Intro:  

STORY — Jesus at 12 years old brought to the temple

Jesus’ parents were commissioned by God with the highest calling — To raise the Messiah!

– If ever a parent should not have forgotten about their child it was Mary and Joseph

But it’s natural to get absorbed in life, and the happenings around us.

They forgot about him

They assumed He would be there when they needed Him

They failed to make Jesus their priority

The result — They lost him for 3 days

[Luk 2:46 NKJV] 46 Now so it was [that] after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions.

Main Point: When we miss Jesus we miss everything! When we forget about Jesus, we’ve forgotten our most important priority. When Jesus isn’t a central part of your day, when He isn’t invited into all the little parts of our day, we too may like Mary and Joseph lose Him — and like Mary and Joseph, one day lived without Jesus can cost us three days of searching to find Him once again!

IF WE MISS JESUS, WE MISS EVERYTHING!

This was the condition of Israel — They missed the Messiah, when the Messiah should have been their prized possession and most welcomed priority.

And even today Israel rejects Jesus! Do you think it brings the heart of God pain to see Israel today, reject His Son? Of all nations Israel was the one that was blessed — The one He entrusted with His laws, the ones who He sent His prophets to, performed miracles among, and the one He gave His only begotten Son to. As we discussed last week, God could have chosen S. Africa as the place from which the Messiah came, He could have raised up any nation and placed them in a place of honor.

(Isaiah 19:25 NKJV) …”Blessed [is] Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel My inheritance.”

The Messiah could have been Egyptian! Could have been Assyrian! But Paul declares in

Romans 9 that God chose Israel — partly because of the covenant which He made with Abraham. — The descendants of Abraham were predestined to fill the place of glory as God’s holy people, but what happened?

They lost their place, because as the Bible says: (Romans 9:32 NKJV) …For they stumbled at that stumbling stone. and also…

(Acts 4:10-11 NKJV) “let it be known… to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead… “This is the ‘stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.’

Illustration: This is like attempting to bake bread, and then forgetting to put in the flour. It’s like putting a car together without the wheels, or assembling an airplane without the wings.  

Israel had a lot of things right! They knew how to keep the Sabbath… It was written, it was preached, it was culturally kept and enforced… They knew how to do Bible Studies — A Jew had the Torah memorized as a child! They prayed morning and evening, and in-between (You might call them experts at prayers — some of them Jesus even said, loved to say long prayers)

They had the right diet

They had the right clothing

They had the right church

They had the right day  

But although they got many things right, they missed the most important thing — what good would a Lamborghini be without wheels? How useful would a mansion be, without a roof? What good is a rack without a handle? You see you can get everything right, but if you miss the

MAIN THING, you’ve missed EVERYTHING!

 

What was the main thing the Jews missed? — Jesus the Son of God!

— and Jesus is the center from which every other spoke of truth radiates out. Creation didn’t happen without Christ, think about it the Law was given through Christ — It was the finger of Jesus that traced every letter, the cloud that followed Israel and led them into the promised land of Cannan Paul says in Corinthians “that spiritual rock that followed them was Christ”, Christ appears to Joshua before he fights Jericho, it was Christ who stood with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego in the fiery furnace, Daniel says that Michael (One who is like God — that’s Jesus) came to the king of Persia and won the battle over the kings mind so that Israel could be returned to their homeland and rebuild and indeed all the Scriptures pointed to the Christ to come — the root of David who is the foundation of Salvation.

But how did Israel miss Him? How did they miss the great center of the Jewish economy, the focus of all Old Testament prophecy, and the glorious promise Israel preached for literally hundreds of years.

Paul pins it at this:  

(Romans 10:3 NKJV) … For [Israel] being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God.

How did they miss the Savior? Because they found a Savior in themselves…  

“seeking to establish their own righteousness…” says Paul “They have not submitted to the righteousness of God”   

and every time, yes EVERY TIME, we neglect to call on Christ and seek to solve the problem of sin in our own life through our own efforts, we are declaring ourselves to BE THE MESSIAH— and the moment we do that, WE BECOME THE ANTI-CHRIST, a false Christ. we can not fix ourselves. we can no more produce a righteous heart than a palm tree can start growing apples.  

What happens to a bike wheel when the center hub is removed? It collapses right? It can not sustain the weight of the rider if all it has is spokes. When Christ is missing from the life, you can have all the forms of godliness you want, but your religion will collapse into a broken pile of

28 Fundamental spokes — because Christ is the hub that holds it all together!

Have you ever met a mean Christian? Why do Christians sometimes fight, quarrel, or disagree?

Ellen White says there are mean Christians because we find ourselves in the same problem Paul brings out in Romans 10:

“The reason for all division, discord, and difference is found in separation from Christ. Christ is the center to which all should be attracted; for the nearer we approach the center, the closer we shall come together in feeling, in sympathy, in love, growing into the character and image of Jesus.” — 1 Selected Messages, 259.

“We need far less controversy, and far more presentation of Christ. Our Redeemer is the center of all our faith and hope.” Colporteur Evangelism, 60.

Like Israel of old, It is possible to be zealous for God and yet totally lost.

(Romans 10:2-4 NKJV) For I bear them witness that [the Israelites] have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge… For [Israel] being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. For Christ [is] the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

How is Christ the end of the law? Remember Paul says Christ is the end of the law for RIGHTEOUSNESS — and what was it that the Jews missed? They made a Savior of themselves by seeking their own righteousness and missed God’s righteousness. and What is righteousness? Right standing before God. Being declared guiltless, innocent, perfect, spotless — to be seen by heaven as worthy of eternal life.

They sought this righteous standing before God by seeking to walk the road of righteousness alone — but Paul declares that the road of righteousness (The Law) necessarily leads to an end — and that end is Christ. In greek the word “end” is “Telos” which means to “set out for a definite point or goal” — Perhaps a better understanding of this verse would be to say that Christ is the destination of the law — If you follow the law, where do you end up? You end up in the arms of the Savior, because the Law leads us to Christ. Here is where the law meets it’s ultimate fulfillment, and here is where the law is fully satisfied.

#1 — Christ met the laws demand of a perfect life — He was the living law… 

Jesus’ baptism is a wonderful illustration of this:

(Matthew 3:15 NKJV) But Jesus answered and said to him, “Permit [it to be so] now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he allowed Him.

Is baptism necessary to be saved? — (Mark 16:16 NKJV) “He who believes and is baptized will be saved…

What about those who could not be baptized like the thief on the cross? — Faith in Christ transfers His Righteousness to you — so His baptism counted for the thief and for everyone else who could not meet the bar of righteousness, but they placed their faith in Him.

#2 — Christ met the righteous demands that sin be paid for with death — taking our sin upon Himself, He fulfilled all righteousness, satisfying the penalty of a broken law.

#3 — Christ also fulfills the righteous requirements of the law, not just in His own life, but in our life as well — by filling us with His Spirit and living His Law through us!

(Romans 8:3-4 NKJV) For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God [did] by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us…

This is what the Jews missed in seeking their own righteousness, when all along the law was meant to lead them to Christ.

(Galatians 3:24 NKJV) Therefore the law was our tutor [to bring us] to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.

Now this next few verses of Romans trips a lot of people up — Take a look at Romans 10:5-8

(Romans 10:5-8 NKJV) For Moses writes about the righteousness which is of the law, “The man who does those things shall live by them.” But the righteousness of faith speaks in this way, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ down [from above]) or, ” ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach):

What does that mean? — Now remember Paul is speaking with Jews who have the Torah memorized, and so sometimes he will share phrases that seem weird to us but to the Jews it triggers their memory, because he is quoting from the Torah. Here Paul is borrowing language from the book of Deuteronomy — Notice was Deuteronomy says:

(Deuteronomy 30:11-16 NKJV) “For this commandment which I command you today [is] not [too] mysterious for you, nor [is] it far off. “It [is] not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend into heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ “Nor [is] it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ “But the word [is] very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it. “

Just as Moses declared in Deuteronomy — you don’t need to go to heaven or some far country to find the law. Why? Because God brought the law to Israel — So also we don’t need to go to heaven or some far country to find Christ — For God has brought Christ to us.

and he says the word is near you:

#1 in your mouth —because  with the mouth we confess Christ

#2 in your heart — because with the heart we believe in Christ

So although Paul says: (Romans 10:1 NKJV) Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved.

None can say God has rejected Israel or made it too difficult — for just as Israel did not need to go to some far country and climb to heaven in order to receive the law of God, neither does Israel need to climb to heaven or go to some far country to receive the Messiah. For receiving the Christ that Paul preaches is as near to them as believing on Him with their heart and confessing Him with their mouth.

(Romans 10:9-10 NKJV) that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

The path of salvation the jews had chosen was actually much more difficult — According to jewish tradition there are 613 Commandments to memorize, and follow perfectly. Many of these commandments, were laws and policies setup to make sure that one did not break God’s law.

For instance, God’s law says the Sabbath we should not work — well in order to define work the Jews established additional laws… work is walking more than 1 mile from your home on the Sabbath…  In contrast to this Jesus said:

(Matthew 11:30 NKJV) “For My yoke [is] easy and My burden is light.”

What is the work of God? — Romans 10 says it is to, Believe in your heart in Christ and confess with your mouth Christ! Does this negate the importance of the law? No — but it puts the law in it’s proper place. The law is only in it’s proper place when Jesus is in His proper place in our lives — When the law is a mirror by which we come to understand our condition before God, and then come to Christ to remedy that condition — both Christ and His law are in their proper place. It is then that we can say of the commandments with John:

(1 John 5:3 NKJV) For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.

Now there are a couple other points we need to understand in Romans 10…  

First, what do we confess when we confess the Lord Jesus?

Second, why does believing that Christ was raised from the dead bring salvation?

(Romans 10:9-10 NKJV) that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.

Let’s start with confession: What does Paul say we need to confess? “The Lord”, and the word “Lord” means master of my life.  

What did that look like then? What did confessing Christ as Lord mean at that time? — (John

9:22 NKJV) … the Jews had agreed already that if anyone confessed [that] He [was] Christ, he would be put out of the synagogue.

– You risked being kicked out of church… and church was the community where your friends were. You would lose your social circle, you would lose perhaps your influence — remember each town had one synagogue and in an exclusively jewish community, to be leave the only church in town pretty much meant being branded an outcast. and if you lived in a secular environment like Rome, to proclaim allegiance to Christ (a nobody in the eyes of the Romans who had no prestige, and died as a criminal) was outrageous. You would be viewed as insane!

(1 Corinthians 1:23 NKJV) but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness,

and then to believe that God raised Christ from the dead… Think about it friends:

The greatest miracle of Christ that testified #1 to His identity (The Messiah) #2 to His power over death (The resurrection) #3 The divine authenticity of His message (True)… Only those who believed Jesus raised from the dead where followers of Christ, the others denied it. and remember the official narrative by the rulers was that they stole the body of Jesus — you’d be preaching against the popular narrative of the day, and would be speaking what seemed absolutely absurd to non-believers.

Belief in the resurrection of Jesus was present truth, and was also testing truth for that time…  

If you confess Him as Lord of your life, and believe He was raised to life — You are in! That’s evidence that you have submitted everything to the Lord, because to do those two things was to risk losing everything on this earth.

You’re truly a Christian if for Jesus Christ your willing to lose

– Your position, your honor, your good name, your place in the church, your family, your friends, your job, your spouse — When you are willing to place it all on the line, you are declaring that JESUS, JESUS, JESUS alone takes the priority — He is your KING… HE is your central HUB…

HE is your life!

When Paul said confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, and believe with your heart that Jesus was raised from the dead — Paul was presented the testing truths for that time. To follow these two truths, would mean that believers would follow every other truth taught by Christ

The testing truth for today is the same as it was back then — Are you willing to lay it all on the line for Jesus?

A little book called the great controversy, pins the final testing truth as the SABBATH? Why, why is it the SABBATH at the end?

It is the one truth which declares loyalty to your Savior, and will be the one truth that we will have to lay everything on the line in order to follow…

In reality, when we choose to publicly follow God, when it isn’t popular — when there’s a lot on the line…. When we could experience loss for our belief in Christ… Friends that’s when standing really means something.

(Romans 10:10 NKJV) For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

Appeal: My appeal to you today is to declare with your life, your decisions, your facebook posts, your attitude, your smile — show the world and share with the world that the hub isn’t missing in your wheel — that the wings are still on your plane and the tires are still on your car.. Reveal to the world what physical Israel missed — Christ the center of your life.

I leave you with this:

Why were Christians called Christians? Because they always spoke of Christ! He was the visible center of their life. Do you want Christ to be the visible center of your life?

[Act 4:12 NKJV] 12 “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”