The People of God | Christ Is For Everyone

Do you ever feel like you have to prove yourself to God? Are you exhausted from trying to be good enough? Have you wondered if grace could really be for someone like you?
 
 Jesus meets us with good news. The gospel tells us that our relationship with God is not built on our performance but on what Christ has already done through his death and resurrection. When we stop striving to earn God's approval and trust in Jesus, we find a foundation that holds steady when our hearts are full of doubt, failure, or fear. Christ is for everyone who believes.
 
 Many of us spend our lives trying to justify ourselves through achievement, morality, or personal strength. Romans reminds us that salvation comes through faith in Jesus alone. The cross can feel like a stumbling stone because it asks us to receive grace instead of proving our worth. Yet this is where freedom begins. If you are searching for forgiveness, assurance of salvation, or hope that lasts, discover the love of Christ who welcomes you home and offers mercy that changes your life now and forever.
 
 Scripture: Romans 9:33 to 10:4
 
 “The one who believes in him will never be put to shame.” Romans 9:33
 
 “Christ is the culmination of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.” Romans 10:4
 
 Belong at First Pres by taking the first step: join us for worship on Sundays in person. https://firstprescos.org/belong

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to the first part of the sermon podcast. We dive into scripture, wrestle with truth, and discover how faith intersects our lives. God's word meets us where we are, challenging, shaping, and calling us into something greater. No matter where you are on your journey, you belong here. And we're praying that this sermon might help you take a next step in faith towards Jesus. Hey, let's dive into today's message together.

SPEAKER_01 0:30

Good morning, church. It's good to be in the house of the Lord, giving him worship and praise and honor and glory. He's worthy of all that we have. He's worthy of all the glory and the praise that we can muster everything in our hearts that we can give. He's worthy of it. Amen. And I'm hoping thank you for uh this service is the same time that's always been at 11 o'clock. But um, we're thank you for shifting around. We're seeing a lot of people shifting around learning their new service times. This is really to help people to find their way, new people to find their way on a Sunday morning, families to not be late. I've already heard good stories of man, I don't feel as late as I used to be. That's a good thing. And uh, we've had an awesome time with Make Beauty Week. If uh if it's worthy of adults doing in worship, it's worthy of training kids to do the same. And so uh we've had just an awesome week of uh of training kids to worship the Lord. Uh so as we have received this word, you've already heard it read. Let's turn to the Lord in prayer. Lord, thank you for the power of your words. Thank you for the power of your gospel. And we pray, having read this, Lord, having the scripture in front of us, Romans 9 and 10, we pray, Lord, that you would help us. We pray that you would open our minds, that you would dig out our deaf ears, that you would help us, because we know that you speak through your word. Your word is living and active and is able to pierce through anything that's keeping us from you. And so, Lord, would you uh pierce through and help us to see who you are, to understand what you've done, and to love you, Jesus. It's in your name that we pray. The church said Amen. Amen. Romans 9 and 10. Okay. So um two weeks ago, Abigail and I we celebrated 30 years of marriage. Thank you. Very patient, patient woman over there, patient woman. 30 years of marriage. And what we like to do is we don't like to actually give each other like big gifts, big expensive gifts. What we like to do is give each other travel. So we like experiences, we like to go see things, and so we gave each other a trip to over to Sicily. And so we went over to Sicily and had a wonderful time over there. And um we went to a town called Cephalou, and this is an old medieval sort of there's all these medieval, there's all these old ancient villages and stuff like that. Lots of history. And so we went to this town called Cephalu. We walked into the Duomo, which is the cathedral, and in uh Europe and in Italy, there's these big piazzas, this main square, there's always this big cathedral. So we walked into the Duomo, and this is what we saw. It's called Christus Pantacrator. It's this giant image. I can't, I cannot give you a sense of the size of this thing. Like if you took the whole deal up here, it's not even close. This huge picture of Jesus. Jesus. Christos Pantacrator, the image is called. Everybody say, No, don't worry about it. And it's this image of Jesus staring at you as you walk in, boom. And it's enormous, it's powerful, it's foreboding, it's scary. Christus Pantakrator, it means Christ all-powerful. It means Christ uh all-sustaining. It means Christ ruler of all, Christ over all, Christus Panokrator. And you kind of get in and you know, just start walking towards this thing, and I mean it's giant, it's it's big, it's scary. And you can't help but feel a little small, you know, standing there as I was in my dirty shoes, shorts, which you were not supposed to wear shorts in there. There's like a literally a guard at the back to make sure nobody walks in wearing shorts. I slipped by shorts, sweaty shirt, like sweat dripping down my unshaven, looking like I just rolled in from the beach, look just looking like absolute garbage, standing in front of this. Abigail, of course, looked lovely and reverent. She was the but I was just like, I was looking like I was rolled out of the back of a beach van or something. I feel really small. I feel really small. But you know what? It's an imposing image, it's this frightening image. I actually learned that there's only three that are like this powerful in the world. There's there's this one in Italy, and then there's the one in the Hagia Sophia, this great cathedral in Istanbul in Turkey, and one at a place called St. Canther's Monastery in the Sinai Peninsula. There's only three that are like this, and it's this Byzantine mosaic. It's made by little pieces of uh mosaic, and it's so scary, it's so foreboding, he feels so small. But you know what else about it is that there's this image that Jesus is holding in his right hand. This is a this is a posture of blessing. He's saying, I want to bless you. And then his left hand, he's holding a book. It's a Bible, it's the word, and it's the story of how he's saved. So here's this frightening Jesus, the judge, and at the same time he's saying, I want to bless you. Do you know how I saved you? Do we make too much of Jesus? Or do we make a little too little of him in our times? Jesus, ruler of all, Jesus, over all. Listen, Christ is for everyone. He's over all. We're studying Romans 9 through 11 right now. We're going straight through Romans as a church. We're not going to miss anything or skip anything. And 9 through 11 is famously the most difficult part of Romans. Even the great British scholar N. T. Wright, he said, Romans is made up basically of three parts. You've got eight chapters of gospel at the beginning, you've got four chapters of application at the end, and you've got three chapters in the middle of puzzle. Like, I don't know what to do with this. That's where we are, Romans 9 through 11. But this is the part where the Romans, in the Roman letter, the people of God are defined and characterized. Who are the people of God? What are they doing in the world? What are they about? And, church, there's a big question that hovers over our heads when we study Romans 9 through 11. It's a question I brought it up last week. It's the question: why didn't the Israelites accept Jesus as Savior and Lord? Many of them did. But most of them didn't. Why did that happen? Paul wants to explain. And what we learn is this. What we learn is whether you consider yourself a moral and religious, but definitely moral person who's got it mostly together, or you consider yourself lost and helpless and in need of a lot of grace, whatever category you're in, there is only one way to salvation, and that is to trust wholly, to put all of your hope and all of your faith and all of your trust in Jesus Christ, our Lord. Christ is for everyone. Let's study. Look at this, verse 30, chapter 9. What then shall we say that the Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have obtained it? They did not pursue it, they obtained it. A righteousness that is by faith. But the people of Israel who pursued the law as the way of righteousness have not attained their goal. Why does this happen? Paul, he would, he would minister to the to people in the city, and and people who are not part of the Jewish people, man, they would take to it. Oh, this is good news. And then he would go to the synagogues and try to talk to the Jewish people about it. And they'd say, I'm not so sure, and I'm no, I don't think I'm interested. I think I'm good. Why? Well, he says, look, the Gentiles, who we all know, and they would say themselves, we're just pursuing a life of pleasure, we're just trying to find the happiest course. They they seem to have stumbled upon, seized upon, salvation. And they received it by faith. What did they do? Someone came and offered salvation. You can be saved and made right with God through Jesus Christ, and they said, I'll take it. Please, I'll take it. Oh, thank God. You mean there's help? Fantastic. I'll take it. Why? Because it turns out that pursuing a life of pleasure and self-satisfaction is an empty life. And so then this gospel comes. Yeah. The same gospel is presented to the Jewish people, and what did they start to do? They started to, I don't know, they they doubled down on their current program of attempting to gain God's mercy and grace through self-justifying works, rules of the law. They did not attain the goal of right relationship with God. Verse 32, why not? Because they pursued it, not by what? Faith, but as if it were by works, faith in works. If you've been around in Christian circles a little bit, oh man, you've talked about this or you've heard about this. Faith or works? Do we earn our way in or do we receive it by grace? This is a distinct decision. You've got to see what side of this am I on? Am I going to earn my way into God's favor or am I going to receive forgiveness by grace? They pursued it not by faith, but as if it were by works, they stumbled over the stumbling stone. So as we try to understand this, let's go back, let's tell the whole story, okay? And I mean the whole story. God made us. That's the whole story. It begins with, in the beginning. God created us for a relationship of love. But what did we do? We rebelled from God in selfishness and sin. We ruptured that relationship. And so then what did God do? Through Abraham, he said, I claim a people of my own. I'm gonna make you my people, he said through Abraham. And he declared a people his own. And he pulled them close to him. And it wasn't because they were super special or had a whole lot of potential or were really had a lot going for them. No, it's very clear he did this for one reason and one reason only. Look at this, for example, in Deuteronomy, in the book of Deuteronomy, where it says, For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession. The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other people, for you were fewest of all people. But it was because the Lord what? Because he loved you. There's no motivation behind that. He loved, it's because of the love of God. He made you his people. And because he loved you, he kept the oath he swore to your ancestors, and he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. So, what did God do? He said, You're gonna be my people, I'm gonna be your God, even if you turn away from me. Holding on to you. And then what did God do? God gave them the law as a gift. He said, Look, I'm the maker of all that is, I'm the creator of heaven and earth, and I'm gonna give you the law as a way of life. If you live by this way of life, you will thrive, you will prosper, it will go well for you. The way of God's word is a good way of life. When you follow God's word, it goes much better for you. Now, the roots of anti-Semitism run really deep. You know what that term is? Antisemitism? Hatred of the race of the Jews. Here's how it happened. The people of God, they did start living according to God's law, and things did go well for them. But you know what? That caused other nations to look at them with envy and resentment. Here's how it would happen. Imagine this. This would happen all through the ancient world. A plague comes to the city, some some horrible thing comes, and people start dying in the streets, they start getting sick, and everyone is losing their lives. It's a panic situation, and but it seems like it's not touching the Jews. Why are they not getting sick? Well, do you know why? They were boiling their cooking utensils, they were very careful with the pots that they were using. They were washing themselves regularly, washing their hands. Why were they doing all of that? Because they knew germ theory? No, they were doing it because in the Word of God. They want to please their God, they want to be a different people. God tells us to do it like this. And so they weren't getting sick. And so the rest of the city was looking at them like we're dying in the streets, and they seem to be fine. Maybe they did this to us. Did they do this to us? And there were other things. I mean, they didn't eat uh pork or shellfish or all kinds of strange field meat that has carries all kinds of unknown diseases. I mean, you do you ever read the animals that you're not supposed to eat in the Old Testament? It's like, don't eat an owl. You don't have to tell me. Like, I'm not eating an owl. Well, just in case. Yeah, so they're not getting as sick as everybody else is getting. They have different principles of how to use money. They save it, they, they, they uh give it to the Lord. They they don't ignore extort one another with exorbitant interest rates. They don't throw one another into slavery. They regularly free one another, redeem one another. And so when financial collapse is washing in on the city, it doesn't hit their house the way it hits everybody else's house. And so, what do people do? Human nature being what human nature is, fallen souls being what fallen souls are, they did not turn to the Jews and say, Wow, uh, your God seems to have given you some unique and extraordinary wisdom. How could I share in that? No, what did they do? They turned to the Jews and they said, I hate you. And I resent your success. And I wish, yeah, I wish I could knock you down and take what you have. And that's what they did. Over and over again. That sickness uh cycle, listen, friends, that went through European history all the way up to the bubonic plague that was happening. All the way up to 1930s Nazi Germany, right? But God's way is a good way to live. And as they lived in God's way, they would prosper. But the nations, instead of saying, So tell us about your God, they just got resentful and envious. But the people of God, they had this gift of the law. And when they followed it, it was a prosperous way of life for them. This is what Paul is writing about in Romans 10, 5. Moses writes this about the righteousness that is by the law. The person who does these things will live by them. And God said, above and beyond that, not only am I giving you a good way to live, but when you falter, when you fail, when you turn away from me, when you make mistakes, I'm gonna give you something else. You know what it is? I'm gonna give you a whole sacrificial code. You're gonna follow the sacrifices that are outlined in here. And when you do these sacrifices, you're gonna learn, you're gonna learn the cost of sin, that it's a real deal and it pays and it costs. You're gonna learn that I have the grace to cover over your sins through the sacrifice of another. And you're gonna learn as you watch these sacrifices unfold, you're gonna learn a deep and abiding thirst for a true and complete sacrifice that will one day take your sins away forever. You're gonna do the sacrifices and what God wanted, He wanted people. He said, My people, I'm gonna be your God, and you're gonna be my people, and you're gonna rest in my grace. But human nature being human nature, they didn't rest in his grace. They took the law, they took the gift, and they turned it into an idol and a way to leverage themselves into God's good pleasure by transaction. What do I mean? They took the law and they said, okay, God, if I do what you want me to do, well then you have to do what I want you to do. The law of God, the word of God, it was never meant as an instrument of leverage, to wedge your way into God's good pleasure, to force God's hand, but that's what the people did with it. Again, verse 3, chapter 10. Since they did not know the righteousness of God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness, they did not accept the gospel. Or back again on chapter 9, verse 32. Why didn't it work? Why didn't it work for them? Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith, but as if it were by works. And so they stumbled over the stumbling stone. And listen to me. We can do the same thing. We do the same thing. Let's keep going. The stumbling stone, the scandal. What is it? Verse 33 As it is written, see, I lay as in Zion a stone that causes people to stumble, and a rock that makes them fall. The one who believes in him will never be put to shame. What is the stumbling stone? What is this rock? Go ahead, you can say it. What's the answer? Sunday school class? The answer is Jesus. The answer is always Jesus. That's right. It's Jesus. Verse 3 of chapter 10. Since they did not know the righteousness of God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness. Christ is the culmination of the law. The righteousness of God, church, whenever you see that in Romans, this is what I need you to do. You need to understand that Paul used that phrase as shorthand for the gospel, the whole plan of salvation, of how God sent his son Jesus to die for us on the cross, to pay for our sins. And he and Jesus came and he died and he rose again, opening the gates of heaven and eternal life and establishing the kingdom forever. All of that Paul sums up in Romans as the righteousness of God. We learn that in chapter one, but then we forget it as we read Romans along the way. So what you've got to do is you've got to put that on a little decoder ring. You've got to write, just go through, as you're reading Romans and you see the righteousness of God, just write the word gospel. Since they did not accept the gospel. They tried to make righteousness their own project. But Christ is the culmination of the law so that there may be righteousness. For who? Everyone who believes. They use the law as a way to wedge their way into God's favor to attempt to make themselves worthy of his grace. And you cannot climb your way up to heaven. You cannot win God's favor through discipline or careful actions or hard work. No, you cannot climb up to heaven, but Jesus Christ is God. Come down. Come all the way down. They didn't see it. They didn't accept it. It was a stumbling block. Why? Why is it so hard? Well, it's always hard to accept that I might need help. The cross is a scandal. Because it declares your sin was so great, your position so much in peril that I had to send my son Jesus to die on your behalf. It's a scandal to our pride. As it is written, see, I lay a Zion a stone that causes people to stumble, a rock that makes them fall, and one who believes in him will never be put to shame. I lay a stone in Zion, says God. I'm laying a stone in front of you. Jesus is that stone. Associated himself with that stone. He put himself on the decoder ring. In Mark chapter 12, he said this. He said, Look, I am the Lord your God. I am Jesus. Haven't you read this passage of scripture? The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. The Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in his sight. I am the cornerstone. I am the rock. I am the rock, and there is no other, Jesus said very clearly. Look, the cross is a stumbling stone. You bang up against it. Am I either going to accept this, that I need forgiveness and grace? Or am I going to buck up against it and resist it? When you try to buck up against it and resist it and say, no, I think I'm going to do it on my own. No, I think I'm good. No, you can help me if you want, but I've got this. Well, now you just tumble over the stumbling stone, the rock. Jesus is the crisis moment. Jesus, he doesn't stand at the crossroads. He is the crossroads. When you come into the presence of the Lord, when once you are aware of the presence of God, there's only two ways to go. Receive or turn. Peter explained all of this. He explained all of this to the church. I'm going to let him explain it to us this morning. Here's Peter's letter to the church that he wrote from prison in Rome, maybe the Mamertine prison. As you come to him, the living stone. Who's that? Rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him. You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For in Scripture it says, See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame. Same verse, same Bible verse. This is Peter writing this now. Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, the stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. A stone that causes people to stumble, and a rock that makes them fall, they stumble because they disobey the message, which is also what they were destined for. But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession. Does that sound familiar? You're mine. That you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness and into His holy light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. So will you accept what Christ has done for you? Or will you grit your teeth and double down and say, I'm going to prove my own way? I'm the captain of my fate, the Lord of my future. I'm in charge of all this and more. Or will you receive that Christ is the foundation? And in Him, you are saved. It's a crisis moment where your heart decides either I will be saved by the work of another, or I will demand my own tract. Either I will rest in the grace of one who's done it for me, or I will continue to try to prove myself worthy. Which is it? Which is it? Jesus finished, he culminated that whole project. The people took the law and they created this project out of it. They created this ladder out of it. This this they wanted to make like a great pyramid, a great, a great temple to walk up into the presence of the Lord using what God had given them. And Jesus, he it says he's the culmination of the law. He finished it. What on earth does that mean? Listen, there's some parts of the law that Jesus absolutely fulfilled and finished and set aside. And when he did that, he was very clear about it. The greatest example is the food laws, right? He said, look, it's not what goes into your mouth that makes you unclean, but what comes out of a sinful heart. And so Jesus declared all food clean. You can eat a bacon double cheeseburger today. You can. Jesus said so, glory to God. Just don't eat too many of them. And don't eat an owl, please. But he declared all things, and when Jesus did that, he was very clear, and he did that with some other things, some cultic regulations, the sacrifices that he completed, some civic regulations like capital punishment. He said, I've taken that on myself. He's very clear. There's other things in God's law in the Old Testament that Jesus double-clicked on and said, This we sustain, this we carry on with. What's the greatest example? One of them is marriage. That marriage is between a man and a woman, a husband and a wife, leave their father and mother, they cleave together and become one flesh, form a new family. There's things on the Sabbath, the tithing, uh, fasting. He can he can continue on in these things. And he's very clear about it. But Jesus took all that project of is this word a way to climb into heaven to leverage God? He culminated all that. He took it all and said, This project is over. This is still God's word. This is still God's way. This is a way to live your life in gratitude to God and his grace and his love. This is the shape of holiness. But can you earn your way up into heaven? No. This is the old, the old challenge, faith and works. Faith and works. Which side do you want to be on? Look at verse 4 of chapter 10, then we're just about done. Christ is the culmination of the law. Did you read this with me? Help me out here. Christ is the culmination of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes. For who? Can an Israelite be saved? Everyone. Can an American be saved? Everyone. Can a Kenyan be saved? Who can be saved? Everyone who believes. It doesn't belong to one special group. Now righteousness is for everyone. Why didn't the Jews accept Jesus? Why did they bang their shins up against the stumbling block? It's the same reason you do. Same reason I do. We just get it in our heads that we've got to prove ourselves to God. We just get it in our heads, there's no way it can be free. We walk into a place like uh like the cathedral with Jesus, Christus Pantocrator, looming over us, standing there as we are, in our shorts and sweaty shirt and messed up lives, and something in us clicks. I don't belong here. You can almost hear the voice of Jesus talking down from that great mosaic you. You think you can just put traipse on in here in your flip-flops and messy shorts and sweaty and go get yourself together, man. It's not the voice of the Lord. It's the voice of our own self-condemning hearts trying to convince us that we have to prove our way into God's love. It's not the voice of the Lord. You want to hear the voice of the Lord? He looks down and he sees you standing there. And he says, You. It's you. I have loved you with an everlasting love. I have longed to be in your presence. I have longed to bring you into the love of the Father. It's you. You're here. Don't worry about it. It's been paid. It's been covered. I've paid for all of your sins on the cross. There's no debt to be paid. It is all covered over. It's you and you're home. And the Father cannot wait to wrap his arms around you and to usher you in to all of my victories and blessings. It's finished. The whole story is done. And it's you. And look at what I've done. And I want to bless you. Come on. Come home. You're finally where you belong. You believe that. That is the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And that is the truth that will change your life forever. When you believe it and understand it. So, Lord, thank you so much for your incredible, fathomless love. You are Christ all-powerful. You are Christ the ruler of all. You are Christ who sustains everything. You're over everything, Jesus. And you've extended your hand of grace to each of us. Help us to believe, to trust in you, to know the good news of the gospel, to know the righteousness that you have won for us, and to come home. In Jesus' name we pray.

SPEAKER_00 32:49

Hearing God's word is just the beginning. What connected with you? What challenged you today? Maybe it's surrendering something, stepping into community, or simply trusting Him more deeply. Whatever it is, don't leave it for later. Act on it today. We're praying that this message moves you closer to Jesus. And we'd love to walk with you in that journey and answer any questions you've got. Connect with us by visiting firstprints.org. If today's message encouraged you, take a moment and subscribe so you never miss an episode. And share it with someone who needs to hear it. Check in next week and we'll continue to grow in our faith together. See you next time.