Romans 9:30-33 "Pursue Righteousness by Faith"

0:59Pastor Cody invented a proverb: people are going to live their lives. It's actually very freeing. Next time you see something crazy or hear something crazy, try it. Try shrugging your shoulders and saying, people are going to live their lives. Because it's true. We are all going to live our lives. One way. Or another. We are all going to live our lives based on what we believe to be true. And we certainly see that in our passage this morning. Today in Romans 9, Paul's going to tie the themes together that we have seen throughout the chapter. And so he begins with this question: what shall we say then?

1:51In other words, what conclusions should we draw about the Gentiles and about the Jews and about salvation? How do we make sense of the makeup of the church, both in the first century, they're asking this question, and in the 21st century today, how do we make sense of the fact that so many Gentiles and so few Jews have received Jesus as Lord? Well, in our text today, Paul's going to highlight the difference between the Gentiles and the Jews and the way that they thought about morality, the way that they thought about living righteously.

2:33You see, for the most part, Gentiles did not care about moral righteousness, at least, not in the way that God defines it in his word. Sexual immorality, in particular, was rampant throughout the Roman Empire. That's the way they lived their lives. And the Jews, in contrast, especially religious leaders like the scribes and the Pharisees, they cared. A lot about moral righteousness, so much so that they went to great lengths to stay ceremonially clean for worship. That's the way that they lived their lives.

3:14And you, my friend, you are going to live your life. You're going to make decisions about righteousness. You're going to decide if you don't care about righteousness or if you do care about righteousness. And if you do care about righteousness, you're going to decide what you think is going to make you a righteous person. So in our passage, we're going to see that there are essentially three ways to live. We'll put this on the screen for you.

3:47You can pursue unrighteousness. You can pursue righteousness by works, or you can pursue righteousness by faith. And what we're going to see in the text is that only those who pursue righteousness by faith will attain it. So look with me now at Romans 9, verse 30. Paul asks, What shall we say then? The Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it? Now, let me stop there. In the first century, the Gentiles, that is, all non-Jewish people, People, they were not known for pursuing righteousness.

4:36That's probably a big understatement. Let me show you what Peter says about the Gentiles in 1 Peter 4. He says, for the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do: living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. Just look at that description. The Apostle Peter says that the Gentiles did what they wanted to do, which was living in, not occasionally participating in, but living in these things. Sensuality. That word can be translated licentiousness. It means behavior completely lacking in moral restraint.

5:27Passions. That means to strongly desire what belongs to someone else, to lust or to covet. Drinking parties. Social gatherings involving unrestrained indulgence leading to drunkenness, which the scripture tells us leads to all manner of debauchery. Orgies, which were common in Greco-Roman temple worship. And lawless idolatry, that is the worship of man-made gods according to man-made rules. Now that is a very unrighteous lifestyle. But you might say, well, come on, Pastor Alan, that's Peter saying that. Peter's Jewish. That's just his own cultural bias coming out.

6:25Well, that's fair enough. It's like if you're an Aggie and you say these things about longhorns or red raiders. Maybe true, but it still feels biased. So let's look at what Paul writes to Titus, a pastor on the island of Crete. Look what he says in Titus chapter 1. One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons. This testimony is true. Cretans were known as dishonest people, so much so that in the ancient word, the Greek verb for lying was to Cretanize.

7:12If you were a liar, you were known as a Cretan. And in the same way, in the ancient city of Corinth, the people there were known to be so immoral that the phrase to live like a Corinthian meant that you lived a life of debauchery. So Paul is right when he says that Gentiles did not pursue righteousness. No, they pursued unrighteousness. To put it in the words of the judges, everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

7:44We might call it the younger brother approach to living life. In Luke 15, Jesus tells a parable about a father with two sons. And the younger son demands his inheritance early, essentially telling his father, I wish you were dead already. I just want my money. So take a look at Luke 15, 13. Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living.

8:25Reckless living. Could be things like sensuality, passions, drinking parties, orgies, lawless idolatry. Think about the modern parallels to this. Many college students take their parents' money, move off to a far country, and spend their days in reckless living, getting entangled in all manner of sin. Maybe you've done that. Maybe someone you know has done that. But whatever it looks like, we might call this the younger brother approach to living life. A younger brother, figuratively speaking, is one who is not very concerned with pursuing righteousness.

9:12He or she lives for pleasure, lives for the moment, lives for sin and self. So maybe since you became a teenager, since you got a phone, since you got a car, since you went off to college, since you started your career and have a bank account of your own, your life has been marked by pursuing unrighteousness. It might be grievous sin. It might just be folly, just foolishness. You might be pretty open about it, or you might keep it hidden from others, kind of living a double life.

9:54But no matter what it looks like, the reality is you are pursuing unrighteousness. And if that's true of you, you need to understand that God exists and that every one of us is going to stand before him on the day of judgment, and we are going to give an account for our lives. Jesus says, for every careless word that we have spoken, we're going to give an account to God. And lest we be deceived, look at what Paul writes. In 1 Corinthians 6.

10:33He says, Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. You see, friends, when we stand before God on the day of judgment, it will not matter at all if we have tried to do more good things than bad things, because that is not God's standard. It will not matter if we have done more good things than other people, or less bad things than other people, because that is not God's standard.

11:30We will stand before God and give an account. And if we have pursued unrighteousness, Paul is clear, we will not inherit the kingdom of God. So this morning, God has given us an opportunity for honest reflection. You should not be asking yourself, what kind of life do I want to live? What kind of life have I planned to live every January? But rather, what kind of life am I actually living day to day, week to week, month to month? Am I pursuing unrighteousness? Am I chasing after sin and its fleeting pleasures?

12:25Because the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God. And so, if we're on that track, we need to be honest with ourselves about that. So, that's one way to live. You can pursue unrighteousness, doing what is right in your own eyes. But for a lot of people, that's not how we live. We're not actively pursuing unrighteousness, we're pursuing righteousness, but we're doing it by works. Look at verse 31. In this verse, Paul contrasts the Israelites with the Gentiles, and he says in verse 31, but that Israel, who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness, did not succeed in reaching that law.

13:22Now, as I mentioned earlier, in many ways, the Israelites were the exact opposite of their Gentile neighbors. They did not suggest that they were not. Pursue unrighteousness. They pursued righteousness in many cases with a zeal that bordered on fanaticism. And there were good reasons. You may know that when God appeared to Moses, he gave the people the law. Moses delivered God's law to the people and the people promised to obey it. But they did not. And so God kept his promise and he disciplined his people. He sent an army, an enemy, to conquer them. The Babylonians destroyed the temple and burned it to the ground. They carried all of the people that they didn't kill off into exile for 70 long years in Babylon.

14:22And the Israelites never wanted that to happen again. They seemed to understand at some level, especially the religious leaders, that what happened to them was a direct result of their sin and idolatry. And so they wanted to root all of that out. So what they did is they took God's law and they said, if we got in trouble for breaking this, we need to make sure nobody breaks it again. So they added a bunch of extra rules onto God's law. In their own words, they put a fence around the law to make sure that nobody would even get close to breaking it again.

15:00And so here's what that looked like. The law says, honor the Sabbath and keep it holy. The religious leaders said, you are only doing that if you walk this far on the Sabbath or less, if you carry this amount of weight in your hands or less, if you prepare food in this way and this way only. To make sure everybody gave, the religious leaders taught not just that you needed to give your tithe and the other offerings prescribed in the law. They said you've got to give out of everything. And so they taught people to open up the spice rack and to give a tenth of dill and mint and cumin.

15:46To make sure everybody stayed ceremonially clean, the religious leaders invented this elaborate system of hand washing and washing cups and plates and dishes, anything that might have come into contact with something unclean, rendering them unfit for worship. And so Paul is right when he says that the Israelites pursued a law that would lead to righteousness. We might call it the older brother approach to living life. Back in Luke 15, the parable of the lost son, the younger brother is off in a far country, squandering his inheritance in reckless living. But where is the older brother?

16:30Still at home doing everything he's supposed to be doing, like all good older brothers do. He was responsible. He followed the rules. He did what was right. In the parable, he actually says to his father, these many years I have served you, and I have never disobeyed your command. Bold words from a child. Whether that was true or not, in his own mind, the older brother had been perfectly obedient every day of his life. And he thought that because he kept the rules, he had earned his father's blessing. Because he kept the law of his father's house, he had earned his father's blessing. So in this parable, the older brother represents Israel, who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness. Except the pursuit of the law does not lead to righteousness. Instead, it exposes our unrighteousness.

17:41I want you to look on the screen in Galatians chapter 3. Paul says, For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse. For it is written, cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law. And do them. Well, what are all things written in the book of the law? Well, that would be all 613 commandments, 248 versions of you shall, and 365 versions of you shall not, one for every day of the year.

18:22So the law says you shall not murder. And you might think if you never killed anybody, you're good there, but Jesus explains that if we are even sinfully angry with our brother, we have already murdered in our hearts. The law says you shall not covet. Well, coveting is not a thing. Coveting is a desire in the heart. It is desiring someone or something that does not belong to you. The law says that we must love the Lord with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and we must love our neighbor as we love ourselves.

19:04So if you rely on the law for your righteousness, you have to do all of these things, all 613, perfectly every single day of your life. Because everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law and do them is cursed. Pursuing the law doesn't lead to righteousness. Instead, it exposes our unrighteousness. But here's the deal: most people, including many professing Christians here in America, think that pursuing the law will lead to righteousness.

19:50A few weeks ago, I quoted the research scientist George Barna, who found that 50%, half, of professing Christians here in America believe that you can earn salvation through good works, through trying to keep the Ten Commandments, for trying to obey the teachings of Jesus, for trying to obey the whole Bible. But, friends, that's not true. When we try to obey God's commands, we come to realize how impossibly high God's standards really are for sinful people. Jesus closes the first section in the Sermon on the Mount with these words: you therefore must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. Oh, is that all?

20:45You have to be perfect. But it's not just Jews or professing Christians who live this way, it's nearly every person on earth, billions of people on earth live as though righteousness can be attained. Through works. So many people do it through religion. Hinduism teaches righteousness by works. The whole point is to do enough good things that every time you're reincarnated, you are in a little bit better place. Islam and Mormonism teach righteousness through works. You do enough good things, you earn your way into heaven, and you earn a higher and higher place in heaven through your good works, at least if you're a man.

21:32But you have to understand there are innumerable ways to pursue righteousness by works that actually have nothing at all to do with religion. You can figure out what this looks like in your own life by filling in this blank. I will be righteous as long as I what? I will be righteous as long as I vote Republican or vote Democrat or vote Libertarian. I will be righteous as long as I support this candidate and not that candidate. As long as I take up this cause and not that cause.

22:21I will be righteous as long as I homeschool my children or send them to private school or send them to public school. I will be righteous as long as I shop at these stores and support these companies and don't shop at these stores or support these companies because of what they do or don't do, what they say they stand for or don't stand for. But, friends, here is the problem with pursuing righteousness through works, through obedience to a set of laws.

22:54It is never enough. Either you move the goalposts yourself or someone else moves the goalposts for you. Yesterday, it was enough to vote for this candidate or this party, but today that's not enough. Today, if you want to be righteous, you've got to support this candidate and this party, which is even further to the right or further to the left if you still want to be righteous. Yesterday, it was enough to homeschool or to send your kids to private school or to send your kids to public school for your own reasons. But not today.

23:47Today, you are only righteous if you do those things and you post online about the mistake that others are making with a different choice. Because obviously, they have bad or selfish or ungodly motives. Yesterday, it was enough to shop at these stores and support these companies, but not today. Today, because of an ad campaign or because of a business decision that they've made, if you continue to support those companies or shop at those stores, you will be canceled. You are part of the problem.

24:29Do you see? Whenever you try to live as though righteousness can be attained through works, it's never enough because the goalposts always get moved. What was righteous yesterday is no longer righteous today. So, you've got to do more and more works. And so, I wonder, what about you? What laws have you created, or what laws have you adopted, that you believe will make you righteous if you keep them? We've all done it. One way or another, we've created laws or we've adopted laws and we've pursued laws that we think will make us righteous as long as we keep them.

25:16But that's not true. So, you can pursue unrighteousness, you can pursue righteousness by works, or you can pursue righteousness. By faith. Let's back all the way up to verse 30. What shall we say then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith. But that Israel, who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness, did not succeed in reaching that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone as it is written: Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. And whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.

26:17Friends, how could it be that the Gentiles attained righteousness? They weren't even pursuing it, they were pursuing unrighteousness. But Paul says at the end of verse 30 that the Gentiles attained righteousness because they pursued it by faith. That is, they did not look to their works. They did not look to any law or set of laws in order to save them. Instead, what they did is many of them looked to Jesus, the promised Messiah, whom the prophet Isaiah calls a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.

26:57Now, it's true, some Gentiles heard about Jesus. And they scoffed. A guy from a little backwater town in Galilee who is executed by our government as an enemy of the state? I don't think so. They stumbled over the stumbling stone. Jesus was offensive to them. They concluded that if righteousness could be attained at all, it certainly couldn't be attained through faith in that guy. And what about the Jews? How could it be that they failed to attain righteousness? After all, their entire life was structured around pursuing righteousness.

27:43Well, Paul tells us in verse 32: the Jews did not succeed in attaining righteousness because they pursued it as if it were based on works. They rejected Jesus. Many of them rejected Jesus and they kept on trying harder to do better at keeping the Mosaic law. Many Jews stumbled over the stumbling stone that is Jesus. They scoffed and said, a guy from Nazareth, the carpenter's son, born to an unwed mother, the guy who hung out with sinners and offended all the religious authorities? I don't think so.

28:24They stumbled over Jesus. He was offensive to them. They concluded that if righteousness could be attained, Through a Messiah, Jesus certainly was not him. But some Jews and many Gentiles didn't pursue unrighteousness, and they didn't pursue righteousness as if it were based on works, but they pursued it by faith, which is exactly what the younger brother finally did in Jesus' parable. See, at the end of that parable, the younger brother's money runs out. He comes to abject poverty and he comes to his senses. And he humbles himself and he decides to go home to his father. Take a look at his plan.

29:15He says to himself, I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants. You see, this younger brother could not go back to his dad based on law. He could not go back to his dad and say, take me back because I deserve it. I did what I should have done. I followed the commands. He couldn't do that. The younger brother could only go back to his dad in faith and ask him to take him back. As an act of mercy and grace.

30:05And so that's what he does. He goes to his dad in faith, and look what happens. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father said to his servants, Bring quickly the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet, and bring the fattened calf and kill it. And let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. And they began to celebrate.

30:56What a beautiful scene that is. What a picture that's packed with so much truth about the grace of God. Now maybe you didn't notice what happened there in the story. Maybe you've never noticed this before. But when the son goes and he confesses his sin to his dad and he says he's no longer worthy to be called his son, both of those things are true. He had sinned against his father. He was no longer worthy to be called his son. Both of those things are true.

31:32But notice that before he can say, treat me as one of your hired servants, his dad interrupts him and he covers him in grace. Before he can say, Dad, I promise to come and work for you to earn your favor, his dad covers him in grace, literally puts a new robe around him, new shoes on his feet, a ring on his finger, kills the fattened calf, and throws a party. The younger brother, the one who pursued unrighteousness for so long, he attained righteousness because he pursued it by faith.

32:25But the older brother, the one who had pursued righteousness his entire life, but did it as if it were based on works, he failed to attain it. At the end of the parable, the older brother is outside of the party, fuming mad at his younger brother and his father, because his father bestowed so much grace on his younger brother, who came in faith. Friends, whether we're looking at Paul's description of the Gentiles in Romans 9 or the younger brother in Luke 15, Paul's description of the Jews in Romans 9 or the older brother in Luke 15. We can see ourselves in these texts. Every one of us is living in one of these ways. We're pursuing unrighteousness, or we're pursuing righteousness as if it were based on works, or we're pursuing righteousness by faith.

33:33Some of us are pursuing unrighteousness, like the Gentiles and the younger brother. Life is all about pleasure, all about what feels good. You're doing what is right in your own eyes. You are the God of your own life. And so, my friend, if that's true of you, you need to understand that you have sinned and are sinning against God and others. And because of that, you are not worthy to be called God's son or daughter. Even if you promise to try harder to do better, it will not be enough.

34:13Instead, you need to come to God the Father in faith, just like the younger brother did. You need to acknowledge that you are bringing nothing to the table, that you have nothing to offer, that there is no reason that God should accept you. Into his family. There's no reason he should forgive you and take you back. But the good news of the gospel is that Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, came full of grace and truth. And through faith in Jesus, you will receive grace upon grace.

34:54He came and lived the life that you and I were supposed to live, fully and perfectly obedient to God every day of his life. He went to the cross and died for you in your place for your sin. He was buried and on the third day he rose so that through faith you could be counted righteous. So that through faith you would have victory over the power of sin and the penalty of sin. Because Jesus was victorious over the power of sin and the penalty of sin. He was tempted in every way and yet never sinned. He defeated the consequence of sin, death.

35:41What great news. If you're pursuing unrighteousness, put your faith in Jesus Christ, the righteous one. And I think for the vast majority of us, those of us who are pursuing righteousness by works, where life is all about keeping the rules, it's all about the kingdom of the kingdom. Doing what is commanded by God or commanded by ourselves or commanded by other people. If that's you, understand that you are pursuing a righteousness that cannot be attained because righteousness is not based on works. At least, not your works.

36:20Righteousness is based on the work of Jesus Christ. Take a look at Romans 4. Paul says, and to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness. Just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works, blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.

36:57Indeed. So I don't know what your standards are. I don't know what your standards have become. But you need to lay those down this morning. No matter how hard you try to obey God's law, no matter how hard you try to obey your own law, you will fall short. You need a Savior, and Jesus is Him. He is the one who was perfectly righteous and did what was righteous every day of His life. So that when He died in your place, He could be your perfect substitute.

37:30So, friends, don't pursue unrighteousness and don't pursue righteousness by works because only those who pursue righteousness by faith will attain it. Let's pray. Father, we confess that we have been a people who have, at various times in our lives, and maybe still this morning, pursued unrighteousness. We did what the Gentiles do: lived in sensuality, and passions, and drinking parties, and drunkenness, and orgies, and lawless idolatry. Others of us have pursued righteousness as if it were based on works for our whole lives. We've tried to do the right thing, tried to make the right choice.

38:48Compared to other people, we were good people. But, Lord, both for the younger brother and the older brother, For those of us who pursue unrighteousness and those of us who have pursued righteousness by works, we have all removed ourselves from the Father. We're outside the party. And the only way to be admitted back is to come by faith. To recognize, as the younger brother did, that we have nothing to bring. There's nothing that we could point to and say, God, you have to take me back. You have to take me back because I promise I'll never do that again, because I'm going to try harder, because I'm different now, because I've learned my lesson. There's nothing that we can point to and say, you have to take us back. You don't.

39:49But you promise that you will for any who come in repentant faith. And so, God, I pray for that this morning. That you would grant repentance and faith to those who are pursuing unrighteousness and to those who are pursuing righteousness as if it were based on works. You say that anyone who comes to Jesus will never be put to shame. Never. And so I pray, Lord, that we would be unashamed this morning to come to Jesus, just as he was not ashamed to suffer the indignity and the pain and the sin. Spiritual torment of the cross for us.

40:34I pray that many would come to faith in Christ this morning. That you would grant new life that we could celebrate. Just as the Father celebrated the younger brother returning home, and just as he would have celebrated the older brother coming back inside. Thank you for your word. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thank you for listening to the sermon audio from New Life Baptist Church in College Station, Texas. For more information or to support our ministry, visit us online at newlifecs.net.