Sermon 12/14/03 pm

Jim Huskey, Zeal Without Knowledge

We continue our study in the book of Romans. This morning we looked

at some things in the eighth chapter of the book that provide a great

deal of comfort to those who are in Christ. In chapter 8, beginning

with verse 1, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which

are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the

Spirit." In chapter 9 of the book Paul bared his soul with respect to

his brethren, the Jews. He said "For I could wish that myself were

accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the

flesh." Rom. 9:3. He realized that so many of them, like he had

earlier, rejected Jesus. As a result of that, his soul was, and always

would be on their behalf, very heavy. His desire to see them saved

was of such a nature that he would have traded his redemption if it

would have saved them. That's what he said in verse 3. "For I could

wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen

according to the flesh; who are Israelites..." Vs. 3,4. So in that

nineth chapter he dealt with a number of problems they had. They

rejected the blessings that had been offered to them. They were the

people through whom Christ would come, and yet they were the ones who

would reject him. As John said, "He came unto his own, and his own

received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power

to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name."

John 1:11,12.

In chapter 10 of the book of Romans, Paul basically summed up many of

the things he had mentioned in the 9th chapter. "Brethren, my heart's

desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. For

I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according

to knowledge. 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." Rom. 1:1-3. A very

powerful statement!!! It is, especially since it was made to the

people to whom the law of Moses was given in the first place. They

were the people to whom the law was committed. Back earlier in the

second and third chapters of Romans Paul had raised the question,

"What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of

circumcision? Much every way; chiefly, because that unto them were

committed the oracles of God." Rom. 3:1,2. The problem was, they had

not taken advantage of what they had. They read in the scriptures

every day, but it was just "swoosh", right over their heads. They

didn't pay any attention to what the scriptures said. We've talked

about how they divided into sects, how they would try to either find

a way to get out of doing of what the law said, or on the other

extreme, build fences around what the law said. You remember, on one

occasion Jesus had told them if they wanted to go to heaven they would

have to be, for one thing, basically a good neighbor. They would have

to do for other people. You remember, the man to whom he was talking

was a religious person, suppossedly, of the religious sect, at least.

But his question when Jesus finished was 'well, who is my neighbor?'

Some of the sects had taken the position over the years that 'well,

we know the law says Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy

neighbor, but this man is my neighbor and the law doesn't say I can't

bear false FOR him. It says don't bear false witness AGAINST him.'

On the other hand, they would say, 'this man isn't my neighbor, so I

can lie about him if I want to.' So Paul said these folks had a

problem. It wasn't the problem they should have had; it's the problem

the Gentile would should have had; but the Jews had it just as badly.

They were ignorant of God's righteousness. As a matter of fact, if

they had paid much attention at all to what the law of Moses said,

they would have understood that it was not an end within itself, but

that it pointed to the coming of Christ. Moses, himself, said, "...A

prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren,

like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say

unto you. And it shall come to pass that every soul, which will not

hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people."

Acts 3:22,23; Deut. 18:15. Isaiah had pointed to the coming of the

suffering servant. Micah has pointed out he would be born in

Bethlehem of Judaea. Isaiah had pointed to the establishment of the

kingdom, as well as had Daniel, Ezekiel and others. All of them

pointed to Christ. However, when he came, as John said, He came unto

his own and his own received him not. As a matter of fact, in the

sermon on Pentecost, Acts 2, Peter points out that it was they who

had clammered for His death. In chapter 3, he pointed out that he

knew that through ignorance that had done it, as also had done their

rulers. Acts 3:17.

Well, that exactly what the apostle Paul said in Romans 10:2,3. "I

bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to

knowledge. 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." Ignorance by some is

described as bliss. You've heard the old statement problem all you

life, "Ignorance is bliss." Well, there are some things that just

don't matter, as to whether we know them or not. They don't make a

difference. They're not important. They're not going to change our

lives here or hereafter, so if we don't know those things, it just

doesn't make a lot of difference one way or the other. But there are

some things, that we being ignorant of or not knowing, can kill us

physically. How many times have small chidlren, because they didn't

know the danger, stuck a hair pen into a 110 outlet? You think that

won't light you up? In a heart beat. You see the problem is, that

current is not strong enough to know you away from it, it just grabs

you. A little child will walk up and put his hand on a stove if he

hasn't been taught, and I mean really taught "that will hurt you."

Some of them don't learn until they learn it the hard way. I remember

years ago when we lived in North Carolina a little child whose family

lived in a house with a gas floor furnace. They had cautioned and

cautioned and cautioned "don't get on that floor furnace." The little

child fell on it. There were weeks and weeks and weeks of bandaged

hands and imprints where the flesh was seared. There are things, if

we don't know, will kill us, or do us much harm, physically. But even

those things won't do us a much harm as being ignorant concerning that

which is most important, and that is that which determines where we

are going when we leave here, and I don't mean when you leave this

building tonight; I mean when you leave this world. That's the thing

about which the apostle Paul was so concerned with respect to his

Jewish brethren. "For they being ignorant of God's righteousness..."

Now before we deal any further with the above statement, I want us to

look at one other thing he said. "For I bear them record that they

have a zeal for God..." Did you ever hear the old song "Everybody

Talking About Heaven Ain't Going There, Heaven"!!!! Jesus said that

himself on the sermon on the mount. "Not everyone that saith unto me,

Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth

the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in

that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy

name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?

And then I will profess unto them, I never knew you; depart from me,

ye that work iniquity." Matt. 7:21-23. Why? They were ignorant of

God's righteousness but had set up their own standard of righteousness.

You know, mankind is "pretty good" about that. You get to putting the

heat on somebody about they way they're living and they'll look at

someone else and say 'well what about him/her?" It doesn't matter

about them; they're not the standard. There's the standard, right

there, the Bible. Now some folks get all excited in their devotion and

their service to God. They think it's acceptable; but unless God

SAYS it's acceptable there's a problem, and that's the point Paul was

making. Paul, as well as anyone under heaven, understood that.

Remember, he wasn't always known as Paul. He first was known as Saul

of Tarsus. The first time we're introduced to him in the Bible is

when he was holding the coats of those who were stoning Stephen, the

first christian martyr. Acts 7. The next thing we read about him,

he was breathing out threats and violence against the church, going

from one place to another and dragging people out of their homes and

putting them into prison because they were christians. Acts 9.

He would later write, "I verily thought with myself, that I ought to

do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. Which thing

I also did..." Acts 26:9,10. So Paul knew something about this thing

of zeal without knowledge. Somebody say, how can folks get so excited

about something that's wrong!!! Wel, turn to Acts 19 and I'll show

you. In Acts 19, Paul and company were in Ephesus. Ephesus, you'll

remember, was the place where the temple of Diana, goddess of the

Ephesians, was located. Paul and company had come in there and had

said there were no gods that are made with hands. Those silversmiths

in that place made their living making those little shrines to

Diana. One named Demetrius caused a stir. He called the workmen of

like occupation together; they began to draw others in. But I want

you to look in verse 32 as we set the stage. They began to cry out

"Great is Diana of the Ephesians." Paul was going to go in and talk

to them but his brethren didn't want him to. Look at verse 32 now.

"Some therefore cried one thing, and some another; for the assembly

was confused; and the more part knew not wherefore they were come

together." Acts 19:32. That's what's called 'mob psychology'. Oh,

they were very zealous. They were going to grab anybody they could and

throw them in jail, beat them. They were all excited about doing that.

However, most of them didn't even know why they were there. They just

got caught up in it.

So Paul said, "...I bear them record that they have a zeal of God,

but know according to knowledge." What was the problem? They were

ignorant of God's righteousness. You know, it's not a shame to be

ignorant of things. Everybody is ignorant about a lot of things.

I know some folks who think they know everything, but if you put them

to the test, they're lacking in a few areas. Nobody knows everything

except God. So there are things of which people are ignorant, but

they can learn. There are some folks who are ignorant and are proud

of it. There are some folks who are ignorant and don't know. There

are some folks who are ignorant and want to learn. Those people, we

can work with; they're teachable. That's the apostle Paul. When he

was on his way to Damascus with authority from the priests to bind

christians, you remember what happened to him. He had a life-changing

experience. Folks always want to talk about their experiences. Paul

had one of them. A bright light from heaven shone about him, a

voice from heaven said, "Saul, why persecutest thou me?" "Who art thou,

Lord?" "I'm Jesus whom thou persecutest." You see, Saul all alone

had thought that Jesus was an imposter. He was like most of the Jews

at that time; but he learned something that day. He learned that he'd

been wrong and he changed accordingly. So we don't read of Saul, the

persecuter, anymore. We'll later read of Paul, the persecuted, who

would be beaten, imprisoned, stoned, left for dead, all because he

preached the gospel of Christ. But he, as well as anyone under

heaven, understood something about zeal without knowledge. So he

said that was one of the problems his brethren had. Now whey they

didn't have the knowledge of the righteousness of God, then they set

up their own standards. But remember, a long time ago the wise man

wrote, "There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end

thereof are the ways of death." Prov. 14:12.

"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." God's righteousness is set forth in this

book, the Bible. That's the only place we can find it. It was

designed for man to be able to understand it. Oh, I know there are

some things in there that are difficult to be understood. Peter said

that, himself, as he wrote to the Jews and christians who were

scattered about in Cappadocia and other areas. He said concerning

these things that Paul had written, that there were some things hard

to be understood. But he said they who are unstable and unlearned

wrest these scriptures, but he said they do the others the same way.

II Peter 3:15,16. So there are some things that are hard to be

understood, yes, I understand that. But remember, the Bible was

originally written, the New Testament that is, in the koine Greek. We

sometimes forget that that was street language; that's basically what

it was. There was the classical Greek that all the literature was

written in, but this koine was the Greek that the common man on the

street spoke. Now you know there was a reason for that and Paul

pointed it out when he wrote to the Corinthian brethren. "For ye

see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the

flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called." I Cor. 2:26.

God wanted a man who was just a simple man to be able to understand

it. Now if he could understand it, then the wise man could if he would.

But if it had been couched in terms that only the wisest could have

understood, the simple man would have been left out and God didn't

want that, he didn't intend that. He intended that every man have

access to it and be able to understand it. The righteousness of God

is set forth in His word. That's what important because that is what

will get us from earth to heaven; and if we miss that, brother, we've

missed it all!!!! It doesn't matter how good a time you have here

while you're here on earth. If you miss heaven, you've MISSED IT. If

you don't believe that, all you have to do is go to Luke 16 and read

about that rich man who died. He had everything in this life, but

friend, he didn't have anything after it was over. He would have

given everything he had ever owned for Lazarus just to come and dip

the tip of his finger to quench the torment he was suffering. The

righteousness of God as set forth in His word!!!! Powerful stuff in

the book of Romans.