Alright brethren, let's turn
to Romans chapter 9. Romans chapter 9. Let's begin with a word of prayer. Our great God and our Heavenly
Father, We thank you that you're holy,
that you're sovereign, that you do as you will in heaven and
in earth among all the people of this world, all the nations
of this world, that you bring to pass your will, that you accomplish
that which you've purposed from eternity. And Father, we pray
that you would be pleased to teach us now that you'd send
forth Christ the great prophet and send forth the Holy Spirit
and teach us in our heart the truth of your word. Give us hearts to obey it. Give us hearts to hear you. Give us hearts to taste. Give
us hearts to feel, hearts to know, hearts to believe. Lord, we pray that Christ would
get all the glory, that He'd receive all preeminence, even
as it's pleased You to give to Him. And we pray, Lord, that
man will receive none. Forgive us, Lord, our sins right
now, even as we try to worship You. And we pray You do all these
things in the name of and for the sake of Christ our King.
our Redeemer, our Lord and our Savior. It's in His name we pray. Amen. Alright, Romans 9. We're going to read verse 30
to 33. What shall we say then? 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? Because they sought it not by
faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled
at that stumbling stone. As it is written, Behold, I lay
in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense. And whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed. Our subject this morning
is attaining to righteousness. Attaining to righteousness. Now righteousness, you hear me
speak of righteousness. It's given throughout the scripture. Righteousness. Righteousness. Throughout the New Testament.
Righteousness is a state. It's a state. It's a state. It's a state of moral perfection. That's what righteousness is.
It's a state of moral perfection that's equal to and approved
of by God. It's equal to God, His righteousness. It's approved of by God. Now,
to enter God's presence, we have to be as righteous as God. We have to be as righteous as
God, as holy, just, and good as God to enter into God's presence. There are no exceptions to that.
Now, our text shows us how some sinners attained this righteousness. And it shows us how some sinners
did not attain this righteousness. So, all God's people, all God's
people, no matter who they are, no matter where they are, no
matter what their background, all God's people attain righteousness
the same way, the very same way. So the way in which we're going
to see these folks in our text attain righteousness, that's
how all are going to attain righteousness. This is the only way we will
attain righteousness. Now I pray God to give us grace
to hear God and to attain righteousness this one way, this one way. Now
our divisions are going to be real simple. We're going to look
here at a description of how each went about to attain righteousness. And then we're going to see what
the results were. And then we're going to see why
that was the result. We'll see first of all how each
went about to try to attain righteousness. And then secondly, we'll see
the result. And then thirdly, we'll see why
that was the result. Now first of all, the description
of what each did to attain righteousness. Now here you have the Gentiles
mentioned first. It says in verse 30, What shall
we say then? That the Gentiles which followed
not after righteousness. Now the Gentiles did nothing
to try to attain righteousness. They did absolutely nothing to
try to become righteous. In fact, the Gentile nation was
totally ignorant of righteousness. They were totally ignorant of
the righteousness of God. Totally ignorant. They had never
had the law which God gave at Mount Sinai. You know a lot of
people don't know this. This is true. The Gentiles did
not have the law that God gave at Mount Sinai, including the
Ten Commandments. They did not have that law. They
knew nothing about God's righteousness. In fact, for thousands and thousands
and thousands of years, until God sent the gospel to the Gentiles,
they didn't have any of the privileges that Israel had, the nation Israel
had. They didn't have those privileges.
They didn't have a revelation from God. They didn't have the
oracles of God, the word of God, the sacrifices, none of that.
They didn't have any of that. They had nothing. They didn't
have any promise from God. So they weren't trying to attain
righteousness at all. Now, worse than that, they made
up gods. And they made statues and they
made images and all of these things to say, these are our
gods. The gods, they became idolaters
in their mind first, just imagining, this is how I think God is. And
then they took it out into the deep. They made images and said,
these are our gods. And they engaged in all kind
of vain lusts of the flesh in the process of worshiping those
gods. They liked to commit fornication.
And so they said, we'll make that part of our worship of our
God. And they killed things. They
had some kind of understanding that blood is necessary. They
killed things and drank their blood. And they were idolaters. And
then they were just base sinners in their everyday life. In everything
they did, in their jobs, and in their family, they were just
lewd sinners. That's all they were. Now here's
a description of them. Turn to Ephesians 2. Here's a
description that God gives of the Gentiles. Ephesians 2, verse
12. He's speaking here to Gentiles.
The Ephesians were Gentiles. And he's speaking here to Gentiles,
Ephesians 2 verse 12. It'll be to your right from Romans.
A couple of books. He says, at that time you were
without Christ. You were aliens from the common
wealth of Israel. They had none of the common privileges
Israel had. You were alienated from that.
and strangers from the covenants of promise. You see, they had
none of the promises of God. You had no hope. You were without
God in the world. Now that's a description of the
Gentiles. The Gentiles were totally unconcerned
about righteousness. Totally unconcerned. They weren't
seeking God. They weren't trying to make themselves righteous
before God. They were spiritually dead sinners, totally unworthy
of anything but hell and condemnation. That's the Gentiles. Who are
these Gentiles? It's us. It's us. That's you and me, brother.
That's us. Anybody here born in Israel?
That's us. That's us. All right now, let's
look at how the second group went about to attain righteousness.
Verse 31 says, But Israel which followed after the law of righteousness. Israel are those born in Israel,
the natural sons of Abraham. It doesn't include all the natural
sons of Abraham, neither does the Gentiles include all the
Gentiles. But this is so of the multitude
in Israel. God gave Israel the law at Mount
Sinai. Remember, He formed this nation. It was in His purpose. He formed
this nation before they ever knew anything about it. He made
a promise to Abraham, said, I'm going to form this nation. I'm
going to call them Israel. I'm going to bless them. That's
a picture of God before the foundation of the world making a covenant
with Christ Jesus the Lord and saying I'm going to form my spiritual
nation and bless them with all spiritual blessings. And they
were in bondage in Egypt. They were in bondage in Egypt,
and God sent a preacher there. He sent Moses, and he preached
the gospel to them, and he worked all kinds of plagues before their
eyes, and eventually he gave them a lamb, a Passover lamb,
and he slew that lamb in the place of all the firstborn in
Israel, and he slew all the firstborn in Egypt, because they didn't
have a lamb. But as for Israel, their firstborn were slain in
a substitute. That's a picture of Christ coming
forth, laying down His life for His people. All the elect of
God are the firstborn of God. In Christ the firstborn. And
we died in Him so that the righteousness of the law is fulfilled. And
then He brought them out of Egypt. He brought them out of Egypt.
And He brought them to Mount Sinai. And when He got up Mount
Sinai, He gave them a law. He gave them a law. He gave them
600 some odd laws, including the Ten Commandments. He gave
them a law. And this is what He said when
He gave them this law. Now, He was speaking about when
they went into the land of Canaan. He was talking about when He
went into the land of Canaan. He said this, Romans 10, verse
5. Moses describeth the righteousness
which is of the law, that the man which doeth those things
shall live by them. He was telling them when you
go into this land, do this law and you'll live in that land.
You will have a prosperous life in that land because everything
about God's law is holy, just and good. But there was no way
ever that they could attain eternal life by this law. Never. The
law wasn't given for that reason. I'll show you that in a minute.
So Israel heard that. They heard that the man which
do those things shall live by them. That's a true statement.
The man that does those things shall live by them. That don't
mean they can. That's a true statement. When
you read God's Word, you have to read it that way. Because God
will make a true statement to you. The man that does these
things shall live by them. That does not mean you can do
them. Just because it's true don't mean you can do it. And
it's true, but you can't do it. All right, but they went to work
trying to attain righteousness by keeping the law. They went
to work doing that by the works of the law. Now to get this now,
they had a will to be righteous. They desired to be righteous.
They had a will to be righteous. And they ran after that righteousness.
They ran after it with everything they had. They were meticulous,
they toiled, they labored, they meticulously kept the Sabbath
day, in their eyes according to how they said the Sabbath
day should be kept. And they paid their tithe according
to how they said the tithe should be paid. They paid, they tithed
mint, rue, and all manner of herbs. And they kept the Ten
Commandments according to how they said the Ten Commandments
should be kept. The Ten Commandments was the
rule of their life. And they had traditions of their
own as well. In other words, they were doing exactly what
99% of men in Christianity are doing. What they were doing.
And concerning the righteousness which is of the law, if you looked
at these men, just with your eye, you would say these are
the most moral men there are. You would say these men are blameless. Outwardly, they're blameless.
When somebody said righteousness, the first thought that came to
a person's mind was the scribes and the Pharisees. The strictest
of the bunch, they're righteous, men would think. So here we have
the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, and
we have Israel, which followed after righteousness. All right,
now, let's see what the result was. Here's the result, verse
30. What shall we say, then, that the Gentiles, which followed
not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness? What? What? You mean those bunch of
rebels attain righteousness? Well, if they attain righteousness,
then surely Israel attain righteousness. These good people. Look here,
verse 31. But Israel, which followed after
the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. Hmm. How can that be? How could Israel,
all their works not count for something? How could all their
willing and all their running not count for something? Here's
why, brethren. Look back up at Romans 9 and
look at verse 15. God said to Moses, I'll have
mercy on whom I'll have mercy, and I'll have compassion on whom
I'll have compassion. So then, it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that shows mercy.
Here's why their works didn't count for anything. Turn back
to Romans 3. Here's why their works counted for nothing. Romans
3 verse 10. There's none righteous, no not
one. There's none that understandeth,
there's none that seeketh after God, they're all gone out of
the way, they're together become unprofitable, there's none that
doeth good, no not one. You mean all those people, all
those sacrifices, all that law keeping, all that labor and toil,
and that's the description of them? That's the description
of them. We sinned in Adam, brethren. We sinned in Adam. That's why
these folks couldn't keep the law. We sinned in Adam. Look
at Romans 5, verse 12. Romans 5. Wherefore, as by one
man sin entered into the world, and death by sin. Death entered
by sin. In Adam, by one man. And so death
passed upon all men. For that all have sinned. All
have sinned. What about the law that God gave
at Mount Sinai? What about it? Look at Romans
3, look at verse 19. We know that what thing soever
the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law. Who was
under the law? Israel was under the law. Israel
was under the law. And everybody who thinks they
can come to God by their works, by their obedience to the law,
you're under the law. And here's what the law says
to you. It speaks to everybody that every mouth may be stopped
and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore
by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in
his sight for by the law is the knowledge of sin. Look at Romans
5 and look at verse 20. Moreover the law entered that
the offense might abound. That's why the law entered, that
the offense might abound. Thankfully, where sin abounded,
grace did much more abound. Thankfully. All right, now that
might be the shortest point I've ever preached, but that's it
for that. Now, why was this outcome this outcome? All right, here's
the Gentiles, verse 30. Romans 9 verse 30. What shall
we say then that the Gentiles which followed not after righteousness
have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which
is of faith? That's how come they attained
this righteousness. They believed God. They believed on Christ
Jesus. Now, here's Israel. Look at verse
31. But Israel which followed after
the law of righteousness hath 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. You see, you
can say you believe on Christ, but if you're still working to
add anything to Christ, you don't believe Christ. You can say,
I believe on Christ, I'm resting all my hope in Christ, He's all
my righteousness, but if in your heart of hearts you still think,
but now I need to keep the law, to because I need to make sure
and I need to if I don't if I'm not keeping the law, I can't
be sanctified or I can't be righteous or whatever. I can't mature.
I can't be perfected. You're not you're not believing
Christ. To believe Christ is to... I'm not saying now that
the believer won't be obedient. That's not what I'm saying. But
I'm saying this. There's no legal spirit that
can be mixed with this. It has to be strictly Christ
is it. Christ is it. He's all. He's
my righteousness. But Israel, they didn't hear
this. They wouldn't hear it. They did all these works. Now
listen. Are you like Israel? Here's what
Israel's problem is. They've been taught all their
life. Wrongly. taught all their life, to come
to God, you've got to keep the law. Have you been taught that
all your life? It's no shame to let it go. It's
shameful to hold on to it even though you hear it's false, you
hear it's wrong, and you still hold on to it. That's shameful.
But to admit, I've been taught wrong, I've been thinking wrong,
I've been believing wrong, I've just been wrong. There's no shame
in confessing that. In fact, you've got to come to
Christ. And they were taught, some even
taught after Christ came, that it's alright to believe on Christ,
but now except you be circumcised, come back under the law of Moses
and keep the law, you can't be saved. That's popular in our
day. Except you keep the law now,
you won't be sanctified, you won't progress in holiness. If
you don't keep the law, that's how you're made holy, keeping
the law. That's a lie. Satan's telling
that message. And if that's what you've thought
and that's what you've been taught, there's no shame to let go of
that. You must let go of that. It's a shame to hold on to it
and not confess that that's your sin. That's what's keeping you
from God. It's thinking there's something
you can do to make yourself acceptable to God. That's what keeps men
from God. That's what keeps men from God. All right, now, let
me show you this. Romans 10, look at verse 1. I
just want to read this. Brethren, my heart's desire and
prayer to God for Israel is, is that they might be saved.
They were lost as they could be. All that religion and lost.
For I bear them record, they have a zeal of God, very jealous,
doing a lot of great works. But it's not according to knowledge.
For they being ignorant. What they ignorant of? God's
righteousness. You see, God's got to teach us
that all these works and all this running and all this willing
and all this zeal and all this stuff you see done in religion,
that's not righteousness. That's not righteousness. That's
not the righteousness of God. What's the righteousness of God?
They're going about to establish their own righteousness and they
have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. Did you catch that now? You see,
we don't do the righteousness of God, we submit unto the righteousness
of God. Oh, you bow to the righteousness
of God? How do you bow to moral perfection? How do you bow to that which
is morally perfect as God is perfect? Here's how. Christ. Christ is the end of
the law for righteousness to everyone that believes. You submit
yourself to Christ. He's the moral perfection that
is equal to and approved of God. And He is the righteousness that
we must have. You see, He came and what the
flesh could not do and that it was weak through the flesh, God
sent in His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin,
condemned sin in the flesh. that the righteousness of the
law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh
but after the spirit. That is, in a believer. We believe. We believe. That's the way you
attain. The Gentiles who were this corrupt
people, God sent them this word. He gave them a heart. They believed
God. They believed the word. They
believed and they submitted to Christ. He sent the same word
to Israel. Sent it to them first. They rejected
it. They said, nope, we're not going
to let go of our righteousnesses. They didn't attain to the righteousness
of God. They went on trying to establish
their own righteousness and they would not submit to Christ. Now
let me read on. I want to show you this. I want
to show you this. What Moses describes the righteousness
which is of the law. The man which doeth those things
shall live by them. Brethren, we can't be saved by
any law. By any doing of our own, if righteousness could be
gained through the law, Paul said, Christ died in vain. If
you make yourself righteous, then Christ died in vain. That's
why He came, to make His people righteous. If there could have
been a law given that could have given us life, God would have
given us a law that could give us life then. There is no law
that can give you life. All a law can do is set forth
the requirements and prescribe penalties for failure. That's
all a law can do. Think about what a law is. That's
all a law can do. It can say, here's what's required,
here's the penalty if you break it. That's it. That's it. And since we fall, we fell in
Adam, and we fall all along, we don't keep it. Therefore,
the law can't give us life. We can't look to the law for
salvation, ever. We can't ever say, well, grace
has covered all my past sins, so now from here on it's up to
me to keep the law now. You can't say that. You can't
say that, because you fail every day. You fail every day. And
a man that won't confess that, as John said, he won't confess
his sins. They won't confess. You won't
come to God. You think you're righteous and
therefore you don't need Christ. Only those who can't do a thing
need Christ. Read on verse 6, But the righteousness
which is of faith speaks on this wise, Say not in thy heart, Who
shall ascend into heaven? That is, who shall bring Christ
down from above? Or who's going to descend into
the deep? That is, who's going to bring up Christ again from
the dead? Now here's the point of this, brethren. Listen to
me. I want you to listen very, very carefully. There's some
of you sitting here now struggling with this. Listen very carefully. Faith in Christ is not some great
thing that you've got to go after. It's not some great experience
that you have to experience. It's not some great feeling that
you must have before you can have righteousness. I read of
a woman one time who came to Spurgeon and she said, he said,
do you feel like you're lost? And she goes, oh, I felt it.
I felt it come across my chest one day. It went, come across
my chest, went down into my lungs and down into my stomach. Spurgeon
said, you might want to go see a doctor. It's not that, brethren. It's
not, it's not, Some great thing that's got to be reached for
in the heights or in the depths, brethren. What is it then? Verse
8. What saith it? The word is nigh
thee. It's near you. It's even in your
mouth and in your heart. That is the word of faith which
we preach. That if thou shalt confess with
thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God
hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with
the heart man believes unto righteousness. Oh, that's so good. That's the
total opposite of working. Just believe Christ is all my
righteousness. Righteous. God says that man
is righteous. righteous. And with the mouth
confession is made unto salvation, for the scripture says, Whosoever
believeth in him shall not be ashamed. You see, Christ is everything. He's wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. And whenever you believe on Christ
with your heart, you believe He's the Son of God. And that
means I believe He's the one God sent. He's the only one that
could fulfill the law. He's the one God would have honored
for this. He's the one who came forth and totally fulfilled all
righteousness. He totally fulfilled the law
for me. And not only that, He went to the cross and He laid
down His life and justified me from all my sins. And He's risen
and I'm risen in Him. And I'm seated at God's right
hand. And I'm as righteous as His own Son. It can't be undone. It can't be added to. This is
what I am in Christ my Lord. Made the very moral perfection
that God is and that God approves of. That's what I am in Christ. I've kept the whole law of God
in perfect perfection in Christ my representative. That's what
we believe. And then we confess it with our
mouth. And the point here is, it's just
what he says there to end, that you're not ashamed to identify
yourself with Christ. A person that's truly been given
a heart to believe, he's not going to believe this and then
stay in his closet and then not let anybody know about it. The
person that truly believes this is just how grace works, this
is just how the Spirit of God works, he's going to make that
person confess Christ publicly and identify with Christ and
His people and say, He's my hope and my salvation. He won't be
ashamed to do so. And when he does so, he won't
be ashamed for doing so. He won't be confounded for doing
so. God will keep him and preserve him. And thou shalt be saved. You see, here's a people, they
had nothing. They didn't have the law. They
didn't have what men call the believer's rule of life. They
never had it. Just like Enoch, just like Noah, just like Abraham. They never had it. Never had
it, like Isaac, like Jacob. They didn't have it. And yet,
they had the righteousness of God. How can I be made the righteousness
of a law I never even had? Believing on Christ. That ought
to prove to us, brethren, the law don't have a thing in the
world to do with this. Nothing. Nothing. You got a people who
had it, tried to keep it, they didn't attain the righteousness.
You see, unless God blesses the law of your heart and lets you
hear what it says to you, the law is going to hurt you instead
of helping you. Yeah. He's got to make you hear it.
I'm guilty. I'm guilty. I'm guilty. And then
you'll run to Christ. I pray He'll make you run to
Him today. Amen. All right, brethren, it's 1045,
so we're going to take about a 15-minute