Gentle Judgment

Romans 11:1-10

            The question Paul has been answering in 9-11 is “What has happened to Israel’s relationship with God?  Are they still the people of God or not?  This is a huge question because Paul’s answer is that a major change has taken place.  Think of how striking his claims are.  You have 39 books in the Old Testament, 37 of which assume that Israel is on the front burner of God’s program on earth.  At this time the New Testament has not been written.  Jewish people could easily respond with, “why do we have so much printed material that speaks to us as being on the main track of God’s work on earth, and there is this little group who follow Christ and say that things have radically changed?”  Why should we listen to them rather than Isaiah, or David or Moses?   How could there be a change when God never changes?  When He has made an eternal covenant with us? 

            Do you see the problem?  This is not a subtle, minor adjustment of God’s program.  This is an abrupt change in Israel’s relation with God.  How do you know, Paul, that these things are true?  How do you know that you didn’t dream this up?  How can you be so confident?  Paul’s answer?  “All of these changes are clearly stated in your Bible.”  “There is nothing here that (1) is different from the way your God treated you in the past, and (2) is not prophesied in your Bible.”

            It was Deuteronomy 18 where Moses stated that God was going to raise up a prophet like him, and that Israel needed to listen to that new prophet or they would be in trouble.  It was Jeremiah 31 that said God was someday going to institute a “new covenant” with the nation.  It was David, in Psalm 110 that announced that God was going to raise up a new priesthood, “after the order of Melchizedek.”  All of these are saying, “things are going to change someday; stay awake and listen to my words.”  What happened?  Israel slept through the revolution.

            So the question Paul is dealing with is, “what has happened?”  “Since Israel was asleep when her own prophesied Messiah came to her, and rejected Him and hung Him on a cross, and is persecuting His church, how has God changed His operations with her?  Chapters 9 and 10 introduced us to the reason for the change in Israel’s relationship with Her God – her refusal to listen to Him, believe Him and obey.  Chapter 11 now is going to introduce us to the result of her refusal to listen – God’s judgment.

I.  God has judged His people.

I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not!  The issue is what God has done with His people.  These are the people He sovereignly chose.  This is the nation through which He has brought and is bringing salvation to the world.  He said originally to Abraham, “through you I will bless all the families of the earth” (Gen. 12:3).  These are the people to whom God gave the 10 commandments, a tabernacle and temple in which to offer sacrifices, a priesthood, a line of kings, a long string of prophets, all to accomplish His purposes for the nation and the world.  Now He is “casting them away?”  NO, He is not casting them away; but something major has changed. 

            A.  The change is enormous.  Even though God has not cast away His people, He has judged them in major ways.  Look at the different ways Paul speaks of God’s judgment in this chapter.  In verse 7, Israel has not obtained what it seeks; but the elect have obtained it, and the rest were blinded. 8 Just as it is written: "God has given them a spirit of stupor, Eyes that they should not see And ears that they should not hear, to this very day. 

            He has “blinded” them, He has “hardened” them and given them “a spirit of stupor” so that they will not see what they would normally see and hear what people would normally hear.  And then in verse 11:  I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not!  But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles.12 Now if their fall is riches for the world, and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness! 

            They haven’t “fallen,” but they did “fall.”  And verse 12, their “fall” is riches for the world, and their “failure” is riches for the Gentiles.  They didn’t fall in the sense of being finally eliminated from God’s program, but they did fall in the sense of fail (as verse 12 says).

            Then in verse 17, And if some of the branches were broken off  Israel has been “broken off.”  She has become like branches disconnected from the tree.  People don’t intentionally break branches off of a tree.  Why would God disfigure His tree by breaking off major branches?  Judgment.  And then verse 25 says that “blindness” has come upon Israel, and verse 28 states that the nation is an enemy of the gospel but still beloved.

            I don’t think it was easy for Paul to explain to his brothers and sisters what has happened to them.  It was a monumental change for the people of God.  But notice his conclusion after all these statements: “For God has committed them all to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all.”  It’s one thing to understand that God has pulled the cord and judged them.  It’s another thing to rightly understand His motive.  WHY JUDGE HIS PEOPLE?  Answer?  To have mercy on ALL.  God blinded His people, God hardened His people, God broke off branches from the tree, in order to bring them back.  MERCY ON ALL!  That means Jewish people, as well as you and me.  That’s why I have entitled this message, Gentle Judgment.  I am struck over and over in these three chapters with the graciousness of God.  He is like a Father giving His son a spanking, a whap, even a strong, painful, whap.  And as the son looks back on the whap, he realizes the gracious motivation of the gentle judgment.  Even though it may have hurt greatly at the moment, it didn’t kill him, it didn’t maim him, it didn’t ruin his ability to function, but it stopped him and made him think.

            B.  God judges us.

            We don’t talk much about the judgment of God.  We would rather speak of His love and kindness.  But if you don’t include judgment, you don’t have true love and kindness.  A father who sees that his son is going to kill himself if allowed to run out into the street, and treats him sternly, is the father who loves him.  Love without judgment for wrong is not love.  Because of God’s intense love for Israel, He judged them.  And what did He do?

 7 What then? Israel has not obtained what it seeks; but the elect have obtained it, and the rest were blinded. 8 Just as it is written: "God has given them a spirit of stupor, Eyes that they should not see And ears that they should not hear, To this very day." 9 And David says: "Let their table become a snare and a trap, A stumbling block and a recompense to them. 10 Let their eyes be darkened, so that they do not see, and bow down their back always."

            Notice that God has treated His elect nation with the same treatment He gave to Pharaoh – He hardened their hearts.  The word “blinded” in verse 7 means to “cover with a thick skin, like a callous.”  Pharaoh, remember hardened his own heart for the first five plagues.  Beginning with plague six, God began to harden his heart as a judgment for his initial hardening.  Israel has done the same thing as Pharaoh.  They have rejected God’s word, ignored His commands and rejected His Messiah.  And God has judged them.

            When we sin we release forces into our lives and the lives of others that we can’t control.  Adam and Eve ate an apple or a pomegranate, which ever it was.  Their sin was private, with no one else around.  Little did they realize what they had unleashed – desires, motives, a sin nature, damage to our physical bodies – that still affect us today.  You can choose to do wrong, but you can’t choose the consequences.  And if you are going to continue to do wrong, God is going to step in to judge you.  And even if you repent and you are forgiven, there are still consequences that come from the forces you have released that you can’t control.  You make a wrong choice and your best friend is injured, and loses his arm, and can’t keep his job which depended on that arm, and his life is different from that day on.  God can forgive your sin, but the consequences remain.

            Remember David and Bathsheba?  The Bible says that God forgave David when he repented.  But the child born out of that sin, died.  And Amnon, David’s son followed his father in committing adultery.  And then Absalom, David’s son, killed his half brother, Amnon. Later Absalom rebelled against his father and forced him out of his palace, out of Jerusalem.  And then David’s trusted captain disobeyed directions and killed Absalom when he was helpless.  It seemed as if David set loose this gang of forces that ran wild. 

            Don’t let anyone tell you that you can lie and get away with it; that you can commit adultery and go free.  There isn’t anyone getting away with it.  We are just fooling ourselves today in America, and in the church of Christ.  God judges sin, and if you are not going to take care of it by confessing it and forsaking it, He is going to take care of it.  Dr. Robert G. Lee had a sermon he preached many times on sin.  It was entitled, “Payday – someday!”  The very nature of God demands that His wrath be aimed against sin, and that those who do wrong have to be judged for it. 

            Don’t say, “but I have prayed about it.”  That doesn’t matter.  If it is wrong you don’t need to pray.  Don’t say, “but I feel good about it; it makes me feel complete.”  You may feel good for the first several thousand feet of fall after you jump out of an airplane without a parachute.  How you feel just doesn’t tell you what’s going to happen when the judgment hits.  Proverbs 29:1, “He who is often rebuked, and hardens his neck, will suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.”  God judges.  Israel has been judged.

II.  Israel rejected God (v. 3, 10:16-21).  WHY did God judge His people?  This isn’t the first time He judged them.  Six hundred years earlier He sent them to Iraq for 70 years as a punishment.  Why did He do that?  Verse three says, Or do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel, saying, 3 "LORD, they have killed Your prophets and torn down Your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life"?

            Israel has had a history of rejection and rebellion against God’s word.  Even in the past she refused to listen to God’s prophets; she refused to respect God’s holy altars.  Even in the day of the miracle working prophet, Elijah, Israel flicked off his words as nothing and wanted to kill him.  Instead, during Elijah’s time, Baal worship was becoming the national obsession.

            You would think that God would say, “let’s do something more striking to wake them up and show them their sin.”  He did, and sent His only begotten Son, performing miracles, signs and wonders.  And what did they do?  How did they respond to the good news?  Chapter 10:16-21 gives their national response in three specific areas:

            A.  A national refusal to LISTEN (10:16-18).

16 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.

            Every part of our relation with God begins with listening.  Suppose Bryan was not listening last Sunday.  He was sitting in the balcony, saw me hold up my ProArt eraser, but he couldn’t hear me.  He may have wondered what I was doing, he may have watched with interest, but would he have come down to get it?  No, apart from listening, he would not have been able to trust my words and respond.

            Verse 17 says that the source of faith is in listening, actively listening to the word of God.  You will have no faith in God’s promises until you hear them.  “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”  Put your name in there.  “For God so loved Jim Schuppe that He gave His only begotten Son, that if Jim Schuppe believeth in Him he should not perish but have everlasting life.”  God has promised everlasting life to whosoever believeth in Him.  In our passage, the same promise was given to Israel in verse 13: “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

            This is precisely where Israel had trouble.  Historically they were poor listeners.  Jeremiah the prophet observed this fault only months before they were taken into Babylonian captivity:  From the 13th year of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, even to this day, these 23 years the word of the Lord has come to me, and I have spoken to you rising early and speaking, but you have not listened.  And the Lord has sent to you all His servants the prophets rising early and sending them, but you have not listened nor inclined your ear to hear (Jeremiah 25:3-4).

            Why did they not believe?  Because faith comes from listening.  Without the listening there can be no faith.  And Israel as a nation listened poorly. 

            But maybe they didn’t understand how important listening was.  Maybe listening wasn’t emphasized in elementary school; maybe they weren’t taught how to listen.  Actually the truth is the opposite.  God constantly emphasized the importance of listening to His people.  Remember the great “shema?”  Here it is:  Deut 6:3-4: “O Israel, you should listen and be careful to do it, that it may be well with you and that you may multiply greatly, just as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.  Hear, O Israel!  The Lord is our God, the Lord is one!  And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”

            Israel quoted the great shema every day.  What does it say?  LISTEN O ISRAEL!!!  Here are people who have had drilled into their minds day after day, by the very words that they repeat, the importance of listening.  And yet, that is the precise area of their failure.  You and I face the same difficulty – listening closely to what God says.

            B.  A national refusal to TRUST in God (16).  16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed our report?"  The question, “who has believed our report?” is a quotation from Isaiah 53:1.  Isaiah seems to be deeply moved by the small number of people who have believed the great news of the coming Salvation.  And yet they have trouble believing because of their trouble listening. 

            Do you see the progression in verses 13-14?  The command in 13 is to “call upon the name of the Lord.”  In verse 14, 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?  Notice the implied process here.  It begins with listening, and then believing the person comes out of listening, and then calling or obeying comes out of believing in the person.  Without listening closely, chances of believing are lessened.  Faith starts with listening to a message, which leads to the question, “can I trust the person who gave this message?”  What Israel has turned away from is a PERSON, God HIMSELF.

            It’s not an issue of moving from NO faith to faith.  Israel as a nation was already believing certain statements they were hearing.  They were trusting people.  But they were believing the WRONG thing.  In the time of Jeremiah, instead of listening to him, they were listening to and believing Hananiah.  Jeremiah 28:15 Then the prophet Jeremiah said to Hananiah the prophet, "Hear now, Hananiah, the LORD has not sent you, but you make this people trust in a lie. 16 "Therefore thus says the LORD: 'Behold, I will cast you from the face of the earth. This year you shall die, because you have taught rebellion against the LORD.' " 17 So Hananiah the prophet died the same year in the seventh month.

            Israel was listening to Hananiah’s words, believing them, and plotting rebellion against Nebuchadnezzar.  They trusted Hananiah, of all things!  Can you imagine, rejecting God’s message, rejecting Jeremiah, God’s prophet, so that they could trust this liar, Hananiah, who was a self proclaimed prophet?  Israel had plenty of faith, they were believing people, but their faith was placed in the wrong person and the wrong message, which led them to do the wrong thing.

            The gospel is not about trusting a doctrinal statement, agreeing with a statement of faith, signing a covenant to be better.  That’s not the gospel.  The gospel is an invitation to MEET GOD HIMSELF!  He is the lifeguard, He can save you when you come to HIM.  Rev 3:20 - if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him and sup with him.  The gift God is offering is Himself. 

            C.  A national refusal to obey God’s command (16, 21). 16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel.  21 "All day long I have stretched out My hands To a disobedient and contrary people."

            “They have not all obeyed the gospel,” verse 16 observes.  The gospel has to be obeyed.  What has to be obeyed?  “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord.”  Does that say, “whosoever shall agree with the statement that Jesus is nice shall be saved?”  “Whosoever shall mentally think highly of Jesus shall be saved?”

            Here’s where Americans stumble and fall and crash and burn.  They think that belief is a mental activity that doesn’t involve a response.  So they say, “Oh, I believe; I believe in God; I believe in Jesus.  I believe Jesus died for my sins.”  Here’s the question to ask when you meet someone like that, “have you ever called on the name of Jesus Christ to save you from your sins?”  “Have you ever confessed Him as your Lord, to others?”  Faith in this passage means that someone believes God’s promise enough to do what it instructs.  You “have faith” when you believe enough to call upon the name of the Lord for salvation.  How do we know that Brian had faith in my statement that the eraser was valuable?  He came and got it.

            How did Israel respond?  They didn’t come get it.  And chapter 10 ends with that sad evaluation by God of Israel’s faith in verse 21:  "All day long I have stretched out My hands To a disobedient and contrary people."  Here’s their continual, day in, day out, year in, year out, decade in, decade out response to God’s gracious outstretched hands of invitation.  In fact, when you read Isaiah 65 where this quotation comes from, the people say in verse 5, “don’t come near us, because we are holier than you.”  Can you imagine that response?  At the center of Israel’s national life there is a carefully calculated dedication to disobedience. 

III.  In spite of national rejection, there is an election of GRACE (5-6).   For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. 2 God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel, saying, 3 "LORD, they have killed Your prophets and torn down Your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life"? 4 But what does the divine response say to him? "I have reserved for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal."  5 Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace. 6 And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work.

            Here’s the good news; people of Israel are getting saved!  The fact that the nation has been hardened by God does not mean that no one can get saved.  The fact that China is a communist nation does not mean that it can’t have millions of Christians who love the Lord.  The fact that we live in a land that aborts 1.5 million of its babies every year does not mean that we can’t have children, and love them and serve the Lord.  There is a difference between national life, national blindness, and individual responsibility.

            When Paul says, “For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin,”.he is listing the major piece of evidence that God has not cast away His people.    How does Paul know that Israel has not been cast away?  Paul himself.  He is an Israelite.  And he has come to trust Christ.  Verse 21 of chapter 10 doesn’t fit Paul.  He listened, he believed, and said to the Lord, “Lord what would thou have me to do?” on the road to Damascus one day.

            All down through history there has been a group of believers that went against national consciousness.  Even when the national situation suggested that there were none left who really loved God, there are some.  Elijah himself, in a time of nation obsession with Baal worship, had come to the conclusion that he was the only one left.  To his surprise, God announced that He had 7000 who had not bowed the knee to Baal.  When you think about that number, it was a shocking statistic.  This was the people of God, the “chosen” nation, with many privileges from God.  And yet it was composed mostly of unbelievers.

            A.  God’s Grace is selecting individuals (5-6).  Here’s the striking contrast:  Israel, the people of God, as a nation, rejected their God and His Messiah.  But at the same time, the church of Christ, which began 50 days after His resurrection, was composed entirely of members of the nation of Israel.  Individuals were trusting Christ in spite of national rejection.  Grace was providing an “elect” group.  The fact that the great majority of Jewish people were still unbelieving bothered Paul greatly.  But the fact that there was an election of Grace demonstrated that God was still at work in the nation.

            What does this phrase mean, “the election of grace?”  The word “of” in “election of Grace” qualifies the noun by limiting it.  “Of” in Greek is the genitive case.  “Of God” in “the word of God” limits our understanding of “word” to a specific one, God’s.  “The pastor of Belcroft.”  Out of many pastors around the world, “of Belcroft” limits the definition of pastor – to me!  This means that “grace” is qualifying the noun, “election.”  It is narrowing the concept of election to one type – that which is accomplished by Grace.  The word “election” means to “select,” “to pick out.”  There is a selection process going on in Israel that is described as being “of Grace.”  Chapter 10 described how the selection was made – God’s word went out to all (18), and those who heard (17) and believed and obeyed (called – 13) were “selected.”  It was an election process that worked by the Grace of God.

            B.  God’s Grace cannot be earned (6).  It looks like there is another, at least attempted, selection process going on in the next verse, an “election out of works.”  The contrast to “of Grace” shows up in the phrase, “out of works.”  The words “out of” are the Greek word, ek.  The preposition ek denotes origin (the source from which action or motion proceeds).  “If by grace, then it is no longer out of works.”  Meaning it no longer gets its start, it no longer is sourced in what you can accomplish.  Grace cannot originate from your works.  “Grace” means that if anyone ever gets saved, it is purely because of a gift.  And a gift cannot come from what you can accomplish – otherwise it can’t be called a gift.  The work, any attempt to earn the gift nullifies the definition.  Once you try to pay me for a gift, it is no longer a gift.  This election is provided by Grace, produced by Grace, sourced in Grace, and stands in direct contrast to an election out of works.

            C.  God’s Grace expects a response

            But what about chapter 10's instructions to “call” upon the name of the Lord?  That’s “work” isn’t it?  How can salvation be “not of works” when you are commanded to “call” upon the name of the Lord?

            Think about Brian’s “work” last Sunday to receive the golden eraser containing $50?  What did he “do” to receive $50?  He responded.  Did he earn $50 by his response?  No.  But he did obey my directions.

            One of our problems is that we have two definitions that come from the same word, “work.”  One definition equates work with “earnings.”  “I make $10/hour working at McDonalds, and thus I must go to work today.”  “Work” can also mean “accomplishment.”  I paint a beautiful painting (impossible) and people say, “oh, that’s Schuppe’s work” (and sell it for $1 million!).  So the first definition of work is what I do to get paid or what I accomplish or create because of my ability.

            There is another definition of work that equates the word with “effort.”  Work is the effort to move a mass a certain distance.  So when I climb the steps, that’s work.  When I exercise, that’s work.  In this case, the definition of work depends on who is doing it, and how much they are doing.  It may be work for Nana to climb the steps in our house, but her grandson, Eli wouldn’t define it as work.

            When a person “calls” on the name of the Lord they are not earning their salvation.  There may be effort there, like Brian’s effort to come down the stairs and walk the isle to receive his $50.  But that’s the effort of faith, that’s the response of faith. That’s the effort a person puts out because they say, “I believe you.”  It’s no different than a beggar holding out his hand for a sandwich you offer him.  I could have said, “raise the index finger on your right hand if you believe me.”  I could have said, “raise your eyebrow.”  I could have said, “run around the building 10 times if you believe me.”  The activity doesn’t earn a thing.  The activity is simply the response of faith.

            Here’s the difference between Paul and James.  Paul says, “salvation is not of works; you cannot earn it, it is a gift by Grace.”  James says, “but if you say you have faith and have never responded to the command, you don’t have faith, it’s dead.”  It would be like me making the promise last Sunday and Brian standing up in the balcony and shouting, “oh I believe you,” but not coming down.  Saying he has faith, without the response, is not faith.

            The bottom line was that national Israel would not “submit” herself to God (10:3).  Even though she was zealous for God and doing much “work,” she found the activities of the gospel difficult.  What kind of “work” did those activities entail? 

            Listening – the gospel starts with listening.  Rom 10:17, 14.  Does listening earn you something?  No.  Is listening work?  The truth is that listening can be hard work!  Notice also that listening is “submission.”  Your parents say, “listen to me;” you have to submit in order to listen. 

            Believing – the gospel depends on believing – meaning trusting in a person.  When Brian came down here last Sunday, some part of his coming had to be connected with believing in me, because all that I showed was a poor looking eraser, and a statement that it was valuable.  You couldn’t tell its value by looking at the eraser.  I said it was valuable, and Brian had to trust me.  The same is true with God.  God said, “whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”  How in the world can that be true?  Can it be scientifically verified?  Do we have data and measurements that we can supply?  No, you have to trust the One who made the promise.   Who is HE?  Is believing work?  Are you accomplishing something by your creative genius?  No.  Is believing difficult?  It can be very scarey, when you are placing your whole life on the word of Someone you have never seen.

            Calling, obeying, responding – Salvation depends on calling.  Do you earn something when you call well?  No.  It doesn’t matter how well you do it.  Do you have to put out some effort?  Definitely.  For some people it’s very quiet, for others, they may sweat through the process.

            In spite of national rejection, national blindness, and hardening from God, Jewish people are still coming to Christ and getting saved today, because God has not cast off His people.  In fact His judgment of them is for their benefit, because He intends to have mercy on all.  Amazing?  Amazing Grace!  Do you see how simple the gospel is?  Go share it with your friends and enemies.  “Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved!”

08/07/05, BBC am