uh... imagining that most of you opened your bibles and it fell open to chapter eight you have to turn one page to the right uh... they we begin uh... this new chapter but in actuality we are beginning an entire new section that begins in chapter nine and culminates in chapter eleven uh... this is considered as a very famous uh... portion of scripture as we approach paul's introduction to predestination and election in romans eight twenty six i said that we would approach these things very carefully indeed and so the first question we need to ask is uh... how does this relate to what we have already learned why is there a new section and what exactly is it So there are those who assert that on ending chapter eight we ended the doctrinal part of Romans. That Paul has finished this great doctrine of salvation and there is no more doctrine to be found. That he is just addressing certain problems and will deal with them through to the end of this letter. For those with discernment, you already know that that is not right. Okay? There's a vast wealth of very high and important doctrine in this three chapter section. So what then do we find here? At the end of chapter 8, Paul has certainly finished with his clarification of the doctrine of salvation, but from the standpoint of the individual believer only. He has dealt with justification by faith alone, and sanctification and glorification, and then he culminates with the final certainty and assurance of our entire deliverance from God's wrath in glorification. But all along it has been from the viewpoint of the individual believer. The difference we now encounter is, though Paul is still dealing with the doctrine of salvation and God's purpose in salvation, this is in a more general manner. This is more from the viewpoint of the world, and in particular from the standpoint of Jew and Gentile. So it is still the doctrine of salvation, but not in any order or steps or in stages. This is now with regards to God's overall purpose. So why does Paul feel the need to deal with this? Everything the believer needs to know has been covered, as it were, and the assurance of ultimate glorification has been proven. So why not just end with chapter 8 and sign off? Why is this section of chapters 9 through 11 even necessary? Well, contrary to many commentators and what most think, this is not an exposition of predestination and the sovereignty of God. Yes, it is there, but that is not the goal. It is not about the calling of the Gentiles and the rejection of the Jews. Again, it is there, but that is not the main objective. It is also not the prophetic teaching with regards to the Jews and their ultimate salvation and their going back to the land. So now that we know what the objective is not, what is it? How are we to understand these three chapters? I believe that this section follows logically from the previous one, especially from the teaching that he gave us at the end of chapter 8. It is necessary because of what he has just told us regarding the doctrine of the assurance of the believer and the final perseverance of the believer. As much time as we spent there, you will no doubt recall the promised assurance that all things work together for good for them that love God and are called according to his purpose. It is God's purpose that guarantees the final preservation of the saints and their final glorification. He then goes on to tell us that God's purpose was worked out like this. Those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn of many brothers. That is the purpose, that is God's objective. Moreover, those he predestined he also called, and those he called he justified, and those he justified he also glorified. That is God's purpose carried out in that way, and it is absolutely certain. He then puts up four challenges and crushes any arguments to the contrary. It is absolutely certain because it is the love of God in Christ Jesus, because it is the purpose of God, and there is nothing and no one in heaven or on earth or anywhere else that can forego God's purpose or separate my soul from his love. Our security and assurance is based on the immutability of God's will and purpose, meaning it cannot be changed. The fact that anything God has purposed must, of necessity, be carried out. Very well, then. What if someone were to hear all this and were to come to Paul and say, well, that's all well and good, but what about the whole case of the Jews? You say that God finishes what he starts. You say that when something is God's will, nothing can frustrate it. But if what you are preaching is correct, then God's purpose has gone seriously astray. Because the vast majority of the Jews are not Christians. They are not in what you refer to as the Kingdom of God. Which, by the way, is mostly Gentile believers. So then, Where is that purpose of God? Where is the immutability of his counsel? That was the objection. This was not an imaginary objection. This is what the Jews were saying, and they were saying it very loudly, and sometimes they were saying it very violently. They were saying that Paul was a traitor. They were saying that he was abandoning the Old Testament and throwing it overboard. The Old Testament, after all, is a book that concentrates only on the Jews. Everyone else is an outsider. What you are teaching brings those others in while the Jews are out. Paul is denying the teaching regarding God and His purpose, as is plainly outlined and worked out in the Old Testament, which, by the way, is full of promises to the Jews. So Paul must take up and address this objection. So it's not an entirely new section, it follows from the previous one. Paul accepts the challenge, of course, and he does so as he does all other objections. He makes his statements and then he deals with the difficulties and answers them, as he has done with circumcision in chapter 3, and Abraham in chapter 4, and antinomianism in chapter 6, and the law in chapter 7. And then he comes back in chapter 8 and continues the great doctrine of assurance and the final preservation of the saints. And once again, come the objections. And so in chapters 9 through 11, Paul will reconcile everything he has taught us thus far with the whole of the Old Testament. So Paul did not just finish chapter 8 and say, well, we covered that. Now what else might we want to cover? Oh yeah, there is this question of Jew and Gentile. We need to deal with that. That is not it. There is no break here. This section follows the previous one of necessity. He has to deal with this because so many, especially the Jews, had a serious problem with his teaching. And Paul is especially prone to win them to the truth and thus to the faith. So in these three chapters, Paul addresses each argument and completely demolishes those arguments. So what then is this section? It is what is known as a theodicy. Anybody ever heard that term before? It is a justification, as it were, of the ways of God with respect to man. It is a far larger subject than predestination. It is far larger than the calling of the Gentiles and the rejection of the Jews. It is an attempt at harmonizing the ways of God, and we must be very careful to not reduce it to anything less than that. This is Paul's way of harmonizing the Old Testament and the New Testament, harmonizing everything that God has ever done or said or revealed with what He is still doing and what He is going to do. It is, in other words, Paul's way of showing us that though these things may seem to be contradicting God's purpose, they are absolutely not. God's purpose is absolute and nothing can frustrate it. In these three chapters, Paul demonstrates the eternal consistency of God, the consistency of God with himself, with his own nature, and his own glorious purpose. And so as we work through these three chapters, it is inevitable that we will find things that we do not understand and certain things that we don't agree with because we lack the understanding. It might be best to take Paul's summary at the end of chapter 11 and keep that in mind through this whole process. If you want to turn over a couple of pages to the right, chapter 11, at the end of chapter 11, This is a description of what we're fixing to jump into here. Verses 33 to 36. He says, Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways. For who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been his counselor? or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid for from him and through him and to him are all things to him be glory forever so anybody that has uh... you know we have all these different denominational ideas out there about what this section these three chapters is about this is paul's way of saying you don't know what you're talking about This is all about God. All of this is from Him, it's through Him, and it's to Him. It's not about us. So we see, hopefully, that this is far bigger than just predestination. Predestination is only a small part of this. Those who raise predestination up as the main theme in this section totally miss God Himself. in all of his glory and of his person and character. Predestination is merely one of the ways in which God works out his great purpose. So what are the themes found here? As we said, the main theme is God's glorious person and character, but there are also subsidiary themes, as it were. First is the especially tragic case of the Jews and their rejection of Christ as their own Messiah. This being especially a tragedy to Paul himself, who was a Jew, is a Jew, and he does not forget to tell us that and to repeat it again and again. And so we shall see the causes of that as he states them plainly. Secondly, there is the theme of God's freedom in his absolute sovereignty in the matter of election and his right to call whom he will, whether it be Jew or Gentile, that being what Paul is dealing with here ultimately, not simply with an election in and of itself. We already dealt with election and predestination in chapter 8. All he does here is to show us God's freedom in election, which is a different thing altogether. Third theme is the Christian teaching concerning salvation for any individual, whether they be Jew or Gentile. In light of the teaching of the Old Testament, This is of utmost importance, and we see that Paul keeps on doing that. He was very sensitive on this point, and justifiably so. He was a Jew and a Pharisee and an expert in the Old Testament, and this one charge always cut him to the core, as it were. People claimed that he was denying the Old Testament teaching. But I'm not, says Paul. I can prove to you that everything that I am teaching is there in the Old Testament. So he justifies his teaching on the Christian doctrine of salvation in terms of the Old Testament teaching and shows that the New Testament, rather than contradicting the Old, is actually a fulfilling of the Old. Fourth subsidiary theme is the extreme danger of misunderstanding and misusing doctrine. This was where the Jews fell the hardest, drawing false conclusions from the plain teaching of the Old Testament concerning the purpose of God for his people. This is the main reason that they came to reject Christ. This is a terrible danger and it is still prevalent today. While having shown how the Jews were guilty of this error, he then turns to the Gentiles and says, you need to be careful as well. If the natural branches made that mistake, then you are surely not immune to the same thing. Now, are these doctrines dangerous? They are glorious, but they are also very dangerous. The Great Doctrine of Assurance and Final Perseverance of the Saints. How many times have you heard people say, I am a child of God, therefore it does not matter what I do. Because I am a child of God, my glorification is certain. So I can do as I like, because I am bound to get there. When I hear most often, Everyone sins and mine are no worse than anybody else's. That is what we refer to as antinomianism. It was rampant in the early church. James and Peter and John and Jude spent much time riding against antinomianism, even as Paul did on occasion. And it is still rampant today. Once saved, always saved. Once in grace, always in grace are most often used If you hear those terms put out, they are put out by people who desire to live for the devil and still avoid the fires of hell. It has to be dealt with repeatedly. So if you are not constantly reminding yourself to examine yourself daily, there is a great danger lurking. Yes, daily. Jesus himself said, except a man deny himself daily and take up his cross and follow me, He cannot what? He cannot be my disciple, okay? Not that doing such earns your spot. This does not earn you anything, but it is proof of the new creation that is you. We will see Paul in this section warning us against such antinomianism, the abuse of this doctrine, drawing false deductions from God's glorious truth, even to the damnation of the soul. This is what he is dealing with and he shows us that both Jew and Gentile are guilty. Fifth theme, Paul gives a very full explanation of the particular case of the Jews in the purpose of God. That's mainly in chapter 11 where he explains what is happening to them now and what is also going to happen to them. Lastly, number six is God's eternal purpose in Christ. and salvation with respect to the whole universe. That is a theme that runs consistently through the entire section. Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are His judgments and how inscrutable His ways. So we as Reformed believers are so quick to pat ourselves on the back because we believe in election and predestination and those others out there do not. We think that by doing so, that we understand God's mind and purpose. I believe that this section has an ulterior motive to show us that understanding the mind and the purpose of God is not quite as easy or as neat or as simple as we sometimes tend to think. Sure, we believe in election and predestination, but nobody here understands it. We believe that God exists inside and outside of time, but nobody here understands that, okay? Belief in these things is a good thing, but it is just the second step in a journey of a thousand miles. If all this doctrine does not lead us to wonder and amazement and to worship, there is something very wrong with our limited understanding of it. True understanding of any doctrine, even an incomplete understanding, should always lead us to praise, and more than that, to humility before God. So there are the themes, whose purpose is to bring out the central theodicy. Again, theodicy is a justification of the ways of God with respect to man. The theme that governs all of this. Few things to note as a sort of structural analysis of this section. Remember that Paul did not write this in chapters. That came about the 13th century, a long time after he wrote this, okay? But whoever did it, did it very well. They saw and understood what Paul was trying to accomplish. The first thing being that in each chapter he identifies himself with the Jews. And he does so with love and compassion and courtesy. In chapter 9, he begins with the great sorrow and unceasing anguish in his heart for his kinsmen, according to the flesh. In chapter 10, that his heart's desire in prayer to God is that they might be saved. And in chapter 11, that by no means has God rejected his people, proof being that he himself is an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin, each time identifying himself with his fellow countrymen thereby proving his love and concern for them. Second thing is the elaboration of doctrine. Chapter 9, the doctrine is predestination and election. Chapter 10 is justification by faith alone. And in chapter 11, it is the temporary rejection of the Jews. Each time, starting with the Jews, with whom he self-identifies, and then giving us a statement of doctrine. Third is, we find in each chapter, is Paul's confirmation of the doctrine from the scriptures. At the end of each one, he quotes the scriptures of the Old Testament to prove what he has just been saying in his doctrine. So we see that it is not just random words. He planned each chapter. This is the sovereignty of God. Paul planned each chapter before it was even a chapter. You get that? Each one has a definite purpose. So we have a general introduction to our section that most of you will probably forget in the three years that it will take us to get through it. But this is a good way to approach it. Most have no idea of what is in this section. They're so interested in a particular doctrine that they can't see the forest for the trees, as it were. Some people see nothing here but predestination. Some people see nothing but the Jews and their ultimate destiny and all the rest of that prophecy stuff. It's very sad to miss the most glorious thing, the most glorious thing being the theodicy, the justification of God's ways with respect to men, and the harmonizing of what God permits with what God purposes, what God allows with what He has planned, all of which show how all things do indeed work together for good and to the ultimate carrying out of God's eternal purpose. Now, introduction finished. We will take a look at the first three verses. Chapter 9, verses 1 to 3. I am speaking the truth in Christ. I am not lying. My conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit. that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh." You see the change that happens here. Paul has just finished quite possibly the greatest oratory on assurance that exists in all of time. through all of chapter eight it is just glory after glory and joy after joy and assurance after assurance and God's faithfulness and love ending with this great crescendo that there is nothing that can separate God's people from their God nor God from his people if chapter eight doesn't give you the tangles that's a good word chapter eight doesn't give you the tangles then you probably need a heart check, okay? God's elect are guaranteed their spot in heaven. Amen, hallelujah, praise the Lord. God's elect. Many brothers, Jesus Christ was the first. Paul is one. You and I are one. There are many more. Paul's joy over this is obvious, as should ours be. Joyous through the whole of chapter eight. But there is a problem. This is the jump that Paul takes from joy to anguish. There is someone not included in chapter 8. Many someones. Ones that Paul loves. His kinsmen, according to the flesh, are outside the camp. They are lost. There is no joy to share with them. They are lost and they are headed for eternal punishment in hell. And Paul now changes his focus away from us, so that his focus in chapter 8 was us, okay? Away from us to the ones who are outside. This is a vital statement made here. Why make such a statement and why put it in this form? Are there lessons and conclusions that we can draw from this? So let's look at what he is actually saying here. Starts out with, I am speaking the truth in Christ. So an immediate question comes up, is Paul taking an oath here? It's not likely. Paul knows that God has forbidden the taking of oaths, so this is not that. He says he's in Christ. He's speaking not flippantly or carelessly or casually, but speaking as one who realizes his position in Jesus Christ. Paul wants readers to know that he knows that Christ is watching and reading what he is writing, and so he is basically saying that he cannot make a stronger statement than this. But he continues, and he makes it stronger still. He says, I am not lying. See, Paul wants everyone who reads this to know that he is speaking this in the most serious and solemn manner imaginable. But he goes even beyond that. He says, my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit. Paul's conscience, motivated by the Holy Spirit, is attesting to the truth of what he is saying. So, in other words, here, what he is saying It is not merely that I make this statement with all the honesty that I can command, not merely that there is no lie nor any thought of lying anywhere near me. I am saying this with all the sincerity that I command, but there is something even more than that. My conscience bears witness to it. So why does that make it stronger? Well, the answer is that our conscience is something that is independent of us. We all, I believe, know that. We very often say or do things, but that does not mean that our conscience agrees with those things that we say or do. That is what makes our conscience so important. It is something that is apart from us, placed in us by God as a reminder of the voice of God inside of us. It's kind of like our inner hall monitor. You guys remember the hall monitors from school? Your conscience is your hall monitor. You don't need to be running in the hall, okay? And we cannot really manipulate our conscience. It's there. God put it there. It is what it is. We can ultimately sear it by ignoring its leadings and going against it. But for believers, our conscience stands as our independent witness. So Paul very appropriately says that his conscience agrees with what he is saying. We must at all times pay attention to our conscience and avoid any acts contrary to its guidance. And then he adds in the Holy Spirit. Yes, the conscience is independent, but it is sometimes fallible and it needs to be enlightened. That enlightening comes through the work of the Holy Spirit planting the Word within us. A conscience not bathed in the word, enlightened to it by the Holy Spirit, can lead to all kinds of hedonism and paganism. Y'all know as well as I do that there were things in your life that your conscience once told you were okay. But being enlightened by the word, you now know the truth that those things are not okay. Okay? Or the flip side. There are things that you thought were not okay, but the word has enlightened your conscience to see that there is no harm to be found in those things. Paul's letter to the church in Corinth offers us an example. There were believers in the church in Corinth, and there were those new to the faith that believed that eating meat offered to idols was a heinous sin. Others who had been enlightened by the Word and the Spirit had come to know that idols were not even a thing to be considered, since they were not even real. So they ate the meat with a good conscience. Most important thing to remember from this, whatever stage you are in, do not argue with your conscience. If you act against your conscience, then it is sin irregardless. It is the Holy Spirit and the teaching of the Scriptures that must enlighten your conscience, not your own ideas about things. Okay, so that is what Paul is attesting to here. His conscience, enlightened by the Holy Spirit, is saying amen to what he is saying here. This is not for show. This is not an attempt to ease some of the negative actions of the Jews against him. This is how he really feels deep down to the core of his being. So what is it that has struck him so sharply? He says that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For whom? For my kinsmen according to the flesh. There is nothing here about I care about them, but there's nothing I can do for them, so I may as well get on with my life. Much more on that in the coming weeks. This is heart-wrenching. This is great sorrow and unceasing, never-ending, incessant anguish. All day, every day. There is no depth of feeling greater than this. Because of the state and condition of his countrymen, Paul's sorrow and anguish was almost as deep as his joy of salvation was high. This is how he feels with regard to the whole position of the Jews. So we saw how joyous and glorious he is about his joy of salvation. This is the total opposite end of the spectrum because of his countrymen that he loves. And as deep and heartfelt as all of that is, it almost pales into insignificance in comparison to what he says next. He says, for I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers." Now, lots of misinterpretations regarding this statement made here. So we're going to clarify this as best we can. It is an obviously difficult statement. Some feel the need to apologize for the difficult statements. So they come up with all sorts of silly answers to this. One is that Paul is saying here that if it is my presence in the Christian church that is causing the offense to the Jews, then I am prepared to be excommunicated from the visible church in order that they may come in. So if I need to be kicked out of church so they'll come in, let's go for it. That's what some people say this means, okay? We know that's not it. Uh, can't be that. The word translated accursed here is anathema, meaning cursed by God. He also says cut off from who? Christ. Not from the church, but from Christ. He is talking about becoming a reprobate, being an outcast from Christ and God's kingdom and the whole of Christian salvation. That is what he says. But what does he mean? Now, being the intellectual giant that you all know that I am, I'm going to contradict John Calvin on this point. Calvin says that Paul here actually wished himself to be condemned in the place of his countrymen. outcast from the kingdom of god and excluded from salvation in order that they might be saved and become christians that's john calvin i disagree simply because the last man in the world that would ever say something like this is the apostle paul because he just got through telling us that a man's salvation is not something that he determines A man cannot wish to be in or out. So to say that Paul is here wishing to be condemned in place of the Jews accuses him of the worst sort of contradictory teaching. So what is the answer? It is found in the verb tense that he uses. It is the imperfect tense. Now, I am not a Greek scholar. So what I'm going to put before you is the exposition of men like Martin Lloyd-Jones and Charles Hodge and Henry Alford and Sunday and Headlam. Notice that he does not say, I do wish. He didn't say, I do wish. What did he say? I could wish. You see the difference? The act of wishing such things to happen is unfinished. He starts the process but an obstacle intervenes and he cannot complete it. It is, in other words, a man beginning to think one thing and then he realizes something and so that line of thinking has to stop. He was at the point of wishing or of thinking this thing but he did not get any further than that. According to the Greek grammarians that I just named off, as it were, That is the force of the word used here. Not I do, but I could. Charles Hodge says that I could wish, were the thing allowable and possible or proper, implies the presence of a condition known to be impossible. Like I said, I could wish that I could disagree with John Calvin humbly. You don't disagree with John Calvin humbly. It's not possible. There's a lot of arrogance that goes into disagreeing with John Calvin. Anyway, I think that is the key to understanding this statement. No man, especially the Apostle Paul, would wish to trade the eternal glories of heaven which had been revealed to him in exchange for the eternal agonies of hell which had also been revealed to him knowing that doing so would in no way alter the predetermined plan of God with respect to these Jews. Nor would he ever place himself on the level of Christ in that thinking that his sacrifice could purchase another salvation. So why make this statement at all then? Yes, it is the theodicy. Paul harmonizing what is actually happening with what he has been teaching. I believe that it is also Paul's attempt to clear himself of the charges that were constantly being brought against him. These fellow countrymen that he loved so much hated him with a passion regarding him as a renegade and a traitor no better than the publicans of the time who sold their souls to Rome and gathered taxes from their own people i remember the publicans right money kept a little bit for themselves and gave the rest of Rome no one was hated more than the publicans except for maybe Paul they said that he was hostile to the Jews an enemy of his own nation and Paul felt this to the very depths of his being How would you feel if you knew that every one, every last one of your countrymen hated you? And so he says, I am not only not against my fellow countrymen, the thought has even entered my mind that if somehow or other my being accursed could save them, well, I would almost be prepared to go that far. He wanted everyone to know that he was not an anti-Jew. In fact, quite the opposite. But even more than that, he wants to unfold the tragedy of the position of the Jews. And he, of all people, knows what he is talking about. He is a Jew, not only that, but a Pharisee of the Pharisees, a man immersed in the law and the history of Israel, If ever a man had the right to speak on this matter, it was Paul. And he wants to try to show the tragedy of their position. The tragedy that only a Jew like himself could possibly understand or appreciate. So what is that position of the Jews that has Paul so deep in sorrow and in daily anguish? the greatest tragedy possibly that the world has ever known. He came unto his own and his own received him not. That they of all people should have betrayed him and crucified him and rejected him, that is the tragedy of tragedies. But what they meant for evil God meant for what? For good. Good for you and good for me and good for untold many more that he might be the firstborn of many brothers. Let's pray. Father God, thank you so much. Lord Jesus, thank you so much. purchasing us as your brethren. Thank you for revealing yourself just a little bit to us through your word that we might know you better, that we might trust you more, that we might run to you more. I thank you for today. I thank you for service this morning. Thank you for our service to come. Lord be with us as we go through the remainder of this day. May everything we say and do be for your glory and yours alone. In Christ's name I pray.