Turn with me please to the book of Romans. We're going to take up our text where we left it last week. We begin with verse 30 of Romans chapter 9 and conclude with chapter 10 verse 13. The title of the message is Two Ways to Heaven. As I explained last week, before you execute me for false teaching, would you please listen to what I want to say about this subject of two ways to heaven and how the apostle Paul seems to be suggesting that here.
Beginning in verse 30 he says, what shall we say then? The Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness attained righteousness, even the righteousness which is by faith. But Israel pursuing a law of righteousness did not arrive at that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith as though it were by works, but as though it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone.
Just as it is written, behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, and he who believes in him will not be disappointed. Brethren, my heart's desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge. For not knowing about God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God.
For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. And Moses writes that the man who practices the righteousness which is based on law shall live by that righteousness. But the righteousness based on faith speaks thus, do not say in your heart who will ascend into heaven, that is to bring Christ down, or who will descend into the abyss, that is to bring Christ up from the dead. What does it say? The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart.
It is the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. For with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. For the scripture says, whoever believes in him will not be disappointed. For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek.
For the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call upon him. For whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. There are two kinds of righteousness, works righteousness and faith righteousness. May I remind you that one must have righteousness to go to heaven. One must have righteousness to have a right standing with a holy righteous God. The apostle tells us that these two kinds of righteousness stand in contrast to one another.
Israel illustrates for us what he calls works righteousness. He mentions in verse 5 of chapter 10 the righteousness which is based on law. He says in verse 32 of chapter 9 that Israel sought it by works. In verse 3 of chapter 10 it is their own righteousness. In contrast to that, and illustrated in believing Gentiles and in the believing Jewish remnant, is faith righteousness, which is described in verse 6 of chapter 10 as the righteousness based on faith.
Or, back in chapter 9 verse 30, as the righteousness which is by faith. Mentioned again in verse 32, by faith. He calls it in chapter 10 verse 3, God's righteousness. Last week we looked at four facts about the works righteousness. I'd like to review those with you. I have included those points on today's outline in your worship folder for your convenience. The first fact about works righteousness that we've seen is this. Works righteousness is based on the principle of law.
That is, its foundation is that it is possible for one to earn a right standing with God through his own self effort. That is the very basis of works righteousness. It's law keeping. It's earning a position before God. The second fact is that works righteousness feeds on human pride. That is, it builds esteem of the sinner for himself in his own self righteousness. There's nothing that builds human pride more than a good works kind of religion.
And then thirdly, works righteousness causes one to stumble over Christ. For when one turns away from the righteousness which God offers to try to earn his own self righteousness before God, he does so and stumbles over the very Christ who could have saved him. And he stumbles to his condemnation and damnation. The fourth fact that we saw about works righteousness is that it brings one to condemnation by the law.
The apostle says to us in verse 5, Moses writes that the man who practices the righteousness which is based on law shall live by that righteousness. In other words, although the law cannot give life, the law can sustain life where there is righteousness. But the problem is with man there is no righteousness. Therefore there is no life. Consequently, the law can only condemn him to eternal death and separation from God in hell.
And so when a man seeks to gain a standing before God by keeping the law, by his works, by his own self effort, he ultimately only brings himself into the very condemnation of the law which he desires to keep. Now today we want to move ahead to faith righteousness illustrated by the believing Gentiles and Jewish remnant. There are four contrasting facts that we want to see about faith righteousness.
You will notice, I hope, a parallel between the four facts we just looked at and the four that we will study under faith righteousness. Faith righteousness is based on the principle of grace. That's fact number one. It is based upon, it is founded upon the principle of grace. That is, faith righteousness does not come to us through our personal merit or through our self effort, but it is something that we simply receive as a free gift from God.
May I remind you of a verse that we covered several months ago back in chapter three of the book of Romans. In verse 24 of that chapter, the Lord says, being justified as a gift, as a free gift, by his grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. It is a free gift to us, but it is not free on the part of God to offer it. It cost God dearly the sacrifice of his own son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
But because of that sacrifice, that redemption in Jesus Christ, God's grace now offers to us the free gift of justification or righteousness with God, being made right with God so we can go to heaven. We talk about being saved by grace. I fear that in our day the word grace has been perverted in its meaning.
Satan loves to take Bible terminology and to give a new definition to it so that as key words are used, they are recognized, but sometimes those who use them mean something else than what the Bible means. There are those who have the idea that grace is something we accumulate, that as we do certain things we earn grace that we can offer to God. So they say, well yes, we are saved by grace and that grace is something we have to get. We might compare it to brownie points.
We earn this in order to impress another. There are those who think that by being baptized they are somehow gaining grace with God. We tonight are going to observe the Lord's Supper. You will notice we do not call that a sacrament. And that is because the word sacrament connotes the idea of somehow gaining favor, gaining grace with God by doing this. And the Lord's Supper is not a sacrament. It does not gain us grace with God.
It is an ordinance, a commandment given to us by Jesus Christ to observe. But it is not a sacrament. There are those who have ideas about other kinds of sacraments and by doing these things they sincerely believe they gain grace with God. My friend, if you study what the word grace means in the Bible, it means just the opposite of earning brownie points with God. Grace is not something we earn. Grace is something that we receive freely from God.
It means God's kindness to those who do not deserve it. So please understand when I say that faith righteousness is based upon the principle of grace. I mean that it is given to us freely from God because we believe him, not because we have earned enough merit to deserve it. Now there is a second fact we need to see about faith righteousness. It is that it brings one to humility before God.
In chapter 10 verse 3, Paul says, For not knowing about God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own, the Israelites did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. Those very sincere religious Jews of that day were seeking somehow to establish as a monument their own righteousness. And by that to say, God, look here what I did, they were unwilling to subject themselves.
You see, when we come to God and ask for his righteousness by faith, it means that we must humble ourselves and realize that we are unworthy. I am reminded of that instance that Jesus told about in Luke chapter 18 when two men came into the temple to pray.
The one man, a very proud, religious, and sincere man, said, God, I thank you that I am not like everybody else, all of the sinners out there, and especially like this man, this publican, and he offered unto God his sacrifice and went away to his house as condemned before God as when he went in. Then Jesus said, the other man prayed, and he said, Lord, be merciful to me, the sinner. And Jesus Christ said, that man went down to his house justified, that is, declared right with God. Why?
Because that man was willing to recognize his personal sinfulness, and he humbled himself before God and cried out for mercy, knowing there was nothing that he could do in himself to earn his way with God. The Apostle Paul parallels this in his own testimony in Philippians 3. For he lists there in that passage all the things he could boast about. He was born a Jew of the tribe of Benjamin, and so on and so on.
He said, all of these things that were gained to me, those I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. He said, I turn from those things and receive righteousness by faith. How opposite that is to man's attitude, who says, I am the master of my faith. I am the captain of my soul. That is the attitude of proud man, but that pride leads to destruction. It leads to hell. Robert Murray McShane was passing out tracts one day. He handed one to a very well-dressed lady.
She took it, saw what it was, and then hovely looked back at him and said, sir, you must not know who I am. That godly Presbyterian pastor simply replied, madam, there is a day of judgment coming, but on that day it won't matter who you are. You see the point? If we are going to be right with God, it begins here with humility, bringing ourselves to God as sinners, deserving nothing and receiving from God the free gift of grace and righteousness which he offers. That brings us to the third truth.
Faith righteousness comes through the simple act of believing in Christ. At least nine times in the text we have read, the word faith or believe are used. For instance, in verse 33 he quotes from the Old Testament, he who believes in him. In who? The stone that was laid in Zion. He who believes in him will not be disappointed.
I see this truth illustrated back in Luke chapter 7. I want you to turn there with me as we see that this righteousness with God comes through the simple act of believing in Christ. In Luke chapter 7, verse 36, we have a very interesting incident in the life of the Lord Jesus. One of the Pharisees, one of these very proud and self-righteous religious leaders of the Jews, was requesting him, Jesus, to dine with him. Jesus entered into the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table.
Behold, there was a woman in that city who was a sinner. When she learned that he was reclining at the table in the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster vial of perfume. Standing behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and kept wiping them with the hair of her head and kissing his feet and anointing them with the perfume.
You must understand that when they ate in that day, they would recline on pillows before a very low table and the feet would be stretched out behind the person next to you. This woman came in and saw where Jesus was, went to him, and burst into tears. As the tears flooded down her cheeks, she took her hands and wiped the feet of Jesus to get the dust off.
She began to use her hair as a towel and wiped his feet even further and kissed them, and then took some of the perfume and poured it upon the feet of the Lord Jesus. When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, if this man were a prophet, he would know who and what sort of person this woman is who is touching him, that she is a sinner. That word sinner was a word meaning that she was a prostitute. She was a woman of the street.
Jesus answered and said to him, you know, Simon said if he knew who this was, that would prove he was a prophet. Obviously, he doesn't know who she is. But the fact that Jesus was of God was proved by the fact that he read the mind of Simon. Simon didn't speak those words out loud. He said it to himself. Jesus answered him though and said, Simon, I want to say something to you. Well, say on, teacher. A certain money lender had two debtors, one owed 500 denarii and the other 50.
When they were unable to repay, he graciously forgave them both. Which of them therefore will love him more? Simon answered and said, I suppose the one he forgave more. He said to him, you've answered correctly. Turning toward the woman, he said to Simon, do you see this woman? Well, I guess he did. I entered your house. You gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair.
You gave me no kiss, but she, since the time I came in, has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she anointed my feet with perfume. For this reason I say to you, her sins, which are many, have been forgiven. For she loved much, but he who is forgiven little loves little. And he said to her, your sins have been forgiven. Now there are those who would say, well, surely her sins were forgiven because of what she did. She wiped his feet.
She offered to him this perfume. Oh no, my friend, it was not her works. Read on. Those who were reclining at the table with him began to say to themselves, who is this man? Who even forgives sins? And he said to the woman, your faith has saved you. Go in peace. What was it that saved that woman that day? Was it her tears? Was it the perfume that she offered? Was it her wiping of Jesus' feet? Oh no, no. Jesus makes it clear that she was saved.
Her sins were forgiven her that day because of her faith. And she did what she did because she had believed. You see, this woman received faith righteousness. That is, she was made right with God because she believed. She believed. You say, oh, that's too simple. There are people who believe it is too simple to just believe and receive from God the gift of salvation. Surely. I mean, the logic tells you there has to be more involved than that.
I'm reminded of a story that shows how often we overlook the simple. There was a man who was bothered with a continual ringing in his ears and bulging eyes and a red face. Over a period of three years, he went to doctor after doctor. One of them took out his tonsils and another took out his appendix. One pulled out all of his teeth. They all pulled out his pocketbook. Another one sent him to Switzerland for a special treatment, all to no avail.
And then one final doctor told the poor fellow to quit his job because he only had six months to live. He had a hopeless condition. Well, the man deciding that that was so sold everything that he had and decided to live it up for six months before he died. And one of the things he wanted more than anything else was to have a suit that was nicely tailored and some shirts that would fit him. And so he went to the tailor and the tailor was measuring him up and giving the sizes to his assistant.
And finally he got to his neck where he was giving him the size for the shirt and he said, 16 and a half. And the man said, oh no, no, 15 and a half. And the tailor measured again and said, sir, it's 16 and a half. And the man said, I have worn 15 and a half shirts all my life and I'm not going to change now. Ah, said the tailor, you can have them, but don't blame me if your eyes bulge and your face gets red and you have ringing in your ears. How like that man we are.
We overlook the simple trying to find the hard solution when my friend, righteousness with God comes by the simple act of trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ. Then there's a fourth fact that I want us to see regarding faith righteousness. It is that faith righteousness terminates the reign of the law. Before one comes to Jesus Christ by faith, he is under the dominion of law. The very law he sometimes seeks to fulfill is the law that condemns him because he cannot perfectly fulfill it.
But when one comes to Jesus Christ by faith and receives him, the law is terminated in regard to him. Back in Romans chapter 10 and verse 4, it says Christ is the end, the termination of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. So no longer are we subjected to ceremonial laws where we bring animals to sacrifice on an altar and we have a priesthood and we observe days and feasts during the year.
No longer can the law condemn us because of our inability in ourselves to keep its holy, righteous, and good moral precepts. But rather Jesus Christ has offered the ultimate sacrifice and fulfilled all the others. He has paid the price for the law's curse so that now in Jesus Christ, as it says in chapter 7 verse 6, we have been released from the law. It no longer has any dominion over us.
This faith righteousness is the only righteousness that will take a person to heaven because our sin rules out the possibility of the other way of works righteousness. Since works righteousness cannot be saved because all have sinned and therefore are disqualified, it is encouraging to note in our text that the good news, the gospel of this faith righteousness is available to the whole world, not for a few.
I want you to notice in verses 6 and 7 that in the first place this faith righteousness is based upon a finished work of Jesus Christ. He says the righteousness based on faith speaks thus, do not say in your heart who will ascend to heaven, that is to bring Christ down, who will descend into the abyss, that is to bring Christ up from the dead. Here the Apostle Paul is drawing upon Deuteronomy chapter 30 where Moses speaks about the revelation of God to his people in that day, the law.
Here the Holy Spirit takes those words and applies them to God's completed revelation in Jesus Christ. He says there is no need for anyone to go up to heaven and bring Christ down again. He came once. It is not necessary for him to die and go into the abyss and for someone to go and get him. He died for sin once and he was raised from the dead once and for all. It is a completed work. So faith righteousness is based upon that completed work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We need do nothing.
There is no work that we have to do. Verse 8, he tells us it is an accessible message. It is close. It is not remote. He says what does it say? The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart. Could not be closer than that. He says that is the word of faith. We are preaching. The gospel message my friend is not a remote message. It is not far off. Rather it is available. You do not have to do something in order to be worthy to receive the gospel.
You do not have to turn over a new leaf and then get saved. You cannot do that. You do not have to join the church or be baptized and then trust Jesus. No. The gospel message is near you. It is accessible. It is available to you right where you are this morning. All you have to do is to trust the Savior.
Verses 9 and 10, if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, that is if you recognize his deity and you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved with the heart man believes resulting in righteousness, with the mouth he confesses resulting in salvation. Notice by the way the parallelism. Verse 8, the mouth, the heart, verse 9, the mouth, verse 10, the heart, the mouth.
What he says here does not mean that there are two steps to salvation, believing and then public profession of faith. What he is saying is the two always go together. That when one believes in the heart it is exposed through the mouth. That is the point. It is like two sides to one coin. He says when we believe in our heart it results in our being right with God and with our mouth we declare I have been saved. I have been saved.
It gives a certain future, verse 11, whoever believes in him will not be disappointed. The thought there is that there is not going to be any future embarrassment because God is going to fail. Jesus Christ promises that the one who believes on him will someday arrive safely in heaven. Not one person who believes on him is ever going to be disappointed in that promise. Verses 12 and 13 we see it is a universal offer. It is not just for the Jews. It is not just for the Gentiles.
He says there is no distinction. The same Lord is Lord of all. Abounding in riches for all who call upon him. Whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. Back in chapter 3 verse 23 we saw the all that says that all are sinners without exception. Here we see the all that says all may be saved without distinction. Whoever will call, that word call is an interesting word in Acts 25 verse 11. It is used in the phrase where Paul says, I appeal to Caesar.
He says I appeal to a higher court. I call out to Caesar to judge my case. He had that right as a Roman citizen. And here is the thought. So you stand before the law as your judge. And it says to you have you kept a perfect standard of righteousness in your life? And you have to respond, well no. It says then you are guilty, you are condemned, you must die and spend eternity separated from God in hell. What is your only recourse? What the law has said is true.
You may appeal to the Lord Jesus Christ. When you realize that you are a sinner, condemned and worthy of guilt and of hell, you may then appeal to the Lord Jesus Christ and call upon him and he will save you. And that is a universal offer. It is good for you as well as for the man on the mission field and some other part of the world. Just last week there was a man in a southern state who was executed. When I heard the crime that he had committed, a wave of nausea and anger went through me.
I am not even going to speak about it this morning. It is so despicable and heinous as far as I am concerned. For that crime he was sentenced to death in the gas chamber. And he got what he deserved as far as the law is concerned, the law of our land. When I heard what he did, I thought to myself, and I must confess this, I thought to myself that fellow deserves the hottest fires of hell that he is in.
And then I heard that sometime during his imprisonment a little church in that town where the prison is went into the prison and ministered to those prisoners. And this fellow who had committed a horrible crime to a little three-year-old girl trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as his Savior. That was his profession. I hope that is true. And assuming he did that, my friend, I want you to know something.
Though the law of the state gave him what he deserved, the law of God did not give him what he deserved, but that was given to the Lord Jesus at the cross. Lord Jesus paid for his sin. And that young man today, assuming what he said was true, that he had trusted Christ and had been born again, that young man is in heaven today. And then I reflected upon the fact that here I am, I condemn him, but the sin in my own life causes me to be just as worthy of the hottest fires of hell as him.
Who am I to point a finger? And we condemn the Russians for their despicable act this week in shooting down that aircraft. And it is unspeakably shameful and should alert us to the real nature of communism. But before we condemn them too harshly, let us remember that they are not animals in Russia. They are the sons of Adam, just like you and me. There is no sin of which any of us is incapable, but for the grace of God.
Last week, remember I shared with you a letter from Willie, that prisoner out in Arizona who had killed 16 or 17 people. He was born a Jew, practiced the Jewish religion to some degree, but last February, through the ministry of some people, he came to faith in Jesus Christ. I shared with you the first letter that he wrote about his faith. I have here a copy of a second letter he wrote just two weeks after that first letter I read to you last week.
There was a time when I felt physically ill, says Willie. I felt physically ill almost constantly, and I know this was caused from the guilt I was feeling over the destruction I caused. Jesus has lifted me. If nothing else, this one thing would make a life devoted to Christ an absolute necessity. I don't understand why everybody I talk to seems so interested in the material things that Jesus might do for them.
It's like if Christ won't give them all the little things they want, then they are not interested in hearing about it, and when I try to explain the peace that I have received, they act as if that is unimportant. I will never understand this. I have lived the last ten years in a literal hell on earth, and even though my body is still held here, it no longer has the power to torment me. I have been set free in the truest sense of the word.
It is as if you, Wes, gave me the key to this prison when you gave me your Bible, and that key has unlocked all the prisons that had kept me confined and bound in sin. Isn't that great? I'm talking to some people this morning who are still bound in the prison of sin in your own life. And Jesus Christ is the key to that. He can release you. You can gain an entrance to heaven. You can be right with God, but there is only one way that you are qualified for.
Work's righteousness is out because you are a sinner, but you can gain faith righteousness with God by trusting the Lord Jesus Christ. If you will appeal your case to Him, you shall be saved. Let's pray. Father, thank you for this truth. If it were not for your grace, none of us would be saved here this morning. Don't ever let us forget that. For that one who is still outside of Christ, oh Father, today, today may that one open his heart and receive the Savior, trust Christ to be saved.
Only all of us who have made that decision live as we ought to. Would you sing with me? Into my heart, into my heart, come into my heart, Lord Jesus. Come into day, come into stay, come into my heart, Lord Jesus. Take all of my heart, all of my heart, take all of my heart, Lord Jesus. Take all today, take all I pray, take all of my heart, Lord Jesus. Father, whether lost or saved here today, may we have meant those words as we have sung them, in Jesus' name.
Would you take your hymnal and turn, please, to number two?