In his sermon, Peter Allison examines the concept of the 'hope of Israel' as presented by Paul in Acts 28, focusing on the spiritual implications of this hope beyond the physical nation of Israel. Allison highlights Paul's efforts to persuade the Jews in Rome about Jesus being the promised Messiah, using the Law of Moses and the Prophets to testify about the Kingdom of God. The sermon traces the biblical narrative from creation through the history of Israel, emphasizing God's covenants with figures like Adam, Noah, Abraham, and David. Allison explains that these covenants reveal God's grand, organic plan to restore humanity through Jesus Christ, who fulfills the promises and hopes of Israel. The speaker distinguishes between the physical descendants of Abraham and the spiritual Israel, stressing that true Israel consists of those who are inwardly transformed by faith in Christ. The sermon warns against the dangers of unbelief, urging believers to cherish their spiritual privileges and remain vigilant in their faith.

Our scripture reading is Acts, chapter 28. I'd like to back up just a verse or two to pick up verse 20, begin at verse 20. Paul is arrived at Rome. Finally, after a longer than anticipated voyage and a three month hiatus at Malta over the winter. They've come in the spring for the final several hundred miles of their journey to Rome.

He has arrived in Rome. He's detained, but he's allowed to rent his own house. He wastes no time in calling together the leaders of the Jews in Rome. We pick up then, as he's done that in the middle of his talk to them the first time in verse 20. He says, For this reason, therefore, I have called for you to see you and speak with you, because for the hope of Israel I am bound with this chain.' Then they said to him, We neither received letters from Judah concerning you, nor have any of the brethren who came reported or spoken evil of you, but we desire to hear from you what you think concerning this sect.

We know that it is spoken against everywhere. So when they had appointed him a day, Many came to him at his lodging, to whom he testified and solemnly to whom he explained and solemnly testified of the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus from both the law of Moses and the prophets from morning till evening. And some were persuaded by the things which were spoken, and some disbelieved. So when they did not agree among themselves, they departed after Paul had said one word. The Holy Spirit spoke rightly through Isaiah the prophet to our fathers, saying, Go to this people and say, Hearing you will not hear, and shall not understand.

And seeing you will see and not perceive, for the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I should heal them. Therefore, let it be known to you that the salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will hear it. And when he had said these words, the Jews departed and had a great dispute among themselves. May we choose these as precepts that His hand may become our help.

Gracious Heavenly Father, open our eyes, that as You have given us this spirit of supplication and confession, may You also give us the spirit of understanding. We ask, Father, that Your Word may be transformative in us, that it might not become usual and mundane, but may it be the living Word within us that springs forth from us into rivers of living water. And I ask that you would sanctify my sinful lips, that from a vessel of clay the riches of your grace might be proclaimed this morning. Through Jesus Christ, Amen. Well, with the assassination of Charlie Kirk a few weeks ago, the internet has been ablaze, as only the internet can be, with a debate about whether or not Israel was behind the assassination.

And this debate is so pervasive that the president of Israel felt it necessary to publicly post a preemptive denial of any involvement by his country in that Murder. Well, this morning we won't be answering that question, but we do want to answer two other questions about Israel. Who is Israel? And what is the hope of Israel, of which Paul speaks, that he was in chains. Paul said he was in chains for the hope of Israel.

That's why he was bound. So this was a pretty significant thing that Paul was willing to give up his freedom and be a prisoner for this hope of Israel. Who is Paul talking about? Is Israel the nation in the Middle East that drove out the Palestinians from their homeland 75 years ago and have been waging war against them ever since? Is that Israel?

The Jewish news service said a week or two ago, now is the time of hope. With American support, Israel has accepted the most difficult gamble to risk its security, its current government, and even its identity as the unbeatable Jewish state to test the possibility of an end to this war. Is that the hope of Israel? Of course, Paul is not referring to any of these modern entities, although these entities, these modern entities today are often confused with the hope of Israel and the Israel of the Scriptures. But first, to what is Paul referring to by Israel?

Luke says here that Paul spent all day, we're not going to spend all day on this question, but we will spend a little time. He spent all day from morning until evening explaining and testifying of the Kingdom of God and persuading them from the law and the prophets that Jesus is the promised Messiah. Starting in Genesis, the Law of Moses, and going through Malachi, he explained the message of the Old Testament. And the message of the Old Testament is the story of the Messiah, the Christ. It's a story that's progressively revealed, line by line, over a couple thousand years.

In today's terminology, we call that biblical theology, This organic unfolding in history of God's grand plan and design. The organic unfolding through history of God's grand plan and design. Now organic in that sense just means it is something that exhibits the similar features and characteristics of a living organism. Living organisms grow from a small seed. They don't just appear full grown overnight.

They need nourishment. They have spurts of growth and periods of dormancy. There are setbacks and advances. There are diseases and so forth. That's part of the fallen world of living organisms.

So this story is an organic unfolding in history of God's grand plan, His grand design that He has decreed from before the foundation of the world. And so this story that Paul recounted all that day does not begin once upon a time. It begins in the beginning with creation. With the creation of the heavens and the earth by the spoken Word of God. You know, that's the same way John begins his story of Jesus Christ in his Gospel.

Exactly the same way. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. So in addition to all the heavens and the earth and all the plants and animals that fill the earth, God created something else. Something that was different from everything else that He had created. And this something else was the head and the crown of all of His creation.

And God called it Him-Man, or in Hebrew, Adam. You see, man and Adam are the same word in Hebrew. When it refers to man or mankind, then we translate it as man. But when it refers to the proper name of the first man, then we transliterate it, meaning we just bring the sounds of Hebrew over and write them with our English letters. So man and Adam, remember, are the same word in Hebrew.

It can mean, It can refer to mankind, all of humanity. It can refer to men versus women. Or it can be Adam's proper name. But while all of creation reveals or declares God's glory. Man is God's highest and richest revelation, because that was the only part of creation that God made in His own image, after His likeness.

And that's what makes people, man, Adam, different from all the animals and the plants and the planets and the stars. So to be made in the image of God means that man is a representation of God, someone who is like God in certain ways. Now, to be very clear, Man does not contain, and man does not participate in any way in God's divine essence. Where God is infinite in all His perfections, man is finite and limited. But just like God is a person who is rational and who has a volition or will, so man created in God's image is rational, able to think, able to think God's thoughts after Him.

And a person who has volition or will, enabling man to make choices according to the desires of that will. You see, Just as God is separate and distinct from everything that He has made, so man is separate and distinct from everything else that God made. So remember, to be separate and distinct is fundamentally what it means to be holy. It means to be completely separate. And so just as God created Adam after His own Likeness, Adam, who is called the Son of God in Luke 3, in the genealogy.

Adam, just like God created a son in his own image, Adam begets a son after his own image. Genesis 5.1 says that in the day that God created man, He made him in the likeness of God. And then two verses later says, Adam begat a son in his own likeness after his image and named him Seth. So that's another way in which we bear the image of God. But notice, of course, there's a significant difference.

God created Adam, but Adam begets Seth. And beget is the same word for born. So if it's a woman that is doing it, we say born or bears. But if it's speaking of a man, as it does in this case, then the Bible usually translates it, most translations call it beget. But it is the same word as born Of course Adam we know Adam didn't give birth to Seth that was Eve that did that Just as God is a sovereign ruler over His creation, so man was given authority to subdue the earth and exercise dominion over all of the animal kingdom.

You see, man is God's royal representative to govern the earth, to rule it under God. But there's one more aspect that we need to mention in regards to Adam being made in the image of God. Well, there's probably many more that we could, but one more for this morning. And that image also involves a relationship. When God created Adam, He entered into a relationship with him.

It was a relationship that God unilaterally established. And it was a relationship in which God unilaterally, There wasn't a two-way negotiation between God and Adam. God as the Sovereign unilaterally established this relationship. And He unilaterally determined and dictated the terms of that relationship. And God promised in this relationship, God promised Adam eternal life on the condition of perfect obedience.

Perfect obedience to God's Word. God is His creator. God is His sovereign. God acted as the sovereign in establishing that. It wasn't up to Adam.

It's the sovereignty of God that established that. God promised Adam eternal life if he obeyed. But if he disobeyed, God said in the day that you disobey, You will die. You will lose this fellowship, this relationship that I have established. You will break it.

You will die. Because that is life, to know God, to be in relation to Him, to have fellowship with Him. And to be in Jesus' death is to be separated from Him in that relationship. And we call this the covenant of works. But don't miss the grace in this covenant.

The covenant of works, and we'll see why, but don't miss the grace, because It's a gracious covenant in that God was under no obligation to make this arrangement. He didn't have to give Adam eternal life on condition of obedience. That was the grace of God's unmerited favor to Adam that this arrangement was established. Adam, you see, exists and lives like us only by the grace of God. Only by God's unmerited, unearned benevolence and favor.

You see, we call this the covenant of works because in this covenant, God graciously obligates himself to reward Adam's obedience. His work, if you will. He graciously promises and obligates himself to reward Adam's obedience with eternal life. And Romans 4, 4 defines the difference between a work and a grace. It's very clear.

Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace, as unmerited, but as debt. A debt is something that is owed. And if someone offers you the sum of money in exchange for performing a certain job, you would be owed that payment when the job was done. And until that payment is made, it would remain a debt. It would remain something that was owed.

That's a work. Grace is that which is not owed. It's unearned. It's a favor that's unearned. And so God obligated himself to give this to Adam.

And of course when God obligates himself, he cannot deny himself. The Bible says that God, because He could swear by none greater, swore by His known name, that by two immutable things, the word of God and God swearing, the promises to us would be sure. God cannot deny Himself. But it is God obligating Himself. It's no one else.

But because it is an obligation, because it would be owed to Adam, it therefore becomes a work. But there's really more at stake here in this covenant than whether Adam would pass probation and earn this eternal life. Because you see, in this covenant, Adam represents all mankind who would descend from him by ordinary generation. So that what he does affects everyone. Everyone descending from Him by ordinary generation.

It affects the whole human race. And so as the representative then of the human race in this covenant, we call Him the covenant head, or federal head. Federal just means it pertains to a covenant. And so we can summarize then all of this by saying God created man to be in a covenant relationship with Him, to exercise dominion over the earth, to rule under Him, and to multiply producing descendants, producing a seed, if you will, who would also be in covenant relationship with God, the Creator, and who would also exercise dominion over the earth, and who would also multiply, filling the earth. Of course, we all know Adam failed.

He failed this probation. He disobeyed God. He ate what he was forbidden to eat. He sinned. He missed the mark.

And in so doing, he lost the very fellowship with God that he was created to enjoy. He lost the land that He was called to rule over. He was expelled. Kicked out. From the very land that He was to tend and to keep.

God cursed the ground. And God consigned Adam and Eve to a life of toil, of sorrow, and pain. And so though Adam still bears the image of God, This image is marred. It's like a car that's been totaled in a massive collision. You know, the kind that just crinkles it up into a little ball.

It's still recognizable as a car and you see it, you see a car, but what happens? It's horrifying, right? When you see a car that's just been totally mangled. I remember When I was in college, I operated a tractor for a farmer. It was a big, one of the big glorious tractors, really strong, powerful.

And when I was away at school one semester, someone was using it and got hit by a cement truck. And it cracked the whole back of the tractor right in half. Right through the big stick steel. And I remember going to see it sitting in the dealer's yard, and there it sat. It just looked sick.

It was just a sinking feeling to see this thing just broken, completely broken, snapped. That's us. The image of God in us is marred. But it's still recognizable. It's badly marred, but you still recognize it.

It's still there. But the grace in all this, the wonderful thing is that even before pronouncing these words of condemnation on them, God made a wonderful promise in their hearing. A promise revealing God's patience and His gracious fatherly love for them as their Creator, as their Father. God promised that the seed of the woman would succeed where Adam had failed. Where Adam had succumbed to the temptation of Satan, this seed of the woman would bruise the head of the serpent.

A mortal blow. And then God provided a covering for their nakedness, made of using animal skins. A covering that required the shedding of blood. See, God made the first sacrifice for man. And throughout the rest of the Old Testament, God's gracious plan to accomplish this promise is revealed, progressively revealed, in successive stages.

At each step, more detail of His plan to restore what was destroyed and lost in the fall, at each stage, more of that plan is revealed. And At each stage, God ratifies or He confirms this covenant, which we call the covenant of grace. Because unlike the covenant of works, the favor that God shows in this covenant is not earned by man, but by someone else. In fact, we'll see that at each successive stage, man is shown to be wholly unable to keep God's commandments and to satisfy the terms of the covenant of works. But one, the seed that God promised the woman.

After about 1600 years, the earth becomes so wicked that God destroys the earth and everyone in it except Noah and his family in this worldwide flood. And with Noah, God reveals more explicitly the distinctions that he makes among men. Distinctions that are not based on performance, but on God's grace, His unmerited favor. God delivered Noah and his family because Noah found grace in the eyes of God. It wasn't because Noah was a better person.

God showed him favor that he did not deserve. That's grace. Noah didn't deserve to be delivered through the flood. His family didn't deserve to be delivered. He was a sinner, just like Adam.

After the flood, Noah got drunk and uncovered himself. He was a moral failure. He needed a Savior, the seed. But despite Noah's sin, you see God confirmed His covenant promise to Noah on the mountains of Ararat. He renewed His command to exercise dominion over the land, to raise a godly seed, and He promised never to destroy the earth again with this flood.

He provided the rainbow as a sign by which God said He would remember His covenant with all flesh. A gracious covenant. God wasn't under any obligation to make a promise like that. But He did. That's grace.

So we call this the covenant of grace. Speaking prophetically, Noah named Shem as the one who would be blessed above his brothers. Because it is from his descendants that this seed who had bruised the head of Satan would come. After Noah, God confirmed his promise with Abraham, giving him three promises. First, he promised him that a holy people as numerous as the stars of heaven and as the sand of the sea would descend from him, a holy seed who would be God's people.

Secondly, he promised Abraham a land that would be given to his descendants. A land. You see some restoration of this image of God that He's going to be given inheritance, He's going to be given a land to His people, and thirdly, something else is added. In Abraham, all the nations of the earth would be blessed. Because it would be from His descendants that the seed promised in the Garden of Eden would come.

And so God changed His name from Abraham, which is high or exalted father, to Abraham, the father of a multitude. God gave a special promise of protection to Abraham. Those who blessed Abraham would be blessed. Those who cursed him would be cursed. And so when Pharaoh innocently took Sarai, Abraham's wife, into his house, his house was plagued by God until he restored her.

He did it in innocence. He didn't know Abraham had lied to him. But God still plagued his household according to God's gracious promise. God also gave Abraham a sacramental sign, a seal of his covenant promise. All Abraham's sons were to be circumcised.

You see that sacrament of circumcision, it graphically and sacramentally demonstrated that no physical descendant of Abraham can satisfy the demands of the covenant of works. All were sinners who needed a blood sacrifice. And in each successive generation, God revealed the line through whom this seed, this promised seed would come. It was through Isaac, not Ishmael. Through Jacob, not Esau.

And in each case, the distinction is not based on the person or the obedience of that person or any goodness in them. It's based on God's grace. God's sovereign purpose. Jacob was a deceiver who stole his brother's birthright. But it's the grace of God that loved Jacob more than Esau.

God changes Jacob's name to Israel, saying in Genesis 32, your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel, for you have struggled with God and with men and have prevailed." Again, it is the grace of God by which He prevails. And Jacob's descendants will now become known as the children of Israel. So now this name Israel comes into existence. And the rest of Genesis is the story of how God used Joseph in the land of his affliction to keep alive and to preserve Jacob's descendants from whom this seed would come. It didn't come through Joseph, the so-called hero of those stories.

It came through Judah. And in that process, Judah steps forward to offer himself as a slave in the place of his brother Benjamin. And speaking prophetically then before he died, Jacob identified Judah as the line through whom this promised seed would come. You see, Joseph's place then, Joseph's calling in all the suffering that he endured in the ridicule and the slavery and prison was all to simply preserve this line of Judah through whom the seed would come. Under Moses, God's plan and purpose are further revealed.

God reveals His covenant name, Yehovah. He reveals Himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And so with this mighty deliverance of Jacob's descendants from Egypt, God now begins speaking of His people. His people. Instead of just one family, it is now a people, a nation.

And the restoration of God's image in man is now given a visible form. Just as God is holy and separate from all of His creation, His people, this people that He calls My people, is the Holy people who is separated from all the other people of the world. And He gave these people, His people signs by which they would be continually reminded of their separation, of their holiness to the Lord. In Leviticus 20, he says, But I have said to you, God says, You shall inherit the land, and I will give it to you to possess, a land flowing with milk and honey. I am the Lord your God who has separated you from the peoples.

You shall therefore distinguish between clean and unclean, between unclean birds and clean. You shall not make yourselves abominable by beasts or by bird or by any kind of living thing that creeps on the ground, which I have separated from you as unclean. And you shall be holy to me, for the Lord am holy, and have separated you from the peoples that you should be Mine." God is identifying now His people, who after His own image will be a separate, a holy people. And so this sets up now this big division between the people that are separated, holy to the Lord and the rest of the nations. They are given the tabernacle where the Holy of Holies containing the Ark of the covenant where the gracious presence of God dwelt.

The invisible throne of the invisible God is made after the pattern of the heavenly throne. Only the high priest can go in once a year. Then there's the holy place. It contains the light. And the altar of incense where the sweet incense was offered with the prayers of the people.

And only the priest can enter. And then there's a courtyard where God's people gather and where He speaks to them. This is where God's Word is first poured into writing. God Himself writing His covenant with His own finger on the tablets of stone and giving them to Moses and the people. This is where the church and the state are separated into two distinct institutions.

The church, God's holy people, now begin to meet weekly as God's holy people to hear His voice, to hear Him speak. And we continue that to today. That might give you a clue as to who Israel is. See, the church now I see is no longer represented in a single family. So the first two promises to Abraham seem to be fulfilled.

Moses says that his descendants are as numerous as the sand of the sea, and through the conquest under Joshua, the people are given the land that was promised to Abraham. Those are fulfilled, so it would seem. But yet again, It's not because the people have earned anything. They are a stubborn and a wicked people. Before Moses can get back from the mountain with God's commandments, these people have gone astray.

They've uncovered themselves. And they're worshipping idols, saying that this golden calf delivered them through the Red Sea and out of Egypt. See they're no better than Noah. They don't believe that God would give them the land of Canaan and as a result their carcasses all fall in the wilderness. But God is faithful to His covenant, to His promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

You see, these people though cannot fulfill the covenant of works to obey God perfectly. They need someone else who can. In David, God raises up a mighty king who defeats all the enemies of Israel, beginning with killing Goliath and delivering Israel from this terrible giant who is terrorizing the entire army of Israel. And David represents another aspect of the restoration of God's image in man. David is the mighty king who is never defeated in battle.

God again confirms or ratifies His covenant, promising David that he would establish the throne of his kingdom forever. His sea would reign in the land forever, just as Adam was created to do. And he comes to David in 2 Samuel 7. He says, I took you from the sheepfold, from following the sheep, to be a ruler over my people, over Israel. I have been with you wherever you have gone.

I have cut off all of your enemies from before you and I have made you a great name, like the name of the great men who are on the earth." And he goes on to give him more details of that promise. He said, I will set up your seed after you. When you die, I will set up your seed after you. Who will come from your body and I will establish His kingdom. And He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of His kingdom forever.

I will be His Father and He will be My Son. My mercy shall not depart from Him as it departed from Saul. And your house and your kingdom shall be established before you forever. Your throne shall be established forever." When God says forever, he means forever. But of course, this is just a reaffirmation of this covenant of grace because David as a man is a failure.

He commits adultery with Bathsheba then murders her husband to cover it up. His son Solomon, the richest and wisest man of the land is a failure. His many wives turn his heart away from the Lord and into a life of hedonistic pleasure. David's own sons, the kingly line, are forever cut off from ever being kings and rulers. Now that's a problem.

If David's kingdom is to endure forever and his sons are forever disqualified from ever reigning, his physical sons from ever reigning on the throne, How will the Lord do this? The holy people that conquered the land under Joshua within a few hundred years have become as corrupt as the nations of Canaan that they drove out and God sends them into captivity in Babylon. But God is faithful to His covenant promises. He sends them signs and renewed His promise to provide a seed who would succeed where all other men since Adam have failed. Isaiah 7, the Lord Himself will give you a sign.

Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel. Curds and honey he shall eat, that he may know to refuse to evil and choose the good." God sends His servants to prophets with warnings of God's judgment, but also these wonderful promises of God fully restoring His image in them and restoring them to the calling for which they were created, which we were created, to be light-bearers, reflecting God's glory, ruling over the earth in righteousness, and restoring fellowship and peace with God and one another. That was why we were created. And so God says in Isaiah 2, "'It shall come to pass in the latter day that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established on the top of the mountains and exalted above the hills, and all the nations will flow to it. And My people shall come and say, Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob.

And He will teach us his ways, and we will walk in his paths. For out of Zion shall go forth a law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he shall judge between the nations, and rebuke many peoples, and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, their spears into pruning hooks. Nations shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore." God renews His promise that in Abraham all the nations of the world would be blessed. The Gentiles, you see, would be blessed, not just the physical seed and descendants of Abraham.

And so we see this expansion now of God's promise in His restoration of His image in man. In Isaiah 42, Behold, My servant, My elect one in whom My soul delights, I have put My Spirit upon him, and he will bring forth justice to the Gentiles. He will not cry out or raise his voice, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed he will not break, a smoking flax he will not quench. He will bring forth justice for truth.

He will not fail. Everyone else has failed. He will not fail nor be discouraged till He has established justice in the earth and the coastlands will wait for His law. Thus says the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread forth the earth and that which comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it and the Spirit to those who walk in it. I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness.

I will hold your hand. I will keep you and give you as a covenant to the people, as a light to the Gentiles. To open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from prison, those who sit in darkness from the prison house. I am the Lord, and that is My name, and My glory I will not give to another." See, you notice The promised land now is extended to all the earth. The nations, the coastlands, not just a little piece of real estate in the Middle East that God gave to Abraham.

Isaiah 49, Listen to me, O coastlands, and take heed, you people from afar. The Lord has called me from the womb, from the matrix of my mother. He has made mention of my name. And now the Lord says, who formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him, so that Israel is gathered to Him. For I shall be glorious in the eyes of the Lord, and my God shall be my strength." And indeed, he says, is it too small a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob to restore the preserved ones of Israel?

I will give you as a light to the Gentiles, that you should be my salvation to the ends of the earth. Thus, says the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel, their Holy One, to Him whom man despises, to Him whom the nation abhors, to the servant of rulers, kings shall see and arise, princes shall also worship. Because the Lord who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, He has chosen you." But of course, many of the Israelites did not listen. They didn't believe these promises. The message fell on deaf ears.

Only a remnant believed. But God promised that He still would send a seed who would succeed where everyone else from Adam on has failed. In Zechariah 8 God says, but now I will not treat the remnant of this people as in former days. For the seed shall be prosperous, the vine shall give its fruit, the ground shall give her increase, The heavens shall give their due. I will cause the remnant of this people to possess all these." That which was lost in the fall, God is redeeming.

He's giving back. That's His grand purpose. It is Christ who is able to restore the image of God in fallen man. There was nobody in the Old Testament that could. And in Romans 5, this comparison between Christ and Adam is fleshed out.

You see, as through one man sin entered the world and death through sin, thus death spread to all men because all have sinned. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness and transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him, of Christ, who is to come. But the free gift is not like the offense. For by one man's offense many died, much more by the grace of God and by the gift of the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many. And the gift is not like that which came to the one who sinned for judgment.

For the judgment which came to one offense resulted in condemnation, but the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification. For by one man's offense, death reigned through one. Much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one, Christ Jesus. Therefore, as through one man's offense, judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one man's righteous act the free gift comes to all men Resulting in justification for by one man's disobedience many were made sinners. So also by one man's obedience Many will be made righteous See Adam at Christ is the covenant head and the covenant of grace.

Covenant between Christ and God the Father to save His people, to succeed where Adam failed. As Adam was the Son of God, so God said to Christ, the physical descendant of Adam, the seed of the woman. You are My Son, in whom I am well pleased. And where Adam disobeyed at Satan's temptation, Christ persevered in obedience and prevailed. As Adam is made in the image of God, so Christ is the express image of the Father.

Colossians 1 says, He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created in heaven and that are on earth visible and invisible. See, Christ is the hope, the only hope of Israel. Now, who is Israel? Who?

Well, Paul says it's inward, not outward. He says if an uncircumcised man keeps the requirements of the law, then his uncircumcision is counted as circumcision. He says, He is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor a circumcision that which is outward in the flesh, but a Jew is one who is one inwardly, and the circumcision is of the heart and the spirit, not the letter, whose praise is not from men, but from God." You see, having the outward blessings of the covenant did not make anyone the Israel of God. In Romans 9, Paul calls the Jews my countrymen according to the flesh, who are Israelites. They are Israelites.

They're the descendants of Jacob. And to them pertain the adoption, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, the temple, sacrificial system, the promises of whom are the fathers and from whom according to the flesh Christ came." And so that raises a question, if these people that had all these blessings, they had this word that are the physical descendants of Abraham, of Jacob, through whom Christ in the flesh came, then does that mean that God's promises are of no effect? And Paul says, no, not at all. He says, for they are not all Israel who are of Israel. Now what does that mean?

Well, he's using Israel obviously in two different ways in Romans 9. He's saying they are not all Israel, meaning they are not all children of God who are of Israel, who are the physical descendants of Abraham. So Israel we see can mean two things. And Paul uses them to mean two things in the same sentence. It's the only way you can understand this.

It's the only way all Israel cannot be Israel. It's the only way that the sons of the kingdom can be cast into outer darkness. Because not all Israel is of Israel. Nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham, but in Isaac your seed shall be called. Nor are they all children because they are children of Abraham." Well, obviously children are being used in two different ways.

The inward children and the physical descendants. And they're not the same. 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. It's the inward, not the outward. Israel, you see, is the spiritual seed.

Galatians 3 says, For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. And there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, There is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. You see this division now between the Jew and the Gentile, where God separated them out, they've been brought together. And that middle wall of partition has been broken down.

God's people who are in Christ are the Israel of God. For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything but a new creation, those who are born of the Spirit, born from above, that's what matters. And as many as walk according to this rule, peace and mercy be upon them." upon the Israel of God. That's the Israel that Paul is speaking of. In Romans 11, he gives more detail.

He talks about some of these branches of the physical Israel, the olive tree were broken out and branches from a wild olive tree from the Gentiles are grafted in. That's not a cause for boasting. Don't boast against the branches. You who have been grafted in and become a partaker of the root and fatness of this tree, Don't boast against the branches that were cut off. Remember, you don't support the root, but the root supports you.

You will say branches were broken off that I might be grafted in. Well, that's true. Because of unbelief they were broken off. You stand by faith. Do not be haughty but fear.

For if God didn't spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either. So therefore consider the goodness and severity of God on those who fell, severity but to you goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you also will be cut off. And they also, if they do not continue in unbelief, can be grafted in again. For God is able to graft them in to their olive tree.

And so he says, he goes on to say, if you were cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature and are grafted contrary to nature into the cultivated olive tree, how much more than these who are natural branches be grafted back into their own olive tree? And then he says, For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion. There's a mystery here, and he's going to tell it to us so that we don't become conceited. And this mystery is that blindness in part has happened to Israel. Otherwise, if they thought that they were wiser than Israel, they might become conceited, wise in their own opinion.

But he's saying, no, I'm telling you this, so you don't think yourself wise, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved. See, they can be grafted in again. It's a blindness in part. But it's a blindness in part that will continue until all the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.

And then he says, and so all Israel will be saved. Now, There's two ways to understand that. You can say, and then, as if it's a consecutive, next thing that's going to happen after the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, then the next thing that happens is that all of Israel is saved. Or the other way I think that I prefer to understand it is, and so. And when that happens, the conclusion of that, when the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, and all the Jews are saved that are not in part blind, then, when that happens, when that's done, then all of Israel is saved.

Then then salvation has come to the house of Israel. Well, not all these Jews that Paul was talking to heard him. Some did and some didn't. And I think that's a warning. The warning that Paul gives, he quotes from Isaiah 6.

Isaiah was told to go to the Israelites, but God said, they're not going to listen to you. They won't hear what you're saying. And Isaiah says, well then how long do I have to do this? And God says, until I tell you you're done. See, this unbelief is scary, because these were the Jews that had all these privileges, that had these amazing deliverances, that saw God keep His promises, fulfill His promises, protect His people, raise up kings and protect them and give them victory over all their enemies and destroy the greatest nation on the face of the earth at the time.

When they had nothing, they saw all of these things. They had the covenants. They had the temple with all of its richness and significance, and yet they fell into unbelief. We also see this progressive nature of unbelief. A little bit, a little ignoring the spirit, a little forgetting.

And we progressively, or unbelief can progressively take over until we see these Jews in Paul's day who are utterly blind and hardened. And that's a process. That's a gradual process. But it is one that ought to give us all pause. That we do not deny the promptings and the leadings of the Holy Spirit.

Because we do it once, it's easy to do it again and again. That we don't take for granted the privileges that we have as God's children in His church. Just because we're all here today, just because we're all baptized into the covenant and have had the water applied to us, doesn't mean that we're any different than these Jews who had all these things too and still slid into unbelief. It should give us pause to as the public cry out, Lord help my unbelief. And I think one way that we are continually renewed and continually stirred up is by speaking of God's work in our lives to fellow believers, but also to the unbeliever.

Testifying to what the Lord has done. We need it as much as they do. And so share, share the good news, the light that you've been given. Let's pray. Almighty Heavenly Father, we know that we are wholly unable in ourselves to please You.

And we cast ourselves this morning upon Your mercy, recognizing that we do not stand by our own strengths. We do not stand because we have wisdom to understand your precepts and apply them in our lives. We stand by your grace. We thank you that our lives are hidden with Christ in you. And that this life that we now live in, the flesh we live by faith in Christ.

Lord, help us each day to set our mind on things that are above and not on things here on the earth. To remember that we've died. Flesh has been crucified, buried with Christ. Help us, Lord, to live in the Spirit And to appropriate to ourselves all of the riches and the blessings that are ours in Christ. And to not seek to do anything in the arm of the flesh.

We ask this in Jesus' name, amen.