Romans: The Revelation Of Righteousness Part 3 – Lawson and Aaron Perdue
Romans Part 3: The Revelation of Righteousness
Romans Part 3 from Pastors Lawson and Aaron Perdue. On this episode of Grace For Today, discover two different kinds of righteousness. There is only one way to be right with God and spend eternity with Jesus.
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Romans Part 3 Transcript
Praise the Lord, friends. I am so glad that you tuned in with me today. I’m gonna have my son, Aaron, on the broadcast. We are sharing today from Romans 3, and we’re gonna be talking about two kinds of righteousness, the righteousness of man’s performance and the righteousness of God that is given by faith in Jesus. And there’s only one way to be made right before God and to live in eternity with Jesus. So open your heart and receive God’s good work. Blessings. Praise the Lord, friends. We are in Romans 3 today. We’ve been through Romans 1, where we talked about the Gospel is the revelation of righteousness and it works for everybody who believes it. Then we moved into the end of Romans 1, where we talked about the Gentile or the world’s need for Jesus. The world’s need for righteousness and talked about how they’re caught up in philosophy, idolatry, lust, all kinds of ungodliness. Then we moved into Romans 2 and said, it’s not only the world, but it’s also the church, the religious person. And in Paul’s case, the Jews need for righteousness. And he really sums it up in Romans 2:23 when he says, “You make your boast in the law, but through breaking the law, you dishonor God.” In Romans 3, he’s really carrying on this same thought. And in Romans 3:10, he says, everyone needs righteousness. Everybody needs Jesus. And he’s saying, “There’s none righteous, no, not one.” We’re gonna go back and talk in Romans 3:1. I’m gonna ask Aaron to read this, verse one through verse four, but he talks about what advantage does the Jew have? What advantage then is there been raised in the church?
So it says, “What advantage then has the Jew, or what is the profit of circumcision? Much in every way! Chiefly because to them were committed the oracles of God. For what if some did not believe? Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect? Certainly not! Indeed, let God be true and every man a liar. As it is written: ‘That you may be justified in your words, And you may overcome when you are judged.'”
So when you look at this, he says, what advantage does it have being raised in the church? Your mother and I were both raised in a traditional, religious church, but we got a lot more good than we got bad out of that. We got saved there. We believed on Jesus. However, we did not really understand the power of the Gospel, because we weren’t taught the power of the Gospel. We were taught, maybe God will, maybe God won’t. You don’t ever know about God kind of taught. Get saved, don’t sin, repent, don’t sin, repent, repent, repent, don’t sin. So the focus was more on sin than righteousness in who you’re on Christ and not at all, really on the promises of God, but still we got saved there. So we would’ve went to heaven. But he says the advantage primarily to being raised is when you believe the Bible to them were committed the oracles of God. For instance, my dad and he cussed, drank, smoked, but we went to church and paid our tithes and we believe the Bible was the word. That set us up, really. Because the fact that we believe the Bible was the word of God. Because when somebody came and preached the true word of God, we had to either believe it or reject it. And we believed it and it really began to change our life in a very positive way. And he says, what if some don’t believe? A lot of people struggle with that question right there. My husband doesn’t believe, my wife doesn’t believe, my pastor doesn’t believe. Well, you better find one that believes. But in this case with a husband and wife, if you’re married, don’t seek to be unmarried. And you know what he says, their unbelief will not make the faith of God without effect. Your faith will still work. So keep believing God. He says, “God forbid. Let God be true and every man a liar.” God’s word is still true and you believe it and you know what? It will work for you that you might be justified in your sayings overcome when you’re judged. He says this in verse five through verse eight, he says, “If our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who takes vengeance?” In other words, man, if you live like the devil, you’re gonna have some negative things happen in your life. He says, “God forbid: how will God judge the world?” In other words, sin eventually is gonna be judged. He said, “For the truth of God has more abounded through my lie unto His glory; why am I yet judged as a sinner? And not rather, as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say, ‘Let us do evil, that good may come?’ whose damnation is just. You know what? We are not using grace as a license to sin. We’re not saying that, “Let’s do evil, that good may come.” You know what? We are not the author of evil. God is not the author of evil. We’re to leave judgment to God and we’re to stay out of that. He tells us that in a lot of different places in the scriptures. He says, “What then? Are we speaking of Jews better than Gentiles?” Are people raised in the church better than people who weren’t? No. You know what? We’re all sinners. We all need a savior. “No,” he says, “not in any way for we have both proved Jews and Gentiles, they’re all sinners.” Gentiles, the world was caught up philosophy, adultery, lust, all kinds of ungodliness, sin. But the Jews were caught up in legalism and they made their boast in the law. But through breaking the law, they dishonored God. They were still sinners. Sin means two things, to miss the mark or to transgress the law. Well, Gentiles miss the mark, right? But Jews and people who are raised with the word, they broke God’s law. So they were both sinners. And that’s what he’s really saying. He says, “There is none righteous, no, not one.” So he is saying, everyone needs Jesus. Everyone needs righteousness and he’s establishing this. And then he goes on and he quotes these Old Testament scriptures in verse 11 through verse 18, proving that men are ungodly apart from Jesus. And he says, “There is none who understands, there is none who seeks after God. They’re gone out of the way, they’re all together become unprofitable; there’s none who does good, no, not one. Their throat is an open tomb with their tongues; they’ve used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways.” He’s talking about… Man, this is how… Everybody’s caught up in sin. “The way of peace have they not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.” And so he just talks about the whole world. People who say that they’re religious. People who say that… People who are in the world apart from Jesus, did you know what? They’re all sinners. They all need a savior. Now he says in verse 19, “We know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God.” What he’s saying is there is no excuse. We live in a world that is full of sorry, excuses, but we don’t have to have sorry, excuses. And the Gospel takes away. When you understand the Gospel, praise God, it takes away the excuses. So we’ve gotta rejoice in Jesus and get over this. Now, he goes on and says this in verse 20, “Therefore by the deeds of the law there will no flesh be justified in His sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” So here’s why the law was given to show you that you’re a sinner, that you need a savior, and you know what? You can’t get saved by keeping the law. Nobody can keep the law without Jesus. Paul said he kept the law blamelessly, but he said it, I was still a miserable. I find it kind of fascinating when he was testifying before King Agrippa. He just said I was filled with exceeding rage even to the point of wanting to kill these Christians. And so he said, I kept the law blamelessly. I was a Jew of the Jews, a Pharisees of the Pharisees, circumcised on the perfect day, a Benjaminite; but just his heart wasn’t right before God. He was-
The only person who’s ever lived, who’s completely kept God’s law is Jesus, period. Paul was putting Christians to death, claiming that he was keeping the law. And then he was arrested by the Holy Spirit on the way to Damascus to persecute believers. And he was on the road to Damascus and a great light shined from heaven, and Jesus spoke to him and said, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” He knew Jesus was Lord right then. And he said, “I am Jesus whom you persecute.”
Just going to school. I went to secular universities for a number of years. Everyone has some form of law that they follow, some form of rule keeping that if I do all these things, this will make me a good person, this makes me righteous, this makes me a good person. And other people should follow these same rules. Whether it be you need to recycle and recycling’s a good thing, but if you don’t recycle, then you’re a bad person. You’re killing planet earth. Everyone has some type of law, but keeping a law, it doesn’t make you righteous.
Buddha had eight things that he taught. If you could be these, keep these eight sayings of Buddha, you would be man at his best. And yet the scripture says, man at his best is altogether vanity. Man at his best is a sinner who needs a savior and that’s what Paul is saying with these scriptures. He’s saying that we’re all sinners that we need a savior. And he goes on and basically says, because of the law, there is no excuse. Man, we have no excuse, no excuse. We are sinners. We need a savior, period. He says in verse 20, “Therefore by the deeds of the law there will be no flesh justified in His sight.” You are not saved by your performance.
I think that’s why some people reject Jesus is because they feel like they’re a good person already apart from Jesus.
Yes, this is a great point here, because there’s two types, really, of carnality. And we could get into this in Romans 8, or Romans 7 talks about this also; but just like there’s this worldly ungodliness that Paul really talks about in Romans 1, philosophy, idolatry, lust, all kinds of sin and perversion. Romans 2, there’s a religious, right, ungodliness. You boast in the law, but you break the law. And so there’s really-
Well, you can be a non-religious. Some people who claim to be non-religious are some of the most religious people I’ve ever met. Atheists are some of the most religious people on the face of the earth today.
And I think most people who claim to be atheists are really mad at God. And most of them are blaming God. And if you really understand the Bible and understand the New Testament and understand Jesus, they’re mad at God for what the devil’s done.
Yeah. I actually met a young man who was very religious. He wanted to become a priest and he ended up going to school, like getting a PhD in religion and became a very staunch atheist and now tries to convert people to atheism. And he’s like one of the most religious people I know. It’s interesting. So people can get religious apart from religion.
Well, Paul was religious in religion. And there are people that are religious, right? Self-righteous is what we call it, but they’re still sinners and they still need a savior.
That’s why many people reject Jesus. I think in America, that’s why many people reject Jesus is because they think they’re fine on their own. I’m fine with my level of success, I’m fine with my level of money, I’m fine with my family, I’m a good person, why do I need Jesus?
My grandmother was born on my dad’s side in 1914. And she grew up in a traditional church and she received Jesus as her Savior as a young child. She told about it in her older age that she went to the altar and she received Jesus as her Savior. She talked about that. Her brother was a couple of years older than her. He was raised in that same church. Even though he was raised in that church, he never saw his need for Jesus until he got older. He was clear up in his seventies when he got saved. And my grandmother had actually went home to be with the Lord. She had died. It was my great uncle, my grandmother’s brother. His son married my pastor’s daughter. And I actually preached in a revival service. I wasn’t scheduled to preach. There was another guy and he said, Lawson, you’re supposed to come preach tonight. And I preached and my cousin, right, my great uncle’s, I called him my cousin. He’s really my second cousin. My grandmother’s brother’s son got born again and my pastor’s wife recommitted her life to Jesus that night. And as a result, later down the road, a few years after that, my grandmother’s brother who was raised in this religious church, who could never see his need for Jesus, got saved, gave his heart to Jesus. But it was years, and there are people that are like this. I remember one time we were having a revival, you were probably there, in Kit Carson. You had to be there. And we were preaching all week and there’s this lady that they brought from the nursing home. And after the preacher got done preaching, I got up and gave the ultra call. And this woman came and gave her life to Jesus. And she was up in her eighties and she was so mad, she said, “We went to church all of our lives and nobody told us that all you needed to do was believe Jesus, all you needed to do was receive Jesus. Why didn’t anybody tell us?” And she was afraid. She was concerned. She said, I’m concerned that my husband is dead and in hell, because nobody told him that all you need to do is believe on Jesus. And that’s what these scriptures saying that Jesus, after this is God’s answer for man’s need. And we’re gonna take a short break, but stay tuned. We’re gonna get back and talk about this in the end of Romans 3, it is so powerful. You don’t wanna miss it. So stay tuned. Friends, I’ve been teaching from my series on “Romans: The Revelation of Righteousness.” Romans is actually my favorite book of the Bible. And I teach this class. I’ve been teaching it for years at Charis Bible College in Woodland Park with Andrew Wommack. And so I’m teaching about the Gospel is the revelation of righteousness. You wanna get ahold of this. I have a book on it. I also have a four CD, mini-teaching on it. And then most recently, we’ve done the 16 teaching USB that you can get just as we’ve been teaching it here on television. And so you wanna get ahold of this revelation. If you get ahold of this revelation, it will change your life. So “Romans: The Revelation of Righteousness.” Thanks so much for being with us today. I’m sure that you’ll enjoy this great teaching and you’ll wanna share it with your friends. Blessings. We appreciate you. Praise the Lord, friends. I’m so glad that you stayed connected with us here, and we are moving on in Romans 3. Paul proves in the first 10 verses that everybody needs Jesus. The world needs Jesus. Religious people needs Jesus. Everybody needs Jesus. And then he says the law was given that there may be no excuse. And by the law is the knowledge of sin. The law will show you. You’re saying, you can take somebody who is self-righteous and you can show them. The world as a whole know they’re sinners. But there are people in the church that have never been born again, but you could take the scriptures and show them that they’re unrighteous and that they need Jesus. And these religious people who are trusting in theirselves rather than trusting in Jesus. And he goes on and says this in Romans 3:21, says, “But now since Jesus has come and died and rose again,” essentially what he is talking about, “the righteousness of God apart from the law is made known, manifested, revealed, being witnessed by the law and the prophets.” The scripture, the law, and the profits testified to the righteousness that was in Jesus. “Even the righteousness of God which is by the faith of Jesus unto all and upon all those who believe.” Who is made righteous?
Those who believe.
Those who believe. There’s only one way to get righteous and that’s believe. “For there’s no difference. For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” Gentiles, Jews, everybody have sinned. “Being justified freely by His grace.” Now a lot of people stop in verse 23 and they don’t go to verse 24. When you believe on Jesus, you are justified freely by the grace of God through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. You were bought by the blood of Jesus. You were purchased out of sin. You were brought into the kingdom of God. And he says, “the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” Verse 25, notice this, “Whom God sent Jesus to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God.” Now that is a mouthful in verse 25. First of all, he says, “God sent Jesus to be a propitiation,” and that’s talking about a covering for our sin, an atoning sacrifice for our sins “through faith in his blood.” When you put faith in the work that Jesus did when He died on the cross and shed His blood, God did that “to declare His righteousness for the remission.” When it talks about remission, our sins are remitted. In other words, we’re forgiven, like there is no more remembrance of it. The account’s been expunged. You can’t find record of that sin anywhere, praise God. It has been remitted. He says, for the sins that are past. Now, some people believe that, that’s before you got saved, but I believe that all sin was paid for at the cross and that’s talking about the past tense of the cross. He says, “through the forbearance of God.” In other words, God knew you would sin, He knew what you would do and He forgave you, anyway. Praise God. He paid for your sin. Your sins were already forgiven 2,000 years ago at the cross when Jesus died and rose again. And you know what you have to do to receive it, it’s just believe it. And if you don’t believe it, you’re not gonna receive it. But then he goes on, he says, “God sent Jesus to declare, I say, at this time His righteousness; that He might be just, and the justifier of him who believes in Jesus.” And when you believe on Jesus, you are declared. God declares that you’re righteous. Man, you need to declare that you’re righteous just like God says. He says, who can boast? “Where’s boasting? It’s excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith.” Nobody can boast. I can’t say that I’m better than you are. Andrew Wommack says he’s never cussed, never drank coffee. I don’t know what drinking coffee has to do with anything. I had a cup this morning, about 4:30 in the morning. And you know what? At the same point in time, did you know, nearly every time he preaches, he calls somebody a fool, in Matthew five that you quoted earlier when we were teaching this week. Matthew 5 says, if you call your brother a fool, you are in danger of the hell fire. And nearly every time Andrew preaches, he calls somebody a fool. So he’s almost in danger of hell fire every time he preaches, but he’s not being saved by his own performance. But I teach at his Bible school and I say, you know what? Andrew’s about six feet tall in the realm of righteousness, and I lost of Perdue. I’m about six inches tall in the realm of righteousness. Aaron, I remember one time when we were in Kit Carson and I had some cows get the best of me. And my corral was about a hundred yards north of our house and I was working these cattle in the morning and I called them some bad names. And I came in the house and your mother said, you need to go talk to Aaron. He heard some words today he’s never heard in his life. And I went into your bedroom and I apologize to you. That’s before I got a revelation of grace. Man, grace has helped me. I live better and I did accidentally. I live better accidentally than I did on purpose before I got a revelation of grace. But man, when you understand this, it’ll change you.
I like what he is saying about where is boasting then? A lot of people… That’s one thing that religion causes people to do is boast in their own goodness or in their own accomplishments. That’s a very religious thing to do. And again, you don’t have to be necessarily following a religion to be a religious person. People can be religious about sports. For example, take long jumping, for example. You might… I’m five foot seven, a white guy.
[Lawson] That’s a great example.
I’m not a super, great long jumper. I don’t know, but that there might be a guy who can… If you’ve put me next to the world’s greatest long jumper, he might really boast that I have the world record for the greatest long jump. But if we were to go to the Grand Canyon and say, “All right, well, let’s see where boasting is. Let’s try to jump across the Grand Canyon.” If we both jumped at the same time, I’d probably splat just a second before the guy who has the world record for long jumping. This is like God’s level of righteousness.
[Lawson] Amen.
God is so righteous, so pure, so holy, no one can attain to His righteousness on their own. You might be a little bit better than someone else, but you’re gonna splat. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
What a great example, Aaron. I love to use that. And it’s just like me talking about Andrew Wommack and maybe I’m six inches tall in the realm of righteousness. And before I got baptized in the Holy Spirit and understood who I was in Christ, my dad and I’d have cussing contests. We’d cuss till the air turned purple. It was terrible. And I had a long-term problem with that, especially till I got an understanding of grace and the Holy Ghost could help you tame your tongue. But at the same point in time, that is… Andrew’s never said a cuss word, but Andrew, if he was trying to be saved by his own righteousness; if you put it to long jumping, trying to be saved by your own works is trying to long jump the Grand Canyon. And I don’t care if you are the world champion long jumper, you cannot long jump the Grand Canyon. You cannot make it. You cannot do it on your own. That’s why God sent Jesus and did it. The Bible says this, I think it’s Galatians 3:21. “If righteousness came by the law, then Christ died in vain.” And so we can’t boast. God did it all for us in the person of Jesus.
Well, I love what Paul says that we don’t make void the law through faith. We actually establish the law. And Jesus said I didn’t come to destroy the law, but to fulfill the law. Preaching grace does not destroy the law. It actually establishes the law. I like that he says the law and the prophets, where does it say that the law and the prophets point to Jesus?
[Lawson] Well, that was back in verse 21.
Yeah, was being witnessed by the law and the prophets. I love that when Jesus was transfigured on the Mount, when He shown in His glory that Moses was there, Moses and Elijah were there. Moses and Elijah, that the law and the prophets all looked forward to Jesus.
[Lawson] Praise God.
They weren’t upset that… He was actually establishing everything that they-
Then Peter said, let’s make three tabernacles And God said, “Peter, you don’t know what you’re talking about.” Because it’s not in the law, it’s not in the prophets, it’s in Jesus. Let’s read these last three verses of Romans 3, Aaron, verse 28 to 31, and then we’ll close.
So this says, “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law. Or is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, so the Gentiles also, since there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not. On the contrary, we establish the law.”
So he basically says, there’s only one way to be justified before God, and that’s faith in Jesus. Whether you’re a religious person, whether you’re a worldly person, you must put faith in Jesus. And what did God establish in the law? What was the purpose of the law? Paul says in Galatians 3, the law was our school master. It was like our teacher to bring us to Christ. But when we believe on Jesus, we graduate from law school to live the good life. Amen. You live the good life through faith in Jesus. So quit trusting yourself. Amen. And just trust Jesus.
Amen.
Praise God. And it makes life better. We’ll be back tomorrow at the same time. And we’re gonna be sharing on Romans 4. You don’t wanna miss it. It’s gonna be great. I’m gonna pray for you before the broadcast is over today, but Aaron, do you have anything you wanna say just briefly?
Yeah. I just think, definitely tune in tomorrow. I love Romans 4. I like to talk about righteousness, accounting. What counts in the realm of righteousness and Paul talks about that. He has a lot to say about righteousness, accounting. He uses a lot of words in the Greek that talk about accounting. So we’ll talk about that tomorrow.
Amen. Thank you so much for tuning. If you need prayer, if you want product, if you wanna become a partner, just give us a call today. Thank you so much, and God bless you. Heavenly Father, we just thank you for everyone who’s tuned in today. We thank you that you’re taking the grace of God and righteousness and making it a revelation to them in Jesus name. Amen.
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