christ. I have in Christ all I need. In Him, it says in Colossians,
in Him you are complete. That means you lack nothing.
You lack nothing. The glass is full. You can't
put any more in it. He's the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believes. Paul at one time went about working,
doing, keeping the ceremonies, keeping what he thought was keeping
the law. He thought he kept it perfectly. And by doing that,
he thought he would be justified before God, that he'd be accepted.
But he wasn't. He was a rebel. He was a rebel
until God saved him. And when God saved him, you know
what he did? He submitted to his righteousness and he gave
up his own. Paul said, I count all things
but loss. He counted everything as a loss. His past life, his
past achievements, he counted it as done. As done. Not just lost, but done. Now
Moses described the righteousness which is of the law, that the
man which doeth those things shall live by them. He's got
to do them perfectly. Absolutely perfectly. But the
righteousness which is of faith speaks on this wise. Don't say
in your heart, don't question your heart. Don't say, who's
going to go into heaven for us and bring down the Messiah? Because
faith believes that Christ is the Messiah and he's already
come. Or, in verse 7, who shall descend
to the deep? That is, who's going to go to
the grave and bring him back up? He's already risen. He's
seated at the right hand of the Father. You see, faith believes
in the Lord Jesus Christ, that he came, he finished the work
the Father gave him to do, he died on the cross, he was buried,
he rose again, and he's seated at God's right hand. Faith believes
that. That God-given faith believes
that. He doesn't question, where is the Messiah? No, we know where he is. He's
seated at God's right hand. That's where he is. But what
saith it, the word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy
heart." You see, this is a heart work. Salvation is a heart work. It's an inward work. That is
the word of faith which we've preached, that if thou shalt
confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, shalt believe in thine
heart that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved
because it's evident God's done something for you. It's evident. He's not left you alone. Natural
men don't believe that. You know, the religion of the
world does not believe that. No, if they did, they'd be saved. I mean, if you truly believe
that the Lord has saved you, that's evidence of salvation.
But with the heart, you know, what's in the heart
comes out of it. What's in the heart comes out by the mouth,
through the mouth. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness."
He believes the gospel, he believes God, and he submits. He submits
to the righteousness of Christ. Jesus Christ is my righteousness
before God. And with the mouth confession
is made unto salvation. We confess it. Now, for the scripture
saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. Whatever
the scripture or whatever we preach or teach, in this pulpit,
in the classrooms. We must have God's Word as the
foundation of it. It has to come from the Word
of God. We are not at liberty to preach our opinions. You may think I'm entitled to
yours, or that you're entitled to mine. That doesn't mean anything. What we preach, we must have
God's Word on it. It's the foundation of all we
preach and teach, all that we believe. The Word of God is the
foundation of it. For what? For the Scripture saith,
Thus saith the Lord. Now, what does the Scripture
say? Believeth on him, whosoever believeth
on the Lord Jesus Christ shall not be ashamed." He shall not
be ashamed. Now listen, this righteousness
that we need and this salvation that we desire is ours through
faith in Christ. It's ours through believing Him.
Not by works like the Jews thought. They thought by the things they
did. the ceremonies and all that,
they believed that God accepted them on the basis of those things. It's not so. Not so. It's whosoever. And listen, it extends to whosoever
believes. A man will not be cut off. A
woman will not be cut off because of their race. I'm glad for the whosoevers.
I'm glad for the whosoever will. I'm glad they didn't say if you
are a certain class of a certain class, or you make a certain
amount of money, or if you, no, it's whosoever. That means a
king can be saved or a pauper can be saved, and everybody in
between. It doesn't cut a man off because
of his race or because of his color or his background. If you
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you have God's word on it, you
shall be saved. You shall be saved. I don't have any problems with
the whosoever believes in the scriptures. I know this. I know this. If anyone believes,
I believe the gospel. You believe the gospel. If that's
so, it's evident God has done something for you and God has
done something in you. Because salvation is the work
of the Lord. It's God's work. It's not my work. It's not God
doing his part and I'll do my part or we're in agreement. No,
it's God saving. It's God saving. We've got to
shut sinners up to Christ. I hope those who listen to the
radio program, I hope I make it clear enough in preaching
that the only hope they have is the Lord Jesus Christ. His
person, His work, His righteousness, His blood, He's it. He is my salvation. God has become
my salvation. He's become my salvation. And that person who believes
shall not be put to shame. You know, it says over in the
book of Job, they were confounded because they had hoped. That
is, in the end, they were put to shame. They were confounded
because somebody gave them a false hope. And when they went before
God, when they stand before God, he's going to say, depart from
me, I never knew you. But you know, a lot of those Pharisees,
these people that Paul was praying for here, they passed away when
they died, stood before God. He says, depart from me, I never
knew you. But we preached in your name. We cast out devils
in your name. We've done many mighty works in your name. But
I tell you what you didn't do in my name, you didn't believe. You didn't believe. But those who believe, those
who believe, you will not be disappointed. You will not be embarrassed.
You will not be embarrassed of your faith in Christ. Because
all that he has promised, he will do. He will do. You can take him at his word
and not worry about it, or not worry about being ashamed in
the end. You can trust him. And it doesn't matter who you
are, for there is no difference. There is no difference between
the Jew and the Greek. I was at a church years ago,
and I heard a man preach. thirty years ago. And his message
was on why be a Baptist? Why be a Baptist? He said being
a Baptist was like riding first class in an airplane. There is no difference. There
is no difference between the Jew and the Greek. It's not one
has more advantage than another. If we're in Christ, we're one.
If we're in Him, we are one. It's not that one, the Jew has
more of an advantage in Christ than a Greek has. He says, no,
Christ is all in all. And we're all one in Him. All
who believe. There's not one bit of difference
between any person who's in Christ. The Jews thought they had the
advantage over the Gentiles. They said, we're Abraham's seed.
We've never been sinners. Well, you were Adam's seed before
you was Abraham's seed, so you are sinners. You are. For the same Lord, listen here,
in verse 12, the same Lord, there's only one Lord, one faith, one
baptism. The same Lord over all is rich
unto all that call upon him. He's rich. It doesn't matter
if you're rich or poor, if you're black or white, if you're a Jew
or a Greek or a Gentile, it doesn't matter. The earth is the Lord's, the
fullness of thereof, and all who dwell therein. They're all
His. He is made of one blood, all
nations. Now, you're going to go to the
hospital and you need a blood transfusion, you're going to ask, what race
it came from? You're going to ask, well, tell me, Tell me what
the person was like that gave this blood. No, you're going
to say, give me blood. For the same Lord over all is
rich unto all that call upon him. All who are saved have the
same Lord. Jew or Gentile, we have the same
Lord. There's only one Lord. There's
only one King of glory. Frank spoke of Him this morning.
There's only one King of glory. Who is the King of glory? The
Lord Jesus Christ. He is the King of Glory. He's
the King of Glory. And He's rich in mercy and grace
to every person who calls upon Him, who calls upon His name
for salvation. Scripture says this, He's able
to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing
as He ever lives to make intercession for them. He's able. He's able to save. He's able
to save. He's God. He's God. Verse 13,
for whosoever, whosoever, doesn't matter what race, doesn't matter
what nationality, it doesn't matter. Whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Does it get any clearer
than that? Do we need to write a commentary
on that? That's so clear. Whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. But now listen. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord, the one that is, not the one
you think that is, not the one people think that is. Well, I
think God is. Well, that doesn't matter what
I think He is. He is who He is. He is who He is. But if I find
out who he is, if he reveals to me who he is, and I call upon
his name, I shall be saved. I shall be saved. Now, why does Paul say, Whosoever
shall call on the name of the Lord? I'll tell you why. Because
his name reveals who he is. It reveals who he is. And it's
evident that if a person calls on his name, he knows something
about him that God has revealed himself to that person. A name
reveals a person. If I mention Gary's name, if
you know him, you know he's an electrician. If I mention Mike's
name, you know he's a musician, and you know something about
Mike. If I mention his name, you know him. And if God has
revealed himself to me and I call upon his name, it's because I
know something about him. Abraham said the Lord will provide. Well, I call upon him to provide. I call upon him to provide righteousness. I call upon him to provide cleansing
and forgiveness. I call upon him who provides. Jehovah Jireh. Jehovah Jireh. The Lord will provide. I call
upon him for healing. Jehovah Rapha. You see, I know
him as the Lord who heals. He reveals himself. You know
him. A person, not a religion. Christ is not a religion. And
listen, Christianity, even though there is a true religion, but
Christianity has to do with a person, not a religion. When you start making a religion
out of it, you lose Christ. You lose it. You're no better
off than the rest of all the other religions in the world. You call upon Him, you call upon
Him as the Lord, our peace, Jehovah Shalom. He is our peace. And He reveals Himself as such.
And you know Him as such. You call upon Him as Jehovah
Ra, the Lord, my shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall
not want." How do you know you won't want?
Because I know the Lord who provides, who healeth, is my shepherd. He's my shepherd. I call upon Him as the Lord.
My righteousness, or our righteousness, Jehovah's sickening. I may not know all those names,
but I know that he is my righteousness. I know that he's the one who
heals me. You know, there's no way that
we, some of you may know him, but you can't remember all the
names of God, but I tell you what, you know who he is. You
know, he's the healer. You know, he's the great physician.
You know, he's your righteousness. You know these things and you
call upon him. You call upon Him and you trust
Him. You trust Him. Now, how then shall they call
on Him in whom they've not believed? Here's the importance of preaching.
This is the importance of what we're doing right now. If we are saved by faith, if
we are saved by calling upon His name, how can the Gentiles
be saved How can they be saved if they have not believed on
Him? How can that happen? They can't. You can't be saved
and not hear of Him. You can't. How can a person call
on His name if that person does not believe that He's able and
willing to save? He's not going to. He's not going
to. Or how shall they believe in
Him of whom they've not heard? You can't believe in someone
you've never heard about. You can't do it. How can a person believe on his
name, believe that he's willing and able to save if they've never
heard of him? It's not possible. Not possible. And how shall they hear without
a preacher. The greatest evidence that God
is among the people is that he gives them a preacher, a pastor,
one who preaches the gospel faithfully, continually. That's the evidence that God
is among the people, is that the gospel's there. And if the
gospel's there, his preacher's there. He's going to have his
man there. How should they hear without
a preacher? The scripture says, it has pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. Now, as beautiful as Mike sings, as
gifted as he is in singing, that's not how God's going to save. We can come here and sing all
day. It's not until the word of God is opened up and preached. That's when God saves sinners.
It's not an entertainment service, it's a preaching service. It's
a worship service and we preach the gospel. And God is pleased
by what the world calls foolishness. What I'm doing right now, the
message I'm preaching right now, the world calls it foolishness. The religious world calls it
foolishness. But it is pleased God to save
them that believe. That's how he does it. I don't know if I can say if
there's an important part of a service, because to me the
whole service is one service. If we have to say there's one
important part of the service, it's the preaching. It's the
preaching of God's Word. Verse 15, And how shall they
preach? except they be sent." How shall they preach except
they be sent? They can't. God's not going to
bless them. God blesses the man in the message
that he sends, that he anoints. They can't do it. There is no
way that I can stand here and handle such things as eternity,
judgment, the things of Christ, the riches,
the unsearchable riches of Christ. I can't handle those things unless the Lord prepares me,
equips me, and sends me It gives me the message. If it gives me
the message, you're going to be blessed. You're
going to be blessed. Because His Word is not going
to return void. He sent it, like this morning, He sent it for
a purpose. There's a purpose for every soul in this room listening
right now. And God knows it. I don't. I
don't. God knows it. If it pleases God to save this
community, it'll be through preaching. It'll not be through healing
services and all that kind of stuff, you know, doing all that
rigmarole. It'll be through preaching Christ and Him crucified, giving
to Him all the glory and honor due unto His name. How shall
they preach except God send them, except He sends them? Then he says here, over in verse
16, I'll wind this down. But they've not all obeyed the
gospel. For Isaiah said, Lord, who hath believed our report?
Who hath believed our message, our gospel, our doctrine? Who
hath believed it? So then, faith, that saving faith, I want it. You want it. That saving faith, faith cometh
by hearing. And it's not just by hearing
anything. It's not by hearing a false gospel.
It's not by hearing some lectures. It's hearing the Word of God.
And the Word of God is the gospel that he's speaking of. It's the
gospel. of the Lord Jesus Christ. Faith, this God, this saving
faith, it comes by hearing. But the hearing, the hearing,
the hearing ear, the hearing ear comes by the gospel. You know, you're sitting here
listening. You're looking at me. I'm talking
to you. I can't see any mysterious work
going on. But I tell you this, God can
take this message, this gospel, and He can penetrate the heart.
He can penetrate the soul. And all of a sudden, all of a sudden, You say, I hear,
I see, I understand. And that happened through the
reading of the law, hearing of the gospel. There's a scripture,
let me see if I can find it, over in Galatians chapter 3. Galatians chapter 3, let me see
if I can find it here. Let me start reading Galatians
in chapter 3. O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you that you
should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath
been evidently set forth, crucified among you? This is only what
I learned of you. When you received the Spirit
of God, when you received the Holy Spirit of God, when God
saved you, and when He saved you, you received the Spirit
of God. When He did that, When you receive
the Spirit, now this is only what I learned of you, receive
you the Spirit by the works of the law or by the heritage of
faith. What was going on when God saved you? Was the law being read? Or was Christ being preached? Christ
was being preached. Christ was being preached. And
through the preaching of Christ crucified, you could hear. You know, our
Lord walked up to a deaf man one day, and he could hear. He was deaf. He couldn't hear anything. I've always had good hearing,
and I've had good eyesight. I wear these just to read. But imagine being stone deaf. Just totally stoned. The atomic
bomb would go off and you couldn't hear it. And then one day the
Lord touched your ears. Touched that man's ears. And
he could hear. I remember when Jeremy was just
a little boy, he had a lot of trouble with fluid in his ears. And his ears were operated on,
I think, three times. They put tubes in his ear. Finally,
they put those permanent tubes in his ear. But I remember, I
remember distinctly, because he would have the TV just cranked
up and just, you know, radio, whatever. And when we talked
to him, we had to shout. We had to speak loud. And when
they gave him that first surgery, they put those tubes in his ear
and they drained that fluid off. We were in the car, had the radio
on. We was talking. He's going, oh, man. He said,
that's too loud. And he kept covering, I remember
him kept covering his ears because he could hear now. He could hear. And that's what happened. You
sit there and you sit there and you sit there. And then one day
you hear. One day you're interested. How
did that happen? God sent a preacher with his
message. And he sent the gospel to you
in power. And you heard. And he created
in you a new heart, a new nature. He said, I'll give you a new
spirit. That is the importance of preaching.
Without it, no man's going to be saved. Not without hearing
the word. You see, God is a God of means.
He does not operate outside of the means that he's ordained.
That's not saying he's in a box. I'm not saying that. But God
has ordained the means. And this is one of the means.
Standing here, preaching the gospel. You hear it. And you're not ignorant of God's
righteousness no more. And you submit to the righteousness
of God. You bow to the Lord Jesus Christ. You receive Him as your
righteousness. He's my righteousness before
God.