God's Promises Previal

Introduction:

As we continue through the next couple chapter, 9-11 we are seeing a slight shift in the focus of this letter. Paul begins to answer the question of, “If salvation belongs to Gentiles as well as Jews, does that mean God has broken His promise to His earthly people, the Jews?”

As we finish chapter 9 this morning we will have covered Israel’ past. Next week we will see its present in chapter 10. and its future in chapter 11.

As we continue to study through this letter, please feel free to come talk to me if you have any questions.

Recap:

In chapter 8 we saw that nothing will be able to separate us from the Love of God. We truly have security in God’s love.

There are going to be many things trying to convince you otherwise, yet nothing will be able to. AMEN!

As we spent some time last week breaking down the sovereignty of God when it comes to election and man’s responsibility.

No matter where you personally land on the issue, it is good to understand that election is not an essential doctrine. What is however: You and I are lost and damned. Hopeless and helpless, and that nothing can save us but the grace of God in Jesus Christ and only Him crucified, bearing the punishment of our sins, dying, raising again, ascending, sending the Holy Spirit, and regeneration.

Starting us off in chapter 9 Paul is heartbroken that his countrymen are seemingly separated from Jesus. He would go so far as to state he would rather be separated from Christ if it meant that it would allow somehow his people to come to Jesus Chris

We also tackled what God meant by stating I loved Jacob but Esau i hated. 1st is should be understood that love and hated are not what is being implied but of a less love or favored less.

With in the context of the passage what is really being taught is that the promise would come through Jacob and not Esau and speaking of them as heads of their nations.

vv 19-21) God’s choice, man’s responsibility

[19] What we are seeing is the question of “Does God’s right to choose relieve man of responsibility?”

Because Paul is focusing on God’s right to do what He pleases. Paul is aware of the objection that, if God truly does what He pleases, He shouldn’t find fault with anyone, since no one has successfully resisted His will.

To the person who is asking these question, they are a helpless pawn on the divine chessboard. Nothing he can do or say will change his fate.

[20] Paul nips this question in the bud. Showing how disrespectful such a question is. This is a loving rebuke for the insolence of any creature who dares to find fault with their Creator.

Finite humans, loaded down with sin, ignorance, and weakness, is in no position to talk back to God or question the wisdom or justice of His ways.

Remember what we talking about last week. God is righteous and good in everything that He does. To think that for even a second that God would do something unjust or sinful is wrong.

If God say He chooses, and if God also says that we are responsible before Him, who are we to question Him?

[21] Paul uses the illustration of the potter and the clay to vindicate the sovereignty of God.

Does not God have the same right that any Creator has over His creation?

The potter comes into his shop one day and sees a pile of formless clay on the floor. He picks up a handful of clay, puts it on his wheel, and fashions a beautiful vessel. Does he have right to do that?

The potter is clearly God. The clay is lost humanity died in sin. If the potter left it alone, it would all be sent to hell.

He would be absolutely just and fair if He left it alone. God is under no obligation to redeem mankind. But in His sovereignty selects a handful of sinners, saves them by His grace and conforms them to the image of His Son.

Does He have the right to do that? The objection is, “ Well then God elects some to glory, and others to destruction.”

Family He is not arbitrarily dooming others to hell. All of mankind is doomed by their own willfulness and unbelief.

Once we’ve understood our place before God, realizing we are not owed anything by God. He has the absolute power and authority to make a vessel for honor with some of the clay and another for dishonor.

You see in a situation where everyone is unworthy, He can bestow His blessing where He chooses and withhold them whenever He wishes. And... HE IS COMPLETELY JUST IN DOING SO.

Here is what it boils down to. The only thing we are all underserving, perhaps the only thing we can demand is that He should not treat any with injustice.

vv 22-24) God’s glory

[22] What Paul is describing here is a seeming conflict of interests. On the one hand, God wishes to show His wrath and exhibit His power in punishing sin. but on the other hand He desires to bear patiently with vessels of wrath prepared for destruction.

The contrast is between the righteous severity of God in the first place, and His merciful patience in the second.

Paul’s argument is, “If God would be justified in punishing the wicked immediately but, instead of that, shows great patience with them, who can find a fault with Him?”

Family please take note that the phrase vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, is talking about people whose sins make them subject to God’s wrath. They are prepared for destruction by their own sin, disobedience, and rebellion, not because of some arbitrary decree of God.

[23] If God desires to be more than fair with others, showing them His mercy, who can object?

“God’s sovereignty is never exercised in condemning men who ought to be saved, but rather it has resulted in the salvation of men who ought to be lost” -C. R. Erdman

Who can object if God wishes to make know the riches of His glory to people to whom He desires to show mercy- people whom He had selected beforehand for eternal glory?

God does not prepare vessels of wrath for destruction, those vessels do an adequate job themselves. God does prepare vessels of mercy for glory though.

[24] The vessels of mercy are those of us who are Christians, whom God called from the Jews and Gentiles. God is never going to less than fair to either group.

The Jews were inclined to think that God could not make them anything other than vessels of honor. And Paul rejects this view and points out that God does what He wills.

What Paul is doing is setting the foundation for much of what it to follow- the setting aside of all but a remnant of the nation of Israel and the call of the Gentiles to a place of privilege.

This isn’t covenant replacement theology. Israel is still very much God’s people, and there are promises in store for them.

vv 25-26) God’s right to choose: Gentiles

Paul quotes two verse from Hosea to show that the call of the Gentiles was a plan of God from the beginning.

There is a duel meaning here as well. One will apply to the Gentiles and the other to the Jews.

[25] The first is:

Hosea 2:23 ESV

and I will sow her for myself in the land. And I will have mercy on No Mercy, and I will say to Not My People, ‘You are my people’; and he shall say, ‘You are my God.’ ”

What is interesting here is that in Hosea these words refer to Israel and not to the Gentiles. They looked forward to the time when Israel will be restored as God’s people and as His beloved.

Yet when Paul quotes the verses here in Romans he applies them to the call of the Gentiles.

We might ask ourselves what right does Paul have to make such a radical change?

The answer is that the Holy Spirit who inspired the words in the first place has the right to reinterpret or reapply them later.

[26] The second verse is a quote from:

Hosea 1:10 ESV

Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered. And in the place where it was said to them, “You are not my people,” it shall be said to them, “Children of the living God.”

And once again, in its OT setting this verse is not speaking about the Gentiles but describing Israel’s future restoration to God’s favor. But Paul applies it to God’s acknowledgement of the Gentiles as His sons.

What these two quotes are demonstrating is the mercy of God. God told the prophet Hosea to name one of his children Lo-Ammi meaning “Not My People.” Yet God also promised that this judgement wouldn’t last forever. One day Israel will be restored and once again be called sons of the living God.

vv 27-29)God’s right to choose: Jews

[27] The passage quoted from:

Isaiah 10:23 ESV

For the Lord God of hosts will make a full end, as decreed, in the midst of all the earth.

speaks first to God’s work in saving a remnant from the coming Assyrian destruction. The suffering of God’s people at the hands of the Assyrians and other would make them feel as if they would certainly be destroyed. God assures them that this is not the case. He will always preserve His remnant.

God has always dealt with a remnant. It would be foolish to think that since the whole nation had not entered int the blessings promised, that God had failed. The promise has not been made to the whole nation and had never been intended to apply to the whole nation.

The rejection of all but that remnant of is predicted by Isaiah. That only a minority of the children of Israel would be saved, even though the nation itself might grow to tremendous numbers.

[28]What Isaiah is alluding to was the subsequent exile of Israel from their land by the Babylonians, which was a work of God’s judgement.

And what Paul is saying is that what happened to Israel in the past could and would happen again in his day.

[29] In verse 29 Paul points back to what Isaiah had predicted (in an earlier part of his prophecy). Unless the Lord of all had left some survivors, Israel would have been wiped out like Sodom and Gomorrah.

Isaiah 1:9 ESV

If the Lord of hosts had not left us a few survivors, we should have been like Sodom, and become like Gomorrah.

Sodom and Gomorrah were completely destroyed in judgement. This quote shows that as bad as Judah’s state was because of their sin, it could have been worse. It was only by the mercy of God that they survived at all.

Sodom and Gomorrah were both completely destroyed, with not even a very small remnant to carry on. The only ones to be saved shouldn’t have even been their in the first place.

What this is showing us is that even in the midst of judgement, God showed His mercy to Judah.

Paul is going to address why Israel is in its present condition from an earthly perspective. And it is because Israel missed the Messiah because they refused to come to faith.

vv 30-31) A human perspective

[30] What, Paul asks, is the conclusion of all this as far as this present Church Age is concerned?

The first conclusion is that Gentiles, who characteristically did not pursue righteousness but rather wickedness, and who certainly didn’t pursue a righteousness of their own making, have found righteousness through faith in Jesus.

Not all Gentiles, of course, but only whose who believed in Christ were justified.

By all appearances the Gentiles found righteousness even though it didn’t seem that they really looked for it.

[31] Israel, on the other hand, which sought justification on the basis of law-keeping, never found a law by which they might obtain righteousness.

By all appearances Israel seemed to work for the righteousness of God with everything they had, but didn’t find it.

What was the difference? Why did the unlikely Gentiles find righteousness, when the likely Jews did not?

The answer is because the Gentiles pursued the righteousness that is by faith, and the Jews pursued the law that would lead to righteousness.

The Gentiles who were saved came to God through faith, receiving His righteousness. The Jews who seem to be cast off from God tried to justify themselves before God by performing works according to the law.

vv 32-33) The reason for Israel’s separation

We might expect Paul at this point to answer the “why?” from God’s perspective, and simply throw the matter back on God’s sovereign choice. But instead he places the responsibility with Israel.

Paul has already shown in Romans that the only possible way to be saved is through faith, not by works of the law; and that this salvation comes only through the work of a crucified Savior.

They refused to believe that justification is by faith in Christ, but went on stubbornly trying to work out their own righteousness by personal merit. They stumbled over the stumbling stone, Christ Jesus the Lord.

The crucifixion is a stumbling block for Israel.

1 Corinthians 1:22–23 ESV

For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles,

[33] This is exactly what the Lord foretold through Isaiah. The Messiah’s coming to Jerusalem would have a twofold effect. To some people He would prove to be a stumbling stone and rock of offense. others would believe on Him and find no reason for shame, offense, or disappointment.

You see that Israel is responsible for their present condition. Has he contradicted everything he has previous said, which emphasized God’s sovereign plan? No, he is simply presenting the problem from the other side of the coin - the side of human responsibility, instead of the side of God’s sovereign choice.

Now that we discussed the Israel’s past and how the Gentiles play a role in the coming to Jesus. Next week as we start chapter 10 there we are going to look into the present state of Israel and in chapter 11 the future for Israel.

[[Communion]]