Facts regarding God's choice of Israel
Romans 9:6-9 · Roger Henderson · Jul 7, 2024
Romans (2022-25), No. 081
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261935496034

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Miles has done a great job the last two Sundays getting us off to a great start in Chapter 9. So I get to do the confusing part. I'm not sure it's confusing. Take just careful, careful looking at God's word. So this title I kind of borrowed from Merriman, God's Sovereign Choice of Israel. So we're gonna see, that's gonna kind of be the, and I have several outlines and summaries as we go through this thing.

But Paul's intent here is to show us that God is a gracious God. He chooses righteously. man responds in faith and he blesses him and that's the way it is in the Old Testament and that's the way it is now it hasn't really changed it doesn't mean Israel and the church are the same but it means that God doesn't change his character he doesn't change he looks for man to respond by faith but he is absolutely righteous in choosing And we're gonna see if it makes sense.

And I was just thinking, you know, we talk about, and Mike went through it back in the nine there, that every believer can say, I was chosen. And you scratch your head, you say, well, if I was chosen, why'd I need to say yes? I got chose, that was good, I'm good to go here. Well, no, God says, Parallel, you're chosen, but I want you to choose me. And I know that, and putting those together is very difficult. But actually we're gonna see Israel very much the same way. God chose a path for Israel through a certain line of men, but they had to respond in faith. Okay, so here's an outline. I borrowed this from Merriman, basically.

So with the last two Sundays, we looked at basically Paul's intense love for Israel. And we're going to do a short review on each of those. And then we looked at last week, four and five, this wonderful, there are eight privileges that Israel has. We're going to look at those again very briefly. And then we're going to start into this section, it'll take two Sundays to do it, on God's sovereign choice of Israel basically.

And then he's going to come back and he's going to have that kind of be challenged in 14 through 24 in the coming weeks. And then we're going to see it was predicted. And then finally, there's going to be a conclusion at the end. And Merriman calls it an amazing conclusion. So if you want to get ahead a little bit and see what the amazing conclusion is, you could peek at 30.33. You can do that after this class. See what's coming up down the road here.

Okay, so I decided to do it in this little review. I like to review a little bit, it always helps. I use the Weiss translation to kind of bring out some of the words a little more clearly. And then I use my favorite approach that I like, it's not sentence diagramming, it's bubble diagramming, or I don't know, phrase diagramming. So here we go.

So it starts off in verse one, it says, I, Paul, speak the truth in Christ. So Paul is, you know, and we're gonna see three things he puts down as, I'm telling you the truth and it's absolutely the truth and it has to be the truth. Secondly, I'm not lying. And notice it was in Christ. I speak the truth in Christ, I'm not lying. Then he says, my conscious bears joint testimony with me and the Holy Spirit.

So in verse one there, he's, actually his verse is one end, let me make sure I get it right here. verse 1 he says those three statements just verifying what he's going to say is absolutely the truth then in verse 2 he talks about this he says it in three statements I have a consuming grief a greater mega and intense anguish in my heart without let up he was was totally consumed in a sense by his desire that Israel be saved and we're going to see that happen in the past because of the verb tense in the next in the next verse but it's happened in the past so it says in the new american standard it says for I wish and that word is you kumai and it's the root word is actually a desire a desire and then some but you go off in kind of a branch from a desire it could be a wish or it could be a prayer and if you look at the times that's used in scripture Miles did a great job last week I prefer, I think the more accurate is I pray, is the more accurate translation.

But, you know, there are different paths you can go. So I took the path here, and I expanded the translation, and it's actually in what's called the I'm losing my train of thought here. Imperfect tense, which is basically a past action, a continual past action. So here's how you could translate that. With that, using the interlinear and imperfect tense, for I was continually praying in the past, or in past times.

So boy, this opened up, and I think Myles caught on to this too, a whole new thought process in this verse. Paul had this intense desire for his people Israel, but that was in the past. He's moved on from the past. So this is so wonderful. I was continually praying in the past for, you know, that I myself will be a curse for Christ. And he goes on, for my brethren, but the neat thing is here, it's in the path, it was a prayer, which I like more than a wish. I think it fits it much more.

He was praying for that, but he learned about that. He learned that he could not be a curse. If you look at Romans 8, 38 and 39, I'll just read it again. This is why, Paul, that prayer can't be answered. Paul could pray that prayer all he wants. He prayed it in the past, he matured, so to speak. This is why this prayer can't be answered from 8 to 8.38 and 39.

For I'm convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creative thing will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. So he learned that, if you will. But it says, I struggled with that in past times. And it was for, on behalf of my brethren, my kinsmen, according to the flesh.

So I think that's just a marvelous start to this whole section, his great desire. And then he's gonna show, Paul's gonna show that God had a plan from eternity past, if you will, for what Israel was going to do, how it was going to play out, how the Messiah was going to come to the nation of Israel. But he starts out with this intense desire for Israel to be saved. Okay, so now in this section, this is a section, this is these eight privileges from the Old Testament of the nation of Israel.

So they start off, I'm not going to do a lot, Miles did a great job on all eight of these, I don't want to repeat that. But let's just go through, I just kind of picked out something that struck me. Who in character are Israelites, they were God's chosen people. who are possessors of the position of a son having been placed as such, son placing, they're adult sons. And the verse I like here is one that Miles quoted, he didn't quote this, he referenced it. Then you shall say to Pharaoh, thus says the Lord, Israel is my son, my firstborn. And that's key, we're gonna see that God associated the nation of Israel with family, this is my son. They had this special place, an incredible special place that no other nation had. And thirdly, and possessors of the glory. And out of Exodus, this is an amazing scene where the Shekinah glory of God shows up.

And what happens is, when that fills the tabernacle, man can't be there, which I always love that part. You read through that, you think, but then they couldn't enter. Wow. So the verse goes, then the cloud covered the tent of the meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And it goes on. And they couldn't enter it. They couldn't go in.

And next one, the fourth one, and possessors of the covenants. You know, Miles spent a great amount of time doing this, and it was really good. They had these unique covenants, and God is gonna be absolute, he's gonna fulfill those covenants. Majority were unilateral. He's gonna fulfill those covenants exactly as he spoke them to the nation of Israel.

So there's the first four. Next one is, and to whom are given the law. And this is a verse that talks about that. of what great nation is there that has statutes and judgments and righteous as the whole law which I am setting before you today. So they had the very mind of God, if you will, and His law. His law shows us His character, His holiness, His righteousness. They had that. No other nation had that. Only the nation of Israel. the next point, and who are possessors of the sacred sacrifices. They not only had this wonderful law, but they had a place.

God was very particular. You know, you look at many times in the Old Testament they were to bring down the high places, the places where they worshipped to all the other gods, the myriad of other gods of the nations. And God says, I'm very particular. You're gonna worship this way, a particular way. And this is just one of many verses that talk about his being very particular about this. And it says in Exodus 20, 24, you shall make an altar of earth for me. You shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings. And I kinda skipped some part of it then.

The last part, this is cool. I will come to you and bless you. So it's just, we come to God, And he interacts with us and we sacrifice and he, well I will come and I will bless you. Just a beautiful picture. And the third one, actually the seventh one, Possessors of the Promises. So I kind of skipped a little bit ahead looking at what we're gonna cover in the last part of today's message. We're gonna see this idea of a promise and being the children of promise. This wonderful line through Isaac, we're gonna see this child of promise.

And then lastly, it finishes up with just an incredible statement about the Lord Jesus Christ. And Israel, out from whom is the Christ, according to the flesh, the one who is above all, God eulogized forever, amen. So that's those wonderful possessions that Israel had. But you know what? And you know the story. You've read enough of the Old Testament to know. But here's the story. We've seen from verses four and five these unique blessings that the nation of Israel had, but what happened?

But for the most part, Israel rejected God's message. A few did not, a few accepted his message and believed, but the whole establishment, the whole religious establishment of Israel pushed him away so we don't want this man you know I like that passage where it says and I've forgotten who who is speaking to who but it says you know if he continues all men are going to come to him well yeah that's the idea but that means that means the priest and all those guys are out of a job and they didn't want to be out of a job So, you know, if you look in popular Judaism, if you will, it's really a recreation of a Judaism that's not the original Judaism. It's what they call rabbinic Judaism. They reinvented Judaism, excluding Christ, which is pretty sad. Okay, so actually, so some of the questions that come up, if this is the case and Israel rejected God, well, who's to blame here, right? Well, you know, everybody likes to point the finger at somebody else besides himself. Are the promises of God of no effect? Is that the answer? Did God fail? Is that the answer? Did God lie? Is that the answer? No, it can't be the answer.

So actually, we're gonna dive in and try to answer some of those things. So beginning today, we're gonna talk in six through nine about these questions and a lot of others, starting the line, the chosen line of Israel. And then next week, we're gonna finish up through 13, talking about more points along that line. Okay, so let's get into today's verses. Okay, so I'll just read them through again.

But it is not as though the word of God is failed, for they are not all Israel who are descendants from Israel, nor are they all children, because they are Abraham's descendants. But through Isaac your descendantship will be named. That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise. as regarded as descendants. For this is the word of the promise. At this time I will come and Sarah will have a son." Okay, so let's just kind of jump in here. So it starts off in verse six, it says, this idea of has the word of God failed? And it starts off, literally, it's not however that. The word of God, it was to Israel, has failed. Has it become powerless? Has it fallen down? Is it without effect?

And that's perfect tense. They said, well, has that been that way in the past? And it continues on into the present. Is that the case? And Weiss kind of brings a comment here, which I thought was good, kind of amplifying this perfect tense. The Word of God, with reference to Israel, has not failed to effectively, in time past and at the present time, is still potently effective. So God's Word, even though on the appearance it seems like it may not be the case, but God's Word is the same yesterday and today and forever. And I like this verse from Numbers.

God is not a man that he should lie, and he has said, will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will it not make it good? So God is going to accomplish his purpose. There's a verse in the Psalms somewhere, God's word, my word goes forth and accomplishes my purposes, and so on. God's word as it goes forth, a man hears it, it accomplishes the purpose that he intended it for.

Okay, so now we're gonna move on to, we're gonna come and look at this idea of what's a true Israel? That's gonna become the question on the table, if you will. What's a true Israel? And we're gonna look at different aspects of that. What makes a true Israel? Okay, so the first statement, I like the interlinear here for the last part of 6b, for not all the ones of Israel are Israel. When you first read that, you think, well, that's like double speak, right?

But if I told you not all Christians are Christians, would you be able to understand, would that make more sense to you? And most of us could say, yeah, I think I do. I think not all Christians truly believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior on the cross. Some people will claim to be Christians and they don't.

Now I'm not equating Israel and the church, but it's a similar mindset, a similar approach here. For not all the ones of Israel are Israel. So here, let's look at this. So this little word ek, Andrew kind of was using this this morning a little bit in his message. Ek is a good word to know about. Many times it's translated of. So it says the one, Ech of Israel, literally the one out of Israel as a source. So you think, who are the ones out of Israel as a source?

So we have it here, those who are out of Israel as a source are the physical nation. So that's basically, that's saying, I'm out of Israel, the physical nation, that's talking about a bloodline, right? I have a physical connection to Israel, my relatives, My parents, my grandparents all came out of this, they're all of the nation of Israel. So the first part is, not all Israel of a bloodline are Israel. So what's the second Israel about? And I believe this is where we get in the idea of what's a true Israel. He says not all the ones of Israel are true Israel, just like all the ones that are Christians are not true Christians. So it's a very similar kind of approach here. There was a little summary that Denny kind of shared. And we quote Stanley here in this case.

So it says, for not all they who are born of Israel, born of the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, are Israel, the people of God. So we're going to hear the word true Israel, the people of God. And a few other phrases that are gonna talk about those people who responded in faith to God's message, that truly believed. And we're gonna see there isn't as much difference as you might think. We're gonna see that they're people who were born again in the Old Testament. And we're gonna see that through a passage you guys know really well. That born again is a good statement to talk about in terms of the patriarchs. Maybe not as easy to see, but it's a good statement. And then Merriman shares here, physical birth did not determine if you were a true Israelite.

Okay, so that's verse six. So actually, a few more thoughts on this, yeah. Okay, so here's a parallel verse. A little bit different context, we covered this maybe a year or two ago, it's been a while. Back in Romans two, maybe two years ago, I don't know, it's been a while.

For he is not a Jew who, I'm sorry, start again here. For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the spirit, not by the letter. So you see here he's comparing the same kind of, an outward, an outward statement. A Jew is not one who's outwardly. It's one, something inward has happened to be a true Jew. And then here's a comment from Kostova on this. He's speaking more of the second one here.

Heart circumcision is a spiritual operation that the Holy Spirit performs, not a physical operation that conforms to the letter of Moses. So this is speaking more to the circumcision issue, but it brings out the fact there's an outward and there's an inward. And that's kind of what I'm heading at. I'm not trying to teach this. There's an outward manifestation of what people say, and there's an inward thing that really happens.

And then here's my verse that you guys know pretty well. and this is this discussion that the Lord Jesus has with Nicodemus and you know how many times have we read this and I have read this you know many many times and it's a wonderful section but I always think of this in terms of well this is how I talk to a person about becoming a believer I'll use this verse and verses the whole section on being born again But it has a little key at the end that I want to show you. So let's start out here. I'm just going to do two parts of this.

Jesus answered and said to him, Nicodemus, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. So you know the rest of it. Nicodemus says, well, let's try physical. I can't go back to my mother's womb, can I? That's impossible. And Jesus actually didn't answer that question.

But then down at the very end, at verse 10, he says, he kind of reprimands Nicodemus. He says, are you a teacher of Israel? So this is something that a teacher of Israel would know. and do not know and understand these things. So by context, he says, you don't understand about being born again. You don't understand that concept about being a true Jew, if you will. I'm kind of reading and putting this in our context here. He's reprimanding Nicodemus for not understanding this basic idea of something happening on the inside of a person, that he must be changed or born again. So that's a pretty amazing verse. I think it really helps us here. Okay, so now we go on to verse seven. So now he will kind of expand on the last part on 6B. And I did the interlinear here again.

Neither because they are Israel are seeds of Abraham are the children of God. So now he kind of brings in, he's gonna argue this point kind of repetitively, but it's basically the point about being a physical seed versus being a godly seed or a person that knows God. He's gonna argue that point. So Paul will now go a step further and say, even if you're Abraham's seed, it does not make you a true Israelite.

And children, here is this word, technia, the sense of being a spiritual inheritor, if you will, you're a child of God, that's a spiritual term, if you will. So Paul's going to kind of show his plan. He's going to show how he worked through the nation of Israel, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and so he's going to show how in the next verses how he worked through that line of people. And here's his first statement. But in Isaac your seed will be called. So actually that's a quote from Genesis 21-12. And this is when God was talking with Abraham, and Abraham was maybe upset, if you will. He was concerned about what had happened.

He decided, he and his wife, Sarah, decided, well, God has a plan for children. We have a plan for children too. And I can't have children. So we have a plan. Here's our maid over here. Why don't you have children with her? Okay. God says, that's not my plan. So here's what he says. He says, don't be distressed because of the lad.

So Israel's birth had occurred. And you're made, and at the end he says, for through Isaac, your descendants shall be named. And he said that before they ever had children. And of course, God waited a while. He waited until it was impossible for them to have children. And then he says, now we're gonna have children. Okay, that's pretty amazing stuff. So that's how God showed. I mean, he did that. He didn't say, well, I think, you know. Anyway, we'll just go on. Amazing stuff. So a true Israelite must flow from the child of promise. So we're going to see here, it has to come, God chose the line of Abraham, Isaac, and it has to come from that line. And they had to respond, there had to be a response there. And that's kind of what Merriman is about.

Ishmael, in this case, Ishmael was not the child of promise. God had already decided that it was not gonna be the child of promise. That was actually more in the culture. He was the firstborn in their family, family with Abraham being the father. So he could have been, by the times, he would have been the oldest child, oldest male child, but that wasn't God's plan.

Born again descendants of Abraham, these are the ones that received the promise. Those that did not exercise faith did not receive the promise. So God chooses, man responds in faith, and that's the way he blesses. That's the way God operates. A few more thoughts on here. Even though God's promise blessed Abraham's descendants. You know, we see that in the Abrahamic covenant. He says, you know, all the nations will be blessed in Abraham. We see that. And actually, you know, that applies to the church, too.

But there's this one line. It was only one branch of his family that he singled out for a special blessing. And that was Isaac. God's special elected purpose applies only to Isaac and his line of descendants. So we're gonna see now that he's gonna talk about that through your line, that's how I'm gonna, I will call my, the nation, my line of people through the line of Isaac. Okay, so that's seven. Go to eight. That is, so what follows, we're gonna talk about this promise.

It is not the children of flesh who are the children of God. So once again, it seems very repetitive here. We're back to flesh, children of the flesh, children of God. We covered this before, it seems like, in some ways, but he's gonna show us some more points here. Who are the children of the flesh?

They're the natural children of Abraham, his bloodline. And so the children of flesh are more than just physical birth. I'm sorry, the children of God were more than just physical birth. Physical birth never made anyone a child of God. That's from Merriman. So now we're going to move on.

He's going to define the true children of God. but the children of the promise are considered the seed. That's the line, the children of the promise. So we have the children of the promise, that phrase is gonna be used here, and then we're gonna connect it up with another important phrase, the children of the promise are considered the seed. So a strong contrast, these children of promise, promises of God, a graciously given promise from God, Now this is what's needed.

This is one of our favorite words from Romans chapter 6. This logitimae are considered, but it's in the passive voice here. So it's the idea is that these children of the promise are considered, this is an accounting term, are put down as true. You can write it down in your ledger. These are the children of the promise. They're counted, reckoned, considered, put down as true. These are the children of the promise. These are the children of the promise are considered for a seed or an offspring. So Paul spoke of the blessing of Abraham, Abraham's seed uniquely. It was only the children born supernaturally in the fulfillment of God's purpose to Abraham about the seed, namely Isaac's descendants. It was only through Isaac that that could happen and the entire line. And we're gonna have a picture here shortly. Okay, so just a few more thoughts.

So the promise resulted in true descendants of Israel, true descendants of Abraham, true Israelites, if you will. God in his grace was in action in Abraham's life. God's sovereign choice related to the seed and identity of God's people has always been the basis of grace, promise, and blessing. I kind of like that. That's something that Merriman kind of pointed out. God's grace, His promise results in His blessing. Grace, promise, blessing. What counts is grace, not race.

I don't agree with much else from that guy, but anyway. That's maybe the one thing I do. Anyway, what counts is grace, not race. So tell it, actually that's kind of a, could be a popular thing for today. Everybody's all considered about things like that. Grace is what counts, okay.

So now, more on the promise. Oops. Okay, so, so actually what's needed is verse nine is really pretty straightforward. It's gonna basically state the promise. It says, For this, so by context, this is referring to the last part of the verse. This is the word of promise. And he's gonna quote. And you kind of think, boy, that's a strange promise. I mean, you think, I want a Declaration of Independence. I want a big one, right? He just has it in one line. You think, that's a promise? This is a promise.

Well, let's look at the expanded version of the promise. back to where it references back to Genesis and this is a wonderful account that we all remember Sarah and when she finds out she's going to have a child and she cannot believe it anyway so okay so here's the Lord the pre-incarnate Christ it seems like and two men So then they said to him, where is Sarah your wife? And he said, they're in the tent. And he said, I will surely return at this time next year, and behold, Sarah your wife will have a son. And Sarah was listening at the tent door, which was behind him. Now I left off the other part. Maybe she embarrasses herself, but anyway. I mean, I think she reaction was totally natural. I am? How's that gonna happen?

So anyway, so that's the promise, and it's a very simple promise. God has chosen, Sarah is the one that's gonna give birth, and you'll have a son, and that's gonna be my line. straightforward stuff so okay so I borrowed the chart here from Merriman and it's one of his books so this kind of shows the line we've been talking about the line God's chosen line actually it's from Abraham all the way to Christ it starts off here God chose Abraham Sarah, his wife, had Isaac. And then we see the rest of the story real quick. Next we're going to talk about Rebekah and Esau. And God gets really pretty strong in his language. He's going to talk about Esau versus Jacob. It's a very strong language there.

But he chose Jacob. Then Leah Judah, David, and then to Christ. Then all the rest of the brothers in Jacob's family, that was not the line. It was through Judah, it was through Leah, and you can find this, go to Matthew, the genealogy in Matthew, go look at that Matthew genealogy. It tracks with this down to Christ. So that is God's chosen line all the way to Christ. Okay, so just a few thoughts here, three thoughts from Constable. First one. And this is neat, this is the way God does things.

God did not choose to bless Isaac after his birth only because he was Abraham's son. No, he told him way before that, right? He didn't say, okay, you had a son now, no. Rather, he promised Abraham before Isaac's birth that he would provide and bless a son for the patriarch supernaturally. His unusual birth confirmed the choice of Isaac as a channel of special blessing to his parents. So, hopefully that was helpful. We have more to say next week. Interesting section.

Kind of helps us rethink about how God works. God hasn't changed his plan of working between the Old Testament and New Testament. He has the nation of Israel he's worked with, and now he has the church, but he works very much the same way. It's by faith. By faith in our part. He chooses, He plans, we exercise faith and He can bless us through that. Okay, let's close in prayer. We thank You so much, Lord. We thank You for the blessings we have in our Savior. We thank You for His life that we have. We thank You for our time today. In Christ's name, Amen.