If you will, turn back in your
Bibles to Romans chapter 10. Romans chapter 10. You can also
follow me in your pastor's commentary outline in your bulletin. Romans
chapter 10. The apostle has spent nine chapters
explaining God's saving right. That is God's sovereignty in
the salvation of those he has determined to save. And because his primary audience,
that is the apostle Paul's primary audience, among the Roman Christians
were his own Jewish people, you and I learned over several months
that he spent considerable time seeking to convince them that
salvation could never be the consequence of our own good works
or by the keeping of the law or by our genealogical ties to
Abraham. He spent nine chapters explaining
to us, as well as them, how important it is for them to recognize that
Jesus Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believes. We open up Romans chapter 1 verses
1 and 2 this way, as we recall his strategic God-inspired argument
for nine chapters. He opens up in verse 1 and 2
this way, Paul, a slave of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle,
a sent one, separated, sanctified, consecrated unto the gospel of
God. Now he says it that way, not
only for his Gentile hearers, but certainly for his Jewish
hearers. He let them know that he was
a slave of Christ. He let them know that he was
sent by Christ and he let them know that his sole objective
was to the gospel of God's glory. And so he says in verse two,
which God had promised before, that is before the world began,
by His prophets in the Holy Scriptures, verse 3, concerning His Son Jesus
Christ our Lord. What is the Bible about? Jesus
Christ. Concerning His Son Jesus Christ
our Lord, which was made of the seed of David. He's affirming
Christ coming through the tribe of Judah, made of the seed of
David, according to the flesh. Now here it is. and declared
to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness.
Another way to put that is the Holy Spirit. by the resurrection
of Christ from the dead. So Paul opens up his epistle,
his treatise, his anthem on the gospel, letting the whole church
know that his subject is about the risen Lord, who is the essence
and testimony of all scripture. He's letting us know that Christ
is the key to understanding God's righteousness. Now this historic
fact, affirmed by many witnesses, was Paul's joyful Enthusiastic
mission of which he echoes in chapter 1 verse 16 and 17. You
ought to know this by heart now For I am NOT ashamed of the gospel
of Christ For it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone
that believes to the Jew first and then also to the what for
therein in the gospel of the gospel is this issue of righteousness
concerning God revealed from faith to faith as it is written
the just shall live by what now this is Paul's nutshell compendium
statement about which he is going to unpack for the next 16 chapters
he says I am NOT ashamed of the gospel though many are I am not
ashamed of the gospel because it is actually God's power unto
salvation. Not only does the gospel save,
but the gospel reveals that one issue which the whole world must
reckon with, and that is righteousness. How can a man get right with
God? This is what the gospel deals
with. How can a man be made right with
God? And so Paul says, I know how
you can. through Jesus Christ, who is
the sovereign Lord, who assumed a human nature, died a perfect
death, rose a perfect resurrection, and justifies guilty sinners
who simply trust in Him, they are made right with God through
Christ. That is the totality of Paul's
argument. But he gives us seven, eight
other chapters to work that through. So as we mark As he shares this
gospel, the only people that he anticipates having a problem
with this gospel are whom? His Jewish brethren. And they
really are struggling around three issues that I want to make
sure we understand as we make our way to Romans chapter 10.
The issues that they are struggling with first is the massive God-anticipated
influx of Gentiles flooding into the church. The Jews did not
like that the Gentiles were falling all over one another to come
to Christ. Acts chapter 13 verse 45 through
48 will affirm this. Go to Acts 13 verses 45 through
48. So that we can see how this worked
as we make our way in our Friday study through the book of Acts
We saw that there was a major transition from the ministry
of the Apostle Paul and Barnabas Toward their Jewish brethren
now to the Gentiles because they received so much Hostility from
religious folk around the gospel of free sovereign grace now mark
this now when the Jews saw the multitude who are the multitude
the Gentiles they were filled with envy and And they spake
against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting
and what? Why are you so moved by the masses
of the Gentiles coming into the kingdom? Because as God had stated
in the prophets, God would use the Gentiles to provoke the Jews
to jealousy. and so the gentiles are pouring
all over the apostles to come in verse 46 and watch how this
language works in verse 46 the apostle is privileged to have
them in their presence and we read then paul and barnabas waxed
bold and said it was necessary that the word of god should first
have been spoken to you that was his ethic wasn't it the gent
to the Jew first and then also to the Gentile but seeing you
put it far from you and judge yourselves unworthy of what everlasting
life folks that's a serious indictment when you reject the gospel you
seal your doom you make yourself unworthy of eternal life he goes
on to say seeing that you judge yourselves unworthy of eternal
life lo we turn to the whom For so hath the Lord commanded us,
saying, I have set thee to be a light to the Gentiles. This
is the book of Isaiah, that you should be for salvation unto
the ends of the earth. And when the Gentiles heard this,
they were what? Glad and glorified the word of
the Lord. That is, they believed the gospel.
Now mark this last line, because this is critical to Paul's argument
in Romans 9. And as many as were ordained
unto eternal life, Believed This is where Paul argument now is
taken up in Romans chapter 9 It is an argument that has prevailed
throughout all of church history up to this point Why are men
and women anywhere in the world ever saved and the answer is
the electing love of God in Christ The only reason you are saved
is because God chose you in Christ, and marked you out for salvation,
and hunted you down in time, and revealed to you His glory,
and showed you your sin, and shut you up to Christ's righteousness,
and convinced you that Christ was the only way, and planted
faith in your heart so that you said yes to Jesus. And God sealed
your justification in your conscience right there. That's the only
reason you're saved. You are not saved because of
something you did. You are not saved because you
are better than anyone else. You and I are just like every
other hell-bound sinner worthy of damnation, but the grace of
God. And this is where Paul's argument
is. And this is where Romans chapter
9 becomes his hinge-pinch argument as he closes out on this matter.
So not only are the Jews upset at the fact that these Gentiles
have rushed in with a pronouncement of yes to Jesus, but they do
not like the fact that the status of the Gentiles as citizens of
the kingdom of God is on a par equal with the Jews. Look at
Romans chapter 3 verse 9. We laid this down all the time
as intrinsic to the nature of the gospel. As I've stated before,
we're about to do not only a series in church history here at Grace,
but we will be working through the doctrine of grace, underscoring
you and I in terms of our nature, being very clearly laid out in
the Word of God in Romans chapter 9, 3 verse 9 and 10. Notice what
Paul said in conclusion about the Jews and the Gentiles. What
then? Are we better than they? That is, are we Jews better than
the Gentiles? What is the answer? No, and no
wise, for we have already proved by the previous two chapters
that both Gentiles and Jews are under what? The only difference
between the Jew and the Gentile is that the Gentile are sinners
outside of God's law and Jews are in sinners inside of God's
law the only difference between Religious folk and non-religious
folk is religious folk have a Bible But you're both sinners Does
that make some sense? The only difference is is that
the religious person is actually more guilty than the non-religious
Because to whom much is given much is required. I In terms
of your salvation, you, I, and the lost sinner are exactly the
same by nature. Now this demolishes pride. And that's what the gospel is
designed to do. Lay all men low. Shut them up
to one indictment. All have sinned. And keep on
coming short of the glory of God. that uncomfortable feeling you
get when the gospel comes that way? It's because you're still
not quite used to the fact that you are a sinner. The gospel
will get a little bit more comfortable as soon as you admit, yes, Lord.
Yes, Lord. It's me. It's me standing in
the need of prayer. Then that suit will fit like
one who tailored it just for you. Because that's the truth
of the gospel. And God has to continue chipping
away at false religion and self-righteousness to wither away all of those things
by which we continue to build our own argument that we are
accepted with God on the grounds of who we are, or how long we've
been in church, or how right our doctrine is. Right doctrine
doesn't save you. Is that true? And so the apostle
is laying down these arguments as he makes his way Their status
as citizens in the kingdom is exactly the same and finally
The apostle having explained the work of grace in the conversion
of sinners from romans chapter 6 through 8 He seals his argument
for the gospel of free grace in christ with the doctrine of
election in romans 9 verse 11 Look at it romans 9 11 If most
of our evangelical churches today that despise the gospel had their
way, they would rip Romans chapter 9 right out of their Bibles.
Romans 9 verse 11 underscores again the cause and grounds of
you and I being saved. And it says in verse 11, for
the children being not yet born, that is Jacob and Esau, not yet
being born, neither doing good or evil, that the purpose of
God according to election might stand not of what? but of him
that calleth. The only reason I'm saved is
because God called me by his grace. He did not look down the
corridors of time and see that I would choose him and then therefore
chose me. That would be according to works.
He then would be a respecter of persons because he would choose
me based on an action on my part and not choose others based on
them not acting. And that would make God a respecter
of persons. You guys do understand that the
apostle paul is moving toward the close of his Argument to
his jewish brothers to settle down and enjoy equality with
the gentiles under the grace of god in christ So his conclusion
for which he is now shifting his discourse towards the free
offer of the gospel laid out in chapter 10 is summed up in
chapter 9 verses 30 through 32 Look at chapter 9 verse 30 through
32. Here's what he says. What shall
we then say? How shall we conclude all that
we've talked about from chapter 1 to chapter 9? What is the conclusion
here? It is here. It is that the Gentiles
Which followed not after righteousness? Have attained to the righteousness
even the righteousness which is of what I But Israel, which
followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law
of righteousness." Mark this now, Paul recognizes two righteousnesses. The one that the Gentiles have
obtained, which is a righteousness out of faith, and the one that
the Jews did not obtain, which is a righteousness out of law. He has established intentionally
a dichotomy and a tension between law and faith, right? For if
one obtains righteousness by the works of the law, your righteousness
is your own. And you will have to deal with
a God whose ability to see through your raggedy righteousness. that
day and declare you unrighteous by virtue of your own righteousness
but the righteousness which is of faith has already declared
that God will accept the sinner who steps outside of himself
and by faith alone apart from works embrace Christ's righteousness
as a standing before God This is the grounds upon which our
message now is to be developed for us. And as we begin to deal
with this, what I want you to note in chapter 10, verses 1
through 12, which is all we'll deal with, chapter 10, verses
1 through 12, is what we call by virtue of the title of our
message, the free offer of the gospel to all. Whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Do you hear that
statement? That's verse 13. For whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Do you believe
that? That free offer of the gospel
is the character of God towards all of humanity anywhere at any
time that they hear the message. And this is Paul's drive to his
Jewish brothers to help them understand that God is saving
people from every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue. Everywhere
he sends gospel preachers to preach Christ, people will be
plucked out of ethnic groups and brought into the kingdom
of God from every nation. And so the gospel is declared
freely to all men in order that some might be saved. You guys
follow that? That's Paul's argument. And that's still too wide for
the self-righteous. We have to be careful about that
ourselves. Do you despise how free and lavishing
God is in the opening of his arms of grace to unworthy hell-bound
sinners? Will you sit at God's elbow and
tell him who he should save? This is the effects of self-righteous
religion when it gets on us. And what Paul is getting ready
to work through is an argument for the danger of legalism, blinding
you to the glory of God. Now, as we get ready to deal
with Romans 10, I want you to mark in the opening of Romans
chapter 10 that Paul takes up his basic modus operandi as he
did in Romans chapter 9, verses 1, 2, and 3. He's letting his
Jewish brother know and his Gentile brother know as scathing and
as comprehensive and as sincere and as deeply penetrating as
his argument is against his Jewish brothers, he still loves them. As scathing as his argument is,
exposing the history of Israel and the continued unending failure
of Israel to be right with God, he still loves them. You know,
open rebuke is better than secret love, right? The deceitful kisses
of a friend, They're an enemy to you. And so what Paul is saying
is, while it may seem like I'm pressing down hard on my Jewish
brethren, I'm simply trying to strip them of a false refuge
which will send them to hell. Which false refuge still drapes
and veils and blinds Israel today. Is that true? So he said in Romans
chapter 9 verse 1, Romans chapter 9 verse 1 these words just to
let us know that his motive was right I say the truth in Christ
and I lie not my conscience also bearing witness in the Holy Ghost
That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart.
That's a woeful state emotionally, isn't it? For I could wish that
myself were a curse from Christ for my brother and my kinsmen
according to the flesh This is the Spirit of Christ speaking
through Paul now Most of us by nature are so selfish that we
don't care about who else goes to hell so long as we go to heaven
I'm talking mama parents with children I'm talking about children
towards parents. We are so selfish by nature that
to spend a little time Desiring that you would lose your salvation
that someone else you care about would obtain it requires the
grace of God, doesn't it? It really does require the Spirit
of Christ. Can you see Christ here? I Can you see him saying,
Lord, forgive them for their sins. They know not what they
do. Can you see it? So this is the attitude of Paul
as he's laying out his argument for why God saves some and not
others and why many of the Jews missed it. So now when we look
at chapter 10, verse one, he opens up this way. Brethren,
my heart's desire and prayer to God. He's allowing us in his
closet, isn't he? My heart's desire and prayer
to God for Israel is that they might be saved. And that should be your prayer
for everyone you love and care about. That should mark your
prayers. It should be the litmus test
of our hearts. We pray for a lot of junk as
American Christians, a lot of junk. and we spend very little
time petitioning God for lost sinners, including people we
say we love. Am I telling the truth? We got
a long way to go before our prayers are biblical, aren't they? And
yet Paul is laying this out. And he's doing this because now
he has to once again exposed his own brethren for a major
fallacy that has paradigmatic implications to us, and that
is they still, after Jesus came, showed his glory, manifested
his father's honor, and went back to glory, they still are
stuck on self-righteousness as a grounds of getting to God.
You know, when you talk to loved ones who are stuck in religion,
and are trusting in their tradition, are in their intellectualism,
are in their ceremonialism, are in their legacy, are in their
lineage to folks in the church. When you are talking to loved
ones who are trapped by all of these things, you are dealing
with people who are willingly blind. Willingly blind and this
is what Paul is about to unpack and I'm making it Applicational
to us right now up front because most of us do not understand
how serious it is for us to be rooted and grounded in the gospel
so that we can share it with our loved ones and That the battle
the arduous battle of trying to convince them of the superiority
of the grace of God in Christ requires your understanding of
a spiritual indemnity that lays over our loved ones they are
blinded and by their own self-righteousness and they are blinded by Satan. Unless we are prayerfully engaging
them in the gospel, we will find it futile to see them come to
Christ. So our first point is this. Look
at it in your outline. They willingly missed what? They willingly missed grace through
human pride. Listen to how Paul puts it in
verse 2 and 3, and I'm going to share with you Psalm 10 verse
4. He says, Now verse 3 actually deals with a premise, a modus
operandi, and an outcome. They being ignorant of God's
righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness
results in them not submitting to God's righteousness. And here's
what Psalm chapter 10 verse 4 says in relationship to this kind
of person who is really stuck on and dependent upon his own
good works. Listen to this. Psalm 10. I saw
this dozens of years ago and didn't quite understand what
it meant, but I do now. Verse four of psalm 10 says the
wicked Through the pride of his what? Continence will not seek
after God God is not in all of his what? God's ways are always
grievous Your judgments. Oh god are far above out of his
sight And as for all his enemies he puffs at them What is this
describing? not merely the madman that runs
the streets killing people like we see taking place all too frequently
in our nation right now. This is describing the religious
person who refuses to bow to the claims of the gospel and
out of the pride of his continence will simply stand his chances
on the last day. And what that means is until
grace is given to you and me, We won't go to God in prayer,
submitting to the revelation of God. Can you imagine a religious
person who pretends to pay veneration to God in the collective gathering
of the church? And yet on a daily basis, he's
not seeking God at all. He's not praying. He's not pursuing
God. He's not studying God's word.
He's not walking in the truth of God's word. He does not want
the light. So on the one hand, he appears
to pay homage to God, but in his daily practical life, that
book is closed. Sounds like some of us, huh?
Now notice what we have in our PowerPoint outline. Three sub
points I want to just deal with briefly here as we move on. I
say that they willingly miss grace through human pride because
of three things that are clearly laid out in our text. They are
blinded first by their own zeal for good works. Do you see it?
They are blinded first by their own zeal for good works. I'll
give you a text to demonstrate this. Go with me in your Bible
to John 9 where Jesus is dealing with the blind man. one of several
magnificent accounts of the major miracles that Christ did, teaching
his redemptive work in God. And when you and I are saved,
God opens our eyes. We used to be blind, but we now
see if we say we're Christians, right? And we don't see everything,
but we see saving truths, and we see the glory of God in Christ,
and we're daily having our eyes open to the reality of the kingdom
of God. Is that true? And we were like
the blind men. Now, as our Lord healed this
blind man, The religious rulers were there watching. And when
Christ had finished his exhortation to the blind man, the blind man
found him and he asked the question in verse 36. He answered and
said, who is the Lord that I might believe on him? Now he's talking
to Jesus. He didn't know it was Jesus that healed him because
he was blind before Christ healed him and Christ sent him away
to be healed. Now he's discovering that he's standing in front of
the very person that healed him. Now watch the language. Jesus
said in verse 37 you have both seen him and it is he that talketh
with you And he said lord, I believe and he did what? Worshiped here's
what our master says in verse 39 knowing that the rulers were
around him He said for judgment am I come into this world? that they would see not might
see that is the blind man and they which see might be made
blind and The rulers that observed his miracles and in their hardness
of heart denied the fact that he was messiah Now watch what
it goes on to say in some of the pharisees which were with
him Heard these words and said unto him. Are we blind also now
see if I was there. I said lord. Let me tell him
Let me tell him. Yeah, you're blind Yeah, you're blind And I would have messed up the
lesson Because when you're working with
theological propositions in the context of polemics and arguments
and debates, the theologian that really cares, as you guys learned
last week, the Lord uses parables and he uses sayings that are
designed to be indirect rebukes. To give people time to be objective
about what just took place and think through how come they feel
so bad after they engaged with the Lord. How come he made me
feel so bad? Well, he could have really made
you feel worse. But he left you in an indirect state of feeling
undone so that you could think through, who are you to challenge
the Lord? But we do in our world. And our
master said to them these words. Listen to this. He said in verse
41, And Jesus said unto them, If you were truly blind, like
this blind man, you should have no sin. In other words, God will
never indict you with sin where your conscience is not aware
that you're sinning. In other words, sin is a willing,
knowing rebellion against God by which he can prove to you
on that day, you can't say, I did not know. That's what Judgment
Day is all about. revealing the counsel of the
heart. Because see, down here we'll say we don't know. But
I love Sunday School's lesson, because Sunday School's lesson
let us know we do know, don't we? And God will prove the counsels
of every man's heart. But if you are truly blind, what
you don't know, what you don't know has to be told you. These
rulers said these words. He says, now you say you see,
this is what Jesus says, now you say you see, say we see,
therefore your sin, what? Remains. Why? Because they're
not acknowledging their spiritual blindness. This here also is
a conundrum and a paradox. The person who thinks they're
saved by their own good works is blind. But they don't know
it. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? They're blind but they don't know it. Let's go on then.
What am I saying under our first point to work this through? They
are blinded by their own zeal for good works. Now if you look
at Romans chapter 10 verse 2 carefully, the Apostle Paul says, I bear
them record that they have a what of God? A zeal of God, but not
according to what? And then it uses this language
in verse 3 that they are going about, going about to establish
their own righteousness. So I want to stay back for a
moment on this idea of zeal. Because Paul said, I bear them
record that they have a zeal of God. The Greek term is zelotis,
or zeteo, from which we get the term zealous. And the word means
to strive for almost in a persecutory fashion, like you are seeking
to catch something, seeking to snare something, seeking to bind
something. Your goal is to bring it to its
conclusion. It has a radical component to
it. And it generally in the Bible
has a negative connotation. It's often translated to seek
after. Here's how this word is used
in Matthew's Gospel, chapter 2. In Matthew's Gospel, chapter
2, verse 20, where our Lord Jesus Christ is about two years old
now, remember? And Herod has been told by the
wise men who have come down that we come to seek King of the Jews.
Right and they asked where he is and the text tells us in both
verse 13 and in verse 20 That jesus had to be worn or his him
and his parents had to be warned Back in verse 13 that herod was
seeking him and they had to go down into what egypt And only
until herod had died That jesus could come back And being warned
of god in a dream that they should not return to herod they departed
into their own country another way verse 13 And when they had
departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto Joseph,
saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee
into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring word. For Herod
will what? Zealously pursue you. He will
seek the young child to do what? This here, again, is our paradigm
of Revelation chapter 12, verses 1 through 5. I saw a woman clothed
with the sun, the moon under her feet, and twelve stars over
her head, and she was great with child. And I saw another wonder
in heaven, a great red dragon standing before the woman to
consume her child as soon as it be born. And as soon as the
child was born, it was caught up to his God. And what it describes
is that the moment that Jesus was conceived in the womb of
Mary, he was under assault to be killed. both by the celestial
powers and now by the terrestrial powers, by King Herod himself
and everyone including the rulers of Israel are seeking zealously
to kill the child. Israel is doing it because they
are pursuing righteousness by their own good works. Implications
will fall out here in a moment. Let's go back to our text, work
this through. Now you'll notice what Paul said. You'll notice
that the Apostle Paul will say in verse 2, for I bear them what? He says, I bear them record.
Why does he bear them record? Because he was just like them.
Remember that? He says, I bear them record.
I bear them record fully because I, too, persecuted those who
were of the way. I, too, hunted them down. I,
too, sought them. I, too, received papers from
the high priest to bind every Christian I could and bring them
and force them to blaspheme God. He says, I know the zeal they
have. Acts chapter 22 verses 1 through 5. Let's look at it
briefly. I'm laying down under our first premise that is they
are willingly blind, willingly ignorant of, willingly bent on
not seeing God's grace because they are trapped by their own
religious zeal. And ladies and gentlemen, I will
have to make an application of that to us today in our present
generation. because of the larger social
and political implications that we are dealing with right now
as I did with our men in our study last night. But listen
to this language in verses 1 through 5. Men and brethren, fathers,
hear ye my defense which I make unto you. Paul now is standing
before the rulers over the cause of the gospel. And when they
heard he spake in the Hebrew tongue to them, they kept more
the silent. And he said, I am verily a man
Jew born in Tarsus a city of Sicilia yet brought up in the
in this city at the feet of Gamaliel and taught according to the perfect
manner of the what law of the Fathers and I was what there
it is toward God. I was zealous toward God as You
all are this day and here's what his zeal looked like and I persecuted
this way unto the what I Do you see it, ladies and gentlemen?
I persecuted this way unto the death, binding and delivering
into prison both men and women, and also the high priest, the
bear witness, and also the estate of the elders from whom I also
received letters unto the brethren and went to Damascus to bring
them which were there bound unto Jerusalem for to punish them. That's the zeal that religion,
apart from Christ, produces. Are you guys hearing me? Now,
I want to make sure that we make the application here, but let
me close out our first point by saying this. They willingly
miss grace through human pride because they are blinded by their
own zeal for personal good works. They are ignorant, ignorant of
God's work. Do you see that? They are ignorant
of God's works. This is the word from which we
get the term agnostic. But in our present generation,
agnostic has a neutral connotation. But for God, agnosticism is not
neutral, agnosticism is rebellion. Agnoe is our Greek term and it
really means to be blinded by other options so that you do
not understand the truth that's in front of you. Now what God's
Word will say is, no man is so ignorant that they don't know
that they don't know. Because we have a conscience
and our conscience has the law of God written on it. So the
reason for which people are ignorant and say, I can't tell, I can't
know, I can't draw a conclusion, as the rulers did last week when
Christ cast the parable, remember? John's baptism. Was it of God
or is it of men? And they said, we don't know.
Yes, you do. You just don't want to know.
And what we're saying is the agnostic knows they just don't
want to know. And God says, one day I'm going
to show you that you knew, but you didn't know enough to deliver
you from your rebellion against me. So what we have here in our
second sub point is ignorant of God's word. In John's gospel,
chapter 10, verse 24 and 25, if you'll pull that up, Jesus,
again, confronted by these same rulers, they keep asking Christ
the question, tell us plainly who you are. like he haven't
been doing that all his ministry right and affirming who he was
by miracles and impeccable signs and wonders then came the jews
around about him and said unto him how long do you make us to
what doubt now again if i was with the lord lord let me jump
in here i'll straighten them out right now and i will say the
lord ain't causing you to doubt you're doubting because you fail
to submit to all the evidence then the Lord would have to draw
me back in, put me behind him, and answer the way he did. Jesus
answered him and said, now watch this, I told you and you believe
not. Stay right there. I told you. How did you respond? You would
not believe. See the title of my first point?
They willingly miss grace. I told you and you would not
believe. Now he argues, the works that
I do in my father's name, they bear witness of me. Now this
is a dangerous thing when you hear the gospel explained in
clarity and thoroughly and don't believe it. The next verse, mark
this, here it is. But you do not believe because
you're not my sheep. Do you see it? You do not believe
because you're not my sheep. Now see, even my Lord gets bolder
than me, doesn't he? He gives them the reason as to
why they do not believe. And this is also an insight into
your evangelism. The reason why some people will
not believe, even to the point of dying and going to hell, is
because they were not chosen. And they didn't even care about
being chosen. Because the issue is not about being chosen, but
rather believing the gospel. when it's laid out to you. Are
you guys following that? But for you and I, this is what we
know. If we ever share the gospel with someone and they believe
it, it's because they were Christ's what? That's exactly right. Not
because they were smarter or better than anyone else. He says,
but you believe not because you are not my sheep, as I had already
told you. Do you see it? All right, our
last sub-point. Let's deal with it. Our last
sub-point. Under first point number one, they willingly miss
grace through human pride. They are blinded by their own
good works, ignorant of God's work. That's the way Paul lays
it out, ignorant of God's work. In fact, I like the way Paul
puts it concerning himself in first Timothy, chapter one, verse
13. Pull that up before we deal with our last sub point. You
know, when you actually come to a knowledge of the gospel
and you begin to understand how how thoroughly grace settles
you down into the righteousness of Christ, you can actually start
telling the truth. This is one of the other evidences
that grace is not working in our lives effectively because
we still have a hard time being honest about how sinful we are. Whenever you come across people
who will say, I'm saved, but they're struggling with the reality
of the propositions of scripture that says, but yeah, you're saved
only by grace, you're still a mess. And they say, no, I'm not a mess.
I'm a whole lot better than I used to be. They don't actually understand
their nature. And they're now fighting for
their self-righteousness because they're not comfortable trusting
in God's righteousness. Even if the other people's assessment
about them is true. See, when you really come to
know grace, you can admit that you are simultaneously sinful
and righteous at the same time. This is not something you boast
in. This is simply a confession of reality. And what you should
be saying to your friends when they say to you, you're a mess,
you should say to them, you don't know the half of it. That's what you should say. And
then you should go, but by the grace of God, I am what I am. that's what you should say here's
what Paul says I was a blasphemer before I was saved a persecutor
and injurious but I obtained what see and we learned this
long ago mercy is never something you are you can never call your
salvation mercy and then turn around and say it was something
you married it it's always God's free act of not doing to you
what you deserve to get So the totality of our salvation is
really based upon a merciful act of God. I will have mercy
on whom I will have mercy And if you're saved he had mercy
on you now notice this last line Because I did it in what? Ignorantly
in what unbelief he says I persecuted people and did what I did ignorantly
and in unbelief but that ignorance was constantly reinforced by
his fig leaf religion and the zealousness that he had to uphold
his own standard of righteousness, which led him to do the last
line that we have in our first point, and that is, he sought
to destroy Christ. Do you see it in your outline?
That third sub-point, rejecting Christ's work, do you see it?
So, if you embrace your own work, you will reject Christ's work.
And rejecting Christ's word ultimately means that you want Christ to
be found a liar and perish under the wrath of God. Because our
master made some outstanding claims about himself, did he?
Now, I'll just share with you two verses here under that. Rejecting
Christ's work, Acts chapter 3, verse 13 through 15. Look at
this. And notice how Peter constructs it. This is in the early part
of the Acts. And when we went through the book of Acts, one
of the things we learned is that the apostles' job was to spread
the gospel to all the world. And in the process of spreading
that gospel, they had to turn around and tell their Jewish
brethren, weeks and months after they did it, what they did. So
the gospel indicts the Jew and it indicts legalists and it indicts
people who are seeking to stand on their own righteousness. That's
why they don't want to hear the grace of God. Here it is. The
God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob, the God of our fathers,
has glorified his son, healing the layman whom you delivered
up and denied him in the presence of Pilate when Pilate was determined
to let him go. Verse 14. But you denied the
holy and the just one and you desired a what I'm going to come
back to that in a moment And to be granted unto you verse
15 mark this and you killed the prince of life Whom God raised
from the dead whereof we are witnesses. So stop right there.
Here is the dangerous element in works religion If works religion
works itself out into its full implications, its objective will
be to kill Christ as the scriptures have so clearly testified. Here
then is an aside note that I want to warn you about as I share
it with our men. Be careful of the present escalating culture
and the vacuum and vortex that's sucking religion into the rhetoric
and argument that's going on in our political society. Here's
what I'm getting at. Be careful that you don't get
involved in an angry, hostile, militant form of Christianity,
mad at somebody because you don't like something that somebody
else did. Be careful that your premise
for existence is rooted not in your ethnicity, in your nationality,
in your good works, or anything that has to do with your own
personal superiority. Because if you're standing on
who you are, the only fuel you can use to sustain it is anger. See, so the anger that is boiling
in our world is a consequence of men and women not knowing
the grace of God. or the love of God, which is
in Christ Jesus. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? So that, vacuous of a relationship with God Almighty through Jesus
Christ, many women don't know the love of God, and therefore,
because they don't know the love of God, they can't walk by faith,
they walk by sight. And in walking by sight, they
uphold and they augment and they protect and they claim everything
that they see. But believers don't walk by sight,
we walk by what? and we don't uphold this world,
we uphold the world to come. And we are not succumbing to
national politics, this nation wrong, that nation wrong, this
people wrong, that people wrong, but rather Christ is right and
everybody else is wrong. So stay with me now, stay with
me for a moment, because this is important. If you have this
insidious anger in your soul, where the grace of God is not
your sufficiency, You will be sucked in like so many people
are right now to these angry religious models. And they're
proliferating everywhere. And they come out of your legal
system, which was initiated by Israel. But Israel became, as
we have in the scriptures, a persecutory religion, didn't it? So much
so that it pursued Christ, it pursued the apostles, And it's
still in opposition today. And the spinoff of Israel's Christless,
faithless, loveless religion has been Islam. Because they
have the same paradigm of self-righteousness, legal law-keeping system, and
many of these new hybrid religions today in America, where people
are falling into these faulty Hebrew-Israelite, black-Israelite,
black-Hebrew paradigms. Do you guys understand what I'm
saying? And this is a dangerous thing when you make your ethnicity
your identity rather than Christ. And this is what's taking place
in our culture right now. If you are angry, you will lose
the gospel because the ethic of the gospel is always one of
faith working by love. and it points to Christ who is
the model of successful evangelism where we don't kill people, we
lay our life down for people. But it takes grace for you to
keep your eyes on Christ and deal with people who hate you
from a Christocentric perspective. It's much easier to jump on some
bandwagon with a bunch of angry folk and then become part of
a movement which we saw taking place in the 60s and came to
naught. And see, the church, because
it doesn't go deep with Christ and deep with the Word of God,
it doesn't know its identity. And because it doesn't know its
identity, it's slipping into these old models. And even our
nation falls prey to this with the religious right and political
religion, as it were, justifying who should be the president.
The other day I heard this knucklehead I think it was Pat Robertson. I know I offended a few of you,
that's okay. Here's what he said. He said, Donald Trump is a brand
new born again Christian. So now I'm going here, I'm gonna
stretch me out, stretch me out, stretch me out, because my brain
can't handle that proposition. And my point is this. You see
how zealous and desperate our churches will be to try to get
a president in just because they are tied up into what we call
the dialectical process, thesis, antithesis, consensus paradigm?
Just because they don't want Hillary in, they're willing to
take a person whose behavior is so diabolical that to even
put him in the same breath with Christianity belies and begs
the question, do you have any sense at all? But we've done
that many times in the past. And what's the paradigm? You
denied the Holy One and you desired a murderer. Are you guys hearing
me? This is the danger of religion
getting involved in politics. This is the danger of your religion
getting involved in politics. you're gonna learn in church
history starting next week those of you have never learned church
history you need to learn it you need to learn it because
there's nothing new under the Sun that which has been is and
that which is even that has already been so that there's nothing
new under the Sun the only way you're not gonna fall prey to
heresy and false doctrine and error is to know the truth as
it is in Christ and so many of your loved ones are trapped in
the very things that I'm talking to you about right now Trapped
and deceived by fallacious ignorant silly shallow arguments Which
require some of us now to go back and do our research deconstruct
those systems and show them where they are flawed Simply because
we love people enough to engage them We're not retreating We're
gonna engage them. Did you guys hear what I just
said? We're not retreating. We're gonna engage them. I We're
going to give an answer to every man that asketh us of the hope
of the calling that's within us with meekness and with fear,
but we're going to tell them why we believe the gospel. Are
you guys hearing what I'm saying? But when you're ignorant of the
word of God, you have no ability to deal with the fury of anger
that's coming. Point number two, let's keep
working. I'm way overdue. They willingly miss grace through
human pride. Point number two, The Apostle
Paul lays down quickly in his arguments that according to verse
four, Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believes. Do you guys see that? This is
a beautiful, beautiful conclusion that requires pause in your mind
and to think through why he would so quickly wrap up his argument
this way. Well, it's not really that quick.
He did it in 10 chapters. But as he opens up chapter 10,
and you guys already know that chapter divisions are not inspired.
So he really just been talking kind of like your pastor do for
a long time and getting to this other point. But I want you to
understand the brilliance of this statement. Christ is the
end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes. This
statement requires a divine revelation. This statement requires the Spirit
of God illuminating your mind to this reality. Can I help you
with this? The previous verse tells us that
they were blinded by their good works, that they were ignorant
of God's righteousness, and that they were locked into a system
of persecuting God. And it was because they were
blind. What does it take for God to reveal to a lost sinner
that the way that you stand before God accepted as if you had already
obeyed all of God's law is a revelation of the person and work of Christ.
God has to reveal to you that Jesus Christ is all your righteousness. That's a revelation. Until then,
you're doing church, and you're doing religion, and you're seeking
to merit favor with God. Is that true? So let's work our
second proposition through very carefully all of the laws demands
are fulfilled and what? Terminated in Jesus Christ. This
is what Paul has stated for in Christ For Christ is the end
of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth verse
5 for Moses describes the righteousness which is of the law that the
man which doeth those things shall what a Live by them verse
6 but the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this
wise Do not say in your 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
verse 8 But what saith the law the word the gospel the word
is nigh you even in your mouth And in your heart that is the
word of what faith which we preach Our second point then underscores
three things that are critical to you and I believing that Christ
is the end of the law, the termination of the law, the fulfillment of
the law for righteousness. That is, we must, by faith, and
you guys know what faith is? It's the gift of God. Faith is
the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things what?
Not seen. Faith is your hearing what God
says about what God did 2,000 years ago and believing it. How come? You weren't there.
So you're hearing a record of a historical event that happened
2,000 years ago, and you're being told to believe it. That's substance
of things hoped for, right? You and I are being told that
God assumed a human nature, lived a perfect life, died a perfect
death, rose a perfect resurrection, and his life now is imputed to
you for righteousness. That requires what? Faith. Because
you weren't there, neither did you execute those legal demands. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? Faith, then, is resting in the promises of God, the precepts
of God, the testimony of God, what God says is true concerning
Christ for me. I'm laying that down to keep
it really simple. The Christian, then, simply by the gift of faith,
because you know everybody doesn't have faith, you know that, right?
And faith is a what? It's a gift don't ever don't
ever forget that no human being has faith in themselves God has
to give you the gift of faith Ephesians 2 8 and 9 for by grace
Are you saved through what faith and that not of yourselves? It
is a what gift of God not of what works lest any man should
boast so that you believe the gospel today is only because
God smiled on you and planted faith in your heart so that you
said yes to Jesus and Stay with me now because I want to drive
this home for you to get this. And the faith that he gives you
has as its object the totality of the person and work of Jesus
Christ for your salvation. So the faith gift that he places
in you subjectively allows you to attach yourself to everything
that Christ has done and everything that Christ is and your soul
naturally says yes to Jesus. That's the gift of faith. We
call it saving faith. Now, people got all kinds of
faith, but no one has saving faith but those to whom it was
given by God. Am I making some sense? Now,
you get to examine yourself now. Do I really believe the gospel
at the level at which pastor is talking? Do I have an interest
in the knowledge of Christ? Does my soul settle down and
rejoice in the fact that he died on Calvary's tree for me? Do
I really believe that Christ is my righteousness? Do I really
trust that what Christ did, He did and imputed it to me so that
when God looks at Christ, He sees me? And when He looks at
me, He sees Christ? And because Christ is altogether
lovely to God, I am altogether lovely to God? Because as He
was, so am I in Him? This is the way faith exercises
itself around the claims of Christ. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? This is what we call saving faith. And how is that
nurtured and how is it fueled and how is it strengthened? Through
the word of God. So another question I need to ask you, how much time
do you spend in your Bibles reinforcing the gospel in your own soul?
How much interest do you have in the knowledge of Christ and
his offices relative to the redemption of your soul? Because that will
determine whether you have authentic faith or not. This is really
challenging. Because we have brothers and
sisters who have pretended that they were serious about the gospel.
And then some of these criminal zealot religions have come along
and hogtied them and dragged them away from Christ. Because
they were wasting their time, not redeeming their time, not
studying the Word of God, not going deep with Christ. so that
they didn't strengthen their soul in the knowledge of the
gospel to be ready to give an answer to those who said Jesus
is not God, Christ is not Messiah, the New Testament is not valid,
the Bible is not about Jesus, and people get sucked away. How
can you say yes to Jesus and then have someone come along
and completely strip you systematically of all of the biblical propositions
and hogtie you and bring you into some crazy religion? This
is what we call apostasy. And it happens because we don't
make our calling in election sure. Are you guys hearing what
I'm saying? So when Paul says, for Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness, what he is doing in the 12 verses in
front of us, Romans 10, 1 through 12, he's using eight clauses. to argue his indictment against
false religion based upon the concrete evidences of what Christ
has accomplished and to what we call contrasting conjunctions
or buts, prohibitions to their form. So here in our text we
are dealing with the righteousness of God by faith versus the righteousness
of the law by what? Words. And then he uses a verse
out of the Old Testament. This is where Paul, we know he's
talking to the Jews. He's not talking to the Gentiles.
Look at verse 6 when it says, But the righteousness which is
of faith speaketh on this wise. Do not say in your heart. What
is he doing here? He's telling you don't think
this way. What way pastor? Don't think who shall ascend
into heaven. That is to bring Christ down.
Like he never came at all the first time. Do you see it? Don't
act like if you do understand that the demands of the law are
perfect righteousness Which the Jews do in the Hebrew Israelites
do in all false religion. They understand law-keeping They
understand God requires a perfect righteousness, but what they
don't understand is someone has already come down from heaven
Who has accomplished that and when the Gospels preached to
you what the gospel says is don't ask us who's gonna come down
from heaven He already came don't ask us who's gonna go up again
he already went back see history has already solved that dilemma
this here is a passage taken out of Deuteronomy chapter 30
verse 14 pull it up I'm gonna contextualize it for you okay
cuz Oh Israel is very much like you and I today and that is this
Oh Israel had everything necessary for salvation shown them and
given them and they still miss Christ How do you have a God
who shows up in your trouble when you're crying and whining
about Pharaoh ruling your life and God comes in without even
asking you because he hears your groans. Doesn't God hear our
groans? Is he good? Is God good? He hears
your groan and then he sends in a gospel preacher named Moses
who kicks Pharaoh's door in and says, the Lord said, let my people
go. And Pharaoh said, who is the
Lord? And Moses stood back and said, you're getting ready to
find out. And the Lord, by an outstretched hand and a mighty
arm, tore all of Egypt up. And he led his people out one
night after they ate lamb chops and put blood on the doorposts
because when he said, when I see the blood, I will pass over you.
They walked out with their heads high, dry shot through the Red
Sea because God worked powerfully to save them. And then how do
you turn around and get led by this God all the way up to the
brink of the promised land? Because this is where we are
now. After 40 years in the wilderness, we're at the promised land. And
God said, I took you out of Egypt to bring you into the promised
land. Here you are at the promised land, and you're wondering, well
now, Lord, how are we going to get into the promised land? Are
you guys hearing what I'm saying? Where were you at for the last
40 years While God delivered you out of the greatest power
of the world, kept you for 40 years so that your shoes didn't
wear out, your clothes didn't wear out. He fed you with manna
from heaven, hot biscuits in the morning, fried chicken from
the east. Remember that? Every day he gave
you water out of the rock the rock followed you everywhere
you went There was a cloudy pillar by day a fire by night the presence
of the Living God He fought your battles for you Destroyed all
your foes got you right up to the promised land and didn't
tell you to go in and you go But how Lord how we gonna go
in that's my context That's our context. Are you with me? It
seems ludicrous It seems ludicrous, doesn't it? But this is exactly
what happens when you have heard the gospel of the incarnation
of the second person of the blessed triune Godhead and his impeccable
obedience from childhood to Calvary and the infallible witnesses
of those who saw him die and rose again. And then you wonder,
how is God able to save us? Are you with me so far? So just
to deal with the illustration briefly to move on, He says,
see I have set before thee this day life and good. Deuteronomy
chapter 30 verse 14, please. But the word is very nigh unto
thee in your mouth and in your heart that thou mayest do it.
You see that? That's the same phraseology that
we are using in Romans chapter 9, Romans 10, right? Where is
Israel? At the brink of Jordan to cross
over. And God is telling Israel to
cross on over. And then he says in verse 15,
these words. See, I have set before thee this
day life and good and death and evil. Verse 16, I have commanded
thee this day to love the Lord your God, to walk in his ways,
keep his commandments, his statutes and judgments that you may live
and multiply. And the Lord your God shall bless
you where? In the land whither thou goest
to possess. What our God is saying here to
Israel is cross over into the promise. And what Paul is talking
about in Romans chapter 10, going back there now quickly so that
I can deal with this and sum this up. He uses this language
about the descent of Christ and the ascent of Christ, and it
really is speaking to the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.
And what Paul is saying now in verse 8, It's by conclusion these
words, but what sayeth it the word is nigh you even in your
what? And in your heart that is the
word of faith Which we preach so the gospel that's being preached
to you now under point number two all of the law's demands
are fulfilled And terminated in christ they're terminated
because three things have fallen out the law must be kept right
And it must be kept what? perfectly Did christ keep it? Point B, Christ alone kept God's
law. You and I believe that, right?
And then finally, the righteous demands of the law have been
met, have they not? Under points A, B, and C, you
have several verses there. I trust that some of you guys
know these verses. You do know that Christ challenged
Israel in John's Gospel, Chapter 8. Which one of you convinces
me of sin? You guys know that, right? That's
a bold statement, isn't it? When everybody in this room all
together, I mean, we all together collectively could not muster
up one act of perfect obedience. You do know that, right? Everybody
in this room. And yet Christ lived 30 some
odd years and never sinned. Not only did he not ever sin,
but then he asked them, test me, prove me, challenge me. Prove that I have sinned one
time in word or in deed. thought or in motive and this
is why the Hebrew writer said that of Christ who is our high
priest he was holy he was harmless he was undefiled and he was separate
from sinners it also says about him he did no sin one of the
other apostles put it this way he knew no sin and John put it
this way I love it in him was no sin at all only man walking
this earth that would challenge you around his sinlessness. Now
those of us who have the gift of faith, we don't even begin
to question that, do we? Jesus Christ is the only person
that perfectly walked before God's law in God's law loving
God's law doing God's law both actively and passively Obeying
God's law dying on Calvary's tree Did he not died on Calvary's
tree and he rose again the third day had Christ had one sin in
his life He never would have risen Do you guys hear what I
just stated if Christ would have had one sin in his life He never
would have risen from the dead Now what we do is we declare
this gospel to the whole world and we call men to do what? Believe
the gospel. This is where Paul is. And so
let me close with my final point under here. Point number three,
this righteousness of faith alone does what? This righteousness
of faith alone saved the sinner because of the three sub points
that are easy to gather. It's because Christ accomplished
this righteousness. It's also because it's available
to all who are under the what? Preaching of the gospel and it's
applied by the Spirit of God through what faith in Christ
So it's very clear the righteousness that Paul is talking about which
is out of faith alone Sages that are not the works of the law
Although the works of the law have been fulfilled have they
not? Remember what it says he that doeth these things shall
live in them What there was one who did? What is his name? So
the laws demands have been fulfilled for you and me It's not a matter
of us keeping God's law to get right with God, but rather what
believing on the Lord Jesus Christ This is where we are pressing
the issue to men and women that if you abandon the proposition
of faith in Christ trusting Christ leaning on Christ believing on
Christ all you are left with is your own works righteousness
and And here's what it will look like. You will be going about
to seek your own righteousness. It will result in your blindness
to the gospel. And it will create in you over
time a persecution of the gospel, an opposition to the people of
God, and ignorance of the grace of God in Christ Jesus. Now next
week what we're going to talk about is this thing we call preaching. Because this is the issue that
Paul is going to be getting at starting at verse 14. How then
shall they call on him in whom they have not what? Believed.
And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not what?
Heard. And how shall they hear without
a preacher? It seems to me very clear that
if God is going to fulfill verse 13, for whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. It's going to be through
the instrumentality of the preaching of the gospel where God sends
people who know him to people who don't know him to tell them
about him whom they know. And God working through the preaching
of Jesus Christ to bring men and women to faith and salvation
in him. And we'll take that up next time.
Amen.