[00:00:01] Speaker A: Hey, thanks so much for listening to this message. My name is Jason and I'm one of the ministers here at the Madison Church of Christ. It's our hope and prayer that the teaching from God's Word you hear today will bless your life and draw you closer to Him. If you're ever in the Madison, Alabama area, we'd love for you to worship with us on Sundays at 8:30 or 10:30am if you have any other questions about the Bible or want to know more about the Madison Church, find
[email protected] be sure to also check out our Bible study podcast. Madison Church of Christ Bible Studies. Thanks again for stopping by.
[00:00:38] Speaker B: You know, I love a good roller coaster and always have. I remember, have great memories of growing up. We didn't do Disney a lot, but my family would often take a road trip over to Atlanta and we would enjoy the Atlanta Braves and we would go to Six Flags and so I fell in love with roller coasters. There have a million memories of walking through those, you know, those little trails and those pathways, but the little Styrofoam lizards that you'd get and all kinds of things. But the biggest reason I enjoyed going there was for the roller coasters. Well, you know, as time went by, I could remember all those family memories. And I thought to myself, man, as soon as we can, I want our family to take off and to go to Six Flags. And so, you know, there's, there's a time and a place for that and you know, there's certain age and that maybe it's a little bit better. And I think we were trying to wait till they could do a little bit more. So I think Gage was maybe four, Kinsey was maybe six or seven, seven, I guess, years old. And so we went to Six Flags and it was, it was great. And you know, we did the bumper cars and we did, you know, the T models and all those, all those different, you know, kind of kid friendly things.
You know, we kind of hung out in that Looney Tunes area and all that stuff. And so it was great. But every time I passed a real roller coaster, I was getting the itch for it, you know what I mean? Like, I really wanted to ride on one of those things. So I started looking really closely at what's the height limit? You know. And so, you know, I was looking at Gage and I was like, maybe, maybe he's four years old. Maybe he can do this. I don't know. And so we, we kept going and every time it was just a little bit Too tall. But we finally found one of the roller coasters that he was just the right height for. And by right, the right height, I mean, like, his fuzzy hairs up top were just above that little. You know, the little finger that says, you can do this. All right? And so I get in line, and they come over and they see us, and they grab that little metal measuring stick or whatever, and I'm like, stand up tall. You know, okay. Gage, you know, he stands up tall, and he just makes. And they're like, I think he'll be just fine. I'm like, yeah, man. You're gonna get to go on, like, this big, big guy roller coaster. This is gonna be awesome for you. And he's like, yeah. And if you knew Gage when he was a little bit younger, he always led with, like, his head and shoulders, like, he was a kamikaze kind of thing. So I thought, he's going to love this. This is going to be the greatest memory ever. He'll never forget this. And from now on, he'll love roller coasters as much as I do, and we'll just have a great time. And so, you know, we get into the line at the Mind Bender at Six Flags, and we're going through, and the whole time, I'm kind of coaching him up, you know, like, man, this is going to be amazing. He's like, yeah, dad. And so we're going, and it's exciting, and we see it, and it's like, you know, it's cool. But the closer we got, the more you could actually see of what was.
Was on the roller coaster. And so by the time we got to that final cattle cage, you know what I'm talking about, where you're in the line and the line goes out and people come in and they're like.
And they're awesome, you know, and they're excited. And I'm like, oh, man, this is going to be amazing. And I also all of a sudden noticed that Gage got really quiet, like, maybe a little bit shade or white. Okay?
He was, you know, and the good father call it would have probably said, you know, maybe this is not the right timing or something like that. But when we got in and they sat down and they started pulling these little things over, I'm like, let's get you ready, buddy. You know? And so I'm strapping him in. And, you know, when they pulled the thing down over me, you know, they're like, pushing and pushing and pushing and try to get it. Get it close. Y' all can keep that to yourself. And then. But when he did it, you know, and they pushed down on him, it kept popping back up like they couldn't get it down close enough. I'm like, it's gonna be okay, buddy. You're gonna be just fine. And so I look, and I can't really.
He's so small that I see, like, the tip of his nose, you know, that's about it. And he is white knuckling it. I mean, he is holding onto that thing for dear life, but he's absolutely silent. I'm like, bud, this is going to be amazing. And so, you know, the lady comes on the thing, you know, and, you know, you never know what they say, but something about Six Flags, come back and enjoy your day. Something. But we get. And we start going up, and you know the scene, right? You're going up the roller coaster, and you hear the click, click, click, click, click, click as we're going up. And all of a sudden, out of that experience, as I'm like, whoo, it's going to be fun, I hear this trembling voice that says, daddy, I don't think I'm ready for this.
And I'm like, well, it doesn't matter now, buddy. We're all along for the ride. So we get on that roller coaster, and we're going and going and going. I don't hear a peep out of him the whole time. I'm like, you know, and all these things. And when you come to the end of the roller coaster, most everybody, with the exception of gays, looked just like this, right? That was me, right? Might as well have been me. Maybe a little bit shorter hair. But the point I'm making is the roller coaster was an experience that I thought he would enjoy.
He didn't enjoy. And, you know, Daddy sort of promised that he was going to have a good time. And I found out that my promise. He found out that my promises weren't quite as well as maybe he would have wanted those to be.
And it cost me about eight or nine years, because after that, he didn't want to ride a roller coaster for a really, really long time.
Well, I brought up roller coasters because as I'm reading through the Book of Romans, there's one thing that I see as a metaphor for roller coasters, right? There's a lot of ups and downs. And as I read the Book of Romans, maybe you can see it in your mind a little bit, too, as you're clicking up the top. You're, you know, romans, chapter one opens up with this beautiful power of the gospel, you know, and God's strength and his creative power. And you're kind of going up and you're getting to the top of this ride as you're about to kick things off. And everything is just, you know, you're kind of in awe of what's about to take place. But then you have a sudden drop. And it's like in Romans, it starts talking about the consequence and the weight of sin and how, you know, it pulls us down. And it's a. But it's a tough thing to hear that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And we're all kind of helpless without something to help us along. And then you kind of get through that and you come up into a place where maybe you get to this really high vista where you can see everything. That's the rest of the roller coaster. And that's the part where we're finding out that it's about faith in Christ, and I mean about faith in God and trusting in God in the same way Abraham did. And then the next thing you know, you go through a few little corkscrews or something, and those could be represented as, like, the grace of God. Like, you find out about his mercy and how kind he is to us, how good he is us, as we just sang about.
But then there's another part, and it's more of a steady climb, right?
It's kind of a little bit more enduring. And it feels like the roller coaster has to catch up. You feel that little push back as they're going up. And you're going to the very highest part of this thing. Well, that could be, like, represented as your sanctification. You know, like, we're children of God.
We've been buried with Him. We've been raised up. But now we have this battle going on, that battle between the fleshly and the spiritual. And we're battling, but we're trying to be servants and slaves of righteousness to God. And it's kind of a difficult battle. And about the time that that gets to be overwhelming, you go back down and you get this other piece of joy that's like, no condemnation is found in Christ Jesus. And we receive the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit is our helper in so many different ways. And you can find yourself on that kind of roller coaster as it's ending, to have this kind of expression on your face. And as I'm reading through the Book of Romans, I sort of get to this concept in my head.
Because after they've just heard all of this about no condemnation, the blessing of the Holy Spirit, then you get to these words. It says, what do we say to all these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? That's kind of one of those, like, powerful moments, right? It's ready to go out into the world and fight and do the right things and says, he gives to us graciously all things.
And then ultimately the question comes, who can separate us from the love of God? And the answer is nothing, right?
Tribulation or distress or persecution, famine, nakedness, danger or sword, you know, it continues on. No. And all these things capture this. We are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
And I love it that it says there's nothing in all of creation that can take us away from that love. So, man, if you want to talk about a celebratory moment, it's what God is providing for us. Even though all of these circumstances, these things have been difficult and challenging and all those things, the blessing is God is with us and he's helping us through all of these things. And so I get to that. But then that's not where the ride ends.
Because the very next words that come from chapter nine are this. And it's a mood shift.
He says, I'm speaking the truth in Christ. I'm not lying.
My conscience bears witness in the Holy Spirit that I have great sorrow and notice the word unceasing anguish.
You ever felt unceasing anguish?
Like relentlessness, the depth of it. And I see Paul here, like, struggling. Well, what's his struggle? He said, I could wish that I myself were accursed and that and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen, according to the flesh. What's he saying?
He's saying, my Jewish brethren, the people that I come from, they don't understand these blessings.
They don't get these promises, and they're not quite understanding it the way they should. And it's basically him taking himself back to, like, the days of Moses. Do you remember when the children of Israel began to fall away from God and they were getting into idolatrous behavior and all those things, and God is ready to wipe them all off the face of the earth. And it's Moses who steps up and says, hey, take me instead.
And of course, God spares him and spares the Israelites. But that's what he's saying. But he uses certain terms. And I'll be honest with you, it took me back to when I was a kid, if you ever had to tell someone some news and you had to share with them something that maybe they wouldn't like, you say, okay, I need you to understand something. And you would explain something to them, and they would be like, no, that's not true. And you would go, hey, I'm telling you it's the truth. And you say, well, how do you know it's the truth? And you say something like this. I cross my heart, hope to die, stick a needle in my eye.
Now that's a crazy phrase. I don't know why kids phrases like that and lay me down to sleep and all that are so awful. Okay, but the point was, you were trying to help them understand that you're telling the truth. That at every cost you'll tell the truth. That even if it hurts you, I need to understand. Even if it hurts me, I need to tell you these things. That's kind of what's happening here. Because Paul says this. He says, I'm speaking the truth. And what he means by that is he's not trying to conceal anything.
He's trying to help them understand the plight, the struggle that he's going through as he looks at them and sees their rejection of Christ. He says, I'm not lying. There's no falsehood in what I'm saying. This is the honest truth. And he says that it's through my conscience that I bear witness. His conscience is the idea of discerning the ability to see the truth and to know it from the standpoint that there's a judgment that comes with this.
[00:12:05] Speaker A: And.
[00:12:05] Speaker B: And then finally that conscience is made through the Holy Spirit. It's the idea that I see the spiritual evidence of this. So Paul is understanding. He gets it. And he's looking at all of his brethren, and by brethren, I mean the nation of Israel, all of his Jewish brothers.
And he's looking at them and he's like, they're not getting this. And I'm telling them the truth. And it hurts me to say these things, but I would even sacrifice myself. I thought it would bring all of them back together.
So he had a heartbreak, you know, and when it says that, perpetual anguish is the idea that this is a real struggle for him because there's people that he loves that he's been connected to all of his life, and they don't understand things the way he does.
He says, they're Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, covenants, law, worship, promises, patriarchs. And then even from their own number, the Christ The Messiah, when you think about that, what's he saying to them? Hey, you guys have been kind of pretty blessed with this, right? I've given you a lot of things that you can take, or God has given you a lot of things that you can be proud of, that you can be thankful for, that can help shape you. He's basically saying, you know, you guys are pretty privileged when you think about it. God made you the chosen people, and he gave you all of these things. And we could add more to the list. We could add prophets, we could add their experiences and all these things. But look at what it says. The adoption, God's glory. They had God's presence with them everywhere they traveled when they came out of Egypt, and it led them by day and by night. God's presence was with them constantly. And so, like, they had the covenants, they had the law, they had the patriarchs, where God spoke directly to their fathers and they received the word of what God wanted them to do. They had all of these things, all the promises. And even among them, God raised up through the Jewish nation the Messiah.
So when you look at that, they really. They don't have an excuse, really, on some level, because they've been given all these things. And yet there's a problem with what's going on when he talks to them about this, because they're coming from this spot of privilege. And it takes my mind back to Luke, chapter 15.
You know, here's a young man, and we know the story of the Good Samaritan. I mean, not Good Samaritan, the prodigal son.
And it's interesting to me that this son goes off. He's in a very good situation. He has everything he needs for life, and yet he's still looking for something else. And so he takes his inheritance and goes off. You know how this works. He spends everything and then finds himself empty enough to have to come back to realize he had the best thing he could have had right there with him the whole time. And maybe he just didn't understand that blessing on the front side. Well, it makes me understand to some degree why Jesus may have used that story, that illustration, to help us understand that it's people who have to realize and come back. And that's kind of what's happening in this text.
And Paul reminds them that it's not like God's word wasn't clear or helpful to them or giving them insight into what he was trying to say. We may look at all the past scriptures, and I think it's Easy for us to look back and go, yes, they were God's chosen people, and we see that all the time. But will you realize that there are lots of times where God gave them a heads up that it's not just the children of Israel by birth that were going to be blessed? There's several times, and he gives them this heads up in Genesis and Exodus, and in Hosea, Isaiah, Joel and Malachi, and maybe even others as well. But these are some that we know for sure that are quoted, that they understood or they had heard, but they didn't quite understood. And the messages in all of those prophecies and all of those texts that we would refer to as sacred.
Is this general idea now, not exactly words for all of them, but that there are some children of mine that are not from Israel.
There are a different group of people that are going to be my children.
That's a powerful thing if you think about it. And if you're a Jew and you're hearing this for the first time and you're reading this or someone's reciting it to you, it may be one of those things that sets you back a little bit, takes you off guard. There will be others called my children.
He says not all who descended are from Israel belong to Israel. You know, it's kind of like you want to put parentheses in there. Which one of these is the Israel he's talking about? Is it the nation or is it a spiritual thing? He says, and not all children of Abraham, because they are his offspring, but through Isaac shall your offspring be named. Now, we know that this is kind of a conversation about Ishmael and Isaac, and we'll get to that here in just a few moments.
But you know that there was a promise that was made.
But Abraham and Sarah, not trusting in God in those moments, took matters into their own hands and had Ishmael buy a handmaid Hagar.
And so that kind of threw this off a little bit because he's saying that the people of Israel are not necessarily the people just from.
So it's not all Israelites, not all children of Abraham. And it means that this is not children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. So when I think about that, what is that? What is he trying to say here? I think he's trying to help them understand that being a child of God is not tied to your lineage, it's not tied to your heritage, it's not tied to your ethnicity or your nationality.
None of those Things are the real core of this. But it's about being the offspring of the promise that came through faith. Well, when I think about the promise, my first thing you know, I go to Abraham when he said, you know, I'm gonna make a gradation out of you. And that sounds great, that he's gonna have many descendants and those kinds of things. But specifically, what it's talking about In Romans, chapter 9, verse 9 is that this specific promise is that about this time next year, I'll return and Sarah will have a son.
What's he saying?
Well, he's saying it's not gonna be about what you've done.
You know, they had already tried to take things into their own hands. They had Ishmael.
But now he's saying, hey, this is really about something that's beyond the possibility of what you could do as an individual. And that's the problem with it. Sometimes it feels like people hear the promises of God, but then they want to act it out and make things happen for themselves. And God's saying, if you did that, you would start getting puffed up because of what you are accomplishing. And yet here he's saying, it's not about just having the child. It's about me doing something powerful in you and you trusting that that is, in fact, the case.
And so that promise was about Isaac.
And if you think back to it, it's kind of interesting, and it goes into a little description of this, that the promises that were made came through Isaac, not Ishmael, but also, and this is kind of warped from the way we understand things, the promise came through Jacob and not Esau. Let me read something for you. In Romans, chapter 9, verses 10 through 13, again, the initial promise is that Sarah would have a son a year from now. Verse 10 says, and not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad, in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works, but because of him who calls this. As she was old, she was told, the older will serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob I have loved, and Esau I have hated.
Now, I don't know about you, but when I read this, it kind of bothers me because I don't like that word hated.
Anybody else have a problem with that? I mean, as I read this text and I hear what he's saying, that he loved Jacob, but he hated Esau. That doesn't really jive with my understanding of who God is right now. I know God brings judgment on people who are rebellious and all these kinds of things. But if you look in this text, he's saying this plan was in place way before they were born, way before they rebelled and did evil or good or any of those kinds of things. This was the plan, that Jacob would be the one to whom this blessing would be passed through.
But I don't like the word hate.
It's bothered me, and I've read a lot of commentaries and listened to a bunch of people talk about this. And I gotta tell you, it's a struggle for all of us because I think what we do is we're captive to our definition of what these words mean to us today. And when we think of hatred for someone, we think like they're like our strong enemy and those kinds of things. And yet I think if we look at the word in its context, you may kind of get a little bit different feel for that. Why does it say that God hated Esau? That doesn't seem to jive with. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. It doesn't sound like one who shows no respect of persons. It doesn't. You know, when the Bible says, you know, he causes his reign on the just and the unjust, it just doesn't seem like proper that God would hate someone.
But the word for this is to detest.
And we understand that a little bit, but it's used in the sense of a comparison between two things. So in other words, it's to renounce one choice in favor of another. So drawing that distinction, the word love and hate are brought to give that comparison.
So it's not hate in the sense that we understand it.
And I guess probably the way we can understand this is that God's plan took precedent over their birth order or any other selections that we might deem proper.
Ultimately, what's being said here is that God is ultimately in control. And the struggle that we have sometimes is we want to take God and bring him down to our level and have him agree with our way of thinking and the way we would go about things, what we would consider to be fair and right and good.
So when I see this, that helps me understand it a little bit more. It's more like a choice between Jacob and Esau, even though Esau had not done anything wrong yet. Now we know Esau had, you know, some problems he sold his birthright for a bad bowl of soup. But this is all talking about before he was ever born, that this was going to happen.
So I love it how, you know, Paul, through inspiration, is writing these things, but it's almost like his personality comes out in it as well. Like maybe he's going, hey, I think there's going to be a question that's going to come up and this might be it.
You know, are we saying then that God was unfair? And again, the way we think about it, it may very well come across that way to us.
But he says, certainly not. In fact, he goes on to say, I've got two comparisons that I want to make. One's with Moses and one's with Pharaoh and Moses. He says, hey, I will show mercy to whom I want to show mercy. I'll be compassionate to those who I want to be compassionate to. But then he looks over at Pharaoh and he says, hey, you've been given for a purpose, and I'm going to use you to work my plan. I'm going to use whatever the situation is with you in a way to continue to do the things that I intend for happen. I've raised you up that I might show my power in you, as God says there.
So I want you. If you think about it, I mean, both Pharaoh and Moses got the same information. Have you ever stopped to think about that?
Because God went to Moses and then what did he do? He sent Moses directly to Pharaoh. It's kind of like that prophecy role, right, Where I'm sending a prophet to you to tell you what you need to do.
And so both of them had the exact same information. When you think about it, whatever God told Moses, Moses went and told Pharaoh.
But it's interesting that they both acted very differently, right? One of them acted out of faith and did what God asked them to do. The other one, instead of doing that, turned to pride. Maybe in Pharaoh's situation, he's like, I'm Pharaoh. I mean, I am God to these people who's going to come over here and tell me what to do and why would I do what they say? So pride puffed him up. And as a result of that, he kept from doing what God asked, which was let those people go.
So I think this is something for us to be reminded of. Because as we're talking about the sovereignty of God, really important to remember that God is so sovereign, that he is so powerful, that he is in such control over everything, that he is not confined by our decisions.
Are trying to shift things around.
He's not in any way thwarted. When we come in and we try to do things that will offset his will, he still can work through all of our decisions and think about how amazing that is that all of us are making decisions all the time, sometimes good, sometimes bad, and still God is working his will within that process.
And I think sometimes as we read the scriptures, we hear, okay, Pharaoh, Moses, those are like all stars, right? Those are like big names, people that are prominent, and that's why they're in the scriptures and those kinds of things. But what I want us to not do is to begin thinking that somehow we gotta be someone extra special according to the way the world sees it, for God to still be powerfully moving in your life.
Our God is aware of every single one of us. He does not make a distinction. And that's why this fits so beautifully into the book of Romans, because he's saying there's no difference.
So he says, I'll have mercy on whomever he wills, and then he will harden whomever he wills as well. Again, for me, the word hate was hard, and the word for hardened is hard. It's very difficult for me to see God hardening someone's heart. Remember, you know, it says that God doesn't tempt anyone, that he, you know, he doesn't put that in front of people. But people are drawn away by their own lust. And that lust, you know, leads to sin, and sin ultimately leads to death when it's full blown.
And so it doesn't make sense that God hardened his heart like in the same way that we might think that God is controlling that person in some way. But let's look at that as well. The word for harden, okay, has this kind of concept of becoming hardened. Like a person who is kind of drifting in that direction. Maybe they've got some bitterness or maybe they've got some, some frustration, and maybe that is building up inside of them. But it's someone who becomes obstinately stubborn, okay? And I know what this is all about. I'm a stubborn person. And so I know it's easy to find ourselves in this direction. But ultimately it's about resisting what God says is right.
So it appears to me as I study this, that there's something already embedded in this person that is, that is capable of being twisted and moved and hardened and toughened. In fact, if you go back to Romans chapter one, what does it talk about? These people went after their own passions. Those passions took them down these paths, and after a while, what does it say God gave them over to a reprobate mind?
You understand, like it was their decisions, their choices that caused their hearts to be hardened. So when we think about when it says God hardened their hearts, maybe a better way to understand this is what God was doing caused their hearts to harden. In other words, their situation, the things that they were going through caused them to be frustrated. And as a result, maybe not as receptive to what God was saying. And God allowed those things to happen.
So often we blame God. And I think there's probably all of us at some point or another have had a moment or something come up in our life, something that we are struggled with, a difficult circumstance.
And I know I've heard it a hundred times from different people, but I think whether I've said it out loud, I've certainly thought it a ton, which is, where are you, God?
Why is this happening to me?
Why is it that I do all these things, that I try to live righteously, I to try, I make good decisions and, you know, I look around and I don't see what you're doing for me.
But I think that when we start blaming God for some of the things that are going on in our life or that have gone on in our life, what I think naturally happens is we get disappointed in God.
And I think that's what makes us receptive to this hardening. And if we choose to keep closing ourselves to God and his refinement of us as we know the trials that we go through, the Bible says if we endure those things, he makes us stronger on the other side, a deeper faith. But if we reject those things over and over again and we are always looking to blame him and turn our backs on him, then I think our hearts do become hardened as a result of that. So God uses that hardening still to work his plan, if he needs to.
Well, then why does he still find fault for who can resist his will?
You know, Paul would say to people who have that question, and he posed the question himself, but then he answers it by saying, don't say that.
Who are you, a mere human being, to argue with God?
Should the thing that was created say to the one who created it, why have you made me like this man? Have we heard that before?
Have we heard that statement that, you know, I'm just, I'm just stubborn. This is just who I am. Look, I'm the kind of person who does this. It's just what I do. My family's always done it. And this is why I'm going to do it. It's just who I am. As if God can't help heal those things that are going on in your life. As though God can't help shape you differently. That when we put our trust in him that he can't manage things to transform us from within, when we relent and give ourselves over to him. I think it's another one of those examples of where we kind of take God and we say, hey, here's my life. Here's how I want it now. Make it happen. Make it work for me.
And it's kind of arrogance for us to think that we can take God and put him in that. In that bubble to do what we want.
When ultimately what he's saying in this passage is that he is ultimately in control.
He uses this pottery illustration in verses 21 and 22. And just to simplify, imagine someone at a potter's wheel and he's taking clay and he's molded into something just beautiful. And it's kind of a masterpiece. It's something that has value, that people will look at and say, hey, that's. That's beautiful. And it's something to be put on showcase kind of thing. But then you have. Maybe as he's at the wheel, something doesn't go right. It kind of gets deformed and wonky. And so he tries putting more water and get back on there and try to work it again. And ultimately it's just not coming together in the same way. It's still this piece of pottery that he has, still has a purpose, still has significance, and it could still be used for something, maybe not as extravagant as perhaps the other thing, but still be used in valuable ways? And so he says, doesn't the potter have the ability to make that decision about what he's going to do with his clay? He's the one that's molding it. Doesn't he have the ability to make that decision about how it's going to be used?
Well, of course. And so he says this about the Jews and the Gentiles. He's using this as a way to pull this back together, to remind us that they're all the Jews and the Gentiles are a part of this magnificent purpose of his.
And so, again, with God's foresight. And there's several quotations in this text that come from Genesis, Exodus, Hosea, Isaiah, Joel, and Malachi. Again, the general idea is there will be others called my children.
He uses Isaiah as one of those examples. And we've heard this, that the Number of the sons of Israel will be as the sand of the sea.
But what does he say here?
But only a remnant of them will be saved.
Now, this is God's chosen people. These are the ones that were given all those promises, all those things that made them privileged people, all the things that made them aware and informed and to be blessed by those things. And yet it says here that only a remnant of them will be saved, and that the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully without delay.
This is why I think sometimes Paul will drop a truth bomb.
And then after the truth bomb, he begins to kind of build the case, so to speak, for why that truth bomb exists and why it was put there. So if you look In Romans chapter 10 and chapter 11, it's going to be some good commentary that will help explain some of the things that are taking place in Romans chapter 9. But Romans chapter 11 actually deals with this idea of the remnant of Israel. And it says basically that they were looking for God, but they were looking for him in different, different ways. Not in the ways that he wanted, but some came to their senses, understood that it was a spiritual thing, that it was by faith. And so through faith they began to respond back to God and they were brought back in. And now they are called his children.
So he says, what then?
Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it. That seems odd that they have not pursued it, they've not gone after it, and yet somehow they attained it.
And then you got the Jews over here that were trying so hard to be perfectly in tune with the law, and they were never able to do that. So you got a situation here where these promises are there.
The Gentiles seem to have stumbled across it because they didn't know any different. And then the Jews themselves are tripping over the thing that was there for them all along. It's just kind of an interesting twist, isn't it, that they are brought in. And it's curious of why that's the case.
Romans chapter 11 again gives us a beautiful picture of this. Talks about an olive tree and how the roots are fashioned in God and how that's where the nourishment comes from. And he says, on this olive tree, there are some limbs that are represented as Israel says, they're broken off, they're detached, they've fallen apart, they've died off the main trunk of this tree.
But then it says that there were Gentiles that were grafted in. Their branches look a little different, but they're brought into harmony with this beautiful fellowship of God's children.
And he says that those who accepted Christ by faith, they've been grafted in and they've been brought into this relationship with them.
I don't know how far we go back. Yeah, no problem.
And so the ultimate plan was by illustrating this, what God is telling us and what Paul is trying to tell them is, listen, the Gentiles were brought in because it's almost like a last ditch effort to unite the Jews back with God by saying, well, if you don't understand that faith is critical in this process, it's not about your accomplishments, but about your faith and your trust in God. If you don't understand that, I will welcome in these other people as a way to help bring you to jealousy and that you may return back to God. And then you say, hey, those people are receiving all the spiritual blessings and all the promises that God has given to us and it's our blessings to enjoy.
And God is hoping that in this situation that it brings them back as a way to use that very struggle that they have in jealousy to pull them back into him. But this time they come in faith, not so much tied to their ability to earn his love.
So is this bad news for the Jews? Well, it sounds like it. It's not everybody. It's a remnant. But I think the beautiful thing is that there's still an opportunity for everyone to respond in faith. So he says they did not pursue it by faith because it was based on works from their perspective.
But what I love is again in Romans, chapter 10, and it's a beautiful text, talks to us about what a person does. They have to call on the name of the Lord to be saved. It talks about the heart and about how we have the word of faith and it's on our tongues and it's in our lips and it's in our heart. And he talks about how these Christians have to understand there's a continual process of refinement that takes place. It's not so much the things that we do, but, but like contemplating how we can change and how we can live our lives in a better way. And so he says, for with the heart man believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. And we have some groups that will say that that's the end all that. We just invite Jesus into our heart and that we're saved. But understand he's already talking to people who have put on Christ in baptism. They've already buried themselves and been raised up with Christ. And so he's saying this is a natural part of this continuation of your development and your growth, that you believe with your heart that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead, that you confess that every day, that your faith is something that you wear every day, and that is a part of this refining and sanctification and bringing you along. There's no distinction between the Jews and the Greeks in this area with regard to faith. And that our faith is built upon our trust in the word of God and His promises.
So if they shift their focus to those kinds of things, then there's hope for them. So it's not all lost. Because the word that they had so long ago is the same word that they have today. In fact, they have it in more clarity than they had before.
But he says there's a partial hardening that's going to come across Israel until the Gentiles are brought in. And it says, the deliverer will come from Zion.
He will banish ungodliness from Jacob. And this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins.
I hope we're understanding that we're all in the same boat that they were in.
I mean, could it be said that we are privileged today?
I mean, I feel like we have to say we are right. We have everything that they had access to. And Romans, chapter 15, verse 4 is going to tell us that the things that were written before were written for our learning so that we, through patience and comfort of Scripture, might have hope. I mean, we had the old law to train us to understand how God was trying to work through the ages to get to us. We have the new covenant. We have the church that's been established. We have the revelation of Jesus Christ, his death, his burial, his resurrection. We have all the things that they had access to, except for centuries of perspective to look back and see what God has done for us. I mean, could it be said that every single person in the world is privileged if we have this information in our hearts? Right.
We all have the ability and the same thing that they had, which is a powerful thing. It's called choice.
And so while the Jews may have forfeited that promise from a physical standpoint, God is saying it's still available to all those who choose to trust in God by faith. But think about all the things that he's promised us and all the things that he's given us.
Look at this list and see, hey, we're pretty privileged as well.
It's interesting to me that in this story of the prodigal son, he gets to the bottom right, he gets to that spot where it's so terrible, and all he can do is think about how great he had it back at home. Like all that privilege, all that good stuff that he had, all the comforts of home, the joy of that, the, the safety net, the security that it provided, all those things were found at home. And we know that this is a picture of God himself as he sees this returning young man who says, hey, I'm no longer worthy to be called his son. I'll just be his servant forever. And that kind of humility and surrender being brought back to the Father. It says he ran to meet him, he put him in an embrace, he gave him a ring and a robe, and he threw, threw a big feast for him.
Why? Because his son, who was lost, was found. Well, what was it that brought him back?
It was his choice to see things differently and to respond.
So our question this morning is, is it possible that we have rested on our privileges?
Have we just gotten satisfied? Is it like that roller coaster ride where, you know, you've gotten down to this part where it's been wonderful? We've experienced the grace of God, his mercy, his kindness, and we see the Holy Spirit and we find that no condemnation in Christ, that's a beautiful thing for us to explore and that we just are satisfied with those things, but we're not willing to do that sanctification part, that part that's constantly refining and asking ourselves where we need to be, that we're looking inside and we're responding in deeper trust. You know, are there areas of our life where there's a decision that needs to be made in trust?
And it's that part of our life that we just can't give over to God yet.
You know, that's the kind of thing that he's talking about. I want your trust. I want your confidence. I need you to have faith in my plan.
And every one of us have the choice to choose to accept that or to reject it.
So this morning, for all of us who are here in this audience and all who may be online with us, will you choose to reject it, or will you choose to trust in God in deeper ways than you've ever done so before?
That's all he wants from the Jews.
That's all he wants from the Gentiles, and it's all he wants from us is our confidence and our trust that his will is right and that we can have confidence that he's going to help us through every aspect of our life.
So if you need anything this morning, please come. Altogether we stand and sing.
