God Still has a Plan for Israel Part II
Romans 10
Man’s Responsibility
- Last week we looked at the fact that God still has a plan for the nation of Israel…
- We looked at the sovereignty of God and His foreknowledge.
- But God’s foreknowledge doesn’t negate the mercy of God.
- Now we are going to look at the responsibility of Israel and all people to believe the message of salvation.
Vs. 1
- Paul continues his theme of deep passion and personal conviction that His people, the nation of Israel, would be saved.
- What is your heart’s desire? What is your prayer?
- Ex. Not what is your “praying” but what is “your prayer?” Your Prayer is what you carry around in your heart all the time, much deeper.
- Paul has just said in Chapter 9 just how deeply he feels about this:
Romans 9:1-3
I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, 2 that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh…
- Paul would be willing to even be “anathema,” “damned” himself that his family, the Jews, would be saved.
- Ex. I truly believe that often when people get mad about the gospel it is the precursor to salvation. I would rather have someone mad at me than indifferent toward me…
Vs. 2
- Ever since Israel has come back from their captivity in Babylon, they have been zealously against any form of idolatry.
- In all of their synagogues and the Temple, only the True God is worshipped and only the true Word of God is obeyed.
- They were so zealous for the Law that they sought to “improve on it” with new regulations and new interpretations of the Law.
- The Jews returned to Israel after their captivity in Babylon. The scholars, rabbis and scribes began to develop another code of ethics that they added to the Law of Moses, called the Mishnah and Talmud.
- It began as oral tradition for the interpretation and explanation of the Law and, by the time of Paul, had become inscribed.
- A collection of these laws were compiled by Rabbi Aqiba, who lived during the time of Jesus.
- These laws were arranged according to subject matter and were emphasized by the Pharisees.
- Ex. An example would be “to keep the Sabbath holy”. Well, what does that mean? The Mishnah told you exactly what you could and could not do on the Sabbath—a thousand new laws!
- There were six categories or orders to the Talmud and Mishnah: Agriculture, Feasts, Women, Civil and Criminal Law, Sacrifices, and Unclean things and their Purification.
- These chapters were divided into “tracts,” of which there were 63, and those were divided into chapters and paragraphs which resulted in thousands of laws, procedures, attitudes and obligations.
- Ex. Many in the church are doing the same thing today - trying to find righteousness through doing religious things…
- The Mormons and the Muslims have a zeal for God without knowledge!
- These Jews were zealous but without the knowledge of faith in the Messiah
Vs. 3-4
· Their zeal was a natural outgrowth of trying to find righteousness: if keeping the Sabbath makes you holy, then if you want to be holy, how do you keep the Sabbath? Instead of seeking God about why we keep the Sabbath holy from our heart, they sought the Law and how to get more righteous through one’s outward actions.
Isaiah 64:6
But we are all like an unclean thing,
And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags;
We all fade as a leaf,
And our iniquities, like the wind…
· Compared to a holy God, our righteousness is nothing.
· This really is a dilemma, for when you realize that your good works are nothing then you have to submit to Christ. That takes humility and surrender.
· Paul had discovered that righteousness can only come through faith:
Philippians 3:9
…and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith…
· Christ is the fulfillment of the Law - by placing our faith in Christ, the Holy Spirit fulfills the law by working within us.
Galatians 3:21-24
Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not! For if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law. 22 But the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. 23 But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. 24 Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
· Ex. The law was a mirror to show us our dirty, filthy face…but you don’t wash your face with a mirror!
Vs. 5
- Instead of letting the Law lead them to Christ, the Jews chose to worship the Law itself and lost all understanding of a personal relationship with the Lord.
- So, if you are going to follow the Law, then you must follow it perfectly! Not one single mistake.
Vs. 6-8
- Powerful passage - do you see what Paul is saying? The Word is Christ and he makes them interchangeable.
- Salvation is not complicated at all:
- It does not involve over thousands of Mishnah laws.
- It does not involve going to heaven to bring Christ down.
- It does not involve going down to hell to bring Christ up.
- WC Fields as he was dying was found reading the Bible and his son asked him what he was doing. He said, “I’m looking for loopholes.”
- Salvation is not complicated! Believe with your heart; not just your mind.
- Ex. People are always looking for loopholes or they say, “I just can’t understand it” and try to make it complicated…
- He is right here, right now! Christ is not far off; He is near.
- Just as Paul had proclaimed in Athens,
Acts 17:27
“so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us…”
- He is saying: “The very Law that you study will lead you to Christ. The very word of God that you talk about in the synagogue will lead you to Christ.”
- This is not complicated…but it does take faith.
Vs. 9-10
- No better explanation of salvation has ever been given.
- It is not by practicing the Law and religious ordinances and rituals; it is the simplicity of two things:
- Confess with your mouth: homologeo in Greek - meaning “to agree” with God that you are a sinner.
- Believe in your heart that Christ rose on the 3rd day, and you will be saved.
- It is the very simplicity of the salvation message that is the stumbling block for most people.
Romans 9:33
As it is written:
“Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense,
And whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.”
- This is Faith Righteousness, not Law Righteousness
- Law Righteousness is based on what I must do.
- Faith Righteousness is based on what Christ has done.
- Law Righteousness always leads to pride and arrogance because we think we did it. We get cocky about our own righteousness.
- Faith Righteousness always leads to humility.
2 Corinthians 4:3-6
But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, 4 whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.
5 For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus' sake. 6 For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
- You believe with your heart, not your mind! You confess it with your mouth.
- There is a deeper part of you than your mind - it is your heart.
- We learn with our heart, not like we learn in school - it is revelatory!!
Vs. 11-13
- In salvation, God doesn’t care if we are a Jew, Gentile, black, white, rich, poor, high IQ, low IQ, big sinner or a little sinner…we’re all sinful through and through and we have no need to be ashamed if we give our lives to Christ!
- God “richly blesses” all who come to Him! Wow! That’s the coolest thing in the world.
- So, now we come to the human responsibility of it all…
Vs. 14-17
- Four parts to missionary activity are given:
- “Hearing part” - People must hear the gospel.
- “Telling part” - This happens as people tell people the good news. Angels don’t do it, people do
- “Sending part” - There must be people who are sent out to tell others about Christ.
- “Faith part” - Faith is actualized when people hear the Word of God spoken to them.
- No part of this process can be missing. All of us here are missionaries to someone somewhere.
Vs. 18
Psalm 19
The heavens declare the glory of God;
And the firmament shows His handiwork.
Day unto day utters speech,
And night unto night reveals knowledge.
There is no speech nor language
Where their voice is not heard.
- The Book of the Law of Nature - creation has met the Book of Revelation and yet they still have chosen to reject God.
- Ex. I’ll never forget witnessing to a young man, John, who kept saying that if only God would reveal Himself to him he would believe. So I stayed up one night and prayed for God to reveal himself to John…days later he told me that suddenly one day as he looked at creation. He felt that there was a real God, and he chose to just forget about it!
- The Jews at this time have chosen to reject God.
Vs. 19-20
- God is now using the Gentiles to provoke faith in the Jews.
- Ex. Even today, it is the evangelical Christians that largely fuel the tourism in Israel - we know the Jewish scriptures better than the Jews do.
- God is still holding out his hand to the Jews.
Vs. 21
2 Peter 3:9
The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
- God is holding out His hand to the Jews and to each of us.
- If you have chosen to reject Christ or you have fallen away from the faith you once had, come back today!
- Denominations don’t matter.
- Being a “goody two shoes” doesn’t matter.
- What you do with Jesus does matter.
- You must say: “I am a miserable sinner…in my heart, I’m not good and I need you.”
- “I confess you as my Lord and Savior…I believe in my heart that you rose again.”
- The Rock has become the foundation of an abundant life…
- You will never be ashamed; you will be blessed by God!
- Or Jesus is a stumbling stone!
This sermon was produced at Mountain Springs Church in Colorado Springs, with Senior Pastor Steve Holt. www.mountainsprings.org
|
Email This Page