Romans: The Stumbling Stone-Paul’s Heart, God’s Mercy, and the Cornerstone

Romans chapter 9, right? And today's passage, truthfully, is one of the most

Romans 9 · chapter mention

controversial and debated theology chapters in all of the Bible.

Last week, we looked at Romans chapter 8, such an encouraging passage of Scripture.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

Today, we're looking at Romans 9.

It can be a little bit overwhelming or a little confusing, and just kind of

a little bit of a preamble here. There are often people who try to perfectly

explain everything in this passage, right? There's people like,

I got a reason for everything that's in here.

They know all the answers. And then there's other people who just might try

to avoid passages of Scripture like this altogether. Like, I just don't want to deal with that.

And we know from 2 Timothy that all Scripture is inspired by God.

So to avoid any passage would be to avoid something that God has inspired,

something that God has for us. So today, we're going to wade into the waters

of Romans 9 and look at what God is saying.

I want to be very clear here without trying to add any answers or any input

that isn't there in the text, right? Because sometimes in scripture,

there are tensions that we just need to manage rather than there's problems to solve.

If we could solve all the mysteries of God, that would kind of put us in the

same playing field with God, but we're nowhere near the same playing field.

That's what makes his grace so amazing because we don't deserve it.

We are so far beneath him. He knows everything, right? He created everything

and we're a part of the creation. So one wrinkle I want to make sure that I

just note before we hop in there, there is a bigger context in play here than just this chapter.

This letter was written and given to the believers in Rome, and it was meant

to be read all together. And that matters so much because some of the tension

we're going to read out here today in Romans 9 is actually going to be alleviated

some as we continue into Romans 10, 11, and 12.

So if today's passage seems a little weighty, a little heavy,

I promise you that as we through the book of Romans, some of that weight is going to subside.

But right now, let's get our hearts ready for what God has for us this morning.

Would you put your arms out with your palms up?

Close your eyes. Just posture of surrender.

Take a deep breath.

And remember, God is just as near as the air you're breathing.

Let's pray. God, today, would you guide us closer to you?

Help our minds put away the frustrations

of the past week, to put away the distractions of the coming week.

We want to fully focus on you. We come empty with nothing to offer but surrender.

Fill us up as only you can. Holy Spirit, move in here today with power.

We believe that in advance, and we ask all these things in Jesus' name,

and all God's people said, amen, amen.

Hey, we are about a month into, my family is about a month into flag football

season, all right, let's go Pittsburgh Steelers and Dallas Cowboys, all right?

That's our two team names, but this year I'm coaching both of my boys, all right?

I'm coaching my eldest team, we coach this team for like four or five years

now, and my younger, my middle son, my younger son, This is his first year of

flag football for many of the kids on his team. And a couple weeks ago,

he had a little bit of a problem.

The league has already moved around some games for us because we had vacations.

We got a school play for some kids.

We just had some conflicts. We've had to move around our schedule quite a bit.

Anyways, we didn't notice it until it was too late, but I had to coach two games at the same time.

I was like, okay, well, every time you move, you got to pay $25 to just even

see if you can get it moved.

I was like, I don't really want to do that. we've already moved around all this

other stuff. I don't want to do it. I was like, Hey, what if instead of moving

games, I just swapped the fields? Cause the fields are like right next to each

other so that I can be on one sideline and I could look this way and see this

game. And then I could look this way and see this game. Can I tell you how that went?

You know, I'd turn you, Hey, good pool. Good job. And that turn,

I call it a play. Hey, we're running trips three. Okay. And then I come here

like, you got to get back. Nobody's, you know, and I just kept around and around.

I went until, uh, really what happened was it was just too much. Right.

And so I just stayed with the less experienced team. I let TJ,

he kind of took the other team and just ran with them. We got two coaches on both teams.

I got offensive coordinator or defensive coordinator. He just took all of it and ran with it.

Because if I tried to do, if I kept just going back and forth,

kept just spinning around circles, I wasn't going to make much of an impact here or there, right?

I would actually do a worse job at both than I would just doing my best at one.

There is a lot that is happening here in Romans 9, okay?

We can't tackle all of it at once because there is just a lot to take in.

We're just going to be sitting there spinning our wheels.

So we're going to take this and some bite-sized pieces to try to make it a little

easier to carry, to do our best at these things, then move on to the next thing.

But there's still so much in here we're not going to be able to get to.

So we're going to take it in some bites. Okay.

Let's dive in. Here's a tension that Paul is, there's a tension in Rome that

Paul is writing to. Okay.

And here's kind of the tension, the question that he's going to answer here in Romans 9.

If God has promised salvation to Israel, right?

If he's promised salvation of Israel, yet so few Jews have been saved,

how could Jesus be the fulfillment of God's man? How could Jesus be the Messiah,

if he is the Messiah for God's people, Israel, the Jewish community?

How could he be their Messiah if so few of them have been saved?

And that seems like, honestly, a really fair question, especially when you put

yourself into the shoes of like a first century a Jew.

You're saying Jesus is the Messiah for our people, but so few of our people

have put their faith in him. How could he be the Messiah if there are not even

people who are putting their faith into him?

That's the question that Paul is answering here in Romans 9.

All right, so with that context, let's hop into it. Romans 9 verse 1 says this,

Romans 9:1

with Christ as my witness, I speak with utter truthfulness.

My conscience and the Holy Spirit confirm it.

Before Paul can even lay it out for the Jews in Rome, he wants them to know,

hey, before I even get to what I'm about to get to, I want you to know this

isn't me just speaking flippantly.

And sometimes when we read something that's hard or read something that we don't

understand, we think, well, they weren't thinking clearly. They didn't have

right, whatever. No, Paul is saying, hey, this isn't me just winging it.

This is the truth, my conscience, and more importantly, the Holy Spirit confirm it.

He's like, hey, this is God's word. This is a real deal. So that's how he starts

off. Verse two, my heart is filled with bitter sorrow and unending grief.

For my people, my Jewish brothers and sisters, I would be willing to be forever

cursed, cut off from Christ if it would save them.

Very, very strong words from Paul here.

He is saying his heart is broken for his fellow Jews who have not put their

faith in Christ. He goes so strong and They say, hey, I would be cursed,

separated from Christ, if it would save them.

And remember, he isn't just lightly saying this. He's saying,

hey, my conscience confirmed this. The Holy Spirit confirms this. This is a heavy thing.

And he has a burden. Paul has a burden for the lost, especially for his own

Jewish brothers and sisters.

Just imagine Paul would have grown up in a Jewish home. That was the culture

and the laws that he would have been brought up in. many of the people he knows

who hold dearly to the law of God have missed the fulfillment of the law in

Jesus. And for Paul, that breaks his heart.

Now, we don't have that kind of background, that kind of culture,

that kind of history, but church, when you see those that are lost,

we should have the same response that Paul has here.

It should break our hearts. Our heart should break for those who don't know Jesus.

And Paul, he says it breaks his heart, but he doesn't just stay in his fields.

What does he do? He does something about it. He writes this letter to them explaining

in Romans that salvation is through Jesus. It is only through him.

I just want to be really, really clear. It's not enough for us to have a burden

for the lost if we aren't going to do anything about it.

It breaks my heart, but I'm not going to go and invite them to church.

It breaks my heart, but I'm not going to tell them about my Savior.

It's not just enough to have a burden. You have to do something with that,

all right? Romans 9, verse 4. Let's keep going.

Romans 9:4

They are the people of Israel, chosen to be God's adopted children.

God revealed His glory to them. He made covenants with them and gave them His

law. He gave them the privilege of worshiping Him and receiving His wonderful promises.

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are their ancestors, and Christ himself was an Israelite

as far as human nature is concerned.

And he is God, the one who rules over everything and is worthy of eternal praise,

amen. He's getting after it right here.

They are chosen to be God's adopted children. That's what it says here in the passage.

That God had made a covenant with Israel. It says even Jesus was a Jew.

He was humanly speaking, that's the line he comes from, God's chosen people.

It's very clear that what we find in scripture, It's just that these are God's

people. But Paul is noting a very important shift that we see after Jesus.

All right, he's saying, hey, chosen people, you guys had God's covenant.

You've been with him. He's given you the law. He's given you all these things.

You're his chosen adopted children.

And then he's making this very important shift. He's starting with something

they would absolutely agree about. And then he's shifting. All right, verse six.

Well, then, has God failed to fulfill his promise to Israel?

Remember, he's answering the question, if Jesus is the Messiah,

why are so few of us put their faith in him? So, has God failed to fulfill his

promise to Israel? No, for not all who are born into the nation of Israel are

truly members of God's people.

He kind of breaks it down. Being descendants of Abraham doesn't truly make them,

Abraham's children. For the scriptures say, Isaac is the son through whom your

descendants will be counted, though Abraham had other children too.

This means Abraham's physical descendants are not necessarily children of God.

Only the children of the promise are considered to be Abraham's children.

You guys tracking with me here?

There's a lot there, right? There's a lot. Paul is setting the stage here for

what does it mean to be a child of God?

And so many thought that being chosen by God, they thought of that as like a

birthright, something that you inherited, something that you were born into.

But Paul kind of flips that on his head in verse 8. He says,

Abraham's physical descendants aren't necessarily children of God.

Only children of the promise are considered Abraham's children.

So he's saying it's not about their birthright. It's about those who believed

the promise. Let's keep going.

Verse 10, this son was our ancestor Isaac.

When he married Rebecca, she gave birth to twins. About to get really just like,

I don't know if you know the story. I was about to get a little crazy.

Verse 11, but before they were born, before they had done anything good or bad,

she received a message from God. This message shows that God chose his people

according to his own purposes.

He calls people out, but not according to their good or bad works.

She was told, your older son will serve your younger son.

Verse 13, in the word of the scriptures, I loved Jacob, but I rejected Esau.

You don't talk about a sibling rivalry from the start, right?

It says, God loved Jacob, but rejected Esau.

And it says he was chosen before they were chosen. He was chosen before they

had done anything good or bad.

Can I be honest here? This is where most of us really want to go.

But God, like we want to add a reason there, but God did know what they would

do, right? They just hadn't done it yet. And here's the deal,

that may be true, but that's not what's in this passage.

And I just want us to get clear with something.

We don't bend scripture to make it make sense for us.

We see what God's word has, and this is the truth. and there is a point to every

passage. And we wanna see what God is telling us, not what makes sense to us.

Now, we bend to scripture. Sometimes it's okay just to sit with a hard thing.

Now, if we don't unpack that, if we don't explain that, some of y'all are sitting

here thinking, well, if God is just picking people without any concern for their

merit, that's just not fair, right?

We live in the U.S. of A, baby, all right? You get paid, what's your worth?

Like you go do it, you put in the work, you get paid, that's how it works.

And merit, what do you bring to the table? Paul knows that's what you're about

to say. Let's look at verse 14.

Are we saying then that God was unfair? Of course not.

For God said to Moses, I will show mercy to anyone I choose,

but I will show compassion to anyone I choose.

So it is God who decides to show mercy.

For we can neither choose it nor work for it.

That passage here, Paul is quoting Exodus 33, verse 19.

Exodus 33:19

I will show mercy on whomever I choose. I will show compassion to anyone I choose.

If you go back to Exodus 33, it is actually God sharing the covenant with Moses.

So right after that passage that he's quoting in verse 19, we see God telling

Moses, says, hey, write down the law on the two stone tablets like you had done

before. He has to do it again because the first time he went up the mountain,

he went up the mountain with God. They wrote down the law on the tablets.

They come down from the mountain and all of God's people, Moses went away to

go see what God wanted him to do. He's going to make this covenant. He's going to do this.

And God's people, when Moses leaves, like, what are we going to do?

And they make a golden calf and start worshiping the calf. He's like, what are you doing?

I just went up there. So the first time he comes down, he breaks the tablets

because he's mad. He's like, what are you people doing, right?

So he comes back, he's going to do it again. So this verse that he's quoting

right after it, he comes back with the stone tablets again. He's got the law written on it.

God is telling Moses right after

that, here's the tablets. I've come back down. We're doing this again.

But before he writes down the law, this last time he says, remember, I am God.

I will show mercy, I will show compassion to anyone I choose.

That it is God who picks.

I think there's a really important part there. It's not us.

We don't pick who God gets to show passion, compassion, and mercy to. God picks that.

Think there's something about us, if we're just honest, we're focusing on the

wrong part of the equation. We think, how could God do that?

How could God just, he gets to pick what it's not based on their merits,

not based on the good or the bad that they've done. They haven't done anything. How does he do that?

And I think it's really the opposite. God's not worried. I don't think God wants

us to focus on how he does it. I think he wants us to focus on the fact that he does it, not us.

We don't get to decide who is worthy of God's love and mercy and compassion.

He does. We don't hold that right.

So now Paul shifts to another Old Testament story.

And this is a story that the Jewish people at that time, they would have been

very familiar with. It's the Israelites' escape out of Egypt.

Verse 17, For the scriptures say that God told Pharaoh, I have appointed you

for the very purpose of displaying my power in you and to spread my fame throughout the earth.

So you see, God chose to show mercy to some. He chooses to harden the hearts

of others so they refuse to listen.

Well, then you might say, why does God blame people for not responding?

Haven't they simply done what he makes them do? Verse 20, no, don't say that.

Who are you, a mere human being, to argue with God? Should the thing that was

created say to the one who created it, why have you made me this way?

When a potter makes jars out of clay, doesn't he have a right to use the same

lump of clay to make one jar for decoration and another to throw garbage into?

In the same way, even though God has the right to show his anger and his power,

he is very patient on those on whom his anger falls, those who are destined for destruction.

He does this to make the riches of his glory shine even brighter on those whom

he shows mercy, who were prepared in advance for glory.

And we are now among those whom he selected, both the Jews and the Gentiles.

You guys got it? I know there's a lot happening in there.

This is one of those verses that can be a little difficult to just receive to

understand, because Paul is literally comparing people to jars of clay.

And he's like, hey, and God is the potter, and the potter, the one he makes

the pots, can do with his pots whatever he pleases.

That's kind of what he's saying, because he's the one who made them.

That usually doesn't sit well with us, right?

I don't know if you know this, but like most of us, we've spent our entire lives,

like when you're a kid, what are you thinking about?

Like when you're, when you're growing up, you're thinking about that next step,

right? When you're like in elementary school, you're thinking about middle school.

When you're in middle school, you're thinking about when I get to high school.

When you're in high school, when you're a freshman, you're like, man, I get to drive.

And what do you want to drive? I got independence. I got my freedom,

right? We've spent our whole lives thinking about when I get to here,

when I turn 18, I can do whatever I want. Mom and dad can't tell me what to do anything, right?

We've spent our whole lives thinking about independence, how we can become autonomous people.

What can we do to please ourselves? What can we do? We do what we can please,

right? We do whatever feels good to us. That's what we want.

And Paul is kind of like, record scratch.

You're like the clay and God's the potter.

He's going to use some of you to make beautiful things. And some of you are going to be trash cans.

That's literally the verbiage that he just used there.

But here's what that does to us. It does put us in the correct posture with God.

Remember last week we looked at Romans 8 and if we were just to boil,

there's so much in there, But if we were to boil it all down,

it's that we need to trust God even when things look bleak.

And you look at verse 24, it says, We are among those whom he selected, both Jews and Gentiles.

Remember, God's promise was to Israel in the Old Testament, but now through

Jesus, the law has been fulfilled, and anyone who calls on Jesus will be saved.

It's changing. Verse 25, he's talked about, he's got two Old Testament Jewish

examples is that he's resonating with them. And the verse 4 time he shifts gears

concerning the Gentiles.

God says this in the prophecy of Hosea.

Those who are not my people, I will now call my people.

And I will love those whom I did not love before. And then at the place where

they are told, you are not my people, they will be called children of the living God.

Paul is quoting Hosea there. It's Hosea 2, 23. I want to look at it right here.

It says, at that time, I'll plant a crop of Israelites and raise them for myself.

I will show love to those I called not loved, to those I called,

not my people, I will say, now you are my people.

And they will reply, you are my God. You are our God.

See, for a long time, there was this divide between Jews and Gentiles.

And God is telling them in Hosea that a time is coming when those people who

were not my people, they will become my people.

And they will say, I am their God.

Remember when Jesus first came, he says, first he came for the Jews and they rejected him.

So then he opens it up to all the Gentiles. That is why Paul is so upset at the start of Romans 9.

He's saying, I'd rather be cursed if my fellow Jews would put their faith in

Christ, that my brothers and sisters would be saved. He doesn't want them to

miss out on the grace of God that is given through Jesus.

Verse 27, it says, And concerning Israel, Isaiah the prophet cried out.

Paul is, again, he's quoting Scripture, seeing how this fulfillment of Scripture

has been happening around him.

Though the people of Israel are as numerous as the sand of the seashore,

only a remnant will be saved.

There will only be a remnant that will be saved.

That's the part that's breaking Paul's heart. He's saying, there's so many of

us. There's only a few who have put their faith in Jesus.

So many of us, but only a handful that have actually put their faith in Christ.

I know there's a lot of angles here, and he's kind of wrapping it up here.

Verse 30, what does all this mean? It's like, thank you. That's what we're asking

here. What does all this mean? What does this do for us?

Even though the Gentiles were not trying to follow God's standards,

they were made right with God.

And it was by faith that this took place. But the people of Israel who tried

so hard to get right with God by keeping the law never succeeded.

Why not? Because they were trying

to get right with God by keeping the law instead of trusting in him.

Remember all of chapter eight was just, we boil it down, it's about trusting

in God. It says, they stumbled over the great rock in their path.

God warned them in the scriptures when he said this, I'm placing a stone in

Jerusalem that makes people stumble, a rock that makes them fall.

But anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced.

Just to kind of look at that, says the Gentiles weren't even looking for God, but they found him.

And that that was all accomplished by faith.

But the people of Israel, they tried diligently to get right with God by rule

keeping. And guess what? They missed him.

They were so focused on the law that they missed it.

They didn't put their trust or their faith in him.

So focused on keeping everything just high and tight and right, that they missed Jesus.

And I love how this verse ends. It's such a great picture right here in Romans 33.

Paul is quoting Isaiah again. He says, there is a stone placed in Jerusalem,

that makes people stumble, a rock that makes people fall, but those who put

their trust in him will never be disgraced.

This is quite the picture, especially considering all the selection and chosen

language that we've had so far in chapter nine.

It's a good picture. But before we dig in, I got a story to tell.

I'm just on a flag football kick, I guess. All right.

A couple of years ago, we were at flag football practice and we were doing sprints across the yard.

I was practicing. Boys are running from one fence to another.

And I have a kid, Weston, love Weston.

This like comes up every practice when we do something like this.

Weston was all gas, no brakes. All right. He's the only kid in basketball that

I've ever had get suspended because he tried to fight a kid.

All right. He's just, he's ready to go. He just came on. Love him. Love him.

He got suspended. He served his time. He's a sweet kid. I just got the better.

But anyways, he just came on. He was leaving nothing in the tank.

He's got it. All gas, no brakes. And we're doing like conditioning at the end.

So you're just running from one side of the yard to the other, fence to fence.

And Weston sprints from one end to the other. And he never hit the brakes.

And there's a fence right there. And he just ran himself into the fence.

And he busts his lip open on the fence and his braces.

And after we got him all checked out, you know, he's good. He's settled.

His dad was there. Keep running, you know. That's just kind of.

Anyways, after he gets settled, you know, we all kind of joke with him.

Like, man, that fence really jumped out at you. You know, like,

that fence did not move one single inch.

But it took him out.

But that fence really didn't take him out, did it? He took himself.

That fence didn't move at all. That fence is static. It doesn't move.

Paul is saying there is a stone that makes people fall in Jerusalem.

This isn't a moving stone. He is talking about something that is firm and planted,

that is immovable and strong. It's not going anywhere.

It doesn't make you fall.

Those that fall because of it, they only fall because they can't see it.

Stones don't jump out and trip you. You just miss seeing it. That stone is Jesus.

There's a stone in Jerusalem it's going to make people fall,

but anyone who trusts in it will never be disgraced.

Anyone, not just Jews or Gentiles, anyone who trusts in Jesus will not be disgraced.

I think this passage pairs perfectly with Ephesians 2.20.

Together, we are in his house, built upon the foundation of the apostles and

the prophets, and the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself.

Jesus is the cornerstone. If you're not familiar, the cornerstone is like the

chief stone of the foundation. Back in that day, you don't have bricks,

you know, you got stones.

The cornerstone is literally at the corner of the building. It's the one that

takes the weight of the walls and the roof. And if you have a weak cornerstone,

you have something that's not firmly planted. You have something that's not

immovable. You have a weak cornerstone, you have a weak building.

But if you have a strong cornerstone, you have a strong, but it can take the weight.

When it comes to our faith, when it comes to our lives, Jesus is our cornerstone.

Some will stumble over Jesus and fall.

That's what I'm saying there. Others will build their lives on Jesus and never be disgraced.

Oh, don't miss this. Jesus didn't change either way.

It's the same stone. You can either fall over him or you can build your life

on him, but he never changes. He is immovable and strong.

The question for us is, it's really simple.

How are you going to respond to Jesus?

How are you going to respond to Jesus? This passage has some parts that are

hard to understand without a doubt. I'm not saying that I get all of it.

I'm just reading what's there.

Those chosen by God to show mercy, those chosen to show his wrath.

There's a lot of natural human questions here, but there's one question of just

supreme importance, and it's just that. How are you going to respond to Jesus?

Don't get tripped up by him. Build your life on him.

And when you do, you will not be disgraced.

The best part is Jesus doesn't turn anyone away.

This is a little sneak peek. I know this is next week. It's Romans 10.

We'll be there next Sunday, but this is just Romans 10, 13.

Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

Everyone.

That stone, Jesus, he's not going to move.

He's not going to jump out and trip you, but if you don't see him,

you will stumble. you will fall.

But if you see him, you got to build your life on him.

There's no prerequisites. Got to do this. Got to have that. Got to look this

way. Got to dress that way. No, no, no.

Everyone who just calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

Everyone. Have you called on Jesus to save you?

Is Jesus your savior?

Maybe you're here and you say hey i am a jesus follower uh the question would

be is your life built on jesus is he the cornerstone of your life or is he just a part of your life,

We will not be disgraced when we build our lives on him.

Not saying things are going to be perfect, good, great, all the time.

There will be some heartache. There will be trying times, but you will not be disgraced.

He can handle the pressures of your life.

There's nothing too big that's going to make him sink into the ground and make it fall. Nothing.

He doesn't change. He is immovable and strong. build your life on him.

He's never going to let you down. He's got it.

There are so many questions there in Romans 9, but I think the most pertinent question to us,

is Jesus the cornerstone of your life. Not the cornerstone of Sundays,

the cornerstone of your life.

I'm gonna pray for us. I just want you to chew on that question as we continue in a time of worship.

God, I thank you so much for the cross. I thank you so much for what you did

for us on the cross, that you sent your son Jesus, that he died the death that we deserved.

That you've taken care of all of our needs for eternity in that act.

God, the grace that you showed us.

And God, you don't make that just for special people, people that have it together,

people that look the right part, people that know it's nothing about the external.

It's nothing about that. God, you have mercy and compassion on whomever you

choose. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord, everyone who calls on

the name of Jesus will be saved.

God, I pray if there's anybody who hasn't put their faith in you,

that today would be the day.

God, I pray for those here who have put their faith in you, but they've shifted

their life. Their lives are built on other things. Their lives are built on

success at work, Or with the family, God, would you reorient our hearts that

we would build our lives on you and you alone?

Because God, when we build our lives on you, we will never, never be disgraced.