And please turn again in the Bible to the book of Romans, this time at the very end of chapter 8. Romans, chapter 8. As a reminder of where we have been, we'll pick up at verse 38, and then we're going to consider especially the beginning of chapter 9. You can find that on page 945. I'm going to begin reading at Romans 8, 38, and I'll read as far as chapter 9, verse 9. Please give your attention to the Word of God. For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. I am speaking the truth in Christ. I am not lying. My conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit. that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen, according to the flesh. 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. 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. Now, did you catch the transition there? We could have backed up a little farther into chapter 8. Chapter 8 ends, and he is He is exultant. He is triumphant. There is nothing that can separate us from the love of God and Christ Jesus. He finishes chapter 8 on a high. And remember, He's not writing in chapters. He's not writing in verses. He's just writing. And as He's writing, He goes from nothing can separate us from the love of God and Christ Jesus our Lord, to I have unceasing grief and anguish in my heart. Now what kind of a transition is that? I mean, it's exactly back to back. Again, there's no chapter divisions when he writes this. Chapter divisions and verse divisions are for us, so that I can say to you, let's all turn to Romans 8.38. That's for us. That's not what he was writing. No numbers of that sort were in there. So he's writing, nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. His fists are in the air, and then he says, I have unceasing anguish. Why does he have this kind of transition? Well, he knows he has some unfinished business when it comes to proclaiming the gospel. He knows that he's been proclaiming Jesus as the long-promised Messiah. But he knows that a skeptic can say, oh, really? Well, if this is the Messiah that all these Jews are waiting for, then how come so few of them think he actually is the Messiah? Why should I think he's the Messiah if most Jews don't? And this Jewish audience can say, well, if most Jews have not believed in the Messiah, then what are you saying about them? Are you saying that they're cut off from God? Are you saying that God has rejected them? Are you saying that God is damned? I don't think I can handle, I don't think I'm prepared to accept that. And the Christian can say, you just told me as hard as you could that I can count on God. But didn't God make Israel promises? So you can see why, at the very point that is most firmly driving home that we can count on the promises of God, he needs to deal with these questions. Well, what about the people who last got promises from God? Why aren't they on board with what you're saying? What about Israel? And what about God? And therefore, what about God and me? You see, that comes back to be personal. You can kind of think of it as sort of, OK, well, what about Jews? It's sort of this intellectual question, if you're not Jewish. You can think of it that way. But it's more than that, because it's what about God and Israel? And then what about God and His promises? So then what about me and God and His promises? As he comes back, it's becoming a very important question. So he says, here is the main thesis that I will demonstrate. It is not as though God's Word has failed. That's his bottom line. God's Word, however, has not failed. And he will go on to prove that. And as he goes on to prove that, what's he going to have to do? He's going to quote the Old Testament over and over again. And so if you just sit there and look at chapters 9 and 10 and 11, you see more and more of those set-apart quotation things. And that's not all of them. That's only the long ones. In those paragraphs where it looks like, oh, no quotes, if you look more carefully, there's going to be a whole bunch of shorter quotes. One third of all of Paul's quotations from the Old Testament, and I mean one third in all of his letters, are in these three chapters of the Book of Romans. He's going to keep saying in the Old Testament says this, which means this. And see, it's because the Old Testament says this. And see, it means that, because the Old Testament also says this. He's going to do that now for three chapters. He's going to keep quoting the Old Testament, because he needs to show us how it is not as if the Word of God has failed. So he's going to use that Word of God, and he's going to teach us how to read it. We need the New Testament to teach us how to read the Old Testament. If you don't read the Old Testament in light of the New, then you either end up with a Jewish reading, or perhaps you end up with your own idiosyncratic reading, But you don't get Jesus' reading. The New Testament gives us Jesus' reading of the Old Testament. And since He is the greatest of all the prophets, we need Him. The woman at the well said, I know when Messiah comes, He will teach us all things. And she had that right. Messiah comes, and so we need Jesus. And we need Him and His teaching in the New Testament to show us this is the meaning of the Old Testament. This is what it means. So he says, it is not as if the word of God has failed. But he approaches this painful topic of Jewish unbelief with great care. Hope you caught the care of that first paragraph in chapter 9. He's being careful. He is walking up carefully to the radioactive substance. because it's very painful for him and for his Jewish Christian audience to contemplate the many Jews who have not believed in the Christ, that is, in the Moshiach, the Messiah. And as for him, of course, he's already written a letter in which he says, those of faith in Jesus are children of Abraham. That is to say, he's the one who's put it into writing, by implication, if you're not of faith, then you're not a child of Abraham. And so, he needs to say this. He says, I am speaking the truth in Christ. I am not lying. My conscience bears me witness. He says, I'm being sincere here. Now, why does he have to pound the table that he's being sincere? Sometimes I get suspicious when somebody pounds the table that he's being sincere. Just say it. Well, he needs to do it here, because as the apostle to the Gentiles, people can ask, well, do you not care about Jews anymore? And as he teaches the Gentiles, as he teaches the church, the Gentile does not have to be circumcised. The Gentile does not have to keep the law of Moses. The Gentile does not have to keep kosher. He can be accused by Jews, and even by Jewish Christians who don't have it all straightened out yet, of being some kind of anti-Jewish renegade. They can say, yeah, we know that you were the most zealous Jewish persecutor. But it looks like you've gone way too far in the other direction. You look anti-Jewish to us." And so he's saying, no, I'm not anti-Jewish at all. I'm speaking the truth. When I tell you how much it breaks me up that more people haven't believed in Jesus. That is, that more Jews have not believed in Jesus. He broadcasts his grief. Notice that again, he says something twice. He says, I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. He's piling it up. You could have just said one of those things. You don't have to say them both. Now, cultures differ on grief. And being in America, you get to observe this. One culture, everyone is wailing as loud as they can. in the cemetery. The next culture, everybody standing in a circle at the cemetery. You have these different cultures and the different things they do with grief. One culture, everybody has to drop by the house and sit there and cry with the people. Another culture, nobody comes by. Cultures are different on grief, but There's a time where you have to open your mouth and express your grief. And so he does that here. It won't do if somebody pours out her heart to you and you just kind of look at it. Because I'm an Anglo and we don't emote. That won't do. You're supposed to mourn with those who mourn. If somebody's mourning to you, you need to at least say something that indicates that you're not a rock, even if you think rocks are cool. There's a time to mourn with those who mourn and articulate the grief, even if you don't do it to the same degree as someone else. And so he does that. He says, I am not happy. It breaks me up. I can wish I was cursed for the sake of my people. He doesn't say he does wish it. He says he could wish it. He signals that there is a line that we're not to cross. We are not to seek to be cut off from Christ for the sake of someone else. That is not ours to do. There's a hint here of Moses. Moses, after the golden calf episode, he goes up to Mount Sinai again to God, and he says, they've sinned a great sin. Please forgive them, but if you won't forgive them, please cut me off instead. And God says, that's not your job. Your job is to lead my people. That's because it was Jesus' job to be cut off. And so Paul here, he echoes Moses. I could wish for this, but I can't. That's Jesus' job. But this is how much it grieves me. and agrees me this much because I love them." What is he saying? He loves his people. Most people in the world understand that it's good to love your people. Some Americans are not sure. Not sure if it's good to love your people because Americans tend to also know that we're supposed to love everybody. So since we're supposed to love everybody, does that mean that we're not supposed to especially love those close to us? And you see here, yeah, you're supposed to love everybody, but you have a special responsibility to the people you can actually reach. You have a special responsibility to your family. You have a special responsibility to those within reach. Not to exclude anyone, but your great love for someone that you never see doesn't help them very much. And so we see here that Paul, like us, has two sets of brothers. He, like us, has the Christian brothers who take priority. But he also has the family that he grew up in. He has the people that he grew up in. He has the whole nation that he was at the heart of. And he loves them as well. And so having insisted on his honesty, having broadcast his grief that comes out of his love, then he again reiterates his respect He speaks of his kinsmen according to the flesh. Well, what was he? He was Jewish. And so he says, they are Israelites. And to them belong the adoption and the glory and the covenant. He uses the more religious word Israelite here, which is kind of funny. He's been saying Jew the whole book. That's what we read back in chapter 2 and 3, right? He's talking about who a Jew is. But here he uses the word Israelite. Commentators say that that was, for them, the more specifically religious word. God and his people, Israelites. Jew is more of a political term. More of a broad basis. Could be political, could be geographic, could be religious. Israelite, you're talking about the old time, the country of Israel, and God, and David, and Solomon, and Jacob, their father, who had been redeemed Israel. He uses the religious word Israelites. And he says, look at what they have as Israelites. They have the adoption. He doesn't mean the adoption spoken of in chapter 8. He means the adoption that God had spoken of when God told Moses, tell Pharaoh, Israel is my firstborn son. You're going to find in Deuteronomy, Moses tells the people, you are the sons of the Lord your God. And that language meant that Israel was the special focus of God's concern. He was especially looking at them especially taking care of them, looking over them. They were those who were adopted. There is just a glory. There were times when God would fill the tabernacle with His glory. Nobody else got that. This belonged to them alone. The giving of the law. No one else had stone tablets on which God had given the Ten Commandments. No one else carried the tablets around in a sacred box. The Israelites had that. They had the Ark of the Covenant and the Covenant inside. They had to worship. Every nation had its temples. Only God had filled their temple with His glory. Only their temple had been designed by God according to the pattern that God showed to Moses. Theirs was the promises. God's continued presence with them. The promise that he would rescue them. And theirs was the patriarchs. It's an honor to be descended from somebody important. And they had Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. An honor to be descended from people who have been so blessed and chosen by God. Paul had said back in chapter 3 that Jews have advantages, but he hadn't gotten by, first of all, they have the Word of God. And then he got distracted and didn't get the second of all. He has it here. Here he has second of all, third of all, fourth of all, fifth of all. He gives a list of the special promises, the special things that God had given his Old Testament people of Israel. And he's saying these are serious blessings. He's showing that he's not rejecting at all. the things that he'd been brought up with. He's saying, yes, what you believe God has done for us, I believe it too. You only have to take care to understand what the word really promises. So you notice all that is a preparatory paragraph before he gets to the main point. He approaches the main point very carefully. And there's a time for us to imitate that kind of care. Charles Hodge says, we see here that faithfulness to the truth does not require us to be as offensive as possible. Paul's not going to shrink back from the truth. He's going to start hitting it pretty hard in this chapter. But first, he tries to remove every roadblock to a hearing that he could. He tries to remove any prejudice against himself and therefore against the message that he had to teach. He said, I'm being honest. I'm filled with grief because I love my people whom I deeply respect. Someone will say, well, is that going to work? If you do that, will the people listen to you? Well, maybe, maybe not. Let's see what he goes on to say here. But we ought to imitate the apostle, imitate the scripture, and seek, when we speak of God, to make the only offense be the offense of Jesus, not the offense of John, not the offense of Bob, not the offense of Noah. We ought to seek that the only offense is the inherent offense of God's message, and that we don't add to it with anything of ourselves. You might also notice how well he speaks of Israel. Centuries of Christians have not spoken that well of Israel. And now that is a great roadblock to Jews hearing about the Christ. Centuries of Christians should have noted more what Paul says in all of these three chapters here. And of course, we see here how appropriate it is to love our own family, to love our own nation. A love for our Christian brothers is greater. But there should be a love. We should pray for faith. for those in our family who don't know the Lord. So having sought to remove all barriers to hearing, he then goes on to explain Jewish unbelief from the Jewish scriptures. He goes on to explain Jewish unbelief from the Jewish scriptures. He has his thesis, it is not as though the word of God has failed. And he has his solution, not all descended from Israel are Israel. That is to say, not all are children of Abraham just because they're descended from Abraham. He's beginning at the top. Where does the story of God and Israel begin? It begins in about 2000 BC with God calling a wealthy clan leader named Abraham to travel from Iraq somewhere westward. He doesn't tell him where. That's the beginning. of the Bible's story of God working out his plan of salvation. So you begin with Abraham. Now, how many kids did Abraham have? Oh, that's a trick question. Some of you thought one, and you're wrong. And some of you thought two, and you're still wrong. Yes, in Genesis 25 it says, this is after the death of Sarah, God took another wife named Keturah, And with Keturah he had, and then it ticks off the names. I don't remember how many. Quite a few. Abraham had quite a few children. The two famous ones are Ishmael and Isaac. And you remember Ishmael is the famous one because Sarah's idea was that Ishmael was going to be her surrogate son. Abraham and Sarah, long married, long too old, But there's a promise of a child. So Sarah, from her cultural background in the Middle East, says, have a child with my slave girl, and the child will count as mine. The catch is that the slave girl is from Egypt, where they don't have that custom, and she doesn't play along. Hagar says, I bore the child. I guess I'm the real wife around here. So Ishmael and Isaac. Well, first you just have Ishmael. And Abraham's happy with Ishmael. And so we could have read more, but when God comes to the 99-year-old Abraham and says, next year you're going to have a son with your wife, he says, oh, that Ishmael might live before you. I already have a 12-year-old son. 13-year-old son. I don't need another one. Ishmael's good enough for me. And God says, no, but your wife, will bear you a son." And so Paul here starts to work with that. He says, this is interesting. God made it his decision that Ishmael, though circumcised, would not carry on the line of promise. The children of Keturah, though presumably circumcised, would not carry on the line of promise. Through Isaac and Isaac alone shall your name be called. And so he's making a point from the beginning that it's God who makes the call. He notes that Ishmael was a child, you could say, of the flesh, born in an ordinary, expected way, born of a sinful arrangement. But Isaac's a child of promise, born from the marriage, yes, but born in an extraordinary way when they're far too old, the miraculous child who comes not randomly, but as a result of God's promise. And so he's saying, when that's how it starts, when that's how God works with the very first Israelite, Abraham, that's not just interesting detail back there in Genesis. There are principles to be drawn from that. And the principle to be drawn is, not all are Israel because they're Abraham's offspring. That was true in the very first generation after Abraham. He's saying there's a physical Israel, everyone born of Abraham, and then there's a spiritual Israel. You circumcise them all because you don't know whom God will call. But you are to understand from the beginning that God calls some, and He does not call others. And it's the same now. We baptize all in the covenant community. Because like circumcision, baptism is an outward sign of an inward grace, an inward grace that not all will have. But our baptism calls us to repent and believe, just as circumcision was to call them to repent and believe. Now, he's just beginning his answer. But we can already sketch a couple answers to those questions that we posed. When the skeptic says, Why should I believe Jesus is the Messiah if most Jews waiting for the Messiah don't believe he is? The answer already is most of Abraham's children did not inherit the promise. And if a Jew wanted to say, are you saying that God is rejecting most of us? He's saying, well, actually, God has before. And for Christians, we ought to read on further. But you might say, why? Why is Jesus so important? Why should one's response to Jesus carry so much weight as this? Well, I hope you notice that I have skipped the key point in verse 5. I skipped it to save it until now. It says, to them belong the patriarchs, obviously, And from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen. Jesus is God come in human flesh. And he says it right there in verse 5. Now somebody says to you, where does it say that Jesus is God? Well, Romans 9.5 is a pretty good place to go. Look at it. From their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ who is God over all, blessed forever. The highest privilege of Israel was that from their race came the Christ. And he makes that a distinct privilege. It's last on the list. It's got its own construction and its own clause. And he does not say that Christ belongs to Israel. Everything else belonged to Israel. And the Christ is from Israel. from their race, according to the flesh. He doesn't say that Christ belongs to Israel, because Christ sent the twelve out into the world. Christ is for the world. He belongs, if he belongs to anyone, he belongs to the world. Or rather, the world belongs to him. And he says, according to the flesh. What were Jesus' genes like? His genes were Middle Eastern Jewish genes, inherited from his mother. If you were to picture him, which you should not do. But if you were, you should picture a Middle Eastern Jewish man. Probably with a big beard, I would guess. But who knows? It doesn't tell us. Yes, from his flesh, he comes from Israel. But according to the flesh, hints that there's something else to say. And way back at the beginning of the book, in chapter 1, verse 3, he'd said, I have this gospel. about Jesus, who, according to the flesh, is from David, but who was declared to be the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead. Right at the beginning, he said, there is a flesh side, and he's from David. But there's something else to say. He's the Son of God in power. Now, Son of God by itself could have a range of meanings, as we just said. Theirs was the adoption. What do you mean when you say he's the son of God? Here's where he throws down what he means. He says Christ is God over all. He says Jesus is both man and God. Jesus has two natures in one person. He's not that he is man on the outside, God on the inside. No, that is wrong. He's entirely human and entirely God taking on human flesh. He took a full human nature into union with His divine person. And so when Jesus sent the people out to baptize in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, He's the Son in that formula. He's telling people to go out and baptize all the world into His name. You have here a full declaration of the deity of Christ. And that's why the highest privilege of Israel was that the Christ comes from their race. Why should that be the greatest privilege? That was quite a list of privileges. Well, because this Messiah is God over all. God incarnate on earth. That is an incomparable privilege. And it is why Jesus is so important. Jesus is so important that he breaks out of this little country. And he covers the whole world, you could say, because He's God of the entire world. And He came for all people. He did not simply come for Israel. And so as He is an utterly unique Savior, it is for this reason that we must respond to Him. And so you must grasp His identity. You have to grasp His mission. And you should pray constantly. for your family members who are not walking with the Lord. You should also have sorrow and anguish, even as you have joy and gladness. And you should pray, seeking to remove all barriers that you can, so that others also may come. And you never despair so long as they are alive. Seeking, hoping, praying that others will understand that Jesus is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we pray, and we know that Your Word has not failed, for You are sovereign, and You call whom You will. And so Lord, as You have told us to pray, You have told us not to be anxious, but to make our petitions known to you. We pray that you would send your spirit and build your kingdom by bringing our lost family members to yourself. Lord, we pray for those who have never known you. And we pray for those who have known you and renounced the faith. We pray for all of them together. We pray that You, by Your great power and in Your great mercy, would bring them to believe in You, to repent of their sins, and lay hold of Jesus Christ. Lord, we pray this. We pray that You would forgive us for the barriers that we have put up through our own folly, our own sins. We pray, Lord, that you would say and do and make to happen the things that we cannot make happen or say or do. And we pray, Lord, for those that we weep for, that you would bring them to saving faith. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.