The following is a manuscript sermon with the basic elements of a sermon. What is in bold (not bold and italicized) is part of the template as a necessary element.
Title: We must accept God’s righteous dealings with His people
Scripture: Romans 9-11
Introduction:
Attention Step: Warren Wiersbe recalled sharing in a street meeting in Chicago and passing out tracts at the corner of Madison and Kedzie. Most of the people graciously accepted the tracts, but one man took the tract and with a snarl crumpled it up and threw it in the gutter. The name of the tract was “Four Things God Wants You to Know.”
“There are a few things I would like God to know!” the man said. “Why is there so much sorrow and tragedy in this world? Why do the innocent suffer while the rich go free? Bah! Don’t tell me there’s a God! If there is, then God is the biggest sinner that ever lived!” And he turned away with a sneer and was lost in the crowd. [1]
Interest Step: Have you ever attempted to witness to someone bitter against God and blaming God for some tragedy? I once went to a new neighbor’s house to witness. Once he found out why I was there, he became enraged and blamed God for his son’s twisted spine. He gave me no chance to respond.
Lead into the Subject Step:
The Israelites had similar objections concerning God, which Paul addresses in Romans 9-11. Israel was accusing God of unrighteousness, of electing them and now abandoning them for Gentiles. Paul’s defense of God’s righteousness in Romans 9-11 fits the theme and development of the theme in Romans:
The theme of Romans is The Righteousness of God Through the Gospel (1:16-17)
Development of theme in Romans:
1. The Righteousness of God is needed in Romans 1:18-3:20 (The doctrine of Sin)
2. The Righteousness of God is declared by faith in Romans 3:21-5:21 (The Doctrine of Justification)
3. The Righteousness of God is imparted in Romans 6:1-8:39 (The Doctrine of Sanctification)
4. The Righteousness of God is defended in Romans 9-11 (The Doctrine of Theodicy)
In Romans 9-11, Paul is answering the objections the Jews were raising in light of all their suffering. That objection is recorded in Romans 11:1: “Has God cast away His elect people?” These Jews were attacking God’s righteousness. Paul had just argued that God will not condemn His elect in Romans 8:31-34. Israel was God’s elect (Isa 45:4) and God has set them aside temporally. Israel was like the man to whom Wiersbe handled a tract and the neighbor to whom I tried to witness. Israel was accusing God of unrighteousness. Here is how Paul defended God’s righteousness in Romans 9-11. We are going to focus on Romans 9.
1. In the Past, God elected His People (Romans 9)
John Piper testified to the impact of Romans 9 on his life: So, he had one aim for his eight-month leave: “to study Romans 9 and write a book on it that would settle, in my own mind, the meaning of these verses.” He found that in studying the majestic, free, and sovereign God of Romans 9 day after day his “analysis merged into worship.” That study led Piper to yield to the call to pastor. You can read Piper’s testimony in this article: “30 Years Ago Today: How God Called John Piper to Become a Pastor” (click to open).
2. Today, His People are rejecting Him (Romans 10)
Paul in Romans 10:16, summarized Israel's present state as a result of rejecting Christ’s offer to be their Messiah: “They have not all obeyed the gospel.” The reason God is not spiritually blessing Israel today as a nation is Israel’s fault and not God’s.
3. In the Future, God will save His People (Romans 11)
Because God made promises to Israel in the OT that have not been fulfilled as a result of Israel’s unbelief, God assures Israel that He will in the future keep His promises in 11:25-26: Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written, “The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob.”
Wiersbe gives two reasons Paul needed to write this defense of God’s righteousness. Why does Paul write three chapters on Israel in Romans to defend God’s righteousness?
The first is a doctrinal reason.
Because the Jews are accusing God of not being faithful to His promises to His chosen people, Paul must argue for God’s righteousness. A defense of God’s righteousness is called a theodicy.
In chapter 8:33, Paul wrote, “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect?” Israel was God’s elect in Isaiah 45:4. God had laid a charge against Israel.
Paul wrote convincingly that nothing will separate the believer from the love of God (Rom 8:35), but now it looks like Israel has been separated from God’s love. After all, Israel had murdered God’s Son. In the Old Testament, Israel was God’s chosen people whom He loved (Hosea 11), and now they were separated. Paul is defending God’s righteousness in setting Israel aside temporarily (11:25-26). If God had separated permanently from the OT people of God, why could He not separate from the NT people of God? In Romans 10, Paul describes the reason why Israel is set aside temporarily, they rejected Christ as Messiah (10:16). It was Israel’s fault not God’s.
The second reason for devoting three chapters to defend God’s righteousness is practical.
Paul was considered a traitor to the Jews. The Judas of Judaism. Paul is the apostle to the uncircumcised [Gentiles] (Gal 2:7). The Gentiles are the focus of Paul’s ministry. Paul had preached that we “are not under the Mosaic Law” (Rom 6:14). More Gentiles are responding to Paul than Jews. Before his salvation, Saul of Tarsus was the enemy and persecutor of the church. Now he is the church’s most powerful advocate and witness.
Paul begins with God’s past election of Israel to convince the Jews that God is righteous in his dealings with Israel and that Israel will not be unelected and cast away. Before Paul jumps into the doctrine of election, however, he will convince Israel that he is no traitor. He loves Israel, his nationality more than any other people on earth (Rom 9:1-3). Paul prays for the salvation of his relatives in 10:1
MPS: We must accept God’s righteous dealings with His people
Interrogative statement: Why must we accept God’s righteous dealings with His people?
Transitional sentence: Because of the following reasons
1. Main Division: In the Past, God elected His People (Romans 9)
A. Believers have the human responsibility to be burdened for the unsaved (9:1-3)
As usual with Paul, he seldom writes of God’s sovereignty without mentioning human responsibility. Believers have a human responsibility to be burdened for the unsaved (9:1-3). Paul could wish he could go to hell instead of his flesh and blood in 9:1-3. Hell for most believers is a doctrine of our Christian belief that we argue for but are not moved to tears over. We joke about Hell. One bumper sticker read: “Eternity—Smoking or Nonsmoking.”
B. God in His sovereignty blessed His people (9:4, 5)
Paul lists seven blessings God poured out on Israel. The last eclipses all the rest: “To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.” But John noted: “He [Jesus] came unto his own and his own received him not (John 1:12).” Israel had rejected God’s greatest sovereign blessing: His own Son.
C. God in His sovereignty chose His people (9:6-29)
1. The basis for God’s sovereign choice was not Physical birth (9:6-9) as Isaac and Ishmael illustrate.
a. Explanation: Ishmael was the firstborn, but God chose Isaac. Ishmael was a descendant of Abraham but not the promised son. All of the physical descendants of Abraham are not the children of God, only those who are believers.
b. Illustration: Matthew Henry accurately wrote, “Grace does not run in blood.”
c. Application: The modern equivalent of this truth might be, “It is not the children of Christian parents who are Christians; it is those who have personally embraced Christ as Savior and Lord who are Christians.” [2]
2. The basis of God’s sovereign choice was not Works (9:10-13) as Jacob and Esau reveal.
a. Explanation: If election were based on works, God would not have chosen Jacob, a liar, and a deceiver. Paul quotes Malachi 1:2, 3: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated” which means that God chose Jacob and did not choose Esau. Jesus made a similar statement in Luke 14:26: “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brothers, and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.” Jesus meant; you must choose me over your loved one if you are going to be my disciple. God chose Jacob through whom, He would continue to fulfil His promises.
b. Illustration: “As to ‘Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated,’ a woman once said to Mr. Spurgeon, ‘I cannot understand why God should say that He hated Esau.’ ‘That,’ Spurgeon replied, ‘is not my difficulty, madam. My trouble is to understand how God could love Jacob!” [3]
c. Application: Because we are totally depraved sinners (Rom 3:21-26) none of us could merit God’s love.
3. The basis of God’s sovereign choice was mercy (9:14-29). Paul raised two objections he knew his Jewish opponents would raise and then he argued his basis of election.
a. The first objection is worded in 9:14: Is God righteous in choosing or not choosing?
1) Explanation: Paul gives two examples in his argumentation. Notice that Paul gives cross-references in his argumentation. The first example is Israel in Exodus 32. God was merciful to kill only 3, 000 when all were guilty. The second example is the hardening of Pharaoh in Exodus 9. This hardening process is referred to at least fifteen times in Exodus 7–14. Sometimes we are told that Pharaoh hardened his heart (Ex. 8:15, 19, 32), and other times that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart (Ex. 9:12; 10:1, 20, 27). By declaring His Word and revealing His power, God gave Pharaoh the opportunity to repent; but instead, Pharaoh resisted God and hardened his heart. The fault lay not with God but with Pharaoh.
2) Illustration: The same sunlight that melts the ice also hardens the clay.
3) Application: God was not unrighteous in His dealings with Pharaoh nor Israel because He gave both many opportunities to repent and believe.[4] Neither is God unrighteous in with the unsaved today. This unsaved be melted by God’s love or hardened their heart in rejection of God’s love.
b. The second objection is stated in Romans 9:19: Is man responsible?
1) Explanation:
First, Paul answers, that man is responsible and should not argue with God (9:19-21)
The Bible Knowledge Commentary phrases this objection: “If God makes choices, how can He hold man responsible? Who can go against what He does?” Paul does not answer the way we would: “Stop back talking God and accusing Him of wrong.” The clay does not argue with the potter.
Next, Paul answers the second objection “Is man responsible?” by declaring that man is responsible and chooses his destiny (9:22-24). The sinner prepares himself for God’s wrath (9:22). Whether you take the perfect participle as reflexive (“prepared themselves”) or passive (“were prepared”) the sinner who rejects Christ has prepared himself for the consequence of that rejection which is God’s wrath. Also, God prepares the believer for heaven (9:24). Today we believers are vessels of mercy (9:24). This was prophesied in the OT (9:25-29). From the quote from Hosea, we learn “that God’s mercy is wide enough to include Gentiles.” From the quote from Isaiah, we learn “that God’s justice is focused enough to exclude some in Israel.” Man is responsible for believing, some do believe among Gentiles and some don’t believe in Israel.
2) Illustration: John 3:18-19 is a very important text when it comes to God’s sovereignty and human responsibility. Why are the unsaved condemned today? Not because they were not elected but “because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
3) Application: This section on the sovereignty of God in electing His people (9:4-29) is bookended with human responsibility. First, the believer has the human responsibility to be burdened for the unsaved (9:1-3). Last, the sinner also has to believe (9:30-33).
D. Sinners have the human responsibility to believe (9:30-33)
This great section on the sovereignty of God is bracketed with human responsibility
1. Believers have the human responsibility to be burdened for the unsaved (9:1-3)
2. Unbelievers have the human responsibility to believe (9:30-33)
Paul uses the illustration of a footrace
a. The Gentiles were not racing after righteousness by works, yet they have won righteousness by faith (9:30)
b. The Jews were feverishly racing after the righteousness of the law, but have not won it because of pride. They were racing down the track with their proud heads held high and tripped over a stumbling stone who was Christ as predicted in the Hebrew Scriptures in Isaiah 28:16.
Conclusion: We must accept God’s righteous dealings with His people
1. Because in the Past, God elected His People (Romans 9)
God promised Israel land, a Messiah who will reign in David’s throne in Jerusalem, and spiritual blessings. These promises were not fulfilled because Israel rejected Christ. Promises have qualifications. God told Israel in Deuteronomy 25, 26, if you obey me I will bless you, and if you disobey me I will chasten you.
2. Because today, His People are rejecting Him (Romans 10)
Today Israel is experiencing God’s chastening because of disobedience. 45 percent of Jews today are “secular,” 29 percent are atheists, and only 12 percent are Orthodox Jews.
3. Because in the Future, God will save His People (Romans 11)
In the future at Christ’s second coming, according to Zechariah 12:3-13:9, Jesus will return, Israel will repent, and God will forgive and Christ shall reign in the land and fulfill all his promises. Salvation has the qualification of receiving by faith Christ as Savior: “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved” (Rom 10:9).
[1] Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary (Wheaton, Il: Victor Books, 1996), Romans 9:19.
[2] Kenneth Boa and William Kruidenier, Holman New Testament Commentary: Romans (Nashville: Holman Reference, 2000), 281.
[3] William R. Newell, Romans Verse by Verse. 1938. Chicago: Moody Press, 1970, 364.
[4] (Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996, Ro 9:14).