I'll have to say one thing for
certain. It's the most people sitting on the front row of anywhere
I've been except when there ain't no room any place else. At home our highest price seats
are on the back and I suppose that's just human nature. How about turning with me this
morning to Romans chapter 10. I didn't want to mislead you
guys last night because evidently you thought I was awfully brief.
When my wife asked me why I was so brief, something bound to
be up. And I just thought and still think,
not that I'm noted for thinking, but I thought what we covered in
those last three verses, 39, 40, and 41 in John chapter 9,
I believe it is, to say any more would have taken
the spotlight off of those statements. I don't know if that's true or
not. That's what I thought. But anyway, I won't be so kind
this morning. Romans chapter 10. Here's the
first thing I need to do. I want you to glance at the opening
statements in chapter 9, chapter 10, and chapter 11. Here's what you're going to find.
They all have similar opening statements. All three of which
tell us of Paul's earnest longing for the salvation of his people
after the flesh. This is a natural result of grace
in regard to Paul. But if you'll study those opening
statements in those three chapters, Paul used to be a very high-ranking
member of the Jews' religion. He exceeded virtually all other
people in his generation. He was highly acclaimed. He was
known over a wide territory of places. But now that Christ has
met him and conquered him, and Paul's gospel is nothing like
it used to be, It's not that way anymore. And
here's the charge that they leveled against this man. Now you go
back in your Bible when you have time and see if I'm telling you
the truth. This charge was laid against
him that there was an extensive rejection and unbelief among
the Jewish people and the Jewish religion. In the book of Acts,
everywhere that Paul went, it was like he couldn't even go
to that town without doing this. He found that Jewish synagogue
and that's where you found him. And he was often beaten and stoned
and run out of town and everything else you can imagine and he'd
go right back and do it again. And if that doesn't prove what
he says at the beginning of chapter 10, brethren, my heart's desire
and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved.
But if you'll take this other verse into consideration, perhaps
it will help us to understand how things are in our day. Acts 13.48 says, this is true
of Jew and Gentile and any other category of human beings. As
many as were ordained to eternal life believed. No more and no
less. In our generation, people as
well as preachers judge the gospel that is all Christ and all grace. They judge it on the same grounds
that they did Paul's gospel, because essentially what the
charge that they were laying was simply this. Paul, if your
gospel is the gospel, where is everybody? And that's exactly
the charge that's leveled everywhere that this gospel is preached. I don't know who the mayor of
this town is, but I don't think he's here this morning. nor any
other of the high-muckety-mucks that make up this place. And
I got nothing against Tennessee, I'd say the same thing. Is that
orange enough? I'd say the same thing if we
were back in North Carolina. And the basis on which the gospel
is charged with being false is a numerical, statistical scale. If you'll turn to one other scripture,
well, no, I can't say that. Don't believe me if I say turn
to one other scripture. Just turn to one scripture and
then we'll probably turn to some more. I've already forgot where I was
going. Give me just a second. 1 Timothy chapter 5, chapter 6, Here's a little statement tucked
neatly away in our Bibles that has got enough truth in it to... Oh my goodness, I don't know.
1 Timothy 6, Paul is describing
in verse 4 people who are proud Speaking of religious pride now,
we're not talking about sports or anything else. Don't know anything but proud
of what we believe, which doesn't happen to be true. Doting about
questions and strifes of words, whereof comes envy, strife, railings,
and evil surmisings. perverse disputings of men of
corrupt minds, destitute of the truth, and here's
the problem, supposing that gain is godliness. Timothy, from such
withdraw yourself. Verse 6, but godliness with contentment
is great gain. I used to have an outline with
six B's in it. Baptists are just prolific at
making numbers everything. Buildings, bodies, baptisms,
budgets, buses, and busyness. And I think that covers the whole
thing. That's where religion is, my
friend, in Kingsport, Tennessee, in Lake North Carolina, and any
other place on this globe. People God is the same, the gospel
is the same. One more text here on introducing
Romans chapter 10. The book of Psalms, Psalm 36.
Just want to try to make a little statement here in regard to the Word of God and ourselves. Not going to do any good to preach
to people that aren't here It's you and me and the Holy Scriptures. Mr. Hawker helped me immensely
to understand this first verse of Psalm 36. David declares, the transgression of the wicked
says within my heart There is no fear of God before his eyes. Now here's my take on that. David's
talking about David. He's not talking about another
man's heart. We can't read another man's heart. And the one we got's bad enough,
let's don't look for one any worse. We probably can't find
it. Verse 2, for he flatters himself in his own eyes. until
his iniquity be found to be hateful." And I'll leave that psalm there,
and let's go back now to Romans chapter 10. And if you want to know where
I stole this outline, it was many, many, many years ago from
Henry Mahan, so don't put it on him if I mess it up. I need to read and stop, and
read, and stop. Okay? I don't know any other
way to do this. Romans 10, 1. Brethren, my heart's
desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. For I bear them record that they
have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. So everybody, including the Romans
to which Paul wrote and the Jews to which he makes reference,
every man by nature seeks acceptance with God on the basis of his
own works. Now some people say that it's
mostly Christ works and then a little bit of ours. But when
you add anything of our own, it makes it all works. According
to Romans chapter 9 or 11, one of the two, I can't remember.
I think it's in chapter 9. That salvation that is not all
Christ is all law and all works. And there ain't nothing in between
that. There's no blending. The apostle is charging his fellow
men, the Jews, with having a religious zeal without knowledge. And in
verse 3 he expounds on that. Because, letting the word for
mean because, they being ignorant of God's righteousness. That
is the crying ignorance of our day. It is precisely where you
and I once lived, unless we still live there. They, being ignorant
of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own
righteousness, have not submitted themselves to the righteousness
of God." And that righteousness of God, the word righteousness
in verse 3, three times it has a different meaning each time,
but the third time it's talking about God's gift of righteousness
in His Son, the Righteous One, the Lord Jesus. So there's the
first thing about the gospel. It declares to every man who
hears it, this truth that none can accept unless worked upon
by the power and grace of God. And that is that every man seeks
acceptance to one degree or another in some way or another by his
own works. Some people describe it one way
and some another. All right, if we look at verse
4. Second thing we learn about the
gospel of Christ, that there's only one righteousness that God
will accept, and that's the one that He gives freely, without
price, in His Son, the Lord Jesus, who is all His people's righteousness. Now that's so simple, but it
It is so unpalatable to the natural man. We won't bow to such a statement
as this. You mean there's not anything
I can do? You mean Christ has to do it
all? That's what it says. Look at it again, verse 4. For
Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to how many? To everyone that believes. If you're a believer, this has
to be true of you. All right, the third thing. It's
in verse 5. If you won't have Christ and
His righteousness, this is all you got left. Moses describes
the righteousness which is of the law. Here it is. That the man which does those
things in regard to the law, shall live by them." What that
means is he dies by them. There's no life in them. The law rewards perfection, but
it has no hope for a sinner. Let me show you a couple scriptures. First I want you to look in Luke
chapter 18. an unusual chapter to say the
least, one that contains the parable
of the Pharisee and the publican, and right on the heels of that
we have the rich young ruler coming to Christ. I'd like to
read one verse out of each of those two sections of Scripture
to help us get a grasp on what Paul is truly saying in Romans
chapter 10. All right, Luke chapter 18, the
first one is verse 9. Our Lord spoke this parable unto
certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous and
despised others. This is every man. who trust
in himself all men do that we're righteous and here's an example
that proves it absolutely verse 18 in chapter 18 in Luke and
a certain ruler one of the gospels calls him the rich young ruler
and one of them describe him as running and when he gets into
the presence of Christ he falls on his knees And here's what
he said. A certain ruler asked him, saying,
Good master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? Do you
know the answer to that? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Our Lord points him to the law
after straightening him out on who's good. God alone is good. This man called our Savior by
a name that implies he's a good man. And our Lord virtually said,
either call me good God or bad master. You can't have it both
ways. It simply will not hold water
any other way. Why call you me good? None is
good save one that is God. Our Lord points this man to the
Ten Commandments. Oh, he says, I've kept all these
from my youth up. And our Lord picks one out of
the ten and addresses the young man. He could have picked any
one of the ten. This man had never kept any of
them, and neither have we. Thank you very much. None. None. Our Lord said to this man, one thing you lack. Now this
is when Christ, He's speaking with tongue-in-cheek
when He said, you only lack one thing. Yeah, you just lack, any
of us just lack one thing. You know what that one thing
is, don't you? It's Christ. It's life. One thing you lack, sell all
that you have and distribute to the poor and you shall have
treasure in heaven and come follow me." And when he heard this he
was very sorrowful because he was very rich. And every last
one of us are the same way. We're rich in thoughts about
ourselves and totally deficient in thoughts about God and His
grace in Christ and the gospel. All right, let's work on that
fourth verse now, that there's only one righteousness that God
will accept. Let's just, we'll stay in the
book of Romans here for just a minute. That'll help us in
our turning. If you turn to Romans chapter 3, not but one righteousness that
God will accept. And if you're familiar with the
book of Galatians, and if you aren't, you should be. It is
one of the most precious letters in the New Testament regarding
this matter of the difference between God's free grace and
man's attempt to make something out of himself in order for God
to accept him. But here's the whole thing in
a nutshell. In Romans chapter 3 beginning at verse 19, there's
only one righteousness that God will accept and that's the one
that He gives. Now we know that whatsoever the
law says, it says to them who are under the law." Who's under
the law? All of us, everybody. I mean, until you're under Christ,
you're under the law. "...that every mouth..." Here's
the purpose for the law. It was never designed to save
because man cannot keep it. "...that every mouth may be stopped,
and all the world may become guilty before God." Guilty. No lessening of that guilt. Just a poor, lost, helpless,
God-hating sinner. That's what we all are by nature.
And we still are unless God has intervened. Verse 20, Therefore
by the deeds of the law, There shall no flesh be justified in
God's sight." That ain't true about men's sight, but it's true
in God's sight. For by the law, got a little
kink here, by the law is the knowledge of sin. The law reveals
sin. Verse 21, but now the righteousness
of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and
the prophets. In fact, every book in this Bible
witnesses and testifies to this. Even the righteousness of God,
which is by faith of Jesus Christ. Do you know people, some people
believe that if we have faith it'll save us? Faith is no Savior. Christ is the Savior. And the
faith by which we believe is first His and then ours. Faith
is a gift of God. He's both the author as well
as the finisher of it. Now y'all made me lose my place.
"...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 Jesus Christ unto all and upon all
them that believe. For there ain't no difference
in anybody anywhere." God saves men exactly the same way every
time He saves a sinner from Adam to now. And from now to the end
of time, it ain't going to change, not one bit. Alright, Romans
10 again. This time we're going to reference
in chapter 9, but let me point out to you the subject matter.
See in verse 5, it has to do with the severity of God's law.
The gospel reveals the impossibility of any man keeping the law having
anything to do with our acceptance before God. Verse 5, Moses describes
the righteousness which is of the law, that the man who does
those things shall live in them. or rather die in them chapter
9 just a little comment commentary from the scriptures chapter 9
verses 31 through 33 but Israel which followed after
the law of righteousness has not attained to the law of righteousness."
Why? Because they sought it not by
faith, which means they sought it not by Christ, but, as it were, by the works
of the law, for they stumbled at that stumbling stone. as it is written, Behold, I lay
in Zion a stumbling stone and a rock of a fence. That's the
Lord Jesus and that's the gospel. He's either the rock of ages
or the rock of a fence and there's nothing in between the two. Behold I lay in Zion a stumbling
stone and a rock of offense and whosoever believes on him shall
not be ashamed or shall not be put to shame." You remember the scribe that
came to our Savior in Luke chapter 10 and it tells us if we weren't
told this we couldn't actually detect it in what he said and
his behavior. But he comes to the Lord to tempt
him, that is for an ulterior motive. He doesn't come because
of respect, because of some desire to know him. He's grinding his
religious acts and it's constantly found in the four Gospels. He
comes with our Lord with a question, what's the greatest commandment
in the law? No, no, I'm sorry. Let me just,
let me turn to it. Luke 10 if you'd like to turn. Verse 25. The King James says lawyer, but
it means a religious, a lawyer of religious laws and so forth
and so on. Behold, a certain lawyer stood
up and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal
life? Very same question of the rich
young ruler. And our Lord said, What is written
in the law? How do you read it? And he answering
said, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all
your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself. And our Lord said,
you've answered right, this do and you shall live. And if you
can't do this, you cannot live. And this is put in such a way
as to put this man away from trusting himself. And it's tough to prove for a
fact, absolutely, if you and I love God or not. Believers
sometimes question themselves as to whether they love God or
not. But this man just worries about the outward act. So he
says, well, who is my neighbor? Which gives us the parable of
the Good Samaritan. God's law is severe. It cannot
take anything less than what it demands. It just can't be
watered down. Cannot be. Must not be. All right,
here's the next thing in Romans chapter 10. We're going to gain
a lot of time this time. We're going to go from verse
6 all the way to 11. Because here we have the righteousness
of Christ that belongs to a poor sinner by faith in Christ alone."
Verse 6, "...but the righteousness which is of faith." Talks like this, speaks on this
wise, in this manner. Don't say in your heart, here's
some things the gospel doesn't say. And people who know and
love the gospel don't speak like this. I let the cat out of the
bag early. We don't talk about anything
needing to be done. Our gospel says it's all finished.
And we can't add to it or take from it. Let's see how Paul wrote
it here under divine inspiration. But the righteousness which is
of faith speaks on this wise, say not in your heart, who shall
ascend into heaven, that is, to bring Christ down from above."
Why not? He's already been. And when He comes back the next
time, it'll be too late. Won't it, Tom? It'll be all over. But what does it say? Verse 8. Oh, if we could get a hold of
this one. The Word, the Word of the Gospel, the Word of Christ
is near you, even in your mouth and in your
heart. That is the Word of faith which
we preach, that if you shall confess with your mouth the Lord
Jesus, and shall believe in your heart that God has raised Him
from the dead, you shall be saved. For with the heart man believes
unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation. Because the scripture says, whosoever
believes on him shall not be ashamed." Shall not be ashamed. Now when it talks about, in verse
9, confessing with your mouth the Lord Jesus, some people think that anybody
can do that anytime they jolly well please. But I Corinthians
12.3 says, no man can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy
Ghost, which is the work of God in the soul. I mean, we can call
Him Lord until the cows come home, but it's meaningless. It's
empty. It's dead. It's not real. All right, verse 12 brings us to number 5. Here's
the 5th gospel revelation. verses 12 and 13. Think about this now. For there is no difference between Jews and Gentiles, between
the Jew and the Greek. There's not two systems of salvation. There's not two ways to come
to God. There is no difference. For the same Lord over all is
rich unto all that call upon Him. For whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." Do you know I used
to think Romans chapter 10 ended right there? Honestly, I had
a bunch of places in my Bible that I thought ended a lot sooner
than it did. I didn't even know chapters 9 and 11 were in there.
I didn't like what they said, but I wouldn't let myself admit
that. But this tells us there just
is no difference between one human being and another. We're
all alike. We're all in the same boat. 1 Corinthians 1.30 says, for of
God are you in Christ Jesus. How do we get in Christ? God
puts us in Christ. Of God are you in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made unto us our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. Simply God's doing, God's doing. Let's see, Tom, you quoted a
verse last night, 1 Corinthians 1.15. This is a faithful saying
and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners, of whom I am chief, the chief of sinners. 1 Timothy 2.5 says there's one
mediator between God and men, And it is the man, the God-man,
Christ Jesus. All right, we're down to number
six. I'm not going to keep you all too long. Verses 14 through
16. We've got to slow down when we
get to this spot because there's just a little more, there's too
much crammed in here to just go right over the top of it.
Let's read those three verses, 14, 15, and 16. We ended verse 13 with, "...whoever
calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved." But since we
cannot call on someone we have no knowledge of, we do not know,
then we have these statements. They all start with the word,
how, and there's four of them. The first one at the beginning
of verse 14 is this, "...how then shall they call on him in
whom they have not believed?" There can be no calling without
faith. Calling is the result of faith.
Begging for mercy means a work of grace has already been done
in the soul. The second one is, how shall
they believe in Him of whom they've not heard? A man cannot believe
a gospel he's never heard. Once in a while you run into
somebody that wants to tell you that on their own, without God
using any human instrument whatsoever of any kind, that they discovered
the gospel for themselves. and I ask myself, why would you
want to assert that first of all and why would you dare mention
it to someone else? I got a verse, I'll have to stop
right there for a second. I have this brain problem and
if I don't go to it right now I won't find it. First Corinthians,
very next book in your Bible, chapter 3. If this doesn't settle the issue,
I don't know what could. 1 Corinthians 3, 5, "...who then is Paul, and who
is Apollos, but ministers by whom you believed." And this
phrase, even as the Lord gave to every man. God sends the gospel to every
sinner that he saves. If it could be otherwise, surely
the Ethiopian eunuch could have figured Isaiah 53 out. but not
so until God sent him a preacher. Now preachers ain't much, and
I sure ain't much, but God says by the foolishness of preaching,
he purposed to save them that believe. And when somebody comes
along and say, well I learned the gospel without hearing it
or reading it or something like that, I just, I don't believe
it. You know, you may, I just can't. But what I do ain't got
nothing to do with anything, so... Anyway, back to Romans
chapter 10. Here's my basic contention. Saving
faith is impossible without the preaching of the gospel. That's
why places like this are indispensable. Wherever it is, all over this
world, under a tree, in a house, in a cathedral, if you can get
by with it. The first how, how shall they
call without believing? How shall they believe without
hearing? Third one, how shall they hear
without a preacher? And the fourth one, how shall
they preach except they be sent? That is, God's power must go
with them in that gospel as it's being preached because the preacher
can't work it up or work it in or anything else. The Lord Jesus
said in John 16, 63, the words that I speak unto you, their
spirit and their life. And that's what happens every
time God saves a sinner. One more, verse 17. So then, this is like the concluding
statement. So then faith comes by hearing,
and hearing by the Word of God. Why preach this Bible? Why not
just tell stories and anecdotes and such as that? Because without
the preaching of the Word of God there can be no such thing
as saving faith. Faith comes by hearing and hearing
by the Word of God. Look back at verse 8 in this
same chapter 10 of Romans And remember what we just read
about hearing the Word of God. What does the Gospel say? The
Word is near you, even in your mouth and in your heart. What
Word is that? That is the Word of faith which
we preach. It's the preached Word. Let me read the rest of the chapter
because it has, well, a great deal more in it, but I'll try
to just reserve myself, whatever that
means. Verse 18, talking about hearing
by the Word of God. But I say, have they not heard? Yes, amen, their sound went into
all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world. But I say, did not Israel know? For Moses said, I'll provoke
you to jealousy by them that are no people, and by a foolish
nation I'll anger you. But Isaiah is very bold. He lets the whole thing out the
bag. Doesn't hold anything back. Isaiah is very bold and says,
now watch this, it'll bite you. I was found of them that sought
me not. Preachers all over this world
say if you'll seek Him, God will save you. You ain't never gonna
seek Him until He seeks you. I John 419 is a principle affecting
everything in grace. We love Him. Why? Because He first loved us. And that's what that statement
means. We find Him because He first finds me. it has a little something to
do with the glory of God. God doesn't like His glory to
be stolen and His children do not want to be found of such
a thing. But to Israel He said, all day
long have I stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and
gainsaying people. Thank you kindly. Those of you
that hang around, I'll see you tomorrow. Lord willing.