Romans 9:25–29Scripture
Everybody turn your Bibles to Romans chapter 9. My assignment today is 25 through 29. I think it's important for us to go back, and since Paul writes what I consider run-on sentences, we can't even go back one verse. We have to go all the way to 22, because the sentence is forever long. And the point he's making is important for us if we're going to gain appropriate context to be able to extrapolate truth in 25–29. So turn there, Romans 9:22. You should probably have it marked since we've been here for a while. And while you're looking, I mean, you'd have to be living under a rock, not have a phone, not be on TV, to not notice what is happening in Israel. And you know, it's interesting. Let me just say, I've been praying quite extensively about how to communicate this, so I did not say anything last week. And it is possible, it is quite possible that this will come across wrong to you, but I think it's pertinent and it's on my heart, so I will share it. I am perturbed. I get perturbed whenever a crisis or an event happens in our world and the immediate response, and I think some of it is genuine, I think much of it is not, is I see hundreds if not thousands of posts from pastors at churches calling their church to prayer. I'm not saying it's bad to encourage people to pray. It is good to encourage one another to pray. I do, however, feel like when we
Introduction
See things that are happening, as believers in Christ, that trouble the heart of God, when he has given us his heart and we are made new, you should not have to be compelled to pray in times of trouble, not just for you, but for the body of Christ, those that are a part of the body of Christ, and not only that, but those that are afflicted in the world. Romans 9:9 starts off, although there are many Jews who do not know Christ and are not a part of the body of Christ, they are not saved, Paul still prays for them and for their salvation. He cares about that. Why? Why does he care? Because his desires are lined up with God's desires. And so I actually did make some phone calls to some pastor friends of mine who had posted the graphic, and honesty is the foundation of our relationship, and I asked them, and 100% of them said they posted the graphic to pray for Israel before they had actually gone to prayer for Israel, because some of us use other people's trouble as an opportunity to signal our virtue and how wonderful we are, and we use that as a platform to celebrate our love and concern for others rather than just actually going to the Lord in prayer ourselves. This should be your heart as we watch and hear or get glimpses of what's happening around the world. And honestly, there are prophetic things unfolding in our midst in Israel. You should be concerned and you should be in prayer, not because I posted a graphic and asked you to, but because you have the heart of God. That should be your position.
If we live in a time where the pastor has to beg you to have the heart of Christ, you may not have the heart of Christ.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 4:05
All right. And I know that sometimes too, and I'm in an awkward position, some people are wondering, Shawn, why did you not mention anything last week about Israel? I feel pressured and in a position that unless I say something, you won't think I care, and it is not my role and responsibility to constantly be walking around announcing all the things that are happening. You should be aware, and as the body of Christ you should care, and you shouldn't wait for me to tell you to care. All right, okay. With that said, I have a little graphic I want to show you, because I think this would be a good opportunity for you to educate yourself, also to gather together. Sunday, October 15th, that's today, at 6:00 p.m., there's going to be a meeting at the Jewish Community Center. The name of the meeting is Stand with Israel Community Gathering. All right, it says at the end of the Jewish culture fast we will gather at the performers stage. I want to encourage you to be there. Maybe this would be something you could do. Maybe you would not be able to do that. I know there are some small groups happening today. You have to make that decision, what's best for you. We want to encourage you. With that is happening today. Now, in light of all that's happening in Israel, then I come into this text today, and it is an interesting one to be talking about today, because as we watch all of this just horrific evil unfolding in Israel and what happens to the Jews, and then on college campuses people protesting, killing Jews, I just can't even believe we live in a time and in a generation where it is okay to gather hundreds of people and talk and let them celebrate the massacre of Jews, shouting it from bullhorns and mics and everything. It is bonkers. Like, I can't believe how ignorant we are in this generation. It is disgusting. It is sad. But at the same time, Paul in this part of Romans 9 is speaking about the remnant of Jews that will be saved. He has been all through chapter 9, and then he turns his teaching, probably in verse 27–29, 28 and 29 specifically, and he begins to give some prophetic utterances that were spoken by the prophet Hosea and the prophet Isaiah. And he uses these prophetic utterances, these prophetic sayings that the Jews would have been very familiar with, to compel the Jews to get an understanding about that thing, that word that was given to them, that they cherish, they have knowledge of, they have memorized. They know that word, but they don't know what is being said.
Isn't it crazy that you can know a thing and not know a thing?
Pastor Shawn Gray · 7:24
Isn't it crazy that you can have a head knowledge of something but not a true understanding of what is being said? And so my heart aches like Paul's, because we have many Jews who do not understand the gospel, and the Christ that was sent to save becomes a stumbling block to the very nation that he called his. And today we have Jews dying without knowing Christ, dying by force, dying by massacre. Our hearts should be troubled as we read chapter 9. And although we see them as a victim at this time in Israel with what is happening, they will be held responsible and liable for not turning and trusting in Christ, and God will unleash his wrath on those who are not what is referred to as
Point 1God chooses a remnant from Jews and Gentiles
True Jews, or the remnant that he's picked out of the people he's picked. Are you with me? Romans 9:22 through 29 says this: What if God, and I like to imagine the flood when I read this section, just imagine the flood. God has picked a remnant out of the people to put on the ark, and everyone else experiences what? The wrath and death. God unrolls his wrath fully on the masses and only saves and shows mercy on the few. But in case you are wondering and thinking that maybe Abraham was perfect, it says in the Bible that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and all deserve his wrath. So then why did God pick Abraham? Well, because he was good, and he was, oh, Noah. Noah, why did I say Abraham? I'm going to talk about Abraham in a minute, but I said Noah. Why did God choose Noah? Well, because he was so good.
No, there's none that are good, right? You know the scriptures, right? So I like to imagine Noah and the flood. What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? It took a while to build that ark, did it not? And he labored with those he was going to destroy, did he not, even while he prepared a way of escape for the remnant, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he prepared beforehand for glory, even us whom he called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles. So here, here's the key of what he's going to move into, a prophetic verse, a prophetic verse in Hosea. Here's the point of him using this prophetic verse. The point is he not only calls or elects or chooses a remnant from the Jews, but he also chooses a remnant from the Gentiles.
That's the prophetic verse. This would have been obscene and seemed as if it were blasphemy to the Jews, because only they were chosen, only they had received the articles, only they had received the word, only they had received the promised land. This would have been crazy talk to the Jew. So then what? So what he does, and in a good apologetic, good apologetics, or any kind of apologetics at all, should be based on the word, not conjecture, right? So the Apostle Paul then uses the word that they cherish deeply. He uses the word that was given to them specifically. He pulls from the prophets. Now we know if you go back through chapter 9, he pulls from Genesis, he talks about Abraham, and then he pulls an example from Pharaoh when he talks about that. Now he's pulling from two prophets, and these are all things that would have been the word that was given to the Jews, and he's using it to build a case. This is important, and the case is Gentiles are going to be a part of this, and not only that, but not all the Jews are going to be saved. That would have been troubling to them as well, but only a remnant of them. That would have been crazy talk to even think about that. But he uses the same word they had, the same word they had knowledge of, the same word they memorized. He used it to teach them. They had a knowledge of something but not an understanding of it. So then we get to Hosea, and it says this: Not only the Jews but also the Gentiles, as indeed he says in Hosea. So here he uses it to build this case. Here's what Hosea says: Those who were not my people I will call my people. Who are those people? The Gentiles. That's who he's talking about. And her who was not beloved I will call beloved. And in the very place where it was said to them, You are not my people, there they will be called sons of the living God. Oh, the Jews would hate this. They would not like it. And then Isaiah cries out, in case that wasn't enough proof for them, to be able to get a glimpse of understanding into the word that they cherished and treasured and thought they were special because they had. He pulls from Isaiah, and then I love this, right, Isaiah cries. Everybody, you should underline that in your Bible.
You should circle it. If you don't want to put it in your notes, Isaiah cries. That word is interesting there. He cries out concerning Israel: though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea. How big is Israel? Remember the promise that he gave Abraham, there would be as many as the stars and as many as the grains of sand by the sea, right? That is the nation of Israel. So he begins to pull this out to explain to them what God is going to do, and he uses Isaiah's, which they cherish, words to do it. Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved. How did they miss this? It's right there, black and white. For the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay. And then this is the crazy part, to get the Jew at this time to understand that they got problems like everybody else has got problems, and to put everybody on the same plane, the Jew and the Gentile on the same plane, that all of us are sinners and all of us need a savior. All of us are on equal ground, and you know what that equal ground is? Sin at the foot of the cross. And Isaiah predicted, he goes on, If the Lord of hosts had not left us an offspring, I love this, some translations say a seed. We know Jesus is the seed sown into the world that there might be a harvest white and ready for harvest. If the Lord of hosts had not left us a seed or an offspring, we would have been like Sodom. This is crazy talk to the Jew. This would have just been like, No, I'm not like Sodom, I'm God's chosen. And they would have become like gomorrah. Guess what God did to Sodom and Gomorrah? He destroyed every living thing. This is what the Bible says: every living thing that remained, he destroyed it all. In other words, that's what you deserve. That's what you deserve. That's what I deserve. That's what we deserve. As a point of clarification, the only vital element in salvation is God's sovereign choice. God chooses a remnant. Notice there is no dependent clause here. It's not "as far as it depends on you." It is simply that God is sovereign and he chooses whom he pleases. So the Apostle Paul is teaching in chapter 9, and I'm just going to give you a summary with two points. You write these two points down. I feel like this summarizes it well. You might have three points, you might have four points, if it's Ebony, she might have eight points, but I would have summarized it down into two. Sometimes I love reading Ebony's devotions because she brings things to light that I have not quite considered, and sometimes I tend to CliffNote it so much that I get all of the truth out of there. But anyway, so
Point 2Salvation rests on God's sovereign choice alone
These are my two points. Maybe look at Ebony's devo to see what the extra points are. Here's my two. It is God who chooses whom he will show mercy, and to whom he wills he chooses whom he will show wrath. It is God alone who chooses these things. That's been abundantly clear in the Bible. Number two, Paul is also teaching us about God's complete freedom of choice, that he may choose Gentiles if he wants to. The Bible says if he wills, he may do what he wills, that he may reject some Jews as well, and the Bible says most of them he rejects. Most of them he shows his wrath, but he does save a remnant. Thank God we're not like Sodom and Gomorrah and everybody gets the axe. Thank God he shows mercy to some of us who should be destroyed like Sodom and Gomorrah. Thank God that he reached down in his love and his grace and he shows mercy to us. So those are the two things.
Now, this is not a new idea the Apostle Paul has conjured up, but it is something stated quite plainly throughout the whole Bible. That's why he's gone all the way back to Genesis as an example. He used the Exodus example. He used the prophets as an example. He builds on the scriptures they're familiar with, and it's all through Scripture, and more specifically something that had been prophesied in scriptures. Now, there were some things. Now, chapter 9, I think, talks about really that Jesus is a stumbling block to the Jews, but there are two things specifically that were real stumbling blocks for them. Here's what they are. This will help you as we get into this Scripture this morning. First one is this: the Jews could not accommodate themselves to this notion that Gentiles could ever become citizens of the kingdom of God. That's the way one commentator put it. I love it. Here's another stumbling block: the Jews further could not accept the notion that any Jew could be rejected at all. The modern-day version of this is universalism, that God will in the end save everyone. The foundational verse which they use to support this universal position, theological position, that all men will be saved and no men will go to hell, is that "who can separate us from the love of God? Neither heights nor depths nor angels nor demons nor principalities nor anything in heaven or anything to come can separate us from the love of God." Rob Bell, recently, a once orthodox pastor, now not an orthodox pastor, has influenced many people across the earth and planet and has a huge platform that God will save all men. This idea would have been similar for the Jews, and like many current theologians today, they say there will be no hell for all men. The Jew would have said there will be no hell for any Jew. In verses 25 and 26, Paul deals with the calling, God calling men and bringing in specifically the Gentiles, and he uses Hosea to prove his point. I mean, nothing shuts down an argument like somebody saying, "I think," and you saying, "God said." What do you do with that? What do you do with that? And particularly when you use as your ammunition the very thing they pride themselves on having that the Gentiles do not have, the very tool that God has given them that was not given to the Gentiles, now he uses to teach them that not all Jews will be saved. I want to focus on a second aspect of this section, and here's the part that's going to seem harsh in the light of all that's happening in Israel, but it's the Scripture, amen, and I don't want to seem insensitive, but this should drive us to pray for the Jew who does not know the Lord. It should drive us to our knees. But the second aspect is the rejection of the
Point 3Knowing the Scriptures does not save you
Jews. That's real in here. It's evident and it's necessary to talk about. They assumed all was well with them simply because they were Jews. Let me just stop here for a second. Do you think all is well with you because you were born into a Christian family? You think all is well with you because you try to be good? You think all is well with you because you come to church faithfully? That's a good one right there. What I would say in my circles, do you think all is well with you because you hold a pastoral license? Because there are pastors who will stand before the throne and he'll say, "Depart from me, I never knew you." "Well, I did all these things, and I was a pastor, and don't you look, here's my license card. They accept it at the hospital, why don't you accept it?" And he says, "I don't know you, because I didn't choose you." See, your titles, your last name, what home you were born into, your striving does not save you.
God saves you, and he does so by sovereign choice, whoever he chooses.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 23:45
Why is this so important, Shawn? Why is Paul driving home this point so abundantly and so clearly? Why does he keep just reiterating? Because we think we're sovereign, and the fact that we think we're sovereign and that we have free, determining, ultimate determining will shows us that we think we're good in essence. They assumed all was well. We see this clearly here and in the four Gospels. This is the supreme tragedy of all the ages, that he came unto his own and his own received him not. Only a remnant did. Why did only a remnant receive him? Because that's what God planned. We see Paul overwhelmed at the beginning of this chapter as he considers this, yet he puts forth the truth plainly and clearly in spite of how the Jews might think about him, what they might think about him, what they might say about him, whether or not it would hurt their feelings or make them mad or stir them up in their hearts. He put truth above people's feelings, and he came and he clearly and plainly gave the truth in spite of his affections for the Jews.
Sometimes our affections for our children cause us to love them to hell.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 25:28
Cause us to love them to hell. I think we should take note here from the Apostle Paul and understand that the moment your affections for an individual prevent you from telling truth to an individual, you have forsaken them and you have sacrificed their eternal destiny on the altar of your relationship. That's a problem. And honestly, in case you just think that's a problem for the Jews, I came here today to pull you into reality and help you understand there are many things today we have plated to for the sake of relationship.
The church has softened its voice and has not held truth high regarding some things, some specific sins. Do I need to get specific in here today? And we've done so because we would rather be at peace with people than tell the truth to them, but being at peace doesn't save people. The truth does.
Being nice to people and PC doesn't set people free. The truth sets people free.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 26:57
So Paul, although they would not receive this well, and many of them would not receive it well, but only a remnant would, he still preaches it anyway. Let us consider before we move forward a subsidiary aspect of the tragedy of the Jews, and it's this: the Jews prided themselves on having the scriptures, what the Apostle Paul calls at the beginning of chapter 3, and you can look it up, the oracles of God. I like that. It feels real matrix, right? They would go see the Oracle, right? Anyway, I probably shouldn't even say that. I shouldn't compare it to the Matrix. I apologize. I will regret saying that. Maybe cut that out of the sermon. But the oracles of God, in other words, the truth. I'm going to keep going. Whenever they would go to the Matrix, and in the matrix, Neo would go to see the Oracle. He was trying to find what? The truth. So they had the Oracle, they had the oracles of God. They prided themselves on that. The Gentiles didn't have it, yet many Gentiles were being saved, so we know that it is God who saves, and the oracle is a way that he saves. The Gentiles had no such revelation. They were without God in this world. They were in darkness and in ignorance, as many commentators say, but the Jews had the word of God, and they prided themselves in the knowledge of the Scripture. Many of you do too. I know many atheists who, if I would set up a coffee breakfast conversation, would put you to shame at the knowledge they have of the word versus the knowledge you have.
Knowledge alone does not save.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 29:07
God has to call, because you can recite a thing and not know a thing. And the Jews could recite a thing, but they did not know exactly the truth behind what they were reciting. Why?
Because the Holy Spirit brings revolu— re— Revolution, not revolution, revelation. They were in darkness, but the Jews had the word, and they prided themselves on the knowledge, and all the while being blind to the message of the Scripture. They prided themselves in knowing but were blind and did not know. This is what makes what we are talking about this morning really solemn and a serious situation. Could it be that there are some of us today that have knowledge of the word but we're ignorant of the truth that it is trying to communicate? We are people who claim to be interested in Scripture. Well, friends, let's watch our spirits before we go any further, because you could be just like the Jew that I'm talking about. And here were people who lived from the Scripture and were authorities in it, and yet they were absolutely blind to the plain teaching of Scripture. It is amazing. It is amazing how there are times in the life of the church when we go through Scripture, and I will have people, it will say it as plain as day, and people will not understand, because you can know a thing and not know a thing. The Holy Spirit helps us know truth. Lord, have mercy on us and deliver us and save us from misunderstanding the very word in which we celebrate when we're together. So what the apostle is doing is the same thing Christ did many times with the Jews, particularly with the Pharisees and the scribes. He's using a tactic. Let's look how Jesus uses the same tactic, right? He's basically saying, You have the word, I'm going to use the word. You had the prophets, they came to you pride yourself on the fact they spoke to you the words of God, and I'm going to use the very words of the prophets to tell you what's wrong with you. Jesus did this. Let's look at John 5: 39–40. Jesus says, You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life, and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.
In other words, you have the scriptures, but you reject the Christ of the scriptures.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 31:56
Are you with me today? And just because you have a good working knowledge of the scriptures, and because you can answer your questions well, and just because you can sit in a small group and pontificate and wax eloquently about certain things, does not mean that you are saved, because you can know the scriptures and not know the Christ of the scriptures. Are you with me today? And this should be troubling, not only for our Jewish friends in Israel, but we should be concerned for those who sit in our midst on Sunday morning who know the scriptures but do not know the God of the scriptures. We should be concerned. This, in my opinion, is the greatest tragedy of all tragedies, that their own prejudice, listen to me, prejudice, everybody say "prejudice," so blinded the jews that they were unable to see the truth of the scriptures. Let me ask you a question: what blinds you from seeing the truth of the scriptures? What blinds you?
Oh, we can get on our high horse about how silly the Jews are that they miss Christ. You miss Christ every day.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 33:18
Let us think introspectively as we consider the truth. They were blinded to the Messiah. They thought him to come as a true military person. That's what the Jews thought. So then when he came as a carpenter and died on a tree of weakness, it blew their mind and they rejected him. It was offensive to them. Therefore the cross became the very stumbling block for the Jews. So Paul shows them from Scripture, the Scripture that was given to them in which they boasted, just how blind they were. And Paul uses this tactic often. Here's an example of Paul doing it in another place. If you turn to Acts 17, and I'll give you a moment to get there, we're going to look at verses 1 through 3. Some of you wonder why I don't put it up on the screen. Because I want you to open your Bible, all right? And I just think there's something cathartic about you actually flipping a page or thumbing a page, right? Because some of us do that. I'm pretty, I use technology, and so getting in there and finding it is important. Acts 17:1–3, I've given you enough time, says this, and it kind of shows an example of Paul doing this in Thessalonica. Acts 17 will show Paul did the same thing in Thessalonica. So here's what he says: Now when they had passed through, and I'm not going to say this right, and so if you know how to pronounce this properly, I'm really proud of you, try not to think less of me for improperly pronouncing this, Amphipolis and Apollonia, right? Something like that. Something. We were close. You didn't say yes to the second one, so it might be off, but that's okay. They came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews, and Paul went in. Can you imagine going into a place to speak a word that would be rejected? Can you imagine this? This is why he got beat a lot. Some of you can't stand for truth in the simplest of situations when somebody, when you're scared somebody would give you a stank face. Imagine being thrown in prison and killed for it and still value the truth. Why does he value the truth this much? Because he knows it is the only thing that saves. Do you know that? Do you know? Oh, that we would have this kind of confidence. Oh, that we would have this kind of confidence. Thessalonica, where the synagogue of the Jews was, and Paul went in, as was his custom. He'd done this more than once. And on three Sabbath days, listen to this, he reasoned with them from the scriptures, the very ones they were given. How many of you have this sitting in your house all week long but you forsake it all week long for things that will fade and pass away? He reasoned. Some of you are searching for reasons, but you can find no reasons because you do not turn to Scripture. You turn to counsel, you turn to men, and you don't turn to his word, because you have rejected it, and the very thing that would save has become a stumbling block to you. He reasoned with them from the scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, "This Jesus whom I proclaim to you is the Christ." This would have been blasphemous to the jew. Let's talk about, we talked about, let's talk about the rejection and the punishment of the Jews. Okay, here is, let's focus on this word that I made you underline. Let's go to verse 27, right? Let's look at this, verse 27–28. Let's really focus in on verse 27, maybe even just the opening of it. Let me see here.
Point 4God's judgment is certain, never truly delayed
Yeah, just the opening of it. It's not even the whole verse, but it says this: And Isaiah cries. Everybody say "cries." I'm a man, I don't cry. I don't think it means literal tears. I don't think that's what it means. Cries out concerning Israel. What is the meaning of the word cry, and is it important for us? We actually read the same word in Romans 8:15. Let's look at that. Go back a chapter to Romans 8:15. What does it say? It uses the same word in here. Let's see if we can find it. It's more a present way of saying it, not a past way of saying it, right? But let's see what it says: For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, "Abba! Father!" So we see here a picture, we see here a picture of someone that is adopted as a son, or someone we might say is saved, or another way, somebody who is called and responds to the gospel. We see a picture that the way they respond whenever God calls them is they cry, "Abba, Father." They don't say it in a repeated prayer. It is the cry of a heart. It is not a repeated incantation that we do in the church that magically makes you saved, but it is a heart change first that goes from, your heart is hardened against the things of God, and then he softens your heart and it cries out in knowledge, revelatory knowledge of him that is revealed by the Holy Spirit, who you are as a sinner and who he is as a savior, and you cry out from your heart, "He is my father." That is different than reciting a prayer at camp, because you can recite a prayer at camp and still be doomed to hell. I've met a lot of people in the church who have said the words "He is my father" but they deny him with their life, and we see clearly that he is not their lord and father. The Jews said, "Abba, Father." They said it in the tabernacle, they said it in their home, they said it as Shabbat, they said it when they broke bread together, they said it in the streets, they said it in the highways and the byways of life. They were constantly saying it. Jews say "Abba, Father," and the masses of them say "Abba, Father," and many of them say "Abba, Father" more than you say "Abba, Father" as a gentile. But there is a difference between reciting "Abba, Father" and it being the cry of your heart. There is a difference. In other words, we don't just say "Abba, Father." The one who is converted and led by the Spirit of God is not just someone who says God is my father. It is a passionate and inarticulate cry expressing deep emotion. It is the same cry of the Holy Spirit when he intercedes. When you get it wrong, are you with me today? This is a divine cry. It is divinely initiated, it is divinely orchestrated, and it is divinely released through the life of an individual who God has fashioned as a vessel of mercy before time began. It is a divine cry. So why does Isaiah cry out about the news concerning Israel? He prophesies with a sense of shock. I believe this, it's my opinion, as he's prophesying, revelation is happening. So as God speaks, he speaks. That's what a prophet does. And as he speaks, he begins to have revelatory understanding of what it is he's saying, and then we see the fact that he's more than just a mouthpiece of God, but he's a child of God, because we see his heart lining up with the heart of God, and he prophesies with a sense of shock and amazement, being overwhelmed by grief and sorrow. Where does that come from? It's a divine grief and sorrow that is an echo of the heart of God. He could scarcely believe this thing he was speaking over the nation. He scarcely believed this thing was possible, even as he was giving the message that there is a remnant of the Jews who will be saved, and that is it. Here's the Scripture though: Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved. The Apostle Paul is drawing out here that though the number of individuals be as the grains of the sand, only a small remnant will be saved. So what is he referring to here? I'm glad you asked. He actually is referring to what is said in Genesis 22:17, when Abraham is given a promise. Not Noah. Good job, Shawn.
Okay, verse 17 says this, of chapter 22: I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of the heavens and as the sand that is on the seashore. Then he brings up the prophet's word, and he reminds them that only a remnant of the sand of the seashore will be saved. We learn here that only a few Jews will be saved. That's the remnant. Only a remnant. Only a remnant. Only a remnant of your family will be saved. Only a remnant of this church will be saved. Only a remnant of Pleasant Hill will be saved. Only a remnant of Kansas City and Missouri will be saved. Only a remnant of the Jews will be saved. Only a remnant, not just of the Jews but of the Gentiles, will be saved. Merely a remnant. Verse 28, we then read, okay, so we talked about the remnant, let's talk about the rejection in verse 28. If there's a remnant of the Jews who are saved, that means that God rejects some of the Jews and some of them will not be saved. If there's only a remnant that he shows mercy to, then that means that only a remnant he'll show mercy to, but the abundant, the majority of the Jews, he'll show wrath to. Verse 28 says this: For the Lord will carry out his sentence. Some translations say the Lord will carry out his word. Some translations say the Lord will carry out his word, he will carry out judgment according to his word. But the ESV says, For the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay. Now we know this is not a direct quotation, carry out his sentence or execute his word. God has said that he will punish, in other words, what God said he will do. You know what threw me for a loop here? Verse 28 says, for the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully. I can get with that. And without delay, that one troubles me, because you know what I see? I see God promising to carry out his sentence, but he's delaying. Now we know that just ahead of this, Paul said, what if, what is it to you if he tarries for a while to vessels of wrath that he might pick some as vessels of mercy, or call some that he's created ahead of time to be vessels of mercy? What is it to you if that's how God shows his power? So why does it say here that he does this without delay when it seems as if he's delaying? God's word has two sides to it often. God's word, in other words, here's the two sides of what this is saying, okay: God's word saves and God's word carries out judgment. In other words, another way to say it is the same word that softens, hardens. When we look at the parable of the sower, one of the things that we understand is that it's the same seed. The seed is not different. The seed is not thrown any differently. The seed is sown the same, but it takes root with some and it does not with others. The word is not different. The seed is not different. The word softens some and hardens others. We often see God's word holding an immediate implication and what I like to refer to as a remote one. I've gained a better understanding of this working remote and doing some things remotely. There are immediate things that are happening in my home and there are immediate things that are happening remotely.
All right, that's kind of what we can see. The same thing can be applied to verse 28. So let me give you the immediate things that are happening. Write these down. I'm going to give you a remote meaning, and then we'll be getting close to the end. What might Isaiah have been thinking about? He was speaking about what would happen fairly quickly or soon to the children of Israel. The prophet was thinking about two things specifically, immediately, not remotely but immediately. He was thinking of this because this is what was going on, and you could do some study in your own time. I don't have time to do this, I don't have time to break this down fully, I'm just giving you the broad strokes and you can go do the independent study. Number one, what was happening in the midst was the departure of the ten tribes to form the northern kingdom. That's what was happening in context as he quotes this section in Isaiah, leaving only two tribes in the southern kingdom. Now notice the two tribes remaining in the southern kingdom is the remnant. Notice that the northern kingdom, if you do any homework, any historical study, and this is very important, the northern kingdom became rich, it became wealthy, it became successful in war and in battle, and it turned to other gods. And Isaiah is speaking prophetically to an immediate situation and into a remote situation, to an immediate situation of what's going on then, and he's giving them a picture of the way God is laying this out, and there is merely a remnant of those in the southern kingdom who keep their focus on the Lord. They're all Jews, they all receive the oracles of God, but the masses turned their hearts away from God and the remnant stays with God. Listen to this. Number two, he probably was considering the attack of the Syrian nation or the attack of the Chaldeans. He was probably speaking about that, and all of those ways, that is the way God unrolls his wrath, not only temporally, or actually specifically temporally, in the moment, without delay. Are you with me today? Yes. How many of you know that God will chastise, but then there's an ultimate chastisement that happens one day, and all of us are under the prevenient grace of God in this season because he tarries until the day of judgment. So this is how we begin to reconcile the "without delay," what seems to be delayed though that's not delayed, that's immediate, what's remote, that there are temporary ways that he shows his judgment and he unrolls his sentence on people who reject him, but there's the ultimate and final day of destruction in which he judges the whole world, not just the Jew alone but also the Gentile, and he saves a few and he unrolls his wrath out on the multitudes of Jews and Gentiles who do not know him. God will punish without delay. God makes a pronouncement of judgment but doesn't seem to do anything, because that part that seems to not have happened yet hasn't happened yet, and God does not always carry out everything immediately. The same attitude was present when the flood came. Listen, you should be careful to not devalue the word and the warning because God seems to tarry, because this is the way the people in the flood felt. Noah kept saying it's going to rain, God's going to destroy and flood the earth, and for years he built the ark, and they laughed and they said, "Where is this God who you said would bring destruction on the land?" And because he tarried, they did not take the warning seriously. Oh, come on now, listen to me today. There are people every day, every Sunday and every day, who reject the word, reject the warning, because they see God tarrying and they want to eat and make merry as long as they can, but you do not know the day or the time when the switch will be flipped. This is why John stands in the Jordan waters and says, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is as close as your right hand is to your body." It's close. Do not be like some of the virgins who ran out of oil because they did not take seriously the warning. Oh, in light of all that's happening in Israel, you should perk up and understand that God will move without delay. Let me tell you, when time runs into his will, he does it in an instant. Could it be that some of you have not taken the gospel seriously and you tarry because you would rather eat and make merry as long as you can? This is not the heart of someone who's called, period. And Paul is warning us of this kind of attitude.
Okay, when it happens suddenly, because just because it hasn't come does not mean it will never come. Okay, 2 Peter 3:9 says this. I love this. This will help you and it will help many of you as you try to wrestle with God's sovereign election, sovereign will, with you not having free ultimate determination. Somebody was asking me a little bit about free will, and do we have free will? I would say no, you're not ultimately self-determining, not ultimately. Do you have a will? Yes. Is everything that you do in your life or choose to do in your life orchestrated by God? No, you have choice, you can choose. That's really important. You can choose, but it is interesting to me that people fight for man's total independent will, or ultimately free will, and they hope to deny God's. It's interesting to me, because if I were to ask all of you today, if you were to get cancer and I were to ask you, do you want to have that cancer, you would say to me, "no, I do not wish to have cancer." How many of you know then that just because you don't wish to have it doesn't mean you won't have it? You know why? Because your will is not free, not ultimately, and you would concede to the idea that you can't just decide, because you decided, that made it so. Why, then, do we hold the position that with something that's way more weighty, like your eternal security and eternal salvation and eternally living in heaven and eternally being saved from depravity and eternally being captured out of the flames of hell, that you can decide to do that but you can't decide to stop having cancer? Which is greater, to say save yourself from cancer or save yourself from eternal damnation? Which seems more impossible? Yet we hold a position that we cannot have, we do not and cannot have the power to save ourselves from cancer, but we do have the power to save ourselves from eternal damnation. This is bizarre. This is bizarre. Why is it important for us to hold this position? Because there are two types of people: those who trust in themselves and those who trust in God. Which are you? Which are you? You know, those who are saved, those who trust in God, not those who trust in themselves. Are you with me today? There is a war on our culture that is waged not by people who are uneducated or untheological but, I believe, by the enemy to get us to trust in us, because if we trust in us, we don't trust in him. The fact is that God carries out his sentence. The last thing I want to
Point 5Every one of us deserves destruction; mercy leaves a seed
Mention is this, and I'll close.
Every single one of us in here today deserves destruction, every one of us.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 58:46
And we look at verse 29, we hear it from the words of Paul, and as Isaiah predicted, If the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring, Christ, that's what I would say, he would have, we would have been like Sodom and been like Gomorrah. To a Jew, being compared to Sodom and Gomorrah is insane. To many of us in the church today who come to church, it's just as insane for us to consider ourselves like Sodom and Gomorrah, but if you have broken one part of the law, you have broken the whole law and you deserve what Sodom got. That's what you deserve, even if you grew up in a Christian family and you attended church and you went to youth group and you did all those things, you deserve to be destroyed like them. You deserve for God to snap his fingers and hellfire to come down from the sky and kill you. That's what you deserve. And then Paul is saying to them, that's what the nation of Israel deserves, that's what they've earned, but then he shows the goodness of God, because although they've earned that by rejecting him, the very Christ that was sent, he still shows mercy to the remnant. How good is God for that? The nation of Israel deserved total punishment and destruction, even like Sodom and Gomorrah, and only a remnant would be saved. That's what Paul's saying. This is bonkers to them. On what grounds? Only because of the mercy of the Lord will the remnant be saved. Without God's merciful calling us, mercifully calling us, we are left to the same destruction as Sodom and Gomorrah. It is God who left us a seed. It is not you.
Let me clearly state that none of us deserve to be saved. The fact that anybody is saved at all is due to God's mercy. That's it.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 1:01:03
I've been saying it over and over again and I will continue to say it.
If it's left up to us, we will choose death every time, but God in his grace saves a remnant.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 1:01:16
God has not and will not wipe out all of Israel completely. This is what a commentator says, I love this, right, this is a great summary: God has not and will not wipe out Israel completely, no matter how faithless she has been, by quoting from Isaiah 1:9. Sodom and Gomorrah were judged by God so severely that they were utterly removed from the earth. Listen to this: utterly removed from the earth. Genesis 19:24, let's turn there real quick, that's what he's referring to. Genesis 19:24, okay, says this: Then the LORD rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur, talk about a stinking situation, right, sulfur and fire from the LORD out of heaven, and he overthrew those cities and all, everybody say "all," the valley and all, everybody say "all," the inhabitants of the cities and what grew on the ground. Just in case anything was living, he killed it. In case anybody was hiding behind a bush, he destroyed that too. So he could destroy the person hiding behind the bush, he destroyed it all. What is the promise in Romans 9? That he doesn't destroy it all, even though all deserve to be destroyed. We get to see a glimpse into the goodness and the mercy of a God who should wipe us all off the face of the earth.
In his mercy, although none deserve to live, he saves a few. That's beautiful.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 1:03:21
If the Lord had not left us a seed or an offspring, there would be no hope for us at all. The gospel is the power and wisdom of God to save those he has elected. Romans 1:16, in case you forgot: For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because, not a version of it that you're comfortable with, not a version of it that's more PC, not a version of it that's more culturally appropriate, but the gospel has the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew and then to the Gentile. If you go home today thinking that it is your belief that saves you, then I give up in despair, because the word is clear here, and I can no more convince you of the truth of the gospel. If the gospel itself does not have the power to save you, who am I to try? I merely am told to preach the truth, and that alone has the power to save. It is the Lord who saves, not you.
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