that the gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith. but israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. wherefore?" or why, because they sought it not by faith, but as it was by the works of the law. for they stumbled at that stumblingstone, and then he quotes another old testament passage of scripture in, i believe it's isaiah, chapter 8, verse 14. it says, "as it is written, behold, i lay in sion a stumblingstone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed." so, paul gave these prophecies, showing that in the old testament it predicted that the jews, as a whole, would reject their messiah, and therefore, salvation would turn to the gentiles, and he says, so, what am i saying? he says, the gentiles which weren't following

after righteousness... in other words, they weren't trying to keep all of the jewish feasts, they weren't circumcising their children, they weren't observing all of the rituals and the laws, they didn't observe the ten commandments, none of these things. these pagans came along and they started receiving right relationship with god, not based on their performance and adherence to the law, but instead they received right standing with god by just simply putting faith in jesus as having paid for their sins and...and relationship with god being available as a gift, and boy, this was super offensive to the religious jews because again, they believed in their nationality. they believed in their adherence to the rituals and the rules and the feast days and all of these kind of things. you can see this conflict all the way through the new testament. like for instance, the apostle paul, was one of these legalists

that was killing christians because he figured that they had forsaken judaism and that they had turned away from all of the rituals and so he was out there arresting and killing christians and then god met him on the road to damascus and...and a bright light blinded him and he made a commitment to the lord and he started preaching jesus and immediately the lord sent him to the gentiles, to these people that he's talking about right here, the ones who weren't living all of the rules and keeping the regulations and doing these things and he began to start telling them that they could be born again without having to become a jew, without having to adopt all of the jewish rituals and laws, even the ten commandments. he did not preach the ten commandments... that you had to honor the sabbath day. i know that this is offensive to many people what i'm saying right here because again, the modern day church is basically a hybrid of the new covenant... they have some

of the precepts of that, but they still adhere to many of the old testament laws, and when you start saying that you don't have to observe the sabbath day to keep it holy, there's some people that just come down on you as a heretic, and yet, the new testament church... the sabbath day is not sunday. the sabbath day is sundown friday to sundown saturday and the new testament church did not observe the sabbath day. they lived the sabbath relationship that hebrews, chapter 4 talked about. i've got a teaching on that entitled, our sabbath rest , which will go into this and show you all of these things. but paul began to start preaching that you didn't have to observe the sabbath, you didn't have to live the ritual life and the clothes and all of the feast days and he was telling these pagans, these people that didn't observe any of the jewish laws whatsoever, that all they had to do was humble themselves and put faith in jesus

as their savior, and because of that, people were being born again and the gospel was scre...spreading. this was great news and people everywhere were being born again, and then you can read about it in the 15th chapter, paul came to jerusalem and all of the elders of jerusalem... this includes peter and james and john, the ones who were the disciples of jesus during his physical ministry here on this earth. they were still trapped in much of the legalism of the jewish culture and they were afraid to break away and be criticized by the religious jews, and so paul came and they called him and they asked him about what he was doing. he began to give testimony about the miracles that were happening and they began to start grilling him saying, some people are saying that you are telling the jews... these gentiles to forsake all of the jewish laws and not to keep them. paul gave a defense of what he was doing

and anyway, the...the people at jerusalem, peter, james and john... all of the disciples of the lord, they came together after listening to paul, they put out a... i don't know what you would call that... a command or a writing to all of these gentile christians, saying that there are some that trouble you and say that they have come from us and say that unless you be circumcised, unless you keep the feast days, unless in other words, you become a jew and convert to judaism, you cannot be saved, and they said, that is not so. we have examined it and we believe that faith in jesus alone is sufficient for your salvation, and so this was a major deal, even to the people who were the disciples of jesus and walked with him for three and a half years. the apostle peter spoke about this over in 2 peter, chapter 3, and he said, our beloved brother paul writes in his epistles of some of these things that are hard to be understood,

which those that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do other scriptures. peter called paul's writings, scripture, and admitted that paul was preaching the gospel and yielded to him on this point. you can also see in the 11th chapter... the 10th and the 11th chapter of the book of acts, that peter was, of course, raised as a jew, and he w...he had to keep all of the rituals about the animals that were clean and unclean, the ones that you could eat and couldn't eat, and one day he was hungry and while he was waiting to eat... they were preparing him food, he was up on the top of a house, he was praying, and he fell into a trance, and in this trance he saw this huge sheet let down from heaven, held up by the four corners and in it were all kinds of animals... not only the clean animals according to the jewish law, but unclean animals such as pork and such as all of the shellfish, shrimp and lobster and things like that, and he saw all of these animals and then the voice of the lord

came to him and he says, rise, peter, kill and eat, and peter said, i won't do it. he says, i have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean, and god said, what i have cleansed, don't you call common or unclean, and this vision was repeated to show that this was something that was established by god, and of course, the application of it was at that exact moment, people coming from cornelius, one of the roman centurions, a gentile, had had a vision, and in this vision, the lord told cornelius to send men to joppa, enquire for peter who was in the house of one simon, a tanner, and he would come and tell him words wherewith by he could be saved. so, peter went with these men. when he entered in, here were all of these gentiles... not only cornelius, but he had called all of his relatives together... all of his friends together, and he says, we are here to hear words whereby we can have relationship with god, and peter said, it is unlawful

for me to be a jew... to be in your house, to be fellowshipping with you, to be eating with you, and he says... but then he referred back to that vision and he says, god has showed me that i should not call any man common or unclean, and so he preached the gospel to them. they got born again. they received the baptism of the holy spirit. they spoke in tongues, and within a very short period of time news of non-jews having a relationship with god got back to the leaders in jerusalem and they called peter on the carpet over this, and peter, when these people from jerusalem came to see what was happening in samaria, it says that peter withdrew from cornelius and his relatives... he had been eating with them and staying in their home, but when the religious jews came, he separated himself, wouldn't eat with them, went back to observe the jewish rituals, and paul wrote about this in galatians,

and it says when peter came to antioch, paul rebuked him openly as being a hypocrite and says, you knew the truth. god had shown you this in a vision and you ate with cornelius and his family, and yet, when the jews came, you went back to the religious way of doing things and wouldn't... separated yourself so that you would not be criticized, and paul rebuked peter openly for this. so anyway, the point that i'm making is that see, this problem of people thinking that you've got to be holy first before god will accept you... it's not that way at all. these gentiles who weren't keeping the laws... they weren't keeping the feast days... they hadn't been circumcised... they were not converts... proselytes, to the jewish religion at all. they were still living in ways that were unacceptable by the jewish law, and i could say, the old testament law. it was unacceptable, yet they had obtained

right standing... righteousness with god because they sought it through faith in what jesus did. the religious jews had rejected jesus as being the only way. some of them had acknowledged that jesus was even the messiah, but they wouldn't put their faith only in him. they just made him a part of the equation and they believed that not only do you have to make jesus your lord and make him your messiah, but you also have to live holy and unless you keep all of these rituals and all of these laws, god will not accept you. see, that same attitude is prevalent in religion today. there are huge numbers of christians... there are many christians who have truly put faith in jesus as your savior and you believe if you were to die you would go to heaven, and yet, you are maintaining your relationship with god through your adherence to all of these rules and regulations and if you fail in any area, you let condemnation come into your life and think, god still has

the power, but god would not use his power... his ability on my behalf because i'm not worthy. you know what, you've got the exact same problem that the religious jews of paul's day had, and what he's saying right here is just as applicable to us today as it was to the religious system that paul lived in in that day. i'm telling you that there are people... some of you don't even realize it because it is so prevalent and it has been said and repeated so many times that you have just accepted it as being truth, but this is saying that people... you could substitute here, for it says, the gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, you could say that the non-religious... the people who aren't living so holy... the people who don't go to church, who don't pay their tithes, the people who are not doing all of the right things, these non-religious... you could call them, pagans, or whatever you want to call them, which followed not after righteousness, have obtained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith.

now, there's still something that you have to do even if you aren't a religious person, even if you've sinned greatly and you've fallen short. this doesn't mean that just because jesus died for you, you're automatically righteous. you have to put faith in what jesus did. you have to acknowledge that you cannot save yourself... that your goodness is not good enough to have relationship with god, and you have to humble yourself and say, jesus, i receive your salvation. i make you my lord, according to romans, chapter 10, verse 9. you have to put faith in what jesus did, but i'm telling you, there are a lot of religious people who do not put faith in jesus alone. they are putting faith in themselves. they might even use jesus as a part of the equation and say, well yes, he provided me with 10%, or 20%, or 50%, or whatever it is, but then i also have to earn the favor of god. i also have to do things in order for god to move in my life.

that cheapens what jesus has done. you are not truly making jesus lord if you only make him lord over just a portion of it and say, well, he provided me with my start, but now i have to maintain everything. no, it's either jesus is lord of all or he's not lord at all. now, that's not saying that you never make a mistake... that you live perfect, but i'm saying, you have to put your dependence upon him and d...trust in him alone and not trust in your own goodness. you know, i used this verse earlier, but let me just flip ahead to romans, chapter 11, verse 6, it says, and if by grace, then it is no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. but if it be of works, then it is no more grace: otherwise work is no more work. you know, that's wordy and some people think, man, what does that mean? that just simply means that it's either the grace of god... you put faith in god's grace and you receive salvation by what jesus did, or you receive salvation

through your own goodness, but it cannot be a combination of the two. you cannot accept partial salvation by grace and then you've got to make up the difference and earn everything on your own goodness. it's either one or the other is what that's saying. you can't mix grace and law. it's like water and oil. they just don't mix. you can't mix the grace of god with your own goodness. now, th...is this to say that there's no reason for you to live holy? no, i'm probably not going to get very far in this today, but on our program tomorrow, i'm going to start showing you in chapter 10 that there is a righteous use of holiness... that you are supposed to maintain good works because it helps you in your relationship with people, it...it closes a door to the devil, et cetera. there are reasons to live holy, but you cannot relate to god based on your goodness, and if you are feeling rejected by god...

condemned by god, if you're frustrated in your relationship with god, then i can guarantee you, somehow or another, you are trusting in your own goodness. you haven't yet moved over into the gospel and putting total faith in jesus, and this is offensive to the religious people, just like it was in paul's day. it says, "but israel, which followed after the law of righteousness... you know, both people desired relationship with god. the pagans might have been doing it through worshipping idols. they thought that that's the way to have relationship with god. in the book...in ephesus, where paul ministered and there was a great temple there to diana of the ephesians, they actually had priestesses... there were over a thousand priestesses in ephesus that had sex with the people that came to the temple... the men, and that's the way that they supposedly worshipped this great image of diana of the ephesians. if you've ever seen one of those pictures of this idol,

she had... i don't even know, but it was dozens of breasts all over her. she was...and it was just a sexual god and there were people that actually worshipped and they were trying to reach god through all these sensual, carnal ways. well, there are people today that are trying to reach god. like the religious jews of this day, they were...they were seeking after righteousness it says, but they were seeking after the law of righteousness. they were trying to become into right standing with god through their own performance and not through what jesus had done, and it says here that that kind of thing... it does not work. you do not obtain... you can never become righteous... in right standing with god by you adhering to laws and...and committing that you're going to live holy and do these things. i know i'm popping some of you all's bubble because you really believe that you can obtain that. i can tell you, any person who believes that you can obtain right standing with god

through your own performance... you're relatively new at it. what i mean by that is that if you really have that mindset, you might for a year or two start making progress. maybe you used to be a doper... you used to be an alcoholic... a homosexual... an adulterer, or you know, any number of different things and you can sit there and you can begin to start changing and stop this and stop that, but i can guarantee you, you can overcome some of these outward things, but you will never be able to overcome every single thing, and not only your actions, but the thoughts of your heart. jesus revealed that if you've lusted after a woman in your heart, you've committed adultery already. if you hate a person, then you've committed murder... you're guilty of murder. you might be able to restrain some of the actions, but you cannot overcome sin and the desire for sin on your own. you can never do it by the law. so, any person who has tried this, you might try it for a few years,

but eventually, those are the kind of people that get frustrated and wind up falling away from the lord, and it's not because they don't believe god exists, it's just that they could never measure up. i'm telling you, you are never going to find right standing with god through the law. you have to humble yourself and just throw yourself on the mercy of god and receive right standing with god as a gift because god is a good god, not because you are a good person. i tell you, i'm speaking to a lot of people today, that you may not have considered yourself religious, but according to these things right here, you are just like the religious jews, who you are still trying to observe all of these external things to have internal peace, and i'm telling you, it doesn't come that way. it comes just by simply putting faith in what jesus did for you and you have to receive it as a gift and you cannot earn it. you have to be like these gentiles, which they had been doing everything all wrong and when paul told them

that you can be born again by putting faith in the savior, they just immediately accepted this right standing with god by faith and not trying to obtain it by law. if you truly want relationship with god, that's the way you're going to have to do it. you know, today i encourage you, at the end of this broadcast to just call out to god and say, god, i just...i want you. i want relationship with you. i'm sorry, and you call out and say, god, reveal yourself to me just because you're good. start seeking the lord by faith in what he has done instead of putting faith in yourself and i can guarantee you, that the lord will reveal himself to you, that he will show you his love if you will humble yourself and approach it by faith and not by law. man, that's good news. that's nearly too-good-to-be-true news. >> from a dead-end street to the open road... the kevin and rachel >> dowling story... >> every dollar

and every penny that we were able to hustle, steal, or con somebody out of went to the dope man. i mean that was our god. i was sitting at the kitchen table and pat just kept telling me you know, kevin, god loves you and he will always love you no matter what. it was right there when i just felt something move in my heart, and she asked me, kevin, are you...do you want to give your life to the lord? and i'll tell you that was the greatest thing i ever did in my life. i mean i just received jesus right there... right in her kitchen and i was so excited, i mean it was so joyful. >> it was awesome! >> from addiction to freedom... from life on the streets to a charis bible college classroom... and sharing the bread of life.

the kevin and rachel dowling story check our this story and more >> at awmi.net >> andrew's teaching on romans is available on either cd or dvd as seen on tv in the series titled the gospel: the power of god. or you can get this teaching in the book titled grace: the power of the gospel in either english or spanish. each is available for a gift of any amount. in addition, this teaching is available in a companion study guide. not only is the entire teaching included in the study guide, you can also print off as many copies as you like when you download the pdf files from the included data cd. this valuable resource is available for a gift of $35 or more. also, if you would like a verse-by-verse commentary on romans, consider andrew's life for today study bible: romans edition . it includes 470 footnotes

that will help you understand god's unconditional love and grace. it's available for a gift of $20 or more when you contact us. or if you prefer, all of these resources are available as part of the romans collection. it includes your choice of either the cd or dvd, the book, the study guide, and the life for today study bible: romans edition . this collection has a catalog value of $99, but today you can receive it for a gift of $50 or more. go to awmi.net and click on today's tv offer to see all the ways you can get this teaching. the fourth audio teaching in today's series is titled two kinds of righteousness . it's available for a gift of any amount when you write or call. we encourage everyone to give, but if you're simply unable to afford it, andrew and his partners will provide this fourth cd free of charge. you can use your credit card

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victor harbor, south australia, melbourne, victoria, australia, and in carrara, gold coast, queensland, australia. for more details on andrew's next meeting in your area visit our web site >> at awmi.net. it is not enough for you to have need. need doesn't motivate god god is motivated by his own love to meet our needs and his power is available, but the thing that will release or appropriate this power of god is faith.

>> announcer: the following program is paid for by the friends and partners of joyce meyer ministries. >> joyce: faith has nothing to do with what we see or what we feel. faith is something in our heart that says in our heart, "god is good. god keeps his word and if god said he'll do this, then i believe he'll do it. i don't care what i see or what i feel like or what anybody says or how long it takes." [music]

>> joyce: "without faith, it is impossible to please god, and those who come to him must believe that he is," and i love this part, "and that he is the rewarder." >> [applauding] >> joyce: wow. wow, wow, wow, wow, wow. it's not just that he is, he's good, and he wants to be good to you. without faith, we cannot receive and walk in god's good plan for our lives and that's why he's not pleased when we try to come to him without faith because he wants to give us good things. faith is not the price that buys the blessings of god. it's simply the hand that reaches out and receives it.

grace is the price that bought every blessing from god. >> [applauding] >> joyce: it's not my faith that buys blessings. jesus bought the blessings with his blood. but i can receive with the hand of faith. there's no reason for god to want to bless me. there's no reason, in the natural if you want to know the truth, for him to want to bless you. i don't deserve it. you don't deserve it. but i'm ready--i'm willing to receive it. i'm willing to have it. and i think the fact that we don't deserve it makes it all the more amazing. amazing. amazing. >> [applauding] >> joyce: absolutely, jaw-dropping amazing. you say, "well,

what does god wants me to do?" that's everybody's biggest question. "god, what do you want me to do?" >> [laughing] >> joyce: you've prayed. you're not getting your breakthrough, so "what do you want me to do?" he'd probably like you to stop doing something. >> [laughing] >> joyce: try like some worship or something like that. "what do you want me to do? what do you want me to do? god, what do you want me to do? i've done everything i know to do, god, and nothing's working. i just don't know what to do." and i still remember one day falling on the floor dramatically. do you ever do the dramatic thing with god? >> [laughing] >> joyce: "no." >> [laughing] >> joyce: "god, i just give up.