In the sermon 'They Are Not All Israel Who Are of Israel,' Scott Brown explores Romans chapter 9, emphasizing God's sovereignty and the doctrine of election. He recounts his personal transformation upon understanding God's sovereignty, challenging the idea of a man-centered vision of God. Brown highlights the distinction between physical and spiritual Israel, underscoring that not all who are descendants of Abraham are part of spiritual Israel. The focus is on salvation by grace, not works. The sermon also stresses the importance of understanding God's justice and holiness, as well as Paul's deep love for his countrymen despite their rejection of him. Brown outlines six ways God showed love to the Israelites: adoption, glory, covenants, law, service, and promises. The sermon concludes with a call to recognize God's grace and to deepen love for the lost.

Please open your Bibles to Romans chapter 9, find verse 1, and we're going to be reading the first 13 verses of Romans chapter 9. What an appropriate song to begin this whole section which really is the great affirmation that God will keep his people by his divine sovereignty. What a blessing that is. Well this is the inerrant, all-sufficient, sweeter than honey, word of God. Romans 9 verse 1.

I tell the truth in Christ. I am not lying, my Conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren my countrymen according to the flesh who are Israelites to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises of whom are the fathers and from whom according to the flesh Christ came who is overall the eternally blessed God amen but It is not that the word of God has taken no effect, for they are not all Israel who are of Israel, nor are they all children, because they are the seed of Abraham. But In Isaac your seed shall be called, that is, those who are the children of the flesh. These are not the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as the seed. For this is the word of promise.

At this time I will come and Sarah shall have a son. And not only this, but when Rebecca also had conceived by one man, even by our father Isaac, for the children not yet being born nor having done any good or evil that the purpose of God according to election might stand not of works but of him who calls It was said to her The older shall serve the younger as it is written Jacob I have loved But Esau I have hated The grass withers the flower fades but the word of our God stands forever. Let's pray. Lord, you have put before us difficult words for anyone, and I pray that you would open up our eyes to see wondrous things from your law to teach us in the way that we should think, in the way that we should consider the world and particularly how we ought to think about you, Almighty God. Amen.

Please be seated. Coming to Romans nine, it seems very much to be like a separate section, but it actually is a continuation of the preceding section in Romans chapter 8. We've just finished reading those wonderful words, for I'm persuaded that neither life nor death nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. These wonderful words are now followed by three chapters in Romans, and he's explaining how God has determined to accomplish our perseverance and to secure us until he brings us into glory. And So this chapter, these coming chapters, these next three, 9 through 11, which do hang together, I think that they are really a proof, an explanation of how God has done such a thing.

Now, this chapter turned my whole life upside down. It was, I don't know if it was in the in the late 1960s or the early 1970s that my pastor John Tobay gave me a book called The Sovereignty of God by A.W. Pink and I read it and I hated it. I could not believe that this was God. It was not the God that I thought that I knew.

And the words in A.W. Pink's book that shook me were right in this chapter. And I went to my pastor and I told him how ridiculous this was. And he said, Scott, just keep reading and let's keep talking. And, but these words in verse 15 in this chapter, I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy And I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion So then it is not of him who wills nor of him who runs but of God Who shows mercy?

For the scripture says to the Pharaoh, for this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show my power in you, and that my name may be declared in all the earth. Therefore, he has mercy on whom he wills, and he hardens whom he wills." And that really altered my view of God. I didn't think of God that way before. And I'll have to tell you that those words that I just read have come back to comfort me a thousand times in my life. And I'm so grateful for my pastor who gave me a book and changed everything about the way I saw God.

Well, I wanna tell you six things about this chapter and this section. First of all, the focus of chapter nine is the doctrine of election. I think it is likely one of the two most hated Bible doctrines. I think perhaps the most hated Bible doctrine is the doctrine of total depravity. Man doesn't wanna see himself that way.

I think the second most hated doctrine is the doctrine of election And there's something in man that does not like the doctrine of election And yet this chapter is very clear. And in verse 10, it's very clear that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him who calls. And I can't help but think of how important this is, even for the way that you think about yourself, your own emotional life. Do you, do you want to be under the authority of a God who loves you because of your righteousness? Do you want a God that accepts you because of how good you are?

Or how about how good you were before you were a believer? Is that the God that you want? But this chapter is an assault on man-centeredness. You know, I was just talking to our friend Jeff Pollard on the phone yesterday. He has a ministry called Chapel Library and the purpose of Chapel Library, I'll just read it to you.

The purpose, our purpose is to humble the pride of man, to exalt the grace of God in salvation, and to promote real holiness in heart and life. But I think that most everybody has struggled with this doctrine of election. Jonathan Edwards was one of those who had a hard time believing in election. He wrote a piece called A Personal Narrative and he describes his internal struggles. He says, from my childhood up, my mind had been full of objections against the doctrine of God's sovereignty in choosing whom he would he would have to eternal life and rejecting whom he pleased leaving them to eternally perish and be everlastingly tormented in hell it used to appear like a horrible doctrine to me.

I think most believers go through something like that. And then he says, but then my mind rested on it and it put it in put an end to all of my objections and then he says he says it is now a delightful conviction he says it's a very pleasant and bright and sweet doctrine He says absolute sovereignty is what I love to ascribe to God, but my first conviction was not this. And I just bring us back to the idea that do you want a God that chooses you based on your righteousness? For how good, for the potential that you had when he first found you? So the first thing is that this is about election.

The second is that it marks a distinction, a really important distinction that's very applicable today. And that is the distinction between physical Israel and spiritual Israel. And the key verse in this entire chapter is verse six, that they are not all Israel who are Israel. That there's a spiritual Israel and there's a physical Israel. Today, in our terms, you would say there are the physical Christians who name the name of Christ, and then there are the Christians who know Jesus Christ.

Those who are involved in the religion of Christ, and they use all the same words and even practice the same ordinances. But then on the other hand, you have those who have bowed their knee to Jesus Christ, and they want him to rule their lives. This is the difference between physical Israel and spiritual Israel, physical, the physical church, the visible church, and the true church. So it's very applicable. The third thing is this is an exaltation of the grace of God in salvation.

That salvation is by grace alone through faith alone. And then fourthly, and this is really important, what the Apostle Paul is proving is that Romans 8 did not fail, okay? That the word of God has not failed. The promises of God to Israel have not failed. It's not the problem with the promises.

The word of God has not failed because Israel rejected Christ. And it explains why Israel rejected Christ but you can also you can apply this also to your own life and the people that you know who do not love the Lord, you can know why it has failed. It wasn't the word of God that failed. It wasn't God who failed. And then, Fifthly, this is not only a declaration of the power of the word of God, it's also called by different theologians a theodicy.

It's a theodicy. And what is a theodicy? A theodicy is a defense. It's a vindication of God. It's a vindication of the character of God.

Romans 9, 10, and 11 is a vindication of the character of God. Theodicy, Theo, God, and the Odyssey part, that is Decay, which means justice, God's justice. Romans 9 through 11 is a proof of God's justice. It's to vindicate God's justice in his dealings with mankind. Lloyd-Jones describes it like this.

It is a vindication of the divine attributes, particularly holiness and justice, in establishing or allowing the existence of physical and moral evil. And I think this is a very important matter because one of the most important things for a Christian to understand is the doctrine of God. This has to do with the doctrine of God. Who is your God? This is what was so earth-shaking to me so many years ago.

And how do you explain his omnipotence and his sovereignty? How do you explain his holiness? The problem with us is that we always want to make a God in our own image. We want a God that we are comfortable with. We want a God that makes our thoughts acceptable, but God actually comes in to change our thoughts and in here we have the doctrine of God And we live in a time when there's a man-centered vision of God and man-centered messages that are delivered to churches and evangelical churches.

But this chapter is a vindication of the justice of God and teaches us who God is. And frankly, God is very disturbing to most people. This is disturbing because God is disturbing because God is sovereign and he is omnipotent. But at the same time, He doesn't choose man according to their righteousness. That's the good news.

And the sixth point that I want to speak of before we really dive into this text is Paul is proving a point. And that point is stated in the very last verse of chapter 11. Go ahead and turn there. Turn to Romans 11 and find verse 33. This is the purpose of it all.

This is the purpose of this section of scripture that by the end we would glorify God for his wisdom and his majesty. And in verse 33 through 36, this is the conclusion, this is Paul's conclusion, and this is where we will end up in our view of God. It's so important that you think rightly about God. When you think this way about God, you'll be strong. Verse 33, Oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out.

For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has become his counselor, or who has first given to him, and it shall be repaid to him. For of him and through him and to him are all things to whom be glory forever, amen. So this is where we are going in this chapter. You see an outline in front of you. I'm gonna give a, I'm gonna do my best to get to verse 13.

We shall see. But as you see in the outline, the apostle, he first of all is declaring his love for his countrymen and Then in verses four and five Is a description of God's love for Paul's countrymen What God has done and then thirdly that not all? Israel are of Israel that's verses six through nine And then the doctrine of unconditional election in verses 10 through 13. And then going on in verses 14 to 18, Paul addresses the natural response. You know what it is, that's unfair.

He's gonna address that in the next section. And then Paul answers another question, why does God still find fault? That's in verses 19 through 24. Why would God find fault? And then in verses 25 through 29, there's an explanation of how this is all a fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy.

And then finally, what shall we say then? What shall we say? Well, we just read about that, that God is magnificent. So that's a snapshot. So let's begin in the first three verses, and you see Paul's love for his countrymen, verses one through three.

I tell you the truth, I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying. My conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart for I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh. The apostle Paul has compassion for the people that have been trying to kill him multiple times, dragging him out of cities and stoning him, putting him under various terrible manifestations of persecution, beatings and various floggings and things like that. And yet he has great sorrow and continual grief toward his countrymen who hate him. This is so important because there are people that in your life that might hate you because of the gospel or because of the way that you've lived or maybe actual sins that you've committed against them.

The apostle Paul though has great sorrow and continual grief toward those who hate him. You know, when I was very young, I would listen to the sermons of Ray Stedman, who was a pastor in California. I loved his sermons. I still listen to them every once in a while. But he tells this story of a pastor who was dismissed from his church.

And a church member asked, well, why was he dismissed? And the answer was, he kept telling us we're going to hell. And so then this person was asked, well what does your new pastor say? Well, he says that we're all going to hell. Well, why haven't you dismissed him?

Well, the first pastor, when he told us that we were going to hell, it seemed like he was glad about it. But the current pastor, when he tells us we're going to hell, it seems like it's breaking his heart. And that's what you see in the Apostle Paul. It's breaking his heart. He's not angry with them.

And it's so critical that as you know we walk about in the world that we don't walk before the unbelievers with an angry face. But they have to know that we love them. And this is what the apostle Paul is demonstrating here. Paul, he says, from the Jews, five times I received 40 stripes minus one, three times I was beaten with rods, Once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I've been in the deep, journeys often, perils in waters, perils of robbers, perils of my own countrymen, my countrymen. And that's who he's talking about here.

You know, remember the 40 assassins who engaged in a hunger strike, you know, until they would kill the apostle Paul. I think they kept going hungry for a long time. But the apostle, He says, for I wish that I myself were accursed from Christ. That's a very extreme statement. I could not say that.

I can't imagine being able to say that. The only other place in the Bible where any man of God said anything like that was Moses in Exodus 32. And the people were sinning against Moses and they hated him and Moses says you've committed a great sin. No, I will go up to the Lord, perhaps I can make atonement for your sin. Then Moses returned to the Lord and said, oh, these people have committed a great sin and have made themselves a god of gold.

Yet now, if you will forgive their sin, but if not, I pray, blot me out of your book, which you have written." You think of Moses as this hard man. No, he was the meekest man. He was a strong man, but he was so tender-hearted towards people. He said, Lord, if you don't forgive them, blot my name out. It's incredibly convicting.

I don't think that way, but you might just think of people in this world or family members who have dismissed you, and do you still love them in spite of their slanders? There's nothing that could dampen Paul's love for his countrymen. And I think this is given to us to sort of challenge us To evaluate our own love toward the lost or we do we avoid them because we don't like them It's easier to do that Our own countrymen You know God prioritizes people in our lives Who are the most important people in your life? Well, they're your family, your church, and your countrymen. Those are the most important people.

But Paul says, let me be accursed. But Paul, Paul did not need to be accursed for his countrymen. Because Christ was already a cursed for his countrymen. Christ was wounded for their transgressions and he was cursed for their iniquities. So Paul did, for one thing it would be impossible for Paul to be a curse for his countrymen.

And Paul also knows that he can't be cut off. He's already said who can separate us from the love of Christ. So what he was suggesting is not only impossible, but really just hypothetical, because Jesus Christ has already paid the price. Jesus Christ was accursed for the sins. So you see Paul's love for his countrymen.

It's so shocking to see love like that. You might just make a list of people that you don't like very much. Maybe the Lord could help us love them more than we used to or love them maybe for the first time. But Paul was not bitter against his enemies. Later on when we get to Romans 12, we'll get a big download on how to deal with enemies from the apostle Paul.

And he just tells us what he always did. And then we see after Paul's love for his countrymen, God's love for Paul's countrymen in verses four and five, who were Israelites to whom pertained the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God and the promises, of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all the eternally blessed God, amen. So here Paul is itemizing the advantages the Jews had and how God loved the Jews. And he says that he's the eternally blessed God. This is how Paul thinks about God.

God is so good. And then he itemizes the different things that God did for Israel. The various ways that God used to love his people. We might call them the ordinary means of grace for Israel. And Paul is explaining the good things God did for Israel.

And he itemizes the privileges that were given in the Old Covenant toward Israel. Here's what I want us to think about. Think about the privileges God has given us. Because God always gives privileges to his people. And he mentioned six things that God provided for the Jews.

First, the adoption. This is not adoption in the same way as salvation, but the preferential treatment of this nation, which God did have preferential treatment toward the nation. It was not spiritual adoption in the way that a believer is adopted, as we've just read in Romans chapter 8. In other words, God preferred a nation. God often prefers nations.

And then second, the glory. This is the presence of God. God appeared to his people in glory in the wilderness and in the tabernacle and in the temple. God dwelt with his people directly. God shows his people his glory.

When you open up the Word of God, the glory flies out and you and you're changed As if you're in the face of Jesus You have the glory of God before you in the Word of God and Then thirdly the covenants The covenants are mentioned 253 times. And there, of course, you have the covenant with Adam, the covenant with Noah, the covenant with Abraham, the covenant with Moses, the covenant with David. All of these were sets of promises that God made. God makes promises to his people. Don't you love those little books that just have hundreds of promises and you can just go from one promise to another.

These are so helpful especially when you're discouraged and you don't know what's going on. You'll know what's going on if you read some promises of God and God gave his people promises. You should soak yourself in the promises. They're so helpful. And then the giving of the law, the fourth of these six things, the giving of the law, where God promises blessing for those who keep the law and curses to those who break his law.

And I remember I was so struck many years ago when I was preaching through Deuteronomy here in this church. And we got to Deuteronomy chapter four. And Moses says this, And this just tells us how favored we are to have the law of God, because it makes us a wise and understanding people. That phrase just rang in my mind for weeks. He says, therefore, be careful to observe them, for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who will hear all these statutes and say, surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.

And then he says, what great nation is there that has such statutes and righteous judgments as are in this law, which I set before you this day. There is no people on the face of the earth that have better laws than the laws of the church of Jesus Christ. They are so steadying. They are so helpful. They'll pull you out of your ridiculous thinking.

They'll pull you out of your ridiculous thinking. They'll pull you out of your despondency. They'll pull you out of your sinful ways you think about people. They will make you more powerful workers and husbands and wives and children, they'll make you more successful, absolutely, if you follow them, especially your children. I mean, do you know that if you honor and obey your parents, God will make you mighty in the land.

He'll make you successful. It will go well with you if you obey his command to honor your father and mother. If you want to be a mighty man when you grow, honor your father and your mother. There is no people, there is no corporation, there is no institution on the planet that has better laws than God's laws. They're so good.

Soak yourself in them. So he gave the law and then fifth, the service of God. This has to do with the worship of God in the in the tabernacle and the duties of the Levites and the priests, the offerings, the instruction of the Levites and the priests, and the gatherings, the feasts in the temple in a similar way that we're gathered together here today. The service of God. We're all involved in the service of God today.

We've come to worship him, but also to bless one another, to love one another from the heart, to minister to one another, to exercise our gifts, to speak the truth and love to one another, to be kind and tenderhearted toward one another. This is the service of God. It's all part of our worship It's a worshiping community that comes together and does really specific things that other people aren't doing today they're out riding their bikes and and we're involved in in the worship of God and actually the recalibrating, the refreshing of our minds to enter into an entire day, a day of delight to come and do something that's so helpful to our souls and really transforming of our lives. The people who reject the Lord's Day and they enter into a secularizing trajectory in their life. When you observe the Lord's Day you're sanctifying not secularizing your life.

So the service of God and then six the promises. The promises of the coming Messiah. You know Acts 2 39, this promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off. So this is what God did. This is how God favored the Israelites.

This was God's love towards Paul's countrymen. And God gives his people advantages. You all have advantages by being here today. And all of you children, you have many advantages being here for many, many years. These advantages will come and help you later on.

But this is equally important to understand. Advantages don't save you. Advantages can't save. Jesus Christ saves. And one can have many advantages growing up in a family and in a church, but you must be born again.

Do you want to be born again? Do you want to follow God? Do you want your sins forgiven? Do you want a new master? That's what it means to be a Christian.

It's so good to have advantages, but advantages without being born again are nice to have, but they're not the best to have. And then we turn to verses six through nine. Many say verse six is the heart of this entire chapter and maybe this entire section. They are not all Israel who are of Israel. I'll read the text.

But it is not that the Word of God has taken no effect. For they are not all Israel who are of Israel, nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham. But in Isaac your seed shall be called. That is, those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God. Nothing can be more clear.

But the children of the promise are counted as the seed. For This is the word of promise. At this time, I will come and Sarah shall have a son. These words Declare why Israel rejected Christ. Even further though, they declare why anyone rejects Christ.

And all of this is to prove the difference between physical Israel and spiritual Israel. And it's the exact same difference between the physical church, the visible church, and the invisible church, the true church. And whenever there's a gathering of people, you always have members of the visual church, physical Israel, and members of the true church, the spiritual church, spiritual Israel. Now we already spoke about this in Romans chapter two. I'll read it to you for chapter two verse 28.

The apostle Paul says the very same thing. He says, for he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh, but he is a Jew who is one inwardly." That's the key phrase, inwardly. And circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit not in the letter whose praise is not from men but from God now this should clear up any misunderstanding that anyone might have about the nation of Israel. The nation of Israel is not sacred. What is sacred are the spiritual Israel.

And true Israel comes to faith in God. In Romans 4 it's explained, therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace so that the promise might be sure to all the seed. Not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. And this should clear up for good who, who is in the lineage of Abraham. It isn't the, it isn't a modern day Jew.

It's the person who believes in Jesus Christ. That person might be a Jew, a former Jew, and might be a Gentile. This is not what some have called replacement theology, where the church replaces Israel, where the church is plan B, Israel was plan A, that didn't work. And so God shifts to plan B, the Gentiles. That's not what we're talking about here.

Rather, we would call it covenant theology that, God made a covenant with his people who receive him by faith. That's why we often talk about the Old Testament Church. There's continuity from the Old Testament to the New Testament. The true saints of the Old Testament are the same as the true saints in the New Testament. And that's why in Galatians 6-16, the Apostle Paul says that the church is the Israel of God.

The church is the Israel of God. So then Paul gives an example to make this clear about Jacob and Esau, where Jacob and Esau come from the same mother. And he's doing that to prove that salvation is not by genealogy, it's not by bloodlines at all, It's by spiritual lines. And we know, you know, Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him as righteousness Because that's the only way that God makes you a child of his own Through the circumcision of the heart verse 7 is crystal clear lineage does not secure salvation and true Israel is not a nation state and the true Israel is not a heritage of lineage. Verse 7, nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham, but in Isaac your seed shall be called and then in verse 8 the children of the promise that is those who are the children of the flesh these are not the children of God but the children of the promise and so they are not all Israel who are of Israel." And then finally we turn to the matter of unconditional election verses 10 through 13.

We'll elaborate on this next time. Verse 10, and not only this, when Rebecca also had conceived by one man, even our father Isaac, for the children not yet being born nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God, according to election, might stand. That's the heart of this. That the purpose of God, according to election, might stand, not of works, but of him who calls. It was said to her, the older shall serve the younger as it is written, Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated." We'll unpack that more carefully when we meet again, But here's what I think we should take away from this.

You can identify with a church or an institution and not be part of the true church. You can be a physical member but not a spiritual member. And everyone needs to ask, who am I? You can go through the motions of church life like millions of people do in churches today who are not believers. They participate in the ordinances, but they're not being transformed by the Holy Spirit, and they do not want to be holy.

And then salvation is by grace, not by any works that any have done. And again, I think I just want to take us back to Your picture of God. Do you want That God chooses you based on your righteousness Or that He chooses you simply because He loves you, regardless. And then of course finally, you know, we see the apostle Paul's love for the lost. I think His love for the lost far exceeds mine and probably ours.

I think that our love for the lost needs to increase. Mine does. I think all of ours does. And so we have this great section here to to teach us who God is. He's an electing God apart from works.

You know, Paul spoke of this. He said that he might be found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith. That's the whole point, that God rescues people who do not deserve it. What a blessing that is. Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for your word. We pray that you would help us to understand this great chapter, this difficult chapter, that you would teach us to think about you the way that you want us to think about you and not to have a God in our own image but to cleave to the truth about you Lord. And Father I pray you would also just give us a greater love for the lost for those who've offended us and hurt us maybe as the Apostle Paul. Lord thank you so much for your word. Amen.