8 Privileges God Gave Only to Israel — Romans 9:4 Explained

Hello and welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick. An Oklahoma rancher and farmer, Les Feldick has been teaching homestyle Bible classes for 20 years in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas. Les Feldick's unique style of Bible teaching has made the books of the Bible come to life. When Les is teaching, it's so interesting that people say time just seems to fly by. And now, here is Les Feldick. Okay, good to see everybody in for another afternoon. And we always like to let our television audience understand that we tape four of these programs right in succession. And it just sort of takes a whole afternoon to do it. And a lot of times, even people from Tulsa call, and they're just not aware that we tape here in Tulsa on a Wednesday afternoon from 1 until about 4. Also, we have a Wednesday night class out here at Union Intermediate High School. A gentleman called again just yesterday, wasn't aware of that. And for those of you in Eastern Oklahoma, we've got classes five nights a week. So you check in with us and we'll find out where we are and when. We'd love to have you. For those of you out across the nation, of course, you have to rely on your television. And we have tapes and the booklets of all our past programs. And we just appreciate your calling and letting us help you use these materials for your home Bible study or in group studies or whatever. We're not associated with any particular denomination. I've always tried to hold the form that I'm not going to criticize and attack anybody. I'm not going to lift up one denomination over another. We're just simply going to teach the book, and then we'll have to let the chips fall where they may. And of course my number one criteria always is, what does the book say, but also be aware of what does it not say. And I think this is just as important as the first, because we've got a lot of preconceived ideas of what the book says. And then when you really look at it, it's not in there. In fact we were talking in our class last night, where one of the couples had been witnessing to a lady. And she said, Well I thought it said this. Well no it doesn't say that. And so this is what we have to constantly be aware of. That there are a lot of ideas that are not according to Scripture. So anyway, we're glad you're here, and we're glad that you out there in television are joining us. And we're going to go right back and pick up where we left off in our last program, which was in chapter 9 of Romans. We introduced the chapter with the first three verses, and so we're now ready to come into verse 4. Now as I teach Scripture, I always like to point out whenever possible how intricately this whole book was put together. Man could have never dreamed it up. And here is another one of those little instances where Paul now unloads on us with 8 distinctive statements. Now when you put that into the numerology of Scripture, remember 7 is always God's number of completion. And then when you follow that with an 8th of whatever it is, that's always new beginnings or something that goes beyond the finish. Now I know that when the Apostle Paul was penning the book of Romans, and he came here to verse 4, he didn't sit there and meditate for hours on end. Well now how can I find 7 things, and then come up with an 8th? No, he didn't do that. So what does he do? He just penned as the Holy Spirit was giving him utterance, and now we can look at it and say, isn't it miraculous? Here he comes up with another one of those situations that has been with us all the way through Scripture. 7 things, but also an 8th one. Now you remember when we were back in the book of John, I said there were 8 signs in John's Gospel, and all 8 signs were miracles. Well 7 of those miracles or signs took place before his death, burial and resurrection, which completed all that had to be done. But then in the last chapter of the book of John, we come up with the 8th sign and miracle, and it was that sign of new beginnings. And so you see this all through Scripture. Let's look at the first 7, and then we'll take another look at the 8th one. I'm hoping I can do this in this half hour, but if not we'll just have to go on into the next one. Verse 4 of Romans 9, speaking of his kinsmen according to the flesh, in verse 3. Who are the Israelites? To whom pertaineth the adoption? Now I think I'll just numerize these, and then we'll come back and look at them. Number 1, the adoption, the glory, number 2, the covenants, number 3, the giving of the law, number 4, the service or the operation of the tabernacle and the temple, was number 5, and then the promises is number 6, and then whose are, no I'm sorry I lost one in there, and promises would be number 6, whose are the fathers is, no, yeah, number 7, and then of whom concerning the flesh Christ came, what's that? That's the 8th. Alright, now let's go back and take them one at a time. Who are Israelites? To whom pertaineth the adoption? Now if you remember from our studies in chapter 8, the word adoption from the Greek meant to be placed as a full sun, in other words it's a positional word. It's not a legal term so much as it is positional. The nation of Israel has been positioned as a unique set aside nation of people. No one can infringe on that. No one can invade that position that only the nation of Israel of all the people of the world enjoy. Let's go back and just check a couple of verses in the Old Testament, go back to Deuteronomy. Exodus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. Chapter 7, and again just for a mental crutch, people wonder how do you remember all this? Well you've got to use crutches. I'm just as normal as everybody else. Now as I was getting this ready, I realized that the first verse in this line of thought would be verse 6. But now it would be a lot harder to remember Deuteronomy 7.6 as it is to remember Deuteronomy 7.7. And so this is the way you do things. You just lock this in, Deuteronomy 7.7, but when you get there you'll see no 7 isn't the verse I want, it's 6. You with me? Alright, so we'll go up to verse 6. For thou art a holy people, unto the Lord thy God, the Lord thy God hath chosen thee, now again we always have to stop, to whom is Moses writing? Well to the Jew, to the nation of Israel. So these and the vows are to the Jew. Alright, so the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth. Plain language? Hey, I don't see how you can make it any plainer. When people say, well what do you mean that Israel is their chosen people? What do you mean that they're a special people? Right here, that God has chosen that little nation of people to be the top of the heap. They're king of the hill in all of God's dealing with the human race. Alright, now then come in to verse 7. The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you because you were more in number than any people, for you were the fewest of all. Now you see, we're living in a time where bigger is better. Unless corporations can just gobble up all their other competition, you know, they're just not really much on the stock market. But you see, God doesn't work like man works. God didn't choose the biggest nation on earth. God didn't choose the nation with the highest number of people. He did the opposite. He chose the smallest group, starting with one man, and began those problems. Now we'll be looking at that a little later in this verse because the covenants, you see, are one of those seven items that Paul has. But for now, we just want to look at their position as being the favored covenant nation of God. Alright, now then let's go from Deuteronomy to Isaiah 66. Isaiah, that's the last chapter in the book of Isaiah. Chapter 66, and then you'll come down to... Oh, I always have to think here, man. I don't want to use too many, take up too much time. But verse 22. I was going to first start way down at 19. We'll skip a little and save some time. Verse 22 of Isaiah 66. Y'all with me? Isaiah 66, verse 22. For as the new heavens and the new earth which I will make, Now if you're a Bible student, where does your mind immediately jump? Revelation 21 and 22. Even though this is all going to be destroyed, yet I will create new heavens and a new earth for all eternity. Now Isaiah is referring to the same event. For as the new heavens and the new earth which I will make shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain. Is Israel ever going to pass off the scene? Never. Even after we've gone through the millennial reign, and even after we've gone through the total destruction, I think of this whole universe, not just the planet. And there's going to come a whole new creation of a new heavens and new earth. Who is still going to be the apple of God's eye? Israel. Even in the eternal state, Israel is still going to have that unique position. Now don't let that discourage you, because what have I often said? You and I as members of the body of Christ are even in a better position than Israel. Israel is not in the best position. We are. But the reason we have to constantly refer to Israel's position, is because the world in general, under all the satanic pressures, is trying to put Israel out of the picture. And it's not going to happen. They can ignore the covenant promises, they can ignore Israel, but God will never lose sight of His covenant people. Now let's go back to Romans, and go into the next part of that verse 4. And that is part of their heritage, part of their uniqueness, was the glory. Now I'm not going to take you all the way back to the Old Testament to look at that, but you see I think we looked at the verse in the last program, if I'm not mistaken. Back in Deuteronomy, when Deuteronomy reminded the nation of Israel, had there ever been another nation of people that experienced the mountain on fire like Israel was with Mount Sinai? No. And then Moses went on. Was there ever a people that experienced God coming down on the mountain with thunder and fire, and of course His glory? No other people on earth had ever experienced it, and lived. But Israel did. Then you leap the centuries, and you come on up to Solomon building the temple. And again we won't look it up, but you all know the account. When Solomon had finished the temple, and they were ready to dedicate it, and the children of Israel of course were gathered around on the outside. What happened inside? The glory of God came in, and filled that temple. And it was so filled with God's Shekinah glory, that the priests didn't even dare intrude. Has that ever happened to anybody else? I dare say you could visit every pagan temple that has ever existed. You would never find any evidence of that kind of an invading glory. But Israel did. Isn't that something? Israel did. Alright, that's enough on the word glory I think. And now here comes one I always have to spend some time on, because any of you who have heard me teach very long know that this is a word that I'll just bring up, and bring up, and bring up. And what is it? The covenants. The covenants. Now remember, you and I as church age believers are not under any kind of a covenant. Now I know you've heard of covenant theology and so forth, but we are not under any covenant. But let me qualify right away and clarify. All the things that God did on behalf of Israel with regard to the covenants, we are now experiencing that which, what shall I say, run over from it, or falls over the edges, or whatever. And so yes, we are experiencing the great salvation of God and all that, because of what God has done in fulfilling the covenants of Israel. But as the covenants themselves are concerned, we have nothing to do. I guess I'll run across the verse after we go back and start looking at it. Let's go all the way back, again to Genesis, because see this is where everything ties together. That even as Paul writes these three chapters, 9, 10, and 11, with a special regard to the nation of Israel, we have to tie it all to the Old Testament account. Back to Genesis, oh let me see, I think I want to go back, I don't want to jump ahead and cover something that I've saved for another one of these words. Let's go back to Genesis chapter 12, briefly, most of you know it almost by memory, the Abrahamic covenant. Now this is when God first spoke to Abram when he was still down in Ur of the Chaldees, and made him one command. Leave Ur and your family, and go to a land that I will show you. By faith Abraham went. And that's the beginning then of God's dealing with that man out of whom would come the nation of Israel. Now you know it's amazing, and I never do this in ridicule, because I understand exactly how these things can happen. I had a gentleman come up to me last night who's been in my class at least for 6 or 7 years. He came to know the Lord about 3 or 4 years ago, and has just become a good student of the Scriptures. So he had a conversation with one of his neighbors yesterday morning, and out of that conversation something came up that he couldn't find the answer to. So he told the fellow, and he said, Well give me until tomorrow, because I've got to go home and find the answer in my Bible. Well while he was looking for the answer to whatever the question was, he suddenly, and this is hard to believe, he suddenly for the first time understood, and saw from his own Bible, that the nation of Israel had come from the same 12 sons that had sold Joseph down into Egypt. And I said, well now don't feel bad, I had a fellow approach me 10 or 12 years ago, who had been a Sunday school teacher for 20 some years, and he hadn't even found the answer yet, and he asked me, Where did the nation of Israel come from other than Abraham? Well now we're almost shocked, but you see people have not been taught these basic fundamentals that after Abraham received this covenant promise, that out of him would come a nation of people, the next person in response to that covenant promise was Isaac, the next one in response to that covenant was Jacob, and then out of Jacob came the 12 sons, one of whom of course was Joseph, and out of those 12 sons, who because of Joseph ended up down in Egypt, because of the grain, and while those 12 sons and their families were in Egypt, what happened? They exploded in population, and those 12 sons became then the 12 tribes of Israel, that Moses led out, took through the wilderness experience, and then Joshua led in the land. There's the nation of Israel. Now I know most people must understand that, but you've got that percentage who have never realized how did the nation of Israel ever come about. Well that's exactly how it came about, but it began back here in Genesis 12. Now let's look at it again for a moment, and we want to get this on the screen if at all possible. Genesis 12, beginning at verse 1. Now the Lord had said, back in chapter 11, the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, now there's a reason for that, Abram's family were idolaters. They were idol worshipers. They were pagans. They had no knowledge of the one true God. And so out of this whole then known world, saturated with pagan worship, God puts the finger on one man, appears to him, the Scripture in the Old Testament, as well as the New, make so plain, spoke to him, I think, face to face, and gave him these instructions. Leave your idolatrous family, make the break from paganism, and go to a land that I will show you. Now we know that Abram was not totally obedient. And I don't put the blame on Abram, I put the blame on his father. Because I'm sure that when Abram the son went in to tell his father that he was leaving, and he didn't know where, why the nomadic makeup of the people in that part of the world at that time, the old father said what? Well, we'll just go with you. Well, you know, Abram couldn't tie him down and lock the door on him, so he went. But God stops him halfway between Ur and Canaan until Oterah died. Because he could not keep that family tie with a pagan, while God is now going to deal with this man on covenant promises, bringing about the nation of Israel, out of which, of course, would come this Book, our whole spiritual realm of salvation, and everything else. It all began intrinsically with the nation of Israel. Alright, reading on. Verse 2. And I will make of thee a great nation. Now this is God speaking to the man Abram. I will make of thee a great nation. Now the first thing we think of is some nation like America of 300 million people. Now that's not what God calls great. They never have, as near as I can see from history, ever gone over 15 million people. That's not even as many people as some of the cities of the world. So you see, when God says great, He was not speaking in terms of numbers and military power and so forth. But the little nation of Israel has been great in so many other ways, and they still are, and they will be. In fact, I made mention at some point in time when their Prime Minister was assassinated here some time ago. What other little nation on earth of less than 5 million people within their borders, what other little nation on earth could have commanded all the big wheels of all the superpowers to come to their leader's funeral? Nobody but Israel. Why? Because they are the very center of all of God's dealing with the human race. All right, read on again. I will bless thee. I'll make thy name great. Thou shalt be a blessing. I will bless them that bless thee, curse them that curseth thee, and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. In other words, through this one man would come God's flow of all spiritual blessing. Now that's hard for us to comprehend, but it is. It's with this one man, and that's why I make such an emphasis of the Abrahamic covenant. That through this man and the covenant that God made with him comes the Messiah, the Redeemer of all mankind. And we'll see in one of the other portions of verse 4 that this is why Satan has come constantly to attack the little nation of Israel. He has to do anything in his power to somehow thwart God's plan for the ages, and he has to start with the nation of Israel. All right, just turn the page a little bit to chapter 15, and follow these covenants. And I thought I'd finish verse 4. I'm going to finish two words. Well, we'll just go into the next program with it, that's all. Now chapter 15, verse 2. Now Abraham understood. He wasn't ignorant, and of course he's already probably 50 years of age when God speaks to him in Ur. And here he's talking about a nation of people coming from his loins. Well, how can a nation of people come when he hasn't even got the first son? And so here's his argument. Verse 2 of Genesis 15. And Abraham said, What wilt thou give me with regard to these covenant promises, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus? Well, he certainly had no gene connection with Abraham. He was a hired servant. Verse 3. And Abraham said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed. Now remember that word seed, because we're going to be looking at it in a later part of this verse. Thou hast given me no seed, no child. And lo, one born in my house is my heir. That was Lot, and of course Lot would have never filled the criteria. And lo, behold, the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir, but he that cometh forth out of thine own bowels, or being, we'd say today, shall be thine heir. What's God saying? You're going to have a son of your own from your own wife. That's the way it's going to be. Now verse 5. And so he brought him out into the open nighttime sky, and he showed him the sky, and he said, Now look toward heaven, and tell, or count the stars, if thou be able to number them. So shall thy seed be. Now remember this is a twofold promise. We covered this when we were teaching Genesis. That's where Paul gets in Galatians that we are of the seed of Abraham. Even you and I as Gentiles. Not that we become Jewish blood, but by virtue of the spiritual promises to this man Abraham, you and I now enjoy and experience these grace age promises. Alright, but now let's not stop there. We'll have to go back I guess a page or two, and find the dust. Yeah, here it is. Back in chapter 13. Just about lost it. Genesis 13. Genesis 13 and drop down to verse 16. Genesis 13, verse 16. And again, verse 14. The Lord said unto Abraham, and so on and so forth. Verse 15. All the land which thou seest, to thee I will give it, to thy seed forever. And then verse 16. And I will make thy seed, or your offspring, as the dust of the earth. Now you've got two completely different realms, haven't you? You've got the stars which are heavenly, you have the dust which is earthly. Now those of you who have heard me teach now over the years, and especially when we were back in Genesis, always remember that God has divided everything in Scripture between these two areas. The nation of Israel, which is earthly, and all their promises are earthly. And the body of Christ, the New Testament Grace Age Church, which is heavenly. You and I are citizens of heaven, all of our promises are heavenly. The nation of Israel is earthly, all her promises were earthly. And here you have it in these two verses. Count the dust of the earth, so shall thy seed be. Count the stars in heaven, so shall thy seed be. Alright, now I've got a minute or two left. Let's go quickly to Genesis 17, and we see another addition to this Abrahamic covenant. The parts are added as we go along. And now we see where this covenant is going to continue. And this also becomes intrinsic to another verse a little later in Romans 9. Genesis 17, verse 15. And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah. I will bless her, give thee a son of her. Verse 17. Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him who is a hundred years old, and shall Sarah who is ninety bear? And then of course in verse 18, Abraham was very natural. He said, Why can't you use Ishmael? I have him. Now verse 19. In the few seconds we have left. And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed, and thou shalt call his name Isaac. And I will establish my covenant, not with Ishmael, but with whom? With Isaac. But he's not casting off the people of Ishmael as nothing. And he comes on, and what does he say? Verse 20. As for Ishmael, I have heard thee. Behold, I have blessed him. And then verse 21. But my covenant I will establish with Isaac. And never lose sight of that. Thank you for watching Through the Bible with Les Feldick. A weekly Bible study. If you would like more information about the Les Feldick Ministries, a Bible study in your area, or about this program, write to Les Feldick Ministries, Route 1, Box 760, Kinta, Oklahoma, 74552. That's Route 1, Box 760, Kinta, Oklahoma, 74552. Through the Bible with Les Feldick is viewer supported, and your gift is appreciated. Thank you, and be sure to tune in next time for Through the Bible with Les Feldick.