We are talking about turning hopeless situations around. Because such situations don’t make us happy and God wants us happy. In this series we found out that the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. It makes tremendous power available. Dynamic in its working. So we wanted to know who a righteous man is. The Bible says it’s the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man that works.
So no matter how effectual or fervent the prayer is, if it is not of a righteous man it won’t work. But if it is the prayer of a righteous man it is guaranteed to work. We began discovering something about righteousness. We want to know something about righteousness from the Bible.
People are struggling to be righteous. They want to be righteous. You cannot be more righteous than you are today. You cannot be more righteous than how righteous you became the first day that you were born again. That day you became the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. You didn’t become a righteous person in Christ Jesus you became the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.
Romans 9:30 What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith.
These Gentiles didn’t pursue righteousness but they became righteous. How come? What in the world happen? How come people who didn’t seek righteousness became righteous all of a sudden?
83 | P a g e We found that there are 2 kinds of righteousness.
1. Righteousness which is of works 2. Righteousness which is of faith
Romans 9:30 What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith.
Romans 9:31-32 But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. (32) Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law.
1. The Gentiles who didn’t even pursue righteousness have obtained righteousness that is the righteousness of faith. They got it.
2. But Israel who pursued righteousness didn’t obtain righteousness because they didn’t seek it by faith. They sought to receive righteousness by the works of the law and failed because an unrighteous man cannot keep righteous laws. In other words they stumbled at that stumbling stone of Isaiah 28:16.
You may struggle to want to please God. There are people they love God. Have you ever thought about it? They want to serve God. That’s one reason that I never get mad for people who try to criticise me. If I’m criticised I don’t care. You know why? Because I can see from the eyes of the critics and from the words that he’s speaking and from his very life I can see that something is missing. He has a problem. I
can see that he loves God. He wants to serve God but he doesn’t know how. And so because he doesn’t know what to do he has to fight somebody and I may just be the one he wants to fight. It could have been anybody else. So I don’t take it personally. I don’t think he really wants to fight me. I think he wants to fight anybody and everybody. Because he wants something and he’s not getting it. That’s what James tells us in chapter 4. Why do you fight? I know why. It’s because you ask for something and you don’t get it. Where do fights come from? They come because of the lust you have. You crave for something. You crave it and don’t get it. Then you kill and desire to have it and cannot obtain it. Then you fight and don’t get it. Why? Because you didn’t ask. Then you ask and still don’t get it. Why?
Because you ask amiss. You ask for it that you may consume it upon your lust. You are asking so that you may fulfil that selfish desire. Your motive is still wrong.
Ok. Let’s go back to Romans
Romans 9:31-10:1 But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. (32) Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone; (33) As it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. (10:1) Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.
84 | P a g e Isn’t that a marvel? In the 31st verse he says Israel who did pursue righteousness and yet in the 1st verse Paul is praying for them to be saved!!
So it is possible to pursue righteousness and still not be saved. They wanted it. Just because you want it doesn’t mean you got it. The fact that you are zealous after God doesn’t mean that you have received of Him. Zeal is not possession. That you feel good that the way you are going after it doesn’t mean that you have it. That’s the way a lot of people think. They mistake their zeal for God’s answers.
I see this portion of the Bible as one of the most touching portions of the New Testament. Sometimes I meditate on these things and tears just come out of my eyes because I can think of so many. And this scripture is so applicable to them.
Romans 10:1-2 Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. (2) For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.
They have a zeal of God but not according to revelation knowledge. I can testify that they have a zeal of God, I can hear them clapping, I can hear them singing, I can see them dancing I can see the zeal in their lives – I bear them record that they have a zeal in their lives for God but not according to revelation.
He’s watching them. He can tell that they love God. They want to serve Him. And that’s the way a lot of people today. That’s the way even many Christians. They have a zeal of God but not according to the word of God. A lot of them have never taken time to study the word of God. There are people who are willing to read every Christian book but the Bible. They are willing to read anything else. They can listen to preacher after preacher but never take the time to study the word of God for themselves. They are ready for anything else. They are ready to fast, they are ready to pray. They can pray and pray and cry and howl and scream. But prayer will never take the place of the word of God. I marvel when I think of the fact that so many don’t know the Bible. Look at this again.
Romans 10:2-3 For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. (3) 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.
They are ignorant of God’s righteousness. I told you a lot of people don’t understand God’s definition of righteousness. They think righteousness is the same thing as right living. No! They are 2 things. Right living is the product of righteousness. You cannot live right until you are righteous. You have to be righteous first to be able to live right. How could God expect a man to live right who doesn’t have it in him to live right? God will be unjust and unfair to expect you to live righteously and not give you the nature of righteousness. It’s just like expecting a cat to bark. A cat cannot bark until the cat is born again by the seed of a dog even though that doesn’t live and abide forever! You cannot live right until you are born again by the incorruptible seed of the word of God which liveth and abideth forever. Jesus said ye MUST be born again. Except a man be born of water (born of a woman which is born of water because the child is in water in the woman’s womb) AND of the Spirit, he CANNOT enter into the Kingdom of God.
Righteousness is the very nature of God. It is the very essence of divinity. It is the very life of God. No man can be righteous only God.
Romans 3:10-18 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: (11) There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. (12) They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. (13) Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:
85 | P a g e (14) Whose mouth is full of cursing
and bitterness: (15) Their feet are swift to shed blood: (16) Destruction and misery are in their ways: (17) And the way of peace have they not known: (18) There is no fear of God before their eyes.
There is none righteous no not one.
They are all gone out of the way. There is none that doeth good. Same thing Isaiah said. All we like sheep have gone astray we have turned everyone to his own way and the Lord has laid on Him (Jesus) the iniquity of us all.
So righteousness is the character of God the nature of God the very life of God. So if anyone is going to be righteous he’s got to have the nature of God which is righteousness.
So these people have been struggling to be righteous. Thinking that they’ll be heard for their much hearing. Trying to be righteous. They think if they are righteous then they can pray a prayer that can move mountains. Do you know that that’s one of the reason a lot of people fast? They think that when they fast then can clean up. They want to clean up first. God doesn’t hear you because of your fasting, God doesn’t hear you because of you cleaned up – God hears you because you have been cleaned up by Him.
Romans 10:3 For they being ignorant of God's righteousness
Do you think the high priest of that day thought that he was ignorant? The Jews didn’t think that they were ignorant. They thought they were the ones that had the knowledge of God. But Paul looked at them and said I feel sorry for you. You are ignorant of God’s righteousness. You are going about to establish your own righteousness.
Romans 10:3 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.
He didn’t say they have not fulfilled. He didn’t say they have not achieved or attained. He says that they have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. In other words what they were expected to do by God was to submit themselves to the righteousness of God. Righteousness was already available. God said Give yourselves to the righteousness of God. Don’t try to get it. Give yourselves to it because it’s already available.
Romans 10:4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.
I explained that verse from another translation last time.
Romans 10:5 For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, That the man which doeth those things shall live by them.
He’s quoting a verse of scripture something Moses said and he lets us know that from that very statement coming from the lips of Moses that qualified for all time the law and man’s relationship to the law. That the man which doeth those things shall live by them.
In other words shall be saved by them. The man who does those things shall be saved by them. He shall have life from God by them. By doing those things. Don’t forget this. Mark it. When you work when you perform and try to get righteous by achieving through your own works the law of righteousness.
86 | P a g e Moses describes the righteousness
which comes from the law that the man who does those things shall be saved by them. If I live right for God to see then God will see me as a righteous man. That’s the righteousness of the law
I told you that there are two types of righteousness.
1. Righteousness by the law 2. Righteousness by faith
The righteousness of faith is the man who expects God to justify the ungodly.
Romans 10:6 But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh
Did you catch it?
1. The righteousness which is of the law – doeth 2. The righteousness which is of faith – speaketh
The one which is of the law doeth to have life. The one which is of the law speaketh to have life. Are you catching it? One has to perform right to become righteous. The other one only has to speak.
Romans 10:6-10 But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:) (7) Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.) (8) But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; (9) That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
In the other case you have to do those things. The man who doeth those things shall live by them. Now this other one says all you have to do is what? Speak believing in your heart! Why would anyone want to go back to the old one that has been abolished? Because they don’t understand it and they don’t know it.
Romans 10:10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
That’s the way to get saved. Period!
You have some people telling others If you want to get saved confess every sin that you can remember!
So they go O God I confess..so an so.. They are trying to get saved.
The Bible says it is not so. To be saved a man never has to confess his sins.
Some people even say Say after me: Lord Jesus, I am a sinner..
That’s wrong!! You can’t get saved confessing that you are a sinner. No wonder a lot of them go back to the world right after the prayer. Because they never did come out.
What does he tell us to confess?
Romans 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus,
87 | P a g e You confess with your mouth
the Lord Jesus. Meaning the Lordship of Jesus over your life. You confess that Jesus Christ is the Lord over your life believing in your heart that God raised Him from the dead.
You do not confess that you are a sinner! You can stay there crying Lord I am a sinner please save me! He already saved you 2000 years ago.
Jesus doesn’t have to die again
on the cross. You don’t need to ascend up to heaven to bring Christ down from above neither do you need to descend to the deep to bring Christ from the dead. Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:) (7) Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.)
So what does it say? The word is near you. Meaning in your mouth and in your heart. Romans 10:8 But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart:
If you confess with your mouth the Lordship of Jesus Christ over your life believing in your heart that God had raised Him from the dead you are saved! Why? Romans 10:13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Remember old Moses? Moses smote the rock twice. He was supposed to call upon the rock the second time. You don’t crucify Jesus again. You call upon Him and you are saved. 1 Corinthians 14:2 – for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ. Can you now see the gravity of the mistake Moses made? That spiritual Rock followed them through the wilderness. That Rock was Christ!
You don’t confess that you are a sinner. I don’t know where they got it from. That’s ignorance gone on rampage. It won’t work because that’s not the word of God. Confess with your mouth the Lordship of Jesus because that is what brings a man out of the domain of darkness. The proclamation of the Lordship of Jesus over his life is what saves him.
Romans 10:10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
That’s how he comes out.
You must have heard us lead sinners to Christ here. You never hear me say I confess I am a sinner.
Save me. No! No!! No!!! They go saying I believe that God raised Him from the dead. I confess with my mouth Jesus Christ is the Lord of my life. I receive remission of sins over my soul.
Years ago I used to add something. I repent of my sins. And As I studied the Bible I found out that he doesn’t have to repent. What is he repenting from? He cannot repent. If he could he would have been saved a long time ago. Repentance means to turn away from wrong to right. A sinner cannot turn away from wrong to right a sinner needs a new life. He cannot turn around from anything because he is dead spiritually dead. Turning around from death makes no sense. Come out of the death is the call.
When you are born again and now that you are in Chris Jesus and when you do something that’s wrong that’s the sin that is applicable when the scripture says Confess your sin. You don’t have to confess all the sins you’ve done all your life. That thing that you just did wrong you say Lord I did this things
88 | P a g e wrong. I repent from it. Meaning I turn away from the wrong to right. You don’t say sorry. You repent.
Repent means you don’t do it again. Repent.
Repent means you don’t do it again. Repent.