Sept. 17, 2017 The Stone of Stumbling by Pastor Josh Sheldon

Romans 9 and the Question of Israel

And I'll turn if you would to the book of Romans chapter 9 I'll read verses 30 to 33. Which would be the text for this morning's message? And God willing as I go through you will see why I selected the texts to be read to you from Isaiah 65 and then from Luke chapter 20.

But this morning we'll attend ourselves to Romans 9 verses 30 to 33. What shall we say then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it. That is a righteous a righteousness that is by faith.

But that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled stumbled over the stumbling stone as it is written.

Behold I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense and whoever believes in him Will not be put to shame. Now may God bless us as we read and as we hear his word. So here we come to the Apostle the last few verses of this chapter chapter 9 of Romans and The chapter sort of ends where he began with Israel with this question this this 800-pound gorilla sitting on the table as he's been going through.

Speaking of the salvation that Jesus Christ has procured that God by his grace in sending his son has designed for us. And The 800-pound gorilla that Paul's been dealing with in this chapter is what about Israel?

Paul if all these promises are so good if God is as reliable as you say if all these things be true Then why do his people not believe? How am I to put my faith my hope my trust my eternal soul in his care?

Unless I can be absolutely sure that his promises are Good that he will keep his word. What about Israel and that's really been sort of the subject the topic the thing that Paul's been arguing for God is Faithful.

God is reliable. He did keep his promises. They were misunderstood that they were plainly revealed in word. Accomplished in history God did keep his word. God is sovereign. God chooses who he will and God acts as he will and always in a just and right and merciful and compassionate way.

Sort of been his argument as he's coming down to the end of this chapter. He began with Israel. I Am NOT I am speaking the truth in Christ. I am NOT lying. My conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit that I have great sorrow and unceasing Anguish in my heart and for whom for his fellow Israelites.

For those who are from the same stock as he according to the flesh. And yet don't believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. So in chapter 9 of Romans, he's been expositing he's been making us understand the sovereignty and the goodness and the mercy and the compassion and the reliability of God.

He raises up kings like Pharaoh has showcases for his power. He casts them down as it pleases him as it accomplishes his purposes. He makes one vessel you remember the the whole passage about the vessels some for honorable some for dishonorable use.

He says the one I made you this way for this purpose and to another he says but I made you that way For this other purpose, but all of it God's purpose. Far from proving him harsh or merciless God sight or Paul cites the prophets.

Who shows that he did always prophesied that there were to be this people this people who do not come from the stock of Abraham? Isaac Jacob ie physically Israel there would be this people who he would call my people a People upon whom there wasn't mercy.

He would say now you have had mercy a people. He would call beloved and sons of the Living God. Speaking of course of the gospel wherein God opens his arms to everyone be they male female Jew Greek slave or free for in Christ and He alone.

There is no such distinction as we all come to salvation in him. By the same faith that God gives us to believe in him irrespective of Anything in us be it male female Jew Greek and all the rest of the distinctions that we could possibly multiply.

Question here is why did Israel fail? Why did Israel fail? Why does anyone fail? And failure here in the context of the gospel. Why did Israel with all the advantages that they had? Fail to see Jesus Christ as the sum and the total of it all God willing when we get to chapter 10 Christ is the end of the law we're going to have to deal with this again and again.

Christ is the sum and total of everything that God has been saying since Genesis 1 1 and. And crescendoing to the cross why did Israel with all they had. Fail to see it. Why does anyone? Why do your children?

Why do you children who have unbelieving parents? Why do we who have unbelieving neighbors co-workers? How do we attribute their failure to understand this gospel? That we almost plead with them to believe that we try to live out before them, why does anyone fail.

To come to the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, we can have a lot of reasons. Pride Arrogance love of sin and all these things would be true. Israel failed. Because they sought the right thing That being the righteousness of God the wrong way.

They stumbled that's the word Paul uses and he takes it from the prophets. They stumbled they were on a path. They were on a highway. They were following after something which is the righteousness that was promised in the law of Moses.

That was their cherished monument to their special place in God's eyes to have that Mosaic law before them and they were Striving after the righteousness that it promised and they stumbled. They stumbled over a stumbling stone That was set in place that was set in their way.

By God himself, and where did they stumble? Over faith. They stumble over faith over a repudiation a complete renouncing of Self-reliance and we speak of this in context of the gospel of salvation. What do we mean by self-reliance?

We mean faith in Christ and faith alone in Christ alone. Because there's no other way you can be saved. There's no other name given to men under heaven by which you must be saved. Faith. Israel proves to you that you cannot do it.

That's the lesson really that's the stumbling stone over which they stumbled. Paul writes about the Gentiles. Gentiles meaning it's just a catch-all that means all who are separated from Christ alienated from the Commonwealth of Israel strangers to the covenants of promise in other words.

Not having any of those advantages that Israel had. They did not pursue this righteousness. They have it they fell upon it as it were they weren't pursuing it and you could ask how could they have. They knew nothing of it.

Romans chapter 1 verses 18 to 25. It's been a few months since we were in there. But you recall how it rebukes them. It actually rebukes all mankind. Because enough is revealed of God in nature to dispel your ignorance.

Enough there's to halt your waywardness and. So that if you have not faith You will be held rightly and justly Accountable before God in that great day. The Gentiles here. They're in the position of a man who while walking by the way while minding his own business.

He stumbles upon let's say a pearl. A pearl shall we say of great price Now wasn't looking for it. He was off to work. He was going on about his business. He had no affinity for pearls. He's single and he has no wife to surprise with such a gift.

Maybe he's a strict Orthodox Jew and would rather avoid the product of an unclean bottom dweller. But then along comes another man who sees what he has. He convinces him that what he is discovered is of inestimable worth.

Like if we put that in a more modern context if you tripped and fell upon a lottery ticket and happened to have the Numbers on he's ready to throw it out. Somebody comes along says hey, I just looked on my smartphone and those are the numbers.

Somebody comes along tells him what this thing is worth. Well, this man believes he gives up everything to have this thing that he stumbled upon that he wasn't looking for. Now the illusion to Jesus parable of the pearl of great price is obvious but it makes a point.

And what Paul's saying there in the last few verses of Romans chapter 9 is that Gentiles Compared to Israel had no idea what they were missing. They're ignorant of God's demands. They're ignorant of God himself much less his righteousness.

The best they could claim was a mere civic righteousness that which is implanted in every human. Not pursuing. Not pursuing this word is going to be used again in regards to Israel. The gel Gentiles were not pursuing and will come to Israel who was pursuing something.

I want you to know what this word pursue is about. It comes up a couple times here. This word is actually sometimes translated as Persecute. To persecute someone it denotes a determined and constant effort towards an objective.

And we might immediately think of our author of this book of Romans Paul the Apostle because when he was Saul the Pharisee he Persecuted the church as the same exact word that we have here with determined effort with zeal and energy.

Going to accomplish a purpose, which is the destruction of the church. He organized all his effort and focused it in that way. This is the word we have. The Gentiles were not doing that. These Gentiles and who does Paul means he's talking about Gentiles who are saved.

He is writing to Gentiles in the Roman Church 2 ,000 years ago. They were not organized towards an effort. They were not focused towards the gospel. They had no regard for God. They were looking at their idols.

They were ignoring God's revelation of himself in the heavens. The firmament shows forth his handiwork. They saw nothing. They're just going on about their business not persecuting towards anything Israel remember persecuting very energetically towards this goal.

They attained what they weren't looking for. The Gentiles were not pursuing righteousness attained it and I just want to slow down for a second and Tell you what attained means because it doesn't just mean that I came upon it.

Attained means to get a hold of something to make it your own. It's almost as intense as the word for persecute if to persecute to pursue something Is to put all your energy focused on this one goal. To attain it is to grab on to something to take it from where it is and bring it to yourself to hide it in Your bosom as it were.

Which is a good metaphor because it's in the heart Where the gospel must reside. They attained they made it their own. They apprehended this thing this gospel this righteousness of God. Faith in Jesus you see Faith in Jesus something that I cannot give you.

I can proclaim it to you. I Can plead with you to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. I can beg you To repent of your sin and to believe that Jesus Christ on the cross paid the price for your sin. But I cannot give you faith.

I Cannot plead to God on your behalf in that sense not in any way this efficacious. I can ask God to save you and we do pray for those who come to this place that if you know not Jesus Christ You will be saved by hearing his word, but you must make this faith your own.

If you came in here this morning Unaware of the claims of Jesus Christ upon your eternal soul if you were not pursuing this. Then perhaps this day you will attain to something that you weren't looking for.

You will stumble somehow onto this pearl of great price this gospel of salvation. You will be able to say with the Apostle That the Son of God who loved me gave himself for me. And this is what it means to attain.

The Gentiles were not pursuing this says Paul. Yet they attained it they made it their own. They latched on to it. They grabbed it. They put it in their bosom. They sold all they had to have this land where the treasure was written.

We can multiply the parables. It's worth everything. He speaks of the Gentiles happy in their oblivious ways content with their version of fulfillment morality. They attained and apprehended and made their own this righteousness, which is synonymous with this gospel.

And this is just what Paul promised in the two verses of chapter 1 that are the term the theme of this whole letter. You remember how this letter started for I'm not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation.

To everyone who believes to the Jewish first and also for the Gentile. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith as it is written. The righteous shall live by faith. Faith that God gives us as a gift for by grace you've been saved through faith.

It is the gift of God. We can go on for the wages of sin is death. But the gift of the free gift of God's eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. This is what the Gentiles attained stumbled on to falling on this stone which we're going to talk about a little bit later at the end of this message they fell on it and in that stone and Falling and making this stumble.

They came away with this gospel. But what of Israel? What of Israel. Israel is going to be front and center in chapters 10 and 11 to as well. So what of Israel. What of that nation who held custody custody of the oracles of God chapter 3 verse 2 tells us or chapter 9 verse 4 where they had the adoption the glory the covenants the giving of the giving of the law they had the Worship they had the promises.

The nation to whom the prophets went what about them you see they did pursue they persecuted if you will. This law that would lead to righteousness. They did expend constant effort and determination. I Think of this for a moment even Jesus said that they counted individual cumin seeds in order to fulfill the law to the letter and In that trying to attain unto the righteousness of God that the law would promise Jesus but they Jesus says they didn't succeed.

Paul says they didn't succeed. They didn't come to or arrive at this particular state that they were looking for. If you think of what I alluded to there when Jesus rebukes the Pharisee for counting the seeds counting out Individual seeds to make sure God gets his one and I get my nine.

He says but you should have looked to the way to your things of the law. What about mercy? What about justice? What about compassion you should have kept the one? Obedience to the law but not ignored the other which is everything the law should have pointed you to.

And by going there perhaps might have stumbled Into the righteousness that the law spoke of and prophesied. I Mean should sound sort of exemplary to us shouldn't it that we be so careful that everything that we achieve in life.

We give glory and credit to God and then we would like the Pharisee. Make sure that God gets the tithe that we take the one out of the ten. Now Jesus does tell the parable of the two sons the one who Said he would do as his father asked.

But then he didn't do it and the other said he would not do as his father asked and then he repented and did it. And this is the Jews and the Gentiles, isn't it? The Jews said all that the Lord has commanded us by his servant Moses.

We will do. They say this in the book of Exodus and the book of Deuteronomy. Signing on the dotted line as it were that son who said we will do as he commanded, but then what happened they didn't. There that son says yes father.

I will obey you as soon as the father's back is turned. They don't. The Gentiles said in a manner of speaking Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice? Who is this God you Jews follow? We don't know who he is neither will I obey his voice to kind of piggyback on Pharaoh and his arrogance.

But then what did they do. They repented and obeyed. They repented and believed the gospel. This is the difference between these two great houses. The Jews or Israel really as we follow Paul in these chapters.

When he speaks of Israel we speak about the that nation as a whole. When he speaks of Jews, it's more of an individual kind of a context. These two great houses the one with all the advantage. Who didn't attain unto didn't grab on to what those advantages were offering to them and the others happy carefree.

Looking for nothing and yet God grabbed hold of them and gave them what they knew not and They attained they apprehended they latched on to it made it their own. The obvious question is the one that Paul asks next.

Why? Why I? Mean to move to the answer of why we must first be agreed that Israel on the whole did not gain what they had pursued. Some of them did. Paul was an example of that. So are Peter and the other disciples Jews who apprehended this gospel?

I would say that for that matter. So am I having been raised and born Jewish? But they misconstrued the point the Jews the misconstrued the point of all their advantages nationally and personally and so the answer.

If we ask why if we go with Paul and say why didn't they get it? Remember if we're asking that question and we're flabbergasted then God willing you're flabbergasted because God has God has given you faith to believe and you see the truth.

And so you're looking back with new covenant eyes. You're looking back with eyes of faith. You're looking back as Jesus would so to speak. And so it's hard to understand why they would miss all that. The answer so simple because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works.

Looking for the right thing the righteousness of God. Trying to accomplish it in a manner. That the law that promised the righteousness that they were striving to obey. Would never have endorsed. They thought they could do it themselves.

You know when I was a Boy Scout I Sort of reveled in the doing. I mean I did the stuff because it got me the merit badge and You got the merit badge when you went to the Scout meeting. And then they called you up and there's a great ceremony.

And they would tell all the great things that you did and they give you the merit badge. You say yes, I did it and I have the badge to prove it. But years later I look back and I can see that I I largely missed the whole point.

You see Boy Scouting was about being the merit badges the community projects all that was a means to an end and that end was to be produced a responsible civic minded man out of an irascible boy. The motto is on my honor I'll do my best to do my duty to God in my country and to obey the Scout law to help other people at all times.

To keep myself physically strong mentally awake and morally straight to become something. As I look back. I realized that I reduced that vision to projects. To projects that got me badges badges that were awarded to me at a ceremony.

Where my name was called out and my accomplishments were? Spoken spoken over the loudspeaker into the microphone they say look what Joshua James Sheldon did look what? John Smith did and they together get these merit badges.

And they put them and they're so proud to be able to go home and my mom would sew it onto my shirt and look. What I did and I never realized that the whole thing was about being something you see. The law could never produce the righteousness that it promised.

That's really the whole point of Romans 7 where we were several weeks ago. The law cannot produce the righteousness that it promises over and over again in Deuteronomy. Where the law is repeated to Israel to God's people and where it's agreed to in Deuteronomy itself.

The Lord warns them to do all the words of this law. Do it be careful to obey all the words that I've given you. But none of them fall to the ground and Over and over again when they hear this charge Israel says all that the Lord is commanded by servant Moses.

We will do well. James In the New Testament has exactly this in mind when he writes for whoever keeps the whole law But fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. If you would gain the righteousness of God through the law give it all you got persecute prosecute.

Pursue that with all your soul with all your might. With everything you've got keep it all and you'll have that righteousness. That's the promise of the Bible. The warning is. If you fail to give to God one Cumin seed you failed in the whole thing.

You may as well not have started in the first place. Well, of course, it's an impossible challenge, isn't it? There's one who obeyed the law. There's one who never failed as he walked on this earth to at every point follow God's law.

Not break any of it and that of course is Jesus Christ him alone He who comes as true Israel to accomplish all that Israel is supposed to be striving after. So while I could put this challenge to you and I could point to Bible verses that would support me and challenge you and say if you want that righteousness Follow the law all of it.

No, by the way if You're an adult. You've got a lot of years behind you where you didn't follow the law. So you're disqualified already. It's impossible. It's impossible the law can't do it. The righteousness prophesied the law was and is impossible to gain by the doing.

Because if you don't do one piece no matter how small no matter how innocuous you might think it is. It doesn't matter what you or I think is innocuous or small or a minor little peccadillo as we like to call them.

That doesn't matter a bit. It matters what God says and God says you shall follow it all. This should have driven them to desperation and I think this absolute inability to do the law which they committed to Should have driven them to desperation.

It should have made them desperate. It should have made them completely despair of their own ability. Should have forced their knees to bend and their spirits to sag. If you've tried to make yourself right with God by your own effort.

Let your knees bend now and your spirit sag this moment because it's not going to happen. It's not going to have there's only one whose righteousness means anything before God. And that's Christ Jesus and him alone.

It didn't for Israel. It didn't force their knees to bend. It didn't make them desperate. They missed the whole idea of it a And so made worthless all those centuries of effort we could call out with the Prophet have you not heard.

Have you not known? Did you not have enough to tell you that this righteousness is only a gift from God as? He attributes to you by faith the righteousness that is Christ's. Did you not in your very history have enough revelation from God in the acts that he performed to show you?

That you cannot do these things. Israel once stood on the Egyptian side of the Red Sea and There in the distance came death. They saw chariots pharaohs coming to avenge their firstborn who weren't even buried yet and What do you do you need to be saved?

You're going to die. What to do. Moses told them. How did Israel miss us? How did they forget so many Psalms recount this? Fear not stand firm and see the salvation of the Lord which he will work for you today.

For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. The Lord will fight for you and you have only to be silent. Fear not stand firm be silent. It is said that no. It is said by some that not a single sound could be heard as they obeyed and crossed on dry land.

And how did they arrive. They arrived safely. They arrived dry. They arrived on the other side free of slavery and done with Egypt. How are they able to go forward with that wall of water on each side not by their works?

I'll tell you that not by works. They weren't holding it back. They were believing that God had held it back and was holding it back by faith. Their very history. Have they not heard. Have they not seen?

How could they have missed all this if their very history the event the defining event as they cross the Red Sea. What are they told? Just believe. That God will see you safe to the other side. Just believe that God now is holding that water back and Because he said he will bring you through.

He'll bring you through. Just believe. That's the righteousness of God. They did this by faith. Their righteousness their deliverance deliverance by faith. I mean read Hebrews 11 see what great deeds were done by means of faith.

Read the Gospels and see what great deeds we might do by faith. Read acts and see what the Apostles by faith actually did. They forgot that lesson. 40 years after the Red Sea the children remembered that kind of a lesson.

They shouted and what happened the mighty walls of Jericho fell down. Well, then came the judges in their sad history and faith withered. How do we attain to this righteousness of God? How do we have God see us with the righteousness of Christ?

It's the same as asking. How must I be saved? It's faith. Faith in Christ him alone. That's what Paul is pushing us to so I'm begging you for this morning faith. It's a hard master faith is not an easy Ruler, it's hard because it makes no no demand except that you believe.

It's hard because if you believe that God will hold back the waters you must only also believe that only he can. It's hard because you must see the danger of not moving ahead. It's hard because this cannot be apprehended.

It cannot be made your own without humility without a renunciation of self. And a recourse to Christ and him alone. It's hard. Because pride is so insidious and it creeps in in such subtle ways faith.

This hard master faith is where Israel stumbled. The end of verse 33 in Romans 9 and the end of our message really is this the stone of stumbling. Paul says why did they because they stumbled on that stone?

What stone as it is written? Behold I'm laying in Zion a stone stumbling and a rock of offense and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame. A couple things I want to observe here in this verse.

The word for stumbling is scandal. On where we get the word scandal it means a cause for stumbling which is as we might expect more formally it means an action or Circumstance that causes one to act contrary to a set of beliefs.

Remember that It's something that causes you to act contrary to a set of beliefs. That's a stumbling in Matthew chapter 16 verse 2 verse 22 Peter having just heard from Jesus himself about the crosses coming.

He's talking about how he'd be handed over to the Gentiles and to be crucified and Peter comes and says far be it from you Oh Lord that shall never happen to you and was Jesus answer. Get behind me Satan.

You are a hindrance and that word hindrance. You are a scandal. To me you are that which is trying to stumble me off the path upon which I'm set. You're trying to make me act contrary to my beliefs my purpose.

Which is to fill God's Word to save even you Peter who's trying to drive me off that path. You are a scandal. You are a hindrance. You are a stumbling block to me would be a fair Way to translate that He says you're not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.

This word is used in 1st Corinthians 1 23, but we preach Christ crucified a stumbling block a scandal on a hindrance to Jews and a folly to Gentiles. That's stumbling. And the other word I want us to get a little bit of a grip on is shame.

Whoever believes in him this stumbling stone this rock of offense whoever believes in him because it's not a rock. It's a person whoever believes in him will not be put to shame. It's from the same word group we had from Romans 1 16 for I'm not ashamed of the gospel.

And what this means is that your faith your trust your confidence your hope has been properly placed. You will not be put to shame. You will actually be vindicated on that great day because if your hope your faith your trust is in Christ Jesus There will be no shame.

But the salvation that he promised the salvation you have believed in Will be seen by all humanity as they stand before the great judgment seat of Christ all of us. There will be no shame you will be vindicated.

Your hope your confidence has been properly placed. That's what that word means the promises of God will all be fulfilled. So the stumbling stone the stone of stumbling we need to understand it didn't just happen.

How did it get in their way? Israel's going along this path. They're believing that they can attain unto righteousness by their own work by their own effort by following the law and also. There's a stone in the way, and they trip on it.

What's it doing there? It's trying to get them off these things that they believe. This course that they were on they was trying to get them to be contrary to their set of beliefs. What was it trying to get them to be contrary to?

Believing that they could do it themselves. That's what it was trying to do. That's why God Read the prophets it's Yahweh who puts the stone in their way now. We think stumbling okay? He's gonna try and trip you remember this when you're grade school at least when I was in grade school.

It was great fun to trip somebody they're walking along or they're running you stick your foot out there. And you're tripping the harder. They trip the harder you laugh. And we think well that sounds wrong.

Why would God want to stumble so why would God want to trip someone? Why is he wanting to trip on a stone that's going to hurt? It's an act of mercy. Because the beliefs that they had our beliefs that they should have been contrary to very simply just this this belief that I can do it myself if you believe you can attain to the righteousness of God if you Believe that God is going to save you because of anything in you any good deed.

You've done. Any morality that you yourself have if you believe that I want to put a stone of stumbling and I want you to trip hard on it and. And I want you to speak contrary to that belief before you leave here this day the stone didn't just happen.

Paul put God put it there. Paul when he when he gives us to us he conflates a couple of different passages from Isaiah. The first is Isaiah 8 chapter 14. If you want to turn there, I'll read from Isaiah 8 13.

I'll read 13 to 14 and keep your finger in Isaiah because next we're going to go to Isaiah 28. But Isaiah 8 beginning at 13 The prophet says. But the Lord of hosts Him you shall regard as holy. Let him be your fear and let him be your dread and he will become a sanctuary in a stone of offense and a rock of stumbling to both house of his houses of Israel a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and Many shall stumble on it.

They shall fall and be broken. They shall be snared and taken. Now flip over if you would to do Isaiah 28. 814 of Isaiah is part of what Paul uses and here's the rest of it. Therefore thus says the Lord God behold.

I am the one who has laid a foundation stone in Zion a stone a tested stone a precious cornerstone of a sure foundation. Whoever believes will not be in haste. God laid the stone. God is the stone. To not be in haste what he said there is simply to not panic.

Panic is calmed by faith by confidence and trust in God's Word to extract and preserve a remnant from the coming judgment. That's the context of Isaiah 28 the judgment that is coming he who believes in this word that I will Extract and save a remnant.

He will not be in haste. He will not be in panic. He will not flee in terror. He may get out of there. But in confidence and trust and faith in God and the word he gives of a preservation the point at which they stumbled.

The scandal that repelled them. It's just that faith confidence in God a complete belief that I am unable and only God is able and God has given a provision only in his son Jesus Christ. That's where they stumbled and how often how often.

We who know God by faith in Christ do just that. We panic and when we panic we turn where where do we turn. We turn to ourselves. We turn to worldly solutions. We turn to our own strength. We work it out for ourselves.

And even if we do it in a measured on an outwardly calm way. If we don't turn to God's Word first, I would say it's panic. It's that moment not believing in him and going in haste not falling back and trusting on God's Word not looking here first by supplication and prayer and surrendered by the to the Spirit and Being inculcated by his word.

It's not necessarily screaming in terror like a man with his hair on fire. It's resorting to anything other than God like the hymn says though troubles assail us and dangers of fright. Though friends should all fail us and foes all unite yet one thing secures whatever be tied.

The promise assures us the Lord will provide. Who is that stone that Paul speaks of? Drawing it forth from the Prophet Isaiah and into chapter 9 of Romans the stone is Yahweh and Paul fully aware of this in Romans 10 11.