Essentials Of The Faith / Sunday Morning Sermon Series / Romans

Romans 9:1-13

Intro: When we were last in Romans we examined the great ending to chapter 8. Let me read it again for you.

Read: Rom. 8:31-39

     Paul was speaking of the exceedingly great joy of being a believer in Jesus Christ, indwelled by the Holy Spirit. He said since God was on our side nothing, can ever separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ.  Isn't that great? Isn't that what being a Christian is all about? Isn't that what God promised from the very beginning when he called Abraham and began drawing people to Himself? What joy! What hope! What confidence! What grace!....But then we come to Romans 9:1-3 and all we can say is What a let down! Paul goes from exhilaration  to desperation , from overflowing joy to anguish and great sorrow.

EXP: Paul was on an emotional roller-coaster. In the midst of his great joy of being In Christ, he realizes that his people have rejected Jesus who promised such joy. And his heart was broken.

Trans: In Rom. 9 Paul begins to answer, with some completeness, the question that the Jews were constantly bring up to him. 'Paul, what about Israel according to the flesh, what about ethnic Israel?' Before we share in the Lord's Supper, I want to examine briefly Paul's personal response to that recurring question. Because I think it has some relevance to our time of Communion. Turn to Romans 9

I. Personal Response to Ethnic Israel Rom. 9:1-3a
Read: Rom. 9:1-3a

     It's amazing, when Paul thought about Christ he rejoiced, but when Paul thought of  the lost, especially his fellow Jews, he was greatly saddened. And this is all the more amazing when you consider that the Jew's believed Paul was a traitor.  Paul had left his position as a Pharisee, he no longer hunted down the church to destroy it. In fact, Paul joined the church and became one of them, not only one of the but a leader among them, and not only a leader but he ministered to and with gentiles. Paul was bitterly hated by the Jews, who believed him to be a traitor to his own people. And they let him know it. To the same Jewish people who almost killed him 5 times and who constantly sought to have him arrested, Paul said that he wished that he could give up his salvation so that they might know Christ.

     That is great love. That is a man whose heart was so focused that he wanted nothing else but to see his Jewish kinsmen come to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. No matter what it cost him.

APP:  As we approach the Table of our Lord this morning, we ought to come riding the same emotional roller-coaster Paul did. We rejoice that Jesus brought forgiveness and paid the penalty for our sin. That He restored our personal, intimate relationship with God.  He did all this when He gave His life on the cross of Calvary. When His body was broken and His blood poured out for us.  We ought to rejoice in our salvation but at the same time be in anguish that it required the death of our Lord.

     Our emotional roller coaster ride continues when we consider, like Paul, the joy of our loved ones. The times we laugh, and play, the times we hug and kiss our loved ones......While at the same time, somewhere inside us there is a deep, gnawing pain that won't go away. It is the pain of knowing that our loved ones face an eternity w/o Christ.

     Communion is to remind us what Christ did on Calvary when He died so that we might live. But we remember so that not only would we rejoice in our salvation, but that when we look at the lost around us, especially those in our own families, we will have so great a sorrow that we will do anything to share with them the Joy of knowing Christ, the hope of salvation. regardless of how they treat us.

     As we come to the Lord's Table this morning,  I want to take a few minutes, as the men now come forward, to give you the opportunity to reflect upon and talk to the Lord about your emotional roller coaster ride. Do you have both great joy in the Lord and deep sorrow for the lost?

II. Doctrinal Response to Ethnic Israel Rom. 9:3b-13
    A. Election in general

ILL:  A minister one day sat in the lobby of his church to meet anyone who might have spiritual difficulties.  Only one came.  "What is your difficulty?"  asked the minister.  The man answered, "My difficulty is the ninth chapter of Romans, where it says, 'Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated,'"  "Yes," said the minister, "there is great difficulty in that verse; but which part of the verse is difficult for you?"  The latter part, of course," said the man.  "I cannot understand why God should hate Esau."  The minister replied, "That verse has often been difficult, but my difficulty has always been with the first part of the verse.  I never could understand how God could love that wily, deceitful, supplanting scoundrel Jacob."

     Paul now gets around to answering, in a doctrinal way,  the question 'What about Israel in the flesh, national, ethnic Jews?' You see, God's very character is at stake. The Jews say that God is unfair if He rejects His own people by saying they must believe in Jesus to obtain eternal life. After all, they are of the seed of Abraham. And the promises of God were made to his offspring. If what you say is true Paul, then God has been unfaithful to His covenant with Israel and He can no longer be trusted.

     This passage is perhaps one of the least popular in Scripture because Paul defends God's character and answers the Jews question by the doctrine of election that teaches before the world was created, God chose who would receive salvation.
This runs against everything we as free thinking, independent Americans believe.  In fact, there are pastors and teachers who skip over this passage because they don't want to deal with it. Yet, understanding ethnic Israel and Election is essential to seeing  what Paul is doing in Rom. 9-11. And what he is doing is  retelling Israel's history to prove that God has been and is faithful to His covenant to Israel. And before Paul can tell us about our commitment to God in Rom. 12 and following, He must first assure us of God's unfailing commitment to His covenant and His spotless character, especially as it relates to Israel.

    B. Election and Israel
     According to our Text, Paul never denies that Israel as a nation was the special and chosen people of God. To them was given the adoption as sons, they were led in the wilderness by the Shekinah glory of God, God made a covenant with Israel and gave them the Law to follow. God showed them the way to worship Him and made promises to those who were obedient. God gave them a rich heritage in their forefathers and even the Messiah came from among them. He came 'according to the flesh' as an ethnic Jew.

     But, Paul says, they are not all Israel who are descendants of Abraham according to the flesh, or ethnically.  True Israel is and has always been those of Abrahams descent who  live according to the promise...children of faith as we learned in Chapter 2 and 4... not children because of  nationality. God has always had a remnant, a small group within national Israel who was to God, True Israel. And to whom God's sovereign mercy and favor rests.

     Paul begins to prove this by giving examples of God's sovereign, elective, choice. He chose Abraham out of a life of paganism to reveal Himself to Him, to specifically bless him so that he would be a blessing to all nations, Jew and Gentile alike. Abraham  did not seek God, God sought and chose Abraham. Since the call of Abraham is found in Gen. 12, every Jew would have to agree that Israel's history began with his election by God. But some might say, 'no kidding, God had to start somewhere' but does He continue to choose some and not others?

    YES! He chose Isaac over Ishmael. God chose the son of  promise over the son of works. God specifically chose Isaac over Ishmael.  God continued when He chose Jacob over Esau, even though Esau was first born, listen to this, even before either one had the opportunity to do good or evil, God chose Jacob before he was born. He loved Jacob, or God's favor rested upon Him and not on Esau....before they were born.

  Paul was teaching them through their own history that there have always been two kinds of people who were ethnic Israel. Children of the flesh,  and children of the promise. True Israel has always been a part of ethnic Israel and it has always been  the children of the promise, children of faith and obedience to God, whose heart is circumcised, broken toward God. And He has been faithful to them. As we go forward in Chapters 9-11, Paul will continue to show historically that true Israel is a remnant, a part of ethnic Israel.

Conclusion
 Well, how does God's election of a righteous remnant of Israel affect us?

     First, it helps us better understand Scripture. Romans 9-11 flows much better when we come to terms with the sovereign choice of God. And we will see this played out in the coming weeks.

     Second, our witnessing will take on greater power and we will have greater confidence when we realize that it is not our eloquent or insightful words that will lead some one to salvation, just as it is not our blundering or forgetfulness that will keep one of God's elect from coming to salvation. Salvation is totally and completely the work of God. Remember Rom. 1:16 'for I am not ashamed of the Gospel for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes'. Not my power but God's power.

     And finally, since it is God who chooses us, who elects us from the foundation of the world, nothing we do can take our salvation away. We are secure because God is faithful. Remember, nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.

     We end where we began, rejoicing!