Zeal that Accords with Knowledge

Turn in your Bibles this evening to Romans chapter nine.

Romans chapter nine, we're gonna begin in verse 27.

Romans chapter nine, beginning in verse 27, we're gonna read all the way through Romans 10,

four.

Once you've found Romans nine, if you'd please stand as we honor the reading of God's holy word.

Romans nine, beginning in verse 27.

And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel.

Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved.

For the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay.

And as Isaiah predicted, if the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring, we would have been

like Sodom and become like Gomorrah.

What should we say then?

That Gentiles who do not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is a righteousness that is by

faith, but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not

succeed in reaching that law.

Why?

Because they did not pursue it by faith.

But as it were, based on works, they have stumbled over the stumbling stone.

As it is written, behold, I am laying in Zion, a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.

Whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.

Romans 10.

Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved.

For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.

For being ignorant of the righteousness of God and seeking to establish their own, they did

not submit to God's righteousness.

For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

Let's go to the Lord in prayer.

Father, once again, we are thankful that we can come and that we can gather here and worship you.

Lord, I'm thankful for the opportunity to be able to preach your word.

I pray, Father God, that you would help me to preach your word boldly.

Lord God, that you, any pride that is within me, Father God, that you would kill that, Lord God, and

that I would preach your word with humility and that I would preach it, Lord God, out of a

love for you and a love for these that are gathered and a love for your church.

Lord God, I pray that you would help me, that you would strengthen my voice as I preach.

I pray, Father God, that as I preach, that I would be nothing more than

an instrument for your use, that, Lord God, you would go before this

message, that hearts would be open to hear this word, and Lord God, not just hear it,

but Father, not just be hearers of the word, but that we would be doers of the word as well.

We just pray, Father God, that anything that we do would not be to uplift any man, but that you,

Father God, would get all the glory that is due your name.

We love you and we praise you in Christ's name, amen.

So there won't be much of an introduction tonight to this.

We're just gonna dive in, but I do wanna say, I wanna

say that a lot of what we discussed this morning and that we're gonna discuss this

evening, it's very convicting for me and probably for you as well,

eye -opening, and will lead, hopefully, to self

-examination.

That's good because it should for all of us, myself included,

but I do want you to see in that both of these cases, and we're here

in Romans 10 and in Romans 12 that we talked about this

morning, in both cases, Paul didn't teach these things because he hated

those that he was teaching.

Quite the contrary, in both instances, this morning's text and tonight's, he says, brothers,

when he's talking to them, it was a term of endearment for fellow believers.

He loved them, and that is why he spoke so plainly to them because

his love that he had for them.

And so I do hope that as I

preach this morning, as I preach tonight, that you will see that even though sometimes it may come across

that my delivery is not perfect in the way I come across, sometimes it may not always be in the best light,

that I do wanna preach to you from a heart, as imperfect as it may be, that loves you,

and that as I preach it is because I love you and because as Paul

wrote to them, he spoke very plainly because he cared about them.

So now to our text.

So here in beginning in verse, in chapter nine, beginning in verse 27,

Paul refers to two different groups of people here.

Who are they?

Who are the two groups of people that he refers to?

The first one is Israel or the Jews, and the second one is the

Gentiles.

And we're gonna start with truths about what he says about Israel.

So beginning in verse one of chapter 10, he says, my brothers, my heart's

desire and prayer to God for them, meaning Israel,

the Jews, is that they may be saved.

So the first point that I wanna make tonight is that they were not saved.

Paul writes that his prayer is that Israel, meaning the Jews, be

saved.

He was speaking broadly here.

He was speaking of them as a whole.

We can assume that some were saved, but as a whole, the majority of the Jews

were not saved.

And so he was speaking to the Jews.

He was speaking to the most religious group of people.

In the world.

And I compare these Jews to a great part of people in churches today

in a couple of areas.

The first one is these, that he's referring to, the Jews, Israel, they were the standard

of morality.

They were the standard of morality to the world.

Romans 9, 31, and our text says, but Israel, which followed after

the law of righteousness.

They knew the law.

They were familiar with the law, and externally, they tried to keep the law.

Paul himself was familiar with this.

In Philippians 3, five through six, talking about himself, he says, circumcised on the

eighth day of the people of Israel, the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the law,

a Pharisee, as to zeal, a persecutor of the church, as to righteousness

under the law, blameless.

That was Paul prior to being saved.

He's explaining who he was prior to being saved.

Many of these Jews were all of that, but they were not saved.

When people read that Paul's desire

for these people was that they be saved, they assume that this is not a message for the

church.

This is not a message for believers, but for the lost outside in the world, for those that don't go to church,

but those people would be mistaken.

He is talking to the church.

Gotta have a Paul Washer quote in here.

Paul Washer quote says, "'When will we realize that one of the greatest "'mission fields

in the West is the pews "'of our churches every Sunday morning?'.

So the first point, first thing we need to realize, the first thing is kind of setting up our message is they were not

saved.

The second thing is they had zeal.

So brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved, for I bear them

witness that they have a zeal for God.

They had zeal.

They were not saved.

They had zeal.

Zeal and passion are very close.

They're essentially the same.

A definition of passionate is showing or caused by strong

feelings or a strong belief.

Showing or caused by strong feelings or a strong belief.

So many in churches today lack a passion for God.

There is a lack of passion for God.

They had passion.

They had that passion and their passion was for God.

They were fanatical and passionate about God, or I should say about his law and parts of God,

but they were passionate, but yet they were not saved.

So the first one, they were not saved.

They had zeal or passion.

You put those two together, what does it tell us?

You can have a zeal for God, or maybe better said his law and not

be saved.

Pastors can have a zeal for God and not be saved.

Church members and people who are here every time the doors open can have a zeal for God

and not be saved.

Church worship leaders can have a zeal for God and not be saved.

There is a zeal that can be for God that is not a saving zeal or in response to genuine

salvation.

And this fact should make all of us stop and evaluate our

lives, our church, and our passion and our zeal.

Though we may sometimes be zealous and passionate about God, are we

saved?

Are we saved?

Because this scripture tells us that we can be zealous and be passionate about some wonderful

things of God and not be saved.

We can have a zeal and a passion for the lost and the poor and not be saved.

We can have a zeal and a passion for the word of God and not be saved.

We can have a zeal and a passion for missions and not be saved.

We can be passionate about our church and that our church is following the commands of God

and not be saved.

We can only seek to live a life that is pleasing to God and living in obedience to Him.

I'm going to obey the Bible, and that's how I'm going to be obedient to God and still not be saved.

Granted, no matter how much you seek to please God, if you are not

saved, it is impossible to please Him.

If possible, if it were possible, we could keep every rule and

instruction given in the Bible and not be saved, if that were possible.

Not that any of these, not any of the Jews, not that any of them kept the law perfectly,

and that's what he's addressing here.

In Romans 9, verse 31, look at verse 31 in Romans 9.

He says, but that Israel, who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness,

but did not succeed in reaching that law.

Gil says about this verse, the Israelites, the far greater part of the Jews, who were not

called by the grace of God, were all very zealous of the law, also because they

sought for righteousness by the deeds of it, not knowing the spirituality of it,

that it required truth and holiness of the inward parts, and that he that offended in one

point of it was guilty of all and therefore could not be justified by it.

There are many out there today that have a false passion and a false zeal

for God.

It may look real to them and everybody else, and it may even feel real at times, but many

today in churches have a zeal for God that will get them absolutely nowhere.

They have an obedience to God that will end up getting them nowhere.

The great part of those in churches today have a zeal and obedience for God that's going to lead

them to the lake of fire one day.

How can I say that?

How can you say that?

How can I say that?

Because that's exactly what Paul is saying here.

It is a harrowing warning to those that look to be doing everything right.

You may say, okay, okay, I get you.

Well, if zeal and passion for God can still lead to hell, then I just won't have zeal or

passion.

I just won't be zealous.

I won't be passionate.

There's one big problem with that.

Where you can have zeal for God and not be saved, you cannot be saved

and not have a zeal for God.

So purposely, there's somewhat of conundrum we're creating here.

Stay with it.

Hopefully it doesn't stay that way.

Speaking to the church, so you cannot be saved and not have a zeal for God, but you can have a zeal for God and

not be saved.

Speaking to the church in Laodicea, in Revelation 3, 16 through 19, it says, so

because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.

For you say, I am rich.

I have prospered.

I need nothing.

Not realizing that you're wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, naked, and I

counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire so that you may be rich and white

garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen and salve to

anoint your eyes that you may see.

Those whom I love are reproved and disciplined.

So be zealous and repent.

Be zealous and repent.

Zeal and passion are not only important and crucial,

but also essential to the life and the love of a Christian.

Zeal and passion are essential to the life of a Christian.

Not passionate in the sinful ways of the world, but passion that flows from the

regeneration that takes place in the life of the believer by the working of the Holy Spirit.

Titus 2, 14, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness

and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous

of good works.

We ought to be zealous and passionate about God.

We shouldn't have to be asked to show zeal or passion.

Your pastor shouldn't have to ask for you to have zeal or to be passionate in your

worship of God.

Leonard Ravenhill, somebody asked him one time, do you pray for the dead?

He said, no, I preach to them.

I think every pew and every church as death row, think about that, they're dead.

They sing about God.

They talk about God, but they're dead.

They have no living relationship with God.

Whenever you think Quatro is hard, remember that quote from Ravenhill.

That's pretty tough.

That's pretty hard.

But it burdens me when I look in a crowd of people and don't

see a crowd of people at a church and don't see people that are passionate or zealous

about God and about being here to worship him.

We should be zealous.

We should be passionate about when we worship Christ.

You cannot be saved and not have a zeal and passion for God.

Romans 12, 11, do not be slothful and zeal, but be fervent in spirit.

Serve the Lord.

First Corinthians 16, 22, if anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed.

Our Lord come.

John Piper put it like this, loving Jesus is not icing on the cake of Christianity.

It is Christianity because without it,.

You're accursed.

No zeal, no passion, and there is reason to believe that we

have not been changed, that you have not been changed if you are not passionate or zealous for the Lord.

Mark 12, 30, we read this this morning, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with

all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.

This morning we talked about the mind part.

To love the Lord with all your mind, to know the doctrine, to know that Christianity

is a religion of the intellect, but it is very much also a

religion of the heart.

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

If you don't have a deep burning love for Christ, then there is reason for concern

in your life.

He tells us several times throughout Scripture that if we don't give up everything for Him, that we are none of

His.

Luke 14, 33, so therefore, anyone of you who does not renounce all that he

has, he cannot be my disciple.

We should be zealous and passionate about God and the things of God.

So examine yourselves.

Examine.

I need to examine myself.

If you have a zeal, then what is it based upon?

We'll get into that in just a second.

But if you don't have a zeal, then there is reason to question, based upon the Word

of God, as to whether or not you've been changed.

I say that not to be hard, but I say that because I love you all and I'm very concerned

that there are so many today that are sitting in churches that may

not truly be in the faith as they claim to be.

Examine yourselves.

So we have that they were not saved.

They had zeal.

You can have zeal for God and not be saved.

You cannot be saved and not have a zeal for God.

Then number five, the zeal must be based on truth and truth alone.

Look at Romans 9, 30 -33.

What shall we say then?

That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it.

That is a righteousness that is by faith, but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead

to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law.

Why?

Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as it were based on works.

They have stumbled over the stumbling stone, as it is written, Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone

of stumbling and a rock of offense, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.

Who was truly saved of these two groups?

In the way that he's referring, the way that he's referencing it here.

Who was truly saved?

The Gentiles.

Why?

Because they had attained righteousness by what?

By faith.

That is by faith in Christ.

Their righteousness was nothing of their own, but in the perfect person and

work of Christ Jesus.

But Israel followed a righteousness not by faith, but rather

by trying to keep the law, and they did not attain the righteousness of God.

They sought their own righteousness and not the righteousness of God.

The Gentiles recognized by the working of the Holy Spirit that they had

no righteousness, and therefore by faith trusted in the righteousness of Christ.

Israel had a self -righteous zeal for God.

They were zealous, but their zeal was self -righteous.

They had a self -righteous zeal for God, and that caused them to stumble.

What caused them to stumble?

What did they trip over?

It says, they have stumbled over the stumbling stone, as it is written, Behold, I am laying in

Zion a stumbling stone, a stone of stumbling, a rock of a defense.

What did they trip over?

What was it that they stumbled over?

Christ.

They stumbled over Christ.

That they are justified.

This is what they stumbled over.

That they are justified, not by their works, but by the imputed righteousness of Christ.

They were going along just fine in their self -righteousness, and then boom!

Christ comes out of nowhere, and He blew up their self -righteousness.

And He told them that they were wretched, and they were unrighteous.

He told them that there's none righteous.

Not even one.

Romans 10, 2 -3, from our text says, For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God,

but not according to knowledge, for being ignorant of the righteousness of God and seeking to

establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness.

So we have three different errors that Israel was committing here in verse 3.

Number one, they were ignorant to God's righteousness.

Number two, they were trying to establish their own righteousness.

And number three, not submitting themselves to the righteousness of God.

Two and three go hand -in -hand here, and they still go hand -in -hand.

Many today are unwilling to submit to God's righteousness and are trying

to establish their own righteousness, and that is because so many lack

the knowledge of God's righteousness.

How do you think they responded to this?

How do you think the Jews and the Pharisees responded to this?

How did the Pharisees respond to Jesus when He told them this very same thing?

They got defensive, as we do today.

We may say, what am I doing wrong if I am working to be righteous and holy?

I'm obeying the Word and seeking to live by all that it instructs me to do or

not to do.

I don't do all the bad things that the Bible says not to do, and therefore I am submitting

and giving my life to God.

I'm sure that's what a lot of Jews were saying and what the Pharisees asked Jesus.

What do you mean, Paul?

What do you mean.

When you say I've not submitted myself unto the righteousness of God?

I think about the rich young ruler as an example of this.

He obeyed the Word and did so in order to, he was desiring to obey God.

He obeyed the Word.

He tried to live as instructed in the Word.

Paul had done the same thing.

He had done, according to him at the time, everything right and was seeking righteousness by

trying to obey God.

But yet there was still something that was wrong in that these

people were in rebellion against Christ.

What was the problem?

Verse 32 tells us why.

Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as it were by works, they have stumbled over the stumbling stone.

The problem is that they never realized that God's righteousness

is not something that you work to attain.

To be righteous and to truly uphold the law and

inward holiness is required.

And if you break even one aspect of God's law, you're

guilty of them all.

And that faith is a gift that is given.

We have no righteousness in and of ourselves.

We can't be good enough or work hard enough to get to heaven.

Why we are obedient matters.

We've only had one Paul Washer quote, so I'll do one more.

A lot of people think that Christianity is you doing all the righteous things that you hate and

avoiding all the wicked things you love in order to go to heaven.

No, that's a lost man with religion.

A Christian is a person whose heart has been changed and they have new affections.

The church is in trouble, that's what they say anyways.

The problem is that what they call the church is not the church.

And the church is not quite as in trouble as everyone thinks.

As a matter of fact, the church today is absolutely beautiful.

She's glorious, she's humble, she's broken and she's confessing her sins.

The problem is what everybody's calling the church today isn't the church.

Basically, by and large, what's called the church today is nothing more than a bunch of unconverted church people

with unconverted pastors.

What he said there, Christianity, a lot of people think that Christianity is doing all the righteous

things you hate and avoiding all the wicked things you love in order to go to heaven.

That was the way of the Pharisee.

That was the way of the Jew, of Israel.

That's pretty tough.

And so far you're probably thinking, wow, this is tough.

This is tough.

I don't even know what to think.

But this is where the greatest news in the history of the world starts.

Our faith must not be in our own works, our own faulty

righteousness, but in the perfect righteousness of Christ.

You aren't good enough.

I'm not good enough.

And that's okay.

You don't have to be.

You can't be.

I can't be.

Christ was perfect.

He was perfection and righteousness.

The righteousness and the perfection that we could not ever be.

And He offers to impute His righteousness on all who

repent and trust in Him.

It is a gift of faith.

Philippians 3, 9, Paul says, And be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes

from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the

righteousness from God that depends on faith.

Their zeal, Israel, their zeal wasn't according to the true knowledge of

righteousness.

Our zeal can and should be.

They had a zeal for God, but they didn't know God.

They had a zeal for Him, but they didn't know Him.

Their zeal was powerless against sin, Satan, and virtually

everything else.

The true zeal has power.

True God -given zeal and passion produces obedience in the

keeping of the Word.

Not to try to obtain righteousness, but rather out of faith and love

of the One who gave you the gift of His perfect righteousness.

So my question tonight as we close, do we have zeal?

Do we have passion?

It is impossible for you to be saved and not be passionate and zealous about Christ

and about His church.

And if you do have zeal, if we do have zeal, what is it based upon?

On trying to obtain righteousness by being obedient, following the rules, or living a good life?

Are you trying to work your way to heaven by being righteous?

Or is it based on the faith and love that you have for the One who has

given you His righteousness as a gift?

Obedience is essential for the believer.

Don't leave this afternoon and say, well, Jacob said we don't have to be obedient.

Obedience is essential for the believer, but you are obedient because you know

and love God.

So are you obedient because you know and love God?

Or are you obedient because you're trying to look righteous?

The why matters.

The why matters.

If it is the latter, that I'm just trying to be righteous, or I'm trying to look righteous, but

it is not because I want to know and I love God because I know Him and I love Him,

then I strongly urge you to repent and trust in Christ.

For He and He alone provides a righteousness that is acceptable to

God.

Let us go to Lord in prayer.

Father, I do once again thank You for the opportunity to preach Your Word.

I pray, Father God, that even though I'm weak, I pray that Your

Word, Father God, will go out and will change hearts.

I pray, Father God, that we

would be zealous.

This group of people would be zealous and we'd be passionate about You.

And Your Word.

But that, Lord God, our zeal would accord with knowledge, accord with Your Word

and the knowledge of You.

That it wouldn't be a zeal that is based on our own self -righteousness.

But, Father God, it would be a zeal that is a result of the gift of faith that You have given us.

We love You and we praise You in Christ's name, Amen.