Turn to Romans chapter 10. Romans 10. We've been away from Romans for three weeks, but we're back. Romans chapter 10. Last time, as we were in Romans, we focused on hearing the gospel. Brief reminder of where we are, you remember back up in verse 13? He said, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. But then the problem comes in 14. But how can people call on him if they haven't believed? And then he goes through this chain of five things. And we attacked it, you remember, from the other end. A person must be sent in order to preach. And then people must hear so that they can believe and call on the Lord. And we found out that the breakdown is between the hearing and the believing. Back up in verse 16, not all have obeyed the gospel. And we talked about obey and faith. Basically, people did not believe the gospel in the sense of obeying it. And you remember Jesus says, He who has ears, let him hear. It was right in the midst of telling the parable of the sower. And Jesus was saying in so many words, everybody hears with physical ears, but there's a deeper hearing, there's a spiritual hearing that must take place. And today we're gonna talk more about hearing in depth as we come to verse 18. We're still dealing with that idea, not all have obeyed. the gospel. This is all about hearing and understanding gospel truth. So let's go back and let's begin reading, especially since we've been away from Romans, let's just read the chapter. It's the shortest chapter that we've been dealing with in Romans, verse 1, 10-1. Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For being ignorant of the righteousness of 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. For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandment shall live by them. But the righteousness based on faith says, Do not say in your heart, Who will ascend into 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, everyone who believes in Him will not be put to shame. For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek. For 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." Verse 14. How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in Him of whom they have never 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 the 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. 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 ends of the world. But I ask, did Israel not understand? First Moses says, 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've held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people. Father, this morning, as we think about hearing and understanding the gospel truth. Speak to us through your word. Help us to understand how this played out with people in Jesus' day and way back in the Old Testament, and then help us to apply it to our own lives. We'll give you the glory in Jesus' name. Amen. So in verses 18 through 21, especially 18 and 19, Paul summarizes what he has been saying in the 10th chapter. He's still dealing with the problem of the Jewish people as a whole rejecting Christ as a Messiah, Jesus as a Messiah. Begins in chapter 9, it goes all the way through chapter 11, so keep that in mind. In verses 18 and 19, notice that both verses begin with the same words, but I ask. Paul is asking this question, and it gives us a very simple outline. Verse 18, but I ask, have they not heard? Verse 19, but I ask, did Israel not understand? That's the outline that we're gonna use for these two particular verses this morning. So let's dive right in. Have they not heard? But I ask, have they not heard? The first question that we've got to deal with is, what is that they? Who does that represent? Have they not heard? Most all commentators will agree he's talking about the Jewish people here as a whole. Why do we think that? We'll look at verse 19. But I ask, did Israel not understand? He's clearly talking about Israel in verse 19. Seems obvious that he's doing the same in 18. The overall context seems to demand that we take it that way. So, I ask, did they? Did Israel? Did the Jewish people not hear? And then he gives an immediate answer. Indeed, they have. Yes, the Jewish people have heard. Now at this point, Paul could have reminded them of his own experience. He could have told them, hey, I preached the gospel truth to you in Jerusalem. And then when he went on the missionary trips, when he would go to a city, what was the first thing he did? Speak up. He went to the synagogue. Why did he go to the synagogue? Who was there? Jewish people. Yeah, there were some Gentile seekers, but it was primarily the Jewish people. We recited it this morning, the theme of Romans, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to the Jew first and also to the Greek. So he could have pointed to his experience. He did not. Instead, out of his wisdom, he comes to the Word of God and he quotes from the Word of God. Two things I want to point out. One is, Paul was very wise to do this because the people to whom he was speaking, there were Jews and Gentiles in Rome, in the church, but they had great reverence for the Word of God. So when he's talking to them and he uses a scripture, yeah, that's going to get their attention. But the second reason is Paul himself had great confidence in the Word of God. He believed that the source of all the truth he knew was the Bible itself, and we need to learn from that. You know, you may know a lot of stuff, but we need to be clear with people that it comes from the Word of God. If we're going to do that, then we're going to need to study the Word of God, to learn the Word of God, to be saturated with the Word of God. Now the question is, when he asked that question, Have they not heard, indeed they have, for, now he's gonna quote a scripture. And notice the scripture he quotes. Their voice has gone out to all the earth and their words to the ends of the world. Have you heard that before? I'm asking you. Do you recognize that verse? Have you heard that verse before? Anybody? When did you hear it? This morning, we read it! Let's read it. Psalm 19. Chandler read it to us earlier. I'm going to read it to you again because It's kind of foreign to us and most of you did not recognize that we had read this verse this morning. I'm not faulting you, I'm just saying that's why we need to focus in on this. Verse 1, Psalm 19. The heavens declare the glory of God and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech nor are there words whose voice is not heard. Their voice goes out through all the earth and their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a tent for the sun, which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber, and like a strong man runs its course with joy." Its rising is from the end of the heavens, and its circuit to the end of them, and there is nothing hidden from its heat. I had two people read Psalm 19 just to focus in on the fact that the first part of Psalm, the ones we just read, it's about God revealing himself in creation. And then you read the rest of the Psalm, seven through 14, and it's all about him revealing himself in his word. Now, the question is, why would Paul pick this particular verse to demonstrate that the gospel has gone far and wide and the Jews have heard the gospel. Why would he pick Psalm 19.4? It seems rather obscure. Why didn't he take something else? Did the Holy Spirit say to Paul, Paul turn to Romans, to Psalm 19.4? He could have. I kind of doubt it. But Paul was very familiar with the scripture. And more familiar than his readers, but his readers were familiar with the scripture as well. So, how do we understand this? And there are different ideas, but let me pause. One thing we know is when Paul did this, he was inspired by the Holy Spirit to do this. Let's don't miss that. You say, well, I don't understand why Paul did it. Ultimately, the Spirit of God led him because we know, we read in the New Testament, how did we get the Bible? Holy men of God, as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit, they wrote these things for us. It seems to me there are a number of ideas why Paul may have chosen Psalm 19.4, but I think the best idea is this. Paul is comparing the thoroughness of God's natural revelation to the worldwide expansion of the gospel message. Let me read it again, verse 4. Their voice goes out through all the earth and their words to the end of the world. again it seems kind of obscure but the idea is the voice of the things God created goes through all the earth and their words to the end of the world in the same way that the gospel has expanded and gone into all the world there's no place to hide from God's glory filled works of creation in the same way the Jews had not been hidden from the expansion of the gospel the gospel truth now someone was going to say but David wasn't talking about the gospel well that's very true I don't think David was talking about the gospel But Paul understood this and he saw it as a beautiful picture, a parallel picture to the way the gospel had thoroughly penetrated throughout the world. If you'd like to turn there to Colossians chapter 1, we read a little bit later in Colossians, but I want to go back to verse 3. Colossians 1, 3. Colossians 1, verse 3. We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of truth, the gospel, which has come to you as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing. See that? The gospel in the whole world. Down to verse 21. And you who once were alienated and hostile in mind doing evil deeds, he is now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him. if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister. " So Paul talks about the gospel going out into all the world. So is it legitimate for Paul to use Psalm 19.4 the way he does? And yes, it is. How do we know? For all Scripture is breathed by God and is profitable. And this is Scripture because the Holy Spirit led Paul write it now some people take issue with what I just read and Colossians 1 and they would say no no no the gospel had not gone out into the whole world that's why he was going to take a mission to Spain that we'll read about later in Romans the gospel hadn't gone to the whole world be careful what Paul is emphasizing is that the gospel had penetrated world no every Jew in the world had probably not heard the gospel but the Jews as a whole the gospel was out there it was plain they had heard it if you want to take this as hyperbole as a figure of speech okay but the point is clear the Jews had heard the message but I ask have they not heard indeed they have and how do we know their voice has gone out to all the earth and their words to the ends of of the world. And that brings us to his second question in verse 19. But I ask, did Israel not understand? Do you see the progression here? They had heard. Now the next question is, did they understand it? They heard the gospel. Did they understand it? So the Jews could never use the excuse, well, we've not heard the gospel, but could they say, well, yeah, we heard it, but we didn't understand it, we didn't know what it meant. When you preach the gospel to us, Paul, we didn't get it, we didn't understand. So he asked the question, what do I ask? did israel not understand now notice this time it's not like verse 18 he doesn't give a direct answer he doesn't say indeed they have what does he do he goes immediately scripture first Moses says now the reason he says first is because in the next verse in verse 20 then Isaiah is so bold so bold as to say so he's going to use two voices here he's going to use Moses and then he's going to use Isaiah now we're not going to get to 20 and 21 I don't think this morning But Paul is very thorough in the way he uses scriptures. He uses Moses, and Moses, what do we associate with Moses? What part of scripture? It's called the law, especially the first five books. And then Isaiah was a what? Prophet. In the scripture, like when we read in the New Testament, this clause, this phrase is used, the law and the prophets. And when he uses, when that term is used, that phrase is used, it refers to all of the scripture. Talking about the Old Testament, because this was the only scripture they had when Paul wrote. for instance we we quote we quote it we do it in our catechism what is the greatest commandment of all you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart soul mind and strength and there's a second like it you shall love your neighbor as yourself and then Jesus said on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets in other words it's the basic source of all of Old Testament scripture so Paul is going to use scripture to demonstrate that Israel, the Jews, did indeed understand. Now before we go any further, we have to ask this question. Understand what? Did Israel not understand? Understand what? Well, in the context of verse 18 and what we've been reading, it seems like he's talking about the gospel message. But in the verses he's going to quote, he doesn't directly refer to the gospel message. In the verses quoted, basically, if we put this together, I'm kind of giving you a preview. What did they understand or not understand? that the Jews were out, rejected, that the Gentiles were in, and the center of that was the gospel message. That is basically what he's asking. Did they understand that? Israel understood, he's going to say, they understood that the Gentiles were included in the kingdom, that Israel as a whole was rejected, and the central issue was gospel truth. That is what Paul is trying to drive home in these two scriptures he's going to use in verses 19 and 20. 20. So look again at 19. But I ask, did Israel not understand? First Moses says, I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation. With a foolish nation I will make you angry. Now, when you first read that, you say, where is he coming from? He's quoting this out of Deuteronomy chapter 32. Deuteronomy 32 is the song of Moses. And he's quoting this out of that chapter. Deuteronomy 32, he's quoting it directly from verse 21 the second part of Deuteronomy 32 21 reads like this so I will make them jealous with those who are no people I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation now this is an exact quote from the Septuagint the Greek translation of the Old Testament except he changes them to you The context of this in the first 14 verses of chapter 32, Paul recounts God's faithfulness to his people. God is faithful to his people. Now, I want to start reading verse 15 in Deuteronomy 32. I'm going to read in 15. After saying, God is faithful to his people, verse 15, but Jeshurun, that's another word for Israel, we won't go into the details, but Jeshurun grew fat and kicked. You grew fat, stout, and sleek. Then he forsook God, who made him, and scoffed at the rock of his salvation. They stirred him to jealousy with strange gods, with abominations they have provoked him to anger. They sacrificed to demons that were no gods, to gods they had never known, to new gods that had come recently, whom your fathers had never dreaded. You were unmindful of the rock that bore you, and you forgot the God who gave you birth. The Lord saw it and spurned them because of the provocation of his sons and his daughters. And he said, I will hide my face from them. I will see what their end will be, for they are a perverse generation, children in whom is no faithfulness." Now, now come to 21. the first part he's going to sum up what he just said in the verses I read they have made me jealous with what is no God they have provoked me to anger with their idols so I will make them jealous with those who are no people I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation and then he goes on to talk about the judgment that's coming so when you when you read verse 21 you get the idea in the first part of 21 what the people had done they made me jealous with what is no God they have provoked me to anger with their idols now do you see the connection now with what the way God responds so In other words, since they made me jealous with what is no God, I will make them jealous with those who are no people or no nation. You see that relation between no God, no nation, or no people. I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation. Now remember, our God is a jealous God, is He not? We read it when we read the Ten Commandments. Our God is a jealous God. That's why He doesn't want us, He didn't want them. bow down to idols but they did so and in doing so they stirred up his jealousy and they provoked him to anger so back in Romans now in chapter 10 we see he quotes the verse now in verse 19 first Moses says I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation with a foolish nation I will make you angry And that's exactly what he did. Now, when he's talking about a foolish nation, or those who are not a nation, what nation is he talking about? Well, there are different ideas, but I don't think he's talking about one specific nation, like the Babylonians or the Assyrians. I don't think that's it. I think he's basically gathering up all the nations into this concept. I will make you jealous. It doesn't matter what people they are. Israel, they're not the Jewish people, it's another nation, our collection of nations. He says, I will use them to make you angry. Now what he's doing here is he's saying Moses prophesied the very thing that is happening. This is not new. Your own prophets. Moses, a lawgiver, he spoke of this. Now I want to go back and I want to read again from Romans chapter 9 at the end of the chapter. We're still dealing with this thing of the Jews being rejected and the Gentiles being included. So let me read it again. This is very foundational. Romans 9, verse 30. What shall we say then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it. That is, a righteousness that is by faith. But that 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 have stumbled over the stumbling stone as it is written behold I'm laying in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame now that stumbling stone of course is the Lord Jesus and none other so This is a common thing in Romans 9 and 10. God is receiving the Gentiles and the Jews have rejected him and at this point he is rejecting them. Now you have to understand how this would come across to Jewish people. We are God's people and now it seems like God's rejecting us and he's turning to those hated pagan Gentiles. This is not new with Paul. He's following in the steps of his Lord. If you want to turn there, you can. I'm going to read a little bit of it. Matthew chapter 21. I'm not going to read the whole parable. It's the parable of the tenants. And you remember in this parable the man sends servants to collect what is due him from the crop and they beat some up, kill some, and finally he says, I'll send my own son, they will respect him. He sends his own son and they kill him. Now I'm gonna start reading in verse 40 of chapter 21, Matthew 21. When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants? They said to him, he will put those wretches to a miserable death and lease out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons. Jesus said to them, have you never read in the scriptures the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone this was a lord's doing and it is marvelous in our eyes therefore i tell you the kingdom of god will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits and the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces and when it falls on anyone it will crush The cornerstone, of course, is Jesus. The builders who rejected the cornerstone are the Jews as a whole. Here, particularly, they're leaders. Notice verse 43, especially. And again, for Jewish people, how could our God do that? This isn't right. Go to the parable before this. Matthew 21 verse 28. What do you think? A man had two sons. And he went to the first and said, Son, go and work in the vineyard today. And he answered, I will not. But afterwards he changed his mind and went. And he went to the other son and said the same. And he answered, I go, sir. But he did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father? They said the first. Jesus said to them, Truly I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you. And then he goes on. Now, the first son represents the Gentiles. They said no, but they changed their mind. Many of them believed. The second son represents the Jews. They said, oh yeah, we're on board. But then they didn't. They rejected. And if you want to know something that would stir up Jewish anger, verse 43 will do it. Verse, I'm sorry, not 43, verse, at the end of 31. Truly I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you Jewish people. Our Lord arouse the jealousy and the anger these Jews to whom he spoke and and if you go on reading after that parable later the Jews realized he was speaking about them but had the Jews truly understood they should have understood and that may be the point they had every opportunity to to understand. And you say, yeah, but how? Could the Jews say, Paul, you preached to us, but we didn't understand what you said. Paul's answer, he's using this scripture to say, Moses prophesied this. You should understand this. Turn to John 5 if you'd like. In John 5, Jesus, all through the chapter, he's saying, I'm the one that the Father has sent. And he says, the works I do bear witness to me. John the Baptist bore witness to me. The Father himself bears witness to me that I am his son. And then he gets down to verse 39. John 5, verse 39. You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life. It is they that bear witness about me yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life Do you hear what he's saying? You have the scripture, you say you believe them, they speak about me, but you refuse me. And then down to verse 45. Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you, Moses, on whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words? You see, that's why he's using Moses. They understood these scriptures. They should have understood that Jesus truly came from the Father. He was the Messiah. They should have understood all of this. Now, we're not going to get to verses 20 and 21 this morning. We'll talk about them next week, about how Paul now uses the prophet Isaiah to make his point. One thing I want you to take away from this morning is this. Paul was a brilliant man. He could have taught logic in any university in the world. Pity the man who had to have a debate with Paul. Paul would sweep him under the carpet. But when Paul goes to set forth his case, he doesn't rely on raw human logic. He comes again and again and again to the scripture. He could have demonstrated to the Jews, he had every opportunity to use his own experience, his own intellectual mind, but instead of doing that, he turns repeatedly to the scripture. He wanted to show them that these very things came from their own Bible. Now, I want to read one more passage. Luke chapter 24. I've read this before recently and I'm going to read it again. I want us to get the point. Luke 24. This is after the resurrection. Jesus appears to them. He eats some fish. to show them that he was truly resurrected in bodily form. And then we read these words in 2444. These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures and said to them, thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations beginning from Jerusalem. Now, I mentioned this earlier, the law and the prophets, but you notice here, this is the only time Jesus says that the things written of him are in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms. And the Psalms stood for that larger section of the Old Testament, the writings, books like Psalms, Proverbs, Jobs, and those books. So Jesus is saying basically this, I'm everywhere in the Old Testament if you will open your eyes and everything written there about me must be fulfilled. Now, let's learn something from that. When we read the Old Testament, let's, in the forefront of our mind, say, I don't want to miss Jesus in the Old Testament. Because you find him in the Old Testament, in the law, in the prophets, in the Psalms, in the writings. He is there. May God protect us from just reading the Old Testament like it's just some kind of history We find the Lord Jesus Christ there. How do we know? Because Jesus himself told us. So I ask you this morning, have you heard the gospel? Have you heard the good news? Indeed you have. Have you understood the good news? You have no excuse. Not only do we have it in the Old Testament scripture, but brothers and sisters, all of you who are here this morning, we live on the other side of the cross. We have the complete New Testament. We have what those in the Old Testament, they were looking forward to, but we look back and we see it clearly because of what has been given us. And because we see the gospel, what does Jesus say? Repent. and believe the gospel. I urge you this morning. Some of you say, I've done that. Let's keep on doing it. Some of you here this morning, you haven't come to that place yet. I say to you this morning, repent and believe the gospel. Give up on any goodness you think you may have and run to Jesus, the one who died and rose in order to give you his life. He's alive today. He's real. Let's pray. Father, thank you this morning that like the Jews to whom Paul was speaking and talking about how they had heard and understood the gospel, Lord help us to apply it to our own lives. You have blessed us with hearing and with understanding. Jesus isn't here standing beside us like he was those in Luke 24 to tell us about how he was in the Old Testament, but we have the New Testament and his spirit to do that very thing. Thank you. So Lord, I pray for us this morning. I pray for those who are here who have heard with their physical ears but have not yet Really had that spiritual hearing where they come to the place of repentance and faith Oh God bring a deep conviction from your spirit The kind of conviction that says I can't go on until I deal with this. This is what life is all about Now I just give us some time to think and meditate this morning Lord, I do pray that we would learn from Paul. We can't use the scripture like he did. We're not inspired by the spirit, but surely we can learn the importance of being so familiar with the scripture that it jumps out at us, that we can't escape it. May we be saturated with your word, Lord. We need that desperately. Thank you that you give us every opportunity. Lord, this morning, we thank you again for the truth of your word. We give you praise in Jesus' name. Amen. Any comments, questions? So let's say again this morning, bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name. We'll see you tonight, 5.30. God bless you.