His life was the total law of the Jews, the hope of the Gentiles. The life of Christ was that.
He was a walking rebuke. He could show up at a picnic and the Pharisees would bristle because everything he represented was what they had come to hate because they had so much self-righteousness. There's no room for the righteousness of God. In God's name, they were doing this. They have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.
And the knowledge is what? Scripture. This is Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the Book of Romans. Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching.
Today, Pastor Rick will continue teaching through the first few verses of Romans Chapter 10 on this edition of Cross-Reference Radio. They have no proof for the things that they claim to believe. And so worse than ignorance is zealous ignorance.
And that's what Paul was dealing with. These people were ignorant of their own prophets because they wanted to be ignorant and they were deadly. Watching this now, these anti-Semite Gaza protesters, ignorant, zealously so. Now at the top, they're not ignorant. At the top, they're sinister. They know that the people who launched those savage attacks on the Jews on October 7th are monsters.
They would never want that to happen to them. But it works well for them to spin everything around. And then you've got the little people at the bottom of the pyramid who are zealous to push that purpose forward. They're sacrificing. They're living in these tents on these dumb campuses. Universities are supposed to be institutions of higher learning and look what they are, cesspools. They're an insult to learning. Anyway, I didn't come here to insult them, but I am enjoying it, but they're not hearing me. So anyway, there's an example of ignorance, zealous ignorance.
Be on guard for that. Just because somebody's passionate about a wrong doctrine doesn't mean they're right. And a lot of Christians don't, they don't know that automatically.
These are old cards in the devil's hand, and he plays them on the table of current events. And you know, there's a way that seems right to man, but its way leads to death. That's a verse we need to quote to lost souls. Pray God brings to you people who are not saved. Pray that God sends people to you whom you can share the gospel.
What else should you be doing with your life that makes whatever else that is more important? Before conversion, Paul had this same ignorant zeal for God, so it took one to know one, even though he received the finest Old Testament teaching known to man. He was, there was no greater lessons to be, it wasn't possible to find a better school of the rabbis than what Paul went through. And he talks about it in Acts 26, when he's giving his testimony in the process of sharing his faith, hoping to make converts in the high places of government. He says, indeed I myself thought I must do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. This I also did in Jerusalem. And many of the saints I shut up in prison having received authority from the chief priests. And when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them.
I punished them often in every synagogue and compelled them to blaspheme and being exceedingly enraged against them, I persecuted them to foreign cities. There's your zeal for God without knowledge. And so we are to read these things, we're to learn them, and we're to look for a chance to use them. What good is Bible study if you never get a chance to use it?
Outside of just trying to obey Christ morally speaking or spiritually speaking, what about being used? So the unintended consequence of ignoring Bible prophecy is being in conflict with God. They did not intend to be in conflict with God, but that's the outcome from knowing the miracles, from knowing the story. Jesus did so many miracles.
There was nobody connected to Judaism who was unaware at that time what was going on. And it's covered, it's covered in quite a few places, I'll get to two others later, but they did not want the truth to be true, so they turned on it. You've met people like that. You've met people that don't want Jesus Christ to be their savior. They know they're sinners, they know they're not good enough, but they're willing to find something else. Without truth, religion becomes irresponsible and self-indulgent.
For the Jews, it was very irresponsible and very self-indulgent. That's why they had this thing called self-righteousness. Those things wash away the truth and the damn souls it counts. It should burden us.
It should be on our hearts. The goal of this pastor is to present a church that's going to always preach the Bible and always encourage Christians to learn the scripture, to draw close to God, and to be useful to him on the battlefield where the converts are made. Evangelical is the word.
But unfortunately, many churches are evangelical, but they've been dumbed down. They won't go through the scriptures because the scriptures are offensive to those who are guilty. Martin Luther said it right, I do not know how not to offend guilty people.
If they're guilty, they're going to be offended. But what are they going to do with it? Isaiah, talking about these very things, Isaiah 61 8, for I, Yahweh, love justice.
I hate robbery for burnt offerings. I will direct their work in truth and will make them an everlasting covenant. Wait a minute, they already had a covenant. You see, it's in their scripture that there would be a new covenant, and Christ is the new covenant.
And that's not the only place. Isaiah hits that, uses that word and phrase no less than twice. In verse 3, Paul continues, he says, for they being ignorant of God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own righteousness have not submitted to the righteousness of God.
And that's what it's all about. Because what is the consequence to not submitting to God? This does not mean the Jewish people were ignorant of God's holiness and God's righteousness as attributes of God. They prided themselves on this knowledge above the pagans. The pagan gods, the Roman gods, the Greek gods, they were vindictive, they were jealous, they were mean. So the Jews, of course, their God, nothing like the Roman gods, so they understood holiness and righteousness of God.
Their ignorance of God then shows up, and their refusal to accept that he is also a justifier of the ungodly, and of course namely the Gentiles. And when he, as Paul says, of all who believe, that is in Christ, Paul says this has always been in our scripture, and now it has happened. So that's what the prophecy, that's what a prophecy is, a prophecy is, it's in the scripture. And there comes a time when it happens.
Well what are you going to do when it happens? And there are many scriptures, prophetic scriptures fulfilled, there are many still unfulfilled, and there are some being fulfilled in our own lifetime. One of the easy ones is as you look at the wars and battles in the book of Revelation, if you know anything about military logistics you say how can you amass such troops on such battlefields in the ancient world?
You couldn't, and sustain them, but you can now. There, as I mentioned, the cashless society, who would have thought that in the first century of Rome, of the Roman Empire? Who could conceive a cashless society?
Well we are here now, we know what a cashless society is, a credit card is one of the first evidences of it. So, when Paul says it's been in your scripture and now has happened, then he says that but you don't want to believe it, in spite of the proof. It was okay for God to forgive King David, but not the Gentiles. This willful ignorance kept them outside of his lordship. Now as I am talking about these things, I'm aware that some of you may find this boring, and I say the way I answer that is, look I've been around Christ for several decades now, I'm still charged about these things. They're not boring to me, and if they're boring to you, that's on you.
I don't think I'm making them boring, I can if you'd like, show of hands. This is willful ignorance, and that will not be excused, that keeps them out. Luke's gospel chapter 19, Jesus gives this parable and he's connecting it to how he's being treated after all he's done. But his citizens hated him, Jesus says in the parable, referring to himself, he's the figure in the parable, and sent a delegation after him saying we will not have this man reign over us. That's carried out in the book of Acts as they hunted Paul from city to city.
They refused to have this man reign over them. In Mark chapter six, in the first few verses, what do they say about his works and his preaching? He's just a carpenter, we don't have to listen to this. Yeah, but what about the miracles? What about the soundness of his teaching matching the prophet?
He's a carpenter. We will disallow truth when we are good and ready. Never mind prophetic scripture, witnesses, reason, illustrations in the scripture that spoke of him. And to this day, they can no longer explain messianic verses because they've buried themselves in a determination to vilify Jesus no matter what. Many of them come to Christ nonetheless, but it's going to take a global shakeup to save Israel.
I think every born-again Christian has a heart for Israel because of what the Bible says about them, because of what God has revealed about them, and that we wouldn't be here, as Paul will point out later, if it were not for God using the Jewish people. So we must not cave to ignorant people simply because they are sincere or because we like them, which is easy to do. There are politicians that get elected simply because people like the way they look and sound, but don't listen to what they're up to and how they vote, how the politicians vote when they're in office and what they espouse. Do not be a caveman Christian. Truth, not lies, liberate.
Truth, lies may buy time, but in the end, they will forsake you. This is the condition of the Laodicean church that Christ talked about in Revelation chapter 3. And that church in its practice is alive and sick today, but it often thrives.
It is one of willful ignorance. The rich church on the outside, but they don't have Christ on the inside, so what good is their wealth? And Christ calls them out on that. You say that you're rich and wealthy and have need of nothing, but I say you're blind, poor, and miserable. Well, that's God talking to them, and those taking the Lord's name in vain.
What about them? Are they ignorant? They may be, but they're not innocent. Why would they not be innocent according to the rules of logic? Well, look around at how many people evoke the name of Jesus Christ in vain.
Jesus Christ, I can't believe the hot dog cost that much. Jesus Christ. Well, if everybody's doing that, isn't it worth looking into the name you constantly evoke like that?
What is with this name, everybody? They're not saying, you know, Roger Maris and Willie Mays. Those are baseball players. They're not doing that. It's Jesus.
There's nobody out. They don't go, oh, Mohammed, well, they're afraid they're going to get killed if they do that one. What about Confused Confucius? In Confucius' name, when you cut that out, they don't do that. They just blaspheme like it's okay. They being ignorant of the righteousness of God, that there's no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved, that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord.
They have a whole lifetime to ask themselves, why do I keep bringing this name up? And gazillions are doing it. And so, Paul says, in seeking to establish their own righteousness. So that means they don't need to elevate anything.
They're already there. And the Jews were fiercely dedicated to this, and there are many people today that are, I'm a good person. Yeah, maybe next to some serial killer, but not next to God.
And that is the standard. One's own righteousness is self, is being self-impressed with one's supposed goodness. And it secretly insists that God has to accept them. See, look what I've just done.
You've got to let me in now. And it helps us to not love others who aren't deemed to be on our level, and we can hold them in contempt. There are Christian groups like this. Well, they can't be saved, so there's no point in praying for them or loving, and just love the Christians only. Luke's Gospel chapter 18, here's a picture of what Paul is talking about when he speaks about those who establish their own righteousness, using the Bible to do it. The Pharisees stood and prayed thus with themselves, God, I thank you that I am not like other men. Extortion is unjust, adulterous. Or even this tax collector, you see the contempt? I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all I possess.
I'm a good boy. Versus the conclusion Paul came to when he stepped out of that world as a Pharisee. He writes about it, take two of them, Philippians 3. He said that I may be found in him, that is in Christ, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, a righteousness which comes down from God by faith. Not because I tithe and give my offerings and follow the ritual of the church.
No, it's because of what Christ has done for me, and I believe it. His righteousness is now on me. Galatians 2, which he wrote, he hadn't written the Philippian letter that I just quoted, but he did already write this Galatian letter, and there in chapter two of Galatians, he says, I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.
If you can earn it, then God is cruel, and he's not too bright for allowing his son to come into this world, born of a virgin, and to be treated the way he was, when there is another way. So this is the problem that Paul was facing, and he laid this out to them, and the other apostles did too. He says, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. They are in conflict with God, not in peace with God, and they don't want to hear it. And today, my experiences of dealing with some of the orthodox Jews, Williamsburg, Brooklyn has a lot of them, you know they'll open up to the Gentile right up until they sense this is going the way they want, and they shut down instantly.
It is instant, and they walk right away from you, and that's it. There's no more. The Jews wanted the sign, and they got more than a sign, more signs than they could number, and they still did not submit. This is history, and if you believe anything in the ancient writings of about Alexander the Great, or George Washington, you think that's the truth? There's more truth in the Bible than anywhere else. How could you just cherry pick, I will believe these documents, but I won't believe this one, written not by one man. The Bible's not written by one man, nor is it written in one age.
It spans over the millennium, and it has many authors. Verse four, for Christ is the end of the law, for righteousness to everyone who believes. There is something very rewarding about standing up to those against Christ.
There's something very invigorating about not caving into them. There's something very glorious about sharing Jesus Christ with someone whom you know the Holy Spirit has been ahead of you, and is tugging on their heart. Christ was a massive stumbling block for them, just as the prophets said he would be, even to this day. Christ the Messiah is the arrival of what Moses' law pointed to. The prophets pointed out the morals verified, and the miracles demanded that you make a decision in favor of the Scriptures. His life was the total law of the Jews, the hope of the Gentiles. The life of Christ was that.
He was a walking rebuke. He could show up at a picnic, and the Pharisees would bristle, because everything he represented was what they had come to hate, because they had so much self-righteousness, there was no room for the righteousness of God. In God's name, they were doing this. They have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. And the knowledge is what? Scripture! 2 Corinthians 3 verse 11, for if what is passing away was glorious, the Old Testament, what remains is much more glorious. Christ is the great glory. He is the great glory of the law of God.
The glory of the law is Christ, and they would not have it. All that Adam failed to be, he was. All that Abraham could not be, he was. And all that Moses taught, he was.
He is the personification of everything righteous. And this is our message to the Gentiles as well as the Jews. When talking about how stubborn the unbelieving Jews were, it crosses right over to stubborn Gentiles. You just change the names to convict the guilty. Sorry, not the innocent.
Had a dragnet moment there. Anyway, the glory of the Old Testament law is Christ. Try to imagine the Old Testament without Christ.
Galatians 3, and I'm almost done. Therefore, the law was our tutor. Now in those days, the tutor wasn't as we think today where you go for extra study. The tutor was the one that took you to school.
So if you were a slave and you were assigned this role, you would take the master's child to be educated. Therefore, the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under the tutor.
We've moved on. The law served as a road sign to Christ, the way to Messiah. The self-righteous made the sign the destination. And that's what Paul was up against. John chapter 5, you search the scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life and these are they which testify of me. And they said, no, we're going to keep our scriptures and we don't want you. But what about all the things I'm doing that the scripture said?
In case you didn't hear me, Jesus, we'll keep our scriptures and we don't want you. That's how it turned out. Do you, as a Christian, love how the Old Testament and New Testament snap together perfectly? We see that. We see that, man, you can't make this stuff up.
This is genuine, how it ties in. It can't be fulfilled. You cannot assign the life of Alexander the Great to the prophecies made about Jesus Christ.
There's nobody else in history that can meet the criteria. But the self-righteous, they don't see it snap together and they don't want it to. Everything in their religion pointed to the coming of their Messiah, yet when he arrived, they killed him. His way of coming to God was not legalistic enough, it was not cold enough, it was not religious enough to support the lifestyle that they enjoyed. They still wanted an eye for an eye and God wanted mercy. They wanted to hate their enemies and God wanted them to learn how to love their enemies. Jesus begins that at the Sermon of the Mount in print, it's documented, and the apostles pushed it forward into the Gentile world. And those Jews who were determined to reject Messiah rejected that part of it too. We'd watch and see how often the Pharisees lied about Christ, as though lying were, was a virtue. Christ, he asked God the Father to forgive those who were killing him, the Gentiles. Forgive them, they know not what they do.
Christ is the end of the Jewish religion through Moses and the start of the religion through the Messiah of Moses. In Hebrews, Paul says, for the law made nothing perfect. You look at the history of the Old Testament, you see why are the Jews constantly judged?
Why are they constantly failing? Why are they constantly going into idolatry? Because the law made nothing perfect and they knew it. He says for righteousness, he's not talking about behavior, righteous behavior so much, he's talking about salvation to everyone who believes. And again, to them the Gentile was a deal breaker. God now offers salvation to the Jew on the exact terms that he offers them to the Gentile. So if you get to preach to a Jew, you say, listen, if you want to come to your Messiah, you got to do it the same way I do.
There's no separate system for you. It is the same way, regardless whether you're a Jew or a Gentile, you have to come to Calvary and not to Sinai. Mount Sinai is not where you're going to find salvation. Thanks for joining us for today's teaching on Cross Reference Radio. This is the daily radio ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia.
We're currently going through the book of Romans. If you're in need of hearing this message again, or want to listen to others like it, head over to crossreferenceradio.com. We encourage you to subscribe to our podcast too, so you'll never miss another edition. Just go to your favorite podcast app to subscribe. On our website, you'll be able to learn a little more about the ministry of Cross Reference Radio. So make a note of it, crossreferenceradio.com. That's all we have time for today, but thanks so much for listening. Pastor Rick will be back next time in the book of Romans, here on Cross Reference Radio.
