Paul's desire

We're going to read together tonight in Romans chapter 10, and we'll begin at verse number one. Romans 10 verse number one. Some very simple thoughts this evening.

Paul says this, brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of 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 believeth. And that'll suffice for our reading of the Holy Scriptures with God's blessing. Just a simple thought tonight at the close of this conference of the weekend here, is Paul and his heart's desire for his people.

You know when people present the gospel, when people share the gospel, oftentimes it starts with families. A person gets saved and they they want to tell their family and then they want to tell their community and they want to tell their friends. And why is it that this is the case? Why is it that Paul wants to see his nation, the people of Israel, saved? Well, Paul himself was a Jew.

And Paul himself was a religious zealot, a man full of self-righteousness, going about to establish his own righteousness. And his heart's desire for his people's salvation was because they were just like him. They were just like him.

And you know, when we think of the gospel tonight here in Ankeny, it's the desire of the Christians here and the desire of the evangelists, his desire for the gospel to be preached because people are just like we were. You see, when you think of Paul in his lifetime and you think of the things that he did and who he was in the education that he had, you'll find out that he was a Pharisee of the Pharisees. He was a very religious man.

He was a man that was, he was a hater of Jesus Christ. He thought the Lord Jesus was an imposter and thereby his life he was seeking to please God, going to the extent of going from village to village to persecute the Christians. And that day in Acts chapter 9, when Saul was on the Damascus Road and the light shined down from heaven and God stopped this man in his tracks.

And there he is with his face upon the ground and a bright light shining on him. And the voice comes from heaven, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? For the first time in his life, Paul was caused to stop and to consider what he was doing when the voice came from heaven. What was he doing? He was persecuting the Christians.

He was a Christ rejecter. And the voice comes from heaven. Why do you persecute me? He says, who art thou, Lord? Who was speaking to him? Do you remember the story? God was speaking to him.

He says, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. Who art thou, Lord? Can you imagine? He doesn't know who's speaking to him. He knows it's the Lord.

He says, who art thou, Lord? And when the answer comes back that I am Jesus whom you're persecuting, he trembled. Why would he tremble? Because he realized all the trouble that he was in. If the one that is speaking to me from heaven is Jesus Christ, I am in an awful lot of trouble.

Because he was going to bring the Christians, the followers of Christ, bound and bring them to Jerusalem to have them imprisoned. And Paul realized something that day. That he was in trouble because of his sin.

What were his sins? Oh, it was a sin of unbelief, wasn't it? That was one of them. He didn't believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah. He didn't believe that Jesus was the Christ.

He didn't believe that he was God's chosen, sent one. And it's the very one that he was rejecting. He was guilty of the sin of unbelief.

He was guilty of the sin of rejecting Christ. He was guilty of the sin of establishing his own righteousness. And now he looks at his people, and they're doing the same thing he was doing.

You see, he looked at his people, and he sees that they're made of the same material. We look out at the audience tonight, and primarily speaking to many here that grew up in Christian homes like I grew up in a Christian home. And you're just like me, just like I was.

A privileged, hearing the gospel day in and day out. People praying for you every day by name, praying for your salvation, praying that you might come to know the Savior and find forgiveness of sins at the cross. We're made of the same material.

What are we made of? We're an eternal soul with a temporal body, and we're going out to meet God. That's what we're made of. These bodies are getting older, but we're not a body with a soul.

Sometimes we say it that way, but that's wrong. We're an eternal soul with a temporal body, and we're going to exist for eternity. And we're going to exist in either one of two places, either a heaven to gain or a hell to shun.

And sin is the problem. So this man, Paul, he's looking now at his nation. His heart is breaking for them.

His heart is longing that they too might be saved like he was saved. You see, these people, his people, they were going down the same path that he was going down. Rejecters of Christ going out to meet God.

Have you ever thought about it? If you were to meet God tonight, how would you meet him? If you were going down the road to Damascus, and the light shined down from heaven, and instead of stopping you there and arresting you in your sins, and it was a time of your departure, where would you be? You see, if Saul would have met God that day, Saul would have been in hell. He'd have been in hell because of his sin of unbelief, and the sin of rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he would have met God in his sins, having rejected God's own son.

Paul's there now in the dust of the desert, and he's trembling. And he says, Lord, what will you have me to do? He entirely submitted himself to what the Lord wanted him to do. You know, if the Lord would have said, Paul, depart from this earth, he would have had no choice.

He would have had to go, not in his own power, but in God's power. I have a funeral in two weeks from yesterday, and it's a girl you've been praying for her parents, the Joyce family. And Katie was a healthy 18 year old girl, physically.

Athletic, trim, fit, muscular. Her mother was a physical therapist. Or still is a physical therapist.

And she had her routine every day. Her dad had retired, and every day dad and mom would go for a walk. And every day Katie would take a take a bath in the morning, because New Mexico was warm in the summer.

It's no fun waking up sticky. And every day she'd take a bath, and so this day John comes home, and he hears the water running, just like he heard the water running for the last 365 days of the year. Every day the same pattern, the same time.

The water's running. Nothing's abnormal. And he goes out to the back to do some chores, and Marilyn comes by, and she hears the water running.

But that's unnormal. It's not usually running that long. And so she goes, she knocks on the door, and there's no answer.

And she goes in there, and Katie was already gone. They don't know what happened yet. The autopsy hasn't come back.

But she found her face down in the water, and she and her husband did CPR for 10 or 15 minutes before the EMT got there. And they got there, and they worked another 30 to 40 minutes, but she was gone. She was gone.

But she had come a time a year ago when she'd come to know the Lord Jesus as her Savior. If that were you, where would you be in eternity? Paul says, my heart's desire for my people is that they might be saved. You see, tonight, if you're in your sins, you're still in unbelief.

Have you been convinced of your unbelief? You see, you talk to people on the street. Oh, I believe that Jesus was born on Christmas, and I believe that Jesus died upon a cross. The believing all those things are history.

But to know that Christ died for my sins according to the scriptures is salvation. Has there been a moment in your life when you've been saved from your sin of unbelief? Among other sins, among every sin. He says, my heart's desire is that they would be saved.

They're made of the same material. They had the same sins, but you know, what was terrifying to Paul is he was going to meet the man that he was persecuting. You know, tonight, friend, we're going to meet the same man.

Who's the man? It's the Lord Jesus Christ. And every single one here in this room today, and every single one in this big wide world today, is going to meet the man, the Lord Jesus Christ. And you'll meet him in time, or you'll meet him in eternity.

Those that meet him in time come to understand the reality of their need of a Savior. And they need to be saved because of their sins and rescued from sin and its consequences. Sin and its penalty.

Sin and its power. And they find him as their Savior. Because the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which is lost.

And so people who understand they've sinned against God, and they come to find out that the reality is that their sin is their problem. Sin has always been the problem between man and God. Sin has always been the separation between God and man.

Isaiah says, behold, your iniquities have separated between you and your God. And so Paul finds out now the real issue. The issue that he had is the same issue that his people have.

Same material, yes. Same mistakes, yes. Same sins, same man.

You ever think of the thief upon the cross that repented the day that the Lord Jesus was crucified. And that man was just the same as his friend when the day started. They were both blaspheming the Lord Jesus.

They were both railing on him. If you're the Christ, save yourself and us. But something takes place which is miraculous.

The one man has a fear of God set in upon him. And he realizes this, that I'm getting just exactly what I deserve, and I'm going to die today. And I'm going to get what I deserve in this life.

And I'm going to get what I deserve in the next life. And he didn't want to be in hell. You see, he didn't have any expectation of being with Christ in the afterlife.

Because he said, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. Lord, remember me. He knew he wasn't going to be with him.

If you were to meet God today, how would you meet him? You'll either meet him in your sins or you'll meet him in Christ. Those are the only options. And here's this man, Paul, and he says, I give them, I bear them record.

I give testimony to them that they have a zeal for God. Does a zeal for God get a person into heaven? A zeal for God, a zeal for righteousness never gets a person into heaven. That can't take sin away.

A person's desire, a person's energy, a person's zeal can never take away one sin. Not one. Yes, men must strive to enter in at the straight gate.

The Lord Jesus said that, and he taught that. For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction. And many there be which go in thereat, because straight is the gate, and narrow is the way that leads to life, and few there be that find it.

But it wasn't their zeal that was going to get them into God's heaven. It wasn't the fact that he was a religious zealot, if we could put it that way, and his people that were following after him in the old economy. Under the law, zeal can never take away sin.

It's the blood of Christ that cleanses us from sin, and the blood of Christ alone. And the very man that Saul needed was the very man that he was rejecting, and it's the same tonight. The very one that you must have as your savior is the very one that by our unbelief we reject.

And they rejected him because they had a way that seemed right, and they had zeal. And Paul says, I give them credit. They have a zeal, and you know, there's a lot of people tonight that are more more zealous in good works than many Christians are.

There are many people tonight, and in their faith, and the things that they believe, and the convictions that they hold, put many, and sometimes most Christians to shame. And the things that they hold too tenaciously, even though they're not found in the scriptures, and they're just a tradition of men, they absolutely have a complete conviction and a zeal for that, but it's not according to knowledge. That's not God's righteousness.

And that's what matters tonight, is that we have the righteousness of God. The righteousness provided by God, yes, the righteousness of God, even greater, to have God's righteousness. And you can just see, you can just see Paul entering into that.

They're just like me. They've got a zeal, but it's not according to knowledge. They're doing the best they can, but it's not according to knowledge.

They're doing everything that they can, but it's not according to knowledge. He says, they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge, for they being ignorant of God's righteousness. They were ignorant of God's righteousness.

How can a nation that was given the word of God, the Old Testament, the oracles of God came to them, and now they're ignorant to God's righteousness? Because Christ is the end of the law. Oh, God had given them the right, God had given them the commandments, God had given them his mind in the Old Testament, and they were to perform that, and they were to do that, and they were to bring the sacrifice, and they were to bring the offerings, and they were to submit and obey God. Submission and obedience to God is still the way, because it's the Christ.

But you see, the reality is this. What they had trusted, and what they were teaching, what they were practicing, would have been done away with, because Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. The law is still God's standard.

And the law was given that every mouth might be stopped, and all the world become guilty before God. And so we can look at God's law, we can look at his commandments, and we'll find our guilt very quickly. But they're going about to establish their own righteousness, ignorant to the righteousness of God, ignorant that a person can be made righteous by what Christ has done alone.

It is the death of the cross. It is the work of Christ. He is the way of salvation.

He was made sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. And it is God that declares righteous. It is God that justifies.

What's your way of righteousness tonight? In other words, if you were to die tonight, and to give a hypothetical situation, if you were outside the gate of heaven, and Peter would ask, why should we let you in, what would you say? I like that question of just visiting with people. It shows you really what they're thinking. Shows you really what they're trusting in.

I asked that to a couple who's coming to gospel meetings in a parking lot one night. On the way out, they've been coming every night for a few weeks. And I asked them, I said, if you died tonight, where would you be? And the man says, I wouldn't be in heaven.

And the woman says, I'll be in hell. Why would you be there? If you died tonight, and the question was asked, why should God let you in, what would you say? It doesn't work that way. It's just to get us to think.

Because I was a religious person. That'll never do. Because I did the best that I could.

That will never do. Because I prayed and I read my Bible every day. That will never do.

Why and how can a person ever be in God's holy heaven who was born a sinner? In order for a person to be in God's heaven, he must be cleansed of every sin. He must be cleansed of every stain. And there is only one thing that can do that for a person.

And that is the blood of Jesus Christ. The blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanseth us from all sin. From all sin.

The death of the cross, the sufferings of Christ, and the death that was accomplished there at Calvary is a sinner's only hope for salvation. A sinner's only hope for the forgiveness of sins. And anything less than the death of Christ for the guilty sinner will never do.

And nothing more can be. Nothing more than God giving his only begotten son could ever happen. And it's not the death of Christ plus me.

It's the blood of Christ alone. And so Paul, he wants his people to be saved. They're ignorant of God's righteousness.

They're going about to establish their own righteousness. You see, it doesn't seem right that an innocent one should die for the guilty. It seems right to us naturally thinking that there must be something that I can do to show God that I am sincere.

Something to work that I can do. Something that I can engage in. Maybe a religious ordinance or an activity.

But God's righteousness is found because Christ died upon the cross. And that death has satisfied God's throne. Because God's righteousness says that there must be death because of sin.

And what took place at the cross of Calvary is one who had no sin. The Lord Jesus Christ bear our sin in his own body on the tree. And there he was a substitute for the sinner.

And what took place at the cross is the innocent one voluntarily came from the heights of glory. Came down to this earth. Found in fashion as a man.

He humbled himself. He became obedient unto death. Even the death of the cross.

And so it's the Lord Jesus Christ's death at Calvary. As he bore the wrath and the judgment of God for sin. But not his own.

It is that death that has satisfied God. And now propitiation has been made. Satisfaction has been made.

And whosoever can be saved tonight. Because Christ's death has satisfied God first and foremost. God's righteous demands have been met at the cross.

And that's God's righteousness. He has righteously dealt with sin upon the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. But their men are going about to establish their own righteousness.

For those of you that are raised in a Christian home. And maybe you're yet in your sins. And you've wanted to be saved for a long time.

And you can't figure it out. And it's the most frustrating thing. I know the feeling.

But let me give you a couple things to think about. Maybe why you're not saved tonight. Number one.

Why is it that you need to be saved? I remember going through struggles trying to figure out salvation. And trying to read. And trying to be saved.

Because I wanted to be saved. And the bottom line was this. That there was never any guilt of sin in my life.

I was feeling sorry for myself. Because I was going to be in hell if I died. And I didn't want to be in hell.

But the reality of my sin being the problem. Even though I heard it time and time again. It was never real.

I never believed it. To be honest. I heard about it.

But it wasn't real for me. You see, sin is the problem. If we had the chart.

The two roads chart here. I often look at the chart. And I point out the broad road.

The broad road is not the problem. The death pillar is at the end of the broad road. The death pillar isn't the problem.

On the narrow road. There's a detour around the narrow road. And that's called the rapture.

And the rapture isn't the problem. And hell and the lake of fire. They aren't the problem.

Sin is the problem. And people miss salvation. Because they're looking for a solution.

For a symptom to the problem. And not the problem. Because answer me this in your own mind.

If your sin was taken away. Would death be the problem? No, Paul says to die is gain. If your sin was taken away.

Would the coming of the Lord be the problem? When that door shuts. Faster than any door is ever going to shut. And a door that no man can open.

And the last soul is saved in the age of grace. And the Lord comes. And he gives the shout.

And those that receive not the love of the truth. Will believe the lie. Is that the problem? That should terrify you.

If you're in your sins. But that's not the problem. Death should terrify you.

If you're in your sins. But death isn't the problem. For those of you that are saved.

You know the Savior. Your sins are gone. Is hell the problem? No, hell's not the problem.

Neither is the lake of fire. Why? Because the wrath of God. Has already fallen upon the person of Christ.

You see, God deals with the problem. And when he dealt with sin at the cross. He dealt with the problem of the sinner.

If hell was the problem. God would have to extinguish those flames. That he ignited for the devil and his angels.

If the coming of the Lord was the problem. What would he do then? No. Sin is the problem.

Paul sees his people in their sins. And they don't see their own sin. They don't see their unbelief.

They can't understand that it's not their own righteousness. They're ignorant to God's righteousness. They're establishing their own way.

A way that seemed right to them. It's their own way. But the end thereof are the ways of death.

And they have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God. You see, if you're going to be in heaven. It's going to be God's way.

The righteousness of God. And there's only one way. Not your own righteousness.

Submitting yourselves to the righteousness of God. Because Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. To everyone that believeth.

Believeth. Believeth in him. He that believeth on him should not perish.

But have everlasting life. He that has the son has life. He that has not the son of God hath not life.

You see, sometimes people struggle. Because they want to be saved from hell. But they want to live in their sin.

Never be saved that way. If hell's the problem and that's the issue. Then you're not thinking about the real problem.

People want to fire escape from hell. But they want to live in their sin. And they can't figure out why they're not saved.

That's a plague to people. And you know what's the problem is? Preachers will preach to that liking. And they'll please the people.

But sin is the problem. And what you're looking for to your friend tonight. If you want to know the forgiveness of sins.

And be saved from your sin. What you're looking for is. What could God have ever done with your sin? How could God have ever made payment for sin? What could God have done on behalf of the sinner? How can I know my sins are forgiven? The night that God saved me.

I was saved without even thinking about believing. Believe it or not. I believed that night.

But that wasn't my focus. A scripture God used to bring the light to me was this. Not by works of righteousness which we have done.

But according to his mercy he saved us. And so I could understand that it was just like this. Verse chapter 10 in these verses.

Not by works of righteousness which we have done. I get that. It's not what I can do for God.

But it's according to his mercy. It's God having mercy on me. I could understand that.

But the verse says this. He saved us. And that word saved is in the past tense.

And that was confusing because I wasn't saved. Not by works of righteousness. According to his mercy he saved us.

And I thought how can that be? That the word is in the past tense. And the question come into my mind. What could Christ have ever done to save me? What a question.

And just like that it was obvious. That's why Christ died. Christ died for my sins.

Absolutely obvious. It was undeniable from the word of God. That when Christ died upon the cross.

He died for my sin. And the work has been done for 2,000 years. You see it was personal to me that night.

I wasn't thinking about the sins of the world. I wasn't even thinking about the sins of my younger brother. But my problem was my sin.

And about 15 seconds before God saved me. I come to this conclusion. I'm just going to have to go to hell because of my sin.

And I flopped my Bible up on that dresser. And I picked those tracts up. And that verse was on the back of that tract.

I meant I'm just going to get what I deserve. I'm going to be in hell. Do your sins deserve the judgment of God? Paul's did.

Mine did. Yours do. And so what you're looking for tonight.

Is something that Christ could have done with your sin. To deal with your problems. To deal with the problem that you might be cleansed.

That you might have the righteousness of God. So Paul's desire was for his people. Our heart's desire and genuine desire tonight is this.

That whoever is in this room. Still lost and on the way to hell. Would come to know what salvation really is.

Come to know the forgiveness and the cleansing. And the rescue from sin.