If you were here for the last few weeks in our study of Romans 12, then you will remember that chapter 12 deals with the practical application of the doctrine espoused in the first eleven chapters.  And practically speaking, chapter 12 is focused on the life of the church.  Paul says how we are live out the doctrines of justification and sanctification and glorification is by presenting our bodies physically to the church body, as a living sacrifice which is our worship to the Lord.  

And the dominate focus of the chapter deals with how we live out our Christianity in the church in community with one another.  Paul delineates how we are to exercise our spiritual gifts in the church not for our own benefit, but for the benefit of one another.  How we are to exercise humility in our relationship with one another, and most importantly, how we are to love one another.  And in that context he talks about contributing to one another’s needs as the church.  

So it’s all about the church.  The church is Christ’s body, a corporate, communal, and local assembly of believers who are connected as a family, born of the same Father, filled with the same spirit.  So that as Jesus said; they will know that you are my disciples by your love for one another.  Who will know?  The watching world will know.

It’s interesting to notice that in the first NT church, they were all living together in Solomon’s portico which was in the temple compound in Jerusalem, and they had adapted that spot as the site of their church.  They had about 5000 people assembled there and they had all things in common. And though I don’t think the point of that is to teach that communal living is God’s plan for the church, I do think there were a lot of things that we can take away from that.  One is they were studying the word of God at the apostle’s feet daily. 

It says of this church in Acts 2:46-47 that they were “Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart,  praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.”  And the point I want emphasize this morning is that it says they had favor with all the people.  I think that is speaking of the people outside of the church – all the Jews that visited the temple, that were witnesses to this great revival that was going on in their midst.  As they saw this church living together, they saw the love that Jesus spoke of, they saw the way they conducted themselves in the community, they saw a new type of person that was no longer conformed to the world, but transformed, and this church was viewed favorably by the world. And as a result, it says that there were added to their number day by day those that were being saved.  In other words, the church’s daily testimony of life caused the world to want to be saved, caused the world to want what they had.

Now that is appropriate to what Paul is saying in this chapter.  He has urged the church to be transformed, to no longer be conformed to the standard of the world.  He has told them how to live together and love one another. And now Paul tells the church how they are to deal with outsiders.  Those that are outside the church.  How we are to live in the world as transformed Christians. And the point is that we might be like Christ to the world.  We might win the world to Christ by the way we communicate, by the way we respond, by our compassion and by our condescension to the world.  Paul uses that word condescension, but not in the way we think of, which is to look down upon someone, but in the sense of coming down off your high horse and having compassion for the people who are outside of the church. And the goal is that the way we respond to the world is the means by which the world may come to know the gospel and be saved.

Paul then gives a series of exhortations or encouragements in how we are to act towards outsiders, people in the world.  Now the key in this series of exhortations is the same as it was in the Sermon on the Mount.  Paul is talking to, as Jesus also was referencing, a people who have a new nature, who have been born again and are operating in the power of the Spirit.  An indication of that is found back in the first part of the chapter when Paul talks about spiritual gifts.  In order for the church to be able to fulfill this kind of behavior, there must have first been a change of heart, a new nature, having received the power of the Holy Spirit.  Otherwise, the admonitions Paul gives are no better or more effective than the teachings of Socrates or Confucius or any number of other secular and religious leaders throughout history that have taught on the subject of ethical behavior.  And men and women through the ages have attempted to follow such teachings, but for the most part have found it unattainable, and perhaps really only see it as an ideal that cannot be maintained.

It’s possible to have that sort of attitude as a Christian as well. We hear Paul in this passage or Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, and we say that such behavior is impossible to maintain and so we claim God’s grace and mercy and don’t even really try to do it.  But these attitudes and behaviors are not given as an unattainable ideology, but they are intended to be a reality in the life of the believer.  And they can be a reality when we do what Paul says in the first verse; to present our bodies as a living sacrifice to God.  When we die to self and walk in the Spirit. 

But that doesn’t mean that such behavior comes naturally, that it will happen instinctively, that we don’t have to work on these things.  That’s why in regards to the spiritual gifts listed earlier in the passage the indication is that we are to exercise them.  It takes a deliberate, conscious effort to make what we know to be true, a reality in our life.  To do what Jesus commands us to do takes commitment, resolve, dedication, perseverance, even a sense of duty.  And so we listen to this list, but we also must receive it, we must apply it, we must practice it, so that it eventually becomes a part of our nature.  But don’t be deceived into thinking that it’s just going to happen naturally.  This behavior that Paul is talking about is completely alien to human nature.  But it must be learned behavior of our spirit.

Now the first principle in this list of seven sets the standard for all which follow: vs 14, “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.”  What Paul says here is an echo of what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount; Matt. 5:44  “But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, “But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”

Anyone that thinks this is easily done simply isn’t living in the real world or they are living in an ivory tower.  Paul is not simply saying to not take revenge.  He will say that later in vs 19.  But this is even more difficult than that.  This is talking about praying a blessing on those who persecute you.  This is praying for God to bless someone that has just stolen from you, or beat you, or persecuted you, or in the example of Christ, someone who just drove nails into your hands. Jesus prayed on that occasion; “Father forgive them for they don’t know what they are doing.”

Paul adds, “Bless and do not curse.” We should have not even the slightest desire for vengeance to those who do us harm, not on my part or even desiring God to exact revenge for us.  This is so contrary to our nature that such behavior can only come as a result of a transformed, renewed mind, that has been made new by the power of the Spirit working in us.

He’s not just saying don’t call the offending person a bad name, though using foul language should certainly not be a characteristic of us, but not even wishing ill upon them.  And then even taking it a step beyond that; bless them, pray for them.  

The next principle of how we are to deal with outsiders is in vs 15, “Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.”  This is not only to be true with other believers, but with our neighbors, with unbelievers, with those of the world with whom we come in contact with.  I think this is speaking of compassion.  Compassion for the unbeliever not only includes concern about their soul, but concern for their person.  To identify with them, to feel sympathy for them, and then also to be happy for them when things go well for them.  Perhaps that aspect is easier to understand by saying don’t be envious of them when things go well for them.  

I know that it’s easier to be sympathetic with an unbeliever when they are going through hard times than it is to be happy for them when things are going well for them.  When your neighbor who lives a life without a care for God or the things of God, gets a windfall and buys a brand new Mercedes, it’s hard to be really happy for him, isn’t it?  It’s easier to be a little envious of the fact that he was able to live the way he wanted and yet gets to have this great new toy.  Now maybe that illustration is a little too crass for most of you to identify with.  I hope so.  But I believe that if it’s hard to have sincere sympathy and compassion for the unbeliever in hard times, it’s just as hard to be able to rejoice with them when they rejoice.  But real Christian love for the world must have a compassion that is not hypocritical or insincere. 

The third exhortation to love the outsiders of the church is found in vs 16; “Be of the same mind toward one another; do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation.”  Now at first glance this seems contrary to the earlier exhortation we were given in vs 2 to not be conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewing of the mind.  We were told there not to think like the world, and now Paul says have the same mind as those outside the church.  So what are we make of this?

Well, the answer might be in translation. Some of the words in the original might be better understood in one of the other translations.  For instance, in the RSV it reads; “Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; never be conceited.”  Living in harmony with your neighbor is more in keeping with the general context of Paul’s list here, especially in light of vs 18 which says be at peace with all men.  

How can you be a witness to your neighbor if you are in a war with him?  I have been in a turf war with a neighbor before.  It was long ago, right after my wife and I were married.  We bought our first house and found out later that our neighbor was a stark raving mad lunatic.  I really think that they were the ones who were wrong and the offender.  But I will tell you that regardless of who was right, it was a terrible thing.  After a week or so, it became impossible to even speak to them. 

But had I truly applied this principle right at the very beginning, I think things might have gone differently.  My neighbor would still have been a crazy person, but things might not have progressed to the point that they did.  And it hurt me when I tried to sell my house a couple of years later.  She had put signs and fences up all around my property that rivaled a federal maximum security prison.  No one would buy my house. 

Now the key to living in harmony is found in the remainder of the text; don’t be haughty.  Don’t act out of pride.  Humble yourself in your relationship with others.  Associate with the lowly.  The lowly can mean those that are depressed, or humble, but also those who are of low estate.  That may include those that don’t have very high standards of conduct. They may not be the nicest people, the most refined people.  They may even be a stark raving mad lunatic.  But as one translation says, condescend to such people.  It doesn’t mean look down on them, but yield to them.  Get along with them.  Don’t act like you’re better than them.  If you have a humble attitude towards them, it is much more likely that you can live in harmony with them.

The fourth principle for loving your neighbor is in vs 17, “Do not return evil for evil to anyone.”  What Paul is speaking of here is a desire to get even – vindictiveness.  This is a principle that is often spoken of in scripture.  For instance, in 1Thess. 5:15 it says, “See that no one repays another with evil for evil, but always seek after that which is good for one another and for all people.” Notice it says for all people.  Not just fellow believers but all people. 

Peter says something similar in 1 Peter 3:9, “not returning evil for evil or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead; for you were called for the very purpose that you might inherit a blessing.”  Peter says that when you bless the one who insulted you, you receive a blessing as well. 

Some might say well the OT says there is to be retribution, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.  But that was in reference to the public administration of criminal law and it was issued as such in order to discourage the practice of personal revenge. 

Going back to the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus explained this principle saying,  “You have heard that it was said, ‘AN EYE FOR AN EYE, AND A TOOTH FOR A TOOTH.’  “But I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.” 

There is no place for vindictiveness in Christian behavior, whether in the church or to outsiders, not even to your enemies.  So tagged on to that principle of never returning evil for evil is the thought that  we must “Respect, or take thought for what is right in the sight of all men.” Here is the principle behind what I said was the characterization of the church in Acts 2, that they were having favor with all the people.  Our attitudes, or conduct and behavior should be right before men, that by living right before men, they might be drawn to  Christ.

It’s telling that the common complaint of most unbelievers about church is that it is full of hypocrites.  People that pretend to be righteous on Sunday morning, but live unrighteously in sight of the community the rest of the week.  Our business dealings should be right, our interactions with the community should be right.  They should see us dealing fairly and right with all that we come in contact with.  Never should it be said that we were vindictive, that we took advantage, nor even that we took revenge.  Never could that be said about Christ, and we are ambassadors for Him and so we should model His behavior.

Along that same line of reasoning is the fifth principle in vs 18 which we have already alluded to; “If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.”  I am grateful for the practicality of this exhortation.  “If possible, so far as it depends on you.”  There are times when you have done all you can to treat your neighbor or your enemy as God has told you to.  You have tried to be compassionate, you have tried to conciliate, to humble yourself, to do the right thing.  And yet they insist on hating you.  They insist on persecuting you or even making war with you.  

But Paul says as far as it is possible with you,  be at peace with all men.  Do all you can to be at peace, to not give offense, to not be the cause of trouble.  If they insist in attacking you, then so be it, but don’t let it be because of you. The goal is to live in peace with the world. Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, “Blessed are the peace makers, for they shall be called the sons of God.  Once again we see the world’s witness to our peace as a means by which they will  know we are Christians.

The sixth principle for how we should love others is found in vs19 and 20: “Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath [of God,] for it is written, “VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY,” says the Lord.  “BUT IF YOUR ENEMY IS HUNGRY, FEED HIM, AND IF HE IS THIRSTY, GIVE HIM A DRINK; FOR IN SO DOING YOU WILL HEAP BURNING COALS ON HIS HEAD.”

This principle has already been alluded to in vs 14, 17, and now 19 and then again in vs 21. Different applications, but the same underlying principle.  It must be considered then to be of utmost importance.  It is fundamental to Christian living.  

So we should be familiar with this principle, to never take our own revenge, and to that Paul adds, but leave room for the wrath of God.  In other words, we must not play God or take the place of God by usurping what should be HIs prerogative alone.  Paul quotes from the OT here as evidence that in exacting our own revenge we are usurping God’s place.  He quotes from Deut. 32:35, 41, saying, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay,” says the Lord.  God sees all, and He will bring every act, every thought to judgment.  That is the prerogative of the Lord, and we must not take from Him what is His alone to render to every man according to his deeds.

Once again we see Jesus as our example, who according to 1 Peter 2:23  “while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting [Himself] to Him who judges righteously.”  God is the only One able to judge righteously.  That why we are told to judge not, lest we be judged.  God is the judge. 

For our part, we must remember James 2:3 which says that mercy triumphs over judgment. Our part is mercy, by which we hope to save some. Failing that, every man will stand before the judgement seat of God and receive the penalty due for his actions.  And also we, if it were not for the mercy of God, would be condemned with the rest.  But Christ suffered in our place, in our place He stood condemned and suffered and died, so that we might be shown mercy.  So must we show mercy.

And so rather than taking revenge, Paul says, “on the contrary, ‘if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.”  Show mercy rather than judgment.  Show kindness.  Go with him the extra mile even though he asks too much of you.

“For by so doing you will heap coals of fire upon his head.”  I always thought that this meant that if you treated someone nice who was treating you badly, you were in a backhanded sort of way making hell a whole lot hotter for him.  Now maybe there is a little bit of truth in that, but that probably isn’t the way this should be interpreted. 

The interpretation that I recently came across I must confess I did not care for initially.  But what that interpretation said was it was a reference to a neighbor coming to ask for fire.  In that day they carried live coals with them as a means of starting a fire later. They did not have matches or lighters and so it was a troublesome thing to make a fire.  So the response should be to that person who asks for fire coals, to heap them upon their head.  To fill up a jar full of hot coals which they would then carry on their head back to their home.  

Now I liked my interpretation better.  I liked getting revenge, even if it meant that it had to wait for  hell to do it for me.  But that goes against the admonition to never take revenge.  So I am warming up to the interpretation that it is actually speaking of an act of benevolence, giving live coals to someone in need that is being spoken of here.

Let’s conclude then with the the seventh exhortation, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil by good.” Don’t let the enemy get you down, don’t let persecution or trials get you to sin, to return evil for evil, But overcome evil with good. 

To over evil by good mean to continue living a life of faith in God and have love for everyone, so that when you do good to that person who meant it as evil, they end up becoming your brother.  God did good for us when we did evil towards Him, didn’t He?  How then can we do any less? We can win over our neighbors, and win over even our enemies, by our love for them, doing good to them, even when they meant it for evil. That should be our goal, and the ultimate expression of sacrificial love, that we do good for their benefit, that they might be drawn to Christ, that they might be saved.   Oh, to lead a lost person to Christ so that they might be saved is the ultimate act of love that we can show the world.  Let’s live in such a way with the world that they will want what we have; a new nature, a new way of living by the strength of the Spirit of Christ working in us.

Jesus told His disciples in John 13:34-35 that “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” So in the church we are commanded to love one another, and we will be characterized by our love for one another.

Now Paul is talking to the church in this chapter, giving them practical exhortation on how to live out their salvation. And Paul is saying in this passage that a primary characteristics of the church will be their love for one another. Love is a primary component of this new life in Christ because even though our salvation is inherently spiritual, yet as indicated in vs 1, Paul tells us that the spiritual life will be manifested by our physical life.

For instance, in vs one if we are to offer spiritual service to God, we will do so by physically presenting our bodies to God as a living sacrifice in the assembly of believers, the church. He goes on to say that if we are being spiritually conformed to Christ then it will be manifested by a transformation in our thinking and in our actions. And our actions in the church are made possible by the spiritual gifts that God has given us so that we may serve the body of Christ, which is the church. So that our spiritual gifts result in physical benefits to the church.

But before Paul even talked about spiritual gifts in the church he spoke of the necessity for humility. If we are Christians, then we must be humble, because Christ was humble. In Phil. 2:5 we are told to have the same mind that Christ Jesus had, who although He was equal with God He did not hold onto that, but for our sakes He humbled Himself. And so Paul says back in vs 3 as a precursor to how we act and what we do in the church that we must not think of ourselves more highly than we ought. We should model our thinking after the humility of Christ so that what we do is truly for the benefit of others and not to benefit ourselves, either directly or indirectly.

So then in that context, Paul says in vs9, “Let love be without hypocrisy.” So as we exercise our gifts to the church, we do so without selfish motives, without insincerity, but because of sincere love for the brethren. A hypocrite, according to the meaning of the original Greek word, means an actor on a stage. It’s someone who does something to be seen of men, to win their applause. It’s an act for show. Paul says don’t let your love be for show. Don’t let your spiritual gifts which are given for service to the church be for show to bring attention to yourself but let it be from sincere love.

Now as I said last week and so many times before, love has come to meaning something in our modern society that’s almost totally different than what was intended in the scriptures. In Greek language there were three words that were primarily used to speak of love. In modern English, we use only one to cover every possible meaning. In the Greek there is eros, which means erotic love, phileo which means brotherly love, and agape which means sacrificial love. Paul is using here agape love, which is the type of love that Christ had for the church, and the type of love we are to have for one another. But in English we just have one word -love- which covers any of the various meanings.

But there is a word in archaic English for agape love, sacrificial love, and that is the word charity. If some of you are using the KJV this morning then you will notice that it says charity, rather than love. And I think that is a pretty good word for love, because charity emphasizes the recipient of love, a benevolent love for others. But irregardless of the word that is used, the point Paul is making is that Christian love must be free from pretension, free from selfish motives. It is a sacrificial love which is geared towards other’s needs, and not your own benefit.

I would also say that this type of love is not rooted in emotion, or sentimentality or feelings. We can and we must love regardless of whether or not we find the recipient attractive to us. Agape love is a commitment, not an emotional or sentimental response to attraction. Christian love is similar to the type of love that is sometimes expressed for our country. Sadly, this kind of love is quickly becoming something of the past. But irregardless, it’s a noble love, an honorable love which commands a willingness to serve, perhaps even a willingness to lay down your life in service to your country because you love your country. So this love which is spoken of here is on another level than that which we commonly associate with love based on attraction or feelings.

And Paul says that love must not be hypocritical. It must not be self serving or for show or to get people to notice how nice of a person you are or how spiritual your are but love must be genuinely concerned for others even to the expense of your own needs.

Now in the rest of this section then Paul will tell us what that kind of love looks like. And it’s interesting to notice that juxtaposed against this noble love, Paul says that the Christian must hate. That’s sounds antithetical to Christianity, doesn’t it? It makes sense that Christians should love, but they must also hate?

Yes, if you love, then the flip side of love is hate. Paul says in vs1, “Abhor what is evil.” Some of the most popular Bible translations use the word hate instead of abhor. They mean virtually the same thing. Hate what is evil. You know the Bible talks a lot about hate. The Apostle John says in his epistle, if you hate your brother you are guilty of murder. So what are we to make of this?

Well, notice that our text does not say we are to hate people, but to hate what is evil and cling to what is good. We are to hate sin. We aren’t to hate the sinner, but we hate the sin. Jude distinguishes it this way in Jude 1:22, “And have mercy on some, who are doubting; save others, snatching them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh.” So we are not told to hate the person who is sinful, but hate the sin because of it’s polluting, corrupting influence which destroys people.

Listen, hating sin is the key to overcoming addiction. And all sin is addictive, incidentally. You know, I love ice cream. So consequently I eat a big bowl of ice cream every night. I know that’s not healthy. I know that’s bad for me. But I can’t seem to give it up because by about 7:30 on a hot summer night, I just start thinking about this cold, creamy ice cream that is so satisfying and so delicious, and I don’t even think twice. I’ll quit tomorrow. But if I could see what ice cream was really doing to me and how bad it was for me to eat all that cream and sugar every night, then I would hate it. And though I can’t imagine hating ice cream, I can imagine hating dill pickles. I hate dill pickles. You couldn’t force me to eat dill pickles. So what I hate has no hold on me. What I hate cannot control me. But what I love does control me. And that’s the secret to overcoming our addiction to sin. When you start thinking according to the truth of God’s word as we were told in vs 2, when we start seeing sin as God sees it, when we see the pain and suffering that our sin cost Jesus, then we will begin to see the horror of sin, the deadliness of sin, and then we will hate sin, we will abhor sin, and sin will no longer have control of you.

But let’s not lose sight of the context here either. And the context is Christian love in the church. We are to love with a pure heart, but we are to hate sin, and love what is good. We hate the sin, but love the sinner. Now that gives us instruction as to how we are to deal with those whom we love, but who are living in sin. Who are practicing sin. We love the sinner, but we hate the sin. We hate even the garment polluted by the sin. So we cannot condone the sin. Because we love them we must expose the sin. We must call sin, sin. We cannot condone sin because we know that sin destroys, it kills, it pollutes, it corrupts. Sin is corrupting like cancer, a little sin soon metastasises and grows and eventually it completes destroys. A good doctor does not condone cancer or decide not to reveal his prognosis of cancer because he is afraid of losing your friendship. No, but because he cares for you he must expose the cancer and cut out the cancer if there is to be any hope for your future. And so our perspective should be a holy hatred of sin, Paul says, and on the flip side we must have a love of what is good. He says cling to what is good.

God’s word tells us His law is good. Righteousness is good. Holiness is good. Paul says in Phil. 4:8 “Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, think on these things.” That reminds us of what Paul said was to be the result of a transformed mind back in vs 2. Not to be conformed to the sinful pattern of the world, not to think like the world, but to be transformed by the renewing of the mind that we might do that which is good, acceptable, and complete in the will of God. We have to guard our affections. Guard what we love. Because as Prov.23:7 tells us, as a man thinks in his heart, so is he.

John said in 1John 2:15 “Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”

Now the fact that as Christians God is our Father makes us brothers and sisters in the Lord. In the church, we are brothers and sisters. When Jesus was teaching, which at that time His brothers did not believe in Him, He was told that His family was outside the house wanting to see Him. And Matthew 12:48-50 says, “But Jesus answered the one who was telling Him and said, ‘Who is My mother and who are My brothers?’ And stretching out His hand toward His disciples, He said, ‘Behold My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of My Father who is in heaven, he is My brother and sister and mother.’”

So with that perspective, Paul says in vs10, “Be devoted to one another in brotherly love.” He is talking about the family of Christ. We are to be devoted to the church, to our brothers and sisters in the Lord. We have a new family, and a responsibility to this new family. There is a sense in which Christians are to love everyone, even our enemies, but there should be a special relationship, a special devotion to the church. Devoted means having a loyalty, a faithfulness to the church. Not to a building, nor a denomination, but to the people in the church, our church family.

This really goes back to this whole purpose of spiritual gifts. In 1 Cor.12, which is another passage dealing with spiritual gifts in the church, Paul concludes the chapter by saying “I will show you a more excellent way.” And the point he makes in the next chapter is that gifts without love for others in the church are like banging a gong. They only serve yourself and to build yourself up. But the more excellent way is the way of love for the brethren, so that all that we do is done because of love for others and for their benefit.

And so likewise in this text, Paul adds, “give preference to one another in honor.” Paul said it this way in Phi.l 2:3-4 “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not [merely] look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.” So particularly in the church, give others honor, instead of seeking honor for yourself. Build up one another. Give others the place of honor in the church as James tells us, not according to how much they are worth financially, or according to how you think they might benefit you, but according to the impartial law of love.

How else does Christian love manifest itself in the church? Vs.11 says we are to be, “not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.” So if we love one another, if we love the church, then we will serve the Lord and that service will be characterized by diligence. Diligence is doing something whether we feel like it or not, dutifully fulfilling our responsibility. Diligence is love. I think of a mother’s love as being diligent. It’s a diligence in doing the dirty dishes, washing the dirty diapers or clothes, cleaning the house, doing all the things that nobody wants to do. And not doing it because she has to, but because she loves her family. She wants to make things nice for her family and so she works hard, and does the things that need to be done, the unsightly things, the dirty jobs. That’s diligent love. That’s persevering love. It’s love in action.

There is a service to the church that is not found in the glamorous positions. It might be menial service. But in the sight of God it is not menial. Jesus said if you give even a cup of water in His name you will have a reward in heaven. So be diligent in love, fervent in spirit. Fervent in spirit might be better understood to mean in the power of the Holy Spirit. He is the source of our gifts, He is the source of our strength. And so we should be careful not to quench the Spirit, but to yield to His leading and enthusiastically work in His power. We quench the Spirit by yielding to the flesh, yielding to sin, but we are filled with the Spirit when we follow His leading.

Furthermore we see in vs 12,, this Christian love for the church means to be “joyful in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer.” I think a common malady of the church is despondency. We become despondent because we don’t often see the power of God manifested in our lives, and in our circumstances. But Christian love is hopeful, it is joyful, even in the midst of tribulation.

So even when, as the hymn the Solid Rock says, “when all around my soul gives way” we are hopeful and joyful because “He still is all my hope and stay.” Jesus is the anchor of my soul. Jesus is the hope of my prayers. He is my advocate with the Father, and all things, all power in heaven and earth are subject to Him. With God all things are possible. And so in spite of everything, in spite of tribulations, we are persistent in prayer. We pray knowing that God hears, that God cares, and that God has told us to come to Him with our petitions.

Listen, I know what it is like to become despondent. I know what it is like to pray for years and years for something, something that we think that is in God’s will, like the salvation of a loved one. And I know what it’s like to become despondent when we don’t see our prayers answered. But God can answer prayer and God does answer prayer.

I was talking to someone the other day who was despondent because they had been praying for a loved one and it looked like that this person they were praying for was going even further from the Lord. And so I told them a story about how my dad had two girls when he went to Bible college shortly after being saved. My brother and I had not been born yet. And my Dad was so enthusiastic about his salvation and the call of God upon him to be a preacher, that he prayed and asked God to give him two preacher boys. As the years went on, he would talk often about that prayer and he would point to my brother and I as proof that God would answer his prayer.

But as my brother and I reached our late teen years, we both went off into the world about as far as we could go. Both of us really got into drugs and a bad lifestyle. My brother went his way and I went mine. I ended up in California, and my brother ended up in a small college in South Carolina. And if anyone would have looked at us during those years they would have laughed at the idea that my Dad had prayed for two preacher boys. In fact, my Dad had long before stopped talking about it. I’m sure he thought that God wasn’t going to answer that prayer. But after a few years, God worked a miracle and my brother got saved. And a couple of years later I got right with the Lord and moved back East. Long story short, in another few years, God called my brother to the ministry, and a couple of years after that I was called to the ministry. But my Dad never lived to see either one of us become preachers. He died before either of us had answered that call by God. But nevertheless, I believe that he is aware that we both are preaching today. But the point is, that God answers prayers. My dad was a preacher, but he wasn’t a perfect man. However, God answered his prayers, and I believe God will likewise answer your prayer and mine if we are persistent in prayer.

Then in vs 13 we see the last of these characteristics of love for the church. In vs13 he says we are to be “contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality.” In Matthew 25: 34 Jesus said concerning Himself, “Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. ‘For I was hungry, and you gave Me [something] to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me [something] to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’ “Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You [something] to drink? ‘And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? ‘When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ “The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, [even] the least [of them,] you did it to Me.’”

What Jesus is speaking of is what Paul calls practicing hospitality. Years ago, I used to be a manager in the Ritz Carlton Hotels. That field of work is called the hospitality industry. Hospitality then means food and lodging, it means service to those who are in your care for one reason or another. It’s interesting though to note that at it’s root the word hospitality comes from the word hospital. We all know what a hospital is, I’m sure.

I was talking with someone just the other day and I told them that the church should be a hospital, not a showroom. The fact is so many people in the church are hurting in so many ways. We try not to show it. So we put on our church clothes, and our church faces and our church personalities and we come and we go without letting anyone know that we are hurting, and consequently not getting the help that we need. But the church is not a place where we put on a show, or watch a show. The church should be a hospital where people who are hurting find help, where people who are dying find life, where people who are despondent find hope. And God has placed each of us in the church to be His hands and feet in ministering to one another by means of hospitality, contributing to the needs of the saints, of the church.

I don’t always know what you need. I would hope that you would tell me. But maybe there are others in the church that can help you as well. That not only can pray for you but that can come over and work with you or help you with something that you find overwhelming, that can be a friend in time of trouble. God wants the spiritual life to be physically manifested in love for one another. Perhaps there is someone that is financially struggling and could use some help but they don’t want to ask. You might be able to discern that as you minister to that person in Christian love.

You know, the Good Samaritan wasn’t a preacher. He was just an ordinary person on the road, perhaps on a business trip. But he showed hospitality. He helped this stranger that was hurting out of his own expenses. And you shouldn’t need me to tell you that there are a lot of hurting people in the world. There are a lot of hurting people in the church. And God would like you to reach out to your neighbor and love them with a Christian love, a sacrificial love that seeks to honor them, to build them up, to encourage them, to give them hope, and as you do so, you will in fact be found to be ministering to Christ, and serving the Lord.

Listen, this is how we worship the Lord, by sacrificially serving one another, loving one another, we serve the Lord. Remember the exhortation which was given to us at the beginning of this chapter in vs 1, with which we will close; “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, [which is] your spiritual service of worship.”

When I look at what a lot of other preachers and teachers and commentators have said about this chapter before us, I think in some respects that many of them are guilty of dealing with  these passages out in a piecemeal sort of way.  What I mean by that is, they take them completely out of context with one another. 

For instance, they look at vs1 and 2 separately from the rest of the chapter and see it as some sort of post conversion consecration of the individual believer.  Then in vs 3-8 they tend to disregard the previous verses and combine these with other passages about spiritual gifts and just focus on what are spiritual gifts.  And the rest of the chapter kind of follows that type of exegesis without the benefit of contextualism.

Now I don’t want to pretend that I am more knowledgeable than most of these other commentators.  But perhaps my ignorance is a benefit in this case.  Because in my ignorance I read through the chapter and I see a principle that ties everything together.  And the principle  that provides the cohesiveness of the chapter is the essentiality of life in the church.

If you were here last week you may remember that I tied verses 1 and 2 to the essentiality of the church in the life of a Christian.  Paul says we are to present our bodies to God.  And I think that he means physically presenting yourself in church to God. Notice he says, present your bodies as a living sacrifice.  I think we need to see that as literally presenting our bodies to God in the assembly.  In the OT, the Jews on numerous occasions had to bodily present themselves to the temple. In many instances they had to literally present a sacrifice to the priests. In their festivals they were required to physically present themselves to the temple at the appointed time.  And so there were many requirements for the Jew to physically present themselves to God by means of the temple.

And I think Paul uses that language purposefully to draw that correlation to our worship. Notice that he says this physical, bodily presentation will culminate in our spiritual service of worship.  That is one of the  primary things we claim to do in church, isn’t it? Now corporate worship doesn’t preclude us worshipping God the other six days of the week as we go about our daily lives, and in fact I think it includes that, but our worship of God on the Lord’s Day, physically in the church serves as a first fruit, or a tithe if you will, of the rest of my time during the week.

So I think that this chapter is really about the church and it’s essentiality to our spiritual life now that we are Christians.  In chapter 12 Paul is no longer concerned with telling us how to be saved. He is now dealing with how we are to live now that we are saved.  And how we are to live spiritually is to be connected with the church which is the body of Christ.  It’s to be in communion with other believers as the church of God. In Acts 2 the first church was doing that literally, day by day in Solomons’ Portico in the temple, listening to the word of God which was being taught by the apostles and having their meals together and having all things in common with one another.  And that continued until the persecution started in Jerusalem which either  drove out or drove them underground.  But the church was not a one hour addendum to the weekend such as we have today, but a communion with other believers which orchestrated the rest of their lives.

That’s part of the problem with the whole public perception of the church’s viability in the midst of this pandemic.  The government for the most part has historically recognized something the contemporary society seems to have forgotten.  And even the church seems to have lost sight of.  And that is the essentiality of the church.  In the plan of God, spiritual life has precedence over physical life.  Spiritual well being has precedence over physical well being. And historically, I think that the founding fathers realized that and so they incorporated certain laws into our Constitution which guaranteed that our religious exercise should not be limited or infringed upon, regardless of whatever situation or even crisis should fall upon us.  Because they recognized that the church was essential to life.

But it’s ironic that the US government, and most state governments said on their closings and restrictions regulations that the church was an essential business,  yet in practice they restricted their operations to the point of virtually shutting down any physical presence at the church. Now my intent today is not to deal with that issue, per se, but to merely point out that in the view of the scriptures, the physical, bodily presence of the individuals together in communion is what constitutes the church and it’s not a debatable quotient, nor a disposable quotient, and in fact the bodily attendance of the believers in assembly together is non negotiable.  You cannot have an assembly without an assembly of bodies.

Dr. John MacArthur released a statement last week regarding this issue which I would urge you to find online and read or you can contact me later and I will send it to you.  But he said this concerning the assembly and I quote; “The church by definition is an assembly. That is the literal meaning of the Greek word for “church”— ekklesia—the assembly of the called-out ones. A non-assembling assembly is a contradiction in terms. Christians are therefore commanded not to forsake the practice of meeting together (Hebrews 10:25)— and no earthly state has a right to restrict, delimit, or forbid the assembling of believers.”

Ephesians 4:12 says the church is the body of Christ. And in Col.2:19 Paul says that Christ is the head of the body, “from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God.”  So the church is Christ’s church, Christ’s body, and together we constitute that body.  And a body is by definition physical.  Together we are physically the body of Christ on the earth. 

Then in vs2, Paul says as the church we are not to be conformed to the mold of the world. The world is not to regulate our conduct, set the standards for our lives.  We do not yield to the authority of the world view, but we are transformed by the renewing of our mind.  This is how we are the church, how we are to live according to God’s standards.  And that happens by renewing our mind which is done primarily through the preaching and hearing of the word of God.  As we physically present ourselves to God, the Spirit works through the preaching of the word of God to transform our minds so that we have the mind of Christ. All activity begins in the mind.  And having the mind of Christ enables us to do the will of God, that which is good, and acceptable and complete. 

Now this transformation results then in a new way of living, because we have a new way of thinking.  Three times in vs 3, Paul says think. There is a new way to think once you have renewed your mind.  And that new way of thinking is going to be patterned after Christ.  Phl 2:5-8 says in  NKJK, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God,  but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, [and] coming in the likeness of men.  And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to [the point of] death, even the death of the cross.”  Notice that the humility of Christ is emphasized as the mind of Christ.

And that humility is what Paul emphasized in vs 3 as well.  That as we have been transformed by the renewing of our mind through the word of God, we have a new way of thinking that will be characterized by humility.  Paul says in vs 3, “For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.”  

Humility is not thinking more highly of oneself than you ought to think. The mindset of the world is to love themselves first.  So then everything is decided according to how it will affect me. What is best for me. What makes me feel good. How it will benefit me.  But the renewed mind puts Christ at the center of my thinking. How I may serve Him, how I may please Him.  I sacrifice my priorities for His sake. That attitude of humility is going to be the foundational in how we are to act in the church and our attitude towards others.  As Christ came to serve, so we are to serve, and the people we are to serve is the church which is Christ’s body. All the gifts, all the offices, and ministries of the church are effective only when the participants are humbly and sacrificially serving the church and not themselves.  

There is a present preoccupation in the church today which is unhealthy; and that is the mindset that the church exists to serve me.  It’s almost a perversion of God’s love and grace  towards us to make it all about ourselves.  It’s how the church meets my needs. It’s whether or not I feel like I am getting any thing out of the church.  Or whether or not the church fits my schedule or my priorities right now. It’s all about how much God loves me, but very little about how much I love God.  But that’s why Paul started off with this admonition to present your body as a living sacrifice. The church is not just about you.  When you are immature in your faith, then maybe like a baby has no capacity to help others but must be helped, then so in the church at first it may be all about you being fed and learning and growing.  But maturity is the goal, and when we are mature our focus should be on benefiting the other members of the body, not just ourselves.  So the first thing changed in our thinking should be that we think of others more than we think of ourselves.  We have a love for Christ and a love for others, rather than consumed with loving ourselves.

So out of this new way of thinking comes a new way of functioning. Vs4, “For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function,  so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.”  Here is the point: we don’t operate like free agents any more.  When our thinking gets right, our independence is exchanged for interdependence. 

Notice in these verses Paul repeats the phrase one body, one body, and then one another. Paul uses repetition to help us learn. The emphasis is on the body, not the individual members of the body. Individual parts of the body contribute to the overall effectiveness of the body when they are working together.  Paul wants to emphasize not the independence of the believer, but their interdependence upon one another.

The human anatomy is a frequent illustration used in scripture to show how many different members working together  make the body whole and complete and functional.  In the human body none of the members of our body can work independently of one another.  They depend upon each other, and the body depends upon the individual members.  And each of the individual members of the body is essential to the well being of the body.  In our human body we cannot survive without a heart, without lungs, and we are severely handicapped when we are missing legs or hands.  And so it is with the church.

In 1Co 12:12, 14 Paul using the same analogy says, “For even as the body is one and [yet] has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ.”  14 “For the body is not one member, but many.” So the church, Christ’s body, is made up of many members, but they must work together to constitute the body.

It’s noteworthy that both in 1 Cor. 12 and Romans 12, Paul uses the analogy of the body with many members to illustrate the diversity of spiritual gifts which are given to  the church. Spiritual gifts are a tool box not a toy box so that the work of the body might be carried out. 

Gifts are to be exercised for the good of the body.  And in vs 6 that application is clear.  It says in vs 6, “Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, [each of us is to exercise them accordingly:] if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith;  if service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching;  or he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.” 

Now as Paul gives instruction concerning spiritual gifts we must make sure first of all that we keep it in context with what he has been saying so far. And in that regard I think the point should be made that the gifts are given for the building up of the church, not the building up of the individual believer.  In the parallel passage about spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians, Paul says in chapter 14:12 “So also you, since you are zealous of spiritual [gifts,] seek to abound for the edification of the church.”  And in chapter 12:7 “But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.”

So spiritual gifts are given not for the edification of the believer, but for the edification of the church.  Spiritual gifts are given to build up other members of the body, not to build your own ego or self esteem, or even as evidence of your spirituality. And we are to exercise them or use them for the benefit of the church.

Another thing that must be realized is that this list in Romans 12 is not meant to be exhaustive. It is  generally agreed that there are four lists given in the New Testament of spiritual gifts.  One is here in Romans 12 which shows seven gifts, one in 1 Cor. 12:8-10 which shows nine gifts, then in 1 Cor. 12: 28,29 it gives eight, and finally Ephesians 4:11 it lists four.   And as there is no set number or order, it indicates that there may be more gifts, and Paul said that some gifts will cease from operation which means that there may be less gifts operational today than there were then.

But rather than spend a lot of time discussing the differences in the gifts themselves, I think the context indicates that we should emphasize the fact that the gifts are given on the basis of grace so that we would not be prideful because we think we have some sort of merit or special ability.  Notice that to start with Paul says we have different gifts according to the grace given us.  Grace means undeserved favor.  If you give someone a gift of a car, it would be possible for such a person to think that he is special because you gave him this nice car, but the fact is that if it is s a gift then he did nothing to earn it and so there shouldn’t be any pride in it.

So God gives us gifts not to satisfy our ego, or even to validate our Christianity but to enable us to serve the body’s needs and to equip the body.  Notice this list that we are given here; prophesying, rendering practical service, teaching, exhorting, contributing to the needs of people, leadership, and showing mercy.  There are no gifts in this list that are intended for selfish purposes.  Every gift there depends upon others being benefitted in order to be valid.

And notice that is exactly the point that Paul makes when expressing this list.  In each case, he shows how the application towards others must be done in order to be effective.  Let’s just look at them briefly. He says if you have the gift of prophesying then let him exercise it in accordance with the standard of faith.  To prophesy, if you want the briefest of definitions, means that you say, “thus says the Lord.”  It’s to proclaim the word of the Lord.  In the early church before the New Testament was complete, the written word was very scarce.  1 Corinthians and Romans were written years before many of the other epistles and there were only a couple of other epistles that had been written by that time.  The church mostly depended on the Old Testament scriptures and the verbal traditions of Christ’s teaching handed down through the apostles.  And so there was a real need for prophets who were given the word of the Lord to speak to the church. 

So the benefit to the church would be obvious if in fact such a prophet was speaking the word of the Lord.  Then as now, there were false prophets as well, and so in 1 Cor. 12 Paul lists another gift which is the distinguishing of spirits because there were some false prophets among them.  But Paul doesn’t address this here, but what he does say is let the prophets speak in accordance with the standard of faith.  The standard of faith would be the accepted standard of faith handed down by the apostles which was the foundation of the church.  So their prophecy was to be checked against the standard of faith established by the apostles.

Second on the list was rendering practical service. He says let him serve. It’s a gift to serve others. Then the gift of teaching, let him exercise teaching. You are not given the gift of teaching for your own sake, but for the sake of others whom you are to teach.  And that principle is expressed for each of the gifts on this list.  Each of the gifts he says let him exercise it. Let him put it to work.   It’s not for personal use, it’s for the general good of the church, for others.

Now let me say something else about this list in Romans and that is this is not the popular list. The gift of serving is not a popular gift is it?  Neither is the gift of giving.  The gift of showing mercy is definitely not on the cool list.  When people talk about spiritual gifts they always want to go to the list found in 1 Corinthians 12 because that’s the cool list, the list with the showy gifts.  That’s the list with tongues and healing and so forth which are gifts that can easily be misused to ascribe spirituality or giftedness on the one using it, rather than edification towards others.  

But if you notice in the 1 Corinthian list, Paul interrupts his discussion on spiritual gifts to say that there is something better.  He says, I will show you a more excellent way.  And what is this way that he is speaking of?  He says it is the way of love.  And as I have said previously many times, love would be better translated as it is in the KJV which is charity.  The word love, as used in our modern world has become so misused that in the Christian context it is almost a completely inappropriate translation.  Charity, on the other hand, always has the context of others in it’s application. 

So in 1 Cor.13 then in the KJV Paul says concerning this more excellent way, “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become [as] sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.  And though I have [the gift of] prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.  And though I bestow all my goods to feed [the poor], and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profits me nothing. Charity suffers long, [and] is kind; charity envies not; charity vaunts not itself, is not puffed up, Does not behave itself unseemly, seeks not her own, is not easily provoked, thinks no evil;  Rejoices not in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;  Bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

And in our passage here in Romans 12 as well, Paul segues from spiritual gifts in vs 8 to the necessity for love, or charity in vs 9. “Let love be without hypocrisy.”  Do you know what hypocrite means?  It comes from a Greek word which means an actor on a stage who performs for the applause of men. Paul says let your love, let your charity be without hypocrisy.  Jesus said when you give, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.  In other words, don’t broadcast your good works to be noticed of men.  

The motivation for all the gifts which the individual members of the church are to use for one another should be love.  Jesus said they will know that you are my disciples by your love for one another.  Love as used in this text is the Greek word agape.  Agape is a sacrificial love.  It’s the kind of love Christ had for the church.  And it’s a love we are to have that sacrifices my best interests for the best interests of others.  He says in vs 10 concerning love to “[Be] devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor.”  It comes full circle to the humility that Paul started out by saying we must have back in vs 3 if the church is going to be effective and work as God designed it to.  Real Christian love seeks for the good of others, even to the point of sacrificing your own needs.

We are going to talk further about what that kind of love looks like next week as we continue this passage.  But I must stop here for now.  But I hope that you have come to recognize the essentiality of the church and the participation in it which God desires for you. I trust you will seek to employ your spiritual gifts for the mutual benefit of the church, so that the church will be the body of Christ to a watching world.  I pray that all that you do will be done in charity for the edification of the other members of the body. And  I hope that you will come to know that life in Christ’s body is the real life, the abundant life that He laid down His life to provide for us. 

Now [may] the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, [even] Jesus our Lord,  equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom [be] the glory forever and ever. Amen.  (Hebrews 13:20,21)

Last week I went through the entire chapter 11 in one sermon.  Something I normally don’t attempt to do.  Today I am only going to be looking at two verses.  Oddly enough, the sermon length should be exactly the same.

I think that the two verses we are looking at today are some of the most important in Romans. They serve as the culmination of Paul’s entire epistle and his argument up to this point.  Up through chapter 11 he has examined and explained the theology of our salvation; particularly the grace and mercies of God in producing and procuring salvation for those who are unable to achieve it on their own merits.  And now in the opening verses of chapter 12 he transitions to the results of our salvation; in other words, the practical applications of our salvation. 

Salvation is not just theoretical.  But it is also practical. It is not only spiritual, but it is also physical.  It is not just intellectual, but it is transformational.  What Paul introduces in these next passages is an exposition of the admonition found in Phil.2:2, “work out your salvation with fear and trembling.”  How our salvation is worked out in us and through us is now the focus of Paul’s epistle.   Paul has given us his exposition in chapters 1-11, and now comes his exhortation in chapters 12-16.  

True salvation includes both doctrine and application.  As James said, “faith without works is dead.”  Saving faith will produce righteousness living.  Righteousness imputed will generate righteousness produced. To use theological terms, justification produces sanctification.

So there is an urgency in Paul’s admonition, that our faith be not merely cerebral, or intellectual, or even just spiritual, but practical, physically manifested through our bodies.  He says I urge you.  Or I exhort you.  It is with the strongest sense of urgency to take action.  Faith without works is dead.  We have a living faith that must be worked out.  It is a faith that puts love to work, a love for God, a love for others that must not be just in word, but in deed.  

I urge you brethren. Notice that Paul is speaking to fellow Christians here.  This is not an exhortation to become saved, it is an exhortation to those who are saved. Brethren is a term of affection used for the church.  So the following is not an exhortation on the method of salvation, but the effect of salvation on those who are saved.

I urge you brethren by the mercies of God. On the basis of the mercies of God which he has been explaining for the last 11 chapters in regards to our salvation.  Particularly the sovereign mercies of his salvation which He poured out upon the undeserving, His patience towards those that were running from Him, His love in seeking us and choosing us to be His own, and His grace to a people that are by nature in rebellion against Him.  

Because of these tremendous mercies of God which have resulted in such a great salvation, Paul says, offer your bodies as a living sacrifice to God which is your spiritual service of worship. By bodies, Paul of course is referring to the fleshly body, but not only the body. John Calvin said that “by bodies he means not only our skin and bones but the totality of which we are composed.”  In other words, he is referring to our full being.  Our bodies are the house in which also dwell our soul and spirit.  So we offer to God our spiritual house.

Those of you who own a home at the beach might be able to imagine a situation in which you offer your house to some relatives to use for their vacation. You give them the keys to the house.  And consequently they have full access to all the rooms in the house to use for their pleasure.  Or perhaps you parents have at some point given the keys to the car to your teenager.  He then has full use of your car.  He gets to use it and drive it where he wills.

Those are poor metaphors of what Paul is getting at here.  Offer to God your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God which is your spiritual service of worship. I’ll give you another option though, and one that I think is true yet does not negate the other.  And that is to use the translation which says “present your bodies.”  I like present.   When I was a little kid in grade school, the teacher would call the roll at the beginning of class in the morning.  And we were supposed to answer in a loud voice “present.” In other words, I am here.  I am presenting myself to instruction.  

I’’m not a military man but I think it even has military implications. To present yourself to your company, to your commander for duty.  I think we are to present ourselves to God.  I think we can even go so far as to say we present ourselves to the church.  This is our spiritual service of worship.  Is that not what we claim to do on Sunday mornings, is to present ourselves to worship God? Is that not a means of our sanctification, that we regularly, faithfully present ourselves in body to the church?  We have recently had to explore the possibilities of virtual church because of the government restrictions on worship due to the virus epidemic.  And I for one found out how inadequate such a worship is without being physically present together.  

Hebrews 10:24 instructs us to  “let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds,  not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging [one another;] and all the more as you see the day drawing near.”  I think that is at least part of what Paul is getting at here.  Spiritual worship must be physical.  Present your bodies.  Church is an assembly of bodies assembled together to worship the Lord and receive instruction from the Lord and to love and encourage one another.  It’s important that if we are to worship the Lord in Spirit and in truth, then we must worship Him in body, in communion with one another with Christ in the midst of us.  According to Ephesians 4:12 the church is Christ’s body on earth and we must present ourselves to that body for the work of service.

Now this exhortation is not strictly limited to corporate worship within the confines of the church by any means but the worship service is the first fruits of our labor.  So I believe to present our bodies to God starts with worship in assembly on the first day of the week and then we carry out the ministry of Christ in our lives as we go on throughout the week.

“I urge you therefore brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.”  A living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God… A living sacrifice.  That’s a paradoxical statement.  Sacrifices were slain. God wants us alive, our lives to be offered to Him for His use, His purposes.

In the old covenantal system, sacrifices were offered for worship and as an atonement for sin.  But in the new covenant we recognize that Jesus is the ultimate and final sacrifice for sin, and by trusting in HIs sacrifice we have atonement once for all.

So we are not saved by the sacrifice of our life, but the sacrifice of Christ’s life on our behalf.  But our response to His sacrifice is to offer our own life in gratitude as a sacrifice to God to be used for His purposes.  

The hermeneutical principle of first mention is a principle by which we can determine the proper interpretation of a word by looking at the first time a word is used in scripture.  And if you look at the word “worship” you will find that the first mention is in the passage in Genesis when Abraham takes Isaac his son to be offered as a sacrifice on the mountain.  Abraham knows that God has asked him to sacrifice his son on the altar.  And yet when Abraham speaks to his servants who traveled with him, I want you to notice how he speaks of it. 

Genesis 22:5 “Abraham said to his young men, ‘Stay here with the donkey, and I and the lad will go over there; and we will worship and return to you.’” Notice how Abraham, as he is taking his son to the mountain to slay him before the Lord, refers to this sacrifice as worship.  Worshipping God requires a sacrifice.  David said on one occasion, I will not offer to God that which cost me nothing.   Sacrifice has a cost.

Paul says the sacrifice we are to offer is our life.  A living sacrifice. He is speaking of the new life that comes as a result of our salvation.  A sacrifice of our will for His will. A sacrifice of our priorities for His priorities.  Listen, that kind of life requires a sacrifice. It is a living sacrifice born out of gratitude for the sacrificial death that Christ died on our behalf.

Notice how Paul further describes this sacrificial life; holy and acceptable or well pleasing to God. Holiness is the product of the sanctifying influence of the Holy Spirit.  It is being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ in our attitudes, in our words and in our deeds.  Holiness is being consecrated for service to God.  Our bodies, our vessel is set apart for service to God.  No longer consumed by temporal things, by material things, by earthly things, but consecrated as holy to the Lord, to be used for the things of God.

And to holiness Paul adds, acceptable or well pleasing. Not just accepted by God, but living in such a way that  we are acceptable to God.  Doing things which are pleasing to God. To be well pleasing is to consider how we may please the Lord.  And that is simply to obey His word, to follow His instructions.  It would be the same response that we would hope a child would respond to his parents, to please them, to follow their teaching and instruction.  The apostle John said of the church he was writing to in 3Jo 1:4  “I have no greater joy than this, to hear of my children walking in the truth.”  To walk in the truth sums up I think perfectly how we may be well pleasing to the Lord by our lives.

So then Paul urges us, by the mercies of God, to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is our spiritual service of worship.  Some translations substitute reasonable service of worship.  And it is certainly reasonable or logical that we should worship God for His many mercies toward us.

But I think the better translation is spiritual service of worship. Jesus said that God is Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.  So worship must be spiritual. You must be reborn in your spirit and you life must be in accordance with the truth of God. So worship must be service.  It is rendering to God the things that are God’s, your life, your resources, your all.  It must be sacrificial. It costs something.  It means putting God first and sacrificing your priorities for God’s priorities.

And in the context of corporate worship as the church, that means at the very least setting aside Sunday as a day when we worship the Lord with His church, in body, presenting ourselves to the Lord and to one another.  Worship is not just clapping your hands watching a band onstage.  Worship is bowing your will to the Lord and listening to His word, being holy as He is holy, consecrating yourself in service to God, doing  the things which are pleasing to Him in obedience to HIs commands  out of a spirit of gratitude and thankfulness to Him. 

Now in vs 2, we see that Paul not only urges us to  sacrificial worship, but he also shows us how to achieve holiness and acceptableness. To do that he shows us first what should be shunned, and secondly, what should be done if we are to worship as we ought. First let’s look at what must be shunned; “And do not be conformed to this world.” Another way of saying that is stop allowing yourselves to be fashioned after the pattern of this world.  

In Rom 8:29 Paul said, “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined [to become] conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren.” So sanctification is to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ.  Thus contrarily, we can not be conformed to the world.  Jesus said “You cannot serve God and mammon.” And James 4:4 says, “Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”

1Cor. 15:33 which we studied last Wednesday night in our Bible study says, “Bad company corrupts good morals.”  You hang around the world, you are going to have a lot of the world rub off on you.  Unless we are on guard, we are in danger of falling prey to the pattern of this world.

I remember the dress patterns that my mother used to buy to make my sister’s clothes.  They grew up in the 60’s and 70’s when not a lot of dresses were being worn, but my mother wanted her daughters to wear proper dresses.  So she would buy these patterns and cut out fabric to sew together to make dresses for them. A pattern then produces the same thing, again and again. And Satan has so designed this world as to press people into the pattern or mold of this world, so that they become conformed to this world.  They look like the world, they dress like the world, they act like the world.  I know that sounds old fashioned and out of touch. But the fact is that bad company corrupts good morals.  If you hang out in a bar long enough, sooner or later you’re going to drink, and if you drink long enough, sooner of later you’re going to get drunk.  And that’s simply the principle of conformity.

Contrarily, we become like Christ by hanging out with Christ.  By being in communion with HIs body, the church.  Or we become like the world by hanging out with the world.  It’s that simple.  Stay out of church for any length of time and you will soon find yourself immersed so deep in the world that the things of God no longer have an interest to you. When you immerse yourself in the culture of the world’s movies, television shows, music, entertainment and media,  you will soon find yourself  disinterested in the things of God.

Last week I talked about how the devil makes sin like a lure we may use to go fishing.  He makes it so attractive looking that we don’t notice that there is a hook hidden underneath. And that’s the devil’s strategy for our lives.  To get us so enamored by the world that we waste our days chasing after the mighty dollar or fame or power, whatever things that this world sees as desirable. Ephesians 2 talks of that being a strategy of the devil to get us to walk according to the course of this world, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind by which he is able to take us captive.

This allure of the world is kind of like travelers in a desert who see in the distance a shimmering oasis. They eagerly quicken their steps in hope as they imagine in their minds how great it will be to sit under the palm trees and drink some refreshing water.  But when they arrive they discover that it was all a mirage, and what they thought they saw was only an illusion that faded away. The devil’s strategy is to use the allure of the world to waste our lives in pursuit of things that do not satisfy. 1John 2:17 warns us that “the world and it’s desires are fading away, but the person who does the will of God lives forever.”   Whatever treasures we hope to lay up for ourselves here on earth will not endure. Only what is done for Christ will last.

So the things are things of the world are to be shunned, then what is to be done? “But be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”   What is needed is not following the fashion and trends of the world, but a transformation, an inner change, a renewing of the mind, or the heart. The idea in the original language is to continue to be transformed.  It’s a day to day experience.  It’s continually being transformed.  The first church which started at Pentecost is reported in Acts 2 as “Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart.”

Furthermore, we are not told to transform ourselves, to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps. But to be transformed.  To allow the Holy Spirit to work in us, transforming our minds.  Sanctification is progressive.  It’s a continual process until we get to heaven.

So how are we transformed by the renewing of our mind?  I believe it is in the reading and study of the word of God.  As we read and study the scriptures, the word changes our mind so that God’s thoughts become our thoughts.  We start thinking like He thinks.  Once again, I think that is accomplished at least to some extent by meeting together as a church and listening to the reading of scripture and the preaching of God’s word.

Psalm 19:7-8 speaking of the effect of the scriptures on the mind says, “The law of the LORD is perfect, restoring the soul; The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple.  The precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; The commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes.”

And 2Tim. 3:16-17 says, “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;  so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.”  Scripture, inspired by the Holy Spirit, renews our mind, from being conformed to the world to be transformed in the image of Jesus Christ.  As we study His word, our minds are renewed and as our minds are renewed, our lives are transformed. As a man thinks in his heart so is he.

So scripture renews us and transforms us and equips us to do the works of God.  And what is it that God wants us to be and to do?  The answer Paul gives in vs 2 is “that which is good, and acceptable and perfect.”  Notice the parallel in this statement from vs 2 with that in vs 1, “a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.”

So here is how we offer that sacrifice that is a holy and acceptable service of worship.  We become holy by renewing our mind through the reading and teaching of His word.  We learn what is acceptable service through the reading and teaching of the word.  And then there is the word perfect.  In most cases, I find that a better translation would be complete.  So we learn how to complete our sacrificial service of worship to God through the reading and teaching of His word. 

This is how Paul says we are to know what God’s will is, and how we will be able to do His will. If we shun the things of the world and cleave to the things of the Lord, then we will offer to God a holy and acceptable sacrifice of our lives that will be well pleasing to Him and in accordance with His will. I pray that you know the mercies of the Lord in regards to salvation, and that in gratitude you will  consecrate your life to Him.  There is no greater success in life than to walk in fellowship with the Lord and to do His will and be found pleasing to Him.

Romans 12:1-2  “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, [which is] your spiritual service of worship.  And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Song; the wonderful cross

The previous chapter ended with the verse which says, in Rom 10:21 “But as for Israel [God] says, “ALL THE DAY LONG I HAVE STRETCHED OUT MY HANDS TO A DISOBEDIENT AND OBSTINATE PEOPLE.” And we determined last week that verse emphasizes the patience and mercy of God, in waiting for and calling to a rebellious people that are always resisting His call. It emphasizes that even though Israel as a nation rebelled against God, He is pursuing them even to this day. Yet this rebellion raises the question which Paul asked in vs 1, “I say then, God has not rejected His people, has He?” It’s a question that expects a negative answer, and so Paul answers emphatically, “May it never be!” The Israelites may have rejected Jesus Christ as their Messiah, but God has not rejected Israel.

And Paul gives evidence of that by saying on the basis of his own salvation that God has not rejected His people wholesale. He is a Jew, in fact, a Jew of Jews, of the tribe of Benjamin and yet he became saved on the road to Damascus by the grace of God. So there remains a remnant in every generation that God will save.

Salvation has always been on an individual basis. The just shall live by faith. Not the nation, not the country, not even a generation, but individuals. God made promises and a covenant with Abraham that from Isaac His seed will be called. But from Isaac came Jacob and Esau. And Jacob He loved and Esau He hated. So right from the beginning, it was evident that God called individuals to salvation, and did not grant entire nations or peoples salvation.

Paul says in vs 2 that God has not cast away his people “whom he foreknew.” So those individuals, that He foreknew, that He elected for salvation, have not been cast away. He is not necessarily talking about a people or a nation, but individuals. And the reverse is true as well. When Paul said that the Gentiles have received the grace of God and the resulting righteousness which Israel rejected (Romans 9:30) does God then mean that all the Gentiles will be saved, or that all the Gentiles were being saved? Of course not. We know that not all Gentiles are saved. Far from it. In fact, it might be argued that only a remnant of the Gentiles are saved out of all the nations of the world. So if not all Gentiles are going to be saved, then it stands to reason that not every Israelite is going to be saved.

Paul uses the illustration of Elijah pleading with God that he was the only one left when Israel as a nation was persecuting him, and had put to death the prophets before him. And yet God’s answer to him was ““I HAVE KEPT for Myself SEVEN THOUSAND MEN WHO HAVE NOT BOWED THE KNEE TO BAAL.” So even though the king of Israel was against him, and the nation as a whole was against him, yet God had saved 7000 men out of the nation of Israel even in a time of national apostasy.

Vs5 “In the same way then, there has also come to be at the present time a remnant according to [God’s] gracious choice.” In the same way refers to the days of Elijah, when God had reserved 7000 men in a nation of apostates, in the same way at the time of Paul’s writing, God had sovereignly chosen a remnant to be saved. And this is not just a principle applicable to the Jews only, but it’s applicable to the world at large. It’s a remnant, a small number of people who will be saved. Remember the words of Jesus who said in the Sermon on the Mount; “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” (Matt. 7:13)

Paul quoting Isaiah says in Rom 9:27 “THOUGH THE NUMBER OF THE SONS OF ISRAEL BE LIKE THE SAND OF THE SEA, IT IS THE REMNANT THAT WILL BE SAVED.”

But notice that Paul says in vs 5 that the remnant are saved by God’s gracious choice. They are saved by grace. This is the real point that Paul is trying to make in this whole chapter, that those that are saved are saved by the grace of God. Grace means God’s unmerited favor. But on the other hand, Paul has made it clear in chapter 10 that we are saved through faith. Faith means we must believe. Rom 10:9-10 “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus [as] Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.” Now how does this work? How does grace save us, and faith save us, both at the same time?

The answer is that our faith is in what Jesus did. And the work that Jesus did is the grace that is given to us. So salvation is not by what we do but what Jesus did for us. Jesus died on the cross for our sins and God accepted His substitutionary atonement on our behalf. He applied our sins to Jesus, and transferred His righteousness to us. That is God’s unmerited favor towards us. That is grace; God doing for us what we cannot do for ourselves.

Our faith then is simply believing in who Jesus is, and trusting in His righteousness and His sacrifice as our representative and substitute. Paul says in Ephesians 2:8, “For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.” So grace and faith are combined, bringing about salvation, not trusting in my works, but in Christ’s work on my behalf.

So then we must agree with the statement in vs 6 “But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace.” Grace and works are diametrically opposed in salvation. Salvation produces works, but salvation is not gained by works. There must be a divine transaction that procures our salvation, and Jesus paid that by His death. Any attempt on my part to obtain my salvation by my works is simply an exercise in pride and self righteousness. Salvation has always been on the basis of grace. The Israelites were saved by grace through faith, and the Gentiles have been saved by grace through faith. We must believe in the work of God’s favor towards us. In the OT they believed in what Christ would do, in the NT age we believe in what Christ has done, but in both cases it is by grace that we are saved, not by our works.

So what does that mean for Israel? That’s what Paul asks in vs 7; “What then? What Israel is seeking, it has not obtained, but those who were chosen obtained it, and the rest were hardened; just as it is written, “GOD GAVE THEM A SPIRIT OF STUPOR, EYES TO SEE NOT AND EARS TO HEAR NOT, DOWN TO THIS VERY DAY.” And David says, “LET THEIR TABLE BECOME A SNARE AND A TRAP, AND A STUMBLING BLOCK AND A RETRIBUTION TO THEM. “LET THEIR EYES BE DARKENED TO SEE NOT, AND BEND THEIR BACKS FOREVER.”

What Israel is seeking, it has not obtained. What Israel was seeking is a right standing before God. They were seeking righteousness on their own merits. They thought that by keeping the law as they interpreted it, they would be accepted by God as righteous. Back in chapter 9 vs 31, Paul said, “but Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not arrive at [that] law. Why? Because [they did] not [pursue it] by faith, but as though [it were] by works.”

Paul quotes 2 OT passages as illustration of this principle. The first is from Deut. 29:4, and the second is from Psalm 69:22. There was a hardening that occurred in Israel, a dullness, a stupor that prevented them from believing the truth. And he says it was given to them by God. I think that speaks of a judgment that God gives to those who are unbelieving and obstinate in their hearts and the point comes when God gives them over to a reprobate mind.

Paul spoke of this in the very beginning of his epistle; chapter 1 vs 28 saying, “And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper.” They refused to submit to God’s truth, and in trying to establish their own righteousness they actually rebelled against God, so that He gives them over to a depraved mind or better translation, a reprobate mind. Reprobate mind means a mind that is not approved, it does not function as it ought to. Because they have resisted the Spirit of God, then God takes away that same Spirit which brings understanding, so that they cannot see the truth but believe a lie.

And as such their table becomes a snare and a trap. The thing they were trusting in, their self righteousness based on their interpretation of the law, becomes the very thing that is their captor, and by which they are enslaved. It’s ironic how sin works that way. Sin promises freedom, but produces captivity. Sin promises fun, but it ends in suffering. Sin promises wisdom but it produces foolishness. Sin is a trap by which the devil enslaves and then destroys the human soul. And the first sin was the sin of pride. It is the mother of all sins.

But this hardening, this rebellion, this sin is the very thing that produces grace which brings about salvation. One cannot be saved until he first recognizes that he is lost. Because of the sin of Israel, grace was given to the Gentiles. And if Israel’s sin means the riches of grace were given to the world, how much more will grace be effective for Israel?

Vs11, “I say then, they did not stumble so as to fall, did they? May it never be! But by their transgression salvation [has come] to the Gentiles, to make them jealous. Now if their transgression is riches for the world and their failure is riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their fulfillment be!”

Israel did not fall so as to be removed forever from God’s plan to save them. But in God’s view this is a temporary stumbling, which He uses to bring Gentiles to His kingdom, and which He even uses to make the Jews jealous of the Gentiles, so that eventually the promise of Israel’s salvation might be fulfilled. God’s grace towards Israel is still working.

And so Paul speaks to the Gentiles in his audience in vs 13 saying, “But I am speaking to you who are Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle of Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, if somehow I might move to jealousy my fellow countrymen and save some of them.” So even though Paul’s main ministry was to the Gentiles, he wants to use that ministry as a tool to make His countrymen jealous so that they too might come to be saved.

Vs15 “For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will [their] acceptance be but life from the dead? If the first piece [of dough] is holy, the lump is also; and if the root is holy, the branches are too.” Because of Israel’s rejection the world received the gospel. So then, their acceptance by God means that they will receive life from the dead. That which was dead spiritually will come back to life by the gracious act of God in bringing them to salvation.

Now notice in vs 16 Paul uses two analogies; one of a lump of dough, and one of the roots of a tree. In both cases he is referring to the heritage of Israel. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were set apart by God. The Israelites were descended from them. And so God has set apart all Israel to live for God. They were to be His people. They had been given every privilege that God could give any nation because of God’s promises to their forefathers. And having been set apart, or appointed unto salvation, God will bring it to pass.

Now the next passage is one that I am going to read to you in total and hope that you can follow Paul’s logic without having to resort to a lot of commentary on my part. I believe it is self explanatory to some degree. Paul has already introduced the analogy of the root and the branches, and now he is going to take that a step further, and talk about God grafting branches into the tree. The olive tree is a picture of Israel, particularly the roots being the patriarchs, and the trunk the nation that came up from them.

Vs.17 “But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became partaker with them of the rich root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches; but if you are arrogant, [remember that] it is not you who supports the root, but the root [supports] you. You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” Quite right, they were broken off for their unbelief, but you stand by your faith. Do not be conceited, but fear; for if God did not spare the natural branches, He will not spare you, either. Behold then the kindness and severity of God; to those who fell, severity, but to you, God’s kindness, if you continue in His kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off. And they also, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. For if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these who are the natural [branches] be grafted into their own olive tree?”

So to the Jews belonged the promises and the covenants of God. Jesus said in John 4:22, “Salvation is of the Jews.” The rest of the world is pictured as a wild olive branch which is grafted in to the tree. This grafting of the wild branch into the cultivated tree is a picture of the grace of God. Paul warns us in this analogy that we should not be arrogant or prideful then in our position, because it is only by grace we stand. And if God is able to graft us in, then how much more so will He be able to graft in the natural branches, that is the Jews.

And in this analogy we also see two aspects of God’s nature; His mercy and His justice. Paul describes them as the kindness and severity of God. God’s justice rightly falls on those who continue in unbelief by cutting off those branches, but His kindness towards those who believe by grafting them in. The gospel depends upon both the mercy and justice of God being fully operational in salvation. It is a aberration of the gospel to only preach God’s love and mercy and not God’s justice. If there were no justice of God then there would be no need for the cross. God must satisfy His justice before He is able to show mercy.

Now how the mercy of God works is what Paul calls a mystery. The mystery is the plan and purpose of God in salvation and how God is working to bring it all to fulfillment. Paul explains this mystery in vs25 “For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery–so that you will not be wise in your own estimation–that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in; and so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, “THE DELIVERER WILL COME FROM ZION, HE WILL REMOVE UNGODLINESS FROM JACOB.” “THIS IS MY COVENANT WITH THEM, WHEN I TAKE AWAY THEIR SINS.”

Paul is saying that Israel’s hardness is temporary. Once God has fulfilled His plan of salvation in regards to the rest of the world, then he says all Israel will be saved. The fulfillment of God’s plan with Israel will result in their believing in Jesus Christ as their Messiah, the Son of God, who came to be their Savior. Salvation is simply God removing their sins by placing them on Jesus Christ who died in their place. And then God transfers to those who believe in Him the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

But notice vs 26 says, “and so ALL Israel will be saved.” How is that possible? The answer is If they do not continue in their unbelief. Vs 23, “And they also, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.” So the principle of individual salvation has not changed, nor has the method of salvation changed. It is by faith, and faith is an individual decision. Exactly how many of Israel will be saved in the last days is the common question that arises out of this statement. But the correct answer is simply that all of the elect will be saved. All that God has worked the wonders of His grace in that they might believe in Jesus Christ.

One thing is clear, and that is that the method of salvation will not change. Salvation is by grace through faith, not of yourselves, it is a gift of God. The same sun that hardens clay softens wax. And God who hardened Israel in their unbelief, will one day soften Israel in their hearts to believe. And just as you cannot say that all Gentiles will be saved, neither can you say that every Israelite will be saved. But what you can bank on is that all who are foreknown and chosen and called of God will be justified, and will be glorified.

The point that needs to be taken from all of this is that as vs 29 says, “the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.” What God promises He accomplishes. Whom God predestines, comes to Him. Salvation is of the Lord. He is sovereign. But thank God He also merciful.

Vs30 “For just as you once were disobedient to God, but now have been shown mercy because of their disobedience, so these also now have been disobedient, that because of the mercy shown to you they also may now be shown mercy. For God has shut up all in disobedience so that He may show mercy to all.” That is the principle that we can take away from this; that all are disobedient, both Jews and Gentiles.

Listen, Rom 3:10-12 says “THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE; THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS, THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD; ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME USELESS; THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD, THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE.” All of us are sinners. All of us are disobedient. But God even uses our disobedience to bring us to recognize our need of a Savior. And God uses our disobedience to display His mercy towards us.

This revelation of the mystery of salvation has such an impact on Paul that he breaks out into a liturgy of praise. He concludes this great argument about the sovereignty of God and His mercy and grace towards those who were undeserving, by declaring this doxology in the final verses.

And we too will conclude by proclaiming this doxology starting with vs 33, “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, OR WHO BECAME HIS COUNSELOR? Or WHO HAS FIRST GIVEN TO HIM THAT IT MIGHT BE PAID BACK TO HIM AGAIN? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him [be] the glory forever. Amen.”

God is the author and finisher of our salvation and to Him belongs all the glory for our salvation. God has extended the invitation to you today, if you will not harden your heart, believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, who died for your sins, who accomplished our redemption, and who lives to be our King, that you might have life in His name. Trust in Him today and receive forgiveness of your sins, receive the righteousness of Jesus Christ applied to your account, and receive everlasting life.

A couple of weeks ago as we studied chapter 9 we learned about the sovereignty of God in salvation.  That God has the sovereign right to be merciful to whom He will be merciful and to harden those whom He hardens.  It is the doctrine of the election and predestination of God in salvation.  Then in the first section of chapter 10 which we looked at last week Paul shows us the other side of the coin of salvation; that being the responsibility of man.  Man must believe in HIs heart, he must confess with his mouth the Lord Jesus.  And the great summary statement of that side of the coin is found in vs 13, “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

Now this week we are continuing to look at this matter of salvation, and man’s responsibility joined with God’s sovereignty  in bringing it about.  And Paul is writing to the Romans in the context of his day and age, in which the Israelites had rejected their own Messiah and consequently had forfeited their salvation which had been offered to them.

But I believe the Holy Spirit who inspired Paul’s writing has a bigger audience in mind than just the Israelites.  I think that the application of this last chapter is particularly apropos to our age and our nation as well.  For like the Israelites of old, America has had every advantage from the standpoint of the gospel.  Our nation was founded on the principle of religious freedom.  Our nation is governed on the principles of God’s law. Our nation has seen some of the world’s greatest revivals and given birth to some of the world’s greatest Bible preachers. Our nation has had every advantage, every blessing that God could bestow on a nation in terms of having the gospel presented and the word of God available and being taught that surpasses that of any other nation.  And yet I believe that today we are witnessing in our society a wholesale departure and rejection of the word of God that is unparalleled in history, except in the case of Israel.

So as we go through this text today, I don’t want to just focus on how much Israel has failed to respond to the grace extended to it.  But as much as it is possible, I wish to show how our nation and our culture has committed the same sin of rebellion.

Now the emphasis is in this section is on man’s response to the gospel. The statement immediately preceding this section, vs 13 which says, “whosoever will call on the name of the Lord shall be saved”  should elicit an obvious question.  How do you do that?  How does calling upon the Lord for salvation actually work?  

And Paul answers that question with a series of questions  showing a chain of events, going backwards from the effect to the cause, and from that effect to it’s cause and so forth all the way back to the origin of our salvation.  We read of that chain of salvation in vs 14 and 15. “How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher?  How will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, ‘HOW BEAUTIFUL ARE THE FEET OF THOSE WHO BRING GOOD NEWS OF GOOD THINGS!’”

So Paul begins tracing back the cause of salvation, by starting with the call upon the Lord.  Each person is responsible to call on the name of the Lord to be saved. It’s kind of like receiving an invitation in the mail to an important event and it has on the bottom of the invitation RSVP.  You must respond to the invitation. It’s not enough to just read it, but you have to respond. And in the case of your salvation, there must come a time when you recognize the fact that you are lost, when you recognize your need for a Savior, and you recognize that Jesus is Lord, that He is God in flesh, that He has the authority to save, and is able to save because He is above all power on earth and in heaven and call upon the Lord to save you.

This essential response of calling on the Lord is what Paul describes in vs 9 as confessing with your mouth.  “That if you confess with your mouth Jesus [as] Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”  You personally, individually, must confess Jesus as Lord over your life.

Now as indicated in that verse,  behind that call, is another link in the chain, and that is belief. “How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed?” Belief is faith.  There must be faith in Jesus as Lord in order to make that confession. Jesus as Lord encompasses the belief “that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.”  That statement is a summary of the gospel found in 1 Corinthians 15:3,4.  We studied that text last Wednesday night in our Bible study in 1 Corinthians.  And what we learned was that was an early creed of the church which was regularly publicly confessed in the church.

As I said last Wednesday evening, saving faith is not just believing that Jesus lived and died 2000 years ago.  Our faith is founded in the facts of history, but it goes beyond what can be seen. Hebrews 11:1 says that “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Saving faith is believing that Jesus is the Son of God, and that He came to earth to pay the penalty for our sin by dying on the cross.  That He was buried, and that He rose again and He ever lives to make intercession for us in Heaven, and that one day He is coming back for His people to live with them in a new heaven and new earth.  His work of salvation is the invisible part of our faith – that He is able to reconcile us to God by virtue of HIs sacrifice of His righteous life on our behalf.  That is what you must believe if you are to call upon Jesus as Lord.

The next link in the chain which must come before belief is the message.  “How can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard?” A message has to be proclaimed.  The word of Christ, or the gospel of Christ must be heard.  Paul says in vs17, that “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” That is the predominate way that God has ordained that men come to a saving knowledge of the truth.  Someone must tell them the gospel.

And, of course, behind the message is a person who proclaims it. And the primary person God has chosen to proclaim the gospel is a preacher.  “How can they hear without a preacher.”

1Cor. 1:21 says, “For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not [come to] know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.”  From the perspective of the world watching us today, it must seem utter foolishness to come to a church service and listen to someone preaching.  But notice this verse says that you cannot come to know God through the wisdom of the world.  But we come to know God through the preaching of His word.  Lot’s of churches out there claim that you can meet God in their building, that you can experience God in their services and they offer up a variety of things in their services designed  to make you feel something.  But our faith is not founded on emotional experiences, but on the word of God which we are preaching.

And to that end, it’s very important that a pastor has been called of God to do the ministry of preaching. In Jeremiah 23:21 God says, “I did not send [these] prophets, But they ran. I did not speak to them, But they prophesied. But if they had stood in My council, Then they would have announced My words to My people, And would have turned them back from their evil way And from the evil of their deeds.”  There are a lot of men out there in pulpits today that are called by a denomination, they are commissioned by men, but it’s not evident that they are called by God.  And the evidence that they are not is that they do not faithfully preach the word of the Lord.  They proclaim philosophy, they teach moralistic stories that play on your emotions.  They tickle your ears by telling you what you want to hear.

Paul gave Timothy instruction to pastors and a warning to the congregation in 2 Timothy 4.  Verse 2 is the verse I have claimed as my commission to the ministry.  And vs 3 and 4 is the warning.  It says in vs 2 “preach the word; be ready in season [and] out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.” And then the warning to the congregation in vs3 “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but [wanting] to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires,  and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.”  

So it is imperative that the preacher has been commissioned by Jesus Christ and speaks the word of Christ. And behind the preacher is the One who sends him.  “How will they preach unless they are sent?” It is God who sends preachers. The great initiative in the process of redeeming men and women, healing them and restoring them, restoring their lives, is the gracious heart of God that sends men out.  God sends preachers to proclaim the gospel to the lost because it is God’s desire to reconcile men to Himself.

In relation to that call of God upon preachers, Paul quotes Isaiah 52:7 which says ““HOW BEAUTIFUL ARE THE FEET OF THOSE WHO BRING GOOD NEWS OF GOOD THINGS!”  My Dad who was a preacher in North Carolina for many years used to really get a kick out of that verse.  He liked to say that according to the Bible he had pretty feet.  I would show you my feet this morning as evidence that I don’t think that is really the point of this verse, but if I did that I would probably lose half of my audience, especially those up front. My feet are not my best feature by a long shot.

When I was a kid, I had exceptionally large feet.  I wear a size 13 and I think my feet grew first.  I remember some smart aleck kid saying to me, “you’re a poet and don’t know it, but your feet show it, they are Longfellows.”  I don’t know why, but my ears and my feet grew faster than the other parts of my body.  I used to be called “Dumbo” when I was in elementary school by my classmates because of my big ears. And my Dad would cut my hair down to the skin on the sides, which made my ears look even bigger.  It’s not wonder that I have all these hangups as an adult, considering all the abuse I took as a child.

But maybe what Isaiah means here is kind of like a backhanded compliment.  The feet are not usually considered the most attractive features of a person.  And in Isaiah’s culture, the feet were always in need of washing, as they wore open sandals and walked dusty, sometimes muddy roads.  But the news that such a traveler brings can be so good, that even the dirty feet of the preacher looks beautiful.  So I think what he is saying is the news is so beautiful, that even the dirty feet that carried the news gets some of the glory.

Now what this chain of events helps us to realize, is that behind the call of the person upon the Lord, is a complex process that was originated and brought to it’s culmination by God.  He is the author and finisher of our salvation.  He foreknows them, He predestines them, He calls them, He justifies them, He sanctifies them and He glorifies them.  From beginning to end, God is sovereign over our salvation.  And yet man is responsible to respond.

And Paul acknowledges that not all respond, as in the case of Israel.  He says in vs 16, “However, they did not all heed the good news; for Isaiah says, ‘LORD, WHO HAS BELIEVED OUR REPORT?’”There is a natural reaction to the gospel that is one of rejection and rebellion. Perhaps pride gets in the way of accepting the truth.  Before you can receive the good news you must first believe the bad news, that you are lost and condemned and in need of a Savior. But a lot of people get offended by that and consequently disregard the good news.

As vs 16 indicates,  the prophet Isaiah discovered this when he came to the people of Israel at a time in their history when they were surrounded by enemies. They were about to be overrun by the nations around them, they had turned to the idols of the nations about them, degrading practices had come into the national life, and peace and joy had fled from the land. Isaiah the prophet came and preached to this people good news about the Messiah who would be their Savior. And on the basis of the Messiah’s life and death, God would work on their behalf.  But Isaiah says that they would not believe his message. 

Isaiah 53 speaks of this rejection of the truth about Christ. “Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?  For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, And like a root out of parched ground; He has no [stately] form or majesty That we should look upon Him, Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.  He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.  Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted.  But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being [fell] upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed.  All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him.”

That chapter is one of the most explicit prophecies concerning the Messiah’s ministry on earth written 725 years before Jesus was born.  And yet the Israelites for the most part rejected Jesus as the Messiah because He did not fit their expectations of a military and political leader who would make Israel a prominent nation of the world again as it had been under David and Solomon’s reign.

Saving faith requires that we must believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as He has revealed Himself in His word.  Faith is not believing in our own version of who we want God to be. vs17, “So faith [comes] from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.”  We must believe in who He is, and what He has done, and we must believe His word that He has given us.  Faith comes by hearing the word of Christ, accepting it, receiving it, and believing it.  

Faith precipitates obedience. Faith produces action.  Faith is not a static, purely cerebral thing that does not affect your actions. It’s as if I were to knock on your door and announce to you some great news, that you had won a million dollars and all you had to do was to follow me to some location and I would give it to you.  You could say you believe and yet do nothing, but that would reveal that you really didn’t believe me.  But if you really believed me, you would drop everything and follow me. We proclaim the gospel, the good news, the word of Christ, and if you really believe it you would immediately call upon the name of the Lord so that you might be saved.  But unfortunately, a lot of people just hear the message but their hearing is never joined by faith which produces a response.  They don’t mind hearing about the possibility, but it doesn’t move them to respond in faith.

So the next question might be to those people, “Didn’t you hear what I told you?”  Paul rephrases that question and answers it  in vs 18, “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 TO THE ENDS OF THE WORLD.’”   So Paul is saying that “they”, whoever “they” may be, have heard.  The message has gone out into all the earth.  

Now what exactly is he talking about?  Is he talking about missionaries going to all the four corners of the world?  Was that already a reality in 57AD?  No, I think that the means of the message going out into the world is described for us in Psalm 19, which is what Paul quotes from in vs18.  Let’s look at Psalm 19, which was an inspired song of David,  and see how this is accomplished.

Psalm 19:1-4 “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.  There is no speech, nor are there words; Their voice is not heard.  Their line has gone out through all the earth, And their utterances to the end of the world.”

In other words, what Paul is talking about is that there has been a universal proclamation of the gospel through nature. Nature is not a lot of light about God, but the Bible says it is enough light.  In fact, in the first chapter of Romans, vs 19-20 Paul mentions that very thing saying “what might be known about God is plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities — his eternal power and divine nature — have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that men are without excuse.”

The answer to the question “What about those who have never heard about God?” is: “There aren’t any people who have never heard about God.” Everywhere men and women have been told enough about God to cause them to turn to Him. God has been revealed in creation. There is a universal proclamation that has gone out. And if it is heard, if it is believed and responded to, more light will be given. This is why Hebrews 11, that great faith chapter, gives us the simplest declaration of how men come to God (Verse 6) “Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” So God gives all men enough light to believe and then if they believe He will give them more light so that they can come all the way to Him by faith.

There is another stage of the revelation of God. God, in His grace often gives more light even when people refuse the light of nature. No one deserves more light, but God gives it nevertheless. I think the United States of America, above all nations, ought to be grateful for the grace of God that has poured light out upon us when we did not deserve it anymore than anyone else. God has given us much light. But we must remember that more light does not necessarily mean more belief.

Israel had a tremendous, unparalleled exposure to the light.  God sent many, many prophets to preach, to warn, to teach them to turn to the Lord. And yet they continually hardened their heart, and their rebellion culminated with crucifying their Messiah, the Son of God that had been sent to give them the message.  

So Paul asks, “did they not understand the message?”  Vs 19, “But I say, surely Israel did not know, did they? First Moses says, “I WILL MAKE YOU JEALOUS BY THAT WHICH IS NOT A NATION, BY A NATION WITHOUT UNDERSTANDING WILL I ANGER YOU.”  And Isaiah is very bold and says, “I WAS FOUND BY THOSE WHO DID NOT SEEK ME, I BECAME MANIFEST TO THOSE WHO DID NOT ASK FOR ME.”

Paul says that God used jealousy to make the Israelites to turn back to Him.  God turned to the Gentiles after the Jews rejected and crucified their Messiah.  Israel had understanding, it had knowledge about God.  God had revealed Himself to them in so many ways, through the pillar of fire and smoke that hovered above the nation and led them through the wilderness.  Through the thunder and lighting from Mt. Sinai.  Through the Law which Moses brought down from the mountain.  Through all the miracles and wonders that God performed for the Israelites.  They had more knowledge of God than anyone. And yet they rebelled against Him and rejected Him.

And so God said He would make them jealous by going to the Gentiles who did not have the advantages that they had.  They had none of the advantages of the Jews in regards to the knowledge of God.  But when the gospel was preached to them, they came to the Lord willingly and gratefully.  And we stand here today on the basis of that act of grace by God to offer the gospel to those who were not seeking Him, who did not have any knowledge of God as their heritage in the intimate way that Israel had.

But what is also being said in this verse is that God continues to pursue Israel, His first love. And it shows us much concerning the love of God that He arranges, He plans, He provides for, He calls us, He woos us, and He continues to pursue us until we finally either call upon Him, or we take our rebellion to the grave. 

Notice vs 21, which is a quote from Isa.65:2,  “But concerning Israel he says, ‘All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people.’” God continued to pursue Israel, and I believe the scriptures teach that He continues to pursue Israel to this day.  And there is a sense portrayed in chapter 11 vs 26 that one day “all Israel will be saved.”  

But what a beautiful picture though of the love and patience of God towards us who are in rebellion against Him.  All day long He is holding out His arms, welcoming those who would come to Him, calling to them to come to Him, pleading “Come unto Me all you who are weary and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”  

God has been holding out His hands to some of you here today for a long, long time.  He is calling you to come to Him.  But up until now you have wanted to be lord of your own life.  You thought you can do better for yourself than what He has for you.  But even so, He continues to call, He continues to hold out His hands.  Come to Jesus today.  I urge you, come to Jesus.  He alone can save you, He can help you, He can give you life more abundantly, even life everlasting.  Come to Jesus today and call upon the name of the Lord so that you might be saved.

Last week, as we studied the previous chapter, we learned of the sovereignty of God in salvation. Yet even though God is sovereign, and He gives mercy to whom He will give mercy, and He hardens the heart of them whom He desires, yet even so, God does not work independently of us and our desires. And so God instructs us to pray for the lost, to pray for their salvation. Paul uses himself as an example of prayer for the lost. And he uses his kinsmen, his nation, his people as examples of those whom he will pray for. His heart’s desire is for their salvation. The issue of salvation is not ONLY according to God’s sovereign will. But God’s will also incorporates man’s will. Not only the will of the man in need of salvation, but the will of the man who prays for someone’s salvation. Somehow, in a seemingly contradictory way God’s sovereignty in salvation incorporates man’s prayers and man’s decisions.

So as far as Paul is concerned, there is great value, in fact, a great necessity for him to pray for their salvation. He says in verse one concerning the Jews, vs1 “Brethren, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation.”

And that illustrates that our family and neighbor’s salvation should be our priority as well. Our greatest desire should be to see our kinfolk saved. And from my experience that is a very common prayer request in our church prayer meetings. We pray very often for the salvation of certain loved ones of our congregation. And from time to time we get reports that God has indeed drawn such a one to Him that they might be saved.

But I have to say I get another sense at times from well meaning, sincere parents concerning their loved ones. And that is they seem to have a greater concern for the loved ones well being, their financial or societal or physical well being, than they do about their spiritual well being. And so I wonder how effective their prayers really are. Because even if the loved one ends up getting a good job, or gets married, or any number of other things we think are essential to happiness in this world, and yet remains unsaved, the fact is that they are very likely to soon encounter misery of another kind, and even if they should escape misery in this life, what is to become of them in the next? Do we have a greater regard for this life than we do for eternity? I’m afraid that our actions speak louder than our words.

So it is important that as Christians our priorities are right. It’s important that our desire is to see the salvation of our loved ones. And it is important that we pray diligently for them, because in some mysterious way, God uses the prayers of the saints to change people’s hearts and minds and bring them to salvation. And God commands us to pray for others salvation.

Paul said to Timothy in 1 Timothy 2:1, “I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone — for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.” God would not command us to pray for other’s salvation unless there was some effect that our prayers can have.

So not only should we desire their salvation and pray for them, but 1 Tim.2 says that God also desires all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. So we can be sure then we are praying according to the will of God, because He desires all men to be saved. As 2Peter 3:9 says, “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.” So incorporated into the sovereignty and election of God in salvation is the desire of God that ALL men might be saved.

Now going back to our text, Paul speaks of the need for all men to be saved. “Saved” may be a term that may be foreign to some of you here this morning. That word may even make some of you uncomfortable. But I would suggest if that’s so it is because you are unfamiliar with the Bible.

When you study the Scriptures you find that the need to be saved is absolutely unavoidable. Christians have to talk about men and women being saved because the fact is that men and women are lost. There is no escaping the fact that the Bible clearly teaches that the human race into which we are born is already a lost race. Romans 3:23 Paul says that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” This is why the good news of John 3:16 is that “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life,” (John 3:16).

You know, the lifeguards talk about how many “saves” they might make while working on the stand. If someone is able to swim, then they are not in need of saving. If a person is swept out in a rip current, and they are drowning, then they are in need of saving. The problem a lot of people have with that word “saved” is that they do not recognize they are lost, without hope, and in need of rescue. They somehow think that they can make it on their own.

We can never deal realistically with life until we face up to this fundamental fact: People are not waiting until they die to be lost – they are already lost. It is the grace of God that reaches down and calls us out of that lostness and gives us an opportunity to come to Christ and be saved. Therefore saved is a perfectly legitimate word to use. It makes us uncomfortable only when we refuse to face the fact that men and women are lost. They are born into a fallen race in which it is appointed unto man one to die and after that, the judgment, and they are facing eternal separation from God.

Now in chapter 10, Paul is addressing the issue of why God saves some and yet not others. And to that point, he has shown that the Israelites, who had all the benefits and privileges of God’s providence towards them, had yet not obtained salvation. And in Paul’s answer to this question he couples principle of the sovereignty of God with the responsibility of man to respond.

Now, to our ears, God’s sovereignty and man’s choice is an apparent contradiction. But as we have discussed in the previous messages on chapter 9, we have come to the conclusion that things that as Jesus told the disciples concerning salvation, that things which are impossible with men is possible with God. He is the author and finisher of our salvation, and yet we have a responsibility to believe, to repent, to follow Him.

The reason that the Israelites failed to obtain salvation was because they refused to recognize the truth in regards to their condition. They had a great deal of religious activity and they thought as a result they were doing ok. But they failed to see that they were in fact lost and in need of a Savior. So the first thing we see in regards to man’s responsibility is to believe the truth of God’s word.

Paul says in vs 2, “For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge.” Paul makes a very important point here. Having enthusiasm for religion, or having a zeal for the things of God, does not in and of itself accomplish salvation unless it is based on the truth. To use the analogy of drowning again, you can have a person drowning who is making a great deal of motion, he may be splashing water all around and kicking and waving his arms, but it’s not doing him any good. He is nonetheless drowning. Activity, or zeal, or enthusiasm alone cannot save you.

Jesus said, “God is Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. That’s why sound doctrine is so important. That’s why it’s so important that you go to a Bible believing, Bible teaching church where the truth of God’s word is paramount.

Paul speaks later on in this chapter about the necessity for the preaching of the word, without which they cannot know the truth, and as such cannot be saved. He says in vs 17, “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.” So the knowledge that leads to salvation is found in the word of God, and it’s important that we subscribe to the truth, so that we might be saved.

Now the main truth that Paul says was lacking in his kinsmen, the Jews, was that they thought they could obtain righteousness from their own efforts. Vs3, “For not knowing about God’s righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God.” They thought they could make it on their own. They thought their righteousness would be sufficient.

However, the scriptures teach that God is holy, and God alone is righteous. The law revealed the righteous standard that God required. And everything in the OT pointed to the need for man to appropriate God’s righteousness on their behalf. This was particularly taught through the sacrificial system that the Law laid out. The sacrifices taught the principle of the innocent dying for the guilty. The blood from the lamb which was applied to the doorposts taught that another had to die for your sins, so that you might not die.

But the Jews missed all that the scriptures taught concerning the righteousness that God required and only God could supply. Instead, they tried to lower the standard of righteousness required by the law, in order to satisfy their own shortcomings.

Paul says though in vs 4 that Christ is the end of the law , so that there is righteousness for everyone who puts his trust in Him. What Paul is saying is that Christ was the end goal of the law. The law simply showed us that we are sinners. It was given to magnify our sin so that we would understand how far from God’s standard of righteousness we were. All the law pointed to Christ as the satisfaction of the law. He alone could keep the law perfectly. He was God in the flesh, and He was perfectly righteous without blemish. And only by His righteousness applied to our account, could we be saved. Our best attempts at righteousness would always fall short of fulfilling the standard of God’s righteousness. But Christ’s righteousness was great enough to cover our sins through believing in Him as our Savior and Lord.

I love 2Cor. 5:21 which states that principle this way; “God made Jesus, who knew no sin, to become sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” By faith in Christ, and what He has done, God transfers our sins to Christ, and His righteousness to us. And only by God’s righteousness given by God’s grace, can we be saved.

No man can be justified on the basis of his keeping of the law, in hope that he can earn his righteousness on his own. Vs 5, “For Moses writes that the man who practices the righteousness which is based on law shall live by that righteousness.”

Moses said that in Lev. 18:5, but the problem was that no man could keep the law perfectly. All the law did was to condemn because no man could keep the law. The only man that could fulfill all the law was Jesus Christ. And accordingly, those who place their trust in Christ receive His righteousness and the life that is promised. What was impossible with men is made possible with God by faith in Jesus Christ.

So then there is a righteousness which comes through faith, not by keeping the law. Vs6, “But the righteousness based on faith speaks as follows: “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).”

Salvation then is obtaining righteousness but not by works, which we cannot do, but by faith in Christ, which He has done for us. What Paul is saying here that Moses taught salvation by grace through faith just as much as Paul did. The statement by Moses reminds us of when Moses commanded the children of Israel before they entered into the Promised Land. He set forth blessings and curses depending on their obedience and disobedience.

Moses said in Deut. 30:11, “For this commandment which I command you today is not too difficult for you, nor is it out of reach. “It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will go up to heaven for us to get it for us and make us hear it, that we may observe it?’ “Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will cross the sea for us to get it for us and make us hear it, that we may observe it?’”

The point Moses is making is that the law has been given to Israel in the context of grace, and the Promised Land, which is analogous to salvation, was God’s gift to them. It was not the product of their labor or their righteousness. The difficult tasks of salvation are not ours to accomplish, but they have been accomplished for us by Christ. It was He who came to earth from heaven. It was He who died, and rose again and ascended to Heaven. The work of salvation was accomplished by Him and is obtained by faith in Him.

So to show the accessibility of salvation to us Paul continues to quote Moses in vs 8, “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.” Again, the quote is from Moses speech in Deut. 30 vs 13. By means of the word of God, the promises of God, we are drawn near to God in our hearts. And that word must be appropriated by faith, the word must be responded to in faith.

And so if the word which is in your heart is believed and the word that is in your heart is confessed then you will be saved. Vs 9,10; “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus [as] Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”

What Paul means is that we have to come to the place where we believe what the word of God says concerning Jesus Christ and we must confess it before men. Jesus said in Matt 10:32 “Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven.” And part of that confession is we must recognize that Jesus has the right to lordship in our lives. Up to this point we have been lord of our lives. Up to this point we have run our own affairs. We have decided we have the right to make our own decisions according to what we think is right or best. But there must come a time, as God’s Spirit works in us, and the truth of God’s word works in us, that we realize Jesus is Lord and we surrender our life to Him.

To confess Jesus as Lord is to recognize that He is God in the flesh, that He was righteous and holy, without stain or blemish. That He came to earth to offer Himself as our substitute, that He might pay the penalty for our sin, and that He has risen from the dead and ascended to Heaven where He ever lives to make intercession for us. And one day, He is coming again to earth to receive His people that we might live with Him in a new heaven and new earth. That’s what it means to believe that God has raised Him from the dead. It encompasses all that Jesus is, and what He accomplished for us through His death, and what He has promised in regards to eternal life.

And that aspect of eternal life is emphasized in Paul’s quotation in vs 11 which is taken from Isaiah 28. “For the Scripture says, ‘WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.’” Another translation of that phrase is “whoever believes in Him will never be ashamed.” Never is forever. Never speaks of the day that will come to all men eventually. Hebrews 9:27 says, “it is appointed for men to die once and after this [comes] judgment.” Everyone will stand before the judgment throne of God one day. And if you stand there on the basis your own righteousness then you will find that you have fallen short of God’s standard and you will face the penalty for your sin. But for those who trust in Christ for their righteousness, the scripture promises us that we will never be disappointed. In that day, when God asks you on what basis have you come, you can simply point to Jesus, and say, “I am here with Him.” On the strength of what He has done, on the basis of His righteousness, on the basis that He has paid for my pardon, I can stand before God and not be disappointed.

Many years ago, maybe it’s been almost 35 years now, I used to work as a manager for some of the Ritz Carlton hotel restaurants. And our more formal restaurants had a dress code. One of the first hotels I worked at with them was in Naples, Florida. I helped to open that hotel. And Naples can get really warm and so the people living down there dressed accordingly. But the rules of the Dining Room stipulated that men had to wear a jacket and tie for dinner. But when the guests came to the door it was quite obvious that many of them were unprepared for that requirement. And there would inevitably be a awkward situation where we would have to explain our rules and potentially turn the guests away, who had been expecting a nice dinner with their friends.

But what we ended up doing was we purchased a number of navy sport jackets and some ties and had them available in the coat check room for those who did not have one. So we provided at our expense the proper dress so they could enter the restaurant. Now that’s a poor illustration of something like the righteousness of God. It’s something we don’t have of ourselves. It’s something that is provided by the management. And that coat of righteousness which enabled the man to enter and eat, provided by the management gives you access to the glory of God. And so the righteousness of God that was through the Lord Jesus Christ and the blood shed on the cross of Calvary is sufficient to cover our sins by being dressed in His righteousness.

I love the hymn we sing, “The Solid Rock” which has the line in it, “dressed in His righteousness alone, faultless to stand before the throne.”

So salvation is not just some privilege or right given to me because of my heritage or nationality or whatever. The same blessing is available for all who will call upon the name of the Lord. Paul started off by talking about the difference between the Jews and the Gentiles in regards to salvation, but now he says there is no distinction between Jew or Greek. In other words, it doesn’t matter where you are from, what your nationality is, what your race is, what your skin color is, what your gender is, the same Lord is Lord over all. And there is only one way to be saved, and that by only one Lord.

Vs12, 13, “For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same [Lord] is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him; for “WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.”

Acts 4:12 says “Salvation is found in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” There is only one way to salvation, and that is by faith in Jesus Christ. And as Paul emphasizes here, saving faith is comprised of believing all that the scriptures teach us concerning Christ, believing in who He is, and what He has done, and what He has promised to do concerning us who believe. And confessing “Jesus is Lord.” Acknowledging that your submission to Him as the Lord, the Ruler, the Sovereign over your life.

Whoever will call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. I would ask you a simple question today. Have you called upon the name of the Lord? Have you confessed with your mouth Jesus as Lord? Have you believed in your heart all that the scriptures say concerning Him? If not, then what is stopping you from doing so now? Let us bow our heads right now, and call upon the name of the Lord that we might be saved. Jesus has accomplished all the work, He alone has the righteousness that we need, and He has promised to give us life if we trust in Him. Salvation is available as a free gift of God to everyone, to anyone, who will call upon the Lord.

Today we are talking` about the sovereignty of God.  That is the title of my message, and it has been the  underlying subject of Paul’s message in the last couple of chapters of Romans.  We have not highlighted God’s sovereignty so much up to this point because there were other sub-elements of God’s character that Paul was emphasizing in those passages.  But nevertheless, the underlying principle of much of what we have studied over the past couple of chapters is the the sovereignty of God.

Now what do we mean by that term, sovereignty? Sovereignty refers to the authority to govern.  And in the case of God, it means His supreme authority over all, His right to determine, to predetermine, to govern, to rule over every thing that He has made.  After all, He made everything, He set in motion the courses of the stars, the sun and the planets.  Everything that was made, He made. He is the Sovereign God of the universe and He reigns over all things.

Now it’s one thing to say that, but it’s another thing to believe when you really examine what that means.  Back in chapter 8 vs 17 and 18 we learned that God is sovereign over our suffering.  Suffering, however it may come, even when it comes by evil intent, is superintended  under the sovereignty of God to bring about our sanctification. 

And in chapter 8:28 we saw that declared even more clearly; God uses all things (even evil things, even hurtful things) for good, to those who love God, who are called according to His purposes.  That is the sovereignty of God in action.

Then in the last part of that chapter, starting in vs 35, Paul makes a lengthy statement that establishes that God is sovereign over our circumstances.  Whether tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword.  He concludes by saying, “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  

God is sovereign over all our circumstances, in all of life even unto death.  And now in this chapter, Paul is going to establish that God is sovereign over our salvation.  He has already alluded to that fact back in vs 30 by saying,  “and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.”

That verse is sometimes referred to as the chain of salvation.  But what should be apparent is that it clearly establishes that God is the author and finisher of our salvation.  He is the author of our salvation.  He planned it, He predestined us for it, He called us to it, He justified us by faith, and He will glorify, or finish our salvation by His second coming.

Now imbedded in that verse  is a doctrine that is particularly troubling to us.  It is the doctrine which is called election.  Election is comprised of foreknowledge, predestination, and calling. And it’s troubling to us because we can’t understand it.  Our finite minds cannot comprehend the infinite.  God is outside of time and space as we understand it, and we cannot comprehend that which we cannot handle, or touch, or measure, or calculate.  We want to put God in a test tube and conduct a bunch of experiments on Him so we can figure Him out.  

But we cannot.  Isaiah 55:8 says, His ways are not our ways.  And our thoughts are not like His thoughts.  God says in vs9,  “For [as] the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts.”

So we cannot know God unless He declares Himself to us.  God is Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.  We cannot examine Him as Spirit, but He has manifested Himself in the flesh as Jesus Christ and disclosed Himself to us in His word.  Otherwise we are left to our futile imagination.  But thankfully, God has revealed Himself to us as much as we can understand, and as much as we need to know.  It remains for us to believe His word.

So the primary invisible attributes of God which we should recognize is that He is sovereign, and we also are told in scripture that He is holy, He is just, He is merciful, He is love.  Yet sometimes it seems like those characteristics contradict each other.  But if we are to know Him, and believe in Him, then we must believe that all those attributes reside in Him in perfect harmony with one another.  One does not cancel out another.  For instance, God’s love does not cancel out His justice or His holiness.  And vice a versa.  We cannot always understand how it works, but then again we can’t understand atomic energy either, but that does not make it untrue. And similarly we can not understand the eternality of God.  And so we must believe in Him by faith.

Now as I have pointed out, Paul has emphasized God’s sovereignty over all things, even our salvation.  And as a component of God’s sovereignty we then read that Paul declares God’s mercy. God says to Moses in vs 15, “I WILL HAVE MERCY ON WHOM I HAVE MERCY, AND I WILL HAVE COMPASSION ON WHOM I HAVE COMPASSION.” And from that statement Paul concludes in vs16 “So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.”

God is a God of mercy. And He has the sovereign right to declare mercy upon whomever He wills.  No one earns mercy.  No one deserves mercy.  Mercy by definition is that you are guilty and undeserving of any favor.  Yet the Judge of All has the sovereign right to show you mercy. 

And corresponding to that, we would not need mercy unless we were condemned.  Jesus said in John 3:18-19, coming just after the famous verse about God so loved the world. He said,   “He who believes in Him is not judged [the KJV says condemned instead of judged. They mean roughly the same, but perhaps it’s helpful from our perspective to read condemned] ; he who does not believe has been condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. “This is the condemnation, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.”

So we understand from that statement that man is already condemned.  All men are condemned.  We were born in trespasses and sin.  There is none righteous, no not one.  Now God didn’t make man condemned.  God made man good, He put man in a perfect environment, He walked with man and talked with man each day.  And yet man choose to do evil. And as a result man became evil in his nature, so that we are all born in sin.  All men are  naturally born sinners. Furthermore, we naturally love darkness rather than light. Thus being condemned already, we need mercy.  We don’t deserve it, but we need it.  And God has the sovereign right to bestow mercy on whom He decides to bestow mercy.

Vs16, “So then it [salvation] does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.”  If we are to be saved, it will be because God shows us mercy, not because we have deserved salvation, nor because of our merits.

Now on the other side of the coin of mercy is condemnation.  And in regards to the world under condemnation, Paul uses the illustration of Pharaoh.  Egypt is a picture of the world under condemnation.  They had enslaved the Israelites for 400 years.  And Pharaoh as their leader is unwilling to let the people of Israel go. Moses, speaking as the spokesman of God, tells him repeatedly to let his people go free.  But Pharaoh continually hardens his heart and disregards the word of God.

So Paul says in vs17 “For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, ‘FOR THIS VERY PURPOSE I RAISED YOU UP, TO DEMONSTRATE MY POWER IN YOU, AND THAT MY NAME MIGHT BE PROCLAIMED THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE EARTH.’  So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.”  

Once again we come to a terminology which causes us concern.  How do we reconcile the mercy of God with what the scripture calls the hardening of God?  What we have to understand is that God is not acting independently of us.  If you read the account of Pharaoh during the exodus of Israel, you will see that half the time it says God hardened his heart, and the other half of the time it says Pharaoh hardened his heart.  Which is it? 

Well, the answer is not either or, but both.  Jesus said in John 6:44  “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him.”  But on the other hand, Jesus said in Matt. 11:28 “Come unto Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.” So which is it?  God calls, God convicts, God illuminates, God moves you and draws you, but you have to come.  You have total responsibility to come.  The invitation is to all.  Rom 10:13  “WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.”  So it is necessary for God to move man, but it is also necessary for man to move to God.  James said “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.”

But Pharaoh hardened his heart against God, and God hardened Pharaoh’s heart as well.  God was working in conjunction with Pharaoh’s will.  Pharaoh had a choice, but he hardened his heart and God worked in coordination with that.

The question then arises in vs 19, “Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?” The answer is man resists God’s will.  Pharaoh had more messages given to Him from God, more opportunities to see the power of God and to see God manifest Himself than almost any other man.  He had many opportunities to repent.  But Pharaoh hardened his heart.  So the word of God goes out to everyone, and God is patient towards everyone, but some resist God and some obey God, some remain condemned, and some are saved. 

What Paul is illustrating here is the insolence of man in questioning God’s purposes.  It’s as if man wants to blame his condition on God.  He is more or less saying, then God has made me this way.   Therefore, I am under no condemnation, because I don’t control my destiny. I don’t have a choice in the matter.  God has already decided.  He has made me this way.  Therefore, God is unjust, not me.Man’s question aimed at God was accusatory, as if to say that God really isn’t good.  God really isn’t fair.  He plays favorites. He is unjust. 

But Paul’s argument is that we don’t have a right to accuse God, first, because He is the Creator, and the Creator has sovereignty over anything He has made.  He says in vs 20 “On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this,” will it?  Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use?”

So God is the Creator, but furthermore, as I mentioned a moment ago, when God created man He made him good, in a world that was good.  God provided all that man needed to stay good. But man chose evil, not God. It was man’s choice that condemned him, not God.  God doesn’t make man choose evil. James 1:13 says, “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust.”  So man’s sinful desires originate in man, not in God.

But Paul’s answer is to ask another question.  A question that emphasizes the mercy of God even though it is directed towards those who are condemned.  He says in vs22 “What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? And [He did so] to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory,  [even] us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles.”

Now this question at first glance may seem to emphasize that God made some people that He will hate and some people to whom He will be merciful towards.  But I think that is a misunderstanding.  And to perhaps help us understand better, let’s examine this word translated in the NASB as prepared.  As in He endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction.  The word in the Greek can be interpreted as mended, fitted, or destined.  The NLT says “endured with much patience vessels of wrath destined for destruction.”  

So if we understand it in that light, then we can see that God did not make them for destruction, but they have chosen that path.  And if they keep on going in that direction they are destined for destruction.  It’s like a highway sign that says “Road Out Ahead.”  If you disregard the sign and continue on, you will end up going off a cliff to your destruction.  

What Paul is asking then is; What if God, in order to demonstrate His character, showed great patience towards those people who are destined, or headed for destruction, in order to make known HIs glory upon vessels of mercy, those whom He has called?” So the way that God shows mercy is to first demonstrate His judgment.  If the sinner is not first convicted of his sin, and shown the penalty for his error, then how can God demonstrate His mercy?  Mercy only is given to those who are under judgment.  

But rather than focus on the negative side of the equation and try to impugn God’s motives and goodness, we should recognize the positive side, which is to see the purpose of God is to show mercy.  God’s goal is to show mercy and He waits patiently for the sinner to turn to Him, rather than mete out immediate justice as is His sovereign right.  As Peter says in 2Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.”  The emphasis is not on condemnation, but on mercy as God is patiently waiting for men to come to repentance.  God isn’t sitting in heaven going “enemenminemo, I’ll pick this one, and let that one go,” but notice Peter says God wishes for ALL to come to repentance.

To that argument then Paul gives an illustration of God’s mercy.  He says in vs 25 “As He says also in Hosea, ‘I WILL CALL THOSE WHO WERE NOT MY PEOPLE, ‘MY PEOPLE,’ AND HER WHO WAS NOT BELOVED, ‘BELOVED.’ AND IT SHALL BE THAT IN THE PLACE WHERE IT WAS SAID TO THEM, ‘YOU ARE NOT MY PEOPLE,’ THERE THEY SHALL BE CALLED SONS OF THE LIVING GOD.””

I wish I had the time this morning to tell the story of Hosea.  I would encourage you to read that little book.  What Paul is referencing here is just a short excerpt from that story which indicates that God has a right to chose those who were not His people to become His people.  Hosea had a wife who was an adulteress.  And she had three children which as the names of the children suggest that they were not his biological children.  But even so, God is stating His plan to be merciful to those who were unfaithful.  His plan to be merciful to those who are estranged from Him.  His purpose to restore those who had been rebellious towards Him.  God is merciful, and He shows mercy to those who do not deserve it, even those who have been unfaithful.  I think that this is a reference to the salvation that would come to the Gentiles, because of the statement Paul made in vs 24 which says, “whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles.”  

But in the next quotation from Isaiah, Paul also speaks of the salvation that was rejected by unfaithful Israel.  Look at vs 27 Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, “THOUGH THE NUMBER OF THE SONS OF ISRAEL BE LIKE THE SAND OF THE SEA, IT IS THE REMNANT THAT WILL BE SAVED;  FOR THE LORD WILL EXECUTE HIS WORD ON THE EARTH, THOROUGHLY AND QUICKLY.”  And just as Isaiah foretold, “UNLESS THE LORD OF SABAOTH (Hosts)  HAD LEFT TO US A POSTERITY, WE WOULD HAVE BECOME LIKE SODOM, AND WOULD HAVE RESEMBLED GOMORRAH.”  

So again Paul is talking about the sovereign plan and purpose of God to bring about salvation to both Jews and Gentiles.  God has a plan to save a remnant of Israel and He will accomplish it, even though it may seem that the nation of Israel has totally rejected Jesus Christ. If it were not for God’s sovereignty and mercy, then they would have become like Sodom and Gomorrah. God totally destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah and it remains a desolate wasteland until this day.  But look at Israel.  God has brought Israel back into it’s homeland after all these centuries, and He has a plan to bring them to salvation as well in His time.

In the final paragraph of his argument, Paul makes the case again for salvation by faith, not according to works, or heritage, or nationality, but by the mercy of God.  And he makes it clear that the Gentiles who were not by heritage the children of God were becoming children of God, and the Israelites who had been the children of God were stumbling over the means of their salvation.  Listen to what he says starting in vs30 “What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, attained righteousness, even the righteousness which is by faith;  but Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not arrive at [that] law.  Why? Because [they did] not [pursue it] by faith, but as though [it were] by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone,  just as it is written, “BEHOLD, I LAY IN ZION A STONE OF STUMBLING AND A ROCK OF OFFENSE, AND HE WHO BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.”

Notice that Paul says the Jews stumbled at salvation because they did not seek it by faith.  We might expect Paul to answer the question of “Why?” again from God’s perspective, and simply throw the matter back on God’s sovereignty. Instead, he places the responsibility with Israel: Because they did not seek it by faith… they stumbled at that stumbling stone.  They were presented with the truth.  They had light enough to see the truth.  And yet they rejected Jesus because He didn’t fit their template.  He didn’t promise them the national restoration they were looking for.  They weren’t interested in spiritual salvation, they were interested in economic, in political, in national restoration to preeminence in the world. And they stumbled over Jesus Christ who came to save sinners.

So Paul shows that Israel is responsible for their present condition, just as all men are responsible for their sinfulness. Has he contradicted everything he has previously said, which emphasized God’s sovereign plan? Not at all, he simply presents the problem from the other side of the coin – the side of human responsibility, instead of the side of God’s sovereignty. 

The Jews were determined to work out their salvation on the basis of their own behavior, their own good works before God, their national heritage, and consequently they stumbled over the stone. They didn’t want to admit that they need a Savior, that they were not able to save themselves. As no man is. But for those who see that they need a Savior, they have already been drawn by the Spirit of God, and awakened by his grace, and made to see their need for a Savior. Therefore, they have a desire to be saved, and the confession of their need for a Savior causes them to accept Jesus. Consequently their salvation rests upon the stone which is Christ. 

Anyone who trusts in Christ  will never be put to shame. Jesus is God’s mercy and love poured out to those who will accept Him.  For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. The manifestation of God’s mercy is Jesus.  You cannot blame God for your judgment, you can only blame yourself.  But you can come to Christ for your deliverance from that judgment. He was condemned that we might be shown mercy.  The choice is up to you. Jesus said, He that comes to me I will never, never cast out,” (John 6:37).

Paul says in chapter 10, Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.  Call on Him today.