Coffee House Chapel #3

February 2

Romans 10:21, “But to Israel he saith, All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people.”

Isaiah 55:8 says, “ For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.” Proof of the truth of that verse is found in Romans 9 and 10. Romans 9 is about election, predestination, and reprobation. Romans 10 is about human responsibility.

Most people believe these are mutually exclusive doctrines, that can never be reconciled. I must admit, that I have pondered from time to time how both can be true, but I rest in the truth of Isaiah 55:8. I am not God and I do not think like God, but I trust God implicitly. The Holy Spirit inspired Paul to place these seemingly contradictory doctrines side by side in His Word, and that settles it. (I often hear people say, “God said it, I believe it, and that settles it!” The truth is, God said it, and that settles it! Whether or not I believe it is irrelevant, and does not make what God has said any more true or any less true!)

From a human standpoint, many say that if God elects to salvation, then man cannot be responsible for rejecting the offer of salvation. The flip side of the coin says that if we are responsible for our salvation, then salvation must be by works and not God’s grace. That was the argument of Pelagius in the days of Saint Augustine. “Augustine answered, showing that these are not irreconcilable doctrines. Predestination and personal responsibility are two mutually supportive truths that need always to be held together, as Paul clearly does in Romans. When we do understand them, we see not only that they must be held together, but that the first is actually the solution to the second.” (Boice)

Boice explains the progression like this: “first, human responsibility; second, the perverse exercise of human responsibility in rejecting God; and third, salvation by God’s sovereign grace. Predestination could be described as ‘God’s secret weapon,’ because apart from it no one would be saved.”

In our text we see that unbelief is what happens when the only working element in man’s relationship to God is human responsibility. Robert Haldane says, “We see what is the result, when God employs outward means to lead men to obedience, and does not accompany them with the influence of His efficacious grace.”

Over the next few devotionals, we will explore this text in greater detail. But I leave you today with Ephesians 2:1, “And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins.” I’ve preached and/or attended many funerals. The one thing that I have always noticed is (the common denominator – if you will) that none of those dead folks ever responded to me or any one else. Dead people don’t do stuff! In our human condition of trespasses and sins, we are dead, spiritually dead. And just as physically dead people “don’t do stuff,” neither do spiritually dead people “do stuff.” Without the quickening power of the Holy Spirit, spiritually dead human beings continue being spiritually dead human beings, and the only thing spiritually dead human beings can do is reject Jesus Christ.

I thank God that before the foundation of the earth was laid, He chose me. (Ephesians 1:4-6, “According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.”) Had God not chosen me, I (a spiritually dead human being) would never have chosen Him.

Thank you God for loving me, sending your Son to die for me, and choosing me, an unworthy sinner!

Adapted from “Romans” by Boice.

In Christ,
Dan Todd

 

Excellent lesson - thank you!

Dan

 

February 4

Romans 10:21, “But to Israel he saith, All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people.”

One of the most interesting presentations of the gospel I have ever heard was by Glenn Siegrist, of Baptist Mid-Missions’ Messianic Ministries. The thing that made Glenn’s presentation so riveting was his texts were entirely from the Old Testament. Glenn preached Jesus, the Messiah, entirely from the Old Testament.

Paul often ends a reasoned argument with a quotation from the Old Testament. Paul closed Romans 9 with quotations from Isaiah 8:14 and 28:16. Paul does the same thing in Romans 10. In fact, Paul has already given us six Old Testament quotations in Romans 10: Joel 2:32 (in verse 13); Isaiah 52:7 (in verse 15); Isaiah 53:1 (in verse 16); Psalm 19:4 (in verse 18); Deuteronomy 32:21 (in verse 19); and Isaiah 65:1 (in verse 20). Our text is the seventh quotation from the Old Testament found in Romans 10, and it comes from Isaiah 65:2, “ I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people, which walketh in a way that was not good, after their own thoughts.” I cannot think of any better way to preach or make a point, than to quote Scripture. “Thus saith the Lord” (Scripture) is powerful as was testified to by the writer of Hebrews – “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12).

Our text “is a moving statement, because it spells out the nature of God’s love in contrast to the disobedient and obstinate rejection of the love of God by human beings.” (Boice) The first part of the verse spells out the nature of God’s love, from which we can learn at least three important things:

1. It is continuous. Paul pictures God as holding out His hands towards Israel for an entire day. Try holding out your hands (arms) for a few minutes, they soon become so heavy it is near impossible to do it for more than a few minutes. Soon you would be in excruciating pain. (Moses needed help holding his arm aloft when Israel was warring against the enemy). No human could hold out their arms for an entire day. But God says He has done this continuously. Paul’s illustration certainly reinforces the truth that even though we are weak and always fail, with God, all things are possible!

Scripture tells us that with God a thousand years is as a day, and a day is as a thousand years. God has been holding out His hands towards Israel (this is grace) since the day of Abraham, some four thousand years. If we go back to Adam and Eve, God’s arms (grace) has been outstretched towards mankind for some six thousand years.

The lesson I learn from this is that God is compassionate. He still offers grace to an unworthy population. For over four thousand years God has held out His hand of grace towards His elect Israel, and for over six thousand years He has offered His free grace to a rebellious mankind. Too often, man takes God’s longsuffering as a sign of weakness or indifference. God is not weak, and He certainly is not indifferent. The day of God’s grace will one day end, and then He will deal with those who have rejected His Son Jesus in judgement, fearful judgment.

If you have never trusted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, do not presume upon God’s grace. God was merciful to the inhabitants of Canaan for over 400 years. God gave the exceedingly sinful Canaanites ample opportunity to repent, but they did not. In fact their sin became even more grievous during the time Israel abode in Egypt. When Joshua and Israel returned to the promised land, God commanded that the inhabitants of the land be totally destroyed because their iniquity was full and overflowing.

You many think that you have done enough good things in your life to appease God, and that you are no where near as wicked as the Canaanites of old. Please heed this warning, the most grievous sin you can commit is to reject Jesus Christ. That is the one sin that is truly unforgivable. I plead with you to accept God’s grace by faith. To reject is to perish. And if you perish, you will have no one to blame but yourself.

Adapted from “Romans” by Boice.

In Christ,
Dan Todd

 

Thank you Blackbird!

My head deacon usually does the Bible study at Wednesday evening prayer meeting. He was there last night - but did not feel well and did not want to do the study. I knew it in advance - so I made copies of three devotionals from BB.

Mine from Feb 4 - Blackbird's from Feb 3 - and Jim's from Feb 4.

I asked them to identify mine - they easily did - because I had mentioned Glenn Siegrist - a missionary our church supports (dead give-away)! Of course - the fact that mine are based in Romans - and I have been preaching in Romans are our church for about four years - might also have given it away!

Dan

 

February 6

Romans 10:21, “But to Israel he saith, All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people.”

The first part of our text looks at the nature of God’s love. First, we saw that it was continuous. God is continually holding out His hands to a people (in our text - it is Israel) who are disobedient to Him.

2. It is compassionate. God’s love is filled with passion for people. His outstretched hands portray compassion. “It is the posture of a parent reaching out to a crying child. It is the gesture of a husband to his wife or a wife to her husband. It is the gesture of Jesus, who reached out to us from the cross.” (Boice)

How do we see God. Scripture tells us that God is spirit - and one cannot see a spirit. But God has given us a complete image of who He is and what He is in His incarnate Son. If we are to know what God’s hands are like, we need only to look at Jesus’ hands, for Jesus told us in John14:9, “... he that hath seen me hath seen the Father.”

What do we see of Jesus’ hands in the gospel? One day a leper approached Jesus. Those who had leprosy were loathsome, feared, and untouchable, but “... Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him” (Matt 8:3). When two blind men asked Jesus for healing, “ ..... [He] touched ... their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it unto you. And their eyes were opened” (Matt 9:29-30). As Peter walked toward the Lord on the raging sea, he looked at the tumultuous waves, lost his faith, and began to sink. “And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?” (Matt 14:31). Jesus put His hands on the little children, “And he took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them” (Mark 10:16). When Jesus ascended into heaven, “he lifted up his hands, and blessed them” (Luke 24:50). We see Jesus’ hands healing, blessing, and saving. They are truly compassionate hands.

Boice writes, “I am sure also, though the story does not say so explicitly, that the hands of Jesus were stretched out toward Jerusalem when He came to the brow of the hill overlooking that great city and wept over it, saying, ‘If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace – but now it is hidden from your eyes’ (Luke 19:42).”

3. It is costly. “There is one more important thing to see about the outstretched hands of God. They teach us that the love of God is costly – that is, costly to God.” (Boice) What will we see when we gaze upon those hands? The scars of the nails where He was brutally nailed to that Roman cross! Someone has said, “No other god has wounds.” How true that is, for no other god ever paid the price of redemption because of his continuing and compassionate love for mankind, except the God/man – who is Jesus Christ.

“ ... behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor 6:2). If you have never trusted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of your life, I beg you to so right now. You have not even been promised the next breath that you are about to draw. And the love that those hands show us right now will one day cast all rejecters into the Lake of Fire. Flee today to those hands of love, do not wait til those hands become the hands of punishment.

Adapted from “Romans” by Boice.

In Christ,
Dan Todd

 

Thank you for that lesson in meekness!

Dan

 

February 8

Romans 10:21, “But to Israel he saith, All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people.”

In the first half of our text we saw that God’s love is continuous, compassionate, and costly. In the second half of our text we see that the response is rejection. Two words summarize this rejection:

1. Disobedient. We often think of the gospel as an invitation. Jesus Himself said, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). The Bible ends with an invitation, “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely” (Revelation 22:17).

In addition to being an invitation, the gospel is also a command. We are commanded to turn from sin to faith in Jesus Christ and to follow Him in obedient discipleship. Paul ended his address on Mars Hill by saying, “Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device. And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead” (Acts 17:29-31).

This command was also seen at Pentecost when Peter commanded the people to “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins” (Acts 2:38).

“It is a characteristic of people to labor strenuously to disobey this command. It was that way for Israel, and it is also true for people today. There is nothing we resist so much as a command, no command we resist so much as a command given to us by God, and no command given to us by God that we reject so much as the command to repent and turn to Jesus.” (Boice)

God told Adam and Eve not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but they did. God told Moses to speak to the rock, and he struck it. God through the angels told Lot and his family not to look back, but Mrs. Lot did. God told David through Joab not to number the people, but he did. And we could continue through the Scripture and find many other examples of people disobeying God’s commands. This disobedience continues to our day and will most certainly outlive us.

The first thing set over against the love of God was and is disobedience. Let it be our prayer that we cease our disobedience and become faithful disciples to our God.

Adapted from “Romans” by Boice.

In Christ,
Dan Todd