Well, I invite you to turn tonight to Romans chapter 9 as we continue our study in the book of Romans. Obviously a major shift in the book tonight, and tonight we begin looking at this great subject of the nation of Israel and God's electing grace. So we will be studying together tonight Romans 1 9 1 through 8 1 through 8 of Romans chapter 9 found on page 11 23 Let's give our attention tonight to the word of the Lord beginning at verse 1: "I am speaking the truth in Christ; I am not lying. My conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race according to the flesh is the Christ, who is God overall, blessed forever, amen. But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring. But through Isaac shall your offspring be named. This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring." And there tonight we'll end the reading of God's word.
Well, we concluded, uh, last time, uh, in our study of the book of Romans, uh, the wonderful end of Romans chapter 8, which really did end on a high note, didn't it? It was a beautiful high note: "that we are more than conquerors through him who loved us." Uh, what a wonderful passage! It's just like, kind of, to stay there, right? Stay there and preach the stuff that is so wonderful like that. But we move along in the scriptures to other more difficult and challenging subjects. I think tonight this must have been what was said by Peter of Paul that there are some things that are difficult and hard to understand. And I cannot imagine he didn't think about Romans chapter 9 when he said that, or the truth that Paul taught on election and these sort of things.
But I think we take for granted the radical statement that was said at the end of this: Who did God love? "We are more than conquerors through him who loved notice the emphasis: "us, us." So easy to be to read right over that "us." Who is the "us"? Well, here he was talking to the church in Rome, which was made up of Jews and Gentiles, predominantly probably a Gentile church, but there were Jews there. There was some struggle there we'll look at in the section on liberty that's coming up in chapter 14. But I think that it's important to sort of park on this point just for a moment as we launch into this great section: that we have lost and appreciate the one great truth of what has been given to us as God's people.
We so commonly say this; we so commonly hear this, right? We don't deserve any of this. We were strangers, as Paul would say in in Ephesians, to the covenants of promise. We were strangers. Our ancestors, our people, our kinsmen throughout history were idol worshipers. We were alienated from the life of God, he said in Ephesians chapter two But a great truth has been said a great something great has been happened that has happened. Paul said that he has torn down the middle wall of separation, making the two one. Who is that? Jew and Gentile. He's made the two one. He tore down that partition between Jew and Gentile and made them one.
Now, for all the we're going to look at this in romans there's been so much confusion on this point. For all of the arguments and all of the tension around Israel and the promises made to Israel, for anyone to come along and say "you are the Israel of God" gets labeled today as whatever it might be replacement theology which is just ridiculous. This is fulfillment. And the question that we begin was: Is with What was god's plan all throughout history what did god plan to do all throughout history when he made the covenant with Abraham? Who did it have in mind? And what was God's plan that would unfold throughout history promised to Abraham?
Well, there was a concept that was introduced in chapter 8 that was the first time it was introduced in the book of Romans, and the concept, the doctrine, the word that he chose was "predestination." He predestined us. He foreknew us. He predestined us to be conformed to the image of his Son. You have to appreciate that great truth. If there's anything Israel would have said, was "we are the elect nation of God." We are the elect nation of God. And Paul is speaking to the church this way. He's saying those things to the church. So you have to appreciate that.
Now, Paul, as before we get into all those things all this is going to come together as we go through Romans 9 through 11. It's a lengthy section that addresses this. But it's so important. This is such an important section. Paul feels compelled to address this great subject because it is a burdensome one for him in many ways. But it's also confusing one for people, and he wants to make clear some things about God's promises. It's very, maybe, complex in some ways, but really not when we understand the basic thing that Paul is saying to us: God made all these promises to Israel, didn't he?
I think of all the dispensational teachers over the radio waves over the years, saying "Israel is the apple of God's eye." Just remember hearing Jay Vernon on the radio growing up. It's Jay Vernon. Most of you probably didn't listen to Jay Vernon, but I always had Jay Vernon on. Friends, I could do it; I could still do the voice. Friends, you know, they would always talk. I met David Hawking one time, and he calls all of you replacement theologists. Well, we need to we? need to look at This don't we this was a a very important issue for the for the apostle. They sit in unbelief, Israel does, to this day. If you want to still look at it in those terms since 1948 if you want to look at Israel becoming a nation in 1948, which they've made a big issue of, still to this day the nation sits in unbelief.
Well, what happened? They were people just like us. They sat and listened to sermons years ago. They heard the same promises announced to them. They saw the deliverance of Christ in the wilderness. See, that's a big dilemma, isn't it? That's a big dilemma that has to be wrestled through a little bit. And if if we have just heard that nothing separates us from God's love, what about Israel? Were they separated? Were they abandoned by God? And what might that be an implication for us? Could that happen to us? You see, there's there's well-known pastors who, I think, sometimes abuse the warning texts of Scripture. And we saw one this past week, and he, he um he made us put us in the same place of Israel. Can salvation be lost? See how important the subject of Israel is? And that's Romans 9 through 11. um here we are thousands of years removed, really, from the first century. But this was very important in the first century to for those christians to think through. And to wrestle through and you feel how great the dilemma is, don't you? You see why this would be such a great issue to address in the scriptures? Did God's promises fail to national Israel? Did his word return void? That single question that single question drives chapters 9 through 11.
And so tonight we begin this treatment of the nation of Israel and God's promises and how we are to understand what happened, and to look at, at beginning of this, a few key principles to understand who the Israel of God is, and he'll unpack that as we go. We won't get all those answers tonight, but it will help us begin to understand this.
So the crucial issue comes out in verse 6, doesn't it? In verse 6 of chapter 9: "It is not but it is not as though the word of God has failed." Well, there it is He's thinking of Israel. It is not as though the word of God has failed with regard to Israel, you remember the great verse in isaiah his word never returns void it always sets out what it accomplishes to do it never loses one of the sheep it cuts two ways for sure But god always saves his people god always delivers his people god has never left his people so you see This issue can god's word of promise fail to think of your children that's important isn't it in verses um first five verses of romans paul sets up the dilemma of romans 9 by describing all these privileges of israel nine advantages that israel received notice that they are israelites um he begins there in romans in romans 9 verse 4 they are israelites to them belong the adoption the glory the covenants the giving of the law the worship and the promises to them belong the patriarchs and from their race according to the flesh is the christ notice this who is god overall there's a great statement of the divinity of jesus isn't it blessed forever amen they are israelites i mean if you just kind of work through some of this These are remarkable advantages that they had. They were the single nation that God set up apart in the earth to be his people. Israel was given the greatest title because It meant to be the people of God. They were called the people of God, the God of heaven and earth. No other nation in all the earth had this blessing. They were given the adoption. They had the great privilege of, in a sense, being God's firstborn, if you will. his own special people, his own holy nation, his people called out of darkness. They were given the glory. You think of his presence among them. He's thinking probably of the glory cloud. His glory and the Shekinah glory and in the temple, as It came down upon the temple, rested upon them, led them through the wilderness. The covenants. I will be your God and you will be my people. All based upon that covenant of grace that was given to Abraham. And then at Sinai, the giving of the law, that he actually gave them the oracles of God That's what we looked at in Romans chapter 3. He gave them the oracles of God He made them a peculiar people. He made them a people who knew his statutes and his testimonies. Literally, the next one, the worship of God. They could come right up to the tabernacle. They could, later the temple, they had a localized place where they, where God said to dwell with his people. And even the promises, it says, all those promises that were made to them all over the scriptures. And the capstone, of course, in Paul's mind, as far as the human nature is concerned of Christ, this is the nation from whom Christ came, who is overall the eternal, blessed God. So this is a remarkable, no single nation of the earth had had this kind of amazing blessing. You remember
In Deuteronomy, for whatever reason, the Lord said, you can call upon the Lord. So you get the concern. What happened? What happened? And tonight I think we have one of the worst agonies for the Apostle Paul in Scripture. I don't even think he could keep a dry eye through this whole thing. I'm speaking the truth in Christ, verse 1. I'm not lying here. I'm not lying. My conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. for i for i could wish that i myself were accursed and cut off from christ for the sake of my brothers my kinsmen according to the flesh these are my kin these are my people the only other time paul speaks about being accursed is galatians 1 as far as i know if you deny the gospel anyone who brings a different gospel is cursed anathema put under the band paul's paul is hurting and and and weeping so strongly here over his people his own brothers israelites so much so think about this you know people have stopped said he couldn't really mean this no he meant this i if they could be saved if i could be the substitute through me i would become accursed i would gladly take that and be forever cut off from christ if they could be delivered what a pastor's heart you know it's amazing testimony of the apostle's heart my heart aches for them because of their what? Their unbelief. They had all this. They were given all this. You know, I have to pause and say, it's a strange time we live. I never thought I'd see something like this, but you just have to say it. You probably are not even aware of it, but there is a movement sweeping this country and Christian nationalism that is a neo-Nazi movement. of hating the jews again and you're seeing this in christianity rise up where we're dealing with something very demonic happening uh where "They they are blaming the jews for everything and the same spirit that came out uh in the hitler regime has come back that is not the spirit of the apostle is it not the spirit what in the world went wrong with israel that's the question the only conclusion you can draw after all of this: is to say some might say that's why he's engaging this God failed god failed his word didn't come to pass with regard to them it did not come to pass and it did not accomplish what he said it would do now paul's answering this tonight and paul's answering this up front that's why i didn't want to go too deep into this because i think that's the crucial start of of 9 through 11 to deal with this great issue but i think we can think about this in a similar way uh god god's been really good to his people hasn't he to us um you think of all the benefits baptism um we have the announced the covenant of grace we have the law read to us every sunday uh he's made promise after promise hasn't he and uh i'm sure maybe not all of us but most of us here have been brought up in a christian home and depending on whatever schooling it? was you had some contact with being trained whether it was in catechism in the church or in the christian school you've been trained about the lord and now you sit on this side of the cross and you you see all that's happened you look you see everything that
They wanted to see does that mean, nothing do all those benefits mean nothing god tells you he loves you what is the single great difference what is the single great difference well i think initially you have to say what with the author of hebrews they did not receive any of those things by faith what is the whole book of romans been pushing us to faith alone faith in your god faith in the works of christ for you faith in his substitutionary atonement which all these benefits speak to and we know what paul feels here when we see people turn away from this how do we feel sorrow sorrow pain why would people do that and we're going to study this and paul paul doesn't see this as some fatalistic answer and this is why the gospel ministry goes out how will they hear without a preacher he's going to say in romans 10 and we have great hope in announcing the gospel but paul told us when we have all these external advantages what should that do it should lead us somewhere this is what he said in romans 2 the goodness of god leads us somewhere should lead us to repentance the goodness of god leads us to to faith and believing him and turning to him but the first thing that paul wants to make very clear here tonight is that their unbelief Israel's unbelief was not God's fault time and time again God. sent prophets rising up early and those prophets preached to them and there's a little parable told in Isaiah that captures this beautifully he gave a whole parable of Israel his vineyard let me sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved regarding my vineyard my well-beloved has a vineyard on a very fruitful hill he dug it up and cleared out its stones and planted it with the choicest vine he built a tower in its midst and made wine presses in it so he expected it to bring forth good grapes but it brought forth wild grapes and now oh inhabitants of jerusalem and men of judah judge between me and my vineyard what more could have been done in my vineyard that I've not done in it why then when I expected it to bring forth good grapes did it bring forth wild grapes and now please let me tell you what I will do to my vineyard I will take away its hedge and it shall be burned and break down its wall and it shall be trampled down and God sent prophets didn't he and that's exactly what happened but then israel would sing psalm 80 wouldn't
They and at the very end of, that celebration of the vineyard it said would you restore us again choose somebody the man of your choosing to restore us i'll come back to that when stephen spoke to israel this was his testimony you always resist the holy spirit as your fathers did so do you which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute and they killed those who foretold the coming of the just one of whom you now have become betrayers and murderers who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it so they had benefits externally they didn't receive them, they didn't believe what they pointed to now think of that this morning didn't you just see that this morning where what they tried to do was create something of their own righteousness and and the lord was was confronting that head on that that won't save you right israel failed beloved because of unbelief and abraham taught us one thing in The scriptures from the beginning abraham and all of his seed taught us one thing, the one truth that Paul's been developing through this book. Abraham. saw Christ And rejoiced. Abraham believed the gospel and was justified by grace through faith alone, just like us. Faith was always the way. But Israel took the law, and Paul's going to say in chapter 10, they didn't submit to the righteousness that comes by faith. Instead, they pursued their own righteousness by the works of the law. And that is the grief right there. That's the heart of the grief. And the same is true today. When someone turns from all these blessings, all these things that have been given to them, they reject it. They turn away. They don't believe the gospel. They've never received the gospel. we grieve over this. Our hearts ache over this. But Paul doesn't see any of this as giving up hope for Israel. That's what I'll come back to. So anticipating the questions that are going to be raised in chapter 9, if God. made all these promises then, aren't you saying that God was not strong enough to bring them to pass? That's sort of the heart of this here. Doesn't it say something about his faithfulness? And now Paul takes us to mysteries. and things I think that Peter would say were more challenging to understand, hard to understand, but I want to stay up front. He is about to unpack for us sovereign election with the purpose of explaining the phenomenon of Israel in chapters 9 through 11, but with the ultimate goal. Now, this is so important as we begin to look at this pastorally, the ultimate goal of comforting us that all of the true israel will be saved okay that's the goal of this the end high note is all of israel will be saved we'll get there to understand what that means so the first thing he says to help us understand this is found in verse six but it's not as though the word of god has failed for not all who are descended from israel belong to israel in verse 6 he says or it's not as though not all who are descended from israel belong to israel and not all are children of abraham because they are his offspring but through isaac shall your offspring be named so that's that's a crucial statement to understand first a basic principle to understand who is israel just because somebody was a jew did not make him part of the true israel that did not make him true Israel that was always the case just become what because one was outwardly in the covenant and was brought in through through circumcision that didn't mean that they, had the circumcision of the heart this is what Jesus was dealing with was Nicodemus now he didn't look at Nicodemus And a teacher in Israel who was lost at that point and say there's no hope for you this is why he preached the gospel to nicodemus right you need to be born again nicodemus you need regeneration and paul is saying here but you have to understand this crucial principle not all israel are of israel see that now that's pretty basic can't we understand that at a basic level um i've told my children uh throughout time in training them you need to know children just because one says they're a christian that does not mean they're a true christian there are believers And there are make-believers that's pretty simple it's a pretty simple thing that is said and paul said this back in chapter two for he is not a jew who is one outwardly nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh so in other words the outward acts of the sacrament doesn't make something so that's what he's saying but a jew is one inwardly whoa that's that's this morning isn't it a true jew is one inwardly and circumcision is that of the ready heart in the spirit not in the letter whose praise is not for men from god now if you wanted to go to matthew chapter 15 and ask who is the true jew you're going to find out next week who is the true Jew in Matthew 15? The Syrophoenician woman. That's the true Jew. So that's what he's explaining for us here. Not all of Abraham's seed were his children.
You know this with the story of Hagar and Ishmael. Abraham tried to produce that seed himself, but he was not the seed of promise. Who is the seed of promise? In Isaac, your seed shall be called. And that's exactly what he says here. In Isaac, your seed shall be called. I will come and Sarah will have a son in Isaac. So then there are those who are of the flesh and those who are of the spirit. So the first thing Paul is saying tonight, I think to help us positively is God has not cast off any of his promises made to israel they are indeed having an effect they are being fulfilled in the children of promise did jesus speak like this but what did he say about the pharisees this morning my father did not plant them they will be uprooted they were outward israel so notice this here. they're being fulfilled My promises have always been fulfilled in the israel of god god has never lost his israel so when we look at the nation of israel what does he say he's going to say in chapter 11 some surprising things here's something about the nation of israel he says god has not cast away his people whom he foreknew so his promises are not failing not at all there is he says this is the marvel about romans we'll look at with the nation of israel there is at this present time right now paul said right now at the present time a remnant according to the election of grace coming in peter was one paul was one everything all of his people are coming in and the lord wants us to stand back from this tonight I think as gentiles and think through this a little bit this is why the whole gospel ministry is happening there's going to be some great things said in romans about when the gentiles come in it's probably not best to send your money to rebuild the temple by the way go preach the gospel because then you'll provoke them to jealousy and as you provoke them to jealousy they'll come back in preach the messiah so he didn't see any of this as fatalistic he's explaining for us the deep mysteries of god no certainly but he sees the gospel ministry as the solution to bring in the fullness of israel jew and gentile together the gentiles being brought in as the wild olive tree grafted into that vine as one people and that's why paul would say at the end of galatians to the gentile church in galatia you are
The israel of god we should be able to say that you are the israel of god but here's the encouragement to the gentiles there is something far different from the old covenant to the new far different remember what he said in jeremiah 31 they broke that covenant but in the new covenant i will remember your sins no more listen to jesus here another parable there was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a wine press in it and built a tower and leased it to the tenants and went into another country when the season for fruit drew near he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit and the tenants took his servants and beat one killed another and stoned another again he sent other servants more than the first and they did the same to them finally he sent his son to them saying they will respect my son but when the tenants saw the son they said to themselves that's the heir come let us kill him and have his inheritance and they took him and they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him when therefore the owner of the vineyard comes what will he do to those tenants they said to him well he will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons Jesus said to them have you never read in the scriptures the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone this was the Lord's doing and it's marvelous in our eyes now here it is here's the whole grand conclusion therefore I tell you the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a people producing its fruits. Who's that? It's you. It's you. And that wasn't plan B. It was always the intention of God when he said to Abraham, and, you all the Gentiles of the earth shall be blessed. They will be my Israel. We are about to unpack in Romans the doctrine of election, which I believe is a doctrine of hope. As everyone knows here citing Isaiah, if the Lord of hosts had not left us a few survivors, we would have all become like Sodom and like Gomorrah. God has saved Israel. God will save Israel. The marvel of it is that the true Israel has always been designed to be much bigger than a little geopolitical nation in the earth. It's meant to go out to all the nations. So what a wonderful truth tonight. I want to close. We're going to sing in closing. I just want you to open it for a minute. Psalm 87b. And show you another psalm that Israel sang. Zion founded on the mountains. God thy maker loves thee well. he has chosen thee most precious. he delights in thee to dwell god's own city who can all thy glory tell now listen to the verse two heathen lands and hostile peoples soon shall come the lord to know they're singing this: okay that's you by the way that's your people those are your kinsmen nations born again where in Zion just hold that thought nations Gentiles born again where in Jerusalem when you believe the gospel you are born again in Jerusalem you are registered there that's what he says uh shall the Lord's salvation show God Almighty shall on Zion strength bestow bestow god almighty shall on zion when the lord shall count the nations sons and daughters he shall see born to endless life in zion and their joyful song shall be blessed zion all our fountains are in thee blessed zion all our fountains are in thee you're registered in zion you don't have to go to jerusalem here to worship you are his israel and the mystery of this whole thing is that what paul's going to say is he's going to end with a grand at the end of chapter 11 oh the wisdom of god unsearchable our ways and his judgments past finding out all of israel will be saved he's not going to lose one he fulfilled his word all his people will come in so guess what we get to do give ourselves to the gospel ministry that's how he's rounding up his sheep even those running let's pray gracious lord thank you for what you're doing and thank you for your plan thank you for saving a people to yourself and giving it to a people bearing the fruits thereof who believe these promises. May us and all of our children believe these promises and register us in Zion, born again right here, right now, when we believe the gospel, registered in the city where we ultimately are headed. Bless us, O Lord, as we sing to you this wonderful truth out of Psalm 87. In Jesus' name, amen.