The title of the lesson, as you
can see, is A Nation Privileged but Lost. And this is where the
Apostle Paul was inspired by the Spirit. As he had already
expressed his extreme sorrow over the lostness of his kinsmen
according to the flesh, and his desire to see them come, that
God would bring them to a saving knowledge of Christ. And he goes into now all the
privileges that they had. which in essence did them no
good. Now, there was always, you understand now, when you
talk about Israel under the old covenant, if you go through the
prophets who prophesied during that 1500 year period, many of
them, especially Isaiah, speak of a remnant. In other words,
the nation as a whole remained in unbelief and rebellion. But
there was always a remnant And Paul in Romans 11, he calls it
a remnant according to the election of grace. And I think about Isaiah
chapter 1, where he brought his indictment, God's indictment
against the nation Israel. And he even went so far as to
compare them to Sodom and Gomorrah. He said, if it weren't for a
small remnant of true believers in that nation, They would have
perished just like Sodom and Gomorrah. In other words, the
whole nation, all without exception, would have perished. But God
always has a remnant. God always has his witness. And
I think about the prophet Elijah, you know, when he was being run
all over, running from Jezebel, and he said, Lord, am I the only
one? And of course, we'll get to that
here in the book of Romans later on. And God revealed, he said,
I have 7,000 that have not bowed the knee to Baal. All that, I
often thought about when I read that, I thought, well, maybe
Elijah could look up and say, Lord, could I meet just one or
two of them? So we could encourage each other. But God always has
a remnant, doesn't he? Today, there's so much religion
and not much truth. It's religion without truth,
religion without grace, religion without heart, religion without
Christ. But God has a remnant, doesn't
he? a remnant according to the election of grace. But I put
in your lesson here, you know, living and dying in unbelief
of the gospel of God's grace in the Lord Jesus Christ is an
awful, terrible tragedy. It is. To see sinners step out
into eternity without hope, without God, without Christ, to stand
before God at judgment on your own terms. I can't think of anything
more frightening or more terrible than that. The reason we can
have boldness at the judgment is because we stand before God
in Christ, by the grace of God, washed in his blood, clothed
in his righteousness. And that tragedy that I'm speaking
of here, this is what I want to show here in Romans chapter
9. It's even greater when you consider that some people have
access to the truth. It's like today, you know, most
everybody I know has a Bible. They claim to believe the Bible,
but they either don't read and study the Bible, or if they do,
they do it with blind eyes, preconceived notions. And I know, and you
know too, that it takes the Spirit of God to open our eyes, to give
us eyes to see and ears to hear. Or we won't see it. We can read
and memorize this Bible from cover to cover and not know it,
if left to ourselves. And that's what Christ told the
Pharisees, you do search the scriptures, John 5 39, they are
they which you think have, in them you think you have eternal
life, they are they which testify of me. Well, look here at first,
second Corinthians chapter three, look at verse 12. Now he's talking
about here in this chapter, the greater glory of the gospel and
the new covenant in Christ over and above Moses and the law.
And he even makes this statement, he said, as glorious and as amazing
as that was back then. And you think about the history
of that. What all miracles that they saw, all of that. He said
that covenant had no glory compared to the glory that we have in
Christ. In Christ, we have what we call the Shekinah glory of
God. You know what that word Shekinah
means, it has to do with the presence of God. and it had to
do with the greatest manifestation of God's character, God's glory,
God's workings that could be found. And we have that in the
person and work of Christ, for in him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily, and you're complete in him. So in verse
12 of 2 Corinthians 3, he writes, seeing then that we have such
hope, this kind of hope that we have in Christ, a sure hope,
We use great plainness of speech. We don't hold back. We don't
try to hide it or mince with words. And he said, and not as
Moses, which put a veil over his face that the children of
Israel could not steadfastly look to the end, that which is
abolished. You remember when Moses came
down out of the mount after receiving the law. But look at verse 14,
and this is the point. But their minds were blinded
For until this day remaineth the same veil untaken away in
the reading of the Old Testament." There's a veil over their hearts,
their minds. What is that veil? Well, it's the veil of self-righteousness.
It's the veil of darkness. It's the veil of unbelief. But look at verse 14. Which veil
is done away in Christ? Which veil is done away? He says
in verse 15, but even unto this day when Moses is read, the veil
is upon their heart. Nevertheless, when it shall turn
to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away. In other words, those
who turn to the Lord, the veil is taken away. It's not a conditional
salvation here. He just simply stating the fact
that if you know the scriptures, You know them from the lens of
God's word that points you to Christ. That's what he's saying. Now look back at Romans chapter
nine. Now you know how all this started. You know, God made a promise
to Abraham and he chose the nation Israel based upon a promise that
he made to Abraham. That's an unconditional promise
that he made to Abraham. And he chose the nation Israel,
and he made a covenant with Israel, that nation, through Moses on
Mount Sinai. And God chose that nation. That
was the old covenant, the old covenant law. And Israel, you
know, he had brought them out of Egypt. brought them across
the Red Sea, you know the story, and then Moses went up on the
mountain, then he came down, he had the law, and that's really
when they were formed as a nation, really. I mean, they were tribes
scattered, and of course, God put them in captivity, and it
kind of banded them together, but they were really formed as
a nation at Sinai. They were Hebrews. And now, it's
going to come where the nation Israel, but that name comes later. But that covenant lasted for
about 1,500 years. And during those years, the nation
Israel, they had some advantages that Paul lists here. And so
Israel's failure to see the glory of God in these advantages that
he had, even that old covenant. Of course, what was the main
purpose of the old covenant? It was to show them their sinfulness,
their depravity, their inability to work righteousness before
God. We have that in Romans chapter
five, we have that in Galatians chapter three. Why was the law
given? If a sinner could not be justified
by keeping the law, then why did God give it? He gave it to
show us that sinners cannot be justified by keeping the law,
and it was a schoolmaster to do what? Drive them to Christ. So that's the issue here. But
they had all of these advantages, and so what Paul does here, he
begins to list the advantages that they have. Look at verse
four, he says, his kinsmen according to the flesh who are Israelites. This was their national name.
You know how the name Israel come about, it came through Jacob.
When God changed his name, listed in Genesis 32 and 35. He said,
you won't be called Jacob anymore, which means supplanter. You'll
be called Israel. And Israel, even the name is
a name that speaks of triumph with God. The name means prevailed
with God or triumphant with God. And even though the nation did
not honor or live up to the privileges of that name, it was considered
honorable. You remember Paul, he mentions
that in Philippians chapter three. He said, I'm of the stock. These
are things that he used to have confidence in, that he used to
think, recommend him unto God. Remember in Philippians three,
when he said, if anybody could have confidence in the flesh,
I more. And one of the first things he mentions, I was of
the stock of Israel. I'm a Hebrew of Hebrews, he'd
say. And so that name meant something.
But that name itself, as it was given to Jacob, you remember
the story of how Jacob wrestled with the angel? He said, I won't
let you go till you bless me. That's a picture of a sinner
holding on to Christ. He wasn't forcing God to do anything. That's not what it was about.
In other words, he realized that his only hope was salvation by
the grace of God through the promised Messiah. And that's
how they got that name. So even in that name, there was
a picture of the Messiah. Because what does it mean? Prevailing
with God, triumph with God. How can a sinner prevail with
God? God who is just and who must
punish sin, who cannot, who can by no means clear the guilty,
who hates all workers of iniquity because of his justness. How
can a sinner like me or like you, how can we prevail with
God? How can we be triumphant with
God? There's only one way. And that's to come to Christ,
plead his blood, plead his righteousness. God said it, the Father said
it, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased, hear
ye him. Christ said it, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
No man cometh unto the Father but by me. And so what we have
even in the name Israel, Israelite, we have a foreshadowing of the
victory of Christ himself in his obedience unto death as my
surety, my substitute, my redeemer. And then we see also the victory
of his people in him. And that's where we come to spiritual
Israel. And Paul's going to get to that
later on, but he's already dealt with it in the book of Romans.
When he talked about Jew and Gentile both being under the
law, both being guilty, brought in guilty by the law. But then
he talked about earlier than that in Romans chapter two when
he talked about he is not a Jew which is one outwardly, but he
is a Jew which is one inwardly. Circumcision is that of the heart.
The name Israelite speaks of triumph with God and it foreshadows
how God's people, God's chosen people are accepted and blessed,
saved to the uttermost by the perfect work of the perfect God-man,
the Savior. But they didn't live up to that
name. Neither would we. You know, Israel's
failure under the Old Covenant is not something that we can
look back to and say, well, those lousy Israelites, I would have
done better back then. No, you wouldn't. None of us
will. It's a testimony. Israel's failure
under the old covenant, with all the privileges they have,
is a testimony to the failure of sinful fallen human beings
to be made righteous, to be forgiven by their works of the law. And
I think most people, even though they wouldn't put it this way
when they talk about their faith, you know, most people today have
faith in their faith. They don't have faith in Christ.
They have faith in the, you know, Christ died for everybody, they
say, even those who perish. Well, why are you saving? Because
I believe that's faith in your faith. It's not faith in Christ. And so I think that kind of attitude,
it looks back on Israel and say, you would have done better. It's
saying you've done better than those who don't believe. And
that's not why God saves us. And Paul's gonna deal with that
here in Romans 9 too. It's because of his sovereign
mercy and grace. He said, I'll be gracious to
whom I will. I'll have mercy upon whom I will. And it's all
conditioned on Christ and not us. We're blessed with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Look at the
next one in verse four. He says, to whom pertaineth the
adoption. Now that physical nation Israel,
They were all children of God only by national adoption, which
was temporal, which was temporary, and ceremonial. Even in Jeremiah,
he says that God wrote him a bill of divorcement. In other words,
they were under a conditional covenant. That's what that old
covenant was. Now it was given to them unconditionally
because of a promise made to Abraham. But once they were under
that covenant, there were conditions. In other words, there were conditional
blessings based upon national obedience. And there were promises
of punishment based on national disobedience. Well, read their
history. Basically, they failed. Now again,
that's not a point of pride. We would have failed too. We
have failed. We're all sinners. You know what Paul wrote in Romans
chapter three in verse, what was it, verse nine there? He
said, are we better than they? No, in no wise the scripture
hath concluded all Jew and Gentile under sin. There's none righteous,
there's none good, there's none that seeketh after God. That
lumps us all together as fallen human beings who by nature will
not bow to Christ, will not believe God's truth. That's why it takes
the sovereign power, invincible power of the Holy Spirit to bring
us to Christ. But they were adopted in a ceremonial,
temporary, temporal way. Now God doesn't save nations,
he saves sinners. That's what he does. And his
chosen people whom he adopted in eternity by his grace in Christ,
and he seals that adoption when he brings a sinner to believe
in Christ. Look at Galatians chapter, well,
since we're in Romans, look at Romans chapter eight. We studied
this. And look at verse 15. Or look
at verse 14, Romans eight. Now this applies to spiritual
Israel. God's people, Out of every tribe,
kindred, tongue, and nation, for as many as are led by the
Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. Now, when the Spirit
of God leads us, where do we end up? We end up in Christ,
believing in Him, resting in Him, pleading His blood and righteousness. That's how we know the Spirit
of God has led us. It's not feeling. It's not some
kind of an experience that we have. We go through many experiences
now. But I'll never forget one time
when I first moved here, I had a fellow, he was talking about
a visitor who was coming. And he made this statement. He
said, I believe that fellow's under conviction of the Holy
Spirit. He said, don't you? And I said, well, I don't know.
He said, what do you mean you don't know? I said, well, I don't
know. It depends on where he ends up. You say, well, I'm convicted
by my sins. Well, you know. Most of the psych
wards today are filled with people who have guilt feelings. We can
have guilt feelings. We can live in the past and all.
But you say, well, I'm convicted. Is it Holy Spirit conviction?
Is it natural conscience conviction? Is it society conviction? I mean, is it because mom and dad
raised you to feel guilty? They can do that. Well, how do
you know it's the Holy Spirit? Where do you find peace? Where
do you find forgiveness? Where do you find relief? Because
if it's anywhere but in Christ, crucified and risen from the
dead, it's not Holy Spirit conviction. So he says, you're led by the
Spirit, verse 15 of Romans 8. For you have not received the
spirit of bondage, again to fear, that's legalism, but you receive
the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. That's
indicative of that special relationship with the Father that only a believer
in Christ has. And he says, the Spirit itself
beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.
See, we've been adopted into his family. And I've got a list
there, you can read this on your own, Galatians 4, where he talks
about because we are sons, he sends his spirit. We're adopted
into God's family. by his grace through Christ and
he sends his spirit to bring us to Christ. He seals that adoption.
So when he says that Israel, they had the adoption, he's talking
about that national, temporary, temporal ceremonial adoption
where God used that nation, chose that nation to be used in his
providential care for really one main purpose. And that is he chose to bring
the Messiah through that nation according to the flesh. And he
told them that that's going to be over. Jeremiah prophesied
of that. Isaiah prophesied of that. That's
going to be finished now. When the Messiah comes and does
his work. And God indicated that when Christ was on that cross
he said it's finished and the veil was torn in two from top
to bottom. He talks about here in verse four the glory. Look
at Romans 9 verse 4. The glory. Remember I mentioned
earlier that Shekinah presence of God. God showed Israel his
Shekinah presence in physical ways. Think about the pillar
of a cloud and the pillar of fire that he guided them after
they got across the Red Sea and were in the wilderness. That
was a manifestation of God's power. It was a manifestation
of God's goodness. God's preserving them for that
time period that he would use them. He did it when Moses came
down from Mount Sinai. We just read about that, the
veil that had to be put over his face because the children
of Israel could not look there on. He did it mainly in the tabernacle
at the Holy of Holies. Where the mercy seat, you had
the Ark of the Covenant and the mercy seat. Sometimes that is
referred to the glory. And that was the magnificent
display of God's attributes, and that was a picture. It was
a type. It was a foreshadowing of Christ,
who is our mercy seat. You know, that Old Covenant,
that Old Testament term, mercy seat, is related to the New Testament
term, propitiation. Satisfaction to God's law and
justice. How can God be just and justifier? How can he justify a sinner and
still be God? That's the question of questions,
isn't it? And the only answer is, by his grace through the
redemption that is in Christ. It took the blood sacrifice of
Christ. I was reading an article in the
paper written by a Church of Christ preacher. And he said,
he was saying that in the Old Testament, God saved him differently
than he saves us in the New Testament. Because all that's required in
the New Testament is that you have faith. But he said in the
Old Testament, it was faith plus a sacrifice. I thought, man,
that guy's a million miles away from the gospel. What did the
sacrifice mean? I'll never forget a good friend
of ours, you remember, I've told you this story before how And
he got so frustrated with religion that he and his wife, they didn't
know the gospel, they never had really studied the scriptures,
but they sat down and said, we're just going to start at Genesis
and read through the Bible. So he started at Genesis and
then about a month or so later, here he was in Exodus and he
got into Leviticus. And when he got into Leviticus,
especially, he looked up at his wife and he said, honey, he said,
according to this, we ought to be out here sacrificing lambs.
The next morning, Sunday morning, he turned on Brother Henry Mahan's
TV program, and you know what the title of the message is?
Behold the Lamb of God. And he found out that that lamb
was Christ. That was a picture of Christ.
And so he started coming to church there at 13th Street, and eventually
the Lord gave him eyes to see and ears to hear. Isn't that
something? Faith plus a sacrifice? No, it's not faith plus anything.
God-given faith looks to Christ alone as the Lamb of God, worthy
as the Lamb, the Lord our righteousness. That's what it's all about. And
that's the glory of God, right there, in the face of Jesus Christ. Well, let's go on, look at verse
four, he says, and the covenants. Now, we can talk about the unconditional
covenants made with Abraham and with David, you know, the covenant
of Abraham. And I won't go into all that,
but that's where he told Abraham, through you I'll bless all nations.
The covenant of David is the royal covenant through which
God, he narrowed down the line and showed that the Messiah would
come from David's line, the tribe of Judah. It had already been
predicted back in Genesis 49, although the scepter will not
depart from Judah until Shiloh comes. And then the conditional
promise, well, we also say the unconditional promise of the
new covenant. Because it was revealed to them
all through that this was temporary, that the Messiah was gonna come
and fulfill all righteousness. And you remember Jeremiah said
that he's gonna make a new covenant with his people, not like the
covenant I made with your fathers when I brought them out of Egypt
and they crossed the Red Sea, which they break. which we all
break, but a covenant where he's gonna give them a new heart and
a new spirit. Ezekiel 36 speaks of the same
thing. So here's the covenant, but then
the conditional covenant of Sinai where God formed them as a nation
and kept them under that for 1,500 years. Now all those covenants
put together that they had really had one main message, and that
is this. Sinners cannot, it's impossible
for sinners to be saved by their works, and the only way that
sinners can be saved is by the sovereign mercy and grace of
God in the coming Messiah, who is God in the flesh, who would
do the work, who would satisfy all conditions, meet all requirements,
Daniel spoke of it, Daniel 9.24, he'll make an end of sin, he'll
finish the transgression, he'll bring in everlasting righteousness.
That's what the whole covenant's put together, that's what they're
all about. We're sinners, and if God were to ever give us what
we deserve or what we earn, even based upon what we see as our
best, it would be eternal damnation. The only way out of this mess
that we're in, this mess of sin and death and hell, is to look
to Christ, the author and finisher of our faith. That's the whole
message. And remember we read it in 2 Corinthians 3 there.
He said, the veil's over their heart, but when it turns to the
Lord, that's when the veil's gone. Turn to the Lord. Turn to Christ. He talks about
here the giving of the law. That's the law of Mount Sinai.
That was that covenant, see? that convicted, that was used
to show them their sinfulness and drive them to Christ. The
service of God, that's the ceremonial law, the high priest, the sacrifices,
all the offerings that were given, that again were types of Christ.
Everything you see there was there were blood offerings that
meant atonement that meant propitiation Then there were thank offerings
love offerings that was gratitude to God not to earn salvation
not to earn his blessings But just thanking God for salvation,
but they missed it you say That's why the writer of Hebrews had
to tell him look folks the blood of bulls and goats could never
take away sin and That earthly priesthood could not accomplish
the perfection that God required. If it had accomplished that,
then it would have ceased. But the bringing in of a better
offering, based upon better promises and a better covenant, and that's
Christ. He's the fulfillment of all that.
He says, And the promises, there were all kinds of promises. As
I said before, there were temporal promises of prosperity based
on national obedience, but they failed, and so would we. But
the most important promises were all the unconditional promises
that were fulfilled in Christ. 2 Corinthians 1.20, all the promises
of God in him are yea and amen. He says in verse five, whose
are the fathers? Usually that refers to the patriarchs,
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. You know, that's what they said.
We're descended from Abraham. We be Abraham's seed. We believe in the God of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob. You always thought it was interesting
when Peter and the other apostles began to preach in Jerusalem
and perform miracles, and they were brought up before the Sanhedrin.
And they just healed an impotent man, and they asked him, said,
in whose name did you heal this man? You know, they could have
said, well, we did it in the name of the God of Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob, and they would have not been lying. But you know
what they said, what Peter said? We did it in the name of Jesus
of Nazareth, whom you crucified with wicked hands. Because he
knew that's where their point of rebellion was. They claim
to believe Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But you know, read John
chapter eight, the whole passage sometimes. You remember that's
where Christ, he told him, he said, you may be Abraham's seed
physically, but not spiritually. And he told the Pharisees there
in John 8, 44, you're of your father, the devil. He said, before
Abraham was, I am. Abraham believed in me. Moses
wrote of me. You see all of that. That's the
fathers. Look at the next one. Look at
verse five. He says, and of whom concerning
the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God bless forever. Amen. That's a clear statement
that the Lord Jesus Christ is God. God in human flesh, God
man. People say, well, he never did
claim to be God. Yes, he did. I just quoted part
of that to you. What is that, John 8, 56, I believe? Before Abraham was, I am. Listen, that's a phrase that
no mere human being could ever take to himself. I am. I am that I am. That's Christ.
And then, he's God over all, he says. It's all about Christ. God's dealings with human beings,
God's revelation to human beings, salvation of sinful human beings,
it's all wrapped up in the glorious person and the finished work
of Christ, who's not only our Savior, but our Lord, who is
God over all, Emmanuel, God with us. And how all of these, listen,
all of these privileges that God gave, are pictures, foreshadowings
of Christ. The gospel in type, in shadow,
in metaphors, all of this, but there was a veil over their heart.
And that's what Paul's saying here. They didn't see it, you
see. And if we see it, we don't have
anything to boast in, do we? We don't have anything to brag
about other than Christ. We boast in him. We boast in
him. We know it's a gift from God.