Are You Adopted? (Romans 9:1-6)

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.640 --> 00:00:04.679 Let's hear God's word now, from Romans, Chapter Nine, verses a, 2 00:00:04.919 --> 00:00:17.510 one through six. One through six, I am speaking the truth in Christ, 3 00:00:17.710 --> 00:00:21.859 I am not lying. My conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit 4 00:00:22.780 --> 00:00:29.980 that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart, for I could 5 00:00:29.980 --> 00:00:35.810 wish that, for I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off 6 00:00:35.929 --> 00:00:40.530 from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen. According to the 7 00:00:40.689 --> 00:00:47.210 flesh, they are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, 8 00:00:47.450 --> 00:00:51.960 the Covenant, the giving of the law, the worship and the promises. 9 00:00:52.920 --> 00:00:57.600 To Them Belong the Patriarchs, and from their race, according to the 10 00:00:57.759 --> 00:01:03.310 Flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. 11 00:01:04.310 --> 00:01:10.510 Amen. But it is not as though the word of God has failed, 12 00:01:11.469 --> 00:01:18.349 for not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel. He may be 13 00:01:18.469 --> 00:01:37.129 seated. I want to speak to you today from the Bible, about adoption, 14 00:01:37.170 --> 00:01:44.689 adoption. I'm not human adoption, but divine adoption. How many of 15 00:01:44.769 --> 00:01:49.879 you have experienced human adoption? Many of you who are here today have been 16 00:01:49.959 --> 00:01:55.719 adopted or are siblings of someone who has been adopted, or our parents who 17 00:01:55.760 --> 00:02:01.109 have adopted or friends of those who have adopted. I'm all of you here, 18 00:02:01.310 --> 00:02:07.150 have most of you here any way of experienced human adoption and some form 19 00:02:07.269 --> 00:02:12.270 or another, but all of you who are baptized members of the Church have 20 00:02:12.430 --> 00:02:17.819 also experienced divine adoption, in which you have been brought in not just to 21 00:02:17.900 --> 00:02:24.060 a human family but a family of God, and this is a remarkable thing. 22 00:02:25.699 --> 00:02:29.659 Now, you might ask, are we not all children of God? 23 00:02:30.050 --> 00:02:35.210 And that is true. When God made his Covenant With Adam, when God 24 00:02:35.689 --> 00:02:38.969 made us, and as our creator, in a very real sense, the 25 00:02:39.090 --> 00:02:45.159 Bible describes us even as a sons of God, as people that in which 26 00:02:45.159 --> 00:02:50.080 were made by him and in his image. By virtue of God's Covenant With 27 00:02:50.280 --> 00:02:54.840 Adam and his posterity, we are all Christians and Non Christians alike, God's 28 00:02:55.199 --> 00:03:00.710 children. Therefore, we sometimes refer to strangers and people even outside of the 29 00:03:00.750 --> 00:03:05.710 church, as brother or sister, because we are all made in God's image. 30 00:03:07.150 --> 00:03:09.789 But when the Bible speaks of adoption, it speaks of something else, 31 00:03:09.909 --> 00:03:16.300 a kind of special choosing and electing love that human adoption shows as well. 32 00:03:17.539 --> 00:03:21.780 When the Bible speaks of adoption, most often it has in mind, this 33 00:03:21.900 --> 00:03:27.930 kind of adoption that takes a child of Adam and makes him a child of 34 00:03:28.009 --> 00:03:32.330 Abraham. It's a way of speaking covenantally. It's a way of saying that 35 00:03:32.530 --> 00:03:38.009 those who are made in God's image are now made in another image, and 36 00:03:38.050 --> 00:03:44.960 according to another covenant, This is explained by something that happens in between these 37 00:03:45.039 --> 00:03:49.439 two things. I think many of you know what that is. It's, 38 00:03:49.520 --> 00:03:52.919 of course, the fall into sin. Man, who has made in God's 39 00:03:52.960 --> 00:03:58.909 image. The his great son, disobeyed and in the covenant that God made 40 00:03:58.949 --> 00:04:01.750 with him, he was cast out of God's presence. He was sent away. 41 00:04:01.909 --> 00:04:06.349 There was an angel that was sent to bar the gate so that man 42 00:04:06.550 --> 00:04:13.219 and God could not commune together in the way that he once did. The 43 00:04:13.379 --> 00:04:17.300 Sun, so to speak, was cast out, was was banished, was 44 00:04:17.779 --> 00:04:25.370 sent away from the family. And so Ephesians two three describes this group of 45 00:04:25.490 --> 00:04:32.569 people known as humanity as children of Wrath. Even we are described as children 46 00:04:32.769 --> 00:04:38.959 of the devil, people that did, instead of listening to the father that 47 00:04:39.120 --> 00:04:44.240 made them, the one who created them, listen to Satan enjoined their selves 48 00:04:44.319 --> 00:04:51.120 to him and sought to do his will instead. Ephesians two three says that 49 00:04:51.199 --> 00:04:55.990 we were by nature children of Wrath. Well, this is where adoption comes 50 00:04:56.029 --> 00:05:00.269 in. God then chooses, he sets these special electing love on people and 51 00:05:00.310 --> 00:05:04.149 says, I'm going to rescue out of that. Instead of a child of 52 00:05:04.230 --> 00:05:09.540 Wrath, which you are, I will make you a son or daughter of 53 00:05:10.060 --> 00:05:15.060 the Living God. I mentioned effusions two three, where it describes humanity as 54 00:05:15.139 --> 00:05:21.769 children of Wrath, but effusions one five says that the when God and his 55 00:05:21.850 --> 00:05:29.370 electing love has predestined us for adoption as sons, no longer in this category, 56 00:05:29.569 --> 00:05:32.769 no longer belonging to this family, but now to a new family. 57 00:05:34.009 --> 00:05:40.639 So this is adoption. It's God's giving a right to people who are once 58 00:05:41.279 --> 00:05:46.680 children of Wrath, the right to be treated as his legitimate children. So 59 00:05:46.839 --> 00:05:51.029 this is God. What God wants you to know about him this morning. 60 00:05:51.110 --> 00:05:55.910 It what it's what he wants you to know about his great love in a 61 00:05:56.269 --> 00:06:00.509 option, first to the Jew and then to the gentile. But before we 62 00:06:00.670 --> 00:06:06.379 think about this in particular, let's briefly consider the context of what's going on 63 00:06:06.660 --> 00:06:13.100 here. I mentioning adoption because it's the first in this list of things Paul 64 00:06:13.139 --> 00:06:18.970 mentions. It's you see it there in verse four. They are Israelites and 65 00:06:19.050 --> 00:06:23.329 to them belong, the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving 66 00:06:23.329 --> 00:06:26.970 of the law, the worship and the promises. And then in verse five 67 00:06:27.050 --> 00:06:30.889 he also mentions the patriarch. So what is this list? What's Paul doing 68 00:06:30.970 --> 00:06:36.120 in this section? Well, each of these things is part of something greater. 69 00:06:38.360 --> 00:06:44.040 Consider our hometown here, Tucson, and the Sonoran desert. In July. 70 00:06:44.879 --> 00:06:47.350 There's a lot of things that happened during this month. Right, big 71 00:06:47.629 --> 00:06:55.389 clouds billow up over the mountains, toads and frogs start a pearing in wet 72 00:06:55.550 --> 00:07:01.540 areas, insects come out, the creosote starts releasing all of its oils when 73 00:07:01.579 --> 00:07:05.300 it rains. All of these things happen and we put this name on them. 74 00:07:05.379 --> 00:07:10.139 Right, we call it the monsoon season. It's kind of our second 75 00:07:10.180 --> 00:07:14.860 spring, I heard one writer describe it, when, after the sort of 76 00:07:14.939 --> 00:07:19.009 protracted period in February through April, we get this sort of second spring, 77 00:07:19.050 --> 00:07:25.529 another set of flowers, another set of green and and water. The point 78 00:07:25.529 --> 00:07:29.490 as you have all of these things kind of coming together and which are described 79 00:07:29.649 --> 00:07:33.079 and paint a picture of something larger. That happens a kind of a season 80 00:07:33.120 --> 00:07:38.959 in our desert. Well, Paul's doing something similar here. He's pointing out 81 00:07:39.000 --> 00:07:43.360 all of these different things to give us a sense of something greater. He 82 00:07:43.480 --> 00:07:49.910 wants us to recognize without a doubt, God's great love for the Biological Children 83 00:07:49.990 --> 00:07:55.790 of Abraham. He's selling us his own heart, isn't he? He's saying 84 00:07:55.910 --> 00:08:01.699 he's showing us God's love through his own love for the Jews. Listen to 85 00:08:01.860 --> 00:08:05.699 the couple ways in which he does this. First, he speaks of his 86 00:08:05.860 --> 00:08:09.339 heart. He says, I'm speaking the truth in Christ. This is verse 87 00:08:09.500 --> 00:08:13.769 one. I'm not lying. My conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit. 88 00:08:13.089 --> 00:08:16.810 These are strong words, aren't they? If you said something like this, 89 00:08:18.089 --> 00:08:20.810 you would be saying something that is one of the most important things to 90 00:08:20.850 --> 00:08:24.889 you, to confirm it over and over in this way. What does he 91 00:08:24.970 --> 00:08:31.600 want to confirm? He says it in verse two. I have great sorrow 92 00:08:31.159 --> 00:08:37.720 and unceasing anguish in my heart. He goes on to say, I could 93 00:08:37.879 --> 00:08:43.070 wish that I myself were a cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake 94 00:08:43.149 --> 00:08:50.070 of my brothers, my kinsman, according to the flesh, Paul has been 95 00:08:50.149 --> 00:08:56.299 speaking for eight chapters about faith in Christ, about the gentiles being able to 96 00:08:56.340 --> 00:09:01.620 come in, belonging to these Great Covenant Promises of grace, no longer being 97 00:09:01.740 --> 00:09:07.220 an adom but now being in Christ. But there's this question that's left over. 98 00:09:07.419 --> 00:09:11.370 What about the Jews? What about all of these Jews who are not 99 00:09:11.730 --> 00:09:18.570 believing? What about the Jews who crucified the Lord Jesus Christ? What about 100 00:09:18.649 --> 00:09:24.039 the Jews? Yes, the gentiles are coming in. Yes, Paul describes 101 00:09:24.080 --> 00:09:30.240 them as even children of Abraham through faith. But what about the Jews? 102 00:09:30.519 --> 00:09:35.120 Does Paul not care about them anymore? Does God not care about them anymore? 103 00:09:35.159 --> 00:09:39.509 Has God moved on? You blew it, he says to his people, 104 00:09:39.669 --> 00:09:46.110 I'm done with you, or is there something else going on? Well, 105 00:09:46.190 --> 00:09:52.230 the Lord's Apostle speaks and says there is something else going on, and 106 00:09:52.429 --> 00:09:56.340 through the rest of this chapter and Chapter Ten and chapter eleven, he's going 107 00:09:56.379 --> 00:10:01.539 to be describing for us this relationship between Jew and non Jew, between Jew 108 00:10:01.700 --> 00:10:07.649 and gentile, how, in the great history of God's redemptive plan, these 109 00:10:07.129 --> 00:10:16.009 two groups are both distinct and united, how they interact together, how they 110 00:10:16.049 --> 00:10:20.929 work together, how God is doing things in the world so that, as 111 00:10:20.970 --> 00:10:26.960 he says in Verse Five, He Christ will be God over all. Both 112 00:10:28.159 --> 00:10:33.159 Jew and gentile. This is the context in which he's speaking. Paul gives 113 00:10:33.200 --> 00:10:37.830 this list of things towards this end. So first he tells us his heart. 114 00:10:37.830 --> 00:10:41.990 Essentially, I love these people. If it were possible for me to 115 00:10:43.110 --> 00:10:48.470 be cut off from Christ I would willingly do it so that others could be 116 00:10:48.549 --> 00:10:54.580 included. My kinsman according to the flesh. And then he even uses this 117 00:10:54.740 --> 00:10:58.340 term Israelites. It's not a term he's been using up to this point. 118 00:10:58.899 --> 00:11:03.289 It's another way of sort of comframing what his ideas are about these people. 119 00:11:05.129 --> 00:11:09.570 Up to this point he's been talking about Jews, a very kind of political 120 00:11:09.730 --> 00:11:15.610 and national term. Now he talks about Israelites, same group of people, 121 00:11:15.649 --> 00:11:22.360 a different perspective. He's talking about to the people that God made covenant promises 122 00:11:22.480 --> 00:11:28.919 to, to the one that God and renamed Israel. And what does he 123 00:11:30.039 --> 00:11:31.759 say? He says, not only do I have love for them, but 124 00:11:31.990 --> 00:11:39.950 consider the love of God. To them belong the adoption, which will focus 125 00:11:39.029 --> 00:11:43.029 on today. To them belong the glory, the covenants, the giving of 126 00:11:43.190 --> 00:11:48.500 the law, the worship and the promises. He might say it this way 127 00:11:48.299 --> 00:11:56.460 if he were speaking to us, to you, does not belong the adoption 128 00:11:56.259 --> 00:12:00.100 the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, 129 00:12:00.179 --> 00:12:03.210 the promises in the Patriarchs. There's a very real sense in which me, 130 00:12:03.850 --> 00:12:09.850 as a gentile, this is not me, this is not my story. 131 00:12:09.129 --> 00:12:13.649 This story is the story that belongs to the Jews, to the Israelites. 132 00:12:13.690 --> 00:12:18.799 It belongs to them. God has shown special attention to them in history and 133 00:12:18.960 --> 00:12:26.200 Paul wants to make sure that we as gentiles, know that. He wants 134 00:12:26.200 --> 00:12:31.590 to make sure the Jews, as his specially adopted people, also know that. 135 00:12:33.070 --> 00:12:35.629 Now there's lots of implications to that, which will have to get to 136 00:12:35.789 --> 00:12:39.149 later, but what I want to do is focus on just one of these 137 00:12:39.269 --> 00:12:43.029 things today, and then another next week, and then another in the week 138 00:12:43.029 --> 00:12:46.419 after that and another week after that, and hopefully what you'll come to see 139 00:12:46.580 --> 00:12:52.580 is these big things that Paul's mentioning, adoption, covenant, Giving Of the 140 00:12:52.580 --> 00:12:56.580 Law, Patriarchs, all fitting together into this puzzle that shows you this great 141 00:12:58.100 --> 00:13:01.490 thing that God has done for the Jews, for the Israelites, his people. 142 00:13:03.490 --> 00:13:07.330 If you are a person, if you're a Christian, who never thinks 143 00:13:07.370 --> 00:13:13.720 about the Jews, the Israelites, who more or less ignores the Old Testament, 144 00:13:13.799 --> 00:13:18.080 who doesn't think about these kinds of things. This is a wakeup call 145 00:13:18.279 --> 00:13:24.840 for you to remember what God has done, to see his love that has 146 00:13:24.879 --> 00:13:30.990 been poured out on this people. But it's also an opportunity for us a 147 00:13:31.190 --> 00:13:35.669 gentiles, for us non Jews, to begin to see what it is we 148 00:13:35.830 --> 00:13:41.309 have been connected to. In later on in these chapters, Paul is going 149 00:13:41.350 --> 00:13:46.860 to describe the gentiles as like a wild olive branch that's being grafted on to 150 00:13:48.419 --> 00:13:52.820 this tree that's described here. So this means that in as these things are 151 00:13:52.899 --> 00:13:58.730 described, adoption, glory, covenants, etc. And we say, as 152 00:13:58.769 --> 00:14:01.769 I say, these do not belong to me, I am not a Jew. 153 00:14:01.889 --> 00:14:07.850 On the other hand, by faith, by in grafting, by Christ, 154 00:14:09.730 --> 00:14:13.759 they do belong to us. They become a part of our story, 155 00:14:13.879 --> 00:14:16.360 and that's another one of the payoffs, so to speak, of thinking about 156 00:14:16.440 --> 00:14:22.440 this thing. Though you may not be a Jew, I think that's true 157 00:14:22.519 --> 00:14:26.990 for most of us here. This becomes our story. We get adopted, 158 00:14:28.350 --> 00:14:31.830 as we will see, into a family, into a family in which this 159 00:14:33.029 --> 00:14:35.789 story, though we didn't participate in it, that we didn't belong to it, 160 00:14:35.909 --> 00:14:41.899 originally becomes our story, a way in which the old testament isn't just 161 00:14:41.620 --> 00:14:46.659 something that happened to another people group at some point in time, but it 162 00:14:46.740 --> 00:14:52.049 comes our family history. So here's how I want you, how God wants 163 00:14:52.090 --> 00:14:58.610 you to listen to this passage and and the ones following. It's like you, 164 00:14:58.889 --> 00:15:01.009 as a an adopted child, are brought into the family and God sit 165 00:15:01.129 --> 00:15:05.889 you down on the couch and opens up the family photo album and says, 166 00:15:05.730 --> 00:15:11.039 let me show you what you belong to. You're new, I understand that, 167 00:15:11.200 --> 00:15:15.799 you're different, I understand that, but let me show you what belongs 168 00:15:15.879 --> 00:15:22.429 to you, what church you are joining. To them belong the adoption, 169 00:15:22.350 --> 00:15:26.110 the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, 170 00:15:26.190 --> 00:15:30.269 the promises, the Patriarchs. And you know what, now it belongs to 171 00:15:30.309 --> 00:15:37.460 you too. Well, thank you for bearing with my long introduction, but 172 00:15:37.539 --> 00:15:43.899 I hope you're properly seated now on the family couch, ready to look at 173 00:15:43.940 --> 00:15:48.940 these pictures. And we're going to look at the first one. Adoption. 174 00:15:50.289 --> 00:15:56.370 What does God mean when he says that the Jews, the Israelites, were 175 00:15:56.450 --> 00:16:00.250 adopted? How was the old church, as we might call them, and 176 00:16:00.409 --> 00:16:11.919 ourselves, adopted? When we adopted our son? There was an adoption day 177 00:16:12.039 --> 00:16:17.159 that happened. There was an actual moment in time, I suppose even a 178 00:16:17.480 --> 00:16:21.590 precise minute we could we could point at and say this is when he was 179 00:16:21.629 --> 00:16:25.470 adopted. It was an adoption day, not only for him but for lots 180 00:16:25.509 --> 00:16:27.629 of people. There was a park here in Tucson filled, and many of 181 00:16:27.669 --> 00:16:33.059 you were there for this, a filled with families all under these RAMADAS, 182 00:16:33.100 --> 00:16:41.220 adopting children. Judges asking families, will you treat this child as your own? 183 00:16:41.860 --> 00:16:45.860 Will you give to them all the benefits that you would give to an 184 00:16:45.019 --> 00:16:49.769 as you might give to a natural born child? Yes, the parents promise 185 00:16:51.210 --> 00:16:56.529 and say, and in this the child is adopted. Well, what about 186 00:16:56.690 --> 00:17:03.360 Israel? When was their adoption day? Well, it's not as easy, 187 00:17:03.440 --> 00:17:06.960 I think, to pin down as it might be for this day in which 188 00:17:07.039 --> 00:17:15.240 these children were adopted together and these court rooms in the park. But there 189 00:17:15.319 --> 00:17:21.029 are things that the scriptures point to that help us to understand a considering the 190 00:17:21.150 --> 00:17:25.869 fall. We might start with genesis three fifteen, when God says to Eve, 191 00:17:26.109 --> 00:17:29.670 I will give you a son who will come and save you from the 192 00:17:29.910 --> 00:17:36.819 serpent, who will save you from your sin. That promise is is fulfilled 193 00:17:37.059 --> 00:17:44.690 and made more explicit then in Genesis Chapter Twelve, we're God speaks to Abram, 194 00:17:44.809 --> 00:17:52.650 Abraham, and says this. He says, go from your country and 195 00:17:52.890 --> 00:17:56.529 from your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. 196 00:17:56.609 --> 00:18:00.759 You see what God's do being here. He's taking Abraham from one household, 197 00:18:00.960 --> 00:18:03.759 in a sense moving him from a nut to another. He's moving him 198 00:18:03.799 --> 00:18:10.200 away. And what is he going to do with this Abraham? He says, 199 00:18:10.240 --> 00:18:12.349 I will make of you a great nation and I will bless you and 200 00:18:12.470 --> 00:18:17.990 make your name great so that you will be a blessing. I will bless 201 00:18:18.029 --> 00:18:19.910 you, I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you 202 00:18:19.990 --> 00:18:23.150 I will curse, and in you all the families on the earth will be 203 00:18:23.309 --> 00:18:30.900 blessed. Then later on we read in a similar way in genesis seventeen of 204 00:18:30.019 --> 00:18:36.460 verses seven through eight. I will establish my covenant between me and you and 205 00:18:36.660 --> 00:18:42.170 your offspring after you, throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant to be 206 00:18:42.289 --> 00:18:47.049 God to you and to your offspring after you, and I will give to 207 00:18:47.170 --> 00:18:51.410 you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the 208 00:18:51.410 --> 00:18:55.880 land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God. 209 00:18:56.000 --> 00:19:00.319 So you see what God does. He says to Abraham, I am 210 00:19:00.079 --> 00:19:03.279 electing you, I am choosing you, and in you I'm going to do 211 00:19:03.400 --> 00:19:08.839 something special for you and for your offspring after you, for you and your 212 00:19:08.960 --> 00:19:12.910 children. I will make you a great nation. I will bless you with 213 00:19:12.950 --> 00:19:18.950 an everlasting covenant. I will bring you in to the land of Canaan for 214 00:19:18.069 --> 00:19:25.380 an everlasting possession. He says. Well, this is a beginning of those 215 00:19:25.579 --> 00:19:30.819 promises that are made. When God says I will be their God. He 216 00:19:30.940 --> 00:19:33.660 says that right. He says I will be their God in the end of 217 00:19:33.700 --> 00:19:38.490 Verse Eight. There in genesis seventeen, I will watch over them, I 218 00:19:38.650 --> 00:19:41.609 will protect them, I will keep them as sons. I will give them 219 00:19:42.089 --> 00:19:45.769 this land. You see, they're going to be treated as sons, they're 220 00:19:45.769 --> 00:19:53.359 going to be given and inheritance. Now listen to exodus for verse versus Twenty 221 00:19:53.480 --> 00:20:00.759 Two through Twenty three, and let this put chills down your spine. Exodus 222 00:20:00.839 --> 00:20:07.079 for Verse Twenty Two and Twenty Three, a God says to Moses to speak 223 00:20:07.150 --> 00:20:11.309 to Pharaoh, who wouldn't let his people go. Says, then you shall 224 00:20:11.309 --> 00:20:18.589 say to Pharaoh. Thus says the Lord Israel is my firstborn son, and 225 00:20:18.750 --> 00:20:22.099 I say to you, let my son go that he may serve me. 226 00:20:22.500 --> 00:20:26.940 If you refuse to let him go, behold, I will kill your firstborn 227 00:20:26.019 --> 00:20:34.220 son. Is God treating his children as sons? Yes, he is. 228 00:20:34.420 --> 00:20:40.410 He is protecting them, he is keeping them, he is going to fight 229 00:20:40.650 --> 00:20:47.690 for them. They belong to him. Well, you can begin to see 230 00:20:47.769 --> 00:20:53.440 that this adoption of the Israelites, this bringing in, gives them certain benefits. 231 00:20:55.559 --> 00:21:00.119 The first group of benefits we could call external and temporary benefits. So, 232 00:21:00.359 --> 00:21:07.069 for example, let me read from to you, from Deuteronomy one thirty 233 00:21:07.150 --> 00:21:11.750 one. What are the external and temporary benefits that they receive? Well, 234 00:21:11.910 --> 00:21:15.349 rescue from Egypt, right. And then, after rescue from Egypt, we 235 00:21:15.509 --> 00:21:23.019 read this of their wilderness wanderings. We read in Verse Thirty Jehovah, Your 236 00:21:23.099 --> 00:21:26.700 God, who goes before you, will himself fight for you, just as 237 00:21:26.740 --> 00:21:30.579 he did for you in Egypt, before your eyes, in the Wilderness, 238 00:21:32.059 --> 00:21:36.329 where you have seen how Jehovah, your God, carried you, as a 239 00:21:36.529 --> 00:21:41.690 man carries his son, all the way that you went until you came to 240 00:21:41.890 --> 00:21:47.720 this place. You see what God is saying here. He's saying he didn't 241 00:21:47.720 --> 00:21:51.039 just rescue out him out of Egypt. He didn't just drop them off in 242 00:21:51.119 --> 00:21:53.400 the Wilderness and say, all right, there's the promised land. Hope you 243 00:21:53.519 --> 00:21:57.039 enjoy it. Write me when you get there, give me a phone call. 244 00:21:57.880 --> 00:22:04.710 No, he picked his son up and he carried him through snakes and 245 00:22:06.109 --> 00:22:11.230 desert, through enemy lands, and we read of that history, how God 246 00:22:11.509 --> 00:22:15.660 defeated Og and Basin, how a so and so I han. We read 247 00:22:15.740 --> 00:22:21.819 how he provided for them bread and the Wilderness bred from heaven itself. Talk 248 00:22:21.900 --> 00:22:25.259 about God providing for your daily bread. Here you are, my son, 249 00:22:25.579 --> 00:22:30.690 let it rain down bread for you. He carried Israel through the Wilderness as 250 00:22:30.730 --> 00:22:37.329 a son. This is the benefit of being adopted by God. Or again, 251 00:22:37.410 --> 00:22:44.319 in Deuteronomy versus eight five, we read another aspect of this sonship, 252 00:22:44.440 --> 00:22:49.240 the benefits. I'm he says. No, then in your heart that as 253 00:22:49.279 --> 00:22:52.759 a man, is discipline, that a man, that as a man, 254 00:22:52.920 --> 00:22:59.750 disciplines his son. Jehovah, your God, disciplines you. Well, this 255 00:22:59.950 --> 00:23:07.430 is where we all recognize that there is a difficult but also necessary aspect of 256 00:23:07.630 --> 00:23:14.299 sonship. Isn't there a father who loves his children, will discipline them, 257 00:23:14.940 --> 00:23:18.299 will train them, will show them and teach them, and this is indeed 258 00:23:18.819 --> 00:23:25.579 what God does, and this was not always easy. We read that after 259 00:23:25.700 --> 00:23:30.809 God has adopted and chosen this, a family of family, as his own, 260 00:23:30.490 --> 00:23:37.049 Israel, as his son, he brings them into this period. They 261 00:23:37.089 --> 00:23:45.200 are in this period of of being youths, of being disciplined. In Galatians, 262 00:23:45.279 --> 00:23:48.319 for Paula says that it was a so strong that you could even be 263 00:23:48.440 --> 00:23:53.799 described as a slavery. It was a hard growing up for Israel. The 264 00:23:53.920 --> 00:23:57.190 law came down, just like parents do right when your kids are young. 265 00:23:57.349 --> 00:24:02.309 What do you do? Here's the rules, black and white. You do 266 00:24:02.630 --> 00:24:03.829 this, you don't do that, you do this, you don't do that, 267 00:24:03.990 --> 00:24:07.309 and that's what we read of throughout the history of Israel, don't we? 268 00:24:08.029 --> 00:24:11.619 God giving his laws, God giving his command saying here's where I want 269 00:24:11.619 --> 00:24:15.019 you to obey, and all of these various things. And it was to 270 00:24:15.099 --> 00:24:21.740 train them in two things, one in the righteousness that God requires and too, 271 00:24:22.019 --> 00:24:27.170 in their inability to do the things that he requires. One in the 272 00:24:27.210 --> 00:24:32.049 righteousness that he requires and two in their inability to do the things that he 273 00:24:32.170 --> 00:24:37.650 requires. God was constantly teaching them here is the standard, and you are 274 00:24:37.769 --> 00:24:41.720 not capable of meeting that now. Was He doing that to be mean, 275 00:24:41.759 --> 00:24:47.519 a father who never loves because his standards are too high? Of course not. 276 00:24:48.480 --> 00:24:52.869 God standards are high because that's what holiness is, that's what righteousness is, 277 00:24:55.029 --> 00:24:56.750 and he wanted to show it to us, not just to shame us 278 00:24:56.789 --> 00:25:02.710 or embarrass us, but so that we would see our need for him, 279 00:25:03.950 --> 00:25:07.660 our need for salvation, that would come through a son who would be born 280 00:25:07.700 --> 00:25:11.500 under the law to redeem those who are under the law, he says in 281 00:25:11.619 --> 00:25:19.380 Galatians, so that we might receive adoption as sons. There is this kind 282 00:25:19.420 --> 00:25:25.410 of emancipation that's coming, a growing up, a maturity for the old church 283 00:25:25.529 --> 00:25:32.410 that comes when Jesus comes throughout the whole Old Testament. Israel, God's adopted 284 00:25:32.569 --> 00:25:38.319 son, is learning through these external and temporary blessings and external and temporary curses, 285 00:25:38.400 --> 00:25:42.960 that they're not capable of doing the things that he requires, that they 286 00:25:44.039 --> 00:25:48.880 need their father to act in another way, not just in the law but 287 00:25:49.029 --> 00:25:55.029 in the Gospel. They need him to act according to His grace and according 288 00:25:55.029 --> 00:26:00.390 to His mercy. They need him to change not just their outward circumstances, 289 00:26:00.829 --> 00:26:06.539 not in Egypt or in Egypt, not in Egypt in the wilderness. Not 290 00:26:06.660 --> 00:26:17.660 In the Wilderness. They need their hearts changed inside. It's one thing to 291 00:26:18.140 --> 00:26:21.769 hear of the promises, to have them offered to you, to have them 292 00:26:22.009 --> 00:26:27.329 signified in this external way. It's another thing to actually receive the things that 293 00:26:27.490 --> 00:26:33.160 they signify. In other words, it's one thing to enter into the land 294 00:26:33.240 --> 00:26:36.920 of cane and enjoy the milk and honey and all those things. It's another 295 00:26:37.079 --> 00:26:41.319 thing to enter into heaven itself, the thing which can and pointed to, 296 00:26:41.440 --> 00:26:55.230 and enjoy boy everlasting blessing from God. And between these two things, Israel, 297 00:26:55.390 --> 00:27:02.740 God's adopted son, experienced a kind of wall between the external things that 298 00:27:02.819 --> 00:27:07.420 were offered, all the blessings that were given there, and the internal spiritual 299 00:27:07.539 --> 00:27:11.259 changes that happened. There was this wall that happened, a wall that could 300 00:27:11.299 --> 00:27:21.049 not be climbed over by obedience, and we know that because they failed over 301 00:27:21.170 --> 00:27:25.450 and over and over again, and even the most righteous of them, King 302 00:27:25.490 --> 00:27:36.119 David, King Solomon, Moses, they failed. Do you remember that there 303 00:27:36.160 --> 00:27:40.519 were some people who actually didn't enter into the Promised Land? And do you 304 00:27:40.559 --> 00:27:45.150 remember that one of them was Moses? Because of his sin, Moses, 305 00:27:47.230 --> 00:27:52.750 the Great Mediator of the Old Covenant, Moses, this Great Holy and righteousness 306 00:27:52.069 --> 00:27:56.509 will, righteous one, Moses, who was adopted by Pharaoh's daughter and God's 307 00:27:56.549 --> 00:28:03.220 providence so that he could adopt a whole nation of people for himself. Moses 308 00:28:03.299 --> 00:28:11.339 didn't enter. Moses wasn't righteous enough to enter into the promised land, not 309 00:28:11.460 --> 00:28:19.329 the earthly anyway. There is this Great Wall between the external blessings that were 310 00:28:19.369 --> 00:28:23.089 given in the Covenant, the adoption that was given in the Covenant and the 311 00:28:23.490 --> 00:28:30.640 promises that and were received and fulfilled. But what has Paul been saying throughout 312 00:28:30.680 --> 00:28:36.960 Romans? He's saying that there's a way through that wall, and the gate 313 00:28:37.119 --> 00:28:41.589 is called faith. He's saying you don't have to climb over the wall. 314 00:28:41.109 --> 00:28:44.710 He's going to say later on you don't have to go up to heaven and 315 00:28:44.869 --> 00:28:49.910 pull Christ down in order to have Christ, in order to have salvation. 316 00:28:51.910 --> 00:28:55.190 You don't have to drag Christ up out of the grave either. He says 317 00:28:55.819 --> 00:28:57.700 you don't have to dig up under that wall in order to get into the 318 00:28:57.740 --> 00:29:03.819 promised land in order to receive God and Heaven and the blessings of a changed 319 00:29:03.980 --> 00:29:11.049 life inside and in the eternal, imperishable inheritance. You can receive it all 320 00:29:12.130 --> 00:29:19.329 through faith. You have to go back to glacians for to read Paul's explanation 321 00:29:19.490 --> 00:29:23.400 of these things, but you know who he points to to talk about this 322 00:29:23.559 --> 00:29:29.400 faith. He points to Abraham, he points to David and he says, 323 00:29:29.440 --> 00:29:33.319 look at these men, look at how they received a righteousness that was not 324 00:29:33.519 --> 00:29:37.990 by works, but a righteousness that was by faith. They believed and it 325 00:29:38.109 --> 00:29:45.950 was counted to them as righteousness. They received Jesus's righteousness. God gave to 326 00:29:45.029 --> 00:29:51.069 them what they need so that they could break through that wall and receive not 327 00:29:51.230 --> 00:29:56.819 just the signs, not just the external blessings and the promises, but actually 328 00:29:56.940 --> 00:30:03.099 receive the things that they pointed to. Receive Eternal things, heavenly things, 329 00:30:03.180 --> 00:30:11.130 receive the forgiveness of sins. Let me relax with a little bit and give 330 00:30:11.130 --> 00:30:18.410 you a silly analogy. How many of you, on let's say December twelve, 331 00:30:18.609 --> 00:30:22.759 or maybe January second, said, you know what, I'm going to 332 00:30:22.880 --> 00:30:27.000 get a gym membership, and you go over to the gym and you you 333 00:30:27.640 --> 00:30:34.400 sign up and you you get your card and you're a member now and you're 334 00:30:34.519 --> 00:30:41.029 excited and you're gonna get strong and you're going to get ripped and you're going 335 00:30:41.069 --> 00:30:47.869 to lose weight because you're the member of a gym now and then about April 336 00:30:48.150 --> 00:30:52.900 you kind of go, man, I should probably turn this thing and why? 337 00:30:55.099 --> 00:30:59.740 Because it's not enough to have a membership to something unless you're actually getting 338 00:30:59.779 --> 00:31:04.450 the benefits of it right. It's not. It's not a helpful thing to 339 00:31:04.930 --> 00:31:11.730 be connected to something externally, to have a sign, a card that says 340 00:31:11.769 --> 00:31:14.569 here, I, I belong to this place. You really do. You 341 00:31:14.650 --> 00:31:17.690 paid it for it your you have every right to go in any time you 342 00:31:17.730 --> 00:31:22.559 want, maybe even twenty four hours a day, complete access. But if 343 00:31:22.599 --> 00:31:26.160 you don't go, if you don't show up, if you don't get on 344 00:31:26.279 --> 00:31:33.190 the bench, how are you going to benefit from it? It's the same 345 00:31:33.230 --> 00:31:37.670 thing with the Covenant of Grace. God adopts the Old Church and he adopts 346 00:31:37.710 --> 00:31:41.750 us as well. In the new church. He brings in all who profess 347 00:31:41.869 --> 00:31:45.789 their faith and their children, as Peter says, just as he did in 348 00:31:45.910 --> 00:31:51.779 the old and we receive children. You have received this sign of baptism. 349 00:31:51.900 --> 00:31:56.819 We've all received this sign and are brought in to belong to the church. 350 00:31:59.059 --> 00:32:05.690 But does the car do you any good if you don't believe for the gym, 351 00:32:05.849 --> 00:32:09.329 you're called to go and exercise your muscles. In the Covenant of Grace, 352 00:32:09.450 --> 00:32:15.839 you're called to exercise faith, which means receiving and accepting and believing on 353 00:32:15.960 --> 00:32:24.160 the Lord Jesus Christ. Without that, membership in the church certainly has advantages. 354 00:32:24.640 --> 00:32:29.400 You're getting to hear the Gospel, you're belonging to a community of faith, 355 00:32:29.759 --> 00:32:35.869 your you're receiving God's word. There are even external benefits, real external 356 00:32:35.950 --> 00:32:40.190 benefits, of belonging the care and compassion you were receive, training and righteousness, 357 00:32:40.230 --> 00:32:49.099 all kinds of good things, but only by faith, only by faith 358 00:32:49.140 --> 00:32:57.740 will we receive those things signified and promised. This is why Paul is so 359 00:32:58.019 --> 00:33:04.650 grieved, because he looks at his kinsman, he says, these are my 360 00:33:05.009 --> 00:33:09.730 brothers. He looks at his family, he says, guys, this is 361 00:33:09.930 --> 00:33:15.400 not good. We have rejected the promises. We've been like Esau, who 362 00:33:15.400 --> 00:33:22.640 had a birthright and sold it away, who gave it away. He is 363 00:33:22.960 --> 00:33:28.190 grieved to his very heart, and we should be too. When we think 364 00:33:28.230 --> 00:33:31.869 about the Jews, when we think about those who have received all of these 365 00:33:31.990 --> 00:33:42.339 great blessings, who have belonged under Moses, to God in Abraham, were 366 00:33:42.740 --> 00:33:49.700 called into this covenant of Grace and yet don't believe in Jesus. They remain 367 00:33:49.779 --> 00:33:54.849 on the other side of that wall, and that should grieve us. If 368 00:33:54.930 --> 00:33:59.369 we believe in Jesus, if we have received these things, if we know 369 00:33:59.730 --> 00:34:05.930 the spirit of adoption that is changed our hearts, should we not speak to 370 00:34:06.049 --> 00:34:14.559 them and other general tiles like us who didn't even receive that? We must, 371 00:34:15.920 --> 00:34:22.559 we must love and we must preach, and some of US need to 372 00:34:22.639 --> 00:34:30.349 grieve for ourselves, because we and belonging to this new church and being grafted 373 00:34:30.469 --> 00:34:35.789 on, know that it's only in an external way. Some of US need 374 00:34:35.909 --> 00:34:39.900 to look at our hearts and see what's going on inside and recognize and admit 375 00:34:39.980 --> 00:34:45.940 the truth that, though we belong in a kind of outward in an external 376 00:34:45.099 --> 00:34:51.820 way, we're not abiding in Christ. Did you aren't following after him, 377 00:34:52.780 --> 00:34:54.769 you aren't trusting in him, you aren't living in him, you aren't walking 378 00:34:54.809 --> 00:35:04.969 in him. And if that's the case, grieve for yourself, let your 379 00:35:05.010 --> 00:35:10.519 heart ache for yourself, let you feel the anguish that Paul feels. But 380 00:35:10.639 --> 00:35:16.639 of course, don't stop there. Turn to Jesus, walk through the gate 381 00:35:16.920 --> 00:35:22.429 and this Great Wall, receive the promises that are offered to you, except 382 00:35:22.590 --> 00:35:30.909 the God of your salvation, because this is what God promises and this promise 383 00:35:30.030 --> 00:35:37.139 is available to all who do believe, Jew and gentile alike, that there 384 00:35:37.260 --> 00:35:46.500 is salvation, forgiveness of sins communion with God. I'll simply quote one verse 385 00:35:46.579 --> 00:35:52.690 from the beginning of Romans, Paul says, and will it verses one, 386 00:35:54.329 --> 00:36:01.690 sixteen and Seventeen, for I am not ashamed of the Gospel. This good 387 00:36:01.809 --> 00:36:07.320 news about Jesus Christ, who has come into the world to save sinners from 388 00:36:07.360 --> 00:36:10.400 their sin, he says. I'm not ashamed of the Gospel, for it 389 00:36:10.639 --> 00:36:15.800 is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew 390 00:36:15.960 --> 00:36:22.150 first, and also to the Greek, for in it the righteousness of God 391 00:36:22.389 --> 00:36:25.309 is revealed from faith, for faith, as it is written, the righteous 392 00:36:25.309 --> 00:36:32.059 shall live by faith. So, whether you are Jew or whether you are 393 00:36:32.099 --> 00:36:39.619 a gentile, a Greek, the same power of God unto adoption, eternal 394 00:36:39.780 --> 00:36:47.889 adoption, adoption filled with inheritance and blessings that can never go away, the 395 00:36:49.010 --> 00:36:54.170 can never fade or die. These are offered to us in Christ. So 396 00:36:54.409 --> 00:36:59.530 put your faith in him, believe on him and him alone, and receive 397 00:37:00.090 --> 00:37:05.199 these blessings that are given to us in him. Let us pray