Just one verse of Scripture in
Romans 10 this morning, verse 4. For Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Paul prays for his countrymen
and mourns their current condition going about to establish their
own righteousness and not having submitted themselves to the righteousness
of God. And then he says, for Christ
is the end of the law. They have not come to Christ.
They have not submitted to Christ. The word end in this verse is
key, and it can mean either termination, the end of something. It's the
termination of it. Or it can mean goal, the end. the goal, the purpose. And Christ is both with regard
to the law of God for righteousness. Christ is not the end of the
law, but he's the end of the law for righteousness to you
if you believe on him. He's the termination of the law
for righteousness to the believer. What do we mean by that? Righteousness
itself is never done away with. God doesn't do anything except
he do it in righteousness. His name is righteousness. But
Christ came down here and did what he did because God's righteousness
cannot be compromised. If he's going to save you, and
he has determined and purpose to save a people, And if he's
going to save them, he must be right. It must be righteous for
him to do so. He cannot overlook your sin.
He can't arbitrarily ignore or sweep your sin under a rug, so
to speak. You've got to save you in a righteous
way. You've got to be right. The judge
of all the earth shall do right. It may mean damnation for you,
but he'll do right. It may mean that for me. But
he'll do right. But the glory of the gospel is
that the righteousness of God without you keeping the law is
revealed by it. God can be righteous and save
you. How? Christ is the termination of
the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. The
law as a means of you obtaining righteousness before God by your
law keeping must come to an end, and Christ is that end. When
you meet Christ, that comes to an end. When God reveals His
Son in you, in you, in your soul, in your heart, as Paul said,
when it pleased God, He revealed His Son in me, you will, as Paul,
renounce your own works, your own law-keeping, your own righteousness,
And you'll count it, but don't, as he did, that you may win Christ
and be found in him, not having your own righteousness. The end
of it, it's the end of that. Your so-called righteousness
becomes something that you would not have. Not having my own righteousness. Philippians 3, 8 and 9. Because
you know that you can't stand before God with it. You know that if you stand before
God in yourself, in your own law keeping, in your own best
you can do, in your own good outweighing your bad illusion,
you can't stand. Oh Lord, if thou shouldest mark
iniquity, who shall stand? So you renounce yours for his,
not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law. but that
which is by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ." Christ becomes
to you the end of the law for righteousness. It's over. It's over. Christ also is the
goal of the law. Always has been. Is right now. Always will be to the believer
the goal of the law for righteousness to them that believe. What do
we mean by that? Well, the purpose of the law,
the goal of the law, the end of the law was never to get sinners
to act right. How naive do religious people
think God is? God thinks that he's going to,
you know, establish his law and everybody's going to straighten
up. No, he don't. The purpose of God's law was
never to make sinners innocent, but to pronounce them guilty.
Romans 3, 19, again, may these verses, may this truth be indelibly
engraved upon our hearts. David said, Lord, hide your word
in my heart that I might not sin against you. And he's not
talking about that. I might quit smoking and drinking.
He's saying that I might quit thinking wrong thoughts about
how you save sinners. that I might quit leaning on
the arm of the flesh. Hide this word in my heart, what
things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under
the law, and that's every one of us, that every mouth may be
stopped and all the world become guilty before God. That's not
the goal of the law, to make you righteous or even better. before God, but to establish
you as guilty and to cause you to confess that you're guilty. Why does God use his law to render
his people guilty before him? Because Christ is the goal of
the law. And if you ever become guilty
before God, you're going to run to Christ. Is that right? Because
if justification is to be had, only a guilty person will seek
it. And God will have you feel your
need of Christ. He will shut you up to His Son.
He will put you upon coming to Christ for relief. Relief from
your guilt. Relief from your shame. Relief
from the bondage of the law. when the law comes and renders
you guilty before God, as it was given to do, clearly from
what we just read. And you feel God's sentence of
death bearing upon you for your sin. And then, then when somebody
says, Christ calls unto you, verily, verily, I say unto you,
he that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting
life and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from
death unto life. If you're standing guilty before
God and you hear that, then that's music to your ears. That's music to every wretched,
guilty ear. And come, you shall. Come unto
me. He that cometh to me shall not
come into condemnation. Believeth on me, you'll have
everlasting life. You'll pass from death to life. In Galatians 3.24, Paul said
the law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. A schoolmaster
teaches children. As our schoolmaster, what does
the law teach us? That we are vile and guilty before
God. By the law is the knowledge of
sin, Paul said. And that we desperately need
the Savior. Only his righteousness will suffice
to satisfy the Holy God. And when you see yourself guilty
before God, by means of his law coming to you as it is and speaking
to your heart and causing sin to be exceeding sinful to you,
then you'll know, you'll see that Christ is your only hope.
Only his righteousness will suffice. When you see the true standard
of God's law, the spiritual inflexibility of God's holy standard, you'll
see one righteousness that can measure up to it and it ain't
yours. Only his precious blood avails
to wash away sin. Your lamb shall be without spot
and without blemish. So you see, this was the law's
goal all along, to bring us to Christ. God has done everything
he has done in eternity and since the beginning of time until now
in order to bring us to Christ. He said to Saul that day on the
road to Damascus, this is that Saul that's writing this letter.
When he says Christ is the end of the law, he knows what he's
talking about. The Lord said to that Saul, this
Saul, is it hard for you to kick against the goads? He said, I've
been goading you. Is it hard for you to struggle
to fight against the goads? What was the Lord goading him
with? Have you ever thought about that?
Paul's own account of his experience of grace goes like this. Sin,
that it might appear sin, that I might realize it for what it
is, that it might appear sin. What I called my righteousness
was really sin. And he said, sin, that it might
appear sin, worked death in me by that which is good. What is that which is good? The
law, the commandment. Sin that it might appear sin
worked death in me by that which is good. That, so that, sin by
the commandment might become exceeding sinful. God used his
law like a goad to bring me to the place where I had to say,
look how wretched and vile I am before God. Sin became exceeding
sinful. It worked death in me. I know
what he means now when he says you'll pass from death unto life
if you come to me. And when Paul saw sin for what
it was, for what it is, what was his reaction? Oh, wretched
man that I am. Who shall deliver me? from the
body of this death. I thank God through Jesus Christ,
my Lord. The law, Christ was the goal
of the law for righteousness to Paul. He was goaded with the law, but
we see also where he was goaded to. Where was he goaded? Where was the Christ goaded You
know why you goad a dumb animal? To get him to move to somewhere
that he don't want to go. Otherwise, he's not going to
go there. So where was the Lord goading
him to? Well, when the Lord got through goading him, Saul of
Tarsus lay in the dust, blind, at the feet of the Lord Jesus
Christ, saying, Lord, what would you have me do? Christ was the
goal. of that law. And it is this morning. The goal and termination of the
law is Christ. The termination of the law for
righteousness to everyone that believeth. And Paul has been
thanking and praising the Lord Jesus Christ ever since. And
you will, too. We will, too, if we understand
this, if we've experienced this. or if we ever do. We sing, Amazing
Grace, how sweet the sound. Why do we sing that? Because
His grace is amazing. And the half has still never
yet been told. Paul, all through all of his
epistles, his heart bleeding for those
that he loved. He said, I would to God. My heart's
desire and my prayer to God for them is that God would save them.
And here's how he'll do it. He'll cause them to cease trying
to please God by the deeds of the law. And he'll bring them
helpless and vile and pleading for mercy to the feet of his
son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's bow in prayer.