The God, Who saves

Romans 10:16-21

God who saves All!

Romans 10:16-21, But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our report?” ¹⁷ So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. ¹⁸ But I say, have they not heard? Yes indeed: “Their sound has gone out to all the earth, And their words to the ends of the world.” ¹⁹ But I say, did Israel not know? First Moses says: “I will provoke you to jealousy by those who are not a nation, I will move you to anger by a foolish nation.” ²⁰ But Isaiah is very bold and says: “I was found by those who did not seek Me; I was made manifest to those who did not ask for Me.” 21 But to Israel he says: “All day long I have stretched out My hands To a disobedient and contrary people.” In dealing with the doctrine of justification by grace through faith, the apostle Paul must explain the unbelief of Israel. For anyone who listens to him might be prone to question and say that if your new gospel is true, why didn’t the people of God accept it?

Paul must explain, as a defence of the validity of his message, the unbelief of Israel. Romans 9, he began to explain that from God’s viewpoint. God had planned it that way. God had sovereignly designed it that way. God was not surprised by the unbelief of Israel.

It was in the plan. Romans chapter 10 deals with it from the side of Israel. Romans Chapter 9 God knew about it, it was in the plan, it didn’t surprise God. That was God’s part. On the one hand you have the plan of God, On the other hand, you have the will of man.

Romans chapter 10 at the fact that Israel rejected Messiah, Israel rejected the gospel of grace, the gospel of justification by faith, the work of Jesus on the cross. They rejected that because of wilful unbelief. V 3, that they were ignorant.

In their unbelief they were ignorant. Five reasons for the unbelief of Israel to rightly understand the Lord Jesus Christ.

1. The person of God, 2. The provision of Christ, 3. The place of faith, 4. The parameters of salvation, 5. The predictions of Scripture. Israel was ignorant of the person of God. They thought God to be less than He really was and so they thought they could come up to God's standard by their own works.

They thought God would accept certain things that God would not accept. V 3, For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God.

They made a terrible error in not understanding the person of God, how holy He is, how righteous He is. They did not understand the provision of Christ. V 4, For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

They didn't understand the provision of Christ. They didn't believe that He was the only one who could provide a righteousness they had to have.

They thought they had no need for Him, they could get there on their own. Their works would get them there and so they didn't understand the provision of Christ. Christ is the termination of law for righteousness. The moment a person sees Christ and understands who He is and what He's done, he knows that legal, ritual, works religion, is a thing of the past and all self-saving efforts are over. The soul is abandoned to the redeeming grace of God in Christ and therein lies true righteousness.

Israel was also ignorant of the place of faith. V 4, For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. All about believing, which is another word for faith, comes from the same Greek root. Righteousness is available. The righteousness that pleases an infinitely holy God through Christ through faith, it's to everyone that believes. Faith is the issue.

To verify that righteousness comes by faith, Paul goes on to quote from Moses.

Leviticus 18:5, which says the man who does these things shall live by them.

The righteousness which is of faith speaks like this, and he quotes from Deuteronomy 30:12-14. Moses says you don't have to ascend into heaven, you don't have to descend into the pit somewhere, into the sea, into the depths down to the caverns of the earth, you don't have to go beyond your ability above or beyond your ability below to attain righteousness. It's near you. It's in your mouth.

Christ came to bring us the gospel, went into the grave to triumph over death, and coming out of the grave assures us of the truth of the gospel. So, Moses saw that there was righteousness by grace, by God's grace, sending a message to us so that we don't have to climb up some ladder of legalism.

It is the word of faith which we preach, which we continually herald, which is the heart of the apostolic message. Everywhere they went they preached that message. It wasn't something you had to hunt for. So, the righteousness that comes to men is a righteousness that's very high because it must meet the infinite standard of the holiness of God.

It's a righteousness that we can't gain on our own and so Christ provides it for us.

It is appropriated to us by faith, by believing, not by pursuing it, not by trying to ascend to heaven or descend into the depths, but by receiving it.

How do you receive the righteousness of God?

How does a person really become saved? Answered in verses 9 and 10. Two words are critical, faith and confession. Lordship is inherent to Jesus Christ. He is Lord. He is Lord as affirmed by the Father in His resurrection, when He exalted Him and made Him Lord.

Salvation is to believe that He is all of that and to affirm that you take your place under His sovereign rulership. Israel was ignorant of the proportions of salvation. V 11 to 18 that they did not understand the extent, the measure, the breadth, how far it really reached.

Paul moves immediately to the proportions of salvation, how far it extended.

The Jews had a very difficult time accepting a message that was also given to Gentiles. They rejected the gospel in the ministry of Paul partly because it seemed impossible that a salvation which included Gentiles equally with them could ever be of God.

Affirmed the place of faith in V 9-10. V 11 -18 the proportions of salvation. Israel was ignorant of the extent how far-reaching salvation was. Many Jews in the past and present reject Christ because of who accepts Christ.

It is very difficult for Jews to accept Christianity because so many people who are Gentiles have accepted it. They cannot understand that God would give to them truth through Gentiles and then to them. The idea of God has a covenant that embraces Gentiles equally with Jews is something they just find unacceptable.

Paul explains that one of the reasons for their unbelief and their ignorance was they didn't understand the proportions of salvation.

V 11, quoted from Isaiah 28:16, "Whosoever believes on Him shall not be ashamed." They didn't understand that salvation was a whosoever proposition. V 12, they didn't understand that there was no difference between the Jew and the Gentile.

They didn't understand that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved, that's Joel 2:32. They should have understood it because it's in their own Old Testament text. Paul quoted twice from it, Isaiah 28:16 and

Joel 2:32.

They wouldn't accept it. It was a wilful ignorance. They could not tolerate a covenant which embraces Gentiles equally to us. Remember Jonah, who found it almost too bitter an assignment to conceive of to go preach salvation to Gentiles in Nineveh. He tried to escape by going the other direction.

When he preached and the whole town repented, he wanted to die because of all those Gentiles who were getting in on God's blessings.

So, they had a problem that the proportions of salvation were of great distress to them. V14-15, How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? ¹⁵ And how shall they preach unless they are sent?

You can't believe unless you hear a message when you can't hear a message unless somebody gives it. You can't give a message unless you have been sent. You can't get sent unless somebody sends you. God sent preachers. God has sent preachers far beyond Israel.

God has sent preachers across the world with a message of salvation to Jew and Gentile.

Romans 1:16, For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.

The gospel always is extended to all. The gospel has been sent out by God. God is the sender. The message is gone everywhere, even beyond Israel.

V 15, "How beautiful are the feet of them that bring glad tidings of good things." All who have heard the gospel can celebrate the beauty of that message. Isaiah 52:7 quotes that the gospel has gone out and all who have heard it have said how beautiful are the feet of those that preach it.

Acts 1:8, But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” V 16, But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our report?” Despite such a wide call and extensive invitation, they have not all obeyed the gospel. Disobedience to the saving message. In salvation there must be decision and choice on our part. You can't come up with a crooked theology that puts everything on God's side. Does not allow within God's plan and power and God's sovereign grace for human response.

God had sent messengers out who have preached across the world. The problem is not all have obeyed the gospel. To hear under means to get under somebody in submission like a servant, to line up under somebody. They have not heard it submissively with a heart of obedience.

Salvation has inherent in its obedience. It has inherent in its submission to Christ. In all the messages of salvation there is a sense of obedience. It isn't just believing but obey. To be saved equals to be obedient to the faith. There is no such thing as salvation apart from obedience to the Lord.

Romans 1:5-6, Through Him we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for His name, ⁶ among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ;

God has graciously sent you out. For obedience to the faith among all nations. Paul is one of those preachers that God sent, and He sent him not just to the Jew but to all nations. He sent him to preach obedience to the faith.

Romans 2:8-9, but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness—indignation and wrath, ⁹ tribulation and anguish, on every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek;

Again, he says the same message goes to all and to those who do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness. Salvation is a step into obedience to the truth. Being unsaved is not to obey the truth. I believe in God, I believe in Jesus. It is believing and submitting obediently.

Romans 6:16-17, Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? ¹⁷ But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. You have obeyed. Salvation is marked out by the term obedience.

2 Thessalonians 1:7-8, and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, 8 in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who

do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Receiving the gospel has inherent in its obedience. I submit myself to the leadership, the headship, the lordship of Christ. I will obey.

Hebrews 5:9, And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him, Unto all of them that obey. True faith, saving faith is obedient faith. There is no other way. That's biblical faith that saves. V 16, But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our report?”

They are not all genuinely believing because they were not submitting. That's the problem. The gospel went out beyond just the Jew. The prophets in the Old Testament and others took it beyond just the Jew. Jesus took it beyond the Jew.

The apostles took it beyond the Jew. It extends to the farthest corners of human life but not all obey.

Paul quotes from Isaiah 53:1. Isaiah says, Lord, we really can't find anybody who believes this. The question implies that most people didn't believe it. The prophet is looking around to see if there is anybody who believes it.

Isaiah 53 is a prophecy about Christ's death. It is a description of the cross. The prophet starts that description of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ by saying, "Who is going to believe this? " The prophecy of Isaiah 53 looked forward to the coming of the Messiah and looked forward to the death of Messiah.

This verse indicates that it will require a search to find people who believe it. The gospel went far but most people refused to believe it.

John 12:37-38, But although He had done so many signs before them, they did not believe in Him, ³⁸ that the word of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spoke: “Lord, who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”

They didn't believe. Isaiah anticipated that they wouldn't believe. So tragic!

Still, it is true today that the message is preached and very few believe.

Acts 13:46, Then Paul and Barnabas grew bold and said, “It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first; but since you reject it, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles.

We came to the Jews, you pushed it away, refused it, rejected it. You wouldn't believe it.

Acts 18:6, But when they opposed him and blasphemed, he shook his garments and said to them, “Your blood be upon your own heads; I am clean. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.”

They opposed the gospel. Paul shook his garment and left. The gospel was preached to all, but not believed by all. V 17, So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. They must hear the message. Salvation doesn't come by intuition, meditation, speculation but it comes by hearing a message.

Essential element in evangelism. We must communicate the truth. We have got to have the information before we can make the commitment. The gospel preacher is to give the message. “by the Word of Christ,"is the proper Greek text.

The Word of Christ. Message about Christ.

How do you get saved? Through faith.

How do you get the message? It comes by hearing.

What is the message? Preaching about Christ. Salvation then comes to those who hear about Christ and believe. In evangelism our object is to present the message, not to manipulate people but to present the message so that they have the proper hearing on which faith can act.

They have heard the word about Christ.

The message he says is gone out into all the world. It is a message of salvation, a message about Christ. V 18, But I say, have they not heard? Yes indeed: “Their sound has gone out to all the earth, And their words to the ends of the world.

Sums up his point that the message is gone to the whole world. They have all heard it. He quoted Psalm 19:4 from the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew.

What message?

How can that be? Psalm 19 David's talking about the stars and the heavenly bodies.

Psalm 19:1-4, The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork. ² Day unto day utters speech, And night unto night reveals knowledge. ³ There is no speech nor language Where their voice is not heard. ⁴ Their line has gone out through all the earth, And their words to the end of the world. In them He has set a tabernacle for the sun,

David is saying in the Psalm is that the stars and all the celestial bodies proclaim to the whole earth that there is a God. Natural revelation. But all the stellar bodies, all the glory of space communicates that there is a God.

Paul borrows this verse and says this is a symbol and this is a foreshadowing of how the gospel will extend to all the earth, even as the testimony of the stars and the stellar bodies do. "their line is gone out,” Like a person who marked out the extremities of an area and says the testimony goes to the very limits of the perimeter.

Paul says that their sound went into all the earth. As the stars have touched the earth with natural revelation, the gospel touches the earth with special revelation. God has put His knowledge in all the earth.

Romans 1:19-20, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. ²⁰ For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse,

The whole earth has been given natural revelation, so the whole earth has been given special revelation in the gospel. To the seeking heart and the believing heart, it is available! Where there is a seeking heart there will be a message given.

John 1:9, That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world. Christ is the true light that lights every man that comes into the world. Somehow, some way God communicates His truth beyond what we might understand.

Matthew 24:14, And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.

The gospel is extended as an available truth to those who desire to find the truth.

Colossians 1:6, which has come to you, as it has also in all the world, and is bringing forth fruit, as it is also among you since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth;

They could tap into it in their world. Where a seeking heart can find the message of truth.

Paul is saying the gospel is not just one more local sect. The gospel is not one more Roman mystery cult. The gospel is not one more local religion, but the gospel is the good news which God has sent over all the world. Whosoever thing. It goes way beyond Jews to embrace Gentiles.

Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord. God showed it by sending His messengers all over the world. Their line and their sound are gone out everywhere. To the Jews, as long as you believe that this is unacceptable to you, that you can't take a faith that belongs to others beyond yourself, then you have bound yourself in ignorance because the truth of God extends to the whole world.

Tragically, many Jews rejected the gospel because it involved Gentiles. Many still reject it for that same reason.

John 7:45-48, Then the officers came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, “Why have you not brought Him?” ⁴⁶ The officers answered, “No man ever spoke like this Man!” 47 Then the Pharisees answered them, “Are you also deceived? 48 Have any of the rulers or the Pharisees believed in

Him?

The religious leaders had such power over the people. This was their defence against Christ. Jews today still reject because traditionally the Jewish leaders have rejected Christ. For them individually to embrace Christ is to go contrary to all their leadership.

One of the reasons the leaders have totally rejected Christ is because they see the gospel and the Christian faith as a Gentile religion. It is nothing new. When Galileo was summoned before the inquisition to be tried for heresy in declaring the revolving of the earth. Galileo discovered.

He was brought in to be declared a scientific heretic. What he discovered, of course, was true. But the existing establishment denied it. He said to his judges these words, "I can convince you. Here is my telescope. Look through it and you will see the moons of Jupiter."

The historian says they refused to look. They were so convinced the earth did not revolve around the sun no amount of evidence would ever make them change their mind, they wouldn't even look.

Same with Israel, they won't look. They have made up their mind. Ignorant of the person of God, ignorant of the provision of Christ, ignorant of the place of faith, ignorant of the proportion of salvation. They can't accept something that includes Gentiles equally to themselves.

Israel was ignorant of the predictions of Scripture. Paul has been laying out Old Testament quotes one after another. Jesus told them that on several occasions. They were ignorant of the predictions of Scripture. V 19, But I say, did Israel not know? First Moses says: “I will provoke you to jealousy by those who are not a nation, I will move you to anger by a foolish nation.”

Didn't they know the gospel message was a message for the whole world? Didn't they know the gospel message would go beyond the Jew?

Didn't they know there would be Gentiles included? Sure, they knew. Moses said.

Deuteronomy 32:21, They have provoked Me to jealousy by what is not God; They have moved Me to anger by their foolish idols. But I will provoke them to jealousy by those who are not a nation; I will move them to anger by a foolish nation. Day would come when God would embrace Gentile people, Gentile nation, and provoke you to jealousy about His relationship to them.

They had given their love to another god, so God gave His love to another people. This prediction of Moses could find its fulfilment only in the conversion of the Gentiles through the gospel of Christ. They were the no people brought into intimate relationship with God.

The Jews should have remembered Deuteronomy 32, they should have repented, they should have seen the truth of the gospel as it went to the Gentiles. Jesus made this so clear to them. He kept saying to them. Matthew chapters 21 and 22 He kept saying to them, "Look, I am going to turn from you to this other people. You don't want to come to the banquet? I will get some people who will come

to the banquet. You don't want to serve Me? I will find some people who do. You want to kill My servants and kill My Son? I will give out My vineyard to someone else who is worthy of it."

Luke 14:23-24, Then the master said to the servant, ‘Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. ²⁴ For I say to you that none of those men who were invited shall taste my supper.’ ” Over and over had Jesus said in His ministry, if you don't want the kingdom, I will find somebody who does. Exactly that is what He did. Moses said would happen in the prophecy of Deuteronomy 32:21. It provokes them to jealousy. V 20-21, But Isaiah is very bold and says: “I was found by those who did not seek Me; I was made manifest to those who did not ask for Me.” ²¹ But to Israel he says: “All day long I have stretched out My hands To a disobedient and contrary people.”

There is a second Old Testament proof text, from Isaiah. We have the law and the prophets here. Moses representing the law, Isaiah the prophets. Quote from Isaiah 65:1-2.

Isaiah 65:1-2, “I was sought by those who did not ask for Me; I was found by those who did not seek Me. I said, ‘Here I am, here I am,’ To a nation that was not called by My name. ² I have stretched out My hands all day long to a rebellious people, Who walk in a way that is not good, According to their own thoughts;

The Jews sought God that was their whole life. They have a zeal for God. Never found Him. But there was a people who didn't seek and there was a people that didn't ask and God had a relationship with them. Why did the Lord reject Israel and turn to the Gentiles?

Because all day long He stretched forth His hands to a disobedient and opposing people. He couldn't get them to respond. “Disobedient” literally means to refuse to believe. They refused to believe Him. God says you were ignorant of your Scriptures. If you had known the prophecy of Moses and you had known the prophecy and the words of Isaiah, you would have known that the day would come when Israel would be rebellious, and I would reach

out to the nations. I would go beyond you to provoke you to jealousy.

What happened when Israel didn't believe? Jesus started reaching to the Gentiles. When the church went out to the Gentiles, a thinking, knowledgeable, believing Jew who understood his Old Testament should have said to himself, "This is that which was spoken by the prophets. Therefore, this is the Messiah, and this is the true message."

They should have concluded that. "All day long"means patiently and continually. "Stretched forth My hands"means lovingly to embrace you, to welcome you to intimacy and to security. A loving God has reached out to these people again and again and they have resisted in disobedience.

They are ignorant of the predictions of Scripture. A profound message in chapter 10. Israel is lost. Israel is set aside. Israel is excluded from salvation as a nation.

Individual Jews in all ages have believed and been God's remnant. God has gone beyond to touch the church made up of all peoples, tongues, and nations.

Why was Israel lost? ➢ Because they were ignorant of God's person, ➢ Because they were ignorant of the provision of Christ, ➢ Because they were ignorant of the place of faith, ➢ Because they were ignorant of the proportions of salvation, ➢ Because they didn't want to get into something that wasn't exclusively for them, and ➢ Because they were ignorant of the predictions of Scripture.

They should have been able to see that this was it when they charted what happened from their own unbelief.

What a tragedy?

Is this ignorant unbelief of Israel permanent? The answer to that question comes in chapter 11. The answer is No, and we are glad for that.

Story about Thames River. Israel was blind and went around saying that it doesn't exist and showed their own ignorance.

Are you ignorant of the righteousness of God? A message that relates to Israel but has wide ramifications.