Published: October 6, 2024 | Speaker: Chuck Hartman | Series: Romans - Part 52 | Scripture: Romans 9:27-33
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in verse 25 of Romans 9 as he says also in Hosea I will call those who were not my people my people
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and her who was not beloved beloved and it shall be that in the place where it was said to them you are not my people they shall be called the Sons of the Living
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God and Isaiah Cries Out concerning Israel though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea it is the remnant that will be saved for the Lord
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will execute his word upon the Earth thoroughly and thoroughly and quickly and just as Isaiah foretold except the Lord of Sabbath had
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left to us a posterity we would have become as Sodom and would have resembled gomorah what shall we say then that Gentiles who did not pursue
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righteousness attain righteousness even the righteousness which is by faith but Israel pursuing a law of righteousness did not arrive at that law why because
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they did not pursue it by faith but as though it were by works they stumbled Over The Stumbling Stone just as it is
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written behold I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense and he who who believes in him will not be disappointed let us
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pray father again we ask that you would open your word to us and our hearts to your word that our minds might hear what the spirit has to say through your word through your Apostle Paul that we might
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understand and that we might adapt and adjust our life to your word Walking In step with the spirit for your glory and for our good we ask in Jesus name
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amen I mentioned several weeks ago that half of all of Paul's Old Testament quotes are found in the book of Romans and half of those quotes in the Book of
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Romans are found in chapters 9 10 and 11 and I think half of those are found in these verses right here but Paul doesn't use the Old Testament
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like we often do and this is this has been a topic of our current Plum line class in biblical theology we tend to use the Old Testament as proof texts to
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bolster what we believe to be New Testament Doctrine this is not how the writers of the New Testament use their Hebrew Bible and in fact when we read the way they
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use their Hebrew Bible sometimes we wonder how did they get there from here or here from there some of the times that they use the Old Testament it it it
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certainly does not necessarily seem to mean that as we go back and read it in the context of the new of the Old Testament itself the Hebrew scriptures
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were to the writers of the New Testament certainly to to Paul they were not just God's word they were the world of God's word God's word was their mental
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framework and they were immersed in God's word God's word which to them defined the entire Paradigm of the universe as well as God's plan and purpose for that universe
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and certainly for mankind and within that for the nation of Israel Paul pulled from the whole Council of the Old Testament and from every
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part but he often pulled a little bit from each part and pulled it together as he was reorienting the revelation of God in the Old Testament around the
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revelation of God's son in the new and so I I maintained and we talk about this on Thursday evenings and that is that if we are to understand the new testament
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which quotes So copiously and then alludes to and Echoes the Old Testament we have to understand more of the Old the Old Testament and as we understand more of
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the Old Testament we will understand more of the revelation of the new New Testament they are bound together as one Canon because even though they have multiple different human authors they
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only have one Divine author it is indeed one book one commentator says that Paul thinks
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multiex that's not a word I had heard before but writers these days like to invent new words but I I like it because he didn't simply he wasn't simply doing his devotions in Isaiah and thought hey
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this will work real well in my letter I'm writing no In this passage he actually has two quotes from Hosea three quotes from Isaiah with one
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link to Genesis 17 two Illusions to Isaiah using the language of Hosea 1 and then a possible echo of Daniel
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5 that's intertextual thinking he's not going through his Concord are typing on Bible Gateway searching for the word and doing a word
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study no the scriptures were so much in his mind and they had over the years since his own conversion been reoriented around the Advent and the work of Jesus
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Christ that they came to him naturally they also show us however that he is faced with this seemingly insuperable obstacle to the gospel and
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that is the fact of Israel's rejection of it that he doesn't turn to some philosophy of human free will he doesn't
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in any way hamper God by Israel's own independent free will but rather he finds in scripture the answer to the
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challenge why does Israel not believe he's asked the question in chapter 3 does does this mean the word of God has failed and now he answers it may it
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never be in fact it was there all the time he opens up the letter to the Romans directing us with himself with
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his own mind to where he is going to draw and pull what we consider to be the most theological book at least of the New Testament if not the entire Bible he
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says Paul a bond servant of Christ Jesus called as an apostle set apart for the Gospel of God which he promised beforehand through the prophets in the
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Holy scriptures and so as he is defending his gospel and as he is presenting his gospel resume as it were to this church this congregation in Rome which is made
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up of both Jews and Gentiles he has no problem at all with just drawing from the Old Testament even as he breathes and pulling from so many
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different places places his defense of the Gospel of Jesus Christ so again Paul is offering his solution to the problem of Israel's
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of Israel's unbelief and his answer is it was there in scripture all the time this is nothing new and he uses several passages
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from the Old Testament to show that though Israel has largely failed to believe the gospel God's word has not failed of its
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purpose but in doing so he also teaches us how to read the Old Testament not as a proof text we are not to Simply look for those nice passages
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that have the little star out in the margin that tell us they are Messianic prophecies we're we're not to look at the margins of our New Testament and then go back and maybe read that no that
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is not how to read the Old Testament we certainly should read the Old Testament as it was given to us read it starting in Genesis and then read it through and
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then read it through again but we should read it with our eyes opened through Jesus Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit there
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there is no way that we can read the Old Testament apart from the light that is shed upon it by the Advent by the work the death the Resurrection the Ascension
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of Jesus of Jesus Christ on the other hand we should not simply try to find Jesus in every page of the Old Testament knowing that it all culminates
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in him we should listen to the Old Testament as the story unfolds as Revelation progresses and as God through various
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motifs and themes including creation and the new creation the first adom and the last atom the Tabernacle the garden all of these things are pointing forward to
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fulfillment in Jesus Christ and we can hear then when we go to the New Testament we can hear the Echoes of all of that Revelation resounding in the
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writings of the New Testament especially of Paul but we read as Ariel read from first Peter he also quoted copiously from the Old Testament so we read with
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our eyes opened through Jesus Christ and the Regeneration of the Holy Spirit those who do not have the spirit in indwelling them cannot begin to understand the
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Bible much less the Old Testament when I read commentaries that are written by liberals we can tell pretty easily that
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they are also unbelievers that there's no Spirit of Life there may be good Hebrew there may be good Greek there may be archaeological information that is helpful for our understanding of the
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context in which it was written but there's no life because there's no spirit and it is the spirit that unfolds the word of God but as we read the Old Testament we
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should also read with the full purpose of God in view of which Israel was only a part now that's almost Blasphemous in
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modern American modern American evangelicalism most American conservative Christians still think it is more righteous to be a Jew than to be a Christian they still View that
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territory over on the far East of the Mediterranean as somehow holy and they still think that a rebuilding of the temple is in God's purpose they do not look to scripture
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correctly they do not understand that Israel was indeed a very important part of God's Redemptive history and remains so as we're going to see in these
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chapters in chapters in Romans but it was indeed only a part they were the physical descendants of Abraham in whom and in whose seed all
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the nations of the world would be blessed and so Israel is not the end all of God's Redemptive plan in fact that was their primary mistake in thinking
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that they that they were they were in fact God's witness to the world to Bear witness of his grace in selecting them graciously and
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mercifully as a a nation out of all the nations they were to be his witnesses as is the church today but they were not the end all of
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God's Redemptive God's Redemptive plan and so we see that as as Paul draws from all these different Old Testament passages one author says Paul is working
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within a dense web of textual Echoes and the cumulative force is not only to declare that God has indeed done what he said he would do but the pattern
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of devastating judgment from which a tiny Remnant would Escape is built in from the from the beginning that's the
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mystery God has promised Abraham that his seed would be num more numerous than the Sands of the sea and then God speaks through Isaiah
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saying yet only a Remnant will be saved and so this presents a challenge even uh to the unbelieving Jews but also to us
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as we look at God's plan and we think about Israel it's in the news again of course I know I know hurricane Helen has kind of pushed it out for a little while but we're actually in a very dangerous
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situation right now between Israel and Iran and the possibility of war that would involve the United States okay that's going on and so Israel is in the
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news and Christians of course are pontificating of how the will of God and the prophecy and this prophecy are all fulfilled no that is not what God is doing Paul is
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telling us what God is doing in these chapters here and so what he saying is the challenge of Israel's unbelief is woven into the abrahamic promise and its
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unfolding throughout the years will Abraham have a vast innumerable heritage or just a Remnant well he will have an innumerable
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seed by faith but not by flesh that that is the summary answer by Paul of the question of the seed and the
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descendants of descendants of Abraham the pattern of judgment and
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Remnant the idea that God would execute judgment on the wickedness of mankind but in that judgment would rescue a small number called a Remnant precedes and predates
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Israel we had reference to that in the reading this morning the great flood in Noah's day Peter writes when the
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patients of God kept waiting in the days of Noah during the construction of the Ark in which a few that is eight persons were brought safely through through the
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water and so there's that that pattern is being established that God will exercise judgment against wickedness against Rebellion but he will have his
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people in the midst of that now we say a few but as we read The Narrative of the flood there is only one man who is called righteous in that narrative and
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that is Noah the salvation of Noah's wife and his sons and their wives is gracious but we have no indication that they were especially
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righteous especially afterward when one of the sons commits a great offense against his father and incurs a curse and so he finds one righteous man well
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that's a similar situation to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah oh this is kind of outside the pale of God's Redemptive line these are wicked
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people for all we know and for all we can tell they do not descend they are Canaanites so they do not descend from Shem they are descended probably from
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Ham which means they are the descendants of the curse but one of the chosen line Abraham's nephew lot has unwisely Associated himself with
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the people of Sodom and has come to live there in the city not merely pitching his tent outside as we first read him doing when he separates Ates from his
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uncle but he has now moved in town and he's right in the midst of them and God announced to Abraham what he intends to do to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah and
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Abraham negotiates with God and we read here both Abraham standing in the Gap as later we will hear Moses doing then
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Abraham said oh may the Lord not be angry now that's a good way to start our prayers really you think about it our God is an
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awesome God He is an all-consuming fire Abraham was the father of the faithful whom God himself chose by voice to bring out of er of Cali and he walked with God and God
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spoke with him which is more than most of us hopefully can say and yet when he prayed to God he said let not the Lord be angry I I I see a kind of a pattern that
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that would work there and I shall speak only only this once he's already spoken five times suppose 10 righteous are found there and the Lord said I will not
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destroy it on account of the 10 but there weren't 10 there were only one as in the days of Noah and God delivered lot his wife and his daughters you see
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the principle of divine action is being unfolded here even before we get to the formation of Israel and their Covenant Rel relationship with God God is showing
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a principle of divine action out of the multitude of human Sinners God preserves for himself a Remnant later on of course we we read
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in First in First Kings the Lord saying it shall come about that the one who escapes the sword of hael juu shall put to death and the one
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who escapes the sword of juu Elijah Elisha excuse me shall put to death yet I will leave 7,000 in Israel all the
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knees that have not bowed to Baal and every mouth that has not kissed him this is a prophecy of Destruction upon Israel because of their want and wickedness and
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rebellion and yet God says I will leave 7,000 who have not bowed the knee to Baal there will be a Remnant in Israel Paul refers to that here from Isaiah
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when he says unless the Lord of hosts had left us a Remnant we would be like Sodom we would be like gomorah that's a quote from Isaiah chapter 1 and so the
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challenge of Israel's unbelief was always there countless thousands in the history of Israel were judged and
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condemned the generation that left Egypt did not enter the Holy Land the promised land only two out of that generation
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Joshua and Caleb entered into the land the rest the writer of Hebrew tells us fell in the wilderness because God was not pleased with them because they did
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not mix with the hearing of the Gospel Faith so there there's that principle coming up that Paul's been establishing all through this letter to
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the Romans the meaning what it means to be the Seed of Abraham is rooted in faith not in the flesh this is something the Jews would not accept and yet Paul
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came to understand but through it all God has left himself a Remnant so what then of the promise of Abraham well there are a number of different places
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this passage refers to the reference in Isaiah which refers back to Genesis 22 where God says that that Abraham's descendants would be as the sand of the
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sea but earlier than that in Genesis um chapter 13 he says I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth so that if
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anyone can number the dust of the earth then your descendants can also be numbered later in Genesis 15 and he took him outside and said now
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look toward the heavens and count the Stars if you are able to count them and he said to him so shall your descendants be well now this the events over the past week gave us an opportunity to get
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some insight into that passage because in Abraham's day there was no light pollution one morning we went out early in the morning to start up the generator
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kind of like going out to Milk The Cow you know really roughing it going out to start up the generator and I just happened to look up it was a absolutely clear sky
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clear sky and it was incredible it was like Orion was right there over the trees and there was such a multitude of stars that that normally we can't see just from the street light and the ambient light
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that's around our neighborhood can you imagine what Abraham must have felt or must have seen but also the awe of the promise the magnitude of the promise
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when he went outside his tent and he looked up at a sky that contained all of the stars that God had created with no ambient light to diminish his view of
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them and said can you count them well then you can count your seed that's the promise of God and yet the descendants of Abraham the nation of
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Israel his his Brethren according to the flesh are not believing so you you know kind of get into the to the spirit of the of the
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issue here and that is how can God's promise to Abraham be fulfilled if Israel itself will not believe well that is exactly what he's
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been answering all this time throughout the history of Abraham's physical descendants of Israel the pattern of growth of population
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explosion of filling the land followed by near by near Annihilation repeat itself time and time again that is a pattern of scripture all
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the way to ad70 when Jerusalem and the temple are destroyed now that presents and has presented the church with a challenge
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how do we relate to the physical descendants of Abraham Isaac and Jacob you know that in Christian history the answer to that has often been
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often been anti-Semitism and Paul even says here in this section of Romans that on on the for the sake of the Gospel they are your enemies because they are opposed to the
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gospel but I think Paul would agree that they are no more your enemies than Gentile unbelievers and they Remain the special people of God in God's mysterious plan
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and purpose as we're going to get to in Romans 11 there is a hardening upon Israel that will one day be removed but what we need to make sure we
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don't do is fall into the the error of dispensationalism that teaches that God's plan with Israel didn't quite work out the way he intended so he decided to
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put that plan on the shelf for a while 2,000 years and counting and to deal now with the Gentiles through Grace and the church and the Holy Spirit because we need a
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lot of lot of help and then eventually when he takes us all out of here he's going to go back take that off the shelf and restart things with Israel like it's going to go
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better then than it did way back when that that is blasphemy that is not biblical that is heretical because it fails what it
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basically said is God failed his word failed his Messiah failed and when his Messiah on the cross said it is finished
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he was wrong because it wasn't finished there's more to be done that is the essential teaching of dispensationalism which is why I'm so hard on it from the pulpit I was challenged by that years
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ago that you're really hard on dispensationalism yeah because it's not the gospel and Paul said If any man or Angel bring a different gospel let him be anathema let him be a cursed and is
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not the gospel the gospel of Paul did not begin at Pentecost it began in Eden and it hasn't changed ever since
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the just shall walk by faith and so that's what that's the that's the the issue here this is not just history it's not just not just theology It's Our Gospel the gospel that
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we believe the gospel that we preach is not a new one but is one testified to by the prophets in the
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scriptures was it ever God's intention to save every Israel it well Paul says though the number of the sons of Israel be as the S sand of the sea it is the remnant that will be saved Paul's reference there is Isaiah 10 which then
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bounces over to Genesis 22 you see that's one of the things about the way the New Testament writers used the Old Testament they didn't just go back to one verse they went back to that verse
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in context and that context often sent you to other Old Testament passages Genesis 22 where God promises Abraham that his descendants would be as
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the sand of the sea so he takes these quotes from Hosea Isaiah and
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Isaiah and shows that while all nations would be blessed in Abraham and Abraham's seed only a remnant of Israel would be
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saved when you read Paul's references to the Old Testament and then go back and read the Old Testament you can't help but wonder how the Jews missed
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that you ever wonder what what about all the Jews that died in the wilderness were they saved well the scripture says God was not pleased with them in fact it
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says they will not enter my rest well that seems to indicate pretty strongly that they weren't saved okay and and then you read of of the judgments on on
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Israel's Kings the wicked Ahab for example surely he's not with God is he or Jezebel or or any number of the
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different incidences that we read of in the Old Testament where the vast majority of the nation were unbelieving and rebellious and God exercised judgment against them yet preserving for
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himself a Remnant every single time how did they miss that well they miss it the same way as modern denominations inculcate in their
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children a false security of having grown up in the church and gone through aanas and gone through all the different things you can go through and and that
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means you're going to be okay and within a generation you've done the same thing you've created a whole generation of make Believers of people who are convinced in
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their own mind though they have never had an encounter with Jesus Christ at all and then from the Next Generation you go from make Believers to
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unbelievers people who don't even try anymore which is why so many churches do not last past the third generation so many denominations break
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up within two generations because of this attitude of of having some other some pedigree that that gets us in when only faith
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only faith gets us in and that and that message has to be repeated time after time so Israel Paul says in in in Corinthians he says and in Romans 15 what happened to Israel
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has been recorded why as an example to us that we might not follow in their footsteps that we not follow in their unbelief unbelief they was born of
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presumption and arrogance because that they were called by God they were God's people and therefore what can happen they had the temple what could happen to them well destruction of the temple
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could happen to them deportation and execution could happen to them and certainly what would not happen to them is salvation so here these not again as a
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history lesson but as an ongoing principle of life in God and we're going to we're going to get to that very should be terrifying passage in Romans
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11 where he talks about us unnatural branches right that we've been we like to focus on the fact that we've been grafted in to the vine right and we know
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we're not Jews we're not the natural branches but God has graciously taken us and then he says you know he can cut you off just as he cut off those natural branches and we're going to get to that
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but that that should be a terrifying passage what does it mean that God could cut us off does it mean we can lose our salvation well give you a preview no it
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doesn't mean doesn't mean that does it mean that we can think that we're saved but we're not yeah it does does mean does mean that so hear these words as applying to
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the church today and to your own families but what Paul is saying here concerning the remnant what Paul is
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saying here concerning the majority of the physical descendants of Abra he he's not starting this Theory Jesus himself said to the Jews the kingdom
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will be taken from you and given to a people more worthy of it okay Hosea he quotes Hosea and says in the place where the name of God is not even named and
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where the people are not the people of God it will be said these are the sons of the Living God Paul understands now that prophecy speaks to every tongue tribe
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and Nation all of the Gentiles that God once overlooked in the time of their Disobedience he is now sending the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the power of
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the Holy Spirit to bring into his kingdom people who were once totally ignorant of the god of the
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universe how is he doing this well he says in verse 32 Israel 32 Israel stumbled Over The Stumbling
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Stone I want to introduce to you this morning a conspiracy theory we just had a hurricane now hurricanes bring with
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themselves three themselves three things high things high winds lots of rain and conspiracies and that third thing has
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been floating around social media for the past week and a half all the conspiracies now they break into two different categories because there's always one of two entities responsible
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for the disaster that has occurred God because of homosexuals of course in Greenville and Asheville you know that's why it went that way because there are none in Atlanta okay God and the
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government those two those are the two that are responsible for everything that happens bad to us one thing I do want to
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say is that we don't hold to any of that the leadership of this church do not follow conspiracy theories we do not participate in them and we do not pass them along because most of them are false and
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all of them are fearful and none of them are of faith and you may think well you know I I didn't have the social media well one of the greatest conspiracy
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theory uh Fountains of the 20th century happened a couple days after my first birthday the assassination of JFK you want to talk about fodder for conspiracy
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theories there you got it right there how many of them are true none how many of the conspiracy theories that I have heard in my longer
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life than most of you have come true none are there conspiracies of course there are fortunately God has rendered governments so incompetent that they couldn't pull off a good conspiracy if
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they really wanted to they can't even deliver the deliver the mail so you know this idea that somebody's responsible for all this maybe it's true but I want to introduce
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to you another conspiracy that is more powerful and more true than any of them and that is God the underlying reality of human
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conspiracies has already been taken care of in Psalm 2 why do the Nations rage and the people devise a vain thing the Kings
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Roar and they rebel against the Lord and his anointed well there you go the manifestation of that roaring and that machination that those conspiracies
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they change in every generation is there a prince of the power of the air who seek seeks to destroy God's people yes will he succeed no because no weapon in fact no
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conspiracy formed against us shall prosper so when you go down that path you're going down the path of godlessness and
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godlessness and unbelief and when you pass it on to others you are promoting falsehood and faithlessness and I beg you that you
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would stop and get off social media and block that garbage and do not pass it along now you notice I'm a little upset
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and that's because it is being passed along and I wish you would all understand that you represent both the Church of Jesus Christ and Fellowship Bible Church and we don't follow you
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down that path because God is Sovereign No Matter What man does he will not undo God God's purpose and so the conspiracy
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that's right here in this passage and I hate to use that but we actually have a hymn where it talks about God conspiring to save us okay so in the sense of
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breathing together which is what conspire means the godhead has conspired to lay a stone in Zion well that's a big deal no that's a
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really big deal he says here God God has laid a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense he's done something that is
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insignificant he's cut a stone without hands a little stone that has rolled down the mountain into the world Empires
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formed into that that massive statue in Nebuchadnezzar's dream and that little Stone has ground World Empires into
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dust and that little Stone has grown into a mountain that fills the Earth so that someday every tongue tribe and Nation will be res represented in the
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Kingdom of that stone and every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the father and every single conspiracy
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that we have passed on and we have talked about will be shown to be nothing but the futility of those raging stupid Kings against God who sits in the
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heavens and heavens and laughs God has laid a stone in Zion and the intention of that stone was twofold the first intention was that it would
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cause stumbling God himself it says here tripped them tripped them up he didn't do it the way they wanted it done he did it the way he always
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intended to do it by putting a stone in Zion in a place where they would trip and stumble over it Jesus said that this
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was a stone that the builders had rejected but it is now a choice and tested Cornerstone of what of the new Temple and he said everyone who will
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fall upon that stone will be broken your spirit will be broken you will be brought to repentance for your sin and calling upon the name of the Lord for your salvation everyone who
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falls and and only those who fall upon that stone will be saved that's what Paul's saying here but Jesus said upon whom th Stone
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crushed we've seen the remnant and judgment The Remnant and judgment from this many have concluded there will only be a few that are saved I would say to you no that that pattern only led up to
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the Messiah upon whom all the Judgment was poured on gol gotha and now the gospel is going out into the world and at the same time the world's population
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is increasing faster and further than it ever did before the fields are ripe under Harvest I think there will be a multitude we read a multitude that cannot be numbered in Revelation around
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the Throne of the Lamb The Remnant philosophy doesn't apply anymore apply anymore because Christ has come the stone has
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come it has been set and now men and women and children from every tongue tribe and Nation can fall about upon that stone in Repentance and be saved but let us not forget that that
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stone will fall fall upon those who do not and they will be crushed again no conspiracy formed against us shall prosper do not let your
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hearts be troubled do not listen to the fear mongers and the faith destroyers who try to give credit that
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they know nothing of when ultimately The Sovereign of the universe is the one who directs the winds and the waves calms them when he wills and sends them in a
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torrent when he desires he raises up Nations and he brings them down he is the Alpha and the Omega and he is the only one Jesus says that we ought to
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fear and so I beg you forgo conspiracy theories throw away all of that that
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falseness and fear cling to the stone that God has set in Zion the Cornerstone of which in Christ we are now living stones being formed into a spiritual
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habitation of God that is what God is doing and while the kings of the earth will continue to rage and they will continue to plot a vain thing there
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there's your Hebrew for the word conspiracy right there they're plotting a vain thing do not mistake me I am not denying their denying their existence but I am simply saying they
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are vain are vain things and it just so beautiful the way the psalmist gives us the divine response he who sits in the heavens
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laughs might we also laugh with him let us pray father we do give you all the glory
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and acknowledge you as The Sovereign of the universe and The Sovereign of this world we do not know why things happened except for the corruption that we have brought into the world through sin we do
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know that in the new Heaven and the new new Earth there will not be earthquakes and hurricanes and tornadoes there will not be flooding and death and loss but only blessedness and peace and
42:06
righteousness in the presence of our God through Jesus through Jesus Christ I pray father that as we come to commune with one another and with Jesus Christ that you would fill our hearts
42:18
with confidence with assurance that no weapon formed against us can prosper that nothing can be done against your people that is not according to your
42:29
will and nothing can be done in the entire span of human history that has not been ordered and determined by you and for your purpose you alone are to be
42:42
feared and we ask that you might fill our hearts with that fear that reverence that would guide our steps and keep our hearts at peace when all around
42:56
us is is in turmoil and agitation for we ask this in jesus' name