The Children of The Promise

Remain standing now for the reading of God's

word. We're in Paul's letter to the Romans

in chapter 9,

and we're looking at

verses

6 to 9 this morning. Again, Romans 9

Romans 9:6–9

verses 6 to 9. Please

listen to the reading of God's word.

But it is not as though the word

of God has failed.

For not all who are descended from Israel

belong to Israel,

and not all are children of Abraham

because they are his offspring,

but through Isaac

shall your offspring be named.

This means that it is not the children

of the flesh

who are the children of God,

but the children of the promise are counted

as offspring.

For this is what the promise said,

about this time next year,

I will return

and Sarah shall have a son. This is

the word of the lord.

Thanks be to god. Please be seated.

Imagine the scene from Genesis 22.

Abraham,

having received

the unimaginable

command from God,

prepares to sacrifice his beloved son,

Isaac,

the very child

that God had promised him and Sarah.

During the 3 days journey to Mount Moriah,

the place that God had selected

for this terrible test,

one can scarcely dare to imagine

the anguish

in Abraham's mind,

the anguish

in Abraham's

heart

as he looked

at Isaac,

as he looked at his beloved son walking

next to him on this 3 days journey.

Isaac's

life appeared to hang in the balance as

they were ascending to the peak of Mount

Moriah.

On the way up, Isaac who's carrying the

wood for the sacrifice

asked his father

where the lamb is for the sacrifice that

they are to perform.

Every word of that question must have pierced

Abraham's heart, yet his answer to Isaac

revealed an unwavering

trust

in God's promise as he tells the boy,

God himself

will provide the lamb,

my son.

Once they reach the summit

with no lamb

for the sacrifice in sight,

Abraham builds an altar and then he proceeds

to bind his son

upon it.

With Isaac now aware of what is going

on and with tears of sorrow undoubtedly

flowing

liberally

from Abraham's eyes, the patriarch lifts his knife

trusting

his whole

heart

to God.

Yet as dramatic as the scene was,

Isaac's life was never truly

in danger.

Why?

Because Isaac was the child of promise,

the son through whom God's covenant to Abraham

would be fulfilled.

And Abraham knew

what you should know,

that God's promise

never

fails.

The story that is known as the binding

of Isaac is a powerful example of God's

faithfulness.

Even in what appeared to be the most

hopeless of circumstances,

God's promise to Abraham

was never at risk.

Even before he was conceived,

Isaac had been chosen by God

to carry the promise forward

and God's promise

is unbreakable.

In much the same way,

when we come to Romans chapter 9 verses

Romans 9:6–9

6 to 9, Paul assures us

that God's word to his people has not

failed.

In fact, the main point that I have

for you this morning is this,

God's promise

always prevails.

God's promise always prevails

despite significant

obstacles

brought about through human rebellion

or through human rejection of God,

God's love for his people

and his commitment to his word

remains

steadfast.

Many Christians today

have been taught that the church is some

kind of plan b

for God's purposes.

That because his first

plan failed,

God had to come up with a different

way.

Our text this morning

demonstrates that this is not so.

Rather, what we are going to see is

that the church is nothing less

than the natural outworking of God's promise to

Abraham.

So let's explore this fact,

this fact that God's promise

always prevails

under 3 headings.

1st,

God's sovereign word.

2nd,

God's sovereign will.

And third, God's sovereign work. God's sovereign word,

how God's promises are infallible

and certain.

God's sovereign will,

how God's election and choice

establishes people, not by human descent,

but by his divine purpose.

And 3rd, God's sovereign work, how God's power

ensures that his promise is fulfilled

according to his purpose.

So let's look at the first

heading,

God's sovereign word.

In verse 6 we read again,

but it is not as though the word

of God has failed

for not all who are descended from Israel

belong to Israel.

Last week, I said that Paul's assertions in

Romans chapter 8 regarding God's sovereignty

Romans 8 · chapter mention

in salvation

raised an important question.

The question is this,

why are so many descendants of Abraham

not saved?

In other words,

did God's promise to Israel fail?

In Romans 9 to 11,

Paul sets to answer this very question.

In the first five verses of Romans 9,

which we looked at last week,

Paul begins to answer this question by showing

that the only way to God

is through Jesus Christ,

who is God overall.

Whether you are Jew or Greek,

from all eternity,

God's plan to redeem his his people,

a plan to redeem a people for himself,

was focused on the person and work

of Jesus Christ.

This Jesus

was the Son of God incarnate,

the eternally preexisting

God

who was from Abraham

according to the flesh. Paul tells us that.

From Abraham according

to the flesh. Already,

Paul was intimating that salvation through Christ

had been the plan

and therefore the promise all along.

In other words,

in every case,

salvation depends on God's promise, a promise

that never fails

but always prevails.

Therefore, Paul will argue

that the rejection of the Messiah

by so many Jews

was not an unexpected

wrinkle

in God's promise,

but was

in full accord

with God's

purpose,

in full accord

with God's promise, in full accord with God's

word.

That's why Paul begins by stating that it

is not as

though God's word

has failed.

Such a thing ought to be unthinkable

since it is outright impossible.

This is known as the infallibility

of God's word.

Paul can affirm that God's word has not

failed

because God's word

cannot

fail.

Now,

spouses

sometimes

fail to keep their promises.

Parents

sometimes

fail to keep their promises.

Politicians

some no. Politicians usually

fail to keep their promises,

even those who govern well.

That's why the 9th commandment exists.

God forbids lying not because we don't struggle

with lying, but because we do struggle with

lying.

All sorts of things get in our way.

But as numbers

23/19

states,

God is not a man

that he should lie or a son of

man that he should change his mind.

Has he said

and will he not do it?

Or has he spoken

and will he not fulfill it?

God does not lie.

He does what he says he will do.

He fulfills

his promise.

This makes sense

since Paul writes in 2nd Timothy 3 16

that all scripture is

breathed out by God.

This is known as the inspiration

of scripture. Meaning that scripture is God's word,

that he is

the author of of of scripture, that he

is the source

of scripture. It comes from him.

God really does use

the wisdom and insights of human authors for

scripture that nobody denies that.

Moses really did right. David really did right.

The prophets wrote. The apostles wrote.

But they are all led

by the Holy Spirit working in and through

them to write God's word.

This is what Peter means in 2nd Peter

chapter 1 verse 21,

where he writes that no prophecy was ever

produced by the will of man,

but men spoke from God as they were

carried along

by the Holy Spirit.

That word translated carried along

does not refer to God's

gentle wooing of them.

He's not putting on the charm, so to

speak,

and inviting them to agree with him, to

write what he would like them to write,

persuading them to write his will on God's

word.

Rather,

the force of the verb to carry

is to bring or even to drive along

as the ESV renders that very same verb

in acts 2715,

where a terrible storm in the Mediterranean

sea

shipwrecks

Paul, almost causing him and all others on

the ship to perish

after the ship is driven along

by the unstoppable

power of the violent winds.

The Bible

is very much God's word. It is inspired

by him and it bears his authority.

Therefore, it is infallible.

It cannot fail

because God cannot fail.

And in the context of Romans 9, this

fact

ought to give you confidence regarding 2 things.

1st,

if God wills to save you,

if God wills to save

your family member

that you've been praying for,

if God wills to save your friend that's

been in your heart or your neighbor,

there is no power in heaven

or on earth or under the earth that

will be able to thwart God's saving grace.

In Acts 13,

Paul and Barnabas preached the gospel to Gentiles

in Antioch and Pisidia.

And after the Gentiles hear the preaching of

God's word, in Acts 1348,

we read that the Gentiles began

rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord,

and as many as were appointed

to eternal life

believed.

Why?

Because God's word does not fail.

This ought to bring you great comfort regarding

regarding your assurance of salvation,

but also this ought to bring you great

hope

regarding God's power to save

even the hardest of sinners.

So keep praying for them.

2nd,

the reality of God's sovereign word ought to

put to rest any notion

that people will be unjustly condemned

on the last day.

Paul is addressing the objection

that the condemnation of the Jews was unjust

because they were the children of Abraham.

And had not God promised

that Israel would be saved?

Yet Paul is affirming

that redemptive history is unfolding in complete accordance

with God's promise.

This is why he states in the second

half of verse 6

that not all who are descend descended from

Israel

belong

to Israel.

In other words,

Paul is going to show

that the objection

does not highlight the failure of God's word.

Instead, it highlights a misunderstanding

of the promise

grounded on a wrong definition

of who

constitutes

Israel.

And this brings us to our second heading,

God's sovereign will.

Let's look again at verse 6.

But it is not as though the word

of God has failed,

for not all who are descendant from Israel

belong to Israel.

Notice that Paul makes a distinction

between those who are

descendant from Israel

and those who

belong to Israel.

It's 2 different groups.

The former clearly refers to

physical

or biological descent.

They are ethnic Israel

being

from Israel

by blood.

The latter on the other hand

belong to Israel,

but not physically,

not necessarily physically.

Therefore,

though not explicitly stated yet,

there must be a spiritual

or divine quality that causes this group

to belong to Israel

or to be reckoned

as belonging to Israel, as a part of

Israel, to be considered

as part of Israel.

Verse 7 begins to clarify what this distinguishing

feature is.

Again, we read in verse 7,

and not all are children of Abraham because

they are his offspring,

but through Isaac

shall your offspring be named.

Or more literally,

as the new King James version translates it,

In Isaac,

your seed shall be called.

In Isaac, your seed shall be called. That's

how it's in the Greek literally.

Paul emphasizes God's sovereign will

in divinely calling

or even appointing

those whom he chooses to be Israel.

He designates Israel by his call.

In verse 6, therefore, we learned that biology

does not determine Israel.

And in verse 7, the same idea

is restated,

but with a different focus. As Paul writes

that neither does biology determine

Abraham's seed.

What defines Israel?

The key feature that determines membership in God's

covenant people.

The determinant factor

that makes up the offspring of Abraham

that is to say the children of promise

is the divine

call

of God.

Through Isaac

shall your offspring be named.

In Isaac, your seed shall be called,

says the Lord.

God's covenant people

are constituted

by God's

sovereign will.

It's always been the case, Paul is saying.

You may recall that God had promised Abraham

and Isaac in their old age when Sarah

was well beyond

the age of childbearing,

that he would give them a son

and would make Abraham

the father of many nations through this son.

But as God delayed in fulfilling this promise,

and Abraham and Sarah were not getting any

younger,

they doubted him.

So Sarah gave her servant Hagar to Abraham,

that Abraham might become a father through

Hagar.

Hagar did indeed give Abraham a son

and he was given the name Ishmael.

God then rebuked Abraham and Sarah for their

unbelief,

and yet he graciously

reiterated his promise to give Abraham a son

through Sarah.

The name of that child, of course, is

Isaac.

Now physically,

biologically,

genetically,

Ishmael was just as much Abraham's son

as Isaac was.

And legally,

Ishmael had an even greater claim to Abraham's

inheritance

as the patriarch's

firstborn

son.

But God's sovereign will determined that Isaac

and not Ishmael

was the child of promise.

Some people are uncomfortable

with the personal nature of God's choice in

electing

some individuals

and not others.

They posit that in Romans 9, Paul is

not writing

about God choosing individuals,

but about God choosing to favor nations.

But the context does not permit

this interpretation.

God calls those whom he chooses

by name.

Through Isaac,

shall your offspring be named.

Not only this,

but at the moment of God's sovereign choice,

Ishmael and Isaac are not different nations.

Physically, they are equally

Abraham's seed.

So far as

so far so far are they

from being different nations

at the moment of

choice, that they are even members of the

very same household.

Yet, Ishmael's status is firstborn notwithstanding,

we learned that God's sovereign will

is the sole determinant

in how God freely distributes his favor,

choosing Isaac as he wills

and not

Ishmael

as he wills.

Is it not encouraging, dear Christian, to know

that God's sovereign choice in electing you

as the object of his love

is neither generic

nor impersonal,

but specific

and intimate.

He chooses you

because he loves you.

So God's promise to bless Abraham's offspring

is carried out in accordance

with God's sovereign will.

And in verse 8, Paul explains the practical

implications for the church,

writing,

this means that it is not

the children of the flesh who are the

children of God,

but the children of the promise are counted

as offspring.

There are a couple of things I want

you to note.

1st,

there is no fleshly

or even worldly quality

that automatically makes someone a child of God.

Paul, who is an Israelite,

a descendant of Abraham,

a member of the tribe of Benjamin as

Paul himself tells us in Romans 11,

here makes it clear that his Jewishness

does not make him or any other Jew

for that matter,

a child of God.

Remember that

Jews were complaining about Paul's teaching

that if they rejected Jesus,

they would in turn be rejected by God,

saying that such teaching by Paul

made God's promise

to Abraham

null and void.

But Paul answers by saying that

Jewishness

is not what made Israel

Israel.

Just because one is a child of the

flesh,

he says,

that does not make one a child of

God.

Paul demonstrates that it never has.

Even Ishmael

was a child of the flesh,

but he was not a child

of God,

not in a covenantal sense.

Isaac

was chosen by God and that is what

gave him the special status as a child

of promise.

And if it was God's call

that made one

that made one fleshly son of Abraham

and

not another

a child of promise,

so too it is God's call that can

make one Jew

a child of promise like Paul

and not another

like Judas,

for example.

In other words,

the rejection of the Messiah by many Jews

did not mean

that God's word

had failed.

Rather, it meant that those fleshly descendants of

Abraham

were no different

than the very first fleshly descendant of Abraham,

Ishmael.

A child of Abraham to be sure,

but not a child of promise according to

God's will, and therefore,

not a child of God.

The second thing I want you to note

from Romans 9:8

Romans 9:8

is that Paul says that the children of

promise are counted

as offspring.

The word counted

is the same word that Paul employs in

Romans 43

where he quotes

Genesis 15

Genesis 15:6

verse 6 saying,

Abraham believed God and it was

counted to him

as righteousness.

Paul's point regarding Abraham

is the same point he is making here.

That Abraham's right standing with God

was not due to his own

inherent

righteousness.

It wasn't an inherent righteousness in Abraham

that made him righteous with God.

Instead, Abraham's belief in God's promise, that is

to say, his faith

was counted

or credited or considered

to him as righteousness.

In other words,

Abraham's righteousness before God

was not an inherent righteousness,

internal

righteousness.

It was an imputed

righteousness.

Abraham's right standing with God

did not depend or rely upon a fleshly

internal quality of his,

on some intrinsic

material reality about his purity that made him

automatically

righteous.

Abraham was

graciously

declared

righteousness

or righteous.

Abraham's favored status

did not rest on his pedigree,

but on God's purpose.

Abraham's blessed condition

did not rest on his work,

but on God's will.

And so it is with Abraham's true seed.

They were never defined by pedigree nor performance,

but by God's promise.

That is how Paul puts it in Galatians

3.

If we look at Galatians 3 verses 7

Galatians 3:7–9

to 9, we read there,

know then that it is those of faith

who are the sons of Abraham,

And the scripture foreseeing that God would justify

the Gentiles by faith,

preach the gospel beforehand to Abraham

saying, in you shall all the nations be

blessed.

So

then, those who are of faith

are blessed along with Abraham,

the man

of faith. Notice the emphasis there has nothing

to do with genetics.

Abraham is the man

of faith.

It has always been through their faith and

not through their flesh

that God's people have demonstrated

that they are Abraham's offspring and therefore

the children of promise.

Let me ask you therefore,

are you trusting

in God's promise

to bless his people?

Or might you be putting

your faith

in a fleshly quality

to sustain your favorable

relationship with God?

In Paul's days, some Jews would say,

we don't have to repent.

We have Abraham

as our father.

You might not be relying on your Jewishness,

although some of you are in fact

descendants of Abraham according to the flesh.

But are you relying

on your on the faith of your parents,

for example,

or on your church attendance,

or on your participation

in our bible studies,

or on your faithful

tithing to this church

or on your good grades

or on your politeness

or on your performance at work?

Do you look to those things to say,

I'm a good person. God should receive me.

God should see me as righteous because look

what kind of person I am.

All of these things are very good things.

There are even significant blessings.

There are significant blessings even

as being

ethnically

of Israel

was a significant blessing before the Messiah arrived.

But according to Paul, none of these things

make you a child of God.

In other words, none of these things

puts God in your debt.

They may put you in God's debt

being the recipient of all these blessings,

but they don't put God in your debt.

God does not have to save you because

you're polite. God does not have to save

you because you go to church.

God does not have to save you because

you

get good grades.

To rely on these things

is to rely on the flesh.

And Jesus says in John 663,

it is the spirit who gives life,

the flesh

is no

help at all.

He's talking about

eternal life. The flesh is of no

help

at all.

If you are to be a child of

promise, then you then your trust must be

in God's promise.

Your trust must be in God's word.

Is that where your trust is? Be honest.

What if your preferred candidate loses the election?

I've heard that the world is supposed to

end if that happens.

Where would your trust be?

What if prices continue to rise

or we enter into a more

severe economic downturn?

Where would your trust be?

What if you or a loved one

receive an unwanted

medical

diagnosis?

Where

would your trust be?

What if your marriage encountered a significant challenge?

Where would your trust be?

To finish Jesus' quote from John 663, it

is the spirit who gives life,

The flesh

is no help at all.

The words that I have spoken to you

are spirit

and life.

Life and hope are found in God's sovereign

word

and there

in God's word, in God's promise is where

your trust

must

abide.

Are you trusting in God's word or are

you trusting in the flesh? Because the flesh

is no help

at all.

Because God willed that salvation be found in

Christ alone,

to redeem his people, the word became flesh.

Our flesh is of no help,

but Christ is.

He

is spirit

and he is life and he becomes flesh

so that we can partake of him.

God has sent his son.

The promised offspring of Abraham,

who would bless all the families of the

earth has come in history.

And in John chapter 1

John 1:12

verses 12 and 13, the Apostle tells us

that when the incarnate word came

to all who did receive him,

who believed in his name,

God gave the right to become

children of God,

who are born not of blood,

nor of the will of the flesh,

nor of the will of man,

but of God.

It is God's sovereign will that made them

children of God.

Are you

a child of God?

Where is your trust?

Is it in yourself? Is it in your

flesh?

Or is it in God's promise?

It must be in God's promise

because God's promise

always

prevails.

Having considered God's sovereign word and God's sovereign

will, let's look at the final heading, God's

sovereign work.

In verse 9 we read, for this is

what the promise said,

about this time next year I will return

and Sarah

shall have a son.

Paul is referencing Genesis 18 where the Lord

visits Abraham and Sarah

and reiterates his promise

that Sarah should bear a son for Abraham

within a year.

Sarah who is well past childbearing age laughs

in disbelief

when she hears this promise,

but God does not shy away from his

promise.

He confronts Sarah about her laughter,

reassuring Abraham and Sarah that nothing is impossible

for him

even as he says, about this time next

year, I will return and Sarah shall have

a son.

Of course, God fulfilled his promise because God's

sovereign work is unstoppable.

His promise always prevails.

He is worthy of your trust for that

reason. Abraham named his son of promise Isaac,

whose name means laughter.

So imagine

Abraham's surprise,

his shock, his horror.

When in Genesis 22, god calls Abraham saying,

take your son,

your only son Isaac whom you love,

and go to the land of Moriah and

offer him there

as a burnt offering on one of the

mountains

that I shall tell you.

As I said at the beginning of the

sermon, Abraham did take Isaac and bound him.

And at the very moment when Abraham's darling,

when his promised heir,

when the hope of God's people is about

to be sacrificed, the angel of the Lord,

that is to say, God himself, cries out

from heaven

saying,

Abraham Abraham,

do not lay a hand on the boy.

Do not do anything to him. Now I

know

that you fear God

because you have not withheld from me your

son, your only son.

Though Abraham did not know it,

God never intended

for Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. God intended to

taste it to test Abraham and Abraham, even

though he's a sinner,

passes the test.

Because he knows

that if necessary, God will raise his son

from the dead

in order to safeguard

his own promise.

After all, he has said that it was

through Isaac that his offspring would be

named. You see,

God's power guarantees

that his promise

always

prevails.

On that day,

God provided a ram whose horns were stuck

in a thicket to be sacrificed in the

place of Isaac.

But all of this was just a type

and shadow

of the one true sacrifice that was to

come.

The sacrifice that would atone for the sins

of the children of God.

21 centuries after Abraham sacrificed

a ram in the place of Isaac,

and 21 centuries ago,

God provided a lamb

to be offered in the place of many.

Abraham's son, Isaac,

had unknowingly

carried the wood up the mountain

that could have been

the wood for his own sacrifice.

God's son, Jesus,

carried the wood up another mountain in Jerusalem

for what he knew would be

his own sacrifice.

Abraham

had offered his son all the time knowing

that somehow

Isaac was coming to come down that mountain

alive because God keeps his word.

God the father

gave up his own son,

his innocent

son,

his beloved Jesus knowing that he would unleash

his wrath upon him on the cross

because he always keeps his word.

This time there would be no voice from

heaven to stop the sacrifice. This time there

would be no ram stuck in a thicket.

The father and the son knew

exactly what was going to happen at Calvary.

The father knew that he was offering his

son and the son knew that he was

the lamb that must be offered.

So Jesus really was pierced.

He really was offered up on a cross.

He was offered in the place of Abraham

and in the place of Isaac and in

the place of the children of promise.

He took your place.

The price

for the sin of God's people was paid

for by the blood of Jesus.

It was a price that we should have

paid, but a price that we could not

pay.

And just like Isaac's life was given back

to him,

when there seemed to be no hope,

Jesus Christ resurrected because death could not hold

him.

Dear Christian,

salvation is God's sovereign work.

He calls his people out of darkness

by his sovereign will.

So trust in God's sovereign word, knowing that

God's promise always prevails,

though the trials

of this world seem insurmountable.

God's promise to sustain you will prevail.

He promises it,

and he always keeps his word.

Let's pray.