Sermon Tone Analysis

Romans 9:1-33

Some passages of scripture are difficult to understand and offensive to our flesh.

Well we have arrived at one of those passages today.

I have put off moving into Romans chapter 9 as long as I could.

•I tried to stall in Romans 8 as long as possible, knowing the chapter 9 was just around the corner

•Ever since I began preaching through Romans I have been secretly hoping the Rapture would occur before I got to chapter 9. ( I have waited as long as I know how and the Lord still hasn't come back and rescued me from preaching through this difficult chapter)

Romans chapter 9 is a profound treatise on the doctrine of Election.

It is a difficult chapter and I know going into it that no matter how I interpret this chapter I am going to upset someone.

There simply is no way to preach this chapter without offending someone.

So I am trying to brace myself and my staff for all the nasty letters of disagreement that are sure to pour in after today's message.

Some of you will disagree with what I believe about election and the sovereignty of God.

And that is Okay... We'll still be friends and still love one another and still be a family.

You see, I believe you have the right to be wrong if you want to... and that doesn't bother me.

(Just kidding of course)

Believe me when I tell you, I would really like to go around this chapter and try to ignore it.

But it rests right here in the middle of Romans and it refuses to be ignored.

I am quite sure that some of the things many of us have long believed and just accepted as true are going to be challenged by this passage of scripture.

And let me be careful and clear to say...

That I do not understand the biblical doctrine of election and how that interacts with the responsibility of man.

•I have not reconciled the two apparently opposing biblical truths

•I have not read anyone who ever has...

And I have read the greatest theologians in all of Christian history on this subject matter.

EX.

Someone asked Charles Spurgeon once how he reconciled the sovereign election of God and the responsibility of man, and his response was "I never try to reconcile friends."

He is right....

•Both are true

•Both are clearly taught in the Bible

•Both are to be believed/

It is not my responsibility to always be able to understand God...

But it is my responsibility to believe Him even when I don't understand Him.

I know this...

There is a whole lot about the mystery and majesty of God I cannot understand.

Isaiah 55:9 (ESV)  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

After Paul completes his treatise on election and God's sovereign control of redemptive history... Listen to what he says...

Romans 11:33–36 (ESV)  Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!

34  “For who has known the mind of the Lord,or who has been his counselor?”35

“Or who has given a gift to himthat he might be repaid?”36

For from him and through him and to him are all things.

To him be glory forever.

Amen.

DIFFICULT PASSAGES OF ROMANS 9: Rom 9:10-13; Rom 9:15-18; Rom 9:22-23

The doctrine of Election is difficult to understand, and even more difficult to embrace.

And yet it is clearly taught throughout the scriptures that…

God has chosen to save a remnant of people from the fallen race of Adam —

God elected this remnant and chose them before time ever began.

Men are dead in their trespasses and sins, and can do nothing to help themselves.

God does give His elect the ability to come to Christ.

In Christ, the elect are eternally secure, having been predestined by God to be conformed to the image of His Son, Jesus Christ.

This doctrine is offensive to many because...

It challenges man’s fleshly self-sufficiency

Out of concern for the fulfillment of the great commission.

because they try to measure it by a human standard of fairness.

Sovereignty means God is God and HE has the right to do whatever He wants to do whenever He chooses to do it by virtue of the fact He is God.

We should be astounded and amazed that God would elect to save anyone.

We all deserve eternal damnation.

J. Vernon McGee says, I bow to my Creator and my Redeemer, knowing that whatever choices He makes is right.

By the way, if you don't like what He does, perhaps you should move out of His universe and start one of your own so you can make your own rules.

But as long as you live in God's universe, you will have to play by His rules.

Little man needs to bow his stiff neck and stubborn knees before Almighty God and say, "There is no unrighteousness with thee."

(see Jn.7:18) (J.

Vernon McGee, Romans 9-16, p.31)

HOWEVER, I want to be sensitive to people with other opinions.

And I know if the doctrine of predestination is one you feel you cannot embrace, then Romans chapter 9 is a particularly painful chapter of the Bible.

THEREFORE, knowing this chapter is painful for some, I want to try to do something I have never done in my life...

I want to preach this entire chapter in one setting on this one day.

I want to try to give you and overview and outline of the content of this chapter and see if I can help us grasp the magnificent truths that are contained here.

NOW...

In order to understand the content of Romans 9 we need to be sure we put it in its correct context, both...

•Biblically (where it falls in the flow of this epistle) and...

•Historically (where it falls in the life of the early church).

(1) Biblical context....

•Just remember that Romans 9 follows Romans 8 where Paul has just tried to give the Roman Christians great assurance in their security as believers, and help them to know God's election will stand.

Romans 8:29-30

•Now Paul knew that a question the Gentile Christians might ask in response to His statements in chapter 8 was, "God also elected Israel, and most of them are not believers, so how can we have confidence that His election of us will stand?"

•Chapter 9 anticipates that question and attempts to answer it.

Do you hear what Paul is saying?

A person is not one of God's elect just because he or she is of a racial descent from Abraham or from Jacob.

In fact he says to them that just because a person may have the same DNA as Abraham or Jacob does not mean they are a true Israelite in the real spiritual sense (For they are not all Israel who are of Israel…v.6)

The purpose of election followed the men of faith who received the promises of God.

Therefore the remnant of Jews who have by faith believed on Jesus stand as living proof that God's elective purposes stand sure and that He keeps His promises.

It is true even to this day, that most of the family descendants of Abraham and Jacob have rejected God's true Messiah...

But there is also to this day a remnant of Jews who have believed on Jesus... AND

THESE SAVED JEWS ARE THE TRUE ISRAEL.

THESE SAVED JEWS ARE THE PROOF THAT GOD FULFILLS HIS ELECTIVE PURPOSES.

2. Historical Context

You have to remember that when Paul wrote this letter, Christianity was still tied very closely to its historical Jewish roots.

To the outsider, the unbelieving Gentile, Christianity was just another sect of Judaism.

•Even though by the time Paul wrote this letter, the Gentile segment of the church was exploding, the church was being led and influenced by Jewish leadership.

The Apostles were all still leading the church.

•So the whole issue of "what is God doing with the Jews" had to be dealt with.

THE ILLUSTRATIONS OF GOD'S SOVEREIGN ELECTION.

(v.1-18)

God Sovereignly chose Isaac not Ishmael (Romans 9:6-9)

Romans 9:6–9 (HCSB)

But it is not as though the word of God has failed.

For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel.

Neither are they all children because they are Abraham’s descendants.

On the contrary, your offspring will be traced through Isaac.

That is, it is not the children by physical descent who are God’s children, but the children of the promise are considered to be the offspring.

For this is the statement of the promise: At this time I will come, and Sarah will have a son.