Lesson 126

Romans Chapter Nine

The Faithfulness of God to Israel

9:27-29 The Promise of a Remnant

- The response Paul senses by the skeptic to what he has just taught is okay, I will concede that the Gentiles are a part of the called, vessels of mercy but Paul what about the Jews?

- To make his point he once again goes back to the prophets, the Jewish Old Testament Scriptures for documentation, related to this remnant.

Isa. 10:22-23; 1:9

Apart from God's mercy and compassion, none would have survived the judgments, remember what God said to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." [9:15]

God delivered them, when Sennacharib came [Isa 37:33-38], they eventually returned to apostasy and spiritual adultery, pursuing the idols of the peoples surrounding them and they were taken captive by Babylon, 586 B.C.

Rem: Paul's point here is that there will be a remnant only who are saved, even though they will number in the millions, apart from God's mercy they would have been as Sodom and Gomorrah, totally destroyed.

- The promises made to Israel to preserve a remnant, to save a remnant was fulfilled in the captivities and exile of the people, the destruction of Jerusalem and will also be fulfilled in the time of Israel's great testing, the Tribulation.

9:27 And Isaiah cries out [krazw indicates urgent nature of his msg.] the message is concerning Israel, "Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, it is the remnant that will be saved

- Paul comes back to this, that there will be a remnant of Jews saved in the future. Will see this in 11:26-27 time = end of Tribulation.

9:28 For the Lord will execute His word upon the earth, thoroughly and quickly.

- God is faithful to His word, what He has said that He will do; and this includes the discipline of His people; Ezek. 20:33-39; Lev 26

Whether it is the Assyrian, Babylonian, the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD. or the great Tribulation; whose primary focus is on Israel, the secondary focus is man attempting to rule without God to the greatest extent in all of history; to man's great loss.

- God will accomplish His word, His purposes and the remnant will survive.

9:29 And as Isaiah foretold, "except the Lord of Sabaoth [Hosts, armies] had left to us a posterity [remnant of v.27 - seed], We would have become as Sodom, and would have resembled Gomorrah."

** Remnant, Summary:

The Seed

Spiritual

By Faith

Rom ; 9:6-8

Natural

Gen. 17:10, 19; 22:17,18

All Believers

Rom

Gal. 3:6-9; 29

Christ

Gal 3:16

Heb. 2:16-17

1. In Elijah's time, when he thought that only he was left to worship God, there were 7000 who had not bowed the knee to Baal (1 Kg. 19:18).

2. In Isaiah's time, Israel had been reduced to only a few godly "survivors" (Is. 1:9), for whose sake God still refrained from totally destroying the nation.

3. During the captivities the existence of a remnant appears is observed in the life of Jews like Esther, Mordecai, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

4. At the end of the seventy years of Babylonian captivity it was the remnant that returned under Ezra and Nehemiah.

5. At the advent of our Lord, John the Baptist, Simeon, Anna, and those "who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem" (Luke 2:38) were the remnant.

6. During the Church Age the remnant is composed of believing Jews (Rom. 11:4-5) and its according to the standard of God's grace.

But an important aspect of the remnant is prophetic.

- During the great tribulation a remnant out of all Israel will turn to Jesus as Messiah, part of that remnant will be "sealed" that is have special protection to fulfill a God given mission. That’s the 144k Israelites of Rev. 7:3-8.

** So far Paul has presented God's dealing with Israel from the standpoint of God's sovereign choice, He has a purpose and a plan for them.

Next in 9:30-33 the focus is Israel's failure, her rejection of the Messiah from the standpoint of human responsibility.

What shall we say then?

For one who is focused totally on the Sovereignty of God there is an apparent problem.

God your not fair!

- It was not the pattern of the Gentiles to pursue Christ but idols; Acts 17:22-24; 1 Ths 1:9

- attained righteousness, even the righteousness which is by faith.

Then the means or the how; by faith ek [gen] pistij

Only way to acquire the righteousness of God, of Christ is by faith; that's been the focus since 3:21, we are justified or declared righteous before God, attaining a new standing before Him only by faith;

- Now lets look at vs:31 and Israel's relationship to righteousness.