The following message is by pastor John Piper.

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Romans 9 versus 30 through 33.

What shall we say then, The Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is a righteousness that is by faith, but that Israel, who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness, did not succeed in reaching that law.

Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works.

They have stumbled over the stumbling stone.

As it is written, behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling

and a rock of a Father in heaven, I pray now that you would draw near and help me to unfold these words.

I pray that I would be faithful to your inspired Apostles meaning. And I pray that right affections would accompany right thinking.

And I pray for the transformation of lives.

I pray especially for those who have not been seeking or pursuing righteousness that this

morning wonder of wonders they would attain righteousness.

So come, Father, be our teacher,

through Christ I pray, Amen. The situation in view here in these verses is the one we saw last week Paul's situation in his day. It's very much

like our situation in our day. It's found in verse 24 where God is calling from Jews, some Jews and some Gentiles, into his saving sphere, into his work, into his people.

And the issue Paul is faced with here is that only some Jews are being called.

In verse three, rather than coming, they are accursed and cut off from Christ,

and therefore the problem is being raised as to why it is that so few Jews are

included in the people of God and why now the doors have been flung wide to the Gentiles,

what is it that has brought this strange turn of affairs about.

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