Romans Chapter 11:1-5

Abrahamic covenant. God made this covenant with Abraham, Genesis 12, Genesis 15. Did Abraham ever mess up? These are great men of faith.

Please understand what I'm saying. But did Abraham ever, oh yeah, he went to a guy, a guy said, hey, you know, he's a good-looking woman and he turned to his wife and says, oh, it's my sister. That's bad, okay? And so Abraham was really lying and he didn't only do it once, he did it twice. Abraham messed up. Is that null and void, the covenant?

No. Welcome to Cross the Bridge with David Magee. We've all experienced the problem of a broken promise. And while it may be painful, there's a truth we can hold firm to and that is that God will never break His promises. Stay tuned as David Magee continues in Romans chapter 11 with God's people.

Here's David. Romans chapter 11 is speaking about prophetically Israel. And let me assure you that many of us, even having grown up in the church, grew up with certain misconceptions, products of maybe poor teaching or even no teaching, about who Israel is and who we are and who Abraham was and is. So with that, Romans chapter 11 verse 1 says, I say then, has God cast away His people?

Certainly not. For I also am an Israelite of the seed of Abraham of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew.

Or do you not know what the scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel saying, Lord, they've killed your prophets and torn down your altars? And I alone am left and they seek my life. But what does the divine response say to him? I love that term divine response.

Isn't that cool? What does the divine response say to him? I've reserved for myself 7,000 men who have not bowed the knee to Baal. When we see Elijah and Elijah go, I'm the only one. It so distresses me when I hear Christians act like that and say these things.

I'm the only one that's true to the Bible and true to God. And then they start websites and they email me for some reason, you know? And so the life lesson here is don't be a whiner. Don't be a whiner. People don't like whiners. They'll sit and they, you know, this time consulting guy I went to one time, he said, look, don't, don't whine to people because when you, when you whine to them, 85% of the people you're whining to don't care. 10% of them are glad it's happening to you.

And then the other 5% you really care about. So why would you whine to them and ruin their day? So Elijah is engaging in a little bit of whining. Gang, don't whine as a Christian.

I can't believe everybody heard the world's going to hiyo in a hand basket. Jesus said in this world, you'll have tribulation. What do you think he meant by that? Well, I didn't think he actually meant we'd have some problems and some tribulation and some trouble. No, that is what he meant.

So it shouldn't shock you when problems occur. Elijah says, I'm the only one. And God looks at Elijah and says, Elijah, Elijah, I've got people. I got people. I got 7,000 people in this Northern kingdom.

If you're with us on Thursday nights, Southern kingdom, two trumps, Benjamin, Judah, Northern kingdom, the other 10 trumps, at least 10 trumps. And that was the more idolatry, idolatry region. God says, I got 7,000 people, never worship Baal. God always has a remnant.

At times you may feel like you're swimming upstream. And I guess if you never feel like you're swimming upstream, something's wrong, but God always has a people that he's ministering to and ministering through and God defends Israel. So in this, in this, Elijah says, I've got people.

God says, you know, I'm always going to have people. There's always going to be a remnant of Israel. And then this Abrahamic covenant, God promises a couple of things. He recognizes the permanent existence of Israel. He recognizes their permanent ownership of the land of Israel. They can debate about it all they want to, but God himself is who gave the land to Israel. That's interesting to me because I read a lot and read a lot of commentaries. It's interesting to me, some, some of the commentaries I read are older and especially if they're like 100 years ago, 150 years ago, 200, they say, well, this is all allegory. Israel's never going to be back in the land.

Well, guess what? May 14th, 1948, Israel's back in the land. There has never been a people group that was not a nation for 1900 years, remained distinct in the culture and their language and then became a nation again ever. The closest I could find was like 220 years. Nobody's ever gone 1900 years. And what was interesting is in Egypt years ago, they were birthed as a nation overnight.

That's never happened except one other time to the same people group, May 14th, 1948, they became a nation overnight. So when we look at this, we need to understand Abraham because Abraham's in the Bible, 241 times, 166 times. He's in the old Old Testament. What I refer to as a Hebrew scriptures, New Testament is about 75 times in the New Testament Abraham and yet how many Christians walk around and go, I don't know why is Abraham important to me? I'm not Jewish because the Bible seems to indicate that Abraham is important to every one of us. And without an understanding of God's covenant with Abraham, we can't understand God's covenant relationship with us. Galatians 3 14 says that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the spirit through faith. In Galatians 3 29, and if you are Christ, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. So gang, if you are of faith, you are of Abraham. If you are in Christ, you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise.

Are you beginning to see why this is really important? One of the misconceptions I grew up with was that the Jews rejected Jesus. Whole scale, they all rejected Jesus.

I bet you every person in here has probably heard that at one time. The Jews rejected Jesus. Let me ask you a really simple question. The 12 disciples, were they Jewish or Gentile? They were Jewish. Did they reject Jesus?

No. They follow Jesus. And the Bible itself points out, did some of the Jewish people reject Jesus?

Absolutely. Some of them did. And some of them believed in Jesus. But you can't say, well, the Jewish people, that's like saying, well, America is rejecting Jesus. Well, some are.

Some aren't. The Bible points out that many of these people got saved. Acts 15 five says, but some of the sect of the Pharisees who believed rose up saying it is necessary to circumcise them and command them to keep the law of Moses. Now let's understand what a Pharisee was.

Because even that is, a lot of it's been rooted in antisemitism. What is a Pharisee? Most people, oh, a Pharisee, a bunch of hypocrites. Well, some were, and some were not. Some were deeply, deeply spiritual people who followed the Lord. And so when Jesus turned to the disciples and said, accept your righteousness to exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees, I've heard people say, well, that means don't be hypocritical.

No, no, no, no, no, no. That's saying you can be the best that you, our interpretation of that would be, unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of Billy Graham. Same picture. Somebody really spiritual that's attempting to follow God in everything they do, unless your righteousness exceeds them, there's no hope for you. And the disciples heard that thought, well, man, what are we going to do?

Cause we're a bunch of like partying fishermen that all of a sudden are following this Messiah. And they understood, oh, we need grace. So Pharisees were spiritual. Were some of them hypocritical? Yes. Were some of them not?

Yes. Some of them were not. Some of them began to follow Jesus. Acts chapter six, verse seven says, then the word of God spread and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith.

What priest? The priests who were working in the temple. Well, I thought all the Jews rejected Jesus. No, you got the disciples. You got a lot of Pharisees and you got a lot of the priests that accepted him as their Messiah and are following him. Acts chapter two, revival broke out 3000 people got saved.

Where are those 3000 people came from? They were hanging out at the temple. You think they were Gentile? They were Jewish. So friend, if you've heard that all the Jewish people rejected Jesus, you've been lied to. Cause this, but don't believe me, believe the book.

If ever I say anything in here, you're like, I'm not sure about man, be a Berean. Acts chapter 17 talks about being a Berean. Go and search the scriptures and see if what I'm telling you is right. And in this case in Israel and Pharisee, I'm not saying, well, you know, we've got this little handout from denominational headquarters and it tells us we're supposed to think like this. No, I'm pointing out what the Bible has to say about these things. So now you come to this place, you go, well, gee, I really really, I really didn't like Jewish people. And now you're sitting here telling me that I need to let go of that.

And what's worse is my dislike for him. I've spiritualized saying, well, I'm upset because they hurt Jesus. I'm mad at the Jews because of what happened to Jesus.

Let me help you with something. Jesus was a Jew. He was a Jewish Messiah predicted through Jewish prophecy recorded in a Jewish book. Amazing that I still run into people that say, what's all this stuff about Israel and Judaism? Been called a Jew lover.

You bet you I am. Jesus was a Jew. I'm a Jew lover.

Are you a Jew lover? So a lot of people have engaged in this antisemitism, this whole redefining of the character of God. And let me tell you, people who believe in replacement theology. And again, you know, when I grew up, I was, I was probably in the camp of replacement theology. People told me, well, the church has replaced Israel, but the more I dug into the Bible, I said, nah, that's not consistent with the Bible. And again, it's redefining the character, nature, the personality of God.

And what I've found is that anybody who believes in replacement theology, that's not their only doctrinal error, that it almost always leads to other doctrinal errors because they've redefined the character, nature of God. There's often a, they're a preterist in the sense of they're saying Matthew 24 has already, it's already happened. It's already been fulfilled, which I want to read Matthew 24.

I don't get that. There was two questions. When will this happen? And when will that happen? One of the things has already happened.

The other is yet to happen. So I reject the preterist. And then, and then people get into also what, what is termed a millennialism. I'll take some time to define that another time, but basically they say the millennial reign is not going to happen. That millennial reign that is talked about in the book of Revelation. So you can't redefine this relationship God and Israel without redefining God.

And if we're in a covenant relationship with God, we need to understand what that relationship with Israel was and is. Hi, this is pastor David, and I want to share something that's on my heart and the solution for a growing problem in all of our communities across the country, down the street, and probably in your own backyard, I'm talking about the issue of homelessness and what sometimes goes with it. Substance abuse. And perhaps you've seen people at street corners and intersections, and you're not sure the best way to help. Well, we're now providing food and shelter in our communities to those struggling with these issues.

And we need your help. Not only are we providing food and shelter, we're sharing Jesus with them, teaching them the Bible and discipleship, helping them with job skills. The needs are overwhelming, but if we all do something, if you do something, we can help so many.

The Bible said, we're to be doers of the word, not just hearers. And Jesus said, what you've done to the least of these you've done for me. Please help us reach these people in our nation and our communities who are dying every day without our help. Please commit to give monthly or a one-time gift to The Bridge House by going to our website at crossthebridge.com. That's crossthebridge.com or call on 877-458-5508.

That's 877-458-5508. And together, we can change the world. Now let's return to David McGee's verse-by-verse teaching in the Book of Romans. Verse 5, it says, even so then at this present time, there is a remnant according to the election of grace. There will always be a remnant.

I'm excited because there's just a lot of exciting stuff happening. And there's a place called the Temple Institute that I visit whenever I'm in Jerusalem. And basically, they're beginning to put together all the instruments and the tools to have the temple up on the Temple Mount.

That's significant for a couple reasons. Number one, right now there's a mosque up there. That little gold dome that you see, that's a mosque. Okay. So in order to have a temple up there, that mosque has got to go. That's probably going to be a problem.

I'm just going out on a limb here. But you see these things come in the past. They're beginning to train the konin, the priest, to begin this part of the temple. Part of this is important because there's a temple that's mentioned, the desolation of abomination in Daniel, that says that happens in the temple. Right now there's not a temple. That's why Jewish people, you see an Orthodox Jewish person, he's dressed all in black.

Why? Because he's mourning the loss of the temple. So all these things are starting to converge and they're there in the land.

But let me tell you something I'm far more excited about than that. I've got a lot of Messianic Jewish friends. A lot of them live in Israel. Forty years ago there was not a Messianic Jewish congregation in Israel. About five years ago there was a hundred. Now there's about 150 Messianic Jewish congregations in Israel in a place the size of New Jersey.

Something is being stirred. There's a receptivity that seems to gain more and more every time I'm going over there to talk about the Messiah. And when you talk to somebody that God broke a covenant with them, again covenant, barit, to cut. That's where we get to cut a deal. Covenant is a very serious thing.

That covenant is not based upon whether you behave yourself or not. I don't like to do this little poll. We'll do a little internet poll and if everybody's behaving I'll teach you something. If everybody's not behaving I'll leave.

Because really if that was true, see ya. That's not a friendship. When somebody is your friend until something goes wrong, is that really your friend? We have a word, fair weather friend.

There's something goes wrong with you, you're like, I see you. I'm going to hang around with you. You're messing up. That's not really your friend. See, this issue of covenant is, man, I'm with you regardless. That's the way friendships in the body of Christ are supposed to work. A commitment, a covenant. That's the way your relationship with the community of faith, wherever you call your church home, there should be a commitment there, a deep commitment. A covenant, if you will. So many people, church hop, shop, bop, now they're like, well, I'm just looking for somewhere that I'll agree with everything that ever happens, everything that's said and everything that's done.

Good luck on that, buddy. Because let me tell you, I'm a senior pastor here and I don't agree with everything that goes on here. But I'm still here.

I'm still here. Heard a story. Two men grew up in junior high and high school and they went to war together. They were stationed together and they were in the midst of a battle.

This guy's buddy was out of the foxhole in the battlefield and he got shot. Guy turned to his captain and said, I got to go get him. And the captain said, no. He said permission to get him. He said, no. He said, son, your friend has been gut shot. He's going to die. And I don't need two dead soldiers.

So you can't go. Captain turned his head. Soldier popped out of the foxhole, went and grabbed his friend, scooped him up in his arms, carried him back to the foxhole and on the way he was shot several times. As he lay in the foxhole dying, he was holding his friend who was now dead. And the captain said, son, I told you not to do it.

Let me ask you a question. Was it worth it? With his dying words, the man said, yes, sir, it was. He said, well, your friend's dead now. He says, yeah, he is now. But when I reached down to pick him up and bent over him, he looked me in the eyes and he said, I knew you'd come.

I knew you'd come. That's covenant. That's commitment. And again, if you're sitting there going covenant is agreement between two people, that's not covenant. Covenant is one side agreeing to do one thing or multiple things to the other side, usually regardless of what they do.

Unconditional. Let me walk you through six of the major covenants in the Bible. First is the Adamic covenant, then the Noahic covenant, then the Mosaic covenant, Abrahamic covenant, and then the Mosaic covenant, then the Davidic covenant. And then there's the new covenant. Now there's a couple of other covenants, but these are the main ones.

Let's, let's walk through these. And I want to see something once you show Adamic covenant, that was with Adam Genesis chapter three. That's the promise of the Messiah, that the Messiah would come and put the serpent, put the enemy under the heel of his foot, crush the neck of the, of the, of the enemy.

Let me ask you a question. Did Adam ever mess up? Yeah.

I mean, that's why we're like, we are in part, right? And I mean, you can't, does that mean the covenant's null and void and Messiah is not going to come? No, the covenant stood. Next one, Noahic covenant. God said, he'll never again, destroy the word of the world by covering it with water. That's a problem to people who believe in a partial flood flood theory.

Why? Because God said the world was covered with water and that he wouldn't do it again. And if you believe in a partial flood, guess what? God's broken his word many times because there's been partial floods since Noah. Did Noah mess up? Yeah. Whole thing, Shem, Son, you can, Genesis, you can read it.

He messed up. Covenant null and void? No, covenant still in place.

See it with a rainbow. Abrahamic covenant. God made this covenant with Abraham, Genesis 12, Genesis 15.

We've already talked about that a little bit. Did Abraham ever mess up? Yeah, he did. Great. These are great men of faith. Please understand what I'm saying.

But did Abraham ever? Oh yeah. He went to a guy, guy said, Hey, you know, it's a good looking woman. And he turned to his wife and says, Oh, it's my sister. That's bad.

Okay. And so Abraham was really lying and he died. He didn't only do it once. He did it twice.

And I've often wondered what was his house like that night? Come here, Abraham, come here, your sister. But anyway, Abraham messed up. Is that null and void the covenant?

No. Mosaic covenant. I'm going to send a deliverer to bring you out of Egypt.

I'm going to redeem you with an outstretched hand. Did Moses ever mess up? He was a murderer. He got mad at people and he ended up not going in the Providence land that break the covenant. No, the Davidic covenant. God said, I'm going to make a covenant David that your leadership is going to retain. We'll be on the throne for ever pointing to the Messiah's reign because the Messiah was a, was of the genealogical line of David. Did David ever mess up?

Yes. So many of his descendants messed up over and over and God kept saying, well, no, I'm going to honor this covenant that I had with David, even though you're acting horribly. Are you getting a picture of covenant? The new covenant?

Was it dependent on if somebody acts up or not? No, it's not. Let me be real clear. When Jesus was on the cross, last thing he said, there are seven things of Jesus on the cross. The last thing he said, it is finished and agreed to tell us die. Uh, it's an accounting term paid in full.

In other words, if you had a debt that you owed somebody, when you went to pay that debt off and it was a legal piece of paper, they would write to tell us die on that piece of paper, meaning paid in full. It's done. It's over. Jesus didn't say I started it. You finished. He said it is finished. Jesus died for the sins of the world.

What does that mean? That everybody in the world is going to heaven? No, that's, that's a, that's universal atonement. That's not scriptural. God gave the land to Israel without condition. Their enjoyment of the land of Israel was conditional. God said, this land is yours forever. If you serve me and you follow me and you don't follow after idols, you'll be here and your land will be blessed. What did they do? Well, they followed idols and guess what?

They were placed out of the land. They weren't able to enjoy the blessings of the covenant because they were rejecting God. Jesus has died for the sins of the world, but the people who reject Jesus will not know the blessings of that covenant.

The people that ask him and receive the covenant have the blessings of that covenant, but friend that covenant doesn't change on a day to day basis. When you come to Jesus, say, Jesus, forgive me of my sins. And this is way beyond the arguments of eternal security and Arminianism, Calvinism, all this stuff.

Those are great things to debate. God is a covenant God. Jesus Christ died for our sins. If you come to him and say, Jesus, please forgive me of my sins. You are now in that covenant relationship with God and you receive the blessings of that covenant, including the promises and the air of Abraham. And friend, if you can grab a hold of this, this will revolutionize your relationship with the Lord. As you realize that God is a covenant God, that he wants you to receive the blessings that come through Jesus and his death upon the cross.

When Jesus cut a covenant and made available to each and every one of us, that we can be forgiven and we can be in a relationship with the Lord, that he's never going to turn his back on us. He says to us, I'll never leave you. I'll never forsake you. Friend, I'm sure you've had friends that have hurt you.

And maybe when you hit a rough patch or you made some mistakes, they turn their back on you. God's not a friend like that. God will stick with you. He'll be with you when you're doing great and he'll be with you when you're not doing so well.

Let's pray. Lord, thank you for helping us to understand through your relationship with Israel, through this covenant with Abraham and Adam and Noah and Moses and David, that we would understand more about this new covenant, this new Testament. And Lord, as we understand this covenant relationship, Lord, so often we think, well, if we think you're going to stick with us, we're just going to go out and do stupid stuff all the time. No, when we understand the price that you paid for us and how this covenant came to be and the price that you paid for us, Lord, we don't want to stray.

Lord, we may wander and we may weave, but we always want to come home to you. So Lord, help us to understand this more. Lord, help us to live for you and at the same time understand that when we struggle, you don't turn your back to us. Maybe you're listening today and you thought Christianity was all about your good outweighing your bad.

That's not Christianity. The reality is once you do anything wrong, your bad will always outweigh your good. There's no hope in your works or you doing good things. Your hope is in Jesus. Friend, do you know for sure that your sins have been forgiven?

You can know right now. I want to lead you in a short, simple prayer, simply telling God you're sorry and asking him to help you to live for him. Please pray this prayer with me out loud right now. Dear Jesus, I believe you died for me that I could be forgiven and I believe you were raised from the dead that I could have a new life and I've done wrong things. I have sinned and I'm sorry. Please forgive me of all those things.

Please give me the power to live for you all of my days. In Jesus' name, Amen. Friend, if you prayed that prayer according to the Bible, you've been forgiven. You've been born again. So congratulations, friend.

You just made the greatest decision that you will ever make. God bless you. If this was your first time praying that prayer with Pastor David, we would love to hear from you. You can call us toll free at 877-458-5508 to receive our First Steps package with helpful resources to help you begin your walk with Jesus. Also, if you have been blessed by the ministry of Cross the Bridge and David Magee, would you consider supporting us with a financial gift? This month, when you give to Cross the Bridge, we will send David's powerful booklet on biblical fatherhood entitled, A Father's Blessing. The number to call is 877-458-5508. That's 877-458-5508 or go online to crossthebridge.com. While you're there, make sure to sign up for David's email devotional and begin receiving daily inspiration in your inbox. That website again is crossthebridge.com. Thanks for listening today. We pray you will join us next time as we cross the bridge.