The salient point of Romans 10 centers on the profound truth that salvation is accessible to all individuals, irrespective of their ethnic or cultural backgrounds, through faith in Jesus Christ. In this chapter, the Apostle Paul articulates the critical distinction between righteousness derived from adherence to the law and that attained through faith, emphasizing that the latter is the means by which one may attain a right standing before God. Paul expresses a heartfelt desire for the salvation of his kinsmen, the Jews, who, despite their zeal for God, remain ignorant of the righteousness that is found in Christ alone.

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Well, good morning again to you.

We're thankful that we're together once again to study the book of Romans.

We're in chapter 10 this morning.

And so if you'd like to turn over to look at the text as we go through this and study it, that would be probably preferable.

You'll get much more out of it, I think, this way.

And if not we'll, we'll be able to, I think, fill in the read each verse at a time and explain it as we go along.

Paul begins in verse one, saying, brethren, my heart's desire and my supplication to God is for them to be saved, or that they might be saved.

The Jews regarded Paul as a traitor.

He had left them and their nation, and so he was an apostate.

And so when you look at the chapter nine, Paul had expressed his devotion to his brethren, his kinsmen, according to the flesh, and yet only a remnant would be saved.

And of course the Holy Spirit had directed that information to him.

The casting off of the Jews wasn't just some sort of a arbitrary decision of God.

There was still a way for Jews to be saved, however, but it wasn't based on some a corporate body of Jews being saved.

It was just on an individual level, and it's been that way ever since.

Salvation is on the basis of each individual's decision and their commitment to following King Jesus.

But knowing that salvation could be attained only through Christ, he didn't pray for them to be saved in their unbelief.

That would have been an impossibility.

He says, I bear them record that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.

And and he explains that when he says in verse three that they were ignorant of God's righteousness and were seeking to establish their own.

Now that was the reason they were so.

Again, this is a lot like Pharaoh very similar.

They had already made up their minds in their prejudice.

They had decided that their way of making man right there was what they were going to preach and teach and live by.

And so they were bent on a system of works whereby one could keep the law and could look at that and say, I have performed it, I have done, I have kept it.

That wasn't possible, of course.

And so they were ignorant of God's righteousness because they refused to accept it.

They had their own way.

It's like a lot of people today, we have made up our mind about something.

It's hard for us to see anything else.

And that's what the Jews had done.

Their understanding of righteousness was based upon law keeping.

And so because of that they rejected the notion that salvation was by faith because that would open up the possibility for all men to be saved.

And the law was given to them and they were accountable to keeping it.

And therefore they were God's chosen people.

And righteousness was based upon law keeping.

They had it.

Nobody else was given the law.

That's the advantage the Jew had over the Gentile.

Paul would say in verse two, I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.

They had misunderstood the prophets, refused to understand that Christ would fulfill the law and the prophets.

And so they had not understood the purpose of the law nor the voice of the prophets.

If they had, they would have known that Jesus came to fulfill both the law and the prophets.

The Jews were full of zeal.

They were very anxious and keeping the law, very devout in their belief and their spirit of, of service.

But they were willfully ignorant.

They refused to listen to anything else.

They had already made up their minds and therefore they crucified the Son of God because he didn't fit the image of their Messiah.

So in verse three, he says, being ignorant of God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God.

And I don't think Paul is talking about God's personal righteousness here.

It's a lot like over in, when we first started in chapter one, when we looked at the theme of the book, when he talks about the gospel being God's power to save, he says, for therein is revealed a righteousness of God.

From faith unto faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith.

The righteousness of God is God's righteousness.

From the standpoint that it was God's plan and way to make man right, it was his righteousness.

Therefore the Jews had rejected that plan.

They refused to accept that plan because it took all advantage from the law.

And having the law, that's not what they wanted.

They weren't going to accept anything that took away that advantage that they had as being God's chosen people.

And so they were ignorant again, it was willful ignorance.

Therefore they did not submit to the righteousness of God.

That is God's plan and that's revealed in the gospel.

This is what they had rejected and they were therefore in a lost condition.

Verse 4 says, For Christ is the end of the law unto righteousness to everyone that believes.

Now this is a lot like Galatians 3.

You'll remember Paul talks about the fact that the law was a tutor to bring us to Christ.

And in a very similar way, he does that in the earlier chapters of Romans when he starts in chapter one talking about sin among the Gentile world.

And then chapter two, the moralist, the Jew that rested in the law and considered himself a teacher of righteousness.

A teacher, an instructor, yet he was just as guilty.

The point being, all the way through the first three chapters, is that all men, Jew and Gentile, have sinned and therefore have fallen short of the glory of God.

Chapter 3, verse 23.

So Paul really sets that out in a very methodical way to suggest that all men are brought under the judgment of God.

Chapter Chapter 1, verse 18.

The wrath of God is poured out against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.

So man's in a predicament because all are in that condition.

In it is revealed God's plan to make men righteous, that is to give them a new status of having fellowship with God.

Man that has broken that fellowship, marred that relationship by sin, can now remedy the situation through the gospel.

And what is it?

It's by faith in Christ Jesus, and what a wonderful plan that is.

But it included not just the Jews, it included the Gentiles.

Well, they didn't like that.

Jews did not like that because it allowed for other people to enter into this relationship.

And therefore they rejected the very plan that could save not just the Gentile, but them as well.

Christ was the end of the law unto righteousness.

From the standpoint that Christ ended the law, it's true that the death of the testator brought in a new covenant.

But the point that he's making here, by the word end, it's teleos, meaning it's the aim, or we might say purpose.

The end or aim of the law was righteousness.

The believer in Christ is made righteous.

And thus the end of the law for righteousness is reached in Christ.

When a man's sins are all blotted out, when he is cleansed from all sin, he is righteous.

That condition is reached in Christ by those who believe.

And the law brought us to that point.

It did in, you might say we could look at it in at least two different ways.

It did it from the standpoint that the law and the prophets pointed To Christ.

Everything ultimately led to Christ in the sense that it again, that the end of the law was Christ.

It was all pointing in that direction.

All the types and the anti types that we could look at, the animal sacrifices, the priesthood, all of that was just a shadow of the good things to come.

Christ and that new covenant was the reality, whereas the old law was just the shadow.

So from that standpoint we could say that Christ was the end of the law.

He also came to fulfill the law.

In chapter five.

I came not to destroy, but to fulfill.

But beside all of that and Paul's argument in the Roman letter and I think also the Galatian letter is that the law's purpose was to convict men of sin.

It was to make sin more apparently.

We might look at chapter seven again and emphasize the fact that the language there where Paul talks about the struggle of trying to be justified by law.

Oh wretched man that I am, he would say, who will deliver me out of the body of this death?

Here was a struggle of a man trying to be justified by the law.

He says, in me that is in my flesh dwells no good thing to will is present with me.

But how to perform that which is good, I find not.

I find another law in my members.

It's warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity.

That was the struggle, this battle that was raging and that that was waging rather in Paul's heart and his mind was this spiritual battle that we're still involved, engaged in to this day.

But the difference is, and the difference really the context to chapter seven is that was an effort to be justified by law.

But in Christ Jesus, Paul would say, so then with the mind I serve the law of God, and with the flesh the law of sin.

Again, he's not condoning sin.

He's just simply saying that when I sin, it's not because that's my desire.

I delight after the law of God in the inward man.

Even though there's another law in my members that's warring against the law of my mind, my mind, I'm serving the law of God.

Therein lies the difference with the Old Testament.

Living under that law, it doesn't matter what your intent was, doesn't matter what your purpose was.

If you violated any part of it, you become guilty of all you might.

As far as guilt is concerned.

And insofar as the punishment was concerned, you were in the same boat.

That puts men in a very bad predicament.

We might say the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ.

Well, how was it a tutor?

Well, in one way is it convicted me of sin.

It caused me to realize that I couldn't keep the law.

This is the Paul's whole argument in the first four chapters of the book that we've been looking at.

All have sinned and fallen short.

That no man is justified by the law.

It is evident, for the just shall live by faith.

That's his whole position.

And so what did the law do?

It brought us to the point.

It told us what sin was, made us aware of sin, and then convicted us of the fact that all have sinned and fallen short.

So now that leads us to one.

The only alternative left for man is to look outside himself.

What's outside himself but Jesus Christ?

And putting our faith and our dependency on the work of Christ at Calvary, and knowing that in Jesus there is redemption, there is forgiveness.

Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.

Blessed is the man whom the Lord forgives.

And then he uses David as an illustration.

This is in chapter four.

So all this is coming to a head.

We're just kind of.

That's really a summary of what he's already looked at in the earlier chapters.

And so Christ is the end.

That is, the aim of the law was righteousness.

Now, it didn't produce righteousness, but it led us to Christ.

And faith in Christ is that which is God's plan to make man right.

The believer in Christ can be made righteous.

Then thus the end of the law for righteousness is reached in Jesus.

And so, you know, it'll be noticed that when Paul says Christ is the end of the law unto righteousness, he adds to everyone that believes.

That's the phrase.

The modifying phrase is the application is made to everyone that believes.

And that shows that Paul was not speaking of the just, the end, or the cessation of the law that's taught elsewhere.

We could study that somewhere in other texts, but that's not Paul's point here.

In verse 5, Paul says, For Moses writes that the man that doeth the righteousness which is the law shall live thereby.

This is the same thing he's been looking at in other passages.

James talks about this as well.

The man that doeth them will live in them.

The law required perfect obedience.

And the curse of the law, Galatians 3:10, was cursed.

Is everyone that continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the Law to do them.

There was no other means by which to be justified under that system, except than to keep it perfectly if you had violated it in one point, just as James would say, we've become guilty of all.

So this was the purpose of the law, or the aim or end of the law was righteousness.

Why it led us to Christ.

Its end or its purpose is realized in Christ, to everyone that believes.

Verse 6, beginning but the righteousness which is of faith says thus, say not in your heart who shall ascend into heaven that is to bring Christ down, or who shall descend into the abyss that is to bring Christ up from the dead.

But what saith it?

Thy word is nigh thee or near thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart.

That is the word of faith which we preach.

And so in the connection in which these words are used, they seem at first glance to be a little bit obscure.

But Paul's quoting the law from Deuteronomy 30.

And if you go back, Paul or Moses writes, for this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not too hard for thee, neither is it far off.

Then he says, but the word is very nigh unto thee in thy mouth and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.

Now he's talking about the commandment that is the.

The whole law.

Moses had just finished giving them in detail the law, and therefore it was nigh them.

It was done, it was with them, so that it was not necessary to go to heaven, bring it down, or go across the sea or somewhere.

It wasn't difficult.

It was there that law was not in heaven, but it was here among them.

In other words, it's easy, it's within reach.

It's within easy reach.

It does not require the impossible.

It doesn't require ascending to heaven to bring Christ down or to bring him up from Hades.

Nor do we have to hear any direct word from heaven to enjoy this righteousness by faith.

The word of faith, or the word that produces faith was preached.

That is, it was made known by the holy apostles and prophets.

The connection shows then that this plan of righteousness made known by the apostles was what was necessary.

And it's the only plan through which man can be made righteous today.

You've got to hear the gospel.

That's why Paul says, I'm ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome.

Why?

Why would you be so anxious to do that, Paul?

Because in it is made is God's way to make man right.

It's God's power unto salvation.

You've got to hear that gospel to pray for some kind of additional power, like some are wanting to do today.

Praying for the Holy Spirit to enter their lives or in some.

Get some maybe small voice, still voice or something in the night or some message that God is talking to you.

You cannot receive that message of truth without hearing or at least being.

What I'm getting at is being exposed to the good message you've got to hear the word to believe in Christ means more than just giving a mental asset to the certain truths and certain facts that are revealed about him.

It means more than just a passive trust in him.

He's talking about faith.

And that faith, the Greek word pistis and the way it's used in the Roman letter is a reference to putting our trust in him so that we take him at his word.

We accept God's plan, God's way to make man right.

This is an active faith.

It's a faith that doesn't require perfect obedience, but the faith is made perfect by obedience.

That's what James is teaching and by its very nature acts it works or it's not faith.

He sort of challenges his readers by saying, show me your faith without your works, as if to put them to the test.

He's really causing to think about this.

Just try that and you'll find out it can't be done.

And then he would add, he says, by my works, I will show you my faith.

So Paul is, or James rather is emphasizing the kind of faith that is unto salvation.

It's the same faith that Paul is talking about.

There's a little different context in their writing, but there's no conflict there.

There's nothing contradictory at all.

In verse eight, beginning, Paul says, but what saith it?

Thy word is nigh unto thee and thy mouth and thy heart, that is the word of faith which we preach.

It is again, because if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord and shalt believe in thy heart that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

For with the heart man believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

For the Scripture saith, whosoever believeth in him shall not be put to shame.

So, you know, we're told that the Jews, you know, when they tried to illustrate or get across the idea of something that's an impossible thing or a difficult thing, it could be described as being afar off.

Now, the Gentiles were a far off standpoint that they were not nigh.

They had no covenant relationship with God in the past, and so they were far off.

So it's very similar in the sense that it's not easily Accessible.

It's not within grasp.

They're far away.

And so a thing far off would be very difficult to be justified by the law of Moses.

It was an impossible thing, a thing afar off.

To be justified by law required perfect obedience, and no one could render that kind of obedience.

But the Jews expected their Messiah to be here on earth in person and to remain there.

But this gospel system of righteousness by faith doesn't demand that he be brought down from heaven or nor does it, as if he were yet in the tomb, demand that he be brought up from the dead.

It doesn't demand or require his personal presence on earth.

But what does this gospel system of righteousness by faith say?

It says, thy word is nigh thee.

It is not a difficult thing.

It's not some far away impossible task.

But on the evidence given by the teachers here, you believe in the heart that he is the Messiah and confess that faith with the mouth.

That is the word of faith which the apostles preached.

And that, my friend, is the way of righteousness through Christ.

To believe in Christ is to recognize him for what he is, to put our full trust in him, to confess him, and that is to pledge our allegiance to Him.

That's not a mere lip confession, that some sort of formality that we go through to join some church.

We must acknowledge him by word and by deed to accept him as our Lord, as our prophet, priest and king, and our Savior.

That sort of confession brings us finally to eternal life, eternal salvation.

And when you do that, friends, as he puts it here, you'll not be put to shame.

It was a great blow to the Jew with his pride of race, but it is now a whosoever believeth on him shall not be put to shame.

You know, sometimes we put our trust and confidence in a man and he'll betray us.

He'll betray that confidence.

He turns out bad, or he does something that we're.

That that's shameful.

And we.

And we're put to shame by putting our trust in him.

But if we put our full confidence in Christ and give him our life's best service without fear, without any kind of hesitation, he will not betray us and we will not be put to shame.

We can glory in him now.

We can glory in him and forevermore.

In verse 12, Paul says, For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord is Lord of all and rich unto all that call upon him.

For whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Verse 14.

How then shall they call on him in whom they've not believed.

And how shall they hear?

Believe in him whom they've not heard.

And how shall they hear without a preacher?

And how should they preach except they be sent even as it is written?

How beautiful are the feet of them that bring glad tidings of good things.

These are sort of rhetorical questions.

But no one can call on one in whom he does not believe.

And you're not going to believe on someone who've never heard.

And you're not going to hear if you haven't heard had someone tell you so.

It had to be proclaimed in order that people might hear it and believe it.

So Paul is speaking of the.

The original proclamation of the gospel.

It is a truth that they have to hear the word.

I think it's wrong, though, to make Paul's language here, to use it to prove that a preacher.

You got to have a preacher today.

And you can't have a preacher unless the church sends him.

That's.

That's an argument contrary to the facts.

Because a man can go out now and present the gospel of Christ without being sent by any church or any other man.

But the original proclamation of the gospel required men whom the Lord qualified and sent.

And if Jesus had not sent them, they wouldn't be apostles of Christ and they could not have proclaimed the gospel.

It was necessary that they be guided by the Holy Spirit to do that.

So we're now just as dependent upon the preaching of these men whom Jesus sent out as people were to whom they obeyed them.

But it's through that revelation, through that written through that word.

Rather, the Lord selected them.

He gave them the message and he sent them to deliver it.

And because that message is so precious and wonderful to those who accept it, it is said, how beautiful are the feet of them that bring glad tidings of good things.

But he says they didn't all hearken to their glad tidings.

Isaiah said, lord, who hath believed our report?

So faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.

But I say, did they not hear?

Yes, verily.

Their sound went into all the earth and their words under the ends of the world.

So here we've got.

Now we're getting at the personal responsibility.

It's really plainly brought out in these verses.

If any didn't believe, it was because they didn't listen.

They didn't hearken to the glad tidings proclaimed to them by these men.

The unsaved man, whether he's a Jew or Gentile, has no one to blame but Himself.

And this report, he said it went out to all the world that they might believe.

Faith comes by hearing the word of God, and it comes in no other way.

Some people hear and do not believe and are therefore not saved.

In this explanation, you know, go back even to the parable of the sower.

The seed is the word of God, and those on the wayside are they that heard.

Then comes the devil and takes away the word from their hearts so that they may not believe and be saved.

The devil knows that the word of God in the heart is the only thing that will cause anyone to believe.

I mean, think about the language of so many texts.

Acts 14:1 is a great example came to pass in Iconium that they entered together into the synagogue of the Jews and.

And so spake that a great multitude, both the Jews and Greeks, believed.

Now how did they come to believe it?

Well, we found out that they spake.

They so spake that a great multitude believe.

Verse 19.

Paul says, But I say that did Israel not know?

First, Moses saith, I will provoke you to jealousy with that which is no nation.

With a nation void of understanding.

Will I anger you?

You know, that's probably a good place for us to stop this morning.

And we will pick up it with verses 19 through 21 at just a short passage.

But I do want to tie that in to what we've talked about before when we discussed over in chapter 10:9 rather, in talking about God's plan, how he uses, or how he used people in the past.

Not that he used them arbitrarily with no choice of their own, but knowing the choice that they were, knowing the heart they had.

He did certain things to produce a plan and to make it come to fruition.

We're going to look at that beginning in verse 19 of chapter 10 for next week.

Well, thanks again.

Thank you for all for tuning in as you have each week.

And pray that you'll get some good out of the study that we've been having on the book of Romans.

A fabulous book, very valuable information even yet for us today.

Thanks again.

Have a great day and pleasant week.

In Christ alone my hope is found.

He is my light, my strength, my song, this cornerstone, this solid ground firm through the fiercest drought and storm.

What heights of love, what depths of peace.

When fears are still, when striving seas my comforter, my all in all.

Here in the love of Christ I stand in Christ alone, who took on flesh fullness of God in hell as babe this gift of love and righteousness scorned by the ones he came to see.

Till on that cross as Jesus died, the wrath of God was satisfied.

For every sin on him was laid.

Here in the death of Christ I.

Live.

There in the ground his body lay, Light of the world by darkness slain, then bursting forth in glorious day.

Up from the grave he rose again, and as he stands in victory, since curse has long his grip on me, For I am his and he is mine, Bought with the precious blood of Christ.

No guilt in life, no fear in death.

This is the power of Christ in me.

From lies first cry to final breath.

Jesus commands my destiny.

No power of hell, no scheme of man can ever pluck me from his hand Till he returns or calls me home.

Here in the power of Christ I'll stand Till he returns or calls me home.

Here in the power of Christ I'll stand.