Okay, now we are taking a look
at Romans 9. We will try to look at the first
five verses of Romans 9, but let me make this introduction
to Romans 9. There is not a clearer or more powerful statement found
in the Word of God than what is given here in regard to the
salvation of sinners by the sovereign will and the sovereign grace
of God, the sovereign mercy of God, and the power of God. There
is not a stronger chapter in all the Word of God that teaches
us that salvation is of the Lord. For example, look at verse 15,
Romans 9 verse 15, For what? For he saith to Moses, What shall
we say then? Is there unrighteousness with
God? God forbid. Jacob have I loved, Esau have
I hated. For he saith unto Moses, verse
15, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. I will have
compassion on whom I will have compassion. There is sovereign
mercy, sovereign love. So then, it is not of him that
willeth, that is salvation. Righteousness is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but salvation is by the mercy
of God alone, but of God that showeth mercy." And then we read
in the book of James, "...of his own will begat he us with
the word of truth." Strong, strong statement of salvation that is
of the Lord. But also given here is a clear
and bold statement concerning the desire to see sinners saved
by the grace of God, a desire to pray for the salvation of
sinners, not only of the Jews, but also of the Gentiles as well. Paul, when he prays and desires,
he prays and desires to see sinners saved. but he's not reserved
or confined to pray for certain sinners of certain races, but
rather a desire to see all sinners embrace the Lord Jesus Christ
in saving faith. Now he's praying for the Jews,
his brethren, but he's also praying for the Gentiles as well. If
you look down in the last verse of Romans 9 verse 33, As it is
written, Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone, a rock of
a fence, and this is from Isaiah 28, 16. But notice this, Whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed. Whosoever shall call,
we're going to see that in Romans 10, verse 13. Whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. shall be saved."
So Paul, when he prays, he prays for the salvation of sinners.
And he tells those sinners to look to Christ and call upon
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now let me give you this statement
here that I've given this to you before, but it bears repeating. A belief in sovereign grace that
diminishes our zeal and desire to see sinners saved by Christ
and come to Christ in faith is not of God. That is what I'm
saying here, a belief in sovereign grace that would diminish us
from preaching the gospel, that would diminish us from supporting
missionaries or getting the gospel out, God has charged us to go
and preach the gospel. But a belief in grace that excludes
us the means that God has given unto us to preach the gospel,
that idea is not of God. He said, go into all the world
and preach the gospel to every creature. Now, I've had people
argue with me over the years and they would say, well, if
you believe that God has an elect, he's gonna save those elect and
Christ died for those elect, there's no need for us to preach
the gospel. Now, that's a straw man. Because
the Lord has not only ordained the end of his electing grace,
but he has also ordained the means to arrive at that end. that God uses to call out His
people is the preaching of the gospel. That's why Paul here
is not stoic and say, well, God has an elect and He's going to
save them and I'm not going to pray for them and I'm not going
to preach to them. He doesn't do that. He preaches
the gospel to them and he prays earnestly for them as we'll see
in just a minute. We're to preach the gospel to
all men everywhere at all times, and pray that the Lord will show
mercy to them, as the apostles say, that please God through
the preaching of the gospel, to call out His people. And we
say again with the apostle Paul, we're determined not to know
anything among you, but Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Now, let's take a look at verse
1 and 2. I say the truth in Christ, could
He do otherwise? He's writing by the power of
God the Holy Spirit. God the Holy Spirit cannot lie. He said, I'm telling the truth
in Christ who is the truth. He says, I cannot lie. My conscience
also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost that I have great
heaviness and I have continual sorrow in my heart. Now look over in chapter 10 verse
1, brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel
is that they might be saved. God has an elect among the children
of Israel, they're called a remnant according to the election of
grace. For I bear them record, they have a zeal of God, but
not according to knowledge. So Paul, even though he believed
in sovereign grace, believed in sovereign election, believed
in a sovereign call, he also prayed for God to have mercy
upon them. He also preached the gospel unto
them. And that's what we're to do.
The Apostle Paul could not do less than what he declares in
this verse, telling the truth, telling the truth. in Christ,
my conscience bearing me witness." The Apostle Paul is writing and
crying out of the depths of his heart in love, being overwhelmed
with the power of the Spirit of God, overwhelmed with his
power, overwhelmed with his mercy. Even though the religious Jews
considered Paul a traitor to Judaism, considered the Apostle
Paul an enemy to Judaism, yet he prayed for them, and he went
preaching the gospel to them. He still preached to them. You
remember reading through the book of Acts, and every city
that he went into, he went and found the synagogue of the Jews,
and he went and preached the gospel to them, and God opened
the door. And sometimes, sinners were saved
through the preaching of the gospel, or called out of darkness. He had a continual sorrow in
his heart for his Jewish brethren, They were full of religion, but
they were without salvation in Christ. Now look at verse three. For I could wish that myself
were separated from Christ, accursed from Christ for my brethren,
for my kinsmen, according to the flesh. Now that's a strong
statement. That's a very strong statement.
He has just told us there is no condemnation in Christ. He just told us in the preceding
chapter that there is no separation from Christ. And now his heart
is so burdened, so full of love, he's praying here, Lord, if it
would be your will to just cut me off and have mercy, cut me
off and have mercy upon my kinsmen, my brethren, according to the
flesh. Lord, if that's your will, So be it. Now that's a burden
of love. It's like you praying about your
family, praying for your loved ones. Lord, save them and cut
me off. That's love. That's love. That's
loving others more than self. We just see here, we see here
how broken hearted Paul was over the salvation of sinners. And
I'm sure he felt this same way about Gentiles as well. He said, I pray that if it were
according to the will of God, that if God would damn me and
save them, that would be fine with me. Now, I tell you, I don't
know if I can pray that way. I hope if it came to that, if
it came to that, if someone walked in here with a gun and wanted
to point that gun at my wife, I would say, point that gun at
me and spare her. You would do that, wouldn't you?
Sure you would. And I believe that's the sense
of what Paul is saying here. I admire his zeal and his compassion
for the lost to be saved, and I pray for us, I pray for myself,
that I would and you would likewise be burdened for others who do
not know God in the gospel. Have a zeal in your heart and
a prayer in your heart to see God have mercy upon sinners. Now, this is the most difficult
thing to understand and according to flesh we cannot, but Moses
in Exodus 32, Moses prayed that same thing. You remember when
Israel formed that golden calf and said, this be the God that
delivered us from Egyptian bondage. And God came down in wrath, was
getting ready to destroy this whole people. He said, I'm going
to wipe them all out. I'm going to make a new people.
And Moses, the mediator, here's what he said. Yet now, if thou
wilt forgive their sin, and if not, blot me out, I pray thee,
out of the book which thou hast written. bought me out, wiped
me out too. Now that's love and compassion. I want to cultivate that. I don't
want this hard, stoic, what we call hard-shell-ism. The gospel
of God's grace doesn't lead to an attitude of hard-shell-ism.
And I mean by that, being a stoic, saying, well, God elected a people,
Christ died for a people, he saved those people, no need for
us to preach the gospel. Now that kind of thinking is
not right because God has ordained the preaching of the gospel,
calling out his people. He has ordained the means. But
here, something else here, this is also a great gospel principle
that is set forth. The Lord Jesus Christ was separated
from God and was accursed of God that we might be reconciled
to God forever. Now isn't that exactly what happened
at Calvary? The Lord said, Lord cut me off
and spare my people. And that's exactly what he did.
And he did so why? Why did he do that? because he
loved his own. Having loved his own, he loved
them to the end. He cried, my God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me? Because he was made sin for us. Now his people will never be
forsaken because the Lord Jesus Christ has forever reconciled
us unto God. He was forsaken for a while,
that we might never, as Paul said in Hebrews 13, 5, I will
never leave you, I will never forsake you, no, not ever, ever. Nothing can separate us from
the love of God, which is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now in
verse 4, The Apostle Paul gives us a fit description of his brethren
who were Jewish brethren, those who were his kinsmen. You remember
he was a Hebrew of Hebrews. His daddy was a Hebrew. His mama
was a Hebrew. He was a Pharisee, raised a Pharisee,
raised in religion, raised in this Jewish tradition of the
fathers. And he describes these people
who are Israelites, verse 4. To whom pertaineth, or to whom
was given, and he mentions six things here, the adoption, the
glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God,
and they had the promises of God. They had all these blessings
given to them. Paul identifies these people
who had so many blessings given them, but ultimately, For the
most part, that nation rejected the way of salvation in Christ. Remember John 1 verse 11, "...he
came unto his own, and his own received him not." They were
a national people of a true and living God. They were Israelites,
direct descendants of Abraham, direct descendants of Isaac,
Abraham's son, direct descendant of Jacob. Remember, Jacob's name
was changed from Jacob to Israel. You remember his name, Jacob,
what it means? A cheat, a supplanter, a conniver. And the Lord confronted him.
Remember, Jacob, what's your name? You got me. He called me right. I'm a cheat,
I'm a supplanter. God changed his name from Jacob
to Israel. And that's where this Israelite
comes from. From Jacob to Israel. You remember
what Israel means? A prince of God. A prince of
God. And in the gospel, the Lord Jesus
Christ has made us kings and priests unto our God. Now, let's
look at these six things for just a moment, and I want to
go over these in depth, but he mentions first of all, to whom
pertaineth the adoption. They were chosen and adopted
of God while he passed all other nations by. the Amalekites, the
Hittites, the Jebusites, the Philistines, all those other
nations, He passed them by and He chose Abraham and his descendants
and He sovereignly chose that nation and loved that nation
and passed others by. Now don't turn to this, but in
Deuteronomy chapter 7, Deuteronomy chapter 7, Verse 7, I'll give
these references so you can look them up later. Deuteronomy 7,
7, The Lord did not set His love upon you, nor choose you, because
you were more a number than any people. For you were the fewest
of all people. But because the Lord loved you,
and because He would keep the oath which you had sworn unto
your fathers, hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand, and
redeemed you out of the house of Bondman, from the hand of
Pharaoh, and of the king of Egypt." God kept his word to Abraham. He said, I'm going to bless your
family, I'm going to bless your people, and he did so. They were adopted by God. And
all that is a picture of spiritual Israel, is it not? Second thing
he mentions here, he mentions they had not only the adoption,
they were adopted and chosen of God, loved of God. He mentions
here the glory, the glory, the glory. Now what kind of glory
are we talking about? They had, that is this national
people, they had the visible glorious presence of God with
them. Especially in those 40 years
in the wilderness, you remember they had that cloud by day and
that pillar of fire by night. The visible presence of God was
with them. When the tabernacle was constructed
and when the temple was constructed, the visible presence of God came
down and filled that place, especially in the Holy of Holies, upon the
mercy seat in the temple. And that visible presence of
God is known as the Shekinah glory of God. The visible manifestation
of the presence of God. In Exodus 30 verse 6, He said
about the mercy seat, he said, where I will meet with thee upon
that mercy seat. The third thing he mentions here
is the covenants. Now notice it's plural, the covenants. There was a covenant that God
made with Adam. There was a covenant that God
made with Abraham. There was a covenant given to
Moses upon the law, upon Mount Sinai. The covenants God gave
Abraham was the covenant of circumcision found in Genesis 17, 9 through
12. We won't turn and read there,
but the Lord said, this circumcision, it was a token of the covenant
between you and me, speaking to Abraham. It was a token of
that covenant. And that covenant of circumcision
is also a type and picture of the new birth. Those who were
circumcised, not in the flesh, but in the heart. God operates
on the hearts of his people. They had the covenant of the
written law of God, how to worship God, how to approach God by a
blood sacrifice, by a covenant sacrifice. And then he mentions
here they did have the giving of the law of God, the written
word of God. They had the written down Word
of God. Written, it says, you remember
when the Law was given on those tables of stone? Written with
the finger of God. They had the precious Word of
God setting forth. The Law of God sets forth what?
Remember what our Lord said? Had you believed Moses, you would
have believed Me. Moses wrote about Christ, didn't
he? The giving of the law, setting
forth the gospel in type and picture. And then remember from
our study in Hebrews 10, the law having a shadow of good things
to come. Of good things to come. The giving
of the law. They had the Levitical priesthood.
They had the judicial ceremonial law. They had also the moral
law that was given. This is spoken of as a great
privilege that was given to them. In Deuteronomy chapter 4 verse
8, let me quote this to you, I've got it jotted down here.
He said, What nation is there so great that hath statutes,
judgments so righteous as all the law which I set before you
this day? They had the written will and
testimony of God put in their hand. What a precious gift. We have it in our hand yet today. And then he mentions fifthly,
the service of God. The service of God. They were
given special privilege to be servants of the Most High God. Now I can't think of any higher
title than to be called a servant of the Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ
is called in scripture, the righteous servant of the Lord. They were
called to be servants to God, especially in the office of prophet,
to represent God to the people, and they were also called as
servants of God to be prophets, they were called as servants
of God to be priests, A prophet represents God to the people,
the priest represents the people, represents God to the people.
They had the Levitical priesthood, they had the Aaronic priesthood,
and they had the Melchizedek priesthood. Do you remember that
one priest, that special priest, Melchizedek? And all those, the
Levitical priesthood, the Aaronic priesthood, the Melchizedek priesthood,
all those things, picture the coming of the great high priest,
the Lord Jesus Christ. We have a great high priest who
is passed into the heavens, Jesus Christ the Son of God. Such a high priest became us
who is holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sin. And then
the six things that he mentions here They had the giving of the
law, they had and were given to be servants of God, and they
had the promises, the promises of God. Now remember the last
words of Joshua, of all that God had promised, not one word
has fallen. And then I remember that prayer
that Solomon prayed there in the temple, at the dedication
of the temple. And he prayed, Lord we thank
you because all that you have said you have brought to pass,
not one word has fallen. God is true to his promise revealed
in the word of God. It is always good and right and
proper to believe the promise of God. He cannot lie. He's faithful to His promise.
He's faithful to His Word. But all the promises of God revealed
in the Word of God all tell us about the Lord Jesus Christ. To Him give all the prophets
witness. The Lord Jesus Christ was the
promised seed. You remember all the way back
in Genesis 3.15. God promised fallen Abraham that
I will raise up a seed that will crush the serpent's head. and put away sin by the sacrifice
of Himself. All the promises of God in the
Lord Jesus Christ are yes, and in Him, and amen, and to the
glory of God. These people were Israelites,
and they had all these blessings, the adoption, the glory, the
covenant, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises
of God. And then he goes on, verse 5,
whose are the fathers, of whom concerning the flesh Christ came
through this line of Abraham." You remember in Matthew chapter
1 verse 1, the Lord Jesus Christ is called the Son of David, and
He's also called the Son of Abraham. The Lord Jesus Christ concerning
the flesh, Christ came who is over all. God bless. I love that. God bless forever. Turn back to Roman chapter 1.
We will look at this for a moment. Roman chapter 1. From this favored
nation, God gave the faithful forefathers who were sinners,
saved by grace, including Adam, Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac,
Jacob, David, Solomon, and many others. Now, you remember Romans
chapter 1 verse 1, Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be
an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God which he had promised
to for by his prophets in the Holy Scripture, concerning his
son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David,
That is His humanity according to the flesh, but He
declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit
of holiness by the resurrection from the dead. There we see not
only the humanity of Christ declared, but His deity as well. Now notice
He is not made He's not made the Son of God, He's declared
to be the Son of God. See, He's always been the Son
of God, He's eternally the Son of God, but He's made of the
seed of David according to the flesh. In other words, the Lord
Jesus Christ was a real man, totally, fully man, and at the
same time, God was manifest in the flesh. fully God and fully
man in one blessed person, one blessed person. That's who the
Lord Jesus Christ is. Without controversy, greatness
and mystery of godliness, God was manifest in the flesh. Now, that's why the Lord Jesus
Christ had to be virgin born. He couldn't be born of a sinful
father, not his humanity. because he couldn't be our substitute
had he committed sin or had the sin of Adam charged to him. That's
why he had to be virgin born, had to be begotten. His humanity
was begotten in that virgin womb by God the Holy Spirit. How does
that all, how does all that happen and take place? I don't know,
but I believe the word of God. I believe, I don't need to understand
it. I can't understand that. how God who inhabits eternity
can inhabit a body of a baby. Yet he did. And that's what we
believe because that's what the Word of God teaches. You see,
through faith we understand. Through faith we understand,
not through science. We don't, you know, people are
always trying to prove the Bible by science. Believers don't need
science to prove this book to be the Word of God. We believe
God, and we believe all things written in the Word of God. Now,
I'm going to have to wind this up, but notice the last part
of verse 5, talking about the Lord Jesus Christ, who is over
all. What does that mean? That means
He's Lord of all. God had made that same Jesus
whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. All power is given
to me in heaven and in earth. He prayed in John 17, Father,
you've given me power over all flesh. The Father loved the Son
and had given all things into His hand. I love that truth. Who is over all? That means He's the absolute
Lord of everyone and everything. And then it says that He is God
blessed forever. He's God blessed forever. And then every believer says,
Amen. Amen. He is God blessed forever.
He is God over all, blessed forever. He is eternal God our Savior. And it's who he is that gives
power and infinite merit to what he did as God, our Savior. He thought it not robbery to
be equal with God. He said, you've seen me? You've
seen the Father? I and my Father, we are one.
He is God over all, blessed forever. That's our Savior. That's our
righteousness. That's our salvation in Christ.