Romans Chapter 9, 10 and 11 Overview
Romans · Mike Doyle · Jun 16, 2024
Romans (2022-25), No. 078
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261935366842

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Morning. So, so far in Romans, we've been carried along by all the way from bondage and condemnation in chapters one, two, and three, to the wonderful freedom from sin's penalty and justification, and eternal union with Christ in chapter eight that we just finished. Paul now turns to consider another phase of things altogether. There's a change here. We'll see in a minute.

Paul knew that many of his readers would be religious, godly Jews who had accepted Christ as their Messiah and the Savior, but who were in time of great confusion and puzzlement as they saw their own nation being hardened into opposition against the gospel and Gentile sinners turning to the Lord. Imagine that you're a Jew in Israel at, you know, 30 AD, 40 AD, and everything you've ever known is beginning to harden, and these Gentiles are getting saved. They're aware that the prophets predicted a great work of God among the Gentiles, but they had always thought of this as following the full restoration and blessing of Israel and it was gonna flow out from that. So, now if you take, and most of you probably know this, if you look at Paul's 13 epistles, there's a pattern. First, there's a doctrinal section.

Second, there is a responsibility section based on the doctrine. in the first part, in the first section, like in Ephesians 3.21, and then it changes at 4.1, or Philippians 2.11, or Colossians 2.5. The doctrine is positional truth, and then the second part is the responsibility a believer has who has accepted and believes in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. So every single epistle is set up this way except for Romans. It's the only one that's different. Usually it's doctrine than duty in all of Paul's epistles except Romans.

So we studied chapters one through eight. Then with the discussion of Israel in 9, 10, and 11. And then the duty of believers in chapters 12 through 16. And to give you an example, you know, last week I didn't get to use the last two slides because, I don't know, they disappeared somewhere. Well, we're gonna use them today. We talked in 33 and 34 last week.

Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect, shall God who justifies? Who shall condemn? Shall Christ who died, yea rather, who is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us? So to answer those questions, there isn't an answer possible. Every voice is silent. Every accusation is quieted. Our standing in Christ is complete and our justification is unchangeable.

So if you read from 38-39 and then you jump over 9, 10, 11 into 12, it looks like this. For I'm convinced that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor present things nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth or any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. That ends chapter eight. Chapter 12 says, therefore, I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice accepted to God, which is your spiritual service and worship. You see how it fits? All the other epistles, that's the way they look. You come off of this great positional truth And then here comes the, here's how you behave based on the truth that you have.

And that would be true if Romans didn't have chapters nine, 10, 11. So Romans nine, 10, 11, and that's what we're gonna study over the next weeks and couple of months. It's, Paul turns aside here and puts this in to talk about the glorious exposition of grace in the first eight chapters to explanation of God's present dealing with Israel. And you notice at the end of chapter eight, there's lots of happiness and glory. And then chapter nine, within a couple of verses, it's really sad. that Paul says, I would give my life if the Jews could be saved.

There are only three men that ever said that. The first one was Moses, the second one was the Lord Jesus Christ, and the third one is Paul. Only one man could do it, and that was Christ. So God had committed himself to bless this nation Israel, and now it is a nation set aside.

While Paul's unique message goes out to all the nations without distinction between Jew and Gentile, the focal point changes in nine through 11 to Jews and Israel away from the church. I want you to keep that in mind as we go through these verses. We're talking, we're gonna talk about Gentiles and we're gonna talk about the Jews only, only in those three verses, three chapters.

So here's an introduction that Merriman did I thought was really good. Chapter 9, 10, 11 form a distinct section of Romans. First let's remind ourselves of the theme of Romans and its development in the book. Anybody want to tell me what the theme of Romans is? You guys been paying attention? It's God's righteousness. This is what Romans is about, God's righteousness.

Chapter one to 320, the problem, nobody has God's righteousness. Chapter 321 to 521, the answer, how do you get it? And chapter six through eight, the results for those who did get it. Chapters nine through 11, the issue God promised to Israel as they relate to his righteousness. And 12 to 16 is the application to Christian life and service.

By the time Romans was written in around 57 AD, the Gentile believers far outnumbered the Jewish believers in the church. Question. How were the Jewish Christians to reconcile the fate of God's chosen nation, Israel, in view of what was going on? Who were all these Gentiles? What of God's integrity in view of his promises that he made to Abraham, his descendants? If Israel is jettisoned or put aside or turned away from, then the righteousness of God is imperiled. Could God have lied to Abraham? Therefore, in chapter 9, 10, 11, Paul focuses on the righteousness of God as it relates to his dealing in the present with his ancient people. So note the three questions in context that illustrate the issue with Israel.

First question is in Romans 9.14 where Paul says, what shall we say then? Is there no injustice with God? Is there? May it never be. Is there unrighteousness with God due to his sovereign choices? The word translates, illustrates the problem of an accurate understanding of the Greek expression. The expression is not at all, or by no means, or may it never be, or we would say in contemporary language, no way.

So the second question is in Romans 11.1. Paul says, I say then, God has not rejected his people, has he? May it never be. For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham and a tribe of Benjamin. Has God abandoned permanently his people, the Israelites? Is he finished with them? Or did they mess it up so bad that he just walks away from them?

The answer is the same answer, it's impossible. It could never be. When God makes a promise, he means it. And the last question is in verse 11. I say then, did they not stumble so as to fall, did they? In other words, did they just permanently trip and they're not ever gonna get up again? By their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make them jealous. Has Israel stumbled that they should fall without any remedy? They had their chance and they missed it. The answer is, God forbid. Or better, it could never be. It's impossible that that would happen.

So the conclusion is, in 9, 10, and 11, is clarifying issues relative to Israel during the dispensation of the church. Here's the church beginning. Well, what about those Jews? What's God gonna do there? Israel is referred to 12 times in these three chapters. Gentiles, seven times. How many times do you think the church is referred to? Zero. Church is not mentioned. These three chapters are about Jews and Gentiles only and not about the church.

And I'm making a big point of that because we live in an era of Reformed theology. And what Reformed theology tries to sell is that we live under one single covenant. of which the church is an extension of Israel. We're not. We're totally separate from them.

So God focuses on this portion of Scripture and his dealings with Israel and Gentiles and not the church. The church, the body of Christ, is nowhere to be found in Romans 9, 10, and 11. Jews and Gentiles in general are in focus. So here's the outline.

Chapter nine gives us God's past dealings with Israel in electing grace. Nine, one through three, Paul's intense love for the Israelites. He really loved them. I mean, he was willing to give his life that they might be saved. Four through five, there are eight unique blessings in the grace of the Old Testament to the Jews.

Six through 13, Paul talks about sovereign election. Who is elected and what are they elected to? Two major factors there. Verse six, physical birth did not make one a true Israelite. Physical descent from Abraham did not bring its spiritual descent. Verse seven, true Israelite descend from promise, from grace, not from natural birth. Chapter nine, I hope that's clear enough. Oh yeah, you can see that. Chapter nine gives us God's past dealing with Israel and electing grace. He explains verses eight through 13. Verses eight through 13 explain verses six and seven.

Sarah has Isaac via grace promise, not works and merit. The election of Jacob's seed as a national lineage through whom Messiah would come was by sovereign elective grace, not works or merit. God's sovereign choice challenged and defended in this regard. In 925 through 29, God's sovereign choice were predicted. And then in 33, an amazing conclusion.

So why Israelites do not attain to righteousness, but the Gentiles do? That's what chapter 10's all about. Why didn't the Jews get it? They've been under God's two leads for 2,500 years or more. But now the Gentiles are getting it. The outline of chapter 10 tells us. Paul explains the only way of salvation for everyone at any time from Adam forward.

Israel's problem. They sought salvation and righteousness through the wrong means. They thought they could earn it. God's solution to Israel's problem, salvation and righteousness. It's not based upon commands, not based upon the law. It cannot be fulfilled, but it's accessible to everyone. Verse 14 through 17, the universal outreach of the grace faith system of salvation and righteousness is talked about. That's how you get saved. Four practical questions regarding the details of salvation and righteousness in those verses. And the logical issues raised by 14 through 17, Israel's scripture predicted this entire scenario. God told them what was gonna happen. They weren't listening.

Then in chapter 11, Israel is hardened nationally, but only temporarily. A major issue raised in answer, God has not permanently cast away the Israelites. Three examples, Elijah, Paul, Elijah, and 7,000 and a remnant of the Jews in Paul's day will be talked about that prove that God has not cast away the Israelites as individuals. We talked about this concept this morning in Sunday school about how gracious God is The election of grace is defined in 11.6. National Israel has been judicially hardened.

You know, I mention all the time about the neighborhood that I live in of the Hasidic Jews. You talk about people that are hardened. They study the Talmud, the first five books of the Bible, and they are totally blind to anything but that. Totally blind, and it's all a works-based system.

The nation's Israel judicial hardness is temporary. Advice to Gentile believers regard Israel and God's sovereign plan. In other words, you Gentiles need to pay attention to what God is doing with the Jews. A warning to Gentiles about destructive pride. Application of the principle of rejection of Israel. All Israel shall be saved. And then Paul's ecstatic response. The climaxing fact, all Israel will be saved, and we talk about that often. Paul's praise of the wisdom, independence, and sovereignty of God. So that's kind of the outline and the overview. And the handout today is pretty much that outline. And if you wanna keep it for, as we go through the different verses and chapters, it'll keep us oriented, because that's the plan that we'll follow. So what was the reason for the choice of Israel in God's plan? In other words, why did he choose the Jews? Why did he choose Abraham? Why do you think he did?

He can give me about 20 reasons. Deuteronomy 7, six through eight, the place of Israel in God's plan. Listen to what he says. For you are a holy people to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. Why? The Lord did not set his love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other peoples. for you were fewest of all people.

Why did he do it? He loved them. That's why he did it. But because the Lord loved you and kept the oath which he swore to your forefathers, the Lord brought you out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. We somehow, as Gentiles and Christians, want to look at Israel as some sort of group of people that God just stuck a bunch of laws on them and they need to march in lockstep. He picked them because he loved them. Why did he save you? Because he loved you. His motives don't change. For the reason for the choice of Israel, because of God loved them.

The people of God, a holy people, set apart people. These people were different in everything that they did. They dressed different, they ate different, the clothing was different. Deuteronomy 14, one through eight, you are the sons of the Lord, you are God, you shall not cut yourself or shave your forehead for the sake of the dead. That's something that the Gentiles did. for you're a holy people to the Lord and you're God and you shall not eat any distestable thing.

Their diet was totally different. The choice of God, God's discrimination, I have chosen you to be out of all the nations of the world. What's interesting about this? What struck me about this? You know, we're having all these demonstrations now against Israel, that somehow the Palestinians are going to change God's mind about who His chosen people are.

They better wake up, because He's not going to change His mind. They're it. And no matter how much we demonstrate and how much you didn't pay attention to what God was really doing, it isn't gonna change. Now I'm not saying that he isn't gonna show Israel a thing or two in the coming future, he is.

But they're the ones, they're the chosen people. And they were chosen based on God's grace alone. The choice was negative, chosen not because they were a big group. How many of them went from when Joseph was in Egypt and Jacob took all of the Jews, go into Egypt and live, were there 27 of them? That was the nation of Israel, 27 people. The basis of the choice, positive, God's love, and the choice is rooted in God's character. People who are treasured, treasured valued property to be prized highly.

Exodus 19.5 says, they shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people, for all the earth is mine.

Deuteronomy 26.18, the Lord, has declared to you to be his people a treasured possession. So he views the Jewish nation as a treasured possession.

Amos 3.2, and you only have I known, and you only have I known of all the families of the earth. Therefore, I will punish you for all your iniquities. Boy, big time responsibility if God chooses you. So what right does God have to choose Israel and on what basis of himself? Chapter nine stresses that he chose not based on human rules. Psalm 147, 19 says, he declares his word to Jacob, his statues and his ordinance to Israel.

There's nothing in the word that shows that any other people outside of Israel that God ever revealed anything to. He would use other nations, but it was always in relationship to whether he was gonna punish Israel or something, but he never revealed himself or anything about himself to anybody other than Israel. Only Israel possessed the word of God. No other nation did.

363 times in the Old Testament, revelation of anything previously unknown or unknowable. In other words, 363 times God told things to Israel that had never been told to anybody at any time ever before. Revelation is the act of God in making known what man did not or could not know, only Israel. The election of God is unique to Israel. God rarely, if ever, blesses anyone directly. Most of the time, we are blessed through somebody else or someone else. I think that's evident.

God's election of Israel as his chosen nation is absolute and it's eternal. And who is Christ to the flesh, who is overall God blessed unto the ages, amen. In other words, what nation did the Savior come from? It's an astonishing honor to Israel infinitely outranking all others. Our Lord, the mighty God, is according to the flesh an Israelite. Our Savior is an Israelite.

For God to do all this and then publicly set aside this nation and send a Paul to all nations without distinction of Jew or Gentile preaching salvation apart from the law, and by simple faith instead of by the Jewish religion promising blessings that even heavenly blessings is inconceivable beyond those promised to Israel. This was an astonishing thing. In other words, what he has done through Paul the Apostle, who is an Israelite, The blessing that the body of Christ has is far greater than anything he ever told the Jews, and look what he told the Jews. The main subject of 9 to 11 is to reconcile the indiscriminate call of Gentiles and Jews with respect to the promises made to Israel. In this task, he stops the fleshly self-importance of those who rested on nothing but a line of natural descent from Abraham.

Best example of that is Nicodemus. He goes, as a Pharisee, he goes to the Lord and the Lord interrupts him and said, if you wanna see the kingdom of God, you must be born again. And if you want to get into the kingdom of God, you must be born again. Nicodemus is thinking, well, I already am. I'm a Pharisee. I've been keeping these rules all along. And the Lord changes the game for him. He proves that special promises has from the first been the principle of God. He points to sovereign mercy as the only hope for people such as even Israel had shown themselves to be.

He annihilates the poor, selfish, proud reasonings which assaults the rights and righteousnesses of God when the fact is that man is utterly unrighteous before him. He demonstrates that according to the Jewish prophets, Israel would be rejected, Gentiles called, and only a remnant of the ancient people saved. He shows that their rejection was due to their failure in meeting the law principle of righteousness. which they had deliberately chosen instead of the righteousness which grace gives by faith. You've noticed that all of the righteous men in the Old Testament are all men of faith. While the Gentiles received it gladly, righteousness by faith, Christ being the grand test for both. He insists that this did not hold back his love for Israel, that they might be saved. But salvation could only be by accepting Christ, the end of the law of righteousness to the believer.

According to the secret of grace, intimated in Deuteronomy 30, supported and carried out by Isaiah 28, 16 and Joel 2, 32, And lastly, it opens the door of faith to more than Israel, even to those who, if they had not the law, might hear the glad tidings and good news, Isaiah 52, which God sends out. He points out that the very unbelief of this on the part of the Jews fulfills Isaiah 53.

So, the Psalms show the widespread universal message of God, and that while the law warned them of God's provoking them to jealousy by a no people, the prophet. We are the Gentiles, the no people. Psalm 19, one and two says 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 and night to night reveals knowledge.

Isaiah 65, one tells us, is bolder still and explicitly announces God has found by those who sought him not Gentiles, while Israel are condemned as a disobedient and contradictory people. I permitted myself, God says, to be sought by those who did not ask for me. I permitted myself to be found by those who did not seek me. I said, here am I, here am I, to a nation which did not call on my name.

The problem with us Gentiles today is that we have become accustomed to all of this grace and we take it for granted. God's plan and ways with Israel do not concern most Christians. They don't care. There's no more striking example of the deadly and deadening self-confidence into which human beings so quickly drift when they find themselves the objects of divine goodness. Man that is in honor and understands not is like a beast that perishes. We get lazy.

Look at Christendom. We see evidence of historic delusions. Observe the state government churches, the great cathedrals, the vested choirs, magnificent music. The church calendars, the man-invented feast days, the holy days, Christmastide, Lenten periods, Easter service, all that goes to make up the so-called Christian religion.

And the big talk of the Gentiles about Israel as God's ancient people. But God has never had nor never will have any people other than the elect nation, Israel, on the earth. So, in conclusion, we have been granted such grace, but we need to understand, as we study these three chapters, how do I say this? God isn't foolish.

He extends His grace and His love to us to just believe Him and trust Him. We spent half of Sunday school this morning talking about this is a trustworthy statement. This is a statement that can be trusted. You can bet your life on it. And the New Testament is full of trustworthy statements. The call of God for us to believe in him and to rest in his son, the Savior, who is a Jew. Let's close.

Dear Father, how we thank you again. We thank you for the opportunity that we have here to study and to learn all your ways with the nation Israel and we pray that we would be able to have our understanding open and see how you work even with people who have rejected you, what you have in mind for them to bless them. And we thank you Father, we pray in your son's precious name, amen.