Welcome back to Barnet Bible Church. Join us this week as Pastor Hopkins continues his sermon series through the book of Romans. If you would turn with me in your Bibles to the book of Romans, Romans chapter 9 verses 1 through 6. Let's read together as a congregation. I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart, for I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises whose are the fathers, and of whom is concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen. Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect, for they are not all Israel, which are of Israel." Let's pray. Father, Jesus told the disciples that when the Holy Spirit of truth had come, he would guide them into all truth. And we ask once again this afternoon that the Spirit might be given to guide us, God, and to open our understanding as we open your Word. For we ask it in the blessed name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Let's be seated. In our last session, after spending, as I said, more than, or about a year and a half with time off for a few rabbit trails in Romans chapter 8, we finally opened chapter 9 where the Apostle Paul has turned his attention to the Jews. He's turned his attention to his kinsmen according to the flesh. His kinsmen according to the flesh who, for the most part, considered him to be an enemy of the nation of Israel. a turncoat, a traitor to Israel. Calvin notes that, quote, this was suspected somewhat even by the household of faith that he was against the Jews. And so in his preface, Paul, quote, frees himself from the false suspicion of evil toward the Jews. And so he says to the saints in Rome, We covered this briefly last week. Speaking of his nation, he says, I say the truth in Christ, I lie not. I'm telling you the truth, Paul says, I'm not lying. What I say to you is the truth in Christ. What I say to you I say with absolute sincerity, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. Paul loved his brethren, his kinsmen according to the flesh. And the pain that Paul felt, he felt considering the eternal destruction that was awaiting his Jewish brethren who had rejected their Messiah. Paul wanted the faithful in Rome, his Jewish brethren, to be assured of his genuineness. He wanted them to be assured of his truthfulness. He wanted them to be assured of his absolute sincerity when he spoke of his ongoing anguish and sorrow of heart that he felt for his nation, for his kinsmen according to the flesh, who had rejected Christ as their only hope and the only gospel whereby they might be saved. The Jews are Paul's family members according to the flesh. They're his blood relatives. But more than that, they are God's adopted nation. chosen to witness His glory, the people to whom pertain the covenants, the people to whom pertain the giving of God's law. the service and the worship of God and the promises of God concerning the coming of Messiah. And it grieves him to the depths of his heart continually. And I said in our last session that Paul's words echo Jesus' words when he was approaching Jerusalem in what is known in Luke 19 as Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem. You remember he's riding on the back of a donkey lowly. entering in Jerusalem, and the people are spreading their garments and cutting down palms from the trees, and he's writing upon these, and he's approaching the city, and when he beholds the city, as he draws near to it, he begins to weep over the city, saying, quote, if thou hadst known, oh, if you had only known, even thou, at this thy day, the things which belonged unto your peace. but now they're hid from your eyes. For the days are coming, the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and come past thee about, and keep thee in on every side, and shall lay thee even with the ground, and your children within you, and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another. And Jesus said this, because, because thou knew not the time of thy visitation. So in our last session I said Paul feels this and he grieves him to the depths of his soul. He says, I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. These are his people, his kinsmen according to the flesh, who had enjoyed so many privileges and yet they're perishing in their sins before his very eyes, having rejected their only hope. Paul is overwhelmed with grief and continual sorrow of heart at the thought of it. And this pain grips the heart of the apostle every hour of every day. And then we looked at verse three, where the apostle Paul says something that's very shocking and something that we've never heard from any of the other apostles. On account of the continual grief and pain he feels for the Jews, Paul says, look at the words in your text, I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh. The language is intense. So great is Paul's love for his Jewish brothers and sisters that he could wish himself to be, the word translated accursed here is anathema, or anathema, from Christ, that is accursed himself from Christ, if by doing so it would only mean that they would be saved. John Calvin comments here, quote, it is surely perfect love, which refuses not to die for the salvation of a friend. But there was another word added here, anathema, which proves that he speaks not only of temporal but eternal death. Dr. Sproul comments here, quote, Paul loves his people so much that he would be willing to give up his salvation for his brothers and sisters, his fellow Jews, close quote. Paul is saying that so great is his love for his Jewish kinsmen, his Jewish brothers and sisters, that he would be willing to trade his salvation for theirs if such a thing were possible. But of course, it doesn't work that way. And Paul knows that. But still he expresses his anguish of heart and his great love for the Jews in this way. And it's powerful. And it's powerful. because it is the truth in Christ. If you look at your text, he's speaking the truth in Christ. Paul isn't lying. He really means it. He could be willing to go to hell if it meant that they could go to heaven. But again, it doesn't work that way, and Paul knows it. But if it were possible, he could wish it. Such is the love of Paul for his Jewish brethren. And I said in our last session, I wonder what would happen if that were our heart towards our lost blood relatives. Imagine a mother with absolute sincerity of heart telling her lost son, I would take your place in hell, son, if I could. If it meant that you could go to heaven. But son, it doesn't work that way. Paul said in Romans 8.35, we've looked at it over and over again over the last few months, nothing can separate those who are in Christ from the love of Christ. It isn't going to happen. There's not going to be any condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. Still, that's my heart, my son, such is my love for you. Such was the Apostle Paul's love for his nation, for the Jews, for his kinsmen according to the flesh. It's heavy. Though such an exchange is entirely impossible, Paul's love for his nation expressed by these words was unmistakable, unquestionable. Could anyone doubt his sincerity, being so aggrieved at the rejection of Christ by his own, that Christ came to his own and his own received him not? The grief was great. And if it were not enough, that he goes on, these were the Israelites chosen as God's peculiar people, to be God's peculiar people from among all the nations on earth. Adding grief to sorrow, Paul says, these are they to whom pertain the covenants, the covenants made with Noah and Abraham and Moses and David and all the covenants made in the Old Testament with God's chosen people, and to them pertain the glory. The very glory of God dwelt among them, the Shekinah glory, the visible manifestation of the invisible God, in the words of Sproul. The glory of God hovering above the mercy seat, above the ark of the covenant in the tabernacle and in the holy of holies in the temple. The glory of God leading the Israelites in the wilderness with a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. To them pertained the glory. And to them, to the Jews, pertained the giving of the law, the law given on Mount Sinai to Moses, the holy law of God written on tables of stone by the very finger of God. And to these pertained the service of God, that is the true worship of God. and all the commandments of God, commanding His true worship. And to them pertained the promises of God." All the promises of God looking forward to the coming of Messiah, pertaining to Christ from Genesis to Malachi, all the promises of God. Paul's love for the Jews, his own kinsmen according to the flesh was great and his sorrow great and continuous on account of their rejection of Christ, their only hope, the only hope for Israel to whom pertained all these privileges. Still Paul goes on, and to whom belonged the fathers, the patriarchs he's talking about, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and of whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ Himself came. Christ, Israel's Messiah. Jesus came from the lineage of the Jews. Christ who is not merely a man, but who is over all, the text says, the sovereign Lord over all, the one true and living God who is blessed forever. Amen. Brothers and sisters, can you see, can you see sense by Paul's words the heaviness of the heart of this great apostle? He loved His kinsmen, according to the flesh, to whom pertained all these great privileges, and to whom Christ Himself came. And yet the greater part of them are perishing. The nation has rejected Him." And then, picking up with verse 6, Paul anticipates a conclusion that some might draw from all this. Well, then surely then the Word of God has failed. Through them came the Word of God. I guess the Word of God has failed then. I mean, look, the Word of God came by the Jews, and the Jews enjoyed all these privileges, but you look around and there's this near universal rejection of the gospel by them, so the promises of God must have failed. Paul says no. No, notwithstanding all the great privileges known by the Jews and yet their near universal rejection of Christ in his generation, nothing has changed. with regards to the salvation of the souls of men, nothing has changed. It's not as though the word of God that came by way of the Jews has in any way failed. It is not as though the word of God and the King James has taken none effect or failed to accomplish all God has intended with regards to the salvation of the souls of men, no. God's word never returns unto him void. It always accomplishes all that it has been sent out to accomplish, as the prophet Isaiah said. Nothing has changed with regards to the eternal purposes of God to save His people from their sins. The Word of God has not failed. What you need to understand, and this is the key to it all that the Apostle Paul is trying to drive home here and he's leading up to, what you've got to understand is that they are not all Israel, which are of Israel. That's the thing you've got to grasp. They are not all Israel who are of Israel. They are not all spiritual Israel, the spiritual sons and daughters of God who are of the physical lineage of Israel. They are not all spiritual Israel who are the physical descendants of Israel. Does everyone understand that? Neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they all children, he says next. They're not all the spiritual children of Abraham who are of the seed, the physical seed, natural lineage or seed of Abraham. Paul is saying here, and that's the way it's always been. Salvation is not biological. And it never has been. Or as Matthew Henry put it, grace does not run in the blood. Paul is now driving home what he said earlier in Romans chapter 2. If you want to flip over to Romans chapter 2, remember he said, for he is not a Jew who is one, what? Outwardly. But he is a Jew who is one, what? You remember Paul was dealing in chapter 2 with the Jews of his age who believed that the sign of circumcision meant you're in. You're in. You're good with God. You're saved. And Paul says no. The circumcision that matters is not that circumcision which is outward in the flesh, but that circumcision which is inward of the heart. It's a spiritual thing. He is not a Jew who is one outwardly, but he is a Jew who is one inwardly. And he was saying the same thing in chapter 2 that he's saying here in verse 6 of chapter 9. He's saying, they are not all Israel who are of Israel. And it's the same thing, it's the same message from the beginning. Remember at the coming of John the Baptist, John dealt with the same thing in the wilderness when he was baptizing and in the Jordan and people are flooding in from all parts to receive the baptism of repentance and they're confessing their sins. And all of a sudden the Pharisees and Sadducees show up. Remember the scene? The Pharisees and Sadducees show up and when he sees them, John says, what, oh you seed of Abraham, you are the saved and people of God. No. He said, oh generation of vipers. He called them poisonous snakes. Who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Who told you, he was saying, who told you leaders of the Jews that you could come here and participate in this? Who told you that you who have not repented of your sins could come here and escape the judgment of God? Those Jewish leaders who came to John expecting to be baptized and honored before the people were convinced that they were among the favorite of God and accepted in God's sight merely because they were born of Jewish stock. John says, no. You see the offense of the gospel? People are always being corrected. No, that's not right thinking. No, you're deceiving yourself. And then pointing them to Christ and his person and his work and the cross. There's always this offense that's taken. Because they're always taking the true ministers of God all the way from Genesis to Revelation in the history of the world since the Scriptures were put into our hands. They're always saying things that people don't want to hear. That's why there's the martyrs of the church. That's why you have brothers and sisters in jail and prisons and being persecuted all around the world. Oh, generation of vipers, who told you you could flee the wrath to come? John says, look, first go and show forth fruits worthy of repentance. That is the fruits that manifest or reveal a heart that has truly been changed by God. And don't think to say within yourselves, here he goes. John says, don't think to say within yourselves, we have Abraham to our father. He anticipates it. He knows what they're thinking. It's the same thing that was going on in the Old Testament when they talked about circumcision, and circumcision of the heart, not circumcise your hearts, not your flesh, the Old Testament prophets said. Same thing. We have Abraham to our father. What was going on? We're the descendants of Abraham. John says, in effect, your lineage means nothing. God is able to take up these stones here and raise them up unto children of Abraham. Being a descendant of Abraham doesn't make you a true son of God. John was saying the same thing that Paul is saying in our text this afternoon. They are not all Israel who are of Israel. Grace does not run in the blood. And it's the same thing Jesus, encounter with the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the doctors of the law again and again. They were convinced that God's favor rested upon them merely because they were the physical descendants of Abraham. In John chapter eight, for instance, Jesus tells Jews who are believing on him, it says they believed on him, and what does he say to them? He says, look, you need to be set free and the truth will set you free. You need to be set free by the truth. And they protested, set free? What do they say? We be Abraham's seed. We are the children of Abraham. We've never been in bondage to anyone. They thought they were the children of the kingdom, saved, signed, sealed, and delivered into the eternal favor of God by birth. But Jesus says, no. It doesn't work that way. It isn't biological. It is a spiritual issue. And then he uncovers it. Remember, he says, if you were Abraham's children, he reasons with him from their own hearts. If you were Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham. But now you seek to kill me. A man sent from God that had told you the truth, which I heard of God. This did not Abraham. Jesus was saying the same thing that Paul was saying here in our text this afternoon in verse 6. They are not all Israel who are of Israel. They are not all Israel who are of Israel. There are two Israels. There is physical Israel and there is spiritual Israel. Or as Paul put it earlier, there is a Jew who is one inwardly and then there is a Jew who is one outwardly. being a physical descendant of the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who was called Israel, does not make you a true child of God. There is a natural seed and there is a spiritual seed. They are not all true Israel who are of the physical lineage of Israel, and it applies to both Jews, physical Jews, as well as Gentiles. The promise of God which we'll look at more next week, was to Abraham and his offspring and to as many as believe. It's the same thing Paul was saying in Galatians chapter 3 and verse 7 when he said, they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. It doesn't run of the blood. Grace doesn't run of the blood. It's not a biological thing. It's a spiritual thing. It's the same thing the Old Testament prophets told the people concerning circumcision, as I said a moment ago. They were trusting in the cutting of the flesh, but their hearts had never been cut. These were those whose flesh had been pierced with a knife, but whose hearts had never been pierced with the conviction of sin by the Spirit of the living God and driven to the only one who could save them. The Old Testament prophets said the same thing. It doesn't work that way. Jeremiah said, circumcise yourselves to the Lord. Moses said in Deuteronomy chapter 10, circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart. He's driving it to the heart, the heart, the heart. For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, a great God, mighty and terrible. Listen to this, words of Moses, by the Spirit, speaking by the Spirit, who regardeth not persons. Or as Paul put it in our text this afternoon, for they are not all Israel who are of Israel. They are not all spiritual Israel who are the descendants of Israel. Grace does not run in the blood. So as we come to a close, by way of application, you are not saved because you were born into a Christian family. Grace does not run in the blood. The faith of your father or your mother will not save you. Neither are we right with God because to us, who are in the visible church, That is, the church you can see with your eyes and people who claim to be Christians, because to us pertains the weekly meeting of the church, or the hearing of the gospel Sunday after Sunday, or because to us pertains the attendance of the administration of the sacraments of baptism in the Lord's table. Charles Hodge comments on our passage this afternoon, all who are in the visible church do not belong to the true church. See, there is a visible church and there is an invisible church. There is the church that you see with your eyes, the people that say, I'm a believer. And there are those who have truly been changed by God. They really believe. They've really trusted in Christ. They really want to serve the living God. It's an inward thing. They really have a conflict with sin. They're not sinning in the dark and hiding it with the intent that they could go on doing those things. They're of the true Israel. They're Jews inwardly. They really love God. They really want to do His will. They really have an ongoing battle. They're really convicted of sin in their lives. They're really sensitive to the sin in their lives. They really want their marriage to reflect Christ and His church. They're doing everything they can, children, to honor their father and their mother. They really want to because it's something that's going on inside of them because God has changed them, because He's made them true children of God. their Father in heaven. Being a physical descendant of the patriarchs didn't make them true children of God. Being a descendant of Christian parents doesn't make you children of God. There is a visible church and an invisible church. There is a visible church, which are all the people who claim to be Christian in the whole world, and there's the invisible church who are truly Christian. They're not all Israel who are of Israel. They're not all of the true church of God who are in the visible churches of God. Even as all the children of Israel descend from the stock of Israel, yet all who are the descendants of Israel are not spiritual Israel, not truly God's people from the heart, even so all who are of the visible church, that is outwardly Christians, are not necessarily of the invisible church, inwardly Christians. In the same way that He is a Jew who is one inwardly and not merely outwardly, so there is a Christian who is one inwardly and not merely outwardly. There are not all Israel who are of Israel. Some rely on church membership. Some rely on the faith of their parents. Others rely on their baptism. but only those who rely on Christ and Him crucified, on Jesus and what He has done. In His life and in His death, our spiritual Israel, God's true sons and daughters, justified in God's sight, reconciled to God, forgiven all trespasses, eternally safe in the palm of God's hands, whether Jew or Gentile, whether Jew or Gentile. Let's pray. Father, O God, may Your Word, O God, which is sharper than any two-edged sword, alive and powerful, a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the hearts. May Your Word, O God, find a place in every one of our hearts. O God, we pray, God, in our own lives for a work that only You can do. We trust only in the work of Your Spirit, O God, not in anything that we could muster up in our own flesh. O God, I pray that we would all be true children of our Father, of You, God. I pray there would be none, Lord, who play church. I pray, Lord, that we would all be spiritual Israel. I pray, Lord, that we would all be inward Jews. I pray, God, that we would all, from our heart, Lord, be changed. That every one of us, O God, there would be no hypocrisy. There would be no self-deception. O Lord, that we would be, as Jesus said, His apostle Israelites indeed, in whom there is no guile. O God, we rest upon your unchanging grace. We thank you for your word, O God, which convicts us of sin and drives us to the cross. The only relief, our trust is in Jesus. Our trust is in the person and work of your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. And Lord, I pray that, Lord, we would not waver on this ever. We would continually bring to heart and to mind, oh God, that our only hope, our only reliance is that Jesus died for our sins. and rose again the third day. And Lord, I pray that we would grow in the grace and the knowledge of him who suffered and died for our sins and is risen and exalted to your right hand and interceding for us now and coming again one day in the heavens with great power and glory to take us to himself. Lord, we pray all these things in the name of our Lord Jesus, our blessed Lord Jesus. Amen. Amen.