This morning for our Bible study,
I would invite you to turn to Romans chapter 10. Romans chapter
10. Let's read the first four verses
of Romans chapter 10. Brethren, my heart's desire and
prayer to God for Israel. Now Paul is praying for his natural
family. He was a Jew, born of a Jew,
and he's praying for these Israel, his brethren, his family, sinners
who were lost. My desire and my prayer to God
for Israel is my family, my friends, those who were lost without Christ
is that they might be saved, that they might come to Christ
in saving faith. And then he says in verse 2,
for I bear them record that they have a zeal for God. They're
most religious, he's saying, but they're most lost, but not
according to knowledge, not right knowledge, for they being ignorant,
ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish
their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto
the righteousness of God. Now, Romans 10, verse 4, for
Christ is the end of the law. Christ is the fulfillment of
the law, the satisfaction of the law for righteousness, and
it's to everyone that believes this gospel of Jesus Christ. Now, you will not hear a more
instructive, more important message than what's taught in these verses.
If you can, by God-given faith, believe, receive, and submit
submit and bow in submission to what is taught here by God's
grace, you will not miss the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ
or salvation that is in Him. Now notice in Romans 10, let's
go back and look at these four verses this morning. He says
brethren, he's writing to the church family here at Rome and
believers and he's expressing his desire Not only to preach
the gospel to sinners, but also to pray for sinners. He said,
it's my heart's desire, my heart's will, my heart's affection to
pray. Pray to God. Pray to God for
sinners, for Israel. These who were physically descended
from Abraham, who had great zeal, but they were most lost, sinners. Now Paul took every opportunity
that God gave him to travel and preach the gospel to many people. Many were converted under the
preaching of Paul. Paul was determined to know nothing
among sinners for salvation but Jesus Christ and him crucified. And here, when he says, when
I can't pray, Or when I can't preach, rather, to my brethren,
my family, my friends, my neighbors who need salvation, when I can't
preach to them, I'm going to pray for them. Now, we can't
always have access to sinners to preach to them and tell them
the way of salvation, and that is necessary. It's necessary
to declare the gospel of Jesus Christ by the preaching of the
gospel. God has ordained that to the salvation of sinners.
We're commanded to preach the gospel to all men everywhere
without exclusion. wherever God gives opportunity,
whenever God opens a door. But when we can't always preach
to sinners and have access to them to tell them the good news
of salvation in Christ, we can certainly pray for them. We have boldness and access to
the throne of grace in Christ Jesus. Now, in verse 2 of Romans
10, he states the reason why they need salvation. He's not
saying they're not religious. Now remember old Saul of Tarsus
before God made him the apostle, before God made him a trophy
of his grace. Old Saul of Tarsus was most zealous. He was so zealous that he went
beyond the boundaries of Israel, beyond the boundaries of Judea.
He went into Syria. He went to Damascus to call and
to call out and to arrest those who were calling upon the name
of Jesus Christ. He says, I bear them record.
He said, I'm a witness that they have a zeal for God. There's
no question they're religious zeal, but they're not knowledgeable
of the way of saving grace and salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul's saying here that these
people, His kinfolk, they were most religious, most zealous,
but yet they were most lost, guilty. Guilty. Now, many of
you, I'm sure, have family and friends and neighbors who were
most religious, most self-righteous as these Jews were, but they
don't have any saving knowledge of the true Christ of God. Therefore, we can say all are
in need of saving knowledge of Christ You see, sincerity and
salvation are not the same thing. We hear people say sometimes,
well, it doesn't really matter what you believe as long as you're
sincere. My friend, that's not a good
statement. It matters greatly what we believe. Salvation is
not in sincerity. Salvation is in a person, the
Lord Jesus Christ. For Paul, he says, I acknowledge,
I bear record, I'm a witness to their religious zeal. but they don't have saving knowledge.
Now in Romans 10 verse 3 he states the problem here and he uses
a very powerful word for they being ignorant. Now I know it's
not sociable to call someone ignorant but when it comes to
the matter of spiritual truth we must confess that all men
naturally are ignorant of God. They love darkness, not light.
They love self, not God. The carnal mind is enmity against
God. They being ignorant of God's
righteousness, going about to establish their own righteousness,
Therefore they have not submitted or bowed or received. They have
not submitted themselves unto this righteousness of God. Now that is a key statement throughout
the book of Romans, the righteousness of God. Now three things are
mentioned here in verse three concerning our problem, the sin
problem. Ignorance, ignorance because
by nature we're dead in sin. And because of our sin nature,
because of the blindness and deadness of our heart, we're
ignorant of the character of God as He's revealed in Scripture. We're ignorant of God's true
character. What would you say the central attribute of God
Almighty as He's revealed in Scripture? I know a lot of people
say, well, God is love and that is true and God is merciful and
God is gracious, but the center characteristic and center attribute
of God is that God is holy. Remember the scripture from Isaiah
6, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty and because God
is holy, the demands of His holy law is perfection. Cursed is
everyone that continueth not in all things which are written
in the book of the law to do them. If righteousness comes
by the law, Galatians 2.21 says, if we can be saved by our law
doing, our law keeping, then Christ is dead in vain. No, my
friend, we're ignorant of the true character of God. God is
holy. So holy he cannot look upon sin
with the least degree of favor. Secondly, man by nature is ignorant
of his own true character. We think too highly of ourselves
and our thoughts of God are too low. We are ignorant, man by
nature is ignorant of his own true character. We see the central
attribute of God is holiness. What is the central, what would
you say the central character, the main character of man is? Mankind. Well, my friend, it's
sin. It's sin. If you turn to Romans
chapter 3, Romans chapter 3 beginning at verse 10, he said, there is
none righteous, no, not one. We're all sinners. There's none
that can produce a righteousness satisfying to God. There is none
that understands God. There is none that seeketh after
God. We don't understand. We don't
seek God. There's none righteous. They're
all gone out of the way. They are together become unprofitable.
There is none that do with good. No, not one. The law says let
every mouth be stopped and all the world become guilty before
God. By one man, sin entered into
this world and death by sin. Romans 5.12. Do you know anything
of the character of your own heart, out of the heart this
proceeds evil thoughts and murders and fornication and these things,
they come forth from the heart. Man at his best state is altogether
vanity. Man in his righteousness, God
said, it's filthy rags, away with it. So we're ignorant of
God's righteousness, God's true character, what he demands. Secondly,
we're ignorant of our own character. We think too high of ourselves.
And I know God must reveal unto us what we are and who he is.
And then the third thing it's mentioned in Romans 10 verse
3, they being ignorant of God's righteousness, going about to
establish their own righteousness. Now watch this, and here's the
key to understanding the gospel. They have not submitted themselves
unto the righteousness of God. They're going about to establish
their own goodness, their own doing. They're going about, lost
sinners are going about to establish the ground of their own righteousness
rather than looking to the Lord Jesus Christ who is called in
scripture the Lord our righteousness. Now notice here it doesn't say
that they were ignorant of God's righteousness in this last part.
We had that in the first part, but here it said, they have not
submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. That is the righteousness that's
provided. And he's talking here about a
justifying righteousness that the Lord Jesus Christ provides
for us by his life and by his death. That's why he came. That's
why God was incarnate in the flesh. That's why the Lord Jesus
Christ came. He lived the perfect life honoring
every precept of God's law. He did honor the law. He did
magnify the law. And in his death, he satisfied
the penalty of that law. In the gospel, we have the very
righteousness of God given to us freely. in Christ Jesus. No wonder when Paul, O Saul of
Tarsus, learned that lesson, he wrote about it in Philippians
chapter 3, when God taught him that righteousness that justifies
before God is totally in the Lord Jesus Christ. He said this,
I count everything else loss. Ruin, rubbish, that I may win
Christ and be found in him, not having my own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of
Christ. Now, if you have your Bible there, I would encourage
you to turn to Romans chapter 4. Romans chapter 4, and you
can read of this righteousness of God. Romans chapter 4 verse
6 says, David described the blessedness of the man to whom God would
impute righteousness without work, saying, Blessed are they
whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed
is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. My friend, do
you know anything about imputed righteousness, the righteousness
that's freely and fully given in the gospel in Christ Jesus. That's why he came, that's why
he lived, that's why he died. To honor God's law and justice,
to answer the demand of God's law that we could not meet. We
are sinned and we've come short of the glory of God. The Lord
Jesus Christ was made sin for us who knew no sin that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. Now in closing,
let's look at Romans Chapter 10, verse 4. Now look at this
carefully. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness. My friend, are you still trying
to seek God's favor by keeping the law? My friend, Christ is
the fulfillment of it. He said, I didn't come to destroy
the law, I came to honor it. I've came to fulfill the law.
Every believer resting in the Lord Jesus Christ has honored
God's law. Christ is the fulfillment, the
end, the satisfaction of the law, righteously. For righteousness
to whom? To everyone that believes the
gospel. Our Lord said in Calvary's tree,
it is finished. It's the same word there that
Christ is the end, He's the goal, He's the satisfaction. Christ
perfected the law for us by that one offering He perfected forever. them that are sanctified. By
that one almighty offering unto God, He totally put away all
the sin of God's elect and justified them by His blood. Now this is
so. This is true. Christ is the end
of the law for righteousness to everyone that looks to Christ,
that believes Him. This is so. To every sinner who
by God-given grace eyes of faith, looks to the Lord Jesus Christ,
believes Him, receives Him, trusts in Him as all in all in salvation. To everyone that not worketh,
not doeth, it's to everyone that believes the gospel. not just
believes, but believes and submits to and trusts in this Lord Jesus
Christ, who is made to the believer, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. Well, I pray the Lord will give
you grace to go back and look at these verses. Romans 10, verse
1 through 4.