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A Wrong Way to Get Right With God (Romans 9:30-10:4 Sermon Outline)

Here’s the outline for my sermon on Romans 9:30-10:4 “A Wrong Way to Get Right With God” preached at Cross of Christ Fellowship in Naperville.

Romans 9:30-10:4 “A Wrong Way to Get Right with God”

INTRO: Ice Cream sundae with ketchup fixed with mustard
        -These are wrong ways to try and make things right.
                    -There’s a WRONG way to try and get right with God.
BIBLICAL REORIENTATION: We need to be made right with God. Because of sin, we are not right with Him.
        -EVERYONE is sinner, and in our stand we guilty before God and under His righteous wrath
                    -We need a righteousness before our holy God.
                                -God has made a way for this to happen in the gospel: Romans 1:16-17
                                            -Romans 1-4 explains the gospel, Romans 5-8 unpacks results of the gospel.
CONTEXT: Romans 9-11: Paul wrestling with the question on unbelieving Israel.
         -If gospel is fulfillment of God’s promises to save Israel, promises given in the OT, why don’t more Jews believe?
            -Paul’s burden: to help us see that God’s Word has NOT failed! He gives us reasons why this is so:
                    -In 9:6-29, we are given an answer from the divine perspective.
                                -Not All Israel is Israel, but those who are elected by God. Elect Jews and Gentiles are saved!
                    -In 9:30-10:21, we given an answer which shows it is also a result of human sin:
                                 -Israel has sought salvation by works instead of by faith in Jesus Christ.
                                            -This has incredible relevance today as well. Today people fail to be saved for the save reason!
                                                         MS.: There’s a wrong way to try and get right with God!
OUTLINE:
1. WRONG WAY; 2. RIGHT WAY to Respond to those who Choose the WRONG WAY; 3. RIGHT WAY

1. WRONG WAY (9:30-33; 10:2-4)
If I asked you what 2 + 2 equaled, there are lots wrong answers.
        -If I asked you how to get right with God, there are lots of wrong answers to this as well.
                    -Here Paul gives us one wrong way to try and get right with God: relying on one’s own works.-Surprising Situation (9:30-31)
        -Gentiles did not pursue righteousness: a right standing with God. They were intentionally trying to be right with God.
        -But they “have attained it.”
                    -Clarification: “a righteousness that is by faith” = Romans 3:21-22a
        -Israel “pursued a law that would lead to righteousness”=They sought God; Law brought a degree of righteousness
        -“did not succeed in reaching that law”= They were not made righteous through obedience to God’s Law
                    -Israelites were trying to be right with God through obedience to the law, but did not achieve this.
                                -SURPRISING turn of events!
-Reason WHY: (9:32-33)
       
-Israel “did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works.” (32)
                    -They sought to be right with God based on their own “works”
                                -Religious works; doing good things.
        -Israel “STUMBLED over the stumbling stone” (32b)
                   
-Imagery of tripping over a rock.
                                -JESUS is the stumbling stone—a stone that those who refuse God’s way will stumble over
                                            -Fulfillment of Isaiah prophecy (Isaiah 28:16) (33)
                    -Promise for those who believe: “whoever believes in him will not be put to shame”
                               
-SHAME at the Day of Judgment.
                                            -Israel pursued a WRONG WAY TO BE RIGHT WITH GOD.
-Further elaboration: (10:2-3)
       
ZEAL for God, but not according to knowledge (2)
                    -They worked HARD for God (consider the Pharisees)
        –Not according to knowledge
                    -(Zeal in anything is not enough, it must be accompanied by knowledge of the truth)
        –IGNORANT of the righteousness of God
                    -God has a way for us to be right with Him, but they were willfully ignorant of it.
                                -Pilgrim’s Progress “IGNORNANCE” Character. Presumption, pride, rest on own understanding
        -SOUGHT TO ESTABLISH THEIR OWN [righteousness]
                    -Tried to establish their own right standing with God through good works.
        -REFUSAL TO SUBMIT TO GOD’S RIGHTEOUSNESS
                    -Proud refusal to submit and acknowledge one’s sin and inability.
                                -Refuse to submit to God’s way, but instead hold on to glory of self
                                            C.S. Lewis’ “Great Divorce” pages 34-35.

APP: Error of WORKS Righteousness
        -This is a wrong way to try and be right with God.
                    -Going to church, reading your Bible, being a “good person” will not reconcile us to God.
                                -Outside of Christ, our “righteous deeds” are like a “polluted garment” (Isaiah 64:6)

2. There’s a RIGHT WAY to Respond to those who Choose the WRONG WAY (10:1)
High achieving classmate from high school who looked down on everyone else.
        -As Christians we should not be self-righteousness or arrogant toward those who choose the wrong way-Paul models for us how we ought to respond to those who have chosen the WRONG way:
        -Desire “my heart’s desire”
        -Prayer: “and prayer to God for them”
SALVATION IS AT Stake: The conversion of the lost is a matter of salvation: that they may be saved.

APP:
Error of Religious Pluralism
        -Mere sincerity of belief is not enough                    -All without Christ are NOT saved: (Including Jews and other religious people) =John 14:6-Bible challenges our desires.
                    -Creeping Charlie (Suburbia VALUES: Don’t make it awkward; kids programs; comfort; height of grass)
                                -Bible leads us in right affections
-Practical way forward: Pray for the salvation of the lost.
       
-Commit to pray for someone who is without Christ and pray everyday for them
                    -Parents, lead your children in this!

3. There’s a RIGHT WAY (10:4)
GOOD NEWS of the gospel: there is a way to be made right with God, and is through the grace and love of God.
 -Jesus is the END OF THE LAW (telos)
        -Telos=culmination. GOAL and COMPLETION
                    -End of a race
                                -The Jews failed to see this
                                            -All who try to “work righteousness” today fail to see this.
-Faith in Jesus is Way to getting right with God: for righteousness to everyone who believes.
        For righteousness (right standing with God)
                    -Romans 1:17
        -Available by faith: “to everyone who believes”
                    -Romans 4

APP:
-Our understanding of the OT Law must have Jesus as the TELOS
        -Law pointed to Jesus and finds its fulfillment in him!
-See the greatness of Jesus:
        -There is no one like Jesus.
-Believe and rest afresh in Jesus, the way to be right with God.        -There really is no one like Jesus!

CONCLUSION: There is a wrong way to try and get right with God, but praise God that there is also a right way and it is ours through faith in Jesus!

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