Calvary Road Baptist Church
“CONVINCING CULPABILITY”
Romans 10.14-21
Have you ever thought about the cultural baggage that you have brought with you into your Christian life? If you are a genuinely born again child of God, you came into your Christian life with what I refer to as cultural baggage. Every one of us has some amount and variety of cultural baggage. The question comes down to this; “Is the cultural baggage that I carried into my Christian life helpful or hurtful to my newfound life in Jesus Christ?” If it is helpful, then it must be held to and nurtured under the influence of God’s Word. But if it is hurtful, it needs to be discarded. Amen?
Paul had to deal with this type of thing wherever he went to preach the Gospel. Jews bringing into their newfound faith in Christ a distrust of and disdain for Christians of Gentile heritage, which they considered to be filthy and ignorant of the things of God. But the Gentiles had the same kind of cultural baggage, only in a different direction. Gentiles had always been suspicious of Jewish people because of their distinctive dress, their distinctive grooming practices, their distinctive religious practices, and their tendency to live in little enclaves that Jews in the Middle Ages began to refer to as ghettos.
You can imagine a Church congregation comprised of Jewish and Gentile Christians, one half of whom had cultural baggage that rendered them somewhat suspicious of and uneasy around the other half, and visa versa. So, when Paul spoke of the Jewish people having no standing before God (referring to unsaved Jewish people, of course), half of the crowd was not particularly upset at hearing what he said, while the other half was perplexed and troubled at what he said, because both groups still powerfully identified with the ethnic group that they grew up in.
You need to ask yourself, “Is that always a good idea?” Have you ever given thought to whether you ought to strongly identify with the ethnic group you grew up in? Read the book of Acts sometime, with a consider to the problems caused by people clinging too much to the ethnic identity they grew up in. I got an idea. What ought to replace that identity is, of course, the believer’s identity in Christ. On both sides of the aisle, there are spiritually immature Christians whose allegiance to their old ethnic group, sadly and unspiritually, is stronger than is their allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ and to the Church of Jesus Christ that they are a part of. When that happens, you have a recipe for potential trouble.
Paul identified a problem. He has already shown that the Jewish people who were unbelievers had the status of lost people, just like Gentiles who do not know Christ. And he had already shown that the Jewish people who were unbelievers have no standing before God, just like Gentiles who do not know Christ. But now he must make sure that he establishes something called culpability. And he must do so without seeming to be anti-Semitic.
Culpable is a word that is used in courts of Law to refer to someone’s guilt.[1] It has to do with whose fault something is. Whose fault is that? And Paul needs to establish, to his audience composed of people from two different backgrounds, exactly whose fault is the lost condition of the unreached Jewish community. Whose fault is that? Whether the issue before you is salvation or anything else, if you are not culpable, if blame or fault cannot be fixed with you when something wrong happens, then God is ultimately culpable. So, in the matter of the present state of the Jewish people of his day, the Apostle Paul was compelled to show the place of blame, of fault. Not with God. With men.
How do we know that the Jewish people are culpable for their present lost condition? The evidence of salvation’s present availability, in Romans 10.14-21:
14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?
15 And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!
16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report?
17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
18 But I say, Have they not heard? Yes verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world.
19 But I say, Did not Israel know? First Moses saith, I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people, and by a foolish nation I will anger you.
20 But Esaias is very bold, and saith, I was found of them that sought me not; I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me.
21 But to Israel he saith, All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people.
Two considerations bring us to the conclusion that the Jewish people are culpable for their lost condition before God:
First, PAUL CONSIDERS THE STRATEGY OF THE GOSPEL’S PRESENTATION
Generally speaking, the Gospel presentation strategy outlined in the Bible requires no cleverness and no particular ingenuity. Mark 16.15 records the Lord Jesus Christ as commanding us to
“Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature.”
The primary characteristic that Christ is looking for in a Christian, then, is not cleverness, is not intelligence, and is not ingenuity, but faithfulness to do what He has commanded us to do. Are you supposed to be there? Then be there. Are you supposed to do that? Then do that. It’s not complicated.
But about the Jewish people’s responsiveness to the Gospel message or lack of responsiveness, there are questions that need to be asked. Paul asks these questions in verses 14-16:
Question #1 “How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed?” Last week’s text, you might remember, promised deliverance from future judgment to everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord. But in our study, last week, we also saw that calling upon the name of the Lord was behavior that only genuine believers can engage in with any real benefit, even though sometimes lost people call on the name of the Lord. This question, being a rhetorical question whose answer is, therefore, obvious, supports what we learned last week. How can you call upon the name of the Lord if you are not a believer? You cannot. Not with success, anyway. It is not possible to beneficially call on the name of the Lord unless you have faith in Him. Meaning, of course, that the Jewish people cannot, nor can anyone else, engage in an activity of worshiping someone they have not placed their faith in.
Question #2 “And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?” Can someone believe in the Lord Jesus Christ if they have never heard of the Lord Jesus Christ? Of course not. It is not possible to believe in one of whom you have not heard. Follow Paul, here. If you’ve not heard, you can’t believe. If you can’t believe you cannot beneficially call on His name. And if you can’t beneficially call on His name, you shall not escape the wrath to come.
Question #3 “And how shall they hear without a preacher?” It is not possible to hear of one unless someone declares him. Folks, this is where the simple and straightforward strategy to preach the Gospel to everyone comes in. And a physical parallel to this line of thought Paul is pursuing would not be a cable, where, if one strand of wire broke, the cable might hold and perform its task. What we have here is a chain that will fail catastrophically if any link fails to perform as required. If you are the Christian who does not witness, if you are a Christian who is a silent believer, then you are a link in the chain that is broken. Not having heard, the lost person, therefore, cannot believe, because he hasn’t heard. Not believing, he cannot call upon the Lord’s name. Not calling on the Lord’s name, he shall not escape the wrath to come. Do you see how important you are? Do you see how vital to God’s plan you are? This is important stuff, folks.
Question #4 (10.15-16)
15 And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!
16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report?
Notice that this is the first of Paul’s series of questions that is not immediately followed by another question. But understand, what I have read in these two verses does not answer the question that has been asked. Paul asks a question, but he doesn’t answer it. From Paul’s question, we see the obvious again. It is not possible for the preacher to declare Christ unless he had been sent to them who need to hear. No one would dispute the truth of this. This is precisely why our Church not only sends out Church members to the surrounding communities but also missionaries into other parts of the country and foreign fields. How shall they hear without a preacher? Somebody has to tell them. “Somebody else will tell them.” Are you sure? Notice that appended to this last question are two references to Old Testament passages.
The first is a reference about those who go and preach. Quoting Isaiah 52.7, Paul points out that despite what we can imagine about the feet of someone who spends all day every day walking here and there in sandals, on roads that are nothing more than primitive trails, to God those weathered and callused and gnarled feet are beautiful. You will say, “How is that possible?” Because of the message those feet carry.
The second reference is a quote of Isaiah 53.1. In one of the most graphic and moving predictions of the Lord Jesus Christ’s crucifixion found anywhere in the Bible, the prophet decries the unwillingness of the wicked to believe what he is saying. Let me read the entire chapter:
1 Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?
2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.
8 He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.
9 And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
11 He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
Back to our text. I think what Paul is trying to communicate is this: Reaching people with the Gospel starts with sending preachers. And what wonderful saints are those who are willing to be sent to the uttermost parts of the world. But no matter what we do, nothing happens if the unsaved person refuses to believe our report.
Paul has asked question after question-related to getting the Gospel message out. “How does this relate to the issue of the unsaved state of the Jewish community as a whole,” you might ask? The answer that needs to be given to that question is found in Romans 10.17:
“So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
From a human perspective, we must do what we can only do; we must do what only we can do, we must preach and send preachers. We have to do that. That is the extent of our efforts in this plan whereby God justifies sinful men. And it’s important since God gives faith through the medium of the preaching of the Word of God. So, when you have preached the Gospel when you have sent the preacher, when you have performed your particular role in bringing that lost person under the sound of Gospel preaching, you have done what God wants you to do. If you haven’t done that you have not done what God wants you to do. Your role in God’s strategy has been fulfilled with your obedience. The results are up to God. Amen?
Then, PAUL CONSIDERS THE SENTENCE OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE’S PRIDE
In the remaining verses of Romans chapter 10 Paul examines the strategy which has been used to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and specifically how that strategy has influenced the Jewish people.
First, we see the opportunity of the Jewish people, verse 18:
“But I say, Have they not heard? Yes verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world.”
Not every single Jewish person of Paul’s day had specifically been witnessed to and had heard the Gospel. But the Gospel had spread so far so fast that most Jewish people had been exposed to the preaching of the Gospel. That is undeniable. Why, then, didn’t the Jewish people all come to Christ? He was the fulfillment of many Old Testament prophecies. Because, contrary to what some people would like for Romans 10.17 to mean, hearing God’s Word preached does not automatically produce faith, for the Jews had heard and many had not believed. From the complimentary truth of this verse, we can better understand that, while God will not give faith to anyone apart from hearing the Word of God, hearing the Word of God doesn’t necessarily mean that a person will believe. Thus, while the preaching of the Word of God is necessary, it is not sufficient. What we also know from this verse is that the Jewish people, by and large, had opportunity. They had opportunity. They could not claim to the police officer who pulled them over for speeding that they didn’t know what the speed limit was.
Second, we see the obstinacy of the Jewish people. “Boy, he’s getting politically incorrect now, isn’t he?” Folks, I have always been politically incorrect. This is just the latest example. Their refusal to submit to the will of God and God’s use of Gentiles to provoke them to jealousy was predicted by Moses in Deuteronomy 32.21. Paul refers to that prediction in verse 19:
“But I say, Did not Israel know? First Moses saith, I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people, and by a foolish nation I will anger you.”
Their obstinacy was also portrayed by Isaiah. In Isaiah 65.1 the prophet contrasted the obstinacy of the Jewish people by showing the responsiveness of the Gentiles, which Paul recalls in verse 20:
“But Esaias is very bold, and saith, I was found of them that sought me not; I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me.”
That is us. Truly, in Paul’s day and in our own most Gentiles are far and away more receptive to the Gospel message than most Jewish people are.
Then, in Isaiah 65.2, the resistance of the Jewish people to God’s offers of salvation are described, as Paul recalls in verse 21:
“But to Israel he saith, All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people.”
The prophet’s description of the Jewish people in this passage is of a people who are stretching God’s long-suffering and who are rebellious without remorse.
Culpability. Whose fault is it? After examining the strategy for getting the Gospel out, Paul comes to the well-founded conclusion that the Jewish people of his day had heard the message. No one could claim they hadn’t heard the message. They had heard the message, and they rejected it.
With opportunity was accompanied obstinacy. In the face of the revelation of God’s Word, the Jewish community responded, by and large, with continued rebellion. So, what was Paul’s conclusion regarding the unsaved condition of the Jewish people? His conclusion was, they are culpable.
How does what Paul said apply to you and me today, here in the twenty-first century? There are three valid applications that come to mind:
First, though the Jewish people of Paul’s day had heard the Gospel and Paul and men like him scoured the Roman Empire, such is not the case today. The Jewish community has been closed to the Gospel for so long that hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Jewish people, have never heard a clear presentation of the Gospel even one time. That’s why we support Jewish missions. Because we recognize that. That’s why we seek opportunities to reach the Jewish people. Because we recognize that. And I am so grateful for the opportunity to witness to individual Jewish people and to, on one occasion, present an entire Gospel message to a Jewish synagogue in Los Angeles. One of these days I should tell you how I had the opportunity to present the Gospel to what I learned later was Monica Lewinsky’s synagogue.
Second, we have seen the strategy that was employed by God’s men during the lifetime of Paul. That strategy was used by Paul to vindicate God from any charges that might be leveled against Him by unsaved men who would accuse Him of not giving them a chance. The Jewish community could not absolve themselves of the blame for their spiritual condition because God’s people had saturated the Roman Empire with the Gospel message. Have we done the same?
Oh, sure, you can hear religious broadcasting on the radio, and you can see it on television, such as it is. But is what is available really what the Lord Jesus Christ meant when He commanded His men to “Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature”? Or is what is available usually just a bland diet of pseudo-Christian pablum that will do more to inoculate lost people against Christianity than infect them with Christianity? This is why I am so thrilled to have this radio program According To Thy Word every afternoon at 5:00 PM on www.FirstLoveRadio.org.
I am of the opinion that God’s will is for us to individually and corporately involve ourselves in personal evangelism. Mass media is great when the message is clear, but the ultimate goal is to deal with people about their salvation personally yourself and to support Church planting missionaries who will deal with people about their salvation personally themselves.
Isn’t it about time to make a decision, Christian? Aren’t we at that place in this message? I suggest you do something. If you don’t know what to do or how I would encourage you to talk to me so I can make recommendations for your consideration.
And my final application is for you here today who are not believers in Jesus Christ. You have heard what Paul said about the Jewish people. They had opportunity. But they were obstinate. They refused to respond. And what did that mean? It meant that they were culpable. It meant that their lost condition was their fault. It was nobody else’s fault. It meant that their eternity in the lake of fire would be spent blaming themselves for their torment, not someone else, and certainly not God.
I challenge you, Christian, to personally involve yourself in getting the Gospel out. And I challenge you, my unbelieving friend, to respond to what you have heard about Jesus Christ with personal faith in Him as the Savior of your eternal soul, because if God’s chosen nation is culpable for their sin, then you will certainly be held responsible for your sins. Amen?
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[1] Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary, (New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1996), page 443.
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