Why Did Isael Not Attain Righteousness

Well, good morning. Yeah, I was very fortunate to be there on Friday with the last few hours with Joanne, and thanks to Phil and Sue Ellen for encouraging us to come. And it was, I met the daughters before, I think, over the years, but it was great. And so pray for Bob. Pray for Bob. He needs our prayers. He's confused. And his daughters are there for him, so Laura provided. But it was great. I sensed a real peace there, that Joanne was, you know, she was on her way, just a short little stop over at the hospital. So pretty cool stuff. All right.

Okay, so today's lesson, the last three verses in chapter 9, And it's interesting, this is a section that talks about Israel and their salvation. You know, Chapter 9 is all about the nation of Israel, the Gentile nations, and kind of God's interest in nations. And He chose the nation of Israel to bring His Son, the Lord Jesus.

And so we're going to see that even though they were chosen people, they did not attain righteousness. His plan was for them to attain righteousness, but a few did. Some people believed in Christ's life here on the earth, and some have believed down through the years, and some will believe in the tribulation period, and that group is called the remnant.

So this is going to talk about these last three verses, some really interesting things, and a very encouraging verse at the end. Okay, so let's So there are two prophecies we talked about last week, one from Hosea and one from Isaiah. So the one, you know, Hosea talks about, you know, Gomer and talks about the, you know, God in a sense had come to the end of his patience in a sense and basically he talked about saying, I'm going to renounce my relationship with Israel.

Pretty incredible words, but in renouncing his relationship with Israel, he comes right back and says, there'll be a remnant. There'll be a small body, it'll be preserved. So he pronounces his disengagement in a sense from Israel, but then right behind it he says, there'll be a remnant. So let me just read, Jim read these before.

There's like three, from Hosea there's three statements he makes. and the statements are a negative and then a positive. So it goes like this, this is from Hosea, I will call those who are not my people, my people. So God came to the point where he says, I no longer can call you Israel, my people, but I will call you my people, and there will be a remnant. And the second statement is, it's a feminine gender, so it says her, but you could translate it as the one who was not beloved, Beloved so he says I'm not you're not coming my beloved anymore, but you will the remnant will be my beloved and then the third statement he makes and It was said to them you are not my people They shall be called the sons of the Living God So he says I'm not going to call you my people anymore, but there'll be a time when you'll be called the sons of the Living God so what's interesting is Paul as we saw last week he applies that to certainly to Israel and the remnant, but then he applies it to basically the Gentile nations and the church, if you will.

He says, you know, the Gentile nations were not my people. They were outcasts. Remember where all throughout the Gospels we see that Gentiles were the outcasts. They were not part of the nation. They were not blessed. And Christ said himself, I came to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, not to the Gentiles. So he likens, Paul likens this not my people to my people scenario with the Gentiles too. So they're included. So that statement about not my people my people can apply both to Israel and to the Gentiles. Then we move on to Isaiah. and his prophecy.

And basically he states that though the number of the sons of Israel be like the sand of the sea. And we kind of did a little math there and 15 million. It doesn't sound like 15 million is the current population possibly right now today. Maybe 20 million in the past.

But he compares that to there'll be a small remnant and he said I will save a remnant it is a remnant will be saved so there'll be a remnant God has promised that the nation Israel will have a remnant will be saved we know from the end times 144,000 evangelists they'll be saved and they'll be Talking to others so probably more than that so that's that wonderful message and the last two verses are kind of like Wow, here's what God if God was Mike talked about this quite a bit if God was fair if we only asked God to be fair We didn't ask him to be gracious then nobody nobody deserves heaven Nobody deserves to be saved, but God is not fair. He's gracious. He loves us. He died for us he was Way beyond fair.

But the last two verses, 28 and 29, talk about that His Word, God's Word will be executed. Probably the tribulation period it's talking about. And in the very last verse in 29 it says that there will be left a posterity, a remnant, And it said, if that remnant didn't exist, the nation of Israel could become like Sodom and Gomorrah, which is a pretty sad tale. So that ends 29, and then we move into the verses for today. And that's kind of summarized by these two statements. So 30 and 32a is talking about, and actually kind of goes back and looks at basically how does a person obtain, how does he get to heaven? How does he get God's righteousness? Does he have to do a lot of stuff? What does he have to do? And we know it's by faith. And Paul's talked a lot about that in the first five chapters of Romans.

But then we're gonna find Israel didn't do a good job with that. They didn't like that. Faith wasn't, they didn't like faith, they liked works. So, and the last part will be this idea, Israel stumbled over the stumbling stone, but then the very last verse, the very last part of the last verse is a wonderful proclamation about what we have in our Savior and the security of our salvation. So we get some good news and some bad news in this.

Okay, so let's just look at the verses here. I'm not going to read through them again, but basically it starts off, Paul has this phrase he uses many times, especially in Romans, what shall we say then? We're going to look at that again and kind of examine it. So that's kind of the introduction. I'm going to tell you something That's going to kind of really be profound, if you will.

And he introduces it, what shall we say then? And then he goes through that 30 and 31 and he comes down and he gives you the why. The why, why do things occur this way? He gives you the why in 32 through the end. So that's kind of the big picture of those verses.

So now let's just kind of dive into it here. What shall we say then? So this is a question he used many times. So what shall we say then is one Greek word. It's the idea to speak or to utter words. And then in English, there's another English word, another Greek word, which means a word used as a conclusion. So if you were to try to transliterate what shall we say then or expand that translation, you could say, what shall we say as a conclusion?

That's how Macaulay renders it. Then the Amplified Bible says, what shall we conclude? So this phrase is going to introduce a conclusion. It's going to introduce a conclusion about the Gentiles, about Israel. And The conclusion will be the remainder of the verses we're going to study. And there's going to be some amazing conclusions, if you will, and we'll see that. Okay, so let's start off with the conclusions. And so it basically starts off with the Gentiles.

That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness attained righteousness. So another kind of, you say one thing and then you say a thing different. So what he's going to point out, Gentiles never, never sought God. They never, and this is talking about unbelievers, they never sought God. And he's going to kind of play on that, a look at that aspect. that the Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness, so let's look at pursue.

The idea is to follow hard after, to pursue, to go after, desiring to obtain. And part of the thought process is here, the Jews were just over the top, right? They were just They were just over the top. This is what, we're God's chosen people. We go full out all the time. We do all these things. We just do thing after thing after thing. We work after work. And they're just humping all the time. The Gentiles, they're a bunch of bums. They're doing nothing. How can they come to God? How can they be righteous? How can they come to know God? That's kind of the idea. It's like, you're gonna save these guys, a bunch of losers? And we tried really hard? That's kind of the idea. So this word, this Greek word, DKO, is present tense continuous action.

So the idea is that the Gentiles did not continuously go after the righteousness of God like the Jews did. You know, Paul's making this argument, he's speaking to a Jewish audience here. We Jews really went after God, and we didn't get to Him, and we didn't get to God, but these losers over here, the Gentiles, they didn't care about God, but they got to God. What's going on here? This doesn't seem right. You know, it's not fair. So our brother Hal kind of shared, the Gentiles were not ones characterized by a steady or continuous pursuit of righteousness.

And we kind of saw that back in the early part of Romans, in Romans chapter one and two. We saw this description, and in Romans he starts off with the Gentiles and he moves through, he goes to the Jews eventually, but he starts off with the Gentiles. And I put unbelieving in there just to make sure that, you know, once a Gentile became a believer, this is not true of him. But as an unbelieving Gentile is described in chapter one about the middle part, And it's not the best resume.

This wouldn't something you put in your resume. This is your resume for, so here we go. They didn't glorify God. And you can find a verse with each one of these. They didn't glorify God. They were not thankful. They became fetal in their speculation. They did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer. They were filled with, and this list I'm gonna, right now, it's almost like we're reading the news today, I'm sorry to say, unrighteous, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, envy, murder, strife, haters of God. So Paul describes the Gentile nations, and I'm sorry to say the Gentile nations are carrying on this, unfortunately, the same way. It hasn't changed. Okay?

So it says the Gentiles did not pursue righteousness, attained righteousness. He's going to explain himself in the very last part. So the Gentiles attain righteousness. So attain is deceive, deapprehend, in the sense of making something their own. That's from Vine. And it's Aristant, so this is an event. They attain righteousness, a Gentile attain righteousness by an event in his life. And we're going to see what that event is. So we surrender this, the Gentiles appropriated righteousness. So the next part will tell us how do the Gentiles or how does anyone appropriate righteousness? And this is like, you know, Christianity 101. This is the beginning part of Romans, the first five chapters tell us a lot about that. Okay, even the righteousness which is by faith.

Okay so you could paraphrase, I kind of edited a little bit, I know that's probably not allowed but I took a shot at it here. So I want to make sure, in fact the Gentiles have obtained a righteousness which is out of faith as a source. Let's say that again, in fact the Gentiles have obtained a righteousness which is out of faith out, which is out of a source of faith. I flipped that around, sorry.

Okay, so here's just kind of a review. You look through the first five chapters of Romans. There's just these wonderful statements. And it wants to make clear to people as they read through here, how do I How do I have a relationship with God? I have to be righteous. And Paul's going to tell us that righteousness only comes one way. And he starts off early in the chapter, 117.

For in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, but the righteous man shall live by faith. And then he goes on in chapter 3. even the righteousness of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all who believe, there is no distinction." And later on in chapter 3, 4, we maintain that a man is justified or declared righteous by faith apart from works.

Just a key thing, this verse is just really key, we're going to see it again. It must be through faith and not through works. You cannot work your way to heaven. You cannot do a set of things that will please God. It has to come from believing what God has asked us to believe, that Christ died for our sins, He was buried and He rose on the third day.

He's asked us to believe that and trust Him and walk in that and that's how we become justified or declared righteous. Okay, that goes on in 3.30. since indeed God will justify or declare righteous the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith in one. Notice he covers both the Jew and the Gentile. In that chapter there, he's talking about the circumcised versus the uncircumcised, the Jewish versus the Gentile, if you will. Then chapter four, but to the one, and I love this verse, I love this verse.

Because, you know, somebody says, you gotta work, you gotta get there and work. You gotta work and, you know, no? It doesn't mean you don't have a job. It's not saying don't have a job. Okay, but to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness. Just a wonderful verse. in chapter 4 a little farther.

For the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would be heir of the world was not through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. So you see, Paul's connecting righteousness and faith, righteousness and faith. He constantly is doing that through these first five chapters.

And then the last one I have here in this group. Therefore, having been justified by faith, That's what it's all about. We've been justified by faith. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We were talking about this morning in Sunday school about having the peace with God. But it starts with being justified by faith. It has to be justified by faith. Okay, so that covers 30. So now it transitions. But Israel, but in contrast Israel pursuing a law of righteousness. So you have to read very carefully here. Be good readers. When you read Scripture be good readers. Look at every word.

Look at every word. pursuing, D-K-O, so they were pursuing a law of righteousness, to pursue with earnest diligence in order to obtain, to go after, desire, same pursuing line that we saw earlier, present tense, continuous action. Israel was continually pursuing a law of righteousness. Read carefully. they were not pursuing righteousness.

Interesting. And think about it. Think about what you read, what Christ was on the Jews about. They had a form of godliness. They had all these stuff they did. They had rules stacked on top of God's Word that would prevent them from sinning. And they created man's rules, so they're after those rules. They're pursuing their own law, man's law. They were not pursuing his righteousness. They're pursuing the righteousness they created. You know, if you listen today, we listen a little bit on YouTube to, there's a ministry called One for Israel. I mentioned this a bunch of times.

And it's a Jewish group out of Israel. They live in Israel. and they they're you know telling people about Christ and they like to make sure Israel is under rabbinic Judaism, not biblical Judaism. There's a world of difference. It's a rabbi's Judaism. It just reminds me of this. This is a law of righteousness. Rabbinic Judaism is what the Jews are today. We have the rabbi-created Judaism, and that's not God's Judaism.

Okay. They were pursuing a law, they would give them, they thought they would get righteousness by doing this, they actually believed that. Then Matthew here, this is one of the verses I talked about, and someone came to him and said, Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may obtain eternal life? You know, they ask him, what good, it just kind of struck me, what good thing, tell me a good thing. Do I shine my shoes? Do I wear a certain suit? What good thing can I do to attain righteousness with God?

Well, we're gonna see, we just saw, it's by faith, entrusting what he's told us. And look up 1142, that's where they tie the mint and the cumin, they just, this is a minute little thing, just to try to, well, I'm pleasing God by doing this little itty bitty thing. the pursuit after a law by which through their self-effort would hope to obtain righteousness. Okay.

So, but Israel pursuing a law of righteousness did not arrive at the law, at that law. But Israel did not arrive at the law. So arrive is to come, to attain, and we have a negative of that. So here's two expanded translations of that. Actually did not succeed in fulfilling the law. They did not attain or arrive at the law. It remained out of reach. Israel never reached or arrived at a law which through self-effort would produce righteousness.

They couldn't, and think about that. They're trying to create a man-made law to please God. It doesn't work that way. I'm sorry. He makes the rules. It's His universe. We're His creation. He's the potter. We're the clay. We can't create a rule of our own. It doesn't work that way. So Hal had this statement here. The reason was there was no such law because it would be coming out man's sin nature. They couldn't think of a law. They couldn't create a tradition or whatever that could create righteousness. It only can come one way and we're going to see that. Why? And the why, he's gonna answer the why here. So he's gonna ask a question and then answer. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith. They wanted to pursue it by their works, by their meticulous keeping of all these crazy ideas.

Okay, because it was not by faith, and that's the word ek, because by is the word ek, or out of is the source. And it is Israel, Israel pursuit of righteousness. So you could say Israel pursuit of righteousness was not out of faith as a source. They didn't simply want to trust what God had told them.

It must be faith, it must be faith for the following verses, okay? And this is just what we talked about. Therefore, having been justified by faith, declared righteous, we have peace with God. So it must be by faith That's the only thing God will accept, our faith in what He's done. He's accomplished something, He asks us to trust and believe Him in what He's done. Okay. So now it gives you the flip side. Why? Because He did not pursue it by faith, but as through it were by works. So again, it's out, out of it as a source. So Israel did not pursue righteousness out of works as a source. Did pursue righteousness out of works as a source.

So, a little summary, and we kind of covered part of this already. So this is kind of a, if you think, you know, what God desires is that we operate on the basis of faith, and what Israel was operating on the basis of works. Those are diametrically opposed or diametrically opposed to grace because works is not grace And then Romans 3 28 says for we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works and then a verse we all should know for by grace you have been saved through faith and Not of yourself. It's a gift of God not as a result of works so that no one may boast So it must be through faith. It cannot be through works and Okay, so now we're going to get to the part, let me just go back one here. So we kind of finish up, why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as through works.

And now we go, they stumbled, so kind of right in the middle of the verse it kind of changes. They stumbled at the stumbling, they stumbled at the stone of stumbling. I chose the interlinear here, it's a little bit had a little bit better word order. Okay, they Israel stumbled, and this is an interesting word, to strike against, and it actually has some, and it's a point in time, eras.

So the idea here is to hit something by surprise, and I was trying to think of different examples, and I'm I used to do a lot more walking with Vani. Well, I had a couple of occasions where I'm walking along, not paying attention. The next thing I know, I'm flat on the ground. I did a pancake. I went, boop. My feet got tangled up, and I just went, boom, right down. So I struck the ground. I stumbled, right? I fell down. And I was, whoa, what happened here? What went on?

And I was also thinking about, Have you guys ever had or know somebody that sliding glass doors can be very dangerous? If they're very clean, you don't know they're there. You walk into the sliding glass door, you go, boom. Or in the worst case, you go through the sliding glass door.

I've heard of those cases, and they sound too pleasant. So that's the kind of idea. Israel stumbled. They stumbled. It was a surprise. Because they're humping, if you think of it, they're working so hard. I'm working, I'm working, I'm working. But this is not what God wants. Oh.

The Aristides tells us in the event, in their history basically, they stumbled. at or over the stone of stumbling? So the question is, what is the stone of stumbling? And I kind of like this. The stone of stumbling, this is kind of my, I kind of put this together. The stone of stumbling for Israel seems best to be described, it's a person and his work, right?

It's our Savior, his person and his work. Israel stumbled continually, you're reading in the Gospels, over who Christ was. You can't be, you can't be the Christ. You're David's, I mean, David's, you're a carpenter's son. You're this, you're that. You came from so and so. You're not, and he says, you can't come from heaven. You're only 40 years old, blah, blah, blah.

And they just, everything, every time he told them who he was, that he came down from, I've come down from heaven, I'm gonna do this and that, they objected, every single one. They rejected his person. And then when he died, They went along with that, obviously. And he was crucified, and they didn't trust in his crucifixion either.

So it's this person and his work. So I like what Brother Hal has here. God in his sovereignty has allowed Israel to walk right into the cross and strike against it. Kind of picking up on that stumbled word, to walk, and they walked right into it, boom. That's kind of a good picture, I thought. Okay, the verse 33. The last verse in chapter three. Chapter 9.

Just as it is written, so this is a quote from Isaiah 28.16.

It says, Behold, or actually it's even more emphatic, Lo and behold, I, the Lord God, that's the words from Isaiah, he says the Lord God is speaking and Isaiah is recording. I, the Lord God, lay to put to place to set So it's present tense, continuous action. God's doing it. God is going to do something. He's going to lay, put, place, or set.

And it says, in Zion. And for all you people who always wonder what Zion is about, I'm sure you guys already know this. And I don't say I'm a, you know, Zodiaty had a great definition here. So sometimes we'll see, and he actually had paragraphs on this. I condensed it to this little guy here. So there's a lot more to say about Zion.

But in general, Zion is used to denote the whole of Jerusalem. But it literally is restricted to the southwest hills of Jerusalem, and one of those is Mount Hermon. You know you hear about Mount Hermon, people will name things Mount Hermon this and Mount Hermon that, so that's one of those mountains. Thus Zion has come to symbolize the aspirations and hope of God's children, Israel basically.

So God's going to place in Zion, in his people, he's going to place something. And it's going to be a beneficial thing, but they're not going to perceive it as that. They're going to take it the wrong way, if you will. I'm going to place in Zion, and he quotes, he says two parts of the statement, two aspects.

I'm gonna place a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. They seem very close, right? You know, a stone and a rock, boy, almost, you know, but the stumbling and the offense make a little bit different. I'm gonna place a stone. and a rock of offense. There's no stumbling and a rock of offense.

So God has placed Christ in Israel. He did that. He placed His very Son in Israel to die on the cross for the sins of the world. He did that for a good purpose so men would come to know Him and trust Him. And there was both a stumbling and offense aspect to Christ and the cross. Again, the stumbling was the idea of tripping over Christ running into Christ, into his person and his work. The word offense is literally a snare or a trap. A hindrance to others, and this is from Vine, he says, to cause him to fall by the way. Sometimes a hindrance is a good thing, and this was a good thing, but the stumblers are wicked. Okay, now here's the really cool part.

So now Paul's going to end chapter 9, and he's going to end it, I thought this is kind of like, he's gone through this, how God has chosen the nation of Israel, how he's worked through Israel, how for the most part they've rejected him, and how he's going to have a remnant, and how That has led him to, including the Gentiles, but at the very end, he's gonna have a few words to say about the kind of God he is. And he just simply says, and he who believes in him, in Christ, will not be disappointed. And he who believes in him will not be disappointed. We surrenders it, and the one placing his faith upon him.

So we're gonna see, I'm gonna show you a bunch of verses, but you'll see sometimes it talks about in him or upon him, a few different words used there, but essentially the same idea. So this same phrase that we have in Isaiah 28, 16, excuse me. So we see that stated there. And then we see, we're going to see this over and over again in John 3, 18.

He who believes in him is not judged. So what I'm trying to get to my point here is that it's belief in him, faith in him is what it's about. And he's saying in this verse you'll not be disappointed. But here's all the wonderful things he's gonna delineate in these few verses. He who believes in him is not judged. Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. Who comes to me will not hunger. And he who believes in me will never thirst. truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in me has eternal life.

And then John 11.25, Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live even if he dies. So belief in him gives us all these wonderful statements that God has promised us. Gives us eternal life, he'll never die, he'll not be judged.

And I was thinking about, and then he says here, and then based on these verses, you'll not be disappointed. So he kind of sums up the, showing how the nation of Israel went apart and did all these things, they won't be disappointed because they believed in him.

Both Jew and Gentile. Okay, so I have a quote here, actually it's from Wiest. He quotes Denny sometimes. I don't know the origin of that gentleman, but anyway, Wiest, I figure he's pretty good. So he actually has three statements. And it takes a little bit of thought to go through these, but he starts off here.

The offense of the cross, and we know, if you look in the New Testament, you'll see the cross is offensive. The cross of Christ is offensive. because it says that God has done something and he wants you to believe it. And that offends people, can offend people.

The offense of the cross at which they stumbled is not simply the fact it is a cross, whereas they expected messianic throne. So kind of comparing the cross of Christ versus what they expected they want Christ to be, to save Israel and take them out of bondage. The cross offered them And the cross offered them because, as interpreted by Paul, it summoned them to begin their religious life from their very beginning. I was kind of thinking about, you know, actually we studied in Philippians, when Paul came to faith in Christ, He shares in Philippians, I've counted all things as lost in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.

And he goes on. So Paul was a Jew. He realized that all he had learned in Judaism was nothing, was a zero. And just think about that. That's what this gentleman's pointing out here is the fact that that's what a Jewish person had to realize, that all his religion was of no value. Paul realized that. but not many Jews realize that, that all his religious activities were of no value. Then lastly, at the foot of the cross, with a sense upon their hearts of infinite debt to him, which no works could ever repay.

So we come to the end of chapter nine, and then chapter 10 kind of starts, it's a little bit more upbeat chapter, has a lot of incredible verses, and so we'll start with that next week. So let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you so much your marvelous word. We thank you for this clarity. We thank you for how it tells, describes us, describes our lives, describes nations and kingdoms. And we thank you for just being able to understand your plan of salvation, understand your working in Israel and in all the Gentile nations. In Christ's name, Amen.