Classic Christianity – Book of Romans P5 (10-29-19)
Synopsis
Bob George is camping on Romans 1:16-17, the key to understanding the book of Romans. Paul is saying he is not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation for everyone, first for the Jew, but for both the Jew and the Gentile. In the gospel, a righteousness of God is revealed. This righteousness is a gift from God, received by faith.
Now, what kind of questions should be asked? What is the gospel? Why is Paul not ashamed of the gospel? What is salvation? What is righteousness, and what is this righteousness specifically from God? Are they different? How is this righteousness revealed? How is this righteousness received by faith? What is faith? Faith in what? In who?
Many a person has asked these kinds of questions. Why am I here? What will happen to me when I die? Why can I not do the things I want to do and the very things I hate to do, I do anyway? Why am I empty inside? These kinds of questions are asked because man is born spiritually dead. When the first person, Adam, created by God, sinned, the Holy Spirit that was in him vacated him. Why? God had told him the day you decide for yourself what is right and wrong, good or evil, that day you will die. Man was designed to live in a trusting relationship with the living God, not independent and in rebellion. The relationship with God in a personal way that Adam once had with God was taken from him because of Adam’s choice to sin. Since that time, every man born was born in the likeness of Adam’s sinful nature, a person without the Spirit of God living in him. That is why man asks these kinds of questions. He is born dead to God. That is why Jesus told Nicodemus, “You must be born again.”
What does man do to try to make himself acceptable to God? If they are like the Jews, they form a religion of their own making. In the case of the Jews, they turned what God intended for a certain purpose into a means to make themselves acceptable to God. They turned the law into legalistic righteousness. So too do people do today. Even those who claim no religion will instinctively say that all you can do is the best you can. The problem with religion and philosophies of men is that they do not solve man’s problem. They do not answer man’s nagging questions that can only be answered by Christ Jesus.
Can a dead man give you life? There is only one man born into this world with life in Him. He was not born the natural way. He was born of God and He is God in the flesh. He has eternal life in Him because he came from God. He is the only one who has a life to lay down and a life to give. That man’s name, known to many, is Jesus. Now many a person who has any religious background can testify that Jesus lived, died and did certain things, and even say he was raised from the dead and believe that. But knowing these facts of history has not changed every person. Why not? They have not understood. The truth, the meaning of what Jesus came to do and did, has not been revealed to them by the Spirit of God.
Salvation is being saved from the consequence of sin, which is death, by the gift of God, which is life. You and I, who were born in sin, and who have sinned, are already under judgment. Sin is what caused our death. Jesus came to pay the price of sin that was too great a price, an impossibility, for us to pay. Jesus paid that price for sin, that we, and all men, deserved, so as to take away forever, eternally, the cause of death. That had to be done first, which he did over 2000 years ago when he shed his blood on a cross. He will not shed his blood again. That sacrifice was totally accepted by God for the sins of the entire world, all the way back to Adam and forward to the future to any man not yet born. But his death did not give us life. Only life begets life. Only life can give life. So having taken away the cause of death, Jesus was raised from the dead, so as to offer the same life that raised him from the dead to you and me. This life is offered as a gift. Like any gift, it must be received. You do not pay for a gift or earn a gift. You receive a gift. It is received by faith, simply putting your complete trust in what Jesus Christ alone did for you, by his death, burial and resurrection. There is no other way for man to have eternal life. Salvation is coming to Christ to receive his resurrected life.
So why is the apostle Paul not ashamed of the gospel? Here was a man formerly persecuting the people of God. He once persecuted those people who heard the preaching of the apostle Peter, where in one instance in Acts, over 3000 people came to believe and were filled with the Holy Spirit of God. Paul, known as Saul of Tarsus then, persecuted these people.
Now Paul used to boast of his own righteousness by way of the law. He was, according to his own testimony in regard to the law, flawless, having legalistic righteousness. But when he met Jesus on the road to Damascus, he had a change of mind. Jesus told him that he is the one he is persecuting. He came to understand he was dead spiritually, having no righteousness of his own. All that stuff of legalistic righteousness, a Pharisee of Pharisees, of the tribe of Benjamin, trained under Gamaliel, teachers of teachers, he considered all but garbage to be found complete in Christ, having not a righteousness of his own, which he, and also us, had none, but a righteousness that is by faith in the completed work of Christ alone. He put his faith in the power of the resurrection unto a new life in Christ Jesus. For Paul would say, “to me to live is Christ and to die is gain”.
Today, people are bound up in all kinds of error. False gospels and false teaching abound; prosperity gospel, laughing revivals, being slain in the spirit, Calvinistic teaching, tithing for today. There are all kinds of error that keep people bound under law, not able to walk in accordance with God’s intended purpose. How does one know truth from error? The only truth available to us is in God’s word that we can affirm is true. Such words did not originate with men, but came to us through men who were carried along by the Holy Spirit, the apostles whom God appointed, the prophets of old, and the very words of Jesus. We can test and affirm that what Paul said is true. We have the recording of the prophets of old, who testified of the promised Messiah to come. Jesus said you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.
Now, if you have the Holy Spirit living in you, and you do if you are born again, then Jesus promised that He will guide you into all truth and that he will live in you to live and to act according to his good purposes. We are instructed to study God’s word to be a workman who is not ashamed, who can correctly handle the word of truth. We are instructed to be transformed by the renewing of our minds through his word, whom God will reveal the meaning of it to us when we allow him to. He is our counselor. There is no partiality with God. If anyone lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, without doubting, and he will give liberally without partiality.
Transcript
You cannot get life through religion. The pope cannot give you life. John Calvin cannot give you life. Martin Luther cannot give you life. I cannot give you life. Nobody can give you life except the living one, and that is Christ Jesus, the only one raised from the dead for the purpose of giving you life. You are dead.
What is so often taught today is a half gospel. Half a salvation, in my opinion, has been preached long enough. We continually, continually are hearing on radio and television, “Come to Jesus to get your sins forgiven”. I got news for you. Your sins were forgiven before you ever came to Jesus.
2 Corinthians 5:19
19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them.
Romans 5:10
10 For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!
God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself. When? When you were enemies. While you were yet enemies, God reconciled you through the death of his Son. What does it mean you were an enemy? You are lost. You were born into this world a forgiven person. You were born that way, born unto the consequence of the cross, which is the taking away the sins of the world. No one will ever be condemned by God for his sins. Jesus says, “I have taken those away”. The only sin attributable to man is the rejection of the Son who took away the sins of the world and was raised from the dead to give you life. That is the only sin that will ever be asked by God. “What did you do with my Son? Did you ignore him? Did you say, ‘I do not need him? Or did you recognize that I told you about yourself. The reason I told you about yourself is so that you will be prepared of what I am going to tell you about my Son. Did you come to him for life?”
1 Corinthians 15:19-20
18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. 19 If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.20 But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
What we have done is to put the cross as the focal point of our ministry instead of the resurrection. Paul said that without resurrection we are to be pitied of all people and are still in our sins. Someone says, “I thought the cross took care of the sins”. That is true, but it is only received in the resurrected life of Jesus. What was provided by him then is received in him now. So you come to Christ for life. You come to Christ for Him, not just what He did for you, but for Him.
Ephesians 1:7
7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace
When you are in Christ, you have possession, redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Are you in Christ? Then what do you have? Redemption. What else do you have? Forgiveness of sins. You do not get forgiven. You are forgiven. If that is a truth, then you spend the rest of your life thanking him for what he did instead of asking him to do something he already accomplished. You are not walking by faith by asking God to do what he has already done.
That would be like Christmas time giving so customary among many. Your dad gives you a bicycle and then the child says, “Hey, can I have a bicycle?” “What do you think is over in the corner?” “Well, it is a bicycle.” “Well, can I have one?” I think this child has mental problems and needs some Prosaic. Do you understand that? When you have something, you do not ask for something.
What have people done? Well, man created religious systems. One came out of Rome. We have confession booths. What do you do there? Confess your sins. Then what do you do? Have some penance. Is that scriptural? No. Are you in Christ? God was in Christ, taking away the sins of the world. Then the Protestants come along and say, “That is not any good. You do not have to go through a priest to get forgiveness. You can go direct. So these Protestants are all down here going direct, and so proud of themselves. We go direct but they have to go to a priest. God is up in heaven saying, “It is finished. When are you knit-wits going to get it in your head? It is finished. It is over. It is done. I am not going to hang on a cross again. When I died on a cross, I died once and for all. I even cried out from the cross, ‘It is finished’”. What do you suppose that means? It is finished. What does that mean in the Greek? It is finished. It is over. It is done. Put that aside. It is what is called entering into the Sabbath rest. Go rest from your works as he did from his.
Hebrews 4:8-10
8 For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. 9 There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; 10 for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his.
There is no more you can do to get forgiveness. You are a forgiven person. Jesus is saying, “Now having been accomplished, I went into a grave, but I was raised from the dead. The reason that I was raised from the dead was so that that life that raised me from the dead can raise you from the dead because you are dead”. If you do not recognize you are dead spiritually then what would his life mean to you, except just as an example, what would Jesus do. He said, “I came to give you life”. That is the power of God.
That is the power of God that Paul says “I am not ashamed of this gospel”. It is the power to raise you from the dead. It is the power of God to bring salvation. What is salvation? Being saved from what? The consequence of sin. There is sin and a consequence, isn’t there? What is the consequence of sin? Death. What is the solution to that? Forgiveness? No! Life. Salvation is the receiving of life.
In order to give you eternal life, what did he have to do with the cause of spiritual death? Take it away. Had he not taken away every sin that you and I have ever committed, if he had forgotten one, and gave you life, and you did that one, what would happen to you? Are you with me? What would happen to you? You would die. Is that eternal life? No. How was he able to give you eternal life? By eternally taking away the cause of death, which is what he did at the cross. Jesus is saying, “I took the entire sins of the whole world upon myself. Not one did I forget. There I died. I paid the price for you. I paid a debt I did not owe for you, who owed a debt that you could not pay. I did it volitionally. I did it joyfully, although I was not real excited about taking the sins of the world on myself. That is why I cried out, ‘Not my will, but your will be done. If there is any other way to take away sins, do it. I am not interested in being a junky, but it is not my will. It is yours.’” So every thought, word and deed, everything we ever did, he took upon himself. Every curse word we ever said and every bad thought we ever had, he took upon himself.
2 Corinthians 5:21
21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
He who knew no sin became sin for you and me, so in that resurrected life of Jesus we could become the righteousness of God. Where? In Him. That is the power of God! That is the power of God for salvation! People before are always interested in miracles and more miracles. As it was in the time of Christ so also still today.
John 4:48
48 “Unless you people see signs and wonders,” Jesus told him, “you will never believe.”
Matthew 12:39
39 He answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.”
If someone cut my leg off and God grew it back the next day, it would not even come close to the miracle of the day I was saved back in 1969. Going in one direction as fast as you could, then come to Christ and then going the other direction as fast as you could. There is no miracle that you would ever see. Jesus told the Pharisees and teacher of the law, ”You are an adulterous generation, always looking for a sign”. You have denominations today, and all they are doing is looking for a sign. Jesus is saying, “I will give you a sign. Take a look at the resurrection. Do you want to see a sign? Look at the resurrection. If you are not willing to come to me for that sign, then you are not willing to come to me, because I made somebody walk that could not.
Yet, we have people today, that is all they talk about – be healed, as if there are no well Christians. All they are talking about is healing, healing, healing. What do those who are well do? Sit around waiting to get sick. The power of God for salvation is that internal new birth that comes when you and I come to life in Jesus. I have got somebody to talk to where I do not bounce prayers off the ceiling. I have a best friend that is closer to me than my own breath. I have someone I can talk to and love and loves me. It is a relationship with Christ.
It is not religion. Observing the religious world today, one sees a table, and the reason for the table in there is to make it look like they got religion. I hate religion but I love Jesus. The word “religion” is a return to bondage. I did not how religion got to where it is today. It is amazing how we acknowledge these things with people walking around in funny looking hats and robes, with collars on backwards, which shows you are walking in the wrong direction. All those kinds of pretenses. What do those things do that make you look kind of funny? Why are they always dressed in black? Maybe it is darker than we think. All of that is religion, folks. All of that is religious stuff.
Jesus is talking about having a relationship with Him that if you were the only people on the face of the earth you two could be rejoicing in the love for each other. If that table over there was the only born again people in the world, they would just enjoy Christ in one another. He did not come to build big buildings. Constantine did that. He ruined the whole concept that Jesus put into effect. Constantine made a state religion out of Christianity and ruined it.
We read Paul’s testimony of having a relationship with Jesus Christ in his letter to the Philippians.
Philippians 3:8-10
8 Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the priceless gain of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. I have put aside all else, counting it worth less than nothing, in order that I can have Christ, 9 and become one with him, no longer counting on being saved by being good enough or by obeying God’s laws, but by trusting Christ to save me; for God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith – counting on Christ alone.
Romans 1:16
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.
So Paul is going into that type of environment in Rome, saying guys, “I am not ashamed of his gospel. It is the power of God for salvation, first of all to the Jew but also to everyone who believes”. Now, he is going to define humanity. First, he is going to the Jew. Then he is going to the Gentile. So that included everyone did it not? No one missed in that. Jew and the Gentile.
Romans 1:17
17 For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed – a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”
If you mark your bible, mark that term, “a righteousness from God”. This is what we are talking about, a righteousness from God. What other kind of righteousness is there? Self righteousness. How does self righteousness manifest itself? Pride. What do you have to have to be self righteous? What would you be having to grab a hold of to be self righteous? You would have to have some laws, rules and regulations, and then say, “I do all those things. You don’t.” When you get down to a point where you have a bunch of things that you have to do, and you are going to do them, then there is only two things that can occur. I am going to compare myself. When you compare yourself with somebody else, only two things can happen. One says, “I am better than they are”, and that is pride. Or, “I am worse than somebody else”, and that is self condemnation. And both of those things are out of the pit of hell. So in religion, you have to have rules and regulations, and that just keeps you in deception and bondage.
2 Corinthians 10:12-13
12 We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise. 13 We, however, will not boast beyond proper limits, but will confine our boasting to the sphere of service God himself has assigned to us, a sphere that also includes you.
So if you are a religious Jew, you grab a hold of the law. The law was given for civil obedience. That was the reason God gave the law to the Jews. The Gentiles never had it. They just came over and stole it. God gave the law to the Jews after they left Egypt and they were going to roam in the desert. And there were millions of them and they were strong. They had been slaves. So in order for them to not murder each other and to have any kind of civil obedience and not to have total anarchy, He gave them laws to live by, the ten commandments.
He also knew that they were going to be roaming in the desert for 40 years. So he gave them dietary laws to keep them from killing themselves. He said things like, “Do not eat pork”. General Electric, even if it existed, did not have refrigerators in those days. So you had refrigeration problems. That stuff will kill you. So you had dietary laws He gave. He gave dietary laws to keep people alive living in the desert. It was for the purpose of preservation.
Did God have an interest in preserving the Jewish bloodline? Did he? Why? Because out of the Jewish bloodline was going to come who? Jesus the Messiah. So He preserved the Jews. He told them here is how to live without killing yourselves. He gave them civil laws. He gave them dietary laws. And He said this is for your good.
Isaiah 9:6-7
6 For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
7
Of the greatness of his government and peace
there will be no end.
He will reign on David’s throne
and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it
with justice and righteousness
from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the Lord Almighty
will accomplish this.
(You can read all about the Jewish laws, the 10 commandments, the dietary laws and their wandering in the desert for 40 years in the book of Exodus.)
What did the Jews do with the law? We got the priests. “Oh, we have got something to do. So let us make the laws as a means for righteousness. That if we keep these laws, we will be righteous before the sight of God”. God did not give us laws to please God, to make us acceptable before Him. He gave us laws to keep us from killing ourselves. He gave us laws to keep us from total anarchy and to keep us from killing ourselves by eating bad foods. People, or we ourselves, took the law, and said, “No. No. This is what pleases God. This is pleasing to God”.
Romans 3:20
20 Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.
Galatians 5:6
6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.
Why did God give us a day of rest? Why? So that we do not work like poor Richard. He needs a day off. You can work six days but you need a day off. What did he give us a day off for? To rest. Am I right? Are we all together on this? To rest. Why? Because you need rest. When the Jews were slaves in Egypt, did they have a day off? Never. This is something brand new. The Jew is saying, “A day off? I worked every day as a slave.” God is saying, “I know, but I am giving you a day off. You need a day of rest to restore your body, to build yourself back up again so you can work, provide for your family and do the things you need to do.“
Exodus 31:15
15 For six days work is to be done, but the seventh day is a day of sabbath rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day is to be put to death.
Now, we would not put somebody to death for not observing the Sabbath today. Consider what is written in Hebrews concerning the Sabbath. Why were the Jews wandering for 40 years when it would have simply taken considerably less time to get into the promised land? What does the promised land symbolize for us today? Consider what Paul wrote in regards to the Sabbath.
Colossians 2:16-17
16 Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. 17 These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.
Hebrews 4:1-3
1 Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. 2 For we also have had the good news proclaimed to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because they did not share the faith of those who obeyed. 3 Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said,“So I declared on oath in my anger,
‘They shall never enter my rest. ’ ”And yet his works have been finished since the creation of the world.
What did we do with the Sabbath? We made it into a holy thing that God never intended for those under a New Covenant. We are like a person with a dog. We are pointing to the dog and saying go over there. The dog comes up and sniffs your finger. You are pointing over there and he wants to sniff your finger. It is the same thing. The law was for others, the Jews, and we are up there sniffing the finger.
Galatians 3:19 (TLB)
19 Well then, why were the laws given? They were added after the promise was given, to show men how guilty they are of breaking God’s laws. But this system of law was to last only until the coming of Christ, the Child to whom God’s promise was made.
So we use this day of the week. Someone says, “Oh, but you do not worship on Sunday?” It does not make a difference if you worship on Wednesday. You need a day of rest. But the day of rest for the Jews happened to be on a Saturday. But it does not matter if it was Sunday, Wednesday or Tuesday. You just need a day of rest. It is not to make you holy or to make you obedient to God. It is for your own preservation and your own good.
Colossians 2:16-17
16 Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. 17 These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.
Jesus said, “Was the Sabbath made for you or were you made for the Sabbath?” He tried to tell people back then, “You are sniffing the finger. I am pointing to something.” We did not listen. So man still is not listening. We are still in the process of trying to make these things something I can do that deep down in my heart you know you are not doing so I can look down on you and say, “look what I am doing”. Am I right or wrong? That is the law. What did the Jews do with the law? They took it and made it an act of righteousness instead of obedience for our own good.
Luke 13:14-16
14 Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue leader said to the people, “There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath.”15 The Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Doesn’t each of you on the Sabbath untie your ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? 16 Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?”
Mark 2:26-28
26 “In the days of Abiathar the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions.”27 Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 28 So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”
Romans 1:16
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.
Paul said, “I got some good news, folks. I am going to tell you something. I am not ashamed of it.” Paul would be a person saying, of his former life, “as far as legalistic obedience is concerned I was without equal. Without equal, there was no one as obedient to the law as me, the apostle Paul.” Now he says, “I consider all of that stuff dung compared to that of knowing Jesus. I am so happy that I am not ashamed of this gospel that has annihilated all of this self righteousness. I am here to tell you about a righteousness from God.” There is that phrase. Hang onto it: “a righteousness from God”.
Philippians 3:4-11
1 Further, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord! It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you. 2 Watch out for those dogs, those evildoers, those mutilators of the flesh. 3 For it is we who are the circumcision, we who serve God by his Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh – 4 though I myself have reasons for such confidence.If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.
7 But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ – the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. 10 I want to know Christ – yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.
Now, folks, a righteousness from God means this. God is saying, “I am going to put you into a position of righteousness and I am going to do it. You are not going to have anything to do with it. If I name you an ambassador, then you are an ambassador. You had nothing to do with it. I elected you to be an ambassador.“ That is what God is saying here. This righteousness you possess is a gift from God. You had nothing to do with it except come and receive it. That is all you can do with a gift of righteousness, receive it or reject it. When you receive it, you possess righteousness. You possess. It is because of God you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us our righteousness. He is your righteousness because you do not have any.
1 Corinthians 1:30
30 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God – that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.
No one has any righteousness of their own. When I came to Christ, I had, to first of all, accept the fact that at the cross, I was cleansed of all that I was, unrighteousness. I had to be cleansed of all that unrighteousness to be filled by His righteousness. I do not stand in any because I do not have any. Do you? How many of you ever thought about how righteous you are? When I was involved in that obsession with confession for forgiveness, I thought I was righteous, that I had short accounts with God. I would think, “I have all my sins confessed.” Sins are not the problem. Just so it is confessed. I would think, “Just make sure you have your sins confessed before you die, then you will be okay.” I can literally say, and Amy the same way, we were all into that same deal, that faulty thinking.
Hebrews 10:1-3
1 The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming – not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. 2 Otherwise, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. 3 But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins.
2 Peter 1:3-9
3 His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.
This is the faulty thinking, “It is obvious to me that old Paul does not have all his sins confessed. Now I have got all mine. I am as clean as a pen before God, but I think he has a stain somewhere.” What is that? Self righteousness. Thinking that I have done something to make myself more righteous than you. So here is Paul, who is coming and saying, “I am going to introduce something brand new to you. It is a righteous from God.” So what have we done? Taking the righteousness from God and using it to proclaim my self righteousness.
That is why Jesus called us sheep, the dumbest animals on the face of the earth, sheep. That is what he referred to us as, a sheep, that without a leader, he would go off a cliff, and all the others go follow. Does that sound familiar? He says, “I have got a gospel, a righteousness by God. It is going to be revealed to you.” That righteousness is revealed by faith from the start to the finish. It is by faith and faith alone. Just as it has been written, “the righteous will live by faith”.
John 10:14-18, 27
14 “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me – 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father – and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. 17 The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life – only to take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand.
Folks, what I have given you here is the key to the book of Romans. This is what every passage to be interpreted in the book of Romans must flow through. This is the funnel. This is the key. This is the reason he wrote the book, to say, “we have a gospel that I do not care whether you are presenting it to all the pompous people in Rome or to those lost depraved or the most poor people some place else. It is universal in scope. It is true all over the world. And if it is not true one place it is not of God.”
That is why I said before with this prosperity gospel that is being perpetuated around the country. You go into New Guinea, an impoverished region, and preach a prosperity gospel and see how that is accepted. The prosperity gospel is no gospel at all, a name it and claim it false gospel that is no where taught in the scriptures. Anyone teaching godliness as a means to financial gain is a man of perverted mind. So if you have listened to things like that in the past, you have been listening to a person with a perverted mind. If you have been listening to a person of a perverted mind, then you are capable of listening to another one.
1 Timothy 6:1-5
These are the things you are to teach and insist on. 3 If anyone teaches otherwise and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, 4 they are conceited and understand nothing. They have an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions 5 and constant friction between people of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain.
Anyone can be deceived, including me. I could be lying to you. Do you know whether I am lying to you? How many of you are born again? How many of you have the Spirit of God living in you? What has the Spirit of God promised you? To teach you the meaning of the word of God. How do you know whether I am teaching you the truth or not? Get into this book and read it, and ask God to reveal the meaning of the word of God to you. If we agree with each other, then we are smart. That is how you know.
John 16:13
13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.
If you are born again, the Spirit has already come and lives in you. At the time of Jesus, they were to wait until the day it happened, for Jesus had not yet risen and ascended to his Father. He told them to wait in Galilee for that day. The Spirit first came to indwell believers at Pentecost. Today, when a person is born again, the Spirit of God immediately takes residence in a person.
Hebrews 8:10-12
10 This is the covenant I will establish with the people of Israel
after that time, declares the Lord.
I will put my laws in their minds
and write them on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.
11
No longer will they teach their neighbor,
or say to one another, “Know the Lord,”
because they will all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest.
12
For I will forgive their wickedness
and will remember their sins no more.”
Is that a miracle of God? Is that the power of God that God can take the scripture, and you can go over to someone in another country, and you can agree on the meaning of God’s word. We get calls from people in Australia, New Guinea, Europe, and all over the world from the internet coming back reading the books and saying, “You know this is something I know down in my heart”. It does not make any difference whether you speak this or that language. It does not make any difference. We talk to people in Russia who have studied the word, who have the Spirit of God, and say, “that is what I believe”. If you have the Holy Spirit living in you, then you have the ability to understand the meaning of the word of God.
