Romans chapter 9. I want to start
with a question and hopefully we'll see what the Lord has to
say in His word about this. And then at the end of it, about
the time we've good and forgot what the question was, I want
to ask you the same question again. Have I attained righteousness? So many believers In the past,
have struggled. There's a lot of believers now
that are struggling. And in your life, you will struggle
with unbelief. But every time we stop looking
to Christ and we look to ourselves, am I doing enough? Am I reading
enough? Am I thinking enough? Am I dwelling
on these things enough? I, any time I look to I, there
will be unrest. You won't have a soothed conscience,
but when we look to Him, there's nothing but rest, nothing but
completion. But am I really saved? Have I
attained righteousness? Just like the Lord's table, just
like I said with baptism, I never want to encourage anyone to do
something the Lord hasn't led them to do, and I don't want
to restrict anyone that the Lord's given them faith in Christ to
do, to obey Him. And just like concerning salvation,
people expressed to me before, am I saved? I never want to encourage
someone that they are saved, and I sure don't want to tell
someone that they're not. I just tell them about Christ,
the One who can save. But thankfully our Master in
His perfect wisdom and fullness, He's given us great comfort in
these Scriptures. I hope we can see that tonight.
Here in verse 30, it says, What shall we say then? How are we going to respond?
Respond to what? Throughout this chapter, Romans chapter 9, Paul
just gave us the truth that God saved a people in Christ. God's heavenly kingdom is for
the spiritual elect Israel. Not just that physical nation.
Not just the physical Israel. That was just a picture for us.
He also reminded us of those two Old Testament Scriptures,
he quoted. He gave us two or three witnesses,
didn't he? He quoted Isaiah and Hosea, telling us that the children
of God were not confined exclusively to that political nation, but
they're born of the Spirit in the heart. And that new birth
is essential. Why does God have to do everything
for a sinner? All of it. We're all like sheep
have gone astray. Every person born of Adam is
a lost sinner in our flesh. And we're headed, just like Paul
told us a couple verses up, like Sodom and Gomorrah. That's our
destiny, if you will. That's where our nature has taken
us. But God, in His infinite grace,
in His infinite mercy, He left us a seed. Christ, God in human
flesh, came to be born, came to live, and came to die on behalf
of His people, and only His spiritual Israel, only His people. What
shall we say then? Paul sums up salvation here in
verse 30. Is this me? Is this you? Look here in Romans 9.30. What
shall we say then that the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness,
have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which
is of faith? Now these Gentiles did not follow
after righteousness. What's that mean? They didn't
receive the law. As a people, they weren't given
God's law. They didn't know the law. And
because they did not have it, they didn't know about it, or
they didn't care to know about it. It was all foolishness to
them, like we just read there in 1 Corinthians. They didn't
follow the law of God. But they have attained to righteousness. Somebody will probably see the
heading of this message on Sermon Audit and start rubbing their
hands. Oh, I've got to find something to do. How did they attain this
righteousness? Did they reach a little higher?
Did they pray harder? No. The Greek word there for
attain means to take eagerly and to possess. Every believer,
when we're made to see our guiltiness before the God that we offended,
we see our sin against God, and we hear the person and the work
of Christ. We hear of Christ and Him crucified.
We eagerly take to Him. We cling to Him, just like a
life preserver. I always thought it was funny,
on boats they throw a life preserver out and they say, grab the preserver.
If that's close and they see it, you don't have to tell them
nothing. They'll claw your eyes out to get to that flotation
device, won't they? That's what, when we first see
Him, we see Christ and Him crucified, and we see our guilt, we cling
to Him eagerly. And we're comforted knowing that
we possess Him. And these earthen vessels, He
abides in us. In our new nature that He gives
us. That's not just on the outside. It's also what Paul's saying
about these Gentiles. This isn't just lip service,
like the scribes and the Pharisees. You can clean up the outside
of the cup and look good. This was a heart work. This was
that righteousness which is of faith. That righteousness that
is revealed from faith to faith. That's eternal life. That's being
made accepted by God in Christ. Being made one with our Savior. Turn over to Romans chapter 1. Romans 1 verse 16. Paul says, For I am not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation
to every one that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to
the Greek. For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith. As it is written, the
just shall live by faith. We do not live by our faith. I'm having a hard trial, but
I've got my faith. My faith's strong. We live by
the faith of Christ. Christ dwelling in us. Our new
man that is born of God. From the faith of Christ, the
power of God to salvation is revealed in our hearts in faith
given to us. That gift of faith that's given
to us. That's where he reveals it. Look over in chapter 3. Romans
chapter 3 verse 21. But now, the righteousness of
God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and
the prophets, even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus
Christ unto all and upon all, them that believe." Notice that's
quantified, them that believe. For there is no difference on
any of them that believe, the Jew or Greek, educated or uneducated,
if they're rich or poor. before the flood, after the flood,
now, a thousand years from now. That's where our righteousness
comes from. Verse 23, for all have sinned and come short of
the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the
redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth
to be a propitiation through faith in His blood to declare
His righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through
the forbearance of God, to declare, I say at this time, His righteousness,
that He might be just and the justifier of him which believeth
in Jesus." It says in the beginning of that
that righteousness of God without the law is manifested. That law
is our schoolmaster. We remember looking at that before.
It points us to Christ. It shows our guilt, our inability. I can't do that. I can't keep
that law. Who can? Christ can. It points
us to Him and declares His righteousness. But He has to make us believe
to see that, don't He? The free gift of faith that's
given of Christ to our new born-again spirits looks to the righteousness
of God alone, not to our own, not from that law that we can
glean our own righteousness. We declare His righteousness.
And all of our rest, all of our peace is given in Him because
He's completed everything necessary for us to be presented faultless
before our Heavenly Father. Before that God that we've offended,
He said, everything required of you to be put in front of
Him, I'll do it. I'll take care of it all. And
He has. Now back at our text there in
Romans 9, these Gentiles in Paul's time, and us Gentiles now, were
saved by the sovereign will, the sovereign grace, and the
sovereign power of God. The same as any believer ever
has been saved or ever will be saved. Not by our law keeping,
not by us getting better, not by our nationality, not by our
race, who we was born to, not even by our faith, but by Christ
alone. Verse 30, what shall we say then
that the Gentiles which followed not after righteousness have
attained to righteousness, they cling to it. Even the righteousness
which is of faith. Because of the salvation of God,
Him being just and the justifier, we have the righteousness which
is of Christ. We have His righteousness. People try to go out and hash
out their own and tell me I'm confusing justification and sanctification. It's holiness. Righteousness
is the act of the nature. Holiness is the nature. When
He was made sin for His people, we were made the righteousness
of God. We were made holy by what He accomplished at Calvary.
To be righteous, to act in righteousness, you must have a holy nature.
Those that are given faith to believe Christ, they are made
His righteousness. Made like Him. Don't I have to
do something to earn it? No. He makes you that way. Well, I've got to keep it. He
gave it to me. He gave me this new car and I
gotta keep it shiny and clean. No. Our heritage, our works,
anything we can do does not keep us, it doesn't save us. The only
one that's able is Christ. Now if you attempt to justify
yourself, if you attempt to redeem yourself, set yourself apart,
make yourself holy, it will not be successful. It ain't gonna
work. Only the one who is just is able
to justify you. Only the one who is holy was
able to make you holy. Man, with every advantage that
we're given in our flesh, like Paul told us at the beginning
of this chapter, all those advantages that physical Israel had, all
these types and pictures around them constantly, miracles being
performed in front of them, they're not able to pick themselves up
by their bootstraps and make themselves holy. that can't accomplish
anything or perform any act that's reserved to God alone. That's
his business. Hawker said one time, he said,
it's an act of treason against God's holy high command to speak
of any righteousness found in a man. Anything we lay a hand
to it, that's robbing God of his glory for making us righteous.
But Israel tried, didn't they? This nation at Paul's time, that's
why he's writing this. That's what they're swinging
an axe at. Nothing's changed. Men and women right now, across
this nation, across this world, got to do something. I got to
try. I got to keep the law. God saved
me. It was all free grace when he
saved me. Now I got to do something. Look here in verse 31, Romans
9, 31. But Israel, which followed after
the Law of Righteousness, and followed it, hath not attained
to the Law of Righteousness." They don't have righteousness
by the Law. But the word there, attained,
is a different word than the attained we just read. It doesn't
cling to it. They don't possess it. This word
means they did not arrive. Swing and a miss. You went down
that road and you didn't get to your destination. Didn't even
come close. They never got to righteousness
by working under the law. No son of Adam ever has or ever
will. You ain't gonna arrive at that
destination. Verse 32, why? 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. They didn't believe. Lord
hadn't give them belief in Christ. They didn't seek it by faith.
They sought it by working. And they stumbled at that stumbling
stone. They stumbled on Christ. As it
is written, verse 33, as it is written, Behold, I lay in Zion
a stumbling stone and a rock of offense, offensive rock, and
whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. Why did physical
Israel stumble at Christ? Why do men and women today stumble
in the fact that Christ fulfilled the law? They cling to the law
and refuse Him. He's the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believes on Him. Turn over to Romans chapter
11. Just a page or two for you. Romans
11 verse 7. What then? Israel hath not obtained
that which he seeketh for. They haven't arrived. They haven't
got that righteousness. But the election hath obtained
it. The ones that Christ chose, they've obtained righteousness,
and the rest were blinded. According as it is written, God
hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should
not see and ears that they should not hear unto this day. It's
deaf ears. Most gospel messages that physically
go into someone's ears falls on deaf ears. People don't want
to hear. They either refuse it or they're
lukewarm. They're fence straddlers. Well, that's okay. They're indifferent. The Lord hasn't gave them life
in their hearts. Make them clean. Make them desperate
for Christ. Verse 9, as David saith, let
their table We made a snare and a trap and a stumbling block
and a recompense unto them. Their table is a snare. What they consume, the lust of
their bellies, their works, their abilities, their sustaining for
certain things. Oh, I can't drink that. I'm holy.
Oh, I don't eat that kind of meat. I don't eat those things. I'm holy. It's a trap and a snare. If any of y'all ever trapped
anything, snares wrap around the neck of an animal. And the
more that animal tries to do something about that snare, the
tighter that snare gets. And they keep struggling all
the way to death until it chokes them to death. Christ tells His
children at His table, eat, drink. He said, this is
my body for you. That's what you need to feast
on. This is my blood for you. But our old nature, we want to
feast on our accomplishments, don't we? He saved me, but I
did something. Our pride, our righteousness,
not Christ's righteousness, not His holy actions. A heart that
is left alone to its sin and desires refuses the redemption
of Christ. It refuses the justification
of Christ and it refuses the sanctification of Christ. Any
or all of it. To refuse Him in one part is
to refuse Him in all. David wrote in Psalm 118 and
said, The stone which the builders refused has become the headstone
of the corner. What were they building? Themselves
a righteousness. Themselves a holiness. Themselves
a salvation. And those builders building their
own. We don't need that. I can do a better job. I can
make a square corner. That's a chief corner stuff.
It's a snare. It's a trap that we willfully
fall into. Stumbling on the law and not
looking to our master who fulfilled the law. He fulfilled it. That means it's filled full.
He completed it for his people. We read that earlier. He was
the propitiation. He was the satisfactory blood
sacrifice that's required for me. What's another way to word
that? It is finished. Ain't no work
to be done. Can't rest if there's still work
to be done. Might sit still, but you ain't resting on the
inside. You're worried about what you got to do tomorrow. Back
at our text here in Romans 9. Our old man wants to cling to
any bit of working that we can get a hold of, even accepting
Christ. That's been made real popular
since World War II. You accept Jesus as your personal
Savior. Look here at verse 33, Romans 9, 33. As it is written,
Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and a rock of offense.
And whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed." People
say, see there? Whosoever. I mean, it's up to
you. Quickly they'll quote John 3.16, For God so loved the world
that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish but have everlasting life. We've
touched on the whosoever before. What's the word to the right
of it? Whosoever believeth. Whosoever believeth." How do
we believe? We believe by faith, from faith. From faith to faith. The Lord
gives us faith to believe Him. Those elect in Christ before
the womb, they're given life, they're quickened, made alive
with a new spirit. And that new man will not be
ashamed. But because we're made to believe God, that's why we
won't be ashamed. That's who we believe. And you
can't choose to believe or stop believing anything. I can act
like a person that doesn't love my family. I can look like a
person that doesn't love my family, but let one of them get hurt
real bad. And the police said, you can't go down there, hide
and watch me. I'll knock them out of my way,
won't I? Why? I love them. Just like believing. We can't
choose to believe. But thanks be to God, those that
He gives life to, those that believe on Him, we can't stop
believing on Him. Ever. We may look like people
that don't. We may act like people that don't.
But we can't stop believing on Him. Our petitions that God will
call out His sheep and make them know Christ will be answered,
because that's the Father's will, that He should lose none of them.
I pray often, as He enables me, for people in this area. one
of his children would hear this message and be turned from that
table that they've set for themselves, their own works, and that they'll
come and buy without money, without price. And they'll stop feasting
on their own glory and feast on Christ's deserved and accomplished
glory. If you do, you won't be ashamed
because Christ is able to keep you forever. You won't come up
lacking. But not all do that, do they?
Somebody's going to be made ashamed. Those that may be ashamed, those
that don't heed the rebuke, those that don't heed the admonitions
given, the word preached constantly, those that leave the gospel for
another gospel, and as Paul said, it's not another gospel. Do we
cast them out? Do we know for sure, we looked
at this Sunday evening, do we know for sure, since they've
turned From Christ who makes you holy to making themselves
holy. Making themselves righteous. Are they gone forever? Have they
committed that sin unto death that we stop praying for them?
Now remember, our translators gave us these chapter divisions.
That makes it easy for us to turn there quick, don't it? Always
read a little before and a little after. Look here in chapter 10,
verse 1. Romans 10, 1. Brethren, my heart's desire and
prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. We do not
know if a person that goes out from us is an apostate, unless
they live that way all the way to death. So we pray for them,
just as Paul prayed for his fellow Jews, his kinsmen. Same way we
pray for our family members, that they've never been taught
the gospel in their hearts, that, Lord, save them. If they're yours,
save them. If they are the Lord's, that
they are saved from themselves and look only to Christ, look
only to our Master for all things. That's what's required, isn't
it? Look to Him for everything. Through the preaching of the
gospel, we're taught some things. He teaches his children. We're
taught that we're just filthy rags. I can't do nothing to make
myself righteous anyway. The inside of this cup's dirty.
We're taught that God's holy. That's who he is. He's just.
He's right. He doesn't do what's right. What
he does is right. He's God. And we're taught what God accomplished
for his people in that person and the work of Christ Jesus.
what's done, what's accomplished, what's finished. He did it all.
Those that's turned from a gospel of free and sovereign grace,
those that have turned from the finished work of Christ to doing
something, doing something else or doing something more, adding
to it, and those that have not yet been brought to know Christ,
those like those Gentiles that just didn't know the law, didn't
care to know it, we have a strong desire that they may still be
the Lord's sheep and be brought back to His feet. Look here in
verse 2. For I bear them record that they
have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. Those Jews are
working hard. They've got all kinds of religion,
but they don't have knowledge. They can quote a whole bunch
of scripture to you. They don't know what it means. They don't
have knowledge. Turn over to Psalm 14 real quick. Psalm 14. Each blood-bought child
of God will be taught of God, and they will repent. They'll
turn from themselves to Christ. Without saving faith, we still
think all of our thoughts are right. If the Lord had not a
work in us, we think everything we're doing is just perfect.
We still think our works aren't that bad, and all the while,
we're just mocking God, and we're mocking those children that He
died for. if He leaves us alone. Look here in Psalm 14, verse
1. The fool hath said in his heart,
No, God. They are corrupt. They have done
abominable works. There is none that doeth good.
The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of man to see
if there were any that did understand and seek God. They are all gone
aside. They are altogether become filthy.
There is none that doeth good. Not even one. Have all the workers
of iniquity no knowledge, who eat up my people as their bread,
and call not upon the Lord? They were they in great fear,
his people. And God in this generation of
the righteous, ye have shamed the counsel of the poor because
the Lord is his refuge. Oh, that the salvation of Israel
were come out of Zion, When the Lord bringeth back the captivity
of His people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad." If
the Lord gives us knowledge that we should be in great fear, He
shows us that we've offended Him, and He shows us who He is,
there's going to be a fear. First time you see that, if all
you see is your sin, buddy, you're going to be scared to death.
We look then to His righteousness and not our own. He then is our
only refuge. What safety do I have? What hope
do I have? Him and Him alone. And we look
for the day of His return. Those that know Him, those that
believe, those that have Christ on in them, Lord haste the day.
Take me home. being brought home for eternity
to be with our Redeemer, and we'll rejoice, just like Jacob,
and we'll be glad. Ain't nothing better. Back in
our text here in Romans 10, verse 3. For they, being ignorant of God's
righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness,
have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. Going about to make our own righteousness
is a dangerous thing. And it's not attainable. You
ain't going to reach it. That ain't going to happen. Our
Master said in Matthew 5, He said, For I say unto you that
except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the
scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no case enter into the kingdom
of heaven. Now on the outside, those men, you couldn't find
a chink in their armor. Many of them walked just as perfect
as they could. They wouldn't know gambling.
They didn't step on any graves. They didn't plant their pole
beans and their corn together. They were sticklers for those
things. You have to exceed that. That
means not just the outside of the cup, but the inside of the
cup. Jeremiah said, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that
I will raise unto David a righteous branch. Righteousness is going
to come to that house. The branch of David and the king
shall reign and prosper and shall execute judgment and justice
on the earth. In his days, Judas shall be saved
and Israel, a spiritual Israel, shall dwell safely. And this
is his name whereby he shall be called the Lord our righteousness." Go get your own righteousness.
You take in the Lord's name. That's His name, the Lord our
righteousness. If the Lord is our righteousness,
does that mean we're dead to the law and live unto God? Look here in Romans 10, verse
4. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
at all. Everyone ever? No. Everyone that
believeth. Those that He comes to. Those
that He saved before time. Those Jacobs. He causes us to
believe, breathes life into us. Is Christ your only hope? Is
His righteousness the only righteousness that you want? Is His righteousness
the only righteousness that you need? Do you believe Him? If you do, rest. Stop working. If you believe
Him, those that He's made to believe, turn over to Hebrews
4 and we'll close. Hebrews chapter 4. There in verse 9, Hebrews 4,
9, "...There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God."
To His people. "...For He that is entered into
His rest," not our own rest, into the Lord's rest, "...He
also hath ceased from His own works, as God did from His."
When the Lord created this earth, After it was all done, it said
He rested. On the seventh day, He rested,
because the work was done. If we believe God and we say,
all my righteousness is complete, all my justification, all my
redemption, all my sanctification, everything's done. It's finished. Rest. Let it be over. But verse 11, let us labor, therefore,
to enter into that rest. How can we labor to enter rest?
Anytime a thought comes to our minds, oh, I ought to be doing
something. Have I done enough? Diligently
seek Christ our rest. Stop looking to ourselves. I
need to stop looking to me, wondering if I've done enough, if I've
prayed enough, if I've read enough, and look to Him. Labor to look
to Him. Lest any man fall after the same
example of unbelief. Do I believe and rest in Christ's
person and work? Or am I looking to my own works
and everything else in unbelief? So in the beginning I ask you,
I'll ask you again, have I attained righteousness? Am I still trying
to arrive? Am I still working through the
law trying to get there? Or do I cling to Christ my righteousness? And do I possess Him? If you cling and possess Christ,
cling to Him, you've already arrived. You're there. You're
with Him now. And you're made one with Him.
I pray that His people won't look to themselves and look to
Him. And see that everything that's
required is done. And then you can rest. Boy, it's
awful easy to love when you ain't got no work to do, isn't it?
Me and the kids didn't play a board game this evening because I had
work to do. Tomorrow, we can play a board game. Just be merry
and love, can't we? The work's done. Amen. That's
pretty good.