Romans 9:30-33

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.