Characteristics of this section: the heighth of chapter 8 to the depth of concern in 9. From joy to a great burden.
*Some of toughest questions contemplating actions and working of God. Bitter and denunciatory accusations against God are faced.
*Paul goes from explaining the gospel to exhibiting it. Paul tells us what he knows but does not answer all the questions we ask.
Power of Human Images: Paul uses people to demonstrate how God works in human history(Isaac, Jacob, Esau) He quotes Moses, Isaiah & Elijah.
*Sad & sobering story of Israel: saw themselves as the people of God(chosen, advantages, privileged position) but ended up far, far away from God. Someone might ask, ‘What about the Jews? They were chosen by God and yet God is building His church with their resistence. Did God fail to keep His promises?
1. Paul understood since he himself had once been so opposed to the gospel.
2. Chapter 9 provides the greatest evidences of God’s sovereingty while chapter 10 does the same regarding man’s choice.
THE PASSION OF GOD’S SERVANT 9:1-3
(1) I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit, (2) that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. (3) For I could wish myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh.
*Paul has been constantly accused by Jews as being against them, a traitor who ministered to the Gentiles. He taught freedom from the Law of Moses. Chapters 1 thru 8 of Romans sounds like enemy language to the Jews. Everywhere Paul had gone the Jews had resisted him. Paul makes it clear that he is not their enemy but a loving & hurting friend.
1. Not phony but ‘conscience’ supports words.
2. Father of PRODIGAL grieving over the wayward one. Anguish beneath the surface all day long.
Amazed at things people cry over: TV show, movie, olympic moment, hurting statement …but never shed a tear or lose a moment of sleep over a person’s eternal destiny.
A. PAUL TESTIFIES OF A GENUINE CONCERN: telling the truth…not lying…my conscience testifies
1. Two witnesses: Jesus & Holy Spirit
2. HAND ON BIBLE as he sits before readers ready to testify
B. PAUL TESTIFIES OF AN INTENSE CONCERN: great sorrow.. unceasing grief…wish myself accursed(separated)
1. MOSES(Exodus 32 – Lord, if it be possible, blot this sin from their lives but if not, blot me out of your book’ Anyone you would be willing to lose your place in heaven for?
C. PAUL TESTIFIES OF A DIRECT CONCERN: for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh
1. Despite his great successes Paul grieved over his own people.
2. KOREA 1991: Saw power of gospel in lives of people, entire camp of youth made decision: today I have converted) return to own land and turn on TV, read newspaper, see apathetic church members.
3. WHO IS ON YOUR HEART? Who are you burdened for?
Characteristics of burdened people:
a. Usually alone: I…..my…..I. show up everyday to serve God. Others catch waves during a revival but burdended people report in every day.
b. Usually give their all: willing to be accursed
1) if a grain of wheat dies it bears much fruit…no one after putting hand to plow and looking back is worthy….count the cost….deny self…take up cross…follow Me. It is a demanding road.
CT STUDD: wealthy, nationally famous athlete put it all aside to disappear into the mission field: China, India, and then Africa. Lost from sight for 13 yrs without contact. WHY? ’Some people love to dwell near church with choir and steeple bell. But I want to run a rescue station a yard from the gates of hell.’
2) People who give all are usually seen as odd or lopsided by everyone except God. When I read biographies about people who made a difference in the world they were the kind of people who would go anywhere, do anything, say anything, lay down anything for the sake of the gospel.
1985: Centrifuge Pastor at camp at Mobile College. Preached 50 sermons in 10 weeks time, came out of summer a zombie, JOHN WESLEY kept that kind of schedule for a lifetime. Studied and slept on horseback as he traveled to the next pulpit.
3) Where have you drawn the line on God in your life? Where are you willing for your lifestyle to be altared?
c. Usually focused: heart for God’s direction, sense their calling,
1) Not constantly getting excited about something new but have focused sense of God’s purpose. ‘Pressing towards the mark’ And carrying out their piece of God’s larger puzzle. Know their gifts, tested the waters and they are not living their life on hold.
THE PRIVILEGES OF GOD’S ‘SAINTS’ 9:4-5
(4) who are the Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises, (5) whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, Who is over all, God blessed forever, Amen.
Think of all the privileges you have received in you exposure to the gospel: I was raised in the church, deacon’s kid, went to Bible school every year, in church camp, many prayers on my behalf yet I was able to fend off the grace of God for 20 years.
1. Proverb verses promise: Train up a child in the way that he should go and even when he is old he will not depart from it. Not a promise: doesn’t say if you take your kids to church when little they will eventually come back to God before they die. If you build into that your person a love and understanding for God then as they go through life they will not cast it aside.
2. Any group of people ever given more benefits and privileges by God than the Jews? Whitewashed tombs….brood of snakes who warned you to flee?
1975: Got a letter from Oklahoma State University: Invited me to come on a future Saturday and be their guest at a football game. Showed up in special room(wore High School letter jacket to impress college crowd). They assigned a pretty college girl to accompany me and my parents throughout the day and sit next to me at the game. We sat right behind the team, could hear them, smell them, see all the action close up. I was in their midst but not really one of them. They left with sore muscles and all I got was too much sun. Surrounded by the truth and not be partakers of grace.
A. PRIVILEGES: adoption…glory…covenants….Law…temple… promises…Messiah. Seven amazing things God did that they might know Him and be His ambassadors to the world.
shekinah glory, cloud by day & fire by night, holy of holies, King Solomon: cloud of glory came
Covenant: Abrahamic, Davidic, Messianic,
Law: service set aside in which men took scrolls of the Law and danced with them. Recorded that one young man asked, ‘I wonder if the Gentiles ever feel this way about the Word of God?’
Temple: design, rituals, feasts, sacrifices all meant to point us to Jesus Christ.
1. What has gone done in your life that you might know Him and be His ambassador? Have you missed it as well?
2. When Jesus arrived his biggest enemies were those who had been given the greatest benefits. By Paul’s time the Jews were violently anti-christian.
B. PROBLEMS:
1. Church has it’s own group of noncommitted members who practice a religion that relies on membership as a substitute for a personal faith. In spite of all the privileges they have no sense of sacrifice, no vision for missions, no personal commitment, and no surrender of time or comforts.
2. WHAT CAN EXPLAIN THIS?
THE PURPOSE OF GOD’S SOVEREIGNTY 9:6-13
*Paul anticipates the question that might be asked: But it is not as though the Word of God has failed. Paul answers us according to what he know but leaves us short with regard to our desire to have complete answers. He tells us enough to allow our faith to have an object of assurance.
*failed - taken none effect (ship going off course)
A. HAS THE WORD OF GOD FAILED? Paul answers that charge by clarifying what it does say.
1. IT EXPLAINS THE PATHWAY OF GOD’S SALVATION
(6) ….for they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel; (7) nor are they all children because they are Abraham’s descendants, but ‘through Isaac your descendants will be named.’ (8) That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants.
a. It is not through natural descendancy. Family may have been wonderful Christians. You may have attendance record ribbons lining your walls. Your great, great, great, great, great, may have been believers. Doesn’t save you: not the children of the flesh…but the children of the promise.
1) JN 8:37,39 I know that you are Abraham’s descendants but you seek to kill Me, because My word has no place in you. Abraham is our father….If you are Abraham’s children, do the deeds of Abraham…..(56) Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.
b. It is always based on a Divine Promise: (9) for this is the word of promise: ‘At this time I will come, and Sarah shall have a son’
1) Isaac: the one through whom the covenant would be fulfilled. Abraham had seven other sons(1 by Hagar & 6 by Keturah) That makes a lot of descendents in the world today but the promise only came through Isaac.
It is also based on Divine Purpose: (10-13)
(10) And not only this, but there was Rebekah also, when she had conceived twins by one man, our father Isaac: (11) for though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, so that God’s purpose according to His choice would stand, not because of works but because of Him who calls, (12) it was said to her, ‘The older will serve the younger’. (13) Just as it is written, ‘Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated’.
1) Verse of concern: 9:13 Not just a promise through one man but God had a purpose for a people as well. When Rebekah was carrying the twins God said in Genesis 25:23 ‘Two nations are in your womb and two peoples will be separated from your body; and one people shall be stronger than the other; and the older shall serve the younger’.(Mal 1:2-3) It is not a statement of abhorence but of preference. Jewish way of demonstrated the force behind a choice by using extreme opposite.
a. LK 14:26 Except a man hate his father and mother and brother and sister and wife and children and houses and land, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. Jesus is to be pre-eminent and unchallenged in our heart
Avery Willis: when asked wife to marry him: Shirley there is one thing you must know about me, there is another whom I love more than you, although I desire to make this commitment to you if this one should ask then at at moments notice I will go to them and do whatever is asked. GOD
2) God made a divine choice before the birth actually occurred: had not done anything good or bad…twins!
a. Age didn’t matter. Like Ishmael & Isaac God would go against Jewish tradition and choose the younger over the older to be the one through whom the people He would use to reach out to the world would come.(David, Andrew, Abel, Joseph’s Sons, my two older brothers & call upon my life) Choice made before I was ever born.
Gal 1:15-16 God, who had set me apart even from my Mother’s womb and called me through His grace…that I might preach Him among the Gentiles.
Eph 2:10 – We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
PS 139:16 In Your book were all written the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them.
b. Actions didn’t totally matter: (I can understand why God rejected Esau but can’t understand why God loved Jacob)as young men Jacob was deceitful, weak, untrustworthy, scheming while Esau seemed more stable and reliable. By the end of their lives it would be Jacob who would surrender his heart and will to God.
Paul is simply stating that God made two simple choices:
1) Justification comes not by works but through faith in a promise.
2) God chose the line of descendancy from Isaac through Jacob and onward to have pre-eminence as His chosen vehicle to reach this world.
Final confrontation between Jacob and Esau is recorded in the gospels when Herod, an Edomite, a descendant of Esau faced Jesus Christ, a descendant of Jacob.
CONCLUSION: The Jews misunderstood God’s truth and thus missed the Messiah Himself. They settled into a self serving kind of religion and forgot the very purpose they were created for. The court of the Gentiles, instead of a place to witness to world, because a marketplace that Jesus drove the moneychangers from.
