Why does this all Matter?

I. Intro. -Benjamin Franklin’s 13 Virtues

Temperance: Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.

Silence: Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.

Order: Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.

Resolution: Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.

Frugality: Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; waste nothing.

Industry: Lose no time; be always employed in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.

Sincerity: Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly; speak accordingly.

Justice: Wrong none by doing injuries or omitting the benefits that are your duty.

Moderation: Avoid extremes; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.

Cleanliness: Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, clothes, or habitation.

Tranquility: Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.

Chastity: Rarely use venery but for health or offspring; never to dullness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another’s peace or reputation.

Humility: Imitate Jesus and Socrates.

These are a great tool for your personal development, but won’t get you to Jesus

B. Read Romans 9:30-10:4 Pray

This section continues to answer the question asked in verse 6, “did the Word of God Fail?” after covering God’s election and there being no unrighteousness in God’s choice, Paul shifts here to the human responsibility. This really seems like a Paradox, Is God Truly Sovereign? Does man actually have Free Will? After spending all that time explaining God’s choice, does he now say that we can reject that and go our own way? Here is a section I read this week that helps, “Few preachers can have maintained this balance better than Charles Simeon of Cambridge in the first half of the nineteenth century. He lived and ministered at a time when the Arminian-Calvinist controversy was bitter, and he warned his congregation of the danger of forsaking Scripture in favour of a theological system. ‘When I come to a text which speaks of election’, he said to J. J. Guerney in 1831, ‘I delight myself in the doctrine of election. When the apostles exhort me to repentance and obedience, and indicate my freedom of choice and action, I give myself up to that side of the question.’ In defence of his commitment to both extremes, Simeon would sometimes borrow an illustration from the Industrial Revolution: ‘As wheels in a complicated machine may move in opposite directions and yet subserve a common end, so may truths apparently opposite be perfectly reconcilable with each other, and equally subserve the purposes of God in the accomplishment of man’s salvation.”

II. The Paths of Righteousness (v 30-33)

A. Another question (30)

Who are the Gentiles, What do they believe? (Rom 2:14-15) (1 Cor 1:22)

a. I’m just trying to be a good person

Who are the Israelites, What do they believe?

a. I’m just trying to be a good person

B. Where does Righteousness come from? (30b)

How did the Gentiles attain a righteousness by faith that they were not looking for? (10:14) (Isaiah 65:1)

C. Israel’s Righteousness (31-33)

They are pursuing it by works (Mat 19:16-30)

They are stumbling over the stone of offence. ( Is 8:14, 28:16)

III. Half way there (v10:1-3)

A. They may be saved (10:1)

Remember Paul in 9:1-3

Paul know that Israel will not be saved outside of Christ

B. Zeal for God (2)

They have a zeal for God (Num 25) (Ps 69:9 from Jn 2:17)

Zeal not according to Knowledge is Fanaticism

a. “Yet Scripture says that ‘it is not good to have zeal without knowledge’. Sincerity is not enough, for we may be sincerely mistaken. The proper word for zeal without knowledge, commitment without reflection, or enthusiasm without understanding, is fanaticism. And fanaticism is a horrid and dangerous state to be in.” Stott

C. Why they are missing this (3)

They have forgotten the Law points out sin (Rom 7:7-12)

They have not obeyed on faith (Jer 35)

IV. True Righteousness obtained (v4)

A. Christ is the End of the Law

B. The Writer of Hebrews in the entire book “you want to go back?”

V. Conc. - Rom 11:17-21