I'd like for you to take your
Bibles this morning and turn with me to Romans, the 10th chapter. The Apostle Paul is writing here
to the church at Rome. And his subject is justification
by faith. That's what this book is all
about. It's not about anything else. It's about justification by faith. Now, if you want to justify your
faith, you can go to the book of James. He talks about faith
being justified by what it produces. It justifies the faith. It tells
you that this is the right faith. This is the right kind of faith.
He talks about it in the book of James. But here in the book
of Romans, he's talking about justification by faith. And he's talking here about faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ without any consideration of man's will
or works. Flip back just a few pages to
Romans chapter 3 and let me show you that this is what he intends
for them to know when he wrote this letter. Romans chapter 3
verse 21. But now the righteousness of
God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and
the prophets, even the righteousness of God which is by faith of,
or the faithfulness of, Jesus Christ unto all and upon all
them that believe. This is talking here about justification
by faith. This righteousness is in no way
connected to the believer's observance to the law, nor to his ability
to honor it, nor to his ability and his wisdom to perceive it.
It is a righteousness of God without the law, totally separate
from it. And so also from the will of
man. Now watch this. He tells us in
Romans chapter 9. What I'm trying to do here this
morning is show you the things that Paul has already covered
before we get here to Romans chapter 10. I'm trying to show
you the true subject of this book and exactly what it is he's
saying. And he tells us in Romans 9,
verses 15 and 16, that it's of God's willingness to show mercy. When He revealed Himself to Moses,
He said, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. This
is about God's will, not about man's will. It's about God's
willingness to show mercy and have compassion, and therefore,
it's not of Him that willeth. You see that? It's not of Him
that runneth. but it's of God that show it
mercy. Not of man's will and it's not
of man's works and obedience to this law. You may think this
morning that there's nothing challenging about that, nothing
in what I'm saying that might require a divine revelation,
but I assure you there is. In Romans chapter 10 verse 1,
Paul makes a shocking statement. It's shocking to the natural
man. Most men read it, go right on top of it. Never even consider
it or give it a thought. But in verse 1, he said, brethren,
my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they
might be saved. Israel. That's the only people on top
side of God's earth who knew anything about God, isn't it?
Israel. I can't find a single promise
in the Old Testament that's not directed to Israel. They're all
talking about Israel. Israel, he said, is my people.
Israel's my inheritance. Israel's who he entered into
the covenant about Israel. But Paul said, my prayer to God,
and heart's desire is that Israel might be saved. Let me put that in perspective. This would be like writing a
letter to the president of the Southern Baptist Convention and
writing in there to him and opening your remarks this way, my prayer
to God, my heart's desire and prayer to God is that the Southern
Baptist Convention might be saved. Huh? That's what he's saying.
That's what he's saying. In his day, the Jewish religion
would have been Something like we, like this world considers
Christianity today. The only, this Hebrew God and
everything that this Hebrew God stood for, it stood for in Israel. They were the only ones, nobody
else had any interest in this at all. And they, because of
the things that God did, they were very superstitious about
those Jews. They just, they were superstitious
about their God and their things, same as they are today. But Paul
said, my heart, they are not saved. They are not saved. And he said, my prayer is that
God will save them. Now the word saved here is not
talking about their ultimate perfection in glory, but to be
delivered out of darkness is what he is talking about. They
need to be saved. They need to be called of God.
They need to be enlightened of God. Under a curse, they are in ignorance
and blindness. He talks about blindness all
the time. Listen to this over here in Romans
chapter 11. After he talks about this remnant
according to the election of grace in verse 6, listen to what
he says here in verse 7. What then? Israel has not attained
that which it seeketh for, but the election hath attained it,
and the rest were blinded. That's the salvation he's talking
about, being arrested and translated, raised up, resurrected out of
their darkness. He's talking about being reconciled
to God's reconciliation in Christ, being brought to faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 2, for I bear them record. They have a zeal of God, but
not according to knowledge, for they, being ignorant of God's
righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness,
have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God." What is described in these first
three verses describes the condition of almost everything in our day
that goes by the name of Christianity. Is that right? That's exactly
right. They're going about, just going
about, busy. It reminds me, when I read this,
I always think about a beehive. Running out and getting something,
bringing it back in. Just the busy bees. They're always,
you go around them and they're just busy as they can be. I ain't
got time to talk to you. I gotta do this and they're doing
this, doing that. You come in the door, they give
you a job, first day. You teach Sunday school class.
You can do this, you can do that. Just going about, going about.
where these Jews were. They were just busy. They were
full of activity. And they were full of works and
doing things and observing things. And they didn't have enough in
the ceremonies God gave them. So they created their own traditions
and began to wash pots and all of these things. And they took
these traditions and made them commandments. Added them to the
commandments of God. And they told the Lord, they
said, why does your disciples transgress our tradition? He
said, why do you transgress the commandments with your traditions? Who do you think you are? They
have an ignorant zeal, not knowing, not submitting themselves to
the righteousness of God. And this righteousness of God
is a twofold revelation. If you take a note, you can write
this down. It's first the essential righteousness of God. They're
ignorant of that. You don't have to talk to folks
very long to find out they're ignorant of who God is. They
don't know what that word righteous means. They don't understand
who the righteous God is. It's first his essential righteousness. God is righteous. It's not that God does righteous,
although He does, but God is righteous. That's what He is. He can't be anything else. We're
sinners. All we can do is sin. God is
righteous. All He can do is righteousness. You see what I'm saying? He is
righteous. He can't do anything that's not
righteous because He is righteous. The psalmist said judgment and
righteousness is the habitation of His throne. Proverbs 17, 15
says, he that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth
the just, even they both are an abomination before the Lord.
Why? Because he's righteous. He's
righteous. And he said, I'll have mercy,
told Moses, on whom I will have mercy. And I will be gracious
to whom I will be gracious. But he said, you better know
something. I will by no means clear the guilty. By no means clear the guilty. God's mercy and God's grace are
both shown in righteousness only. It has to be a righteous grace.
It has to be a righteous mercy. If he can't be righteous in it,
he won't do it. His holy character forbids it.
That's God's essential righteousness. And if I had time, I could take
you over to the book of Hebrews and show you what that means.
That means he requires righteous motives. He requires righteous
intents. He requires righteous thoughts.
You can't even have any... All Satan did was said in his
heart what he was going to do. He fell from heaven like lightning.
He didn't do anything. He just thought it. He was gone. That's righteous. righteous God. The angels sinned. It never says
exactly what they did, although just reading about it and knowing
what I know about salvation and about man's falling condition,
I believe these angels just thought in their mind they justified
Satan and what he was doing. They didn't see anything wrong.
Boom! They were gone too. A third of them. Reserved in chains of darkness
under Righteousness. Righteousness. That's God's essential righteousness.
And this whole generation is ignorant of this, and they're
going about by their own will and works trying to appease and
buy the affection of the righteous God. They go about this in their
food kitchens, and their social activities, and their ball games,
and their ceremonial worship. They go about this in their moral
reforms, and their civic duties, and political influence, and
all that kind of stuff. They go about this in their aisle
walking, and their baby dedicating, and their infant sprinkling,
and all the other things that they do in their law keeping
to establish something that they know nothing about. Righteousness. Paul said, I'm
praying for them because they're ignorant of God's righteousness. And they're going about trying
to establish one of their own. Turn back with me again to Romans
chapter 3. In Romans chapter 3 and verse
9, Paul said, as for all the benefits and outward advantages
that they had, they after all were no better off than the Gentiles
No better off than the heathen, because he said, I have before
proved that they are all under sin. The Jews had the word of
God, but they were sinners. The Jews had the law of God,
but they were sinners. The Jews had the prophets, but
they were sinners. Isaiah said, who hath believed
our report? What does that mean? Verse 10. Now watch this. They're non-righteous. Now, I'm going to tell you something.
If there wasn't anything else said of the sinner, this would
be enough to sink his good ship of hope. Right here. Non-righteous. God is righteous. He said, I
will by no means clear the guilty, but they're non-righteous. Oh,
what about those who are going about? They're non-righteous.
Or what about those who preach? They're non-righteous. Or what
about those who work and enslave in the food kitchens and things
that they do? Non-righteous. After all his good intentions
and all his zealous activities and all his worldly wisdom and
all his personal sacrifice, They're non-righteous. And just so you
don't misunderstand, he said, no, not one. You know what he
knew? He knew he was going to talk
about your old grandma. That's exactly why he added that. That's
the first thing people tell me. Tell me about the old grandma.
Wasn't an evil bone in her body. She was altogether sin. Your
grandma and mine, too. That's right. None righteous,
no not one. There's none that understandeth. They're all ignorant. What are
they ignorant of? They're ignorant about this righteousness.
None that understandeth. Not the dean of the seminary,
not the professors of theology, not the rabbis, priests, reverends,
and teachers, and popes, and all the rest of them put together.
There's none that understandeth. There's none that seeketh after
the righteous God. That's what he's talking about
here. They seek after God, their God, but not this righteous God. Who seek after Him, they're ignorant
of Him. None that seeketh after God,
the God of righteousness, the God of grace, the sovereign God
of glory, the unchangeable God, they're all gone out of the way,
all of them. And are together become unprofitable,
none good. And just so you don't misunderstand
that old grandma, he adds this again, no, not one. Not one. What are you saying, preacher?
I'm saying it is a futile business for man in his cursed and wretched
condition to imagine that he can produce a righteousness before
God. That's what I'm saying. If you're
doing that, you're wasting your time. You're walking, as Paul
said, in the vanity of your mind. You cannot produce a righteous
thought or a righteous deed or a righteous action before the
Holy God. You can't do it. Why? Paul said, because I've
already proved to you we're all under sin. All we can do is sin. All God can do is be righteous.
That's the problem. That's the problem. Everything
we say, do, think, and imagine is only evil continually. Everything
tainted with sin, your best prayers are tainted with sin. Winston
and I talk about it all the time. You bow your head to pray and
your mind Way it goes. Out there in the pond, over there
somewhere out looking, walking on the beach or something. This whole generation of church-going
hypocrites are going about demanding from men what they cannot themselves
produce, a righteousness. The only righteousness acceptable
to God is the righteousness, now listen to me, of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He'll have nothing else. He is
the Lord, our righteousness. That's what it says. In 1 Corinthians 1, verse 30,
one of the greatest statements, most all-inclusive statements
that I've ever read in the Bible, right here. But of God are you
in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. All in Him. I don't have to produce
any of it. It's all in Him. That's the good
news. That's good news to a sinner.
That's bad news to a hypocrite. That's bad news to a self-righteous
Pharisee. But it's good news to a sinner.
I can't perform, I can't sanctify myself. I grew up in a church
that believed that. They believed that you could
walk such a walk. If you sacrificed enough and
devoted yourself enough and committed yourself enough that you could
actually work your way up onto this plane, and by a second definite
work of grace, God would sanctify you and you'd be a perfect man
walking in a perfect righteousness before God. Tommy Rotten, what
that is. No righteousness. He'd made unto
us righteousness. Well, preacher, you just over-sympathize
I'm telling you it's not a simple thing or everybody in the country
wouldn't be doing it. It's ignorance. It's a curse
on man. Satan has convinced him that
he can produce a righteousness. Blinded him to this righteousness
of God in Christ. That's what this gospel is all
about. It's to tell men that He's our righteousness. He's
my sanctification. I don't understand it. Look to
Him. He's our wisdom. He's our redemption. So Paul continues in Romans chapter
10 and verse 4. He said, for Christ is the end
of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. He's
the end of the law as a system of righteousness. He alone has
exalted the law and made it honorable. He alone won the prize of the
high calling of God. He has it. He has the prize. You go back
and read where God gave that law. He said, now, if you'll
keep this law and do all this law, here's what I'm going to
do for you. Man, he got a page of blessings, blessing after blessing. But he said, if you break it,
cursed is everyone. And then he had another page
or two of curses. We come forth from the womb speaking
lies. We're under the curse. Boom,
right out of the box. Gone. He alone exalted the law and
made it honorable. He alone won the prize of this
high calling of God. He deserves all the blessings
promised to the keepers of it. He exalted it, honored it, claimed
the prize. And He's the end of the laws
of personal righteousness. We have no righteousness except
that imputed to us by faith in Christ. Well, the believer Now
I'm not talking about unbelievers now. I'm going to switch gears.
Now I'm going to talk about believers. For the believer in any way to
embrace this law as a means of godliness is to obligate himself
to do the whole law. Now I need to say that again.
For the believer in any way to embrace the law as a means of
godliness is to obligate himself to do the whole law of God. He told those people in Galatia,
he said, you that seek to be under the law, he's talking about
believers, do you hear the law? He said, I tell you, you so much
as be circumcised, you've obligated yourself to be under the whole
law. Do you hear the law? Do you hear the law? Galatians 2.16, knowing that
a man is not justified by the works of the law, But by the
faithfulness of Jesus Christ, even we that have believed in
Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faithfulness
of Christ and not by the works of the law. For by the works
of the law there shall no flesh be justified. For I through the
law, Paul said, am dead to the law that I might live unto God.
I'm crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. In the life I now live in the
faith, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me
and gave himself for me. I do not frustrate the grace
of God. If righteousness come by the
law, Christ died and banged." That's just how serious this
thing of righteousness is. Romans 10, 5. For Moses described
the righteousness which is of the law, that the man that doeth
these things will live. If he doesn't, can you do? No. We can't do the first thing.
If we could do the first one, we could do all the rest. But
we can't love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind,
and strength. If we could do that, we'd keep the whole lot.
But failing there, we become guilty of the whole lot. Are you with me so far? To offer
anything. This law offers nothing to those
who cannot and will not obey it in perfect righteousness.
Are you with me so far? Do you understand what I'm saying?
All right, verse 6, Romans chapter 10. But the righteousness which
is of faith, it don't talk like that. Now, I'm going to paraphrase
here. Because these are difficult verses.
But here's what these verses are teaching. It doesn't talk
about meriting the coming of Christ, the favor of Christ.
It doesn't talk about it. It doesn't talk about our works
and obedience to the law is what brings the fellowship of God
to you, is what brings God down to you. Saving faith don't talk
that way. It doesn't talk about ascending
up into heaven and bringing Christ down. That's what he talked about.
Nor does it talk about adding to the sufficiency of what he
accomplished. It doesn't talk about going down
to hell and raising him up. And what he's talking about there
is making what Christ did sufficient. He's talking about you adding
your will or your okay or your whatever it is they use. Acceptance. That doesn't make that effectual.
That's effectual whether you believe it or not. That's a fiction
where you rot in hell. That's still a fiction. It's
got nothing to do with that. It's a fiction. Saving faith don't talk that
way. It doesn't talk about bringing Christ up from the dead. It doesn't
stand over there with its thumbs and its lapels and say, boy,
if it wasn't for me. You know, if God gave you that,
if He just gave you that, If He just gave you that free will
choice to add to that sufficiency, you'd brag on it throughout eternity.
Well, He did a lot, but I'll tell you this, He couldn't have
done anything if it wasn't for my free will. Huh? That's exactly
what we do. Faith and saving don't talk about
that. It doesn't consider anything that it did to make His resurrection
effectual. Saving faith does not look to
its own will or works to add to the work of Christ, but understands
that His work is the reason why the Holy Spirit called Him to
start with. This word of faith, verse 8,
is that which we preach. Paul said, it's nigh thee. It's
right there in your mouth. It's so close that you can taste
it. It's the word of faith which
we preach. Christ crucified. That's what
he preached. the Exalted One, the All-Sufficient
One, the King of Glory. He said, that's what we pray,
and it's right here. You can take a bite out of it. It's right there. It's in your
mouth right now. That close to you. And to confess Him with our mouth
as the Son of God, come into the world to save sinners, to
confess Him in His necessity of coming, in the sufficiency
of His work, in the dignity of His person, and to believe that,
having accomplished our salvation, God raised Him from the dead,
we shall be saved. If you believe what's preached,
Christ crucified, the end of the law for righteousness, if
you can see that and understand that and see that sufficiency
and be persuaded that there's nothing else You're going to
be saved. That's what it says here. You're
going to be saved. It's a heart work. I told the
folks in Kansas City, it's a knowledge, but it's not an abstract knowledge.
It's not a knowledge like you learn math and these other things.
This knowledge is born out of need. It's born out of despair. It's born out of death. It's
been raised from the dead. It's a heart work. With the heart, he said, the
new heart, that whole heart. With the heart man believeth
unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation. There's no other way to obtain
it. There's no sure way to dispense it. And there's no other way
more honoring to the character and glory of our God. That's
why he did it this way. For the Scripture says, whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed. Woo, think about that. I can't bow my head before God
without being ashamed, can you? Think back on just what you did
this morning since you got out of bed. Ain't you ashamed? You
knew you was coming here to worship. You didn't get up, open that
book first thing, get in there, start preparing. No, you think
about eggs and bacon. We can think about what we are
and what we've done, we're ashamed. He that believeth on Him standeth
in that day before the righteous God, before the presence of His
glory unashamed. Woo! How can you do that? Stand in Christ. Stand in that
righteousness before Him unashamed. In Christ I've got nothing to
be ashamed of. In Christ, I see that law honored
and exalted as high as it can go. In Him, I see the love of
God, that loving obedience that loved Him unto death, even the
death of the cross, who willingly gave Himself for sinners. You
see that? There's nothing in His work to
be ashamed of. And we stand in Him. That's how
faith lives. That's how it stands. Scripture says, whosoever believeth
in him shall not be ashamed in spite of what he is by nature
and in spite of what he is by choice and practice. And in spite
of all that he's done and yet shall do, he's going to stand
before God unashamed. And it's the same whether he
be Jew or Gentile, for there's no difference between the Jew
and the Greek. For the same Lord over all is
rich unto all that call on Him. Verse 13, Romans 10. For whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. What a wonderful, wide, universal,
all-inclusive word, whosoever. I told them up there, I said,
you folks don't think Calvinists can use that word whosoever.
That's the same thing. where I say, election or whosoever,
and ain't nobody else going to believe. I read in the book of
Acts where he preached over in Antioch, and the second time
the Jews said they didn't want any part of it. He said, OK,
I'll turn from you and preach to the Gentiles. They want to
hear it. And he preached to them, and it said, as many as were
ordained unto eternal life believe. And I guarantee you in that message
Paul said, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord be
saved. Who called? All them ordained to eternal
life. It's the same people. I don't have to be ashamed to
say that. I can say whosoever to whoever walks in this door.
If you can believe on Him, the only way you can believe is for
the Holy Spirit of God to quicken you from the dead. What a wonderful, wide, universal,
all-inclusive word, whosoever. You might run into some difficulty
trying to prove your election. I do. You might wrestle over
the promises of God to the Jew, and you might tremble at the
thought of calling yourself the son of God. But here's a work
that takes in the chief of sinners, whosoever." Wow. Peter wrote to those he called
strangers scattered throughout Pontius, Galatia, Cappadocia,
Asia, Bithynia, and he called them elect according to the foreordination
of God the Father through sanctification of spirit unto obedience and
sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. In other words, to whosoever
of them that believed. That's what he's talking about.
Whosoever is a word that has no eye to my past and no eye
to my present, it has only eyes to Christ. Can you believe on
him? Can you see Him exalted? Can
you see that righteousness? Can you see that justification? Can you see that perfect character?
Everything that God demands exalted in Him, whosoever believeth on
Him shall be saved. But how are you going to call
on Him in whom you have not believed? How are you going to believe
in Him of whom you have not heard? And how are you going to hear
That's what preaching is all about. It's to preach Christ,
exalted, sufficient, all glorious, victorious, not even a shadow
of turning, not even a shadow of failure, not even a chance
in eternity that something is going to go wrong. Already accepted,
seated with Him, Paul said, in the heavenlies right now. Henry gave me ten things, he
said, that every God-called preacher needs to know. He said, when
you stand up to preach, deliver a message. Don't get up there
and ramble. Deliver God's message. Don't
you get an agenda. You deliver God's message, that
Christ crucified. Don't tell them what you think.
Tell them only what you know by experience. Deliver that message
in the power of the Holy Spirit. And that's what that conference
up there was. That was the theme of that conference. And I told
them this. I said, I claim to have the presence
and power of the Holy Spirit. And I read these things to them.
And I said, boy, when I got to that fourth thing, deliver that
message in the power of the Spirit, I said, I went limp. I don't
know how to do that. Here's what I found out. God's
Spirit goes with His Gospel. It doesn't go anywhere else.
It's not in anything else. It goes with the preaching of
the gospel. And it goes out in judgment as
well as it goes out in an effectual calling. It goes out. Paul said,
my gospel is not yea and nay, it's yea and amen in Christ.
Will you believe it or will you don't? It's always successful. Make the object of my message
Christ. Make my motive the glory of God.
Try to preach in the language of the people. And if the message
doesn't grip my heart, it's not going to grip yours. Preach in
love, he said. Preach in love. This one here,
this is the one I want you to hear. Expect men to believe. You know, we talk to people.
Tell the truth. When you start your conversation,
you're not expecting them to believe. You're expecting them
to go like this. expect men to believe. Why should
I expect men to believe? Because God sends His Spirit
with the Gospel. Don't He? Sure He does. Christ
is victorious. God, the omnipotent, unchangeable
God, is already predestinated them things. Why won't you...
Here's the way we ought to look at it. You mean you don't believe
this? Why wouldn't you believe that? Here it is. Ready for yourself. Expect men
to believe.