The End of the Law [Part 3]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. When you're in Christ Jesus, it's the end of striving to please God. It's the end of all self-human effort to be a good person for God's favor. It's the end of ever saying, I don't measure up, but if I could just do this and such, I would.

It's the end of shame. That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light. I'm Daniel Britt, excited for you to hear the teaching today in the series, The Loft, a study of Romans chapters nine through 11. It's presented at Rennola Church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program, I want to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now. It can be yours for your donation this month to Alan Wright Ministries.

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Here is Alan Wright. It is God's desire infinitely that all be saved, the scripture says. God desires that all be saved. Not all are saved, but God desires that. But then Paul's saying, and I desire, and the Bible tells us that God loves to grant us delights in granting, desires of our hearts, that there's some way in which is our desire is brought before God.

When it is holy and in accord with God's own desires, that somehow our very desiring and our yearning somehow moves God. The other book I've been reading the last couple of weeks that's been stirring me is the memoirs of Beth Moore. Beth Moore is a famous layperson teacher who has written lots of women's books and Bible studies. And I've really never studied much of her stuff, but have been thankful for the impact she's had. She has impacted Christendom. And I don't know, somebody told me that her memoir was really good. So I've been listened to an audio book and I've been really stirred and endeared. She went through a lot of suffering and she shares about that in this book. But the moment that I think I was most moved, and maybe just as one who is a communicator of the gospel, I got most moved by this. Because usually behind these stories where there's somebody that's had a huge impact and is well known and you go, wow, wouldn't it be wonderful to have an impact like that?

There usually is some moment like this. There's been a lot of usually suffering and longing. And where that longing began, I thought it just moved me so much. She had been asked by First Baptist Church in Houston to lead a women's Christian aerobics class back when that kind of thing was taken off. And so she did it and loved it. And then she taught kids. And then they came and they asked her, Beth, would you be willing to substitute teach in one of the women's Bible classes for a short season? And she didn't want to. She was scared to.

Finally, she was convinced to do it. And so she was going to be a teacher in this Sunday school class. And she said, well, I feel like I'm going to teach adults.

I need to get a little bit more training. And so it was announced in her church that there was going to be a Bible doctrine class that was going to be taught on a Sunday nights and what they call training union. She said, I decided to go and study some Bible doctrine. And she said, I pick up read and she said, I prepared for the sacrifice by motivating myself with a clean new spiral notebook.

And she had a package of colored pens and the obligatory yellow highlighter around 15 of us, she says, showed up as well. As I'm able to recall, the class didn't grow significantly larger training union after all was on Sunday evenings for an hour before another church service. This was discipleship for diehards. And the teacher's name was Buddy Walters. Buddy Walters had a quiet presence. There was no fanfare in his class, not even for the kickoff.

No, let's go back to the let's go around the room and introduce ourselves. When the clock struck 6 PM, he plainly walked to the podium in the small Sunday school room, flopped open a King size King James version, and told us to turn to Genesis. I've never seen a Bible in worse condition. The man bowed his head and asked the Lord to use him, then launched into a lesson without bell or whistle. He didn't have a booming voice. He didn't even use a lot of inflection.

His deep voice and long draw stayed steady and authoritative even at times when tears mystifyingly pooled in his eyes. He'd not told us a sad story or anything. He just taught shifting back and forth between the podium and the chalk board. Each time he added an item to the Bible chart he'd drawn, he clapped a plume of chalk dust off his hands and flipped another page of his Bible. I don't recall turning pages that first night or taking down notes. All I remember is sitting mesmerized.

I'd never seen a person like Buddy. I never met anyone who seemed to study the Bible for the sheer delight of it and not simply the discipline. I appreciated the Bible, respected it, embraced a way of living and talking that developed from it, but I didn't love it.

Not like that guy loved it. The second he closed in prayer, I stood up from my chair, grabbed my purse, and walked straight out of the door without a word. Instead of staying for the service, I walked quickly down the stairs and through the hall, out the door to the massive parking lot as fast as I could. I ran to my car, threw my purse in the passenger seat, got in, shut the door, and burst into tears. I don't know what that was, I cried to God, leaning forward the windshield in case he couldn't see me through the roof, but I want it.

Now listen to this, there are not many, she says, not many parts of my life story that make me cry nearly every time I tell them, but this one does. We can't explain how it is that our desires move God, but they do. I desire and I pray earnestly for the Jewish people, that's what Paul is saying. So all of the theology and doctrine about the glories and sovereignty of God never stops Paul from the deepest yearning. I long for them to see the grace in Christ, his sake. Verse two, for I bear them witness, Romans 10 verse two, I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.

He knew a lot about zeal for religious things, because he himself had been a Pharisee. He said, but it's zeal that doesn't have the knowledge of the real nature of God or the grace of God. On October 25, 1964, Minnesota Viking defensive lineman Jim Marshall picked up a San Francisco 49er fumble, saw the goalposts in front of him and scampered 45 yards into the end zone and then got congratulated by the opposing team because he'd run the wrong direction. He thought he had a touchdown, but he'd given his, made a safety instead.

You can have zeal and be running in absolutely the wrong direction. That's Alan Wright, and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. It has been called the most influential letter ever written. Every word written by the apostle Paul and his epistle to the Romans is dripping with the astounding news of what God has done for you in Jesus. Answering the two biggest questions of life, what went wrong and how has God made it right? Discover the richness of those answers and enhance your Bible journey today. Make a donation to Alan Wright Ministries this month and unlock our Romans reading guide paired with the ESV scripture journal. Immerse yourself in the word and capture personal insights, prayers, and reflections directly alongside the powerful text.

These sleek portable journals amplify your study, enrich group sessions, and deepen personal reflections. Elevate your spiritual odyssey and forge a stronger connection with the scriptures. Help Alan Wright Ministries reach the world with the good news of the gospel with your gift today and receive these essential tools that will elevate your study, enrich your prayer life, and deepen your understanding of the book of Romans. The gospel is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support. When you give today, we will send you today's special offer. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries. Call us at 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, PastorAlan.org. Today's teaching now continues.

Here once again is Alan Wright. To say that zeal without knowledge is a dangerous thing is almost entirely opposite of the message of the spirit of this age, which essentially says it doesn't matter as long as you're sincere. Whatever you are passionate about, that's what you need to do.

Whatever you feel is good, that's what's right. And here Paul's saying the exact opposite of that. He's saying zeal without knowledge can be a dangerous thing. He had been once zealous, zealous for all of the law, zealous for all the things that he thought were right. I don't know why it made me think of a story I read some years ago that haunted me about a man named Mark Walford. They called him Mac.

He was known all over Appalachia because amongst his people he was thought of as a daring man of conviction. He was one that believed the Bible mandates that Christians handle serpents to test their faith in God and prove themselves to God. Gross misreading of the New Testament where serpents and snakes are symbols of demons. And we're told we have authority over the demonic. And so a terrible misinterpretation. But what's underneath it is even worse. And it is like, okay, you think about the stuff in our lives where we get these little bits of law in there that think, well, I'll impress God a little bit by doing us and such.

And it may not, to us, it may be little things, right? But if you took a drop of water at the continental divide, it's going to fall on one side or the other. And it's going to run into one ocean or the other. And I think sometimes it's important to go out and go, which ocean does this lead to?

Let me show you the ocean this leads to. He thinks I'm going to be proving my faith and pleasing God by handling snakes. And so it was his birthday coming up. And what he wanted more than anything was to get all his people together, get his family together and have a big worship service. And his sister wrote, she was quoted in this article at one time or another, we'd all handled snakes, but we'd back slid.

I guess there's a good kind of backsliding in there. So the article says they gathered at an evangelistic hootenanny of praise and worship. And at 30 minutes into the service, Walford sat down next to a yellow timber rattlesnake and everything came to a halt shortly after that, because he was bitten on the thigh. By 30 minutes, it became obvious it was bad. And they took him home to his house to recover, but he got worse and paramedics transported him to the Bluefield Regional Medical Center. He was pronounced dead.

And his sister said, I hated to see him go, but he died for what he believed in. They had a zeal for the law, but no knowledge. Someone has said, wouldn't it be a shame to spend your life baking apple pies for God only to find out he doesn't like apple pie. Matthew 9 11, when the Pharisees approached Jesus, they said to his disciples, why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? See what they're saying?

They're saying, this is violating all the law. We're supposed to stay away from the unclean. But when he heard it, when Jesus heard it, he said, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. And he said, one of the most important things that ever came out of Jesus's mouth in Matthew 9 verse 13, he said, go and learn what this means. I desire mercy and not sacrifice for I came not to call the righteous, but sinners. And he was quoting Hosea 6 6 that says, I desire steadfast love. That is my favorite Hebrew word has said covenantal love God's kind of love. I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

I tell you, if you want to know what it is that I really love, see what I really desire. It's not sacrifice. It's not all of your efforts at your own righteousness. He's saying, I don't want any of that.

Never did. It's prophesied through Hosea. God was never pleased by all the system of people offering their sacrifices at the altars.

He had only given a temporary system of sacrifices so that the people could have some assurance that their sins were temporarily covered, but is never what God wanted. So what I really want is I said, I want love. I want agape love. I want to, I want you to experience my love and I want to know your love. I want you to, to, to know me.

And I want to know you. God is desiring is not religious sacrifice, no efforts of human beings to keep law to please him. That's not at all what he desired. It's not what he wants and it in it leads to destruction. It just becomes zeal without knowledge. And some people become a little religious and then people who get really zealous become very religious.

And all of us just running towards the wrong end zone. And God's saying, I just love you and I want to know you and I want you to love me and to know me. And there's only one way that comes and it's by grace. It's by the gift of Christ.

So at verse three, being ignorant of the righteousness of God and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes it's the end of the law. The end of all that anxiety, the end of the curse, the end of the shame. Oh, hallelujah. I had my one bad dream again, two weeks ago. I don't know. Maybe it just comes when there's a lot going on in my life.

I don't know. That's the only bad dream I get. And I'd love to get rid of it, but it pops up once, maybe some twice a year or something like that. It was happened again. It's so real when it happens. I am in college and it's final exam time and the classic dream and there's one class I realized I never went to. Never went to it.

Don't even know it was meeting. Don't have the syllabus. Don't have the assignments.

Don't have the books. Don't even know where the class is and don't know who the professor is. I can't even scramble.

I can't pull the last second. I just realized that all of a sudden the last minute that I'm not in that class. I hadn't been there and I'm going to get a zero in that class and it's going to spoil everything and I'm going to make an F and I don't even know what to do about it. And it's just, and it's just a dream. And it's so funny because when I wake up from it, and I'm like, it's just so real. You know, some dreams, they just feel so real and I'll just be like, and I have to tell myself, wait a minute.

I have to sit there and tell myself, wait a minute, wait a minute. You did graduate from college. That did happen. Some things have finished and some things have ended. Some things have finished and college ended for me. I've got a diploma somewhere. I got a diploma that will prove that. And I mean, it's true. I did.

I did. There's not a class that I'm not, that I'm not still in college and there's not a class that I'm done. It's, and that is finished.

And I can't, I can't rest and fall back asleep until I convinced myself that I have experienced the end of college. Before you pillow your head at night, and every morning when you wake up, you do well to say what Jesus said on the cross, it is finished. Oh, there's lots of things that hadn't finished. There's a lot more good God has for us to do. But when you're in Christ Jesus, it's the end of striving to please God. It's the end of all self human effort to be a good person for God's favor.

It's the end of ever saying I don't measure up, but if I could just do this and such, I would, it's the end of shame. It is the end of curse for law. When you try to keep it and you live under that system, it says, if you keep the law, then you will be blessed.

And because you can't keep all the law, then instead of being blessed, there's curse. And the cross and resurrection of Jesus is the end of that. It is finished, He said on the cross. One beautiful Greek word, to telestai, it's finished.

I've accomplished it. The end of something. It can mean the aim. What's your end in this? What's the end game? And it can mean the finish line, like I've run the race and it's complete. It means that He fulfilled the law on your behalf, but also means this, it is over.

It's over. And grace has come. You're not under law, you're under grace. He is the end of the law for righteousness for those who believe. And that's the gospel.

Alan Wright, today's good news message is the end of the law. It's in our series, Beloved Study of Romans. And Pastor Alan is back with us in the studio, sharing his parting good news thought for the day in just a moment. Thanks for joining us on this edition of Beloved Study of Romans.

That will elevate your study, enrich your prayer life and deepen your understanding of the book of Romans. The gospel is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support.

When you give today, we will send you today's special offer. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries. Call us at 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, PastorAlan.org. Back here in the studio to share Pastor Alan's parting good news thought for the day in our teaching, the end of the law. And Pastor Alan, we've come to the conclusion of this teaching.

What's the good nugget you can leave us with? The finish line has been crossed. The end of something and this whole world where so much is not finished. Christ hung on the cross and said, it's finished. Ah, the end of the pursuit of your own righteousness in order to please God. And instead the beginning of living in grace, the end of God's judgment against you. Oh, that's finished. The end of striving and trying harder without having real Sabbath. Oh, that's over. The end of shame, the end of curse, the end of anxiety. All of this is what is contained in the promise that Christ is the end of the law as regards righteousness. He has finished the work that we couldn't do.

And that's such good news. Thanks for listening today. Visit us online at PastorAlan.org or call 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. If you only caught part of today's teaching, not only can you listen again online, but also get a daily email devotional that matches today's teaching delivered right to your email inbox free. Find out more about these and other resources at PastorAlan.org. That's PastorAlan.org. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Alan Wright Ministries.