Prayer/Desire For Israel

Romans 10

So Paul really stands in line with Jeremiah as a weeping prophet, as a weeping messenger.  And he is not unlike the Lord Himself, who wept over the city of Jerusalem and said, "You didn't know the day of your visitation."  When God came you didn't know Him. You didn't recognize that I was He.  And the source of Jeremiah's anguish and the source of Paul's anguish and the source of the anguish of our Lord was ignorance, ignorance.  When they knew God, Romans 1 says, they glorified Him not as God.  They refused to know the God who had been revealed to them.

Jeremiah 9:1–3 “Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, That I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people! Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men; That I might leave my people, and go from them! For they be all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men. And they bend their tongues like their bow for lies: But they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth; For they proceed from evil to evil, And they know not me, saith the Lord.”...........Jeremiah 9:13–14 “And the Lord saith, Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, And have not obeyed my voice, neither walked therein; But have walked after the imagination of their own heart, And after Baalim, which their fathers taught them:”

Romans 9:2–3 “That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh:”

The anguish of seeing God’s chosen people in the state of unbelief as they were, was too much....Paul is desperately praying for them.......Even though Paul’s assignment was to be an apostle to the Gentile, he also had a deep passion for his kinsmen and God’s call for them to be saved!

Verse 2......Paul could speak to their zeal......Their conformity to the law and fierce opposition to anything other than Judaism.

That zeal for God was not based on knowledge..........This is probably the 2nd most important teaching in Scripture..........What is lacked?????

Go back to what Jesus said in Matthew 7:21–23 “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”

This is what Paul is speaking about, it is explained in Romans 10........zeal without knowledge

And the first thing of which they were ignorant is the righteousness of God.

Now when you stop to think about this, people, this is the most basic characteristic of God's nature.  And I want to talk about that and I want you to listen carefully because I think it's so very important that we understand these things.  They were ignorant of that which was most basic about God.  Now let me tell you what righteousness means, are you ready for this?  Very profound definition, hang on: It means God's right.  That's right, always right, always does what's right, thinks what's right, says what's right. God is right.  If you want another word for righteousness it's just take out the middle: Rightness, the rightness of God.  He's never wrong.  He's never erring, never sinning, always right, the rightness of God. They were ignorant of His moral perfection.  Another way to say it is His holiness.  His holiness and His righteousness are inextricably linked.  And I guess we could say that His rightness or His righteousness is His manifest holiness. Holiness is that which is true of His essence. It manifests itself in His rightness.

You say, "Well they missed then the basic."  That's right, they missed the basic.  They missed the fact that God was absolutely holy.  They thought God was less holy than He was and they were more holy than they were.  They didn't understand how absolutely morally perfect God was.  They didn't know how utterly free from wrong, how utterly unable to touch sin.  I'm just enthralled with that thought because I fear that so many people today don't understand that either and they are equally ignorant of God's righteousness.  Most people think God is just...just a nice guy, just somebody up there who wants everybody to feel good. I mean, we sort of make God into that. And that's the God of the liberals, isn't it?  Just loves everybody.  They don't know how really right He is, they misjudge His moral perfection. They misjudge His utter and absolute holy purity. They imagine that God is more tolerant of evil than He is.  And that we're better than we are.  So we pull God down a little, shove us up a little and we're pretty close. And a few religious activities and we're right on the line.  That's a fatal error.  We imagine God to be like us.  God is absolutely right, absolutely right.

The whole Old Testament theme is holiness. The whole purpose of revealing in the Old Testament is to reveal the holiness, the rightness of God, the utter moral perfection and purity of God who knows no flaw in His nature.

His holiness has two elements.  One is His utter separateness, His utter otherness. That is that He's other than we are.  The second is His manifest righteousness.  He is holy in that He is totally separated from us.  He is holy in that He is manifestly right and morally perfect.  That's why Exodus 15:11 says, "Who is like Thee, glorious in holiness?"

The truth here is so basic.  If a person doesn't understand God's rightness, that is the supreme ignorance.  If we imagine that God is less than He is, we have made a fatal mistake because we find to be God less than perfect, therefore He tolerates sin and imperfection, therefore we're going to be okay if we just improve a few things. Fatal mistake. Fatal mistake.

Verse 4.....Christ is the end of the law.....2 Corinthians 5:21 “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”

Christ as our Lord and Savior ends the futile quest for righteousness through the sinner’s imperfect attempts to save himself by efforts to obey the law....Isaiah 64:6 “But we are all as an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; And we all do fade as a leaf; And our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.”

Colossians 2:13–14 “And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;”

Verse 5.........The man that practices righteousness shall live by them......Leviticus 18:5 “Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments: which if a man do, he shall live in them: I am the Lord.”

This requires perfect conformity....James 2:10 “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.”

Galatians 3:10 “For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.”

This would mean that our righteous standing before God would be based on our complete keeping every statute of God’s Law......which if we regard God rightly that would mean that we must meet the standard that He is........

Verse 6-7.....Deuteronomy 30:12–13 “It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it?”

“The righteousness of faith” does not demand that we be supermen; it does not set some impossible task before us. God has done all that is necessary, and we receive his gift of righteousness by faith.

Verse 8....Deuteronomy 30:14 “But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.”

The journey of verses 6-7 is unnecessary because God has clearly revealed the way of salvation....It is by faith....Faith is the way to God....faith in Christ!

Verse 9-10........The Word of Faith is in the mouth and in the heart!........

Confession.........This is more than just words spoken....Confession is a conviction of heart that declares Jesus Christ as Lord of all and the Savior of man, without reservation!

James 2:19 “Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.”

The devils even believe and tremble.......but they have not turned to God through Christ for salvation and for righteousness!

To be right with God!

Verse 11-12......Isaiah 28:16 “Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, A tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: He that believeth shall not make haste.”

Paul is just basically saying that salvation by grace through faith alone has always been God’s salvation plan, but that no one-----including Gentiles was ever to be excluded!

There is no distinction between Jew and Greek.....it is the same way for all!

Verse 13.....Joel 2:32 “And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered: For in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, As the Lord hath said, And in the remnant whom the Lord shall call.”

This cry.....to call upon the name of the Lord.....is not just a desperate cry for folks to cry out to just any god, but to the One True God!.....The True God in Scripture, that God has revealed Himself in......

Verse 14-15........Paul’s main point in this rhetorical question is that a clear presentation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ must precede true saving faith.......True faith always has content

Verse 16....Isaiah 53:1 “Who hath believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?”

They have not all heeded to the good news of Jesus Christ.......

2. Israel as a nation has rejected the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

Verse 17........Faith only comes from the right knowledge of God and His righteousness and that only comes from the entirety of God’s Word which leads us to Jesus Christ.....

Word of God.....many have translated this as the Words of Christ....

A debate then starts from there of whether it is words of Christ or from Christ....which in my view in all 3 it all means the same to me.....

At the this particular time the NT was not compiled, but it was the report of Christ given by the apostles.

Verse 18…Psalm 19:4 “Their line is gone out through all the earth, And their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun,”

God’s revelation of Himself has reached the entirety of the earth!

If Israel has not responded it is not because they haven’t heard, even in David’s time “Faith” was the message!

They heard but would not understand out of defiance more than ignorance.

Verse 19......Paul quotes Deuteronomy 32:21 “They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God; They have provoked me to anger with their vanities: And I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.”

This speaks of the Gentiles....

Verse 20-21.....Isaiah 65:1–2 “I am sought of them that asked not for me; I am found of them that sought me not: I said, Behold me, behold me, Unto a nation that was not called by my name. I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people, Which walketh in a way that was not good, after their own thoughts;”

All throughout history Israel has “spoke against” or “contradicted” (disobedient) the Word of God…this time it was the truth of the Gospel.