Cross Equals Love
Part 2
Pastor Charles Nieman
Part of CROSS EQUALS LOVE 2023
March 24, 2023

  • Isaiah 54:14 In righteousness you shall be established.
  • We are intended to be establish in righteousness as children of God.
    • We don’t just accept it or have a.
    • Established – To cause to stand.
      • To be steadfast.
      • To be set in place.
      • To be confirmed to an office/position.
      • To make ready or prepared for use.
      • To attain certainty.
    • Being established in righteousness: Gives our lives stability.
      • Adds substance to us.
      • Helps us to put our lives in order by giving what we need or want.
      • Points our eyes in the right direction .
    • All of this is needed living in a world of chaos, uncertainty, doublemindedness, compromise, and broken promises!.

  • Righteousness – Acceptance with God because of faith (not works/law).
    • To be declared accepted by God.
    • To be cleansed of guilt.
    • The disposition or method of life which align itself with God’s Holy Will.
    • To be given the right to stand before God.
    • To be wise to your rights.
      • Why do we need to be gifted with righteousness?

        • Rom 5:12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned.
      • Rom 5:17 For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.
        • Receive – Actively take in.
          • Seize.
          • Lay hold of with the idea of force or violence.
        • Matt 11:12 And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.
          • Satan tries to steal the Gift through guilt, condemnation, works mentality, religion, bad teaching.

  • WE NEED/WANT TO BE ESTABLISHED IN RIGHTEOUSNESS!
    • Rom 10:1-11 Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but to according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. For Moses writes about the righteousness which is of the law, “The man who does those things shall live by them.” But the righteousness of faith speaks in this way, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ done from above) or, “’Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is the word of faith which we preach) that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.”

    • Rom 10:3
      • Seeking to establish their own righteousness.
        • God’s righteousness is - #1 – superior to our righteousness and #2 – is a gift!
        • Why would we try to earn what is already a gift?!?!
      • Rom 10:4
        • Christ is the end of the law.
          • Because Jesus has fulfilled the demands of the law has gifted His Righteousness to us who believe in His Work.
            • Jesus has freed us from the tyranny of the Law!

      • Rom 10:5
        • Righteousness which is under the law.
        • Life under the law – Do good, get good. Do bad, get whacked.
      • Rom 10:6
        • Righteousness of faith.
          • God’s uprightness with no reference to rules which man is expected to perform.
            • Meeting the Divine Standards.
            • Righteousness transforms us from an enemy of God to a child of God.

      • Rom 10:6 & 7
        • Righteousness of faith accepts what Jesus did – Nothing is lacking!!
          • We don’t need to add to it!!!
      • Rom 10:10
        • Heart – the sphere of God’s influence.
          • Ex 36:26 – I give you a new heart.

      • Rom 10:10
        • Salvation – Safety.
          • Deliverance.
          • Preservation from danger or destruction
          • Deliverance from sin and its consequences.
          • Admission into the Kingdom and its blessing.
      • Rom 10:11
        • Shame – To frustrate your hope.
          • To disappoint.