As you might have guessed, I made-up that story – it is total fiction. But it isn’t science-fiction and it isn’t fantasy. The story could have played out somewhere in our country yesterday, and last week, and next week. I want to use it to illustrate something suggested by our scripture. Privilege isn’t reality; it is a mirage; it is potential; and in fact, potential can create delusion. Privilege can make someone dupe himself into thinking that he is invincible or that he possesses certain guarantees. But privilege guarantees nothing in itself.
I’d like us to consider about verses 4 and 5.
As we saw last week, Paul was desperately concerned about the thousands of his fellow citizens of Israel. “I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart.” “Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.” In verse 3 he either said that he would gladly trade his soul for the salvation of his nation, or that he would willingly sacrifice his life to the Lord, if it would guarantee their redemption. As I said last week, the word “accursed,” if understood in the Old Testament sense, could mean “devoted to God” as Jericho was devoted to God – destroyed for the glory of the Lord. Paul began the chapter in this way, because he was about to say some things which would be highly offensive to the wicked Jews around him. The next step in his disarming process was to outline the great privileges that they have.
First they are ISRAELITES. For several months now, many of us have been studying the Book of Genesis. And much of that time we have followed a specific family of people in a narrowing then widening descent. Early-on, out of all the families of the earth, the Lord showed grace toward one man and family. Noah was delivered from the destruction of the flood, because God chose to save him. Even though it might be argued that he was a better man than any other on the face of the earth, the fact remains that he was a sinner and under the condemnation of death. But for reasons of His own, God chose to save that man and preserve humanity through him. Then after a few more generations God again selected another single person, out of millions, upon whom bestow His grace. Abraham was chosen and called; invited and blessed. It wasn’t because he was a great servant of Jehovah, because he wasn’t. He was an idolater, just like all of his neighbors. Abraham believed God and it was accounted unto him for righteousness, but that was after the Lord had already chosen and blessed him. Of course, following the days of Noah, the population of the world was multiplying and multiplying again. But God’s extra-special blessings were on Abraham alone, out of the many millions of the world. And then to Abraham were two sons born, but once again, God chose only one of them for His superlative blessings. Isaac was God’s chosen heir while Ishmael took his place with the rest of humanity. Then it happened again between the two children of Isaac – Jacob and Esau. There is no other way to put it but as it is stated in verse 13 – “As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.”
Earlier this week, a missionary called, asking if he could come and present his burden for Billings, Montana. Of course I asked him about his doctrine. Then while debating with me, he made the statement that the words “sovereignty” and “sovereignly” cannot be found in the King James Bible. I told him that while that may be true, the principle and reality of “sovereignty” cannot be denied. The word means “supreme authority.” God, by definition has supreme authority, and He displayed that sovereignty when He chose Jacob. Then to mark that choice, God changed the name of Jacob to “Israel,” which means “Prince with God” or “Prince of God.” When Jacob moved his family down to Egypt, at the end of the Book of Genesis, there were 70 Israelites. They were different from the Egyptians and from every other tribe and nation on earth. They were a sovereignly chosen nation of “Princes with God.” But it wasn’t because they deserved this honor – it was because God declared it to be so.
Paul was one of that nation of Israel, and he yearned for the salvation of the people of that nation. Despite their relationship to Jacob, renamed “Israel,” they were in desperate need of spiritual deliverance. Despite their privileges they needed, and they still need – regeneration. One of their privileges was the adoption to which I alluded: God chose that line of men, and God chose that nation to adopt as His special people.
Other privileges include “the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises.” The GLORY is variously explained as the Ark of the Covenant, or as the brightly-blinding cloud that filled the Tabernacle when it was completed during the days of Moses. Sometimes the “glory” is interpreted to mean simply the presence and blessing of God. No other nation has ever “possessed” the glory of God, as Israel did. When that nation was taken into captivity for her sins, she never saw that glory again, until perhaps on the top of the Mount of Transfiguration. Paul’s reference to the COVENANTS, points to the promise that God made to Abraham in regard to physical and spiritual descendants. The Apostle has already dealt with this subject earlier in Romans. It also includes the covenant of circumcision and the promise to give Canaan to Abraham’s chosen seed. These covenants, or perhaps this singular covenant, was repeated several times and in various ways. Then later to Israel was given THE LAW. Some people might look at the law as a curse rather than a blessing, but they are mistaken. That law in all its forms showed the heart of the Lord – directly and specifically toward that special nation. No other body of people possessed it, even though any individual could come and learn if he chose. Psalm 147 recites a long list of reasons for Israel to praise and worship the Lord. Verse 19 and 20 say: “He sheweth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel. He hath not dealt so with any nation: and as for his judgments, they have not known them. Praise ye the LORD.” To Israel also were given instructions on how the Lord was to be properly WORSHIPED – His service. Israel were given the Tabernacle and the only priests of that day authorized to serve Him. They were told about the proper sacrifices, and more importantly, what those sacrifices represented. Throughout several centuries Israel was showered with blessing after blessing as God had promised. Even though some other nations could boast of Abraham being their father, and even of Isaac, there is no nation which can boast of all three Patriarchs – Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Then finally, to Israel has been given the privilege of bringing forth the Messiah. “And of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.” The Lord Jesus Christ was not blond and blue eyed – he was of the tribe of Judah of Israel. Christ was not from northern Europe, and he wasn’t an American. Some foolish Africans, Central Americans, maybe even some far eastern Orientals might claim to be the race from whom the Messiah came, but they are without foundation. Christ was born in Bethlehem because He was the great-grandson of David, King of Judah and Israel.
But let me reiterate what I said last week – Christ was not merely a grandson of Judah or Jacob. The human body of the Messiah came through Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, but at the same time He is the eternal Son of God. He is “over all” because He is God – and God is always over all – He is sovereign. Furthermore, he is “God blessed for ever” in the sense that other verses say that Jehovah is the “blessed God.”
Every Jew, and every child of Israel was related to Christ, the Messiah – at least in the flesh. They had privileges galore, through Abraham, through Moses and through David. They all had possessed the blessing of knowing what God commanded and what God forbade. They could walk into the Tabernacle or the Temple and know how they were to worship the Lord. They had priests and they had prophets throughout their history. They had the physical blessings of God – His providential beneficence. And they had many of the spiritual blessings of the Lord as well.
But the fact remains that despite these things they had nothing really important. Privileges aren’t necessarily realities or guarantees. They were living in the home of the Great Physician, but they were, and still are, dying of a curable disease.
And there you are, like Gad, or Ashur, or Issachar, the sons of Jacob, with a Bible in your hand. Your father may not bear the name of Abraham or Isaac, but he is one of the Lord’s chosen. The promises of God and the service of God have been taught and carried out before your eyes hundreds, if not thousands, of times. You have even see the glory of God when one of your brothers or sisters or a neighbor was saved by the grace of God. And Christ Jesus, the Son of God, the Lamb of God, the Saviour has been taught, preached and declared before you an innumerable number of times.
But these blessed privileges do not automatically make you a child of God and take you to heaven. To be a member, or an attendee, of a scriptural church may be like being a child of the tribe of Reuben or Judah, but that doesn’t make you a child of God. Privileges are not realities or even guarantees.
You must be born again. You must act upon your privilege; you must respond to the gospel call and challenge. If you refuse to repent of your sin, and if you refuse the deliverance that Christ makes available to you, you will be eternally lost – privileges or not. You will end up like so many thousands of Israel – cast into the lake which burns with fire and brimstone.
And to return to my initial illustration. That young man needed to humble himself before his parents and to admit his desperate need. There is no self-medication that can work on your sins. Repentance before God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ are absolutely necessary for your salvation. Only to hear of these things, preached over and over – means nothing but privilege. Privilege has never delivered a single soul from Hell. You need the Saviour.