Romans 11:28-32

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Alrighty, so we're still in chapter 11. We're in verses 28 through 32 this week.
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Last week, we covered quite a bit about the future state of ethnic
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Israel and what is to come for them, but as we normally do to keep everything in context and keep our minds squarely rooted in the
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Word without any bias, we're gonna start in verse 1 and read through.
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Verse 1, he starts, he says, I asked then has God rejected his people? By no means, for I myself am an
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Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew.
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Do you not know what the Scripture says of Elisha, how he appeals to God against Israel?
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Lord, they have killed your prophets, and they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life.
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But what is God's reply to him? I have kept for myself 7 ,000 men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.
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So too at the present time there is a chosen by grace, but if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace would no longer be grace.
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What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking.
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The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened as it is written. God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear down to this very day.
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And David says, let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them.
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Let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see, and bend their backs forever.
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So I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall? By no means.
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Rather, through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make
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Israel jealous. Now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches to the
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Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean? Now I am speaking to you
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Gentiles, inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry in order somehow to make my fellow
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Jews jealous, and thus save some of them. For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead?
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If the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, so is the whole lump, and if the root is holy, so are the branches.
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But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others, and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches.
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If you are, remember that is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you.
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Then you will say, branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.
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That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith.
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So do not become proud, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will
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He spare you. Note then the kindness and severity of God, severity towards those who have fallen, but God's kindness to you, provided you continue in His kindness.
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Otherwise, you too will be cut off, and even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in.
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For God has the power to graft them in again. For if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted back in to their own olive tree?
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Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery.
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Brothers, a partial hardening has come upon Israel until the fullness of the
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Gentiles has come in, and in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written.
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The Deliverer will come from Zion. He will banish ungodliness from Jacob, and this will be my covenant with them when
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I take away their sins. As regards the gospel, they are enemies for your sake, but as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers.
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For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. For just as you were at one time disobedient to God, but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, so they too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you they also may now receive mercy.
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For God has consigned all to disobedience so that he may have mercy on all.
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Last week we covered verses 25 through 27 regarding the future state of ethnic
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Israel in regards to their salvation, and we were able by remaining in the text, in the scriptures, within the context, to narrow the vast possibilities of what are put out there down to two contextual possibilities.
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So as we stated last week, when the fullness of the
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Gentiles has come in, i .e. when all non -Jewish elect have been called out from the world, the gospel will again by means of the church preaching the word.
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This does not change. Go forth to the Jews, and first possibility, many will hear the word and respond owing to God's grace in removing the partial hardening and the work of the
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Holy Spirit upon them, or that the gospel will remain with them with the remnant, calling from them the last of the elect until Christ's return.
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So number one is that the remnant grows and becomes a multitude owing to the same thing as the second by grace and by the work of the
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Holy Spirit, by the gospel and the hearing of the word, or that the gospel tarries with them for some time until Christ's return and the remnant remains a remnant.
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But more importantly, we establish that the only way either of these two possibilities happens or can happen is by the gospel going forth.
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This is the important part in that passage when God says,
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I will take away their sins. You read there in verse 28, and this will be my covenant with them when
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I take away their sins. Paul continues here in 28. He says, as regards to the gospel, they are enemies.
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Let me take you back to verse 8 for just a moment. Verse 8 says, as it is written, God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear down to this very day, that he has put on them a partial hardening.
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That being, as we established, that not all the Jews are hardening. This is not a hardening that partially affects each individual person, but a hardening that affects part of Israel as a whole, right?
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And Paul talks about remnant himself being included, and this would also include all of the ethnic
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Jews that you read about in Acts and in the Epistles and in the in the
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Gospels. So God has kept for himself a certain number from each generation down to this day, and he continues to do it in our day.
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There are saved ethnic Jews, but Paul says that they are enemies for your sake.
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Speaking to the Gentiles, with the exception of the remnant, the Jews with radical disdain have refused the gospel, and they continue to refuse it today.
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One of the most hostile places that you can go and preach the gospel in the entire world is
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Jerusalem, and it's not the Muslims you have to worry about. We not too long ago watched a video, well we as in me and my wife, watched a video of a woman preaching the gospel in Jerusalem, in Old Town Jerusalem, and the people scorning her weren't adults.
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They were children. People throwing things and harassing her were children, and the adults were just standing around watching.
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Even though they showed this radical disdain at the current time because of this partial hardening, it is for our benefit, is for the benefit of the
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Gentiles that God opened the message of the gospel to the Gentiles so that the elect from among them could be called, or would be called.
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We cannot forget what we learned back in chapter 8. God is sovereign in all things, and what has come and will come to pass regarding everything, including ethnic
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Israel, isn't merely happenstance, but it is ordained by God.
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In verses 12 and 15 we recently saw, now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the
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Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean? In 15, if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life and the dead?
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As we continue, Paul says, but as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers.
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The forefathers being Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The remnant is beloved not because of their own merit, not because of anything they have done.
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They're beloved because God loved their forefathers, and he made certain promises to them, and through the remnant, he keeps those promises.
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Despite the sin of man and whatever we try to do to get away from God, God does not fail.
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We read earlier in Lamentations, this is in chapter 3 verses 22 and 23, the steadfast love of the
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Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning.
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Great is your faithfulness. Speaking of the Lord's faithfulness, and if you remember from Romans chapter 3 and verses 1 through 4, it says, then what advantage does the
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Jew, what advantage has the Jew, or what is the value of circumcision?
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Paul says, in much in every way. To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God.
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What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God?
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By no means. Let God be true, though everyone were a liar.
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The mass unfaithfulness and disdain for Christ of the Jewish people does not ruin or outweigh the faithfulness of God toward them, and for that matter, toward you.
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There is in no way, shape, or form as an elect person where you can out -sin
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God's love for you. We struggle with this. This is something that we constantly struggle with as elect individuals.
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Renewed in spirit, yet living in our corrupt flesh, we sin. We know we sin.
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There are some people who teach that you can get to a point where you don't sin. That's a lie. You will continue to sin until the day that you die, but there is in no way, shape, or form a way that you can lose your salvation.
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You can't out -sin God in His work. But God will continue to call the elect from among the
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Jewish people until the time has come for the calling of the elect period to end.
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This is a promise made. Now what this time will look like before Christ's return is revealed to us in Revelation, but I have no reference because Revelation is another sermon for another day.
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We'll cover that another time, but needless to say, a letter called
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The Revelation is given to seven churches. It's written by John and is given as an inspiration to them.
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Though they face massive persecution, a time will come when they face more persecution, but at the end of that time the
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Lord will come. Our God wins, period.
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In keeping the remnant, that elect number of Jews, God has kept
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His promise to their forefathers, just as with our adoption into the family of God as Gentiles.
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He will never fail us. We saw this in chapter 8. If you remember, it's not chapter 8, chapter 9.
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Paul says, 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 children of Abraham are not all are children of Abraham, because they are his offspring.
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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 a promise, of the promise that are counted as offspring.
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He's referencing the church, the elect. And then
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Paul states in 29, For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.
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Now while some may think that Paul here is referencing apostolic gifts, this only serves to show that they have a terrible hermeneutic, and they're ready to isogete the scripture.
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In what area of chapter 11 have we spoken about apostolic gifts? Nowhere. Not brought up one time, and yet it's used as a proof text.
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The gifts that he is referring to, he has already given us in chapter 8 verse 30.
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It says, And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
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These gifts are more valuable than any apostolic gift. They're more valuable than miraculous healing, they're more valuable than tongues, compared to the gifts that we are given in Christ, and the fact that we are allowed to enjoy him forever.
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Any other gift pales in comparison. These are the gifts that are irrevocable.
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Our justification, our calling, our glorification.
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Later on in chapter 8, in 37 and 39, he says, No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us, for I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ our
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Lord. Now you may be hanging out asking the question, well what if what if God just decided to revoke my election?
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Not possible. It's not possible, because that would make him a liar, and God cannot lie.
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He literally is the truth, so there's nothing that can be done to revoke his promises.
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God made them to their forefathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and those promises will be kept as well the promises that he makes to his adopted children.
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Paul says in 30, he says, For just as you were at one time disobedient to God, speaking of the
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Gentiles, but now I have received mercy because of their disobedience, disobedience of the
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Jews, so they, the Jews, to have, sorry, so they who have now been disobedient, in order that they may,
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I'm sorry, that by the mercy shown to you they also may now receive mercy, for God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all.
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There's a word again that we had a bit of an issue with, or not an issue, but a struggle with last week.
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All. What does he mean by all? Well this is an argument.
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It's a legitimate one in the church. There are a lot of people who would say all means all.
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It means every person, that God would have mercy on all mankind.
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The problem with this is that it would not only be out of context from the chapter, but from out of this specific passage itself.
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Paul has labored quite thoroughly to explain to us the matter of election, both
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Jew and Gentile. So how could it possibly mean all people?
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We have not suddenly jumped into the realm of Universalism or Arminianism, pulling ourselves completely out of the context of the chapter.
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So we have to allow Scripture to interpret Scripture. God has certainly given everyone over to the sin that they desire since Adam.
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We are conceived in sin. Romans 3, 9 and 10. What then?
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Are Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that both
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Jews and Greeks are under sin, as it is written. None is righteous.
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No, not one. Again in chapter 3, verse 22. For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
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All. Every person. Okay. So we've got that all taken care of.
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Let's talk about the next one. So since all
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Jews and Gentiles are consigned to disobedience, he may show mercy on all.
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So what all does he mean? Well, if we look over back just a little ways in chapter 10, he tells us exactly who he will have mercy on.
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Very specific. Over in chapter 10, it's very short.
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Verse 13, he says, For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
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That completely knocks the idea of all, meaning every person, completely out of the water.
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Paul has established that the only ones that can do what he is talking about here in calling on the name of the
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Lord are those whose hearts are changed, whose spirits are renewed by the work of the
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Holy Spirit. So again we are talking about the elect. So that God may have mercy on the elect.
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And what elect person do you know of now or in history that wasn't beforehand disobedient?
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Not a one. We were all disobedient, and in our disobedience
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God showed us mercy. And in this also, he isn't necessarily, because he is talking about the elect, he isn't talking about having mercy on all
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Jews. This would be out of context for that passage also, because he is referencing both the disobedience and mercy given to the
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Gentiles and disobedience and mercy given to the Jews. So how can he be referencing if he's talking about the elect, talking about ethic
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Israel? One thing that I want you to look at in these passages, and what
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Paul just said in verses 30 through 32, is the wonderful glory of God's plan.
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So had God in his providence saved all of Israel first, would that not contradict what
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Scripture says about salvation coming from the Lord, and it being by mercy?
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If they are were able to keep the law. Now he could have in his providence shown them all mercy, and then shown all mercy to the
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Gentiles, but that's not what he did. And what Paul is saying is that he didn't do it that way so that mercy could be given to disobedient
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Gentiles, and then those disobedient Gentiles could take the word to the cultivated olive tree.
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So the word comes forth from the church, what comes forth from God, and the means by which it is disseminated among the people of the world, is by the church preaching the word.
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Paul says earlier that he deigns in his ministry to make some of his fellow
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Jews jealous, and that God has done this to make them jealous. God using
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Gentiles in his church to preach his word to his original people.
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How wonderful the thing. In Ephesians 2 we see in verses 8 and 9,
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For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not of your own doing, it is the gift of God, not a result of works.
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Why? So that no man may boast, consigned all to disobedience, so that all could be shown mercy.
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This should first and foremost fill us with humility, knowing of our own depravity and disobedience, as well as cause us to understand that we have a responsibility to continue to share the gospel with everyone as the church.
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This includes ethnic Israel, so that some of them may be saved. Now whether you fall on the side of the remnant, more or less staying the same size, but continuing a little longer after the
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Gentiles, or that when the time of the Gentiles is complete, that remnant grows to a great number.
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As I said before, neither happens without the preaching of the word. Neither.
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This also should show us that there is not a single person, not a single person, that you should ever write off as unsavable.
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No one. God showed in his great and wonderful wisdom and providence that the
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Gentiles, whom the Jews had written off as unsavable, were in fact savable.
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These dirty, godless Gentiles that they wouldn't even eat with, much less, much less call into the synagogue to preach the
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Word of God to, they are the ones who comprise the majority of the church.
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They are the ones who accepted the Messiah. No one is unsavable.
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This is one of the wonderful things about the gospel and the preaching of it, that not only is no one unsavable, but it is something that can be done in the last moments of one's life.
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Ask the thief on the cross. Lived his whole life in disobedience.
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He's been crucified as a thief, and in the last moments of his life,
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Christ himself says to him, today you will be with me in heaven.
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Did he have to learn a catechism? Did he need to know the doctrine of election? Did he need to know all of the things that we that we enjoy and love as the church?
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No. Just the gospel. He just recognized who
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Christ was. This should also cause us to pray for ourselves and to pray for the church.
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Because we live in our flesh, we have this tendency to set other things before the gospel.
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We've spoken about this before. It doesn't matter what it is, whether it's a secondary doctrine or a tertiary doctrine or a semi sort of a bit of a worldview, or whether it's football, or whether it's baseball, or whether it's anything.
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It's a systematic theology. If you set it before the gospel, it is idolatrous.
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So this should cause us to pray for ourselves and for our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.
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That as the church, we can remove this notion from our minds that by the work of the
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Holy Spirit, we would always set the gospel before everything else. But back to what
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I was saying. There is no one who is unsavable. There are those who are saved from a very young age.
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As Baptists, we don't practice baptizing babies, but there are those who we would recognize as having a trueness of faith based on their fruit, no matter their age.
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So there are people who were saved at a young age, and there are those who the Holy Spirit takes hold of in their latter days, and those elderly folks.
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So we should wonder at the mercy shown to us as the elect, and pray that that same mercy be shown to others.
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There's not a single reason, not a single reason, that you should wish hell on anyone.
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When the day comes, and the sky splits, and Christ returns, and we stand before the judgment seat, and those who are in Christ are set over here, and those who are not are cast into the pit.
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We will rejoice at that, because it is just. We will not sorrow for those who are going, because it is what they deserve.
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But it is not something that we should wish on someone. And as the church, by allowing ourselves to become concerned with things that aren't the gospel.
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Now, there are legitimate concerns. There are. I'm not saying that there aren't, but allowing those things to take priority over the preaching of the gospel to the world, that's what we're doing.
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We're saying we're gonna take a break from preaching the Word, and we're gonna consign certain people to hell, because they don't deserve to hear it.
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I know I've said this before, but how much must you hate a person not to preach the gospel to them?
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I was listening to a podcast, and it wasn't a Christian podcast. It was, I actually don't remember what kind of podcast it was, but it was about the church, and in certain parts of the world, and one of the things that the gentleman was talking about was a
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Muslim friend that he knew when he was in college in graduate school,
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I suppose, and he was talking to this friend, and his friend said that all of the
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Christians and all of the people that he knew in high school couldn't have been real Christians, and this guy was like, well, what do you mean?
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He said, because they didn't care enough about me to share the gospel with me. So naturally his next question is, well,
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I mean, are you looking to convert to Christianity? This friend's answer was no.
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I don't believe it at all, but neither did they. If they had, they would have shared it.
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We don't share it out of some sense of duty. We share it out of love and concern for the person, and out of love for Christ who saved us.
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Romans 5 8, you should memorize this one, but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners,
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Christ died for us. Now next week we will continue with the end of this chapter, and I was going to do it this week, but I decided to hold off on that until next week so that we could seriously have a lot more time to consider the doxology that these words have moved
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Paul to at the end of chapter 9, so it can sit on us and ruminate that we might hopefully be provoked to the same thing.
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So let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the ability to come together on this
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Lord's Day, to hear your Word spoken, have it taught to us, to have the
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Holy Spirit work with it in us to conform us to the image of Christ, for the ability to worship you, to sing songs of praise.
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Father, we ask that you continue to give us these times that should our
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Lord Christ continue to tarry, we would in some way, shape, or form continue to gather.
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Father, we also ask for the forgiveness of our sins against you individually, against you together as the church.
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We pray that the Holy Spirit would put upon us a great burden for these sins, that we would not commit them so lightly.
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We also ask that as we move into a time of fellowship, you would keep our minds and our hearts set on Christ, that we may edify each other in our conversation.
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We give thanks also for the food that has been prepared for us and for its nourishment of our bodies and our minds.