I want to welcome everybody here
this morning, especially our guests. I don't know whether
all of you were here the last study that we had in the Book
of Romans. The title of that message also was, What About
Israel? This is a part two of that message. And before we begin here in verse
four, just want to give you a little background. Uh, before we start
the message this morning, the apostle Paul had made it clear
in the previous chapters and chapter chapter eight, that the
ground and the assurance of a Christian's hope is the righteousness of
Christ alone. It's that righteousness that
Christ worked out on the cross. It's his perfect obedience unto
death, the blood he shed on the cross. This is our hope. It's
his righteousness, his perfect obedience. This is the righteousness
of God that scripture talks about. The righteousness of God that
is charged to the account of each and every one of God's elect.
This is what you call imputation. This is a legal declaration by
God wherein he charges the righteousness that Christ worked out on the
cross. He charges that to each one of all of his elect, those
that he chose before the foundation of the earth. This is the righteousness
whereby God justifies his elect, his sheep. Salvation is by grace
and not by the sinner's efforts at keeping the law. Paul closes
out chapter eight in stating that nothing, nothing can be
laid to the charge of his elect. He goes on to state that nothing
can separate, nothing can separate us from the love of God, which
is in Christ Jesus our Lord. And he mentions a number of things. that if possible would separate
us from the love of God, but he says nothing can separate
us. Paul then opens chapter nine with his sorrow for the Jews,
the nation Israel, his kinsmen according to the flesh. The apostle
Paul was an Israelite. He was a Jew. He was born an
Israelite. These were his kinsmen according
to the flesh. and he talks about his sorrow
for him. We then ended our last study
with the first part of verse four here that begins with the
phrase, who are Israelites? Not asking a question, but making
a statement that the Apostle Paul's kinsmen, according to
the flesh, they were Israelites. We went over a lot of scripture
that distinguishes between physical Israel and spiritual Israel,
and what scripture means when it says, all Israel shall be
saved, by which is meant all of spiritual Israel, all who
are in Christ, God's elect, his sheep, God's adopted children,
those he chose from the foundation of the world, those that God
the Father give to Christ in that everlasting covenant of
grace, made before time. All Israel shall be saved. That's
true. But first we need to understand
that the true Israel of God, they're not the natural descendants
of Abraham. The true Israel of God are the
spiritual descendants of Abraham. Abraham was the father of the
nation from whom Christ sprang, who is the author and finisher
of our faith. And all of God's children are children of faith,
as the Holy Spirit puts it in Philippians 3, 3, where it says,
we are the circumcision which worship God in the spirit and
rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. The
word of God shows this to us in much clarity. The natural,
physical seed of Abraham Jews or Israelites after the flesh
are not the people of God by right of their physical birth.
They're not people of God just because they were born a Jew
or an Israelite. Yes, some of the nation Israel
did believe the gospel. You had some of them that were
a part of that spiritual Israel, but not all the nation Israel.
It is true that God made definite promises to the physical seed
of Abraham, which were all physically fulfilled in the days of Joshua.
Look at Joshua 21 beginning at verse 43. It says, And the Lord
gave to Israel all the land which he swore to give unto their fathers,
and they possessed it, and dwelt therein. And the Lord gave them
rest round about according to all that he swore unto their
fathers. And there stood not a man of all their enemies before
them. The Lord delivered all their
enemies into their hand. There fell not out of any good
thing which the Lord has spoken and promised unto the house of
Israel. All came to pass. He fulfilled
all his promises, those temporal things that he promised the nation
Israel. All of these promises made by God to the physical nation
of Israel, and when I say physical or temporal, we're talking about
things on this earth, things that, when we talk about the
physical nation of Israel, like we know today, there's a physical
nation Israel over in the Mideast. That's what we're talking about. But all of these promises made
by God to the physical nation of Israel was fulfilled upon
condition of their obedience. But scripture's clear that Israel,
after the flesh, the way they were born into this world, they've
denied Christ and they've been judged by God for having done
so. Look at Matthew 23 in verse 37,
beginning. This is Christ speaking. He says,
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets and
stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have
gathered thy children together even as a hen gathers her chickens
under her wings, and you would not. Behold, your house is left
until you desolate, for I say unto you, you shall not see me
henceforth till you shall say, blessed is he that cometh in
the name of the Lord. Now, we'll pick back up with
verse four where we left off last time. This is where Paul
continues to talk about the nation Israel and all of the advantages. that they had and that they were
the nation that God had chosen to reveal himself to at that
time. In Romans 9 verse 4, we pick
back up here where it says, who are Israelites, once again, which
were Paul's kinsmen according to the flesh, to whom pertaineth
or who have connection with or relation to the adoption. And
this adoption we'll talk about a little later is not, this is
only a national adoption. This is not an eternal adoption.
And the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and
the service of God, and the promises. These are all the advantages
that the nation Israel had as God made these covenants with
the nation Israel. We'll go over each of these things
that Paul mentioned here in verse four. We'll go over each of them,
each one of them, that describes all these advantages that the
nation Israel had by being a nation that God chose to reveal himself
to. In Romans 9, the first part of
four, verse four, it says, to whom pertaineth the adoption.
This was their national adoption as a nation. God chose the nation
to be an instrument of his purpose and his will, to receive his
special calling, the covenants, and temporal blessings, and to
serve as his witness to a godless world, as emphasized by God's
charge to Moses at Mount Sinai. This is God speaking to Moses
on Mount Sinai in Exodus 19, six. It says, and ye shall be
unto me a kingdom of priests, and unholy are dedicated, set
apart for a specific purpose. This is what the nation Israel
was. They were set apart for a specific
purpose. These are the words which thou
shalt speak unto the children of Israel. National Israel was
chosen by God to be separated from all other nations on the
earth and devoted to the worship and service of God. having holy
laws, holy ordinances, and holy service, and a holy place to
perform these things. Israel as a nation failed in
this charge, but God preserved them under the old covenant to
accomplish his will and to bring Christ into the world, God's
Messiah, to save his people, both Jew and Gentile, from their
sins. Once again, when I talk about
Jews and Gentiles in scripture, when it talks about Jews, you
had the Jews, the nation Israel. Everybody else was a Gentile.
Everybody else. If you were not a Jew, you were
a Gentile. We must understand that this
national adoption was not a national salvation in an eternal sense. God does not save nations eternally. He saves individuals. He saves
sinners. He saves them by His grace and
by the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul later shows how those who
were children in a national sense are not the children of God in
a spiritual sense. Look at Romans 9 beginning at
verse 7. It says, neither because they are the seed of Abraham
Are they all children? He said, neither because you
were born from Abraham, you came through Abraham, you were physical
seed of Abraham. It says, they're not all children
of God, but in Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is, they
which are the children of the flesh, physical children of Abraham,
These are not the children of God, but the children of the
promise are counted for the seed. Scripture is clear that just
because you're a physical descendant of Abraham and an Israelite by
birth, this does not make you a child of God. The children
of promise are spiritual Israel, God's elect from every kindred,
tongue, and nation. These are the true Israel of
God. The question is then asked, who are the children of the promise?
Well, they're those whom God promises to save out of Adam's
fallen race. All those that fell in Adam,
okay? Jew and Gentile, not based on
their works, but based entirely on Christ and his righteousness
alone, what Christ worked out. The children of the promise are
all those that come to believe the gospel of God's grace. the
gospel which is the product of an eternal covenant of grace,
which is a covenant of promise. Look at Galatians 3 in verse
28. It says, there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither
bond nor free, there is neither male and female, for ye are all
one in Christ Jesus. If ye be Christ, then are ye
Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. So to preach
the gospel is to preach the terms of that covenant of promise.
God's gospel of grace is God's eternal salvation and final glory,
conditioned not on the sinner, but conditioned on the Lord Jesus
Christ alone. It proclaims to helpless, depraved
sinners that God will save sinners, but he'll only save them for
Christ's sake alone. He will not save any sinner that
might come before Him thinking that what they do or what they
don't do or what they're unable to do, any works that they might
do, He will not save you based on anything that you do. Reason
being, God's holy. He requires perfection. And the
only place you're going to find that is in the perfection that
Christ worked out on the cross. He obeyed the law. perfectly
every jot and tittle Then went to the cross and he shed that
blood whereby God justifies a sinner But to come before God based
on your works Is not going to get it Christ is that perfect
standard? He is the standard that perfection
that God requires that we must have and God says that he will
impute it and charge it and and charge it to your account. All
those that come to Christ by faith, all those that come to
Christ by faith, that manifest themselves to be children of
God, children saved, not by their works but by Christ alone. He
was the surety. He was the surety from the foundation
of the earth. God give these children that
he chose, his elect, his sheep, give them to Christ. He stood
as their representative, surety, and he in time came to this earth
and did all those things that God required. And God charges
it to all those that come to Christ by faith. Now, Romans
nine, verse four, as we continue talking about those privileges
that Israel had, The next one is and the glory. The glory here
describes the abiding presence of God in the tabernacle, in
the ark, in the pillar of cloud and fire, the rock that Moses
struck, as well as the other instances of God's Shekinah glory,
the glory of redemption. Israel was very privileged to
have this glory, but the majority of them did not see the spiritual
glory. as all these things were types
of Christ and the glory of redemption, all which pictured Christ and
his obedience unto death. I don't have time to go over
all of these pictures and types in the Old Covenant that pictured
and typified Christ, but God give them the sacrificial system,
he give them the law, which should have led them to see that they
have no hope. in their law keeping, that they
must flee to Christ. But what he did, he gave them
that sacrificial system where they could find relief. The sinner
would bring a lamb without spot, without blemish. That means it
was perfect. This was the picture of Christ,
the lamb of God, perfection. without spot of blemish, they'd
bring that lamb, which represented Christ, bring it to that high
priest, and that high priest would take that lamb, and the
sinner would put his hand on the head of that lamb, which
is a picture of imputation, of those sins being charged to the
account, and the lamb being the picture of Christ. And then that
lamb, the blood was shed. Okay? And all of this picture
in typified Christ. True believers see the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ, according to 2 Corinthians 4
and verse 6, where it says, for God who commanded the light to
shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. This glory is hidden from unbelievers.
according to 2 Corinthians 3, beginning at verse 14, where
it says, but their minds were blinded, for until this day remaineth
the same veil untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament,
which veil is done away in Christ. 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. Verse
16 here is referring to when they shall turn, or be turned
by the Spirit and power of grace, the grace of God, turn to the
Lord Jesus Christ, look to Him, whether they be Jew or whether
they be Gentile. And they shall look upon Christ
whom they pierced and they shall embrace Him as a true Messiah
and a Savior. As God sends His Holy Spirit,
the Holy Spirit which and regenerates that center by
his power and reveal this gospel to them, the gospel of how he
saved the center for Christ's sake alone. The veil of blindness
and of ignorance and the way of salvation by Christ alone,
that veil of unbelief shall be taken away that they should see
the glory of God in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. This
applies not only to Jews, but also to Gentiles. Also look at
2 Corinthians 4, beginning at verse 3. It says, but if our
gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the God
of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not,
lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the
image of God, should shine unto them. The gospel of Christ is
glorious because it reveals Christ and his work of redemption. Let's
look again at a conversation that Moses had with God as he
stood on Mount Sinai. Look at Exodus 33 beginning at
verse 18. And Moses said, I beseech thee,
show me thy glory. And he, or God, said, I will
make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the
name of the Lord before thee, and will be gracious to whom
I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show
mercy. And he says, thou canst not see
my face, for there shall no man see me and live. And in verse
21, and the Lord said, behold, there is a place by me and thou
shalt stand upon a rock. And it shall come to pass, while
my glory passes by, that I will put thee in the cleft of the
rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by. And I will take away mine hand,
and thou shalt see my back parts, but my face shall not be seen. God's glory is in Christ. His
glory is in Christ and salvation by Christ alone. God hides us
These are believers in the cleft of the rock, which is Christ.
And in these clefts of the rock, the saints of God dwell by faith. As they look to Christ alone
for all their salvation, they don't look to their works. They
know that as the Apostle Paul says, O wretched man that I am,
who shall deliver me from this body of death? They see that
there's no hope. in anything that they do or that
they're unable to do. They flee to Christ for all their
salvation. And then again in verse four,
it says that Israel had the covenants and the giving of the law. The
covenants and the giving of the law, this is not speaking of
the two Testaments, the Old and the New Testament, but the covenant
of circumcision made with Abraham, their father, and the covenant
of Sinai that they entered into with the Lord. The Lord raised
up the nation Israel above all nations of the earth at that
time and committed unto them the law and the prophets as he
revealed himself to this nation. Look at Romans 3 and begin at
verse 1. What advantage, this is Paul speaking here, what advantage
then hath the Jew? If salvation's based entirely
on Christ alone, what advantage then hath the Jew? Or what profit
is there in circumcision? What profit is there in anything
that we do? Whether it be circumcision, whether
it be our giving, our coming to church, our faith, anything. What profit is there? This is
talking to the nation. Much every way, he says, chiefly
because that unto them were committed the oracles of God. So they did
profit by these things. God revealed himself in picture
and type to these Israelites. Majority of them didn't see him.
Majority of them went about, as it were, by works of law.
They thought they're participating in this covenant, participating
in these things that that would save them. And somehow or another
appeased God. God made a conditional covenant
with them which required their strict obedience. God gave them
instructions on what to do in every phase of life. He also gave them the sacrificial
system with all its laws in order to give them temporal relief
whenever they disobeyed these laws. All of these things were
in place to point sinners to Christ for salvation. God's purpose
in raising up the Jewish nation was twofold. First of all, is
that he would demonstrate to men his sovereign prerogative
to love and cherish a people of his choice. Even as he said
in Romans 9.13, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. Secondly,
he would expose the impotence and the inability of men to obey
the law. and to keep the covenant, thereby
demonstrating the natural unrighteousness of any who should be called the
sons of God, and the absolute necessity of an imputed righteousness
by which they might stand before Him. A righteousness, stand before
Him righteous, stand before Him justified, all in His sight,
based on an imputed righteousness. There are some individuals that
God is not going to charge them with their sin. He charged it
to Christ. He charged their sins to Christ.
And he charged those sinners with the righteousness of Christ.
All these things pictured in typified Christ that we're talking
about in this covenant. But the majority of the nation
of Israel, as I said, they miss Christ and only saw their participating
in these things. as recommending them unto God.
Those who were Jews and Israelites by their natural birth have for
the most part stumbled at the revelation of Jesus Christ as
the righteousness of his people because they have continued to
seek and establish their own righteousness in the sight of
God by an outward conformity to the letter of Moses' law or
at least in some kind of adherence to its moral code. Look at Romans
9, again at verse 31. Paul says, but Israel, this is
his kinsmen according to the flesh, which followed after the
law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness.
They went about trying to work out a righteousness by the works
of law. He says, wherefore, Why did they
not attain to this law of righteousness? Because they sought it not by
faith. They sought it not by looking to Christ alone for salvation,
his work alone, but as it were, by works of law. Does that remind
you of anything? Does it remind you of yourself
in false religion before God's savior? It says, for they stumbled
at that stumbling stone, As it is written, Behold, I lay in
sign a stumbling stone and rock of offense, and whosoever believeth
on him shall not be a saint. Also look at Romans 10 verse
3. This is Paul once again talking
about the nation Israel, these Jews, his kinsmen according to
the flesh. It says, For they being ignorant
of God's righteousness, they're ignorant of God's righteousness,
which is, we talked about earlier, this is Christ's righteousness.
This is what he worked out. This is how God saved the sinner.
They're ignorant of Christ's righteousness. Not only these
Jews back then, but we're talking about people today, the same
thing. We were there by nature. We were ignorant of the only
righteousness whereby God will accept the sinner. He says they're
ignorant of God's righteousness and what are they doing? they're
going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted
themselves into the righteousness of God. What is being said of
the Jews can also be said of the Gentile. In fact, the vast
majority of the Gentiles, well, they've adopted the same notion
and do indeed perish in their own supposed righteousness and
confidence in their acts of religion and their acts of faith. By nature,
we're no different than those Jews that rejected Christ. We also reject Christ when we
were sitting in a religious assembly, going about to establish a righteousness
of our own, totally ignorant of Christ's righteousness, the
only ground and basis for a sinner's salvation. We can't look back
and say what an awful people they were when we all, by nature,
we did the same thing. Thank God for his great love
and mercy that he does save some people. Once again, in verse four, it
says, and they had the service of God. This refers to the tabernacle,
the temple, the priestly service, which showed the one and only
way of acceptance with God and the worship of God. Again, this
service was given to point them to Christ, but the majority refused
to believe it. Consider all the awful state
of the priestly office at the time of our Lord's incarnation
and ministry on this earth. Look at Matthew 21, verse 15. It says, and when the chief priests
and scribes, these were the religious leaders of that day, saw the
wonderful things that Christ did, and the children crying
in the temple and saying, Hosanna to the son of David. They, or
these chief priests and scribes, were sore displeased. They didn't
like it. Also in Matthew 26, verse 3 and 4. Then assembled together the chief
priests and scribes and the elders of the people unto the palace
of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas, and consulted that
they might take Jesus by subtly and kill him. As you can see,
the priestly office had totally forsaken the true and living
God. Also, in verse 4, it says they
were given the promises. The promises here, these were
the covenant promises given to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and
their descendants. God gave the nation many promises
of temporal deliverance, guidance, protection, and provision. But
the main promise was to send the Messiah into the world to
save his people from their sins. The majority of the nation Israel,
down through the time of the old covenant, refused to believe
God's promise of eternal salvation based on the blood and the righteousness
of the promised Messiah. Paul had just talked about Israel
wandering in the wilderness for 40 years in some of the previous
verses here, but in Hebrews 4, beginning at verse one, it says,
let us therefore, lest the promise being left to us of entering
into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For
unto us was the gospel preached as well as to them. They had
the gospel preached to them too, those that wandered in the wilderness.
It says, but the word preached did not profit them, not being
mixed with faith in them that heard it. Even though the nation
Israel had the promises of God preached unto them, it didn't
profit them due to their unbelief. We also have the gospel. We have the gospel here today.
It's preached from this pulpit. We have it out there on TV. here
in Albany. We have it out on our internet
sites, which carries it all over the world. But the vast majority
rejects it. They reject it. And why do they reject it? That's
the question when they know why do they reject such a such a
glorious, glorious gospel, a gospel that says that our salvation
is not based on what we do, but it's based on what Christ did.
It's a simple gospel. You wonder why, why in the world
would they reject it? Well, it's because of their self-righteous
unbelief, which is the same reason the Jewish nation rejected it.
Same reason. They hate the truth of a free
salvation that's not based on sinner's works, but based on
the person and work of Christ alone. And they love a lie. and
we all did, a lie that God will accept, except it's based on
our works or our law keeping in some way. They will not turn, I had told
this to some of the men, I was set in false religion back, pushing
30 years ago probably, and we had a little Bible study going
on in a little room, and someone brought up the doctrine of justification
by faith. They didn't really know what
it meant, But when they brought it up, I saw it as being that
God will save you not based on what you do, but based on what
Christ did. That's the way I saw it when he said it. And I said
to myself, I know God ain't going to accept me. He's just not going
to accept me unless I do something. I've got to do something before
God will accept me. And this shows who we are by
nature. It shows where we go and what
we think. until God reveals Himself to
us and shows us that He's holy, and He will not accept anything
but perfection. And those that God regenerates
and converts, they'll come to see that. And once again, they'll
flee to Christ, their only hope. Our last verse that we'll deal
with is verse 5 here, where it says, "...whose are the fathers,
and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came." who is overall
God-blessed forever. Amen. Now, whose are the fathers
here? This refers to their physical
connection, once again, with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who
were the patriarchs of Israel. This connection was a great privilege,
but the problem was that the vast majority of the nation assumed
that their physical connection with the patriarchs assured their
eternal salvation acceptance with God. Had they believed what
Abraham believed, salvation by grace alone, by the promised
Messiah, Christ said, Abraham saw my day. Abraham saw Christ. If they had of did that, they
would have benefited from the privileges that they were given.
Let's look at a conversation once again that Jesus had with
a group of Jews in John 8, 32, beginning at verse 32. Christ says, and ye shall know the truth,
and the truth shall make you free. They answered him, these
Jews, We be Abraham's seed, and we're never in bondage to any
man. How sayest thou, you shall be made free? Jesus answered
them, verily, verily, I say unto you, whosoever committeth sin
is a servant of sin. And the servant abideth not in
the house forever, but the son abideth forever. If the Son,
therefore, shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. I know
that you are Abraham's seed." Christ says, I know that you're
physical descendants of Abraham. He says, but you seek to kill
me because my word has no place in you. I speak that which I
have seen with my father and you do that which you have seen
with your father. Their father was the devil. They
answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus said unto
them, if you were Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham.
You believe on me. But now you seek to kill me,
a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of
God. This did not Abraham. You can
see by this conversation that those Jews were looking at their
pedigree and their physical connection with Abraham. to in some way recommend them
unto God. They were physical Israelites,
but they were not spiritual Israelites. Once again, they stumbled at
the stumbling stone, which is Christ. The next part of verse
five says, and concerning the flesh, Christ came. This was
the greatest of all privileges God had given to this nation.
Jesus Christ, the Messiah, was a direct descendant of David,
King David, according to Romans 1, verse 3, where it says, concerning
his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, which was made of the seed of
David, according to the flesh. The Messiah, Christ, that Israel
as a nation rejected, he was a Jew in his humanity. He was
born a Jew. The Jews felt that Jesus should
have felt honored to be a Jew. The reality is that the Son of
God honored humanity when He became incarnate, but He especially
honored the Jews when He was born of them and among them as
to His humanity. The next part of verse 5 says,
Who is over all, God bless forever. Amen. Paul makes it clear that Jesus,
who was born a Jew, He was born of the Jews in His humanity.
He is God himself, Emmanuel, God with us. Jesus Christ is
truly one person who has two nature. He is divine, he is God,
and he's human. He was born a Jew. He's man, he's the God-man. The Jewish leaders, religious
leaders, would not have Christ to be God according to John 8
beginning at verse 56. where Christ says, your father
Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it, and he was glad.
Then said the Jews unto him, thou art not yet 50 years old,
and hast thou seen Abraham? Jesus said unto them, verily,
verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was, I am. He pretty
much told him he was before Abraham, he was God. Then took they up
stones to cast at him. But Jesus hid himself and went
out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed
by. All true believers bow to him
as God incarnate. He had to be God in human flesh,
yet without sin. Christ had to be as that sacrificial
lamb, which was pictured and typified by Christ. He had to
be without spot or blemish in order to be able to take away
the sins of His people and die on the cross. God will not accept
anything but perfection. And Christ was perfect in every
way. The perfect Lamb of God without spot or blemish died
in the stead of all those that the Father gave Him from all
eternity. And He accomplished this work
in order to save us from our sins. He has to be God in human
flesh to be raised from the dead as the first fruits of his people.
He has to be God in human flesh in order to work out a perfect
righteousness by which God could justify an ungodly sinner. He has to be God in human flesh
in order to intercede for us and to plead the merits of his
obedience unto death for our salvation. Look at 1 Timothy. Chapter 3 and verse 16. And without
controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest
in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached
unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, and received up
into glory. Speaking of Christ. Well, what
about Israel? In closing now, all these particular
privileges given the nation Israel, which are mentioned in these
verses here that we've been dealing with. All of this is what heightened
Paul's concern for these people, his kinsmen according to the
flesh, all these that he sorrowed for. All of this gave him much
sorrow for it when he considered that the people who had been
partakers of so many privileges and especially that the Messiah
should spring from them and be born of them. And yet, after
all this, all this, that they should be given up to ruin and
destruction. Let's read again in closing Hebrews
4 verse 1. And as I said, it talked about
all the children of Israel as they wandered in the wilderness
for 40 years and that died because of unbelief. Not looking to Christ
alone for salvation, but looking at something that they do. Hebrews
4.1 says, let us therefore fear. lest the promise being left to
us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come
short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached as well as
unto them." Gospel was preached to these people, these Israelites
in the wilderness. They rejected it. It says, but
the word preached did not profit them, didn't do them any good,
not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. They didn't
look to Christ. They held on to their own self-righteousness,
not being ignorant of God's righteousness, even though they had all these
privileges. Well, I hope that this study, and speaking of Israel,
the nation Israel, well, I know it's helped me, but I hope it'll
help us to understand a little bit more about the nation Israel. Amen.