Romans 55
The Righteousness of God
Brian Kocourek
Wednesday night we spoke
again from the Book of Romans beginning at the 10th chapter and we
read from verses 1- 11. Before we move ahead in our study this morning I would
like to take a few minutes and review these thoughts that the Apostle Paul was
bringing tot he attention of the Elect.
Romans 10:1 ¶ 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. 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. 4 For
Christ [is] the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. 5
For Moses describeth the
righteousness which is of the law, That the
man which doeth those things shall live by them. 6 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. 10
For with the heart man believeth unto
righteousness; and with the mouth
confession is made unto salvation.
11 For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be
ashamed.
In these first eleven verses
we hear Paul speak of a people who have
Zeal, but he says, not
according to knowledge. Then he clarifies whose knowledge their zeal is
ignorant of. He goes on to say, Being
Ignorant
of God's righteousness, they go about to establish their own righteousness.
Now the word, righteousness means right-wise-ness and being that they
reject God’s right-wise-ness or God’s way , they have only one thing left to do
and that is to accept their own right-wise-ness as being the correct way.
355-4, 4 Laodicean Church Age - "Be
zealous and repent." Now this false church has zeal; make no mistake about
that. Her zeal has literally been that of the Jews, John 2:17, "The zeal
of thine house hath eaten Me up." But it is a wrong zeal. It is for the
house of their own building. It is for their own creeds, dogmas, organizations,
their own righteousness. They have put the Word out for their own ideas. They
deposed the Holy Ghost and made men into leaders. They have put aside Eternal
Life as a Person, and make it good works, or even church conformity rather than
good works. But God is calling for
another zeal. It is the zeal to cry "I AM WRONG". Now who is going to
say that he is wrong? What is it that all these denominations are based
upon?--the claim to originality, and that of God,--the claim that they are
right. Now they ALL cannot be right. In fact NOT ONE of them is right. They are
whited sepulchres, full of dead men's bones. They have no life. They have no
vindication. God has never made Himself known in any organization. They say
they are right because they are the ones that are saying it, but saying it does
not make it so. They need the vindicated "Thus saith the Lord" of
God, and they don't have it.
PSALMS 1:1 ¶ Blessed [is] the man
that walketh not in the counsel of
the ungodly, nor standeth in the way
of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat
of the scornful. 2 But his delight [is] in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he
meditate day and night. 3 And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers
of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not
wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
4 ¶
The ungodly [are] not so: but [are] like the chaff which the wind
driveth away. 5 Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor
sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
6 For the LORD knoweth the way (That
Greek word is Derek, and means the course of Life) of the righteous: but the way (the course of Life) of the ungodly shall perish.
Knoweth =
yada' 1b1) to be made known, be/become known, be revealed to make oneself
known: to be perceived : to
be instructed, to cause to know to
make oneself known, reveal oneself… Therefore we see that the Lord actively works in the
Life of the righteous, to make sure that the Righteous is understanding the
True Revelation and disclosure of God. In other words, God purposes in His
heart to make sure that His kids know Him. Now that sounds like a real dad,
doesn’t it? But with the ungodly
it is not so. Notice what is said about the ungodly… : but the way (the course of Life) of the ungodly shall perish ( 'abad = be lost, strayed to give up (as lost)
So we see that the Lord actively participates in the
course of Life of the Righteous, and what He does during this course of Life is
to make Himself known to the Righteous. But with the ungodly, they are left to
themselves and thus they will most certainly perish.
Paul said, 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. Notice, these do not submit themselves to the
right-wise-ness of God and so they try to establish their own thinking as the
best avenue, the best way to go and do not realize in doing so they cut
themselves off from the Life of God.
Now before we go any further, I just want to say
that Brother Branham taught us that veil which Paul is speaking of here is the
veil of traditions and creeds,
UNVEILING OF GOD 117
062 Now--and one time, and if a man walked through that veil, it was
sudden death. Now, it's death not to go through it. Amen. If you can't break
that veil of tradition, break through that wall of denomination to see God in
His power, it's death. Once where it was death to go in, now it's death to stay
out. The whole mercy seat's setting in plain view; anybody can see It; the
veil's rent. Glory to God. The whole mercy seat comes into plain view. 118 063 How God could have mercy on
foul sinners as us, when He hid Himself, was a mystery. And now It's in plain
view, or in full view, revealed by His Word. It's always the Word, constantly;
that is God. It's the Word that opens it up. If those people would've known the
Word of God that day when Jesus died, they'd have seen the mercy seat, they
would've seen Who He was. "Who was that then? Why did the veil rent?"
Remember, it's death to go into it; nobody could see it. Moses saw It in a
form, It was a whirl... It was a--a man's back. But here It is, a bleeding
back, that same Man. What was It? God wanted to show them the mercy seat; God
wanted to show them Who He was. So the veil in the temple, from the hand of God
above, was rent from top to the bottom and showed God in plain view. It was
Jesus Christ hanging on the cross, the Mercy Seat. And what was it? The people
were too blind to see It. 120 064 Now, it's repeated again. The traditions,
how... Then on the day of Pentecost, the Word came and was--and was in a form
of Son of God. And they begin to organize it at Nicaea, Rome. And the first
thing, it went to Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, Pentecostals, and so forth.
It's organized traditions; a man don't know where he stands. But glory to God,
He promised in the last days what He would do: He would show His Word in plain
view, open before us again (See?), open It up. If they'd have only known the
Word, they'd have known Who Jesus was. If a man only known the Word of God,
he'd know the hour we're living and what's going on. They just refuse to listen
to that Word. Their traditions... What caused those Jews to see that? What
caused? Looked like they could've actually seen, because the thing was tore
open. It was tore open for a purpose.
122 065 What's this revival long for
now? How could it prosper? How could it be blessed? I don't care how many
impersonations its got, or anything else, that all... When Moses went out,
there was a mixed multitude went with him. But what's it done for? It's Jehovah
Himself taking the veil off of God to show the difference between right and
wrong, which is, Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, or who's right? God's Word
is right. "Let every man's word be a lie, and Mine the Truth." And
God needs no interpreter; He does His Own interpretation. He manifests It and
made--He gives the interpretation. God unveiling Himself (Oh, my.) right in the
midst of us; we see His great hand telling these things, doing these...?... I
got something on that tonight (See?), of how to watch the hand of God, what it
does, how it unfolds itself. See? And people say, "Oh, That's nonsense.
That's fanaticism. There--there's nothing to that. That's nonsense. That's
Beelzebub. That's a devil. That's fortune telling. That's this." See, the
same thing they said about Him...
125 066 Oh church, and if this tape
goes out, can't you see, ministers of the Gospel, where you're living? Can't
you see the hour that we're in? God, showing Himself, setting aside... Look, He
took that temple veil and tore it to pieces that they might see God in plain
view, and they was too blind to see It. And He's done the same thing today:
putting His Word right out in front, what He promised, every promise in the
Word laying right before us, in plain view. You know what the Gentile church
does? The same thing the Jewish church did: too blind to see It. That's all.
It'll be on their hearts just as it was in that day.
127 067 Notice, death to stay away
from It now. You must go into It through this veil or you won't. How God could
have mercy on them... But remember what it was, that God is manifesting what
was behind that veil. Watch what was behind the veil: the Word. What did it
veil? The Word. What was it? It's in the ark. It was the Word that that veil
hid. See? And Jesus was that Word, and He is that Word, and the veil of His
flesh hid It. And today the veil of tradition hides the Word again, saying,
"It's not so." But It is so. God's testifying of It, blasting Hisself
right out as bright as the sun before everyone, and they fail to see It. God,
be merciful to us.
129 068 In type, Moses coming from
the Presence of God with the Word of God for that age... Now, watch, we're now
in Exodus 19. Don't miss this now. Exodus 19, Moses is coming from the Presence
of God, or 20 and 21, 19:20 and 21. Moses is coming from the Presence of God;
he has been into the Word. The Word's been wrote, and he in the Presence of God
with the Word, he had the Word for that age. There's a Word for each age. And
Moses coming forth, his face shined so. See? The Word was in him, ready to be
manifested, give out to the people. The true Word, God had wrote It and It was
with Moses. Notice It was with Moses and was ready to be manifested. He was the
Word to them; he was the living Word hid, veiled himself; Moses had to put a
veil over his own face. Why? He was that Word. Amen. Until that Word was made
known, Moses had to veil himself. Amen. Do you see It? Wherever the Word is,
It's veiled.
131 069 Moses had the Word. Now remember, after the
Word was made manifest, Moses was Moses again. See? But while that Word was in
him to be give out, he was God. For he wasn't Moses no more; he had the Word of
the Lord for that age. Nothing could touch him till that was over, had that
Word with him. So therefore, when he come, the people turned their heads; they
couldn't understand. He'd been changed; he was a different fellow. He come with
that Word. And he put a veil, the Bible said, over his face, for he had the
Word. And he was the Word to them.
132 070 Now, look, if Moses... Oh,
brother, here's going to be an insult. But if Moses... As Paul said here in II
Corinthians the 3rd chapter, if Moses had to veil his face with that type of
glory upon him... See, because that was natural glory; that was a natural law.
And if Moses... Knowing that that law had to perish... But the glory was so
great that it blinded the people, so they had to put a veil over his face, how
much more will It be? (Spiritual blinded people... Uh-huh.) That glory was to
fade away, but this glory won't fade away. See? Moses had the carnal law, the
condemnation, no grace, no nothing; it just condemned you. But this we're
speaking about...
That had no pardon; that just told you what you was. This gives you a
way out. And when that Word is unveiled, oh, my, what kind of a face will It
be? It'll have to be veiled. It's got to be veiled. Now, notice, so the Spirit
is veiled in a human temple (See?); he to speak the natural words with a
natural veil...
380-1 Resume of The Ages -
CA But because they are wrong seed, consequently they have a wrong spirit
motivating them. Religious? Oh my! They outshine the elect in effort and zeal,
but it is Laodicean, not of Christ, for
it looks for big crowds, big programs and startling signs amongst them.
They preach the second coming of Christ, but deny the advent of the
prophet-messenger, though in power and signs and true revelation he eclipses
them all. Ah yes, this false spirit that
in the last day is so close to the real, can be distinguished only by its
deviation from the Word, and whenever it is caught in being anti-Word, it
falls back on the one argument we have already shown to be false: "We get
results, don't we? We have to be of God."
348-1 LAODICEAN CA - Now God says they are naked as well as blind. I cannot imagine anything
as tragic as a man who is blind and naked and does not know it. There is only
one answer--he is out of his mind. He is already deep in oblivion. His faculties are gone, spiritual amnesia
has set in. What else can it mean? Can it mean that the Holy Spirit has
taken His leave of this last day church? Can it mean that men have put God out
of their minds to such an extent that it is happening even as stated in Romans 1:28. "And even as they did
not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate
mind, to do those things which are not convenient." It surely appears that
something like that has happened. Here is a people who say that they are of God
and know God and have His Holy Spirit, and yet they are naked and blind and
don't know it. They are ALREADY DECEIVED. THEY HAVE THE WRONG SPIRIT. THE ELECT
CANNOT BE DECEIVED, BUT IT IS EVIDENT THAT THESE OTHERS ARE. These are they who
have become blind because they refused the Word of God. These are they who have
stripped themselves naked by leaving God's care and protection and sought to
build their own way of salvation, their own tower of Babel by organization. Oh,
how lovely and beautiful dressed they appear in their own eyes as they formed
their general assembles, and their councils, etc. But now God is stripping it
all away and they are naked, for these organizations have but led them into the
camp of antichrist, into the field of tares, right up to their binding and
burning. Objects of pity indeed they are. Yes, pity them, warn them, beseech
them, and still they go their way headlong to destruction, wrathfully turning
away any and all attempts to save them as brands from the burning. Miserable
indeed they are, yet they know it not. Callused and beyond hope, they glory in
what is actually their shame. Defiant against the Word, yet one day they shall
be judged by it and pay the price of its awful indictments.
Therefore, we should be able to see that God has come
with the purpose to shine forth His Light upon the minds of the elect, which He
calls His Righteous, and by shining the Light of His Glorious Presence upon His
Righteous, It causes His Righteous to be changed from Glory to Glory and from
image to image. That’s 2 Cor 3: 18
again… “But we all, with open face (an unveiled face, one which
has no traditions or creeds) beholding as in a glass (the mirror of the Word) the glory of the Lord, are changed into the
same image from glory to glory, [even] as by the Spirit of the Lord.”
In other words, when we pick
up the Word of God, this Bible and look into it, we no longer see ourselves,
but we see Christ, and when we see Him, the longer we look the more we are
changed to be like Him.
I JOHN 3:2 Beloved, now
are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we
know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. Therefore, by seeing Him as He really is, we
are changed to be like Him.
I CORINTHIANS 13: 9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. 10 But when that which is
perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. And there is no one perfect
but God… Then this speaks of when He, God comes… 11 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child,(why did I understand like a child?) I thought as a child: but when I became
a man, I put away childish things. 12 For now
we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face, (Face to face?
That word is personal presence. Therefore, there is coming a time when I will
see Him Presence to Presence. ) now I know in part; but then ( When? At that time that He is personally here, ) then
shall I know even as also I am known.
Know = epiginosko , to become
thoroughly acquainted with, to know thoroughly; to know accurately, know well… to recognize; by sight, hearing, of
certain signs, to perceive who a person is…then will I understand…
Now, in getting back to
Romans 10 we pick up at verse 13 through 17 in closing…
Romans 10:13 For whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. 14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed and how
shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear
without a preacher (Even though they say they
hear, thy boast in vain, unless they hear true preachers; for to hear false
prophets means as much as not to hear. They hear and they do not hear; They
have ears, but do not hear, nor do they preach the Word of God. ? 15
And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of
good things! ? This is directed
against all conceited teachers and arrogant instructors .
If you will notice in verse 14-15 there are four
statements that Paul makes that of which follow together in such a way that one
leads to the other, but so that the last forms the foundation on which the
others rest. Thus we see from what Paul said, that it is impossible that those
preach who are not sent, It then is impossible for those to hear who are
without a preacher, and it is impossible for them to believe who do not hear,
and thus it would be impossible for them to call upon the name of the Lord who
do not believe. And thus it would be impossible for them who do not call upon
the name of the Lord to be saved.
So then, the entire source and origin of salvation rests on this, that
God sends out someone, ( A true minister of the Word).
Ø If He does not send out any, then they who preach, preach falsely, and their preaching
is no preaching at all. In fact, it would be better for them not to preach.
Ø Then also they who hear, hear error, and it would be better for
them not to hear.
Ø Then also they who believe, would believe false doctrine, and it
would be better for them not to believe.
Ø Then also they who call upon Him would call falsely (upon a
false Lord), and it would be better for
them not to call.
1
For such preachers do not
preach,
2
such hearers do not hear;
3
such believers do not
believe;
4
such callers do not call;
5
they will be damned because
they would be saved by falsehood.
Ø Then we would see what is
spoken of in Proverbs 1:28
which says, “Then shall they call upon me, But I ill not answer; they shall seek me early,
but they shall not find me: for that they hated knowledge and did not choose
the fear of the Lord.”
16 But they have not all
obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? 17 So then faith [cometh] by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. The true, revealed, and
vindicated Word of God.
Then can you see the importance this morning of
receiving a vindicated Ministry? Because if it is not vindicated, then how do
you know what you are hearing is not error? And if it is error, then you would
be believing error, and if you believe error, then you would be calling out to
a wrong God, and if you call out to a wrong God, then how could you be
saved? Therefore, God has come down to vouch
safe His own Presence among us. We know that we are the elect of God because He
said so. It is not just something we have read in a book, but God Himself has
come down and has spoken through the lips of His Prophet whom He has vindicated
and that is what I am standing on this morning.