Alright brethren, Romans chapter
9. I thought that it might be easier
to understand what's being said if I preached these as two separate
messages and really in verse 30 Paul begins a different subject. He'd been talking about God's
election of grace and now he begins to talk about righteousness
and how righteousness is attained. He says there that the Gentiles
followed not after righteousness. and yet they attain righteousness.
And then he says, but Israel, which followed after the law
of righteousness, they did not attain to the law of righteousness. They did not attain to the law
of righteousness. And he tells why they didn't.
They stumbled at Christ the stumbling stone. They stumbled at Christ. I've thought of this righteousness
attained Now, righteousness is perfection before God's holy
law. It's perfection. It's to have
no sin, but more than that, it's to have no sin and to be perfectly
righteous before God's holy law. And that is to be as righteous
as God is righteous. If you're righteous as the law
is, you're as righteous as God is. If you're righteous before
the law, you're the righteousness of God. And that's what we have
to be in order for God to receive us. We have to be the righteousness
of God. We have to be as righteous as
God is. Now this righteousness is not
attained by the works of the law. It's not attained by something
we do. It's attained through faith in
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the only way. If you look
over there in chapter 10, I'm probably not going to go that
far, but I wanted to read it because Paul tells us there in
verse 3 that Christ is the righteousness of God. Israel had not submitted
themselves to the righteousness of God, for Christ is the end
of the law for righteousness to everyone that believe it.
That means Christ is the righteousness of God. He's the righteousness
that's required to come into God's presence. So the only way
that we can attain this righteousness is through faith in Christ. The
only way. No works can be done to attain
it. It's only through faith in Christ.
Now I want to look at God's elect Gentiles. And then I want to
look at Israel after the flesh, and then we'll hear the point
of this whole passage. So first of all, God's elect
Gentiles. Now again, let me remind you
that you and me who believe, we're elect Gentiles. Now look
here in verse 30. What shall we say then? That
the Gentiles which follow not after righteousness have attained
to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith. Now these
Gentiles were not trying to attain righteousness. In fact, they
knew nothing about the righteousness of God. Not in truth. They were
not following after righteousness at all. The Gentile nations were
ignorant of God's righteousness because God had not given the
Gentiles the law. God had not sent His prophets
to the Gentiles. God had not spoken anything to
the Gentiles. Whatever religion they were in
was just was of man. It was just these polluted, idle
gods that they thought up and thought up ways to worship. They
knew nothing about the true and living God whatsoever. Paul said
in Ephesians 2.12, he says, at that time you were without Christ,
being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel. They weren't even
members of Israel. Strangers from the covenants
of promise. They didn't know anything about
God's covenants. Nothing about God's promise. Having no hope
without God in the world. Now that's about as lost and
helpless and undone as a person can be, isn't it? You know what? Remember what Peter said when
those fellows come down that were Israelites and they came
down and they said, okay, we'll go this far with you. Yeah, you
have to believe on Christ. But now, except you be circumcised
and keep the law, you can't be saved. Remember what Peter told
them? He said, why are you tempting
God? Why do you put a yoke upon the
neck of these Gentiles which we nor our fathers could bear? But we believe that we shall
be saved like these Gentiles. What was Peter saying? Here you
got Gentiles, they didn't know God, They didn't know Christ. They didn't have the covenants.
They had no hope. They were lost now. We're going to be saved like
they're saved. That's how God saves His people.
Like those people were saved, that's how God saves all His
people. We read this amazing truth that they attained to righteousness. He's not talking about all Gentiles.
He's not saying all Gentiles attain to righteousness. He's
talking about God's elect among the Gentiles. They attain to
righteousness because God chose them in Christ before the foundation
of the world. And so God, when He sent forth
His Son, His Son came forth and just like as Christ laid down
His life for the elect among the Jews, Christ laid down His
life for the elect among the Gentiles and He redeemed them. In time, God sent a preacher
to these Gentiles. He made Paul the preacher to
the Gentiles and he sent Paul to these Gentiles just like he
sent a preacher to us that are sitting here. He sends His preacher
to His people, and that's what He did. And He sent them there
declaring these unsearchable riches of Christ, declaring the
election of God's grace in Christ, the redemption accomplished by
the blood of Christ, declaring the Spirit of God's work in bringing
us to cast all our care on Christ. And through this gospel that
exalts Christ and Him crucified, God called them to Christ and
brought them to cast all their care on Christ. And they believed
Him. And they trusted Him. They weren't
seeking God. God sought them. They didn't know God. God knew
them. And God made certain that they heard this truth and that
they were given a new heart and given faith and repentance and
He brought them to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
how God saves all His people. First thing God's going to have
to do to you and me is get us lost. We have to see that we're
without Christ, without God, without hope, without God's covenant
promises, that we're just cast out and lost. We've got to be
brought there first to be made to see we have a need for Christ.
You don't go to the doctor unless you have a need. We've got to
be brought to see we've got a need of the physician. And then He
shows you the physician and shows you what a great physician He
is and how He saved His people and saves us entirely. He's the author and the finisher
of our faith. He's the beginning and the ending. He's everything in salvation
for His people. And when He shows you that, that's
when His child will cast it all on Christ. Cast it all on Christ. I was talking with Brother Eric
Floyd down in, I stayed with them and they have something
that's very rare. Their family, we stayed in what
they call Simpson Valley. And that was Eric's wife was
a Simpson and all her parents, they had this house there and
all the kids live in this valley. And all the children believed
the gospel and their spouses believed the gospel and now some
of their grandchildren even believe the gospel. And there they are
all living together in this valley. And I was talking to Eric about
it. We were sitting around the fire Friday night talking and
said, Just talking about how you had these preconceived ideas
of what certain verses meant in Scripture. Even if you weren't
religious, you just heard other people talk and you thought you
knew what John 3.16 meant. And thought you knew these other
verses of Scripture, you know. And God brings you to see the
context of these Scriptures. And He brings you to see what's
really being said in these Scriptures. And for the first time in your
life, you realize I've never heard the truth. Everything I've
ever heard has been a lie. And you begin to look and say,
well, that's what it says. You hear God's preacher declare
it and he turns you to a scripture and you look and you say, well,
that is what it says. And you just keep hearing it
and keep hearing it before long. God brings you to say, I believe
God. I believe Christ. I believe Him. And all along God has drawn you
and He has taught you and He has shown you and He has brought
you to see and opened the Scriptures to you and for the first time
you see the truth of Christ and you believe Him. I can't tell
you how many believers I have heard describe it that way, how
they were brought to start looking into the Scriptures and some
born under one religion, some under another, you know, but
they are brought to see the Scriptures and realize, I was taught I haven't
been taught the truth. And they see, there it is. There's the truth. Plain as it
can be. And I never ever saw it. What's
happened? God's drunken you. God's given
you faith to believe Christ. I'm sought of them, God said,
that ask not for me. I'm found of them that sought
me not. I said, behold me, behold me into a nation that was not
called by my name. That's so all God's elect, brother.
To some degree or another, He's going to make you see you are
not a people of yourself. There's nothing about you that
made you a people. It's God's calling that made
you His people. God's choosing. That's all by
God's grace. And these Gentiles believed Him
and they were brought to attain to the righteousness of God.
That's my story. That's your story. You're sitting
here believing Gentile. That's your story. That's our
story. We didn't know God. We didn't
believe God. We didn't have any of the promises of God. None
of that even applied to us. And God brought us to see we
are indeed children of God. Now look at this next thing. Let's look at Israel here after
the flesh. This is not God's elect Israel. This is Israel
after the flesh. These are the non-elect. These
are those God passed by. They were left to their own will.
So what did they do? Verse 31, But Israel, which followed
after the law of righteousness, had not attained to the law of
righteousness. God gave the law at Sinai and
He declared to them what He says over here, look at Romans 10
verse 5, Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the
law. Now this is what God told the children of Israel. The man
which doeth those things shall live by them. God told them,
you keep this law, you do this law, you fulfill this law, and
you'll have eternal life by this law. Now, that statement that
God made to them didn't mean they could keep that law. That's
not what that meant. God told them the truth. If you
do this law, you'll live by it. That didn't mean they could.
But what does a sinner hear when he hears that? An unregenerate
sinner He just hears, okay, I need to get to work on the law then.
If this is how I'm going to live, I need to get to work on the
law. He's proud. He's dead in sin, so he's proud. He thinks he actually can keep
God's law. He's dead. He doesn't hear the
law declare him guilty, and therefore he thinks he's starting out with
a clean slate, and as long as he just keeps the law, he'll
be alright. God's got to make us see Israel were all defiled
and dead and guilty sinners when God gave the law to them. So
how in the world were they going to come to God by the law? They
couldn't. God didn't give the law for that
person. He gave the law that every mouth may be stopped and
all the world become guilty before God. He gave the law to give
us a knowledge of our sin. But you know how you thought
when you were lost? I thought the same way. We all went to
this book for one reason. We went to this book trying to
find something we could do to be saved. That's why I went to
it. I went to this book. I couldn't
understand what it was saying. I read the Old Testament. I went
to things I could understand. I could understand the law saying
do this and don't do that. I couldn't hear it, I didn't
know the depths of it, I didn't know what it was really saying
to me, but I could read, do this and don't do that, and I could
say, okay, I need to start working on that. I could go to the epistles
and I could read the things that said, do this and don't do that,
and I didn't know what it meant, I didn't understand what was
being said, but I could say, okay, I'm going to try to be
nice. And that's why we all went to
the Word of God. That's what the children of Israel
were doing. They were using the law to try to attain a righteousness
to make God pleased with them. And Paul says over there in Romans
10, they had a zeal of God. You can't deny that this religious
world has a zeal for God. They're zealous. People that
are doing their works, they're zealous in those works. I don't
have a doubt that they're sincere whatsoever. Here's the problem. But it's not according to knowledge.
It's not according to spiritual understanding. They're ignorant
of God's righteousness. So they're going about to establish
their own righteousness. And because as long as a man's
left there and he's going about to establish his own righteousness
by nature, you and I hate to be told we're wrong. We hate
that. And pride is what makes a man
stiff up his neck and even when he sees he's wrong I make him
still try to think, act like he's right and defend himself
and make an excuse for why he believed the way he believed.
If we're about to see we're wrong usually the first thing we try
to do is justify why we believed that way and why we thought that
way even though it was wrong. In other words, we're constantly
trying to save face and trying to save our position and save
ourselves. And God's got to bring a man
to just... He's just got to slay that pride in us and bring us
down to say, I've just been flat wrong. I've been ignorant. I've been ignorant. That's just
all there is to it. I'll tell you something. That's
the beginning of peace right there. When you can take sides
with God against yourself and be brought to the point where
you realize, I'm ignorant. God, I just need you to teach
me. There, oh boy. You know, it's a painful, laborious
thing to have to continually keep up a charade and try to
make people think you're something you're not and try to put on
this show. Oh, that's terrible. That's so
much work and bondage to do that. I feel so sorry for worldly people
that are, especially those in show business and things like
that, where it's all superficial and all show and they gotta keep
up this charade. Man, that is, that's, you talk
about labor. That's labor. When you can be
brought to where you can just be honest and you don't mind
being honest in front of your brethren. You know, I don't want
you confessing your sin to me and I'm not going to confess
my sin to you. I don't want to know you tell me. You go tell
God your sin. But we're honest with each other
in the fact that we're sinners and we're not trying to put on
a show. We're not trying to impress one another. And when a sinner
knows he's a sinner, you're not going to impress him anyway.
He sees through your charade. But God brings you to cast your
care on Him and makes you to see that you are guilty. Well,
they didn't see it that way. And so they were seeking a righteousness
by their works under the law and so they didn't attain. Verse
31, Israel which followed after the law of righteousness is not
attained to the law of righteousness. Wherefore? Because they sought
it not by faith but as it were by the works of the law. Why
would a man do that? Because they stumbled at that
stumbling stone. They didn't attain the righteousness
of the law because they would not let go of their works. They
wouldn't confess their wrong and let go of their works and
cast everything into Christ's hands. They wouldn't do that.
You wouldn't do it. I wouldn't do it. You know, we're
glory hounds by nature. We've got to have some of that
glory that belongs to God and we won't let go of it. God has
to open your hand and make you come to God empty handed. cast
it all into Christ's hand. They wouldn't do it. They wouldn't
do it. They kept trying to come to God
by the works of the law. He'd send his prophet and say,
you can't be saved by your works. He'd send his prophet to say,
I'm not impressed with your works. They're filthy rags before me.
I'm not pleased with your work. This is my beloved Son in whom
I'm well pleased. Hear ye Him. They went right
back to their works. Ignorance. Insanity. That's where we were. That's
where we were. So they didn't attain it. They
stumbled at Christ. Christ was a rock of a fence.
You know that word, rock of a fence, right there? That word, rock
of a fence, that word means scandal. The word offense, scandal. And
you know when they came, when Christ came and said, I am one
with the Father. I am God. They thought that was
scandalous. You're blaspheming God. When
you preach that sinners can't be saved by their works, they're
saved entirely by Christ, people think that's scandalous. What? I remember one time Brother Rob
was at my table at Thanksgiving, and my next door neighbor came
over, and bless her heart, she's Catholic, and she had never heard
a thing in her life, and she came over and sat at the table,
and it was her idea, let's all go around the table and say what
we're thankful for. I thought, okay, here we go.
I said, Rob, why don't you start out? Rob said, I'm just thankful
God's sovereign that even the evil, wicked things that happen
in this world, He's in control of them and He's bringing them
to pass for the good of His people. That woman about fell out of
her chair. I don't think she ate anything the rest of the
day. She gasped like that. Scandalous! You mean God's in
control of everything? Even the evil? Scandalous! And
to know He saves only in Christ the Rock, that's offensive to
a sinner. That's scandalous to a sinner. That's scandalous. Here's the
last thing I want to show you. This is God's point right here.
God alone makes the difference. He makes the difference between
those He saves and those who perish in their own willful rejection
of Christ. He's the one who makes the difference.
Verse 33, As it's written, Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone
and a rock of offense, and whosoever believeth on him shall not be
shamed. You've got two kinds of people right there. You've
got those that are going to stumble at Him. You've got those that
are going to be saved by Him. Who's going to make the difference?
Go over with me to to Isaiah 8. All through this Old Testament,
God's been talking about Christ. He's been saying the Gospel's
Christ. Paul said in Romans 1, the Gospel of God concerning
His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, which was declared to us afore
by the prophets. This is what they all was preaching.
The lamb slain in the garden? Pictured Christ. Abel's lamb?
Pictured Christ. Noah's ark? Pictured Christ.
Passover lamb? Pictured Christ. The brazen servant?
Pictured Christ. Christ, Christ, Christ. All through
the Old Testament. And it's God who laid that stone. God chose His Son. Behold, I
lay in Zion for a foundation. I lay in Zion. He's going to
be my foundation, my rock on which my house is going to be
built. My people are going to be saved. God is. This gospel
is not about you and me, sinner. That's what the world is telling
sinners. They're telling sinners the gospel is all about you.
The gospel is what you do and it's your morality and you need
to let God, you need to help God out to save you. God is a
beggar and the sinner is sovereign. That's not the gospel. The gospel
is concerning God and what God has done to save His people.
He said, Behold, I lay in Zion this foundation, this stone,
my son. I lay it. I purposed my salvation. I determined who I would save.
I sent my Son who would do the saving. And I'm bringing this
salvation about, God said. Salvation, the gospel is concerning
God and His Son and how He saves His people. That's the gospel.
The only part man has in this gospel is this. We rebelled against
God and sinned against God and became fallen, desperate, helpless,
needy sinners who need God to save us. That's the only part
you and I have in this gospel. And that's the part that's not
being told to sinners. That part. You know there's churches
nowadays that are telling their preachers to go through their
service and preach a message and don't mention sin and don't
mention blood How can you preach the truth if you don't mention
sin and you don't mention blood? You can't. You can't. The Gospel is about God laying
Christ His salvation, Christ His righteousness, Christ His
holiness, Christ His redemption, about Him sending His Son. That's
the Gospel. Through whose blood He saved
chosen sinners. That's the Gospel. It's all about
Christ. Verse 33, As it's written, Behold,
I lay in Zion a stumbling stone, a rock of offense, and I looked
at this in Isaiah 8.13. He says, sanctify the Lord of
hosts Himself. That means lift Him up. See Him
as high. See Him as God. See Him as the
Lord of glory and salvation. Let Him be your fear. Don't fear
man. That's the problem. We fear man
rather than God. Don't fear. Let God be your fear.
Let Him be your dread and He shall be for a sanctuary to you. God is saying, all that believe
on Him will not be ashamed. But now watch this, God said
this too, but he shall be for a stone of stumbling and for
a rock of offense to both the houses of Israel. He'll be for
a gin and for a snare. In other words, he's going to
be a trap to some people. to the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
and many among them shall stumble and fall and be broken and be
snared and be taken." God said that beforehand. He said, I'm
sending Christ for this purpose. Some are going to fear me, and
He's going to be a sanctuary for them and salvation for them,
and others, He's going to be a trap for them, and they're
going to be slain by Him. Look at Isaiah 28, verse 16.
Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for
a foundation, a stone, a tribestone, a precious cornerstone, a sure
foundation, and he that believeth shall not make haste. Let me
read something to you from 1 Peter 1. Hold on one second. 1 Peter
1, listen to this. Right here. Here's the difference
God makes by His grace, right here. He said in chapter 2, verse 6,
Wherefore it is contained in Scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion
a chief cornerstone, elect precious. He that believeth on him shall
not be confounded. Unto you, therefore, which believe,
he is precious. But unto them which be disobedient,
The stone which the same builders disallowed, the same as made
the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense,
even to them which stumble at the word being disobedient, whereunto
also they were appointed." See what God says, He's making
the difference. He comes and He teaches some
sinners that Christ is all and brings them to believe on Christ
because God chose them, Christ redeemed them, the Spirit of
God regenerated them, He gave them faith. What do you have
that you didn't receive of God? Everything came from Him and
He brings you to believe on Christ. And the others? He leaves them
alone. and they reject Christ, and they
stumble at Christ, and they can't let go of their works, and they
think they're good, and they think God's going to be pleased
with them, and they're zealous, but they're ignorant of God's
righteousness, and they go on trying to establish their own
righteousness. And God appointed him to that in the sense that
he just left him alone. God would just leave a man to
himself. And God appointed him in this
sense, back over in Isaiah. He said, because you've rejected
me, because you've rejected my salvation, therefore, God said,
I'm going to harden your heart and I'm going to make it so you
can't believe on me. That's right. I don't make it
so a man can't believe on Him. But I'm telling you, brethren,
this same gospel that's an offense, this same gospel that's scandalous,
this gospel is precious to His people. To know that the Son
of God, who's God of heaven and earth, willingly, for a sinner
like me, for a sinner like you, was made flesh. He came down
in our likeness without sin, and walked this earth so that
He could be made one with His brethren and make us one with
God. He was made under the law to redeem them that were under
the law. He was made sin for us who knew no sin that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him. And being made sin,
God poured out all the condemnation that was His people upon Him
so that Christ was made a curse for us to redeem us from that
curse and that condemnation. and we rejoice that now He's
made higher than the heavens. There's a man seated at God's
right hand who is God and man in glorified human nature sitting
there right now and He's our advocate with the Father and
He's pleading with God for His people. No, He's not pleading
with God. He just has to be in His presence. God beholds Him
and He beholds that one in whom He's satisfied. He beholds that
one in whom He's satisfied with all His people. And for the sake
of His Son with whom He's satisfied, He's sending this gospel and
calling His people to Him. He's going to have Christ glorified.
He's going to have Christ exalted. He's going to have His Son praised
and honored. And He's going to have this whole
world The world of believers and the world of unbelievers,
He's going to have them all come and bow down before His Son and
confess His Son to be King of kings and Lord of lords. He's
going to have His whole world confess His Son to be everything
God said He is and everything Christ said He is. He's going
to have them confess Him. That's what He's going to do.
That's what He's going to do. And whosoever, whosoever, that's
anybody, That includes me and you. That includes anybody. Whosoever. Whosoever believeth. That means
it is only through faith in Christ. Only through faith in Christ.
Not of our works. Whosoever believeth on Him. We
not just believe in anything. We not just believe in anyone.
We believe on Christ. We know whom we have believed.
We're persuaded He's able to keep that which we've committed
unto Him. Whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed. That's God's promise. You won't make haste to go hide
under the rocks and call for the rocks to come on you when
Christ returns for judgment. You won't make haste. You won't
be ashamed when Christ returns and you're found in Him and Him
alone not having your own righteousness but having that righteousness
which is of Christ alone. You won't be ashamed. You won't
be confounded when this world is confused and perplexed and
they don't understand and they're tossed here and there and they're
constantly asking questions and never able to come to the knowledge
of the truth. No, you won't be confounded.
This is God's promise to all them He brings to believe on
Him. Whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed. Those that
won't, they're going to stumble, they're going to fall, they're
going to be broken. Those that He brings to believe on Him,
they will never be ashamed for trusting Christ. Never, never,
never, never, never. Now here is the whole point of
this whole ninth chapter. Paul says the only hope for sinners
is God's free and sovereign elect in grace. God chooses whom He
will. That ought to bring you right
now, if you have believed on Christ, that ought to bring you
to fall down before God and say, Lord, be merciful to me. All
who God chose in Christ, Christ redeemed. All who Christ redeemed,
the Spirit of God regenerates. All who the Spirit of God regenerates,
God keeps. Salvation is of the Lord. And
those that reject Christ and continue trusting their works
and their outward morality and all their deeds of trying to
do good, the only thing they're manifesting is they stumble at
Christ. They think Christ is offensive
and His Gospel is offensive and it won't have anything to do
with Him. I was just thinking of this as I was sitting there
and we were singing and after that first message I preached
to you, I thought, you know, one of God's elect who believes
the gospel, if you had to come to a place where there was nobody
there that believed the gospel, They all assembled but they didn't
believe the Gospel and they were just a bunch of stinkers and
they were mean and they treated you horrible and was constantly
doing mean things to you. But the Gospels priest there,
that believer would put up with those folks to come hear that
Gospel. Just because that's the only place he could hear. He'd
come there and put up with them to hear it. And you could take
a place that was full of just finest folks that are just as
nice as they can be and treat them wonderful, but there they
preach a mingling of works and grace. He wouldn't stand to go
there for a second. He put up with the stinkers to
hear Christ preached rather than go over there with these other
folks and hear Christ lied on. That's the difference God's grace
makes. And that's what He makes His people do. He makes you sit
and hear the gospel and look over one another's faults because
you love Christ. You love Christ. Now, that's
the difference. Some are going to stumble at
Christ and they're going to hate Him and they're going to perish.
Others are not ashamed. They're not ashamed to call Him
their Lord. They're not ashamed to cast their
care on Him. They're not ashamed to say, He's the only one I'm
trusting. Which are you? Which one are
you? Which one am I? We fall into
one of those two categories. To answer that question manifests
whether we are a chosen child of God or one God passed by. I pray God to make us answer
that the right way. Amen. Let's stand together, brethren. Father, thank You for this Word.
Thank You for Your blessings and Your grace for keeping us
Don't let us forget these things. Keep us looking to Christ our
righteousness alone. Forgive us our sins, Lord. We
ask it in Christ's name. Amen.