The Promises of God (Romans 9:4-5)

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.400 --> 00:00:05.440 They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the 2 00:00:05.639 --> 00:00:10.949 covenants, the giving of the law, the worship and the promises. To 3 00:00:11.070 --> 00:00:15.349 Them Belong the Patriarchs, and from their race, according to the Flesh, 4 00:00:15.470 --> 00:00:20.949 is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. A men 5 00:00:22.620 --> 00:00:31.500 and then also a Hebrews chapter eleven, Verse Eight, Hebrews Eleven, verse 6 00:00:31.699 --> 00:00:38.609 eight through Verse Sixteen. By faith, Abraham obeyed when he was called to 7 00:00:38.689 --> 00:00:43.530 go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance, and 8 00:00:43.689 --> 00:00:47.929 he went out not knowing where he was going. By faith, he went 9 00:00:48.170 --> 00:00:53.640 to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living 10 00:00:53.679 --> 00:00:59.920 intense with Isaac and Jacob, airs with him of the same promise, for 11 00:01:00.039 --> 00:01:06.310 he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder 12 00:01:06.709 --> 00:01:11.510 is God. By faith, Sarah Herself received power to conceive even when she 13 00:01:11.750 --> 00:01:17.390 was past the age, since she was, since she considered him faithful, 14 00:01:17.950 --> 00:01:23.780 who had promised. Therefore, from one man and him as good as dead, 15 00:01:23.379 --> 00:01:29.340 were born descendants as as many as the stars of Heaven and as many 16 00:01:29.379 --> 00:01:34.010 as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore. These all died in faith 17 00:01:34.170 --> 00:01:41.489 had not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them 18 00:01:41.530 --> 00:01:46.370 from afar and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the Earth. 19 00:01:47.560 --> 00:01:51.840 For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. 20 00:01:52.519 --> 00:01:55.640 If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, 21 00:01:55.719 --> 00:02:00.359 they would have had opportunity to return, but as it is, they desire 22 00:02:00.400 --> 00:02:05.349 a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore, God is 23 00:02:05.390 --> 00:02:08.270 not a shame to be called their God, for he has prepared for them 24 00:02:08.349 --> 00:02:20.819 a city you may be seated was. We continue our our tour through Romans 25 00:02:20.860 --> 00:02:24.300 Nine, verses four and five. We come today to this word promises. 26 00:02:25.139 --> 00:02:29.659 This is, of one of the other things that Paul lists in this list 27 00:02:29.699 --> 00:02:36.569 as distinctive marks of Israel, things that belong to them, particularly as a 28 00:02:36.729 --> 00:02:42.169 people, as a nation under God, and we can think of these promises 29 00:02:42.490 --> 00:02:46.280 as being connected with the covenants. Indeed, several of the things in this 30 00:02:46.520 --> 00:02:52.599 list are, and they're all interrelated in one way or another. The giving 31 00:02:52.599 --> 00:02:55.479 of the law, for example, is a particular marker, but it comes 32 00:02:55.560 --> 00:03:00.430 within the covenants that God made to them. He has in mind particularly the 33 00:03:00.550 --> 00:03:06.150 Coven of Moses, we could say the same thing about worship and the promises 34 00:03:06.310 --> 00:03:10.590 as well. There's a connection between these two things. I think, for 35 00:03:10.710 --> 00:03:15.860 example, of glacians three seventeen. Paul says, this is what I mean. 36 00:03:15.139 --> 00:03:20.860 The law which came four hundred and thirty years afterward does not annull a 37 00:03:21.020 --> 00:03:28.250 covenant previously ratified by God so as to make the promise void. You hear 38 00:03:28.370 --> 00:03:35.050 those words, covenant, law, promise, all being used somewhat interchangeably to 39 00:03:35.129 --> 00:03:40.169 refer to a similar the same event, the same relationship that God established. 40 00:03:42.360 --> 00:03:46.199 Listen to how these words relate in Efhesians to twelve. Remember that at that 41 00:03:46.360 --> 00:03:53.000 remember that you were, at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the 42 00:03:53.159 --> 00:03:59.830 Commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and 43 00:03:59.990 --> 00:04:03.270 without God in the world. You see what he's saying there. He says 44 00:04:03.310 --> 00:04:08.750 to us as gentiles, to the Ephesians in particular, you were strangers to 45 00:04:08.870 --> 00:04:14.740 the covenants of promise. There's lots of ways you can think about the covenants 46 00:04:14.780 --> 00:04:16.740 that God makes, made with his people, but one of the ways that 47 00:04:16.980 --> 00:04:23.660 God wants us to pay attention to, one of the particular angles that were 48 00:04:23.699 --> 00:04:30.089 called to look at is the covenants of promise, or promise as as an 49 00:04:30.089 --> 00:04:34.329 angle on that. Perhaps you've been to a place where a view has been 50 00:04:34.529 --> 00:04:38.800 set up already, you know, you drive out and you get out of 51 00:04:38.879 --> 00:04:43.120 your car to look at a particular place and there's a there's some kind of 52 00:04:43.240 --> 00:04:47.000 monument perhaps, or a or even a view finder that has preset angles. 53 00:04:47.079 --> 00:04:49.879 Right, you look through this one and you see the thing or you look 54 00:04:49.920 --> 00:04:55.069 through this side and you see this thing. That's essentially what's going on here. 55 00:04:55.509 --> 00:04:59.069 By giving us this word promises, God is telling us to look at 56 00:04:59.110 --> 00:05:04.110 this particular angle of what he's doing with his people, to consider how they 57 00:05:04.110 --> 00:05:14.100 belong to him in particular in this special way by promise. So what are 58 00:05:14.220 --> 00:05:18.740 the promises? What does Paul have in mind when he says promises to Israel? 59 00:05:20.180 --> 00:05:24.850 Well, we have to go back again to the covenant that God made 60 00:05:24.930 --> 00:05:30.089 with them, beginning with Abraham. When we go to Abraham Cha, sorry, 61 00:05:30.089 --> 00:05:32.970 hit to Genesis, which is very much about Abraham. We go to 62 00:05:33.089 --> 00:05:36.439 Genesis, chapter twelve, verse one. Listen to the things, see if 63 00:05:36.480 --> 00:05:42.720 you can write them down or count them on your fingers, that God promises 64 00:05:42.920 --> 00:05:46.399 here to Abraham Them. Now the Lord said to Abram, go from your 65 00:05:46.439 --> 00:05:50.709 country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show 66 00:05:50.709 --> 00:05:55.589 you, and I will make of you a great nation, and I will 67 00:05:55.629 --> 00:05:59.350 bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 68 00:05:59.389 --> 00:06:02.389 I will bless those who bless you, and he and him who dishonors 69 00:06:02.430 --> 00:06:08.339 you I will curse, and in all the families of the earth you will 70 00:06:08.420 --> 00:06:14.579 be blessed. In this promise here that God makes him in this covenant, 71 00:06:14.620 --> 00:06:17.810 we see several things promised, don't we? We God promises him a land. 72 00:06:17.889 --> 00:06:20.569 He's going to show him a land, he's going to give it to 73 00:06:20.649 --> 00:06:25.649 him. I'm in Genesis, chapter thirteen, verse five. We have this 74 00:06:26.009 --> 00:06:32.480 separation of Abraham and lot, and God says to Abraham this land I will 75 00:06:32.560 --> 00:06:38.399 give to you. In Verse Fifteen, the Lord, or Verse Fourteen, 76 00:06:38.439 --> 00:06:42.639 the Lord says to Abraham, lift up your eyes and look from the place 77 00:06:42.680 --> 00:06:46.629 where you are northward and southward and eastward and westward, make a circle, 78 00:06:46.790 --> 00:06:50.870 turn around everything that you can see, for all the land that you see 79 00:06:51.029 --> 00:06:56.790 I will give to you and to your offspring forever. I will make your 80 00:06:56.870 --> 00:07:00.790 offspring as the dust of the earth. So that if one can count the 81 00:07:00.870 --> 00:07:05.139 dust of the earth, your offspring can also be counted. So God promises 82 00:07:05.899 --> 00:07:14.300 a land. God promises a great nation. God promises his blessing in promising 83 00:07:14.420 --> 00:07:17.410 to bless those who bless him and curse those who curse him. He promises 84 00:07:17.529 --> 00:07:24.089 a measure of justice. He promises him protection, and there's this kind of 85 00:07:24.529 --> 00:07:30.519 worldwide ripple effect that God also promises in you, all the families, all 86 00:07:30.560 --> 00:07:34.759 the nations on the earth will be blessed. God drops a big pile of 87 00:07:34.959 --> 00:07:41.759 promises on this one person, Abraham, and these ripples extend out even to 88 00:07:41.920 --> 00:07:47.230 us. These are the promises that God gave to Abraham and belong to Israel 89 00:07:47.230 --> 00:07:53.949 as his offspring. But these promises that Paul has in mind come in a 90 00:07:54.029 --> 00:08:01.459 particular context. They come in the context of a world that is sinful, 91 00:08:01.500 --> 00:08:09.740 a world that includes murder and lying, trickery, idolatry, confusion. We're 92 00:08:09.779 --> 00:08:13.970 only in Genesis chapter twelve when God says this to Abraham. Do you remember 93 00:08:15.009 --> 00:08:20.730 what happens in Genesis One through eleven? They include these things that I mention. 94 00:08:20.970 --> 00:08:26.689 They include prideful people. The include the peoples of the earth seeking to 95 00:08:26.279 --> 00:08:33.919 show their will as stronger than God's erecting a tower even to the heavenly places. 96 00:08:33.759 --> 00:08:37.679 We see God confusing them there. We see God wiping them out, 97 00:08:37.799 --> 00:08:45.750 so sinful they were in the flood. We see his curse coming down upon 98 00:08:46.029 --> 00:08:52.509 Adam and eve and their children after the first sin. We see rape, 99 00:08:52.549 --> 00:09:03.419 we see idolatry, we see evils of all kinds, and it is the 100 00:09:03.620 --> 00:09:09.289 same soup of sin in which we also swim. The old world is not 101 00:09:09.610 --> 00:09:15.970 that much different from the modern world. We think about the particular people in 102 00:09:16.049 --> 00:09:20.289 the Old Testament facing very similar things that we do today, like Moses having 103 00:09:20.330 --> 00:09:28.399 to choose between a family and wealth and following God, people seeking healing from 104 00:09:28.480 --> 00:09:35.960 disease, or Hannah wanting, wanting a child being barren. We see people 105 00:09:37.039 --> 00:09:39.110 looking for work, we see people who are lost, we see people who 106 00:09:39.110 --> 00:09:43.950 are burdened, betrayed, trapped by sin, in gorged by wealth and power, 107 00:09:45.789 --> 00:09:50.190 and on and on and on and on. The story of the world 108 00:09:50.309 --> 00:09:54.500 that we have recorded in the very first pages of the Bible is there a 109 00:09:54.860 --> 00:10:00.379 story of the world that is all around us today. So when we sit 110 00:10:00.500 --> 00:10:05.220 here this morning and try to imagine the context in which God drops these promises 111 00:10:05.700 --> 00:10:13.889 showers these promises onto Abraham. We don't have to imagine that hard what it 112 00:10:13.009 --> 00:10:18.970 was like. The content of God's promises come in the context of sin, 113 00:10:20.330 --> 00:10:28.480 and in that we come to see God's great love and his graciousness. He 114 00:10:28.559 --> 00:10:31.679 didn't have to do this for Abraham. God didn't owe anything to this one. 115 00:10:33.360 --> 00:10:37.669 When God says in Romans nine four that to them belong the promises of 116 00:10:37.830 --> 00:10:45.190 Israel, it's not by birthright. It's by adoption, with which the list 117 00:10:45.350 --> 00:10:50.419 first began. God called this people to himself and said you will be my 118 00:10:50.659 --> 00:10:56.220 son and I will be your father, not because they had any rights to 119 00:10:56.299 --> 00:11:01.500 these things, but because God loved them even while they did not love him. 120 00:11:03.370 --> 00:11:07.169 So this is what Paul has in mind when he says promises. We 121 00:11:07.289 --> 00:11:09.769 have to kind of get that out there and just have a sense of what's 122 00:11:09.809 --> 00:11:15.129 being said. But we also have to go a little bit deeper and understand 123 00:11:15.490 --> 00:11:20.440 something very particular about these promises. You have to understand that God gave these 124 00:11:20.639 --> 00:11:28.919 promises, everlasting and universal promises, in a very temporary and local form. 125 00:11:28.960 --> 00:11:35.070 Let me say that again. God gives these promises, everlasting and universal promises 126 00:11:35.269 --> 00:11:41.509 in a temporary and local form. So, for example, he promises to 127 00:11:41.590 --> 00:11:48.379 him the birth of offspring, even a particular offspring, Isaac. It even 128 00:11:48.419 --> 00:11:54.019 gets it so particular that when Abraham hat tries to have a child another way, 129 00:11:54.139 --> 00:11:58.860 God says no, not that one, this one he has in mind, 130 00:11:58.899 --> 00:12:01.929 a particular child with a particular name. But Isaac, as you may 131 00:12:03.049 --> 00:12:09.009 know, died. This great child of promise, this great offspring that God 132 00:12:09.529 --> 00:12:16.320 promised to Abraham, eventually died. Indeed, many of Abraham's children have died. 133 00:12:16.360 --> 00:12:20.080 Indeed all of Abraham's children have died. And there's all. There's something 134 00:12:20.159 --> 00:12:26.679 that takes away from the everlasting nature of the promise in that. Or you 135 00:12:26.720 --> 00:12:31.870 can take the land. There is this land that God promised to Abraham. 136 00:12:31.950 --> 00:12:35.830 Even says, look at it. And when Abraham looked north and south and 137 00:12:35.909 --> 00:12:39.549 east and West, you know what he saw? saw trees and rocks, 138 00:12:39.870 --> 00:12:46.059 maybe animals here walking this earth, in this world, animals that he could 139 00:12:46.059 --> 00:12:48.419 have named, animals that he could have caught, trees that he could have 140 00:12:48.539 --> 00:12:54.580 walked by or chopped down. A very real world is he saw a very 141 00:12:54.659 --> 00:13:01.169 real land, a particular place with a particular geography. And yet that temporary 142 00:13:01.409 --> 00:13:07.169 local form pointed to something else. Do you remember that? From Hebrews Chapter 143 00:13:07.289 --> 00:13:16.279 Eleven, it says the Abraham saw this land, but he always knew himself 144 00:13:16.440 --> 00:13:22.559 as a stranger and an exile. How can that be? How can Abraham, 145 00:13:22.600 --> 00:13:26.629 who's been promised this land, the land of Canaan, enter into that 146 00:13:26.789 --> 00:13:31.710 land, and even the people of Israel enter into that land and yet be 147 00:13:31.830 --> 00:13:39.669 a stranger and an exile in it? Those things are put together by understanding 148 00:13:39.870 --> 00:13:45.980 that the temporary, local form of the land pointed to something better. It 149 00:13:46.179 --> 00:13:52.419 pointed to something eternal and universal. Do you remember what God says in Hebrews? 150 00:13:52.539 --> 00:14:00.370 He says they desired a better country. Better country, yes, a 151 00:14:00.769 --> 00:14:07.570 heavenly one. Abraham lived in tense, but God was designing for him a 152 00:14:07.730 --> 00:14:13.799 city that had foundations, and not just rocks and mortar on the ground, 153 00:14:13.559 --> 00:14:20.840 but the foundation which would eventually be Jesus Christ himself, the cornerstone of an 154 00:14:20.960 --> 00:14:28.909 everlasting city of God. This offspring that was promised in Isaac was a temporary 155 00:14:30.309 --> 00:14:35.590 and local, or particular to that time and place, form of a promise 156 00:14:35.669 --> 00:14:43.580 that would be eternal. Would Abraham have everlasting offspring? Would Abraham give bull 157 00:14:43.659 --> 00:14:46.980 forth to the promised child who would save the world in an eternal way. 158 00:14:46.980 --> 00:14:52.860 Yes, he would, and Paul says that in Galatians he quotes the specific 159 00:14:52.970 --> 00:14:56.929 passages and he says, Hey, did you notice back when God promised offspring 160 00:14:58.009 --> 00:15:01.169 to Abraham, he used the singular, not the plural. That interesting. 161 00:15:01.330 --> 00:15:09.840 Paul Making exegetical arguments from particular grammatical points in the Old Testament text. As 162 00:15:09.919 --> 00:15:18.840 a side note, it says a lot about Paul's Paul's faith and certainty in 163 00:15:18.879 --> 00:15:24.309 the texts of the Bible. But Anyway, he confirms these things and he 164 00:15:24.350 --> 00:15:31.990 says here is Jesus, here is the offspring that was promised. Yes, 165 00:15:31.070 --> 00:15:35.659 it was Isaac, yes it was Jacob, yes, it was the children 166 00:15:35.740 --> 00:15:39.419 that were born after him, but they all leading to something greater. The 167 00:15:39.500 --> 00:15:43.779 land was leading to something greater. The child was leading to something greater. 168 00:15:45.779 --> 00:15:52.649 The nations on the Earth were blessed too, through this people, through these 169 00:15:52.850 --> 00:15:58.210 promises. You remember Rahab right being saved by God's people as they were coming 170 00:15:58.250 --> 00:16:03.320 into the land of Canaan. You Remember Ruth Standing Outside the Covenant. Promises 171 00:16:03.559 --> 00:16:07.399 Sang to Naomi, let me in, I want to belong to you. 172 00:16:07.519 --> 00:16:11.600 These gentiles like us, who had no right to belong to this people, 173 00:16:12.080 --> 00:16:15.919 no rights of the land, no right to belong to the family, no 174 00:16:15.000 --> 00:16:18.870 right to any of these things. And yet coming in, little by little, 175 00:16:18.909 --> 00:16:26.750 trickling trickling in. But this trickle turns into this flood. When Jesus 176 00:16:26.870 --> 00:16:34.019 comes, these heavenly promises, these eternal promises, become so great this people 177 00:16:34.179 --> 00:16:38.220 that were truly as innumerable as the sands of the sea when they came out 178 00:16:38.259 --> 00:16:47.169 of Egypt are even greater now. All found all over the world this morning, 179 00:16:47.370 --> 00:16:52.730 people worshiping from us, thousands of miles away, worshiping the true and 180 00:16:52.889 --> 00:16:56.809 Living God. If it were not for Jesus, if it were not for 181 00:16:56.929 --> 00:17:03.759 the promises to Abraham, you and I would be worshiping rocks and trees and 182 00:17:03.000 --> 00:17:08.799 thunder storms and mountains, just like our ancestors did. I don't know how 183 00:17:08.839 --> 00:17:15.269 far you have to go back to find hard core idolatry in your family. 184 00:17:17.670 --> 00:17:22.670 For some of us it's not very far. This is what we came from, 185 00:17:23.630 --> 00:17:26.950 this is what we've been saved to. We worship the God of Abraham, 186 00:17:27.029 --> 00:17:32.819 of Isaac and Jacob. We call ourselves children of the promise, no 187 00:17:33.019 --> 00:17:37.619 longer strangers. As I read earlier from Ephesians, to these convenants of promise, 188 00:17:38.420 --> 00:17:45.089 children of Abraham. Why? Because, these temporary, local forms of 189 00:17:45.210 --> 00:17:51.849 the promise, we're pointing to something greater, something that has come to us 190 00:17:51.930 --> 00:17:59.440 in Jesus, something to which we now belong. Why did God do this? 191 00:18:00.240 --> 00:18:03.599 Why did God give the promises in these way, in this way? 192 00:18:06.079 --> 00:18:10.559 He did it for lots of reasons, all name two. One reason, 193 00:18:10.720 --> 00:18:14.990 as he wanted the people of God and all those who are standing outside watching 194 00:18:15.109 --> 00:18:18.829 them, to understand how grand the promises were that he were giving them. 195 00:18:19.869 --> 00:18:26.230 He wanted the Canaanites to look at Israel established in the land and say, 196 00:18:26.220 --> 00:18:33.259 we're not gonna mess with the God of Israel. He wanted them to understand 197 00:18:33.299 --> 00:18:37.339 the greatness. He wanted Israel to understand how powerful he was, that when 198 00:18:37.380 --> 00:18:42.210 they marched around a city, it would come tumbling down because God is great. 199 00:18:44.049 --> 00:18:48.849 He wanted them to understand that he could save them by the word of 200 00:18:48.930 --> 00:18:53.130 his power. He could stop the Sun, he could change the days, 201 00:18:53.170 --> 00:19:00.160 he could ruin a city, he could bring a flood, he could cause 202 00:19:00.279 --> 00:19:07.519 people to fall down. He could save his people. He could provide for 203 00:19:07.680 --> 00:19:12.789 them vineyards and orchards, lands and Wells. In a moment. He could 204 00:19:12.789 --> 00:19:18.109 do these things and then, as Israel would get established in their land, 205 00:19:18.269 --> 00:19:25.220 not only with peace and blessing security, but then the economy would grow and 206 00:19:25.339 --> 00:19:29.299 under solemn and a temple would be built and people would look at this and 207 00:19:29.339 --> 00:19:34.460 say there's nothing like this in the world. He wanted people to see the 208 00:19:34.500 --> 00:19:41.609 greatness of his promises, the glory of God. But if all that is 209 00:19:41.809 --> 00:19:47.250 temporary and but a picture of things to come, we get to see the 210 00:19:47.369 --> 00:19:52.480 greatness not only there but in what they point to. As great as the 211 00:19:52.559 --> 00:19:57.039 land was, as great as the victories were that God's people won, where 212 00:19:57.079 --> 00:20:03.759 the God that God won for his people. They're just for tastes, like 213 00:20:03.960 --> 00:20:08.190 appetizers. The greatness of the temple or these mighty victories that happen are like 214 00:20:08.309 --> 00:20:15.509 going to Costco and eating the samples. Kind of Nice, enjoyable, but 215 00:20:15.789 --> 00:20:19.430 not the real thing. It doesn't compare to sitting down and having a feast. 216 00:20:19.470 --> 00:20:25.059 Or imagine if you're going to move to another city and buy a home 217 00:20:25.259 --> 00:20:29.180 and you're looking at pictures on the Internet. Wow, that looks really nice. 218 00:20:30.140 --> 00:20:33.220 It doesn't even come close to being there. That's what it was. 219 00:20:33.299 --> 00:20:38.569 Where Abraham for Sarah, for Isaac for Jacob, for Moses, for Israel, 220 00:20:41.450 --> 00:20:48.210 even as they lived in the land and enjoyed these promised blessings, yet 221 00:20:48.250 --> 00:20:53.279 Hebrews says, they were still greeting them from afar. They were seeing the 222 00:20:53.599 --> 00:21:00.400 heavenly city to come, the eternal rest, the lasting protection of God and 223 00:21:00.559 --> 00:21:03.869 blessing and communion with him, as if they were looking through a better homes 224 00:21:03.950 --> 00:21:11.349 and gardens. This is really nice. Maybe someday we could renovate. They 225 00:21:11.470 --> 00:21:22.220 were promised something eternal. So these promises in this way taught them of the 226 00:21:22.500 --> 00:21:26.460 grandness, the greatness, the glory of the things God was giving to him. 227 00:21:26.700 --> 00:21:30.380 But they also taught to them the graciousness in which they would come, 228 00:21:30.460 --> 00:21:37.289 or by the grace in which they would come, because you know what would 229 00:21:37.289 --> 00:21:41.809 happen? These promises, in a temporary way, would be tied to their 230 00:21:41.890 --> 00:21:48.240 obedience, not eternally, but in this temporary form, in such a way 231 00:21:48.279 --> 00:21:52.240 that God said, you can enjoy living in this house, you can belong 232 00:21:52.440 --> 00:21:56.839 to me and enjoy this land, but only if you obey. And you 233 00:21:56.960 --> 00:22:02.710 know what? They didn't obey and they lost those blessings, they lost the 234 00:22:02.910 --> 00:22:10.630 promises, everything fell out from underneath them because of their sin. God wanted 235 00:22:10.869 --> 00:22:15.029 that to happen. Not He wanted them to sin, but he wanted this, 236 00:22:15.150 --> 00:22:18.980 this event, to happen. He wanted all of this to fall out 237 00:22:19.019 --> 00:22:23.019 according to his plans, so that these people, both those in the mixed 238 00:22:23.380 --> 00:22:27.700 hat and it was with happening to them, and US gentile standing outside looking 239 00:22:27.700 --> 00:22:33.809 in, would see something. We would see something happening here and we would 240 00:22:33.809 --> 00:22:41.170 see that these promises cannot be earned, they cannot be purchased by our obedience. 241 00:22:41.210 --> 00:22:45.920 It's impossible. They didn't do it, they couldn't do it. God 242 00:22:47.079 --> 00:22:52.720 wanted us to see the holiness that was to be attached to the promises, 243 00:22:53.160 --> 00:22:57.319 but he wanted to see that his long as our hearts were sinful, we 244 00:22:57.480 --> 00:23:04.589 couldn't obtain them, that death and curse, we're always blocking the way, 245 00:23:06.029 --> 00:23:11.349 and that in order to obtain the eternal things promised, God would need to 246 00:23:11.430 --> 00:23:17.180 provide an eternal answer, a righteousness which is not like our own, but 247 00:23:17.299 --> 00:23:22.259 a righteousness which is everlasting and perfect and holy. And he does that in 248 00:23:22.380 --> 00:23:32.130 Christ. Knowing the grand and gracious nature of the promises helps us to understand 249 00:23:32.329 --> 00:23:37.609 how it is we belong to Israel. If we think of the promises, 250 00:23:37.769 --> 00:23:42.319 is being tied only to that time and place, then we make two errors. 251 00:23:44.839 --> 00:23:49.119 One is that we might despair as those standing outside and say, well, 252 00:23:49.160 --> 00:23:55.359 we don't belong, it's not ours. And even if they were, 253 00:23:55.440 --> 00:23:59.869 they've been lost. The people were exiled, kicked out, dispersed across the 254 00:24:00.069 --> 00:24:06.069 world. Another error we might make and if we see them only in this 255 00:24:06.230 --> 00:24:10.019 temporary way, as we fail to see that how they are tied to the 256 00:24:10.140 --> 00:24:15.539 life after the promised blessings that come to us in Jesus. But the great 257 00:24:15.779 --> 00:24:19.819 benefit of seeing them and hearing the scripture as it speaks to us in this 258 00:24:19.940 --> 00:24:26.130 way, is what it's saying is this. Paul is saying that the promises 259 00:24:26.210 --> 00:24:33.289 belonged to Israel. Yes, they did, but they also belong to you, 260 00:24:33.450 --> 00:24:40.680 who believe and put your faith in the offspring of Abraham, Jesus Christ, 261 00:24:40.799 --> 00:24:45.279 who came and who established for us a heavenly city in which we dwell. 262 00:24:45.319 --> 00:24:56.829 Let me bring us to a conclusion by speaking about the nature of promises. 263 00:24:57.950 --> 00:25:06.029 We live our lives on the basis of promises. Every actioning we take, 264 00:25:06.150 --> 00:25:10.059 everything that we do, even if we're not thinking about it at the 265 00:25:10.140 --> 00:25:15.380 moment, is really and truly relying on certain promised things. You wake up 266 00:25:15.380 --> 00:25:18.740 in the morning, you throw your feet out of bed and they land on 267 00:25:18.859 --> 00:25:23.769 the floor and you don't think about it twice because you expect that your bedroom 268 00:25:23.849 --> 00:25:29.250 is not on top of a sinkhole. Right. you get out of bed 269 00:25:29.329 --> 00:25:32.730 and you stand up and you brush your teeth and you put your contacts in 270 00:25:32.930 --> 00:25:36.000 and you move about Your Day, knowing that the ground is going to be 271 00:25:36.079 --> 00:25:40.119 there. You Trust it, right, you trust it, and there's a 272 00:25:40.480 --> 00:25:44.519 thousand examples we can give. Maybe you go on a vacation. There's all 273 00:25:44.599 --> 00:25:49.789 kinds of things you're trusting on as you move away from your normal support system, 274 00:25:51.750 --> 00:25:56.109 that you're expecting are going to be there, friends and family if you 275 00:25:56.190 --> 00:25:59.950 get in trouble, that your map is correct, that the cell phone towers 276 00:26:00.029 --> 00:26:03.230 are working, that the weather is going to work, that your car is 277 00:26:03.390 --> 00:26:07.259 going to be in working order. We have all of these things, thousands 278 00:26:07.299 --> 00:26:14.579 and thousands of things that we are constantly depending on, and yet we know 279 00:26:15.660 --> 00:26:22.170 that all of these things, these earthly temporal things, can fail, cell 280 00:26:22.289 --> 00:26:27.009 phone towers go down, friends and family can't be reached, the wealth that 281 00:26:27.130 --> 00:26:33.240 we thought we have disappears. Are Importance in that we thought we had at 282 00:26:33.319 --> 00:26:37.079 work or in our neighborhoods, all of a sudden is diminished, our value 283 00:26:37.200 --> 00:26:42.319 in our communities, the skills and abilities we have, all these things break 284 00:26:44.240 --> 00:26:52.829 fall away. But we don't need these things if we truly have God, 285 00:26:55.470 --> 00:27:03.099 if we truly have his promises of life. This is how Christians can go 286 00:27:03.180 --> 00:27:08.539 out into the world and say, friends and family may leave me, wealth 287 00:27:08.700 --> 00:27:15.700 may disappear, but I'll be okay because I have Jesus, and in Jesus 288 00:27:15.849 --> 00:27:21.410 I have all the promised blessings of Abraham. I have a place to live 289 00:27:21.930 --> 00:27:26.329 heaven itself. I have a God who loves me, Yahwe himself. I 290 00:27:26.450 --> 00:27:30.319 have a God who will protect me. I don't need to fear. Jesus 291 00:27:30.359 --> 00:27:34.599 has conquered death itself. The worst thing that could happen is I would die, 292 00:27:37.039 --> 00:27:42.039 and it would be the beginning of life everlasting. This is why Christians 293 00:27:42.200 --> 00:27:48.789 can be burned at the stake and thrown into lion's dends and beheaded and worse. 294 00:27:48.789 --> 00:27:55.190 That's how the Chapter I was reading in Hebrews Eleven concludes, with Christians 295 00:27:55.230 --> 00:28:00.779 who, by faith, sharing that same faith with Abraham, go out into 296 00:28:00.819 --> 00:28:06.099 the world as strangers and exiles, saying it's going to be okay, because 297 00:28:06.220 --> 00:28:15.650 God has promised, and his promises never ever fail. God doesn't get it 298 00:28:15.849 --> 00:28:19.609 wrong, the mechanics of the system he builds don't fall apart, he doesn't 299 00:28:19.650 --> 00:28:25.769 change his mind or his will, doesn't lose strength. All these kinds of 300 00:28:25.890 --> 00:28:29.440 things happen with us. We experienced them over all the time, but not, 301 00:28:30.480 --> 00:28:36.240 but not with God. Things die, break down, fail to work, 302 00:28:36.319 --> 00:28:41.039 but Jesus rose from the dead. Jes Jesus rose from the dead. 303 00:28:41.190 --> 00:28:48.509 He did not die and stay dead, he awoke and rose to everlasting life 304 00:28:48.589 --> 00:28:56.339 and promises that we will rise with him. Indeed, we already have in 305 00:28:56.579 --> 00:29:03.539 belonging to him. One of the great shames of people that recognize the failures 306 00:29:03.619 --> 00:29:08.259 and brokenness and disintegration of all the things around them is that they go on 307 00:29:08.380 --> 00:29:15.809 these great quests to find and discover the things that God has already brought right 308 00:29:15.009 --> 00:29:22.289 to them. People Climb Mountain seeking gurus to tell them how they could have 309 00:29:22.450 --> 00:29:27.599 eternal peace, life, protection happiness, when meanwhile the son of God has 310 00:29:27.680 --> 00:29:34.480 come down to Earth, right where we are, to give us light and 311 00:29:34.839 --> 00:29:45.630 life and blessing and to fulfill all the promises. These promises began when God 312 00:29:45.710 --> 00:29:49.750 gave them to Israel, and this small portion of humanity began to experience in 313 00:29:49.869 --> 00:29:56.579 a temporary way, in a this earthly way, his blessing, his protection, 314 00:29:56.819 --> 00:30:00.900 his forgiveness. But they were brought to fulfillment when the blood of Christ 315 00:30:00.940 --> 00:30:07.450 purchased these things eternally, and not just for a small portion of humanity but 316 00:30:07.609 --> 00:30:11.529 for the whole world, not just for one people but for all people's Jews 317 00:30:11.650 --> 00:30:22.319 and gentiles alike. Christ came through the Patriarchs to bless us all, and 318 00:30:22.480 --> 00:30:30.359 in this we have promises fulfilled and we look forward to the consummation of all 319 00:30:30.440 --> 00:30:36.750 of these things. You might think of the promises of God like a train, 320 00:30:37.470 --> 00:30:41.390 one promise netlext to another, next to another, next to another, 321 00:30:41.549 --> 00:30:47.190 linked together, moving through history, chuggle, Chug, chuggle, stopping at 322 00:30:47.230 --> 00:30:51.299 various points, in places for people to get on, for people to join. 323 00:30:52.140 --> 00:30:56.220 And that's what he has given to us. In Jesus Christ, he 324 00:30:56.339 --> 00:31:00.339 says, by faith, become children of Abraham. Get on the train. 325 00:31:02.339 --> 00:31:07.529 We're going to a heavenly city where all of these things will be lasting, 326 00:31:07.569 --> 00:31:15.369 unbreakable forever. This is the home to which we are called. We are 327 00:31:15.569 --> 00:31:19.480 strangers and exiles right now, but so is Abraham. He hoped in a 328 00:31:19.599 --> 00:31:25.000 heavenly city. Let us hope so as well. This is the promise of 329 00:31:25.079 --> 00:31:30.200 God. It is sure, we can trust it. Let us pray