you will find the opening words
of Romans chapter nine and verse four to be my text and my subject
and the title of my message. Romans chapter nine and verse
four. Who are Israelites? Now at first glance, that appears
to be a question. But Paul is actually making a
statement that began in verse three. Who are Israelites? Everything God does throughout
history, he does for Israelites, no one else. All the providence is for Israelites,
no one else. All the promises of God in this
book are for Israelites, no one else. Everything that has happened,
is happening, and shall happen in the days yet to come are performed
by God for Israelites, just for Israelites. Now, until you understand
who are Israelites, you will not understand the providence
of God, the word of God, or the works of God. Find out who they
are, and you will find out what this book is about. Who are Israelites? That's my subject. Many think,
by the teaching of heretical religious fools, that white Anglo-Saxons
are Israelites. Some even imagine, by the teaching
of other heretical, ignorant religious fools, that black Americans
are true Israelites. But most people, most people,
both liberal and conservative, both the politically liberal
and the theologically liberal, the politically conservative
and the theologically conservative. Imagine that the nation of Israel,
a person descended from Abraham, these are Israelites. Now this issue is relevant to
our lives, both socially and politically, as well as spiritually. Because there's a huge effort
in our day, particularly in the United States, in the Western
world, particularly though in the United States and in England,
uh, to convince people that the political state of Israel has
a divine God given right to that piece of ground referred to as
the Holy land at the Eastern end of the Mediterranean sea.
the obsession with Israel as the Holy Land and its right to
the Holy Land has its roots in the heresies of dispensational
theology that's been promoted for the last hundred years by
the Schofield Reference Bible. This is one place where, as I
said, virtually everybody's in agreement, the theological liberals
and conservatives, the political liberals and conservatives. And
you can just almost mark this down. When everybody is in agreement,
everybody's wrong. When everybody's in agreement
on any subject, everybody's wrong. Let me give you an example of
the agreement I'm talking about. I had the opportunity several
years ago to spend about two and a half or three hours visiting
with and chatting with a man who was former President Bill
Clinton's Sunday school teacher in Little Rock, Arkansas. We
were on a plane together. We chatted a good bit. And I
looked this up sometime later. Back in 1994. when he was president. President Bill Clinton gave a
speech before the Israeli Knesset, and he declared these exact words. It is God's will that Israel,
the biblical home of the people of Israel, continue forever and
ever. He concluded his speech by making
this statement. Your journey is our journey,
and America will stand with you now and always. And he preceded
the whole thing by giving a statement that his pastor had given him
back in Little Rock. He said, if you abandon Israel,
God will never forgive you. Now, I don't think anyone would
accuse Mr. Clinton of being terribly conservative
or terribly religious. But that's the opinion men have.
And that's the opinion most religious people have. The idea that somehow
the political state of Israel must be promoted in order to
be on God's side. Who are Israelites? Multitudes
read the idea, read the Bible with the idea fixed in their
mind that the Jewish nation is the centerpiece of God's purpose
and the apple of his eye. And they read about God's promises
and the covenants and so forth given in the Old Testament and
think those refer to the physical descendants of Abraham, the Jewish
nation. Nothing could be further from
the truth. who are Israelites. Does the
word of God tell us clearly? Does the word of God tell us
distinctly, in no unmistakable terms, who Israelites are? It does indeed, and it tells
us in many, many places. Today, I want us to look at one
of those places, Romans chapter nine, Romans chapter nine. This chapter begins with Paul's
great heaviness and sorrow of heart for the physical descendants
of Abraham who were his kinsmen, his own nationality, his own
race. Paul was a Jew by nature. Paul was a Jew by nature before
he was converted and made a Jew inwardly by the grace of God. And these who were his physical
descendants, or these from whom he was physically descended,
his kinsmen after the flesh, not just his race, not just his
nation, but his family. His family. And I don't know
anything about Saul of Tarsus' family, but I know he had a mother
and a dad. He probably had brothers and
sisters, aunts and uncles and cousins and nieces and nephews,
just like you and I do. And they were all going to hell. They were all going to hell.
And he was brokenhearted. He was brokenhearted. Wouldn't
you be? Aren't you? Aren't you? Who here, who here
has such a heart of stone that you could think of your own family
perishing under the wrath of God and not be utterly broken,
crushed by that fact? The apostle Paul has been writing
this epistle of Romans beginning in chapter three, actually beginning
in chapter one, working his way to what he's declaring in chapters
nine, 10, and 11. God's cast off my family. God's cast off my kinsmen. God's cast off my nation because
Israel would not believe on the Son of God because Israel despised
the Son of God, because Israel shut her eyes to everything God
had revealed to her, because Israel stopped her ears to every
word of the prophets they'd had for 2,000 years. God said, I've
cast you off. Your house is left to you desolate.
And the God of this world blinded their eyes so that they cannot
to this day see. He hardened their hearts so that
they cannot to this day believe. He cast them off and sent the
gospel to the Gentile world exactly according to God's purpose. And
Paul teaches us and the word of God teaches us and we want
to bow to God's purpose. but still our hearts are moved
with deep compassion for the souls of men. We want to see
sinners saved by God's grace. We want to see folks converted
by the hand of God's omnipotent mercy. So this chapter begins
with Paul's great heaviness and sorrow of heart for his brethren,
the physical descendants of Abraham. Paul says in verse one, I say
the truth in Christ. I lie not, my conscience also
bear 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. This man, Paul, so loved the
souls of men, especially his own kinsmen, the Jews, that he
was willing to die that they might be saved. I don't have
any notion of an idea that Paul is saying, I wish I could go
to hell so that my brethren could be saved. I don't think he's
saying that at all. I don't think he's saying that
at all. I'm positive he's not saying that. What he's saying
is, I am gladly willing to lay down my life that men may know
God. To lay down my life that my brethren
after the flesh might be saved. Would it be used of God to save
them? I'd gladly drop dead right now.
Be happy for God to take me. And he did, in fact, day by day,
from the day God saved him by his grace to the day God took
him out of this world, died daily. He laid down his life daily in
the cause of Christ. Nothing seemed to matter to him
except the cause of Christ. the saving of God's elect, the
calling out of God's people. He gave his life to preach the
gospel to men and women, the Jews first, but also to the Gentiles. This is the cry of a man who
loved immortal souls running headlong into hell. The cry of
a man who had been in the same condition these men were in.
He had stopped his ears. He had covered his eyes. He had
hardened his heart. He would not believe. And he
just as fully deserved that God should cast him off as did Judas
Iscariot or any other Jew. He fully deserved it. He had
been in their same condition. He had walked in the same way,
in the same darkness, but God had mercy on him. Therefore,
he said, I'm a debtor. I'm a debtor to the Jew and Gentile.
I'm a debtor to all men to preach the gospel of Christ, for this
alone is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believe
it. Paul knew his helplessness. He
was as helpless to save his brethren as they were to save themselves.
And he declares to us in these chapters now before us, chapters
9, 10, and 11 of the book of Romans, salvation is of the Lord. Salvation is by God's sovereign
purpose. It is not by man's choice, man's
decision, or man's will. Salvation is God's work. It is not man's work. Salvation
comes by free grace, not by heredity, not by natural descent, not by
your association or connection with other people. Salvation
comes by God's free and sovereign grace and that alone. Only that. Not because your mom
or daddy, there says my granddaughter, not because your granddaddy is
a preacher. No, no, no. Being related to somebody who
knows God and walks with God doesn't mean you have any hand
or hold or step up toward God. Salvation comes by God's grace. He has mercy on whom he will
have mercy, and he has compassion on whom he will have compassion.
Salvation is found not in family, not in friends, not in association,
not in degrees, not in education, not in the church. Salvation
is found in Jesus Christ alone. We've had this idea that salvation
is in the church for ages. Shelby and I were driving down
the road the other day, going to the hospital. She read the
ninth chapter of John to me. Maybe it was coming back, Marcus,
I can't remember which it was. She read the ninth chapter of
John to me. And every time I read that chapter about that man who
was born blind and the Lord gave him sight, and the Jews asked
his parents, asked his parents, is this your boy? Now that doesn't seem like it
would be a hard question for any parents to answer. And they
said, yes. How did he start seeing? Well, they wouldn't answer the question. As I plead the fifth, they wouldn't
answer the question because they feared being put out of the church. They feared being put out of
the synagogue. That's the only reason. They
said, we can't take it. We know he was born blind and
we know it now. See, we don't have any idea what
happened to him. He's of age, ask him. Because they knew the
Jews had already said, if anybody follows Jesus of Nazareth, he's
out of here. And to their thinking, to be
put out of the church was to be damned. It must be that Brother
Rex was raised, if I remember correctly, in one of those churches
that exercises discipline and likes to put folks out. I've seen this many times over
the years. Folks start to organize the church,
first thing to do is write up rules you have to keep. And if
you don't keep the rules, they're going to put you out. That's before
they ever get any members. They're going to put you out. And there's
a reason for that. They can control you. They can
control you. Oh, can't be put out of church.
Can't be put out of church. That's horrible. That's horrible.
Because they associate salvation and the church. It comes in our
age from papacy. Papists are raised all their
lives with the fear of excommunication. Oh, you can't do that. That's
a mortal sin. That'll put me out forever. That
put me out forever. Salvation is not in something! Salvation's in a person. It's
in Jesus Christ, our Redeemer. It's in Christ the Lord. And
Paul's kinsmen had rejected that person. They had despised that
person. They crucified God's son, the
Lord of glory. They would not believe on him.
Therefore Paul was in great heaviness and sorrow of heart. The next
in verses four and five, Paul shows us why they were cast off. He shows us that they had great
privileges beyond all other people. and they had wasted, misused,
misspent those privileges. Now remember, in verses four
and five, Paul is not asking a question, he's stating a fact.
These two verses are really a continuation of the statement begun in verse
three. He says in verse three, I could wish that myself were
accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh,
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, all of the revelation of God
in the Old Testament, all the promises of God, all the ceremonies
of divine worship, all the sacrifices, all of those things by which
the Jews were taught the things of God were given to them alone. Now listen to me, listen to me. Among all the peoples in this part of the world, among
all the peoples in this county, are you listening? To you alone
God has given the revelation of the gospel. To you alone. To you alone. You say preacher, nobody else
here is preaching the gospel? If they were, I'd encourage us
to close up and go join up with them. I told you that first time
I was ever here. Armenianism is not the gospel.
Those folks worshiping at the altar of man's free will are
just like the Gentiles worshiping stumps in Africa. To you alone! God has given the revelation
of the gospel to you alone, and you're responsible to hear it,
responsible to believe it, responsible to obey it. Read what it says,
verse five. Of whose are the fathers, Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob? of whom as concerning the flesh,
that is by natural physical descent through Abraham's line in this
world, Christ came. God sent his son into this world
through Abraham's seed. Isaac, Abraham, you take Ishmael
and you cast him out, that son of the bond woman. He's not child
of promise, cast him out. In Isaac thy seed shall be called. In Isaac all the nations of the
world will be blessed. And Abraham rejoiced to see Christ's
day and was glad. And it took Isaac up to the Mount
of Sacrifice at Mount Moriah there to offer Isaac as a sacrifice
to God in obedience to God's command. But before he went,
he said to his servant, he said, I and the lad will go yonder
and worship God. And in three days, we'll meet
you right back down here. He's going up there to sacrifice
his son, being fully persuaded if God commands me to sacrifice
him, God will raise him from the dead because Christ is coming
into this world through Isaac's seed. Fully convinced, fully
convinced because he believed God. Now, here is this Christ. He is over all God. This man who is Abraham's seed,
This man who is Abraham's son in whom all the nations of the
world are blessed is not just a man like Isaac was. This is
a man who came into the world through Abraham's physical lineage,
but he came into the world without the assistance of a man. He came
into the world through the womb of a virgin. That means he's
the woman seed. He's the one God spoke of back
in Genesis 3 15 when he said to the serpent, I'm going to
send one of the woman seed and he'll crush your head in the
saving of my people. And Abraham's son, Abraham's
seed, the Lord Jesus Christ, he is that man who is God incarnate,
God in the flesh. God over everybody. God over everything. God sovereign, ruling the universe. God who can give you life or
take it from you. God who can save you or damn
you. God who can give you faith or
withhold faith from you. God who can have mercy on you
or refuse to have mercy on you. He's over all God. And whatever he does, he's blessed
forever. He's blessed forever. Oh, what
a statement. What a statement. This is the
thing that troubled Paul so much. He came to his own and his own
received him not. The Jews to whom the Savior came
refused to believe him. Oh, terrible hardness of the
heart of man. Turn over to John chapter one,
the passage I just quoted. Let me show it to you. John chapter
one, verse 11. John's talking about the coming
of Christ, our Lord's incarnation and his appearing after his baptism
to the Jews. He came unto his own, his own
people. He came unto his own, and his
own received him not. Who are you? We know you, you're
Joseph's son. We know you, you're the carpenter's
son. We know you, you eat and drink with publicans and sinners.
We know you, you break the law. We know you, you're a drunk,
a glutton, a wine-bibber. We know you!" He came to his
own. He who is over all, God-blessed
forever, who is perfect holiness, standing in the flesh in front
of them. He came to his own, and his own received him not. They didn't know who he was.
They should have. They should have. He multiplied loaves and
fishes and fed thousands. They should have. He told them,
I'm the son of God. They picked up rocks going to
kill him because he said, I'm the son of God. They understood
exactly what he said. They should have known he's over
all God. He spoke a word and raised a
man from the dead. He touched a beer holding a dead
body. And I thought I got up and walked
home. He went in and took a young girl by the hand who was dead,
and said, rise, and walked out the room with her. They should
have known he came to his old, and his old received him not. They shut the door. We won't
have him. We won't have him. But as many
as received him, as many as received him, To them gave he power, the
ability, the right, the authority to become the sons of God. He
gives them life and faith. He gives them his spirit and
they lift their hearts to heaven and cry, Abba, Father, even to
them which believe on his name. Oh, believe him, believe. Help
you to believe him, come to him, trust him, receive him right
now. And he gives you power to become
the sons of God. Gives you the right, the ability,
the authority to lift your heart to heaven and call God your father. Which were born, not of blood,
nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God. You know, after expressing such
great heaviness and sorrow, Paul seems to brace himself up. He
seems to console his heart and he assures himself and us in
verses six, seven, and eight, that God's purpose is sure. God's
purpose is sure. God's elect shall be saved. God's Israel shall be saved. God's covenant people shall be
saved. Every one of them. Look at verse
six. Not as though, that doesn't mean
that the word of God hath taken none effect. That doesn't mean that Abraham's
seed lost. That doesn't mean the promise
of God means nothing. Oh no. For they are not all Israel,
which are of Israel. They're not all Israel, which
are of Israel. I suppose you're aware of the
fact that there are some people who sneak into this country and
live here. They live on American soil. They
receive great benefits from living on American soil. But they're not Americans. They're
just here in our midst. This is exactly what Paul speaks
of in a spiritual sense. You have a race of men who are
Jews, but not everybody in that race called Israel are Israelites. They're not all Israel, which
are of Israel. Read on. Neither because they
are the seed of Abraham are they all children, but in Isaac shall
thy seed be called. Abraham had two sons, you know,
actually had many sons, but two are called out as an allegory
in Galatians chapter four. They're described as an allegory
that he really did have two sons. One called Ishmael, his older
son, the other called Isaac, his younger son. And God commanded
him to cast Ishmael out because he is not Israel. Isaac is. In Isaac shall thy
seed be called. That is they which are the children
of flesh. Do you remember how Abraham got
Ishmael? Sarah says, Abraham. You know,
God promised us a son. And I hate to tell you this,
old boy, but she ain't getting any younger. And I'm not either. Who ever heard tell of a 90-year-old
woman having a baby? But God promised us a son, and
you know God's promise is sure. You know it is. So she mixes
faith as she's about to propose works. She said, maybe the thing
for you to do is take Hagar, my handmaiden. She belongs to me, you know,
that makes perfectly good sense. And maybe she will have a baby
by you." And that's the son that God promised us. And they got
Ishmael. And, oh, they were so happy for
a little while, for a little while. was the fruit of their works,
not of faith, not of promise. And Ishmael was cast out. We
don't, we don't. They which are the children of
the flesh, these are not the children of God, but the children
of promise are counted for the seed. Turn back to Romans chapter
three. This is exactly the thing that
Paul told us in chapter three in verse three. He's been talking to us now in
chapter one, he told us about folks who are lost without any
light. In chapter two, he talks about
the Jews who are lost with all the light that God gave them.
For what if some of those Jews did not believe? Shall their
unbelief make the faith, the faithfulness of God without effect? Or shall it make our faith in
God without effect? For if God's faithfulness is
of no effect, your faith is of no effect. Will that make the
faith of God of no effect? Oh, perish the thought! God forbid! Yea, let God be true, but every
man a liar, as it is written, that thou mightest be justified
in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.
The blessings of God, I repeat, come to no one by carnal means,
by carnal descent, or by carnal activity. Yes, God promised to
bless the seed of Abraham, but Paul, as he speaks of Abraham's
seed, speaks in a very specific sense. He's talking about Christ
who is Abraham's seed and all who are God's elect in Jesus
Christ, the seed of Abraham. That means if my kinsmen perish,
if those that I love dear, those for whom I would at this very
moment lay down my life, if God might use that to save them. And what I'm saying about myself,
I don't have any question every man sitting in this room who
knows God would say the same. If God take you, Mark, and use
that to save your brother, it'd be fine, wouldn't it? It'd be fine. It'd be fine. But
if those perish whom we love so dearly, God's still God, God's
still right, God's still does right. God's still God, God's
still right, God's still does right. He is over all God, and
he is blessed forever. And if you who are dear to me
perish under the wrath of God, Just one reason. Just one reason. Because you would not believe
on the son of God. You've heard the gospel. You've
been taught the gospel. You've been instructed in the
gospel. If you go to hell. It's just one reason. It's because
you would not believe on the Son of God. Because you would not believe
on the Son of God. Now, who are Israelites? Who are these people so blessed
of God that they're called the Israel of God? Who are these
people so blessed of God that they are called Jews inwardly? Who are these people so blessed
of God they're described in this book as the seed of Abraham?
Who are these people so blessed of God they're called God's covenant
people? The people of God's choice. Let
me give you seven things and I'll wrap this message up. Who
are these people? Very quickly. Brother Lindsey,
I failed to send the notice to him last night of my subject
in text. So he had no idea what it would be preaching. He already
gave you seven promises in Exodus six that identify these people. Let me give you seven other things
by which God's people are clearly identified in this book. These
seven things. Number one, Israelites, true
Israelites are the people of God's loving choice. and God's
sovereign election. They are people of whom the Lord
speaks like this. The Lord hath chosen Jacob unto
himself and Israel for his peculiar treasure. The Lord hath chosen
Jacob to himself and Israel for his peculiar treasure. The whole world, David Peterson,
belongs to God. The whole world, everybody in
it. But he chose you for his peculiar
treasure. Oh my soul, if that doesn't make
you want to jump up and click your heels together, I don't
know what will. The Lord had chosen Jacob for himself. and
Israel for his peculiar treasure. There never been a more obnoxious,
worthless thing to pop up out of North Carolina than a man
talking to you. And nobody in Winston-Salem,
North Carolina, except my dear sisters who overlook a lot, would
tell you that Don Fortner's any treasure. Nobody. Nobody. Look up here. Look up here. God chose me for his peculiar
treasure. A peculiar treasure. That's an
oddity. A peculiar treasure, that's something
precious. A peculiar treasure, that's a
treasure that most folks wouldn't consider treasure. A peculiar
treasure, that's a specially cared for treasure. Number two. Israelites, the Israel of God,
are a people peculiarly, particularly, distinctly, particularly redeemed,
effectually redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, our Passover
sacrifice. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 5
and verse 7, Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed for us. I went back this morning and
read again the 12th chapter of Exodus. Paul, or Moses, has performed
God's wonders in the land of Ham. And now Pharaoh's heart's
hardened and he won't let Israel go. And the Lord told Moses,
you go tell the children of Israel. He didn't even tell Pharaoh this.
He didn't tell, he told Pharaoh that there's gonna be blood in
this land. He told Pharaoh there's gonna be frogs and lice and murine.
He told Pharaoh there's gonna be locusts. He told Pharaoh all
the judgments that were gonna come, except this one. He didn't
even tell Pharaoh. How come? Because Pharaoh had
no interest in it. He didn't tell the children of
Egypt. How come? Because the Egyptians
had no part in it. He said, you go tell my people
to take them a land. and kill it, and put the blood
on the doorpost and the lintel, and go inside the house and roast
that lamb, and put their coats on their back, and their shoes
on their feet, and their staff in their hand, and eat the whole
lamb, because tonight you're going out. When I see the blood,
I'll pass over you." And all of that was a picture of redemption
by Christ. Christ, our Passover. Israel's Passover, the Passover
for God's elect, the Passover for God's chosen, the Passover
for God's covenant people. Christ, our Passover is sacrifice
for us. And everyone, everyone for whom
the Passover lamb was slain in Egypt went out of Egypt that
night. Every one of them, not a hoof
left behind. and every sinner for whom Jesus
Christ our Passover was sacrificed is going out from under the curse
of the law and out from under the slime pit of sin and iniquity
and out from under the fall of Satan into the glorious liberty
of the sons of God, who are Israelites. Third, Israelites, the sons of
Jacob, are people of special revelation. They're taught of
God. They're taught of God. That's
what makes them believe. That's what makes them believe.
When it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and
called me by His grace, He revealed His Son in me. That's what causes
you to believe. I preach to you and plead with
you and pray for you and reason with you and try to help you,
but I can't give you faith. I can't give you faith. It's
not within my ability. Mom and dad can't give you faith.
A little emotional stirring can't give you faith. Deciding to have
faith won't give you faith. How can you believe Him? When
Christ is revealed in you, you just can't help it. You just
can't help it. You believe Him and receive Him
gladly, delighted to have Him. Jacob went to a place wondering about. And he made
a pillar out of rocks. He dreamed a dream and he saw
a ladder. A ladder reaching from heaven to earth. And on that
ladder the angels of God descended and ascended. And that ladder
is Jesus Christ the Lord and Abraham and Jacob believed God. I see I see God in all his glory
coming down here in a human body, rising up again in all his glory,
having accomplished eternal redemption for us. That's how I can get
to glory is on that ladder. Christ Jesus the Lord, he believed
God because he was taught of God. Fourthly, God's Israel,
Israelites, the Israel of God, the sons of Jacob are those people
marvelously converted by the grace of God and the revelation
of Christ in them. Here's Jacob again in Genesis
chapter 32. There wrestled a man with him. There wrestled a man with him. When I was in junior high school,
I used to wrestle. And I'm a pretty good wrestler.
One of the reasons was because I was bigger than everybody else.
And it was kind of hard for fellas to take me down. But you had
one object in wrestling. You just had one object in wrestling. The object really was not to
hurt another fella. If you got caught trying to really
do him harm, you'd lose the match and be thrown out. That wasn't
the object. The object was to pin him down. The object was to pin him down.
You get him pinned where he can't move. He can't do anything because
you got him pinned to the ground. You won the match. That's the
object of wrestling. There was a man who wrestled
with Jacob. The scriptures do not talk about
Jacob wrestling with that man. The scriptures talk about that
man wrestling with Jacob. And that man is Christ Jesus
the Lord. And he wrestled with Jacob. He
wrestled with him. He wrestled with him. And he
broke his leg, smote him in the hollow of his thigh, broke his
leg so that Jacob from that day on walked with a limp through
this world. And he asked him, he said, what's your name? What's
your name? He said, why are you asking my
name? And finally he asked Jacob, he
said, what's your name? He said, my name's Jacob. Tricky,
conniving, rotten scoundrel. I'm a thief. I'm a liar. I'm a cheat. You can't trust
me for nothing. My name is Jacob." He said, not
anymore. He said, now you prevail with
God. Isn't that amazing? Jacob is one pinned on the ground
with a broken leg, forced to confess who he is. And he says,
you win. You win. Your name's now Prince
with God. Israel, a man who prevails with
God. Let me introduce myself to you.
My name's Jacob. My name's Jacob. Thief, liar,
cheat, scoundrel, you can't trust me. But Jacob's been conquered. And
I confess it to God. And God says if we confess our
sin, can you do that? Can you do that? If we confess
our sin? Just tell him your name's Jacob.
Mark, just tell him your name's Jacob. That's all you are, just
Jacob. Thief, liar, cheat, scoundrel, can't be trusted. That's my name! You win. God submits to you. You prevail with God. Your name is Israel, a prince
with God. For you prevailed. God give you grace to confess
your sin. Those who are Israelites are
men and women who've been thus conquered by God's omnipotent
grace, converted by his free grace in Christ Jesus the Lord. Fifth, Israelites are people
being taught of God, being conquered by his grace. They are people
of peculiar distinct, God-given, God-wrought faith in Christ. Not the kind of faith you get
by coming out or being confirmed or coming down to the front of
the church and kneeling at an altar or going to a confessional
booth and talking to a man dressed in, well, dressed like drag,
a drag queen in a booth somewhere. You can get that kind of faith
at a dime store. You can get that kind of faith anywhere. That's the faith people have.
That's faith people conjure up. That's not saving faith. That's
not God-given faith. That's not the kind of faith
that'll give you hope when you're about to leave this world. That's
not the kind of faith that'll sail your boat through troubled
sea. That's not the kind of faith that'll take you through death
and judgment into life everlasting. God's Israelites, they are people
of a peculiar, unusual, distinct God-given faith. It's described
this way. We are the circumcision. That is, we are the people who
were spoken of back when God made a covenant with Abraham
and said, all your boys have to be circumcised in the flesh.
What is that? The cutting away of the filth
of the flesh. Cutting away of dirt and poison
and disease and what could ultimately be death. Cutting away of the
filth of the flesh, that circumcision in the flesh. That never did
anybody any spiritual good. That never did anybody any spiritual
good. What a doctor can do with scissors
is not grace. That never did anybody any spiritual
good. That's got nothing to do with
baptism. What a preacher can do with water is not grace. That
doesn't do anybody any spiritual good. What's he talking about?
He's talking about the cutting away of these hearts of flesh. The new birth, the work of God,
the Holy Spirit, by that circumcision in the flesh, God sealed to Abraham's
sons, identification as Abraham's sons, covenant people to whom
belong all the promises God made to Abraham. And we are the circumcision. A people to whom when God gives
faith in Christ by his spirit, he seals all the promises of
God in Christ Jesus. Who are these people who are
the circumcision? We worship God in the spirit. In the spirit. In our spirit, spiritually. And in his spirit, the Holy Spirit. We worship him by the spirit,
in the spirit, in a spiritual manner. We don't have rosary
beads and prayer beads and prayer wheels and pictures of Jesus and angels
and guardian angels and all that nonsense. No, no, no, no, no,
no, no, no, no. We worship God in spirit, in
spirit. What's that mean? And have no
confidence in the flesh. We rejoice in Christ Jesus, we
trust Him, and trusting Him means we have no confidence in the
flesh. No confidence in anything we are or do or experience. Not in decisions, not in dreams,
not in doings, not in descent. We have no confidence in the
flesh. We are God's Israel, who number
six, are the apple of his eye. God says to Jacob, I am with
thee. I will keep thee. I will not
leave thee. I give unto them eternal life
and they shall never perish. We are Israelites who are the
apple of God's eye. under God's constant care. From the womb to the tomb under
God's constant care. All the days of our lives under
God's constant care. In every time of need and in
every time of bounty. in every time of trouble and
in every time of triumph, in every time of sickness and death
and in every time of birth and vitality. God is our caregiver
and our carer under his constant care. One more thing, who are
Israelites? Turn over to chapter 11, I'll
show you. Israelites are those people God
has sworn to save because he delights in mercy and he's faithful
to his covenant. Israel are those people who are
saved. Who are Israelites? Why, Israelites
are saved folks. Israelites are saved folks. Everybody
who has been, Everybody who is and everybody who shall be. Look
here in Romans chapter 11 verse 25. I would not brethren that you
should be ignorant of this mystery, how God cast off the Jews that
he might call the Gentiles. Lest you should be wise in your
own conceits that blindness in part has happened to Israel.
How come? How long? Until the fullness
of the Gentiles become in. That is, until all the fullness
of Christ's body is made complete by the calling of God's elect
out of the Gentile world. And so, when all God's elect
are saved, when all Christ redeemed are saved, when all God's covenant
people are saved, when all Israelites are saved, so, all Israel shall
be saved. As it is written, there shall
come out of Zion the deliverer who shall turn away ungodliness
from Jacob. Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law being made a curse for us. He turned away
ungodliness from Jacob by the sacrifice of himself. For this
is my covenant unto them, which I, when I shall take away their
sins. Who are Israelites? Why, Israelites
are folks whose sins are taken away because they're saved by
God's free grace. God make you what? Oh, God make
you, God give you grace today to go home believing on the Son
of God, rejoicing because you are numbered among the Israelites,
the people of God's choice, God's love, God's care, God's grace,
the people of Christ's precious blood, amen.