So people who were from the place
of Israel, right? National Israel. I'll do it later. There would have been some national
Jews there, people from the country of Israel, but not many. So this
church would have been made up predominantly of Gentiles, people
that weren't from Israel. In these first nine verses, and
a lot of times in the Book of Romans, Paul addresses the Jews.
He's writing to the Gentiles about the Jews. Now, why would
he do that? It seems odd. Why would he write to these Gentiles
about the Jews? He's going to use these Jews
as an illustration. They're an illustration, and he's trying
to make one point right here. It says salvation is by grace.
It's not by works. That's his only point right here.
So we're going to hit the first nine verses, not necessarily
in the order they come in, but we're just going to see what
Paul's talking about here. He's going to use the Jews as an example. Now look
at verse one. Paul says, brethren, speaking
to the Gentiles, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel
is that they might be saved. Now, the first observation I
have here, and I have two out of this first verse, is that
Paul here illustrates the love of the Lord Jesus Christ for
his people. And I'll show you in what way.
Now, Paul loved these people, right? Clearly, he loved his
kinsmen. He loved these people that he
was connected through, through nationality. And he desired their
salvation. Here's the interesting part.
They hated him. The Jews absolutely hated Paul
because of what he preached. He told them the truth that their
religion was a sham. They had all fallen to salvation by works.
They thought because they observed the feasts, because they did
the sacrifices, that's how they had acceptance with God. It was
because of what they did. And he told them, that's not acceptance
with God. You can't earn favor with God. And they hated him
for this. So Paul loved and he desired the salvation of people
who hated him. Now, when the Lord Jesus Christ
was dying on the cross for his people, for the elect, he was
doing the most loving thing a man could ever do. He was dying for
his friends. And that comes from John 15 and
13. And while he was loving towards us and he was friendly towards
us, we were not loving towards him. We were not friendly towards
him. Now, you're there in Romans.
Look at Romans chapter 5. Pick up in verse 6. This is one
of my favorite scriptures because it identifies exactly who the
Lord Jesus Christ saved. Romans 5 verse 6 says, For when
we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the
ungodly. Now, do you want to know if you're
someone who Christ died for? There's two descriptions given
here. It's very simple. The first one
is without strength. If you're someone who is without strength,
who has no spiritual ability, has no ability to make peace
with God on your own accord, and if you're someone who is
ungodly, that means sinful, that means wicked, that means evil,
that means a new time, Christ died for you. Go on, read. For
when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the
ungodly, for scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet peradventure
for a good man some would even dare to die, but God commendeth
his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, not when
we had changed the game around, when we started loving him, not
when we had earned something, no, while we hated him in rebellion,
while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. This is the love
of God for his people. He loved a bunch of people who
did not love him by nature, but rebelled against him and hated
him. That's the first observation I make from that. Here's a second
observation. Paul believed in the absolute
sovereignty of God in salvation, and it in no way made him apathetic
about desiring and seeking the salvation of those people he
loved. Now, obviously there are no mistakes in this book and
there's nothing by coincidence, but it's very interesting that
Romans Chapter 10 comes right after Romans Chapter 9. If you're
familiar with Romans Chapter 9, it is probably the most controversial
chapter in the entire scripture. And it deals with one topic,
that's it. The sovereignty of God in everything. Flip over
there, go to Romans Chapter 9. Romans chapter 9, look at verse
14. Paul says, what shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness
with God? God forbid. For he saith to Moses,
I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. And I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. Now this is pretty simple, isn't
it? There's a will that matters in
salvation. And it's not mine and it's not yours. It's his
will. He will show mercy to whom He
will show mercy. He gets to choose. Nobody deserves
it. Nobody earns it. He gets to choose.
Sovereignly, He can give mercy. or he can withhold mercy, and
he's right doing it either way. But there's one that will that
matters, and that's his will. It's not of him that willeth. Salvation
is not an offer. Christ is not something up for
you to accept or reject. It's up to him to either give
you salvation, to save you, or to withhold it. It's not of him
that runneth. This isn't a competition where you can outdo your neighbor,
you can strive, and you can be better, and you can attract the
favor of God. It is of God that showeth mercy. God is sovereign
in salvation. Paul clearly believed that. Now,
look at verse 17, for the scripture saith unto
Pharaoh, even for the same purpose have I raised thee up, that I
might show my power in thee, and that my name might be declared
throughout all the earth. Therefore hath he mercy on whom
he will have mercy, and on whom he will, he hardens. Now first we saw that the Lord
is absolutely sovereign in salvation. This tells us he's sovereign
in everything else too. Now, when Moses went before Pharaoh,
he said, the Lord said, let my people go. Pharaoh said, no,
I will not let the people go. And he did this because he was
hard-hearted, he was an evil man, he was a sinful man, and
he hated God. And he also did this because this is exactly
what the Lord purposed him to do. He raised up Pharaoh, he
empowered this man to stand up against him just so he could
smack him back down and he could show everybody how powerful he
was. One purpose behind this, I'm going to show everybody that
I'm God and I am for Israel, I'm not for everybody else. That's
it, one purpose. This man did it because he was
a sinful, evil, wretched man, and he did it according to the
purpose and will of God. If you look through the book of Exodus,
every time Moses would go to Pharaoh, and Pharaoh would say,
I won't let those people go, after that, interchangeably, it would
say two things. It would say that Pharaoh hardened his heart.
It would say that the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, right? And both
things are true. Now, the question is this, how
does the Lord harden a man's heart? It's very simple. He just does nothing. He just
leaves a man alone. He just doesn't intervene. He
just withholds that which softens. That's it. If he wants to harden
a man's heart, he just leaves that man alone to do exactly
what he wants to do. Pharaoh was doing exactly what
he wanted to do. And you and I do exactly what we want to
do. The Lord was sovereign over every bit of it. Now here's a
question. If he is sovereign over everyone
and everything at all times, how can I be held accountable?
If he's the one pulling the strings, if he's in charge, how can I
be held accountable? Look at verse 19. Thou wilt say then
unto me, why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted
his will? Nay, but O man, who art thou
that replies against God? Shall the thing formed say to
him that formed it, why hast thou made me thus? What's the
answer to that question? You don't write an answer. And
you don't get to ask that question. We're the clay. He's the potter.
Does the clay have the right to say, you made me a bowl, I
want it to be a vase? It's ridiculous, isn't it? It's
absolutely ridiculous. That's man's logic right there.
You don't write an answer. That's the answer. Did Paul believe
in the absolute sovereignty of the Lord in every bit of salvation?
He very clearly did. Did that stop him in the least
for seeking and desiring the salvation of those people he
loved, praying for them, preaching the gospel to people? Not at
all, right? Now, if salvation was up to a
man accepting God, if salvation was up to a man by nature believing
on the Lord Jesus Christ, there would be no reason to preach,
there would be no reason to pray for anybody because nobody would
be saved. because God has chosen a people, because he is sovereign
in salvation. That is our reason to desire
the salvation of those we love. That's our reason to pray for
people we love. It's the reason we preach the gospel to them,
because those people we love, the Lord might love them too.
And if he does, he's gonna save them. All right, go back to Romans
10. Look at verse two. Paul says, for I bear them record,
speaking of the Jews, that they have a zeal of God, but not according
to knowledge. Now, what Paul is saying here
is these people are religious. They're very religious. They
have religion, right? They have an interest in God, but they
don't know the Lord Jesus Christ. They don't know him in a saving
way. They don't know who this man really is. Now, in this world,
right, there are only two religions. You've heard this before. There
is salvation by grace. based completely and utterly
by the shed blood, person, and work of the Lord Jesus Christ
alone. It's the only reason a man will be saved. And there's everything
else. There's salvation by works. Now,
salvation by grace. If this is your hope, it's in
grace, it's this, that God is going to look upon you and he's
going to be merciful to you. He is not going to give you what
you rightfully deserve. And he's going to be gracious
to you. He is going to give you what you do not deserve and what
you have demerited. And he's going to do it for this
one reason. in His Son. He is going to look to His Son
for every reason He needs to save you, and He's not going
to look to you for any of it. If you believe in salvation by
grace, that is your hope. It is all in Christ. If the Father
finds all the reason He needs to be merciful and gracious to
you, He finds it in His Son, in Himself. Now, salvation by
works is defined in our text. Look at verse 5. For Moses describeth the righteousness
which is of the law, that the man which doeth those things
shall live by them. Now this is salvation by works.
It is salvation by the law. If you do the law, every bit
of it, then you'll live. And if you don't, you'll die. It's very, very simple. What
I want you to understand, though, is that any attempts to mingle
grace and works makes it salvation by works. Let me show you something. Turn to Galatians 5. Galatians 5, and pick up in verse
1. Stand fast, therefore, in the
liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled
again with the yoke of bondage. Behold, I pull, saying to you,
that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. Now,
here's what had happened in the Church of Galatia. There were
men coming in there saying, yes, you need Christ. You need the
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Absolutely, there's no doubt.
But you also need this. To make that work for you, you
have to be circumcised. All this is necessary, all the
work of Christ is necessary. Here's what you need though. To finish
it all off, to make it effectual for you, you have to be circumcised.
What is that? That is salvation ultimately
depending on what a man does, that's salvation by works. Now
here, pick up in verse 3. For I testify again to every
man that is circumcised that he is a debtor to do the whole
law. Christ has become of no effect unto you. Whosoever of
you are justified by the law, you are fallen from grace." You
see what that says, right? As soon as you make your salvation
in any way dependent upon what you do in any way, shape, or
form, enacting some sort of a will, making a decision, trying to
get better, as soon as it becomes in some way dependent on you,
you have completely and utterly taken on the law. It's not a
mingling at all. Christ has become non-effect.
He's out of the equation now. Now it's you and the law. And here's
what God demands, that you keep that law. That means every law,
every single time, from the day you were born to the day you
die, outwardly, but more importantly, inwardly, in the motives and
in the intentions and in the internal thoughts. We can't do
it. Let's go to the real issue. Go
back to Romans 10. Look at verse 3. Paul's talking
about the Jews, but he's talking about men by nature. Now what
does that mean, they being ignorant of God's righteousness? Is he
saying men don't know that God is without sin? Now, intuitively, people know
that, right? That God is pure, that he's holy, that he's without
sin. What does this mean? They're ignorant of God's righteousness.
They are ignorant of his standard. They're ignorant of the fact
that he is a holy and a just God, and all he can accept is
perfect righteousness. People say, well, just do your
best. Just do your best, and God will accept that. No, he won't.
He will not. It defies his character. All
he can accept is perfect righteousness. And when he sees sin, there's
only one thing he can do. Punish it. That's it. For them being ignorant of
the righteousness of God, went out to establish their own righteousness,
right? And they would not submit themselves
to the righteousness of God. Now, what is this thing of submitting
yourself to the righteousness of God? What does that mean?
Here's what this means. It is looking to the Lord Jesus
Christ alone. It is trusting him and his righteousness
and abandoning your own. And here's the statement that
says, They have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness
of God. Here's the problem, right, is
that we will not. Because if it's all up to his
righteousness, if he's the only one who can keep the law, if
he's the only one who can honor his father and receive the praise
and the acceptance of his father, that means there's no glory for
the man. And we will not submit ourselves to his righteousness. That's the problem. Problem's
not with God, it's not with the way he saves sinners, problem's with
you and me. That's why salvation must be by grace, by a sovereign
God, because that will has to be changed. That heart has to
be broken. Now look at verse four. I want to remind you for a second
that everyone in this room right now, everybody, right now you
are commanded to completely and utterly let go of your own works
and any hopes of saving yourself and believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's not an invitation, that is a command. And if you
ever do, here's the truth about you. Look at verse four. For
Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believeth. What does that mean, he's the
end of the law for righteousness? What does it mean, an end of
the law? There are two things the law demands from me, right? Two things
it needs. Number one, it must be satisfied
in punishment. We just talked about it. God
is just, he is holy, and I have broken God's law, which means
I have to be punished. I have to die. The law demands
punishment. But here's my hope. My hope is
I already died. I've already been punished. I
got punished about 2,000 years ago on a cross in the personal
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. I was in him. My sins became
his. And when he bled and died, that's
when I bled and died. Right? The law has to be fulfilled
in punishment. But also this, it can't just
be neutral. It can't just be that there's a zero-sum game.
Okay, well, he's just never done anything wrong now. No, I have to be really
righteous. I have to have kept the law, every jot and every
tittle. The Lord Jesus Christ did that too. When he walked
upon this earth and he kept the law perfectly, we kept it in
him. This is our hope. And now, Christ
has become the end of the law. He satisfied it in punishment,
he satisfied it in keeping it. And that law says nothing. Perfect,
good, accept him. No reason to be angry at him. Now look at verse six. The rest
of it deals with faith. But the righteousness which is
of faith speaketh on this wise. Now what does that mean? The
righteousness that is of faith. Now does that mean that, well,
a man can't keep the law, he can't really be righteous, so
as long as he has faith, the Lord counts that faith as righteousness,
it takes the place of righteousness. No, absolutely not. Faith is
the substance of things hoped for. The evidence of things not
seen. What is the evidence that the
Lord Jesus Christ took me on and has made me righteous right
now? Faith. If you want to know what
your standing is before God right now, whether you are righteous
or not righteous, it's very simple. Do you believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ? Because if you do, you're a righteous man. You're a righteous
woman. You have the very righteousness
of Jesus Christ. Go back to reading verse six
again, but the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on
this wise. Say not in thine 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. First he tells us what faith
is not. Don't do this, don't say what can I do to make him
come down here and do something for me? What can I do to attract
his attention? What good thing can I do to get
him to look at me and come down here and do something to me?
Salvation by works, don't do that. This thing of going down to bring
him up from the dead, this deals with the resurrection. And the
resurrection deals with justification. Don't say, what can I do to make
his work effectual for me that I'll be justified? What can I
do to earn this? Don't say that. That's salvation
by works. What do we say? Look at verse eight. But what saith it? The word is
nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart. That is the
word of faith which we preach. Now the word of faith mentioned
here is not a thing. It is a person. It is the Lord
Jesus Christ. He is the word of faith. He's
what we believe. He's where our faith rests and
he's what we preach. Him and his faithfulness that
he came here and he did exactly what he said he would do. What
did he say he would do? First Timothy 115, this is a
faithful saying. and worthy of all acceptation,
that Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners, of whom
I am chief. Where does our faith rest? Where
is it lying? Where do we look? This man and this man doing exactly
what he said he'd do. He said he was going to come
here and he was going to save, he was going to accomplish the salvation
of sinners. Well, that's where my faith rests,
because I'm a sinner. I'm the chief of sinners right
here, and if he came to save sinners, my faith rests in him,
because he did exactly what he said he would do. Now look at verse nine. That if thou shalt confess with
thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart
that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Now here is the content of faith. This word confess, you've probably
heard Todd say this before. If you haven't, it'd be new to
you. It doesn't mean what you think it means. It means to speak
the same thing. That means you speak the same
thing that Christ does. What does he say? Why don't you
turn to the scripture, John 14. This is the Lord Jesus Christ
speaking. He says, Let not your heart be troubled. You believe
in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many
mansions, and that means bodies, places, bodies. In my Father's
house there are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare
a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself. And where I am, there you may
be also. And whither I go you know, and
the way you know. Now Thomas saith unto him, Lord,
we not know whither thou goest, and how can we know the way?
It's a great question. Jesus saith unto him, I am the
way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. Now this is what he has to say
about himself. He says, no man comes to the
Father, but by me, I'm the way. Now, is this your confession? Do you speak the same thing?
That there is only one way into the Father's presence and you'll
live, and that's in Christ. Not beside him, not being drugged
with him, you actually have to be in him so much so that when
the Father looks at you, all he sees is his son. that the
very righteousness of Christ really is yours. He sees you
and he says, that is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased.
And he's looking at you because all he sees is his son. You believe
that? Is that your confession? He says, I'm the truth. The truth. Not that I speak the truth, I
am the truth. I'm the truth about the justice and the holiness
of God. When God saw sin on me, he would not spare me. How much
more would he spare you if he sees sin on you? I'm the truth
about man. I'm holy, and I walked in holiness
along this earth, and every man hated me. That's the truth about
man. We hate God. He's the truth,
right? I'm the way, the truth, and I'm
the life. I am life. It's all in me, and I'm the giver
of it. And for you to live, my life
has to be your life. Literally, where I've been, you
have to have been there. Where I am now, you have to be
there now. Where I'm going to be, you're going to have to be
with me. My life has to be your life. Do you believe that? That's
your confession. There's only one life that God
can accept. It's his life. It has to be my life. Now, here's
the last question. Do you believe that God raised
him from the dead? Now, I'm not talking about whether you physically
believe that there was a resurrection. I'd say most men believe that.
Do you believe what it means? Why did the father raise him
from the dead? It was because of justification. Because he
came here to do one thing, and that was to save his people.
Put away their sins, that they might have his righteousness,
to where there is no reason whatsoever that the father has to be angry
with them. And he raised him again because of justification,
because the thing he came here to do, to save all his chosen
people, he did. That's why the father raised
him from the dead. Now, here's my question to you. Did he do
what he said he did? It is finished. Does that have to have been done
for you? Is that the only way you'll be saved is if he did
it all? Folks, if that is your confession,
then according to Romans 10, you shall be saved. You already
have been. We finished early. I'll leave
you there. Mm-hmm.