Part Two
An Expository Study of Romans
Chapters 9 through 14
INTRODUCTION:
Christianity Through the Epistles of Paul
The
apostle Paul, called and trained by Jesus Christ as apostle to the Gentiles, was the very one
responsible for the spreading of Christianity to the world outside Judaism.
What started out in the eyes of the Rabbis as an offshoot sect of Judaism, the
sect of the Nazarenes, ended up as a major world religion—-Christianity. The apostle Paul, under the inspiration of
Jesus through the Holy Spirit, was almost solely responsible for this mushroom
type growth in Christianity through his teaching, both verbal and his letters.
Without those precious letters we would know very little or nothing of this
man’s greatness as a Christian leader and teacher. Countless Christian revivals
down through the centuries owe their very existence and success to the epistles
of Paul, which had their beginnings in people being transformed –spiritually
set afire—by the Holy Spirit as a direct result of reading Paul’s epistles,
particularly the book of Romans. Do you wish to be spiritually transformed,
enlivened? Do you wish to transform your congregation—making your membership
become spiritually alive—vibrant, radiant Christians? Then read this series of
expository studies about the apostle Paul’s letters, and then apply them, to
yourself, and to your congregation. Then watch the growth!
Chapters 9,10 & 11:
The Perplexities of The Gospel,
What About Israel?
Why Are Some
People Saved and
Some Are Not?
ROMANS
9
Romans
9:1-5. “I speak the truth in Christ--I am not lying, my conscience confirms it
in the Holy Spirit--I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For
I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of
my brothers, those of my own race, the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption
as sons; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the
temple worship and the promises. Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is
traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised!
Amen.”
Abraham
took the very same unselfish attitude toward Lot and also the sinful
inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah. He was not concerned for himself but for
others who were less deserving. Genesis 13:5-12. “Now Lot, who was moving
about with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents. But the land could not
support them while they stayed together, for their possessions were so great
that they were not able to stay together. And quarreling arose between Abram's
herdsmen and the herdsmen of Lot. The Canaanites and Perizzites were also living in the land at that time. So Abram said to Lot, 'Let's not
have any quarreling between you and me, or between your herdsmen and mine, for
we are brothers. Is not the whole land before you? Let's part company. If you
go to the left, I'll go to the right; if you go to the right, I'll go to the
left.' Lot looked up and saw that the whole plain of Jordan was well watered,
like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, toward Zoar.
(This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.) So Lot chose for
himself the whole plain of the Jordan and set out toward the east. The two men
parted company: Abram lived in the land of Canaan, while Lot lived among the
cities of the plain and pitched his tents near Sodom.”
Abram was content to let Lot choose, and Lot chose what appeared to be the more
fertile ground, leaving Abram with the rough hill country of Canaan. In Genesis
14 Abram risks life and limb to rescue Lot and all his possessions by taking on
an invading Assyrian army at night. In Genesis 18 Abram actually argued with
the Lord in an attempt to save the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah from
destruction. Do you ever get tired of serving those who don't return your love?
Moses did. But what was Moses overall attitude toward those who constantly
resisted his leadership under the Lord? In Exodus 32 we find Moses up on
the Mountain of God for forty days. The children of Israel, impatient as ever,
started worshipping a golden calf and reveling in a wild orgy. Moses came back
in the middle of all this, so angry that he smashed the two tablets with the
Ten Commandments written on them. God was angry too. But Moses pleaded for
their forgiveness. Moses' plea to the Lord can be found in verses 31-32, which states, “So Moses went back to the Lord and said, 'Oh, what a great
sin these people have committed! They have made themselves gods of gold. But
now, please forgive their sin--but if not, then blot me out of the book you
have written.” Another one of God’s
servants exemplifying this unselfish attitude was Nehemiah. Nehemiah 1:1-5, “The words of Nehemiah son of Hacaliah: In the
month of Kislev in the twentieth year, while I was in the citadel of Susa, Hanani, one of my brothers, came from Judah with some men,
and I questioned him about the Jewish remnant that survived the exile, and also
about Jerusalem. They said to me, 'Those who survived the exile and are back in
the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken
down, and its gates have been burned with fire.' When I heard these things, I
sat down and wept. For days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of
heaven.” Nehemiah is a cup bearer to the king [of the Persian Empire], a
pretty plush job. He was willing to give all this up. His attitude can be seen
in his prayer to God found in Nehemiah 1:5-11. Nehemiah interceded for others. Nehemiah
1:5-11, “Then I said: 'O Lord, God of heaven, the great and awesome God,
who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and obey his commands,
let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is
praying before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel. I
confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father's house, have
committed against you. We have acted very wickedly toward you. We have not
obeyed the commands, decrees and laws you gave your servant Moses. Remember the
instruction you gave your servant Moses, saying, 'If you are unfaithful, I will
scatter you among the nations, but if you return to me and obey my commands,
then even if your exiled people are at the farthest horizon, I will gather them
from there and bring them to the place I have chosen as a dwelling for my
Name.' They are your servants and your people, whom you redeemed by your mighty
hand. O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of this your servant and
to the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name. Give your
servant success today by granting him favor in the presence of this man [the
king of the Persian Empire].' I was cupbearer to the king.”
Paul’s Loving Heart Toward The Jews Who
Hated Him
Paul's life was one long journey, going from community to community, country to
country, sharing the gospel and wonder of God’s love for mankind. His attitude for the Jews who wanted him dead
can be seen in Romans 9:1-5. Understand the depth of love Abram, Moses,
Nehemiah and Paul had for people who were not necessarily deserving of it.
Jesus died on the Cross for this evil world, not to condemn it, but to save it.
All these people, Abraham, Moses, Nehemiah, and all the Prophets and David, had
the heart of God in them. Paul had this same heart in him. If you're tired or
complacent you don't have God in your heart [the way He needs to be].
Romans 9:6-18. “It is not as if God's word had failed. For not all who are
descended from Israel are Israel. Nor because they are his descendants are they
all Abraham's children. On the contrary, ‘It is through Isaac that your
offspring will be reckoned.’ [Gen. 21:12] In other words, it is not the natural children
who are God's children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded
as Abraham's offspring. For this was how the promise was stated: 'At the
appointed time I will return, and Sarah will have a son. Not only that, but
Rebekah's children had one and the same father, our father Isaac. Yet, before
the twins were born or had done anything good or bad -- in order that God's
purpose in election might stand: not by works but by him who calls--she was
told, ‘The older will serve the younger.’ Just as it is written: ‘Jacob I
loved, but Esau I hated.’ What shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! For he
says to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion
on whom I have compassion.’
It does not, therefore, depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's
mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: 'I raised you up for this purpose,
that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in
all the earth.' Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he
hardens whom he wants to harden.”
Not All Of Israel Is The Israel Of God
Verse 6: The name Israel Paul is using in verse 6 means governed by
God in Hebrew. Paul is saying that not all Israel is Israel. i.e. Not all
Israel is governed by God. Not everyone who is called a Christian is a
Christian [Matthew 7:21-23; Mark 7:6-8]. Verse 14: How is verse 14 unfair? How can God hate Esau? Because God knows the
future. He knew Esau would live for the flesh. He has perfect foreknowledge.
God's answer, verse 15, is “I will have mercy on whomever I will have
mercy.” Verses 16-18: The first ten
times Pharaoh hardened his own heart by the way the Hebrew reads in Exodus.
Then the eleventh time the Hebrew translation indicates that God set and made
permanent that hardening. Romans
9:19-29. “One of you will say to me: 'Then why does God still blame us? For who
resists his will? [sort of a Calvinist approach in this question, isn't it?
i.e. It's all cut in stone anyway, so why try. Paul's answer to this logic
follows] But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? ‘Shall what is formed say
to him who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’ Does not the potter have
the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes
and some for common use? What if God,
choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience
the objects of his wrath -- prepared for destruction? What if he did this to
make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he
prepared in advance for glory -- even us, who he also called, not only from the
Jews but also from the Gentiles? As he says in Hosea: “I will call them ‘my
people’ who are not my people; and I will call her ‘my loved one’ who is not my
loved one,” and “It will happen that in the very place where it was said to
them, ‘You are not my people,’ they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’
Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: ‘Though the number of the Israelites be
like the sand by the sea, only a remnant will be saved. For the Lord will carry
out his sentence on earth with speed and finality [Isaiah 10:22-23].’ It is
just as Isaiah said previously: ‘Unless the Lord Almighty had left us
descendants, we would have been like Sodom, we would have been like Gomorrah.
[Isaiah 1:9].”
The lesson here: God is very Sovereign, but is also of great love and mercy.
How Did The Gentiles Obtain The
Righteousness Of God?
Romans 9:30-33. “What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not
pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith;
but Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it. Why not? Because
they persued it not by faith but as it were by works.
They stumbled over the ‘stumbling stone.’ As it is written: ‘See, I lay in Zion
a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall, and the one
who trusts in him will never be put to shame’ [Isaiah 8:14; 28:16].”
That was the conclusion to Romans 9. It is by faith, not works of obedience to
the law that saves us. And that faith is the faith of Christ in us and not our
own human faith. [And our works of
keeping God’s Law are performed within us as a “work of God,” and that, not of
our own puny efforts, cf. Jeremiah 31:31-34; Hebrews 8:6-13.]
ROMANS 10
The Importance Of Prayer In Ministry
Verse
1, “Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for
the Israelites is that they may be saved.” Pauls’ attitude toward those who hurt him and
wronged him, those of his own race is exemplified in this first verse of
chapter 10. He prays for their
salvation. Instead of giving in to the
desire to pound them he prays for them. And he prays for their salvation. God
put a huge desire in Paul's heart for his people's salvation. The desire turned
into a constant prayer.
Paul understood that his witness would not be effective unless it was
backed by prayer. John Bunyan
said, “You can do more after you have prayed but you can
not do more than pray until you have prayed.” Look at the
effectiveness of Paul's ministry in the conversion of whole churches of
Gentiles across the Roman empire. Prayer changes things. What we learn
here is that prayer must accompany the proclamation of the gospel, for it to
touch hearts. We tend to think that we can get so much more done in the
flesh than we can get done in prayer. Many times we save prayer for an act of
desperation, after we have done all we can -- when we've gone for the first,
second and third diagnosis, and the doctor says “It's in the hands of God now.”
We were created for fellowship with our heavenly Father, and we can't understand
how to live effectively for him, what he wants us to do -- without that
fellowship with him. Prayer, simply
stated, “is talking to God like you would talk to a friend.” Throw away your
past ideas of prayer. Many
Christians believe they can work for God without having been with God in
prayer. To live without waiting
on the Lord is to embrace humanism and to wrap it in Christian trappings. The humanist lives as if he was God and sadly,
a lot of Christians are living that way. God wants to hear about the daily challenges you face during the day. He cares. He's interested, and as you quiet down in
prayer, you start to get direction from him. When we pray we acknowledge that we need God, and that there is an
invisible war going on. Prayer keeps you
aware that there is a God and that he loves you. Ordinarily the flesh recoils from prayer, so
that many Christians are prayerless Christians. But we have a God that is intimately
interested in our lives. He cares and
cares and cares so much about us.
We should pray, “Direct me Lord, I want my service to be directed by you.” Prayer is not a bummer. Prayer changes things because prayer opens
doors. Look at Colossians 4:2, “Devote
yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.” Paul says pray with thanksgiving. Christians are people who should cultivate
thanksgiving.
Pray For Open Doors
Pray
for open doors -- a door for the gospel -- that it will spread. Once the door
opens, we should pray that the gospel spreads quickly. II Thessalonians 3:1, “Finally, brothers,
pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored,
just as it was with you.” Spiritual
power and victory are linked to prayer. Joshua
prayed for the sun to stand still because he needed more time to achieve a
military victory. He knew that prayer transcends natural laws. If Einstein or Steven Hawking were to put it
in their language, prayer transcends time and space, it functions outside time
& space, because God is outside time and space. He dwells in eternity, he
inhabits eternity. He created the
space/time continuum and has total
control of it whenever he chooses. God
has the ability to control everything. Spiritual victory and power are linked to
prayer. Acts 4:23-31, “On their release,
Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief
priests and elders had said to them. When they heard this, they raised their
voices together in prayer to God. ‘Sovereign Lord,’ they said, ‘you made heaven
and earth and the sea, and everything in them. You spoke by the Holy Spirit
through the mouth of your servant, our father David: ‘Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot
in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together
against the Lord and against his Anointed One [Psalm 2:1-2].’ Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together
with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against
your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. They did what your power and will
had decided beforehand should happen. Now, Lord, consider their threats and
enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your
hand and heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your
holy servant Jesus.’ After they had prayed, the place where they were
meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the
word of God boldly.” God shakes things up when you pray.
Another example of the power of prayer to enable the preaching of the gospel is
found in Acts 16:16-34, “Once when we were going to the place of
prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit by which she predicted the
future. She earned a great deal of money
for her owners by fortune-telling. This girl followed Paul and the rest of us,
shouting, ‘These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the
way to be saved.’ She kept this up for
many days. Finally Paul became so
troubled that he turned around and said to the spirit, ‘In the name of Jesus
Christ I command you to come out of her!’ At that moment the spirit left her.
When the owners of the slave girl realized that their hope of making money was
gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face
the authorities. They brought them
before the magistrates and said, ‘These men are Jews, and are throwing our city
into an uproar by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or
practice.’
The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates
ordered them to be stripped and beaten. After
they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer
was commanded to guard them carefully. Upon
receiving such orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in
the stocks. About midnight Paul and
Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were
listening to them [kind of hard not to listen. A captive audience at midnight when everyone
is trying to sleep!] Suddenly there was
such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and
everybody's chains came loose. The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison
doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought
the prisoners had escaped. [This became
the jailer's worst nightmare. This is
the jailer that beat Paul and Silas. Roman law stated that if one prisoner escaped
the jailer paid with his own life. This
earthquake and Paul's Christianity shook up this jailer's life. Look at what took place next.] But Paul
shouted, 'Don't harm yourself! We are all here!’ The jailer called for lights, rushed in and
fell trembling before Paul and Silas. He then brought them out and asked, ‘Sirs,
what must I do to be saved?’ They
replied, ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved--you and your
household. Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in
his house. At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their
wounds; then immediately he and all his family were baptized. The jailer
brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy
because he had come to believe in God--he and his whole family.” As you can see, prayer can arrange things
in a certain way so that people are boxed in, and brings them face to face with
the issues of life. And it's all because
someone is praying for them -- just as Paul and Silas were praying for this
jailer.
God Moves Heavenly Armies Into Place In
Answer To Some Of Our Prayers: Prayer,
The Power Behind Ministry
The effective fervent prayer of a righteous person does much. God moves
heavenly armies into place in answer to some of our prayers. Elisha had been giving the movements of the
king of Syria, his army and chariots, to the king of Israel, telling the king
whatever God told him to. It was God
passing military intelligence to the king of Israel through Elisha. The king of Syria didn't know how Elisha was
finding out these things but set out to capture Elisha and stop him. This is an interesting story of the kind of
power and spirit military force God surrounds us with at the beck and call of
our prayers. Let’s pick it up in verse
12 of II Kings 6, “And one of his servants said, ‘None,
my lord, O king; but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of
Israel the words you speak in your bedroom.’ So he said, ‘Go and see where he is, that I
may send and get him.’ And it was told
him, saying, ‘Surely he is in Dothan.’ Therefore he sent horses and chariots and a
great army there, and they came by night and surrounded the city. And when the servant of the man of God arose
early and went out, there was an army, surrounding the city with horses and
chariots. And his servant said to him, ‘Alas,
my master! What shall we do?’ So he answered, ‘Do not fear, for those who are
with us are more than those who are with them.’ And Elisha prayed and said, ‘Lord, I
pray, open his eyes that he may see.’ Then the Lord opened the eyes of
the young man, and he saw. And behold, the mountain was
full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. So when the Syrians came down to him, Elisha
prayed to the Lord, and said, ‘Strike this people, I pray, with blindness.’ And
He struck them with blindness according to the word of Elisha. Now Elisha said
to them, ‘This is not the way, nor is this the city. Follow me, and I will
bring you to the man whom you seek.’ But
he led them to Samaria [the capital of Israel where the king's army was based]. So it was, when they had come to
Samaria, that Elisha said, ‘Lord, open the eyes of these men, that they may
see.’ And the Lord opened their eyes, and they saw; and there they were, inside
Samaria!” (II Kings 6:12-20.)
You know, if the Church [and I dare say, the collective Church, the body of
Christ] fully understood the power of prayer, nothing would be impossible for
her. Listen to what Andrew Murray says, “We
must begin to believe that God in the mystery of prayer has entrusted us with a
force that can move the heavenly world and bring its’ power down to earth.” God must wonder why we pray so little. Listen to what the former missionary to India,
Dr. Wesley Duall had to say about prayer. “Prayer is a form of spiritual bombing to
saturate any area before God's army of witnesses begins their advance. Prayer is the barrage to drive back the demon
hosts who are determined to stop the triumph of Christ. Prayer is the invincible force to break down
every opposing wall and open every iron gate, and fast closed door. Prayer
penetrates every curtain of darkness, crumbles every bastion of darkness. Prayer demolishes every fortress of hell. Prayer is the all-conquering invincible weapon
of the army of God.” If some of you
couples with problems would start praying together you'd need less counseling
together. If families would pray
together they would stay together. There's power in prayer. Why is it any surprise then that Satan attacks
us during our prayer time? Prayer is our
weapon, not talk, not meetings, not boards, not counseling...prayer is where
the power is. Again, why is it any
surprise then that Satan attacks our prayer time? And he gives men especially a
repulsion to prayer -- men are just scared to death to pray. Why? Because
Satan knows, “the righteous fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” ‘So keep em off
their knees at all costs.’ ‘Make em embarrassed’ -- that's Satan's reasoning. Because when people pray the kingdom of
darkness starts shaking. Prayer is
the power behind ministry. You see great churches and ministries -- they're
not great. But what might be great is
the prayer-force behind them. William
Carrie is known as the father of modern missions and God used him in mighty
ways to bring the gospel to India. [Families,
by the way, kill any of their members who try to become Christians in India.] People credit Carrie with a lot --but do you
know what? It wasn't Carrie, and he knew
that. What a lot of people don't know is
that he had a bedridden sister who prayed for him for fifty years. She was paralyzed. All she could do was lie in bed and pray. That's all she could do. It got the job done. Without prayer the Church
is nothing, just sickly and dying. Many
of us get so busy for God that we don't spend any time with God anymore. But prayer's power is not limited to time or
natural law. Remember what Samuel
Chadwick said, “The one concern of the devil is to keep the saints from
praying. He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work, prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil, mocks at our wisdom,
but trembles when we pray.”
Remember the example of Moses, Aaron and Hur on the
mountain top praying for the victory of Israel over the Amalekites. There are
two levels here. 1) What is happening on the Mount of Prayer, 2) determines the
outcome in the valley. Why do you fail
in your Christian life? Because you have
ceased to pray. Pray on. [This is a word
for word transcript taken from a sermon by Pastor J. Mark Martin of Calvary
Community Church, Phoenix, Arizona.]
Romans 10:1-21
Romans
10:1-4, “Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to
God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. For I can testify about them
that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. Since
they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish
their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness. Christ is the end of the
law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.” Many people are religiously
sincere, but sincerely wrong. You can be sincerely wrong. The people in Waco Texas were sincere and they
had a zeal for God, so much so that they would shoot themselves in the head and
then burn themselves up. Now that's zeal
for God if I've ever seen zeal, but it was wrong. They were sincere, but
sincerely wrong. Now before they got
that weird they were still sincere. Before they got so weird and socially
unacceptable, nobody would say “they're wrong!” Everybody would say, “Oh
they're sincere, leave them be.” But wrong thinking will lead you to wrong
living. We see people today who are
religiously sincere. They go by two's,
they knock on our doors and they hope to earn heaven by the hours they turn in.
They hope that by what they're doing they'll be right with God, and nobody's
ever been made right with God by what they do.
When You Realize You’re Not Right With God
The
first thing that enters your mind when you realize that you're not right with
God is that you think, “I'll do something, I'll make God a promise, I won't
do that again.” God must laugh! What
you do on the outside can't earn God's favor, but the first thing we think when
we realize we're not right with God is “What can I do?” This goes back to Adam and Eve our original
parents. After they sinned, suddenly
they realized they were naked. All of a
sudden they felt very naked and exposed. They did what God said was wrong. They knew it was wrong, they felt guilt, they
felt shame -- they felt naked before God who's Holy. Ever have “Naked” dreams where you are
in front of a bunch of people and you're doing your thing, giving the business
presentation?? Every preacher
understands this dream because they've all had it at least once. It's a preacher's nightmare. Everyone's had it at least once, every pastor
I've ever known. You're standing up here
and you're in your shorts, hopefully. Adam
and Eve had this type of feeling of nakedness, so they looked around and you
know they must have been in a panic -- they couldn't be thinking straight -- because
the leaf they picked, the leaves they picked to sew together were figleaves! Those are
the prickliest, scratchiest leaves on earth. And then God provided something better for
them. It says in Genesis 3:21 “the Lord God made garments of skin for
Adam and his wife and clothed them.” Isaiah 61:10 says, “I will greatly
rejoice in the Lord, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation.” God is in the business of covering up our
shame and our nakedness. God is showing
us how foolish it is for us to try to cover ourselves -- how absolutely absurd
it is for us to do something to try to get ourselves out of this mess. There is NOTHING we can do, he's got to
do it for us. He provided the skins for
them. He probably had to sacrifice a
little animal, probably a little lamb, in order to give them covering. And so he gave us his Son, Jesus Christ, so
that we might have covering.
A Beautiful Picture Of Salvation
Romans
10 is a beautiful picture of the simplicity of salvation. Do you think it's hard to be saved? If you do you've been exposed to religion -- you
haven't been exposed to a relationship with Jesus Christ. If you think it's hard, listen up, because
I've some good news for you. Someone has said, and it is well said, “There
are only two kinds of religions, one may be spelled “do,” the religion of DO, “DO
this, DO that, DON'T DO that, you'd better DO this.” And the other religion can be spelled D-O-N-E.
Christianity is a religion that is based on something that is DONE, it's not a
religion based on what we have to DO. The emphasis of Christianity is not what you have
to do. The sad thing is that there's
people all over the country, and that's what they're getting preached to them. “DO” for God. That's not the emphasis of the Word of
God, the emphasis of the Bible is what God's done for you, because God's smart,
and that's an understatement. He knows that once we get a grip on what he's
done for us--we'll do like crazy for him. It's true.
People don't understand that. They look out and they think, “These people
need to be told what to DO! -- You need to get out there and you need to hammer
'em, man. Tell 'em what to
DO!” No, you need to tell them what
God has DONE. Otherwise you might as
well be a part of every cult or false religion that guilt trips people into
everything. Christianity is not an
eternal guilt trip, it's a grace trip. It is a grace experience. The gospel is not about something I do, it is
about something Jesus has done. Sincere
people are sincerely wrong, verse 3 says, ‘when they go
about to establish their own righteousness, and not subjecting themselves to
the righteousness of God -- because Christ is the end of law keeping for
righteousness.’
We’re Not Saved By Works
You can not be saved by doing good things. By going to church, by being baptized, by
being sprinkled, by being confirmed, by taking Holy Communion, by going to the
temple, or by anything else you might think of -- you cannot be saved by those
things. Look at Galatians 2 and listen
to what the same guy, the apostle Paul, has to say on the same subject -- the
simplicity of salvation. Galatians
2:16, “Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but
by faith in Jesus Christ. Even we have
believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not
by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be
justified.” Now look at Galatians
3:10: “For as many as are of the works of the law are under a curse: for it is
written, 'Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are
written in the book of the law, to do them.’” Do you want to come under the law -- the
old covenant law of God? Then you had
better DO everything the law demands. It's funny how people will take parts of the
law [old covenant law of God], put people under them, and ignore whole other
parts. One of the big things we had to
do was keeping the Sabbath [this minister grew up in the 7th Day Adventist
Church], Saturday. Now that's in the law
[of Moses]. If you keep the law you'd
better keep the Sabbath -- but you know, we didn't keep the Sabbath the way
you're supposed to keep it. The Bible
says that if you light a fire on the Sabbath you should be stoned to death. I know many Sabbaths we lit fires in the
fireplace. And you can't cook, no
preparation of meals on the Sabbath. “Well,
that's legalism” you might say. No
brother, that's Bible. That's the way
the Sabbath was meant to be kept. The
Bible says if you're going to be under law, you'd better do it all--because if
you don't you're under a curse. [for
more on Law & Grace, see https://unityinchrist.com/whatisgrace/whatisgraceintro.htm]
Two Ways To Be Saved, But Only One Way
Works
There
are two ways to be saved in the Bible: 1) One is to get this righteousness you
need. You need rightness with God to
inherit Eternal life in the kingdom of God. But we are born wrong. We need to somehow be made right. And you've
got to find this rightness you need. And
one way is the Law. But the problem is
that if you put yourself under law you have to do it all because
the only way you can be saved is by perfectly doing the law, all of it. So if you've already messed up, you can't be
saved by lawkeeping, because you have to have a perfect
sinless record. [There's only one man
other than Jesus Christ who came close to having a sinless record. It was Job, and by all appearances he was
sinless, until God pointed out that he was self-righteous! Oops.] 2) The only other way to be saved is by faith
-- you get the rightness by faith. That's too easy! Yes! That's
the whole thing. This is so easy that
people stumble over it. People think
it's hard to be a Christian. That it's hard to be saved. Let's look at Romans 10:5, “Moses
describes in this way the righteousness that is by the law: ‘The man who does
these things will live by them.’” In other words if you can keep the law
you could live and have eternal life. But if you can't keep the law you can't be
saved, if you're going to try to be saved by lawkeeping. Salvation is so simple and so close. And you know, we need to communicate that when
we talk to people about Jesus. You have
to let 'em know that this is simple. Salvation is so near to us all. It's not like you have to climb a ladder to
get near heaven. Trying to be saved by good living is
impossible. The only way to be saved is
by what Jesus has done for you, and you can get into that so simply. It's so close. Verse 6-10, “But the righteousness that is
by faith says: ‘ Do not say in your heart, Who will ascend into heaven? (that
is to bring Christ down) or Who will descend into the deep? (that is to bring
Christ up from the dead). But what does
it say? ‘The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,’ that is,
the word of faith we are proclaiming: That 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. For it is with your heart that
you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and
are saved. As the Scripture says, ‘Anyone
who trusts in him will never be put to shame.’ For there is no difference between Jew and
Gentile -- the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him,
for, ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved’ [Joel 2:32].” Verse 6 says you don't have to ascend up to
heaven to get Jesus to bring him down -- as if somehow you have to climb to
heaven to get Jesus -- to gain access to him. And then again you don't have to debase
yourself thinking ‘I'll lay on a bed of nails. I'll walk on hot coals of fire. I'll do penance, I'll light candles, I'll give
money, I'll buy a window for the Church.’ No, you don't have to descend into this kind
of abyss either. (‘That is, to bring
Christ up from the dead.’) No,
salvation is not a long journey you have to get on and maybe find him. But what does it say? Verse 8, ‘The word is near you.’ The word of salvation is so close to you he says, ‘How close?’ ‘It's in your’ what? ‘Mouth’ -- and where? ‘and in your heart.’ That is the word of faith that we are
preaching. What does verse 9 say? “That 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. For with
the heart man believes resulting in righteousness and with the mouth he
confesses resulting in salvation.” Salvation is so near it is in your mouth and
in your heart -- and if you'll just confess that Jesus is Lord and believe in
your heart that God raised him from the dead--you will be saved. That is
so incredible!
Everyone Someday Will Confess That Jesus
Is Lord
Ultimately, the Bible says, the whole world, everyone who has ever lived,
will be forced, at the Judgment Throne of God, to confess that ‘Jesus is Lord.’
[cf. Revelation 20:11-13] Philippians
2 says ‘that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, and every
tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.’ The day is coming when you will have to
confess -- “Jesus is Lord.”[and this fellowship teaches, “you
may not want to say it at this point, but you'll be forced to say it, and then
you will be sent to hell.” A few
other fundamentalist Christian fellowships believe that last scenario isn't so,
but at this time of the Great White Throne Judgment the rest of unsaved
mankind's opportunity for salvation will come to them. This study will not be delving into the
secondary beliefs of any Christian group, fellowship or denomination beyond
briefly mentioning what they believe in. The focus is on the primary knowledge of the
gospel of Christ. Salvation in Jesus
Christ and how we attain it in the here and now for us is primary knowledge
of salvation. What happens to the
"unsaved dead" is secondary knowledge of salvation. One group, the majority of Christians, believe
the “going straight to hell” scenario, the other group believe in the “they're
given their first opportunity for salvation in Christ” scenario. But as long as believers believe the primary
knowledge and Jesus lives in them by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit (John
14), which Jesus does for us, we will be saved, see https://unityinchrist.com/plaintruth/battle.htm]
Do You Have Salvation In Jesus
Salvation
by confessing belief in Jesus Christ as Lord (Messiah) is not just a matter of
saying the words. It's not some magic
formula that you say. It's not mouthing
the words. Again, that would be a work
you do. It's not going through a
ceremony. It's not knowing in your head
that saves you, it's believing in your heart -- because when you believe in
your heart something, it extends all the way through your life, doesn't it? How many of us know that we should be eating
differently than we are? Be honest. But
knowing those things doesn't change us, because it's not here in your heart,
it's merely headknowledge. But when you get the bad news from the doctor
that unless you change your diet you're going to croak -- all of a sudden, it's ‘buy the juicer! Get those carrots,
man! We're going to take the vitamins! No fat in this diet, man! I'm going to live on rice crackers now!’ But you know, until something happens to you
which forces what's in your head down to your heart and you act on it, it
doesn't matter what's up here in your head. Many people in this world know Christianity in
their heads, but don't know it in their hearts. Jesus talked of this type of Christian in Matthew
7:21-22 which states, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will
enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is
in heaven. Many will say to me on that
day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out
demons and perform many miracles?’ Then
I will tell them plainly, ‘ I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’” If your don't have a personal relationship
with Jesus Christ it's all useless head knowledge. Let's look at John 5:11, “And this is the testimony: that God has
given us eternal life in His Son. He who
has the Son has life; he who doesn't have the Son does not have life. These
things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that
you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe
in the name of the Son of God.” O.K., this is like simplicity, isn't it? How
do you know that you're saved? Very simple -- do you have Jesus? “He who has the Son has life.” Now this is a real encouragement to those who
are always wondering “I'm I saved?” Salvation, again, is not what you do,
salvation is based on what He (Jesus) has done for you. Do you have Him? Do you have a personal relationship with Jesus
Christ? If you don't, you don't have
life. If you do have Jesus, you do have
life. ‘Are you willing to stake
your whole hope for eternal life on what I've done for you?’ Jesus
asks. If you are, then that's real saving belief. Verse 11, “Anyone who trusts in Him will
never be put to shame [Isa. 28:16].” The original Greek in this verse is very
strong, using a double negative. More accurately rendered, it states, “Whoever
believes in Him will never, no never be
disappointed.” You're never going to
be embarrassed. Everybody else will
disappoint you, but Jesus won't.
How Do You Call On The Name Of The Lord?
Verses
12-13, “For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile--the same Lord is
Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, ‘Everyone who calls on
the name of the Lord will be saved’ [Joel 2:32].” Now the question you have to ask
is “Have I called on the name of the Lord?” Have you ever called upon the name of the
Lord? “We know, I thought what my
parents did for me would save me (infant baptism).” No, the Bible says ‘If you want to be
saved you have to call upon the name of the Lord.’ One of the last things Jesus says to
us is in the book of Revelation. Revelation 3:20, “Behold I stand at
the door and knock. If anyone hears my
voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him and he with me.” Get
the picture. He's on the outside of your
life, knocking on the door of your life. And he says, “If anyone will hear my voice.” So he's also calling your name. ‘Joe, Sue, Mary, Pete, Mike, Bill, Beth,
Mark, Julie, Tom, Teresa or whatever your name is -- it's me, Jesus. Open up, I've got something for you. I've got
life, I've got peace, I've got forgiveness of your sins here for you. Open up.’ Jesus is basically saying ‘If
anyone hears My voice and opens the door I'll come in and I'll be their friend
forever.’ This is incredible!
But you've got to ask him into your life. You've got to open the door. He's not
going to bash down the door into your life to give you salvation. It's your
choice. Have you called upon the name of the Lord? Have you ever asked Jesus to
come into your life and save you from your sins? If you haven't, you're not
saved. It says, “calls on the name of
the Lord.” If you've done something
else besides calling, I don't know, you're on thin ice. When he says 'calling on God,' he means asking
God to come in because God is a gentleman, the Lord Jesus is a gentleman, he
won't break down the door. He respects
your will. You can invite him into your life. And you know, when you come to Jesus Christ, things change. What a wonderful transformation takes place. Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will
be saved. You can thank God for one
word, “Whoever.” Your sins will
all be forgiven. That is why he died on
the cross. God put all your ugliness,
all your sins and all the wrong things you've done on Jesus. He was punished and died the way you should be
punished and die, but God didn't want to punish you. Jesus wanted to take your place. He's bought the whole world and everyone in it
with his blood (John 3:16). That's what the cross is all about, and he was
buried and he rose again and your sins were forgiven. And he purchased eternal life for you and he's
waiting for you to receive it. How do
you call on the name of the Lord? We
should pray something like this aloud to Jesus. “Lord Jesus I know I need you. I've been wrong Lord. Please forgive me of my sins. Please come into my life, and give me a new
beginning. I believe that you died for
me, and that you rose again from the dead. I'm calling on you right now Jesus. Please
save me. And I believe that you accept
me, just like I am. Come into my life
now and change me I pray. In Jesus name, Amen.”
Paul Shines A Light On Those Who Bring
The Gospel To Others
Now
Paul put a plug in for those that bring the gospel, for people cannot call on
the name of the Lord if no one brings them the gospel -- the good news of
salvation through Jesus Christ. Romans
10:14-15, “How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom
they have not heard? And how can they
hear without someone preaching to them? And
how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet
of those who bring good news!’” [Isa. 52:7]
Verses 16-21, An Introduction To Romans
11
Paul
goes on to raise another question, which gets us into the subject matter of
Romans 11. Romans 10:16-21. “But not
all the Israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, ‘Lord, who has
believed our message? [Isa. 53:1]’ Consequently, faith comes from hearing the
message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ. But I ask: Did they not hear? Of course they did: ‘Their voice has gone out
into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. [Psalm 19:4]’ Again I
ask: Did Israel not understand? First,
Moses says, ‘I will make you envious by those who are not a nation; I will make
you angry by a nation that has no understanding. [Deut. 32:21]’ And Isaiah
boldly says, ‘I was found by those who did not seek me; I revealed myself to
those who did not ask for me. [Isa.65:1]’ But concerning Israel he says, ‘All day long I
have held out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people.’” [Isa. 65:2] [transcript of a connective expository
sermon given on Romans chapters 9 through 10, given by Pastor J. Mark Martin,
Calvary Community Church, P.O. Box 39607, Phoenix, Arizona 85069]
Romans 11
Romans
11:1-10, “I
ask then: did God reject his people? By
no means! I am an Israelite myself, a
descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. God did not reject his people, whom he
foreknew. Don't you know what the
Scripture says in the passage about Elijah--how he appealed to God against
Israel: ‘Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars; I am
the only one left, and they are trying to kill me’ [I Kings 19:10,14]? And what was God's answer to him? ‘I have
reserved for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal. [I
Kings 19:18]’ So, too, at the present
time there is a remnant chosen by grace. and if by grace, then it is no longer
by works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace. What
then? What Israel sought so earnestly it
did not obtain, but the elect did. The
others were hardened, as it is written: ‘God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes
so that they could not see and ears so that they could not hear, to this very
day [Deut. 29:10].’ And David says: ‘May
their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for
them. May their eyes be darkened so they
cannot see, and their backs be bent forever [Psalm 69:22-23].’”
So has God rejected the nation of Israel and cast her aside because of her
rejection of him? Does Israel still have
a right to the promises he gave her thousands of years ago? Is the Christian Church now Israel? Does God have a future plan for the nation of
Israel? The answers to these questions
are given to us in Romans chapter eleven.
Has God Permanently Rejected Israel?
Let's
look at Romans 11:1, “I ask then: Did God reject his people? By no means! I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of
Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin.” Now this would be a perfect place to say, ‘All
right dear Romans, I want you to know that God has rejected Israel, the nation
of Israel is cast off and the Church is now Israel.’ Why doesn't he say that? Instead he says in the clearest possible ways, “God has not rejected Israel.” “No way, may it never be.” One of the strongest ways the Greeks could
express a negative was to use a double negative, which they do here in this
sentence, which is translated “No way, may it never be.” And then he says, “If God is through with
Israel then I couldn't be saved because he said I really am an Israelite, of
the tribe of Benjamin, and yet God saved me so God must not be done with the
nation of Israel. They're not under a
curse, they're still God's people or I couldn't be saved.” He also said in verse 2, just to
emphasize it, “God has not rejected his people, whom he foreknew.” Look at verse 11, “Again I ask: Did they
stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not
at all! Rather, because of their
transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious.” Look at verse 28, ‘From the
standpoint of the gospel they are your enemies. They fought you.’ Read the book of Acts. They fought the apostle Paul every step of the
way. But from the standpoint of God's
choice they are what? “Beloved for
the sake of the fathers.” Why? “for the gifts and the calling of God are
irrevocable.” Did he call them his
people? Yes. That's irrevocable.
God’s Promise To Israel Through Abraham
Is Irrevocable
You mean you're telling me that after all they have done, rejecting the Lord,
crucifying Christ -- God is going to have something to do with them? Let's go back a step. Who crucified Christ? You know Jews for centuries have been called
Christ-killers by Christians, ignorant Christians. Who crucified Christ? The Romans did. Well if you're going to call anybody
Christ-killers, call Italians Christ-killers, right? The Jews didn't crucify him. They did say, “Let
him be crucified.” But it was
the Gentiles who had a part in crucifying Christ. So you can't call them Christ-killers unless
you want to be called a Christ-killer also. So they have rejected the Lord, yes. So they have fought the gospel, yes. So they blasphemed the name of our blessed
Lord, Jesus Christ, yes. But does that
mean that God would cast them off? NO! Why? Because
to begin with this whole deal God made with Abraham was not based on how
Abraham would perform. It was based upon
how well God would perform his promises.
If you go back to Genesis 15 you'll see the incident there. This is where the
Israelites started. God came to Abraham,
and said, “Hay Abe, I'm going to make out of you a mighty nation.” He told him that in Genesis 12. By chapter 15 Abraham still didn't have any
children. He was wondering, ‘Well God said my descendants would be like
the sand of the sea and the stars of the heaven -- they'd be innumerable. And I don't even have one son yet. I mean, shouldn't we just have one to get this
thing going, Lord? There's a lot of
stars out there. There's a lot of grains
of sand to catch up with.' H e said, ‘It
looks to me Lord like the only heir I have is my slave, my good buddy and slave
Eliezer of Damascus. Is he going to
inherit everything?’ ‘I made you a
promise, I'll fulfill my end of the deal.’ 'So Abraham believed God, and it was counted
towards him as righteousness.’ We're told in verse 6 that God
said, ‘Let's finalize this agreement, that I will make of you a great
nation, I will give you the promised land, and the Messiah will come through
you and save the world and of his kingdom and rule there shall be no end. So
let's seal the agreement.’ And
in these days they didn't sign on the dotted line. They had a very risky business they performed. They would take a couple of animals,
sacrifice the animals, cutting them in two. They would lay the animals out and make a path
out of the animals. They'd cut a cow in
two, push it apart, make a pathway, cut a goat in two and make the pathway a
little longer, take other animals and they would have this pathway of butchered
animals literally cut it two. Then the
two partners in the agreement would walk back-to-back. They would walk through one way with one of
the partners saying “I agree to abide by this covenant and I agree to do my
part, this, this, this and this.” And
they'd walk back the other way and the other partner would say it. “I agree to do my part which is this, this,
this, and this,” and then they would both say, “and if I do not do my
part, you may cut me in two, just like we've cut these animals in two.” Well, needless to say there weren't many of
those agreements made, right? You were
serious when you signed on the dotted line, because it meant you could be torn
in two. And so God proceeds to make this
agreement with Abram. Verse 9, “So he
said to him, ‘bring me a three year old heifer and a three year old female goat
and a three year old ram, and a turtle dove and a young pigeon.’ And he brought all these and cut them in two,
and laid each half opposite the other. He didn't cut the birds” (Well, you know
you cut a bird in two and all you get is feathers everywhere). “And the birds of pray came down on the carcasses and Abraham drove them away.” Now verse 12, significant, “When the
sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram. And behold a terror and a great darkness fell
upon him. And God said [while he was
in this deep God-induced sleep], ‘Abram, your descendants are going to be
many for number, go and become slaves in a foreign land. But after 400 years I will bring them out of
that land and put them back in the promised land. And they will remove all the inhabitants of
the promised land, and I will give them that land forever.” And that's what God said. Verse 17, “And when it came about, when the
sun had set that it was very dark, behold there appeared a smoking oven and a
flaming torch [shades of Revelation 5] which passed between the pieces.
On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, ‘To your
descendants, to your seed I have given this land, from the Nile River to as far
as the Great River the River Euphrates.” He also said, ‘I've also given you all
the inhabitants of the land and you can kick them out.’ So God made this agreement with Abram. And remember what I told you about this type
of agreement, that both parties were supposed to go through the cut in two
animals, both parties were supposed to state their part of the agreement, and
then upon penalty of being torn in two if they broke their end of the
agreement? God goes through, the smoking
flaming torch representing the Lord. God
is saying, ‘If I don't do what I have said, you can tear me in two.’ But where's Abram? Abram's flat on his back, incapacitated by
this sleep that God put upon him. Why? Why isn't Abraham walking through there? Why isn't Abraham doing his part!? God is saying, ‘Abe, I don't want you
walking through there because I know you couldn't do your part. I know you'd bring a curse upon yourself. Abraham, everything that I'm promising I will
do based upon My faithfulness, not yours.’ And that's the beginning of the story of the
Israelites. And because of this promise
God is also promising to the Israelites, ‘I will do for them what I've
promised based upon my faithfulness and not theirs.’ And that's the Abrahamic covenant. That's the promise to Abraham. It's called the everlasting covenant in the
Scripture. And so if you say, "Well,
how can God still have Israel as his chosen nation after they have rejected
him?” Well you have to know this promise wasn't
based upon their works anyway. If you go
back to Romans 11:2 “He says, ‘God has not rejected his people whom
he foreknew. Or do you not know what the
Scripture says in the passage about Elijah, how he pleads with God about
Israel.” And this is what Elijah
said, “Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars; I am
the only one left, and they are trying to kill me [I Kings 19:10,14].” And actually Elijah was complaining, saying, ‘Lord,
I thought there always was supposed to be faithful people in the nation of
Israel?’ But what is the Divine
response to him? “I have kept for
myself seven thousand people who have not bowed a knee to Baal.” “In the same way then, there has also come
to be at the present time a remnant according to God's gracious choice. But if
it is by grace” -- if God's choice of Israel is by grace -- “then it is
no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace (Romans
11:4-6).” God chose Israel not
because they were a great people, not because they were the best looking
people, not because they were the holiest people, or the most numerous people.
He chose them because he wanted to give somebody something they didn't deserve.
And he looked around for an undeserving people and he saw Abram, and he said,
'Abram, I'm going to give you what you don't deserve. I'm going to do this,
this, this and this for you.' It was by grace. Now you have been saved in the
same way, by grace.
Why God Chose Israel Through Abraham
The
formula for our salvation is not grace, plus works equals salvation. Now that is what a lot of religions teach. That's what a lot of cults teach. In fact I guarantee you every cult teaches
that. The Bible doesn't give the
equation that way at all. The Bible says
grace plus nothing equals salvation. But
some will say, “But wait a minute, you've got to have faith.” But don't
you remember that even saving faith is not from you, it's the gift of God. Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “For by grace
you are saved in faith, and that faith not of yourself, it's a gift of God, not
of works, lest any man should boast.” You can put faith in the equation if you want,
but it's part of grace. So say grace
plus faith equals salvation. That's
great. But faith is no big work you do,
it's just believing and trusting in God. [And that comes as a fruit of the Holy
Spirit who dwells in us.] Now because
grace means getting what you don't deserve, (unmerited favor is what grace
means) it makes no sense at all to say, “We're saved by grace plus something
that we do.” If grace means you
don't deserve it in the first place, then how can you do something to deserve
it? The point is, if you're going to be
saved by grace, then you're going to have to be saved by grace alone. If you're going to be saved by works, you have
to be saved by works alone. You can't
mix the two, they're like oil and vinegar. They do not mix, there's a separation there.
How Are You Trying To Obtain Eternal
Life?
How
are you trying to obtain eternal life? By
works or by grace? I hope it's by grace. A lot of people have the idea that our
life is like this: “Jesus died on the cross, and on the cross he made a
tremendous down payment on our eternal future, our eternal home, and now if we
will just accept this deal, man, the down payment has been made, no cash down
to mortgage. Just come as you are. All you have to do is sign on the dotted line
and guarantee you'll make the payment every month. And it's low interest, too.” And that's the view a lot of people have of
how to be saved. Jesus paid the down
payment, and now it's just up to me to pay God's easy payments. The only problem is, what if you get behind a
payment or two? Well that's when you
come to Church and they start talking to you and say “All right, you're
going to lose this house, God's going to foreclose on you, unless you catch up
on your payments. Unless you do what
you're supposed to do God will close the books on you. You're going to be out of here! Pay God what you own him!” That's not the gospel, that's not the Good News
of Christianity. The Good News of Christianity is this: “Jesus paid it
all, he paid everything on the cross, he bought the whole house! No hidden costs, he paid for it all! And it's free and it's a gift and it's yours
for the believing, the accepting, for the receiving.” Isn't that good news?! So it's got to be grace. If it's grace plus works it's no longer grace.
God Has Promised The Land Of Israel To
Israel Forever
So
God has promised the land of Israel to Israel forever. There will always be a nation of Israel. You may say, “Yes, but look at what they've
done, they've rejected Jesus, they've wandered from him, they've put him down. I just can't believe he has any room in his
heart for them.” But you've got to
understand, God knew they were going to reject Messiah when he chose them. This is no surprise to God. Right here in Romans 11:8-9 he quotes
the prophet that says God would give them “a spirit of stupor, eyes so that
they could not see and ears so that they could not hear to this very day.” He quoted David's prophecy “that their
table would become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution to
them.” Read Isaiah 53. God predicted that his nation,
his chosen nation Israel would reject the Messiah, would despise the Messiah,
would pierce him through, would put him to death and that he would rise again
from the dead. That was all predicted. This didn't catch God by surprise. The stoning of Steven didn't change God's
mind about Israel. Why in Deuteronomy
chapters 4 and 28 the Lord predicts that his people would be cast out of the
land because of their idolatry and the abominations that they would commit. He saw that. Nothing takes God by surprise. He sees the future as well as you see the
present, better than you see the present. In spite of all this God will not forsake the
nation of Israel. Yes, presently Israel
is being disciplined by God. God said
that he would scatter his people over the entire face of the earth, that they
would go into all the different nations of the world. But he said, in the last days he would bring
them back into their land. And it says
he would bring them back into their land in their own unbelief. Why should we care about what happens to
Israel? Well, if God says adios to Israel, we have no hope. If God permanently casts off and spits out
Israel, then what keeps God from spitting you out of his mouth? Because if God doesn't keep his promise to
Israel, how can you trust God to keep his promise to you? You can't, can you? If he breaks one promise, he's going to break
them all. God's integrity, God's
faithfulness, and your ability to trust in him is all based on what we're
studying right now. Let's go to Jeremiah
30-33. This is all talking about
a good word which the Lord is speaking to Israel about what he is going to do
for them in the last days. He's saying, ‘I
know you're in captivity now in Babylon’ -- that's the context. But he
goes on to say, ‘I'm going to bring you out of captivity,’ and
then he jumps forward into what he’s going to do in the last days. And it's
very clear that much of what he's saying here is not talking about the years
right after the Babylonian captivity, he is talking about the years yet in the
future. Jeremiah 30:1-9, “The word
that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, ‘Thus speaks the Lord God of
Israel, saying, ‘Write in a book for yourself all the words that I have spoken
to you. ‘For behold, the days are coming,’ says the Lord, ‘that I will bring
back from captivity My people Israel and Judah [the ten tribes of Israel
were deported out of Palestine in 721-718 B.C. by the Assyrian Empire, and
foreigners were moved into Samaria in their place. The kingdom of Judah lived just south of
Samaria with Jerusalem as their capital. The Babylonians carried them away a little
over 100 years later from 604 to 585 B.C.],’ says the Lord. ‘And I will
cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall
possess it.’ Now these are the words
that the Lord spoke concerning Israel and Judah. ‘For thus says the Lord: ‘We
have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace. Ask now, and see, whether a man is ever in
labor with child? So why do I see every
man with his hands on his loins like a woman in labor? And all faces are pale? Alas! For
that day is great, so that none is like it; and it is the time of Jacob's
trouble, but he shall be saved out of it. For it shall come to pass in that day,’ says
the Lord of hosts, ‘that I will break his yoke from your neck, and will burst
your bonds; foreigners shall no more enslave them. But they shall serve the Lord their God. And David their king, whom I will raise up
for them.” This is describing
the tribulation time, the last three and a half years before the Millennium
begins, the time of Jacob's trouble, the time of Jacob's distress. This is obviously about the future because God
is saying, “I will resurrect David and put him on the throne and he will
reign during the Millennium.” So
God says, before the end of time I will bring back my people Israel into their
land. Let's look at Jeremiah 31:35, “Thus
says the Lord, who gives the sun for a light by day, and the ordinance of the
moon and the stars for a light by night, who disturbs the sea, and its' waves
roar (the Lord of hosts is his name): If those ordinances depart from before me
["if this fixed order departs from before me" another translation has
it],” that is, if the sun would stop coming up and the moon go off its course
and there would be no longer any tides, “then the seed [offspring] of Israel
shall also cease from being a nation before me forever.” God is saying, “I made a promise to
Israel and I'm going to keep my word, because I'm God and I don't lie. I do not lie.” Numbers 23:19, “God
is not a man that he should lie, nor the son of man that he should repent. Has he said and will he not do it? Has he spoken and will not make it good?” I Samuel 15:29 says, “ So God is not going to change his promise that
he made to Israel. He promised to keep
them a nation forever. He's going to do
it. He says, ‘For all they've
done, I'll still keep them a people before me, my people forever.’ Jeremiah
32:37, “Behold I will gather them out of all countries where I have driven them
in my anger, in my fury, and in my great wrath; I will bring them back to this
place, and I will cause them to dwell safely.” This is talking about the last days. “They shall be my people and I will be their
God: Then I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever
for the good of them and their children after them.” Let's also look at Jeremiah 33:19-26. Again the Lord is declaring he is going to keep the nation of Israel before him
forever. He will never reject the nation of Israel. They are his chosen nation. “And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah,
saying, ‘Thus says the Lord: ‘If you can break my covenant with the day and my
covenant with the night, so that there will not be day and night in their
season, then my covenant may also be broken with David my servant, so that he
shall not have a son to reign on his throne, and with the Levites, the priests,
My ministers.” [And his descendant
right now is on the throne, his name is Jesus, the son of David, and he's going
to reign forever.] “As the host of
heaven cannot be numbered, nor the sand of the sea measured, so will I multiply
the descendants of David my servant and the Levites who minister to me. [So
even the Levitical priesthood will serve the Lord again, under the priesthood
of Melchizedek, obviously. Have you ever wondered about that 1000 year period
spoken of as the Millennium. The Old Testament prophecies are loaded with
beautiful prophecies about that time of peace and prosperity for all, under the
gentle rulership of the Messiah, Jesus.] Moreover the word of the Lord came to
Jeremiah, saying, ‘Have you not considered what these people have spoken,
saying, ‘The two families which the Lord has chosen [the House of Israel and
the House of Judah], he has also cast them off? [Even way back then during
the Babylonian captivity, people were saying that Israel and Judah had been
permanently cast off by God, permanently rejected. God is now about to take issue
with these false rumors being spoken by non-Israelites, Gentiles.] Thus they have despised my people, as if
they should no more be a nation before them. Thus says the Lord: ‘If my
covenant is not with the day and night, and if I have not appointed the
ordinances of heaven and earth, then I will cast away the descendants of Jacob
[Israel] and David my servant, so that I will not take any of his descendants
to be rulers over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For I will
cause their captives to return, and will have mercy on them.’”
God Has Not Rejected His People
Israel
So
I guess it's pretty clear from the Word of God from the New Testament in Romans
11 to the Old Testament in Jeremiah that God has not rejected his people. As Romans 11 says, “Has God rejected
his people? May it never be! NO way! Did they stumble so as to fall? No, may it never be. Oh, they are enemies of the gospel now, but
for the sake of the fathers [patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob] they are
beloved of God.” The Church is not
Israel, the Church is the Church. The
Church is the distinct bride of Christ. So
what are the implications of all this? First
of all, if God does away with Israel, what makes you think he won't do away
with the Church some day? If God just
makes promises and then brakes them because we aren't good enough, well then
we're in trouble. I mean it would be one
thing if the promise was based on our obedience, but the promise to Abraham,
Abraham slept through. It was not based
on anything he did. It was based on
God's faithfulness. So if you say that
God is through with Israel, then you are basing your belief in God's
unfaithfulness. God is not done with
Israel. [Judah, one of the tribes of
Israel, is occupying the promised land right now!] And there is more to come in regards to the
nation of Israel in the future. We serve
a covenant-keeping God (Psalm 11:4-5). [pp. 12-26, Word for word transcript,
Pastor J. Mark Martin, Calvary Community Church, P.O. Box 39607, Phoenix,
Arizona 85069]
In
closing
Romans
11:7-32, “What then? What Israel sought so earnestly it did not obtain, but the
elect did. The others were hardened, as
it is written: ‘God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes so that they could not
see and ears so that they could not hear, to this very day [Deut. 29:4; Isa.
29:10].’ And David says: ‘May their table become a snare and a trap, a
stumbling block and a retribution for them. May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see,
and their backs be bent forever [Psalm 69:22-23].’ Again I ask: Did they stumble so as to fall
beyond recovery? Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression,
salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious. But if their transgression means riches for
the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater
riches will their fullness bring!
I am talking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch
as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I make much of my ministry in the hope
that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of them. For if their rejection is the reconciliation
of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? If the part of the dough offered as Firstfruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; if the root is holy, so are the branches. If some of the branches have been broken off,
and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and
now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, do not boast over those
branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root
supports you. You will say then, ‘Branches
were broken off so that I could be grafted in.’ Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief,
and you stand by faith. Do not be
arrogant, but be afraid. For if God did
not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either. Consider therefore the kindness and sternness
of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you
continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you
also will be cut off. And if they do not
persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in
again. [How? All these Israelites whom
Paul was writing about died in their unbelief. These verses have confounded and
mystified many Christian fellowships for centuries--but not others.] After all, if you were cut out of an olive
tree that is wild by nature, and contrary to nature were grafted into a
cultivated olive tree, how much more readily will these, the natural branches,
be grafted into their own olive tree!”
All Israel Will Be Saved
“I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may
not be conceited [the
other time Paul uses this phrase is to describe a major resurrection from the
dead]: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of
the Gentiles has come in. And so all
Israel will be saved, as it is written: ‘The deliverer will come from Zion; he
will turn godlessness away from Jacob. And this is my covenant when I take away their
sins [Isa. 59:20-21; Jer. 31:33-34].’ As
far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies on your account; but as far as
election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs, for God's
gifts and his call are irrevocable. Just as you who were at one time
disobedient to God have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience,
so they too have now become disobedient in order that they too may now receive
mercy as a result of God's mercy to you. For God has bound ALL MEN over to
disobedience so that he may have mercy on THEM ALL.”
I
know this is a secondary area where many disagree, but it is another
interpretation which may be worth looking at. How will God do this, “have mercy upon THEM ALL, all of
mankind? Again, the greater Body of
Christ disagrees on the potential answers to this question. For some possible answers, see https://unityinchrist.com/plaintruth/battle.htm
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