Faith and Righteousness – Romans 9

[0:00] Good morning. Special welcome to everyone that has come out. We're going to continue working through Romans here this morning.

[0:12] We've been systematically working through it, and I get to now preach on this portion. It's an exciting portion of Scripture, and we'll see what the Lord has in store for us there.

[0:30] So, to start off with, I thought I would ask a question in missions. Like, how important are missions in our life?

[0:41] Do we view them as being super important or even sharing the gospel? Is that quite the priority in our life, or is that just something that, you know, we just kind of do when we have time to do it?

[0:55] And when I see this church as a whole, I see that I think we are ready to start to maybe not send out, but we're definitely getting ready for it.

[1:08] And because we have a number of men within this congregation that are well on their way in being solid in teaching, and they would just need to continue to go a little bit further.

[1:21] And so, with these eldership classes that we had that were mentioned, I would encourage you guys to take them, and then to, it does focus very much on eldership, but it also touches in on leadership, and also on qualifications, on whether or not you qualify or not, or if there's ever elections in a church, that way you can distinguish between this individual that you're going to bring forward is actually qualified for that position.

[1:54] So, if you could at all make time to take those classes, I would encourage you guys to do just that, because it's valuable. It takes quite a bit of time.

[2:04] It's three hours. It's about three to four hours each time that they meet. And so, it is a huge commitment, but it is a commitment that is well worth the sacrifice.

[2:16] So, I would encourage you guys to do that if you can. So, these next two messages lend themselves very much to either to missions or to at least sharing the gospel.

[2:30] And so, I think it's very fitting that we would put a little bit of extra emphasis on actually going out and sharing the gospel.

[2:42] Now, today we get, at the last portion, the last portion today, I get to share the gospel, the good news. And I'm excited for that. But we're going to start in verse 30, in chapter 9 in Romans.

[2:56] And so, he starts off there, and he says, What shall we say then? That the Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained righteousness, even the righteousness of faith.

[3:07] And that is coming on after, you know, he had talked in the previous portion there about vessels and how God has created vessels of righteousness and the vessels of honor and vessels of dishonor.

[3:21] And so, here he starts off, and he says, What shall we say then? That the Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained righteousness, even the righteousness of God.

[3:32] So, he's now focusing in on the Gentiles. He has added them in. What is it to pursue something? So, it is to go after.

[3:43] And the Gentiles, they did not pursue righteousness. It wasn't in their fleshly being that they wanted to pursue righteousness at all.

[3:56] So, that is something that they did, just did not go after. When we go after something, we make a plan, and we systematically start to work towards going after it. And the Gentiles did not do that.

[4:09] The other thing is, what is righteousness? It is a moral upright. It is to be morally upright. That is righteousness. And the Gentiles were not seeking that.

[4:21] They were not going after that at that time. One other way of explaining righteousness would be to be justified. So, the Gentiles characteristically did not seek righteousness, but some of the religions that they practiced at that time, they did promote morally good living, but not actual righteousness.

[4:45] So, by nature, they actually pursued wickedness. And you might think, well, that is rather harsh, that if they are not seeking righteousness, that then by nature, they are actually seeking wickedness.

[4:59] And so, then we need to look at, well, who are the Gentiles? Because he is speaking here to the Gentiles. And the Gentiles are anybody who is not an Israelite, or anybody that is not a Jew is a Gentile.

[5:13] So, that makes, I don't know all of you guys personally, but I don't think there's any Jewish people in this congregation. That means that all of us are Gentiles.

[5:24] And such an arises, are we wicked? Are we seeking ungodliness? And so, if we look at our own lives, and just, if I looked at my own life, and before I accepted the Lord, I would look at my life, and well, I wasn't that bad.

[5:46] You know, other people around me, you know, I was, there was much more worse people than I was, so that made me half decent. So, if we compare ourselves to each other, or to other people, you know, to be wicked, probably would not come into our vocabulary.

[6:03] We would not be wicked. But if we start to compare ourselves to God, or to the law, then all of a sudden, things change a little bit. So, have you ever had a bad thought towards somebody?

[6:17] Maybe you've even done a bad action towards somebody. I know as children, I've done plenty of bad actions to my brothers and sisters. If I sometimes knew that they had things that they really enjoyed very much.

[6:29] I know my sister Helen, I taunted her. She had certain songs that she really, really liked, and then I would, on purpose, I would change the words that would really, I would sing the song over and over again with the words that I had put in, and yeah, it just ruined a lot of songs for her, and I did that just to annoy her.

[6:47] And so, it's, I wasn't always the best person. Let's turn to Matthew chapter 5, and we'll look at a portion there, and we'll look at what God's standard is.

[7:04] That's in the Sermon of the Mount. It's Matthew chapter 5, verses 21 and 22, is the first one that I would like to look at.

[7:18] Matthew chapter 5. Matthew chapter 5, verse 21 and 22, it says, You have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of judgment.

[7:34] But then Jesus, Jesus is speaking here, and he's saying, but I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of judgment. So, that is the difference, as if we might, according to other people, and then this is God.

[7:51] This is Jesus. Another one is in the same chapter, verses 27 and 28, of chapter 5, he says, You have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not commit adultery.

[8:05] But I say to you, that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery in his heart. So, that is the standard that we need to be comparing ourselves to.

[8:20] If we want to decide whether or not we are wicked or not, that is the standard that we need to hold ourselves to. So, let's go back to Romans, chapter 9.

[8:40] So, the Gentiles did not pursue righteousness, but they attained it through faith. So, it says in the last portion of that verse, even the righteousness of faith.

[8:51] So, through faith is how they attained righteousness. Then he goes on over to Israel, he switches back to Israel, and he says, But Israel pursued the law of righteousness.

[9:04] Pursuing the law of righteousness has not attained to the law of righteousness. Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were, by works of the law.

[9:15] For they stumbled at the stumbling stone. So, Israel was seeking righteousness through the law. And I have an example here that I would like to go to.

[9:30] Let's, or one that they were trying to earn their righteousness, and they were going about it wrong, and they didn't quite get it.

[9:41] Not all of them. Some of them would have gotten it, but most of them, especially by the time Jesus came on the scene, they did not understand it. And when it's speaking here in verse 30 about the Gentiles, that they have attained righteousness, we are all the Gentile people.

[9:59] I was not always righteous. So, when it's talking about the Gentiles being righteous, not all of them are. And when it is talking about the Israelites not having righteousness, not all of them had it, but some of them did.

[10:15] So, let's turn to Exodus chapter 30, and we look at one situation there that, where they did not quite get the whole picture what it was.

[10:28] So, Exodus chapter 30, verses 18 to 21. And it says, you shall also make a laver of bronze with the base, with a base also of bronze for washing, you shall put it between the tabernacle of meeting and the altar and you shall put water in it.

[10:55] And Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet with water from it. When they go into the tabernacle of meeting or when they come near the altar to minister, to burn off, to burn an offering made by fire to the Lord, they shall wash with water lest they die.

[11:19] So they shall wash their hands and their feet lest they die and it shall be a statute forever to them, to him and his descendants, the generations or their generations.

[11:31] So there was this bronze laver that was set up before they would go into the tabernacle and they're commanded that they need to wash their hands and they need to wash their feet before they go in.

[11:46] And that is how they accepted it. It was, so they washed their hands and washed their feet. They did not realize that that laver was made of bronze and it was polished bronze so that when they would have gone in there to take a picture of water, they would have seen themselves in the water.

[12:06] And the picture there is that they needed also to be cleansed on the inside and that is a part that they had missed. And so when they missed those things, that is where they start to simply go on works where they're simply, well, we need to wash our hands and our feet before we go into the tabernacle.

[12:24] It was just of works. So if we go back to Romans and it says, but Israel pursued not attaining to the law of righteousness.

[12:42] So they had turned the law into simple works, just actions that they were doing. It was not, they did not realize that it was pointing to Christ, that the law was pointing to Christ.

[12:57] So continuing on in verse 33, as it is written, behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone, a rock of offense, and whoever believes on him will not be put to shame.

[13:13] This verse, you can kind of split in two. You can pretty much cut it right in half. One half speaks to the Jewish or to the unbelieving, that it was a stumbling stone.

[13:25] To the other half, it was a verse of encouragement that they would not be put to shame. So if the Jewish leaders stumbled at the first advent of Christ, so with Jesus coming, what will happen on the second advent when Jesus comes again?

[13:47] Have you ever thought of that? So the Jewish leaders could not accept the fact that Jesus was who he says that he was. They could not accept that. So it was a stumbling stone to them.

[13:59] So if the first advent was a stumbling stone to them, what will happen on the second when Jesus comes again? Let's turn to Matthew chapter 21, verses 43 and 44.

[14:12] Matthew chapter 21, verses 43 and 44.

[14:33] It says, Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it.

[14:44] And whoever falls on this stone will be broken, but on whomever it falls it will grind him to pieces. So this stone is Jesus' first coming.

[15:02] And whoever falls on him will be broken, but whoever cannot accept the fact that this stone is Jesus, when Jesus returns, that stone will grind him to pieces.

[15:14] That is the second advent. So when the Jewish believe, if the Jews cannot accept that Jesus is who he is, the outcome is not well. But the same is for the Gentiles as well.

[15:26] If we cannot have Jesus, if we do not believe that Jesus is who he says that he is, the outcome will be the same as the Jewish will, as the Jewish outcome will. There is no difference between those two.

[15:44] Let's go back to Romans again. So Romans chapter 10, verse 1, we'll start there again.

[16:03] It says, Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. So Paul is talking here about his fellow brothers.

[16:16] He is saying, my heart's desire and prayer to God is that Israel would be saved as well. Paul has a burden for his fellow man.

[16:28] My question to you is, do you have a burden for your fellow man? Is it for maybe for your family? Maybe for your friends? Or for your race? Your type of people?

[16:39] Because Paul here is saying Israel, his people, the people that he comes from, do we have for those individuals? And I think we should have a natural burden for them because once Paul accepted the Lord, he automatically started, his first portion was he went to the children of Israel.

[17:11] That was the first area that he went and ministered to. And I find myself that that is very much the same thing in my life where if I want to share the gospel, it is easiest to share the gospel within people that are from my type of background as well.

[17:26] Verse 2, it says, for I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God but not according to knowledge. So the children of Israel had a zeal for God but not according to knowledge.

[17:39] What does it mean to have a zeal for God but not according to knowledge? What is a zeal? That is a longing. That is, they had a longing for God. They had a longing to be righteous and they wanted to fill that righteousness with following the law.

[17:55] Do we have people in our lives that have a zeal for God but coming to knowledge? So the Jews wanted to please God with keeping the law.

[18:10] Things like keeping the Sabbath and eating certain foods. they denied eating certain foods because it was wrong according to the law that it was wrong. And with that, we just, with trying to keep the law, the children of Israel did not gain any righteousness.

[18:33] And if we find ourselves in our own lives, we might find ourselves that we are trying to keep certain rules as well or laws or certain types of things, maybe we think that we have to go to church every Sunday in order to keep God satisfied and that is not how God is satisfied.

[18:54] So what is righteousness? I talked about what is righteousness? It is an uprightness and it is something that is, can we earn uprightness? Can we earn, do people have the ability to earn their righteousness?

[19:11] Can we live lives that would be righteous? In and of ourselves we can't. Just like the Israelites, they tried, they could not.

[19:22] It is not something that we get to earn. So we cannot earn our own righteousness.

[19:36] Let's turn to Romans chapter 3 or go back a few. I did a message on this portion here a number of weeks ago or might be months ago by now already.

[19:51] And in our own nature, in our fleshly nature, this is what we are. So when we're trying to earn our righteousness, this is what it is aside from God.

[20:04] So Romans chapter 3 verses 9 through 18. And it's not an encouraging portion of scripture at all. It says, but what then? Are we better than they?

[20:17] Not at all. For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin. As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one.

[20:27] There is none who understands. There is none who seek after God. They have all turned aside and they have together become unprofitable. There is none who does good, no, not one.

[20:40] Their throat is an open tomb with their time to practice deceit. The poison of asps is under their lips, whose mouth whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.

[20:55] Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.

[21:09] So this is an individual that is aside from God trying to earn righteousness. It is absolutely impossible. That is us in the flesh.

[21:24] So how can we be made righteous? So if this is how we are in the flesh, how can we then be made righteous? Let's turn a few verses over.

[21:37] Verses, same chapter, Romans 3, verses 21 and 22. So how we can be made righteous, but now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed being witnessed by the law and the prophets even of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe for there is no difference.

[22:07] So this righteousness that Israel was after and this righteousness that the Gentiles have attained, it is attained one way and that is through faith in Jesus Christ.

[22:23] So that is how it is attained. Let's go back to Romans chapter 10 continuing on in verse 4. It says, For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness for everyone who believes.

[22:38] so if Christ is the end of the law, what was the purpose for the law in the first place? So what was the purpose for the law? If Christ is the end of the law, what was the purpose of it?

[22:52] It was to show God's standard and to show us our inability to keep that law. It was to show sin or to reveal sin in our lives.

[23:07] So verse 5, for Moses writes about righteousness which is of the law that the man who does those things shall live by them.

[23:18] So the only righteousness that is in the law that is that if a man can feel the law. Is there anybody that has ever fully kept the law? Is it possible for us to keep the law?

[23:34] It is not. There is only one man that fully has and that is Jesus Christ. He was able to live in a sinless life and that is why Jesus is who he says that he is.

[23:48] Even if we were able to live a life that would be fully filling the law, we would still have one problem left, is that we were born into sin. See, Jesus was not born into sin.

[24:01] Jesus was conceived of the Holy Spirit. We were conceived by our fathers and sin travels through our fathers or we inherit sin through our fathers.

[24:14] So, Jesus never inherited sin. So, he was sinless. Verse 6 and 7 go back to, from righteousness and now to faith.

[24:29] but the righteousness of faith speaks this way. Do not say in your heart who will ascend into heaven, that is, to bring Christ down from above, or who will descend into the abyss, that is, to bring Christ up from the dead.

[24:52] So, he is quoting here Deuteronomy 30 verses 12 to 14 we'll turn there and I want you to notice how it sounds a little bit different when we read it in Deuteronomy and then when we read it here.

[25:06] And there's a reason for that. So, let's turn to Deuteronomy chapter 30 verses 12 through 14.

[25:28] Deuteronomy chapter 30 verses 12 through 14. It says, It is not in heaven that you should say who shall ascend into heaven for us and bring it to us that we may hear it and do it.

[25:51] Nor is it beyond the sea that you should say who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us that we may hear it and do it.

[26:02] But the word is very near you in your mouth that you may do it. So, here he is saying over the sea. He doesn't say down into the abyss.

[26:14] And he is talking about the law about going to heaven and bringing the law down so that you can hear it. If we go back to Romans and reread that, it sounds different.

[26:26] He is saying but the but of the righteousness of faith speaks this way, do not say in your heart who will ascend into heaven or who will go to heaven and get this.

[26:40] He is saying if we are in faith, we are not going to say somebody needs to go and get this information for us. It is by faith. We already have it in our heart.

[26:55] So, what is faith then? So, what is faith? Or, where is the faith chapter? Is there a faith chapter in the Bible? Can anybody tell me where the faith chapter is in the Bible?

[27:14] What is that? Hebrews 11. Yeah, let's go there. Let's see what is faith. So, if we can attain this by faith, what is faith?

[27:26] Hebrews 11, I'm not going to read the whole chapter. You could, but I'm just going to read the first three verses. It says, Now, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen, for by it the elders obtained a good testimony.

[27:42] By faith, we understand that the worlds were formed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.

[27:57] So, faith is believing in something that has taken place, but you can't actually see it. That is faith. So, God has spoke the universe into existence.

[28:10] He did not make the universe from something. He spoke it into existence. It takes faith to believe that. the only way that I can create anything is that if I have a substance and make something out of it.

[28:31] God created the universe from nothing. He simply spoke it and it was something. If I want to create something, if I want to build a log trailer or something like that, I need to get all sorts of different items to be able to build it, all of which comes from what God spoke into existence.

[28:51] So, if we go back to Romans 10, it says, but the righteousness of faith speaks this way. So, faith speaks this way. Do not, so we're not expecting to get something.

[29:05] We're not expecting somebody to go to heaven to get this message. We believe it because it's already happened. So, continuing on now in verse 8, it says, but what does it say?

[29:22] So, now going back, he's saying, what does scripture say? The word is near you in your mouth and in your heart. That is the word of faith which we preach. Paul is now quoting again in Deuteronomy chapter 30 again, but now it's only verse 14.

[29:39] Again, he is saying we don't need to go to heaven to hear it from Christ but the word which is the gospel, the gospel is near you.

[29:53] He says it's in your mouth that is spoken in your heart that is understood. Now, we don't have a full understanding of the gospel as soon as we accept Jesus as Lord, but the beginning starts.

[30:07] And most people, when they first accept the Lord into their heart or the Holy Spirit into their heart, they can't stop talking about him. It is something that constantly comes out of their mouth.

[30:20] So that is always very exciting. Now, he shares the gospel with them. So he's saying you cannot have righteousness with works. You can simply have righteousness by faith.

[30:32] And now he goes on and he shares the gospel. This is the gospel. This is the good news because in the end of verse 8 there, he says that is the word or gospel of faith which we preach.

[30:49] And then he starts getting into it and he says that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God is raised from the dead, you will be saved.

[31:03] That is good news. so what is it to confess with the Lord Jesus? So what are we doing if we confess with our mouth the Lord Jesus?

[31:16] Is it simply saying I believe Jesus is who he says that he is? I think it is. It is saying that I believe that Jesus was God, was born of a woman, was as a baby, went through life, a sinless life, died for and this is where often we get it a little bit mixed up.

[31:38] We always say died for all the sins and it kind of waters it down a little bit but we need to make that personal and he died for my sins and then he rose and God raised him on the third day and he is now at the right hand of God.

[31:54] That is if we believe that that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus Christ and believe in your heart God has raised him from the dead, he says you will be saved.

[32:08] He doesn't say you might be saved. He says you will be saved. It doesn't say that if you live, make a few mistakes in your life as you are a Christian, that now you're not going to be saved.

[32:22] He's saying you will be saved. There's no maybe there. It is absolutely guaranteed. need. So we then need to ask ourselves, am I there?

[32:39] Have I accepted the fact that Jesus is who he says that he is? And did he die for my sins? If you believe with your whole heart that that is the case, it says here that you will be saved.

[32:53] Continuing on in verse 10, he says, for with a heart one believes unto righteousness, so faith unto righteousness, so with a heart one believes unto righteousness, and with a mouth confession is made unto salvation.

[33:10] And as I was saying earlier, when people find out about this salvation, they start to talk about it. And it's interesting, sometimes when they first have, they talk a little bit too much about it, and just about, are a little bit arrogant.

[33:24] And this fall, Tina and I went to the hot springs in BC, and we like to go in the fall when it's fairly cool, so you can spend more time in there, and we were just floating around in there, and just talk to people, and seeing where they're from, and things like that, and it was amazing, it must have been a weekend where just Mennonites were going there, because I think it was all Mennonites thing, there was probably a hundred of them there.

[33:52] And so I got to talking, and see where you're from, and kind of the thing that, I don't know if it's just Mennonites that do that, but that's kind of where you're from, and things like that, and I would start to try to not share the gospel with them, but simply speak spiritual truths, or speak of Jesus, and things like that, and just very gently, just throw a few words in there, so what church do you go to, and so on and so forth.

[34:16] And it was interesting how there's one individual I had known him from in the past, and he too is now a born-again believer, so naturally we kind of catch up and start talking.

[34:27] He had some buddies there with him as well, and as we were talking, it didn't take long that his buddies just kind of floated away, and all of a sudden it was just me and him talking. They were uncomfortable with the conversation that we were having, and it wasn't something, and it wasn't a conversation that was divisive or anything like that.

[34:47] It was very kind of just a generic conversation about spiritual things, and they were uncomfortable with it. Yet, had I asked them, are you Christians, they would have said yes.

[35:00] And so they need to make this decision, whether or not, in verse 9 here, whether or not we are actually born-again believers or not, we need to come to that conclusion. And then when we do, we are always open to talk about spiritual things, even if we might not agree on all things.

[35:19] So verse 11, for the scripture says, whoever believes on him will not be put to shame. So he kind of repeats that again. He wants to drive that point home.

[35:30] He's actually quoting Isaiah here. Let's turn there for a bit. Isaiah chapter 28, verse 16. So Isaiah chapter 28, verse 16, he says, therefore, thus says the Lord, behold, I lay in Zion a stone for a foundation, a tried stone, a precious stone, a sure foundation.

[36:00] Whoever believes will not act hastily. So it's, again, here, it ends a little bit differently, but the reason Paul is using this verse is because of the foundation.

[36:14] behold, I lay in Zion a foundation, a tried stone. That means if we build on Christ, that foundation will always be there.

[36:28] I owned a foundation company with my brother for a number of years, and I helped build foundations. And, you know, it's amazing what type of ground people build houses on nowadays.

[36:42] We put a good foundation on top of very poor ground. At least I thought it was. It was engineered fill. Generally, when you build a house, you would dig down so that you have just raw earth there that is clay that has never been moved, and that's where you build up from.

[37:02] And this was engineered fill, and there was topsoil and mud and trees and sticks. But they had dug down to where they wanted the level of the house, and that's where they built the house on top of.

[37:14] That foundation was not sure. That foundation was not tried. They had had engineers. It was engineered filled, but not many years after, that house would have started to sink down.

[37:26] And so it is an untried basement or a foundation. Here he says, behold, I lay in Zion a stone for a foundation, a tried stone.

[37:38] This is a solid foundation, a precious stone, a sure foundation, or a precious cornerstone. So it's not just a foundation, but it's actually the corner that you measure off of.

[37:52] So the whole building revolves around this one cornerstone. Let's go back to Romans. Romans. So he says in Romans 11 again there, for the scripture says, whoever believes on him will not be put to shame.

[38:15] For there is no distinction. So now he brings the two people groups back together again. He says, for there is no distinction between Jew or Greek. Now he doesn't use the word Gentile here, but he uses Greek, which is in and of itself the same thing.

[38:30] And it says, Jew and Greek, for the same Lord is rich to all who call upon him.

[38:41] So he is all. That is no matter what people group, whether you are a Mennonite or a non-Mennonite, he is rich to all who call upon him.

[38:55] It doesn't matter where you are from or what type of people group you are. Continues on in verse 13 there in closing, he says, for whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

[39:07] So it doesn't matter what people group or what people group you are from. And that doesn't matter. But here he says, he drives the point home one step further and he says, whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

[39:22] That tells us that even the vilest of sinners, when they come to the knowledge of Jesus Christ and accept the fact that he is who he says that he is, they too are going to be saved.

[39:36] And that is exciting. The gospel, that is what makes the gospel exciting. It is, it's available to absolutely everybody. There is no sinner in this room that is bad enough sinner that cannot be saved.

[39:51] There is none of us here that cannot be saved. Everybody can. When we have, in the finished work of Christ, we inherit or we become righteous.

[40:03] We are not self-righteous, but we become righteous. Let's close in prayer. Father, we come before you this morning. Just want to thank you for each one that is here. I ask that you would just bless them on their week as they go forward.

[40:16] Lord, as we do our own studies at home, Lord, I ask that each one of us would be able to be enlightened by your word and that we would be excited to share your word as well.

[40:28] Especially, Lord, if we come into other contact with other believers who are willing and exciting to talk about your word, that we would always be open for that and that we would just always want to build up and not tear down.

[40:43] Pray a special blessing on this group here this morning. In Jesus' name, amen.