How do I get into the Group?

Introduction

Last week, we looked at God’s faithfulness by preserving a remnant of Israel who would carry on the promises of God because of their faith in Jesus. This week, we turn to the last paragraph in chapter 9 which deals with Gentile inclusion in the people of God. We laid the foundation, that Paul is talking about Corporate Election when he deals with election in this passage. God has unconditionally chosen a people to represent him on the earth through Abraham and then narrowed that down through Isaac and Jacob. God decision to narrow down the people of God to only those who possess faith was also not based on anything we did. Every Group is made up of individuals; so Paul ends this section asking How do I get into the Group?

There is embedded in the human soul a sense of a desire to belong to something. We are all looking for our crowd, the group we feel an affinity towards. Even the most socially awkward and isolationist wants to belong in some sort of a group. That group may be as small as their spouse or even their dog. I think sometimes its even the characters in the books they read that provide them a sense of belonging because these are people I can relate to.

Teenagers tend to have this whole belonging thing down to a T or maybe they don’t. any of you older people remember high school. High school is like a melting pot of all kinds of different groups. Teens just tend to seek each other out and naturally form into these different groups:

You’ve got the kids who are athletic and tend to be the popular kids because they have the limelight for a period of time in their life. Those who enjoy the game and those who just want to be part of the in crowd gravitate towards these groups. Being on a team brings a sense of belonging.

Then you have the smart kids. Sorry usually those two things are antithetical. But the smart kids get together to hand out and study. The shallow kids get on their nerves and so they self-select their group. You have the musicians, the rebels, the social outcasts. Sometimes everyone is trying to be so individual and yet they still find themselves being like a certain group of people.

Everyone at some point finds themselves in a position where they are on the outside looking in. Junior Higher's face a common struggle because they have just left their world of childhood behind and now are moving into another peer group. They see all the older kids and they want to be included in certain groups. The danger they face is loosing who they are by molding themselves to the group. But the question we all face at moments like that is how do I become part of the group?

If being a Jew by birth isn’t enough to get you into this group, then what is?

Attaining Righteousness

Romans 9:30 “What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith.”

Paul begins this section with the question What shall we say then? Basically this means what is the conclusion. After everything Paul has just said what conclusion should we draw. Why is it that some Jews are not part of the people of God, but some of the Gentiles are. So vs 30-33 are really the conclusion to the entire chapter.

Paul points out that some Gentiles have been included in this group even though it seems like they did all the wrong things. They didn’t keep the law; they weren’t even really seeking after righteousness as defined by God. The verse says they followed not after righteousness. Gentiles even then did have their own moral codes. Think of the code of Hammarabi and sometimes that code overlapped with God’s law because God has put a knowledge of good and evil in our hearts; but the pagan world also rejects true righteousness. Secular culture even today is defined by its own moral standards. In Business, it is alright to lie or take advantage of people as long as no one is really hurt. Love is defined as complete acceptance of everything someone does. Modern American morality allows for abortion and homosexuality. We can now define God ordained genders based on what we feel like or desire to be. Gentile culture has always rejected true righteousness.

And yet some Gentiles have attained to righteousness. Remember Romans 4:3 “For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.” Paul looks at salvation from our sins as a judicial decree that we are righteous before God. Abraham was a sinner just like you and me. Think back to the story of Abraham, he lied about his wife and said she was his sister and then let some other dude marry her. So how can Abraham be righteous? A couple verses later David is said to have attained to righteousness? David? David committed adultery, killed the woman’s husband and covered it up. How could he attain righteousness? To the Jew, it was crazy to think that sinners like the Gentiles could ever attain righteousness before God.

If we are honest, it is impossible to think that you and I would ever be called righteous. The bible says in Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;” We all miss that mark. We all fail to be perfectly good. We all lie, we all are selfish, we all lose our tempers, we all do bad things. So how can any of us expect God to declare us righteous when we stand before him?

Paul tells us how these pagan, sinful Gentiles have attained righteousness: by faith. Back in Romans 4:24 “But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead;” Paul explained this even more. Those who are part of this group, those who are called righteous by God are those who believe, have faith in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ for our sins. We could never be righteous enough as we will see in the following verses, but Jesus paid the penalty that we all owe by dying in our place and then rising from the dead. So His good deeds are placed on my account when I place my faith in Jesus Christ.

But what does it mean to place your faith in Jesus. Faith is a Greek word that means to trust. There must be a point in my life where I choose to trust in what Jesus did for me on the cross if I am going to go to heaven when I die. If my sins are to be forgiven. If I am to become part of this New Covenant community, the people of God.

I have a slide that tries to explain the connection between what we are talking about today and its relationship to Corporate Election in the rest of the chapter. In this slide you will see that God’s Corporate people include believing Jews and Gentiles. God made this decision to work this way unconditionally. He didn’t choose the Gentiles or the Jews because they were special. But how does an individual become part of this group? for this there is a condition and that condition is faith in Jesus Christ.

Now what would motivate someone to want to be part of this group in the first place? Probably none of us what to be in the group of septic cleaners unless that happens to be your job. Why should I want to be part of the people of God when I could just continue the life I have now on the outside. On the right hand of the slide- I have listed all the results that are mentioned as being the result of being in this group of people in chapters 9-11. (Go over the list)

Salvation 11:26

Righteousness 9:30-33

Mercy 11:31

Promises of God 9:4

Honor 9:21

Riches of God’s glory 9:23

Not ashamed 10:11

Holiness 11:16

Fatness 11:17

Goodness 11:22

Forgiveness of sins 11:27

Missing out on Righteousness

Romans 9:31 “But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness.”

So the Gentiles, were making it in because of their faith response to what Jesus did on the cross for them, but the Jews were by and large not making it in. They were missing out on all these benefits of being the people of God. One of those benefits was righteousness. The Jews followed after or sought to be righteous. The law of righteousness is the righteousness which comes from the law. Romans 10:5 “For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, That the man which doeth those things shall live by them.” Some people think that their way in; there way to get saved, be righteous, get the blessings of God is by keeping a set of rules of right and wrong. Most religions are based on an assumption like this. You have to be good enough to get in.

So the Jews were trying to be good enough, but Paul says they had not attained to the law of righteousness. They weren’t good enough. James 2:10 “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” If you are going to try to get in by doing enough good, then the requirement is perfection. The problem that Paul pointed out at the beginning of the book is that none of us are good enough. Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;” We cannot attain or reach the standard of the laws righteousness, and so we miss out on that righteousness.

Stumbling over Jesus

Romans 9:32–33 “Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone; As it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.”

Paul ends with a question and answer: the first word of the verse is Wherefore? That simple means Why? Why did the Jews miss out?

they did not have faith- when their Messiah came, they refused to believe he was the Messiah. I always assumed that the Jews had this complex system of beliefs that caused them to not understand that Jesus was the Messiah, but I have been doing an indepth study of the book of Zechariah. In that study I have been looking at Jewish interpretations of the book. It is amazing to me how often they were so close. They believed in a Redeemer Messiah, they recognized a priestly Messiah and yet when Christ came to redeem us from our sins, they rejected Him. They didn’t believe and trust in who he was and what he had come to do.

rather they sought it by the works of the law- as we saw in the last verse, they couldn’t attain it. Romans 3:20 “Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” says it is impossible to be justified by the law, because the law just shows us we are sinners.

they stumbled at Jesus- the third reason they missed out was that they stumbled over Jesus. Its kinda like running a race and there is this rock in the way but you don’t see it. You stumble over it, sprain your ankle and give up on the race. There was something that kept them from accepting. Paul quotes from an OT verse in Isaiah 8:14 “And he shall be for a sanctuary; But for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, For a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.” They longed for a Messiah, but when Jesus showed up he wasn’t the Messiah they wanted.

If salvation, is really as simple as placing our faith in Jesus Christ, why is it that so many do not believe?

I think many do not believe for the same reason’s that the Jews did not believe. First, they are inherently skeptical. There are some who hold to agnosticism. They claim there is no way to know; so therefore they can’t believe. While there are many facts that they have no absolute proof for and yet they accept those, they cannot accept the evidence for Christ. Everything must pass through their own personal experience if they are to believe it and yet; without a relationship with Christ, they can’t truly have that experience. Secondly, many are trying to earn there way to heaven. Their pride wants it to cost them something or they have been taught their whole life that this is how it works. Ephesians 2:8–9 “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” Thirdly, Christ and Christianity aren’t to their liking. Often a rejection of Christianity comes from a love of the world. Christ is holy and they want their sin. Christ calls us to a lifestyle of taking up our cross and that seems to hard. Biblical Christianity is too narrow in its morality about abortion, homosexuality and transgenderism; so they seek a false gospel that will accept those things or they reject it all together.

Unfortunately, Christians have not always represented Christ too well and so that becomes another reason for rejection. While it is true that we are all sinners saved by grace and we all fail at times, it is still imperative that we live in such a way that they can see Christ. Because as the passage ends, all those who believe will not be ashamed. Our faith will not be disappointed. Christ will fulfill his promises to us.

Conclusion

This morning, the message is designed as an appeal to those who are not a part of the people of God. You can become a child of God if you would just repent and place your faith in Jesus Christ. I don’t know who truly is or isn’t saved here this morning; so if the Spirit is tugging at your heart, will you please respond. When the piano plays, will you come forward and we will partner you with a counselor who can show you how you can have your sins forgiven and enter into this group: the people of God.

Christian, while this message is clearly a salvation message, there is a challenge for you as well. The world already stumbles over the thought of who Jesus is. They find it hard enough to believe and yet if they would believe all the benefits of salvation would be theirs. I could challenge you to give out the gospel and that would be helpful, but here is the challenge I want to give you this morning: Do not add to the obstacles that keep men from faith. Christ is a necessary stumblingstone. They must deal with who he is and what he has said and what he has done for them. But our lifestyle, behavior, speech should not erect extra barriers to the gospel. 1 Corinthians 9:12 “If others be partakers of this power over you, are not we rather? Nevertheless we have not used this power; but suffer all things, lest we should hinder the gospel of Christ.” 2 Corinthians 6:3 “Giving no offence in any thing, that the ministry be not blamed:” Let Christ be the stumbling stone, and do not pile that barrier even higher.