Please turn to Romans chapter 10. Our sermon text begins in verse 18 and goes to chapter 11 verse 10. You can find that in the pew Bibles on page 1125 Last week we considered two main ideas from the middle of chapter 10. · First – faith is simple. It is confessing Jesus as Lord and believing in his death and resurrection. · Second – In order for people to know about saving faith, they need to hear. And in order for people to hear, believers need to be sent to proclaim the good news. And that brings us to our verses this morning. The question is, what about the people of Israel? Why do most not have this saving faith? That is the main question to which the apostle Paul now turns. Reading of Romans 10:18 to 11:10 Prayer Back when I was in the business consulting world, I worked with lots of people with different beliefs and backgrounds – that include a few Jewish people. With two of them, in particular, I had multiple conversations about God and faith. Both of these guys had a very strong Jewish identity. Both of them would celebrate Jewish holidays. Both of them knew what those celebrations were about. However, neither of them believed in God at all. And that is pretty typical. I suspect some of you have had the same experience. Albert Einstein, the most famous scientist in US history who was also Jewish, wrote this: "The word god is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses,” Einstein furthermore said, “the Bible [is] a collection of honorable, but still primitive legends... No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this." That is a hear heart. Many Jews, today, are very secular like Einstein was. Not only do they reject Jesus, but many reject the existence of God. To be sure, orthodox and other conservative Jews certainly do believe in God. However, they reject Jesus as the Messiah. One of the most well know Rabbis in history described Jesus as the failed Messiah…. He wrote, “Rather than redeeming Israel Jesus caused Jews to be killed and exiled, changed the Torah and led the world to worship a false God.” All of that is sad to consider. As the apostle Paul wrote in the beginning of chapter 9, “to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all.” And we ask, why? Why, Lord, do they not believe? After all, they have the promises and patterns and prophecies of the Messiah. And the New Testament has about 1000 Old Testament quotes and allusions. They reveal how Jesus fulfilled those promises and patterns and prophecies. Is it because they have not heard? Or is it because they have not understood what they heard? Lord, have you rejected your people? These are important questions. And those are the three main questions in these verses. In one sense, the apostle Paul has already answered the question. Do you remember from chapter 9 that God in his sovereignty has mercy on those whom he choses to have mercy and he hardens whom he chooses to harden? That answer is from the divine perspective. It’s from the perspective of God’s purposes, which are for his own glory. Remember, it’s about God’s mercy. Well, today’s verses answer the question from the human perspective. We learned last week that the means through which people receive the righteousness of God (the means through which people are saved) is through faith in Christ. It’s professing Jesus as Lord. It’s believing him as the promised Messiah. That is how we come to know that God has been merciful to us. So, from a human perspective, why do more Jewish people not believe by faith in Christ? Did they never hear? Or is it that they do not understand? Well, those first two questions are answered at the end of chapter 10. Let’s take those in order. First, did unbelieving Israel never hear? Is it possible the problem is they have not been told? Well, the apostle gives an answer right there in verse 18. “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.’” That is a very interesting quote. It’s from Psalm 19. It’s actually one of my favorites. “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.” And then the words quoted in Romans 10 “Their voice has gone out to all the earth…” The reason this reference is interesting or curious is that the beginning of Psalm 19 is speaking abut God’s character and nature revealed in creation. The verse that Paul quotes is not talking about God’s Word and the promise of redemption going forth. But Romans 10 is. It’s about God’s Word (his special revelation) and about salvation ...