The Way of Faith Pt 2

Romans, chapter 10. Romans, chapter
10, and we’ll actually just take a brief review. God’s people
are always so patient, but it helps me to get my bearings.
It helps me to bring others who maybe haven’t been with us the
entire time into this territory where we have trafficked for
weeks and weeks, even months. We find ourselves in the fifth
major section of this book of Romans where Paul is dealing
with the sovereignty of God and specifically he has begun to
turn the corner to focus on God’s means of salvation and specifically
to dispel the idea that righteousness can be attained or secured by
works. That’s what he takes up. beginning
in chapter 9 verse 30. We’ll touch base just briefly
on those verses this morning as we close but essentially what
he does in Romans 9 30 through 33 is set up a contrast between
the Gentiles and Israel. The Gentiles who weren’t looking
for salvation stumbled upon it whereas the Jews who were making
great efforts to live up to God’s standards fell short of those
standards and fell short of salvation. Paul has compassion in his heart
though. God hasn’t written off the nation
of Israel and neither can Paul. Paul had said at the outset in
the opening verses of chapter nine that if it were possible
he would even set aside his own salvation and trade places with
Israel they were indeed in peril. They are hell bound unless they
are turned but there is hope for them otherwise Paul would
not pray for them and he does. In verses one of chapter 10 and
following Paul lays out a great cause for prayer for the nation
of Israel. And he says that not only does
he pray for them that his heart’s desire and his prayer for them
is for their salvation. Paul wouldn’t pray for them and
their salvation if they couldn’t be saved and there is no alternate
means of salvation it is salvation by repentance and faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ. There is no other. Paul certainly
was not going to pray for them that somehow magically this whole
thing would suddenly come together and they would be able to live
up to the standard of God’s word that somehow they would be able
to lay hold whereas they had never had before been able to
do that. Paul laid out a great cause for prayer. As he opened
Chapter 10 why pray for Israel because of their uneducated passion
they were going about things all the wrong way. They were
really misguided. Why did they lack this knowledge
that the Gentiles literally had stumbled upon because they were
insubordinate. They lacked faith. They lack
submission in verse 3 says not knowing about God’s righteousness
and seeking to establish their own. They wanted to live up to
the standard so that they could get the credit that they believe
they deserve. And as a result they did not
subject themselves to the righteousness of God. What was the big deal
about pursuing the law’s righteousness. Well Paul says. They were going
about it all the wrong way because that means of securing righteousness
was obsolete. God had indeed established that
God had indeed said do this and you will live. But with the coming
of Christ verse 4 says that Christ was the end of the law for righteousness. Christ and Christ’s arrival was
the end of all attempts to live up to The standard of the law
in order to secure righteousness because righteousness now would
be bestowed as an act of God’s grace. Not as a means of having
lived up to some standard. Why does Paul draw that conclusion?
He begins to build his case. Their attempt, this nation of
Israel was a historic failure. Paul lays out the reason for
that in verse five Moses writes that the man who practices righteousness
which is based on law shall live by that righteousness. In other
words that attempt better be perfect or you’re doomed. And Paul enters into the final
section of this subsection in verse six when he begins to lay
out and articulate a divinely given approach. for this righteousness
a divinely given approach for salvation and that divinely given
approach in short is justification by faith. And that’s what Paul
begins to build there beginning in verse six and following. Ultimately
he issues this statement in verse nine 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. That’s justification by
faith that is salvation by grace through faith alone in Christ
alone which really was the cause of the Reformation that that
little truth that statement the statement of salvation salvation
by faith alone in Christ alone justification by faith was the
cause that. Created so much turmoil in the
church during the time of the Reformation because the existing
church at the time the hierarchy of the church the official leaders
of the church didn’t believe that. And Paul says the case
must be made for the. Salvation by the confession of
faith, and that’s what he did. That’s what he does in verses
10. Through 13, Paul makes an airtight case for salvation by
the confession of faith. The confession of faith is effectual.
It works. It does something. It is scriptural. We saw it is general. It applies
to both Jew and Gentile. It is personal. We must come
to Christ personally, not as a church, not as a denomination,
not as a generation, not as a nation. We must come to Christ individually. Not only is it effectual and
scriptural and general and personal, it is practical. And what God
does is reach down in the moment of our greatest need and when
we call out to him, Verse 13 says, whoever will call upon
the name of the Lord will be saved. Well, Paul seizes upon
that thought of the means of imparting saving faith, and this
is where we found ourselves last week. That Paul just walks through
the simplicity of the gospel. That calling upon Christ requires
faith. Faith requires the hearing of
content, biblical content. Content requires a communicator. A communicator requires a commissioning. And in the end, Paul says in
this simple summary, verse 17, faith comes from hearing and
hearing by the word of Christ. Couldn’t be any more simple,
Paul says. Except that some had stumbled even over those simple
truths. Jump back, if you would, just
to verse 16. Paul had laid out the gospel. Paul had made his
case for salvation by the confession of faith. Paul is laying out
here the means, the simple means of imparting saving faith. And
yet, verse 16 says, however, they did not all heed the glad
tidings. How beautiful are the feet of
those who bring good news, Isaiah had said, and yet not everybody
thought it was good news. Not everybody welcomed it. And
he wasn’t just looking forward into the future and talking about
justification by faith falling on deaf ears during the days
of the Reformation. It was Israel themselves that
Isaiah was talking about. Isaiah had issued forth this
beautiful call to God. A call of repentance. A call
of restoration. Not all would heed the glad tidings,
for Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed our report? And at once
the reality that the Jews almost completely had missed the truth
of the gospel, the simple truth of the gospel, that they could
come in faith to God knowing that they hadn’t lived up to
him, that they could place their faith in the finished work of
Christ on the cross and that they would be saved. Just like
the Gentiles. Paul comes back to that simple
truth. And he wants to deal one last time with any remaining
arguments. Somehow this all seems so unfair
somehow it all seems so upside down. And Paul wants to make
one final case for culpability. God had not just capriciously
judged Israel. Israel had brought pardon me. Israel had brought judgment upon
themselves. Paul first of all wants to make us aware that the facts have
been shown that Israel knows full well that the gospel had
been given. And not only does he make the
point that Israel knew of them, but they understood them. They
knew exactly what God was doing. And in their case, their response
was willful, and God judged it. If you would, take a run and
start with me. Let’s go back, if you would,
to verse 5. Moses writes that the man who
practices the righteousness which is based on law shall live by
that righteousness. But the righteousness based on
faith speaks thus. Do not say in your heart who
will ascend into heaven that is to bring Christ down or who
will descend into the abyss that is to bring Christ up from the
dead. But what does it say. The word is near you in your
mouth and in your heart. That is the word of faith which
we are preaching. 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. For with the heart
man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses,
resulting in salvation. For the Scripture says, whoever
believes in Him will not be disappointed. 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. For whoever
will call upon the name of the Lord. Will be saved. How shall they call upon him
and 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 and how shall they preach unless they are sent just
as it is written how beautiful of the feet of those who bring
glad tidings of good things. However they did not all heed
the glad tidings. For Isaiah says Lord who has
believed our report. So faith comes from hearing and
hearing by the word of Christ. But I say surely they have never
heard have they. Indeed they have their voice
has gone out into all the earth and their words into the ends
of the earth. But I say surely Israel did not
know did they. At the first Moses says I will
make you jealous by that which is not a nation by a nation without
understanding I will anger you 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. But as for Israel he says all
the day long I have stretched out my hands to a disobedient
and obstinate people. Paul isn’t making this argument
himself. He’s essentially articulating
what could be posed as an argument by someone taking up the cause
of Israel seeing how dramatically they have rejected Christ almost
totally how they had missed completely the simple gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Somebody might well take up their
cause and say it’s not even possible they couldn’t have heard this
gospel is so simple and this gospel is so clear this justification
simply by placing one’s faith in Christ. It’s so easy. They must not have heard Paul.
Paul takes it up. I’ll have probably even heard
this very argument. Maybe from Jews. Maybe from even
some compassionate Gentiles. Surely they’ve never heard. Have
they? Paul says, indeed they have.
Their voice has gone out into all the earth. The connection Paul ties back
to is that verse 16, which was rather parenthetical it just
seemed almost out of place except that Paul has been building this
case from the moment he started Romans chapter nine that Israel
had missed the boat. They had squandered an opportunity
to come to Christ to seal their salvation in him. Paul says in
verse 16 they did not all heed the glad tidings and he sees
upon that line of thinking here. And he ties it back to them.
Indeed, they have heard. Through the prophecies that spoke
of a worldwide preaching of the gospel, that salvation, redemption
would come. And what he points to is this
little psalm, Psalm 19. If you would take a moment and
turn back to Psalm 19. Many of you are familiar with
it. What Psalm 19 does is speak about what we call general revelation. And remember Paul had already
indicted the Gentiles because there is adequate proof of God
just in the things that we see in creation. The fact that the
sun comes up and the sun goes down and the fact that there
are seasons and the fact that there is precious births of children,
and all manner of blessings, and the intricacy of nature. All is a testimony that God is
at work. That’s the psalm that Paul quotes
here, Psalm 19. Listen, look at verse 1. The
heavens are telling of the glory of God. He just speaks of the
stars, and the sun, and the moon, and all of those things, and
it’s as if they are calling out to the world. God exists. God is real. The heavens are
telling of the glory of God, and their expanse is declaring
the work of His hands. Day to day pours forth speech. Night to night reveals knowledge. If you would only stand back
and look, and look with an objective, open eye, you would see God’s
hand. You would see the work of God.
Somos goes on, there is no speech nor other words. He’s not speaking
literally in verses one and two. There is no articulation per
se. Their voice is not heard, but
their line, the reasoning. The substantial nature of what
God is doing, their line has gone out through all the earth,
the utterances to the end of the world in them, he has placed
a tent for the sun. I’ll come back to that in a second.
What Paul is saying is that look God exists and what Paul said
in Romans 1 is that look if you if you don’t even believe that
God exists you’re without excuse because God has given you abundant
evidence and all you have to do is open your eyes and look. He uses this image of the sun.
If that’s the only argument that the psalmist used here what a
powerful argument. In them, he has placed a tent
for the sun. Now, that’s not literal. The sun goes, or rather
the earth turns, and the sun, as it were, goes to the other
side of the earth. It’s as if it’s in a tent. In
them, he has placed a tent for the sun, which is a bridegroom
coming out of his chamber. He’s talking about dawn. The
dawn of a new day is a testimony that God exists. It rejoices
as a strong man to run his course. Its rising is from one end of
the heavens, and its circuit to the other end of them. And
there is nothing hidden from its heat.” He’s talking about
the sun. The sun is a testimony of God. God’s existence. And
if you don’t believe in God, then you’ve missed the clear
evidence that God has provided. Now, when
Paul quotes this sun, that their voice is gone out into all the
earth. He’s not necessarily speaking
of the gospel. Paul is saying that the gospel
by this point in time has touched every person every person has
heard the gospel. And there were some commentaries
that got commentators rather they got all hung up on this
point. How could Paul quote this. when it is speaking universally
that everybody universally absolutely knows that God exists. Paul basically just compares
the fact that God’s testimony had gone forward universally
and now the gospel has gone forward with equal universality just
as those quiet voices of nature testify to God’s existence, the
voice of believers, the voice of Christ himself working through
believers, the testimony of Christ has gone into all the world. Because of that, the Jews can’t
possibly say. They haven’t heard the gospel.
Nobody could come to the Jews defense and say you know it’s
really not fair that God is what God is doing and God has set
them aside because of the rejection of Christ. It’s really not fair
because they didn’t really hear the gospel. They heard the gospel
before it was even called the gospel. They heard about repentance. They heard about justice. They
heard about mercy. They heard about a messiah. The gospel had been preached
now without restriction the gospel had gone out to both Jews and
Gentiles and it had gone out so broadly and so widely that
it could very easily be said to have gone forth into all the
earth. That’s what Paul’s saying when he quotes Psalm 19. He doesn’t
have to say that it literally has touched the ears of every
person. As one said, he does not mean that every creature
on earth at that time had literally heard the gospel, that the gospel
had been so widely proclaimed that all types of people, Gentile
as well as Jews, slaves as well as free men, had heard it. What
he’s talking about is just the widespread dissemination of the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Paul would say it similarly
elsewhere. Listen to his testimony to the
Colossians as the book of Colossians opens and I. I would take you
there but for the sake of time just listen. Colossians chapter
one Paul in his classic way begins to thank them. We thank give
thanks to God the father of our Lord Jesus Christ praying always
forward for you. Since we heard of your faith
in Christ Jesus and the love that you have for all the saints
because of the hope laid up for you in heaven of which you previously
heard in the word of truth the gospel which has come to you
just as in all the world. Now did Paul mean there that
every person ever living on the face of the earth during his
days had heard the gospel. Of course not. Of course not. He’s speaking generally that
the gospel had gone forward to all the world just as Jesus had
essentially prophesied to the apostles. He told them that it
was going to begin small and that it was going to grow and
grow and manifest itself ultimately to the whole world. By the dates
that the book of Romans was written that Paul was sitting there and
he looks out upon the greatness of the globe as he knew it. And he saw that the gospel was
penetrating. The gospel was making great headway.
In fact, in the middle of the second century, a man named Justin
Martyr said this. Listen to this. He said, there
is no people, Greek or barbarian, or of any other race by whatever
name or manners that may be distinguished, however ignorant of arts or agriculture,
whether they dwell in tents or wander about in covered wagons,
among whom prayers and thanksgivings are not offered in the name of
the crucified Jesus to the father and creator of all things.” Did
you hear what he said? There isn’t anybody, no matter
how barbaric they may be, no matter how far flung they are,
no matter what their manner of life, whether they’re city dwellers
or country dwellers, there isn’t anybody. For many of those kinds of people
who doesn’t mean the name of Christ. See this restriction had been
lifted. Salvation was primarily for the Jews they believe that
it was only and exclusively a Jewish thing God had always. Called
them. To a contrary belief. But now
any restriction was lifted. And the gospel was free and freely
to be preached to all and for all. And the Savior of the world
had come, and he had issued this proclamation to all, to go into
all the nations. And as a result, the obedient
saints of God began the work of preaching the gospel, and
it was taking root. It was going forth, not only
in Jerusalem, but in Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest
parts of the earth that Jesus had said. They were without excuse. They
had heard. And it wasn’t just on this occasion
that they had heard. It wasn’t just in the coming
of Christ that they had heard the gospel. They had heard the
elements of the gospel proclaimed for centuries. Let me take you
to just a brief illustration. Matthew chapter 21. Jesus indicted
Israel. Jesus himself said that Israel
heard Israel had heard and Israel knows. Look at Matthew Chapter
21. In Matthew Chapter 21 Jesus drew
in his hearers and he said listen to another parable look at verse
thirty three there was a landowner. who planted a vineyard and put
a wall around it and dug a wine press in it and built a tower
and rented it out to vine growers and went on a journey. And everything
sounds, you know, I mean it is a setup. He’s drawing them in. And he’s showing them that look
what God had done. God had planted a vineyard. It
was a perfect vineyard. He put a wine press in it, built
a tower, great land, did all the work necessary to have a
successful vintage And he went on a journey. And when harvest
time approached, he sent his slaves to the vine growers to
receive his produce. I mean, that was his right. That
was perfectly respectable for him to do. He’s going to get
his portion of the crops. And the vine growers took his
slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. I mean, this
just takes an absurd turn. You can’t be serious. After all that the Vineyard owner
had gone, planted this perfect vineyard, essentially hired managers
of it, and now they’re killing his servants? And he sent another
group of slaves, larger than the first, but they did the same
thing to them. But afterward, he sent his sons, saying, they
will respect my son. When the vine growers saw the
son, they said among themselves, this is the heir. Let us kill
him and seize his inheritance.” And they took him and threw him
out of the vineyard and killed him. Therefore, Jesus concludes, when
the owner of the vineyard comes, what will we do to those vine
growers? And the interesting thing is that this is in the
hearing of the chief priests, the elders, the Pharisees. Well,
they came to a quick conclusion. They had no clue what Jesus was
talking about. They just saw the face of this
on the surface, this story, and they said to him, he will bring
those wretches to a wretched end. He will rent out the vineyard
to other vine growers who will pay him the proceeds at their
proper season. They couldn’t have said it any
better. Jesus said to them, did you never
read the scriptures? The stone which the builders
rejected, this became the chief cornerstone. Jesus has them exactly where
he wants them. And he tells them for centuries,
prophet after prophet after prophet had come to this nation and had
pleaded with him with great patience. You see, this whole thing comes
on the cleansing of the temple. Comes on the heels of the cleansing
of the temple, and the Jews were angry at Jesus for what he had
done. And Jesus basically positions himself saying that you’re going
to treat me no differently than you have the prophets. I am the
son. I am the son of the vineyard
owner. Do I expect any better treatment
than what the prophets received? They challenged Jesus authority
and that’s what led to this parable. And it wasn’t new imagery. This
imagery of the vineyard. a God-planted vineyard. And even
as Jesus starts this story, any self-respecting Jew should have
seized himself and realized what Jesus was doing. He’s talking
about us. Listen to what Isaiah had said.
Isaiah 5, let me sing now for my well-beloved a song of my
beloved concerning his vineyard. My well-beloved has a vineyard
on a fertile hill. He dug it all around, removed
its stones, planted it with a choiceless vine. He built a tower in the
middle of it and he hewed out a wine vine in it. Then he expected
it to produce good grapes. Now in this case, this story
is about the nation of Israel. It’s about the Jews themselves.
And it says that he expected good produce from it, but it went sour. They expected
it to produce good grapes, but it produced only worthless things.
And if the story seems absurd to you, you don’t know history
as well as you should because the story of humanity, the story
of the nation of Israel was that as God sent them prophet after
prophet, they would beat one and stone another. Somehow the
vine growers, just like the Pharisees, they had convinced themselves
that the vineyard was theirs. The means of salvation was theirs. Heaven was theirs. God himself
was theirs. And they were answerable and
accountable to no one, not the landowner, not God. The story is recorded in the
Book of Chronicles Zechariah’s persecution, Zechariah is just
one of many, ultimately killed for speaking the word of the
Lord. No wonder Jesus said, you are the sons of those who murdered
the prophets. Stephen, just before he was murdered,
said, which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And to suggest for a moment that
Israel had not heard, they had been hearing, they had been given
the choicest of messages throughout centuries, thousands of years
worth of prophets, and to suggest that they hadn’t heard the gospel? Paul says not only have they
heard, they understand perfectly well. They understand perfectly
well. When Paul says in verse 9, Israel
surely did not know, did they? They didn’t really understand.
They hadn’t really come to grips with the nature of the gospel.
How come? Paul meets that objection head
on. And he gives a threefold answer
to prove the fact that not only had they heard the gospel, they
knew exactly what the gospel meant. They knew exactly that
God was talking about justification by faith, that somebody could
come to Christ, place their faith in Him, in His finished work
on the cross, and that God would lavish them with the righteousness
that every person ever born lacks. Every person. See, Israel had been forewarned
that the Lord Jesus Christ, this Messiah, ultimately would be
rejected. They would reject the Messiah.
Their own scriptures told them of this truth. So they can’t
possibly say that they don’t understand what’s going on. They
just don’t understand why an entire nation of heathens would
come to Christ in faith and would now be said to be already enjoying
the fruits of heaven and yet The very chosen people of God
are on the outside looking in. It doesn’t make any sense. We
don’t understand. God says, yes, you do. And he
offers three proofs. He says, I’m going to give you
three proofs that they do understand. He says at the first, look if
you would at verse 19. At the first, Moses says, I will
make you jealous by that which is not a nation, by a nation
without understanding I will anger you.” Now that should have
been their first clue, their own heart. The fact that they
were jealous and the fact that they were jealous of another
nation should have been their first clue. Something’s wrong.
Something in the scripture speaks to this issue. God has provoked them to jealousy
and that should have been a clue for them. Moses says, I will
make you jealous by that which is not a nation. By a nation
without understanding I will anger you. Turn if you would
we’re running low on time but I want to take you to Deuteronomy
chapter 32. Deuteronomy chapter 32 is known
as the song of Moses. And nearly citing one verse just
as we saw last Wednesday nearly citing one verse would have taken
any self-respecting Jew back to this passage. But this was
not a passage of comfort. This was a passage of chastisement. This was a passage that was a
call to repentance. This was a passage that was a
shame to them because of their sin. Look at this man give your
heavens and let me speak. Let the earth hear the words
of my mouth. Let my teaching drop is the way my speech distill
is to do as the droplets of the fresh grass. Moses is just appealing
to God. God, give me the words to speak
to your people. He exposes the virtues of God
and then in verse five begins opening up to his indictments
of God’s people. Verse 5, they have acted corruptly
towards him. They are not his children because
of their defects, but are perverse and a crooked generation. Do
you thus repay the Lord, O foolish and unwise people? Is he not
your father who bought you? He has made you and established
you. Now, Moses begins his indictment
there, but it gets only more pointed. Skip down for the sake
of time, if you would, to verse 15. But Jeshurun, that is Israel,
grew fat and ticked. You are grown fat and thick and
sleek. Then he forsook his God who made
him and scorned the rock of his salvation. They made him jealous
with strange gods. With abominations they provoked
him to anger. They sacrificed to demons who
were not God, to gods whom they had not known. New gods who came
lately whom father your fathers had not dread. You neglected
the rock who begot you and forgot the God who gave you birth. The
Lord saw this and spurned them because of their provocation
of his sons and daughters. Then he said I will hide my face
from you. I will not. They will not see
what their end shall be for they are a perverse generation sons
in whom there is no faithfulness. They have made me jealous with
what is not God. They have provoked me to anger
with their idols, so I will make them jealous with those who are
not a people. I will provoke them to anger
with a foolish nation.” Any Jew knew that verse. Any Jew knew
that this was an indictment. Any Jew would have known immediately
that that was proof that their own hearts were a testimony to
the fact of the centuries, that they had heard, they had rejected
the Messiah. The best thing they could do
was repent and fall on their face and be restored to God himself,
but they wouldn’t. As James Boyce said, instead
of detached indifference and smug superiority, there was jealousy
and anger on the Jews’ part. This indicated that they understood
very well what was happening. They knew that the message being
received by the Gentiles was a message of salvation by the
grace of God, apart from keeping the law they knew, and Paul proves
it. But he drives home the point
by quoting again, this time from Isaiah. Look at verse 20. Isaiah
is very good and says, I was found by those who sought me
not. I became manifest to those who did not ask for me. Now,
you read the book of Isaiah, and you’re not going to come
away with that. But Paul here, under the direction of the Holy
Spirit, applies this verse to the Gentiles. Those who sought God not. Those who did not go looking
for God and weren’t about the things of God. Paul had already
essentially said these very things in verse 30 of chapter 9. He
said what should we say that the Gentiles who did not pursue
righteousness attained righteousness even the righteousness which
is faith. But Israel pursuing the law of
righteousness did not arrive with that law. The Gentiles weren’t
looking for salvation. They weren’t looking for it but
God found them and the very fact that God found them the very
fact that they were provoking The nation of Israel should have
been in now a double clue for Israel to repent. But Paul offers
a third. Paul offers a third when he says
in verse 21, of the day long I have stretched out my hands
to a disobedient and obstinate people. He quotes the second
verse. He’d already given them the first verse which spoke of
the Gentiles. Now he lays this one on the lap
of the Jews. This passage that so speaks of
God’s perseverance, his outstretched hands, this gesture of appealing
welcome and friendship, an offer of blessing and goodness and
forgiveness. One pastor said of it, it is
a picture of the everlasting arms spread open in unwearied
love, the overtures of grace, are not merely represented as
being rejected, but as being made to a disobedient and obstinate
people. He goes on to say that it’s not
enough just to say that they were disobedient. That they were,
but it was a high-handed disobedient. They were obstinate. They flung
their rejection in God’s face. They wanted nothing to do with
them. They wanted nothing to do with his goodness and grace.
They didn’t want his means of salvation. What they wanted is
for him to accept their own. They were disobedient and regardless. One pastor summarized that that’s
the same spirit in the hearts of most people today. They hate
God. They hate Christianity. And they
hate God and they hate Christianity he says because they hate grace. That’s what really irritated
the nation of Israel. This sudden arrival or so they
thought of the grace of God. It wasn’t fair. For centuries
they had tried to live up to a measure. They had tried to
live up to a standard. The law of God. Now they found
that they There was another means of salvation, a different means,
where suddenly it didn’t matter how you lived, that all you had
to do was place your faith in Christ? He says it this way. If God would
take note of who we are, if he would only pay court to our superior
and advanced intelligence, if he would only at least credit
us with trying, that’s what the Jews wanted. Then we would welcome
the gospel and embrace it openly and enthusiastically. Grace means
that God saves the undeserving. Grace saves nobodies, those who
are no people in the judgment of those who are important. Grace
saves the ignorant, those who are not even seeking God, reaching
out to confront them in their lost state and turn them from
what is destroying them to the glories of salvation above. That’s
why people hate God. That’s why people hate his salvation. That’s why the Jews so rejected
the Messiah. Was that the Messiah came and
he applied exactly what God had been preaching for centuries.
That justification was by faith. The fact that anyone ever attains
any righteousness will be by faith in Christ alone. And the Jews The Jews would have
none of it yet. And that’s the cause. That’s
the case that Paul takes up in Romans chapter 11. No longer
just a prayer on the behalf of the Jews. No longer just a professed
hope. The Jews will come to salvation
in their totality. As many as God has marked out
for salvation, but they will come through faith in Christ
alone. There are no multiple ways of
salvation. There is no living up to the
law. It is by faith alone in Christ alone. Let’s go before
him. Merciful God, if there are any
in this room still clinging to the foolish thought that they
could live up to some standard of righteousness. This is the
very thing that Paul indicts. The Jews had heard. They had
heard the Gospel. They knew. They knew of the Messiah. They knew of the judgments that
came upon His rejection. And yet, they missed it. O gracious God, may none in this
room miss the free offer of the Gospel. The Lord Jesus Christ,
who has paid the penalty of sinners, that placing faith in him and
in him alone is the only means of salvation. We rejoice before
you in Jesus name. Amen.