Why Isn’t Being Good Enough - Good Enough?
Romans 9:30-10:15
Intro:
1. ILL: Death Track.
2. When you don’t have standards for your life, you just walk around in circles - lost!
3. ILL: Conversation with a bank executive who believed she was living a good enough life.
a. Where’s the line you cross that says you are good enough?
b. Do you have the right to decide where that line is? Did your parents? Does the president? Who decides where the line is?
c. Only God, who created you, has the authority to set the standard. He did - in the Law of Moses!
4. You can’t have a relationship to God on your own terms . . .
I. 9:32 - Because You Think More of What You Achieve
Than What You Believe!
A. v5 - If you could have obeyed the standard (the Law) it could have brought you life.
1. Lev 18:5 - Keep my decrees and laws, for the man who obeys them will live by them. I am the LORD.
2. But to be justified by that standard, you would have to obey it perfectly. Jam 2:10 - For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.
3. Law keeping tends to develop an attitude of selfishness & arrogance, not dependence & love.
ILL: The Pharisee & the Tax Collector (Lk 18:9-14).
4. Besides, a sincere Jew knew he didn’t live a good enough life to keep the Law. (Rom 7:14-25)
B. v8-15 - What you believe, expressed in your actions, does bring life.
1. v8 - The word (τὸ ῥη̂μα) = the gospel message; the story of the Lord’s life, death, burial & resurrection. (Deut 30:14)
2. v9-10 - How do you benefit from the message “Jesus is Lord”? (Joel 2:32)
a. You trust in it & make it true in your life.
b. You proclaim it at your baptism & in your witness to others.
c. This message is called “The Good Confession”! (I Tim 6:12-14; Heb 4:14; 10:23; Phil 2:11)
3. v11-12 - Who is it for?
a. Salvation is for everyone who trusts in Lord Jesus (Is 28:16).
b. “Everyone” - means you!
4. v13-15 - How is this salvation obtained?
a. v15 - The saving message must be presented (Is 52:7).
b. v14 - The saving message must be heard, understood & trusted in. ILL: Cash the Check!
c. v13 - The Lord of the saving message must be called upon! ILL: Whose Fault is It?
d. Lord Jesus offers you salvation as a free gift - but you’ve got to reach out & take it!
II. 9:33 - Because You Make a Stumbling Stone Out of the Rock of Ages!
A. v4 - Lord Jesus provided the way of escaping the standard - the Law.
1. Col 2:13-14 - When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross.
2. Also - He lightens the load for those of you who would pick up that cross.
a. Matt 16:24 - If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
b. Matt 11:30 - For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
B. When you reject what the Lord did for you, you are automatically going back to the standard rather than take advantage of the grace God has provided for you!
1. v33 - See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame. (Is 8:14)
2. v4 - Christ is the end of the law - but He is only the end of the Law for you if you trust in Him!
3. The symbol for “righteousness” in Chinese is the symbol of a lamb & the symbol for “I”!
III. 10:1-2 - Because You May Have Plenty of Steam But No Direction!
A. You could be the faster person on the track team but never win a race - if you run in the wrong direction!
B. v3-4 - Before Christ - God’s will was not fully revealed.
1. The Old Testament (3/4 of our Bible) didn’t present the whole story - you need the New Testament (the last 1/4 of our Bible) to fully understand God’s plan!
2. The Jews today accept the Old Testament, but reject the New Testament.
a. They still believe that the way to life & to see God is to continue obeying the Law of Moses.
b. They are the example of the Work-Your-Way-to-Heaven-on-Your-Own-Efforts Method.
C. When Lord Jesus died on the cross, the standard (the Law), was fulfilled (Col 2:13-14).
How is your way of getting to heaven? This is important because only one way will work! Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth & the life - no one comes to the Father except through Me”. - Jn 14:6.
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