The Pursuit of Righteousness – Part 1

If you would take your Bibles and
turn back once again to Romans chapter 9, where we will wrap
up. Romans 9 began some months ago. Considering this very fascinating chapter, a section, chapter 9 through
11, that deals with the hypocrisy of God, and opened with essentially
a conundrum. There have been these amazing
promises of the gospel, and yet Israel had not responded. And as a result, there were some
that thought Paul had turned his back, as it were, on Israel.
And Paul moves to deal with that in the opening chapters. And
ultimately, Paul points to the sovereignty of God, doesn’t he?
Paul points to the sovereignty of God, that God was narrowing,
that God hadn’t abandoned his plan, his promise, that God was
narrowing what he would identify as his
people. Not all those who are Israel
are from Israel. Paul spends a great deal of time
as it unfolds as the chapter unfolds dealing with the sovereignty
of God and pointing to those great truths that God is sovereign
in his mercy. God is sovereign in the exercise
of his mercy. He is obligated to none. So effective
is Paul in the discussion of this sovereignty of God and his
mercy that perhaps some would say you know What good is it. What good is trying to please
God what good is trying to serve God. God is absolutely sovereign
and. Essentially taking a fatalist
approach throwing up their hands. And I believe that’s what Chapter
9 as it closes and Chapter 10 are for because it brings in
the culpability of a nation the responsibility of a people. The
responsibility of each one of us to place our faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Paul had already considered this
conundrum from the standpoint of divine election. God’s sovereignty. But now he begins to consider
this conundrum from the standpoint of human responsibility. As one
said, the gospel with its proclamation of the righteousness bestowed
by God upon believers came to the Jew first and also to the
Gentile, but it was largely rejected by the Jews, but accepted by
the Gentiles. And in that sense, it was a conundrum.
The Gentiles responded to the message of the gospel, and yet
the Jews, almost as a whole, continued to chase down their
own approach to God through an adherence to the law. If you
go through the Gospels you’ll see essentially an affirmation
of what Paul will say here over and over again. There’s no pattern
to it. You’ll see the people that should
have responded in faith After all, Christ came to them first.
Christ came to the Jews, to Israel first. And yet, time and time
again, he would come to those who would lay claim to being
Abraham’s children. And time and time again, they
would reject Christ. As I said, there’s no pattern
to it, but every once in a while, Jesus would come across someone
who was totally. If we backed away and looked
at it from a human perspective we would say there’s no way that
they’ll come to faith. Think of the garrison demoniac.
You see a situation like that. There’s no way that this man
is ever going to fall on knees of repentance and proclaim Christ.
And over and over again through the Gospels we see it repeated.
It’s amazing scene that those To whom Christ came first and
foremost rejected him time and time again. And yet time and
time again Christ would come to those who are essentially
outsiders to faith outsiders. To anything spiritual religious
and yet time and time again they would come to Christ. For the
sake of setting the tone for the next several weeks I want
to take the entire section chapter 9 verse 30. Yeah. Romans chapter 9 verse 30 all
the way down through chapter 10 verse 21. If you would let’s
look. At this great passage. Where
Paul begins what should we say that. The Gentiles who did not
pursue righteousness attained righteousness even the righteousness
which is by faith. But Israel pursuing a law of
righteousness did not arrive at the law. Why because they
did not pursue it by faith but as though it were by works they
stumbled over the stumbling stone just as it is written behold
I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense and he
who believes in him will not be disappointed. Brethren. My heart’s desire and my prayer
to God for them is for their salvation. For I bear them witness
that they have a zeal for God but not in accordance with knowledge
for not knowing about God’s righteousness and seeking to establish their
own. They did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God for
Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
who believes. For Moses writes that the man
who practices the righteousness which is based on law shall live
by that righteousness. But the righteousness based on
faith speaks thus. Do not say in your heart who
will ascend into heaven that is to bring Christ down or who
will descend into the abyss that is to bring Christ up from the
dead. But what does it say the word is near you in your mouth
and in your heart. That is the word of faith which
we are preaching that if you confess with your mouth Jesus
as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the
dead you shall be saved. For with the heart man believes
resulting in righteousness and with the mouth he confesses resulting
in salvation for the scripture says whoever believes in him
will not be disappointed. For there is no distinction between
Jew and Greek for the same Lord is Lord of all abounding in riches
for all who call upon him. For whoever will call upon the
name of the Lord will be saved. How then shall they call upon
him whom they have not believed and how shall they believe in
him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent?
Just as it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring
glad tidings of good things. However, they did not all heed
the glad tidings for Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed our report? So faith comes from hearing and
hearing by the word of Christ. But I say, surely they have never
heard, have they? Indeed, they have their voice
has gone out into all the earth and their words to the ends of
the world. But I say, surely Israel did
not know, did they? At the first, Moses says, I will
make you jealous by that which is not a nation by a nation without
understanding, I will anger you. And Isaiah is very bold and says,
I was found by those who sought me not. And I became manifest
to those who did not ask for me. But as for Israel, he says,
all the day long, I have stretched out my hands to a disobedient
and obstinate people. Paul begins to lay the groundwork
in a consideration of the pursuit of righteousness. That’s essentially
what the theme is here in chapters nine and ten. The sub theme is
the righteousness of God and ultimately the sovereignty in
the disposal of that righteousness. Here in chapter nine Paul begins
to transition he’s closing out one thought and beginning another
and he starts it with a conclusion. Look at verse 30. He says what
shall we say then. If you look back to verse 14
he used this device before and a lot of times what Paul will
do is use this what should we say and he will propose a almost
a ludicrous suggestion. Somebody’s reasoning that has
gone astray. It’s usually a question that
is followed by another question. But here Paul makes an assertion
he uses the same device but whereas he often uses it to introduce
Something that he will refute. Here he brings up essentially
a concluding statement. Take it this way. Sometimes he’ll
say what then are you saying such and such Paul. But here
he he uses the same little question and gets right to the point.
He draws a conclusion based on everything that he’s talked about
in Chapter 9. He points to this conclusion.
and he launches immediately into a look at the next sentence. What should we say that here’s
what here’s essentially what he says here’s what we should
say. This is what the truth is that Gentiles who did not pursue
righteousness attained righteousness unless there be any doubt as
to what kind of righteousness he’s talking about not practical
goodness not personal holiness but even the righteousness which
is by faith. That’s what we should say. That’s
the conclusion. Look down if you would because
when he says the Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness
you might think that in wholesale fashion Gentiles were wiped off
the map that never did any Gentile ever think of anything good or
pursue any kind of practical goodness at all. That’s not the
case. The word Gentiles is without
the definite article here. So, in other words, it’s not
saying the Gentiles as a people, every person ever born as a Gentile
did not seek goodness. It’s just speaking in general
terms, Gentiles generally. But he says Gentiles. Some Gentiles,
not all. Not as an entire class, but those
who believe. Even though they didn’t pursue
righteousness, they found it. If I haven’t been clear, I hope
that. One pastor makes it clear when
he says it is people who possess the character of being Gentiles
rather than the Gentiles as a definite group, he’s not wiping them out.
Not saying that nobody ever pursued goodness as a Gentile but that
some. Some it’s almost as if they stumbled
into it. Except we know that a sovereign
God stands behind all of these actions. The Gentiles who did
not pursue righteousness let’s consider that for a moment. They
did not pursue righteousness. Generally speaking, as a people,
they were not about spiritual things. They were not pursuing. And the word, the metaphor here
is really taken from the games, the race course, if you will.
They weren’t chasing down the righteousness of God. They weren’t
chasing down goodness. They weren’t chasing down the
idea of trying to please God. They weren’t following hard after
Him. There hadn’t been any revelations
to them, and so there was no reason for them really to engage
in a pursuit of God. They were completely outside
of special revelation. And as I said, it’s not that
they were all to a person destitute completely void of any spiritual
interest or goodness but that by and large as a people group. They were not in pursuit of God. Their main interest was not how
to be right with God. One pastor said it this way far
from following after righteousness they were living a life that
was godless vile polluted sinful. However, Paul is referring not
merely to the kind of life that they were actually living. He
was also saying that they were not a bit concerned about their
relationship with God. They had no spiritual life at
all. Paul says, well, that’s the context
into which the gospel comes to these Gentiles. And it says that
even though the Gentiles, by and large, as a people did not
pursue righteousness, They attained righteousness. Now, we might
not. We might even tend to take that
word attain and suggest or begin to think that somehow the Gentiles
began to measure up. They lived in such a way that
they reached the level they had to reach. That’s not it at all. The word here. attained really,
it’s a stronger word than that. It’s to apprehend, it’s to seize
hold of something. It means to take a hold of in
eager fashion, to really seize hold. And essentially what it
points to is that when the Gentiles saw that even though they hadn’t
ever been in hot pursuit of the righteousness of God, when they
learned about their own sinfulness, and they learned that God was
offering to them His righteousness, that which they lacked, and they
knew it. That which they needed the most, they seized hold of it. We’ll
talk about how in a moment. Paul’s point here, His intention here isn’t to deny
that they had to a person had refused to seek God in a righteous
way. But the fact that by and large
this Gentile nation was not in pursuit of God and yet God had
come to them. God had come to them offering
the righteousness the very righteousness of God through faith in Jesus
Christ. And the opposite conundrum is
that in spite of all the blessings and all the opportunities all
the graces that have been given to Israel. The righteousness
was no less open to the Gentiles than it was to the Jews but it
was open by the same means. These people who have been living
in absolute moral and spiritual darkness when they heard the
gospel When they heard the gospel those Gentiles many time and
time again through the Gospels by God’s. Grace accepted that
good news and they obtained righteousness God’s righteousness. As I told
you if you course through the Gospels you’ll see time and time
again the rejection of Christ but you’ll see interspersed through
there and as I said with no pattern whatsoever you will see Examples
of exactly what Paul’s talking about here that somebody who
was not pursuing the righteousness of God suddenly comes to know
the righteousness which is only by faith through faith in Jesus
Christ. If you would turn to Luke chapter
seven. In Luke chapter seven we have
just such an example. A Gentile who did not pursue
righteousness attained righteousness even the righteousness which
is by faith. Look at verse one when he that is Jesus had completed
all his discourse and what it’s referring to there is the Sermon
on the Mount. In the hearing of the people he went to Capernaum
And a centurion slave who was highly regarded by him that is
the centurion was sick and about to die. Tell you about a centurion
just briefly and they’re always spoken of nobly in the Gospels
always they always take the high road they always do what’s right. And in this particular case the
centurion is a heathen. Essentially we don’t know to
what degree he had been softened by the people of God around him
as he looked about and served in that particular community.
But we know that by birth he was a Gentile. Verse 3 says when
he heard about Jesus he sent some Jewish elders asking him
to come and save the life of his slave. There is a bit of
self-seeking here he wants a favor from this so-called miracle worker
who he knew very little about. And when they came to Jesus they
implored him saying he is worthy for you to grant this to him
for he loves our nation and it was he who built our synagogue.
So the centurion had some hand in the synagogue and the work
there and he was testified by these people as a good man. This is somebody who is trying
to be morally upright. Now Jesus. started on his way
with them and when he was not far from the house the centurion
sent friends saying to him Lord do not trouble yourself any further.
I am not worthy for you to come under my roof for this reason. I did not even consider myself
worthy to come to you. Do you hear the humility there.
Here you have people that would set expectations for Christ and
set a table for him and expect Jesus to come. And they would
expect Jesus to perform in a particular way. They wouldn’t think even
a second thought about barging into his presence in the most
solemn of occasions. Yeah, here is a centurion, a
Gentile military leader who is so humble, so humble to be in
the presence of one so great and so holy that he doesn’t even
deem himself worthy to gain the presence of Christ. I am not worthy for you to come
under my roof. I can’t even have you into my
home. For this reason, I didn’t even consider myself worthy to
come to you. But just say the word and my
servant will be healed. For I am also a man placed under
authority with soldiers underneath me. And I say to this one, go
and he goes and another come and he comes into my slave. Do
this and he does it. Do you hear what he’s saying?
He’s saying, look, I’m a man of authority. I’ve got this pecking
order. I know the order of command. And if I give an order to my
soldier, it is an order to be obeyed. And do you hear what
he’s saying to the Savior? You are a man of authority and
all you have to do is say the word and they have to obey you. Now, it says that when Jesus
heard this, he marveled at him, the centurion. And he turned
and said to the crowd that was following, I say to you, not
even in Israel have I found such great faith. When those who had been sent
returned to the house, they found the slave in good health. Jesus
healed him. Jesus healed them based on the
request of this centurion. Centurion that came in faith
to the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul says that his main conclusion
here is that Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness. They
weren’t chasing down how to please God at every turn. Somehow they
attained righteousness. Even the righteousness which
is by faith and it’s always and only by faith isn’t it. We’ll see in graphic terms how
true that is. What he points to here practically
speaking is justification which has been the theme of Romans
almost through its entirety justification by faith that in our own standing
as we stand before God we are not justified to stand before
him. But the only way to stand before
him outside of Christ is as a sinner. We are all sinners. That’s what
the first three chapters establish. Both Jews and Gentiles are sinners
thoroughgoing hellbound sinners. But then. But then the gospel
comes in Chapter 3 at the end of Chapter 3 and the chapters
that unfold declare to us that essentially it’s faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ. That fits us. That gives us the
righteousness that which we need the most to stand before a holy
God. That’s what it’s pointing to.
The righteousness which is by faith. You see these Gentiles,
they didn’t attain it. by living according to some moral
code to the point where they lived up to it and attained it. They heard the gospel, not unlike
the centurion, they heard about Christ and they placed their
faith in him and in him alone. It shouldn’t surprise us. That
this righteousness was Even though unsought, found by many, because
it’s been found by many of us in the room, hasn’t it? By God’s
goodness and grace, the gospel has come to us, and we have seen
it for what it is. We know ourselves for what we
are. We know that we are hopeless and helpless, and we see the
gospel. We hear that all we have to do is place our faith in Christ,
and we have the righteousness of Christ. How could we not believe
that? How could we not? place our faith
in that Savior. But there’s a contrast here.
That’s how the Gentiles came to enjoy the righteousness of
God that not everybody did. That’s the conundrum. This is
the conundrum that he started back in chapter 9 verse 1. What
should we say then that Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness
attained righteousness even the righteousness by faith but Israel. But Israel pursuing a law of
righteousness did not arrive at that law. They knew the standard
they had the standard the standard was perfect all they had to do
is live up to it. What they’re presented here with
the word points to is is a continual pursuit of something or someone. It’s not just that they tried,
you know, they went to church one Sunday. This was a constant,
lifelong pursuit, all-out effort to live up to the law. It points to a continuous, hard-pressed
effort. And this law, what was it that
they were pursuing? It’s almost like you’ve seen
a proverbial donkey chasing a carrot on a string. It was something
that they were pursuing but they could never catch up to. Something
that they would never apprehend. Paul calls it a law of righteousness. It is what he points to as legal
righteousness. They knew the standard. The standard
was the Mosaic law and if they could only live up to that standard
it was simple. All they had to do was live up
to that standard. And they would be saved. And the Jews, because
of that, would make a lifelong effort. For hundreds and hundreds
of years, the Jews would pursue after that standard, chasing
that standard, trying to live up to that standard, and never
coming to the humbling conclusion that the centurion had, that
they don’t deserve to be in God’s presence. You see, that was their
error. They believed that they did. This law. This law was a law
of conformity, they had to conform, they had to meet the standard
in order to be justified before God, but they believed that they
could do that by themselves. They believed essentially that
they could justify themselves simply by an adherence to God’s
law. As one said, they were aiming
at what is for fallen man an impossible goal. Now, for us,
we understand that having heard the gospel, having seen the gospel,
some perhaps in the room don’t. They think that that’s what church
is. That’s what spirituality is.
That’s what religion, if you will, is that all I’ve got to
do is live long enough and good enough attained to some standard
that I’m in. That is. That is the faulty thinking
of mankind. They were aiming at what is for
fallen man an impossible goal, a perfect meeting of the laws,
one principle of obedience. Do this and you shall live. That’s all they had to do. And so they followed hard after
those precepts. They pursued it with everything
in them. They poured out Themselves in the pursuit of
this one noble goal all they had to do is live according to
God’s law after all. See what Paul wants to point
out here. Is this truth this. Observation from history that
Israel had been given the law. As an aid and a guide in its
quest before the righteousness of God and the whole purpose
of that law was to humble them. That was God’s purpose to show
them the impossible standard of living up to God that they
might fall on their face and say Lord I’m not worthy. I’m
not good enough. There’s no way. The problem is they thought they
could. They thought that they had pursued
God’s law. They thought that they had enough zeal and somehow
they could stack up enough good deeds. stand atop that and greet
God forever. Israel was attempting
to bring its conduct up to conformity to a standard of God’s law and
they never ever measured up. The problem was they thought
that they did. They thought that they did. There’s a short little If you have a moment you go ahead
and turn to Matthew 19 we have a few minutes. Lloyd Jones says as you’re turning
the trouble with the law is that it demands absolute perfection.
Remember when we treated the parable of the Good Samaritan
And I thought about this this week. So essentially the lesson of
the Good Samaritan when the lawyer comes to Christ and says what
must I do to obtain eternal life. Jesus teaches this little parable.
We want to take away from it that you know we should stop
if somebody’s got a flat tire and help them. That’s the best
we can do with the parable of the Good Samaritan. There’s so
much more it’s so rich. What is pointing to it is it
is a merciful message from Christ to this lawyer that nobody will
ever measure up. That’s the parable of the Good
Samaritan. And I thought of it this week on these terms. So
I finally, what, after, well, all winter, I finally got the
snowblower started on Wednesday. And I went out and immediately
plowed my driveway. And since I had the snowblower
running, even though it was spewing oil everywhere, I decided I’ll
go take care of my neighbor’s sidewalk and driveway as well.
And I went next door, and I did the neighbor’s. And as I’m heading
home, I look down the street, and there’s my next door, my
other neighbor. And I went and did his driveway. And I’m pretty
pleased with myself at this point and my snowblower. And I proceeded,
you know what? It’s running. I’m going to keep
riding and going. And I went around the corner, and I stopped.
And I turned around, and there was a whole row of houses. I never made it for the Magnussons,
but a whole row of houses. that had snowy sidewalks and
driveways. But I said you know what this is enough and I headed
home. The parable of the Good Samaritan
is. Go love your neighbor as yourself. And insolently the
lawyer says and who is my neighbor. Your neighbor is anybody with
snow in his driveway. Your neighbor is anybody who
has a need. Your neighbor is anybody. The law of standard
is absolute perfection in the Jews problem as they thought
that they lived up to it. I knew that I didn’t. Here we
go, Matthew 19. Look at verse 16, someone came
to him and said, teacher, what good thing shall I do that I
may obtain eternal life? That’s what we want to do, don’t
we? If we could just pay God back, we just earn a little bit
of his favor. If we could just measure up what
good thing must I do to obtain eternal life? And Jesus says,
OK, I’ll play this game. Here it is simply. Why are you
asking me about what is good? There’s only one who is good,
but if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments,
that’s all you have to do. Simple. And then. Almost as insolently,
he says, which ones? Come on now, you can’t be talking
about the whole thing. Which commandments are you talking
about? And Jesus essentially says, OK, I’ll play. Jesus said,
you shall not commit murder, you shall not commit adultery,
you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, honor
your father and mother, you shall love your neighbors yourself.
Simple. And the young man, watch this,
the young man said to him, all these things I have kept, what
am I still lacking? The most ludicrous statement
in all of Scripture. I got it. I nailed those, Jesus. Give me some more. Come on. Help
me to measure up. Tell me what I’ve got to do. No wonder one. Pastor summarized
it in these terms when he said this is a remarkable but familiar
fact of religious history. that men who most eagerly have
sought to win for themselves the favor of God by fasts and
forms and sacrifices and obedience to law have failed to secure
either peace or conscience or victory over sin, while others. Who have been indifferent to
religion and unmindful of God by a simple act of faith of surrender
and trust of attained a portion of pardon a conscience and consciousness
of invincible moral power. He says it’s that simple. It’s
that simple that the Jews thought that they could measure up and
the Gentiles who never even tried discovered the mercy of God. Paul moves to answer the question
and the question is always why. Why didn’t they measure up. Why
didn’t they arrive at that perfect law. Because they did not pursue
it in faith. They thought that their good
works were good enough. They thought that their standard
of righteousness should be God’s standard of righteousness, that
it should be good enough. And what it points to here that
when they did not pursue it by faith and pursued it by works,
theirs was good enough and God should grade on the curve and
God should take them in. I know we’re trafficking in the
gospels, but I forecasted it for you anyway. Go, if you would,
to Matthew chapter 22. Let’s look at the Jews and their
response to God. This is one of my favorite parables,
so favorite, I have this, I know I say this a lot of times, but
I have this one preached at my wedding. Matthew Chapter 22 look at verse
1 Jesus spoke to them again in parables saying the kingdom of
heaven may be compared to a king. This is such a heartwarming start
to the story but it gets so tragic. The kingdom of heaven may be
compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son and he sent
out his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding
feast when a king gave a wedding and you were invited you went
or you lost your head or some other Such punishment he sent
them out. This is one of the highest times
of celebration that a kingdom would ever have a prince getting
married. And he sent out his slaves to
call those who had been invited to the wedding feast and they
were unwilling to come. Shocking utterly shocking. I’m
sure the king scratches his head. Wait a second. Did you take the
linen you know the expensive invitations that we printed up.
with a picture on him and, you know, bride and groom to be holding
hands. And you took those. Shocking. Again, he sent out other slaves
saying, tell those who have been invited, behold, I prepared my
dinner with this deal. My oxen and my fattened livestock
are all butchered and everything is ready. Come to the food is
hot, he says. But they paid no attention and
went on their way one to his own farm another to his business
and the rest seized his slaves and mistreated them and killed
them. Now this is almost so shocking but this is really tracing a
history of the nation of Israel. Prophet after prophet would be
sent to them. Ultimately they would beat them and kill them
on occasion and ultimately kill even the son of God. But the king was enraged. And
he sent his armies and destroyed those murders and set their city
on fire. Then he said to his slaves the
what. He’s not going to be deterred
from this celebration. His son is still getting married
and he is still going to rejoice. He said to his slaves the wedding
is ready but those who were invited were not worthy. Go therefore
into the main highways and as many as you find there invite
to the wedding feast. The slaves went out into the
streets. Gathered all they found both evil and good to the wedding
hall and they were filled with dinner guests. But when the king
came in to look over the dinner guests he saw a man there was
not dressed in wedding clothes. Now the illustration is this
that the understanding of the situation is that if someone
came to the wedding and if they were unable to prepare or provide
their own means of worthy attire that the king and his court would
provide the attire for them. That’s the image. And here’s
this guy sitting in his, essentially his street clothes. And he said
to him, friend, how did you come in here without wedding clothes?
I understand if you don’t have the means to buy them, but we
provide them for you, free of charge. And the man was speechless. You see, he believed that he
could come in his own righteousness according to his own standard
and crashed the party essentially on his terms and that was Israel’s
big mistake. They believed that they could
come on their terms and they couldn’t not in this parable
and not in real life. The king said to the servants
bind him hand and foot throw him into the outer darkness for
in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many
are called but few are chosen. The problem with Israel. The
problem with many is they believe that they can measure up that
they can live according to a particular standard and they can meet God’s
standard and they can make God. Perform for them. Paul concludes
by pointing out the problem. At the end of verse two and the
conclusion of verse thirty three they stumbled over the stumbling
stone. He’ll tell us exactly what it
is in a moment but he quotes two verses from Isaiah. Behold
just as it pardon me just as it is written behold I lay in
Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense and he who
believes in him will not be disappointed. Let me give you both of those.
Because what Paul does is he melds those verses together.
There’s one stone. But it’s either going to be a
stone of comfort. It’s going to be a stone if you
will of salvation or it’s going to be a stone of stumbling and
a rock of offense. And that’s what Christ was. It’s
Christ that he’s pointing to. Isaiah 28 16 says this. Behold I am laying in Zion a
stone a tested stone a costly cornerstone for the foundation
firmly placed. He who believes in it will not
be disturbed. He won’t have cause to flee.
He won’t have cause to fear. He’s standing on the rock. That’s
essentially the image that’s being presented that Christ is
the cornerstone. But he blends that with Isaiah
chapter 8 verse 14 which is a very different meaning. Which says, then he shall become
a sanctuary to both the houses of Israel, a stone to strike
and a rock to stumble over. Essentially, what he points to
is that Christ is going to be one or the other to every person
ever born. That they’re either going to
come to the stone. And they’re going to find salvation,
that they’re going to come to Christ and yield and be broken
upon it and humble repentance. and place their faith in Christ
alone for salvation or they are going to stumble against it.
And this stumbling this is not just it still is utilizing the
image of the track meet right. The runner coursing down the
course of the track suddenly comes across what is normally
a small stone that shouldn’t be any problem and yet trips
the runner and causes a colossal fall. This stone, this stone is repeated
throughout the scriptures pointing to Christ. In the book of Acts, Peter uses
a familiar verse, familiar to every Jew. They didn’t know exactly
what it referred to, but they knew that it pointed to the Messiah.
Psalm 118 said the stone which the builders rejected has become
the chief cornerstone. Peter cites that as the verse
pointing to Christ pointing to Christ which the builders had
rejected. Peter said it this way. Rulers
and elders of the people. If we are on trial today for
the benefit done to a sick man as to how this man should be
made well let it be known to all to the people of Israel that
by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene whom you crucified whom
God raised from the dead by this name this man stands before you
in good health. He is the stone which was rejected
by you the builders but which became the chief corner stone. It’s Christ. It’s Christ and
Christ alone. It’s not by our standard of good
works. It’s not by our efforts. It’s
not through Jesus plus our good deeds. It’s that either we come
to Christ. And we humble ourselves and receive
him in faith as the centurion did when we try our best. As that scraggly Wedding Crasher
did in his own righteousness. And the question in the final
analysis isn’t. You know what did the Jews do
with Christ and what did the Gentiles do with Christ. But
what do you do with Christ. What do you do with him. See
there was another occasion where. This passage was cited. About
Christ being the stone which had been rejected by the builders.
Are you going to be the one that rejects Christ? Rejects justification
by faith? Rejects faith in Christ? Or do you fall upon him? Yielding
your heart in faith to the God who provided the righteousness,
the thing we need most. Let’s examine our hearts. a gracious God, a merciful King,
where we see that in almost wholesale fashion, false thinking got into
the minds of an entire nation, but beyond… …to some standard that somehow
meets your… Lord God, it would make the death
of Christ on the cross only worthless if you could. And so we fall
before you and kneel to you, and we pray, Father, that you,
that you would examine every heart here, that there is anyone
who is trusting in their own goodness, setting aside faith
in Christ, that it comes to their senses. May you bring them to
repentance. They didn’t cry out, as with
the centurion, I am not worthy. And they placed their faith in
the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. All of us who already have, humble
ourselves before you in gratitude. It’s in Jesus’ name, amen.