God's Relentless Patience vs. Man's Rebellious Excuses
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Sermon Title: God's Relentless Patience vs. Man's Rebellious Excuses
Scripture: Romans 10:18-21
Occasion: The Lord’s Day
Date: February 25, 2023
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Scripture Transitions Sermon Title|Quotes |Emphasis
PRAY
Ephesians 1:2 “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
What a wonderful privilege it has been for me to sit under faithful preaching the last two weeks.
Pastor Jeremy and Zach, really set me up well to close out chapter 10 this morning.
What Jeremy and Zach showed us in verses 9-17, is simply that Israels failure to believe (and our failure to believe) in the end is inexcusable.
We are without excuse.
As Zach taught us last week , God has met the 3 conditions by which are saved:
Preachers have been sent.
Preachers have preached.
People have heard the preaching of Christ .
But Israel and many of us today, have failed to meet the fourth condition to have eternal salvation and security:
We have failed to believe in Christ.
What Paul is showing here in chapter 10 is this:
That in the final analysis, Israel, and not God, is to blame for their unbelief.
In the final analysis, Anyone who resides in the lake of fire, resides not because God has failed to send preachers to preach the gospel, it’s not because people have failed to hear and understand the gospel, it’s because one has failed to believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Hear the words of scripture, beloved:
The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
Exodus 34:6 (ESV)
“The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,
The Lord has been and continues to be wonderfully patient with rejectors and transgressors.
That’s incredibly good news. News that should grip us to the core.
It should change us.
Many of the most common troubles in the Christian life come from relating to God as if he were like us — as if his kindness were as slight as our kindness, his forgiveness as reluctant as our forgiveness, his patience as fleeting as our patience.
Under impressions such as these, we walk uneasily through the Christian life, with insecurity rumbling like distant thunder.
John Owen (1616–1683) goes so far as to say,
Want of a due consideration of him with whom we have to do, measuring him by that line of our own imaginations, bringing him down unto our thoughts and our ways, is the cause of all our disquietments. (Works of John Owen, 6:500)
If we were God in heaven, we would have grown impatient with people like us long ago.
Our anger rises quickly in the face of personal offense.
Our frustration boils over.
Our judgments readily fire.
And apart from the daily renewal of our minds, we can easily measure God “by that line of our own imaginations,” as if his thoughts matched our thoughts, and his ways our ways.
Thank God, they do not!
For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Our human nature has no ruler to measure God’s goodness.
Our natural imaginations cannot grasp his heights.
His kindness is not like our kindness, his forgiveness not like our forgiveness — and God’s patience not like our patience.
The God we meet in our text today is a relentlessly patient God.
He usually accomplishes his plans along the winding path.
He fulfills his promises without hurry.
He compares his kingdom to a mustard seed.
The greatest displays of God’s patience, however, appear in response to our sin.
“God is patient” means not mainly that God waits a long time, but that God shows longsuffering kindness to sinners (Romans 2:4).
Romans 2:4–5 (ESV)
Do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?
But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.
All the day long God holds out his hands to a disobedient and contrary people, WHY?
Why does full judgment tarry and mercy beckon?
Because, unlike us, God is “slow to anger.”
His wrath visits the unrepentant (Exodus 34:7), BUT only after taking the slow path.
Meanwhile, His mercy stands ready to run.
I think this is the sum of our text today.
If you miss this, you miss everything about our text!
Today we will see “God's Relentless Patience vs. Man's Rebellious Excuses” Which is title to my sermon.
Here is how I plan to navigate the text:
I want to show you 2 common excuses addressed in verses 18-20, and one sobering and glorious truth about God in verse 21.
But I really want to use the end of our time to really examine our hearts as we prepare to come to the Lord’s table.
The reality is that Israel was filled with excuses.
The excuses we will find today in vv18-20 reveal the deep-seeded rebellion in Israel, and quite Frankly, in all mankind.
The First excuse we find today is in verse 18.
Romans 10:18 (ESV)
But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have, for “Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.”
The first excuse Paul deals with here as a way of summing up all that He has argued for up until this point is this: Israel is blaming God for their unbelief because they claim to have not heard the message of Christ.
Isreal, foolishly and rebelliously, is claiming to have not heard the word of Christ. (v17)
To which Paul immediately responds, with “Indeed they have”!
This is, of course, not just an Israel, immediate context issue, is it?
People ask questions like this frequently:
“How will people hear the message of Christ in remote places of the earth? What if they never hear the gospel”?
To which scripture responds today with a quote from Psalm 19:4,
Psalm 19:4 (ESV)
Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.
This is a Palm written by King David. Most of us are familiar with verses 1-3 of this Psalm.
The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.
There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard.
And what David is saying in the Psalm is that the stars and all the cosmos proclaim to the whole earth that there is a God.
That's what we call in theology natural revelation.
All of God’s handiwork, all of the glory of space communicates one purposeful thing: that there is a God.
And Paul borrows this verse and says this is a symbol and this is a foreshadowing of how the gospel will extend to all the earth, even as the testimony of the stars and the heavens do.
The testimony of heaven, Paul says, is like a measuring line that marks out extent.
And he uses the term, "their voice has gone out,” like a guy who marked out the extremities of an area and says the testimony goes to the very limits of the perimeter. (*the ends of the earth)
And here Paul says that their sound went into all the earth.
Their words to the end of the world, same idea, only he says as the stars have touched the earth with natural revelation, the gospel touches the earth with special revelation.
In other words, God has put His knowledge in all the earth.
It's just what he said in Romans 1,
For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.
For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
Without excuse.
And in the same way the whole earth has been given natural revelation, so the whole earth has been given special revelation in the gospel.
And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
This is exactly why we have a heart for missions.
God uses us to be a small part of His redeeming work around the world.
The gospel will be proclaimed throughout the whole World! (*The mission is guaranteed)
*This happened in the 1st century and now.
*Both OT and NT
Israel has heard the gospel. The prophets spoke of the gospel.
The gospel has been made available by God to Israel and all the nations.
And when I say the gospel has been made “available” this is what I mean:
The gospel is “available” to those who desire to know and find the truth.
You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.
I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently find me.
“Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near;
Christ is near, friends.
Seek Him while He may be found.
Call upon Him while He is near.
You are hearing the gospel every week.
You must respond to the message by faith in Christ.
So the point that Paul is making here in v18 is that Israels rejection in not because the message has not gone forth to them, but because they have rejected the message.
There is no one in hell who God has not revealed himself too. (Natural and Special)
All those who are in hell are there because they willfully rejected the revelation of God.
So Paul overcomes the excuse that they have not heard the message, but showing His jewish friends, That they in fact have heard the message, but have willfully and rebelliously chosen to reject the word of Christ.
Then the second excuse that Paul deals with in vv19-20 is the issue of understanding the message.
Romans 10:19–20 (ESV)
But I ask, did Israel not understand? First Moses says, “I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation; with a foolish nation I will make you angry.”
Then Isaiah is so bold as to say, “I have been found by those who did not seek me; I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.”
Paul’s Jewish friends are making the claim that they are innocent in their unbelief of the messiah because they did not understand their scriptures.
The Apostle Paul, has been laying it on thick throughout this chapter, that it’s not knowledge issue here, it’s a submission issue.
For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.
For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.
Throughout this chapter He has shown His jewish friends, from their own scriptures, that their rejection of Jesus is not because God did tell them about it in advance, but because they are willfully rejecting the message and ultimately rejecting God.
All because they are seeking to establish their own righteousness. It suite their lifestyle to stay “ignorant” of the truth.
In verse 19-20, Paul is making the case for what they “should know” or “understand” about the gospel message that God has been preaching to them.
God has preached to them from their law and their prophets, that salvation is not just for Israel but for anyone who would believe in Christ, by grace through faith.
Israel should not be ignorant to the fact that Gospel is for jew and gentile, because their beloved prophet said it was.
So Paul quotes the beloved prophet, Moses.
Deuteronomy 32:21 (ESV)
They have made me jealous with what is no god; they have provoked me to anger with their idols. So I will make them jealous with those who are no people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.
What Paul is saying there is,
“you knew, Deuteronomy told you that the day would come when God would embrace a no people, that's a Gentile people, a foolish nation, that's a Gentile nation, and provoke you to what? A jealousy about His relationship to them”
Paul says, “You knew that”, that was in Deuteronomy 32:21.
And if you read the thirty-second chapter of Deuteronomy, verse 5 in that chapter marks the unbelief of Israel and verse 20 marks the judgment of God and verse 21 is this verse.
God told them in their precious Scriptures, “I'm going to turn to another people, another nation, non-Jewish, Gentile and bless them and provoke you to jealousy.”
The nation of Israel had given their love to other gods, so God gave His love to another people.
This is exactly the picture that Zach described out of Matthew 21-22 of the parable of the banquet.
This provocation of Jealousy of Jews was predicted in their own scripture. God said it would happen.
Jesus over and over in the NT, says to the selfish and rebellious religious jews, “If you don’t want the kingdom, I’ll find somebody that does.”
That is exactly what He did. God kept His word.
Then in verse 20, He uses another proof text for this, but not using the prophet Isaiah.
I was ready to be sought by those who did not ask for me; I was ready to be found by those who did not seek me. I said, “Here I am, here I am,” to a nation that was not called by my name.
I love the play on words here in Romans 10:20
Romans 10:20 (ESV)
“I have been found by those who did not seek me; I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.”
Opposed to a nation who did seek me.
Opposed to a nation that I did show myself too.
He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.
He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.
But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,
Since chapter 9, Paul has shown us that God has given everything that is needed to the nation of Israel, to believe in the Jesus Christ the messiah. TO RECEIVE him using the language of John.
Everything!
They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises.
To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.
These people were zealous, but not according to saving knowledge.
They selfishly and ignorantly sought after God and did not find Him because their own righteousness got in the way.
But now, God has, as predicted, opened up salvation to a people who did not seek him and did not ask for him.
This salvation is for everyone!
God is His great wisdom, from the very mouth of the prophet Moses and Isaiah, extends His salvific hand to all people from all walks of life, to show rebellious Israel the depths of their depraved rejection, and the boundless wonders of God’s Love, mercy, and grace for sinners.
(Example of Dad taking brother to basketball game.)
God’s intention for Israel, is to open their eyes to the privilege of calling upon the messiah to be saved.
This love and grace that God has extended to a non seeking and a non asking people, is to compel Israel to cherish the wonders of their privileges, which are ultimately and fully cherished, realized and complete in Christ.
It’s all been about Christ.
But Israel has settled with shadows rather than the real thing.
So now that Paul has dealt with the excuses, he proceeds to v21 with a sobering and glorious truth about the character of God in spite of continual disobedience and on going rebelling against the message of Christ.
But of Israel he says, “All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.”
Paul ends chapter 10 by quoting the prophet Isaiah once again.
I spread out my hands all the day to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, following their own devices;
This really is a drop the mic quotation.
This sums up the whole issue with Israel.
With us.
Why did the Lord reject Israel and turn to the Gentiles?
Because all day long He stretched forth His hands to a disobedient and opposing people.
Disobedient here means they refused to believe.
And opposing here means they spoke against or contradicted the word Christ.
And so, God says that Israel was ignorant of their Scriptures.
This is the sum of the whole argument:
If they had known the prophecy of Moses and they had known the prophecy and the words of Isaiah, they would have known that the day would come when Israel would be rebellious and God would reach out to the nations.
This should be NO SURPRISE!
They should know that God would go beyond Israel to provoke them to jealousy.
And when that happened... This is what Paul saying here:
When time had come, when Israel didn't believe and Jesus started reaching to the Gentiles and when the church went out to the Gentiles:
a thinking, knowledgeable, and believing Jew who understood his Old Testament should have said to himself,
"This is that which was spoken by the prophets. It's happening. Therefore this is the Messiah and this is the true message."
This should have caused them to believe and not reject Christ.
But friends I want to camp out on these three words “ALL DAY LONG” (Romans 10:21a) to end our time together.
This is what jumped off of the page to me this week. These three words.
This is what brought me to my prayer closet.
“All day long”
These 3 words convey the majestic patience of God.
The Prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 65 conveys God as patiently and continually stretching forth his hands, to lovingly embrace sinners, to welcome them to intimacy and security.
We have a loving God who reaches out again, and again, and again, and again, to a people who again, and again, and again, disobey him, reject him, and oppose him.
Friends, God is rich in his kindness and forbearance and patience, so that it would lead you to repentance, and security, and freedom in Christ.
When Paul rehearsed his testimony to Timothy, he framed it as a story of God’s patience:
The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.
But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.
God saved this “blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent” (1 Timothy 1:13) so that no humble, broken sinner would think he’s out-sinned the patience of God.
The God and Father of our Lord Jesus is patient toward his people — perfectly patient.
As patient as the prodigal’s father, waiting on the porch (Luke 15:20).
Nor does God’s patience end when former rebels like us heed his summons and become his sons.
As Israel’s faithful celebrated again and again, God not only “was” slow to anger; he “is” slow to anger (Psalm 103:8).
Psalm 103:8 (ESV)
The Lord IS merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
His patience, like his love, endures forever (Psalm 136).
To what else can we ascribe his ongoing kindness, his every-morning mercies, his present help, and his ready forgiveness, through all the fluctuations of our souls?
Today and every day, “He does not deal with us according to our sins” (Psalm 103:10), but according to his great patience.
In Christ, your life, like Paul’s, tells a story of divine patience.
God was patient with you as you wandered from him — scorning his Son, treasuring sin, scarcely giving him or his gospel a thought.
He is patient with you now, as you daily find need for forgiveness.
And he will be patient with you tomorrow, and the next day, and until the day of Jesus Christ, when he finally finishes the good work he’s begun (Philippians 1:6).
And why?
Because, some several centuries after Moses, God once again revealed his slow-to-anger name.
This time in flesh and blood.
In Jesus, the God-man, the song of God’s slowness to anger swells to its crescendo.
Jesus’s ministry was one of patience, for to be with us was to bear with us (Luke 9:41).
He lived here as light among darkness, sinlessness among sin, the straight among the crooked — as the unrivaled prince of patience.
We occasionally see the pain of his patience, as when he says, Matthew 17:17
And Jesus answered, “O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to me.”
But he mostly kept the cost hidden, pouring out his soul to his Father (Luke 5:16), and receiving from his Father the patience needed as his enemies slandered him, his neighbors rejected him, his disciples misunderstood him, and the crowds tried to use him.
And of course he also died.
Though twelve legions of angels stood ready for his summons (Matthew 26:53), he never called.
Instead, Patience incarnate took the lashes, the thorns, the nails, allowing his creatures to mock him with the breath he gave, all while pleading for their forgiveness (Luke 23:34).
In the cross of Jesus, we see not only that God is patient, but how God can be so patient.
How could he, “in his divine forbearance,” pass over former sins (Romans 3:25) — and how can he, in his divine forbearance, continue to show us mercy?
Because the patience of God, in the person of Christ, purchased our forgiveness (Romans 3:23–24).
God’s patience rests on the passion of his Son.
And therefore, his patience will last as long as our resurrected Christ pleads the merits of his blood (Hebrews 7:25) — which is to say, forever.
English pastor Jeremy Taylor (1613–1667) once prayed,
“Teach me . . . to read my duty in the lines of your mercy.” -Jeremy Taylor (1613-1667)
And what duty do we read in the lines of God’s merciful patience?
In the words of Isaiah, “Return to the Lord” (Isaiah 55:7).
The patience of God is a beckoning hand, an open door, a pathway home.
It comes to us as Jesus came to Matthew at the tax booth: not to condemn us, and not to comfort us in our sins either, but rather to turn us again to “seek the Lord while he may be found” (Isaiah 55:6), whether after a miserable lapse or simply a regrettable moment.
Whoever and wherever we are, God’s patience invites our repentance.
And what do we find when we return to him, confessing and forsaking our sins?
We find a Father running to meet us (Luke 15:20).
We find a Savior who has already been knocking (Revelation 3:20).
We find a God who abundantly pardons and plentifully redeems (Isaiah 55:7; Psalm 130:7).
We find a Lord whose patience is perfect (1 Timothy 1:16).
One day, we will stumble and sin no more; the good work begun at our conversion finally will be complete (Philippians 1:6).
But until then, the patience of God is not bound to the measure of our weak imaginations.
It is not the pinched, passing, shallow patience we so commonly find among men, and within ourselves.
His patience, like his peace, surpasses all understanding (Philippians 4:7).
Return to him, then, now and forever, and in returning- find rest.
PRAY
Possible Examining Questions before the Lord’s table if time allows:
Examining Questions:
Examining Questions:
But of Israel he says, “All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.”
Reflection: How have we responded to God's call and extended hands of mercy in our lives?Are there areas where disobedience or contrariness needs to be confessed and surrendered?
Repentance: In what ways can we turn away from disobedience and embrace God's invitation to reconciliation?How can we express genuine repentance and commitment to obedience in our daily lives?
Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?
But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.
Gratitude: How has God's kindness, forbearance, and patience been evident in our lives?What response of gratitude and humility is appropriate in light of His kindness?
Warning: Are there areas where we have presumed upon God's kindness, neglecting repentance?How can we guard against a hard and impenitent heart, recognizing the seriousness of unconfessed sin?
Prayer:
Encourage a spirit of unity, genuine repentance, and gratitude for the sacrifice of Christ. Remind them of the joy of partaking in Christ's body and blood as a redeemed community.
