Sermon Tone Analysis

Welcome and announcements

Welcome no matter who you are

We are gathered together today to worship God

Through songs of worship

Through prayer

Through offering

Through scripture study

Through communion

A couple of announcements we want to make sure you all know about

Fall Bash

We still need people to help with games

Congregational Meeting NEXT SUNDAY

For members - VERY IMPORTANT

Anyone wanting to know a bit more about our church and whats going on

Life Group Meeting Sunday, September 22nd

Dave Bisenius coming on to elders

Ray’s passing left us a spot we need to fill

Dave has been walking alongside the elders for some time

We are wanting to put Dave into the eldership to finish out this years term

Introduction: Paul’s Anguish Over Israel’s Rejection of the Gospel

This is a bit of a different kind of sermon

It’s a lot of text to try to preach through, but we are doing this because Paul is making one unified point from the opening of chapter 9 to the close of chapter 11

So today, we are going to cover a lot, but in a more brief overview sort of way

We will take the next three weeks to cover Paul’s argument more in depth

For today, we will cruise at a higher altitude and make some observations and applications as we go

Paul is upset for two reasons

Paul is upset for two reasons

He is a Jew who has turned to Jesus in faith, and he cares deeply for his ethnic people

He is concerned about the theological implications of the Jews rejecting Jesus

Paul ends chapter 8 with a grand pronouncement of God’s love and the fact that nothing in all of creation can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord -

For the Jewish Christian reading Paul’s letter, he would not be able to help wondering, “but Paul, what about our people?”

The Jewish people have rejected Jesus and have seemingly failed to participate in salvation

Has God abandoned his people Israel in favor of a new plan; i.e. the church?

For the Gentile Christian reading Paul’s letter, this is still important

If God inexplicably abandoned his people from the OT, what’s to say he won’t abandon us?

If God’s plan the first time around failed, what’s to say that this plan will succeed?

This is why I love the OT - it is not a separate story that God had to change gears from, it is a unified story that leads straight to Jesus

Ultimately, can God be trusted to fulfill his promises or not?

Application: When life does not go as I think it should, do I then assume that God either a) doesn’t exist or b) has failed?

A lot of people reason this way.

EXAMPLE:

If God is all powerful and good, why does evil exist?

If Got is all powerful but doesn’t prevent evil, he is not good

If God is good but doesn’t prevent evil, he is weak

If God is all powerful and good, why does evil exist?

Paul is wrestling with this kind of question: Has God failed in his promises to his covenant people in the OT?

If he has failed, then we cannot trust him with anything.

To answer this, Paul has to establish the following:

God has not failed in his promises to Israel

God’s plan of salvation has always been to justify people by faith

There is actually still hope for God’s covenant people Israel

I. God’s Word has not failed

Romans 9:6-

God does not save people based on ethnicity

Not all of ethnic Israel is “true” Israel

God has never been about human pedigree - people are not righteous or saved because they were born into the right family or ethnic group

True children of God are children of promise, not children of ethnic purity

God does not save people based on human merit or works

God has always had a habit of choosing people who were not the ones that human wisdom would say should be chosen

Jacob and Esau

Ancient near eastern culture highly favored the firstborn male of a family

Therefore, of the two sons of Isaac, (Jacob and Esau) who should be chosen to carry God’s redemptive plan forward?

Esau!

But God didn’t choose Esau; he chose Jacob.

Therefore, God cannot be said to have failed Israel

Therefore, Paul says it is a faulty assumption that all of ethnic Israel should be automatically saved because they were born as physical descendents of Abraham

In other words, God has not failed his people because he has never been about simply creating an ethnic people group

God has always been about saving all people, and he has always done this not on human merit or work but by his own grace and love

Application: Just because you were born in a Christian family and have grown up all your life going to church doesn’t mean you are saved

And you should not have an arrogance and pride because of your family pedigree

And you should not have an arrogance and pride because of your family pedigree

You should have a humility because you know that it is only by your faith in Christ that you stand, and God has not treated you according to your merit, but according to his grace

Likewise, Just because you were not born in a Christian family and have spent your whole life far from God doesn’t mean you cannot be saved

And you should not think you are too far from God to come to him

God desires to treat you not according to your merit, but according to his grace

Transition: Potential Complaint: this is unjust on God’s part - he doesn’t operate on merit?

He doesn’t judge people by their works?

He doesn’t act with people according to what they have done?

That’s not fair!

II.

God is sovereign and has the right to do as he wills

God is the creator and has the right to do whatever he wills with what he has made

Image of the potter and the clay

So far, Paul is not arguing a specific action that God takes in his sovereignty - he is arguing that God has the right to operate his world however he wants, without any input from any creature and without being bound by anyone or anything other than himself

God does not answer to anyone or anything else

It is his universe and he can do with it as he pleases

If you have a universe, then you can give God advice on how to run his; otherwise, it’s best to keep quiet

Application:

He does not answer to me, and he does not answer to you

He does not run the universe according to your definition of justice, your ideas of right and wrong, your opinions about how things should go

He does not run his church according to your opinions of how things should go

Paul narrows down his point by saying that part of God’s right is respond to human beings as he sees fit, specifically in either making them his people or not making them his people

Since all people are sinners, it would not be unjust for God to simply let everyone die

Quoting from Hosea, Paul says God reserves the right to make those who were not his people his people -

Quoting from Hosea, Paul says God reserves the right to make those who were not his people his people -

In this case, Paul is pointing to the surprising turn of events by which God has made gentiles his people

Hosea

Quoting from Isaiah, Paul says God reserves to right to make those who were his people not his people -

In other words, Paul is pointing to the surprising turn of events by which God has judged ethnic Israel

Transition: This of course begs the question: What does God do with his sovereignty?