The Two Israels
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Our Scripture lessons this morning are from Deuteronomy 1:34-40 and Romans 9:6-13:
“And the Lord heard your words and was angered, and he swore, ‘Not one of these men of this evil generation shall see the good land that I swore to give to your fathers, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh. He shall see it, and to him and to his children I will give the land on which he has trodden, because he has wholly followed the Lord!’ Even with me the Lord was angry on your account and said, ‘You also shall not go in there. Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you, he shall enter. Encourage him, for he shall cause Israel to inherit it. And as for your little ones, who you said would become a prey, and your children, who today have no knowledge of good or evil, they shall go in there. And to them I will give it, and they shall possess it. But as for you, turn, and journey into the wilderness in the direction of the Red Sea.’
But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. For this is what the promise said: “About this time next year I will return, and Sarah shall have a son.” And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls— she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
May God bless this the reading of His holy and infallible Word.
I am sure that most of us have known someone who uses the excuse “the church is full of hypocrites”!
Some use this excuse of not believing in Christ; others use it as an excuse of not coming to church: and I think we all are frustrated and sadden by hypocrisy.
In Romans 9, Paul is broken hearted by Israel’s hypocrisy and unbelief. Apart from a tiny minority, the Jews rejected Jesus as their Messiah. You must understand how shocking this was, in that same chapter Paul writes:
They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.
Do you understand what Paul is saying? Israel was the Old Covenant church; they were the “insiders”, the Gentiles were the “outsiders”. If anyone was to believe in the Jesus as Messiah, it would have been the Jews, it was the Gentiles, the “outsiders” who were responding to the Gospel in droves. What was going on?
As we heard earlier, Paul explains “it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise”. Just as we confessed earlier from the Westminster Larger Catechism, the visible church (be it the church of the Old or the New Covenant), has within it a smaller subset of true believers who are the invisible church. We see this in our text today, at the time of the rebellion that took place at Kadesh-barnea there were over 603,000 fighting men between the ages of 20 and 60. Of this number, only two, Caleb and Joshua were true believers! We speak of this true church being “invisible”, because normally, God does not identify true believers by name as He does in Deuteronomy.
However, YOU can know which church you belong to. Are you, like Caleb and Joshua, members of the invisible church, or are you a hypocrite like this vast army was?
To answer this question, we need to understand three things:
Who are the Children of the Flesh?
Who are the Children of the Promise?
How Can I Confirm by Calling and Election?
First we will look at...
The Children of the Flesh
The Children of the Flesh
When Paul speaks of the “children according to the flesh”, he is speaking of those are direct, physical decedents of Abraham. Even today we speak of “Jews”, meaning people who are genetically related to Abraham. Isaac was not Abraham’s only son: his first-born son was Ishmael, and then there were six other sons by a third wife and Genesis 25:6 suggest there were other sons by concubines! All these sons had sons; and so, you can see that there is a vast number of physical decedents of Abraham!
We see much the same thing in the New Covenant church, world-wide, most people profess to be “Christians”. Many do so because they were born into a “Christian home”. Others do so because they are baptized, go through a confirmation class, or make a profession of faith. Some of these people are true believers, but many are not.
In many ways, the critics are right, the church is full of a bunch of hypocrites; and this makes many question, “Why does God not just purge the church of false believers?”
Jesus gives us the answer in the parable of the weeds:
He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, “Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.” ’ ”
To purge the church now, would destroy the church and its mission. Although the visible church is far from perfect; the church is God’s ordained means for advancing His Kingdom in this present evil age. It is within the church that sinners are saved, even hypocrites!
This brings us to the second point:
The Children of the Promise
The Children of the Promise
Who are these children of promise? Are they children of promise because they are better than other people? Not at all! Earlier in his letter to the Romans, Paul make it clear that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23) and that “all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin” (Rom 3:9). In Ephesians 2:1-3, Paul says prior to conversion we are “dead in our trespasses and sins”, slaves of Satan and just objects of God’s wrath!
In Romans 9, Paul makes it plain that God does not chose who will be a child a promise based upon any foreseen merit or faith.
And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls— she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
Some will object saying, “This is not fair!” Paul anticipated this objection, and explains:
What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.
Paul’s point is that election has nothing to do with justice, but rather election has everything to do with mercy.
In Deuteronomy, we find a beautiful picture of this: Caleb was an Edomite! Ethnically he was not a son of Jacob, but of Esau! Do you understand the significance of this? It tells us that just as not all Israel is “Israel”, not all Esau is “Esau”!
This is Good News, it is Gospel, because as we have just learned all of us were born spiritually as Edomites. This means that God elects, not on the bases of foreseen merit, but rather upon His mercy. In mercy, God makes us spiritually alive so we can have true faith!
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
At this point, all of you should be asking yourselves, “Is my faith real, and am I an object of God’s mercy?”
There is a way to know the answer to that question, and that is what I want to talk about now.
Be Diligent in Confirming Your Calling and Election
Be Diligent in Confirming Your Calling and Election
In his second letter, the Apostle Peter writes:
Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall.
What qualities is he speaking of which we must practice? The first of these is faith in God’s promises:
His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.
When the promises of God are preached in the visible church, there is “divine power” being unleashed that can make us spiritually alive. As I am preaching this morning, are you finding your heart being drawn to God in faith? Then respond!
If you find yourself responding to God in faith, you now need to test that faith. The second quality Peter says we must have is obedience, produced by faith.
For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Notice what our text says about Caleb:
except Caleb the son of Jephunneh. He shall see it, and to him and to his children I will give the land on which he has trodden, because he has wholly followed the Lord!’
Obedience is always the fruit of saving faith. The two go hand and hand.
Now I want to clarify something, although we are no longer slaves to sin, our old sin nature remains to harass and tempt us. Do not look to perfect obedience, but progressive obedience. Is the Holy Spirit giving you victory over sin? If so, you can be assured you have saving faith and you are one of God’s elect.
Yes, there are hypocrites in the church, because it is the place sinners are transformed into saints. Perhaps your faith and obedience are not in accord with your profession. What better time to set things right than today? Today there can be one less hypocrite in the church if you whole-heartedly trust and obey God as Caleb and Joshua did. Make sure you are a part of the invisible church, not just the visible church.