The crew of little ones able to be here, able to have a time learning at their level. All right, we are looking at the first five verses of Romans chapter 9 this morning, the blessings of Israel. As we look through Romans chapter 8, Paul was declaring his confidence in God's blessings of salvation, the enduring truth of God's love for the saved, and made that wonderful declaration that started in verse 37. Knowing all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us, for I am sure that neither death, nor wife, 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." So there was this wonderful declaration of, this is God's faithfulness to us. His constancy that we can count on. We can have assurance of God's love that will never change. But as he was walking through all of those blessings and encouragements, his thoughts were naturally drawn back to God's original chosen people, the Israelites. And what we find at the very beginning of chapter nine is you can almost see how, as he's been talking through all of this, and look at how faithful God has been and will be, and how we can count on him, and then he thinks, oh, but what about my people, the Israelites? How faithful has God been to them and where are they at? And so we have in these opening verses of chapter nine, his thought is expressive of what his heart for his own people Israel is. And he's expressing how He has this deep, deep desire that they themselves would receive God's salvation through Christ, because they are his kinsmen, his relatives, according to the flesh. Paul himself was an Israelite of the tribe of Benjamin. He was very proud of that. But he's also recognizing that as much as my people are proud of their heritage, they have rejected their Savior that was promised to them. They had this rich history of blessings that should point them to Christ, and yet they were not accepting that. So we have these starting verses. I am speaking the truth in Christ. I'm 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." Think about that. That's how much he was heartbroken. He's like, if it was possible for me to lose my salvation, be cast to hell, just so that my people would be saved, I would be willing to take that. That's his heart. And in fact, this is actually, it kind of points back to something I recall from Moses, as he was leading the children of Israel in the wilderness after their escape from Egypt. And they themselves, at that point, remember, even though they had seen all of God's wonderful works for them, They fell away from God, they were unfaithful, and God was ready to strike them down. He said, I'm gonna start all over again, and Moses is like, Lord, kill me. Don't kill them. Save them, these are your people. I mean, that was Moses' heart for his people, and that's Paul's heart. And I guess for us, it brings up a question. How much do we care? about our kinsmen according to the flesh who don't know Christ. Do we have this kind of heart for our people? We ought to. That's what God has put within us, but maybe we've stifled it. And so a great, great challenge and encouragement for us. But he talks about these rich history of blessings that should have pointed them to Christ. And what I want to do is just looking at verses four and five, Paul goes through a list of these blessings that God has given to the Israelites. that should have pointed them to Christ, and we're gonna take a look at those. So he starts off, 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. There is our list of the blessings. That's what we're going to be looking at this morning. These are the things that distinguish the Jewish people from all other peoples on the face of the earth. These are the things that pointed them to Christ. These are the things that should be pointing us to Christ. And so we want to take a look or a closer look at each one of these. He starts off saying they are Israelites. When we talk about God's chosen people, commonly speaking, how do people typically refer to them? What name do we apply to them? Jews. And that stems back to Judah, they are the people of Judah, right? But and obviously, so often that is spoken as a derogatory term, it's spoken as a curse, almost Jews, right? That's the way the world has turned that. And Paul doesn't use the term Jews. He says they are Israelites. This is the royal name. for God's people, because it points back to Genesis 32, when Jacob, remember, Jacob was the father of the 12 tribes of Israel. And in Genesis 32, we have this encounter as Jacob was coming back from Paddan Aram, from his time living with his father-in-law Laban, he was coming back to the promised land. with his children. He was about ready to meet his brother Esau for the first time since he'd run away from home. He didn't know how Esau was gonna receive him, respond to him as far as he knew Esau was still out to kill him. And so there was fear and Jacob all his life up to this point, remember had been the conniver. the grasper, right? He was the one that I'm going to make sure that I come out on top and whatever the situation is, that's who he had been all his life. But in Genesis 32, after he had sent all the rest of his family across the brook Jabbok, and he was camped out there at night, the scripture says, a man met him and he wrestled with him all night long. And he wrestled until morning, and then this man that he was wrestling with touched his hip, and suddenly put it out of joint, crippled him. And he realized in the course of all of this, I am not just wrestling with a man. This was an angel of God. There was a supernatural touch, and at the end of that, the angel blessed him with a new name. You are Jacob, and you are now Israel which means God fights You can also read it He fights with God But what Jacob learned in that is that and and the angel described for him like a prince you have power with God you've been striving but now You're gonna allow God to fight for you the rest of Jacob's life. He walked with a limp God gave him a physical reminder that he could not fight his own battles. God had to fight his battles. And that should have been a reminder for the people of Israel. They are the people of God, and it is God's responsibility to fight for them, fight their battles. And they had to follow him. They had to learn to trust in God. So that's the first blessing. They had a name, Israel. people for whom God fights. And how many times throughout the history had they seen God fight for them and protect them? The next thing that Paul points out here, they have the adoption. They were adopted as God's children. And starting with Abraham, God had said that he would make of them a great nation and that the whole earth would be blessed through them. When God sent Moses to Pharaoh, it was with the message, Israel is my firstborn son. And I say to you, let my son go, that he may serve me. What was God's intent? We find it there in Deuteronomy 28. The Lord will establish you as a people, holy to himself, as he has sworn to you. If you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in his ways, and all the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they shall be afraid of you. You notice how in the adoption of Israel as God's son, God's children, his people, it's all tied back to their name. They're called by my name, Israel. But also we find it is tied to if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in his ways. There was an expectation, a requirement of God's people that as his adopted children He expected them to walk in his ways. That's what he had told Abraham at the beginning. That's what he told Isaac. That's what he told Jacob. That's what he now told the people as he established the covenant with them. We come to David as he was king over Israel. As he was awed by God's blessings in this adoption, he prayed this prayer, and who is like your people, Israel? The one nation on earth whom God went to redeem to be his people, making for yourself a name for great and awesome things, and driving out nations before your people whom you redeemed from Egypt. See, there you have God fighting for them. and you made your people Israel to be your people forever, and you, O Lord, became their God. There's a reciprocal relationship in that adoption. This adoption of the people of Israel as the children of God was a foreshadowing of our own adoption as believers that we saw back in chapter 8 and verse 15, he said, and he has given you the spirit of adoption by which you cry, Abba, Father. See, as he was speaking that to us, it reminded him of the adoption that Israel had had before. that pointed to a further adoption. He goes on to speak of the glory that Israel has. As the chosen people of God, they were privileged to have His glorious presence in their midst. When they were at Mount Sinai to receive the law, the glory of the Lord covered the mountain like a fire. When the tabernacle was erected according to God's instructions, we read, Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle." Likewise, when Solomon finished his temple and consecrated it, we read, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices and the glory of the Lord filled the temple. And in fact, in both of those cases, we read further, that the glory of God was so intense that the priests themselves could not complete their service because they were overwhelmed by the presence of the glory of God. Could you imagine? The people, the gods that I will dwell among you, I will let my glory be with you. I'll show you my glory. What a blessing that they received when the people of Israel saw the glory, they responded by bowing their faces to the ground saying, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever. The Psalms themselves are replete with declarations about God's glory and indications that Israel as God's people was supposed to show his glory to the rest of the nations of the earth. That was God's intent for them. He revealed it so that they could show it and share it. Then Paul goes on to speak of the covenants. In the Abrahamic covenant, God promised to give the land to Abraham's seed and to make them a great nation and to bless all the nations of the earth through him. Ultimately, that pointed to the Messiah. When he brought them out of Egypt, he led them to Mount Sinai, and there he established the covenant of the law to guide them as his chosen people. Many years later, God established another covenant with David, saying that specifically from his family, his line, would come the Messiah, would come one who would rule over Israel forever. And then through the prophet Jeremiah, God promised that one day he was going to make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. And in that covenant, he would write his law in their hearts. And it would be within them, it would change their hearts so that they would truly be his people. All of these things are pointing to us pointing to the salvation that is available to us. But it's based on his faithfulness to those covenants that he made to his people in the Old Testament. Thinking of those covenants, we focus on the covenant of the law. Paul mentions that next in his list. And as we think of this covenant of the law that he made with his people at Sinai, as he showed them his glory on top of the mountain in Deuteronomy 4, Moses said, and now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the rules that I am teaching you and do them that you may live. And go in and take possession of the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers has given you. And what great nation is there that has statutes and rules so righteous as all this law that I set before you this day. You think about it in the in the scope of all the various law groupings that we've seen in the history of the world and all the different cultures of the world, the law of Moses stands out in history as the greatest model of just laws. Why? Because they came directly from God, who is a just God, a righteous God. Many nations throughout history have modeled their own laws on the law of Moses. Our own nation does or did. Think about it. When we, Look at the Supreme Court building. What is front and center at the entrance of the Supreme Court building? Moses, the great lawgiver with the tables of the law. That is the foundation of righteous laws for all of the earth. In fact, as we continue on in Deuteronomy 4, down in verse 10, it says, why he gave it, so that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children so. The law establishes God's holy standard of righteous living, as well as the consequences for violating that holy standard. Galatians 3.24 tells us that the law was a schoolmaster to lead us to Christ, because one of the things that the law does is it reveals that we ourselves are unable in our own power to meet that holy standard. And so we needed a redeemer. We needed someone to keep the law for us, to become our substitute, to give us God's righteous forgiveness. So it points us to the need of a redeem, The next thing that Paul mentioned in his list of blessings to Israel is worship. What does it mean to worship? We use that word, but first and foremost, the Hebrew word, the primary Hebrew word for worship means to bow down. The worship of God starts when his people bow in humble submission to him. And it's not just that literal aspect of bowing down. Are we bowing our hearts, or bowing our minds, or about bowing our inner beings in submission, and, and honor to him. But that's what Israel was to teach the rest of the world. First Chronicles 1629 says, ascribe to the Lord the glory, do his name, bring an offering and come before him, worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness. Worship is ascribing worth and glory to God. Worship is the act of obeying Him through sacrifices and offerings. The ceremonies of the tabernacle and the temple gave us the framework of how to worship the Lord, and the Psalms of Israel provided the template for songs of worship. I mean, think about it. For the vast majority of the history of the church, The songs of the church were the Psalms of Israel, first and foremost. In modern times, we've kind of gotten away from the Psalms and we write our own songs, but they teach us the worship of God. And so Israel has given to us a framework of worship for God. recognizing how great and awesome and holy he is and how to approach to him. Then Paul goes on to say that they were given promises. How great and precious are the promises that God gave to Israel. He gave them promise of a land, a hope, a Messiah, a kingdom, restoration after judgment, and we can go on and on and on with the promises that God gave to them. God told Jacob in Genesis 28, 15, behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you. I think of that to Jacob as he was running away, fearful for his life and leaving the land of promise. God said, God met him there. Remember Jacob's ladder? went to sleep, had a stone for his pillow, and he had this dream where he saw angels of God ascending and descending from heaven. He said, this is surely the house of God, Bethel. And God spoke to him there. He said, this is what he told them. I won't leave you. I'll be with you. And I will bring you back here. Did God keep his promise to Jacob? Yes, absolutely. God had previously promised Abraham that he would make of him a great nation, that he would put them in the land of Canaan. God promised that he would drive out the people of the land before them so that they would take possession of it. And after they took possession of that land, the promised land, this is what Joshua said, not one word of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed, all came Again, in 1 Kings 8, Solomon, at the dedication of the temple, said, Does God keep His promises? Yes. And think about even to the modern era, How long had Israel been out of the land before the modern state of Israel was established? Centuries. It was dominated by Muslims for centuries. How did they come back to the land to become Israel? God kept his promise. He said, I will bring you back to the land. I will be with you. God is still keeping his promises. Not one word has failed. Then Paul mentions the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the fathers of the Jewish race. These were men singularly chosen by God to reveal himself to mankind. And they walked with God, and they received his promises, and they passed those promises on to their children, and their children, and their children. And we have been the recipients of the blessings of those promises. Interestingly, Abraham, the patriarch, the father of the Jewish people, is even revered by other cultures as a man of God. And then we have this added blessing that the New Testament teaches us that we who share the faith of Abraham become children of Abraham. by sharing in the same faith that he had. So we get an adoption in as Abraham's kids, Abraham's people. He's our father through faith. So God again shows his faithfulness through the patriarchs. And finally, Paul says, and of them is the Christ. hope of the human race, the fulfillment of God's promises, the one that we worship, the maker of the new covenant, the incarnation of the glory of God, the one who fulfilled the law. He descended from Israel, humanly speaking, and yet he is God from all eternity. And he is the greatest blessing of all. And all of those previous blessings that we talked about, every single one of them pointed to And that's why Paul was so heartbroken. He says, my people, Israel, who had all of these blessings, and God showed his faithfulness to them in so many ways, and in all of it was pointing to the Christ, the Messiah, and Jesus fulfilled all of the prophecies, all of the promises. He is the Christ, proved it by his miracles, proved it by his death and resurrection and his ascension. And he says, and my people can't see it. And I'm heartbroken that they can't see it. How many blessings did God give to Israel? And even today, 2,000 years after Paul wrote these things, is God still faithful to his people Israel? Yes. Is God still blessing them? Yes. And is it still true that as God told Abraham, he who blesses you, I will bless and he who curses you, I will curse. It is still true today. That's why we as believers must bless Israel. because we've received the greatest blessing of all through them, the blessing of salvation. But even we need to be encouraging our nation to bless Israel, lest we receive the curse of God. And I could point you to so many examples through history of when a nation turned from blessing to cursing Israel, shortly thereafter in every single case, we find a judgment that came on that nation of massive scale. God is still faithful. God still keeps his promises. How many of these blessings that God gave to Israel have been passed down to us today? Well, truly, as God told Abraham in you, all nations of the earth have been blessed through Christ, through the Messiah, through the salvation offered through Christ. But for all of those blessings, Paul's words carry a note of sadness because Israel has not received her Messiah. We're going to talk more about that next week as he fleshes that out in the latter parts of chapter nine. For today, what I want us to do, as we think of the blessings that God gave to his people in Israel, that have flowed to us that as we as Gentiles have been grafted into Israel, the chosen people of God, we've become his children by faith to share in the blessings that God gave to Israel. We have so many reasons to praise and bless God because he has been so good. He has been faithful. And we have the privilege of praising and blessing and worship the worshiping the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, because of his faithfulness to his people Israel, because of extending his love and mercy to us to become the children of God by faith. The greatest blessing of all. We are truly blessed. And so the song that we're going to finish the service with is the trees of the field. It comes right from the Old Testament text, and it talks about the blessings and the joy that we have in Christ from those blessings. And so we'll go ahead and pray, and then we'll stand together and sing that song. Father, we thank you for the innumerable blessings that you have given. We thank you that as we look back through history, just as Joshua said, just as Solomon said, not one word has failed of all the good promises that you have spoken. All that you have said you have done just as you said. Thank you for the confidence that we can have in your promises, in your blessings, in your faithful keeping of the covenant. And Lord, we do pray that your people, Israel, would come to recognize Jesus Christ as their Messiah. We pray for our own family members who have not come to faith in Christ. Lord, we ask that we would be willing spokesmen for you, calling them to repentance, calling them to faith in Christ so that they would know the joy, the hope, the forgiveness, that has been provided through him and his sacrifice. And thank you for the joy that we can have in the assurance of your care and your faithfulness in our own lives today. In Jesus name. Amen. All right, we'll stand together and sing number 764 the trees of