Israel Sought Salvation Through the Wrong Means

Well, good morning. Well, we are starting Chapter 10, but I'm going to go back and review. If you look at the last three verses of Chapter 9, if you look carefully, there really is a connection. You know, the chapter divisions are not inspired. So you could, the last part of 9 is really an introduction to Chapter 10. So that's kind of what we're going to talk about today here. Okay, so I labeled this section. The new verses for today are, the label I have for this is that Israel sought salvation through the wrong means. And we're going to see, and this is, as Jim mentioned, this is Israel's constant issue, if you will. They want to show God how righteous they are. They want to show God how they can obey His laws. But is that the way to salvation? Is that the way to righteousness?

We're gonna see, it's not. Okay, so let's, so what I did here is, this is kind of a combination of Hal Malloy's notes and Ron Merriman's, and it just kind of, and it kind of concludes, and some have kind of scratched their head and said, boy, look at the end, look at the statements at the end of chapter nine.

They contrast, they contrast the Gentiles And the Gentiles, if you had to characterize the Gentiles, as we see in Romans chapter 1, about the middle part of Romans chapter 1 thereabouts, it talks about the Gentiles and how they hated God, they didn't walk after God, they never sought God.

Well, the Jew, on the other hand, they're full on, right? They got the regalia, they got everything, all this wonderful thing, and they're going hard at it to seek after God. But the irony of the thing is the Gentiles by faith arrived at the right end.

So that's kind of Paul's message. So a couple of summary points here. Israel stumbles while the Gentiles are declared righteous. That's one contrast. Another contrast, the Gentiles did not actively pursue righteousness but attain righteousness out of of a source of faith. And that's kind of the key.

I find in talking with people about knowing the Lord Jesus, getting them off things they have to do. I want to show God that I'm good. I want to show God something. Well, you can't show God anything. What you can show God is your sin. And He has a solution for that. It's to believe Him.

So on the contrary to the Gentiles, the Israelites pursued after a law. And sometimes it was God's law, sometimes it was derivative of God's law. But they never pursued Himself never pursued the person a couple other points along this that they they were not pursuing after righteousness a true righteousness that comes from God They were pursuing a law that would give them righteousness And we're going to see this in more detail as we get into the reviewing verses 30 30 30 31 32 and 33 okay, so Let's start into it, so 33. So Paul starts us out, as he does in many places, what shall we say then? What conclusion shall we come to? And he starts off, the Gentiles, who did not, it's a continuous idea, cannot continuously pursue righteousness, and pursue here is to follow hard after. The idea is that the Gentiles did not continuously go after the righteousness like the Jews did.

They were slackers. According to the Jews, they were slackers. You guys, we're following this, we're doing all this good stuff. What are you guys doing? You're doing nothing. I mean, it was, you know, they had a, you know, if you look at scripture, to be a non-Jew was to be a nothing, right? And they got the crumbs, you know, the story about the crumbs, the crumbs from the droppings, you know, a non-Jew, pretty amazing. The Gentiles were not the ones characterized by a steady or continuous pursuit of righteousness. But they attained righteousness. And how did they do that? They attain their righteousness which is out of a source of faith.

And we see that in many, many verses. I think last week I shared a whole bunch of verses, but this is one of many. For we maintain that a man is justified or declared righteous by faith apart from works of the law. So that's how God declares a person righteous, not by his actions, not by what he does for God, but what he believes about God. He believes what God has told him about himself and about his son. Okay, on to 31.

So here's the contrast, but Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not arrive at the law. So they didn't pursue righteousness, that's the contrast here. Pursue is to go earnestly after something, diligently, it's present tense and whenever we see a present tense it's the idea of it's continually going on they were continually pursuing day after day hour after hour and if you look you know if you look at any of the even in today right you look at the the the very religious zealous Jews today they are they have every bit of garb if you watch some of the occasion we'll watch some of the Programs that describe some of their lives and just preparing for the Sabbath Shabbat the wife if you're a Jewish mother your preparation for that day is Incredible I watch these ladies and if they this incredible meal they prepare for Sabbath because they can't cook anything on the Sabbath They work as hard as they can work I kind of wonder if they didn't keep more of the food for later on. That's what I would do, but I don't know. Anyway, they prepare this fabulous meal that they can't cook in the day, so they prepare all this food. They were working really hard, earnestly working, pursuing constantly. So that's kind of the picture.

Israel was continually pursuing, and read carefully, a law righteousness They were not pursuing righteousness. They were pursuing a law and that's interesting here and They're pursuing after a law and they believe that a law and that's it's an interesting we talk with people sometimes They say well, what can I do to please God come to church every every Sunday do this do that? They always want to they want a system or a law or something to do and God says no I don't want that. I want you to believe what I've said That's what he wants So they're pursuing that and then this is a good example.

This is where Christ was asked a question. And someone came to him and said, teacher, what good thing, what law, what good thing, give me a good thing. Give me one thing I can do that'll really get me going, that'll maintain eternal life. Actually, that's kind of an insult if you think about that. You do one thing, one little You know, knit, and that's going to get you eternal life when the God of the universe says, I want to know you. I want you to know me. He wants a relationship, and you want a thing, a good thing. Pretty interesting.

So the pursuit was after a law by which they thought through self-effort, and they hoped to attain righteousness. So that was their mindset. Some of these comments are from our brother Hal. OK, so go on. Last part. But they did not arrive at that law. And we're going to find, can they find that law? Is it possible to find a law that will make you righteous before God? You know the answer, but anyway. So can they arrive at that place? It means to attain. Can they arrive at that law? So we have the negative, or to arrive or attain. So two other translations rendering, Amplified Bible has it, they actually did not succeed in fulfilling the law, or Wiest has it, they did not attain, arrive at that law, it remained out of their reach.

So Israel never reached or arrived at a law which through self-effort would produce righteousness. And the reason, there was no such law. There's no law. Is sinful man, with a sinful nature, is he able to produce a law that can please a righteous God and he can attain righteousness? He can't do that. It's impossible. So there's no such law, even though they try to make it into a law, to create a law.

Okay, on to 32a. So this, it kind of divides, verse 32 divides into one section with one thought and then divides into another thought. So this is the answer to the previous verses. Why? So Paul asks a question and he answers it. Because it was not by faith. It was not by his ek, out of as a source, it was not. Israel did not pursue righteousness out of a source of faith. That's what they did not do. So Israel pursuit of righteousness was not out of, this is what I said, it must be out of faith per many verses. Once is one of many. Therefore, having been justified or declared righteous by faith, that's how we're declared righteous. Not by our works, but by faith. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

That's the mechanism, and that's what they missed. That's the paradox. The Jews missed it and stumbled. The Gentiles, even though they were not seeking God, when they realized, when they heard the gospel, they responded. Okay, so here's a second part of 32 coupled with 33. They stumbled at the stone of stumbling, just as it is written, behold, I lay in Zion, and so on. So they stumbled.

And this is kind of an interesting word. It's the idea to be surprised. I know you strike something by it. You're surprised by it. I'll give you an example. If you've ever had the occasion to walk into a sliding glass door, you say, where did that come from? You bang into it. Hopefully, you don't go through it.

There are people that have done that in the hospital right after that, but you're surprised by it. That's the surprise. They stumble with surprise. They're working hard, and they're surprised by the stumbling over a stumbling stone, a stone of stumbling.

And the stone of stumbling, you know, I kind of thought about what's the best way to describe that stone of stumbling? Well, actually, it's pretty easy. It's basically the gospel message. It's the person, Jesus Christ, and his work on the cross. That's what they stumbled over. They didn't want that. They wanted something for themselves to do.

God in his sovereignty has allowed Israel to walk right into the cross and strike against it, if you will. So then it goes on, and then it quotes, this will be a quote from Isaiah 28 I believe. It says, behold, or lo and behold, and in the context of Isaiah 28, the person speaking is the Lord God, I the Lord God lay, and the idea is to put or to place or to set, present tense. So he's laid this, so what has he done here? He's laid in Zion, and I talked last week, Zion is kind of this term that you read and go, what is Zion? Sometimes it's Jerusalem or the mountains around Jerusalem, but kind of a summary may be that Zion has come to symbolize the aspirations and hope of God's children.

So the verse says, I place a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. So God, in his grace, put his very son in the midst of Israel, if you will. Born a virgin, he placed his son there. And they stumbled over him. That's kind of the idea. So God placed Christ in Israel.

There was both a stumbling aspect to this and offense aspect. So the stumbling aspect we just talked about is just tripping or being surprised by what happened. And the offense is either a snare or a trap, a hindrance to others. So they both stumbled and the message to the cross was offensive to them. And then last week, then I had a lot more, I had a whole other chart, but I decided to kind of cut it short.

So the bottom line here is that, and he who believes, the last part of the verse, 33, and he who believes in him will not be disappointed. So no disappointment, no shame. When you trust in the Lord Jesus, even though for Israel it's different, you have this system to attain righteousness, but that's not God's way. There's no disappointment in believing upon the Lord Jesus Christ. So that leads well into the beginning of chapter 10. Okay, chapter 10, the first three verses.

Brethren, if you don't, I highlighted the there's and the them's and that's basically, it's in the context it's a nation of Israel, but in a larger context it's all men and women outside of Jesus Christ. It's Paul's desire, he has a strong desire for his brother, his kinsman, according, has a strong desire. But it's actually, this is, you know, chapter 10, if you've, I know you're very familiar with it, if you read it, it has some wonderful things to say, and this is just the beginning of that. But so this is, think of that as in Israel in the immediate context, but all men outside of Christ in the larger context.

So now a couple of little bullet points here. Now in this chapter 10, we expand, it happened to Israel, but it's true and the only way of salvation for anyone at any time. And then chapter 10 expands in the last part, 33 through 33, righteousness is by faith for both the Jew and the Gentile. So that theme started in chapter 9 at the end, and we're going to carry it over into chapter 10. OK. Brethren.

So here again he starts off, you know, many verses, I forgot the count, but quite a few verses he addresses the believers. In many books that Paul writes he addresses the believers he's writing to. In this case he says, Brethren or Adelphos, brothers or near kinsmen, the community of believers, he used 18 times in Romans here. It's a term of endearment Indicates affection for the believers in the local church at Rome so now he's going to tell them then what's what's on Paul's heart here?

Based upon he already covered a little bit of that. What's on his heart here? Now Paul tells us that as he did in Romans 9 2 I have a great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart for my kit my Israelite kinsmen and And he makes this statement. Now Paul, he will shift from dealing with Israel. He talked about their past situation when they were in the land, and then he talked about the future situation for the remnant. Now he's going to talk about the present, the present situation for Jews in that time he wrote this.

So here he starts off. So it's kind of a compound idea, my heart's desire and my prayer. So my heart's desire first. So if you look at that, that's the idea of goodwill, good pleasure, good intent, gracious purposes. He has this desire in his heart for his kinsmen according to the flesh. Consuming desire of my heart, we surrenders it. With all my heart's desire and goodwill from the amplified, So if you go back to Romans, early part of Romans 9, we see, I could wish or better I pray that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh.

And just to remind you from, we said this before, you know, that's a prayer that God can't answer because he actually says, you know, it's impossible. That's impossible for that, you know, once you're in Christ, it's a done deal. Trying to get the verse I escapes me at the moment anyway. He couldn't answer that prayer, but Paul Paul was willing to pray it though anyway So we have my desire and now my prayer to God.

So my prayer actually didn't show up that many times. You know, when I study, I try to see where does that phrase or sentence occur in other passages. Well, it doesn't occur too many times in the New Testament, but it does occur a bunch of times in the Psalms. So I have a couple here in Psalm 66, but certainly God has heard He has given heed to the voice of my prayer. Blessed be the God who has not turned away from my prayer, nor his loving kindness from me."

And my takeaway from this was that this, the confidence, God has heard my prayer. I thought that if I prayed, God has heard my prayer. I think that's such an encouraging, God has heard my prayer, and that's how Paul delivered it. He knew that God would hear his prayer, and we can be the same way as believers.

God hears our prayers. What he does about our prayers is more the issue. It may not be to our liking, but he does answer every prayer. That's kind of one of those trick questions that, I'm not sure if Mike could use that one, but anyway, that's the trick question we say, does God answer prayer? For a believer, he does.

So Newell has it here, Paul puts his wishes or desires into prayer. In which all spiritual longing should be end I was trying to think of a verse from Philippians that kind of remind I got reminded of here You know it talks about be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication And I like the little paraphrase of that You know stop you know put all your anxiety into prayer And that's kind of the picture here to put all your anxiety into prayer, and so that's a so Paul's desire and prayer to God was all about his brothers in the flesh and is for their Israel's salvation on behalf of them with a view to their salvation. So that's what Paul was burdened for his brothers. And actually in the larger application he's concerned for all men in the larger application.

Okay, for I testify. I testify about them Israel I know, I like what Marion said, I know their trouble. It's sort of like if you're in a certain sport or you're a certain group of people or wherever, a certain community, and you say, I know that because I was part of them. I was part of them, I know how they think. That's what Paul's saying. I know their trouble because I was one of them.

So Paul's gonna kind of delineate, he says, you know, We're going to talk about being zealous for God. He's going to describe, and we know from many passages, he was zealous for God. He was the zealous of zealots. And he's going to say, well, you know, that was me. And I came out of Israel, and Israel was zealous. But you know what? I gave that all up for Christ. That all was filthy. It's all filthy rags. I was so zealous. Israel's zealous. But you know, the bottom line is, it's rubbish.

Okay, I testify, frequently used to bear witness, martyreo. So Paul could witness accurately about Israel because he was one of them. And this is just a little snippet from a verse. For from my youth up was spent among my own nation, Israel, at Jerusalem. That's kind of a larger, in a larger context. They have a zeal for God, for I testify they have a zeal for God, Israel.

They have, to have, to hold, implying continuous possession. So we're going to see here that they have, let's see, so it's going on continuously, it wasn't just a one-time thing. In the present tense, until they continuously had a zeal for God. Okay. Okay, and zeal here is the word, You know, it's almost a transliteration. Anyway, they used the same Greek word and moved it to English, right? Extremely eager desire or seeking. It could be good or bad. You know, Christ was zealous about things righteously. Okay. So notice it has an object here, though. And the object, zeal for God, there's the object. Paul had a zeal for God before he was converted.

So what did his zeal look like before he was converted? most of you guys know this in Philippians 3.6 as to zeal a persecutor of the church you know it seems like when you look at how zeal is used it always kind of has a connection to some action or something I did so zeal here produced the persecution of the believing church and then another passage in Galatians 1.14, I more extremely zealous for my ancestral traditions. So here, that being zealous, he followed every jot and tittle of what a Jew did. He was the Jew of Jews. But then, but following his conversion, but whatever things were gained to me, those I've counted lost for the sake of Christ. So all those things I gained, all that zealousness, I've counted it as a loss, it was a lost cause.

Okay, so now we're going to move to the last part that's going to tell us why, for I testify about them, they had a zeal for God, but, so this is going to tell us the error they had, but not in according But not in according with knowledge, but I had a zeal not in according with knowledge I've always I was kind of like this first out.

It's one of the ones you know as you I Became a believer later in life It's one of the verses that just really struck me because I I wanted to know the truth We're talking about truth in Sunday school today a lot I wanted to know the truth and along the way in my growth in my Christian life certain things came along I always came back is that Is that something from God according to knowledge? Is that something that God has said in his word? And, you know, you can get off on different, you know, certain, like books, you know, there's all kind of crazy books they write about different fads in the Christian life, and different things happen, and you kind of go after that. Well, some things, I took some trails off here, some trails off there, and said, no, that's not according to knowledge. What's in scripture, I need to follow that. this knowledge is characterized by the following.

Actually, what's interesting is, and this is kind of a neat word, this particular word for knowledge, it's an intensified word. The basic word is gnosis, and there's an epi, E-P-I, on the front, so it intensifies that word. So this word is the idea of involvement and a greater participation by the knower and the object The knower, he's taking that knowledge and applying it within himself. So a couple verses that kind of demonstrate that. And this, I pray, that your love abound still more and more in real knowledge, epinosis knowledge, and all discernment. In another verse, this is not the same epinosis, but it's just gnosis, but I think it speaks to the point that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering being conformed to his death. So this knowledge, you move, I like what Brother Hal said, this knowledge is appropriated by faith. Your epinosis is where you're involved in that knowledge. It's not just knowing something, it's being involved with it and believing it. That's with epinosis.

So they didn't really... I testify about them, they had a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge. They didn't have that epinosis knowledge of God. They were an error. So a couple more points. Israel was not zealous about truly knowing God. If you think about it, just look at their history. Were they truly seeking God?

There were some were, there were some were, but many were not. And then we read in chapter 9, we saw they were pursuing after a law, right? We just covered that, the golden law, right? They pursued after a law by which through the self-effort they hoped would attain righteousness.

The Jewish seal was not in accordance with knowledge. We just saw that they were ignorant of God's plan for righteousness They were ignorant of God's purpose in Jesus Christ So now in verse 3. He's going to explain three things three aspects of a true relationship with God and how Israel fell short of that Okay Verse three so three thing the first thing is for not knowing about God's righteousness, so they really did not Know about his righteousness because because on the whole they had not come to faith in him They had not come to know who he was so they didn't know about his righteousness because we're going to see that God's righteousness is only only comes to us by faith and it comes to us and we have a verse that says that by knowledge of his work on the cross and not knowing about, is that to be ignorant of, unacquainted with. So Israel was in a state of continual ignorance of God's righteousness.

And you say, well, how is that possible? I mean, you think, wait a minute, you know? But what we saw, okay, so here's a verse that really, I think, kind of nails it down. And we could say this way back two years ago in Romans 116, the A part, for I'm not ashamed, and there's some more to that, for it, the gospel, For in it, the gospel, the righteousness of God, is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, but the righteous man shall live by faith.

And this is the message that Paul preached many times when he went out on his missionary journeys. And to every Jew that would listen, he'd go in the synagogues, he would tell them about the righteousness that comes by faith. And it comes by faith and knowing about what Christ has done on the cross.

And then here's another message he preached, and they forgot about Abraham, right? How did Abraham become righteous? For what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. So righteousness can only come through faith in what God has told us about his son in the gospel. That's how righteousness comes.

There's no other way for it to come, not by any actions of man. And that's what Israel stumbled over, and that's what they didn't know about. So point two, seeking, so it's interesting. They didn't know about God's righteousness, so it's kind of another ironic thing. So what'd they do? They puffed up their righteousness. I don't know about this righteousness, so I'm gonna puff myself up and make, I'll become the center of righteousness.

Okay, so that's kinda seeking. Seeking to establish their own righteousness. It's the idea to, actually I got a couple things connected here. To seek in the sense of endeavor, to try, to gain, to strive, with the idea of earnest and anxiety. In our case, it was to establish. Seeking to establish their own, they wanted to establish themselves. That's what they focused on. That's what they endeavored to do. Their striving effort was all to do that. to establish their righteousness. And this is another continuous action. So there's a conjunction or a connection, if you will.

They had the continuous action of not knowing about God coupled with a continuous action, and I didn't get there. Yeah, the continuous action and trying to establish themselves. They don't know about God continuously and they're trying to establish themselves continuously. Okay, so the ignorance of God's righteousness has resulted in Israel seeking their own righteousness.

They sought to earn righteousness by keeping the law. Okay. All right, so the third point. so that they didn't know about God's righteousness, they wanted to establish their own righteousness, and now they didn't subject themselves to God's righteousness. And this is a word, hupopotasso, and actually it's a military term. And so it's the idea, it's the idea of subordination.

And the idea here is that like a soldier in battalions under the command of his officer, he lines up under, if you will, the command of his officer, puts himself under the orders that he gives him. So Israel did not, they did not line themselves up under who God was because they didn't know him.

So I thought, in contrast to that, when it's all said and done, from Philippians 2.10, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow of those who are in the heaven and on the earth and under the earth. So a time will come that everyone will line themselves up under the Lord Jesus. Okay, so I have a short little, two charts on final thoughts. First chart is, this is kind of a summary of what we just talked about, the first three verses of chapter 10.

So Israel missed salvation because of self-righteousness. So we're just going to go through what the verses said. Their zeal for God was improper. They were ignorant of God's way for righteousness. They strived to establish their own righteousness. They would not line up under God's righteousness. And then this one we didn't cover. It's coming next week. They failed to recognize the ultimate goal of the law was to bring them to Christ.

So I thought I would just end today by just a thought here, thinking about God's righteousness and my own righteousness, and God's way for righteousness. And there wasn't any better thing I could do, I could try to get quotes and this and that, than just to take a piece of scripture here. And this is just, we've been studying Philippians in Sunday school. So here's a verse we studied recently.

Philippians 3.8, more than that, I count all things to be lost in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I suffered the loss of all things and count them but rubbish, so that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, from the law, not even one little bit. So he doesn't want our righteousness. That cannot be any part of what we bring to the Lord. We bring our sins, we bring our belief to him, but not our righteousness. Not having a righteousness of my own derived from the law.

But that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith. So that's the message that Israel missed. That righteousness comes by faith. And that was such a stumbling block to them. Actually, Mike's going to pick up next week and carry on in Chapter 10. There's a lot of good stuff to come. So let's close.

We thank you, Father. We thank you for today. We thank you for the blessings we have, Lord. for your wonderful life. We thank you for your desire for men to know you and for the Apostle Paul, how you gave him such a ministry in your word and also in the life of his fellow countrymen. He has such a desire for their salvation. We ask it in your name. Amen.