Well, tonight we transition in our study of the book of Romans and come to the great chapter nine of Romans. And there's a lot here in chapter nine. I'm not going to dig too far tonight. I really want to do what Paul is doing here, and he's really setting this up. And it's really important that we understand how he sets this up, what he's doing as he moves into what we call some of the deeper doctrines of the Christian faith. So I am going to read together, we're going to read together tonight the first nine verses of Romans chapter nine. Let's give our attention tonight to the word of the Lord. I am speaking the truth in Christ. 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 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 over all, blessed forever. Amen. But it's not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel. And not all children of Abraham, 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. For this is what the promise said about this time next year. I will return and Sarah shall have a son. May the Lord bless tonight the hearing of his word. We have considered wonderful things in the book of Romans. And after showing, if I could just for a moment rehearse and set this up a little bit to show us how glorious this has been so that you understand the link between chapters 8 and 9 and all that has gone before to chapter 9 think about in the first few chapters of romans that paul had been unpacking for us how bad things are uh that that sin has wrecked us and that all have sinned and and fallen short of god's glory and god has been overwhelming to us in this epistle he announces to us glorious things that we have been justified freely by his grace he gave his son to be the propitiation for our sins so that everyone who's here tonight and who is justified and who is saved in christ and has that peace that surpasses all understanding there is absolutely no boast in yourselves all praise and glory goes to him and aren't you thankful for that and then he used examples to show us examples that we sometimes have read wrong examples that weren't so godly if you study their lives abraham he had many failures along the way and everybody knows about great king david's failure the kind of failure no one would ever want to have written about and all the generations ever since have read and god holds them out and says look god justifies the wicked justifies the wicked and the benefits of that are are overwhelming that flow to you chapter five remember you have peace with god you get to live now the rest of your time understanding that you have peace he guards your hearts and your minds wrath is done you will not stand there and have to atone for and pay for your sins wrath is over there is therefore no condemnation to those who are in christ jesus and then he unpacked the christian life for us romans 6 through 8 he explained how we are to look at ourselves now that since christ has died you have died since he is raised from the dead you are now raised to a brand new life and you are to think of yourself that way reckoning yourselves dead to sin but alive to him because that's how God sees you and that you're no longer slaves you're free men the truth has set you free and even though you continue to do those things that you don't want to do praise God Christ has come and that we are thankful that we have everything we stand in need of in him so the whole christian life is given and then you say well i still struggle with the christian life he gave you chapter eight and he mentioned the holy spirit dozens of times to tell you you're sealed with him he's helping you kill sin in your life he's interceding for you with groanings that cannot be uttered he is helping you put to death the deeds of the body so that you would live he's made you new creatures and then we got to the end of romans 8 and was there anything like the end of romans 8 i mean i i have to confess of all the sermons i've ever preached that was my favorite i love the end of romans 8 absolutely mind-blowing stuff we struggle to understand when we suffer whether god loves us and romans 8 said through all of it it's God's plan for you and he told us plainly in chapter 8 no matter what it is for those who are in Christ there is absolutely nothing absolutely nothing that can separate you from the love of Christ everything's working together for good and I am committed said the Lord in your sufferings to conform you to the image of my son that's how you need to look at suffering that's how you need to think about suffering suffering is appointed for you to conform you to correct christ i have predestined you to that kind of life a life that is so secure when i made that choice from before the foundation of the world and i decided to set my sovereign love on you i called you at some point in time and when you responded in faith which was a gift of god what did i do i justified you freely acquitted you and then he spoke of glorification in chapter 8 as if it's as good as done I mean this is overwhelming and after all of this after all of this tonight we have unpacked for months in the book of Romans there's one real issue left isn't there one real issue that's like a dagger one real issue that we have not been able to figure out. One major thorn, if you will. It's kind of like the bad-tasting medicine in the cabinet that you just know you've got to take and deal with, but you don't want to open the cabinet. It's that bad. One major issue that is open-ended for us Christians, and what is it? Israel. what about israel there sits a nation over there right now in complete unbelief and that doesn't really make sense to us we really struggle with that tonight i don't i don't grasp that tonight because god made these promises to them and there they sit in unbelief of their messiah and they have no peace and everyone says well they got their land back in 1947 how is that gone they slowly had it stripped back away and everyone wants to bomb them and it's an observable phenomenon that when we look at israel all i come up with is that's a warning as to where what will happen to you if you turn from the lord and yet there are all these people sat years ago hearing the same promises i don't get it see the dilemma it's a big dilemma paul had just introduced the doctrine of what election predestination and he knew that the great objection is how can we really know if israel turned out the way that they turned out boy did israel believe in election they knew election i mean these people who deny well israel believed in election of all the nations in the earth god chose them and you see if we have just heard that nothing can separate us from god's love why was israel separated haven't they been abandoned by god himself and you see that's the issue that paul is dealing with in romans 9 through 11 some of the most neglected chapters in the Bible because they're challenging and here we are thousands of years removed from the first century but you need to understand and feel how great a dilemma this is you know this all may be great on paper but the fact is it sure seems it sure seems when I look at the big scope and I look at the big picture that God's promises failed to Israel and it seems like his word returned void and paul in romans 9 through 11 is explaining this mystery to us the crucial issue of the whole thing comes out in verse 6 but it's not that the word of god has taken no effect it's not that god's word has failed so paul addresses that right up front he knows that's in the mind of people it has not failed and then he explains how we are to think about israel that's what we're going to be looking at in the coming weeks and that everything he determined in saving a people to himself did happen he didn't he didn't fail we'll look at that but romans 9 tonight and romans 10 and romans 11 they it is helping us to think through this really big issue and so we're going to begin with it tonight and we won't get very far, but hopefully that means you'll be excited to be back and hear all of this. In verse 5, in the first five verses of Romans 9, Paul sets up the dilemma I've somewhat described by really rehearsing all of these advantages or these privileges that Israel has received. And so listen to verse 4. 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 over all blessed forever amen by the way there's a verse to show the mormons and jehovah's just a side note christ is god overall i want you to notice here what paul is doing think about some of the things that he says for a minute they're israelites that was the single nation that god had pulled out of darkness god had saved them god had brought them into the land he had taken them out of egypt they were his own special people and there was no nation and they said this there's no nation on the earth more blessed than us for whatever reason we can call on the lord they were given the adoption i mean they had the privilege in a sense of being his firstborn his own special people his own holy nation called out of darkness they were given the glory you you've studied the glory boys and girls you know about the glory this was the cloud the pillar that led them through the wilderness that glory when the tabernacle was formed came down the glory cloud and it rested on the tabernacle god's presence was among them the covenants i will be your god and you will be my people all rooted in that covenant of grace made with father abraham think about the covenants we'll come back to that and we'll look at sinai too and he references that doesn't he the giving of the law on sinai what did the giving of the law do well its intention as paul said was to by the very finger of god handing them the commandments would bring about the knowledge of sin they had it clearly set before them the worship of god they could they could come into the come near the tabernacle and they could worship there was provision made they could gather at those courts and and the promises all of the promises i mean where would i begin to to start in rehearsing all of the promises in the old testament and then the big one then the really big one comes as far as the human nature is concerned christ came right through them right through that line right through the seed of the woman right through israel who is overall the eternally bless God. This is an amazing section testifying to the advantages that Israel had. What happened? What happened? Isn't that just what this provokes us to ask? How could you have all that and this be the outcome? Well, there's two ways to look at it, isn't there? When we look at it kind of nationally, what happened? I want you to feel this for a moment. I think tonight we have one of the worst agonies that believers have to face in this life. And I want you to see it through and experience this through the lens of Paul. Notice him in verse 1. Notice a pastor's heart. You want to look at a pastor's heart? Here's a pastor's heart tonight. Let me tell you about a pastor tonight. I am speaking the truth in Christ. I am not lying. My conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit that I have a great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I and myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers my kinsmen according to the flesh it's brothers feel that accursed now i don't know how many times you've come across this in your reading of the bible but in the new testament it's only mentioned a few times and the few times that you have the word accursed used it comes out with things like this if anyone does not love the lord jesus christ let him be accursed or anathema oh lord come and again if i or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel to you let him be anathema let him be put under the ban that was the old testament language let him be eternally separated let him be cut off from the people paul's heart is bleeding my own brothers the Israelites if they could be saved I would take the hit and be eternally cursed and you stop and you say come on does he mean that? it provokes that kind of feeling doesn't it? for us to stand here tonight and say does Paul really mean that? I will be separated from Christ if they would come to him why is his heart bleeding so much they were given all of that feel the agony you know the other night i sat around the table with my children i'm reading this to my children and um and i said to them israel was given everything weren't they and uh they said yes dad i said what have you been given baptism you know you've been given baptism covenant of grace you know you get god's law read to you every week you're brought up in a christian home your mom and your dad love you you know um we could keep going on you know you you're on this side of the cross you get to see fulfillment it you get to see what the prophets long to see jesus has come and we are going to by god's grace train you steadily to love the lord and to know the lord and god declares his love for you jesus loves me this i know the bible tells me so and i said i said to them i said do all of these things do these things themselves save you and i had to explain to them as every father should do his children. That these things, as wonderful as they are, not what saves you. The way these things are received is by faith. Dear children, you must believe this. Do we stop and tell our children that? You must believe this. And then I had to say, because I've seen it in the ministry, Many people have turned from these things. And it's really hard when I see that. That's the hardest reality I've seen in the ministry. And I can't make it something other than what it is. It's what Paul's describing in these first verses. It's continual grief. It's an ache in the heart. And I had to sit with people in Linden. And they would say to me, I don't understand. I trained my children and some of them are gone. And I saw this reality. And it was one of the worst agonies that I saw for older brothers and sisters. And my prayer was always calling out to the Lord to help them. It's an agony in this present evil age. It's a suffering. It's a continual grief in the heart. And what grieves us is what? God has been so good. And this is the mystery of it all. Think about this. Paul told us, I have all of these immense spiritual advantages. And what did he say in chapter 2 that all of these should lead us to? What do we do with these? What does the goodness of God lead us to? Everybody remember? Repentance. The goodness of God leads us to repentance and faith in Christ. Well, you say, well, what then went wrong with them? The only conclusion that you might draw, Paul, is that God failed. God's word returned void. It didn't bring to pass what he said. Isn't that what we struggle with with Israel? Now, Paul's answering this for us. Paul's helping us through this. But the first thing we have to say up front, and this is what Paul's wrestling through in chapters 9 through 11, this is not God's fault. And that's why that mystery of understanding human responsibility and sovereign election is something our puny minds cannot fully grasp. But this is not God's fault. Time and time again, what did God do? How was the Old Testament presented? He sent prophets. He sent preachers. And they rose up early. They were out there early preaching. And they were saying, turn from your ways and believe. And they said, don't go that way. Don't go in the way of other idols. And turn from your ways and come to the Lord. He doesn't delight in the death of the wicked. Ezekiel. And then Isaiah would come and he would give a whole parable about Israel. Remember Isaiah 5? My beloved vineyard. This is a really remarkable parable. Let me sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved regarding his vineyard. This is Israel. My well-beloved has a vineyard on a very fruitful hill. He dug it up, he cleared out its stones and placed it with the choicest vine. Think of Israel. He built a tower in its midst, Jerusalem. He made winepress in it. So he expected it to bring forth good grapes, but it brought forth wild grapes. And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge, please, between me and my vineyard. What more could I have done in my vineyard that I've not done? 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'm going to take away its hedge and it shall be burned and i'm going to break down its wall and it shall be trampled down and that's what happened and jesus said i'm giving it to a nation bearing the fruits of it and i'm looking at you right now so if you have all of this and you have these external blessings paul is overwhelmed in grief they didn't receive it and what is the outcome well you see this when the messiah came on the scene of history what did israel do with her messiah killed him and and stephen when he preached said this very thing to them remember he got all the the jerusalem leaders sitting there and he says you stiff necked uncircumcised and heart and ears 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 become betrayers and murderers who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it they had all that so summarize they had all this stuff and they didn't believe so the single great issue the bible lays as to why israel failed is what unbelief what did abraham teach everyone what did we learn boys and girls about father abraham in genesis chapter 4 what did abraham teach everyone the father of the faith what did he teach everyone about how a sinner's right with god abraham believed god and it was accounted to him for righteousness. And Paul says, Abraham was justified by faith and Abraham understood the gospel and Abraham had the gospel preached to him. And all throughout, there was that that was announced. And when we come to the book of Hebrews, it says that Israel did not enter because of unbelief. They took the law. And what did they do with the law? Well, if you flip over just briefly to chapter 10 and you look actually at the very end yeah look at look at 10 verse 3 here's the issue for being ignorant of the righteousness of god and seeking to establish their own they did not submit to god's righteousness for christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes let me put that in the most plain language that you could possibly put it. Israel tried to do it by themselves and they didn't believe in Jesus and they didn't receive him by faith. And that's the grief. That's the grief when we have all of this gospel preached and the Lord shows us the signs, as we talked about tonight, the Lord's Supper and baptism, and which are screaming to us, believe, believe, believe, believe, believe. But when someone says, it's it, no thanks, don't want it, I'm out of here, whose fault is that? If I went out tonight, Pastor Gordon went out to steal a car, do I say, God made me steal the car? I stole the car, didn't I? I stole the car and I drove it off. And that is what's presented to us. I was reading Boyce on this, and I really think he's challenging at this point. All of this is to teach us, the point of all this is that each of us who calls himself or herself a Christian should be led to self-examination. And what we should ask ourselves is, am I a true Christian or am I a Christian in name only? This is a serious question and a necessary one. For if Israel, with all their spiritual advantages that Paul mentions in Romans 9, could be composed of thousands or even millions who were not true Israel, it's certain the visible church of Jesus Christ in our day is filled with many who are actually unbelievers. And that is not something I like to say, but something that has to be said. What do you think unbelievers look like? They don't receive the gospel. They're not enamored with the gospel. They're not looking to Christ. They're miserable, joyless people and probably a lot of complaining. Israel were grumblers in the wilderness. But that still doesn't quite answer the dilemma, does it? In other words, what did those promises mean then that God made to them? Were they empty? Did his word mean nothing? In other words, did God lose Israel? That's the question. Did God lose Israel? And Paul says no. And you say, well, how does that work? If God makes promises and man fails, aren't you saying God wasn't strong enough to bring it to pass? And this is where your understanding of Genesis now should be so helpful to you tonight. Does that say something about his faithfulness? And that's what we struggle with. And Paul now tackles this and he moves us to think about how God did save Israel. I want to state up front, he's about to unpack sovereign election. And the purpose of explaining that in Romans 9-11 is with the ultimate goal of comforting you to answer that question that God is faithful to keep his word and that the true Israel will be saved. That's what he's doing. So he's helping us think through this. The first thing he says is to help us think through is verse six. It's not that the word of God has failed. Notice how he answers this. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel. That single statement is so crucial for us tonight. Just because somebody was a Jew, that didn't mean they were the true Israel. Just because somebody's outwardly identified with something doesn't mean it's true. We function like this all the time in life. We know this. Jesus dealt with this with Nicodemus. So just because one says something doesn't necessarily mean it is does it and this is why i tell my boys and girls and my children all the time that we have to be discerning there are believers and there are make believers paul is saying not all israel's of israel what does that mean well he already made this distinction back in chapter two when he said a true jew is one not one outwardly but a true jew is one inwardly nor is circumcision that which is outward so in other words the outward acts are not what saves but a true jew is one inwardly whose circumcision is that of the what heart and when you talk about the circumcision of the heart which the lord said he would do you're looking at the new birth you're looking at nicodemus when jesus said you must be born again i have to give life to hearts and and god is basically telling us tonight i never promised throughout history that every jew would be saved and he follows up how do you know that because there's two seeds you know this from genesis when the when the promise was made i never said that the seed of satan would be saved i said that the seed of the woman would be saved and every last one of them will be saved and so now you understand that genesis 5 is glorious because there's israel there's his people and that all throughout there was there was cain and abel there was esau and jacob there were two lines two seeds so that when jesus came to the pharisees and says you're not of i mean you're not of the true father you're of your father the devil and God said that to Abraham with Ishmael so what did God say to Abraham with Ishmael he said no Abraham in Isaac your seed shall be called I will come and Sarah will have a son and this has always been this has always been like this and so what God is telling us in Romans 9 is I'm not losing one of the seed I I'm not going to let one of them go that which is born of the flesh is flesh that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. Don't marvel that I said you must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from or where it goes. So is everyone who's born of the Spirit. And I believe Paul's saying this positively tonight, and I'll close with this. What he's saying is this. The promises are being fulfilled in the children of promise. They're being fulfilled in those born of the Spirit by wonderful grace. And so that when we get to chapter 11, what's Paul going to say? God has not cast away his people whom he foreknew. Then he says this, there is at the present time a remnant according to the election of grace. In other words, there are Jews coming in to Christ all the time. It's happening right now. And there are Gentiles coming in to Christ all the time. And Paul says in Ephesians 2, the two have been made what? One. The middle wall of separations, torn down. They're one people of God, one Israel of God, all according to the election of grace, even the Gentiles being grafted in to that tree. And the Lord wants us to stand back from this tonight and ponder this mystery. And for you to walk away tonight saying this, we always worry about who's not. And that's the wrong way to look at election. We always stand back from election and what do we say? God will not lose any of his people. And that's what's so glorious about this. Some of you say, well, I'm really concerned about a son or a daughter who doesn't believe. A woman walked up to a pastor after he preached on the doctrine of election. A woman said, I'm furious at you, pastor. According to your doctrine, my daughter's going to hell and there's nothing she can do about it. And the pastor said, ma'am, I know your daughter. I know what kind of lifestyle she's living. Your only hope is God's power and election. She's not turning it around herself. She'll never make the change herself. And what we're about to unpack in Romans is an incredible doctrine of hope. Because the Lord said throughout the prophets, if the Lord of hosts had not left us a remnant, we would have all become like Sodom and Gomorrah. That's what would have happened. And God has said, I'm saving. And what an encouragement to us. Our hope is that He can do it. And so that by the time we're done with Romans 11, 9-11, you know where Paul's going to be? All Israel will be saved. And then he's going to say, Oh, the depths, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his ways and his judgments past finding out. For of him and through him and to him are all things to whom be the glory forever and ever. And what a good place to stop this first sermon. Let's pray together. Oh, Lord, our God, as we begin to look at Romans 9, we realize how little our minds are to comprehend how great your ways are. And that we can't even begin to fathom the depths of your great wisdom and power and your judgments. But we pray, O Lord, that we would receive it in childlike faith and that this would be the most encouraging section for us to understand that what you're telling us is you won't lose one of your sheep. And that as all we knew when we came to Christ as we were sinners and need a Savior, as we grow in our understanding of the faith, we stand back tonight and realize the depths of your love, that the Lamb stood slain from the foundation of the world and that you chose us in Him before the foundation of the world to the praise of the glory of your grace. May that overwhelm us as we go out into another week thankful that you are saving for the ends of the earth. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.