Faith, Not Works

Sermons of Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Religion & Spirituality, Christianity

4.8 • 603 Ratings

🗓️ 3 January 2026

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Romans 9:30-33 — Paul is grieving over the standing of the Jews because in the church there are more believing Gentiles than Jews. This fact probably rattled most Jews to the core. The Gentiles, who had not sought after righteousness and lived immoral lives, had received a righteousness by faith. However, the Jews, who were actively pursuing the law and its commands, had not received righteousness. So why is it that God’s chosen people were outside of the church? In this sermon on Romans 9:30–33 titled “Faith, not Works,” Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones says that the law demands absolute perfection and if any one statute were broken then there would be no account of righteousness. Paul points out that the gospel of the Lord is for all people and salvation is purely the work of Christ alone. Each person is responsible for their rejection of the gospel but they are not responsible for their acceptance of the gospel. The Bible teaches that election alone accounts for the saved, but non-election does not count for those who are lost. All are in Adam so they are all without excuse, both Jews and Gentiles.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	We come this evening to a consideration of the last four verses in the ninth chapter
0:08.1	Paul's epistle to the Romans, verses 30 to 33. What shall we say then? That the Gentiles
0:17.3	which followed not after righteousness have attained to righteousness, even the
0:24.6	righteousness which is of faith.
0:26.6	But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the
0:33.6	law of righteousness.
0:34.6	Wherefore, because they sought it not by faith, but as it were, by the law of righteousness. Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were, by the
0:41.7	works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone. As it is written, behold, I lay in Zion
0:51.6	a stumbling stone and rock of a fence, and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
1:01.5	Now clearly we come here to a new subsection in this ninth chapter of the epistle.
1:07.4	You will recall that in our analysis of it at the beginning and in our subsequent
1:11.9	analyses as we've come to the various subsections, we have indicated all along that the main
1:20.7	argument comes to an end at the end of verse 29. Now, what the apostle does here in these verses that are now before us is to
1:31.5	draw a conclusion or to give a summary of the entire argument that he has been deploying
1:40.5	and working out. And he introduces that with his familiar formula, what shall we say then?
1:48.8	In other words, in the light of all this, what do we now say? What is the position at which we have
1:55.6	arrived? That's his method. It's a very logical method. It's a very clear method. And it is, of course,
2:01.8	the outstanding characteristic in the writings of this particular apostle. Now, it's important
2:08.7	that we should realize that he's here drawing a conclusion not only with respect to what
2:14.7	has immediately gone before. Here is the conclusion drawn from the whole of the chapter, and especially from what he
2:22.8	has been arguing so closely and cogently from verse 6.
2:28.7	So it is a drawing together of the whole argument, a general conclusion from the statement of the whole chapter.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Martyn Lloyd-Jones, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Martyn Lloyd-Jones and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.