Would you open your Bibles to
the book of Romans chapter 9. Romans chapter 9. Last week I began preaching on
the subject Our Scandalous Gospel. Our Scandalous Gospel. The title
that came from this passage here Look at verse 30 of Romans 9. The Apostle Paul, as he was inspired
by the Holy Spirit to ask this question, what shall we say then? That involves everything that
he had raised up to this point. We'll look at some of that in
just a moment. How are we going to respond? Now he'd been talking
about God's sovereignty and salvation. God's sovereignty and divine
election. God's right to love a man like
Jacob and to hate a man like Esau. What have you been talking
about? Things that seem so offensive
to the world. Things that seem so mind-boggling. He talked about the ministry
of the gospel through the prophets. Prophets like Hosea. He said,
in Hosea, he prophesied of the salvation of God's chosen people
among, of all people, Gentiles. You can imagine how offensive
that would be to the Jews who boasted in their right relationship
with God because they were Jews. We be Abraham's seed. We're circumcised. We keep the law of Moses. Which
they didn't, but they thought they did. He had prophesied through
Isaiah, that among the children, the natural children of Israel,
he said that if it weren't for God's election of grace, the
whole nation would have perished. But that God has a remnant. You
know, you ought to study in the Bible the idea of the Old Testament,
the remnant. That's a beautiful picture there
of God's chosen people. Many are called, but few there
be that find the way. All of that, fewer chosen, all
of that. Well, what are we going to say?
How are we going to respond to this? Well, look at what he says,
verse 30, that the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness,
now what he means by that, he doesn't mean that all the Gentiles
were immoral perverts, he means many of the Gentiles were religious
people. But they weren't looking for a right relationship with
the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. That's what he means. Many Gentiles trying to be good,
trying to make themselves righteous, trying to gain eternal life,
but they weren't looking for a right relationship with God.
That's what he's talking about. But he said they followed not
after righteousness, the righteousness which he had been defining up
to this point. which has to do with the right
relationship with the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the
true and living God. That they have attained a righteousness.
They attained righteousness. What a statement. Gentiles have
attained righteousness. Now, do you think he's talking
about every Gentile without exception here? Well, obviously not. Who's he talking about? Well,
look at it. Even the righteousness which is of faith. Now, what
is the righteousness of faith? That's the righteousness of the
Lord Jesus Christ, which God imputes to his people and which
they receive by God-given faith. He's talking about believing
Gentiles, born-again Gentiles. Chosen before the foundation
of the world, whose names were written in the Lamb's Book of
Life before the world began. Those who were sinners, who had
nothing to recommend. You didn't have to convince a
Jew of that, that the Gentiles didn't have anything to recommend
them unto God. That's a given. The problem is, neither did the
Jews. We're all sinners. Verse 31, but Israel, which followed
after the law of righteousness, they were looking for a right
relationship with God. But they hath not attained to
the law of righteousness. They didn't attain to it, they
didn't achieve their goal. Now verse 32 says, wherefore,
that's why, that means why. Why didn't the Jews attain it?
He says, because they sought it not by faith, but as it were
by the works of the law." And here's where we come to the point
where we see that what it is to seek righteousness by faith,
what it really is. Because he says here, now, they
stumbled at that stumbling stone, a rock, it's kind of like a stone
that they tripped over. As it is written, he goes back
to the book of Isaiah and he gives a combination of a couple
of things that Isaiah prophesied of in Isaiah 28 and also in another
passage in Isaiah. I think it's Isaiah 10, eight. So he says, as it is written,
behold I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of a fence. Now that word of fence there, In the original language, we
could transliterate that as scandalous. Scandal. This stumbling stone,
now who's he talking about? He's talking about Christ. Whosoever
believeth on him. This stumbling stone, this rock
of offense is a him. It's a person. It's Christ. And it involves
everything that the Bible says about Jesus Christ, who he is,
and what he accomplished on Calvary to save his people from their
sins. In the realm of what? Well, what did he say? The Gentiles,
they didn't seek righteousness of the law. The Jews did. Gentiles made it. The Jews did.
Righteousness, that's the issue. When it comes to Christ, Righteousness
is the issue. And he says, whosoever believeth
on him shall not be ashamed. That word you might have in your
concordance, it means confounded. It could mean disappointed. And then look at verse one of
chapter 10. Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for
Israel is that they might be saved. Now what's the implication
of that? They're lost. They're lost. And why are they
lost? Why does Paul say that? Because
they sought righteousness not by Christ, but by their efforts
to keep the law. That's why. For I bear them record
that they have a zeal of God. Now their problem was not zeal.
Their problem was not sincerity. Their problem was not even morality.
In fact, I had a man tell me one time, he said, well, they
weren't sincere in what they did. And I looked at him, I said,
well, now, when you get to stand before God at judgment, are you
going to plead your sincerity? Is that your righteousness before
God? Because if it is, I can tell you what you're going to
hear. And I can tell you that because what the Bible says,
not what I think. Depart from me, you that work
iniquity, I never knew you. You see, I think we ought to
be the most sincere people in the whole world, in the truth. I really do. But no amount of
sincerity that we can muster up or which the Holy Spirit can
give to us will make us righteous before God. Christ did that work
on the cross. when he put away my sins by the
shedding of his blood. You say, well, I'm gonna plead
my faith. Well, let me tell you something. If you're pleading
your faith, there's two things I can tell you. Number one, your
faith is not in Christ, it's in your faith. Number two, your
faith isn't good enough to make you righteous. You see, the righteousness
of faith here is not faith in our faith, it's faith in Christ. Look at it. He says in verse
2, I bear them record they have a zeal of God, but not according
to knowledge. 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.
Now what is the righteousness of God? Look at verse 4. For
Christ is the end, the word means finishing, fulfillment, completion,
perfection of the law for righteousness, to everyone that believeth. Now
if you truly believe, what do you believe? You believe that
Christ is the end, the finishing, perfection, fulfillment of the
law for my righteousness. Not my faith, not my repentance,
not my tears, not my baptism, not the Sabbath. Christ is my
Sabbath. He did the work, I rest in him. That's what that means. That's
what that Sabbath day in the Old Testament pictured. Christ
fulfilled it. Now that message is a scandal
to the world. Why is it a scandal to the world?
Because the gospel goes against everything that men and women
in religion think is right and proper and good in our day as
well as in Paul's day. Paul made the statement in Romans
1.16, he said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. In the
flesh, he had every reason to be ashamed. Because the gospel
that he believed, the gospel that he preached, went against
everything in his culture, in his religion, in his philosophy,
everything. Listen, you remember what the
Sanhedrin told the apostles when they brought them up on charges
of preaching Christ? They said, you've turned the
world upside down. You've gone against everything
that we think is right and true and good and everything that
will make us right with God. Everything you're saying exposes
what the world believes as being, in the eyes of God, wicked and
evil, even their religion. That's why it's such a scandal.
It's offensive to the natural man. What is the natural man?
It's all of us, as we are born, dead in trespasses and sins. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them. They're
spiritually discerned. 1 Corinthians 2, 14. And back up in verse 12,
it tells us what he won't receive. The natural man will not receive
the things that are freely given, because he doesn't want them
free. You know why? Because he wants
a little room to boast. A good friend of mine up in Nashville
was telling me about a fellow who said, I'm going to give you
a shotgun. And he said, OK. He said, but
let me pay you at least a nickel for it. I said, no, it's a gift. He said, no, take this nickel.
And he took it. Why did he want him to take that nickel? So he
could say that it wasn't freely given, completely. I had a good friend of mine.
He was fixing my guitar. And I had an old beat up case.
And it was a terrible looking case. Nice guitar in a terrible
case. Well, when he took my guitar
and fixed it, he returned it in a brand new hard shell case,
and that's not cheap. And I said, let me pay you for
it. He said, no, it's a gift. I said, no, let me pay you for
it. He said, do you know what a gift is? See, that's what the natural
man does. He doesn't know what a gift is. People think that salvation
is conditioned on themselves and they have to pay God something
either by their decision or their will or their doing or their
dying or their suffering. They don't know what a gift is.
We don't until God teaches us. You read there, Brother Randy,
in Matthew 5, the first beatitude, blessed are those who are poor
in spirit. You know who those who are poor
in spirit are? Those who know they're spiritually poor, spiritually
bankrupt. We don't have anything to recommend
us unto God. Somebody says, well, now wait
a minute, I'm an American. Well, I'm glad you're an American,
but that doesn't recommend you unto God. You say, well, I'm
a Baptist, or I'm a Methodist, or that doesn't recommend you,
I've been baptized. That does not recommend you unto
God. Hey, listen to this one, I believe. Well, if you truly
do believe, that's good, but that's not what makes you righteous.
Christ is. There's a difference there. I'm
not just splitting hairs. And it's a difference that the
natural man does not recognize and doesn't want to hear about.
Is that right? The Apostle Paul wrote of the
offense of the cross. Here come Jewish people who claim
to be Christian into the churches of Galatia, and they said, okay,
we're saved by grace, but you've got to, and in their realm, it
was to be circumcised. Paul said, that's a false gospel.
You've got to. Well, doesn't the Bible say you
have to believe? Yes, but what is it you have to believe? that
Christ alone is my forgiveness, my righteousness, my life, my
all. Not that I made the difference.
You know, preachers will tell people, oh, Christ died for you,
now the rest is up to you. That's a false gospel, folks.
Is that offensive to you? Is that a scandal? It is to this world. Man by nature sees the gospel
as foolish, unbelievable, unkind, unloving, because it's an assault
upon his natural perception of goodness, of righteousness, and
of salvation. It denies his self-proclaimed
dignity, his self-proclaimed autonomy, and his self-proclaimed
sensitivity. You know what autonomy is, don't
you? In religion today, it's freewillism. It's all about man. It all centers around man. It
exposes his refuge to be false. What are the issues of the gospel?
Why is it so offensive and scandalous to us by nature? Why will we,
if left to ourselves, refuse to believe such a great and glorious
message? And it is. Why does it take a
miracle of God's power and God's grace to bring a sinner who by
nature is headed for eternal damnation? Why does it take a
miracle of God's power and grace to bring such a sinner to believe
this message of salvation by God's grace in Christ? Because
I'm going to tell you something, if you believe the gospel, that's
what you are, a miracle of God's grace. You're not a product of
your free will decision. You're a product of the sovereign
power and grace of God. This gospel, the gospel call,
is a command from Almighty God, but it's a command that no man
by nature will heed, a command that no man by nature will obey,
unless God comes according to his will and his power to give
spiritual life to that person. It's what Christ meant when he
told Nicodemus, you must be born again, else you will not see
or enter the kingdom of God. Why is that so? Well, here's
the issues of the gospel. Listen to this. Look back at
Romans chapter 1. We've already seen that in Romans
10. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believes. But look back
there at that passage. Look at Romans 1 and verse 1. Verse 1, Paul, a servant of Jesus
Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of
God. Now, when you want to talk about being separate from the
world, there's the main separation right there. The gospel separates
us. He says, which he had promised
afore or before by his prophets in the Holy Scriptures, the Old
Testament, same gospel. Verse 3, concerning his son,
Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David
according to the flesh. and declared to be the son of
God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection
from the dead. The gospel concerns who Jesus
Christ is. Who is Jesus Christ? Well, the
Bible teaches that he's God in human flesh. He is the sinless,
perfect God-man. What a statement. What a concept. We can't even understand it,
but we know it's true. He is Emmanuel, God with us. Great is the mystery of godliness,
God manifest in the flesh. Many people who claim to be Christian
either deny that or confuse it unto unbelief. Ask a man one time, he said,
do you believe Jesus Christ is God? The fellow told me, he's
a Baptist. The fellow told me, he said,
well, he's the son of God, meaning like he's some lesser God. And
I know the Bible teaches the offices of the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Spirit, and the subservience of the Son to the
Father. But in nature, in the glory of their, they're equal.
Co-equal with the Father and the Spirit. Now that's foolishness
to some people. Foolishness to them. But what
does the Bible say? That the preaching of the cross
is foolishness to them that are perishing. Who's it foolishness
to? Those who are perishing. Remember
he said the Jews seek after a son. You know what that means? The
Jews are seeking after a son. What they're looking for is a
religious experience. You know, that's what a lot of
people are looking for today, a religious experience. They're not looking
for righteousness. They're looking for a religious
experience. You talk to a lot of people and they talk about
their salvation. How they talk about, well, back when I was
12 years old, I walked an aisle and blah, blah, blah. That's
like seeking after a sign. I can't even tell you when I
was converted. I know this, I came to faith in Christ and repentance
of dead works and idolatry. in light of the righteousness
of God revealed in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Said
the Greeks, they seek after wisdom. What kind of wisdom are they
seeking after? They're seeking after worldly
wisdom. But look at this. Look at verse
16. Look over at Romans 1, 16. He
says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel. Now, as I said, according
to the flesh, Paul had every right to be ashamed because it's
a scandal to the world. It's a stumbling block to the
religious and to the worldly wise. It goes against the philosophy,
the religion of man who claims salvation is conditioned on sinners
in some way at some stage to some degree. But he said this
very gospel. is the power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and to the Greek
also, the Gentile. Look at verse 17, for therein,
in that gospel, is the righteousness of God revealed. Now what's revealed
in the gospel? The righteousness, the justice
of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the
just shall live by faith. The issues of the gospel are
this, look here. Number one, who God is in the nature of His
glory and His character. And you know what it begins with?
If you ask most people today what is the main issue of the
gospel, they always say something like the love of God. Well, it's
certainly true that the gospel is the preaching of God's love
to His people. But it's not just the preaching
of God's love to His people. It's the preaching of God's love
to His people in Christ, whom He sent to satisfy justice in
the stead of his people by his obedience unto death. The main
issue of the gospel is God's justice. His character. That God is a
holy God. He must punish sin. He can by
no means clear the guilty. That God, listen, the Bible teaches
us that God cannot look over, deny, ignore this issue of sin
in sinners. He must be God. He must be holy. He must be righteous. Here's
the second issue of the gospel. Who and what we are in light
of who God is. Now it's easy to go around just
repeating Romans 3.23 saying, well, we've all sinned and come
short of the glory of God. Most people look at that like saying,
well, we've made some mistakes. We're just not perfect. Let me
tell you something. What that means is that in light
of God's justice and holiness and righteousness and truth,
I don't deserve anything and cannot earn anything from God
but death and hell. I'm a sinner. I don't have a righteousness
that answers the demands of God's law and justice. I can't work
righteousness even by my best efforts to keep the law. And
here's the kicker, I don't even want righteousness by nature
now, God's way. Man wants righteousness, but
he wants it his own way, not God's way. Because man's way
will give him a little room to boast. I did this, I decided
that, I made the difference. But God's way leaves man no room
to glory. Let he that glorieth glory in
this, that he knoweth me. Knows the God of grace. And then here's the third issue
of the gospel, who the Lord Jesus Christ is and what he's accomplished
in the way of how sinners are made right with God. It's not
what did Christ try to do, it's what he did do. The gospel centers
around the holiness and justice of God. Therein is the righteousness
of God revealed. People today, they say, well,
here's the gospel. You're a sinner. The wages of
sin is death. It's a formula. It's formulaic.
But God loves you and Christ died for you and now you make
the decision. My friend, that's the problem
with the modern day message of what they call evangelism. It's
a lie. Is that offensive? Isn't that
a scandal? First, in the Bible, the only
people who are told that God loves them and Christ died for
them are those who believe the gospel. You don't find one incident
or example in the Bible of an evangelistic message where the
evangelist, the preacher, stood before all people that he's talking
to and look at them and say, now, God loves you and Christ
died for you. You don't find that in the Bible.
That's a man-made concoction to make people feel good about
themselves. You see, the main issue of the
gospel is the holiness and justice of God, who hates all workers
of iniquity, who will by no means clear the guilty, and who must
punish sinners. Now, you go around telling people
that God hates all workers of iniquity, you're going to offend
them, aren't you? And yet that's a quote from Psalm
5 and verse 5, God's Word. The foolish shall not stand in
thy sight, thou hatest all workers of iniquity. Turn to Proverbs
chapter 6 with me. I've told you about the sign
I saw outside of a Methodist church up in Huntington, West
Virginia. The sign said this, it said,
the God who hates, we don't worship him either. Well, okay, I agree
with them. They don't worship the God of
this book. Whoever it is they're worshiping is God of their imagination.
Look at Proverbs chapter 6, look at verse 16. Now here's who God
is. These six things doth the Lord
hate, yea, seven are an abomination unto him. A proud look, a lying
tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, heart that deviseth wicked
imaginations, feaked, that be swift in returning, running to
mischief, a false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth
discord among brethren." God hates that. Hates them. Somebody
says, well now that's not right, that's unfair. Well, turn over
to Romans chapter 9 again. You remember when God was revealing
through Isaiah and through the Apostle Paul and about his sovereign
electing grace and he says in verse 11, or look at verse 10
of Romans 9, he says, and not only this, but when Rebekah also
had conceived by one, even by her father Isaac, for the children,
now what children is he talking about? The children of Rebekah
and Isaac, that's Jacob and Esau. And he says, for the children
being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the
purpose of God, according to election, might stand not of
works, but of him that calleth. It was said unto her, the elder
shall serve the younger, and it is written, Jacob have I loved,
but Esau have I hated. God said that. People say, well, that's not
fair. Well, read the rest of the chapter then. Because Paul's
got, he's ahead of you. No, it's not an issue of God
being fair or unfair. God is always fair. It's God
being just. If God gave any of us what we
deserve or what we've earned, you know what it would be? It'd
be his hatred. And I know people say, well, now look, that's not
talking about individuals. That's talking about nations.
And I thought, good night. Well, nations, that means it's
more than one individual. Aren't nations made up of people? You see, we think that God's
hatred is like that. When we hate, it's sinful because
it's out of retribution, vengeance, selfishness, pride, self-love. But when God hates, it's simply
His justice, His wrath. But here's the issue now. Man
has no righteousness by which to justify himself. Man cannot
work righteousness to justify himself. And he has no desire
to come to God as God commands through the promise of the gospel,
wherein God's love is revealed, but only in the person and work
of Jesus Christ, the Lord, our righteousness. And here's what
we tell people. You want me to talk about God's
love? Well, here's the only way I can
talk about it. My friend, God must be just when he justifies
the ungodly. This is the limit. This is the
problem. See, people aren't even confronted
with this problem today. How can a holy God who hates
all workers of iniquity, who must punish sin, who can by no
means clear the guilty, how can he be that God and still be loving
and merciful and gracious to sinners like us? He hates all
workers of iniquity. Well, aren't we workers of iniquity?
Well, according to our works, yes. But is it possible? Is there
a way that I can stand before holy, just, righteous God and
not be declared and judged a worker of iniquity? Is that possible? Now that's the issue, isn't it?
And there's not one man-made religious system, philosophy,
or doctrine that can answer that question. There's only one that
can answer that, and that's God alone. And how's that possible? We need a surety. We need a substitute. We need one whom God appoints,
one who is qualified, and one who is willing to stand in our
place and do for us what we cannot do for ourselves, and there's
only one. Christ said it, I'm the way,
the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. What did he say about the Gentiles?
They weren't seeking righteousness, but they found it because they
looked to Christ for righteousness. That's what it means when the
Bible says that God made him to be sin. Our sins, the sins
of God's chosen people were imputed, charged, accounted to Jesus Christ. He took my debt. He paid that
debt in full. He justifies the ungodly. He forgives sins by the shedding
of his blood. And out of his death, burial,
and resurrection comes righteousness that is imputed to every one
of his people. Righteousness comes by Jesus
Christ alone. Righteousness is ours by imputation,
God charging, accounting, reckoning it to our account. Righteousness
is submitted to by faith in Christ. Where does the power and the
will of faith and repentance and obedience come from? It comes
from God. And that's a scandal to the world. In the realm of the flesh, People see this truth as attacking
and denying everything that they hold sacred, every religious
experience, every religious profession. But in his evangelism, Paul made
no attempt to become relevant or adapt to his culture, did
he? His gospel broke through the popular religious and philosophical
thought of his day. It was a light shining in darkness.
You're the light of the world. Let your light so shine. That
light's not our works. That light is Christ and his
truth, the gospel wherein his righteousness is revealed. Paul's
gospel was not just one among many truths. It wasn't just a
little higher knowledge. It was the exclusive, the one
way. Demanded faith and repentance
else eternal death and damnation. Paul would not adapt his message
to be more acceptable, more pleasing, to men in order to get them to
listen or to get them to come to church or to get them to stay
in church. In fact, the moment a preacher
asked this question, what can I do to get more people to come
to church and keep them there? You have left the gospel. You've left the gospel. And I'll
tell you why. Because getting people to come
to church and keeping them there is not in our power and it's
none of our business. That's God's work. What are we
to do then? Preach the gospel. Preach Christ
and His righteousness. Pray for the salvation of God's
people and realize that God is God and we're not. We're not. May the Lord bless
His word to our hearts and our understanding.