Romans 10:1-4; Coast Community Church; Pastor Earl Miles; January 22, 2012
Look at Romans 10:1-4
Where Am I?
Where Should I Be?
Living to glorify (honor God as “God”) and enjoy (find our happiness in God) God through faith and love.
The question is always, “How am I to trust and how am I to love?”
The answer to the love question will always involve “laying down my life” in some way.
Let’s look today at Romans 10:1-4 and see how it encourages us to trust and love.
Three Reasons for Paul’s Prayer
Paul prays for national Israel because they aren’t resting. - Romans 10:1-4
Notice that Paul says he is praying for national Israel and then at the beginning of verse 2, 3, and 4 we see a “for” which gives us reasons why he is praying for Israel so fervently.
And the essence of the reason why Paul is praying for national Israel is because of the contrast in this passage between Israel working instead of resting (in some crucial way). We can see this in the passage leading up to Romans 10. (Romans 9:30-33)
Paul highlights this contrast between working and resting as the crucial point earlier in Romans. (Romans 4:3-6)
I titled this message, ‘The Rest of the Story.’ This is a phrase that was made famous by the radio news commentator, Paul Harvey. The Rest of the Story was a Monday-through-Friday radio program originally hosted by Paul Harvey. Beginning as a part of his newscasts during the Second World War and then premiering as its own series on the ABC Radio Networks on May 10, 1976, The Rest of the Story consisted of stories presented as little-known or forgotten facts on a variety of subjects with some key element of the story (usually the name of some well-known person) held back until the end. The broadcasts always concluded with a variation on the tag line "And now you know the rest of the story." (Wikipedia)
He would begin by saying, "Hello Americans, I'm Paul Harvey. You know what the news is, in a minute, you're going to hear ... the rest of the story." (Wikipedia) Or He would tell part of an interesting story and then announce that, after a commercial break, he would give his listeners ‘the rest of the story.’ As a result, if you missed ‘the rest of the story’ you would be left with a wrong impression of what the story was all about.
This is what Paul is talking about here. National Israel, as a majority, had missed the ‘rest’ of the story of what God was doing in that they missed the part about God providing a ‘rest’ from having to fulfill His Law and from having to earn our own righteousness before Him.
A Sincerely Wrong Zeal for God
Paul highlights the truth that being sincere and enthusiastic is not enough if we are wrong. (Romans 10:2)
The word ‘zeal’ means ‘a hot emotion or boiling desire’ in regard to their relationship with God. They were not indifferent or passive about the issue of their relationship to the true and living God.
‘Not according to knowledge’ means ‘without an accurate understanding of the truth’ not ‘without a knowledge of the Bible.’
‘I testify about them’ means ‘I solemnly bear witness from personal experience’ and is likely a reflection on Paul’s own past history as a Pharisee.
The Pharisee and the Tax-Collector (Luke 18:9-14)
The Pharisee in this story trusts in himself that he is righteous and is zealous for God (fasting and paying tithes) – putting his food and money where his mouth is. The Lord Jesus makes it clear that he is not justified even though he is zealous.
Paul says he was a ‘Pharisee of Pharisees’ and he was more zealous than any of the zealous Pharisees, even to the point of persecuting the Church. But he had to be struck down and humbled on the road to Damascus.
If you see someone robbing a grocery store and you chase them down and jump on top of them, but you’ve got the wrong person … do you think Grandma is going to be happy as you help her up off the ground and hand her her broken glasses and say, “I’m sorry … I was just sure you were the robber!”
Personal Application: Will the excuse ‘I was trusting and loving according to what I was taught (by family or culture or tradition or Wikipedia)’ stand up in the day of judgment?
A Responsible Ignorance
Paul highlights the truth that we can be ignorant and still responsible. (Romans 10:3)
‘Not knowing about’ means ‘to be ignorant of’ and is the word from which we get our word, ‘agnostic.’ They were agnostics with regard to God’s method of saving sinners. But this ignorance did not elimi-nate their responsibility before God for rejecting their Messiah.
It is like the young man in Proverbs who goes to meet an immoral woman and suffers the consequences even though he was ignorant of what he was getting himself into. (Proverbs 7:22-23)
If I get pulled over for speeding (going 50 in a 25 mph zone) and reply, “But I didn’t know the speed limit was 25 mph.” That may be true. But the policeman can still point to the sign in front of you that reads “Speed Limit 25 MPH.” The issue isn’t simply whether you knew you were breaking the law but also whether you could have known that you were breaking the law. In the case of the Jews, they may not have understood God’s method of saving sinners, but they could have known if they really wanted to know. Their ignorance was a ‘deliberate’ or ‘responsible ignorance.’
Personal Application: Can I justify my failure to know how to trust and love as God calls me to when I neglect to read His Word which is so abundantly available to me and pray for help?
Submission to a Gift
Paul reveals that the problem with Israel is that they won’t humbly submit in order to receive God’s gift. (Romans 10:3)
The idea of ‘subject themselves’ is that of a soldier falling in line and following the directions of his commander rather than asserting his own independence.
There are only two possible approaches to being reconciled to God: (1) Wrong: righteousness by (my own) works or (2) Right: righteousness by faith (in the work of Another).
God can not punish sinners and freely give them the reward of eternal life because of what Jesus Christ has done. (Romans 1:16-17; Romans 3:21-30; Romans 5:17-21)
God did not give the Law (10 Commandments and other laws) to imply that anyone actually could earn his/her salvation by their own efforts but to point to the need for an alien righteousness.
God gave the Law to deliver us from self-righteousness, not to encourage it.
Have you ever been given something as a gift but you really struggled with accepting it? why? (1) Maybe because you didn’t think you deserved it (ie, pride masquerading as false humility). (2) Maybe because you didn’t think you needed it and didn’t want people to think you needed it (ie, pride). So pride is what keeps us from joyfully accepting gifts! And it takes a type of ‘humble submission’ to receive a gift!
The parable of the King’s Feast is a great picture of the simple issue of submission to a gift. (Matthew 22:1-14)
Personal Application: Do you resist receiving gifts? Can you see your pride in that? Have you resisted receiving the gift of God’s righteousness in Christ? Will God be pleased with us if we try to trust and love but refuse to rest in Jesus?
End of the Law
Paul proclaims that for all those trusting in Christ the attempts to keep the law to achieve righteousness have ended. (Romans 10:4)
The word ‘end’ here can mean ‘fulfillment’ or ‘termination’ or ‘goal.’
Paul is saying that the ‘rat race’ is over for those who trust in Jesus as the fulfillment of all that God demands in His Law.
Someone has said that life is like a ‘rat race’ and someone else has said that ‘the problem with the rat race is that even if you win the rat race, you’re still a rat!’
In various ways, the OT (all of which is sometimes called the Law) points to a Divine Rest which is why the Law included not only the Ten Commandments but also within the Ten Commandments the law of the day of rest (Sabbath) and in addition to this, the laws of sacrifice which pictured substitution as the means of reconciliation with God. (Exodus 31:15; Leviticus 16:31; Numbers 15:32-36; Hebrews 4:8-10)
Jesus proclaimed Himself the ‘Lord of the Sabbath’ and the fulfillment of the promised Rest. (Matthew 11:28-30)
If you are deathly sick and you ask the doctor, ‘What is more important? Rest or work?’ He is going to say, ‘Before you do anything else, get the rest you need!’ This implies, not that work is unimportant, but that the key to work is not skipping rest but honoring rest. It is the same with work before God. We do not honor God unless we rest before we work, indeed, unless we work from a position of rest.
Personal Application: Is obedience to God important to you? Why? Is what you do for God, so to speak, more important than what God has done for you in Christ? Are you working from a position of rest, for the sake of love not the sake of earning righteousness? Are you trusting in the righteousness of Christ as you work to love?
What must I do to grow in trust and love?
I must rest in Jesus and His righteousness.
Receiving and resting in Jesus and His righteous-ness, by God’s grace, I am to live to glorify and enjoy God by trusting and loving in every situation and in every relationship according to God’s Word and in fellowship with God’s people.
Then (in this context) …
Think about the truth.
Pray in light of the truth.
Do something different because of the truth.
We could begin by doing one thing …
Do something more, better or different …
· In your fellowship with God, read your Bible and stop living on ‘second-hand’ knowledge
· In your fellowship with God, pray and read on your worst days, resting in the righteousness of Christ
· In your home and church family, encourage yourself and others to always confess sin and confess righteousness in Christ together
· In your world, focus on the heart of the gospel – a gift of righteousness for the ungodly – when you encounter and are offended by ungodly people.
What must I do to be saved?
· Turn to God for LIFE (Help and Happiness)
· Trust in Jesus for Righteousness (Pardon and Perfection)
· Obey to Love (submit to Jesus as Lord)
