Anyone here ever heard of CaJo?  Canton Jones?  He is a very popular Christian recording artist and he has this one track called “5 seconds.”  Have you ever heard of it?  He sings, “I'm about 5 seconds away from giving you the most amazingest praise!”  And recently I was able to hear his testimony.  How he grew up in a solid home, ended up going down the wrong path and getting to the point where even murder was on his mind…

Then the gospel got a hold of him.  As he looked around his life and saw what he had become, his heart broke and he gave his life to the One who had never left him.  He called out to the One who showered Him with love and a constant calling even through the darkest parts of his life.  And so now he sings out, “I’m about 5 seconds away from giving You the most amazingest praise!”

So what if his testimony was, “I’m righteous.  All my life I’ve held to the law of God and anything I’ve ever done out of line I’ve quickly and completely made right by offering sacrifice, confessing to the priest, saying my hail-Mary’s, paying my tithes, so I’m good man.  And now I’m about 5 seconds away from giving Him the most amazingest praise.”

Doesn’t even work does it?  You see that is the very heart of the point that Paul has been pleading with the Jew.  That the thought that they can love God and praise God and worship God with their badges of perfections and righteousness due to their own works…it just doesn’t work.  That doesn’t produce praise for God that produces praise for self!  Paul knows this man…he was that.  Now he’s free…

His whole message, his practical straight-forward, plain elementary point is that the law doesn’t make you free, it sells you out man…it reveals, it teaches you…takes you to school as we used to say on the basketball court after school…the law shows us that we are indeed not righteous and are all together unable to cleanse ourselves.  I saw this on a church billboard right up from my house…you know those billboards designed to get people to think deep thoughts…I saw one that said, “Walmart isn’t the only place that saves!”  And I saw one once that said, “What did Noah do with the woodpeckers?” 

But really, right down the street from me, perfect for where we are at in scripture…it read…”the law detects…but grace corrects!”  Hear me please Paul cried out in the first four verses of Romans 10.  My heart is not to put you down, to call you out, to make you condemned but it’s that you, all of Israel, may be saved!

You got zeal but it ain’t for real!  It’s zeal to be perfect and that zeal will lead you to being 5 seconds away from giving YOU (as in self) the most amazingest praise!  And that is the very essence of evil man as we’ve looked at in depth during our Wednesday night verse by verse study through the Book of Revelation. 

You’ve sought to establish your own righteousness you see.  The law was never meant for that…and that path has led you to ignorance, no intimacy with God, no relationship, no amazingest praise man…because you got no heart for it!  You haven’t submitted to the righteousness of God and so you’re out there.  Your testimony doesn’t work…why praise a God who owes you man?…but the Bible says that God delights in the praises of His people, He inhabits them…He’s all about them…why?  Because busted and sinful creation praising a holy and perfect Creator means that there is communion.  That Jesus’ prayer has been answered…

John 17, “Father My will is that they’d be with Me.”  Praising the Lord is fueled by the fact that that prayer came to pass.  That although none of us are sinless, we are called righteous!  He has removed the distance between imperfection and perfection and called us to Himself through the cross of Christ.  Now put that all together and you have a very neat and universe impacting truth.  Your universe.

Prayer is answered…at the cross?  Not so much.  Through the cross!  Jesus prayed that the sin distance between the Father and His children would be annihilated.  And through the cross that prayer was accomplished man.  Same with us.  Whatever your prayer is.  Whatever.  Doesn’t matter if it’s about money, marriage, your job, your kids, your car, your WHAT – EV – ER!  God’s perfect will for the situation will be accomplished only one way, through the cross.  Are YOU willing to go to the cross man…give your life for theirs? 

Lay down your trip…and say as Jesus did…nevertheless, not My will by Thy will be done.  All prayers are perfectly and completely accomplished through the cross.  And the ultimate accomplishment of Jesus Christ, the perfect man and holy God dragging our sin and failure to the grave and locking it down for all eternity, THAT will make a man hit his knees in spirit and in truth…in love and in submission…not this zeal for self righteousness!

Recall last week we looked at the breakdown of Chapter 10.  How first Paul spoke of Jesus Christ revealed as Savior, Messiah…that the search is over, love was right before their eyes, love was with them all the while…That was what we looked at last week in verses 1 – 4.  And then as we continue through this chapter today, verses 5 – 15 we’ll see that Jesus would be received by some of Israel and then finally, verses 16 – 21 we’ll see that for the most part, Jesus will be rejected as Messiah by Israel.

And we know that Paul is a wreck as he wrote this.  Back in Chapter 9 verse 3 Paul basically says that he’s so broken over what has become of Israel that he would even trade his own salvation, he’d give them his own place in the family of God if it were possible.  Why?  Because he’s the one who taught them for so many years how to hate, how to increase their own pride, how to stiffen their necks, how to stiff arm the true spirit of righteousness…Which is what?  Faith.

Paul, stiff arming faith?  I thought that he was a Hebrew of the Hebrews?  Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin; concerning the law, a Pharisee; zealous and blameless concerning the righteousness which is in the law?  Yes indeed.  He was all of those things but in all of that one thing he was not…he was not faithful! 

What?  He wrote of himself in Philippians Chapter 3 that concerning the righteousness which is in the law, he was blameless?  How can you say that he was faithless?  Check out the very next verse he wrote in Philippians Chapter 3…But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ…I have counted it as trash, why?  Because all it sought to do was establish my own righteousness and as long as I have righteousness in and of myself, I need not Christ. 

And so we continue our discussion this week as Paul is relentless in reaching out to his fellow Israelite…

Romans Chapter 10 Verse 5

• “The man who does those things shall live by them.”  One of the most used phrases throughout the Bible.  You’ll find this phrase verbatim in 7 verses within the pages of scripture.  First uttered by God Himself in Leviticus 18:5.  Repeated by Nehemiah in Nehemiah 9:29.  Again by Ezekiel in Ezekiel 20:11, 20:13, 20:21 and finally twice by Paul.  Here and Galatians 3:12.
• Why?  Why so many times?  To show us clearly, perfectly, completely that the law itself is good and perfect…yet the courtroom still exists, the Judge still presides, the prosecution still accuses and the mediator still defends.  Well why?  If the law is good and holy and perfect then why does it not simply proliferate life?  Why the need for the courtroom?  Well because yes the law is good, perfect and holy…but man…is not. 
• Paul wrote in Romans 7:10, the commandment, the law which was to bring life…I found to bring death.  Why?  Because it was never a means by which man might be made right with God but rather it was always meant to reveal to us our need for a Savior!  We’ve discussed this at length as we trekked through Romans.  Specifically back in Romans Chapter 3 verses 19 and 20 where Paul says that by the law, the entire world is made guilty for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
• There’s that word again.  Epignosis.  We looked at it last week, remember?  Romans 10:2.  The zeal the Jew has for God is not according to knowledge.  Epignosis.  The experiential, first hand, intimate, one-on-one personal relational knowledge of God.  The knowledge that sets you free man…well Paul busts open the door of theological revelation here, this morning, by showing us a predecessor of intimacy with God.  A forerunner of faith…something that must and always does come first…the fact that one must come to the end of themselves. 
• That you and I must have the courage to view the law, holy perfect and true and then view ourselves and in the strength and humility of honesty, confess in your heart of hearts…that you can’t keep it.  By the law is the knowledge of sin…the sole purpose of the law…to sweep folks feet out from under them such that they land on their knees…
• But the Jew took the ten commandments, extrapolated them out to 613 Mitzvot or smaller do’s and don’ts contained within the Mishnah and they were careful to observe each and every minute detail and in doing so could themselves be made righteous…only one problem with that.  God did not write the Mishnah.  It’s not His law.  His law was always and is today that you shall have no other gods before Me and you shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul and with all of your strength.  Deuteronomy 6.
• But the Jew departed from what God has commanded of them and sought to establish their own righteousness much like the contemporary crowd-pleasing Christianity that we find so often on the scene today. 
• Believe in God, pray a prayer and then try.  Where is that found in the Bible?  Jesus said to Nicodemus, unless you are born again…you die and I live through you, unless one is born again then you cannot enter into the Kingdom of God!  But Christianity today has turned into something so very weak that one can simply proclaim himself a Christian and then actually believe it.  No different than what Paul is saying here of the Jew.  Seeking to establish their own righteousness, they have not submitted to the righteousness of God. 
• No faith.  Just law.  No need of righteousness through grace by faith…we got our own.  And thus the church is no longer on their face, broken over sin and absolutely in love with Jesus Christ with all our heart, all soul and all our strength.  Why?  Because the truth is not believe in God, pray a prayer and try…it’s believe in God, pray a prayer…and die!  You see repentance, a turning from selfishness, self righteousness and sin in implicated by the Biblical gospel…and listen, I understand…the truth is simply not popular…

Romans Chapter 10 Verses 7 – 8

• In other words the law leads to self righteousness which leads to judgment which leads to elitism…I’m better than you, you need to be more like me…hogwash man!  We both need to be more like Christ!  I don’t want to be more like you!  You’re a mess.  You may not look it.  I may not be able to see it…but man your heart is deceitfully wicked beyond even yourself knowing the Bible says so no!  I’m not going to try to be more like you!  I’m pressing in to power man! 
• But what does righteousness by faith say?  That the word is near to you, in your mouth and in your heart.  Man Jesus is so very close.  So very accessible to everyone and anyone but by seeking our own righteousness how very complicated we have made it all!  Do this, don’t do that.  Say this, repeat that.  Pay this, tithe that…when all that was ever required, ever since Deuteronomy 6, ever since the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, all that was ever required of us was and is for us to just put down the weapons of our own righteousness and submit to God completely.  To call out to Him and to bear your heart to Him…allowing Him to lead you, to fill you, to teach you, to use you…
• But man the Mitzvat, the Mishnah, contemporary commodity Christianity, religion…we’ve so scummed it up!  Jesus said become like a little child man…draw near to Me, trust Me…and wait upon Me.  If you’re lost, call out to me!  Ever lose a child in a store?  What does that child do?  They begin to check off their shopping list of things to get.  No!  Kids don’t have shopping lists!!  They scream!  They call out for mom and dad!  Paul says put your shopping list down man…your checklist of self righteousness and scream!

Romans Chapter 10 Verse 9

• See that?  The spiritual conversion and the physical manifestation?  If you believe in your heart.  That’s not your beating heart.  This thought originated with the Jew thousands of years before.  And the word heart was selected but the thought is the very core of a person.  Their…nucleous!  The abiding place of their spirit and the birth place of their soul!
• And Paul says here that if the truth of gospel of the resurrection penetrates to that depth, and the mouth calls forward unto God then man, rebirth occurs…and you will be saved!!!  So simple, and man how man how scummed it up!  Check it, Paul explain it to us…

Romans Chapter 10 Verses 10 – 13

• Jew, gentile…doesn’t matter.  Same Lord and salvation is close man…even at the door of the heart and at the tip of the tongue…available to “whoever.”  Bout to give Him the most amazingest praise ….
• And now the heart of what I really wanted to talk about today…(joke)

Romans Chapter 10 Verses 14 – 15

• Wanna see my beautiful feet?  I’ve been waiting to show you.  Naw, just kidding!  That’s not the heart of this scripture set and I was joking that this is what I really wanted to talk about…a little pastor joke there…but Paul is saying here…I don’t know if you see the pattern…having heard, having believed, having known, we are now responsible to tell….why?
• Because look, do you want folks to call out to Him or not?  Religion is an easy sell.  Do this, perform these works, you’re qualified.  You’re righteous.  Good to go now go live your life.  See you next time you need to hear a lie. 
• But grace is something totally different.  Grace is to introduce someone to agape man.  Love that loves loving.  Love that is not of this world.  Love that frees, truth that frees, reality that frees but the kicker, the tough sell is that to grasp onto grace you gottsta have faith!  Faith that God is.  Faith that even though you are a busted sinner, Christ died for you.  Faith that even at times although He slays me, still I will praise Him.  Tough sell and so God has sent you…one who is soaking wet in the very love which you preach…to set em free!  I love that…

Romans Chapter 10 Verses 16 – 17

• A little profound truth nugget hidden here in verse 16.  That to not obey the gospel, to reject the Word of God is to simply simply simply not believe.  Well let me say it a little better.  You hear the word and yet live contrary to the word, that shows, reveal, tells on you man…you don’t believe! 
• And believing in God, walking with Him and drawing near to Him in a manner that is in lock step with this Word that we now discuss this morning, verse 17 says that is the showing, the revealing, your heart telling on you man…that you are indeed faithful!   You’re walking in faith…and the Bible says that faith is pleasing to God.  It’s what He’s looking for, why? 
• Well we just discussed it!  Because faith means you’ve heard the Word of God, accepted it, believed it, and you’re walking it out…it means you TRUST HIM!  THAT IS PRAISE man! 
• And in the Greek here there is something so very neat which confirms what we just discussed.  That word for “word” in the Greek there in verse 17 is not logos as you may suspect which is the eternal or deep thought type but rather it is hrema which means “the word via experiential reality.”  Walking it out man. 
• Faith comes by hearing and hearing even by walking it out.  You don’t get it do you?  How some can have peace.  How some can as Psalm Chapter 1 says be like a tree planted by the rivers of waters that brings forth fruit, whose leaf does not wither and whatever they do man just looks and feels and produces something so graceful and powerful…this is the diff man…hrema.  Faith is surging bro!  Because faith comes by hearing…NOT what you’re doing this morning.  You’re listening…but some of y’all don’t hear me doh (you don’t hear me doh – remember that from early 90’s lame rap?). 
• What?  How?  You all listen, I read the word and I listen but if I don’t go and install it…download it into my iOS, believe in my heart you see…then I’m really not receiving the herma of God…the experiential reality of God in my life…very powerful truth.  A truth that many run in circles their whole life not caring a bit about…and then the wake up call when they show up in the presence of Jesus and He says yes you spoke of me often, I saw you at church all the time, I used the money you gave to further My kingdom, I used your life to heal and set folks free…but my child, I never knew you…(Matthew 7:23)  Why?  Hrema…experiential reality never was allowed into your life and therefore faith never was established.
• You’ve heard that verse many times before…Romans 10:17.  Means a little more to me after doing this study…I pray the same for you...Paul continues…

Romans 10 Verses 18 – 21

• So Paul continues his plea with asking his fellow Jew to do something he himself would have rejected.  Embrace the gentiles.  Why?  Because God has sought to bring the Jew near to Himself by showing them the joy and the blessings available to them by His grace, His mercy His love through the gentile. 
• And maybe God has done the same in your life.  This is why relationships and discipleships are so important.  So that you might see the goodness of God in the life of a brother or sister and it might stir you up to draw in closer to Him.  How very essential in our personal journey’s with Jesus…
• And you know what…I ask you all the time to be introspective and to really assess where you’re at and I know sometimes that may bring you down.  Because if you actually have the courage to do so, no matter who you are, you’ll find one thing consistent within us all.  We are all a mess.  But as we close today, Paul reminds us, the Holy Spirit encourages us, I’d like to maybe show you for the first time…God is not offended.  He’s known all along what’s really in there…
• Yet all day long, he stretches out His hands and offers you peace.  I’m about 5 seconds away…now four…now two…may our lives give Him the most amazingest praise for His love, His mercy and His grace…