41. Romans 10

[Music] well good morning welcome [Applause] we are as you know in romans this morning chapter 10 and we just last week got into the first few verses so we made it down to about verse 4 and we'll pick up right there so we're in the middle of this uh text that uh is as we've indicated in the past sometimes uh somewhat forbidding uh it's certainly challenging material but uh obviously it's there for a reason so we're taking our uh opportunity to look at it and hopefully digest it to the extent that we can in a sort of survey fashion that we're undertaking here uh in very broad strokes uh you might say chapter nine is dealing with matters from heaven's perspective uh you might say chapter 10 is looking at things more from earth's perspective and a very kind of simplified uh notion of what's going on here and then in a way chapter 11 puts the picture together what's the question the question is what about israel we've seen that before what are we to make of the status of those people that we call the jewish nation it was a burning issue in the first century uh interestingly it continues to be kind of a burning issue to this day i think you're aware that in many quarters of especially evangelical christianity there's a very special uh kind of almost uh the theological distinction connected to israel that's connected to the end times and a whole uh kind of elaborate understanding of theology i am not in that school i'm a presbyterian presbyterian generally aren't in that dispensational school but at the same time even for us uh who may not have that perspective there obviously is something about uh the great question of the nation of israel the jewish people that needs to be taken seriously and that's what's before us here in romans chapters 9 10 and 11 and certainly elsewhere paul has a distinct uh theology on this point i don't think it's ambiguous i think he makes it pretty clear uh and hopefully our review of this has made it evident for the rest of us as well uh chapter nine paul has given us first of all his heart he is of course a jew and so when he starts asking the question what about the jewish nation he's asking a question that's very close to his own soul because these are his kinsmen these are his aunts and uncles and brothers and sisters and cousins and so on and so all of that makes this very much a pressing uh issue in his own mind and heart uh and yet at the same time he candidly acknowledges what is distinctly the new testament point of view that simply being born into a jewish family does not make a person a true jew he stated that expressly right off the bat in romans chapter two he is not a jew who is simply born as one or circumcised as one and so on there's something else going on and for paul the other thing that's going on is that you must be a child of the promise as he put it isaac was a child of the promise that's what made him the true seed of abraham jacob was a child of the promise that's what made him the true seed of abraham and isaac and in a sense that's the criterion throughout history not so much how are you born but how are you reborn you see that's the question that uh comes to the fore when we start thinking about uh who are those who are the proper recipients of the great promises made to abraham and his seed uh they are not all israel who are of israel paul says in romans 9 6 uh well that of course raises some questions for us and paul deals with those more or less on the side kind of like a footnote uh if it's true as paul says jacob i loved esau i hated if it's true that it's god's choice so that his purpose and election might stand if it's true that it is not a matter of the you know it was before the twins were born or hadn't done anything good or bad if it's simply god who shows mercy then there are at least certain natural objections that we tend to raise to that it doesn't seem to be very fair that god would behave that way that he takes some and not others and paul of course treats that subject it seems to deprive us of moral responsibility for our lives why does he still blame me who can resist his will is the way paul puts it there if god is sovereign that it seems to reduce me uh to something less than a free morally responsible human being and paul deals with that beginning in verse 19. we've covered that thankfully i'm not going to go back and deal with it again but we are we the last couple of weeks of course we've looked at that now in chapter 10 paul sort of returns to the primary question more or less bringing all of that back and once again raising the issue so what about israel what about these people and more or less in this segway text that joins chapter 9 with chapter 10 he summarizes on the one hand what he's just said and introduces on the other what he's going to say and it comes to us in the text we just finished with last week israel pursued righteousness but they pursued it based on as it were labor under the law they pursued it but they didn't achieve it oddly enough these people who were the most zealous to gain this thing that they call righteousness lost it and in a sense became responsible for the most wicked acts of the first century not only crucifying christ but making themselves the greatest enemy of the gospel in the early years of the church it was always the jewish people you see who were the the vicious uh of the attackers of paul in the gospel in the entire christian church on the other hand you have the gentiles they're the outsiders they don't give a rip about righteousness they're living lives given over wholly to perverse licentiousness of the most indescribable character and what happens they're the ones that come into the church they're the ones who embrace the bible they're the ones who start living lives of devotion to christ you're like what is wrong with this picture here's the jewish people you think they're the most likely to get it and they become the worst and the gentiles who by all measures seem to be the worst become the great champions of righteousness and the whole thing just seems so so perplexing unless we understand that god is sovereign unless we understand that we cannot ultimately explain these things simply by human measures unless we understand that it's not ultimately according to the one who wills or the one who runs but god who shows mercy unless we take that into account that human anomaly and history will leave us utterly perplexed and so that's really what paul is driving at the jewish people had a zeal for god paul says but it was not informed they were not prepared to submit to god's great gift christ was the very end of everything they were seeking he's the very righteousness of the law embodied and yet they stumbled over that stumbling stone they turned from him those the stone that the builders rejected pulse or jesus himself says became the chief cornerstone that's the that's the enigma that's what's going on so now paul is that's where we are right now and we're pressing forward then in chapter 10 and we'll pick up right at verse 5. uh if i could just kind of remind you now of something that will play a role in our discussion this morning in a sense what paul has reminded us of is something that he said back in chapter four uh it's this idea that you might say there's two ways to come to god you can come based on your own merit or you can come based on the merit of christ you're on one path of the other there's no way to walk both paths and there is no third path this is it and paul says back in chapter 4 there are those who work meaning those who intend to simply give god a bill at the end of their lives bill him for the life they've lived okay god give me my wage and paul says fine to those who work their reward will be reckoned as a debt not as a gift so those people who show up before god on judgment day and want to simply extract from him the payment for the life they've lived will get the payment for the life they live they'll get exactly what they deserve and it'll be the biggest catastrophe of their entire existence you see but he says that's fine you want to approach god that way god will never prohibit you from doing so on the other hand there are those who do not work paul says romans 4 verse 5 not that they don't work period but they don't work to earn anything from god they don't work in the sense of trying to build a meritorious basis for their acceptance before god they don't work they repudiate works for that purpose and they simply trust god to receive from him a gift those are the two paths every one of us in this room is on one of those paths you don't know about me i don't know about you we can only examine our own hearts at that point but that's that's that's a theology paul has laid out in a sense now we're coming back to that theme uh but we're asking the question in particular with respect to israel what path were they on and of course paul has already told us they were trying to achieve righteousness based on the works of the law they were on the path of works and so the question in a sense behind the scenes is why didn't they switch paths why in the face of all that they had in the in the advent of the gospel the preaching of the gospel the apostles the church the pentecost all of these things that occurred why didn't they change paths and really uh that's what will be before so with that we'll start at verse five let's uh let's have a word of prayer and then we'll pick up from there a father we are grateful that you give us these texts which certainly don't represent the most uh easy texts in the scripture and yet you put them there through the apostle that they should be for our edification for our understanding we pray that whatever else we are able to glean from these uh insights into the nature of your work in history that we would certainly learn the lesson that we as we stand in your family stand there by grace that is mercy that you have lavished upon us which makes us those who can call you our father and call christ our brother and know that we are those who look forward to the uh glory that you've set before us that this is not our merit but it's your gift we thank you for it we pray that as we review this text this morning that you bring more clearly into our understanding these things that have to do with our redemption we thank you for it in jesus name amen all right beginning at verse 5 paul is now going to remind us in a sense put those two paths back before us so path number one is referred to by paul in verse five moses writes concerning the righteousness that comes from the law that quote the person who does these things will live by them there's path number one getting to god based on your own works and that is certainly in the old testament uh and paul quoting leviticus here where moses there at least uh purportedly ostensibly at the mount sinai probably at mount sinai is giving to the people this rule that if you're going to live under god's law then you need to do god's law you need to do it now some commentators think paul is being a little unfair here with moses it's a technical point i'm not going to worry about it but paul's point is pretty clear he's trying to establish as it were paradigm number one work your way to god and under the old testament regime that is just as much an available path as it were as you might say it was in in the new testament in romans 4. uh but obviously we understand from what paul has already told us that if you take that path you are never going to get life uh there is a 100 failure rate in terms of working your way to heaven you can try if you want if you think you can be the exception to the rule fine paul says go ahead give it a go you will fail that's his promise there's none righteous no not one there's none who understands they've all gone out of the way there's none who does good but if you want to give it a go you see it's up to you so that's the warning of the new testament that's the path of works now what paul wants to say is in the old testament this is more the surprise the path of faith is equally present this is not a new testament novelty this is not some new strange idea floating de novo out of heaven that now comes only through the god no this was in the old testament as well faith is as much an old testament idea as it is a new testament idea and so paul wants us to see that now quoting moses again but this time from deuteronomy so listen to it verse six but second path now the righteousness that comes from faith says quoting moses do not say in your heart who will ascend into heaven paren that is to bring christ down or quote who will descend into the abyss paran that is to bring christ up but what does it say the word is near you this is moses speaking on your lips and in your heart paul paren that is the word of faith that i proclaim now that's a tricky passage i don't know if you caught that but there's a lot going on there the part of the problem we have reading that text is we read it of course as 21st century gentiles for the most part and uh paul is writing really for a first century jewish reader and the jewish reader steeped in the old testament is going to follow almost intuitively the ins and outs of that little text much more readily than we will so we'll try to take a minute or two just to unpackage please first just get the basic idea two paths works leviticus but faith is there as well deuteronomy and the principle of faith says don't despair of the prospect of your own salvation saying it's too hard that's the basic idea if you know the text there in deuteronomy it's uh you know moses of course giving the deuteronomos the second giving of the law uh the children of israel have been in the wilderness for 40 years the old folks have died that first generation of escapees from egypt are dead in the wilderness this is their kids 40 years later now they're the ones who are on the east bank of the jordan preparing to invade the promised land under joshua moses is reaching the end of his life this is his last will and testament as it were some scholars have called it a dynastic succession celebration in the ancient near eastern custom moses passing the mantle now to joshua giving his last final word to these people and what is that word it's a repetition of the law he's going to go back and remind them of the law that was given to them at sinai updating it to some extent but fundamentally it's the same message that he's giving it's a long sermon i mean you know we think a 40-minute sermon is long you ain't seen nothing the puritans thought a sermon was about the right length of it was two and a half hours that was about the right length for a sermon for them but they weren't they didn't have tv they didn't know that life takes place in half-hour segments you know so they didn't have that benefit but moses this was probably an eight-hour sermon i mean this was a long sermon france and they were they were out there in the uh on the bank of the jordan as it were and and uh that great message is given and you can almost imagine what's happening in the minds of these people as they hear moses roll on and on precept upon line up online burdening these people with all the stipulations and regulations and requirements of the law after eight long hours they're all going me how are we gonna do this i mean this is too much who in the world could do all that moses is requiring of this i mean it's like you're asking us to climb mount everest it's like you're asking us to swim the widest ocean you're requiring of us that which is absolutely beyond any rational reasonable expectation moses who could do all this you see and moses knows that's what they're thinking it sees you know he sees it in their eyes and so he warns them now in the text that paul quotes don't you say in your hearts who can do this who can climb the highest mountain who can ascend into heaven who can swim the widest ocean who can achieve all of this and moses says no no no don't say all of that because this word this requirement is right next to you it's right there it's not on top of a mountain it's not on the other side of an ocean it's right there as close as your mouth and as close as your heart it is perfectly within the capacities and faculties of your human power at this point because it is but a matter of faith and paul says you see moses is basically saying what i'm saying moses and i are on the same page here and i don't want any of you to start laboring under a delusional idea that the requirement that was set before israel was somehow beyond them somehow impossible either because of god's election we'll have to deal with that in a minute or because it would simply requiring them uh something that was beyond them or for any other reason you see christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes jesus packages for us all that the law requires and so whether it was for israel and deuteronomy back there or for israel today jesus was the one who brought as it were to them everything that was expected of them and he was as close as their mouth and their heart it's not up on the mountain who will ascend on the mountain to bring christ down the end of the law the fulfillment of the law down from this impossible height or who will descend into the abyss to bring him up and paul clearly hears in these very swift moves actually kind of incorporating the gospel into this thing who will achieve all that the gospel is supposed to to accomplish for us you see all of this is kind of happening here uh and the subtleties of it are are somewhat perplexing even at that but i think that's that's the main idea and of course paul is saying as moses said it's right next to you i think you could properly infer here and now i'm just going to speculate a little bit someone might say based on their reading of romans 9 well it's all god's arbitrary sovereign choice and who is going to ascend into heaven to bring god's sovereign decree down you see i mean that's not quite what paul is saying and i don't want to push that point too hard but i think he might actually subtly be responding to that if paul's if if in romans nine we hear it's not according to the one who wills or according to the one who runs but god who shows mercy does that lead us kind of in this place of despair and it's just this cosmic roulette game i mean maybe my number will come up and maybe it won't you know maybe i'm elect maybe i'm not but one thing's perfectly obvious it's not up to me and it's not up to anyone i preached to so why preach the gospel why even bother might be the inference that someone might draw from romans chapter nine paul is not going to let us stay there not for a nanosecond but you can see that he he might actually be thinking that that's in somebody's mind you know so anyway i think you get the basic grip so what does it say uh is this message impossible and now we have one of the greatest treatments of the the the uh as it were impulse to proclaim the gospel that we'll find anywhere in the scriptures and here it is from the lips of the apostle we start with verse uh the word is near you and your lips in your heart the word of faith we proclaim and then paul continues now his own language not moses verse nine because if you confess with your lips that jesus is lord and believe in your heart that god raised him from the dead you will be saved and you see all of a sudden we're looking at this from the other end of the tube you know because our concern from our human perspective here is a very simple one that is this are you willing to confess with your mouth jesus is lord because you see that is your mouth we're talking about it's not somebody's mouth up on top of mount everest or on the other side of an ocean somewhere this is right there next to you it's your mouth are you prepared to confess with your mouth jesus is lord that's something you can do are you prepared to believe in your heart that god raised him from the dead that's something by the way you can do in terms of the human natural faculties it is not impossible to you to do it if you don't do it it's not because you can't do it it may be because you won't do it but it's certainly not an impossibility in terms of the faculties that are under your power you have a mouth use it you have a heart exercise it confess with your mouth believe in your heart paul says you're going to be saved don't start sweating i wonder if i'm elect do i feel elect what about you are you elected i don't know don't start second guessing the divine decree and you're going around the world saying i can't preach to that guy obviously that guy's not elected now that person over there maybe that person is he like maybe i'll no no no you see whatever we do with the doctrine of god's election and predestination the one thing we're not permitted to do is start thinking that we can know that divine decree that's part of god's great eternal wisdom you know that he's been pleased not to show us so for us we follow jesus a paradigm and he says go into work under the world and preach the gospel to who thank you thank you i'm gonna wake you guys up every so often preach the gospel to every creature you see a creature you preach oh a creature i better preach this is what we do this is what christian people are all about preaching the gospel to every creature saying to these people in good conscience because it is perfectly true if you will confess with your mouth jesus is lord and if you will believe in your heart that god raised him from the dead my friend you will be saved that's the new testament sweep you know whoever is weary and heavy lane come to me wide open wide open appeal of the new testament gospel paul opens the door even wider before we're done here lest we think there's some sort of constriction of the gospel that is somehow built into the notion of god's election we cannot entertain that thought for a moment the gospel goes to the world and we say that we say to everybody you know confess with your mouth now i don't want to i don't want to overstate the simplicity of this to confess with your mouth jesus lord is not the same thing as simply parroting some syllables sort of you know sputtering out some uh you know words or sounds there jesus is lord well anybody could say those words to confess it means that it's a reflection of where your heart is to say jesus is lord is to say he's my sovereign he's my king he's my lord where he sins i will go what he says i will do what he commands i will obey you know he's the one who dictates the terms of my life start to finish i have no rights over myself that exceed his he's the one that determines he's my lord that's the idea so to confess it is no small thing i'm not trying to minimize that but the point is it's something you can do it's not like crawling through a knot hole or swimming across an ocean or climbing an impossible mountain it's something you can do i don't know if you will do it it's a different question the fact that you can do it is not the same as whether you will but don't ever say that because you won't you can't it's not the same thing and all paul is saying here's if you will you'll be saved and that's true of anybody to anybody uh we at this point don't slam the door shut this calvinist saying oh well you're not elect therefore go away perish the thought so paul says if you confess with your mouth jesus lord believe in your heart you'll be saved because one believes with and the implication is here his own heart or her own heart and so is justified and one confesses with his or her own mouth it's not somebody else's mouth it's not somebody else's confession it's not some impossible task it's right next to you it's in your mouth it's in your heart this word of faith that we're proclaiming because the scripture says no one who believes in him will be put to shame nobody who calls on god's name will be cast out this is the wonderful message of the gospel this is the this is the as it were the the you know the card of the new testament the the jewel this is the gospel this is this is jesus uh appeal through his people to all there is no distinction neither jew or greek you know you're jewish fine call in the name of the lord you'll be saved you're greek fine you're born in poverty doesn't matter you're born in wealth who cares you've still got a call in the name of the lord there's no special privileges there's no special impairments anybody at this point is on the same turf as anybody else we all stand equally before god in need of his grace and it's freely given to all who but call on his name confessing believing because the same lord is lord of all and is generous to all who call this is the same paul who in chapter 9 was telling us it's not according to the one who wills or but god who shows mercy but notice he doesn't want us to go the wrong direction with that how perilous it would be for us to become kind of stuffy and cozy thinking we have some sort of uh in here that is not legitimately an inference from that great theology of god's sovereignty the message of the gospel goes to all and it's a wide open invitation to everybody for everyone who calls on the name of the lord will be saved everybody who calls on the name of the lord will be a wonderful missionary text isn't favorite of missionaries i think it gains even more power against the backdrop of romans 9 frankly i think it gains even more zest against romans 9 but uh but it certainly represents this this great uh energetic appeal to the people of god to proclaim the word and an assurance to all who hear it that if they but call in the name of the lord with sincerity from their hearts they will be saved there's no reason to be filled with anxiety about the state of your soul you see if you do it with sincerity calling on god's name you will be saved now implied in this text i think you'll agree it doesn't quite say it here but paul certainly has a thundering implication that only those who call on the name of the lord will be saved that's certainly the assumption behind the ensuing verses everyone who calls in the name of the lord but only those who call in the name of the lord will be saved that this is the new testament uh notion pretty consistently throughout there's arguments that are sometimes made about you know some alternative paths but really it's a tough case to make when we're told pretty much expressly new testament there's only one name by which we can be saved the man christ jesus you know that i'm the way no one that comes to the father but through me paul's saying here whoever calls in the name of the lord and so then paul raises what is obviously the question that must flow from that statement well then how are they going to call on one in whom they have not believed now usually if you call somebody on the phone it's because you believe they exist i don't know i i hope i don't disillusion anyone in the room i haven't tried to call santa claus for years you know i don't think he's there i had a very disillusioning experience when i was five years old and i went down to the local department stores called laps furniture it was actually four and there was santa claus biggest life right there red suit red the white beard i guess i thought there's the guy i've been looking waiting for years to talk to this fella you know what i went up got on his lap looked at his eyes that was my dad and then i learned who santa claus really is you see that's when i got the message and from that day on i knew that santa claus was my dad that's who he is and uh still is but there ain't any guy that lives at the north pole and so probably most of us don't try to come because we don't believe in him you know and paul is simply saying the obvious here no one's going to call in on someone that they don't think is out there and of course how are they going to believe in one of whom they ever heard it's impossible to believe the existence of one that you've never heard of you know now maybe you recall back in uh romans four we talked about the three elements that go into faith a little review is always good i should quiz you on this do you remember this romans chapter 4 the reformers and the great debate about faith reduced it to three little ideas that are related to three latin words anybody huh any brave souls remember any of that okay you all flunk here it is first one i'll give you a hint the first one is noticia remember that no which for the reformers was simply the information we cannot have faith in the biblical sense unless we know the information of the gospel jesus died for your sins and so on but then of course beyond that they have the ascensions a census is my conviction that it's true my ascent to its truth you know but even that doesn't actually qualify me as a person who has true faith because beyond noticia beyond the census there is the requirement of fedusha and feducia is as calvin said my acquiescence into the truth my embracing it with affection making it my own and consuming it as it were like ezekiel ate the book we eat the book of the gospel it's in our blood we actually make it part of our very makeup it's in our dna the gospel is there that's fiducia you see and of course what paul is raising here in some ways is that at least at this point three-part question how can i call fedusha on the one in whom i haven't believed that sensus you know but how can i believe a census in the one of whom i've never heard no tisha i've got to have the notation at least before i can believe it and that i have to have before i can embrace it and all of that of course can only come as paul continues the thought how will they hear how they get the noticia if someone doesn't proclaim it paul of course is being a little bit defensive of his own ministry here he's a missionary for goodness sakes he's writing this book from the city of corinth he's on his third missionary journey he's writing to the romans where he plans his fourth missionary journey this is a little bit of the theological autobiography here he's one that's not doing the very thing that he's defending here he says and how will they send how they proclaim unless they are sent paul in fact is a little hint here probably because he's hoping the romans are going to send him to spain he tells them that a little bit later uh in romans and uh this wonderful text how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news in other words the church is all about sending missionaries out to the world to preach the gospel because it's those who call on the name of the lord who will be saved and we have every reason to do that because we believe that god is from all eternity chosen some of those people and we may be the wonderful midwives who show up to give them the opportunity to respond to the gospel and embrace it by god's grace and be saved and become numbered among those who are in fact the heirs of eternal suffering what a privilege that is you know that we should be those who go to the world david livingston went to africa he was a convinced calvinist people said he was like one of the first guys to go to africa you know and uh people what are you doing this for what can one guy accomplish in that huge continent he believed that god had people chosen there and it might be his great privilege to go and be the one that brought them the gospel and that remarkable career he had was in some ways driven by his belief that god had chosen from all eternity folks who would respond to the gospel uh as soon as it was presented to them and indeed in many cases they did all of this you see is the is the great uh impulse of the gospel and then we have in verse 16 the word we kind of knew was coming notice that verse 16 but the gospel is wide open it's not beyond you it's not beyond your reach it's right in your mouth it's right in your heart it's the word of faith we proclaim it's not on top of a mountain it's not across an ocean it's right there it's easy as pie easiest falling off a log to a five-year-old can do it embrace the gospel confess christ as lord believe in your heart that god raised him from the dead but not all have obeyed the good news well why not it seems like everybody should obey the good news it seems like as easy as it is as little as it requires why wouldn't everybody come flooding into the church in this wonderful wide open door isaiah says lord who's believed it faith indeed verse 17 comes through hearing hearing indeed comes through the word of christ faith indeed will come through the proclamation of the gospel that is the ordinary means whereby god calls people into the kingdom and yet at the same time we're faced with this astonishing reality that not everybody believes you preach the gospel to a bunch of very similar people some believe it some don't some come forward some walk away laughing mocking some people this is a life-changing moment they fall at the feet of the cross charles preached a wonderful brilliant sermon this morning setting forth in simple terms the gospel it's perfectly possible this morning someone may have for the first time seen it clearly and come and embrace that gospel and it's perfectly possible another person walked away thinking what a silly idea what is that why is it that some don't believe they could they don't in particular paul says how come israel first century didn't believe he raises that very question verse 9 verse 18 i ask have they not heard maybe the problem in israel in the first century was they just didn't hear the message they didn't hear it i mean jesus was there he was doing the best he could but it just didn't quite get to them you know that's why they didn't believe is that why they didn't respond of course paul himself answers that quoting psalm 19 their voice has gone out to the earth and words to the ends of the world paul using that verse a little bit illegitimately he knows he's doing it it's a verse about general revelation but it's a colloquialism to say oh no israel was filled with the message of the gospel i remember a few years ago billy graham came to spokane this was some years ago i mean i think like 20 years ago or so maybe more it was a big deal i mean yeah i don't think you could be in spokane and not know that billy graham was coming and when he was here everybody you know it was on the news i mean it was a big deal you know it's like a superstar coming to town and uh in this the remarkable career that billy graham had you know it was sort of that way everywhere he went some reason that you know a simple southern preacher was able to just bring in people by the hundreds of thousands who would hear him our own beloved former pastor dick leon was converted in a billy graham crusade he went to it thinking as a 16 year old he'd go and laugh at this silly evangelist and his quip as god has been laughing ever since you know that changed his life there what was it about that that happened and what about israel what if billy graham had gone to israel in the first century do you think everybody would have heard about it what if there had been two billy grahams simultaneously going up and down israel's little uh real estate uh and preaching you think people would have probably heard about it how about if there had been 500 billy grahams just descending on israel in the first century preaching the god you think people would have probably heard it and paul says uh better than 500 billion god sent god incarnate god sent the god man the most persuasive powerful authoritative preacher of human history who transcends infinitely any other preacher be it billy graham or anyone he's the one that showed up and he was a public figure this was no mystery religion jesus was out there in public everybody heard of him and if they had any doubt about what he said he said believe me for my work sakes he was constantly performing miracles proving the truth of what he said raising the dead healing the sick giving side to the blind nobody could deny the power and the truth of the message and they all heard it but they didn't believe how do you figure that you know and then all these other people believe it who only got it second hand from people like paul and others well paul says verse 18 maybe the problem verse 19 rather maybe the problem is israel did not understand maybe they heard it they just didn't get it maybe they got the noticia but not the ascensions uh maybe they just didn't quite follow they didn't track with the message that's why they didn't believe it certainly wasn't that it was too tough it wasn't on top of mount everest it was right there but they didn't believe and paul kind of cuts to the chase now as if to say no the simple explanation for why they didn't believe comes down to this again quoting moses in the book of deuteronomy chapter 28 where the great judgments are pronounced for disobedience quote i will make you jealous of those who are not a nation and a foolish nation i'll use to make you angry this was part of the judgment pronouncement for their disobedience god would provoke them to jealousy using the gentiles and that's exactly what paul says god is doing here in the first century provoking the gentile provoking the jews using the gentiles in this great conversion among them uh again isaiah verse 20 is very bold and says i was found by those who didn't seek me the gentiles i was i showed myself to those who didn't ask for me it was the gentiles who didn't care who all of a sudden are confronted with this remarkable truth of the gospel and they come in in droves what about israel verse 21 of israel he says all day long i held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people the reason that israel didn't believe was not that it was on top of mount everest not that it was impossible not certainly that they didn't hear it certainly not that they didn't get it they got it big time they understood it perfectly this message that was given to them through christ from god that he is the means of salvation that they must fall on their faces at the foot of his cross as it were uh was something that you know was blazing through that land but they were disobedient and they were contrary they didn't believe because they would not believe not because they could not believe you see they had a disposition of hostility as paul says in romans chapter 1 when they knew god they refused to acknowledge him it's true of every person left to themselves paul says in ephesians chapter 2 we were children of wrath even as the rest it's not that the jewish people in the first century were the worst possible people that ever lived in human history paul's point is not that they were so disobedient and so contrary that they sort of raised the standard of disobedience and contrariness beyond anything the world had ever seen that wasn't his point his point is that's all of us we all are disobedient we all are contrary left to ourselves not one of us would come to the cross not one of us would embrace the message not because it's impossible but because we are so hostile to it the gospel came to us when we were still enemies we were still running like fugitives god had to chase us down and tackle us on the field and force feed the gospel to change our hearts so that we would come into this kingdom you see and so paul puts the picture together the gospel goes to everybody and we can say in good conscience to anybody believe and confess and yet i tell you something if anybody ever does believe if anybody ever does confess we can know for sure it was because not only they heard the gospel but because also god from all eternity had foreknown them had predestined them to be conformed to the image of his son that god had from all eternity actually determined to lavish mercy upon them even as he might leave it might ever pass over another one and so both of these you see in a wonderful kind of harmony of contrasts become the great new testament message of the gospel going to the world well it might it might leave us with a question here uh if god didn't give mercy to his people if god chose not to give that mercy to them but gave it instead to the gentiles then we can understand paul's next question chapter 11 verse 1 i ask then has god rejected his people are the jewish people therefore rejected you see and you can see why that question would follow from you know everything that he's just said uh that becomes of course the question to open uh chapter 11 but just to anticipate it briefly uh paul says by no means i myself am a jew an israelite descendant of abraham member of the tribe of benjamin i'm at least one exception to the rule god certainly hasn't rejected his people wholesale because there's at least a few of us who have faith a few of us who have responded and so this develops paul's whole idea introduces this whole idea of a kind of remnant that paul has described here in which god is holding on to his nation as it were by this thin this thin to us strand this tether of the so-called remnant those who are elect paul says by grace and that becomes a fascinating conversation that we have uh in our next uh session together so i'll save that i'm actually ending uh three minutes early which is amazing for me but uh we'll leave it there let me let me say this uh by the way uh i'm to ask you for an excused absence next week it's palm sunday and we'll be out of town of course the next sunday is easter so this class will not meet uh for the next two sundays however uh it's my understanding that charles is going to be in here in the sanctuary next week giving a presentation related to his own doctoral studies i think it'll be fascinating and i hope that you'll support him by coming back and being here in the sanctuary for his uh presentation next week that's my understanding at this point that that will be uh the case so uh i'll be back in three weeks uh and uh we'll be picking up right there at verse 1 of chapter 11. well thank you all let's uh let's close with prayer we'll be dismissed our father we are grateful that you have given us the great appeal of the gospel if we confess with our mouths jesus lord believe in our hearts that you raised him from the dead then we have this great assurance of salvation we're thankful that you haven't made the gospel some impossible challenge that only the best and the mightiest and the most virtuous and the most intelligent could possibly attain but should that you put it at a very at a level that anybody even a child can come freely into the kingdom if we are in fact those who are kept from the kingdom by our own ego our own pride our own rebellion and we pray that you would break through that and that you would replace a heart of stone with a heart of flesh so that this gospel would become our gospel and that we would be those who join all the millions through history who can rejoice in the redemption that comes through christ in whose name we pray [Music] amen [Music] you

Channel: Bruce Gore

Views: 529

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Romans 10, Romans, Missions, Bruce Gore, Election, Predestination

Id: VRS395kqndU

Length: 47min 57sec (2877 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 07 2020