In the sermon 'The Defining Stone' by Jason Dohm, the central theme revolves around the theological interpretation of Romans 9:30-33. Dohm emphasizes the pivotal role of Jesus Christ as a 'defining stone' in determining one's spiritual standing and eternal fate. He contrasts the attainment of righteousness by the Gentiles, who received it through faith, with the Jews who pursued it through the law and failed. The sermon argues that righteousness cannot be achieved through law-keeping because it requires perfect adherence, which is impossible for humans. Instead, righteousness is attained through faith in Jesus Christ, who embodies the perfect righteousness needed for salvation. The law serves to show individuals their shortcomings and lead them to Christ, who is described as both a stumbling stone for those who reject Him and a cornerstone for those who accept Him. Dohm concludes by urging listeners to trust in Jesus, abandon pride, and recognize the futility of attempting to achieve righteousness through works, highlighting the necessity of humility and faith for salvation.

Good morning. This morning's text is Romans 9 30 through 33. I put this in context. I'm going to back up and be reading from Romans 25 through 33. As he says also in Hosea, I will call them my people, who were not my people, and her beloved, who was not beloved.

And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them, You are not my people. There they shall be called the sons of the living God. Isaiah also cries out concerning Israel, though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, the remnant will be saved, for he will finish the work and cut in short in righteousness, because the Lord will make a short work upon the earth. And as Isaiah said before, unless the Lord of Sabbath had left us as a seed, we would have become like Sodom, and we would have been made like Gomorrah. What shall we say then that Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained to righteousness, even though the righteousness of faith?

But Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained 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 were stumbled in that stumbling stone. As it is written, behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and a rock of offense, and whoever believes on him will not be put to shame." The title of the sermon this morning is the defining stone. The defining stone.

Jesus Christ is set forth in several different places in the prophetic language of Isaiah as a stone. And Paul is teaching us in this text that who Jesus Christ is to you, your true relation to Him, will define everything that is truly important for you. I'm going to say that again, because if that's not overstatement, almost everything else you would say something like that about would be overstatement. But I'm saying this isn't hyperbole, this isn't overstatement, and if it's not overstatement you should really pay attention to the rest of the sermon. So let me just say this again.

Paul is teaching us in this text that who Jesus Christ is to you and your true relation to Him will define everything that is truly important to you. Anything that's important, really important, really of consequence, comes down to who is Jesus Christ to you. What is your true relation to Him? Let's pray. God, I pray that you would convince every hearer that the preacher is not overstating, not being dramatic.

That it all hangs on this, it all hinges on this. Whatever else in life is missed, this wouldn't be missed. God, be so gracious to us today. Help us. We know that you gave Paul these words to help us.

Now, let it all land. Let it do all the good you intended. You inspired Paul. I pray in Jesus name. Amen.

We have four verses. We're just going to split them two and two. Will that be okay? You don't really get a vote. That was a rhetorical question.

2 and 2. Let's look at 30 and 31. Hopefully your Bibles are still open to Romans chapter 9. Follow along as I reread verses 30 and 31. Paul continues his letter to the Romans.

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. Here in these two verses, Paul talks about attaining righteousness and failing to attain righteousness. If you're filling in blanks, there's one blank and failing fills in the blank.

Attaining to righteousness, coming into a state of being righteous or failing to come into that state of being righteous. He speaks of them both. Paul begins with the question, What shall we say then? In other words, Paul has been teaching about the grace of God in Romans chapter 9 and God's sovereignty in giving that grace. Romans chapter 9 teaches that God is full of grace but he doesn't owe grace.

So from Romans chapter 9, if all you had was Romans chapter 9, would you say God is a God of grace? You would say yes. Would you say God owes anyone grace? You would have to come away from that question in Romans chapter 9, emphatically saying, no, he doesn't owe grace. The nature of grace is that it isn't owed.

Never owed. So Paul's been teaching that through Romans chapter 9. Now he wraps up and he wants to know what we should conclude from all these things that he's been teaching in the chapter. What does all this mean? That's really the question at hand.

What does all this mean? Been laying down things that are important to believe because they're true about God and God's grace but not owing grace. What does all this mean? By the way, there have already been other sections in Romans that Paul has concluded just the same way by asking, What shall we say then? So he likes doing this.

He likes summing up by getting to the end of his establishing doctrines and then saying, What shall we say to this? What does all this mean? And then telling us what all this means so that we don't miss what all this means. So this is so helpful. Paul would structure it this way.

He would get to the end of this important doctrinal teaching and then make sure we didn't miss it. What should we say to these things? What does all this mean? Here's what Paul wants us to understand is the meaning of all that we've been studying. This is the seventh week in Romans chapter 9.

We'll speed up after this maybe. He means this. The Gentiles were minding their own business. And their business was rejection of God, and their business was rebellion against God. Their business was sin.

They were not pursuing righteousness. Many of them were self-righteous. When Paul was in Athens, this is Acts 17, he said this to the leaders of Athens, men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious. You can go outside the borders of Israel and find plenty of religion. He's not accusing them, these Gentiles, of being irreligious.

There were pockets that were very religious, but that is different than pursuing real righteousness. Being religious is not the same thing as obeying the law of God in this book. And many of the Gentiles were openly given over to every sort of scandalous sin. We read about them in Romans chapter 1. There are lists of them throughout the New Testament.

Things that you don't want to be known for. Many of the Gentiles were known for them. They were irreligious. They were given over to scandalous sin. But these Gentiles, whether they were self-righteous, they thought they were good, but they weren't actually good.

They were proud of being religious, but there was actual, no actual righteousness, if you measure it by this book, or the ones that were just given over to outward, openly scandalous sin, none of them were pursuing righteousness. Then what happened to them? You have this pool of people. Not a single one of them was pursuing actual righteousness. Even so, some of them attained to righteousness.

How do you explain that? How can people attain to, The literal meaning of the Greek word being translated there is to lay hold of. How can people lay hold of something they're not even pursuing? Paul has been teaching it in chapter 9. People lay hold of a salvation they are not even pursuing because of the sovereign grace of God in choosing to save sinners.

So you would think, there can't be a logical explanation for this. They weren't pursuing righteousness, but they actually somehow attain to righteousness. How do you explain this? Paul has already explained it earlier in the chapter. It's the sovereign grace of God, and God desiring, choosing to save sinners.

God wants to be known as just, but not only as just, also as full of mercy and grace. So he enters into the mess of sinners lives and saves them to make himself known from this lump of clay that is a corrupt lump. Since Adam, since the entry of sin into the world, since the nature of every human born is bent against God, loving all the right things, hating all the right things. God loves things, we hate it. We hate those things.

God hates things, we love those things. Warped, corrupt, twisted, God takes out of that lump and he says, this will be a vessel of mercy. This will be a vessel of honor. I'm going to give honor here, where honor is not due, to make myself known as a God of grace. What kind of righteousness did these Gentiles lay hold of?

This is really important. They got really good and precise and disciplined and careful about law keeping. No! That's not the kind of righteousness. It was the righteousness of faith.

They laid hold of Jesus' righteousness by trusting Jesus, Trusting His person and His work, who is Jesus. He is the anointed of God who has been set apart by God to save sinners. And he's the perfect one to do it, because he's God and so he brings the perfections, but he's man, so he can stand as a substitute. He's the God-man. And his work, he's willing to stand in the place of sinners, to bleed for people who should bleed for their sins, and die for people who should die for their sins, and bear the reproach of people who should be shamed for their sins.

They laid hold of Jesus' righteousness by entrusting themselves to Jesus. They threw themselves on Jesus knowing that there was no other hope so they hoped in Him Because he is God's anointed to save sinners. So they took God on God's terms and threw themselves on Jesus for mercy. Meanwhile, Israel, the Jews, the physical descendants of Abraham, but not the spiritual descendants of Abraham. Remember, not all Israel is of Israel.

Paul said this in this same chapter. So there is this physical reality that God raised up to point to and teach about a greater spiritual reality. So don't confuse the two. Did pursue the law of righteousness, but did not actually lay hold of what they were pursuing. The physical picture, Israel, they did pursue the law of righteousness.

Paul just said the Gentiles weren't doing that. Gentiles weren't doing that. But Israel was doing that. They pursued the law of righteousness, but they didn't actually lay hold of what they were pursuing. They failed.

Now, What is the law of righteousness? Paul was talking about the Gentiles, he just said righteousness, but now he's talking about the Jews. He says something a little different, the law of righteousness. The law of righteousness is the system of being righteous by keeping the law. Righteousness through law keeping, it's the system.

But be very careful how you understand this. It is the system of being declared righteous by virtue of always being righteous and never being unrighteous. That is the standard. So if you think of righteousness through law keeping as anything under that standard, that's not what Paul is talking about. It is a system of being declared righteous by virtue of always being righteous and never being unrighteous.

So we're not talking about having a great day of being obedient to the Bible, or even a great week, or even a great month. We're talking about perfect, not great, perfect life of continuous obedience. Continuous, unbroken obedience. So that is the law of righteousness. A perfect life of unbroken obedience is the standard.

Did any of Israel attain to that? No. Did one single person in Israel attain to that? No, unless you can't, Jesus will get to that in a minute. Not in your life, not even close.

No one in Israel ever had a day meeting that standard. Let alone an unbroken life span. Imagine. So there were Gentiles who were not pursuing righteousness and yet they laid hold of it by faith because of God's sovereign grace. God had grace and God picked them to receive it.

Because he didn't owe it to anyone and he said, I'm taking you, I'm claiming you. You come out of the same lump of corrupt, warped clay, but I'm making a vessel and I'm going to give you honor. You're going to be a vessel of mercy." Meanwhile, Jews named the people of God, considering themselves the people of God, pursued righteousness, but failed to actually lay hold of it. The Gentiles weren't even looking for it. God made them righteous through Jesus' person and work.

The Jews were looking for it, but they pursued the wrong thing and never actually laid hold of it. Verses 32 and 33. Last two verses of the chapter. Verses 32 and 33. Follow along as I reread it.

Why? Why did Israel not attain to the law of righteousness? Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. They stumbled at that stumbling stone.

As it is written, Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and a rock of a fence. And whoever believes on him will not be put to shame." I put the question to you, what is this stone to you? That stone fills in the blank on the handout. What is this stone to you? Paul asks, Why didn't the physical descendants of Abraham attain to righteousness?

Why not? They were seeking it. Weren't they working? Yes, they were working. Then why didn't they attain?

Why couldn't they lay hold of their objective? I want you to picture this. There's a tall ladder leaning against a wall. You mount the ladder, start to climb. This is a really tall ladder, a really, really tall ladder.

This is going to take some work. But you set to the task. You climb, and climb, and climb, and climb. You sweat, you toil. It's work, but you feel good about making progress.

You're gaining altitude as you toil and sweat and climb. But after a long, long time of climbing, when you thought you would have been at the top by now, you look around and realize this ladder is leaning against the wrong wall. It's not even the right wall. Friends, your efforts were doomed from the start. If your ladder is leaned against the wrong wall, you can climb forever and you'll not end up where you wanted to be, where you knew you needed to be, where you labored to be.

It doesn't go there. So how much or little you climb doesn't matter at all. It's not the right wall. The top rung doesn't take you to the destination where you have to be, you need to be. You've been toiling to be.

It's not that destination. So whether you make it to the third rung or the thousandth rung it doesn't matter at all. It's the wrong wall Please turn to Galatians 3. Galatians 3. Just to see what Paul says in another place about the works of the law.

This is Galatians 3. I'll be reading 10-12. And then 13 and 14. I have comments I want to make in between. Galatians 3, 10-12.

Paul writes this to the Galatians. For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse. For it is written, Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all the things which are written in the book of the law to do them. But that no one is justified by the law and the sight of God is evident, for the just shall live by faith. Yet the law is not of faith, but the man who does them shall live by them." So this defines the law of righteousness, the system by which you are righteous because you kept the law.

Here's the system. Here's how it works. Cursed is everyone, so there will be no exceptions. It's everyone who does not continue, not a good day, week, month, year, decade, continue, unbroken lifespan, in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them so If the continuation is broken you're cursed If you don't do them all if you do them all but one, you're cursed. Now those of us who know ourselves even a little know the continuation is broken here and here and here and here and here and here and here.

It's not like, oh, we almost made it but we had one lapse. Oh, We obeyed all the laws except for this one law. When you consider yourself against this standard, you're not cursed until The continuation is broken once with one law. But if you just continue across the total span of your lifespan, and you obey all the laws, Not all minus one, but all the laws, the whole time through a life span, you can be declared righteous. Does that make you tremble to think that that would be the only system?

You would be without hope in the world if that was the only system. Now Paul continues in Galatians 3.13, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, For it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree, that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. The law was not given to us to show us how to be saved by keeping it. I'm going to repeat that. The law was not given to us to show us how to be saved through keeping it.

The law was given to us to convince us that we're lawbreakers. So that we will lay hold of Jesus's righteousness by faith. It's exactly what he says later in the chapter, verse 24, therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ. It shows you, you're a law breaker. Here, here, here, here, here, here, here.

That's today. Yesterday, it was here, here, here, here, here. The day before, It was here, here, here, here, here. The day before it was here, here, here, here, here. The law wanted to strip away your false hopes so that you would run to the one true hope.

That is that Jesus, who He is and what He's done, would be a refuge for the sinner. The only refuge for the sinner. It isn't ladder climbing. That ladder is on the wrong wall. Whether you get to the third rung or the thousandth rung, the end of it doesn't take you where you have to be.

It is trusting in Jesus. Is the law good? Yes. Does it reveal the character and perfections of God? Yes.

Should a Christian love it? Yes. Is it good to keep it? Of course. Does it dishonor God when we break it?

It does. Can we be saved by keeping it? Never! Never! It's all those things.

But you can to be saved by keeping it is to perfectly keep it for the unbroken course of a lifetime. Only He has it. You have to go to Him for it. Now Paul gives us an as it is written. He wants to ground what he's teaching in the scriptures of his day.

The New Testament is being written here. People don't have it, but people have the Old Testament. He wants to show the continuity with the revelation of God always. Grounded in Old Testament scripture, so he quotes Isaiah. As it is written, behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and a rock of offense and whoever believes on him will not be put to shame God lays in Zion Zion is Jerusalem.

There's synonyms. They mean the same thing and Zion is either It's used in two different ways It is either the physical reality, the actual physical city of Jerusalem, or It is the greater spiritual reality that this physical reality points to and teaches about, which is heaven. It's used both ways in scripture. It's either the physical city, you can go to Jerusalem today, or it's the reality that it points to, which is heaven, which is where all of God's people will gather for eternity. In this case, it is the physical reality.

He's talking about Jerusalem on the map. God lays in the physical capital of Israel front and center before all the physical descendants of Israel a stumbling stone and a rock of offense and Whoever believes on him on this stumbling stone on this rock of offense will not be put to shame. What Paul is teaching is clear. Jesus is the stumbling stone and the rock of offense. The Jews stumbled over him and fell.

The Jews were offended at him and by him, and so they could not be saved. He was just the carpenter's son to him, and they despised him. Jesus said to them face to face, you are not willing to come to me that you may have life. You're not willing. You will not come to me that you may have life.

John 5.40. But those who believe on him will never be put to shame. So that is what Paul means and it's plain and simple. But it's worth taking a closer look at exactly what he is quoting. I don't think we have to do that.

The meaning is right there in front of our noses. But it is helpful, I think, and adds some depth and texture if we go back and look at exactly what he's quoting. It is Isaiah, but it isn't a single passage in Isaiah. It is two that Paul puts together. He takes this from Isaiah, and he takes this from another part of Isaiah, and he puts them together.

There's no indication of that in the text, but that's what he's doing. The first is Isaiah 8.14. If we went to Isaiah 8.14, we would encounter some challenges from the double translation. Do you remember we hit this in the last text? Paul is quoting not the Hebrew original but the Greek translation.

So by the time it gets to us it's been from Hebrew to Greek to English, and every time you do a translation you lose a little bit, and we've had a double portion of that. So if we went to Isaiah 8, 14, we would find some things that were a little bit challenging, and it's because of the double translation. But in any event, what Paul is saying is very clear. And it should be noted that Isaiah 8 is just a handful of verses away from some of the classic prophecies about the Messiah, like, In Galilee of the Gentiles, the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death upon them a light has shined." What Paul is quoting is just a handful of verses away from that.

Or, for unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government will be upon his shoulder, and his name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. It's only a handful of verses away. So it's completely in step with this section of Isaiah that Paul would quote this and tag it to the Messiah. That's what it is in Isaiah 8, that's what it is when Paul quotes it here in Romans chapter 9. The second is Isaiah 28-16.

But Paul only quotes the second half of the verse, which is fine because it makes the intended point, whoever believes on him will not be put to shame. That's all Paul needed, that's all Paul quoted, no problem. But listen to the entire verse. The entire verse is this, Therefore, thus says the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion a stone for a foundation, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation, Whoever believes will not act hastily. They'll be thrown off by act hastily.

We have double translation going on. So by the time Paul quotes it and makes it to us in English, it will not be ashamed. Actually, if we went back and looked at the Hebrew, you get a lot closer, I think, to, will not be put ashamed to act hastily, but let's not get into that. What we have in Romans is fine. Heard that before?

Ever heard that before? Behold, I lay in Zion a stone for a foundation, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation. Yes, Jesus quotes it. Yes, Paul quotes it in other places. Yes, Peter quotes it.

So, we know it even if we're not very good in the Old Testament, we know it because it's in a lot of places in the New Testament. Now, bring these two together, which Paul has done, and which Peter also quotes both of these, side by side in 1 Peter 2, so Paul and Peter are of exactly the same mind, it describes two radically different states. This is what Paul is giving us. To some, Jesus is a stumbling stone and a rock of offense. Listen to what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1, 23.

Paul says this, 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 23, but we preach Christ crucified to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness. What are we preaching? Christ crucified, Jesus on a cross for sinners. Oh, that's a stumbling block to the Jews. And the Greeks say, that's foolishness.

This is your great savior, the carpenter's son, dying as a criminal. You're saying, that's what I deserve? No, I might be a little rough around the edges. I might need to be polished up a bit. But that's what I deserve.

The spitting, the slapping, the mocking, the beating, and then to hang and bleed out and asphyxiate on a Romans cross, you're saying I deserve that. I don't think so. Previous sermons I've been calling it the gospel pill. Can you swallow the gospel pill? Unless you can see Jesus dying on the cross and reconcile yourself with the fact that God says that's what you deserve for your treason against him, Jesus has nothing to offer you.

He's got nothing for you. You have to be ready to agree with what God says about you to have His Savior. I might be a little rough around the edges, Surely I need a little polishing. Nobody's perfect. That's not what the Bible says about you.

Can you swallow the gospel pill? Will you be parted from your pride and say, no, it's not true that I'm a basically good person. It is true that I'm a basically bad person. In, in my core of cores, what I deserve is what you see with that man hanging on the tree with the spitting and slapping and mocking that should be for me. If all my friends and families and co-workers knew all there was to know about me They would know that I deserve to be spit on and slapped on and mocked and to die for my sins, for my treason against this God who has only ever been good.

No, that's too big of a hurdle to get over for me. That's offensive to me. I just can't humble myself for that. The gospel has no offer for you. But to others, Jesus is the tried, precious cornerstone of a sure foundation.

Let me tell you, if that is you, you will never be put to shame because Jesus has born your shame. What a shame to hang on a Roman cross. What a shame to be spit on and slapped and mocked and beaten and betrayed by your own. There is no shame left for me. There's no shame left for me.

He's on the cross. He bore it. He made me a vessel of mercy, a vessel of honor. He's taking the shame on the cross. He made me a vessel of honor.

I said this at the beginning, I'll say it again, Paul is teaching us that who Jesus Christ is to you, and your true relation to Him will define everything that is truly important for you. Either He is a stumbling stone and a rock of offense, the hurdle that you just can't get over because you'll have your pride, You will not agree with the Bible about you, so the Gospel has no offer for you. Or He is, what are the words, a tried precious cornerstone of a sure foundation. Applications, let me give you three. One, you can only lay hold of righteousness by faith in Jesus.

So trust Jesus. There's only one way to be righteous. In God's eyes, and He's the only one who counts, He's the judge. There's only one way to be righteous. I assume unbroken perfect obedience across a lifespan is in the rearview mirror for all of us.

Right? We can't even remember. You can only lay hold of righteousness by faith in Jesus. So trust in the person and work of Jesus. Two, You cannot come to God setting the terms for salvation and preserving your pride.

Your pride is going to have to die for the Gospel to have an offer for you. Now, once you're saved you're going to find out, wow, I still brought a lot of that pride with me. You have to at least humble yourself enough to know you deserve what that man hanging on the tree got. The Jews took the law which was given to prove to them that they were lawbreakers so that they would look to the promised Messiah and they said we have us a system for earning God's favor. They put the ladder on the wrong wall.

If they'd have made it to the top rung, it would have been the wrong destination. God sets the terms of salvation and its actual righteousness, not the good old college try. I sure tried my best. Oh, did you? Tried your best, did you?

Well, is that what the record will show on the great day when the books are open? She tried her best. I don't think so. He tried his best, I don't think so. God sets the terms, it's perfect righteousness.

Jesus has it, Go to Him for it. Let your pride be left in the dust. Have eternal life. Three. Jesus is the tried precious cornerstone of the sure foundation.

If you believe on Him, you will never be put to shame because He has already borne your shame. All the shame is gone. He bore it. God, these are such precious truths. When I think of standing before you who know everything about me, everything that has been hidden from other people and my thoughts, words, deeds.

If I had to stand before you on that record of how ashamed I would be knowing how good you are. I thank you that in the work of the cross, Jesus has borne all the weight of the sins of his people, and has not only paid the penalty for sin, and broken the power of sin, but has wiped away the shame born of Himself. Thank you God for Jesus. Amen.