Preaching and Prophecy - Part 2

Walkersville Christian Fellowship

10/19/03

Gary L. Cox

I bear them record that they have a zeal for God but not according to knowledge, for they being ignorant of God’s righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.  For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes.  For Moses describes them, righteousness which is of the law but the man which doeth those things shall live by them. – Romans 10:1-5

If I asked you to define ignorance and didn’t look at Romans 10, you and I would tend to think that ignorance is a lack of the fullness of the understanding about the Bible.  And yet the Biblical definition of ignorance is: the mechanism by which God transfers His righteousness to man.  If you have that piece of the puzzle in place, how God transfers His righteousness, then it is so sweepingly affective to every other aspect of the Christian life that it will become a guiding light of truth as you do any study, as you find yourself in any respect seeking the Lord and seeking to listen to those who would teach.  The subtleness of the error of human doctrine is you and I comfort ourselves by the degree to which we understand something.  Our goal is to increase our understanding so we can increase our comfort.  In these first five verses there are three things that play into the larger sense of a need of Israel and also it demonstrates our own need. 

Knowledge Vs. Zeal

Number one, you and I tend to replace zeal for knowledge.  That’s what the Jews were doing.  By degree of intensity of care they think they will be preserved.    You’ll never be saved by your zeal.  You’ll be saved by the work of God.  My dependence shifts from, “What am I doing?” which is where the zeal comes into effect, to, “What is God doing?” and “What is my response to what God is doing?” 

Ignorance vs. Submission

Secondly, ignorance promotes man’s righteousness which refuses submission to God’s righteousness.  You and I generally don’t have the courage to look at someone who is practically perfect like Mary Poppins, and say, “You’re going to hell.”  In our American culture today, the one area where persecution is coming down and Satan is blinding the eyes of God’s people and causing confusion across the board and that is this one thing: “Don’t you dare criticize, or call satanic, or evil, other people who are different than you.  You need to be tolerant of other people.”  There is some truth to the arena of tolerance when we understand it in the proper Biblical sense.  But at its fundamental base the error of tolerance is it makes it look like whatever I say came from me.  Well if whatever I say came from me, I really don’t have any more authority than you have to promote or appeal or control society based on what I think.  But my appeal ought not to be what I think; it ought to be what God Himself has revealed.  When you and I walk in ignorance we tend to promote man’s viewpoint instead of God’s; that’s a danger.  What day of the week is it that you promote your opinion instead of God’s knowledge that you will arrive at the right conclusion? 

Life from Christ vs. Life from the law

Thirdly, the contest centers around life coming from Christ versus life coming from doing the law.  Verse 4, “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth.”  The point here is about righteousness.  Deep down inside man’s striving to do good is a striving to be righteous.  And frankly in a practical sense of the word, I think that in our ordinary lives, we who know the Lord and have believed on him unto salvation struggle, I believe, on a regular basis with this whole question of righteousness; personal, experiential righteousness.  We are quickly led astray, having begun in the Spirit; we are tempted by the flesh to walk down a path of doing.  Doing makes me feel righteous.  My comfort is now being drawn by the approval of man versus the approval of God.  And God would have us to do none of that.  Christ is the end of the law for righteousness.  Once you come to Christ, the law no more becomes the means or the expression of righteousness for you.  You set that aside because Christ is our righteousness.  He is righteous, He lived a righteous life, He died, He took our unrighteousness upon Himself and He now transfers to our account His righteousness, not because we did a thing but because He did it all and He simply said, “Come,” and His hand is held out and He beckoned for everyone to come. 

The Nearness of Faith

Verse 6, “But the righteousness which is of faith speaks on this wise, ‘Say not in your heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? For as to bring Christ down from above, or ‘Who shall descend into the deep?’ that is, bring Christ up from the dead.  But what saith it, the word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thine heart, that is, the word of faith which we preach.”  

We’re pressing, pressing to get us to have a larger sense of feeling of belief.  But this verse really tears that apart in practicality because that expectation for you and I to increase our faith by our effort, moves faith from the category of focusing on God’s work and it shifts it over to a work of our own. The question is, if I don’t have enough faith, then I will not move God’s hand and He will not hear from me.  God isn’t farther and farther away from us so that we have to go farther and farther by faith to grab God and bring Him down; that is the exact opposite of truth.  The weight of faith is this one principle: “the Word is near thee, even in your mouth and in your heart, that is, the word of faith which we preach.”  The nearness of faith to every person is the most singular expression of the substance that it’s all the work of God and not the work of man, because it’s ready and it’s right here. 

“… In thy Heart…”

Notice that he focuses on two issues.  He says, “The word is near thee,” and he describes nearness in two terms.  It’s near thee, that is, even in thy mouth.  It’s near thee, that is, in thy heart.  You and I are here, mouth is right here and our heart is right here, it’s not very far away.  That is the nearness of the word of faith.  And then he goes on and explains how it works in verse 9, “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved.  For with the heart man believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”  Here we see the picture of the nearness of the word.  I have nothing to do beyond what is right here in my own personal being.  I have a word to believe and a person to confess.  What do I believe?  I believe that God raised Christ from the dead. 

“… in thy Mouth…”

The second part is the confession of your mouth.  It says, “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus,” simple statement.  Jesus is Lord.  Nobody perceives that Jesus is Lord except that the Holy Spirit show him but when we come into the acquaintance of the person of Christ and His work, when we come into the acquaintance of the personal work of Christ as the resurrected Savior, there is the immediacy of the association with the Lordship of Christ and His person and we confess the Lord Jesus, there is a confession of Christ, He is Lord.  It is absolutely imperative that you and I have the confession of Christ as Lord because it’s meaningless if we don’t. And of course, we find Him in His position of Lordship because of resurrection.  He is in an exalted place of authority and everything on the earth is under that authority and all circumstances are rushing toward the finale of His purpose which was purposed before the foundation of the world.

…to be continued