16 Prayer & Legalism (Romans 10)

Krisan Marotta: All right. We are in Romans 10 today. You don't have to raise your hands, but how many of you have included I'm going to lose weight in your New Year's resolutions? Yeah, well. Especially all of us, I mean it's like half the room had a birthday in the last two months. So yeah, it I've gone on all these d diets in my lifetime, and usually I start with this great, you know, heroic purpose because I I tell myself I'm going to be disciplined and I'm going to, you know, like lose all the weight in a week, you know, or or or a month, you know, and I I have this vision that I'm going to look radically different, you know, overnight, and so I decide to eat like 500 calories or something ridiculous just to get it over with. And you know, it never lasts. And all my you know, my zealous self-discipline kind of falls by the wayside. Well, people have told me that that approach to dieting is wrong, that if you start starving yourself, then your body thinks, oh my gosh, I'm gonna die. So your metabolism slows way down, and you actually, you know, continue to burn fewer calories than you eat. So I hate to tell you this if you haven't heard, but they tell me that the real solution to weight loss is changing your life, you know, like changing how you think about yourself and the the kinds of foods you buy and and all kinds of this internal change, which of course I can't do. Um now I bring up dieting not just because it's January, but because that's essentially the issues that are raised on our passage today. Paul's going to talk about the kind of zeal that Israel had and say it's basically wrong that there's a kind of wrong-focused zeal in spiritual things just as there are in dieting, are dieting physical things. So the problem that they had was not an absence of religion, but the problem was the kind of religion. It was just like we go on the wrong kinds of diets. So what let me just set the stage of where we are in the book. Paul's answering the question: why do some people who have so little knowledge of God come to a saving faith, while other people who have all this knowledge of God and all these kind of advantages and privileges don't. And that's the issue he's dealing with. And it's part of he began this in chapter nine, and he's going to continue into chapter 10. So where we are in the book is in 1 through 8, he laid out his case for the for the gospel, that we are justified by grace and grace alone. And in now in 9 through 11, he's answering the question, is the gospel too good to be true? How do we, I mean, have we just heard this incredible good news? And is it how do we know it's trustworthy? And he's looking at that question by saying, Was God faithful to Israel? If we know that God was faithful to Israel, then we can trust that he's going to be faithful in this chapter of of salvation history. So um he's asking the part of the answer right now is, well, Israel had all these advantages, they had all these privileges, they had all this knowledge, and yet many of them did not come to faith. Does that mean God's untrustworthy? Does that mean he can't accomplish his purposes? So why do people who have all these advantages seem to turn away and people who don't, the Gentiles, seem to come to faith? So I'm gonna start actually back in 9.30 because that's really where this section starts. We're gonna try to do the entire chapter. We'll see if we get through it. So if I start talking fast about 10 o'clock, you'll know I'm way behind. I'm gonna speed to the end of the chapter. Okay, I'm gonna start in 9.30 and go through 104 right now. What shall we say then? The Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it. That is a righteousness that is by faith. But Israel, who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness, did not succeed in reaching that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone, as it is written, Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame. Brothers, my heart's desire and my prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge, for being ignorant for being ignorant of the righteousness that comes from God and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. I think what's really striking about that opening is Paul's just spent chapter 9 telling us that God saves whom he wants to save, that it is up to him and his mercy. We looked at the section where he said, Jacob I have loved, and Esau I have hated, and I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and compassion on whom I have compassion. And having made that argument, Paul turns around and says, My heart's desire and my prayer is that my fellow Israelites may be saved. So he's just said this is God's irresistible elective choice, and the next breath he's praying that the Israelites might be saved. And at first glance, that looks like a contradiction. And yet what Paul's going to go on to argue, which is actually, I think, really an incredible part of a gift, is that the way God calls is through people like you and me preaching the word and praying. So part of the gift is not just that he saves us, he forgives us, he promises to make us the people he's going to be, he also lets us be part of the plan. He also decides to use us and just our feeble efforts to bring a word of comfort or joy or salvation or love or encouragement or admonishment or whatever it is. So he invites us to be part of our workings, um, or his workings. That's pretty incredible. We're going to talk more about that when we get down into verse 14. But the question Paul's dealing with right now is here you have the Jews, they have this incredible zeal for the law. They have the Torah, they had the history of God dealing with them, they have the Exodus, they have the patriarchs, they have all the advantages of chapter 9. Why aren't they saved? And here you have the Gentiles who comparatively are ignorant, who don't even seem to care about God, and yet they're coming to faith. And Paul's answer from 932 to 10.4 is the reason is because the Israelites, by and large, are seeking God on their own. They are seeking to be righteous as legalists, seeking to do it on their own, through their own efforts, rather than recognizing their need for a savior or their need the stem block, as Paul takes it. So that raises an interesting question to me. What, I mean, people say, oh, the biggest problem we face in America today is casual Christianity, that we have all these people who claim to be Christians, but it's just kind of a Sunday thing, and then it goes away on, you know, Monday morning or the minute they walk out of a church building. And there's books and articles written today on how do you make Christians act like Christians? How do you get them kind of motivated and to take their religion seriously? And the usual remedy is, oh, let's get them involved. You know, let's let's um get them involved in activities of the church. Um we have all these programs that we get people immersed in, you get them on this committee or that committee or in that group, and then you have this there you make them continually busy with all the stuff of the church, and that will immerse them in the religion and make them take it seriously. I think one of the implications of this passage in Paul's argument is that's what Israel was doing. They were busy for God. They were out there doing things, and it's not a substitute for real religion. Uming up a pot of spoiled meat doesn't make it fresh. Or as C. S. Lewis said, no clever arrangement of bad eggs will make a good omelet. Just putting people to work isn't the answer. The answer is not a program, the answer is a person. The stumbling block mentioned in 9 30. The answer is you have to come face to face with Jesus Christ and who he was and the claims he made. And as Paul argued in the first eight or nine chapters of the book, our efforts are going to fail. We we don't need to try harder, we need to accept a savior. So the first answer to the question is the reason you have people with all this knowledge and zeal and energy not being saved is because they're trying to do it on their own instead of looking for a savior, looking outside himself. Let's see how he develops that. This is 10 5. For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. But the righteousness based on faith says, Do not say in your heart, who will ascend to heaven, that is to bring Christ down, or who will descend into the abyss, that is to bring Christ up from the dead. But what does it say? The word is near you in your mouth and in your heart. That is the word of faith that we proclaim. Because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, Whoever believes in him will not be put to shame. For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him, for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. So his argument in this little section is the righteousness that's based on the law, which is the kind of righteousness Israel is pursuing, is asking the question, what shall I do to win God's favor? What shall I do to gain grace? What shall I do to gain God's blessing? And I think Paul's perspective is that's the wrong question to ask. That might even be a deadly question to ask, because if the righteousness depended on us doing it, what it would take to accomplish that is beyond us. We cannot do what it would take to deliver our salvation. Um, and I think that's what he means by who will descend into the abyss or who will ascend to heaven. You would have to climb up to heaven and bring Christ down to gain your salvation, or you would have to go down in the grave and resurrect him from the dead to bring about your salvation, and you can't do it. Christ that is beyond us. I think the idea behind verse 6 is don't imagine that you're going to do all these heroic and disciplined deeds, and then tell yourself, you know, hey God, look at me, look what I have done. Aren't you pleased with me? Um so don't tell yourself, you know, I'll climb the highest height and I'll find the Lord there, I'll descend into the depths, I'll endure the greatest trials, and then God will be impressed. No one can do that. At our best is not good enough. So that's the that's the question, what shall I do to win God's favor, is the wrong question to ask. And that's part of Paul's anguish over his fellow Israelites. He's saying, that's the problem. They're trying to find righteousness on their own rather than discovering the gift. It's this commitment to I'm going to do it myself, means they're missing the opportunity. So what needs to be done to bring about salvation is far beyond our ability. Now, the incredible message of the gospel that he spent the first eight chapters arguing is it's been done. It's all been done for us. It's a gift. All we have to do is believe it. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. There's the wonderful good news. He's just announced that it's beyond us. We can't do it on our own, but it has been done for us. All you have to do is confess and believe. Now that's a problem for us, right? Because we're prideful. We want to be the kind of people that could do it. Pride says, you know, I want to show God, I want to show him how good I am, I want to show him how worthy I am. You know, as with diets, we find ourselves with this zealous, you know, eagerness to reform. Things are going to be different this time. This time I'm gonna I'm gonna do it right, I'm gonna get shaped up, I'm gonna make this contribution, I'm gonna change myself, and it doesn't work. And I think Paul's giving us Israel as an example of that kind of thinking that if you go through your life determined to live up to the standards and to keep them on your own, you're going to fail. So Paul says Israel pursued a law of righteousness, but they pursued it by works rather than faith. So what is the basis for a disciplined life? Am I telling you to just, you know, have no self-control or um I don't know what another synonym for that is. I think there is a basis for living a disciplined life, but it's gratitude. It's not zeal in the in the sense of the Israelites. So the proper basis to seek after the law or and to strive to do the right thing is gratitude to God for what He's already done for us. And lives that are already filled with His presence, that are and respond to that in gratitude and humility, then yes, we want to keep the law, we want to do the right thing, but we don't do it to say, hey God, look at me, look how good I am. We do it to say thank you for what you're doing in me. Thank you for the work you've you've already started. So instead of making a gift of our lives to God, we want to receive the gift of life from Him. You know, we just finished the Christmas season, and I don't know about you, but I really like finding just the right gift to give someone, and it's so much fun when you find something, you think, they're really gonna like this, they're really gonna want it, and they don't even know they want it. But when I give it to them, they're gonna be so excited. And part of that is, I mean, that's great, you want to please people, but part of it is, and I want to look good. I want my kids to know what a great mom I am. You know, I'm in contention for mom of the year because I found the great perfect Christmas gift. Um and at its heart, Christmas is not really about gift giving that we do, it is about the gift that God gave us. So, I mean, I'm not trying to say, yes, you can enjoy Christmas gifts and finding the right gift for you know your loved ones, but at its heart, Christmas is all about the gift that God gave us and how Jesus squeezed himself down into the form of a baby and gave up the privileges of heaven to live a life of ostracism and rejection and finally dies a criminal on the cross. So he is God's gift to us, and that's something we don't deserve, and not something we should try to earn. Um you probably heard the song, you know, the little drummer boy, probably more than you wanted to around Christmas time. But there's there's some interesting lines in that. You know, you I'm sure you know this the old Christmas song about the little boy who observes the wise men and they're bringing all the gold and the marvelous gifts of the king, and he says, I have no gift to bring that's fit to honor him. I'm a poor boy, and then he finally decides I'll play my best for him. Well, if he's saying, Thank you, that's a good thing. But saying, I'm gonna make the best version of me possible and hand that back to God to put it in the most attractive package just to make God happy, that's probably wrong. That's dangerous. The line, I have no gift to bring that's fit to honor him, is always true. We don't have a gift, and we never will have that is fit to honor God. The best version of me is not good enough, no matter how zealous or energetic or focused or whatever I am. I can't make myself fit. But doing your best in gratitude is uh is a good thing. Doing your best to show God how good you are is a dangerous thing. Okay. Um so this raises the next question he's gonna talk about. If everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved, then how do we get people to call on the name of the Lord? How do we do that? How does that come about? Um so that's I think what he's gonna take up next. In verse 13, he says, Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord, and now he's gonna say, and how does that happen? And he gives it to us basically in reverse order. So look at 1014. But how are they to call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, How beautiful are the feet of those who preach good news! But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us? So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. So Paul says in 13, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved, and now he's, I think, answering the question, and how do we do that? How do we call on the name of the Lord? And he gives us this um kind of in reverse order um explanation. Now, I didn't touch on this too much, but I think earlier in the chapter, when he talks about um, where is it, confess with your mouth and believe in your heart, the first part of that is it's got to be a real, genuine, life-changing event. So the heart has to be involved. It's not just, oh, I could get all the right answers on a theological test, you know, and I I know the right answers, and my doctrine is perfect as and impeccable. Um it's not how you'd vote in a theological debate, but there has to be a deep inward change. The heart is often a metaphor for me at my innermost being. So who I am, then the Bible uses synonyms for that, your soul, your um sometimes the mind, um, your will, your emotions. But when they want to talk about the whole picture, they talk about the heart, who I am, what makes me me. And I think what he's saying in uh back up in what is that, nine, that it's not just what you say, it's got to be this whole life-changing who you are, how you see yourself kind of event. So the mouth must acknowledge it, but it's acknowledging a real change that has taken place inside. So sitting in church every Sunday doesn't make you a Christian any more than sitting in a garage will make you a car. It's not enough to just go through the motions, it's not enough to just come and sit under the hearing of the gospel. You have to believe it, embrace it, let it penetrate your heart and change you. Um so I think part of this is there has to be a time when you personally call on the name of the Lord. So, how does that happen? 14. Says, but how are they to call on him in whom they have not believed? So behind the call is is belief. There has to be something that you know, something that's changed. Your mind is engaged. Um, that's interesting to me because we often think we want to move people's emotions. We want to get them stirred up somehow to realize the death in their life or the depression or the despair. And that's okay, that's part of it, but at the same time, we have to give them something to believe in. So it's not enough just to move the emotions without also giving them the content of the faith. What must you turn to? It's not just that you're turning away from something, but you are turning to something, and they have to know what they're turning to. So the heart of the gospel is who was Jesus Christ and what did he do for you? And that has to be understood and embraced. And those claims, I think, distinguish Christianity from all the other religions and philosophies and mysticism or theories or spirituality. The essential difference is who was Jesus and what did he do for you? And those claims are grounded in history. Christianity is objective truth. It's not, we can point to objective historical facts. This person lived, died, was resurrected. There are witnesses, there are good evidence to testify to it. So all of these are historic events, objective truth, and when you evangelize or when you talk to people, it's not just that you want to move their emotions, but you want to give them something to believe in. So there's a content of faith. So behind the call is belief. Behind, I kind of skipped ahead, behind belief is the message, the message of the gospel, the message of who was Jesus and what did He do for us. And then behind the message is the messenger. So he says, How are they to believe in him on whom they have unheard? Um, I'm on the wrong verse. How are they to hear without someone preaching? There has to be a messenger speaking forth the message. And think about today how many ways you can preach. You know, we've got television and radio and cassette tapes and DVDs and the internet and these multimedia presentations and films, and you can fling the message up to satellites and bounce it all over the world. And yet, no matter what form it takes, there's a person behind it. Someone has to deliver the message. And that's pretty amazing because it means God's chosen us to be part of the plan. He doesn't just, you know, snap his fingers and make it all happen, he engages us in the process. So, and then the last thing behind the messenger is the sender. How are they to preach unless they are sent? It all goes back to God. So if you put it in chronological order, first you have the sender. You have God sending someone. God sends a messenger, the messenger delivers a message, the person believes and then calls on the name of God. So So he is, it all goes back to God. So at first it looks like, okay, is this a contradiction? Because Paul just said in chapter 9 that this was all up to God and election and his sovereign choice. Now he's saying we have to go out there and preach, but it all comes back to God. It all starts with the sender. Jesus himself echoes that in Mark chapter 9 and also in Luke 10. He says, Pray that the Lord of the harvest to the Lord of the harvest that he may send forth laborers. It starts with God sending. And it's an interesting quote he picks from Isaiah, How beautiful are the feet of those who preach good news. When I first looked at that, I thought, oh great, he's talking about teachers. Isn't this wonderful? It's a nice old, you know. I always tease my brother-in-law because he's a lawyer, because I say, you know, all the Bible ever says to lawyers is, whoa. You know, woe to you lawyers. But teachers, you know, we get this great, ooh, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach good news. But I looked up that Isaiah quote, and what he's talking about, it's in a section of Isaiah where God announces that the exile is going to end and the Assyrians are not going to oppress them forever. And the the person who brings the good news is the runner who comes from the battlefield and says, the battle's over and we won. So this is not necessarily the prophet or the professional called by God kind of teacher or preacher. This is any foot soldier who runs from the battlefield back to the city and says, Your God reigns, is actually what it announces in Isaiah. The battle is over, God's won. Look what he does. And that's all of us. We are all those foot soldiers running from the battle to say, God saved me, and he can save you. Look what our God did. You don't have to be professionally trained, you don't have to be, you know, go to seminary and take uh classes on how to teach the gospel. You are a soldier in the army and you can announce that. And I think that's kind of what Paul's got in mind here. How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news. It's just all of us going forth, living our lives, and saying, look what God did for me, it's the same thing is open to you. Okay, so the question then is if you've got God sending a messenger who delivers a message that results in belief and someone calling on the name of the Lord, why does unbelief remain? If if God just could go through this whole process and we're all part of it, why wouldn't all of Israel or all the Gentiles turn to God? So that's the next question he's going to pick up in verse 16. But they have not all obeyed the gospel. So there's the question. If we go through this process, why does unbelief remain? But they have not all obeyed the gospel, for Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us? So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have, for their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. But I asked, did Israel not understand? First Moses said, I will make you jealous. I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation. With a foolish nation, I will make you angry. Then Isaiah is so bold as to say, I have been found by those who did not seek me, I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me. But of Israel he says, All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people. So the question he's asking, I mean, this is not necessarily the question, what about people who've never heard the name of Jesus? Um, because he's describing Israel here, and he's asking, why doesn't Israel believe? But um I just as an aside, what do we do with that question? What about people who've never had a chance to hear the gospel? I think Paul would answer, he kind of hints at it his here in his um in verse 18 by his quote from Psalm 1, Psalm 19, 4, their voice has gone out to all the earth and their words to the end of the world. That's taken from the first part of Psalm 919, or 19, I'm sorry. And it's one of those passages where he says, The heavens are telling the glory of God and the firmament proclaims his handiwork. He's basically saying, There are no people that have not heard about God. Look around, we have enough evidence to know that God exists. Um it's the same thing he he echoed in chapter one. For those of you here last fall, um, one, nineteen, and twenty, he says, everyone is without excuse because we have enough evidence to know that God exists. So I think the answer to that question, what about people who've never heard the name of Jesus, is well, there are no people that that don't have enough evidence to point them that God exists. And usually in that section, you can say, but you're not one of those people, because I'm talking to you right now. So that's off in the smoke screen. It was interesting. I was working on this, and I had um Monday while I was getting dressed, I had the Fox News channel on, and Brian, I don't know if you ever watched this, Brian Kilmead was interviewing a guy who's running for governor right now, I think in Minnesota somewhere, and he's a self-proclaimed vampire. And he's announced this to the media. He doesn't like the term vampire, he preser prefers the term um, what did he say, blood feeders or something? Really wonderful. So Brian was interviewing him, and I don't know if you've ever seen the Fox and Friends show. Brian's kind of the class clown on the show, and yet he said something really clever in this interview. He was asking this man what he believed, and the man said, Well, he believes in Jesus and Lucifer, but God he has a problem with. So, because if you read through the Old Testament, God's always killing innocent people. He says, you know, think about all the innocent children in Sodom and Gomorrah that got wiped out, and um, what was his other example he gave? The flood, all those innocent kids and babies got wiped out, and what kind of God would do that? And then he said, ultimately, too, on the cross, Jesus says, My God, why have you forsaken me? So God forsook his own son, and and this man said, Well, I would never forsake my own children. Now, he divorced his wife and is living with someone else, but you know, he wouldn't forsake his children, just their mother. So he's going on and on about this, and Brian stopped him and said, Excuse me, did the sun come up today? And the man said, he was just totally dumbfounded and said, Well, I don't see what that has to do with anything. But what was Brian trying to point out to him? You have enough evidence that God is here and that he's good. The sun came up today. The world is going on. I thought that was pretty amazing kind of argument coming from him. It's the same thing. We have enough evidence to know. The sun comes up, we are blessed, the rain comes, there the world goes on in all its infinite detail. So, anyway, so the qu that was an aside. What about people who've never heard? We have enough evidence to know that God is out there and he exists. That ought to start the ball rolling to find out what kind of God he is. But the question he's dealing with here is what about Israel? Why doesn't Israel believe? And he gives two explanations. Have they not heard? No, they've heard. They've had the law, they've had the prophets, they have all the natural revelation. And then the second one, well, what if they didn't understand? What if they heard the gospel but they didn't really understand it? Um that that's an interesting question to raise because that says, does that mean that uh can we find fault with the messenger? Can we find fault with the person telling the gospel? Could the preaching have been better? Or, you know, what if they we'd use different words or persuaded differently or tried a different approach, or maybe come on a different day, or with a different kind of a package? Um I think that gives hope to people like you and me because if someone doesn't respond, do we say, well, it's my fault because I just wasn't a good messenger. I just didn't deliver the gospel well enough. And Paul's saying, No, that's not the case either. It's part of the plan. Part of the problem, um, the problem is not the messenger, it's that God is doing something else. God is going to make Israel jealous with the Gentiles. And he's going to develop this in chapter 11. We're going to talk about this a lot more next week. But he says they rejected, if you look through the section, because of their pride and stubbornness and and uh obstinacy. There's a lot of references in here to their um God, you know, it ends with them saying, God standing there holding out his hands to a disobedient and contrary people. Apart from the grace of God, none of us would respond. We would all turn our backs and say, No, I'd rather be God. So the reason there's not belief is because we want to do it ourselves. We want to be um the people we want to show God how good we are. We don't want to receive the gift. Um so he's gonna develop I'm not gonna go into too much of that because we're gonna talk about that a lot more in 11. He's gonna answer why God chose to make them jealous and why he chose to bring the Gentiles in this way. I just have one more thing on this. I I was gonna say this with my Brian story. I forgot. I was gonna put this on an overhead, but it's too dark. But I'll hold it up just so you can see that it really does exist. This is an old Bloom County cartoon. Um it's the guy that writes Opus, Berkeley Breathed, or where's his name on here? And this was his old one, and this is Oliver, and he's sitting on his the roof of his house gazing up at the stars, and then he's gazing up at the stars again, and in the third panel, he's gazing at the stars, and the stars have reinformed themselves, and they say, Repent, Oliver. And then in the last one, he's looking and he says, bloody difficult to be an agnostic these days. I thought, yep, the heavens are telling. I mean, it's out there, the evidence is there. So, um, where how do I sum this all up? So he's answering the question, why doesn't Israel believe? And part of his answer is they rejected Jesus, which he starts the chapter with, and they remain obstinate and difficult and contrary to God. And he's gonna pick that up again in 11 and talk about why God would let them continue that way. So, um, ooh, I it's only five after ten, and we got through the whole chapter. That's really amazing. Good. Um, I was afraid we weren't gonna make it. All right, well, let me pray to close this and then uh give you a chance to ask some questions. Father, thank you for being a God who loves us and saves us. Um and for patiently and lovingly waiting for us and separating your wrath from your justice to give us time to turn to you and to repent. Um we thank you for it, and we thank you that you've drawn us to yourself, that you've given us grace upon grace, that we might be drawn to you, and then be part of your plan and be tools in your hands to bring and spread this joy and peace to others. And we pray that you would take these words Romans and and work them into our hearts and throwing away anything that was misspoken or is confusing, and teaching us your truth. We give thanks to you for Jesus and how the wonderful gift he gave us for his coming, his presence in our lives, and his lordship in our hearts. In his name we pray. Amen.