Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Romans 9-11

We are back for the first time in nearly three months to the book of Romans.

Before we dive back in, I want to give a brief word of thanks to Zach, for opening God’s Word so clearly from the book of Hosea.

For my part, I know that we as a church are blessed to have young men who aspire to the ministry and are gifted by God even at a young age to teach the truth of God’s Word to us.

Let’s have a hand to thank Zach this morning.

With that being said, let’s spend the first few minutes of our time together this morning re-acquainting ourselves with the book of Romans.

Paul’s great theme is three-fold, and he introduces it in 1:17: Righteousness, life, and faith.

Paul’s desire is to prove to his readers and to us the following: Only the righteous shall live, and that life of righteousness is only obtained by faith, only sustained by faith, and only completed by faith, and that faith is the faith of Abraham, who trusted the promise of God despite the seeming impossibility of the circumstances.

Paul proves in chapter 1 through chapter 3 that righteousness is not obtainable through our own works, thus making faith in an external righteousness absolutely necessary.

In chapter 3 Paul introduces that external righteousness, revealed through Christ and received by all who believe in Him.

In chapter 4 Paul draws upon the promise-shaped pattern established by Abraham, who believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness, demonstrating that just as Abraham believed, so also we are to believe.

In chapter 5 Paul portrays Christ as the true and better Adam, who comes to reverse the curse and make his people righteous in accordance with grace.

In chapters 6 and 7, Paul takes a break from his main argument to defend himself against those who would accuse him of antinomianism, namely that the Law is worthless and no longer useful for the Christian, by analogizing our relationship with Christ to a slave’s relationship to his master and to a wife’s relationship to her husband.

In chapter 8, Paul picks up the argument again, demonstrating that just as the Christian’s life is obtained by faith, it is also sustained by faith, specifically faith in the work of the Holy Spirit, dwelling in us and sealing us, thereby proving that we are adopted as children of God and share in the suffering and glory of Christ, the true Son of God.

The argument reaches it’s climax with a song of hope uttered by Paul, extolling the virtues of a saving and securing Christ who will certainly bring us safely home in his love.

Paul now takes his third extended break from the bulk of his argument in chapters 9-11, which will be our focus over the next few weeks and months.

These chapters are incredibly rich but also incredibly difficult, and therefore we will take as much time as we need to get through and to really understand what Paul is saying here.

To help us with this, I want to first read these three chapters in full, and then I want to give you a brief overview of the argument Paul is making, to give us a kind of roadmap of his main points.

Paul begins in verses 1-2 by introducing his lament in no uncertain terms.

He then follows it up in typical Pauline fashion by not giving a clear explanation of what exactly it is that he is lamenting.

The cause of Paul’s grief is implied somewhere between verses 3 and 5.

But then in verse 6 Paul changes course radically, making a statement that may shock your Scriptural sensibilities just a little bit: not all are Israel who are descended from Israel!

But then Paul goes on to give a massive treatise in verses 8 through 33 on 12 different Old Testament texts to prove his main point from chapter 1: righteousness and life come by faith, not by works, and not by heritage, and not by descent, but by faith alone.

Paul then picks up his lament again in chapter 10 verse 1, where he clarifies what he is lamenting: the unbelief of national Israel.

He goes on to explain that national Israel missed the righteousness that Habakkuk spoke of when he said the righteous man shall live by faith.

And in case there is any doubt, Paul invokes Moses, Solomon, Isaiah, Joel, Isaiah, Nahum, and David to prove that the righteous shall live by faith, and faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God, and the Word of God has been revealed to all men, Jew and Gentile - leaving none with any excuse.

In chapter 11, Paul reverses his lament, proving first from his own experience in verse 1 and from the Scriptures in verses 2-4 that Israel is not excluded from the covenant.

Why? Because, as Paul explains in verses 5-6, God’s sovereign and saving grace extends even to ethnic Israel.

He moves on to explain first in verses 7-10 that Israel was hardened and darkened, and in 11 he gives the reason for their hardening: so that God might bring salvation to the Gentiles.

Paul then explains the hope for the whole world in verses 12-15: if an Israelite hardening brings salvation to the Gentiles, how much more glorious will an Israelite revival be?

In verses 16-24 Paul invokes the promise-shaped pattern of the vineyard to demonstrate that just as there was no distinction between Jew and Gentile in their sin in chapter 3, so also there is no distinction between Jew and Gentile in their salvation, for all branches are part of the same vine, and all fruit comes from the same root.

The blessings of Israel are shared, through the sovereign grace of God, with the whole world.

Then from verses 25-32 Paul extols God in His unchanging purposes, His compassionate mercy, and His covenant loyalty, summarizing God’s divine purpose for all of humanity: saving a remnant for His glory.

Then, to sum it all up, not only chapter 11, not only the literary section of chapters 9-11, but his entire doctrinal section up to this point, Paul sings a song of worship, teaching us by example that the highest doctrines of God’s character and works are not dry or dull, but the most joyful concepts men and women can devote their minds to.

So it is to this magnificent portion of Scripture, standing tall with Job 32-42, and Isaiah 40-45 as the Mount Rushmore passages describing and extolling the wonderful works of God, that we turn our attention to today, and for the coming weeks and months.

As we pore over Paul’s words, my prayer to God and my encouragement to you this: rejoice and worship before the throne of God’s saving grace.

Revel in and meditate on his magnificent, marvelous, matchless grace, grace greater than all our sin, grace so amazing that it can save wretches like you and me, so amazing that it will bring us safely home.

So having seen the big picture, the roadmap, let’s take the first step in chapter 9, verse 1.

Paul’s Grief - Verse 2

I have titled today’s message “The Weeping Apostle,” because Paul’s main point here is his sorrow and grief, described in verse 2, and that sorrow and grief reflects and builds upon the pattern of Jeremiah, the weeping prophet.

Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, and Paul, the weeping apostle, stand together, speaking with one wailing voice.

Let’s open this up a little bit.

Paul describes his emotions with intensity here.

He uses the word sorrow first, then grief.

Bauer defines sorrow as pain of mind or spirit.

This is an internal pain, a pain of the heart to use Paul’s own.

The use of the word grief there seems to indicate that there is almost a physical manifestation of this internal pain.

It begins inside, but is so strong and so powerful that it causes Paul physical turmoil.

You may be able to identify with that.

If you’ve ever been in a situation where you’ve experienced immense loss, you may not necessarily feel and direct physical pain, but as you grieve, you often experience physical symptoms.

Paul’s grief and sorrow here is intense, and that is made further apparent as he described his sorrow and grief as great and unceasing.

Paul is describing himself in a deeply disturbing and deeply upsetting situation.

Further, Paul wants his readers to know just how serious and genuine he is.

There is no false grief here.

This is not a disingenuous sadness.

How do we know?

Three times in verse 1 he pleads his own sincerity.

First, he is telling the truth in Christ, second, he is not lying, third, his conscience testifies with him in the Holy Spirit.

Paul’s grief is genuine, it is legitimate, it is intense, and it is debilitating.

Paul’s grief is great but what exactly is causing it?

Paul doesn’t tell us here.

It’s implied but he’s not explicit.

So we need to jump to the beginning of the next chapter to pick up the source of Paul’s grief, the cause of it.

Who is they?

Look at 9:3.

His kinsmen, his brethren, the people of Israel.

So Paul’s deeprooted, abiding grief is prompted by the people of Israel, namely that they are not saved, that there has not been a revival among ethnic Jews.

Paul’s feelings are extreme and emotive here.

Not only has he put the strongest possible emphasis on his sincerity, the strongest possible emphasis on his grief and sorrow, he now puts the strongest possible emphasis jut how far he would be willing to go to see salvation come in a widespread way to Israel: he wishes that he could be accursed and separated from Christ for their sake.

That is incredibly intense language.

Paul is saying in effect here that he would trade his salvation for the salvation of his brethren.

Paul then spends a few moments recalling the advantage of the Jew, echoing and expanding what he described back in chapters 2-3.

The advantage of the Jew was that God had given his oracles to them.

He had revealed His word to them through Moses, and they were recipients of the laws and statues of God.

Paul expands that here, invoking the Old Testament to describe what God had given to Israel.

So for Paul, what are the advantages of the Jew?

What is good about being part of ethnic Israel?

Israel was adopted as God’s son.

Moses first declares this in Exodus 4:22, when the whole nation is declared collectively to the be the son of God, he expands the theme in Deuteronomy 14:1, where now not only is the nation collectively a son of God, but each member is himself a son of God on an individual level.

Jeremiah picks up on the theme in Jeremiah 31, in which God describes His fatherly love to Ephraim His son, and finally, in that famous passage that captured our attention just a few weeks ago, Hosea in 11:1 demonstrates that God Himself, and by extension the prophets, understood Israel to have a filial relationship with God.

Israel possessed glory.

Paul seems to have the glory of God as embodied in the glory cloud and the mercy and the tabernacle and ultimately the temple in view here.

Moses describes the glory of God as dwelling on the mercy seat in Numbers 7. Samuel understands this as well when he records the response of the daughter-in-law of Eli in the judge to the theft of the ark of the covenant: she gives birth to a son and names him Ichabod, meaning literally “Glory-gone.”

To simplify the intent of Moses and Samuel, if the ark leaves Israel, the glory leaves Israel.

In reverse, when Israel possesses the ark, it possesses the glory of God.

Israel received covenants.

Beginning with Abraham, and on down through Jeremiah, Israel was the recipient of at least four covenants, replete with accompanying blessings and curses.

Israel received the law.

Through the mouth of Moses, Israel received and possessed the law of God, the his revelation of himself in his holiness and glory to mankind, communicating who He is, what He does, and what He requires of men.

This posession is demonstrated nowhere more clearly than in the picture of the scroll of the law being placed at the hip of the ark of the covenant in Deuteronomy 31, so that it might be carried into battle at the head of the people.

The law was central to the national identity of Israel.

Israel was responsible for the temple service.

This seems to be a veiled allusion by Paul to the identity of ethnic Israel as the archetypal kingdom of priests, in other words, as those who observe the glory of the Lord and receive His word and then administer the same not only to their fellow Israelites but to the whole world.

In other words, Israel knew God so that they might make him known.

That is the sum of temple service in the Old Testament.

Israel received the promises.

This is connected with the covenants, but carries a strong connotation of blessing.

God made manifold promises to Israel throughout their history, beginning with Abraham all the way down to Nehemiah and Ezra.

The nations received promises, but not to the depth, breadth, or extent of Israel.