Heritage Reformed Baptist Mission
ROMANS
Sermon 30
Natural Israel
Romans 9:1-5
"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 accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh: Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen."
For the past 29 sermons in this series, we have been wending our way, verse by verse, through the first eight chapters of Romans. There, we have discovered the marvelous, matchless, wonderful grace of God in salvation. That salvation, in this age of grace, is provided freely to everyone who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, the questions arise, Where does this leave Israel, who have been God's chosen people, and under the Law? Are they completely forsaken and left out of God's plans now?
The answers to those questions are provided in Romans 9-11. And, in the process of giving the answers, those chapters also present some important present-day applications for Gentile believers.
One of the things we are going to plainly see in our study of Romans 9-11 is this: there is a natural Israel and there is a spiritual Israel. What the difference is will be clear as we proceed in our study. In our present text, Paul refers solely to those who make up natural Israel, whom he refers to as my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh. Of them, he says two important things. First, they are a sorrowful burden to his heart. And, second, they are a nation blessed by God. Let's look first at their blessings.
We have already seen in an earlier lesson how God chose Abraham and called him out of idolatry, and promised that he would be a blessing to all the families of the earth. From Abraham's descendants, God made the nation of Israel. About them, we read in Deuteronomy 14:2, For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God, and the LORD hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth.
As God's chosen people, Israel was the only nation in the world that was blessed with the glorious presence of God abiding with them. When they came out of slavery in Egypt, Exodus 13:21-22 tell us, And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night: He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people. Wen they built and dedicated the Tabernacle in the wilderness, we read in Exodus 40:34,35,38, Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation, because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. ...the cloud of the LORD was upon the tabernacle by day, and fire was on it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys. And when King Solomon built and dedicated the Temple in Jerusalem several hundred years later, 1 Kings 8:10-11 say, And it came to pass, when the priests were come out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of the LORD, So that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud: for the glory of the LORD had filled the house of the LORD.
With the exception of the covenant God made with Noah not to destroy the living creatures of earth ever again with water, all the other covenants God has made with men have been made with and through Israel. First, there was the Abrahamic Covenant by which God promised to make Abraham and his descendants a blessing to the whole earth, and to give to Abraham's descendants, as it is written in Genesis 15:18, ...this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates. That was and continues to be an unconditional covenant, which has been only partially fulfilled.
Second, there was the Mosaic Covenant described in Exodus 19:3-6. And Moses went up unto God, and the LORD called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel; Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself. Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel. That was a conditional covenant which is no longer valid because Israel failed to keep the conditions.
Third, there is the Palestinian Covenant spoken of in Deu. 30:1-10. That covenant anticipates Israel having been taken into captivity because of disobedience to God. It provides for them to be returned to the land and abundantly blessed if they repent of their sins and return obediently to the Lord with all their heart and soul.
Fourth, there is the Davidic Covenant described in 2 Samuel 7:4-17. By that covenant, God promised the throne of Israel forever to the house of David. It is an unconditional covenant and its ultimate fulfillment awaits the glorious return of the Lord Jesus Christ to establish the Kingdom of God on earth and reign as King in Jerusalem for 1000 years. For it is He of whom the angel Gabriel said to Mary in Luke 1:31-33, And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.
Fifth, there is the New Covenant. It is written in Jeremiah 31:31-34. Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD: But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. This, too, is an unconditional covenant and is fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Israel was also blessed of God to be the ones to receive His law. The record of the giving of it is found in Exodus 20-31, after the children of Israel had come out of Egypt and were encamped at the foot of Mt. Sinai. Before that time, no people on earth had anything written from God concerning His standards for moral and civil government.
With the giving of His moral law came also the laws of religious observance with the sacrifices that were to be offered unto the Lord in worshiping Him. While other nations worshiped and sacrificed to idols, none but Israel was given the blessing of serving the true and living God, and of knowing how atonement for sin was to be made.
From the time of Adam's and Eve's sin in the Garden of Eden, God had promised One who would redeem His people from their sin. That promise was perfected in Israel. It was through them God planned to bring the Promised One, the Messiah, into the world. It was in them Messiah would establish His glorious reign upon the earth, ruling in righteousness with a rod of iron.
Those who first received these promises from God were Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the patriarchs through whom and from whom came the nation of Israel. Even Gentile Christians must look back to them as the fathers of their faith and as the physical progenitors of their Savior, Jesus Christ.
That is the ultimate blessing God bestowed upon Israel. They were the people through whom the Eternal Son of God would become a man. In His humanity, the Savior of the world is a Jew. In His Deity, He is the Creator and Sustainer of all nations, peoples, races, tribes, and languages, God over all, blessed forever.
These are the manifest and manifold blessings Almighty God has given to natural Israel. Beyond measure, they were and, as we shall see in our study, still are the object of God's love, mercy, and grace.
However, they were a heavy burden upon the heart of the great Apostle Paul. Inspired of God, he testifies both with his pen and with his conscience that he would be willing to die and go to hell for them. I suspect that burden grew heavier by the day as he saw with his own eyes the impending destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple as spoken of by the Lord Jesus in Matthew 23:37-24:2. Though Paul died a few years before that actually happened, he could not have missed seeing it was very near.
Paul couldn't die in the place of his people. But Jesus could and did. Still, they needed to be saved. In spite of all the blessings of God and the advantages they had over other nations, they, as a nation, had rejected the Messiah. As a nation, they had rejected all efforts to evangelize them. And, because of the love of God shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Spirit, Paul grieved for their souls.
Now, our kinsmen according to the flesh (Gentiles) all over this world are facing impending destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power (2 Thessalonians 1:9). Some, especially in the U.S., have all the advantages Israel had, and more. Others receive the gospel with much difficulty. Still others have never heard. Billions need to be saved. And I suspect there is not a believer listening to me who doesn't have immediate or very close family members, and friends and neighbors who are lost. But who of us is willing to die for their salvation, let alone for the salvation of those who live in some remote place on this earth, or even on the other side of town?!
The fact is, we can't take the sins of even our closest, dearest loved ones, and go to hell for them. But, we don't need to. Jesus has already done that. But there are some things we do need to do.
We need to bear the souls of our loved ones, and of a lost and dying world to the throne of grace, asking for God to stretch forth His hand and save. We need to show and tell the gospel message by consecrated lives and lips. We need to give sacrificially of our money that others may take the gospel to the ends of the earth. We need to be willing to go ourselves if and when God calls. And, in the process of doing all these things, we need to be willing to die, as so many others before us have.
The time is short. Yet God's longsuffering is to be counted as salvation (2 Peter 3:15). He is still calling out a people for His name from among the Gentiles. Will you, as a believer, do what needs to be done?
If youre not a born-again believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, perhaps God is speaking to your heart even now to repent of your sin and call upon the Lord Jesus Christ for forgiveness and the gift of eternal life. If so, humble yourself and come to Christ NOW.