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Romans 9-16

Israel's Past

Caleb Combs · Sunday, 28 September 2025 · Romans 9:1-29 · 47:34 · 7,028 words

Romans S23 · 9:1-29 Holly

There is no public page for this message yet — the transcript below is the whole of it.

The sermon explores Romans 9, where Paul wrestles with God’s sovereign election and human responsibility. The preacher explains that while God’s purpose and promises are at work, each person must personally trust in Christ, because heritage or bloodline does not save. He challenges listeners to stop trying to control the outcome and instead stand on the rock of Jesus, responding in faith and love. The message ends with a call to pursue the lost, to grow in understanding, and to trust God’s sovereignty while living with urgency.

What this sermon is about

Ranked by keyness against every other sermon in the corpus. Each one is a word this sermon actually said — nothing here was written by a model.

complex 15 understand 53 seek 19 balance 9 rock 10 response 12 predestine 9 perfect 18 stumble 11 election 7 stone 8 sovereign 7

Topics

Faith 7 Salvation 7 The Law 2 Sin 2 The Gospel 2 Election & Predestination 2 The Holy Spirit 1 Righteousness 1 Israel 1 The Weaker Brother 1 The Flesh 1 Abraham 1 The Wrath of God 1 Prayer 1

Scripture referenced 30

Verified against the transcript. A reference the recording does not support is never listed here.

Romans 9 0:47 Romans 9 1:00 Romans 9 2:10 Romans 9 5:36 Romans 9 6:38 Romans 9 8:14 Romans 9 8:30 Romans 9 8:30 Romans 9 8:41 Romans 9 8:41 Romans 8 9:31 Luke 14 18:12 Luke 14:25 18:12 Romans 8:14 20:27 Romans 3 21:41 Matthew 5 22:25 Romans 3:17 23:36 Romans 3:19 23:36 Isaiah 55 26:10 Romans 9 28:20 Romans 8 28:40 Romans 8 28:40 Genesis 1 30:46 Romans 9 30:53 Genesis 2 31:22 2 Peter 3:9 34:16 1 Timothy 2:4 34:56 John 6 35:49 Romans 1 36:17 Romans 9 37:29

Transcript

Every word, as spoken, with the second it was said. Each word links to its own entry in the index.

Pre-service announcement — 18 lines, 0:46. Excluded from every count and search on this site, kept here so nothing is hidden.

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This morning we are going to be in Romans chapter 9.

Okay, if you have a Bible, a device,

something to follow along, read along,

always would encourage you to do that.

Romans 9, I'll get into that in a little bit.

I was telling my wife last night.

It is one of the most complex

and difficult to read.

It is one of the most complex

and difficult to read.

It is one of the most complex

and difficult to read.

It is one of the most complex

and difficult to read.

It is one of the most complex

and difficult to read.

It is one of the most complex

and difficult to read.

It is one of the most difficult passages

to preach in the entire Bible.

And so if you know anything

about the book of Romans,

it is complex and difficult.

It is many in the church and church history,

not just local or new church.

Many in church history have used it

to divide and hurt people.

There's church splits over this passage,

broken relationships.

It's interesting.

Many people strongly prefer one side

and reject the possibility

that the other side might have a hint of truth.

And we'll get to this a little bit.

I had an opportunity a few years ago

to go to South Africa

with a couple of men in this church.

And it was great.

I remember throughout the day we'd work

and we were redoing the roof of their facilities.

And at night we'd sit around and eat

and we'd debate and talk about different things.

And two of them were saying,

the men were on different sides of Romans 9.

And so what's great about this,

both of them are deacons here at this church.

And so they talked through this.

They disagreed yet through grace and encouragement

were able to love one another in that.

And so what a great example they were for me

as well as for the body of Christ

as we chew on this,

as we try to seek to understand these truths.

my son drove my car to homecoming.

And so it's crazy that my kid is driving

and going to homecoming.

I'm too young for this.

And so it is crazy for that.

And some of you are like, no, you're not.

I know, I understand.

But I realized I had a headlight out in my vehicle.

And so I'm like, well,

I don't want him driving it without a headlight.

I'll be fine, but he doesn't need to

as a almost 17 year old.

And so I,

I did what every adult supposed to do.

You go to AutoZone and tell me what light to buy, right?

Or you don't do that.

You figure that out on that one.

I just said, Hey, this is my car.

I don't know what to get.

And so they,

they showed me which one and I bought it.

And then they said, sir, do you need help installing it?

And I said, no way I can install this thing on my own.

All right.

And so I know we have many engineers that attend this church.

And do you guys just like messing with people?

That's, that's what I really want to know.

Like,

auto engineers, you're like, Hey,

we're going to make it the most complex,

difficult thing to change a headlight,

by the way.

And so I watched three YouTube videos.

All right.

And it's interesting.

And the guy goes, well,

you can take off your front tire,

takes off a front tire to put a new headlight in,

by the way,

engineers at Dodge need to pray.

And so like,

and so he,

I was like, well,

I'm not going to do that.

But the other way is a little more complex.

I'm like, okay,

I can handle this right.

Complex and vehicles that make sense for me.

And you have to take off a couple of the dust covers.

I don't know what they're called.

As, as you can tell,

I'm not an engineer when it comes to vehicles.

And they said,

you have to reach your hand up inside the slot.

You can't see it.

And you have to turn it clockwise because if you turn it counterclockwise,

the headlight will break off and it will be more confusion and hurt.

And so I'm like,

okay, sounds good.

So I watched the next video.

That said the exact same thing.

And so I spent a good 30 to 40 minutes trying to change a headlight on my

vehicle and I was able to do it.

It was complex.

Thank you.

Thank you.

not looking for the applause but I feel better about myself now all right and so but as I was

doing this it was complex and there's this metal beam that's in front of the car just tearing my

arm up and I'm like in the world this should be a simple understanding yet was complex and I got

hurt doing it by the way and I was thought about this message this morning this message can be

complex and ultimately can hurt people. My goal this morning is to simplify and to not hurt as we

try to seek to understand Romans 9 because it can be complex. But I want to speak the truth and love

and be careful at dividing the word. And that is something that if you know my heart, I want to

speak the truth. I want to speak what God has. But I also want to do it with gentleness and respect

as we seek to understand that. I realize there's some that are sitting in this room or joining us

online that, man, just finding the book of Romans is difficult. And that's okay. I'm glad you're here.

Others, and you are Bible scholars and you could teach this passage. And we're all in between. And

so I want to seek to help us understand while giving some definitions. And so this morning's

message will be,

a little different for me, will be less preachy and a little more teachy as I seek to help us

understand what the Apostle Paul is teaching and writing to the Christians in Rome as well

as us in 2025 in Holly. And so let's pray and we'll jump into Romans 9. God, we love you. We

praise you. We honor you. We glorify you. God, thank you for this morning. God, thank you for

your word. Thank you for being here. God, thank you for being here. God, thank you for being here.

God, we praise and lift you up in song and sermon. God, we are so, so grateful for who you are,

your attributes and your love in our lives. God, this morning, I ask for wisdom, wisdom for myself,

wisdom for the ones that are hearing this message. God, give us ears to hear, hear what your word

is teaching, as well as help us to apply it. God, give us patience with one another,

as we all bring in some preconceived notions or understanding or many will just hear some

specific words today that they may not even understand. And that's okay, but give me the

strength and ability to give them. God, we pray that we will continue to grow in our knowledge

and understanding of you. That's our pursuit. God, as we, as men and women, as young adults,

as teenagers, gather together in your church this morning,

we just seek to glorify and honor you and know you better. God, that's our prayer. God,

we praise you. We love you in Jesus' wonderful name. Amen. So as I said, we'll be in Romans 9.

We've kind of made it a delineation point for us in our series as the first eight chapters,

and we'll kind of finish out Romans 9 through the end of, not Romans 9, the end of Romans

through the end of November. But this morning,

we're going to tackle Romans 9. Paul, in the beginning of Romans 9, is writing to these

Christians, Gentiles and Jews in Rome. And he's writing some specific things as Pastor Josh has

so eloquently jogged out for us today, but communicated to us as we seek to understand

what sin is, as we seek to understand the grace of God and his mercy in our lives, as we understand

the battle of flesh and spirit in our lives. And as we figure out, okay, why do I do the things that

I hate? And yet I still want to relent my life to Christ and all in between. And I loved how he

wrapped it out as nothing can separate us from the love of God and gives a list that Paul writes

to these Christians in Romans 8. But at the beginning of 9, Paul, as I preached a few weeks

ago, talks about his desperation.

And his desire to see his family or his race, if you will, the Jewish nation saved. He is so desperate

to see them saved. He literally says, God, I would be willing to go to hell for eternity that all

the Jews and all the my family all the ones of the line of of Christ would be saved and he's

saying this not in a like bargaining plea because it's not really a possible agreement but he is

saying it out of a show for the Christians there of his desperation to see lost saved I preached

on that three weeks ago what a great desperation I think that is for the church to see lost people

saved to see people transformed by the good news the gospel of Jesus Christ that should be the

heartbeat of who we are what we do seeing people say transform not by a church not by a pastor not

by a program not by an event not by a thing by trunk or treat we do trunk or treat guess what

so we can see families transformed

not by

the candy given out but by the gospel of Jesus Christ that is so important and imperative and

should be the heartbeat the drumbeat of who we are as a church see people saved but then Paul

and the rest of Romans begins to deal with balancing divine power or God power and human

responsibility at the call of God in our lives I have titled this message the election

is free will not a political election but the election that how does this balance in our lives

and I'll explain and define some of these terms in just a few minutes but in verse four of Romans

nine Paul says they are Israelites and to them belong the adoption the glory the covenants the

giving of the law the worship and the promises here Paul is explaining like man this is not a

they have been given all these benefits and clear like they've seen the glory of God they watch

God part the Red Sea as he has taken them out of Egypt and he's given them David he's given all

these Old Testament heroes and he made these promises and given the law directly at the Mount

Ararat from Moses to them Sinai not Mount Ararat but Mount Sinai and so they've been given the

worship they've given the promises to them belong the patriarchs and the patriarchs and the patriarchs

or the heroes of the faith if you will the beginning of them from their race according to

the flesh is the Christ what's he saying Jesus came from them these Jews he continues who is

God over all blessed forever amen but it is not as though the word of God has failed for not all

who are descended from Israel belong to Israel and not all the children of Abraham and not all

Abraham belong because they are his offspring but through Isaac shall your offspring be named

this means that is not counted of the children of flesh who are the children of God but the

children of the promise are counted as offspring this is a lot here and so I just want to quickly

summarize this because I want to get much more into the end of the chapter middle portions of

the chapter but Paul in this passage is describing all of these benefits

all of these opportunities that the Jewish nation the Israelites have received and he's saying did

God fail at giving them these advantages because many of them or not all of them have been received

Christ and he's saying no and it's an important statement here for us to understand as we

unpack this and and really Paul speaks in this earlier in Romans that all Jews are not saved

you're not saved by your bloodline you're not saved or transformed by your heritage or your

family or your parents belief system or your grandma's prayers you're not saved until you

come to that very knowledge and understanding that you are a sinner and you confess with your

mouth and believe in your heart that Jesus Christ came lived a perfect life died on a cross and rose

again for your sin only you

can come to that understanding and confession not someone for you I wish that was not the case

as a parent I would love to force my kids into that I know many of you

sitting here have kids and grandkids that you're like, man, I wish I could hand them a heritage

of faith that that would be forced in them. But that's not the case. Their faith, their trust in

the Lord must become their own. Man, what a great prayer for us as a church, as parents, as

grandparents, as adults, that the next generation after us, that their heritage, their faith will be

in the Lord, not in our us, not in a church, not in a pastor, not in something other than Jesus

Christ. That's why Jesus says, I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the father,

but by me. He says it very clearly. And for us to understand this distinction is important. Your

family doesn't save you. And Paul is saying, man, I wish that was the case, but it's not. He describes

Isaac and Ishmael, two sons of Abraham. One is of the line and one is not. See their Jewish blood

was not sufficient for salvation. But then in verse nine, Paul continues and we're going to

talk through this. And my goal is to, to define and unpack this a little better and

we'll see how it goes. So I prayed for wisdom this morning, but this is what the promise said

next year. I will return and Sarah shall have a son. And I'm not only so, but also Rebecca had

conceived children by one man, our forefather, Isaac, though they were not born, had done nothing

either good or bad in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works,

but because of him who calls. She told the old, older will serve the younger.

As it is written, I have loved Jacob. Have I loved, but Esau, I hated. And so here, this is a,

this is where we get a little controversial. Okay. And so my goal, as I said, is to give some

truth and some teaching here this morning, but just as a verse four, Paul references some of

these patriarchs a little later in verse nine, he, he describes I or a verse 80 describes Isaac

being born. And then he describes Sarah and Rebecca.

Giving birth and seeing the line. Verse 13 is a misconstrued, misunderstood and misused verse

where it says, as is written, Paul is referencing or echoing the words of Malachi, Jacob, if I love,

but Esau have, I hate it. And so right here, many of you go, okay, sounds good. Well, God obviously

chose Jacob and obviously hates Esau. That's not necessarily what he's,

preaching or communicating. And let me explain. In Luke chapter 14, Jesus says in verse 25,

now great crowds accompanied him. And he turned and said to them, if anyone comes to me and does

not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, even his

own life, he cannot be my disciple. So you hear that and you go, are you kidding me, pastor?

Does God tell me to hate my family? Well, if you pluck this verse,

out of the full context and the message of scripture, you could walk away with that.

But what I don't want you to do is pluck this out of context and run with it. What is Jesus saying?

He is saying, guess what? I need you to love me so much. The value, the prioritization,

your life, give me it, follow me. And to others, it'll look like, wow, you don't care about me.

You even,

almost hate me. That's what Jesus is describing here. Your love for Christ is so much. It is the

most imperative and important thing in your life because you can take that and go, wow, I'm supposed

to hate my others. Well, if you read the rest of the new Testament, the greatest commandment,

as Jesus said, love the Lord, your God with our hearts, soul, mind, and strength. Love your neighbor

as yourself. You go to Ephesians and Colossians and Galatians. You see your love and honoring

your parents and your siblings.

Those things are not just like, well, that maybe Paul or maybe Jesus, they didn't understand.

No, no, no. Don't pluck things out and make them say what you want them to say.

to say but we did and can see that God did choose Jacob the younger brother which is interesting

over Esau to bring about the promise and ultimately the line of Christ but he also did

bless Esau and his line and other blessings see the choice is conveyed not in love and hate but

but in clarity of what God's plan and purpose is bringing apart verse 14 what shall then we say

is there injustice on God's part what a what a bait what a big statement God are you sure you

know what you're doing that's what Paul's saying by no means for he says to Moses I will have

mercy on whom I have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion so then

it depends not on human will or exertion but God who has mercy this interaction is

happening in Mount Sinai where Moses is praying and begging God for his people the people have

made a golden image as he's received the ten commandments God showing Moses's glory and how

God has mercy on the Israelites not destroying them for idolatry following through for their sin

because we know the cost of our sin is what is death okay every one of us is sinner that's that's

a base understanding as we look at Romans 3 23 for all have sinned and fallen short we've all missed

the mark and so the cost of our sin is death yet God in his great mercy shows us his love that

seems almost unfair at times you're like okay God why did you show this person mercy they didn't

deserve it ever thought that before I have I'll be honest with you this morning I have I've looked

and go God why did you bless them why did you do that to them do you know what they've done to you

I've also done the inverse God I've done and given so much why didn't you show up in this situation

well Matthew 5 where he makes his son rise on evil and on good and sends rain on the just and unjust

where God intercedes God acts God responds God shows mercy and some unexplainable ways are like

God I don't understand what you're doing I don't understand your plan we preached a series last

year of understanding God's ways are not our ways God's thoughts are higher than our thoughts

as the old testament says and for us to understand or comprehend God we want to place God in our box

right it's easier for us to understand God I can define you understand you and predict every single

action and response because God I want you to do what I want you to do well the truth of the matter

is our finite broken brains can't truly understand an infinite God

is above all things he's outside of our time and we're going to get into this a little bit more

this morning I promise Paul continues verse 17 or verse 19 you will say to me then why does he find

fault for who can resist his will but who are you oh man to answer back to God will what is molded

say to his molder why have you made me like this has the potter no right over the clay

to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use into another for dishonorable use

what if God desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power has endured with much patience

vessels vessels of wrath prepared for destruction in order to make known the riches of his glory for

vessels of mercy which he has prepared beforehand for glory even us whom he has called not for

the Jews but also from the Gentiles I found this quote by Martin Luther he said why then should

man complain that God asks or acts unjustly when this is impossible and so as I

introduced or intro at the beginning of the message this idea of election versus free will or

divine divine direction or divine guiding versus human responsibility some of you sitting in this

room swing one end where you're like god chooses and guides and elects others are i i like i have

free will to respond and decide well as i said last week i'm probably right in the middle and

i'll explain why not because i don't want to make a decision i have a full explanation and we'll

we'll walk this out this morning the fact is god is perfect that's where you have to start okay

god is perfect his knowledge is perfect his wisdom is perfect his power is perfect his presence is

perfect his faithfulness is perfect

you

his goodness is perfect his justice is perfect his mercy is perfect his grace is perfect his

love is perfect and his holiness is perfect all of his attributes are perfect okay all right you're

like that felt like a mouthful but it was important to build that baseline i referenced isaiah 55 for

his thoughts are not your thoughts neither are your ways my ways declares the lord for as the

heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your

thoughts what i

don't want this message to be i almost said class by the way what i don't want this message to be

is a balance of calvinism versus arminianism basically those are human made identifiers like

okay you got to be one one or the other guess what neither term is used in the bible all right

neither term and some of you're like i don't even know what those are that's okay but we must begin

to identify and try to figure out the balance of the universe and the universe and the universe and

of of of god's sovereign choice or potential election versus free will as we understand god

is powerful god is perfect and god is here's this word sovereign okay god is sovereign simply means

god has ultimate and supreme authority control and power over everything in the universe

including all creation history individual lives and nothing can

thwart his purposes okay that's a base understanding for us and we must grasp the

sovereignty the power god is all powerful and god is also omnipresent okay god is everywhere

so god is all powerful all-knowing and omnipresent he's outside of time and so so knows

all right god was before all things and he's after all things god has never been born and

and so these are these are important truths that we grasp and understand maybe this i'm gonna

rephrase that that are hard to grasp and that we seek to understand but truths we must build our

doctrine and our understanding and reading romans 9 and all 66 books by the way and grasping that

saying god yes you are sovereign you are in control i trust you your will your purpose

your your judgment is right but god knows all things

and so in romans romans chapter 8 i pastor roy mentioned it a few weeks ago romans 8 29 for

those whom he foreknew ties in with this idea of election he also predestined to be conformed to

the image of his son that word predestined is so so important for us to to to define

as well as understand so the definition of to predate predestined is to have god

decide or ordain something particularly or particularly a person's eternal destiny and

salvation before the creation of the world and so there are many some may be sitting in this room

and i i don't want to um kind of categorize everyone and so that's that's important for me

as we seek to understand okay does god predestine some to heaven and some to hell i don't believe

that you may believe that and i'll explain here in a in a few moments so i do believe god is one

that has predestined well how does how does that happen caleb you just said

He predestines, he doesn't predestine some to hell and some to heaven.

Well, how does that happen?

Well, there's a word that's so important in this passage, foreknowledge.

Okay, foreknowledge.

In my belief, understanding that foreknowledge is God, his perfect, absolute knowledge of all future events.

And what a person will decide, it's God's omniscience.

So what does that mean?

God knows every decision I will ever make.

When the Bible says he knew me before the foundations of the world, that is not some sort of symbolic understanding.

That is a truth and understanding.

As God is outside of time before even creating the heavens and the earth in Genesis 1, 2, and 3.

God knew that we would be sitting here on September 28, 2025, preaching on Romans 9.

You're like, really?

Yes, I believe that.

Wholeheartedly.

That's the sovereignty of God, and that's his foreknowledge.

God knows the choices that you will make.

I believe as God placed Adam and Eve in the garden, as he created them, he knew the choices that they would make.

He breathed the breath of life, as Genesis 2 says, into their lives, giving them a soul.

They had a soul.

No other creation was breathed the breath of life or a soul.

And so as men and women were created with a soul, at that point, God knows what your choice is and what will happen.

And so as we look at this balance, and I know I'm teaching a long time, but I really want to build something here, okay?

As we've been, some will argue we've been predestined, some will have free will, which simply means the ability to choose between different possible courses of action unimpeded.

And so both ends of the spectrum.

I was talking to somebody this morning, it was great.

Like, man, there's a, if we believe God predestines everything in my life, I don't have to do anything.

We don't have to evangelize.

We don't have to go out and preach.

God will just decide who's the elect, and they'll get to go to heaven, and that'll be it.

I don't believe that.

Don't pull it from a passage.

Look at the full context of the scriptures.

Look at the truths of the Great Commission, of living out the gospel, and being a light, and shining out in your family, in your community, in your workplace.

That's so imperative for us.

That's why Paul begins in this passage as showing his love for the lost.

But don't also swing the other ends of the spectrum of free will.

I get to tell God what to do.

I get to decide for God what he will do.

Guess what?

God is sovereign, and God is all-powerful, and I am not.

I want to rephrase this.

Neither are you.

Right?

None of us are.

And that's okay.

And so you're like, man, Caleb, you find yourself in the middle.

I do.

I do.

Because trying to balance and recognize.

Reconcile this idea that, okay, I believe God, when he said, for God so loved the world, he sent his only son to whoever believes.

I don't believe it says God died for only the ones he would choose.

I believe he died for the entirety of the sinful system, the structure of all the world, and whoever believes.

Yet in that moment, as it was written, God knew who would choose.

And so we find ourselves in this balance.

I do believe God's will is this.

That all would come to the knowledge and understanding of the gospel.

But in that same statement, he knew many would deny him.

He knew many, even in creation, as difficult as that is for us to fathom, as God is creating someone, he knows they will deny him.

He knows, yet still loves them.

2 Peter 3, verse 9 says,

The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise, as some count slowness, but is patient towards you, not wishing.

That any should perish, that all should reach repentance.

What is that repentance?

As we defined, I guess now several months ago, as we introduced Romans.

That repentance that leads to justification, only done by the work of God.

But yet we must understand this truth that we can't come to the understanding of a relationship with God without his beckoning call of the Holy Spirit.

The divine interaction.

But then 1 Timothy 2, verse 4, this is good.

is pleasing in the

sight of our God, our savior, who desires all people to be saved and come to the knowledge of

the truth. So I'll say this. This is, I saw this this week. Predestination is clearly taught in

the Bible, but God has also made it clear that salvation is available to anyone who would choose

him. You're like, Caleb, are you talking out of both sides of your mouth? I am by the way, this

morning, but I told you, I, you find these truths and understandings and you don't have to bivocate

or eliminate these truths as we seek to understand that. I read this quote this week. It's really

good. The Bible teaches that without Christ, we are dead in our trespasses and sins. If we are

spiritually dead, surely that impacts our decision-making. John 6 44 says, unless God draws,

no one can come to Christ for salvation. If the decision, whether to trust in Christ

is impossible without God's interference, our will is not totally free.

Yet God offers salvation to everyone and has made himself plain to everyone so that everyone is

without excuse. Romans chapter one. And you're like, man, this is, this is truly the deep end.

I told you, by the way, this morning, like, man, if you're a guest, you knew I, like,

I would rather preach about another bunch of other passages, by the way, but we're here and this is,

we believe all scripture is God-breathed and truth. And we want to be faithful to,

as we teach and understand. That's why I said it would be more teaching than preachy this morning.

And it's important that we seek to grasp and understand that. So let me, let me land the

plane here this morning. I know I'm a little long and I'm sorry for that. Our response. Okay. Our

response to all of that. And you're like, wow, that, that was a lot in my head spinning. Please

don't let it spin. Here's why I talked about growth communities at the beginning. If you have

questions, shoot me an email. We'll talk through it. I'd love to sit down in my office. And as we

navigate and talk through and chew on, if you have questions, shoot me an email. We'll talk through it.

If you've got further questions and you're part of a growth community, ask your growth community

leader. Hey, could we talk about this more? Pastor said this, I didn't quite grasp or understand that

that's the importance as we seek to study and show ourselves approved and understand and chew

on these truths. It's important. Okay. But what's our response? The end of Romans chapter nine,

what shall we say then? This is Paul saying, what shall we do? What's, what's our response?

The Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness,

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 the law. This is the same truth. We've

been hitting over and over and over for the several last couple of months. We are saved by faith and

grace, not by works. The law cannot save us our effort, our desires. We can't get to Christ with

our own abilities. It has to be a faith.

And trust in the very grace and the mercy of God. Read Ephesians, read Ephesians two, one through 10.

Perfect explanation of our, our depravity, our brokenness and sin. Yet God in his great mercy

loved us. But verse 32, 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 stone. And I am laying in Zion, a stone of stumbling stone. And I am laying in Zion,

a rock of offense. And whoever believes in him will not be put to shame. What's, what's Paul

saying in this, our response. He's saying the Jews have been given all these advantages. The Israelites,

God gave them the patriarchs. He gave them the law. He got, was able to see their glory, all these

incredible things. Yet they thought they could earn their way to salvation by their own works.

He said, they have stumbled over the stumbling stone. I read this week, a real cool analogy on

this. He said, this is a picture Paul is painting of us. And he said, this is a picture of us. And he

race of life, all of humanity. Paul describes that other times that our, our life is a race and he's,

he's running this race as we're, we're, we're, we're, we're trending or progressing towards

eternity. I want you to believe that wholehearted this morning. Life is a vapor here today,

gone tomorrow. That's a truth of God's word.

That's very important that no one is promised tomorrow.

The fragility of life is a real thing.

The thing I don't want to do is confuse you on Romans

without clearly communicating the gospel,

the good news of Jesus Christ.

You can be saved, transformed,

and have a relationship with God right here, right now,

in your seat, joining us online,

wherever you find yourself.

That is the most important thing we can do this morning

is make sure the gospel, the good news of Jesus,

we are all sinners, broken, separated from God,

yet in his great grace and his love offered his son, Jesus,

that we could be made right, justified

by what Jesus did on the cross and rose again.

And you can be saved.

You can be saved right in your seat.

It's not a special prayer that has happened.

It's really a heart change and a confession that says,

God, I'm a sinner and I need you in my life.

Be my Lord and be my savior.

That is the faith saved.

What I don't want you to do is what Paul says

is the Jews stumbled over the stumbling block.

There's some theologians that that stumbling block is the law.

There's others have said,

that stumbling block is the Messiah, Jesus Christ.

And I love the picture being drawn

as we are all in this race,

as we're all running towards eternity,

not knowing when that time will come up.

And as we're flowing, as we're trending,

there's a rock in place.

And light can feel out of control.

Light can feel like, man, this flow is throwing me here and back.

But then what this analogy described was so beautiful

is realizing that stone in front of you is not a stumbling block,

but ultimately the rock on which we can stand on Jesus Christ.

That rock that all of the difficulties,

all of the struggles, all of the chaos,

all of the misunderstanding, all the confusion,

all of the hurt, all of this life,

that rock is placed there and we can stand on that.

And not of our own might, we can withstand all of humanity.

It's by the power of Jesus Christ.

See those pursuing righteousness by works

trip over the stone into destruction.

See, Paul has been emphasizing that.

He's emphasizing God's participation in the salvation process,

his divine hand.

You can't argue that he's not involved, okay?

Maybe you can, but I say you shouldn't.

How about that?

He also presents us right at the end

with our human responsibility of faith and trust in him.

See, there's wrong responses to these.

One is I'll do it myself and somehow I'll make it.

The end of this attitude is to fall head over,

the rock into destruction.

That's what Paul is so worked up about.

And I would say we should be worked up about

is watching people headed to destruction and hell.

The church should be worked up

and wanting to see people saved and transformed.

It should change every interaction we have

because I want to see people saved.

I'm in desperation.

I don't want to see people go to hell

to be separated, damned for eternity.

I want to see people saved.

That should get our blood boiling in life.

The other response,

is to say God will do everything.

He'll do nothing.

Can I say this?

This attitude will also lead to destruction.

There's a third response.

See, the rock is placed right in front of us.

The rock that is higher than I.

I will find solace and strength in it.

And that rock is Jesus Christ.

See, the scriptures never say to try to determine

whether you are the elect or predestined.

They don't.

They say believe on the Lord Jesus Christ

and you will be saved.

They also say,

but to all who receive him,

who believed in his name,

he gave the right to become children of God.

Our response is in faith.

Our response is in trust.

Our response is in embracing the very grace

and the mercy and trust in the rock

that is higher than I,

who can see and understand everything in this world.

That's why it's imperative that we say,

God, you are sovereign.

I trust you.

I don't grasp or understand what you're doing,

but I know you are in control.

Don't take your hands off the wheel and go, okay.

My God, God has given you a will and a logic and a spirit to seek to understand him.

So hopefully over the last few minutes this morning, I didn't confuse, which I guarantee I did.

I wanted to speak truth.

I wanted to speak care.

I wanted to help divide the word of God with us.

I didn't like a hurtful division, but as we rightly divide the truth, as we seek to understand, as we chew on it, it's a tough balance.

Balancing divine power and human responsibility.

But I want to reiterate.

And you're like, Caleb, I didn't necessarily understand what you said.

Hey, let me know.

Shoot me an email.

Let's sit down.

Let's talk.

Let's seek to understand that.

Let your growth community know, leader, hey, I'm going to ask this question so they can come prepared.

That's great.

As we seek to understand and grow in our knowledge and trust in the Lord.

Let me pray and we'll close with a song this morning.

God, we love you.

We praise you.

God, through my words this morning, God, help your Holy Spirit.

I ask that your Holy Spirit.

You're giving wisdom and discernment, ears to everyone that could hear.

That wasn't just simply me talking, but your Holy Spirit, your word communicating, God.

God, I love you.

I'm thankful that you're sovereign.

Forgive me when I try to take control.

Forgive me when I want my way.

Forgive me when I want what I want.

May I trust you.

But God, may I not grow complacent in that.

That I grow in knowledge and understanding as we seek to know you more and our faith and our trust.

And you build.

Watch the fruit of the Spirit pour out of our lives.

God, thank you for your word this morning.

We love you.

We praise you.

We seek to glorify you in all that we do.

In Jesus' wonderful name, I pray.