Failure to Heed the Good News

Transcript

GR 2246
7/12/2020
Failure to Heed the Good News
Romans 10:14-21
Gil Rugh

We’re going to Romans 10. Understanding God’s dealing with Israel in these days, it’s essential that you understand Romans 9, 10, and 11. If you read commentaries, material related to prophecy, you find out that it is a misinterpretation in these chapters that often brings confusion to people. We’re reminded the word of God is not given to us to be complicated. To be sure, it takes study, and we have to apply ourselves carefully and diligently, but God gave it to be understood. Sometimes, when the word of God is turned over to scholars, they become a level between God and us in the handling of His word. God didn’t give His word to scholars because without their depth of knowledge and intellectual capacities, we wouldn’t be able to read and understand it. The Roman Catholic Church has put the magisterium of the church between God and the people, and if you don’t understand the word and abide by it yourself, you don’t come to God directly. In the evangelical world, I read commentaries and so on, and my concern is they become more and more scholarly. More and more almost one scholar writing to another, demonstrating how scholarly they are, and if they’re not careful, the word of God gets removed from the people. These weren’t scholars that God used to write it. Paul had been scholarly, but Peter was a fisherman, and in the confusion after Christ’s crucifixion, Peter said, Well, I’ll go back to fishing. I better go back to the university. No, these were common, ordinary people, and the word given to them is inspired. We need to be sure that we understand it and understand it correctly.

Israel is very important. They’re near to God’s heart, they’re the only nation on the face of the earth that He ever has and He ever will choose for Himself. I’m reminded of that when I sometimes listen to the news and they’ll talk about the greatness of the United States and there has never been a nation like this, and God has given us unique blessings. But, there’s only one nation that stands out and apart, and that’s the nation Israel, even in these days when Israel is under judgement. That’s important to where we are in Romans 9, 10, and 11 that we understand what God is doing. Israel in one sense has been set aside, but they have not been rejected, and that’s what Paul is unfolding. What is the problem? All those marvelous prophecies given to Israel, and there’s going to be a Messiah. He’s going to reign, and Israel will be in their land with their King ruling over them and all the world will be recognizing and honoring Israel. But, what is going on? So Paul has been walking us through this.

We’ve prepared a couple of slides to review verses 9-13 of Romans chapter 10, the things that we’ve gone over. It breaks into the sentence in verse 8, “But what does it say? (What does the word say?) ‘The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart’--that is, the word of faith which we are preaching…” And then he goes on to develop and remember, he’s talking about Israel and God’s plans for Israel. Nowhere does he indicate His plans have changed, just the opposite, as we’ve noted. You can tell just by scanning down through chapters 9, 10, and 11 that there are repeated quotes and references to the Old Testament because he’s showing that what is going on with Israel is part of what God said. It’s evidence, it’s truth. There’s no indication we need to understand God has changed His program with Israel.

Some of the things we looked at, beginning with verse 9, which says, “…that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved…” First point: We must acknowledge the person of Christ. He is Lord. Verse 9, “…if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord…” We have the little word “as,” it can be “as Lord” or “is Lord.” You recognize the person of Christ, He is Lord. This involves, then, submitting ourselves to Him, and we see this in Jude, as we’re seeing it in Romans. The fact you recognize Him as Lord, means you are His slave, His servant. He rules over you, and it involves submitting to Him and His righteousness, as we saw in verse 3. Those who don’t know about God’s righteousness try to establish their own righteousness.

Point two: We must believe in the work of Christ; the person of Christ and the work of Christ. Verse 9 says, “…if you believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead…” So, you confess with your mouth and you believe with your heart. They’re not two separate, distinct activities or actions. All involved. You’re taking it apart, piece by piece, but when you believe in your heart, you will acknowledge it with your confession, and you recognize Him for who He is and what He has done. So you believe in the heart but how does anybody know? You tell them. We noted the Bible does not make room for secret believers. It’s an open manifestation of our commitment to Him and our allegiance to Him. Point two: We must believe in the work of Christ. God raised Him from the dead; that does encompass His work on the cross.

Point three: Faith in the heart and confession with the mouth are both present when salvation has occurred. Verse 10 repeats that, what I just said. “…for with the heart man believes…with the mouth he confesses…” A person believes, “…resulting in righteousness…” The mouth confesses, “…resulting in salvation…” Obviously, you’re again giving aspects of the same thing. What is God’s salvation? When He forgives you your sins and declares you righteous in His sight. So, again, it goes together.

Point four: Everyone who believes in Him will be saved. That’s verse 11, “For the Scripture says, ‘Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed.’” We see these universal words. We’ll pick those up a little later in our study tonight, but whosoever believes in Him will be saved. You won’t be disappointed. There are no failures. If you truly place your faith in Christ, you will be saved. What about if I don’t do this and this and this and this? Well, the only thing required to be saved is to believe. If you truly believe, God will make you new on the inside. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, a new creation, and the result of that, old things pass away, new things come. So yes, your life will be changed. But it’s changed because of the supernatural work of God in changing your heart, not by you trying to conform yourself to something. It’s a result of being changed in the heart when you’re saved.

Point five: there’s only one way of salvation because there is only one Lord. Verse 12, “For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call upon Him…” We looked at that. There’s only one God. There’s only one Lord. There’s only one way of salvation. That’s it. Period. You’d have to have multiple gods to have multiple ways of salvation, and we as Christians need to be careful. We can get soft in this area, soggy soft, because we don’t want to come across as narrow or exclusive. Well, we don’t want to, if it’s just us, but I want to properly reflect what God has said. I can understand that people have a commitment to their religion. The Jews had a commitment. Paul had a commitment before he was truly saved, but that would not bring him salvation. There’s only one way of salvation, and if we begin to imply, and some very well-known religious leaders slid into this by thinking they were looking gracious or kind or loving… I wouldn’t want to say that Muslims are going to hell. I wouldn’t want to say that. Wait a minute! We’re trying to be more expansive than God and in doing so, we begin to deny the God that we say we serve. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father but by Me.” Period. There’s one God, one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. That’s the way it is. The triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and all of them comprise the one God. There’s only one way of salvation. Their way. We don’t want to get soft on that.

Point six: This salvation is for all who call upon Him. We want to be careful. It’s narrow but it’s broad. It’s for all and He abounds in riches for all who call upon Him. So, there’s only one way, but it’s for everyone. So, people will say, well you’re very narrow. Well, I’m very broad in my view of this as well because it includes you. You’re one of those for whom Christ made provision. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him…” His riches are for all, so it’s only narrow when you have to do it God’s way, but it’s broad because God made that provision for everyone. So, your problem is not with the narrowness, your problem is you want to do it your own way. You’ll fight and fight to do that.

Point seven: This salvation is only for those who call upon Him. Verse 13, “…for ‘Whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.’” And they’re the only ones who will be saved. There’s no other way. I want to present it in love, so I want to be careful the goal is not to be harsh or come across as unkind or uncaring. We do care. But for them to understand that God is a God of love, well, I don’t think He would send people to hell as long as they’re doing their best… Now you’re saying what you think. You want to decide what God is like and what He has to do, but if He doesn’t do it your way, you don’t want anything to do with Him. In other words, you want to be God, and when we talk about God, the only God you accept is the one who operates like you want to do it, and what about my way and the way I want to do it? We all have to submit ourselves to God and what He is saying.

So, this is what’s here in this section of Scripture. Important, coming into the section now, to remember he’s talking about Israel and he’s showing in chapter 10 why Israel is lost. What is going on with all the promises in the Old Testament about what God was going to do, and a coming king, and all that, and they were the chosen nation, and why are they lost? And the answer is, because they don’t believe. They have rejected the message of salvation. Now, we want to be careful. We come into a section now that’s often used as an evangelism section, and it has application to that, but it’s not really telling us we need to carry the gospel to Israel. It’s telling us just the opposite. We don’t need to carry the gospel to Israel. Israel already knows. Their problem is they will not believe it. So, we want to be careful that we keep this in context. I’m not saying we don’t want to share the gospel with Jews or Gentiles, but this is not what Romans 10 is saying. What Paul is saying in Romans 10 is Israel’s problem is not that they have not heard. Israel’s problem is they have heard and refused to believe what they have heard.

What Paul makes clear is this has been Israel’s problem through their history, that culminated in their rejection of the Messiah, where God then said that you are now under judgement under My withering discipline, and that’s where they are today. It will not get any better until it gets much worse. That’s not saying you can’t evangelize the Jews, but I sometimes think that we misrepresent Scripture. This is not a day of salvation for the Jews. I’m not saying there’s not provision of salvation for the Jews, but part of God’s judgment is He has withdrawn His saving grace from them because He has determined He will bring them to their knees, and they’re not ready for that. It’s not because they don’t know. They knew long before the Gentiles knew.

This is where we’re coming, beginning with verse 14 of Romans 10. Verse 13 said, “…for ‘Whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.’” Then he’s going to give a series of questions here, right at verse 14 and the first part of verse 15, and these are going to answer the question, is Israel’s problem they haven’t heard, and so they can’t believe? No! So the first question. “How then shall they call upon Him in whom they have not believed?” The point is, calling on the name of the Lord, calling on God to save you, comes out of a believing heart. So he’s going here, backing up, if you call upon the name of the Lord, you will be saved. Where that turning and calling to God, God, I am a sinner. I have rebelled against You. I call upon You to be my Savior and cleanse me. Bring me Your righteousness. Well, how will they do that? “How then shall they call upon Him in whom they have not believed?” So just saying I believe in God, I believe in Christ, maybe having an emotional experience, but genuine, saving faith is the foundation for this saving call. It comes out of the heart, and we see it’s an aspect of all those together, this work of God’s saving grace. “How then shall they call upon Him in whom they have not believed?”

And this word believed, it’s been a key. Going back to chapter 9, verse 30, we talked about the word righteousness and how often it appears from chapter 9, verse 30 down through verse 10 of chapter 10. We marked the word righteousness. You could do the same with the word believe or faith. Remember believe and faith mean the same thing. Faith is the noun and believe is the verb, but you’re talking about the same action, the same saving requirement, faith. To believe. He noted it in chapter 9, verse 30, “…the righteousness which is by faith…” Verse 32, “Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith…” Then when you come down and you pick up with verse 4, and I think I counted ten times from verse 4 of chapter 10 down through verse 17. Ten times in those verses he uses the word faith or believe. “…to everyone who believes…” in verse 4. It’s in verse 6, “…the righteousness based on faith…” In verse 8 in the middle of the verse, “…the word of faith which we are preaching…” Verse 9, “…believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead…” Verse 10, “…with the heart man believes…” Verse 11, “For the Scripture says, ‘Whoever believes…’” Down in verse 14, “How then shall they call upon Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him whom they have not heard?” Down in verse 16, at the end of the verse, “‘Lord, who has believed our report?’” Verse 17, “So faith…”

You can go back to chapter 3 and pick up with verse 21, and run all the way through chapter 4. We went through and marked all the references to faith and believe. He’s taking us back there. It’s not new, he’s developed and shown there is no salvation, there is no righteousness from God until the heart places its trust with Him. [RG1]Well, Lord, here I am, to the best of my ability. I want to place my faith in Christ. I am a sinner with no other hope, unless You save me. I want to trust what Christ did for me. We want to be careful that’s not a feeling, though feelings may well be involved, but it is a recognition and that’s why it’s a call. It’s a call for help. I really believe I can go nowhere else, there’s no one else who can rescue me from my wretchedness. “How then shall they call upon Him in whom they have not believed?” Until I really come to grips with that, all you can do is, Lord, here I am. Save me! Christ died for me; I believe what You said He did, He died on the cross to pay the penalty. I want to claim that for myself. I’m calling on the Lord out of a heart that’s believing He’ll do what He said. That’s what it takes for salvation. I can go through the motion, I can come forward at a meeting, I can pray a prayer, I can have an emotional experience, but true, saving faith takes place within me. My recognition, the Spirit convicts and I’m willing to give up. You know, again, the call is acknowledging I have no place left to go.

“How then shall they call upon Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?” So you see, where he’s taking us with these questions. First, “How shall they call upon Him in whom they have not believed?” Well, if you don’t believe in Him, you won’t call on Him. Why would you call on someone you really haven’t come to realize that He’s the only one who can save you? And how would you believe in someone you’ve never heard about? I mean, what am I believing in? This is where sometimes people can think they’re trusting something and they don’t know what they’re trusting. Have you heard about the Person of Christ? Have you heard about the work of Christ? Sometimes, I hear a testimony where a person says, I came to the end of myself and decided I’d just trust God. Well, almost everybody who has any kind of religious convictions could give that testimony. You know, the Hindus not only have one god to trust, they have many.

We’re talking about having heard about the One who is the Lord, who died on the cross for your sins and was raised from the dead. That’s the One in whom we are believing. We are turning to His provision for us. So, if you haven’t heard the gospel, how would you believe? How would you get to place your faith in Christ and His work for you on the cross if you’ve never heard about Christ? That’s where sometimes, at the end of a message, you’ll hear a person telling people they need to place their faith, but they never did talk about the gospel, who Christ is, or what He did. Now, I’m not saying you may have heard it yesterday and then it brought to your mind clearly today, but a person who’s never heard of Christ, it’s a disturbing thing. There are those who claim to be evangelicals who claim, I was reading one this past week, that there’s provision for those who never hear. Roman Catholic doctrine in their Catechism, I read recently, says that there’s provision for those that don’t hear, that they may be saved. And usually, they say if they have a heart knowing that they would believe if they did hear, well, you don’t find that in the Bible. You can’t have saving faith if you don’t hear the truth.

“And how shall they hear without a preacher?” Someone who has given a message to give to them, that’s the word here. It’s the one who has been sent with a message from someone else. That’s what we do, isn’t it? We pass on the message; it didn’t originate with us. I want to tell you what God has said. I may give my personal testimony. It’s the message that someone told me. It has to be someone who’s been entrusted with the message that can pass it on, and they may pass it on like we have on the back of this invitation. Here’s the gospel on the back. I would like to share this with you. It’s a message that changed my life when I believed it. So, they may take it and read it, just the facts of the gospel, recorded for them. But they’re going to have to have that brought to them, or they’re told that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died to pay the penalty for their sin. Otherwise, what are they believing? This is the danger where people will get confused and say, I went forward at a meeting. I’ve shared with you how my cousin and I went forward together at the same meeting, but he didn’t get saved until 25 years later. By his own testimony.

You can have a great testimony of serving the Lord as a missionary in France and so on, but we talk yeah, I went to that, we went down to that same meeting and knelt down to pray at the same altar and he said, I just was doing what everybody else was doing. That’s all it meant to me, if you were going down, I’m going down. Well, that didn’t save him, going down the front and kneeling and having people gather around me and pray. That doesn’t mean everybody who does that gets saved. It’s a matter whether you believe this is what he’s saying has gone through to this point, it’s the truth that must be believed. If we have a zeal for God but not according to knowledge, that’s the Jews’ problem. They’ve got this information but they haven’t responded to it. “And how shall they hear without a preacher?” So, don’t think it’s just someone who has to stand in this position, it is someone who has a message entrusted to them and that’s what the next point is, the next question.

Verse 15, “And how shall they preach unless they are sent?” This is not something you take on yourself. People are out who get called knocking on your door, but they’re not sent by God with the truth. They may be very zealous. We talked about the Jews who have a zeal, but not according to knowledge. But these Jews would give their life and they did, for their Judaism. But, they weren’t saved. We have people in other religions, the Muslims, who will go on these crusades and they’ll die for Allah, but that doesn’t bring them salvation. “And how shall they preach unless they are sent?” This has to be someone coming with God’s message and we need to be very careful on this. This is a serious responsibility with eternal consequences. We’re giving a message of death to death and life to life, as Paul wrote the Corinthians. You feel almost insufficient, but there’s no excuse for not having it right. We can’t pull our punches, so to speak. This is truth.

“And how shall they preach unless they are sent?” And here we go to the Old Testament. We talked about dreamers in Jude today who make up their theology. No, this comes right out of the Old Testament. “Just as it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of good things!’” He’s quoting from Isaiah, and we’re not going back to these because we have it quoted here, and you have the references in the margin of your Bible. You can tell what is quoted when they put it all in capitals, and you can go back and read that, but for time, I’m not going to go back to all of these Old Testament passages. Isaiah wrote about this hundreds of years earlier! Isaiah, the Jewish prophet, speaking to the Jewish people. This is not new information. And the feet are beautiful because it’s pictured, someone like Paul, traveling, and you’re walking from place to place, the prophets. So, the feet that carried this person here, they’re beautiful because it’s that person that walked here, walked to this town as Paul often did, and brought the gospel. Their feet are beautiful because they were the ones who brought to me the gospel that I believed and was saved.

Now we get to verse 16. This is where we get into Israel’s problem again. “However, they did not all heed the good news; for Isaiah says, ‘Lord, who has believed our report?’” The problem is not all believe the message that was proclaimed. Now, the invitation is all-inclusive. It’s an invitation for everyone, and that’s where we mark these all-inclusive words. Go back to verse 11, where we were. “Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed.’” You see the breadth of that. It doesn’t exclude anyone, Jew or Gentile. We saw that earlier. The gospel provided. It’s a gospel of salvation for the Jew and the Gentile, whoever believes in Him. Verse 12, “For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all…” Lord of all because He’s the Lord for all. He’s abounding in riches for all who call on Him. So, you see, these all, its breadth. When you share the gospel and someone brings up, well, I think that’s very narrow of Him. There are a lot of people in the world and there are different views, yes. And, while the way that God has given is narrow, the beauty of it is that it’s very broad. It’s for everyone! So, be careful that you don’t get stuck with the narrowness. There’s only one way. That may be fine, but if that one way is good for everyone, it’s plenty broad enough. It’s not exclusive. Well, you have to be of this race, this nationality, this group. No. He’s the Lord of all, abounding in riches for all, but you have to call on Him.

Down in verse 13, “…for ‘Whoever will call…’” Whoever! That’s what we talk about with election. People will say, I don’t think I’m going to be saved if God didn’t choose me. Well, that may be so. But do you know what He says? “‘…Whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.’” And here we are. Why don’t you just bow right here and you can call on Him? I’ll help you. And, I’ve done this. Why don’t you just repeat after me if you really mean it? Lord, I’m a sinner, and you walk through it. That’s what the gospel is, and I’ve done it with other people and I say, did you really mean that? Yes, I did. You really are calling on God? Yes. You know what the Bible says? He saves you. That’s what He says! It’s beautiful that God would be so inclusive. He didn’t have to save any of us, but He made provision for all of us. So, “‘…Whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.’”

Here we are. Verse 16, the problem was, “However, they did not all heed the good news; for Isaiah says, ‘Lord, who has believed our report?’” So this goes back, again, to Isaiah. Isaiah talked about the beautiful feet of those who brought the good news to believe. But, the same Isaiah says, and it’s a rhetorical question, “‘…Lord, who has believed our report?’” It basically seems like no one is believing. There are individual Jews who were saved, Isaiah one of them, who’s writing this. But, they are few. The nation as a nation is not, and that’s where Isaiah’s prophecy starts out. He tells the nation, don’t even bother bringing those worthless sacrifices because you don’t believe in Me. So, they’ve become an empty religious ritual.

Verse 17. “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.” The truth concerning the Messiah, this is what they have to hear. We say, well, that’s a problem. We have to evangelize Israel and Israel’s problem was they hadn’t had a chance to hear. Paul says, no, that’s not their problem. Verse 18, he asks this question, “But I say, surely they have never heard, have they?” So that’s it. We have to get the gospel out to the Jews. We have to go and carry the gospel to the Jews because surely they’ve never heard, have they? Well, finish what Paul says. “…Indeed they have…” Oh, I thought that the problem was they hadn’t been told, and what does he do? First he quotes again from the Old Testament, and we’re back to Romans 1. “‘…Their voice has gone out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.’” And he’s quoting from Psalm 19. Some of you are familiar with Psalm 19. It breaks into two parts. The first part of it deals with God’s general revelation, which he is referring to here, which we saw in Romans chapter 1, where the whole creation is a revelation of God. So, Israel has that, but they have had more than that. They have also had the truth.

Come back to Romans chapter 3, verse 2. Verse 1 asks the question, “Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the benefit of circumcision? Great in every respect. First of all, that they were entrusted with the oracles of God.” Of all people on the face of the earth, the Jews were given the word of God. They were selected out with Abraham in Genesis 12, and from then on, it’s the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They have the word of God given to them. The first five books of the Bible, written by Moses under the inspiration of the Spirit. For Israel. You had to come to Israel to get the Scriptures, the word of God. The prophets, they’re Jewish prophets, had the word of God from the beginning. This is Israel’s history, but they won’t believe. So, back to Romans 10, verse 18, “‘…Their voice has gone out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.’” To the world, to the end of the earth, and it’s just been multiplied because now, the gospel has gone out. The word given and promised, and Isaiah 53 presents the gospel as clearly. Paul’s writing to a church in Rome that is a Gentile church. They’ve heard and believed. Israel, they’ve had the word for centuries, and the word concerning the Messiah and what the revelation about the revelation, they had to have it explained to them that the creation is a revelation of God.

Then it goes on in Psalm 19 to talk about the special revelation of God in His word and what it does, but Israel didn’t know. That’s their problem. You have the creation and they’d be accountable there, “But I say, surely they (Israel) did not know, did they? At the first Moses says…” We’re going back to Moses, all the way back, early in Israel’s history. “‘…I will make you jealous by that which is not a nation…’” We’re in Deuteronomy where you have the song of Moses in Deuteronomy 32 as he’s preparing for his departure from this earth, and Israel is preparing to go into the Promised Land. “‘…I will make you jealous by that which is not a nation, by a nation without understanding will I anger you.’”

What is the issue that we’re dealing with? The issue is, they knew but they won’t believe in God saying this will be their ongoing problem. So, I’m going to bring a nation into this and where are we going? We’re going outside of Israel and I’m going to bring blessings to them. Why? Because Israel won’t believe. It’s all the way back; Moses said it was going to happen. Israel’s unbelief would result in consequences, God turning His favor away from the nation Israel. It’s like we’ve seen, revelation rejected results, ultimately, in revelation withdrawn. The opportunity was given. That’s why Paul told the Corinthians to be careful. Today is the day of salvation. Remember when we looked back in Jude? Israel was going to go into the Promised Land, but then they wouldn’t believe! Oh no, we can’t do it, and we won’t be able to handle it. That unbelief and rebellion against God. God closed the door. You’re not going in. All of a sudden, they want to go in, but the door is shut. The opportunity is gone. That generation will not go into the land. They tried, okay, we’ll take that back. We’re going in. They all died. Then, they spent 40 years waiting for all those over 20 years of age to die. Israel’s pattern has been unbelief. Here’s a warning. They remind them, I’m going outside Israel, so it gets developed in chapter 11, where this is a day of salvation for not the Jews, but the Gentiles.

So, in verse 20, “And Isaiah is very bold and says, ‘I was found by those who sought Me not, I became manifest to those who did not ask for Me.’” Back up to chapter 9, verse 30. “What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, attained righteousness, even the righteousness which is by faith…” Israel is trying so hard to be righteous by keeping the law. God never made that a way of righteousness. They had to believe in Him, and then the expressing of their faith, and the bringing of their sacrifices had to come out of a heart of faith. If you don’t have a heart of faith, you’re just rearranging the chairs on the Titanic.

But, the Gentiles are believing! That’s the whole point. “…but Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as though it were by works.” So ultimately, when Christ comes, Israel is not ready. They’ve made up their mind; it will be my way, our way. We have the law, and they’ve turned that into a way of salvation, but God never gave it as a way of salvation. We’ve already been through that, back in chapter 4 with Abraham and Genesis 15, 500 years before Moses comes on the scene and the law is given. Abraham believed God, and God credited it to him as righteousness, and there’s only one God. There’s only one way of salvation—by faith. That was all of chapter 4. Abraham becomes the key. There’s no excuse for Israel. They’re in rebellion against God, they refuse to believe, they are not following in the steps of their father Abraham. They are physical descendants, but they are not spiritual descendants. To be in the line of the promises of his physical descendants, you had to be a physical descendant who had the faith of Abraham.

So this is where we are, as we come back into chapter 10 here in these verses. Verse 19, “‘…I will make you jealous by that which is not a nation…’” He goes to the Gentiles, and now Gentiles are being saved. Paul is writing to the church at Rome, primarily a Gentile church. Paul’s carrying the gospel to the Gentile world because there’s judgement on Israel. That doesn’t mean they didn’t present the gospel to the Jews, but the door for national salvation is closed to Israel. We who believe in God’s plan for Israel and their specialness, while we would support Israel, I have no hope for Israel’s present future. We’re not going to rescue Israel from their problems. That’s saying, I’m not glad we have a nation that cares for Israel and that, but Israel’s future, humanly speaking, is bleak. They have the worst time ahead of them that has ever been seen on the face of the earth, and they will bear the full brunt of the wrath of God as a nation in rebellion against Him; until at the end of that 7-year period they can’t take it anymore, and they call out. Finally the heart melts. They believe and they cry to God to intervene, but we’re not anywhere near that at this point. We’re at least 7 years away; the Rapture hasn’t occurred.

That’s what he’s talking about in verse 20, “‘…I was found by those who sought Me not, I became manifest to those who did not ask for Me.’” We’re in Isaiah 65, and the great chapters at the end where Israel’s future blessings are promised, but there is a Gentile salvation that intervenes because of the judgment on the nation Israel. The Gentiles weren’t looking for a Savior, they weren’t looking for the God of Israel to rescue them, so what a turn of events! Israel has rejected God, so God has rejected Israel. The Gentiles hear and they’re being saved, that’s what will happen.

Come over to Romans 11:25. “For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery…” A mystery is something that has not been fully revealed before, but now it is. “…lest you be wise in your own estimation…” Gentiles have to understand Israel’s problem brought by God, “…a partial hardening has happened to Israel…” It’s a partial hardening. My wife has Jewish blood; her grandmother was Jewish. That’s fine. Some Jews and those connected one way or the other, my children could go and be citizens in Israel, we were told when we were there, because you have that line. That makes you acceptable, but it doesn’t bring you salvation. God is dealing with Gentiles today. I would say that yeah, we want to, but I wouldn’t pour all our resources into reaching Israel because you’re going nowhere. God says, I’m not saving Jews today by and large. I will save some, and Paul uses himself as an example. He has a burden for Israel and we don’t want to lose that. We want to share the gospel with them, but I don’t have any expectation of mass salvation of the Jews because I believe the word of God. I don’t believe in mass salvation of the Gentiles. We’re going to be a small number, period. But, the primary numbers of those being saved are going to be Gentiles today. That’s God’s plan.

The chapter ends, “But as for Israel He says, ‘All the day long I have stretched out My hands to a disobedient and obstinate people.’” You can look in Isaiah 65:2 where this is quoted from. This is not new. Isaiah is writing about this. In chapter 1, God said to Isaiah, to the Jews, stop bringing those sacrifices. It’s not honoring Me. It is dishonoring Me, because it’s a mockery. It’s just like any false religion. They bring their sacrifices thinking that’ll do it, but your sacrifices never could do it because the blood of bulls and goats couldn’t take away sin. Yet people are still confused and they think if they do these things that they’re pleasing God. If it doesn’t come from a heart of faith, it is displeasing Him. They are a disobedient and obstinate people. That’s Israel’s problem. It’s not that they haven’t heard.

That doesn’t mean we don’t share the gospel as we have opportunity. I had a Jewish boss when I worked in Philadelphia. Mitch, I won’t say his last name, but I went to lunch with him on occasion and shared the gospel with him. He was a rather conservative Jew, and observed the holidays. I said, Mitch, your problem is you don’t have an acceptable sacrifice. You tell me all these Jewish holidays you observe, and your family is strict on, and you observe Passover, and your Old Testament says, without the shedding of blood, there’s no forgiveness of sins. You haven’t offered a sacrifice. What are you going to do? As far as I know, he didn’t become a believer in the time I shared with him. He just expressed his frustration. Gil, I don’t know. I wish you wouldn’t keep asking me that. Well, I keep asking because you’re going through that ritual as a Jew. There is an answer, and God gave it in your Old Testament scripture. Let’s read Isaiah 53.

“All the day long I have stretched out My hands to a disobedient and obstinate people.” It’s not God’s fault, and it’s not that they haven’t heard, and it’s not even they’re thinking about it. They are a disobedient and obstinate people, so God has withdrawn His work of salvation from the Jews as a nation, and by His grace some are being saved. But primarily, the church today is a Gentile church. It started out Jewish, 3,000 people saved, some were up to 5,000. But that quickly goes off and then we find out the letters that are written, and that the Jews are primarily an obstacle and in opposition to the truth. Not responding to the truth. And again, you can’t say no Jews are being saved, but it’s not going to happen. I’m glad we have missions to the Jews, but I don’t know that we need all the missions to the Jews we have because God’s dealing with Gentiles. I don’t want to pour all my resources where God says He’s not working, but I certainly do that.

Paul says his goal is to go where they haven’t heard. Well, he said the Jews have heard, that’s why he didn’t pour his energy into reaching the Jews because I’m going to the Gentiles. We’ll get to that in chapter 15 of Romans. So, we put it in context. It’s important for people to hear the gospel. If you’re a believer and have been entrusted with God’s truth, pass on what’s been given, and we ought to be good at it. I don’t mean we all do it the same way, but we ought to present the truth of the gospel, God’s salvation. Didn’t it happen to you? I mean, I stood in front of the mirror for hours presenting the gospel to that person in the mirror. I have to be able to do this if I can’t do anything else in life. I have to be able to tell a person how to get to heaven, and what God has done. I don’t want to be wandering all around here and letting them control the conversation. You want to say, I want you to know this. But in chapter 10, Paul is not focused on telling people how important it is. That’s an application, but he’s telling us the beauty of this truth is known in Israel, but they won’t believe it. That’s a sad thing that happens in our world today. How many Bibles are around? How many people hear the truth? But sinners are stubborn. They’re obstinate. But I look around and say, God is gracious. I look out on a bunch of hell-deserving sinners, and you’re saved. God is gracious, and you’re looking at one who is more deserving of hell than all of you, and I’m saved. So we claim the grace of God and we want to share that with others.

Let’s pray. Thank You, Lord, for the riches of Your word. We are burdened for Israel because Your grace has been shown to them and will again, and we’re reminded of Your grace. You don’t go back on Your promises. You don’t cancel Your word. None of us would have hope. None of us would have a future of any hope if it wasn’t for the fact You are a God of grace and mercy, kindness and forgiveness. But Lord, we realize the persistent rejection of the truth has eternal consequences, and Israel becomes an example of that for us even today. A nation in rebellion, in disobedience, a nation under Your disciplining judgement. But Lord, You won’t let them go their own way and ultimately, You will bring them to Yourself. Lord, I pray You would use us in these days to pass on this truth to those we come in contact with. Bless the week before us. We pray in Christ’s name, amen.
[RG1]19:33