Summer of Romans 2018 (Part 17): Real Gospel (Part 1)

Thanks for tuning in to No Compromise Radio with pastor and author Dr. Mike Abendroth. Today on No Compromise Radio we'll be hearing Pastor Mike open the Word of God in a recent message he preached at Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston, Massachusetts.

Now let's join Pastor Mike in progress as he preaches through the scriptures verse by verse with No Compromise.

Israel’s Bad Example and the Sovereignty of God

I was meeting Pradeep Wednesday night for dinner and went down to White City and there's a little Chipotle there, Trader Joe's parking lot and I pulled up a few minutes early and I was just going through a few details and my window was rolled down and a young lady came up to my door.

She had a really big book with her and she said, Hi, I'm raising money for our youth group, could you help? I just looked at her and I said, I love youth groups, tell me about your youth group. Oh, it's a good news youth group, raising money for a week long camping trip.

I said, well what church are you with? She said, I'm with the Unification Church. And before I could catch myself I just blurted out, you're a Mooney? I said, doesn't your leader, didn't he used to believe, Sun Yung Moon, that he was the Messiah?

Oh no, he never believed that. I said, well yes he did. I said, but that's not really the point now, you're a youth group leader, you're raising money, you're here. I said, I'm really glad you're here because I would love to go to heaven.

Please tell me, how do I get to heaven? You're with the Good News Club, what's the good news, how do I get to heaven? I'd really love to go to heaven. She kind of looked at me puzzled and she said, God is love, you have to be good.

I said, oh, I'm bad though. I lie, I have thoughts that I ought not to have, I'm self-righteous, I'm prideful, I'm arrogant, I'm selfish, I don't honor God like I should, and I guess there's no hope for me.

And I said, I'm wicked and I need help. And she looked at me like, you, wicked? Why am I walking up to a wicked man's car in White City? And I said, and you're wicked too. You haven't loved the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, you haven't loved your neighbors yourself.

That's a bad example of witnessing God is love and you ought to do good. You know, you can learn a lot from bad examples. I drove past Chelmsford High School this week, Chelmsford High, and out front there was a car that was wrecked.

And I don't know what it was, it was too wrecked. It was probably an old Cutlass. But in my mind it was a 1972 Pinto, right, it had been rear-ended. And the illustration was, don't drink and drive because something bad could happen to you.

An illustration of something that was bad, don't do it. Take your Bibles please and open to Romans chapter 10, we have an illustration of Israel, what not to do. Israel's bad example. We're going chapter by chapter through Romans and now we're in chapter 10.

Israel did not believe chapter 9 because they weren't chosen by God. Chapter 10, they didn't believe because they didn't choose God. The ultimate cause for Israel's rejection is found in the sovereignty of God, Romans 9.

The immediate cause of Israel's rejection was found in their responsibility, they rejected the Messiah, Romans chapter 10. Chapter 10 is really the rest of the story. It is true that God is sovereign over all, but it is also true that men and women and the nation of Israel is responsible for their rejection of the gospel.

When men and women perish eternally there are two causes, ultimate cause, sovereignty of God, immediate cause, they didn't believe. And what I really like about chapters 9 and 10, Paul doesn't go into how these two doctrines reconcile themselves.

It's clear God is sovereign in scripture and it is clear man is responsible. But Paul doesn't tie things up because you know what, friends don't need to be reconciled now do they? Both are true. And it shouldn't shock us that we are finite people and we can't get our arms around all of God's truth to make sure we figure it all out.

You have to accept both. If you think to yourself there is a rope here and it goes all the way up to heaven and there is a pulley that you can't see up in heaven and then the rope comes down the other side of the pulley.

Kuyper said what you do if you are a good Bible student is you grab the rope of Romans chapter 9, the utter sovereignty of God and you also grab the same rope but the other side of it, Romans 10, man is responsible and hold on to both.

Because the scriptures teach both. If you grab hold of one, down goes the rope, if you grab hold of the other, same thing happens. Paul is saying in the book of Romans with the theme, the righteousness of God.

Chapters 1, 2, and 3 we don't have any righteousness and we need righteousness. What God requires of us to get to heaven we don't have in and of ourselves. But what we don't have Jesus Christ has earned for us and gladly bestows on all those who would believe.

Chapters 3, 4, and 5. So what we are going to do today is we are going to learn from a bad example, Israel, what not to do as we look at how they rejected the Lord Jesus Christ and it doesn't come as a surprise because look at chapter 9 verse 30 through 33.

We probably have a bad location for a new chapter in chapter 10 verse 1 because look at how we see their responsibility and their unbelief in chapter 9 verse 30. What should we say then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it.

That is a righteousness that is by faith. But that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith. But as it were based on works, as if it were based on works, they have stumbled over the stumbling stone, Christ Jesus, as it is written, behold I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.

Contrary to works and working your way to heaven, whoever believes in him will not be put to shame. Israel is culpable. Israel is responsible even though God is sovereign. And Israel is a bad illustration of what not to do.

Sincerity Is Not Enough

Let me today give you the topic and the sermon title is How Not to Get Saved. We're going to do that because that's exactly what this text is teaching us. Don't do what Israel did. If you're not a Christian here today, this is not what to do.

This is a bad example. This is driving past the street, seeing the wrecked car. Don't do that. Falsehoods to avoid. And we learn from Israel's plight how not to be saved. Lessons from Israel. Number one.

Number one. How not to get saved? Believe that sincerity is enough. As long as you're sincere, it doesn't matter what you believe. Verses one and two. Verse one. Brothers, you can just hear the Romans 9 plea of the early verses of Romans 9 here.

Paul's pastoral heart, his kind heart, beautifully expressing his love for his fellow Israelites. Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them, the Israelites, is that they may be saved. Isn't that really a sign of true Christianity, true redemption where you want other people saved?

You get saved and the first thing you want to have happen is your mom to get saved, your spouse to get saved, your kids to get saved. And he's got this burden, very pastoral burden of saving wicked Jews.

Lewis Talbot met a person who said, do you expect me to love the Jews why they are terrible people? And then Talbot said, yes, they are terrible. In fact, they're nearly as bad as the Gentiles. Yes, they rejected the Messiah.

Yes, they stiff-armed Jesus Christ. But you know people like that too and don't you want them to be saved? Don't you want their sins forgiven? Don't you want them to go to heaven? Don't you want them to recognize the Messiah?

That was Paul's desire. And he could have knocked Israel's block off by saying, these are all the things they haven't done. But he gives a little positive here. It's not ultimately positive, but he says in verse two, for I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, they're zealous for God, they're concerned about divine things, far from being apathetic, far from being removed, come see, come saw.

They have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. I wonder if Paul was thinking about his own life as a Pharisee, as a man who persecuted the church. Did Paul have a zeal before he got saved to persecute the church of God?

Yes, he did. But it wasn't according to knowledge. This verse forever strikes down those who would somehow believe that it doesn't matter what you really believe as long as you're sincere. If I have some water here that's not really water and it's full of strychnine and arsenic, if I just kind of drank it, a little sip here and a little sip there, kind of sitting back in my easy chair, just leisurely sipping it kind of apathetically, it makes no difference if I do that or if I pick it up and just guzzle it on down with great ferv and verve and with sincerity.

If you believe the wrong thing, it doesn't matter. Sincere belief in false doctrine will damn you just as easily as a lackadaisical belief in false doctrine. If you could get to heaven by being sincere, why kill Jesus?

No need for Jesus to die if you just need to be sincere. By the way, that's why it's so important for us to preach the gospel clearly and accurately. These people were sincere, they were religious. You know how we would call these people today in our society?

I'm very spiritual. It doesn't matter if you're spiritual, religious, zealous, if it's not according to the knowledge of the scripture, Christ crucified, Christ the representative substitute who's been raised from the dead, it doesn't matter.

Maybe the most zealous religious spiritual people in all the Bible, Jesus said this to them, Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel about on sea, that's zealous, and land, that's sincere, to make one proselyte.

When he becomes one, you make him twice as much the son of hell as yourselves. They were sincere, they were zealous. But look at the text, but not according to knowledge. Remember chapter 9, we just read that part about they stumbled over the stumbling stone, Jesus Christ.

And that word knowledge there in chapter 10 verse 2, it's got a preposition on it which means it's more emphatic. It's just not knowledge, it's full knowledge. The Jews memorized scripture, they knew scripture, they had scripture, they strapped it to their upper arm, they strapped it to their head with the phylacteries.

Self-Righteousness and Going Your Own Way

Sincerity is not enough. If you think you're going to get to heaven today because you're a sincere person and a religious person and a spiritual person, learn from Israel, that's not true. Number two, what's the second lesson learned from Israel on how not to be saved?

Go your own way, figure out your own way in your religious walk. Go your own way spiritually, found in verses 3 and 4. There are popular funeral songs and I just googled popular funeral songs today and I found this potpourri of funeral songs.

Amazing Grace by Elvis Presley, and then the list goes downhill from there. Angels Among Us, Alabama. Perry Como for the older ones in the congregation, Ava Maria. Baby Mind by Bette Midler. How did she make the list?

I don't know. Beyond the Sea, Bobby Darin. Mariah Carey had two songs, Butterfly and Bye Bye. Candle in the Wind, Elton John, Circle of Life, Elton John. Close to You by the Carpenters. What a Wonderful World, Louis Armstrong.

Lean on Me, Bill Withers. We'll Meet Again, Vera Lynn. You'll Never Walk Alone, Jerry and the Pacemakers. Knockin' on Heaven's Door, Guns N' Roses. How'd that one make it? Imagine John Lennon, Stairway to Heaven, Led Zeppelin.

Morning Has Broken, Cat Stevens. Wish You Were Here, Pink Floyd. And the most popular funeral song that is secular, Frank Sinatra, My Way. I did it my way. That's exactly what Israel did, and it'll damn you.

Take a look at the verse. This is the error of the Jew. This is the error of so many today. I'm going to do it my own way, thank you. I will not have this man reign over us for, verse 3, being ignorant of the righteousness of God and seeking to establish their own.

They did not submit to God's righteousness. We're not going to do this by faith like you tell us to. We're going to earn our own. We're going to do it our own way. Sinfully, that's where we default to, just a works righteousness.

There's a sociologist in America. He calls this kind of religion Sheila-ism because Sheila says, I think I'll bring in a little Hinduism. I think I'll bring in a little paganism. I think I'll bring in a little postmodernism.

I think I'll bring in a little Christianity. I'll bring in a little bit of work with your own hands and feet and put it all together, and I'll determine what's right. And my name's Sheila, so what's your religion?

Sheila-ism. That's exactly how people do it today. This is how not to be saved. This is what Israel did wrongly. And they were ignorant of really the nature and character of God, how holy he is and how righteous he is.

Don't make that mistake. That's an eternal error. Galatians 2 says, if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose. I did it my way. Jesus is the only way. The pride and arrogance of the Jew and many people today, no knowledge.

Friends, you need righteousness, but self-righteousness blinds. You need what God requires, righteousness. And doesn't the Scripture tell us, all we like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his or her own way, seeking to establish their own.

I don't like your righteousness, God. I'll do it my way. I'm not going to subject myself, put myself under you. Now, this is happening here locally too now. I think Bolton is a pro-farm community or something.

In Santa Cruz, we have a lot of organic stuff, a lot of homemade stuff, a lot of local stuff. They have a farmer's market, of course, now all across the country. All across the country, they have them.

I don't mind that when it's radishes and pecans. But if you want local homegrown organic religion, it's going to damn you because God has provided the only way of salvation through belief in Christ Jesus.

By the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight, Romans 3. No wonder Isaiah 57, it says, I will declare your righteousness and your deeds, but they will not profit you. No wonder Isaiah goes on to say in chapter 64, all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment.

This is Israel like the lawyer who runs to Jesus and wishes to justify himself. This is like the Pharisee that stood and was praying thus to himself, God, I thank thee that I'm not like the other people.

Swindlers, unjust, adulterers are even like this tax gatherer. I fast twice a week, I pay tithes of all that I get. The tax gatherer standing some distance away was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven and beating his breast.

He said, God, have mercy on me, a sinner. Verse 4 goes on to say that the law is ended. Any way to try to earn your own righteousness by keeping the law is kaput because Christ came. Take a look at verse 4.

For Christ, the Messiah, is the telos, the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. Now in four or five years, we'll come back to Romans and we'll go verse by verse through it slowly.

And we'll talk about this a little bit more, but to say this, there are three different interpretations of the word end. For Christ is the end of the law. Number one, it may be that Christ is the goal of the law.

That would be a proper grammatical interpretation. That everything in the Old Testament leads itself to Christ. The law is a tutor that brings you to Christ. That's a true statement, but that's not what Paul is talking about here.

Secondly, it could be translated, Christ is the fulfillment of the law. All those sacrifices, all those ceremonies, all those offerings, all the pomp and circumstance of Old Testament liturgy all points to Jesus.

That's true. Jesus did not come to abolish the law, Matthew 5, but to fulfill it. But that's not what Paul's talking about here. He's saying the end here is the termination, the wind up, the finish. The old age, the legal age is done with.

The only way you get righteousness is through Christ and his sacrifice. And wasn't that true? Think about your own life. The second God opened your heart, made you born again, gave you saving faith. You look back on your life and you said, you know, I was trying to earn all these things.

And for me particularly, I tried to earn myself salvation by baptism, by consecration, by catechism, by going on missions trips, by doing things with the church, by being good. But then the light went on in 1989, and I realized everything I had done in the past was my feeble effort to try to earn favor with God.

It's like me standing at, what's the place down by the ocean there in Massachusetts, you go to Martha's Vineyard, Woods Hole. If I was in Catalina, I'd say standing at Long Beach trying to jump to Catalina.

But here you're at Woods Hole trying to jump to Martha's Vineyard. And I realized we all fall short. It can't be done. Someone has to come and rescue me. God has to do it. And you think my old way of religion is a thing of the past.

That's what Paul is talking about here. Belief in the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord stops forever the futile earning of your own righteousness that you could never earn. Worsby said, Christ is the end of the law in the sense that through his death and resurrection, he has terminated the ministry of the law for those who believe.

A side note, this kind of statement should forever put to rest any desire you have to get involved with Messianic Judaism. And bringing in all the Old Testament laws for today are at least some of the ceremonial ones.

Righteousness by Works Cannot Save

Number three, how not to be saved. Think you can be sincere to get to heaven. Go your own way, number two. Number three, try to get to heaven by works. This is all implicit in the text, but let's make this explicit here, verse 5, try to get to heaven by works.

Now, it can't be done, but hypothetically, if you kept all the Old Testament, you could earn for yourself a righteousness. Verse 5, for Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law. Here's the hypothetical.

Of course, you've got to forget Adam's fall, you have to forget imputation of Adam's sin, you have to forget sin nature, you have to forget all that. But hypothetically, here is the standard that the person who does the commandments always shall live by them.

But the purpose of the law was to let men and women know that they couldn't keep the law. Here, Moses quotes Leviticus 18. I read you all of the verse. So you shall keep my statutes and my judgments by which a man may live.

If he does them, I am the Lord. And the Jews would say, yes, but I did do them. But did you do them perfectly? Because James 2 is also true, for whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in how many points, one has become guilty of all.

If you could keep the law until you were 91 years old and then one sin, out. But Romans 8, we've already learned that what the law could not do, weak as it was to the flesh, God did sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin.

That's why I love Rock of Ages. Not the labor of my hands can fulfill thy law's demands. Could my zeal no respite know? Could my tears forever flow? All for sin could not atone. Thou must save and thou alone.

The Bible teaches that cursed it is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law. That's why Galatians 3 is so wonderful when it says Christ redeems us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.

The Word of Faith Is Near You

Number four, how not to be saved, learning from Israel's bad example. Do everything and anything except believe. Do anything and everything except believe. Now, verses 6 through 8, if you look at the text here, probably don't hear people talk about this much because if you're a Roman's road person, you just jump down to 9 and 10, the good stuff, verses 9 and 10.

But this is the good stuff right here. He's quoting from Deuteronomy 30. If you were talking to the Jews, I would guess that you would quote the Old Testament quite a bit, if you're talking to them or about them.

And now, look at what the personification of the righteousness based on faith says. Verse 6, but the righteousness based on faith says, if it were able to speak, this is what it would say. Do not say in your heart, who will ascend into heaven?

That is to bring Christ down. Or, don't say in your heart, 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.

That is the word of faith that we proclaim. Two weeks ago, I read on the internet that 78 ,000 people signed up for a one-way trip from Earth to Mars, whatever it was, 2035. One-way trip to Mars. I had a lot of thoughts, learning from a bad example.

But here's the thing, knowing how ghastly hell is, knowing how eternal hell is, knowing how bad sin is, how holy God is, how real hell is, if you were told you had to go to the moon to earn your salvation so you wouldn't have to go to hell, just how soon would you start making your rocket?

If you were told the only way you can go to heaven is to get to the moon, that's what you have to end up doing, are you going to go to hell? I think you'd start working pretty hard. I know I would be consumed with, as the Damocles sword of every day of my life passed by, I'm not going to make it.

I better try to figure this out. And here's what Paul is saying, quoting Deuteronomy chapter 30. You don't have to go to heaven to get Christ to come down for the incarnation because He's already been incarnated.

You don't have to go into the depths of the abyss to say, Jesus, are you still down there? I better raise you from the dead. You don't have to travel anywhere. You don't have to do anything because it's already been done.

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston, Massachusetts. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life-transforming power of God's Word through verse-by-verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 8 .30 and 11 a .m. and Sunday evenings at 6 p .m. We're located on Route 110 in West Boylston, Massachusetts. You can check us out online at bbcchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

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