As we set the stage a little bit, just to review where we are, what we've been talking about is salvation. History has taken a little bit of a troubling and unsettling turn of events, if you will. The nation of Israel, who was God's chosen people, the Old Testament age during the Old Testament dispensation, God had been working through Israel in a very unique way. God had chosen Abraham. chosen Isaac and Jacob to bless them and to make covenantal promises to them that they would be this people and God would bless them and God would work through them and through national Israel they were being blessed and they were being used by God. But now we come to the New Testament age and now there are Gentiles, those that were not part of those original covenantal promises that God had made to a particular nation, and now Gentiles are becoming part of God's plan. They are now entering into a relationship with God through faith in Christ, and they are now being incorporated into the church, this New Testament program that God was using. And the Israelites are troubled by that. because they are beginning to look at what's happening and the promises that they were given by God are now being enjoyed by the Gentiles. And for many of the Jews, this was unthinkable. So they're wrestling with this. And Paul now in Romans 9, verse One through three, we're just gonna rehearse that just for a moment. Paul says, I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost that I have a great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart, for I could wish that myself will accursed from Christ for my brother and my kinsmen according to the flesh. Paul makes this very strong appeal. that Israel, corporately, the majority, are rejecting the gospel. They're not receiving Christ. They have rejected Jesus as the Messiah, and Paul makes the statement that he would be willing to spend an eternity separated from God, an eternity in hell, for the sake of his people, Israel. And so Paul is pleading with them, please understand who the gospel is for. Understand that Jesus is the Messiah, but rather than honestly facing their sin of unbelief, the Jews begin to question God's character and they begin to question God's judgment. And the Jews were continuing to hold their religious traditions at the expense of receiving the truth of God's word. Israel was placing their works of the law over the gospel. They believed that because they were the covenantal nation, that God had given them the law, God had given them the law of Moses, that somehow, if they could continue to obey the law, and they could continue to keep the law, and they could continue to obey all of the commandments of the law, that they would earn their salvation. And Israel begins to blame God for her predicament. But Paul is arguing through chapter nine that God is faithful to his covenant with Israel. But they had been unfaithful. Specifically in the New Testament age, they had been unfaithful by refusing to believe the gospel by rejecting the Messiah. And Paul now is going to make this turn. We've been talking for several weeks now about this, if you will, two sided coin. And we have talked a lot about God's sovereignty and God's sovereign choice and that he had elected the nation of Israel and he had chosen them and he had this special relationship with them and God through electing this nation was using them as light to the world to bring the lost nations to himself. But now Paul's gonna begin to look at the other side of the coin. Because now we're going to see a very clear call by Paul calling us to faith. Because if I am going to achieve righteousness, if I am going to have this right relationship with God, Paul is going to tell us that it is not by being born into a particular nation. It is not through your heritage. It's not through who you were born to. It's not inherited to you. part of a family tradition and it's not keeping some religious system. It's not about keeping these religious laws, but instead it is by faith alone. And so now we come all the way down to the end of chapter 9 in verse 30. And we're going to read Romans 9 30 all the way down through verse 13 of chapter 10. Remembering as you read through your Bible that The chapter breaks, where we break our chapters, the verses, that is not inspired. That is humans going in and trying to separate these verses out so we can find them quickly, we can locate the place where they are. But if you look at ancient manuscripts and you look at them, especially in Hebrew, they're just running text. There's no breaks, there's no punctuation, there's nothing. It's just text, text, text, text, text. That would be laborious to find our spot. So this paragraph runs from 930, but it continues all the way down through our chapter break and goes all the way down through verse 13. And so let's read these verses. Paul now begins with another question. What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith. But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. Wherefore, why? Well, because they sought it not by faith, 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 rock of offense and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. Brethren, My heart's desire and prayer to God is for Israel is that they might be saved. There's that plea again. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. They have passion for God. It's just misdirected. It's misguided. 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 believes. By the way, verse four is a pinnacle verse in Pauline theology. It is a pinnacle verse in Romans in particular. Look at verse five. For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, that the man which doeth those things shall live by them. Quotes that also in Galatians chapter three, which we'll look at. 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 into the deep, that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead, 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. 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 on him shall not be ashamed, for there is no difference between the Jew and the Greeks. 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. Salvation by works. Salvation by works of the law is impossible. And so today we're going to take a look at how do we obtain righteousness? Because he talks in verse all the way back in verse 30, you got this conversation of the Jews and the Gentiles. How are they perceiving and pursuing righteousness? How have they obtained it? How do I become righteous? How do I achieve this righteousness that Paul is calling us to? Well, let's look at two sides of this coin, if you will. And the first side of the coin is simply this. Maybe you guys have to help me this morning. I'm not clicking on all cylinders today. We could go to the next slide there that we're going to see, first of all, that righteousness is not obtained through works. If you were to take. A landscape picture of world religions today. And you were to boil them down to what is it that makes Christianity distinct from the world religions of our day. And it would come down to the fact that Christianity is the only religion that emphasizes that salvation is by faith alone in Christ. Every other religious system is going to tell you that in order for you to have a right relationship with God, there are certain things that you must do. There are good works that you must accomplish and you must pursue if you are going to, in a sense, earn salvation, or you are going to earn righteousness, or you are going to earn this intimate relationship with God that somehow it is dependent on what you do. My friend, Christianity is, in a very real sense, a complete contrast to that, because it is not trusting in something that I do, it is trusting in something that was done. Done for me, done for you. But the Jewish mind couldn't get their brains around that. Because in the Jewish mind, they had been pursuing righteousness by works of the law. Now as God entered into this relationship with them and God knew them in a very personal way and he gave them this law, we know that the Jewish nation began to pursue righteousness by keeping the law. And so Paul begins with this question and he says in verses 30 and 31, why do the Gentiles attain righteousness while the Jews do not? Now, he makes this statement that we have to be understanding what Paul is saying. He says that the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have, in fact, attained righteousness. Now, he's not arguing that there were no Gentile people that didn't want to live a life of morality or didn't want to pursue some level of righteousness. But what Paul is arguing here is that they were not seeking after the righteousness that comes from God. The Gentiles were the recipients of God's righteousness because they were believing the gospel. He says in verse 31, he makes this statement now, he says, but Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, have not obtained righteousness. Look at the contrast. He says you have this Gentile people that the Jews would look at as absolutely pagan. They were not righteous. They did not live according to the law. And they had all this sin, and they were doing all these things. And the Jewish people are looking at them and saying they have no part in God's program. And yet God says, you know what? They're not even pursuing righteousness, but they are righteous. Because they have put their faith in God's Messiah. They have put their faith in Christ. And you, Israel, the ones who are pursuing righteousness through the pursuit of the law, you don't have righteousness. Because it's not about keeping the law. I think we often, when we have these conversations, especially as we get down to the verse in chapter 10, verse 4, where Paul is going to say that Jesus Christ is the end of the law, that we need to understand, as we say often, just a reminder to all of us, that there really is two different ditches that we all tend to fall into one or the other, and we have to be very careful. The Jews were living in the ditch of legalism. They were believing that by pursuing this law, by keeping this legal system, that somehow I could earn righteousness and I could earn my salvation. And then they began to judge everybody based on whether or not they kept that law. And if you kept that law, then you were right with God. If you didn't keep that law, you were not right with God. So anytime we take any kind of idea that Christianity is a list of do's and don'ts and I have to do this and do that in order to achieve salvation or to earn God's love and favor, we are in the ditch of legalism. Now, the other extreme that Paul is going to address really in the book of Corinthians is the idea, the fancy word of antinomianism, that there is no law. I can just live however I want. I'm born again, I'm a saved person, so now how I live doesn't matter. I can go and live and do whatever I want, and I would say that right now, church in general, the big picture of Christianity, many are flirting with this ditch. Because now, it doesn't matter, I'm going to heaven, and so I can do whatever I want, God has to forgive me anyway. And so it really lives on the emphasis that I can almost, in a sense, take advantage of God's grace. Now both of those extremes are extremely wrong. Now in these verses, Paul is challenging the idea of legalism. And look at what he says in verse 32. Well, if you're a Jewish person, and Paul just said to you, look, you've been keeping all these laws, trying to get righteous, and you don't have righteousness at all. Our reaction is, well, of course, look at what they did. But we don't understand the sting in that. Because for Paul to say this to a Jewish audience would have been very, very controversial to them. This would have been a very hurtful statement. And they would have certainly asked the question, well, why, Paul? Why would you say that? And he says, wherefore, because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law, for they stumbled at that stumbling stone. Now he again quotes the Old Testament as he does Repeatedly throughout this section as it is written behold I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and a rock of offense and whosoever believeth on him Shall not be ashamed. He says that they have rejected faith in Christ believing that they could keep the law and earn salvation Now, Paul alludes to Isaiah 28, verse 16. Actually, he quotes Isaiah 28, verse 16 and verse 33, and he's talking about this stumbling block, and he is applying it to Christ, that Jesus, the gospel, the Messiah, came to the Jewish people as a stumbling block. They were stumbling over this truth because they couldn't believe in Christ by faith. That was a stumbling block to them. Now he goes on in verse 1 of chapter 10 and he again expresses his deep desire in verse 1 that Israel might be saved. Paul again grieves over their lack of salvation. Paul wants his Gentile readers to understand that he takes no delight in Israel's fallen condition. Instead, Paul once again Passionately pleads with Israel that they would come to Christ that they would come to salvation That they would come at at the Messiah and understand who he was and that they would by faith Receive the Messiah and they would once again enter into a close intimate relationship with God now look what he says in verse 2 for I bear them record that they have a zeal of God but not according to knowledge and In other words, they are very passionate about their religion. Now, in our little Christian world, it is, I got the fish on my bumper sticker, I got the t-shirt that claims Jesus, I play the Jesus music in my car, I got all this religious stuff, but that, my friend, will never save you. They had all the stuff and they were pursuing it with passion. And they were passionate about error. And they were following something that wasn't true. You've met religious people. People say to me, growing up, public university, working in healthcare industry for 11 years, I used to always hear people say, oh, you can't say that because he's so religious. And I would always say, well, humor me. What do you mean by that? Because I'm not sure that's a positive thing. Actually, usually in that context, it wasn't a positive thing. It was, oh, you're one of those. I don't want to be religious. I have no interest in religion. I have interest in knowing my Savior in an intimate way. Because these folks were passionate about religion and they were going straight to hell. Because their passion was misguided. So Paul is not arguing that they didn't have passion. He's not arguing that they didn't have zeal. But he says in verse two that they lacked knowledge. Their lack of understanding of the gospel, their lack of understanding in who Christ was, led them to the place that the religion was misguided. And because the Jews lacked this knowledge, they continued to become protective of their religious traditions. One of the hardest things for us to admit as humanity is to admit when we are wrong. Thankfully for me, it never happens. No, I'm kidding. Kidding. to admit that we're wrong. And can you imagine as this Jew, I have kept these traditions, and I've done this forever, and we've always done it this way, and we've pursued God in this way, and now you're going to tell me that I'm wrong? Yep. Because you've been pursuing a tradition and a religion that is not pursuing an intimate relationship with God. I remember a lady. who believed with all of her heart that in order for you to be saved and keep your salvation, you had to dress in a certain way. And I remember talking to this lady and she looked at me and she said, and I quote, you're gonna stand there and try to tell me that I've been wrong for all these years? Yes. Does God command us to be modest? Yes. But he never said that that's tied to salvation. And he never said that if you don't do this and don't do that, or you do this and don't do that, that you are going to wait a minute. And the Jews in their minds were pursuing these traditions and they were pursuing this religion and they were sincere, but they were sincerely wrong. This would have been a very tough pill for them to swallow. The Jews are missing out on God's righteousness that is found in Christ because they were too busy pursuing their own righteousness. They were pursuing their own path of righteousness. Look at what he says. He says in verse three, he says, 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. They were righteous in their own eyes. They had their own set of righteousness and they were pursuing that and they were going after that. And Paul is going to argue that with them, that in fact, the righteousness that they were pursuing was a path that they had made for themselves. It was pursuing the wisdom of men and not the righteousness of God. Israel was ignorant that God's saving righteousness was a gift of God's grace. And thus, instead of trusting God and Christ for their righteousness, they sought to establish their own righteousness in their own strength. Now, Paul makes this very important statement in verse four. Imagine all of this. Set the context. You're a Jew. And you have been pursuing righteousness through keeping the law. And you have given your life to that and you have been pursuing that, believing that it was going to earn salvation for me and it was going to be my way to heaven. And then Paul makes this statement in verse four, for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes. Now, this word and. It's a fancy Greek word, the word is telos. It means complete, perfect, finished. He's applying this here to the fact that Jesus was the finish or the end, the completion of the law. The word can also carry the idea of it was the goal of the law, it was the end of the law. He was the fulfillment of the law. Now, there are theological treatise written on this verse, dissertations written on this verse. And there are people that are arguing, debating, well, was Jesus the end of the law? Okay, he was the end of it. He put away, completed the Old Testament law. He was the end, and there are people that write passionately about that. Then, on this side, there are those people that write, no, no, no, he wasn't the end of the law, he was the goal of the law. He was the goal that it was working toward, and he was the goal, he was the finish line, if you will, of the law. And Gertie, what's the answer to that question? Yes. The answer's yes. He was the end of the law. He was the goal of the law. The entire Old Testament legal system was pointing to the fact that there was coming a day that the Messiah would come and fulfill that law perfectly. And this law, all the Old Testament sacrifices, they were picturing Christ. They were pointing toward Christ. And when Christ died on the cross, He put away the law. He ended the law. He was the fulfillment of the law so that you and me can come into God's presence and into a relationship with Him through faith alone in Christ. Why is it that on this altar we don't sacrifice animals? And in Galatians, well, the big thing was, and we'll look at this if we have time this morning, was circumcision, that to be saved, you must be circumcised. And we look at that and we say, no, wait a minute, no, no, no, no, Jesus died to, here's what some say, Jesus died to fulfill the ceremonial portions of the law, and so we're not under the ceremonial portions of the law, but we're still under the moral aspects of the law. Wrong, wrong answer. Sorry, Jesus died for the whole law, all of it. So we're under no law, didn't say that. Because today as New Testament believers, we are under the law of Christ. We are bound by the commandments, the words and teachings of our Savior. We are not bound to an Old Testament legal system. But here's what Christians do. They go back to the Old Testament and they read the Old Testament law and they find verses they really like. And they really wish they still applied today. And so then they go through hermeneutical gymnastics to make them apply to us. My friend, if you're gonna do that, you're under all of it. You can't do that. It's funny to me, people will have these verses, and the next one is, don't boil your children in the mother's milk. It's like, wait a minute, whoa, whoa. If you're gonna take that one, you gotta take that one. Oh no, that one doesn't apply to, what, why? You want one, you got them all. Jesus was the end of the law. He completed it. You're not bound to that system. You're not bound to the legalistic ideas that these Jews were trying to hold onto this law, and they would go back and say, no, these Gentiles, they can't come in by faith. They have to be circumcised first. They have to keep the law first. And Jesus, by the way, stop messing up our Sabbath. Stop that healing stuff on the, you can't do that. And Jesus said, watch me. You watch me, because you've even taken my idea of the Sabbath, and you've distorted it. Not you, but the Jews. You have distorted that, and you have manipulated that, and now you are putting these people, he says, under these burdens that you don't even bear yourself. It came about religion. became about keeping of these legalistic ideas. One writer said this, he said, perhaps there is no one verse that is more germane to the conversation of Paul's view of the Christian relationship with the law than Romans 10.4. The understanding of this single verse will determine to a great extent one's perspective on the law in the New Testament and its application to the Christian life. In fact, one could argue that a proper understanding of Romans 10, 4 hinges on a single word, the word telos. How one interprets the usage of this word telos will have profound impact on one's theology of the Mosaic law. Christ's relationship to the law and the role of the law in the New Covenant age will be determined on our view And how Paul is using this word in this verse, it seems that Paul is driving a wedge between two distinct theologies. There were those who were clinging to the Mosaic law as a means of salvation, and they were proclaiming that salvation was independent of the law. And there were others who claimed that salvation was independent of the law because Jesus had fulfilled the law. So Paul's argument in Romans is emphasizing Jesus as the end of the law in the sense that the Mosaic law is no longer applicable to Christians, and because Jesus was the goal and the end of the law. The Old Testament was pointing to Christ. When Christ came, he fulfilled the Old Testament law, and he was the goal to which the Old Testament economy was moving toward that moment. The world changed at the cross. And Jesus ended the Old Testament legal system because he fulfilled it. Righteousness was now achieved through faith in Christ. It was not through works of the law. Christ fulfilled it. And he has now established himself as the one who must be followed by faith. He was the culmination of the law. He was the focal point of the law. He was the purpose of the law. There are no works of righteousness that can provide salvation. Placing one's faith in the finished work of Christ is the only way to achieve a right relationship with God. The Jews had failed to recognize Jesus as the Messiah. They failed to recognize that Jesus was the one to whom their entire legal system pointed. And again, we don't ever I want to argue that as Christians then, we are free from any law. We certainly don't want to argue that there are not things that we are not bound to. In fact, Paul says in Galatians 6 too, he says, bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. Now what I thought I would do this morning is read through every one of the Old Testament laws that we have. We'd be here till next week sometime. What was the point in all of that? By the way, took a sneak peek at my watch, we're not gonna get to point two again today. I know that surprises you. We're not gonna do that, we have a baptism this morning. But as we think about what Paul is saying, that we take our ideas of what righteousness is supposed to be, and we take these external ideas and we try to force them into our lives from the outside. Keep this, do this, do that, right? Can I be honest with you? At some level, that makes Christianity easier. You know, I take my pen, and I make my list and I go through and I check, oh yeah, I did that, I did that, I did that, oh, good, I'm righteous today. At some level, isn't that easier? But Paul is saying a relationship with God doesn't work that way. Have you ever tried to make somebody do something they don't wanna do? How does that typically go for you and for them? Paul says, you know what? Relationship with God is not about that. It is about God taking your wicked heart that is filled with sin. And part of the purpose of the Old Testament was to demonstrate to you and to me that you can't keep the law. It is impossible. In fact, Paul, just to We won't get to this today, we'll look at this next week, but he says in verse five, for Moses described it, the righteousness which is of the law, that the man which doeth those things shall live by. You want the law? You want the law? Go for it. Live it. Do it. And oh by the way, he quotes the same verse in Galatians, we won't get there today. He quotes the same verse in Galatians where he is talking about you foolish Galatians, what's wrong with you? Your salvation started by faith and now your sanctification is about your works. And he says if you want the law, you can have it, then go keep it, all of it. And if you want to get to heaven, do it perfectly. Paul says the purpose of the law was to demonstrate as a mirror that you are a sinner and that you cannot completely fulfill the law perfectly. It is impossible. You will fail every single time. And at the moment that Jesus Christ hung on the cross, he fulfilled that law perfectly because he lived a sinless life. And so now I can become righteous before God through faith in him, exchanging my robes of sinfulness for his robes of righteousness. That when God looks at my life, he sees the blood of the perfect lamb who took away the sins of the world. And now I can stand before God righteous. because of Him, not because of me, not because of my works. If we take just the 10, just the 10, the 10 commandments, and we filter them through the Sermon on the Mount, every one of us in this room, before the end of this day, will be O for 10. You won't keep them perfectly. You can't. But Jesus did. You know what? A relationship with God is not from the outside in. It's from the inside out. Right? It's about, I love God so much, because of what he did for me. My sinful heart is in the process of changing. I don't sit, white-knuckle it out, and hope and pray that I just get it right. I hope I can do it. The question of life, no. It's not gutting it out. It's allowing the gospel to change me from the inside out. So Paul says this morning, righteousness is not obtained through works. It's not about what I do. It's about what has been done for me on the cross of Calvary. This morning as we close, I wonder if you're here today and you've never maybe come to the place in your life that you have ever seen yourself as a sinner in need of a savior, maybe you've always believed that if I'm just a good moral person and do some of the right things, that God will look on my life and all the good I've done, and I will earn my way to heaven. My friend, the Bible says that's impossible. Your works of righteousness, the Old Testament says, are but filthy rags in God's sight. They will not equal salvation. Faith in Christ alone, which we'll talk about next week, is the only way of salvation. It is not through works. Now maybe you're here today and you're a Christian, you know you've put your faith in Christ, but you have been trying to live by this list of things that you just believe I have to do in order for God to love me. My friend, God loves you wondrously, as Julie's saying. and His love for you is not based on what you do, it is based on the finished work of Christ. Now, I don't know about you, but if I had to go through every day of my life believing that my righteousness before a holy, perfect God depended on me, depended on me keeping the works of a legal system, I'd be pretty discouraged. But I rejoice because I'm free from that. Free in Christ. Free to obey the law of Christ out of joy that God loves me. God loves me to the point He sent His Son to die for me. It's not based on your works. It's based on your faith. on your belief in Him.