Romans chapter 9. Have you ever experienced a kind
of joy that was so exhilarating that it almost made you inebriated? Let's take that in the pure esoteric
and Christian sense. Have you ever been so happy that
it was just a kind of giddy joy, almost insane. You almost lost
your mind from the joy. Now, some of you might be saying,
now, I've never had that. But maybe one day you will. Maybe
one day you will. But things in life sometimes
can make you so happy, so joyful. You can hear a word. You can
get a report. You can be blessed with $10 billion. Let's start right there. an inheritance
you never knew you even had. Someone loved you and wrote your
name down on a wheel and now you're like Jed Clampett and
his wife. Multi-millionaires. All I'm saying is that there
are things in this life, in God's mercy, that bring about such
levels of joy that we reach these thresholds in our mind and we're
aware that I'm so happy that I'm just about stupid. You know
what I'm talking about? Just so happy that I'm just about
silly, like you don't really want to let people see you in
that kind of joy. And that ought to be the case
for the Christian from time to time when you think about how
good God is to you. The Apostle Paul was such a person.
He had reached a pinnacle of joy in Christ, of which he gave
us the theology of joy in the Bible. Paul did. Paul said the
kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and what? Joy in the Holy
Ghost. And he constantly encouraged
us to what? Rejoice. And again, I say rejoice. So what I'm talking about is
not pie-in-the-sky concepts. What I am talking about is the
fruit of the Spirit of God, particularly when you are walking with God
and hearing His Word, and you are allowing your soul to marinate
and saturate in the promises of God when you think about all
that God has done to redeem your soul and to bring you into a
place of favor with God and the kind of security that we have
in Christ and then the protection and provision that God produces
and brings in your life, those of you who are His, it ought
to make you sometimes so happy that you are on the brink of
being drunk. And we say that in the purest
sense. This is where Paul is in the
last portion of the chapter of Romans 8, where he's telling
the church, there is nothing that's going to separate you
from the love of God. And then he begins to expand
on those nine characteristics, or nine aspects of what could
but will never do. And as he closes out Romans 9,
in this state of jest, Blissful joy He's happy. He wants the Saints to be happy.
He wants them to know there's nothing in the universe that
will separate you from the love of God Which is in Christ Jesus
and as I share to you share with you last week that ought to float
your boat he begins then to descend from that mountaintop of joy
and realize some things that now brings him to a very low
place in his soul and Have you ever been there? Happy one minute
and the next minute you are aware of some facts that you weren't
focusing in on that brought you right back down to earth. And
even sometimes lower. And you wonder how you can be
so high one moment and the next moment you're just about depressed. It happens. You know what we
call that? Mutability, changeableness. That's
you and me. We go up and down. God doesn't
but we do and it happens now the reason for which this is
occurring in the life of the Apostle Paul is Because as he
is talking to the church at Rome about this mountain of support
in their life He's thinking about his auditors. He's thinking about
a group of people whom he knows is struggling with the whole
concept of the grace of God in Christ He's thinking about his
Jewish brethren whom he knows that for them to sit back and
think that God could so take care of a soul that is walking
in the grace of God apart from human words on the basis of that
justifying work of Christ could so take care of a soul that even
their trials Result in an abounding glory for them both now and for
all eternity. Here's Paul's Trouble which will
bring us to our first point here in a moment. He's struggling
with this reality He's talking to people who can't believe it
He's talking to some people whom he knows cannot believe the gospel
and It's breaking his heart Because the people to whom he's speaking
about these lofty things, no condemnation, no accusation,
no separation for those that are in Christ Jesus. Isn't that
a wonderful gospel? No condemnation, no accusation. No separation for those that
are in Christ Jesus. His struggle is he's speaking
to a group of people that he knows are not in Christ. And it's breaking his heart.
This is the only way you can explain the way Romans 8 closes
and the way Romans 9 opens. The mountaintop where the clouds
are so low that you can just about touch God. and the depths
of the valley that are so low that you just about despair.
It's because he had forgotten for a moment that some of the
people that he was talking to were his Jewish brethren who
just have never ever understood the grace of God. Now his heart
is invested in them. And as he thinks about how they're
on the outside listening to this marvelous message, window shopping,
they can't put on the garments of righteousness. They can't
put on the breastplate of hope and faith and the armor of God. They can't put on the promises
of God because they are used to not believing God. You know what they're doing? They're sitting saying, what's
the big deal? Okay, no condemnation. No accusation. No separation. What's the big deal? And he knows
the implications of that for them and this drives him to a
level of sadness That's absolutely astonishing You know, sometimes
God has to do that for you and me We can't always live on the
mountaintop We can't always live at those echelons of joy. I on a practical daily basis
because we got problems in the world. And then we got problems
in our own life, truth be told. A lot of times your joy in mind
comes from this. We get a moment to actually forget
about ourselves. No, come on, isn't that true?
We get a moment to kind of forget about who I am and all my issues
and my crazy self and get to kind of existentially enjoy the
moment. And for whatever reason, the
mystery of narcissism turns us back in on ourselves. When we
start looking at self, and all of our problems, and the bills,
and the people that don't like us, and the people we don't like.
And then we lose that joy. Is that true? We lose that joy.
On this occasion, it's not Paul who is really personally having
a problem, but vicariously he is. See, because when you love
people and you want them to have what you have, when they don't
have what you have, you find yourself rather inclined to be
where they are on the outside of the blessings you have than
for you to be enjoying the blessings all by yourself. Am I making
some sense? When you want people to have
what you have and you know what you have is the consequence of
pure grace alone. You didn't earn a thing. You're
just walking in these blessings that are enormous and unspeakable. And you want this loved one and
that loved one and the other loved one to enjoy what you have.
And they don't. You find yourself rather inclined
to step out of your joy and enter into their pain. And when you
do, that's called love. That's called love. I'd rather
come down off the mountaintop. and dwell with my brethren in
ashes, when he's suffering, and just pray with him and cry with
him and whine with him, like Job's three friends did for a
little while. They did the right thing, didn't they? Job was living
large, now he's living low. They did the right thing, didn't
they? It's called love. See, now, Paul is in what we
call a crisis. And I want to work that through
with you today. Because I want you to understand what he has
to do now. I'm not so sure what the Holy Spirit's intentions
were on a personal level with Paul, but because I've read the
whole book I know where we're going in Romans chapter 9. I
know that Paul has to explain to the church at Rome why Israel
failed over and over and over again. He has to explain to them
why they missed grace for 2,000 years. He has to also defend
God, which is largely the job of the gospel, defending God's
gospel, defending God's character, defending God's nature over against
people who would assume God to be one way when we know him to
be another way. Paul said, I stand for the defense
and confirmation of the gospel. We're often telling men and women,
God is not like you think he is. We're often telling men and
women, God doesn't hold the same values that you do. We're often
telling men and women, as Isaiah puts it, God's thoughts are not
your thoughts. Just because you're thinking
this way doesn't mean God thinks like you. You better take how
you think, submit it to the Word of God, and let's see if we got
a straight plumb line. This is called the defense of
the gospel, and in defending the gospel, you're defending
the character of God. Paul knows in Romans chapter
9, here's what he's going to have to do. He's going to have
to explain the reason why Israel failed to enter into the blessings. And then he's going to have to
defend God for allowing them to fail while still achieving
his own goal of saving everyone for whom Christ died. This is
the doctrine of election which most people do not like intuitively. because it takes the control
of your eternal destiny out of your hands and puts it in the
hands of God. And gospel preaching defends
God's right to save whom he wills. That's what gospel preaching
does. God will save whom he wills. God doesn't have to save anyone.
You and I are not people that are naturally intrinsically qualified
to be objects of God's love. God will send people to hell
and be just for it. And if he sent you and me to
hell right now, he'd still be God. He'd still be holy. He'd
still be righteous. He'd still be glorious. He'd
still be good. He'd still be God. See, I'm already
getting in people's business because that's what the doctrine
does. See, we have this assumption where we have inverted the value
system and made man intrinsically good and God suspect. But man
is not intrinsically good. Man is intrinsically evil and
only God is holy. And if you should find yourself
within the auspices, the auspices of God's favor, it's only because
of his grace. And here Paul has a struggle
through this fact that only a remnant over the 2,000 year period of
Israel's history ever knew anything about grace. The title then of
our message is the election of true Israel according to the
grace of God. The election of true Israel according
to grace. Now you know we're in the ninth
chapter and what we do at grace And I'll repeat this for people
who are not used to real Bible preaching and teaching, is we
expound the scriptures so that we can teach men and women how
to know God through his word. Rather than simply entertaining
you on Sunday, your Bible going to be open and you're going to
learn about God. You're going to learn things about God that
you like. You're going to learn things about God that you don't
like. But like we said it two weeks ago, If you don't like
it, but agree with it, you halfway home. Because we used to didn't
like it and didn't agree with it. But by his grace, he got
us to agree with it. Now, when your heart's right,
you'll start being happy about who God is because he's revealed
his grace to you. Now, whether he reveals his grace
to another person, it's God's right to do so. But we're not
going to put God on the judgment throne and make him guilty of
not doing our will. Give me grace to do your will. And whatever you want me to do
is right, oh God. Now you and I are ready for the
Bible to speak to us. Because if we think we're going
to come to God's book and judge God, we got another thing coming.
So now when I talk about the election of true Israel according
to the word of God, you know in these About 30 verses that
we have to deal with in Romans chapter 9. In fact, it's 33 verses
in Romans 9 We're gonna be here for at least five sermons because
I'm not gonna be guilty of You not having heard the whole truth
about Romans chapter 9 see I don't play hopscotch. I with the Word of God. I don't
land on this doctrine and then jump over that doctrine and miss
that doctrine and jump over that doctrine and jump to that doctrine.
I'm going in every square and I'm stopping and maybe backing
up a little bit and then going to the other doctrine too, right?
And say, did you get it? Come on, this is how you do it
right there. That's how you do it. Don't miss a doctrine. Don't miss a doctrine. All scripture
is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine,
reproof, correction, and training in righteousness. All scripture. And if it's given and if it's
profitable, I want to hear it, don't you? So we're going to
be here for a few weeks getting the glorious doctrine of election
right in our soul. So as we do, I'll deal with my
first point. We're going to get through points number one and
two today, maybe touch on point three. And next week we will
enlarge upon the significance of election is God's choice alone
as we deal with verses six through eleven. Point number one in our
outline, the crisis in the heart of the Apostle Paul. What is
it fundamentally that's taking place in his soul? It's this. that he's dealing with what it
means to be both a Jew and a believer in Christ. What Paul is struggling
with is what it means to be a Jew committed to Judaism in a day
when Christ has already come, summed up the meaning of Judaism
in himself and called all men out of Judaism into Christ. He
knows what it's like to hate the gospel. He knows what it's
like to persecute those who love the gospel. He knows what it's
like to kill men and women in the name of Judaism against the
gospel. You know, sometimes our sin comes
back and he shuts up, doesn't it? This is what's happening
to Paul. He's reflecting upon the fact
that he was just like them. And that means that he's obligated
now, indebted to feel their pain as he seeks to draw them out.
So under our first heading, the crisis in his heart, first is
his keen knowledge of their what? That's right. As I already prepared
you, when you follow the history of Israel, as all the prophets
fundamentally argue, was there never a time when Israel questioned
God, contemned God, rebelled against God, opposed God? Did they ever for a small season
as a whole nation just acknowledge that God was good? By and large,
the answer is no. God would have said in the Psalms,
this generation of children do always do evil against me, grieving
me to my very heart, so much so that I promised that they
would never enter into my rest. The prophet Isaiah spoke about
it this way in Isaiah chapter 1 verse 3 through 10. Let's go
there. I want you to see a basic synopsis
of the way the prophets spoke about Israel's impenitency and
hardness of heart of which Paul knows about keenly. And is aware
of may very well be operating presently as he's exhorting them
in the blessings of the gospel He knows keenly that they may
very well be presently Opposing him in his heart and verse 13
tells us you can read the whole of it for yourself It's a it's
an open and stinging indictment against Israel, but I'll start
at verse 13 here and I'm sorry verse 3 and go through verse
10 and It's an open and stinging indictment, and here's how it
goes. He says, the ox knows his owner, and the ass his master's
crib. You know, animals have a little
good sense. You do know that, right? Have you ever had an animal? They know when to come home.
They know when to eat, right? They know how to push your buttons,
don't they? They're pretty smart. Sometimes
we think they might even be more intelligent than human beings,
right? The ox knows its owner and the ass is master's crib.
Here's what God says. But Israel does not know. My
people do not consider. And then he begins to describe
them. This is God talking. Israel is a sinful nation. Do
you see it? A sinful nation. Watch this.
A people laden with iniquity. That's the description of sin
being so pervasive in the life of Israel that God says they
are laden with it. He says they are a seed of evildoers. He says they are children that
are corruptors. They have forsaken the Lord.
There it is. They have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger.
There it is. Now watch this. They are gone
away backwards. Do you know what we call that?
Backsliding. Why? Should you be stricken anymore?
Verse five. You know what God is doing now?
He's reminding them of all the occasions where he chastised
him. He said, why should I keep chastising you? It don't work. Now, you know, we have what are
called in the world of psychology. Some strong willed children,
don't we? That's what they say, strong will. It's a good term.
And whipping them don't work, does it? It seems like the more
you whip them, The more their will just goes hard as steel
against you and you often the sisters say yes And you often
see it at the youngest of ages I mean like two and three you
realize no whipping is not going to do it. You got to find another
way to reach that soul That's israel These are the people whom
god brought out of egypt. This is how they are to god.
God's a father here Is he not? And he doesn't mind using the
whip To discipline his children, but he's speaking to the unprofitableness
of his chastising them because they are so impenitent Listen
to what it goes on to say You will revolt more and more The
whole head is sick and the whole heart faint From the soles of
your feet even to the head. There is no soundness in it,
but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores They've not been clothed,
neither bound up, neither mullified with ointment. Do you see the
picture? You get the illustration? It's a body that's alive, but
wounded and sick and sore-ridden from the top of their head all
the way to the soles of their feet. Scabs and wounds that are
open, unhealed. This is how God views Israel.
In a word, if this doesn't come home to you, Israel in this situation
can be viewed as what we call unclean ceremonially. Remember
the nation of Israel was to be clean before the Lord and when
you were ill or sick you had to be separated from the camp
Until that sickness was recovered. God is saying to the whole nation
You are so ill so sick that you are unclean in my sight. I have
to separate from you This means God is holy And I think we forget
that in this generation. I think we love to monopolize
on the term love But fail to understand that God is holy And
he's describing that in this context. Your country is desolate. Your cities are burned with fire.
Your land, strangers devour it in your presence. And it is desolate
as overthrown by strangers. Ladies and gentlemen, this hadn't
occurred in Isaiah's day. This was a prophecy that Isaiah
was laying down that would come, watch this now, some 200 years
later in 587 BC. Isaiah preached in the year 750
BC. He's preaching about something
that would come almost a century and a half later He's describing
their homes as burned up pillaged destroyed Scattered ruined and
yet at the moment that he was preaching. Everybody was prospering
Everybody was living large They were living just as secular and
carnal and fleshly lives as you and I are and guess what they
were saying the Lord's blessing And yet the prophet was describing
their doom and destruction, because as they became large in the flesh,
they departed from God. Remember what God says? Now,
when you enter into the land, and the Lord bless you with houses,
and He bless you with vineyards, and He blesses you with lands,
and He blesses your stock, and He blesses your children, do
you not remember to not forget the Lord your God? Do not forget
God, lest my wrath turn against you. Lo and behold, they get
in the land, they get their inheritance. What they do? Run from God. Now, you don't do that. I know.
Your country is desolate. Your cities are burned with fire.
Your land, strangers devoured in your presence. It is desolate
as overthrown. And the daughter of Zion is left
as a cottage in a vineyard. You know what that means? Abandoned. as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers
as a besieged city. Now watch this, because God has
just described the doom of Israel and these last two verses are
going to be the key hinge pin upon which Paul will argue for
the electing love of God in Christ as the basis of the whole of
Israel not being destroyed. Look at what he says in verse
8. Sorry, verse nine. Except the Lord of hosts had
left unto us a small, very small remnant, we should have been
as Sodom and we should have been like unto Gomorrah. I want you
to pause right there. I want you to understand that
God had every right to destroy Israel according to the covenant
promise. He had every right to destroy
them like he destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. Did he destroy
Sodom and Gomorrah? Let me ask you a question. Did he leave
one child in Sodom and Gomorrah? One human being? One thing that
breathed? He destroyed it totally, didn't
he? And so here what God is saying is even though the destruction
of Israel in 587 BC was so massive and so devastating to the whole
of the nation, he still left the remnant. He still left the
remnant. Now watch this. The remnant doctrine
is the foundational doctrine that teaches the electing love
of God. If you are one of God's children, if he saved you by
his grace, you're a remnant. You're a remnant. Watch this
now. Remnants don't have a whole lot of people on their side.
Remnants are not generally part of the majority. Remnants are
not people that are found in the bulging masses of the common
views of the world system. When you're part of the remnant,
watch this, you're part of those people who first and foremost
think differently than everybody else. When you're part of the
remnant, you're part of the group of the people who have learned,
I want you to hear this now, that God doesn't play. You learn
that God doesn't play. When you're part of the remnant,
you are very much aware that you are simply an object of God's
grace. That as God had destroyed all
of those millions of Jews, sent them into captivity, destroyed
many of them through Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon, coming down and devastating
the land, and yet you were left. You were left. How many of us
can tell the story of being somewhere where destruction was just about
to take place if it didn't take place altogether and God had
mercy on you, left you. That's called being a remnant.
That's called being a remnant. Watch this. And it didn't happen
by accident. Watch this. And you weren't chosen
because you were better than the next person. Watch this.
Now, in many cases, you were worse. This is where the glory
of God is manifested in its inscrutable-ness. You and I can never actually
give a human reason why he chose you over somebody else. See,
so events happen every day and you wonder why that person lived,
that other person didn't live. I told the story several months
ago on my Monday program about the airplane crash of the family
in Kentucky. They had a little Cessna jet
and the whole family flying somewhere where they commonly would fly
to go. the plane crashes everybody dies on the plane but the little
girl she walks out of the plane almost unscathed just kind of
disoriented and goes on to be delivered by the police officer
and I got so many calls as to why did that happen you and I
can never answer why it happened all we can say is God had mercy
on that child the other thing when God saves you by his grace
because he chose you in Christ When you and I are brought out
in this kind of magnificent, just conundrum, it's designed
to teach you a lot about your calling and keep you from stealing
God's glory because you're still alive. People who know the doctrine
of election correctly, they know that they are to be the most
humble people on the planet. And here's the reason why, here's
the reason why now, because you don't deserve God being as good
to you as he is. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
You don't deserve it. You don't deserve it. So Christian
folks who really get the gospel right, you and I are not to be
proud as peacocks spreading our feathers, talking about the Lord's
blessing me because of something good he saw in me. He never saw
anything good in you, ever, not one time. He doesn't bless you
because he sees something good in you. Can we straighten doctrine out
today? You don't find anywhere in the Bible where God blesses
a man because he sees something good in him. There's none good. No, not one. There's none that
seek after God. There's none that understand.
There's none that do it good. There's none profitable. For
you new folks in the house, if you're saved by God's grace,
it's because you are a nun, not N-U-N, N-O-N-E. Are y'all hearing me? God saves
nothings, and then he places in them the best thing, which
is Jesus Christ. Now see, you can say, he sees
the Christ in me. He sees the Christ in me, and
he blesses you for Christ's sake. Now, pastor, why are you pressing
this issue home? So that you won't steal God's glory because
you're a child of God. Because many church folk do.
And then they make folks that are on the outside feel a little
less privileged because honest folk know there ain't nothing
good in them. So now if I got to wait till
God sees something good in me to do good to me, hell will freeze
over. So while we're demolishing some
of your false notions about God, just hold on to your seat. Because
we call this the preparation for the gospel. The gospel is
a sinner's gospel. And the only people that can
be saved are real bona fide sinners. Not partial sinners. Not 50 percent
sinners. Not 80 percent. not even 99.99999% you've got to be a 100% sinner
to get the grace of God. Are you guys hearing me? Tell
you something else while I got your attention on that. You don't
have to know that you're a 100% sinner before God saves you,
but you're going to know it before you die. Do you hear me? You're going to know it before
you die. Because God's not going to take you to heaven until you
understand that it's all of grace. All of grace. See, Paul's going
to teach us that as we make our way through. God, Paul said,
saved him out of due season, almost like a miscarriage, coming
in late. That's what he said. He said,
I don't even deserve to be here. Then when he got a little older, you
know what he said? Oh, wretched man that I am. And then when
he was about on his deathbed, you know what he said in 1 Timothy
chapter 115? He says, I'm the chief of sinners.
You know what we call that? Sanctification. Where you go
from worse to worse to worse in your own eyes while God sees
that he's making you just like his son Jesus Christ. That's
what we call sanctification. And when you and I have that
proper estimation of ourselves, then we are available to be used
by God. Because God knows that you will
never lose your mind and say, you know what? That was because
of my skills, because of my wisdom, because of my abilities, because
of my strength. Well, you know, I add something
to the kingdom of God. No, you don't. You don't add
nothing to the kingdom. Let me keep going so we can work
through this. On to point number one, then Paul, he sees a keen
knowledge of their history and their history is a mess if it
wasn't for God's grace. Share with you a truth if you
don't know it. Deuteronomy chapter 32 verse 20. This is the first
time in the Bible where the word faith is used. Now y'all know
that without faith it's what? And you also know that the just
shall live by what? And you guys know that we are
saved by grace through what? That's exactly right. We live
by faith. We die by faith. Faith is the
way that we see God. According to Romans chapter 11,
faith is the substance of what? Things hoped for, the evidence
of what? That's right. God has people
of God who walk by faith because there are multitudes of promises
that will never be realized in this life. And when we walk with
God, believing those things that are ours in Christ to come, that
pleases God. But the first time the word faith
is used in your English Bibles, you know what God says concerning
Israel? There are people in whom is no
faith at all. Isn't that a terrible indictment?
Do y'all see it in your Bible? Mark that. I remember I was 18
years old, read that, I said, my goodness, the very people
who should have seen God in his glory and walked with this holy
God didn't believe God. Ladies and gentlemen, do you
understand that faith is a gift of God. It's a gift of God. This is concerning Israel. And
he said, I will hide my face for them. I will see what they
shall be. For they are a very forward generation,
a wicked generation, children in whom is what? No faith. Lord, don't let that be the case
for one soul in this room right now. just because we go to church
and read our bibles from time to time and pray and give a little
bit we are not meriting anything with you oh god it's only your
mercy that allows us to enter into your presence y'all got
that only his mercy so point number b under our first heading
he not only is keenly aware of their history He is keenly aware
of the black darkness of their former religion. He was part
of it. Remember what Paul said? He says,
I used to persecute the saints far and wide. I got letters from
the high priest to hunt them down, put them in jail, cause
them to blaspheme God, and then to kill them. Saints, when you
think about how blinded you can be by religion and how at the
same time your heart can be filled with hate, against other people. Prejudice and discrimination
and a kind of self-righteousness that would make you a judge over
other people and you swear you're going to heaven? You can be the
most deceived person on planet Earth. Israel modeled that in
the life of the Apostle Paul. He modeled the idea, Paul modeled
the idea that to be zealous for God is to hunt down everyone
that's not like God and kill them. This is why I love the
Lord Jesus, because only Jesus gives us the true picture of
God. When he came, he revealed to us that love for God is not
killing people, it's laying down your life for people. You guys got that? Love for God
is not going around killing people. with the sword, cutting their
heads off, or even rhetorically, or even doctrinally, or even
propositionally. Love is not hunting down heretics
and always trying to get in a fight with them over theological issues.
Love for God is you walking close with God, bearing the characteristics
of Christ, and being ready to lay down your life, first for
your brethren, and then for anyone who is a potential object of
God's grace and mercy. Are you guys hearing me? That
takes a lot of change in our hearts, doesn't it? It takes
a great change in our heart, and yet God can do that. He did
it for Paul, didn't he? Watch how this works, watch how
this works. Under our third then sub point, not only is he keenly
aware of the black darkness of their former religion, because
it was terrible, but his awareness of God's electing love to him,
as I had said earlier, overwhelmed him. Aren't there days, child
of God, where you just can't believe God saved you? Look with
me then at Romans chapter 9 verse 1 through 3. I'm going to read
this, make a statement about it, and go through my second
point. Romans 9 verses 1 through 3 is where we are now contemplating
the crisis in Paul's heart. He says, I say the truth in Christ. I am not lying. My conscious
also bears me witness in the Holy Ghost that I have great
heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. You see what I'm
saying, saints? Did you get it? Before I go to
verse 3, here's what I want you to get. The crisis in the man's
heart. He's just come off the mountaintop.
Now he's saying, I'm telling you the truth. I'm telling you
the truth in Christ. God is my witness Not only that
the Holy Ghost is bearing witness in me that I'm telling you the
truth now Why is he doing it because he's appealing to his
Jewish brethren? He's letting them know as difficult
as the gospel is, particularly in its historicity as a word
marking out Israel to be the culprits of crucifying the Lord
of glory, he wants them to know that nevertheless my own personal
feeling towards you is that I have great heaviness. I have a great
burden for you. Now do you see this is not what
we would call a psychological ploy or device. All he's doing
is being honest with his people. He knows he has to preach the
gospel and that gospel basically condemns national Israel But
what he wants the ones that are listening to him to know is his
heart is in a crisis It's torn because he would that they knew
Jesus like he did you guys got that He's saying in great sorrow
and heaviness continually what that means for us it is a Paul
is preaching hither and yon and wherever he preaches in prison
and not there has to be these freaking periods of time Frequent
where he's he pauses and he thinks about his own Jewish brethren
and he goes into that depression He breaks down He says Lord Lord,
why are those so obstinate? Why do they continue rebelling
against you the way they do Lord have mercy on them. I My people,
Lord, are obstinate and stiff-necked. Just like your word says, be
gracious, O God, to them. Can you see Paul doing that?
See, when you become born again, that can happen in your heart.
You can have such a love for people that they are constantly
on your list of prayers. And they may not come up every
day, but they come up frequently enough for you to call out to
God for them. Hey, how many of you guys are
parents like I am? and have a few kids that's holding
out. Doesn't it keep you at the throne?
And then someday, doesn't the Holy Ghost just wear you out
in prayer over them? Doesn't he wear you out? Have
you crying and snotting and whining? Because you want your child to
be saved. You want that child to be...
When you think about these facts, that they didn't ask to come
into this world, And when once they got here, you may or may
not in all likelihood may not have done the best job you could
for them. And then they grow up to be whatever they're going
to be. And you realize that you have no power in your hands to
save them. And yet you brought them here.
At least what you and I can do is fall on our face frequently
and call on God for those children. Am I telling the truth? Am I
telling the truth? Am I telling the truth? Right.
See, so Paul is somewhat here in this portion of scripture
an autobiography for us. He gives us insight into the
maturity of a believer. He lets us know that believers
are not just wrapped up in themselves, caught up in their own life,
caught up in being happy about their job and happy about their
home and happy about this and doing this, doing that. We've
been called to the priesthood ministry calling on God on the
behalf of those at least we love and care about. If we don't pray
for them, who will? If we don't pray for our own,
who will? No one else has to pray for your
children, your brother, your sister, your mama, your daddy,
but you do if you're a child of the Living God. I guarantee
you I can prove through the Scriptures that the disciples did that,
that Christ did that, and that Paul probably knew that it was
some relatives of his that had come to know Christ that prayed
for that knucklehead man that was running around killing Christians.
Somebody prayed for me. Isn't that how the song goes?
Somebody prayed for me. Somebody prayed for me. I know
somebody prayed for me. I know someone and so what Paul
is doing is giving his brothers insight into his heart passion
now watch verse 3 This is an amazing statement that I must
clear up before we deal with our second point He says 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. Now, we can be honest right now.
Honest people are not going to hell. I don't know if I've ever even
come close to thinking like that. I don't feel particularly bad
that I don't. But when I think it through,
I wonder, are we talking measures of love? Probably so. See, because love is not just
talk. Love is rooted in an impetus, in a willingness, in a bent,
a propensity, if opportunity vents itself, to actually do
what it says it would do. Now, I know I know that if Paul
laid out his case and he's brought to witness God and the Holy Ghost,
that for him to say he could wish himself to be accursed in
the stead of his brethren, he meant that. He meant that. He meant that. And what a magnificent
disposition of soul to be so willing to trade places with
people that you know are cursed. Under the wrath of God because
ladies and gentlemen, whether you know it or not outside of
Christ, we are all cursed The curse of sin has smitten all
of humanity both in Adam and in us Do you believe you're a
cursed person outside of Christ? That's right. The wages of sin
is what that's exactly right And so what Paul is simply saying
is he knows they don't know Jesus He knows the whole stock of them
by and large do not know Jesus and if it were possible. I Send
me to hell to save my daughter. I prayed that. I said, Lord,
send me to hell. If you would but save my child,
send me to hell. You have to think it through.
You have to just think it through. I'd rather her go to heaven than
me. You understand that? I'd rather her make it than me. This is important to think through.
Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life
for his friend. How much more so your baby, whom
you love to death? God trade places with me. Take her in, let me go. Are you
guys hearing what I'm saying? So this is not so preposterous.
a notion that none of us can identify with. And I'm putting
your children here because I know you know, you and I, we, we,
most of us, we ain't tripping like that with a whole bunch
of other people. I'm trying to get at your heart a little bit.
That's why I'm talking about your daughter, your niece, the person you love
the most. Dude down the street? Uh-uh.
Your neighbor? Uh-uh. Second cousins? Uh-uh. I love you, but uh... Now, next
point. Next point. I'll show you something
here before I go on. Are you ready? God will never
answer that prayer. He will never answer it. Now, I don't know if Paul knew
that. Maybe he came to learn that. It's possible that that
was one of the thorns in his flesh. Revelation. See, if you have children that
you know are acting like they are the son or the daughter of
the devil, the firstborn son or daughter of the devil. And
here you are trying to walk with God. And every time you turn
it around, they ripping you off. Wouldn't they be a thorn in your
side? So stay with me now because I know I've lost some of you
already. That's okay. I'm talking to folk who about
30 minutes from now, this is going to actually start making
sense. That person, you would much rather
trade places with them because you up close and vividly see
the hell they're getting into. And you don't have power to change
it. You see them sinking deep in sin, far from the peaceful
shore. And if you could be the lifeline
to bring them back in, you would, but you can't. And God won't
answer that prayer. because there's only one person
who has become the curse-bearer for sinners, and that's Jesus
Christ. That's Jesus Christ. Are y'all
hearing me? Now watch this now, watch this now. So then, after
you made your full circle around Weeping Island, get on off and
say, Lord, save them. Lord, save them. For Jesus' sake,
save my child, Lord. You sent your son into the world
to die for sinners. Lord, my child is a sinner, shown
up sinner. She got all of her sin rights,
her sin ways from her daddy. Lord, save her like you saved
me. Save her just like if you can
save me, Lord, you can save them. In fact, I'm going to stay at
the throne. I'm going to stay right here,
Lord. I'm going to breathe my last breath, waiting for you
to save that child. And in fact, I'm going to believe
you, God, for when I'm gone, the Holy Ghost is going to still
work to get him in. Because the only hope for that
child is the hope that I have, and that hope is Christ. So his keen knowledge of their
history, his keen awareness of their black darkness in their
former religion, his awareness of God's electing love to them,
and his ability to claim no condemnation, no accusation, no separation.
Child of God, you and I are highly favored, but it's designed for
us to bear the weight of the knowledge that people don't have
what we have. Point number two. Point number two. The privilege
and honor given them. See, as Paul now has moved from
persuading his Jewish brethren that he really, really does care.
Now he's going to build the argument for why they don't have a right
to blame God. He's going to build an argument
as to why they don't have a right to blame God for them going to
hell. Here it is. He says, I could wish myself
a curse from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen, according to the
flesh. Verse four, who are what? Israelites. To whom pertains
the what? The adoption, and the glory,
and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of
God, and the promises. Verse 4 is a list of blessings
that God bestowed upon Israel. Of which, if He bestows this
list of blessings upon any person in the world, they will never
ever have an excuse for why they went to hell. for you to spurn
the blessings of the gospel which come to you freely by the grace
of God in Christ in the way in which it came to Israel. They
will have no excuse when they stand before God on the last
day and say, God, you didn't do enough for me. I'm going to
show you what he did. Going back to our PowerPoint,
because I want you to see this list. I want you to carry with me through
this list. The first thing I want to call
your attention to is the term Israelite. Paul strategically
uses this word Israelite. It's the term that God designated
to Jacob. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and
what? Jacob. Not Israel, Jacob. These
were the three patriarchs that God used to call Israel out of
nothing into something. Father Abraham had Isaac. Father
Isaac had Jacob. Did he not? And do you remember
when Jacob was wrestling with God that night that Jacob had
come to realize he had been messing up all his life. We call him
Tricky Jacob. In the hood, we call him Tricky
Dick, don't we? But we call him Tricky Jacob. The word Jacob really means supplanter
or thief or someone that snatches by the heel. In other words,
he appears one way to you in the front. But he'll go right
behind you and rip you off as soon as he can. Now that was
in Jacob's nature. His whole life demonstrated that
he had the ability to manipulate things. But that's not you. So let's get back to the story.
Do you know that when God saves a sinner, he changes his name? Because when he changes his name,
it indicates a change of nature. And remember how while God protected
Jacob all those years, allowed him to prosper and make all kind
of money, even prepared him a family. And yet because he still had
these tricky ways about him. Some of us know that. You know
God's working on you with your tricky ways. You know that, right?
Right. Remember, we're both simultaneously
what simple and righteous at the same time. Right. So our
first name is Jacob. Right. And our last name is Israel. Right. Because the term Israel
means he who rules with God. Do you remember the night that
he wrestled with the angel and he wrestled all night long? It's
a picture of when God shows up personally in your life Having
chosen you in Christ and let you live within the auspices
of his providential blessings You get a sense of God You may
have even grown up in church and you are you have an outward
sense of God, but God hasn't come to you directly Often God
will come to you directly when you are in your deepest mess
and that's where Jacob was his troubles had caught up with him
and And that night God showed up in the angel of the Lord,
the Lord Jesus himself. And he picked the fight with
Jacob. And he wrestled with him. I love God. He'll wrestle with
you. Not like you're going to ever win. But he'll wrestle with
you, won't he? I mean, you read the text. And
he wrestled with the angel. Hosea puts it like this. And
Jacob wrestled with God and prevailed. Come on now. But let's turn this
around and understand some glorious redemptive truth there. The rustling
signifies God entering into your life, creating the crisis, causing
you to struggle, causing you to realize that you are, from
the time that you're born to the moment where God shows up,
you are a manipulator, you are a con, you are a crook, you are
a liar, you are a thief, you are everything opposite of what
people think you are. Only you were getting away with
it in the sight of men until God showed up and when God shows
up now he turns the mirror on you and It's just you and God
and then he allows you to see yourself for what you really
are deep down in your soul And now you're wrestling with this
reality. I'm worse than people could ever
imagine that I am I'm worse I'm worse than people could ever
imagine that I am. I am such a cheat, such a liar,
such a manipulator, such a con. I am a mess. And this is the
first work of the Holy Ghost. This is why I don't believe in
many people's professed conversions. Because John chapter 16 verse
8 through 13 tells me when He, the Spirit of truth has come,
He will first convince you of what? That's right. When I hear
professing Christians talk lightly about sin, I say, God hasn't
showed up yet. Because the one thing the Holy Ghost is going
to teach you is you're the worst sinner on planet Earth. In fact,
what the Holy Ghost is going to do is separate you from the
HMO group, that, you know, the group medical thing, the group.
No, he's going to separate you and isolate you. And what you're
going to discover, like the penitent sinner in the Gospel of Luke,
who said, Lord, have mercy on me. The sinner. He was in the
temple, the publican, praying to God. And he said, Lord, I'm
the only person in this place. There's no one else here. I don't
get to turn my head to the left or to the right. I don't get
to reflect on my mama and my daddy like a lot of people do.
I don't get to talk about my culture and my conditions and
my circumstances. I'm not blaming on this person,
on that person. It's me, the rebel. Watch this, all by myself. And until God is dealing with
you like that, you haven't begun to know anything about the sanctifying
work of the Spirit of God. Because you and I will always
blame it on other people. Can I prove my point? Our daddy,
Adam and Eve, got in trouble. God showed up in his mercy. Doesn't
God love us? He still shows up, doesn't he?
God showed up and said, Adam, where are you? And Adam said,
I hid. I was behind the trees. He said, what's that on your
private parts? Yeah, fig leaves. He said, son,
don't you know those things going to dry up after a while? Adam and Eve had traded God's
glory for fig leaves. They went from brilliant to baboons
in one sin. Then they thought they could
hide from God. Are we sinners or what? And are
we not stupid? So when God hunted his son down,
he said, boy, where you been? I'm hiding because I'm afraid
of you. And he said, what happened? Who told you? He said, that woman
you gave me. You got it? That woman you get. Watch it now. You know what we
call that? Religion. We call it religion. See, religion
loves to blame everybody else for your problems. But when you're
coming to Christ, you got to own your sin. And if you own
your sin, Christ will own your sin. If you confess your sin,
He's just and faithful to forgive you of all your sin and having
already cleansed you from unrighteousness. And I know grace is working in
your life when you can admit that you are the sinner, because
the only thing that can cover a sinner is the grace of God. That's how we know. Otherwise,
we don't know if you know Jesus because if we don't know that
You know that the blood and righteousness of Christ is such that it can
cover all your sins past present and future Then we're worried
about you when you go to blame and all kind of other people
we are worried about you This is where Paul is in his teaching
concerning the children of Israel if I'm an Israelite, you know
what I'm doing I'm ruling with God What does it mean to ruin? It says it twice. You can deal
with it in your own time. God came to Jacob twice and said,
Your name is no longer Jacob, it's Israel. It's Israel, because
I'm with you to help you prevail and triumph in everything that
you do. Now, isn't that what we learned
over the last several weeks in Romans chapter 8? That God will
never forsake us? That he will cause us to triumph
in everything that we do? If that's true, then we are Israelites
too, are we not? absolutely point number two under
that the adoption of sons Paul reminds him that they were adopted
now this is humbling but it's also a great privilege you and
I can never say that we are God now some fools do don't they
but the reason why you and I can never say that we are God's is
because God adopted us you and I do not bear the ontological
nature of God Intrinsically we are sinners. God adopted us in
Christ. Jesus is the only begotten of
the Father. You guys got that? We are adopted
and I'm thankful to be adopted, aren't you? Thankful to be adopted
Israel was adopted according to Exodus 4 22 Matthews 2 15
Ephesians 1 4 and 5 as well as the book of Hosea around 11 verse
4 Don't go there. The next thing that Paul says
the reason for which these privileges and honors Take away any excuse
for Israel is because Israel saw the glory of God Think about
this their daddy Abraham was a Babylonian idol worshiper He
didn't know God from the man on the moon, just like you and
I. And God shows up and reveals his glory to this pagan. From that point on, the glory
of God is in the midst of Abraham, in the midst of Isaac, and in
the midst of Jacob. I'm talking the glory of God.
I'm talking about the manifest glory of God. Him showing up
by angels, Him showing up by fire, Him showing up by pillars
of cloud, Him showing up in lamps, Him showing up in typical pictures.
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob saw the glory of God. Didn't Jacob
see it, wrestling with the angel of the Lord? The twelve tribes
of Israel saw the glory of God. When God came in and destroyed
the whole of Egypt, High hand, mighty arm. They saw the glory
of God when the Red Sea was open. They saw the glory of God by
the pillar of fire by night and the cloudy pillar by day. They
saw the Lord's glory all the way up to the point when the
Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld his glory,
the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth. Now here's the point that Paul is making. When you
have seen the glory of God all your life, How you gonna blame
God for missing out on that glory? See, God reveals himself, doesn't
he? He reveals himself. And for you, just to make an
application as I get ready to wrap this up. For you, watch
this. For you, God shows his glory to you too. God shows his
glory to you. God shows his glory to you. God
reveals his glory to you because God never leaves himself without
a witness. He shows his glory to you in his providential acts. But you don't listen! He reveals
His glory to you in the preaching of the gospel every time we gather
together. God shows His glory to you in
situations where you are in dire straits and He delivers you over
and over and over and over again. God shows His glory to you when
He promotes you. He shows His glory to you when
He demotes you. God's constantly showing you
His glory, but you deny it! And if you die without Christ,
it won't be that God hadn't given you witness after witness after
witness. Am I telling the truth? Am I telling the truth? See,
it's true. It's true. Like today, when you leave in
a moment, you're going to be leaving. And my prayers, right
along with the rest of the saints in here, is that God, would you
be a little bit clearer to some of these knuckleheads this week? Just be a little bit clear because
they swear they never heard your voice. They swear they never
seen you. They swear that you don't exist. They swear that
you're so far away from the universe. Show them how the angels of the
Lord sometimes moves that car out of the way so that it doesn't
run over that little child or makes a way to let you through.
Show them! Show them! So they can start
giving you glory and start hungering and thirsting for you to come
so near to them, so near to them that you become a companion and
a friend for them. Because that's what I want. I
want God to be my friend. I want to be his friend just
like Abraham was his friend, just like Isaac was his friend,
Jacob was his friend, David was his friend. Is that true? So
what Paul is doing is building argument after argument. The
covenants, there are only two, old and new. Y'all got that?
There ain't but two, old and new. Even for simpletons like
us, we can get two, right? Old covenant, new covenant. Point
thirdly, or fifthly, the law of God. The law of God. He says,
to whom the law came. In Exodus 20, God spoke to Israel
out of the mountain. The word came to all two million
people and they heard the law of God. Now, you and I are so
far removed from that day that you can't believe it. Almost
two million people collectively, together, heard the voice of
God. In your own time this week, read
Exodus 20. God spoke to the whole nation
at one time when he gave his law. Do you guys got that? Let me go in to close out my
last two points. The service of God. Why is Paul building
the argument of the service of God? He called them out of Egypt
to be his priesthood. Like he called you and me out
to be his priesthood. He called us rebels out of darkness
to stand in the gap for lost sinners. As God's priests, just
think about that. You get to call on God for somebody
else. You. I'm talking about you. Your rabble rousing self. You get to stand before God on
the behalf of other people because you're part of the priesthood.
What a privilege. What a privilege. And I mean, we have the right.
Christ told us, if you ask anything in my name, my father will do
it. Because he has drawn us near to him, he has qualified us to
be his priesthood, and we make intercession, we make supplication,
we intercede, we advocate, we call, we plead, we thank, we
worship God, and we trust God to answer prayer. Do we? This
is the blessing that Israel had, and they squandered it. I'll
show you the verse where they squandered it. Hosea chapter 4 verse 6.
Hosea 4, 6. My people perish for lack of
knowledge. Isn't that what that text says?
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Watch this. Because
you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you. What?
That you shall not be a priest to me. Seeing that you have forgotten
the law of your God, I will also forget your children. This is
where I'm going to close. That's terrible. Is it terrible? This
is where I'm closing right here with you and me right now. This
is where I'm closing. Leave that verse up there for a moment.
Because you know how we quote only part of the verse? To every consequent, there's
a cause. To every consequent, there's
a cause. I may not always know the cause, but generally I know
the consequent. If I sow bad seed, I'm going
to reap a bad harvest. Is that true? Because God is
not a liar. Is he a liar? See, and God's
not confused like this generation I'm in. Y'all know what I'm talking
about, right? Confused. He doesn't mix seed. And he warned us in the law,
didn't he? Don't mix the seeds. Don't mix the seeds. Because I'm a God of order and
clarity. I know what I'm up to, I know what I'm doing. Don't
mix the seed. Sow good seed, you'll get good
fruit. Sow bad seed, you'll get bad
fruit. Israel has sown so bad a seed that God took the priesthood
away from them. Now when the church stops preaching
the gospel, God has already taken the priesthood away. Because
the gospel is typified in the Old Testament by the temple and
the Holy of Holies and the Ark of the Covenant that's in the
Holy of Holies. The Ark of the Covenant that's
in the Holy of Holies is the only place where God would meet
men. And He would only meet men through the High Priest who went
in once a year. That High Priest is Jesus Christ.
The Ark of the Covenant represents the atoning, proprietary work
of Christ. Are y'all hearing me? Watch this.
If we do not preach Christ, the great high priest, if we do not
preach the atonement of God, that propitiation by which sinners
are saved, God's taking the priesthood away from us. We exist for nothing. We're nothing but an entertainment
center if all we're doing is stroking the flesh. If we're
not standing in the gap, if we're not exalting Christ, if we're
not preaching the crucified Christ, if we're not calling men and
women to Christ and Him crucified, our priesthood is gone. Doesn't
matter how full your church is, doesn't matter how jamming it
is, how noisy it is, if God looks in that church and doesn't see
the Lord Jesus Christ as the center of that church, And I
see all of all for all God's people, that church has ceased
to be a candlestick for God. It has ceased to be a priesthood
for God. And that's exactly what happened
to Israel when Christ came unto his own and his own received
him not. So as we close by way of application,
if Christ has come to you today in the preaching of the gospel,
don't reject him. Accept the truth as it is in
Christ because only the truth can save you and me. Amen.