Lesson 41b
Romans 9:1-5 · Mike Doyle · Oct 20, 2019
Romans (2018-21), No. 86
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261916383426

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

So we are in Lesson 41, and we did the first seven questions last week, so I think we may take most of the time here just to do the last question, which is in verse 4 and 5. List and describe the eight special privileges Israel has from God. The reason I think that these are important for us as believers to go through is so that we recognize that as we look at what God has done privilege-wise for Israel that it's not the same thing that he's done for us and a lot of times there's confusion about what God has promised Israel and does with Israel with what he's talking about with us and so it's kind of The reason why I want to spend some time in it. So, verse 4 and 5, you tell me what the first one is.

The adoption. And notice it's a national adoption. It's an important point. God does not, in this circumstance, individually adopt every Jew. He adopts the nation. How is that different from us? were individually adopted. That's a really critical point to realize that God always deals with Israel on a national level.

Not to say that individuals within that nation aren't dealt with by God, but as the nation goes, so go the people. now adoption means that in this case it's the same word it means to place as an adult son so he took the nation of Israel and as a nation he placed them and he never did this to any other nation never he didn't do it put them in a preferred position in Exodus 4.22 thus says Jehovah Israel is my son my firstborn interesting Israel is my firstborn nation, not individual Jewish person. In Deuteronomy 7, he says, you are a holy people unto Jehovah thy God. Jehovah thy God has chosen you to be a people for his own possession above all peoples that are upon the face of the earth.

In Amos 3.2, he says, and only have I known of all the families of the earth, you. You're the only family I've known.

So they're special. They're elect. They're an elect of God. And the other thing you want to notice here is that as God blesses people, He does it in one of two ways. He either does a direct blessing to them or He does it indirectly. He does it through a mediator. What do you think with Israel? Is it always direct or is it through a mediator? Through a mediator.

I think you're right because if you look at Genesis 12 3 he says I'll bless them that bless you and I'll curse them that curse you and in they shall all the families of the earth be blessed all the families of the earth are blessed through them through Abraham's seed so some other verses in Zechariah and in first Corinthians 14 it said if any man think himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord." Paul is the intermediate used to show us blessing, although the one that blesses us is the Holy Spirit.

Yeah. Well, I think of Moses. When he was on Mount Sinai, the Israelites said, hey, you go on up there and talk to God for us. We'll stay down here. So, well, Moses was the intermediary. He was the guy. That's exactly right. And so, as he left them alone for a while, they didn't quite stay the course, did they? Yeah. We'll worship these calves, and you worship God.

Well, what you find in scripture, I think, is that if you reject the mediator, you've also rejected the one he represents. And so if the nation rejects Moses, what happens? The ones that rejected him, you know, they got to go for a deep dive into the earth. You know, so...

You know, as I read through the Old Testament in the earlier years, I always thought, wow, these Israelites are really on fire for the Lord. But, you know, as I read later, I'm thinking, no, these people were wrapped up in idolatry. They didn't want to serve the Lord. You know, I thought, boy, these people are, you know. Then when they started having evil kings, then they fell away.

Sure. They were having that problem with Joshua. Well, what's interesting about nations in the Old Testament is that if the ruler fell, the nation fell with him. And what you find out is that the nation was right behind the guy all the way. I mean, they were in. He wasn't, God wasn't punishing the ruler and the nation was being pristine. No, they were in the game too.

We always get the kind of rulers we deserve. Even when they had good rulers, Israel was into idol worship and all that stuff. Even during the times of Joshua, they would follow him and God would bless them because of the leader. But they were worshiping idols the whole time. after they were divinely adopted as a nation. They were adopted as a nation. And God says to them over and over again, you're special to me. I have called you. I've chosen you. You're my people. And I've never called any other people on the earth, ever. I've called a few individuals before we got to you, but never a nation. So that's the first thing, they're special. What's the next one?

Before you go on, I guess the differences between us as believers now and Israel, I think it's a key thing. I just heard the other day that the Lord is either cursing or blessing the United States. Yeah, that's good. Let's talk about that. Is he cursing the nation of the United States? Is he blessing the United States? Yeah. You know, we had a discussion like that, I think, Friday night with some people. And what is what is the Apostle Paul?

Who does he ask us to pray for in terms of the nation? just the leaders, the people who are leading, not the nation. Yet you hear all the time, we've got to pray for the nation. No, you pray for the leaders. And there's lots and lots of Christians who really think that, especially Reform Covenant people who think that the church is just an extension of Israel and that the United States is just an extension of Israel.

Why do you think the United States has prospered on the earth so well? Never been a country like ours before. I think it has to do with the... This is my opinion, by the way. I've got to say that. I think it's because it was founded on biblical principles.

And it's interesting, if you operate on a biblical principle, there's blessing. Because God is always, always looking for ways to bless people. No matter how bad they are, he's always looking for a way to bless them. So you create a country based on biblical principles with some Christians involved, some theists, some others, but the principles are there. Guess what? It prospers. It prospers. Over above all of that, God has a plan. And it all centers in Christ and that kind of thing.

He works for individuals, not as much, I mean, collectively, we may move forward backwards as a nation, but it's always individually now. And we can pray for our leaders and all that, but he's still working individually versus what Israel has as a nation. Completely different.

And when you hear, pray for the nation or pray, you know, it is pray for the leaders. And we as part, you know, people of this nation. And again, our citizenship's in heaven. We participate, but it's not on a nationwide basis. He may, in the overall global, we move as a nation, but he's working through individuals, not as a nation. I think that's right. It says in Thessalonians where we are to pray just to be left alone. Give us the freedom to do it. We don't want to be part of them. We know we're in them. and amongst them, but we don't want to be hassled by them. We want to be free.

I think some of that comes from the people who take the passage in Chronicles where it says to pray to God and He'll heal the land, which is really not directed to us. I know. It's a Jewish concept. It starts off, if my people were called by my name, will humble themselves and pray. You know, on Wednesday night we're going through Genesis, and what I'm finding, two overriding principles so far in Romans chapter 16.

One is that God is always looking for a way to bless the inhabitants of the earth. Always. And they are such losers. They were always looking for a way to be sinful. and to sort of cut God out of their existence. Yet he's so gracious. The second thing you see is that from Adam forward, what God requires is that you believe him. That's it. That you just trust him, no matter what the circumstances are.

And, you know, we're in the middle of Abraham now. And Abraham, you know, last week we went down through, Abraham went to Egypt and tried to pawn his wife off as his sister because she's beautiful and he was thinking, well, she's gorgeous, the Egyptians are going to kill me so they can get to her. She ends up in Pharaoh's harem as his wife and he finds out about it and he's hot. He's really upset about it because talk about God cursing somebody, he unbeknownst takes her as his wife, puts her in the harem, and things start to go south for him in a hurry. And he's trying to figure out why. And when he figures out that it has to do with Sarah, he's really upset. But Abraham leaves the country a lot wealthier than when he went in, and he gets deported. back to the promised land with all this increased wealth that he has and his wife. So God blesses him no matter what an idiot he is.

Going back a little bit to what you said, which is our discussions we've had, and I touched a little bit on when I was in the lesson, is praying for our leaders, which is, do believers get involved in politics and become leaders? I think it's important for us to have Christian leaders. to leave us alone. You know, if they're not, they're not going to leave us alone. So, again, the thought that believers should be involved in leadership. Yeah, the problem I have with that is that we're heavenly citizens.

And, you know, I look at the founding fathers. Not all the founding fathers were Christian. Some of them were theists. The one common denominator of all those men was they were all Bible readers. And they took principles out of the Bible to create the country and to create the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. They did it with the Bible being their manifest that they used. You can't say that all of the founders of the country were Christians.

Some were. Some weren't. But it was the principle that was built on. It's like even in the Old Testament. some countries or empires fostered because they functioned based on principles. Nebuchadnezzar became a great king because he did honor God. He did do that. Of course, he ended up eating a little grass later. He got to thinking he was bigger than he was.

But I think it's also, you know, when we say we pray for our leaders, if we're praying for somebody who's not a believer, What's the only thing he can do? Is sin. He can only go. So, to me it's, you know, if we have believers as leaders, we can pray for them, we can pray for their, you know, and we can not be bothered by them.

Yeah, it's interesting. One of the things we're noticing today, at least I've noticed, that we elect a guy, a president who's not one of them, right? He's not one of them. So he goes into their cesspool and look what they're doing to him. And not only are they doing it to him, but they're trying to send a message to the rest of the country. Don't come into our cesspool if you're an outsider. That's the message. So imagine a Christian going into that. What does he think? It's like a guy who gets married to a non-believer thinking he's going to convert that person. No, he's not. No, he's not. That's my point.

If you go into that mess, why would you go into it? Because you want to change it? Because you're going to improve it? You're going to give Christians a bigger break? I mean, if you're one of ten legislators and nine of them are sleazeballs, they're always going to enact sleazeball legislation. You're going to vote against it every time, but what did you serve? What have you done? That's why I'm not sure. I just think we're supposed to be light, salt, everything. So, yeah, we are supposed to go into the cesspool and bring light to the cesspool.

You know, if we're one out of ten, he put us there for a reason. You know, still, always, God is the one who puts leaders in place. Yeah, he is. There's no question about that. So, you know, our best efforts, still, he's the one who places everybody there. I always marveled at Ronald Reagan. There's no question he was a believer.

If you've ever been to his Western White House and they have a a makeup of the Oval Office there and on that desk is his Bible and I'm telling you what, it's used. But his wife wasn't a believer and as a matter of fact she was doing seances and all kinds of weird stuff. That seems so strange to me. Yet he was, he was a believer. You think Trump's a believer?

I don't think so. Some people do, some people don't know. Yeah, and God can use them regardless. Yeah, it's interesting. So you pray for those people. I do, even if they're terrible. I pray for Nancy Pelosi, believe it or not. Is it working? No, it's not working. No, it's working. She just doesn't know it.

Okay, second, what's the second thing that God gave them? The nation Israel. Glory. What is that? What does He give them? That's exactly what it means. The glory that they had was the fact that they had a visible presence of God. In Exodus 40 it says, Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation because the cloud abode thereon, Glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Not only did the Jews know about this, but everybody that was around saw this. In Leviticus 1, it says, How can they go in?

And the Lord called unto Moses and spoke unto him of the tabernacle of the congregation, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel and say to them, If any man of you Bring an offering unto the Lord, you shall bring your offering of the cattle, even of the herd of the flock."

In other words, the only way you get in is you've got to bring a sacrifice. Oh, and it better be the sacrifice I'm talking about here. It's got to be a herd animal, something from your flock. That's how you get in. Gee, why would God do that? Because the tabernacle itself represented the presence of God. If you went in there, you were going into His presence.

And so, Exodus 25 says, And let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them. And I think the nations around Israel knew that He was there. Because especially when they go into the Promised Land later, some of these countries just laid down because they knew, they'd heard about Jehovah and how He protected these people. Exodus 29 says, and I'll dwell among the children of Israel and I will be their God.

So, there's a pattern of fellowship here. The thing was, is that God was there and everybody knew it and the Jews knew it. And again, they were the only country that had it. Now, what replaces the tabernacle today? Now if you're a Catholic, they got them. Those little gold things they have up on their altars with the key. That's what they call the tabernacle. So what replaces it today?

Nick does. And Bob does. And you do. That's exactly right. We are the replacement of the tabernacle. The tabernacle was called the tent of meeting. It was where Israel and God met. They met in the tabernacle. They met in the temple at the tabernacle.

Again, in Exodus 29, this shall be a continual burnt offering throughout your generation at the door of the tabernacle. of the congregation before the Lord, where I will meet you and speak there unto thee." Why do you think God particularized a place of meeting? Why did he have this place? Here's one of the big reasons, I think, that the pagans around them all had these places where they met with their gods, but they were up in the hills and the valleys and all kinds of different places, and God said, I've got one spot.

And for the travelers through the desert for the 40 plus years, it's in the tent of the meeting place, the tabernacle. But when Solomon built the temple, that's where it was. And the Shekinah glory was there. See, all the rest, you know, even the Tower of Babel, those those African, what did they call those things? They found all kinds of those kinds of towers. What's that? That's right. Cigarettes. Not cigarettes. Cigarettes. That's what they really were.

There were these towers and on the top of them they'd have their religious services. You know, the coolest one is they'd build a fire and throw babies into it. So the Lord has a particular place of meeting and he's in the tabernacle. Psalm 36 says, Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. But that's not talking to you and me. Do we have a place like that? It's in Arvada, right? The point is, if we're the tabernacle If we're the place of meeting, what does it put a responsibility on us to do?

Believe it. Believe it. And then what, subsequently, what does it cause you to do? To get together. To be together. You know, not 24-7, but to be together. Because each one of us, individually, is a temple. However, if we're not, it's still together. Why? Because you have the Spirit of God in you. You're the temple, so you can talk to Him anytime at the place of meeting. You can have a meeting anytime with the Lord Jesus, anytime, about any subject. That's kind of cool.

And then you can call up Courtney and have a meeting between the two of you. the 10th of testimony in Exodus 38 this is the sum of the tabernacle even the tabernacle of testimony as it was counted according to the commandment of Moses for the service of the Levites by the hand of Ithmar son of Aaron the priest this is after Moses got the 10 commandments the commandments 1 through 5 have explanations with them 6 and 10 don't and has found almost every other code in the world the Jews understood this however the first five were unique to Israel if you take a look at the Ten Commandments the first five are unique to Israel six through ten show up in everybody else's codes all over the world in some form or another but not the first five they were unique to Israel let's see Alright, let's go to the third one. What's the third one?

Covenants. Covenants. What's a covenant? Contracts. It's contracts. So Israel has all of these covenants from God, starting with who? What's the first one? It's the Abrahamic covenant, right? The land, the blessing. Did the Gentiles have anything to do with any of these covenants that were in the Old Testament? God only made deals with the Israelis. He only made covenants with the Israeli. Although he did tell Ishmael that he would bless him. He would do it. But there was no contingency on Ishmael's part. He just said, I'm going to bless you.

Because he thought, like I said, he's always looking for a way to bless whomever. but there's no, now let me ask you this question the first covenant he made with Abraham and the first part of that covenant was a command the command was get out of town and I will bless you etc give you the land and that kind of thing notice that Abram gets his family and he gets Lot and his dad and his wife and he heads out, but he stops at a place called Haran. Primarily because that's where his father wanted to stop. You know what the word Haran means?

Place of waiting. It's really cool. And they wait until his father dies and then he heads to the promised land. Then the promises begin. They don't start until he goes. So was that an obligation on his part to get moving in order to get to the place where the where the blessings would come?

I think it was. Even though it's a unilateral contract. I'm going to do this through you. Get out of town. And the reason he had them leave the Ur of the Chaldees is because most of his family were idol worshippers in an upper middle class society in which he was a wealthy, wealthy man. And God says, I'm sending you to the desert. And he goes. He goes. So he trades Cherry Hills for somewhere in Arizona or in Mexico.

That's what God told him. Now, think about what he blesses us about. Does he require something on our part in order to bless us physically? He does. He requires that we believe him. That's what he required of Abraham. He required that he believe. Because if he didn't believe, he wouldn't have gone. He'd have stayed there. It's the same thing with Cain and Abel. Cain didn't believe him. Abel did.

So this is in Genesis 15 where he makes this covenant to give to his earthly seed the token of circumcision. In Genesis 22, God confirmed the promise of Abraham's seed. And who is this seed? Yeah, it's Christ. With David, God made an earthly kingdom covenant to one of David's descendants should sit on the throne forever. Who is that? Christ. As we find Gabriel announcing to Mary, God says he will make a new covenant in the future with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. When is that going to happen? It hasn't happened yet. When is it going to happen? At the beginning of the millennium. Okay. Let's see.

And that's from Hebrews 8 and Jeremiah 31, in connection with which he promises to bring Israel back into their land. You realize Israel, God gave them 300,000 square miles of land. The most they've ever occupied at any one time is 30,000. So they've only occupied 10%. All of this land that all of these Arabs are fighting over doesn't belong to them. Have fun, fellas. God is going to give that to all of Israel, and they will occupy it, and it will bloom. It will really be cool.

And it's all based on a promise. He says he'll not only do that but he'll take away their stony heart out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh and put his spirit within them to cause them to walk in his statues to keep his ordinance and to do them. Now, in Ezekiel 36 when we talk about covenants, could I say that this covenant to take away a stony heart of the flesh, put a heart of flesh in me and put the spirit within me to do them, to walk in his statues.

Is that something that's applicable to you and me as Christians? I would think you'd jump up and yell, no, it's not. It's not applicable to us at all. Why not? Look at what the promise is. I'm going to take a stony heart out of you and put a heart of flesh in you. That's all that's going to get changed? That's the only part that's going to get changed? For you and me? I will put my spirit within them.

Why would He do that? He says the reason is to cause them to walk in His statutes. So has the Holy Spirit been given to you and me so that we'll walk in God's statutes, which means we'll obey His law? Answer no. We haven't been given the Holy Spirit for that. This won't happen until the morning, will it? That's right.

So what's the difference between this and who we are? We have a new heart. New nature. Well, they've got a new heart. What's the difference? We don't have a new heart. What do we got? Holy Spirit. We're entirely new creatures. Entirely. Entirely new. To the point where you actually change your point of origin.

You're not of the earth anymore. You're of heaven. If any man be in Christ, he's a new creation. That's different than getting a fleshly heart. That's different than getting the Holy Spirit to keep the ordinances. I'm a brand new creation. And the resurrected, glorified Christ is the one who is that new creation. And I'm in Him. That's why I don't need a new heart. I'm a new creation. That's right.

And so as believers, we have already been given everything we need for righteousness. We already have it. One of the big differences between what the Jews operated under were promises. Do you and I operate under promises? No, we operate under facts, things that are true already.

So when God says to Abraham, I want you to believe me because I'm going to do all of these things, he says, okay, I believe you and I'll leave town. He says to us, I've already done this If you believe me, you get it all. And you don't have to leave town. Because I'm going to make you a new man in Christ. You're going to leave the earth. You're not up here anymore.

So the difference is really important for us as believers to understand, especially when you're confronted with Reformed theology. Because Reformed theology will take these verses and try to apply them to a Christian. They will say to you that the reason you were given the Holy Spirit was to keep God's law. And this is the verse that they'll quote.

Sorry. You know. The thing is, it very specifically addresses Israel in this passage. So people who apply that to us are not believing what God has written. That's exactly right. They haven't distinguished You know, I've often thought that a covenant reformed Christian qualifies for spiritual handicap parking. You know, that's the best they get. I agree. I agree. And so what is that? That's a great statement.

So when you're looking around to go to a church or somebody's asking about what church you should go to, one of the questions you should ask them is, do they predominantly teach out of Paul's epistles or do they teach out of the Old Testament and the Gospels? That'll tell you. Because what is taught in Paul's epistles is so different than anything in the Old Testament and the Gospels. God told the Jews to obey him and he would bless them. He blesses me whether I obey Him or not. That's exactly right. Because I'm a new creation. He's given me all His blessings. Sure. I don't have to obey to get them. That's right. That's the main deal. Yeah. That's really right.

Now, in light of that, what's the fourth thing that He gave them? He gave them the custodianship of the law. He didn't give the law to everybody and say, but you Jews are in charge of it. No. They were in custody of it. Only Israel was given this constitution. God entrusted them with His holy law. Isn't that interesting? So, no other nation was ever directly spoken of as the nation of Israel was about God's law.

And why did God do all this through Israel? What was His purpose? Was He just sick and tired of dealing with the whole creation and thought, well, maybe I'll get my own guys together, my own group, and maybe they'll function as I created man to function. What was the purpose of the nation of Israel?

To show them that they couldn't do the law or keep the law and negate it? But see, the nation of Israel was called long before the law came in. And they were operating under the promises made to Abraham. And as we've seen in Galatians, the law coming in did not negate the promises at all.

So why did he do this one nation thing? to be a light to the other nations. That's exactly what they were supposed to be. Just like Courtney was saying, we as believers were supposed to be a light to the world. Israel was to be a light to all the other nations. How'd they do? They failed. Yeah, they didn't do too well. Alright, fifth one.

Temple worship. Yeah, temple worship, sanctuary services, It refers to the religious ordinances prescribed to Israel by God in connection with the tabernacle worship. And afterwards, the tabernacle worship which will be resumed in the millennium. Oh, they get to do this all over again. And the ordinance and offerings then will be memorial rather than prophetic, as in the days before Christ died.

I had somebody ask me a couple of weeks ago, are they going to actually sacrifice animals in the millennial kingdom? What do you think? It says they are. Yeah, it says they are. But it isn't going to be to cover their sins. Why not? Because they're already covered. That's right. They're already covered.

It's a memorial. A memorial of what? What's it a memorial of? Last Sunday we said, and do this in memory of me. What are we talking about? The sacrifice of Christ. So the sacrifices that the Jews will do in memoriam will be remembering the sacrifice of Christ. I've got a note here from Galatians 4, 9, and 10. Note carefully that such form Outward form worship belongs to the nation of Israel and not to Christianity. To introduce it into Christianity is to return to paganism, for Paul plainly classifies the forms and ceremonies of Judaism as now belonging with the weak and beggarly religious principles, with heathen Gentiles who engaged in it.

Let me give you a good example. I can do this because I was a Catholic. do a cursory observation of the Catholic building, the setup inside, where the altar is, and the sanctuary is, and the railing is, and where the people sit, and the way that the service is conducted. It's entirely Jewish. It's entirely Jewish.

And that's what Paul is talking about. So we think that if we don't understand what God has done in Christianity, we look around for a pattern or a method in which to create an environment which is somehow pleasing to God. But where do you go look? You go look at what Israel's got going. So you have services. that are set up like the Jewish temple. You have music. You have all kinds of things that are demonstrable to human beings.

But do you think God likes what's going on there? We went out to a wedding for my niece. Jack and Winnie went with us. This was like three years ago she got married. I've got to say, it's a fairly good-sized, charismatic kind of church. So while we were practicing the ceremony, the band was up there playing. Jack says, these guys must think God's hard of hearing.

I was going to say, from what I've heard from my brothers, who's a Catholic now, that they do teaching from, like reading from the Psalms or the hymns or the Gospels, they don't teach Paul. They don't? Not as a whole, the size of infinity and the truth. You know, it's amazing how many denominations are like that. They don't teach grace, and they don't like grace, and they steer away from it if they can.

Don and I went to church last year in Maui, Calvary Chapel. We had breakfast. They have a men's Bible study on Friday morning, and the pastor of this church is there, and he announced to the group They needed to stay away from grace because it was really scary. Yeah. Hello?

Kind of hard to grow in grace if you're staying away from it. Well, you can't. You can't. One of the things I'm going to talk about next hour is if you're under any law system, you don't grow. It's impossible. You know, it's like somebody dunked me underwater and they expect me to breathe air. It isn't going to happen. You can't grow under law. It has to be under grace. Let's try to finish this up.

So sanctuary service is pretty interesting when you look around. So much of it comes as an offshoot of Judaism in some degree. Like contemporary Jews will tell you, well, we don't do the ceremonial law anymore, but we're into the moral part of it. And I always say, well, doesn't the Bible tell you that if you're going to be under law, you've got to do the whole thing? If you break one, you break it all? Well, that's the way it used to be. Oh, that's right. Alright, number six. What's number six? It's the promises. God's salvation promises were lodged in Abraham. His kingdom promises were lodged in David.

No promises were made to the Gentile nations as such. For the gospel now proclaimed is not a promise, but an announcement of a fact to be believed." It's a big, big difference. It is not preached to nations as such, but to individuals. Good news to sinners everywhere.

But to Israel, promises, thousands of them were committed as a nation. Lots and lots of promises to them as a nation. Keep that in mind. Everything that has to do with Israel is done on a national level. It's not done on an individual level. We do not have to become chosen Jews in order to get anything from God. Oh, that's too bad. I was really working hard on that. And the last one. What do they have that we don't have? They have the fathers. Who are the fathers? Who are those guys? Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. That's right.

Acts 3 says, The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His Son, Jesus Christ, whom you delivered up and denied Him in the presence of Pilate, when He was determined to let Him go. Acts 7, 32 says, saying, I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. Then Moses trembled and did not behold. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are directly referred to, and Jacob's sons also, especially Joseph and Judah, the vessels of royal promise and blessings of Israel.

So it's them. We're thankful for those guys, but they are not what we refer back to. And the last one is, and whom is Christ as to the flesh who is over all God blessed unto ages? Amen. Is Christ a blessing to Israel? Sure he is. Everything surrounded him. All the promises had to do with Him.

In chapter 1-3 it says, God's Son is said to be born of the seed of David according to the flesh. John 1-14, the Word became flesh. Hebrews 2-16, He takes hold of the seed of Abraham. Matthew 1-1, the book of generations of Jesus Christ, the Son of David and the Son of Abraham.

Interesting. It's an astonishing honor to Israel that outranks all the other blessings that they have, that our Lord, their mighty God, according to the flesh, is Christ. That one thing outranks all the other blessings that they were promised and all the other assets that they have. Let's see.

For two other things are immediately affirmed of Him. He is over all and He is God-blessed unto the ages. Over all are partly explained in 1 Corinthians 15. He, God the Father, put all things in subjection under Christ's feet. John 1.1 and 1.3 says the Word was God and all things were made through Him and all things were created through Him and unto Him and by Him all things consist. And Christ was a Jew. Christ was a Jew. So according to the flesh, Christ belongs to the Jews. And look who He is. Look who He is.

Is that a benefit to them? I think so. I think so. Everyone will be blessed forever because of Christ. Yeah. I don't hear a lot of what people say, but one of the things that stood out to me on the adoption part, that you stated that the national adoption is absolute and eternal. They're always going to be looked at as the chosen people for eternity. That's right. Yes, for all eternity. Sure.

Yeah, you know, we've been sold this bill of goods since we were kids that heaven is a place up in the sky. When we get to the new creation, there will be a new heavens and a new earth. Where are the Jews going to live? They're going to live on the earth. Why? Because one of the promises to them was the land. The land. Are they going to have the land? Yeah, they are. And that's where they're going to be. On the earth. They're not going to be up in the clouds playing harps like the rest of you.

Okay, next week we'll tackle 42. Notice we're going to pick up a little speed now, like next week we're going to cover 11 verses. So let's close. Father, how we thank you. How we thank you for your graciousness and your blessing to Israel, but also to recognize that what we possess in the Lord Jesus, what you promised Israel isn't even close to what you've just begun to do with us. And we're so thankful, Father, the Lord Jesus Christ and our position in Him and we pray in His name, Amen.