Romans 10: Modern Israel's Rejection of God

We're going to go with you, if you will, to Romans. With the end of Romans 8, Paul had made clear that righteousness is only possible by Christ living in us.

This is how God considers us justified. Remember we've talked about justification in the book of Romans? Two ways. Anyone want to call out here? One of the two ways that justification is dealt with in the book of Romans? Anyone can speak.

Justification is dealt with two ways in the book of Romans. Remember those two?

First one is initial justification. These are my words. And the second one is, I know my son knows this because we go back and forth, ongoing justification.

So whenever we talk about justification, justification initially, and justification is being right with God, a close, designated, close relationship with God.

That's what justification is. There is initial justification that happens after baptism, where God places us close, but then He makes us responsible for continued closeness to Him, which we term ongoing justification. And we've seen that through the first eight chapters of Romans. When we get to Romans 9, 10, and 11, which is a set, believe it or not, those next chapters, if you remember, this is really going to deal with Israel three ways.

It deals with Old Testament Israel, which is roughly the entire Old Testament, and the fact that they made a covenant with God at Sinai, and then they rejected the covenant.

Boy, you can tell me as much about this as I can tell you. That's chapter 9. When you get to 10, you would love to think that that's fixed by the time we get in the New Testament in Israel, which oftentimes now principally with the law resides with Judah and the Pharisees and Sadducees, which really are those three separate tribes together.

We would love that they would have no longer rejected God and they would embrace God, but we're not there. And that's the chapter we're going to deal with today.

When you get to Romans 11, which is the third of these three parts, we talk about Judah and or Judah as a representation of Israel in general, future.

And we still see rejection in 11, and that's what we can anticipate next time we're in the book of Romans.

But here's the amazing thing. At a given point when you read Romans 11, you recognize that Judah and at large Israel does repent.

And God does something powerful. He completely restores them in line with the promises he made to Abraham.

So what we have by the time we get to Romans 11 is we see a very loving God. Through all of this, though, it requires action on Israel's part to be right with God.

This in part resonates with that topic of justification. It's in 9, which is what we were in last time, that Paul expressed concern for his brothers and sisters.

If you remember on the front end there, he talks about, in verse 2, about wanting to trade his life for theirs.

God, allow me to take the sacrifice, or to be a sacrifice, or to take on the penalty of these people not following you.

As you move forward, Paul then spends a lot of time in Romans 9 talking about contrasting the physical lineage of Israel with the spiritual lineage that was in the Bible.

It was established with Christ in the New Testament church in Acts 2. And so he's talking about all of this.

Ancient Israel, as we know, rejected God. God, though, made his Spirit available. He promised to, and he did. Acts 2.38.

We see that. We saw Christ being given God's Spirit symbolically. And he does so because of Israel's rejection, not just to Judah, because they turned their back on him.

But he does. He opens a door to all of this other segment of the world population. We term them Gentiles.

He gives Gentiles the opportunity, access to the tree of life.

Sadly, Israel's rejection of God in the Old Testament continues in Paul's time and does so today. So that's what we're going to deal with in Romans 10.

So I've entitled this message Romans 10, Modern Israel's Rejection of God. Modern Israel's rejection of God.

It is involved today. And boy, we've got a whole lot of business, a whole lot of news in, I mean, a whole lot of news accounts of late.

Particularly with the individual, well, the lawyer who, President-elect Trump, appointed ambassador to Israel.

Did you see this? And they're set to move the, they're moving it to Jerusalem. What's his name? Yeah, the embassy to, did anyone remember? You're right, they're moving the embassy to Jerusalem.

Do you remember the individual's name? It was a real, it was like Friedman or something. I can't be far off here. But forgive me here.

But we've seen a lot of this kind of play out in the news.

So that said, we're going to talk briefly about Israel today, which we know that Judah and Israel are not synonymous, though we use these terms interchangeably.

So let's deal with background to Romans 10. We won't necessarily get fancy here. We know Paul is writing. We know he's writing to the church in Rome. We know he's writing to two groups.

Principally, he's writing to Jews and Gentiles, Gentiles being first-generation Christians and Jews, second and third-generation Christians.

And if we're going to break down Romans 10 into sections, let's break it down into two manageable pieces.

The first one would be verses 1 through 13, and this would be Israel's rejection of Christ.

In fact, that happens to be the simple header that's in my New King James Version, Israel's rejection of Christ.

And then the second section is Israel's rejection of the prophets.

So what we find here again in Romans is Paul writing, and he's going to deal with this issue, Israel's rejection of God in general, but Christ specifically as we deal with verses 1 through 13. So if you will, I'm going to read verses 1 through 4, and then we'll backtrack, and I'll offer some commentary here so we have a clear sense of what's written about.

Romans 10, verse 1, brethren, again Paul writing, My heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved.

So that same earnestness, Paul still pours himself out for Israel.

These are his people. He gets this. The same people he persecuted like crazy. He has a deep love for.

Verse 2, for I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge, for they being ignorant of God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God.

So we've got an issue going here, where in essence they have an understanding, but that understanding they have created, idolized it on their own.

Verse 4, for Christ is the end of the law, for the righteousness to everyone who believes.

So 4 is a controversial verse we can deal with here momentarily.

Verse 1, I'm backtracking. Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved.

You know, one of the things, again, that we're reminded here is that Paul has moved to address those in the church at Rome.

Because he understood what the resurrection entailed.

And in this case, those who happens to be dealing with, in terms of Jews and Gentiles, they had a... I've got to think what term works best here.

They had a knowledge of it, they had a sense of it, but they weren't acting on that knowledge.

And that's the issue he has. And what he's telling them is, these resurrections will happen, but you're missing...

You're not going to be in that first one based upon the way you're acting.

You're missing, remember this language? The better resurrection. Go with me to Hebrews 11.

Hebrews 11. He gets here, and we would trust that this is Paul writing. We, for every reason, have belief that Paul wrote Hebrews.

He doesn't give any indication otherwise. Hebrews 11, verse 32. He talks here about a better resurrection.

Hebrews 11, verse 32. And what more shall I say for the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson?

So he's listing things. So Hebrews 11, by background, is the Hall of Fame for those who happen to be faithful.

And we see this listed all the way through 34, who subdue kingdom. So here's faith.

I'm heading for this. Forgive me. Oh, 36. Women received their dead race to life. Thank you for going with me.

And others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might do what? Obtain a better resurrection. Ooh, now hold on here. Most people have no idea what this entails. In fact, you know this. I know this.

I work with people all the time that really don't have any idea about the fact that there will be a resurrection.

Now the only way they can go this direction is if they believe that there is a heaven or hell.

And what Christ inspires Paul to write here, though, and to touch upon is the fact that there is a better resurrection.

Now that kind of begs the question, how many resurrections are there? I mean, the whole room can tell me this.

We've got three working here. Revelation 20 is clear on them, in addition to a number of other places.

There's the first resurrection and the first roots. There's a resurrection of all those that don't have or never have had opportunity and access to God's truth.

And then there's that third one, that third one to judgment.

And we know that from Revelation 20, verses 11 and 12. So why would this be a better resurrection and why in the world would Paul hit this?

Because he knew they weren't taking their conversion seriously. They were blowing it off. They were limiting what's involved here.

And what he's saying is you're going to miss out on a better resurrection, a better resurrection because it happens earlier.

A thousand years is a minimum earlier. A better resurrection because they are the bride of Christ. You're made Spirit immediately.

A better resurrection because it allows us as kings and priests and teachers to help Christ once he returns.

That's what he's about. You're missing this resurrection. You have opportunity to have a reward.

This is way bigger than the big screen TV we all want. Much bigger. I'm giving you the opportunity to be resurrected, Spirit being without imperfection, incredibly powerful, giving you the entire universe.

If you didn't happen to hear Dr. Holiday's message last week about what we have as our reward, and he may wind up giving it in Atlanta, which I'd probably encourage here.

But that said, with the entire universe, we have no sense of how vast God's creation is. God says, I want to give this to you.

And he's here, Paul, saying, you're not getting it because you're not taking this seriously.

So that's what he's dealing with in verse 1. The Jews could not grasp these resurrections because they were focused on physical salvation at the time.

You know what they were after? They were rejecting Christ as the Messiah. What did they want?

They wanted to go back to the days of Solomon and David. That's what they wanted.

They wanted a restoration of the temple in Jerusalem. They wanted the prowess and the grandeur that they had previously.

And because of that, they wound up creating this whole false belief system whereby they made their oral law their God, which is what we read further.

For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God. Paul notes here that they have this prideful understanding.

The problem is that they have prioritized oral law over written law.

We know this today because what do we call this once codified? This is Talmud.

Those many laws that appear in the Talmud tend to supersede God's law.

So when Christ comes, as we see all the way through the Gospels, when they should have opportunity, when they should embrace the Messiah, they knew He was coming.

They knew the law, they knew the writings, they knew the prophets, they knew inevitably He would be here. Why wouldn't they embrace Him?

But what did they do? They rejected Him. They crucified Him. That's what they did.

And so that's what Paul is addressing here. He knows that they have a zeal, but they don't have a zeal for God. That's the middle of verse 2. Not according to knowledge. In this case, they happen to be zealous but for the wrong reasons.

And without sounding like I'm accusing everyone, there are a lot of people who have great zeal.

Zeal itself is not bad. Zeal for the wrong things is dangerous. And that's what he's addressing here.

Verse 3, for being ignorant of God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God.

What they were was self-righteous. That's what we're after. They were really ignorant of God's true righteousness.

They had dismissed Psalm 119, 172, God's commands. In doing so, they had made them a burden. Christ talked about that.

1 John 5, 3 talks about they had not loved God. That's what the Scripture deals with because they weren't keeping those commandments.

They had, again, created a burden out of them. And God's righteousness doesn't work that way.

The only way true righteousness occurs is by knowing the law and keeping it.

Knowing the law and keeping it. And being, once we know, we have violated the law, whether it be by commission or omission, going to God.

That's why God expects us to pray every day. Because there are many times when I...

I'm reminded of someone in times past, the guy who said, I remember the last time I sinned. I think it was about 30 some days ago.

And I thought, oh my dear, you've got to be kidding me.

Okay, this is dangerous. The fact that at times we have no idea what we're doing, but still being in a repentant and humble attitude and going to God.

That's what God desires of us. That's what they were not doing here. That's what Paul was getting into in verse 3.

Now verse 4 is a controversial verse because most people do what with this verse?

They say the law is ended. That's what we're after here. So it reads this way, for Christ is the end. He stopped it.

We don't have to do law. That's what many churches will say. For righteousness to everyone who believes.

But we have missed what the terminology involves here. That notion end in Greek is the term teleos.

Remember the term telescope? That's what we talked about last week. Remember the term telescope? That's this word.

The notion of teleos is this. The point aimed at. The outcome. The purpose of the law.

Our aim, which is what Christ is addressing here, is not that the law has been gotten away with or gotten rid of.

You know, we know through the exact...we know through a number of places in the Gospel that Christ said, I'm not doing away with the law. I'm here to fulfill it.

So for some churches to say, well, you don't have to do law. That's not what this says. The term teleos shows up in a couple of other places. If you want to leave a marker here, we'll be right back. James 5 verse 11. Let's deal with teleos. Same term.

Teleos. James 5 verse 11. The end. The aim. That's what this word means.

James 5 verse 11 reads this way. Indeed, we count them blessed who endure.

James 5 11. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end, the teleos, the aim intended by the Lord, that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful. The aim is teleos.

The teleos is giving us something to shoot at. 1 Peter 1 verse 9. We'll go to one more scripture and then we'll go back to Romans.

1 Peter 1 verse 9. This is not dealing with a getting rid of law. This is understanding that that law is Christ. It's really a manifestation of Christ's character. Our aim is to be like Christ, to be and do that law. 1 Peter 1 verse 9. Teleos shows up again.

Being back up just a hair. This is where Mr. Beam just read. Verse 7 is, 1 Genuinely of your faith, being much more precious than gold. Verse 8. 2 Whom having not seen you, love.

3 Though now you do not see him, yet believing you rejoice with joy, inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end, the culmination, end of your faith, the salvation. This is what the culmination is. Boy, he gets really explicit. The salvation, the saving of your souls. That's what teleos is about. And that's what Paul is speaking of if we're back in Romans 10. For Christ is the end, the aim, the objective for us of the law. He's telling those to those in Rome, and he's telling those of us who happen to read and understand what this means. Verse 5. So we've dealt with 1 through 4. Let's read 5 through 9, and then we'll backtrack again. For Moses writes about the righteousness which is of the law, The man who does those things shall live by them. But the righteousness of faith speaks in this way, Do not say in your heart who will ascend into heaven, that is to bring Christ down from heaven, or who will ascend into the abyss, that is to bring Christ up from the dead. But what does it say? The word is near you, even in your mouth, and in your heart, that is, the word of faith which we preach, that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. So this whole section we deal with together. If we're back in verse 5, Paul is really quoting here from Leviticus 8 verses 4 through 5.

He's citing this. Now remember, Paul is well learned. Learning at Gamaliel, Paul being a Pharisee, Paul was... He knew the Old Testament Scriptures. Paul, I'm looking at Mrs. Davies. He was a lawyer. This guy knew backward and forward law. He was comfortable with law. What we oftentimes find is the way he cites some of this may be different than how we might think he would cite it. But if you go to Leviticus 18, 4 through 5, which is what he's citing here, that section deals with sexual, improper sexual relationships, but the language that happens immediately before he deals with that says the following, that we are to be a people who keep God's judgments, that we are to keep His statutes, that we are to live them.

It's one thing to have them sitting here in a Bible. It's another thing for them to be written on our heart and mind. And that's the expectation we have in being committed to Him. These are judgments and statutes not generated by man. They're not new laws that we're coming up with. They're not the Trump administration drafting new policy. That's not what this is. This comes from on high. This is God. And our job then becomes to fulfill these things.

The term righteousness here, and as we move forward in 4 and 5, involves one who is as he ought to be. So verse 5 reads, For Moses writes about the righteousness which is of the law, one who is as he ought to be, a condition that is acceptable to God. So in a case like this, we're right back to righteousness involves knowing the law, being repentant, and thereby God viewing us as justified.

We saw that in 5 and 6 it reads this way. Again, righteousness to find the same way. But the righteousness of faith speaks in this way. Do not say in your heart, who will ascend into heaven. We get this interesting language here. That is, to bring Christ down from earth, or who will descend into the abyss. That is, to bring Christ up from the dead.

One of the things that he's dealing with here is he's combating in part the mindset, the Gnostics of the time, that oftentimes made it seem like knowing Christ was way more complex than what we would... than what is... what God intends. And what we get here, again, by language is, this is dangerous territory. If you go back to Deuteronomy 30, verses 12 and 13, the idea that Moses is inspired to say is, don't get complicated by all of these permutations, variations on how Christ is to be followed.

How to find Christ, because at times people can over-complicate this. And that becomes the danger. It is not some... I'll use my word... It is not some crazy voyage to salvation. That's not the way God does it. In fact, pragmatically, once we go to the Scriptures, and there are a number of places we can go... If you remember Matthew 11, 20 through 30 says, my way is easier, it's light.

There's a comparison there. It's not some convoluted way. It is not... and I don't know why this came to me... It is not Doug Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. That's not what it is. It's not some unbelievable voyage that's incomprehensible. Now, I can get into trouble here, but there are many institutions and or churches that will tell you, well, you just can't know. It's just... you'll never get it, so you've got to just buy it. No, God's way is very obvious. And that's what He offers by explanation when you get to verse 8.

What does it say? The Word is near you, even in your mouth and in your heart. That is the Word of faith which we preach. What He's really saying here, more simply, is that God's truth, once revealed, is incredibly plain. It's very obvious. I mean, I can ask the choir here... This plan of salvation, which many of us stumble onto, and then God begins to work with you and opens your mind and you go, unbelievable! Commands are to be kept. Holidays are to be kept.

Ties are to be kept. All of this... Who and what God actually is. Who and what God's Spirit is. When we come to this realization, you almost feel like, how in the world do I know this? How come everyone doesn't know this now? Am I going crazy? Because as you rationalize this and you become to a clear understanding of what it actually entails, you start wondering, how in the world is God working with me in this way?

Why do I get this? That God calls a select few at this time, and you and I happen to be privileged to know that. And that's in part what we move through in verse 9. That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. Now, we'll revisit that language here, but it involves a fundamental belief. Sometimes we make 9 too easy, which is what I'll get to at the latter end of the message. But the realization is that God makes this evident to those He calls. Verse 10.

And we'll deal with 10 through 13, and that first section will be done. For with the heart one believes to righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made to salvation. So this next section, in fact, I'll use the term, let me define the term confess here, just to break with our pattern. To confess means to be in agreement with another. For with the one heart one believes to righteousness, with the mouth confession, to be in agreement, is made to salvation.

What it's talking about here is that we have to be in agreement with God. That's specifically what it's saying. And it's not saying here that we have to publicly confess ourselves. I don't have to walk to the middle of Norcross Square and start just spitting out my sins. That's not what this is after. It's saying that we go to God and say, hey, I'm not doing well here. You know what I'm doing. I'm neglecting you.

I'm not praying to you enough. I'm not studying. I'm violating this. I'm violating that. I'm prioritizing all these other things when you make clear that I should be doing these things. And so that's what that section of Scripture, verse 10, talks about. Verse 11, I'm going to keep going. For the Scripture says, whoever believes on him will not be put to shame.

What we find here, and it's helpful to understand, commentaries offer this. James and Fosse and Brown, for one, is that belief is necessary but non-exclusive. What we find is that true conversion involves our heart and mind. It takes knowledge and emotion to prompt us to action. So we have to have both working here. Verse 12, for there is no distinction between Jew and Greek. For the same Lord, overall, is rich to all who call upon him. Does this sound familiar? This sounds very much like Galatians 3, 28, which says what? Neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free, neither male nor female, for you are all in one Christ Jesus. There's no selective process. There's only obedience, and God recognizes that. And that's what he's talking about there in verse 12. Verse 13, for whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

The aim here is that, and we'll get, again, we'll address this a little bit further as we move along. We come to a recognition of truth, and then that calling upon God also you already know this includes actions. It's just can't, and sometimes people can go, well, just praise Jesus. We're doing an altar call here. Praise Jesus.

I don't know if you watch the Sunday morning ministers, and I'm not dogging on them all. I'm sometimes riding a bicycle or on a treadmill on Sunday morning watching Joel Osteen or whoever else, doing an altar call here. Hey, it's more than just that. And the whole idea that which sometimes happens is I can sin like a madman my whole life in a death's bed. I can go, praise Jesus. I'm good. That's not how it works. So, and that's in part what we have to combat here. So that's the first section. Let's deal with the second section. That first one is Israel's rejection of Christ. Second section is Israel's rejection of the prophets. Verse 14, How then shall they call upon him in whom they have not believed, and how shall they believe in him whom they have not heard, and how shall they hear without a preacher? Now this is reminiscent, if you're a member of Philip in Acts 8. If you will, leave a marker. Let's go find Philip. We're over in Acts 8. Remember here, as we see the New Testament church being established, and God is opening up truth to Jew and Gentile, we see an account over in Acts 8, and I'm going to just reference here Philip dealing with someone who has no knowledge, but wants to know how God's truth works. Acts 8, verse 26 reads this way, Now an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, this is the guy I was named after, saying, Arise and go toward the south along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. This is desert.

So he arose and went and behold a man of Ethiopian, a eunuch of great authority under Candace, the queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasury and had come to Jerusalem. The worship was returning and sitting in his chariot and was reading Isaiah the prophet. So he's, for whatever reason, resting there, and he's reading. And the Spirit came to Philip, go near and overtake his chariot. Come up to him. So Philip ran to him and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah and said, Do you understand? 31, how can I, unless someone guides me? And he asked Philip to come up and sit with him. So we get this beautiful account as they go through all of this, and he begins to understand that this guy understands a lot. He's been reading his Bible for a while. This has not been the first read in his chariot. He's read God's Word for quite a bit of time. And in counseling him, he recognizes that indeed God's worked with him. And as we drop down to verse 36, he says, Can I be baptized? And after hearing him out, he says, Yeah, you understand, and he baptizes him. So I go over here as one example for back in Romans 11. That's in part what we're seeing discussed in verse 14. How shall they call upon? God provides a way. There's a pathway to understand, and it can vary for us. Sometimes it can be magazines. Some of you in the room heard Mr. Herbert Armstrong how many years ago? Thirty, forty years ago, fifty years ago, if I go back that long. When we lived in San Diego at one house on Yukon, we were in a different house about every year for a while. In Yukon, there was this great big room on one end of the house. And of all things, we had a king-size mattress down there with no frame.

I don't know how it got down there. And for whatever reason, it had some storage stuff, and I would go down there. And at that time, that was 1981, you could pick up Mr. Herbert Armstrong in thirty-minute broadcasts, almost from like nine thirty to ten, all the way to midnight. And you could go to, what, XCRA? I think that was the call letters in Mexico. To Chicago. I could listen to him all the way around. That was just amazing to me.

Isn't that funny? And you oftentimes thought, I'm connected with people, because I knew other people were listening to it at that time. The only reason I relay that is because, again, God has worked with us in different ways. And even in growing up, having been privy to the truth, I remember that was instrumental in me coming to understanding and a desire to be baptized, to hearing that, to listening to him at night. So that's what we in part see. That's what we're seeing addressed here in 14. How then shall they call upon him in whom they've now believed? Verse 13, and how shall they preach unless they are sent, as it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things. So you see Isaiah 52.7. Again, here's Paul using Old Testament Scripture, again, what he was well aware of. The notion of beautiful, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, what he's saying is that the message is brought to people. And we see that as we move forward in 16, we read... forgive me here, my eyes are trying to track, how beautiful are the feet. Well, we'll get up to this. Again, what he's dealing with here is that God is providing an opportunity for others to believe. Oh, the term belief means... make sure I get the terminology right... lovely, desirable, timely. How timely are the feet of those who preach the gospel? Verse 16 and 17 are still going to be connected with the previous verses of 14 and 15, but they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed our report, so then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. So what Paul is saying in 16 is that the bulk of those people, hate to say this, who heard the gospel didn't believe.

He could preach all day long. He could do, you know, whatever it might be. Star Wars level antics in terms of people, and they weren't buying it. And he's recognizing this here. God's inspiring him to do so. Only a select few. And as we get to 17, then he says, this is how the order of conversion works. There must be ascending or preaching that has to happen. That's step one. Secondly, there has to be a receiving. So if we do this with a tennis ball, like I oftentimes do in my comm classes, if I take the tennis ball, it starts with me. I throw it to you. You've got to catch that thing, and then you've got to do something with it. That whole sending and receiving of messages is about as fundamental to the communication processes we get. And God says, this is what we do. I send you the message. There's just a few of you that I call. You have to receive that truth, and then you have to act on that truth. And if we are to offer a couple of scriptures, that sending involves John 6, 44. The Father originates it. The receiving, Luke 11, 28, says that we have to hear and receive truth in order to act on it. And then Deuteronomy 30, 19 says, our responsibility is to choose life. We have choices every day. God leaves it to us to be responsible to make those choices. And so that's what we see up through verse 17. Verse 18, we're right near the end. Only three verses to go. But I say, have they not heard? Again, he's going to quote scripture. Yes, indeed. Their sound has gone out to all the earth and their words to the ends of the world. You know, again, he's citing Psalm 19, verse 4 here. He's referencing the fact that God's truth goes out. Verse 19, I'm going to keep going. I can delay and move over to Psalm 19, verse 4, but I'm going to let you make a note of that. And I'm going to keep moving through 19. But I say, did Israel not know? First Moses, I will provoke you to jealousy by those who are not a nation. I will anger you by a foolish nation. So the frustration is here again that the truth was going out. Sad to say, Israel, who had opportunity to act on the truth, didn't. Now here's where I will ask you to go with me over to Deuteronomy 32.

Deuteronomy 32.

Leviticus number is Deuteronomy. I'm raising you there. Deuteronomy 32.

By background here, Deuteronomy 32 talks about the commitment, again, the agreement that Israel made with God, but they turned their back on God.

And indeed, this is the same issue that Paul's dealing with in terms of the Jews at that time, or those in the church at the time. They were turning their back on God. Verse 15, I'll just hop, skip, and jump through this. Verse 15, but Jeshua run, just messed that up, which is really Jerusalem. It's a different term there. Grew fat and kicked. You grew fat. You grew thick. You are covered with fat. That he forsook God who made him and scornfully esteemed the rock of his salvation. This whole section, as you move through it and move forward, talks in brief about the fact, if you would jump with me to verse 20. This all talks about how they wouldn't listen. How they were given truth and they decided to say, no, not doing it. Our way is better. Verse 20, and he said, and I will hide my face from them. I will see what their end will be, for they are a perverse generation, children in whom it is no faith. They have provoked me to jealousy by what is not God. They have moved me to anger by their foolish idols. Israel was noted for this. And I will provoke them to jealousy by those who are not a nation. I will move them to anger by a foolish nation.

Now this is interesting language here, because what Moses is saying, and is inspired to write, is in essence saying, God gave you the opportunity to know truth. God gave you an easier path, and you chose to turn your back on it. Now the language here is important from this vantage point.

God is going to use jealousy to provoke them back into obedience. Sometimes in class, I'll talk about jealousy, because jealousy we often associate as a bad thing. And granted, especially when we act in jealousy, in negative ways relationally, it is a bad thing. But if jealousy prompts us, for whatever reason, to care for those who are closest to us, then jealousy can be actually a beneficial thing.

So if I, let's use an example, and Sarah probably didn't know I was going to do this. So if Sarah and I go to some activity, and I notice that some guy, for whatever reason, takes an interest in Sarah, and at this activity, you're getting a laugh out of this. And all of a sudden, he spends a long time talking with Sarah, and all of a sudden, I'm over there getting a little uncomfortable. This guy's getting a little close to my wife. I think I might have to go over there and talk to him. I might have to make sure that he stays away from my wife. Jealousy is actually prompting me to probably do my duty. To be caring for her. Now, I don't have to go punch the guy in the nose. Has this ever happened? No, I'm completely converted. This has never happened to me. Baloney. Okay? Okay, in a case like this, where I've been with Sarah around, I thought, well, that's funny. Guy at the gym has taken a real interest in her. What in the world's going on there?

He's humming around her like she's honey, and he's hummingbird. I'm not really comfortable with this. Maybe I could just walk over there and stretch out in front of him and show him my biceps. Maybe that's how this works. So I offer that here, because we can relate to that. That's in part what God does. He's saying, hold on here. I gave you the opportunity for a long time to follow me. I'll go work with the Gentiles for a while.

Let's see how that one fits. And at some point in terms of Israel's restoration, they'll go, oof, we had a good. Isn't there a song? There was a song years ago, or a poem, and the song in essence said, oh my, this is Tom Hanks coming through me here.

Sleepless in Seattle, whenever his wife does. I'm quoting Tom Hanks. What am I doing in a message? Quoting Tom Hanks. And he said, I realized I had it for good. I had it really good for a long time until I lost her.

That's at some point what the Jews are going to figure out. What Judah is going to figure out. What he's driving home as a point with the Jews and the Gentiles and the church at Rome.

You have it really good. Don't miss it. Don't let this one slide. You have it incredibly good. Verse 20, we have 20 and 21 to go. 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. Those being the Gentiles. Again, Isaiah 65.1, the reference there in Scripture, makes note of that.

But to Israel, he says, all day long I have stretched out my hands to an obedient and contrary people.

Excuse me. All day long I have stretched out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people. So he said, I kept trying to get you and you're not helping me. I'm reaching out and you're just slapping my hand away when I'm trying to save you.

And that was the issue here. The term disobedience here, those who speak against, that's what that term means.

God had sent prophets one after another and Israel had rejected them and often persecuted them and ultimately they were rejecting God.

Again here, this was, as he's dealing with here, the language would be the Jews at this time, but Israel in the Old Testament. And sad to say, and we see this manifest today, many today, and I have good Jewish friends who I love a great deal and work with, they still don't get this. They're still waiting for the Messiah. He is still coming in their book. So they've held to this old mindset. And so that's what Paul is addressing here. So let's go with two lessons before we get out of here.

Verse 1 deals with, Israel turned its back on God and still does today. That's my lesson one. If we take two things from this. If any people should have welcomed Christ, the Jews really should have. They knew he was coming. They knew the prophecies. They knew the law. You know, they knew inside and out beyond a shadow of a doubt that Christ was coming. And yet when he came, they stumbled on him, didn't they? He came and he was a problem for them. He was a challenge for their power structure. And rather than embrace him and make him their foundation, they stumbled all over him. 1 Peter 2. I'm going to read you the scripture from where I just spoke.

1 Peter 2 verses 7 and 8. 1 Peter 2 verses 7 and 8 reads this way. 2 Peter 2 verses 7 and 8. Therefore to you who believe he is precious, but to those who are disobedient, the stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone, and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. That's what he was to them. He was a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense rather than their foundation. They believe that they could earn salvation by their own works, and they can't. They believe in their own faith, that's not how it works.

Faith only comes by hearing and by following God's truth, God's understanding of what God provides in terms of conversion. So we have to be reliant on God and must be faithful. The second lesson I'm asking us to take here is that conversion entails more than just saying, praise Jesus. And here's where verses 9 and 13 I noted this in Romans 10. They addressed this. Because again, some today will say, just, I believe.

You've got to just say, I believe, and you believe, and that's it. Just, I believe and you're done. I'm sounding like I'm Southern. I believe kind of came out a little bit longer there, didn't it? And the aim is not for me to do that. Conversion requires more than that. I'll ask you to go to two scriptures. Matthew 7. Let's go to two on this one. Matthew 7. These are, again, good sections to commit to memory. Matthew 7, verse 21. And this in part, I had noted this one a little while back in a separate message.

It's a reminder that we just can't do the praise Jesus or Jesus, I believe, and it's good. There's got to be more. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, I'm in verse 21 of Matthew 7. Lord, Lord shall enter the kingdom of God, but he who does the will of the Father, there's got to be action. There's got to be an understanding. There's got to be growth in terms of what we understand.

But he who does the will of my Father in heaven, many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name? Boy, these are some good things. Cast out demons, done many wonders, and what does he say? Talk about throwing down in 23. And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Who are you? Who are you? I don't know who you are. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. It just can't be praise Jesus. Now, when I say that, when we pray or when we honor God through different ways, certainly we ask things in Christ's name because we're told to do that, but we can't oversimplify, well, it's just a couple of words and I don't have to do anything.

That's dangerous. James 2, 19, through 22, here's faith in action. James 2, and we can start reading, if you will, in verse 19, Therefore, my beloved, I'm in 19, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. For the wrath of God does not produce the righteousness of God.

Therefore, lay aside all filthiness, I'm in 21, overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your souls. 22, here it is, just not a praise Jesus, it's more than that. But be doers of the word, not hearers only. Deceiving yourselves. And then it goes forward in 23, you can keep reading, the whole idea of seeing yourself in a mirror. We have to be acting on this. We can't just drop Jesus' name and expect that that works. We must know it, and we must be obedient. Belief is not enough. Even the demons believe.

We know that by Scripture. They tremble. They are certainly not on board with God. Belief requires action in all of us. God doesn't want shallow words out of us. He requires true, repentant obedience. And He requires it of all of us. Okay, so we've done two lessons. We've gone through 21 verses. As you come to Romans 11, Paul continues to deal with Israel. We've gotten a sense here of how 9, 10, and 11 complement each other.

It's here that he devotes a whole chapter to emphasizing that God is not done with Israel. God first gave Israel the opportunity to know Him, and they turned their back on Him. Even after that time, as we see and move into the New Testament, He continued to give them the opportunity to know truth. And the Pharisees, scribes, Sadducees, they turned their back on Him. The Jews in general. What Paul is emphasizing here is that as a people, as a church, Rome, the church at Rome, should not turn their back on Him, and neither should we.

God will restore Israel. And we're going to see that in Romans 11. That's what comes next time we're in the book of Romans. We'll see it in Romans 11. I'll just point out verses 25 and 26 if you want to read on your own, or read the whole chapter. But the beauty is this is going to unfold not only in Romans 11, but it's going to unfold inevitably, prophetically down the road. So I'd certainly encourage you to keep reading in Romans, keep reading in commentaries, and we'll get there in time.