Scripture: Topics: Romans Bible Study
This is the book of Romans, episode 16. We're covering chapters nine, verses one through five tonight. This is a very critical portion of scripture. The tempo changes here. Up until this time, Paul had been talking about personal salvation and sanctification. But now he's going to change the subject, and going talk about Israel in the next three chapters. He's going to tell us that God is not through with the nation of Israel. You are at The Door, and I am Michael Pearl.
We're going to be studying the Bible. This is a Bible study.
2 Timothy 3:16 “All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine for reproof, for correction, for instruction, and righteousness.” The word I want you to see there is it's profitable for doctrine. A lot of people are scared of doctrine. But doctrine in the word of God is that truth that God presents to us, that we need to know in order to know Him.
We read in 1 Timothy 4:13, "Till I come," Paul says, "give attendance to reading," reading scripture, "to exhortation, and to doctrine." So give attendance to doctrine. Tonight is going to be doctrinally heavy, lots and lots of scripture. But this is a Bible study, not a devotional.
Now, right now, I've already departed from 99% of Christianity. Most of them think it's about the sovereignty of God in respect to whom He saves and who He does not save.
God's election, we're going to see in these three chapters, is not an election of the individual, but an election of nations.
He's preparing us for what he's going to say. So we open the Bible to Romans chapter nine, verse one. "I say the truth in Christ." Paul says, "I lie not," that's a synonym of what he just said. "My conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost." Paul, in this threefold statement is preparing us for something shocking. He's going to say. He says, what I'm telling you is the truth. And I tell it to you as one who's in Christ, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, what I'm saying is true. He said, "I lie not". Now, the reason he says lie not is because, if you and I said it, we'd be lying. This is something so rare, so unexpected, that it's just contrary to human reason and self preservation.
"My conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost." So he affirms that what he's saying, he has the witness of the Holy Spirit affirming that what he's saying is the truth.
Romans 9:2"I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart." Now, what is this heaviness he's talking about? Paul has a constant uninterrupted sadness in his soul. He has a sorrow that won't go away. For what? "For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren. My kinsmen according to the flesh." Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles. But he himself was a Jew of all Jews, a Pharisee. He was a righteous man taught in the school of Gamael. And yet God called him to go to Gentiles. But his heart was always with his people. And everywhere he went, he ran into Jews, many of whom were rejecting Jesus Christ. And so he had this deep passion.
He said, the thing that I'm telling you that you will think is a lie, is that I could wish myself accursed from Christ, for my brethren. Now, what does that mean, accursed? That means under a curse to never be saved. Paul was wishing, if it were possible, that he could take their place in hell. Now, can you understand why he, three times tells us I'm not lying to you? The Holy Ghost is bearing witness. What I'm telling you is the truth. He said, I could wish I would go to hell forever if it meant saving my kinsmen, according to the flesh.
Now I have to search my own heart and ask, would I go to hell for anybody? Would you? What if you had to spend a week there first? Would you change your mind?
Romans 9:3"I could wish myself accursed from Christ for my brethren." Now he tells us who he's talking about. That's the natural kinfolk. “My kinsman,” that's family, relatives. "According to the flesh." So he's making it clear this is not spiritual Jews. "Who are Israelites." This is not the church. This is not the church taking Israel's place. This is brethren, kinsmen. In the flesh, not spirit, who are Israelites to whom pertaineth the adoption.
And he says, "For my brethren," having the same family or Countryman. "My Kinsmen, according to the flesh", which is related by blood. And, "Who are Israelites", which is descendants of Jacob, whom God named Israel. "Who are Israelites to whom pertaineth the adoption."
So he said to the Jews, my Countryman pertained the adoption. Now we just studied adoption earlier. He's using adoption in the same sense. But in also in a pre-sense, you'll see what I mean when we get into the scriptures on it.
There's eight special privileges then, that we're going to cover, that are for the Jews.
These are the eight things he's going to point out in preparation for showing us God's continual role with the nation of Israel.
First one is adoption. Now adoption is not used, the word is never found, in the old Testament. But the concept is there.
In Genesis 12:1-3 "Now the Lords had said under Abram, get thee out of thy country from thy kindred and from thy father's, house under a land that I will show thee. And I'll make of the great nation. And I'll bless thee and make thy name great. And thou shall be a blessing." Up until this point, God didn't have any people upon the earth. There were a few individuals who occasionally prayed or followed Him. But He didn't have any group of people. This is the point at which God begins to adopt a man and his lineage to be his special people. " I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed." We're going to be coming back to this verse. "In thee will all families of the earth be blessed."
So there was a promise to Abraham that he would personally be blessed that he would have an expanded family lineage. But in addition to that, that the other families of the earth would be blessed through him and his people.
Genesis 21:10 "Therefore she said unto Abraham," this is Abraham's wife, "cast out this bond woman and her son: for the son of this bond woman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac." So Ishmael, Abraham has gone into Hagar and produced Ishmael. And Sarah says cast out Ishmael. He's not going to be heir. Now that at that point, the Jewish people and the Arabic people separated. Today, when you go to Israel, the Jews speak of the Arabs as their cousins. The Arabs speak of the Jews as their cousins. Their languages, Arabic and Hebrew, are very similar.They even look similar. And for many, many years, they lived very similar.
But they're two different groups of people, with two different lineages, except they both have Abraham to their father. And so God rejected Ishmael and chose Isaac.
Exodus 4:22"And thou shall say under Pharaoh, thus said the Lord, Israel is my son." This is God's adoption of the Jews after 400 years. It's actually Israelites, not Jews yet. 400 years in Egypt. “Israel is my son, even my first born.”
Deuteronomy 7:6 "For thou art an holy people under the Lord thy God: and the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth." Now look at that verse of scripture. God's chosen the Israeli people to be a special people above all people that are upon the face of the earth. The UN needs to know that. Our president needs to know that. The church needs to know that. The Muslims need to know that.
Now glory is the second of the eight. Now this is, I've been telling you, threatening you, that I was going to teach expansively on this word glory. So I am tonight. Not exhaustively, but expansively.
The glory of the Lord on Mount Sinai
Exodus 24:16, to the Jews belong the glory. "The glory of the Lord abode up on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days: and the seventh day he called unto Moses out of the midst of the cloud. And the sight of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the Mount in the eyes of the children of Israel."
So Moses went up on that Mount and God met him. And it was like a devouring fire that caused the people to fear. They were warned that if so much as an animal were to touch the base of the mountain, it should be thrust through with a sword. Moses went up alone, and spent time there with God in his presence. So much so that the glory of the Lord began to shine from his face. And the people, when he came down, couldn't stand to look up on his face. And made him put a veil over his face to keep that glory from radiating to them. They couldn't stand the presence of God's glory.
Exodus 33:18-20 "And he said, I beseech thee, show me thy glory." Moses said, "And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee." Boy, that just gives me holy goosebumps right there. He said, I, you know, Moses could have asked all kinds of things. He's in the presence of almighty God, he alone upon a mountain with God, and he gets to make a request. And he says, I want to see your glory. Woo.
“And God made all his goodness to pass before Moses.” You know where God's glory is found? It's found in his goodness. In his sweet, perfect, holy goodness. And in our world, He makes him more glorious than ever. "And I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee," God says this. He's proclaiming His own name. "And I'll be gracious to whom I'll be gracious. And I will have mercy on whom I'll have mercy.”
And he said, "Thou canst not see my face: for their shall no man see my face and live." It'll burn him up. Or he'd have died of a heart attack. He just, his body would not have been able to take it had he looked up on the glory of God.
Exodus 33:21 “And the Lord said, ‘Behold, there's a place by me,’” close to me here. "And thou shall stand up on a rock: and it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I'll put thee in a clift of the rock," a little crack, "and I will cover thee with my hand while I pass by:" God's covering him. Wasn't going to trust him to do it. "And I will take away my hand, and thou shall see my back parts: and my face shall not be seen."
Exodus 29:43 "And there I will meet with the children of Israel, and the tabernacle shall be sanctified by my glory." So when the tabernacle was set up, God said He was going to come, and His glory would fill the tabernacle.
2 Chronicles 7:1-2 "Now when Solomon had made an end of praying, the fire came down from heaven, and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices; and the glory of the Lord filled the house." Look what happens when the glory of the Lord fills the church, the house. "And the priests could not enter into the house of the Lord, because the glory of the Lord had filled the Lord's house."
Have you ever tasted the glory of the Lord? So the fire came down and consumed all that was up on the altar. And the smoke filled the temple as God's presence made its way through every crack and corner of that place where man and God would meet, where blood would be shed and applied to the altar, where the priests would pray, where sins would be remitted for one more year.
2 Chronicles 7:3 "And when all the children of Israel saw how the fire came down, and the glory of the Lord up on the house, they bowed themselves with their faces to the ground up on the pavement and worshiped." You know, when you come face to face with God's glory, you're going to bow and worship. "And praised the Lord saying, For he is good." Notice what they say. Not He's strong, not He's powerful, not He's pretty. But He's good.
"For he is good, for his mercy end endureth forever." They were overcome. You know, the glory of God is such that even the worst sinner in the day of judgment, when he stands before Jesus Christ and sees his glory, the Bible said every knee will bow. And every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God. You see, even the greatest sinners will worship God when they see his glory. May be in fear, but they'll worship. So in the temple, the glory came and filled every corner.
Hebrews 2:6-10 says this, an interesting passage, "But one in a certain place testified saying, What is man that thou art mindful of him?" And he's saying, what is man that God pays any attention to him? "Or the son of man, that thou visits him?" Why would God visit a human being? "Thou madest him a little lower than the angels." Man is created a little lower than the angels. "Thou crownedst him with glory and honor." When God made Adam, he put a crown of glory on his head. And he instilled Adam with honor, gave him great honor. Placed him over the garden. And thus over the whole world. His domain was over all of the animal kingdom. "And it set him over the works of thy hands."
So you see God's design for us human beings is that we should wear a crown of glory. Men seek glory and honor. But God's design is that we should live in glory. That we should enjoy glory. That we should celebrate in glory. So much religion is so cold and dead, and self effacing, that there's no glory in it at all. God wants glory. I see glory about me all the time.
Hebrews 2:6-10 "Thou crowned him with glory and honor, and did set him over the works of thy hands. Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet." That's what God did in the garden. "For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him."
That kind of answers your question about why God allows man to do what he does, and sin to prevail. Because everything is under man. We have complete authority now. It's our planet. We do with what we want. It's our bodies. We do with what we want.
Hebrews 2:8 "But now we see not yet all things put under him." In other words, he said, that's the way God made it. Is that all things would be put under man. But when we look around, we don't see it that way anymore. We see a lot of things out of his control. Cancer',s out of our control lightning's out of our control. Storms and nature, it's out of our control. Wild animals are out of our control.
Hebrews 2:9 "But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels," like man, "for the suffering of death." What? "Crowned with glory and honor." So God crowned Jesus with glory and honor that, by the grace of God, “that he should taste death for every man.”
Now you can see God's glory in nature. We talked about that in Romans chapter one and two. You can see His glory in little birds, with their mouths open, receiving worms and crickets from their mothers. You can see it in cows and calves in the field, and little horses. Colts learning to stand for the first time. You can see it in a mother nursing her child, or a brother and a sister playing together, lovingly taking care of each other, dear to each other. You can see it in an old couple. You can see it in a young, newly married couple with their first child. You can see glory.
That's the real glory. This stuff from Hollywood and sports activities and all that, that's a substitute for real deep abiding glory. All of these concerts that they have, where they have blinking lights and pyro technics, and all the singers and all the activity. That's an attempt to duplicate God's glory in heaven. It's such a poor substitute. Seeing how they all end up with venereal disease and dying from drug overdose. And divorce after divorce, and their children hate them. No glory in that. Just an attempt at glory.
Hebrews 2:10 "For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons into glory." You see, that's God's goal, is to bring many sons into glory with Him. We've lost that glory. He wants to bring us back to it. That's God's goal. Now a sinner can't see that. That's what we're offering sinners. We're offering them a chance to celebrate and live in glory, now and for eternity.
"Bringing many sons into glory." Oh, I've had some times in my life when, in groups, and prayer, and other times I've seen the glory of God just gets so thick you can't stand it. It just, you just can't take it. It just too much. Everything has to stop. You have to fall down in worship. You have to weep and laugh. And you just cannot go on. You can't say anything else.
And I can remember now, I could share a lot of different times with you. Thinking about one right now, just when it was heaven, it was absolutely heavenly. And it wasn't because they were perfect people. It was just because the glory of God came down. See, when it comes down, everybody's worshiping. I don't care who you are, even sinners. When they see the glory.
John 17:5-7 "And now, O Father," Jesus prayed toward the end of his life, right to the last night of his life. "Glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was." So what is Jesus anticipating just hours before his crucifixion? He's wanting to get back into the glory. The glory he had before the world was. "And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them." Wow. Where is it? He gave us the same glory that He has with the father before the world was created. "Which thou gavest me I've given them: that they may be one, even as we are one." Father I've given them, "I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am." He's praying like a child who says, can they come home with me? I want to play with them. Jesus says to the Father, I want them to come home with me. Why? I want to show them something. I've got something I want them to see and share. "That they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world." Isn't that beautiful? Isn't' that beautiful? He says, Father, I want them home with me where they can see my glory.
The disciples thought they saw a little bit of it on the Mount of Transfiguration. They thought they saw a little bit of it at the resurrection, the Ascension. But no. If they had seen the glory of God, they'd have died. No man can see my face and live.
2 Corinthians 3:7-10 listen, this is great. "But if the ministration of death," he's talking about the law. It's called the ministration of death. That's the 10 commandments. "Written and engraven in stones." Isn't that the 10 commandments? "Was glorious." And it was. So much so that if they touched mountain, they'd be thrust through with the dart. "So that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance."
So Moses just picked up a little bit of that glory. And it was fading, but he was still radiating that glory. And it freaked the people out. He said, now, if that was glorious, which glory was to be done away, “how much shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious. For if the ministration of condemnation be glory," that's the law. "Much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory. For even that which was made glorious had no glory in respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth." I love that phrase, "The glory that excelleth." He said that glory, that God manifest in the old Testament is just a passing glory compared to the glory that excelleth. "For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious.”
2 Corinthians 3:12 “Seeing then that we have such hope of seeing that glory. We use great plainness of speech." He said, we don't mumble around about this. We don't beat around the bush. We don't try to be humble about it. We say it boldly. "And not as Moses, which put a veil over his face, that children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that which is abolished." Now notice what he's about to frame. He said, we're not like Moses, putting a veil so the glory won't reflect. “But we all, with open face, not a veil, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory...” God's glory, “...to glory,” to our glory “...even as by the spirit of the Lord.” So he says as we behold God as looking through a glass.
Back then glass wasn't as clear as it is today. It was very milky and foggy. They couldn't get pure glass like we have now. So when you looked through a glass, it was kind of like looking through a really badly scratched up piece of acrylic sheeting that had been walked on. You could see through it, and you could see some light, and you could see shadows and images. But you couldn't, you wouldn't comb your hair through looking through one of them. And so he says, we behold him as in a glass. Another place he says, through a glass darkly. A glass you can just barely see through.
He said, we're "changed into the same image from glory," God's glory, to our "glory, even as by the spirit of the Lord."
Did you know there was this much in the Bible, and a whole lot more, of God directing us toward glory? Being interested in us sharing his glory. You can see why I want to talk about it. 2 Thesalonians 2:14"Wherefore, he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ." See, that's not just looking his glory. But radiating the glory, sharing the glory, obtaining the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's what you're called to do. Amen.
Okay. The book of Romans provides a progressive revelation of glory. You can remember some of this:
All right, let's go to the next one. Romans 9:5“Who are Israelites, to whom pertaineth the adoption, the glory and the covenants.” So let's talk about the covenants belong to Israel. These covenants were not made with the church. These covenants were made with Israel.
Genesis 15:4-7 "And, behold, the word of the Lord came into him saying, this shall not be thine heir, but he that came out of that own bowels shall be thine heir. And he brought him forth and said, Look now toward heaven, tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be." So he is an heir. And he's making a covenant with Him. "And he believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness. And he said unto him, I am the Lord that brought the out of Ur, the Chaldess, to give thee this land to inherit it." So here is a covenant God is making with Abraham about some land. He never made this covenant with the church.
Genesis 15:8 "And he said, Lord God, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?" So he has a little question. Because this land is occupied by about 15 different, terrible group of people. Fierce people, warring with each other, mightier. And one of them are all giants. And God says, I'm giving it to you. "And he said, Lord God, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it? And he said, unto him." Now you see that was an appropriate question. If you're making a covenant with someone, then they want to know what is the token of this covenant. A covenant had to have a token. Sometimes it was just a big pile of stones stacked up on the property line between two people. That marked an agreement that they had. It was like a contract that was signed. Sometime. It'd be something else. In some cultures, they trade babies. Give you my son and I take your son. And that's the sign of the covenant, the surety that it will take place. And so Abraham wants to know, what's the surety here that this Covenant's going to take place? And so God resorts to something that was culturally appropriate, that the people of that day did, when they made a covenant. They would, and we'll, we'll read it here.
Genesis 15:9-10 "And he said, the Lord God, whereby shall I know... And he said unto him, Take me an heifer of three years old, and as she goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon. And he took unto him all these, and divided them in the midst." That means he cut them into two parts. "And laid each piece one against another," like dividing this way. "But the birds divided he not." I guess they were too small for division.
Genesis 15:11-17 "And when the fowls came down upon the carcasses, Abraham drove them away. And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell up on Abram; and lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him. And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs." Here's a prophecy. "And shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years." God is predicting to Abraham that his seed, a hundred years hence, are going to end up in bondage in Egypt. "And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward they shall come out with great substance." A prophecy. "And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; and thou shalt be buried in a good old age." You'll live a long time. You'll die a peaceful death. "But in the fourth generation," after you're dead, "they shall come hither again." The children of Israel will come out of this bondage. "For the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. And it came to pass that when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces. In the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram." There's the covenant. Saying, this is the covenant. "Unto thy seed have I given this land." Now folks, that's not the church. It'll never be the church.
"From the river of Egypt." That's not the Euphrates. There's a river down there in Goshen, right in the corner. Pretty close down to the Euphrates. "From the river Egypt unto the great river Euphrates: the Kenites and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites. And the Hittites and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims." That's the giants. These are the nations he's going to possess. "And the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites."
Folks. That's everything from below Gaza, down on the, taking in part of Egypt, all the way up through Lebanon. Up into the bottom of Turkey, taking part of Turkey. That's going over and taking most of Iraq. Part of Kuwait. All of Jordan. Touching down to Saudi Arabia. And then coming back across to the river of Egypt again. Great big triangle in there that included where the garden of Eden was. And he said, all of that I'm giving you. That's yours. Folks, he didn't give it to Christians in the United States of America and Britain. He gave it to the Jews. God gave it to them.
Genesis 17:7-8 "And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations." In other words, he said, not only is this covenant with you, it's going to be with your seed, generation after generation, for a, what's it say? "...for an Everlasting covenant". Folks, that covenant is not going to depart. If there's an everlasting salvation, there's an everlasting covenant, "to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. And I will give unto thee and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God. And God said unto Abraham, thou shall keep my covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee in their generations." What's interesting about the way God did this is, normally when those animals were killed and parted like that, both parties would walk between them, and that established the covenant.
In this case, Abraham slept through the covenant making, and only God passed between the members. So this was a one way covenant. Nothing Abraham could do would change that. It was one sided. "This is my covenant, which ye should keep between me and you and thy seed after thee. Every man child among you shall be circumcised. And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, and it shall be for a token." So the circumcision was just a token, "of the covenant betwixt me and you." The circumcision had significance in that God was promising a multiplication of his seed, and a preservation of it. So the circumcision was akin to that preservation and multiplication of his seed.
Exodus 31:16 "Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations." You do know it's a sin to keep the Sabbath don't you?
"To keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant." Now, who is that for? for who? Children of Israel. For a perpetual covenant. It's no changing. And by the way, it's Saturday, the Sabbath is on Saturday. It's not on Sunday, never be on Sunday. Sabbaths on Saturday. Starts at sundown Friday and goes through sun down Saturday night. That's the Sabbath. Always will be.
"And it is a sign," The Sabbath keeping "is a sign between me and," who? "The children of Israel." You know, it says that several times in the scriptures. That Sabbath is a sign between me and the children of Israel. Not anybody else. Sabbath keeping is for the Jews, for Israel. It's not for the Gentile church. If a Gentile church tries to do it, they're falling from grace. They're departing from the gospel of grace and glory, and going to a gospel of law and works, which he said was a ministration of death.
You're coming under the ministration of death, and that's a sin. But a Jew ought to keep the Sabbath. "Between me and the children of Israel forever: for in six days the Lord, God, made heaven and earth, on the seventh day rested, and was refreshed."
Exodus 34:28 "And he was there with the Lord 40 days and 40 nights; he did eat neither bread, nor drink water. And he wrote up on the tables the words of the covenant." So the 10 commandments were also a covenant.
Leviticus 26:42&45 "Then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, also my covenant with Isaac, and my covenant with Abraham." Three different... God renewed the covenant. " my covenant with Abraham will I remember, and I will remember the land. 45 But I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors." In other words, if they failed to keep it, I'll remember what I made with the ancestors, "whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the heathen, that I might be their God: I am the Lord."
Deuteronomy 4:13 & 23-25"And he declared unto you this covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even ten commandments. And he wrote them upon tables of stone. Take heed under yourselves, lest ye forget the covenant of the Lord, your God, which he made with you, and make you a graven image, or likeness of anything, the Lord thy God hath forbidden thee. For the Lord thy God is a consuming fire, and a jealous God." Now here he is going to prophesy again. "When thou shalt beget children, and children's children, and ye shall have remained long in the land." This is before they go into the land, he's saying this. "And shall corrupt yourselves, and make a graven image, or the likeness of any thing, and shall do evil in the sight of the Lord."
You see what people tell us today, Is that yes, God made a covenant with Israel. But they failed to live up to their half of it. So God is not obligated to live up to his half. So God has canceled his covenant with Israel, And now the covenant he's made is with the church, with people in the spirit. So there's no more covenant with Israel. Just exactly, they say it would happen just exactly what he's describing here. "Do evil in the sight of the Lord thy God." Now what would happen? "...and Provoke him to anger."
Deuteronomy 4:26-27 He said, "I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that ye shall soon utterly perished from off the land." That's happened, hasn't it? They came back in 1947, 48. "Whereunto ye go over Jordan to possess it; ye shall not prolong your days upon it, but shall utterly be destroyed." God's predicting that, and it happened. "And the Lord shall scatter you among the nations, and ye shall be left few in number among the heathen, where the Lord shall lead you. And there ye shall serve gods, the work of men's hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. But if from thin thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, shall find him, if they'll seek him with all thy heart with all that soul." Look at that passage. "When thou art in tribulation." You see, well, he just means tribulation. He doesn't mean the tribulation. Well, look at the context. "When the art in tribulation, all these things are come up on thee, even in the latter days." So he's talking about a particular tribulation. In the latter days. "If thou turn to the Lord thy, God and shalt be obedient under his voice; For the Lord thy God is a merciful God. He will not forsake thee, nor destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he sware unto them."
That's what Romans 9, 10, and 11 are going to be about, is showing us that God is not going to forget his covenant. He's cast off Israel for a time being, but he is going to gather them back again. And cast off the church. He once elected the nation of Israel, had mercy upon them, and not the Gentiles. That's what the rest of this is going to be about. But now God has going to stop with his mercy on the Gentiles and the church, at some point in the future. And he's going to turn back to Israel, and have mercy up on them. That's what he's going to tell us in the next three chapters.
Romans 9:4 "Who are Israelites, to whom pertaining to the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law." The law. That's, we won't need much explanation for this.
Acts 7:53 "Who have received the law by the disposition of angels." He says of Israel. "Received the law by the disposition of angels."
And then, "the service of God," the Jews received the service of God. What is service? We don't need to guess. We go and look up the word service in the old Testament, find out what the service of God is.
Exodus 12:25 , He said, "And it shall come to pass, when you come into the land, which the Lord thy God will give you, according to all as he hath promised, that you shall keep this service. And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you, what mean you by this service? That ye shall say, it is the sacrifice of the Lord's passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt." So the sacrifices and the temple activity, the temple worship, the ministration in the temple, all of that was the service that they had for God, serving God. So when the priests took the animals and burnt them on the altar, and when the blood was taken in behind the veil, that was the service that God gave Israel.
And then the promises. Now, what are the promises? Service of God and the promises.
Galatians 3:16 "Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made."
There are two promises to Abraham. And that's not counting the Palestinian covenants, which was also a promise.
Genesis 22:17 "And in blessing I'll bless thee, and in multiplying, I'll multiply thee as the stars of the heaven, as the sand which is upon the seashore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies." Now that's to Israel, that's not to the church. "And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." That's a second promise. That's not the first promise. That's a byproduct of 17, "In thee shall all the nations earth be blessed." Which he's talking about Christ there.
So he's promised seed, promised land. Won't go into the details on these. You know these. Promised deliverance, Promised restoration, when they've been cast off in a foreign land. Promised new covenant. A new covenant will I make with you, he said. Not like the old covenant. I'll take away the Stony heart and give you a heart of flesh. Remember that? A promised Messiah. Many passages, 240 on that. Promised outpouring of the spirit on Gentiles. Remember on the day of Pentecost, said, this is what you read. This is what you heard. The promise of the spirit poured out upon all people.
Promised resurrection, promised kingdom of heaven, and there are many more. That's just a short list of the promises God gave to Israel, and promised new heavens and new earth. Isaiah 65, "Behold, I make a new heavens and new earth." First heaven, then earth. First earth will pass away. Be no more seas. Be burned up. Same thing got in the book of revelation.
Revelation 21:1 "For the first heaven and the first earth were passed away."
Acts 2:38 "For the promise is to you, and to your children, and to all that are far off, as many as the Lord our God shall call." This is the promise of the gift of the Holy Ghost. Now folks, the gift of the Holy Ghost is not tongues. The gift of the Holy Ghost is the Holy Ghost. He's not talking about what the Holy Ghost gives. He talking about what God gives. God gives a gift, and it's the Holy Ghost, to his people.
Joel 2:28 & Acts 2:17 "I will pour out my spirit up on all flesh." He predicted. And that included the Gentiles.
Now the seventh one is fathers of the faith. We've got enough fathers of the flesh on TV.
Romans 9:5 "Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came." Whose are the fathers. In other words, the fathers of the faith, as Abraham belonged to the Jews.
Romans 4:11, "And he received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe." So Abraham believed in all who believed like Abraham did. Have righteousness imputed to them like Abraham did. And he becomes the father of those that believe. And all of the nations of the earth are blessed through his seed, which seed is Christ.
And then Christ came. That's the final of the eight.
Romans 9:5 "Concerning the flesh Christ came." He came through the flesh of the Jews. "Who is over all, God blessed for ever." Do you realize that's a very clear statement of the deity of Christ. Christ came, who is overall. See that's in commas. Christ came, God blessed forever. We can set that little phrase, who is overall, aside and put it back together. Christ came, God blessed forever. So Christ is God blessed forever. Amen.
Isaiah 7:14 says, "Behold, the Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son. And she'll call his name Emmanuel." Here's a prophecy 700 years before Jesus comes, predicting that a Virgin would give birth to a boy. And his name would be Immanuel, which in another passage said, being interpreted is, God with us. So this little baby, that's going to be born to a Virgin is going to be called God with us.
Micah 5:2 "But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah," you remember when the wise men went to the king and asked, where is this king being born? This child? He said, I don't know, I'll ask the wise men, and he asked the scribes and they came back and said, well, Bethlehem of Ephrata, of course that's what the scriptures say. So they were all aware of the prophecy. So they hoofed it down to Bethlehem of Ephratah to find the babe wrapped in a manger. Because the prophecy said that's where he'd be. "But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah," little bitty town. Never numbered more than a thousand. "Yet out of thee shall come forth under me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting." He said, Bethlehem will produce the child, who has always been around, and always will be, from time Immortal.
Luke 2:10 , "And the angels said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For under you is born this day in the city of David a savior, which is Christ the Lord." This was Jewish shepherds. And it was Jewish man, and a Jewish woman, Israelis, that the baby was born to.
"For unto us is born this day in the city of David a savior, which is Christ the Lord."
You know, like it or not, believe it or not, the world still stops on the day that Christians choose to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. And I notice even the Muslims calendars are dated by Jesus. The world over is dated by Jesus. They can't help it.
And finally, the prophecies of Christ's death are numerous, of his resurrection are numerous. Details that his side would be pierced, that his feet and hands would be pierced. That he'd be stripped naked. That he'd hang on a cross. That he'd hang between thieves. That he'd be buried in a rich man's tomb. That'd be placed in a grave. And that he would come out of that grave, resurrected, and ascend into heaven to be seated on the right hand of God. All of those were prophecies, promises given to the Jews, that were fulfilled.
So what Paul has done is, he's taken us on an excursion to show us the importance, the significance, of Israel in God's program. Because he's soon going to talk about how it is that they are now in unbelief, and why they are, and what's going to happen to them. And what's going to happen to the church, and how this is all going to work out in the next this chapter and two more. So that's all. We'll take next week, the episode 17.
