The True Israel | Verse By Verse Exposition of Romans 9:6-7

Scripture

• Romans 9:6–7

About this sermon

Introduction: The intense sorrow that Paul knows over the lostness of the Jewish people, was not just personal, it was theological. God related Himself to this people by covenant. To them belonged great privilege, as Paul noted in the first 5 verses. As unbelievable as it was, this people who had been given so much, had crucified their Messiah. This is what Peter preached on the day of Pentecost. He preached that ISRAEL needed to recognize their error. ESV Acts 2:36 Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified." This is the same witness that Peter and John gave when they were called before the council for healing a man in Jesus name. ESV Acts 4: 5 On the next day their rulers and elders and scribes gathered together in Jerusalem, 6 with Annas the high priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander, and all who were of the high-priestly family. 7 And when they had set them in the midst, they inquired, "By what power or by what name did you do this?" 8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, "Rulers of the people and elders, 9 if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, 10 let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead-- by him this man is standing before you well. 11 This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. 12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved." Again, not just emphasizing the truth of who Jesus is and what He did, but the truth about ISRAREL, and what they had done with Jesus. In those earliest days of the church, it appears that there was even the hope that the Jewish people would immediately recognize their error and turn in mass to the Lord Jesus Christ. In the sermon that Peter preached following the healing of the crippled man in the temple, he said this. ESV Acts 3:17 "And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. 18 But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled. 19 Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, 20 that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, 21 whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago. But by the time that Paul writes Romans, toward the end of his 3rd missionary journey, around AD 56, it had become apparent that Israel would not be characterized, for the moment, by mass conversion, but by mass rejection. That not only broke the hearts of converted Jews; it raised a large theological question. WHAT ABOUT THE INVESTMENT GOD MADE IN ISRAEL? WHAT ABOUT THE ENTIRE OLD TESTAMENT HISTORY WITH THE NATION? WHAT ABOUT THE COVENANTS, THE PROMISES, THE FATHERS, THE LAW, THE GLORY, AND ALL THE OTHER PRIVILEGES THAT BELONGED TO THIS PEOPLE BY GOD’S CHOICE? And, what about the spiritual security that belongs to the plans and purposes of God? What does Israel’s unbelief say about the Word of God? Did God’s investment in Israel represent a miscalculation on His part? He made promises to them, will He not fulfill them? And if He will fulfill them, how do we think about their current rejection of Christ? Paul answers these questions, and he knows the importance of the answer. Unbelieving Jews did not see the rejection of Jesus as a commentary on them. They saw the mass rejection of Jesus as a commentary on Jesus. How could so many be so wrong? ISRAEL’S UNBELIEF DOES NOT REPRESENT A FAILURE OF GOD’S PROMISES (vs.6) It is not the case that God purposed something that did not come to pass. Israel’s unbelief is not a failure of God’s plans. It does not represent God’s promises coming short of their goal. God does not declare things that He cannot deliver. THAT IS THE SENSE OF THE PHRASE “WORD OF GOD” in this verse. The word of God, here, is the revelation of God’s purpose. His plan. His predeterminations that have been made known. What God says He will do; He watches over His Word, to perform it. Jeremiah 1:12 Then the LORD said to me, "You have seen well, for I am watching over my word to perform it."

Topics

• Bible Study
• Prophecy & End Times