Law & Grace - Gentiles, Israel & the Church - Part I
Matthew 7:24-29 · Vern Peterman · Aug 21, 2011
Law & Grace, No. 32
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926244372020

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

Good morning. We have something to announce. Again. The engagement of Torrey Jenkins and Drake Brown. I made a mistake of announcing it previously when Torrey's parents were not here. And of course that was a terrible faux pas. So at any rate, please throng them after the service.

OK. As some of you may have caught up via email announcement, we have some new topics we're going to be inserting between now and the end of September. And you might ask, well, what's the reason for this? Well, what we discovered. In looking at this, we would insert these topics because in going through the Law and Grace series, we've actually had more than 30 lessons so far. We're discovering that some of the terms we were using were not being easily understood by people, and we wanted to answer those. We were encountering some questions, and I would even add valid questions. And so we want to make clear what it is we're talking about.

And so rather than just continuing with those questions lingering, we want to clarify some terms and key distinctions for those of you who like to study such things carefully so that when we use those terms, those terms are well understood. OK. So in seeking to be very clear here and in making distinctions, we have to ask the question, are we just being really picky? Are we being strangely particular? Or are there reasons for asking these questions and answering them and trying to be clear and make some distinctions? Well, I think there's an answer. In seeking to be clear, we want to have good understanding to questions that are actually fairly basic questions. Questions like, who am I? Where did I come from? Where am I going? And what is God doing?

Not having clear answers to these questions can cause some confusion. We want to just make sure that these are abundantly clear before we move on. There are some other questions, too, some puzzles, if you will. So why are we, for example, saying the gospel of the kingdom is not the same as the gospel regarding salvation that we seek to present to unbelievers? Why is that a different gospel?

I know some years ago when I first presented this idea to Nancy, she went, what? And was quite puzzled by it. And she's back there shaking her head yes. And so at any rate, other people may well have that same question in mind and the same puzzlement who want to make that clear.

Why is there more than one meaning in the Bible for the word kingdom, depending on the context that is used? And what are those meanings? And, doesn't God just treat everybody the same throughout all time and beyond? The answer is not quite, and so we'll be wanting to clarify that. Now we have, you mean all salvations aren't the same? I mean, isn't saved, saved? Well, salvation is used in different ways, and the same thing can be said about being blessed.

You know, a common saying in our culture, you know, somebody will sneeze and it's God bless you. And I think we were fortunate one time to have somebody sneeze and that's what the next slide said. God bless you. So, at any rate, as we look at this, we'll be wanting to look at what are some of these distinctions?

Why is it that saved isn't used the same way throughout the entire Bible? Why is it that blessing and blessed are not used the same way throughout the entire Bible? And there is a good reason. We give, for instance, here's Deuteronomy 28, 1 and 2. If you diligently obey the Lord your God, all these blessings will come upon you. And all those blessings happen to be in the land and on the earth. And then here in Ephesians 1, 3, addressed to the church, blessed be the Lord God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us, already done, With every spiritual blessing where? On the earth? No. In the heavenly places. Interesting distinction. Why the difference? So we'll be wanting to take a look at that.

Though Christ died for all the sins of all mankind for all time, He died for the sins of those people who haven't been born yet. He died for Adam's sin. He died for the sins of King David. He died for yours and mine. He died for the sins of all mankind.

Not everybody of all time and of all groups and of all people is made to be in Christ. Not even the same thief on the cross was made to be in Christ. Not Noah, not Abraham, not Moses, and not David. Saved by faith? Yes. In Christ? No. Why the distinction? Why the difference? And why does it matter? We'll be taking a look at that.

The Bible continues to lay out actually from earlier chapters initially on to the very last pages of the Bible that there are three primary groups of people that are revealed. And they are the Gentiles, and Israel, and the Church. And those three groups were started in time in that sequence. First the Gentiles, then Israel, and then the church. If not all three groups existed throughout all time, but they were started and begun in that sequence. Those three groups continue on with those identities on into eternity. And we'll see that too.

The Gentiles are all those who are not ethnically Jewish. I know from time to time I'll have somebody say, what's a Gentile? And it's all those who are not ethnically Jewish. Now it is an ethnic distinction. They are indeed ethnically Gentiles. It's an ethnicity. And it is all those who are not Jewish. That's the distinction. It is a people begun in Adam. The Gentiles began in Adam.

The Jews are all who trace their ethnic lineage through Abraham, Isaac, and then Jacob. Abraham was a Gentile that God selected to have be the beginning of the Jews. So it traced through Abraham, Isaac, and then Jacob. Jacob, the father of the tribes. So those are the Jews.

It's an ethnic distinction, just like Gentiles. Finally, the church is all those regardless of the ethnic distinction, saved by faith from the time of Acts 2, the beginning of the church, the day of Pentecost, if you will. until the rapture, the time when the Lord comes to take his church home with him.

That's the third group. It's not an ethnic group. As a matter of fact, it contains those who are ethnically Jewish and those who are not ethnically Jewish or Gentiles. It contains both. But it's not primarily an ethnic group. It is a spiritual group. Now, you have on page two this chart. And I want you to brace yourself. We're going to proceed through this chart in a format that is different from what we usually do.

If you aren't here except for the first time, then you won't know what we usually do, and maybe it'll be just fine, okay? But if this is something that you're unaccustomed to, you might look at it and say, we've never done this before. Don't be disoriented. Let's assume you're oriented in the beginning. Don't be disoriented. We're going to go through one line at a time.

We're going to look at Gentiles, again, an ethnic group that defines all those who are not Jewish. Israel, those who are in fact Jewish, Jewish ethnically. And the church. So we'll go through those three groups. And now, the Gentiles are also called in the Bible, particularly, though not exclusively, The nations or peoples, that's nations plural or peoples plural. Those are other terms used for the Gentiles. The Gentiles, that term is used mostly in the New Testament and not the Old. Nations and peoples is more commonly the term that you'll find in the Old Testament.

Israel, also called Hebrews or Jews, but I'm not done. If you want to add to that, they're also sometimes called Jacob, or in contrast to nations and peoples, the nation, singular, and the people, singular. So Israel is Hebrews, Jews, Jacob, the nation, and the people. And finally, the church is the body and bride of Christ, or called the body of Christ or the bride of Christ. Those are the distinctions that are made there in the chart. So those are the three people groups and some of the other names that you will see them called.

So now the Gentiles begin in Genesis 1 through 11. That's the first 11 chapters of the Bible in the book of Genesis and they are They are described there as to how the Gentiles, the non-Jews, began, essentially the beginning of all mankind. It steps from the creation into the time of the flood and just afterwards, just prior to the time of Abraham. Beginning with Abraham, Genesis 12, through the end of the book of Genesis, through verse 50, is the introduction to the nation of Israel. or the Hebrews, or the Jews, or the people, or the nation, if you will.

OK. And then finally, the church, Acts 2 through 28. Basically, from the second chapter of Acts to the end of the book of Acts is the introduction to how the church began. So you have some multiple chapters in how each group began. OK? We're doing OK so far. So we have the Gentiles. Genesis 1-11. Israel, Genesis 12-50. And the church not begun until Acts 2-28. Okay.

Then the Gentiles, the primary stewards. What do we mean by a steward? Someone who is given responsibility for establishing something and continuing it. So the primary stewards we find there are Adam and Noah. There are others, but these are some of the key stewards for that group, the Gentiles, the non-Jews. You find the primary steward for Israel is Moses.

Moses is the author of the first five books of the Bible, and so he describes in those books the beginnings of the people of Israel. And finally for the church, Christ. Now something I need to make note of, and something we're finding out here in this book of Matthew, there are four books that start the New Testament we call the Gospels, right? And those four books that start the Gospels are mostly addressed to the Jews and talking about the Jews and the people of Israel and the ones only in the land of Israel. Only at the very end of each of the Gospels does it actually address the church. Only at the very end. And Jesus passed the baton, so to speak, onto the apostles. for carrying on the establishment of the church.

All right, now, the reigning principle. What do we mean by reigning principle? A principle is either a fundamental truth or the way things work. In this case, it's the way things work. God used a law of conscience. He didn't use a whole bunch of rules and didn't reveal a lot about how people were to behave. It was the law of conscience that's also revealed in the book of Romans, chapter 2, verse 15, is how that's described. The law or principle, the way things work, of conscience. For Israel, it was the law of Moses.

613 laws. Got them all memorized? Good. All right. 613 laws. As a matter of fact, you really don't have to do that much. It sounds like a lot of laws. 365 of them are things not to do. So if you don't have to do 365 things, that sounds easier, right?

Oh boy. Okay. And then finally, for the church, grace. Grace is the reigning principle. Okay. And by the way, we're not done talking about grace. You probably would have guessed that, right? Whose works? The Gentiles. I mean, you have your conscience and you do it yourself. So self is how you rely on living. For those who are under law, the law of Moses, here are the 613 laws, 365 things not to do. You do it or don't do it, as the case may be. And finally, whose works? It is Christ's works and Christ's life in the believer that makes it happen.

For all three groups, Christ died for all. Every single one. That is across the board. Christ died for all. We don't need to worry about making any distinctions there. He died for the sins of all mankind for all time. Even the ones people haven't even thought of yet.

Right? Okay. Next, we have saved. Now we say some by faith. What do we mean by this? Here's the group of Gentiles. Are they all saved? No. They're not all saved. So that's why we say some are saved. And those that are saved are saved by what? By faith. It's still by faith. And here's an interesting thing. Did everybody know? Did Noah know that there would be a guy named Jesus Christ born in Bethlehem and would be raised in Nazareth by Mary and Joseph and would die on a cross? No. Noah didn't know that, did he? But was Noah saved?

Yes, by faith in God and God's provision. So the content of what is believed by faith may change over time, but salvation is always by faith. So of these Gentiles, some are saved, not all of them. So the Gentiles as a group are some saved, some not saved. All who are saved, however, are saved by faith. Israel, the same is true. All those who are Jews, who are Hebrews, are they all saved? No. They're an ethnic distinction, some of whom are saved by faith, and some are not. By the way, how many Jews got saved by the law?

None. Zip. Zilch. Nada. None of them got saved by the law. This is an important distinction for people to get straight. No Jew ever got saved by the law. It is even theoretically possible, and I imagine it actually has happened, that a Jew would be saved by faith and yet die by the law.

Isn't that possible? Yeah. Let's take it for instance. A Jew would be saved by faith but would accidentally, even without thinking, pick up a piece of firewood on Saturday morning. That's all it takes. All of a sudden you pick up a piece of firewood and you're eligible to study rocks up close. Right? So that, so that is an important distinction.

The law will not save anybody. The law is to determine who gets blessed and who gets cursed. That's what the law is for. The law is not to save anybody. Salvation is always by faith. The distinction with the church, the church is only those who are saved. We don't have unsaved people in the church, right? The church is only those who are saved by faith in what Christ has done on the cross and in his burial and his resurrection. That is it. There are no unsaved people in the church. Oh, yes, they can come into the building, but not in the true body of Christ, not in those who are of the bride of Christ. So here's the distinction.

Gentiles, some are saved, and if they're saved, it's by faith. Jews, some are saved, and if they're saved, it's by faith. Church, all are saved. Why? It is not an ethnic body, it is a spiritual body that is composed only of those who are saved. But all are saved by faith, by faith in Christ who died for all. Okay?

Now, identification, baptism, and phrasing in scripture, how is it typically called? The Gentiles are all in Adam. They had a baptism with Noah, and the term you find frequently, mostly in the Old Testament, is among the nations, occasionally among the peoples. So this is the standard scriptural phrase for identification in baptism and how it's phrased in the Bible. The Jews, however, were baptized into Moses as they went through the water and the sea and as they were under the cloud. This is 1 Corinthians chapter 10. It says that they were baptized into Moses. They were identified with Moses, the giver of the law. The standard phrase, and you'll see it in a great many passages in the Old Testament, is in Israel. Occasionally in Jacob. But that phrase shows up repeatedly, dozens of times.

Finally, baptized into Christ. This is the message of Romans 6. This is the message of Galatians 3. Baptized into Christ. When we think of baptism, we oftentimes think of water. But baptism ultimately is a placing into an immersion in order to be permanently changed. They would baptize a sword by heating it up white hot and plunging it into water. They would baptize it and therefore permanently change the character of that sword, hardening the outside surface of the sword. They would baptize cloth by baptizing it in a dark dye and therefore it would be permanently changed, changed in character. This is what we mean by baptize. It is an identification and immersion into in order to be changed as a result of that.

The standard phrase that you'll find in scripture is in Christ. There are variations on that. In Ephesians you'll find in him, in the beloved, and terms like that. But the standard phrase is in Christ. Alright, so those are the three identifications. Baptism, and the phrases that you'll find in scripture repeatedly once those are presented.

Now, let's look at the nature of the blessings. Initially, Adam and Noah were given almost identical blessings. It says in each case that God blessed Adam or blessed Noah and told them, be fruitful and multiply. The Jews considered that be fruitful and multiply to be one of their 613 laws. You must be fruitful and multiply. They were blessed for earthly reproduction. That was the blessing. The blessing was earthly, given by God, who was spiritual, but the blessing was earthly.

For Israel, it's conditional and earthly. Why do we say that? It is if you do these laws, you'll be blessed. So it's conditional, right? And it's earthly. How will you be blessed? You'll be blessed because you won't get any of these diseases. You'll be blessed because your crops and your flocks will be fruitful and abundant. So it's an earthly blessing.

It's conditional. And then finally, the church is blessed unconditionally and in the heavenly places with every spiritual blessing. What do I mean by that? Here's Ephesians chapter 1 verse 3. You're blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. Is that conditional?

No. You're just absolutely blessed. Bottom line, that's the end. You are blessed. Where's the blessing? Is it here? No. It's blessed in the heavenly places. And by the way, that's good. Nobody can touch it. Nobody can mess with it. Right? Blessed in the heavenly places and where? In Christ. Why? Because you're in Christ. You're blessed in the heavenly places in Christ.

Then, when it comes to dealing with them, did they have moral issues? Yes! He waits till chapter 4 to tell them, by the way, let's talk about your stealing and lying problem. So did they have issues? Yes, they did. But it wasn't a condition for their blessing to deal with those. They weren't told, look, once you get done dealing with your lying problem, you'll be blessed. No. He says, let me tell you, you're blessed. And now that we've gotten that square, now let's talk about your moral issues. OK.

We have, how do I interpret earthly difficulties? Among the Gentiles, there was the fall where God told them, look, for the woman, there's going to be this consequence. For the man, there's going to be this consequence. There were also limitations to cause people to seek God. When Paul speaks to the Gentiles on his missionary journeys, one of the things he tells them is that there are constraints placed upon the Gentiles to cause them to seek God.

So that's how they would interpret difficulties in life. The Jews, however, would get cursed for disobeying and cursed in earthly ways. If they encountered difficulties, they would say, ah, it's because God is cursing me. But for us in the church, are we to look at difficulties and say, automatically, it's because God's cursing me? No. As a matter of fact, I would not recommend that you go and get angry at God because God didn't do His job. Why?

It's because the difficulties in our path are for two very good purposes. One is it may be for discipline, but it may also just simply be a trial that the Lord intends to cause you to grow and to conform you to the image of His Son. So each group interprets difficulties differently and ought to. And it's important that we interpret things according to the group that we're in.

We in the church ought not to be looking at, oh, I'm being cursed because I've disobeyed. Now, the next thing is to look at the Gentiles are under partial grace. The same is true with the Jews. Now, what happens in the church today? The church often likes to mix law and grace. But what I have to say to that is you missed your chance. It's too late if you want to mix law and grace.

People like to have a little bit of law. I don't want 613. That's a little bit hard for me to remember, so I'll just pick 10. Except there's one there I don't like, the Sabbath thing, that doesn't work so good for me, so I'll just pick nine. Oh, wait a minute, I like to add tithing into that, so there's ten. And a couple others.

You see, what people do is they like to slice the law down to size, and then you don't need such big grace either. You see the problem? Mini-law calls for mini-grace. We need to understand the law is ominous. Grace is awesome. So that's why we have grace as the reigning principle. Grace for the church is not a mixture of law and grace.

It's full on, full out, pedal to the metal, maxed out, pure grace, red line grace. That's what it is. Nothing halfway about it. No speed limit on grace. This is pedal to the metal, full turbos, everything going, okay? That's what grace is. None of this mixtures of a little bit of law, a little bit of grace, you know, patty cake, patty cake, married little lamb, none of that stuff, okay? Full on, full out, pedal to the metal grace, red line all the way.

That's the grace we're talking about. Now, how about the Spirit's role? In Genesis, it talks about the spirit not striving with man. This is talking in reference to the Gentiles. But in a future time, this is Joel 2.28, the spirit will be poured out during the time of the kingdom on all mankind. Poured out on all mankind. In addition to that, during the time of the kingdom, Israel will have a new covenant in which every single Jew will be indwelt by the Holy Spirit and will be empowered to both know all the law and to live it out.

There will be no need for rabbis. Why? Because they will all know the law from the heart without any teachers. It says explicitly that without anyone teaching them they will know it and they will be empowered to live it out. That's the problem with the law is up until that time there's no empowerment for that. But God's not doing that with us.

The Holy Spirit indwells each and every believer all the time. It is popular these days in some churches to go pleading for the Holy Spirit to come back. I don't know how he leaks out between services. But it's popular for people to go pleading, and they'll go, please come back. And what they're oftentimes looking for is not a return of the Holy Spirit, but they want that feeling that they had last week.

And so they're oftentimes looking for a feeling or looking for an experience rather than trusting in what God's Word says, that if you're a believer, The Holy Spirit does indwell you, every single believer, all the time, all the time while we're on this planet, all the way up to the day we go see the Lord. So different between each of these three groups.

Finally, we have a title during Christ's kingdom reign. This is the coming reign of Christ on the earth. The Gentiles will have Christ as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. That's what that title means. It's the King of Kings and Lord of Lords over the Gentiles.

There was a Persian ruler who had a bunch of silver plates made. It was Artaxerxes. And around the perimeter of the plate, guess what title he had as a ruler over a number of nations? King of Kings and Lord of Lords. That was the title of the ruler over an empire and a number of nations. But that's the title Christ will have as he will rule over all the nations of the earth.

He will be the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He will be the King of Israel and the Messiah. That's what he was born for. Remember what the wise men came searching for? They said, where is he who is born King of the Jews? He was born to be King of the Jews. Pilate asked him, you know, are you the king? It's as you say. He was born king of the Jews, and he will be, and that day could be as close as seven years from this day when he comes again. During that kingdom time, he will be the bridegroom with whom will reign.

Do we have a place in the kingdom? Yes, but it's not the same as Israel's, and it's not the same as the Gentiles'. We will have a place. We'll be the bride of Christ. He will be the bridegroom. We will reign with Him. Finally, what is the gospel? The gospel to the Gentiles is a gospel of substitution.

Christ died in my place. I should have been the one taking the nails. I should have been the one paying the price. I should have been the one taking the penalty. But instead, an astounding love, Christ died for me. That is a gospel that applies to the Gentiles from the very beginning. For Israel, that same gospel is true, because do the Jews need to have Christ die for their sins? Absolutely.

There's no other way. But there is also a gospel of the kingdom, and that is why when Jesus sent out his disciples, as Randy read for us earlier, Jesus sent out his disciples. He says, don't go. to the Gentiles. Don't even go on a road that leads to the Gentiles. I want you to take this gospel of the kingdom and I want you to take it only to the Jews here in the land of Israel. That's all. The gospel of the kingdom, they needed to hear it. The gospel of substitution, they needed to hear that too. Two gospels. We'll be talking about that more. And finally for us in the church, a gospel of substitution.

Christ died in my place. The death that I deserved to die, he died for me. The penalty that I deserved to take, he took in my place. He was the substitute for me. He volunteered to say, I'll take the hit for Vern. I'll take the penalty that Vern deserves. He died in my place.

That's the gospel of substitution. It's not the same as the gospel of there is this coming kingdom, and the king will reign, and it will be on this land, or you'll be blessed here on the earth. Different gospel. Are they both good news? Yep. But different gospels. So you have this chart. I'm glad you lived through it. Nobody's fallen through the floor or hit the ceiling. That's great.

All right, now we're going to go back to the first page, last three slides. So why would we go through all of this? Christians have not always understood these truths, the ones that are on this inscrutable chart that we just went through. Very clearly, they haven't known what God intends, what God has in mind. Some have thought themselves under some or all of the law of Moses. Oh great, now that I'm a Christian, I'll go ahead and do the laws anyway.

Or I'll pick the ones I want. That's better. Sort of a smorgasbord, you know, buffet sort of arrangement. Some have seen themselves as earthly people with conditional earthly blessings. Oh, I know that I'm doing all the right stuff because I'm being blessed. And so they come up with things like that. And matter of fact, a lot of churches and people especially see them on television, you know, they've got this arrangement, you know, you can't out give the Lord. So if you give all your money to me, you know, the Lord will bring it back to you, you know, that little story.

Talk about spin. Okay. Some have seen themselves as earthly people with conditional earthly blessings. If we fall for that, that's where we're headed. But that's for the Jews. Deuteronomy 28. Conditional earthly blessings. That's Deuteronomy 28 given to the Jews.

Some have seen Christ as their king, the church as their kingdom, And as a matter of fact, this originated with the Jews as the Christ killers. There was a time in the church when if you were kind to the Jews, you could be penalized or even excommunicated. The teaching was, God hates the Jews, and if you're a good Christian, you will too. That was the teaching that goes along with this.

But wait, there's more, and this isn't even an infomercial, and it's not 2 a.m., and we're not watching television. Some Christians mistakenly see it as their godly responsibility to take dominion over the earth, politically, economically, and militarily for Christ. We even have some of them running for president. And I'm not kidding. Something to consider, it is not A Christian's responsibility to force God's kingdom to come on earth by grabbing hold of our military and political and economic system. That's not what God has in mind. But there are Christians that teach that, and there are Christians that live that way.

Some have not understood all of what took place on the cross. Some have thought, oh, Christ died for the sins of everyone. But that's not all that took place on the cross. The cross was Christ's death on the cross for every person on the planet that ever will live or ever has lived or is ever living now.

That's one thing. There is also another thing that happened on the cross. And that is, it was the blood ratification of the new covenant with Israel. And, we're not done, every believer in the body of Christ was identified with Christ on that cross in his death. That's all of what took place on the cross in summary.

But much of that is forgotten. And we want to make sure we don't forget it. You see, we have motive, means, and opportunity. Sounds like you're about to be convicted, right? Motive, means, and opportunity. The body of Christ, our motive for how we live is distinct. We have a distinct motive. Grace and mercy are to be our motives.

Ephesians 4.32, why do you forgive? It's not like the Sermon on the Mount. You better forgive or you won't be forgiven. Forgive because you've been forgiven. See, it's the same forgiveness, right? Why? It's because it's the same God. But it's a different principle. It's a grace principle. Remember we said grace, pedal to the metal, full turbos all the way. Forgive because you've been forgiven. Grace and mercy are the motivations for doing things, not because of a threat.

We have a means of living that is from the life of Christ and the indwelling Holy Spirit. And the three words that are used in the New Testament are we are enabled, we are energized, and we are empowered by the Holy Spirit to live things out. We have a means of living things out. And our opportunity is not to be blessed or cursed in earthly ways. But to walk as children of light, as instruments of the Lord Jesus Christ while we have a citizenship here.

Let's pray. Lord, we thank you as we look here at what scripture says in big sweeping terms. We thank you that you have a very special thing in mind for us and you did particular and specific things and you told us what those things were. And we ask, as we proceed ahead in the weeks ahead, for clarity of understanding. We ask, Lord, that we might see clearly what you have done and what you intend, that we might live for now and for the purpose of eternity as pleases you, by your strength, by your very life. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.