I. EXORDIUM:
II. AUDIENCE PROFILE:
III. OBJECTIVES:
IV. TEXT:
Romans 10:2 (King James Version)
For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.
Romans 10:2 (Amplified Bible)
I bear them witness that they have a [certain] zeal and enthusiasm for God, but it is not enlightened and according to [correct and vital] knowledge.
V. THESIS:
Praise, worship, glorify, adore, bless, honor, acknowledge and thank You very much LORD JESUS for You have given me knowledge of You so I know that all things needed in this life are already bestowed upon me with all godliness.
2 Peter 1:3 (Amplified Bible)
For His divine power has bestowed upon us all things that [are requisite and suited] to life and godliness, through the [full, personal] knowledge of Him Who called us by and to His own glory and excellence (virtue).
VI. TITLE:
Zeal without knowledge
VII. EXPLICATION:
A. Author: Apostle Paul
B. Date written: 57 A.D.
C. Place written: From Corinth
D. Purpose: To prepare Roman believers for his long awaited visit.
E. To whom written: Roman Christians
VIII. MAIN BODY:
Romans 10:2 (King James Version)
For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.
Romans 10:2 (Amplified Bible)
I bear them witness that they have a [certain] zeal and enthusiasm for God, but it is not enlightened and according to [correct and vital] knowledge.
A. Jews have zeal and enthusiasm for GOD
"I bear them witness that they have a [certain] zeal and enthusiasm for God,"
Galatians 4:17-18 (Amplified Bible)
These men [the Judaizing teachers] are zealously trying to dazzle you [paying court to you, making much of you], but their purpose is not honorable or worthy or for any good. What they want to do is to isolate you [from us who oppose them], so that they may win you over to their side and get you to court their favor.
It is always a fine thing [of course] to be zealously sought after [as you are, provided that it is] for a good purpose and done by reason of purity of heart and life, and not just when I am present with you!
Philippians 3:6 (Amplified Bible)
As to my zeal, I was a persecutor of the church, and by the Law’s standard of righteousness (supposed justice, uprightness, and right standing with God) I was proven to be blameless and no fault was found with me.
John 16:2 (Amplified Bible)
They will put you out of (expel you from) the synagogues; but an hour is coming when whoever kills you will think and claim that he has offered service to God.
2 Kings 10:16 (Amplified Bible)
And he said, Come with me and see my zeal for the Lord. So they made [the Rechabite] ride in Jehu’s chariot.
EXAMPLES OF PEOPLE IN THE BIBLE WITH KNOWLEDGE BUT NO ZEAL:
1. JEPHTHAH - whose name means "he will open" forgot that the LORD JESUS opened a way for him to defeat his enemies, but never checked or learned by knowledge who is the one that opens first his door to meet him and he sacrificed his daughter because of zeal without knowledge.
Judges 11:30-31 (Amplified Bible)
And Jephthah made a vow to the Lord and said, If You will indeed give the Ammonites into my hand,
Then whatever or whoever comes forth from the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the Ammonites, it shall be the Lord’s, and I will offer it or him up as a burnt offering.
Judges 11:34-36 (Amplified Bible)
Then Jephthah came to Mizpah to his home, and behold, his daughter came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances! And she was his only child; beside her he had neither son nor daughter.
And when he saw her, he rent his clothes and said, Alas, my daughter! You have brought me very low, and you are the cause of great trouble to me; for I have opened my mouth [in a vow] to the Lord, and I cannot take it back.
And she said to him, My father, if you have opened your mouth to the Lord, do to me according to what you have vowed, since the Lord has taken vengeance for you on your enemies, the Ammonites.
Psalms 50:14 (Amplified Bible)
Offer to God the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and pay your vows to the Most High,
Ecclesiastes 5:2 (Amplified Bible)
Be not rash with your mouth, and let not your heart be hasty to utter a word before God. For God is in heaven, and you are on earth; therefore let your words be few.
He forgot to be silent before GOD and made rush vows not to fulfill it.
2. KING SAUL
When a natural man gains victory he sets up a monument (worships himself) for himself, while the spiritual man upon gaining victory sets up an altar (worships the LORD) to the LORD.
1 Samuel 15:12 (Amplified Bible)
When Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning, he was told, Saul came to Carmel, and behold, he set up for himself a monument or trophy [of his victory] and passed on and went down to Gilgal.
Genesis 12:7 (Amplified Bible)
Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, I will give this land to your posterity. So Abram built an altar there to the Lord, Who had appeared to him.
If King Saul were to base his zeal on GOD'S knowledge, it says that Amalekites are to be destroyed but instead of destroying them, King Saul offered the best to the LORD.
1 Samuel 15:2-3 (Amplified Bible)
Thus says the Lord of hosts, I have considered and will punish what Amalek did to Israel, how he set himself against him in the way when [Israel] came out of Egypt.
Now go and smite Amalek and utterly destroy all they have; do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.
1 Samuel 15:22-23 (Amplified Bible)
Samuel said, Has the Lord as great a delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.
For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as idolatry and teraphim (household good luck images). Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He also has rejected you from being king.
3. KING REHOBOAM - lost the kingdom gained by his grandfather King David and father King Solomon in just 3 days because of zeal without knowledge.
1 Kings 12:6-10 (Amplified Bible)
And King Rehoboam consulted with the old men who stood before Solomon his father while he yet lived and said, How do you advise me to answer this people?
And they said to him, If you will be a servant to this people today and serve them and answer them with good words, they will be your servants forever.
But he forsook the counsel the old men gave him and consulted the young men who grew up with him and stood before him.
He said to them, What do you advise that we answer this people who have said, Make the yoke your father put on us lighter?
The young men who grew up with him answered, To the people who told you, Your father made our yoke heavy, but you make it lighter for us—say this, My little finger shall be thicker than my father’s loins.
It's not right to have zeal but it's not based on knowledge but based on other things.
4. UZZAH - he touched the ark of GOD though it's common knowledge that only Levites can touch it.
2 Samuel 6:6 (Amplified Bible)
And when they came to Nacon’s threshing floor, Uzzah put out his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen stumbled and shook it.
ALTERNATIVE SOURCES OF KNOWLEDGE:
1. TRADITION
Matthew 15:3 (Amplified Bible)
He replied to them, And why also do you transgress and violate the commandment of God for the sake of the rules handed down to you by your forefathers (the elders)?
Matthew 15:6 (Amplified Bible)
So for the sake of your tradition (the rules handed down by your forefathers), you have set aside the Word of God [depriving it of force and authority and making it of no effect].
2. HIS OWN WAY
Proverbs 12:15 (Amplified Bible)
The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but he who listens to counsel is wise.
Proverbs 14:12 (Amplified Bible)
There is a way which seems right to a man and appears straight before him, but at the end of it is the way of death.
B. It's zeal without knowledge
"but it is not enlightened and according to [correct and vital] knowledge"
Romans 10:3 (Amplified Bible)
For being ignorant of the righteousness that God ascribes [which makes one acceptable to Him in word, thought, and deed] and seeking to establish a righteousness (a means of salvation) of their own, they did not obey or submit themselves to God’s righteousness.
Romans 9:31-32 (Amplified Bible)
Whereas Israel, though ever in pursuit of a law [for the securing] of righteousness (right standing with God), actually did not succeed in fulfilling the Law.
For what reason? Because [they pursued it] not through faith, relying [instead] on the merit of their works [they did not depend on faith but on what they could do]. They have stumbled over the Stumbling Stone.
Psalms 14:4 (Amplified Bible)
Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge, who eat up my people as they eat bread and who do not call on the Lord?
Proverbs 19:2 (Amplified Bible)
Desire without knowledge is not good, and to be overhasty is to sin and miss the mark.
2 Corinthians 4:4 (Amplified Bible)
For the god of this world has blinded the unbelievers’ minds [that they should not discern the truth], preventing them from seeing the illuminating light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ (the Messiah), Who is the Image and Likeness of God.
2 Corinthians 4:6 (Amplified Bible)
For God Who said, Let light shine out of darkness, has shone in our hearts so as [to beam forth] the Light for the illumination of the knowledge of the majesty and glory of God [as it is manifest in the Person and is revealed] in the face of Jesus Christ (the Messiah).
Philippians 1:9 (Amplified Bible)
And this I pray: that your love may abound yet more and more and extend to its fullest development in knowledge and all keen insight [that your love may display itself in greater depth of acquaintance and more comprehensive discernment],
IX. CONCLUSION:
Praise, worship, glorify, adore, bless, honor, acknowledge and thank You very much LORD JESUS for You have given me knowledge of You so I know that all things needed in this life are already bestowed upon me with all godliness.
