Let us turn in our Bibles tonight
to Romans chapter 9. Romans chapter 9. In this chapter, the Apostle
Paul teaches us that as believers, as God's children, we should
never, we should never ever entertain the thought that God's word might
fail, that God's purpose might not be executed in this world. If you notice in verse six, he
says, not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. God's word, this word that we're
reading tonight, God's written word, is the foundation upon
which our faith is built. In the psalm that we read at
the beginning of the service, if the foundations be destroyed,
what shall the righteous do? And if God's word could ever
be proven to be untrue, then God's children would have no
hope, would have no assurance if anyone could ever prove that
the word of God has taken none effect. He quotes Old Testament
prophets. He quotes Hosea and he quotes
Isaiah to show that God's word had foretold what was taking
place when Paul wrote this letter. He shows us that these Old Testament
prophets had foretold exactly what was taking place in the
church in the time when Paul wrote this letter. If you look
down to verse 25, he quotes the Old Testament prophet Hosea,
as he saith also in Hosea, I will call them my people, which were
not my people, and her beloved, which was not beloved. And it
shall come to pass that in the place where it was said unto
them, ye are not my people, there shall they be called the children
of the living God. And then in verse 27 through
29, he quotes Isaiah the prophet. God's calling of the Gentiles. That's what we saw in that prophecy
that he quoted from Hosea. And now, in these verses, the
prophecy of Isaiah, we see that God had foretold the diminishing
of the national Israel, the people of the Jews. Verse 27, Esaias
also crieth concerning Israel. Though the number of the children
of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved,
for he will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness,
because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth. And
as Isaiah said before, except the Lord of Sabaoth had left
us a seed, we had been as Sodom, that is Sodom, and have been
made like unto Gomorrah. God had foretold what was taking
place in Paul's day, now that God was calling the Gentiles
and leaving the Jews to perish in their unbelief. Now this truth
concerning the faithfulness of God's word, as I said, it's foundational. It's foundational to the child
of God. And we know from the word of
God that this is one of Satan's principal attacks. That is, yea,
hath God said? Do we really have God's word
in our hands tonight? Is this really the word of God,
the written word of God? If Satan can make us doubt the
scriptures, then he's won the battle. Now, Paul, as I said,
in this chapter, his purpose is to show that God's word, God's
word, not man's word, but that God's word cannot fail. And I want to point four things
out to us in this chapter. First of all, we are given a
glimpse, a glimpse into the heart of the Apostle Paul in verses
one through three. I say the truth in Christ, I
lie not. My conscience also bearing me
witness in the Holy Ghost. that I have great heaviness and
continual sorrow in my heart, for I could wish that myself
were cursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen, according
to the flesh. Now, in declaring this truth,
remember Paul had written some some words about the Jews, about
his brethren, a nation of Israel that some might consider to be
very hard and very harsh. The first inspired letter that
Paul wrote, he wrote back to the church at Thessalonica. And let's go back, or let's go
to 1 Thessalonians and notice what he says in this epistle
about the Jews. His brethren, 1 Thessalonians,
And chapter two, and verse 14. He's writing to
a church which was made up basically, or for the most part, of Gentiles.
For you, brethren, 1 Thessalonians 2 verse 14, for ye, brethren,
became followers of the churches of God which in Judea are in
Christ Jesus. Now those churches in Judea would
have been made up primarily of Jews. Remember our Lord told
the disciples to tarry until God the Holy Spirit was poured
out upon them and they would be witnesses unto him first in
Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the
earth. Paul tells these brethren in the church at Thessalonica,
who most of them were Gentiles, you, brethren, became followers
of the churches of God, which in Judea are in Christ Jesus. For you also have suffered like
things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews,
who both killed the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and have
persecuted us. and they please not God and are
contrary to all men, forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that
they might be saved. And notice this last statement,
to fill up their sins always for the wrath is come upon them
to the uttermost. Some might think, well, Paul
said some very hard things about his countrymen, his brethren,
according to the flesh. In this letter of Romans that
we're looking at, earlier he had charged them, for the name
of God is blasphemed among you, among the Gentiles through you.
You Jews, Paul says, the name of God is blasphemed among the
Gentiles because of your conduct, because of you. And Paul begins
this section now declaring his love and his concern for them,
those that he here calls his brethren. And actually this first
verse is an oath. Paul takes an oath and he calls
the Lord Jesus Christ, his conscience, and God the Holy Spirit to witness
to what he is saying here. I say the truth in Christ, that's
the first witness, My conscience, that's the second witness, also
bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost. There's the third witness. He takes this oath to show his
seriousness and his truthfulness about what he is now going to
say. The fact that so many of his
countrymen, his brethren, did not believe that Jesus was the
Messiah, brought him much grief. Much grief. He shows that it
was not from lack of love for his countrymen. In these verses,
it's not from lack of love for my brethren, my countrymen, that
he wrote what he wrote and preached what he preached. No. but he is stating the facts and
he's showing in this chapter that this was all predicted or
prophesied years and years before. Verse three, for I could wish
that myself were cursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen,
according to the flesh. That verse of scripture I don't
think anyone can completely explain it, expound it. Robert Hawker, who we know in
his poor man's commentary brings out Christ in every passage.
He said this about that verse. He said, perhaps no passage in
the word of God is more difficult to apprehend. Here's a man saying
I could wish myself a curse from Christ? It's much like what Moses said
years and years before, bringing the nation of Israel out of Egypt
and they were in the wilderness and Moses went up on the mountain,
stayed there 40 days, remember? And during that time, the Israelites,
they made a golden calf and began to worship it after having seen
the power of God, the miracles of God, the grace of God, and
delivering them from captivity, and here they are, two or three
months out of bondage, and they're worshiping a calf and saying,
behold, you're gods. And God told Moses, he said,
let me alone. I'll destroy them. And I'll raise
up from you, Moses, you'll be the father of this nation. I'll raise up from you a nation. And Moses went to the Lord. What
a type, what a type of the intercession of the Lord Jesus Christ, the
mediation of Christ. When God told Moses that, Moses
said, yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin, and there's no word
there, There's no word. Yet now, if thou wilt forgive
their sin, and if not, blot me, I pray, out of thy book which
thou hast written. There's no way we can understand
that. There's no way we can understand these words of the Apostle Paul.
As Robert Hawker said, it may be one of the most difficult
passages in the scripture to apprehend. And I think it's best
not to try to explain it, because usually when we try to explain
something, we just make it more difficult. But what we see here
in the word of God is a standing testimony to the church of the
Lord Jesus Christ against man who would take these great truths
of the sovereignty of God and speak of them without any love,
without any compassion, without any concern for the lost. It's not only inconsistent with
the truth, but this shows us that it is very consistent to
have a burden for lost men and women and yet believe 100% in
God's sovereignty and God's purpose from before the foundation of
the world. Second, we have a glimpse of
the many benefits that God had bestowed on the Jews in verses
four and five. We'll go through these. There's
nine of them. But before we look at the first
one, I would remind us that early on, if you turn back to chapter
three, Romans chapter three, verses one and two, He had mentioned
one of these benefits, which he called chief, one of the chief
benefits. What advantage then hath the
Jew, or what profit is there of circumcision? Much, much in
every way, chiefly, because that unto them were committed the
oracles of God. Wouldn't it be awful to be born
in a country like Afghanistan, in a country where most likely
there's no scripture? It's certainly not like it is
in this country, to be born in a country where it's a death
sentence to profess faith in Christ. We could have been born
in a place like that. But no, we were born here in
the United States of America, where We have the word of God. As I've often said, you can buy
a Bible at Walmart for maybe $15 or less. You think this generation
of Americans are not going to be held responsible, more responsible
that the suffering, the hell that they're going to receive
if they have had the opportunity, which we've all had and neglected
that opportunity, had the word of God and yet neglected to read
it, neglected to heed it, neglected to believe it. Now look back
here in chapter nine, Paul names nine other benefits or blessings
of his brethren. Number one, their national name
was Israel. Notice that in verse four, who
are Israelites, his brethren, his kinsmen, according to the
flesh, who are Israelites. Now you remember that name Israel
was given to Jacob. It was given to him after wrestling
with the angel of the Lord. And it means a prince, a prince
with God. Now, in the letter of Philippians,
you know the apostle Paul shows the foolishness of a person trusting
in their heritage. And the first thing he mentions
there is he was an Israelite. If anyone has cause to trust
in their past, he said he was first, he was an Israelite. But
remember what Paul said about those things, circumcision, being
an Israelite, a Hebrew of the Hebrews. I count all those but
dumb that I might win Christ. But it was a benefit to be an
Israelite. The second thing is their adoption
by God as a nation, to whom pertaineth the adoption. God told Moses, when Moses went
in to speak to Pharaoh, to say, let my people go, one of the
times he said, Israel is my son, my firstborn, the nation of Israel. Israel is my son. And through
the prophet Amos, God said, you only, speaking to the nation
of Israel, you only have I known of all the families of the earth.
Now this adoption that is spoken of here is not to be confused
with personal adoption. That is, it's found in chapter
eight of Romans verse 15. Every child of God, every believer,
is an adopted child of God. We're his sons. He has one son
by eternal generation, but he has many sons by adoption. But this adoption here that Paul
speaks of was a national adoption. The third thing is the glory. The glory. I've been preaching
in Exodus on Wednesday evenings and we're coming to the place
where God will begin to give the instructions concerning the
tabernacle and it's a beautiful picture and type of the gospel.
And when the tabernacle was set up the first time, the glory
of the Lord filled that tabernacle. And when Solomon built the temple,
you remember when they dedicated that temple, the glory of the
Lord filled that temple. In the tabernacle, there was
the Ark of the Covenant, remember, with the mercy seat on top of
it with the two cherubim on each side. And that's where the Shekinah,
the glory of God, that was God's throne. He manifested himself. No other nation had a temple
like that. There was a lot of temples to
false gods in the world, but only the nation of Israel had
a temple where God manifested his glory. And then fourthly, we read they
were given the covenants Look in Ephesians chapter two. They
were given, the Israelites were given the covenants. I know there
was a covenant of circumcision, there was a covenant of the law,
of Sinai, but here in Ephesians chapter two, and Paul is writing
of course here to Gentile believers, verse 11, wherefore remember,
that you being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, you are called
uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision in
the flesh made by hands, that at that time you were without
Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers
from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God
in the world. But the nation of Israel, they
had these covenants, Now there's only one everlasting covenant. This makes the covenants plural,
but there's only one everlasting covenant, the covenant of grace.
And the promises in those covenants that the Israelites had, they
cannot even begin to compare to the promises that we have
in the covenant of grace, the everlasting covenant. I will
be their God. That's one of the promises. And
really, everything's included there. If God is my God, I don't
need anything else. If God is your God. Well, that's
just one of the promises. They shall all be taught of God. In John chapter six, our Lord
quoted that, didn't he? That no man can come to me. But
those which the Father draweth, as it is written, they shall
all be taught of God. If you've come to Christ, if
you trust in Christ tonight, if you believe in Him, you've
been taught of God. Remember he told Peter, Simon
Peter, when Peter said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the
living God. Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah. Flesh and blood hath not revealed
this unto thee, but my Father, which is in heaven. The sixth thing, they had the
service of God. And all the service that they
had pertained to that tabernacle. And I don't know about you, but
I've been guilty of this. I've read through those ordinances
over the years, and I've thought, oh my, how cumbersome, how cumbersome
was that tabernacle and all the service that had to be rendered
there. But you notice here, it's called
the service of God. How can we speak about the service
of God in any derogatory way? The service of God. And seven,
they were given the promises and the one great promise was
Christ. The promise of him coming. Back to that, they were given
the law They were given the law, and
you know a very big part of that law, we refer to as the ceremonial
part of the law, and we see so many pictures there of Christ,
of the gospel. I like so many pictures there,
don't you? But I like that one about the
scapegoat. After the high priest had gone
in and put that blood on the mercy seat, and before the mercy
seat, then he came back out and put his hands on that goat. confessed
all the sins and iniquities and transgressions of the nation
of Israel and that goat was let out, never to be seen again.
What a picture of what Christ did. When he was made to be sin
for us and bear our sins in his own body on the tree and carried
them away, took them away, took them to his tomb, he left them
there. He left them there. They have the fathers we read
here. And the Jewish writers say they call none fathers but
three, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And they call none mothers but
Sarah, Rebecca, Leah, and Rachel. And then the last thing that
Paul mentions here in verse nine, I'm sorry, at the end of verse
five, of whom, as concerning the flesh,
Christ came, who is over all. God bless forever. I've never
understood anti-Semitism, have you? How any child of God could
be prejudiced against Jewish people when our Savior was a
Jew. He was. He was born of a Jewish
woman, Mary, a daughter of David. Yes. And you know that verse
there, many people try to twist that around, but it very clearly
testifies to the truth that Jesus Christ is God. Concerning the flesh, Christ
came who, that refers back to Christ, who is over all. God
blessed forever. Amen. Let's move on to my third
point. We learn how that at a glimpse,
what might seem to be true cannot be true. It might, when you think
about it, it seemed that God's word had taken none effect, but
that cannot be true. We must all know that there is
a true Israel of God. And that's what he says in the
last part of verse six. Not as though the word of God
had taken none effect. Why? Because they are not all
Israel, which are of Israel. In other words, just because
a man is a physical descendant of Abraham, that doesn't mean
he's a Israelite, a spiritual Israelite. Notice in the next
verse, for this is the word, that is, they which are the children,
no, verse seven, neither because they are the seed of Abraham
are they all children, but in Isaac shall thy seed be called. You know, Abraham had a, several
children after he had Isaac, didn't he? But he only had one,
Isaac. Only one son from Sarah. Here are five things I want to
give us hurriedly about the Israel of God. The true Israel of God,
we are all like Isaac. That is, we are children of promise. Notice that in verses 89. That
is, they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the
children of God, but the children of the promise are counted for
the seed. For this is the word of promise,
at this time will I come and Sarah shall have a son. Every child of God, every one
of us here tonight who know him as our Lord and Savior, We are
children of promise. And number two, the true Israel
of God are all like Jacob. Notice in verses eight and nine,
or yes, no, verses 10 through 13, all the children of God,
the true Israel of God, we're all like Jacob. Not only this,
but when Rebecca also conceived by one, even by her father Isaac,
for the children being not yet born, neither having done any
good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election
might stand, not of works, lest any man, but of him that calleth,
it was said unto her, the elder shall serve the younger, as it
is written, Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated. Every child
of God. the true Israel of God. We're
all like Jacob. We were chosen and we were loved. A third thing, the true Israel
of God are all debtors. We're all debtors to God's sovereign
grace, God's sovereign mercy. Notice verse 14. What shall we
say then? Is there unrighteousness with
God? God forbid. For he saith to Moses, I will
have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that
willeth nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. The true Israel of God, we're
all debtors to God's sovereign mercy. Every one of us tonight
who know him, we all testify and say the same thing. I am
what I am by the grace of God. Makes me remember a man that
has since passed away, was part of our church and When he first
started coming here, he told me one day, we were driving,
and he said, you know, I had always thought that Calvinists,
he used that word, Calvinists, or sovereign grace people, were conceited. And that's not the
word he used, but it's not coming to me. kind of look at ourself
as something special. And I said,
no. I said, brother, if there's anybody
that knows that we are nothing, it's a person who believes in
God's sovereign grace. We have nothing. that we can
call our own but our sin. That's it. We are what we are
by the grace of God. If it were not for God's mercy,
we'd all be in hell tonight. All of us, no exceptions. Aren't
you thankful for God's sovereign grace and God's sovereign mercy? And the fifth thing, The fourth
thing, the true Israel of God are all vessels of God's grace
prepared for glory. Verse 21, hath not the potter
power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel unto
honor and another unto dishonor? What if God, willing to show
his wrath and to make his power known, And notice this next word. Endured with much long-suffering,
the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction, and that he might
make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy
which he had afore prepared unto glory. True Israel of God are all vessels,
God's grace prepared for glory. We're prepared. We're just listening
for the call. We're prepared. And the fifth
thing, the true Israel of God are those he calls from both
the Jews and the Gentiles. Verse 24, even us whom he hath
called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles. This is the reason the Apostle
Peter no doubt said, make your calling and election sure. Your calling. Here's the last
thing. The fourth thing. We're told
that natural Israel made a fatal mistake. A fatal mistake. What was it? They sought to be
righteous by their own works. Notice that in verse 30. What
shall we say then, that the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness,
have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which
is of faith? But Israel, that is natural Israel,
which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained
to the law of righteousness. Why is that? Because they sought
it not by faith. But, as it were, by the works
of the law, for they stumbled at that stumbling stone. As it
is written, behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock
of offense, and whoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. A person who tries to work and
earn salvation, that's the fatal mistake that Israel made. Trying
to observe the law to establish a righteousness that God will
accept and not seeking it by faith in
Christ. As I said this morning, people
love to be given something to do to earn salvation. And then they can boast about
their works. But God saves sinners in a way
that Christ gets all the glory, doesn't he? Believe, believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. We're going
to sing a hymn.