Untitled Sermon (26)

We will continue our study in Romans Chapter 9. chapter 9 is not an easy chapter 2 preach out of. Paul has laid a great theological foundation in the first 8 chapters of this letter. but chapters 9 , 10 and 11 are kind of a detour in thought.

Some theologians would argue with that and I will not put much of a fight up against that. as chapters 9, 10 and 11 are heavy in theology as well. Paul has laid this great foundation. He has been preaching on the Christian life.

It was important for Paul to get to the message first before he can take any defensive positions. Not that he hasn't taken any defensive positions. But he had to wait for the specific one. It is of extreme importance to Paul to accurately set up what graves him so bad.

We begin the first 3 verses last week. The message that was preached last week was not a deliberate theme in those verses. Which is something I noticed out of the nature of Paul that seemed to be a lesson for us all to learn.

Sometimes the pages of scripture we need to stop and say be more like that person. Sometimes we need to stop in the pages of scripture and say do not be like that person. last week was one of those moments of be more like that person.

but we have to get back to the main point in the new topic that Paul is trying to introduce. And before we do I want us to reflect on the current spiritual condition of our nation. Of our people. It seems today to say our people is a nono thing to say.

It seems it is negative do have national pride of some sort. Of course pride no matter what it is in, can be destructive to anyone. Even cried in your own children can sometimes be destructive. You have parents who refuse to properly hold their children accountable out of their deep pride they have for their children.

You have Christians that have such a great pride for their nation that they have forgotten their pride for the Kingdom of God. Pride can be destructive depending on what your pride is in. I'm not talking about egotistic, selfish pride when I talk about national pride.

Some mean that when we think of those words national pride, but that is not how I am defining it. I'm defining it as someone who recognizes how blessed they are for the land that they were born in. you can be at Patriot and not agree with everything that the nation is doing.

There is so much that happens in this nation that I pray would stop and there is so much in this nation and I'm ashamed to say that yes it takes place here. But I also recognize the blessing of being born here. Now with that being explained, what is the spiritual condition of this nation. Not good.

According to a study done by Pew Research, those who claimed to be religious and spiritual Are down 11% from 2012 -2017. You may be thinking 11% is not all that bad. But there are over 327000000 people in the United States, which means 11% is over 35000000 people. That is no little number.

However on the flip side, those who claim to be spiritual but not religious is up nearly 10%. This can be explained through certain trends and fads. Lot of people do not know this but yoga is an eastern act of worship to Pagan gods. And one could argue that it is not Pagan worship in America.

And I will agree that it is not intentional Pagan worship. However, majority of yoga places have eastern Pagan artifacts where they perform yoga. and yoga does push for people to be spiritually right. Yoga is at the height of popularity right now and it makes sense to me that a good portion of those who are active in this exercise, absorb the spiritual aspect of it and recognize the significance of being spiritually right.

If yoga is growing a fad, and it makes sense to me at those numbers are correct in recognizing in our culture very sense of spirituality is on the rise but do not mistake that for authentic faith. from our current point in time the word religious and religion is a bad word. There is a lot of history behind that word and a good aspect of history has been bad history behind that word.

But I have to say before we move on the original definition of the word religious or religion is not a bad word. The word means devotion to God. You will never get in to say that being devoted to God is a bad word. Unfortunately we have allowed the world to Rob us of the meaning of that word. Like they have done with so many other words.

What this Pew Research did not do was ask the question who is Jesus? That question will help us really see the spirituality of this nation. From the moment of Christ conception, he was under attack. And even as a helpless baby, he was under attack by the king of the land. From infancy, to crucifixion, Jesus has always been under attack.

And that has still not changed. Even though Jesus was resurrected and there were over 500 witnesses to his ascension, and neither Rome or the Jews could produce a body, even after all that evidence, Jesus was still under attack. This is why Paul had to get firm. This is why paul grieved so heavy.

And over the years there have been mini heretical teachings on Jesus. And there has been much abuse to the scriptures concerning Jesus. In these first 5 verses of this chapter contain a great debate.

Before we begin our study, it is important for you to know That context it means everything. In this section we are reading has a specific context where Paul is discussing a specific group. And we can learn from that. However we cannot apply that as truth in other areas. I say this because it is always stated by Christians like that.

when you see the nation isreal being discussed, do not assume it is America. God did not make a covenant with America. America is not god's covenant people therefore we cannot apply covenant teaching to this land. We can however say but if God is willing to punish his covenant land 10 times true should be forland he did not make a covenant with.

Or we can say let's learn from past mistakes. But what we cannot do is cross out Israel and say America.so let's begin we will re read first 3 verses.

Romans 9:1–3 NASB95

I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh,

The section we discussed last week for the sake of context and as a reminder of what we covered I felt it was necessary to re read this section. Halepa ccisd he's telling the truth in the presence of Christ. It was Jesus he brought as the first witness that he is not lying in what he's about to say.

His second witness is his own conscience. Paul is saying he has a good conscience about what he is saying. That voice in his head is not accusing him of lying. We talked about the contents being completely independent of the human. so even when you tell a lie there is a voice in your head that is reminding you that's not true. Or when you were doing something if you have this feeling you should be doing this.

Even though you were willing and acting up on something the Conscience still works independent of that. And the third witness that Paul brings in is the Holy Spirit. He says his conscience testifies with him in the Holy Spirit. Paul is talking about a renewed mind. Is saying this is not my old way of thinking, this is coming from my new nature.

And what is it that he is emphasizing here in verse one? Yeah he has great sorrow and unceasing grief. For who? For what? The answer to that is in verse 3 where he stays he wishes he can be separated from Christ for the sake of his brethren and kinsman. For his national people.

We have to ask why would Paul say such a thing about the Jewish people? We stated last week that one cannot hold 2 A two Road Salvation view. This will is the teaching that because Israel is god's chosen people they will be saved no matter what. So the Jewish people have their own line of Salvation. The rest of us are saved through our faith in Jesus. This view comes from what is called dispensationalism.

And dispensationalism has been the dominating motivator of the American culture for the last 100 years. The teaching itself is only about 150 years old, that is the teaching of dispensationalist. So it is not uncommon for most Americans to have this view. If that is true, these 3 verses are absolute nonsense.

they mean absolutely nothing if dispensationalism is right. Further, the whole ministry of Jesus doesn't make sense. Especially when he looked upon a Jewish crowd and told that crowd I am the way the truth and the life, Nobody goes to the father Except through me. That is a meaningless statement to make to the Jewish people if dispensationalism is true.

How about when he told the Pharisees that they are all of their father the devil? How about when he called them a brood of Vipers? how about Peter preaching repentance and the proclamation of Jesus on the day of Pentecost? Which means he was preaching to an jewish crowd.

These next 3 chapters will help us to better understand these questions are just asked and help us better understand the role and relationship of Israel to the church and the future hope for Israel. But the reason why Paul stated the way he states it is because he is getting ready to set up for this teaching. Because it is not only dispensationalist of today that hold to disagree you that the jews are saved no matter what, but many Jewish people of pauls day did as well if not all of the Jewish people of pauls day.

So this is the introduction of such a difficult teaching in these first 3 verses emphasize the not only what Paul is about to say is true but that he grieves over this truth. And if he could he would sacrifice himself to save his national people. And he moves on to explain who are is kinsman according to the flesh and that answer is in verse 4.

Romans 9:4 NASB95

who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises,

Romans

The first 5 verses of this chapter are typically just glanced over. When reading scriptures sometimes we have to slow down. verse 4 raises a serious question; why did Paul use the word israelite. In the first 8 chapters when he referred to the Jewish people he called them Jewish.

He did not call them israelite. So why does he use that word now? Why did he not say Jewish? Or Hebrew? the quick answer to that question is because Paul is discussing a specific group and later on he will even narrow down specific group to even more specific group. But that will come up later. But for now, what is the difference between Jewish, Hebrew, and Israelite?

Jewish was just a national title comes from the word judea. Most assume that isreal is the national title for the Jewish people. And what you will learn here shortly is that it is not. Jewish is strictly just a national title. What about HEB? This title is restricted for those who speak the actual language.

A few 100 years before Jesus there was this movement called the dispersion. This is where the Jewish people were dispersed all around the Mediterranean. Overtime the Jewish people who were dispersed began to lose the Hebrew language and we're becoming more and more Greek. They were often called the hellenistic Jews.

So the word Hebrew was restricted to those who spoke the Hebrew language. Now we have the word israelite. and to answer who are the Isrealites, we have to go back to genesis.

Genesis 35:9–12 NASB95

Then God appeared to Jacob again when he came from Paddan-aram, and He blessed him. God said to him, “Your name is Jacob; You shall no longer be called Jacob, But Israel shall be your name.” Thus He called him Israel. God also said to him, “I am God Almighty; Be fruitful and multiply; A nation and a company of nations shall come from you, And kings shall come forth from you. “The land which I gave to Abraham and Isaac, I will give it to you, And I will give the land to your descendants after you.”

Genesis 35

The word is real means to contend with perseverance. And this is the name that God is giving Jacob. If you remember Jacob wrestled with an Angel all night to contend and persevere. And God wound up changing jacob's name to Israel. And then told him that many nations would come from him.

So if I was doing Long story short it would be that the Israelites are the descendants of Israel. They are the descendants of Jacob. The word Israel is not used in the national sense, like Jewish is used. It is used to describe the assembly . the assembly of Israel. today we have a different word for assembly. The word we use does mean assembly but we use a different word.

The word we use today for assembly is the church. We're talking about the Israelites being the true covenant people of God. The covenant that God made with Abraham was not all of abraham's descendants. That was not the promise. The promise was all of abraham's descendants through isack.

And God kept his promise to Abraham that the covenant people will be through isak. Pugad later narrowed it down to an even stricter group of people. It wasn't just the promise to Abraham through isak, the promise to Abraham through Isaac and Jacob. Which is why we see all the time in the Old Testament the god of Abraham Isaac and Jacob.

And if you remember Jacob had a twin brother named esau. Esau was the older and by every right, he should've had the first fruits of isack. He did not. Jacob and esau will become a major theme in Romans Chapter 9. But for now, Paul is strictly addressing the covenant people. Not everyone born in a Jewish family, but those who are the descendants of Abraham Isaac and Jacob.

So now we know the audience and Paul moves on to describe there are blessings in the past. He first dates who belongs the adoption as sons . we have already covered the doctrine of adoption in the last chapter but the doctrine of adoption is not what Paul is talking about.

He states that this group already belongs to the adoption. This is also in Old Testament theme were the Israelites are called the children of God. That is the first blessing that Paul addresses that they are the children of God . he then moves on to the glory and the covenants.

These are blessings. God displayed his glory to Israel in many different ways. We can begin with the judgment upon Egypt. The whole exodus account itself. The parting of the Red Sea and Israel walking through. Being led by a cloud of glory and a pillar of fire.

Then God made a covenant with these people. Another blessing these people had. A small nation who had no army or power was given a land and rescued from a land that was powerful and did have an army. And God made a covenant with these people which was a great blessing. God restricted it down to a small chosen few. In the small chosen few was given the law, a nation had no power was givin the law of God. They were the only nation that were given the temple service. A place where you encounter God.

They were the only nation that was giving promise, and many promises at that.

Romans 9:5 NASB95

whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.

my translation all calls them the father's and it's not a bad translation as that's what it means but patriarche is the word you should be thinking of. Israel is the group that paved the way for it all.

Expalin: text discrempacy, My translation + KJV. and what is should say.

Who is God over all

Jesus is Fully God

National blessing

Romans 9:5 NASB95

whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.