Romans: The Revelation Of Righteousness Part 4 – Lawson and Aaron Perdue

Romans Part 4: The Revelation of Righteousness

Romans Part 4 from Pastors Lawson and Aaron Perdue. In this episode of Grace For Today, learn how when you believe on Jesus you are made righteous by faith! When you are righteous by faith that becomes a foundation for all of God’s promises.

Romans Part 4 Transcript

Praise the Lord friends. I am so glad that you are viewing today and watching the program. I have my son Aaron, on with me today. We’re gonna be talking about Romans chapter four. How that when you believe on Jesus, righteousness becomes the foundation in your life for all of the promises of God. So you are made righteous by faith and when you are righteous by faith in Jesus, that becomes a foundation for all of God’s promises, stay tuned, and you will be blessed. Praise the Lord friends and welcome to the broadcast. I’m so glad that you’re here today. We are sharing from Romans chapter four and we began in Romans chapter one, talking about how the gospel is the revelation of righteousness and there’s only one way that you can get it and that’s by believing on Jesus. Then we went on in Romans chapter one, the end of the chapter talked about how the Gentiles need righteousness. They’re caught up in philosophy, idolatry, lust, sin, all kinds of ungodliness, unchurch people, worldly people need Jesus. They need righteousness that comes only by faith in Jesus, but in Romans chapter two, Paul talked about then how church people, how Jews, how religious people need Jesus and how they make their boast in the law, he says in verse 23, “That through breaking the law, “they dishonor God.” And it doesn’t matter how much you’ve broken God’s law, everybody’s broken God’s law. And if you offend the law in one point, James 2:10 says, “You’re guilty of it all.” Then he says in Romans chapter three, summing all this up in verse 10, “There is none righteous, no not one.” Everybody, Jews, Gentiles, church people, unchurch people, religious people, unreligious people, they all need Jesus period. And then he talks about how God sent Jesus to declare us righteous. And that’s what he did through the death and resurrection of Jesus and everyone who believes on Jesus is declared righteous, is made righteous. And he’s not talking about what you do, he’s talking about who you are, what happens in your spirit when you believe. He goes on now in Romans four and continues to talk about how we receive righteousness or right standing with God and that is by faith in God’s grace and Paul uses Abraham as an example of faith not because he was a faith giant. No, but because Abraham really needed faith. Anybody that calls his wife his sister, when he’s 90 years old needs some faith he needs some help in the faith realm. And then he uses David as an example of grace, why? Because David really needed grace. I mean what a challenging aspect and did you know both Abraham and David, even with the challenges that they had are listed in the faith hall of fame in Hebrews chapter 11? And I was thinking one day, well, God, why in the world is David in the faith hall of fame. He committed adultery, committed murder, had somebody murder to cover it up and God said, “Lawson, do you know what David’s greatest act “of faith was?” I said, no, ’cause I don’t. God asks you a question you better not think you know the answer. And he spoke to me and said, “David’s greatest act of faith “was overcoming his sin, his own personal failure “to walk in a relationship with God.” So we’re gonna be talking about how to receive this and I’m gonna go ahead and let Aaron begin in verse one through verse three, reading and we’ll talk about this a little bit.

Okay, so it says, “What then shall we say “that Abraham, our father was found “according to the flesh for if Abraham was justified “by works he has something to boast about, “but not before God for what does the scripture say? “Abraham believed God “and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” So I like that he uses Abraham and later David, as examples, like he’s saying Abraham, our father Abraham is really the father of the Jewish faith. So he’s using Abraham an example of righteousness. And he’s saying, “What made Abraham righteous? “Was it his actions? “Was it his performance? “Or was it the fact that he believed God?” And even today in modern Judaism, in modern Israel, Abraham is celebrated, David, they’re both celebrated. There’s a temple built over the tomb of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and it’s the second holiest sight in Israel next to the temple Mount. So it’s the second holiest, the second most desirable place in Israel. Abraham is celebrated as the father of the Jewish faith. And David is celebrated too. All around Jerusalem they have signs that say, “This is the city of David.”

Hallelujah.

They celebrate David. Abraham and David are celebrated even in Paul’s time, even today, 2000 years later and he’s using them as examples of people who weren’t justified by their actions, but justified by believing in God.

Amen, Genesis 15:6 says, “Abraham believed in the Lord “and it was counted to him for righteousness.” And it says this right here, “That Abraham believed God “and it was counted to him for righteousness.” Now, Aaron, you have the Greek word

Yeah

And that translation that it talks about and it uses this word in English–

I have one other thought. I had one other thought too just about Abraham. We’ve been talking about the Gentile need for true righteousness and also the Jewish need for righteousness. I actually visited that temple that’s built over Abraham’s tomb and when I was there, like I said, it’s the second, holiest site in Israel. So there’s a lot of religious people there. A lot of Jewish people there and that temple actually, half of it, there’s a wall in the middle, half of it is the Islamic temple and half of it is the Jewish temple and both sides have bombed each other so it’s a very, contentious place, there’s lots of soldiers there just because there’s so much contention there where that temple is half Palestinian authority and half of it is Israeli. So on the Israeli side, there are IDF soldiers walking around, but I was there and just kind of walking around, looking around and like I said, it’s a very religious place. There was a extremely Orthodox Jewish person, a young man there. He had the long sideburns and had the scriptures that are tied to his forehead. He really took law keeping seriously. And he was praying just very passionately. And I was standing by him and this young, female soldier was walking by, she was a very attractive female soldier. This is before I was married. So I could take note of those sorts of things. and when she walked by, I kind of, they call it rubberneck. You turn your neck over to check someone out. And I did that, but also this Jewish guy, who’s very Orthodox, very into the kingdom law turned, he did the same thing I did and I just realized the Gentiles and the Jews all have a need for Jesus, for true righteousness, it’s a free gift and you mentioned Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Here in Romans four, Paul uses a Greek word often it’s the Greek word, . So whenever you see accounted, imputed, reckoned, they’re all the same word in the original Greek. It’s an accounting term, It’s like where we get the word of algorithm from. So if you’ve had advanced mathematical training you know about algorithms, so he’s talking about the mathematics of righteousness, the accounting terms of righteousness, and how are you accounted righteous? In your righteousness account, how do you fill it up?

You believe on Jesus period, there’s only one way. Now he actually uses that same word in verse three, as counted in verse four, as reckoned, in verse five, as counted, in verse six as imputed and in verse eight as imputed. So he uses that same word, verse 11, again, as imputed, actually six different times here in the first 11.

Verses.

And in terms of your righteousness account, you are either in the black or you are in the red.

Amen.

You are either righteous or you are not. And I like what he says in verse four, “Now to him who works, the wages are not counted.” That’s that word “To him who works the wages are not counted as grace, “but as debt.” So he’s saying, “If you think you can do anything “apart from Jesus to fill up your righteousness account,” he said, “That that’s actually gonna work against. “It’s gonna do the opposite. “It’s gonna make debt.” So everyone has an idea of what makes someone a good person, what makes someone righteous. It might be well, I recycle, or I have to do well at work, or have to be fully vaccinated. Everyone has some type of rule that they follow that makes them a good person. You believe this, or you vote this way. That’s what makes you a good person. If you vote for this person, you’re a bad person. If you vote for this person… Everyone has a rule. But if you think you’re good, apart from Jesus, you’re not. Because you’re saying that Jesus means nothing.

Right, that’s really the gospel. Paul actually talks about that in Galatians chapter five and he says, “If you be circumcised, “Christ shall profit you nothing.” And what he’s talking about is law keeping. And he basically says, “You know what? “Jesus plus circumcision equals nothing “or Jesus plus” What are you adding to Jesus? Law keeping, Jesus plus Bible reading, plus church going, plus giving, plus loving your neighbor. All these things essentially, are nothing without Jesus. If you have to add something to Jesus, it’s like saying that Jesus isn’t enough. And so what he’s saying here essentially, is only faith in Jesus and faith in God’s grace is enough to make you righteous. And so he says, “Abraham believed God, and it was imputed. “It was counted to him for righteous.” And I love this you said you’re either righteous or you’re unrighteous, you’re either in the black or in the red. In the investing world we have accounts. And usually we have some things in the black and some things in the red and we hope to win more than we lose, right? We hope to be in the black more than we’re in the red, but in the kingdom of God, you’re either in the black or you’re in the red, you’re either saved or you’re lost. You’re either going to heaven or you’re going to hell. You’re either–

A lot of modern new age philosophy thinks well, I can kind of believe in Jesus, kind of believe in this school of thought, kind of believe in Buddha, kind of believe in… People mix a lot of stuff up, but if you say no, there’s only one way, then they get really angry about that.

Or they have this very religious attitude. Years ago while Peter was in baseball, there was a man and he traveled around the world and he said, “Listen, I’ve been in different places “around the world and I think I’ve got it figured out.” I said, well, tell me about it. He said, “Well, when you die, you go to stand before God, “and God has this black book and God opens it.” And basically, he was saying, “God looks at your good works “and he looks at your bad works “and if your good works out weigh your bad works, “you make it and if they don’t, you don’t “and only God knows.” And you know what? That is completely against the gospel. He didn’t know nobody can be saved by their performance. If you try to be saved by your performance, if you commit one sin, you’re on your way to hell, you do not pass go. The wages of sin is death period. And if you offend the law in one point, you’re guilty of it all. And you know what? We have all sinned and come short of the glory of God. That’s all what we’ve been studying here in Romans. And so when you believe on Jesus, your spirit is made 100% righteous. I preach this message on the book of Romans in the largest Protestant church, they actually had numerous churches in Dominican Republic. And this missionary, when he drove me, the head pastor was there, this church and this missionary, are changing that nation and turning it right side up for Jesus but he said, “100% righteous.” He said, “Who preaches that?” And I mean, he got a revelation of the gospel when I preached that. And you know what? You need to get a revelation of righteousness. If you have no revelation of righteousness, you have no revelation of the gospel. So Paul goes on to say in verse four through eight, he says, “Now to him who works is the reward not reckoned “not accounted of grace, but of debt, “but to him who works not but to believe on him “who justifies the ungodly, “his faith is imputed to him for righteousness. “His faith is counted for righteousness.” So we believe on him who justifies the ungodly. There’s only one kind of people that God justifies and that’s ungodly people. ‘Cause that’s the only kind he has to work with. And he says this, he says–

I also like what he says in verse four, “Now to him who works the wages.” So if you’re working for righteousness, it’s like earning something. So he said, “You can’t earn righteousness. “You can’t get a wage of righteousness. “It can only be a free “gift”

It works against you.

Yeah

And then he says in this in verse six, “Even David describes the blessedness of the man to whom God “imputes righteousness,” this same Greek word, he says, “Without work.” So you’re given righteousness apart from your performance, apart from your work saying, “Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven “and whose sins are covered.” Thank God when we believed on Jesus, our sins were covered. Our rebellion, amen, was forgiven. And he says this, “Blessed is the man “to whom the Lord will not impute sin.” Wow, wow, what a statement. So he says in verse six, when we believe on Jesus, God imputes, God places on our account, the righteousness of Jesus. And then this is one of those scriptures that’s just amazing to me in verse eight, where he says, “Blessed is the man “to whom the Lord will not impute sin.” David had a revelation of what we’ve received and said, “Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin” That’s in Psalm 32 verse one and two. And thank God our sins have been covered. They’ve been paid for, they’ve been taken care of

That they’re imputed to Jesus they were laid on Jesus.

Amen. God made him 2nd Corinthians 5:21.

Made him to be sin.

To be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the very righteousness of God in Christ Jesus and if you’ve believed on Jesus, you’ve been placed in Christ, you’ve been placed in the account of righteous and you are righteous.

Like your accounts were swapped.

Amen

It’d be like, if you’re the poorest of the poor and you have a negative account and just somehow there’s a bank error and they swapped your account with–

Donald Trump’s

Donald Trump’s you got a billion dollar, just account all of a sudden.

Wow.

He’s better than that

That’s what happens, yeah.

There’s no amount of money in the world that could buy the righteousness of Jesus.

Amen.

That could pay for your salvation. So God paid for it all with Jesus and he saved us and washed us with his blood, what a marvelous gospel. Hey, we’re gonna be back after a short break. 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 a hold of this revelation, if you get a hold 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, we are in Romans chapter 4:9-12, and I’m gonna ask Aaron to read this. He’s talking about the blessing that we have through faith in Jesus.

Which verses?

Verse nine through verse 12.

Okay, “Does this blessedness then come “upon the circumcised only or upon the uncircumcised also? “For we say that faith was accounted to Abraham “for righteousness, how then was it accounted “while he was circumcised or uncircumcised? “Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised. “And he received the sign of circumcision, “a seal of the righteousness of the faith, “which he had while still uncircumcised, “that he might be the father of all those who believed “though they are uncircumcised. “That righteousness might be imputed to them also.” “And the father of the circumcision “to those who not only are of a circumcision, “but who also walk in the steps of the faith, “which are father Abraham had while still uncircumcised.”

So what he’s saying, “is Jews and Gentiles, “get it the same way.” Praise God, we all get righteousness by faith in Jesus. And when we put our faith in Jesus, we’re blessed. I love what Mark Hankin says he calls it blood blessed. Amen, you are made righteous because of the blood of Jesus, the blood of Jesus paid for your sins and made you righteous. And now you’re placed in the account of righteousness because of this all of the promises are yours. And that’s what he talks about in verse 13, through verse 16, he said, “For the promise that he would be heir “of the world,” what did Adam lose in the garden when he sinned? He lost dominion over the earth. And Satan became the God of this world. “Was not to Abraham or a seed through his performance, “through the law, but through the righteousness of faith “for if they who are of the law be heirs, “faith is made void. “And the promise is ineffective “because the law works wrath.” The law works wrath if you break the law, it’ll work wrath unless you’re dead. And what happens when you believed on Jesus is you died to the law that you might live to God. And that’s another story it goes on in that Romans chapter seven, but I’ve been in Germany and I’ve traveled on the autobahn and you can drive 120 miles an hour if you want to, because there’s no speed limit and not get a ticket. And I’ve been in Toronto, Canada, and they put billboards up and if you drive like 80 mile an hour, not in miles per hour, it’s in kilometers per hour, but they put signs up that say, “If you drive this fast, “we’re gonna arrest you, we’re gonna take your license. “We’re gonna impound your car “and we’re gonna throw you in,” “jail.” I mean, the law works wrath, but he says, “Where there’s no law, “you can drive 120 on the autobahn “and not be arrested for it.” He says, ‘There is no transgression if there’s no law, “there’s no sin against it.” He says, “Therefore the promise,” he’s still talking about the promise. It’s of faith that it might be by grace. God made all the promises available by grace when Jesus died and rose again. he said, “That it might be sure or secure to all the seed, “not only to those who are of the law, “but also to those who of the faith of Abraham.” Who’s the father of us all. Abraham is the father of the Jewish faith. He’s the father of the Gentile faith. Do you know Dr. Sumrall talked about how Abraham… And we understand that Jesus is the greatest name in all the world because God made him Lord when he raised him from the dead and gave him his name but Abraham is also the father of the Muslims. And so we call Abraham father.

He’s a great example of faith because his faith is what made him righteous.

Amen

And I like the book of James. James uses when he talks about faith without works as dead, he uses Abram, Abraham is an example of faith, but he also uses Rahab as an example of faith, ’cause James was actually one of the first pastors of the church in Jerusalem. So he probably had a lot of Jewish believers in his congregation, but he was telling them, trying to show them that it’s not your race that makes you right before God, it’s your faith. So even Rahab being a Gentile prostitute, put her faith in God and that’s how she was saved.

There were only two Gentiles in the lineage of Jesus who were they?

Rahab and Ruth.

Praise God, and they were both women, praise God. And so their faith made them righteous. Praise God, your faith will make you righteous. And number one, that’s what faith does is it makes you righteous when you believe on Jesus, you are given the righteousness of God but secondly, when you believe on Jesus and are given that righteousness, that becomes like a foundation in your life for all of the promises of God, you receive righteousness by faith and you receive all the promises of God by faith. And then in verse 17 through verse 25, Paul writes and he talks about how faith works really, and how righteousness is received, the promises are received, how faith works. And so he says in verse 17, “As it is written, “I’ve made you a father of many nations before him, “whom he believes even God who gives life to the dead “and calls those things that be not “as though they were.” So God calls it done before it’s done. He calls you healed before you’re healed. Before you receive the physical manifestation, he says, “By the stripes of Jesus you’re healed.” In Abraham’s case, what God did is God came and spoke a word of life into a dead situation. Abraham and Sarah, they had been married for many, many years and they had the promises, but they had not been able to receive a child but when Abraham was 99 years old and Sarah was 90, God came and spoke a word and said, “Your name will not be Abraham fatherly,

Abram.

Abram. Your name will be Abraham, a father of many nations Have I made you. Sarah will not be Sarai princely, but her name will be Sarah mother of princess. So God spoke a word of life into a dead situation. And that word created hope that’s what the gospel does. The gospel creates hope in you. When I first heard the full gospel preached, when I first heard Andrew Wommack in a Bible study in 1978 in this little home in Lamar, Colorado. And he didn’t have a big ministry at that point in time, he had six Bible studies around the area. Man, faith went off in my heart, the gospel created hope. Like I don’t have to be sick, I don’t have to be poor. I don’t have to be defeated by the devil, I can believe God. I got a Bible full of promises that I can believe. That’s what the word of God does it creates hope. And it says, “Against hope, against natural hope “they hoped in God. “They believed in hope that Abraham might become the father “of many nations according what God said. “So shall your seed be.” Years before God had taken him in. In Genesis 15, we talked about this and showed him the stars and said, “Your seed are gonna be like these stars “enumerable.” And he said, “And being not weak in faith, “he did not consider.” What are you considering? Are you considering what God said? Are you considering all these circumstances that are contrary with what God says? He said, “He considered not his own body now dead “when he’s almost 100 years old, “neither the deadness of Sarah’s womb, “but he staggered not at the promise of God “through unbelief.” It’s not that you have a faith problem. As a believer, you have all the faith you need. But the fact is that we are challenged with unbelief. We’re challenged with all these circumstances that are contrary to the promise. And so he says, “He staggered not at the promise of God “through unbelief, but was strong in faith “and glorified God.” It glorifies God When we live by faith and being fully persuaded. Man, we got so many people they’re not half persuaded, but man, I am persuaded. He says, ‘Fully persuaded that what God promised “he was able to perform therefore…” Again, we see this Greek word, “Imputed to him for righteousness.” Abraham was called imputed. Amen, God placed righteousness on his account and placed him in the account of the righteous. And that’s exactly what he does to those of us who believe Now he says, ‘It was not written for his sake alone, “that it was imputed to him.” But he says, “For us also it shall be imputed.” I believe that’s the 10th time he uses this word, this Greek word in this chapter. “If we believe on him that raised up Jesus from the dead.” Do you believe that God made Jesus Lord when he raised him from the dead? He says, “Who was delivered for our offenses.” Jesus went to the cross for our sin, but he was raised again for our justification so we can live just like we’ve never sinned.

I love that.

Because Jesus has been raised from the dead that’s a transition verse. Amen, tell them something Aaron.

Well, I just love that last verse that he was delivered up because of our offenses. So when Christ died, he was delivered up. He wiped away our sin, he wiped away our offenses, but a lot of people stopped there with the gospel. They just realize that they were freed, but not only that he was raised because our justification justification is when that righteousness is now imputed to you so you’re not just forgiven, you are imputed with righteousness because he was raised from the dead.

Amen, so we’ve got the righteous life of Jesus in us because we believed on him. If you need prayer, if you wanna become a partner, if you need product, give us a call today. We’re here to minister you, God bless you. Jesus is the answer for every need that the world faces today. In this package containing “Romans The Revelation Of Righteousness” CD, USB, and book. You’ll learn how to receive righteousness and what happens when you do, you can get this special package for $49 when you call 719-418=400 or visit charischristiancenter.com. We have a church app. You can get it for your phone, you can get our most recent videos, audios stay connected with the church, all of it’s absolutely free of charge. We’d love to have you get our new church app. Blessings.

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