 So let's begin reading together here in Romans chapter 9 at verse 6. I'll read verse 9. Paul writes, but it is not that the word of God has taken no effect, for they are not all Israel who are of Israel, nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham, but in Isaac your seed shall be called. That is those who are the children of the flesh. These are not the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as the seed, for this is the word of promise. At this time I will come and Sarah shall have a son. Now Paul has been speaking concerning the fact that God makes sovereign choices. He was speaking concerning the nation of Israel in verses one through five here in Romans chapter 9 and was speaking concerning the advantages that the nation of Israel actually had and so as he's been speaking in chapter 9 concerning the nation of Israel he continues on in verse 6 following to speak concerning those things and he begins at this point to speak of the fact that the Jewish nation by and large failed to respond to the message of the gospel. From the time of Jesus to the early apostles even to this day the nation of Israel was not responding to the gospel. Because of that some people might begin to question God's power through that message by saying well if the message is so powerful why hasn't the nation of Israel come to faith in Christ and so they might think that the gospel isn't true because people reject its message. So Paul is making it very clear as we look at chapter 9 here book of Romans that the failure of the Jewish nation to respond to the gospel doesn't mean that the gospel has no power. He makes it very clear that the reason that you can't believe that the gospel has no power is because salvation isn't something that occurs just because somebody is descended from somebody else. The Jewish nation in other words would look to Abraham as a father of the nation and just because they could say physically I'm related because he is the progenitor of of the nation of Israel just because I can say that I'm Jewish biologically doesn't mean that I have a relationship with God that is automatic. In Matthew chapter 3 verse 9 we read think not to say within yourselves we have Abraham as our father for I saying to you that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. Physical descent is not what counts what counts is faith in Christ and so it's always been based on an individual's personal faith in God and so Paul is about to illustrate that here in chapter 9 and speak concerning the sovereignty of God. See there are there are those who believe that because their mom is saved that they automatically are saved. They'll even say well look my mom took me to church every every sunday I was there she would put me into a Sunday school and on Wednesday night or Thursday night I'd go to church so I must be a Christian my mom was a Christian and she raised me to be a Christian. Well Paul would argue and say just because your mama's saved doesn't mean you are you have to have personal faith in Christ. You have to have a relationship with God yourself and that comes through you having heard the message and also responding in faith. Well some are saying well how come so many Jews are not are not saved how come they're they're not coming to faith in Christ. It must be that the the gospel message itself is deficient and Paul is saying that's not the case whatsoever. He's saying the fact of the matter is is not that the gospel has no power that's what he means in verse 6 when he says it's not that the word of God has taken no effect. He's saying the fact is it's not that the gospel doesn't have power and he goes on to say for they're not all Israel who are of Israel nor are they all children because they are seed of Abraham and then he says in Isaac your seed shall be called that is those who are the children of the flesh these are not the promise of these are not the promise the children of God but the children of the promise are counted as the seed for this is the word of promise at this time outcome and Sarah shall have a son and so what he's beginning to do is beginning to speak concerning examples of God's sovereign choices. He's going to refer to Isaac and Ishmael he's going to speak of Jacob and Esau and then he's finally going to speak of Pharaoh. What we're looking at first will be his reference to Isaac and Isaac is referred to as a child of promise because he's from not simply the physical line of Abraham but he's from the spiritual line of Abraham. So two sons of Abraham are spoken of Isaac and Ishmael is being referred to. Isaac is referred to as the son of promise but Ishmael is regarded in scripture as the son of the flesh. Now God had given a promise to Abram. He later on changed his name to Abraham but God had given him a promise. He said to Abram you're going to be the father of many nations. Now in Genesis 12 that's where God gives that particular promise and at that time Abram was 75 years old so God says you're going to be a father of many nations. 11 years passed and Abraham was still without child. He had a wife her name was Sarai and her name was changed to Sarah but Sarah couldn't conceive. So finally she spoke to her husband and said you need to produce a child with Hagar. That's recorded in Genesis 16 verses 1 through 4. It says now Sarai Abram's wife had born him no children. She had an Egyptian maid servant whose name was Hagar. So Sarai said to Abram see now the Lord has restrained me from bearing children. Please go into my maid perhaps I shall obtain children by her and Abram heeded the voice of Sarai. Then Sarai Abram's wife took Hagar her maid the Egyptian gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife after Abram had dwelt 10 years in the land of Canaan. So he went into Hagar and she conceived and so Hagar conceived but it was through a fleshly plan. Sarah said well perhaps the Lord will fulfill his promise if we go about fulfilling it ourselves in this way and so Hagar did conceive she did have a son and his name was Ishmael. Now the child was born according to Genesis 16 16 when Abraham was 86 years old but Ishmael was the result of a fleshly action on the part of Sarah and Abraham. Now later on the Apostle Paul describes what happened as an act of the flesh because you see God had spoken to Abram and said that through him and Sarah there would be a child of promise but when they tried to fulfill that promise on their own entering into the flesh they actually caused problems for themselves that God ultimately is going to remedy but what they did is they acted out in the flesh because God comes and speaks to Abram and and as he's speaking to Abram God speaks concerning the promise that he had given about him being the father of many nations and all and Abram says well may Ishmael live forever before you and God says I'm not speaking about Ishmael. I'm saying that your wife Sarah will conceive and have a child. Now Sarah is 90 years old at that time and her husband Abram is around a hundred. Think about that for a moment. How would you like it lady how would you like it if you were 90 years old and you're going to have a baby please don't even think about it stop thinking about it and Abraham a hundred years old and so when God speaks and says that to Abram this time next year you're going to have a child. Sarah who's listening in the tent to the conversation laughs within herself shall I in my old age have pleasure you got to be kidding me and then God says to Abram why did Sarah laugh Abram says I don't know why he's asking me well maybe the husband has some responsibility for the wife because that's what God does he doesn't speak to Sarah he speaks to the man why'd your wife laugh Sarah answers I didn't laugh yes you did laugh I heard you laugh and nothing's too hard for the Lord by the way and this time next year you're going to have son and you're going to call him Isaac Isaac means laughter because she basically within her heart laughed at the promises of God and a laugh of of unbelief God was saying you're going to have a child that every time you call his name you'll remember your initial response to my greatness and my promises you thought it wasn't possible but every time you call Isaac to yourself you'll remember that indeed all things are possible with God he is called the son of promise but Ishmael is regarded as what is called the son of the flesh when Paul was speaking concerning a man named the man Ishmael he described him in this way it described the situation in this way in Galatians 4 23 it says he who was of the bond woman speaking of Hagar he was of the bond woman was born according to the flesh and he of the free woman which was Sarah through promise so you have one born according to the flesh and the other according to promise that's why Isaac is referred to as the son of promise in Galatians 4 31 it says then brethren we are not children of the bond woman but of the free now the point that is being made here very simply is that between Ishmael and Isaac God chose Isaac so he's beginning to illustrate this in verse 10 continuing and not only this but when Rebecca also had conceived by one man even by our father Isaac for the children for the children not yet being born nor having done any good or evil that the purpose of God according to election might stand not of works but of him who calls it was said to her the older shall serve the younger as it is written Jacob I have loved Esau I have hated and so the second comparison is between Jacob and Esau now notice with me how it is very clear God made his choice before the children had even been born when you look in Genesis 25 23 it says the Lord said to her two nations are in your womb two people shall be separated from your body one people shall be stronger than the other and the older shall serve the younger so God had already made that determination before they were even born and why did he do that well he says in verse 11 for the children not yet being born nor having done any good or evil that the purpose of God according to election might stand not of works but of him who calls without regard to human merit God elects those who will be heirs of his promises and he chose them without regard for what they would do in their lives and that fulfills his purpose now it says in verse 12 the older shall serve the younger as it is written Jacob I have loved Esau I have hated now when you read the words I love this one and hated the other we need to understand what God is saying that I have chosen one I've chosen one to care for more than I cared for that other one it's really a word that speaks concerning a higher choice on the part of God and that there needs to be a higher choice that we make it's interesting we can do the same kind of thing as a matter of fact we're commanded to do that in Luke 14 26 listen to this if any anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother wife and children brothers and sisters yes in his own life also we cannot be my disciple and so somebody in here right now is saying well I hate my mom and dad I must be a no that's not exactly what he's saying I hate my wife and I hate my children I'm a great Christian now that's not what he's saying what he's saying is in comparison to love that you have for your family it should be regarded as a lesser than the love you have for your God if you're going to really love your family ever in the way that you should if you're going to love a father love a mom love a wife and children brother sister if you're going to have that kind of relationship with them that is one that is in the right balance it's always going to be in the right balance when you have a right relationship with God first so when the Lord is speaking concerning of of the fact that he loved Jacob but he saw he hated he's simply saying I placed my favor on Jacob and I didn't place it to the same degree on the other and so he's this is illustrating the choices of God in verse 14 what shall we say then is there unrighteousness with God certainly not for he says to moses I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion so then it is not of him who wills nor of him who runs but of God who shows mercy for the scripture says to Pharaoh even for this same purpose I have raised you up that I might show my power in you and that my name might be declared in all the earth therefore he has mercy on whom he wills and whom he wills he hardens and so some might accuse God of being unrighteous they say that he doesn't have a good heart towards man and so he makes it very clear in verse 16 it's not up it's not of him who wills nor of him who runs but it's of God who shows mercy so election begins with God and it's God who makes those choices and John 15 16 Jesus said it like this you have not chosen me I've chosen you and ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit that your fruit should remain you see the argument is it all begins with the Lord and he chooses to do what he will the fact is God is not obligated to show mercy to anyone at any time he chooses to and chooses not to as it suits his purpose that is a difficult concept to wrap your mind around and I can understand I can even hear the arguments because Paul actually is dealing with arguments in this passage and we'll look at this again in some little little bit deeper in a moment but what he's simply saying at this point is this God as God of the universe is in complete control has total authority and God chooses to do as he wills and though a human being may not understand all the reasons and purposes behind God's decision what we are left to is not necessarily arguing with him as to whether or not he made the right choices but what do we learn from the things that occur in our life that got allowed within our lives when it comes to making choices God makes choices he selects to do what he wills as he wills and it isn't up to me to argue with him constantly as to whether or not I approve of what he's done another illustration that he chooses to use as Pharaoh he says that Pharaoh was raised up to a position of power but God was going to demonstrate his power in the Exodus because when the nation of Israel was there under the control of Pharaoh a Pharaoh had a king a ruler had a risen who did not regard the memory of what Joseph had done for Egypt and this ruler had enslaved the Jews and began to treat them with great harshness and the sound of their pain had risen to heaven and had reached the ears of God and God chose to bring a man by the name of Moses to deliver the children of Israel and God selects him when Moses was out there tending the sheep of his father-in-law Jethro and he sees this shrub that's burning but it's not consumed and he approaches the shrub and as he begins to walk towards it because it had caused him to become curious as to how this could happen a voice comes and speaks to him and says take off your shoes because you're standing on holy ground and the Lord begins to speak to Moses and says I'm going to use you because the cry of your people have reached my ears and I'm going to send you to deliver them and Moses begins to argue I'm slow of speech I'm incapable of doing the things like that I can't do this it's not within me and God says who created your mouth I'll go with you I'll do it and the work that is going to be done is going to bring glory to me and Moses doesn't want to do it so he takes his brother with him and as he and his brother go and they began to bring this word to Deferro they began to speak to Deferro and Moses said to him thus saith the Lord let my people go and Pharaoh said who is the Lord that I should obey him and so God uses Moses to bring plagues a series of plagues 10 plagues on the nation of Israel we've all seen the movie we're familiar with that and as he brings those plagues each one of those plagues represents God's judgment on one of the gods of Egypt when you read at the 10 plagues you need to know that God later on in the book of Exodus says I brought judgment on their gods and so from the water turning into blood to the death of the firstborn born even even Pharaoh's own child each one of those judgments was intended to bring a judgment on on a deity worshiped by an Egyptian they believed that the Nile was a god they called it the great god the Nile so all the water turns to blood they considered Pharaoh to be deity on earth so his firstborn was taken and so God brings judgment on them to demonstrate his greatness now as he does that the people surrounding Egypt hear of this incredible thing that took place where God took these slaves and set them free and the word went out across the borders it says in Joshua chapter two verses nine through eleven when Joshua sent the spies into the city of Jericho and Rahab was speaking to them Rahab said I know that the Lord has given you the land that the terror of you has fallen on us and that all the inhabitants of the land are faint-hearted because of you for we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were on the other side of the Jordan, Sion and Ag how you utterly destroyed and as as soon as we heard these things our hearts melted neither did there remain any more courage in anyone because of you for the Lord your God he is God in heaven above and on earth beneath so God was demonstrating his great power in the Exodus and that's what Paul is referring to now as this is all taking place here notice verse 18 therefore he he has mercy on whom he wills and whom he wills he hardens now when you read that the word harden means to render stubborn or obstinate and when you read in Exodus in chapters five through chapter 11 both God and Pharaoh are actually spoken of in reference to hardened hearts the bible speaks that Pharaoh hardened his heart but at the end you also see more than once it referred to in this way that God hardened Pharaoh's heart so somebody says well was it Pharaoh who hardened his heart or did God harden his heart how did that work one of my professors at Biola when I was a young student shared in such a way that it left an impression on me and he spoke concerning this hardening and how that can happen and he said let's assume that you live in a home and the newspaper has arrived and you go outside and you cross the the lawn and as you cross the the lawn in the morning it you step across your lawn and your footprints you hit the grass the grass springs back up you get your newspaper you turn around and you walk back and you take the same trail the same path the same direction that you came from he says now that lawn that had sprung up begins to kind of fold down then you remember that you have to do something else you take the same path he said if you do that several times you do that 10 times you go back and forth 10 times what you have just done is you've just hardened that grass he says when it comes to God hardening the heart of Pharaoh is a combination one of Pharaoh refusing to hear what God is saying who is this Lord that I should obey him and yet you have God walking across the pathway of his heart through the plagues saying let my people go let my people go one plague after another so there's a combination that actually takes place one of Pharaoh who is obstinately refusing to hear what God has to say and then God hardening his heart by approaching him so many times that ultimately the end is that God has hardened his heart but Pharaoh was already resisting so it was a combination of God working in the resistance of human will that produces in the life of Pharaoh a rejection of God's signs and he did reject God he hardened his heart though God was revealing himself to him so when he makes that point verse 19 you'll say to me then why does he still find fault for who has resisted his will well if he's in control then how can he still find fault with those who sin if their destiny is divinely determined then how can God judge them so they're saying God is unjust to hold them accountable for their actions now those who normally do not appreciate God's sovereignty will make that argument they fail to take into consideration the evil of sin and all that human beings and that all human beings deserve judgment we have a tendency of minimizing sin and to me that's an interesting thing that I'm seeing that's even more is even more real today in our day than when I first got saved the hardness that human beings have towards sin it's amazing to me they don't even see it for what it is anymore it really does require the preaching of the gospel and it does really require people to by faith receive what God has to say to be able to answer the question as to why is there such a thing as sin and why do you call it sin in the first place you know it's been said and rightly so that that a pagan in the fifties lived a holier life than a christian in the 21st century and and in many ways that there's there's certain truth to that at least from an outer appearance kind of thing because there are things in the fifties you know and that's really not that long ago now but in that time there were things that were simply not acceptable to the general nation that we live in today the arguments that you see argued today for for things that people think are right were never argued in the fifties that just didn't exist you would never have argued in favor of so many things that are argued in favor of today i mean the the tv you can still see this on ancient tv programs like i love lucy you can still see that ricky and lucy never slept in the same bed and for them to have little ricky was an amazing thing how that happened i mean you didn't even know there were toilets in their houses that you didn't even become aware of toilets and houses and sitcoms until archie bunker flushed one and they said that was revolutionary and that was all in the family in the 70s there was there were fathers in in shows that that i grew up watching um that actually weren't idiots you know father knows best you know and leave it to beaver's father was a cool man and things like that you grew up seeing father figures who actually were in the home and actually cared for the family and you really don't see that anymore there were so many things that you see today that are called common culture things that people accept because we have a tendency of making our judgments based not on whether there's a right or a wrong but how do i feel about it so if it doesn't bother me it doesn't hurt me if it's not offending me personally then it must be okay and if it does offend me then my personal moral values say that it's wrong for you to do that now we started saying that in the 60s in the 70s if it doesn't hurt you then why why should it bother you so if somebody wants to do something and it's what they want to do as long as it doesn't hurt me then what's the big deal that argument is being used today for so many social things things that are being changed uh if i had any older men in here right now who are marines um and i mean older men not you know i'm talking about 70 or 80 years old if i had an older man here as a marine at 70 or 80 and even men who were in their 60s if i were to say to you was there a time in your life when when marines would march in in their uniforms in in homosexual parades uh those men would have been outraged they would have said of course not that that will never be acceptable but that is acceptable now so there are so many things that we have basically based on emotion and not reason begun to accept that we cannot understand how there's such a thing as a god who is absolute sovereignly in control who is judge and he's just when he makes his judgments and that's why people will get upset at god and they think oh he's unfair how can you say that because we actually see god not it's being holy and righteous and a judge we don't see him that way we see him kind of like a senile grandfather in heaven who kind of smiles at the little children as they go about just trying to enjoy life and so the standards that god has established are standards that the average person really don't hold to and because much of what they believe is moral is based on what is regarded by laws being legitimate or legal and because we don't think in terms of repercussion concerning other people my lifestyle in other words affects somebody else we don't see it that way we're so individualistic today that we don't realize that we're all part of the same puzzle here we all belong to one another we all as americans we're all supposed to be e pluribus unum from the many one what has happened is it's now from the one many and so we've divided the way that we think to the point where if it doesn't bother me on a personal level it doesn't really matter paul's argument is god is just and god is righteous and god has standards and when they're violated god as a just judge has wrath concerning that and actually brings judgment concerning that and there's a penalty for that and so for a lot of people today that simply doesn't make sense and so the argument is well why would i be condemned for something that you're saying will actually bring glory to god well if god's glory is going to be manifested by our hardness and he allows us to proceed in our hardness and why does he find fault with us for that which is actually working out for something that brings glory to him well when that argument is made he says in verse 20 indeed oh man who are you to reply against god will the thing form say to him who formed it why have you made me like this does the potter have power over the clay does not the potter have power over the clay from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor if you were a potter and you've got some clay he's saying don't you have the right to decide how you're going to use that clay and if you want to form one into a beautiful vase and another into a spittoon isn't that up to you and does the clay when it's there on the potter wheel does it start yelling at the potter why are you making me this way he's saying of course not why because the potter has the right to determine what he's going to do with that clay and so he's saying god is absolutely in control and that's why he says who are you to reply against god what right he's saying do you have to question god he's saying how dare you answer back to him and he goes on to say you've rejected god's grace you've broken his laws yet you call him unjust he created and cared for the Jewish nation yet you're trying to correct the one who made you how can you claim that god has done you wrong well in verse 22 what if god wanted to show his wrath and make his power known endured with much long suffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction and that he might make known the riches that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy which he had prepared beforehand for glory even us whom he called not of the jews only but also the gentiles as he says also in hosea i will call them my people who are not my people and her beloved who is not beloved and it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them you're not my people there they'll be called sons of the living god and so god has the right to choose because he's god and and i want you to notice he says in verse 23 that he might make known the riches of his glory and he contrasts that with his wrath so the vessels that he speaks of objects of mercy are the ones who have been prepared by god for glory and he's going to display his goodness towards them in that way now god has resolved or purposed or intended to do something he allowed sin in his creation because it gives him opportunity to demonstrate his wrath with sin's entrance into the world comes an opportunity for god to demonstrate power that obviously was clearly demonstrated in the exodus as well as the book of revelation and so god's power that was displayed in creation is equally terrible in destruction and so this is a warning he's saying that god is going to bring judgment but he has the right to choose he's endured patiently with vessels of wrath these unrepentant human beings prepared for destruction have rejected him willfully but there are others who are objects of mercy and they're going to be receiving glory from him now isaia verse 27 also cries out concerning israel though the number of the children of israel be as a sand of the sea the remnant will be saved for he will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness because the lord will make a short work upon the earth and as isaia said before unless the lord of sabbat had left us a seed we would have become like saddam we would have been made like gamora well what shall we say then that Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained to righteousness even the righteousness of faith but israel pursuing the law of righteousness has not attained to the law of righteousness why because they did not seek it by faith but as it were by the works of the law for they stumbled at that stumbling stone as it's written behold a lion's eye and a stumbling stone and a rock of offense whoever believes on him will not be put to shame and so when he says in verse 27 though the number of the children of israel be as the sand of the sea the remnant shall be saved the remnant the continuation of israel to this day demonstrates to us the providential works of god when has there been a time when a nation found in scripture that had disappeared from the face of the earth you'd suddenly reappear when has that ever happened i mean you read your bibles we we go through the old testament together and i always say the same kind of thing when i'm reading these names but you you read of the the jebusites and you read of the gurgishites and the the high vites and the hittites and the cellulites the epitites and the out of sights and there's so manyites out there you see them right and they're there but we may speak to somebody today and we really don't use biblical language like we used to but there was a time when somebody would say man that guy's a philistine and we all knew what that meant if a guy's a philistine he's a he's a flat-out pagan and so they'll say oh that guy's just a philistine during the time of paul they would use the word Corinthian man that guy is a Corinthian and when they say he's a Corinthian they're simply saying that that person has no morals people in allay county in this general area we might say something that guy got hollywood values or that person's got san francisco morals and those are put down they used to be and what you were saying is that you don't want to be like that because what you associate with that is not good and so the the people in the old days that you read about in your bibles those people don't exist anymore you're not going to go somewhere into the middle east and you're not going to find a high-vite you won't find a jebusite you're not going to find them they don't exist anymore but you will find a jew which is amazing and the jewish nation survived and that's what's being referred to in twofold sense one is the reality of the fact that god is going to be doing a work even into the last days and the nation of israel will exist but beyond that that within that physical nation called israel there's what is called a remnant the remnant are those who are believers in messiah you see there was never an organization called jews for jesus until after 1948 that didn't exist the fact that there are messianic christians believers who are jews answers to what's being spoken of here in verse 27 when it refers to the remnant being saved but it's an amazing thing that that that god miraculously brought back together these people who are scattered throughout the four corners of the earth in ad 70 when titus of rome came in and and took jerusalem and and the people were enslaved and they were distributed throughout the known world it's an amazing thing you can find jews throughout the world when i was in israel on one occasion we were in miguito and marie was in a souvenir shop there in miguito and she comes out and she says honey you have to come in here i want you to meet somebody she always makes friends wherever she goes so i'll go meet a new friend i said okay i go in and there's a man standing behind the counter who's working at this shop and she says this is so and so and i said hello she said tell him where you're from the man looks at me he says i'm from mexico city i said mexico city so what are you doing here he says oh i'm jewish i said you're jewish he said yes i have a long line of heritage from israel and i just came and now i live in israel marie and i've gone into shops there in benio udda street in jerusalem and as we walk into the shop they'll look at marie and they speak spanish to her automatically and they look at me and they speak german i don't know why but they'll they'll they'll they'll do the why because because a large influx of jews from spain had entered in and so naturally there are a lot of spanish-speaking jews in israel and i my guide was from argentina his wife was from brazil the jews have been spread throughout the whole world the whole world we've seen them from ethiopia there are jews who are from japan they're all through the world so when you see these stereotypes then the the jew get it out of your mind because when you go to israel you see the variety of nations represented but all of them still clinging to some very basic thing their judaism and so it's a miracle that there is such a nation is called israel today it's a miracle because you don't have any of these other peoples that you read about in scripture but you do have the jewish nation and that's a foretaste of what god will do in the future and there is a remnant from within that because the jews who have emigrated to to israel many of them aren't even believers of any sort many of them are atheists and so they don't have a large faith in christ but even amongst us the population there's a small remnant and he speaks of that though the number of the children of israel be as the sand of the sea the remnant will be saved now he goes on in verse 30 to say what shall we say then that Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained to righteousness even the righteousness of faith but israel pursuing the law of righteousness is not attained to the law of righteousness why because they did not seek it by faith but as it were by the works of the law for they stumbled at the stumbling stone as it is written behold i lay in Zion a stumbling stone a rock of offense whoever believes on him will not be put to death or rather put to shame the Gentiles knew not god they heard the gospel message and responded the jewish nation who had all the advantages rejected the message of the gospel that was communicated because it pointed to jesus christ it's not that the gospel has no power it's that blindness has taken part in the minds of those who refuse to see jesus in that gospel the jew can be saved the way that the gentile can be saved the jew and the gentile are both saved in the same way through faith in christ through jesus christ and jesus alone he's saying the jews have sought righteousness by trying to hold fast to the law but the law pointed to jesus the law was fulfilled by jesus the Gentiles seek righteousness not by their works but by depositing faith in jesus but to the jew jesus is a stumbling stone because though he was jewish yet his claims were beyond that which the average jewish person could hold fast to and as a result of that they stumble over messiah in matthew 21 42 through 44 jesus said to them have you never read in the scriptures the stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone this was the lord's doing and it is marvelous in our eyes therefore i say to you the kingdom of god will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it and whoever falls on this stone will be broken but on whomever it falls it will grind him to powder this message was taken to the Gentiles who responded they were broken by jesus but if you're not broken by jesus you will be judged by jesus and so paul is making that case here as he begins in chapters 9 10 and 11 to speak of god's activity amongst israel and he's making it very clear jesus christ is the rock of offense he is the stumbling stone and the reason that people are not receiving him the jewish nation is because exactly that because they cannot see him because their eyes are blind at the moment we'll be looking at that in more detail as we continue on in the book of romans