To Reject The Message
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Pastoral Reminder: Head Heart Hands
16 All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
What is the greatest advice or message that you recieved?
In my life there have been men who have passed on messages that were intended to help us in taking on what life has for us.
In my senior of high school. My head coach would sit us down and would give us a message to think about that week. Little sayings that were intended to encourage and challenge us to be ready for this weeks game. Like:
Hard work turns talent into ability.
There are no great men just great challenges that some men overcome.
These little messages would get us revved up for the game.
In collage I had a professor that did much the same at the end of our year. Messages of wisdom that were to help us in life.
Like: If you fight with a skunk, whether you win or lose, you still stink at the end.
These men would pass on their experiences and knowledge so that we could take advantage of it. Some of you may be able to think of sayings that a parent or an uncle or aunt used to tell you. Like the Proverbs, given so that we may listen to them and take advantage of the promises that are in them.
The same message given to a group is not always recieved the same way. Many times the messages that are meant to help, are ignored and dismissed. I looked forward to these tidbits of truth but many of my teammates and classmates weren't as receptive as I was.
As a parent do you try to pass on your wisdom to your children? I hope that you do. Do your children take that wisdom and just receive it and apply it to their life? Probably not. Like all of us we want to go our own way and do our own thing. And as we get older and wiser we start to cherish when we are given advice that keeps us from stumbling. We look back and find value in the message that was given.
Paul has brought for the greatest message of all time. The message of faith.
8 On the contrary, what does it say? The message is near you, in your mouth and in your heart. This is the message of faith that we proclaim: 9 If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
This is the message that must be given to the lost. If you confess and believe you will be saved. The message has not changed too today. It is the message that we are sent to preach to the fallen world around us. For all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved.
13 For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
And how will someone come to call on the name of the Lord. What must happen for a person to come to call on the Lord.
14 How, then, can they call on him they have not believed in? And how can they believe without hearing about him? And how can they hear without a preacher? 15 And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news.
This is the good news. That must be taken out into the fallen world. We know that this applies to all unsaved men and women but in the context of this chapter his emphasis is on the unbelieving Jews. Messengers must be sent to preach the message.
He continues in verse 16 with the response of Israel to the message that has been given to them.
16 But not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed our message? 17 So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the message about Christ. 18 But I ask, “Did they not hear?” Yes, they did: Their voice has gone out to the whole earth, and their words to the ends of the world. 19 But I ask, “Did Israel not understand?” First, Moses said, I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation; I will make you angry by a nation that lacks understanding. 20 And Isaiah says boldly, I was found by those who were not looking for me; I revealed myself to those who were not asking for me. 21 But to Israel he says, All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and defiant people.
Paul looks specifically at Israel’s responsibility in hearing and believing the message.
Israel Did Not Obey The Message
Israel Did Not Obey The Message
16 But not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed our message?
Paul turns their attention back to their holy scriptures and the prophet Isaiah.
1 Who has believed what we have heard? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
They would have been a familiar passage for them as it i for us. If you turn with me to Isaiah 52:13
13 See, my servant will be successful; he will be raised and lifted up and greatly exalted. 14 Just as many were appalled at you— his appearance was so disfigured that he did not look like a man, and his form did not resemble a human being— 15 so he will sprinkle many nations. Kings will shut their mouths because of him, for they will see what had not been told them, and they will understand what they had not heard. 1 Who has believed what we have heard? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? 2 He grew up before him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground. He didn’t have an impressive form or majesty that we should look at him, no appearance that we should desire him. 3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of suffering who knew what sickness was. He was like someone people turned away from; he was despised, and we didn’t value him. 4 Yet he himself bore our sicknesses, and he carried our pains; but we in turn regarded him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced because of our rebellion, crushed because of our iniquities; punishment for our peace was on him, and we are healed by his wounds. 6 We all went astray like sheep; we all have turned to our own way; and the Lord has punished him for the iniquity of us all. 7 He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth. Like a lamb led to the slaughter and like a sheep silent before her shearers, he did not open his mouth. 8 He was taken away because of oppression and judgment, and who considered his fate? For he was cut off from the land of the living; he was struck because of my people’s rebellion. 9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked, but he was with a rich man at his death, because he had done no violence and had not spoken deceitfully. 10 Yet the Lord was pleased to crush him severely. When you make him a guilt offering, he will see his seed, he will prolong his days, and by his hand, the Lord’s pleasure will be accomplished. 11 After his anguish, he will see light and be satisfied. By his knowledge, my righteous servant will justify many, and he will carry their iniquities. 12 Therefore I will give him the many as a portion, and he will receive the mighty as spoil, because he willingly submitted to death, and was counted among the rebels; yet he bore the sin of many and interceded for the rebels.
Though they would not see the one spoken of here until Paul’s time, the good news message had been proclaimed. They were to trust and believe in the words of God, that one would come and he bore the sin of many. John pointed it out clearer that even with all of the miracles that Jesus performed that fulfilled every one of these prophesies they would still not believe.
37 Even though he had performed so many signs in their presence, they did not believe in him. 38 This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet, who said: Lord, who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
Paul says that not all obeyed the gospel. When we speak of the gospel we don’t tend to think of the idea of being obedient to it. The word means to put oneself under of to be subordinate to another person or authority.
It is an interesting concept to think of obedience and faith working together.
5 Through him we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the Gentiles, 6 including you who are also called by Jesus Christ.
Thinking of the message of faith that the apostles proclaimed if you confess Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you will be saved. What is calling Jesus Lord if not submitting to his authority and becoming obedient to him? What is believing that God raised Jesus from the dead, except faith?
One of the proofs of a person who has called on the name of the Lord and been saved is that their life has come under the authority of the gospel. Their is an obedience to the faith.
7 So the word of God spread, the disciples in Jerusalem increased greatly in number, and a large group of priests became obedient to the faith.
This idea that I can be saved by just what I proclaim is contrary to the scriptures. Just like, I can be saved by just what I do, by my works. But what we see that those that have become obedient to the gospel by faith in the message will not be put to shame but will be blessed.
11 For the Scripture says, Everyone who believes on him will not be put to shame, 12 since there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, because the same Lord of all richly blesses all who call on him.
Scripture gives waring to those that
5 It is clear evidence of God’s righteous judgment that you will be counted worthy of God’s kingdom, for which you also are suffering, 6 since it is just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you 7 and to give relief to you who are afflicted, along with us. This will take place at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with his powerful angels, 8 when he takes vengeance with flaming fire on those who don’t know God and on those who don’t obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
Israel is like the many today that will claim to be righteous by their own standards of righteousness. but they will be found to those that did not know God.
2 For we also have received the good news just as they did. But the message they heard did not benefit them, since they were not united with those who heard it in faith.
As much as we wish it to be true not everyone who hears the message will receive the message and believe in it. But faith come from hearing the message.
16 But not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed our message? 17 So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the message about Christ.
It must be heard and believed in and it must be the true message about Jesus. Faith comes from what is heard. And it is the message about Christ. From the very time when sin entered the world God spoke of Christ. The seed that will come and strike the head of the serpent and onward. God has spoken promises that the messiah would come. Through out history God has revealed more and more through the prophets in the Old Testament to Christ himself in the new. But it has always been one message of salvation. But they did not head the message when they heard it.
There are some many false messages about our Lord. So many twists and turns to the truth. But there will be those that hear the message of faith and obey it. Hearing, believing and bearing fruit are part of the work of God in one who has been saved.
3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 for we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints 5 because of the hope reserved for you in heaven. You have already heard about this hope in the word of truth, the gospel 6 that has come to you. It is bearing fruit and growing all over the world, just as it has among you since the day you heard it and came to truly appreciate God’s grace.
He is pointing out that Israel has not submitted to the gospel that has been proclaimed and as a nation have not been reconciled to God because of it.
22 But now he has reconciled you by his physical body through his death, to present you holy, faultless, and blameless before him—23 if indeed you remain grounded and steadfast in the faith and are not shifted away from the hope of the gospel that you heard. This gospel has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and I, Paul, have become a servant of it.
The question that Paul answers next is “Did Israel hear the message of faith?”
Israel Did Not Listen
Israel Did Not Listen
18 But I ask, “Did they not hear?” Yes, they did: Their voice has gone out to the whole earth, and their words to the ends of the world.
Did Israel hear the message? Paul says they did. But who’s voice has gone out into the whole earth. He points them to creation and the heavens.
1 The heavens declare the glory of God, and the expanse proclaims the work of his hands. 2 Day after day they pour out speech; night after night they communicate knowledge. 3 There is no speech; there are no words; their voice is not heard. 4 Their message has gone out to the whole earth, and their words to the ends of the world. In the heavens he has pitched a tent for the sun.
We live in the great Pacific Northwest and other than smoke and fire season, it is a beautiful and wonderful place to live. Over the years I have met many people who do not attend church but will tell me that they see God in the creation around them. The interesting thing about this idea is that is it true. The heavens and the earth declare God and proclaim his majesty. But even though he can be seen and the voice of creation call out. The fallen man does not hear it.
18 For God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth, 19 since what can be known about God is evident among them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, that is, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what he has made. As a result, people are without excuse. 21 For though they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or show gratitude. Instead, their thinking became worthless, and their senseless hearts were darkened.
Israel has no more excuse for their unbelief than any other people. For all have access to the heavens as they sing of the glory of God. But they did not respond in belief. They knew him but did not glorify him.
So did they just not understand?
Israel Did Not Understand
Israel Did Not Understand
19 But I ask, “Did Israel not understand?” First, Moses said, I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation; I will make you angry by a nation that lacks understanding.
As a nation they had recieved great blessings when they followed God but when they turned from him, he warned him that he would provoke them with a foolish nation.
20 He said, “I will hide my face from them; I will see what will become of them, for they are a perverse generation— unfaithful children. 21 They have provoked my jealousy with what is not a god; they have enraged me with their worthless idols. So I will provoke their jealousy with what is not a people; I will enrage them with a foolish nation.
Even though God warned them that he was going to do this, they would not listen. Even though God had specially revealed himself to them, they still would not turn to him in faith.
20 And Isaiah says boldly, I was found by those who were not looking for me; I revealed myself to those who were not asking for me. 21 But to Israel he says, All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and defiant people.
Though God had revelated himself to Israel in the most visible ways. His power was demonstrated in the plagues of Egypt. In the parting of the read sea, in the cloud, and on the mountain.
1 “I was sought by those who did not ask; I was found by those who did not seek me. I said, ‘Here I am, here I am,’ to a nation that did not call on my name. 2 I spread out my hands all day long to a rebellious people who walk in the path that is not good, following their own thoughts. 3 These people continually anger me to my face, sacrificing in gardens, burning incense on bricks, 4 sitting among the graves, spending nights in secret places, eating the meat of pigs, and putting polluted broth in their bowls. 5 They say, ‘Keep to yourself, don’t come near me, for I am too holy for you!’ These practices are smoke in my nostrils, a fire that burns all day long.
For generations God has held out his hand to the Israelites but they were filled with disobedience and defiance. The Jews continued in this defiance to the time of Paul and to our time today. The jealousy was to bring them to faith so that they may be saved. But their hard hearts are revealed in how they continually respond to the message.
45 But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began to contradict what Paul was saying, insulting him. 46 Paul and Barnabas boldly replied, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken to you first. Since you reject it and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, we are turning to the Gentiles. 47 For this is what the Lord has commanded us: I have made you a light for the Gentiles to bring salvation to the ends of the earth.” 48 When the Gentiles heard this, they rejoiced and honored the word of the Lord, and all who had been appointed to eternal life believed. 49 The word of the Lord spread through the whole region. 50 But the Jews incited the prominent God-fearing women and the leading men of the city. They stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas and expelled them from their district.
As a whole Israel has rejected the message of God. They have not shown obedience in faith, nor did they listen or understand their own scriptures. Faith comes from hearing the message of Christ but is must be believed in and submitted to for it to be saving faith.
Conclusions
Conclusions
The proud are humbled by the weak. Israel thought they were in the clear. that they would be secure and righteous by their works. But their works do not save. They lived to have lives that aligned with the law but they did not pursue it by faith. They looked the part but were empty on the inside.
These same traps of the devil are attacking us today. When we look here we can sift out these schemes of the enemy.
One is to convince people that the message of Jesus is not enough. That there is another message that saves. That there are many ways to heaven. That there is another Gospel other than the same one we find in the scriptures.
Another trap is the trap of works. Submitting to the rules as a means to the end. Being busy with Christian activity instead of Christian responsibility. We are called to work but that is not a means of salvation, it is an act of love and gratitude.
Another is that if I just say the right things, then I am good. It doesn’t matter what I do, just what I say. I profess but my life is still my own to do with as I please.
8 If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.
We no longer live for ourselves. But for our Lord and savior. The people of God look different than the world. We give up the appetites of the flesh. We are obedient to the gospel.
The gospel has authority over our lives in all ways. We sharing the message of salvation. The message of Jesus.
Does this describe you? Have you heard and believed in the message. Has the gospel come to have authority over you and are you obedient in the faith? Have you confessed that Jesus is Lord and do you believe that God raised him from the dead? If so scripture says you will be saved. If you have made this profession then let us rejoice and live for he who died to save us.
Let us pray.
Let us pray.
Prayer
Blessing/Benediction
13 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
