The Rich Root of the Abrahamic Covenant

Transcript

The Rich Root of the Abrahamic Covenant
9/20/2020
GR 2249
Romans 11:17-18; Genesis 12:1-3
Gil Rugh

We’re going to Romans 11 in your bibles. We’re in the midst of a very interesting and relevant section. I’ll maybe say something about that in our ‘after session’ here. These issues of Israel and the Church and the relation of Israel to the Church is an ongoing issue, even among Bible believing Christians. The foundational issue is do you take unfulfilled prophecy literally, as you do the rest of the Bible. Just a reminder that’s the foundational issue. Are you going to interpret the Bible literally and you the principles of literalness as we’ve talked about it, as we do the rest of Scripture? The passages on salvation, the passages on Christian conduct, passages on prophecies that have already been fulfilled. How were they fulfilled? Literally, as you would normally take them. But when we get to future prophecy people think they have liberties, so they don’t take those literally. That becomes the major issue. I’ll give an example of that, like I say, after our regular study in some comments this evening.

This is an example of what is going on and it all comes back to does Israel have a future or not? Is Israel’s future exactly as God has laid it out in His word or is it not? Have there been changes in God’s plan for Israel that would mean certain prophecies in the Old Testament are no longer to be taken literally? Did the coming of Christ change the way we interpret Old Testament prophecies? Those kinds of things.
Well, in Romans 9, 10, and 11 Paul is dealing with the issue of the Jews. What is their position today? What is their future? Has the Church replaced Israel? Has Israel’s rejection of their Messiah and crucifixion of Him resulted in the judgment of God closing down finally and forever His dealing with the nation of Israel? Paul has worked us through in chapters 9, 10, and 11 in greatest detail showing what? As we came into chapter 11, “I say then, God has not rejected His people, has He? May it never be!” That’s not a possibility. He has not rejected His people and He is talking about His people Israel as the next statement goes on. “For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected His people…” the Jews “…whom He foreknew.” Whom He sovereignly chose to be His people and foretold their destiny that they would forever be His special nation with special promises.

Down in verse 11, “I say then, they did not stumble…” referring to Israel “…so as to fall, did they?” In other words, there is no doubt Israel stumbled. They fell. It was a serious fall, but they didn’t stumble so as to fall; in other words, be down and out. No! It was a stumble, not a fall in that sense, because if I could say it that way, they’ll catch their balance again. They’ll come back into favor again. And again, you have that statement in verse 11 in answer to that question. “May it never be!” King James says, “God forbid!” The word God is not used in the original Greek there, it’s “me genoito”, let it not be, it can never be, impossible! So that’s the point he is explaining.

Well, if God is not done with Israel how does that fit with what He is doing with the Gentiles? Obviously, the focal point of His work today is with the Gentiles. Paul, who is writing this, said he is the apostle to the Gentiles. That is obviously different than it was in the Old Testament. You understand when God chose Israel, we have prophets and so on, but you don’t have missionaries sent out to the other lands. We may think of Jonah going to Nineveh, but there are special issues there related to the nation of Israel and Jonah recognizes that, and why he is so unhappy there is a response positively to his message of coming judgments to the Ninevites. Because he saw that Assyria was on the horizon as a nation that would bring judgment to the nation Israel. So, he wanted God to intervene and destroy the Assyrians.

But you don’t have a missionary program. Now Christ has come, the Church has been established, and the prime emphasis is on Gentile evangelism, but there’s Jewish evangelism going on. Paul says I’m an example that God is still saving Jews. He has not totally cut them off, but Israel has been set, if you will, on a sidetrack. The nation Israel is no longer the focus of God’s program and work of salvation in the world. Jews will be saved. But that’s different than the Old Testament where the focus of God’s work in the world was in Israel. Other nations that were going to find out about God needed to find out about God through Jews, God’s work in Israel. In fact, even when Naaman the Syrian came and was healed by the prophet what did he do? He took some ground back with him from Israel. I mean this is the focal point in the place of God’s dealing, so we want to be clear. What is happening in Romans 9, 10, and 11 is God’s explaining. That’s why they’re such important chapters for sorting this out. He is now dealing with the Gentiles. That has always been consistent with what He revealed. The prior revelation, it was there, but it took further revelation to unfold and clarify how that plan would carry out. Gentiles have always been included in God’s plan. We’ll go back to the Abrahamic Covenant in a moment. They’re included there but how they would be included and the major part they would play for what we call the “church age,” it takes the New Testament to unfold that.

What he’s doing here, we Gentiles who occupy the place of prominence, or if you will, dominance, the Church in the world is primarily Gentile. God’s work in the world is through the Church. Jews that are saved become part of the Church. They don’t lose their identity as Jews, but God is not dealing nationally and focusing His work of salvation nationally in Israel. The Gentiles ought to be filled with gratitude that this is God’s plan. That He would save Gentiles because of the sin of Israel and God’s judgment on them. And a reminder that sin never frustrates God’s plan. There’s never any excuse for sin. Israel is bearing the consequence of their judgment, but that is perfectly in line with God’s plan. It did not frustrate God’s plan. He would bring judgment on Israel. Their unbelief, repeated unbelief, reached a point with the rejection of their Messiah, and now they are under judgment. In that sense there is no going back now. God’s judgment is continued for two thousand years. The nation Israel is still special because we understand its place in the program of God, but it does not occupy that place of privilege and honor and focal point for salvation as it did.

So, we Gentiles can give thanks to God for His grace in even using such terrible sin of the nation Israel to open the door of salvation to us. And as Paul has been explaining in the first sixteen verses of this chapter, we also ought to be filled with anticipation. Because you know what? If Israel’s sin resulted in such blessings just think of the blessings and the fullness of the blessings there will be when Israel is restored to the place God has promised that they will have. So that’s what he said in verse 11, that “…they did not stumble so as to fall, did they? May it never be! But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles...” Thank You, God, that Israel stumbled! Thank You in Your plan that their stumble would open a door for me as a Gentile to come to salvation in Christ.

You could have come to Israel and heard the prophet and heard the message and converted to Judaism and the God of Israel, but that wasn’t happening very much. But now, wow! And their stumble was part of God’s plan in ultimately bringing them back. In other words, catching them before the fall is final, if you will, “…to make them jealous.” So now God is going to use His saving of Gentiles and the ultimate end of that will be, and it will take the great tribulation, Revelation 6 to 19, to bring this about. Israel’s going to open their eyes and say, how stupid and foolish we are. Gentiles are getting saved in numbers and we’re lost, and the Savior is our Messiah and at the end of that seven years they turn. So, it’s to make the Jews jealous.

Let’s pick that up in verse 12, “Now if their transgression is riches for the world and their failure is riches for the Gentiles…” That’s what he’s saying, the days of Gentile salvation. We’ll get to that as we get further into this chapter. “…how much more will their fulfillment be!” If God could use the sin of the nation that He chose and loves and could use their sin to open a door of salvation for the Gentiles, just think of how magnificent it’s going to be when Israel gets restored! It’s something all of us Gentiles ought to be anticipating and looking forward to because we’re going to enter into the glory that was promised for the world through the restoration of the nation.


Verse 13, “But I am speaking to you who are Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry…” I exalt it and I want to use it to bring Jews to jealousy in salvation. So, he hasn’t given up on the Jews, we talked about that. We have to recognize this is not a day primarily of the Jewish salvation. It’s a day of Gentile salvation. “…if somehow I might move to jealousy my fellow countrymen and save some of them. For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?” You see the same thing. Paul anticipates the coming of the Lord again, but he realizes that will require, if you will, the turning of Israel to the Messiah. It will take the tribulation. He understands the Church. Paul says that truth has been revealed to him. We realize he didn’t know it would be two thousand years as God’s program with the Gentiles in the Church would still be going on. Remember he writes at the end of Romans, we’ll get there, “…now is our salvation nearer than when we first began.” He lived with that anticipation and it’s like I want to accelerate that, and the more Gentiles that get saved the more jealous the Jews can become, but it takes time.

So, we ought to be anticipating. Won’t it be glorious when Israel is restored? We’ll have the kingdom on earth. We’ll have the Messiah of Israel, our Savior, reigning and we’ll be reigning with Him. Doesn’t get any better than that! So yeah, I’m excited for Israel. Can’t wait until they are restored to the Lord, but future revelation has revealed more details of the process. We have the seventieth week of Daniel. We have the Church removed from the earth but even the Church caught up to meet the Lord in the air isn’t the final step. It’s coming back with Christ to establish a kingdom on the earth. So, all of this, we Gentiles need to have a humility, not looking down on church history, dark times when Christians, Gentiles, looked down on the Jews, though they deserved suffering. They deserved punishment. I’m looking forward to the restoration.

Verse 16, “If the first piece of dough is holy, the lump is also; and if the root is holy, the branches are too.” That’s where we stopped. What does that mean? Well, the beginning. And the beginning tells you something about the end. God’s beginning with Israel tells you something about how it’s going to end with Israel. He chose them. They were holy to Him and that’s His intention for the nation. Just like it is for us as the Church. He won’t go back. He’s promised the Church, believers in Christ, in this period of time that they belong to Him. Persecution, suffering, stumbles will not frustrate God’s plan for us, and we will be raptured into His presence and ultimately join in reigning with Him.

So, with Israel, at the beginning God chose them, that first piece of dough, and that goes back to Numbers. I mentioned that I believe where that first piece of dough offered to the Lord, and the rest was considered holy to the Lord. And the same thing is pictured if the root is holy the branches are, because the branches come out of the root. And God has determined this nation I chose to be holy to Me, will be holy to Me. You can’t frustrate God’s program. That does not in any way mitigate or lessen the seriousness of sin. Look at Israel. Many Jews will not be saved. But God’s program for the nation continues.
That’s what he’s picking up with in verse 17, “But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became a partaker with them of the rich root of the olive tree…” So this first lump of dough, this root is holy, the rich root. I take it he’s taking us back to the Abrahamic Covenant, the beginning of His establishing that. So, I want to go through some of the Abrahamic Covenant just to remind you because that’s basic to hear. We understand and we’ll notice as we work through this section in Romans 11, the distinction between Israel and the Church is maintained throughout. It’s never blended. I won’t take time now but I could read you commentators of writers who as far as I can tell are clear on the Gospel, but somehow believe that the Church in one way or another has replaced Israel, has taken their place.

In one of the major commentaries on Romans, he writes that very thing. I have his comments here. “Paul suggests that the Church, defined as the entire body of believers in Jesus Christ, is simply the name for the people of God in this area of salvation in history as Israel was the name that the people were in the previous age. So perhaps a better word to describe the movement from Old Testament Israel to New Testament Church is the name used in the New Testament sometimes, fulfillment, wherefore we capture the necessary note of continuity. The Church is the continuation of Israel into the new age and discontinuity, the Church, not Israel is now the focus of God.” Well, there’s an element of truth. There is discontinuity. Israel was the focus of God’s plan in the past. Now the Church is the focus of God’s plan. But it has not taken the place of Israel. It’s not the fulfillment of what was promised to Israel! You can’t just wipe out the promises. What if God gave later revelation and wipes out the Church? You can’t handle Scripture that way. There’s more that this man and others have written. I may refer to that later.


Let’s look at the Abrahamic Covenant. Come back to Genesis 12. You’ll have a chart you can look at. What I’m going to do is look at the parts and then I want to look at more of the verses, but at least foundational reference here in Genesis chapter 12. That covenant includes three aspects: land, seed, and blessing. And this is not new to you if you’ve been here for some of our study. What God promises to Abraham beginning in the opening verses of chapter 12. You go to the land I will show you. In verse 2, “And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing; and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.” Three basic parts of the covenant. You’ll get a land. Recent writings of this man and others who say that the land promises are no longer operative. It’s called “the New Creationism” but we’ll talk about that maybe later. Land is promised. He’ll give Abraham the land. We’ll read other passages. Seed, descendants, and blessing that will come through the New Covenant. Future covenants elaborate on each of these areas. The Palestinian Covenant, the Davidic Covenant, the New Covenant. So, these are the covenants of Scripture. They are all founded in the Abrahamic Covenant.


There’s the Noahic Covenant which is a general covenant with mankind after the flood of Noah but that is what we call a governmental covenant. It would be operative, but it has provisions for government. Here is the salvation covenant. Even John Calvin connected with Calvinism and covenant theology in some connections, believed this was the first redemptive covenant. That’s different than the covenants of covenant theology. They create their own covenants, that by their own admission are not covenants mentioned in Scripture. This is what we are building on in Romans 11. It starts in Genesis 12. The Abrahamic Covenant, “the root,” this first part of the lump. This is foundational to what will come. Let me just overview the Abrahamic Covenant, then we’ll come back and look at it in more detail.

These three covenants and we have the passages of scripture, we have done. I can give you the basic passages. The land is in the Land Covenant which is sometimes titled “the Palestinian Covenant” which would be an anachronism, but refers to the land. We call it the Palestinian Covenant here because it’s a general name, but it’s better the Land Covenant. That’s elaborated in Deuteronomy 30 and some other passages as well, but I will just give you one basic. The Davidic Covenant is in 2 Samuel 7, the covenant with David where which the king will rule, the seed that’s promised. The New Covenant which brings salvation, and all of these will reach their fulfillment in the kingdom. So, we have to move along to Israel’s salvation.

In the Abrahamic Covenant there are individual promises just to the man Abraham. So we’ve got those. He’ll be the father of a great nation. He’ll experience God’s blessing. He’ll have a great name. He’ll be a blessing. Obviously, they are personal promises to Abraham. He’ll be the father of a great nation. He’s the founding father. There won’t be a second founding father. Now there’ll be two other men, his descendants, Isaac and Jacob. Isaac, his son, and then Jacob, Isaac’s son who are called the fathers of the nation but these personal promises to Abraham. He’ll personally experience great blessing. He’ll have a great name. Here we are. Abraham is two thousand years before Christ. We’re talking about him two thousand years after Christ. Anybody who’s read much of the Bible knows of Abraham. His name appears on the news because it’s an issue with not only the Jews but the descendants of Ismael and so on so they talk about Abrahamic faith. Abraham, he has a great name. He will be a blessing. Blessings have come down from Abraham.


There are national promises to Israel. They will be a great nation. We have to be careful. I hear people in politics today, there’s no country ever like the United States and the United States will come through this and we’ll be… There’s only one nation that God has chosen for Himself. I appreciate what God has done in His grace with the nation that we are part of, the United States, and it has been greatly blessed. Blessings taken for granted and so on, but Israel is promised to be a great nation. To be an innumerable people and to possess the land permanently, and if I don’t get carried away, I’m going to look at some of those promises. So those are national promises to Israel.


And then there are universal promises. All the nations of the earth will be blessed in Abraham, the Jews and Gentiles. And at the end of verse 3, if you are still in Genesis 12, “…and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.” Now it was not revealed exactly how that would be carried out. In other words, the Church was not revealed in the Old Testament, but Gentile salvation was known in the Old Testament. And prophecies about the kingdom included Gentiles. But you will not learn from the Old Testament that there would come a time when Israel would be put under the judgment of God and God’s work of salvation in the world would focus in the Gentile nations and the Church would be created. Not to replace Israel, but to carry on God’s program of salvation during the time when Israel as a nation is under judgment.

So, it takes further revelation, that’s what we call progressive revelation. It doesn’t change prior revelation. That’s important! That’s where error is made. Well, we won’t take these promises to Israel literally because they’re going to be changed when God establishes the Church. No! He made provision for the establishing of the Church in the Abrahamic Covenant, but He didn’t reveal the fullness of what that would mean. He didn’t say “…in you all the nations of the earth will be blessed” and that includes Jews, but that also includes Gentiles. In fact, there will be a time of two thousand years and however longer until Christ comes for the Church, when I will be dealing primarily and mainly with Gentiles. Well that’s later revelation. Paul in Ephesians 3 says the full revelation of the Church wasn’t given until He gave it to me. So, I won’t expect to find it in the Old Testament. But you can’t change prior revelation.


Those are the basics of the Abrahamic Covenant. Now keep your finger in Genesis 12 and come back to Romans 11 or put a piece of paper there or however you mark. What he’s going to talk about is this connection. Look at verse 17 of Romans 11, “But if some of the branches were broken off…” that’s Israel’s stumble, they are broken off. They are not in that place of favor and the center of God’s work the Abrahamic Covenant provided for the nation, the nation exclusively at that time, so they stumbled. Their branches were broken off. “…and you, being a wild olive…” that’s basically being unproductive. That’s not what you look for in the olives you want. “…were grafted in among them and became partaker with them with of the rich root of the olive tree…” I’m not going to try to go into horticulture because I know absolutely nothing about it. I have read on grafting and that, but the point is we got grafted into that tree. We don’t replace Israel. But now we are partaking of the blessings that come out of that root that began in Abraham with that covenant which included “…in you all nations of the earth will be blessed.”

Now we find out more details how that happened. There’s been a time when God’s going to break off Israel’s position as a nation, not individual Jews. They can still be saved and are being saved, but the nation. That’s been broken off and God’s work in the world now does not center in Israel. Obviously He’s working in Israel because they are part of His future, but He’s working His plan of salvation and those blessings in Gentiles who have been “grafted in.” And so they become partakers with them of the “…rich root of the olive tree.” And that’s where the jealousy would come in. Wait a minute! These basic foundational promises where given to us Jews and these Gentiles are draining them off, so to speak. Blessings are coming to them. It will take the trials of the tribulation to bring them to open their eyes, but that’s what he’s talking about. We are partakers with them of the rich root of the olive tree. So a warning to Gentiles, don’t be arrogant. Remember, you don’t support the root, the root supports you.

One thing that ought not to characterize any believer today is antisemitism. You appreciate the Jews and their unique role. They are under the judgment of God. This is not the day of Israel’s salvation, sadly. This is a day Jews can be saved and we still love them because it’s through the Jews that the ultimate blessing for the world will come. We can’t get the fullness of the blessings that God has promised, even in our salvation, in ruling and reigning with Christ until the Jews as a nation get right with God. So of course, I anticipate that because the final results of my salvation is ruling and reigning with Christ in the kingdom. But that can’t happen until Israel turns to the Lord as a nation and in salvation. So we want to be careful and the warning to Gentiles is, remember the Jews got broken off.

We may see with the Church and its deterioration, it will come to the point of judgment where believers that comprise the true church which becomes a smaller part of the Church in its overall dimensions as we see it happens largely and we talk about the Church and its breadth including Catholic and Protestant and all the other ramifications of what is called the Church. True believers become a small part. Judgment comes on the Church. The true believers are removed. We go into the tribulation. God resumes His program with the seventieth week of Daniel with the nation of Israel. So be aware the motivation for us to be faithful personally and for us as a church to be faithful.


Verse 20 is key. “Quite right, they were broken off for their unbelief, but you stand by your faith. Do not be conceited, but fear...” What happened to Israel? Somewhere along the line they as a nation stopped trusting God and manifesting that trust by living lives of obedience to Him. Where has the church gone? Progressively it seems we depart from the Word. But we are the Church today. That’s true. True believers. But more and more the Church has apostatized. Look at what has happened over the years. The denominations we look at because they are easy to mark out. Evangelical schools, where have they gone? So there we go. I want to pick up more of the Abrahamic Covenant rather than walk through the details here because I think it’s important to see what is included for Abraham in that covenant. Since we’re talking about that and that is the root we are drawing from. I fear that the conceit has overtaken many who are even still part of what we would call evangelicalism. Quite frankly one of the books I read on my vacation was considering a number of those who are under the evangelical umbrella and quite frankly some of them who were included there I have not considered myself. I don’t know that I have ever considered some of those men as evangelical. Yet some of the things they claim to believe, at least allowed the writer of this book, caused him to include them. How wrong can you be in handling scripture? How confused can you be and still be considered a believer?

Israel is a major part of God’s revelation. I mean the whole Old Testament is about Israel. We come through the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and it’s about Israel. Somehow people who claim to believe the Bible think God is done with Israel. I’m not saying none of those people are believers, but you know what that opens the door to? It’s part of what my reading was. Well, now if we’ve replaced Israel and we’re really doing kingdom work, but we believe the kingdom is future. But we are preparing the way for the kingdom, we ought to be doing more social programs. More caring for the creation and all of a sudden one error leads to another, leads to another. Soon we’d be out here where some of those men included under that umbrella and even this writer had to say, I think they’re driven more by their social and creation climate kind of things than they are the Scripture. He still included them under considerations of evangelical.


So, let’s go back and just look at the Abrahamic covenant. If you left that marker in Genesis chapter 12, you can get back there. We read those opening verses in Genesis 12, verses 1, 2, and 3 so we won’t reread those. But come to chapter 13. Because what God does is repeat this covenant and clarify the provisions of it again and again. So in Genesis chapter 13, verse 14, “The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him…” Now I’m not going into the context. You can go back and read this. We’ve done this before but you can do it. I just want to bring in the specifics of the Abrahamic covenant. He says to Abram, “‘Now lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward; for all the land which you see, I will give it to you and to your (seed) descendants forever.’”

It troubles me greatly when I read some of the men that I may mention later, and I may not to get to mention them specifically, who claim to be evangelicals. They write commentaries and say the land promises are no longer applicable for Israel. And I’ll share with you how they explain that away. But what does God say? He’s talking about a physical land. If I take you out, and I own and have authority over a lot of land, and I say you look around in all directions, all the land which you see will be permanently yours. Then a little bit later I say, well, no that was just a metaphor. That was just a spiritual reality. You don’t get it. Wait a minute. You told me all the land I saw. Well with the coming of Christ it was fulfilled. Wait a minute. I didn’t see Him, I saw the land. So it’s a key part. If you didn’t get it, verse 16 repeats, “I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth…” Remember land, seed. So that if anyone can number the dust of the earth, then your descendants can be numbered. And that will include Gentiles because we are a spiritual seed of Abraham, but it cannot replace the physical seed. “Arise, walk about the land through its length and breadth; for I will give it you.” I think that’s pretty clear.


Come over to chapter 15. It starts out, “the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, ‘Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you; your reward shall be very great.’” So blessing to Abraham. Abram as he’s known now. “O Lord God, what will You give me, since I am childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” This prime, key, central slave. Who else would I give it to? God says no. Abraham says, Lord this is Your doing. Note he recognizes God’s sovereignty. Verse 3, “‘…Since You have given no offspring to me, one born in my house is my heir.” God comes and says no. “‘This man will not be your heir; but one who will come forth from your own body, he shall be your heir.’” It’s important, the physical line, someone else can’t take that place. Now it’s possible to enter into some of the blessings, but you cannot replace the physical line. It has to be someone who comes forth from your body will be your heir. “‘…Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them…So shall your descendants will be.’” Here He’s talking about a physical seed because that’s the whole issue. He’s primarily concerned here with the physical seed because Eliezer, your servant, can’t fulfill My promise on this line. It has to be someone who descends from you. Your own son and his son and his sons and sons and sons. Otherwise the promise becomes void in the next generation or a subsequent generation. The whole point here is the physical connection.

Come down to verse 18, “On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram...” He has said that covenant, but here it is formally cut. And you’re familiar, the word for a covenant in the Old Testament, is literally “to cut a covenant” because of what you do here. Verse 17, “…when the sun had set, that it was very dark, and behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a flaming torch which passed between these pieces.” Abram had been given instruction and had divided the specific animals or birds, split them, so they cut them in two and then they put one half on one side and one half on the other. And the parties of the covenant walked between those and that covenant was formally and permanently established, like we do today a little differently. You buy a house or something, you sign a contract and it has to be notarized. There are certain legal things you go through so it’s legally binding. This was a binding.

But Abraham goes to sleep, and God passes through the pieces. “…when the sun had set, that it was very dark…there appeared a smoking oven and a flaming torch which passed between these pieces. On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, ‘To your descendants…note this…I have given this land...’” You want more definition? “‘…from the river of Egypt…Euphrates…’” and so on. So, it is specific, concrete, material land. And God guarantees it. Abraham, Abram as he is known, doesn’t walk through the sacrifices. So all this contract is on Me. You don’t have a part. Now the ultimate fulfillment will depend on the descendants of Abram having the faith of Abram. But the fulfillment of the contract, if all the details here, the land, he doesn’t get it like he was promised. God failed. God lied. You sign a contract, and someone says I fooled you. I didn’t mean it was a literal house you would get. Well, wait a minute. I signed a contract for that house. Well, it was metaphor for something else. Wait a minute. So you can’t deny the contract once it is established.

Hebrews talks about that. Come to Genesis chapter 17. “Now when Abram was ninety-nine years old…” Things are going on but nothing changes the promises of God. God appears, He changes Abram’s name to Abraham in verse 5, and “‘…I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.’” And other nations will come from him, literal, physical nations. And then he’s going to be the father of spiritual nations because we’re descendants of Abraham. Under a provision of the Abrahamic covenant, not replacing Abraham, but in him all the nations of the earth will be blessed. And in Galatians Paul says that was the gospel in prophetic form. Verse 7, “‘I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you. I will give to you and your descendants after you, the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.’”

Down in verse 18, “And Abraham said to God, ‘Oh that Ishmael might live before You!’ But God said, ‘No, but Sarah your wife will bear you a son...’” Alright, He’s going to give blessings to Ishmael to answer Abram’s prayer. But Ismael cannot fulfill the promises because the line of promise has to come through Isaac, and this is what’s going to be stressed in Romans 11. It’s the promise to the fathers, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, then the twelve sons of Jacob, but that’s the line. So, those who claim to be part of the Abram line like the descendants of Ishmael have certain promises and blessings, but they are not in the line. That’s why they try to replace Isaac here, but it has to come through Isaac. He says it’ll take a miracle, I’m ninety-nine! Sarah’s eighty-nine. “‘Oh that Ishmael might live before You!’” verse 18. God says no. Sarah your wife will bear a son. “‘…you shall call his name Isaac; and I will establish My covenant with him…’” That’s important. The covenant line comes through Isaac. “‘…for an everlasting covenant for his descendants (seed) after him. As for Ishmael…I will bless him…’” I’ll give him blessings like you asked Me. I will not make My covenant with Ishmael. Verse 21, “‘But My covenant I will establish with Isaac...’” That’s it!


Come to Genesis 18, verse 17. This isn’t God repeating it, but He’s reminding, and says, “‘Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, since Abraham will surely become a great and mighty nation, and in him all the nations of the earth will be blessed?’” All the nations of the earth will be blessed through Abraham. That gets us to Romans 11, the provision there. It doesn’t replace the nation but in that covenant with Abraham He promised broader blessings than just the Jewish nation. That’s what Romans 11 is about. Paul develops that in Galatians as well. Come over to Genesis chapter 22, verse 17. This is where he offered Isaac and then says in verse 16, “‘…By Myself I have sworn, declares the Lord…’” Now your willingness to offer your only son, the son of promise. How could the Abrahamic Covenant be fulfilled if I offer Isaac as a sacrifice? That’s God’s problem.

Abraham leaves it in God’s hands. I guess He’ll resurrect Isaac. All I have to be concerned about is doing what God tells me. “‘…indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies. In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed…’” So now there’s blessing here for Abraham’s physical seed and for his spiritual seed. “‘…all the nations of the earth shall be blessed through you.” That’s part of the Abrahamic Covenant. I can’t understand why people get to the New Testament and say, now, well the Church has replaced Israel. God never said those nations that are blessed through you and your seed will replace your seed. Their blessings come through the seed. That’s why we’re the “wild olive branch grafted in.” Well, I guess Israel’s done. No, that’s the whole argument of Romans 11. It’s not done!


Now this promise, while we’re here, this covenant promise is reiterated to Isaac. Come over to chapter 26. We’ve done this before, I realize that, more than once but it’s important to Romans 11. Genesis 26, verse 2, “The Lord appeared to him (to Isaac) and said, ‘Do not go down to Egypt; stay in the land of which I shall tell you. Sojourn in this land and I will be with you and bless you for to you and your descendants I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath which I swore to your father Abraham.’” Remember Hebrews makes a point of this. God’s word is enough. But to show how unchangeable this was, God even took an oath that this is what it would be. Remember the book of Hebrews, if you remember studying in that. “‘…and I will establish the oath which I swore to your father Abraham. I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, and will give your descendants (your seed) all these lands; and by your descendants all the nations of the earth shall be blessed...’” We keep repeating that. We now have a further understanding of that, how that would really be realized. God, because of the provision of the Abrahamic Covenant, because Israel stumbled, those branches were broken off, that nation is no longer the focal point of God’s salvation. Wild olive branches, that’s us, non-Jews, we are grafted in to that place of blessing. And the provision of the salvation blessing that comes through the New Covenant makes all the other possible. The death of the Jewish Messiah, the descendant of Abraham possible. So that’s repeated to Isaac and repeated again down in verse 24 and so on.


Come over to chapter 28. We’ll jump to Jacob. Jacob is the son of Isaac and remember Jacob and Esau, [chapter 25]. There are two twins and even one of the twins gets out before the other, but God chooses the second. He doesn’t choose Esau. He chooses Jacob and the line of promise will come through Jacob, not through Esau. So, in Genesis 28, verse 12, Jacob has a dream and this is as you are familiar with it, Jacob’s ladder. “He had a dream, and behold, a ladder was set on the earth with its top reaching to heaven; and behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, ‘I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac…’” Well, He’s the God, in one sense of everyone, but we’re talking about covenant promise here. The God who gave covenant promise to Abraham. The God who gave covenant promise to Isaac. “‘…the land on which you lie, I will give to you and to your descendants. Your descendants will also be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and in you and in your descendants all the families of the earth will be blessed. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I promised to you.’”


Come to chapter 35. This will be all we’ll do on this. Verse 9, “Then God appeared to Jacob again…God said to him, ‘Your name is Jacob; you shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name.’” Now that ought to remind us every time we talk about the nation of Israel. It appears in the news. Oh yes, that’s the name given to Jacob, who was the son of Isaac, who was the son of Abraham. “…Israel shall be your name.’ Thus, He called him Israel. God also said to him, ‘I am God Almighty; be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall come from you, and kings shall come forth from you. The land which I gave to Abraham and Isaac, I will give to you, and I will give the land to your descendants after you.’” The land is key and foundational to the promises given. So, we can’t exclude the land. I keep mentioning that because that’s become a popular thing. That is developed in the land promise and you’ll have that in Deuteronomy 28, 29, and 30 if you want to see it. He’ll elaborate it in a special covenant, but the other provisions. You have the Davidic Covenant with the seed and a king ruling over and then you’ll have the New Covenant and the provision of salvation there.


If you want to come to the New Covenant come over to Galatians. The book of Galatians in the New Testament and then we’re going to stop here. This is foundational as we walk through the rest of Romans chapter 11. We’ll be continually referencing back to the fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob because it’s the covenant originally given to Abraham but continued to Isaac, continuing to Jacob. That’s key to seeing the line has to be the physical descendants for the full realization of all the promises but it made provision. So, us being grafted in, oh that’s a surprise. No, the Abrahamic Covenant you remember said, “…in you all the nations of the earth will be blessed.” He just didn’t reveal until later, particularly through the apostle Paul how that would be accomplished. But in Galatians chapter 3, he’s talking about God’s work and salvation is by grace through faith and without faith there is no salvation. So, verse 6, “Even so Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham. The Scripture, foreseeing (note this) that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, ‘All the nations will be blessed in you.’ So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer.”

So, you know what? We’re “sons of Abraham.” Oh, so we’ve replaced Israel. No! What’s the problem here? You know the problem? We don’t take things literally. Well, some say Christ came and now we can go back and redo the Old Testament. You can’t! God not only promised, He took an oath. On top of His word, He swore. I mean, it is as fixed as it can be. None of the provisions can be altered. Later revelation can add new things, it can clarify. It cannot change. We say here it didn’t change anything. That provision in the Abrahamic Covenant included the Church. We didn’t know it would be the Church, but it included all the nations. What did Jesus say when He was getting ready to depart the earth after His resurrection and time of being with His disciples? “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to all the nations.”

Well, Abraham had prophesied that under the direction of the Spirit of God. The nation Israel wasn’t sent out to evangelize the nations. They were a light to the nations because they were the center of what God was doing in salvation but as my Hebrew professor in seminary said, anybody who finds missionary work in the Old Testament hasn’t read the Old Testament. God gave the Canaanites four hundred years for their sin to ripen. Then He sent Israel in to evangelize them. And what did He tell them? You kill every man, woman, and child. That’s not a very good evangelism program. We rewrite scripture. This is serious business. That’s why I say I don’t know, only God can determine, how much can you misuse and abuse and rewrite Scripture and still be considered an evangelical bible-believing Christian. I don’t have to decide that. God decides. But I can draw a line. And we as a church have to take a stand.


So we’ll leave it there and then we’ll be ready to draw some of this into Romans 11.
Let me give you an example since this is what I was reading. New Creationism. I want to warn you about it because it sounds somewhat biblical. New Creationism. There is a group that call themselves evangelicals that promote what they call New Creationism. And what they believe is that there will be a new creation. The closing chapters of Revelation. And they connect it to the beginning chapters of Genesis. And they are strong in emphasizing that we’ll go back to the original plan of God and He created a perfect world and put Adam and Eve in the garden. Now He’s going to restore that. That will be made new and that. So, we’d say, well yeah, that’s good. But in this, and there’s two groups in it, I’ll tell you. The land promises to Israel are no longer operative. When you think they are making a point on connecting the physical land from the opening chapters of Genesis to the physical land when Christ establishes the kingdom, that we’d say they’re going to take the Bible literally. But they say, but the land promises, here’s the first group. The land promises to Israel were fulfilled in Christ. I say how did they get fulfilled? Now I’m going to tell you what they say and I reread and reread and reread because I’m sure that this makes sense and my mind is foggy. But here’s what they say, “Israel was promised physical land, that’s material. Israel’s also promised spiritual blessings. Jesus Christ had a physical body. That was material. He’s also spiritual. He is God as well as man. Since Christ had a physical body and was material all the land promises given to the nation Israel are fulfilled in Him and in His physical body.” I hope that doesn’t make sense to you because it still doesn’t make sense to me. But I read it, and reread it, I wrote it down. How can you do that with Scripture? You pick out one of the promises that was emphasized again and again and again and they acknowledge, well that’s the not to be taken physically. It’s a metaphor. The land, what? Christ came in His physical body to a land and fulfilled that promise. Why are people always trying to rewrite portions of Scripture that deal with the nation of Israel? Can God be any clearer? Who gives you the right to go into the Abrahamic Covenant and say, well we’ll take this literally, we’ll take this literally, but no Israel doesn’t get the land.


The second group in this New Creationist movement, they say, oh no, it wasn’t fulfilled in Christ. It, the land promise, is expanded in the New Testament. That was Moo’s point. Israel is part of the nations and the nations will inherit the earth, so Israel’s land promise isn’t specific to Israel anymore. It just includes the whole world and all believers will include the whole world. So again, there’s no specific land promised to the nation Israel as a nation any more than other nations will be included in the kingdom and they will inherit the earth, so it all gets blended together. All of this is the way of what? But you know what is consistent with these New Creationists? We ought to be doing more social work because we are preparing for the kingdom. Wait a minute! The Bible says we’re not going to bring in the kingdom, that the kingdom will come with the coming of Christ to earth. This is where they start to do this mixture of believing in certain literal things but other things are not literal. Why should we be doing social work and trying to preserve the climate and climate work? I’ve got a whole thick volume written by this man and his son on social work and climate work. We’re going to try to preserve the climate so Christ will be able to establish the kingdom? The climate’s going to hell.

I mean it’s going to come under the full authority of Satan in a way that’s never been seen, and we’re going to see climate disasters according to the book of Revelation, like never been seen. And you want me to get involved in climatology and preserving the climate and doing social work so people can get prepared for the kingdom? So, that’s where it seems this is only an area of disagreement. Once you twist the Scripture in an area then pretty soon, so we just have another group. So where they end up is, and one of these particularly, Snyder, has been noted. He is so involved in social and related kind of work I don’t know why anybody would consider him an evangelical Christian. Anybody can say I believe in Christ. Most Protestants and Catholics would say that. I don’t care what else he says, those who twist the Scripture do it to their own destruction and I fear that’s where some of these men are. Ultimately God will make the decision but I’m going to point out where they err in Scripture. These are serious matters.


So just to alert you we are talking about this and since we talked about the Abrahamic Covenant and I happened to be reading in some of these matters, once you begin to take apart the Scripture, pretty soon you are out here. They are serious. I said some concerns I had about John MacArthur’s letter that came out from his church and they were going to have church. Most of that letter I agree with and I think it is John and the elders, their prerogative. And I think if I was in California, I might be siding with them and saying we’re not going to honor, and I thank the Lord He didn’t put me in California to pastor, for a lot of reasons. So, my disagreement wasn’t with that. My disagreement was that John implied here that believing pastors everywhere ought to make the same decision.

We have room here for people who want to come. Now maybe there they have different rules and they can’t get the people in that want to come. The rules are such now that we still have seats. We could put more people in. People aren’t coming, either don’t want to come and they don’t want to come for one reason or another. Perhaps their health keeps them home. Perhaps they have concerns and they have to make their decision about their health. And perhaps they are lazy and don’t feel like coming out. I don’t know but it’s not ours. So that was my concern. There was another statement that I was going to draw attention to here and I don’t know that I will. He said, he agrees, the local church ought to make their own decisions, so I don’t want to read that, but he said pastors who cede their Christ delegated authority in the church to a civil ruler have abdicated their responsibility before the Lord and violated the God-ordained sphere of authority as much as the secular official who illegitimately opposed authority on the church. I think that’s too broad a statement. We make our decisions for our church, and we do take into consideration what the Scripture says, but overall, it’s a fine letter. If you want to read it, that’s good. So, I want to make sure that’s clear. I’ll leave that with that.


I think we’ll close there. Appreciate you being here. If you do have questions or comments or you’d like things for me to address related to this or anything else, like we usually do with our Q & A, but I don’t know when we’ll be open to open it up as a Q & A. We talked about having the men have gloves and hold the microphone but that involves them then getting down, they have put on a mask, and if you have a mask on it muffles your voice. My hearing is bad enough I can’t hardly hear you when you’re talking without a mask, so if you’re talking to me and I’m just shaking my head yes, it means I’m not hearing what you’re saying.


Let’s have a word of prayer. Thank You, Lord for Your word. Lord, thank You for the privilege that we have to study Your word together. Lord, we have been entrusted with the treasure of Your word. The treasure that we are responsible to preserve, to guard, and to teach as accurately as we can, as clearly as we can. So, Lord we pray that, that will be true of us as a local church taking these matters seriously. We examine everything that comes to us in light of Your word and faithfully apply that word in our lives personally as we walk with You day by day. We want to be examples of Your grace at work in our lives wherever we are and whatever we are doing. May our speech and our conduct reflect that we live lives of obedience to the One who is our Lord and Savior. We commit the week before us to You and ask that You will guide us, use us wherever we are, wherever You put us. May our lights shine brightly. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen.