Romans chapter 9. I had a few
different titles picked out for this message this evening. As
I was studying this week, I always have trouble when there is such
an overflowing chapter. Where do I start? Where do I
stop? Do I overlap? It makes it a little rough on
me. I was going to title this A Cursed for a Nation. But I
think I'm going to call it Romans 9, part 1. And then we'll see
part 2 next Wednesday. Romans chapter 9, we'll begin
reading in verse 1. I say the truth in Christ. I lie
not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost,
that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself
were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according
to the flesh." He's talking about physical Jews, physical Israel.
Verse 4, "...who are Israelites, to whom pertaineth the adoption."
and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and
the service of God, and the promises. Whose are the fathers, and of
whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all. God blessed forever. Amen. Paul had just finished telling
us, there in chapter 8, telling us of the life that believers
have in the new man, in the Spirit that's given of God in Christ,
that Christ dwells in us as the believer's righteousness. Because
of that, we're joint heirs with Christ, children of God, that
the Holy Spirit has, does, and continues to intercede on our
behalf. pray on our behalf. And that
the children of God was loved before time and they are called
to know that love. He won't lose them. He loved
them, he won't tell them about it. And that Christ has justified
his people and he has glorified the Lord in doing so. And then he tells us we will
be conformed to the image of Christ. All of these blessed
truths are founded on that love that God the Father has for His
Son, and that love is bestowed on those put in Christ before
the world began. And then in chapter 9, Paul is
going to be telling us of that electing grace of our Lord. Our salvation is completely a
work of God on behalf of sinners. God choosing a people and successfully
saving that people is so thoroughly and so plainly declared to us
in this chapter. Go look up some sermons to listen
to on this chapter. They ain't a whole lot of by
speaker that you're going to find. Most of the churches in
this nation don't have many messages out of this chapter. But Paul
begins this text with a heavy heart. He begins with a strong
desire For sinners, those that don't yet know Christ, those
outside of Christ, to know Christ. For those elect children of God
to be called out. But just for them, or for those,
but also for His physical brothers and sisters, that physical Israel,
those fellow Jews. Now going through 1 John for
me has been such a blessing. I enjoy that book so much. And more especially when we see
this heart that's given in our new man to love. When we look
at that, to love Christ, to love the brethren, and to have a general
love for all men and women, for all sinners, that we don't know
if they're our brothers or sisters or not. Have that common love
that they might be Christ as well. And if they are, that they'll
come to Him. He'll draw them. We pray for
that. And it's so precious to see that that heart that John
was talking about, John learned all those things when he wrote
about in his gospel, and then he gets to 1 John, he's got some
experience in those things. But that heart that he was writing
about, it's consistent in the Lord's people. They love Christ,
they love their brethren, and in a sense, they love all men.
Because they don't know who their brethren are. And that's the
same love we see Paul declaring here in our text tonight. I wish
I had that love more abundantly. for all men, to pray like this
for all men, to pray for our nation, to pray earnestly for
my family, my friends, any of them that don't know the Lord,
to weep over those facing eternity that haven't been born again
yet. I've got a pastor back in the 1700s in England standing
on the corner bawling, just crying, and one of his The congregation
came up and said, what's wrong? You okay? And he said, just look
at all these sinners walking around that don't know Christ. I wish I had that heart. And
to pray for my enemies. Not just people that's kind to
me, but the ones that would choke me if the law wasn't looking.
Pray for them and mean it earnestly. But this love for our earthly
families, for strangers, for friends, and what we pray for
them, That gospel that they need to know, it all comes and begins
from truth. From truth. Paul says there in
verse 1, Romans 9-1, I say the truth in Christ. I lie not. My conscience also bear me witness
in the Holy Ghost. Now to chapter 8, we see all
these gracious and merciful blessings that Paul just told us. He's
saying all that is true. All those wonderful things out
of Romans 8. Everything we read, it's true.
I ain't lying. And the Holy Ghost is my witness.
Everything I told you just now is absolute fact. It's the truth. And, what he's about to tell
us, here in chapter 9. Every word is going to come out
of his mouth or out of his hand. Absolute truth. He doesn't lie. His conscience is bore witness
with the Holy Ghost. It's the truth. That's a necessary
foundation of true gospel preaching. True witnessing to truly spread
the gospel is the truth in Christ. The truth in Christ. Not just
a doctrine. It's not just telling people
of Christ. There's truths about a man named
Christ that happened to live and happened to die on a cross.
A lot of folks believe that. But it's the truth in Christ,
given by Him, to tell men and women about who the God of the
Bible is, to tell them the person, the holiness, the perfection
of Christ our Lord, and to tell them of the work that He accomplished. primarily, firstly, in glorifying
the Father, honoring Him, declaring He's the just and justifier,
and the saving of His people, fully and completely. And, not
only to tell them all that, to not stop telling them. Tell them that old, old story.
Tell them again and again, generation after generation, as Paul said,
to stir up your pure minds, a new heart and a believer, and the
same with truth, again and again. Stir it up the same way. Peter
told us, wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always
in remembrance of these things, though ye know them. I'm going
to put you in remembrance of this. You know it. As you've
said here for a long time, years. You know this gospel. And you're
established in that present truth. You know it right now. Established
in Christ. And I ain't going to neglect
telling you. Paul ain't going to neglect telling us. Even though you know these things
are established in truth, Lord, it enables me, I'll not neglect
to tell you them. Tell you in truth. Now Paul continues
there. He says, I lie not. We're not going to lie to people.
Tell them the truth and not lie to them. We're not going to use
deception. We're not going to use things to soothe their consciences.
Well, let me word this in a way that just makes it a little easier
to swallow. Let me soothe you a little bit. Not to convince
them of the things, of the truths of God by things we conjure up.
Tactics. Get people in the pews. but tell
them the truth. And Paul says there, my conscience
also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost. He was moved by the
Holy Ghost to write these scriptures. The Holy Spirit of God come upon
him and had him write this letter to the church in Rome. Anytime
I speak to somebody, if I'm going to speak to them in truth, if
I'm not going to lie to them, they ask me questions. What's
the gospel you believe? Tell me about your God. I say,
do you believe the Bible is the Word of God. If they tell me
no, ain't no sense talking to them. We're not on the same page. But he says, what Paul's telling
us here is that through this Word, through this conviction
of the Holy Spirit, there's an effect of that, there's a proof
of that, that the Spirit's moved him to write these things, moved
him to say these things. that I have great heaviness and continual
sorrow in my heart." There's proof that the Spirit's working
in him. He has continual heaviness and continual sorrow in his heart.
Our common expression nowadays is, truth hurts. It does, don't
it? Most of the time it stings a
little bit. But for the apostle to preach Christ in power and
in truth, and to not lie, not be deceptive when he's doing
it, that is heavy and it's sorrowful on him. For any man to preach
Christ, the truth of Christ, is a heavy burden. And there's
sorrow that will accompany it. It goes with it. It's a burden
to speak to eternity-bound souls. I stand up here and I look in
y'all's eyes. The Lord could take you home right now, take
me home right now, could wreck you in a car wreck, and I'll
have to testify to that. Would you tell him the truth?
Tell her the truth? That's a heavy burden. I don't lightly go through these
scriptures and study them. I don't loosely look through
these things. I want to tell you the truth.
I don't want to lie to you. The truth and love of Christ is put
in the heart of those that preach to men and women and to pray
the Lord does a work in their heart before they perish. That's
in the preacher's heart, the man's sin of God. And that's
in the congregation's heart. You say, well, I don't preach.
Yeah, you do. You talk to your family, you
talk to your loved ones, you talk to your neighbor, wherever, whoever. Do you feed them poison? Listen
to this message. Here's a bulletin. I don't care
if it's me, Todd, Clay, whoever. It's somebody faithful. Give
it to them. That's who we give them. We don't
feed them poison. We don't hand them a scorpion
if they ask for a fish, do we? Because we care for them. We
love them. But that's a burden of what we share. Look over one
page there in Romans chapter 10. Romans 10 verse 1, Brethren,
my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel, physical Israel,
is that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they
have a zeal of God. They're religious, all kinds
of religious, but not according to knowledge. A lot of people
may say that that's a head knowledge. You have to know a whole lot
to have an accurate account of Christ, to know Him, to be His
child. No, that's a person. Not according to knowledge. They
don't know Christ. There's a person that they don't
know. Now, Paul prayed for those people. He said, outwardly, they're
all kinds of religious, but they don't know Christ. My prayer,
fervently, is that they're saved. But Paul believed in sovereign
grace. He believed in sovereign election.
He believed in that sovereign call, that irresistible call
that the Lord comes to his people in and draws them to him. But
he also knows that there's a remnant of these elect in physical Israel. The Lord may have some sheep
over there and I pray for them because he cares for them. And
his prayer is that they be called to know our Master, called to
know Christ. Now Paul had a burning desire
for those that were caught up and lost in religion, those that
had a zeal for God but didn't know Him, that they would hear
the truth of Christ, that they would know that God is true and
every man's a liar. But now think about that for
a moment. All the nation of Israel, all those Jews that Paul was
praying for, desperately praying for, we're about to see how fervent
that prayer was. They didn't call him Paul, did
they? That was Saul of Tarsus. And he turned on them. All those
that they were battle-buddied up, they were on the same team,
chasing the same enemy. The heathen church, the people
that looked to Christ alone, get them. Take a warrant out
for him. He was going down that road to
Damascus, and he was arrested. The Lord arrested him, changed
him. But in their eyes, that's a traitor.
He's went in bed with the enemy, hasn't he? That's who he prays
for. And his prayer was that they might be saved. How much
so? Did he kind of pray, well, eh,
if the Lord saves them, that'd be fine. I guess that'd be alright.
Look here in Romans 9. For I could wish that myself
were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according
to the flesh." Those physical Jews, that physical nation of
Israel. That's a very strong statement. We'll look at this spiritually
and physically, but either way, he just told us that there's
no separation from Christ. for the child of God. There's
no condemnation for the child of God. Can't be. And then he
says, Lord, if it's your will, cut me off and save my brethren.
My brethren in the flesh, if that's your will, so it be. That
is a true burden of love. They're some mean folks. I don't
think that's kind to them. It's like praying for your family
members, for your children. Lord, save them. Separate me. That is loving others more than
yourself. And I'm going to be brutally honest with you. I'm
too weak to enter into that. If it's spiritual, if that's
what he meant. Paul said you take my salvation if it were
possible and throw it away and give it to these. I don't think
I'm strong enough for that. Turn over to Exodus 32. Paul
wasn't the only one that said this. Exodus 32. Moses asked pretty much the same
thing. We remember that the children
of Israel, Exodus 32, we remember that the children of Israel,
they made that big golden calf. They said, we'll worship this
thing. Here in Exodus 32, verse 30, said, And it came to pass on
the morrow that Moses said unto the people, Ye have sinned a
great sin. And now I will go up unto the
Lord. Peradventure I shall make an
atonement for your sin. And Moses returned unto the Lord
and said, O this people have sinned a great sin and have made
them gods of gold. Yet now, if thou wilt forgive
their sin, and if not, He's saying, block me out. I pray thee, out
of thy book which thou hast written. And the Lord said unto Moses,
whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I block out of my
book. Therefore, now go, lead the people
unto the place of which I have spoken unto thee. Behold, mine
angel shall go before thee. That angel there is a capital
A. Angels shall go before thee.
The cross is going to go be blotted out before you are. Nevertheless,
in the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them. When
I was called here to San Diego, I prayed that the Lord's will
would be done. That he would use me as a tool
to call out his people in this area. those sheep he has, that
he would bring them to know Christ. I pray for that. And those of
you that's known him, known him for a long time, that he'd use
me to comfort you, to give you comfort. And if all that was
at the cost of him taking his hand off of me, if he brought
me out here just to use me, and then to comfort you, God, his
people, and then let me go. Praise be to the Lord. He's right
and mighty to do so. But I didn't lead off with that
request. That wasn't my first request. Back to our text there
in Romans 3. So spiritually, we see that request
there from Moses and from Paul. But in a physical sense, if someone
were to kidnap one of my children and they had you all hostage,
I would say, take me and let them go. Spare them and take me." And
many of you, I'm sure, would do the same thing. We'd physically
lay down our lives for those we love dearly. But many of the
commentators say that the apostle here is speaking, that Paul is
speaking physically. He would lay down his physical
life. And I agree with them. Esau had a birthright. He gave
it up for a bowl of beans, didn't he? A bowl of pottage. But Paul's
spiritual life, that's not something of his to give. That's the Lord's
life that's in him. So I started looking a little
harder, and that word from, does there be a curse from Christ?
There in verse 3. That word also means after. We
know from, like off of, away from, that's the way we use it.
But the word also means after. That's to say, what he's saying
there is, I wish that I was cursed after the same manner Christ
was physically on a cross for my brethren to be saved. An eye
for an eye. But he's willing to give a physical
eye for a spiritual eye. Now would I do that? Hmm. Amen,
I wouldn't. If that's the Lord's case, give
up one of your eyeballs and I'll give spiritual eyes to all my
people in that county. Lord, take it. Yeah, absolutely
do it. Would that be worth it? But the picture here, so many
people get wrapped up in those things, and that's a good picture. So many people say, this here
is a great example Paul's given us of devotion. He's such a good
example for believers to follow as a walk in this world. That's
not the picture that's here in these first couple of verses.
The picture given is the love of God in Christ for His people
carried a heavy burden. He suffered much sorrow on our
behalf. He was made a curse for us that
we might be made His righteousness. Through the Father turning His
back on Christ, brought Him out on our behalf, we're saved. He
was blotted out for a time that we might live through His sacrifice
forever. We see the Apostle's love for
His earthly brethren. We see His willingness through
that love to lay down His life for His friends, His loved ones,
His family, and how that is a picture of exactly what happened for
Christ's sheep on the cross of Calvary. He took that heavy burden,
that sorrow, and He was accursed for us. for his enemies. While we were yet enemies, Christ
died for the ungodly. Now we see, we're going to see
this description of those brethren that Paul had earthly, worldly,
that physical Israel. And we're also going to see this
as a picture of me and you. Of every man that's walked to
face this earth before Christ revealed himself to us while
we were walking in darkness. Look here in verse 9. Who are
Israelites to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory,
and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of
God, and the promises." Now, there are six things listed here.
The adoption, the glory, the covenants, the law, service,
and the promises. I want us to look at these quickly,
and I'll move along, or I'm going to run over pretty fast. But I will see and think on what
the physical Jews had present around them. what was in their
daily life, what was surrounding them, and then what people in
our nation now have around us, what we have. And we'll see that
all these blessings that were given to the physical nation
of Israel, and a majority of them rejected God. They turned
from Him. Our Lord said, or John spoke
of our Lord, said, He came unto His own, and His own received
Him not. that physical nation. Now it
says there they're called Israelites. Remember, Jacob was visited by
Christ and they were, he had wrestled him and he popped his
hip out of socket. And Jacob clung to him and said,
I ain't gonna let you go until you bless me. And then Christ
changed his name from supplanter, deceiver, Jacob, to Israel. Look, Jacob said, what's your
name? We saw that the other day with Boaz asking Ruth, who art
thou? What's your name? And God said,
your name's Israel now. Israel means Prince of God. And
spiritually, the children of God are made kings and priests
unto our God. But first there, the adoption.
Now physical Israel did not have the spirit of adoption. Spiritually,
they weren't adopted. But they were set apart from
the other nations of the world. The Lord passed over all the
other nations. those mighty nations and chose
Israel. He said, this is my people. He told us in Deuteronomy 7,
7, the Lord did not set his love upon you nor choose you because
you're more in number than any people for you are the fewest
of all people. When he went down to Egypt, there's
70 of them. They come out of there a couple million. 400 years
later, "...but because the Lord loved you, and because He would
keep the oath which He had sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord
brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of
the house of bondsmen, for the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt."
The physical nation of Israel was set apart, adopted, away
from those other nations as a picture of our God's spiritual Israel,
to show us that He set us apart. Now second there it says, the
glory. Those physical Israelites had the glory. How is that? How
could that be? How could they be in the presence
of God's glory? They had the tabernacle. They had the ark. God's presence filled that tabernacle
there in the holiest of holies. That's why it's called the Shekinah
Glory. He'd come down and filled that place. And they had the
ark there with the cherubims above that mercy seat. And the
Lord said in Exodus 30, He said, By the ark of the testimony before
the mercy seat that is over the testimony, where I will meet
with thee. A picture of Christ on that mercy
seat. Same word for propitiation. Bloody
sacrifice. That's where I'm going to meet
you. He was in their presence. And for all them to see, that
cloud, that shekinah glory filled up that tabernacle while it was
stationary. But when they was moving during the day, there
was that cloud over them. The Lord leading them through the
desert at 40 years. And at night, if they moved during
the night, there's a pillar of fire in the sky. The Lord's presence
visible to them. The presence of God was constantly
on display for that nation that He set apart. So it is with us,
with the spiritual Israel. Christ is set before us in Scriptures. We can see Him here. And He's
set before us in our hearts. We think on Him now. Not all
day, every day. Not as we should. Not as we desire
to. But we think on Him. There's a time we didn't. The
third thing is the covenants. Notice that covenants is plural.
There's a covenant made with Adam, a covenant made with Abraham,
with Moses, with Brother Caspar, there's a covenant made with
David, many of them. God gave Abraham that covenant
of circumcision. It was that token of the covenant
between God and Abraham. Physical Israel observed that
token. They observed the outward circumcision. But this is the token, this is
just the picture of the new birth, the heart work that the Lord
does for His people. His adopted people. Now fourthly
there it says they had the law. They had the written word of
God. Think about that. These tablets
of stone come. It says the Lord took His finger
and He wrote on those tablets. God of all creation, of all the
universe, of everything, He wrote on that. And you can go look
at it. We've got to see that. That went and traveled with us
underneath that cloud and that pillar. What a sign. It was that shadow of good things
to come. It was a sign of Christ to come,
the one who would fulfill that law perfectly and wholly. And
they had the moral law, they had that Levitical law, they
had the law of Moses, and the Scriptures say to have these
laws. For that nation to have that law was a great blessing.
Deuteronomy 4 says, And what nation is so great that they
hath statues and judgments so righteous as all this law, which
I have set before you this day? What a privilege! What a constant
reminder of the One that will come to fulfill that law. They
had this written precious Word of God, His law, put in their
hand, and we have it today. Right there. Fifthly, it says,
the service of God. They had a special privilege
of being the servants of the Most High God in His tabernacle,
the tabernacle He designed and He directed built. I could think
of no higher title than to be called a servant of the Almighty
God. The Lord Jesus Christ was called
the righteous servant of the Lord. They were called to be
prophets. That's to speak on behalf of
God to the people. He had assigned prophets, and
they were priests, and that's to speak to the Lord on behalf
of people. They had the Levitical priesthood, the Arianic priesthood,
the Melchizedek priesthood, and each one of those pictured that
high priest we had that was coming. Turn over to Hebrews chapter
7. Hebrews chapter 7. Verse 26, it says, "...for such a high priest
became us who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners,
and made higher than the heavens, who need not daily, as those
high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins and then
for the people's. For this he did once when he
offered up himself." All those priests, there are still men
nowadays that look into being Arianic priests and Levitical
priests and after the order of Melchizedek and all these things.
That's all a picture. Every day they saw these things.
It was a sign, a showing us of our high priest to come. Christ
was coming. Savior was coming. And this physical
nation of Israel had this separation, this adoption. pictured in front
of them, the glory of the Lord before them, the covenants of
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob before them. They had that great honor
of serving the Lord in a worldly tabernacle, but they also had
the promises of God. Turn back to our text in Romans
chapter 9. They had the promises of God.
To physical Israel, all the carnal promises that the Lord made to
them were kept. The testament to God's spiritual
promises kept forever for His spiritual Israel. Physically,
on this earth, He didn't miss a promise. Every one of them
came to fruition. They all came to pass. That's
to show me and you, those that believe on Him, those eternal
spiritual promises, they're going to come to pass. He says, I'm
going to keep you forever. He's able to do it. We have proof
of it. Joshua told us there failed not
out of any good thing which the Lord had spoken of the house
of Israel He said nothing failed anything. He spoke to Israel
all came to pass Solomon told us the first Kings blessed be
the Lord that hath given rest unto his people Israel according
to all that he had promised There hath not failed one word of all
his good promise, which he promised by the hand of Moses his servant
Everything he said he's going to do he did And God is true
to His Word and He is revealed in His Word. He's faithful to
His Word and He's faithful to His promise. But all of His promises
and all of His Word all tell us about our Lord Jesus Christ. He was that promised seed. It
all points to Him, all the promises, everything. It says, for all
the promises of God in Him, in Christ, are yea, and in Him,
amen, and to the glory of God. It's all wrapped up in Him. Now
verse 4 again, Romans chapter 9, verse 4. who were Israelites, to whom
pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants,
and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises. Whose are the fathers, and of
whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came, who is over all,
God blessed forever. Amen." Now, physical Israel,
who Paul's praying for, that he would give his body to die
if they'd be saved, those that were his enemies, they had all
this. They had the adoption. They had the glory. They had
the service. All the pictures. Everything
around them all day, every day. They got to see all this physically.
Christ came into the world. He came to fruition. All these
things came to pass. And He's over all things. And
He's blessed forever. He was to come. But all those
things they had around Him, they saw this, and they didn't receive
Him. He came unto His own, and His
own received Him not. Doesn't that make you sink? All that
testimony, pictures of the Messiah to come, and they rejected Him.
That always reminds me of the fall in the garden. Here was
Adam. Imagine how wise he was. He didn't even know what sin
was. had never sinned, mortally innocent, from creation, from
the time the Lord created. He walked with God, talked with
God. And the Lord said one thing,
you see that tree of life? Don't eat of the fruit of it. He went and ate, didn't he? And
I've, literally, I've heard people tell me, they say, well if I
was Adam, if I was an Adam, I wouldn't have ate of that tree. Adam was perfect before he fell,
morally innocent, never known sin, and he ate of that fruit.
I guarantee you, I'd have took the fruit. I guarantee you'd
have took the fruit as our representative. Here we see all the privilege
the nation of Israel had and then to turn from Christ. Look
at our nation in this day, just America. There's multiple faithful
pulpits in multiple states around this nation. And those men have
heavy burdens and sorrow on their heart. They faithfully seek a
message for the Lord for those people's hearts in that area.
And they're willing to give their lives for that gospel. We have
thousands upon thousands of true, good gospel messages on the internet,
on sermon audio and all these things. TV messages. Several
of our brothers have a TV message broadcast out on the radio. Brother
Paul is down there. I get his radio message every
week. All these different medias. DVDs
from Brother Henry. Everything. And everyone keeps
looking to their own righteousness. Not to the righteousness of God,
Christ our righteousness. That's a shame, isn't it? That's
me. And that was you before the Lord
revealed Himself to us. All of that was right underneath
our noses. And this old flesh that we live in, our old man,
could not and would not have it. We couldn't see it, and if
we could see it, we didn't want it. We'd reject it. but God. God chose a people. He called
a people. He regenerated a people. And
through Christ who is over all things, He's going to resurrect
that people to be conformed to His image, to be robed in His
Son's righteousness, to be clothed in Him. This picture of a fallen nation
with all these benefits, these types and pictures of the Redeemer
to come, declared Word of God to them, and then turn them from
it. That's going to lead us to Part 2 of Romans 9. I had a hard
time finding a place to stop. But we always preach three R's. Ruined by the fall, redeemed
by the blood, and regenerated by the Spirit. That's what Paul's
doing here in Romans 9. He's telling you from his heart,
I love these men. I'd literally give my right arm
for them. But they're ruined. How about them old stinky Jews?
Us too, every one of us, we're ruined. God had to elect the
people. And He's going to tell us why.
He's going to show us the rest of that. So, I'm looking forward
to getting to the rest of this chapter. I hope that was a blessing
to you. Let's pray together.