Coffee Shop Chapel

September 8

Romans 10:1-2, “ Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.”

This simple prayer of Paul’s suggests several important truths. The first is that prayer is always worthwhile.

The subject of Romans 9 is election, the subject of Romans 10 is the fact that the failure of Israel to believe on Jesus was their fault, not God’s. God’s sovereignty in election and Israel’s failure to believe seem to be legitimate reasons not to pray. But what does the Apostle Paul do, he prays! The fact that God chooses some to salvation and passes by others does not prevent Paul from praying. The fact that many Israelites willfully chose not to believe was a human failure, not a divine failure, and it did not stop Paul from praying. If Paul didn’t stop praying because of God, and he didn’t stop praying because of man, then nothing was going to stop him from praying. Paul was always accustomed to praying for the salvation of other people.

I spent around fifteen years working with my son’s Cub Scout and Boy Scout units. The Boy Scouts have a motto, it is “Be Prepared.” And it is an excellent motto for young men to follow in their daily lives. Paul also had a motto, and that motto was “Pray without ceasing.” (1 Thessalonians 5:17) And it is a godly motto for all believers to follow.

What we have is a conundrum (enigma). From the human point of view, most of us believe in prayer and the power of prayer. Hudson Taylor, the founder of the China Inland Mission (now the Overseas Missionary Fellowship) said the “it is possible to move men, through God, by prayer alone.” Boice writes, “We agree on the human side. But what about the divine side? If God has made His decision to save some and pass by others, isn’t it useless or even foolish to pray, not to mention presumptuous?”

Apparently Paul did not think that way. And as “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Timothy 3:16-17), apparently neither does the Holy Spirit, who is the real author of Scripture. (“For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. [2 Peter 1:21])

John Murray highlights and then resolves the issue as follows: “In the preceding chapter the emphasis is upon the sovereign and determinative will of God in the differentiation that exists among men. God has mercy on whom He will and whom He wills He hardens. Some are vessels for wrath, others for mercy. And ultimate destiny is envisioned in destruction and glory. But this differentiation is God’s action and prerogative, not man’s. And, because [it is] so, our attitude to men is not to be governed by God’s secret counsel concerning them. It is this lesson and the distinction involved that are so eloquently inscribed on the apostle’s passion for the salvation of his kinsmen. We violate the order of human thought and trespass the boundary between God’s prerogative and man’s when the truth of God’s sovereign counsel constrains despair or abandonment of concern for the eternal interests of men.”

We cannot know the mind of God in regard to the salvation of sinners. Therefore, we should always pray for them. Boice writes, “But we can also add that one way in which God works to call sinners to repentance is through prayer. So, when we pray, God answers our prayers and saves those for whom He moves us to pray.”

“The theological way of expressing this is to say that God always ordains the means to some goal as well as the ends. So, if He has ordained to save a certain individual through our prayers, it is as necessary that we pray for that individual as it is that the individual be saved. Indeed, we must pray, since the individual will not be saved apart from the ordained intercession.” (Boice)

George Muller, the founder of the great faith orphanages in England, was a man of outstanding prayer. As a young man, he had two friends for whom he began to pray. Muller kept notes on his prayers, and those notes showed that he prayed for those two men for over sixty years. One of the men was saved just before Muller’s death at one of Muller’s last services. The other became a Christian within a year of Muller’s funeral. Near the end of his life, friends asked Muller why he was still praying for them, after such a long time, since they had shown no response. He answered, “Do you think God would have kept me praying all these years if He did not intend to save them?”

“It was a point Paul would easily have understood.” (Boice)

Adapted from “Romans” by Boice.

In Christ,
Dan Todd

 

September 10

Romans 10:1-2, “ Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.”

The second truth we can see in Paul’s prayer for his countrymen is that the most important prayer of all, is that those for whom we are praying might “be saved.” We are to pray about all sorts of things. Jesus said, “Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you” (John 16:23). We are instructed to ask God for “our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11). Jesus said, “pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you” (Matthew 5:44). Paul told us, “I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty” (1 Timothy 2:1-2).

Jesus’ statement in Matthew 16:26 makes is abundantly clear what He considered the highest priority, “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” However good it is to have peace, food, health, prosperity, or other blessings, those things mean absolutely nothing if we fail to receive God’s salvation.

Do not forget this when you pray for other people. Jan and I are thankful that our three children and their spouses are born again. So we make it a priority to pray for the salvation of our grandchildren and their future spouses (the oldest grandchild will only be five in November). There is no time like the present to place these little one ( some of whom, the future spouses, are unknown to us) before the throne of grace.

The third truth in Paul’s prayer for his countrymen is found in verse 2, “For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.” Zeal is no substitute for conversion, yes, even the zealous must be saved.

When Paul spoke of the Jew’s zeal in matters of religion, he spoke from experience. The Jews took their religion very seriously. Paul had studied under the great Jewish rabbi Gamaliel. He had defended Judaism with a zeal unmatched even by most other Pharisees. But that zeal could not save Paul. “In fact, his zeal was so misdirected that for a long time it actually kept him from Christ.” (Boice) On the Damascus road, Paul finally met Jesus, and then his zeal was directed correctly towards the advance of Christ’s kingdom.

Paul acknowledged the zeal of his countrymen, yet he still regarded them as lost. So he prayed for them, fervently, and worked tirelessly for their salvation. Boice writes, “This is extremely relevant in our mindless, pluralistic, all-accepting society. For there is a common error that says that as long as a person is sincere, it does not really matter what he or she believes. In our day [Political Correctness says] we are supposed to be open to everyone’s version of the truth.”

Boice writes, “That is quite understandable, given the mind-set of most people today. But it only shows how far our culture has moved from Christianity. Why? Because the religion of Jesus is not “all-accepting,” except in the sense that anyone may repent of his sin and come to Jesus. On the contrary, Christianity teaches that all are lost and that even the religiously zealous are not saved by zeal alone.”

How are we saved, by Christ alone, received by faith alone. Anything else is not true Christianity.

Adapted from “Romans” by Boice.

In Christ,
Dan Todd

 

Amen!!!

 

September 12

Romans 10:1-2, “ Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.”

So far we have seen three truths expressed in Paul’s prayer for his countrymen: prayer is always worthwhile; the most important prayer of all is that those for whom we are praying might “be saved;” and zeal is no substitute for conversion, even the zealous must be saved. There is a fourth truth found in Paul’s prayer, and it is the necessary first step to conversion, and that is knowledge. The Jews had zeal, but their zeal was “but not according to knowledge.”

The problem is explained in Romans 10:3, they were ignorant of the righteousness of God. The Jews, like Martin Luther, many centuries later, thought that the righteousness God requires of us is human righteousness, good character, good works, etc. What they did not understand is that the righteousness that God requires is divine righteousness. The only way we can obtain divine righteousness is from God, Who gave Himself, in the person of Jesus Christ, as the free gift that provides salvation.

The Jews had zeal, the Jews had religion, the Jews had the oracles of God, the Jews were and are a truly blessed people, but as Paul says, the Jews lacked knowledge. What is the cure for lack of knowledge, the teaching of the Word of God. Boice writes that “Christianity is primarily a teaching religion. It is and always has been.” Now my more charismatic friends are bound to ask me, “Didn’t Jesus come to be good to people, to heal them of their diseases?” My answer is “NO!” It is true, Jesus did do good, He did heal the diseased and He even raised the dead, “but His primary ministry was to teach people the way of salvation, and to provide for it by Himself dying for sin and then rising from the dead.” (Boice)

When John the Baptist was put in prison, Jesus picked up the teaching ministry by “preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God” (Mark 1:14). In verse 21 Jesus “went into Capernaum; and straightway on the sabbath day he entered into the synagogue, and taught.” Verse 22 tells us that the people “were astonished at his doctrine: for he taught them as one that had authority.” Teaching is the prominent thing in the chapter.

Please notice what happens in verse 29 and following. Jesus went to Peter’s house, whose mother-in-law was sick, and Jesus healed her. People flocked to Peter’s door, seeking Jesus, in order that He might heal them, and He did. Early the next day, Jesus went out by Himself, into a solitary place, where He prayed. When the disciples found Him, they told Him that “All men seek for thee.” What was Jesus’ response, “Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also: for therefore came I forth.”

Boice writes, “Wasn’t it important to heal the sick? Perhaps. It was certainly a good thing to heal them. But it was not as important to heal as it was to teach, and in this case the pressure to heal the sick was beginning to detract from Jesus’ teaching ministry. Jesus abandoned the former in order to pursue the latter. He had come to teach, and He was determined that nothing would keep Him from that all-important work.”

In the early chapters of Acts, there was a problem with the administration of money for the widows. The apostles asked the church to appoint deacons to take care of the problem, because they said, “It is not reason that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables” (Acts 6:2).

Paul did miracles, and spoke in tongues. But he said, “Yet in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue” (1 Corinthians 14:19).

Why did Jesus, the apostles, and Paul concentrate on teaching? Because salvation must be according to right knowledge. The Jews had zeal, but not according to knowledge.” Proper teaching is the necessary first step in any individual’s conversion.

As we preach, teach, and witness, our prayer must be that the Holy Spirit will give us understanding of the Word of God as we study it, so we may impart that knowledge to a lost and dying world. Many in this world are zealous and sincere, but they are sincerely wrong, if they are trusting their own self-righteousness, instead of God’s perfect divine righteousness, which He desires to give us.

Ephesians 6:13-19, “Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints; And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel.” Several pieces of defensive armour, but just two pieces of offensive armour, the Word of God and prayer.

Adapted from “Romans” by Boice.

In Christ,
Dan Todd

 

September 14

Romans 10:3, “For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.”

A conservative radio talk show host that I enjoy listening to often says, “Say what you mean and mean what you say.” Parents often tell their children, “I’ve told you a million times not to do that!” A parent would have to tell their child not to do something about 152 times a day, every day til they were eighteen, in order to hit one million. I like to be precise. If you talk to me about “guard rail” in New York State, I am likely to tell you that you are wrong. You see, there may be “guard rail” in the other forty-nine states, but in New York State, we have “guide rail.” If you said something to me about a “cement wall,” I probably would say, “Cement is a powdery substance, what you are talking about is concrete.” You are probably beginning to see what Jan has had to put up with the past thirty-three years, and most likely you are feeling sorry for her!

You most likely are beginning to wonder where I am going with all this. Boice writes, “Most people today are impatient with precise definitions, especially theological definitions or definitions of biblical words, which do not mean much to them in any case. I have had people tell me, ‘I tune out whenever you start talking about words.’ This is because they are impatient with precision about almost anything.”

Many things require precision. In order to put man on the moon, NASA had to be precise. We all want the electrician who wires our house to be precise, the accountant who prepares our taxes to be precise, and the doctor who examines us to know the difference between a bellyache and appendicitis. “In the same way, you cannot make much progress in learning about God without precision, since God is Himself precise and is the source of all precision.” (Boice) The subject of our text is a word about which we must be precise, “righteousness.” Paul uses the word twice in Romans 10:3, and some thirty-three times in Romans. Donald Grey Barnhouse says this is because “the issues of life and death, of time and eternity hang upon a proper understanding of the righteousness of God and our relationship to it.”

Human beings have a difficult time with righteousness, because our ideas of righteousness are completely different from God’s idea of righteousness. Romans 10:3 tells us that there are two kinds of righteousness, ours and God’s. “The basic spiritual failure of humans beings is that they are so pleased with their own righteousness that they will not have the righteousness of God, which they need if they are to be saved from sin.” (Boice)

Paul had charged his countrymen with having zeal that was not based upon knowledge. The opening word of our text is “For.” It introduces the reason for Paul’s charge, that the Jew’s zeal was ignorant of the precise, accurate meaning of “righteousness.”

Australian scholar Leon Morris [“Epistle to the Romans”] points out how with us righteousness is an ethical virtue, but that with the ancient Hebrews righteousness was first and foremost a legal standing. God is righteous, so righteousness in man is that which enables us to stand before Him: “The man who is ultimately righteous is the one who is acquitted when tried at the bar of God’s justice.”

Therein lies the problem. God is the only righteous one and we are not righteous. “So who is able to stand before God or be acquitted in His court? The answer is: No one, unless God provides His own righteousness for us as a free gift.” (Boice)

This is what Paul has been explaining in Romans and will continue to explain in this important tenth chapter.

Adapted from “Romans” by Boice.

In Christ,
Dan Todd

 

September 16

Romans 10:3, “For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.”

It is difficult for us to understand the meaning of righteousness, because our ideas are so different from God’s. The thing that we should be able to understand clearly is that our text distinguishes between our human righteousness and God’s divine righteousness. Though the text uses the same word when we talk about the two righteousnesses, it speaks of two entirely different things. If we have to give an illustration, it would be the difference between apples and oranges, rotten oranges that is, and we humans are the rotten oranges.

Boice writes, “God’s righteousness is His very nature, for God is righteous, just as God is love. [God’s righteousness] is associated with His holiness and is perhaps better discussed as that word.” What sets God apart? His holiness. It is one of the things that makes Him completely unlike us. Human righteousness is just a social quality made possible by the avoidance of certain deplorable forms of depravity and the attempted accumulation of outwardly good deeds or works. This feeble attempt at righteousness is what allows people to live with each other in a troubled peace, when each of us actually wants everything in life, as well as all other persons to focus on us.

Because God’s righteousness and our righteousness are two different things, the accumulation of human righteousness by avoiding evil and doing good works, can never add up to the true, divine righteousness that God requires of us if we are to be saved from sin and have fellowship with Him.

By way of illustration, let’s suppose we are soldiers, captured by an enemy army. We are put in a prisoner-of-war camp. We have no money, and we must barter for whatever one of us has, and another one of us wants. This bartering system does not work well. But we receive a care package from home that includes a game of Monopoly. We divide the money equally. Now when one of us wants something another has, we pay for it in monopoly money, which is very useful.

One of us is a born capitalist. That one buys low and sells high, and before long he has all the money in the camp. The war ends, prisoner-of-war captives are exchanged, and we go home. The first thing our capitalist does after greeting his family is to go down to his hometown bank. Making his way to the clerk dealing with new accounts, he tells her that he wants to open an account in the bank. The clerk replies, “That’s good, we like to see servicemen come to our bank. How much money would you like to start your account with?”

The soldier responds by pushing his Monopoly money across the counter. $1,534,281,” he says. The tellers takes one look at the Monopoly money, and calls the manager. It is obvious that the soldier is suffering brain damage from his confinement.

The Monopoly money may have helped the soldier in the prisoner-of-war camp, Monopoly money is even useful when playing the game. But in the world of commerce, play money has no value, you need the real thing to open a bank account.

Let’s look at a biblical illustration. Paul’s description of his conversion in given in Philippians 3. Paul spent his early years trying to accumulate righteousness, which he thought would make him acceptable to God. He lists the things in which he had confidence, “ Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless” (Verses 5-6). These things had to do with his birth, religious traditions, affiliations, personal zeal, and outward morality. He thought that was all he needed to attain heaven.

But on the road to Damascus, Paul met Jesus. And when he saw Jesus in His heavenly glory, a glory that blinded him, all Paul’s self-righteousness faded away into darkness and seemed to him to be nothing. Boice makes this comment, “It was as if Paul had been considering himself a 100-watt light bulb, surrounded by people who were only 75-, 60-, and 25-watt light bulbs. But, when Jesus appeared to him, the righteousness of Jesus was like the brightness of the sun. When Paul realized that, he gave up trying to create his own righteousness and instead placed his faith in Jesus, which was the only sensible thing to do.”

Adapted from “Romans” by Boice.

In Christ,
Dan Todd