Note: This is one sermon from a multi-message series. The various parts are at the following links:

We are going to take a brief look today at three points in particular arising in our passage. first, in Romans nine, who are Israel and why; then in Roimans 10, Christ as the end of the law, and thirdly in Romans 11, the election of grace. These three chapters offer much more material than we can delve into in the time here allotted us. First now, who are 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. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh: Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen. Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they [are] not all Israel, which are of Israel (Romans 9:1-6).

Who is Israel?

Another way we can ask this question is, is who God's people are completely independent of what they are? Some have in recent times argued that Israel having been assigned a kind of superintendency over the oracles of God (Romans 3:2) remains forever Israel apart from how they live. Well may we ask today, are Seventh-day Adventists really Seventh-day Adventists if we refuse to live the message Jesus has sent to His Church? Another way of saying this is, does God's grace change His people from sin to righteousness, or act as a pass-key, a means of sidestepping the requirements of His law by means of "who they know."

Actually, we are quite glad that the passage in question here offers opportunity to address this. Seventh-day Adventists often hear these days of how its "who they know" rather than what they know or what they are or what they do that saves them. At first blush this has a ring to it, but what of second blush?

Really, isn't Satan's argument more the "its who you know" argument? Remember, his plea is that God is being unfair in saving His people. It's the same charge hurled at Him about His servant Job. Job, said Satan, serves God because of bribery, but he's not a changed person. If God would just let the devil get his hands on him, he'd show the universe what a farce Job really was. Why was Job serving God? According to the devil it was because of who he knew and what goodies heaven showered back to him. But he wasn't changed.

Today it is being said once again, "It's who you know." But as God said of Job, so He would speak of us, "Behold My followers today, perfect and upright people who reverence Me and forsake evil" (Job 1:8).

What's been left out is, who you know changes who and what you are. For many in Israel, following God had degenerated into empty ritual, into "cultural" religion. Here we turn to Paul's words in Romans 9:6: "For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel."

The first part of the verse says that while not all Israel are truly Israel, this doesn't prove that God's word has had no impact on His people. Indeed, hear the following verses (7-8): "Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, in Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed."

Because one was an Israelite by birth was no guarantee that spiritually, inwardly he was an Israelite. Because one has grown up in Adventism, or has heard any number of "Adventist" sermons from an "Adventist" pulpit is no guarantee that one is Adventist or even has heard Adventism. Because we've gone to church for years and can point back to a few times when our prayers seemed to have been answered is no guarantee that we're truly changed people.

Notice well Paul's argument. He wants to know whether his hearers are children of the flesh after all, of this pale, earthly realm, or are children of the promise. In Genesis God had told Abraham in his far-aged years that he would have a son. Although he was 100 years old, and his wife's womb already long incapable of giving life, still God promised a son. By his wife's servant Hagar he (Abraham) had a son, but it wasn't the one heaven had planned for him to have. Abraham was trying to help God out. But still God insisted, "You will have a son," and he did, by Sarah, just as God had promised. God gave new life through a dead womb for the child of promise.

What kind of spirituality are we nurturing in ourselves? Are we fighting, scrambling, ripping and toiling, trying to bring spiritual life out of unlife? Are you or I children today of the servant woman? Or is there in fact spiritual life inside of you? Have you believed God? Are you living as a child of promise? Are you trusting in not your own efforts apart from God but in the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit sent by Jesus? We must work out what He must work in.

The plan of salvation is co-operative (Now you won't read this in the Review until there's a change there). Notice, Abraham's first son by the slave woman was an all-human plan; God really wasn't in it. It would have been all of man and none of God. There was no divine-human co-operation. But the child of promise was born by a womb where God had spoken new life. The plan was co-operative in the max. Abraham and Sarah did their part; husband and wife, they slept together and participated in the activity of procreation. But without God's intervention no life would have been brought forth. God intervened then, and made the womb alive again. To Sarah heaven provided living eggs and a living womb. And in the end the child was born.

So there we have a fantastic illustration of the plan of salvation and the anti-plan, the counterfeit. One plan is co-operative and makes us children of promise. One plan is entirely passive, non-co-operative, and produces only children of the servant woman. One plan involves action and living faith, the other, inaction and dead faith. Not all Israel are Israel. Not all who claim to be "under grace" are under real grace. Some refuse to co-operate with God, and hence are not Israel. Real grace means new life inside. False grace means a claim of grace on the outside but no life within. So we answer the question of who is Israel and who is not, who is child of the servant woman and who of promise. And it all rotates around whether the grace is real or imagined. And this explains the purpose of this sermon series, because much of the "grace" we are hearing about in Adventism today is not real but imagined grace. May heaven help us.

Christ the End of the Law

Moving to the next chapter we come to this famous passage:

Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. (Romans 10:1-4).

Notice here the problem of Israel: a form of godliness but a denial of its power (2 Timothy 3:5). See, they have "zeal of God," yet "not according to knowledge." That is, it is a misinformed zeal for Him. Paul wishes Israel to be saved, but they are much at risk, for he says plainly that they are "ignorant of God's righteousness," and what's worse, are in the process of "going about to establish their own." Doesn't this sound so very much like the contrast Paul drew in the last chapter between the child of the servant woman and the child of promise? Between the child produced without co-operating with God and the child that was produced by co-operating with God?

Because of the endemic antipathy for God's law permeating Christendom from the many, many years of sneering at it by those thinking they were in God's plan, thinking they were zealous for God but being in fact ignorant of Him and in fact going about to establish their own righteousness apart from His plan, a strange fire has been introduced. And so many today have been taught that what the Bible means when it says that "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness" is that the death of Jesus on the cross put an end to the dispensation of law (so called), and introduced a new period where we are under grace.

By means of this "grace" they establish their own righteousness apart from themselves, centering it exclusively in the person of Christ. Now our righteousness is in fact, centered in the person of Christ. We are saved only by His righteousness, and not one fraction by any measure of our own "righteousness." But the twist comes in when this is understood to mean that suddenly man can declare himself righteous because of Christ and then go on into his own un-co-operative plan and generate children of the servant woman. You see, we don't need God's promises to generate such. We can do it on our own apart from God, and so often we do.

But such is to go about to establish our own righteousness. Such is to venture out in zeal but to be ignorant of life in the promise.

In going about to establish our own righteousness under our own salvation plan, we inevitably refuse to submit to the righteousness of God. And the righteousness of God is found strictly in Christ.

We are wanting to experience "real grace." Now our passage, after saying all these things says, "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth." Those who believe are experiencing real grace, are they not? Yes. And those who are experiencing real grace are having the righteousness of the law fulfilled in them, aren't they (see Romans 8:3-4). What is the only way we can have any righteousness fulfilled in us? It is when the Holy Spirit is permitted to work in us, when we are walking "after the Spirit."

Don't forget that to have real grace is to have the real Spirit and the real gospel. It is to walk in the real Spirit and the real gospel. "And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness" (Romans 8:10). God would have His people to live out the righteousness that He would place within. Truly Christ is the end of the law for righteousness, but we have to take that in a way that is in harmony with the testimony of all other Scripture, and not make it a pretext to establish some strange new kind of righteousness apart from God's righteousness.

Christlikeness is our goal. We purify ourselves even as He is pure (1 John 3:3). We "go on unto perfection" (Hebrews 6:1). We move forward under the power of the gospel "Till' we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ" (Ephesians 4:13).

The word here translated "end" means "goal." Christ is the goal of the law. Jesus and His law go together. His law doesn't save us, but as imitators of our Lord, empowered by the strength of our Lord, we will live lives worthy of our Lord. All the merit is His, and yet His people approach unto Him. And yet there comes a day at last when they stand by His side on Mt. Zion with His Father's name written in their foreheads, emptied of all guile, and without fault before the throne of God (Revelation 14:4-5). Mind you, this is not to speak of what heaven pronounces them, but of what heaven has made them. By the grace of God they have become vessels unto His honor. They are changed on the inside. And what, after all did Jesus say? "Blessed are the pure in heart; for they shall see God" (Matthew 5:8).

"Christ is the end of the law what? "For righteousness." Not for unrighteousness; not for sin and sorrow; not for a bucket full of excuses for a bucket full of people who for Christianity are poor excuses. Real grace is not designed to produce ungraceful Christians. It is not a "do the best you can" plan. Real grace makes us like He who is Grace. The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts and the result is real righteousness (Romans 5:5). Don't forget Romans 10:12: "The same Lord over all is [what?] rich unto [how many?] all that call upon Him." Since He is over all Christians, He would be rich to all Christians. Shall we let Him? Shall we co-operate with Him and let Him change us and make us like Jesus, or shall we go about to establish our own righteousness, fire-up our own sorry salvation plan, and put aside His law, the very means by which He convicts us of our sin and our need of His Son? God forbid!

God's moral requirements will never pass away, for He shall never stop being moral. Our just God will never stop being just; our sin-hating, righteousness-loving God will never stop hating sin and loving righteousness. The law is to lead us to Christ. For righteousness. How then can anyone rightly read the Holy Scriptures and say that Christ being the end of the law for righteousness means God takes away the law?! To do such would be to take away our only hope of becoming like Him, for that divine, vivid, concrete mirror would be hidden away and we then would be free to be zealous for God but not according to knowledge, to carry right on in refusal to submit to his righteousness. We would fall into the same snare as the antinomian Christianity all around us. We would be engulfed, consumed, and undone, to the shame of the gospel. Such would move us to Satan-likeness, and the world has enough of that.

Consider these important lines from the Spirit of Prophecy, penned by Mrs. White in 1907:

When we bring our lives to complete obedience to the law of God, regarding God as our supreme Guide, and clinging to Christ as our hope of righteousness, God will work in our behalf. This is a righteousness of faith, a righteousness hidden in a mystery of which the worldling knows nothing, and which he cannot understand. Sophistry and strife follow in the train of the serpent; but the commandments of God diligently studied and practiced, open to us communication with heaven, and distinguish for us the true from the false. This obedience works out for us the divine will, bringing into our lives the righteousness and perfection that was seen in the life of Christ. (MS 43, 1907).

In other words, this is all really the issue of faith. When we trust and follow what our God has commanded us, He "will work in our behalf." Sophistry follows where the serpent has been allowed to lead, and where the law of God is looked down upon, despised and subjected to every verbal distain, there is laid the disgusting slime-trail of the ungospel designed to comfort us in our disobedience and acclimatize us to continued sin. The more we let it have its way in our lives, the less sinful it shall seem to us, until we are consumed by it and by the gospel that says sin is a light thing after all. And so caught in the web of sin, the faith of the misguided is turned to presumption. Remember, righteousness by faith of the true sort -- the authentic article -- is that which is an unexperienced mystery to the worldling, so he "knows nothing" of it, and "he cannot understand" it.

What does obeying God do for us? "This obedience works out for us the divine will, bringing into our lives the righteousness and perfection that was seen in the life of Christ." Notice here that our lives are not declared to be covered by Christ's righteousness apart from real inward change, but actually we are told that our faith in God and diligence in obeying brings "into our lives" what? "The righteousness and perfection that was seen in the life of Christ." This enters into our lives. Hence we are becoming like Christ, so much so that the same righteousness and perfection that was seen in His life is now seen in ours. Do we begin to see how "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness"?!

The Election of Grace

Our last passage this morning (Romans 11:1-5) runs as follows. Pay close attention:

I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God hath not cast away His people which He foreknew. Wot ye not what the scripture saith of Elias? how he maketh intercession to God against Israel, saying, Lord, they have killed Thy prophets, and digged down Thine altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life. But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to Myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal. Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.

God has never cast away His people, though so often those claiming to be His people have cast away Him. God knows every heart. Elijah interceded with God against Israel and for his own life, saying that Israel had rebelled against God and was trying to kill him (Elijah). And this was true. But not all Israel were Israel then either, and God told the prophet the astonishing news: "I have reserved to Myself 7000 men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal." The very next line here says, "Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace."

Let me ask you, did God force 7000 not to forsake Him, or did 7000 not forsake Him and were persevered by His mercy? I say the latter. God knows every heart and is well able to give us overcoming power. At the time of Elijah He had His 7000, make no mistake. But where were they? Few apparently were in prominent positions. Perhaps the greater number were scattered about the nation or even out of the nation, living here and there in some obscurity. But though' they may not have been prominent, though they may not have been among the movers and shakers of that day, they were there. And they were in fact the real movers and shakers. They were the salt that preserved Israel.

"They have killed Thy prophets," intoned Elijah, and it was true. Those who spoke truth in God's behalf had been cut down; those who uttered inspired warnings and demonstrated the power of God in their lives -- those partakers of real grace even back then -- had been killed. True, as Elijah also said, they have "digged down Thine altars." True worship of the true God had been replaced by a false worship of false gods. Baal was the new theological model for Israel, and that pagan innovation had the high places booming and numerous new followers among the apostatizing nation of God. On every high hill they ran their "small groups" and their "style of worship" was suited to their purpose -- rapid church growth. Their faith was sensual, experiential and irrational, rather than cerebral and moral. Yes, they had digged down God's altars, replaced His old and true ways with their new and rude ways. And a nation thought it worshipped God still!

But the true worshippers were there. Elijah thought that he alone was left. It appeared to him that virtually nothing remained of those who followed God. He thought that false worship, an easy-grace sort of religion had finally prevailed. But 7000 remained who were partakers of real grace.

What is this phrase, "the election of grace"? Friends, God wants everyone to be saved, but not everyone is willing to be saved. Turn with me to 2 Peter 3:10. There Bible says that "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." There is the double emphasis. Twice in the space of those few words we are told that all are elected to salvation. Even so, that passage goes on to say:

But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?

Do we really know what's coming? Do we really believe? Yes, all are elected to be saved, but not all will make the preparation heaven says we must. Not all shall be saved. Many will in fact perish, for many will not come to repentance. Its the sad fact. Ellen White put it this way: "If we comply with the conditions the Lord has made, we shall secure our election to salvation." (MS. 166, 1898).

The election of grace never overrules the choice of ungrace should we choose to make it. O, so many lies have been pinned to grace and told a world perishing! God help us to get it straight and share it straight. It is late in the hour.

You see, I know of no other substantial group of Christians on this planet who believes as do we that the judgment is here; it's underway right now. Yet we are going to them for help in soul winning? Soul-winning as they understand it and soul-winning as we understand is altogether different. The outcomes are not the same. Consider now one last part of Romans 11, found at Romans 11:26-27:

There shall come out of Zion a Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: for this is My covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.

Heaven promised to send Jesus. He was foretold to be a Deliverer. And what does this Deliverer do? Save national Israel so that it can sin still? Hear the next part of the text: "And [the deliverer] shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob." Is sin ungodliness? Yes. So this Deliverer would save His people from their sins, just as Matthew 1:21 foretold. But now for those who get all queezy and nervous when we start to speak of God removing sin from His people, hear the next part: "For this is My covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins." Those sins are not covered up or swept over under the rug. They are taken away. Jesus makes His people right on the inside. He doesn't make whited-sepulchers, but living saints, having the inward reality, and not merely the form of godliness.

Christianity is not about sin-bypass, but sin-removal. Christianity is a moral project by God, a process by which He neutralizes sin for all time and puts an end to the devil's wicked aspirations. Selfishness as a principle is wiped-out.

When He's through. With me and you.

How's He doing?

Conclusion

We found in Romans nine that God's people are participants in real grace, not passengers riding a theology of disgrace. We found in Romans ten that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness, but that that means that God's people turn and live His way, rather than pull down His law and hide it. And in Romans eleven we found that all are elected to be saved, but that not all are willing to be saved. Nor will our God drag kicking and screaming into His kingdom. God is about His work, and His work is sin removal and redemption.

So often we have said we just need to get out of His way and let Him work. Often this has been true, but today the slant is more and more in a different direction -- more and more I think that we need to be getting in God's way and working with Him. We need to be co-operating with Him, letting Him work but meeting the conditions. Nothing else really is the gospel of God. The others are substitutes where man makes up his own schemes about how to be saved and then lives out folly. If not arrested in those tracks he'll be cut down in the end in his sins. So we are called.

God has called a people to live and give the message of sin removal. He's called us to teach real grace. This real grace points people to (where else), the cross of Christ. "We see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man" (Hebrews 2:9). He has tasted death for you. Friend, may it not have been in vain! Make His real grace your own today. The end is come upon God's people. It's time to do the work. It's time to see the face of Jesus.