Sunday Sermon: The Children of Promise (Romans 9:6-9)

You're listening to the preaching ministry of Gabriel Hughes, pastor of Providence Reformed Baptist Church in Casa Grande, Arizona. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday on this podcast, we feature teaching through a New Testament book, an Old Testament book on Thursday, and our Q &A on Friday.

Each Sunday we are pleased to present our sermon series. Here is Pastor Gabe.

Romans 9 and the Question of God’s Faithfulness to Israel

It was 11 years ago in 2015 that I actually preached through, or at least began preaching through Romans for the first time. And I was in chapter nine, sometime the later part of the year, a friend of mine named Pastor Chuck, he was a pastor of a church that I actually grew up in, but he and his family were traveling over vacation for a couple of weeks.

And he happened to come nearby the church where I was pastoring at the time and he stopped in and recognized him right away when he came in, Pastor Chuck, pleasure to see you. And he said, well, we were just driving through, thought it'd be great to stop in and hear you preach.

And so he, they, they came in, they sat, they loved the service afterward. He said, man, if I could have picked any service to come and listen to you preach, it was, it was to hear Romans chapter nine.

And, and that was the chapter that I was preaching on in that, in that particular service. So for those of us who are of the reformed confession, this can be an exciting chapter to consider and ponder the ways of the sovereignty of God.

But let's not be too proud of it as we come into this chapter, because there really are some difficult concepts that exist here that we as mortal people struggled to get through. And so we're humble as we come to these passages today, thinking about God's sovereignty and, and the election that he is working out in his plan of redemption, calling us to himself and not just through the preaching of the gospel that we may be converted and come to faith, but even that we would be sanctified and be holy and blameless before him in love, as said in Ephesians chapter one.

This morning, as we continue on in our study of Romans nine, we're picking up in verse six and today reading to verse 13. As we come into this and we think about the ways of God's sovereign election, I came upon this quote from Richard Rasberry started reading a book of his earlier this week, a 17th century English Puritan pastor.

And he said the following regarding this section that we're reading Romans nine through 11. He said, election is a decree of mercy and reprobation is a decree of justice. Yet both are acts of absolute power favoring or refusing purely at God's pleasure.

And so we consider God's act in choosing his own to himself. As we read today in Romans nine, verses six through 13, in honor of the word of the king, would you please stand Romans chapter nine, beginning in verse six, here are the word of the Lord, but it is not as though the word of God has failed for not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel and not all our children of Abraham because they are his offspring.

But through Isaac shall your offspring be named. This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. For this is what the promise said about this time next year, I will return and Sarah shall have a son.

And not only so, but also when Rebecca had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad in order that God's purpose of election might continue.

Not because of works, but because of him who calls, she was told the older shall serve the younger as it is written, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated. You may be seated as we pray. Heavenly father, we come into this passage today and we desire to learn more about the ways of God.

We want to know how you are working in us and even working in the world today, how you've worked through history, how you're working for our future to bring about the salvation of your elect. It is by God's sovereign choosing that we have been called to you, not because of any work that we had done, not because we were inherently worthy of anything at all, not because we did something that therefore now obligated you to have to choose us, but you chose even in these examples that are given here in Romans nine, before they were born,.

You chose.

And Lord teach to us in your choosing, what confidence we can have in knowing that you have purposed, you have elected, you have called, you have justified, you are sanctifying. And we have again, that promise that was given to us in Romans 8 30, that we are also glorified.

You are worthy of all praise. None of us are worthy of anything, but to you belongs all the glory and the power forever. And it's in the name of Jesus that we pray and all God's people said, amen. So we began by reading as brother Allen had read to us this morning in Genesis chapter 18, about the promise that God had given to Abraham and Sarah, that they would have a son.

Now, Abraham did not immediately believe this promise in such a way as though to assume that this fulfillment would come through Sarah, his wife, when he told Sarah, his wife previously before we got to Genesis 18 this morning, but he told her, well, God said that I'm going to be the father of many nations.

I wonder how that conversation would have gone exactly, but they, in their old age and the way of women, no longer with Sarah. And here is Abraham saying, well, I've had a conversation with God. And he says that, uh, that I'm going to be the father of many nations.

And somewhere about in that conversation, Sarah decides, well, that's not going to be through me because I can't have children anymore anyway. And so she gives her maid servant Hagar to Abraham and says, well, it's going to have to be through my maid servant.

And Abraham with Hagar has a child named Ishmael, but Ishmael is not the promised seed. This is a theme that occurs throughout Genesis. Everything is tied into land, seed, and covenant. As you go through the book of Genesis, Abraham's promised a land.

He's promised that he's going to have many offspring, but how are those offspring going to come about if Sarah can't even have children? And so Abraham and Sarah tried to take matters into their own hands.

And by the way, ladies and gentlemen, conflicts that exist in the Middle East today occur still because of Abraham and Sarah attempting to take matters into their own hands. But it was not through Ishmael that God intended to fulfill this promise.

God intended that Sarah herself would have a son. And through that son will your offspring be named. Sarah laughs when God says that she is going to have a child, even tries to cover it up as you had heard from Alan reading.

I did not laugh. No, but you did. You laughed when I said that you were going to have a child. What do they name this child that they have? They name him Laughter, Isaac. Not just though, I mean, there's a bit of irony there, of course.

They named him Isaac because, well, we laughed when God said we were going to have a child, but that wasn't the only reason they named him Isaac, but also because God gave them joy and He fulfilled His promise to them.

And they named him Isaac to remember that God is faithful. There is a promised seed and God is fulfilling His promise. As Paul lays out for us here in this section of Romans chapter 9. Now, last week I had mentioned to you as we had kind of broken down our passage, our outline worked out as considering Paul's painful burden in verses 1 through 3, and then the privileged blessings that were given to the Israelites in verses 4 through 5.

We ended by considering God's perfect word in verse 6. And we're going to come back to that again today. I've actually just expounded out the outline. So we're continuing on to hear about God's perfect word and how His plan will be accomplished.

And next we consider His promised children. That's in verses 7 through 9. Finally, that His purpose will be upheld in verses 10 through 13. So again, we've already considered the painful burden, the privileged blessings, which we will come back to when we consider who the promised children are and what blessings they receive.

We come back today to the perfect word in verse 6, and we will also consider the promised children. Next week we will consider more deeply how God's purpose is upheld, especially in that statement that was made here in this section that God's purpose of election might continue.

So let's come back to verse 6 again and hearing of that perfect word that God has given and He is keeping. Verse 6 once again, Paul says,. But it is not as though the word of God has failed, for not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel.

So remember once again our background into this. Why is Paul even addressing this? Because as we have read throughout Romans thus far, remember our thesis statement to Romans in Romans 1 .16, I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to who first?

To the Jew first, and then also to the Greek. And so then as Paul lays out this doctrine of justification by faith, we are saved because we believe God, because we put our faith in Jesus Christ, and because of our faith in Jesus we are justified.

Faith is the vessel that God has chosen to transmit His grace to us. And so by faith in Jesus we are saved. Paul has even given us an example already in chapter 4, Abraham. So this is not the first time that Abraham comes up here in chapter 9.

We've already heard about Abraham back in chapter 4, where it was said that Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. And so just as it was with our father Abraham, so it is with us.

Abraham believed and he was saved, so we likewise believe and we are saved. One of the reasons why Paul came back to Abraham in chapter 4 was to demonstrate that this is not a new doctrine. This isn't new teaching that he's giving here with regards to salvation.

Oh, since Jesus came, the entire thing is just completely upended now. We don't have to have the law anymore. All you have to do is believe by faith. Paul is saying you always had to believe by faith.

You could never have been saved by the law, because there's not anybody who's ever kept the law except Christ. And it's only through faith, then, that we are saved and God credits it to us as righteousness, just as it was with Abraham.

As Paul has been laying out these doctrines regarding our justification by faith, the objection that comes from the Judaizers is, well then, what's the point of the law? Paul is just throwing out the law now.

If all we have to do is believe and we are saved. But it was even there at the end of chapter 3 that Paul said, do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means. On the contrary, we uphold the law.

As we saw in chapter 8, now we're able to keep the law in a righteous way, whereas previously we could not. Before we had faith in Jesus, none of us could do anything righteous. We could not keep God's law.

We didn't even want to. And it's now, having been given the Holy Spirit of God, that we can say with David in Psalm 119, Oh Lord, how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day. And now we can keep God's law in a way that is indeed pleasing in His sight.

Because of the Spirit of God that has been given to us. It was also in chapter 8 verse 1 that we read, There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And verses 29 and 30, reading about, How those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brothers.

And those whom He predestined, He also called. Those whom He called, He also justified. Those whom He justified, He also glorified. And so, then the likely objection from the Judaizers, from the Jews, from the teachers of the law that's going to come up, is, well if you're saying now that through Jesus Christ, the Jew is saved first, and then also the Greek, then why are there so few Jews believing?

Paul, you're a minority group here. You claim that this is the way that God's plan had always intended to be. It was never by the keeping of the law. It was always by faith. Then why is it that so few Jews, to whom these promises were given in the first place, believe in Jesus?

Why are so many of them turning away from Him? And indeed, the leading persecutors of the church at this point are the Jews. It would soon become the Romans, and they have dealt with persecution from the Romans, but the leading persecutor of the church, at least up to this point, remains the Jews.

We're going to get to chapter 11 a little bit later on, but it's there that Paul even comes back to some of these things, some of these objections that he's answering in chapter 9. Paul says right at the very start of that chapter, Romans 11, I ask then, has God rejected His people?

By no means. And then he uses himself as an example. For I myself am an Israelite. I am a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew. Because if God has rejected His people, why am I saved?

Is what Paul is saying. I'm a Jew, and I believe this. So obviously, God does still mean to save Israel through Jesus Christ. It's not just taken from Israel and given to Gentiles, but not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel.

And here's what Paul's demonstrating here. This has always been the case, even throughout the Old Testament. Even when you look through the Scriptures, you see people who didn't really belong to Israel.

The examples that I gave last week, even citing from the Psalms, of those children who had been called out from slavery in Egypt, they went into the wilderness, and what did they do there? They grumbled and complained against God.

They said, we would have been better off back in Egypt. We could have died there, at least with bread in our stomachs. They worshipped a golden calf. They turned to idols and false gods. They challenged Moses and Aaron's authority.

The sons of Korah, you know this story. That we are just as capable leaders as they are. We don't want to be these janitors of the tabernacle where we're always having to wrap and unwrap these items and just transport them from place to place.

We are every bit as capable of doing what Moses is doing. And God said, well, we'll see. Light your censures, come before the tent of meeting, and we'll see who's worthy and who's not. And what happened to Korah and his family and all those who were aligned with him?

The ground opened up and swallowed him whole. God can save whom He desires to save and judge whom He desires to judge. And demonstrate to the rest of Israel that His purpose of election will stand. So even these that had been called out, though they had the blood of Abraham in their veins, though they had the name of Israel over their houses and above their doorposts, though they had the law itself that they followed, the law that had been given there at Mount Sinai, though they had received all of these things, they had a national identity.

Other nations looked at them and called them Hebrews, or called them Israelites, or called them descendants of Abraham. Yet they weren't really descendants of Abraham. Why not? Because they did not have faith.

And they were counted in the eyes of God as just like any other fallen people. And were consumed by His judgment instead of living in His promises. Not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel.

My friends, there is a nation on the globe today that is called Israel. You can pull out your globe, you can spin it, you can find it on the map right there in the Middle East. Most of the people that are living there in that nation today are not Israel.

Not because they don't have descendancy from Abraham. But because they don't have faith in Jesus. True Israel are those who believe in Christ. True Israel are those who believed God. And it was credited to them as righteousness.

And this, Paul is demonstrating here in verse 6, is what the Word of God has always said. Again, not a new doctrine that he has invented and putting out here. But you can even go back to the Old Testament and see there were people who were not really God's people.

Their hearts were not for the Lord. Their hearts were divided. They wanted what the pagans had around them. They worshiped the false gods of the pagans around them. They even wanted to go back to Egypt.

Remember a song when I was a kid from Keith Green? Oh, so you want to go back to Egypt? Mocking that we would want to go back to our sin instead of understand the salvation that we have in Christ. There are many today, in fact, who will call themselves Christians and are not really Christians.

You understand this concept. You have known people in your life who have said they follow Jesus. You probably grew up with them. In high school you all were enthusiastic together about being Christians.

You all wore your WWJD bracelets. You all listened to the same Christian music. You all attended the same youth group and went to the same church and knew the same mantras and probably had the same Christian t-shirts.

But where are those today that had previously been Christians with you in the past? And there are many in my past that I can say that of. Like my entire high school class were professing Christians. I don't know that there was a single person in my high school class.

Now it wasn't that big a class. I was in a small farming town in Kansas. We didn't even have 40 people in my graduating class. So it was small. But again, it's a small farming town. It's a church community.

It's a well-churched community. Every single one of my teachers attended church. Every single one of my classmates proclaimed to be a Christian. Are they Christians today? If you said no, you would guess correctly.

Most of them did not continue in the faith that they claimed they had when we were all enthusiastic about this together in high school. Many of them went out into the world on their own, out from under their parents' guidance, out from under the community that they were surrounded by and were ensnared by the world and by Satan's schemes and drawn away from Christ.

So you know, you know that there are plenty of people today that call themselves Christians and are not. They are not really Christians. Christians in name only. And so it is the same with Israelites.

There were many Israelites who claimed to be Israelites, but their heart was not with God. Jesus Himself in John 8 said to a group of Jews who were proclaiming that they were saved because they were descendants of Abraham, He said to them, you are of your father, the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires.

They demonstrated in their lives that they weren't really of Abraham. Jesus said if you were children of Abraham, you would know who I am. But because they wanted to kill Jesus, they wanted to put to death the Son of God, you are not doing what Abraham would do.

You are not demonstrating what your father in heaven would do. You are demonstrating what your father the devil would do, making you children of Satan rather than children of God. We've already read of this a bit in Romans 2, in fact.

It was at the end of the chapter, where Paul said, A Jew is not merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter.

His praise is not from man, but from God. Now again, Paul is not laying out some new doctrine here. This is right out of Deuteronomy. Before Moses died and the generation of Israel was going to receive the promised land, that was about to go into the promised land and received it, Moses addressed them for a final time, and his final address is recorded in the book of Deuteronomy, giving them the law once again.

But this generation that was about to go into the promised land had not yet been circumcised. So one of the things that was going to happen, we read about this in the book of Joshua, is that they would be circumcised before taking the promised land.

Yet Moses said to them in Deuteronomy that you need to be circumcised from your heart. The whole thing of the covenant sign of circumcision was some outward indication of something that's really happened on the inside.

And it's not what happens on the outside that saves you. It's what has happened on the inside. If you have been circumcised of heart, then you've been cut off from the world and you have been united with God through faith.

And that's the circumcision that matters. And that's the one that matters for us as well. And so Paul's saying a true Jew is not merely one inwardly. Sorry, a true Jew is not merely one outwardly and physical, but a true Jew is one inwardly.

And circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the spirit, and not by the letter. Now, as we continue to talk about these things, as we continue to consider who the children of God really are, who really is of Israel, we understand that we are Israel.

The true Israel is Jesus Christ. Old Testament talks about it. Matthew shows the fulfillment of it when you read the first four chapters in Matthew. Israel was unfaithful. Jesus was ridiculously faithful.

In fact, when we get to Revelation 1, and I read on this a few weeks ago in Revelation 1 on Sunday evening, Jesus is described as the faithful witness. Well, He's called that because Israel was not faithful, but Jesus was.

In all that He did, He fulfilled. Where Israel failed, He succeeded. And you see all those types and shadows being fulfilled in those first four chapters of Matthew. You have the genealogy that's laid out.

You also have that Mary and Joseph fled to Egypt, and then when they were coming out of Egypt after Herod died, it says that this was to fulfill what was said in Hosea 11. Out of Egypt I called my son.

Now, when you go to Hosea 11 and you read that, if you were just reading that in isolation, you would understand that that's in reference to Israel. But Matthew 2 is showing that's in reference to Christ.

Jesus is the faithful son. Israel had been unfaithful. Israel was a type and a shadow of the greater one who was to come. And Jesus is the faithful son who has fulfilled all of those things that He was sent to do by the Father.

Where Israel failed, Jesus succeeded. He is the true Israel. He is faithful Israel. And so anyone who is in Christ, therefore, becomes of the people of God, and we become true Israel. Don't just take my word for it.

Let's turn for a moment over to Galatians 3. We've read some of these words this morning, in fact, in our confession. Let's go to Galatians 3. Just a few books to your right. 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians.

So in Galatians 3, Paul first rebukes the Galatians because they have gone after the law rather than faith. So someone has come in and deceived them and made them think you actually have to be circumcised on the outside if you really want to be saved.

If you haven't done these works of the law, then you can't be saved. And so Paul says at the start of chapter 3, O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? It was before your very eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified.

So let me ask you this. Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain if indeed it was in vain?

Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law or by hearing with faith? And then once again, Paul comes back to the example of Abraham. Verse 6, Just as Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.

And so what is said then in verse 7? Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. It is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And verse 8,. And the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, In you shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.

So then those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. And you can go down the line of the patriarchs. If you are of faith, you are children of Abraham. If you are of faith, you are children of Isaac.

If you are of faith, you are children of Jacob. What was Jacob's other name?

Israel.

It is by faith that we have been made the children of God and have become the children of Abraham. Galatians, still chapter 3, verse 24. It is those who belong to Jesus Christ who have put to. Sorry, I'm not reading in chapter 3.

I'm reading in chapter 5. But let me read it anyway, because it's such a great verse. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. And if we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.

Let us not become conceited, provoking one another and envying one another. OK, now here it is at the end of chapter 3. For in Christ Jesus, you are all sons of God. This is verse 26, through faith. In Christ, you are children of God through faith.

For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free. There is no male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise.

In Matthew chapter 10, or Matthew chapter 8 rather, there was a centurion that came to Jesus and was asking Jesus to have his son healed, or have his slave healed. And Jesus said, I will come and heal your slave.

The centurion says, no, no, no, Lord. I'm not even worthy to have you come under the roof of my house. But if you just say the word, if you just say the word, I know my slave will be healed. For I too am a man of authority, and I have servants under me.

I say to this soldier, go, and he does it. I say to this slave, do, and he does it. So if you, with authority, just say the word, I know my slave will be healed. And Jesus, Jesus the Son of God, it says there in Matthew 8, he marveled.

He marveled at this centurion's faith. And he looks at the rest of the people and he says, there is no one else in Israel in whom I have seen faith like this. And I tell you that there are people from everywhere who are going to come and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob while the sons of the promise, and speaking in such a way as though to say they think they are of the promise, but they are not.

While the children of the promise are going to be bound and cast into the outer darkness and in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And he turns to the Gentile centurion and says to him, go, your slave has been healed.

And it says in the text that his slave had been healed at that very hour. This man would receive the inheritance of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob instead of those people who automatically believed that they were going to receive it because they were descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

But not all who are from Israel belong to Israel. In Romans 9 -7, not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but through Isaac shall your offspring be named. And so likewise, through Isaac we have become offspring.

Now how have we become offspring? We don't carry the blood of Abraham and Isaac in our veins. We were not born to the line of Israel as we would understand the genetic line. So how is it that we can be called offspring?

Well, the child of promise, the one of promise that came through Isaac was Jesus Christ. This was why Isaac is called the promised seed. He's called the promised seed because it's through Isaac who will come to Christ.

Not through Ishmael, but through Isaac. Through Isaac shall your offspring be named. And as we've just read here in Romans 9, in Galatians chapter 3, it is through faith in Jesus Christ that we have been called the children of Abraham.

We are offspring of Abraham. You've heard it in the great Sunday school song, Father Abraham had many sons, and many sons had Father Abraham. I am one of them, and so are you. So let's just praise the Lord.

Right arm. How is that song true for us? How can we sing that song together? Because we have faith in Christ. How can we call Abraham our father? Because of Christ. Because of the offspring that came through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the promised seed who is Christ, who fulfills all that had been foretold in the law and the prophets.

In him we have been justified. We have been washed by his blood. We have a blood upon us now that runs even deeper than the blood of our own earthly flesh and blood parents. We have the blood of Christ that is over us.

And all of your brothers and sisters are right here in this room. All who likewise believe in Christ and are justified. And we've been adopted into the family of God as brothers and sisters in the Lord.

And we together are Abraham's offspring. You know, furthermore, in 1 Peter chapter 3, Peter addresses the women, women saints specifically, and says, you are all daughters of Sarah. If you also believe in Jesus and do as Sarah did with her husband Abraham, calling him Lord.

And so you as imitators of the righteousness of Sarah are called her daughters. And that's to everyone. That is to everyone who is in Christ. It is not unique and specific to a particular physical bloodline, but to the spiritual bloodline that we have in Christ Jesus.

Through Isaac shall your offspring be named. Through Christ the offspring of Abraham have been named. And indeed it is fulfilled as God had promised to Abraham that your children would be as numerous as the sand on the shore and as the stars in the sky.

Can you count the number of Christians on the planet today? Can you count the number of Christians that there have been down through history? Will you be able to count the number of Christians that are around the throne of God praising Him for all eternity?

Well, John said in Revelation 7 -9, I looked and behold, there was a number that was too great to be counted. And these are the offspring. These are the ones who have received the promise now by faith in Jesus.

This means, Paul says in verse 8, that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. We are the promised children. And then wrapping this up with verse 9, for this is what the promise said about this time next year I will return, and Sarah shall have a son.

Now where did this son come from? Because coming back to this again, Sarah's womb was barren. She wasn't even able to have a child. And despite all of our boasting these days of what we know of medical technology and all the problems in the human body that we think that we can fix and all the things that we're able to detect, they may not have had advanced medicine and advanced technology and equipment and things like that to detect these things back then, but they knew well enough about the human reproductive system to know Sarah ain't having children no more.

There is no physical way for her to have kids. Eventually a woman reaches a certain age, and after that age she can't have children anymore. It was impossible now for this to be fulfilled through Sarah.

How? How is this promise of God going to be fulfilled through Sarah when her womb is barren and she's beyond childbearing years? But the promise was made about this time next year I'll return, and Sarah will have a son.

And as Jesus said to His disciples, with man this is impossible, but not with God, for all things are possible with God. And suddenly this child, in circumstances in which it was impossible for this child to even come into existence, God is making a promise, He's making a covenant, and He's saying, I'm going to fulfill that promise through you and your wife and the child that you are going to have, and He says this before Abraham and Sarah even understood that she could have children at all.