Blinded or Burdened?

You know, it's possible to be blind and not even realize it. I have a niece born twenty-some years ago, was born blind in one eye. And she of course didn't recognize that. She never has. She's lived all of her life with vision in one eye and sees the world that way and has never known any difference. When she was born, her parents didn't recognize. Nobody picked up on the fact that she was blind in one eye. And several months went by as I recall and one day my sister Mary Beth was looking at her daughter and looking at her face and looking and noticed that the pupil of one eye looked like a broken egg yolk. It looked like it was just draining down into the iris of the eye and she thought that looked strange. And so sure enough, they got her to the doctor and they checked her out and realized she could not see anything out of that eye. She was blind in that eye. It's possible to be blind and not even recognize it. It's possible to say and to think that you are burdened for others and not really be burdened for others. So when I ask you the question this morning, are you blinded or burdened? If you are not blinded, then you should be burdened. But you may be blinded and not know it. Say John, where in the world are you going with this? Well, we're in Romans chapter 9. And I think it would be good since we're actually starting a whole new section of the book, kind of back up a little bit and get the big picture of the book just to remind us where we are and the setting of chapter 9. So let me just remind you that the book of Romans is all about Paul speaking of a righteousness from God. He introduces that subject in Romans chapter 1 verse 17. Really tells us that's what he's going to write about. That he's going to write about a righteousness that comes down from God. This is not a righteousness we can earn, deserve or work up to heaven. This is a righteousness that is given this comes down from God. And in the first two and a half chapters Paul says this righteousness is needed. That's his theme of chapter 1, 2 and halfway through chapter 3. And it's needed because of our sin. We are all sinners and we need a righteousness from God. Then in the beginning of chapter 4, actually halfway through chapter 3, through chapter 5, the second section of the book, righteousness given. And the theme of that section of the book is salvation. This righteousness that we so desperately need, God gives us as a free gift. He justifies us. He declares us righteous when we place our faith in his son, Jesus and what Jesus did for us on the cross. So righteousness needed righteousness given. And then in chapter 6 through 80, he talks about righteousness growing. And how righteousness wants it is given to us and we are declared righteous. God begins a growing work in us. And we are to grow in our likeness to Christ and grow in our expression of that righteousness in the way we live. And so the subject of chapter 6 through 8 is not sin or salvation, but it's sanctification. And that means growing in righteousness, growing in Christ's likeness. And so we come to the end of chapter 8, we begin a whole new section. And there's some sense in which we could, to follow the train of thought of the book of Romans, we could just skip to chapter 12 because it's there that Paul really begins to talk about how this righteousness works its way out. What it looks like in the life of a believer, a very practical section of the book. So what are chapters 9 through 11 doing in here? Well, chapters 9 through 11 have a very important part of the book. Some people have called them a parenthesis, kind of an interruption in Paul's thought and his argument, but I don't think so. chapters 9 through 11 have a very important part of Paul's flow of thought because at this point there will be people in his audience in Rome, Jews in his audience asking, well what about Israel? If what you're saying is true, if the promises of God to the church in chapter 8 are true. The promises of God to his people are true. Didn't God make some promises to Israel too? What about that? Has God forgotten those? Has God failed to carry out those promises to Israel? By the way, Paul, where does Israel fit in this whole thing anyway? And so what Paul is going to do in chapters 9 through 11 is describe the place of Israel and God's dealings with his Old Testament covenant people Israel, how that fits into this gospel he's describing, where they fit in this righteousness that comes from God. And what Paul will do in chapters 9 through 11 is he'll talk about how God is now dealing with Israel. Chapter 9 can be summarized with the word election. And we'll talk about election in a few moments, not what's happening Tuesday, not that kind of election. We'll talk about God's election described in chapter 9. God has chosen people and it is his choice, it is his prerogative to do what he wants to do. He's God. He is sovereign and it is his prerogative to do what he will do. And when he chooses, that's his choice. And we can't say anything about that. We'll talk more about that in a moment. Chapter 10 has to do with rejection. Why has God indeed rejected his people? Because of their rejection of his son. So chapter 10 talks about rejection. Chapter 11 talks about restoration. And that Sunday God will restore his people Israel to a place of blessing. And that awaits the future. Paul even talks about a day in which the whole nation will be saved and be restored back to a place of God's blessing. So, election, rejection, restoration, those three words summarize what Paul is talking about in these three chapters. Now, just because I know some of you are squirming right now with this talk about election. I want to pause for a moment and talk for a few moments about that before we jump into the Paul's thoughts in chapter 9 verse 1. The very mention of the word election gets some people squirming in their seats. And when we talk about election, which we will do mostly next week, a little bit today, but mostly next week, when we talk about election in Romans chapter 9, there are two directions people can go with this. Some people think of election and they say, well, that doesn't fit my sense of fairness and my sense of justice and what God should or shouldn't do. So, I'm going to explain it away. And I'm just not going to believe in that election stuff or I'm going to kind of explain it away or I'm going to say, well, really the way it works is that God knew anyway I was going to get saved. So, after the fact he chose me, that is not what the Bible teaches. And then some people swing to another extreme and election controls everything and so they form a whole system of theology around election, believing that somehow they have to codify and classify and catalog and correlate and connect all the dots of God's secret things and all the secrets of heaven, got to put it all together in my theological system. And so they take that one truth and form a whole theological system around it. I don't think that's what the Bible teaches either. I didn't hear quite as many amen's about that. That's okay. Here's what we need to do when we approach this section. And by the way, I'm one of those that loves to codify, classify, connect all the dots and put it all together. That's just my personality, my field of study and my seminary studies was systematic theology. I'm a theologian trying to break out of his shell. I just love theology. But that's my love. And so I love to put everything systematically in its right package and box and every fit it all together. I love that kind of thing. I'm going to ask my personality anyway. I have a mug collection. Say what does that have to do with theology? Well, you'll take a period out in a minute. You'll connect the dots. I have a mug collection. Everywhere we go, we get a mug of that place and we put it on a shelf. They're all in alphabetical order. Okay. I'm not really weird. I'm a little bit OCD, but I'm not really too weird. But anyway, that's just the way I think. It's the way I am. And so I'm one of those that has a tendency to want to put everything in a box in its place. So I understand that that desire of theologians. But when we approach this section on election and God's choice, here's what we need to do. We need to go as far as our human understanding will take us. And then we just let need to let the Bible say what it says and not try to explain it away and let God be God. Because there are things beyond our ability to figure them out. We can't codify and classify and connect every secret of God and heaven. If that were the case, they'd have to make room for a fourth person in the Trinity. That's not going to happen. Okay. So there's some things we need to go as far as we can go with our limited human understanding. And then we need to say like Isaiah, God, your ways are high above my ways. Your thoughts are above my thoughts. As high as the heavens are above the earth. So our God's thoughts above my thoughts and his ways above my ways. There's a point at which my limit that human understanding has to stop and say I'm just going to let the Bible say what it says. And I'm going to let God be God. And I won't try to figure out all the divine secrets. That's frustrating to people who like to be able to put everything together and figure it all out. But there comes a point where we have to recognize God knows more than I do. I can't explain it all. I just have to accept what the Bible clearly teaches. Are you comfortable with that? You ready to move on? Let's go. Romans chapter 9. What Paul is talking about here? What we're going to see in Romans chapter 9 is Paul's burden for his people and the reason for that. We're going to see that Paul has a great burden for his people and we're going to see why the reason for that burden. In verses 1 through 3 Paul expresses his burden for his people. Just read these words along with me. I know we have different translations here. So just follow along as I read verse 1, I speak the truth in Christ. I am not lying. My conscience confirms it in the Holy Spirit. I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart for I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, and he identifies them in verse 4 as the people of Israel. I don't know of any place in the Bible where Paul's burden for his people is expressed in more dramatic terms. It's been a couple of weeks since we've been in Romans and so we miss a little bit of the punch of this because if we had gone straight from chapter 8 where Paul is euphoric, Paul is exhilarated with the grace of God and the position that we have in Christ and that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ. Nothing can remove us from our position in Christ and he's just spoken in the most glowing, exuberant terms about that and then all of a sudden it hits us right in the face. I have great anguish and sorrow in my heart. You're thinking how does that go together? December 23rd 2009 was one of the happiest days in our family's lives. Our fifth grandchild was born Ashlyn. She's a little bit ten months old and that day holding her in the hospital was such a beautiful, wonderful experience as it was with our other four grandchildren. I can't remember when our kids were born but her grandchildren were really special. We just loved holding Ashlyn. It was so precious and such joy but you know what? When I was holding her there was a bit of pain and sorrow in my heart as well. It had been almost a year, just a little over a year since my dad had died. As I said, they're holding Ashlyn. I thought she'll never know her great grandfather. He'll never get to hold her and know Amy's family as including Ashlyn. This side of heaven, heaven corrects a lot of stuff. Thank God for that. But here, he'll never know that joy and she'll never know the joy of being in great granddaddy's lap. And I just thought about that and there was a wave of sorrow that went over me even in the midst of incredible joy. And I see those two feelings of emotion here. I want you to feel how it's changed. If we were in great euphoria in chapter 8, now we're plunged into the depths of sadness really in chapter 9. So Paul expresses this burden and in expressing this deep burden, notice first of all how he dispels all doubt. In verse 1 he goes to great pains to dispel any doubt about the sincerity of this burden. He's saying, I'm really serious about this. Notice how he says, I speak the truth in Christ. I am not lying. My conscience confirms it in the Holy Spirit. Three times he's getting across the point very strongly. Hey, I'm telling the truth here. I really mean this. I'm not lying. In fact, my conscience is clear, not just in my own mind, but before the Holy Spirit. I've asked the Spirit of God to examine me and before him my conscience is clear. In other words, I really mean what I'm about to say. Now why would Paul go to such great pains to dispel any doubt about the sincerity of this emotion that he's feeling, this burden that he's feeling? Which probably because many Jews felt Paul as a traitor to his own nation. See Paul was a Jew, but the bulk of his ministry was to Gentiles, people who were not Jews. And there are many who felt like Paul as a Jew had kind of sold out his nation, his own people. And so he's going to talk about his burden for them and they're going to say, oh yeah, sure Paul. And so he's going to great pains to dispel any doubt that what he's saying is really coming from his heart. In fact, Paul had said some pretty difficult things about the Jews in the book of Romans. Remember back in chapter 2 when he said, oh you who call yourself a Jew? You say you have the law. You say you have the promises of God. Unless you're living it from the heart, you're just a bunch of hypocrites if you've just got religion. And then he kind of summarizes that in Romans chapter 3 and verse 9 by saying, what are we Jews any better than they? Gentiles? No, he says we've already declared we've already proven that we are all under sin. There's no difference between us and Gentiles. He said some pretty hard things for Jewish people in the congregation there in Rome to hear. And so he wants to dispel any doubt here about his compassion for the Jews. He loves his people. Please don't get me wrong, Paul, saying I love my people. In fact, not only does it dispel all doubt, he displays great compassion with these words. Look at, again, at verse 2, I have great sorrow, literally grief, mourning, have great sorrow, and unceasing anguish, intense pain, suffering in my heart is saying. For my people, this expression of compassion is consistent with Paul's heart as he expresses it throughout his epistles. This is not an isolated instance. Paul will say, and just catch a feel for his heart here as we look at these verses in Galatians chapter 4 and verse 19, Paul will say, my dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you. And then he will say to the Philippian church, it is right for me to feel this way about all of you since I have you in my heart. For whether I am in change or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God's grace with me, God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus. So he has that same part of compassion for the Philippians. He will say this to the Colossians in Colossians chapter 2, verse 1, I want you to know how much I am struggling for you and for those that lay out of Sia and for all who have not met me personally. I mean, this is even to people that he has not met personally, he did not plant personally the church in Colossi. It was probably planted from someone who was one to the Lord, a paparice from Paul's ministry in Ephesus. The paparice goes out and starts the church in Colossi. They had Paul had never visited that town, never seen those people, but he has a great heart for them nonetheless. And then he will say to the Thessalonians, as apostles of Christ, we could have been a burden to you, but we were gentle among you, like a mother caring for her little children, what a compassionate picture that is. We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God, but our lives as well because you had become so dear to us. And so this is consistent, this is Paul's heart throughout his letters to the churches. He is saying, I have a deep heart and compassion and longing and you are dear to me, but for those people in Israel, he is willing to express it so deeply that he says in verse 3, he says, I wish, I could wish that I myself were cursed, strong word, anathema separated from God, experiencing the eternal judgment from God in hell. That is what he is talking about. I wish I could be eternally separated from God in hell and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, the people of Israel. I mean this compassion, this burden is so deep that he says, if it were possible, I would be willing to lose my salvation and spend eternity in hell if it means my people Israel could be saved. Now that is not possible as we have already seen in Romans chapter 8, nothing can separate us from the grace of God and from the love of God in Christ. That is not possible, but Paul is genuine in saying, if it were, I would be willing to suffer that if it means that my people could be saved. And we express that if he reminds me of another great spiritual leader in the Bible, in the Old Testament, Moses. When the children of Israel, when Moses was on the mountain, the children of Israel had formed a golden calf and they broke the very first commandment that Moses was going to give to them from God. They were worshipping idols. When Moses came down from the mountain, he saw what was going on. It was a terrible, terrible scene. And it grieved his heart. And God, an angered God, God was ready to take the whole nation and wipe it out and start over with Moses. And Moses goes back up on the mountain and look at what he prays in Exodus 32, verse 32. He says, but now please forgive their sin. But if not, then blot me out of the book you have written. Wow. Moses is so compassionate for his people as such a heart of love for his people that if it's not possible for God to forgive them, then Lord, blot my name out of your book. I'd be willing to take their place. I mean, that's a depth of compassion that quite frankly I know very little about. But in displaying that great compassion, and by the way, some of you know a little bit about that, you have loved ones, you have children who are far from God, you have parents who do not know Christ, you have a husband or a wife who does not share your heart's longing to know the Lord, to be with him. And all of you enjoy time with them and you play and you have fun and you laugh. There's all the time behind all of that deep down in your heart and anguish and a sorrow and pain. If they don't trust Christ to save you, they will not be with me in eternity. And there's that acknowledgement and pain deep down all the time. You understand a little bit of what Paul's saying here. Paul displays great compassion, a heart for his people. But in so doing, Paul demonstrates a closeness to Christ. I really believe that maybe this above everything else displays a closeness to Christ in Paul's life because he shares the same compassion and heart for lost people that Jesus did. Again, look at the words of Jesus, Jesus displayed this same kind of compassion. The Bible tells us in Matthew 9, verse 36, Matthew describes this about Jesus. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them. Why? Because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd. He was grieving over all of the religious requirements that have been forced on the people in the religion of that day. And they didn't have a shepherd. They didn't have anyone to lead them into pastures of God's word. And he had compassion on him. He's heart broke for them. In Matthew chapter 23, Jesus utters these deep felt words. The last week of his life, he would say, oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who killed the prophets and stone those sent to you. How often I have longed to gather your children together as a handgatherer chicks under a wings. But, and I think his heart was breaking as you said this, but you were not willing. Luke describes this scene in Luke 19 of our Lord Jesus. And by the way, this is on Palm Sunday. As everybody shouting and singing his praises, Hosanna and putting Palm branches and coats along the way, which was customary for welcoming a king into a city. And they're in great joy. And while that's happening, Jesus on the back of that donkey is saying this and thinking this as he approached Jerusalem and saw the city. He wept over it. Strong word for weeping, by the way, means to converse with sobs. He was sobbing. Not just the tear trickling down his cheek. He was sobbing. His heart was broken. He wept over it and said, if you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace, but now it is hidden from your eyes. And he knew that in a few short days, the same people that were proclaiming him king would be rejecting him and calling out crucify him. And they would miss the day of opportunity where God wanted to visit them in his son. And he knew that would mean visitation of judgment in the future. Jesus heart was broken. And I think Paul expresses a closeness to Christ in the fact that his heart was broken for his own people. And he would say if it were possible for me to trade my salvation for theirs, I'd do it. I mean that I'm not lying. My conscience is clear on this before the Holy Spirit. I'd give up my own salvation if my people this year could be saved. Do you know anything about that kind of compassion? Do I know anything about that kind of compassion? Do I have anything close to that kind of a burden? I mean when I look at my neighbors, when I look at people in the stores where I am, when I look at folks that I may know, went to my high school reunion a few weeks ago, when I look at those people and think about those folks, some of them far from God it was clear. Does my heart even at all share the compassion of Jesus and this compassion of Paul? I'll be honest with you, I'm not at the point where I could say I'd be willing to trade in my salvation for theirs. I'd be willing to go to hell. I would like to be there. I'm ashamed that I'm not. Do we know anything about that kind of compassion? Do we know anything about that burden? Do we really realize the reality of hell? Do we realize that if people don't accept Jesus as Savior, that they will spend an eternity in hell separated from God, that's the clear teaching of the Bible? Do we really understand that and believe that people we waive to in the morning when we leave our homes? Have we ever even had any inkling of a desire to know whether or not they know Christ? Have we made any effort to befriend them, get to know them and win the right to share Christ with them? Do we have any desire for the hearts and lives of lost people? This burden of Paul's was so deep. Could it be shame on you John, but could it be I'm more grateful and satisfied that I'm in? Who cares about anybody else? Could it be that's really where we are? That we know nothing of this kind of burden, this kind of compassion for lost people? Could it be that we're no different from those people who were in robots the night the Titanic sank and you've heard the testimonies and the first hand witness accounts of how lifeboats were only half full and and they rode safely out of distance from the sinking ship and they listened to the cries of people who were in the water and only one out of 20 lifeboats went back to rescue anybody? Could it be that I'm glad I'm in the lifeboat? I'm here in cries of people around me but it doesn't touch me, it doesn't move me. I have no burden for the lost and by the way, don't pray for a burden for the lost. It's the wrong way to go about this. Don't pray that somehow God will give you a burden for the lost. That throws the responsibility back on God. Well, I don't have the burden, so God hadn't given it to me yet. I'll just wait a while longer. No. Pray that you will grow in your likeness to Christ and as you do, you will not help but develop a burden for the lost, a passion to see them come to know Jesus. Paul's burden for the lost ought to serve as a challenge to us to pray that we will become more Christlike in our own heart and as we look at the crowds like Jesus did in Matthew 9, that our heart will be moved with compassion. And as we look at our neighbors and co-workers and family members who don't know Jesus, that our heart will be broken and we might even begin to move toward the kind of compassion Paul had. That I would be willing, honestly, I'm not lying about this, be willing to trade in my salvation for theirs. Wow, what compassion, what a burden. Paul's burden for the lost but Paul then goes on to describe for us why? Why he has this burden? It has to do with the blindness of Israel, the blindness of his people. Why Paul are you so burdened for those of your people, the people of Israel, those of your own race, those of your own nationality? Why? It's because of their blindness. And Paul will describe this in no uncertain terms. He will describe how lost they are and thus how blind they are. He doesn't use the word blindness in this text but quite often Paul does describe people's lost condition in terms of blindness. For instance, 2 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 4, he says, the God of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God. One way to describe people who don't know Jesus is that they're blind. They're blinded to the light of the gospel. They don't see it. And unless the Holy Spirit opens their eyes and they see what Christ has done for them, they will remain blind to the gospel. Now Paul will use this expression later in this context in chapter 11 when you'll talk, quoting from the Old Testament, that they have eyes but they can't see, they can't see, they're blind. And they have a hardness that's come over their hearts because of spiritual blindness. The Paul speaking here of the lost condition of the nation of Israel and of his fellow Jews and that they're blind spiritually. They can't see with understanding the gospel that Jesus died for them and that they need Christ to be saved. Notice how he describes their blindness. In passionate terms he describes that the people of Israel had great privileges but they were blind. They had great privileges but they were blind. Look at all the privileges he describes that they had. They were indeed a privileged people. They had much from God. Verse 4, he identifies his people as the people of Israel. That very word, Israel indicates tremendous privilege and blessing from God. They got that name from one of their ancestors, one of their fathers Jacob. Jacob who, whose name means deceiver, after a long period of battling with God, comes back to his land and wrestles with the angel of the Lord. And before he gets to meet his brother, it's quite a story. You read in Genesis 31, 32. And in Genesis 32 he wrestles with the angel of the Lord and the angel of the Lord touches his hip. But at the end of that wrestling match puts it out of joint and changes his life and gives him a new heart and a new nature and actually gives him a new name. Changes his name from Jacob, deceiver to Israel. Prince with God. That very name indicates high privileges. Prince with God. People of Israel have such privilege but notice he says there's as the adoption as sons. They've been brought into the family of God and made the people of God, God's people and the Old Testament. The nation of Israel. There is children. He goes on to say, bears the divine glory. Divine glory is the visible representation of the awesomeness and the holiness of God that inexpressible person of God expressed in light. They saw that light in the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night that led them through the wilderness. They saw that fire in the tabernacle, that light in the tabernacle and in the temple where God would come down on the dedication of the temple in Solomon's day and display his presence. They saw the divine glory. They were such a blessed people, such privileged people. He goes on to say they had the covenants. God had made some covenants with them, promises with them through Abraham. He promised them a seed that would be as numerous as the stars, the sand on the sea. Promise them a land which they would have forever. Through Moses, he promised them a way of life and a relationship within a covenant relationship expressed in the law. Through Moses, he expressed in the Palestinian covenant the land that would be theirs and blessing rain on the crops and blessing upon their land as they were obedient to him. To David, he promised an everlasting kingdom in the Davidic covenant and he promised through Jeremiah and Ezekiel the new covenant which would come where he would write his law on their hearts, put his spirit within them to draw them to him. All these covenants that God had given them, what a blessed and privileged people they were. They have the covenants. Then he says the receiving of the law, God had actually given them his word so that they would know exactly what he expected, exactly how they were to live, exactly how they were to approach him. He given them their law. What a blessing that was. And then he says the temple worship of all people, God gives to his people, Israel, in a visible form that they could see. Here's the way you approach me and through the temple ceremonies and the work of the priests and even the furniture in the temple, they were given an object lessons to how you approach God, what a privileged people they were. They had the temple worship and they had the promises, all the promises of the Old Testament, all the promises of the prophets about a glorious future. And then he says in verse 5 there, so the pay-free arcs, that's the fathers, that's Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, right on down through, all the fathers. Someone has said if you really want to be successful, choose your own ancestors. Oh, we know we can't do that, but Israel had great ancestors, that of great history. Great privilege to do that, to have that. And notice through that great ancestry, in verse 5, from them those patriarchs is traced the human ancestry of Christ. Christ, humanly speaking, was a Jew, he came from the Jewish nation. What a privilege it was to be the nation that produced the Messiah, but Paul can't help himself under the leadership of the Holy Spirit when he's talking about his humanity and his ancestry. He also gives maybe the greatest declaration of the New Testament of the deity of Christ. He says from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God, overall, forever praised. Amen. Both the humanity and the deity of Christ. You see what Paul's saying here, this is a nation that has had great privileges, but as he goes on to develop through the rest of these three chapters, they're blinded to the gospel. They do not understand that Jesus died for them. He is their Messiah, he's their Savior, he's the Son of God. And they've rejected that, they don't understand that, in spite of great privileges. And you're sitting here this morning in this auditorium. The very fact you're sitting here as evidence of the great privileges we have in this nation, the great privileges that God has given us. And we do, we have great privileges. We have the opportunity to come here at the Bible, preeked anytime we want to. Nobody's going to stop us at the door, nobody's going to pull us over and arrest us for being here. We have a great privilege to be able to gather in a free assembly like this and worship God. We have a great privilege to have the Bible. And we have the Bible without any fear of it being discovered. There are many places in this world where they hide their Bibles or pieces of Bibles because if it's discovered, their lives could be at stake. We have great privilege to come, open up the Bible, open up our Bible in our home, read it without any fear. We have great privileges. We have the great privilege of hearing the gospel when you turn on the television of the radio and admittedly have to look for it some on the television. But it's there, there are some good TV radio preachers are preaching the gospel. We have the opportunity to do that without any hindrance in this country. We have great privileges. We have great privileges to have gospel literature to be able to buy practically anything we want gospel literature wise. And maybe your privileges go even more personal than that. Maybe your parents were strong believers. They were Christians. They knew Christ. Maybe you've been in a good church since you were wearing diapers. What tremendous privileges we have. But none of those privileges will get you to heaven. You can have all those privileges and be blind. And not even realize it. You can have all those privileges. You can have 10 Bibles at home. Your parents may have been the finest Christians who ever walked the face of the earth. You may be a member of this church. I've been coming here since you were a baby and be lost and on your way to hell. Because privileges can't get you to heaven. If you personally have never recognized your need as a sinner and trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior, you're not one of God's children and you're not going to heaven. I don't know how to put it anymore simply than that. All of the privileges we have in this country do not save us. But listen, they do provide greater responsibility and accountability to God. Because we have such great privilege, we will answer for so much more than someone else in this world who's not had this kind of privilege that we've had to have so much light, so much opportunity to hear the gospel. Jesus described it this way in Luke 12 and these verses are on the screen for you. Follow this closely. Look at what Jesus is saying. That servant who knows his master's will and does not get ready or does not do what his master wants will be beaten with many blows. But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. Now here's the illustration from very common practice of the day and the culture of the day, a servant who knows what he's supposed to do but doesn't do it has much more responsibility and accountability than one who didn't know. And so now Jesus applies that to people who've heard the gospel and he says from everyone who has been given much and he's talking about the nation of Israel there in Luke 12. He's talking about the nation of Israel and all the opportunity they had the Messiah's right there with them. The gospel's being preached, the kingdom is at hand, are you going to receive it or reject it? He says from everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded. From the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked and the same principle is true today. You sit in an auditorium like this week after week after week, hear the gospel preached, have the opportunity to hear the Bible. You may live with people who know Christ the Savior, you have much light, you have much, much that you are responsible for. And much more will be demanded of you when you stand before God. That's why it is so dangerous for anyone who hears the gospel to reject Christ and walk out once again an unbeliever. Because much more will be demanded of those who have had much more opportunity. Your privileges cannot save you and get you to heaven but they will make you very accountable to God. And that's exactly what Paul is saying. These people are blinded in spite of great privileges. But he goes on to say they also had a great past but they were blind. Not only do they have great privileges, they had a great past but they are still blind. Look at how he describes their past, talking about their ancestry, where they came from for six. It is not as though God's Word has failed. By the way, that's the answer to the question that inevitably is raised by Jews. What about God's promises? Is there where they failed? No, they haven't. Bear with Paul and by the time you get to chapter 11 you will see how they will be fulfilled yet. But he's going to make the point right now. God's promises have not failed to these people Israel. Now notice what he says next in verse 6. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham's children. You say that sounds like double speak to me. What is that about? What Paul is saying is there are two kinds of Jews, two kinds of Israelites, those that are bloodline descendants of Abraham, and those who are spiritual descendants of Abraham. In other words, Jews who are only national ethnic Jews, and Jews who have come to understand their need of Christ, and trusted Christ as their Messiah, Savior, and now are in the family of God, spiritual Jews. Paul will make it clear in Galatians chapter 3. Just look at this one verse where he makes it crystal clear. Understand then he says that those who believe are children of Abraham. The real children of Abraham are not bloodline descendants of Abraham. They are believers who know Jesus as their Savior. So in chapter 9 Romans he's talking about two different kinds of Jews, national Jews, spiritual Jews, those who have trusted Christ as Savior. And basically what he's saying is it's not enough to have the bloodline. National descendancy is not enough. You must also know Jesus as your Savior. I mean remember when Jesus said to religious leaders in John chapter 8, they said, wait a second, we have Abraham as our Father. And what they were talking about were physical descendants of Abraham. That makes us okay, right? We're the people of God. We're Jews. And Jesus looked at them and said in John 844, you are of your Father the devil. He says of these very stones, I'm able to raise up children of Abraham. Being a physical descendant of Abraham is not enough to get you into God's family. It's not enough to get you to heaven. You must know Jesus as your Savior. You must trust Him as your Savior. And that's what Paul's talking about here. He's drawing a distinction between physical descendants, national Jews, and those who recognize their need of Christ, who have become God's children, those are really the real descendants of Abraham. So religious Jews, not religious Jews, but saved Jews. Jews who know Christ as Savior are a part of the people of God, a part of the family of God. And they're on their way to heaven and thus they are the real children of Abraham. That's what he's saying here, two kinds of Jews. It's not enough. It's not enough to have a great past, have the right lineage, have great parents. It's not enough for you today to have great parents who are Christians. You will not get to heaven because of your parents. God has no grandchildren. He only has children. People who've made a personal commitment to Him in faith through Christ. It's not enough to be born into a Christian family. So these people have a great past. And Paul says, okay, I'll illustrate this for you. I'll illustrate it a couple ways. Let's take first of all Abraham's children. And we'll show you that even in Abraham's own family, not all of his physical descendants were spiritual descendants, or the ones whom God chose to bless. Verse 7, the middle. He says, on the contrary, it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned. That's a quote from Genesis 21. Through Isaac, Abraham, that your offspring will be reckoned. In other words, he's the child of God's blessing. The one through whom the Messiah will come. Verse 8. In other words, it is not the natural children who are God's children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham's offspring. For this was how the promise was stated at the appointed time while we return and Sarah will have a son. Here's what Paul's saying. Abraham had several sons. He had Isaac. He had Ishmael. But then after Sarah died, he got married again to a one by name of Couture and had six more sons. So he had at least eight sons in all. There's only one that God chose through whom the promise would come and that was Isaac. He's going to get into this later. That's up to God. But what he's saying is just because your child of Abraham doesn't mean you're the child of the promise. Doesn't mean you're being blessed by God. He says, well, let's go on to give another example. Because some might say, well, I understand the deal with Ishmael and those other six sons. They have different mothers. They weren't really the same family group. So he says, okay, let's look at generation four. Let's look at J.P. and Rebecca. We're saying, not only that, but Rebecca's children had one and the same father. Our father Isaac, Isaac and Rebecca, I always get those confused. Isaac and Rebecca had two children, verse 11, yet before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad, please get this. What he's going to introduce here is what he's going to develop the rest of chapter 9. This is, as he says in verse 11, in order that God's purpose and election might stand, not by works, but by him who calls. In other words, God's choice is not based on what these two sons would do later. It was simply based on God's choice. That's it. That's what he says. So that God's purpose and election would stand, it's not of the one who works. It's the one who calls. So God chooses, I don't understand all of that. I can't explain all that rationally logically. If I try to do that, I'm forced in one of two directions, neither which is biblical. But I don't have to explain it rationally or logically. The Bible just says it was God's choice. And so he even quotes from Malachi, verse 12, not by works, but by him who calls. He was told the older were served the younger. By the way, that doesn't make sense. That goes against human fairness. It was not the older son, the one that culture expected would be the one to be blessed and receive the birthright and the inheritance, double inheritance. It was the younger one. So God's choice is not to us to figure out and rationalize and clarify and make sense of God chose. And that was it. So in verse 13, he quotes from Malachi just as it is written, Jacob, I love, but he saw I hated. And there he's talking in Malachi about the two nations, Israel and Eta, Eta. And those two nations, one was chosen, one was rejected, one was not chosen. But in the context, he's talking about personal choice, choice of individuals. Jacob, a re-saw. God chose Jacob. He did not choose Esau. Esau, have I hated? That sounds pretty strong, but it's not talking about feelings of ill will toward in the Jewish context. In the Old Testament context, he's talking about one is chosen, the other's not. That's God's doings. Not for me to explain or rationalize away. God said he chose Jacob. But really, the point here is that although they had a great past and they were connected to Abraham as his physical children, and although Esau was connected to Isaac as his physical child, that's not the point. That's not enough. You have to be connected through God's work of salvation. And Paul's point is that Israel has a great past, but they do not know Christ. And so you, you sitting here today, you might have a great past. Your parents may have been founding members of this church or another good Bible-believing church. You may have been in church with your parents since you were a baby. You may have had a great past. Your family may be saved, but you are not a Christian. You're not a believer because of your family. You're not a Christian because you live in the United States of America. You know, we can argue all day about this whether it was a Christian nation. That's not the point. You will never get to heaven because you're in America. You will never be a Christian because you live in this nation. You will never become a Christian because you have a high position in this church or any other Bible-believing church or any church. You will never get to heaven because you're a preacher. Do you know that? I remember early in my ministry someone doing door-door visitation that came to my door at night and they knocked on my door. And by the minute they began talking, they asked if I was saved. And I said, oh, I am the pastor of the church right over here. And he said, it's not what I asked you. And I said, oh, okay, yeah, you got in Pushe. You're right. Nobody is saved because they're a pastor. I just thought, no, that'll help him see. You didn't need to witness to me and go on down the road. And he said, I want to know whether or not you've trusted Christ. I don't care if you're a preacher and you know he's right. You can be a preacher. That didn't get you to heaven. The only thing that will get you into the God's family and into heaven will be Jesus Christ, his death on the cross. And by faith, you trusting what he did for you on the cross to save you. It's not your past. It's faith in Christ. So here's a nation, Paul says, that great privileges, but they're blind. They had a great past, but they're blind. They don't see that they need Christ. And there could be someone here today. Great privileges, great past, but you're still blind. You're still blind. You've never seen that you need Jesus as your savior. And you've never trusted him as your savior. You're still blind, my friend. And my prayer for you is that the Spirit of God will open up your heart and your eyes to see that you need Christ, that you need him, not your past, not your privileges, not all your good things and your good life and your good works. You need Christ. He's the one that paid for your sin. You can't do that. So I ask you, are you blinded? Are you blinded in spite of great privileges and spite of a great past maybe? Are you blinded to the gospel? Or if you have trusted Christ as your savior, you know Jesus today. Are you really burdened? Do we just talk about compassion for the lost or do we even know what it means to share the heart of Paul and the heart of Christ for those that are without him? Let's pray together. Father, I pray for anyone who may be here today who are blinded, who do not know Jesus. Lord help them to realize that in spite of a great privilege they've been given to have all these wonderful things and despite maybe a great past or a good moral lifestyle. Oh God help them to see that without Christ they're still blind. They still need spiritual sight. They still need Jesus. They still need to be forgiven of their sins. Not pray that you would bring them to yourself this morning. They would trust the Lord Jesus the Savior. And Lord I pray for those of us who do know Christ may we never be satisfied that we're in the lifeboat and grow deaf to the cries of people around us. Oh God help us to become more like the Savior so that we will share better his heart for the lost. We ask in Jesus name Amen.