Romans 9:30-33
Romans 9:30-33 What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; 31but Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it. 32Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the "stumbling stone." 33As it is written:
"See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes men to stumble
and a rock that makes them fall,
and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame."
They stumbled over the “stumbling stone” it says - they stumbled over Jesus. They Jews could not accept Jesus for who He said He was. There is a good reason for this and it has nothing to do with logic, or facts, or intelligence, but it has to do with faith or the lack of faith in the Jews situation.
Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.
Faith is something that comes from our heart not our mind. Our mind try’s to battle with our faith at times doesn’t it? It is kind of like the angel on one shoulder and the devil on the other, the angel tells you that Jesus is for real while the devil tells you don’t fall for it, it doesn’t make any sense.
1 Corinthians 2:5 So that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.
It doesn’t matter how smart you are you can not acquire faith in Christ by any means of your own. You just can’t do it. It takes something supernatural. It takes God to give you the gift of His Spirit that will then allow you to have the faith in Christ needed for your salvation.
Ephesians 2:8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.
God knowing that if left to our own means that we would never come to faith. Our sin controls us in such a way that we do everything we can to reject the truth about Christ.
We not only reject it but some do everything they can to eliminate Christianity from everything they can, our schools, our government buildings, our public parks you name it if there is any mention of God or Christ they say it is offensive to some so it must go.
Offensive? You bet, to those who don’t know God or Christ they are a reminder of the fait that awaits them after their own death. A harsh reality.
God has chosen Christians to have the greatest gift of all – the faith that is needed to obtain righteousness through Christ, and that will guarantee you a place in heaven.
Charles Spurgeon – I believe in the doctrine of election, because I am quite certain that, if God had not chosen me, I should never have chosen Him; and I am sure He chose me before I was born, or else He never would have chosen me afterwards; and He must have elected me for reasons unknown to me, for I never could find any reason in myself why He should have looked upon me with special love.
When I read this I thought to myself how true this was in my life. I was running from God as fast as I could, as a matter of fact I enjoyed and looked forward to the sin that was in my life. God for sure did not see any good in me whatsoever. I thank God my faith had nothing to do with me and had everything to do with Him.
While studying for this week’s message I came across a great story that I would like to read to you.
During the last century, in the worst slum district of London, there was a social worker whose name was Henry Moorehouse. One evening as Moorehouse was walking along the street, he saw a little girl come out of a basement store carrying a pitcher of milk. She was taking it home. When she was a few yards from Moorehouse, she suddenly slipped and fell. Her hands relaxed their grip on the pitcher and it dropped on the side walk and broke. The milk ran down into the gutter, and the little girl began to cry as if her heart would break. Moorehouse quickly stepped up to see if she was hurt. He helped her to her feet, saying, “Don’t cry little girl.”
But she kept crying, repeating through her tears, “My mommy will whip me, my mommy will whip me.”
Moorehouse said, “No, little girl, your mother won’t whip you. I’ll see to that. Look, the pitcher isn’t broken in many pieces.” As he stooped down beside her, he picked up the pieces, and began to work as if he were putting the pitcher back together, the little girl stopped crying. She had hope.
She came from a family in which pitchers had been mended before. Maybe this stranger could repair the damage. She watched as Moorehouse fitted several of the pieces together until, working to roughly, he knocked it apart again. Once more she began to cry and Moorehouse had to repeat “Don’t cry, little girl. I promise you that your mother will not whip you.”
Again they began the task of restoration, this time getting it all together except for the handle. Moorehouse gave it to the little girl, and she tried to attach it. But, naturally, all she did was knock it down again. This time there was no stopping her tears. She would not even look at the broken pieces lying on the side walk.
Finally Moorehouse picked up the little girl in his arms, carried her down the street to a shop that sold crockery, and bought her a new pitcher. Then, still carrying her, he went back to where the girl had bought the milk and had the new pitcher filled. He asked her where she lived and when he was told he carried her to her house, set her down on the step, and placed the full pitcher of milk in her hands. Then he opened the door for her. As she stepped in, he asked one more question, “Now, do you think your mother will whip you?”
He was rewarded for his trouble by a bright smile as she said to him, “Oh no, sir, because it is a lot better pitcher than we had before.”
The truth is we were that broken pitcher. Our lives were such that we were always trying to put ourselves back together and we never could get it quite right.
So God decided not to attempt to put us all back together but instead He picked us up in His arms and made us into a new vessel, a new vessel filled with the Holy Spirit.
1 Corinthians 1:22-29 Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength. 26Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth.
27But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29so that no one may boast before him.
The Jews relied on miraculous signs and the Greeks their wisdom but neither could obtain the faith that was needed by these means. It could only be obtained by the calling of God and His free gift of faith.
Robert Haldane “A free salvation becomes an offense to men on account of there pride. He says men’s desire is to do something, even something so little, to merit their salvation, at least in part.”
Our nature is that we need to feel like we are in part responsible for our faith and our salvation, even if it is by us doing the littlest of things. The reality is we want to in some way take credit for it by us doing something. But the truth is we can’t take any credit for it because only God can get the credit for it.
Barnhouse says this about those who have accepted God’s way:
They have come through the tangled grass of this world with their eyes low upon their bleeding feet, scarred with their walk on the road of sin. When they have come to this stone, they have been willing to stand on it and ask for nothing further. They have believed God’s word about the Lord Jesus Christ as being the only way of salvation. They have abandoned their goal, their road, their strength, their pride, and have taken their stand squarely on the Lord Jesus Christ. To them comes the trumpeted promise from the God of the universe: “Whoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.”
Barnhouse says that we should stand on The Stone (Jesus Christ) and ask for nothing else. We are to abandon all of our old ways of thinking and doing things in our lives and now to put all of our faith in Christ alone for our salvation.
Hebrews 12:2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
The Bible tells us in James 1:2 that we should consider it pure joy when we face trials in our life. Here in Hebrews we see Christ while enduring the pain and suffering on the cross is joyful in the fact that His trial on the cross will bring salvation to all those who believe in him.
