Welcome to the Cary Baptist Church radio broadcast called Thy Word is Settled in Heaven. I'm Pastor Ben Donohue. We continue to preach through the book of Romans. Today, Romans chapter 10, the first 11 or 12 verses. In Romans chapter 10, we're gonna have Paul taking the time to explain the state of Israel, this being given by the Holy Spirit. So much of the Old Testament is about the nation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit inspires Paul to give us the truth about Israel as they relate to the new covenant, beginning in Romans chapter 10. So let's begin reading in verse one. We'll read down to verse 11 today in Romans chapter 10. Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal for 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. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. For Moses describes the righteousness which is of the law, that the man that doeth those things shall live by them. But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise. Say not in thine heart who shall ascend unto heaven, that is, to bring Christ down from above, or who shall descend unto the deep, that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead. But what saith it? The word is close to thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart. That is the word of faith, which we preach, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart, that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth in him shall not be ashamed. Brethren, we're gonna end our reading there in verse 11 of Romans 10. We've read these verses. And as I said in the introduction here, Paul is concerned about the status of Israel, the status of the nation of Israel. And if you read through the book of Acts, you see the nation of Israel mostly rejecting the gospel of Jesus Christ. And we're gonna see some commentary by Paul on the reasons for their rejection. And let's begin in verse one. He says, brethren, my heart's desire, prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. Paul had a great desire in his heart before God for his own nation. He was a great patriot. He loved his nation, loved the People of Israel, he was one of them, a patriot, as I said, in his great desire, his great longing of his heart was that nation to receive the gospel of Christ, to be saved, to be a Christian nation. That was his heart's desire. That was his prayer. You know, we have a heart desire and that turns into prayer before God. If it's a good desire, we turn it into prayer. If you're ever lacking things to pray for, just examine your heart. What are your heart's desires that are pleasing to God? And pray for those things. Well, Paul's desire was his nation to be saved, and he prayed for that zealously for the salvation of Israel. He has this good to say about them in verse 12. And we learn from this apostle that we can commend people for things that they do right, even if in other areas they don't do right. But in this they did right, he says, for I bear them record. I mean, I acknowledge that they have a zeal of God. A lot of people don't have a zeal for God. He's saying these people had a zeal of God. The Lord God Almighty, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, what did they have? He commends them for their zeal. We can commend people for the things they do that are good, and he commended this nation, Israel, for the zeal they had of God, but he says this, and he adds this, but not according to knowledge. Now this is important, and this is gonna be what he speaks about next. He's gonna explain what not according to knowledge means. They have a zeal for God, he commends them, but he points out this other thing, not according to knowledge. Well, what does that mean? Well, that's what he's going to explain. Verse three. For they, the nation of Israel, being ignorant of God's righteousness. Let's stop right there. It's tempting to go on, but let's stop right there. They're ignorant of something extremely important. This is extremely devastating to them as a people. They were ignorant of God's righteousness. Let's just don't skip over this and run past this without thinking about it, meditating upon it. They had a zeal for God, but nevertheless, they were ignorant of what? God's righteousness. What a powerful rebuke of the nation. They have zeal, but they're ignorant of God's righteousness. Just understand that as he gives it to us. The nation was ignorant of God's way of salvation, of God's righteousness, God supplying righteousness to sinners so they can stand before him on judgment day and be allowed into heaven. They're ignorant of that way of which God makes men righteous. That's a terrible thing to be ignorant of that. And he's pointing that out. This is what this chapter is about. We said it was about Israel, about their failure. And Paul begins by saying, my heart's desires, they would be saved, but they're not saved. They're ignorant of God's righteousness. That's true of people today. So they're ignorant of God's righteousness and they go about to do what? Establish their own righteousness. That is failure. They're not gonna establish their own righteousness. All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. The best things we do, the best prayers we pray are still tainted with some sin. You cannot establish your own righteousness, you shall fail. And he says this is a grievous error on the part of the people of Israel, of his generation that had rejected Christ and the apostles. They were ignorant of God's righteousness and thus they fell into the error of trying to establish their own righteousness. And he says they have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. They have failed to receive God's righteousness. You've got to have God's righteousness to stand before Him and they have failed. And here's the key verse of this chapter. Notice, you've got to have this if you're going to have this chapter. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Well, what is Jesus? He's the end of the law. He fulfills the law. He said, I have not come to destroy the law, but to fulfill it. He has fulfilled the law. He has fulfilled all of the law for his people. He is their representative. He is their substitute. He filled all of the law positively. He obeyed everything perfectly, every bit of the law, and he suffered its penalty for our sin. Therefore, he fulfills the law. He's the end of the law. He ends the law's demands on us because he's fulfilled it. He's paid the debt that we owed. Brethren, if you can understand verse four, you can understand the Christian system. That it's Jesus Christ that makes us right with God. And the law that demands perfect obedience has been satisfied by someone else, a divine person sent from heaven who acts on our behalf. He is the savior of the world. He is the good shepherd. And so he acts on our behalf. Therefore, Jesus Christ, that divine person, the very son of God, God in the flesh, is the end of the law for righteousness to who? To everyone that believeth. Yes, throughout the Bible, that's very plain. He that believeth on the Son hath life. He that believeth not on the Son hath not life. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. Brethren, Christ is the end of the law. He fulfills the purpose of the law on our behalf for righteousness, and we receive the righteousness of God because we believe in the one who fulfilled the righteousness of God, Jesus Christ, who is perfectly righteous. This, the Jews were ignorant of. Being ignorant of God's way of righteousness through Jesus Christ and our faith and belief in him, they're going about to try to keep the whole law and show themselves worthy of heaven, and they're failing. That's why they're lost. That's why Paul prays for their salvation. He says, I can commend them for this good thing. They have a zeal of God, and that is a good thing. And we can commend people for the good things that they do, as Paul does. but they fail in the chief point. They have not been saved. They have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God, and their zeal for God will not avail them on judgment day. Without Jesus Christ, they shall fail. Now notice he gives us further explanation. He goes to Moses, the giver of the law. You read Moses' life story in Exodus. You see him giving the law in Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy. Verse five, for Moses describes the righteousness which is of the law. That is, if there's a way you can be righteous by the law, he describes it. That the man that doeth these things shall live by them. That is, if you're gonna achieve this righteousness by keeping the law, you're gonna have to do it consistently every day without a single failure all of your life. If you fail, if you sin, you therefore avoid the way to heaven by the law of righteousness, because you've got to keep all the laws without failure constantly. Verse six, but the righteousness which is of faith, he's describing two righteousnesses here, one by the law, which is keeping the law perfectly, and the other which is a righteousness, which is granted to us because of Jesus Christ, that comes through the agency that God has established of faith in Jesus Christ. The Apostle had already said in Romans 5 on this issue, therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God. He's already made that very plain in the earlier chapter. The righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise. And to summarize this section, he says, look, this faith that we preach is not a complex, faraway thing. It's something close to you. It is near to your heart, it's in your mouth, you've heard it. That he that believeth on the Son of God hath everlasting life. That's not difficult, that's not complicated. You don't need a theological degree at a seminary to understand this. God has made it by faith so that it would be available to all. All have failed sin, fallen short of the glory of God. And God in his graciousness has provided a substitute who bore our sin on his own body in the tree, that we believing on this divine person, the son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, by believing in him, we can receive the gift that God gives of eternal life. And he says, this is the word of faith that we preach. We're preaching a salvation that is provided by God through Jesus Christ. And that's what we preach. Preachers preach Jesus Christ. Elsewhere, Paul said, we preach Christ crucified and nothing else because it's such paramount importance. And here are the Jews going about to establish their own righteousness have failed because they have not submitted to this way of righteousness, which comes as a gift through Jesus Christ. He's saying, that's a terrible fault. That is a damning fault on their part. Without Christ, they will not receive salvation. That's what I mean by damning fault. And so he is preaching the word of faith. We're saved by what Christ did for us, not by us keeping the law of Moses, which no one has succeeded in doing without some violation. Then he gives us more instruction. He says, if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus Christ, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. See how important the resurrection is in the scripture. Jesus came to die for us, was buried, rose again three days later. We have the preaching of the resurrection throughout the book of Acts and the epistles. Paul is preaching the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Well, Brother Donahue, how does the resurrection figure into this? Because in the resurrection, God certified that He has accepted the payment of the Son on our behalf, and His resurrection is a full statement of God's satisfaction and acceptance of Christ's payment for us. I will accept Jesus' payment on the behalf of those souls that trust in Him. The resurrection was proof of God's acceptance for that payment. What a glorious truth it is that those that believe in their heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, they shall be saved. 4 verse 10, for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness. What happens? In his heart man believes and he's declared righteous by God. He's trusting in, believing in God's gift of salvation, tendered to him through Jesus Christ who paid our sins 2,000 years ago. If we accept the gift that God has wrought out in the world, If we accept the Son of God, then we too shall be saved, for there's no difference between Jew and Greek, for God is gracious unto all of them. Same for the Jew and the Greek. Now, earlier in the chapter, he'd mentioned the failure of the nation of Israel. They sought not God's righteousness. They were ignorant of that righteousness. And here he is explaining that the righteousness that God will accept is the righteousness of his Son, who was perfect and completed the law fully on our behalf and when we believe in our hearts in the Lord Jesus Christ, he says, we shall be saved. Let's read it again. For with the heart, man believeth unto righteousness. How do you get saved, Brother Donahue? Well, in your heart, you believe in Jesus Christ. So says all of the scripture. So says the apostle in Romans chapter four, and Abraham believed in God and it was counted unto him for righteousness. That's actually a quotation of Genesis 15. And we have the prophet Habakkuk saying the same thing, the just shall live by faith. And Jesus said to those that were listening to him, he that believeth in me shall never perish, but is passed from death to life. He shall not come into condemnation. So it's very plain in scripture that he that believeth in his heart on Jesus Christ is saved. And that's a glorious truth. And with our mouth, we confess it. Now, what does that word confession mean? Well, in the literal Greek, it's a compound word. Confession is two words. It means to say the same thing. So when we believe in Christ, we're saved. And with our mouth, we proclaim that. The Old Testament corollary to this is let the redeemed say so. If you believed in Jesus Christ and have been saved, then you have the privilege of saying out loud with your mouth that you have been saved. That's what confession is, to say the same thing. You can tell others that I've been saved by the grace of God in Jesus Christ. I'm unworthy of heaven on my own. I cannot keep God's law perfectly and fully all of my life. I have failed, but God has graciously provided someone who did keep that law, who did satisfy the law of righteousness perfectly, and God counts his death, burial, resurrection in my stead, and I'm gloriously saved by the work of another, Jesus Christ. Well, we ought to confess that. If we've truly believed in Christ in our hearts, then we are saved, we have God's promise on that, and we ought to speak it with our mouth. As we said in the Old Testament, the verse is, let the redeemed of the Lord say so. That matches with this verse with a mouth. Confession, to say the same thing, is made of our salvation or unto our salvation. We speak of our salvation, that Christ is provided for it. God is gracious. He's provided a way of salvation. Paul is grieved that the nation of Israel did not receive that salvation. He says, they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. That is a tragedy of the first order. The solution is verse 4, for Jesus Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. That's God's way to be saved. The Jews had missed that. Paul grieved and prayed for them. Brethren, let's don't miss that. Let's don't miss the great truth of Romans chapter 10. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes and with the heart man believes unto righteousness. That's what we have in Romans chapter 10. Couldn't be plainer. Let's be thankful for a gracious way of salvation that God has made for us because God has made salvation based on another through faith. That means men and women all over the world in any situation can be saved. Men in prison. can be saved. Men on their deathbeds dying can be saved. God has made it that way. We ought to rejoice in God's way of salvation. Brethren, we are about out of time. We will remind you you've been listening to the Thy Word is Settled in Heaven radio broadcast brought to you by Cary Baptist Church. We are in Athens, Alabama, and I'm Ben Donohue, the pastor there. We want to thank you for listening, and we hope you join us next time.