Sermon Tone Analysis

I Am Not Ashamed: Isaac, not Ishmael— Jacob, not Esau

Text: Romans 9:6-18

Theme: Israel is God’s chosen people and most of them are perishing, cut off from the Savior, Jesus Christ.

And the reason it is a crisis for you, and not just for Jews, is that, if God’s promises to Israel do not hold true, then there is no reason to think his promises to you will hold true.

Date: 10/16/2016 File name: Romans_2016_28.wpd

ID Number:

The forth century theologian Augustine once said, “The Bible is shallow enough for a child to wade in, yet deep enough for an elephant to swim in.”

This morning we arrive at one of those texts deep enough for the elephant to swim in.

The Apostle is dealing with an acute crisis.

Israel— Paul’s kinsmen in the flesh— have, by and large, rejected the Gospel, meaning they’ve rejected Jesus.

It weighs heavy upon his conscience.

But it also weighs heavy on the conscience of a segment of the congregation in the Church at Rome.

Remember this is a mixed congregation.

It’s a congregation comprised of religious Jews who have accepted that Messiah has come, and have received him by faith.

It is also a congregation comprised of pagan Gentiles who have heard the Gospel of Christ, and have come to faith in the Savior of the world who happens to be the Jewish Messiah!

Paul has spent the first half of his letter to this church explaining the matter of their sin, the nature of their salvation, and when we get to chapter twelve the importance of their sanctification.

But for now, the Apostle is dealing with the acute crisis I introduced you to last week— the people of Israel have rejected their Messiah.

Of all the people in the world who should have recognized the Savior when he arrived it should have been them: “the people of Israel.

Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises.

5 Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised!

Amen.” (Romans 9:4–5, NIV84).

Everything in their history, and their heritage was pointing to this moment, and they missed it.

Israel are God's chosen people, but most of them are perishing, cut off from the Savior, Jesus Christ.

It’s easy for us to just kinda shrug and think, “That’s their problem, so how does it affect me?” Well it does affect you!

And the reason it is a crisis for you, and not just for Jews, is this: If God's promises to Israel do not hold true, then there is no reason to think his promises to you will hold true.

Our faith is worthless if God proves unfaithful to His covenant people.

If God’s word can be defeated by Israel’s rejection, then what assurance do we have that God’s redemptive word, spoken in Christ, may not also finally fail for us?

So YES, this passage does affect you.

After all he has said leading up to this chapter, the Jews in the congregation at Rome are scratching their heads and asking the question, “Have God’s promises in our Scriptures failed to come true?

Has God reneged on His assurances to us?”

I. THE ASTOUNDING STATEMENT

“It is not as though God’s word had failed.

For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel.”

(Romans 9:6, NIV84)

1. it is here that the Apostle picks up his argument with an astounding statement— not all Jews are Jews ...

a. they may be Jews according to the flesh, but they are not Jews according to the Torah— the Jewish Scriptures

b. they may be Jews by genetic heritage, but they are not Jews by faith

1) that is tough stuff, and must have been difficult for Paul to write

2) it is difficult for the church to preach because it immediately opens us to charges of anti-Semitism

2. this statement had to land like a bombshell upon the hearts of Paul’s Jewish readers

ILLUS.

Imagine that you are a young Jewish Christian in A.D. 57— the year Paul wrote Romans— and that you’ve just read the first eight chapters of this letter.

Your question is going to be, “But what about Israel?

I understand the Gospel.

I understand what it means to be justified by faith in God’ Anointed One, that it is Christ’s atoning work that is the ground of our salvation.

I understand that I am one with Christ and filled with his Spirit.

BUT, what about Israel?

Was God’s purpose in choosing Israel just a temporary covenant?

Have His promises gone unfulfilled?”

a. if you’re a Jew in the Church at Rome reading the Apostle’s letter your mind immediately goes to a passage in the Book of Numbers ...

“God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind.

Does he speak and then not act?

Does he promise and not fulfill?”

(Numbers 23:19, NIV84)

1) God does not lie, and ...

2) God does not renege on His promises, so ...

3) why has Israel not embraced her Messiah?

b. the Apostle is equally concerned about this

1) Paul undoubtedly has family and friends who have rejected the Gospel, and he grieves for them with great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart (9:2)

2) every time he preaches Christ crucified in a Synagogue, and is thrown out, he grieves for them

3) and, if it were possible, he would strike a deal with God, giving up his own salvation if it would mean the redemption of the nation

“For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race,” (Romans 9:3, NIV84)

3. the lostness of Israel is a great burden on Paul’s heart that sends him deep into the Scriptures to find an answer to the question: “Has the word of God failed?”

a. the Apostle’s immediate answer is, “It is not as though God’s word had failed ... “

1) yes it is true that most Israelites are accursed and cut off from Christ, and yes it is true that God chose Israel, and made a covenant with her, but No, God’s word has not failed

b. why has the word of God not failed?

1) because the accusation is based upon a false premise

2) just because a person is a physical descendant of Israel does not mean that person is truly an Israelite

c. everything in the next three chapters is an argument in support of his assertion

4. so what is the Apostle’s rational for make such a bold claim seemingly in contradiction to the outward facts?— “... not all who are descended from Israel are Israel.”

a. the Apostle is going to say the same thing several more times and will provide Old Testament proof

II.

THE ANCIENT EXAMPLES

“and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.”

8 This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.

9 For this is what the promise said: “About this time next year I will return, and Sarah shall have a son.” 10 And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, 11 though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls— 12 she was told, “The older will serve the younger.”

13 As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”

14 What shall we say then?

Is there injustice on God’s part?

By no means!

15 For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”

(Romans 9:7–15, ESV)

1. as we move into this passage, let me warn you up front that this section of Scripture may be hard

a. keep in mind what God said to the Prophet Isaiah: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD.

9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

(Isaiah 55:8–9, NIV84)

2. the Apostle’s examples are from Old Testament history with which the Jewish Christians at Rome would have been well acquainted

A. ISAAC AND NOT ISHMAEL IS THE SON OF PROMISE

1. in vs. 6-9 the Apostle tells the story of God’s choice of Isaac over Ishmael

a. vs. 7 Paul is blunt— not all the children of Abraham are of Israel

1) he’s dealing with the story that comes to us from Genesis 21— let me give you the “Reader’s Digest” version

ILLUS.

Abraham has come into the Promised Land.

In Genesis 12:2 God tells Abram, “I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great,” even though in Genesis 11:30 we’re told that his wife, Sarai is barren.

For 25 years Abram and Sarai have lived in Canaan, when God speaks again.

Once again Yahweh promises Abram a son coming from your own body.

Sarai, well into her seventies by this point, assumes she cannot become the mother of such a child, and so encourages Abram to become sexually involved with her young servant girl, named Hagar.

In time Hagar conceives and gives birth to a son whom they name Ishmael.

For 13 years Abram and Sarai assume Ishmael is the son of promise.

That is until God shows up again, and promises to make Abraham a father of many nations, and He will accomplish it through Sarai, and she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her, (Gen.